Table of contents for 1515 in The Week

What happened On Sunday, President Biden authorised Ukraine to launch strikes into Russia using US-made long-range missiles, for the first time. Previously, the US had insisted that such missiles should only be used in occupied Ukrainian territory. The first long-range Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory were reported early in the week: US-supplied ATACMS ballistic missiles struck ammunition stores more than 100 miles from Ukraine’s border. On Tuesday, Biden agreed to supply Ukraine with anti-personnel landmines, which had so far been withheld, to slow Russian advances. On Wednesday, British Storm Shadow missiles were reportedly fired at military targets in Russia for the first time. The Kremlin reacted by accusing Washington of “adding fuel to the fire”, and warned of a “tangible” response. President Putin approved changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine, which…

Controversy of the week “It is right that Justin Welby resigned” last week, after the publication of the damning report by Keith Makin into the Church of England’s handling of John Smyth, its most prolific known child abuser, said Richard Coles in The Sunday Times. A barrister and a “muscular Christian” of the conservative evangelical kind, Smyth ran holiday camps for the Iwerne Trust in Dorset in the 1970s and 1980s, evangelising young men from public schools for ministry in the Church of England. Smyth groomed boys from the camps, and also from Winchester College, near his home – convincing them that he needed “to beat the sin out of them”. The review describes these “traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks” in detail, said The Church Times. In the…

The slender-billed curlew, after conservation groups concluded that it is globally extinct. The last unequivocal sighting of the bird, which bred in Siberia and wintered in the Mediterranean, was in Morocco in 1995. It marks the first known extinction of a bird species from mainland Europe, North Africa and West Asia. London transport, with a new report showing that the average bus speed in the City of London, the financial heart of the capital, has fallen to 6.6mph – although there are fewer cars on the road than a decade ago. The city-wide average bus speed is just 9mph. Typhoo Tea, which was set to fall into administration. Founded in 1903, and named after the Mandarin Chinese for “doctor”, Typhoo has suffered from years of falling sales, plus bad luck:…

Amsterdam Coalition in disarray: The right-wing government of the Dutch prime minister, Dick Schoof – a four-party coalition – almost fell apart last week when the deputy finance minister resigned over racist comments she claimed had been made by colleagues. Nora Achahbar, who was born in Morocco, said the comments were made during a heated cabinet meeting to discuss the violence that broke out in Amsterdam two weeks ago, following a football match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv, when pro-Palestinian supporters set upon Israeli football fans. The affair has exposed cracks in the coalition: Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right PVV (though not himself a cabinet member), has accused it of being too soft in dealing with the perpetrators, who he insisted were “all Muslim” and “for the most…

“I’m a fan of clichés. Last year two life-changing things happened to me: a close friend died, and I fell in love. I tried to write about each, to process my feelings, but found it impossible without resorting to cliché. ‘I still feel like I could pick up the phone and call her.’ ‘I feel I’ve been waiting for him my whole life.’ Wow. Embarrassing. But then I realised something. The reason these experiences lend themselves to cliché is that, in the vast range of human experience, they’re the two things that feel exactly the same for all of us. What an extraordinary comfort to know that in these most remarkable and awful of moments we are most connected to everyone else.” Charlotte Ivers in The Times…

Why “know thine enemy” is not a good idea James Marriott The Times Behold the great social media schism: users of X/Twitter appalled by Elon Musk’s support for Donald Trump are quitting his site in droves, while a left-leaning site, Bluesky, is gaining a million new members a day. And it’s widely thought this is a terrible thing; public debate will be crippled, it’s claimed, as lefties and righties retreat to their separate platforms. I disagree, says James Marriott: it will help calm things down. Recent research shows that people get radicalised on the internet by being exposed to contrary views rather than insulated from them. Guardian and Telegraph readers had coexisted peacefully in their own echo chambers, until that peace was shattered when they were confronted with each other’s…

Vampire bats fuelled by blood In horror films, vampire bats attack their victims by swooping down from dark skies. But they are rare in the bat world in being very comfortable on land – and it is from the ground that they tend to attack. By propelling themselves along with their folded wings, they can run at speeds of 30 metres a minute, and they use this skill to sneak up on their sleeping prey (generally domestic livestock and only very rarely humans), before using their sharp incisors to extract their blood. Now, a team in Canada have put vampire bats on tiny treadmills, to investigate how they turn this blood, which is low in the fats and carbohydrates that mammals usually rely on for fuel, into the energy they…

