Desperate to soothe symptoms caused by unbalanced hormones, women are turning to a TikTok trend that recommends combining allergy medication and antacids to treat conditions like PMS or menopause. Despite a lack of clinical evidence, experts say there may be a reason the cocktail is helping some people keep persistent symptoms at bay.

OTC relief

People who feel “extra rotten in the days leading up to their period” are finding relief from this TikTok-approved concoction, said NPR. The over-the-counter combo “helps to combat premenstrual blues,” leading participants to feel “less irritable and more energetic.” Others going through perimenopause and menopause reported that it “helps to lessen similar symptoms.” The drugs also went viral last year amid claims they helped manage symptoms of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), where patients “experience depression and anxiety caused by premenstrual hormonal shifts.”

Some women struggling with “conditions marked by hormonal fluctuations” swear that the blend finally provides some relief, said People. It helps with “hot flashes, mood swings and sleeplessness often associated with these disorders.” The specific drugs most often “touted in this hormonal cocktail” are Allegra and Pepcid AC.

To date, there have not been any clinical trials testing the safety or efficacy of this trend. Those who are using the combo are operating in an “evidence-free zone,” Leigh Frame, the executive director of the Office of Integrative Medicine & Health at George Washington University, said to NPR. There is “no evidence that it does or doesn’t work."

However, experts agree there is a “plausible biological mechanism” for why some may be seeing benefits, said NPR. It has to do with histamine, a chemical released when you come into contact with an allergen, which triggers an inflammatory response. There is evidence that suggests “histamine also fluctuates with your menstrual cycle.” Estrogen, which stimulates the release of histamine, “ebbs and flows throughout the month,” while progesterone acts as a “sort of natural antihistamine.” But in the days leading up to your period, progesterone “takes a nosedive.” In perimenopause, too, the levels of both hormones “rise and fall rapidly, often erratically.”

Both allergy medication and antacids are histamine blockers that interact with different receptors throughout the body, said Mara Rivera, a psychiatrist who specializes in reproductive health challenges, to NPR. The theory is that this combination may help keep histamine in check, basically replacing the effect of progesterone. In some ways, the trend is a modern-day example of an old wives’ tale. Women have been “doing this forever, just talking to one another, and seeing what works,” Rivera said.

Feeling unheard

The popularity of the “DIY Allegra and Pepcid AC cocktail” stems in part from “women feeling like they are not being heard by their doctors,” said People. Women are “hungry to know more and to help themselves,” and they often “feel like they’re not being listened to,” Soma Mandal, the medical director of women’s health at Jersey Shore University Medical Center at Hackensack Meridian Health, said to People. It is important to “find someone who will listen,” who will “take complaints seriously” and who also understands that this is a “physiologic part of life and deserves the appropriate treatment.” If you are not getting that level of care with your current practitioner, “then it’s time to move on."

Experts are not against open discussion and the sharing of symptoms and potential remedies over social media. It is “great that we are asking these questions and bringing up these ideas,” because we “desperately need more research in midlife women’s health,” gynecologist Amy Voedisch said to Everyday Health.

Under-16s in the UK will be banned from social media under radical new plans set out by the prime minister today.

In a televised speech in Downing Street, Keir Starmer said he was “calling time on a system that’s failing our kids”. And while this was not a “cost-free decision”, governing “is always about choices, and it’s clear to me that a full ban is the right choice”.

Polling by YouGov suggests broad public support for the decision, with 77% of parents backing a ban. But parents were also split on whether a ban would work, with 45% of those surveyed saying it would be effective and 46% disagreeing.

How will it work?

The UK ban will cover the most popular social media platforms, including Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), but not encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp and Signal.

The government says it will “go further than any other country”, with its policy also including blocks on live-streaming and stranger communication for under-16s. Gaming sites will be impacted and the government is also looking at overnight curfews and breaks in infinite scrolling for 16- to 18-year-olds. A minimum age of 18 will be enforced on “romantic companion” AI chatbots, designed to simulate sexual relationships or roleplay with users.

As ever the devil will be in the detail. The government has said new restrictions will be enforced through “highly effective age assurance” systems, including facial age estimation using digital cameras. The media regulator Ofcom “will conduct a rapid study on what is effective age assurance for verifying whether someone is over 16”, said the government’s official announcement.

The PM said he hopes to pass the necessary legislation by Christmas, with the ban coming into effect in spring 2027.

Will it work?

The government has been accused of rushing out plans for a social media ban “without considering the knock-on effects it would have on surveillance, privacy and young people’s wellbeing”, said OpenDemocracy.

Privacy and technology experts, as well as those working with children, have warned that the plans “could lead to a surveillance creep and data breaches”. They could also cut young people “off from social media’s potential benefits, such as giving LGBTQIA+ youth a chance to access communities”.

Social media companies have argued the ban could push children into unregulated parts of the internet and on to less safe sites and platforms. But Mark Dowey, whose son Murray died after being blackmailed on Instagram, told BBC Breakfast: “If that’s the best they’ve got then I think they’re in trouble. I think they’re basically acknowledging they don’t have a reasonable position here.”

Did it work in Australia?

The “key question” is whether it will actually work, said The Times. More than 70% of parents in Australia, which last year became the first country in the world to introduce a social media ban for under-16s, told the internet regulator their children were still on these platforms, a recent survey found. But supporters argue that the “problems there are about weak enforcement, not the model itself”.

Despite the decidedly mixed results of Australia’s prohibition experiment “the politics are broader: this is a culture-change moment, and a line in the sand from governments saying to tech companies: we make the rules”.

Viral TikTok videos are circulating of people dashing through Church of Scientology centers in multiple cities. And while the Gen Z pranksters believe it’s harmless fun, the famously secretive religious group wants real consequences.

What are the videos about?

They feature participants “recording themselves ‘speed-running,’ as if in a video game,” through Scientology’s buildings, often “dodging screaming church members and security guards” until they are kicked out, said NBC News. The TikTokers are going inside these properties because Scientology is a “highly controversial organization known to be secretive, shrouded in darkness and mystique,” said Forbes.

The church, which has big-name celebrity followers like Tom Cruise and John Travolta, is often described as “shady at best” and reportedly believes in “space alien magic,” including an intergalactic warlord named Xenu, said Vice. And the speed runners are trying to “rack up as many social media validation points as they can” because of the religion’s unique nature.

The fad began in Los Angeles, including at the religion’s Hollywood headquarters. And the videos have since spread to other cities across the country and abroad. Detectives in New York City began investigating after “young people stormed and ransacked parts of the Church of Scientology in Midtown Manhattan,” said WABC-TV New York. And the fad had since gone international; chaos erupted in Vancouver when “hundreds of people, mostly youths, tried to force their way into the city’s Church of Scientology building,” said CBC News.

What has the response been?

Church officials are taking the joke seriously, accusing the videos of being equivalent to a religious hate crime. Scientology buildings are “peaceful spaces designed to welcome parishioners, visitors and members of the public,” said Scientology spokesperson David Bloomberg in a statement to The Guardian. “Turning them into targets for viral stunts is not journalism, protest or civic activity. It’s trespass, harassment and disruption of religious facilities.”

After a speed-running incident in April, the Los Angeles Police Department began investigating the incident as an “alleged hate crime,” said the department to the Los Angeles Times. The LAPD “remains committed to ensuring the safety of all houses of worship.” The point of the speed runs is “raising awareness, getting people to ask questions, and of course, love of the game,” one person involved in the practice told the Times anonymously. “I enjoy questioning authority.” 

Some Scientology buildings have removed their door handles to prevent people from entering the premises. And even some who were previously associated with Scientology have said the trend is harmful. Actor Leah Remini, who left the organization in 2013 and has accused Scientology of widespread abuses, lambasted the speed runners on social media.

Whether the speed runners are “doing it for social media clout or to genuinely expose the abuses of Scientology, what they are doing is unhelpful, and by engaging in these actions, they are unwittingly helping Scientology,” said Remini on X. Scientologists are “deeply indoctrinated and radicalized and believe they are helping people,” and “running through a building is not going to break that or lead them to reconsider what they have given up their entire lives for.”

Even though relations between China and America remain tense, many young Americans’ perspectives seem to be shifting as they adopt Chinese cultural habits. The online trend, dubbed Chinamaxxing, has non-Chinese content creators singing the praises of their newfound Chinese identity. At the same time, the meme’s prevalence has prompted some members of the Chinese diaspora to push back.

‘China’s growing soft power’

For social media users, Chinamaxxing translates to acting increasingly more Chinese. The trend can include “drinking hot water instead of iced lattes, wearing house slippers indoors or embracing traditional Chinese skin care routines,” said NPR. TikTok and Instagram users have taken to saying they are entering a “very Chinese time” in their lives.

The trend has been “amplified by Chinese diaspora influencers” such as Sherry Zhu, who shares “herbal skin care recipes and advice on becoming a Chinese ‘baddie,’” said NPR. Though it began as “niche lifestyle content,” the trend has since “spilled into celebrity PR stunts by the likes of Timothée Chalamet playing ping-pong in Chengdu and mainstream cultural debates.”

It’s probably not an accident that Chinamaxxing has been popularized on TikTok, said Shaoyu Yuan, a scholar who studies Chinese soft power, to NPR. Soft power is the ability to influence international relations through attraction and persuasion rather than coercion. The social media app has an impact on multiple levels. One content stream weakens “American narrative authority by highlighting content that highlights U.S. dysfunction,” while another “makes China look more attractive.”

The meme is not “bound by nationality or ethnicity; anyone can be Chinese if they wish,” said The New York Times. “And right now, many do.” As Labubus and other “Chinese cultural exports” win over global audiences, experts say that the spread of “being Chinese” memes may “signal China’s growing soft power abroad.” For some American content creators, the memes are also a “wry expression of disillusionment with politics at home.”

It’s “partly meme logic,” but it’s also a “sign of growing cultural cachet,” said Yuan to the Times. The memes reflect a “broader shift, in which online audiences are developing a new level of familiarity with China as they engage with it through lifestyle trends and aesthetics” rather than as the “geopolitical rival and security threat it’s often portrayed as" in the U.S.

‘Orientalism by any other name’

The trend has sparked mixed reactions from the Chinese diaspora, with some “worried about the potential for cultural appropriation,” said The Guardian. Even Zhu is concerned about non-Chinese creators reducing traditional medicine to a wellness fad. “I don’t want people to forget the benefits that my culture is providing,” she said to NPR. It comes from China. It’s not “coming from somewhere else.”

Chinamaxxing seemed to reach its peak during Lunar New Year in February. Related advice from non-Chinese creators felt like a direct challenge to the identity of those within the diaspora, said Jenny Lau, the author of “An A-Z of Chinese Food (Recipes Not Included),” to The Guardian. Chinamaxxing is “Orientalism by any other name.”

In 2026, it’s “apparently cool to be Chinese,” said Cherie Wong, a Hong Kong Canadian activist, in an Instagram video. But before “white people claim they are drinking hot water” and in a “very Chinese time, I’mma need you to stop.” A very Chinese time in “my ancestry was my grandparents seeing all their schoolteachers get executed for being intellectuals.”

Step aside, girl dinner! Boy kibble is, according to social media, the new way to eat. Focused on protein loading and very little else, the trend is popular among Gen Z men and glorifies eating a bowl of tasteless mush. But it also reflects a push toward disordered eating and hypermasculinity.

Dog food for humans

Referring to the food as kibble is no accident, as most of the time these recipes involve a carb (like rice) and a form of protein (like ground beef) mixed together in a slop-like concoction that has glaring similarities to dog food. “Pleasure-seeking details like flavor and aesthetics are tossed to the side,” said The New York Times. However, this form of dinner may be “less nutritionally complete even compared to what you may be feeding the four-legged members of your family,” said Parents.

While some will opt to add vegetables to their kibble, for the most part, the goal is to maximize the amount of protein consumption, often at the expense of overall nutritional value. Many of these meals forgo fruits, whole grains and healthy fats. “When your meals lack these essential nutrients, deficiencies in fat-soluble vitamins and essential fatty acids, and micronutrients like calcium, vitamin D and iron, can result,” said Parents. Also, the “lack of fiber in boy kibble puts kids at risk for constipation and does not support a healthy gut microbiome,” Madison Szar, a pediatrician with Bluebird Kids Health, said to the outlet.

“Proteinmaxxing” is a trend increasing in ubiquity among young men, especially as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. rolled out new diet guidelines emphasizing protein consumption. At the same time, “grocery prices and fitness trends continue to shape online food culture,” said Newsweek. With these combined factors, boy kibble “reflects a broader shift toward streamlined, protein-forward meals that prioritize convenience over presentation.”

Healthy facade

The goal of eating boy kibble is to consume an easy, nutritional meal, even if the nutritional value is debatable. But the boys are largely ignoring seasoning, making the meals themselves not very tasty or enjoyable, a mere means to an end. “This kind of moralizing of food or turning suffering through meals into a badge of honor” can “map on to some kind of disordered eating patterns and risks, no different than, say, orthorexia,” Abbey Sharp, a registered dietitian and the author of the book “The Hunger Crushing Combo Method,” said to Fortune.

The entire movement is a male response to the 2023 girl dinner trend, “where women devised elaborate hodgepodges of charcuterie-like plates, consisting of assorted meats, breads, cheeses, fruits and leftovers,” said Fortune. While girl dinner showcased the tendency to cobble together meals from things readily available in the kitchen, tying the slop-consumption to the word “boy” helps “soften what could be perceived as toxically masculine consumptive behaviors,” Emily Contois, an associate professor of media studies at the University of Tulsa and the author of “Diners, Dudes and Diets: How Gender and Power Collide in Food Media and Culture,” said to the Times.

The entire branding of boy kibble is “served with a heavy dose of internet irony,” said Newsweek. Using the term is “allowing men to sidestep the more feminine aspects of dieting,” Adrienne Bitar, a professor at Cornell University who studies the culture of American food and health, said to the Times. Dieting has been “seen as vain, frivolous, attention-seeking, superficial,” but by taking part in a trend, men can say “this isn’t about vanity” or “appearance, necessarily” but instead about “optimization and quantifying how to become my best self.” The trend reflects a recent “backlash moment of men wanting to reclaim a more traditional, conventional masculine authority.”

A dating term trending on TikTok has daters concerned about a horrifying practice that some experts say is a form of abuse. Fear of abandonment is fairly common. But when weaponized as a tool for ending a relationship in the middle of the wilderness, it is compounded by a potential for dangerous outcomes.

Fears swirl online

Social media is buzzing about the term “alpine divorce.” It happens when a couple explores nature during a hike or camping trip, and “one abandons the other in the wilderness to fend for themselves,” said USA Today. The concept appears to have originated in a late-1800s short story called “An Alpine Divorce” by Robert Barr. The story involves a man who “attempts to murder his wife while the two are out hiking on a mountain.”

Thanks to a viral TikTok video, the phrase has newfound attention. The video, which has more than 19 million views, features the caption: “POV: You go on a hike with him in the mountains, and he leaves you alone by yourself and you realize he never liked you to begin with.” Stories of alpine divorces littered the comment section, as other women shared their experiences of being left alone in the wilderness.

