The Week 1522

What happened Starmer hits back Keir Starmer took a thinly veiled swipe at Elon Musk on Monday by condemning those “spreading lies and misinformation” about grooming gangs. The PM had endured days of attacks from the entrepreneur, who had accused him of failing to tackle the gangs targeting vulnerable young women in towns and cities across England as director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013, and of being“complicit in the rape of Britain”. Starmer defended his record, and that of the safeguarding minister Jess Phillips, whom Musk had branded a “rape genocide apologist”. Before the PM’s comments, several European leaders, including those of France and Norway, had criticised Musk for meddling in other nations’ politics. Musk began his tirade after it emerged that Phillips had declined a request from…

What happened Justin Trudeau bowed to pressure to resign as Canadian PM on Monday, ending his nine-year stint in power in advance of national elections due by October. Speaking at his residence in Ottawa, he said he was suspending parliament until 24 March to give his ruling Liberal Party time to select a new leader. He will remain in office until his replacement has been chosen. The son of Pierre Trudeau, who led Canada from 1968 to 1979 and from 1980 to 1984, Trudeau had swept to power in 2015 as a social media savvy progressive; but his popularity waned, and his poll ratings had recently plummeted, owing to various factors including high inflation and internal rows about how to respond to Donald Trump’s threatened 25% tariff on all Canadian…

Volunteers in Somerset have completed an ambitious project to recreate a 140,000-piece Roman mosaic using traditional tools. The team at Avalon Archaeology, a reproduction village near Glastonbury, spent five years handmaking the tesserae and laying them down in small sections at a time. They followed a mainly geometric pattern that was excavated at Hurcot near Somerton, filling any blank spots with additional details including fish, a dolphin and an elephant. Britain’s longest-serving Royal Mail postman has retired after 60 years. Robert “Rocky” Hudson, from east London, began his career aged 16 in December 1964, as a telegram messenger. He carried out his final shift overnight on 28 December at the Docklands Delivery Office, which he’d joined in the 1980s after his wife died from a brain haemorrhage aged 26. “I…

“Whack! That’s the sound of social care reform once again being hit into the long grass,” said Isabel Hardman in The Spectator. Since the turn of the century, there have been two government commissions, three independent commissions, five white papers and 14 parliamentary inquiries into social care reform and how to fund it. Labour, back in charge after 14 years in opposition, promised action at last – the creation of a “National Care Service” no less. So what’s its big idea, unveiled last week? It’s yet another review. Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, has tasked the cross-bench peer Louise Casey with delivering interim findings by 2026, followed by a full report in 2028 setting out a long-term plan, including on funding. Instead of setting out solutions, said The Guardian, Labour…

The rise of “romantasy” fiction – aka “fairy porn” – has been confirmed by news that Spotify’s top audiobook last year was Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses, about a 19-year-old who visits a land of fairies (sample sentence: “I locked my legs around his back, careful of the wings”). An app for book lovers has removed its AI-powered end-of-year “wrap” feature, after it challenged users’ taste in books. One was told that they were clearly a “diversity devotee”, and asked if they were “ever in the mood for a straight, cis white man’s perspective”. Another was told that their taste for romantic fiction had “set the bar for my cringe-meter”, while a third was advised not to forget “to surface for the occasional white author”.…

Demi Moore, who won a Golden Globe for her comeback performance in the body horror film The Substance. Collecting the award, the first major gong of her career, the 62-year-old said that she had been told early on that she was a “popcorn actress” – one who will star in box office hits, but never win critical acclaim. Gavin and Stacey, after the finale of the BBC comedy – a Christmas Day special – was the most watched scripted TV show for more than 20 years. Some 12.3 million people tuned in on the night; seven million more watched on iPlayer. Ageing rockers, with figures showing that 12 of the 20 highest earning gigs and tours by UK and Irish artists last year were by over-60s, including The Rolling Stones,…