Straight-faced BBC News segment asks if you vacation more like Trump or Putin, seriously

Who vacations better? Putin or Trump? — (Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/BBC News)

Russian President Vladimir Putin is fishing and sunning himself in Siberia, with Mother Nature, Mother Russia, and a camera crew his only visible holiday companions. President Trump insists that his 17-day stay at one of his New Jersey golf resorts is a "working vacation" necessitated by renovations in the West Wing of the White House. "Americans have a very different approach to vacation than most of the rest of the world," Project Time Out's Katie Denis explained on BBC News, in a report asking whether viewers vacation more like Trump or Putin.

If Trump were photographed catching fish on a rustic lake, "there would be an outcry about 'presidents shouldn't take vacations!' and 'don't we have too much to do?'" Denis said, perhaps thinking of Trump's pre-2017 Twitter feed. "I think many Americans would like their leaders to take vacation right now," she added later, because "there's a lot of value in getting away and de-stressing." Not that either world leader is right, Denis cautioned. "I think that the most beneficial vacations is the one that works for an individual. Some people love unplugging and think it's great, some people actually get more anxiety. There's no one-size-fits-all approach to vacation," but vacation is good for everyone.

While you are trying to figure out if you are more of a Putin or a Trump when it comes to vacation, Tuesday's Late Show highlighted this BBC News anchor clearly bored with a human-interest story during the August doldrums — then offered its own fake BBC News for comic relief. Watch below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.