News Round-Up

• “Police raid Peter Mandelson’s homes in north London and in Wiltshire as part of their investigation into claims he leaked sensitive information to Jeffrey Epstein” – Police have raided Peter Mandelson’s properties as investigators probe alleged leaks to Jeffrey Epstein, reports the Mail.
• “Starmer’s Labour sleazier than Tories, say third of voters” – A third of voters  think Labour is sleazier than the Conservatives after the Mandelson row, says the Times.
• “Keir Starmer fumes as Labour leadership rivals splinter into civil war” – Labour has descended into open factional warfare over the Mandelson fallout as rivals line up for the crown, notes the Times.
• “Angela Rayner ‘told Keir Starmer not to appoint Mandelson’” – Allies of Angela Rayner claim she warned Starmer off Mandelson as recriminations spread across the Cabinet, reveals the Times.
• “Labour has bottled it – what happens next?” – Starmer has been left fighting for survival as Labour grandees weigh the succession and the markets watch closely, writes Tim Shipman in the Spectator.
• “Rayner coup will trigger election, Starmer allies warn rebels” – Starmer’s team have warned Labour MPs thinking of backing Angela Rayner that her becoming PM could trigger an early election because her policy agenda is different from Sir Keir’s, according to the Telegraph.
• “Rayner will be PM by May, and that is terrible news for Britain” – Camilla Tominey in the Telegraph thinks Rayner is poised to replace Starmer and that is bad news for Britain.
• “Boris Johnson: Starmer acting like a dictator over delayed elections” – Boris Johnson has accused Starmer of dodging democracy by not insisting all local elections go ahead in May, says the Telegraph.
• “African countries to take back thousands of illegal migrants” – Ministers have secured return agreements with several African states as the Government pushes a tougher removals policy, reveals the Telegraph.
• “BBC TV licence fee is to rise by £5.50 to £180 in fresh blow to millions of families” – The licence fee will increase to £180 a year from April as ministers promise “stable footing” and households pick up the bill, according to the Mail.
• “The BBC’s real diversity problem isn’t on screen” – Critics of the BBC have pointed out that the diversity on screen is not reflected among the BBC’s staff, reports the Telegraph.
• “Labour think tank hired investigators to track down funding leaks” – Labour Together hired a PR firm to investigate funding leaks, says the Times.
• “Q: where is Blair in all this?” – In his Substack Paul Sutton detects Blair’s fingerprints on the Mandelson drama as the scandal consumes Westminster.
• “Was Epstein really a Russian spy? The evidence examined” – The Times parses the evidence that Epstein was a Russian spy.
• “Bill Gates is very gross, his employee told Epstein” – Epstein-era texts have resurfaced with unflattering claims about Bill Gates as the disclosures keep coming, claims the Telegraph.
• “Notes On Epstein” – In the Weekly Dish, Andrew Sullivan says the Epstein files reveal an elite that regards itself as above the law rather than a grand conspiracy.
• “The Epstein scandal has morphed into a moral panic” – The Epstein saga has been recast as a social-media frenzy that punishes rumour as readily as guilt, writes Brendan O’Neill in the Spectator.
• “Trump deletes video depicting Obamas as monkeys after ‘racism’ row” – Trump has deleted a Truth Social post that fleetingly depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys, reports the Times.
• “Starlink has dealt a huge blow to the Russian army” – Starlink outages have thrown Russian battlefield communications into disarray as Ukraine’s tech war begins to bite, writes Svitlana Morenets in the Spectator.
• “US hits Iran with new oil sanctions” – Washington has imposed fresh oil sanctions on Iran as nuclear talks stumble and tensions rise, claims the Telegraph.
• “Report: IRGC trained to supress protests since 2022” – A former IRGC official claims it has prepared for violent crackdowns since 2022, according to the Jerusalem Post.
• “Italians launch anti-ICE protests before Winter Olympics …” – Protesters have targeted ICE ahead of the Winter Olympics as organisers brace for disruption, says the Telegraph.
• “The Big Pharma child drug trials to treat a condition that doesn’t exist” – Drug companies are preparing to test a new drug to treat long Covid on children in spite of doubts as to whether it’s a real disease, writes Roger Watson in the Conservative Woman.
• “World Health Organisation now disingenuously walking back its support for masks, lockdowns” – The WHO has been accused of rewriting its pandemic record as mask-and-lockdown defences crumble under review, according to Ian Miller on his Substack.
• “NHS doctor who posted conspiracy theories claiming Jewish people were behind 9/11 is suspended for two months” – An NHS doctor has been suspended after posting antisemitic conspiracy theories as regulators clamp down on misconduct, reports the Mail.
• “The inconvenient truth about polar bears” – Polar bears have refused to follow the extinction script as population claims collide with climate campaigning, writes Matt Ridley in the Spectator.
• “A brilliant take on cows, methane, and climate” – Stable cow populations don’t actually result in more carbon emissions in the atmosphere, notes Watts Up With That?
• “Germany’s Natural Gas Storage Level Dwindles To Just 28%… Increasingly Critical” – Germany’s gas reserves have sunk to 28% of total capacity as shortage fears grow and winter demand bites, writes P Gosselin in NoTricksZone.
• “Britain’s EV targets risk creating ‘severe disruption’” – Carmakers have warned the ZEV mandate could trigger severe disruption as fines loom and demand lags, according to the Telegraph.
• “Is the electric car dream over after the U-turn at Stellantis?” – Stellantis has pivoted away from it’s ambition to just make EVs after the market cools, reports the Times.
• “Energy giant revives wind farm after Miliband’s £1.8 billion subsidy blitz” – Thanks to Miliband’s latest hand-outs, Orsted will now resubmit plans for Hornsea 4, a project it cancelled last year because the grants on offer were too low, notes the Telegraph.
• “The British should have their holy places” – In the Spectator, Douglas Murray argues Britain should defend its “holy places”.
• “Saturday Night Left! America’s most insufferable TV show is coming to Britain” – British TV has been warned it is importing New York political smugness as a tired format crosses the Atlantic, reports the Telegraph.
• “‘I want to stop the Antichrist’ – can Peter Thiel succeed?” – Peter Thiel has just given a series of lectures at Cambridge about how to defeat the Antichrist, according to Lara Brown and John Power in the Spectator.
• “Lunatic Left-wing idea that threatens to turn Britain’s economy into one giant duvet day” – Britain has been warned that a new Left-wing workplace push to normalise ‘duvet day’ will reduce productivity even further, reports the Mail.
• “‘Banksy of politics’ goes back to the future with deepfake lampoons” – The Crewkerne Gazette has turned AI lampooning into an effective tool of political satire, says the Times.
• “When he flew to London, Linehan was arrested by five armed police officers” – Watch Graham Linehan testifying before the House Judiciary Committee as part of its investigation into the erosion of free speech in Europe.