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The Interface is your weekly guide to the tech rewiring your week and your world. Hosted by journalists Thomas Germain, Nicky Woolf, and Karen Hao, each episode unpacks, week by week, how technology is shaping all our futures. No guests. No jargon. Just three sharp voices debating the stories that matter - whether they shook a government, broke the internet, or quietly tipped the balance of power.

In this episode, Tom and Nicky head deep into the TikTok Farlands - the semi mythical place you supposedly reach if you scroll too far, too late, until your feed stops looking normal and starts serving up surreal, eerie and deeply unhinged videos. The name comes from Minecraft’s Far Lands, the glitched edge of the map where the world used to break apart, and TikTok users have borrowed it to describe the “end of the algorithm”: a strange zone of distorted edits, ominous warnings, weirdcore imagery and recurring figures like the now iconic fat bee playing the violin. TikTok’s Farlands have become a shorthand for what happens when doomscrolling tips into digital folklore.

But the Farlands aren’t just a joke. Tom and Nicky ask what this trend says about internet culture now. In a platform ecosystem dominated by polish, branding and optimisation, the Farlands feel like the return of an older internet: raw, surreal, handmade and proudly bizarre. At the same time, the meme also works as a critique of doomscrolling itself — turning algorithmic exhaustion into shared mythology, and making people newly conscious of how deep into the feed they’ve wandered.

So in this episode, we ask: is the TikTok Farlands a genuine return of weird, creative internet culture — or just another algorithmic genre?

Also in this episode: Karen looks at how AI detection tools may be changing the way we all write. As detectors spread through schools, publishing and professional life, students, teachers and writers are increasingly shaping their prose around what software might flag - dropping stylistic quirks, sanding off rhythm, and checking their own work in advance for fear of a false accusation. Researchers say the central problem is not just whether detectors catch AI, but how they balance false positives and false negatives in high stakes settings. And with a growing parallel market of “humanizer” tools promising to make AI text sound more human - and pass detection - the result may be an arms race that leaves everyone writing in a flatter, safer and more paranoid style.

To hear more, search The Interface wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

The two crew members of a US army helicopter that crashed near the Strait of Hormuz were rescued by an American sea drone, say US officials. It was the first such operation carried out by US forces, the officials added.

Also on the programme: Iran's ticket allocation for its team's World Cup games in the US is cancelled; and the trial opens in Paris over a Europe-wide scheme to steal Russian literary classics.

(Photo: AH-64 Apache helicopters are American-made twin-turboshaft attack aircraft Credit: Getty Images)

The UK competition watchdog started the investigation into Paramount Skydance's $110bn takeover of Warner Bros Discovery. We ask the former CMA director how will it affect the deal?

Also, why is Switzerland going to restrict the number of the population in the country?

And we look into one of the most successful IPO - SpaceX.

Police and politicians in Belfast have called for calm after violent protests took place across the city. It comes as a man has been charged with attempted murder over a knife attack on Monday night. Police described the alleged attacker as a Sudanese man, who the Home Office said entered the UK in 2023 and was granted refugee status. We hear more about the social and political context of tonight's unrest.

Also on the programme: we get reaction from the GMB Union to the Defence Secretary's pledge to buy British and find out why an American actor decided to learn Welsh to appear on the BBC's longest running TV soap.

Helen gets a call from Jack’s school about an accusation of bad behaviour. Helen then tells Jakob she promised Kirsty she’d go to her pre-natal scan and tests this afternoon, but the school are insisting Helen goes in. Jakob offers to take Kirsty instead. At the hospital Kirsty confesses to feeling more than anxious, before Jakob agrees to film the scan on Erik’s behalf. Otherwise, his attempts to help Kirsty relax are typically misguided. Driving back, they reflect on a clear scan, but Kirsty will have to wait for the test results. Kirsty then thanks Jakob for saving her day.

While eating lunch in the garden Tracy tells Jazzer about Pat and Tony’s concerns over her not accepting Helen’s offer. She insists she likes working in the Dairy, though she prefers The Bull. But Helen keeps pushing her for an answer – and now she’s moved in next door as well. Jazzer reckons the real reason for Tracy’s hesitation is Bert. Later, Helen fumes over the fence to Tracy about the accusation made against Jack. Helen doesn’t have much faith in the deputy head, especially in light of a recent poor Ofsted report, then tells Tracy she needs an answer about the job by Thursday. Jazzer pushes Tracy to admit she’s done more than her fair share of looking after Bert, before Tracy declares she loves him and misses having him around. If she takes the job she’d be admitting he’s not coming back. Jazzer forces the issue and Tracy agrees, if Bert says he wants to stay at Clive’s then she’ll accept Helen’s offer.

The Israeli military has carried out strikes on the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, a day after Iran called for attacks on Lebanon to stop. Thousands of people have fled the city. Also: medical sources say Taliban forces in western Afghanistan have killed two people demonstrating against the detention of women who'd ignored religious dress codes; Honduras approves a series of reforms to tackle the high rate of femicide in the country; rescuers in the Philippines are working to reach isolated areas after an earthquake struck Mindanao; a BBC investigation reveals hundreds of Iraqi migrants were kidnapped and threatened with forced organ removal in Libya; and Japanese wildlife officials have caught a bear that had been roaming a city, causing widespread school closures.

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Photo: Smoke billows following an Israeli strike in Tyre, Lebanon

Credit: Reuters

At least 360 abductees were rescued by the Nigerian army from an enclave linked to a terrorist group in northeastern Borno State. Most of them being women and children. While the Nigerian Army says the rescue followed weeks of planning and intelligence-led operations that achieved "complete tactical surprise," overwhelming the terrorists and forcing them to abandon their positions and flee into the surrounding mountainous terrain, a different account has emerged. A local group, the Borno South Youth Alliance (BOSAYA) says that it facilitated the unconditional release of the abductees and had been in contact with the militants, while online conversations speculate negotiations and possible ransom. We hear from a security expert.

And a Rwandan genocide survivor Sabin Nkusi shares how her experiences have driven her commitment to supporting survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.

Presenter: Nkechi Ogbonna

Producers: Ayuba Iliya and Blessing Aderogba

Technical Producer: Maxwell Onyango

Senior Producer: Keikantse Shumba

Editors: Charles Gitonga and Maryam Abdalla

Chinese President Xi Jinping has wrapped up a two-day visit to North Korea featuring military honours, public displays of friendship and talks with Kim Jong Un. While few concrete agreements emerged, the trip sends a clear signal that Beijing wants to strengthen its relationship with its isolated neighbour.

Plus, Indonesia's central bank has unexpectedly raised interest rates in an effort to stabilise the rupiah after its sharpest decline in years.

And the race to public markets is accelerating. Just days before SpaceX is expected to begin trading, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has confidentially filed for an initial public offering. We look at what could be one of the most significant listings in the technology sector for years.

Presenter: Leanna Byrne

Producer: David Cann

A BBC investigation has found that more than 300 migrants heading to the UK last summer were kidnapped, tortured and threatened with forced organ removal. The young men, all from Iraqi Kurdistan, were captured in Libya by a militia which demanded a ransom of $5,000 from each of their families. Newshour hears from Libya expert Tim Eaton.

Also in the programme: the chief executive of US Soccer on the coming World Cup, and illegal fishing off the coast of Sierra Leone.

(Photo: Iraqi people smuggler Noah Aaron who is now serving a 10-year jail sentence in France)

DUP leader Gavin Robinson, UUP's Jon Burrows and ALL MLA Nuala McAllister react on Nolan