Table of contents for 1554 in The Week

An 18-year-old with a higher IQ than Stephen Hawking had a record-breaking results day – clocking up 23 A levels at grade A or A*. Mahnoor Cheema, from northwest London, was almost blocked from sitting her exams by teachers at Henrietta Barnett School over concerns at her attendance – the teen had to skip a number of lessons to sit her various papers. She had already achieved four A*s in her first two months in the sixth form, and she now has an offer to read medicine at Oxford. A complex operation to save a 113-year-old church in Sweden’s northernmost town, Kiruna, became a national sensation this week, as millions tuned in to watch the entire 672-tonne building being carefully rolled to a new home three miles away. The Kiruna…

“It’s hard not to feel some pity for Rachel Reeves,” said Mark Littlewood in The Daily Telegraph. As she prepares for her Autumn Budget, the Chancellor finds herself facing an impossible “three-pronged conundrum”. Firstly, the fiscal picture is bleak: Reeves needs to plug a black hole in the public finances of between £20bn and £50bn, depending on your estimate. But secondly, “she cannot cut government expenditure at all” – Labour’s backbenchers have already cried blue murder at attempts to even “marginally trim” our ballooning welfare state. Thirdly, she has boxed herself in with her campaign pledge not to raise tax on “working people” by increasing income tax, national insurance or VAT. That fiscal straitjacket has left the Treasury desperately casting about for other tax-raising schemes, said Chris Blackhurst in The…

David Lammy, who has referred himself to the Environment Agency for failing to have a rod licence when he went fishing with US Vice-President J.D. Vance last week (see page 16). The Foreign Secretary, who failed to catch any fish during the pair’s session at Chevening, faces a fine of up to £2,500. Shoplifters, after Iceland promised to reward customers who report in-store thefts with a £1 shopping credit. The supermarket chain loses around £20m a year to shoplifting. It warned shoppers not to try to physically apprehend suspects. British puddings, with English Heritage warning that fruit crumble, treacle sponge, spotted dick and other traditional desserts are on the “verge of extinction”. Two-thirds of households make puddings only once a month or less, with fresh fruit now the most widely…

Palma de Mallorca, Spain Migrant warning: The regional government of the Balearic Islands (Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera) has warned that the archipelago is increasingly becoming a key route for irregular migration into western Europe – and pleaded with Madrid for more help in tackling the issue. Over three days last week, 38 small boats brought a total of 639 migrants, bringing the total so far this year to more than 4,500 people, mostly Somalians arriving from Algeria. That’s a 170% increase compared with the same period last year, and a more than six-fold increase since 2023, The Times reported. The surge has coincided with a fall in numbers arriving in the (Spanish) Canary Islands from the west African nation of Mauritania. The Canaries remain by far the more popular…

1* Fast Car, written and performed by Tracy Chapman 2 They Live in You by Lebo M, Mark Mancina and Jay Rifkin, performed by Samuel E. Wright and The Lion King Ensemble 3 Stand By Me by Ben E. King, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, performed by Ben E. King 4 Woman by Andreya Triana, Dee Adam and Dimitri Tikovoï, performed by Andreya Triana 5 Wake Me Up by Tim Bergling, Egbert Dawkins and Mike Einziger, performed by Avicii 6 You Gotta Be by Des’ree and Ashley Ingram, performed by Des’ree 7 World in Union by Gustav Holst and Charlie Skarbek, performed by Kiri Te Kanawa 8 I’m Coming Out by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers, performed by Diana Ross Book: The Soul of a Butterfly by Muhammad Ali (with Hana Yasmeen Ali) Luxury: a family photo * Choice…

Sales of dummies for adults are soaring in China, as a growing number of people resort to the rubber pacifiers to relieve stress. The products are available online in a range of colours. One user said their dummy had been “amazing in helping me quit smoking”; others said they helped them sleep better, or were good for anxiety. “When I am under pressure at work, I suck on the dummy,” said one. “I feel I am indulged in a sense of safety from childhood.” Chicago’s city council has been inundated with calls from worried citizens after a rumour spread online that a man is “trapped” inside the “Chicago Bean”. A group calling themselves The Man in Bean Coalition has been pushing the hoax online and protesting by the landmark artwork…

