Table of contents for 1555 in The Week

Controversy of the week A free-speech martyr? Lucy Connolly walked free from HMP Peterborough last week – “but she is not going back to a quiet life”, said Tom Slater in The Spectator. The Northampton childminder has become a “totem” in the free speech wars, having served “the longest sentence ever handed down in the UK for a single social-media post”. In 2024, after three girls were stabbed to death at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, and as rumours swirled that the killer was an asylum seeker, Connolly, 41, fired off a “life-ruining” tweet: “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f**king hotels full of the bastards for all I care … If that makes me racist so be it.” Connolly deleted her post within four hours…

Farmers, who are having one of the worst harvests on record thanks to a “devastatingly dry” growing season. Martin Williams, an arable farmer from Herefordshire, says he has seen a 50% drop in his cereal and potato crop yields this year. Scottish comedians, who, despite making up almost a third of acts at the Edinburgh Fringe, were not nominated for any awards. “Something isn’t working,” said comedian Rosco McClelland. The post, with the news that one in four first-class letters are arriving late. The Royal Mail is required to deliver 93% of first-class mail within one working day. It managed 75.9% between March and June (a slight improvement on the previous quarter).…

Paris Confidence vote: France seemed to be heading for a fresh political crisis this week as the centrist prime minister, François Bayrou, called a parliamentary confidence vote for early next month that his minority government seems almost certain to lose. Bayrou has proposed an austerity budget, which aims to tackle the spiralling national debt with a €43.8bn squeeze, including tax rises and cuts to health and welfare spending. But opposition parties, from the National Rally on the right to the Socialists, Greens and France Unbowed on the left, have all said they will oppose it. Bayrou’s predecessor, Michel Barnier, was ousted under similar circumstances after only three months in office. France’s current political deadlock arose from the snap election called by President Macron last year, which resulted in a parliament…

“A tribunal recently ruled on a complaint by an older worker disturbed by younger members of staff socialising. As a representative of Gen Z, I’d like to issue this considered response: pot, kettle. I sit in an open-plan office surrounded by colleagues in their 40s, 50s and 60-plus. Let me tell you: there is a good reason I have noise-cancelling headphones. Boomer office volumes are obnoxious. Where colleagues my age use WhatsApp or messaging systems to communicate, our elders tend to just shout from one end to the other. Then there are the phones. Why are they never on silent? Why are you taking the call at your desk? We have rooms precisely for this purpose.” Anonymous in The Times…

How to control migration? Copy Sweden Rohan Silva The Times When in doubt, copy the Nordics. Our politicians often take that approach on social issues, says Rohan Silva, and they could certainly learn from Sweden’s policies on migrants. Until a decade ago, Sweden had an open-door policy to refugees: in 2015, it took in more asylum seekers per capita than any other EU nation. But it started tightening its rules when the inflows strained public services and led to a rise in gang crime. In 2022, its new centre-right government “turbo-charged” the stricter approach. Asylum rights have been cut to the minimum allowed under EU law. Rejected asylum seekers are housed in return centres. Migrants have been offered £26,000 to self-deport. The measures have had a big impact: in 2024,…

ICE is “extremely desperate” for Americans to work for them, said Julianne McShane in Mother Jones. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, flush with the $75bn in extra funding that President Trump set aside for the agency in his tax and spending megabill, and scrambling to deliver on his campaign promise of one million deportations a year, has embarked on a “massive hiring spree”. It’s posting ads across social media, tempting recruits with “a slate of perks”, including a signing bonus of up to $50,000 and as much as $60,000 in student loan forgiveness. The minimum age requirement for working as a deportation officer has been dropped to 18. “America has been invaded by criminals and predators,” the agency declares on its website. “We need YOU to get them out.” The campaign…

A new golden age of antibiotics? Scientists have used AI to create two new antibiotics – a breakthrough that could usher in a “second golden age” of anti-bacterial drugs. Worldwide, more than a million people die each year of infections that have become resistant to antibiotics; but discovering new antibiotics is a long and expensive process, with no guarantee of success. Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology turned to artificial intelligence for help, training a generative AI program by giving it the chemical structure of known compounds, along with data on whether they slow the growth of different species of bacteria. The model was then tasked with designing drugs to treat gonorrhoea and MRSA. It came up with more than 36 million potential compounds, then filtered them to leave…