The renewed interest has also been linked to the recent case of an Austrian mountain climber who was found guilty of gross negligent manslaughter after leaving his girlfriend behind during a hike. Thomas Plamberger abandoned his girlfriend about 164 feet from the summit of the 12,461-foot Grossglockner peak in “high winds without an emergency blanket before she died of hypothermia,” said Outside. His conviction resulted in a “€9,600 (roughly $11,300) fine and a five-month suspended prison sentence.” The incident “sparked intense debates” about alpine divorces and whether the “more skilled climber should be held liable for mountain tragedies or if responsibility rests with the individual climber.”

Future implications

The trend, for many, confirms their “worst fear” of being in an environment where they “don’t have control over what’s going on” and could be “abandoned somewhere,” Stephanie Sarkis, a psychotherapist specializing in narcissistic abuse, said to USA Today. Being in an area you do not know, “where there’s wildlife, where you could easily get lost, especially if it’s unmarked,” is a “real fear for people.”

Alpine divorce’s sudden popularity reflects “broader anxieties about trust, safety and power dynamics in relationships,” particularly in remote or high‑risk settings, said Newsweek. Outdoor safety experts have “long emphasized that hiking and climbing partners share responsibility for each other’s wellbeing,” especially when “experience levels differ.”

Some experts believe there are instances where the practice is excusable. For example, alpine divorce could be warranted if you feel unsafe, Karsten Delap, a professional climber, guide and rescuer, said to Outside. The Austrian courts’ verdict for Plamberger could set a precedent for future cases. The legal decision has “implications for all climbers.” The verdict affirms “if you’re more experienced than your partner, you’re responsible whether you’re a guide or not.”

Doomscrolling could itself be doomed if European Union regulators have their way.

The European Commission is taking a historic stand against social media, ordering TikTok to disable infinite scrolling, where the page continues to load content as the user scrolls down, allowing them to keep viewing endless content.

Compulsive behaviour 

In the preliminary findings of an ongoing investigation into the social media app, the commission has declared that TikTok’s compulsive design may put it in breach of the Digital Services Act.

Taking aim at the app’s “addictive” features, it said that “by constantly ‘rewarding’ users with more content, certain design features of TikTok fuel the urge to keep scrolling and shift the brain of users into ‘autopilot mode’”. This “may lead to compulsive behaviour and reduce users’ self-control”.

If the findings are confirmed, TikTok could face a fine of up to 6% of its global annual turnover, which would be more than $1 billion based on its 2023 revenue of $23 billion. It could also be required to “change the basic design of its service” to comply with the law. TikTok “now has the chance to defend itself and its design before the investigation is concluded”, said The Verge.

Ruining your life

Researchers at the University of Sussex found that doomscrolling is bad for us but it’s the activity we spend most time on. “In other breaking news, water is wet and the Pope is Catholic”, said Big Issue.

Social media is “designed to keep our eyes on it – in order to make us look at advertisements”, said Professor Robin Banerjee, who led the research. This means “we’ve got this very, very clear pattern” of us “spending a lot of time doing stuff that doesn’t particularly bring us joy”.

The “infinite scroll” feature is “ruining your life”, said The Carolinian, because of a “phenomenon” known as the “scrolling paradox”. This is when a “user’s brain” expects a “strong dopamine surge when scrolling endlessly through social media”, which compels them to keep their phones in their hand. But they “simultaneously report feeling increasingly stressed and anxious” by their “literal inability to stop scrolling”.

But is infinite scrolling a bad thing for everyone? For the “socially anxious”, it “may be a blessing in disguise”, said Aparna Nancherla in The New York Times, because it’s “no longer considered rude to avert your gaze and stare down mutely at a glowing screen in public”.

Scrolling through TikTok, you may have noticed what appears to be an episode of a TV show with no notable actors, filmed entirely vertically and clocking in at just one minute. That's because entertainment has been moving from the big screen to the small screen in the form of microdramas. These shows are consumed in multiple parts and meant to be viewed on a cell phone. And their growing popularity is creating new opportunities in the entertainment industry.

Pocket pictures

Microdramas originated in China, where they are known as “duanju.” There, they have become a massive success, surpassing $6.9 billion in revenue in 2024. This prompted the U.S. to open its doors to the mini movies, which earned $1.4 billion in revenue in 2025. Microdramas are “perfectly suited for the shorter attention spans of today's online users,” said Hello! magazine. The scripted dramas are “typically broken down into minute-long episodes designed to be watched on smartphones, mirroring the way we consume TikTok and Instagram content.”

Microdramas are similar to soap operas, focusing on common tropes and over-the-top theatrics. Their total duration can be the length of a feature film, but split into 80 parts. The episodes “often end on cliffhangers, making viewers want to binge the whole thing,” said Hello!. A person can come across one episode and then the “next thing you know, a half an hour or two hours went by, and you just watched a whole movie,” said Marc Herrmann, an actor in several microdramas, including “Billionaire CEO’s Secret Obsession” and “My Sugar-Coated Mafia Boss,” to NPR.

While these shorts appear on TikTok and Instagram, platforms like ReelShort and DramaBox are growing in popularity as apps dedicated to microdramas. They can be quite profitable, as while the “first few episodes are typically free to watch,” but “once you want to see more, you’ll have to pay up,” said NPR. This could “cost viewers $10 to $20 a week or up to $80 a month.” Microdramas are cheaper to create, too, banking on “little-known actors, tight budgets and accelerated production timelines to churn out content drawing in millions of viewers and dollars.”

Big business

Microdramas are “sort of the ‘Triple Crown’ of the modern entertainment industry,” said Tomm Polos, the director of creator arts at the University of Southern California, to NBC News. “They’re social-friendly, they’re cost-effective and they’re data-driven. That is what everyone wants.” The potential microdrama profit prompted the Los Angeles City Council to vote to consider a $5 million subsidy for their production. “There are a lot of empty sound stages in Hollywood. There are a lot of empty studio spaces in Hollywood,” Polos said. “It should not surprise anyone if, in the coming quarters or years, those studio spaces get converted to be laboratories for microdramas, and that’s going to really help the economy of Los Angeles.”

Most microdramas are non-union productions, but that may soon change, as one studio in LA is “producing what has been termed one of the first ever SAG microdramas, which features an Oscar-nominated actor,” said Deadline. This could impact the industry, “proving that new formats can deliver top-tier creative work while upholding strong labor standards,” said Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the national executive director of SAG-AFTRA, to the outlet.

Trying to become pregnant, whether you are struggling with fertility or not, can be an incredibly stressful process. When it comes to conception and nine months of pregnancy, there is plenty of advice for how to be at your healthy best. However, an emerging social media trend has influencers convincing people that the key to a healthy pregnancy lies in how you prepare during the time leading up to it.

What does ‘zero trimester’ mean?

On TikTok and Instagram, the “cultural obsession with wellness and optimization” has come for the “murky preconception period,” coined the “zero trimester” by sociologist Miranda Waggoner in her 2017 book by the same name, Wired said. A growing number of influencers, holistic health experts and even doctors are “posting content that speaks to the ‘Trying to Conceive’ (TTC) demographic,” including “women who are struggling to conceive and those who haven’t started yet.”

Their message is simple: If you “follow this wellness formula,” you will “set yourself up for the quickest conception, the easiest pregnancy and the healthiest child,” said Wired. Essentially, they believe that having a healthy pregnancy boils down to the choices you make before you even become pregnant.

Pregnant women have “long been subject to endless rules on how to treat their bodies,” said The Cut. But increasingly, it feels like the “goal post has been moved back.” The recommendations from zero trimester influencers range from drinking raw milk to filtering air.

The “pregnancy prep” creators encourage lifestyle changes, courses, books and tips to follow during the six to 12 months before becoming pregnant. On her podcast, MAHA influencer Alex Clark recommends that women trying to get pregnant “stop wearing nail polish,” while holistic nutritionists claim it’s important to avoid iced beverages. Other influencers are posting meditation journeys to “lower cortisol six months before trying to conceive,” while some are ordering micronutrient labs and “embarking on 60-day pregnancy-prep detoxes.”

Is the advice worth listening to?

Many people struggle to get pregnant, and some doctors agree that the standard medical advice just to wait and see is failing them. Yet claims “about the importance of trimester-zero strain credulity,” said The Cut. Listening to some of these influencers, it is “easy to come away thinking that if you struggle to get pregnant or have a difficult pregnancy, it’s your fault.”

Some experts argue that the new attention surrounding the zero trimester is a “very positive, exciting development,” as healthy moms “usually spell better outcomes for mom and baby,” said Wired. There are so many things that can be done to “optimize underlying health in that preconception year that will make outcomes in pregnancy better,” Natalie Clark Stentz, an ob-gyn and infertility specialist at Michigan Medicine, said to Wired.

Still, prep should be “expert-vetted and backed by science,” and it “usually doesn’t involve the TikTok Shop,” Wired said. Any “buzzy individual thing is likely sensational,” whether that’s “Brazil nuts, organ meats or whatnot,” Stentz said. Evidence-based recommendations are “not sexy” — suggestions like maintaining a “normal BMI, stop smoking, pick a boring prenatal vitamin.”

Pregnancy prep regimens being touted by influencers can also “get pricey fast,” Wired said. They are taking a “very vulnerable, very highly motivated population of patients” and targeting them with “information that is kind of driven by financial incentives,” Kara Goldman, an ob-gyn and associate professor of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Northwestern University, said to Wired. The marketing can “disguise the fact that even going into pregnancy in peak health is not a guarantee,” said the outlet.

The zero trimester trend can “make women feel guilty or blame-worthy if their outcome isn’t ‘perfect,’ however they’re defining perfect,” said Waggoner. It promotes the idea that there is a “causal and deterministic link between preconception care behaviors and birth outcomes,” and that is what “can be problematic for both individuals and at a policy level.”

There are “good reasons to be skeptical” of the TikTok sale, said The Washington Post in an editorial. “A year past the original deadline,” TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, at last finalized a deal to spin off the bulk of its U.S. business and its 170 million American users to a consortium of investors last week. However, the devil is in the details. The “ban-or-sale” law passed by Congress in 2024 “stipulated that any new U.S. spin off company should have no ‘operational relationship’ with ByteDance.” But this deal gives ByteDance a 19.9% stake of the new company—and it will retain ownership of TikTok’s powerful algorithm, which it will license to the spinoff. “This saga was never about TikTok’s utility or popularity but its Chinese ownership and apparent links to the Chinese Communist Party.” With that in mind, the divestment “sounds like much less of a breakup than Congress intended.”

That doesn’t seem to matter to President Trump, said Jim Geraghty in National Review. He “wants to be loved by the young Americans who use TikTok” so badly that he has “shoved through this deal, which hand-waves away the national security concerns.” The key to the issue has always been ownership of TikTok’s algorithm, which should never be left in China. A “licensing” agreement is “a complete violation of the law.” Six years on from the first attempts to ban it, “TikTok is no less of a security risk,” said The Economist. But Trump, who “once branded TikTok” a national security threat, has sided with public opinion, which shows that fewer Americans seem to care. The outrage is especially dim now that “so much else in America has become more dangerous.”

The deal puts Trump and his allies “in charge of yet another driver of American culture,” said Brendan Bordelon in Politico. “At the forefront of TikTok’s new ownership structure” is Oracle, whose cofounder and chairman, Larry Ellison, is a Trump supporter. With the app in Ellison’s hands, TikTok fans fear its fate “could mirror what happened” when Elon Musk took over Twitter and started serving up “a flood of far-right, pro-MAGA content.” The censorship may have already started, said Scottie Andrew in CNN.com. Some TikTokers said they had difficulties posting commentary about Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Minneapolis, “drawing a circumstantial connection between their efforts to make videos about ICE” and the app’s new Trump aligned ownership. The controversy caught the attention of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said he is investigating the claims of suppression.

TikTok’s new owners may have “come into the bargain ofthe century,” but it won’t take much to squander it, said Dave Lee in Bloomberg. No price was revealed for the transaction, though Vice President JD Vance said the app was worth $14 billion last year, or “about what its U.S. advertising business makes annually.” That’s a far cry from ByteDance’s purported valuation of $500 billion. But whether the U.S. venture “can maintain its competitive edge” without access to ByteDance’s engineers is an open question. So too is whether users will revolt if “their favorite digital space is being MAGAfied.” This saga is far from over.

At times, the simplest tasks, such as responding to emails, scheduling appointments and paying bills, can pile up. Then you suddenly have one daunting mountain of to-dos. Tackling such monotonous tasks may seem unappealing, but a viral TikTok trend is showing people how to make those snoozers more engaging. You need only gather your friends for an “admin night.”

What's the purpose of an admin night?

To deal with the tedious administration of adulthood, you can gather several friends to host this “nerdy little party,” said Chris Colin, who's credited with starting the trend, at The Wall Street Journal. The premise of such a gathering is to “deal with the stuff we’ve been putting off, help each other when possible” and “make a fun evening of something onerous.” Now, this formula of combining friends and admin has been “adopted by paperwork-averse social media users,” who have been sharing evidence of their own admin nights, said The Independent.

On TikTok, admin night is “emerging as one of 2026’s most relatable low-key hangout trends” — a “structured, communal way to tackle the invisible labor of adulthood together," said Mashable. In a “cultural moment defined by financial anxiety, burnout” and an “appetite for quieter socializing,” it makes a “surprising amount of sense.” The admin night hang “isn’t about grinding through work”; it's about “making those tasks feel finite, survivable and, crucially, less lonely.”

There's also a “real psychological mechanism at play,” said Mashable. The trend draws on a concept often used by people with ADHD: “body doubling,” a practice in which individuals complete tasks “alongside others to enhance focus and follow-through.” Body doubling “reduces task avoidance by providing gentle accountability and lowering the emotional barrier to starting.” Having someone else there reminds your “nervous system that you are not in this alone.”

Why is the trend going viral now?

The timing of the viral trend “isn’t accidental,” said Mashable. In 2026, “low-key hangs have fully replaced nights out as the default social currency.” Inflation, “post-burnout fatigue” and a “collective reassessment of what ‘fun’ should look like” have led to “gatherings that are more affordable, quieter and more intentional.” Admin night “fits neatly into that shift,” and on TikTok, the “aesthetic reflects that softness.”

This type of evening get-together is documented in videos that “favor candles over timers, cozy couches over desks, wine or tea over energy drinks,” said the outlet. The trend “quietly rejects grind culture’s obsession with individual discipline” and replaces it with “something more humane: shared responsibility.”

In recent years, we have all been “sinking into a quicksand of tiny, dumb administrative tasks,” said Colin. Ones that once could be completed with a brief phone call now require logging in to a new website. Disputing a charge means “arguing with a chipper chatbot.” Admin night is “refreshingly bipartisan in this polarized era — turns out nobody likes that chipper chatbot.” The institutions that “once shielded us from bureaucratic load and consumer abuse have lost the ability to do so.”

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Romance books have experienced a resurgence in popularity thanks to BookTok communities. But for those seeking more intense, morally gray relationships with taboo themes and trigger warnings, dark romance has become the go-to subgenre. Here are some highly recommended dark and twisty romance novels to help you dip your toes into the edgier end of the romantic spectrum.

‘Butcher & Blackbird’ by Brynne Weaver

A viral BookTok fave, this friends-to-lovers dark romantic comedy pairs two rival murderers, Sloane and Rowan, who form an unlikely friendship that blossoms into more. The first book in the “Ruinous Love” trilogy follows the serial-killer duo as they bond over their shared passion for hunting other serial killers. “The Lego Batman Movie” filmmaker Chris McKay has been tapped to direct an upcoming adaptation of the best-selling dark romance, Variety said.

