News Round-Up

• “Thousands take to the streets to celebrate the fall of Assad” – Syrians across the world have shed tears of joy in response to the ousting of former President Bashar al-Assad as they celebrate a sudden end to the tyrant’s 24 year-reign, reports the Mail.
• “Britain’s Syrian refugees vow to return home after fall of regime” – Syrian refugees in Britain are vowing to return to their homeland after rebels seized control of Damascus, writes Charlotte Leeming for Sky News.
• “Assad may have fled, but Syria’s rebels are far from saviours” – The coalition of forces led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham might not bring the freedom Syria craves, warns Samuel Ramani in the Sunday Times.
• “Fears of massacre as Islamist-led rebels set sights on Syrian Kurds” – Syria’s Kurds fear they may face a fresh massacre as Islamist-led rebels have already begun targetting them hours after Bashar al-Assad’s regime collapsed, reports the Mail.
• “Jihadi terrorists now rule Syria” – Assad’s overthrow is welcome news. But our enemy’s enemy is not our friend, warns Richard Kemp in the Telegraph.
• “The fall of Assad is a disaster for Putin. More dominoes may fall across the Middle East” – The collapse of Assad’s regime is a massive defeat for Putin, Tehran and the Middle East, says Tim Collins in the Telegraph.
• “Government ‘dragging its feet’ on tackling antisemitism, campaigners say” – The Campaign Against Antisemitism condemned the Government for “dragging its feet” on tackling antisemitism as 32,000 people marched from the Royal Courts of Justice to Parliament Square in London, reports the Telegraph.
• “Criminals owe record £4.4 billion in unpaid fines and court fees” – Official figures show that criminals owe a record £4.4 billion in unpaid fines and court fees – an amount equivalent to the entire budget originally set aside to build 20,000 prison places, says the Telegraph.
• “Inside the luxury hotel housing migrants for three years” – A palatial 16th Century manor house hotel with four poster beds and a turreted gate house has been housing asylum seekers for more than three years, reports the Mail.
• “Labour suspends Edinburgh council leader over claims ‘sexually explicit messages’ sent to Ukrainian refugees” – Senior Labour politician Cammy Day bombarded Ukrainian refugees on social media with inquiries about their sexual preferences, attempted to arrange dates and sent them compliments on their appearance, according to the Scotsman.
• “Private school blames Labour’s tax bomb budget as it announces closure” – A private school has blamed Labour’s tax bomb budget and VAT raid after announcing it is closing due to “unprecedented financial pressures”, reports the Mail.
• “On schools, the Tories were a class act” – Labour’s dilution of Ofsted’s powers and intimacy with the teaching unions is putting the Tories’ education gains at risk, says Emma Duncan in the Times.
• “How will family farms be hit by IHT Budget changes?” – In This is Money, Harvey Dorset highlights the flaws in Labour’s inheritance tax changes, which could force family farmers to sell land, and suggests ways to mitigate the impact.
• “Labour is hammering the high street, warns Liberty chief” – Liberty boss Adil Mehboob-Khan says that the Budget tax rises make British businesses less competitive, according to the Telegraph.
• “France’s crisis could be a taste of what’s to come for Starmer” – Britain’s taxpayers won’t acquiesce to unlimited demands to prop up public finances, warns Roger Bootle in the Telegraph.
• “Thousands of Scots households face extra £370 on council tax bill” – Thousands of Scots could see their council tax bills rise by over £370 as councils scramble to cover a £400 million funding gap, reports the Scottish Sun.
• “Britain’s MPs are all middle class – and we are poorer because of it” – In the Telegraph, Michael Mosbacher argues that Britain’s MPs, now overwhelmingly middle class and out of touch with the day to day realities of life in modern Britain, are a big part of why the nation is poorly governed and steadily growing poorer.
• “Badenoch ‘renews friendship’ with Trump’s Vice President” – Kemi Badenoch has had dinner with J.D. Vance, the Vice President-elect, as the pair “renewed their friendship” ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, reports GB News.
• “‘I can be a bit on the spectrum’” – Boris Johnson claims that he is “a bit spectrum-y” because he sometimes struggles to understand how other people feel, according to the Telegraph.
