Tabla de contenidos para 1373 en The Week

Controversy of the week “Is he crazy? Is he ill? Is he still a rational actor?” asked Paul Taylor in Politico. Vladimir Putin’s “erratic behaviour” during the Ukraine crisis suggests that it’s time to revisit the long-held assumption that the Russian president is a “cold-blooded statesman taking logical, if deeply undesirable, decisions”. His order to put Russian nuclear forces on “special alert” in response to “Nato aggression” capped a series of bizarre and disturbing episodes: his insistence on meeting other world leaders at the end of a four-metre-long table; his “unhinged” ramblings on TV; his branding of Ukraine’s elected government as “drug-addicted neo-Nazis”; his sneering humiliation of his own foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin during a public briefing. Some have even suggested that his “bloated face” may come from taking…

Stockholm Corruption scandal: The Swedish telecoms giant Ericsson may have paid bribes to Islamic State terrorists to ensure that it could carry on operating in northern Iraq after the militants overran the region in 2014, according to leaked company papers. The documents record the findings of an internal inquiry launched into allegations of bribery and corruption made against the company’s managers around the world. The most serious centre on its operations in Iraq. Rather than shut down operations when IS took over the region, the report suggests that managers used fixers and subcontractors to buy off IS. It also found that Ericsson put the lives of its contractors at risk, by insisting that they carry on working in IS-controlled areas – and at least one was kidnapped. The company, which…

You have to feel sorry for today’s teenagers, said Ed Dorrell in The Independent. The pandemic has stolen a large chunk of their youth, disrupting their education and forcing them to miss many rites of passage. And how are we now planning to thank these young people for their collective sacrifice? By making their student loans even harder to repay. Under proposed reforms unveiled last week – a response to the 2019 Augar review of post-18 education – students starting university from 2023 onwards will have to begin paying back their loans when they earn more than £25,000, a sizeable reduction in the current threshold of £27,200. At the same time, the cut-off point at which debts are written off will be extended from 30 to 40 years, though by…

Since 2016, Russian anti-corruption campaigners have been running “kleptocracy tours” of London. Investigators linked to Alexei Navalny give tours of London’s most exclusive districts, pointing out properties owned by Russian ministers and wealthy friends of Vladimir Putin. In Highgate, there’s Witanhurst, a palace with 28 bedrooms and a designer orangery. It was bought in 2008 for £50m. The owner was for some time a mystery, but was eventually revealed as Andrei Guriev, a Russian tycoon who could be seen on TV at Putin’s meeting of his oligarchs in the Kremlin last week. Nearby is Eden House, a villa that apparently belongs to Andrei Yakunin, son of an old friend of Putin. On Victoria Embankment, the Russian politician Igor Shuvalov owns two luxury apartments. Belgrave Square is known jokingly as Red…

“Pottering about doing nothing much in particular is not only one of the greatest joys of life, but now also actively, provably, officially good for you. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, have found that doing peaceful domestic things – a bit of gardening, cooking, even housework – can significantly reduce the risk of heart disease. As any potterer already knows, the act of pottering is vastly beneficial to mental health. It soothes the mind. You may appear not to be doing much when you potter, but you are, in fact, ironing out your mind, at the same time as making dinner at a leisurely pace or seeing if the tulips have stuck their beaks out.” India Knight in The Sunday Times…

ARGENTINA Vaccines and the spirit of community Slate.fr (Paris) While many Americans and Europeans are still reluctant to get Covid-19 jabs, South Americans seem “determined to be at the top of the class”, says Fabien Palem. Vaccination rates in Argentina, Brazil and Chile are well over 90%, far ahead of the US, and at least equal to those in France, Britain and Germany. It’s a similar story elsewhere on the continent, and is all the more remarkable considering how weak the region’s state health systems are compared with those in rich countries. Anti-vaccine sentiment hardly exists – even in Brazil, despite the attempts to stoke it by its populist president, Jair Bolsonaro. In Argentina, popular support for the vaccination drive is “massive”. Nor do Argentinians harbour doubts about the wisdom…

