Table of contents for 1481 in The Week

What happened Four men appeared in a court in Moscow this week to face charges of perpetrating the attack on the city’s Crocus City Hall music venue last Friday, in which at least 137 people were killed. The worst terrorist attack in Russia for 20 years, it was claimed by Islamic State (IS). Video clips posted by IS online showed four men shooting indiscriminately into crowds of people attending a sold-out rock concert at the venue, in the suburbs of Moscow. The gunmen were heard exhorting one another to “kill them all” and “show no mercy”; at least one victim had their throat cut. The terrorists then set fire to the building. In court, the suspects – believed to be from the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan – showed clear…

Controversy of the week “One by one over the decades, American presidents have decided they’ve had enough of Bibi Netanyahu,” said Michael Hirsh on Politico. Joe Biden, who was once a personal friend of Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, has finally reached that point. After Hamas’s 7 October attacks, Biden initially gave his full backing to Israel, but he is now reportedly very concerned by the still-mounting death toll in Gaza, by Israel’s refusal to allow in enough aid (see page 7) and by its plans for a military push into Rafah, where 1.5 million Palestinians have sought refuge. Biden is facing “a serious rebellion” over Gaza from within his own Democratic Party, and in recent weeks he has launched an “unprecedented” campaign against Netanyahu and Israel’s hardliners. He has slapped…

Iceland, which revealed that sales of its hot cross buns had soared, owing to a social media furore over its decision to trial a limited edition of buns with ticks where crosses would normally be. It said consumer research had indicated that some people favour hot tick buns; but its decision to sell them in some stores was condemned by Christian groups and by MP Lee Anderson. Birdwatching, after an amateur photographer captured a “one in a million” white magpie, near the coast of Pembrokeshire. Terry Wright said he felt like the “luckiest man alive” after getting his shot of the bird, which has a condition called leucism, which means it lacks pigment in its feathers. He added that he felt a connection with it, as he has a pigmentation…

Dublin New PM: Simon Harris was confirmed as the new leader of Ireland’s centre-right Fine Gael party this week, putting the 37-year-old on course to become his country’s youngest-ever PM, or taoiseach. The only candidate to seek the leadership following the resignation of Leo Varadkar (see page 14), Harris will take office on 9 April, when the Dáil, Ireland’s parliament, reconvenes. The higher education minister had mounted what was described as a “blitzkrieg” campaign for endorsements from within the Fine Gael parliamentary party after Varadkar quit, leading potential rivals to rule themselves out. The son of a taxi driver and a special needs assistant, he was first elected to the Dáil in 2011 and has pledged to revert Fine Gael to its core values, such as backing farmers and cracking…

1 Monkey Gone to Heaven by Black Francis, performed by Pixies 2 Temple of Love by Andrew Eldritch, performed by The Sisters of Mercy 3 Apotheosis from the videogame Journey, written and performed by Austin Wintory 4 Cherub Rock (2011 Remix) by Billy Corgan, performed by The Smashing Pumpkins 5 Times Like These (from Radio 1 Stay Home Live Lounge) by Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel and Chris Shiflett, performed by Live Lounge Allstars 6 Sugar by Daron Malakian, Shavo Odadjian and Serj Tankian, performed by System of a Down 7* Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence by Ryuichi Sakamoto, performed by Phoebe Stevens for her Grade 3 piano recital 8 Coins for the Eyes by Johnny Flynn and Robert Macfarlane, performed by Johnny Flynn Book: Middlemarch by George Eliot Luxury: a kayak * Choice if allowed only one record…

Unlike many of China’s big car manufacturers, such as SAIC and FAW, BYD is not state owned. It was founded in 1995 by Wang Chuanfu, an academic metallurgist who grew up an orphan. The company started with rechargeable batteries. Wang visited a Motorola battery plant in South Korea and noted everything its robotic arms did; he then set up his own factory, using low-paid workers instead of robots to reduce prices. Within a decade, it became one of China’s – and the world’s – biggest battery producers. In 2003, BYD moved into cars, buying the carmaker Xian Qinchuan. In 2008, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway invested, buying up 10% of a firm then largely unknown in the West. Today, BYD is highly vertically integrated: it has its own battery, electronic and…

