Former Olympic gymnast MyKayla Skinner trashed most of the Olympic team in a YouTube video and the pushback led to MyKayla backtracking like crazy. I would have covered this but it’s crazy complicated and she’s a dumbass. [Buzzfeed]
Drake attended Michael Rubin’s all-white Independence Day party in the Hamptons. People were clowning on the Drake photos all weekend. [Hollywood Life]
I hope Bhad Bhabie gets somewhere safe after her ex assaulted her. [Starcasm]
Podcaster Taylor Stecker says that Eric Stonestreet was nasty to her. [Seriously OMG]
Travis Kelce was emotional during Taylor Swift’s Amsterdam concert. [Socialite Life]
Ryan Reynolds loves South Korea. [LaineyGossip]
Review of Ti West’s MaXXXine. [Pajiba]
Sarah Jessica Parker is committed to giving Carrie Bradshaw the worst designer clothes and these overalls are genuinely upsetting. [Go Fug Yourself]
Zac Efron looks back at his classic works. [OMG Blog]
HBO/Max is making an It-inspired TV show? [Just Jared]
I love Lewis Hamilton’s style but the shoes are a NO. [RCFA]

Part 1: The gymnastics community cannot let these comments to be swept under the rug. I will be as respectful as possible to @mykaylaskinner but instead of engaging in meaningful conversation she blocks anyone who holds her accountable for her words. pic.twitter.com/Y69pwCxnUG

— Riley W (@gymguyri) July 3, 2024

pic.twitter.com/1uYVJCTiSX

— MyKayla Skinner (Harmer) (@mykaylaskinner) July 6, 2024

The brouhaha over Prince Harry receiving the Pat Tillman Award for Service has come at an interesting time for the Windsors. I absolutely believe the Windsors are driving some of the fury and shenanigans behind the nasty coverage of the ESPY award. I also think it’s downright hilarious that in the midst of the Windsors and British media’s temper tantrum over “Harry receiving an award,” the senior royals trudged up to Scotland so that Prince Edward and Queen Camilla could be inducted into the Order of the Thistle. You know, some would that an award or an honor. The Windsors give each other awards, honors, ribbons, medals and orders constantly, but they still want to be able to say that Harry and Meghan are so wrong for simply accepting a few awards here and there. Well, here’s the latest tantrum, via the Mail’s Palace Confidential show:

Charlotte Griffiths, editor-at-large for the Mail on Sunday, told the Mail+’s weekly talk show that the Montecito-based Duke and Duchess of Sussex are treating life ‘like a red carpet event’. The panel discussed the growing backlash over the decision to give Prince Harry the memorial award set up in the name of Pat Tillman, an American football star who gave up a £3million contract to enlist in the US Army after 9/11.

Host Jo Elvin asked Charlotte whether the Sussexes were being ‘tin-eared’ to the criticism they’ve faced over the past week. Charlotte responded: ‘I get the impression that life for Meghan Markle at the moment is a sort of prom event and [Harry] is the prom king and she’s the prom king and she’s setting up all these events over the years that they can attend together. Although at the Living Legends of Aviation one, she actually didn’t turn up with him because a similar controversy had happened before the event and then she didn’t go with him.’

‘I’ll be very interested to see if this time next week she goes with him. Serena Williams, her great friend, is presenting the award so she may well attend. Life isn’t a red carpet event for them to show off their brand, there are some very serious events out there and they are being tin-eared. Ever since they left the Royal Family for America, the Sussexes have been living the California lifestyle, walking on red carpets, going to film premieres, accepting awards and making more content for Netflix.’

Rebecca English, Royal Editor at the Daily Mail spoke on Palace Confidential about how different their lifestyle is to that of The Firm. She said: ‘You very rarely see a member of the Royal Family getting an award for something they have done. There have been joking ones over the years, maybe the King or the Prince of Wales have accepted one environmental award. But you don’t [often see it] because they consider public service to be an award in itself.’

‘Obviously Harry and Meghan now, I think maybe as you said Jo, are a part of that showbiz celebrity lifestyle, where part of their lifeblood is to get another award and it just shows you how different their lives are to what they would’ve had in the UK.’

