1. Covid data to end in new year
The government plans to stop publishing Covid modelling in early January, said The Telegraph. The chief data scientist, Dr Nick Watkins, said the publication of the R rate and modelling projecting death and hospitalisation numbers is “no longer necessary” as the country is living with Covid thanks to vaccines and treatments. Dr Simon Clarke, associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said the decision was “perfectly acceptable” as long as the analysis continues behind the scenes.
2. House prices could drop by 20%
The housing market will “cool sharply” next year after a “bumpy 2022”, said The Guardian. The average house price dropped 2.3% in November from October – the most since the start of the financial crash in 2008 – according to Halifax. Some experts say that higher interest rates are likely to result in property price declines of between 5% and 12% next year, although some warn of a “worst-case scenario” in which they could crash by 15% to 20%
3. Calls for hunt ban to be tightened
There are renewed calls to toughen the ban around fox hunting ahead of more than 200 meets on Boxing Day. Ministers are under pressure to crack down on a hunting loophole after the League Against Cruel Sports said there were 303 combined incidents of hunt havoc (trespass, road interference and disturbing animals) and illegal fox hunting between 1 November and 7 December. Labour wants to close “loopholes” in the law but the Countryside Alliance accused the party of a “pointless political vendetta against hunting”.
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4. ‘King of hearts’ praises workers
King Charles praised the late Queen, public sector workers, and those who have been helping people struggling to pay their bills, in his first Christmas Day address. The Sun described the monarch as the “king of hearts”, the Daily Express called him the “king of caring” and the Daily Mail said his message was one of “love and hope”. He spoke of grief and the power of light to overcome darkness, as well as paying tribute to emergency workers and community champions.
5. Taliban bans women from NGOs
The Taliban has ruled that women can no longer work in domestic or international non-governmental organisations in the country. The United Nations said the order violated “the most fundamental rights of women” and was a “breach of humanitarian principles”. Large humanitarian organisations have suspended operations in protest at the move. Afghanistan’s rulers have been “steadily repressing women's rights”, said the BBC, and just days ago the Taliban banned women from attending university.
6. Freeze kills more in USA
At least 38 deaths have now been linked to a severe Arctic freeze that continues to inflict misery on the US and Canada. The scope of the winter storm, which stretches from Canada as far south as the Rio Grande, has been “unprecedented”, said the BBC. Buffalo in New York has been worst hit, with the death toll in western New York from the storm rising to 17, as tens of thousands of residents remain without power.
7. Deaths at Russian bomber base
Moscow said a Ukrainian drone attack on a bomber base in south Russia has left three people dead. Although air defences reportedly shot down the drone, falling debris caused the casualties in the second attack on the base this month. The two strikes on the base “dealt Russia a major reputational blow” and “raised questions about why its defences failed”, analysts told Reuters. The Ukrainian military has not officially commented on those attacks.
8. White Xmas recorded in two sites
Snow and ice is expected on Boxing Day, as the authorities warn of travel disruption in parts of the country with people hitting the shops for sales. Traffic will build around shopping centres, as bargain hunters are forced onto the roads instead of railways, due to strikes. Meanwhile, the Met Office confirmed a white Christmas for the UK after sleet – a mixture of rain and snow – was reported in Loch Glascarnoch in Scotland and Lough Fea in Northern Ireland.
9. China ‘enters Taiwan zone’
Dozens of Chinese air force aircraft entered Taiwan’s air defence identification zone in the past 24 hours, said the island’s government. In the largest reported incursion to date, 71 aircraft entered the zone, with 43 crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line, an unofficial buffer between the two sides that lies within the defence zone, Taiwan’s defence ministry said. Beijing regards Taiwan – a democratically governed island of 24m – as part of its territory and has vowed to “reunify” it with the Chinese mainland, by force if necessary.
10. Neighbours angry with Potter star
Harry Potter actor Rupert Grint has been accused of offering a “cynical” sweetener to neighbours of the country estate where he hopes to build a new “eco-village”, reported The Telegraph. Grint, who played Ron Weasley in the wizardry saga, wants to build five detached houses and four affordable terraced homes on his Kimpton Grange Estate in Hertfordshire. After he offered to provide extra land to the owners of several properties that back on to the estate, some villagers accused him of a “cynical device to encourage planning consent”.
