On one side of the split screen there are the Donald Trump curated celebrations for America’s semiquincentennial. On Sunday - his 80th birthday - Trump presided over UFC Freedom 250 and hosted seven cage fights on the south lawn of the White House.

The event was imbued with all that Trump values - aggression, bullying, spectacle and grifting.

Dirt bikes backflipped in the air ahead of the fights and audacious ads for the Trump family’s business interests, including Trump Coins, Truth Social and World Liberty Financial, confirmed to even the most casual viewer that this was a carnival of excess. And one fighter, Josh Hokit, proved that there were no guardrails when he screamed a racist slur into the microphone during his post-fight interview.

As Joe Rogan stood by his side with a bemused grin stuck on his cue ball head, Hokit, who was wearing a stars and stripes bandana, shouted: “Michelle Obama is a man. Am I right, America?”

Well no Mr Hokit, because the former First Lady does not live rent free in the minds of sane Americans. And anyway many of them have been too busy reevaluating what America even is because of what’s being lovingly described as The Great American Sleepover.

As hundreds of thousands of football fans descend on the United States from around the globe for the World Cup, America’s heart has been warmed by how their fellow citizens have welcomed the guests. Americans are also reevaluating their patriotism and pride after seeing how much their visitors are in awe of the country they call home.

Feeds are now full of takes from Americans who say ‘we needed this,’ ‘politicians are the problem’ and that the World Cup shows us that we have more in common than that which divides us.

Lawrence, a college town in Kansas, was one of the first to show how America can be. After discovering that the Algeria team would be staying at a hotel in their town locals welcomed them with open arms by attaching “1,2,3, Viva l’Algérie!” signs to lampposts, turning out in their hundreds to welcome them off the team bus and to watch the team’s training sessions. If you think it couldn’t get more wholesome watch this viral video of a resident thanking Algeria for “choosing Lawrence, Kansas”.

Then there’s the wealth of videos of fans enjoying American life for the first time. A German man, who goes by Freddy, has been posting his road trip on Twitter/X and has blown up because of his wide-eyed love for Waffle House, Taco Bell and the super-sized Texas gas station chain Buc-ee’s…

Even the humble Big Gulp’s is getting attention from one England supporter…

And let’s not forget the Japan fans who have marvelled at Texas BBQ and Mexican food.

Then there are the random interactions between Americans and visitors that have shown how magic can happen when cultures collide. Perhaps the most viral is this video of a Scottish bagpipe player alongside a guy playing bucket drums in Boston…

All this harmony has got many Americans in their feels…

While Trump will no doubt carry on pushing his view of the USA as the 250th celebrations reach their crescendo on July 4th, the World Cup joy looks set to complicate his narrative. And it certainly challenges the idea that America needs to be made great again. Many are waking up to the fact that it’s pretty good as it is.

Previously on highly flammable…

highly flammable is produced and written by me, Rachel Richardson

I’m a content creator, commentator and a consultant at Beginning, Middle and End

Say hello at rr@bmend.com

This week I flew to Charlotte, NC, from London for a total of 31 hours. I can confirm that if you cross the Atlantic and return that quickly you simply don’t have a chance to get jet lag. Maybe this is how the stars do it.

In today’s letter we’re taking the temperature of:

• The women making millions linking to clothes

• Gwyneth Paltrow’s money grab

• The new nepo baby singer

• The return of the celebrity body police

• Taylor Swift’s wedding venue

• The reality show crashing voting apps

• Kim Kardashian’s Formula 1 fumble

• Pop’s new breakout star

• The city giving everyone FOMO

• The actor cashing in on the World Cup

Paid subscribers get the lot, free subscribers get a preview. Let’s jump in…

So hot right now

New York City… It’s not often that a city makes highly flammable’s hot list but few places are having a run quite like NYC.

All eyes are on The Big Apple as the basketball team the New York Knicks head for a historic NBA Finals win on Saturday. It would be their first championship win since 1973 and the anticipation has got the city in a chokehold, inspiring watch parties in the street and packing out bars.

Feeds have been flooded with wild scenes of fans celebrating outside Madison Square Garden and of the army of celebs who snagged seats for the big games. They include Taylor Swift, Kylie Jenner, Timothée Chalamet, Hailey Bieber, Tate McRae, Sydney Sweeney, Mariska Hargitay, Ben Stiller, Este and Alana Haim, Jay-Z, Tina Fey and Julianne Moore.

And as the World Cup kicks off, Knicksmania has dovetailed with the thousands of football fans who’ve descended on Manhattan to cheer on their national teams. The party atmosphere comes as a wave of optimism has also swept the city under new mayor Zohran Mamdani.

One viral clip summed up the vibes and became a battlecry for New Yorkers who are proud of the city’s multicultural heritage.

“My mayor’s Muslim. My bagel’s Jewish. My Christian’s Dior. Knicks in four!” screamed 23-year-old MD Ahnaf Hossain.

