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Greetings loved ones,

Honestly, I’m still amazed at how we’ve managed to keep this newsletter going through the summer, what with all the euromaxxing we’ve been doing.

Maybe we should pay our interns something for all their hard work?

Or maybe not. Anyway, a question for HR (which we definitely have).

Here’s the news you need to know from this week, delivered in a way that actually makes you want to stay informed.

⏰ Today's reading time is 6 minutes

Donald Trump may have been watching too many reruns of Disney’s Cinderella.

Maybe he thinks that if he builds a giant ballroom, a very attractive blonde woman with small feet is going to sweep him off his feet and they’ll live happily ever after on Epstein’s island a golf course in Florida.

Time to give Karoline Leavitt her job back, maybe?

Having bulldozed the East Wing of the White House, Trump announced he was beginning a ballroom project which would cost a mere $400m.

According to Trump, it will cost ZERO dollars of taxpayer money. Which the contractor disagrees with.

As you can imagine, Trump doesn’t see the value of Congressional opinion or approval, so he fast-tracked the permission for his emergency ballroom work and went straight to his chum,  Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.

As luck would have it, Roberts has now miraculously unfrozen the block on ballroom building and it can go ahead.

In the words of Trump himself on Truth Social (we have the only other account on there that isn’t his):

Ukraine celebrated its 35th Independence Day on Monday.

Celebrations were muted by the ongoing war with Putin.

But one thing Ukrainians will be celebrating…even if it is slightly questionable under International Law…is successfully blowing up Russian e-commerce distributor warehouses.

Ukraine has been using drones to blow up Wildberries (Russian Amazon) storehouses since July AND they’ve now moved on to Ozon (the second biggest e-commerce giant).

These e-commerce Goliaths store all their stuff in yuge warehouses and the top 3 (Wildberries, Ozon and Yandex Market ) have a combined revenue equivalent to over 5% of Russia’s GDP.

So much for that 2-week special operation, hey?

So Ukraine, in bombing the equivalent of an Amazon storehouse, is hitting Russia where it hurts…and bringing the war home to the Russian population.

Rumour has it Russia will retaliate by targeting Ukrainian soldiers as they get serenaded by Andy Burnham doing a David Brent The Smiths tribute act.

In case any of you are feeling ripped off by your prime subscription, it looks likely that Ozon might have hit a bit of a rough patch and offer lower prices on its back to school sale.

There is an English version of the website, don’t worry.

P.S. Orders may come with shards of Ukrainian drone attached.

However bad your work week was, rest assured that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s was probably worse.

U.S. Government Debt is fucking bananas quite high.

They’re running a federal deficit of about 5.8% of GDP, and a total debt of over $40 trillion. Exceeding the $40 trillion mark last week spooked the markets big time. 

The yield on US treasury bonds directly correlates to the amount of interest the government pays on its debt. 

Bessent devised a genius plan last week, deciding that the government should just buy shit-loads of its own 10 to 30-year treasury bonds.

The theory is simple enough: buy the bonds, artificially increase demand, push up their price and push down their yields. Lower yields should mean cheaper future borrowing and a less horrifying interest bill. 

Alas, Alack…the promise of Bessent’s buy-back scheme didn’t calm the markets. Last week, before a single bond had been bought-back, 30-year U.S. Treasury yield hit its highest level since 2007…And the price of gold surged against the weakened dollar.

The initial market panic seems now to have calmed but Bessent has shown that his promises do little to settle the very volatile markets. 

BIG FAT BUST SIGN incoming. 

Then, because one economic crisis isn’t enough for one week, Bessent announced ‘Operation Economic Outcast’ which includes sanctions against Iran’s trading partners

(Note: China is Iran’s largest oil customer so let’s see how this goes down). 

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In another piece of good news for British graduates, a survey released this week shows that job postings are down almost by half in July 2026 versus the number posted in July 2025. 

The survey was carried out by Adzuna, one of Britain's largest jobs sites, and notes that graduate-level vacancies dropped from 15,397 to 8,383, and that the average number of job seekers per opening rose from 1.93 to 2.14. 

Now, we know that Britain has a problem with NEETs and businesses have increased their AI use in the last 12 months (even if Claude still cannot figure out how to do the coffee run at Pint HQ), so this isn’t a complete surprise. 

However, increasing scrutiny is turning towards policy decisions which have made it harder for businesses to afford entry-level staff. 

Because of changes to employer’s national insurance (i.e., a tax that your employer pays on your income) increasing in Rachel Reeves’ last budget and the minimum wage, it now costs a business £4,000 per year more to hire an 18-20 year old full time on the national minimum wage (£22,568) than it did in 2024. 

The government offers incentives for businesses to hire long term NEETs, but we may need further changes for businesses to get young people working again.

Don’t worry though, as these numbers haven’t discouraged young Brits from going to university and destroying their livers for 3 years before facing the job market.

The British and German governments held preliminary discussions this week in relation to Germany being more involved with Trident, Britain’s submarine-based nuclear deterrent, in exchange for coming under Britain’s nuclear defence umbrella. 

The Telegraph reported that the German government could directly fund the upkeep of Trident, as well as contribute conventional arms to help protect Faslane where the submarines are based. 

The talks come as Britain, France and Germany seek to shore up the European nuclear deterrent in the face of reports that Russia was assessing an attack on a NATO ally to test the organisation’s credibility. 

Given the risk of the U.S. deterrent being pulled out of Europe after recent events in Korea and the English Channel becoming the American Channel, breaking dependence on America to maintain Europe’s nuclear weapons doesn’t seem like too bad an idea either. 

Germany clearly wants a nuclear deterrent in the face of Russian aggression, but no sane person would give the Germans a nuke.

Britain also seems to be incapable of funding its defence after yet another U-turn on spending targets this week, so closer cooperation actually seems like a good deal for both parties.

As an added bonus, Britain will be able to power itself for 10 years with the energy generated from Hitler Kaiser Wilhelm II spinning in his grave at the prospect of a German-funded British Navy.

The ongoing lawsuit brought against Meta by various U.S. states was reported on Wednesday to have been settled out of court for around $18 billion, marking the largest payout a social media company has had to make over child safety to date. 

The case was first filed in 2023 in a California court, and alleged on behalf of 23 U.S. states that Meta deliberately designed its platforms to be addictive to children and illegally collect under 13s’ data.  

Alongside the payout, Meta will implement a teen mode (not the best name) in the coming months which will: 

Meta did not make any admissions in relation to what it was accused of, but $18 billion speaks for itself. i.e., the Prince Andrew approach. 

Between this case and one brought by New Mexico earlier this year, this could be a watershed moment for holding social media companies accountable for the harm they cause children.

Meta generated $200 billion in revenue last year, so the fine is negligible.

However, its most recent earnings report noted that child safety lawsuits are a material risk to the company, so keep an eye out for the next one when it inevitably arrives. 

We’ll be digging out our smallest violin for Zuck and friends.

The PM-to-private-sector pipeline pioneered by Tony Blair is still going strong.

Former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who took a (paid) senior advisory role at Anthropic last year, recently updated his LinkedIn with that and another role at Microsoft.

Goldman Sachs Investment Banking - Member of Parliament - Chancellor - Prime Minister - cushy Big Tech advisory role

He’s just out here collecting the perfect C.V.

Oh and his missus is the daughter of one of the richest men in India.

Rishi’s parents are still a tad disappointed he didn’t become a doctor though.

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 Harry & Jake