Table of contents for 1562 in The Week

An owl – blown off course by Storm Amy and left starving and exhausted in the middle of the North Sea – had a stroke of good fortune when it found an oil rig to land on. The shorteared owl was spotted by staff on the Noble Patriot platform, 180 miles off the coast of Shetland. They made it a little home, and fed it raw chicken, then flew it back to shore in a helicopter and handed it to a wildlife centre. It was nursed back to health and has been released back into the wild. A British art historian believes he has identified the girl with the pearl earring – the subject of Johannes Vermeer’s celebrated 1665 painting. Andrew Graham-Dixon says that the artist painted it for his…

Controversy of the week The Chinese threat “It has all the makings of a gripping spy novel,” said Gaby Hinsliff in The Guardian. Two young men – one a parliamentary researcher, the other a teacher – are accused of passing secrets to China; but amid “swirling political intrigue” the case mysteriously collapses weeks before going to trial. The Government was forced last week to deny that it intervened in the case to appease China, after the Crown Prosecution Service accused it of failing to provide the necessary evidence to prosecute both men. The current government and the last one have blamed each other for failing to officially designate China a threat to national security – without which, it is argued, the case would have been thrown out. It’s ludicrous, said…

Reform UK, after eight of the 12 councils it runs indicated that they will raise council tax next year, having struggled to cut public spending by as much as they had expected. Some are expected to raise the tax by the maximum 5%. Good examples, with reports that parents have been banned from primary school sports events in south London, owing to a spate of “concerning” incidents. The Merton School Sport Partnership, which covers more than 40 schools, cited cases where parents had cut across finishing lines, impeding the runners, abused officials – some of whom were schoolchildren – and created a stressful environment, by focusing on “winning at all costs”.…

A survey of 2,295 members of “the establishment”, ranging from civil servants and academics to senior doctors, Army officers and judges, shows that 75% of them voted for Labour, the Lib Dems or the Greens in 2024 – compared with 54% of the general public. Twothirds of the establishment who revealed their views on Brexit said they voted to remain. 37% agreed that Britain should be ashamed of its imperial past, against 27% of the general public. Electoral Calculus/Find Out Now/The Daily Telegraph 27% of UK voters say they would vote Reform UK if an election were held tomorrow. 20% would vote Labour, 17% for the Tories, and 16% for the Lib Dems. The Greens recorded their highest-ever rating, of 13%. YouGov…

Richie’s middle-class roots Lionel Richie grew up in Alabama, on the campus of the Tuskegee Institute, a prestigious historically black university in a middle-class college town. The soul singer’s parents were high achievers, and they lived in an elegant house that had been given to the family by Booker T. Washington, the college’s founder. In this environment, he told Simon Hattenstone in The Guardian, “Failure was not an option … I grew up with these extremely bourgeois, aristocratic black folk.” He was eight when he was exposed to a very different side of America. On a trip to Montgomery with his father, he drank unwittingly from a whites-only fountain. A group of white men soon surrounded them and started tossing around the N-word. Richie recalls waiting for his father to…

An 82-year-old Chinese woman was hospitalised after swallowing eight live frogs in an attempt to ease her back pain. The pensioner from Hangzhou, referred to in reports only by her surname, Zhang, asked her family to catch the small frogs (reptiles and amphibians are sometimes used as cures in traditional Chinese medicine) then ate three immediately, and five the next day. Soon after, she began to develop abdominal pain. Doctors found that she had a parasitic infection. She was treated and discharged in two weeks. On Sunday, several hundred cyclists in varying states of undress circled the centre of Portland, Oregon, in protest at the Trump administration’s policies. It was an “emergency” edition of the city’s annual World Naked Bike Ride, which is usually held during the summer. Some people…

