Table of contents for 1475 in The Week

Given what a talented politician Rishi Sunak is, it’s amazing how bad he is at politics, said John Rentoul in The Independent. His meteoric rise to the top is a testament to his grasp of policy detail and personable manner. But he has never acquired that “sixth sense that protects a top-rank politician from threats that have to be felt, more than understood”. That was painfully evident in two unforced errors made by the Prime Minister last week. First, he made the mistake of grasping the outstretched hand of Piers Morgan in an interview after the latter offered him a £1,000 bet that no asylum seekers would be deported to Rwanda before the election. Then Sunak made an untimely joke in the Commons, mocking Keir Starmer’s shifting policy on transgender…

Domino’s Pizza, which was accused of “corporate irresponsibility” for selling cookies containing a whole Cadbury Creme Egg in the run-up to Easter. On social media, the former health minister Lord Bethell described the cookies as “disgusting”. He said the firm’s senior management should be “ashamed of themselves”, and that the promotion would harm their careers. Biscuit nostalgists, after Nestlé revealed that it is discontinuing the Breakaway. The chocolate-covered biscuit was a lunch-box staple in the early 1980s (popularised by a TV ad featuring the jingle “Don’t take away my Breakaway”), but Nestlé says sales have been in gradual decline in recent years. The Body Shop, the cosmetics and skincare retailer, after its new owners said they planned to call in administrators (see page 37).…

Brussels Mauritania deal: Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, and Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission, travelled to the capital of Mauritania, Nouakchott, last week on a mission to curb the flow of illegal migrants to Europe. The sea crossing from West Africa to the Canary Islands is now the main route for irregular migration to the EU, and Mauritania (which in the past decade has absorbed tens of thousands of refugees from neighbouring Mali) is the main point of embarkation. Some 7,270 people made the hazardous journey in January alone. At the end of the visit, Sánchez announced a deal made with Mauritania’s president, Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, that would see Mauritania, with EU help, cracking down on people smugglers in return for some €210m in EU…

1 The Boy in the Bubble by Forere Motloheloa and Paul Simon, performed by Paul Simon2 The Wandering Minstrel by Trad., performed by Séamus Ennis3 Walters Trip by Paul Linehan, Niall Linehan and Ashley Keating, performed by The Frank and Walters4 Bullet the Blue Sky, written and performed by U25 Somebody to Love by Freddie Mercury, performed by Queen6 Everything in Its Right Place, written and performed by Radiohead7* We Can Work It Out by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, performed by The Beatles8 If I Was a Painter, written and performed by Lisa O’Neill Book: The Complete Dramatic Works by Samuel Beckett Luxury: an acoustic guitar * Choice if allowed only one record…

In the early 19th century, the once-great Persian empire found itself harassed on all sides by other empires: the Ottomans in the west, the Russians to the north, and – because of Iran’s position on the land route to India – the British. Britain played a role as a broker in the 1813 Treaty of Gulistan, when Iran was forced to cede its Caucasian territories to Russia – earning Britain the enduring Iranian nickname: “the wily fox”. Iran’s current borders were to some extent defined after British victory in the Anglo-Persian War of 1856-57, and an Anglo-Iranian agreement made in 1872 was described by Lord Curzon as a “complete and extraordinary surrender” of Iran’s resources. British companies purchased rights to set up banks, print currency, explore for minerals and grow…

The free press is in dire straits Jack Shafer Politico American journalism is cratering, says Jack Shafer. The industry has been struggling for 20 years owing to the steady loss of advertising to the internet, but the pace of decline has accelerated recently. The Washington Post, Time, Vice, Vox and the Texas Tribune have all axed “huge swathes of staff”. Sports Illustrated is in trouble; BuzzFeed News is dead; the Los Angeles Times has just laid off 20% of its newsroom; workers at Condé Nast, Forbes and New York’s Daily News have staged walkouts in protest at forthcoming cuts. A recent study estimated that the US has lost one-third of its newspapers and two-thirds of its newspaper journalism jobs since 2005. Magazines are struggling too: their newsstand revenues have fallen…

