Staying single. Our next obsession after Dua Lipa: Emily Ratajkowski. She just signed a seven-figure book deal with Penguin. Real fans know how it began; in June, with that unhinged essay about her sex life as a divorced single mom. More horrors are coming via her book (men who are into incest, who can’t stop sending nudes, who get turned on by demeaning their partners). If Emily, a supermodel and actor, can’t get a date, what hope is there for us normies?
Event Context
Spinning fictions. Gracie Abrams, whose music only fits in Sad Girl playlists, has said that her safe, stable relationship with Paul Mescal is affecting her moody songwriting aura. OK. But isn’t her dad JJ Abrams, who made Lost, and Star Trek and Star Wars movies? Didn’t he teach her about using her imagination? Why blame a green-flag partner for your inability to create art?
In the pink. In Finland, the supermarket is the dating market. Singles can subtly signal their status to other shoppers by browsing with a pink basket instead of the grey ones. Funny. We thought adding instant noodles, two bananas and wasabi peas were enough hints already. Let’s hope the baskets do what the contents didn’t.
Player Focus
Seeing double. Norway’s Erling Haaland saved the internet in World Cup season. Here’s our fav tidbit: His doppleganger is a 24-year-old model and former pro-tennis player from Russia. Oh, and she’s a woman. Anastasia Kostromitina has been making the most of it with photoshoots, endorsements and Reels recreating Haaland’s goofy poses. This is the future liberals want.
Cooling off. Another ridiculously easy recipe is going viral on TikTok. Take half a frozen watermelon, pour milk or heavy cream into the centre, stir, scrape, stir – and you get ice-cream. No churning, equipment or life skills needed. It’s so low-effort, we’re miffed. Where was this idea when India was melting in May? At least, when it gets hot again, we’ll have something new to try.
Peaking quickly. Mountain climbers are probably feeling FOMO. In Ecuador, a Unitree G1 humanoid robot climbed over 6,000 metres to the country’s tallest peak, Chimborazo, as part of an endurance test. Good. Now, let’s put humanoids on Enfields and send them on trips to Ladakh. They’re not noisy, not creepy. They won’t litter. That’s already a step up from the average Indian biker. These bots are the tech bros we need.
Oat-milking this. Our fav snarky coffee-shop baristas, Thyme and Cale, squared off with our all-time fav: Padma Lakshmi. Aunty Saffron visited the over-woke Brooklyn Coffee Shop (@BKCoffeeShop), ordered a “white truffle acacia blossom latte with smoked salt and gold dust” and triggered Thyme with references to her upcoming environmentally unfriendly trip. It’s the first time we’ve seen Thyme’s judgy facade crack.
From HT Brunch, July 18, 2026
Follow us on www.instagram.com/htbrunch
source
Listening in. If Olivia Rodrigo gets an Album of the Year Grammy nomination for You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love, we’ll be thrilled. But we’ll start calculating. Only three artists in history have had their first three albums all nominated for the prize: Kanye West, Lady Gaga and Billie Eilish. Not bad for Rodrigo, who is 60% deaf in one ear. Whoa!