ITALY Give us back our beaches La Stampa (Turin) I never thought it would come to this, but in Italy, “the sea is no longer for everyone”, says Elisa Forte. Private clubs, resorts and bars have taken over our beaches – denying many Italians the simple pleasure of a seaside holiday. In theory, the state owns the coast, but in practice much of it is rented out to private businesses. Almost 70% of the Italian Riviera has been privatised in this way. (In many places, the cost of an umbrella and two loungers is now between €40 and €70 a day.) In Mondello, Sicily, finding a spot on a free beach “to lay out your towel is a pipe dream”. In Naples, one woman had food that she’d brought with…

As you may have heard, J.D. Vance, the US vice-president, “chose to spend some of his holiday in the Cotswolds last week”, said Jeremy Clarkson in The Sunday Times. We locals “certainly knew it when Vance landed”: he arrived in a cavalcade of massive black American SUVs, escorted by British police on motorcycles. A wide no-fly zone was imposed around the manor house in the hamlet of Dean, where Vance and his family were staying. The area was flooded with secret service men, looking like the agents in Men in Black, said Jon Allsop in The New Yorker. Protesters rallied in a local park, toting signs such as “Cotswolds childless cat ladies say go home!” and “War Criminal”. And it has been claimed that Vance had to cancel a reservation…

“We’ve grown up with the Beckhams,” said Shane Watson in The Times. We’ve had “ringside seats for all the major and minor events of their lives” – from David and Victoria’s careers to their wedding, to their brood’s various birthday parties. On Instagram, we see them messing about, partying, enjoying their apparently idyllic lives. But there have been rumours of trouble in paradise – and now it seems that the family really is “unravelling”. Last week, the couple’s eldest son, Brooklyn, and his billionaire heiress wife Nicola Peltz effectively confirmed that they had severed ties with the Beckhams – by posting pictures of a “vow renewal” party (on Instagram, of course). The event was held at the Peltzes’ New York estate. Her father, the financier Nelson, officiated. None of the…

When the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup kicks off in Sunderland on Friday, it’ll do so in a very “different world” to that of the inaugural edition 34 years ago, said Becky Grey on BBC Sport. The 1991 tournament was organised by a spirited group of England players, to the displeasure of the International Rugby Board, which feared that it might overshadow the men’s World Cup later that year. It featured a Soviet Union team whose members, unable to take money out of their home country, had travelled with goods ranging from caviar to Soviet champagne to barter – and a New Zealand squad whose preparation was overshadowed by a debate about whether it was appropriate for them to perform the haka with a “wide-legged stance”. Fortunately, there has been…

Scottish Ballet (scottishballet.co.uk), touring Scotland 17 September to 18 October Running time: 2hrs 15mins Scottish Ballet has “scored a hit” with its new Mary, Queen of Scots, which premiered this week at the Edinburgh International Festival, said Donald Hutera in The Times. Choreographer Sophie Laplane and director James Bonas have created an “audaciously bold, assured and sometimes downright wacky” take on Scotland’s doomed monarch – filtering Mary’s story through the imagined memories of her cousin, rival and nemesis, Queen Elizabeth I. The storytelling is “episodic yet fleet”, and the production is stylish and handsome – with both a “quirky sense of humour” and “emotional gravitas”. A warning: the dense first act might challenge anyone who’s not clear on the history. But the pay-off comes in the second act, as this…

This small-screen prequel to Alien “should not be as good as it is”, said Rebecca Nicholson in the FT. Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic spawned “a sprawling franchise” of sequels and spin-offs, mostly offering ”diminishing returns”. But Alien: Earth (shown on Disney+) is a genuinely “bold and imaginative” effort that ranks among “the most enjoyable TV series of recent years”. Set two years before the original, it pays “homage” early on, when the cargo of alien life runs amok on a space vessel – which crash lands in a futuristic Bangkok. Thereafter, though, the series enters new territory. It imagines an Earth divided between rival tech corporations. The boss of one, Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin), a magnate obsessed with eternal life, seizes the aliens for research purposes. The nightmarish monsters from…