CHINA The danger of being unkind to billionaires France Inter (Paris) “It’s not easy being a billionaire in China,” says Pierre Haski. The Alibaba founder Jack Ma was once seen as a hero, feted for his business acumen and philanthropy. But then “he disappeared”, as they say in China, paying the penalty for criticising the regime’s financial policies – and his fortunes declined. Succeeding him as China’s richest man was Zhong Shanshan, whose Nongfu Spring mineral water brand has made him a vast fortune. But now, he too is under fire. Online nationalists have started a campaign accusing him of not being “patriotic enough”: his son has a US passport, they say, and a symbol on his bottle tops looks “too much like the Sun on the Japanese flag”. A…

So, The Guardian has achieved another coup, said Melanie McDonagh in the Evening Standard. Last week, Amelia Gentleman – the journalist who exposed the Windrush scandal – named 60 prominent members of the male-only Garrick Club, outing them in much the same spirit as one might out members of the English Defence League. Those found guilty of the crime of liking to socialise with other men in a grand building in central London include senior politicians (Michael Gove, Jacob Rees-Mogg), dozens of judges and KCs, a few A-list actors (Brian Cox, Benedict Cumberbatch) and a handful of leading figures from the arts world. That clubland is exclusive is hardly news; nevertheless, the report caused such a fuss that some men have felt obliged to resign from the Garrick. Civil Service…

Why is it that every time the England team prepare for a major football tournament, we make life difficult for ourselves by concocting some “self-sabotaging” controversy, asked Oliver Holt in the Daily Mail. Before the last World Cup, it was the row over rainbow armbands. Now the nation’s fury has been directed at the new kit, designed for the Euros and worn at last week’s friendly against Brazil. In what it billed as a “playful” design that “disrupts history with a modern take on a classic”, US brand Nike has turned the tiny St George’s Cross on the back of the collar from red on white into a melange of blues, purples and reds. Cue outrage. It “doesn’t need to be changed. We just need to be proud of it,”…

When Max Verstappen cruised to victory in the opening two races of the Formula 1 season, it appeared that this year’s championship would once again be utterly dominated by the Dutchman and his Red Bull team, said Molly Hudson in The Times. But Sunday’s Grand Prix in Australia suggested we may be in for a considerably more interesting year. Verstappen’s run of nine straight race victories came to an end when he was forced to retire after his brake exploded on lap five. As he clambered from his car, Verstappen “hit himself in the head, overcome with frustration and anger” as onlooking fans loudly cheered. Nor could his teammate, Sergio Pérez, manage a podium finish. Instead, the race was dominated by Ferrari, achieving their first one-two finish since 2022, with…

Ukraine: no easy answers To the Financial Times Martin Wolf is of course right that the West’s standing and credibility depend upon our helping Ukraine at least avoid total defeat by Russia. But, as their recent election has underlined, the Russians, for both nationalistic and regime-survival reasons, are much more intensely invested in this war than we are. We have regularly been assured that the arrival of our latest weapons on the battlefield would bring victory; and as regularly we have been disappointed. And even if further weapons do begin to make a difference, no one is now expecting that to happen before mid-2025 at the earliest. Meanwhile, the West’s international reputation will continue to crater as countries representing 80% of the world’s population see us as engaged in a…

by Robert P. Kolker and Nathan Abrams Faber 656pp £30 The Week Bookshop £23.99 “The passions, obsessions, habits, talents and fears that shaped the extraordinary movies of Stanley Kubrick were well chewed over in his lifetime,” said Lisa Schwarzbaum in The New York Times. Kubrick’s greatest works – including Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining and A Clockwork Orange – are still “vital” and “prescient” today. “But for Kubrick to be Kubrick took so much fussing on his part and scurrying on the part of others! He had his routines, his rituals, his ways of working”: the years of research, the many, many takes. For those who want all the detail, this new biography is “definitive”. The authors “do a fine job”, said Graham Daseler in the Literary…