The dark romance genre deals with “darker concepts of past trauma, the concerns about feeling like you’re unlovable or alone in the world,” and that is why it is “becoming more popular,” the book’s author, Brynne Weaver, said to Rolling Stone. “It’s almost like therapy.” (out now, $18, Slow Burn, Amazon)

‘Hooked’ by Emily McIntire

Emily McIntire's dark reimagining of “Peter Pan” is often recommended to readers seeking a dark contemporary romance. In this version of the classic tale, Peter is Wendy's father, and James, the book’s Captain Hook, plans to seduce her to get back at his nemesis.

His plans to destroy his enemy become complicated when he begins to develop real feelings for Wendy. Those who enjoy “dark, adult fairytale retellings” can also dive into the book’s sequels, which cover other familiar stories, Screen Rant said. Anyone who “loves a good villain romance will appreciate these.” (out now, $18, Bloom Books, Amazon)

‘Lights Out’ by Navessa Allen

This stalker romance is a viral TikTok hit among dark romance lovers and the first in a best-selling series. The story has plenty of taboo themes and a morally questionable male lead, but those looking for a good introduction to the genre will find it appealing.

The story follows trauma nurse Aly Cappellucci, who obsesses over masked men on social media, fantasizing about them chasing her down. She captures the attention of Josh Hammond, one of her favorite MaskTok creators, and together they live out their darkest fantasies, blissfully unaware of someone else eying Aly with more sinister intentions. Both the “well-done spicy scenes” and the “great individual character arcs made the novel compelling to audiences” and “expanded the tropes readers can find in the genre,” said Screen Rant. (out now, $19, Slow Burn, Amazon)

‘Phantasma’ by Kaylie Smith

Kaylie Smith’s “Phantasma” is a “captivating dark fantasy romance that blends elements of psychological thriller and gothic horror,” Nerd Daily said. Set in a haunted mansion, the novel follows Ophelia, who must enter a deadly competition to save her sister’s life. Once she joins the contest, she meets Blackwell, a charming, arrogant hero who offers to be her guide through the horrors of the mansion. Smith crafts a “richly atmospheric world, filled with twisting corridors, demonic entities and fatal temptations.” (out now, $19, Hachette Book Group, Amazon)

‘The Ritual’ by Shantel Tessier

This story is a cross between dark academia and dark romance. Barrington University, home to the Lords, a secret society that requires blood as payment, is the setting for book one in Shantel Tessier’s “The Lords” series. Members devote their lives to violence in exchange for the power to control the world. Ryat Alexander Archer, one of the powerful Lords, meets the book’s heroine, Blakely Anderson, and she is sucked into the world of the secret society as she succumbs to her feelings for him. If you are curious about BDSM dynamics, this would be a good book to explore the kinky arrangement. (out now, $25, self-published, Amazon)

What happened

TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance and a group of investors on Thursday closed a $14 billion deal to create a U.S. version of the popular social video platform. The joint venture, which leaves ByteDance with a 19.9% stake and non-Chinese investors with the other 80.1%, ends years of uncertainty over the platform’s U.S. future. A 2024 law ordered TikTok to sever ties with China by last January or go dark, but President Donald Trump pushed back that deadline five times as his administration sought to broker a deal.

Who said what

The main investors in TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC include Oracle, Silver Lake and the Emirati investment firm MGX, each with a 15% stake. Adam Presser, TikTok’s former head of operations, will lead the new venture as CEO, and Oracle and its partners “will retrain, test and update the content recommendation algorithm on U.S. user data,” TikTok said in a press release.

The platform’s 200 million U.S. users “will be able to keep their existing TikTok app,” The New York Times said, but it is “too soon to say” how the “much vaunted algorithm” will change with Oracle overseeing content moderation. Lawmakers forced this ownership change over concerns that China could surveil Americans or spread propaganda. But by shifting ownership to “American companies who perhaps have a close relationship with the sitting president,” Georgetown University law professor Anupam Chander told the Times, “we may have traded fears of foreign propaganda for the reality of domestic propaganda.”

What next?

“China hawks” in Congress have “vowed to scrutinize the potential deal to ensure it adheres to the law,” Politico said, but Thursday “they seemed prepared to accept Trump’s claim the deal would resolve concerns over national security and control.”

Disquiet has been growing for years over the impact of social media on our brains, political discourse and – ironically – social connections.

But now the UK government’s independent terror legislation watchdog is warning that it has become a “portal to horrific acts of violence”.

The “most important development” is happening in Australia, said Jonathan Hall in The Telegraph, where a ban on social media for under-16s came into force in December. Although “partial and circumventable”, the world-first law has “echoes of other improving social legislation such as compulsory seat belts and the smoking ban”. Britain should “take back control” from the tech giants through similar legislation.

But the government may not need to: recent polling has found that nearly a third of social media users post less than they did a year ago.

What did the commentators say?

“It’s hard to think of anyone whose life has not been influenced by social media,” said Sathnam Sanghera in The Times. As an author, journalist and introvert, it “probably changed my life more than most.” But “the madness seeped into real life with increasing frequency”. Social media “made millions of us really quite dysfunctional”.

But what’s “killing social media more than the pile-ons and abuse” is that “it’s not social any more”. In 2025, I deleted LinkedIn, I’m down to two Facebook posts a year, and my X account is “sleepier than a Sunday morning on Sark”. And “I’m not alone”.

According to a Financial Times analysis of data on 250,000 adults in more than 50 countries, time spent on social media peaked in 2022 and has been steadily declining ever since. This is “not just the unwinding of a bump in screen time” during lockdown – “usage has traced a smooth curve up and down over the past decade-plus”. We may look back on 2025 as the moment social media “jumped the shark”.

Instagram, Facebook and Twitter/X have become “a concentrated sludge of conspiracy theories, violence, porn, spam, trolls, scams and AI”, said Kristina Murkett on UnHerd. But this week Reddit overtook TikTok as Britain’s fourth most-visited social media platform. It has seen an 88% increase in the proportion of UK internet users it reaches in the past two years, surprising given that it’s “utilitarian, unaesthetic and decidedly unglamorous”.

These are “precisely the reasons why it may appeal”. Comments are confined to subreddits, everyone is anonymous, and there are “multiple layers of moderation” that make it feel safer than “the Wild West of Meta or X”. Reddit “still feels human”. Its success is “a timely reminder” of what people want.

“What if we tried to make media that was truly social, without AI slop and political scapegoating?” asked Annalee Newitz in New Scientist. One possibility is “cosy media”, such as a group chat or online book club, “designed to help you connect with small groups of friends” and to limit your interactions with strangers. The game Animal Crossing is “an iconic cosy-media experience”. Social media “often leads to loneliness and isolation” – but the idea behind cosy media is to “rebuild community and trust”.

Indeed, there are a “whole set of new apps” we might call “slow social networks”, focused on connection, said The Independent. Location apps such as Find My Friends and Life360, exercise networks like Strava or music trackers like Airbuds, are “about the relatively simple but profoundly beautiful experience of knowing what your friends are up to”. They also remind us that “the social in social network did once mean something, perhaps something more important than anything else in the world”.

What next?

The social media landscape is “arguably in the midst of a dramatic overhaul”, said Kyle Chayka in The New Yorker. TikTok may end up being banned; generative AI “may supplant the existing model of an open, user-generated internet”. Both Meta and OpenAI have announced new social platforms for AI-generated short-form videos.

Two “Silicon Valley veterans” (Biz Stone, a Twitter co-founder, and Evan Sharp, who co-founded Pinterest) have launched a new “intentional living” app, Tangle. It is designed to be an antidote to the “terrible devastation of the human mind and heart” they say has been wrought by social media, said the Financial Times. They are “among several Silicon Valley executives grappling with the side effects of the products and services that they built”.

What happened

TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, said Thursday it had secured binding deals with three major investors to form a U.S. version of the popular video-sharing platform. Under the agreements, outlined by TikTok CEO Shou Chew in a memo to employees, Oracle, Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX will each own 15% of the new venture, leading a consortium with 50% control of U.S. TikTok.

Who said what

The deal “marks the end of years of uncertainty” about TikTok’s fate in the U.S., The Associated Press said. Congress passed a law that “would ban TikTok in the U.S. if it did not find a new owner,” but after the platform briefly went dark in January, President Donald Trump, “without a clear legal basis,” signed four executive orders to stave off the ban while his administration sought new ownership.

ByteDance is set to retain a 19.9% stake in the new venture, while 30.1% will be owned by its affiliates and partners. It wasn’t clear who would own the last 5%, but Trump suggested in September that Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch would hold stakes, along with Oracle’s Larry Ellison. “Trump wants to hand over even more control of what you watch to his billionaire buddies,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said on social media Thursday.

What next?

Chew’s memo “suggested that the deal would close on Jan. 22, just one day before the latest deadline for TikTok to find a new owner,” The New York Times said. The Trump administration has to approve the deal, but “at this stage, I see no regulatory issues,” analyst Craig Huber told Reuters, especially since Trump was “very involved in putting the whole sale together from the beginning.”

Move over, tech bros: Swaths of younger Black men are reclaiming the preppy pullover sweater in a trend dubbed the quarter-zip movement. While some praise the young men for abandoning their Nike Tech sweatsuits for more professional attire, critics say the trend reeks of respectability politics and exposes racial biases in fashion, particularly for young men of color.

How did the movement start?

The trend kicked off after a TikTok video of two young Black men “bespectacled and sporting navy blue quarter-zip pullovers” with iced matcha in hand went viral. “We don’t do Nike Tech, we don’t do coffee,” said Jason Gyamfi, one of the men in the video, proclaiming it’s “straight quarter-zips and matchas around here.”

As Gen Z matures and begins to “lean into business casual,” the “often ribbed, always square quarter-zip sweater seems to be their garment of choice,” said The New York Times. The “shift from the Nike Tech fleece sweatsuit” to the classic quarter-zip “signifies an aesthetic pivot toward professional expectations.” More than just a fashion statement, the trend has become a “cultural moment” alongside the current revival of Black dandyism, said the Chicago Sun Times.

The movement has inspired multiple large-scale meetups, where young men gather while wearing the versatile pullover. The movement is “bigger than just about what you’re wearing,” Corey Dooley Johnson, who helped organize the Chicago meetup, said to the Chicago Sun-Times. It is about “how you’re living” and “community service and brotherhood.” What we want to do is “bring that holistic community feeling back.”

The movement also signals a cultural shift, particularly among young Black men who have popularized it. Many associated Nike Techs with Black culture and, unfortunately, with corresponding negative stereotypes. The movement is fueled by a younger generation trying to leave those associations behind, TikToker Tamu Atemie said to Newsweek. Despite their comfortable fit, Nike techs have earned a “bad reputation.” There have been instances when “individuals are caught doing crimes,” such as stealing and burglary. “What are they wearing? A Nike tech.”

Is it about conforming, or does it symbolize more?

All movements are to “some degree, political,” said GQ. This one, “dressed as a finance bro, arrives smack dab in the middle of the purported crisis of masculinity.” Loneliness, “directionlessness, perceived powerlessness, physical and mental health issues” and a “decline in college enrollment rates” are all “pieces of that puzzle.” However, due to the “current social climate,” it is tempting to “not to see this viral trend as anything other than cookie-cutter conservatism propped up as elegance.” Still, “outright dismissing it feels rather cynical.”

Online, critics have dismissed the trend as a “form of respectability politics,” claiming participants are “making themselves more acceptable for white, mainstream society,” said the Chicago Sun-Times. But the “quarter-zip enthusiasts push back on that critique,” saying their intention is to “be fashionable, build self-confidence, foster community and show Black men doing positive things while having fun.” Respectability politics often “puts the burden on marginalized communities instead of addressing prejudices.”

“I think respectability politics is only half the story,” Chicago Fashion Coalition President Marquan Jones said to the Chicago Sun-Times. How you are dressed is “how you are addressed,” but that should “never determine the dignity that you’re owed.” No outfit has “ever protected a Black man from racism.”

For all his “talk of personal reinvention,” Gyamfi said to the Times, it would be “unwise to read too much into any pivot.” There is not necessarily a difference between “wearing a Nike Tech or a quarter-zip” because “clothes don’t make the man, the man makes the clothes.”

Australians under 16 are to be banned from having accounts on most social media platforms as their country becomes the first in the world to introduce the hardline policy.

Supporters of the ban say it has already influenced social media giants to clean up their acts, but there are concerns that tech-savvy children will easily be able to dodge the restrictions.

Reducing ‘pressures and risks’

From 10 December, 10 platforms will become age-restricted – Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, Snapchat, X, YouTube, Reddit, Twitch and Kick. The definition of what constitutes social media has been a matter of debate: Twitch was added to the list but Pinterest won’t be. Under-16s will still be able to see publicly available content on the platforms but they won’t be able to have their own accounts or see logged-in content.

There will be penalties of up to A$49.5 million (£25 million) for companies that fail to take “reasonable steps” to comply. With only a week to go before the ban comes into effect, Australian teenagers are receiving notifications on Instagram and Facebook, advising them to save their data before access to their accounts is revoked.

The Australian government says the ban is intended to reduce the “pressures and risks” children can be exposed to on social media. It follows a study commissioned by the government that found that 96% of children aged 10-15 used social media, and that 70% had been exposed to harmful content and behaviour.

Migration to other platforms is a ‘no-brainer’

Supporters say the ban is already working. What “appears to drive self-regulation” among social media giants is “the credibility of the threat of government”, said Timothy Koskie on ABC, so the Australian government’s “muscular and maximalist” approach has “already achieved results”.

Meta announced “teen accounts” for Instagram in September 2024, TikTok and Snapchat expanded their age-related account controls, and YouTube has further restricted access to streaming for teens.

But it’s a “no-brainer” that children will migrate to other platforms, such as gaming apps with chat functions, where “you can still engage with people”, an internet studies professor told The Nightly. Australia’s national independent regulator and educator for online safety, the eSafety commissioner, has urged exempt platforms to report spikes in users and to enhance age checks and safety protocols.

Furthermore, age verification technology is not infallible. A joint study by the University of Melbourne and Princeton University found that teenage volunteers were able to pass checks with tricks including “pointing the camera at video game characters, pulling silly facial expressions, as well as cheap disguises”, said ABC. VPN providers “are also expecting a surge in Australian users”.

“No one is safe” from the viral six-seven phenomenon “taking the younger generation by storm”. Certain page numbers in textbooks, homework questions, and maths answers are all off limits, just to avoid the inevitable parroting that follows.

The TikTok craze has baffled older audiences since the start of the year, but its use has recently exploded online, making it a global feature among young people. Parents and teachers are at a loss: is this yet another “completely meaningless” digital trend, said Fox News, or “so highbrow that it’s beyond comprehension”? Either way Gen Alpha has utterly “confused the masses” with this latest obsession.

‘Repetitive cycles of senselessness’

The ever-present meme is a “prime example of brain rot” among young people, said The Wall Street Journal. When both or either numbers are mentioned, young people make a “palms-up, seesaw hand gesture” which looks like something between “juggling and melon handling”.

Its meaning is that it has no meaning, which, by a somewhat strained logic, makes it funny because it is unfunny, said the outlet. “Maybe if French philosopher Albert Camus had a TikTok, he could explain it, given how well he understood repetitive cycles of senselessness. But Reddit works, too.”

