Table of contents for 1502 in The Week

What happened Labour came under fire from its critics last week after it agreed a 14% pay deal with the train drivers’ union Aslef to end nationwide walkouts – only for the union, the next day, to announce a fresh round of strikes in a separate dispute. The latter industrial action will involve train drivers on the East Coast Mainline walking out every weekend from the end of August until 10 November, over alleged bullying and deal-breaking by management. Last Friday, another union, the PCS, also announced a four-day strike by Border Force officers at Heathrow airport between 31 August and 3 September, in a row over staff rostering. The fresh strikes – which come in the wake of the Government offering a 22% pay increase over two years to…

Somerset House, home to the Courtauld Gallery and other institutions, where there was a large fire. London Fire Brigade said 125 firefighters helped to bring the blaze under control by 7pm last Saturday. No paintings were damaged. A worker at Belfast zoo, who was locked in a lion enclosure, prompting the city council to open an investigation. Two workers entered the enclosure while the lions were in their den. One of them, believed to be the more experienced of the pair, left the enclosure and locked it, leaving the lions free to roam and a colleague trapped inside. The man was later released safely. Shetland’s new spaceport, where a rocket exploded on Monday. The blast occurred during a test by Rocket Factory Augsburg, which said it would soon return to…

92% of Muslims say they feel less safe living in the UK following the recent riots across the country. 80% feel that Islamophobia has increased a lot over the past five years. The poll was conducted on 5 and 6 August. Muslim Census/The Independent The age at which voters are more likely to be a Tory than a Labour voter is now 63, according to an analysis by YouGov of last month’s election result. In 2017, the crossover age from Labour to Tory was 47. 62% of Britons say they put jam on their scones before adding cream (the Cornish method). 28% prefer Devon’s method, of putting cream on first, followed by the jam. YouGov/The Daily Telegraph…

Sven looks back Not long after Sven-Göran Eriksson was appointed England manager, he met Tony Blair in Downing Street. The then PM welcomed Eriksson to the country, and proposed a bet. “Who’s going to keep the job longest – you or me?” Blair said. “Because Sven, they are both impossible jobs and we will be sacked sooner or later, both of us.” In the end, Blair won: Eriksson was sacked in 2006, one year before Blair himself got the boot. Today, says Simon Hattenstone in The Guardian, Eriksson has pancreatic cancer and is seeing out the end of his life at home in Sweden; but his passion for football remains undimmed. Looking back over his time as England manager, his biggest challenge was never actually the football – he loved…

On top of his two assault convictions, in 2013 Robinson was jailed for ten months for travelling to the US on another man’s passport. The following year, he was sentenced to 18 months for mortgage fraud. In 2017, he was convicted of contempt of court: he had recorded a report outside a trial in Canterbury Crown Court, in which he described the defendants – before the verdict was reached – as “Muslim child rapists”. He was given a suspended sentence, which became a nine-month jail sentence after he reported live outside Leeds Crown Court during a similar trial; he not only once again broadcast prejudicial comments, but also confronted the defendants, risking the trial’s collapse. In July 2021, Robinson was ordered to pay £100,000 in damages for libelling Jamal Hijazi,…

Washington versus Silicon Valley Eduardo Porter The Washington Post A sense of “mutual enmity and suspicion” is growing between Silicon Valley and Washington, says Eduardo Porter. Their latest “cause for outrage” was the decision by a federal judge that Google is a “monopolist” that abuses its market power. But it’s only the latest in a long list. AI firms are upset about White House efforts to rein in powerful models that could affect national security; crypto entrepreneurs are cross about moves to regulate digital tokens; Facebook and other social media firms resent the pressure to make their sites safer for children and less politically divisive. Some leading figures are even cutting their long-standing ties with the Democrats. The venture capitalist Ben Horowitz recently likened the party’s policies to those of…