When Donald Trump arrived in the White House in 2017, he was ill-prepared. He’d been elected on a promise to “drain the swamp”, said Jonathan Tobin in Newsweek, but he hadn’t lined up a team of loyalists to take the key roles in his administration. As a result, many of his first picks were establishment figures who were not committed to his radical agenda, and who lacked the will to stop the Democrat-inclined bureaucrats in their departments from “slow-walking or sabotaging” his reforms. “He’s not making that same mistake again.” His choices for his second administration have provoked a “chorus of horror” in the liberal media, but American voters have given Trump a second chance; and he will use it to take on the blatantly partisan “federal leviathan”, and root…

What on earth has happened to the right to freedom of speech in Britain, asked The Daily Telegraph. On Remembrance Sunday, the writer and Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson found herself confronted at home by two police officers, who told her that she was being investigated for something she wrote in a social media post a year ago. The officers declined to specify the precise nature of the post. Nor would they reveal the identity of the person who had made the complaint. Essex Police later made clear that they were looking into whether Pearson was guilty of inciting racial hatred, a serious offence under Section 17 of the Public Order Act 1986. Pearson is just the latest public figure to be targeted in this way by anonymous complainants alleging some…

More than three decades ago, Mike Tyson was the “greatest boxer on the planet”, said Samuel Lovett in The Sunday Times. But it was a shadow of that man who took to the ring in Arlington last weekend, to participate in a wholly “farcical” contest. “Under the bright lights of the AT&T Stadium”, Tyson, now 58, fought 27-year-old Jake Paul, a “trash-talking former YouTuber and Disney actor” whose previous victories, in his four-year boxing career, had been over obscure opponents or figures from outside the sport. Paul duly “delivered on his sad promise to beat up an ageing, ailing icon”. The one surprise was that the fight went the full distance – although that was largely because, as Paul admitted, he went easy on his opponent so as not to…

Trust in your doctor To The Daily Telegraph As an NHS hospital doctor, I have serious concerns about the assisted dying bill. The Dutch government’s annual assisted dying report provides ample warning of the situation we may face. More than 5% of all deaths in the Netherlands are now by assisted suicide. In the UK, this would equate to more than 30,000 deaths per year. The Netherlands now allows assisted suicide for dementia, with an increasing number of patients opting for this each year. Assisted suicide among young people, where mental health disorder is the sole indication, is also on the rise. We are experiencing a mental-health crisis among the young, a growing burden of elderly people with multiple co-morbidities, and ever-growing waiting lists for treatments. Our wards are overflowing…

by Alan Bennett Faber 112pp £10 The Week Bookshop £8.99 Spreading to little more than 100 pages only thanks to “large print and generous spacing”, Alan Bennett’s new book – his first in five years – is essentially a “short story”, said Dominic Maxwell in The Times. Yet it “contains multitudes”. One by one, we are introduced to the residents of a care home: Mrs McBryde, the prideful manager; Mr Woodruff, an inveterate flasher; Gloria, a long-haired “suburban sphinx”, and so on. Getting to know them is so much fun that you barely wonder “where, if anywhere, it’s all heading”. But the year is 2020 and, sure enough, a mystery virus soon appears, bringing anarchy to the home. Bennett, now 90, has written a “late-period mini-masterpiece” that packs a punch.…

“It’s hard not to be dazzled” by the V&A’s new show, said Alastair Sooke in The Daily Telegraph. The Great Mughals is packed with “glittering objects” and “sumptuous artefacts”, all “skilfully wrought” from expensive materials. But it is far more than an impressive display of “bling”. The exhibition, subtitled Art, Architecture and Opulence, charts a century of artistic achievement during the reigns of the three greatest Mughal emperors: Akbar (1556-1605), his son Jahangir (1605-1627) and his grandson Shah Jahan (1628-1658), who built the Taj Mahal. Bringing together more than 200 objects, including portraits, tapestries, manuscripts, weapons, furniture and clothing, it argues that Mughal rule was a period of cosmopolitan hybridity, in the course of which successive rulers embraced both Muslim and Hindu artistry, as well as Persian and European culture.…

