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Britain is like a sailing boat in the middle of the Channel, struggling for direction. It needs a bold new captain and a new crewAs we approach the seventh anniversary of Britain's fateful vote, on 23 June 2016, to leave the EU, the state of UK-EU relations is superficially encouraging and structurally depressing.Britain is like a sailing boat faffing around in the middle of the Channel. Most of its passengers want it to steer closer to the continental coast and even the captain seems willing to make some modest adjustments to his course. But strong winds and currents are pushing the boat further away from the continent. It will require a much more decisive change of course from a new captain, after a different crew comes onboard next year, for the forces of convergence to prevail over those of divergence. Continue reading...

Officials set up treatment area' in Miramar and warn residents the creatures also pose a health risk by carrying a parasiteAn invasion of giant African land snails has alarmed residents in south Florida, where authorities have established a quarantine area to try to deal with the destructive pests.The invasive snails have voracious appetites and consume at least 500 species of plants, according to Florida's department of agriculture, which is fearful for the state's lucrative growing industries of citrus and other fruits and vegetables. Continue reading...

Rising costs have no doubt played a part, but so has natural justice: a sandwich should never be sharp, especially if it's only masquerading as nutritiousDo you know how many things have been invented since Otto Frederick Rohwedder perfected his bread-slicing machine in 1928? Like, loads. There have been at least 10 iPhones since then, plus a machine that can literally harness the power of the stars. Yet when someone wants to hype up a new product today, they don't say, it's the best thing since Bluetooth" or the rocket that took man to the moon" or even the polio vaccine". They say it's the best thing since sliced bread - because, nearly a century on, we still haven't invented anything better.Soft, pillowy white bread that sticks to the roof of your mouth when untoasted - that you squish into a ball and bite into as a kid, that you pack in lunchboxes and on picnics and fry in beaten eggs - is something many of us know is worth dying earlier for. It is a comfort food so comforting that, according to Warburtons chairman Jonathan Warburton, sales rose during Covid and the cost-of-living crisis. The staple white sliced bread is most certainly not dead," said the breadman after consumer behaviour firm Circana found that sales of pre-packed white loaves are up 0.6% compared with this time last year - while sales of all other surveyed bread categories declined.Amelia Tait is a freelance features writer Continue reading...

Docking 75 years ago, they had no idea of the difficulties ahead. This country made nothing easy. It should salute their achievementLook again at that picture taken 75 years ago at Tilbury docks. Look at those people as they posed for the historic photographs. Look at their faces; wearied from a month of travel, etched with joy, hope, bewilderment and lurking stage left, just out of sight, foreboding.As the descendants of that Windrush generation, we get to look at those faces every day in the pictures of our own families that we hang on the walls and in our front rooms. They have the same posed smiles, the demeanour of all adventurers who smile at the outset of an uncertain journey. There were 492 of them and they knew they had to impress and account for themselves. The attire was pin-sharp, whatever could be said of them on arrival, it was not to be that they were slovenly. They knew enough to show that they came in peace. Some sang and exuded bonhomie for Pathe News, but others interviewed on the day sought to echo the self-effacement and deprecation they saw as essentially English. They made the best of it; but they didn't know much at all. They would have to learn much quickly in turbulent decades.Hugh Muir is the Guardian's executive editor, Opinion Continue reading...

The Myrtle Beach Safari owner was accused of illegally buying endangered lion cubs for display and profit at his zooA wild animal trainer featured in the popular Netflix series Tiger King has been convicted of wildlife trafficking in Virginia, the attorney general's office announced Tuesday.Bhagavan Doc" Antle was accused of illegally buying endangered lion cubs in Frederick county, Virginia, for display and profit at his South Carolina zoo, Jason Miyares, the attorney general, said in a news release. A jury convicted Antle on Friday of two felony counts each of wildlife trafficking and conspiring to wildlife traffic. Continue reading...

After decades of complaints from staff and students at Jordan high school, Atlas Metals was hit with 22 felony countsThe owners of a metal recycling plant operating next to a south LA high school campus have been hit with 22 felony charges, after decades of complaints that the facility was contaminating school grounds with lead and other toxic waste.Announcing the charges on Wednesday, the Los Angeles district attorney George Gascon said that staff and students at Jordan high school in Watts, a predominantly Black and Latino neighbourhood, had been potentially exposed to dangerous levels of pollutants on a daily basis". Continue reading...

