Table of contents for 1448 in The Week

What happened Donald Trump made his third court appearance in four months last week when he was arraigned before a judge in Washington DC on charges related to his alleged attempt to subvert the 2020 election. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Among those in the public gallery was Jack Smith, the special counsel leading the prosecution team. He argues that Trump conspired to interfere with and obstruct the transfer of power after the 2020 election in the full knowledge that his claims of ballot tampering were bogus. Trump’s lawyers say their defence will be that the former president truly believed his claims, and that his efforts to influence officials were therefore protected by the First Amendment right to free speech. Following the hearing, Trump took to social…

Politicians often make me angry, said Brendan O’Neill in The Daily Telegraph, but it’s never “crossed my mind to go to their homes and shout at them”. That’s why Greenpeace’s stunt last week “left me cold”. To express their fury about Rishi Sunak’s plan to issue new oil and gas licences for the North Sea, they didn’t invade Parliament or some corporate giant’s HQ; while the PM was away, they climbed onto the roof of his house in the North Yorkshire village of Kirby Sigston, draped its walls in black cloth and unfurled a banner reading “No New Oil”. And what disdain for democratic norms they displayed in so doing, said Leo McKinstry in the Daily Express. The right to protest is a “pillar of our democracy”, but it doesn’t…

The Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth has been ridiculed for its attempt to “queer” its collection. A post on its website suggests that while we cannot know the sexuality or gender identity of the crew, items found on the ship can be seen through a “queer lens”. Discussing a mirror, the post notes that queer people may feel gender dysphoria or euphoria when looking at their reflections. Nit combs, meanwhile, are a reminder that hair is a “central pillar” of queer identity. Couples are increasingly hiring “content creators” to film their weddings and post the curated content on TikTok or Instagram, says The Times. One firm offers a £349 package that includes four hours of raw content that is whittled down to two social media posts.…

Anchorage, Alaska Sino-Russian exercise: Four US navy destroyers and a P-8 Poseidon aircraft were deployed to intercept a joint Russian-Chinese flotilla that sailed close to American waters off Alaska last week. The patrol involved 11 warships and took place in waters near the Aleutian Islands, an archipelago that extends 1,200 miles from Alaska towards Russia. News of the operation was revealed by the state’s Republican senators, who had been briefed about it. Its significance was downplayed by the US military, which stressed that the warships had remained in international waters and had since left the area; but Brent Sadler, a former US naval officer who works for the right-leaning Heritage Foundation, described the joint action as “highly provocative” and indicative of increased military cooperation between the two powers. Beijing said…

“At first we saw them as harmless novelties. They were never all in operation, and seemed to involve as many staff supervising them as could have been operating a battery of proper tills. Then came more of them, and ever fewer human tills. [Now] still more territory has been swallowed up by bigger auto-tills with space for a trolley. And what is this fresh hell? A barrier to exit this new area. Oh yes, now you have to swipe a barcode on your receipt to be released. I imagined someone like my dad congratulating himself on negotiating the till, then pushing feebly at the barrier. ‘You need a code!’ someone will shout. ‘A code?’ he’ll echo. He’ll be there a while.” Adrian Chiles in The Guardian…

American politics needs young blood Matt K. Lewis The Daily Beast Age is catching up with America’s senior politicians, says Matt K. Lewis. As one wag put it, we’ve suddenly gone from “ruling class” to “drooling class”. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, 81, froze mid-sentence during a recent press conference and stared into the distance for 20 seconds before being led away. The next day, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 90, appeared confused during a vote and was advised to “just say aye” by another Democrat. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden, 80, is relying on prompt cards and has switched to using Air Force One’s shorter, retractable stairs. Donald Trump has mocked Biden’s age, but he’s not far behind at 77 – the same age Ronald Reagan was when he left office –…

So many people are using the drug Ozempic to lose weight that diabetics may not be able to get the supplies they need, doctors have warned. In the UK, around 400,000 people with type 2 diabetes take injections of Ozempic and other GLP-1 receptor agonist drugs to help regulate their blood sugar levels; but lately, research has shown that Ozempic can also help people shed large amounts of weight – leading to a rush of demand from slimmers, who are able to buy the drug “off label” from online pharmacies. Stocks started to run low last year, and they aren’t likely to return to their normal levels until at least mid-2024. That could mean that diabetes patients are obliged to switch to treatments that are not as effective. “These shortages…