Charlotte added that Harry has been put forward for the Pat Tillman award based on work he did when he was in the army between 2005 and 2015. ‘I think that’s why it’s so jarring, because it’s not new work, this is old work. I mean this is also a celebration of his time in the army but that was a long time ago now and it feels like he needs something new,’ she said.

[From The Daily Mail]

“I mean this is also a celebration of his time in the army but that was a long time ago now.” I swear to God, the ESPN press release was not written in Latin. ESPN gave their reasons for awarding Harry: his military service and the tenth anniversary of the founding of Invictus, which is still ongoing and growing year by year. “Life for Meghan Markle at the moment is a sort of prom event and [Harry] is the prom king and she’s the prom king and she’s setting up all these events over the years that they can attend together.” They think Meghan… set up the ESPYs and convinced them to give Harry the Pat Tillman Award? They think Meghan got Harry a Living Legends of Aviation Award? This is John Travolta slander!

Once again, these people can’t just say The Thing. The Thing being: we’re so mad that our four-and-half-year-long hate campaign hasn’t worked, we’re mad that Americans aren’t being widely influenced by our deranged talking points, we’re mad that the Sussexes are allowed to thrive and win awards.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Whenever other royal women are at the same event as Queen Camilla, they’re rarely in the same color as Camilla, and it often feels like the royal women are making a point to look frumpy. I’ve long suspected that all of this has been dictated by Camilla, especially in the Duchess of Edinburgh’s case. Last year, there were also rumors that Camilla thinks blue is her signature color, and that was a problem for the Princess of Wales, who probably owns hundreds of blue dresses, coats, sweaters and buttons. Well, looks like Camilla and her dresser really have been bossing Sophie and Kate around:

Dresser to the Queen, Jacqui Meakin has slowly released her grip on who can wear the colour blue at the same time as Queen Camilla – but it must be a very different shade, a source claims. The source tells Express.co.uk that the colour blue is particularly problematic for the senior royals’ dressers because it’s a favourite of both Queen Camilla, 76, who was once named the second-best-dressed royal, and Kate, the Princess of Wales, 42.

“The Queen is now able to choose her outfits before all the other women in the Royal Family,” the source said. “It’s part of the royal pecking order and that includes the clothes and colour. Her Majesty’s favourite colour is blue and so is Kate’s. Sophie is also quite fond of it. There was a time when Jacqui [Meakin] was a bit apprehensive to allow blue to be worn at the same time as the Queen, but she’s relaxed that now as long as the blues are very different shades. In the end, it all became a bit comical with all the ladies seeing the funny side.”

Meakin was put in charge of choosing outfits for the most senior woman in the Royal Family after taking over from the late Queen’s dresser Angela Kelly.

However, soon after taking up the role sources claimed she had quickly “ruffled a few feathers” at Buckingham Palace by being too strict over outfit colour choices – most notably the colour blue. A source said that Camilla’s long-time dresser was quite strict in enforcing the royal rule that Queen Camilla’s preferences come first.

That made Meakin the target of Palace sniggers but now everyone can see the funny side and it has become an “in-joke”.

[From The Express]

This isn’t surprising. The only surprises are the rare moments when Kate is “allowed” to wear blue or look better or more pulled together than Camilla during a joint appearance. Since Cam became queen, it’s really felt like she’s been playing a lot of games with Kate and what Kate is allowed to wear, especially with the Royal Collection jewels. It was actually a pretty big deal that Kate wasn’t allowed to wear a tiara for the coronation and she had to wear that ridiculous glittery headpiece. It was also a big deal that Sophie was allowed to wear the Lotus Flower Tiara, a tiara only worn by Kate in recent years, at the state dinner a few weeks ago. More is happening behind the scenes than Camilla ordering Sophie and Kate to never wear blue at the same time.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.