AUSTRIA Forcing parents to do their bit Der Standard (Vienna) Teachers aren’t miracle workers, says Lisa Nimmervoll. They can’t educate children if parents don’t pitch in as “reliable partners”. And increasingly in Austria, parents don’t. Where once they deferred to head teachers, now many shirk such obligations – either “out of laziness, disinterest, or religious or ideological stubbornness”. They skip parent-teacher meetings about their unruly child’s suspension; they refuse to send their failing child to compulsory summer school. For teachers, this lack of compliance is “exhausting”. That’s why the education minister, Christoph Wiederkehr, is proposing fines of up to €1,000 for parents who fail to cooperate with their kids’ schools. Quite right, too. The first step, of course, should be “incentives rather than sanctions”. Many parents no doubt want to…

In France, political crisis has “turned into farce”, said James C. Reynolds in The Independent. The prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu – who had been in power for less than four weeks, barely half of Liz Truss’s tenure – announced his resignation last Monday, only to be reappointed on the Friday. The deadlock stems from President Macron’s decision in June 2024 to dissolve the National Assembly and call a snap election, which produced a hung parliament – with no bloc able to command a majority, but dominated by the parties of the far-left (France Unbowed) and the far-right (Marine Le Pen’s National Rally). Without support, Macron’s governments have stumbled from one crisis to the next, as they have sought to make unpopular spending cuts designed to reduce France’s “spiralling” national debt…

The saying goes that if people are talking about a bubble, we’re probably already in one. Right now, people are shouting about an AI bubble – so should we be braced for a crash? Based on the typical indicators of a looming “correction”, there are certainly reasons to be fearful, said Jon Yeomans in The Times. The most obvious is the very high valuations of AI firms and the speed with which they’ve been reached. Take Nvidia, the chipmaker “at the vanguard of AI”. Up 40% this year, it’s now valued at $4.7trn – the GDP of Germany. Then there is the alarming concentration of risk. The ten biggest US stocks, eight of which are tech, account for about 20% of the global equity market. A third indicator is over-investment:…

Hull KR (aka the “Robins”) began the 2025 season as “rugby league’s great bridesmaids”, said Aaron Bower in The Guardian. “Without a major trophy in 40 years, and with a litany of failures at the final hurdle”, the Robins were the “nearly men” of a sport long dominated by the likes of Wigan Warriors, St Helens and Leeds Rhinos. But this season, their fortunes have dramatically revived. First, in June they beat Warrington Wolves to win the Challenge Cup. Then came victory in the League Leaders’ Shield in September. And last Saturday, they completed the treble as they won the sport’s premier fixture, the Super League Grand Final, with a 24-6 victory over Wigan Warriors. The Robins got off to a “nervy start”, and Wigan, who were hoping to win…

Diane Keaton 1946-2025 “Too tall and too ‘kooky’” – that was one casting director’s verdict on Diane Keaton in the late 1960s, said The Guardian. But when the actress, who has died aged 79, auditioned for the original stage production of the comedy Play It Again, Sam, its writer, Woody Allen, was transfixed. Keaton was, he recalled, “adorable, funny, totally original in style, real, fresh … One talks about a personality that lights up a room, she lit up a boulevard.” A few years later, he cast her in the film version – in the same year as she proved her dramatic skills with her “heartbreaking” performance as Kay, the wife of Al Pacino’s character Michael in The Godfather, a role she reprised in its sequels. But it was Allen’s…

Ceasefire in Gaza: a chance for peace The streets of Tel Aviv felt empty on Monday morning, said Roy Schwartz in The Guardian. “There was no need to ask where everyone was.” Thousands of people were packed into the plaza known now, and perhaps for ever more, as Hostage Square. Others were glued to their televisions at home, watching the joyous scenes as the 20 remaining living Israeli hostages were reunited with their families, after 738 days in captivity. There were parallel celebrations in Gaza and the West Bank as almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees were released on the same day as part of the ceasefire deal agreed last week. In Israel’s parliament, where he received a hero’s welcome, Donald Trump hailed what he called the “historic dawn in…

