Table of contents for 1445 in The Week

What happened Wildfires were raging uncontrolled outside Athens this week as the heatwave in southern Europe intensified. Fanned by gale-force winds, the blazes had destroyed countless homes and cars and torn through thousands of acres of tinder-dry woodland by the middle of the week, forcing mass evacuations. Firefighters used water bombers in an effort to save the industrial town of Mandra, and battled overnight to prevent the flames reaching oil refineries near Corinth. In the capital, the Acropolis was temporarily closed to protect staff and visitors. Wildfires also forced the evacuation of thousands of people from their homes on the Canary Island of La Palma, and from mountain villages in the Swiss canton of Valais, among other places. On the Italian island of Sardinia, the mercury hit 45°C, and local…

Many important things happened last week, said John Simpson in The i Paper. The US sent a consignment of cluster bombs to Ukraine. The Nato summit was held in Vilnius. We learnt that Boris Johnson had failed to hand over his WhatsApp messages to the Covid Inquiry because, he claimed, he had forgotten the passcode for his old phone. Yet in Britain, we were transfixed by the sad saga of Huw Edwards. “Another scoop by the Murdoch press, another family horribly damaged, another week when journalists outdid each other in unearthing further sordid details.” While Edwards is in hospital dealing with “serious mental health issues”, The Sun is facing questions over its reporting, said Jim Waterson in The Guardian. Initially, it claimed that Edwards had paid over £35,000 to a…

The Government’s Illegal Migration Bill was finally passed by Parliament this week, and is now set to become law. The legislation, designed to stop small-boat crossings of the Channel, will prevent most people claiming asylum once they are in the UK. Instead, they will be detained and deported, either to their own country or one deemed safe, such as Rwanda. Several amendments, including one to give better protection to victims of modern slavery, were defeated. The Rwanda plan has been ruled illegal, but ministers are appealing to the Supreme Court.…

Tsel, Belarus Wagner on the move: Wagner mercenaries have started arriving in Belarus in large numbers, in accordance with the terms of the deal – brokered by Belarus’s President Lukashenko – that ended their mutiny against Russia’s military leaders in June. Observers said that at least 60 vehicles carrying the fighters have crossed the border from Russia, and that they seemed to be heading for a former military base at Tsel. Poland said it was boosting defences on its border with Belarus. In Russia, efforts to discredit the Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin continued, and a photograph of the once-feared warlord sitting on a bed in his underpants was leaked online. President Putin said that the group no longer existed, and that its “real commander” had always been the former Russian…

1 (Something Inside) So Strong, written and performed by Labi Siffre2 So Good by Martin Brannigan, Keith Duffy, Stephen Gately, Mikey Graham, Ray Hedges, Ronan Keating and Shane Lynch, performed by Boyzone3 Step by Step by Annie Lennox, performed by Whitney Houston4 Sunday Morning by Jesse Carmichael and Adam Levine, performed by Maroon 55* The Climb by Jessi Alexander and Jon Mabe, performed by Miley Cyrus6 My Love is Your Love by Wyclef Jean and Jerry “Wonda” Duplessis, performed by Whitney Houston7 Mysterious Girl by Peter Andre, Ollie Jacobs, Phillip Jacobs, Anthony Wayne, Glen Goldsmith and Bubbler Ranx, performed by Peter Andre8 Sweet Caroline, written and performed by Neil Diamond Book: The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend Luxury: a notebook and pens * Choice if allowed…

In late 2019 and early 2020, a mysterious and severe lung illness linked to vaping caused widespread panic in the US. Patients, often young and in otherwise good health, began reporting to hospital after suffering days of vomiting, fever, fatigue and shortness of breath. Some ended up in intensive care; and by February 2020, America’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention had reported 2,807 cases of lung injuries requiring hospitalisation across all 50 states, and 68 deaths. The illness became known as Evali (e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury). It is thought to have been caused by black-market vape cartridges containing cannabis extracts and substances such as vitamin E oil. In response, the Trump administration announced a nationwide ban on some e-cigarette flavours in the US, where the age…