An outsized statue of a mermaid is apparently to be removed from the Dragør Fort in Copenhagen, because officials think it does not align with the cultural heritage of the landmark, The Guardian reports. The 13ft-tall Big Mermaid, by the sculptor Peter Bech, was originally erected in 2006 not far from the famous The Little Mermaid, but critics objected to its “pornographic” breasts, and called it the “fake and vulgar mermaid”. It was moved in 2018 to its current site, some miles to the south. News that it may now be removed entirely has revived a lively debate about its significance. One journalist, Sørine Gotfredsen, argued that it represented a “man’s hot dream of what a woman should look like”; another, Aminata Corr Thrane, suggested that the focus on the…

At the fête, the Ambridge team wins the tug of war, but Lynda forgets to thank Akram in her speech. Brian warns Adam off talking to Stella, downplaying their argument; when Adam discovers the truth, he’s astounded that Brian risked the harvest. Lillian alerts a mortified Lynda to her error over Akram. Away in London, Robert advises Lynda to see Akram in person, who accepts her apology. However, Robert later hangs up on Lynda when she’s distracted with him, too. Zainab gives Susan the idea to move the shop to St Stephen’s – the Parish Council will need to approve but Alan is optimistic. Helping out at Home Farm, Adam learns that Stella has quit and confronts Brian. Both Brian and Adam try to convince Stella to return, to no…

Locatelli Sainsbury Wing, The National Gallery, London SW1 (locatelliatnationalgallery.co.uk) It’s fair to say that my expectations of this new restaurant – from Giorgio Locatelli, the man behind the “much-famed, Michelin-starred” and now closed Locanda Locatelli – weren’t high, says Grace Dent in The Guardian. Restaurants in museums and galleries are notoriously hard to get right. But I liked it – “a lot”. The space is “pretty”, with gold furnishings and pistachio-coloured banquettes, and Locatelli and his team have “pulled off something unique”: a lunch menu a “million times more interesting” than the usual. “Someone is actually cooking here, not cynically heating things up for tourists.” From a choice of five fresh pasta dishes, I plumped for red gurnard with pappardelle, fresh tomato, almonds and black olives; it was “nothing short of…

Fraud expert Becky Holmes gives her advice ● Scammers want you to act on impulse, without thinking, so take time to consider before responding to a tempting offer, and especially to anything that alarms you. Time limits (e.g. “act now or you’ll lose your booking”) are often a giveaway. ● Set up a secret word for close family, so if you get a “Hi Mum” message – purporting to be from a child in trouble – you can check it’s them by asking for the word. ● Fake websites and emails used to be given away by spelling mistakes, but scams are more sophisticated now. Crosscheck URLs and phone numbers online. ● Don’t open any attachments that you aren’t expecting. ● You can check if something is a scam by…

Biddy Baxter 1933-2025 In the era when there were only three TV channels, and no digital distractions, Blue Peter was more than a children’s magazine show, said The Yorkshire Post. It was a “national institution”. Biddy Baxter, who has died aged 92, did not create Blue Peter, but she steered it to its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, when millions of children tuned in and its presenters (including Valerie Singleton, Peter Purves, John Noakes, Lesley Judd and Janet Ellis), and pets (Petra, Shep), became household names. Some of those presenters came to fear Baxter, the show’s editor, said The Times. She was accused of being controlling, domineering, even. She’d retort that if you are putting out a live show for children twice a week, with items liable to change…

“US politicians seem to know something about the stock market ordinary Americans don’t,” said Melissa Lawford in The Daily Telegraph. Since April 2020, the S&P 500 has surged by a heady 165%. But that’s nothing compared with the 465% gains enjoyed by stocks “most purchased by members of Congress or their families”. Hence the explosion of “copy trading”. Main players Dub, launched last year, became America’s first regulated brokerage to offer “copy trading accounts to mimic politicians and star traders”. It’s a rapidly expanding field. Unusual Whales has two ETFs: one tracking Democrats; one Republicans. Quiver Quantitative’s tracker deploys a “copy trade bucket” strategy: backing the most popular stocks in Congress. Outperformers Democrat Nancy Pelosi is “by far the most copied”. Her picks – or rather her husband’s (Pelosi claims…

