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The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs announced plans to criminalise trail hunting ‘amid concerns it is being used as a smokescreen for hunting’; another part of the new animal welfare strategy will make it a crime to boil a live lobster. The government revised the threshold below which, from April, agricultural assets may be handed down without incurring inheritance tax, from a planned £1 million to £2.5 million. Downing Street cancelled regular afternoon lobby briefings and said it would hold more morning press conferences with limited questions from selected journalists. The government ‘should look at every option for our relationship with the European Union, up to and including a customs union’, said Paul Nowak, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress. Christian Turner, a career diplomat, was chosen as ambassador to Washington to replace Lord Mandelson.
The year began with interest rates reduced from 4 per cent to 3.75 per cent and inflation at 3.2 per cent, down from 3.6 per cent. Unemployment edged up to 5.1 per cent for the three months to October. From March, the contactless payment limit for credit cards, currently £100, will be set by card providers, so the Financial Conduct Authority ruled. The Treasury will extend an £800 million indemnity to the Bayeux Tapestry when it visits Britain this year.
Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, were found guilty at Preston Crown Court of planning a gun attack to cause ‘untold harm’ to the Jewish community in Manchester. The number of migrants crossing the Channel in 2025 reached 41,472, compared with 36,816 in 2024. Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, criticised the welcome given by Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, to Alaa Abd el-Fattah, the Egyptian pro-democracy campaigner granted British citizenship in 2021, who had posted tweets in 2010 and 2011 calling for the death of Zionists and police. The National Police Chiefs’ Council is to recommend that non-crime hate incidents should be scrapped. Boys of 11 could be sent to re-education camps under a government green paper intended to combat misogyny. The Duke of Marlborough was charged with three offences of intentional strangulation. The King’s Christmas broadcast ended with a Ukrainian carol.
Abroad
America launched strikes against Islamic State jihadists in north-western Nigeria. Turkey detained 115 suspected members of the Islamic State who had, it said, planned attacks on Christmas and new year events. A Salafist group bombed a mosque in Damascus, killing eight. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine flew to Florida for peace talks with President Donald Trump. Russia continued missile and drone attacks on Kyiv and other cities and struck at energy infrastructure. The European Union agreed to give Ukraine a €90 billion loan but not to fund it with frozen Russian assets of €210 billion because Belgium feared legal action from Russia. Ukraine struck a Russian shadow fleet oil tanker with aerial drones in the Mediterranean off Libya. The suspected gunmen in the Bondi Beach attack on a Hanukkah celebration on 14 December, in which 15 people were killed, had practised shooting weeks before, according to court documents. Amazon blocked more than 1,800 job applications from suspected North Korean agents.
Jimmy Lai, 78, the Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigner with British citizenship, began 2026 in prison after being found guilty of colluding with foreign forces; he has been held since 2020. The US Department of Justice released thousands of files relating to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, but there were complaints about redaction of documents. A second tranche of 11,000 documents included an email to Ghislaine Maxwell from ‘A’ saying ‘I am up here at Balmoral Summer Camp for the royal family’ and requesting ‘inappropriate friends’. The Department of Justice said it had another million documents to consider releasing. Brigitte Bardot, the actress, died at 91. In Melbourne, England won the fourth Ashes Test on the second day; Australia had already secured victory in the series.
President Trump announced construction of the first two ‘Trump Class’ battleships. He appointed as a special envoy to Greenland Jeff Landry, the governor of Louisiana, who called it ‘a volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the US’. Israel recognised Somaliland as an independent state. A fast train killed seven wild elephants in Assam, India. CSH
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