Table of contents for V. 1310 in The Week

What happened Last chance for Brexit Hopes of a post-Brexit trade deal rose following reports that the UK and the EU had overcome some of their remaining differences. The prospects of an agreement had seemed bleak last week, with both sides predicting that the talks would fail, and it was reported that the Royal Navy was poised to stop EU fishing boats operating in British waters. But Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, agreed in a call on Sunday to “go the extra mile” for a deal, and von der Leyen confirmed the next day that there had been “movement” on the vexed issue of so-called level playing field provisions. Brussels has reportedly dropped the idea of a “ratchet clause” that would have imposed automatic…

Mariah Carey, who finally topped the UK charts with her hit All I Want for Christmas Is You, 26 years after it was first released. “Happy Christmas UK!” she said in a statement. “We finally made it!!!” Last year, and in 2018, it reached No. 2. Ivanka Trump, with reports that she and her husband Jared Kushner have bought a $30m plot on a private island near Miami. The pair are expected to leave Washington DC when Donald Trump leaves the White House, and it has been reported that they’ll no longer be welcome in New York society.…

Support for President Putin among Russian citizens aged 18-24 has dropped to 20%, down from 36% a year ago. Overall, however, his support has gone up fractionally, from 38% to 39%. In the survey of voting intentions, the second most popular answer, after “I would vote for Putin”, was “I would not vote”, on 24%. Levada/Times Keir Starmer has won more Leave voters from the Tories than Remain voters. In the 2019 election, the Tories had the support of 70% of Leave voters and 20% of Remain voters. Labour won just 16% of Leave voters and 49% of Remain voters. Now, though, Labour has 20% of Leave voters and 53% of Remain voters, leaving the Tories with 63% of Leavers, and 21% of Remainers. Opinium/Observer…

Dover, Delaware Hunter’s taxes: Hunter Biden confirmed last week that federal investigators in Delaware are looking into his tax affairs. As the only living son of President-elect Joe Biden, and a businessman with interests in Ukraine, China and elsewhere, Hunter Biden has been a source of great interest to the Trump campaign in recent months and years. Indeed, it was the pressure Trump exerted on the president of Ukraine to look into Biden’s activities there that led to his impeachment. Now, in a twist that has infuriated the president, it has emerged that US attorney-general William Barr knew about the tax investigation into Hunter Biden before the election, but did not disclose the matter, in accordance with Justice Department rules designed to prevent prosecutors from affecting the outcome of an…

“My favourite cemetery is Highgate in London. People tend to focus on the famous and notable buried there. If you’re interested in seeing a giant sculpted Karl Marx head, then Highgate is the one to visit. But it’s the denser part I like best, where the green grows thick and the stones are part-obscured. There is no death without life, and cemeteries are a rich source of tiny biographies: unheard-of occupations and conditions; an eyebrow-raising number of wives or children, or both; the tragedy in dates too close together. My favourite grave? A tiny, unimposing stone belonging to one Fanny Toy. There is scant information about Fanny Toy’s life, but her name is enough.” Hannah Jane Parkinson in The Guardian…

The top-secret weapon we’ve given to China David Rose Daily Mail It’s called ultracold quantum technology, says David Rose. And it is set to revolutionise our lives by delivering “unimaginably faster” computers. It will also change the face of warfare by creating super-sensitive radar systems from which no submarine or stealth bomber can hide. In short, it’s a technology you’d never want a potential foe to get its hands on. Yet until recently, that is exactly what Britain has been doing. The Ultracold Quantum Matter lab in Oxford, which has been conducting highly sensitive research in this area, has secured funding not only from the MoD, but also from a Chinese military university that – it turns out – is a key training centre for Chinese spies. For five years,…

If there’s one thing that, as outgoing director of national intelligence, I’d like to impress on the American public, it’s this, said John Ratcliffe in The Wall Street Journal: “The People’s Republic of China poses the greatest threat to America today, and the greatest threat to democracy and freedom worldwide since the Second World War.” Beijing’s goal is clear: “to dominate the US and the rest of the planet economically, militarily and technologically”, and “to reshape the world” in its own authoritarian image. Untroubled by “ethical boundaries”, it’s on a mission to steal our “research-and-development secrets”, our defence technology, and our companies’ intellectual property. Addressing this existential threat requires “a shift in thinking” by our intelligence officials, who remain preoccupied with Russia and counterterrorism. All of Washington must “work across…