“There are decades where nothing happens and there are weeks where decades happen.” Lenin, quoted in The Atlantic “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present.” Abraham Lincoln, quoted in The Washington Post “Fashions come and go; bad taste is timeless.” Beau Brummell, quoted on The Browser “There is a certain Buddhistic calm that comes from having money in the bank.” Tom Robbins, quoted in Forbes “The lion and the calf shall lie down together – but the calf won’t get much sleep.” Woody Allen, quoted in The Irish Times “One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives.” Mark Twain, quoted in The San Francisco Chronicle “All the Cokes are the same and all…

Football Leeds have appointed former Red Bull Salzburg boss Jesse Marsch as their new manager, following last weekend’s sacking of Marcelo Bielsa. Tennis British No. 1 Cameron Norrie reached the final of the Mexican Open in Acapulco – only to lose 6-4, 6-4 to Spain’s Rafael Nadal. Boxing Josh Taylor retained his four world super-lightweight titles by defeating Jack Catterall of England. The Scotsman was adjudged the winner on points, following a controversial split decision by the judges.…

Book of the week Constable: a Portrait by James Hamilton W & N 472pp £25 The Week Bookshop £19.99 John Constable, the 19th century landscape artist, has a somewhat fusty reputation, said Laura Freeman in The Times. His work is viewed as quaintly old-fashioned, while the phrase “Constable country” – originally a reference to the Suffolk countryside he painted – has become a catch-all for a “biscuit tin” version of England with “tidily herded” sheep and “neatly stacked” corn. Yet in this illuminating and insightful biography, James Hamilton suggests that we have got Constable all wrong. The painter, he says, was really “a radical” who defied the expectations of his time by painting landscapes rather than portraits. Moreover, he pioneered many of the techniques – broken colour, modern subjects, an…

Jacqueline de Jong at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery In 1985, the Dutch artist Jacqueline de Jong (b.1939) was invited to create a body of work to grace the walls of Amsterdam’s new city hall. Inspired by a particular stairwell, she created a series of paintings based on it that hung in situ until this part of the building was demolished. This show, titled Upstairs-Downstairs, brings together a dozen preparatory drawings for these images, which are by turns frightening, seductive and anarchically comedic. De Jong depicts the stairs as the setting for an encounter between several monstrous characters, none of which is quite identifiable: in one, a cat-like creature faces off against a bird with the head of a Ralph Steadman grotesque; another sees a simian figure vaulting down the stairs in…

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On its release in May 1967, Procol Harum’s single A Whiter Shade of Pale caused “an immediate sensation in the year of psychedelia and Sgt. Pepper”, said The Guardian. Paul McCartney first heard it at the Bag O’Nails club in Soho, and was so struck by the song, he interrupted his first date with his future wife Linda to ask the DJ what was playing; John Lennon told a reporter that all the music at the time was “crap” except that “dope song, A Whiter Shade of Pale – you hear it when you take some acid and wooooh!”. It was the UK No. 1 for six weeks in the Summer of Love; it has sold more than ten million copies; and in 2014, it was declared the mostplayed song…

BP’s decision to ditch its 20% stake in the Russian state oil giant Rosneft was almost a foregone conclusion following accusations that it was “fuelling the invasion of Ukraine”. And it was swiftly joined by Shell, which is divesting its stake in the Sakhalin-2 liquefied natural gas project, said Bloomberg. The two companies “will write down billions of dollars”, but the moves have a greater significance. In just two days, Britain’s twin energy giants have dumped Russian investments nurtured over decades and shut themselves out of the world’s largest energy exporter, probably forever.” The US titan Exxon announced that it would follow; France’s Total is reviewing its Russian business. Given that the total cost of jettisoning Rosneft could hit $25bn (including $11bn in forex losses), the immediate hit to BP’s…

Ben Lovett The Mumford & Sons keyboardist has made plenty of friends touring the world with his folk-rock band, said the FT. Now Ben Lovett has convinced a few of them – “a host of musicians, tech billionaires and international financiers” – to back his music venue business. TVG – owner of London’s Omeara and Lafayette clubs, and the Flat Iron Square venue – has raised £50m to fund a big push into the US. Founded in 2015 by Lovett and his brother Greg (a former finance director of Soho House North America), TVG has tapped the co-founders of Slack and Airbnb, funds run by Goldman Sachs and “various KKR partners”, who are all singing from the same song sheet: live music is good for the soul, and music venues…

