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The government dropped plans to make digital ID compulsory to work in Britain. Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, called it ‘disgraceful’ that Grok, the online tool on Elon Musk’s X, could undress pictures of people. X limited the function to subscribers, but Liz Kendall, the Technology Secretary, said that the government would back Ofcom if it decided to block X in Britain. ‘They just want to suppress free speech,’ Mr Musk wrote on X. Sir Keir, due to visit China this month, was warned by some Labour MPs not to approve a vast new Chinese embassy in London. The government signalled a U-turn on increases to business rates for pubs in England before the ink was dry on the Telegraph’s Save Our Pubs campaign. Most of the trees on St Michael’s Mount were blown down by a storm named Goretti by French meteorologists.
Craig Guildford, the Chief Constable of the West Midlands, apologised for misleading MPs by denying that AI was used in a report that led to Maccabi Tel Aviv fans being banned from a match in Birmingham. Nadhim Zahawi, a former Chancellor of the Exchequer (like 11 other people), joined Reform. About 30,000 houses around Tunbridge Wells, East Grinstead, Maidstone, Whitstable and Canterbury had water supplies disrupted. The Lords amended the Chagos Islands Bill and sent it back to the Commons. Lord Forsyth of Drumlean, the former Conservative minister Michael Forsyth, was elected Lord Speaker.
Scotland is to put a tax on houses worth more than £1 million. The 97 homicides in London in 2025 were the lowest figure since 2014, and the lowest rate recorded in any major western city, at 1.1 per 100,000 people – less than New York (2.8) or Berlin (3.2). Non-League Macclesfield beat Crystal Palace in an FA Cup game. J.K. Rowling called a proposed NHS trial of puberty blockers ‘an unethical experiment on children who can’t give meaningful consent’. Greggs said that appetite-suppressing drugs had led to people looking for smaller portions and have affected the company’s profits.
Abroad
Anti-government protests, which began on 28 December, calling for an end to the clerical rule of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, spread all over Iran, where the internet was blacked out. Thousands were feared to have been killed. The Ayatollah said that pro-government rallies ‘filled with firm resolve thwarted the plans of foreign enemies that were meant to be carried out by domestic mercenaries’. President Donald Trump of America, who had promised to intervene if Iran killed protestors, said: ‘We’re looking at some very strong options.’ He told protestors: ‘Help is on its way.’ Protestors called for the return of Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the late Shah. America carried out more large-scale strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria. Russia used its new hypersonic Oreshnik missile against Lviv. Aerial attacks on Kyiv left half of its blocks of flats without heating in temperatures of -15°C.
Thousands joined street demonstrations in Minneapolis after a woman was shot by an agent of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Federal prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, who had resisted Mr Trump’s desire for lower interest rates; three former Fed chairs, Janet Yellen, Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan, denounced the investigation and Mr Powell was supported by nine heads of central banks, including the Governor of the Bank of England. Mr Trump said that America needed ownership of Greenland to keep out Russia and China. America seized another tanker in the Caribbean, the Olina, the fifth to be taken in recent weeks. Venezuela released some political prisoners. Erich von Däniken, who suggested that human civilisation was the product of intervention by extra-terrestrials, died aged 90. The most downloaded paid app in China became Are You Dead?, which checks every two days to see if the solitary are alive.
Sudan’s military government returned to Khartoum from which it had been forced in 2023 by the civil war with the Rapid Support Forces. After 25 years of talks, the EU reached a free trade agreement with the Mercosur trading bloc of South American countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. Dolf van den Brink resigned as chief executive of Heineken (which makes beers such as Birra Moretti and Cruzcampo). Gold hit a new high of $4,600 an ounce. Bush fires destroyed hundreds of buildings in Victoria, Australia. Global temperatures last year proved lower than in 2024. CSH
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