News Round-Up

• “Orwell was right: control the language, control the world” – Many words and phrases, such as ‘harm’, ‘disinformation’, and of course ‘anti-vaxxer’, have been linguistically mutilated over the course of the pandemic, and no longer resemble their original meaning, writes Bill Rice Jr. in American Thinker.
• “Spare me the hypocrisy of the middle class lockdown zealots” – Working from home is a luxury not everyone can afford, says Camilla Tominey in the Telegraph.
• “Johnson’s Endgame” – S.D. Wickett, Michael Curzon, and Luke Perry discuss threats to the Boris Johnson premiership, the Downing Street Christmas party scandal, and the collateral damage of lockdowns in Bournbrook Magazine’s regular podcast.
• “Football fans in Plymouth asked for Covid passes” – Stewards at Plymouth Argyle’s match with Charlton checked paperwork before supporters were allowed in, reports BBC News.
• “One in 13 Covid double-jabbed in U.K. reluctant to get booster, study finds” – “About one in 13 people who have received two doses of a Covid vaccine are reluctant to get a booster jab, research shows,” reports the Guardian.
• “Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary blasts ‘idiot’ anti-vaxxers” – “The Ryanair boss said unvaccinated Britons should be banned from hospitals, planes and public transport to stop them spreading the virus,” reports MailOnline.
• “Pubs and restaurants are being decimated by Covid uncertainty” – “Ever since people in Britain have been told to work from home… corporate parties have been completely cancelled, restaurant reservations have fallen off a cliff, and after work drinks in the pubs have dried up,” writes Adam Hyman in the Spectator.
• “The BMJ to Facebook – stop censoring us and shut down your incompetent fact-checkers” – “As part of one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious medical journals, the senior editors express real concern about third-party fact-checkers employed by Facebook,” reports Trialsite.
• “Without an enemy to fight, the self-loathing West has turned on itself” – Our responses to Covid and climate change have been religious: atonement for guilt at our success, argues Janet Daley in the Telegraph.
• “Calls for hospitality support after ‘bleak Friday’” – Scottish businesses say they are feeling the pinch on what should be their busiest weekend of the year, reports BBC News.
• “Court reinstates Biden vaccine mandate” – “A U.S. federal appeals court has reinstated the Biden administration’s Covid vaccination mandate for large private businesses, reversing an injunction by another court last month to pause the vaccine and testing requirement,” reports RT.
• “Responding to Omicron, France reduces booster delay, adds other measures” – “France said on Friday it will reduce the time between second and third Covid vaccination injections to four months and will require people to show proof of vaccination to enter some venues,” reports France24.
• “Ontario cuts limits for outdoor, indoor social gatherings over Omicron” – Ontario’s limit on indoor social gatherings has been decreased from 25 people to 10, and outdoors from 100 to 25, with indoor capacity at restaurants, bars cut in half amid fears over the Omicron variant, reports the Mail.
• “Dutch to enter tight lockdown over Omicron wave” – Non-essential shops, schools, bars, restaurants and other public venues will be closed until at least mid-January, reports BBC News.
• “I’m a GP on the frontline, and I don’t think we’re overwhelmed with Covid” – “I spent yesterday morning visiting urgent cases among the elderly. Yes it was busy, but busy with many of the normal respiratory problems we face at this time of year,” writes Professor Carl Heneghan in the Mail on Sunday.
• “Leading cause of death among 18-45 year-old Americans revealed, and it is not Covid” – “Fentanyl now kills more 18 to 45 year-olds than suicide, Covid, and car accidents, with the number of deaths experiencing a particularly sharp rise since the beginning of the Covid pandemic,” reports RT.
• “Lack of wind sparks new fears over green energy revolution” – Lulls trigger questions over the long-term predictability of wind patterns amid escalating climate change, writes Rachael Millard in the Telegraph.
• “She who shall not be named” – J.K. Rowling is being erased from her own creations. All because she spoke up for women’s sex-based rights, writes Raquel Rosario Sanchez in Spiked.
• “University could hire professors on ‘woke score’” – “Oxford University’s race equality task force has reportedly published recommendations that could see academics judged and hired based on what’s been described by one professor as a ‘woke score’,” reports RT.
• “End Covid restrictions now” – Now for a spot of news you won’t hear on the BBC: scores of protesters took to the streets of London today to call for an end to Covid restrictions.