The second series of Meghan Markle’s lifestyle show, With Love, Meghan, has landed on Netflix – to somewhat mixed reviews. Over eight episodes, the Duchess of Sussex is once again seen enjoying wholesome activities such as flower-pressing, book-binding, bread-making (which she describes as “moving meditation”), and wrapping boxes in sarongs. The Times described the latest helping as “baffling”. The Daily Telegraph called her “the Montecito Marie Antoinette”. The Guardian’s Lucy Mangan had a more positive take. “[The show] is so boring, so contrived, so effortfully whimsical,” writes Mangan, “that, do you know what? In the end, it does become almost fascinating.” Modern foodies have gone too far for Prue Leith. At Michelin-starred restaurants, she complains in The Oldie, waiters now give dull lectures on each course; one even handed her…

It’s much too early to reach a verdict on Thomas Frank as Tottenham head coach, said Richard Jolly in The Independent; but for now at least, the future in N17 is looking bright. Appointed after Tottenham’s “consistently bad” league form cost his predecessor Ange Postecoglou his job, Frank oversaw a tidy 3-0 home win over Burnley in his first league game in charge; and on Saturday, he followed it up with a statement 2-0 victory over Manchester City at the Etihad. As important as the result, though, was the performance, which suggested that the Dane has imbued Spurs with a “new ethos”: where Postecoglou was dogmatic about his attacking principles, Frank has shown tactical flexibility and attention to detail, with a focus on clean sheets and organisation. True, Spurs have…

Football Liverpool beat Newcastle 3-2 at St James’ Park to go third in the league. Arsenal thrashed Leeds 5-0, and West Ham were beaten 5-1 at home to Chelsea. Everton began life at their new Hill Dickinson Stadium with a 2-0 win over Brighton. Rugby World Cup England won 69-7 against the USA in the opening match of the Women’s Rugby World Cup. Scotland beat Wales 38-8, and Ireland beat Japan 42-14. Rugby union Argentina’s men earned their first ever home victory over New Zealand, beating the All Blacks by 29-23 in Buenos Aires.…

Terence Stamp 1938-2025 Terence Stamp, who has died aged 87, was an emblematic figure of the Swinging Sixties, said The Guardian. Dubbed “the world’s best-looking man” by the press, he was in constant demand by some of the greatest directors of the day, from Ken Loach to Federico Fellini. He played the swaggering Sergeant Troy in John Schlesinger’s adaptation of Far from the Madding Crowd (1967), the irresponsible boyfriend in Loach’s Poor Cow (1967), and Monica Vitti’s knife-throwing sidekick in Modesty Blaise (1966). He was romantically involved with Julie Christie, and had a long relationship with Jean Shrimpton; he caroused with his flatmate Michael Caine. Despite his extensive and varied work in the decades that followed, Stamp will “always be associated with that exhilarating period”. Terence Henry Stamp was born…

Marks & Spencer is opening a secondhand clothing store on eBay, amid big demand for “pre-loved” clothes. People will be able to use a free courier service to donate clothes, with Oxfam taking a share of the profits; if the donation includes at least one M&S item, they’ll receive a £5 voucher. Primark and H&M already offer secondhand sales. There’s a new Gen Z stereotype doing the rounds on TikTok: the “performative male”. This is a man who makes ostentatious attempts to impress progressive women. The “performative male” may be seen posing with an oat-milk matcha, pretending to read The Bell Jar or carrying a tote bag bearing feminist slogans, says The Guardian. He may even carry tampons for “women in need”.…

The Government is planning to abolish most short prison sentences and replace them with tougher community punishments. In a bid to reduce overcrowding in prisons, Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary, wants to cut the time less serious offenders must serve in jail to a third of their term, and scrap sentences of less than 12 months in all but exceptional circumstances. Instead, she wants to give judges new powers to ban offenders from pubs, concerts and sporting events. The measures – which build on recommendations made by the former Tory justice secretary David Gauke in a recent review – are due to be implemented in the Sentencing Guidelines Act, expected next month.…

