It's always a pleasure to hear from a reader, and in this instance, a few months ago, the reader in question was @joshi. He's the founder and editor of Mill Media, an exciting and innovative enterprise that focuses on deeply reported, long-form journalism in the UK. It's showing us the future of news. Would I be interested in revisiting the Manchester bombing of June 1996, which he'd read about in my book Bandit Country: The IRA and South Armagh? Specifically, could I complete the story of who ordered, planned, and carried out the bombing? Anyone who knows me will not be surprised that I could not resist such a challenge. I didn't know at the time that it would involve returning to South Armagh, visiting the cattle shed where the bomb was mixed, and knocking on the doors of the IRA suspects in the case. The result is two articles (the link to the second one is in the comments) published by The Mill, the Manchester arm of Joshi's empire, this weekend. For the piece, I worked with investigations editor @cameronbarr, formerly of the Washington Post and one of the great editors of our time, and ace Mill reporter @jackdulhanty, riding shotgun with me as we crisscrossed the Irish border. The story is close to my heart because I grew up in Manchester. My father and brother were on their way to the Arndale Centre that sunny Saturday morning. Miraculously, no one was killed by the bomb—the largest detonated in Britain since World War II—but 212 people were injured, 13 of them seriously. No one has ever been prosecuted for the attack, and Manchester police, with exquisite timing the week before the 30th anniversary of the blast, just announced that their investigation has closed. But that doesn't mean that the story of who was behind the bombing cannot be told... manchestermill.co.uk/the-ira…

Heskey to Owen against Brazil, albeit via a ricochet off Lucio, in the 2002 World Cup might be considered a Liverpool constructed goal-assist. @LFC

In 1977, while reporting on the launch of Voyager 2 for the BBC series CONNECTIONS, James Burke accidentally captured one of the most perfectly timed shots in television history.

The BBC Has Ruled. Brexit Damaged The Economy. No Further Debate Required. The BBC's editorial complaints unit has decided that the negative economic impact of Brexit is now a settled fact. Not a contested judgement. Not one side of a live debate. A fact, in the same category as man-made climate change, requiring no balancing view. The ruling followed a Radio 4 Today programme segment featuring Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England, alongside Liam Byrne and Sir John Gieve, both long-standing advocates of closer EU alignment. All three agreed Brexit had damaged growth. The presenter, Katya Adler, did not challenge the premise or introduce a dissenting voice. A complaint followed. The ECU's response is the revealing part. It acknowledged the segment failed to "acknowledge the alternative case" for pursuing opportunities outside the EU rather than realignment with it. That part of the complaint was upheld. But the central complaint, that three pro-EU voices agreeing with each other on air is not balance, was dismissed. The reasoning given was that this reflected "the consensus among economists" and there was no "significant body of economic opinion" on the other side. This is worth pausing on. The BBC is not claiming it found balance. It is claiming balance was unnecessary because one side of the argument does not meaningfully exist. The institution that is legally required to be impartial has ruled itself the arbiter of which questions are still open and which are closed, and Brexit has just been moved into the closed file. The economics itself does not support the certainty on display. The headline figure driving much of this narrative, an 8 per cent hit to GDP since 2016, comes from an NBER paper built on a "synthetic control" model that constructs a hypothetical non-Brexit Britain from a basket of comparator countries. The largest weighting in that basket, over 60 per cent, is the United States, a country currently riding an AI investment boom and a separate fiscal stimulus. The model also weights Estonia and Greece more heavily than France or Germany. On a straightforward per capita basis against France and Germany, the actual comparators, Britain's performance since 2016 sits roughly in line with both. An 8 per cent gap simply isn't visible. This is a model producing a number that then gets reported as "the consensus," which the BBC then cites as the reason no alternative view is required. That loop, model produces number, number becomes consensus, consensus becomes fact, fact requires no balance, is the mechanism. It does not require a conspiracy. It requires an institution that has decided which conclusions are respectable and which are not, and which then treats its own prior decision as evidence. The same posture has been on display all week. A government department can decide its diversity targets are lawful without seeking legal advice to check. A police force can decide a book about dismantling "inner white supremacy" is leadership training. A broadcaster can decide an economic question is closed and that deciding so does not breach its own impartiality rules. In each case, the institution marks its own homework, and the mark is always a pass. None of this requires Brexit to have been a triumph. Britain's economy has genuine problems, most of them unrelated to single market membership. But a state broadcaster, funded by compulsory licence fee under threat of prosecution, has now formally placed one of the most consequential political decisions in modern British history beyond the reach of its own impartiality obligations. Reform's Lee Anderson called it being "blinkered by groupthink." The more precise description is an institution that has stopped being able to tell the difference between its own assumptions and the facts. "The BBC is not claiming it found balance. It is claiming balance was unnecessary because one side of the argument does not meaningfully exist."

Diplomatic immunity of outgoing UNRWA commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini ends on June 31st. On July 1st, we will be demanding his indictment for complicity in terrorism, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Lazzarini cannot claim he didn't know. We have all the receipts.