Air national guard member, 21, enters pleas in Massachusetts federal court days after being indicted by grand juryJack Teixeira, the Massachusetts air national guard member accused of leaking highly classified military documents on a social media platform, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to federal felony charges.Teixeira, 21, entered the pleas during a hearing in Worcester's federal court days after he was indicted by a grand jury on six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information. Each count is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Continue reading...

Invitation raises possibility Yasir al-Rumayyan could be questioned under oath about execution of Jamal KhashoggiThe powerful governor of Saudi Arabia's state-backed investment fund has been invited to testify before a Senate committee in the wake of a proposed merger between the Saudi-backed LIV Tour and the PGA, raising the possibility the executive could be questioned under oath about issues ranging from the future of golf to the execution of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.Yasir al-Rumayyan, governor of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, was invited to testify on 11 July by the Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations, whose chairman, the Democratic senator Dick Blumenthal, is one of the toughest critics of Saudi Arabia on Capitol Hill.This article was amended on 21 June 2023 to clarify that Yasir al-Rumayyan is the governor of Saudi Arabia's state-backed investment fund, rather than the chairman. Continue reading...

Approval means US becomes second country in the world, after Singapore, to allow sale of meat grown from animal cellsLab-grown meat will be able to be sold to US consumers for the first time, with the federal government granting permission for two separate businesses to offer their chicken products to people.Both Upside Foods and Good Meat said on Wednesday they had been given permission by the US Department of Agriculture to produce and sell chicken that has been grown from a cluster of sample animal cells in large metal vats. Continue reading...

Rescue operations searching for the Titan submersible have focused their efforts on a remote area of the North Atlantic where a series of underwater noises have been detected. They were detected by Canadian P-3 aircraft on Tuesday and again on Wednesday, US Coast Guard officials said at a press conference.Experts have not yet identified the source of these noises and officials have warned the sounds may not have originated from the missing vessel

Daniel DJ' Rodriguez shouts Trump won!' after being sentenced for attacking Michael Fanone at Capitol in 2021A California man who drove a stun gun into the police officer Michael Fanone's neck during one of the most violent clashes of the January 6 riot was sentenced on Wednesday to more than 12 years in prison.Daniel DJ" Rodriguez yelled, Trump won!" as he was led out of the courtroom where the US district judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced him to 12 years and seven months behind bars for his role in the attack on Congress. Continue reading...

Finding in Gallup poll comes just before first anniversary of supreme court overturning Roe v WadeMore than a quarter of registered US voters say they will only vote for candidates who share their beliefs on abortion, according to a poll released on Wednesday, a total (28%) one point higher than last year.The survey, from Gallup, was released before the first anniversary of Dobbs v Jackson, by which conservatives on the supreme court removed the right to abortion that had been safeguarded since Roe v Wade in 1973. Continue reading...

We should save honours for the unsung and uncelebrated - and take our time checking out the judgment of those bound for the House of LordsIt was once my privilege to play a round at Pyle and Kenfig Golf Club. If you're ever on the M4 in south Wales between Porthcawl and Port Talbot, look over the grassy dunes towards the sea and know that my balls are in there somewhere. I was playing with a friend, a retired butcher from Neath, and a couple of his mates. One of these old boys had been something to do with education; I think he had spent his working life with the local education authority. Nice chap.On our way round we discussed matters various - his career, the weather, where the hell my ball was and so on. At the conclusion of one of our chats, he said he would give me his card. At first I thought he meant his golfing scorecard but it eventually became clear that he was talking about some kind of business card.Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Little Liberty', a bite-sized version of the New York City landmark has moved to the National Building Arts Center in Sauget, IllinoisLittle Liberty, a miniature Statue of Liberty long a beloved feature of the Upper West Side in New York City, has officially moved to the midwest.The bite-sized version of the New York City landmark has moved to the National Building Arts Center in Sauget, Illinois, a 141-person village just outside St Louis, the St Louis Post Dispatch reported. Continue reading...