An Ettinger travel pass case 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 14 March. Email the answers as a scan of a completed grid or a list, with the subject line The Week crossword 1301, to crossword@theweek.co.uk. Tim Moorey (timmoorey.com) This week’s winner will receive an Ettinger (ettinger.co.uk) travel pass case (assorted colours), which retails at £105, and two Connell Guides (connellguides.com) ACROSS 1 Shed found in Berkshire town (6) 4 Something for youth – sow it lad, all over the place! (4,4) 9 King in flipping vacuous Verdi opera (6) 10 Heavy metal article is what’s prominent in the news (4,4) 11 Some of Nivea’s tender soap (10) 13…

Ever since mushroom clouds rose above Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of the Second World War, “mankind has lived in fear of nuclear war”, said Dominic Sandbrook in the Daily Mail. Many of us vividly recall the “paranoia” of the Cold War. We assumed that with the collapse of the Soviet Union, those days were behind us. But now, once again, we find ourselves “haunted by nightmares of Armageddon”. Last week, angered by what he called “aggressive statements by the West”, Vladimir Putin made the “chilling announcement” that he was putting Russia’s nuclear forces on “special alert”. Earlier he’d alluded to nuclear war when he warned the West of “consequences you’ve never faced in your history” if it hindered his invasion. Putin has the world’s largest nuclear arsenal at…

A shop dedicated to bottled water has opened in London. Fine Liquids stocks 100 types of water from springs and rain pools all over the world, with prices ranging from £2.50 to £120 per 750ml bottle. Milin Patel says he has a “passion” for water. “It’s my life and I want to show others how to appreciate it.” A growing number of companies are hiring “chief happiness officers” to boost workforce morale. Timpson is among the more high-profile firms with a director of happiness: when Janet Leighton heard that a staff member’s oven had broken down on 23 December, she arranged for the firm to replace it. “It’s a commercial no-brainer,” she explained. “If people feel supported and cared for, they are calm, relaxed and hardworking.”…

Washington DC Putin attacked: In his first State of the Union address on Tuesday, Joe Biden accused President Putin of trying to “shake the foundations of the free world” with his “premeditated and unprovoked” attack on Ukraine, but warned the Russian leader that he had “badly miscalculated”: Putin thought the Ukrainian people and the world would “roll over”, Biden said; instead, he met a “wall of strength”. To applause from both Democrats and Republicans, Biden announced the closure of US air space to Russian planes, and warned Russian oligarchs that “we are coming for you”. The address, in which he also sought to reassure Americans about rising inflation, and the Covid pandemic, came at a difficult time for Biden. According to the latest polls, his ratings have fallen to a…

As Europe reels from “the thunder of war” in Ukraine, you may feel it’s pointless to concern yourself with something as pedestrian as the Mais lecture on economics. But you’d be wrong, said John Rentoul in The Independent. The lecture is the annual address delivered by almost every chancellor of the exchequer since the 1970s; and given Boris Johnson’s reduced chances of leading the Tory party into the next election, Rishi Sunak’s speech this year is the manifesto of the man most likely to replace him as Tory leader. Sunak sketched out his vision of a thriving free market in a low tax economy – one that could only be realised, he conceded, once borrowing was brought under control. His “winning political formula” is a “third way” between the right-wing…

Michaela’s tough love Katharine Birbalsingh is the UK’s strictest headteacher, says Charlotte Edwardes in The Times. At the Michaela Community School in Wembley, in northwest London, pupils are not allowed to talk in the corridors, and detentions are dished out freely. It seems to yield results: Michaela’s pupils get some of the best exam results in the country. But aren’t some of the rules a bit much – timetabled loo breaks for instance? “It’s efficient,” she insists. Besides, many of her pupils need all the time in class they can get. “If you have a mum at home who talks to you about the politics of the day and so on, it doesn’t matter if you miss a bit. But if you depend entirely on school to succeed because you’re…

Why Big Tech is leaving Silicon Valley Joel Kotkin Tablet Magazine (New York) Silicon Valley is losing its spark, says Joel Kotkin. It used to be an “inspiring and egalitarian” hub, where a mass of new firms vied to innovate. But in recent years, its character has changed – partly owing to the area’s ludicrous property prices, which have driven many people away. A recent report estimated that a median-income household would require between 115 and 167 years to save for a down payment on a median-priced new home in metropolitan San José, San Francisco or Los Angeles. The lack of affordable housing has led tech jobs to disperse to cheaper areas of the US. The chipmaker Intel is investing $20bn in a new facility outside Columbus, Ohio, which it…

