AI agents in love, set world on fire

ALISTER: Nicki Minaj, who once warned the world that Covid jabs cause impotence, now reckons Kemi Badenoch is "one of a kind" and the next Thatcher. Yes, that Thatcher. Americans need to stay firmly out of British politics.

MERIDYTH: It's a tweet, not a geopolitical intervention. She shared a clip of Badenoch staring Wes Streeting down at the dispatch box, telling him to "do your job” while mocking Labour’s leaders in one breath. With 1.8m views, I can see why it travelled across the pond.

ALISTER: Chris Whitty had to publicly correct Minaj’s anti-vax nonsense in 2021. She's not a neutral observer with a passing interest, she's a MAGA celebrity using British politics as content. That's influence-laundering.

MERIDYTH: And Badenoch accepted it with open arms, calling it "very flattering." If the Tories happily import the cultural cachet, you don't get to complain about the tariff.

ALISTER: Free speech doesn't mean consequence-free. Azealia Banks endorsed her too, and she's hardly a steady hand on the geopolitical tiller. We really don't need this culture-war politics imported, thank you very much.

MERIDYTH: She's American, tweeting from New York. You can't tell her that American free speech doesn't apply. And if the best argument against Kemi is that Nicki likes her, maybe Labour should focus on the MPs calling for Starmer to resign instead. 🤷‍♀️

Over 23,500 trees and shrubs have gone into the ground across three Lancashire sites this season, the latest being a new woodland near Darwen reservoir. They’re chasing a million trees by 2030. Share the good news and the AM Squabble with a nature lover.

✈️ Good news for airport queues. From 8 July, children aged 8+ can use UK airport e-gates for the first time, covering all 13 major airports. There is one catch: they must be at least 120cm tall. Petite 8yos, the staffed desk awaits.

💰 Watchdog opens file. Nigel Farage has shifted his explanation for a £5m gift from a crypto billionaire, now saying it was a reward for Brexit campaigning, not security money. After buying a £1.4m property in cash that same month, Parliament's standards watchdog has formally opened an investigation.

🩺 Support staff threaten strikes. Both NHS consultants and educators are balloting for walkouts over below-inflation pay offers. With classrooms empty and hospital wards short-staffed, the govt is running out of cover. Looks like everyone's staging a coordinated sickie.

🔒 Take the photos down. The National Crime Agency is advising UK schools to remove identifiable photos of pupils from their websites after criminals used AI to create sexualised deepfakes of real children for blackmail. Nearly a quarter of UK teachers surveyed say their school has already been affected. Experts describe online child sexual abuse as reaching pandemic levels.

🦠 Quarantine, interrupted. A British man under hantavirus quarantine orders was apprehended in a Milan bar and taken to hospital. He was supposed to be isolating until June 6 as part of a 42-day quarantine linked to the MV Hondius outbreak. Three people have died from the virus. The bar was presumably worth it.

GOOD NEWS… for Brits missing Gregg’s sausage rolls while on holiday in the Canary Islands, after the company announced its first foreign branch at the Tenerife South Airport. BAD NEWS… for 12 Dutch hospital staff treating a hantavirus patient, after a protocol breakdown in safety now requires them to quarantine!

🇧🇬 Bulgaria wins chaotic Eurovision. DARA’s dance-pop track "Bangaranga" secured a historic victory amidst political boycotts, whilst the UK suffered a brutal public "nul points" humiliation. At least our European exile is consistent.

🇮🇳 India's worst year since 1993. Foreign investors have yanked $21bn from Indian stocks in just 2 months, to focus on AI chip booms in South Korea and Taiwan. The Iran war is hitting India hard too. The rupee is weakening. The govt is asking people to buy less gold. Not great for the most populous country.

🗽 Tax the rich, balance the books. New York's socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani has closed a $12bn budget gap without raising property taxes or cutting services. His method: state funding, efficiency savings, and tax luxury properties. He literally stood outside a hedge fund CEO's $238 mil penthouse to make the point. Bold opener.

🤝 Russia and the Taliban: BFFs. Russia announced a "full-fledged partnership" with Afghanistan's Taliban government, encouraging others to expand ties with Kabul. Russia banned the Taliban as a terrorist org in 2003, lifted it in 2025, and formally recognised the govt last year.

🥚 Eggs are brain food. A found that eating eggs 5x a week was linked to a 27% lower Alzheimer's risk. The secret weapon is choline (found in the yolk only). Scrambled, fried, or poached. Doesn't matter. Just eat the egg. 🍳

🧠 Brooding fuels bedtime procrastination. A study links late-night scrolling to lower heart rate variability and repetitive, negative thought loops. Your biological self-control is actively failing. Blame your heart, not your phone.

🫀 The organ cancer can't conquer. Cancer shows up in almost every tissue in the body, but almost never in the heart. A new study suggests the heart beating is why: constant mechanical pressure suppresses the genes cancer needs to grow. The heart beats 100,000x a day and appears to be quietly fighting tumours with every single one.

🎭 Two internets, one price. TikTok is asking UK users to pay £3.99/month to avoid personalised ads by November, removing the current free opt-out. Experts call it a "2-tiered social internet.” Privacy for those who can afford it, profiling for everyone else.

📜 Homer as bubble wrap. Archaeologists found a fragment of Homer’s Iliad stuffed inside a 1,600yo Egyptian mummy's abdomen. They’d like to believe it was a meaningful personal object, but more likely… papyrus scraps were cheap filler. One of the greatest poems ever written, repurposed as packaging.

💨 Banana ice with your vindaloo. "Vape sommeliers" are now recommending which vape flavours pair with which foods: caramel with a latte, strawberry-raspberry with lemon sorbet, banana ice with curry. The Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 restricts flavours that attract kids. No restrictions on flavours that attract people who vape while eating a vindaloo. Yet.

By Alister

Ever fancied taking a sledgehammer to a printer? “Rage rooms” have been popping up all over the UK which lets you do exactly that, fully kitted out in safety gear (which you'll need when glass starts flying at your face).

Did the 15 minute couples session with my partner. Awkward at first, then weirdly cathartic. Ten minutes swinging a sledgehammer is a proper workout, who knew?

They also offer paint rooms and food fights. Smashing stuff was enough chaos for one day.

By Alister

A new TikTok wellness trend called "biblical eating" is using scripture as a dietary framework, with one influencer praising Jesus's diet of bread and fish as "balanced - he's got carbs and protein."

Another sells coaching sessions at $700 a month despite having no nutrition qualifications. Raw milk, sardines and sourdough, for the low price of your soul. I’ll stick with the McDonalds for now.

Another exciting Eurovision, where we scored a solid single point. Three years running bottom of the leaderboard. Join us next week for hopefully better news.

Alister & Meridyth