Table of contents for 1453 in The Week

The problem with socialism is that, eventually, you run out of other people’s money. The truth of Margaret Thatcher’s famous adage was proved last week, said Guy Adams in the Daily Mail, when Birmingham City Council filed a section 114 notice, essentially declaring itself bankrupt. The Labour-run local authority – the largest in Europe – has long been a byword for incompetence and “financial profligacy”. Its flashy central library cost more than £180m to build. A new IT system was meant to cost £19m; the bill has exceeded £100m. The council has had to pay out more than £1bn in historic equal pay claims to female workers, with £650m still owing. Amid all this, Birmingham decided to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games, at a cost of £184m. Documents leaked to…

The Joneses, who are no longer keeping up, in Welsh rugby at least. The current squad, named last month, contains not a single player named Jones for the first time in Rugby World Cup history. In 2003, five Joneses started a World Cup match. The proportion of people named Jones in Wales has halved to 5% since 1881. John Barnes, who was fighting off bankruptcy. The footballer was once the game’s highest-paid player, but his finances are now perilous and he is being chased by the taxman for £238,425. Flashy spending in his youth and bad investments have been blamed for his troubles. Where other former footballers have grand country estates, Barnes still lives in the £1m house he bought on the Wirral in 2006, and it still has a…

42% of adults aged 18 to 35 across 30 countries, ranging from the UK and France to China, say military rule is a good way of running a country, compared with 20% of those aged over 56. Among 18- to 35-year-olds, 57% think democracy is better than any other form of government, compared with 71% of those over 56. Open Society Foundations 73% of people in the UK say that work is a very or rather important part of their life, the lowest level in the 24 countries surveyed. This compares with 96% in Italy and 94% in France. In the Philippines and Indonesia, 99% say it’s very important. Asked if work should come first, even if it cuts into leisure time, 22% of Brits agree, compared with 39% in…

Alice Cooper’s chicken Alice Cooper’s reputation as the godfather of shock rock (pictured) was established in 1969, when he was reported to have bitten the head off a live chicken during a concert in Toronto, says Will Hodgkinson in The Times. Of course, it never happened. To this day, he has no idea how the chicken came to be on stage. “I had never been on a farm in my life, so I was not used to something that had feathers and wings and could fly. I picked it up and threw it into the audience, thinking someone would take it home, call it Alice and make it their pet. Instead the audience – actually, the people in the front row, who were all in wheelchairs – tore it to…

More than one in six staff working in NHS England are not British: over 5% are from Europe, and over 11% are from the rest of the world. This varies according to role; about 33% of all doctors are foreign, and 25% of nurses and health visitors. In London, they make up nearly 30% of all staff; in the North East and Yorkshire, under 10%. More than 200 nationalities are represented. The five biggest contributors, in order, are: India, the Philippines, Nigeria, Ireland and Poland. Foreign workers have played a vital role since the beginning. Many of the nurses during the NHS’s infancy were Irish-born, and in 1949 it began recruiting from across the empire, particularly the Caribbean. In recent years, the ethics of recruiting from poorer countries have been…

We should fight addiction with recreation Kathryn J. Edin et al. Los Angeles Times To understand the causes of America’s worsening opioid crisis, say Kathryn J. Edin et al., consider Clay County in eastern Kentucky. Its experience is typical of many poor rural communities in central Appalachia. In 2008, at its peak, the county recorded 2.91 opioid prescriptions for every man, woman and child. When crackdowns made pills less available, methamphetamine and illicit fentanyl followed. Asked why opioid abuse is so rife, citizens and local leaders in Clay County almost all give the same reply: there is “nothing to do here but drugs”. These areas aren’t just mourning the loss of mining jobs; they’re mourning the loss of local cinemas, barber shops, bowling alleys and all the other places that…

More than a million lives have been saved in the past four decades owing to developments in cancer care, according to Cancer Research UK. Its analysis found that advances in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the disease had cut death rates by a quarter since the 1980s, and that without this progress, an extra 1.2 million lives would have been lost. Falling rates of deaths from lung cancer account for the largest number of lives saved (well over 500,000), followed by stomach and bowel cancer. Anti-smoking efforts, screening programmes, new drugs, and the personalisation of cancer treatment have all helped, says the charity. However, progress has not been equal for all cancers: for instance, liver cancer death rates have tripled since the 1970s. NHS waiting times for treatment are…