The Covid vaccine roll-out saved 128,000 lives, had a better uptake than anticipated, and represented good value for money at £8.3bn, according to a major report by the National Audit Office. Noting that 91% of over-12s have had at least one dose, the spending watchdog praised the efforts of all those involved in the programme in England, from the scientists who worked on vaccines, and the task force that acquired them, to the tens of thousands of NHS staff and volunteers who helped with the roll-out. However, it cautioned that 3.7 million adults are still unvaccinated, and noted that more effort was needed to reach particular groups. It found that 71% of vaccines have been delivered at GP centres and pharmacies; and that only 4% of doses had been wasted…

It was a match played in the shadow of the “seismic and shocking events” unfolding in Ukraine, said Henry Winter in The Times. Yet last Sunday’s Carabao Cup final between Chelsea and Liverpool still has to go down as “one of the most gripping finals” of recent years. And though it was goalless after 120 minutes of normal play, it was full of drama, said David Hytner in The Guardian. I doubt there’s ever been such a “pulsating”, free-flowing contest. There were “big chances at both ends”, several astonishing saves, and no less than four disallowed goals – two of which were ruled out by VAR interventions that struck most of those watching as highly debatable. The final score could easily have been 3-3. Then, to cap it all, the…

An effective deterrent To The Daily Telegraph Vladimir Putin would not have dared to invade Ukraine had it still had nuclear weapons. What hope that the world could persuade North Korea ever to relinquish its nuclear arsenal now? Rob Dorrell, Bath, Somerset A feeling of security To The Spectator Margaret Thatcher’s 1985 message to Gorbachev (who at the time was just another totalitarian Soviet boss – the reforms came later) was a characteristically perceptive recognition that peace in Europe depends on all its major powers feeling reasonably secure. Thus, the peace settlements of 1815 and 1945, by avoiding humiliation and exclusion of the defeated, produced decades of peace. 1918 by contrast gave us Hitler. Russia’s Cold War defeat of 1991 has, partly through Western misjudgements, brought us Putin. I’m sure…

Touring England until 28 May (animalfarmonstage.co.uk) Running time: 1hr 30mins George Orwell’s Animal Farm has “something to teach every generation”, said Clive Davis in The Times. But now seems a particularly apt time to revisit his allegorical fable about the slide into authoritarianism and a “megalomaniacal dictator whose words make a mockery of the truth”. In this “brisk and pungent” staging, War Horsestyle animal puppetry is used to “magnificent” effect, and there is evocative music by the likes of Mahler and Puccini to underscore the “graphic novellike narrative”. The show is a co-production between the Children’s Theatre Partnership and Birmingham Rep. However, it is not ideal for younger audiences: this depiction of a revolution betrayed “doesn’t spare us the gory details”. It’s a “compelling” production, “superbly done”, said Quentin Letts…

After nine years, the final series of Peaky Blinders is here, said Ed Cumming in The Independent. A film spin-off is in the pipeline, but as far as the small screen is concerned, this is the finale; the end of one of the most distinctive dramas in recent British TV history. A hit all over the world, Peaky Blinders has been such a phenomenon that it’s easy to forget what an “unpromising prospect” it seemed at first: a “stylised epic British gangster western, set in under-loved Birmingham in the years after the First World War, with abundant violence, drink, drugs, fags and sex” – all set to a modern rock soundtrack. Although it is not filmed in Birmingham, Peaky Blinders has transformed the city’s image, and put the entire region…

As Pip helps Rex to move out of the bungalow, Stella calls in, with a view to renting. Sulky Pip lies and says it’s not available, but later has to backtrack at Ruth’s insistence. When Pip shows Stella around the bungalow, they agree they got off to a bad start. Tracy’s on a mission to resurrect the Ambridge cricket team. Alice encourages Amy to ask Rex out – she does, but insists it’s just a friendly drink. Chris apologises to Amy for giving her the wrong impression the other week. Alice and Chris have different ideas for Martha’s birthday; he tells her he won’t be taking the cottage at Home Farm. With business going badly at Berrow, Justin tells Martyn that BL should close the farm – if they don’t,…