In a twist on the trend for “unboxing” consumer goods, Gen Zers are filming themselves peeling prickly horse chestnuts, and marvelling at the shape and shine of the conkers inside. They have dubbed conkers “nature’s Labubus” – after the ugly Chinese toys that come in unmarked boxes, so you don’t know which model you have bought until you unwrap it. For years, people have fulminated about trigger warnings. Now, a study has looked into how these affect people’s behaviour – and its conclusion is, not much at all. In 90% of cases, the participants ignored the warning of distressing content, with those who had experienced trauma no less likely to do so. Some said the trigger warning actually piqued their interest.…

The EU launched its new digital entry and exit system (EES) system last Sunday. This means that non-EU citizens visiting the Schengen free-travel area (covering 25 of the 27 EU states) will have to have their faces and fingerprints scanned at the border. Introduction of the system will be phased; it is scheduled to be fully in place by 10 April 2026. Coach and foot passengers leaving through the port of Dover already have to use the EES processing system. From November, this will apply to all port traffic at Dover. Some airports, such as Stuttgart and Rome Fiumicino, are already using the system.…

Paris Lecornu returns: France’s fifth prime minister in two years, Sébastien Lecornu, a loyal ally of President Macron, was reappointed as PM last week, a mere four days after having resigned from office (see page 20). He is faced with the challenge that brought down the two previous incumbents: to push through parliament an austerity budget designed to bring down France’s public debt (now almost 114% of GDP). Tasked with forming a new government, Lecornu has announced a new ministerial line-up, most of them centrist allies of Macron. Macron himself faces calls for his resignation: he and his PM appear to be gambling on the provisional backing of the Socialist Party (PS), without which Lecornu could not survive the confidence vote being called by the far-right National Rally. As the…

This week’s edition of Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs featured the musician Ronnie Wood 1 Guitar Shuffle, written and performed by Bill Big Broonzy 2 Shame, Shame, Shame, written and performed by Jimmy Reed 3* Smokestack Lightning, written and performed by Howlin’ Wolf 4 You Need Love by Willie Dixon, performed by Muddy Waters 5 Adelaide by Frank Loesser, performed by Frank Sinatra 6 Piano Concerto in C major, K467: II. Andante “Elvira Madigan” by Mozart, performed by Géza Anda and Camerata Academica des Salzburger Mozarteums 7 Roll Over Beethoven, written and performed by Chuck Berry 8 Maybe I’m Amazed, written and performed by Paul McCartney Book: Just for Today: Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts by Narcotics Anonymous Luxury: a chest containing art materials, and a carpet * Choice if allowed only one record…

Britain expects to spend £316bn on the social security system in 2025/26 – the equivalent of 10.6% of GDP, and 23.5% of total government spending. Of this, 55% goes to pensioners (£175bn), including £146bn on the state pension, while working-age people and children receive about £141bn. The largest individual benefit apart from pensions is universal credit (around £88bn last year); housing benefit costs about £35bn. Overall spending is forecast to reach around £378bn by the end of the decade, a large increase in cash terms, but only a marginal rise as a proportion of GDP. The UK’s welfare system is moderately generous by OECD rich-country standards as a proportion of GDP, though it’s well below the western European average. The UK state pension is relatively low against comparable nations, while…

The march of the Chinese robots Selina Xu and Helen Zhang The Washington Post Robot dogs. Humanoid helpers. Entirely automated factories that can operate in complete darkness to save energy. These things sound like science fiction, say Selina Xu and Helen Zhang, but “they are arriving full force in China as we speak”. While the US may still retain an edge in software, advanced AI chips and foundational research, China is far outpacing it in the realm of robotics. Last year, the country installed 295,000 robots in its factories, more than the rest of the world combined. More than half were produced domestically. The US, by contrast, installed just 34,200 robots, most of which it imported from Japan and Europe. Chinese companies such as BYD, CATL, DJI and Huawei have…