UNITED STATES Murdoch is not that great at politics Slate (New York City) One of the revelations of the recent lawsuit between Fox News and Dominion, says Ben Mathis-Lilley, was that Rupert Murdoch is not that politically savvy. Emails showed that the media magnate thought Donald Trump would concede to Joe Biden after losing the 2020 election. He later predicted that Trump was finished, owing to his role in inciting the Capitol riot. After being proved wrong on both those counts, Murdoch again underestimated Trump by directing his media outlets to hype the 2024 candidacy of Ron DeSantis. The Florida governor, so the theory went, was “a sanitised version of Trump” who would appeal to Maga Republicans while winning over swing voters with his competence. The flaw with this theory…

A couple of years ago, Mike Colley started to notice problems with his memory and decision-making. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, but he was, he admits, very “fortunate” – because he was one of just a few dozen patients in the UK who were enrolled in a trial for donanemab, a new drug made by Eli Lilly (see page 37); and for him, its effects have been remarkable. His children report that his deterioration appears to have plateaued, and he is “full of life” again – to the extent that at his 80th birthday, he was able to perform a rendition of Sinatra’s My Way. Now the full results of the global trial, involving 1,736 people, are in, says the Daily Mail – and they show that after 76 weeks…

“At the risk of sounding like a humourless old bat,” said Sarah Vine in the Daily Mail, “what is all this Barbie hysteria?” Over the past few weeks we haven’t been able to move for PR guff about “Miss Plastic Fantastic” and her friends, courtesy of a new Hollywood movie starring Margot Robbie as the classic Mattel doll. I thought we’d all agreed long ago that this pernicious figure was “every little girl’s gateway drug to a lifetime of self-loathing”. She’s a “plastic representation of impossible womanhood”, with her fixed grin and absurd proportions: if they “were translated into a real-life woman, she’d only have room for half a liver and a few inches of intestine”. Yet even my clever feminist friends are “breathless” with excitement at the prospect of…

Dele Alli used to be “English football’s golden boy”, said Oliver Kay on The Athletic. A goal-scoring midfielder of extraordinary talent, he was a first-team regular at MK Dons at 16, before securing a move to Tottenham at 19. A year later, he won the PFA Young Player of the Year award; at 22, he was scoring for England in the 2018 World Cup quarter-final. But then, just like that, his form fell off a cliff: he was shipped to Everton, then to Turkey on loan; rumours of a hard-partying lifestyle abounded. For a long time, nobody could explain this sad trajectory, said David Hytner in The Guardian. But in an extraordinary interview with Gary Neville last week, Dele revealed the “mental health nightmare” that he has endured in recent…

To The Times Further to your leading article (“The Times view on improving the senior civil service: The Blob”), in 1977 I was seconded from the private sector to the civil service as a senior principal. During my year-long secondment, I learnt how to be a successful civil servant by following the “golden rules”: on arrival at the office, complete The Times cryptic crossword while supping a cup of tea; never do anything today that can be left until tomorrow; never take a decision that someone else might take – but if it appears you might have to take a decision, then form a committee and so avoid sole responsibility. My recent dealings with civil servants indicate the “golden rules” are still alive and kicking. Reform is overdue. Ian Lindsey,…

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, 1951 (Penguin £9.99). I read this when I was the same age as the hero, Holden Caulfield. We had nothing in common but I connected with him profoundly. My feelings have changed over the years, as I got older and he did not. These days I’m very protective of him and just thank god he didn’t have Twitter. Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally, 1982 (Hodder & Stoughton £12.99). When this book appeared on my A-level reading list, it went deeper than anything I had ever read or understood before about how cruelty resides in us puny humans, and how the fight against it starts from within. None of us are immune to complacency. The image of the little girl in the red…