• “Abuse scandal triggers vote of no confidence in church leadership” – A vote of no confidence in the Church of England’s most senior body of leaders due to their inability to tackle child sex abuse has been passed, reports the Times.
• “Charities forced to spend donations on gold-plated pensions” – Some of Britain’s best-known charities are using donations from the public to help cover the cost of gold-plated pensions, says the Telegraph.
• “Oxford University continues to offer scholarship that requires ‘support of the leadership of the Communist Party of China’” – The University of Oxford is continuing to offer a scholarship in conjunction with the Chinese Ministry of Education, which requires recipients to “support the leadership of the Communist Party of China” and “love the motherland”, according to Cherwell.
• “Maybe our institutions should behave more like France’s” – In the Telegraph, Robert Tombs suggests that Britain could learn a thing or two from France, where national symbols are proudly displayed, while we can’t even manage to hang up a picture of our King.
• “How freedom can win elections in the dark 21st Century” – The West used to understand that liberty is the best route to security. It has forgotten this basic wisdom with catastrophic effect, says Sherelle Jacobs on her Substack.
• “Subsidies galore!” – On his Eigen Values Substack, David Turver exposes a jaw-dropping £328 billion subsidy merry-go-round fuelling the Net Zero agenda.
• “All-electric Jaguars to cost £150,000, suggests boss” – Jaguar will invest £1.5 billion over five years to develop three all-electric models, potentially priced at up to £150,000, reports the Telegraph.
• “Britain’s worklessness crisis is rapidly spiralling out of control” – The U.K.’s benefits system is pushing millions out of our shrinking labour force, warns Liam Halligan in the Telegraph.
• “Was DoD the managing agency for Operation Warp Speed? ” – Pfizer did not commit fraud, but rather carried out the fraud that the U.S. Government ordered, says Dr. Robert W. Malone on his Substack.
• “The Americans who ‘just can’t feel sympathy’ for healthcare boss slain in the street” – The killing of Brian Thompson has unleashed a fresh torrent of public anger against U.S. health insurers, writes Hannah Boland in the Telegraph.
• “On journalism’s dishonesty and moral rot” – Did insurance company executive Brian Thompson deserve to be murdered? The New Yorker can’t quite decide, says Alex Berenson on his Substack.
• “Trump will pardon January 6th rioters on day one” – On his first day back at the White House next month, Trump plans to issue pardons for all those convicted for participating in the disorder in Washington on January 6th, according to the Mail.
• “Fury as EU political party shares map showing the Falkland Islands” – EU politicians have caused outrage after sharing a map depicting the Falkland Islands as part of Argentina, reports the Mail.
• “Russian spy Anna Chapman reveals how she was recruited by the Kremlin” – Glamorous Russian spy Anna Chapman has revealed how she was recruited by Putin’s foreign intelligence service at the time she was living in London, says the Mail.
• “GCSE English is too male, pale and stale, says exam board” – Pearson, one of the three largest exam boards, has called for GCSE and A-level English sylabbi to be more diverse and include more spoken language to keep students interested, reports the Times.
• “Judy Murray calls on trans athletes born male to only compete in male categories” – Judy Murray has called for transgender athletes born male to compete only in male sporting categories, citing significant physical differences between the sexes based on her extensive coaching experience, says GB News.
• “‘Gender critical’ Newcastle fan sues FA over rainbow armband campaign” – A Newcastle United fan, banned for her gender-critical views, is threatening legal action against the FA over their Rainbow Laces campaign, claiming it unlawfully promotes the idea of gender fluidity, according to the Mail.
• “The country is falling apart, so why on earth are we banning porridge adverts?” – This mindset – that the state can fiddle and ban its way out of every social problem – just takes on ever more staggering proportions, writes Zoe Strimpel in the Telegraph.
• “‘America’s wokest university’ ditches diversity hiring rules” – The University of Michigan is the latest public university to remove a commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as part of its hiring requirements, reports the NY Post.
• “Digital ID for pubs and clubs in (half) victory for Tony Blair” – Pubgoers will be able to use their smartphones to prove their age as part of plans to introduce government-backed digital IDs, says the Sunday Times.
• “‘Innumerate, incompetent, inept’” – Angela Rayner’s grilling by Trevor Phillips on Sky News turned into a car crash when she insisted there’s “plenty of housing” for Britain’s 2.5 million migrants.

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