It can feel as if Britain isn’t much good at anything any more, but when it comes to the offshore wind industry, this country is a true “global powerhouse”, said Ben Marlow in The Daily Telegraph. The UK’s 44 offshore sites – made up of over 2,500 vast turbines up to 260 metres high – accounted for 27% of its electricity generation last year. In terms of installed capacity, Britain, with its long coastline, shallow sea beds and good wind speeds, is second only to China. But this leading position is now under threat, “thanks to the absolute shambles that was the latest auction for renewable contracts”. Seven projects were eligible, with potential to power an estimated eight million homes; but in the event, not a single bid was submitted,…

“There is a Providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children, and the United States of America.”Otto von Bismarck, quoted on Jewish Press “You can always tell jazz by the way the people on the stage are having more fun than the audience.”Rob Gretton, manager of Joy Division, quoted on The Knowledge “Age is something that doesn’t matter, unless you are a cheese.”Luis Buñuel, quoted on USA Today “No matter how much money you have here, you can’t seem to get Rice Krispies.”Luther Blissett on living in Italy, quoted on Football365 “Anybody who likes my house, I am sure I will get along with.”Marilyn Monroe, quoted in Architectural Digest “Nothing links man to man like the frequent passage from hand to hand of cash.”Walter Sickert, quoted in The Economic Times “We don’t…

It was an “emotional end” to a stellar career, said Jeremy Wilson in The Daily Telegraph. Mo Farah ran his final competitive race on the streets of Newcastle last Sunday: he has won the 13.1-mile Great North Run on six earlier occasions, but this time the 40-year-old could only manage fourth place, finishing four minutes outside his previous best. “Running saved me,” the four-time Olympic gold medallist declared afterwards. It was an allusion to his extraordinary life story, the details of which he revealed in a documentary last year. Trafficked to the UK from Somalia at the age of nine, the 11-year-old Hounslow schoolboy had been “working as a domestic servant for a local family” when he was first introduced to the sport. He never looked back. Farah “heads into…

To The Times The key point highlighted by the horrific story of Martha Mills is not that patients and their families should have the right to challenge their doctors, as they already have that right; it is that the culture of the ward at King’s College Hospital did not welcome challenge – from patients, families or anyone else. Small wonder, then, that the existing right of Martha’s parents to ask for a second opinion was not drawn to their attention. That is what now needs to change: we must make it easy – and confidential – for patients and families to ask for a second opinion. There must be posters, helplines, leaflets and media coverage, but most of all there must be a change of culture. Any doctor should welcome…

by Stephen King Hodder 448pp £25 The Week Bookshop £19.99 Stephen King’s latest novel is both a “nail-biting crime fiction and a dystopian vision of contemporary America”, said Joan Smith in The Sunday Times. Set at the height of the pandemic, when rows over mask wearing and vaccines were raging, it centres on a series of mysterious disappearances in a Midwestern town. The perpetrators, it emerges, are “two of the most unusual” serial killers in fiction – a pair of retired college professors, whose veneer of ordinariness has long “protected them from suspicion”. On their trail is private detective Holly Gibney, who has appeared in King’s fiction before, but never in a “starring role”. It’s a good thing that the “dogged”, “resourceful” and neurodivergent Holly has been given such a…

Showing now The Southbank Centre launches its Classical Music Season with concerts by Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra performing Mahler’s Resurrection. 21-24 September, Southbank Centre, London SE1 (southbankcentre.co.uk). Black Atlantic: Power, People, Resistance draws on the University of Cambridge’s museum and library collections for a wide-ranging exhibition that raises questions about the university’s role in the slave trade. Until 7 January 2024, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk). Book now Lolita Chakrabarti’s stage adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel Hamnet transfers to the West End following its sold-out run at the RSC. 30 September-17 February 2024, Garrick Theatre, London WC2 (rsc.org.uk). This retrospective of the career of Philip Guston, one of the most influential artists of the mid-20th century, was postponed two years ago because of concerns about his…

● Good balance is critical to a host of everyday activities, and maintaining it is one of the best ways of avoiding falls and fractures in older age. Just standing on one foot while you brush your teeth can help. If you are unstable, start with short bursts. ● Do squats. Sit on an imaginary chair – back straight, arms forward, feet comfortably apart, toes pointing slightly outward. Your knees should be bent and over your toes, eyes looking forward. Try sets of ten with a 30-second rest, aim for three sets. If tricky, start with an actual chair. ● The bird dog: starting on a mat on all fours, slowly extend opposite arm and leg, as if pointing in front and behind. Keep an even line over your back,…