“If it isn’t hurting it isn’t working.” That was the message from then-chancellor John Major in 1989 during a previous period when interest rate rises were used to tackle high inflation, said Larry Elliott in The Guardian. And it was the message rammed home by the Bank of England last week as it announced a quarter-point rise in the base rate. It’s the 14th increase in a row and takes the rate to 5.25%, the highest level in 15 years. What’s more, the “downbeat” statement by Andrew Bailey, the Bank’s governor, made clear that rates won’t be coming down any time soon, said The Times. This is certainly going to cause plenty of pain for borrowers. Those on the 800,000 fixed-rate mortgages due to expire this year face a huge…

“Members of Parliament have few skills, on the whole. But over centuries they have perfected the art of murmuring assent so loudly as to be unmistakable, yet so indistinctly that none can be held to account for it.”Jesse Norman, quoted in the Financial Times “Not guilty, but don’t do it again.”An old Texan interpretation of the “not proven” verdict, quoted by David Mamet on UnHerd “Communism forgets that life is individual. Capitalism forgets that life is social.”Martin Luther King Jr, quoted in The New York Times “If you read a lot of books, you are considered well-read. But if you watch a lot of TV, you’re not considered well-viewed.”Lily Tomlin, quoted in the Montreal Gazette “Nothing so fortifies a friendship as a belief on the part of one friend that…

To The Sunday Times Camilla Long throws her weight behind Nigel Farage in the row with Coutts bank and its parent, NatWest, and she is correct to say they have made a pig’s ear of getting rid of the man. What she does not acknowledge, however, is the right of any business to decide with whom it wants to trade. Given her own encounters with Farage, she would surely have been grateful for that right if she had been running a business with Farage as a client. I ran a business myself, and I would not have touched him with someone else’s bargepole. Peter D. Harvey, Ely, Cambridgeshire To The Sunday Times Food, water, electricity, gas and most other essential commodities are supplied to us by commercial businesses. Does Mr…

Running time: 3hrs 20mins When it came to the West End in 2007, The Lord of the Rings was a “notorious flop”, said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph. A spectacular mega-musical, incorporating folk, Bollywood influences and pop, it had cost a record-breaking £12.5m to stage, at the 2,000-seat Theatre Royal Drury Lane, and closed after 13 months. So this “enchantingly intimate”, scaled-down staging at the lovely Watermill Theatre, outside Newbury, is a form of redemption for the show. Directed by Paul Hart, it draws in its audience with magnificent “clarity and verve”, said Judi Herman on What’s On Stage. Breathtaking set and costume design; shrewd lighting; thrilling sound, projection and choreography; inventive puppetry and fight direction – all these elements have been blended “seamlessly and with wondrous imagination to…

Once upon a time, said Sean O’Grady in The Independent, TV announcers “would introduce a series such as Wolf with a sombre warning that it wasn’t suitable ‘for viewers of a nervous disposition’”. That sounds a bit antique now, but I really do think the BBC should find a way of cautioning its licence-payers about what they are about to endure: Wolf is easily “the most harrowing thing I’ve had to watch” in years. Based on the book by Mo Hayder, the drama centres around Jack Caffery (Ukweli Roach), a young detective haunted by his brother’s abduction when they were children. As he tries to get to the bottom of what happened, he gets entangled in the kidnap and torture of a well-off family at their Welsh holiday home (with…

A portrait of Harry Styles will feature in a new exhibition of work by David Hockney that opens at the National Portrait Gallery in November. The Covid-delayed show – David Hockney: Drawing From Life – will consist of 160 works from private and public collections, including 33 portraits painted in 2021 and 2022, which are being shown for the first time. These include the acrylic of Styles, 29, who sat for Hockney at his studio in Normandy last May. Like others in the show, it was painted straight onto the canvas, with no under-drawing, and completed in two or three sittings. The artist, 86, had been introduced to Styles by the record producer Clive Davis, and admitted that at the time, he “wasn’t really aware of his celebrity. He was…

