Table of contents for 1576 in The Week

Controversy of the week China’s “mega-embassy” “Ministers like to talk tough about refusing to compromise when it comes to Britain’s national security,” said the Daily Mail. So it is “deeply troubling” that Labour decided this week, after months of delay, to allow China to go ahead with the development of a “mega-embassy” at the former Royal Mint in London. It is on the edge of the City, “and just a few minutes from Westminster as the drone flies”; Beijing “could not ask for a better location from which to conduct espionage and influence operations in this country”. No doubt Keir Starmer is trying to “curry favour” with President Xi Jinping before a proposed visit to China, and thinks that “kowtowing” on the embassy “will lead to closer trade ties and…

Beach hut owners, after council officials in Dorset decided that 344 huts at Mudeford Spit, Christchurch, counted as second homes and should therefore be charged full council tax. The huts typically sell for £400,000 to £575,000, but can only be slept in for eight months each year and have no mains water or electricity. The British Army, after 23 soldiers from 32 Engineer Regiment – a unit within the Royal Engineers – were reported to have tested positive for cocaine. About 250 personnel at their base in Catterick, North Yorkshire, were tested after one was arrested for possession. The 23 now face possible dismissal. Piers Morgan, who tripped on a step inside a restaurant in London and fractured his hip. The broadcaster said he had fallen “like a sack of…

86% of US voters oppose taking Greenland by force. 55% oppose the US trying to buy Greenland; but 67% of Republicans support it. ABC News/Quinnipiac University If a general election were held tomorrow, Labour would come sixth, with its worst result in more than 100 years. Keir Starmer would lose his Holborn and St Pancras seat to the Greens. Reform UK would win a slim majority, with 335 seats, and the Conservatives would form the official opposition, with just 92 seats, down from 121. Electoral Calculus Plaid Cymru now lead the race for May’s Senedd election in Wales, on 37% of the vote. Reform UK are on 23% and Labour 10%. YouGov/ITV…

Paddington’s origin story Michael Bond was inspired to write the original Paddington Bear book after buying a forlorn-looking toy bear for his wife on Christmas Eve 1956. That bear is now kept under lock and key at “a secret location”, his daughter Karen Jankel told Lucy Bannerman in The Sunday Times. But other items from the family archives are being shared to mark what would have been her father’s 100th birthday. They include letters to Bond from his first literary agent, Harvey Unna, after an early draft (“This is quite a publishable tale and I like it well. My spies tell me, however, that you have slipped up in that there are no bears in Africa…”), and notes from Peggy Fortnum, the book’s illustrator (“I am glad Paddington jogged your…

The UK must plan for a financial crisis that would be triggered if the US government confirms the existence of aliens, a former Bank of England analyst has warned. Helen McCaw wrote to the Bank, suggesting that US officials were likely to disclose this soon – which would “induce ontological shock and provoke psychological responses with material consequences”, such as price volatility, a rush to assets such as gold, and bank collapses. The Bank of England has so far declined to comment. Parts of the East Sussex coastline have been covered in a blanket of uncooked chips, fruit and vegetables after a container ship spilled its cargo earlier this month. Onions were washed up at Brighton and Hove, along with bags of coconuts, limes and celeriac. At Falling Sands near…

HUNGARY A red carpet for corrupt authoritarians 444 (Budapest) For one EU member state to be offering political asylum to a fugitive from another seems crazy, says Ádám Kolozsi: but that’s what we’ve come to expect from Viktor Orbán’s Hungary. His hard-right government has shown little concern for those fleeing slaughter: only eight people won asylum to Hungary in 2024. But fellow authoritarians in trouble? They can expect a warm welcome. In 2018, North Macedonia’s erstwhile PM, Nikola Gruevski, fled to Budapest to escape a prison sentence for abuse of power. Brazil’s ex-president, Jair Bolsonaro, hoping to escape justice, briefly took refuge in the Hungarian embassy after failing to overturn his electoral defeat. And now Hungary has accepted another fugitive, Zbigniew Ziobro, justice minister in the right-wing Polish government defeated…