The American media has spent much of the past ten days throwing one of the most unhinged tantrums I’ve ever seen over President Biden and his age. Those of us who were paying attention in 2016 remember what happened when Hillary Clinton had pneumonia and the entire political commentary class decided that was more important than Donald Trump’s racism, fascism and hatefulness. This feels like more of the same. I bring that up because, in a matter of days, British voters and French voters soundly rejected the hate and fascism from the political right-wing. In France, the situation felt even more dire, as many pundits predicted a surge in support for Marine Le Pen and her Nazi-lite party. But French people ended up rejecting Le Pen and most of her Nazi colleagues.

The left-wing alliance in France won the most seats in parliament in a dramatic election, dealing a surprise blow to the far-right party of Marine Le Pen.

In the first round of voting a week ago Le Pen’s National Rally came top and was aiming to secure the most seats in France’s legislature for the first time in the party’s history on Sunday. But tactical voting and collaboration between Le Pen’s opponents to keep her party out of power paid off, final results showed.

The election, however, looks set to throw the country into a period of political turmoil, with no single group coming close to winning enough seats for a majority in parliament.

President Emmanuel Macron gambled on a snap election after a stunning defeat in last month’s European Parliament election, promising “a clarification” he hoped would put the far right back in its box. Instead, he lost seats and landed France in greater uncertainty.

Even so, the mood inside the president’s camp was upbeat on Sunday night, with Macron himself striking a defiant tone. At a gathering of his political allies, the French president galvanized his troops: “Our ideas are still alive and [we] haven’t lost voters,” he claimed, according to one participant who spoke to Paris Playbook.

Macron’s own position as president was not at stake: He is due to remain in office until 2027. His Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has said he’ll offer to resign, though who could take over is far from clear.

[From Politico]

“Instead, he lost seats and landed France in greater uncertainty.” Yeah but the Nazis were still defeated, right? I get that it’s more complicated than that, but after so many years where it felt like the far right was on the march across Europe and North America, it’s notable that the trend is actually the opposite, that when voters get the chance to reject racism, hate and a rollback of civil rights, voters actually show up and do the thing they need to do. That should be applauded and let the French people have their victory.

Hang it in the Louvre pic.twitter.com/jWKP2zQpxD

— Tiberius (@ecomarxi) July 7, 2024

France is celebrating their democracy win after kicking Le Pen’s Nazi ass to the curb.

Vive la France
pic.twitter.com/PBh407HWtJ

— Marlene Robertson (@marlene4719) July 7, 2024

“No Pasaran”

Incredible scenes in France this evening as the left unites to send the fascists packing.

pic.twitter.com/7KdDTW6orV

— Rachael Swindon #WeAreCollective (@Rachael_Swindon) July 7, 2024

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

The British media and (I suspect) the royal establishment are very upset that Prince Harry will receive the Pat Tillman Award for Service at the ESPYs. Nevermind that the award is backed by the Tillman Foundation and ESPN and they’re not backing down in the face of yet another British-led hate campaign. The Brits now think that they can lay a very strange guilt trip on Harry for accepting the award. They’ve created a narrative where Harry must “turn it down,” for reasons like “he removed his wife and children from our abuse” and “he dared to correct the record on decades of lies.” The Mail columnist Amanda Platell had an especially unhinged piece about this a few days ago, and then of course Richard Eden had to do a follow-up. Eden is pointing out that King Charles gave Prince William the Army Air Corps patronage, and Eden is basically saying that Harry is mad that he wasn’t allowed to continue to serve the British military and… that’s why he’s accepting an award in America. Quite an argument: the sadistic Windsors punished Harry by removing his military patronages, therefore America is wrong to give him awards.

Prince Harry will have been further wounded, say old friends, to see his brother, Prince William, handed the role of Colonel-in-Chief of the Army Air Corps by their father, King Charles, at a colourful ceremony at Middle Wallop, Hampshire, last month. There is a poignancy to the location, as Middle Wallop is where Harry, 39, did his training before serving with the Army Air Corps as co-pilot in Apache attack helicopters in Afghanistan. There was a time when the younger brother could legitimately have expected to be given the Army Air Corps role himself. For, although William, 42, went on to pilot helicopters with the search and rescue service of the Royal Air Force, he has never been involved in active conflict. Harry’s decision to quit royal life means that he is no longer eligible for such honorary roles, however.

