Starmer pushes a UK-led peace plan on Gaza, urging Trump to act but he's still withholding recognition of Palestine. Delay is costing lives. This caution may win votes, but it isn't feeding the starving.

The Lionesses have done it again. A comeback, extra-time tension, and a nerve-wracking penalty shootout to defend their Euro title. It wasn’t just a win, it was history made with grit, grace and absolute steel. We’ll be talking about this one for years!

The UN's top court has ruled that failing to act on climate change may violate international law, affirming a sustainable environment as a human right. Though nonbinding, the ICJ opinion strengthens the legal ground for climate action and future claims.

Portugal just became the first European country to offer paid menstrual leave specifically for those diagnosed with endometriosis or adenomyosis - up to 3 days a month, fully paid. It's a landmark recognition of chronic pain that's long been sidelined. A feminist win in policy form.

Lovely few evenings this week; first attending Breeze Barrington's book launch on Wednesday for her debut 'The Graces' which looks delightful, and catching up with friends too! Last night I was back to @thetroubleclub.bsky.social for an interview with the v. interesting 'Black Widow' Linda Calvey!

Another morning thought: everyone seems politically exhausted, but the elections keep coming (and disappointing?). Democracy is starting to feel less like hope and more like admin, which has us wondering, maybe the real threat isn't extremism but the collective shrug society gives politics now.

Ghislaine Maxwell has reportedly offered to testify before Congress about Epstein's sex trafficking operation. If true, this could mark a significant moment in the pursuit of accountability, but will Congress accept? What might this testimony mean for justice and transparency?

Reading the news as normal this morning, and started wondering, is disengagement from politics always apathy - or just a form of self-defence? I'm asking because the news feels like a psychological experiment lately.

Iga Świațek just dropped a double bagel in the Wimbledon final - the first since 1911!! Anisimova fought her way to her first Slam final and still walks away a star. Princess Kate handing over the trophy? A moment. Wimbledon really gave us a weekend to remember.

Another morning thought on behalf of the Trouble team: this time, 'weaponised incompetence'. Why does it hit such a nerve? Maybe because patriarchy isn't always loud, sometimes its just pretending not to know how the washing machine works...

Chloe Cheung at Trouble (08/07): "This is the point where I woke up and I changed. Because of the unfairness and the injustice that I witnessed [...] I don't want to step back, that is what they want".

Chloe Cheung at Trouble (08/07): "We are just human beings, we are not metal, we cannot just let police shoot at us [...] I was really mad that what I had been learning at school was fake; I really thought that I was going to a peaceful protest".

Chloe Cheung at Trouble (08/07): "As a Hong Konger, I grew up in Hong Kong, I had a responsibility and a duty to the country that I love ... it's not just about my life, it's about everyone's lives".

Nearly 350 people have died waiting for justice in the Post Office scandal. The inquiry's first report lands today, laying bare the scale of harm. Compensation has slowed to its lowest point this year and justice still appears to be years off.

I've been thinking this morning about 'Girl Dinner'. When is it that a trend stops being cute and starts being dystopian? 'Girl Dinner' is back, but in a cost of living crisis, or indeed, issues of increasing body image - is this just romanticising hunger? Food for thought…

Not guilty of sex trafficking or racketeering, says the jury. But guilty of transporting women for prostitution, says the same jury. Diddy walks away from the big charges with a mixed verdict that leaves heavy questions hanging.

Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' just squeezed through the Senate: tax cuts for the rich, work requirements for the poor, and a swipe at Planned Parenthood. Austerity with a spray tan apparently.

Following the UK Supreme Court's ruling that 'woman' refers to biological sex in law, trans advocacy groups have appealed to the Council of Europe to investigate potential human rights violations. Should legal clarity come at the cost of lived experience? Who gets to define what counts as a right?

SuperAI tried to hype “gritty deployment” in Singapore. St Petersburg Forum has us asking who’s not at the economic table. NATO set a 3.5% defense GDP goal by 2035. The EU debates the Green Deal. Everyone wants “solutions,” but the data-driven future still feels like spreadsheets without maps.

This week has seen both International Women in Engineering Day and Women in Diplomacy Day: Women are solving global crises and fixing the structural ones. Designing systems, breaking silences, building peace - shout out to the women making the world run!

The latest UN Women report reveals a concerning global decline in women's political leadership. Fewer women in cabinet roles, more nations with no women ministers. This regression is partly due to a backlash and violence effectively pushing women out of politics. We need to pay attention!

The US bombing of Iranian nuclear sites marks an alarming escalation. We are concerned abut the significant risk for Iranian people, and the deeply unsettling implications that may follow for international relations and regional stability.

The US Supreme Court upheld Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for minors yesterday: a 6-3 decision that lets 24 similar state laws stand. It's a sharp turn away from protecting trans youth. Some legal routes remain, but this narrow them. It's a sobering moment for trans healthcare access.

The UK are moving to decriminalise abortion after 24 weeks - a long overdue change. This will not affect most abortions, but it does mean that women in complex, often devastating situations won't face the threat of prosecution. A step toward treating reproductive health with the care it deserves?

Katie Piper at Trouble: "For a lot of people, my story wasn't over until I got married [...] My husband is an amazing man, but he didn't save me. My story would have still had a happy ending if I hadn't married".