May Day by Jackie Kay, 2024 (Picador £10.99). This inspiring collection speaks directly to our fractured and fractious moment and offers a way out. Raised to believe in the power of protest by her adoptive activist parents, Jackie Kay recounts a lifetime of marching – against wars, against racism but always for love. Her poems contain anger but aren’t angry; they contain grief but never surrender to despair. The Color Purple by Alice Walker, 1982 (Orion £9.99). This story of Celie and Nettie, two sisters torn apart in Depression-era Georgia, is my touchstone. It gave me courage. Like Celie, I faced abuse at home and hatred in the world. I felt ugly, alone and afraid. Reading Celie’s story, in words that sounded spoken, made me believe her and myself. There…

Programmes Angela Merkel: The Woman Who Ran Europe A look at the former German chancellor’s 16 years at the helm of Europe’s largest economy. Mon 25 Nov, BBC2 19:00 (30mins). Dispatches: Britain’s Shoplifting Gangs Exposed Matt Shea goes undercover to investigate the criminal networks behind the shoplifting epidemic. Mon 25 Nov, C4 20:00 (60mins). Irresistible: Why We Can’t Stop Eating Documentary about ultra-processed foods, their design and manufacture, and their impact on public health. Mon 25 Nov, BBC2 21:00 (60mins). Rage Against the Regime: Iran This two-part series begins with the protests against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s 2009 election victory, and the crackdown that followed. Wed 27 Nov, BBC2 21:00 (60mins). The Making of Do They Know It’s Christmas? Forty years after the all-star single was recorded, previously unseen footage captures moments…

Yolk Farm in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, sells fresh eggs from the hens that roam its six-acre paddock. It also has the world’s first egg restaurant, a market garden and an egg-themed kids’ play barn (yolkfarm.co.uk). Sunfield Farm Shop in Stourbridge, West Midlands, started selling biodynamic veg via an honesty box in 2020. It is now staffed by students with special needs (rmt.org). England’s first community-owned farm, Fordhall Organic Farm in Market Drayton, Shropshire, has an on-site butchery and shop selling organic meat and other produce. It also delivers (fordhallfarm.com). Kenyon Hall Farm in Warrington, Cheshire, has been in the same family since about 1500. There’s a farm shop and a café, selling local produce as well as their own gin, oil and honey (kenyonhall.co.uk). Yare Valley in Norfolk runs its…

Casa Monti Rome A once-seedy neighbourhood of Rome that has “long been buffed by artists and hipsters”, Monti is central but relatively untouristy, and this new boutique hotel near its heart has a “bohemian” air, says Janine Gibson in the FT. Interiors feature plenty of art (including hand-painted wallpaper and impressive mosaics), but the effect is never “oppressive”, and the 36 rooms and suites are comfortable and spacious (the largest is an apartment with a vast terrace). The restaurant serves well-executed takes on “traditional Roman fare”, and there’s a spa offering natural treatments, and a “tiny yet buzzy” rooftop bar. Doubles from €450 b&b; casamontiroma.com.…

Big Pharma: the RFK Jr effect There was one group notably absent from Wall Street’s party last week, said Matthew Lynn in The Sunday Telegraph. Shares in pharma companies plunged on news of vaccine sceptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s nomination as US health secretary. Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech all suffered steep falls, as did European rivals GSK and Sanofi. Given Kennedy’s “crackpot views”, the concerns are entirely justified. Big Pharma has long had its critics, but these have usually focused on “excessive profits”, safety, and access to medicines. “RFK Jr is something completely different.” If the appointment is approved, his quackery threatens “the entire scientific foundations of the industry” – and Britain’s life science giants “will be right on the front line”. Both AstraZeneca and GSK derive huge tranches of…

