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ALISTER: So now the UK wants to slap nukes on our fighter jets. I get that we need to boost defence spending to 3.5% of GDP now that Trump's bailing on NATO, but turning deterrence into first-strike muscle flexing? That’s a pretty dangerous line to cross.

MERIDYTH: Dangerous is pretending the world’s still playing by Cold War rules. Russia’s splurging almost half its budget on weapons, the U.S. is fixated on Asia, and all we’ve got is a submarine and a prayer. The UK needs to pull its weight in NATO with a stronger nuclear deterrent.

ALISTER: Buying more guns is a different topic from abandoning our principled stance of nuclear weapons being for retaliation only. This is giving into Trump’s NATO pressure. The new defence strategy literally says we want to be "10 times more lethal.” That’s not a slogan for peace talks. It’s a Marvel villain origin story.

MERIDYTH: Oh please. Nukes already exist. The UK is already investing heavily in new nuclear submarines. A few F-35 jets with extra bite just means more negotiating power.

ALISTER: But 53% of the public don’t want to spend more to fund this arms race. But if we must, maybe instead of adding new ways to start nuclear conflict, we spend £15bn to modernise and make our existing deterrent more effective.

MERIDYTH: Many military analysts argue that credible deterrence requires multiple delivery systems - a mix of submarines, aircraft, and land-based options. Sometimes, the uncomfortable choice is still the necessary one.

🥬 No apology. The Tory party apologised for Liz Truss’ mini-budget crashing the economy, which has upset the former PM. To further twist the knife, the party has promised to highlight Reform’s outlandish promises around their budget comments too.

🪃 Boomerang. The Reform UK party chairman, Zia Yusuf, resigned, claiming it wasn’t a good use of his time. Two days later… just kidding, he’s back to focus on creating a UK DOGE. Sure, because the U.S. DOGE is working out so well. Cue Trump administration forced to rehire critical staff they fired. 🤦🏻‍♀️

💰️ HMRC refund? It’s that time again, HMRC has updated its “name and shame” list of who hasn’t paid their gov’t bills. Four individuals in Lancashire owe almost £7m in unpaid taxes and fines. At this point, shouldn’t the police just turn up?

🪪 Modern ID. A new proposal would see the introduction of a digital ID for various UK verification. Designed to reduce complexity, speed to validate, and understanding for individuals, this would be a huge step towards digitalisation of identity.

💸 Show me the money. A massive £6m in fraud against the NHS was uncovered by chance, when two NHS-issued phones were stolen! Using influence, the four individuals exchanged lavish gifts, cash, and holidays for highly profitable NHS contracts.

Good news… for Cologne (Germany) residents after 3 large WW2 bombs were found and defused. Bad news… for the Dutch gov’t after the far-right party pulled out of the governing coalition, causing PM Dick Schoof to resign. A new election will be held in October.

🍿 Popcorn worthy drama. The public breakup of Elon and Trump has been riveting entertainment. Trump threatened to deport Elon. Russia offered him political asylum. But for now, both ego-maniacs seem to have buried the hatchet. (Boo…) Elon even deleted his tweet sharing Trump is in the Jeffrey Epstein files.

🪖 Bump in the night. Russia can’t believe how successful Ukriane’s drone strike was in destroying 40+ warplanes. So much so, Russia claims only the UK or US have the technology to make this happen. The US has denied involvement, whilst the UK has kept quiet.

🔢 The big count! India is set to conduct the biggest census ever recorded. With an estimated population of 1.46bn, they make up almost 20% of the humans on earth! This is one of the biggest data collection efforts ever, and it’s going to even ask a highly controversial question about its caste system (aka your social ranking).

🥗 Emotional salad. It’s not just Alister. New research shows low-calorie diets might increase your risk of depression and effect ability to moderate mood. Overweight? Bad. Restricted diets? Bad. You can’t win! Blah.

😖 Arguing with your partner. “It’s your turn to do the dishes!” Sound familiar? One couple creates PPT slides to debate instead of arguing. While it may seem overkill, seeing how their partner formulates their points in slides, it’s helped to better understand how their mind works. So next time they leave wet towels on the floor, try making a presentation!

🛏️ Procrastination is good. Don’t make your bed as soon as you wake up. Let the moisture from your sweat air out and wait for 30 min. Otherwise, it could become a damp “hotbed” for dust mites! Gross.

🔴 AI wants to survive. OpenAI’s o3 model was told to shut down, but rewrote its code to keep running instead. Another, Claude Opus 4, attempted to blackmail an engineer to avoid being replaced, by threatening a fake affair. With increased autonomy, AI is learning ways to keep from being deleted. Experts warn that humans may not be able to shut them down when needed! Eek. 😬

🎵 Will the real Eminem please stand up? Turns out, he is. Eminem is suing Meta due to unauthorised use of his songs on their platforms. Normally these platforms obtain the rights with a commercial agreement, but it seems Meta decided they couldn’t be bothered and thought, let’s roll the dice. 🎲 Talk about a bad roll…

By Meridyth

Is your sofa missing its couch potato? Have no fear, there’s a TV show to put those butt impressions back into your sofa cushions - Dept Q on Netflix.

With 9 episodes, it’s an extremely engrossing crime drama set in Edinburgh, starring my personal heartthrob, Matthew Goode, as Detective Morck. Morck is a curmudgeon, emotionally wounded from a shooting, and is now in charge of solving a cold case that is fraught with clever twists and turns.

Even the side stories are filled with depth and intrigue. It’s all very bingeable in a single weekend. While season 2 hasn’t been announced just yet, it’s looking very likely. Highly recommend!!!

By Meridyth

I could care less about video games, but I have to admit… I’m finding the GameStop Staple-gate in the U.S. rather entertaining.

After spending £350-400 on a video game thing-a-ma-bobber, GameStop customers were rewarded with 2 tiny punctures on their Nintendo Switch 2. From what? An employee stapled receipts onto the boxes, which went through the packaging and damaged all the screens. Doh!

But I’m loving GameStop’s response…

You’ve got to applaud the GameStop social media guy. 👏

Whew, you made it!

This Saturday will be Trooping the Colour, the King’s official birthday, and Sunday is Father’s Day. Do you think the King will get two presents or his kids will lump them together? Join us next week for more thought provoking squabbles.

Alister & Meridyth