July 3, 2024 - 7:00pm

→ Andrew Tate’s brother is one of George Galloway’s biggest funders

The adage that politicians need all the support they can get doesn’t always hold true — some endorsements are best avoided. It has been reported today that one of the major funders of George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain is Tristan Tate, a self-described “kickboxer and businessman” perhaps better known as the younger brother of notorious manosphere influencer Andrew Tate. The siblings are currently under investigation for human trafficking and involvement in organised crime, and both have been accused of sexual assault by multiple women.

Tristan Tate reportedly paid a total of £5,000 to Galloway’s party in the days after the general election was called. Tate the Elder has also been dragged into this weirdest of elections: he has been praised by Reform UK’s Nigel Farage, who views himself as part of the same phenomenon inspiring disillusioned young men. Will Jordan Peterson come out for the Lib Dems next?

→ Gavin Newsom becomes a podcast bro

The Pod Save America bros may have lost the mandate of heaven, but a new podcasting star has entered the stage. California Governor Gavin Newsom announced today that he’s starting a podcast with retired football star Marshawn Lynch, a convenient way to keep his name in the news while the rest of his party panics and considers a coup.

Admittedly, the move is more subtle than Newsom’s past hints at his Oval Office ambitions: visiting the White House while Joe Biden was away, running political ads across the country despite holding public office in California, and joking that Biden needed to take over-the-counter memory aids in an interview with the Atlantic in April. Is America ready for a Podcaster-in-Chief? 

→ Gender-critical publishing network faces backlash

The publishing world is one of the industries most captured by progressive zealotry — just go to a book festival or look on any publisher’s website for the evidence. Which is why an anonymous group has established SEEN in Publishing, described as “a network of publishing professionals, authors, and creatives, who recognise the material reality of sex, and support freedom of expression.”

It seems to have ruffled some feathers. Pride networks from Pan Macmillan, Penguin Random House UK and Hachette UK issued a joint statement: “We are disappointed to see the announcement of the SEEN in Publishing group […] We are concerned that the anonymous nature of this group could negatively impact the work environment and undermine individual safety, affecting some of the most marginalised in our communities.”

But SEEN maintains it has remained anonymous to protect its membership from trans activists, saying: “It is those who express their scepticism over gender identity ideology whose liberties, reputations and contracts are under threat.” Indeed, why else would SEEN exist?