USA - The Los Angeles fires may have been a reignition of a blaze that began on New Year’s Eve due to residents setting off fireworks. An analysis by the Washington Post found that the blaze began on part of the Temescal Ridge in the Santa Monica Mountains, a place where an earlier fire had been ignited and put out. Satellite imagery shows that 20 minutes after the Palisades fire began last Tuesday, the outline of the smoke matched with the burn scar from the previous blaze. Residents in the area around the Skull Rock Trailhead said that agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) told them that the fire was “started by idiots” on New Year’s Eve. One local said that on December 31st he heard fireworks going just after midnight and saw a fire had started. The total damage and economic loss caused by the wildfires is estimated to be between $250-$275 billion (£205-£225 billion), according to AccuWeather.

USA - The tiny Delta Smelt fish have not been seen in the wild in California in over a decade. And yet, California Democrats flushed annual water flow into the ocean to save this little fish that they can’t even find in its natural habitat. Now several cities are burnt to the ground. They sacrificed entire communities for a fish that doesn’t exist. For the seventh September in a row, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has caught zero Delta Smelt during its Fall Midwater Trawl Survey of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The last time Delta Smelt – an indicator species for the broader ecological health of the estuary – were found in CDFW’s September survey was in 2015. Only 5 were caught by state biologists at the time. Recent research has shown that the water releases are not providing the benefits to the small fish that they originally thought. Their population numbers are nearly nonexistent in the wild.

UK - How many Generation Z students does it take to change a lightbulb? None: they will ask a parent to do it for them. According to research from the retail chain Halfords, a quarter of Gen Z adults (aged 18-27) wouldn’t change a lightbulb because they thought using a stepladder could be dangerous, while almost as many would beseech dad or mum to do it. A similar number would fork out for an electrician and numerous others pay up to £1,300 a year calling out professionals to do simple, practical tasks.

AUSTRIA - Victory for Austria’s hard-Right marks a paradigm shift for the continent as traditional coalitions between moderate parties crumble. The next chancellor of Austria could be Europe’s most Right-wing leader after establishment parties failed to strike a pact to keep a populist pro-Putin faction out of power. The victory for Herbert Kickl’s Eurosceptic and anti-migrant Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) marks a paradigm shift on the continent as traditional coalition building between moderate parties falters. The centre-Right People’s Party (OVP) and other establishment groups in Austria initially refused to hold coalition talks with the FPO after federal elections in September 2024.

GERMANY - Western sanctions imposed on Russia are “killing” German companies and enriching the American economy, Sahra Wagenknecht, the leader of Germany’s left-wing BSW party, said during an election conference on Sunday. Delegates of the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance – Reason and Justice (BSW) gathered in the city of Bonn to adopt their platform for the Bundestag election, set to take place next month. During her speech, Wagenknecht refused to blame Russia for the Ukraine conflict.

AUSTRIA - After the mainstream parties’ ‘coalition of losers’ collapsed, the leader of Austria’s Freedom Party (FPÖ), Herbert Kickl, was tasked by the country’s president to form a government. Kickl is one of the most feared political leaders in Europe, getting the usual mistreatment by the MSM, called, pro-Putin, ‘far-left’ and all those Bad names they use to try and contain the planetary conservative revolution. Kickl, who is a famous Euroskeptic, wants to decrease Austria’s contribution to the EU budget, undo the Green Deal, as well as stop the EU’s ‘irresponsible’ sanctions on Russia. But now, his proposals on migration are shaking Brussels to the core, as he means to create a ‘Fortress Austria’ virtually inaccessible to migrants. Deportation of illegals is a common-sense policy, but the ultraliberal Euronews report gives voice to the inevitable ‘critics’ who describe it as ‘a soft form of ethnic cleansing’.

GERMANY - Germany’s far-right AfD party has signed off on its manifesto before next month’s critical election, proposing a series of deeply controversial policies on everything from migration to education as the campaign for a new government in Europe’s powerhouse formally kicked off. The party, founded in 2013, endorsed the far-right concept of “re-migration” into its programme, threatening the mass deportation of migrants if it came to power.