The Future Is Female at The Garrison Chapel Staging an independent art exhibition in London is no easy feat these days. It’s difficult enough to find a venue, while the costs of transport, installation, and invigilation are considerable. Congratulations, then, to The Art Link, a group of like-minded artists who have come together to stage an impressive event at Chelsea’s Garrison Chapel. Subtitled A Celebration of Women in Sculpture, the exhibition takes a broad view of its chosen medium, featuring everything from traditional busts (notably the vorticist/Bloomsbury-informed creations of Brook Hobbins) to inventive multimedia displays (Charlotte Colbert’s fractured, multiscreen video installations). There are countless highlights: Ermina Avramidou’s approximations of materials from bubblegum to silk, fashioned from acrylic paint on PVC board; Jill Berelowitz’s pop-art body parts in different metals; and…

The Courtyard Dairy in Settle, North Yorkshire, sells lesser-known cheeses from small farms. Try the Irish sheep’s cheese Cais na Tire, or the Leeds Blue, made by a Sardinian in-county (thecourtyarddairy.co.uk). Cartmel, Cumbria, is home to chef Simon Rogan’s Michelin-starred empire. Cartmel Cheeses supplies his restaurants, and stocks some of Europe’s best cheese, including a 36-month aged comté and St James, a local sheep’s cheese (cartmelcheeses.co.uk). Award-winning Rennet & Rind in Stamford, Lincs, has an impressive range of British cheese, including its own complex, sweet, salty blue, The Duke (rennetandrind.co.uk). Head to George Mewes Cheese, Glasgow, to sample some of Europe’s finest cheese, such as the chalky Selles-sur-Cher or nutty Corra Linn (georgemewescheese.co.uk). Ty Caws, in Cardiff, is the place to try the award-winning Welsh Trefaldwyn Blue and Hafod cheddar,…

Hotel The Mitsui Kyoto, Japan This five-star hotel in Kyoto is located on the site where the Mitsui family of merchants-turned-industrialists lived from the late 1600s to the 1940s, says Rebecca Misner in Condé Nast Traveller. It then fell out of the family’s hands, but the Mitsui corporation bought it back in 2015, and built this 161-room hotel, which combines “design-forward” elements with sensitivity to the site’s history. But what makes it such a pleasure are the “cosseting touches” – from the neatly folded pyjamas that appear at turndown, to the sprawling underground spa, with its soaking pools. This place is a real “haven”. Doubles from about £800; hotelthemitsui.com.…

The AI boom: curb your enthusiasm Rana Foroohar Financial Times Even if you believe that AI will be today’s equivalent of electricity or the internet, “we are at the very early stages of a highly complex, multi-decade transformation that is by no means a done deal”, says Rana Foroohar. Yet the market is priced for perfection. A recent report noted that it would take 4,500 years for chipmaker Nvidia’s future dividends to equal its current price. “Talk about a long tail.” While Nvidia isn’t Pets.com – it has tangible, and huge, revenues – “the overall AI narrative depends on many uncertain assumptions”. Even industry insiders admit that profit estimates are based “more on speculation than substance”, and there are still “major kinks” in the tech. There are also big questions…

Who’s tipping what The week’s best shares Beeks Financial Cloud Group The Mail on Sunday This “homegrown” tech pioneer delivers cloud services to financial firms and stock exchanges to help boost trading speed and efficiency. Expecting an 80% profits surge to £4.1m, rising to £6m in 2025. Buy. 173p. Fidelity Special Values The Times Run by an experienced fund manager, this investment trust is seeking UK value from big companies, including Aviva and GSK, and smaller firms including the energy, healthcare and tech support services group DCC. Buy. 281.5p. Larsen & Toubro The Daily Telegraph L&T designs, engineers and manages projects: from power stations, to transport infrastructure in India, where the economy is booming. Also benefitting from a surge of Saudi energy contracts. Profits set to double. Buy. $43.30. L’Oréal…

What happened The Princess of Wales and her husband, Prince William, said they had been “enormously touched” by the public’s support following Catherine’s disclosure that she has cancer. Catherine revealed her diagnosis in a two-minute video in which she said that the cancer had been detected after she had undergone major abdominal surgery in January for a condition initially thought to be “non-cancerous”. The Princess, 42, said that she is receiving preventive chemotherapy, and requested privacy after “an incredibly tough couple of months” for her family. The video ended weeks of speculation about Catherine’s health, culminating in reports that three staff at the London Clinic, the private hospital where she had the surgery, were being investigated for allegedly trying to access her medical records. World leaders sent messages of support…