Donald Trump’s election victory has helped push the S&P 500 to a 25% rise this year. “A lot of people will no doubt be feeling very flush,” said Lex in the FT. Could the US provide “a new growth runway” for luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton and Gucci, whose fortunes have been hit by a China downturn? Luxury laggards Historically, the US “has not been overwhelmingly receptive” to European “maisons”, beyond a few “core” cities. Luxury spend accounts for just 0.4% of GDP, according to Bernstein Research. “Europe and Japan spend half as much again and the share of luxury in fashion-conscious South Korea is more than double US levels.” New frontier Still, the big players have spotted an opportunity in “heartland” America. New store openings rose by 12%…

Who’s tipping what The week’s best shares Constellation Energy The Daily Telegraph Constellation operates the US’s biggest fleet of nuclear power stations, producing clean and reliable energy. A bespoke project to power Microsoft’s data centre needs regulatory approval, but is the “cream on the cake”.Buy. $224.28. Kainos Group The Times This IT consultant, majoring in recruitment and payroll ops, has had a tough year. Still, it’s “highly profitable” and should benefit from Labour’s pledge to improve public services and healthcare provision. Buy. 887p. London Stock Exchange Group The Daily Telegraph Revenues and profits are growing at the financial market’s data and infrastructure provider, which is releasing new products in a ten-year deal with Microsoft. Recurring revenues provide visibility and stability. Buy. £106.45. Time Finance Investors’ Chronicle This lender is making…

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What happened An estimated 13,000 farmers descended on central London on Tuesday to protest against the inheritance tax (IHT) reforms announced in last month’s Budget. Among those marching in Whitehall was the TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson, who warned that the planned measures spelled “the end” for family farms. Under the reforms, agricultural estates, which were previously exempt from death duties, will be subject to a 20% levy on their value over £1m (half the standard IHT rate). The change is set to apply from April 2026. Ministers said the reforms were needed to help fund public services, and would deter wealthy individuals from buying farmland as a tax dodge. They insisted that, once other allowances were taken into account, many farmers would be able to pass on as much as…

Scammers are finding it increasingly easy to clone voices – as various celebrities have discovered to their cost. David Attenborough said he had been “disturbed” to learn that his voice had been used to deliver partisan news in the US; others have had their voices cloned for use in bogus endorsements. Fraudsters are also said to be using voice cloning in an update of the “Hi Mum” text scam, in which they pose as a child in distress pleading for emergency funds. “Manifest” – to use the power of visualisation to will something into existence – has been chosen by Cambridge Dictionary as its word of 2024. Singer Dua Lipa and gymnast Simone Biles are among those who have said they “manifested” their successes.…

The Health Secretary Wes Streeting unveiled a package of proposed reforms last week aimed at lifting the NHS in England out of its current crisis. At the heart of the plan is the reintroduction of hospital league tables (as used during the Blair era), in which hospitals would be rated according to their waiting times and other metrics. Those at the top of the table, who hit their targets and do not exceed their budgets, would be rewarded with greater autonomy. Senior managers of failing hospitals would be denied pay rises and fired. Streeting said that “turnaround teams” would be sent in to help pinpoint and address failings, and the “best leaders” would be incentivised to go and work for “troubled trusts” to stop them languishing at the bottom of…

Des Moines, Iowa Pollster exits: Ann Selzer, the psephologist sometimes referred to as the “queen of polling”, has announced that she is winding up her operations. Since taking charge of polling for the Des Moines Register in 1997, Selzer has predicted the result of presidential elections in Iowa with a remarkable degree of accuracy. So when a poll shortly before the US election gave Kamala Harris an unexpected threepoint lead over Donald Trump in the state (which he had won by eight points in 2020), it caused elation in Democrat circles. But in the event, Trump swept to victory in Iowa with a 13-point lead. Seattle, Washington Bluesky boost: Dozens of celebrities have joined an exodus from X/Twitter since the US election. Those who have left or said they are…

A Yorkshire man’s £180,000 fortune will go to a charity rather than his relatives, after a will written entirely on food packaging was found to be valid at the High Court. Before his death in 2021, Malcolm Chenery started writing it on the inside of a Young’s frozen fish fillets box. After running out of space, he finished it on a Mr Kipling mince pies box, and had neighbours witness it. The judge found that Chenery’s estate should go to Diabetes UK, as he had stated, not to his sisters and niece; they supported the decision. A much-reviled statue of Harry Kane has finally been installed in Walthamstow, in London, where the footballer grew up. It was commissioned in 2020 at a cost of £7,200, but there was trouble finding…