Our antiquated ideas about what an elite athlete should be are evolving. And the league's foreign stars are showing there is more than one way to winBasketball is not the main thing in my life. And probably never gonna be."Those are not the words you might expect to hear from the Denver Nuggets' point-center Nikola Joki: a bonafide superstar, two-time league MVP, who was, at the time of these comments, about to head into his (and his franchise's) first ever NBA finals (where he would win, handily, for that matter). But Joki is not the type of superstar we've come to expect in the NBA. He has something that has been rare, and even frowned upon, among athletes of his caliber: perspective. So, in a world where work/life balance is a hot button topic, and we've recently lived through a pandemic that flipped our lives upside down, why are his sentiments so polarizing? And are they a true anomaly, or a bellwether? Continue reading...

Federal judge says names of congressman's two guarantors will be made public at 12pm ET on ThursdayThe two people who guaranteed bail for George Santos will have their names publicly revealed, a federal judge ruled, rejecting the indicted Republican congressman's claim that the disclosure could threaten the guarantors' safety.Joanna Seybert, a US district judge in Central Islip, New York, said the names would be made public on Thursday at 12pm ET. Continue reading...

Whoever wins in the confrontation between the former prime minister and the army, both sides are to blame for trying to gag criticism

More people are feeling backed into a corner after the supreme court struck down the nationwide right to abortion last yearThe last thing Jana wanted was to go back on hormonal birth control. But after Roe v Wade was overturned, prompting abortion bans in her state and ones around her, she felt she didn't have a choice.Jana, who asked to go by a pseudonym because she doesn't want her politically conservative family to know her story, started using birth control at 13. For nearly a decade, she tried different kinds of hormonal contraception to find the one that least exacerbated anxiety and depression. Her weight fluctuated, making her eating disorder even worse. After nearly a decade, her therapist suggested she get off birth control altogether. It worked. She felt in touch with her adult body for the first time in her life, and her mental health was finally in a good place. She started using apps to track her menstrual cycle, to tell her when she was ovulating and should avoid sex or use a condom. Continue reading...

The Biden administration will try to strengthen US-India ties while the Indian leader looks to shore up votes for next year's electionThe symbolism of the visit will be hard to avoid. As Narendra Modi arrives in Washington DC on Wednesday - the capital of a country he was once prohibited from visiting for almost 10 years - he will join the ranks of Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela and Volodymyr Zelenskiy as one of the few leaders to address a joint session of Congress more than once.Statements from US officials ahead of the visit have been rapturous on the subject of US-India relations, praising the significant defence partnership" and describing it as a unique connection between the world's oldest and largest democracies". Before his departure from India, Modi said: This special invitation is a reflection of the vigour and vitality of the partnership between our democracies." Continue reading...

Underwater noises detected by Canadian aircraft, as oxygen levels reduce to around 24 hours of breathable air. Plus, finding joy in life without children

Far from being persecuted, Trump has been handled with vastly more deference than anyone else would beDonald Trump's indictment earlier this month on 37 counts related to mishandling classified information set off a firestorm on the political right. Conservatives accused Joe Biden of using the justice system to prosecute his main political rival and attempting to steal" the 2024 election. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, promised to hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable". In short, the right wants us to believe that Biden and his administration will stop at nothing to put Trump in jail as quickly as possible.In fact, the exact opposite is true. Worried about just this type of accusation, the justice department under Merrick Garland and the FBI have approached their investigations of Trump much too cautiously. Far from being persecuted because of who he is, Trump's status as a former president and as the unofficial leader of the Republican party have led to him being handled with vastly more deference than anyone else would be. The result has been a series of delays and missteps which may allow Trump to escape accountability once again.Andrew Gawthorpe is a historian of the United States at Leiden University. He hosts a podcast called America Explained and writes a newsletter of the same name Continue reading...

Keith Flores says he never heard from Catholic church superiors to whom the priest reported his transgressions in 1999

Support for organized labor is soaring. Yet the biggest US union coalition endorsed Biden without asking anything in returnAt a splashy event in Philadelphia last weekend, the AFL-CIO, America's largest union coalition, announced its endorsement of Joe Biden for president in 2024. You may notice that the election is still 17 months away. This was the earliest endorsement in the AFL-CIO's history, amounting to an all-in bet by organized labor that the interests of the Democratic president are identical to its own. The problem with this is not so much that labor might have decided to endorse a Republican - whoever that party's candidate is, they are sure to despise the concept of working-class empowerment - but rather the fact that the endorsement is an implicit acceptance of the status quo.These union leaders believe that the Biden White House as currently constituted is the best they can hope to get. Indeed, they are overjoyed by what they have gotten already. It is this lack of ambition that is the labor movement's biggest flaw. They have been beaten down for so long that they have lost their ability to believe that the world they deserve will ever be real. This is a sort of trauma, induced by a decades-long decline in union power. By settling for what they have, unfortunately, they have forsaken their leverage to ask for more.Hamilton Nolan is a labor journalist based in New York Continue reading...