A new report has highlighted an “appalling decline” in child health in recent years. More than a fifth of five-year-olds are now overweight or obese and nearly a quarter have tooth decay, according to the Academy of Medical Sciences. Most childhood vaccination targets aren’t being met, and the UK ranks 30th out of 49 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries for infant survival. This means children in Britain are more likely to die before their first birthday than those in most other developed countries. Worsening child health will ultimately cost society at least £16bn a year, warned the academy. “The science is clear,” said Prof Helen Minnis, the report’s co-chairperson. “We are betraying our children. Unless the health of babies and young children is urgently prioritised, we condemn many…

“The capacity to form an orderly queue is sometimes held up as an admirable quality of the British character,” said The Guardian. It can also be an “emblem of failure”. In 1978, the Tories’ famous “Labour Isn’t Working” campaign advertisement – showing a snaking queue outside an unemployment office – helped propel Margaret Thatcher to power. Now, it’s a Conservative government that “plainly isn’t working”, and after 14 years of myopic underinvestment, the “queue is for public services”. Last week, a scramble to register at a new NHS dental practice in Bristol resulted in lines so long the police had to keep order, said Eleanor Hayward in The Times. The scenes were shocking, but not surprising. When it comes to access to dental care, Britain’s figures are worse than those…

With seconds to go in their Six Nations clash against France on Saturday, Scotland felt certain they’d secured a “famous last-gasp win”, said Mark Palmer in The Sunday Times. France were 20-16 up when Scotland’s replacement lock, Sam Skinner, appeared to drive the ball over the line “amid a pile of bodies”. But the referee awarded “no try”: he hadn’t clearly seen the ball touching the ground. The decision was referred to the Television Match Official (TMO), who deliberated for almost five minutes. And “despite one angle clearly showing” the ball touching the ground “under Skinner’s control”, the TMO ultimately decided that this fell short of the “conclusive” evidence needed to overturn the on-field decision. And so we were left with the absurd situation of a match-winning try not being…

Football Arsenal beat West Ham 6-0 in the Premier League. Leaders Liverpool beat Burnley 3-1, while second-placed Manchester City beat Everton 2-0. Tennis Emma Raducanu lost to Anhelina Kalinina 6-0, 7-6 in the first round of the Qatar Open. It was the 21-year-old’s fourth defeat in seven matches since returning from injury last month. American football The Kansas City Chiefs won their third Super Bowl in five years, beating the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in overtime after overcoming a ten-point deficit.…

by Noel Malcolm OUP 608pp £25 The Week Bookshop £19.99 “Embarrassed historians” used to shy away from asking how much “sodomy” took place in early modern Europe, said Diarmaid MacCulloch in The Times. It wasn’t, in fact, until the 1980s that three gay scholars – Michel Foucault, John Boswell and Alan Bray – began to ponder the question seriously. And “like many pioneers opening up a new field of enquiry, all three got a lot wrong”: they had allowed their judgement to be clouded by “personal agendas”. Noel Malcolm makes no such mistake in his magisterial survey of sex between men in Europe between the 14th and 18th centuries. He considers a remarkable array of sources, and weighs them all with meticulous care. The result is a “forensic” book, which…

“A new Jez Butterworth play is a big deal,” said Alice Saville in The Independent. His “era-defining” drama Jerusalem (2009), and his award-winning Irish epic The Ferryman (2017), have made him the most venerated British playwright of his generation. So is The Hills of California another triumph on that scale? Alas, not quite. Like those plays, it has a “hefty running time, sprawling cast and, most of all, massive emotions sploshing messily across the stage”. But this new piece – a family drama set in a guesthouse in Blackpool in the baking summer of 1976 – lacks the “pace and tautness” of Butterworth’s best work. It’s an ambitious, substantial and intriguing play. But it’s not a great one. I found it “magnificent, moving and quietly furious”, said Sarah Hemming in…

