Table of contents for 1456 in The Week

“There are only three types of election campaign,” said Daniel Finkelstein in The Times. In slogan terms, they essentially break down to: “It’s time for a change”, “Britain is on the right track, don’t turn back” or “Better the devil you know”. It’s evident from his speech to the Tory Conference in Manchester this week that Rishi Sunak wants to pursue the first type of campaign. As he announced the scrapping of the second leg of HS2, the Prime Minister declared that Britain has had “30 years of a political system which incentivises the easy decision, not the right one”. Politicians had spent “more time campaigning for change than actually delivering it”, he said; a new approach, based on long-termism and honesty, was needed to make the system work for…

Dame Sue Carr, who made legal history by being sworn in as the first Lady Chief Justice of England and Wales (a title she chose, in preference to “Lord Chief Justice” or the gender-neutral “Chief Justice”). She is the 98th judge to take the role. The University of Oxford, which was named the best in the world by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. Stanford, MIT and Harvard followed in the list; Cambridge came fifth, having fallen two spots, and Imperial College came eighth. For the first time, two Chinese institutions are in the top 15. Football fans, as the UK and Ireland looked set to win their bid to host the Euro 2028 tournament, owing to Turkey withdrawing its bid in order to focus its efforts on the…

Labour’s poll lead has fallen by five points since mid-September, according to a poll taken just before the Conservative Party Conference. 39% of voters say they’d vote Labour in an election held tomorrow; 29% would vote Conservative. Opinium/The Observer 23% of boys aged between 13 and 15 say they have a positive opinion of the controversial influencer Andrew Tate. 63% have a negative view of him. 17% of boys aged six to 15 say they agree with “the sort of thing” that he says, as do 25% of boys aged 13 to 15. YouGov/The Times 40% of adults in Great Britain support axing the Birmingham to Manchester section of HS2. 24% are opposed to the move. Redfield & Wilton Strategies…

Kate Moss and her crystals Kate Moss used to be fashion’s most glamorous “bad girl”, known for wild parties, rock star boyfriends and the occasional cocaine controversy. But at 49, she has rather put that image behind her, say Phoebe McDowell and Megan Agnew in The Sunday Times. She still enjoys the odd cigarette, but she’s usually in bed by 11pm, and has swapped London for rural Oxfordshire, where she goes wild swimming “in a secret place, in the middle of lots of fields and only the villagers are allowed to use it”. In the mornings, she meditates while reciting affirmations such as “trust the universe and it will lead the way”; and at night, she “moonbathes” (lies in the moonlight to absorb lunar energy); if the Moon is full,…

RUSSIA Why ordinary Russians love the war Sibir Realii (Prague) Liberals in places such as Moscow are always listing the supposed costs that the Ukraine War is imposing on ordinary Russians, says Sergei Chernyshov. They complain that our children are no longer able to study abroad; that the rouble is collapsing; that the world is “closed” for Russian tourists. But the truth is that most Russians outside the big cities never enjoyed those benefits in the first place. They haven’t had money in their pockets for years, and certainly won’t mourn the loss of a few theatre directors who’ve fled abroad. In fact, the past 18 months have been a boom time for many Russians. Rising prices have been more than offset by the “cash handouts” given to army recruits,…

In 2019, when I met Laurence Fox, he was a “posh, louche” actor who’d voted for Jeremy Corbyn in 2017, but grown weary of the virtue signalling in his profession, said Janice Turner in The Times. A few months later, he went on Question Time, and while discussing Meghan Markle, he denied that Britain was a racist country, and accused a black woman of racism for calling him a privileged white male. Cue fury on one side, and cheers on another. Casting directors scored through his name, while radio and TV producers put him on their “rent-a-gob” list. Fox embraced his new role; and as mainstream doors slammed shut, he was flung into the arms of a new fan base on the margins. Eventually he ended up on GB News…

