The unease about what is happening in America right now can be felt everywhere. Aggressive raids, masked officers and violent confrontations with protesters have unsettled many people both inside and outside the United States, who see them as disproportionate and un-American in tone.
And while Trump likes to present himself as untouchable – and would certainly never admit he is on the losing side – Jon Sopel argues that behind the bluster lies a president with a sharp instinct for danger. Trump is right to be nervous this time. His desire to be surrounded by 'yes' men and women has produced a policy catastrophe around ICE, for which he could pay a heavy price. As Sopel notes, his opponents now sense real weakness and are responding with renewed strength.
This unease is bleeding into sport and consumer culture too, with growing calls in some quarters for boycotts — from products to major sporting events. As the Boycott America movement gains momentum, could individual action ever have a real impact? Yes, according to the '3.5 per cent rule', discovers Katie Rosseinsky in her report. And as anger mounts around ICE heading to the Winter Olympics next week, Jim White looks at the trouble brewing for this summer's World Cup, particularly if you're a fan from one of these countries.
With fresh signals that AI-driven disruption to the job market is accelerating, underscored by new job cuts announced by Amazon, Chris Blackhurst examines the reckoning we're all facing as entire industries risk disappearing. Serious voices are now floating ideas such as universal basic income and lifelong retraining mechanisms, showing the conversation has shifted to how AI will change our lives, to how governments can cushion what could be a hard landing.
Cultural pressures are shifting too and not only for the grown-ups in the room. Chloe Combi reports on a growing obsession among boys with "mogging", where they are being told their looks matter more than their brains, and being AMOG (Alpha Male of the Group) is the ultimate goal. Braden Peters is being dubbed the new Andrew Tate of the manosphere, the influencer putting pressure on teenage boys to 'mog', which can include bone smashing, extreme diets and other risky procedures.
Of course, women will already be very familiar with this kind of appearance-based pressure. Model Katy Morgan spent thousands on a procedure performed by a cosmetic surgeon known as the 'boob god', but after a contaminated implant left her hospitalised, she spent two and a half years fighting for the right to speak about what happened. Finally able to speak out, she tells Radhika Sanghani about the life-altering surgery — and how she was silenced by an NDA.
As the BBC faces renewed scrutiny over gender and power dynamics following leadership changes and the departure of high-profile female presenter, Carol Kirkwood, former producer Fiona Chesterton writes that while older male broadcasters — the "silver foxes" — continue to thrive, women still find themselves losing at a snakes-and-ladders game behind the scenes.
And if the world just feels a bit too noisy, you might be tempted by the latest trend for reading retreats. Book-focused getaways promising silence, structure and literary immersion are booming. As Deborah Cicurel discovers, the appeal is simple — less scrolling, more pages — but the bigger question remains whether a weekend escape can truly reset how we read and think once we return home.
Read her verdict here.
Until next weekend!
Victoria Harper
Executive Editor
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