‘Harry was genuinely hurt that he was not allowed to retain his formal links to the military,’ one British friend of the Prince tells me. ‘They meant the world to him.’

In the absence of new honours from the King, Harry has taken to accepting awards in the U.S., his adopted homeland. And the latest of these has proved contentious. The ESPY Award is just the latest honour the Duke has accepted since he moved to California. Among the others was the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Award, presented to Harry and Meghan for the work they have undertaken in ‘promoting racial equality, social justice and mental health’.

A showbusiness source in the US tells me: ‘These awards are great for keeping Harry and Meghan in the news. They boost their profile at a time when they are not producing much work. Their agents love awards, too, as they keep everyone happy.’

For now. The backlash over the Pat Tillman Award suggests that the American public might be starting to see this unending stream of awards and honours and something of a public relations strategy. For frontline members of the Royal Family, honours are merely part of the role, whether it’s taking up a senior position with a military regiment or receiving a new decoration, such as the Family Order worn by Queen Camilla at last week’s state banquet for Japanese Emperor Naruhito. Yet, today, Harry and Meghan are free of the constraints of monarchy – an institution which they appear to hold in contempt. Why would they want or need regular new honours?

Indeed, if Harry had any honour, he would turn down the Pat Tillman Award and let the event’s organisers present it, instead, to someone who puts the values of self-sacrifice and service before personal gain.

[From The Daily Mail]

Something isn’t clicking for me, maybe I’ve lost my ability to understand their rantings at this point, but what is the argument here really? Mary Tillman has a right to her opinion, and the Tillman Foundation and ESPN have the right to ignore her and continue to highlight Harry’s work and the work of Invictus. I still have no idea why and how Mary Tillman came to give her (kind of ridiculous) statement to the Mail, but it’s been made abundantly clear why the award is going to Harry. It’s not some hokey faux award, it’s not like the Sussexes show up to the opening of an envelope (I wish!!) and it’s not like the Windsors are not CONSTANTLY giving each other awards, honors, orders, ribbons, medals, etc. What are we even doing here?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

We didn’t get any announcements from Ben Affleck & Jennifer Lopez on the Fourth of July, but they celebrated the holiday on different coasts. Ben is in LA with his kids and Jennifer went to her house in the Hamptons this week. [JustJared]
An explainer on the Taraji P. Henson-Keith Lee situation, which confused the hell out of me and I still don’t really get it. [LaineyGossip]
Happy (belated) 100th birthday to the Cesar salad. [Jezebel]
Brandi Glanville is threatening to sue Bravo. [Socialite Life]
Are you watching AppleTV+’s Presumed Innocent? [Pajiba]
What’s the worst “rich kid syndrome” you’ve ever seen? [Buzzfeed]
Vanessa Hudgens gave birth to her first kid. [Hollywood Life]
The Afraid trailer – the smart house/AI is the villain. [Seriously OMG]
Letitia Wright wore Prada to an Atlanta premiere. [RCFA]
Trixie Mattel gave a tour of her new home. [OMG Blog]

We’re coming up on the 25th anniversary of John F. Kennedy and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy’s deaths on July 16th. People Magazine already had exclusive excerpts from a book about Carolyn published this year, Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. Now Us Weekly has published more excerpts and additional stories in this week’s cover story. The main focus of Once Upon a Time was that Carolyn wasn’t some villain, nor was it her fault that the marriage had ups and downs, nor was it her fault that the flight was delayed. I don’t know the truth of their situation, but like everyone else, I do find John and Carolyn fascinating. Some highlights from Us Weekly’s cover story:

John & Carolyn were solid in the last year of their lives: Despite reports the pair — who wed in 1996 — were headed for a split prior to their untimely deaths, new revelations tell a different, more nuanced story of their complicated, passionate and enduring relationship. They were in therapy together and were talking about starting a family. “Toward the end of their lives, they had managed to reach this kind of rapprochement,” The Day John Died author Christopher Andersen shares in the latest issue of Us Weekly. “Whatever friction was there was being dealt with.”