And this Twitter/X user captured the sentiment many are feeling…

Slayyyter… I briefly mentioned the 29-year-old thrash pop singer two weeks ago after her track DANCE became unavoidable on TikTok, and now I’m back to tell you that I didn’t hype up the 29-year-old enough because it’s become clear that she’s more than a one hit wonder.

Slayyyter, who was born Catherine Grace Garner, followed up her viral Coachella performance with a spot at the Governors Ball last weekend where she, again, pulled in an outsized crowd…

Now The New York Times is calling her “one of 2026’s breakout pop stars” after her third album Worst Girl in America, finally found its audience.

Jason Sudeikis… who is proving to be the World Cup’s biggest star so far, even though he’s not kicking a ball.

The Ted Lasso actor is raking it in after getting booked for splashy commercials for…

Burberry

Nike

and Visa

Sudeikis will also be welcoming fans to the first match on American soil tonight in his role as an official World Cup ambassador. I “believe” in this man’s agent.

Love Island USA… Millions of Americans have gone gaga for the latest season of the dating show with interest hitting such a high that the show’s voting app topped the App Store then crashed after getting 150 per cent more traffic than last season.

Going viral

Kim Kardashian… for all the wrong reasons after she went to her first ever Formula 1 race to cheer on boyfriend Lewis Hamilton.

Kardashian, of course, opted to attend the most glamorous of all the grids, and pitched up in Monaco with sister Khloe. But far from having the time of her life she appeared glum, hid under big black umbrellas and managed to piss off lots of F1 fans along the way.

Her faux pas list is long, here’s the highlights:

Read more

Sorry this letter is dropping a little later than usual. I’m in the midst of moving house and juggling some exciting work stuff. Next week that excitement takes me from boxes in London to Charlotte, NC, for the first time. Does anyone have any reccs for me? Please and thank you.

Just a wee flag that my travel plans might mean that next week’s digest will also be a little late. Please bear with me!

In today’s letter we’re taking the temperature of:

• The five dollar water loved by celebs

• How remote working screwed over Gen Z

• Twitter’s new star shit poster

• The person that connects Strangers and The Tell

• The new way celebs are cashing in

• The women who vlog their life without friends, kids or a partner

• How AI broke recruiting

• Hollywood finally wakes up to what Gen Z want

• The micro drama that got 170 million views

• An extremely messy and very public fight between a brand and a drag queen

Paid subscribers get the lot, free subscribers get a preview. Let’s get into it…

So hot right now

Loonen… which has become the new ‘it’ water after a slew of celebs and influencers have been seen clutching the “spring-sourced, perfectly pure” H2O.

Dua Lipa, as well as lifestyle TikTokers Halley Kate and Brett Chody have been pictured with Loonen, which comes exclusively in glass bottles and boasts that the water never comes into contact with plastic.

It appears that the brand, which was co-founded by the guy who brought us Spindrift and counts the owner of flashy NYC grocery store Meadow Lane as an investor, is gifting the product to influencers and then reaping the benefits of it showing up in feeds.

You might be wondering how much 6 x 750ml bottles of this elite water costs? $34.99 on Amazon. That’s $5.83 a bottle. I think I’ll stick to tap.

Trends, trends and even more trends

The solitude influencers… God I hate it when someone else writes a piece I have in my drafts, and that’s exactly what The Cut did with their deep dive on a new set of content creators.

Like the author Rachel Pick, I too had spotted the rise of women posting vlog-style videos about their single, solitary homebody lives.

Some of the most prominent are Lana Isa, My Drama Free Diaries and Paulina Cee who get millions of views for videos with titles like:

pov you’re a childfree and single girl that has no friends and lives alone so this is how you spend your friday night (8 million plus views)

POV: You’re a single woman who lives alone with no kids & no friends so evenings look like this (6.6 million views)

POV: you live alone in NYC and have no friends so this is how you spend your night after work (10.4 million views)

The Cut dubbed them “The Loneliness Influencers”, but my take is that these women are less sad, and more glorifying solitude and romanticising how peaceful living alone can be. The comments sections back that up as they’re filled with envy for the dreamy, silent spaces the women come home to. One went as far as to suggest it was arousing…

Celebs are investors now… This trend has been bubbling for a while but the latest announcement from the AI-powered shopping app, Phia, is confirmation that famous types are very much in their venture capital era.

Reading like a festival line-up, Phia, revealed that dozens of well-knowns - from Sydney Sweeney to Eileen Gu - had stumped up cash to buy a stake in the fledgling company.

It follows Kim Kardashian setting up her own investment firm and Serena Williams making early stage bets via her Serena Ventures outfit.

The deals are a win-win for both the celebs and the start ups. The famouses get to exploit business opportunities with high return on investment potential, while the companies get a piece of the cultural cachet that comes with well known backers. It also makes future partnerships with those influencers have way more synergy.

Everyone’s talking about

Patagonia v Pattie Gonia… We love messy drama here at highly flammable and boy do we have some. It comes in the form of a very public fight between the outdoor gear company, Patagonia, and the drag queen and activist, Pattie Gonia.

