News Round-Up

• “Prince Harry withdraws libel case against the Mail on Sunday” – The Duke of Sussex has dropped his libel case against the Mail on Sunday, meaning he now faces having to pay costs of £250,000 along with his own lawyers’ fees, meaning a total legal bill of more than £750,000, reports the Mail.
• “Sky News criticised by Tory MPs over edit of Sunak being challenged by member of the public” – Sky News has been criticised by Conservative MPs for doctoring footage of the Prime Minister being confronted by a member of the public in Winchester to make it look as though he flounced off, when in fact they shook hands and parted amicably, says the Telegraph.
• “Covid inquiry: Nicola Sturgeon may have broken law by deleting WhatsApp messages” – The former Scottish First Minister has insisted she has “nothing to hide” from the Covid Inquiry, but it turns out she deleted all her WhatsApp messages, according to the Times.
• “Javier Milei dismantles the Davos groupthink” – The Spectator’s Kate Andrews praises Javier Milei speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos on the benefits of the free market.
• “A Trump presidency could be just what the world needs” – The global wokerati have finally ­spotted the likely result of this November’s U.S. presidential elections and they’re trembling with fear, says Boris Johnson in the Mail.
• “Tim Scott set to endorse Donald Trump amid speculation he could be running mate” – The Telegraph reports that African-American Christian Tim Scott could be Trump’s pick as his Vice-Presidential candidate.
• “Why have Republican graduates changed their mind about Donald Trump?” – The college-educated were one of few groups in the Republican Party not in thrall to the former President. But since his legal troubles, their support for him has grown, reports the Times.
• “Mark Carney’s Net Zero comments prove he’s a classic Davos man” – Mark Carney was the Fabio Capello of central banking, says Ross Clark in CapX. That is, a foreign-born mediocrity paid vast sums of money to run a national institution into the ground.
• “Miliband will bring wholesale deindustrialisation” – In the wake of the Port Talbot blast furnace closure, Net Zero Watch warns that Labour’s energy policies will bring more of the same. Will Miliband now hail Margaret Thatcher as a hero for closing so many coal mines?
• “Union boss confronts Starmer over North Sea drilling ban” – Gary Smith, the General Secretary of the GMB, claims Labour’s energy policy poses a risk to national security, according to the Telegraph.
• “Electric cars suffer ‘unsustainable’ depreciation in secondhand market” – Electric cars lose as much as half of their value after just three years on the road, new figures show, as their rate of depreciation far outstrips petrol equivalents, says Yahoo News.
• “Climate change conspiracy theorist pleads guilty to starting 14 fires” – A Canadian fruitloop has pled guilty to starting 14 forest fires, including fires in Chapais and Lake Cavan, according to the Mail. Not caused by climate change, then.
• “Sweden scraps Agenda 2030 goals” – Sweden joins the growing list of countries to abandon emissions targets, reports Women Systems.
• “French ‘rubbing their hands’ as Britain forced to import £1.5 bn of electricity” – The U.K. is buying a record amount of power from France as wind and solar fall short, says the Telegraph.
• “Measles spike sparks national ‘call to action’ as vaccine rates slump” – As few as half of children have had their MMR jabs in parts of London, says the Mail. Similarly low levels are also seen in Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham. Who would have thought that demonising and silencing vaccine sceptics would have increased vaccine hesitancy?!? Well I never!
• “On the World Economic Forum, ‘Preparing for Disease X’ and the insufferable self-interested platitudinous jargon-laden fantasies of the globalised public-private idiots who aspire to run our lives” – Eugyppius with the latest from Davos.
• “Mental model: ridiculous study claims Covid jabs prevented 8.5 million infections in Tokyo” – Garbage in, garbage out: Guy Gin debunks a new study claiming the Covid shots prevented 63.3 million infections and 354,00 deaths in Japan in his Substack newsletter.
• “Cancer cases expected to hit record high in 2024, experts explain potential causes” – Six of the most common cancers are on the rise and – most disturbingly – are occurring in younger populations, says the Epoch Times.
• “Gonsalves and the Origins of ‘Six Feet Apart’” – Paul Thacker tracks down the ‘data scientist’ who invented the six-feet rule in the Disinformation Chronicles.
• “The TTE Data Snapshot – Week to Jan 14th update” – The latest from Prof. Carl Heneghan and Dr. Tom Jefferson on Trust the Evidence.
