Editor jailed for 20 years and eight other journalists get up to ten years in Hong Kong for telling the truth bit.ly/4r2nLb3 Jimmy Lai holds a British passport

As Mandelson crisis deepens the scapeSPAD leaves bit.ly/4rELH4i expect the usual scrutiny of his pay off too! Will it top Mandy’s estimated £50k? This comment by @BrookesTimes

Saudi executed a record 356 people in 2025 many were foreign nationals for minor drug offences bit.ly/4aEWNjW Human Rights Watch @hrw is asking UK government to press the Prince in charge to halt them. If only we had a Prince we could send bit.ly/3O5GT9s

Met Office parades new rain prediction supercomputer bit.ly/4aEKBzG are they off their brolly?

Govt orders deletion of court records widely used by journalist to monitor activity and decisions bit.ly/45UjduX

Very interesting set of recommended Victorian novels from the cellist Steven Isserlis in *The Week* this week.

The AI battlefield is already here bit.ly/4aoUIIG Terminator anyone?

The London Library bans leaflets to hide the opposition of some members to ambitious plans for roof garden cafe bit.ly/4tblifT it remains one of my favourite places!

Churches must find extra to pay VAT on church repairs from April as special fund to pay it is scrapped bit.ly/4k7Nool but a replacement scheme will be better, govt says. NB headline is wrong; VAT has been charged then paid from fund

Important scientific research at which UK excels sacrificed on the altar of the vain search for growth bit.ly/4a4Y9Dg these myopic cuts will cost jobs and growth and of course damage two vital sciences

Controversial Labour peer and minister says AI job losses could pave the way for a universal basic income (UBI) bit.ly/4rpCDAe

Controversial Labour peer and minister says AI job losses could pave the way for a universal basic income (UBI) bit.ly/4rpCDAe

Pensioner house and flat shares grow bit.ly/3O8mctq they’ll only get half the winter fuel payment each - £100 - while those who live alone get £200. (WFP taken back if annual income over £35,000 and those over 80 in qualifying week get 50% more)

China trip @mortenmorland brilliant as ever

bit.ly/4k3kUvV we’ve followed you by introducing and now ending 2 child limit on state benefits and Home Sec confirms live facial recognition will be used throughout England and Wales. And we’ve given you the historic Royal Mint site for your largest European embassy.

Criminal networks create fake jobs so migrants can remain in UK bit.ly/49ZulYB long read but fascinating how criminals outwit the rules - cleverer and faster than the authorities

Fraud claim rejected & banks innocent Ombudsman finds as jeweller disappears owing millions to investors and £170m debt bit.ly/4agQEKv Fraud by false representation is an offence under s.2 Fraud Act 2006 when someone lies to make themselves richer or someone else poorer

Gold hits $5000 a Troy ounce (31.1g) after astonishing recent rises bit.ly/4t2oiLy but if you sell for a profit over £3000 capital gains tax will be due, except on gold coins. A kg bar (smaller than a mobile phone) now £122,000 to buy, in 2018 was £31,000 vs

Existing leasehold ground rents will be cut to a new cap after threats by wealthy freeholders to ‘cut investment’ ignored bit.ly/4q1nync but cap not as low as campaigners hoped and legal challenges from wealthy freeholders inevitable.

£10 at Gatwick, £7 at Heathrow - UK leads the world in airport drop off fees making £300m for airports between them bit.ly/4qEvzzt and up to £80 charge if you forget to pay!

Wow. Just wow. bit.ly/4rcswOY the future begins in a Petri dish

If you wondered what graduates were complaining about, read this excellent explainer bit.ly/4aiktJN up to 71% marginal tax rate if they earn well and the debt may still never be repaid until written off in their fifties.

Build ’em cheap, sell ’em dear and don’t worry if they’re a fire risk, may have been true in the past for some builders bit.ly/3YY5aAE but now builder, investor, and bank argue over post-Grenfell remediation costs

The return on your savings can now be well above inflation bit.ly/3M1cCYK as it usually is. It may be tough nowadays to beat tracker returns but inflation is more easily conquered. To do that you must move your money - see Active Cash bit.ly/45tEZ8D

The horror inside Iran. The dead are just the start. The imprisoned, tortured, no doubt raped are still suffering bit.ly/49VlBTc perhaps for the rest of their lives

Really looking forward to being back presenting @Moneybox after a five week Xmas/NewYear break (I know, I know!). With top stories from its brilliant production team. More later. Don’t miss it @BBCRadio4 midday or on @BBCSounds from this afternoon.

