Tech
As the Right Leans Into ‘Warrior’ Culture, Some Leftist Gym Bros Are Pushing Back
Last week, “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth called America’s troops fat. Every “warrior,” he said, will now be required to train every duty day and pass fitness tests twice a year. “Frankly, it’s tiring to look out at combat formations … and see fat troops. Likewise it’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon.”
Equating physical appearance with battle-ready fortitude has become a consistent talking point for Hegseth and other Republicans in his orbit. In August, Hegseth and US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. launched the “Pete and Bobby Challenge” across their social media feeds, completing a workout of 100 pushups and 50 pull-ups, with the goal of finishing in under five minutes. (Within hours of its publication, left-wing accounts began making fun of Kennedy’s pull-up form and questioning his decision to wear denim while exercising.)
After the young male vote flipped toward Trump by almost 30 points in the last election, the fight for their attention has taken center stage in the US political culture war. Both parties are vying for the male half of the most fitness-obsessed generation in recent memory.
Though there is nothing inherently right-wing about lifting weights, fitness influencers have been at the forefront of the rightward shift of young men in recent years; exercise content represents a key bloc of the so-called manosphere. However, a small but rapidly growing subset of progressive gym bros are moving into the online fitness space, and influential figures on the left are taking notice.
Colin Davis, a 24-year-old from North Carolina, is one of those men. In a series of videos shared to TikTok and Instagram, Davis flexes under dim lighting that accentuates his massive biceps and showcases dumbbell bench presses to heavy metal music. He also posts about his leftist beliefs.
“You don’t need a side hustle, you need a union,” Davis captions one video that has almost 60,000 likes. In a TikTok post that has been liked over 187,000 times, he discusses the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and the value of political protest, while leaning on a squat rack
Davis first went viral in April when he published a video of himself seated in a lawn chair in the middle of the woods, ridiculing the “warrior” culture that has grown to dominate much of the male-oriented fitness space. “You are not a warrior, you are not a protector, you are not defending your homeland. You are a guy that lifts weights a couple times a week and maybe goes for a run,” he says, staring into the camera deadpan.
Though the aesthetic similarities can be undeniable, Davis’ content is a stark departure from the deluge of “trad” fitness that inundates many young men’s Instagram and TikTok feeds. Those often include compilation videos of men flexing their muscles, cut between clips that ridicule partying women, body-positivity influencers, and gay men. “Embrace Masculinity,” one such video emblazons across the center of the screen.
Tech
Snag a Feature-Packed Gaming Headset for Under $100
Looking for a wallet-friendly gaming headset with big feature support? The Corsair Void Wireless V2 is currently marked down to just $80 at both Best Buy and Amazon, a healthy $50 discount from its usual retail price. This lightweight yet capable gaming headset was already a great buy before the discount, with wide compatibility and a comfortable design built for long grinds.
It’s one of the more comfortable gaming headsets I’ve had the opportunity to review, thanks to a combination of its super lightweight build and breathable mesh ear cups, and it even fits my oversized noggin. Because there’s no active noise canceling, it has a much more open and natural sound profile, which is nice for anyone who needs to remain aware of their surroundings while deep in a round of Arc Raiders.
One of the big selling points is Dolby Atmos, a spatial audio implementation that’s fairly uncommon at this price point, and basically unheard of at the marked down price. It’s only supported in a handful of games, but even without it the headset has great spatial audio support that I found particularly good for games like Satisfactory, where it’s more of an immersive addition than a mechanical benefit.
Where a lot of headsets will lock you down to one or two consoles, the Corsair Void Wireless V2 is happy to work with a wide variety of systems, thanks to both Bluetooth and low-latency 2.4 GHz via the USB dongle. That means you can game on PC, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and even iOS/Android for mobile gaming. With a claimed battery life of up to 70 hours in ideal conditions, you won’t need to worry about charging often, although I’m not sure the mesh ear cups would be great for a long flight.
While the Corsair Void Wireless V2 is featured in our best gaming headsets roundup, other headsets undercut it at the same price point. With the discount, I’m very happy to recommend the Corsair over some of the other picks, particularly if you have a bigger head or prefer a less isolating experience than what some of the other headsets provide.
Tech
We Found the Best Travel Cameras You’ll Actually Use on Vacation
If I were buying a camera today, this is the body I would get, travel or otherwise. The A7C R is one of the smallest full-frame, interchangeable-lens cameras on the market. This is why it’s our top pick for travelers in our guide to the Best Mirrorless Cameras. The 61-MP sensor offers amazing detail and very good dynamic range (14.7 EV). The super fast autofocus system is among the best you’ll find in mirrorless camera, and there’s great subject tracking as well, making it perfect for shooting fast-moving scenes on the go.
While Sony’s R series cameras are mainly for high resolution still images, the video specs here are solid enough for the casual video user, with support for 4K/60 fps video in full-frame mode (1.2X crop) or oversampled 4K/30 fps video. Both support 10-bit 4:2 color depth, various Log formats, and even 16-bit RAW output to an external recorder.