Sunbeds are contributing to so many cases of skin cancer, a group of cancer doctors and campaigners are calling for them to be banned. In an article in the BMJ, they urge ministers to order the closure of tanning salons across the country and, if necessary, to use public funds to compensate their owners. Melanoma is the most dangerous form of skin cancer, leading to some 2,700 deaths a year in the UK. Nearly nine in ten cases are caused by exposure to UV light, including from sunbeds. The article states that the use of sunbeds is booming, particularly among Gen Z, owing to them being promoted on social media as a key to wellness. A survey in 2024 found that 43% of respondents aged 18 to 25 used them,…

Kemi Badenoch faced two big challenges last week as she presided over her first party conference as Tory leader, said The Independent. One was to “save her faltering leadership”; the other was to earn a fair hearing for her party, which is still reeling from its resounding election defeat last year and languishing in third place in the polls. “On both counts, she acquitted herself well.” Her combative speech proved a hit with delegates and may also have resonated with voters. This was the Badenoch “we’ve waited too long to see”, said Tim Stanley in The Daily Telegraph. Relaxed yet authoritative, she set out the unapologetic case for a smaller state, sound public finances and robust immigration controls. Her speech – the best by any party leader during the conference…

“When anyone says to me, ‘Can you keep a secret?’ I say, ‘Why should I, if you can’t?’”Gore Vidal, quoted on BBC News “The way to judge really intelligent people is the speed with which they abandon their ideas when they are wrong.”Charlotte Auerbach, quoted in The Times “When a man tells a woman he will do something, he will do it. There’s no need to keep reminding him every six months.” Joke quoted on Medium “How do I work? I grope.”Albert Einstein, quoted in Forbes “Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.”Mark Twain, quoted in The Times “Thinking is to humans as swimming is to cats; they can do it but they’d prefer not to.”Daniel Kahneman, quoted in The Independent “In…

To The Times Some people have emphasised the junior status of the two men who were charged with spying for China, adding that their lack of access to classified material meant that the case against them was weak or questionable. This, though, is a red herring. The issue is not about their low-level direct threat to the realm, nor about the rhetorical and legal questions as to whether China is a threat to our national security, which we know full well it is. Rather, it appears to be about the political intervention to abandon a Crown Prosecution case almost certainly so as not to antagonise China in the pursuit of minor commercial and political advantage – and about the encouraging message it sends to Beijing about the confusion that still…

“Why is this RSC reinvention of Edmond Rostand’s muchrevived 1897 play so unusually enchanting,” asked Dominic Maxwell in The Times. Is it Adrian Lester, never better, as the large-nosed, “gilet-sporting, verse-spouting” soldier of the title, “handy in a duel, even handier with a turn of phrase”? Is it Susannah Fielding as his “ideal woman”, Roxane? Is it Simon Evans and the poet Debris Stevenson’s lively modern-language translation? Is it the humour, “which nestles this tragicomedy even at its saddest”? The truth is that nearly everything in Evans’s “huge-hearted production” is perfectly calibrated. Even the famous nose is nicely done: big enough for you to see why Cyrano, beneath the bravado, is deeply insecure – “but not so big that you spend time wondering how it stays on”. Lester is the…

The V&A is to open Britain’s first permanent museum display devoted to looted art, says David Sanderson in The Times. The Gilbert Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London will be revamped in the coming months to include a space focused on exploring Nazi and Soviet looting. Among the items on display will be a pair of 18th century silver monastery gates (pictured, detail) looted by the Soviets from Ukraine and later sold through Jewish dealers being “hounded” by Nazis. Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert were fashion entrepreneurs in London who moved to LA in the late 1940s and became property developers. They began collecting “beautiful things” in the 1970s, when many items looted in the 1930s and 1940s were moving through the art market. The Gilberts donated what…