Programmes Our Guy in Colombia Guy Martin explores the South American country to see if it can escape its long history of drug violence, enduring kidnap training and visiting a cocaine lab in the process. Sun 23 Jul, C4 21:00 (60mins). Electric Cars: What They Really Mean for You With the sale of new petrol and diesel cars to be banned from 2030, Justin Rowlatt looks at whether electric cars are ready to replace them. Tue 25 Jul, BBC1 20:00 (60mins). The Girl from Plainville Elle Fanning stars in this true-crime drama about the US teenager who was convicted of manslaughter for encouraging her boyfriend to commit suicide. Wed 26 and Thur 27 Jul, C4 22:00 (60mins each). David Harewood on Blackface The actor explores the background to The Black…

● Shop around, as fuel prices can vary a lot within a small area. There are apps, such as PetrolPrices or MyRAC, which show all nearby petrol stations and their prices. ● Check your route before setting off and avoid using motorway services; the average price of petrol at supermarkets is 141.25p, compared with 166.47p on motorways. ● Unless you’re driving a high-performance car, the benefits of premium petrol are negligible, so stick to the regular stuff. ● Slow down: driving at 80mph uses 25% more fuel than at 70mph. Travel at 60mph and you will use 9% less fuel than at 70mph, and over 60 miles in perfect conditions it’ll only take you 8.5 minutes longer. ● Aerodynamics count for about half of fuel used at motorway speeds; an…

Jane Birkin 1946-2023 One night in early 1969, Jane Birkin and her lover Serge Gainsbourg went out to dinner at a restaurant in Paris, said The Times. The couple had just recorded a song together. Without saying a word, Gainsbourg got out the single and put it on the dining room’s record player. “All of a sudden all the couples around us stopped talking, their knives and forks held in mid-air,” Birkin recalled. As the diners listened “transfixed” to the song’s explicit lyrics (“I come and go between your loins…”), interspersed by Birkin’s seductive whispers and orgasmic moans, Gainsbourg turned to her and said: “I think we’ve got a hit.” Je t’aime… moi non plus (I love you, me neither) was not only a hit, it became an “avatar” for…

Angelo Mozilo To many Americans, the former Countrywide boss, who has died aged 84, was the “public face” of the 2008 financial crisis, said Patrick Oster on Bloomberg. Chasing the subprime “gold rush” nearly bankrupted his company, then America’s largest mortgage lender, and brought personal disgrace. But he never stopped protesting his innocence. Born in the Bronx, the son of a butcher, Mozilo joined the industry as a messenger boy and rose to great wealth – scooping total pay of $521.5m from 2000 to 2008. But he notoriously sold off much of his stake in Countrywide, even as he urged shareholders to stick with the company; he later settled an insider trading and fraud suit brought by regulators. “Let them believe what they want to believe,” he said of the…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1372 An Ettinger pass holder and two Connell Guides will be given to the sender of the first correct solution to the crossword and the clue of the week opened on Monday 31 July. Send it to The Week Crossword 1372, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London W2 6JR, or email the completed grid/listed solutions to crossword@theweek.co.uk. Tim Moorey (timmoorey.com) This week’s winner will receive an Ettinger (ettinger.co.uk) travel pass holder in assorted colours, which retails at £115, and two Connell Guides (connellguides.com). ACROSS 1 Most extraordinary keeping data in tropical area (4-6) 6 Doesn’t go on objectives (4) 9 Top horse race in China? (5,5) 10 Return stake that’s hotly tipped in Sicily (4) 12 Asian capital coming from Bangkok earnings reportedly (6) 13 Lovely winding road on…

What happened Rishi Sunak announced that more than a million public sector workers would receive a pay rise of between 5% and 7%, in a “final” offer intended to avert more strikes. In response, the four main teaching unions said they would call off future walkouts and advise their members to accept the 6.5% pay rise offered to them. The British Medical Association (BMA), however, said that a 6% rise for its members (plus a ?1,250 lump sum for junior doctors) would not be enough to stop more strikes. Other workers given increases included police and prison officers (7%) and members of the Armed Forces (5%). New figures published this week showed that the UK’s inflation rate slowed more quickly than expected in June, falling to a 15-month low of…