Christian Grey types are being supplanted in romance novels by heroes with a sweet, golden retriever energy - and some conservatives aren't happyBuckle up, ladies - it's squishy boi summer. According to a recent piece in Publishers Weekly, the male leads of romance novels aren't quite as hard as they used to be. The hot new industry trend is books featuring squishy-centred men" AKA sweet cinnamon roll heroes" and golden retrievers".Perhaps you're thinking that sounds ... sticky? And sort of slobbery? Look, I don't know all the sordid details but I can assure you that in romance novel lingo a cinnamon roll" means a sweet, supportive hero: a gentleman in the streets, who irons your sheets. That sort of thing. And a golden retriever" is an upbeat love interest with a floppy, friendly energy. The opposite, in other words, of an aggressive, domineering alpha such as Christian Grey from Fifty Shades of Grey.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Pause on loan payments set to end in October as political fight over Biden's forgiveness plan rages on and has been tied up in courtsMany Americans are dreading the return of interest accrual and the restarting of their monthly student loan payments as a huge political fight over Joe Biden's debt forgiveness plan rages on.Americans have $1.635tn in federal student loan debt, held by 43.8 million borrowers. Some 26 million people applied or were automatically accepted for student debt relief under Biden's plan before applications were suspended because of lawsuits launched by Republicans. Continue reading...

US president's comments come just as two countries seek to dial down intense rivalryChina's foreign ministry has accused the US president of political provocation" after Joe Biden called Xi Jinping a dictator".The comments seriously violated China's political dignity", foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Wednesday. Continue reading...

The world must convince autocrats that if they attack their neighbours they will ultimately foot the bill for everythingWe have no doubt that the war with Russia will end with Ukraine's victory. But when the war is over, the big question will be who will pay for its consequences? Who will pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine? Today an international Ukraine recovery conference begins in London. This is how we see it.There is not a snowball's chance in hell that Putin's Russia will pay Ukraine reparations for the destruction.Denys Shmyhal is the prime minister of UkraineDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

The GOP is obsessed with the president's son, but the party's attacks make it difficult to discern legitimate concern from crazy conspiraciesSweetheart deal!" Two-tiered justice!" Mere traffic ticket!"Republicans had their applause lines ready on Tuesday when Joe Biden's son Hunter struck a plea deal over unpaid taxes, and gun possession while being a drug user, that is likely to keep him out of prison. Continue reading...

The AI tool won't offer a healing touch or resolve existential grief - but I will still be telling trainees to consult the chatbot in trying timesAre you getting nausea?No. Continue reading...

Ruling states that the prohibition violated due process and equal protection rights of transgender youth and familiesA federal judge struck down Arkansas' first-in-the-nation ban on gender-affirming care for children as unconstitutional Tuesday, the first ruling to overturn such a prohibition as a growing number of Republican-led states adopt similar restrictions.US district Judge Jay Moody issued a permanent injunction against the Arkansas law, which would have prohibited doctors from providing gender-affirming hormone treatment, puberty blockers or surgery to anyone under 18. Continue reading...

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Most unhoused people are from in state and desire to find housing, while Black and older people are disproportionately affectedNearly half of all unhoused adults in California are over the age of 50, with Black residents dramatically overrepresented, according to the largest study of the state's homeless population in decades.University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) research released on Tuesday also revealed that 90% of the population lost their housing in California, with 75% of them now living in the same county where they were last housed. The study further found that nearly nine out of 10 people reported that the cost of housing was the main barrier to leaving homelessness. Continue reading...

