In January, "the cruellest month in a grey country", "The Traitors" has been the reality TV show keeping me going, said Hannah Ewens in The Independent – "and, tonight, it's over".

Five players have survived banishments and murders, each hoping to win a prize pot of around £75,000 in the finale. But for viewers, the real pleasure of watching is seeing people "sincerely promoting wrong and stupid theories with a vehemence in direct proportion to how wrong and stupid they are", said Helen Rumbelow in The Times.

Human nature on display
This year's contestants have indeed shown "new lows of detective skills", said Ewens, but they are the reason the show is a hit. These are "deliriously maddening people" we all know and recognise, from "bolshy Armani" (banished for talking too much after telling fellow Traitors to do just that) to teacher Joe (who consistently convinced the others he had spotted a Traitor and was wrong each time).

The fact that viewers know all along who is a Traitor and who is a Faithful is key to the show's addictive appeal, said Filmhounds. Add in roundtables that play out like "a drunken family arguing around the dinner table on Christmas day" crossed with an episode of "The Weakest Link" and this is "iconic television at its absolute finest".

A slice of real life
It's not just the "anthropologist people-watching element" of the show that has us hooked, said Barbara Ellen in The Observer: "there’s the sheer theatre of it all". Hooded robes, the "doomy" Traitors' Tower, and the feigned reactions of the Traitors to the deaths at the breakfast table, "their crocodile tears falling into the croissant baskets", are among the reasons we're enthralled. 

Host Claudia Winkelman, too, is an important part of its success, "channelling a hyper-stern Anne Robinson, with added Morticia Addams and a dash of a minor character from a Nancy Mitford novel". But it is our empathy that draws us to "The Traitors", Victoria Richards said last year in The Independent. "We have all – at some point or another – either betrayed someone or been betrayed."

When Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th US president, it was the row of tech executives sitting behind him that caught many observers' eyes. The tableau made for a "landmark moment", showing just how much Silicon Valley has "seized power" in the White House, said The Times.

Who is in the inner circle?
Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Google's Sundar Pichai, Tim Cook of Apple, and X and SpaceX owner Elon Musk all had "prime seats" at the inauguration, said The Hill, but "not every billionaire tech mega-donor" did.

Despite Trump's promise to invest $500 billion in artificial intelligence infrastructure, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Alexandr Wang of Scale AI had to make do with a seat in the overflow room.

What do they want?
Musk wants "more power", said The Times, and a new space race, which would benefit SpaceX – the "de facto" rocket provider for Nasa missions.

Bezos, who hopes his Blue Origin programme will join SpaceX on the "Nasa contracts list", also wants to make "representations" on behalf of The Washington Post. His newspaper has been in turmoil since it declined to endorse a candidate in the presidential election. As for Zuckerberg, he wants Trump "not to throw him in prison", something he "threatened to do last year".

These "craven sycophants" see Trump as the "perfect prospective enabler" of their project to bring about a "gilded age for the digital few", said Matthew d'Ancona in London's The Standard.

And what does Trump want from them?
America's tech sector is "one of the key engines" on which Trump is depending for America's economic growth, to "keep the promises" he made during the campaign, said The i Paper.

His stance on social media is also a chance for him to brand himself a free-speech champion, another key tenet of his campaign.

What does this mean for America?
Deregulation of AI risks the loss of "common sense safeguards" that have protected Americans against fraud, discrimination and unsafe practices.

Trump's influence on social media bosses is an uncomfortable prospect for minority groups, too. Zuckerberg has signalled a cultural shift at Meta, clamping down on supposed left-wing bias, while Bezos has deleted the words "LGBTQ+ rights" and "equity for Black people" from Amazon's corporate policies. 

Essex: Myddylton Place, Saffron Walden
Grade I timber-framed Tudor house believed to be Saffron Walden's oldest inhabited property. During its 500-year history it has had many uses, including as a merchant's residence, a maltings, a shop, a school for evacuees and a youth hostel. 5 beds, 5 baths, kitchen, 3 receps, cellar, 2-bed annexe, garden. £2m; Savills

Somerset: Barrow Court, Barrow Gurney
A 12th century former Benedictine nunnery that featured in the BBC's Wolf Hall. 9 beds, 5 baths, kitchen, 4 receps, 1-bed annexe, grounds. OIEO £2.5m; Fine & Country

Conwy: Tanycastell, Dolwyddelan
The birthplace of the Methodist preacher John Jones Talysarn, this Grade II house is set in the heart of Snowdonia National Park, by Dolwyddelan Castle. 6 beds, 2 baths, 2 kitchens, 3 receps, garden. OIRO £850,000; Purplebricks

Dorset: The Manor House, Sandford Orcas, Sherborne
A significant Grade I manor house and one of the finest surviving examples of a Tudor manor house in England. 8 beds, 2 baths, 5 receps, 3-bed cottage, 1-bed annexe, stables, outbuildings, garden and grounds of 12 acres. £3m; Strutt & Parker

Cumbria: Thackwood Nook, Raughton Head
This stately Grade II Georgian manor house was once home to the Romantic poet Susanna Blamire, known as "the Muse of Cumberland", whose works were set to music by Joseph Haydn. 5 beds, 3 baths, kitchen, attic rooms, 4 receps, pond, annexe, 4 acres, outbuildings, parking. OIEO £1m; Finest Properties

Axel Rudakubana walked a long path to murder. At what point could he have been stopped?
Gaby Hinsliff in The Guardian
People "can do unspeakable things" and it's "society's job" to "find and fix the cracks through which such horror slips", writes Gaby Hinsliff. Axel Rudakubana "ricocheted between social services, mental health services, police and the anti-radicalisation programme Prevent", but "each time" he was "judged below the threshold to act". Understanding how he walked the "long dark road to tragedy" remains "our best chance" of preventing something like this "ever happening again".

Ed Miliband's Heathrow turnround
Steerpike in The Spectator
"Growth, growth, growth is back on Rachel Reeves' agenda," writes Steerpike. The chancellor has "heavily hinted" that she will back a third runway at Heathrow. "Anti-Heathrow campaigner" Ed Miliband, now net zero secretary, once threatened to resign from Gordon Brown's government over such plans. He was asked this week if he'll resign if Heathrow expansion goes ahead. "Don't be ridiculous, no," he replied. "So much for principle, Ed…"

How the establishment laundered Jean-Marie Le Pen's reputation
Olly Haynes on Novara Media
Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the French far-right Front National party, has been "relegated to the status of a mere 'detail of history'", as he "once memorably described the Holocaust", writes Olly Haynes. After his death this month, Le Pen was remembered not just with the "undiluted praise of the far right", but also "mealymouthed tributes" from Macronists. The reaction is "indicative of how radically French politics has shifted towards the reactionary right".