The early days: According to Beller, the couple spent the early days of their romance going on dinner dates, traveling to Kennedy’s Long Island summer rental and hanging out in Central Park, playing touch football with Kennedy’s pals from Brown. “[Carolyn] would stay on the sidelines with John’s German shepherd Sam … calling plays, and teasing everyone mercilessly, laughing. John loved it,” Kennedy’s college friend Richard Wiese said in Once Upon a Time.

Carolyn played hard to get? Andersen says Bessette was “very cool, very smart [and] very intoxicating.” Historian Steve Gillon, who wrote America’s Reluctant Prince: The Life of John F. Kennedy Jr. and was a former good friend of Kennedy’s, adds that she “could challenge him intellectually. Carolyn found him, and then she made him work for her. I think that’s one of the reasons he was smitten.” Kennedy — considered to be one of the world’s most sought-after bachelors — proposed on July 4, 1995; Bessette reportedly made him wait three weeks before she said yes. They tied the knot in an intimate ceremony in front of just 40 guests at a small church on Cumberland Island in Georgia.

Reclusive Carolyn: Their marriage was marked by highs and lows. “There were a lot of issues,” says Gillon. Bessette hated being thrust into the spotlight and hounded by the paparazzi, and she resented Kennedy for it. “John had grown up with this media presence his whole life; it didn’t bother him,” explains Gillon. “But Carolyn was terrified. She became more reclusive.” They fought, sometimes publicly. (Photos of them arguing at NYC’s Washington Square Park made front-page news in 1996.) “They were both very high-strung, and I think they had tempers,” says Andersen. (Gillon recalls a fight the pair had in the kitchen of their Tribeca loft over a letter Kennedy received from his boss at his political magazine, George, during which Bessette “lit into” Kennedy for not sticking up for himself more.) “We saw several arguments they had in public,” adds Andersen, “but by and large, people thought Carolyn was worth it.”

They were discussing having kids in their last months. “[John] even had a name picked out,” says Andersen. “[Whether] it was a boy or a girl, they were going to call the child Flynn.” Bessette was coming around after having reservations about bringing a baby into the mix with all of the media attention they garnered. “She was doing much better in the closing weeks of their marriage,” Andersen says. “John was making accommodations for Carolyn and she was finally making them for him.”

Things were looking up. “Carolyn had found a way to cope with all of the attention,” says Andersen. “They had found a way.” Kennedy (who’d finally decided to follow his father’s footsteps into politics — “that was his calling,” says Gillon) was feeling hopeful, Andersen adds. “Days before he died, John said, ‘I’m happy with where my life is now.’”

[From Us Weekly]

I’m kind of wary of either extreme when it comes to stories about the last months of their lives. They were having well-documented issues and they had likely separated, however temporarily. But they were working on their marriage and it was actually a “good sign” that Carolyn wanted to go with John to a Kennedy family wedding that weekend. It does feel like there’s a movement to approach John or Carolyn as a sainted “great white hope” figure, when really, they were both messy people.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images. Cover courtesy of Us Weekly.

On May 4th, Kendrick Lamar dropped “Not Like Us,” the fifth song in his 2024 “beef” with Drake. I’m counting Kendrick’s feature on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That” as Kendrick’s first song of this year’s beef, but Kendrick and Drake have made oblique references to each other in their music for many years. “Not Like Us” came less than 24 hours after Kendrick released “Meet the Grahams,” one of the darkest lyrical eviscerations I’ve ever heard. But “Not Like Us” was basically Kendrick having a ball as he stomped on Drake even harder. It’s become the song of the summer and it was Kendrick’s closing song at The Pop Out concert he organized for Juneteenth. Kendrick performed “Not Like Us” five times and every single person there knew every word.

After the Pop Out, we heard that Kendrick was filming the music video for “Not Like Us” in Compton. I saw some fan-videos online, including one lady pinching Kendrick’s cheek as he walked past and he turned and smiled at her (adorable). Well, it really happened, and Kendrick dropped the video on the Fourth of July. Imagine choosing those two holidays for the biggest “I hate Drake” moves ever. When Kendrick dropped just the song on May 4th, the YouTube video racked up millions of views in just a few hours. The same thing happened with the music video – it came out around 7 pm EST last night and it already has over 12.5 million views. Kendrick also seems to be previewing a brand-new song at the beginning and there are consistent rumors that he will drop a full album soon.