A Tory minister once claimed, half in jest, that the UK was “entirely run by a lady called Sue Gray”, said Damian Whitworth in The Times. That was when Gray was in the Cabinet Office, where she built a reputation under both Labour and Tory governments as a “fixer of problems”. It was she who investigated Andrew Mitchell over the Plebgate affair, and who “reportedly stepped in to save the day when the planning for Margaret Thatcher’s funeral turned out to be inadequate”. She’s now serving as Keir Starmer’s chief of staff – a role in which she stands accused of wielding rather too much power. There are claims of tension between her and Morgan McSweeney, the Labour leader’s head of political strategy, who has reportedly twice had his desk…

“Wars are not won by fighting battles; wars are won by choosing battles.”George Patton, quoted on Risk.nets “How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then rest afterwards.”Spanish proverb, quoted in The Knowledge “To leave the world better than you found it, sometimes you have to pick up other people’s trash.”Bill Nye, quoted in Good Housekeeping “When it comes to my sexuality I don’t like to be pigeonholed, although I am up for everything else.”Philip Henderson, quoted in The Daily Telegraph “I took out a loan to pay for an exorcism. If I don’t pay it back, I’m going to get repossessed.”Olaf Falafel, quoted in The Guardian “You know I’m no art critic, but I know what I hate.”Monty Burns from The Simpsons, quoted in The Spectator “Feminism is the…

To the Financial Times Mujtaba Rahman starts his characteristically perceptive article on EU-UK relations by stating “how much the bloc needs to rethink its approach”. But just because the UK now has a sensible and pragmatic Prime Minister does not mean that the mistrust and insults of the past eight years can be magically brushed away. Britain still has some way to go to demonstrate that it has become a reliable partner. The Conservative Party remains the principal party of opposition, and shows no sign of converting to a pro-EU position any time soon. And the EU is not convinced that the political class as a whole understands and shares the basic values of the European project. Until a cross-party majority emerges in favour of closer ties, the EU will…

by Halle Butler Weidenfeld & Nicolson 336pp £20 The Week Bookshop £15.99 Halle Butler made her name writing novels about the precarious lives of millennials, said Caleb Klaces in The Guardian. Her latest book follows a similar pattern. It’s about a thirtysomething woman called Moddie, who, following a break-up, leaves her “potentially fulfilling” job at an arts charity in Chicago and moves back to the “university town where she grew up”. There, she reconnects with old friends, gets awkwardly drunk at social gatherings, and dwells on her failed relationship and her feeling of having achieved little in life. Yes, this is the latest “sad girl” novel, said Robbie Millen in The Times. Popularised by the likes of Ottessa Moshfegh and Naoise Dolan, it’s a genre that by now feels somewhat…

Emma and Will disagree about George’s idea to frame Harry for the crash. When Kate calls by, George blurts out the lie and ends up changing his statement; later, he’s dismayed to learn that Harry has an alibi. Alice is doing well at work, but Justin is cagey about her involvement in the Stables event. Kate has an idea for Alice to undergo regression therapy to try and recall the crash. Lily and Ben try to cheer up Paul with a night out; Paul gets blotto, but the man he’s brought home is unpleasant when Lily asks him to leave. Alice confronts Justin; he insists Carlotta will remain the Stables’ manager until after the court case. Paul apologises to Lily and Ben for his recent moods, and makes an effort…

These wontons can be enjoyed as a snack or starter, they also make a fantastic topping for noodle soups or even instant ramen, says Uyen Luu. I always save uncooked ones for the freezer, then steam them from frozen for ten minutes. I love to fold them with a friend, and a cup of tea, so we can have a good catch-up. Makes 30 wontons 150g minced pork 200g peeled raw king prawns, finely chopped 100g tinned water chestnuts, finely chopped 2 spring onions, thinly sliced 2 tbsp frozen edamame beans, defrosted 2 tbsp oyster sauce pinch of sea salt 1 tsp caster sugar ½ tsp freshly ground white pepper ½ tbsp cornflour 200g square wonton wrappers (about 10cm/4in) 2 tsp sesame oil, plus extra for drizzling 10g garlic chives…

