Volodymyr Zelensky stood proudly on the steps of 10 Downing Street earlier this month, flanked by Sir Keir Starmer and the leaders of France and Germany, ready to discuss Europe’s latest package of support for Ukraine’s ongoing war effort. Though the conflict has now lasted longer than World War One, Zelensky is in some ways in the most heroic period of his presidency. Ukraine not only continues to stand firm against intense Russian assaults but also seems to be regaining a strategic advantage with its long-range drone strikes. Europe has stepped up to replace US funding and diplomacy and the fall of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán has unlocked a €90 billion loan package. ✍️: @owenmatth

Cockburn notes that regardless of what ends up happening in court, damage has been done to USIP’s work and its assets (which were largely privately funded), given that they have been under ambiguous control for months. Up the river, the Kennedy Center also finds itself in the middle of an ongoing legal battle, following the hollowing out of the institution and the hampering of its operations.

Donald Trump’s 80th birthday is this weekend, and what better present for a struggling octogenarian Commander-in-Chief than a peace deal with Iran, signed if not quite yet sealed and delivered. ✍️: @Freddygray31

Why is Peter Thiel in Argentina? "One popular belief is that Thiel is positioning himself beyond the grasp of a future wealth tax (political groups in California have openly discussed a 5 percent tax on the assets of the state’s billionaires). But this fails to explain why the destination should be Buenos Aires. He could easily lower his tax bill by moving to Miami, where he already owns property," writes Kabir Singh Bawa.

Donald Trump is trying to wriggle out of his self imposed Strait-jacket. After a renewed round of bombing Iran and bluster about seizing Kharg Island, he has now announced that is all over, including a planned attack tonight: “Based on the fact that discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved, I have, as President of the United States of America, cancelled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening.” Is it back to the future again? Or are hostilities really about to cease? ✍️ Jacob Heilbrunn

The June 22 edition of The Spectator has gone to press, featuring: 🎮@William_Blake 🎮@roddreher 🎮@freyaindiaa 🎮@AllumBokhari 🎮@juliadyost 🎮@DouglasKMurray

The Sudanese man who is in custody in Belfast, Northern Ireland, settled in the city after traveling through Paris and Dublin. In 2023, he was given asylum by the British Home Office. That same year, Sudan descended into civil war, a conflict that continues to rage with appalling accounts of barbarity. On the one side are the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and on the other the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Caught in the middle are civilians, particularly women and children, who are being abused by both sides. Earlier this year, the UN’s Human Rights Council accused combatants of displaying “utter disregard for human life.” Schools, hospitals and markets have been targeted indiscriminately, and “bodies of Sudanese women and girls have been weaponized to terrorize communities.” The UN explained that gang rape, sexual torture and slavery are commonplace. The ongoing civil war is the latest outbreak of violence in a country that has rarely known peace in the last three quarters of a century. The first civil war in Sudan began in 1955 and lasted until 1972; the second erupted in 1983 and continued until 2005. Who knows how long this third civil war will last. ✍️: Gavin Mortimer

A late spring outbreak of righteous indignation is affecting the United Kingdom. It’s yet another variant of Palantir Derangement Syndrome. Virologists tracked this smug neurosis as it jumped across the Atlantic from the American left to British Labour. Symptoms include selective blindness, performative anguish, a hilarious inability to grasp the facts and Tourette’s-level outbursts of repetitive left-wing clichés. Earlier this month, a committee dominated by British Labour MPs who are infected by PDS called for Palantir to be stripped of its £330 million deal to help British hospitals save the lives of patients. The House of Commons science, innovation and technology committee accused the American tech giant of having a “clear mismatch” with British values. It seems the ghost of fascism can be found in simple efficiency gains.

I get the sense that the political and media class badly miss Katie Hopkins. Back when the reality TV star was still a regular on Britain’s screens and in our newspapers, she could be relied upon to be the focus of attention whenever the people in charge didn’t want the public’s attention to be focused where it ought to be. So when a British soldier was decapitated on the streets of London, or a suicide bomber went off at a pop concert packed with teenage girls, Ms. Hopkins could be found saying something that a lot of people were thinking – only in a more colorful or unwise way. A pattern emerged whereby, within 24 hours of any atrocity on the streets of Britain, the political and media class would be talking about how inappropriate Hopkins’s comments were and how forcefully we must all condemn them. Her comments were generally said to be “divisive,” “hateful” and “have no place in public life.” It was a comfortable place to be, because everyone could then avoid talking about the atrocity itself. ✍️ Douglas Murray

The New York Knicks may have lost Game 3 of the NBA Finals, but President Trump was still in a somewhat buoyant mood. Negotiations with Iran were going swimmingly, Trump claimed to reporters as he was headed back to Washington, so much so that an agreement could be reached in two or three days. Two days later, though, and a deal remains just as elusive today as it was last week and the week before that. In fact, not only is diplomacy apparently stuck, but the United States and Iran are increasingly taking shots at each other. The April 8 ceasefire is still in effect but resting on weaker foundations. On June 9, Trump ordered retaliatory airstrikes against multiple Iranian targets, including air defenses, ground control stations and radar sites, after Tehran crashed a drone into a US Army Apache helicopter, bringing the aircraft down and forcing the Pentagon to organize a rescue operation for the crew. The next day, Trump threatened more airstrikes. “We hit them [Iran] hard yesterday, and we’re going to hit them again hard today…We were really close to a deal, but they keep tapping us along, they keep playing us for suckers.” Is diplomacy going off the rails? ✍️: Daniel DePetris