Joy expresses misgivings to Lynda about the Grundys’ management of the upcoming fête. Lynda discovers that Brad is on the committee, and persuades him to tell her what’s really going on. He reveals that fête hits such as the tombola are off, and that the whole event is set to make a loss. Helen fails to persuade Adil to stock Bridge Farm cheese at Grey Gables; but Tom reckons he can sweet-talk him. Mia rebuffs Chelsea, then asks Kirsty for advice about how to manage their relationship: Chelsea, after all, is Brad’s sister. Chelsea comes to Kirsty asking for help with the same thing. Tom tries to charm Adil, who smells a rat. Eddie admits to Lynda that the fête isn’t going well; she offers to help. Mia and Chelsea…

● Make notes beforehand so that you’re clear about what you want to say, and create a timeline of symptoms, says James Le Fanu: “When did the pain start, what sort of pain is it, how often do you get it?” ● Don’t go with a long list of problems, says Glasgow GP John Tobias: prioritise. Do bring a friend or relative; most patients only remember “two things a doctor tells them”. ● Speak plainly about your worries, says Sarah Levy, a GP in Leicestershire. Don’t be embarrassed about intimate areas: “nothing fazes us”, we’ve “seen it all before”. ● Don’t immediately ask your GP for a referral to a specialist; “most doctors quite rightly resent this”, says Dr Le Fanu. ● Be friendly but not too chatty: “don’t ask…

Paul Reubens 1952-2023 In September 1991, the TV clown Pee-wee Herman took to the stage at the MTV Video Music Awards and asked in his signature squeaky tones: “Heard any good jokes lately?” Two months earlier, the actor who had created him, Paul Reubens, had been arrested for masturbating in an adult cinema in Florida. Before then, he had rarely been seen out of character; he had always sought to keep his own identity separate from that of Pee-wee, an eccentric man-child with rouged cheeks, a tight suit and a red bow tie, who’d become a hit with both children and adults. Reubens’s arrest mugshot, which revealed him to have stringy hair and a patchy goatee, immediately made him the punchline of countless jokes. The whole episode was deeply embarrassing…

Why the big money is going on Japan Jacky Wong The Wall Street Journal After years of lacklustre performance, Japanese stocks are shaping up as the surprise winners of 2023, says Jacky Wong. Japan’s Topix index is up 21% so far this year, even more than the 17% gained for the S&P 500 in the US, another global outperformer. One reason why savvy investors such as Warren Buffett have been betting big on the country is the stronger focus of Japanese companies on dividends and buybacks – which are projected to amount to a record 30 trillion yen ($210bn) this year. Another is that a major government-driven overhaul of corporate governance is pulling in foreign funds. Companies are starting to “use their big cash piles to simplify convoluted” structures, and…

Who’s tipping what The week’s best shares Brunner Investment Trust The Daily Telegraph Brunner majors on high-quality, global stocks with solid financial fundamentals, such as Microsoft, Visa and Taiwan Semiconductor. Not fashionable, but its “no-frills, bottom-up approach” should deliver further gains. Buy. £10.55. Central Asia Metals The Sunday Times Shares in the copper and zinc miner have tumbled along with the price of copper. Yet the metal has “huge appeal” in the long term, and CAML is conservatively run with decent divis. Oversold. Buy. 185.6p. Diageo The Times Shaky US consumer spending and a post-lockdown hangover are impacting the drinks group. Pivoting towards “premium-plus” brands and the growing spirits market, led by tequila and Scotch. Expecting sales growth. Buy. £34.08. Ibstock The Times The brickmaker is running at 70% capacity…

What happened An initial group of 15 asylum seekers boarded the Bibby Stockholm barge in Dorset on Monday. About 20 more refused to board the vessel, after legal representations on their behalf. Ultimately, the Government wants the barge to host 500 men in its 222 cabins, as part of its drive to reduce the cost of housing asylum seekers in hotels while their claims are processed. However, the launch of this scheme had been delayed by the need for further safety inspections. There had been warnings that the barge could be a firetrap. Lee Anderson, the deputy chair of the Tory party, was criticised for saying that asylum seekers should “f**k off back to France” if they don’t want to be housed on the barge. Separately, ministers were reported to…