With so much to watch and so little time to watch it in, millions of TV viewers are choosing to watch streamed shows at higher speeds, of up to twice the normal pace. A survey by YouGov found that 27% of people use the function at least sometimes; 13% speed up podcasts and 8% speed up music. “It is being respectful of your time,” one speed demon told The Sunday Times. Workers in Britain spend far more time working from home than in other European countries, a survey has found. Staff in the UK work remotely for 1.5 days a week, on average, compared with 0.7 days in Italy and 0.9 in Spain. Only workers in Canada spend more time at home. Yet Britons are not satisfied: the average ideal…

Plans to build a two-mile tunnel for the A303 near Stonehenge have been approved by the Department for Transport. The £1.7bn project to reduce congestion on the A303 was first given the green light in 2020 by the then transport secretary, Grant Shapps, despite advice from Planning Inspectorate officials that it would cause “irreversible harm” to the Unesco World Heritage site, and warnings that it would just lead to more cars on the road. That decision was later overturned by the High Court, on the grounds that he had not properly considered alternative schemes, as required by law.…

Des Moines, Iowa Abortion law: Iowa’s state legislature has voted to ban most abortions after the first sign of cardiac activity in the foetus, which is at around six weeks (before many women know they’re pregnant). Abortions in the state were previously allowed at up to 20 weeks. Iowa is the latest in a series of states to crack down on abortion since the supreme court overturned Roe v. Wade last year. The Iowa legislature – in which Republicans hold a majority – had passed a similar six-week ban in 2018, but it was blocked by the state’s own supreme court a year later. Last month, the court was split 3-3 on whether to revoke the block, a deadlock that led Governor Kim Reynolds to call the special session of…

“When I read last week that Joe Biden’s four-letter temper tantrums have upset his staff, I thought: Joe’s the leader of the free world. You don’t think he might go off on one from time to time? Some White House staff are scared to face him alone, it seems. Oh, give me strength. Anyone who can’t handle a raised voice or the odd bad word shouldn’t be anywhere near a thing as serious as government. The Truss-Kwarteng axis shows how quickly you can burn down the house if the wrong people get the matches. Standards must be high, excellence demanded. So Biden wants it done and he wants it done f**king now? Damn right. He’s the Potus. Now get to f**king work.” Martin Samuel in The Times…

A sharp increase in deaths from liver cancer has prompted calls for measures to restrict the sale or promotion of cheap alcohol and unhealthy food. Deaths from the disease have more than tripled since the early 1970s and now stand at 5,800 a year, making it the fastest-rising cause of cancer death in the UK, the British Liver Trust warned in a submission to a Commons committee. The charity said the rise was being driven by alcohol and obesity, and that government intervention would be more effective than measures taken by individuals. Skin cancer rates are also causing concern. The number of people being diagnosed with melanoma has reached 17,500 a year in the UK, an all-time high, and could top 26,000 by 2040, said Cancer Research UK. The record…

China is engaged in a “whole-of-state” assault on the UK – and the Government’s response to this “onslaught” has been “completely inadequate”. That is the devastating verdict of the long-awaited report of the cross-party Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), which came out last week, said Ian Williams in The Spectator. Official reports tend to be dusty affairs, but with its warnings about Beijing’s successful penetration of “every sector of the economy”, this one reads in places more like a “terrifying thriller”, said The Independent. One section describes a “nightmare scenario” in which China “steals blueprints, sets standards and builds products, exerting political and economic influence at every step”. This, the report says, presents a “serious commercial challenge, but also has the potential to pose an existential threat to liberal democratic…

“A statesman is a politician who places himself at the service of the nation. A politician is a statesman who places the nation at his service.”Georges Pompidou, quoted in The Times “The problem is not one of politics mixing with education – the issue is which politics will be mixed with education.”Activist Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, quoted in The New Republic “Dogs are our link to paradise. They don’t know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring – it was peace.”Milan Kundera, quoted in The Times “Books are the great equaliser. At one literary festival, I saw Queen Camilla step out of a Portaloo.”Simon Kuper in the FT “In a…