Hope for a malaria vaccine Despite more than a century of research, no effective vaccine has ever been found for malaria – a disease that kills around half a million people a year, most of them children under five. But scientists think they may finally be close to a breakthrough, reports The Times. The team at Oxford University’s Jenner Institute that developed the Covid jab has also been working on a malaria vaccine. It has had promising results in early trials, and it is about to move on to a phase 3 trial involving 4,800 children across five sites in Africa. The vaccine is cheap enough to be widely rolled out in developing countries, and the scientists behind it say that if the human trials go well, it could be…

Boxing: Joshua’s win paves the way for a fight with Fury Eighteen months ago, after unexpectedly losing to the unlikely figure of Andy Ruiz Jr – the first defeat of his professional career – Anthony Joshua learnt how unpredictable and unforgiving heavyweight boxing can be, said Donald McRae in The Observer. But at Wembley Arena on Saturday night, facing a similarly unfancied adversary, he didn’t make the mistake of underestimating his opponent. Rarely has the champion looked so focused as in this bout with the 39-year-old Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev, said Oliver Brown in The Sunday Telegraph. The 31-year-old champion attacked without mercy from the start: he nearly finished Pulev off with a ferocious uppercut in round three. But the Bulgarian proved a “marvel of durability”, continuing to “absorb shots from…

De Gaulle would smile... To The Times It is a measure of how far we have fallen as a manufacturing nation that the UK has used its role as a primary producer of fish as a last card in the Brexit negotiations. Vetoing British membership of the Common Market in 1963, President de Gaulle said of the UK: “She pursues essentially industrial and commercial activities, and only slight agricultural ones”, contrasting this with the agricultural bias of France and much of Europe. Now the UK asks the French to build its nuclear power stations for it while prioritising exports of fish over manufactured goods in Brexit negotiations. De Gaulle would break into a rare smile. Roderick Cordara, QC, 24 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London ...at the fuss over fish To The…

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart Picador 448pp £14.99 The Week bookshop £11.99 The winner of this year’s Booker Prize is a tale of poverty, addiction and abuse set in and around Glasgow in the 1980s. Shuggie Bain’s mother is an alcoholic; his father, a violent, fitfully present taxi driver. As family members drift away, he becomes his mother’s sole carer – and it is their relationship that forms the novel’s emotional core. First-time author Douglas Stuart was praised for his poetic, slang-studded prose, and for his ability to find good in his characters, no matter how despicable their behaviour. Some critics, however, thought the book would have benefited from more rigorous editing. Praise: “Avowedly autobiographical… blends the tragic with the funny, the unsparing with the tender, the compassionate with the…

Frank Capra’s 1946 film It’s a Wonderful Life has topped most lists of Christmas films for years, and deservedly so. Here are five more of the most dependably cheering Yuletide movies: The Shop Around the Corner Christmas Eve brings redemption in German émigré Ernst Lubitsch’s 1940 delight. James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan star as bickering Budapest store clerks, both of whom fall in love with anonymous pen pals. With its bittersweet tone and witty dialogue, it’s a cut above the (still enjoyable) 1998 remake You’ve Got Mail. Miracle on 34th Street Edmund Gwenn plays a New York department-store Santa whose claim to be the genuine article is dismissed by a sceptical young girl, and ends up in court to prove himself right. The 1947 original is best, but the 1994…

African Palmier Khaki Velvet Travel Pouch Elizabeth Scarlett created this design after travelling in East Africa on her honeymoon. It has a water-resistant coating inside and is machine-washable (£28; trouva. com). Vintage Floral Yellow Mini Slant Tweezer Tweezerman takes functional grooming kit and makes it attractive, without compromising on quality. These tweezers with hand-filed tips will always come in handy (£15; tweezerman.com). Water-resistant Bluetooth Hands-free Speaker This little shower speaker sticks to tiles with a suction cup, and even has a microphone for taking calls (£22; amazon.co.uk). Brass Plant Mister For those who spent this year tending to an ever-expanding houseplant collection, a vintage-style plant mister like this could make a great gift. Misters are good for helping indoor plants maintain moisture in dry conditions (£22; dykeanddean.com). Tool The Bookworm…

