News Round-Up

• “Burnham rules out early election and stalls on defence spending” – In his first interview from No 10 North, the new PM has refused to commit to a date for boosting defence spending to 3% of GDP, reports the Mail.
• “Andy Burnham twice refuses to say he trusts Donald Trump” – Following his first phone call with the US President, Andy Burnham twice refused to say whether he trusts Donald Trump, says the Telegraph.
• “Andy Burnham to crack down on youth sickness benefits” – Young people face losing welfare payments unless they undertake training or voluntary work under plans being drawn up by the new Prime Minister, reports the Telegraph.
• “Teenagers on Pip paid £100 a week more than those working part-time” – Teenagers claiming sickness benefits for anxiety receive £100 a week more than those who take a part-time job on the minimum wage, says the Times.
• “Compulsory voting on the table as Burnham ponders electoral reform” – Andy Burnham is considering making voting mandatory as part of a wider review of electoral reform, reports the Times.
• “The troubling think tank at the heart of government” – Anti-capitalist dogma is rife at the top of the new Labour Cabinet, warns Michael Mosbacher in the Telegraph, with controversial think tanks wielding alarming power over Government policy.
• “Burnham discovers he’s just the latest prisoner of Britain’s debt” – Andy Burnham had an easy ride on the campaign trail, but now he’s in power Britain’s huge debt burden is leaving him with less room to manoeuvre than voters were led to believe, says Tim Wallace in the Telegraph.
• “Lib Dems ‘shifted stance on trans issues after accepting donation’” – The Lib Dems are facing claims that a £225,000 donation from a financier who’s a pro-trans zealot influenced the party’s position on trans issues, according to the Times.
• “Proscribe ‘militant’ trans group, says ex-political violence tsar” – The Government’s former adviser on political extremism Lord Walney says militant trans activist group Bash Back “deserves more serious attention” after it failed to withdraw a guide on carrying out repeated illegal attacks against MPs with hammers following Ann Widdecombe’s murder, says the Times.
• “Iran’s ‘propaganda charity’ given right to bring migrants to UK” – The Islamic Centre of England has been granted the power to sponsor skilled-worker visas despite being under investigation by the Charity Commission, reveals the Telegraph.
• “Greens face backlash over motion against IRGC ban and Iran sanctions” – A Green Party delegate’s bid to oppose the IRGC ban and Iran sanctions has sparked anger among Labour and Tory MPs, who’ve questioned the timing of the move after IRGC-linked attacks in the UK, reports the Times.
• “Hunt for UK-bound small boat migrants in beach death ‘murder’ probe” – A search is under way to find a group of migrants after a man in his 20s was stabbed to death on a French beach, says the Mail.
• “Polish knife attacker can stay in UK after quitting crack” – A violent Polish criminal who repeatedly stabbed a man in an unprovoked street robbery has been allowed to remain in Britain, reports the Telegraph.
• “Bad universities must be allowed to fail – not be propped up” – The Government is wasting public money by propping up underperforming institutions that should instead be allowed to go to the wall, writes Simon Heffer in the Telegraph.
• “TfL price rises wiped out by fare dodgers” – New analysis suggests that the cost of fare-dodging has wiped out the benefits of price rises imposed by Transport for London, according to the Telegraph.
• “Gatwick airport left without water, toilets or drinks” – Passengers at Gatwick Airport were left without access to water, functioning toilets or drinks in a major disruption to one of Britain’s busiest travel hubs, reports the Sun.
• “Trainee barrister ‘caught driving car bomb had spent time in Syria’” – A trainee barrister who was caught driving a car bomb towards Northern Ireland in a suspected New IRA operation spent time in Syria, according to the Mail.
• “I’ll feel safer back home, where there’s no antisemitism” – As her five-year posting comes to an end, outgoing Israeli ambassador Daniela Grudsky Ekstein tells Jake Wallis Simons in the Telegraph about her brush with terror and her concerns over the future of UK-Israeli relations.
• “French farmers ride into the inferno threatening to wipe out Bordeaux” – Farmers in Bordeaux have joined emergency efforts to suppress “apocalyptic” wildfires spreading across France as thousands face evacuation, reports the Mail.