Looking at the photograph of 15-year-old Elianne Andam, you can easily believe that she would have fulfilled her ambition of becoming a top lawyer, said Judith Woods in The Daily Telegraph. Wearing “on-trend bookish glasses to reflect her academic side”, and “a touch of lipgloss”, she radiates the “self-possession of a young woman going places”. But at 8:30am last Wednesday, Elianne was stabbed to death at a bus stop in Croydon, south London, while en route to school. A 17-year-old boy has been charged with her murder. Even in London, that “battle-hardened city” where news of stabbings has become commonplace, her death has created shockwaves and prompted renewed soul searching about knife crime. Rightly so, said the Evening Standard. Elianne’s killing brought the number of teenage homicides in London this…

by Sarah Ogilvie Chatto & Windus 384pp £22 The Week Bookshop £17.99 “The Oxford English Dictionary always sounds as if it were put together by learned professors of philology who liked to chew tricky words for breakfast,” said Kathryn Hughes in The Sunday Times. In fact, as the lexicographer Sarah Ogilvie shows, the “hallowed reference book was compiled in a garden shed by a man without a single qualification to his name”. And in what she describes as an early example of crowd-sourcing, he was helped by an army of volunteers. When James Murray (above), a Scottish draper’s son, was commissioned by Oxford University Press in 1879 to “take over the project of mapping every word in the English language”, he realised the task would be impossible on his own.…

A new series from Radio 4, The Gift is the “kind of radio that makes me sit in my parked car in rapt awe until it’s over”, said Charlotte Runcie in The Daily Telegraph. The gift in question is a home DNA-testing kit – often bought as a present for loved ones, letting them send off a saliva sample to an ancestry-tracing website. Some recipients merely discover that their family “really is 1% Spanish, as Great Auntie Beth always claimed”. But others have their lives turned upside down by the secrets thus unearthed, and it is these gripping, sometimes chilling, tales that journalist Jenny Kleeman explores in this “important” show. One Australian man discovers that his father was a wanted killer who had escaped from prison in Nebraska decades before…

The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith, 1892 (Wordsworth Classics £3.99). A comedy of manners which never seems to age. Married life, job boredom, nauseating youth, day-to-day house-running and keeping up with the neighbours, all brought wincingly to life. The audiobook, read drily by Geoffrey Palmer, is bliss. Outline by Rachel Cusk, 2014 (Faber £9.99). This novel – the first in a trilogy – is full of weird, visceral, experimental writing on divorce and loss, so much so that I never recommend it to people going through break-ups as it just might be “too much”. Cusk is one of our most underrated British authors. Never throwaway, never twee, always brittle and brilliant. Ready for Absolutely Nothing by Susannah Constantine, 2022 (Penguin £10.99). This is a profoundly candid…

Programmes First Ladies of Hip-Hop Three-part documentary tracing the role women played in the early days of rap. With contributions from Salt-NPepa, Monie Love and others. Sat 7 Oct, BBC2 21:35 and 22:35 (60mins each). Big Little Journeys New nature series tracing the journeys six tiny creatures must make to survive. First up, a turtle crosses a main road in search of wetlands. Sun 8 Oct, BBC2 20:00 (60mins). The Reckoning Steve Coogan plays Jimmy Savile in this new biographical drama, made in collaboration with some of the survivors of his abuses. Mon 9 and Tue 10 Oct, BBC1 21:00 (60mins each). Storyville – Made of Steel: Wheelchair Rugby’s Fiercest Rivalry Documentary about the two best teams in the world, France and England, as they battle their way to the…

Rick Stein’s luxury hut Stay two nights in a wooden shepherd’s hut in Padstow and enjoy a complimentary 3-course meal in Stein’s pub. From £249pp b&b. 01841-370002, tripsmiths.com. Arrive 9 November. Magical Campania islands Embrace colourful island living in the Gulf of Naples, with a 5-night stay on Ischia and daily excursions. From £799pp half-board (incl. flights). 020-3608 0135, secretescapes.com. Depart 25 October. Dominican Republic resort Situated on Higüey beach, the 5-star Caribe Deluxe Princess hotel offers a 6-night stay from £1,080pp all-inclusive (incl. flights). 020-3451 2690, firstchoice.co.uk. Depart 16 January 2024. Christmas markets cruise Soak up the festive spirit with stops in Hamburg, Rotterdam and Bruges on this week-long trip. From £484pp full-board. 020-3966 8943, iglucruise.com. Depart 8 December, from Southampton.…

