News Round-Up

• “Students tear-gassed and hit with batons as French protests begin” – Demonstrators in Paris were struck with batons and doused with tear gas as cost-of-living protests swept across France, reports the Telegraph.
• “French protests spread in Europe as buildings torched and cars smashed” – Yellow Vest activists and student marchers joined forces across France, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets in scenes of widespread destruction, says the Mail.
• “Civic buildings burnt down as protests across France escalate” – President Macron has vowed to prosecute those responsible after violent clashes erupted in Paris, Marseille and beyond, writes the Times.
• “Pro-Palestine activists vandalise homes of defence bosses” – A group calling itself The List has published images of the attacks online, warning defence industry employees to quit or face a visit, reveals the Times.
• “SAS in crisis: sent to hunt Isis in Syria, then arrested for murder” – The Times reveals the details of a case of soldiers hounded for doing their job that has thrown the future of the SAS into doubt.
• “Wales defies Trump over space base” – Plaid Cymru is accused of “viewing the US as the enemy” after blocking a key radar project in Pembrokeshire backed by Washington, reports the Telegraph.
• “Burnham’s National Security Adviser ‘considers quitting’” – Jonathan Powell is said to be weighing up whether to resign as the UK’s National Security Adviser after complaining of “exhaustion and stress”, says the Telegraph.
• “Migration deals with third-party countries ‘cut small boat arrivals by up to 90%’” – Bilateral agreements with third-party countries could slash small boat Channel crossings by up to 90%, with new research suggesting such deals offer a powerful deterrent to migrants, notes the Telegraph.
• “Mapped: 3,500 neighbourhoods with more benefits claimants than workers” – The Centre for Social Justice has identified thousands of “welfare hotspots” across England and Wales where at least half of working-age people are claiming out-of-work benefits, reveals the Mail.
• “Monster who guarded Isis executions is seen in King’s local Co-op” – Iraqi national Mohammed Yaseen – a former member of the Al Qaeda cell that beheaded Briton Ken Bigley – has been spotted shopping near the King’s residence despite earlier deportation proceedings, writes the Mail.
• “Mother referred to Prevent for ‘over-identifying with Israel’” – A postgraduate student and mother, Holly Passmore, was labelled “vulnerable” and questioned by police about her interest in “Jewish issues” after being referred to the Prevent counter-extremism programme, reports the Telegraph.
• “Civil Service fact-checkers embedded in the BBC” – The BBC faces accusations of an impartiality breach after fast-stream Civil Service graduates were seconded directly into its newsroom as fact-checkers, says the Telegraph.
• “‘Brainwashed by BBC’: Website pushes pupils to back Left-wing views” – BBC Bitesize encourages children to play an online game called Increasing Immigration in which they are rewarded for choosing open borders and granting an amnesty to illegal migrants, reveals the Mail.
• “John Swinney splurges £30 million of taxpayers’ money on fund to ‘fight the far-right’ in Scotland” – Scottish First Minister John Swinney has vowed to use the £30 million fund to “face down the forces of division and hate”, writes Dan McDonald for GB News.
• “Police investigate Green Deputy Leader over smashed phone claim” – Leeds city councillor Mothin Ali, the Green Party’s Deputy Leader, is under police investigation over a phone-smashing incident at Leeds Civic Hall, the latest sign of bitter dispute within the local party, notes the Times.
• “Greens’ Zionism row could tear the party in two” – In UnHerd, Peter Franklin writes that the Green Party faces an existential crisis as it slides in the polls, suffers by-election defeat and confronts Labour’s demand that councillors disavow the ‘Zionism is Racism’ motion passed at its conference.
• “Sir Mark Rowley has got it wrong with recruitment drive to increase people of colour in Met Police ranks, warns Paul Embery” – An institution cannot win public trust simply by looking different, and Sir Mark Rowley’s diversity-led recruitment drive is no substitute for genuine reform, argues Paul Embery for GB News.
• “I visited the capital of Britain’s baby bust – this is why we must take the threat seriously” – Miriam Cates reports for GB News that her visit to Brighton lays bare the demographic crisis threatening the future of cherished British cities, and warns the country can no longer afford to ignore it.
• “Trump suspends sanctions that Congress put on Russia” – President Trump has written to Congress declaring it in the national interest to suspend Russia sanctions – undoing legislation he himself signed just last month and named in honour of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, reports the Mail.
• “Trump, Musk and Hegseth behind ‘slowing’ of Starlink satellite system” – Zelensky claims to have evidence that Trump, Musk and Hegseth were behind a deliberate slowdown of the Starlink satellite system on which Ukraine’s military relies to defend against Russian drone and missile attacks, says the Mail.
• “Muslim country bans hijab in schools” – Azerbaijan, where roughly 96% of the population follows Islam, has moved to ban the hijab in schools, reports the Telegraph.
• “Healey splits from Burnham over Heathrow third runway” – The Chancellor is insisting the £33 billion Heathrow expansion will boost growth even as the Prime Minister declines to back it, writes the Telegraph.
• “Banning petrol cars is stupid, Renault boss tells the UK” – Renault chief François Provost has attacked Britain’s 2030 deadline for phasing out new petrol and diesel cars and urged alignment with the EU on China tariffs, reports the Times.
• “Wrong, TIME, climate change is not ‘accelerating faster than we can respond’” – In ClimateRealism, Anthony Watts says TIME magazine’s claim that climate destabilisation is accelerating beyond humanity’s ability to cope is false and grossly misleading, with the observational record showing only a modest long-term warming trend amid substantial short-term variability.
• “New study suggests large regions of the Pacific Ocean have been cooling for the last 80 years” – A new study finds that Pacific cooling is robust from the surface to depths of up to 1,500 metres, challenging assumptions about ocean warming trends, reports Watts Up With That.
• “Climate alarmism, not climate, is what threatens Europe’s brains” – On his Substack, Stephen Heins argues that it is climate alarmism, rather than climate change itself, that poses the real threat to Europe’s intellectual and economic vitality.
• “The Digger disaster: what an epic movie flop means for Tom Cruise and Hollywood” – A film predicted to lose $245 million amid misjudgment, bad timing and spectacular hubris raises urgent questions about Tom Cruise’s star power and Hollywood’s future, says Catherine Shoard in the Guardian.
• “Ministers turn against Ed Miliband in Net Zero row” – Cabinet Ministers are turning on Ed Miliband over his Net Zero agenda, with the Foreign Secretary accused of blocking vital AI investment by opposing new data centres, reports the Telegraph.
• “Former prisoner who defended Hamas employed by BBC” – Hicham Yezza, who described Hamas militants’ terrorism as “resistance” and called Israel an apartheid state, has been revealed as a BBC employee, writes the Telegraph.
• “Black players’ refusal to take the knee encapsulates hollowness of gesture politics” – Ainsley Maitland-Niles stood firm with his hands on his hips rather than take the knee, an image that captures the growing unease with the gesture among the very players it was meant to represent, writes Oliver Brown in the Telegraph.
• “Tucker Carlson vs Rees-Mogg: Russia and WWII” – In Quillette, Matt Johnson argues that the most compelling explanation for Tucker Carlson’s political trajectory is a deepening hatred of Western liberal democracy, laid bare in his confrontation with Jacob Rees-Mogg over Russia and the Second World War.
• “Riots across France today” – Watch on X: looting, fires, vandalism and attacks against policemen and firefighters were reported from cities across the country.

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