Dame Barbara Windsor 1937-2020 One of Britain’s most loved entertainers, Barbara Windsor, who has died aged 83, was made famous by her roles in the Carry On films – hugely popular at the time for their seaside postcard humour and innuendo. Small, attractive and blonde, with an infectious saucy laugh, she was indelibly associated with the series, and appeared in one of its most famous scenes: in Carry on Camping, she is taking part in a keep fit class when her bra pings off and slaps the instructor Kenneth Williams in the face (a feat achieved by attaching the bra to the end of a fishing line, and reeling it in). Yet Windsor was in only nine of the 31 films, said The Daily Telegraph. And in real life, she…

The pound rallied and UK stocks exposed to the domestic economy – notably banks and builders – rebounded following the last-minute extension of Brexit talks. But gains were capped by the introduction of fresh Covid restrictions in London and continued fears of a potential no-deal outcome. UK redundancies hit a record high in the three months to October: the unemployment rate rose to 4.9%, taking the jobless total to 1.7 million. Hospitality was the worst-hit sector, followed by retail. UK GDP rose by 0.4% in October, but some analysts predicted that November could record an 8% contraction following the lockdowns. Britain signed a free trade deal with Singapore covering £17bn of goods and services. The deal largely replicates the existing EU-Singapore trade agreement: mainly tariff-free access to markets. Days after…

Zumping: to fire employees by video. Some couples saw quarantine as “the perfect time to leave listless relationships via brutal ‘zumpings’”. Bosses have jumped on the bandwagon. “Zumping person-to-person is just about OK in the current climate.” But some firms have chosen “to scale up”, firing many people – sometimes thousands – in a single Zoom session. “In May, a tearful Uber executive laid off 3,500 people on one call.” La mise au placard: being put in the closet, or encouraged to resign. This French speciality evolved to circumvent tough and expensive rules on corporate firing: you are put in purgatory until you get the hint. Unsurprisingly, “the psychological toll of la mise au placard can be severe” – and the practice is officially illegal. But at least if it…

The week’s best shares Berkeley Group The Times The housebuilder, credited with an ability to read the market well, is stepping up building in London. It has acquired four development sites with capacity for 2,800 new homes (one near Oxford). Yields over 5%. Buy. £42.31. Dixons Carphone The Sunday Telegraph Dixons has a bigger share than Amazon of the UK white goods and electronics market, and is the top electronics retailer in the Nordics. Carphone is being wound down, but will bequeath a huge cash pile. Undervalued. Buy. 101.7p. Marston’s The Times Whacked by the first lock-down, the pub group has emerged in “decent shape”, despite the “very difficult” tier system. A joint venture with Carlsberg brings a £233m cash injection. Set for recovery by late 2021. Buy. 63.35p. Pets…

Controversy of the week The maternity scandal Kamaljit Uppal had begged that her baby be delivered by caesarean, said Phoebe Southworth and Patrick Sawer in The Daily Telegraph. Staff at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust had known for months that the child was in a dangerous breech position. Even so, her pleas were ignored. More than seven hours after her baby’s foot had begun to show, the mother-of-three was finally rushed for a C-section, but the infant, Manpreet, died soon after, on 17 April 2003. “Her story is just one of the harrowing cases which emerged during the biggest review of maternity cases in NHS history.” A panel led by Donna Ockenden, a former senior midwife, has so far reviewed 250 out of 1,862 cases of stillbirth, maternal death…

Ageism, with news that Harrison Ford is about to reprise his title role in the Indiana Jones movies. He will be 79 by the time filming begins on the fifth and final instalment in the franchise next year. MPs, who were denied a pay rise. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority said increasing MPs’ salaries (from £81,932 a year) would be “inconsistent” with the hardship faced by their constituents this year. In a recent poll, two-thirds of respondents said that MPs were already paid too much. Will Knowland, the Eton teacher sacked for refusing to remove a controversial lecture from his YouTube channel, who lost his appeal. The school’s governors heard that he had refused six requests to take down his radical feminism lecture. Last week, he said he was hoping…