Jerome Powell “Markets will pore over every word” of Jay Powell’s speech at Jackson Hole on Friday – his valedictory appearance at the Federal Reserve’s annual August summit in the Wyoming mountains, before his eight-year term ends next May, said the FT. It’s always a high-stakes moment, this year more than most. The Fed chair takes the podium under attack from Donald Trump for refusing to cut borrowing costs, while “battling an insurgency” from within. Trump has been “gifted a chance to sow more discord … by picking a loyalist to fill an empty seat on the Fed’s board”, and is gunning for new powers to dismiss the chair at will. His pick, tariff evangelist Stephen Miran, is an unabashed “agent provocateur”. Analysts expect fireworks at the normally staid central…

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What happened Trump’s peace drive Donald Trump declared this week that a peace agreement for Ukraine was “very attainable”, after he held a series of high-level talks about the ongoing conflict. Last Friday, he hosted Vladimir Putin at a summit in Anchorage, Alaska, offering the Russian leader a lift from the airport in his own presidential limousine. Before the meeting, Trump had insisted that he would walk out if Russia didn’t agree to a ceasefire, but in the event the three hours of talks failed to produce any concrete breakthroughs. Trump said they had nevertheless been “extremely productive”. He told an interviewer that he and Putin had discussed land transfers and security guarantees for Ukraine, and had “largely agreed”. Putin apparently outlined a deal under which Russia would agree to…

Doggy Ozempic is coming soon. The biotech firm Okava has announced trials for a weight-loss drug for dogs, an implant that uses the same active appetite suppressants as “fat jabs” Ozempic and Mounjaro. Dogs will still show an interest in meals, said Okava, “just without the excessive begging, scavenging or gulping behaviour”. Up to 60% of dogs in the UK are estimated to be either overweight and obese. A restaurant in Cheshire has launched Britain’s first water menu, in a bid to cater to the country’s growing number of teetotallers. At La Popote, diners will have the choice of seven different still and sparkling waters. Prices range from £5 a bottle, to £19 for Portugal’s “delicate, salty” Vidago.…

At least 15 English councils are considering launching legal action to have asylum seekers removed from hotels in their areas, following a High Court ruling on Tuesday. Epping Council in Essex was granted an injunction preventing asylum seekers from being housed in The Bell Hotel in the town. The Bell had become the focus of anti-immigrant protests, after an asylum seeker living there was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl; the council successfully argued that its use as an asylum hotel was a breach of planning laws, and had become a public safety risk. The ruling means that 138 people being housed at the hotel will have to be relocated within 24 days. It also throws Home Office asylum accommodation schemes into turmoil: though Labour has pledged to close…

“The speedy advance of technology, from AI to robotics, is amplifying an existing tendency: the Great Introspection. Humans are antisocially avoiding human interaction wherever possible. In San Francisco, people will now wait longer and pay 50% more to get a driverless cab. Japan has a special name for those who stay pathologically alone in their flats: hikikomori. Most Britons say their social circle has got smaller. Nearly half of all Britons now socialise with family and friends just once a month. Perhaps there is a deep streak of misanthropy in human nature, and the idea that we are social animals is a polite fiction. As Sartre put it as far back as 1944, ‘l’enfer, c’est les autres’.” Sean Thomas in The Spectator…

RFK’s “wrong-headed” war on mRNA John R. Puri National Review It’s hard to overstate the “awesome potential” of mRNA vaccines to combat disease, says John R. Puri. The technology, which works by instructing cells to produce a harmless antigen of the virus being targeted, saved millions of lives in the Covid pandemic and could one day help correct genetic defects and treat cancer. To seek to block the development of this technology would be “unfathomably wrongheaded” – and yet earlier this month, America’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a long-time vaccine sceptic, cancelled nearly $500m in federal funding for mRNA research, arguing that mRNA vaccines were ineffective and potentially unsafe. His claims hold little water, and the media was understandably outraged, but the withdrawal of the funding is not,…