Cricket Australia, the holders, retained the Women’s Ashes, following a series draw. The final ODI saw England’s Nat Sciver-Brunt score her second successive century to take player of the match. James Anderson has been recalled to the England team for the fourth men’s Ashes test at Old Trafford. Moeen Ali has also come into the side, replacing the injured Ollie Pope. Football Midfielder Declan Rice secured his move to Arsenal from West Ham, in a deal worth £100m plus £5m in add-ons. The fee is the highest ever paid for an English player.…

Hardbacks Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang HarperCollins 350pp £16.99 (£13.99) “This propulsive thriller is set to be the summer’s most visible hit,” said The Times. When a starry Asian-American writer chokes to death on a pancake, her less successful friend June steals her manuscript and passes it off as her own. There are “plenty of savagely funny moments” in this “addictive” satire of publishing, cancel culture and identity politics, said The Independent. The Earth Transformed by Peter Frankopan Bloomsbury, 736pp £30 (£23.99) This “mighty” work traces the environment’s influence on human lives from prehistory to the present, said The Times. Frankopan, a historian, “goes big”, explaining how wet weather in Mongolia helped Genghis Khan to power; “and small”, detailing how the 17th century craze for beaver hats caused ponds to…

Birdsong at Timothy Taylor Birdsong, the title of this exhibition, may have twitchers hoping for a study of art and ornithology; alas for them, it is no such thing. Instead, this is a classic gallery summer show, bringing together works by a loose grab-bag of contemporary artists working in a range of media, from Yinka Shonibare to Tomo Campbell to Paula Rego. However, it justifies itself twice over. For one thing, the work is of a consistently high standard: witness Sophie von Hellermann’s bizarre cowgirl fantasy painting Shoot Him!, or Rowley Haynes’s delicate, sun-dappled drawing of a young man on a lakeside bench. Rego, meanwhile, is represented by the spectacularly sinister etching Lamentation. The second point worth stressing is that all profits go towards the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. The…

The Kirkstyle Inn and Sportsman’s Rest Slaggyford, Northumberland (01434-671526) It is rare, in this day and age, to be offered a three-course set menu for £30, says Grace Dent in The Guardian. But that’s what you get at this “astonishingly reasonably priced” inn in the North Pennines, which has recently been “gorgeously refurbished”. It’s the only pub for miles around, and “word is clearly out”: nosing through “recent Tripadvisor chunterings”, I read that some locals have already been five times for lunch. The menu is niftily balanced between “ornate” and hearty – appealing both to foodies and lovers of pub grub. Berkswell sheep’scheese mousse is served in “delicate dollops”, with Northumberland honey and tiny mushroom caps. Stewed beef cheek is soft and rich, with a “walloping lump of creamy mash”.…

PictureThis can recognise more than one million plants, flowers and trees with 98% accuracy. It can also diagnose plant problems and offer advice (iOS; Android). Merlin Bird ID helps twitchers identify birds. There’s “Sound ID” for birdsong, and you can upload photos and save them to a digital scrapbook (iOS; Android). AllTrails has more than 400,000 routes worldwide. You can filter for dog-friendly options, or by activity, experience, length or elevation gain. You can also download maps and track your GPS location even with no phone reception (iOS; Android). With the Night Sky app, if you aim your phone at the sky it will show a live 3D map with illustrated constellations, stars, planets and satellites. There are also alerts for astronomical events (iOS only). Picture Insect: Bug Identifier has…

