News Round-Up

• “Britons mock E.U. as AstraZeneca blamed for Covid spike” – Britons have mocked the E.U. after a bloc official blamed AstraZeneca for a current increase in Covid infections, reports the Express.
• “Covid in Scotland: care residents given wrong jab” – “11 care home residents were injected with salt water instead of the Covid vaccine, it has emerged,” reports the Times.
• “No10 will consider scrapping Covid tests for all travellers in January” – “Covid tests for travellers returning to Britain could be scrapped entirely in January, a Government minister said today,” reports MailOnline.
• “NHS waiting list hits record six million… and it’s only going to get worse” – “The record NHS waiting list of about six million people will inevitably rise, the Health Secretary has admitted,” reports the Times.
• “China slaughtering pets of Covid patients under new law” – “China is slaughtering pets of Covid patients under draconian new law. As per officials, this is all about preventing virus infection,” reports GreatGameIndia.
• “Democracy backsliding across the world amid the pandemic” – Democracy is deteriorating across the world, with countries including the U.S., Hungary, and Poland taking undemocratic and avoidable measures to contain the Covid pandemic, a report said, reports MailOnline.
• “Fourth wave will hammer the euro and drag Europe into a recession” – Germany is closing down, and if it sinks, so does the whole region, writes Matthew Lynn in the Telegraph.
• “How ‘Freedom Day’ saved U.K. from Europe’s Covid Christmas chaos” – “Britain was seen as the ‘sick man of Europe’ in the summer after its Covid infection rate outpaced other nations. But as the continent heads into winter many other European nations have seen their case rates storm ahead,” writes Luke Andrews in the Mail.
• “The hammer and the dance: a retrospective” – The mysteriously viral Medium essay that inspired lockdowns in multiple countries has not aged well, writes Eugyppius in his latest Substack update.
• “‘Terrorist threat’ to fans from Covid vaccine passports in Scotland” – “Vaccine passports expose sport fans to increased risk of becoming victims of terrorism that uses vehicles as weapons, Scottish ministers have been warned,” reports the Times.
• “Dan Andrews could force kids as young as five years-old to get Covid vaccine” – The Andrews Government is considering rolling out mandatory Covid jabs to kids as young as five years-old, but one of the nation’s top doctors is strongly against the move, reports the Mail Australia.
• “In its rush to net-zero, the West is aligning itself with Chinese human rights abuses” – Much of our ‘green industrial revolution’ will be fed by materials produced in Xinjiang, where forced labour is rife, writes Ian Duncan Smith in the Telegraph.
• “Phrase ‘trigger warning’ is too triggering for students, university says” – “Worried that emotionally fragile students might not be able to handle it, Warwick University has scrapped the use of the term ‘trigger warning’ to alert students to the presence of provocative material in assignments,” reports RT.
• “Is hate always a crime?” – The police shouldn’t blindly trust self-appointed victims, argues Jenny McCartney in UnHerd.
• “Must Marx and Engels be cancelled?” – If a hint of support for racism, imperial conquest and genocide are sufficient reason for ‘cancelling’ historical figures, can Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels long escape? asks Robert Tombs in History Reclaimed.
• “J.K. Rowling slams her address doxxing” – “Harry Potter’s creator J.K. Rowling blasted three ‘activist actors’ who published her home address on Twitter, saying that she would not succumb to intimidation,” reports RT.
• “Eddie Redmayne: taking transgender role was a ‘mistake’” – Redmayne’s casting attracted criticism from campaigners who suggested a transgender actor should have been chosen, reports the Telegraph.
• “Of course we should challenge woke young people” – Identitarians are increasingly preoccupied with pushing their ideas on school kids, writes Joanna Williams in Spiked.
• “A scene from The Thick of It” – Comedian Jonathan Pie tweets about Boris Johnson’s bumbling speech at the CBI conference: “I love how this show exaggerates the incompetence of our politicians for comedic effect – oh wait.”