Harry and Alice have two awkward moments with Chris. Harrison asks Jolene if she remembers any unfamiliar customers around the attack; she says no. Susan is irked by Adam’s officiousness at The Dairy and pranks ensue. Kenton is fed up of hospital and later discharges himself, to Jolene’s anger. Alice is nervous about meeting Harry’s mother, but Eve is warm and asks to meet Alice again. When Alice pops out, Eve pointedly asks Harry how he is. Kenton can’t manage the stairs in The Bull, so Lynda offers him an accessible room at Ambridge Hall; later, they bond over their experiences of injury. Tony’s had enough of Hilda the cat. When Alice arrives at Eve’s house, Eve is cold and closes the door on her. Harry confronts his mother and…

I first encountered this dish as a child, when we spent a few years living in Singapore, says Jeremy Pang. We kids loved dipping fried mantou (a type of fried bao) into the sticky, sweet, salty, savoury, eggy sauce. To keep things simple, buy a dressed crab, but if you’re feeling more adventurous, buy a live one (or a lobster) and prepare it yourself. Serves 2 1 dressed crab 8 whole prawns 900ml chicken stock 2 eggs, well beaten For the paste: ½ tsp belacan shrimp paste 5 Thai shallots or 2 banana shallots ½ thumb of galangal or ginger, finely chopped 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped 1 lemongrass stalk, bashed and finely chopped 1 bird’s eye chilli, finely chopped 1 large tomato, diced For the sauce: 1 tsp tomato purée 1…

Agatha Christie’s holiday home, Greenway, lies on the banks of the River Dart. She called it “the loveliest place in the world”, and today it offers glimpses into her unusual life (£15; nationaltrust.org.uk). The Brontë sisters moved to the parsonage, in Haworth, West Yorkshire, in 1820, and the museum recreates their home. Charlotte’s bedroom is “enchanting”, with miniature books the sisters made (£12; bronte.org.uk). Dylan Thomas Boathouse in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, overlooks the Taf Estuary. This is where he wrote part of Under Milk Wood (£6; dylanthomasboathouse.com). Jane Austen’s House, in Chawton, Hampshire, holds her letters and several first editions among many items related to the author (£13.50; janeaustens.house). Robert Burns Birthplace Museum in Alloway, South Ayrshire, brings the poet’s work to life with lively recitals of his poems and songs.…

Penmaenuchaf Dolgellau, Wales This “handsome” old hotel in southern Snowdonia is midway through a makeover, says Pamela Goodman in Condé Nast Traveller. Since it came under new ownership in 2022, the designer Nicola Harding has brought her “trademark use of bold colour and pattern” to four attic suites; the remaining rooms will be revamped this year. There’s also a new chef, Thomas Hine, whose five-course tasting menu (using local ingredients) is “a revelation”. The hotel has “fine” gardens and is a great base for hiking, and for trips to the pretty nearby towns of Dolgellau and Barmouth – with its sweeping beach. Doubles from £230 b&b; penmaenuchaf.co.uk.…

The Body Shop: from White Musk to bust Just months after The Body Shop changed hands in a £207m deal, its European private equity owner, Aurelius, has called in the administrators – threatening many of the chain’s 200-odd stores and potentially thousands of jobs, said Laura Onita in the Financial Times. Aurelius reportedly concluded that the business had “insufficient working capital” and was “trading more weakly than it had anticipated”. The move isn’t expected to affect The Body Shop’s global franchise partners, many of which have been sold to an unnamed investor, according to Sky News. Shop closures would be “a serious blow to UK high streets”. And also to the generations of consumers who were weaned on the Body Shop’s White Musk and Pink Grapefruit smellies, said The Daily…