IRELAND We’ve got the money, we just don’t spend it Irish Examiner (Dublin) Ireland “has more money than it knows what to do with”, says Emer Walsh. While most of Europe is drowning in debt, our government has piled up a surplus of €25bn, thanks partly to a booming jobs market that has driven a major boost in income tax receipts, and partly to the continued flow of corporation tax from tech giants such as Apple, which have been lured to Dublin by low tax rates and sweetener deals. Trouble is, we don’t seem to be able to spend it. Being a high-income country remains something of a novelty to Ireland: back in the 1980s, when unemployment hit 16.3%, the government was spending 15% more than it was taking in.…

“Never underestimate a man who overestimates himself.”Franklin D. Roosevelt, quoted in The Washington Post “Finance: the art of passing currency from hand to hand until it finally disappears.”Robert W. Sarnoff, quoted in Forbes “I’ve done the calculation, and your chances of winning the lottery are identical whether you play or not.”Fran Lebowitz, quoted in the King Weekly Sentinel “The cause of America is in great measure the cause of all mankind.”Thomas Paine, quoted in The Herald “It’s never a good idea to provoke people who own tractors.”Emma Duncan in The Times “I do not have to forgive my enemies. I have had them all shot.”Spanish PM Ramón María Narváez, when asked on his deathbed if he forgave his enemies, quoted in The Knowledge “Two cheers for democracy, one because it…

To The Independent Surely it is time for a proper appraisal of policies that permit large swathes of wealth being transferred from one generation to the next, that favour one small demographic at the expense of the rest of the population. Describing farmers as being “land rich, cash poor” obfuscates the issue. Having control of such a valuable asset enables the raising of large sums to fund a more opulent lifestyle at favourable interest rates: private education for children; building tied cottages for relatives, barn conversions for holiday lets; high-end cars etc. All financed by individuals appearing to earn no more than the average wage. Another advantage not available to the majority is the facility to borrow against land to leave assets to offspring who have no intention of farming,…

Last week, it won the Booker Prize, but “Samantha Harvey very nearly gave up on her novel Orbital”, said Lisa Allardice in The Guardian. Set on the International Space Station (ISS), the book “follows the day-to-day lives of four astronauts and two cosmonauts as they hurtle through the universe at 17,500mph”. For Harvey, this was anxiety-inducing territory: “I am so spectacularly not an astronaut.” A few thousand words in she lost her nerve, and instead dabbled with other projects. But then she opened the file by mistake, and realised her space book had an “integrity and pulse” that gripped her more than anything else she was working on – so she “climbed back in and achieved lift-off”. “Heavens above!” said Johanna Thomas-Corr in The Times. “Finally, a Booker prizewinner that…

Markus Lüpertz – Pierre Puvis de Chavannes at Michael Werner Gallery What an odd show this is. Filling three grand rooms, it pairs oil sketches, drawings and paintings by the 19th century French proto-symbolist Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898) with work created in response to them by the German contemporary painter Markus Lüpertz (b.1941). The result is a near-anarchic collision. Lüpertz’s work consists of bombastic, expressive jumbles of disjointed classical tropes and ominous imagery; while the restless Puvis produced everything from academic anatomical sketches and eerie bucolic scenes to quasi-mystical allegories of France itself in the aftermath of the disastrous Franco-Prussian war. (Look out for a distressed, black-clad peasant woman clutching a dead dove to her breast, the walls of vanquished Metz looming in the distance.) Puvis, these days somewhat…

Mastering the microwave Marco Pierre White raised eyebrows when he raved about microwaves on a podcast recently. The former enfant terrible of British cooking described the ovens as “sensational”. He said kippers taste much better microwaved than grilled. (He butters them, wraps them in cling film and then sets a cooking time of 2.5 minutes.) Microwaves are also “the best”, he said, for cooking marrow bones and warming fish terrines. White’s selections may not “display the common touch”, says Tony Turnbull in The Times. But he’s right: for anything that requires steaming, boiling or heating, microwaves are fast (and economical) and convenient. Melting chocolate in one “is a breeze” compared with the bain-marie method. Nor would I make porridge any other way. Vegetables can be quickly steamed, covered with a…