Gayle Hunnicutt 1943-2023 Gayle Hunnicutt was a Texas-born actress who made headlines for her marriages to two famous but contrasting British men, said The Daily Telegraph: the “wayward” young film star David Hemmings, and the writer and journalist Simon Jenkins. Strikingly beautiful, she might have had a more illustrious film career had she stayed in Hollywood, but she considered herself to have had a lucky escape. “In California I was going down the path of being built up on my looks,” she explained. In Britain, she was able to establish herself as a serious actress in a series of dramatic roles. She was widely acclaimed for her lead part in a 1972 BBC TV adaptation of Henry James’s The Golden Bowl, and also appeared frequently on stage in plays ranging…

What happened India’s PM, Narendra Modi, sought to showcase his country’s prestige and power as it hosted the annual G20 summit of the world’s biggest economies. Among those in attendance at the meeting in New Delhi last weekend were President Biden, France’s President Macron, and Rishi Sunak, who referred to himself as “India’s son-in-law” and was joined by his wife Akshata Murty, an Indian citizen. China’s President Xi and Russia’s Vladimir Putin were notable absences. Modi used the summit to promote India as “the mother of democracy”, and also fuelled speculation that he may change its name to its Hindi equivalent, Bharat (see page 16). In a joint declaration welcomed by Moscow, G20 leaders failed to condemn Russia’s war in Ukraine, lamenting only the “suffering” of the Ukrainian people. Sunak…

In a reversal of “happy hour” promotions, the UK’s biggest pub company is to charge about 20p more per pint at peak times, to cover its rising costs. Stonegate Group – which owns 4,000 pubs, including the Slug and Lettuce chain – said that its “dynamic pricing” scheme would apply to 800 venues. It has previously raised prices during one-off events, such as World Cups. A new generation of gamers are laying down swords and guns in favour of a more gentle experience, The Times reports. For instance, PowerWash Simulator – in which players blast grime from houses and cars – has amassed seven million players. Other popular games include Animal Crossing, which involves filling a desert island with cute animals.…

The UK has struck a deal to rejoin Horizon, the EU’s flagship scientific research programme, the Government announced last week. Associate membership of the programme had been agreed as part of the Brexit deal in 2020, but the UK had been blocked from taking it up because of disagreements about the Northern Ireland Protocol. Now, however, after months of negotiation, scientists and institutions in the UK will be able to apply for money from the £81bn fund. According to EU estimates, Britain will pay around £2.2bn per year to participate in both Horizon and Copernicus, the EU’s Earth observation space programme (see page 45).…

Markowa, Poland Family beatified: All nine members of a Polish family executed by the Nazis for sheltering Jews have been beatified by the Vatican in a ceremony in southeast Poland. Józef Ulma and his wife Wiktoria were shot in 1944 along with their seven children and the eight Jews they’d been hiding. It’s the first time an entire family has been beatified. Some 30,000 people were at the ceremony, Andrzej Duda, Poland’s president, among them. The ruling Law and Justice party has been at pains to suppress criticism of Poles who colluded in the Holocaust, preferring to emphasise cases of those who helped Jews. Caivano, Italy Crime clampdown: Italy’s hard-right government has announced a clampdown on juvenile crime, in the wake of a series of high-profile crimes committed by youths.…

“I would ask country dwellers still inclined to block wind turbines to see that they are in fact beautiful. They are prettier than power stations, less destructive than fracking, certainly lovelier than floods, fires, droughts and other effects of climate change. They enrich the nation with the help of its abundant wind, and make us less dependent on fossil-fuel despots. Wind turbines are part of a long rural tradition of robust practical structures that also includes barns, mills, viaducts, canals and others that have become beloved and protected. I am always happy to see an old windmill. It shouldn’t be too hard to love their modern equivalents.” Rowan Moore in The Observer…

A tragedy born of gross bad management Camilla Long The Sunday Times I can’t bear to read the story of Martha Mills, says Camilla Long. It makes me too furious, and not just because it involves the avoidable death of a bright, happy 13-year-old. It’s the other stuff, too: the “slick-worded, faux-hangdog NHS sorrys. The expensive, pointless reviews, the empty promises to change.” How often must we hear this rubbish? Martha’s mother, Merope Mills, relates how, when her daughter was admitted to a ward with an injured pancreas two years ago after falling off her bike, the family was told again and again they were “in the best place”. They weren’t. When Martha got an infection, doctors resisted referring her to a more acute ward for reasons that seemed to…