A “nifty” tool, Reno asks detailed questions and creates an easy-to-use floorplan with both bird’s eye and elevation views. You can add paint colours at the click of a button (from £60 a year; renovatewithreno.co.uk). Give Peek Home all the relevant details of your project, and in three days it sends back full, slick, 3D plans, with walk-through videos (from £249/drawing; peekhome.co.uk). Resi allows you to see what neighbours have done to extend their homes, and thus what you’re likely to get permission for. Useful for initial planning for extensions, it gives an accurate estimate of cost and value, plus remortgaging advice (free; resi.co.uk). Simply scan your room, and Live Home 3D creates very detailed 3D drawings instantly, using a laser for accurate measurements ($50 for a lifetime licence; livehome3d.com).…

The Cavendish Hotel Baslow, Derbyshire The sixth Duke of Devonshire won this country inn at cards in 1830, says Claire Wrathall in the FT. A 20-minute walk from Chatsworth House in the Peak District, it has just been revamped with the keen involvement of William and Laura Burlington, the heirs to the dukedom. The designer Nicola Harding has brought a lively new look to the rooms (jaunty striped fabrics, antique furniture, chunky modern lamps). The two restaurants offer “highly accomplished” cooking using local ingredients. And there’s lots of lovely art on the walls, much of it modern or contemporary – the Burlingtons are also “avid” collectors of ceramics. Doubles from £200 b&b; cavendishhotelbaslow.co.uk.…

Barratt/Redrow: builders’ brew Screw the regulator, seems to be the attitude at builder Barratt, which has vowed to press ahead with its £2.5bn merger with rival Redrow, despite concerns from the Competition and Markets Authority, said Bethany Wales on City AM. The deal, which would create “the UK’s largest house-building firm”, has been under investigation over concerns that it could “significantly reduce competition”. The CMA zeroed in on Whitchurch, Shropshire, where both firms have developments, and where the acquisition might lead to reduced competition. Barratt is proceeding anyway, said Daniel Binns on Sky News, arguing that Whitchurch is “only one of the more than 400 local areas where the two companies overlap”, and that the CMA found no problems elsewhere. Moreover, sealing the deal would accelerate the “delivery of homes…

Prepare for a “ghoulish Budget” David Smith The Sunday Times Who would have guessed it, asked David Smith. The latest figures show that Britain is growing at an annualised rate of “comfortably more than 2.5%”, which is very good by recent standards. Still, don’t expect the Government to be “putting out bunting and popping champagne corks”. Celebrating the figures sits uneasily alongside the narrative that it faces “the worst economic inheritance since the Second World War”. While certainly true from a fiscal perspective, the broader economy looks in good fettle, even if growth hasn’t yet “made much of a dent” in the fundamental problem of poor productivity. Even so, “business remains cautious”. Dig beneath the GDP figures and you find that business investment was 0.1% lower in the last quarter…

What happened Fierce fighting continued in Russia’s Kursk border region this week, as Ukrainian forces attempted to seize more territory. President Zelensky said Ukraine had taken 1,250sq km of Russian land since launching its counteroffensive on 6 August; he hopes to establish a “buffer zone” to halt Moscow’s cross-border attacks. On Monday, Ukrainian forces blew up a third bridge on the Seym River in Kursk, in a bid to cut off Russian troops and supply lines. But elsewhere, in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, Russian forces advanced on the strategic city of Pokrovsk. They also shot down at least 11 drones over Moscow, in one of the biggest Ukrainian drone barrages of the war. British Challenger 2 tanks were reportedly used in Ukraine’s Kursk offensive – the first time they have…