When West Midlands Police (WMP) recommended to Birmingham City Council that fans of the Israeli football team Maccabi Tel Aviv should be banned from attending a match against Aston Villa in November, it shared the intelligence assessments that underpinned this controversial proposal. The force stated that when the Dutch team Ajax had hosted Maccabi in Amsterdam in 2024, 5,000 Dutch police had had to be deployed to halt a “rampage” by Israeli fans. Some tore down Palestinian flags; others assaulted Muslim cab drivers and threw bystanders into a canal. The only trouble with this account was that much of it was “either exaggerated or flat wrong”, said Gaby Hinsliff in The Guardian. Last week, a review by the chief inspector of constabulary, Andy Cooke, found that Dutch police had only…

Even in his dreams, Michael Carrick “could not have imagined” a better start to his tenure as Manchester United’s head coach, said James Ducker in The Daily Telegraph. Called in last week on an interim basis following the sacking of Ruben Amorim, the 44-year-old masterminded, in his very first game, a thrilling 2-0 victory over Manchester City. In the second half particularly, United were irresistible, playing “fast, direct and dynamic” football that simply blew Pep Guardiola’s team away. Arguably, Old Trafford hasn’t witnessed anything this good in the “13 years since Sir Alex Ferguson vacated the building”. Bryan Mbeumo and Patrick Dorgu were United’s scorers, but the final result “flattered” City: three United goals were disallowed for narrow offside calls, two players struck the woodwork, and Casemiro missed an easy…

A scroll in the sack? To The Spectator I consider myself a “zillennial”, a slightly pretentious term for those who want to be millennials but who fall into the Gen Z age group. As I read Mary Wakefield’s article “No sex please, we’re Gen Z”, one thing occurred to me as an obvious reason why Gen Z are not having sex. Simply, they’re too busy on their phones. The issue isn’t just sex: it’s all kinds of human connections. Friendships, family relationships, and yes, sexual relationships. Scrolling aimlessly on TikTok and watching porn is much easier, safer and more familiar for Gen Z than forming real relationships. Many of them (“us”?) have had phones since we were kids: they have been our one constant companion. As a soon-to-be Anglican cleric,…

by Ruixue Jia & Hongbin Li (with Claire Cousineau) Harvard University Press 242pp £24.95 The Week Bookshop £21.99 (incl. p&p) A large part of a child’s schooling in China is “intensely focused on a single end point”, said Maura Elizabeth Cunningham in The Wall Street Journal: the two-day college entrance exam (known as the gaokao) they take at the end of secondary school. As a student’s score in the test is the “only factor” that determines university admission, it’s no surprise that the gaokao is an “obsession” for Chinese people. In this “lively and informative” book, Ruixue Jia and Hongbin Li – both Chinese-born academics based in the US – explore the exam’s history and present-day role. While it is undoubtedly rigorous, and offers a genuine chance to those from…

The £1bn South Wales Metro, aka the Welsh Tube, will be completed this year, with the electrification of 105 miles of track in and around Cardiff. There will be more frequent services, several new stations and six new lines, mostly overground (tfw.wales). Dubbed the “Ryanair of the Rails”, budget operator Lumo is launching a direct service from London to Stirling in the spring. It will run four times daily and will cost about £35 one way. Stops include Preston, Crewe, Milton Keynes and Carlisle (lumo.co.uk). From this month, the Caledonian Sleeper stops at Birmingham on the Highlander service, which runs from Sunday to Friday to Fort William, Aberdeen and Inverness – the Lowlander serves Glasgow and Edinburgh (from £59; sleeper.scot). By the end of the year, the £57m Mid Cornwall Metro…

Norden Camp Xiahe, China This camp lies on a vast grassy plain at the edge of the Tibetan Plateau, in a part of northwest China – Gansu province – with a large Tibetan minority. Guests stay in “snug” timber cabins, says Chris Schalkx in Condé Nast Traveller, and can use running water in a central bathhouse with copper-clad tubs, saunas and indoor-outdoor showers. Meals, served in a yak-hair tent, draw on the region’s “wild larder” (yak meat, mushrooms, tea marinades), and there is a large Tibetan monastery nearby, set in hills where you can walk through wildflower meadows dotted with shrines and prayer flags. Doubles from £910, all-inclusive; nordencamp.com.…