Water companies: dirty business “After months of anger over sewage and waste” – not to mention “well-paid bosses and dividend-hungry owners” – Britain’s 16 private water suppliers submitted their business plans for the next five years to regulator Ofwat this week, said Alex Lawson in The Observer. The “twice-a-decade” price review, determining who will stump up what to fix the UK’s ancient leaky pipes, has rarely been so politically charged. Back in May, suppliers announced £10bn in infrastructure upgrades to complete the biggest modernisation of sewers “since the Victorian age”. The latest figures are much bigger, said Tracey Boles in The Times. The industry proposes investing £96bn in infrastructure from 2025-2030, much of which will be met by customer bills – forecast to rise by up to 40%. Many people…

The Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, is not easily cowed, said The Daily Telegraph. On a trip to Washington last week, she “caused uproar” by questioning whether the UN Refugee Convention, laid down in the very different world of 1951, was “fit for the modern age”. Her comments “triggered a backlash” in sections of her own party; Rishi Sunak flatly rejected her suggestion that multiculturalism had “failed”. Undeterred, Braverman returned to the subject on Tuesday, telling the party faithful in Manchester that migration, both legal and illegal, was too high. The world, she warned, was facing an unprecedented movement of people. “The wind of change that carried my own parents across the globe in the 20th century was a mere gust compared to the hurricane that is coming,” she declared. Only…

Tom Hanks, who felt obliged to warn his fans that an advert for a dental plan that he seems to be promoting is actually an AI-generated “deepfake” created without his permission. Festival goers, with news that tickets for Glastonbury 2024 will cost £360, up from £340 this year, and £75 more than in 2022. Those keen to buy them are advised to register their interest online before 5pm on 30 October. Amazon, after a new rule came into force in France that obliges it to charge a delivery fee of at least s3 when sending out books. The rule, which Amazon plans to appeal, is designed to protect independent sellers. Amazon was banned years ago from offering free shipping on books, so had been charging one cent.…

Paris Bedbug panic: Pressure has been mounting on the French government to tackle a so-called plague of bedbugs in Paris and other cities, in advance of next summer’s Paris Olympics. Emmanuel Grégoire, the deputy mayor of Paris, has requested “urgent” action to address the problem, while the transport minister has summoned bus and train operators to “inform them” about how to stop bedbugs multiplying on seats. Bedbugs have been a growing problem in France and other countries for years – a rise blamed on increased travel and resistance to pesticide; and sightings are often high at this time of year, as a result of the return from holidays. But local entomologists claim that the current panic about them is partly being generated by clips of infestations being circulated on social…

1* Spice Up Your Life by Spice Girls, Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard, performed by the Spice Girls 2 The Real Slim Shady by Marshall Mathers, Andre Young, Tommy Coster, Melvin Bradford and Mike Elizondo, performed by Eminem 3 La Isla Bonita by Madonna, Patrick Leonard and Bruce Gaitsch, performed by Madonna 4 Soul One by Brad Smith, Christopher Thorn, Glen Graham, Rogers Stevens and Shannon Hoon, performed by Blind Melon 5 22 by Taylor Swift, Max Martin and Shellback, performed by Taylor Swift 6 Psychic City (Classixx Remix) by Jona Bechtolt, Claire L. Evans, Michael David and Tyler Blake, performed by Yacht 7 Crash Into Me by David J. Matthews, performed by the Dave Matthews Band 8 16 Shots by Stephanie Allen and Fred Gibson, performed by Stefflon Don Book: The Highway Rat by Julia Donaldson and Axel…

The Dangerous Dogs Act is often seen as a classic example of a bad law, passed as a kneejerk reaction to shocking headlines. It was introduced by the then home secretary, Kenneth Baker, in 1991, after a spate of horrific dog attacks, many of them involving pit bulls, “to rid the country of the menace of these fighting dogs”. In 2014, the RSPCA produced a report describing it as “a dog’s dinner”. The report states that since the law had been passed, 30 people had been killed, 21 of them by dogs not prohibited under the Act; it penalises certain breeds but not others often involved in attacks – but more culturally acceptable – such as rottweilers, German shepherds and Staffordshire bull terriers. The law, the RSPCA found, had had…

Safe streets vs. human rights: an easy choice Megan McArdle The Washington Post In 2015, El Salvador was the murder capital of the world, with a homicide rate of 107 per 100,000 people, says Megan McArdle. That figure has since plummeted to 7.8, which is similar to the US rate. How has this been achieved? By locking loads of people up. Under President Nayib Bukele, the government has cast due process aside, arresting suspects en masse and throwing them into hideously overcrowded prisons on “as little basis as tattoos or anonymous phone calls”. More than 1% of the country is reportedly in jail. It’s a brutal system, but even Bukele’s critics concede that it has “functionally destroyed” the street gangs that previously held El Salvador in their grip. The general…