Four hundred and fifty children died in care between 2011 and 2021, according to official figures obtained by The Times through freedom of information requests. Of these, 400 died in regulated care placements. This gives a death rate of 130 per 100,000 children under 18 in care – which is more than 16 times higher than the national child mortality rate of eight deaths per 100,000, produced by the Office for National Statistics in 2021. (However the ONS figure applies to children aged one to 15.) The other 50 “looked after” children were aged 16 and 17, and living in unregulated accommodation, which might include shared houses and hostels.…

36% of voters in the UK now support the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, down from 51% two years ago.  YouGov 30% of voters in Britain think the country has a centrist ideology. 20% think it’s centre-right; 12% right-wing, 8% centre-left and 4% left-wing. The rest don’t know. The New Statesman/Redfield & Wilton Strategies Only 60% of UK adults believe that seasonal celebrations such as Christmas dinner should be affordable for all, including those claiming out-of-work benefits. 55% think everyone should be able to afford a TV set. 45% think everyone should be able to afford a basic smartphone. 73% think the same of school uniforms. YouGov/The Guardian…

The castaway and his dog Tim Shaddock made global headlines when he was rescued from the middle of the Pacific by tuna fishermen. It turned out that he had spent two months lost at sea on a small boat, with only Bella, a stray dog that had joined him on his travels, for company. The former IT manager had been trying to sail from Mexico to his native Australia. It’s an epic crossing, one only the most seasoned sailors would attempt. “I bit off more than I could chew,” he admits. “Most of my sailing experience is from when I was just a boy.” A month in, much of his equipment was destroyed in a storm, and gradually he became too weak for the sheer physical effort it takes to…

Hollywood’s cultural cringe to Beijing Robbie Collin The Sunday Telegraph The “dirtiest secret in 21st century cinema” is this, says Robbie Collin: Hollywood has been bending the knee to Beijing. It all began in 1997 when Disney, Sony and MGM released three films, including Seven Years in Tibet starring Brad Pitt, that overtly criticised China. No one sensed danger, as in 1990 China’s market for foreign movies was no bigger than Peru’s: Hollywood just hadn’t taken in how fast it was growing. (China’s box office eclipsed America’s in 2020.) So when the Chinese Communist Party froze all cooperation with the studios, movie bosses resorted to frantic diplomacy. Ever since, they’ve been cringing to the CCP, allowing it to influence casting, edits and much else. In the 2013 film Gravity, a…

Reviving 50,000-year-old worms Roundworms that shared the Earth with Neanderthals and woolly mammoths in the late Pleistocene era have been brought back to life by scientists in a lab. The tiny nematodes – they are less than 1mm long – were found in a fossilised burrow deep in the Siberian permafrost; the scientists thawed them out, then gave them a nutritious “soup” to coax them back to life. DNA tests showed the worms belong to a hitherto unknown species; radiocarbon dating suggested they were some 46,000 years old. In the journal PLOS Genetics, the scientists say the worms had survived across the millennia by entering a state of suspended animation known as cryptobiosis. Worms are known to enter this dormant state, to cope with extreme conditions, but none have been…

When an actress posted a tearful photo of herself on social media last week, saying that her Edinburgh Fringe show had been watched by just one person, fellow performers rushed to offer reassurance. So did the columnist Daniel Finkelstein, who recalled travelling for hours to Norwich to give a speech. “There were only two people there. One of them was the person who invited me. I asked the other person to join the cause I was there to support. He said he would, but it might interfere with the terms of his parole.” A leading fashion blogger known as “Menswear Guy” has questioned the cut of Rishi Sunak’s suits. “Baffling to me how the wealthiest UK prime minister in history could live just steps away from Savile Row, and end…

There was a time, not long ago, when however divided they may have been, Britons could unite around a shared enjoyment of good television, said Emily Baker in The i Paper. Drama series, in the days before binge viewing, would be watched over weeks, increasing engagement; and with everyone sitting down to watch at the same time, each new episode provided a topic of conversation. The rise of streaming has altered and fractured our viewing habits – and according to Ofcom, that process is accelerating. It reports that the proportion of viewers tuning into traditional TV has registered its sharpest ever decline, from 83% in 2021 to 79% last year. We’re also spending 12% less time watching TV of any kind, which might point to us spending more time away…

