Defence secretary John Healey has insisted that the government’s decision to suspend some arms exports to Israel “won’t have a material impact” on the country’s security. Thirty out of 350 licences have been frozen over fears that certain weapons could be used in a way that violates international law; Benjamin Netanyahu said the “shameful” move would “embolden Hamas”. National pride in Britain has declined sharply over the past decade, according to the National Centre for Social Research. Fewer Britons now say they are proud of the country’s economic achievements and democratic processes compared with in 2013, and the number who say they are proud of the UK’s history has dropped from 86% to 64%. Downing Street has a new cat. The Starmer family’s new kitten joins their rescue cat Jojo and Larry, No 10’s venerable chief mouser. The PM says installing a cat flap is proving tricky, as “the only door out of our new flat is bomb-proof”.

The real reason Germany’s far-right are winning

The regional elections in Germany this weekend “turned out as bad as feared”, says Jan Hildebrand in Handelsblatt. The Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is classified as “right-wing extremist” by German intelligence agencies, comfortably won the state of Thuringia and finished a close second in neighbouring Saxony. This is a new low for the long-suffering coalition government: Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD and his governing partners, the FDP and the Greens, took just 13% of the vote between them in Saxony. Yet the ruling parties don’t seem to grasp the gravity of this “drastic” situation. The Greens have been “wallowing in self-pity”, and Scholz’s SPD patted itself on the back for “clearing the 5% hurdle”.

We’re undoubtedly at a “turning point”, says Christoph Hickmann in Der Spiegel. Ukraine and migration were the big issues at the polls, and the AfD is “friendly towards Moscow and unfriendly towards migrants”. But there’s more to it than that. The SPD is “no longer even remotely liberal” on migration – the first flight deporting Afghan asylum seekers with a criminal conviction back to their home country took off days before the election, but it made no difference. The frustration of ordinary Germans goes “much deeper”. It’s fed by everyday experiences: when roads and bridges are dilapidated, when there’s no phone signal, when “every train ride becomes a lottery”. There’s an overwhelming feeling that “everything is going downhill, nothing works any more”, and nobody in Berlin cares. A vote for the AfD was a vote against the whole system. If the coalition fails to listen, “they’re making a dangerous mistake”.

Keir Starmer has been criticised for accepting so many freebies as Labour leader, says Owen Jones in The Guardian: VIP passes to Taylor Swift, “multiple pairs of glasses” worth £2,485, and so on. But this “taste for comfort” is nothing new. During his five years as director of public prosecutions, taxpayers coughed up £250,000 for his travel costs, “including first-class flights and a chauffeur-driven car” – even though he lived just four miles from the office. In all, he claimed three times more expenses than his successor, who had the job for the same amount of time.

In a new online trend known as the “airport tray aesthetic”, Gen Z show-offs are loading up those grey polypropylene troughs from the security gate with artfully curated possessions and posting pictures on social media. As with all such trends, says The Guardian, brands have immediately jumped on the bandwagon: the publisher Faber has posted half a dozen trays on Instagram showcasing books it’s trying to sell, while the bag maker August Noa has displayed its designs surrounded by Chanel mules, hair clips and sunglasses.

The “unguided missile” shaping global affairs

Billionaire industrialists usually steer clear of political controversy, says Gideon Rachman in the FT. “Elon Musk is different.” In recent weeks he has endorsed Donald Trump and conducted a soft-soap interview with him on X; engaged in a public feud with the Supreme Court of Brazil (which banned X last week); declared English civil war “inevitable”; and responded to the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov by posting: “POV: It’s 2030 in Europe and you’re being executed for liking a meme.” All this gets plenty of media attention. But focusing on Musk’s social media output obscures his real geopolitical power.

The 53-year-old’s control of SpaceX, Starlink and Tesla has given him a central role in the biggest events of recent years. When Russia tried to knock out the Ukrainian internet during the 2022 invasion, Musk provided Kyiv with access to Starlink, his satellite internet service, keeping the country in the fight at a critical moment. Later, he restricted the service to stymie any Ukrainian effort to attack Russian forces in Crimea. More recently, Musk had to be persuaded by the Israeli government not to provide Starlink in Gaza, for fear of helping Hamas. Meanwhile, as Washington tries desperately to convince US tech bosses to diversify away from China, Musk now manufactures more than half of all new Teslas in a massive factory in Shanghai. And despite his willingness to insult Western leaders, he has always been “scrupulously respectful” towards Xi Jinping. Musk is an “unguided geopolitical missile”, whose whims can reshape world affairs. If he talks and acts like he’s more powerful than any government, “it may be because, in certain respects, that is true”.

The annual US Mullet Championship celebrates what it calls the “bold and outrageous hairstyle that is the mullet”, hosting a series of live contests and ultimately awarding $5,000 to the country’s wildest trim. This year’s winner, Todd Grubb, beat off the competition with his aptly named barnet “flow motion”. Other worthy competitors included Paul Edward Moore IV’s “School’s out for the summer”; Matthew Ray’s “Panhandle justice”; Holden Stevanus’s “Rebellious ruffles”; Alex McDuffie’s “Cougar bait”; and Matt Rollins’s “Le Baron Des Muléts”. See more deranged dos here.

Apparently the producers of the Bond franchise still haven’t found someone to replace Daniel Craig, says Giles Coren in The Times. But if they’re looking for the “only Englishman left in 2024 who smokes, drinks, drives fast cars with the specific aim of crashing them and doesn’t mind what he says about gays, ladies and foreigners”, he’s not hard to find. Admittedly, this one-of-a-kind screen talent is 64 – though that’s barely older than Roger Moore was for his final Bond film, A View to a Kill – and the tuxedo would need to be “cut with some generosity around the middle”. But he’s a successful writer, so he could probably help them out with the script, too. “His name is Clarkson. Jeremy Clarkson.”

It’s Hvaldimir, a beluga whale suspected of being a former Russian spy, who has been found dead in Norway. The cetaceous spook was first spotted in 2019 off the country’s northwestern coast, says Sky News, wearing what appeared to be a camera harness bearing the words “equipment St Petersburg”. Locals decided that he was trying to defect, naming him after the Norwegian word for whale, hval, and President Putin’s first name, Vladimir. Last week Hvaldimir’s body washed up in the southwestern port of Stavanger – with no signs of illness or external injuries. 🤨