1. Jacinda Ardern quits
Jacinda Ardern will quit as New Zealand prime minister next month, after announcing that she no longer has “enough in the tank” to lead. The PM “choked up” as she made her announcement, said the BBC. She will step down as Labour Party leader by 7 February and a vote will be held within days to choose her replacement. “Kiwis are stunned” said the New Zealand Herald, with some describing her as “remarkable” but others dismissing her as a “hypocrite”.
2. ‘Stupid’ Sunak ‘holding UK back’
Rishi Sunak’s “short-sighted” and “stupid” economic approach is keeping Britain in a state of “Covid inertia”, said Sir James Dyson. Writing in The Telegraph, the billionaire entrepreneur said that “growth has become a dirty word” under Sunak. The “broadside” comes as “the first signs of a battle on tax cuts” emerge ahead of the Budget, said The Telegraph. Treasury insiders have warned that no major tax cuts are expected but supporters of Liz Truss are pushing for the PM to reconsider.
Will economic growth solve the UK’s problems?
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3. Deaths 30% higher
Deaths in England and Wales were 30% higher than expected in the first week of January, with nearly 3,500 more registered than normal, said the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. There were more than 7,000 excess deaths in the three weeks between 17 December and 6 January. Later this month, the Health and Social Care Committee will explore potential links between the high number of excess deaths and pressures on A&E.
NHS in crisis: how can we fix the health service?
4. South-east ‘levelling-up’
Red wall MPs have accused the government of “making a mockery” of levelling up after it was revealed that the southeast will be handed more regeneration money than the northeast, Yorkshire and the West Midlands. One Tory MP in the northwest said that “a government that U-turned on a minister for the north is delivering for the south once again”. A £2bn-plus fund shared between 111 communities across the UK benefits more than twice as many Tory constituencies than Labour seats.
Levelling up: simple sound bite or social imperative?
5. Trump turns on evangelicals
Donald Trump has accused evangelicals of “disloyalty”, as it “becomes clearer and clearer that he could face a competitive primary”, said The Independent. Asked about evangelicals who have yet to back his bid for a second term, the former president said: “That’s a sign of disloyalty. There’s a great disloyalty in the world of politics and that’s a sign of disloyalty.” The comment was “the latest in a series of bewildering remarks he’s made about one of the most critical voting blocs in a Republican primary”, said CNN.
Ron DeSantis vs. Donald Trump: how Republican rivals match up
6. King ‘to divert funds’
King Charles has asked for a spike in profits from a Crown Estate offshore wind farm deal to be used for the “wider public good”, rather than for the Royal Family. Crown Estate profits will enjoy a big increase with payments from six new wind farms but the King is proposing to reduce the “royal slice” of these higher earnings, said the BBC. “He seems to be taking action to avoid what could have been an awkward surge in income for the Sovereign Grant,” said the broadcaster.
Royal finances: the King’s inheritance
7. Zelensky mourns minister
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said there are “no accidents at war time” following the deaths of 14 people in a helicopter crash in the capital, Kyiv. After interior minister Denys Monastyrsky died, alongside several colleagues, the Ukrainian president told the World Economic Forum in Davos the tragedy was a consequence of the conflict. The loss of Monastyrsky, 42, will be a “blow” for Zelenskyy, said Sky News.
8. ‘Disgusting’ Tory MP criticised
A Conservative MP has been accused of being “disgusting and out of touch” after he accused striking nurses using food banks of not budgeting properly. “If you are using food banks and your average salary is £35,000 a year then something is wrong with your budgeting because £35,000 is not a salary on which you want to be relying on food banks,” said Simon Clarke MP, “who earns £84,000 a year”, noted The Mirror. He was branded “clueless and out of touch” by nurses in his own constituency.
Which workers are striking – and when
9. Staley ‘observed’ abuse says victim
A former chief executive of Barclays “personally observed” young women being abused by Jeffrey Epstein, according to claims filed in a US lawsuit. The lawsuit claims that Jes Staley helped cover up the disgraced financier’s sex-trafficking ring while at JP Morgan. The Telegraph said that lawyers for Staley declined to comment. Staley was forced to resign from his top job at Barclays in 2021 following a regulatory investigation into his past ties to Epstein.
10. Coldest city plunges to -62.7°C
Meteorologists said that temperatures in the world’s coldest city have plunged to -62.7°C, the coldest in more than two decades. Winters in Yakutsk, the capital city of Russia’s Sakha Republic in eastern Siberia, can be “extreme even by Russian standards”, said Reuters. “You can’t fight the cold, you either adjust and dress accordingly or you suffer,” said a resident dressed in two scarves and multiple layers of gloves, hats and hoods said. “Just dress warmly,” said another. “In layers, like a cabbage.”