Thermae Bath Spa has had a multi-millionpound renovation and features state-of-theart facilities, including a rooftop pool with fine views of Bath and its thermal pools, which contain more than 42 minerals (from £38; thermaebathspa.com). One of seven Victorian bathhouses still in existence, the spectacular Turkish Baths Harrogate have Moorish-style domed ceilings and Italian terrazzo floors. Similar to a Swedish sauna, it has three heated chambers and an ice-cold plunge pool (from £19; turkishbathsharrogate.co.uk). The Spa in Dolphin Square‘s mineral-rich water is drawn from the only working artesian well in Westminster. There’s an authentic Moroccan hammam, a rhassoul chamber and a salt-infused steam room (from £55; spa.dolphinsquare.co.uk). Space is limited so you’ll need to book the New Docklands Steam Baths, which has four steam rooms, an ice plunge pool and sauna…

Nashville’s renaissance These are exciting times in Nashville, said Shilpa Ganatra in The Times. Long a site of pilgrimage for fans of country music, the city now has a booming restaurant scene too, with new openings from acclaimed chefs such as Maneet Chauhan and Donald Link. Several “high-end independent stores” have opened in “buzzy”, pedestrian-friendly neighbourhoods such as 12 South. And there are three new museums dedicated to music – the Johnny Cash Museum, the Patsy Cline Museum, and the National Museum of African American Music. The last charts the survival of indigenous African musical elements during slavery, and explores 50 different genres from early religious music to hip hop and beyond, with “compelling” interactive exhibits in every room. France’s very own Cotswolds With its gentle hills and pretty little…

Gail Halvorsen, who has died aged 101, was a US air force cargo pilot who was known as the Candy Bomber, for his role in the Berlin Airlift in 1948 and 1949. Having lost friends during the War, said The Washington Post, he had mixed feelings about being deployed to provide aid to Germans in West Berlin after the city was blockaded by Soviet forces. But his attitude changed when he spotted a group of children in ragged clothing standing behind the perimeter fence at Tempelhof Airport. Having grown up poor himself during the Depression, he handed them a couple of pieces of chewing gum, and was moved when those who got the gum tore up the wrappers, and passed round the pieces of paper, so that the others could…

WINNERS UK Defence stocks Shares in BAE Systems “hit an all-time high”. There were also big gains at Chemring and QinetiQ, said The Times. Babcock and Avon Protection, which makes helmets and gas masks, were also up. Cyber-protection Shares in Darktrace, the UK IT group specialising in cyberdefence, have grown steadily during the crisis – up some 37% in the five days to Wednesday. Commodities specialists Russia and its ally Kazakhstan produce much of the world’s uranium. Good news for Yellow Cake, which buys and stores uranium. Shares jumped 10% on Monday. LOSERS Russian funds Trading in London-based funds with big holdings in Russia, such as the £182m Liontrust Russia Fund and the £53m JPMorgan Emerging Europe Equity Fund, was suspended. Commercial property Shares in the investment firm Raven Property,…

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Putin’s invasion has left Europe facing the kind of refugee crisis it “hoped never to see again,” said The Economist. Around 900,000 people have fled Ukraine already. Trains out of the country have been packed with women and children; roads have been so gridlocked that many have “had no choice but to leave their cars behind and continue on foot”. Busloads of people are arriving into neighbouring countries, where schools and sports halls have been turned into shelters, and volunteers distribute clothing, food and other essentials. In all, the EU thinks some four million could flee Ukraine. Many will hope to “return to their homeland and rebuild it when the war ends. But no one knows when or how that will happen.” The EU’s response to the crisis suggests “Putin…

76% of British people want the Government to resettle Ukrainian refugees, with 11% opposed. 77% support more sanctions against Russia, up from 69% just before the invasion began. 60% support sending more arms to Ukraine, while 55% support the UK conducting cyberattacks against Russian forces. But over half oppose sending British troops to Ukraine, and only 31% think the UK should coordinate air strikes on Russian targets in Ukraine. YouGov/The Independent Fewer than one in four people in Britain would pay for a test if they had Covid symptoms. Of those, over half say they’d pay no more than £5. 78% of adults say they would “probably” or “definitely” isolate if they were to test positive. YouGov/The Times…

