News Round-Up

• “Grooming gang inquiry chairman announced after months of chaos” – The Home Secretary has announced that the grooming gangs inquiry will explicitly probe the ethnicity and religion of offenders, reports the Sun.
• “Afghan national charged with raping two 14 year-old girls” – An Afghan national has been charged with raping two 14 year-old girls in a flat in Bolton, says Sky News.
• “Afghan asylum seeker struts around park hours after he raped girl” – Newly released footage shows Afghan asylum seeker Jan Jahanzeb strolling through the park where he attacked a 15 year-old, according to the Mail.
• “Pakistan demands political dissidents in Britain in exchange for grooming gang abusers” – The Pakistan Government has called for two political dissidents in Britain to be extradited in exchange for the accepting grooming gang offenders who have resisted deportation, says GB News.
• “Zack Polanski’s immigration outburst typifies the snobbery of the middle-class Left” – Green leader  Zack Polanski insists Britain needs more migrants because he does not want to “wipe someone’s bum”, writes Michael Deacon in the Telegraph.
• “The shame of Britain” – A bleak rape case exposes an establishment unwilling to face hard truths, says Sebastian Milbank in the Critic.
• “The problem with experiments in multicultural living” – Progressives have no real interest in objective analysis, writes Ben Sixsmith in the Critic.
• “Moment two men armed with massive knives brawl in the street in front of shocked parents on the school run” – A knife and machete fight in Enfield has shocked parents and commuters, reports the Mail.
• “Sexual predators target girls in mixed changing rooms” – Police figures reveal dozens of assaults in mixed changing rooms at sports facilities, raising fresh concerns about safeguarding, according to the Telegraph.
• “The soft return of blasphemy laws” – No idea, religion or belief should be immune from critique or ridicule, writes Lauren Smith in the European Conservative.
• “Free speech is the lifeblood of our universities” – Hearing ideas we hate must be part of the student experience, says Chris Smith, the new Chancellor of Cambridge, in the Telegraph.
• “School flu lockdowns show Covid-era fear still rules” – The news that UK schools are choosing to shut down in the light of the latest flu outbreak is leading to a depressing sense of déjà vu, writes David Paton in UnHerd.
• “Kemi Badenoch reveals lifting the two-child benefit cap for 1,000 London families will mean tax hikes for a city the size of Leicester” – The Tory leader has warned that Labour’s move to scrap the two-child benefit cap will hit taxpayers hard, reports the Mail.
• “Welfare capitulation means Labour’s defence pledge is already shot to pieces” – Labour’s benefits giveaways will ensure Britain’s Nato 5% commitment goes up in smoke, writes Adam Smith in the Telegraph.
• “The special needs ‘mess’ threatening Britain with a tax time-bomb” – Surging SEND costs could burden future generations, warns Szu Ping Chan in the Telegraph.
• “Britons paying more income tax than the French” – Personal taxes now exceed 10% of GDP, according to the Telegraph.
• “UK shoppers cut back on pre-Christmas spending at fastest rate in almost five years” – Budget uncertainty and inflation are hurting consumer confidence, reports the Independent.
• “The perils of affordability politics” – Pursuing ‘affordability’ above all else is a political trap, says Ryan Bourne in CapX.
• “A crippled economy” – Unusual scenes in Britain’s skies tell a troubling economic story, writes our own Steven Tucker in Taki’s Magazine.
• “MPs clash over the digital ID that no one asked for” – A free society’s oldest instinct – distrust of concentrated power – has returned to Westminster in digital form, says Cindy Harper in Reclaim the Net.
• “The Malthouse Principles” – On Substack, Henry Hill unpacks Kit Malthouse’s unusual, radical take on parliamentary rules – a masterly dissection of the former policing minister’s constitutional gobbledegook.
• “Net Zero is ‘structurally doomed’, new reports warn” – Two studies show central planning and weak energy sources make Net Zero unworkable, according to Net Zero Watch.
