Table of contents for 1511 in The Week

What happened Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed by Israeli forces in southern Gaza last week, ending a yearlong manhunt for the architect of the 7 October attacks. Israel said that Sinwar had been “eliminated” during a chance encounter with its troops in the city of Rafah. The unit had fired on three armed men during a routine patrol. When one of the trio fled into a building, the troops sent a surveillance drone in pursuit. The man was covered in dust and seemed to be dead, but he then hurled a stick at the drone – so the unit called in tank fire. It was only later that the Israelis identified the body as Sinwar’s. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the news, but said that it marked only “the…

Controversy of the week “Many politicians would kill to be in Rachel Reeves’s position,” said The Economist. For her first Budget, on 30 October, the Chancellor has “the benefit of an unassailably large majority in Parliament, a leaderless opposition and almost five years before the next election”. If ever there was a moment to reshape tax and spending in the UK so as to ignite growth, as she aims to, “this is it”. True, Reeves has to find £20bn to £30bn “to stop Britain’s feeble public services from crumbling further”, but that shouldn’t be impossible in a state that raises more than £800bn per year in tax. Unfortunately, though, most of the signs so far “are uninspiring”. Reeves “has trailed a slapdash effort, cobbling together revenue-raisers while trying to wriggle…

Labour activists, after Donald Trump’s campaign formally accused them of “election interference”. Some 100 members are believed to have flown to the US to support Kamala Harris in battleground states. The Labour Party said the trip was at their own expense, and noted that activists from all parties have assisted in US presidential campaigns, but much will depend on the detail: US law allows foreigners to assist in elections provided they are not compensated and are not involved in decision-making. Windermere, with reports that United Utilities may have dumped sewage into it repeatedly, and illegally, over three years. According to a BBC analysis, 140 million litres of waste water were pumped into the lake between 2021 and 2023, and United Utilities failed to report most of it. Imran Khan, who…

Amsterdam Uganda plan: The Dutch government is considering a plan to send rejected African asylum seekers to Uganda to await deportation to their home countries. Speaking at last week’s European Council summit, which was dominated by the issue of migration, PM Dick Schoof said the proposal was “serious”, but that “a lot still needs to be worked out”. Last year, 484,000 non-EU citizens were ordered to leave the bloc, but only about 91,500 complied, and the idea of creating offshore “return hubs”, along the lines of the Dutch proposal, now has the support of more than half the EU’s 27 members. Unlike Italy’s reception centre in Albania (see page 16), which would process migrants rescued at sea, these centres would hold people who have reached Europe and had their applications…

“I belong to the last generation of Americans who grew up without the internet in our pocket. We went online, but also, miraculously, we went offline. The clunky things we called computers didn’t come with us. There were disadvantages, to be sure. We got lost a lot. We were frequently bored. Factual disputes could not be resolved by consulting Wikipedia on our phones; people remained wrong for hours, even days. But our lives also had a certain specificity. Stoned on a city bus, stumbling through a forest, swaying in a crowded punk club, we were never anywhere other than where we were.” Ben Tarnoff in The New Yorker…

Officers betrayed by their superiors Niall Gooch The Spectator There are many things to criticise about Britain’s police, says Niall Gooch. But to call them “trigger-happy”, racist “bigots” – the oft-used slur that has resurfaced in the wake of the police shooting of south London gang member Chris Kaba – is indefensible. Since early 2011, our 6,651 licensed firearms officers have used their guns on just 75 occasions, and shot dead no more than 33 people, “almost all known criminals or terrorists”. And this week it took a jury just three hours to decide that Sergeant Martyn Blake was justified in seeing Kaba as a deadly threat: bodycam footage shows Kaba refusing to surrender and driving his car at police vehicles. And Blake’s is not a solitary case. Several other…

Cervical cancer breakthrough A small change to the standard therapy for cervical cancer can dramatically improve the odds of survival – a finding that is being hailed as the biggest breakthrough in treating the disease in 25 years. About 3,300 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year in the UK, and more than 860 die of it. The disease can occur at any age, but is most common in women aged 30 to 34. For the past 30 years or so, those with locally advanced cases (in which the cancer has spread, but has not reached other body parts) have been treated with chemoradiation – a combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The phase 3 trial, involving 500 patients, was to explore the potential of having a short course of…

