Table of contents for 1458 in The Week

President Biden took “a bold gamble” by heading to Israel this week, said Donald Macintyre in The Independent. Even before hundreds of Palestinians were killed by a massive explosion at a Gaza hospital on the eve of his arrival, it was set to be a fraught diplomatic mission. It risked associating him with Israel’s expected ground invasion of Gaza, and making the US look one-sided. And that risk was magnified by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas pulling out of his meeting with Biden in protest at the hospital blast, which Israeli forces and Palestinian militants blamed on each other. But the White House clearly decided that the mission was nevertheless worth pursuing. The visit was an opportunity for Biden to show solidarity with Israel over the Hamas atrocities of a fortnight…

The Conservative MP Peter Bone should be suspended from the Commons for six weeks for bullying and sexual misconduct, Parliament’s behaviour watchdog recommended this week. It found that five allegations made against the MP by a male former staffer, relating to events in 2012 and 2013, were “proved”. These included verbally abusing and ridiculing the man, physically striking him, and exposing his genitals “close to the complainant’s face”. If MPs vote to uphold the sanction, a by-election could be triggered in Bone’s Northamptonshire constituency. Bone, 71, has denied the accusations.…

Stella McCartney, after her plans to build an “unashamedly contemporary” holiday home on a remote stretch of Scotland’s west coast received dozens of objections. Among other things, objectors complained about the need to cut down five mature Scots pine trees to make way for the large, low-lying, glass-fronted house, and the possibility that the public would be denied access to the beach it overlooks at Roshven Bay, south of Arisaig. Royal Mail, with reports that, in some areas, households have been having their post delivered less than once a week. Postal workers say that rounds have been cut, and staff at sorting offices have been told to prioritise more lucrative tracked deliveries. Hannah Ingram-Moore, who came under fire after revealing that her family had kept £800,000 from the sale of…

Plainfield, Illinois Boy killed: A six-year-old boy was stabbed to death in Illinois this week, an attack that police have linked to the Israel-Hamas war. The child and his mother, Palestinian-born Hanaan Shahin, 32, were at their home in the town of Plainfield, near Chicago, when their 71-year-old landlord turned up and started to remonstrate with Shahin about the situation in the Middle East. Allegedly, the landlord, Joseph Czuba, then pulled out a military-style knife and stabbed them both, injuring her and killing her son, Wadea Al-Fayoume. Czuba has been charged with first-degree murder and hate crimes. Los Angeles, California Speed cameras: Los Angeles and San Francisco are among six cities in California that are getting speed cameras for the first time. Despite a sharp rise in pedestrian deaths in…

“Viagra is making Britain a country of dirty old men. A record number of elderly males are popping the little blue pills. Last year, the over-70s received 282,000 prescriptions, including 7,000 for nonagenarians, the eldest patient being 99. Contemporary culture sends out the signal that sex is for life. But it shouldn’t be. Think what Viagra did for Hugh Hefner. According to his widow, Crystal, he took so much it made him deaf in one ear, and their relationship a misery. I cannot help but think that Rishi Sunak missed a trick here. Age restrictions on the sale of Viagra, not cigarettes, would have held surprising allure for countless women up and down the country.” Petronella Wyatt in The Daily Telegraph…

Why I can’t stand the voice of authority James Marriott The Times Thank heavens, says James Marriott, that the party conferences are over. It was the voices – Keir Starmer’s “reproachful adenoidal bleat”; Rishi Sunak’s “nasal and pleading” tones – I couldn’t bear them any longer. Politicians of yesteryear (think Churchill’s “patrician’s growl” or Thatcher’s “commanding purr”) sounded far more interesting, regardless of what they actually had to say. Even Geoffrey Howe, in his time considered a hopelessly dreary speaker, was “a latter-day Demosthenes” compared with this lot. Wary of sounding privileged – there are very few working-class MPs with regional accents these days – they’ve converged on a bland oratorical speaking style “purposely stripped of everything that makes a voice magnetic”. It’s not just wearisome to listen to; it…

Why some vegetarians struggle Some vegetarians are steadfast in their resolve; others can’t resist the occasional bacon sandwich. Now, scientists think they know why: some of us may have genes that make it easier to stick to a meat-free diet. Researchers in the UK and US compared genetic data on 5,234 strict vegetarians with that of almost 330,000 people who eat meat at least sometimes. In this way, they were able to identify three genes that were more common in vegetarians, two of which play key roles in the metabolism of fatty compounds called lipids and brain function. It isn’t clear how the genes might make it easier to be vegetarian; however, the researchers speculate that there are components of lipids that are present only in meat, and that some…