Glamping in the wilds of Utah Known for its immense sandstone chasms and the hoodoos (cathedral-like rock spires) that tower within them, Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park is a paradise for adventurers, says Samantha Falewée in Travel + Leisure. Go to hike, bike, climb and more, and consider staying at Under Canvas Bryce Canyon, a new glamping retreat set on a 700-acre site nearby. It has safari-style tents with king-size beds and “full en-suite” bathrooms, and “outdoor rec” areas where people sip almond-milk lattes around campfires. Staff are a helpful source of information on local adventure tour operators, including Western Canyons Trailrides (for excellent horseriding trips) and Zion Guide Hub, which offers activities such as canyoneering – an experience liable to leave you with “a childlike sense of elation”. A…

When the US treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, visited Beijing this month, she dined in a restaurant that unveiled a “God of Wealth” menu in her honour, said The Economist. Yet that same god appears to have abandoned China – at least if this week’s GDP figures are indicative. After an apparently healthy first quarter in which the economy grew by 6.3% (albeit from a low base in 2022), growth in the second came in at just 0.8%. Annual inflation, meanwhile, is running at zero. China, it seems, faces a very different problem to other countries. “It’s on the cusp of deflation.” When China finally lifted its harsh Covid restrictions last year, it was hoped the move “would help lift the global economy out of its post-pandemic doldrums”, said DealBook in…

The week’s best shares Begbies Traynor Group Investors’ Chronicle UK insolvencies are up 40% in a year, with the full impact of rate hikes possibly yet to come. Begbies’ insolvency practice offers a degree of “countercyclical protection”. Consistent divi growth a bonus. Buy. 128p. Futura Medical The Sunday Times The pharma tiddler’s sole product, Eroxon gel, is the first credible new erectile dysfunction treatment for 20 years – and is non-prescription. Boots and Amazon are already partners, but a big US deal bodes well for a share surge. Buy. 50.80p. Judges Scientific The Daily Telegraph Last year’s £80m purchase of geological analysis expert Geotek has super-charged the acquisitive scientific instrument-maker. In pole position to pounce on weakened rivals. Buy. £92.20. Pacific Horizon Investment Trust The Daily Telegraph This Asia-focused fund…

Coutts, which was accused of misleading the public about its reason for closing Nigel Farage’s account. The bank had let it be known that the former UKIP leader had fallen below its financial thresholds. But he has since obtained documents which seem to show that managers had “exited” him because they felt his views were not “compatible with Coutts”. A reputational risk committee concluded that Farage was “seen as xenophobic and racist”, and viewed by many as “a disingenuous grifter”. Janet Yellen, with reports that the US treasury secretary may have consumed a potentially hallucinogenic mushroom on an official visit to Beijing. A blogger claimed to have seen her tucking into the fungi at a restaurant in the city, leading to speculation that this could explain her diplomatic faux pas,…

70% of voters in the UK believe the House of Lords does not act in the public’s best interest. 21% believe it does. Two-thirds would like to see the Lords replaced by a directly elected second chamber, and almost half (49%) want the upper house abolished altogether. Opinium/Labour Together More than a quarter of UK adults have used generative artificial intelligence, such as chatbots. One in ten use it at least once a day. Deloitte 60% of adults in Great Britain believe the media has “focused too much on the Huw Edwards story”. 15% think the media has focused on the story about the right amount; 5% believe it’s focused on it too little; and the rest don’t know. YouGov…

Our “dumb” culture Time magazine anointed him “America’s storyteller”, but Colson Whitehead – author of The Underground Railroad – is disinclined to pronounce on the state of the world, says Johanna Thomas-Corr in The Sunday Times. All he’ll say about the Elizabeth Gilbert affair, for instance, in which the writer withdrew her forthcoming novel from publication after being criticised for setting it in Russia, is that it was “kind of dumb… I wouldn’t be putting it in a drawer if I’d spent all that f**king time on it.” As for the idea that authors are being forbidden from writing about characters with different racial backgrounds to their own, he finds that dumb too. “People get called out because they lack the empathy and intelligence to help their black character or…