Keir Starmer isn’t the first politician to have enjoyed free musical entertainment. In a letter to The Times, Andrew Lloyd Webber recalled that, in 1993, former PM Margaret Thatcher accepted his invitation to the premiere of his musical adaptation of Sunset Boulevard. “I am big,” she told him as she left the theatre. “It’s the politics that have got small!” But sometimes, it’s the musicians who want to meet the politicians. During U2’s tour of the US in 1992, which coincided with a US election campaign, Bono rang the White House switchboard from stage every night, asking to be put through to George H.W. Bush. The president never took his call, but his Democrat rival was happy to meet the band, leading Bush to declare: “I have nothing against U2,…

“Were Kemi Badenoch not to be unveiled as the next Conservative party leader in a couple of weeks, it would now go down as a very notable upset,” said Patrick O’Flynn in The Spectator. Last Thursday, as members received their ballot papers – three months into this very long race – they were able to watch the first televised debate between the final pair of contenders, Badenoch and Robert Jenrick. A show of hands at the end revealed that “the audience of several hundred Tory members broke overwhelmingly in her favour”. Jenrick was “calm and fluent” and “was periodically rewarded with polite applause”, said Peter Franklin on UnHerd. But Badenoch was “animated and insistent, hitting clap-line after clap-line”. Both are “accomplished performers”, though I’d like to see them subjected to…

“The Premier League is a ruthless competition”, and it’s nearly impossible to thrive in any given game without all your players on the pitch, said Sam Dean in The Sunday Telegraph. And this is a lesson that Arsenal need to heed. The runners-up for the past two seasons might well be leading the current campaign, were it not for their unfortunate habit of having players sent off at inopportune moments. Mikel Arteta’s side have won five of their eight games – and in all three matches where they’ve dropped points, they’ve endured “long spells” with only ten men. Against both Brighton and Manchester City, the Gunners “escaped” from this position with draws. But last Saturday, against an “impressive and dangerous Bournemouth”, they were punished more severely. Just 30 minutes had…

Football Liverpool remain top of the Premier League after beating Chelsea 2-1 at Anfield. Wolves are bottom, after losing 2-1 to Manchester City. Cricket New Zealand won the Women’s T20 World Cup for the first time, beating South Africa by 32 runs in the final. Sailing Emirates Team New Zealand beat Ineos Britannia 7-2 to become the first team in the modern era to win the America’s Cup three times in a row. Tennis Jannik Sinner won the biggest payout in tennis history – €5.5m – at a tournament in Saudi Arabia.…

Running time: 2hrs Surely the most powerful production the UK will see this year, Robert Icke’s adaptation of Oedipus turns Sophocles’ 5th century BC drama into an electrifying “play for today”, said Susannah Clapp in The Observer. I already knew how this most shocking of tragedies would end, yet I “found myself not only wishing but almost believing that things might turn out differently”. Featuring “tremendous” performances from Mark Strong as Oedipus and Lesley Manville as his wife Jocasta, the evening is “as gripping as a thriller, yet weighted with the terrible sense of what might have been”, said Sarah Crompton on What’s on Stage. It’s a “devastating” production, which brilliantly restates the “power of Greek tragedy to lay bare all the grief of the human soul”. The classicist John…

Emma is chilly with Neil, saying she wishes they’d never forced George to go to the police. Later, with Clarrie, Neil has a turn – he says it’s nothing, but she tells him to see a doctor. At Poppy’s bidding, the Grundys prepare to celebrate Apple Day; Emma thinks no one will come as the repercussions of George’s actions continue to cause tensions between other villagers. Helen encourages Neil to try counselling. Kirsty complains to Helen about her struggle to get a mortgage for Willow Farm on her salary. As Chelsea shows Adam the ropes at the Tea Room, Fallon gets news that she’s been chosen to run a unit at the EV station. Overjoyed, she hands in her notice, but Natasha is determined to change Fallon’s mind. Zainab meets…

