News Round-Up

• “Iran opens fire on protesters despite Trump threat” – Iranian security forces have opened fire on protesters as demonstrations spread across the country, reports the Telegraph.
• “Trump warns Iran the US is ‘locked and loaded and ready to go’ and vows to ‘rescue’ protesters if Islamic Republic ‘shoots and violently kills’ them amid mounting social unrest” – Donald Trump has said the US is ‘locked and loaded’ to ‘rescue’ Iranian protesters if the regime starts killing them, says the Mail.
• “Iran warns ‘all US bases and forces in the entire region’ will be ‘legitimate targets’ after Trump vowed to protect anti-regime protesters” – Tehran has warned that US bases and forces across the region will be legitimate targets after Trump’s intervention threat, according to the Mail.
• “Could this be the end of the mullahs’ rule in Iran?” – Mounting protests, sanctions pressure and economic strain have left Iran’s rulers unusually exposed, claims the Telegraph.
• “Iranians are risking everything to convert to Christianity” – Iranian converts are risking prison and torture as evangelical Christianity has spread rapidly across the Islamic Republic, writes Charlotte Eagar in the Spectator.
• “Israeli embassy accuses BBC of ignoring Iran protests while ‘obsessing’ over Gaza” – Israel’s embassy has accused the BBC of near-silence on Iran protests while fixating on Gaza, reports the Telegraph.
• “UK launched huge operation to find suspected Russian double agent in MI6” – MI5 conducted a 20-year manhunt for a suspected Russian mole inside MI6, reveal Nick Hopkins and Anna Isaac in the Guardian.
• “FBI thwarts ISIS terror attack: Chilling details of teen’s ‘jihad’ plot against Christians… and his fatal mistake” – The FBI has foiled an ISIS-inspired New Year’s Eve attack in North Carolina after a teenager made a fatal slip, reports the Mail.
• “Albanians charged with killing pensioner in ‘hit-and-run’” – Two Albanian men have been charged after a pensioner was struck in an alleged hit-and-run and dragged for a mile in Kent, says the Telegraph.
• “Grooming gang members convicted of child rape will be jailed for the rest of their lives under Reform government – with no hope of release” – Reform UK has pledged that convicted grooming-gang members will be locked up for life with no hope of release under if it forms the next government, according to the Mail.
• “Can Starmer survive and has Farage peaked? What 2026 has in store” – Political strategists in the Times have mapped the big questions set to define 2026, from Keir Starmer’s prospects to whether Nigel Farage has peaked.
• “Burnham allies demand sweeping nationalisations” – Allies of Andy Burnham have demanded the Government nationalise transport, water and energy, reports the Telegraph.
• “Labour minister’s husband represented killer in human rights battle” – The Conservatives have challenged a Labour Justice minister over a potential conflict of interest after her husband represented Fuad Awale in his Human Rights case against the Department of Justice , says the Telegraph.
• “Labour MP blasts Wes Streeting over ‘immoral’ puberty blocker trial branding it a ‘shameful experiment on children’” – A Labour MP has condemned Wes Streeting’s proposed puberty-blocker trial as an immoral ‘experiment on children’, according to the Mail.
• “Britain has lost faith in Labour’s plan to ‘smash the gangs’” – More than 41,000 migrants have crossed the Channel in small boats in 2025, writes Gavin Mortimer in the Spectator.
• “Undercover in Calais: Gunfire, French indifference and the scramble for small boats” – A British builder has gone undercover in Calais and documented the indifference of the French authorities to small boats laden with illegals heading for England, reports the Telegraph.
• “Rachel Reeves branded ‘delusional’ after taking credit for FTSE 100 reaching record high” – Rachel Reeves has been described as “delusional” for taking credit for the FTSE 100 hitting 10,000 for the first time, says the Mail.
• “‘No point in working harder’: the rise of part-time Britain” – Millions have shifted into part-time work to avoid being punished by the tax-and-benefits system, according to the Telegraph.
• “Out-of-touch voters must stop letting our poor Government down” – In the Telegraph, Michael Deacon hears echoes of Bertolt Brecht’s famous quote about the need for a government to elect a new people in complaints from Labour strategists about Sir Keir Starmer’s ‘baffling’ unpopularity.
• “NEU set to tighten its grip on schools by recruiting support staff” – The NEU is planning to break an agreement with the TCU and start recruiting support staff in schools as part of a plan to sabotage the education policies of a Reform government, reports the Times.
