Table of contents for 1532 in The Week

What happened The Government unveiled the biggest overhaul of the benefits system in a decade, which it said would save £5bn a year by 2030. Announcing the measures, which are expected to remove disability and incapacity benefits from up to a million people, Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said the system was “failing the very people it is supposed to help, and holding the country back”. According to the DWP, 700,000 more working-age people are claiming incapacity benefits now than before the pandemic. The reforms include tighter eligibility rules for personal independence payments (PIPs), designed to cover the extra costs of living with a disability; a freeze on the health top-up to universal credit (UC) in real terms from next year, and a ban on under-22s claiming it. To…

“Every new prime minister has an Elon Musk moment,” said Simon Jenkins in The Guardian: “a sudden attack of frustration” that makes them want to take a “chainsaw” to the British state. Eight months into the job, Keir Starmer has already reached this slash-and-burn stage. In a wide-ranging speech last week, the PM laid out his vision to transform what he calls our “flabby” and “unfocused” state, and take on the “cottage industry of checkers and blockers slowing down delivery”. He vowed to make the Civil Service leaner and more productive; to roll out AI across Whitehall; and to cut down on the number of quangos – starting with the abolition of NHS England (see page 20). Starmer’s speech could have come straight from the mouth of Dominic Cummings, “self-proclaimed…

Donatella Versace, who stepped down as creative director of the Versace fashion empire. She is said to have repeatedly clashed with Capri Holdings – which acquired the business in a £1.67bn deal in 2018 – over falling revenues. Versace, 69, had run the firm since the murder of her brother Gianni in 1997. The French, after the White House rejected a suggestion that the Statue of Liberty be returned to Paris. A French MEP had argued that since the US had opted to “side with tyrants”, Liberty (gifted by France 140 years ago) would be happier back in Europe. The White House hit back, saying that “low-level” French politicians should remember that if it weren’t for the US, the French would be “speaking German right now” – and “be very…

Nuuk Trump spurned: The heads of the five main political parties in Greenland have united to condemn as “unacceptable” Donald Trump’s calls for US annexation of the island. Their statement came the day after a general election in which the centre-right Democrats won a surprise victory, tripling its share of the vote to 30%. Democrats’ leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen, who has also condemned Trump’s calls for a US takeover, is likely to become the next PM, and has begun coalition negotiations. In common with most of Greenland’s 41,000-strong electorate, his party favours independence from Denmark, but advocates a slow and careful route to it. In a White House meeting with the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, this week, the US president doubled down, saying the annexation is something he thinks “will…

This week’s edition of Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs featured the conservation biologist Professor Carl Jones 1 Peter and the Wolf, Op. 67 by Sergei Prokofiev, performed by Sir Ralph Richardson and the London Symphony Orchestra (cond. Sir Malcolm Sargent) 2 Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas, performed by Richard Burton 3 Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll by Ian Dury and Chaz Jankel, performed by Ian Dury and the Blockheads 4 La Rivière Noir, written and performed by John Kenneth Nelson 5* Asimbonanga by Johnny Clegg, performed by Johnny Clegg and Savuka 6 Sega accordéon, traditional, performed by La Troupe de l’Union 7 Londonderry Air, traditional, performed by Beatrice Harrison 8 Clear Sky, written and performed by Catrin Finch Book: The Complete Works of Dylan Thomas Luxury: a good pair of binoculars * Choice if allowed only…

Some 66 million years ago, an asteroid at least six miles wide slammed into Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. The impact dug a crater 125 miles wide and 12 miles deep, known as the Chicxulub crater (now partly underwater and filled in with sediment). It triggered earthquakes and tsunamis, and firestorms that may have spanned the globe. Gas, soot and dust blanketed the planet, blotting out the Sun and sending global temperatures plummeting. That extinction event wiped out 76% of life on Earth – including the dinosaurs. But some experts believe the impact would have been far less calamitous if the rock had landed elsewhere. A 2017 study concluded that the asteroid struck a spot unusually rich in hydrocarbons, which worsened the blackout effect. The dinosaurs might have survived if not for…