SOURCE: THE DAILY TELEGRAPH…

Frank Auerbach 1931-2024 One of the most admired artists of his postwar generation, Frank Auerbach was often described as a member of the “London School”, along with the likes of Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. He counted those artists as friends; but whereas they found time to carouse in the Colony Room Club in Soho, Auerbach lived a famously monastic existence, devoting himself almost exclusively to his work. For 70 years, said The New York Times, he spent seven days and five evenings a week in a small, paint-encrusted studio in Camden Town. Once a year, he’d make a day trip to Brighton, to sample the sea air; then return to his routine. Before dawn, he’d go out to make sketches of the deserted, grimy streets of north London, which…

Britain’s uncomfortable choice Jeremy Warner The Sunday Telegraph The Chancellor last week called for a return to financial deregulation. Call it “light touch 2.0”, says Jeremy Warner: Rachel Reeves apparently wants the City to “rediscover its appetite for risk-taking and credit expansion”. Does she plan “to go full Trump” and “blow up the entire rulebook”? Although arguably the only way to defend the City’s once-leading position as “Europe’s de facto financial centre”, it would certainly nark Brussels. The question plays into the emerging debate in Downing Street over whether it is “best to slink back into the cosseted, but slow growth embrace of the European Union or throw in its lot with Donald Trump”. Echoing Boris Johnson, Lord Mandelson, who is widely tipped as Labour’s next ambassador to Washington, claims…

The British Museum, with news that it has been given the highest-value gift in UK museum history. Trustees of the Sir Percival David Foundation have announced that they are handing the museum 1,700 pieces from the late businessman’s collection of Chinese ceramics. The pieces, which have been on loan to the museum since 2009, are estimated to be worth £1bn. San Marino, the world’s bottom-ranked national football team, who won an away game for the first time in their history – 3-1 against Liechtenstein. It was also the first time they’d scored more than once in a competitive game. San Marino measures 61sq km, making it about a third of the size of Liechtenstein.…

57% of British adults think that farms should not be subject to inheritance tax. 24% think they should be, and 19% don’t know. Among Conservative voters, 76% think a full exemption should be extended, and 16% do not. Among Labour voters, the split is 45% in favour of an exemption, and 41% against. More in Common/The Daily Telegraph Some 54% of Americans were “at least quite surprised” by Donald Trump’s victory in the US election, including 43% of Republicans. 14% of respondents were “very surprised”; a third were not very surprised; and 16% were not surprised at all. 78% of Americans think that Trump is more powerful now than he was in 2016. Prolific/The Independent…

The boyband grind Ritchie Neville was 17 when he was selected to be in the boyband 5ive in the late 1990s, says Kate Lloyd in The Guardian. They were positioned as pop’s bad boys, and the five young stars did sometimes, Neville admits, party rather too hard. But life in 5ive was no picnic. On tour, up to 100 fans would surround their bus, banging on the windows; Neville recalls women casually groping him while he posed with them for photographs. “A lot of guys would be like, ‘What I wouldn’t give for that!’ But it’s not always pleasant, if you don’t ask for it,” he says. And he feels they were often exploited: even after they’d started to have chart hits, they were paid just £100 a week and,…

In general, graduates easily out-earn non-graduates: the IFS estimates that today’s average “lifetime graduate premium” stands at £240,000 for men, and £140,000 for women. But rising fees and higher interest rates in recent years are prompting some to wonder whether going to university is the financial no-brainer it once was. Students in England now graduate with an average of about £45,000 in student loans (which cover both fees and maintenance). They only start paying them off once they earn £25,000pa in England (or slightly more in Wales and Scotland). In the meantime – even after they reach that threshold – their student debt often continues to grow, thanks to interest rates of between 4.3% and 7.3% in the past year. As a result, the debts owed by many graduates are…

A once-a-day pill that has been found to be more effective as a non-smoking aid than nicotine patches and gum is to become available on the NHS in England. More than 85,000 people a year are expected to try varenicline, which makes smoking less pleasurable by blocking the impact of nicotine on the brain; the drug also reduces cravings and withdrawal symptoms. In trials, one in four people managed to quit smoking for at least six months when the pills were prescribed alongside counselling. One in eight adults in the UK smoke, and, according to an analysis by University College London, the drug could prevent 9,500 deaths over the next five years. This isn’t the first time that varenicline has been available. A branded form was withdrawn in 2021, after…