A romantic myth demolished Opposites are said to attract; but when scientists tested this idea, they found that, in fact, we generally pair up with people who are strikingly similar to ourselves. The researchers, from the University of Colorado Boulder, analysed data from existing studies involving millions of couples going back to 1903, to see how likely they were to share 22 specific traits and habits. They also looked at data on 80,000 couples in the UK, in which 133 traits were at issue. Both analyses revealed that couples tended to be broadly aligned on more than 80% of the traits examined. These included political and religious views, education levels and attitudes to drinking and smoking, but common ground was also found for everything from the wearing of glasses to…

Miriam Margolyes did not warm to Arnold Schwarzenegger when she worked with him on the 1999 film End of Days. “He’s a very boring man,” she told The Guardian. He was also boorish. During rehearsals, she let slip a fart. He was so offended that when they were filming her death scene – which involved him pinning her to the ground – he farted “loudly, purposefully and malevolently” into her face, then “laughed uproariously”. Papers filed during Kevin Costner’s bitter divorce from Christine Baumgartner, his wife of 18 years, have revealed the extent of their joint spending. It seems the couple blew $40,000 a month on “gifts and flowers”, and withdrew $9,000 a month in cash from ATMs. Baumgartner also spent $18,000 on clothing and $3,000 on beauty products. Having…

In 1965, Ronnie Biggs, a co-conspirator in the Great Train Robbery, broke out of Wandsworth prison by scaling its wall with “an improvised rope ladder”, said The Times. Last week, 21-year-old former soldier and terror suspect Daniel Khalife made a “similarly daring getaway” from the same jail, this time allegedly by strapping himself to the underside of a delivery van using his own bed sheets. After a 75-hour manhunt, Khalife, who was due to stand trial in November on charges of planting fake explosives at a military base, and collecting information useful to a hostile state (reported to be Iran), was recaptured by a plain-clothes police officer who pulled him from a bicycle on a towpath in west London. As a former inmate of HMP Wandsworth, “I’m not shocked at…

Ever since Coco Gauff first burst onto the scene as a 15-year-old qualifier at Wimbledon in 2019, it seemed inevitable she would one day win a grandslam title, said Stuart Fraser in The Times. And last Saturday, inside the world’s biggest tennis stadium, that moment “finally came to pass”. On a “thrilling evening of drama”, the American battled back from a set down to beat second seed Aryna Sabalenka. It was a match that will perhaps be remembered less for its quality than “for the way in which Gauff was willed to victory by a feverish capacity crowd of 24,000 people”. Nervous and error-prone throughout the first set, she claimed a crucial break early in the second set, and rarely looked back after that, running out a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2…

Tennis Novak Djokovic won his 24th grand-slam title at Flushing Meadow, beating Daniil Medvedev in straight sets in the final. The 36-year-old vowed to “keep going”. Football England and Ukraine drew 1-1 in their Euro qualifier. Kyle Walker equalised for England after Oleksandr Zinchenko had put Ukraine ahead. Cricket England and New Zealand drew their four-match T20 series 2-2. Basketball Germany won the Basketball World Cup for the first time, beating Serbia 83-77 in the final.…

It’s nearly 40 years since Liz Lochhead produced her landmark stage adaptation of Dracula, said Joyce McMillan in The Scotsman. So it’s “more than time” for another “groundbreaking”, modern and distinctively Scottish response to Bram Stoker’s novel from a brilliant female writer. Morna Pearson’s Dracula: Mina’s Reckoning – which had a run at His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen, and is now touring – moves the action from Whitby to Aberdeenshire, an area Stoker knew well. The play is “shot through with the profound questioning of gender identity” – it employs a cast of female and non-binary actors – and focuses on the devoted friendship between Lucy Westenra and Mina Murray, and their “rebellion against the looming constraints of respectable Victorian marriage”. It all makes for a “magnificent” drama. Director Sally Cookson’s…

“It’s been a bumpy road for east London gangland drama Top Boy,” said Emily Baker in The i Paper. When it started in 2011 on Channel 4, it won a dedicated following and critical acclaim. For reasons that are not clear, it was cancelled after only two seasons; but the show had a powerful fan in the shape of the Canadian rapper Drake, and largely thanks to him it returned on Netflix in 2019. Now, four years on, this “enthralling” drama is coming to an end “once again”. This series picks up where the last left off: with the murder of an upstart who had been tipped to take over the drugs empire presided over by gangster Dushane (Ashley Walters). Now, Dushane faces further problems with the arrival of a…

