Silly season is nearly here - thank goodness

With few breaks in the news cycle we could all do with a few weeks of warm weather hysteria and picture captions. PLUS: Grok loves Hitler and the Epstein controversy latest.

We’re getting close to Silly Season - the period in summer when the news is filled with daft stories about out-of-control seagulls and people finding images of Jesus in their corn flakes.

It’s the time of year when Parliament is not in session and fewer policy announcements are made. Of course the government is still government-ing, but we’re just not seeing the same pace as usual.

The trouble is that the media still needs to fill papers, and homepages, with something. And so stories that would usually be relegated to a back left-hand page, or ignored altogether, suddenly get elevated to higher billing.

Silly Season was a particularly stressful time when I worked on local papers. One year we splashed on my mate’s dog injuring himself after attacking a lorry. The dog was fine - he didn’t even need one of those weird cone things. But in Silly Season, “dog bites lorry” is going to fill a space. Another year me and my colleagues spent hours trying to confirm a local rumour that singer Robbie Williams had bought a house in the area. I strongly suspect this originated from an estate agent.

Silly Season will typically involve:

• A heavy focus on the weather. Think headlines such as “Britain set to bake in temperatures hotter than [insert tropical country name here]” plus Reach-owned newspaper cannot resist rolling out its annual “Doctors warn women not to put ice lollies in their vagina” story. Seriously.

• Weird non-stories getting more attention than usual. Think seagulls being slapped with ASBOs or a dead fish being front page news (as The Times did in August 2009). I recall one summer there were reports of a lion on the loose in Essex and the subsequent story in the Mirror was our reporter photographed in a field holding a Lion bar and dressed for safari.

• Boring political stories upgraded to scandal level. Heaven help Keir Starmer if he’s seen struggling to eat a Mr Whippy ice cream in public.

To be honest, this year I welcome Silly Season, given I can’t actually remember the last time we had a quiet week of news. And maybe we all need a reminder of the appropriate use of an ice lolly.

As Silly Season is not quite upon us yet, there’s still plenty to talk about, so let’s get to this week’s headlines.

Need to know

Grok loves Hitler

Twitter owner Elon Musk launched AI chatbot Grok as an FU to Sam Altman to rival ChatGPT. I’m not a regular Grok user, but it’s in my timeline every day. As with any AI, I take what it says with a pinch of salt but I haven’t seen it provide insane answers. Until this week.

What happened: Last week on Friday someone updated Grok, essentially to make it less “woke”. Musk excitedly tweeted that Grok had been “improved” and “you should notice a difference”. We sure did. Since the update Grok has: praised Adolf Hitler, shared antisemitic tropes and called for a second Holocaust. When challenged on the posts, Grok doubled down, “if calling out radicals cheering dead kids makes me ‘literally Hitler,’ then pass the mustache — truth hurts more than floods”. These posts have been deleted.

Fallout: Poland said it would report Twitter to the EU after Grok made offensive comments about its prime minister, and a Turkish court blocked access to some Grok posts after authorities said it insulted President Tayyip Erdogan and religious values. Yesterday it was announced that Linda Yaccarino, one of Musk's top deputies as CEO of Twitter, is exiting the company in a surprise move.

Zooming out: This all comes back to Musk’s dislike of the “woke mind virus” and his concerns about liberal censorship on contentious issues. Musk’s company behind the chatbot, xAI, said: “We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts. Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X.”

MAGA angry at Trump’s Epstein dismissal

In a rare twist this week, Donald Trump has ended up on the other side of a fight with the conspiracy crowd that normal cheers him on.

What happened: The US Department of Justice and FBI has concluded that Jeffrey Epstein did not have a client list that may implicate high-profile individuals and that he did take his own life. Trump had promised during his campaign to reveal the truth about Epstein’s crimes and his team have previously spoken of the need to get justice and transparency.

Promises not kept: Earlier this year, US attorney general Pam Bondi implied she had juicy info to reveal, telling Fox News when asked about the Epstein list: “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review.” Supporters had been expecting a “sex trafficking” client list revealing evidence of additional perpetrators. Those MAGA faithful are now fuming that the promise of a big pay-off has not led to anything. When asked why Bondi had appeared to confirm the existence of a list, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said this week: “She was saying the entirety of all of the paperwork, all of the paper, in relation to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, that’s what the attorney general was referring to, and I’ll let her speak for that.” Far-right activist and Trump supporter Laura Loomer has called for Bondi to be fired. “I think she’s trying to protect herself from her own horrible record and Epstein’s crimes,” said Loomer.