A wave of “sex mayhem” is engulfing New York, whose residents are filing a growing number of complaints about noisy sex. In the year to February, 277 complaints were made, with Queens generating the most at 103 and Manhattan following with 66. “For the love of God, stop these sex addicts,” said one Queens resident. “O to the R to the G to the Y. If you know how to spell and read that is ‘orgy.’” In Brooklyn, one neighbour filed a complaint at 2.45am. “I’ve slept through earthquakes and fires in my life,” the resident reflected. “I couldn’t sleep through this.” A one-year-old boy from Georgia in the US has been diagnosed with “uncombable hair syndrome”, a rare disease that affects about 100 people worldwide and causes hair to…

1 Heroes by David Bowie and Brian Eno, performed by David Bowie2 Hallelujah by Handel, performed by the London Musici Chamber Choir and Orchestra, conducted by Mark Stephenson3 Jamaica Farewell by Irving Burgie, performed by Nina & Frederik4 Will Ye Go, Lassie, Go? by Robert Tannahill, Robert Archibald Smith and Francis McPeake, performed by The Corries5 For Crying Out Loud by Jim Steinman, performed by Meat Loaf6* This is Me by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, performed by Keala Settle7 Sweet Caroline, written and performed by Neil Diamond8 You’ll Never Walk Alone by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, performed by Gerry and the Pacemakers Book: The Complete Works of Charles Dickens Luxury: an adapted Segway, with a built-in espresso machine * Choice if allowed only one record…

Greens may not protect the heart Eating a diet rich in vegetables may not, of itself, be good for the heart, a study has found. Researchers analysed data on 400,000 people who were asked about their diet and tracked for 12 years. They found that the risk of dying of cardiovascular disease was about 15% lower for those who ate the most vegetables compared to those who ate the least, with raw vegetables seeming to be particularly beneficial. However, when they took into account factors such as smoking, drinking and income levels, the link rather disappeared. “Our analyses show that the seemingly protective effect of vegetable intake against cardiovascular disease risk is very likely to be accounted for by bias from residual confounding factors, related to differences in socioeconomic situation…

When Russian forces started massing at their border, many Ukrainians looked to their president “with a feeling that fate had played a cruel joke on them”, said Colin Freeman in The Daily Telegraph. Not only did they have an aggressive superpower as a neighbour, “they were also the only country in the world with a comedian in charge”. Yet Volodymyr Zelensky – the comic who played a president on TV, and voiced Paddington Bear in Ukrainian – has “stepped up to a role that many other world leaders have shied away from: defying Vladimir Putin”. He refused to leave Kyiv, despite reports that Russian troops and mercenaries had orders to kill him, and rallied the nation with his broadcasts. “We are still here,” he declared, as he stood on a…

England went into their third match of the Six Nations – against reigning champions Wales – needing a win to keep their title hopes afloat, said Robert Kitson in The Observer. And on a “cool still evening” at Twickenham, that’s exactly what they delivered – though with a 23-19 victory that was neither “straightforward nor particularly pretty”. At one stage, Eddie Jones’s men looked to be cruising, said Gavin Mairs in The Sunday Telegraph. Early in the second half, they led 17-0, thanks to four penalties from Marcus Smith and an Alex Dombrandt try. But then Wales came storming back, with a “magnificent second-half revival.” The result remained hung in the balance until the “final play”. England have now “negotiated rather shakily the second division of this Six Nations”, with…

To the Financial Times George Kennan [the American diplomat and leading advocate of the policy of “containing” the Soviet Union during the Cold War] would be appalled to see his writings invoked in favour of arming Ukraine (“The telegram that foretold Russia’s foreign policy”). In 1948, Kennan argued that even in the case of war with the USSR, the US should not attempt to detach Ukraine from Russia. The fates of the two were too intertwined. As Simon Kuper notes in his piece, Kennan opposed Nato expansion in the 1990s. Indeed, he saw it as a major strategic blunder for which the West would pay a price. Today, he would probably favour the obvious, sensible solution: Ukraine assuming a neutral status along the lines of Austria during the Cold War.…