Kenneth Tynan is often cited as the first person to have said “f**k” on British TV, during a live broadcast in 1965; but in fact, says Patrick Kidd in The Times, the F-bomb was dropped six years earlier on the TV channel Ulster Television. A man whose job was to paint the many railings beside the River Lagan in Belfast was asked how he found the work. “F**king boring,” he said. No complaints were received. Jada Pinkett Smith made headlines last week when she revealed that she and husband Will Smith have been secretly separated since 2016 (though she still hopes they’ll get back together). She also let slip details of their unusual sleeping arrangements. Until their two children were six and four, they shared a bed with them. Did…

“There is a political party in town that finally seems to understand the magnitude of the UK’s housing crisis and wants to do something about it,” said Kate Andrews in The Daily Telegraph. “And it’s not the Conservatives” – it’s Labour. At last week’s Party Conference in Liverpool, Keir Starmer boldly addressed one of Britain’s main policy challenges, promising to reinstate the recently scrapped Tory target of building 300,000 homes a year. He pledged to “bulldoze” his way to a housing revolution by sidelining “Nimbys” and taking central control of the planning process. He also made the argument “people serious about building have been making for years”: that we must build on the many “not-so-green” bits of the too-zealously-protected green belt. Disused car parks and dreary wastelands are “not a…

Ireland went into this 2023 World Cup with the unenviable record of seven defeats in seven quarter-final appearances, said Michael Aylwin in The Observer. This time, however, all the signs suggested they would finally break their “quarter-final curse”. Top of the world rankings for the past 15 months, Andy Farrell’s side arrived in France on a 13-Test winning streak, and duly won all four of their pool games to set up a quarter-final against New Zealand. And on paper, the All Blacks seemed eminently beatable, having recently slipped “from their perch as the perennial champions of all things rugby union”. Yet on a dramatic night in the Stade de France, Farrell’s men failed to get the job done, said David Walsh in The Times. New Zealand prevailed 28-24, after heroically…

To The Daily Telegraph I write as a town planner with 50 years’ experience. Keir Starmer says he will take decision making away from local councils to encourage housebuilding. That will involve a total revamp of local government, which will take years. He could ask the Planning Inspectorate to make decisions based on national rather than local policies. That might help with small-scale permissions. To have an immediate effect, he should promise to neuter Natural England, whose opposition to housebuilding is denying homes to thousands of people. When we left the EU, we effectively retained its environmental legislation. This is obstructing new developments. Water authorities are polluting rivers and lakes. Natural England, whose duty it is to protect these, has failed – yet it is normal people who are being…

by A.K. Blakemore Granta 336pp £14.99 The Week Bookshop £11.99 The “Great Tarare” was a French peasant who achieved notoriety in the revolutionary period for his “prodigious ability to devour things”, said Sandra Newman in The Guardian. By his teens, he was eating his own weight in meat each day – and later, as a street performer, he would consume household objects and even “live animals”. Such a life clearly “begs to be fictionalised”, and it’s hard to think of anyone better equipped for the task than the “remarkable” A.K. Blakemore, whose previous novel, The Manningtree Witches, deservedly won the Desmond Elliott Prize. Her account of Tarare’s short life (he died aged 25) is a work of intoxicating language and “great intelligence”. Moving between its subject’s final days in the…

Nick Goss at Ingleby The Anglo-Dutch artist Nick Goss (b.1981) is among the most interesting painters of his generation. His latest exhibition, Smickel Inn, Balcony of Europe, is named after a tatty snack bar situated at the end of a spit jutting into the North Sea from Rotterdam, and much of this geographic specificity can be read into the works here. Interior views have the look of ship cabins; water and dry land are frequently indistinguishable. In the distance, we sometimes get glimpses of gargantuan industrial port facilities. Goss can be impressionistic or, in some passages, almost photographic, each detail alternately clashing with or fading into another. Meanwhile, screen prints appropriated from 17th century engravings infiltrate themselves into a distinctly modern context of brand logos and plastic furniture, giving the…

• Bedbugs are small, wingless, dark yellow, red or brown insects with oval flat bodies. They typically bite at night, leaving a zigzag pattern of raised itchy red welts. • Check hotel rooms on arrival. Leave your suitcase in the bathroom; turn lights off and use your phone torch to search for signs in the crevices and seams of mattresses. • Look for rust-coloured dots, exoskeletons, tiny black excrement, specks of blood, or oval yellow eggs the size of an apple seed. Bedbugs emit a sweet, musty odour. • Bites usually clear up on their own in a week or so. Use a cool damp cloth to relieve itching; where suitable, antihistamines and steroid creams can help too. • Bedbugs can cling to suitcases, so unpack on a hard kitchen…