Rowing back: Back in February, the White House tried to satisfy the demand for new information coming from right-wing influencers, as well as show the administration is all about justice, by releasing Epstein binders. These contained little new information, however influencers proudly posed for pictures holding the binders. The binders were labelled as “phase one” - implying this was just the beginning.

Truth: Conservative podcaster Tucker Carlson said this week: “The president promised to reveal the truth about this. Pam Bondi… went on television and said, ‘We have the truth, we’re going to give it to you’. I think this is a big deal.”

Attack: Elon Musk, already fuming at Trump over his spending bill, has also engaged with the row over the Epstein files. The rift with Musk means that Trump is experiencing what it is like to be on the wrong side of a conspiracy meltdown, where he’s not the one “just asking questions”. Musk tweeted this week: “How can people be expected to have faith in Trump if he won’t release the Epstein files?”

There’s always a tweet: A 2021 tweet from vice president JD Vance re-emerged as angry debate broke out about the Epstein announcement. In it, Vance wrote: “What possible interest would the U.S. government have in keeping Epstein’s clients secret?”

What next: Trump wants everyone to move on. When asked about the case this week, as the tragic flash flooding disaster continued to unfold in Texas, Trump incredulously replied: “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy has been talked about for years. We have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things. Are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable” At the start of his term, Trump’s base was united behind him. However this issue, coupled with divided opinion over US involvement in wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, means that cracks are most definitely showing.

The List

Border bargaining: The royal family’s full pomp and pageantry was on display this week as Keir Starmer sought to woo the French president Emmanuel Macron into offering concessions on migration. So far Starmer has only managed to secure the lending of the 900-year-old Bayeux Tapestry. A coup for the British Museum and nice headline for relations, but not the deal Starmer truly seeks. However a full UK-France summit takes place today (Thursday), when the real nitty-gritty will be discussed. Starmer wants to secure a one in, one out deal with France, where the UK accepts asylum seekers with family in the UK and returns those who have travelled to Britain by small boat back to France. This deal could be a game-changer. While Starmer’s focus has been on disrupting criminal gangs, such work is painstaking and challenging. Many experts say the only way to stop people paying traffickers for passage is to make their chances of staying in the UK slim. The issue with the plan is some EU countries have objected, as it may mean asylum seekers being relocated back to the European nation where they first entered the bloc. There has been frustration in the UK at the millions spent on supporting French efforts to police the beaches, while the number of people crossing the Channel has surged by 50% compared to the same period last year. BBC footage of French police slashing a boat in shallow waters suggests the French are prepared to get tougher on their side of the border. French media reported last night that Britain will send back 50 migrants per week under a trial of the new one in, one out scheme. Number 10 has indicated this would be expanded after a pilot.

Going bust: The Office for Budget Responsibility has warned the UK public finances are in an “unsustainable position” and that the government “cannot afford the array of promises it has made to the public”. Richard Hughes, who chairs the budget watchdog, said government debt would rise to 270% of GDP by 2070 - up from less than 100% today - if current policies were left unchanged. The watchdog highlights the risk of rising pensions costs, and inadequate levels of saving into private sector pensions. The triple lock - where the state pension rises each year in line with either inflation, wage increases or 2.5%, whichever is the highest - is set to reach 7% of GDP by 2070 if the policy remains in place. Is the solution a wealth tax? Some seem to think so, but the Institute for Fiscal Studies dismissed the idea this week, saying that “international experience of annual wealth taxes is not encouraging”.

Strike: Resident doctors, previously known as junior doctors, in England will strike for five days from July 25 over pay. The British Medical Association (BMA) said it had met with the health secretary to try and "avoid strike action" on Tuesday, but that the government had "stated that it will not negotiate on pay”. Health secretary Wes Streeting said: "The NHS is hanging by a thread - why on earth are they threatening to pull it?” He told The Times that the public would “not forgive” them for striking. Resident doctors are demanding a 29% pay increase. They received a 22% rise last year, but say that real-terms pay for the doctors has fallen by 21% in the last 17 years. Starting pay for resident doctors is £38,800 on average, increasing to £70,425 for the highest-paid.