The new assisted dying bill will have the strictest safeguards of any such legislation anywhere in the world, said Charles Falconer in The Observer. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, sponsored by the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, was published last week, and will have its second reading in the Commons next Friday. It specifies that only terminally ill adults expected to die within six months will be eligible. Two doctors will have to be satisfied that the choice has been freely made by someone with the capacity to make that decision; a High Court judge will have to approve it. Even then, there will be 14 days for reflection (unless death from illness is imminent), and life-ending drugs must be administered by the patient themselves. “People fear death…

Last Sunday, as England took on the Republic of Ireland for the final match of Lee Carsley’s stint as the team’s interim manager, one figure was conspicuously absent from the Wembley stands, said Oliver Holt in the Daily Mail. The “new permanent boss”, Thomas Tuchel – who takes over on 1 January – was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps, though, that was for the best: had the German been present, he would have had the embarrassment of sitting through a “masterclass delivered by the man he has usurped”. Carsley directed “a 5-0 rout of the ten-man Irish [side] that was a celebration of the best of our game”. Not only was there a plethora of fine individual performances, but four players scored their first international goals: Anthony Gordon, Conor Gallagher,…

Tennis Jannik Sinner won the ATP Tour Finals in Turin, defeating Taylor Fritz in straight sets in the final. Rugby union England were beaten 20-29 by South Africa – their third consecutive loss in the Autumn Nations Series. Wales lost 20-52 to Australia – a record 11th successive Test defeat for the team. Golf Rory McIlroy won the year-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai. Cricket England’s final T20 match against West Indies was abandoned after five overs. England won the five-game series 3-1.…

by Paul French Elliott & Thompson 304pp £25 The Week Bookshop £22.99 (incl. p&p) In the mid-1920s, Wallis Simpson spent a year in China. She went there “hoping to make a fresh start” after the breakdown of her first marriage to a “heavy-drinking” US naval officer who was stationed in Hong Kong, said Caroline Moorehead in The Spectator. A decade later, when Britain was tipped into constitutional crisis by the American divorcée’s relationship with Edward VIII, her “lotus year”, as she called it, became the subject of lurid gossip. It was rumoured that in China, Simpson had been addicted to opium, posed for pornographic photos, and learnt a sexual technique – the Shanghai grip – which had “infatuated the king”. All this was said to have been detailed in a…

Running time: 2hrs 25mins “Even by fairy-tale standards, Hans Christian Andersen’s story of puritanical morality, repression and dismemberment stands out as especially bleak,” said Dave Fargnoli in The Stage. The Red Shoes (1845) is about an orphan girl who is bewitched by a pair of red shoes, and condemned to dance in them uncontrollably – unto death. It’s not obvious fare for a festive family outing to the theatre. On the plus side, Nancy Harris’s retelling “smooths off some sharp edges, excavating a kinder message about empowerment and self-expression” that will likely resonate with young audiences; there are wonderful passages of balletic dance; and the sets and costumes are gorgeous. But the stunning staging rather overwhelms the “slight, familiar story”, leaving a production that is never wholly satisfying. It’s not…

A history, a tragedy and at times a brutal thriller, Disney’s nine-part series is a “sensational” amalgam, said Benji Wilson in The Daily Telegraph. Adapted from Patrick Radden Keefe’s acclaimed non-fiction book about the Troubles, it weaves together at least seven narratives, with characters including Gerry Adams, the IRA bombers Dolours and Marian Price, and Jean McConville, the widowed mother of ten who was bundled into a van in 1972 and never seen alive again. It begins as “thrilling” cops-and-robbers stuff: the IRA members of the 1970s are presented as folk heroes taking on the “stuffed-shirt” Brits, and there is a needling sense that the conflict is being romanticised; but stick with it, because the series develops into something more “elegiac and profound”. This “ultimately sober-minded” series is a powerful…

