UK government bonds rallied this morning after Keir Starmer said Rachel Reeves would remain Chancellor “for a very long time”. The prime minister made the pledge after failing to back a tearful Reeves during PMQs yesterday, triggering a sharp sell-off in gilts and the pound, as investors feared she would be sacked and replaced by someone less fiscally serious. Reeves and Starmer shared a hug this morning at a hospital in east London, announcing the government’s 10-year plan to reform the NHS. Watching the Chancellor cry in the House of Commons was “heartbreaking and very troubling”, says Judith Woods in The Daily Telegraph. Gone was the “shiny helmet of blow-dried hair” – she looked “sleep deprived, diminished and dishevelled”, as she fought to stop her lips wobbling and blinked through the tears rolling down her face. It begs the question: “Why on earth was she forced to sit on the front bench in the televised Westminster bear pit, for all the world to see?”

Keir Starmer’s worst enemy is the Labour Party

Keir Starmer is rightly blamed for the chaos consuming his party, says Janan Ganesh in the FT. He has the intelligence and the work rate of a prime minister, “but not the character”. Whether it was against Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership or “dogmatic identity politics”, he let braver colleagues lead the fight, then “swept in at the end as though he were with them all along”. So it’s no surprise that he so quickly capitulated to the left of his party over entirely necessary welfare reforms they thought cruel. The one thing you can say in Starmer’s favour: “He is preferable to his party.”

Most Labour MPs are simply incapable of making hard choices, especially about public money. Britain’s sickness benefits bill contributes to our “high debt, low growth and tax burden”. None of the ways to fix it – cutting payments, limiting eligibility – is painless. This particular reform may have been “misjudged in its details”, but don’t assume Labour MPs would have backed a better one. Starmer’s plans to reform the NHS will evaporate for the same reason: Labour won’t support anything that incommodes the unions to benefit “mere patients”. Even Tony Blair struggled to get modest public sector reforms past his party, and he was a “political natural”, spending historic sums as a sweetener. “Starmer hasn’t a chance.” For all her shortcomings, Rachel Reeves is at least interested in “financial control” – her eventual replacement will not be. The problem is, there is no way out of Britain’s economic malaise that doesn’t involve a “more efficient state”. Starmer is too weak to enact that change and his party is too blinkered to even see the need. “Of the two dysfunctions, his is the less criminal.”

👶 🍼 Starmer’s “brittleness” should finish off the idea that a tough start in life naturally steels people for adversity. Early trauma can have that effect, but it can also instil the opposite: a “heightened sensitivity, an understandable reluctance to volunteer for more struggle”. Notably, the politicians in the modern era who have least minded conflict – “Donald Trump, who relishes it, and David Cameron, who barely noticed it” – were pampered as youths.

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The Labour party is facing calls to yet again remove the whip from Diane Abbott, says Samuel Montgomery in The Daily Telegraph, after the veteran MP accused the “Jewish Defence Force” of murdering Palestinians in a hastily deleted post on X. The Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington – who seems to have let her mask slip while intending to refer to the Israel Defence Forces – was previously suspended after claiming Jews could not be subject to racism.

Trend forecasters have been saying for years that Gen Z has “turned its back on drinking en masse”, says Madeleine Speed in the FT. But a new study of more than 26,000 people found that 73% of the supposedly abstinent cohort had consumed alcohol in the last six months, up from 66% two years ago – “the biggest increase of any generation”. And 42% said their mates are getting on it more than they used to. The researchers say the reason is simple: booze is expensive. The oldest members of Gen Z are still only 27, but as they start earning more, they start spending more on getting plastered.

We should both thank Netanyahu and deplore him

It’s understandable that, buoyed by his success in Iran, Benjamin Netanyahu is now “seeking to reshape the Middle East”, says Denis Charbit in Le Monde. In his view, this is the reward for doing the “dirty work” of breaking the axis of Hamas, Hezbollah, Tehran and the Assad regime in Syria. He doesn’t expect thanks from the peoples he has helped to liberate – and whether the Iranian people decide to take advantage of the blows dealt to their hated leadership remains to be seen – but Netanyahu can “note with satisfaction” that he has secured for his own people “more conciliatory neighbours” on several fronts. Handled sensibly, there is no reason this should not lead to a “virtuous circle” that ushers in a “beneficial transformation” across the region.

It is entirely possible – though all too rare – to recognise this, and at the same time unequivocally deplore Netanyahu’s “unrestrained war” in Gaza, with its massive destruction, heavy casualties and “deliberate lack of any political perspective other than annexation”. The Israeli PM is trying to “destroy the future of the Palestinians” far more than he is trying to rescue hostages or replace Hamas with a responsible alternative. His “intoxication with power” has also led him to “shatter Israel’s checks and balances” – from the Supreme Court to robust media scrutiny – which may leave the country “permanently repressive and illiberal”. Unless wisdom triumphs over hubris – ideally in the form of a new, peace-seeking leader in the spirit of Yitzhak Rabin – the region could just as easily slide back into disorder. As hard as many seem to find it, “we must support Netanyahu when he weakens the Iranian threat and fiercely oppose him when he destroys Gaza”. For everyone’s sake.

For the first time in the tournament’s 148-year history, Wimbledon 2025 has no line judges, says Hugh Muir in The Guardian. Instead of Ralph Lauren-clad sentries posted around the border of Centre Court, “barking their assessments”, we now have sharp-eyed robots analysing mountains of footage to call the shots with perfect accuracy. But sometimes I think “perfect is not worth having”. These gizmos calculating their infallible conclusions are robbing sport of its “flow, joy and spontaneity”. Yes, it’s annoying when a referee or umpire makes a dodgy call, but human fallibility is what makes it a “flesh-and-blood endeavour”. No, people are not perfect, but we’ll miss them now they’re gone.

If you’ve got a problem to solve, “you might want to sleep on it”, says Smithsonian Magazine. “For about 20 minutes.” New research suggests that taking a “quick, deep nap” could help produce “eureka” moments. For the study, participants were asked to complete a task that involved watching “rapidly flashing dot patterns” on a screen and using a keyboard to indicate the direction of the dots. Halfway through, the researchers added a secret trick: linking the direction of the dots with specific colours. Only one in six participants noticed the connection. But after a 20-minute kip, almost all the others noticed too.

It’s a “Yokozuna Burger”, says Nikkei Asia: a 1,900-calorie whopper inspired by Sumo wrestlers, and named after the ancient pastime’s highest rank. The bulky burger – produced by Burger King Japan to promote the national sport – contains five beef patties, four slices of cheddar cheese, bacon, tomato, lettuce and pickles, and drips with sauces including mayonnaise, mustard and ketchup. Customers struggling to get their chops round the massive meal can ask staff to cut it in two, and anyone who manages to force the whole lot down will be given a sticker that reads: “I did it.” Totally worth it.