Britain and the United States have accused Beijing of launching a “prolific” campaign of cyberattacks targeting the personal information of politicians, academics, journalists and millions of voters. Ministers in the UK said that Chinese hackers had gained access to a “treasure trove” of personal information via an attack on the Electoral Commission in 2021; they also tried to spy on the email accounts of MPs critical of Beijing. Sanctions have been imposed on two Chinese nationals said to be members of APT31, a Wuhan-based hacking group, and on a company reported to be the group’s front organisation. The US has indicted seven Chinese nationals in relation to attacks dating as far back as 2010.…

Smartphones, with research showing that a majority of parents want them to be banned for under-16s. The poll of 2,496 parents in England, with at least one child between four and 18, found that 83% think smartphones are harmful, and 58% back a ban. North Northamptonshire Council, which was criticised for painting white road markings over the potholes in a local road instead of filling them in. A council official admitted the work was “shoddy” and said it would be rectified. Tenants, who are facing ever-rising rents. According to the ONS, the average rent paid in the UK rose by 9% in the year to February, the highest annual increase since records began in 2015. In England, the biggest rise was in London, where the average monthly rent is now…

Winnipeg, Canada Birth swap: Eddy Ambrose and Richard Beauvais, two 68-year-old Canadians who were mistakenly switched at birth and taken home by the other’s biological parents, have received a formal apology from the Manitoba provincial government. Ambrose grew up as a child of Ukrainian immigrants; Beauvais was raised as a Métis (an indigenous group of mixed native and European ancestry) but then removed from his family in a “Sixties Scoop”, the assimilation policy that forced indigenous children to be taken into care or adopted. But after Beauvais took a DNA test in 2020 to learn more about his heritage, the truth about the baby swap unfolded and he thereupon telephoned his fellow sufferer to explain their predicament. “Is that Eddy Ambrose?” was how he began the call. “I don’t think…

“Call it the banality of chaos. Over one five-day period in March, Donald Trump promised on day one of his presidency to let 6 January convicts out of jail, close the US-Mexico border and ‘drill baby drill’ for gas and oil. He did a U-turn on TikTok, saying its Chinese parent company should retain ownership. He mimicked Joe Biden’s stutter, and insisted that America’s true inflation rate was 50%. It seems almost trivial to note that new detail emerged about his apparent soft spot for Hitler. In 2018, Trump’s strategist Steve Bannon described his media tactics as ‘flooding the zone with shit’. The more bizarreness Trump generates, the less people notice.” Edward Luce in the Financial Times…

Can we teach ourselves to be happy? According to a study at the University of Bristol, there are exercises that seem to deliver a lasting boost to people’s well-being – providing they stick with them. Back in 2018, amid a rising student mental-health crisis, the university launched a ten-week happiness course for undergraduates. Participants looked at scientific research on happiness, and a range of “happiness hacks” – simple techniques that have been found to improve mood. Students reported feeling happier after the course; the study, involving 228 of them, was designed to see if this lasted. It found that after a year or two, those who’d persisted with the hacks still felt 10% to 15% happier; whereas the 50% or so who’d given them up had tended to revert to…

It’s vindication at last for the “Waspi” women, said Liz Hoggard in the Daily Mail. Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) is a campaign group battling for women born in the 1950s, who had expected to retire aged 60, but instead saw their state pension age shoot up to 65 – to bring it level with men – in the 2010s, before it was raised to 66 for all in 2020. The legislation had been passed back in 1995; but those concerned were not directly informed until far too late. Many had given up paid work before they found out. And now a “damning report”, following a five-year investigation by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, has recommended that the estimated 3.6 million women concerned should receive apologies and compensation.…

