Read more about “Tayvis” wedding rubbish here.
Each Monday, Alister and Meridyth deliver quick news and interesting stories from the past week to prepare you for the “water cooler” banter. They’ll also squabble over a current issue.
Alister is your classic Labour champion, while Meridyth (an American expat) brings a transatlantic, moderate view.
ALISTER: I rented a car and it didn’t come with a driver. MERIDYTH: Surely they would have told you before? ALISTER: Maybe, I’m just upset I spent all that money and I have nothing to chauffeur it. MERIDYTH: 🙄
Gif by workaholics on Giphy
ALISTER: Facewatch, the facial recognition firm used by 100+ shops including Sainsbury's, is rolling out 4 second police alerts for its worst offenders, having already flagged almost 300,000 repeat offenders to retailers this year.
MERIDYTH: Fair, filming's nothing new. My worry's accuracy. Facewatch already wrongly booted a shopper from a Sainsbury's for looking like someone else. Instant alerts sound great until the match is wrong and you're the one getting stopped.
ALISTER: One bad match doesn't scrap the whole system. They say it's 99.98% accurate. Four-second alerts mean police catch repeat offenders before they're out the door, not hours later scrubbing through old tape.
MERIDYTH: Sure, no system's perfect. But this one's live, and a wrong match means real police at your door. A govt-commissioned study found Black women wrongly flagged 9.9% of the time, white faces just 0.04%.
ALISTER: That's a fair number, but it's from police street cameras, not Facewatch's retail system. Audit Facewatch's own watchlists and publish the false matches, and the tech gets better fast. Oversight beats a ban.
MERIDYTH: Audit it properly and I'm listening. Until then, I'd rather police work harder to be right than lean on a camera that's wrong more for some faces than others. Bring your ID, just in case, apparently.
Scientists filmed bumblebees licking their tongues after sweet drinks and shaking their heads at bitter ones, suggesting the insects might actually enjoy or dislike flavours. Share this fact and the AM Squabble with anyone not scared of bumblebees.
⚽️ Football’s coming home. England beat Norway 2-1 in the World Cup quarter finals. 🎉 Re: the goal kick where the ball hit a camera wire, causing it to suddenly drop (leading to the equalising goal), FIFA has rejected the claim.
🛫 Taking it on the chin. Norwegian Air lost their bet with British Airways over the football match and had to change their logo to BA’s on their socials yesterday, but just for a day.
🔑 One vote short of No.10. Andy Burnham landed backing from 322 of Labour's 402 MPs Thurs, just 1 shy of the 323 needed to win outright. Unopposed, he's Labour leader by 17 July, PM by 20, the UK's 7th in a decade. Buckle up.
🗳️ Betting on himself. Nigel Farage purposely quit as Clacton's MP, forcing a by-election so voters can judge him on an undeclared £5m crypto gift, not Parliament. With every major party boycotting, satirist Count Binface is his biggest rival. Vote Binface? 😏
📺 Corrie changes owners. Sky has agreed to buy ITV's channels and ITVX for up to £1.6bn, creating a UK giant built to fight Netflix and YouTube. Coronation Street and Love Island stay free to air, but the deal might result in job cuts.
🤝 4 years, 1 reunion. King Charles hosted Prince Harry, Meghan & their kids Archie and Lilibet at Highgrove on Fri in the grandchildren’s first meeting in 4 yrs. No photos, no details, palace called it strictly private. Baby steps? 👀
🧵 Finally home. The Bayeux Tapestry, a stitched record of the 1066 Battle of Hastings most likely made in England (despite the French name) arrived back for its first UK visit in nearly 1,000 years. Opens at the British Museum in Sept, tickets already selling out.
🎾 GOOD NEWS… for Jannik Sinner and Linda Noskova, the new Wimbledon singles champions! BAD NEWS… for geography, after Trump called Iran the "Islamic Republic of Japan" at NATO, then Zelenskyy as "President Putin."
💥 The truce is dead. The US struck ~170 Iranian targets, Iran hit back at US bases in Bahrain and Kuwait, and Trump called the ceasefire "over" at NATO. Brace yourself at the pumps.
🦠 The fastest yet. DR Congo's Ebola outbreak has passed 600 deaths with 51 new cases in just 24hrs and reaching new areas fast. It's Africa's fastest-growing outbreak on record, and healthcare workers are threatening to strike over unpaid wages.
🔥 Spain's deadliest wildfire. A wildfire in Almería, a popular spot for British holidaymakers, killed at least 12 people, with up to 23 still missing. Some died fleeing by car after ignoring shelter-in-place orders. Andalusia's deadliest fire on record.
⚽ Rajoy discovers a convenient opinion. Spain's former PM wrote that France's World Cup squad plays brilliant football but has "no French" players, a thinly veiled dig ahead of Friday's semi-final. His own govt scrapped visa rules for Hispanic immigrants.
🍫 Smell before you lift. Men who skipped breakfast and sniffed 90% dark chocolate between sets managed about 18 extra leg-extension reps than those who sniffed water, without it feeling harder, and felt less hungry too.
🍄 Food for thought, literally. Move over Lion's Mane and Reishi, there's a new brain fungus in town. Adults 60-85 who ate maitake mushroom bread daily for 18 weeks saw memory scores improve. More snack than cure, but worth a try.
👶 Having a daughter rewires dad. A study of Japanese fathers found those whose 1st child was a girl became more supportive of equal pay, separate surnames and even female royal succession. Raising a daughter teaches you things no manifesto can.
✈️ Worst window seat ever. A 61yo man was partly sucked out of a Ryanair window after an engine part struck the fuselage on takeoff from Greece. His wife held his feet until passengers hauled him back in. Everyone's fine, but nobody wants that seat again.
🚩 Fake outrage, real followers. Experts found a Facebook page stoking anti migrant anger in Britain is actually run from Sri Lanka and is 97 percent likely to be AI generated. Facebook was told a month ago and has taken zero action since.
🤖 Fighting fire with more fire. Reddit is now using AI to catch the AI generated spam flooding its platform, blocking 23 million spam views daily. They claim it cut users' spam exposure by 20 percent, which mostly proves how bad the problem got first.
By Meridyth
Too hot to cook? Turning on my oven or stove has been the last thing I’ve wanted to do. But one can only eat so many ready meals and salads.
So here’s a non-salad recipe that’s actually satisfying… Creamy Avocado Chicken. Easy and delish. I had mine on sourdough, but it’s also good with tortilla chips.
2 ripe medium avocados
160ml mayonnaise (or 80ml plain Greek yogurt + 80ml mayonnaise)
1 large stalk celery, finely chopped (optional)
1/2 medium white onion or red onion, finely chopped
Some chopped coriander
30ml freshly squeezed lime juice (~1 medium lime), plus more as needed
Dash of salt, plus more as needed
~Half of one rotisserie chicken, shredded
Freshly ground black pepper
Tortilla chips or toasted bread, for serving (optional)
Enjoy!
By Meridyth
In one of the most exciting comeback matches of the World Cup, this man streamed the game on his tiny laptop screen for people in the back to see.
But you’ve got to wonder, given how small his screen is… why didn’t anyone else in the back think to buy a Wi-Fi pass? 🤔
Whew, you made it!
With amber and yellow heat health alerts active across the country, prepare for more 33°C-35°C weather. We'll be back next week with another Squabble and more fans.
Alister & Meridyth