The Observer Daily: Liz Untrussed

The best of The Observer, from across our newsroom View in browser Liz Untrussed The best of The Observer, from across our newsroom Jasper Corbett • Tuesday 1 July 2025 Dear friend, A lot has been written about Liz Truss's brief time in No 10. But what's been less well reported, and understood, is what she's been up to since she lost her seat in last year's general election. "Everything that made Britain great is being destroyed by an establishment that hates Britain and hates the west," she told the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington DC in February. At a cryptocurrency conference in Bedford she excoriated "the deep state" that had brought her down and promised to launch her own social media platform to champion free speech. Arguably strangest of all Liz Truss was filmed at Scunthorpe United's football ground promoting a brand of whiskey created by a bare knuckle fighter jailed in 2023 for assaulting a pensioner. Philip Collins and Ada Barumé have been investigating the curious post-No 10 career of the building's briefest inhabitant to find out what this might mean for the party she once led. Click here for to read the full piece → "The enemy of nonsense" – George Orwell Also in The Observer Defence companies facing uphill battle for financing In this time of geopolitical uncertainty, it's unsurprising to see a rise in financing of defence companies. £10.8 billion was raised in 2024, rising a fifth since 2022 according to data shared with The Observer. But as Barney Macintyre writes, defence companies are claiming to be "debanked", with the ADS, a trade body representing 1,500 small defence companies, finding that nearly three-quarters struggled to access basic banking services. Banks find themselves between a rock and a hard place, with arms manufacturers pleading for more support from banking classifications, and groups protesting what they deem to be immoral investments from banks.     Click here to read more → Women's Euro 2025: will it be another Spain showdown for England? by Jessy Parker Humphreys       With Wimbledon underway and the Tour de France starting on Saturday, the summer of sport is here. Arguably the biggest event is the Women's European Championships, which kicks off tomorrow. If you were lucky enough to pick up a copy of The Observer at the weekend, you would have received our wonderful wall chart to plot the progress of the Lionesses, looking to defend the championship following 2021's historic win. Jessy Parker Humphreys has looked at every team playing in this year's tournament to see how likely that is. Click here to read more → France says au revoir to public smoking by Xavier Greenwood      In film, in TV, in memes, French culture has been tied to smoking. But this week, restrictions were brought in that banned it in public places in France. As Xavier Greenwood reports, smoking costs the French economy roughly €150 billion each year, with 75,000 people dying from tobacco-related illnesses and up to 5,000 from passive exposure. Emmanuel Macron, who has been partial to a cigar in the past, sees this legislation as the latest step towards creating a tobacco-free generation by 2032. This piece is part of The Sensemaker. It features calm and clear analysis on what's driving the news across tech, geopolitics, finance and culture. To get the full newsletter sent to your inbox every morning, sign up here.   Click here to read more → Nigel Slater's midweek dinner What are you craving from your food in this heat? Comfort? Flavour? Freshness? Nigel Slater has you covered with his recipe for simple lemon roast potatoes with thyme and feta. As he recommends, the dish can be served straight from the oven, or cool if you can't face eating anything even remotely hot. Click here to read more → Listen The News Meeting Who is the tech billionaire cosying up to Donald Trump? Is Keir Starmer facing his most significant rebellion yet? Why is Chinese billionaire Justin Sun being accused of buying access to Donald Trump? And what should the health secretary Wes Streeting focus on if he wants to fix the NHS? Rebecca Moore is joined by host of the Westminster Insider podcast Sascha O'Sullivan, alongside The Observer's Patricia Clarke and Jon Ungoed-Thomas, as they battle it out and pitch the top stories of the day.   Click here to listen → Thanks for reading. We'll be back tomorrow.   Jasper Corbett Head of audio The Observer   My Account To manage your newsletters, track tickets and more, go to the 'My account' page on the Observer website: Manage my newsletters Follow Follow The Observer on social media on your preferred platform:   The Observer     The Observer Food Monthly The Observer Magazine The Observer New Review   Listen Listen for free in the Tortoise app or wherever you get your podcasts: Want to change how you receive these emails? Update email preferences Copyright © 2025 Tortoise Media. All rights reserved. Did this email get caught in your spam filter? Add editor@newsroom.tortoisemedia.com to your address book to never miss an email again. No longer want to receive this newsletter? Unsubscribe here.