I don’t know about you, but last week in the newsroom had many of us pinching ourselves to check we weren’t dreaming or hallucinating, or simply living in an alternative universe.

Trump’s AI Jesus picture being a case in point. What was he thinking? Was he thinking? Who on earth knows what goes on in the head of a world leader who pictures himself dressed in robes healing the sick? Alan Rusbridger posits that while he was worried about Trump’s mental decline before, last week’s bizarre behaviour and brazen narcissism are all signs that Trump is positively unhinged. While Charlotte Cripps says the devil is in the detail as she looks at why a satanic goat figure appeared in the picture and what it all could mean.

World affairs editor Sam Kiley takes a different tack and says the picture is the biggest sign yet not of Trump’s madness, but the president’s belief in absolute power and impunity. And from Kiley’s vast experience in the field, when a president claims he is ordained by the Almighty, the pattern is pretty set. There may be blood.

Where that blood could be spilled is anyone’s guess. Former Nato chief Lord Robertson warned last week that we are wholly unprepared for a conflict which is edging ever closer to our shores. Should we be worried? Chris Blackhurst thinks so. After talking to a former military leader who is now in charge of an AI-driven formula being used to predict major events, he discovers the terrifying odds on how close the UK is to being involved in a world war before the year 2030. 

Closer to home, a quieter crisis: hundreds of thousands of GCSE students could miss out on their exams and grades this year, a shift that could reshape the education system in ways we’re only beginning to understand. But, as Chloe Combi explains, this isn’t just about school refusal and pupils being expelled, there is also a growing anti-exam movement, where pupils and their parents see themselves as taking a stand and not participating in a system they don’t agree with. It is fascinating stuff, I’d urge you to read her report here. 

Elsewhere, we have senior fitness writer Harry Bullmore’s brilliant insights into a 15-year study that has tracked women through midlife and has discovered the one simple habit change that could lead to longer and healthier lives, and a scientist's new theory on why fat loss is so difficult – and what might actually work. 

Meanwhile, Hannah Fearn examines why Generation X who should be in the prime of their working lives, are in such a financial mess. Perhaps this is why fifty-somethings like Helen Down are back raving like they did as twenty-somethings in the 90s. But why do the older blokes get a pass, while the women get called tragic? They are anything but, Helen says, and science proves it. Apparently.

See you on the dance floor!

Victoria Harper
Executive Editor, The Independent

In the past week alone, the US president has depicted himself as Jesus and picked a row with the Pope. All the signs are that Trump is positively unhinged, writes Alan Rusbridger

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