• “The long awaited debate of Covid science: a team of experts rebut the opinions of BC’s Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons” – On his Substack newsletter, Pierre Kory sets out the case for the defence of Canadian community doctor Dr. Charles Hoffe, who is under investigation by British Columbia’s Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons.
• “Chinese researcher who mapped Covid virus two weeks before China released sequence was on Anthony Fauci’s payroll” – Chinese researcher Lili Ren, who mapped the Covid virus in December 2019, was on the payroll of Anthony Fauci’s National Institutes of Health, according to Paul Thacker in the Disinformation Chronicle.
• “How Edinburgh University stifled my investigation” – In UnHerd, Ian Birrell describes how Edinburgh University is obstructing his efforts to find out exactly what role one of its professors, Andrew Rambaut, played in the suppression of the lab leak theory.
• “Britain’s strictest head teacher: my case to ban prayer in school” – Katharine Birbalsingh, the Founder and Headteacher of Michaela Community School, defends her school’s ban on prayers in conversation with Freddie Sayers at UnHerd.
• “Headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh must win against Islamic bullies” – For the sake of many Muslim parents, Michaela Community School can’t lose a vexatious court action over a ban on prayer rituals, argues Janice Turner in the Times.
• “In defence of Katharine Birbalsingh” – Michaela’s High Court fight is about much more than a prayer ban, says Dr. Joanna Williams in Spiked.
• “Has the United States finally had enough of Benjamin Netanyahu?” – Relations between the U.S. and Israel’s Prime Minister have cooled as the war in Gaza has progressed, reports the Telegraph.
• “Outrage as Foreign Office sexual violence adviser backs claim that Israel lied about rapes” – A Foreign Office sexual violence adviser signed a petition dismissing reports of rape committed by Hamas on October 7th as “propaganda” to justify Israel’s “genocide” against Palestinians, reports the Jewish Chronicle.
• “East London’s Jewish community in ‘state of fear’ as Palestinian flags fly outside schools” – Families in Tower Hamlets say “oppressive and intimidating” symbols, e.g. Palestinian flags, make them feel unwelcome in the borough for the first time, says the Telegraph.
• “Primary school could be forced to close after bomb and arson threats” – Barclay Primary School in Leyton, East London, has been embroiled in a row over a boy’s pro-Palestinian badge and may be forced to close due to the constant protests outside the school gates, according to the Times.
• “How Gary Lineker was dragged into an ‘explosion of anti-Semitism’ within sport” – A growing number of people in Britain’s sporting community have taken the side of Israel’s enemies in the current conflict, reports the Telegraph.
• “Trans row causes Labour to lose safe council” – A Conservative candidate has chalked up a surprise council by-election victory in the People’s Republic of Hackney, thanks to Labour punishing its own candidate for being a gender critical feminist, reports Guido Fawkes.
• “Today’s feminists just want to strip women of their rights” – They’re against female-only sports, prisons, public toilets… and any woman who dares to disagree is called a hateful old transphobic bigot, says Michael Deacon in the Telegraph.
• “‘A politically toxic issue’: the legal battles over gender-critical beliefs” – A growing number of organisations have had judgments upheld against them in the Employment Tribunal because they’ve been discriminating against gender critical employees, reports the Guardian. Will the Guardian be next?
• “Minicab drivers won’t have to prove they can speak English under plans backed by Khan” – Drivers of black London taxis have warned Sadiq Khan that scrapping the English exam for minicab drivers “compromises passenger safety”, reports the Telegraph.
• “Anna Wintour slammed for wearing her sunglasses. while laying off staff” – Anna Wintour was sporting her signature shades as she laid off her entire staff of music magazine Pitchfork, prompting accusations of contemptousness, says the Mail.
• “Conservatives Cheer Mass Layoffs at Sports Illustrated” – The American magazine has laid off all its staff, which critics are connecting to its decision to put a trans model on the cover of its 2023 swimsuit issue, reports Newsweek.
• “An alcohol ban is beginning to look inevitable” – Ross Clark in the Telegraph says it’s only a matter of time before the nanny state decides to ban alcohol.
• “With Davos in full flow, it’s time to tell the truth about programmable currency” – Dominic Frisby gives his inimitable take on CBDCs. Get a ticket to see him on tour in London, Borden, Guildford, Bath and Southend here.

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