Banging the drum for a British Isa Merryn Somerset Webb Bloomberg For individuals, Britain’s generous tax-free savings regimes are great – but they’re holding us back as a nation, says Merryn Somerset Webb. Neither the heavily taxpayer-supported pension system, nor our “much loved” Isas (worth £741.6bn in 2021), come with any obligation to invest any of that largesse back into the British economy – a “geographically agnostic approach” that is pretty unusual. Other major economies subsidise the cost of capital for domestic companies, whereas we get the UK taxpayer to subsidise Tesla. “It’s madness.” Defenders of the status quo argue that re-gearing tax breaks would be “protectionist” and financially repressive. How so? Everyone could still invest abroad – “just without a bung from the UK taxpayer”. The Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt,…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1401 Two Connell Guides and three Week-branded items will be given to the sender of the first correct solution to the crossword and the clue of the week opened on Monday 26 February. Send it to The Week Crossword 1401, 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 Week-branded items including a notebook, coffee mug and tote bag, as well as two Connell Guides (connellguides.com). ACROSS 7 Hardship in Cornish town? Final letter binned (7) 8 Slip on rope and I’ll get the blame (4,3) 10 Fresh endives and duck? Could come before a pancake (8) 11 British novelist offering an alternative to Spring (6) 12 What’s added at the end changes religious…

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What happened Israel pounded the southern Gazan city of Rafah with air strikes this week, ahead of the anticipated launch of a ground offensive there. PM Benjamin Netanyahu is facing intense international pressure not to send tanks into the city, where about 1.5 million of the Strip’s 2.3 million residents have sought refuge, but said he was ready to defy it. On Monday, Israel announced that it had rescued two of the hostages seized by Hamas on 7 October, during what it described as a “complex operation” in Rafah; 74 Palestinians were killed, Hamas said. President Biden warned that a ground assault on Rafah would be “a disaster” without a “credible” plan to protect civilians. The UN said that any operation there risked cutting the flow of aid into Gaza…

The residents of a village in France have voted to restrict the use of smartphones. In Seine-Port, south of Paris, people are no longer permitted to scroll on their devices in the street, in shops, restaurants and parks, and at school gates. However, there is no penalty for infractions. The mayor said phone addiction was a “public health problem… We have to help them.” Demand is collapsing for high-end watches, The Times reports, driven in part by a recent spate of muggings in London. Luxury retailer Watches of Switzerland has cut its revenue forecast by 10% for 2024, and Richemont, owner of Cartier, has reported that its half-year sales are down by 17%. In 2022, more than 6,000 luxury watches were stolen in the capital.…

Labour withdrew its support for its candidate in the Rochdale by-election this week, in response to the leaking of comments he’d made about Israel at a local party meeting last year. Azhar Ali is believed to have said that Israel had allowed Hamas’s murderous attacks on 7 October to give it a pretext to invade Gaza. Ali apologised for his “inexcusable comments”, and initially Keir Starmer stood by him. But then a further recording emerged, in which he seemed to speak of a “land grab”, and to blame Jews in the media for orchestrating the suspension of MP Andy McDonald. He will still stand as Labour’s candidate on 29 February, as the ballot can’t be changed, but he will have to sit as an independent if he is elected. A…

Pontiac, Michigan Mother convicted: In the first case of its kind in the US, a woman has been convicted of involuntary manslaughter for a mass shooting carried out by her teenage son. Ethan Crumbley, now 17, is serving life for killing four of his fellow students in 2021. The case turned on whether his mother, Jennifer, could have foreseen and prevented the massacre. A jury heard that she’d failed to get her son treatment for his mental health issues; cut short a meeting at his school about his mental state on the morning of the shooting; and failed to secure the handgun his father (who is also facing charges) had given him. Carson City, Nevada Haley setback: Donald Trump’s last rival for the Republican nomination, Nikki Haley, suffered an embarrassing…

“For a new book in aid of kidney research, Juliet Solomon sought contributions from hundreds of people in public life, all offering bite-sized lessons for life. I’m loving dipping into A-listers’ pearls, but I have one gripe. Again and again [they] tell us to dare to dream, never give up, think big, follow your star etc. But they would, wouldn’t they? They’ve all struck lucky, all achieved great things, all used their gifts and talents to hit the big time. They’re not typical. Most of us have no outstanding gift, no genius, no rare talent. I wanted to be prime minister. It was a stupid idea, beyond my capabilities. Dare to dream? Dare to keep lowering your sights until something comes into view: that’s the courage we need.” Matthew Parris…