A finger-prick test for the deadliest type of stroke is being trialled by ambulance crews in Cambridgeshire. The test is designed to rapidly identify large vessel occlusions (LVOs), which occur when a clot blocks a major artery in the brain. LVOs are responsible for a third of strokes, but cause about 95% of strokerelated disabilities and deaths, largely owing to delays in treatment. About 1.9 million brain cells die every minute a stroke is untreated, but LVOs are hard to diagnose without a scan because they have the same symptoms as other conditions, and by the time patients are sent to a stroke unit, precious time has often been lost. To complicate matters, the most effective treatment for many is a thrombectomy, which is ideally carried out within six hours,…

“Finally, some good news,” said Karol Sikora in the Daily Mail: NHS England is to be scrapped, with immediate effect. As someone with 50 years’ experience as a doctor, “I am well placed to testify to its utter lack of effectiveness”. Formed in 2013 by the Tory health secretary Andrew Lansley, it was meant to “oversee the budget, planning, delivery and day-to-day operation of the NHS in England”, and to “take the politics out of the health service” by working at arm’s length from ministers. In reality, it became a “bureaucratic folly”, the world’s biggest quango, fatally disconnected from the hospitals it was meant to oversee. Lansley’s reorganisation is now regarded as a disaster right across the political spectrum, said John Rentoul in The Independent. It led to the duplication…

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”Henry Ford, quoted in The Daily Telegraph “No woman ever shot her husband while he was vacuuming.”Kathy Lette, quoted on The Knowledge “Whenever politics feels like it can’t be real and it must all be scripted, it’s worth remembering that most of the time, it is scripted.”Tom Peck in The Times “Nobody realises that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.”Albert Camus, quoted in The Oldie “I have a new philosophy. I’m only going to dread one day at a time.”Charlie Brown from Peanuts, ibid. “The trouble with tariffs, to be succinct, is that they raise prices, slow economic growth, cut profits, increase unemployment, worsen inequality, diminish productivity and increase global tensions. Other than that, they’re fine.”David…

To The Times Unsurprisingly, President Trump’s approach to Ukraine is that of a businessman closing a deal, not a statesman securing peace. But by pausing military aid, forcing Kyiv to retreat before negotiations even began, and publicly signalling that Ukraine must cede land and abandon Nato aspirations, he has handed Putin the initiative and a path to victory. History offers clear lessons here. For instance, as colonial secretary, Churchill forced the Irish Republic to negotiate by applying relentless military pressure, offering an honourable settlement only when the republicans had no choice but to take it. Churchill negotiated from strength. Trump has done the opposite, weakening his ally, relieving his enemy, and pre-emptively surrendering his strongest cards. The implications stretch far beyond Ukraine. Putin has been emboldened, Europe has been publicly…

A Train in Winter by Caroline Moorehead, 2011 (Vintage £10.99). A hugely important book documenting female suffering during WWII and the solidarity that helped some of them survive in the most brutal conditions. The particular train refers to the Convoi des 31000, which left Paris in January 1943 with 230 French women resisters, sent to Auschwitz. Only 49 survived. If This Is a Woman by Sarah Helm, 2015 (Little, Brown £14.99). Helm writes with uncompromising clarity and detail about a horrific, all female camp established one hour outside Berlin. Nothing I have ever read has had a more chilling effect on me in understanding the Nazi contempt for human life. Avenging Angels: Soviet Women Snipers on the Eastern Front by Lyuba Vinogradova, 2017 (Quercus £12.99). The Soviet Union employed more…

Programmes This City Is Ours New crime drama with Sean Bean. The stakes get higher for a Liverpool criminal when he falls in love and starts a family. Sun 23 Mar, BBC1 21:00 (60mins). Love and Loss: The Pandemic, Five Years On A deeply personal and emotionally charged film looking back at the pandemic through the eyes of the bereaved. Mon 24 Mar, BBC1 20:30 (90mins). Rose Ayling-Ellis: Old Hands, New Tricks The deaf actress sets about teaching British Sign Language to a group of retirees in six weeks, with surprising results. Wed 26 Mar, BBC1 21:00 (60mins). Kill List: Hunted by Putin’s Spies Two-part documentary filmed over three years, as investigative journalist Christo Grozev and Russian dissenters are targeted by a Bulgarian spy ring. Thur 27 Mar, C4 22:00 and 23:05 (65…

