News Round-Up

• “Arise, Sir Idris: Luther actor leads celebrity honours” – Sir Idris Elba is among a string of top celebrities to receive gongs in the New Year’s Honours while ice dancers and the Lionesses lead stars of the sporting world, reports the Mail.
• “Oikophobia in excelsis” – Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s case has exposed the hollow priorities of our political and cultural elites, argues David Shipley in the Critic.
• “The Left-wing luvvies who lined up to support an Egyptian ‘extremist’” – A string of actors, from Emma Thompson to Olivia Colman, backed the campaign to free Alaa Abd el-Fattah from prison and bring him to the UK, notes Ed Cumming in the Telegraph.
• “How Olivia Colman became the new Emma Thompson” – On Substack, Charlotte Gill takes aim at the woke virtue-signalling of Olivia Colman.
• “The woke Westerners who feed Islamist terrorism” – Islam has operated as a highly effective killing mechanism throughout history, argues Paul Collits in TCW.
• “The creeping threat of Islamic blasphemy laws” – Attempts to prosecute Koran burning have risked imposing blasphemy restrictions, warns Hugo Timms in Spiked.
• “Britain’s cosmopolitan future – 10 years on” – Centre-Left policies on diversity and immigration have proven disastrous, argues Ben Cobley in the Critic.
• “The British state radicalised me” – The liberal state has proven more effective at radicalisation than social media through its policies, argues Stephen Daisley in the Spectator.
• “Britain is dangerously radicalised. Time is short to turn things round” – In the Telegraph, Isabel Oakeshott wonders how far we are from serious civil disorder.
• “Britain’s ‘godless’ university has become dogged by antisemitism” – Extremist rhetoric is now rife in one of our elite institutions, warns Nicole Lampert in the Telegraph.
• “Entrepreneurs rush to sell in race to beat Labour’s tax raid” – Britain’s entrepreneurs have accelerated business sales to avoid anticipated tax increases under Labour, reveals the Telegraph.
• “Up to a million Romanians came to the UK to work as cleaners and builders… now nearly 40,000 are leaving each year” – Romanians are leaving Britain amid rising concerns over crime, the failing NHS and the cost of living, reports the Mail.
• “Ballooning benefits bill being ‘driven by judges widening who qualifies’” – Judges are helping drive Britain’s ballooning disability benefits bill by constantly lowering the threshold of who qualifies for support, says the Sun.
• “Fury as mountains of Xmas rubbish pile up on streets after months of strikes” – Enraged residents in Birmingham have been left “ashamed” and “depressed” by the state of their roads amid the ongoing bin strike, reports the Sun.
• “Nigel Farage targets Reform’s first council victories in London as springboard for ousting Sadiq Khan over his ‘terrible’ record on crime” – Nigel Farage has targeted control of London councils to challenge Sadiq Khan’s record on crime, says the Mail.
• “‘Boris didn’t care!’: Dominic Cummings on lawfare, lockdowns and the broken British state | part one” – On SpectatorTV, Dominic Cummings discusses Boris Johnson’s leadership.
• “My rape hell in Gaza: ‘sex slave’ hostage feared she was pregnant after being raped while unconscious and describes how one attacker was ‘ecstatic’ as she wept through 30-minute ordeal” – A former Israeli hostage has broken her silence on the rape hell she suffered in captivity, including fears she’d die a “sex slave”, reports the Mail.
• “Trump says US took out a ‘big facility’ as part of strikes on alleged drug boats near Venezuela” – President Trump claims that US forces have destroyed a Venezuelan facility linked to drug trafficking, according to NBC News.
• “State of emergency in Iran as ‘death to the dictator’ demos shake regime” – Iranian authorities have imposed emergency measures amid widespread protests, reports the Express.
• “Prebunking the prebunk at home and abroad” – On Substack, El Gato Malo argues that global institutions are scrambling to “prebunk” scandals before the receipts drop.
• “New Year’s Eve events cancelled around the world as urgent warning issued” – Multiple cities have cancelled New Year’s celebrations due to security concerns, reports the Express.
• “NHS GP waiting lists soar under Labour despite Wes Streeting vowing to fix crisis” – GP waiting lists have spiralled under Labour despite promises to shorten them, says GB News.