Emma learns from George that a shank was found in his bed, and it might mean extra time in prison. Susan spots a rat in the shop, which has now relocated to St Stephen’s. Will, Emma and Amber are overjoyed when George calls to let them know he’s been found not guilty. Susan tells Chris that it would mean a lot to Emma if he went to George’s homecoming party, but Chris refuses, saying George will never be family to him. Jolene admits to Fallon that she feels dreadful about getting George involved in their troubles. Fallon agrees it wasn’t fair to ask him. Chris admits to Fallon that he’ll never love anyone the way he loved Alice, but he can never be with her again. Emma and Amber collect…

The General Tarleton Harrogate Road, Ferrensby, Knaresborough (01423-297050) The chef Tommy Banks owns a number of establishments in Yorkshire, as well as a brand of tinned wines, says William Sitwell in The Daily Telegraph. Now, with his business partners, he has renovated The General Tarleton, an eight-bedroomed pub not far from Harrogate that first opened in 1762. It’s clear right away that he “knows what he is doing”: the refit is “sympathetic”, and “there’s a distinct feel of professionalism among the staff”. And when I start “gleefully” raiding the menu, my delight only grows. Ham and chopped carrots prove an “appetising joy” – a dish of Yorkshire coppa and delicious brined vegetables. It’s followed by a “wellorchestrated”cheddar-cheese soufflé and “unimprovable” slow-cooked lamb shoulder, which sits on a circle of soft polenta…

● Becoming a grandparent changes your relationship with your adult children. Respect their autonomy as parents, and don’t presume you know better. ● Don’t try to compete with the other grandparents. Avoid comparison and celebrate difference. Make sure not to have favourite grandchildren or sets of grandchildren. ● Offer to help when you can, but be specific. Set realistic expectations and be clear. If you can’t help, be honest about it. ● Don’t try to parent the parents. Your job is to support, not steer. Parents set the rules. ● Grandchildren will remember how you made them feel. They will value your time and attention, not big days out or presents. ● Try to create a space that they’ll come to willingly. When they grow up and don’t want to…

Tony Harrison 1937-2025 In the mid-1980s, the poet Tony Harrison went to visit his parents’ graves in a workingclass area of Leeds, and found that the cemetery had been defaced by spray canwielding vandals. This inspired him to write V – a long poem meditating on the social divisions of that era. Standing, he said, for “all the versuses of life”, V imagines an expletive-laden conversation with the vandal, whose rage it seeks to understand. Partly a response to Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, it went unremarked outside literary circles when it was published in 1985. But when Channel 4 revealed in 1987 that it had filmed a reading of it for TV, with images of striking miners and Margaret Thatcher doing a Victory sign, all hell…

How to unpick the triple-lock pension Will Hutton The Observer Every party except Reform UK is committed to the triple-lock pension guarantee, says Will Hutton. It is needed to keep pensioners out of poverty, but the costs are very high. The state pension will pay out £146bn this year and is “set to increase by half in real terms within 50 years”. We should replace it altogether, with a “national investment superfund”: call it the British Pension Plan. If Britain could find £100bn and give it to an independent management board (as the Canadians have done) to run on commercial principles, it would lay the foundations of “a fiscally life-saving fund”. Assuming an average 7% annual return, it would take just two generations for investments to grow large enough to…

The week’s best shares AB Dynamics The Times The long-term fundamentals of this car-testing specialist look appealing. Margins are fatter and the order book has swelled. The recent sell-off on tariff fears presents an entry opportunity. Buy. £14.15. B&M European Value Retail Sharecast Berenberg has slashed the retailer’s target price from 590p to 450p after a profit warning. Yet analysts still rate B&M’s “strong foothold” in the discount sector – boosted by cost-cutting plans, promo strategy and refocused product ranges. Buy. 232.7p. Beauty Tech Group The Mail on Sunday This newly listed firm sells LED face masks, acne zappers and laser hair-removal tech. Competition is a worry, but target customers stretch across age groups, and the home beauty treatment market is growing fast. Buy. 276p. James Halstead Investors’ Chronicle Axed…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1487 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 27 October. Send it to The Week Crossword 1487, 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 What top wine experts are said to have in books? (4,7) 9 Rent trouble given by a twister (7) 10 Young birds and small seals spoken of (7) 11 Ineffective without power, hotel stops working (9) 12 Home help backed in the country (5) 13 One four-letter word and a second? (5) 15 Enchiladas…