When you type a question into ChatGPT, you’re probably not thinking about the water its answer will require. But computer scientists have warned that AI-powered chatbots are already causing significant spikes in water usage – which will only increase as people become more dependent on such technology. The amount of water used by server farms to counteract the heat generated by their computers has long been of concern to environmentalists. AI requires vast amounts of computer power – which means more water will be needed. According to Microsoft’s latest environmental report, its water consumption increased by 34% between 2021 and 2022 to nearly 1.7 billion gallons, and researchers from the University of California think that most of that rise is down to AI. They calculate that ChatGPT requires half-a-litre of…

It’s not, as some initially assumed, a U-turn, said The Times. Labour may have retreated last week on its commitment to withdraw charitable status from private schools, but only because it has hit on an easier method to achieve the same ends. If the party wins the next election, it plans to remove two of the main perks afforded by that status, by imposing VAT on school fees and scrapping the 80% relief that independent schools receive on business rates. These changes could be introduced through a finance bill, avoiding a protracted row over charity law. It will leave private schools “having to observe the requirements of being charities while being stripped of most of the tax advantages”. Cue furious denunciations from the usual defenders of public school privilege, said…

“How pleasant is the day when we give up striving to be young – or slender.” William James, quoted in The Economist “The culture war is a religious conflict about the right gods to worship.” Danny Kruger, quoted in The New Statesman “There’s no heavier burden than a great potential.” Charles M. Schulz, quoted in the Longmont Times-Call “I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.” Winston Churchill, quoted on FinanceFeeds “It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than to get permission.” Silicon Valley maxim, quoted in The Times “My life didn’t please me, so I created my life.” Coco Chanel, quoted in The New European “Money is like muck, not good except it be spread.” Francis Bacon, quoted in The Guardian “Toughness doesn’t have…

To The Guardian As the chair of governors of a secondary school, I have always voted for the abolition of school uniforms. I have often been in a minority of one. Abolishing uniforms would result in saving an incalculable amount of teachers’ time and frustration in policing uniforms, and in an equally incalculable amount of improvement in student motivation and goodwill. Prof Colin Richards, former HM inspector of schools, Spark Bridge, Cumbria To The Guardian When allowed to decide for themselves how to dress, children learn how to make choices and discover their likes and dislikes. They learn how to discern what’s appropriate in different settings and to balance self-expression and practicality. Above all, they learn not to judge people by how they look. Daniel Owen, Torrington, Devon To The…

by Chetna Maroo Picador 176pp £14.99 The Week Bookshop £11.99 Squash is a game of “peculiar solitude”, in which you “never face your competitor, and play in eerily hermetic conditions”, said Claire Allfree in The Times. In this “gorgeous debut”, it evokes the inner life of its heroine, a promising young player whose devotion to the sport is in part a response to family tragedy. When the novel opens, narrator Gopi is 11 and “has just lost her mother”. Her father ramps up her training; soon, she’s playing “several hours a day”. An “elegantly compressed coming-of-age novel”, written in unadorned but expressive prose, Western Lane is a remarkable achievement – and deserves its place on this year’s Booker shortlist. It “feels like the work of a writer who knows what…

British Paintings, 1880-1980 at Liss Llewellyn/Sotherans This exhibition is a treasure trove of 20th century British painting, delving deep into the complicated story of modernism in this country to uncover dozens of neglected gems. The artists represented here range from the reasonably well-known (Duncan Grant, Evelyn Dunbar) to the criminally under-appreciated (Kathleen Guthrie, Leon Underwood, Hubert Arthur Finney) and the near-forgotten. It’s interesting to note recurring patterns, for instance the use of intersecting searchlights in wartime paintings – Rudolf Sauter’s Searchlights along the Thames Estuary (1940) or Charles Cundall’s 1941 view of a raid on south London. More experimental works are no less impressive: among the best are a collage of a Highland landscape by Ithell Colquhoun; Augustus Lunn’s surrealist 1937 view of a building site; and Allan Milner’s energetic,…