Sheffield Flats evacuated: Residents of a block of flats in Sheffield were ordered to leave their homes last Friday evening, after the ten-storey block failed a fire safety assessment. The South Yorkshire Fire Service found that smoke detectors and ventilators were missing at the North Bank building on Wicker Riverside, and that there was only one fire escape for the 35 flats on the top five floors of the block. Reportedly, there were also problems with cavity wall insulation. Last month, the fire service said it was planning to inspect all buildings in South Yorkshire over six storeys. Droitwich, Worcestershire Swans culled: Between 40 and 50 birds at a swan rescue centre in Worcestershire have to be put down owing to an outbreak of avian flu. Wychbold Swan Rescue, near…

Saving whales with song It’s 50 years since Roger Payne, an American biologist, led a team that released the five-track, 34-minute album Songs of the Humpback Whale. Back then, tens of thousands of whales were being slaughtered every year for their oil. The humpback population had fallen from 100,000 in 1900 to fewer than 7,000 – and Payne was desperate to highlight their plight. “They were headed towards extinction, no discussion,” he says. So when he heard that US navy microphones off the coast of Bermuda were picking up whale sounds, he arranged a visit; and as soon as he heard the recordings, he knew he was on to something special. “It was dead obvious to me [...] that this was the most extraordinary thing ever heard in nature,” he…

A Zambian woman has taken her partner to court in a desperate bid to make him marry her. Gertrude Ngoma, 26, accused her boyfriend of eight years, Herbert Salaliki, 28, of “wasting her time” by failing to propose. She said Salaliki had promised to marry her, and that they had a child together. “He has never been serious,” she told the court, “I deserve to know the way forward.” In his defence, Salaliki said that she didn’t give him enough attention. The judge ruled that there was nothing the court could do. Wang Liutai, the head of the Juntun Martial Arts Academy, in central China, is a master of “iron crotch kung fu”. This wince-inducing martial art involves having a 6.5ft, 88lb steel-capped log swung repeatedly into your crotch. “When…

RUSSIA Russians don’t always have to be the bad guys The Moscow Times Russians are used to seeing themselves portrayed as bad guys in Hollywood productions, says Ilya Klishin. They typically appear as mafia criminals, spies or hackers; their “beautiful” country is depicted as a bleak land where “alcoholics wearing fur earflaps line up at Lenin’s mausoleum”. Many Russians have therefore been shocked at their sympathetic portrayal in the popular Netflix show The Queen’s Gambit. The 1950s-set series is about a young American chess prodigy played by Anya Taylor-Joy, who strives to beat Russian grandmasters to become world champion while overcoming alcoholism and emotional troubles. She sees her rivals not as soulless robots, but as ordinary people whose talent and intelligence she admires. Spooks on both sides are depicted as…

Molly Gibson is arguably the oldest baby in the world. She was born in October, but she grew from an embryo that was created 28 years ago, during a round of IVF. Her 29-year-old mother, Tina, had “adopted” this embryo, because she and her husband were unable to have children of their own. Unused embryos produced during IVF treatments are usually destroyed, but this distresses many Christians, who believe that life begins at fertilisation. So in the US, some couples choose to freeze their unused embryos, so that they can be offered to other couples. The frozen embryos are then thawed and implanted in the new mother’s uterus. Molly’s was one of two genetically identical embryos created in 1992, at a faith-based non-profit fertility centre in Tennessee. Tina Gibson was…

Ask Liverpool fans who they see as the club’s greatest managers and they’ll mention the likes of Paisley, Shankly, Benítez and Klopp, said Phil Thompson in The Times. It’s their silhouettes you see on the big flag on the Kop. But one name that rarely features is that of Gérard Houllier, the Frenchman who managed the club between 1998 and 2004, and who died this week following aortic aneurysm surgery. Houllier was the first Liverpool manager to win a European trophy in 17 years. Yet though he is remembered fondly, he is not truly revered. He should be, said Sachin Nakrani in The Guardian. Houllier arrived in a time of drift and decay – marked by the underachieving “Spice Boys” of the mid-1990s – and, through a combination of “intelligence,…