Automation, with news that self-driving taxis are due to arrive in the UK next year. The vehicles, made by the Alphabet-owned firm Waymo, will appear on the streets of London within a few weeks, with human safety drivers behind the wheel; the company will then seek permission for fully driverless rides to start in the spring. Cristiano Ronaldo, who was named as football’s first billionaire. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates that, thanks to his platinum-plated deal with the Saudi team Al-Nassr, the former Manchester United player’s net worth now stands at £1.04bn. Ronaldo has signed a two-year extension to his tax-free contract with the Riyadh-based team, believed to be worth £300m. The Green Party, in England and Wales, which reported that its membership has exceeded 100,000 for the first time,…

Two government schemes aimed at cutting energy use by insulating homes were botched on a vast scale, the National Audit Office (NAO) has reported. As a result, tens of thousands of homes are in need of remedial work. The NAO found that two programmes, the Great British Insulation Scheme and ECO4, were seriously maladministered, leading to poor-quality installations and suspected fraud. Between 22,000 and 23,000 homes given external wall insulation (98% of the total), and up to 13,000 properties with internal wall insulation, are now in need of repairs.…

“While footballers like to say ‘It is what it is’, and corporate types are always rolling things out going forwards, politicians are also prone to adopting fashionable, meaningless filler words. A year or two back, in a direct import from America, ‘It has been the honour of my life’ was all the rage, usually when resigning after a scandal. In 2025, one favourite is saying ‘at pace’. Another is the preface ‘And let me be absolutely clear…’, as if some potent supernatural entity is pressurising the speaker to sound muddled and equivocal, and yet he (Keir Starmer, usually) is heroically resisting these forces of opacity and deserves huge credit for so doing.” Robert Crampton in The Times…

How welfare undermines human welfare Fraser Nelson The Times Could anything have been done to save him? That’s what three of my former classmates and I wondered as we travelled back from the funeral of a close school friend, says Fraser Nelson. One possibility struck us. Maybe if he’d been asked to seek help for his drinking as a condition for receiving continued welfare payments – maybe that might have saved him… and countless others. Every working day, 5,000 people are approved for sickness benefits (up from 2,000 under the Tories), and “alcoholism is one of the accepted reasons”. Money is issued but no help is offered. Where once we made an effort to bring such people back into the labour force, the state now effectively writes them off, knowing…

Altruism makes the rich happy It is said that money can’t buy happiness, says The Times; but a social psychologist who has spent the past 20 years studying this subject has concluded that it can – provided that you spend your money in the right way. Research conducted by Dr Elizabeth Dunn of the University of British Columbia has shown that to get the most satisfaction from a windfall, you need to spend it on experiences (a concert, a dinner out), rather than material things – or better still, give it away. For the most recent study, Dunn arranged for 200 people from seven countries to be given $10,000 each to spend over the next 12 weeks with just a few restrictions (such as not investing it in organised crime).…

Talking about books can be a minefield for politicians, says Hugo Rifkind in The Times. Kemi Badenoch caused outrage among Terry Pratchett fans recently when she named the late writer as her favourite author; Margaret Thatcher once claimed to be rereading Frederick Forsyth’s The Devil’s Alternative, which happened to feature a PM that bore a striking resemblance to… Margaret Thatcher. But both answers were still better than the one given by David Miliband in 2010, when he was running for leader of the Labour Party. Asked what book people should read for “pure pleasure”, Miliband panicked, and replied: “The Gruffalo.” Canadians have not all responded favourably to news that their former PM is now dating the pop star Katy Perry. Rumours of a romance had been swirling since Justin Trudeau…