• “Worley lands EPCM deal for UK’s first full-scale cement CCS plant” – Heidelberg Materials has moved ahead with carbon capture plans at Padeswood, reports Construction Enquirer.
• “Three words environmentalists hate: ‘stop recycling plastic’” – New research suggests recycling may be fuelling microplastic exposure, warns Issues & Insights.
• “The private company making a fortune from absurd litter fines” – A contractor employed by more than 40 councils is accused of using underhand tactics to extract large on-the-spot penalties, reports the Telegraph.
• “Flow Walk Drag project in Margate secures funding for second round” – Funding awarded through Liverpool Hope University and the Royal College of Art’s Ecological Citizens Network is being used to support drag artists dressing as Cholera and E.coli to explore water pollution and environmental activism, says the Isle of Thanet News.
• “Clinton-appointed judge rules Trump cannot block new wind farms” – A US judge has overturned Trump’s executive order pausing wind farm permits, according to the Daily Caller.
• “Politician arrested over criticism of Letby ‘expert’” – A politician who used parliamentary privilege to criticise an expert witness in the Lucy Letby case has been arrested for harassment, reports the Telegraph. Luckily, the Free Speech Union is ready to ride to the rescue.
• “Teenagers have been fooled into thinking that anxiety is a problem” – A new culture is encouraging young people to see hardship as illness, warns Celia Walden in the Telegraph.
• “Vitamin D mistake” – On YouTube, Dr John Campbell flags a 2014 analysis highlighting errors in recommended vitamin D levels.
• “Starmer hit by fresh Labour rebellion over Brexit” – Labour MPs have broken ranks in a vote on rejoining the customs union, reports the Telegraph.
• “Sir Keir Starmer urges Europeans to curb the ECHR to stop asylum seekers using it to stay in Britain” – The PM has called on European leaders to urgently update the ECHR to stop asylum seekers using it to avoid deportation, says the Mail.
• “I will stop the boats” – French frontrunner Jordan Bardella says he will rewrite border policy to allow Britain to push back migrant vessels into French waters, reports the Express.
• “Germany isn’t really going to rearm” – Most Germans don’t want to fight for their country, writes Anthony J. Constantini in Brussels Signal.
• “Berlin approves new expansion of police surveillance powers” – A sweeping new law in Germany merges hacking, home entry and AI, says Ken Macon in Reclaim the Net.
• “Ex-AfD MPs found Javier Milei Institute for ‘radical deregulation’ in Germany” – A new think tank seeks to push sweeping deregulation across Europe, reports Brussels Signal.
• “BBC admits falsely claiming Trump wanted to shoot critic” – The BBC has admitted misleading viewers by claiming that Trump called for one of his leading critics to be shot in the face, says GB News.
• “The European Commission slaps Elon Musk’s X with a €120 million fine – the first ever under the Digital Services Act” –  On Substack, Eugyppius reckons the EU’s €120 million fine on Musk’s X is just bureaucratic nonsense that’ll only make life harder for Europeans and rile up the Americans.
• “Sandie Peggie tribunal ‘incompatible with Supreme Court trans ruling’” – Academics say the verdict in Sandie Peggie’s employment tribunal invents new criteria for single-sex services, according to the Telegraph.
• “It’s time to scrap the Turner Prize” – Once upon a time the Turner Prize was radical – today it is a dull part of the establishment, parroting the dinner party cliches of the day, argues Miriam Elia in the Telegraph.
• “A carol service for people who don’t think the baby Jesus was a cultural Marxist” – In TCW, Kathy Gyngell notes the irony of the CofE, an institution that has forgotten the meaning of Christmas, now scolding those who are trying to revive it.
• “Driver issued multiple parking tickets after council contractor paints disabled bay around his car” – A motorist has been handed several parking fines after a council contractor painted a disabled bay around his legally parked car, reports GB News.
• “Someone wake this nation, cos Labour’s pushing us straight to stagnation” – In a surprise AI-generated musical turn, Kemi Badenoch broke into song and dance while outlining her plans to fix Britain’s broken benefits system.