A curiosity of recent British history is the speed with which recently disliked leaders “become more palatable in light of their abysmal replacements”, said Emma Brockes in The Guardian. Theresa May appears “a model of sanity compared to her successors”. And the unveiling of her official parliamentary portrait last week triggered “something almost like warmth”. Kudos must go to the artist Saied Dai who has, in spite of her record in office, turned May into an embodiment of noble statesmanship. The painting “combines a Bloomsbury-era vibe of sharp angles and sludgy colours with what feels like a Napoleonic cross-body positioning of May’s arm”. Her expression is both rather imperious and humorous. “Look at me,” she appears to be saying. “Don’t seem so terrible now, do I? Suckers.” The painting will…

Pat and Natasha worry that Helen’s running too much; she also fobs off the beef bourguignon Pat has made. Brad and Mia take their relationship further. At the shop, Susan teases happy Mia about Brad, and she and Stella muse about young love. It inspires Stella to apologise to Pip – they’ll give things a go. Pat and Henry talk about what happened with Rob, and later Helen apologises to Henry for her harsh words. George tells Brad he’s having a hard time, and pressurises him to change his plans with Mia and go out with him instead. Pat challenges Helen about not eating; initially denying that anything is wrong, Helen admits she’s struggling. Sykesy is hurt and angry when Ben reveals he’s leaving The Laurels to go back to…

Every baker needs a classic chocolate chip cookie recipe, says Matt Adlard. I like them slightly crispy on the outside, with a soft and chewy centre. By using muscovado sugar, we get more of that molasses flavour and the cookie retains more moisture, resulting in the perfect texture. I always use the best chocolate I can get my hands on for these, as it makes a huge difference in the flavour. Makes 12 110g unsalted butter, softened 120g dark muscovado sugar 80g granulated/caster sugar 2g sea salt 50g eggs 225g all-purpose/plain flour 5g corn flour 5g baking soda 2g baking powder 180g chopped dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids, plus more for topping Special equipment: stand mixer, with paddle attachment 3 × baking trays/sheets cookie cutter • In the bowl of a…

The Bluebird Penthouse in Umberleigh, Devon, is a restored 1950s caravan, connected to a biomass boiler. It has views over the Taw Valley, and there’s a hot tub in a converted Land Rover (sleeps two, from £130/night; littleplaceinthecountry.com). Fishing Hut overlooks a river near Lauder, in the Scottish Borders. One end is a vintage caravan, the other a wooden cabin; there’s an eco loo and a fire pit (from £120 for two nights, sleeps three; oneoffplaces.co.uk). Van Goff, in Powys, is a retro static caravan with modern additions (shower, fridge and loo). It has a wood burner and a chiminea on a raised deck (sleeps three/four, from £190 for two nights; canopyandstars.co.uk). Billed as “Pontins meets Palm Springs”, Club Jupiter caravan near Margate, Kent, has had a mid-century modernist makeover…

Hiking with Hemingway The mountains of the Sierra de Guadarrama were the site of the fierce Spanish Civil War battles that inspired Hemingway’s 1940 novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. Today, they’re a popular escape from Madrid, only 30 miles away, says James Patterson in The Sunday Times – and yet you can still walk for hours here in solitude. On one of The Natural Adventure’s self-guided, Hemingway-themed hiking trips, you’ll stay at good hotels and enjoy daily luggage transfers as you make your way from the “huge” palace-monastery of El Escorial to the historic city of Segovia. En route you’ll pass by various reminders of the war, including the “pharaonic” tomb of General Franco, and the Puente de la Cantina, on which Hemingway is said to have modelled the…

Nechama Tec 1931-2023 Nechama Tec, who has died aged 92, was a Polish-American Holocaust survivor, sociologist and historian whose best-known book sought to answer a question that was often posed to her, in relation to the millions of Jews murdered by the Nazis: “Why didn’t they fight back?” That there had been uprisings at Auschwitz and Dachau, and in the Warsaw Ghetto, was well documented, said The Times of Israel. But these had been failures. Tec honed in on a resistance movement that had scarcely been touched upon by historians. Published in 1993, Defiance was a riveting account of the Jewish partisans who, from bases in the forests of what was then Poland (now Belarus), “rescued their fellow Jews from extermination and fought the German occupiers and their collaborators”, under…