The Soho Road in Handsworth has everything you could want, said Shazia Mirza in The Independent: West Indian bakeries; yams at the African food store; beauty parlours; jewellers; Asian supermarkets full of spices. Growing up in this inner-city area of Birmingham, I saw people of every culture and colour living side-by-side: I attended the local Roman Catholic school, despite being Muslim; my dad, Mohammed, was so keen to fit in that in the 1960s he called himself “Bob”, and still does. So I can vouch that the Conservative MP (and wannabe party leader) Robert Jenrick was “talking rubbish” when he claimed Handsworth is “one of the worst-integrated places” he has ever visited. “I didn’t see another white face,” the Newark MP complained back in March, in recently leaked comments made…

Of all the matches played by the home nations over the international break, there was only one that involved no “jeopardy”, said Jacob Steinberg in The Guardian. England travelled to Riga needing a victory over Latvia to confirm their place at next summer’s World Cup with two matches to spare. And at a “wet, chilly and deflated Daugava Stadium”, a victory is what they got. It took Thomas Tuchel’s men 26 minutes to “pick the lock”, with Anthony Gordon “scoring the goal his lively performance on the left flank deserved”. After that, goals came freely: Harry Kane netted twice before the interval, after which a Latvian own goal, plus a late strike from Eberechi Eze, gave the scoreline the feel of a rout. There was a time when qualifying for…

Darts Luke Littler, 18, beat Luke Humphries 6-1 to win the World Grand Prix – but was beaten the next day by Beau Greaves in the semifinal of the PDC World Youth Championship in Wigan. Cricket England beat Sri Lanka by 89 runs in the group stage of the Women’s World Cup, to make it three wins from three games. Their captain, Nat Sciver-Brunt, hit a run-a-ball 117. Football Chelsea maintained their position at the top of the Women’s Super League with a 1-0 victory over Tottenham. Manchester City, in second place, beat Liverpool 2-1.…

Stalingrad by Vasily Grossman, 1952, translated by Robert Chandler, 2019 (Vintage £14.99). Grossman is the 20th century’s Tolstoy, a genius whose Stalingrad is no less powerful than his later masterpiece, Life and Fate, but on a more intimate scale: a heroic struggle portrayed from the perspective of a wonderfully layered cast of characters. Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews, 2013 (Simon & Schuster £8.99). The first in a trilogy of spy novels that are rooted in the murderous underworld of Putin’s Foreign Intelligence Service. Red Sparrow is a “sexspionage” intelligence officer who is turned by her hatred of the system. In an intricate web of international intrigue and breath-suspending drama, the emotions are intense and the violence is gruesome. Written by a former CIA operative, it feels terrifyingly authentic. The Mayor of…

Programmes Dispatches: Will AI Take My Job? The Dispatches team pitch human professionals against machines to investigate the claim that millions of workers in the UK could lose their jobs to AI. Mon 20 Oct, C4 20:00 (60mins). The Secret Letters of Mary, Queen of Scots Documentary tracing the extraordinary story of three amateur codebreakers, who collaborated across continents to decipher coded letters from Mary, Queen of Scots. Mon 20 Oct, BBC2 21:00 (60mins). Leonard and Hungry Paul Julia Roberts so loved Rónán Hession’s comic novel, about two likeable thirtysomething men who still live with their parents, she agreed to narrate this six-part adaptation. Mon 20 Oct, BBC2 22:00 (30mins). In My Own Words: Frederick Forsyth The late novelist reflects on his extraordinary life in the first of a series of…

A base of crumbled Anzac biscuits forms a buttery, toasty foundation for this vegan custard tart, says Philip Khoury. If you can’t find Anzac biscuits, replace them with 250g oat biscuits and 50g desiccated coconut, pulsed in a food processor. The custard itself is a dream: velvety, rich and packed with the deep, complex notes of black treacle (molasses). When poured over the biscuit base and left to set, the result is effortlessly elegant yet deeply comforting. Makes one (23cm) tart 300g Anzac biscuits 80g coconut oil 550g plant-based milk (one) 200g muscovado sugar 1 tsp vanilla paste 70g cornflour 75g plant-based milk (two) ¼ tsp fine sea salt 70g coconut oil (deodorised) whipping cream to serve, lightly whipped • To make the biscuit base: blend the biscuits in a…

