News Round-Up

• “Trump’s inner circle ‘raise questions over Iran deal’” – Senior allies of the President reportedly doubt Tehran will comply with requirements on nuclear weapons and enriched uranium, says the Telegraph.
• “J.D. Vance lays out Iran ultimatum and warns Trump would resume bombing” – As Trump announces a deal to end the Iran war and promises to “let the oil flow”, his Vice President makes clear the military option remains firmly on the table, notes the Mail.
• “Russian warship fires shots at yacht in Channel” – A Russian warship has fired warning shots at a British yacht in the English Channel in a startling incident that left no injuries or damage, reports the Telegraph.
• “Macron and Zelensky caught on hot mic discussing how to talk to Trump” – French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky were caught on a hot mic at the G7 Summit strategising about how best to handle Donald Trump, reports the Mail.
• “Kemi Badenoch: thousands of jobs are at risk if SNP wins by-election” – Tory leader Kemi Badenoch warns that Scotland’s oil and gas industry faces devastating job losses if the SNP triumphs in the Aberdeen South by-election, reports the Mail.
• “Reform’s Robert Kenyon: why Restore backers should vote for me” – Reform UK’s Makerfield by-election candidate tells Restore supporters to stop playing “silly games” and back him instead, notes the Telegraph.
• “Why is Restore resorting to offence archaeology?” – Rupert Lowe’s Right-wing party is playing with fire by trawling through the Reform candidate’s social-media past in search of ammunition, argues Peter Simpson in Spiked.
• “Number of people on disability benefits passes four million for first time” – Department for Work and Pensions data show 4.01 million people are now entitled to claim Personal Independence Payment, a record high, reveals the Telegraph.
• “Fury over decision not to charge brother of Henry Nowak’s killer” – Hampshire Police did not ask the Crown Prosecution Service to consider any case against Gurpreet Digwa over Henry Nowak’s murder despite his role in deceiving police, sparking outrage, according to the Mail.
• “Why the West should be suspicious of Islam” – Rather than smearing or banning those with uncomfortable views on Islam, the West should engage with them honestly and respectfully, writes Jonathan Sacerdoti in the Spectator.
• “The missed warnings that could have saved baby Preston from sick abuse” – The Mail‘s Liz Hull examines how Jamie Varley and John McGowan-Fazakerley sailed through adoption checks despite warning signs that, with hindsight, should have stopped them from ever being approved as parents.
• “Did fears about homophobia prevent Preston Davey from being saved?” – Preston’s birth grandmother has suggested that worries about homophobia may have skewed the judgment of those meant to be supervising him, says Melanie McDonagh in the Spectator.
• “Preston Davey is a victim of institutionalised political correctness” – Drawing parallels with the Victoria Climbié case, Sarah Vine argues in the Mail that a culture of institutionalised political correctness left Preston Davey fatally unprotected by the very authorities supposed to keep him safe.
• “Covid jab victim killed himself after being denied compensation” – John Cross, who suffered a life-altering reaction to the Covid vaccine, took his own life after being rejected from the Government scheme that pays a lump sum of £120,000 to those harmed, reports the Telegraph.
• “A new JAMA IM paper on Covid shots contains a preposterous result that invalidates the entire paper” – In a post-publication peer review, Vinay Prasad writes on his Substack that a new JAMA Internal Medicine paper on Covid shots contains a result so preposterous it undermines the entire study.
• “MP reviving assisted dying bill apologised for ‘retards’ tweet” – The Labour MP seeking to resurrect the assisted dying bill previously apologised for using the word “retards” in what was described as an “extremely offensive slur”, notes the Times.
• “Assisted dying bill is shoddy and riddled with defects” – Resurrecting a bill riddled with defects in order to evade necessary Parliamentary scrutiny is unconscionable, says a Times editorial.
• “The problem with the assisted dying bill’s return to Parliament” – Alexander Horne in the Spectator says a Private Member’s Bill is wholly unsuitable for a matter so complex and weighty as assisted suicide.
• “Keir Starmer’s lethal legacy: no one voted for assisted dying” – In UnHerd, Mary Harrington argues that Keir Starmer is pushing assisted dying on the public despite no electoral mandate for the policy.
• “Banned from social media, children can still get their Leftist content elsewhere” – Starmer’s crackdown on online platforms ignores taxpayer-subsidised groups that continue to shape young minds through traditional broadcasting, notes the Telegraph.
• “Giving children smartphones is like handing them grenades” – Dismissing opponents who claim children will be left lonely and isolated without tech platforms, Allison Pearson argues in the Telegraph that banning under-16s from social media is an overdue act of protection.
• “A kids’ phone ban can’t mean surrendering our freedoms” – In the Mail, Daniel Hannan argues that while excessive screen time leaves children listless, cheerless and often sleepless, any phone ban must not come at the cost of civil liberties.