UK - More than once while talking to friends in the United States recently, I have encountered chuckling, head-shaking and a comment along the lines of: “What’s goin’ on with you guys? You guys are crazy!” They’re referring, of course, to the constant stream of strange, worrying news emanating from our sceptred isle – news that, as the world heaves against the era of woke and political correctness, puts us awkwardly and very clearly at odds with the direction of travel in the United States, as well as other parts of the free world. With its anti-woke backlash in full swing, America is detoxing from the poisonous brew of diversity, inclusion, social justice, and identitarian rubbish that it cooked up and exported all over the Western world in recent decades, with Britain one of the most willing takers.

UK - An exodus of wealth creators will show Rachel Reeves can’t tax her way out of this economic and fiscal crisis. Traditionally, Labour is supposed to govern with the heart, and Conservatives with the head. The Tory governments of the last decade or so seemed to forget that rule, but Labour is sticking to form. Needing to fulfil accumulated years of promises to its client groups, a growing list of spending commitments is already busting through even the additional £70 billion in expenditure that Rachel Reeves’ Budget demanded. But here’s the rub: after 20 years of low-to-no growth, we have fallen from our former status of having near to the highest GDP per capita in the world. Now, of the 40 or so developed countries, we are in the bottom half. We are well into a doom spiral, where more government spending leads to lower growth, leading to less money to spend. The big question is: when will the debt markets go on strike?

USA - Firefighters are bracing for the return of ferocious Santa Ana winds that are expected to fan the flames of massive wildfires raging across southern California, as the death toll climbs to at least 25 people. The National Weather Service warned of a “particularly dangerous situation,” with critical to extreme fire weather conditions anticipated to develop into mid-week.

GERMANY - The German military will establish a new division tasked exclusively with territorial defence, the army said on Saturday, bringing all existing reserve units under direct army command. The reorganization will take effect in April and raise the number of German divisions - units of some 20,000 troops - to four without increasing the total number of around 180,000 soldiers in the German forces. "The territorial defence will be put under army command from April 1, 2025," an army spokesperson said, confirming a report by German news agency dpa. The Western military alliance NATO is at its highest alert stage since the Cold War, with its more pessimistic officials, including German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, saying that an attack by Russia on its borders could happen within four years.

GERMANY - The AfD’s Alice Weidel has said that Germans “can count” on her party to restore energy links with Russia. Alternative for Germany (AfD) co-leader Alice Weidel has pledged to put the sabotaged Nord Stream gas pipelines back into operation if her party emerges victorious in next month’s general election. AfD members met in the town of Riesa on Saturday to formally approve Weidel as their candidate to succeed Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose coalition government collapsed late last year. Weidel’s nomination marks the right-wing AfD’s first bid for the chancellery in its 11-year history.

GERMANY - Thousands of left-wing protesters from across Germany have swarmed to the Saxon town of Riesa in an attempt to derail the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party’s convention, resulting in multiple scuffles with police. AfD membership has swelled by 50% during 2024 alone, the party’s spokesperson told Reuters in December. According to local media, citing the activists ahead of the event on Saturday, a number of groups from Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, and other cities chartered more than 200 buses to transport demonstrators to Riesa. Yet more have arrived reportedly by train. The authorities and organizers put the number of protesters at around 15,000 in total, according to Die Tageszeitung. There is a heavy police presence in town, with officers in riot gear with dogs, batons, and pepper spray. Several water cannons as well as mounted officers have also reportedly been seen to the locality.

ISRAEL - The last year has been characterized by more than 45,000 deaths in Gaza, the destruction of Hezbollah, confrontations with Yemen’s Houthis and an exchange of fire with Iran. 2025 will probably continue this trend. Yet, with the return of Donald Trump to the US presidency, Israel may also be given opportunities, including the expansion of its historic Abraham Accords.

USA - Trump was a close ally of Netanyahu during his term in the White House, and described himself as “history’s most pro-Israel US president.” He imposed sanctions on Iran at Netanyahu’s request, moved the US embassy in Israel to West Jerusalem, and brokered the Abraham Accords, which saw Israel normalize relations with Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and Sudan.