News Round-Up

• “Angela Rayner dismisses calls to return her £17,000 payoff” – Angela Rayner, reinstated as Housing Secretary just 10 months after quitting over unpaid tax, is refusing demands to hand back the severance payment she pocketed upon her resignation, reports the Mail.
• “Burnham orders halt to early release of prisoners” – Andy Burnham has announced he is pausing a scheme which would have seen thousands of prisoners in England and Wales eligible to be released early, according to the BBC.
• “Man who broke police officer’s leg released after just 82 days” – A young offender who shattered a police officer’s leg has been freed just 82 days into a sentence of nearly three years and 10 months, says GB News.
• “I was kidnapped and sexually abused at 14. My attacker was freed early” – In the Telegraph, a victim reveals how Malcolm James, who abducted and sexually assaulted her less than a month after her 14th birthday in 2019 and was convicted of five offences in 2023, has been freed early under the Government’s prison release scheme.
• “Migrants getting UK visas to fix old cars” – In the Sun, a report linking UK visa grants to the repair of old vehicles has raised fresh questions about immigration rules.
• “Andy Burnham to hand pubs 20% tax break” – Andy Burnham says the “cavalry is coming” for struggling pubs after unveiling a 20% cut to business rates for pubs, clubs and live music venues across England from next April, reports ITV News.
• “No 10 ‘is speeding up its plan’ for death tax to fix social care” – A major review into Britain’s broken social care system could be brought forward as Andy Burnham considers how to fund his plans for a National Care Service, says the Mail.
• “Badenoch demands Burnham rule out tax rises to pay for his spending” – Kemi Badenoch has challenged Andy Burnham to rule out tax rises to pay for his spending spree, reports the Mail.
• “Lucy Powell’s foolish socialism reinforces middle-class privilege” – If the Education Secretary continues to treat spelling tests as draconian, she risks making literacy a skill associated only with the rich, warns Joanna Williams in the Telegraph.
• “Miliband welcomed to Foreign Office by civil servant walkout” – Ed Miliband’s first week as Foreign Secretary has been met with a round of strikes from irate civil servants as job cuts bite, reports the Express.
• “Moment US ambassador is read Ed Miliband’s comments about Donald Trump” – US Ambassador Warren Stephens insists the new Foreign Secretary was “wrong” after being read Ed Miliband’s past remarks about Trump live on Sky News, according to the Mail.
• “US bombs Iran from UK air base for first time under Burnham” – Andy Burnham has given Trump permission to use RAF Fairford for strikes against Iran – marking the first such use of a British base under his premiership, reports the Telegraph.
• “Trump to demand Tim Davie testify in BBC defamation case” – Donald Trump’s lawyers are moving to force BBC Director-General Tim Davie to give testimony as part of the US President’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the corporation, says the Telegraph.
• “BBC demands Trump’s January 6th personal messages” – The BBC has demanded that Trump hand over his personal messages in an attempt to prove he incited the January 6th Capitol riots, reports GB News.
• “White man in Birmingham two-tier policing row has assault charge dropped” – The Crown Prosecution Service has dropped the ‘assault by beating’ case against the man at the centre of the Birmingham two-tier policing row, citing “insufficient evidence” to prosecute, according to GB News.
• “Police told not to arrest violent BLM rioters for fear it would ‘trigger’ them, leaked document reveals” – On his Substack, Steven Edginton reveals a leaked police memo telling officers to tread carefully when policing BAME communities during the BLM riots for fear of inflaming tensions.
• “Southport killer is moved from prison to psychiatric hospital” – Southport killer Axel Rudakubana has been transferred from Belmarsh prison after authorities decided he could not be managed safely in a custodial environment, reports the Mail.
• “The problem with the Widdecombe suspect’s ‘fair trial’” – In the Spectator, Douglas Murray asks why ministers urged caution after Ann Widdecombe’s death, but were so quick to warn of a looming anti-Muslim terror attack that never materialised.