South East Water: disgusted of Tunbridge Wells It takes some doing, said Ben Marlow in The Daily Telegraph, but South East Water (SEW) is “well on its way to claiming the crown of Britain’s worst utility” from that “basket-case”, Thames Water. Two disastrous outages in weeks have highlighted a “woeful track record of failing in its basic duty to keep the taps running for 2.3 million customers”. A major failure before Christmas left hospitals, schools, care homes and irate customers in Tunbridge Wells without water for a fortnight. A second incident left 30,000 more homes in Kent and Sussex high and dry. Responsibility for this fiasco ultimately lies with SEW’s “inept, overpaid” CEO Dave Hinton, SEW’s “unforgivably meek independent directors” and a supine regulator. It’s the same old story, said…

Crisis over Greenland What happened Donald Trump addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos as tensions over Greenland threatened to trigger a full-scale rupture in transatlantic relations. The US president, who’d insisted before the summit that there would be “no going back” on his plan to acquire the Danish-controlled Arctic island, ruled out resorting to force but called for “immediate negotiations”. Denmark had warned that US military action would spell the end of Nato. Last week, the UK joined seven European Nato countries in dispatching a small number of troops to Greenland for a military exercise. In response, Trump announced that he would be imposing an extra 10% tariff on all imports to the US from those eight Nato allies from 1 February, increasing to 25% from 1 June, until…

Sienna Rose is a soul singer who has amassed nearly 3.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify since releasing her first single in 2024. One of her smoky, jazz-infused tracks, Into the Blue, has been played six million times. Yet according to streaming service Deezer, which has AI detection tools, Rose does not exist, and her music is computer-generated. Clues include the fact that she has never performed a gig, she has minimal presence on social media and many of her songs have a “telltale hiss” running through them. The BBC has agreed to tailor-make “content” for YouTube. The landmark deal was struck after new figures showed that, last month, YouTube had, for the first time, more viewers in the UK than the BBC.…

The Government unveiled plans to overhaul the water industry this week, in a move that is designed to combat what Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds called the “whole system failures” of both water companies and regulators. The white paper states that a new regulator will replace Ofwat; it will make regular “MoT-style” checks on water company infrastructure, and force the quick rectification of problems such as pollution and the recent water outages in Kent and Sussex (see page 39). Campaigners said the proposals were inadequate, and would not remedy the failures of privatisation.…

Paris Budget drama: The French prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, has pushed his 2026 budget through the lower parliament without a vote, after four months of failed negotiations. His use of a constitutional “backdoor” to enact the part of the budget related to tax revenue is a risky move – opposition MPs could now demand a vote of no confidence – and is the latest twist in a saga that began in 2024, when a snap election called by President Macron produced a hung parliament with no bloc holding a majority. Since then, two PMs have forced austerity budget bills through the chamber, only to lose subsequent votes of no confidence. Lecornu had promised not to deprive MPs of a vote on his budget, and MPs from France Unbowed, on the…

1 The Weight by Robbie Robertson, performed by Aretha Franklin 2 Jamaica Farewell by Irving Louis Burgie, performed by Harry Belafonte 3 Danny Nedelko, written and performed by Idles 4 The First Big Weekend by Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton, performed by Arab Strap 5 After Hours by Lou Reed, performed by The Velvet Underground 6 Time to Pretend by Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser, performed by MGMT 7 People’s Faces, written and performed by Kae Tempest 8* Do You Realize?? by Wayne Coyne, Steven Drozd, Michael Ivins and Dave Fridmann, performed by The Flaming Lips Book: A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders Luxury: a solar-powered air fryer * Choice if allowed only one record…