There is a sound of silence Were Simon and Garfunkel right? Is there a sound of silence? It is a question that has been debated by philosophers for centuries; some contend that we can perceive silence as a form of sound, others argue that we simply infer that all is quiet from the absence of noise: in other words, silence is not an experience in itself, but is the lack of one. As perception is a difficult thing to evaluate, a team at Johns Hopkins University decided to try to shed light on the argument by exploring a different question: does the brain treat silences in the same way as it treats sounds? The researchers recruited 1,000 volunteers, then set them a series of tests based on auditory illusions. The…

Rob Brydon recently recounted one of the last jokes he heard from his late friend and Radio 4 colleague, the great Barry Cryer. It’s about a man talking to the vicar before his wife’s funeral service. The vicar asks him if he has any questions. “Yes, what’s the Wi-Fi code?” The vicar is appalled. “We are burying your wife!” To which the man says: “All lower case?” Birkin bags can now sell for more than £100,000, but they only came about owing to a chance encounter on a plane in 1983. Jane Birkin was stuffing her wicker basket into an overhead locker, when it spilled all over her and her seatmate. She explained that it was hard to get a leather holdall big enough to fit all her stuff –…

With their electoral prospects looking ever grimmer, senior Conservatives seem to think that they’ll need a “major concession on tax” to turn things round, said The Times. Last week, No. 10 sources revealed that they are considering scrapping inheritance tax (IHT) as part of a “totemic” offer to “aspirational” voters. That’s welcome news indeed. At present, IHT is levied at 40% on estates above £325,000 (though a higher threshold for main residences, and the transfer of allowances between spouses, mean that family homes are often exempt up to £1m). Only 4% of estates are big enough to qualify for IHT, and the tax raised £7.1bn last year (just 0.7% of receipts). But many voters sense that IHT “breaches property rights” – by taxing assets bought using taxed income – and…

Going private To The Guardian Regarding your report on NHS dentistry, I recently received a text from my dental surgery, cancelling my appointment and asking me to call them. I did so and learnt that my dentist and her colleague were “going private from 1 September” and could not see me, as their priorities were children and those undergoing a course of treatment. However, when I said that I would like to continue seeing my dentist once she had gone private, I was offered a new appointment on the same day as my cancelled visit. At the conclusion of the call I was told that a “secure payment link” would be sent to my phone so that I could pay 50% upfront within 48 hours, otherwise the appointment would be…

The blockbuster musical Miss Saigon ran for ten years in London and New York following its launch in 1989, but it was always controversial, said Paul Szabo on What’s On Stage. A spin on Puccini’s Madama Butterfly transposed to wartorn Vietnam, written by Les Misérables creators Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, it was accused of misogyny, racism, and of perpetuating racist stereotypes – and included the now unthinkable “yellowface” casting of Jonathan Pryce in a lead role. When Sheffield Theatres announced the staging of the first-ever new production of the musical, one theatre company dropped the venue from its touring schedule in protest. And earlier this month, a new show, the Untitled F*ck M*ss S**gon Play, mocking and satirising the musical, opened to considerable fanfare in Manchester. I cordially disliked…

“For those yet to fall for its ample charms, The Great plays hard and fast with the rise of Catherine the Great, Empress of all Russia,” said Rebecca Nicholson in The Guardian. “Newcomers should not start with season three”, however, but go back to the start to see “how everybody got to their positions”. It’s worth the effort: “every episode romps along at speed, fuelled mostly by those twin engines of every good story, sex and death”. In the first two seasons, Catherine (Elle Fanning) and her husband Peter (Nicholas Hoult) had “an on/off relationship”; but they begin this season “very much together”, to the bitterness of their acolytes. As ever in The Great, no character is safe from the chop, which keeps things lively. But “nestled in among all…

“One of the most famous works by Italian contemporary artist Michelangelo Pistoletto, Venus of the Rags, has been burnt to cinders in a suspected arson attack in Naples,” says The Guardian. The installation, which features a statue of the Roman goddess of love next to a vast pile of discarded clothes, was destroyed where it stood near the town hall in the southern Italian city. Police arrested a 32-year-old homeless man on suspicion of arson and destruction of artistic works. There are several versions of Venus of the Rags, which Pistoletto first created in 1967. The pieces juxtapose “an iconic figure of classical culture and beauty with the detritus of contemporary society”; the Venus statue used was found in a garden centre. Pistoletto is a central figure in the arte…