To The Guardian Lynsey Hanley makes many valid points (“The myth of a reactionary ‘red wall’ obscures the causes of the North-South divide”). However, it is not a North-South divide but a centre-periphery divide that characterises England’s distorted economy. Cornwall is the poorest county in England, and here the inequalities are amplified by austerity cuts. As local government jobs have been slashed, and the services previously provided and managed locally are now outsourced to large corporations, all the better-paid careers, jobs and profits are hoovered up the A30 to headquarters, leaving peripheral areas with the low-paid work. To make matters worse, the second homes and holiday trade mean Cornwall, unlike Barrow-in-Furness, doesn’t even get the bonus of cheaper housing, and we’ve now lost our “Objective One” Euro-dosh, in exchange for…

Tate Britain’s “racist” mural A restaurant at Tate Britain could face closure after a mural that has adorned its walls for nearly a century was deemed racist by the museum’s own ethics committee, said Lanre Bakare in The Guardian. Entitled The Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meats, the “floor-to-ceiling” mural is the work of the British artist Rex Whistler (1905-1944), after whom the restaurant is named. The work depicts an “imagined hunting exhibition” involving the fictional Duke of Epicurania, and incorporates “enslaved black children who are being led on a leash” as well as caricatures of Chinese people. It has been in place since 1927, but has become controversial since its restoration in 2013, said Martin Bailey in the Art Newspaper. The Tate provided an “interpretation text” aimed at putting…

During Kirsty’s litter pick, she and Eddie talk about her upcoming move to Wales. Eddie has brought Poppy along and when she starts using his metal detector, Eddie’s own enthusiasm returns in spite of last week’s run-in with the detectorists. Chris collects Alice from detox and is later alarmed by how easily she lies to Helen about her supposed stay in Bath. Alice insists it’s fine and that she’s better. Talking to Jill, Kirsty gets upset at the thought of leaving Ambridge. Alice is fed up with Chris’s constant checking up on her. He calls the midwife for reassurance, and later confesses to Alice. As they talk, Alice shares her fears about her addiction but they’re determined to beat it together. Freddie and Lily end up having an impromptu 21st…

Makes enough for 12 For the gravadlax: 1kg side of salmon, skin-on 3 raw beetroots, scrubbed 6 juniper berries, crushed zest of 1 lemon 5 sprigs of dill, chopped 100g rock salt 50g demerara/turbinado sugar 100ml gin For the cucumber pickle: 2 cucumbers 2 tbsp rock salt 100ml white wine vinegar 2 tbsp granulated sugar 1 tbsp coriander seeds fronds from 5 sprigs of dill For the horseradish sauce: 3 tbsp grated horseradish (from a jar, or from the root) 100g natural/plain yogurt juice of 2 lemons black pepper • You’ll need a decent-sized dish with a lip for this – if your salmon won’t fit in whole, slice it in half and place the two pieces side by side. If the fillet is skinless, line the dish with parchment…

The website Etsy.com has reported a threefold increase in demand for crafting kits this year, owing to lockdown spurring a renewed interest in DIY of all forms, said Anna Tyzack in The Sunday Telegraph. But there’s plenty you can make for Christmas just using what you have around the house. Get a roll of brown packaging paper and some acrylic paint or chalk emulsions, and you can create block printed wrapping paper using potatoes cut into different shapes. If you don’t have the time for that, just wrap your gifts in plain paper and block print the gift tag. For smaller gifts like jewellery, socks or gloves, which can be awkward to wrap, try making a neat gift envelope as demonstrated in a YouTube tutorial by “professional wrapping adviser” Jane…

Arcadia/Debenhams: right barney Never underestimate a former squash coach. Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group has confirmed that it is interested in rescuing both Topshop and Debenhams, in a double swoop that would greatly expand “his already vast high street empire”, said Matt Oliver in the Daily Mail. Ashley’s lieutenants are in talks with the administrators of both companies. Still, he hardly has the field to himself, said Sarah Butler in The Guardian. Following the collapse of Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia empire last month, Topshop’s administrator, Deloitte, is seeking bids of up to £200m for the fashion chain. The online rag-trader Boohoo reportedly has Green’s backing; but others jostling to carve up Arcadia’s brands include Next, M&S and private equity group Alteri. Supermarkets such as Tesco, which houses 30 Dorothy Perkins…