Neema Maison in a village on Santorini opened in July, with 16 suites blending contemporary design with traditional Greek architecture (from £220; domesresorts.com). A coastal retreat on the clifftops of Mawgan Porth, Cornwall, The Scarlet Hotel is an eco sanctuary focused on reconnecting with nature. There’s a holistic spa, hot tubs and a natural pool (from £235; scarlethotel.co.uk). Cape of Senses is set on a hillside terrace above Lake Garda, Italy, and has suites overlooking the lake and hills beyond. The spa has saunas and pools, plus yoga and meditation (from £416; capeofsenses.com). Immerse yourself in nature at VIVOOD, a sustainable hotel nestled in the wooded Guadalest Valley in Alicante, Spain, with architecturally impressive suites and a thermal spa (from £134; vivood.com). Nido by Mar-Bella Collection on Corfu has its own private beach…

The Netty Oxford Built in 1895, the gentlemen’s lavatories in the middle of St Giles – a central Oxford thoroughfare – closed in 2008, only to reopen recently as two self-contained, subterranean boutique hotel rooms, says Kathryn Bromwich in The Observer. They are spacious and have “impeccable” decor, with “luxuriant” fabrics and rich colours that lend a faintly Victorian air, with nods to the nearby Ashmolean Museum and Oxford Playhouse, including plaster casts and “theatrical” curtains. Glass blocks in the roof diffuse light into the rooms, and there are beautifully tiled en suites, “comfortable” beds, a keypad for access and a helpline for queries. Rooms from £170; thenetty.co.uk.…

Microsoft: Windows deadline On Tuesday, Microsoft took “the unprecedented step” of ending support for Windows 10, said Bloomberg. “Never before have so many active PCs been flung into the land of unsupported machinery.” Millions of people and thousands of companies, who have ignored the software giant’s advice to ditch still perfectly usable devices and upgrade to Windows 11, are now on their own. An estimated 25% of Windows workplace PCs are still running the old operating system. Some warn of potential catastrophe. “You may think of yourself as unimportant”, but your unprotected device could be taken over and used as a bot, said cyber-expert Dustin Childs of Trend Micro. He’s anticipating a wave of attacks “specific to Windows 10” in early 2026. This is a “milestone moment”, said Tom Warren…

“Gold on steroids” Traders often describe silver as such, said Leslie Hook in the FT, because its price “tends to swing more sharply” than gold in times of market stress. The latest “blistering rally” confirms as much. Years of low supply, rising industrial demand and appetite from investors, who see silver as “a proxy for gold”, have prompted a scramble. “There is a serious squeeze on,” said Randy Smallwood of Wheaton Precious Metals. Transatlantic cargo US tariff fears triggered a build-up of physical silver in New York – leaving the “linchpin” London market “broken”, said analyst Nicky Shiels of MKS Pamp. Some traders have now resorted to flying bullion across the Atlantic to the UK, in an effort to unlock the market. Short squeeze Shortages have been exacerbated by Indian…

Bad Bunny There are still four months to go until the Super Bowl, but tensions are already running high, said Inga Parkel in The Independent. The choice of Bad Bunny – the Puerto Rican rapper with a knack for winding up President Trump – to lead the half-time entertainment at America’s signature sporting event has left Maga supporters “outraged”. The late Charlie Kirk’s group Turning Point USA has pledged to “host an alternative show” celebrating “faith, family and freedom”. Bad Bunny (real name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio), who like all Puerto Ricans is a US citizen, sings almost exclusively in Spanish, said Mason Leib on ABC News. Turning Point, which is still considering its line-up, says it will consider “anything in English”. Some may wonder why the NFL, and event…