Government Stuff
The UK has secured a comprehensive digital trade deal with Singapore. The Dept for International Trade looks at the top five benefits for UK businesses.
BEIS has announced £116m of new investment in businesses developing green tech in areas such as carbon capture and home energy efficiency.
The US and the UK are to partner on innovation prize challenges to advance privacy-enhancing tech.
A £50m investment to boost innovation in the UK’s mobile network has been announced, as has plans to phase out 2G and 3G by 2033. 2G or not 2G.
DCMS has announced that a further £1.32m from the UK Global Screen Fund will be shared between nine co-productions.
From today, facemasks must again be worn for visits to the theatre or cinema and you’ll need a COVID passport for entry into da club.
The Centre for Data Ethics & Innovation has developed industry-led guidance on the responsible use of AI in recruitment.
Labour has announced its new shadow DCMS team, including Chris Elmore covering media and data and Alex Davies-Jones on tech and digital economy.
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Culture Stuff
Arts & Culture
The British Council and the Creative PEC have launched a global agenda for the cultural and creative industries with 11 key actions for governments.
The British Academy has awarded its most prestigious prize, the President’s Medal, to professor and historian David Olusoga.
Original arts programming on the Beeb has fallen for the third consecutive year.
One in eight arts workers do not qualify for statutory sick pay, according to trade union TUC.
Very Peri, which has been described by experts (me) as ‘sort of bluey-purple, I guess?’ has been named by Pantone as its colour of the year.
Wales has extended its creative curriculum until March 2025, after engaging with 84% of Welsh schools since it launched in 2015.
Arts Council England has released guidance for applications to its Let’s Create Juiblee Fund for cultural activities celebrating the Platinum Jubilee.
British sculptor Alison Wilding will co-ordinate the 254th Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy.
Design
Balkrishna Doshi, India’s most celebrated living architect, has been awarded RIBA’s royal gold medal – the UK’s highest honour for architecture.
And this quirky farmhouse extension by Alison Brooks Architects has won this year’s RIBA house of the year award.
The Guardian on the artist homes in east London blazing a trail for affordable UK housing.
Theatre & Dance
This year’s Luke Westlake Scholarship for a working-class drama student has been awarded to Melodie Karczewski - the initiative’s first disabled winner.
Corporate sponsors are severing ties with London’s Royal Court over anti-Semitism concerns.
Classical Music & Opera
The winners of the Ivors Composer Awards 2021 have been announced, celebrating music by composers writing for classical, jazz and sound art.
Museums
New York’s Met Museum is removing the Sackler name from seven exhibition spaces over the family’s ties to the opioid industry.
The T-Rex at London’s Natural History Museum now has a Christmas jumper. Bit harsh. He’ll look ridiculous to his dino mates when he tries to take it off.
Press, Books & Libraries
The Guardian has been named news provider of the year at the British Journalism Awards. This newsletter probably came second but I don’t do it for the accolades.
The number of independent bookshops in the UK is actually up by 12% to 1,026 since the pandemic started, according to the Booksellers Association. Love this.
As he returns to his former pastures at the Daily Mail, Paul Dacre has issued several parting shots at Ofcom in this fiery piece for The Spectator.
The ‘experts’ over at The Guardian have picked their top books for 2021.
Debuts dominate the shortlist for The Portico Prize for Literature, the UK’s only award for outstanding Northern writing.
Exhibitions and Events
Creative Coalition, Creative UK’s flagship festival for the creative industries, is BACK at the start of Feb.
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I feel an overwhelming sense of Dredd. The comic book Judge Dredd is teaming up with Sylvester Stallone’s Judge Dredd and also Karl Urban’s Judge Dredd. Here’s IGN with more.
DREADNOUGHTS from 2000AD has been named by Polygon as one of its top comics of 2021.
Evil Genius 2 producer Ash Tregay chats to The Scottish Sun about porting the PC hit to consoles so more of you can take over the world if you fancy it.
On the latest Future Imperfect, Jason Kingsley chats to Xbox creator Seamus Blackley about game design, tech and… how to make bread from ancient Egyptian yeast.
Not sure what to get grandma for Christmas? Don’t worry. Here’s 2000AD with a bunch of gift ideas. Maybe a Judge Dredd Christmas jumper?
TIGA has launched a business opinion survey to feed into its efforts to strengthen the video games industry.