While Lynda is distracted with her souvenir brochure, Eddie surreptitiously takes over the fête planning. Joy warns Lynda that something’s amiss, waking her up to Eddie’s “coup de fête”. In light of the looming competition from the charging-station café, Fallon asks Tom to fix her rent at Bridge Farm for eight years. She wants the security to be innovative. Tom says he feels eight years is too long, and will need to discuss it with Helen. Hannah, who’s already frustrated with George’s work rate at Berrow, is appalled to find a sausage roll wrapper in the bin. Sausage meat contravenes biosecurity rules. George denies all knowledge, but Neil doesn’t believe him and fires him. George moves back home. Emma is furious with Neil for not giving George another chance. Neil…

Idyllic Indonesia Discover the Indonesian archipelago, with stops in Bali and Lombok. 14 nights from £1,569pp b&b (incl. flights & excursions). 020-3608 0135, secretescapes.com. Depart 27 November. ABBA Voyage city break Take a trip to London for the hi-tech concert and stay 2 nights at the Tribe Canary Wharf hotel. From £236pp b&b (incl. seated ticket). 0800-098 8000, voyage-prive.co.uk. Arrive 4 September. Tranquil Geneva stay The Jade Manotel, inspired by the principles of feng shui and located steps from the lake, offers 3 nights from £247pp room-only (excl. flights). 020-3564 6725, booking.com. Arrive 8 August. Lake Como break On the lakeside in the centre of Menaggio, Italy, Hotel Bellavista enjoys a magnificent view. 3 nights from £195pp b&b (excl. flights). 0039 0344 32136, hotel-bellavista.org. Arrive 10 October.…

Eli Lilly: Alzheimer’s breakthrough Dementia experts have hailed a “watershed moment” in the treatment of Alzheimer’s after the US pharma, Eli Lilly, released trial results showing that its new drug, donanemab, “slowed progression by about 35% in the early stages of the disease”, said Clive Cookson in the FT. The antibody treatment, which “significantly slowed memory loss and cognitive decline”, has now been submitted for regulatory approval. It is the second breakthrough drug of its type. Earlier this month, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a treatment co-developed by US biotech Biogen and Japan’s Eisai, dubbed lecanemab, which will be marketed under the brand name Leqembi. “After decades of work with no positive findings”, we’ve reached “a real turning point”, said Richard Oakley of the UK Alzheimer’s Society.…

WFH just isn’t working Emma Duncan The Times When the pandemic hit in 2020, “the world of work underwent the biggest sudden change ever”, says Emma Duncan. We are still dealing with its effects. After Covid, working from home, for at least part of the time, stuck because employees liked it and, in a tight labour market, employers had to bow to them. When early studies suggested that WFH seemed to increase productivity, it looked like a “win-win situation”. Sadly, it isn’t. As more data rolled in, glowing productivity figures soon gave way to significant declines across sectors. “Even chess players, who might be expected to be solitary, uber-rational creatures unaffected by their surroundings, perform worse online.” If win-win has turned into the more normal win-lose, the situation is “particularly…

Cast your mind back to earlier this year, when gaps started to appear on Britain’s supermarket shelves. First it was tomatoes, then lettuces, then citrus fruit. A generation that had grown up with shops laden with fresh, sun-kissed produce all year round were confronted with the harsh reality that we rely on imports for 43% of all our vegetables. For fruit it is 85%. Many people suggested the answer to the shortages was to rely more on home-grown fruit and veg, not least Therese Coffey, the secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, who said we should “cherish the specialisms that we have in this country”, such as “turnips”. She was ignoring one very large, very yellow reason why so much of the produce we eat is imported:…