There is so much tea that in order to distill it I’m going to have to do bullets…

Read more

Talking of heat, in today’s letter we’re taking the temperature of:

• The 20-year-old YouTuber conquering Hollywood

• The disappearing job market for Gen Zers

• Whether three glasses of wine can ruin your life

• The rapacious readers who skip prose

• Belle Burden’s messy finances

• The “embarrassing” dessert that New Yorkers are queuing up for

• The demise of tokenmaxxing

Paid subscribers get the full portion, free subscribers get a taste. Let’s jump in…

Going viral

Dot cakes… are the latest divisive food trend to take over social media.

The sprinkle-topped mini cakes have created chaos at branches of Butterfield Market in Manhattan as thousands queue up for them every Wednesday and Saturday when they get new deliveries from The Dotcakes bakery in Long Island. The frenzy, and limited supply, has even forced home bakers to start making their own.

And while influencers like Danielle Pheloung and Katie Feeney adore them…

Commentators are wondering what the big deal is…

It seems that what’s captivated fans is the layer of sprinkles on the top that sounds satisfying when scraped with a spoon. Others rave about the crunch of the topping mixed with the sponge and generous layers of frosting.

As a frosting fan, I’m intrigued, but not enough to wait in line. If you’ve tried one please let me know whether they are worth the wait.

Everyone’s talking about

Whether Belle Burden's Strangers was a fake memoir… When you write a blockbuster book about divorce, betrayal and financial insecurity then I think its fair to expect a bit of scrutiny over ‘your truth’. But many didn’t want to hear The New Yorker’s findings from their investigation into Belle Burden’s trust funds.

Read more

London is, indeed, red. It’s also absolutely scorching as the first heat wave of the year takes hold. Happy days.

In today’s letter we’re taking the temperature of:

• The 16-year-old bride blowing up TikTok

• The collab that shut down stores

• Katie Price’s missing husband

• The new theory about why we’re having fewer children

• Whether the feed is fake

• What constitutes “toned” arms

• The Beckhams’ ballooning wealth

• The new Heated Rivalry

Paid subscribers get the lot, free subscribers get a preview. Let’s jump in…

So hot right now

Venezuela Fury… The 16-year-old daughter of British boxer Tyson Fury is fast becoming a massive social media star after her ostentatious wedding went viral.

Venezuela is Fury’s eldest daughter and featured in the hit Netflix series At Home With The Furys. But it was her big-budget wedding to Noah Price that has blown up her profile and seen her TikTok following increase by over 40 per cent in the last two weeks.

Read more

She listed five ways AI was saving her time and explained in the caption that she’d been “pitting Perplexity Computer against Claude” concluding that “the former [Perplexity Computer] is pretty impressive”.

The post wasn’t received quite how Amoruso expected, and the comment section quickly filled with distaste for AI and its negative impact on society, the environment, jobs and our brains.

Undeterred, a day later Amoruso sent a Substack post to over 100,000 of her subscribers with this fear mongering headline telling the commentators why they were wrong…

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• The rise of nepo baby beauty brands

• Gen A’s spending power

• The red flats queen’s next move

• Hypebeast grocery stores

• Gen Z’s swing away from Trump

• The new tech upending marriages

• A right wing firebrand’s flop era

• An unlikely fashionista shilling for fast fashion

• The 2026 update on the Jet2 holidays song

• The rise of the house manager

• Women in SPAM

Paid subscribers get the lot, free subscribers get a preview. Before we jump in, some thoughts on one of the few issues that nearly all of us can agree on…

AI hate goes mainstream

If celebrities and public figures had not yet got the memo that carrying water for the AI industry was the quickest way to taint their reputations then surely they heard it loud and clear in the last few days.

In the run up to the week when AI became officially toxic, figures like Reese Witherspoon and Mel Robbins had already felt the wrath of those opposed to AI because of its impacts on the environment, creative industries, jobs and our brains. Yet that didn’t stop two entrepreneurs - #GirlBoss author Sophia Amoruso and August founder Nadya Okamoto - from pushing weirdly similar posts about how AI was changing how they work.

Okamoto appears to have deleted the post since she was hit with criticism that promoting AI cut against her sustainable credentials. Amoruso on the other hand read feedback like this and decided to double down.

Read more

I hosted the Next Gen stage and got to hang out with a bunch of Gen Z media types, who managed to make me feel simultaneously energised by their curiosity and humbled by their youth.

Friday’s letter is for paid subscribers, and today we’re taking the temperature of:

• The Gen Alpha sleep-under trend

• Blue dot fever

• Gen Z’s favourite drugs

• Botox’s reality check

• Hantavirus gallows humour

• The positive masculinity of a Gen Z folk singer

• Spencer Pratt’s surprisingly successful run for mayor

• The viral Met Gala diva

• Prediction market’s payout problem

Let’s jump in…

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1. Blue Ivy “is ready”

I mused last week that the protests against Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos’ involvement in the gala may be so major that they could upstage Beyoncé — instead it was her 14-year-old daughter.