Athol Fugard 1932-2025 In 1967, after his first major play was televised in Britain, Athol Fugard was told that he had a choice: to leave South Africa and never return, or to stay and have his passport confiscated. He opted to stay, said The Times. Fugard, who came to be regarded as South Africa’s greatest playwright, felt that he had to write about the cruel psychological impact of the Apartheid regime in the country where it was taking place. And though he was unable to leave for several years, his work travelled: as well as to desegregated audiences at home, it was performed at the Royal Court in London, in the West End and on Broadway, and did much to draw the world’s attention to Apartheid’s injustices and absurdities. His…

What happened In a 90-minute phone call with Donald Trump on Tuesday, Vladimir Putin rebuffed a US proposal for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, instead agreeing to a 30-day pause in attacks on energy infrastructure. Although Moscow broke that pledge within hours, the White House described it as the first step in a “movement to peace” that it hoped would eventually include a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea and an end to fighting. Talks on those steps, it said, would begin immediately in Saudi Arabia. The Kremlin said that Putin had demanded that Ukraine be banned from rearming or mobilising during the partial truce, and had called for a “complete cessation” of Western military and intelligence assistance to Kyiv. Trump, however, denied that they’d discussed such aid. Trump proposed…

One of London’s leading comedy clubs says it is banning punters who have had Botox. The Top Secret Comedy Club in Covent Garden says that having audiences full of people with faces that have been “frozen” by the injections alters the atmosphere in the venue, and that comedians can’t bounce off the audience’s reactions if faces don’t move. It says guests must now take an “expression test” on arrival. Virtual reality headsets have been included in the basket of 752 commonly bought goods that the ONS uses to measure inflation for the first time. Other additions include yoga mats, men’s slider sandals and precooked pulled pork. Gammon joints, DVD rentals and ads in local papers have been removed.…

England’s largest agricultural subsidy has been abruptly closed to new applications, because its £1.05bn budget is exhausted. The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) scheme was designed to replace EU subsidies; it incentivises farmers to maintain soil, hedgerows, wildflower meadows and other natural assets, rather than simply rewarding them for owning farmland. No notice was given of the cutoff and, for the first time, the Government has hinted the subsidies, which support the majority of UK farms, could end entirely. Environment Minister Daniel Zeichner said that farm incomes would not be “supported for ever by the public purse”. Currently, the Government pays out about £2.4bn per year in support to farms in England. New SFI plans will be set out in June; they are likely to be targeted at less well-off farmers.…

“If feels like the new 21st century midlife crisis isn’t buying a motorbike or having an affair; it’s becoming a single-issue fanatic, constantly weeping, or shouting, or speechifying on social media. Within my social circle, I have people who, ten years ago, were posting about every aspect of their life – jolly, sad, ridiculous – but are now only posting about Israel, or Gaza, or trans rights, or vaccines, or the Deep State, or racism, or neurodivergence, or child abuse gangs. They have all found their Uni-Cause. They’re ‘doing their own research’ and‘hooking up with like-minded people’. The Uni-Cause has replaced everything else.” Caitlin Moran in The Times…

Europe is fooling itself on defence… Hans Kundnani The New Statesman European leaders are facing up to the reality of a dangerous new world – or so they keep telling us. But to me their approach to Ukraine reeks of denial, says Hans Kundnani. The idea they can go on giving military support without US backing is pure wishful thinking. They say they want European “boots on the ground” in Ukraine as a safeguard for any peace deal: even if Putin were to accept this, would they really want to go ahead now that Trump says the only security guarantee he’ll offer Ukraine is the presence of US contractors extracting rare earth minerals? What if Russia then killed British troops? Should the US not treat this as a strike on…

Songbirds cling to old favourites Among humans, musical tastes evolve over generations; and it seems the same is true of birds. For a new study, a University of Oxford team spent three years recording the songs of great tits in Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire, to investigate how the movement, age and turnover of birds within the population influenced their songs. They did this by training an AI model to recognise individual birds based on their songs; they then used AI to analyse the recordings to look for shifts and patterns in their repertoires. This revealed that birds of a similar age were more likely to have a similar repertoire; that when individuals died or left, songs often went with them; that immigrants to the group adapted to the existing repertoire, but…

The former Tory MP Mark Field has spilled the beans on his 18-month extramarital affair with Liz Truss. In a memoir, he describes his ex as “exhilarating”, while conceding that her “manic” energy could be “disconcerting”. The pair had started their affair in 2003, when she was trying to be selected as a Tory candidate. She had “limitless ambition and selfbelief”, he says, but he never thought she was fit to be PM. “Unfortunately, there was startlingly little to suggest that Liz had either the powers of inspirational leadership or the capacity to focus on the implementation of her policies.” Elon Musk has had a giant TV screen installed in his office in the White House, so that he can play video games in his downtime between running his six…

