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Greetings lovely people,

We’re cooking up some special stuff for you here at Pint HQ, which we’ll let you know about very soon.

Or we could just be up to our usual routine of writing any old bullshit and managing a team of chronically online (and definitely paid) interns.

And you’d be none the wiser. On with the show!

⏰ Today's reading time is 6 minutes

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has had quite the political headache this week as the UK and eleven other states including Canada and France, announced sanctions on exports from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. 

The UK Government has also changed its tune on the treatment of Palestinians from “let’s not upset Israelis” to classifying violence by Israeli settlers as ethnic cleansing. 

Quite the 180. Keir Starmer would be proud. 

Israel has closed the British consulate in Jerusalem and banned 12 MPs from entering Israel in response, but crucially the U.S. did not condemn the sanctions (probably because Israel torpedoed successive ceasefires with Iran). 

With U.S. help unlikely, Israel’s government may have to resolve the situation diplomatically. It clearly doesn’t help Bibi’s Likud party prepare for the Knesset elections in October. 

Nor do recent allegations that Bibi was warned about the October 7 attacks by the UAE’s president on the phone 10 days beforehand, but kept it to himself. 

We weren’t sure how Hamas actually managed to enter Israel and kill 1200 people, but Bibi is a man in his mid-70’s, so he was probably pretending to listen while playing Candy Crush.

Bibi of course denounced this “absolute lie”. However, early polls suggest that Likud will lose October’s elections, so this alone probably can’t save him politically.

China announced it will inject cash into eight state-owned businesses, including its largest banks and insurers.

State media Global Times framed the stimulus as providing "more resources to channel into credit for the real economy” and strengthening institutions to “withstand external shocks".

Beijing directly bolstering state balance sheets isn't unusual, but the package's timing and size are notable. As with the penny pinching of recent offshore tax raids, the story here is one of a weak domestic economy in China.

The CCP clearly doesn’t think its financial institutions could withstand a major shock, nor does it believe the economy is running anywhere near as hot as it should.

China’s year-to-date economic data backs this up: In March, China’s quarterly GDP target was cut to 4.5%–5%, the lowest since 1991.

We can’t pretend to fully understand China’s black box economy, but a decade-long property downturn has made consumers cautious, saving 35%–45% of household income.

For context, Brits save just 9%–11%.

Perhaps Chairman Xi would appreciate if we took our Chinese friends to the pub, to boost consumer spending of course.

We just hope that they’d pick up the tab.

In a monumental moment for anyone who thinks that the U.S. is essentially a third-world country wearing a Gucci belt, President Trump has promised a financial incentive to voters in the lead up to the Midterms. 

Speaking at the Grindr GOP Midterm Convention, Trump announced a $5,000 dividend to every American if Republicans hold their House and Senate majorities in November.

Despite the cheering crowd, commentators threw around the word “bribe”  before Trump left the stage and, well, they’d be right. Some actually took the claim seriously and questioned where he’d find the money. 

It's estimated that the scheme probably costs $1.5 trillion and would overheat the economy.  But second order consequences be damned - give the people what they want even if it spikes inflation!

Hair brained schemes like this point to the Republicans not feeling confident about the Midterms.       

This isn’t the first time Trump has tried to pay off the electorate/pull the reverse Nigerian prince. Previous attempts to line Americans’ pockets include:

It’s unlikely to stop Democrats from taking at least one chamber. But we are dealing with the median voter, so anything is possible.

Personally, my first policy would be to banish anyone who annoyed me to the Isle of Skye and have them do 20 years of hard labour.

But that’s just me.

Our friends over at Fantasy Parliament have created the most realistic political simulator ever, where you draft super realistic policy, deal with the the media, voters, interest groups and more.

Their new MP Mode lets you start off an MP in some shitty constituency no one’s ever heard of, and rise up all the way to the top job.

Or you can skip to being a minister, even straight to Prime Minister if you want to start running the country from day 1. Up to you.

Sign up and play for free today.

Anthropic has seen a wave of its workers rage-quitting because they genuinely fear AI might turn murderous.

One Anthropic safety researcher quit this week, stating there is a 10% chance that AI ‘could kill all humans within a decade’, with his thread going viral within hours.

So statistically, you’re now as likely to survive stage 4 bowel cancer as you are to get killed by AI. Choose your battles.

Jacob Coxon, who was a former AI researcher for Anthropic and OpenAI, also posted on X that neither company is ‘acting responsibly’. 

Coxon was hazy as to the details of how AI was going to kill us all or what we can do about it. Which considering that is (or was) his only fucking job, is quite concerning.

None of this has anything to do with Anthropic’s upcoming IPO by the way.

In more upbeat news, Google may have discovered how to stop AI data centres destroying the planet.

The genius plan in question: dump everything in Finland where it’s so bloody cold that you barely need any energy cool the monstrosities.

Look who’s back! Well, not quite, but close enough.

Alternative für Deutschland, the far-right party, classified as extreme-right by German intelligence, has had massive success in regional elections.

The federal leader, 36-year old Ulrich Siegmund, is scrambling to burn down the Reichstag building form a coalition with other parties after just missing a majority with 43.8% of the votes. 

He represents the party’s image lightly better than its head leader: Alice Weidel.

An anti- LGBT+ lesbian who, according to her own policies, believes that her Sri Lankan partner should be “remigrated”, and that her adopted kids shouldn’t be adopted by her fellow lesbians.

All of this while living in Switzerland. Not exactly Hitler’s wet dream.

The east of Germany has always been more right wing (and pro-Russian) than the West, but this latest result and the AfDs undeniable popularity is going to put Germany’s political ‘firewall’ at risk.

For those of you that don’t know, the firewall is a broad agreement between all parties in Germany to never cooperate with anyone that reminds them of the Nazis.

We can’t imagine why that would be the case with stuff like this in the manifesto:

No idea why there are exclamation marks on every point.

Chancellor John Healey, in his first major speech ahead of October’s Budget, says he wants Britain to feel ‘confident’ again.

It’s a shame that sense of confidence doesn’t quite translate when it comes to who is going to pay for it.

In a speech at Coventry's Manufacturing Technology Centre (it’s just as beautiful as it sounds), Healey pitched "growth in every postcode" as his defining mission ahead of the 28 October Budget, pairing the rhetoric with a new £150 million fund for fast-growing firms in the north.

More moneh’ for investment across the north sounds fantastic in theory, but in the real world, borrowing costs have just hit an 18-year high.

Bond markets are treating UK fiscal policy as "guilty until proven innocent", a legacy of the Truss disaster of a mini-Budget that Labour are still paying the price for.

Healey has repeatedly refused to rule out tax rises, offering only that the government will "balance the books." Or he could just take the Zach Polanski route and pretend bond markets don’t exist at all.

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Taste It Fresh

Instead of poking fun at some weird African general or Emmanuel Macron’s latest side piece, we’d like to highlight something genuinely heartwarming this week.

Assistance Dogs are being used across healthcare services in Northern Ireland help young people with additional support requirements.

They can help calm those with autism, monitor blood sugar, help at school or help with mobility.

Mia, a four-and-a-half-year-old Labradoodle (pictured), supports people with autism across hospitals, care settings and schools, where her calm nature helps people feel safe and supported.

In doing so, Mia has already made herself more useful than 98% of people that work in NHS middle management.

We’d love it if you left us some feedback as to how you found this edition.

Our intern will get back to you within 4-5 business days, once we’ve let them out of the basement for their legally mandated half an hour of fresh air.

Thanks to Dom & Mo