Blue Ivy Carter stole the show with a surprise appearance that we have to imagine caused quite a headache for organisers. Back in 2018 they declared that the gala wasn’t “an appropriate event for people under 18”. But with Beyoncé serving as a co-chair we can safely assume that she used her considerable clout to get a pass for her Gen Alpha daughter.

Beyoncé herself also made an exception by giving a rare interview on the red carpet. She used it to speak about her eldest child, telling La La Anthony that it was “incredible to be able to share it with her,” adding that she wa…

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• Country’s new Gen Z star

• The gospel song trend

• Taylor Swift’s countdown clock

• The internet’s new boyfriend

• iPod’s comeback

• AI boss brain

• Gen Z’s dismal take on America’s future

• The website battling long lines at dining hot spots

• The running “super shoes” that have sparked a frenzy

• And the Chanel one that’s just a heel

But before we jump in, some thoughts on Monday’s Met Gala…

The Bezos-ification of fashion’s Super Bowl

Yes, some of the couture lewks will go mega viral. Yes, many will spectacularly fumble the “Fashion Is Art” dress code. And of course it’ll be packed to the rafters with stars. But even Beyoncé, who’s serving as this year’s Met Gala co-chair, may be upstaged by the year’s unofficial theme — tech billions and the bros that own them.

And that’s because not only is the Met Gala being personally sponsored by Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos, their Silicon Valley rivals from Meta, OpenAI and Snapchat are among the few who can afford the $350,000/£257,000 price tag for a table. The geek squad’s domination led BackRow editor Amy Odell to cleverly re-name fashion’s biggest night as “the Tech Gala”.

Another distraction will be Sánchez Bezos herself. Her love of form fitting clothes tends to guarantee that. This year Sánchez Bezos appears to be working with Zendaya’s superstar-stylist Law Roach and was seen visiting Schiaparelli earlier this year sparking rumours they’d be dressing her. Given the brand is known for surreal, architectural designs the mind boggles over what they’ll pour her into.

And then there are the protests that follow the couple wherever they go. Outdoor posters that urge people to “Boycott the Bezos Met Gala” have already popped up around New York.

The campaign is being orchestrated by Everyone Hates Elon, the same group that placed a giant poster in one of Venice’s public squares ahead of Jeff and Lauren’s wedding that read: “If you can rent Venice for your wedding you can pay more tax.”

One person heeding their call is New York mayor Zohran Mamdani. Traditionally mayors attend the gala but he said he’s skipping to focus on “making the most expensive city in the United States affordable”.

With so much hullabaloo ahead of the event will anyone actually focus on the fashion? We’ll find out on Monday.

So hot right now

Ella Langley… Country music has a new breakout star and she’s shifting so many copies of her album Dandelion that Langley is being talked about in the same breath as Taylor Swift.

The 26-year-old from Alabama, blew up by way of her song Choosin Texas, which has spent 16 weeks on Spotify’s Global chart and 22 weeks at the top of Billboard’s Hot Country Songs.

She’s also getting mainstream cut through via her partnership with American Eagle. That brand certainly know how to pick ‘em!

The hot equerry… Brits have been aware of Lieutenant Colonel Jonny Thompson’s charms for a few years now, but as the King and Queen visited the U.S. this week the royal assistant, who is nearly always in a kilt, found a flurry of new fans.

As the chief assistant to the royal couple, Thompson is their shadow, and was in nearly every frame as they toured Washington D.C. and New York City, as this fancam demonstrates…

His British supporters are so into him that one Etsy seller has even made sweatshirts with his image next the slogan “My Kilty Pleasure”.

Sebastian Sawe… who became the first man to run an official sub two hour marathon. Sawe clocked a time of 1:59:30 on Sunday and many believe it was his Adidas “super shoes” that helped him shave over a minute off the world record.

The $500/£450 runners, known as Evo 3, are the lightest and fastest race shoes ever made by the brand, and demand for them has exploded. After selling out the only way to get a pair is to pay over $1,500/£1,000 on resale sites like StockX until Adidas drop more later this month.

Trends, trends and even more trends

Turning your texts into a gospel song… I told you about the moms dragging their teens by using an AI tool to transform their texts into emo songs, well now TikTokers are doing the same with their messy texts, but this time they’re gospel anthems.

This take is so dramatic it has rocketed into my top ten TikToks of all time…

Read more

Pheloung, known as Acquired Style on social media, broke new sponcon ground when it appeared that the private jet and luxury St. Barths villa enjoyed by her bachelorette party was funded by an AI mirror brand which featured heavily in her videos from the trip.

The story started to unfold on Thursday when fans were left gasping as Pheloung, her identical twin sister Danielle and 15 friends boarded a massive private plane. As Pheloung, who was dressed in white with a veil in her hair, gave a tour of the multi-roomed jet, eagle-eyed viewers questioned how they could afford it and noticed branding for Swan Beauty.