Apple unveiled its iPhone 15 this week, confirming its long-expected switch to USB-C in place of its own lightning port, and revealing that its top-of-the-line Pro model has extended camera zoom. The iPhones themselves have “stopped getting thinner, but the excitement surrounding the company’s unveiling of new versions of its ubiquitous smartphone keeps dwindling”, said Robert Cyran on Reuters Breakingviews. Apple’s most innovative feat of recent years, perhaps, has been “persuading investors to pay a fatter multiple for slowing revenue growth”. But unless its labs can create some exciting new gadgets, it’s “hard to see” how investors will get “much fatter” from here.…

Humans are prone to behavioural mistakes and biases that work against us when we’re investing, says David Brenchley in The Times. A key one is loss aversion: we “feel the pain of a loss twice as much as we feel the joy of a gain”, leading us to sell too early. According to data from the financial firm Morningstar, DIY investors typically miss out on a fifth of the returns made by the funds they invest in due to poor timing and over-interpreting the significance of the recent past. We tend to “sell after poor performance and buy after good performance – typically the worst time to do either”. Another common mistake is failure to diversify. Check your fund investments to make sure there’s not too much overlap, and consider…

Rick Haythornthwaite City veteran Rick Haythornthwaite, newly announced as the next chair of NatWest, has run the boards of some of Britain’s most high-profile businesses, such as Centrica and Ocado. The Treasury is confident that he’s the right person to steady the ship following the Nigel Farage debanking fiasco, says Simon Foy in The Daily Telegraph. He has never run a bank, but when he was chairman of MasterCard, he was once grilled at an AGM over why the firm couldn’t prevent far-right hate groups from using its services. “If it is lawful, then we need to respect that transaction,” he explained. “If it’s something that is swimming against the tide of society, it’s for the society to rise up and change the law and then we can move on…

The week’s best shares Ashtead Technology Investors’ Chronicle The energy trilemma – security, affordability and sustainability – and increased offshore activity are playing to the subsea services group’s strengths. Investing in its fleet to meet demand. Revenues and profits are up. Buy. 419p. Atome Energy The Mail on Sunday Strong demand is fuelling Atome, which makes zero-carbon fertiliser in Paraguay using hydroelectric power, water, air and limestone. Should move into commercial production by 2026. Further projects in pipeline. Buy. 82.5p. Gamma Communications Investors’ Chronicle The cloud communications firm’s revenues and profits are up 9%. User numbers have doubled, and the potential when BT switches off telephone lines and moves to internet cables, in 2025, is vast. Buy. £10.83. IG Design Group The Sunday Times This big player in greetings cards,…

Shortly before Easter, Glyn Potts began to suspect that the children had not been eating. Potts, a statuesque headmaster in his mid-40s, watched uneasily from the mezzanine over the central lobby of Newman Catholic College in Oldham. Every lunchtime, hundreds of schoolchildren materialised from all directions, descending noisily down staircases to the benches below. Many rushed off to collect hot food or to the ever-popular panini counter. But from his vantage point above, Potts could see that some of them were hanging back until right before the bell rang to signal the end of the lunch break. More and more kids had begun sidling up to the dinner ladies at the end of lunch break, asking if any chips were going spare. These were the “jam” kids, Potts’ term for…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1380 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 25 September. Send it to The Week Crossword 1380, 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 6 Rustic and agreeable long forgotten (7) 7 Bang on about returns in unopened message (5) 9 Empty pub close to failure (4) 10 On the face of it, play’s about keeping mum? (10) 11 Humiliation doesn’t start in the cellar (8) 13 It’s risky…

A 102-year-old former RAF pilot was set this week to abseil 17 storeys down the side of a London hospital, to raise money for charity. Colin Bell, a retired surveyor who flew Mosquito bombers during the War and won the DFC, was due to launch himself off the Royal London Hospital’s helipad – one of the highest helipads in Europe. “I may be 102 years old but I want to do my bit,” he said. “I’m glad to be doing something that can help – quite frankly, at my age I’m glad to be doing anything!” An American researcher who fell critically ill while mapping a cave in Turkey was rescued this week, thanks to an international operation involving 200 cavers and medics. Mark Dickey, 40, was around 1km under…