The exact origin of the meme is disputed, though there is strong consensus that Philadelphia rapper Skrilla’s “Doot Doot” (6 7)” viral song released in December 2024 popularised the phenomenon. Six-seven could either refer to the street he grew up on in the city (67th), or could be a “reference to the 10-67 police code” that is used to report a death, Taylor Jones, a linguist and social scientist, told CNN.

Taylen Kinney, an up-and-coming basketball player, was launched into “internet immortality” after he created the accompanying gesture for the phrase, said The Athletic. Since the meme ballooned, he has amassed over one million followers on social media, alongside receiving prestigious basketball scholarship offers. Aptly mirroring the meaningless meme, “Kinney himself is unclear on why it, and he, have become such a hit”.

‘Destined for the slang graveyard’?

Attempts to unlock some meaning in the phrase have become increasingly desperate, said The Wall Street Journal. In history, references to the summer of love in 1967; in geography, seven continents but only six with countries; in religious circles, belief that God created the universe in six days and rested on the seventh, have all tried to rationalise the “inescapable internet slang”, with little success.

Despite being nonsensical, there may be valid reasons why the meme is so attractive to young people, said CNN. It possesses neither a “set-up” nor a “punchline”, but participation allows young people to share a common in-joke at adults’ expense, feeling like a “member of a bigger, cooler group of their peers”.

It has been around for almost a year, or what feels like a “century” in the fast-paced world of TikTok, but its popularity could be about to end. The 6-7 craze is “likely destined for the slang graveyard soon”, as adults are wrapping their heads around the concept and imitating it. Teachers, rather than fearing the outburst, are “playing defence” by using it themselves: a sure-fire way to deflate even the most prevalent “shibboleth”.

Modern dating is constantly evolving. With a slew of new phrases being used to describe relationships, it’s not hard to see why the “swag gap” is gaining traction.

Young people are shining a light on the “dangers of dating someone with less swag than you”, said Cosmopolitan. A person who has an “all-around more polished aesthetic” than their partner may be setting themselves up for “public humiliation and awkward situations”.

Self-esteem and power dynamics

The scope of the swag gap goes beyond appearances. It can also refer to “differences in success, fame, confidence,” said the BBC.

A couple with a swag gap can make it work if the one with less swag is a “cheerleader and proud of their partner” rather than feeling “emasculated or resentful”, said TikToker Isabella Duffy.

This opens up a wider discussion on “self-image, attraction and the idea of power in relationships”, said Forbes. A 2021 study assessed 1,093 heterosexual couples to find that self-esteem and sensitivity to relationship conflict are negatively correlated. Having a swag gap can influence “personal confidence and the overall emotional health of the relationship”.

The surge in comparisons within couples can be attributed to increased use of social media. People are constantly “measuring” themselves and their partners against others. As a result, insecurities are heightening and the swag gap seems “more significant than it actually is”. Dating apps also provide “endless alternatives" and "opportunities” to look for better suited companions.

A 2024 study found that those perceiving themselves to have “higher power” in the relationship placed less value in their partner and were “more likely to show interest in others”. This is because they “prioritise their own desires, sometimes at the expense of their partner”.

‘Complementary rather than competitive’

It can be a downer when your other half isn’t “pulling their weight in terms of self-presentation”, said GQ, but it shouldn’t be a dealbreaker. Successful couples can be “superficially mismatched but emotionally rock-solid”.

Only seeking partners who match your “taste, personality and career” goes against the fundamental understanding of human relationships. Being with someone who has different interests can be “exciting” and open one up to new experiences.

For a relationship to be successful, the couple’s differences should be “complementary rather than competitive”, said Forbes. “One partner may enliven social situations, while the other’s grounded presence can add stability and depth.”

OpenAI’s latest update of Sora, its text-to-video-creation tool, generates such realistic-looking content that misinformation experts are warning of media manipulation on an entirely new scale.

Sora, along with Meta rival Vibes, is part of a “burgeoning family of AI tools” that allow people to create and share “hyperrealistic or fantastical content” for free, with only basic tech knowledge, said CBS News. And new with Sora 2 is a social feed that allows users to share the videos they generate, creating a “Tiktok-like experience”.

When Open AI launched the original Sora last year, it contained many “errors” but the ramifications of its technology were “felt far and wide”, said Rolling Stone. The much improved Sora 2 only upscales its “potential for disinformation”.

‘Copyright-infringing AI slop'

There is “a long history” of OpenAI “moving fast, breaking things, and mopping up later”, said TechRadar. Not long after it launched, Sora 2 has melted down into a “messy pile of potentially copyright-infringing AI slop”, said Futurism. Users have been bombarded with videos of SpongeBob SquarePants meth labs, mock “South Park” episodes and – because Sora2 allows the use of “likenesses of the dead” – deepfakes of actor Robin Williams and scenes of physicist Stephen Hawking being “brutalised in horrible ways”.

OpenAI is currently “burning through cash” as unexpectedly high numbers of Sora users generate “countless resource-intensive AI videos”. Despite the quality of the technology, there’s no indication that users will willingly pay to keep using it, so “turning Sora 2 into a source of revenue won’t be easy”.

The energy needed to generate the videos is considerable, said Rolling Stone, citing MIT research that even a “short, non-high-definition clip may require more than 700 times the energy required to produce a high-quality still image”. This has already put “significant strain” on OpenAI’s servers and the US electricity grid, and requires a “tremendous amount of water” to cool data centre hardware.

Control the ‘Frankensteinian monster’

Hollywood has long been awash with fear of actors being supplanted by AI and dead actors’ images and voices being used in AI-generated video material, said Ars Technica. Back in 2023, Robin Williams’ daughter, Zelda, called AI recreations a “horrendous Frankensteinian monster”. But now, faced with the reality of what the technology can do, she has made a public appeal to Sora fans to “please stop sending me AI videos of Dad”.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has appeared apologetic about the use of actors within Sora. His company will offering an opt-out from “Sora cameos for public figures who are recently deceased” but a spokesperson insisted on the “strong free speech interests” in the continued use of images of “historical figures”.

Sora does “have guard-rails” for now, said Vice. OpenAI has installed a “moving watermark”, with an opacity that is “turned up higher than most”, as a sign that a Sora video is not real. But “how long will it be before people find a way to remove it?” Much more needs to be done to stop “inflammatory videos” of “something that never happened” fooling people into violence and “insurrections”.

“Crony capitalism has reached a new low,” said David French in The New York Times. After months of defying Congress’s 2024 TikTok ban, President Trump last week unveiled a deal with the video app’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, that fails to resolve national security concerns and places yet another media outlet in the hands of “his billionaire allies.” The U.S. investor group that will own about 80% of TikTok includes Oracle and the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, led by prominent Trump supporters Larry Ellison and Marc Andreessen, respectively. Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan, Trump claimed, would also have a stake. That consortium will license the recommendation algorithm that ByteDance uses to keep TikTok users scrolling—flatly ignoring a law that prohibits any cooperation with ByteDance on running TikTok’s algorithm. Keeping Beijing’s hands off the sensitive data of some 170 million American users now “appears to be less important to Trump” than feeding his new spoils system.

Ellison, who has been “assiduously friendly to Trump,” is on a roll, said Clare Malone in The New Yorker. The TikTok deal adds to the “emerging media conglomerate” assembled by the 81-year-old tech mogul and his son David, who has acquired Paramount—owner of CBS—and is reportedly putting together an $80 billion bid for CNN owner Warner Bros. Discovery. That means the Ellisons could within weeks “own a movie studio, multiple television streamers, two news networks, and have a significant stake in the world’s fastest-growing social media platform.” This is how regimes in other backsliding democracies have quashed press freedom, said Paul Starr in The American Prospect: not by direct state takeover but by letting regime-friendly oligarchs “run media on the regime’s behalf.” Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and “Rupert Murdoch’s existing influence operation” have already created a more Trump-friendly infosphere. Now the Ellisons are pitching in.

This deal still leaves TikTok’s algorithm as a “black box” in China’s hands, said Dave Lee in Bloomberg. But the deal will split off America from the rest of the world. “How will videos on TikTok America appear to the outside world and vice versa?”And what happens to TikTok’s worldwide “viral stars”? However those matters are handled, many people will suspect that on the new TikTok, Trump is “pulling the strings,” just as China does on its home turf with apps like Douyin, the censored Chinese version of TikTok. This deal could prove to be “the first big red brick to be placed in the Border Firewall of America.”

What happened

President Donald Trump yesterday said his administration and Beijing have a “deal on TikTok,” and he gave the social media juggernaut a fourth 90-day reprieve from a law banning it from the U.S. as long as it remains under Chinese ownership. He declined to name any of the “very big companies that want to buy it,” but The Wall Street Journal said a U.S. version of TikTok “would be controlled by an investor consortium including Oracle, Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz.”

Who said what

Under the framework deal, U.S. companies would own about 80% of the new company, while China’s ByteDance would keep just under 20%, the Journal said. U.S. TikTok would have an “American-dominated board with one member designated by the U.S. government,” and it would recreate TikTok’s content-serving algorithm using technology licensed from ByteDance. 

That structure would probably solve concerns about Chinese influence on 170 million U.S. TikTok users, Georgetown law professor Anupam Chander told The New York Times. But “it raises the risk of American propaganda by shifting the ownership of this speech platform to American companies who perhaps have a close relationship with the sitting president.” Notably, Oracle chairman and “Trump ally” Larry Ellison — whose family also controls CBS’s parent company and is trying to acquire CNN — would be a “key owner of one of the most prominent social media platforms in the world,” Gizmodo said. Other Trump-linked billionaires poised to have a big stake include Marc Andreessen and Jeff Yass.

What next?

Trump said he would “confirm everything” with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday. Barring congressional intervention, the deal was “expected to close in the next 30 to 45 days,” CNBC said. A White House official said any details not announced by the administration are “pure speculation.”

Conrad or Jeremiah? That has been the question on every fan’s lips ahead of the series finale of “The Summer I Turned Pretty”.

Few would have predicted that the love-triangle teen drama between Isabel “Belly” Conklin and two brothers, set in the too-good-to-be-true fictional beach town of Cousins, “would eventually become the source material for a Taylor Swift-approved, viewership-topping, crash-out-inducing television series”, said C. T. Jones in Rolling Stone.

Now in its third and final season, Amazon Prime Video’s "The Summer I Turned Pretty" (TSITP), based on Jenny Han’s bestselling trilogy published between 2009 and 2011, has evolved from a “relatively unremarkable show amid a sea of romance offerings to an era-defining piece of media” driven by a wave of fandom.

‘A certified phenomenon’

For the uninitiated, the show’s premise is “faintly preposterous”, said The Economist, “but its popularity is real.”

It has topped Amazon’s charts in the US, Australia, Britain, Canada, France and Germany, among other countries.

“That devotion has spilled off-screen and into the real world,” said Elle, “inspiring ‘TSITP’-themed watch parties, bachelorette trips, dinner parties, and even bar nights.”

Most of all, the “hype” has been “fuelled by social media, particularly on TikTok where fans of the books speculate about the ending of the TV series”, said the BBC. Legions of devotees post memes and create videos of the couple they want to see together. #TeamConrad has 13.5 billion views on TikTok.

“‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ is especially appealing to Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z because it’s tender, layered, and psychologically rich,” Deborah Robbins, a therapist who specialises in relationships and attachment, told Elle. “It blends nostalgia, emotional intensity, and romantic fantasy in a way that taps into our earliest understandings of love and longing.”

It also connects adult viewers to the TV they grew up on, she said, highlighted by the fact its main audience is women aged between 25 and 54.

Perhaps a part of what turned season three into a “certified phenomenon” is that each episode is released weekly, said Lauren Aratani in The Guardian. “The wait encourages anticipation, what feels rare in an era of endless, bingeable content online,” and is also “proof that old-fashioned scripted TV shows” can still “have pull over younger audiences who are increasingly drawn to platforms including YouTube”.

‘The summer we started acting normal online’

But what the final season of “TSITP” will mostly be remembered for “is driving some of the most bonkers and unhinged online energy in the history of the internet”, said Jones in Rolling Stone.

Amazon has taken the unusual step of asking fans to stop hurling insults, and even death threats, at actors who play characters they do not like.

“The show isn’t real but the people playing the characters are,” reads a message on the show’s TikTok account, adding: “The summer we started acting normal online.”

“There have always been toxic sides of fandom in certain corners of the internet,” said Jones, but what is different about “TSITP” is “the aggressiveness of the reaction when put next to the reality of the source material”.

“Viewers have lost their hearts to Jeremiah and Conrad. It seems they have lost their heads, too,” said The Economist.

Protests over political corruption and an ongoing effort to regulate social media have plunged Nepal into a state of civic unrest. Led predominantly by younger organizers and activists, demonstrations emerged as Nepal's government banned (and then returned) access to popular platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook and YouTube for failing to register their products under a new national law. At least 19 people were killed and dozens more injured amid protests in the Nepali capital of Kathmandu on Monday. More than simply a matter of access to apps, the Nepali protests have become a generational conflict over the region's future.

'Robust space for debate' faces 'censorship'

Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli resigned on Tuesday in an unsuccessful effort to quell the disquiet. His critics accused his government of "trying to curtail freedom of expression" in a nation where free speech is "highly prized," said The New York Times. Nepal generally offers "robust space for debate," while similar freedoms have "shrunk" in neighboring countries. The government's social media regulatory effort, requiring that companies "appoint a liaison office or point in the country," has been "widely criticized as a tool for censorship and punishing government opponents who voice their protests online," The Associated Press said. Rights groups have similarly accused the Nepali government of working to "curb freedom of expression and violate fundamental rights" with this legislation.

The government has claimed it is not "banning social media" but trying to "bring them in line with Nepali law," said the BBC. That explanation has not been enough for many Nepalese, who "heeded a call by demonstrators describing themselves as Generation Z" to gather at the parliamentary building in Kathmandu on Monday. There, authorities used force including "water cannons, batons and firing rubber bullets," resulting in the day's double-digit fatalities, said the network.

"At the core" of the protesters' demands "lies a call for the rule of law, where fairness, accountability and justice prevail over favoritism and corruption," said Yog Raj Lamichhane, an assistant professor at Nepal's Pokhara University, to Al Jazeera.

Dissatisfaction over 'disbelief in authority'

Experts have warned the Nepali government that Monday's violent clashes were an "outburst of accumulated frustrations of youths caused by corruption, bad governance, abuse of power and the arrogance of the successive governments and political parties," said The Kathmandu Post. The protests are "fueled by the frustration of youth and their disbelief in authority, as they feel sidelined from decision-making," said Lamichhane.

But while the social media ban may have "added fuel to the unrest," said Lamichhane, the broader grievances "extend far deeper" and are "rooted in longstanding neglect and the silencing of youth voices" in Nepal. The protests may be stunning in their size and scale, but the sentiments fueling the demonstrations are "far from sudden," said The Hindustan Times. Most recently, that anger manifested in Nepal's trending "Nepo Kids" hashtag on social media, which featured "children of politicians photographed enjoying luxurious lifestyles — to expose alleged nepotism and corruption." Given Nepal's "lively democracy and active civic space," said United Nations Human Rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani, "dialogue is the best means to address young people's concerns."

Years of slowing sales and a decline in reading for pleasure should spell a grim future for the publishing industry. But BookTok, a widely popular subgenre of the Tiktok platform that's devoted to reviewing and recommending books, is offering a glimmer of hope.