The right to wear a mask is a basic liberty Rod Liddle The Sunday Times I see someone in a face mask, says Rod Liddle, and I dislike them instantly. Invariably it’s a sign of “overweening narcissism and stupidity” – the badge of “perpetually frit lefties” who’d have us in permanent lockdown, or of posturing demonstrators who feel a mask lends them an air of “radical virility”. So on the face of it, I should be delighted by the proposed new law making protesters who wear masks liable to arrest or a £1,000 fine. I’m not. It’s yet another sign of the “increasing authoritarianism and idiocy” this government displays towards public protest. The “Hamas groupies” who parade through London swathed in scarves and keffiyehs have no need to hide their…

Trialling a “vaccine” for cancer A new “vaccine” that could be used to treat cancer has been given to patients in the UK for the first time. The experimental therapy, based on mRNA technology, works by presenting common markers of tumours to the immune system, so that it can recognise cancer cells that express those markers and fight them. The therapy was administered to patients with advanced skin and lung cancers at Hammersmith Hospital in west London, in a trial designed to establish its safety and effectiveness. The first to receive it was an 81-year-old man whose malignant melanoma had not responded to treatment. “I had a different immunotherapy, I had radiotherapy; the only thing I didn’t have was chemotherapy,” he said. “So, the options were either do nothing and…

In an Apple Store in New York last week, I strapped on a pair of goggles and started pinching the air with my index finger and thumb, said Matthew Phelan in the Daily Mail. I felt self-conscious – but around me, dozens of people were also flailing around. We were all there to try Apple’s new virtual reality headset, the Vision Pro. These cost $3,499 (and are not yet on sale in the UK) but are causing a major buzz, because they set the stage for an era of “spatial computing”. As with normal VR headsets, you can immerse yourself completely in a virtual world (astonishingly realistic, intimate and vivid in this case); what’s new is the way these goggles also allow elements of the digital world (tabs, documents and…

The £28bn question To The New Statesman Andrew Marr’s discussion of what Labour might and might not promise includes the possible fate of the £28bn-ayear green investment fund. Perhaps, like many others, I have difficulty understanding the significance of such numbers. Shell’s annual profit is down for last year to £22bn; HMRC’s estimate of annual taxes lost is around £35bn; the same issue of The New Statesman estimates at least £33bn is lost annually to fraud and corruption. And, elsewhere, Elon Musk’s recently contested payout from Tesla was £44bn. Is £28bn a year to try to secure our future a big sum or not? Duncan MacIntyre, Glasgow Last straw for Labour To The Guardian When Labour supporters go knocking on doors, I wonder how many report back and say: “You…

by Lisa St Aubin de Terán Amaurea Press 326pp £19.95 The Week Bookshop £15.99 Lisa St Aubin de Terán “burst onto the UK literary scene” in the early 1980s, with a series of novels fictionalising her exotic escapades in South America and Europe, said Catherine Taylor in the FT. “The dazzling prose was matched by her gorgeously arresting appearance”. De Terán was “one of the few women writers on the inaugural Granta Best of Young British Novelists list of 1983” – and seemed set for a stellar career. That career didn’t quite materialise: although de Terán continued publishing throughout the 1980s and 1990s, she did so with diminishing success and recognition. Now aged 70, and nearly two decades on from her last book, she has produced this “vastly entertaining –…

The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson, 1825 (out of print, available used). Wilson was a witty and passionate Regency courtesan who so lived her youth to the full that she edited some 200 of her lovers out of her book. When she attempted to blackmail the Duke of Wellington, he wrote “Publish and be damned”. She did and she wasn’t; not least because she is such a good writer. Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond, 1997 (Vintage £12.99). This changed the way I see the world by shining a new light into its history. And it explained many a mystery about Africa, my then homeland. A Woman Named Solitude by André Schwarz-Bart, 1985 (Syracuse University Press £16.95). A novel about rebellion and resistance, heroism and love. Starting in a lyrical…