Terence Davies 1945-2023 The screenwriter and director Terence Davies, who has died aged 77, was never a household name, said The Scotsman, yet he commanded enough respect in the industry to be able to persuade Gillian Anderson, at the height of her X-Files fame, to leave Hollywood and travel to Scotland to appear in his adaptation of Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth (in which Glasgow stood in for 19th century New York). Davies hadn’t approached her because she was a big name: he had not heard of The X-Files. He had simply seen her photograph and felt she had the “luminosity” he was looking for; she reminded him of a John Singer Sargent portrait. Anderson, however, knew exactly who he was, having long been an admirer of his work.…

“With its vibrant gay scene, vegan restaurants and Green MP, Brighton is one of the most liberal towns in Britain,” said Jake Wallis Simons in The Daily Telegraph. It is also, apparently, a repository of support for Hamas. At a gathering just 24 hours after the 7 October attacks, one speaker, a Sussex University student union officer, declared: “Yesterday was a victory.” She went on to describe the butchery as “so beautiful and inspiring to see”. This wasn’t an isolated incident, said Stephen Glover in the Daily Mail. At a pro-Palestinian protest in London last Saturday, the chorus “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” – widely seen as a call for an end to the Israeli state – was heard. Two protesters had pictures of paragliders…

Brighton’s Morris dancers have dropped the word “men” from their name to become more inclusive. The troupe, formerly Brighton Morris Men, has become just Brighton Morris. It’s still a male group, but according to a spokesman, it now “welcomes those who feel they fit into a largely male-presenting space, whether cis male, trans men, non-binary or gender non-conforming”. A boarding school in West Sussex has a new “principal headteacher”: an AI chatbot called Abigail Bailey. Cottesmore School will still be run by its human head, Tom Rogerson, but he will be supported by Abigail, who has been trained in educational management. Her duties will include supporting staff and helping to write school policies.…

Only 20% of voters believe that Rishi Sunak would make the best prime minister, down five points in a week, and a record low. 32% believe the same of Keir Starmer, down two points. 43% of voters say they are not sure who would make the best leader. Asked whether they think Starmer has a clear plan for the country, 28% say he does, up six points in a week. 19% say that Sunak does, down two points. Just under a third of all voters say they’d vote Labour in an election held tomorrow; 16% would vote Conservative. YouGov/The Times 52% of people say they are not confident that they would receive timely treatment on the NHS if they were diagnosed with cancer. 40% are confident. Savanta/Liberal Democrats…

The Terminator’s tough love Arnold Schwarzenegger grew up in a small town in Austria in a flat without running water, says Jane Mulkerrins in The Times. He endured what he says “would be called child abuse now” at the hands of his strict father, but believes it was his tough upbringing that forged his drive and resilience. Of course, his own children had a far easier ride; but he insists he was quite strict. On skiing holidays, for instance, when his daughters asked for a hot chocolate as soon as they arrived on the slopes, he recalls that he’d snap into the character he played in Kindergarten Cop. “THERE IS NO HOT CHOCOLATE,” he’d boom. “YOU WILL GO UP FOUR MORE TIMES AND THEN YOU CAN HAVE HOT CHOCOLATE.” The…

A “fake” lawyer, who had been practising under the name “Brian Mwenda”, has been arrested in Kenya. His case has divided public opinion – because he had won all 26 of his cases, despite having no legal training. The Law Society of Kenya has condemned the “masquerader”, but others have praised him, including Kenya’s Central Organisation of Trade Unions, which said he was a “brilliant young mind” who had made it “without traditional qualifications”. An Australian man has filmed a video of a muscular kangaroo apparently trying to drown his dog. Mick Moloney was walking his dogs by the Murray River in Victoria when he saw that a big kangaroo had his akita, Hatchi, in a “headlock” in the water. Moloney went to rescue Hatchi, despite his fears. “The muscles…

JAPAN Is the sun about to set on the Moonies? The Asahi Shimbun (Tokyo) At long last Japan’s government is taking on the “Moonies”, says The Asahi Shimbun. The controversial Unification Church, set up in South Korea in 1954 by the self-proclaimed messiah Sun Myung Moon, now claims to have three million followers, many of whom live in Japan. For years now the church has been implicated in “dubious activities”, not least its “spiritual sales” scam, which induces devotees to buy cheap items at high prices in exchange for “good fortune”. Incredibly, such practices have long been tolerated in Japan, where the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has historically had close ties to the church: former PM Shinzo Abe openly promoted it. He was assassinated last year by a gunman with…