“After a decade of Amazon saying Alexa isn’t listening to your every word, the company is buying a bracelet that can,” said Nicole Nguyen in The Wall Street Journal. Last month it acquired Bee, the maker of an AI wearable device costing just $49 in the US, that listens in to everything it hears around it so that it can create to-do lists, reminders, summaries and so on, “based on your chatter”. Unlike other Amazon devices, which listen but have to be activated by a “wake word”, this one is always on – keeping a transcript (not audio) of the conversations its mics pick up, which it sends to a phone. Amazon says the more context a device has, the more useful it can be – and indeed, the possibilities…

Should police forces disclose the ethnicity of criminal suspects in high-profile cases? The case for doing so has been made often in recent months, said Leroy Logan in The Observer – particularly since last summer, when false claims on social media that the Southport killer was a Muslim asylum seeker helped to fuel riots across England. Last week, the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing belatedly attempted to resolve the issue. In new interim guidance, they said that police should reveal the ethnicity and nationality of suspects charged in high-profile cases, after considering four factors: whether there is a police purpose in doing so; whether there is a risk of impact on public safety; the level of media or social media interest; and whether misinformation or disinformation…

“If you think you’re enlightened, go and spend a week with your family.” Yoga guru Ram Dass, quoted in The Guardian “It is the folly of too many to mistake the echo of a London coffee house for the voice of the kingdom.” Jonathan Swift, quoted in The Knowledge “The conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerrilla wins if he does not lose.” Henry Kissinger, quoted on Denison Forum “The time to stop talking is when the other person nods his head affirmatively but says nothing.” Henry S. Haskins, quoted in The i Paper “What’s the point of having laurels if you can’t rest on them?” Tom Lehrer, quoted in The Daily Telegraph “America is like my ex-boyfriend. Our relationship was toxic, when I left everyone called…

To The Daily Telegraph It is an outrage that Vladimir Putin should be laying down conditions for the ending of a completely unjust war that he started. Is there no one with the gumption to state that he is a war criminal, and has no right to either seize another country’s sovereign territory or be granted tranches of it?  Chris Pond, East Grinstead, West Sussex To The Daily Telegraph It is easy to claim that Donald Trump is “rewarding” Vladimir Putin’s aggression, but the Europeans are the ones who have continued to buy Russian oil, thus funding Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. As much as I would wish to see Ukraine regain all of its territory – including Crimea – and for Putin to be charged with war crimes, I do…

A Thousand Golden Cities edited by Justin Marozzi, 2023 (Bloomsbury £30). This is a magnificent anthology of stories, poems and travellers’ tales that celebrate the history, culture, landscapes and literature of Afghanistan. Frederick the Second by Ernst Kantorowicz, 1927 (available used), portrays the life and times of the Holy Roman Emperor known to history as “Stupor mundi”, Wonder of the World. He spends most of his life at war with rival powers, but astonishes the world with his command of six languages, his harem of concubines, his elite bodyguard of crossbowmen and his treaty with Saladin, which gives both Christians and Muslims access to the shrines of the Holy Land. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, 1969 (Vintage £9.99). This masterwork of science fiction was inspired by the author’s experience as a prisoner…

Programmes We Want the Funk Lively documentary tracing the history and influence of funk, taking in everyone from James Brown to Fela Kuti. Sat 23 Aug, BBC4 21:10 (80mins). King & Conqueror Historical drama starring James Norton and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. Harold of Wessex and William of Normandy are pawns in plots on both sides of the Channel. Sun 24 Aug 21:10 and Mon 25 Aug 21:30, BBC1 (45mins each). Disaster at Sea: The Piper Alpha Story Minute-by-minute retelling of the world’s worst offshore disaster, the 1988 destruction of the Piper Alpha oil platform. Mon 25 Aug, BBC2 21:00 (60mins). The Jury: Murder Trial Second season of the Bafta-winning series that reconstructs a real-life murder trial to reveal the workings of the jury system. Tue 26-Fri 29 Aug, C4 21:00 (60mins each).…