Shepherd’s pie (made using lamb, as opposed to cottage pie, which is made from beef) is thought to have originated in Scotland, in the mid-19th century, says Angela Hartnett. Back then, it consisted of a mashed potato top and bottom, with the meaty filling sandwiched between the two. Here, I’m going for the version that is more usual now, with a creamy mash topping that becomes tinged at the edges as the delicious filling bubbles through. Serves 3-4 1 tbsp olive oil 1 celery stick, finely chopped 1 onion, finely chopped 2-3 carrots, finely chopped 500g lamb mince 2 tbsp tomato purée a large splash of Worcestershire sauce ½ beef stock cube 500ml lamb stock salt and freshly ground black pepper For the mash topping: 900g potatoes, cut into large dice…

● It’s a common problem, says the therapist Owen O’Kane: ceaseless rumination on what might happen, what did happen, what if I did this, what if I did that. ● This constant replaying of events and scenarios may be a coping mechanism, but the thoughts are probably not rational. So try to recognise when it is happening. Then say to yourself, “My mind is overthinking, I don’t need to listen to it.” ● Your brain may tell you you’re unlovable, or that everything is hopeless, but this is not the voice of wisdom. It is not personal. ● Instead of trying to stop the thoughts, try to observe them. Like clouds: here comes a worrying thought; here comes a self-pitying thought. Don’t engage; let them pass. ● Get moving: any…

Liam Payne 1993-2024 Liam Payne, who has died aged 31, was a floppy haired schoolboy, contemplating an apprenticeship at the aerospace factory where his father worked, when he auditioned for The X Factor in 2008. Just 14, he impressed the judges with his rendition of Fly Me to the Moon. But ultimately, Simon Cowell decided he wasn’t mature enough, and told him to go home and try again in two years. Payne did just that, and in 2010 he had a rapturous reception from the studio audience and the judges. And though he was ejected from the solo category, he was then put together with four other young hopefuls in a band. One Direction came third in the contest, but won out overall by becoming the most successful act ever…

The French media giant behind the Paddington film franchise is seeking a valuation of up to £6.7bn when it lists on the London Stock Exchange, in what will be “the largest debut listing of the year”, said The Daily Telegraph. Canal+, which owns Paddington producer StudioCanal, is expected to float in December as part of a spinout by its parent company Vivendi. Canal+ is understood to have chosen the LSE “because of its appeal to international investors”. But it’s also a homecoming of sorts – and not just for Paddington. StudioCanal’s other hits include such London classics as Bridget Jones’s Diary, About a Boy and the bumbling British spy spoof Johnny English.…

The theory Gathering feedback from all levels – managers, peers and juniors – holds out the promise of a fair and comprehensive evaluation. The typical online survey runs to 50 questions, aiming to capture a wide range of metrics: “from dealmaking mojo, to teamwork and sense of urgency”. Gamesmanship “For all the talk of objectivity”, reviews are “often less about constructive feedback and more about office politics”. At some firms, employees can handpick their reviewers, ensuring “quid pro quo arrangements”. They can also be a good way “to quietly torpedo a rival”. Whac-A-Mole The system is so vulnerable to manipulation it’s become a sort of corporate “Whac-A-Mole” – close one score-boosting loophole, and another pops up. Some firms have turned to “manager selected reviewers” hoping for more objective feedback: “whether…

Harry Stebbings The 28-year-old British podcaster turned venture capitalist, famed for his 20-minute interviews with tech luminaries, has just raised his third fund, said Ingrid Lunden on TechCrunch. “And it’s his biggest yet.” The $400m fund, named 20VC after the podcast series, catapults Stebbings into the top ranks of European tech investors, though a majority of his investors are US-based. “I’m really fed up of everyone shitting on Europe,” said Stebbings, who will focus on early-stage startups, adding wryly: “We need to make Europe great again. MEGA!” A stockbroker’s son from Fulham, in west London, Stebbings started recording The Twenty Minute VC as a teen in 2015 – later dropping out of a law degree at King’s College London to focus on it. An early aim was paying for his…

