News Round-Up

• “Crans-Montana fire: at least 40 people killed in ski bar tragedy” – At least 40 people were killed and 115 injured, including many teenagers, when fire ripped through a bar popular with British holidaymakers during New Year’s Eve celebrations at a Swiss ski resort, reports the Times.
• “Uber swerves Rachel Reeves’s ‘taxi tax’” – Uber has rewritten contracts to shift VAT liability on to drivers and blunt Labour’s tax plans, reveals DM News.
• “Poor get poorer under Labour” – Britain’s cost-of-living squeeze has continued to hit lower-income households hardest, reports the Telegraph.
• “Take on ‘weird’ Whitehall, Keir Starmer told after Fattah row” – Sir Keir Starmer must confront vested interests in Whitehall whose “fringe” obsessions are “emasculating” the Government, his former Director of Strategy tells the Times. Read his piece here.
• “Starmer’s mentor attacks plan to scrap jury trials” – Edward Fitzgerald, regarded as one of the most brilliant lawyers of his generation, has criticised proposals to limit jury trials, says the Telegraph.
• “Islamist killer wins £240,000 battle over his human rights” – A convicted double killer has secured a large compensation settlement from the British state, reports the Mail.
• “Alaa Abd el-Fattah and our misplaced priorities” – In the UK, everything that should be a priority is not a priority, and the last things that should be a priority are made a priority by governments of all stripes, writes Douglas Murray in the Spectator.
• “Don’t be surprised by failure – that’s what our state is designed to do” – Politicians are deluded if they believe they could do a better job leading without committing to a total reorganisation of government, says David Frost in the Telegraph.
• “Dominic Cummings on Whitehall’s plan to destroy Nigel Farage” – Cummings says Whitehall is preparing to bend the rules to stop Reform winning power, writes Tom Goodenough in the Spectator.
• “Michael Gove admits regret at turning on Boris Johnson” – Michael Gove has expressed regret about his decision to blow up Boris Johnson’s leadership bid after the Brexit referendum, according to Sky News.
• “Wes Streeting must stop puberty blocker trial – it is about right and wrong” – The NHS is set to run a shameful experiment on children, warns Jonathan Hinder in the Express. It must be stopped.
• “Johnny Rotten slams Kneecap’s ‘Death to IDF’ chants and backs Israel” – Johnny Rotten has condemned anti-Israel chants in music culture and voiced support for Israel, according to Israellycool.
• “Just how insane did Democrats become on immigration?” – On Substack, Alex Berenson charts the US Democratic Party’s shift on borders through its own rhetoric and policies.
• “Former FBI agent Nicole Parker explains how DEI split the agency and led to disaster” – A former FBI agent has blamed diversity policies for falling standards and collapsing morale, reports Miranda Devine in the New York Post.
• “No, Yale Climate Connections, dramatic photos don’t prove climate change effects” – Climate is measured over decades, not captured in a frame, says Anthony Watts in ClimateRealism.
• “Climate policies make California unaffordable, not climate change” – California’s soaring living costs are a result of policy choices, not climate change, writes Linna Lueken in ClimateRealism.
• “Good news, everyone! Extreme weather isn’t getting deadlier – despite what the media says” – Extreme weather is a fact of life, but it kills far fewer people now because societies are better prepared, better informed and more resilient, says Anthony Watts in Watts Up With That?
• “Claim: some populations are approaching the limits to climate adaption” – Claims about climate adaptation limits are misleading and repetitive, writes Eric Worrall in Watts Up With That?
• “Solar is 10 times more expensive than gas” – On RealClearEnergy, the Heartland Institute’s James Taylor shows that solar power remains far more expensive than gas.
• “King Charles’s documentary calls for eco ‘revolution’” – A documentary about the King’s “call to revolution” is set to be released as he hopes to spread his philosophy about humanity and nature to a new audience, says the Times.
• “Class struggle” – In the Claremont Review of Books, Heather Mac Donald reviews Scott Johnston’s The Sandersons Fail, a Manhattan satire on modern identity politics seen through the lens of class conflict.
• “Legendary footage from Iran today” – On X, Nioh Berg posts footage of Iranian security officers being chased by revolutionaries on the streets of Tehran.

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