Innehållsförteckning för 1479 från The Week

What happened The Government braced itself for further defections after Lee Anderson, a former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, announced on Monday that he was joining Reform UK. The Ashfield MP was suspended by the Tories last month for saying that Islamists had “got control” of Sadiq Khan, the Labour Mayor of London. Reform leader Richard Tice said his party had found a “champion” for its plans to supplant the Tories in so-called “red wall” seats in the North and the Midlands. Anderson ruled out triggering a by-election in his seat, claiming it would be reckless to do so when there could be a general election as soon as May. The indifferent response to last week’s Budget is thought to have made it less likely that Rishi Sunak will…

When Joe Biden delivered his State of the Union address to congress last Thursday, what most Americans and a “nervous world” were actually interested in was “the state of Joe Biden”, said Jonathan Freedland in The Guardian. “I don’t mean politically, I mean physically.” The 81-year-old needed to prove that “he was not the doddering, even senile figure of Donald Trump’s rhetoric and a thousand social media memes”. In 68 combative minutes, Biden “cleared that bar. He ad-libbed, he took on Republican hecklers and, often at high volume, jabbed at his opponents.” It was a scrappy performance, “free of senior moments”; even his enemies at Fox News described him as “jacked up”, a compliment of sorts. Biden “flipped the script on Trump”, said Julian Zelizer on CNN. Usually, State of…

TikTok, which was overtaken by Instagram as the world’s most downloaded app. Instagram’s revival was put down to the popularity of its copycat video feature Reels. English, with allegations that it does not exist as a language, but is just poorly pronounced French. The French have long worried about creeping Franglais, but in a new book, linguistics professor Bernard Cerquiglini says there is no need, because words such as “le shopping” are in fact French. He notes that owing to the Norman invasion, 40% of English words come from French. Shopping is from éschoppe, the Old French for a small shop.…

Dublin Double “No”: In a dual referendum, voters in Ireland have rejected two proposed amendments to a clause in the country’s 1937 constitution that deals with the family and the role of women. One would have replaced a reference to a mother’s “duties in the home” with a recognition that care is provided by all family members. The other asserted that families could be based on “durable relationships” as well as on marriage. The changes were proposed by the government and backed by most opposition parties, yet were rejected by 68% and 74% of voters, respectively, on a turnout of 44% – a major defeat for the taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, and his coalition. Various reasons were put forward for the No votes. There were concerns about the definition of “durable…

1 Disco 2000 by Jarvis Cocker, Nick Banks, Steve Mackey, Russell Senior, Candida Doyle and Mark Webber, performed by Pulp2 Chattanooga Choo Choo by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren, performed by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra3 Up In Arms by Pat Smear, Nate Mendel and Dave Grohl, performed by Foo Fighters4 Syncopes, written and performed by Gabriel Yared5 Your Disco Needs You by Kylie Minogue, Guy Chambers and Robbie Williams, performed by Kylie Minogue6* Where Are We Now?, written and performed by David Bowie7 If You Came to See Me Cry (from Tammy Faye: The Musical) by Elton John and Jake Shears, performed by Katie Brayben8 Going to a Town, written and performed by Rufus Wainwright Book: A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking Luxury: a keg of single malt…

Would-be space miners don’t just have the Moon in their sights; they’re also looking at asteroids. There are about 18,000 asteroids within potential striking distance of Earth, many in a belt between Jupiter and Mars – and the number being discovered is growing all the time. Many are metallic, and are composed of metals that are critically important in electronics, and solar power, wind power, and electric car components, particularly batteries. Take 16 Psyche, a massive asteroid around 140 miles across, about 324 million miles away. It is the core of a dead planet, believed to have been stripped of its rocky mantle by collisions billions of years ago. That core is made up of iron and nickel, as well as gold, platinum and other precious metals worth an astronomical…

Weight-loss drugs shouldn’t cost the earth Brian Deese, Jonathan Gruber and Ryan Cummings The New York Times The US has never been keen on the idea of forcing drug companies to lower prices, as many countries do, say Brian Deese et al. Such government intervention, it believes, reduces incentives for pharmaceutical innovation. This explains why US consumers pay by far the highest prices in the world for drugs. The arrival of the new class of weight-loss drugs, which includes Ozempic and Wegovy, poses a major dilemma on this front. These medicines offer enormous promise in addressing obesity, but they’re also very expensive in the US, costing roughly $15,000 per person per year. Medicaid – the federal programme that provides health insurance for adults and children with limited resources – currently…