Waterstones is "opening 10 new stores a year" and exploring new locations thanks to a "boom in UK sales of fiction last year", said The Guardian. But, as BookTok continues to grow, "the line between influencer and creator is becoming increasingly blurred", said The Bookseller. Editors are "increasingly finding their authors online" or favouring writers with a large social media following – a trend that could seriously disrupt the industry's status quo.

'Embrace' the romance

Racking up hundreds of billions of views, BookTok creators have real influence over what bookstores stock and what their customers buy. Authors like Colleen Hoover and Sarah J. Maas have seen their novels rocket to the top of bestseller lists off the back of social media buzz.

While traditional critics often focus on "blue chip biographies and literary fiction", the BookTok community is "revelling in genres once only discussed in book clubs or Reddit threads", said Leila Herrmann in Vogue. BookTok bestseller lists compiled by major publishers and retailers, reveal "a clear pattern: almost exclusively, the books that rank are romance, fantasy" and adult fiction.

For fans of romance, a publishing category that "historically hasn't gotten the respect it deserves", BookTok has created space to "loudly and proudly embrace" the genre, said Carly Tagen-Dye in US magazine People. And now "romance-specific bookstores are steadily popping up" across America, providing "an oasis" for lovers of love literature.

And BookTok is also making classic and literary fiction, often seen as "elitist", more "accessible to the masses", said Arabella Grace in The Boar. After Jack Edwards, the book influencer who describes himself as "the internet's resident librarian", joined dozens of others to share gushing reviews of Fyodor Dostoevsky's "White Nights", the novella, originally published in 1848, rose through the charts to become one of 2024's bestsellers.

'Pressure to read an incredible amount'

Even for its most ardent fans, BookTok has downsides. One "rather glaring problem" is a lack of diversity, said Tyler McCall in The Cut. "Almost every author who has found life-changing success" on BookTok is white, an "extension" of the "racial inequity in the publishing industry overall". But "I think that, given how young the BookTok audience skews, there's not really a level of self-awareness about that yet", content creator Sanjana Basker told McCall.

The viral- and algorithm-driven nature of BookTok often means "the same works are pushed over and over again", and bestsellers incongruously promoted as "hidden gems", said Herrmann in Vogue. BookTok culture also comes with a "pressure to read an incredible amount", with some creators picking "ultra-short books to help viewers boost their end-of-year tally". For some followers, the quest to reach a 100- or 200-book total or fill shelves with brightly coloured covers overshadows the reading itself.

But critics who dismiss BookTok as "shallow" or "consumeristic" really do "miss the point", said Yarimar Bonilla in The New York Times. Ultimately, BookTokkers "are encouraging people to read", she said. "Not for grades or prestige but to find joy and sanctuary in deeply troubling times."

Next time you see someone poring over a highbrow novel on the train or posing with a philosophical tome on social media, you shouldn't automatically assume they are reading the book.

"Performative reading" is a trend that's trickled down from the celebrity world to everyday mortals, with some concluding there's more value in being seen to be reading an impressive title than in actually reading it.

'Trendy books'

It's known as "performative reading" as the 'reader' wants "everyone to know" they read, wrote Alaina Demopoulos in The Guardian. They're signalling they have the "taste and attention span" to "pick up a physical book" rather than "putting in AirPods".

The phenomenon has its roots in 2021, when a "boom" in book clubs led by celebrities along with "BookTok", the section of TikTok dedicated to promoting and discussing commercial fiction, turned favoured books into a "trend-driven accessory", said Sarah Manavis in The New Statesman.

BookTok is "inherently performative", with "trendy books" going viral, but not because of the "quality of the literature" but because it suggests an "increasingly fashionable, pseudo-intellectual aesthetic". And when reading becomes a competition, with "countless users bragging" about having read more than 35 books in a single month, supposedly, quality takes a backseat to "demonstrating yourself to be a voracious 'reader'".

For some members of Gen Z, books have become "a symbol not of intelligence" but of "hotness", said Allegra Handelsman in The Times last summer, an "accessory" to be worn with "a good outfit, wedged in the bottom of a designer bag" or "pretentious tote". Performative reading is everywhere, from "tattooed creatives, smoking cigarettes while staring at Marcus Aurelius's 'Meditations' on a beach in Ibiza", to the single man reading, or "at least appearing to read", feminist literature "in the hope of pretty girls sliding into his DMs".

Finger-wagging

The "commodification of intellect" with books isn't new, said Manavis, "nor is social posturing" through books. But what is new is the "uniquely unapologetic" way social media "rubber-stamps" the idea of books as "an accessory, rather than an art". And there's a danger it could lead to publishers focusing their efforts on books that are "feed-friendly".

But the inconvenient truth is that the virality of literature has led to an uptick in book sales, said Chloe Mac Donnell in The Guardian last year: in 2023, 669 million physical books were sold, the highest overall level ever recorded, with Gen Z a big driver of those sales, along with an increase of visits to UK libraries.

One of life's "simplest pleasures" remains "falling into a story" and "tuning the world out", without "worrying about what someone’s going to think of you", said Demopoulos. Enjoy the story. Many people are still doing exactly that, so rather than "finger-wagging" about performative reading, next time you see someone with a book at a bar, coffee shop or the park, maybe leave them alone because "this is not for you", they're just "enjoying the vibes".

Kids have a growing skin care obsession perpetuated by fresh-faced underage influencers hawking elaborate, expensive routines. Girls as young as 7 follow routines that do more harm than good, according to a new peer-reviewed study published in Pediatrics by researchers at Northwestern University. This confirms fears many parents have about introducing skin care to their children. But there are ways to do it safely, experts say.

Cut down on unnecessary active ingredients

The study highlighted the overabundance of active ingredients being applied to teen skin through these routines. This includes "citric acid, lactic acid, glycolic acid and salicylic acid," all of which are "mild chemical exfoliants known for their anti-aging effects," said Parents. There's little benefit from these exfoliants for tweens and teens who "do not have acne and who certainly don't have sun spots or wrinkles yet," said Molly Hales, the study author and a professor at Northwestern University.

Children do not need to follow elaborate 10-step skin care routines, board-certified dermatologist Kristin Baird said to Parents. "A gentle cleanser, moisturizer and daily SPF are often more than enough to support healthy skin."

Incorporate sunscreen

One of the most alarming findings in the study is that only 26% of the elaborate skin care regimens observed included sunscreen, "arguably the most important product for any age range but especially for kids," said Real Simple. Broad-spectrum SPF, "ideally in a gentle mineral formulation," should be a "foundational part of any daytime skin care routine starting in childhood." Starting to protect skin early from UV damage is "far more impactful than any trending serum or mask."

Seek a dermatologist's input for acne concerns

While many teens will be fine with a pared-down routine of just a cleanser, sunscreen and moisturizer, some might have persistent acne problems. As children near puberty, they may "produce more acne-causing hormones," said CNN.

In those cases, Sonal Shah, the director of pediatric dermatology at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, recommends trying over-the-counter products that contain either salicylic acid or a low percentage of benzoyl peroxide. Teen skin care "does not have to be complicated and does not have to be very expensive," said Shah. Parents can talk to a board-certified dermatologist or pediatric dermatologist if there are "skin concerns that are significant or don't respond to over-the-counter treatment."

Monitor what your kids watch but keep an open mind

If your tween or teen appears to be drawn to a social media skin care trend that could be harmful to their skin barrier, as well as their self-esteem, try to limit their exposure to popular "skinfluencers." The first step is to "limit access to TikTok and other social media until your tween is older, 13 and up," Molly O'Shea, a pediatrician and spokesperson for the Academy of American Pediatrics, said to Parents.

For older kids, it's essential to try to understand the social aspect of youth beauty and wellness content, Hales said to CNN. The videos show a "kind of playful self-expression that's very appealing to this age group," she said. This is especially true for girls who are "just starting to develop their own sense of independent identity, how they present (themselves) in the world, their gender identity and, in many cases, what it means to be a girl in our society."

Talk about your concerns

Address your concerns directly with your kids. "Have open conversations with children about the messages they see on social media, as well as their own intentions behind purchasing particular skin care products," Jennifer Harriger, a professor of psychology at Pepperdine University, said to CNN.

Ask them questions about why they feel drawn to certain skin care trends. Often, Baird said to Parents, they are "looking for control, confidence or a sense of belonging, not just better skin."

"The meteoric rise of Dubai chocolate has triggered a global pistachio supply crunch," said the Financial Times.

The luxury chocolate stuffed with pistachio cream was a "modest hit" when Emirati chocolatier FIX launched it in 2021. But a video posted on TikTok in December 2023 – now viewed more than 120 million times – turned it into a "global sensation".

The "worldwide craze" has predictably led to a "worldwide shortage", sending the price of pistachio kernels soaring from $7.65 a pound a year ago to about $10.30, said Giles Hacking of nut trader CG Hacking. "The pistachio world is basically tapped out at the moment."

'Affordable luxury'

Pistachios have "long polarised the world's taste buds", said The Guardian. In 2008, the US surpassed Iran (where the nut is native) to become the world's top exporter.

Pistachio trees are "drought-resistant"; their deep roots can withstand a limited water supply. As the climate crisis intensifies, investment in crops that don't need much water, particularly in drought-plagued California, caused pistachios to "flood the market, turning the luxury nut into an accessible flavour for everything from coffee syrups to shower gel". In 2023, pistachios were named "nut of the year".

Pistachios have since "shifted from a niche ingredient to a mainstream one", said The Times. "It's an affordable luxury," said Lizzie Haywood, innovations manager for Waitrose (which was forced to limit sales of Lindt's version of Dubai chocolate to two bars per person after multiple sell-outs). But – crucially for social media – the ingredient elevates a dish visually. "It's colourful. That green colour – people like that."

The viral trend is having an impact on the agricultural sectors of both Iran and the US. The pistachio market was "already struggling" due to last year's "disappointing harvest" in the US, said the Daily Mail. California's pistachio supply fell by up to 20% in the 12 months to February. In the six months to March, Iran exported 40% more pistachios to the UAE than in the whole year prior, according to its customs office. Now, there is a "global shortage".

'This is why we can't have nice things'

Pistachios aren't the only example that "epitomises the notion of 'this is why we can’t have nice things'", said The Independent.

"Sticking with the green theme", in 2015 avocados became "the go-to brunch item", leading to soaring demand in Europe and the US, and a shortage that prompted a "crime wave of mass thefts".

Another "bougie consumable" is matcha, powdered green tea used in traditional Japanese tea ceremonies. "Spurred on" by social media posts "championing matcha-infused everything", production "nearly tripled to meet demand" between 2010 and 2023. Its "fashionable status" caused a global shortage and surging prices. The small Japanese town of Uji, which specialises in matcha production, was "ill-equipped for this sudden Western clamouring". It's come under "massive strain".

Avocados are also "increasingly controversial" due to the strain they put on the planet, said environmental researcher Thomas Davies on The Conversation. Most plantations "rely heavily on fertiliser and fossil fuels", and due to their small crop yield, avocados also have a "higher carbon footprint per kilogram": more than twice that of bananas. The trees are "very thirsty" and they are grown in "already water-stressed" regions like Mexico. New plantations are also "driving deforestation", and have been linked to "organised crime and human rights abuses".

"In the face of such evidence, it's hard to argue that our bougie taste in snacks isn't destroying the planet," said The Independent. Demand dictates supply, but supply chains "simply aren't set up" for viral videos or "the overnight stardom that comes courtesy of an algorithmic quirk".

"However good the latest food and drink craze looks on your feed, it’s masking the ugly truth beneath: virality and sustainability simply aren't compatible."

"Sleepmaxxing" is causing a lot of tossing and turning. The "umbrella term" coined by social media users refers to the "millions of people" who are on the hunt for the best "hacks" to "improve sleep quality and quantity", said Time.

But while some are all too keen to chase the dream of optimal rest, others would rather hit snooze on the trend altogether.

'"Sleepy Girl" mocktails'

Whether it's "drinking magnesium-laced 'Sleepy Girl' mocktails" or "sleeping with your mouth taped" to encourage breathing through your nose, "sleepmaxxing" techniques all purport to be the "blueprint" to help you get a better night's sleep, said Sky News.

Other popular tips include "eating a kiwi before bed", taking melatonin supplements, wearing a sleep tracking device, or "avoiding liquids for two hours before bed", said Time.

"How times have changed," said The New York Times. While we used to say "we'd sleep when we were dead", the modern era means "getting in bed early is cool". But while this "newfound love of sleep" might appear sensible, using sleepmaxxing techniques may mean we are "worrying too much".

'Another way to sell'

In some ways, an obsession with sleep "makes sense", said Chemmie Squier in Grazia in 2021. After all, if we don't sleep "we will, quite literally, die". But being "fed the line" that society more widely is suffering from sleep loss is just "another way to sell" – whether this be medication or wearable devices.

But sleepmaxxing hacks can be "dangerous" as they may "cover up serious sleep issues" better addressed by a doctor, said CNN. For instance, mouth-breathing can be a sign of obstructive sleep apnoea, a potentially serious condition that requires medical treatment.

There are mental pitfalls, too. Taken too far, "people can even develop orthosomnia, an unhealthy obsession with achieving perfect sleep". In fact, "geeking out" over nightly sleep, a fixation further fuelled by these sleeping aids, could "actually make your insomnia worse", driving anxiety about "sleep performance", said The Guardian.

So what is the "key to better sleep?" asked Essence. It isn't as "exciting" as social media may lead you to believe. "Keeping it simple" with a set bedtime and waking up time is deemed the most important factor.

'Airport theory' is the increasingly popular trend of arriving at an airport close to flight departure times. It is "shaking up air travel" after gaining "tens of millions of views on TikTok", said Newsweek.

Airlines have warned against the tactic but many social media users are promoting it because it "limits passengers' wasted time by streamlining the airport experience".

'Poor time management skills'

TikTok has been flooded with videos of people trying out airport theory. Several creators have recorded themselves "navigating airports and clearing security with just minutes to spare", said Mail Online.

Travellers have been getting mixed results. Lexi Smith managed to clear security in five minutes even after she was "randomly selected for an additional security screening" and was able to get on her flight "20 minutes after arriving at LAX". However, things didn't go so well for Jenny Kurtz, who followed the popular trend "just to find terminal screens flashing 'flight closed' at the Chicago-gate".

The discrepancy in results elicited mixed reactions from users across the globe, with some people "fully embracing" it while others are calling it a "reckless attempt to justify poor time management skills".

'Steer clear of this practice'

The rise of 'airport theory' content coincided with a 645% increase in Google searches for “I missed my flight” in the past month, said the New York Post.

Testing the theory is a "risk people should not take", said the Daily Express. With Easter around the corner, peak travel season is fast approaching and travel experts have warned airline passengers to "steer clear of this practice at all costs" to avoid ruining their holiday.

In fact, passengers are being urged to book fast-track boarding services as it can "cut down the time spent in queues and provides a smoother airport experience".

The drain of overconsumption amid rising prices and uncertain economic policies has led some consumers to a TikTok trend for salvation. The No Buy challenge empowers people to stick to the essentials, save money and challenge their spending habits.