Makes 20 50g cheddar cheese 200g self-raising flour, plus extra for the countertop 1 tsp baking powder 100g cold salted butter 200g natural Greek yogurt 1 egg • Preheat your oven 200°C/180°C fan. • Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper, because nobody likes scraping scones off a tray. Then grate the cheddar. • Sift the flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl by putting them in a large fine mesh sieve, and tapping to allow the flour and baking powder to gently fall into the bowl. This gets air into the mix, making your scones extra fluffy. • Using the large holes on a box grater, grate the cold butter straight into the flour. Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until it looks…

Take a guided sunset safari on a Canadian canoe down the River Stour, from Fordwich to Grove Ferry, Kent, and you might see the beavers that have been reintroduced on the chalk stream (£37; canoewild.co.uk). At high tide only, you can paddle across a hidden creek on the River Hamble east of Southampton, to The Botley Brewery’s Hidden Tap bar (botleybreweryltd.com). YMCA Fairthorne upriver rents kayaks and paddleboards (from £20; ymca-fg.org). There is no road access to the village of Inverie, on the Knoydart peninsula. Experienced kayakers could try the seven-mile crossing from Mallaig, or take a ferry and hire a kayak there. You might spot sea otters on Loch Nevis (from £30; loveknoydart.co.uk). Paddle through beautiful countryside on a self-guided canoe trip from Bridgnorth to Arley, and take the steam…

Palazzo Durazzo Suites Genoa, Italy The port city of Genoa was once the richest in Europe. Today it’s an underrated destination, with plenty of architectural and artistic treasures hidden away amid its winding streets. This hotel occupying a baroque palace that was once the “official guest house” of the city state, is Genoa’s best, says Brendan Shanahan in Condé Nast Traveller. It has 12 suites where sleek modern furnishings and “museum quality” antiques are set off against 18th century frescoes; one even has its own chapel. And its location is excellent – right next to the medieval harbour, over which the breakfast room commands “lovely” views. Doubles from £370; palazzodurazzo.com.…

Vivergo Fuels: hung out to dry? “The smell of yeast still hangs in the air at the Vivergo plant in Hull but the machines have fallen quiet,” said Gurpreet Narwan on Sky News. Redundancies began this week as the company – owned by Associated British Foods – begins “an orderly wind-down of the business” after ministers rejected a £75m bailout deal for Britain’s largest bioethanol plant. The mood is bitter. “Vivergo was already being annihilated by US rivals”, but the US-UK trade pact provided the “killer blow” by allowing 1.4 billion litres of American ethanol to be imported into the UK annually, tariff-free. The quota, said Lisa Carroll in The Guardian, is “the exact size of the UK market”. Vivergo is one of two UK plants making bioethanol, a petrol…

It’s time to change the BoE’s mandate Marcus Ashworth Bloomberg Britain appears to be suffering from structurally high inflation – Wednesday’s figures showed an annual 3.8% gain in consumer prices. But what should be worrying the Bank of England more is “UK job weakness”, says Marcus Ashworth: it has been quietly worsening, with a net loss of 165,000 jobs since Rachel Reeves’s October Budget. There’s no point “obsessing over consumer prices when the job market is struggling” – rising unemployment and economic downturn “will ameliorate higher prices soon enough”. Moreover, the surge in longer-term gilt yields this summer indicates investors have real concerns about the management of Britain’s economy, way beyond inflation. This is a good time to reflect upon whether the BoE’s sole mandate – to maintain inflation at…

The week’s best shares Balfour Beatty Investors’ Chronicle The construction firm’s focus on energy, defence and transport means it should benefit from increased UK infrastructure spending. Despite “some complexities” in the US, revenues and the order book are up. Buy. 561p. Cranswick The Daily Telegraph The farm-to-fork pig and poultry producer’s latest quarterly revenues are up 7.9% year-on-year, and it’s set for growth. Defensive, with “substantial” competitive advantage. Worth the premium valuation. Buy. £52.40. Hill & Smith Investors’ Chronicle Growth at the steel products maker is being driven by its US galvanising services and engineered solutions divisions. Despite a “challenging” UK market, the outlook remains positive. Buy. £21.85. HSBC Holdings The Mail on Sunday By far the largest and most global of the “big four” banks, HSBC’s size and diversity…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1479 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 1 September. Send it to The Week Crossword 1479, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London W2 6JR, or email the completed grid/listed solutions to crossword@theweek.co.uk. By Tim Moorey (timmoorey.com) This week’s winner will receive Week-branded items, as well as two Connell Guides (connellguides.com). ACROSS 1 Something to talk over in a lift? (10,5) 9 Bald husband quits being stuffy (7)  10 Mention second-rate call (5,2) 11 Not very good trader hit badly (5-4) 12 Track is briefly unsatisfactory (5) 13 Festivals Government shortened unfortunately (5) 15 Case of George and Victoria’s development (9) 17 Officer heard pub ghost (9)…