Social media is abuzz with a new trend: being “demure”. The term was popularised by the US TikToker Jools Lebron, who said that she aims for a “very demure, very mindful” look at work. Celebrities to have jumped on the demure bandwagon include Jennifer Lopez, Edward Enninful and Jenna Ortega. “Demure is nibbling rather than eating,” explains The Times. “Sipping rather than drinking. Small inaudible gasps instead of heavy breathing.” Librarians in Wales have been urged to avoid holding training sessions in venues that have a “racist” past, wherever possible. The instructions appear in a document drawn up to ensure that the sector complies with Welsh Labour’s commitment to “eradicate” systemic racism.…

Pupils this year achieved record numbers of top A-level grades, outside of the pandemic. The share of A*s and As rose to 27.8%, up from 27.2% last year, meaning that almost one in ten A levels were awarded an A*. Maths remained the most popular A level for the 11th consecutive year, and further maths was the subject that registered the biggest rise in enrolment. London was the highest-performing region, with 31.3% of all grades marked A* or A; in the East Midlands, the lowest-performing region, it was 22.5%. It was a good year to apply to university: 82% of pupils were accepted by their top choice.…

Paris New talks: The hard-left France Unbowed party threatened to impeach Emmanuel Macron (left) this week for failing to appoint its candidate as prime minster. Macron has rejected the 37-year-old economist Lucie Castets, put forward by the left-wing coalition New Popular Front (NFP) – which won the most seats in parliamentary elections six weeks ago, but does not have a majority. Analysts say that the president hopes to forge a majority through a coalition between his own centrist party and the moderate partner in the NFP – the Socialists – but splitting them off from France Unbowed will be a tough task. Paris Boxer’s lawsuit: J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk have been named in a cyberbullying lawsuit filed by Imane Khelif, the Algerian boxer at the centre of a gender-based…

“Is it just me, or do most events go on a bit too long? Or, as in the case of the Olympics closing ceremony, a lot too long. The last World Cup lasted nearly a month. I don’t think I’ve ever come out of a church service, a theatre, or a concert venue, and said: ‘You know what, I’d like that to have gone on a bit longer.’ I don’t think I’m the only one who feels this way – I’m just unbothered about being thought a philistine. I’d like to conduct lie detector tests on punters filing out of the Royal Opera House. Were you in any sense thankful when the curtain came down? Did you want more? If you answer no and yes then your pants are on…

Back the Neets to rebuild Britain James Kirkup The Times If you think the university application process is tricky to navigate, think what it’s like for teenagers not going on to higher education, says James Kirkup. They face an even more confusing maze of “patchy vocational courses, scarce traineeships, low-wage jobs and hen’s-teeth apprenticeships”. Unsurprisingly, many get lost and end up as “Neets” – not in employment, education or training. There are 900,000 16- to 24-year-olds in this bracket today, which is crazy at a time when the construction industry says it urgently requires 250,000 workers. We need a more coordinated system. Some English mayors are trying – Andy Burnham’s Greater Manchester Baccalaureate offers teens vocational training in skills that local businesses need. The Dutch make local authorities work with…

When Queen Elizabeth II died in 2022, tributes soon flooded in, from world leaders and rock’n’roll rebels alike. Britain’s drug dealers also marked her passing in their own special way, says Craig Brown in his new biography. “Are you feeling upset or feeling down with the sad news about the Queen’s death? Then don’t hesitate to contact me, I’m about till 1am!” one dealer texted his customers. He then offered: “In Tribute To The Queen Who Was 96 Years Old At Her Time Of Passing, I Will Reduce The Price Of IG Bolivian Flake to £96 Tomorrow And Saturday Guys!” Mark Zuckerberg has paid homage to his wife Priscilla Chan by commissioning a striking sculpture of her. The Meta founder shared a photo of the artwork on Instagram with the…

