The Hound | June 22

Kier Starmer resigns as Prime Minister in the UK, the legacy of Brexit, and more.

June 22, 2026

Hi there,

It’s Monday and I hope you had a restful holiday weekend! Today kicked off with UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer resigning, leading the way for Andy Burnham, who won a special parliamentary election last week, to succeed him. Also, new reporting uncovered Chinese investors secretly acquired stakes into SpaceX’s IPO before it launched.

And despite the holiday, the Trump administration was busy at work with the DOJ refusing to rule out Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund for January 6 rioters. Meanwhile, White House officials have continued privately telling Trump's allies that some form of payment is still coming, even as administration spokespersons claim publicly that the fund has been abandoned.

Yet too much media coverage has treated this story as resolved — a legal dispute that courts already handled. The administration's refusal to swear in writing that the fund is finished is not a footnote. It is the story. When officials won't put their claims under oath, journalists should be asking why — and who stands to benefit from keeping the door open.

The public deserves reporting that treats a refusal to tell the truth under oath as exactly the red flag it is.

Read about this, and more, with today’s stories:

Until next time,

Harry from The Hound

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