Climate change could lead to nuclear war and mass migration said report from UK security services which govt suppressed for being ‘too negative’ bit.ly/4pSpjTz

Musk adopts Trump tactics by threatening to buy Ryanair after O’Leary refused to install Starlink internet access on planes because of extra costs bit.ly/4qANuar

Inflation rises. Headline rate CPI up 3.4% (from 3.2%) in 12 months to December, up with food, alcohol, housing, and transport. Statisticians preferred, but almost never used, CPIH 3.6% (was 3.5%) and the discredited but widely used RPI up 4.2% (from 3.8%)

Detectorists on their mettle as finds reach record high bit.ly/3LJX37y

Friends of celebs ‘leaky’ and details of Hurley’s baby provided by herself, court told, as Harry is called early after short opening statement by newspaper lawyer who was dismissive of all claims bit.ly/4639XV4

Tens of thousands of people living in West London wake up to no water or just dribbling in W1H, W4, W6, W8, W11, W12, W13 and W14 postcodes after burst pipe at a roundabout in W11. Thames Water says its “team are on site and are working hard to stop flooding in the area.”

Big losses face people who gave money to corked up wine firm to invest in fine wine bit.ly/4r2Yhd1 Wine is for drinking not investing and there is always the danger that it was bottled in Chateau Escroquerie. Money may be missing but noone has been charged in this case.

No one arrested or even named after Ponzi scheme operators are bankrupted to try to recover missing £200m bit.ly/45Qn7oq taken from ‘investors’ in loan note scheme

I said this would be fun bit.ly/4r8OhiJ celebs themselves or their friends leaked information but they want to sue newspapers for public facts they claim was obtained illegally. There must be better ways to spend £20m!

Harry waves to cameras as he joins with celebs to punish newspaper group for publishing ‘information’ bit.ly/4qzTu36 not because it was false but because of how it was obtained

The circus begins. Celebs and royals ask court to punish newspapers for breaching their privacy bit.ly/4pPARqN as Prince’s state of mind is revealed by ‘a source close to him’, which is apparently OK.

Angry women campaigners make citizens arrest on water boss bit.ly/45kZ4Oi forming a circle round him so he can’t escape without assaulting one of them

Chinese mega Embassy on old Royal Mint site is not a security threat, say secret services bit.ly/49C5qtP What quadruple bluff is being played here by them? Or is it part of Harvest now, decrypt later? google it or see bit.ly/4a4Czij

Top barristers help firms sell duff schemes to evade tax bit.ly/3Nlr9yU says a report by @DanNeidle on another which inevitably failed

Celebrities take their battle for privacy to court bit.ly/4jM4Qi3 in what should be an entertaining nine weeks

Unsigned WhatsApp messages are not contracts judge rules in denying divorced wife the house her ex appeared to promise her bit.ly/3LPX89V so creditors get his half and she must move.

Heat pump nightmare as ECO4 home energy firm goes bust leaving shoddy work and wrecked homes behind bit.ly/4r0eeB2 why was there no supervision of this scheme? Will the next ‘warm homes plan’ be any better?

Banks and economists defend charging 22.5% average rate on credit cards - and a lot more to many borrowers - after US President says he will ban rates over 10% from 20 January for one year bit.ly/3Z8iToi

The student loan scandal - interest on loans is more than the repayments for many on Plan 2 so debt grows trapping them with extra 9% income tax for up to 30 years bit.ly/3NcgO8o £15.2 billion interest added to student loans last year, only £5 billion repaid.

Cruising to the end bit.ly/4aO0vZ7 350 people have bought cabins on the lifetime ship Villa Vie Odyssey and many say it’s cheaper than their old lives on land. A cabin costs £282,000 and £80,400 a year for maintenance and food for a couple. It rounds the world each 3 yrs

Immigration is good for the UK economy. It might end this year and cost billions bit.ly/49sYeQK so the anti-immigration drive damages the UK.

Hmmm. In fact data shows a tracker will always outperform active management in the long term and whenever it doesn’t it is due to luck bit.ly/4pyvhc2

Unre-lie-able - polygraph lie detectors are ‘junk science’ that don’t work said spy who fooled them bit.ly/4q9AdW1 but was caught by following the money

Royal bones reassembled bit.ly/4jxQNwd remains of Saxon kings and the most powerful Queen in England’s history separated from bone jumble in cathedral chests as 25 individuals identified after more than 1000 years