• “Tory peer and MP fight to end lawsuits against whistleblowers” – Conservatives have launched a coordinated push to stop “bad faith actors” using litigation to silence whistleblowers and journalists, reports the Telegraph.
• “‘Monstrous’ Equality Act has gone too far, warns Lord Sewell” – Lord Sewell warns that the Equality Act has handed the state too much power to “actively enforce equality” and has done so unevenly, says the Telegraph.
• “Some more equal than others” – Read the new Prosperity Institute report by Alka Seghal Cuthbert and Anna Loutfi on what should be done about the Equality Act.
• “Wellcome Trust launches funding for researchers of Black, Bangladeshi and Pakistani heritage” – The Wellcome Trust has opened a funding scheme explicitly barring applicants who do not self-identify as belonging to one of the specified heritage backgrounds, notes Charlotte Gill on her Substack.
• “Labour is ignoring the courts on single-sex spaces” – New Health Secretary James Murray’s claimed conversion away from gender ideology is being put to the test as Labour faces accusations of flouting court rulings on single-sex spaces, writes Joan Smith in UnHerd.
• “Drag queens boycott Pride event because organiser is Reform councillor” – More than 10 performers are refusing to appear at Attleborough Pride in Norfolk because the event is organised by Daniel Burcham, a newly elected Reform councillor, reveals the Telegraph.
• “The rise of Britain’s neo-Nazis as social tensions grow, the fascists sense opportunity” – As social tensions mount across Britain, Felix Pope in UnHerd examines how neo-Nazi groups are exploiting the moment to expand their reach.
• “The neo-Nazi lovers of the Hate-Industrial Complex” – Dr Robert W. Malone examines the Southern Poverty Law Centre’s troubling entanglements with the Hate-Industrial Complex on his Substack, with the latest twist even he didn’t see coming.
• “Jenrick: my plan to save the economy” – Reform and ex-Tory MP Robert Jenrick sets out his economic agenda, telling the Telegraph that approval is “hard won and easily lost”.
• “Kemi Badenoch: the war on oil and gas must end now” – In the Mail, Kemi Badenoch argues that Net Zero economics is a “madhouse” and calls for the Government’s assault on oil and gas to be brought to an immediate halt ahead of Thursday’s crucial by-election.
• “Wes Streeting says Labour should ditch Ed Miliband’s Net Zero targets” – Wes Streeting has suggested Labour should abandon Ed Miliband’s controversial green energy targets and instead focus on delivering “cheap electricity”, reports the Mail.
• “British taxpayers will subsidise French energy bills under Starmer’s EU deal” – Surplus wind power generated by Britain’s creaking grid system will be exported to France at British taxpayers’ expense under Starmer’s EU deal, says the Telegraph.
• “Worry about climate fearmongering – not climate change” – A troubling rise in anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts among America’s young people is being driven by climate fearmongering rather than climate change itself, writes Paul Driessen on WUWT.
• “The real competition behind the US coal revival” – The question facing the US is not whether coal remains part of the energy system but how America builds the reliable, affordable and secure energy infrastructure needed to power AI and compete in an increasingly energy-intensive world, notes Michelle Manook at WUWT.
• “Trump’s energy agenda is being undermined by his own Justice Department” – Steve Milloy reveals in ClimateRealism that Justice Department legal arguments are leaving the door open for climate meddling and quietly sabotaging Trump’s own energy agenda.
• “Not all daily temperature records are the same” – A closer look at how daily temperature records are compiled reveals important distinctions that matter for how weather data is interpreted, says the Cliff Mass Weather Blog.
• “The costs Parliament was not shown” – The Rationals Substack reveals the hidden costs behind Ed Miliband’s 87% Net Zero target that were never put before Parliament.
• “England fans could be thrown out of World Cup for singing anti-Starmer chants” – England fans have been warned they face ejection from World Cup stadiums for anti-Starmer chants, while flags honouring war dead have been banned for featuring a silhouette of a soldier holding a rifle, reports the Mail.
• “England fans face World Cup flag ban” – England supporters have been told that St George’s flags cannot cover any electronic hoarding and face strict restrictions on where they may be displayed inside World Cup stadiums, says the Telegraph.
• “Thomas Tuchel to stay out of politics after ‘woke’ Gareth Southgate backlash” – The Football Association wants Thomas Tuchel and future England head coaches to focus on football and avoid wading into politics and social issues, reports the Telegraph.
• “‘The middle class shun my school’, by Britain’s strictest teacher” – Katharine Birbalsingh, whose non-selective London school has produced some of the country’s highest-attaining pupils for 12 years, says the middle class continue to avoid it, reports the Times.
• “Cuddling cats when stressed makes you feel even worse, study finds” – Scientists have found that turning to a cat for comfort when feeling down is likely to make stress worse rather than better, according to the Mail.

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