The case has already resulted in a political uproar as Republicans express outrage over plea dealHunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, will plead guilty to two counts of misdemeanor tax crimes and accept a deal with prosecutors related to a separate illegal firearm possession charge. The charges and plea deal, which authorities announced in a court filing on Tuesday, will end a five-year criminal investigation into Biden.The case has already resulted in a political uproar as Republicans, fresh off Donald Trump's second criminal indictment, express outrage over the plea deal and appear eager to redirect public attention to Hunter Biden. The agreement between 53-year-old Biden and authorities will likely mean he avoids any jail time, as well as set up a frequent talking point for the 2024 presidential election. Continue reading...

US Coast Guard officials have said the missing submersible Titan carrying five people has about 40 hours of breathable air left. Capt Jamie Frederick was addressing reporters in Boston on the third day of the search for the vessel and crew members that disappeared on Sunday on a dive to the wreck of the Titanic, 12,500ft below the surface of the Atlantic. He stressed that a complex search-and-rescue operation covering 7,600 sq miles - and involving US Coast Guard and US navy aircraft and vessels, as well as resources from the Canadian military - was under way but had so far not yielded any results

Prosecutors say Operation Fox Hunt' is a Beijing effort to pressure Chinese nationals in the US to return home to face chargesA former New York City police sergeant and two Chinese citizens living in the US have been convicted of various charges in a trial showcasing Chinese efforts to pressure expatriates into returning home, part of a program called Operation Fox Hunt".Michael McMahon, who now works as a private investigator, Zheng Congying and Zhu Yong were accused of taking part in scare tactics aimed at a former Chinese official. Continue reading...

President's son will plead guilty to two counts wilful failure to pay federal income tax, DoJ says in court filing

News that a quick siesta can improve cognitive function is little surprise to those who've seen the results of my 2pm dozeSome anecdotal evidence regarding daytime napping and brain health: last week, directly after lunch, I turned on the television to check the cricket before returning to work. When I woke up on the sofa 15 minutes later, the crossword puzzle in my lap was complete.These findings are a little hard to quantify, because I slept through them. Perhaps I completed the puzzle just before I conked out. It's possible, I suppose, that a mischievous person stole the crossword from my lap, filled it in and put it back. Of course I prefer the idea that I finished the crossword myself, while unconscious, because it reinforces my assertion that I'm getting things done even when my eyes are closed.Tim Dowling is a regular Guardian contributor Continue reading...

Archetypes, synergies, books about benches - try as they might to move on, the eyeballs come only when they mine their royal pastsIf you enjoy podcasts in the victimless-crime genre, do take a few minutes to catch Spotify's head of podcast innovation and monetisation calling Prince Harry and his wife Meghan fucking grifters" . This chap Bill Simmons was speaking out shortly after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex parted ways" with Spotify, having made a single series as the result of a supposedly multi-year deal signed back in 2020, which was at the time valued at around $20m.For whatever reason, Spotify and the Sussexes seem to have decided they simply couldn't face another backbreaking day down the content mine together, which means we are left solely with Archetypes. Should you have yet to download it, this is a 12-parter - though feels longer - presented by Meghan, and centred on a series of stereotypical labels that are attached to women to hold them back. Diva", singleton", ambitious" ... that sort of thing. Incredible to break things off here, just when the perfect season two opener presents itself in the form of the label fucking grifter".Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Justice department promises speedy trial in Florida following a 37-count indictment, but lengthy delay is still widely expectedUS district judge Aileen Cannon has set an initial trial date of 14 August in Florida on former US president Donald Trump's federal charges of willful retention of classified government records and obstruction of justice, according to a court order on Tuesday.The justice department's special counsel in the case, Jack Smith, promised a speedy trial after a 37-count indictment charging Trump with willfully retaining classified government records and obstructing justice. Continue reading...

Angela Paxton did not say whether or not she will recuse herself on vote to remove state attorney general Ken Paxton from officeTexas state lawmaker Angela Paxton said Monday she will carry out my duties" ahead of the historic impeachment trial of her husband, Republican state attorney general Ken Paxton, but did not outright say whether or not she would recuse herself on a vote to remove him from office.Breaking weeks of public silence since her husband was impeached in May, Angela Paxton did not address the accusations in a statement released by her office. Continue reading...