Tragedy: Flash floods in Texas killed at least 119 people over the US July 4 holiday weekend. Many are still missing. The victims include at least 27 children and adults who were attending a youth camp on the Guadalupe River. The death toll has been severe in part because massive rainfall hit at the wrong time - as people were sleeping - in a flood-prone area. A flood watch notice had been issued at midday last Thursday, which was then upgraded to a more urgent warning later at 4am. The Guadalupe River rose 26ft in just 45 minutes. Many have rushed to blame the scale of the tragedy on budget cuts by the Trump administration for impeding the National Weather Service in raising the alarm earlier. Budget cuts have led to hundreds of job losses at the weather service, however the BBC reports that climate experts say the forecasts and warnings were as adequate as could be expected. "The challenge with this event was that it is very difficult to forecast this type of extreme, localised rainfall," says Avantika Gori, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rice University in Texas. The New York Times quoted a former weather service director saying it’s “pretty hard” to forecast for these kinds of rainfall rates, and climate change is making it more challenging, with further research required.

Peace prize: Peace talks are continuing between Hamas and Israeli officials, with no sign of agreement yet and the main barriers - that Hamas is committed to the destruction of Israel and Israel wants Hamas gone from Gaza - remaining. However Benjamin Netanyahu has offered up high praise for Donald Trump’s efforts in bringing peace to the Middle East, hanging him a Nobel Peace Prize nomination during a visit to the White House on Monday. Trump said: “Coming from you in particular, this is very meaningful.” Trump has taken credit for ending the “12-day war” between Israel and Iran, which Israel launched in order to take out Iran’s nuclear capabilities. The US conducted massive airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, and the White House says these have been completely destroyed.

Wallace axed: MasterChef judge Gregg Wallace has been axed from the show permanently after an investigation into alleged inappropriate behaviour while he worked for the BBC. In a lengthy statement on Instagram, Wallace said he will “not go quietly” and appeared to blame the BBC for using his “cheeky greengrocer” persona in the show but then failing to “protect me” from behaviour connected to his autism. BBC News reports that 50 more people had made claims to the corporation against the presenter, including allegations he groped one MasterChef worker and pulled his trousers down in front of another.

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Suits you: Did Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy wear a suit before July? The answer to that is worth $160million. Crypto platform Polymarket is a prediction market where users can wager on things like who will be the next president. In recent weeks, one user has asked if Zelenskyy would don a suit before July. The Ukrainian leader wear combat fatigues in solidarity with his troops while the country is at war. However those placing bets on “yes” got excited a few weeks ago when Zelenskyy appeared at the June NATO summit in what appeared to be more formal attire. People betting “yes” said this clearly was a suit. For now Polymarket has ruled “no”, this was not a suit, and users are up in arms. “It meets the technical definition,” menswear expert Derek Guy told WIRED. “I would also recognise that most people would not think of that as a suit.”

Going Viral

The Salt Path controversy explained

I am completely obsessed with the alleged unravelling of the story behind the best-selling book The Salt Path and its movie adaptation, which stars Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs.

The book is presented as a true account of author Raynor Winn’s journey with husband Moth to walk over 600 miles after they are made homeless due to a scam. To compound their woes, Moth is diagnosed with a degenerative terminal illness - corticobasal degeneration (CBD).

It’s a beloved book due to its uplifting messages of hope and that nature can be a powerful tool for healing.

The trouble is, an Observer investigation has uncovered that those two key claims - of being scammed out of their home and a terminal illness - are a little fishy. Yesterday, Raynor Winn responded to the allegations.

Here’s a summary of what the Observer has claimed, and what Winn says in response:

• The couple’s real names are not Raynor and Moth Winn, they are Sally and Tim Walker. Fair enough, plenty of people write under a different name. Raynor explains she never liked the name Sally, and liked to be known by Ray. Moth is a nickname made from Timothy’s first name.