What happened President Zelensky warned last week that North Korea is planning to send thousands of troops to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in what he called “a first step to World War”. The Ukrainian leader said that intelligence reports suggested that almost 10,000 troops would be deployed. His comments followed claims from South Korea’s spy agency that 1,500 North Korean special forces were already in Russia for training. Footage was released apparently showing soldiers training in eastern Russia, and being issued with Russian uniforms. In talks with US and European leaders, Zelensky also unveiled his long-awaited “plan for victory” over Russia and its “coalition of criminals”. Key elements included a formal invitation for Ukraine to join Nato, and permission to use long-range missiles supplied by its allies to attack…

The National Gallery has become the first museum in Britain to introduce a ban on liquids, in the wake of the recent “soup attacks” by climate protesters on its artworks. The only liquids visitors may now bring into the gallery are baby formula, expressed milk and prescription medicines. The gallery said it had been “forced to act to protect our visitors, staff and collection”. Farmers offering pick-your-own pumpkin experiences in the run-up to Halloween have done such a roaring trade this year that some are buying in extra gourds, The Times reports. One wholesale grower in Essex said she’d been “inundated” by requests, including from farms that had sold more tickets to their “pumpkin patches” this year than they had pumpkins.…

A jury has acquitted the police officer charged with murder for shooting an unarmed black man in the head during a “forced stop” in south London in 2022. Police had started to follow the car that Chris Kaba, 24, was driving, because the Audi Q8 had been linked to a shooting in Brixton the night before. During the trial, jurors heard that Kaba had refused to get out of the car after being boxed in, and had instead tried to ram his way out. The defendant, Martyn Blake, said that he had shot Kaba because he believed his colleagues’ lives were in imminent danger. It was revealed after the trial that Kaba was a “core member” of a notorious local gang with a long criminal record, and that he had…

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Election giveaway: In his latest attempt to influence the US election, Elon Musk is offering a cash prize of $1m a day to voters in seven swing states. Any registered voter who signs an online petition in support of free speech and gun ownership can enter the lottery-style $1m draw, funded by Musk’s pro-Trump America PAC. The PAC is also offering people payments of $47 for every registered swing-state voter they persuade to sign the petition. These stunts appear to have two purposes: to encourage likely Trump supporters in swing states to register to vote, and to gather data on such voters, the better to target them in the campaign’s final stages. However, election law experts have said that the scheme amounts to election interference, and is very…

Ryuta Watanabe, a 36-year-old Japanese man who boasts of having four wives, two girlfriends and ten children, has declared his ambition to become the “god of marriage” by taking on yet more wives and fathering 54 children – setting a new national record. Watanabe lives with three of his wives on the island of Hokkaido, living off their earnings and looking after the children; he claims to have sex with his wives in strict rotation, a total of 28 times per week, without stirring jealousy. Dunedin Airport in New Zealand has introduced a three-minute cap on goodbye hugs at its drop-off point, as part of an effort to improve traffic flow. Too many people were taking too long in the drop-off zone, said the airport’s chief executive Daniel De Bono.…

CANADA It’s reckless to rub India up the wrong way… Globe & Mail (Toronto) “The sanctuary of choice for Sikh terrorists.” That’s how Indians see Canada, home to the largest Sikh population outside of India, says Kapil Komireddi. A row between the two countries has been simmering for some while, but it exploded into outright animosity last week, when Canada expelled six Indian diplomats and accused New Delhi of being behind the criminal racket that bumped off the Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada in 2023. It’s an extraordinary accusation to have made, but even more extraordinary is the privileged treatment Canada affords the advocates of Khalistan, the independent theocratic state that radical Sikh separatists want to hack off from the Indian state of Punjab. Brutal terrorist acts have…

“In early August this year, trouble was all around,” said the Daily Mail. There was rioting across the country; the small boats crisis “was getting worse”; and the “Israeli assault on Gaza was at its height”. So what was Keir Starmer’s then chief of staff Sue Gray doing? She was in talks “with Taylor Swift’s mother about providing a police escort for the pop star to and from her Wembley concerts”. Scotland Yard had initially refused: there was no specific threat and such protection is usually reserved for royalty, heads of state and senior politicians; but after the Government intervened, the Met “capitulated”. Starmer was subsequently given free tickets to one of the shows, and even got to meet the pop superstar. Quite why the PM wanted to see Swift…