With Brazil, Germany and Canada failing to make it through their groups – and holders USA crashing out to Sweden – the Women’s World Cup has certainly proved treacherous for the nations with the biggest footballing reputations, said Suzanne Wrack in The Guardian. And for most of their last-16 encounter with Nigeria on Monday, England looked set to become the “latest big scalp”. Not only were the European champions “outclassed” for long stretches, they had to battle through extra time with ten players after Lauren James was sent off for stamping on Nigeria’s Michelle Alozie. In the end, Sarina Wiegman’s team scraped through on penalties, as Bethany England, Rachel Daly, Alex Greenwood and Chloe Kelly all coolly slotted home after Georgia Stanway had missed their opening spot-kick. There’s no doubt…

Tennis British No. 2 Dan Evans claimed the biggest title of his career, winning the Washington Open with a straight-sets victory over Tallon Griekspoor of Holland. Football Arsenal won the Community Shield, defeating Manchester City on penalties, after Leandro Trossard had equalised 11 minutes into injury time. Golf America’s Bryson DeChambeau shot a final round of 58 to win the LIV Golf Greenbrier title, the joint second-lowest round in top-level golf, one above David Carey’s 57 at the 2019 Cervino Open on the Alps Tour.…

Big Caesars and Little Caesars by Ferdinand Mount Bloomsbury 304pp £20 The Week Bookshop £15.99 Many of us have sought reassurance from the thought that the likes of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump are “outrageous anomalies”, said Rachel Cooke in The Observer. Such figures, we like to tell ourselves, are “mere boils on the otherwise unblemished face of the body politic”. In his “brilliant” new book, Ferdinand Mount (see page 29) dispels such “comforting illusions”. Johnson, Trump and their ilk are not, he argues, “as exceptional as we might like to imagine”. To illustrate this, he compares their personalities and tactics with those of earlier “strong men”, including Julius Caesar, Oliver Cromwell, Napoleon Bonaparte and General de Gaulle. The result is “a kind of field guide to Caesarism”, one that…

A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles de Gaulle by Julian Jackson, 2018 (Penguin £18.99). There have been dozens of lives of the General, but no one has penetrated his haughty carapace quite like Jackson, nor uncovered the depths of his guile and cynicism, and his relentless efforts to bring down the Fourth Republic. A classic study of power mania at its grandest. The Gunpowder Plot: Terror and Faith in 1605 by Antonia Fraser, 1996 (Orion £14.99). Could it have succeeded? Was Guido Fawkes a fall guy? This most dramatic of plots continues to obsess posterity. Fraser provides most of the answers and all of the drama. Boris Johnson: The Gambler by Tom Bower, 2020 (Ebury £12.99). Bower is famous for his destructive biographies of notorious shysters, but…

Programmes Felix Klieser Plays Mozart at the Proms The virtuoso horn player, who was born without arms, makes his proms debut with Mozart’s Concerto No. 4. Sun 13 Aug, BBC4 20:00 (120mins). Court Martial: Soldiers Behind Bars Inside look at the “Military Corrective Training Centre” run by the Army that is used to detain serving officers who have been convicted of serious crimes. Mon 14 Aug, C5 21:00 (60mins). Emergency Tense and fast-paced documentary series about the London Major Trauma System, a network of hospitals, air ambulances and paramedics that works to save lives in the capital. Tue 15 Aug, C4 21:00 (60mins). The 1970s Supermarket A look back at what Britons ate in the 1970s, from Angel Delight to Findus Crispy Pancakes and Vesta Beef Curry. Wed 16 Aug,…

German riesling can offer the drinker a “transcendent experience”, says Victoria Moore in The Daily Telegraph. And yet it is widely ignored in Britain, where “swathes of the public are indifferent to its charms”. This despite the fact that it offers excellent value: “you can buy a superb bottle of German riesling for about £20, and a decent one for less than a tenner”. The lack of interest in riesling seems particularly odd at a time when “German wine is actually having a bit of a moment in British retail”, owing to a new diversity of German wines – notably pinot noir and pinot blanc – landing on supermarket shelves. The “great Hugh Johnson” suggested that German riesling might be a “niche taste” because it “doesn’t feel like other wines”,…

