THE BIG STORIES
The return of Islamic State

📣 The Islamic State terror group has re-emerged: the Army veteran who drove a rented truck into party-goers in New Orleans early on New Year’s Day was “100%” inspired by the group, its flag flown from a pole rigged to the vehicle’s rear bumper, according to an FBI briefing yesterday. He also acted alone, it was confirmed, contradicting early fears he may have been helped by others. As Adrian Blomfield notes in The Telegraph, IS has carried out nearly 700 attacks in Syria since January. “The loss of its ‘caliphate’ in Syria and Iraq forced IS into hibernation but it has shown signs of a resurrection in the past 12 months,” he writes. (AP)

📣 Nick Clegg is stepping down as global head of Facebook’s policy team. The Former UK Deputy Prime Minister, writing on X, said this was the right time for him to “move on” from his role as President of Global Affairs at the company he first joined in 2018. It’s the “right time” because of the return of Trump, of course; Clegg will be replaced by Joel Kaplan, his deputy and a formidable Republican lobbyist, who was deputy chief of staff in the George W Bush White House. There’s a fascinating long read on Wired, dating back to 2022, which tells of Kaplan’s skills, Rolodex and background, if you want to understand who is now heading up Facebook’s well-resourced political arm. (Wired)

📣 The NHS in Scotland has spent less than £1m a year on pest control over the last five years, a freedom of information request has disclosed. This makes front page news for at least two titles on this news-starved holiday week, and the titles are sure to include lists of horrible things pest controllers have to deal with, including maggots, dead birds and cockroaches. But in the context of the vast NHS estate in Scotland, and the country’s £20 billion annual health and social care budget, the sums are neither high nor surprising… although if you have ever attended the Fort William dental unit that suffered from mice droppings “over everything” you may hope they spent exactly enough to do a really good job of the cleanup. (The Herald) (The Times)

IDEAS
From the weeklies

Noteworthy reads from the weekly current affairs magazines.

🗣️ The next 17 months of Scottish politics will be “fraught, complex and studded with potential pitfalls” writes Chris Deerin in the New Statesman, as he looks forward to 2025 and beyond to next year’s Scottish Parliamentary elections. “Hopes are not high – Scotland today does not feel like a modern, exciting, adventurous state that is taking advantage of the opportunities provided by technological progress. It lacks the pep and the courage,” he writes. [The New Statesman]

🗣️ Is Reform unstoppable? wonders Rod Liddle in The Spectator. The answer is he’s not sure yet. But - and this is, I suspect, a theme that’ll grow over the year - it’s clear Kemi Badenoch has poor instincts about Reform’s abilities and strengths, and the right time to speak out, and that’s not going to help the Conservatives halt Reform’s progress. Liddle notes the Tory leader claimed Nigel Farage didn’t understand the digital age: “Kemi got it wrong,” writes Liddle. “The one thing which Farage and Reform do understand is the digital age. It is how the party has been created and enabled to grow, while there are still one or two old duffers on the back benches of the Conservative party who, during elections, disdain social media entirely.” [The Spectator]

🗣️ The Economist is worried about education in England under Labour and uses the state of Scotland’s schools as a cautionary tale. “Some hope that the government will shift the emphasis away from exams and towards nice-sounding “life skills”, such as creativity and teamwork,” says the newspaper. “Yet worsening grades in places that have pursued such a trendy path—including Scotland[…]—suggest this is a dismal dead end.” [The Economist]

AROUND SCOTLAND

📣 More snow is on the way. Parts of Scotland could see eight inches (20cm) on Sunday. It “raises questions” about the return to work and school on Monday, notes The Sun with some relish. (The Sun)

📣 There’s already widespread disruption because of the weather in the north of Scotland: the Far North Line is closed because of three landslips, while some roads are closed by snow and the whole of the north of the country is facing poor driving conditions. The message there: only go out if you must. (BBC)

📣 Most of Scotland’s Met Office weather stations can be wrong by a surprising degree (no pun intended). The Express reports only two of Scotland’s weather stations are rated at the highest standard by the World Meteorological Organisation. (The Express)

AROUND THE UK

📣 Elon Musk has called for the release of Tommy Robinson and launched an attack on Keir Starmer over rape gangs in Rochdale and Oldham - comments which have sparked a revival of online interest in the long-running and wide-reaching abuse scandal. (Musk’s X Feed) (The Guardian)

📣 Twenty councillors in Nottinghamshire have quit Labour saying the party has “abandoned traditional Labour values” after cuts to the winter fuel allowance, increases to bus fares and plans to reform local government in England. Their resignation means Broxtowe borough council is no longer under Labour control. (The Guardian)

AROUND THE WORLD

🌎 Have you ever had the sense that your iPhone was listening to you? That advertisements for items would appear after you’d been discussing them, even when you hadn’t performed a search? Well, Apple isn’t admitting any of that actually happened. But it is paying out $95 million to settle a lawsuit alleging Apple’s virtual assistant, Siri, snooped on its users for more than a decade, listening into conversations without being summoned and - yes - sharing that information with advertisers. It’s a blow to a company which makes much of its privacy commitment to users. (AP)

🌎 It’s five years since Covid. To mark the moment, AP offers “five things we know and still don’t know” about the outbreak. The biggest unknown: where, really, it came from. (AP)

🌎 Tensions remain high in South Korea after an attempt to arrest impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol failed. Presidential guards and military troops stopped authorities from getting to Yoon at his compound in central Seoul. (Reuters)

BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

💰 Footfall in Scotland’s shopping streets was down before Christmas. The biggest fall in December was in Edinburgh, while Glasgow nudged up. (The Scotsman)

💰 Can Glasgow rise to greatness again? That’s what Scott Wright asks in a column that does a good job of summing up concerns about the city’s state, and its prospects in 2025. There’s a lot that needs to be done to make the city - especially its scarred, unsafe centre - appealing again. Wright doesn’t appear to be holding his breath for rapid improvement. (The Herald)

SPORT

⚽️ Rangers won the Old Firm game 3-0 at Ibrox in a game that will be savoured for weeks, maybe months, to come in the blue half of Glasgow. The Sun notes that “in the long run, it’s an Old Firm victory that’ll count for nothing”. But the Rangers manager finally got a win in the fixture - at his seventh attempt - and his injury-hit squad's total dominance in this game will be taken as an important sign of progress: one which will save him his job. The game, however, was marred by missiles being thrown at Celtic midfielder Arne Engels - he was hit by a coin - and another item at Brendan Rodgers, which missed. There was also a quantity of sectarian singing from the Rangers-only crowd. (The Sun) (STV)

🎯 Luke Littler is in the World Darts Championship final, playing Michael van Gerwen tonight at Alexandra Palace. Jonathan Liew offers an entertaining read in The Guardian about the 17-year-old’s appeal, which also serves as a useful primer on the entire sport’s state: “Darts is on the verge of a new age, a tectonic shift in its history, popularity and cultural footprint,” he enthuses. The fun starts at 7.30pm tonight on Sky Sports Main Event. (The Guardian)