'Pushback against the forces of a consumerist culture'

In the vein of other trends that push back against overconsumption, a "growing league of people are swearing off unnecessary purchases altogether" for the No Buy 2025 challenge, The Hill said. There are thousands of posts under the #nobuy2025 hashtag on TikTok, with "many people sharing their personal rules for a year of buying less." Despite its name, the trend is "more about putting entire categories of spending off limits, or cutting far back on nonessentials," as it is "obviously not feasible to swear off buying groceries, gas and other necessities." Items like new clothing, makeup or impulse buys typically make no-buy lists, but everyone's list differs.

The trends tie into a "broader underconsumption core lifestyle," which emerged in response to "influencers peddling new product after new product," said CNN. Trends like No or Low Buy and Project Pan (where you use beauty products until they are gone and you hit the pan) "have seen a resurgence in January."

The No Buy fad is "as much a pushback against the forces of a consumerist culture" as it is about saving money, and "scorn for corporate manipulation" is being "mixed in with tips for changing personal habits," said The New York Times. That scorn was on full display in the call for a 24-hour "economic blackout" on Feb. 28 by the People's Union USA, which says it is fighting an "economy designed to exploit workers, suppress wages and keep the majority of us in a constant state of struggle."

'Control in an uncertain economy'

The No Buy trend "feels like a kind of counterprogramming against the overwhelming force of overt and covert advertising," said The Washington Post. No or low buy is not a new idea, but its "renewed popularity" feels like "an attempt to assert control in an uncertain economy," when the average credit card balance is the "highest it has been among Americans in a decade." Many people are also adopting these habits "in light of recently proposed economic policies in the new Trump administration," said CNN.

Money is not just about numbers; it is emotional, said Clifton Berwise, a clinical psychologist, to CBS News. "It's tied to our sense of security, our goals and even our identity," adding that spending habits can impact mental health in multiple ways. Taking control of your finances can "absolutely help you feel more in control of your life overall, and that sense of control is incredibly important for mental well-being." Financial stress often "comes from focusing on things we can't control — like rising prices or taxes." But it can be empowering to "shift our focus to what is within our control, like budgeting intentionally and creating realistic financial plans."

What this trend will mean for the "overall retail industry in the long haul is uncertain," said Forbes. For now, it is the "marquee high-end brands that are feeling the pinch," with some analysts warning of an "extended downturn or, more dramatically, a basic change in consumer culture." While luxury retail has been hit the hardest, "you don't have to be wealthy to act on a rational instinct for self-preservation," the outlet added. For most young and ordinary consumers who are "living a few paychecks away from disaster," these trends reflect "exhaustion and discouragement about the future." For many, No Buy in 2025 has the "appeal of a rebel cry."

'Why fining airlines for chronically late flights is a bad idea'

Sheldon H. Jacobson at The Hill

How "flights are scheduled contributes to flight delays," says Sheldon H. Jacobson, but there is "so much out of airlines' control that using the Department of Transportation measure for 'chronically late flights' misses what are the primary causes of flight delays." Using "blunt penalties to discourage airline flight delays is misdirected." This is the "time to right-size airline scheduling and work toward a solution that serves the best interests of all passengers."

Read more

'Actor behind Call of Duty's first nonbinary character sticks to their guns'

Louie Villalobos at USA Today

The "hate and rush to dismiss anything different is so engrained in conservative dogma that it's reached the video game industry and is quickly taking hold," says Louie Villalobos. Gamers "accustomed to playing as elves, ogres and all manner of creatures have suddenly decided people of color and LGBTQ+ characters are now to be hated as 'woke.'" You "would think they would focus on stuff that might make people's lives better."

Read more

'TikTok lives on. So does its harmful effect on kids.'

Chicago Tribune editorial board

We "need to determine the appropriate course of action" on TikTok, but "not just as it relates to legal compliance," says the Chicago Tribune editorial board. TikTok "and the like are poisoning American kids," and "fail to gatekeep sensitive content, with significant percentages of explicit and suggestive 'violative content' that is not moderated." Parents should "think twice before giving their teens unfettered access to these confidence-killing distractions," and we should "limit our kids' access to social media platforms."

Read more

'Has Trump learned that Russia is the problem?'

Noah Rothman at the National Review

It "seems like the reality of Russia has cut through the fantasy crafted for Trump by those who don't think they can persuade him to adopt a policy of retrenchment on the merits," says Noah Rothman. Trump "spent the Biden interregnum indulging the cynicism of his most ardent followers," but the "world looks different from behind the Resolute Desk." We "now have plenty of indications Trump's approach will look more contiguous than radical."

Read more

'The ceasefire will not bring our lives back'

Reem Sleem at Al Jazeera

Some "used to think exile would bring safety and peace, but it turned out to be an extension of the war" in Gaza, says Reem Sleem. The "sorrow, pain, and struggle for survival that we thought we had left behind still follow us." The ceasefire is "supposed to put a stop to the fighting," but "we know more will die because conditions will not improve. Gaza is no longer fit to live in."

Read more

'Does the madman theory actually work?'

Daniel W. Drezner at Foreign Policy

First-term Donald Trump "sounded different from post-Cold War presidents, but his sentiments echoed Richard Nixon, who also liked to get mad in both meanings of the word," says Daniel W. Drezner. In "some instances during his first term, Trump intentionally cultivated a reputation as a madman." But "there are many reasons to doubt that Trump will be able to effectively play the madman in his second term," because his "schtick worked better with U.S. allies than adversaries."

Read more

'TikTok survives as an app too popular to ban'

Dave Lee at Bloomberg

TikTok's "chain of events should be highly concerning to all of us," says Dave Lee. The "app should, by all accounts, be inaccessible to Americans," and the "reasoning behind the action has not changed. Even if it had, the solution to bad lawmaking should be better lawmaking" in Congress. If "Washington considered the TikTok threat real last year, it should believe the same thing now, even in the face of being disliked."

Read more

'Make America healthy again? Let's see if they're serious.'

Chellie Pingree at The Hill

It's "true that our food system is broken," says Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine). Americans are "struggling to put enough healthy food on the table." If Donald Trump is "serious about improving the health of America, we have a real opportunity to bring about transformative changes." But if "all the talk about taking on Big Ag and getting serious about chronic disease turns out to be a bunch of bluster," it "will sadly be a wasted opportunity."

Read more

What happened

TikTok is set to be banned in the U.S. starting Sunday under a law that passed with broad bipartisan support last year. The law gave TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, until Jan. 19 to sell the popular app to a U.S. company on national security grounds.

Who said what

"Barring a Supreme Court intervention or some 11th-hour move by the Biden administration," TikTok "plans to go dark in the U.S." at midnight Saturday, The Wall Street Journal said. President Joe Biden does not plan to enforce the ban on his last full day in office, a White House official said Thursday. "Given the timing of when it goes into effect over a holiday weekend a day before inauguration, it will be up to the next administration to implement" the law.

Donald Trump plans to keep "TikTok from going dark," incoming national security adviser Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) told Fox News Thursday. The president-elect is "considering an executive order to allow TikTok to continue operating," The New York Times said, though it's "unclear" if such an order "would survive legal challenges or persuade the app stores and cloud computing companies to take steps that could expose them to huge penalties" under the 2024 law.

What next?

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is expected to have a "prime seating location on the dais" at Trump's inauguration on Monday, next to other Big Tech executives, PBS said.

Why are women deserting the pill? Are ultraprocessed foods changing the shape of our faces? And are TikTok's days numbered? Olly Mann and The Week delve behind the headlines and debate what really matters from the past seven days.

A podcast for curious, open-minded people, The Week Unwrapped delivers fresh perspectives on politics, culture, technology and business.

It makes for a lively, enlightening discussion, ranging from the serious to the offbeat. Previous topics have included whether solar engineering could refreeze the Arctic, why funerals are going out of fashion, and what kind of art you can use to pay your tax bill.

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The ticktock of the clock will soon stop for TikTok. The app could soon be prohibited in the United States if the Supreme Court upholds a federal law banning it. If it does, TikTok will no longer be available in American app stores starting Jan. 19. As a result, many TikTok users across the U.S. are beginning to look for alternatives.

The biggest controversy surrounding TikTok — and the impetus for the Supreme Court case — is its ownership by a Chinese company, ByteDance. The app's possible ban comes as the result of national security concerns over China potentially acquiring data from American users. However, several alternate apps that U.S. citizens are now flocking to are also developed and run by Chinese companies.

RedNote

Of the TikTok alternatives on the market, the Chinese app Xiaohongshu, or RedNote in English, appears to be by far the most popular. The app launched in 2013 and has since "become one of China's fastest-growing social platforms, with a value of over $17 billion," said USA Today. The app is "often described as a Chinese version of Instagram" and allows users to upload photos and videos.

The app has largely become popular because it "hits a lot of the right notes for creators looking for a TikTok alternative" and "boasts a number of social shopping features," said TechCrunch. The app has recently picked up more than 700,000 new users, according to Reuters. However, the platform, as is typical in China, is highly censored, and some new users were "unable to post about topics known to be sensitive in China such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown." The "irony that Americans are leaving TikTok for another Chinese-run app has not been lost on many," said NPR.

Lemon8

While RedNote more closely resembles Instagram, Lemon8 is "like a mashup of TikTok and Pinterest, with separate feeds for different categories such as 'tech' or 'outfits,'" said The Washington Post. Unlike TikTok, though, it seems to have much smaller engagement, with "videos from popular creators generally getting a few hundred likes."

However, like RedNote, there are concerns over Lemon8, which is owned by ByteDance — the same company that controls TikTok. There are also similar questions about China's ability to garner American data from Lemon8. Despite this, Lemon8 "downloads across iOS and Android tripled last week" and it was "briefly the most-downloaded free iPhone app in the U.S.," said Bloomberg.

Clapper

Unlike the other apps, Clapper is American-based, with headquarters in Dallas. It is an app that "appeals to adults, especially among Generations X and Y. Users can post short-form videos and live streams," said the Cincinnati Enquirer. The app has been growing in popularity, and even before talk of TikTok's ban was heating up, Clapper was "averaging about 200,000 new weekly downloads," said Deadline.

Clapper seems to be using the fact that it's an American company to its advantage. The app is "clearly making a play for TikTok's user base," and "Clapper boasts that it doesn't have any" advertisements, said Ad Age, another differentiator from its competitors.

However, none of these apps may ever have the reach that TikTok did. It is "like the dating app world," said Alex Nisenzon, CEO of e-commerce data company Charm.io, to Ad Age. Americans have the "main apps and then you have really niche ones, for people who love dogs or people who are into books, but they don't gain mainstream attention."

'The California wildfires just revealed this very grim truth'

Nitish Pahwa at Slate

"Naturally, it's conspiracy time" about the California wildfires, and this is "just how every major climate disaster is going to unfold online from here on out," says Nitish Pahwa. In an "ecosystem where social media outlets have purposefully hobbled their ability to provide real-time, reliable updates to users, the people affected by those disasters are literally left in the dark." It "takes time and effort to extinguish flames and dispatch reliable information in favor of the public interest."

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'Venezuela's Maduro could be the next dictator to fall'

Kristina Foltz at The Hill

The "swift fall of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad is a lesson on the fragility of alliances between autocrats," and shows the "growing weakness and isolation" of Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro, says Kristina Foltz. Dictators "share only a common enemy — the global international rules-based order that would put a halt to their criminal, repression-fueled operations." Now is the "time for the world to ramp up pressure on Nicolas Maduro to accept defeat and liberate Venezuela from tyranny."

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'How Jimmy Carter helped the religious right's rise to power'

Neil J. Young at MSNBC

It is "hard to imagine a time when being an evangelical or openly talking about one's religious faith would be regarded as a liability for a presidential candidate," but Jimmy Carter "helped bring religious talk into the American presidency to a degree that had never been seen before," says Neil J. Young. Conservative politicians were "also following in the footsteps of Jimmy Carter, even as they took the nation down a very different path."

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'A TikTok ban would harm colleges sports' have-nots'

Adam Minter at Bloomberg

For "thousands of college athletes," social media is an "essential tool for monetizing a brief college sports career," says Adam Minter. The "reality for most college athletes is that they can't earn money unless they hustle. If TikTok disappears, they'll struggle to even do that." If athletes "want to get paid, they need to develop personal brands and attract audiences," and TikTok is by far the most efficient means to secure them."

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'The Germany we knew is gone'

Anna Sauerbrey at The New York Times

Outside of "Germany, Germany is still intact," but "in Germany, Germany doesn't feel like Germany anymore," says Anna Sauerbrey. The "economically prosperous, socially cohesive and politically stable Germany has gone," and "this government, ideologically torn and rocked by outside shocks, proved unable to cope." These "travails have combined to devastating political effect." But "not all is lost," as "Germany's crisis is real, but it is as much a crisis of confidence as anything else."

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'How we can resist Trump's deportation plans'

Leah Montange at The Progressive

Donald Trump's campaign "drummed up support through scapegoating 'migrant crime,'" and "this is a pretext for mass deportations," says Leah Montange. The "best way to resist these kinds of enforcement activities" is for "citizens and non-citizens to claim one another as fellow community members, and then work together." What is "needed now is a blossoming of local-level efforts to defend immigrants," and it is "crucial that we build solidarity within our local communities."

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'Trump should make TikTok American'

National Review editors

Trump has said he "wants to save" TikTok, and the "way for him to do that — the only defensible way — is to facilitate a sale to one of multiple potential buyers," say the National Review editors. A "forced divestiture is the outcome that's most consistent with Trump's stated ambitions on China policy." Removing "TikTok from Beijing's control would send Xi Jinping a signal about America's resolve," and "would be a small but prominent step toward reciprocity."

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'The new AI stock pickers are destined to disappoint'

Nir Kaissar at Bloomberg

Something to "watch for next year is AI-driven investment products," says Nir Kaissar. AI has "hopes of doing what mortal managers can't. Don't hold your breath." Some AI bots "will beat the market, but many won't win by a big enough margin to overcome their fees." The "experience of real-life stock pickers is instructive," so "AI will have to go beyond traditional stock picking — it will have to invent new ways to beat the market."

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An influencer has filed a US lawsuit, claiming that a rival social-media star has been copying her neutral "vibe".

Sydney Nicole Gifford and Alyssa Sheil are fighting a vicious battle of the beige, and other influencers are "watching closely", said The Independent, because their own incomes are also "tied up with the image they 'sell' online".

'Mental anguish'

Gifford, 24, who has 900,000 followers on TikTok and Instagram, met Sheil, 21 (440,00 followers on the same two channels) in Austin, Texas, in 2022, and they agreed to team up – or "collab" – on some content, said the Daily Mail. But, in early 2023, after a dispute over a photo shoot, Sheil blocked Gifford, and then Gifford's followers began to tell her that Sheil's content looked the same as hers.

In a legal complaint filed earlier this year, Gifford accused Sheil of duplicating her "neutral, beige and cream aesthetics" and mimicking everything from her Amazon product recommendations to her poses, outfits, tattoos, "and even her manner of speaking", said The Independent.

Or, to put it in influencer-speak, she accused Sheil of copying her "vibe": a "clean girl" aesthetic, based on a "minimalist wardrobe, organised lifestyle and neutrals galore", said the Daily Mail.

Gifford claims this alleged mimicry has cut into her influencer earnings and that she's owed as much as $150,000 (£117,000) in damages "for mental anguish and lost sales commission from Amazon", said The Independent.

She told US news site The Verge that she hopes her legal action will make all influencers "more mindful", adding that there are "so many instances of other creators" getting their content "completely replicated by people".