A champion pizza chef in west London “Naples may be the home of pizza, but it is not home to the world’s greatest pizza chef,” says Giulia Crouch in The Times. Instead, you’ll find the new holder of that title on a “sleepy street in west London”. Michele Pascarella, who emigrated from southern Italy when he was in his early 20s, saw off thousands of other entrants to win the “pizza-maker of the year” category at last month’s 50 Top Pizza World 2023 awards. The “prestigious” accolade was bestowed upon him after judges had made a series of undercover visits to Napoli on the Road, his pizzeria in Chiswick (he owns a second branch in Richmond). They described him as a “pioneer of contemporary pizza”, having sampled from his “creative…

• Be prepared for the worst, and think of your hand luggage as an escape kit, with all your overnight essentials: underwear, medication, toiletries, snacks. • Make an emergency folder. If you used a tour operator, print your Atol certificates. Add photocopies of passports, vaccination certificates or visas where applicable, plus contact details for next of kin. Throw in your GHIC cards for any medical emergencies abroad and ?500 in local currency. • Get insurance that enables you to claim for disruption and related expenses. Check the small print: some policies will cover extraordinary circumstances, such as the recent air traffic control failure. Print the certificate and put it in the folder, with the insurer’s emergency contact number. • Make sure your phones and other devices are fully charged and…

Michael Gambon 1940-2023 Some people will remember him for his performance in Dennis Potter’s BBC drama The Singing Detective, as the psoriasis-afflicted crime writer who, from his hospital bed, falls into an altered reality in which he is a 1930s gumshoe. For a younger generation, he will always be Professor Albus Dumbledore, the wise headmaster of Hogwarts, in six of the Harry Potter films. But for all his success on screen, Michael Gambon, who has died aged 82, was primarily a stage actor, said Michael Billington in The Guardian. With “weight, presence, authority, vocal power and a chameleon-like ability to reinvent himself from one part to another”, he was one of the greats – and a natural for “heavyweight classic roles” such as Lear. What “was truly remarkable”, however, was…

When Dame Sharon White was appointed to chair the John Lewis Partnership in 2020, “it was the first time the retail bastion had looked for leadership outside its own walls”, said Isabella Fish in The Times. The experiment has proved a disappointment. White’s decision to hang up her boots at the end of her first term in 2025 will make her the shortest-serving boss in the store group’s 160-year history. Critics say that her turnaround strategy is “in tatters”. The mood in the employee-owned business, where White is said to be “very popular”, despite having axed the sacred staff bonus last year, was leaden. Workers have been left even more uncertain about the future. Everyone agrees that White – a former Treasury official turned Ofcom regulator – was “unlucky in…

We risk a “global Liz Truss” incident Ambrose Evans-Pritchard The Daily Telegraph There’s trouble in the bond markets again, says Ambrose Evans-Pritchard. Yields on ten-year US Treasuries – “the anchor price of world money” – touched a 15-year high of 4.7% this week, reflecting a serious rout (yields go up as prices go down). Investors are fleeing the $25trn US government bond market so quickly that there is now a danger of a serious credit shock. Call it a variant of last year’s “Truss gilts saga” – “writ global”. Rising US yields are forcing up European yields, “even as the eurozone slides deeper into an economic slump”, and bank lending shrinks. They’re also “playing havoc with dollar debt contracts in Asia and across emerging markets”, as well as “complicating China’s…

The week’s best shares Babcock International The Times The defence contractor’s promise to resume paying divis indicates its turnaround is working and disposal scheme complete. There’s good organic growth, improved performance and higher cashflow. Undervalued. Buy. 409.4p. CVS Group The Sunday Times Shares in the vet group, which owns surgeries, labs, crematoriums and an online pharmacy, crashed when the CMA announced a fee probe. But the sell-off is overdone. A defensive stock with a solid future. Buy. £16.32. Journeo Investors’ Chronicle Journeo provides transport systems and software management for rail information displays, with demand driven by blue-chip operators and local authorities. Organic growth boosted by acquisitions. Quadrupling profits. Buy. 235p. Jet2 The Daily Telegraph “Standout customer service” is driving repeat business at the airline. Profits are climbing, thanks to higher-margin…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1383 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 16 October. Send it to The Week Crossword 1383, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London W2 6JR, or email the completed grid/listed solutions to crossword@theweek.co.uk. Tim Moorey (timmoorey.com) This week’s winner will receive an Ettinger (ettinger.co.uk) travel pass holder in assorted colours, which retails at £115, and two Connell Guides (connellguides.com). ACROSS 6 Pop circles in Sutherland? (7) 7 Another one’s content for a flyer (5) 9 One foremost in brotherhood or suchlike society (4) 10 Dissolute academic left with one way out (10) 11 Orchestral board of directors? (3,5) 14 A release from broadcaster (6) 15…