During strikes, consultants are drafted in to “act down” and cover their more junior colleagues’ shifts. Nonurgent appointments are routinely postponed. At least 1.7 million appointments have been rescheduled owing to industrial action since the end of 2022, according to data from August – dealing a blow to the Government’s efforts to cut waiting lists. The strikes also carry a large financial cost, as consultants are expensive (this is notoriously hard to estimate, but between April 2023 and May 2024 it is thought to have exceeded £1.7bn). This diverts resources away from other parts of the health service, and potentially impacts patient care. It also places additional burdens on staff and morale. However, NHS England has got better at dealing with walkouts. During the most recent 17-22 December strike, NHS…

Removing first- and business-class seats on planes would help slash aviation emissions by half, a new study has found. Researchers from Sweden’s Linnaeus University analysed 27 million flights between 26,000 pairs of cities, calculating the amount of CO₂ that was emitted per kilometre per passenger. The 3.5 billion passengers combined flew a total distance of 6.8 trillion km; the flights emitted 577 million tonnes of CO₂, equivalent to Germany’s annual emissions, reports The Guardian. The most important efficiency factor was the number of premium seats; passengers in first and business class are responsible for about three times the emissions of those in economy. The age of the aircraft and occupancy rate were also important; using modern planes that are 95% full, with only economy seats, would cut fuel use and…

Just a month ago, Keir Starmer said that he was not in favour of an Australian-style social media ban for the under-16s, said Sam Merriman in the Daily Mail. But now – after 60 Labour MPs, and the Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, called on Britain to follow Australia – the Government has abruptly changed course. This week it announced a consultation, to which it will respond in the summer. The evidence about the damage associated with social media and smartphone use is accumulating, said Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in The i Paper. In the UK, toddlers who spend more time on screens score lower in vocabulary tests than those who spend less. Australian researchers have found that eating disorders among 10- to 19-year-olds have risen by 86% since 2012. And, slowly but…

“Nothing is as irritating as the fellow who chats pleasantly while he’s overcharging you.”Kin Hubbard, quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle “A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.”H.L. Mencken, quoted in The European Conservative “There is a world of difference between knowing you were wrong and being told you were wrong.”Janan Ganesh in the Financial Times “Patriotism is like the love that a parent has for a child; nationalism is akin to believing that one’s child can do no wrong.”Robin Givhan, quoted in The New York Times “Though familiarity may not breed contempt, it takes the edge off admiration.”William Hazlitt, quoted on The Knowledge “Life is something that happens when you can’t get to sleep.”Fran Lebowitz, quoted on The Quint “What you…

To The Times Juliet Samuel says it is worth asking “what exactly the US will do in its current pernicious mood if we allow its main adversary [China] to build a vast operational hub slap-bang in the middle of the Western alliance and its critical infrastructure”. I can’t directly answer that question and am not privy to President Trump’s mind. But has Ms Samuel ever noticed the Chinese embassy in Washington DC? It’s relatively new (2009), huge and looks more like an upmarket barracks than an embassy. Given this, complaints by some in the US about the plans for a new embassy on the site of the Royal Mint would be relatively easy to brush aside. It’s long been a fact of life that nations engage in espionage against each…

Departure(s) by Julian Barnes Jonathan Cape 176pp £18.99 The Week Bookshop £16.99 Julian Barnes’s 17th novel (which he has said will be his last) is a “masterpiece of narrative trickery”, said Frances Wilson in The Spectator. Its “unreliable narrator” is a “chilly novelist called Julian Barnes” who – as is true of his real-life counterpart – has a rare but “manageable” form of blood cancer. The story, in so far as there is one, concerns Barnes’s involvement with a couple named Jean and Stephen (not, he says, their “real names”), to whom he twice played matchmaker. The first time was at Oxford in the 1960s, when he introduced them in a café. They were together for 18 months, before separating and losing touch. Barnes then reveals that, 40 years later,…

