(0559) Sun, 21 Jun 2026, 9:24 am is the official UK time for the change … welcome to the coming winter of our content? (0724)

 

5. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, OUR STEVE, YEAH !!

A gentle, classical ditty to reflect advancing age, young man:

There’s a real rush of birthdays at this time, as also seems to be the case in February … have you ever reflected as to what your olds were up to nine months earlier, with that spark in the eye? Had to be late September, did it not?

4. Over at OoL

https://orphansofliberty.blogspot.com/2026/06/a-summer-solstice-tale.html

3. Steve at 1418

• Iran Says It’s Closing the Strait of Hormuz After Accusing US and Israel of Violations – VP Vance Says Strait is Still Open With Record Amount of Traffic
• Trump Nukes Giorgia Meloni in Blistering Response to Her Triggered Rant
• Florida Attorney General Fires off Subpoena to MLB, Announces Formal Investigation into League’s Religious Discrimination Against Christians
• Historic Brooklyn Church Built in 1860 Engulfed in Flames – Steeple Collapses
• Zelensky’s Presence At G7 Shows Europe Wants Ukraine War To Continue
• Chlorine dioxide poses an existential threat to the pandemic-vaccine industry
• Global rice production has doubled over 50 years; it is the result of a combination of human ingenuity and increased atmospheric CO2
• Much much more … interesting too.

2. DAD at 1418

It looks as if my favourite site for French news (FdeSouche) has been attacked, so, today, you will have to accept some older news.

a) This week, ‘Sophie of Dundee’ was exonerated. The girl who was smeared, mocked and condemned online has now been proved right. She and her friends said they’d been forced to defend themselves from an abusive man. The online mob called them liars. The court showed who was telling the truth.

b) The government is preparing to protect Corsican traditions and identity. But what about French identity?

c) The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is facing questions over the shortlist for this year’s Vigdís Prize for Women’s Empowerment after the European abortion-rights campaign ‘My Voice, My Choice’ was named among the three shortlisted candidates for the award.

d) Resurfaced Video of Christopher Hitchens’s most chilling prediction that just came true.

1. Taxpayers Association

“Is my daughter an aberration? The numbers say not. Youth unemployment stands at 16.2%, the worst since 2015 – worse even than at the peak of the pandemic, when the economy was switched off at the mains. A Government review has warned of a “lost generation”, and has put the bill at £125 billion a year. It means real people, my daughter among them, going painfully workless, with all the damage that causes.

You might assume the cause is impersonal – a temporary slump, or the machines coming for us all. But then you read the news, and it turns weary resignation into something hotter, because you see much of this is deliberate.

This week we learnt that more than 150 takeaways and kebab shops have been granted Government licences to recruit staff from overseas – and that those workers may bring dependants, to lean on the same schools, surgeries and housing our young can no longer afford. Why?”