Back in 2018, as Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party reached the end of its first term, its leader declared that his right-wing nationalist project had only just got started. “We are preparing [for] a long march,” said Jarosław Kaczynski. But in Sunday’s elections, Poles came out in droves in a bid to stop that illiberal, “authoritarian” journey, said The Guardian. And they seem to have done so. On a turnout of 74% (11 points higher than in 1989’s historic elections), PiS won the largest share of the vote (35%) but it lost its majority, and has no obvious route to a new one. Former PM Donald Tusk (and ex-head of the European Council), may now be able to forge a coalition around his Civic Platform party. For Poland…

Last week was a big one in the pop world, said Neil McCormick in The Daily Telegraph. On 13 October, a concert film of the most popular female artist of her generation, Taylor Swift, opened in cinemas around the world (see page 27). Only a day later, the best-selling female recording artist of all time, Madonna, launched her postponed Celebration tour in London, “kicking off a 78-date global trot that will see her perform to over a million fans”. At 33, Swift is almost half Madonna’s age, yet like Lady Gaga and almost every other modern female artist, she owes a huge debt to the older singer. Madonna was “really the first female global superstar”. With her catalogue of monster hits, her influence on dance and fashion, her constant image…

On paper, England vs. Afghanistan looked to be a glaring mismatch, said Mike Atherton in The Times. England are a “powerhouse one-day outfit”, and four years ago were World Cup champions. Afghanistan are a “nomadic team” who are unable to play international matches at home. Prior to facing England, they’d only ever won a single match in the competition – against Scotland in 2015. Yet on a warm evening in Delhi, Afghanistan pulled off not only their greatest-ever victory, but “one of the biggest shocks in World Cup history”. They won by a “convincing” 69-run margin, having set England a target of 285. As a result of this loss, England’s chances of reaching the semi-finals are in serious jeopardy: having won just one of their first three games (against Bangladesh),…

by Nicholas Shakespeare Harvill Secker 864pp £30 The Week Bookshop £23.99 (incl. p&p) The James Bond novels are often depicted as “implausible fantasies”, cooked up by an author who knew little of espionage, said Jake Kerridge in The Daily Telegraph. Yet in this impeccably researched biography, Nicholas Shakespeare argues that their creator had a surprising amount in common with Bond. While working for Naval Intelligence during the Second World War, Ian Fleming frequently “hurled himself into danger’s path” – and Shakespeare claims he drew on those experiences when he came to create his famous spy. Goldfinger, he suggests, was inspired by Fleming’s role in the exfiltration of millions of pounds of gold bullion from Bordeaux in 1940. I had always thought the premise of Casino Royale was “preposterous”, said Philip…

Sunset Boulevard is about a former screen star’s descent into madness. So it seems appropriate, said Matt Wolf in The New York Times, that this “bravura new West End revival” of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1993 musical “should, in creative terms, itself be a bit mad: reckless and daring, stretching its source material to the limit and beyond”. Director Jamie Lloyd employs a stripped-back aesthetic and monochrome palette, and uses hand-held cameras to spotlight characters by projecting their faces “on a huge screen that broadcasts every emotion (and facial pore)”. And whereas past productions have seen Norma Desmond, the screen star in question, preening in a turban and flowing garments, here Nicole Scherzinger “prowls the stage, barefoot and feline in a black slip”. It’s a “career-defining” performance – both “captivating and…

Running for 11 years from 1993, Frasier “was one of the funniest, cleverest, most perfectly drawn and hilariously scripted television shows of all time”, said Jan Moir in the Daily Mail. Now, it’s been rebooted on Paramount+ – and the results are… so-so. The new series finds the titular psychiatrist – played, of course, by Kelsey Grammer – back in Boston (where he originally appeared as a character in Cheers), and teaching at Harvard. Grammer is, alas, the only original cast member to return, and we do feel the absence of David Hyde Pierce (as Frasier’s brother Niles) and the late John Mahoney (as their father). The young actors in the reboot “just aren’t funny”, which leaves Grammer having to be the star turn, rather than what he was: “part…

Usha and Alan argue bitterly over Rob, as Alan insists he can’t abandon a dying man; Usha predicts trouble. Kenton’s annoyed that the Grey Gables’ fireworks will take away The Bull’s Bonfire Night customers. Lynda finds a solution, but not before Adil attacks her for overstepping her duties; he later apologises. Neil goes all out for Susan’s 60th birthday. There’s anger among the villagers as Rob sends out invitations to his baptism, thanking Alan and Usha. Furious Pat arrives at the vicarage to confront Alan; Helen is more sanguine, but Pat can’t forgive him. Ian says the new Grey Gables kitchen isn’t fit for purpose and, against Adil’s orders, talks to the builders who walk off the site; Oliver declares it a disaster. Helen builds bridges with Emma, and invites…