Ahead of Chelsea’s season opener against Manchester City on Sunday, fans inside Stamford Bridge were treated to a fireworks display, said Alyson Rudd in The Times. It merely “served to add unnecessary swelter” on an already hot afternoon. And there was something similarly “illogical” about the display of football that followed, at least from the home team. Chelsea have a new manager this season – the Italian Enzo Maresca, who joined from Leicester City – and their “bloated and young squad” has been further swollen by several expensive summer signings. Yet on the pitch against City, who are seeking a fifth consecutive title, the Blues “simply did not know how to impose themselves”. City were lacking the “exceptional Rodri”, and had several other star players on the bench. They will…

Cycling Poland’s Kasia Niewiadoma won the Tour de France Femmes by four seconds from Demi Vollering. It was the narrowest margin of victory in the history of the women’s or men’s race. Football Arne Slot made a successful start to his tenure as Liverpool’s head coach, with his side beating Ipswich 2-0. Rugby union South Africa beat Australia 30-12 in the Rugby Championship. Golf Rory McIlroy finished in 68th place – joint second from last – in the opening PGA Tour play-off event at TPC Southwind in Tennessee.…

The 2022 documentary series Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams had the former Lancashire and England all-rounder Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff introduce cricket to working-class teenagers from his home town of Preston, said Gerard Gilbert in The i Paper. It made for “wonderfully uplifting TV”, and the BBC soon commissioned a second series, in which Flintoff was to take his team to cricket-mad India. Before the series was finished, however, Flintoff had a car accident while filming Top Gear that left him with horrific injuries. He was finally fit to resume Field of Dreams – On Tour in January, and his relationship with the boys is much altered by his “post-accident vulnerability”. The focus of this series is, understandably, as much on Flintoff as on the players, and it is lovely to…

Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard, 2021 (Penguin £12.99). Simard’s extraordinary account of her discovery that trees can communicate through subterranean networks of fungi has transformed our view of the natural world. This isn’t just another book about saving the trees; it’s a book about how the trees might just save us. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, 1998 (Faber £9.99). I have read this many times over for the sheer joy of the exquisite writing, each sentence to be rolled in the mouth and savoured. I love her layered narrative structure, with its five different voices; each time I come back to it, I find myself identifying closely with a different character. With the End in Mind by Kathryn Mannix, 2017 (HarperCollins £9.99). The irony of this book…

Programmes Big Cats 24/7 Documentary following lions, leopards and cheetahs in Botswana’s Okavango Delta. Sun 25 Aug, BBC2 20:00 (60mins). The Misinvestigations of Romesh Ranganathan The comedian heads to the US to try his hand at investigating the unsolved murder of rapper Tupac Shakur. Sun 25 Aug, BBC2 21:00 (60mins). Sherwood Second series of the acclaimed drama set in a Nottinghamshire mining town. A senseless murder threatens to reignite old divisions; David Morrissey and Lesley Manville star. Sun 25 and Mon 26 Aug, BBC1 21:00 (60mins each). Paralympics Opening Ceremony Clare Balding presents the celebrations to mark the opening of the Paralympics in Paris. Wed 28 Aug, C4 18:30 (240mins). Beethoven’s Ninth Unwrapped In this Prom to mark its 200th anniversary, the Aurora Orchestra and conductor Nicholas Collon analyse, demystify…

Alain Delon 1935-2024 Alain Delon, who has died aged 88, “was one of the most prominent and magnetic French actors of the postwar era”, said The Daily Telegraph. “His dazzling good looks and his lack of formal training sometimes led people to underestimate his talents as an actor, yet there were few better equipped to portray enigmatic and morally corrupted youth.” His breakthrough came with René Clément’s Plein Soleil (1960), an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley. Playing the killer Tom Ripley called for “an actor capable of conveying unusual levels of amorality, bravado and selflove”. Delon was the “right man” for the job. He became a global star: “with his piercing blue eyes, high cheekbones and delinquent vitality”, he was described by Time magazine as “the most…