Baltimore, Maryland Deportation battle: The Trump administration’s battle to deport Kilmar Ábrego García – a 30-year-old man who came to the US from El Salvador around 2011 – took another turn this week when a judge in Baltimore ruled that the government was “absolutely forbidden” from sending him abroad until she can hold an evidentiary hearing. Ábrego García was sent to El Salvador as part of Trump’s mass deportation drive in March, but the government later admitted this was an “administrative error”. He was then brought back to the US to face human trafficking charges, based on an incident in 2022. Last week, he was granted bail in that case, only to be detained again by immigration authorities. The Trump administration – which has claimed, without presenting evidence, that Ábrego…

SERBIA The EU’s shameful silence Tagesschau (Hamburg) Aleksandar Vucic “is showing his true colours”, says Silke Hahne. Earlier this month, Serbia’s president “unleashed masked thugs” against the peaceful protest movement in his country, which has been demonstrating against his corrupt government ever since a “shoddily renovated train station canopy” collapsed in Novi Sad last November, killing 16 people. As the police looked on, his loyalists attacked demonstrators with batons; one activist reported being beaten and threatened with rape by a police chief. And where, in all of this, was the EU? Serbia is a candidate for EU membership. Yet instead of supporting its democracy movement, the EU Commission has given protesters in Serbia “the cold shoulder. Not a word of support has come from Brussels.” Its silence is for the…

One topic dominated conversation ahead of this year’s US Open, said Jonathan Jurejko on BBC Sport: the decision to radically overhaul the mixed doubles event. In the past, the contest would be “lost and largely forgotten” in the midst of finals weekend. But this year, “singles superstars” were enticed to take part with an offering of $1m in prize money, a shortened format (four games needed to win a set, except in the final) and a slot in the tournament’s first week. Many tennis purists were outraged, arguing that, although participation of “big names” such as Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz helped attract more eyeballs, it also “ripped away a 138-year tradition”, and made it nearly impossible for most specialist doubles players to qualify. But that didn’t stop the revamped…

If you seek the “fashionable Elizabethan melancholy” that has dominated so many productions of Twelfth Night, you should “pack up your lyre and go elsewhere”, said Rachel Halliburton in The Times. Robin Belfield’s “carnivalesque” new staging of Shakespeare’s “tale of mistaken identities and thwarted desires” at the Globe is a “riotous celebration of life”. Belfield emphasises the farcical elements and the themes of gender and sexual fluidity, said Dzifa Benson in The Daily Telegraph – while Jean Chan’s design adds to the mood of “licensed disorder”, with a gleeful mishmash of eras and styles. With strong acting and a vibrant comic energy, it makes for a late-summer “jamboree” that’s “joyfully tongue-in-cheek”. “The production is studded with lovely performances,” said Sarah Hemming in the FT. Ronke Adékoluejó makes a “keenly intelligent…

“Joe Caroff’s designs were familiar, but his name was not,” says The New York Times. In his long and distinguished career, Caroff, who has died in New York aged 103, designed the original posters for Cabaret, West Side Story, Last Tango in Paris, and A Hard Day’s Night, as well as for many of Woody Allen’s films – along with the book cover for Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead. But what he’s best known for is the letterhead for a publicity release that he created for the first Bond movie, Dr. No, in 1962. Playing around with the idea of Agent 007 and his licence to kill, Caroff came up with the concept of elongating the top of the seven so it looked like Bond’s pistol, the Walther…

When Amber encounters Chelsea at The Orangery, Chelsea apologises for bullying her in school; Amber rejects the apology, reducing Chelsea to tears. When Brad finds out, he confronts Amber, who is unrepentant. Newly single Martyn continues to lean on Tracy, and invites Jazzer to play golf. At band rehearsal, Fallon gets a text from lead singer Ash’s wife, Jenna, telling them that Ash died suddenly a year ago. Reeling from the news, the band meet Jenna, who invites them to take part in a memorial swim; Fallon seems unsure. Chelsea wants a hobby, so she and Zainab join Martyn and Jazzer at the golf club – Zainab is a natural. At cricket practice, Tracy and Freddie continue to encourage Henry. At George’s urging, Amber and Chelsea make up. When Chris…