Chris makes amends with George, saying his feelings changed after the attack. Helen offers Akram casual part-time work at Bridge Farm – he’s tempted, but can’t justify losing his income as a plumber. Azra thinks they need to save for the future, but just as Akram is about to turn Helen down, she relents – she’d rather have a happy husband. George tells Alice he wants to meet the Aldridges to make amends; outside The Bull, he apologises to Kenton, who grudgingly accepts. On hearing this Jolene is furious, but Kenton says he’s had enough of conflict. Alice persuades her reluctant family members to meet with George, who comes to Brian’s to say his piece. Ruairi sneers at the apology, while the others say they can’t trust him yet –…

A fresh take on roast potatoes “We tend to over-complicate” roast potatoes, says Olivia Potts in The Spectator – which may explain why they are so often disappointing. In my view, it’s best to stick to a few trusty principles. “Decent potatoes, lots of good fat and a long roasting time are all you need for the perfect spuds.” If you eat meat, solid animal fat is best. “Lard, beef fat, goose fat, duck fat: it doesn’t hugely matter.” Just make sure to “be generous” with whichever one you choose. When cooking for vegetarians, options are more limited – and that is why I was intrigued by a new technique devised by food writer Madeleine Wilmshurst, which “took off like a rocket” on social media. Once she has boiled her…

SOURCE: THE DAILY TELEGRAPH…

Eva Schloss 1929-2026 When Eva Schloss arrived in Amsterdam in 1940, after fleeing Nazi-occupied Vienna, one of the children she played with after school, in the grassy area outside their block of flats, was another Jewish refugee, who’d moved to the city from Frankfurt. She and Anne Frank were not very alike, said The Guardian: though they were almost exactly the same age, Anne was more confident than Eva, and more mature, with a growing interest in fashion and boys. But when, in 1953, Eva’s mother married Otto Frank, Eva became Anne’s posthumous stepsister. Years later, she would use that connection to “brilliant effect” in her four decades as a Holocaust educator. Eva Geiringer was born in Vienna in 1929. Her father ran a shoe factory, and at home they…

A new best friend for the Chancellor Mehreen Khan The Times Here’s a turn up for the books, says Mehreen Khan. UK gilts are “on a roll” – outperforming those of G7 peers as investors turn positive on assets previously whacked by worries about fiscal policy. Yields on the UK’s ten-year debt, which move inversely to prices, hit a 13-month low last week and the rally is predicted to continue. In fact, “UK government bonds are poised to be one of the best-performing assets this year”: good news for both the Government’s borrowing costs and national confidence. If the gilt market is the Chancellor’s “new best friend”, what accounts for the turnaround? It’s partly down to better housekeeping – bond traders have welcomed the Debt Management Office’s decision to move…

The week’s best shares Costain Group The Times The civil engineering group is offsetting slim transportation margins with higher-margin energy, water and nuclear work. Recent contract wins include Sellafield and Heathrow. Undervalued. Buy. 160.4p. Games Workshop Group Investors’ Chronicle The Warhammer creator’s core operating profit is up 30%, with a steady 43% margin, as efficiencies and price rises offset higher costs. The dividend has been hiked again, yet there’s still room for capital investment. Buy. £183.90. Great Portland Estates Citywire The investment trust’s Q3 update shows continued demand for high-quality office space in London’s West End. Shore Capital believes the recent strong run is “just the foothills”: earnings are expected to double. Buy. 336p. Hunting Investors’ Chronicle Hunting makes parts used in upstream oil assets: from onshore shale to deepwater…

What happened Days after the shadow justice secretary, Robert Jenrick, became the highest-profile Conservative yet to join Nigel Farage’s party, the Tories lost another MP to Reform UK. Andrew Rosindell was shadow minister for foreign affairs under Kemi Badenoch. Rosindell is the fourth sitting Tory MP to switch; 18 ex-Tory MPs have also defected. In extraordinary scenes last Thursday, Kemi Badenoch had sacked Jenrick from her front bench, saying that she had “clear, irrefutable evidence” that he was planning to jump ship. Reportedly, she’d been handed a copy of his resignation speech – which included scathing criticisms of senior Tories – after it was found “lying around”. Hours later, Jenrick appeared at a chaotic press conference alongside Nigel Farage to confirm his defection. He called his former party “rotten”, “dishonest”…

