In the headlines

Benjamin Netanyahu has suggested a ground operation would be needed to overthrow the Iranian regime, saying Israel is still "working to create the conditions" for the collapse of the Islamic Republic. The Israeli prime minister also said he would "hold off" on attacking Iranian gas fields following a request from Donald Trump. Kemi Badenoch has backed her shadow justice minister, Nick Timothy, for describing an Islamic prayer event in Trafalgar Square on Monday as "an act of domination". The Tory leader said the Ramadan event, which has also been criticised by Nigel Farage, had been "exclusionary" and that women attendees had been "pushed to the back". Labour has called Timothy's remarks "abhorrent". London's Natural History Museum has been crowned the country's most popular tourist attraction for the first time, with visitor numbers last year rising 13% to a record 7.1 million. The free attraction in South Kensington was comfortably ahead of the British Museum (6.4 million), Windsor's Great Park (4.9 million) and Tate Modern (4.5 million), and the second-most popular museum worldwide after the Louvre.

Comment

Louis Theroux with the influencer HSTikkyTokky. Netflix

Are young men becoming more misogynistic?

When I was growing up in the early 2000s, says Josh Kaplan in The Free Press, parents sincerely believed that "heavy metal music inspired Satan worship" and that violent video games like Grand Theft Auto would encourage hordes of young men to become "philanderers, drug dealers and cop killers". A few decades on, research has found not only that video games are good for mental health, but that there is also a negative correlation between the boys who played GTA and their propensity to commit crimes. Kids, it turned out, were able to play these games and listen to these songs and understand that it wasn't real life. Two decades on, the same is surely true of the hated "manosphere".

In the past few years there has been growing alarm over the malign influence of social media influencers with extreme, repugnant, misogynistic views. Louis Theroux has a new documentary about it, and last year the entirely made-up Netflix show Adolescence became a kind of clarion call to people who appeared to believe that previously nice young boys were routinely murdering their female classmates because of Andrew Tate. Such was the hysteria, parliament convened an inquiry within weeks. (Compare that to the 20 years it took to get an inquiry into the vast rape gangs scandal.) Here's the thing: Tate and co are obviously ghastly, but the idea that they are perverting the minds of the young is simply false. Gen Z boys and men have more progressive views on gender than their older peers. Misogynistic violence has not risen; sexual assaults in the US have halved in the past 20 years. Boys know an idiot when they see one. What if the thing that's really fuelling Tate is everyone else's outrage?

Advertisement

Noted

Since the English designer Jony Ive stepped down as Apple's design chief in 2019, says Nat Barker in Dezeen, he has brought his "pared-back, detail-obsessive" approach to an amazing variety of projects. They include a new rostrum for the luxury auction house Christie's; the interiors of Ferrari's first electric car; a Moncler jacket that uses magnetic technology to change from being a parka to a poncho; the official emblem of King Charles's coronation; the 2023 Comic Relief red nose; and a ring made from a single enormous lab-grown diamond, which sold for a whopping $256,250. To see more, click the image.

This is NOT a free issue

We usually send you one full free edition a week, to remind you of just how brilliant The Knowledge is. But not this week. Not that many people seem to sign up on free days, which obviously rather defeats the point of giving it to you gratis.

We know you love The Knowledge – you wouldn't be reading this message if you didn't. And we know you'd get so much more from it by taking out a paid subscription. More interesting and surprising views you wouldn't find in your normal reading. More juicy gossip and funny anecdotes. More wit and humour than you'd find in a lifetime of mindlessly scrolling through BBC News.

So please, if you can afford it, take out a subscription today. It's just £4 a month for the first year or £40 for an annual subscription – the equivalent of 80p a week. You'll go back to enjoying the full newsletter every single day. No more counting down the days until your one free weekly edition.

Click here to subscribe

Let us know what you thought of today's issue by replying to this email
To find out about advertising and partnerships, click here
Been forwarded this newsletter? Try it for free
Enjoying The Knowledge? Click to share