Marjorie’s 26 Foubert’s Place, London W1 (marjorieslondon.co.uk) As a non-drinker, I am “not a fan” of dining in wine bars, says Grace Dent in The Guardian. Too noisy, too boisterous, and “too many drunken elbows in your toastie de fromage while a sommelier bores on about beaujolais nouveau”. I am thrilled, however, to make an exception for Majorie’s, a brand new Parisian-inspired place that has enticed the “brilliant” Giacomo Peretti, formerly of Le Gavroche, to cook for them – and is serving up probably “the most earnest, accomplished, imaginative food” currently available in central London. For snacks there are “yummy crab tartelettes” with kumquat; lamb tartare dotted with spring vegetables, goat’s cheese and a tiny fresh strawberry; and gooey chicken liver “rocher” (yes, Ferrero Rocher: it’s rich, nutty and it…

● Ideally, you need a 50:50 balance of green (nitrogen-rich) material such as leaves, grass clippings, annual weeds, fruit and veg, tea leaves, and brown (carbon rich) material such as woody branches, hedge trimmings, paper, cardboard, straw or pet bedding. ● Ensure woody material is chopped into smaller pieces to speed up the process. If you’re short on brown material, add cardboard (remove brown tape first). Lime or compost accelerators don’t help much. ● Don’t add perennial weeds like bindweed, ground elder or nettles. These need higher temperatures to kill them, so add them to your garden waste recycling instead. ● Turn your heap every couple of months to add oxygen and speed up decomposition. If it gets too dry, add some water. ● Wood ash can be added in…

Fred Emery 1933-2025 Although the Watergate scandal will forever be associated with The Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, said The Times, it was Fred Emery, The Times’s man in Washington, who got the scoop on Richard Nixon’s resignation. In August 1974, as questions mounted about the US president’s position, Emery rang a junior Nixon aide whom he knew socially. “No quotes but the furniture vans are in Executive Drive,” his friend told him. It was the first irrefutable proof that Nixon was about to stand down, and Emery quickly told his editor, William Rees-Mogg, who got a special edition on the presses. For Emery, who has died aged 91, it was a triumph to cap his stint as Washington bureau chief. He had been denied an earlier…

A new breed of fishing “finfluencers”, posting video clips from Britain’s riverbanks, is having a transforming effect on the coffers of England’s largest fishing tackle retailer, says Anna Dowell in The Times. Revenues at Angling Direct rose 17% to £53.6m in the first half, after a great “wave” of Gen Z enthusiasts signed up to its loyalty scheme. The London-listed retailer of rods, lines et al has clocked up more than 30 million views on its YouTube channel ADTV, which are readily translating into sales. The company, which has 55 shops, is now targeting new openings. Shares are up by a tasty 25% this year – investors are betting young fans will stay hooked.…

Fewer babies The fertility rate (the average number of children born to women of childbearing age) in England and Wales fell to a “record low” of 1.44 in 2023 – “below the 2.1 needed for a stable population without relying on migration”, says Rachel Mortimer in The Times. By 2050, more than 75% of countries will face this predicament. Priced out In Britain, the number of one-child families has risen to 3.7 million – up 14% since 2004. Career concerns and affordability issues are cited as the main reasons. “The cost of having a child has risen dramatically” amid stubborn inflation and escalating nursery fees. Moneyfarm calculates that raising the average child to adulthood costs around £250,000 (or £13,900 annually) – a 10% rise on 2023. Consequences Fewer future taxpayers…