Mike Lynch When Mike Lynch was acquitted of fraud charges in June, he likened it to a near-death experience, said The Sunday Times: he’d feared he might die in a US jail. “Now you have a second life. The question is what you do with it?” In a cruel twist, that opportunity has been swept away by the sinking of his yacht off Sicily. The son of a Suffolk fireman, Lynch, 59, was “a self-made software success story”, said the FT, and key mover in Cambridge’s Silicon Fen ecosystem. He “experienced some of the most extreme highs and lows” of any UK tech entrepreneur. The $11bn sale of Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard in 2011 cemented his standing as the “British Bill Gates”. But a year later, HP claimed that the company’s…

A ten-year-old boy from Northampton is believed to have become the youngest person ever to have achieved an A* in his maths A level. Kautilya Katariya was awarded the grade two years after getting a 9 in his maths GCSE, having studied online during lockdown. “I was pretty sure I was going to get quite a good grade,” he told ITV, adding that he was going to celebrate his accomplishment with a Subway sandwich. He now hopes to take A levels in physics and further maths. An Iraq War veteran used his thermal imaging drone to find a dog that had been missing for five days in Dorset. Ted, a nine-year-old cavapoo, ran off while on a walk in a forest near Wareham after being spooked by a gunshot. His…

Nigel Farage, with the news that the Reform UK leader was paid £97,928.40 per month by GB News, for whom he presents a programme, in the year leading up to the last election. He also earned £16,597.22 by recording personalised video messages. The comedian Mark Simmons, who won Funniest Joke of the Fringe award at Edinburgh, for his one-liner: “I was going to sail around the globe in the world’s smallest ship but I bottled it.” Boris Becker, who is preparing to marry for the third time. The former Wimbledon champion, 56, will marry Lilian de Carvalho Monteiro, a 33-year-old risk analyst from São Tomé and Príncipe, on the Italian Riviera this autumn. She stood by him during his recent imprisonment for crimes related to insolvency.…

Ideological extremism will include “extreme misogyny” under new government plans, the Home Office has announced. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has commissioned a rapid review of the UK’s counter-extremism strategy, to establish how best to “tackle the threat posed by extremist ideologies online and offline”. It is expected to be completed in October and will look at both Islamist and far-right extremism in the UK, as well as wider ideological trends. It will also explore the radicalisation of young people.…

Chicago, Illinois Passing the torch: Democrats gathered in Chicago for the party’s national convention this week, where Kamala Harris was due to be formally nominated as her party’s presidential candidate. The opening day’s biggest attraction was a 50-minute valedictory speech by Joe Biden, in which he mounted a defence of his legacy and enthusiastically endorsed Harris as his successor. In what is likely to be the last big speech of his 50-year political career, Biden said he was more optimistic now than when he arrived in Washington, but repeated his warnings that Donald Trump poses a threat to democracy. He wiped away tears several times, and said of his decision to quit the race: “I love my job, but I love my country more.” Barack Obama delivered a resounding endorsement…

A 23-year-old Texan is charging guests $450 for a ticket to his wedding. Hassan Ahmed says that he and his fiancée have already spent nearly $200,000 on their wedding next year, including on a cake, a dress, and a DJ. In a video on TikTok, he says he doesn’t understand why family and friends have so far declined to attend, noting that many of them spend the same amount, if not more, on tickets to Beyoncé concerts. “I don’t get it,” he says. A Brazilian influencer has disgusted her followers by using a face mask made of poo. Débora Peixoto says she decided to try smearing her own faeces on her face after reading that it could “prevent ageing”. In a video of her putting on the mask, she takes…

“For the catastrophists among us, it is tempting to think we are back in February 2020,” said the Evening Standard. Last week, the World Health Organisation declared “a public health emergency of international concern”, over a virulent new strain of mpox (previously known as monkeypox) that has swept through at least 12 countries in Africa, and has now reached Asia and Europe. Characterised by fever, aches and boil-like skin lesions, the highly contagious virus has caused over 14,000 infections and claimed more than 500 lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC); virologists fear that it could also be spreading undetected through untold thousands of other people. The virus caused another emergency, back in 2022, said Ben Spencer in The Sunday Times. Then, a strain of mpox known as Clade…