There are so many visual references to Drake – the owl pinata, the actual owl in a cage at the end, the push-ups and on and on. Drake also claimed all kinds of sh-t about Kendrick’s relationship with his fiancee Whitney, and Whitney is there, in the video, with their two children. This was Whitney’s clapback too. Drake also claimed that Whitney had a thing with Kendrick’s friend Dave Free… the same Dave Free who co-directed the music video with Kendrick. The whole video is amazing, what’s your favorite shot? I love when Kendrick looks into the camera for “other vaginal option,” as if he’s saying: I really mean this sh-t. I also love the hopscotch for “A minorrrrr.” Tons of cameos too, including DJ Mustard and basketball player DeMar DeRozan (“I’m glad DeRoz came home, y’all didn’t deserve him neither”).

Drake: Your kids aren’t yours, your wife doesn’t love you

Kendrick & Whitney: pic.twitter.com/5IU5FvUf5L

— Joey (@gothamhiphop) July 4, 2024

Screencaps courtesy of ‘Not Like Us’.

Last week, PopBitch ran a particularly gross blind item – you can see the full screenshot here. The basics were as follows: an A-list actress has a house in the Hamptons and she regularly has friends stay with her. One of her friends – “a NYC-based wordsmith” – stayed in a guest room and had some kind of explosive diarrhea incident. Instead of confessing to the A-list actress, he just left money for the maids and got the hell out of there. Now the A-list actress is disgusted with the guy and she’s telling her friends about what went down, plus Hamptonites are now texting each other about “Ozempic-induced diarrhea.” Well, the Daily Mail did a big reveal. Unsurprisingly, the A-list actress is none other than Gwyneth Paltrow. But the NYC-based wordsmith? Who is he?? Turns out it’s everyone’s favorite hanger-on, Derek Blasberg. He’s like Jonathan Cheban for the elite.

The mystery surrounding the unfortunate guest who lost control of their bowels in a bed at Gwyneth Paltrow’s Hamptons home has now been solved by insiders who have named the person at the center of the scandal. DailyMail.com can reveal that the culprit behind the mortifying incident is socialite and celebrity hanger-on, Derek Blasberg.

The internet was whipped into a frenzy last week when a blind item in a popular gossip newsletter claimed that Goop founder Paltrow, 51, had been tasked with cleaning up someone’s ‘Ozempic-induced diarrhea’ at her home. But insiders have claimed that media personality Blasberg, 42 – once described as ‘one of showbiz’s most well-connected men’ – only conveniently blamed it on the popular weight loss wonder drug before allegedly fleeing the property.

‘It’s not Ozempic, that’s just what he told everyone,’ the insider said, before revealing how the secret made its way through the Hamptons set. ‘Gwyneth told Oprah, Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld, and Larry David. It’s shocking how many people know this story and how he has managed to keep it out of The Post… probably via his best friend [socialite Dasha Zhukova] – whose mom just married Rupert Murdoch.’

Blasberg is no stranger to spending time with Paltrow at her five-bedroom Long Island home, where she hosted her wedding to Brad Falchuk. In 2022 the fashion expert posted a snap of himself and the actress celebrating her 50th birthday at the sprawling property. And it appears someone tried to out Blasberg as the phantom pooper four weeks ago when they commented two poop emojis, a toilet emoji and a dynamite emoji on the Instagram post.

[From The Daily Mail]

“It appears someone tried to out Blasberg as the phantom pooper four weeks ago when they commented two poop emojis, a toilet emoji and a dynamite emoji.” OMFG. Like… how embarrassing, how awful, how scandalous. It’s bad enough that Gwyneth knows about Derek’s awful exploding diarrhea, but the fact that she’s telling everyone about it? Blasberg is probably going to be cut out of Hamptons society for at least a year. And if it wasn’t Ozempic-related diarrhea, what was it? Let me be honest – when I had the norovirus years ago, it was a mess. Not this bad – I was horking up almost everything – but it was BAD. For days. If he was legitimately sick, I would be more understanding. But what caused this??