Victoria Beckham Coco Chanel once advised: “If you’re sad, add more lipstick and attack.” Words heeded, it seems, by Victoria Beckham, said Clemmie Moodie in The Sun. The former Spice Girl’s fashion and beauty company has enjoyed “a record-breaking year” – with revenues shooting up to £113m, boosted by strong sales of her £37 Posh lippy. “It marks an incredible turnaround” for Beckham – “previously mocked by bitchy fashionistas” – who once had to borrow £30m from her husband David’s company to tide her over. There’s a long way to go, said Sarah Butler in The Guardian. Sales have surged, but losses have widened to nearly £5m, forcing another £6.2m cash injection from shareholders. Still, a new docuseries on Netflix, about the designer’s day-to-day life, should give the brand another…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1480 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 8 September. Send it to The Week Crossword 1480, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London W2 6JR, or email the completed grid/listed solutions to crossword@theweek.co.uk. By Paul McKenna This week’s winner will receive Week-branded items, as well as two Connell Guides (connellguides.com). ACROSS 1 Rude host diving into pâté full tilt (4-5) 6 This could be very sweet rug (5) 9 One’s affected by stimulus to do with luvvie (7) 10 Church with a sort of yellow room (7) 11 Mature salt is a child of the deep (6) 12 The Week, say, developed amazing energy (8) 14 Plumps…

What happened Israel drew wide international condemnation this week, when it launched an air strike in which at least 20 people, including five journalists, were killed at a hospital in Gaza. The first of two blasts hit the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis at 10am on Monday, killing a journalist and others; another then struck ten minutes later, when more journalists and medics had arrived. The attack, and the apparent use of the “double-tap” tactic, in which targets are hit twice quickly, was condemned by the UN, the UK, France and Germany. Donald Trump said he was “not happy” about the attack, which Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu called a “tragic mishap”. Meanwhile, Israel continued to bombard Gaza City as its forces pushed into its outskirts. Last week, the UN-backed Integrated…

Taylor Swift, who sent the internet into a frenzy when she announced her engagement to American football player Travis Kelce. “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married,” the pop star wrote on Instagram, underneath a photo of Kelce on bended knee under a lush floral gazebo. Within 24 hours, the post had been liked by more than 30 million people. Peace and quiet, with the launch of Transport for London’s new campaign to tackle “headphone dodgers” on the network. Posters urging passengers to “be considerate” and not “disturb others with loud music or calls” will be rolled out this autumn. KPop Demon Hunters, which has become Netflix’s most viewed film ever. The animated musical about a K-pop band has been watched more than 230 million times. Its…

Only 39% of Brits eat their evening meal at a table. Of those who do, 55% either watch the TV while eating, or scroll on their phones. Trivento/The Times 37% of voters say that immigration is the most important issue facing the country, compared with 25% who say it is the economy, and 7% health. Nearly half of Britons now believe immigration has been “mostly bad” for the country – a significant increase from three years ago, when 30% said so. 71% believe that Keir Starmer is handling the asylum hotel issue badly. YouGov 28% of Labour members would consider backing Jeremy Corbyn’s new party at the next election. Survation/LabourList…

The perils of the repair shop One Saturday a month, Chris Murphy and 82 volunteers gather at the Trinity Theatre in Tunbridge Wells, where they hold one of the UK’s largest repair cafés. The concept, first pioneered in the Netherlands, is simple: people bring in their broken goods, and the team does their utmost to fix them, free of charge. The only rule is that they watch the repair as it’s carried out. “It’s important we pass on the skills,” Murphy told The Sunday Times. A former physiotherapist, he’d heard about repair cafés in 2019, and was immediately drawn to the idea. He placed an advert in the local paper asking for volunteers, and 100 people turned up to the first meeting; since then, the café has gone from strength…

The dog, Canis familiaris – a selectively bred descendant of the grey wolf – is believed to have been first domesticated some 23,000 years ago, in Siberia. From there, dogs accompanied humans in dispersing east to the Americas and west across Eurasia, reaching England by about 7,500BC. Most were used as watchdogs or for hunting; some were trained to fight alongside soldiers; others were later used for herding and rat-catching. In time, smaller dogs were adopted as pets: excavations at the Silchester Roman archaeological site in Hampshire have unearthed poodle-sized skeletons of dogs that were probably imported from abroad – some of the earliest “toy” breeds in England. From the 17th century, dogs became potent symbols of social status, as seen in Charles II’s spaniels, or the dogs in Gainsborough’s…