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The ONLY reason that highly flammable continues to exist is because nearly 100 beautiful souls pay for a subscription. That support means I net about $400/£300 a month, and helps to justify the many hours I pour into each post. If you can join my paid angels in helping to fund my work it would be the best possible anniversary gift…

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In today’s letter we’re taking the temperature of:

• The TikToker who rage baited her way to a book deal

• The teens being ‘bribed’ by brands

• Engagement rumours that surround a celeb power couple

• The streamers spending millions to go viral

• Alix versus Alex drama theories

• The creators being sued by their staff

• Reese Witherspoon’s massive misstep

• Prediction markets face predictable insider issue

As ever, paid subscribers get the lot, free subscribers get a preview. Let’s jump in…

Going viral

Manufactured virality… The rise of paid clippers - people who are literally given money to post clips online - have had a major impact on what we see on feeds, and who breaks through to the mainstream. While we’ve known about the practise for years, we’re only now understanding the scale of clipping operations and how much they’re swaying algorithms.

In the last week, N3on, a big-time Kick streamer, admitted to Business Insider that he shelled out $1.4/£1 million to 303 clippers over the course of five weeks to boost his profile on platforms like Twitter/X and TikTok. And YouTuber Devin Nash dug into the clipping industry’s marketplace and says that Kick’s biggest star, Clavicular, is paying 1,610 clippers over $600/£444k a month to push highlights from his livestreams.

Nash claims that clipping campaigns can make almost anything get traction online but major virality is reserved for videos and personalities that are provocative and outrageous, which is why Clavicular, and his bone-smashing looksmaxxing ways, has become inescapable.

Everyone’s talking about

Reese Witherspoon’s weird AI post… Last week the actress created a firestorm after she posted a video to Instagram telling her female followers that “it’s time to learn about AI”.

She claimed that women risk being left behind if they don’t use the new tech. While some in her comments agreed, many did not and took exception to her assertion that AI should be embraced and that she hadn’t considered the myriad of reasons that some may consciously chose to avoid it. Some even accused her of betraying the book community and pushing the tech because she was being paid. Witherspoon has since denied that her post was sponcon and clarified her comments…

While she still seems set on an educational series, Witherspoon and others would do well to remember that AI is up there with the hottest of hot button topics. New AI witch hunts pop up each week and anti-AI sentiment is so strong that brands are making a point of saying they don’t use it. If you’re in the public eye and asked about AI, tread carefully.

So hot right now

The tradwife comeuppance story… Caro Claire Burke’s novel Yesteryear has got so much buzz around it that the movie rights were snapped up before publication and Anne Hathaway has signed on to play the lead.

Hathaway will play momfluencer Natalie Heller Mills who wakes up in 1855 and has to live the life she’s pushed to her millions of followers. In classic fuck around and find out style, her new life is not as blissful as she imagined.

RELATED Tradwife TikToker and rage baiter extraordinaire, Nara Smith, has unveiled the cover of her first cookbook…

Smith, 24, who made her name, and acquired over 12 million followers, by making wildly elaborate meals “from scratch” says it took her two years to develop the recipes. Homemade drops in October.

Lena Dunham… still. Her feed-dominating press tour for Famesick, crafted by , will be studied for years to come.

Need to know

Alex v Alix… The beef between TikTok queen Alix Earle and Call Her Daddy podcaster Alex Cooper appears to have reached an extremely disappointing impasse. Despite promising us that she was “on it!!,” Earle has not yet responded to Cooper’s demands that she air out her grievances after she reposted a highly critical TikTok, that pretty much called Cooper a vulture.

The comments section of Earle’s TikTok is now full of complaints that she hasn’t delivered what many hoped would be piping hot tea about what created a rift between the former business partners.

Some are speculating that Earle might be saving her response for her forthcoming Netflix reality show, and that the drama has been manufactured to create hype ahead of the launch.

Meanwhile Cooper has not had her sorrows to seek after Bloomberg dropped a brutally timed report on how her company, The Unwell Network, is a hot mess. They revealed that:

Read more

On Tuesday I filled you in on the Alix Earle versus Alex Cooper beef. If you didn’t catch it there are two creators, both with massive Gen Z followings, at war after Earle reposted a video trashing Cooper.

Cooper responded by calling out Earle to come with receipts that back up the claim that she’s a vulture. Earle said “Okay on it!!” on Monday but it’s been crickets ever since. Cooper meanwhile claimed that the whole mess was not a PR stunt (my gut instinct) and dragged another podcaster, Brianna Chickenfry, into the fray after accusing her of calling her a mean girl.

I, much like Aldi, am on tenterhooks for Earle’s next move. As we wait let’s take a look at what else is giving off heat this week:

• The saxophone is getting louder trend

• 2026’s girl boss update

• Summer’s hottest date

• A teen sprint star

• The mom’s dragging their teens on TikTok

• A seven-year-old reality TV star

• The reappraisal of Lena Dunham

• The two influencers who exposed an abusive politician

Paid subscribers get the lot, free subscribers get a preview. Let’s dive in…

Subscribe now

So hot right now

July 3… Not only is it the reported date of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding but Madonna just announced that’s when she’ll drop her long-trailed sequel to Confessions On A Dancefloor. These icons need to coordinate their schedules better.