Will bankers jump the vaccine queue? Gillian Tett Financial Times Healthcare providers in America are reportedly facing “a barrage of requests from the rich and powerful, desperate for access to the first round of vaccines”, says Gillian Tett. The issue is not unique to the US, but the ethics are “particularly tortured and emotive” in a country without a single-payer healthcare system like the NHS: 29 million Americans under 65 lack health insurance. Moreover, the fragmented roll-out by individual states has created “numerous loopholes” which, in the language of Wall Street, are “prone to arbitrage”: in New York and Illinois, for example, financiers, bankers and journalists were defined as “essential workers” during the pandemic. “The most ethical medical groups are trying to hold the line”, but the feeling is that…

With indoor gatherings off the cards this year, many households have been investing in two Christmas trees – one for the family to enjoy inside, and the other to lend a festive air to the garden. Sales of trees are up 31%, according to the British Christmas Tree Growers Association. People have also been prepping for a largely outdoor Christmas by stocking up on barbecues and outdoor heaters. At John Lewis, sales of fire pits and other outdoor heaters are up by 112% this year. Thermal underwear and base layers have been flying off the shelves too, as younger people in particular look for ways to keep warm while meeting friends outdoors. ACAI Outdoorwear says sales of its thermal ranges to women aged 25-34 have increased by 350%.…

The Government has agreed to start talks with EDF about funding for a new £20bn nuclear plant in Suffolk. The twin reactor plant, Sizewell C, could generate 3.2 gigawatts of electricity, enough to fulfil 7% of Britain’s energy needs. But campaigners argue that if the Government takes an equity stake in the plant, taxpayers will have to foot the bill if costs run over. The project would be a sister plant to Hinkley Point C, which the French energy giant is also building – and which is set to go £2.9bn over its original budget. China General Nuclear Power Group, which has a stake in both projects, is thought to be planning to pull out of Sizewell C, increasing the need for new investors.…

Pic de Sauvegarde, France Hiker mystery: French police investigating the disappearance of Esther Dingley, who went missing while hiking in the Pyrenees last month, say they have no leads, and are now pursuing the theory of a “voluntary disappearance”. Dingley, a former British international rower, was last seen on 22 November near the mountains’ Spanish border. Her partner, Dan Colegate, who had been house-sitting a French farmhouse while she went hiking, has been interviewed as a witness, but is not a suspect in her disappearance. The couple, who quit high-flying academic careers six years ago after Colegate nearly died following surgery, had been touring Europe in a camper van ever since. Masella, Spain Ski resorts open: Catalonia has bucked the European trend towards tighter Covid-19 restrictions, by allowing its ski…

1 Green Green Grass of Home by Claude “Curly” Putman Jr, performed by Tom Jones 2 I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles), written and performed by The Proclaimers 3 Spring from The Four Seasons: 1. Allegro by Vivaldi performed by Nigel Kennedy with The English Chamber Orchestra 4* Give a Little Bit by Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson, performed by Supertramp 5 Silent Night by Franz Xaver Gruber and Joseph Mohr trans. John Freeman Young, performed by The Salisbury Cathedral Choir 6 Eye of the Tiger by Frankie Sullivan and Jim Peterik, performed by Survivor 7 The Wind Beneath My Wings by Jeff Silbar and Larry Henley, performed by Bette Midler 8 I Vow to Thee My Country by Sir Cecil Spring Rice and Gustav Holst, performed by Katherine Jenkins Book:…

“Puritan” was originally a pejorative term for those who wished to purge the Church of England of Catholic practices, to live exemplary lives based on the scriptures. Puritans tended to refer to themselves as the “Godly”, or “saints”. Today, historians reject the idea that they were entirely pleasure-hating: puritan authors, for instance, saw sex within marriage as a joyous expression of God’s love. On the other hand, writes the historian Prof Francis J. Bremer, it is true that the anti-puritanism of the time was “rooted in the perception that the godly sought to suppress the traditional pastimes of Merry England”. Puritans condemned blood sports like bear-baiting and cockfighting. They hated maypoles, which they saw as a pagan practice which led to wantonness. They were opposed to football, which was violent,…

Learning the lessons of a small war Max Boot The Washington Post “Small wars can sometimes send a big message,” says Max Boot. The Italo-Turkish War of 1911, for instance, saw the first bombing raid by a pilot. During the Israel-Syria battles of 1982, Israel’s obliteration of Syrian air defences heralded a new tactical era. The same is true of the recent conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. In six weeks of fighting, Azerbaijan defeated Armenia to reclaim border territory that the two nations have been tussling over for decades. The secret to the Azeris’ success was the use of unmanned “kamikaze drones” that overwhelmed Armenia’s outdated air defences and took out its entrenched tank and artillery positions on the strategic high ground. There’s an important lesson here for the US, which remains…