In the wake of the 2024 Paris Olympics, the Australian breakdancer Rachael Gunn has become “one of its highest-profile competitors”, said Palmer Haasch in Business Insider. It’s not because of a record or a gold medal. Gunn, 36, known in the sport as B-Girl Raygun, received a score of zero in her dance battles against three opponents, and did not progress past the first round. But her unique routine, in which, dressed in a green and gold Australia tracksuit, she thrashed her arms around, kangaroo-hopped, and slithered across the floor like a snake, led to an onslaught of ridicule, and a flood of parodies. She’s now “a worldwide meme”. If you haven’t already seen Raygun’s routine, it’s “joyous”, said Sarah Ditum in The Times. “The weird, toddler-esque flopping and flailing.…

The fourth year of the Hundred was a challenging one for English cricket’s newest competition, said Tim Wigmore in The Daily Telegraph. It faced the competing attraction of the Olympic Games, the absence of many big stars, and a Kookaburra ball that seemed to inhibit six-hitting: there was an almost 15% decline in sixes compared with the previous year. Yet on Sunday, the competition got the “denouement” it craved. On a perfect midsummer’s evening at Lord’s, Oval Invincibles retained their title with a “tense, oscillating” 17-run victory over Southern Brave. Oval’s match-winner was their pace bowler Saqib Mahmood, whose three wickets in five balls “transformed the fate of the game” late on, just when Southern were looking poised to eclipse Oval’s total of 147-9. Mahmood, 27, has spent most of…

All change on admissions To The Times That an increasing number of school-leavers are opting for clearing over the traditional university application route is yet another sign that the admissions process is ripe for reform (“Record numbers turn down university offers in favour of clearing”). Application to university before exams are taken – the nonsense of predicted grades – needs to go. Swathes of uncertainty could be taken away from both the candidate and the university’s decisionmaking process by switching to a post-qualification system. One route would be for universities to start in January, either as an overall change or just for the first year of undergraduate studies, making for 2½-year degrees, which is still plenty of time. Tom Lawson, headmaster, Eastbourne College Valuing nurses To The Daily Telegraph The…

by Susanna Crossman Fig Tree 400pp £18.99 The Week Bookshop £14.99 “When Susanna Crossman was six she moved, with her mother, brother and sister, into a rambling mansion in the English countryside,” said Christina Patterson in The Sunday Times. The mansion was home to a radical, Soviet-inspired “community” – made up simply of “Adults” and “Kids”, to erode the conventional markers of family – and would be her home for the next 15 years. The Adults had rotating sexual partners, and since there were no locks on the doors, Crossman would often walk in on couples having sex. The Kids were encouraged to be self-sufficient, which in practice meant that they were permanently hungry and filthy, and liable to suffer terrible accidents: one girl set fire to her pyjamas with…

The rise of the mini-oven Already threatened by the emergence of the air fryer, the range cooker now faces a stern new challenger, says Xanthe Clay in The Daily Telegraph. “A new breed of chic, tiny ovens has arrived on the market”, and they’re proving a hit with millennials and Gen Z. Mini-ovens have many of the same advantages as air fryers: they’re more economical to run than conventional ovens, and they make sense in smaller kitchens where below-counter space is at a premium. But they also come with added benefits. Unlike many air fryers, they’re designed to look stylish perched on a countertop; and they’re considerably more versatile. “They can bake, roast, grill, toast, steam and air fry too.” Most can also microwave. Popular models include Our Place’s Wonder…

