While the DUP was losing its fight against the Brexit 'backstop', Donaldson was being flown in & out of a dangerous 'amber zone' where two medical facilities were ready to treat him if attacked, was guarded by elite forces and was paid to help the MoD meet its strategic goals.

Jeffrey Donaldson was a key and ‘very keen’ British asset in sensitive west African conflict, paid thousands while Irish Sea border was emerging. Documents show prized role working with Cameroonian dictator’s forces, luxury hotel stays, and personal cash.

Apologies to Sir Chris Bryant for inadvertently referring to him as 'Sir Christ Bryant' in my email newsletter last night. Although I'm sure he's been called worse, the correct version, minus Biblical title, is now online.

Oh, goodness. Is that what I called him. At least he won't sue over that...

As Barack Obama speaks to an audience of more than 10,000 people in Belfast's O2 Arena, talking abut the fragility of democracy around the world, someone shouts out loudly from the crowd: "F**k Stormont".

Andrew Muir might block a public register of toxic land - despite agreeing there should be one. Asbestos, arsenic & lead are in soil across Northern Ireland, but Stormont doesn’t want us to know where; Muir doesn't seem like he's going to change that.

Counterintuitive as it seems, many senior unionists — and even some top Orangemen — will have been quietly delighted when, late on Friday evening, the Garvaghy Road parade was banned. But how this situation has developed now creates major problems.

Imagine if the Executive parties treated the Lough Neagh scandal with even half the effort which they expended on Drumcree: Crisis meetings, emergency court cases, constant pressure - even breaking the law to achieve a goal. Instead, there's simply no urgency as the lough dies.

Factory farming is killing Lough Neagh – and despite Andrew Muir’s opposition to this, he’s incentivising it. Muir is a radically different minister - yet his ‘kill them young’ scheme is squeezing out traditional farming and encouraging US-style megafarms.

Next Thursday night I’ll be in discussion at the Belfast Exposed gallery with poet & ex-journalist Angela Graham. Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has described her latest collection, inspired by the horrors of the Ukraine War, as “exceptional”. Free🎟️below:

Long read on Drumcree stand-off: Even moderate hearts are hardened as fears of contagion mount. Top unionists & Orange are privately both furious and worried, while previously unreported comments from Breandán Mac Cionnaith reveal the key player’s mindset.

There are no true believers in Stormont any more. Everyone has lost their faith. It is a place united in despondency where MLAs knock off early. The Drumcree standoff is threatening to topple Stormont but this is merely a symptom of an underlying disease.

Contrary to what a senior figure in the News Letter's owner told me, Rodney Edwards is now running the paper. In an email to staff, he said that "we want to see less partisan & less politically charged reporting". Strikingly, this morning Drumcree wasn't on its front page at all.

🎧 What's it really like inside Sinn Féin? Siobhán Fenton was recruited as an outsider - who doesn't even support what the Provisional IRA did. She became Mary Lou McDonald's deputy chief press secretary, but left in December 2024. I sat down with her.

Could a ‘one and done’ final Drumcree parade work? Before he died, the most senior Orangeman in Portadown told me of a secret plan to definitively resolve the Drumcree dispute — with the Catholic Church at its heart.

Mr Justice Humphreys' nine-page 2am judgment in Belfast High Court - the final and key ruling on the Drumcree parade - has now been published. The judge found the residents' grounds of challenge to the Parades Commission verdict were "unarguable".