Generation rent, with reports that rents fell last year for the first time on record. The 0.7% dip in the cost of newly agreed rents was put down to more tenants leaving rental properties to become first-time buyers, and more young people staying at home with their parents, rather than entering the rental market. The biggest fall, of 3.7%, was in inner London. Amol Rajan, who revealed that he is leaving BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, to start a new life that will not involve getting out of bed as early as 3am most weekdays. The presenter, who has four young children, said he planned to unleash his “inner entrepreneur” by launching his own company. However, he will continue to host University Challenge and his BBC podcast.…

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has ordered a review into antisemitism in schools. The move follows the decision by Bristol Brunel Academy to cancel a visit by a Jewish Labour MP, Damien Egan, following a campaign by pro-Palestinian protesters. Phillipson said that this was “unacceptable”, and that she wanted to be sure that “all schools and colleges have the right systems and processes in place to identify and respond to antisemitism”. An investigation into the trust that runs the school is imminent; and a snap Ofsted inspection has taken place.…

Washington DC FBI raid: In a move widely condemned as an assault on press freedom, FBI agents raided the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson last week, seizing her laptops, phone and a smartwatch. The FBI had been granted a search warrant from the Justice Department on the grounds that Natanson may have been publicising “classified material” on “foreign adversaries”, supposedly gleaned from Defence Department documents leaked to her by a Pentagon contractor. US courts have long upheld the right of journalists to report on leaked documents, even highly classified ones. But Donald Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, overturned a policy banning the Justice Department from pursuing the notes and phone records of reporters investigating leaks. The government has caught “a very bad leaker” of material related to Venezuela,…

“If you wondered why people seem to be lacking a spring in their step, here’s the answer: podcasts. We now have the tech to walk around with the entire history of music in our pocket, yet millions forsake Bach or Bowie in favour of listening to some stranger bang on about how they need to eat more protein, or perfect their people-management skills, or improve their ‘sleep hygiene’. Apparently, people listen to podcasts for ‘optimisation’, which I think is a misspelling of ‘lobotomisation’, because a fact that 97% of podcasts consist of two men agreeing with each other or two celebrities saying how proud they are of one another’s ‘journey’.” Hadley Freeman in The Sunday Times…

Labour’s unwise present to Nigel Farage John Rentoul The Independent Always give voters a say. That’s the first rule of democratic politics, says John Rentoul. Yet Labour seems to have forgotten it. No fewer than 29 councils are set to call off their local elections in May, denying at least four million people the right to vote. The pretext is that, as these councils are set to be scrapped in 2027 or 2028 under the Government’s plans to rationalise local government, there’s little point getting local voters to go to the polls. Simpler just to let incumbents stay in office for another two or three years. Using that logic, Steve Reed, the Local Government Secretary, has left it to those councils to decide whether or not to postpone elections, and…

This is the year that America celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding, said Jackie Calmes in the Los Angeles Times. What a bitter irony that it is doing so under the leadership of a “wannabe king” who is emulating the tyrannical tactics of George III. Among the grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence is that King George “sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our People”; and that he protected those forces “from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit”. The same charges could be levelled against Donald Trump and his Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, better known as ICE. The recent killing of Renée Nicole Good in Minneapolis by an ICE officer has fuelled growing protests against the agency. But far from pulling back, Trump deployed…

Weight-loss jabs: limited benefits New “wonder drug” weight-loss jabs are helping millions of people shed up to a fifth of their body weight, while also improving their cholesterol, blood pressure and the like. But about half of those taking appetite-suppressing GLP-1 drugs come off them within a year, often owing to side effects or cost. And, according to a landmark new study in the BMJ, the benefits rapidly disappear. The researchers examined 37 trials involving 9,341 people who took various types of weight-loss medication. The participants were typically on the drugs for ten months and lost an average of 8kg. Those on the GLP-1 drugs semaglutide (sold under the brand name Wegovy) and tirzepatide (sold as Mounjaro) lost the most weight (14.7kg on average); but also regained it more quickly…