• “Only 6% of Britons would take up arms to defend UK” – A new poll reveals that just 6% of the British public say they would volunteer to fight if the country faced the threat of invasion, according to GB News.
• “New Zealand tells ‘snivelling wokesters’ to accept Captain Cook ferry” – New Zealand’s Foreign Minister has dismissed critics of a new inter-island vessel named after Captain Cook as engaging in “whinger politics”, says GB News.
• “Seized maternity notes not given to Lucy Letby defence” – A BBC File on 4 investigation has uncovered what one professor described as a “very surprising” omission in the disclosure of maternity notes to the Lucy Letby defence team.
• “Twenty-somethings with OCD, ADHD and eating disorders are getting euthanised” – On the Public podcast, Michael Shellenberger interviews philosopher Kathleen Stock, whose new book Do Not Go Gentle argues that it is neither liberating nor compassionate for governments to end the lives of young people suffering from mental health conditions.
• “Graph reveals UK has the worst mental health in Europe” – More than a third of UK adults report poor mental health, with 30% feeling severely depressed, anxious or stressed – leaving Britain behind only Japan and South Korea globally, reports the Mail.
• “Ralph Baric just blew up the official Covid origins narrative” – Prominent virologist Ralph Baric’s recent statements dramatically undermine the official account of Covid’s origins, says Dr Robert W. Malone on his Substack.
• “How you could live to 190: scientists find the limit of human lifespan” – Scientists believe they have uncovered the ultimate ceiling on human longevity, suggesting that lifespans of up to 190 years may be theoretically possible, according to the Mail.
• “Burnham’s plan to collaborate with social media creators” – The BBC’s Emilia Belli reports that the new Prime Minister plans to work with influencers and social media creators to get his message out to the public.
• “Humanity ‘no longer in control of its best creation since atom bomb’” – The latest AI model could “wreak havoc on the open internet” if it ever slipped the digital confines of its developers, warns Connor Axiotes in the Mail.
• “Andy Burnham ready to scale up oil and gas drilling in North Sea” – Industry sources expect swift rulings on the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields as the PM seeks to ease cost-of-living pressures this winter, says the Times.
• “Tories taunt ‘terrified’ oil minister for refusing to face the press” – Andy Burnham’s Energy Secretary hid from scrutiny on her first official visit to Aberdeen to meet oil and gas executives, according to the Mail.
• “Ageing nuclear plants given life extension to keep Britain’s lights on” – Two ageing nuclear power stations will stay operational until 2030 after EDF decided to extend their lives to help keep Britain’s lights on, says Reuters.
• “Britain’s oldest sugar factory shuts because of sky-high energy costs” – The closure of the British Sugar beet-processing plant, which could come as early as February 2027, lays bare the devastating toll that soaring energy costs are taking on British industry, says the Telegraph.
• “First drought declared after record heatwaves” – Drought has been declared in parts of North Wales and the Upper Severn catchment following a summer of record-breaking heat, reports Sky News.
• “Solar for the soul or for the senses” – At CFACT, Kelvin Kemm argues that the modern cult of solar energy owes more to quasi-religious reverence for the Sun than to rational scientific thinking about how best to power civilisation.
• “Trans pupils allowed at all-girls schools” – Pupils who identify as transgender will be allowed to attend all-female schools in East Yorkshire under new guidelines, says the Telegraph.
• “Let’s celebrate cultural appropriation” – In the Telegraph, Michael Henderson argues that the case of Yuko Kikuchi – the diversity campaigner who resigned from the V&A in January citing alleged “systemic racism” – is a striking illustration of why cultural appropriation deserves celebration rather than condemnation.
• “‘Is Mickey Mouse racist?’: the row engulfing the Smithsonian” – Donald Trump’s Republicans claim America’s most prestigious museum has been captured by ideological bias – and the battle over its future is escalating, writes Colin Freeman in the Telegraph.
• “That’s what you might call instant car-ma!” – On X, Nigel Farage shares a remarkable instance of “instant karma”: a woman calls him a “wanker” from her car window, only to collide with the vehicle ahead at a red traffic light seconds later.

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