What happened Hamas announced on Monday that it had agreed to a proposal for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza in exchange for the release of some of the Israeli hostages still held in the Strip. The proposed deal was negotiated between Hamas and Egyptian and Qatari officials in Cairo. It would require the Islamist group to release ten of the 20 or so living hostages, and the bodies of 18 dead hostages. In return, Israel would release 200 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences, and 1,500 detainees from Gaza. It would also pull its forces out of northern and central areas of the enclave, and allow the UN to deliver more humanitarian aid to Palestinians. The proposal resembles closely the one put forward by US envoy Steve Witkoff in May –…

The word “skibidi”, which along with “delulu” and “tradwife” has entered the Cambridge Dictionary. A Gen Alpha slang term, skibidi can be defined variously as “cool” or “bad”. It can also be used with no real meaning, as a joke. Delulu plays on “delusional”; while tradwife is short for “traditional wife”, a married woman who cooks, cleans – and often posts on social media. TransPennine Express passengers, after the operator, one of the country’s least punctual services, introduced an onboard therapy dog to spread “happiness”. Nya, a six-year-old German shepherd, offers a “tail-wagging welcome”, and is qualified to perform de-stressing visits to both customers and staff.…

Faith in the police has fallen to a historic low, with just 49% of people saying their local force does a “good or excellent job”. The figure is down from 62% just a decade ago. Crime Survey of England & Wales Belief in God has doubled among young people in the past four years. More than one-third of 18- to 24-year-olds now believe in a supernatural deity; in the same age group, atheism has fallen from 49% to 32%. YouGov/The Daily Telegraph 26% of owners have taken their pets on foreign holidays. Among 25- to 34-year-olds, the figure rises to half. 56% of those who take their pets abroad do so because “they’re part of the family”. Co-op/The Times…

Rembrandt people Fran Lebowitz once described herself as “the designated New Yorker” – and her sardonic observations about city life have made her famous, says Megan Nolan in The Observer. So much so that she is often accosted on the streets. “It doesn’t bother me if I’m standing still,” she says – but sometimes “I’ll be in the middle of Fifth Avenue” with a “million cars” coming, or racing for a train. Still, once she has got to safety on the pavement, she will engage with these strangers. “Lately, this kid comes into the subway – he had seen this video I made in a museum about a Rembrandt. He goes: ‘I can’t believe I’m seeing you. I just saw that video you made about your Rembrandt.’ I said: ‘It’s…

Supporting a terrorist group is not terrorism Jonathan Sumption The Independent When a bunch of pro-Palestinian pensioners can be arrested just for holding up placards, it’s clear the law needs changing, says Jonathan Sumption. There was nothing wrong with the Home Secretary’s original decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. As a group dedicated to committing criminal damage to achieve its aims, it more than qualifies under the Terrorism Act 2000. So it’s perfectly reasonable for ministers to seek to “disrupt its funding and discourage people from actively assisting its programme of violence”. The problem is that the Terrorism Act defines the offence of supporting a proscribed organisation in more expansive terms. Among the acts it outlaws is wearing, carrying or displaying an article that gives rise to…

Genes may play a role in ME Scientists have identified a genetic component to myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), the debilitating long-term illness once dismissed as “yuppie flu”. For their large-scale study, which has yet to be peer reviewed, the team at the University of Edinburgh analysed the DNA of about 15,500 people with ME (also known as chronic fatigue syndrome) and nearly 260,000 without it. This revealed eight genetic signals – stretches of DNA – that tended to be significantly different in the ME patients, and which may play a role in the condition. One is linked to chronic pain, which sufferers of ME experience. Three are responders to viral or bacterial infections, which might explain why patients often develop ME after reporting an illness such as flu – and also…