Around the world, more than one billion people are now obese, a study published in The Lancet has found. The analysis of data from almost 200 countries revealed that in 1990, 226 million people – one in 20 – were obese. By 2022, that figure had risen to 1.04 billion, or one in eight. Obesity rates doubled in women in that period, almost trebled in men and rose four-fold in children. “It is very concerning that the epidemic of obesity that was evident among adults in much of the world in 1990 is now mirrored in school-aged children and adolescents,” said senior author Prof Majid Ezzati of Imperial College London. It is vital that availability and affordability of healthy nutritious foods is significantly improved, he added. The number of people…

“The law of the United Kingdom provides many protections for government ministers to speak their minds,” said David Allen Green in Prospect. To leave themselves open to a libel charge, they have to behave particularly egregiously. Michelle Donelan rose to that challenge. Last October, the science minister wrote to the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) agency to complain about two academics on one of its boards. In the letter, which she posted on X/Twitter, Donelan accused the academics of “sharing extremist views on social media”, suggesting they supported Hamas. This, as a UKRI report confirmed last week, was groundless – the result of misinterpreting retweets of innocuous posts. Faced with a libel trial, Donelan retracted her claims and her department stumped up £15,000 in costs and agreed damages. What a…

“Life is a business which does not cover the costs.” Schopenhauer, quoted on UnHerd “For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?” Jane Austen, in Pride and Prejudice, quoted on The Knowledge “Sickness comes on horseback and departs on foot.” Dutch proverb, quoted in Forbes “You’re on Earth. There’s no cure for that.” Samuel Beckett, quoted in Interview “A clown with a flamethrower still has a flamethrower.” Columnist Charlie Sykes, quoted on The Daily Beast “I married for love, but the obvious side benefit of having someone around to find my glasses cannot be ignored.” Cameron Esposito, quoted on Hitched “If you think your boss is stupid, remember: you wouldn’t have a job if he was any smarter.” John…

To The Times Kathleen Tebb (Letters) argues that Chris Packham and his ilk are wrong to believe that they have any right to protest outside politicians’ homes, on the grounds that the principle is that “an Englishman’s home is his castle”. But the function of a castle was to prevent hostile people forcing an entrance into one’s home – nobody ever bothered to build a castle unless they expected hostile people to turn up from time to time and attempt this. It could never prevent an enemy from simply besieging it; the occupants simply had to sit tight and hope the besiegers would eventually give up and go away. Sieges of castles were far commoner in medieval warfare than battles, so in fact the protesters, rather than Ms Tebb, are…

by Gabriel García Márquez Viking 144pp £16.99 The Week Bookshop £13.99 Before he died aged 87, Gabriel García Márquez instructed his sons to destroy his final novel, telling them: “It doesn’t work.” They have decided to ignore his request, said David Mills in The Times. And so, ten years after the writer’s death, we have this curious novel, with a plot that only he could have come up with. It opens with Ana, the wife of a conductor, taking her annual trip to a Caribbean island to visit her mother’s grave. This year, feeling “mischievous”, she decides to bed a stranger she meets in a bar. Each year after that, visits to the grave are followed by an attempt to “find a lover and have an eye-watering night of sex”.…

Rachid Koraïchi at October Gallery The Algeria-born artist Rachid Koraïchi (b.1947) is deservedly lauded for his intricate works in ceramics, on canvas, and in textiles. Koraïchi is obsessed with signs and what they signify. His art, however, is a world away from the kind of dry, theory-heavy thing that statement might suggest – rather, it is as poetic as it is complex. Celestial Blue brings together a series of paintings inspired by the writings of the medieval proto-pacifist Ibn ’Arabï: set against impossibly blue backgrounds, they combine hand-painted Arabic calligraphy, much of it transcribed in reverse, with Keith Haring-like directional marks and ideograms based on the famous neolithic cave drawings in Tassili, deep in the Algerian Sahara. They are phenomenally intricate creations, each inviting the viewer to stare for hours…