Programmes Lost Temples of Cambodia Archaeologist Pauline Carroll explores the ancient cities of Cambodia’s Khmer Empire, visiting world-famous sites such as Angkor Wat. Sat 17 Feb, C4 20:20 (60mins). The Way New drama created by Michael Sheen, James Graham and Adam Curtis. As a civil uprising explodes in Port Talbot, the Driscoll family decides to flee. Mon 19 Feb, BBC1 21:00 (60mins). Breathtaking Joanne Froggatt stars in this threepart drama based on an NHS doctor’s memoir about the early days of the pandemic. Mon 19, Tue 20 and Wed 21 Feb, ITV1 21:00 (60mins each). Storyville – Total Trust: Surveillance State Documentary about the Chinese state’s use of digital social control and surveillance, as told through the disturbing experiences of two families and a journalist. Tue 20 Feb, BBC4 22:00…

Ian Lavender 1946-2024 In the first series of the sitcom Dad’s Army, Ian Lavender wasn’t given a great deal to do, said The Times. Playing Private Pike, a naive teenager who has been exempted from Army call-up owing to his weak chest, and so joined the elderly members of the Home Guard in Walmington-on-Sea, Lavender was an unknown actor in a cast that included such veterans as Arthur Lowe, John Le Mesurier and John Laurie. But early on, Lowe gave some good advice to the novice: “Look, don’t worry if there’s not a lot of lines,” he told him. “They’ll come. In the meantime, get yourself a funny costume and stand near me.” Lavender, who has died aged 77, duly added a long Aston Villa scarf to Pike’s uniform, and…

Dara Khosrowshahi It’s been a landmark week for Uber – and not just because of the Valentine’s Day strike by food-delivery riders seeking better pay and conditions. After racking up more than $30bn in losses since its 2009 founding, the once “tainted” group has now delivered its first-ever full-year operating profit, said Camilla Hodgson in the FT. Credit for that goes to Dara Khosrowshahi, who was parachuted into the ridehailing firm following the ejection of its founder, Travis Kalanick, in 2017, and who has since floated the company and pushed Uber into new areas, including grocery delivery. User numbers have ballooned to 150 million. “Once a symbol of Silicon Valley excess” – renowned for its toxic and misogynistic culture during the Kalanick era – Uber has become respectable. Khosrowshahi, 54,…

The nation’s waterways, with news that the bosses of water firms that commit criminal acts of pollution could soon be banned from receiving bonuses. Some water bosses have waived their bonuses voluntarily, but in 2021 – when Southern Water was fined £90m after being prosecuted for pumping raw sewage into the sea – its CEO accepted a bonus of more than £550,000. Richard Plaud, a French council worker who spent eight years building a 24ft matchstick model of the Eiffel Tower, after Guinness World Records decided to soften its rules, and award him a place in its record books after all. Days earlier, they’d ruled him ineligible because most of the 706,900 matches he’d used were not commercially available, having had their heads cut off.…

Only 34% of voters in England’s 100 most rural constituencies now back the Tories, suggesting that the party’s support has fallen 25 points in its rural heartlands since 2019. Support for Labour in the constituencies – 96 of which were won by the Tories in 2019 – has risen 17 points to 37%. The Lib Dems are on 14%. The findings suggest the Tories could lose more than half those seats. However, 35% of voters are still undecided. Survation/The Independent 86% of voters in the US believe that 81-year-old Joe Biden is too old to serve another term as president. Ipsos/ABC News In a general election tomorrow, 34% of Scots would vote Labour; 33% would vote for the SNP. Redfield & Wilton…