Gout Gout… who’s been dubbed the new Usain Bolt after the 18-year-old smashed records by sprinting insanely quick times in the 100 and 200 metres. The Australian teen is running faster than Bolt did when he was the same age.

American Eagle stock… which soared after the denim brand unveiled their second campaign with discourse magnet Sydney Sweeney.

This promo is, thankfully, not eugenics adjacent, and is instead all about shorts...

Trends, trends and even more trends

Mom’s turning their teen’s texts into emo songs… has become a hot TikTok trend and become possibly the only good use of AI. Enjoy every single one!

The saxophone is getting louder… has also taken over TikTok, with posters sharing their stories of impending doom or the moment they realised that something very bad was going to happen.

Once again it’s a trend that originates from Black American culture, specifically a pivotal scene in Boyz n the Hood, and Cindy Noir had a lot to say about how it’s being both misused and appropriated.

The rise of regressive women… A few years back I would have called Candace Owens and Megyn Kelly right wing, but left and right don’t fit politics in 2026 anymore so I’m going with progressive v regressive. Anyway, to my point, both podcasters have seen their popularity sky rocket.

TheRighting found that the Candace show, which pedals in conspiracy theories, has seen a 59 per cent year-over-year jump in subscribers on the Castbox platform. The Megyn Kelly Show, which up until recently was heavily pro-Trump, similarly saw subscribers jump 53 per cent.

Everyone’s talking about

Emma Grede… after the business woman behind Good American and Skims ruffled feathers with her tough-talking take on girl bossery.

As she touts her new book Start with Yourself: A New Vision for Work & Life the British-born entrepreneur claimed that:

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The drama exploded into public view last week when TikTok star Alix Earle reposted this video from TheBravoMom that ranted about the Call Her Daddy podcaster, Alex Cooper. TheBravoMom claimed that Cooper:

• Was an “ambulance chaser” who exploits “vulnerable” female celebrities

• Profits off awful things happening to women

• Screwed over her former Call Her Daddy co-host

Read more

Today we’re testing the temperature of:

• Competency porn

• The Jessica trend

• The teens making disorder content

• Gen Z’s obsession with cyberdecks

• The hot new haircut

• The high schoolers in relationships with AI chatbots

• Bieber’s return

Paid subscribers get the lot, free subscribers get a preview. Let’s get into it…

So hot right now

The moon… and, specifically, the astronauts who went to its dark side.

The NASA mission, which sent a crew further from Earth than any humans have ever gone before, has broken streaming records, dominated Google search and turned Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, Jeremey Hansen and Christina Koch into super stars.

The astronauts have been such a hit I doubt they’re prepared for the fame frenzy that will greet them when they land back on earth later today. Here’s what’s set the internet alight…

Victor Glover’s space shower

The crew member - who became the first Black person to fly to the Moon - became an internet boyfriend after taking a ‘shower’ in space. One commentator dubbed him Buff Lightyear…

Glover’s daughter, Maya, also went mega viral after she flexed her relationship by posting a video of her dancing while wearing a t-shirt with her father’s face on it alongside the caption “when your dad successfully pilots Artemis II halfway to the moon”.

The Cal Poly student’s post has been watched 12.5 million times on TikTok and more than nine million times on Instagram.

The only woman on board gains icon status

Stans of Christina Koch are so into her they’re making fan edits. Lots of them. There’s also been plenty of excellent jokes too…

Tears in space

The crew captured hearts after proposing to name a moon crater after Reid Wiseman’s late wife. “We lost a loved one, her name was Carroll, the spouse of Reid, the mother of Katey and Ellie,” Jeremey Hansen said as he radioed the request to mission control. Wiseman and Koch were later seen wiping away tears on the livestream.

Competency porn

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The 29-year-old actress was referring to her booked and busy 2026 schedule, which sees her drop four major movies, and return to the small screen this Sunday in HBO’s smash-hit teen drama Euphoria.

By any standard it’s an ambitious undertaking. In politics it would be called flooding the zone. But in Hollywood Zendaya’s heavy slate signifies what a sure bet she’s become, particularly with Gen Z audiences, who now make up the largest share of cinema-goers in America.

That faith has already paid off for A24, the indie producer behind The Drama. The film, which sees Zendaya star opposite Robert Pattinson, as a bride-to-be whose wedding week is rocked by a disturbing revelation, is now the third biggest opening for the production company. With $14.4/£10.8 million in ticket sales, only Marty Supreme and Civil War have performed better.

And…

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In today’s letter we’re taking the temperature of:

• The Dracula walk trend

• The death of the Gen Z job

• Plum Sykes’ self own

• Byyourselfmaxxing

• Viral jaw releases

• Bestie betrayal

• Social media’s posting problem

• Bridal breakdowns

Paid subscribers get the lot, free subscribers get a preview. Let’s get into it…

Everyone’s talking about

A reality TV love triangle… Have I ever watched Bravo’s Summer House? No. Have I spent the last few days poring over every single detail of a messy love triangle involving two best friends and a mid tier man from the show? 100 per cent, yes.