“God invented sex in order to place Man in embarrassing positions.”La Rochefoucauld, quoted in The Times “If you ain’t trying to cheat a little, you ain’t likely to win much.”Nascar champion Richard Petty, quoted on CraigMedred.news “To say nothing, especially when speaking, is half the art of diplomacy.”Will Durant, quoted in Golfweek “There’s a God-shaped hole in every human heart. If it doesn’t get filled with something noble and elevated, modern society will quickly pump it full of garbage.”Jonathan Haidt, quoted in The Guardian “A little credulity helps one on through life very smoothly.”Elizabeth Gaskell, quoted on The Knowledge “Marge, I swear to you, I never thought you’d find out.”Homer Simpson, quoted in The Times “Taste has no system and no proofs.”Susan Sontag, quoted in Forbes “People will forget what…

To The Spectator The lead article in last week’s edition is spot on. Assisted dying is a hugely contentious issue and if there are such strong views on both sides, surely we should err on the side of caution. One of the arguments in favour is the prevention of painful and undignified deaths. But there are better ways of dealing with pain than hastening the end. Improving care should be our priority. There is no need for anyone to die in pain and distress – we already have the means to prevent that. Legislating for assisted dying would, as the article says, lead to a degree of “mission creep”. What starts as an option becomes a suggestion, maybe progressing to an expectation. How close are we then to compulsion? John…

by Rita Bullwinkel Daunt Books 232pp £9.99 The Week Bookshop £7.99 “Make room, American fiction, for a meaningful new voice,” said Dwight Garner in The New York Times. This debut novel by Rita Bullwinkel – set in the world of young women’s boxing – is a work of impressive power. It tracks eight women taking part in a national 18-and-under championship in Reno: we follow them “fight by fight from the semi-finals on”. Bullwinkel’s descriptions of boxing are excellent – the sport emerges as a “pulverising sort of waltz” – but the “novel’s undertow of human feeling” is equally impressive. It pays “rapt attention” to “life’s bottom dogs, young women who are short on sophistication but long on motivation”. The premise may be simple, but Headshot really works, said Declan…

Lynda encourages Robert to find a new hobby. After noticing that Brian seems “perky”, Kate and Alice guess there might be a woman involved, and urge him to live his life. When Stella guesses that Hannah fancies Chris, they both sign up for the cricket team. Talking to Chris, Tracy suggests Lynda as chair of the club. Miranda and Brian go for their rearranged date; she reveals she bailed Justin out financially in the past. Robert tells Oliver he’s interested in the chair role. Justin approaches Stella about a new position on the BL board, but Brian objects; Stella will think about it. Justin asks Brian if he’s bringing anyone to the Grey Gables ball. There’s confusion as Lynda and Robert both make their cases to Harrison and Chris for…

Aubergine and yoghurt mezze Serves 4-6 2 large aubergines 4 garlic cloves, minced 1 tsp ground cumin ½ tsp ground coriander ¼ tsp cayenne pepper 4 tbsp tahini 4 tbsp Greek yoghurt juice of 1 lemon salt and black pepper extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling sprig of parsley, finely chopped 1 tbsp toasted walnuts ½ tsp sumac pitta breads or vegetable crudités, to serve • Preheat the oven to 220°C. Place the aubergine in a roasting pan and roast for 30-40 mins, until soft and charred. Transfer to a chopping board to cool for 10 mins. • Once cool enough to handle, peel away the skins (and discard along with stalks). Transfer the flesh to a colander to drain, pressing down with the back of a spoon to extract as…

Rose Dugdale 1941-2024 There were few indications from Rose Dugdale’s childhood of the life she would choose as an adult, said The Daily Telegraph. Brought up between a townhouse in London and a 600-acre farm in Devon, she attended Miss Ironside’s School for Girls in Kensington, was taught comportment in Paris and, aged 17, was presented to the Queen at Buckingham Palace. She described her childhood as “very happy”; former schoolfriends recalled her as lively and gregarious. But at some point, she started to turn against her privileged world and to embrace revolutionary socialism. In her 20s, she began giving away her money – and aged 31, she joined the Provisional IRA. She spent six years in jail for burglary, and, as an IRA bomb-maker, she was implicated in numerous…

