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Russian paramilitary Wagner group pulled its fighters and equipment from Rostov-on-Don, where they had seized the military headquarters, said the regional governor, after the mercenaries’ chief Evgueni Prigozhin announced to go to Belarus and not face charges, after calling off his troops’ advance on Moscow. Read our blog to see how the day’s events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).

 

This year’s Glastonbury festival is one of the wokest ever, as Gen Zers shun the usual warm-up DJ sets and bands and bands for debate panels featuring Leftie speakers, a string of MPs and Just Stop Oil – after starting the day with artisan coffees, organised runs and Joe Wicks workout classes. The Mail has the story.

As the sun rose above Worthy Farm, hundreds of people were seen taking part in organised runs or a 30-minute workout session, led live by exercise guru Joe Wicks, instead of heading straight for the stages or alcohol tents.

Health conscious Gen Zers were also seen shaking up the festivities with cold outdoor showers, stretches and even a group jog.

The organised run, which saw around 200 people take part, stretched for around 5km as joggers pounded through the fields while others (millennials) slept off their hangovers.

And then rather than the customary ‘baby wipe’ bath, young people could be seen having showers near their tents, to ensure they feel and look fresh for the day.

Gen Z attendees – known for their health conscious lifestyles including drinking less booze than their millennial counterparts – didn’t head straight for the beers either.

The longest queues by far [Friday] morning were for artisan coffee, as ticket holders made the most of the dry weather – which is expected to peak at 25°C – and got up early.

Crowds then gathered for Joe Wicks’ Glastonbury workout this morning – a 30 minute HIIT exercise class.

Read more: The Wokest Ever Glastonbury

There is a pattern, a recurring blindness, in the approach of the administrative state to everyday human life. Let’s consider a few examples of recent political idiocy and the common thread that unites them:

The Scholz Government hopes to convince more Germans to opt for public transit by tinkering with fares and introducing a universal €49 ticket. The offering, which collapses regional ticket schemes into one simple, relatively cheap monthly subscription, is now more than 50 days old, and preliminary data show it’s changed hardly anybody’s habits. The vast majority of the 11 million subscriptions sold so far have gone to longstanding public transit users; less than a tenth have been purchased by new customers. Surveys show that interest is concentrated in the urban centres, while rural populations have no use for the ticket because everybody drives cars there. Calls for improving transit offerings in the countryside are half-hearted and bizarre; the whole concept of public transit requires dense, concentrated populations.
For some years now, the German state has deployed extravagant subsidies to convince consumers to buy electric vehicles. While adoption has been substantial, the dream of 15 million EVs by 2030 remains very far off. Subsidies aren’t enough to counterbalance the substantial cost of the batteries, leaving conventional automobiles with an enormous competitive advantage at the cheaper end. Also too, it seems that the core market for EVs – relatively well-off Germans who take mostly short trips and primarily charge their vehicles at home – will soon be saturated. For those who have longer commutes or must frequently travel long distances, the limited range and insufficient charging network are disqualifying.
I’ve already written about proposed Government legislation to compel all Germans to transition to heat pumps, beginning in 2024. Massive controversy compelled substantial changes in the law, which has been blunted in many respects, but remains worrying. Because not everybody lives in buildings that are suitable for heat pumps, the law in its original form would have required massive renovations across broad sectors of the housing market, effectively wiping out billions of euros in personal wealth. If enacted in its original form, it might well have rendered many prewar buildings basically uninhabitable.

Read more: The ‘Soft’ Tyranny of the Modern Bureaucratic State

The group are staging another public march today to ‘demand the Home Office to end deportations of peaceful demonstrators’.

It started midday at Parliament Square and are making their way to Home Office, with speakers including Marcus, via telephone from prison, and his partner Holly Cullen-Davis.

A petition calling to secure Marcus’ right to remain in the UK has over 79,000 signatures.

Just Stop Oil spokesperson, Indigo Rumblelow said: ‘We will be sending a clear message to the Home Secretary that the cowardly ”double punishment” of peaceful people in civil resistance to stop government criminality and protecting the lives of their families will not go unchallenged.