Scientists have discovered the first known octogenarian tropical fish – a midnight snapper caught in a reef system off Western Australia. The 81-year-old fish was one of several surprising finds made by researchers who were investigating how tropical marine life is being affected by warming temperatures. They also discovered a 79-year-old red bass, and nine other red and white snappers above the age of 60. The team determined the ages of the fish by examining bones in their ears called otoliths, which, like tree rings, have visible bands. “Until now, the oldest fish that we’ve found in shallow, tropical waters have been around 60 years old,” said Dr Brett Taylor, of the Australian Institute of Marine Science. Despite his record-breaking finds, his overall assessment was bleak. “By 2100, I don’t…

Football Chelsea were drawn to play Atlético Madrid in the last 16 of the Champions League; Manchester City face Borussia Mönchengladbach, while Liverpool have Leipzig. Rugby union Exeter Chiefs began their defence of the Champions Cup with a 42-0 victory over Glasgow Warriors – their biggest ever margin of victory in Europe. F1 Holland’s Max Verstappen won the season’s final race in Abu Dhabi. Lewis Hamilton finished in third place, having tested positive for Covid-19 two weeks earlier – he later said he felt physically “destroyed” by the virus.…

Looking back on 2020 1 Why did Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci make international headlines this year? 2 Three months after stepping down as senior royals, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex revealed that they had bought a £11m home in the US. Where is it? 3 Which tech billionaire announced in April that he was giving $1bn – around a quarter of his wealth – to help fight the pandemic? 4 Which European country in March became the first in the world to make public transport free? 5 Which novel won the 2020 Booker Prize? And what is its Scottish-born author’s previous day job? 6 Which country became Nato’s 30th member in March? 7 In June, former Nasa astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan became the first woman to reach the…

Ane Brun: After the Great Storm & How Beauty Holds the Hand of Sorrow Balloon Ranger £12 each After five years of silence following the death of her father, the Norwegian singer-songwriter Ane Brun is back, said Neil McCormick in The Daily Telegraph – with not one but two “extraordinary” albums. In October, she released After the Great Storm; “utterly bewitching, with an experimental edge”, it has “gauzy electronic layers” that lend “moody trip-hop ambience to Brun’s evocations of grief and recovery”. Now we have its “stripped-back” but equally evocative companion piece. On this, she uses piano and acoustic guitar to chart a “bittersweet journey, balancing the melancholy of the medium with a healing message”. Whereas the first album is ultimately an “upbeat affair, perhaps the equivalent of a screaming…

Featuring Ethan Hawke in an “awards-worthy” performance as the US abolitionist John Brown, The Good Lord Bird (Sky Atlantic) is “a delirious Western which leavens the deathly serious subject of slavery with almost Python- esque humour”, said Anita Singh in The Daily Telegraph. Brown was hanged for treason in 1859 for leading a raid on a federal armoury, with the intention of starting a slave revolt. He was said by some to be mad, and Hawke intensely embodies this “crazed and bloodthirsty zeal”. Fortunately, that is tempered by Joshua Caleb Johnson’s performance as Henry, a clear-headed 13-year-old slave he rescues and takes on as a mascot. Brown and his ragtag band spend the first episode slashing and shooting their way through Kansas, said Rebecca Nicholson in The Guardian. The violence…

When writing Just Ignore Him, I became interested in memoirs and autofiction where real events blend with the invented and people are disguised to protect the innocent. In The Patrick Melrose Novels (2012; Picador £14.99), Edward St. Aubyn’s childhood ordeal at the hands of his father ignites a five-book collection depicting the lasting effects of trauma in a kaleidoscope of drink and drug fuelled escapades that take him (as Patrick) from the seediest dealers in New York to a hilarious dinner with a waspish Princess Margaret. Once in a House on Fire by Andrea Ashworth, 1998 (Picador £10.99). A painful, often humorous, record of a childhood that might have seen only wreckage left behind. Violence and poverty are eloquently depicted years later by a woman who escaped through a love…