Groupthink at No. 10 As deputy cabinet secretary, Helen MacNamara was one of the most senior figures in government during the pandemic, says Steven Swinford in The Times. As a woman, she was also something of a rarity: in that period, No. 10 was largely populated by men from “a particularly narrow background”, and this, she says, had serious repercussions. The decision to close playgrounds, for instance, was taken “by people who have no real-life experience of what it’s like to be stuck at home with a toddler”; nor, she says, was enough thought given to the impact of closing schools on children in overcrowded homes with no laptops. Her own interventions did not go down well in this environment. In one WhatsApp to Boris Johnson, Dominic Cummings referred to…

Embittered lovers in San Antonio, Texas, were invited to mark Valentine’s Day by paying for a cockroach to be named after their ex, and then fed to one of the animals in the city’s zoo. The zoo’s “cry me a cockroach” service cost $10. Alternatively, people could name a vegetable (which would also be fed to an animal) for $5; for $25 they could name a dead rat. The zoo described the scheme as “a true heartbreak healer”. An alligator snapping turtle, a creature with a bite strong enough to break through bone, was fished out of a lake in Cumbria last week. The reptile, which is normally found in swamps in Florida, was seen bathing in Urswick Tarn by a dog walker. He put a photo of it on…

HONG KONG Beijing’s own goal over Lionel Messi South China Morning Post He’s perhaps the greatest footballer ever, says Cliff Buddle, but last week Lionel Messi found himself the target of a “barrage of criticism” for missing a friendly game in Hong Kong. The Argentinian is hugely popular in China, and when his club Inter Miami set up a match against local team League XI, 40,000 fans flocked to Hong Kong Stadium to see him play. Some paid $624 for a ticket. But in the event, they were disappointed: an injured Messi stayed rooted to the bench throughout the game. As most people know, such things aren’t unusual; but that didn’t stop fans, egged on by local politicians, demanding their money back. And Chinese state media tried to turn it…

For his pregnant girlfriend’s birthday, artist Damien Hirst created a cake in the shape of a foetus. Strikingly lifelike, it raised the question: who cut into the baby first – and into which part of it did they plunge the knife? My guess, said Jane Shilling in The Daily Telegraph, is that the cake was not in fact eaten. This “monument of the pâtissier’s art” was surely not designed as tea-time fare, but as “social media fodder”. Rishi Sunak’s weekly fast has cast the eating habits of past PMs under new light. Margaret Thatcher presented herself as a keen cook, said Dominic Sandbrook in The Times, but in fact she relied on frozen meals. After her death, a file revealed recipes she sent out to admirers, including a “mystery starter”…

“Marxism is the opium of the Marxists.”Joan Robinson, quoted in Forbes “Democracy is being allowed to vote for the candidate you dislike least.”Robert Byrne, quoted on All Poetry “There is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics’. All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.”George Orwell, quoted in the Duluth News Tribune “I can calculate the motions of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.”Isaac Newton, quoted in The New York Times “Hope is not like a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. Hope is an axe you break down doors with, in an emergency.”Rebecca Solnit, quoted on The Day “It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The…

To The Times A.N. Wilson is surely correct in stating that the majority of people in Britain think that a re-unified Ireland is both inevitable and positive. The attachment of much of the British political establishment to the Union is a mystery. Why do they believe that the people of Scotland, Wales and England are committed unionists? The end of the Troubles and membership of the EU have transformed the Republic from an insular backwater into a modern secular democracy. Rural Ireland retains its charm and character, but the major population centres are as diverse and vibrant as many cities across the water. Britain has nothing to fear from a united Ireland. Instead of perpetual resistance to re-unification, perhaps Labour and the Conservatives can acknowledge that the process is inexorable…

by Lucas Rijneveld Faber 352pp £16.99 The Week Bookshop £13.99 This second novel by the acclaimed Dutch author Lucas Rijneveld “belongs to a tiny, controversial subgenre”, said Sandra Newman in The Guardian: “novels about child sex abuse rendered in exquisite prose”. It is narrated by “Kurt”, a 49-year-old vet from rural Holland, who becomes obsessed with the “troubled 14-year-old daughter of a dairy farmer”. The girl, whom Kurt – her name for him – calls “Little Bird”, comes from a strict religious society, and is confused about her gender identity – something Kurt exploits to become a “parental figure”. Such a novel could easily have been a “cynical” rehash of Lolita, but instead it’s a “tour de force of transgressive imagination”. Rijneveld’s “unsettling” first novel, The Discomfort of Evening –…