For 6-8 people 5cm lemongrass 2 lime leaves 425ml hot water 2 ripe tomatoes, skinned and chopped 115g creamed coconut, chopped 1kg frozen king prawns, completely thawed For the paste: 3 shallots or 1 small onion, chopped 1 garlic clove 5cm ginger, peeled and sliced 3 large red chillies, deseeded and chopped 1 tsp crumbled shrimp paste (optional) 2 candlenuts (or macadamia nuts or blanched almonds), chopped (optional) • Tip: in London, I make this with frozen king prawns from the supermarket that come peeled, de-veined and partly pre-cooked. This cuts out a lot of preparation, and the prawns are excellent provided they are thoroughly thawed before being quickly cooked, and not reheated thereafter. • Blend all the ingredients for the paste with 2 tablespoons of water until smooth. • Scrape…

Hawkshead Brewery in Staveley, Cumbria, has a glass-fronted beer hall with 14 hand pumps, including the 3.5% Windermere Pale, which won silver at this year’s World Beer Awards (hawksheadbrewery.co.uk). Fierce – Scottish Brewery of the Year 2021 – opened a bar in Aberdeen in 2018, with 20 taps from vegan Fierce Rhubarb pale ale to Berry Big Moose stout with raspberry and toasted coconut (fiercebeer.com). Lewes in East Sussex is home to several breweries including the Beak, with its fire pits and vegan street food. It has 15 keg lines as well as a guest beer fridge (beakbrewery.com). Verdant has a cute taproom on Quay Street in Falmouth, Cornwall, serving eight fresh beers, alongside seafood. Try the First Note pale ale (verdantbrewing.co). Independent brewer Boundary opened Northern Ireland’s first taproom…

A quiet island in New England It’s smaller and less well known than Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, to its east, but Block Island is an equally charming corner of maritime New England, says Karen Angel in The New York Times – and it’s wilder and less touristy too. “A haven for numerous endangered animals, and anyone else seeking a little solitude”, it can be reached by ferry from ports in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, the state to which it belongs. Its only town, New Shoreham, is tiny, and beyond it lie nine square miles of rolling countryside, much of which is bisected by beautiful walking trails. There are ticks here, so take precautions – but also look out for rare birds (some 300 avian species can be…

Chuck Feeney 1931-2023 Chuck Feeney was an American businessman who built up an empire of duty-free shopping outlets. With its income largely tax-free, he became a billionaire, and acquired many of the trappings of one, including apartments in New York, Paris and London, a ski lodge in Aspen and a shooting estate in Yorkshire. But he started to feel uneasy about having so much for himself; and in the late 1980s, he decided to spend the rest of his life giving his fortune away. By the time he completed that mission in 2020, he’d distributed more than $8bn. He sought no glory. For decades he refused to allow the source of his donations to be disclosed; and none of the 1,000 or so buildings he paid for bear his name…

In 2020, Citigroup suspended a London bond trader for allegedly stealing food from the canteen, said The Daily Telegraph. Now, the issue is sandwiches. Citi has won a lawsuit against a banker who expensed his partner’s lunch on a trip to Amsterdam – and then lied about it. Szabolcs Fekete claimed he’d ordered two sandwiches because he’d “skipped breakfast”, but was eventually “cracked” by Citi’s ethics department and fired. A judge has now ruled that the bank had every right, said Robert Armstrong on FT.com. But surely this “dystopian corporate farce” could have been avoided. “If you find yourself elevating a dispute about a sandwich to the ethics department, consider a different career.”…

The shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has reiterated Labour’s commitment to introduce 20% VAT on private-school fees if the party wins power, and to charge full business rates on fee-paying schools in England and Wales, as already happens in Scotland. Parents are already making rapid calculations, said Alexandra Goss in the Financial Times. Here’s the lowdown… • School fees have been rising sharply for years. The IFS think-tank calculates that, in real terms, they’ve increased by 20% since 2010 – and 55% in the past 20 years. The average yearly fee for a day school is now £16,656. Weatherbys Private Bank forecasts that fees could double again under Labour, said Simon Foy in The Daily Telegraph, “with the average cost of a boarding school education rising to £688,000 by 2036”. •…