People are starting to talk like ChatGPT Adam Aleksic The Washington Post It’s an unnerving but true fact, says Adam Aleksic: humans are starting to talk like chatbots. By which I mean, their choice of words is being subtly influenced by the linguistic biases of AI models. ChatGPT, for example, uses the word “delve” more often than the average person. Researchers believe this is because the low-wage employees of AI firms who check the results of Large Language Models (LLMs) and help train them with feedback often live in countries such as Nigeria and Kenya, where “delve” is used at higher rates than in American or British English. Now this over-representation, “reinforced” into LLMs, is “bleeding into global culture”. In the two years after ChatGPT launched in late 2022, there…

Butterfly numbers in the UK have fallen by almost a fifth in the past 50 years, government figures show. The worst hit species, the heath fritillary, has seen its population plummet by 89% since 1976, when monitoring began, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said in its annual update, based on sightings of 50 resident species at 7,217 locations. Others, such as the wood white and small pearl-bordered fritillary have experienced declines of 70% to 80%. Sightings on farmland have fallen by 32%; recordings of woodland butterflies are down by 54%. Butterflies are considered to be a good indicator of the broader state of the environment; habitat loss and intensive farming are all thought to have contributed to their decline. Although 44% of species are less common than…

“Labour has been willing to make enemies during its first year in power,” said Mattie Brignal in The Daily Telegraph. Among those it has hit with unpopular tax measures are pensioners, employers, farmers and parents with children in private school. Now it appears to have turned its sights on a new target: “middle-class homeowners”. The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is said to be toying with the idea of reforming property taxes to help plug the black hole in the public finances. Under one of the mooted reforms, stamp duty would be scrapped and replaced with an annual levy based on the value of people’s homes. Reeves is also said to be considering introducing capital gains tax (CGT) on primary residences valued at more than £1.5m. The measure would mean that high-…

“I accept chaos. I am not sure whether it accepts me.”Bob Dylan, quoted in the Los Angeles Review of Books “Scratch a pessimist and you find often a defender of privilege.”William Beveridge, quoted in The Oldie “The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that still carries any reward.”John Maynard Keynes, ibid. “It is easier to make people angry than to make them laugh.”James Marriott in The Times “Most people go through life using up half their energy trying to protect a dignity they never had.”Raymond Chandler, quoted on The Knowledge “There is a conspiracy that you can find online: it is the one to keep you online, looking for conspiracies.”Timothy Snyder, quoted on Slate “The landscape of devastation is still a landscape. There is beauty in the ruins.”Susan…

To The Daily Telegraph No right-thinking person could fail to have sympathy for Lucy Connolly’s predicament, but it was of her own making and perhaps illustrates the point that freedom of speech is a right that comes at a price, and is not carte blanche to say anything you like and to hell with the consequences. If you tweeted it, wrote it or said it, you own it, and should have the good grace to accept the responsibility that comes from your actions. Charles Delaney, Dublin To The Daily Telegraph In response to Charles Delaney, Lucy Connolly has never denied that her predicament was one of her own making: she posted a tweet, in the heat of the moment, and quickly regretted it. She simply feels that the price she…

A Visit to Don Otavio by Sybille Bedford, 1960 (Eland Publishing £14.99). Bedford’s first published work is an extraordinary travelogue chronicling her intrepid travels through Mexico in the 1950s. The descriptions of the food they eat at Don Otavio’s are a sheer delight; it was the first time I had heard of another European extolling Mexican food, and I couldn’t get enough of it. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, 1997 (Fourth Estate £9.99). A stunning novel about a pair of twins, about love, loss and the impact of colonialism. I am a twin, so this book felt acutely personal (I had also just come back from Kerala, where it is set). I grew up on Latin American magical realism, which chimes beautifully with Indian literature of the…