The British public donated a record £13.9bn to charity last year, 9% more than in 2022. According to the Charities Aid Foundation report, threequarters of adults supported charities last year, whether by giving money or goods, sponsoring, volunteering or fundraising. The poorest parts of the country gave the most as a proportion of household income; but the rise in the total sum donated was driven by a million or so “super-givers”, who give far more than average. A veterinary lecturer from Midlothian has become the first woman to finish one of the world’s most gruelling ultramarathons. Jasmin Paris completed the Barkley Marathons race in Tennessee just one minute and 39 seconds before its 60-hour cut-off. Known as the “race that eats its young”, it requires contestants to cover 100 miles…

The UKRI, a government research funding body, is giving a team at Edinburgh University around £800,000 to conduct a review of “colonial stereotypes” in the works of Robert Louis Stevenson. The project will consider the relevance of his writing to contemporary readers in Samoa, Scotland and Hawaii, and generate “art and poetry” inspired by three of his short stories. People in England live in more cramped homes than residents of New York City, a think-tank has found. The average person in England has just 38sq m of floor space, compared to 43sq m in New York, and 66sq m in the US as a whole. France has 43sq m, Germany 46sq m and Japan, 40sq m, says the Resolution Foundation. England’s housing stock is also the oldest in Europe.…

If a general election were held tomorrow, 15% of adults in Great Britain say they’d vote for Reform UK, 19% for the Conservatives and 44% for Labour. Among those who voted Conservative in 2019, 32% would now vote for Reform. YouGov/Daily Mail A poll carried out for Times Radio has revealed that 47% of adults are aware of the Labour frontbencher Fiona Wilson – even though she doesn’t exist. 15% have a favourable view of her. Labour’s lead over the Tories would rise to 24 points if Kemi Badenoch or Suella Braverman became party leader. With James Cleverly at the helm, Labour’s lead would rise to 21 points. With Penny Mordaunt in charge, it would fall to 15 points. Opinium/The Guardian…

Harman on Westminster Harriet Harman was heavily pregnant when she became an MP as a result of a by-election in 1982. She had meant to have her baby before entering the Commons, but, she says, there was a “bold” mood then in the Labour women’s movement, so she pressed ahead. “I knew everyone was thinking: this is mad, and I was also thinking that sometimes,” she told Rachel Cooke in The Observer. “I remember the prickly pregnancy heat under my red velvet maternity dress, and feeling so out of place, male MPs banked up on every side. When I used to go through the division lobbies, I was the only woman. But the whole project was to change things!” Forty years on, things have changed hugely for the better for…

With November’s election looming, President Biden has a big problem on his hands, said Russell Contreras on Axios: his party is losing black and Hispanic voters. These voters have long been “one of the most loyal parts of the Democratic coalition”, but that’s rapidly changing. A recent New York Times poll found that non-white Americans, who backed Biden by a margin of nearly 50 percentage points in 2020, now favour him over Donald Trump by just 12 points – 56% to 44%. Among Hispanic voters, Trump now actually leads, by 46% to 40%. In Gallup polling, the share of Latinos who consider themselves Democrats dropped from 57% to 47% between 2020 and 2023. It’s a worrying trend for Democrats, who until recently had reason to believe that the swelling ranks…

Is fasting dangerous? A lot of people swear by intermittent fasting as a weight-loss technique; it’s also been said to reduce blood pressure. But a new study by Chinese researchers has found that it may damage the heart. The team’s eight-year survey of 20,000 American adults revealed that those who’d followed a time-restricted eating plan, in which they ate only within an eight-hour period each day, were 91% more likely to die from cardiovascular disease than those whose meals were spread across the more normal 12 to 16 hours. The researchers said they’d been surprised by their findings, as they presented the abstract of the study at a conference in Chicago. Other experts cautioned against drawing conclusions from preliminary data: they noted, for instance, that the fasters may have been…

John Cooper Clarke made his name in the 1970s as a “punk poet” who’d warm up for the likes of The Clash and the Sex Pistols. Now, however, the “bard of Salford” is finding inspiration in the corporate world. As the “(Under)Writer in Residence” for insurance giant Hiscox, he has written five poems about some of the company’s odder claims. One, about a damaged laptop, contains the line: “Hiscox responded with admirable haste / And instantly the machine replaced”. Insurance might seem like a “mundane realm”, he says, but it’s actually “a rich tapestry of human chaos”. Gillian Anderson has played a string of clever women, from Dana Scully in The X-Files to Emily Maitlis in the new Netflix drama about the Prince Andrew interview. And she thinks she has…