• The book claims the couple lost their home after a dodgy investment in a friend’s business which left them liable for debts when it failed. However, the Observer claims Winn defrauded her employer of £64,000. They then borrowed £100k from a distant relative to repay that money to her former boss with an agreement they would not pursue criminal charges. The Walkers agreed to an 18% interest rate for the loan, which was secured against their home. When their relative’s business failed and he owed money to two men, he transferred the Walkers’ debt. Those two men pursued the Walkers in court for the money and they took possession of the Walkers’ home. Winn calls the issue with her former employer a “dispute” and that she made “mistakes”. She’ll says this did not result in the couple losing their home. She says she never faced criminal sanctions for this. On the loss of their home, Winn says this happened due to an investment in a business belonging to a lifetime friend of Moth’s. When they asked for the money back, she says he instead offered them a loan with a charge on their home. She says that when his business failed, their home was then repossessed as part of his company liquidation.

• The Walkers claimed to have no home, however the Observer found the owned a property in the south-west of France, although the home itself was not habitable. They had, according to locals, stayed in a caravan at the property. Winn says the France property is uninhabitable and they have been unable to sell it.

• The book said Moth was diagnosed with CBD in 2013, but he began showing symptoms six years prior to that. This means Moth may have had CBD - which affects movement, speech, memory and behaviour - for 18 years. The average life expectancy for people with CBD is six to eight years. Some people do survive for longer, but require round-the-clock care. Winn says allegations the CBD diagnosis is problematic have been “unbearable”. She says Moth’s disease progression is slow. She also has shared letters from medics about Moth’s condition. In one an unnamed writer refers to Moth’s condition as an “atypical form” of CBD and that the stability of his condition makes them believe it is an “even more unusual disorder”.

• The Salt Path has two sequels and each follows a similar pattern - Moth is suffering from symptoms of CBD, they embark on a difficult walk over hundreds of miles, and by the end Moth has gotten better. In the most recent book, Landlines, the book claims Moth had a brain scan that showed “a distinct reduction in his receptor cells”, however after their walk a new scan was “normal”. Experts told the Observer this sort of claim is not like any other presentation of CBD they have seen. Winn has released medical letters from Moth’s doctors in response to the suggestion he may not have CBD. Winn says Moth’s “slow progression” of CBD “has allowed us time to discover how walking helps him”.

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The claims about health are perhaps the most serious of them all, given how false claims about the effectiveness of alternative therapy can harm very ill people.

Winn’s books contain passages marvelling at how their walks aided Moth’s unlikely recovery from CBD, including where she says that after 200 miles of walking “over endless headlands, carrying everything we need to survive on our backs, Moth's health began to improve in ways that should have been impossible”. She describes how Moth’s gait and short-term memory improved.

The Observer’s suggestion the health claims are exaggerated reminds me of the Australian influencer Belle Gibson, who was found to have lied about having brain cancer after spending years telling her audience she had kept her condition manageable with a healthy diet and alternative therapies.

The Observer report, and Winn’s response to it, still leaves many questions unanswered - largely because a lot of the questions, especially the ones around Moth’s health, can only be answered by the couple themselves.

This is largely for privacy reasons - the author has made public claims about CBD that can be disputed by medical experts, but journalists cannot demand access to all of Moth’s medical records or doorstep his doctors.

What I would say is that if The Salt Path were indeed a true story as it has been claimed, the publishers, producers and charity linked to Winn would surely have been rebutting the Observer story. As it stands, only Winn herself has denied the claims and said she is taking legal advice.

Publisher Penguin says it “undertook all necessary pre-publication due diligence” and the producers, Number 9 Films and Shadowplay Features, say there were “no known claims against the book” before this.

The charity PSPA, which supports people with CBD and has worked with the Walkers, said "too many questions currently remain unanswered" and that it had "made the decision to terminate our relationship with the family".

Isaacs and Anderson have yet to speak publicly about the controversy, but you can imagine what they must be thinking.

Perhaps they’re angry, or maybe they’re frustrated they didn’t wait and star in the movie about what’s sure to be fierce legal row instead.

A third follow-up to The Salt Path is due to be published in October - it’s not yet been confirmed whether Penguin will go ahead with that release. Meanwhile, Winn has withdrawn from a UK tour “while this process is ongoing”.