My main gripe about the A7C R is the same as it was in my initial review. The viewfinder is cramped and low-resolution (2.36 million dots). It’s not a deal breaker for me, but it’s something to keep in mind and good reason to rent a camera before you invest.
The big question with this camera is, which lens do you pair it with for travel? There’s a compelling argument to be made for the Sony FE 24-105-mm f/4 G ($1,398), which gives you everything from wide to portrait with a little bit of extra reach as well. Another great option if you like primes is the Sony 40-mm f2.5 G ($798), which makes for a compact kit, and 40-mm is a surprisingly great focal length for travel in my experience.
★ Alternative: At $2,198, Sony’s A7C II (note, no R) is a bit cheaper. It uses Sony’s smaller 33-MP sensor but is otherwise very close in size and capabilities, with considerably more video chops than the A7C R. If you want to make videos as well as stills, the A7C II is a better choice.
Tech
Business leaders see AI risks and fraud outpacing ransomware, says WEF | Computer Weekly
Midway through a decade that is coming to be defined by the runaway acceleration of technological change, the threat of ransomware attacks seems to be dropping down the agenda in boardrooms around the world, with C-suite executives more concerned about growing risks arising from artificial intelligence (AI) vulnerabilities, cyber-enabled fraud and phishing attacks, disruption to supply chains, and exploitation of software vulnerabilities.
This is according to the fifth annual World Economic Forum (WEF) Global cybersecurity outlook report, based on a survey of 804 participants from 92 countries, including 316 chief information security officers (CISOs), 105 CEOs and 123 other C-suite executives such as chief risk or technology officers, conducted between August and September 2025, as well as workshop discussions and short polls conducted around the forum’s Global Future Councils and Cybersecurity meeting.
A total of 87% of these respondents believed risks from AI increased in the past year, compared with 13% who were neutral on the subject. Approximately 77% saw risks from fraud and phishing on the rise; 66% talked about supply chain disruption; and 58% identified vulnerability exploitation as a growing threat.
However, when it came to ransomware, just 54% saw rising risk levels, compared with 39% who expressed a neutral opinion, while the remainder of the respondents, approximately 7%, said the risk from ransomware actually decreased in 2025.
“Cyber security risk in 2026 is accelerating, fuelled by advances in AI, deepening geopolitical fragmentation and the complexity of supply chains,” wrote WEF managing director Jeremy Jurgens in the report’s preamble.
“These shifts are compounded by the enduring sovereignty dilemma and widespread cyber inequity, two factors that expose systemic vulnerabilities. The result is a threat environment where the speed and scale of attacks are testing the limits of traditional defences.”
AI risk factors
Digging deeper into some of the risk factors arising from AI, the C-suite said that data leaks, followed by advancing adversarial capabilities, were the most pressing concerns, followed by the technical security of AI systems, increasingly complex governance, legal risks around intellectual property and liability, and software supply chain and code development concerns.
Notably, the top two concerns swapped places in the 2026 report compared with last year – with 34% most concerned about data exposure this year compared with 22% in 2025, while the percentage of those most concerned about adversarial capabilities fell from 47% last year to 29% this year.
This likely reflects a changing, potentially maturing, attitude to AI risk, and the WEF said it was looking to a “turning point” in the AI risk landscape this year.
It said that even though the AI arms race between defenders and attackers shows no signs of slowing, attention is pivoting from “offensive innovation” towards less noisy – but arguably more dangerous – factors.
Some of the other data points in the report also appear to bear this out, with C-suite executives doubling down on structured processes and governance models to better manage AI.
Quoted in the report, Josephine Teo, Singapore’s minister for digital development and information and minister-in-charge of the country’s Cyber Security Agency and Smart Nation Group, said: “Developments in AI are reshaping multiple domains, including cyber security. Implemented well, these technologies can assist and support human operators in detecting, defending and responding to cyber threats.
“However, they can also pose serious risks such as data leaks, cyber attacks and online harms if they malfunction, or are misused.”
Teo urged a more forward-looking, practical and collaborative approach to the safe development and use of rapidly evolving tech such as AI.
“The risks transcend borders, and the challenge is to maximise AI’s benefits, including to strengthen our cyber resilience, while minimising its risks,” she said.
Ransomware still a live threat
However, despite the headline risks detailed in the WEF’s report, the ransomware threat has not gone away – as demonstrated by many of the most well-documented cyber attacks to have taken place in 2025, most of which were still ultimately driven by extortion.
Indeed, among those who identified as CISOs, ransomware remained the leading risk concern. While CEOs concern themselves more with broader business impacts of cyber crime, CISOs are understandably consumed by the operational disruption a successful ransomware attack can cause.
This may go some way to explaining the elevated concerns over cyber fraud revealed by the WEF’s data.
A total of 77% of respondents said they had seen an increase in cyber-enabled fraud and phishing, and 72% revealed that either they themselves or someone in their professional or personal networks had been affected by it – the most common forms of attack reported were phishing, payment fraud and identity theft.
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