One of the reasons the Tories chose Kemi Badenoch as their new leader last year, said James Heale in The Spectator, was her “willingness to break with the past”. And she certainly proved that this week when she formally abandoned the net zero target enshrined by Theresa May in 2019. In what amounted to her first big policy announcement, Badenoch dismissed as a “fiction” the idea that Britain, by 2050, will be able to remove as much carbon from the atmosphere as it produces. The emissions target had been pushed through Parliament in 90 minutes without a plan or a vote, she declared, and could not be achieved “without a serious drop in our living standards or by bankrupting us”. More flexibility was needed. With this speech, Badenoch has put…

The “fanatical” fans of Newcastle United are “one of the great tribes of the English game”, said Oliver Holt in the Daily Mail. And yet for the past seven decades, they’ve watched in agony as their club has endured one of the “great droughts in sporting history”. Newcastle’s victory in the 1955 FA Cup marked the last piece of domestic silverware won by the club; since then, “great players such as Chris Waddle, Kevin Keegan, Paul Gascoigne, Peter Beardsley and Alan Shearer have all come and gone”, but in terms of titles, there have only been “near misses”. Last Sunday, however, the Magpies finally brought their barren stretch to an end by beating Liverpool 2-1 in the final of the Carabao Cup. The match was less close than the scoreline…

F1 Britain’s Lando Norris won the opening Grand Prix of the season in Australia, beating Max Verstappen by 0.89 seconds. Golf Rory McIlroy won the Players Championship for the second time, beating J.J. Spaun in a play-off. Tennis Russia’s Mirra Andreeva became the youngest player since Serena Williams to win at Indian Wells. The 17-year-old beat world No. 2 Iga Światek in the semi-final and world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the final. Football Arsenal beat Chelsea 1-0 in the Premier League.…

The Week reviews an exhibition in a private gallery Roger Hilton at Jonathan Clark Fine Art This show, entitled Fifty Years Gone, marks the 50th anniversary of the death of the protean British abstract artist Roger Hilton. That this body of work exists at all is remarkable in itself: in the early 1970s, Hilton suffered a debilitating stroke and lost the use of his right hand, thereafter working from his bed. The pictures, however, are delirious, elemental things, which have in common a personal visual language of swirls, splatters, spindly pencil lines and often intensely bright colour. Representational forms – animals, furniture and especially nude figures – emerge from the abstract cacophony with increasing regularity as the end approaches. Throughout, the artist keeps cycling back to the idioms of prehistoric…

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Rose Girone 1912-2025 Rose Girone, who has died aged 113, attributed her longevity to eating a lot of dark chocolate, said The Times. She may have been right to do so. But her passion for knitting had also helped. She had knitted clothes to keep herself and her family alive after they’d fled the Nazis in 1939; she had used her knitting to smuggle her paltry savings to the US after the War, and her knitting paid the rent in the decades that followed. By the time of her death, she was the oldest resident of New York; the fifth-oldest person in America; the 28th-oldest person in the world, and the world’s oldest known Holocaust survivor. Rose Raubvogel was born in 1912 in a town that was then in Poland,…

“The furnaces are roaring 24 hours a day at the Argor-Heraeus refinery in southern Switzerland,” said Leslie Hook in the FT. The foundry has been “working around the clock since December” to keep up with massive demand for 1kg gold bars in New York, where fears that President Trump “could slap tariffs on gold imports have upended the market”. It’s a global up-tick. Bullion has been “among the world’s best-performing assets” since Trump took office in January, surging by 14% to a new record high above $3,000 per troy ounce. Institutional and private investors are piling into the “safe haven metal” to hedge “against economic turbulence”, said Heraeus metals trader Alexander Zumpfe. The price has risen “nearly tenfold” since 2000, outperforming big stock indices. After breaking through $3,000, gold extended…