With a subscription to Amazon Music Unlimited you can listen to more than 100 million songs ad-free and offline. If you’re an Amazon Prime member it is cheaper than Spotify, and you get access to better quality audio (from £8.99; amazon.co.uk). Jay-Z’s brainchild, Tidal sets itself apart with its high-fidelity sound, exclusive tracks, interviews and music videos, plus ad-free listening, offline playback and unrestricted downloads (from £10.99; tidal.com). Apple Music has 100 million or more tracks, 30,000+ playlists, live radio and original shows, concerts and exclusives. You can download up to 100,000 songs, and access Apple Musical Classical and Apple Music Sing for karaoke (from £10.99; apple.com). With some 90 million ad-free songs, Deezer Premium has high-fidelity lossless audio and offline listening, plus podcasts, radio stations and personalised suggestions. There’s…

Volunteering on safari in Kenya Going on safari can be eye-wateringly expensive, but one way of keeping costs down is to go along as a volunteer, says Annabel Venning in The Mail on Sunday. Projects Abroad sends people all over the world to help on conservation, education and medical projects, including to Kenya, where you can sign up to their giraffe and lion programme. At Soysambu, a conservancy in the Great Rift Valley, you might spend blissful hours “de-snaring”, which involves combing the bush for the thin loops of wire that poachers use to catch unsuspecting zebra, antelope and warthog. The land is “sensationally beautiful, with habitat ranging from arid scrub to lush forest”, and every day there is a “feast for the eyes”: bat-eared fox cubs and baby hyenas…

Carl Davis 1936-2023 Carl Davis, who has died aged 86, was a prolific and versatile composer, seemingly capable of producing music to match any occasion, said The Daily Telegraph. He made his name by writing new scores for silent movies (notably Abel Gance’s 1927 epic Napoléon); but he also collaborated with Paul McCartney on his Liverpool Oratorio, in 1991, and produced a “pastiche piano concerto” for the 1995 TV adaptation of Pride and Prejudice that became “almost as famous as Colin Firth’s wet shirt”. Unashamedly commercial, he sometimes used themes by Mozart or Beethoven to capture the mood he wanted to create, and he composed new works, and conducted concerts, at such a rate it was as “if music itself were going out of fashion”. Carl Davis was born in…

Simon & Schuster, one of the big five US book publishers, has been sold to the private equity firm KKR eight months after a federal judge had blocked its sale to rival publisher Penguin Random House (PRH) over competition concerns. KKR is paying $1.6bn in cash to owner Paramount Global, less than the $2.2bn agreed by PRH. “The business of book publishing is rarely a thriller,” said Lex in the Financial Times. But this saga, by contrast, has been a “page turner”. Big-name S&S authors, including Stephen King, publicly cheered the demise of the PRH deal. “But KKR has a reputation as an aggressive costcutter. That could end up spawning a whole new horror story.”…

Andrew Keith Andrew Keith, managing director of Selfridges, enjoyed an itinerant childhood, owing to a father who worked for Shell. He was born in Nigeria, and later lived in Oman and then Borneo, where his “idyllic” life was spent mostly barefoot. But it was in the much less carefree environs of Gordonstoun, the famously tough Scottish boarding school, that Keith discovered his love of fashion, says Sam Chambers in The Sunday Times. For that life-shaping development, Keith credits a copy of i-D magazine he found under a bed as he carried out cleaning duties. “It spoke to fashion, art, music and cultural identity – it gave me a connection to a wider world. So from being this timid boy, I discovered the power that fashion can bring… it was transformational.”…

In 1972 a young couple hopped on a ferry from Harwich, Essex, with £400 in their pockets. Six months later, broke, hungry and exhausted, they scrambled ashore on a beach on Australia’s remote North West Cape. They didn’t know it but the journey they had just made would change the lives of millions. The couple were Tony and Maureen Wheeler, and that trip became Across Asia on the Cheap, the first book in the Lonely Planet series of travel guides. Bashed out on a borrowed typewriter in a Sydney basement, it initially ran to just 1,500 copies – but it spawned a publishing empire that shifted 150 million guidebooks, gave employment to thousands and was eventually sold for a reported £130m at the end of the 2000s. Most importantly, it…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1375 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 21 August. Send it to The Week Crossword 1375, 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 7 Half-hearted successor to Mark, fighting another Mark (8) 9 Standard writer with no name (6) 10 Virile young man in place of fillies? (4) 11 Packing up jewellery from square (oddly enough) (6,4) 12 Overheard more coarse food retailer (6) 14 No longer engaged,…