• “Zohran Mamdani: I’ll show the world whether the Left can govern” – New York’s newly inaugurated mayor has promised “audacious” big-government plans in a test of whether the Left can govern, says the Telegraph.
• “Did Zohran Mamdani make a Nazi Salute? Massive row after speech video goes viral” – Zohran Mamdani has sparked a viral row after footage from his inauguration appears to show him giving the crowd a Nazi salute, reports Ajmal Abbas in the India Today.
• “Should we fear falling birth rates more than overpopulation?” – Falling fertility has posed bigger long-term risks than overpopulation as societies have aged and shrunk, writes Louise Perry in the Spectator.
• “China introduces condom tax to boost birth rates” – China has introduced new limits and taxes on contraceptives in an effort to lift birth rates amid a shrinking population, according to the Telegraph.
• “The real Alaa Abd el-Fattah scandal” – The UK’s handling of Alaa Abd el-Fattah has exposed how little has changed in Whitehall’s approach to human-rights cases, argues Andrew Gilligan in the Spectator.
• “BBC’s Jeremy Bowen reported from Oct 7th survivors’ home without permission” – The BBC has apologised and paid £28,000 after Jeremy Bowen filmed at the homes of survivors without their permission, reports the Telegraph.
• “Children to be vaccinated against chickenpox for first time” – Parents have been offered chickenpox vaccinations for their children for the first time as the NHS rolls out a new programme, says the Telegraph.
• “2025 was hottest and sunniest year on record” – Britain has supposedly recorded its hottest and sunniest year on record with 1,648.5 hours of sunshine in 2025, says the Telegraph.
• “New study: human CO2 emissions responsible for 1.57% of global temperature change since 1750” – A new analysis claims human CO2 emissions have accounted for just 1.57% of the total global temperature change since 1750, says Kenneth Richard in the NoTricksZone.
• “When everything is a heat wave and every change is climate” – A Science Advances paper’s “major heat wave” narrative has relies on loose definitions and correlation dressed up as causation, argues Charles Rotter in Watts Up With That?.
• “Surprise! A $600 million insect protein animal feed business just went bankrupt” – A $600 million insect-protein animal-feed venture has gone bankrupt, writes Eric Worrall in Watts Up With That?.
• “Ed Miliband’s ‘zero-bill’ dream under fire from his own MPs” – Ed Miliband’s £15 billion green-energy plan has come under fire from Labour MPs amid fears levies to subsidise heat pumps will hit the poorest hardest, reports the Times.
• “The most and least reliable electric cars named and shamed” – A new reliability league table has ranked which electric cars break down the least – and which owners have been left stranded most often, reports the Mail.
• “Claire Foy tells actors to shut up instead of preaching” – Claire Foy has urged actors to stop preaching and admit they are not qualified to shape public discourse, says the Telegraph.
• “Grease is slapped with a woke trigger warning” – ITV has slapped Grease with a ‘woke’ trigger warning over scenes of teenage misbehaviour, according to the Mail.
• “The RMT has doomed the Oxford-Cambridge railway” – The RMT’s insistence on trains carrying guards has stalled East West Rail and made the Oxford–Cambridge line look undeliverable, says Ross Clark in the Spectator.
• “‘Islamist’ is a dishonest confection” – The label ‘Islamist’ is a misleading catch-all that obscures motives and threats, writes Lionel Shriver in the Spectator.
• “Ex-Greens leader fails to know where Minsk is on University Challenge” – Carla Denyer fluffed a University Challenge question by placing Minsk in Russia rather than Belarus, reports the Mail.
• “Award-winning nurse struck off after sharing anti-immigration posts on social media saying ‘foreigners’ coming to Britain will become ‘your rulers’” – An award-winning nurse has been struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council after posting anti-immigration comments, says the Mail.
• “Silencing debate about Islam: one of the big threats to free speech in the UK in 2026” – Labour has prepared a sweeping definition of ‘anti-Muslim hostility’ that risks chilling debate about Islam across public institutions, warns Matt Goodwin on his Substack.
• “The EU’s war on free speech” – EU laws and institutions have increasingly undermined freedom of expression while claiming to defend it, argues Andrew Doyle on his Substack.
• “The Tories are completely dead. They’re like the local vagrant who used to smash everything up who is now cabbaged in a wheelchair and isn’t relevant anymore.” – Dominic Cummings gives a rather uncharitable verdict on the state of the Conservative Party in his interview for the Spectator’s podcast.

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