Demna Gvasalia During his ten years at Balenciaga, the Georgian designer known simply as Demna enjoyed phenomenal success and was hailed as “an era-defining fashion provocateur”, said The Business of Fashion. But his appointment as creative director of stablemate Gucci has so far proved a runway flop. Shares in its parent group Kering, which has been flailing in the luxury downturn, slumped a further 12% on the news, reported Reuters. The feeling among analysts is that Demna, 43, is too risky a pick to lead a “much larger label” with a “reputation for timeless elegance”. “Overall we would give this appointment a 5/10,” said Bernstein’s Luca Solca – not least because Demna’s “bread and butter” street style appears to have fallen out of style. Given Kering’s reliance on Gucci, which…

King Charles, after his music radio show reached No. 1 in Apple Music’s podcast chart. In The King’s Music Room, released to mark Commonwealth Day last week, he introduced 17 songs that had meaning for him, ranging from Bob Marley and the Wailers’ Could You Be Loved to Beyoncé’s Crazy in Love and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa’s traditional Maori song E Te Iwi E. Gardeners, with news that this winter’s series of cold snaps and the recent dry spell are likely to lead to fewer slugs this year.…

Only one in three Britons would support conscription if the UK were at war. Over-60s are the keenest backers of compulsory military service (47% support it), whereas only 20% of those who are under 26 back it. Among military-aged men (21-36), a quarter would be willing to fight in Ukraine. More in Common/The Daily Telegraph The proportion of British men aged 15 to 24 who believe women are just as capable as men in leadership roles has fallen from 82% in 2019 to 51% today. In Germany, the proportion of young men who believe “a woman’s place is in the home” has surged from 5% in 2021 to 22% today; in France it has gone from 11% to 25%. Kantar Media/The Times…

Ian McKellen’s advice When Ian McKellen decided to come out in 1988, Section 28 was banning the promotion of homosexual lifestyles in schools; and many other gay actors were too scared to leave the closet. (Simon Callow, he notes, was an exception: “He refused to see the closet at all.”) Alec Guinness took him out to lunch to advise him against “getting involved in politics”; and, even at 90, decades after his arrest for “importuning men for immoral purposes”, John Gielgud refused publicly to acknowledge his support for Stonewall. Things have improved in Britain since then, says McKellen, now 85. Yet there still hasn’t been an openly gay best actor Oscar winner, or Premier League footballer. It’s a pity, he told Tim Teeman in The Sunday Times. “I have never…

Tall men in the Hertfordshire village of Flamstead are being terrorised by a rampaging hawk. So far this month, 20 men – most above average height – report being targeted by a Harris’s hawk, which swoops on unsuspecting victims and claws at the backs of their heads. “It’s moving around the village,” said one resident. “My mum wants me to go out with a bike helmet,” said another. A Japanese park measuring just 2.6 square feet has been named the world’s smallest by Guinness World Records. The “pocket park”, in the town of Nagaizumi, amounts to little more than a wooden stool and a clump of grass surrounded by bricks – but has proved a hit with locals and Instagrammers alike. Vaccine Drive; Laboratory Place; and Virology Grove – these…

NEPAL God save us from the king The Himalayan Times (Kathmandu) Royal fever has taken over Nepal, says Jiba Raj Pokharel. Thousands lined the streets of Kathmandu last week to demand the reinstatement of King Gyanendra Shah, who was deposed in 2008 amid far-reaching protests against his rule. You can see why people are disenchanted with the republic, given the “alarming level of corruption” in our ruling elite and Nepal’s “sagging economy”. Other countries – England in the 1600s, for instance – have successfully reinstated the monarchy. But before Nepalis get carried away with pro-royalist enthusiasm, they should cast their minds back to the last time Gyanendra took power, in 2001, following the massacre in the royal palace of his brother, the king, and other members of the royal family.…

Shortly before he took his front-row seat at Donald Trump’s inauguration, Mark Zuckerberg announced that he was making sweeping changes to Facebook’s content moderation systems, to curb censorship and prioritise free speech. Yet it seems this “ethos goes only so far”, said Michelle Goldberg in The New York Times – because Meta is now doing its best to silence the speech of a former senior Facebook staffer. Last week, its lawyers won an injunction to stop Sarah Wynn-Williams promoting her memoir of her years at the firm, citing the terms of her severance deal. Happily, though, this ham-fisted censorship effort has backfired: her publisher has declined to be cowed, and thanks to all the free publicity, Careless People (the title comes from a line about the destructive rich in The Great…