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The Electoral Commission has apologised for a cyber-security breach, which may have compromised data on 40 million people. It said hackers had gained access to copies of the electoral registers that include the names and addresses of all those registered to vote; they may also have accessed emails sent to the Commission. Separately, the Police Service of Northern Ireland blamed human error for the publishing online of a spreadsheet containing the names, ranks and work addresses of all its officers and civilian staff.…

Ljubljana Flood plea: Slovenia was hit by severe flooding last week, after a month’s rain fell in less than 24 hours. At least six people died in what has been described as Slovenia’s worst natural disaster since 1991, when it declared independence from Yugoslavia. Landslides destroyed roads and bridges and swamped homes, and tens of thousands were left without electricity. The catastrophic weather affected about two-thirds of the country, and caused around $500m worth of damage. The government requested machinery from the EU to make roads passable, and asked Nato for assistance in the form of helicopters and prefabricated bridges. Odemira, Portugal Giant wildfire: Nearly 1,000 firefighters were this week battling a wildfire in southern Portugal that has scorched more than 7,000 hectares and forced the evacuation of at least…

1 Chiling O Guiry by Burk Thumoth, performed by Concerto Caledonia 2 The Birds in the Spring by Trad., performed by The Copper Family 3 To Be a Pilgrim by John Bunyan, tune based on the folk song Monk’s Gate, performed by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band 4 Dear Father, Pray Build Me a Boat by Trad., field recording performed by Sheila Smith 5 61 Highway Blues, written and performed by Mississippi Fred McDowell 6* Poor Sally Sits a-Weeping by Trad., performed by Dolly Collins 7 A Heart Needs a Home by Richard Thompson, performed by Richard and Linda Thompson 8 Going Home: Theme of the Local Hero, written and performed by Mark Knopfler Book: The Jackson Brodie novels by Kate Atkinson Luxury: a solar-powered fridge * Choice if allowed only one record…

A funeral parlour in El Salvador is offering clients Barbie-themed coffins. Isaac Villegas, of Alpha and Omega Funeral Home, said that he had stocked pink coffins before Barbie came out, but that the hype around the film had convinced him to line coffins with Barbie motifs, too. “I said, ‘We have to jump on this trend,’” he explained. “It has been a success.” Beyoncé is having toilet seats shipped to her on tour, so that she can always be sure of sitting on her own throne, The Sun reports. Roadies were seen wheeling a large crate backstage labelled “Beyoncé toilet seats”, though apparently it usually has black fabric draped over it, to disguise its contents. “Her team makes great effort to ensure she has her own comforts, and a personal…

GREECE The battle on the beaches of Mykonos Ta Nea (Athens) “We will fight them on the beaches” is becoming a popular war cry in Greece, says Ta Nea. Under Greek law, beaches should always be “public spaces”, meaning people shouldn’t have to pay to get access to them. So while bars can set up sunbeds with parasols (some charge €100 for a slot), these aren’t allowed to take up more than half of the available space on the shore. Yet all too often these rules are flouted by businesses, which routinely “take over” entire beaches with loungers: some even erect fences and employ heavies to turf out non-paying visitors. Worst affected has been the island of Mykonos, whose citizens have now launched a “reclaim the beach” movement. You should…

Although for decades he was greeted by cries of “on your bike” wherever he went, Norman Tebbit never told anyone to get on a bike, said John Elledge in The New Statesman. He merely recalled, at the Tory conference in 1981, that during the Depression, his father had pedalled around the country in search of work. It was a clever story, designed to suggest that an unemployment problem created by structural forces (partly of his government’s making) was the result of individual inertia. Now, 41 years on, the Tories are playing a similar trick – only this time, they really are suggesting that people should get on their bikes. On a visit to the HQ of Deliveroo last week, Mel Stride, the Work and Pensions Minister, opined that the food…