Zineb Sedira at Goodman Gallery Zineb Sedira’s career has been a slow burn. Born in Paris to Algerian parents in 1963, Sedira has been exhibiting since the 1990s, but it is only recently that her work – a potent blend of fleapit theatre atmospheres, immersive installation and eye-catching, language-skewing lightboxes often referencing migration, diasporic history and the utopian ideals of liberation movements – has made waves, culminating in her triumphant show in the French pavilion at the last Venice Biennale. Let’s go on singing! is a great introduction to her work, incorporating almost every aspect of her practice: we see photomontages of ephemera (magazines, posters, 1970s countercultural zines) that hark back to the lost dream of pan-Africanism; cinema-sign light boxes bearing slogans of the same era; and tripod-mounted sculptures of…

● Most orchids will thrive on an east- or west-facing windowsill – which gets plenty of direct light, but for only part of the day. ● Check your orchids every three to four days to see if the substrate is drying out. Get used to how heavy the pot is when watered, and how light it feels when dry. The roots of Phalaenopsis orchids will turn from green to silver when dry; the most effective way to water them is to soak the pot for about ten minutes and then drain. ● Add fertiliser to water every four to six weeks from spring to autumn. Choose a good-quality feed, such as Liquid Gold Leaf, which will dechlorinate tap water. ● If orchids are over-watered or don’t get enough light, their…

Barry John 1945-2024 Arguably rugby union’s greatest ever fly-half, Barry John, who has died aged 79, was crowned “The King” by journalists in New Zealand, after a victorious Lions tour in 1971, on which he dazzled hard-to-impress local crowds with his accuracy and tactical awareness, said The Guardian – and left the All Blacks flailing in the mud. With a genius likened to that of George Best, and a similar star power, he was feted at home and mobbed wherever he went. But John was “a modest man”, in what was then an amateur sport. He found the attention stifling and the adulation disquieting: a last straw came when he was invited to open a bank building in Rhyl, and a young girl curtseyed to him. In 1972, when he…

An “epic stock-market rout” since 2022 has wiped $2trn off the value of Chinese shares, said The Economist. “Behind the panic is a deeper fear among investors and officials” – that China is “no longer a reliable vehicle for growth”. Its property boom is over; the infrastructure mania “has run out of road”; and exporting goods to the rest of the world is getting harder as protectionism rises. “Much therefore rests on one remaining source of growth: boosting the spending of China’s 1.4 billion citizens.” That will be tough, said the FT. Chinese consumer prices “have been in deflation for four months” – falling at “their fastest annual rate in 15 years” in January. Low prices should in theory encourage spending, said Louise Loo of Oxford Economics. But a “deflationary…

The week’s best shares DiscoverIE Group The Sunday Times Slowing global economies and Asian uncertainty have stymied this fast-growing electronic components-maker, whose “future-proofed” applications include security scanners, drug nebulisers and wind turbines. Buy. 724p. Fidelity China Special Situations The Daily Telegraph Investors willing to look beyond the current rout in China should head for this well-run trust. Shares have delivered just 0.1% over five years, but a market-beating 114% over ten. Buy. 185p. Naked Wines Investors’ Chronicle Shares in the online wine retailer, with 792,000 customers in the US, UK and Australia, have plunged 90% from their 2021 high. But a cost-cutting “back-to-basics approach” signals a potentially lucrative recovery. Buy. 63.9p. Next The Daily Telegraph Other fashion/homewares retailers may offer lower valuations but, on a risk/reward basis, Next is still…