Elon Musk can either run Tesla, or he can carry on as President Trump’s first buddy. “But he can’t do both,” said Matthew Lynn in The Daily Telegraph. The tech billionaire’s controversial role as Doge’s slasher-in-chief is starting to inflict “real damage” on his electric car firm, with sales plummeting by more than 70% in Australia and Germany, and 45% in Europe overall compared with this time last year. Tesla’s share price has halved; showrooms are being picketed; and liberals are covering their Teslas with stickers reading “I bought this before we knew Elon was crazy”. The carmaker was already facing a “much more crowded market”, said Jim Norton in the same paper, because Chinese rivals have muscled their way in with cheaper alternatives. But Musk’s political antics – slashing…

When he won the Vienna Open last autumn, Jack Draper revealed that his “ultimate objective” was to compete at the “very top of the game”, said Tumaini Carayol in The Guardian. Based on his “sublime performances” at Indian Wells last week, the 23-year-old is within touching distance of that goal. Not only did Draper win his first Masters 1000 title, but he did so with a run of victories over four top-15 opponents. Best of all was his “stellar semi-final” win in three sets over world No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz, the title-holder of the previous two years. In Sunday’s final, the British No. 1 dispatched Denmark’s Holger Rune 6-2, 6-2 without facing a single break point. The victory takes him to No. 7 in the ATP rankings, and positions him…

Unsustainable policies To The Daily Telegraph The rural economy has been dealt yet another devastating blow, with the Government halting the Sustainable Farming Incentive, the mechanism it had to guarantee conservation work on farmland. I had assumed that, even if they hated the people of the countryside, they’d continue with it for the sake of wildlife. Unfortunately (but predictably), this policy will result in an unintended consequence. The removal of payments for conservation works will force farmers and growers into maximising output from their land. This will mean an increase in intensification, more slurry, chemicals and ploughing, and fewer concessions to nature. Steve Reed, the Environment Secretary, is unlikely to have learnt much about farming in his Croydon constituency, or his career in publishing. Until the ministers responsible, along with…

Running time: 2hrs 20mins “Being dead is no barrier to productivity these days – particularly if you are Jane Austen,” said Sarah Hemming in the FT. Improvisation show Austentatious is playing in the West End and soon to go on tour; “ingenious comedy” Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of) is already touring; and a new musical, Austenland, is waiting in the wings. Until then, we have Clueless, The Musical, based on the hit 1995 film. Inspired by Austen’s Emma and starring Alicia Silverstone, it “wittily spliced Regency matchmaking and friendship angst with the hormone-fuelled politics of an LA high school drama”. With “evocative” original songs by KT Tunstall and lyricist Glenn Slater, the musical is also “charming and fun”, but alas, it “never quite wriggles free of its celluloid origins”. It’s…

I’ve watched a lot of TV over the years, but I’m rarely “as blown away” as I was by Netflix’s new drama Adolescence, said Deborah Ross in the Daily Mail. With each episode shot “in one continuous take with no edits”, the series “puts you right in the middle of the action” – and makes for “shattering” viewing. It begins with a sequence in which armed police, led by two detectives (Ashley Walters and Faye Marsay), storm into a family home at 6am to arrest a 13-year-old boy who is suspected of murder. Jamie’s family “reel with shock”, convinced the police have made a mistake. The audience, too, is bewildered: could this “sweet-looking boy with dark, tousled hair” have committed a terrible crime, or is it a case of mistaken…

A 16th century painting stolen from an Italian museum more than half a century ago has resurfaced – in Norfolk, says Daniel Cassady in ArtNews. Madonna and Child by Antonio Solario, worth around £70,000, was stolen in 1973 from a small museum in Belluno, northern Italy, and found its way to a 16th century manor house in Fakenham owned by the late Baron de Dozsa. When his widow, Barbara de Dozsa – who had divorced the baron just before his death – tried to sell it in 2017, officials from the Belluno museum had the sale halted, and the work was returned to her. Christopher Marinello, a specialist art lawyer, then tried to convince her that she should return it to the museum, but she insisted that the baron had…

As well as trying to impress at work, a stressed Freddie is now cricket club captain, as Tom has dropped out. Helen gets the all-clear for The Dairy to reopen, to Clarrie and Susan’s delight. Emma and Pat dress up to protest at Borsetshire Water’s shareholder meeting. Haunted by memories of John’s death, Tony thinks Henry is too young to drive the tractor. Henry and Khalil bunk off school to join the demo, but Pat calls their parents. Akram takes Khalil to his oncology appointment; Khalil says he’s scared his childhood cancer will come back. As Helen tries to rebuild the business, Tony comes round to the idea of teaching Henry to drive. Visiting George in prison, Brad confesses he can’t run his business anymore; George is surprisingly relaxed, saying…