But an emotional Sheil, speaking to the same news site, said there are "hundreds of people with the exact same aesthetic", and what Gifford is doing was "coming across very gatekeep-y".

'Owning' the vibe

Experts are divided over how likely it is that Gifford's legal case will succeed. Her "kitchen-sink intellectual property complaint" could hold up in court, Jeanne Fromer, a professor of intellectual property law at New York University, told the The New York Times.

But it's open to question whether Sheil "carefully imitated" Gifford's content as a way to "siphon off some of her sales" or not, said The Verge, and the answer is probably impossible to prove without "combing through" Sheil's browsing history on TikTok, Instagram and Amazon.

The "clean girl aesthetic" is very popular on social media, so it’s "possible to argue" that it's "sheer coincidence" that the two influencers' content is so similar, said The Independent. And, even if it were established that their posts are "too similar for legal comfort", it's still unclear whether US copyright law has actually been breached.

Similar court cases have had "surprising outcomes" in the past, said The New York Times, with courts ruling different ways for different cases. There doesn't seem to be a test for copyright infringement that is "mathematically precise in any way", said Professor Fromer.

The case may not even make it to court, of course. "I suspect there will be discussions," Rose Leda Ehler, of the Los Angeles law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson, told the paper, and the two women will "probably figure out or resolve the matter" without a hearing.

But the case still poses an important question for the influencer industry, said The Independent: "what happens when another photogenic, algorithm-friendly aesthetic comes along" and, "when it does, who will own" the vibe?

On November 17, President-elect Donald Trump nominated Brendan Carr to chair the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the independent agency that regulates and oversees the nation's communications networks. Carr, who was appointed by Trump as an FCC commissioner in 2017, has been an outspoken critic of content moderation efforts on social media networks like X and Facebook, likening them to censorship regimes, and is expected to target tech giants for regulatory action.

A familiar career trajectory

Carr has spent virtually his entire life in Washington, D.C. Born in the nation's capital, Carr attended Georgetown University, where he graduated with a BA in Government in 2001. He pursued a legal career by enrolling at the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America in D.C. and graduated with a J.D. in 2005. His first job out of law school was at the D.C.-based law firm Wiley Rein, where he specialized in telecommunications law. From 2007 to 2008, he clerked on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals before returning to Wiley Rein. Clerks serve in research, advisory and support roles for judges, and federal clerkships are the most prestigious of such posts in the legal world. That's because "from a purely resumé-enhancing perspective, a clerkship also bestows upon a newer attorney a stamp of approval that opens doors to opportunities at prestigious law firms and government agencies and in academia," said the Federal Bar Association in a 2020 blog post.

Trump picked Carr for a five-year term on the FCC in 2017, and because he has already been confirmed by the Senate, he requires no further action to move into the role of chair. President Biden renominated Carr as a commissioner in 2023. If that seems puzzling, it is because no more than three commissioners can be members of the same political party.

Carr's agenda

Carr wrote a chapter of the Heritage Foundation's much-discussed Project 2025 manual called "Mandate For Leadership: The Conservative Promise." In Chapter 28, titled "Federal Communications Commission," Carr recommends that the FCC should take aim at "big tech" and rein in some of its alleged abuses. He also recommends that the FCC stop interpreting Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act as conferring limitless immunity on media platforms for the content that they carry. Carr additionally believes that companies like Meta are suppressing conservative speech. "We must dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights for everyday Americans," Carr said in a post on X the day he was nominated to chair the FCC. Not everyone believes that it will be that easy. "I don't believe the FCC has the authority to do this," said Chamber of Progress CEO Adam Kovacevich to Roll Call, referring to Project 2025's Section 230 reforms.

Congress should "empower consumers to choose their own content filters and fact checkers, if any," Carr said in his Project 2025 manual. Carr also thinks that the FCC should ban the social media platform TikTok and expand its "Covered List" of companies that should be prohibited from doing business in the U.S. for national security reasons. In addition, Carr has criticized the Biden administration for rejecting a bid to use federal subsidies to expand broadband access through Trump-aligned billionaire Elon Musk's Starlink platform. Carr applauded Musk's controversial 2022 acquisition of Twitter and is expected to deliver federal grants to the tech mogul. Carr is also planning to change the agency's internal practices. "Starting next year, the FCC will end its promotion of DEI," Carr said in a post on X.

Carr's appointment was met with criticism from the left. "Brendan Carr has been campaigning for this job with promises to do the bidding of Donald Trump and Elon Musk," said Free Press Action co-CEO Craig Aaron to The Washington Post. But his fellow FCC commissioners welcomed the news. "Commissioner Carr is a dedicated public servant and a recognized leader on the many issues before the Commission today," said Democratic Commissioner Geoffrey Starks in a statement. Elon Musk congratulated Carr on X immediately after his appointment was announced.

What happened

A bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from 13 states and the District of Columbia filed lawsuits against TikTok on Tuesday, alleging that the social media app was addictive and harmful to the mental health of children.

Who said what

The lawsuits, each filed in state court, accuse TikTok of "knowingly contributed to a mental health crisis among American teenagers to maximize its advertising revenue," The New York Times said. The app, which claims 170 million monthly U.S. users, was designed to trap children with addictive features like buzzing push notifications, endless scrolling and beauty filters that promote unhealthy body images, anxiety and depression, the attorneys general argue. The D.C. lawsuit calls TikTok's algorithm "dopamine-inducing."

The legal challenges against TikTok and other social media platforms, including YouTube and Instagram, are "part of a growing reckoning" aimed at protecting the mental health of young people, The Associated Press said. The coordinated lawsuits resemble how states "previously organized against the tobacco and pharmaceutical industries."

TikTok said it "strongly" disagrees with the states' "inaccurate and misleading claims," and is "deeply committed" to protecting teens.

What next?

Yesterday's lawsuits are "just the latest legal pressure facing TikTok," CNN said. Notably, the company is fighting to reverse a total U.S. ban slated to start next year unless the app cuts ties with its Chinese owner ByteDance. The 14 attorneys general are seeking to bar TikTok from using the allegedly addictive features and to impose financial penalties and damages for users harmed by them.

What happens when a member of a church that bans everything from pornography and caffeine to sex before marriage admits she's involved in swinging?

In 2022, a group of wives and mothers known as Mormon MomTok, who rose to TikTok fame with their "viral dance and lip-sync videos", were left reeling when a founding member admitted on a livestream that she and her husband were involved in swinging with some of the stars of her social media clips, said Fox News.

Now, a new TV series takes viewers behind the scenes as members of the online community struggle to save their friendships and reputations.

'Soft swinging'

In 2022, a sex scandal "shook the foundation" of a "thriving online subculture" of Mormon moms, said NBC News, when one of its main stars, Taylor Frankie Paul, announced that she and her husband were getting a divorce, and admitted they'd had an open relationship and that she had violated its terms by "swinging" – meaning they swapped partners within their group of friends.

Referring to what she got up to as "soft swinging", she told millions of followers that she and her then-husband, Tate Paul, had agreed that they could be intimate with the other members of their swinger group on two conditions: as long as both were present and neither went "all the way".

So, "as long as we were both there and we saw it and we knew it, it was OK", she said, but "the second it goes behind without each other", then they "stepped out of the agreement. And I did that".

Piling scandal upon scandal for the religious community, she said that other Mormon couples were also involved. She never offered names of any other swingers but as speculation ran riot it was assumed that countless Mormons were involved. Several MomTok members took to social media to insist they were absolutely not swingers, while others preferred to stay silent.

Taylor Frankie Paul has since married Dakota Mortensen but it's not been happily ever after for the couple. She was arrested during an altercation with Mortensen and charged with assault and domestic violence in the presence of a child. She told NBC News that at the time of the arrest she was "going 90 miles per hour" and "wasn't even thinking straight".

The couple have a baby together and since then her social media has "taken a hard turn toward pregnancy and postpartum content", said The Cut. If social media posts are not enough for you, then new Hulu docuseries, "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives", follows eight of the influencers as they "navigate the resulting chaos and tumult", said NBC News.

Married too soon?

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded in 19th-century America and has an estimated 13.5 million members worldwide, including up to 190,000 in the UK. Mormons believe their church is a restoration of the Church as conceived by Jesus and that the other Christian churches have gone astray.

Mormonism is a sexually conservative belief system, where "chastity is a virtue, homosexuality is a sin" and the father is the "presiding authority in his family", wrote Jessica Grose for The New York Times. So it's "notable" that the wives "haven't left the religion outright", added Grose.

A lot of them "love the foundation of our church: love, family, service", said Paul in the series, but they find it "impossible" to be a "modern woman" and "follow all the rules". Commenting on why many Mormons find it hard to keep to their church's beliefs, one participant said that the problem is that Mormons are "getting married before their brains even develop".

In the age of social media, the Olympic Games are a fount of viral phenomena, whether it's breathtaking moments of sport or behind-the-scenes shenanigans in the athletes' village.

Here are five Olympians who have made an unexpected splash on the world stage during the Paris Games. Not all of them have made it on to the medal winners' podium, but all of them at least have the legacy of a moment in the social media spotlight.

Ilona Maher

Maher – who plays centre for the US women's rugby sevens squad – "has the biggest social media following of any rugby player", said The Associated Press, with three million Instagram followers and two million on TikTok. 

The 27-year-old first attracted social media fame at the 2020 Tokyo Games for her behind-the-scenes videos of life in the Olympic village, and she's at it again in Paris.

Fans love Maher's body positivity and tongue-in-cheek humour, including a running joke in which the Olympic village is portrayed as a "Love Island"-esque setting for Maher and her teammates to find romance.

Kim Ye-ji (with an honourable mention for Yusuf Dikeç)

South Korean sharpshooter Kim Ye-ji lost out on the gold medal in the 10-metre air pistol competition to teammate Ye Jin-oh – but you wouldn't know it from her ubiquity on social media. 

Kim's "sci-fi shooter glasses and an ice-cold stance" were an instant sensation online, turning her into a "breakout style star", said GQ.

She was not the only viral star to emerge from the discipline. When Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikeç stepped up to the mark for the 10-metre air pistol mixed team event wearing ordinary glasses and a T-shirt, and proceeded to win a silver medal with one hand in his pocket, the stark contrast with Kim's futuristic get-up did not go unnoticed by viewers. "No lens, no headphones, just vibes," Eurosport wrote on X.

Henrik Christiansen

Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen was not a favourite to win a medal in Paris, and his name would ordinarily only be familiar to serious followers of the sport – were it not for a "love affair with chocolate muffins", said NPR. 

Christiansen has shared his obsession with the gooey chocolate cakes served up in the Olympic village food hall in videos showing him "enjoying the sunset with a muffin in hand (and on face) and getting caught in bed next to a drawer full of pastries". 

The gag has since spread across the Olympic village. An aide to Belgium's Olympic squad even posted a TikTok in which he placed a muffin outside the Norwegian team headquarters as a sacrificial offering to Christiansen, to the strains of "Circle of Life".

Stephen Nedoroscik

Stephen Nedoroscik arrived at the Paris Olympics as one of Team USA's lesser-known gymnasts, but he will leave as the star of the show. The bespectacled, mild-mannered Olympic newcomer caught the eyes of viewers, and the intrigue around him was only increased by his participation in a single event: the pommel horse.

The 25-year-old's appearance and demeanour have earned him comparisons to Clark Kent – and, indeed, he appeared to undergo a Superman-esque transformation when he swung on to the pommel horse, pulling off a slick routine to secure Team USA's bronze medal. Nedoroscik himself embraced the comparison, telling NBC: "I'm a goofy guy with the glasses on, but as soon as I take them off, I'm locked in. I'm ready to go."

Nada Hafez 

Most women who are seven months pregnant prioritise comfort, said The Guardian, but Egyptian fencer Nada Hafez "instead donned an electrically-conductive jacket, a sabre and a mesh wire mask". 

Even more remarkably, she won her first match in the individual sabre competition at the Paris Games, choosing not to reveal her pregnancy until she was knocked out at the last 16 stage. "What appears to you as two players on the podium, they were actually three!" she wrote on her Instagram.

'Why TikTok may just go away on its own'

 Seth A. Schachner at Newsweek

TikTok is a "juggernaut, one that has become a dominant influence (if not disrupter) in industries," says Seth A. Schachner. But a "lot of Big Tech networks — social or not so social — just decline over time, not from anything specific, just because sands shift." It is "possible the pressure and a new algorithm could set off an avalanche that might truly change the picture for TikTok and ByteDance, so much that they might just decline on their own."

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'Why Afghanistan shouldn't compete in the Paris Olympics' 

Friba Rezayee at The New York Times

"Everybody should be highly concerned about" the Taliban because they are "using the Olympic movement as the platform to seek legitimacy," says Friba Rezayee. If the Taliban are recognized, and get "access to all those tools and resources, they will spread out their propaganda in the Western world." Banning Afghanistan from the Olympics "will have a strong impact on the Taliban because the Taliban will know that their regime and their behavior towards women is not acceptable."

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'Republicans, pay attention to who Harris picks for VP. One of them should scare us.'

Dace Potas at USA Today

One vice presidential option for Kamala Harris "in particular should worry Trump and conservatives hoping to win back the White House," says Dace Potas. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) is the "only elite choice Democrats have, and he is almost too perfect of a choice." He is a "popular governor of an essentially must-win state for Democrats." The GOP should "dread the pick" of Shapiro and "hope he chooses to save his chances for 2028."

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'Does capitalism really need "changing"?'

Wayne Crews and Sara Randall at National Review

The "taxpayer money that the government spends on projects is funding that the private sector doesn't have for its innovations," say Wayne Crews and Sara Randall. The "unpredictable market forces and wrong incentives complicate the government’s ability to pick and pursue missions." At least "when a venture fails, individuals bear the cost, rather than non-consenting taxpayers." The "largest downside to a moonshot economy is the fact that free markets are better at innovation than governments."

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"Looksmaxxing" – young men taking sometimes drastic measures to "maximise their looks" and appear more attractive – has gone from niche subculture to mainstream social media phenomenon.

The term used by the "booming digital community" originated in the "manosphere" and online message boards of involuntary celibates (incels) in 2014, said The New York Times. The suffix comes from role-playing games: to "max" means to "fully develop a single character trait, like strength".  

But the practice has recently "exploded" into mainstream social media, said The Guardian – on TikTok, in particular. "Looksmaxxing influencers have gained huge followings, while algorithms promote videos watched by millions." The phenomenon has "prompted bewilderment among parents and teachers and concern that young people are finding yet more reasons to feel bad about themselves". 

Softmaxxing, hardmaxxing and bone-smashing

Looksmaxxing "begins with 'softmaxxing'", said Jamilla Rosdahl, senior lecturer at the Australian College of Applied Psychology. This includes "basic hygiene" like hair removal, teeth brushing, skincare, fashion and exercise routines, she wrote on The Conversation.

These are "not cutting-edge suggestions", said The New York Times – "at least not for anyone who has ever consulted a women's magazine".

But one trend is more unusual: "mewing", or tongue exercises that supposedly tone facial muscles and define the jawline. Mewing is based on the discredited theories of two British orthodontists, John Mew and his son Mike, who claimed that tongue exercises could change facial aesthetics. "Promoted by looksmaxxers as a face hack, mewing has gone mainstream," said The Guardian. It is the subject of the Netflix documentary "Open Wide".