More than 10% of women and 8% of men aged 16 to 24 say they are gay or bisexual, according to the ONS’s annual population survey for 2022. In 2017, the figure for women in that age group was less than half that, at 4.8%; for men, it was 3.8%. Among people aged 65 and over, 0.7% identify as gay or bisexual. A third of house hunters in London will look at homes more than ten miles away from their current address; as will 42% in Oxford. By contrast, in Birmingham, only 18% of buyers look that far, while in Liverpool, just 11% will, according to data from Zoopla. It puts this “North-South divide” down to better transport links in the South giving people the option to cast their net…

Water companies in England and Wales plan to invest a record £96bn in water and sewage networks over the next few years, and to pass the cost onto consumers via higher bills, according to proposals submitted to the regulator Ofwat (see page 41). The plans envisage bills gradually increasing from 2025 to 2030, until customers are paying an average of £156 a year more for their water than they are now. The typical annual water bill in the UK is currently around £448. Among other things, the money would be spent on work to reduce overflow spills and leaks, new pipes to transfer water from the wetter north to the drier south and the construction of ten reservoirs. Ofwat has a year to review the plans.…

Washington DC Chaos in congress: The speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, was dramatically ousted this week, days after he struck a last-minute deal with Democrats to prevent a federal government shutdown. Had the stop-gap bill not passed, a range of services would have been suspended, and thousands of employees placed on unpaid leave. However, a small group of GOP hardliners had threatened to depose McCarthy if he went ahead with it, and on Tuesday they triggered a “motion to vacate”, which was supported by eight Republicans in congress and most Democrats, who objected to McCarthy’s launching of an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden. The unprecedented move leaves the House without a speaker and plunges it into chaos. Such are the divisions in the GOP, it took them…

“If Taylor Swift were an economy, the president of a major online research company said recently, she’d be bigger than 50 countries. Ticket sales for her last tour exceeded $2bn in North America. Swift is probably a genius. But is she really 50 countries more of a genius than all those others? The fame economy – in music and the arts – is steeper than that of the most oppressive autocracy. There are a tiny number of winners, on whom unspendable riches are lavished, then legions of losers. On Spotify, artists need six million streams to achieve the equivalent of a year on the UK’s minimum wage. And 1% of musicians hog 90% of the takings. There is no striving middle class.” Martha Gill in The Observer…

Age is the real dividing line in British politics Robert Colvile The Times Forget about the “red wall”, says Robert Colvile. The term may have reminded politicians that the north of England exists, but it has distracted attention from an incomparably more relevant electoral factor: age. This, not geography, is the key dividing line in our politics. As recently as the 2010 election, the Tories were only one point behind Labour among those aged 18 to 24, and only 13 ahead among the over-65s. But now a gulf has opened: up to the age of about 55, people are far more likely to back Labour: the latest poll shows it’s fully 37 points ahead among 45- to 54-year-olds. But the paradox is that since older people are more likely to…

A Stone Age structure from wood The remains of what may be the world’s oldest known wooden structure have been found in Zambia. The two logs with handcrafted interlocking joints unearthed on the banks of the Kalambo River could have been part of a raised walkway, a fishing platform or even a dwelling, say the archaeologists who excavated the site, and they date back at least 476,000 years. Predating the emergence of Homo sapiens by many millennia, the structure was most likely the work of the archaic human subspecies Homo heidelbergensis, says the report in the journal Nature. In the same area, the researchers also found a wedge-shaped wooden tool which may have been used for splitting timber; and a log cut at both ends that “might have been a…

When the journalist Chris Blackhurst was invited to talk to Theresa May at a Tory party conference during her premiership, her aides gave him strict instructions to keep his questions to one subject: her shoes. “How did you choose your shoes today?” he chanced as an opener. “I saw them in the wardrobe and thought they looked nice,” came the PM’s response. Later, Blackhurst found himself in a lift with May, and asked her if she was enjoying the conference. “She looked panicked,” he recalled at Barnes BookFest, “and replied: ‘Sorry, I’m only supposed to talk to you about my shoes.’” With her husband beset by legal problems as he prepares his next White House bid, Melania Trump is reported to have “quietly renegotiated” the terms of her prenuptial agreement.…