In praise of Gentleman’s Relish The anchovy paste Patum Peperium – Latin for “peppered paste” – isn’t for everyone, says Ameer Kotecha in The Spectator. It is “brown and sludgy” in appearance, and has a “pongy odour”. Yet for nearly 200 years, its “savoury piquancy” and air of refinement have earned it “legions of fans”. Launched in 1828, it first “found favour” in the gentlemen’s clubs of Pall Mall, and acquired the moniker “Gentleman’s Relish”. Today, it “still offers proper English cachet”, but its fan base has widened: Nigella is an enthusiast, as was the late Rose Gray of the River Cafe. Classically, Gentlemen’s Relish is spread on hot buttered toast, but its umami character makes it useful in cooking. Add a small teaspoon to a shepherd’s pie (as you…

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Blackberry Farm Tennessee, US Set beside Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Blackberry Farm is a “Southern sanctuary” of “storybook perfection”, says Jesse Ashlock in Condé Nast Traveller. It has 68 rooms, including cottages, which balance “rustic country style” with “functional modernity”. Inventive but comforting dishes are served in a 200-year-old timberframed barn that was moved here from Pennsylvania Dutch Country. There’s a spa and pool, activities for children (including petting the Italian truffle-hunting dogs bred on site), and “adventure guides” are on hand to take you fishing, hiking and riding. Doubles from about £900; blackberryfarm.com.…

John Lewis Partnership: turning a corner There are some British retailers “we really want to succeed”, said Alex Brummer in the Daily Mail: “legacy firms with a strong heritage” that have fallen on hard times. Although one in this category, M&S, has been gloriously revived, its old rival, the John Lewis Partnership, has lagged behind. Fortunately, “a corner has been turned”. Pre-tax profits climbed by 73% to £97m in the year to January 2025 – though the decision to withhold staff bonuses for the third year running shows “full recovery is some way off”. The sales uplift largely came from the Waitrose supermarket arm, “driven by increased volume and a new trendy partnership with Ottolenghi”. Doubtless the partnership’s new chairman – Tesco émigré Jason Tarry – will claim some credit…

US stocks are in falling knife territory Katie Martin Financial Times “US stocks are being monstered,” says Katie Martin: they were already 5% down by the middle of the month. One of the notable things about this battering is that government bonds aren’t really picking up the slack. This is not a good sign. “Treasuries are typically the yin to stocks’ yang” – they generally jump as investors flock to safer shores. That this hasn’t happened speaks volumes about the nature of the current rout. “It’s not the economy, stupid” – the economic data is wobbly but not terrible – but “a sentiment shock”. It’s “the tariffs, the geopolitics” and the “uncertainty” doing the damage. That makes it harder to fix. The mood out there is dreadful. Big investors, still…

The week’s best shares Breedon Group The Times The buildings materials group is focused on cash generation in the UK, while it expands in the US via acquisitions. Revenues rose 6%, with profits up 11%. Long-term growth prospects look strong. Buy. 487p. EasyJet The Daily Telegraph The low-cost airline’s near-term prospects are “highly uncertain” amid a weak economic background. Nevertheless, solid finances, its budget status and a growing package holidays arm bode well. Buy. 484.8p. Expedia Group The Daily Telegraph The online travel group – a Microsoft spin-off – has restructured to drive margins and growth. A tech overhaul and marketing has boosted bookings on its Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo brands. The low valuation compensates for risk. Buy. $162.11. Pan African Resources The Mail on Sunday Pan African operates a…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1457 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 31 March. Send it to The Week Crossword 1457, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London W2 6JR, or email the completed grid/listed solutions to crossword@theweek.co.uk. By Tim Moorey (timmoorey.com) This week’s winner will receive Week-branded items, as well as two Connell Guides (connellguides.com). ACROSS 1 Small bay in which it’s shining right away (5) 4 Children’s game needing endless optimism and spirit (9) 9 Public school at the cutting edge? (7) 10 Alpinist flying with no hint of security − duck! (7) 11 How band begins when industrial action’s over (7,2) 12 Love fantastic Cher’s earthy colour (5) 13…