News Round-Up

• “Debanking soars to record high” – Nigel Farage says that Europe’s financial rules have driven a surge in people losing their bank accounts, according to GB News.
• “Tesco boss backs pubs over ‘unfair’ business rates” – Tesco’s boss has lined up with pubs and accused ministers of piling yet more costs on them, says the Standard.
• “Reeves poised for pubs tax climbdown after Telegraph campaign” – Rachel Reeves looks ready to blink on pub taxes as pressure piles up, reports the Telegraph.
• “Why does Labour so hate pubs? Is it because people gather in such places to ask one another ‘Isn’t Starmer a pillock?’” – In the Mail, Quentin Letts gives his take on Labour’s war on pubs.
• “Labour’s workers’ rights reforms to cost businesses £1 billion a year” – Labour’s workers’ rights reforms will cost businesses an extra £1 billion a year, new government estimates show – even after Sir Keir Starmer’s climbdown late last year, says the Telegraph.
• “Starmer tells ministers to make cuts to fund digital ID scheme” – Starmer has ordered government departments to come up with cost-cutting plans by January to fund Labour’s £1.8 billion Digital ID scheme, reports GB News.
• “Former Labour councillor and Hope Not Hate activist admits child sex offences against 13 year-old girl” – A former Labour councillor and activist has pleaded guilty to serious child sex offences, reports the Mail.
• “Revealed: the letters that undermine police claims about Maccabi fan ban” – West Midlands Police Chief Constable Craig Guildford is facing renewed calls to resign over the banning of Israeli football fans after letters from Dutch officials emerged, accusing him of talking “nonsense” over his justification for the ban, says the Telegraph.
• “The Birmingham Maccabi scandal proves multiculturalism has failed” – The Maccabi Tel Aviv row has grown into a stark warning about deepening cultural fractures, writes Brendan O’Neill in the Spectator.
• “Religious studies teacher who called Hamas ‘freedom fighters’ can keep teaching” – A religious studies teacher who described Hamas as “freedom fighters” who “committed no crime” has been allowed to continue in the profession, reports the Telegraph.
• “Labour would have curbed jury trials ‘even without courts backlog’” – Robert Jenrick says Labour wanted fewer jury trials whether courts were clogged or not, according to the Telegraph.
• “I don’t want Jenrick in Reform” – London’s mayoral hopeful Laila Cunningham has slammed Robert Jenrick’s role in Tory failures, reports the Telegraph.
• “UAE limiting students coming to UK over Muslim Brotherhood concerns” – The UAE has cut off funding for students wanting to study in the UK over worries about Islamist influence, says the Times.
• “Cambridge college to target elite private schools for student recruitment” – A college at the University of Cambridge is planning to target students from elite private schools in a bid to improve the “quality” of those applying, reports the Mail. 
• “Brain drain as private school pupils shunned by Oxbridge head to US” – An ex-schools chief has spotted a clear flight of private pupils to America after anti-private school rhetoric caused a brain drain of Oxbridge candidates to US universities, says the Times.
• “Free Speech Union hacked by trans activists” – The Free Speech Union has secured an urgent court order to prevent the publication of donor details following a hack by a militant pro-trans organisation, according to the Telegraph.
• “Musk’s X could be banned in Britain over AI chatbot row” – Britain could ban Elon Musk’s X amid a row over its AI undressing women and children in photographs, reports Politico.
• “Poland was once a ‘communist, third-world country’. Now, it’s overtaking Britain” – Poland has been quietly racing ahead as Britain stalls, drawing in UK migrants along the way, notes Tim Wigmore in the Telegraph.
• “Sanctioned Russian oil tanker sails in English Channel” – A sanctioned Russian tanker has cruised through the Channel despite tightening scrutiny, reports the Mail.
• “The real reason Merz won’t put boots on the ground in Ukraine” – Germany’s reluctance on troops in Ukraine is tied to history as much as politics, explains James Rothwell in the Telegraph.
• “Europe treats its civilisation as an embarrassment to be dismantled” – In Brussels Signal, Ralph Schoellhammer accuses Europe’s leaders of quietly tearing down their own civilisation.
• “Iran shuts down internet as biggest protests yet grip Islamic Republic” – Iran has cut internet access amid huge protests, sparking fears authorities might use the blackout to crack down hard, reports the Jerusalem Post.
• “Tehran is gasping, the Iranian regime is about to collapse” – The regime in Tehran is on the brink of collapsing, says Tom Tugendhat in the Telegraph.
• “This is preposterous” – On X, J.D. Vance gives a full-throated defence of the ICE officer involved in the death of a woman in Minneapolis.
• “Trump takes US out of 66 globalist organisations and treaties” – The Trump team has cut US funding to dozens of international bodies in one sweep, reports Breitbart.
• “US withdraws from the IPCC – and dismantles a global climate bureaucracy” – Washington has sent a loud message by pulling out of the IPCC, says Charles Rotter in Watts Up With That?
• “Under Trump, America is fulfilling its Roman destiny” – In Brussels Signal, Gabriel Elefteriu suggests America is rediscovering its classical republican instincts under Trump.
• “There’s something fishy about the Chagos deal” – The Chagos agreement raises awkward questions about environmental hypocrisy, writes Juliet Samuel in the Times.
• “Thousands of Tunbridge Wells residents again without water” – Tunbridge Wells is facing another water outage less than a month after the last, reports the Guardian.
• “England rainfall trends 2025” – England’s rainfall has finished last year firmly within historical norms despite the hysteria, notes Paul Homewood in Not a Lot of People Know That.
• “Global warming powered an empire that dwarfed the Vikings” – Warmer climates helped ancient empires flourish at sea, writes Vijay Jayaraj in Blaze.
• “The snake oil that bites” – On CLISCEP, John Ridgway tears into Net Zero as costly, brittle and fundamentally flawed.
• “ENSO: the Pacific’s climate powerhouse” – El Niño patterns have been put back at the centre of global temperature swings, writes Dr Matthew Wielicki on Irrational Fear.
• “Watch the US Energy Secretary obliterate Net Zero ideology in 60 seconds” – Chris Wright explains why pursuing a policy of Net Zero would be economic suicide for the US.

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