The US has launched a fresh wave of strikes on Iran, hitting missile launch sites and boats it claims were laying mines. Over the weekend, hawkish Republicans reacted badly to details of an emerging deal between the US and Iran which would see Tehran re-open the Strait of Hormuz without charging a toll and promise to curb its nuclear programme in exchange for phased relief from sanctions. Nicola Sturgeon’s estranged husband, Peter Murrell, has pleaded guilty to embezzling around £400,000 from SNP funds which he used to bankroll a lavish lifestyle. Across a 12-year crime spree, the former chief executive of the Scottish pro-independence party used political donations to purchase items including a £120,000 motorhome, an £81,000 Jaguar and four coffee machines totalling £8,000. The UK enjoyed its hottest May day ever yesterday with a record temperature of 34.8C recorded at London’s Kew Gardens. Last night was officially classed as a “tropical night” by the Met Office, meaning the mercury didn’t fall below 20C.

Perhaps the only politician in the world who cares about Net Zero more than Ed Miliband is Mark Carney, says Robert Colvile in The Sunday Times. As governor of the Bank of England, Carney changed its remit to focus on climate. He later became a UN climate envoy and made the issue the centrepiece of his book on saving the world. And what’s he doing now as Canadian PM? Scrapping carbon taxes, abandoning a planned emissions cap and fast-tracking gas projects. Carney’s not alone. Norway is reopening three gasfields it shut in 1998 and Denmark has delayed closing its oilfields. Germany, Italy, Japan and South Korea are returning to coal. Across the world, governments are scrambling to boost supply and curb demand in response to the Iran crisis. And here? “Not a sausage.”

Even if we succeed in completely decarbonising the electricity grid, fossil fuels will still be needed for the foreseeable future: heating homes, fuelling cars, powering factories, smelters and data centres. In 2024, some 44% of our energy effectively came from abroad – the highest proportion for a decade – with Norway our biggest supplier. In other words, we’re paying the “cuddly, eco-friendly” Norwegians billions for oil and gas from the very North Sea basin we won’t exploit, thanks to “a ludicrous piece of climate arithmetic” counting emissions from what we drill but not what we import. All this would be easy to fix: approval for the Jackdaw and Rosebank oil and gas fields, which industry insiders say could be up and running in the next year, is “sitting on Miliband’s desk”. But while other centre-left governments shift from “saving the planet to keeping the lights on”, Britain won’t budge. “The world has changed. But Ed Miliband hasn’t.”

Donald Trump has developed a lucrative habit of investing in companies shortly before publicly talking them up, says Judd Legum on Substack. He purchased as much as $215,000 worth of shares in a medical supply company called Thermo Fisher in the month before he publicly urged pharmaceutical companies to work with it. He told Fox News the semiconductor firm Micron was “one of the hottest companies” shortly after buying stock worth up to $530,000. Nine days after splurging between $1m and $5m on Dell shares, he urged an audience in Georgia to “go out and buy a Dell Computer”, saying the company made “phenomenal products”.

Feature films have an average of 4.5 producers today, says Stephen Follows on Substack, up from three in 2000 and just 1.5 in the 1950s and 1960s. Part of this is because of movie stars increasingly moonlighting as producers, from Clint Eastwood to Margot Robbie. But it’s also something actors often demand for status and attention. Amanda Seyfried recently said she had no idea her agent had negotiated her an executive producer role on the 2025 film The Housemaid until she saw her name on the call sheet during filming. “It’s one of those vanity credits,” she told The Graham Norton Show. “I didn’t do shit to make that movie.”

If Andy Burnham wins the Makerfield by-election and replaces Keir Starmer in No 10, says James Kirkup in The Daily Telegraph, his very first move should be to call a general election. That may sound mad given Labour’s dismal poll ratings. But politics is about “choosing the least bad option”. Every prime minister’s popularity peaks in their first few months in power; after that, “entropy sets in”. For Burnham, time in office would only expose the gulf between running Manchester and running Britain – particularly given his well-established reluctance to make tough calls that make at least some people unhappy.

Case in point is Gordon Brown, who decided against calling a snap election during his honeymoon period in 2007 and saw his reputation “corroded by contact with the highest office”. Boris Johnson sensibly went to the polls early in 2019, boiling his pitch down to: “Get Brexit Done. Fund The NHS.” Burnham’s version would be: “Keep Farage Out. Make Things Better.” It’s not a programme for government, but if he’s “better at vibes than policy” then he should grab the mandate before voters realise. Plus, Reform UK isn’t ready for an election: candidates, local associations and ground operations are still being built. And while a “Burnham Bounce” probably wouldn’t deliver an outright majority, it would give Labour a “racing chance” of ending up as the largest party and forming a coalition with the Greens and the Lib Dems. Besides, what’s the alternative? Limp on until 2028 or 2029, hoping something will turn up? That’s two or three years of being taunted by Farage, “the most effective opposition politician in modern British history”, and of Reform getting its ducks in a row for poll day. “Better to roll the dice early.”

💔🗳️ Burnham’s hopes of winning Makerfield are being boosted by the former Reform MP Rupert Lowe, says Helena Horton in The Guardian. A Survation poll of 369 constituents puts Lowe’s far-right party, Restore, in third place on 7%, behind Reform on 40% and Labour on 43%. Assuming most of those Restore supporters would otherwise be backing Reform, their votes could make all the difference in a tight race. As Reform’s official X account posted: “Vote Restore, get Burnham”.

In 1972, I bought my first pint of bitter for 12 pence, says Charles Moore in The Spectator. Adjusted for inflation, that is the equivalent of £1.45 today – yet a pint in London now sells for a staggering £10. “What went wrong?” One factor is that over the years we’ve shifted away from policies designed to “please the working man” and the price of a pint is no longer a “major issue of concern” in the budget. That whopping increase over half a century is exactly what fuels Reform and “explains why Nigel Farage is so often photographed with a pint of bitter in his hand”.

Typos used to be the ultimate shorthand for careless work, says Michael Waters in The Atlantic, but with the rise of AI, the old hallmark of sloppiness is “getting a new gloss”. Job applicants are scattering them into their cover letters to prove that they, not ChatGPT, wrote them, while celebrities and CEOs who send out error-ridden Instagram stories and emails don’t get a scolding but praise for sounding authentic. On some dating apps, people are so averse to AI-generated profiles that typos are apparently no longer an “automatic repellant”.

It’s Harry Heasman, says Shivon Watson in The Mirror, an Essex care home resident who has just become the oldest person ever to complete a “wing walk”. On Saturday, the 98-year-old – who a year ago couldn’t walk up stairs unaided – was strapped to the roof of a 1940s biplane, which took off from the Imperial War Museum at Duxford and reached an altitude of 3,280ft for around six minutes. The superannuated stuntman, who now says he wants to run the London marathon, was fundraising for the Lennox Children’s Cancer Fund and has so far raised £7,850. Chip in here.