The Beckham feud took a dramatic turn this week, when Brooklyn Beckham laid out his side of the story. In a statement on social media, he accused his parents of always putting “Brand Beckham” first, and said that, even before he got married, they’d tried to “sabotage” his relationship with Nicola Peltz. His mother Victoria, he said, had cancelled making Nicola’s wedding dress at the “eleventh hour”, leaving his bride scrambling for a replacement; then, at the wedding, she’d “hijacked” their “first dance” and “humiliated” him by dancing “very inappropriately on me”. Brooklyn, 26 (pictured with Victoria), said he had no desire to reconcile with his parents who, he said, had controlled him all his life, and value “public promotion and endorsementsNOTE: above all else”. However, it seems recollections may…

For a fortnight, protesters had taken to the streets of Iran, chanting “Death to the dictator”. Finally, the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, “met them with bullets”, said The Economist. Under the cover of an internet blackout, militiamen linked to the Revolutionary Guards swarmed in on motorbikes, armed with Kalashnikovs. With snipers positioned on rooftops, they opened fire on their fellow citizens. Figures compiled by medics suggest a death toll of at least 16,500, said Christina Lamb in The Sunday Times, making this the bloodiest crackdown since the 1979 revolution. A further 330,000 people are estimated to have been injured; many of them were blinded by pellet guns aimed at their faces. Most of the victims are believed to have been under 30. The families of missing protesters had to search…

Tennis Emma Raducanu lost to Anastasia Potapova of Austria in the second round of the Australian Open. Britain’s No. 2, Sonay Kartal, lost in the first round to world No. 33 Anna Kalinskaya. Snooker World No. 2 Kyren Wilson secured his first Masters title with a 10-6 victory over John Higgins. Premier League Tottenham suffered their third successive defeat, losing 2-1 to West Ham at home. The result adds to the mounting pressure on their manager, Thomas Frank. Arsenal, the Premier League leaders, drew 0-0 with Nottingham Forest.…

The Passage of Power by Robert A. Caro, 2012 (Bodley Head £30). The fourth volume in Caro’s biography of Lyndon B. Johnson starts in 1960, as the politician, humiliated by a young JFK, has to settle for the vice-presidency. It includes a riveting account of Kennedy’s assassination as seen through Johnson’s eyes. An all-time great study of power, politics and American masculinity. Winnie & Nelson by Jonny Steinberg, 2023 (William Collins £12.99), chronicles the Mandelas’ marriage from passionate beginning through Nelson’s 27 years in prison, to their bitter divorce. It gets beneath the “icons” to show us two remarkable, complex human beings who were inextricably and painfully intertwined. It’s also a wonderful way to learn about South African history. Wonderland by Steven Johnson, 2016 (Riverhead £8.99). Johnson presents the argument…

Programmes Inside Classical: BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at 90 Tom Service introduces a special concert from Glasgow to mark the orchestra’s birthday. Sun 25 Jan, BBC4 19:00 (125mins). Clive Myrie’s African Adventure The BBC news anchor embarks on a journey in which he explores some of the lesser-seen sides of the continent, starting in South Africa. Mon 26-Fri 30 Jan, BBC2 18:30 (30mins each). Panorama – Post Office: Who’s to Blame? With the public inquiry into the scandal due to deliver its findings later this year, Panorama looks at who may be held responsible. Mon 26 Jan, BBC1 20:00 (30mins). Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy Michael Chernus plays the serial killer who preyed on young men in this true-crime drama, praised by critics for avoiding the usual sensationalism. Fri 30…

250g boiled/steamed and cooled jasmine rice 2 eggs, well beaten 80g petit pois 1 tbsp light soy sauce ½ teaspoon sesame oil vegetable oil black pepper 1 spring onion, finely sliced into rings, to garnish • Run a spoon through the cooked grains of rice to separate them as much as possible, breaking up any clumps. (This will help when you add the rice to the dish later.) • Build your “wok clock” by placing the ingredients around a work surface or plate in the order they will be added to the wok. Start at 12 o’clock with the beaten egg, followed by the cooked rice, petit pois and finally the light soy sauce. • Heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a wok over a high heat until smoking…