Fifteen years ago, he was a fresh-faced teenager on the brink of exceeding his wildest dreams; now, Liam Payne is dead, said Martha Gill in The Observer. It’s not clear how the 31-year-old One Direction singer came to plunge from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires last week, reportedly after consuming illegal drugs. But the pressure of early stardom surely played a part. Payne (see page 36) was only 14 when he first appeared on The X Factor, and 16 when it made him famous. Other former contestants have described the show as exploitative; and once signed to Simon Cowell’s Syco label, the band were certainly worked hard, as they toured the world for months on end. And yet, it is not just the ruthlessness of the music industry that…

For all that he has driven superbly this season, demonstrating both “speed and skill”, Lando Norris has sometimes “blinked at crucial moments”, said Jonathan McEvoy in the Daily Mail. And at the start of Sunday’s US Grand Prix in Texas, that tendency emerged once more. A braking error on the very first corner meant that within just a few seconds, the British driver had not only relinquished his pole position, but had dropped all the way down to fourth. The chief beneficiaries were the Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr, said Luke Slater in The Daily Telegraph. They finished first and second respectively. And that left Norris to vie with Max Verstappen for the all-important final place on the podium. For a dozen thrilling laps towards the…

Carbon capture’s failure To The Observer The Observer is correct to highlight the urgency of the climate crisis and the signal this year’s hurricane season sends. But the conclusion that carbon capture and storage (CCS) is the “last option” is misleading, defeatist and dangerous. Carbon capture has a record of failure. In half-a-century, the industry has captured a minuscule proportion of global emissions, and left a trail of failed projects and wasted public money in its wake. The fossil fuel industry knows CCS is not the answer, yet it keeps pushing it as a distraction tactic to delay the transition to clean energy. The irony is that the very industry you suggest should be paying for cleaning up emissions is instead pocketing billions in public money for failed CCS. Money…

by Kate Summerscale Bloomsbury 320pp £22 The Week Bookshop £17.99 In March 1953, a tenant at 10 Rillington Place, Notting Hill, west London, was putting up a shelf in a kitchen when he discovered a “hollow space behind the wall”, said Nigel Andrew in Literary Review. Pulling back the wallpaper, he was greeted by the sight of three bodies. They’d been put there by John Christie, an “outwardly respectable” former policeman who’d moved out of the property a few days earlier, having lived there for 15 years. During that time, it was discovered, Christie had murdered “at least seven women”: work colleagues, prostitutes, and his wife. Most had been gassed, raped and strangled. Although the Rillington Place murders are hardly a novel subject, Kate Summerscale, the author of The Suspicions…

“Today we were unlucky. But remember, we have only to be lucky once, you will have to be lucky always.” That was the IRA’s infamous statement following its bombing of The Grand Hotel, Brighton, 40 years ago this month. The terrorists failed to assassinate their principal target, the prime minister Margaret Thatcher. But their long-delay 100lb bomb – hidden in a bathroom weeks earlier – did kill five people who had come to Brighton for the Tory party conference, and left many more with life-changing injuries. In the BBC’s superb podcast The Brighton Bomb, “events I thought I knew all about surprised me afresh like an unfolding thriller reverberating with what ifs”, said Patricia Nicol in The Sunday Times. Glenn Patterson’s “transfixing script” and “gripping, unerringly well-timed narration” brilliantly evoke…

Francis Bacon (1909-1992) is generally remembered as “an artist who captured the darkness of his times in his work”, said Waldemar Januszczak in The Sunday Times. When we think of him, we tend to imagine “a painter expressing global angst” – about the “toxic” mid-20th century, Hitler, the Holocaust, and the nuclear arms race. He has not, though, generally been seen as a portrait artist. The National Portrait Gallery’s new exhibition sets the record straight, giving us a painter who created a variety of portraits that belong to the people depicted, “not the world around them”. Bringing together more than 50 works painted between the 1940s and the artist’s death, including many of his most emblematic, the show argues that Bacon was, in essence, “always a portraitist of sorts”, a…