The drama blew up when Amanda Batula and West Wilson posted a joint Instagram story addressing rumours that they were dating. The word salad post stopped short of saying they were officially a couple, but confirmed that they shared a “connection”.

The problem, apparent to seemingly everyone except them, was that Wilson used to date Batula’s best friend, Ciara Miller. To add some extra seasoning, Batula had not long announced her separation from husband Kyle Cooke in January, and her BFF - the ex of her new man - had supported her through the split.

The treachery has sparked comparisons with the Scandoval storm of 2023 when the cast of Vanderpump Rules got into a similar mess. In that case Tom Sandoval was caught cheating on Ariana Madix with cast mate Rachel “Raquel” Leviss.

The more interesting conversation here though is about interracial relationships and Miller’s experiences as a black woman on a reality show with a predominantly white cast.

wrote a great “rant post” headlined i’m tired of watching Black women get disrespected that reflects on Miller’s singular experiences. Refinery 29’s Lex Niko makes similar arguments in a piece containing a detailed timeline for anyone who wants to go deep on the disloyalty.

RELATED As I drank up this scandal, I also learned that Erika Kirk appeared on Summer House and went on a “date” with Jordan Verroi!!!!! It’s a very strange bit of TV…

Is Clavicular satiremaxxing?… The problematic looksmaxxer is back on Kick after his brush with the law, and viral clips of him have got people wondering whether his whole thing is a bit.

It started when he explained to Jack Mac that men who want to appear taller should pull their pants low to cover their ankles and “tiptoemaxx”. In another bizarre moment he approached a girl who was sitting alone and said: “you’re like byyourselfmaxxing, I feel bad, are you OK?”

Sadly, this is not satire. Clavicular really does think it would be someone’s worst nightmare to sit alone, or be considered a short king. And he really does add “maxxing” to the end of any word.

Byyourselfmaxxing has already seeped into the lexicon of the chronically online, and this gets to the biggest problem with Clavicular — he’s a natural engagementmaxxer, and his comical language is key to that. There’s something deeply Trumpian about the streamer, and that’s why I think he’s so dangerous.

Unpaid interns on paid-for Substacks… Another week, another Substack drama. This time it’s over fashion writer Plum Sykes’ extremely detailed confession that she has a string of interns working for her for free.

Across 1,864 jaw-dropping words Sykes, who has hundreds of paid subscribers and 14,000 overall, provided pen portraits of her unpaid workers. And left me aghast with this revelation:

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Today we’re taking the temperature of a Gen Z mogul’s new brand, the Substackers admitting that they use AI, Denise Richards’ “restoration”, boundaries being the new social crime, the catching print trend, Taylor Frankie Paul, the future of infinite scroll, a viral Erika Kirk parody, dinergoths and much more. But first a word on a looksmaxxer who just can’t stop courting controversy…

Clavicular going to jail?

On Thursday Clavicular, the image-obsessed livestreamer, was arrested on a misdemeanor assault charge. Here’s his mugshot courtesy of TMZ…

According to reporting by his trouble with the law follows a physical fight between Clavicular’s girlfriend and the influencer Jenny Popach.

After he was taken into custody his 30-day livestreaming marathon abruptly ended and his Kick profile is now inaccessible suggesting that he’s been banned by the platform.

The arrest came after, but is not connected to, a disturbing incident where he filmed himself shooting a dead alligator.

Clavicular, real name Braden Peters, is being investigated by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission over that…

While creating drama is a business model for characters like Clavicular, he’s making a rather unhealthy habit out of brushes with the law. Last year he allegedly ran over someone with his Cybertruck, and in February he was arrested by cops in Arizona for apparently using a fake ID and being in possession of prescription drugs.

He’ll likely be mad that the arrest has disrupted his streaming marathon, but he’ll be more pressed that the assault arrest warrant apparently listed his height as 5’ 11”. Clavicular has always claimed to be 6’ 2”.

Going viral

Chappell Roan hating kids… You’re likely aware of the massive story that has swirled around Chappell Roan all week concerning the claim that she terrorised a young fan who dared to glance at her.

It kicked off last weekend when Brazilian footballer Jorginho claimed that Roan’s security team made his 11-year-old stepdaughter cry after they told her off in “an extremely aggressive manner” for walking past and looking at the Pink Pony Club singer as she ate breakfast in a fancy São Paulo hotel.

The allegation blew up immediately because Jorginho has well over four million followers and because Roan, 28, has a reputation for enforcing boundaries and has asked fans not to bother her when she’s living her private life.

But the drama grew so big that it quickly forced Roan to post a video on Instagram claiming that she hadn’t been harassed, that it was not her security who confronted the little girl and that she did not, in fact, hate children.

Her response didn’t stop her from being mercilessly mocked online though, as many ran with the idea that Roan was a real-life Miss Trunchbull.

The backlash to the backlash was also swift with some, like Jamella Jamil claiming that Roan had been the victim of a hit job because she is an outspoken queer woman. BuzzFeed also reported that the research company, GUDEA, found that around 23 per cent of posts attacking Roan were made by bots, suggesting that there was some sort of smear campaign that ramped up after Jorginho’s post.