Swap UPF for healthier versions: if your teen eats bread every day, swap to Bertinet Bakery or Jason’s Sourdough. Look for pure versions of things such as peanut butter. Try to reduce fizzy drink consumption by swapping to non-UPF drinks such as water, or a little fresh juice with fizzy water. Some items – baked beans, hummus and fish fingers, for example – may be technically classed as UPF, but they’re still nutritious and part of a healthy diet. Encourage teens to read the label. Look out for super-long ingredient lists, which are likely UPF. Natural flavourings, or extra citric or ascorbic acid doesn’t make a product UPF. Milk chocolate contains soya lecithin, an emulsifier, but only in small amounts. Emulsifiers P80/E433, E407 and E466 are linked to gut inflammation,…

Susan Wojcicki 1968-2024 Susan Wojcicki, who has died aged 56, “helped turn Google from a startup in her garage into an internet juggernaut”, said The New York Times. Later, as chief executive of YouTube, she became “one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent female executives”. In 1998, she rented out the garage of her family home to her friends Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who paid $1,700 per month to use it as an office to build their search engine. At the time, Wojcicki was working in marketing at Intel, and despite repeated requests, she resisted working for them; the company still had no revenue. But one day, when Google was down, she realised how dependent she had become on using it. So in 1999, when five months pregnant, she joined…

Darktrace is reeling from a double tragedy, said Neil Johnston in The Daily Telegraph. The Cambridge cybersecurity firm has lost not just co-founder Mike Lynch, but another former executive, Stephen Chamberlain, who – in a bizarre coincidence – was “fatally struck” by a car while out jogging in Cambridgeshire two days before Lynch’s yacht was shipwrecked. The pair were long-standing colleagues. As vice-president of finance at Autonomy, Chamberlain had “faced the same charges of fraud and conspiracy” as Lynch following the software house’s vexed $11bn sale to Hewlett Packard, in 2011. Both were sensationally acquitted in San Francisco in June. Gary Lincenberg, Chamberlain’s lawyer, described his client as a “courageous” man of “unparalleled integrity”. Lynch and Chamberlain were instrumental in building Darktrace, said Jasper Jolly in The Guardian. In 2016,…

The opaque yen “carry trade” has been identified as a key “culprit” behind the early August market tumult, says The Economist. But far too little is known about the scale of these carry trade and their risks: What happened? A carry trade – in which investors borrow in a currency where interest rates are low, to invest where returns are high – can “quickly unravel”. The Bank of Japan’s decision in July to raise rates “by a fraction of a point”, while expectations for US rates were simultaneously falling, exposed many traders to big losses. Unwinding their trades fuelled “a cascade of forced selling” in everything from US tech stocks to the Mexican peso. Carry trades have grown Yen-denominated cross-border lending, from banks to non-banks, has jumped by 52% in…

Who’s tipping what The week’s best shares Aviva Investors’ Chronicle The newly slimmed-down insurer is generating “exceptional returns” on the back of higher rates and rising premium volumes. Profits should hit £2bn by 2026. Yields an eye-catching near-7%. Buy. 488p. Halozyme Therapeutics The Daily Telegraph Nasdaq-listed Halozyme majors on “drug delivery” – delivering high doses rapidly via its Enhanze subcutaneous method and injector pens. Boasts big pharma clients, and an “impressive” 41% profit margin. Buy. $59.42. LVMH The Times After phenomenal growth, the luxury market has hit “normalisation”. But this global leader’s prospects remain sound thanks to its huge scale and impressive stable of brands. Shares, down 12% this year, are “a decent bargain”. Buy. €656.20. Molten Ventures The Mail on Sunday Founded by two former 3i execs, Molten invests…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1428 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 2 September. Send it to The Week Crossword 1428, 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 1 Is behind the barrier at York perhaps (6) 4 Goes for income (8) 9 Cat heard in ruins (6) 10 It’s apple processed and vegetable (5,3) 12 End in genuine contradiction (8) 13 Quickly deposit balance in post office (6) 15 Tree pruner working around North…