Helen admits she’s feeling ambivalent about buying Kirsty’s Beechwood house – Tony suggests she moves to the farmhouse; he’s always dreamt of building an eco-house for himself and Pat. Fallon decides to turn down the unit and abandon her café. She asks Natasha for her Tea Room job back, but Natasha has just offered it to Emma – she could have some spare shifts, though. Tony and Natasha come up with a family house-swap plan. Kirsty starts to see Rex through new eyes. As Emma worries about bad influences on George in prison, Susan and Neil make another request to see him. Discussing their futures, Kirsty and Helen have an awkward conversation about Beechwood – what is Helen waiting for? In prison, George is nasty with Susan and Neil; they…

Pressure cook lamb and spinach together and, in a jiffy, you’ll get that soft, thick, oleaginous quality associated with very long cooking times, says Catherine Phipps. This curry – a go-to in our house – can be made with fresh spinach rather than frozen, but cook the spinach down first so the liquid it gives out doesn’t flood the curry. When I can get hold of it, I will also add some fenugreek leaf (either fresh or frozen). Serves 4-6 1 tbsp coconut oil 2 cloves 5 black cardamom pods ½ cinnamon stick 12 curry leaves (optional) 1 onion, thickly sliced 2 tbsp curry powder 4 garlic cloves, crushed or grated stems from 1 small bunch of coriander, finely chopped, plus a few whole sprigs to serve (optional) 15g piece…

When children are in their 20s, parents shift from a position of authority to one of interdependence, says psychotherapist Julia Samuel: ● Accept that you can’t fix their problems – let them learn from their own mistakes. ● If your relationship with your adult child is fraught, have an honest discussion with them; mistakes you made as a parent during their childhood may be a factor. ● If you’re worried about them, think about how to express it. Aim to come across as curious, not critical or judgemental. ● Practise active listening, and do not offer advice unless it is asked for. ● If they come back to live at home, sit down and agree to a new set of rules, but don’t dictate: be prepared to negotiate. ● Allow…

Timothy West 1934-2024 In his autobiography, Timothy West, who has died aged 90, quoted Richard Strauss’s description of himself as a “first-rate composer of the second rank”, and concluded that he belonged in the second rank of actors. His argument was that most of the major roles he’d played – Falstaff, Lear and so on – had been in regional and touring theatres. But he was being too modest, said Michael Billington in The Guardian. West had an outstanding 65-year career that embraced theatre, TV, film and radio. With a sturdy frame, narrow eyes and a strong jaw, he was often cast as villains and had a talent for playing historical figures, but his greatest achievement lay in his commitment to regional and touring theatre; as both an actor and…

Until recently, Britain’s “star builder” Vistry was “on a tear”, said The Economist. Shares in the company, formerly Bovis Homes, shot up over 90% in a year, on the back of “bold changes to its strategy”: bulk-selling homes to social-housing providers and rental investors such as private equity giant Blackstone. Yet the market reaction to two big profit warnings in quick succession has been “unsparing”: Vistry has lost around half its value, or about £2.4bn, since September. It claims “cost overruns” will be easily fixed; investors aren’t convinced. “Affordable housing is badly needed”, yet even if Labour does loosen planning rules, building costs are still prohibitively high. “Firms will put up only as many homes as they can sell at attractive margins.” Much of the shareholder concern centres on corporate…

Vlad Tenev Since founding Robinhood in 2013 with a Stanford classmate, Vlad Tenev has won over 21 million users “with an app that turns buying shares into a video-game-like experience”, says Danny Fortston in The Sunday Times. That’s just the start. Tenev, 37, reckons Robinhood is poised to cash in on “the greatest transfer of wealth in history” as baby boomers pass on their cash. Raised in Virginia, Tenev dreams of building “the next JP Morgan” – a global colossus “handling everything from the odd bitcoin bet to retirement accounts” – and has chosen the UK for the big push. But Tenev is baffled by our double standards. How can a nation with a betting shop on “every street corner” be squeamish about crypto and margin trading? Brits love to…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1441 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 December. Send it to The Week Crossword 1441, 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 5 Wrong about TV doctor being reported – it’s a certainty (4-2) 8 Land that’s OK if you include Republican (6) 10 Special treat getting stuck into a second liqueur (8) 11 Think about admitting good title (6) 12 Doctor must stop ache coming from this (5,7)…