‘We’re demanding that Marcus stays in the UK and is not deported at the end of his sentence so that he can remain with his family, friends, and stepchildren.’

Read more: Just Stop Oil take to the streets again: Eco-zealots whinge that German protester who sparked 40-hour gridlock when he climbed Dartford Crossing bridge will be kicked out of UK when he is freed from jail

The Met Police has cleared Laurence Fox of any wrongdoing after he was filmed setting fire to a row of Pride ‘progress’ flags on Father’s Day, calling them a celebration of “child mutilation”. The Mail has the story.

The progress flag – an amendment to the traditional gay Pride flag – includes a chevron with black, brown, baby blue and baby pink colours representing deaths from AIDS, Black Lives Matter, the transgender movement as well as a circle to signify intersex people.

It has become associated with promoting gender identity theory in the culture wars currently engulfing Britain.

An unrepentant Mr. Fox has defended burning the progress flag bunting in his back garden on Father’s Day, saying he has received thousands of messages of support since the stunt.

The actor-turned-political activist, who is preparing to compete for Boris Johnson’s Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency, also insisted that he would welcome questioning from the Metropolitan Police after the force confirmed it was “assessing” the video.

Today, the Metropolitan Police said: “[We were] made aware of a video uploaded onto social media that showed the burning of a number of progress Pride flags. The footage was reviewed in full in conjunction with the Crown Prosecution Service. No criminal offences were identified as having been committed.

“The Metropolitan Police recognises that this incident has caused community concern and we take any allegation of hate crime seriously. We will continue to work alongside our partners to support and protect all our communities in London.”

Read more: Laurence Fox Did Not Commit a Hate Crime When He Burned Pride Flags at Home, Met Police Rules

Policymakers in Washington reportedly think that Prigozhin’s gambit will help Ukraine’s counteroffensive

US officials believe that the Wagner PMC’s insurrection in Russia will play into Ukraine’s hands, allowing Kiev to revitalize its much-hyped counteroffensive which Moscow says has thus far failed to gain any ground, Politico reported on Saturday.

Shortly before the private military company’s leader Evgeny Prigozhin agreed to halt his advance on Moscow and withdraw his troops as part of the deal brokered by Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, US officials held several meetings to assess the potential impact of the mutiny, the report says. 

In the end, they reportedly arrived at the conclusion that the insurrection would keep the Kremlin busy, providing Ukraine’s stalled counteroffensive with a window of opportunity. 

“I don’t see how it could hurt them,” one senior official told Politico. Others opined that the development would likely help Kiev, pointing out that Prigozhin had taken control of the HQ of Russia’s Southern Military District in the city of Rostov-on-Don. However, Wagner members have left the city on Saturday evening, according to local officials. 

With Wagner drama unfolding in Russia, a US official told Politico that policymakers in Washington called their European counterparts, seeking to “reassure them” and tell them to “message neutrality.” “No one should be spiking the football,” he added.

Read more

Highlights of Russia’s aborted Wagner revolt

According to Politico, the general consensus between Western officials was that Kiev now had “an unprecedented opportunity to advance.” Some US lawmakers supported this point of view, with Democrat Congressman Jason Crow tweeting that the Wagner insurrection “will almost certainly benefit the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the near term and [Kiev] should move fast to capitalize.”

In the early hours of Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry said that Ukrainian troops were attempting to take advantage of Wagner insurrection by reading two brigades for an offensive thrust near the Donbass town of Artyomovsk (known as Bakhmut in Ukraine).

Later, however, it said that while Ukrainian forces tried to mount attacks along several sections of the front, all their attempts to breach Russian lines failed. 

Ukraine’s offensive, which had been talked up for months, finally kicked off in the early days of June but has so far failed to gain any ground, with Kiev’s troops suffering heavy losses, according to Moscow. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has also admitted that Kiev’s troops had been advancing “slower than desired” in the face of “tough resistance.”

 

As the war enters it 487th day, these are the main developments.