• “Medical guilds are bad medicine” – Medical guilds have fostered monopolies and groupthink that harm patients and innovation, warns Dr Robert W. Malone on his Substack.
• “Putting pressure on the government/pharma complex for transparency” – Big Power and Big Pharma have maintained a cosy relationship influencing vaccine policies, claim Dr Tom Jefferson and Prof Carl Heneghan on the TTE Substack.
• “Ratcliffe battles to save Ineos from drowning under £18 billion of debt” – High European energy costs have contributed to Jim Ratcliffe’s existential crisis at Ineos, writes Amy Ingham in Business Matters.
• “‘I was driving down the motorway and my electric car stopped working’” – In the Telegraph, an electric vehicle owner describes a terrifying breakdown on the motorway.
• “It’s not the taking part that counts” – Climate politics isn’t a neat game-theory problem but a muddle of rival goals and bad assumptions, argues John Ridgway in Cliscep.
• “The five worst Biden-era regulations GOP killed in Trump’s second term” – From EVs to coal to Alaska energy, lawmakers have used the Congressional Review Act to wipe out numerous regulations created in the Biden era, writes Adam Pack in the Daily Caller.
• “The unreported story of grid scale battery fires” – Battery storage plans for renewable energy have overlooked significant fire risks, warns Francis Menton on Manhattan Contrarian.
• “What 2026 will deliver on energy policy” – When it comes to energy policy, Trump’s Year Two agenda will build on 2025 gains with infrastructure, faster permitting and more, says David Blackmon in the Daily Caller.
• “Hawaii to add 11% ‘green fee’ climate tax on cruise passengers starting January 1st” – Hawaii has introduced an 11% climate tax on cruise passengers despite legal opposition, according to Straight Arrow News.
• “‘Global warming’ can cause an ice age” – A new climate study claims global warming could trigger an ice age, more proof that nothing can falsify the man made climate change hypothesis, writes Selwyn Duke in the New American.
• “Wyoming conservation group sues federal agency to obtain data on eagles killed by wind farms” – A conservation group has sued to obtain records on the number of eagles killed by wind turbines, reports Just the News.
• “The Church of England should not cherry-pick scripture to justify a Left-wing agenda” – The Church of England has selectively used scripture to support progressive views on immigration, claims Bijan Omrani in the Telegraph.
• “Civil servants ‘defying Supreme Court trans ruling’” – Civil servants have issued guidelines that allow biological men to enter women’s lavatories, contrary to the Supreme Court’s ruling, reveals the Telegraph.
• “Why is Harry Miller taking the Home Secretary to court?” – The Catholic Unscripted team sits down with ex-police officer Harry Miller to discuss his legal action against the Home Secretary.
• “This must be the year Britain finally kills off trans ideology” – In 2026, Labour must prioritise women’s rights over gender woo, says Suzanne Moore in the Telegraph.
• “Stranger Things blasted for ‘going peak woke’ as it’s review-bombed” – Stranger Things has faced review-bombing over going woke in its latest season, reports the Mail.
• “The woke movement has peaked: what’s next?” – On Substack, Andrew Doyle speaks to Jan Jekielek about the decline of the woke movement.
• “Brigitte Bardot: from sex kitten to speech criminal” – Brigitte Bardot broke free of the jail of bourgeois morality only to be re-muzzled by the hate-speech regime, says Brendan O’Neill in Spiked.
• “Speaking skin: reflections on Alexandre Lacassagne and tattoos” –In the European Conservative, Theodore Dalrymple explores the explosion of tattooing in the modern West through the lens of Alexandre Lacassagne, the 19th Century French forensic pathologist.
• “Why do Harry and Meghan’s staff keep quitting?” – Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have parted ways with their 11th publicist in five years, notes Charlie Gowans-Eglinton in the Times.
• “It’s different rules for him!” – On GB News, Lucy Connolly calls out Labour’s hypocrisy for allowing Alaa Abd el-Fattah to be granted citizenship despite his antisemitic social media posts, while she was jailed for her post about migrant hotels.

If you have any tips for inclusion in the round-up, email us here.