The Iliad by Homer (Penguin £9.99). Is it too fanciful to suggest that Homer is where the penalty kick and the penalty shoot-out begins? The moment we find Achilles sulking in his changing-room over an intolerable slight to his heroic prowess (actually, it’s all about a girl), we are in classic single combat territory, replete with the kind of life-and-death psychology that Harry Kane and David Beckham would understand. Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby, 1992 (Penguin £9.99). A landmark memoir in which football is more than just a thrilling sporting narrative. A young man finds clues to the meaning of life through his devotion to Arsenal: the book that unlocked for me what it means to be a fan. The Ball is Round by David Goldblatt, 2006 (Penguin £22). There…

Programmes Ottoman Empire by Train with Alice Roberts The anthropologist sets out to learn about 600 years of the Ottoman empire, starting in Adana, where she discovers the origins of Turkish delight. Sat 26 Oct, C4 21:10 (60mins). Kingdom Uncovered: Inside Saudi Arabia A female journalist goes undercover to investigate the realities of life in the kingdom today. Sun 27 Oct, ITV1 22:15 (80mins). Trump: A Second Chance? Panorama meets some of Trump’s most ardent supporters to find out why they want him back. Mon 28 Oct, BBC1 20:00 (60mins). Storyville: Eternal You Documentary exploring the growing use of AI to create avatars of people after their deaths, so that their families and friends can keep interacting with them. Tue 29 Oct, BBC4 22:00 (90mins). Helmand: Tour of Duty A decade…

Britain’s oldest public park, the Grade II* Derby Arboretum was created in 1840. Ten of the original trees remain, including a black walnut with buttery yellow leaves in autumn (free; derbymuseums.org). Westonbirt Arboretum, in Gloucestershire, is famed for its towering incense cedars, but at this time of year the Japanese maples are spectacular (£16; forestryengland.uk). Bodenham Arboretum, in Worcestershire, houses a wealth of different species, from California redwoods to Japanese acers (£8; bodenhamarboretum.co.uk). There are more than 7,000 trees in the 120-acre Yorkshire Arboretum on the Castle Howard estate. Take self-guided trails through sweet chestnut and birch (£12; yorkshirearboretum.org). Created with seeds collected from China, Japan and Vietnam, the 65-acre Howick Hall Arboretum is on the Northumberland coast and has pink katsura trees and burgundy nikko maples (£11; howickhallgardens.com). SOURCE:…

Mýse Hovingham, York Set 20 miles north of York, Hovingham is a pretty place, and this Michelin-starred restaurant-with-rooms does it proud, says Mark C. O’Flaherty in The Daily Telegraph. Occupying a former pub, it has “pleasingly austere” decor; and when I went, chef Joshua Overington’s tasting menu included some “exceptional” dishes (the scallop in sea urchin butter was truly “amazing”). Only the desserts disappointed. The rooms are beautiful, and the breakfast is a “banquet” – indeed, this is not only a great place to dine, but also “accidentally” one of the best b&bs in England. Doubles from £280pp, incl. dinner and breakfast; restaurantmyse.co.uk.…

Why billionaires back Trump Edward Luce Financial Times The US billionaire Stephen A. Schwarzman described the 6 January 2021 assault on Capitol Hill as “an affront to the democratic values we hold dear”. Not that dear, it seems, says Edward Luce. The Blackstone co-founder has seen his fortune more than double to $50bn during the Biden years – yet he’s reportedly so worried that Democrats will harm the economy that he’s “all in” for Donald Trump. Schwarzman isn’t alone. While one or two “Maga financiers” never wavered on Trump, there are plenty more who condemned him and have now recanted. Given that many of them have seen their net worth grow at similar rates to Schwarzman’s, what is it about Kamala Harris – a professed “capitalist” who is friendlier to…