For anyone still on the hunt for that last-minute something, the London Original Print Fair – now online – brings together original artwork from galleries around the world. Right now it has a special spotlight exhibition, Prints for Christmas with some beautiful (and less obviously Yule-inspired) prints, starting from £50 (londonoriginalprintfair.com). This year would have marked the 20th Spirit of Christmas Fair, which usually takes place at Kensington Olympia. Instead it has launched a shop online, with gift ideas from more than 200 independent brands and makers; “open” until 24 December (shop. spiritofchristmasfair.co.uk).…

Red Sands by Caroline Eden Quadrille £26 (£20.99) This isn’t your usual cookbook, said Diana Henry in The Daily Telegraph: “it’s more a travel book with recipes”. Eden, whose 2018 book Black Sea was “showered with awards”, this time journeys across central Asia, documenting the people – and recipes – she meets along the way. She eats bread in the shape of sunflowers, the world’s best halva and, in Uzbekistan, sweet winter melons. “There is nobody writing about food at the moment who’s committed to this level of immersion,” said Tim Hayward in the FT. Flavour by Yotam Ottolenghi and Ixta Belfrage Ebury £27 (£21.99) By Ottolenghi’s standards, the recipes in this book are low-effort affairs, said Tony Turnbull in The Times. But they “pack real punch”. Written with Ixta…

With sites in Manchester and Windermere, Treetop Trek has 32 challenging obstacles, including balance bars, swinging logs, bridges, and a 820ft (250-metre) triple zip wire (treetoptrek.co.uk). On the Canopy Walkway in the Rainforest Biome at the Eden Project, in Cornwall, you can spot exotic specimens and experience a simulated tropical rainstorm (edenproject.com). Go Ape, with sites across the country, is a great way to see forests from a fresh angle, and makes for an exhilarating, family-friendly day out (goape.co.uk). On the 60ft-high Treetop Walkway at Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, which is temporarily closed, you pass by ancient limes, oaks and sweet chestnuts, and glimpse sweeping views (kew.org). Opening again in February, Zip World in the Conwy Valley is a massive bouncy playground on nets suspended 60ft in the air,…

“When Silicon Valley visionaries are ordained as multibillionaires, it typically happens on a Wall Street trading floor,” said Dave Lee in the FT. Thanks to Covid, Brian Chesky’s moment came at home in San Francisco in the company of his golden retriever, Sandy. “She’s just loving the frantic energy,” he reported. You might say the same of Airbnb punters. Shares in the holiday let company, priced at $68/share (already a big bump-up on the mooted range), immediately doubled after floating on Nasdaq last week. By the end of the day, Airbnb’s stock was worth $100bn – more than “the three largest US hotel chains combined”. A measure of the frenzy was the number of small investors piling in; some tweeted they were buying Airbnb shares as Christmas gifts. Another gauge,…

● Facebook tamed? The US Federal Trade Commission sued Facebook last week, seeking to force the sell-off of Instagram and WhatsApp as independent businesses. What might that mean for investors, asked Nils Pratley in The Guardian. When UK fund manager Terry Smith bought Facebook shares for the popular Fundsmith fund last year – at a time when regulators were already prowling – he outlined what had happened in the tobacco industry when severe restrictions were placed on advertising. “Market leaders knew nobody would ever again launch a tobacco company and new brands would struggle to be seen. Years of easy profits followed.” Had you caught last year’s regulatory “dip” in Facebook’s shares, you would indeed have “doubled your money”. But this time could be different. The FTC is using its…

Sir Jim Ratcliffe When the chemicals billionaire decided to build a new 4x4 vehicle based on the Land Rover Defender, he played up its British credentials, said The Observer. The off-roader was named “Grenadier”, after Sir Jim’s favourite London pub, and he said the choice of a South Wales factory site was “a significant expression of confidence in British manufacturing”. Lo and behold, there has been a U-turn. After striking a deal with Mercedes-Benz, Ratcliffe, “a prominent Brexiter”, is switching production to a French factory in the Moselle region. “There’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of a good deal.” What sticks in the craw is the rhetoric. Ratcliffe has talked of Britain “thriving as an independent nation”. His actions suggest otherwise. Anne Boden Digital banking has ushered in new opportunities…