David Solomon The “music has stopped” for Wall Street’s hottest record-spinner, DJ D-Sol, said Julia Kollewe in The Guardian. Goldman Sachs’ boss, David Solomon, 61 – who has previously performed in clubs, tiki bars and festivals – has formally “hung up his headphones”, owing to boardroom concerns about media “distraction”. The worries are understandable. Solomon took a near-30% pay cut in 2022, after “a turbulent year” resulted in “one of the largest rounds of job cuts in Goldman’s history”. The latest quarterly results, showing another decline in net earnings, have not improved confidence. Solomon’s biggest hit is his electronic remix of Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me). But for now, the dancing’s over. Bernie Ecclestone “After a cat-and-mouse game lasting more than 20 years”, the taxman…

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The “most important plane in the air over the Middle East” in the past week hasn’t been an Israeli war plane, said Ben Judah in The Daily Telegraph: it has been the Boeing C-32 that has transported US Secretary of State Antony Blinken across the region on a diplomatic tour, taking in Egypt, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, Israel (twice), Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Blinken’s mission – “as tough as any of Henry Kissinger’s” – is clear. First, he must “pull together” the Arab states that the US either subsidises or defends at vast expense behind “some kind of strategy” to de-escalate the conflict. More importantly, he must deter Iran and Hezbollah, the heavily armed Iranian proxy group that controls much of Lebanon, from entering the war. It’s…

Council tax rates are to be frozen in Scotland next year, Humza Yousaf announced at the SNP’s conference this week. Making his first speech as party leader, Yousaf also pledged to invest £100m in each of the next three years to cut NHS waiting lists, and to look into launching government bonds on the international market, to raise revenue for infrastructure projects. Local authority groups and the Scottish Greens criticised the tax freeze, saying it had been announced without consultation and could force further cuts in services.…

Michael Caine, who announced that he is retiring – on a high. Referring to his latest film, The Great Escaper, the 90-year-old actor explained that he had got “wonderful reviews” in a lead role, and had thought: “What am I going to do to beat this?” King Charles, with the unveiling of a new set of coins, designed to reflect his passion for the natural world. Featuring images of a red squirrel and a hazel dormouse, among other things, the coins are expected to enter circulation by the end of the year (see page 45).…

Brussels Football terror: After 13 hours on the run, the lone gunman who killed two Swedish football fans in a terror attack in Brussels this week was shot by police, outside a café in an outlying suburb. He died soon after. Abdesalem Lassoued, 45, a failed asylum seeker living in the capital, opened fire in a street near the city centre and then fled on a scooter. In a video posted earlier, Lassoued, who is said to have faced terror charges back home in Tunisia, claimed to be inspired by Islamic State. Following the attack, more than 35,000 football fans attending a Euro 2024 qualifying match between Belgium and Sweden were locked down in the stadium for 2.5 hours; and Belgium was then put on the highest-level terror alert. In…

1 Thank You for the Music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, performed by Abba 2 Zorba’s Dance from Zorba the Greek, written and performed by Mikis Theodorakis 3 Ebben? Ne andrò lontana from La Wally by Alfredo Catalani and Luigi Illica, performed by Wilhelmenia Fernandez 4 This is the Day by Matt Johnson, performed by The The 5 It Was a Good Day by O’Shea Jackson, performed by Ice Cube 6 Never Is a Promise, written and performed by Fiona Apple 7* All My Friends by Pat Mahoney, James Murphy and Tyler Pope, performed by LCD Soundsystem 8 Come Home (feat. André 3000) by André Benjamin, Brandon Anderson and Jairus Mozee, performed by Anderson Paak Book: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez Luxury: tarot cards * Choice if allowed only one record…

For Israelis, the creation of the Jewish state in 1948, in the wake of the Holocaust, was a miraculous event. For Palestinians, it was the Nakba: the catastrophe. The UN’s partition of the British-run mandate of Palestine gave 55% of the land to the Jewish minority. During this period of civil strife between Jews and Arabs, and the war that followed – when the new Israeli state was invaded by forces from Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Iraq – about 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their land. The two largest chunks of Palestinian territory, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, were occupied, respectively, by Jordan and Egypt. Many of the Arab occupants of southern Israel were driven into Gaza, a strip of land by the Mediterranean on the border with…

So, Joe Biden, who’s building the wall now Andrew C. McCarthy National Review So much for Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign promise that not “another foot” of border wall would be built if he were elected president, says Andrew C. McCarthy. With his administration feeling the heat from a continuing record influx of illegal aliens, Biden has just announced a $190m plan to add 20 miles of fencing in Texas. The Left responded angrily to this U-turn, but Biden tried to placate liberal critics by claiming he had no choice. The wall-construction money had already been “appropriated”, he told them; he’d like to have spent it elsewhere, but his hands were tied. This is disingenuous nonsense. His administration is not legally obliged to spend this money on a wall if it…