“It is now fashionable to appreciate Labour’s shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, for all the wondrous things she is not,” said Matthew Parris in The Times. “She’s not mad, not stupid, not lazy. She’s not nasty, not on the loony Left.” Even so, one might expect the person who will likely be running our economy within months to offer a clear outline of her policies. And the prestigious Mais lecture in the City of London, which she gave last week, would have been a good time to do so. But in the event, the lights dimmed, the drums rolled and the curtain rose “to reveal… nothing”: a “shapeless wordfest” that left her audience “none the wiser”. The speech offered an “admirably fluent” analysis of Britain’s economic woes, said The Guardian. She…

England have always hated playing Brazil, said David Hytner in The Guardian: their record against them – four victories in 27 matches – is worse than against any other country. Yet if ever a match was “meant to be different”, it was Saturday’s friendly at Wembley. Brazil appeared a side “in crisis” – having lost three World Cup qualifiers in a row – whereas England had won eight of their previous ten games. So it seemed like the ideal opportunity for England to “fine-tune for the European Championship”. Sadly, it didn’t work out that way, said Oliver Holt in The Mail on Sunday. “The kings of The Beautiful Game proved annoyingly reluctant to cede what is left of their reputation to an England side that has been touted as a…

Darts Noa-Lynn van Leuven became the first transgender player to win a PDC Women’s Series event – days after also winning a Challenge Tour title in a mixed field with men. Football Chelsea returned to the top of the WSL by beating West Ham 2-0. Manchester City are second. Rallying Four people were killed at a race in northwest Hungary when a car veered off the track and crashed into a group of spectators. Cricket The England women’s cricket team lost the third Twenty20 match against New Zealand by three runs.…

Running time: 2hrs 50mins Shelagh Delaney’s unflinching debut – which she wrote when she was still in her teens – was a “real jolt to the system” when it premiered at The Theatre Royal, Stratford, in 1958, said Chris Bartlett in The Stage. It tells the story of Jo, a white teenager from Salford who has a troubled relationship with her alcoholic mother, is left pregnant as a result of an affair with a black sailor, and befriends a gay artist, with whom she forms an unconventional family. Written nine years before homosexual acts were decriminalised, it “opened theatregoers’ eyes to a hitherto unexplored side of British society”. There is a risk that a “kitchen-sink” drama of that era will no longer seem “vital and relevant” to modern audiences. But…

Miss Marjoribanks by Margaret Oliphant, 1866 (Penguin £10.99). Some days it feels like my life’s mission to help enshrine Mrs Oliphant in her rightful place as one of the greatest Victorian writers. She wrote many wonderful books, but this one, about a young woman’s successful campaign to revolutionise her town, is a great place to start. It is so funny, witty, and wise in unexpected ways, that no one who reads it will want to stop there. Ayala’s Angel by Anthony Trollope, 1881 (available used). I greatly admire Trollope, who comes closest to tracking in prose the slow but haphazard and never uninteresting movements of life in human society. This is a late novel full of comedy, romance and delight: it’s ostensibly leading up to one marriage, but ends with…

Programmes Hindenburg: The Cover-Up Documentary exploring new theories about the demise of the airship, and a possible cover-up with links to the Nazi party. Sat 30 Mar, C4 19:30 (90mins). Mammals David Attenborough presents this new six-part series, starting with a look at nocturnal mammals, including bats – the only mammals able to fly – and hyenas. Sun 31 Mar, BBC1 19:00 (60mins). Stonehenge: The Discovery with Dan Snow The historian delves into centuries of investigation into the construction of the ancient monument. Sun 31 Mar, C5 21:00 (85mins). This Town Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight returns to Birmingham for a new family drama set in 1981. Sun 31 Mar and Mon 1 Apr, BBC1 21:00 (60mins each). Tish Photographer Tish Murtha, who died in 2013, documented the lives of marginalised…