Even the security guard at the centre of the mess coming forward to apologise and back up Roan’s version of events didn’t calm the waters.

Zooming out it seems like one of the most controversial things a person in the public eye can do these days is set parameters. We’ve seen it with Meghan and Harry, with Brooklyn Beckham going no-contact with his family, and repeatedly with Roan. The public want celebrities to conform to their ideals and, sadly for them, transgressions get viewed harshly.

Druski… who took over the internet AGAIN on Wednesday by dropping ANOTHER insanely good parody. His target this time? Conservative women, who look alarmingly like Erika Kirk.

In just two days his skit racked up over 72 million views across Instagram, YouTube and TikTok…

The new sketch comes just ten weeks since his take on flashy pastors and mega churches also went viral.

Druski is proving that his ability to mock and ridicule is unmatched, and his massively talented prosthetics and make-up team can transform him into almost anyone. Celebrities should be on their guard.

The seven dog great escape that wasn’t… If you haven’t seen the footage of seven missing dogs finding their way back home then have you even been online this week?

In the many viral videos that circulated, posters claimed that one plucky corgi led a group of stolen dogs on a 10 mile trek back to their owners. The videos of them walking as a pack on a busy road were watched hundreds of millions of times, but it transpires it was all fake news…

The dogs weren’t missing and everyone got carried away with the Disney plot line. Unlike the cute dog video, the rebuttals, which claim they were local dogs attracted to one on heat, have not gone viral, funny that.

Trends, trends and even more trends

Catching print… TikTok girlies have become obsessed with a way to assess a man’s, ahem, assets and turned it into a trend.

Known as catching print, followers of the method are eyeing up men’s bulges to determine their size after being schooled by dating coach Anwar White.

White’s tutorial went viral after they explained there are three “types” — a, b and d. They even produced a guide for visual learners…

While some have pointed out that catching print overly sexualises and degrades men, many women have proudly declared that it’s their new hobby and that it’s time to turn to tables…

Whatever your perspective, it’s hard to find fault with this commenter’s quip…

Everyone’s talking about

AI witch hunts and exposes… The hot new sport is to accuse writers of using AI in their work, and the latest to be targeted is the American author Mia Ballard who wrote the horror novel Shy Girl.

The book was pulled by publishers after a New York Times investigation found that it appeared to be AI-generated. Ballard denied the claim but did admit that she hired someone to edit a self-published version and she said that they used AI.

Ironically The Atlantic then accused the New York Times of using AI on its pages after a Twitter/X user said that a column written by Kate Gilgan, read like AI slop.

Gilgan says she did not copy and paste from AI but did “utilise” it “as a tool”. She said she sought “inspiration and guidance and correction” from the bots.

Meanwhile big name tech writers have outed themselves as AI users in an article by WIRED. Alex Heath, the founder of the newsletter, says he uses AI to draft and edit his newsletters.

He explained that he dictates his ideas to an agent and after it composes the first draft he then suggests revisions. Heath claims that using the tech means he spends 30 to 40 per cent less time writing.

I do not, and have never, used AI to write highly flammable and I can’t work out whether this makes me smart or stupid. What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

Denise Richards’ face lift… While it would be great if we all got a little less obsessed with looksmaxxing, we collectively appear incapable of not applauding “good work”. And the latest transformation to illicit gasps is Denise Richards’ “restoration”…

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In today’s letter we’re taking the temperature of a new fashion brand from a 12-year-old nepo baby, the book making women rethink their marriages, a 16-year-old superstar, death conspiracies, Meghan and Harry’s next move, the mainstreaming of HSTikkyTokky, reta’s rise, Clavicular’s streaming marathon and much more.

Going viral

My post on Threads… of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos being “brutally frame mogged” by Nicole Kidman at the Vanity Fair Oscars party.

I always underestimate how much people loathe Jeff and Lauren, but this Page Six video of Kidman upstaging the couple as they posed for photographs got over nine million views. Wild!

I stand by the fact that the footage is the best visual example I’ve ever seen of mogging for those who are struggling to wrap their head around the term that comes from the sad and strange world of looksmaxxers.

Speaking of which…

Clavicular’s live-streaming marathon… As predicted the looksmaxxing influencer is everywhere. Twitter/X is flooded with clips of him partying with girls and beefing with other influencers as he streams non stop for 30 days on Kick.

After watching hours of his output, alongside hundreds of thousands of others, the most alarming part of his broadcasts are the segments he’s doing with young fans who dial into the stream to get his looksmaxxing advice.

Clavicular is telling them to:

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But in his latest film for Netflix, Theroux was up against subjects whose male supremacy hustle is so well drilled, it was almost impossible for him to land a clean blow.

From the get-go creators like Harrison Sullivan (known online as HSTikkyTokky), Ed Matthews, Justin Waller, Myron Gaines and Sneako had their guards up. And the film’s climax even sees Mr TikkyTokky turn the tables on Theroux and perform his own ‘expose’.

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