Long-term public health measures to tackle smoking are paying dividends in terms of cancer rates – but the Government’s failure to tackle the obesity crisis represents a wasted opportunity, which may cost thousands of lives, a new Cancer Research UK report has warned. Excess weight has been linked to a higher risk of 13 types of cancer, including breast and bowel cancers, which are two of the most common, as well as such hard-to-treat tumours as pancreatic cancer. This year, 2,613 women under 60 were diagnosed with cancers caused by smoking, while 2,589 cases in that age group were caused by obesity. But in 2030, researchers project that 2,722 cases of cancer in women under 60 will be caused by obesity, and 2,228 by smoking. A similar switchover is expected…

It has finally happened, said David Shipley in The Spectator. Our prisons are full. This week, the Justice Secretary Alex Chalk announced that some “less serious offenders” in England and Wales would be released early – because there is nowhere to imprison them. It was also reported that judges were being instructed to delay sentencing of convicted criminals. This crisis was entirely predictable, and years in the making. In 2019, the Tories promised to increase police numbers by 20,000. They then promised to create 20,000 new prison places to cover the inevitable rise in arrests and convictions. The Government achieved the first but not the second. Over the past year, it has created 90 new prison places per week, by making prisoners share cells, deploying temporary cells, and so on;…

“You’re nobody until somebody hates you.” Tom Wolfe, quoted in City Journal “Fundamentalists lack that most civilising of human virtues: doubt.” Matthew Syed in The Sunday Times “People in those old times had convictions; we moderns only have opinions. And it needs more than a mere opinion to erect a gothic cathedral.” Heinrich Heine, quoted in Yale’s Paprika! “The biggest contributor to happiness is not having tons of stuff, but knowing your address in the universe of meaning.” Chris Arnade on UnHerd “If my devils are to leave me, I’m afraid my angels will take flight as well.” Rainer Maria Rilke, quoted in The Guardian “There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” Edith Wharton, quoted in Forbes “In politics, you…

Prisons are broken… To The Guardian We should not be surprised by the president of the Prison Governors Association’s view that politicians have reduced the prison service to “lunacy” (“Prison places in England and Wales are ‘bust’,” says governors’ union chief). The roll call of shame is long: first, England and Wales have 159 per hundred thousand of the population in prison, which is high. Second, the age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales is ten. In many European countries it is 14. Third, the demands on probation services to return people on probation to court and people on licence back to prison for an appointment breach takes no account of the fact that such people are on probation or licence because they broke the rules – indeed, they…

by Cat Bohannon Hutchinson Heinemann 624pp £25 The Week Bookshop £19.99 Women have more sensitive noses, finer hearing at high frequencies and more extended colour vision than men, said Kate Womersley in The Guardian. And their life expectancy exceeds men’s by half a decade. This new book by the American poet and essayist Cat Bohannon explores how our understanding of women’s bodies has been limited by “a society calibrated for men”. Instead of studying women as “different subjects”, scientists, Bohannon claims, have tended to see them as male bodies with “extra stuff”, said Laura Hackett in The Sunday Times. And this has had serious implications. “We know very little about how women’s bodies have evolved”, and women have often received poorer medical care. Even today, heart disease is more often…

A remarkable new podcast, McCartney: A Life in Lyrics, consists of conversations between Paul McCartney and the Irish poet Paul Muldoon that were not originally intended for public consumption, said Fiona Sturges in the FT. The former Beatle granted Muldoon the interviews for their book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, which came out two years ago. While “reflecting on his inspiration and artistic processes, McCartney ended up recalling snapshots from his life, making the book the closest to an autobiography he is likely to get” (he has always rejected the idea of writing one). Muldoon describes this podcast as “a masterclass, a memoir and an improvised journey” – a billing that “sounds a lot like hyperbole but turns out to be entirely accurate”. McCartney is on charming, insightful and…

Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, 1865 (Penguin £9.99). Through it runs the Thames, on which corpses float and from which bodies emerge reborn. Fortunes are made from rubbish and ashes, while money and class divide families, corrupt love and erode marriages. The People’s War by Angus Calder, 1969 (Vintage £20). This book describes the endurance of the British in the Second World War, as well as their whinges and selfishness. It’s an exemplary excavation of a society, all the more potent for being for ever a lost domain: for me, nostalgia and pain for the unfulfilled promise of the world I was born into. The Faber Book of Modern Verse edited by Michael Roberts, 1936 (Faber £16). This anthology includes Owen, Lawrence, Eliot, Yeats, Auden and many others. I…