Programmes Educating Yorkshire Twelve years since the heart-warming success of the first series, the cameras return to Thornhill Community Academy, where the inspirational Mr Burton is now head teacher. Sun 31 Aug, C4 20:00 (60mins). The Guest New thriller starring Eve Myles. When cleaner Ria is hired by a wealthy businesswoman, an unlikely friendship forms, with tragic consequences. Mon 1 Sep, BBC1 21:00 (60mins). I Am Martin Parr Profile of the renowned photographer, following him as he sets out on a road trip to capture his uncompromising images of everyday life. Mon 1 Sep, BBC4 21:00 (65mins). Nazis, U-boats and the Battle for the Atlantic Two-part documentary about deep-sea divers hunting for German U-boats scuttled off the Irish coast during WWII’s longest campaign. Wed 3-Thur 4 Sep, BBC2 21:00 (60mins…

At this time of year in the countryside, there are apples everywhere, says Abby Allen. Sadly, many of the apples produced are wasted – if not picked and consumed, they will slowly be broken down by wasps, moths, aphids and caterpillars. This recipe is a real celebration of autumn. It’s a sweet–savoury combo that I find incredibly moreish, and it works equally well hot from the oven as it does cold as leftovers, giving you plenty of flexibility for how and when you want to serve it. Serves 4-6 50g grass-fed butter 3-4 small shallots, quartered 250ml dry cider 1 tsp English mustard 200g mature clothbound cheddar cheese, grated 3 eating apples, cored and finely sliced 1 organic and/or free-range egg yolk, beaten a few sprigs of thyme, leaves picked flaky…

The glass-walled market at Torvehallerne, Copenhagen, has around 60 stalls offering artisanal food and drink, plants and kitchen tools. Enjoy Danish specialities as well as global cuisine from tacos to fresh pasta. Every Saturday there is a farmer’s market in the Exarchia, Athens, the historic anarchist district. Stock up on olive oil, herbs, honey, fresh fish, fruit and vegetables, while musicians play traditional Greek music. Opened in 1916 in a spectacular cast-iron structure, the Mercado de San Miguel, Madrid, is a “celebration of the Spanish larder”, with more than 30 stalls selling fresh seafood, olives, cured meats and “top-notch tapas”. Perch at one of the wine bars with a glass of cava and watch the “chaos”. Inspired by Gustave Eiffel, Les Halles de Dijon is “a vaulted, ironwork theatre of…

W Prague Czech Republic The W Hotels group is known for its youthful, party-loving style. Lately, however, it has taken on some “grown-up” properties, such as Budapest’s Drechsler Palace, and now this art nouveau landmark on Prague’s glorious Wenceslas Square. Formerly known as the Grand Hotel Europa, it has been beautifully restored, says Rick Jordan in Condé Nast Traveller, with lots of marble and stained glass. The Grand Café is “aglow with chandeliers again”, and there’s a new wing with some stylish guest rooms. Don’t miss the splendid meeting space where Franz Kafka gave his only known reading in 1912. Doubles from £265; w-hotels.marriott.com.…

Is Britain en route to an IMF bailout? Editorial The Daily Telegraph A number of leading economists – including some former members of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee – have warned that “we can no longer take continued solvency for granted”, says The Daily Telegraph. The size of Britain’s debts, combined with high inflation and taxes, means it “is far from inconceivable that Rachel Reeves may have to follow the example of her predecessor Denis Healey”, who was forced to beg funds from the IMF in 1976 – “a calamitous humiliation”. The Chancellor is under huge pressure to fill a £50bn black hole at the Autumn Budget. That is partly down to her own policies, yet Britain has been on the wrong path for decades. The total benefits…

The week’s best shares Chesnara The Mail on Sunday The life assurance and pension group’s reputation-enhancing acquisition of HSBC Life UK increases customers by 45% and lifts managed assets to £18bn. The deal boosts the dividend to yield 8%. Buy. 287p. Convatec Group The Times Revenue growth at Convatec, which provides ostomy and continence care products, is set for 5-7% with mid-20s margins. The well-regarded CEO is being replaced internally, and a $300m buyback programme underpins confidence. Buy. 244.2p. Diploma The Daily Telegraph Diploma supplies specialist technical products such as seals and gaskets. Revenues and profits are up, amid solid finances and a strengthening competitive position. Further acquisitions are “highly affordable”. Buy. £53.75. S&U The Daily Telegraph S&U specialises in property and car finance. The Supreme Court’s decision on the…