Who’s tipping what The week’s best shares IMI The Times The engineer, focused on the automation and life technology sectors, makes valves to regulate the flow of steam, gases and fluids. A “lucrative business”, with margins at 18.7%. Improving growth at a discount to rivals. Buy. £18.19. Intertek Group The Daily Telegraph Shares in the testing, assurance and inspection services provider have fallen, on valuation concerns. But costs have been cut, and sales and profits are up, and it should be a “major beneficiary” of easing US monetary policy. Buy. £51.05. JP Morgan UK Small Cap Growth & Income The Times This trust, focused on small British firms, looks “primed to gain” from rate cuts. Heavy in the consumer discretionary sector, with holdings including Mr Kipling and Ashtead Technology, but…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1437 Two Connell Guides and three Week-branded items will be given to the sender of the first correct solution to the crossword and the clue of the week opened on Monday 4 November. Send it to The Week Crossword 1437, 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 Week-branded items including a notebook, coffee mug and tote bag, as well as two Connell Guides (connellguides.com). ACROSS 7 Aristocrat absorbs new idea from a junior medic (13) 8 Don’t mind about not having auto to go around Spain (8) 9 Very interested in past government (4) 10 Case of speech defect, say (7) 12 Fancy beer close to night cap (5) 14 Work for…

David Jakins, the 82-year-old conker champion known as King Conker, who was cleared of wrongdoing. Jakins had been accused of cheating in this year’s World Conker Championships, after he was found with a steel replica chestnut his pocket, but organisers said there was no evidence he had used it in his winning bouts. Simon Henderson, the headmaster of Eton College, whose pay was revealed to have been increased by 40% last year. He was paid between £370,000 and £380,000 in 2022-23, after the raise.…

60% of US adults think their economy is in a “bad” state, down from 73% in 2023. 51% of registered voters have a favourable view of Kamala Harris; 40% have the same of Donald Trump. AP-NORC/The Independent Seven in ten British voters would support the idea of increasing national insurance contributions for employers if the money is used to fund extra resources for the NHS. 18% oppose the idea. Among voters who switched from Conservative to Labour at the last election, 82% are in favour. Labour Together/The Observer 63% of British drivers aged 17 to 34 admit to having used their horn in anger, compared with 42% of those aged 70 and above. IAM RoadSmart/The Times…

A lesson from David Bowie When The Cure’s frontman Robert Smith was 19, he went to see David Bowie play Earls Court, says Jonathan Dean in The Sunday Times. The musicians would later become friends, but what happened that night would shape Smith’s attitude to his fans. To his fury, Bowie played for just 42 minutes, and Smith vowed that if he ever got to be a star, he’d be more considerate. And he kept to that promise: The Cure’s gigs run for hours, and Smith keeps a close eye on ticket prices: last year, he set the prices for his US tour, then took Ticketmaster to task over the extra fees it had charged. “I thought, ‘We don’t need to make all this money,’” he says. “I’d hate not…

Wayne Bell was 17 when he was jailed for robbery in 2007; he had attacked another boy and taken his bike in Ladybarn Park in south Manchester. He was given one of the new IPP sentences (in his case, a youth version, known as a DPP). Bell had a long criminal record, of largely petty offences such as theft, which the judge described as “atrocious”, and had committed his last offence while on probation. His tariff was one year and 350 days; he and his family assumed this was the maximum time, not the minimum, he would serve. But at his parole hearing at the end of the tariff, he was told he hadn’t done enough rehabilitation work: he would have to stay in prison at least two more years,…

The hysterical vilification of Elon Musk Charles C.W. Cooke National Review The vilification of Elon Musk by the chattering classes is quite something to behold, says Charles C.W. Cooke. They routinely describe the world’s richest man as “evil”, a “villain”, an “idiot” and a “moron”. Some say he should be deported; others have suggested the federal government should cancel all contracts with him, even find a way to lock him up. All this because Musk has become an outspoken Trump cheerleader and posted some unpleasant remarks on the internet. The sheer “illiberalism” of the hate campaign against him offends. Worse, though, is its “myopia”. This is a man who, in less than 30 years, has revolutionised online payments, consumer vehicles, satellite internet and space travel. He is, by any standards,…

Taking aspirin appears to cut the risk of pancreatic cancer by up to 40% in people with diabetes, a new study has found. It may also cut the risk in the general population by 20%, but the former finding is particularly significant, as pancreatic cancer is ten times more common in people who are diagnosed with diabetes in their 50s or older (as is often the case with type 2). Overall, 11,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year and, in its most common form, it has the lowest five-year survival rate of any cancer. Previous research has shown that aspirin can block the production of enzymes that increase inflammation and fuel the growth of cancer cells, said the charity Planets, which funded the study. The…