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Creative Industries & Tech Stuff
Film & TV
Research from the BFI finds that 70% of international audiences view British film and TV as high quality. A new body, ScreenUK, has launched, too.
BAFTA has unveiled its 2021 Breakthrough cohort of emerging screen talent, including It’s A Sin’s Lydia West and Sex Education’s George Robinson.
The UK broadcasters have committed to avoiding the problematic acronym BAME following a report from the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity.
Troubadour Theatres (a supplier to the likes of Netflix and the Beeb) has penned a deal for a huge new film and TV studio in north London.
A belter of a long read from the New Yorker profiling the rather intense-sounding Jeremy Strong – aka. Kendall in Succession. Inspired me to become more intense for 2022.
Fashion
Burberry has become the latest luxury brand to enter the rental and resale market.
You can also now rent outfits from M&S specifically for your Christmas parties. Just to be clear, that’s Christmas parties in 2021.
Music & Radio
Dave and Little Simz were among the winners at the MOBO Awards – its first outing as a live ceremony since 2017.
Holly Humberstone has won the BRITS Rising Star Award for 2022, following in the footsteps of little-known artists like Adele and Sam Smith.
Similarly… Radio 1 has unveiled its Sound of 2022 list and eight of the 10 nominees are female artists, including Lola Young and Baby Queen.
Radio 1 has also announced the 30 new voices taking to the airwaves over Christmas.
Arctic Monkeys and Dave are among the six (SIX) headliners announced for next year’s Reading and Leeds Festivals.
SXSW returns in real life next March and the British Music Embassy will be officially back too, showcasing the best of emerging British music talent.
Oh Stormzy. Our man. OUR man. He hosted a Christmas party just for residents of Croydon last week. Heavy is the head that wears the paper crown.
Gaming
It Takes Two (the game, not the Strictly spinoff) walked away with game of the year at The Game Awards 2021.
The first ever employment deal for video game voice actors has been agreed.
Ubisoft has launched in-game NFTs. Of course they have.
Tech & Telecoms
Atomico’s latest State of European Tech report is out. The UK leads the way in tech investment, up by 3x on last year. Here’s Sifted with 21 things you should know.
The UK is in the global top three for digital advertising, according to analysis by GroupM.
UK biotech firm BenevolentAI has made a £1.3bn stock market debut in Europe’s largest SPAC deal to date.
The Financial Times investigates how the £1.7bn government rescue of UK energy start-up Bulb came despite a cheaper alternative.
Monzo has confirmed a $4.5bn valuation after closing a new $500m funding round.
Rohingya refugees have sued Meta in excess of $150bn.
Virgin Media O2 has upgraded its entire broadband network to gigabit speeds. Zoooom.
Amazon has been fined $1.2bn by Italian regulators. Mamma MIA.
An electric vehicle boom has fuelled the first rise in UK new car sales in four months, with a fifth of new cars on the road being electric.
A new elder care service has launched through Amazon’s Alexa.
WhatsApp has launched a pilot in the US allowing a limited number of people to send and receive cryptocurrency within a chat. Bye low, sell high, wb x
Instagram is rolling out a new feature to help manage time spent on the app. And are they bringing back the chronological feed? More when I have it.
Fortune on why Indian-born leaders are dominating Big Tech’s top ranks.
The US has rejected calls for a binding agreement regulating or banning the use of ‘killer robots’. I’ve seen ‘movies’, guys. I know how this one ends. SPOILER: badly.
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Appointments & Movers
Disney has appointed its first female chair, Susan Arnold, in its 98-year history; Martin Clarke is stepping down as editor of Mail Online; Channel 4 has announced a slate of new non-exec directors; Rob Dickens has been appointed chair of the Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery; Eamonn Holmes is joining GB News; Kenya Hunt will be the new editor-in-chief of ELLE UK; Will Gompertz is now artistic director at The Barbican following a leadership reshuffle; UK Theatre has announced 5 new appointments to its board; the members of the BFI’s new disability advisory panel have been announced; Karen Kelly is the new chair of Directors UK; Sima Kotecha has been named as UK editor of Newsnight
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Ed Stuff
Popped up on Times Radio to talk about political frenemies
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...And Finally
You can still go to clubs in Berlin, but due to COVID you’re not allowed to dance. Anyone fancy coming to stand still in Berghain? You wouldn’t get in anyway.
Dozens of camels have been barred from a Saudi beauty contest over the use of Botox. And with $66m in prizes up for grabs I can imagine they have the right hump.
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