She is the classically trained flautist who has become a pop superstar on the back of her joyful, inclusive, body-positive image. So the allegations made last week against Lizzo have come as a “bombshell”, said Nadira Goffe on Slate. In a lawsuit, three dancers who worked with Lizzo’s Big Grrrls troupe allege that they were bullied, sexually harassed and even fat-shamed by the singer, 35, or members of her team. One of the trio says that Lizzo “hounded” her to touch the breasts of a nude performer on a visit to a strip club in Amsterdam. Another says that after she gained weight, Lizzo questioned her commitment to her job, something she alleges amounted to “thinly veiled” fat-shaming. The dancers also claim to have been subjected to unreasonable demands, and…

For several years, Henry Slade has been regarded as “one of English rugby’s most naturally gifted players”, said Gerard Meagher in The Guardian. The Exeter back played a crucial role in helping England reach the 2019 World Cup final, and has been a mainstay of the national side ever since. So it’s a shock to find him omitted this week from Steve Borthwick’s 33-man squad for the World Cup, which begins in France next month. Slade was apparently “blindsided” by the decision, said Daniel Schofield in The Daily Telegraph. But he’s paying the price for some indifferent recent performances, notably in this year’s Six Nations, and as a sub in last week’s poor warm-up game against Wales, which England lost 20-9. The absence of Slade, a creative playmaker, suggests that…

Open Throat by Henry Hoke Picador 176pp £14.99 The Week Bookshop £11.99 Henry Hoke’s “slim jewel of a novel” is narrated by a mountain lion living in the desert hills surrounding LA, said Marie-Helene Bertino in The New York Times. Inspired by the real-life case of P22 – a lion spotted prowling around the city in 2012 – it deploys its unconventional narrator (who identifies as queer) to brilliant comic effect. The novel abounds with “leonine misunderstandings”, said Rahul Raina in The Guardian: scarcity is rendered as “scare city”; money is “green paper”. In some novels, such jokes would be cloying, but here the writing is “so wry and muscular” that you’re “ready to go anywhere Hoke wants to take you”. Propulsive and eventually heartbreaking, this is an “instant classic…

Anne Desmet at Eames Fine Art Print Room Anne Desmet (b.1964) is unquestionably one of Britain’s finest printmakers, an artist who injects her linocuts and wood engravings with a subtlety that would make even the Old Masters jealous. Although her inspiration is partly the 18th century Italian obsession for capriccio, or the art of depicting (often imagined) architectural ruins, she is a master-chronicler of the modern built environment in Britain and elsewhere. That she has an uncanny knack for translating the fabric of cities to paper is not in doubt, but it’s her invented or exaggerated flourishes that make this show, Metamorphosis, such a delight. A view of Bishopsgate all but completely clad in painstakingly rendered scaffolding evokes a nightmare vision of a London to come; meanwhile, you feel William…

All-inclusive Tunisia escape Spend 7 nights at the Samira Club, a hotel directly on a beautiful beach just 5km from Hammamet. From £441pp (incl. London flights). 01234-230440, loveholidays.com. Depart 14 September. Striking Málaga hotel Enjoy incredible views over the Mediterranean when you stay 3 nights at the 5-star Kempinski Hotel Bahía. From £466pp b&b (excl. flights). 020-3024 8211, expedia.co.uk. Arrive 10 October. Five-night UAE retreat Radiant scenes and stunning coastlines are to be discovered at Mövenpick Resort Al Marjan Island. From £866pp half-board (incl. flights). 0871-474 3000, onthebeach.co.uk. Depart 26 September. In the heart of Marrakesh Stay four nights at Palais Tara & Spa, the former residence of an 18th century Moroccan minister. From £300pp b&b (excl. flights). 0330-137 3770, palaistara.com. Arrive 6 September.…

More than 1,000 bank accounts are being closed every day, and the Treasury has launched an urgent review of the “debanking” phenomenon, said Lucy Alderson in The Sunday Times. Sometimes the reasons for closures are straightforward. Banks close accounts where they suspect fraud, when customers are abusive to staff, or when they regularly exceed their overdraft. They can do the same if terms and conditions are broken – for example, if a personal account is used as a business account; if you move abroad; or if the account is not used for a set period (normally 12 to 24 months). According to Which?, accounts are wrongly closed in three in ten cases. There are actions you can take to minimise the risk of this. If you’re sending or receiving large…