AP Exclusive: Humanitarians at Médecins Sans Frontières sexually exploit Sudanese underage girls in refugee camps, systematically targeting vulnerable victims of war. Internal report, buried for 11 months, suggests there was organized sexual trafficking. apnews.com/article/chad-suda…

Free to read: Simon Schama's 2025 appreciation of David Hockney, who has died at the age of 88 ft.trib.al/RKuJPCE

One hell of a letter in The Times today from General Sir Nick Carter, a former head of the armed forces He warns that Britain risks becoming ‘Belgium with nuclear weapons’ unless it spends more on defence ‘Successive governments have hollowed our armed forces out to such a degree that if we do not spend what is needed now to arrest that decline, and transform them for the modern world, we risk becoming Belgium with nuclear weapons. And our enemies are watching’ Times letters: Britain’s slide down the Nato league table thetimes.com/article/5c37102…

These thugs fractured the spine of Sgt Kate Evans, who spoke in court of the medical and emotional trauma she still lives with. Prison is where they belong. Unlike Zack Polanski, I want serious consequences for anyone who attacks police officers risking their lives to protect us.

FA won't release $60 England World Cup tickets until eve of matches to prevent re-sales at crazy prices - fans' leaders say FIFA should have done the same. thetimes.com/sport/football/…

BBC: “What advice did David Hockney give to you?” BBC Guest: “Enjoy life and fuck everyone.”

Το Ισραήλ, η Ελλάδα, η Κύπρος και οι ΗΠΑ εγκαινίασαν σήμερα, το Κέντρο Ενέργειας Ανατολικής Μεσογείου, μια νέα πλατφόρμα συνεργασίας στον τομέα της ενέργειας, της τεχνολογίας, της καινοτομίας και της έρευνας. Η πρωτοβουλία θα ενισχύσει τη συνεργασία για την ενεργειακή ασφάλεια, την κυβερνοασφάλεια, την καινοτομία και τις κρίσιμες υποδομές, φέρνοντας παράλληλα σε επαφή κυβερνήσεις, πανεπιστήμια, ερευνητές και ηγέτες της βιομηχανίας. Ένα σημαντικό βήμα προς την ενίσχυση της περιφερειακής συνεργασίας και την οικοδόμηση μιας πιο ασφαλούς και συνδεδεμένης Ανατολικής Μεσογείου.

The UK competition regulator has opened an investigation into Ryanair over charging parents about £8 a flight to sit with their children, including those with disabilities ft.trib.al/u18cp4G

Perhaps the only stain on Thursday’s curtain-raiser were FIFA’s newly-mandated “hydration breaks.” When FIFA announced the change, it said the breaks were for “player welfare,” but many fans saw through the spin and assumed the breaks would be used by broadcasters to show commercials. On Thursday, Fox, which holds the English-language U.S. broadcast rights, confirmed those fears. It not only cut away to advertisements; during the second half of Mexico-South Africa, its commercials ran long and caused viewers to miss several seconds of action after play resumed. The blunder sparked an uproar among longtime fans. Read @HenryBushnell’s full 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗖𝘂𝗽 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗮𝗽 for free ⤵️ 🔗 bit.ly/4vI53Y7

The head of the Metropolitan Police said that Sadiq Khan's decision to block Palantir's deal with Scotland Yard will lead to cuts to frontline services Sir Mark Rowley tells @TimesRadio: 'We've got to shrink by 1,150 people. That will be 4,400 people smaller than Met will be than when I started as Commissioner three and a half years ago. That's really tough. 'One of the ways we're trying to deal with it is by automating some of our bureaucracy so we can save that money without damaging the frontline. Now we don't have that technology, we're going to be making hundreds of cuts to frontline services, which is not what I wanted to do this year. 'We had a plan to avoid cutting frontline services by using clever technology. Now we won't have that technology at the speed that we were planning. We will be cutting some frontline services'

Finally, terrorist supporting Mohsen Mahdawi has been booted out of the U.S. A judge has just ordered his deportation. Took a while - and over a year ago we exposed his support for terror... Still better late than never. @RaychFeldman x.com/mishtal/status/1913184…

Perhaps the grimmest part of John Healey’s brutal resignation letter is that defence spending, projected to be 2.6% GDP by 2027, will only reach 2.68% in 2030. A pathetic 0.08% increase over three years after all that Starmer rhetoric about the dangerous times we live in and how UK would lead the way stepping up to the crease. A real leader would have told Reeves to cough up the dosh and ordered Miliband to hand over a big chunk of his net zero budget. But he’s probably too weak to do either.

BREAKING: FIFA president Gianni Infantino subject of criminal complaint from his former UEFA boss Michel Platini 🚨

FT Exclusive: The owners of Boots are in talks over a $10bn sale with bidders including the billionaire Weston family and Australian pharmacy group Sigma Healthcare. ft.trib.al/Zx0zvq5

The most violent World Cup match of all-time. Italy v Chile from 1962, which was dubbed ‘The Battle Of Santiago’ Commentator David Coleman #WorldCup #FIFAWorldCup #Italy #Chile