“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something that you want done because he wants to do it.”Dwight D. Eisenhower, quoted in Country Living “It’s a moo point. It’s like a cow’s opinion; it doesn’t matter. It’s moo.”Joey Tribbiani from Friends, quoted in The i Paper “The only reason I would take up jogging is so that I could hear heavy breathing again.”Erma Bombeck, quoted on HuffPost “Brevity is the soul of lingerie.”Dorothy Parker, quoted in The Wall Street Journal “The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller.”Steve Jobs, quoted on Inc. “Writing a book is like telling a joke and having to wait two years to know whether or not it was funny.”Alain de Botton, quoted in The Knowledge “The great pleasure in life…

To The Times All major faiths agree that life is “sacred”, but what does that mean? I and many other clergy would suggest it indicates that life is precious, to be used well by us, and for us to treat every other life with respect. But it does not follow that a person who is terminally ill, suffering greatly and who wishes to gently let go should be forced to carry on living in pain against their will. There is nothing sacred about suffering, and assisted dying is not about shortening life but about shortening death. There are religious voices against it, but there are also many who hold it to be a compassionate option and fully in keeping with religious values. Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, chair, Religious Alliance for…

by Daisy Johnson Jonathan Cape 160pp £14.99 The Week Bookshop £11.99 Daisy Johnson, author of the Booker-shortlisted Everything Under (2018), has long dabbled in the supernatural, said Johanna Thomas-Corr in The Sunday Times. Now, in her own words, she has gone “full horror”. Her latest book, a collection of linked short stories, is set in a hotel in the Cambridgeshire fens where spooky things have happened for centuries. Narrated by “guests, cleaners, porters and owners” – and in one case by the hotel itself – the stories feature “spectral figures trapped between the walls, mattresses that writhe with body parts” and “steamed-up mirrors that reveal menacing messages”. Although it is hard to say what “it all adds up to”, the “stories are crammed with mesmerising images”, and are enjoyably chilling.…

Un Oeuf Is Un Oeuf at TJ Boulting If you can get past the abominable, egregious pun of its title, this group exhibition is a joyous little event. The show takes as its focus the representation of the egg in art, and the resulting display is an irreverent scramble of sculptures, paintings and drawings that can’t help but raise a smile. The centrepiece consists of an entire wall onto which YBA Sarah Lucas has encouraged people to lob actual eggs, resulting in a splattered, dripping tableau of different-hued yolks. Elsewhere, we get historic meditations on the egg as a mysterious, empty symbol (Man Ray’s 1940 photograph of an ostrich egg; Francesca Woodman’s poetic image of a prone man with an egg in his armpit); as a symbol (Gareth Cadwallader’s extraordinary…

A festive spin on mulled wine “Every winter, as we near Christmas, the fun and games begin,” said Celia Walden in The Daily Telegraph, as supermarkets engage in their annual practice of taking a festive product, and giving it a spin. Hence – to name a few examples – “korma pie”, “gingerbread stuffing” and “halloumi pigs in blankets”. But none of these has irked me as much as this year’s “quirky Christmas hit”. Hoping to cash in on Britain’s changing taste in wine (it seems we no longer like them “robust”), several retailers are stocking white mulled wine. My response? “No. Just no.” Traditional mulled wine represents “everything that is good about the winter months”. Why bastardise it? There are some who say the retailers just want to flog us…

SOURCE: THE STANDARD…

General Sir Mike Jackson 1944-2024 Gruff and grizzled, with a gravel voice honed by whisky and cigars, General Sir Mike Jackson “was Britain’s most recognisable soldier since Field Marshal Montgomery”, said The Guardian, with looks “drawn from central casting”. Tall and saturnine, he was so craggy it was said that the bags under his eyes had bags of their own (until he had an eyelift – for reasons of “vision not vanity”, he insisted). And he had a career to match that reputation: over 40 years, Jackson served in just about every conflict that Britain was involved – except the Falklands War, as he was in a desk job at Whitehall in 1982. Jackson’s mess-room nickname was the Prince of Darkness, said the FT, yet his demeanour “masked a finely…