• “Automobile of peace attack on Berlin pride parade claims one life, injures dozens” – A vehicle attack on a Berlin Pride parade has claimed one life and left dozens injured, with prime suspect Abdul Ballout shot dead by police, says Eugyppius on Substack.
• “Euthanasia of teen rape victim that divided the Netherlands” – The parents and doctor of a 17 year-old rape victim who was euthanized now face legal challenges after 14 psychiatrists and doctors wrote to the Dutch public prosecutor demanding an investigation, according to the Mail.
• “Trump pauses Iran strikes over missile shortages” – Donald Trump has paused plans to escalate the war on Iran after being warned that the US is running critically low on missiles, says the Telegraph.
• “Milei enrages Brazil after calling Government ‘thieving socialists’” – Javier Milei has caused a diplomatic row with Brazil after calling its Left-wing Government “thieving socialists”, according to Politico.
• “Prove my mother Aung San Suu Kyi is not dead” – The son of Aung San Suu Kyi, the imprisoned former leader of Myanmar, tells the Telegraph’s Sarah Newey that he wants proof his 81 year-old mother is still alive after she disappeared from public view following her show trial in 2022.
• “Nearly 600 NHS bosses rake in salaries more than PM, ‘rich list’ finds” – Despite NHS waiting lists barely budging, 574 trust bosses and bureaucrats are earning basic salaries higher than the Prime Minister’s £182,000 pay packet, reveals the Mail.
• “NHS nurse who was suspended for calling trans paedophile ‘Mister’” – In the Mail, Jenny Johnston meets the NHS nurse who has finally cleared her name two years after being suspended for calling a violent, racist, trans paedophile by the wrong pronoun.
• “The NHS’s ideological capture is getting people killed” – Psychiatric services that have come to treat every hospitalisation as a defeat are just one symptom of an ideological takeover with deadly real-world consequences, warns Theodore Dalrymple in the Telegraph.
• “Vaccine amnesia: 75 forgotten segments that could never air today” – Before the press was captured, vaccine injuries were openly covered on national television. Writing on Substack, a Midwestern Doctor argues that the censorship dam is finally beginning to break, allowing a tragic history to be confronted.
• “Don’t fall for British Gas’s great AI ploy” – Customers still prefer humans to chatbots, and claiming otherwise, as the CEO of Centrica has, is merely an excuse to cut staff, says Melanie McDonagh in the Telegraph.
• “Labour’s Net Zero drive risks leaving Britons with blackouts and soaring energy bills, leaked report warns” – A confidential review has uncovered major flaws in Britain’s electricity grid, with a whistleblower warning that “we are risking total blackout”, reports GB News.
• “East Yorkshire electric buses being charged by diesel generators” – East Yorkshire Buses is resorting to diesel generators to charge its electric fleet as a short-term fix while electricity infrastructure delays persist, according to the BBC.
• “Glut of wind farm power adds nearly £1 billion to household energy bills” – New figures show that an oversupply of wind farm power has triggered compensation payouts of £900 million, adding nearly £1 billion to household energy bills, says the Telegraph.
• “The Net Zero machine laid bare” – On his Substack, David Turver reveals how the law, civil service and quangos work together to enforce Net Zero.
• “Scientists who believe in God are challenging the expert establishment” – The rise of religiously oriented scientists is mounting a direct challenge to the credibility of the ultra-secular scientific establishment, notes Joel Kotkin in the Telegraph.
• “Gen Z craves full-fat religion while the Church acts like a secular NGO” – Young people are seeking rigorous moral and spiritual frameworks yet find the established Church offering little more than secular platitudes, says Bijan Omrani in the Telegraph.
• “Cops blow £631 million on diversity ‘obsession’ instead of fighting crime” – Police forces across the country spent at least £631 million on diversity, equality and inclusion activities over the last six years, according to the Express.
• “Wealth tax YouTuber Gary Stevenson quits after backlash” – Gary Stevenson, the wealth tax campaigner, has quit his popular YouTube channel claiming he’s too tired to continue after a backlash against his recent TV documentary on inequality, reports the Mail.
• “Youngest professor in plagiarism row” – On GB News, University of London Professor Ian Pace offers his reaction to the plagiarism accusations levelled against Cambridge University’s youngest ever professor.

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