Programmes Dark Hearts Gritty drama about a French commando unit in Iraq that must rescue the daughter of an Isis leader to win his cooperation. Sat 21 Oct, BBC4 21:00 and 22:05 (65mins; 50mins). Planet Earth III The latest instalment of the natural history series, hosted by David Attenborough: episode one visits coastlines from Namibia to the Arctic. Sun 22 Oct, BBC1 18:15 (60mins). Three Little Birds Drama written by Lenny Henry, inspired by his family’s history. In 1957, two Jamaican sisters start a new life in Britain. Sun 22 Oct, ITV1 20:00 (60mins). The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes Two-part docuseries about an Israeli lawyer’s hunt for tapes, made by a Nazi sympathiser in 1957, in which Adolf Eichmann discussed his role in Hitler’s Final Solution. Sun 22…

Canada’s prairies & peaks Enjoy this 11-night motorhome Alberta holiday, with 2 nights in a Calgary hotel and a visit to the Dinosaur Provincial Park. From £1,099pp (incl. flights). 020-7084 6500, trailfinders.com. November departure. Seven nights in Malta Stay at the Maritim Antonine Hotel and discover a magical blend of culture, cuisine and landscape. From £799pp half-board (incl. flights). 020-3966 5882, traveldepartment.co.uk. Depart 7 March. Code TW50. Exotic winter cruise Spend Christmas in the Caribbean on a 15-night cruise from Barbados, incl. a stop in Antigua. From £1,891pp all-inclusive (incl. flights). 020-3848 3797, iglucruise.com. Depart 14 December. Island-hopping in Thailand Five-star tropical indulgence and tranquillity, from Phuket to Khao Lak and Krabi, for 14 nights. From £1,619pp b&b (incl. flights and transfers). 020-3608 0135, secretescapes.com. Depart 6 May.…

Carillion/KPMG: banged to rights? When the construction and outsourcing giant Carillion collapsed in 2018, it was “one of the biggest corporate casualties in British history”, said Sam Nagarajan on Bloomberg. It left a trail of chaos. Around 30,000 suppliers and subcontractors lost a combined £2bn in unpaid bills. Now there has been a reckoning, of sorts. The Financial Reporting Council has fined Carillion’s auditor, KPMG, a record £21m for its failure to spot and stop the rot. The fine “broke the previous record of £13m held by KPMG (for Silentnight), which broke the previous record of £6m, also paid by KPMG”, said Robert Lea in The Times. In total, the Big Four bean-counter has paid over £62m in fines in the past five years for “its (lack of) auditing”. Still,…

War and the British tax burden Alex Brummer Daily Mail The gathering of US warships in the eastern Mediterranean – and Britain’s decision to dispatch surveillance aircraft to the region – reflects fears of a broader conflagration in the Middle East, says Alex Brummer. “The timing for most Western governments could not be more difficult.” Pressure to step up defence spending coincides with huge fiscal stress: the impact of the 2008-09 financial crisis, Covid, and Russia’s war on Ukraine have “sent G7 government borrowing and debt into the stratosphere”. Both the US and Britain now have levels of debt close to 100% of GDP, and debt interest payments are surging. Given the likelihood of higher defence spending, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt may deem it essential “to hold out” against Tory demands…

The week’s best shares Cranswick The Daily Telegraph The food producer has countered inflation via price rises, cost control and increased automation. Meanwhile, its growing farming capability has boosted self-sufficiency and growth prospects. Gaining market share. Buy. £35.28. Redde Northgate The Mail on Sunday The motoring firm provides accident services – from recovery to repairs – and has a fleet of 130,000 vehicles. Customers are insurers, leasing firms and businesses. Resilient and growing, with profits up 10%. Yields 7%. Buy. 317p. Roche The Daily Telegraph The Swiss pharma group, which majors on cancer drugs, neuroscience, immunology and haemophilia treatments, has upped R&D spend to boost its pipeline and offset losses from copycats. Backed by top fund managers. Buy. CHF 255.05. SSE The Times The energy firm’s long-term, government-backed growth prospects…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1385 An Ettinger pass holder and two Connell Guides will be given to the sender of the first correct solution to the crossword and the clue of the week opened on Monday 30 October. Send it to The Week Crossword 1385, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London W2 6JR, or email the completed grid/listed solutions to crossword@theweek.co.uk. Tim Moorey (timmoorey.com) This week’s winner will receive an Ettinger (ettinger.co.uk) travel pass holder in assorted colours, which retails at £115, and two Connell Guides (connellguides.com). ACROSS 8 Repeatedly wherein oil’s found? What a surprise (4,4) 9 One hour in London venue gets an enthusiastic reception (3-3) 10 Tons in kiss and cuddle is precisely what is needed (4,2) 11 English town where nobody had food reportedly (8) 12 Ripe bananas in…