Mariah Carey is famously disconnected from reality. The pop star bathes in milk, and, legend has it, “doesn’t do stairs”. She also, it seems, keeps a healthy distance from the news. When asked during a recent BBC Radio 2 interview about fellow pop star Katy Perry’s journey into space – Perry went into orbit on Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket in April – Carey seemed utterly baffled. “She went… to space?” asked the singer, sounding mystified. “Where did she go? She’s like… floating? Is this true?” Margaret Thatcher wasn’t a fan of taking holidays, says Matt Chorley in The New Statesman. Once, while holidaying in Salzburg, the then-prime minister grew so bored that she arranged a meeting nearby with Helmut Kohl. The German chancellor got fed up with her lecturing…

Hundreds of thousands of nervous teenagers received their A-level results last week, said Shuab Gamote in The Observer. For nearly 40% of 18-year-olds, the next step will be university, which is “still sold as the surest route to success”. But is a degree really such an advantage today? Many are beginning to doubt it, said Zoë Beaty in The Independent. The average total debt built up by students in England is now £53,000, yet the days when a degree was a ticket to a job are long gone. Graduate job openings are at their lowest level in seven years, according to recent reports. It’s partly down to the rise of AI, which is reducing entry-level roles in consultancies, law firms and other businesses. Ministers insist that the “graduate premium” still…

“It has been a summer of change at Manchester United,” said Paul Hirst in The Times. The club’s “spangly new training ground” has opened its doors, and more than £200m has been invested in the squad. But “one key deficiency” remains: “their goalkeeping department is short of the standard required to challenge at the top of the Premier League”. That’s why Ruben Amorim’s side failed to claim what should have been a “morale-boosting” home victory against Arsenal on the opening weekend of the Premier League season. Instead, the Gunners came away from Old Trafford on Sunday with a fortunate 1-0 win. The fault this time lay with Altay Bayindir, who had started in goal in place of the usual first choice, André Onana, said Jason Burt in The Daily Telegraph.…

Football Manchester City won 4-0 at Wolves in the Premier League; Liverpool beat Bournemouth 4-2 at home. Cricket Jacob Bethell, 21, is to become England’s youngest-ever cricket captain, after being named skipper for the upcoming T20 series in Ireland. Rugby union New Zealand returned to the top of the world rankings for the first time in four years, by beating Argentina 41-24 in Córdoba on Saturday. They replace world champions South Africa, who were beaten 38-22 by Australia in Johannesburg.…

Summer Show 2025 at Chris Beetles The Chris Beetles Summer Show is something of an institution. Bringing together an eccentric grab bag of works, mostly dating from the 19th and 20th centuries, by British artists, it makes a stab at catering to all tastes: and depending on what yours is, you’ll find as many gems as you will misfires. This year’s iteration is as eclectic as ever, bringing together everything from syrupy Victorian pastoral scenes to cartoons by Nick Newman and The Daily Telegraph’s Matt. There are some interesting pictures here: Charles Cundall’s 1926 view from the stands of Crystal Palace football ground (£350,000) is dominated by the palace itself; you can’t help remembering that it would burn down a decade later. George Sheringham’s bizarre Orientalist Edwardian watercolours (£100,000), meanwhile,…

Jim Lovell 1928-2025 Jim Lovell, who has died aged 97, uttered what is perhaps the second most famous phrase in space history. The US astronaut was the commander of the three-man Apollo 13 lunar mission that took off from the Kennedy Space Centre in April 1970. It had been nearly a year since the first Moon landing, said Erica Wagner in The Observer, and interest in the US’s space programme had waned. No major TV networks transmitted this mission’s broadcast from space. But on the third day, when the crew were 200,000 miles from Earth, the flick of a switch for a routine task set off an explosion. Caused by an undetected wiring fault, the blast ruptured one of the craft’s oxygen tanks, emptying its contents into space, and damaged…