Boris Johnson's party antics of course deserve scrutiny, but a chief architect of our woeful Covid response has virtually got away with itIn the alternative universe in which I advise David Cameron, here's what I would have proffered in advance of his appearance at the Covid inquiry: offer a concession of failure on the part of your administration, presenting an image of humility without inviting public anger. Crucially, deflect attention away from the policies you pursued that stripped Britain of its defences when the pandemic hit.Nothing fits the bill better than expressing regret that, in discussions about possible pandemics, there was too much of a focus on influenza at the expense of coronaviruses. It's calibrated to steal headlines. Rather than say David Cameron denies austerity left Britain unprepared for Covid", there will be a sense of you looking reflective about how things could have been done differently.Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Edward Leigh's meeting with Hungary's far-right PM is part of a wider pattern - let's not be naive about what is going onThe Conservative MP Sir Edward Leigh earlier this month tweeted a picture of him and his colleagues Christopher Chope and Ian Liddell-Grainger - all of them ERG members who drove the Brexit agenda - standing beside Hungary's far-right prime minister, Viktor Orban, at a gathering in Budapest. The tweet celebrated the trio learning about his country's effective ways of combating illegal migration".Their presence in Budapest, for a conference of parliamentarians from allied hard-right political parties across Europe, could easily be dismissed as fluff. But the spectacle highlights both troubling connections between Britain and Hungary's governing parties and the wishful thinking of UK Conservatives looking to Orbans Fidesz party for inspiration. Continue reading...

Comedy queen and director of Plan B talks about contraception, last year's Dobbs decision and the importance of connectionIt's not yet noon in Portland when Natalie Morales repairs to a modest Airbnb and plops on to a couch next to a deep-slumbering lap hound named Taco, a very good dog. Morales is filming a feature about veterans with PTSD that's only pressing on through the writers' strike because it's an independent film. Its small budget and tight schedule has Morales on call six days a week. But intense work schedules are nothing new for the 38-year-old multi-hyphenate dark comedy queen, whose deadpan acting credits run from Parks and Recreation to Santa Clarita Diet to The Morning Show. She also stars opposite Jennifer Lawrence in No Hard Feelings, which opened in theaters last weekend.Two years ago, after marking her feature directorial debut with Language Lessons (a Zoom dramedy she stars in and wrote with Mark Duplass), Morales was behind the camera again for Plan B - the coming-of-age story about a sheltered high school girl who road trips across South Dakota with her slacker best friend in search of emergency contraception after a regrettable sexual encounter. The film, warmly received by critics, has taken on additional heft in the wake of the supreme court's overturning Roe v Wade and putting contraceptive care under assault. Continue reading...

Spotify's Bill Simmons has described his former colleagues as a pair of grifters'. Other, unnamed commenters have been less kindWell, that's a wrap, then. Or is that the wrong terminology to use when talking about podcasts, rather than movies? I'm afraid I'm not an expert on podcasting. Neither, it seems, are Harry and Meghan. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, as the pair still insist on being called, have parted ways with Spotify in questionable circumstances.A quick recap: in 2020, Archewell Audio, the Sussexes' podcast production company, signed an exclusive, $20m deal with Spotify to produce uplifting" audio projects. Spotify made a lot of noise at the time about how proud it was to partner with the pair and how wonderful and inspiring they were. Continue reading...

There is trouble ahead for Rishi Sunak, but the ex-PM's psychodrama is slipping down his list of prioritiesIn the buildup to the privileges committee's inquiry into whether Boris Johnson intentionally misled parliament over Covid breaches, the former prime minister and his supporters refused to go down without a fight. Team Johnson repeatedly questioned the integrity of the committee, likening it to a kangaroo court. When Johnson received a draft copy of the report stating that he had indeed misled parliament, the former prime minister was so angry that he quit, slamming its findings ahead of publication and labelling it a witch-hunt". His key ally Nadine Dorries warned that any Conservative MP who would vote for this report is fundamentally not a Conservative and will be held to account by members and the public", adding: deselections may follow. It's serious."And yet, very few Tory MPs appear to have taken Dorries that seriously. When the report - along with its recommendation of banning Johnson from having the Commons pass former MPs are entitled to - came to a vote on Monday night, 118 Tory MPs voted in favour. Only six MPs went against it, with Dorries, who is yet to officially quit despite announcing her intention to do so, notably absent. Nadine's gone missing," joked one minister.Katy Balls is the Spectator's political editor Continue reading...