Other practices include "electric facials" to help men achieve a so-called "snatched jaw", and facial-fitness chewing gum. On TikTok, proponents "often tout the hard-to-chew gum as an alternative to more extreme measures like jawline surgery", said The Cut. 

Many looksmaxxers also believe "hunter eyes" – angled downwards towards the nose – create a "dominating stare women can't possibly resist", said Rosdahl. This is where "softmaxxing" progresses to "hardmaxxing": improving your appearance "by any means necessary". That might include plastic surgery, steroids, "starvemaxxing" (extreme diets), penis-stretching pumps, and "bone-smashing" – breaking facial bones so that they heal to look more defined or "masculine").

Bone-smashing began trending last autumn, prompting doctors to stress that it is "both wildly unsafe and obviously ineffective", said Rolling Stone. The idea is based on the false belief that when bones heal, they get stronger: a misunderstanding of Wolff's law, named for a 19th-century German surgeon who noted that bones adapt to stress. Dating back to "at least 2018" in the "toxic subculture" of incels, bone-smashing appears to have started as "a trollish suggestion": somewhere between "a taunt and a dare". After all, some incels "openly encourage suicide among their ranks". The latest wave of videos probably comes from "a mix of trolls and true believers". 

There has been "much hand-wringing in the media" about bone-smashing, said The Guardian, but "little evidence that anyone is actually doing it". But what is happening, according to cosmetic surgeons, is a rise in inquiries from young men about facial surgeries like chin implants.

The manosphere and Patrick Bateman

Looksmaxxing content is reaching a "widening demographic of teenage boys algorithmically predisposed to the 'manosphere' subculture", said the BBC. This online network is "propagandising masculinity and misogyny".

One of the most well-known names in TikTok looksmaxxing is Kareem Shami, a 22-year-old Syrian student in California with more than 1.5 million followers. His username "syrianpsycho" references the novel "American Psycho", and his profile picture is of incel pin-up Patrick Bateman (the serial killer played by Christian Bale in the film adaptation).

"Looksmaxxing may appear harmless," said Rosdahl. But "at its core" it has ties to violence and suicide. Looksmaxxing videos "pull young boys and men into a dark subculture of incels", where "within minutes" they may be "bombarded with videos that promote suicide and gendered hate speech".

Looksmaxxing forums are awash with "brutal judgment" and offer users a "compelling new outlet" for insecurities, said The Guardian. Men post photos of themselves asking for feedback, and those who receive a low rating on their perceived "sexual market value" are harassed and "told to take their own lives", Rosdahl wrote.

Young people are growing up in "an increasingly precarious world", she said. "This is juxtaposed with neoliberal hyper-individualism, hypersexuality and consumer capitalism".

"Where young people feel like they can't control their environment, they may turn to trends such as looksmaxxing as something they can control."

"As a young person in Syria, I lost control," Shami told the BBC. "I live my life with the idea that I strive towards stability."

Labour and the Conservatives have opened a new general election battleground by launching accounts on the video-sharing app TikTok.

The social media landscape has radically changed since the last election in December 2019, when TikTok was the new kid on the block and a relative minnow compared to the likes of Facebook and Twitter (now X). Turbocharged during the pandemic, the platform has enjoyed remarkable global growth in recent years and now boasts around 9 million UK users, the vast majority of them under 30.

This makes it a potential electoral goldmine for political parties hoping to tap into a famously hard-to-reach and disengaged demographic. 

The Chinese app was banned from UK government devices in March 2023 due to data security concerns, and while these have not disappeared "the political reality appears to have trumped them", said James Titcomb in The Telegraph.

How are political parties using it?

"The first surprising thing about the TikTok accounts of the Conservatives and Labour is that neither are more than a week old," said Metro. Despite the "mammoth influence" that the social network holds over young people, both parties decided to wait until the general election was called last week before setting up on the platform.

Given TikTok's user demographic it is perhaps unsurprising that both parties have chosen to focus much of their early content on the Conservatives' controversial plans to reintroduce national service for 18-year-olds.

Unlike other social media platforms, paid-for political advertising is banned on TikTok, meaning the parties will be hoping to "create content that performs well organically", said The Times.

So far Labour has opted for a "President Biden-style blend of humorous content, which is often less slick than those graphics and videos found on other platforms, alongside more traditional promotional videos". Unlike the Conservatives' initial efforts, which included a staid Rishi Sunak talking directly to camera, Labour has released a series of tongue-in-cheek videos featuring Lord Farquaad from "Shrek" and the late Cilla Black mocking the national service policy.

"It's pretty clear that Labour have a savvier social media team," Chris Stokel-Walker, author of "TikTok Boom: The Inside Story of the World’s Favourite App", told The Independent. Meanwhile, "for someone meant to be tech-savvy, Sunak's TikTok presence has been pretty pathetic".

Can it actually make a difference?

Social media has been a "vital part of winning elections for almost two decades," said Titcomb. Barack Obama used Facebook to finance his 2008 path to the White House, while Donald Trump's activity on Twitter won him billions of dollars' worth of free publicity in 2016. But "hogging the online limelight is more crucial than ever" today.

As the percentage of voters who get their news from traditional sources – such as TV, radio and newspapers – has fallen, the importance of social media to deliver key campaign messages has exploded. In 2023, 10% of people said they got their news from TikTok. This is more than Radio 1, said Titcomb, and among 12- to 15-year-olds, "it is Britain's second-biggest source after the BBC".

Newly relaxed election spending limits mean millions more are set to be spent on digital campaigning than in any previous poll, but given young people's traditionally low turnout at elections, the impact of TikTok on the overall outcome is debatable.

The platform is deemed so valuable for Democrats in the US that Gina Raimondo, the US commerce secretary, speculated last year that any ban could "literally lose every voter under 35, for ever".

So will Labour win the TikTok battle?

While Labour's message will likely resonate more with the younger TikTok demographic, Keir Starmer and Sunak "face a similar challenge", said The Spectator's political editor Katy Balls.

Some of the politicians who do best on the platform are "strident, dynamic and straight-talking". The right-wing populist Javier Milei used TikTok for his successful campaign for the Argentinian presidency last year, while closer to home Nigel Farage, a two-year veteran of the app, has racked up almost 600,000 followers, more than 10 times the number Labour had reached as of early this week.

It may not be either Sunak or Starmer's most natural environment, said Balls, but "there is a clear electoral prize for whichever leader can make the platform work to their advantage".

"The girlboss era is decidedly over," Vanity Fair said last year. And this reported demise has coincided with a growing trend of young women ditching their careers for more leisurely pursuits. 

Videos of so-called stay-at-home girlfriends (SAHGs) "narrating their day while twinkly music plays in the background" are gaining millions of views on social media, said Cosmopolitan. But "the life of a SAHG is risky, to say the least". 

The good

TikTok shows SAHGs "puttering around modern high-rise apartments, pushing Dyson vacuums and spoiling small dogs", said Rory Satran in The Wall Street Journal. "They talk slowly" and appear "unbothered". These women are aspiring to a "softer life", away from that of "mid-2000s 'girlboss' hustle culture".

SAHGs are "the influencer community's true prophets of female ease", said The Washington Post's Monica Heese. Unlike the "tradwife" – a "modern coinage for a TikTok-fluent married woman who keeps house, extols 'traditional' values and yields to her husband" – the SAHG set's motto is "I dream of feminine leisure".

These women's days are packed with "elaborate skin, fitness and food routines that keep their bodies beautiful and their lives serene", not just for their own pleasure but also to charm their boyfriends, "who are, after all, funding the whole shebang".

Yet a "common thread" ties SAHGs and tradwives together: "the concept that liberation is overrated". Today, "women are allowed to have successful careers", but the amount of work it takes to run a household hasn't decreased. And when that domestic burden still disproportionately falls on women, "who wouldn’t dream of feminine leisure?"

The bad

The "seemingly harmless" charms of soft girl living "blend a little too easily into old-fashioned manifestations of gender", wrote psychologist Vanessa Scaringi for Time. The "performative shift" towards financial dependence on a usually male provider "is alarming on many levels". 

These are "old ideas with fresh taglines", said CNBC. Tradwives and SAHGS "are pretending they have agency over their choices", author and campaigner Eve Rodsky told the news site, but they are "taking huge economic risks". Financial dependence can signal "a loss of power or control". 

And while stay-at-home spouses have more financial support if a relationship ends in divorce, SAHGs don't, financial expert Farnoosh Torabi told Cosmopolitan – so "what happens when you go from being a stay-at-home-girlfriend to just a stay-at-home girl"? 

The reality

There's an "irony" to much SAHG social media content, said Satran in the WSJ. These videos "paint a picture of a life of leisure lifestyle", but often "omit the nitty-gritty reality of influencer hustling" as a content creator. 

Even if a lot of SAHGs say that they are living the good life, these "tales of fulfilment, relaxation and empowerment" must be balanced against "stories of breakups, professional struggles, boredom and insecurity". 

In reality, "life isn't effortless", Scaringi told Time, "and if we want to be fulfilled, it can't be". It's true that "whenever we are too invested in our careers, we lose out on so much life". But "the extreme pendulum swing in the direction of 'soft girl' also lands us in troubling waters". 

TikTok may be on its last legs in the United States. The app, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, is on the brink of being banned in the U.S. after President Joe Biden signed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA) on April 24. The bill will ban the video-sharing app from being downloaded in the United States unless ByteDance sells TikTok within the next 12 months. 

PAFACA is officially described as an act to "protect the national security of the United States from the threat posed by foreign adversary-controlled applications." However, one group is heavily criticizing the government's move to ban TikTok: content creators. 

Many content creators across the United States rely heavily on TikTok for their livelihoods, at a scale that some people may not realize; Goldman Sachs estimates that the modern creator economy is worth $250 billion. Will banning TikTok doom this sector of the economy? 

What did the commentators say? 

TikTok's ban would "threaten the income of at least tens of thousands of people in the U.S. and leave them feeling outraged," Louise Matsakis said for Wired. Given the number of people who rely on TikTok for large portions of their income, a ban on the app would be an "extinction-level event" for creators because "most of them do not have sustainable followings on other platforms," James Nord, the founder of the influencer marketing platform Fohr, said to Wired. 

While TikTokers are currently working on building up followings on other platforms, the "big money is still made on TikTok," Prasuna Cheruku, who runs the talent management company Diversifi Talent, said to NPR. The more well-off creators on the site can make "$1,000 up to $15, $20,000 [per video] depending on the creator," said Cheruku, and the "majority of the creators I work with are very stressed out and anxious it'll all go away."

This could also create dire situations for TikTokers who make less. While the highest-grossing TikTok influencers "earn an average yearly salary of $121,765," the median salary for a TikTok creator is "only somewhere between $15,000 and $25,000," Nhari Djan said for the Observer. Overall, around half of TikTok's creators earn less than $15,000. 

And while TikTok's ban would obviously affect U.S.-based creators, it could have ripple effects in other countries, too. A TikTok ban in the United States "would have a huge effect on me," Maks Majewski, a British TikTok creator with 2.8 million followers, said to Newsweek. Even though Majewski lives in the U.K., a "large proportion of my followers are based in the U.S. which would basically more than halve my following if the ban does go through." His income is "based from views and campaigns which would eliminate both if [the ban] does happen."

Not everyone is so convinced that TikTok's demise would be devastating for creators, though. Two years ago, it "would have been devastating," Karat Financial co-founder and co-CEO Eric Wei said to TechCrunch. But he is now less convinced of this because the "amount of time creators have had to prepare for this moment has made them better poised to weather the storm." Beyond this, TikTok's potential downfall is "not an overnight ban. Creators still have about a year to transfer their following, so I am optimistic," Harry Gestetner, the co-founder and CEO of creator monetization platform Fanfix, said to TechCrunch. 

What next? 

It will be at least April 2025 before the American ban on TikTok goes into effect, but ByteDance is already suing the federal government to try and stop PAFACA's implementation. The lawsuit "may be setting up what could be a protracted legal fight over TikTok’s future in the United States," said The Associated Press.

However, court challenges will likely prove to be a "tricky legal case" for TikTok, said The Verge. It is almost certain that these legal challenges would focus on alleged violations of First Amendment free speech rights. But this "won't be an easy fight since judges often hesitate to make decisions of national security importance where the legislature has so forcefully weighed in." 

And even if ByteDance were to find a buyer for TikTok, it would need the Chinese government's permission to sell the brand. This could throw another wrench into the ongoing saga. 

'Move on from Trump-Biden election debates'

Stuart N. Brotman in the Boston Herald

Major media organizations have banded together to urge Democrats and Republicans to commit to having their presumptive presidential nominees, Joe Biden and Donald Trump, participate in multiple televised debates, says Stuart N. Brotman. But most Americans will be "locked into" one or the other by late summer. Debate performances are "unlikely to flip" many voters. Media organizations should devote their "enormous resources" to "more worthy activities," like encouraging voter registration and early voting.

Read more

'"Donald Trump did this": How to beat MAGA on border security'

Jill Lawrence in The Bulwark

There has "never been a better or more urgent moment" for President Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats to "seize the problem-solver high ground on immigration and border security," says Jill Lawrence. Immigration remains "people's top concern" in polls. Democrats should "force Trump to own his nakedly political" sabotaging of a bipartisan border deal he apparently feared would work and spoil his plans to campaign as the "savior" who would deliver us from "border chaos."   

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'The United States had every right to force a TikTok sale'

Tim Wu in The New York Times

The United States has "every right" to tell ByteDance to sell TikTok to a new owner "not subject to the control of the Chinese state," says Tim Wu. Threatening to ban the app sends Beijing the message that democratic nations "take seriously" its "blatant and obvious" violations of internet freedom, like recently ordering Apple to "block downloads of WhatsApp, Threads and Signal within its borders." Free countries "have played the sucker for far too long."

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'Hey, SCOTUS — your hypocrisy is showing'

Austin Sarat in The Hill

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Donald Trump's immunity case last week, and it was "not a good day for American democracy," says Austin Sarat. The "conservative majority seemed ready to jettison its own originalist interpretive method and to ignore the grave threat that former President Trump's election denialism — and efforts to block the peaceful transfer of power — posed to our constitutional republic." Let's hope the justices "come to their senses" and reject Trump's plea for "unprecedented" immunity.

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What happened

The Senate on Tuesday night passed a $95 billion bill to aid Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, and ban TikTok if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, doesn't sell the social media company within 270 days. The 79-18 vote sends the package to President Joe Biden, who said he will sign it Wednesday.

Who said what

Congress is not "acting to punish ByteDance" or TikTok, but to "prevent foreign adversaries" from spying on and "harming vulnerable Americans," Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) said. "Just so everyone knows, especially the young people, Crooked Joe Biden is responsible for banning TikTok," said former President Donald Trump, whose 2020 executive order banning TikTok was blocked in court. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) put the TikTok measure "in the big supplemental bill, and we had to get the supplemental bill passed as quickly as possible," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said.

The commentary

Banning TikTok would "infringe" on "Americans' First Amendment right to access information, ideas and media from abroad," Nadine Farid Johnson at Columbia University's Knight First Amendment Institute said to CNN. "If our data is not safe on TikTok," content creator Tiffany Cianci said to The Associated Press, "I would ask why the president is on TikTok."

What next?

Even if the law survives a lengthy court challenge, CNN said, the Chinese government could "block the sale outright" or allow it "but without the lucrative algorithm that forms the basis for its popularity."