How to Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics by Michael Pollan, 2018 (Penguin £10.99). In search of meaning beyond the confines of Covid, and indeed normal human consciousness, I turned on and tuned in to Michael Pollan’s gripping history of, and compelling case for, psychedelics. It’s high time to re-open our minds to their use in medicine and therapy. The Sea is not Made of Water by Adam Nicolson, 2021 (William Collins £20). A heady blend of natural history, Scottish folklore and existential philosophy, this beautiful book beguiles like a crystalline rock pool shimmering with life. (If birds grab you more than shrimps and anemones, then Adam Nicolson’s previous book, The Seabird’s Cry, is equally satisfying.) The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven…

Programmes Killing Eve The darkly comic thriller returns for its fourth and final series. Eve is out for revenge, while Villanelle looks for change in a church community. Sat 5 Mar, BBC1 21:15 (45mins). The Ipcress File New six-part adaptation of Len Deighton’s Cold War thriller. Joe Cole stars as the reluctant spy Harry Palmer. Sun 6 Mar, ITV1 21:00 (60mins). The Real Peaky Blinders Two-part documentary about the 19th century Birmingham street gangs that inspired the hit TV drama. Mon 7 March, BBC2 21:00 (60mins). Michael Mosley: Who Made Britain Fat? Mosley asks why successive governments have failed to deal with the obesity crisis and the impact of the food industry’s lobbying efforts. Wed 9 Mar, C4 21:00 (60mins). Films Misbehaviour (2020) At the dawn of the women’s liberation…

Seven nights all-inclusive Stay at the Be Live Collection Marrakech Hotel, and venture out into Morocco’s vibrant Red City. From £549pp (including Birmingham flights). 020-3368 6345, broadwaytravel.com. Depart 18 March. Luxurious hilltop hotel Soak up the sun with a 7-night stay at the MarBella Corfu Beach Hotel. From £599pp allinclusive (including Edinburgh flights). 020-3617 7202, inspiredluxuryescapes.com. Depart 16 April. Classic Cotswold getaway Set on an escarpment above the Severn Vale, Hatton Court Hotel offers a 4-night stay from £222pp b&b, with one complimentary dinner. 0333-212 5593, cotswoldhotelbreaks.com. Arrive 12 May. Budapest & the Balkans Veer off the usual route and discover some of Central Europe’s up-and-coming hotspots on this ten-day tour. From £1,055pp. 0808-2745111, intrepidtravel.com. Arrive 11 August. Covid-19: please check government websites for testing and quarantine requirements, and the…

Chips embargo: Russia’s Huawei moment “Russia is getting an uber taste of what it’s like to be Huawei,” said Gina Chon and Dasha Afanasieva on Reuters Breakingviews. The US government’s plan to cut the country off from US microchips, telecoms gear and other tech is “a more wide-ranging version of the trade curbs that hobbled China’s telecommunications giant” in 2019. Some argue it “could sting the Russian economy more than financial sanctions”. Vladimir Putin “needs sophisticated semiconductors for the government-controlled internet he wants to build”. And Russia’s “burgeoning tech sector” could suffer – its US-listed giant, Yandex, relies on US hardware for its supercomputers. The new export controls shut off supply from US market leaders such as Intel and Nvidia, said the FT. The world’s largest chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing…

It’s time to unleash hydrogen Graham Ruddick The Times Boris Johnson believes we must “wean ourselves off Putin’s oil and gas”. Britain’s drive to end the sale of petrol and diesel cars from 2030 offers an excellent opportunity, says Graham Ruddick. But we must beware of jumping out of the frying-pan into the fire. If the UK commits to replacing fossil-fuelled cars with electric vehicles, it risks becoming “ever more reliant” on another authoritarian state – China, which now controls 80% of the global refining capacity for the lithium, cobalt and nickel used in batteries, and leads the world in manufacturing them. Britain plans to build its own “gigafactories”, but we shouldn’t overlook the potential of green hydrogen, which mainly uses widely available platinum as a catalyst. Given the challenges…

In December, I did my last day on call. My last ever out-of-hours session in general practice. In a 13-hour shift on Boxing Day, I did a lot of home visits, during which I offered advice and treatment for rashes, pains, Covid, injuries and infections. I saw newborn babies and I certified deaths. From 8am to 9pm, at the out-of-hours centre and on home visits, I didn’t stop. The plastic container of leftover Christmas dinner I had brought with me remained unopened. This last day was in many ways symptomatic of the changes I have seen over the course of 30 years. Today, patients are living longer, often with three or even four long-term conditions, so having one patient with heart failure, dementia and previous stroke is not at all…