Buddy Oliver, the 12-year-old son of celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, who was reportedly awarded his own TV show, in which he will teach other children how to cook simple meals. Buddy already has a strong YouTube following, and his father has rejected suggestions that he is just a “nepo-baby”, trading off his name. Rolling Stones fans, with the imminent release of the band’s first album of new songs for nearly 20 years. Hackney Diamonds features guest stars including Lady Gaga and former Stones bassist Bill Wyman. The Stones’ late drummer, Charlie Watts, plays on two of the tracks. The album is due out on 20 October.…

Britain’s environmental watchdog, the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), has found that the Government and two public bodies may have broken the law by allowing too many untreated sewage releases. By law, the discharge of raw sewage into rivers is only allowed under “exceptional circumstances”, such as heavy rain. But the OEP said that Defra, the Environment Agency and Ofwat may all have permitted “such discharges to occur more often”. They have been given two months to respond.…

Portland, Oregon Drugs U-turn: Nearly three years ago, Oregon became the first state to decriminalise the minor possession of drugs including heroin. But now councillors in the city of Portland have voted unanimously to ban the use of hard drugs in public places, in an effort to cut the number of fatal overdoses and assuage public disquiet about rising street crime and antisocial behaviour. The reforms, which were designed to shift addicts from prisons to rehabilitation centres, were supported by 58% of Oregon voters in 2020. But since then there has been a sharp rise in the rate of overdose deaths; and in Portland, there is growing concern about the number of people using crystal meth and the synthetic opioid fentanyl in the street, and associated crime. The measure approved…

A yoga class in the village of Chapel St Leonards in Lincolnshire was mistaken for a “ritual mass murder scene” after two dog walkers saw several people lying on the floor in candlelight, and called the police. Yoga teacher Millie Laws said that she’d been banging a shamanic drum and walking between her students, who’d assumed the “corpse pose”, when she noticed the dog walkers peering though the window. Five police cars blaring sirens then descended on the scene. “We are not part of any mad cult or crazy clubs,” the venue later clarified. The streets of a small town in Portugal ran red last week when two tanks belonging to a local distillery burst, releasing nearly 2.2 million litres of red wine. No injuries were reported from the spill…

GERMANY We must learn to forgive the sins of youth Cicero (Berlin) Is it fair for a middle-aged man to be held to account for wrongs he committed as a teenager? The revelation that Bavaria’s deputy premier, Hubert Aiwanger, had as a schoolboy distributed a pamphlet mocking the Holocaust, has exposed him to public pillory and demands that he resign. The pamphlet, written by his brother, was undeniably revolting, says Volker Boehme-Neßler: it advertised a fictitious competition to find “the biggest traitor to the Fatherland”, first prize being a “free flight through the chimney in Auschwitz”. But Aiwanger has completely distanced himself from it (“I did some shit in my youth”) and apologised. And as we know, adolescents often “make rash decisions”: they’ve little life experience and are searching for…

The earthquake struck shortly after 11pm local time last Friday, said Ruth Michaelson in The Observer. The most powerful in terms of magnitude (estimated at 6.8) to hit Morocco in more than 120 years, it brought chaos to Marrakech: at least 17 people died and dozens of buildings in the historic city collapsed. But it was the poor rural villages in the High Atlas Mountains near the epicentre of the quake, around 45 miles southwest of Marrakech, that really bore the brunt, with a death toll of at least 2,900. As the dirt roads leading to these communities were cleared of debris, rescue teams discovered appalling scenes of devastation, said Peter Beaumont in The Guardian. Whole villages were reduced to rubble. People had to dig their loved ones out of…

Three people, including an 11-year-old girl, were viciously attacked by an out-of-control American bully XL dog in Birmingham on Saturday. A video showing the attack, which circulated on social media, is “horrific”, said Julia Lewis in The Spectator. The child is mauled as she lies on the ground. The dog then turns on two men who intervene, dragging one to the ground before going for his head and neck. Concern is mounting about American bully dogs, bred by crossing pit bull terriers with other bulldog breeds; the largest type, the bully XL, can weigh more than nine stone. Since 2021, they have caused at least 11 deaths in the UK. That year, Jack Lis, a ten-year-old boy, was killed by an eight-stone XL named Beast, in Caerphilly, South Wales. In…

Given how abysmal their recent form has been, Steve Borthwick’s England went into the World Cup with little expected of them, said Stephen Jones in The Sunday Times. But now “the nightmare is over” – for the time being at least. In Marseille on Saturday, England’s campaign got under way with a 27-10 win over Argentina, a victory underpinned by a “fantastic work ethic” and an outstanding performance by George Ford, who kicked all of England’s points – a “kicking performance even Jonny Wilkinson would have found hard to match”, said Robert Kitson in The Observer. In the “most satisfying big game of his career”, the Sale fly-half struck six penalties and three drop goals – England’s task admittedly being made easier by the inept play of their opponents. What…