By The Sunday Times wine critic, Will Lyons ● Sommeliers are generally “friendly and knowledgeable”, so ask for their help. Tell them your budget, which wines you prefer and what you’re eating. ● Read the tasting notes to get a sense of the weight of the wine, and pair accordingly. ● Traditional European regions tend to dominate wine lists, so if you find an outlier, it’s likely to be there for a good reason, so give it a whirl. ● Wines from Argentina, Portugal and South Africa can be great value. If you’re more discerning, try a red from the Loire, a German or Austrian pinot noir, xinomavro from Greece, Spanish mencía or grenache from South Australia. ● If in doubt, stick to a chardonnay, sauvignon blanc or malbec. Or…

Claudette Colvin 1939-2026 On 2 March 1955, Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old African-American high-school student, boarded a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, taking a window seat. “When the driver ordered her to give up her seat so a white woman could be more comfortable, Ms. Colvin – who had been studying black history in class, learning about abolitionists like Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth – did not budge,” said The Washington Post. History would record that it was Rosa Parks who helped kickstart the Civil Rights Movement by refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus. Yet Colvin, who has died aged 86, did so nine months before Parks, refusing to move until police dragged her off. The episode galvanised the city’s black community. Claudette Austin was born in…

“Britain’s economy urgently needs new businesses and jobs to replace the old,” according to The Resolution Foundation. We’re reliant on “ambitious innovators” to deliver, says Richard Tyler in The Sunday Times. Here are the UK’s fastest-growing private tech companies: Abound (annual sales growth over three years: 490%). This consumer lending fintech – founded during the pandemic by former consultants Michelle He and Gerald Chappell – topped £1bn in loans last September. Expanding abroad. Vertice (437%). This AI procurement platform, formed by brothers Eldar and Roy Tuvey in 2021, helps customers – including AA, ARM and Santander – manage how much they spend on software subscriptions. International hubs from US to Austria to South Africa. Oxbury Bank (399%). Specialising in loans for farmers, Chester-based Oxbury has lent more than £1.5bn since…

Ronald Lauder As the row over the future of Greenland rages on, attention has fallen on one of Donald Trump’s oldest friendships, said Ed Cummings in The Daily Telegraph. Ronald Lauder, a billionaire heir to the Estée Lauder cosmetics fortune, has emerged as the man “who first sowed the seed” of Trump’s “obsession” with the Arctic territory during his first term in office in 2018. According to former national security adviser John Bolton, Lauder, 81 – who worked on European and Nato policy during Ronald Reagan’s 1980s administration – also offered to act “as a back channel” in negotiations with the Danish government. The second of Estée Lauder’s two sons, he has known Trump since both attended the Wharton School of business in the 1960s. Known for his interest in…

Lamar remembered the moment of betrayal like it was yesterday. He’d gone to the party with his girlfriend but hadn’t seen her for over an hour, and it wasn’t like her to disappear. He slipped down the hallway to check his phone. At that point, he heard murmurs coming from one of the bedrooms and thought he recognised his best friend Jason’s low voice. As he pushed the door ajar, they were both still scrambling to throw their clothes on. The image of his girlfriend and best friend together hit Lamar like a blow to the chest. He left without saying a word. Two years on, when he spoke to me, the memory remained raw. “I got betrayed by humans,” Lamar insisted. “I introduced my best friend to her, and…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1500 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 February. Send it to The Week Crossword 1500, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London W2 6JR, or email the completed grid/listed solutions to crossword@theweek.co.uk. By Paul McKenna This week’s winner will receive Week-branded items, as well as two Connell Guides (connellguides.com). ACROSS 9 A pianist struggling to keep time for starters (9) 10 It’s positive and it’s a new lyric (5) 11 Born in endless poverty (3) 12 Tending to be in place of treatment (7,4) 13 Get a rollicking due to what might be a pet slip (5,2) 14 People wearing uniform, say (7) 16 Shriek! (11,4)…