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

Britain’s general election was held on the Fourth of July, and British people came out in droves to declare their independence from the Tory Party’s chokehold on Britain for the past thirteen years and five prime ministers. The Tories oversaw Brexit, a significantly faltering economy, a diminished standing in European politics and global politics and, let’s not forget, Sussexit happened on the Tories’ watch. Rishi Sunak has offered his resignation and accepted responsibility for the Conservative Party’s historic defeat. I’m not a Sunak apologist or anything, but it wasn’t entirely his fault, right? This was a backlash against the party writ large, not Sunak specifically. If anything, it feels like people are still mad as hell at Boris Johnson.

Britain’s new prime minister is Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who can be seen in these photos with his wife Victoria. He will meet with King Charles today and do the ring-kiss thing and then he has to form a government. But first, let’s talk about Labour’s historic landslide:

An earthquake in British politics. With far-right politics ascendant across the English Channel in France, the United Kingdom has swung in the opposite direction. Official election results Friday showed a landslide victory for the country’s center-left Labour Party — its first victory in 19 years, since under the leadership of Tony Blair.

Incoming Prime Minister Keir Starmer hailed his win as historic, saying early Friday: “Change begins now.”

“We can look forward again. Walk into the morning,” Starmer told supporters before dawn. “The sunlight of hope, pale at first, but getting stronger through the day.”

For the Conservatives — the party of Margaret Thatcher, Boris Johnson and the incumbent Prime Minister Rishi Sunak — it was the worst defeat in their party’s nearly 200-year history. Prominent lawmakers including former Prime Minister Liz Truss, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Penny Mordaunt lost their seats in the U.K. parliament. Sunak retained his seat but resigned Friday as Conservative Party leader, and apologized to the country.

“I am sorry. I have given this job my all but you have sent a clear signal, that the government of the United Kingdom must change,” Sunak told reporters as he and his wife left the prime minister’s residence at 10 Downing Street for the last time. “I have heard your anger, your disappointment and I take responsibility for this loss.”

After 14 years in power, the Conservatives were punished at the polls for all the tumult that occurred on their watch: Brexit, which most Britons now regret; Johnson’s Partygate scandal, in which the then-prime minister threw parties while the country was under COVID-19 lockdown and lied about them; and the disastrous 2022 budget of Johnson’s successor Liz Truss, which sent shockwaves through financial markets. Britain now has more children in poverty than any other wealthy country, according to the United Nations. Without London, it’s poorer than Mississippi.

This election also upended the U.K’s two-party system, with surging support for smaller parties. The environmentalist Green Party had its most successful election night ever, winning a record four seats — up from one in the previous parliamentary session. The centrist Liberal Democrats multiplied their representation in Parliament. And the far-right, anti-immigrant Reform UK Party will enter Parliament for the first time, with four seats — among them, one for its leader, Brexiteer Nigel Farage, who ran and lost seven times previously.

In Scotland, the once-hegemonic Scottish National Party — which has lobbied for Scottish independence from Britain — was decimated, with Labour taking most of the SNP’s seats. In Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K, the nationalist Sinn Fein party — which wants Northern Ireland to gain independence from Britain and join the Republic of Ireland to its south — won the most seats, becoming the region’s biggest party in the U.K. Parliament.

[From NPR]

The Scottish part is interesting, but I don’t completely understand what it means. Is the dream of Scexit over? Because it honestly felt like Scottish support for independence was growing every year? Or was the Labour support less about independence and more about throwing out all of the Tories in general? Anyway, congrats to all of the British peeps who came together to throw out those Tory a–holes. There’s a scary rise of right-wing ideology happening in many European countries, but British people said no, we want a more progressive government. Good for you guys.

Update: Starmer arrived at Buckingham Palace an hour ago and here’s the photo of Starmer meeting King Charles.

King Charles III welcomes Sir Keir Starmer during an audience at Buckingham Palace, London, where he invited the leader of the Labour Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government following the landslide General Election victory for the Labour Party.

Pic PA pic.twitter.com/RYjnV8JTG9

— Elliot Wagland (@elliotwagland) July 5, 2024

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.