In the curators’ defence To The Guardian It was a pleasure to read the article by Charlotte Higgins, in which she stands up for the British Museum curators. This sad episode has been characterised by ill-informed comment that has little to do with what has come to pass. There are two points to make, apart from condemning the tardiness in responding to the whistleblower and the apparent attempt at a cover-up. First, the Museum has not in modern times been the subject of a major theft, as has been the fate of so many museums; and, second, it is virtually impossible for museums that hold thousands of small, valuable objects to prevent theft by a determined member of staff. Indeed, there are many such incidents known, and I suspect unknown,…

by Fuchsia Dunlop Particular 480pp £25 The Week Bookshop £19.99 Of all the world’s cuisines, China’s is among the most “adored”, said Bee Wilson in The Sunday Times. But would people “adore it even more” if they understood it better? That is the suggestion made by Fuchsia Dunlop in her “wonderful” new book, “a brilliantly informative appreciation of Chinese food past and present, told through a series of essential ingredients and dishes”. The Chinese food generally available in the West, Dunlop says, is a “bastardised” version of the real thing, reflecting none of its “sophistication and artistry”, nor its huge regional variety. Take stir-fry. In Britain, this tends to be thought of as little more than “flinging some ingredients into a wok”. In China, “stir-frying is not a single way…

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe, 2018 (HarperCollins £10.99). A superb account of how the IRA worked in the Troubles, with a focus on the abduction of Jean McConville in 1972. Relentless, unsettling, dispassionate, with a narrative kick in the tail like a fictional thriller. One of the most chilling sentences from a former killer, suffering posttraumatic stress disorder: “You didn’t just have to risk your life, you had to kill people.” But don’t read this if your name is Gerry Adams. Oh boy. The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch, 1973 (Vintage £9.99). I never bought the idea that Iris Murdoch’s novels were rich in philosophical content. But my goodness, could she tell a story. This is her best novel in my opinion, much better than the diffuse The Sea,…

Programmes George Michael: Portrait of an Artist Directed by Wham!’s former manager, this “definitive” documentary charts the star’s rise from teen pin-up to one of the great singer-songwriters of his age. Interviewees include Stevie Wonder and Stephen Fry. Sun 17 Sep, C4 21:00 (110mins). The Truth about the “Skinny” Jab Anna Richardson explores the science – and media hype – around the new generation of weight-loss drugs. Tue 19 Sep, C4 20:00 (60mins). Rise of the Nazis: The Manhunt At the end of WWII, the Allies went in search of high-ranking Nazis so that they could be put on trial at Nuremberg. Tue 19 Sep, BBC2 21:00 (60mins). Secrets of Our Universe In this family friendly three-parter, the astronaut Tim Peake explores the secrets of the universe, taking in black…

Maritime cities Head off on a relaxing 10-night cruise from Bristol to France, Belgium and The Netherlands. From £472pp full-board (excl. flights). 020-3514 3154, iglucruise.com. Depart 15 October. Capital Region USA Travel through Washington, Maryland and Virginia over ten nights. From £1,640pp (incl. flights & accomm.). 020-8742 8299, americaasyoulikeit.com. 1 October to 15 November departures. Mallorcan farmhouse stay Spend a week in Son Ferragut de Baix, a four-bedroom farmhouse in Pollensa with a large pool. From £149pp self-catering (based on 8 sharing). 0800-074 0122, jamesvillas.co.uk. Arrive 27 September. Five-star Jersey break Situated in the heart of St. Helier, the stylish The Club Hotel & Spa has two nights from £179pp b&b (incl. flights). 020-8511 1705, jetlineholidays.com. Depart 25 October.…

The space race will fire up the economy Matthew Lynn The Daily Telegraph A new, Asian-led space race has begun – and it has the potential to turbocharge the global economy and lift the world out of our low-growth, low-innovation rut, says Matthew Lynn. Last month, India landed a spacecraft on the south pole of the Moon; last week, Japan launched a lander that is due to touch down next February. South Korea has an advanced lunar programme, and China is committed to a manned mission by 2030. Back in the 1960s and early 1970s, the first space race drove technological innovation and kickstarted industries that are essential to modern life, especially in computing and communications. This time round, we can’t know what technologies will emerge: that’s not how science…