Katie Piper at Trouble (08/06): "We all bear scars. Sometimes it's the invisible scars that are the hardest to carry and heal. And even when we do heal, the scab will fall off".

Katie Piper at Trouble (08/06): "I think when something is visual, people want to make that your identity. It's up to us to decide how people will perceive us".

Historic moment : Blaise Metreweli becomes the first woman to lead MI6. A significant milestone, breaking the barriers while inheriting serious geopolitical challenges. The timing couldn't be more critical. We're curious to see how this leadership shapes UK intelligence strategy moving forward.

Trump and Musk's feud is unfolding like boys throwing toys out of the pram - only the toys are billion-dollar contracts and political futures. One sulks, the other plots a centrist party. We're seeing power, egos, and a total absence of adult supervision. American politics as a playpen?

The Dutch government has collapsed after less than a year in power. Wilders withdrew from the coalition over disagreements on immigration policy. As the Netherlands heads toward another election, we should ask questions about coalition stability, political direction, and the far right in Europe.

Dr Charlotte Proudman at Trouble (03/06): "It is about control and when a victim leaves an abusive relationship with a child, the control within the relationship ends. It then continues through a different medium in the courts".

Dr Charlotte Proudman at Trouble (03/06): "Very quickly the illusion of the law changed for me, and I really started to see it for what it was, and how broken it was [...] one of the biggest issues is the actors within it".

Emma Gannon at Trouble (03/06): "This need to insert yourself into the discussion - if someone is single, maybe just let them be. We don't need to 'solve' anything".

Emma Gannon at Trouble (03/06): "She thought if she had the LinkedIn bio and the perfect Instagram, it didn't matter if she went to bed feeling empty inside [...] I want to work out what it is making us all miserable!"

An absolutely empowering evening last night with @drproudman.bsky.social at @thetroubleclub.bsky.social. Thank you Charlotte and The Trouble Club for everything you do. It was brilliant to say Hi and get my copy of ‘He Said She said’ signed.

Harvey Weinstein won't be testifying in his NY retrial, as closing arguments begin. The case raises sharp questions about legal strategy, survivor testimony, and how justice systems handle power and abuse. This outcome is likely to reshape the landscape of accountability after the #MeToo movement.

Last week’s ASEAN-GCC summit in Malaysia focused on strengthening trade, energy, and investment ties, reflecting a deepening of South-South cooperation. It offers new opportunities for economic and diplomatic collaboration between Southeast Asia and the Gulf - a development worth keeping an eye on.

The EHRC faces growing concern over delays in publishing gender guidance after the Supreme Court ruling on the definition of 'woman'. With uncertainty affecting both public bodies and trans individuals, MPs are urging clear and timely action before November, but will this actually happen?

Georgina Sturge at Trouble (28/05): "This is what is strange to me about the time we live in. There is a phenomenon now about falling response rates to surveys [...] response rates have fallen so low that it is barely usable anymore".

Georgina Sturge at Trouble (28/05), regarding census: "This moment of actively consenting to being governed by people [...] people quite like to make their mark. Removing that, what else do you have to check the health of your democracy?"

Georgina Sturge at Trouble (28/05): "What is fascinating about all of this data is that we still have such rich, ground-level data about the way people lived at the time [...] if nobody had taken the time to go out and get that information, they would have been totally and completely unseen".

Margaret Atwood's 'The Testaments' is coming to TV, promising a sharper, interior look at Gilead's machinery of power. Where 'The Handmaid's Tale' has been criticised for straining dystopia's limits, the sequel may exposure the moral ambiguities of survival, complicity, and resistance from within.

'Unsilenced' at the Imperial War Museum is the UK's first major exhibition on sexual violence in conflict, tracing how it's used as a weapon of war. Featuring testimonies, artefacts, and stories from WWII to today, it confronts, the brutal realities too often ignored. www.iwm.org.uk/events/unsil...

A brain-dead woman in Georgia is being kept on life support because she is pregnant. Her family wanted to say goodbye but the doctors said no - the law won't allow it. Is this what happens when reproductive rights are stripped away? Choice, dignity, grief, are no longer your own.

Ramaphosa, like Zelensky before him, arrived in the US seeking serious dialogue. Trump, instead, hijacked the meeting with a discredited 'white genocide' video. Another leader forced to navigate spectacle over substance, and another reminder of how Trump does diplomacy...

Sarah Hoover at Trouble (19/05): "The minute I started sharing my truth I started feeling so much lighter and more me. I wanted to encourage other people to do the same".

Sarah Hoover at Trouble (19/05): "I thought about writing this as fiction [...] but I didn't want to publish something that someone could call fake".

Jess Davies at Trouble (20/05): "It is awful that women have to put their trauma on display for government to do anything about it [...] it means that you have to put yourself on display and open yourself up to abuse".

Jess Davies at Trouble (20/05): "There is just a general sense of entitlement over women's bodies that has travelled across onto the online world [...] it gives men an anonymity".

Jess Davies at Trouble (20/05): "I wasn't allowed to be a girl anymore, I'm at a woman, I am viewed through this lens. It overtook the way that I viewed myself".