Lambrusco, which has been made in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna since Etruscan times, has “become a laughing stock” in recent years, says Xanthe Clay in The Daily Telegraph. It is now widely seen as “cheap sweet fizz, the WKD of wines”. Yet lambrusco has a venerable history, and at its best it is delicious. Fortunately, a new generation of producers has emerged, and they’re bent on restoring its reputation. One member of this new community is Alessandro Medici, a 28-year-old with “brooding good looks” who, with his father Alberto, runs VentiVenti wines, just north of Modena. Like other young lambrusco makers, Medici eschews the “cheap and reliable” Charmat method, which is used to make most lambrusco (and most prosecco) these days. Instead, he has gone back to an…

● Before setting boundaries, engage with your children about gaming and play with them. Keep consoles out of the bedroom. ● Make gaming time contingent on good behaviour, but get children on board with this by asking them what they think they should have to do before being allowed to game, and what consequences there should be if they don’t do these things. ●But remember, you are the boss. Set clear rules about which games are allowed, and when gaming is allowed and for how long – and then enforce them consistently, using parental controls if you like. ● Create alternatives to gaming, and also arrange playdates with gaming friends. ● If they use a headset, listen in every so often to check the nature of the chat. ● The…

Shigeichi Negishi 1923-2024 Shigeichi Negishi, who has died aged 100, was widely regarded as the creator of the first karaoke machine, in the late 1960s, said CNN. Like many Japanese men, he enjoyed singing – and would often croon along to a popular singalong radio show. But one day, a colleague told him that he was not as tuneful as he thought, and he realised that it would be helpful if he could hear himself singing over the backing track. The company he owned manufactured in-car stereos, so he asked one of the engineers at his factory near Tokyo if it would be possible to hook up a microphone to a tape deck. “Easy,” he was told. Three days later, a prototype landed on his desk. According to the book…

Talk about “a pop” for Reddit. Shares in the “fringe” social media company, “dominated by esoteric memes, sardonic humour and gamers”, soared on its debut in New York – closing 48% above its IPO price to reach a value of $9.5bn, said the Financial Times. Traders hope that the float could galvanise the long-dormant IPO market. But many are “already feeling stomach-churning volatility”, said TradingView.com. In early trading on Monday, the stock slid by 9% as investors “revisited their bets in a more sober state of mind”. Reddit is indeed “a fun and crazy place”, to quote CEO Steve Huffman. But it has “never turned a profit in its 19-year existence”.…

“A hotel is not just a building, it is a refuge for the weary travellers,” wrote Emily J. Taylor in her New York Times bestseller Hotel Magnifique. What an apt quote for London’s beleaguered property developers, said Laura McGuire in City AM. A new hotel boom in the capital is “offering a lifeline” to the “downtrodden commercial property market”. According to data from CoStar, “over a quarter of office sales made in the year to March” have been to buyers looking “to turn buildings into hotels”. A number of high-profile deals have highlighted the trend. Last December, a property tycoon bought Haymarket House in Soho, with plans to convert the upper floors into a £400m hotel. More recently, the iconic Cold War-era BT Tower was sold to the US giant…

Sir James Dyson It’s been a bruising few months for the Brexiteer vacuum tycoon, said the Daily Express. Fresh from losing a high court libel battle against Mirror Group Newspapers, he appears to have come off worst in a “fiery” showdown with the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt – “If you think you could do a better job, why don’t you just stand for election,” Hunt reportedly told Dyson, in what sources describe as “an awful meeting” set up to discuss R&D tax relief. A vocal critic of the UK’s growth record, Sir James, 76, claims to have invested £1.7bn in Britain in the past five years, said The Daily Telegraph. When Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng were in charge, “I was hopeful… I thought they were doing the right thing,” he…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1407 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 April. Send it to The Week Crossword 1407, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London W2 6JR, or email the completed grid/listed solutions to crossword@theweek.co.uk. Tim Moorey (timmoorey.com) This week’s winner will receive Week-branded items including a notebook, coffee mug and tote bag, as well as two Connell Guides (connellguides.com). ACROSS 9 Lacking energy, altogether somehow rather slow (9) 10 A legal action cut short in central courts (5) 11 Ask earnestly for British cheese variety (7) 13 One aquatic bird pecked another (7) 14 Show of modesty is often replaced with flamboyance (4-11) 16 Oriental dead withdrawn…