Rory McIlroy has had some hefty setbacks in his career, including his nine-year failure to add to his tally of four majors, said Owen Slot in The Times. “Probably the greatest setback of them all”, however, occurred at the “previous Ryder Cup in Whistling Straits two years ago”, when McIlroy finished with one point from five games as the US thrashed Europe by a record margin. Famously, he ended that contest in tears. But last Sunday, at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome, McIlroy “shed tears of a very different kind”. The Northern Irishman had just inspired Europe to an emphatic revenge victory, by 16½-11½, and though it had been a team effort, it was McIlroy who “towered over” the action, consistently playing lights-out golf as he…

Cricket England beat Bangladesh by four wickets in their final World Cup warm-up game. England’s first match in the competition was against New Zealand on Thursday. Rugby union South Africa moved closer to qualifying for the World Cup quarter-finals with a 49-18 victory over Tonga. Australia beat Portugal 34-14. Football Manchester City dropped points for the first time this season as they lost 2-1 to Wolves. Manchester United suffered their fourth defeat in the Premier League, losing 1-0 to Crystal Palace.…

At the start of Opera North’s “vibrant” new staging of Verdi’s late comedy Falstaff, you might wonder if you’ve slipped into an episode of Only Fools and Horses, said Richard Morrison in The Times. Characters are dressed like 1980s market traders, the set is filled with “random brica-brac”, and centre-stage is a clapped-out old caravan. “But a noble purpose lurks behind the tat.” As part of Opera North’s drive to be carbon neutral by 2030, the entire set has been recycled from past shows or from “found” materials. Herne’s Oak in Act III, for example, is a “beautiful assembly of deer antlers” gathered from the grounds of Harewood House. If the show were “dull”, you might dismiss this as virtue signalling. “Happily, it sparkles.” Olivia Fuchs’s production, which tours to…

“Only the most hardened Wes Anderson sceptic could fail to be charmed by the director’s latest,” an adaptation of the 1977 Roald Dahl story of the same name, said Wendy Ide in The Observer. Anderson’s second Dahl adaptation, after 2009’s animation Fantastic Mr. Fox, it is only 39 minutes long, making for a “densely detailed” piece “with an intricate Russian doll story structure”. Ralph Fiennes stars as Dahl, who imagines Henry Sugar (played by Benedict Cumberbatch). An affluent 1930s playboy and gambler, Sugar learns to see through objects. He hopes to use this skill to “cheat at cards, but he discovers something rather more profound instead”. The film is archetypal Anderson: “mannered, fussy, obsessively designed” – traits that would normally be irksome, but which in this “alchemic instance” create something…

It was well known that Roman Abramovich had bought some famous artworks, says Jonathan Jones in The Guardian – such as Lucian Freud’s Benefits Supervisor Sleeping and The Policeman’s Daughter by Paula Rego (pictured). But a series of confidential documents leaked to this newspaper have revealed the extent of his collection: the oligarch and his ex-wife Dasha Zhukova “have created one of the world’s most impressive private stores of modern art”. Worth some $960m, it features 300 works by, among others, Egon Schiele, pioneer of abstraction Kazimir Malevich, and living heavyweights such as Anselm Kiefer and Gerhard Richter. Abramovich also appears to have “assembled a better collection of the very best recent British work than the Tate”, with paintings by Frank Auerbach, Leon Kossoff and Peter Doig. Until recently, Abramovich’s…

Pip tells Toby about Stella; Stella, on overhearing that they slept together recently, says it reminds her of what happened with her ex. Later she tells Pip that she realises what she’s taking on, with Rosie and Toby. The harvest supper entertainment has been double-booked: Josh tells an offended Jim that he and his piano teacher Kiki are no longer needed. Clarrie worries that Will won’t be able to cope when he and George move out, but Eddie reassures her they’ll be fine. Chelsea plans to cheer up Jim with a reading of Lark Rise to Candleford. Emma encourages Susan to do something for herself to mark her 60th. George and Will move out of Grange Farm. Pip agrees that she and Stella will tell Rosie about their relationship. As…

Makes 2 portions Zest and juice of 1 unwaxed lemon and 1 unwaxed orange 2 tsp Dijon mustard 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil 1 tsp fennel seeds 200ml white wine 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs 3 fennel bulbs, fronds reserved, bulbs cut into wedges a handful of fat green olives • If you are feeling organised, start the day before or a few hours ahead. Whisk together the citrus juice and zest, Dijon, olive oil, fennel seeds, wine and 1 tsp of sea salt and put into a freezer bag along with the chicken. • Chill for a couple of hours or up to 12 hours. This will help to tenderise the chicken. But in all honesty, I’ve often forgotten to do this and it still tastes great. • Either…

Goya & Munch: Modern Prophecies, at the Munch Museum in Oslo, will look at the overlap between the two unsettling artists (28 Oct-11 Feb 2024, £12; munchmuseet.no). Matisse, Derain & Friends, at Kunstmuseum Basel, celebrates the incendiary impact of the Fauves from 1904 to 1908 (until 21 Jan 2024, £23; kunstmuseumbasel.ch). Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris presents the first Mark Rothko retrospective in France for 24 years, tracing his career back to his figurative beginnings in the 1930s (18 Oct-2 Apr 2024, £14; fondationlouisvuitton.fr). Michelangelo and Beyond at the Albertina in Vienna shows the adoption, evolution and decline of Michelangelo’s ideal body, with his work seen alongside examples by Raphael, Rubens, Klimt, Durer and Schiele (until 14 Jan 2024, ?15; albertina.at). The opening exhibition at Berlin’s new Fotografiska gallery is…

A seaside village in North Yorkshire Squeezed between towering cliffs and the sea, the little village of Staithes in North Yorkshire is “impossibly pretty” – and winningly unpretentious too, says Simon Ingram in The Sunday Times. With a lifeboat station, a working harbour “stacked with fishing creels”, and two “salty” pubs “selling decent food at good prices”, it remains “resolutely itself” despite its popularity with tourists. Book a cottage in the lower village, where Captain Cook grew up, go fossil hunting on the “broad and dramatically rocky beach” – great fun for children – and be sure to explore the village’s glorious surroundings. Whitby (where Dracula comes ashore in Bram Stoker’s novel) is wonderfully atmospheric, the village of Robin Hood’s Bay is “exquisite”, with a “dinky” museum crammed with dinosaur…

David McCallum 1933-2023 In 1960s America, there was a mop-topped performer from across the Atlantic who was mobbed by crowds of adoring fans wherever he went. That man was David McCallum, the blonde, blue-eyed star of the hit TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. McCallum, who has died aged 90, played the enigmatic, black polo neck-wearing Russian agent Illya Kuryakin, who has teamed up with his urbane American counterpart Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) to save the world from the evil organisation that is THRUSH, aided by a host of James Bond-like gadgets. Serious enough to be gripping, self-aware and silly enough to be fun, the series was wildly popular, and turned McCallum into a sex symbol. During a publicity tour, The New York Times reported that local police chiefs had…

• Inheritance tax is often cited as the “most unfair” tax in opinion surveys, but very few Britons pay it. Currently, fewer than 4% of estates will be liable. Indeed, according to OECD data, “the UK has one of the highest exemption thresholds” (at £325,000 per individual). Only Italy and the US – where just 0.2% of estates pay tax – are higher. • Several OECD countries do not have inheritance taxes at all. Many abolished them decades ago, “when lowering taxes was popular”; others did so just before the 2008 financial crisis. • IHT doesn’t raise much. The OECD found that revenue from inheritance, estate and gift taxes exceeded 1% of the total take in only four advanced economies. In the UK, receipts are forecast to be £7bn this…

Lina Khan In a now famous 2017 Yale Law Journal article, a youthful lawyer, Lina Khan, argued that “US antitrust law was fundamentally broken” and has allowed the rise of tech monopolists such as Amazon, said The Guardian. The punchy piece propelled Khan, now 34, to public prominence, and in 2021 she was appointed by President Biden to lead the Federal Trade Commission – “the youngest person in history” to lead the competition regulator. It’s been a fraught ride, said the FT: the regulator most recently failed to block Microsoft over its $75bn takeover of games-maker Activision Blizzard. Yet “if Lina Khan’s recent defeats have got to her, she isn’t showing it”. She’s now going after “her biggest fish yet” – Amazon. The FTC’s sweeping lawsuit alleges that Amazon illegally…