Dave Myers and the Hairy Biker effect The death last month of Dave Myers – one half of the Hairy Bikers – was a sad moment for those who enjoyed his TV shows and cookbooks. “But it wasn’t just fans whose lives were touched by this pair of itinerant gastronomes,” says Hannah Al-Othman in The Sunday Times. Myers and his co-host, Si King – with whom he “zipped across Britain on motorbikes”, discovering the best restaurants, pubs and producers – had an immense impact on many of the businesses they featured. In 2021, they visited KC Caviar, a sustainable caviar producer near Selby in North Yorkshire. Myers described their caviar as “the best in the world”, and according to owner John Addey, the company’s website instantly went mad. “It was…

● A front door will ideally have a five-lever mortice deadlock and a high-quality night latch. If so, use both. Burglars will push a door, and if it moves 2mm it tells them that a second lock isn’t engaged. ● Install a letterbox cage. It will stop burglars from “letterbox fishing” – using a long pole to pick up a handbag or keys. ● Don’t leave calendars (which may show when you’re away) or valuables in view. Join a Neighbourhood Watch scheme; and show a sticker even if you don't. ● Use key-operated window locks, as burglars won’t want to break a window. ● Put a decoy key under the mat that looks like the real thing but doesn’t work. It will slow a burglar down, and they may give…

Iris Apfel 1921-2024 Many curators in the US were aware of Iris Apfel and her vast collection of clothes and accessories, ranging from couture to costume jewellery; but it was only when she was in her 80s that she became a fashion icon. Instantly recognisable in her outsize glasses, multiple bangles and mismatched kaleidoscopic outfits, Apfel, who has died aged 102, referred to herself as a “geriatric starlet”. Eschewing the rules of good taste, she danced to the beat of her own drum, and was revered for it. She was featured on magazine covers, collaborated with high-profile designers and was seen at the best parties. When she had to have a hip operation in her 90s, said The Guardian, it turned out to be because she’d tripped over an Oscar…

Growing optimism about the world economy and improved corporate earnings are “driving stock markets to record highs”, said Jennifer Hughes and George Steer in the FT. Stock markets in the US, Japan, Germany and France “have all hit their highest-ever levels” in recent weeks – prompting analysts to forecast further gains in what some describe as a “risk reset”. “Everyone’s been anticipating a recession for a long time and it hasn’t materialised,” said Evan Brown of UBS Asset Management. He views the growing enthusiasm for stocks “as a release of pent-up risk appetite”. Others, such as Liz Ann Sonders of Charles Schwab, maintain that the current AI-inspired rally is “far better founded” than the 1990s dotcom boom – because “profits for many companies” are much more than “pipe dreams”. Even…

The week’s best shares 1Spatial The Mail on Sunday The location data specialist creates digital maps to help firms, states and governments locate assets such as property, pipes and plant life. Shares have soared – there should be more to come. Buy. 62p. Elf Beauty The Mail on Sunday This “sensational” US cosmetics group is achieving “incredible growth” and profits from high-quality, but affordable, vegan products. An “extremely smart operator”, using digital marketing and social media to attract Gen Z customers. Buy. $200.91. Facilities by ADF The Mail on Sunday The truck and trailer specialist provides key services for TV and film crews: from Disney to the BBC. Hit hard by strikes, demand is now recovering. Should be boosted by the Budget’s tax relief for creative industries. Buy. 50p. Intertek…

The North Face outdoor clothing specialist is offering its UK customers 20% discount vouchers if they take part in an hour-long online racial inclusion course. PR experts say the marketing campaign is most likely aimed at Gen Z and millennial consumers who want brands to show that they stand for something – and reckon it is likely to appeal to North Face’s largely urban customer base. Although founded by climbing enthusiasts, North Face has been a go-to brand for streetwear for years. Shoppers are seeking out whole milk and yoghurt, in response to concerns about gut health and evidence that their links to heart disease have been overstated. Sales of Waitrose’s whole milk were 6.5% higher this February than last.…

Rishi Sunak this week condemned remarks made by his party’s biggest donor as “racist and wrong”, but resisted pressure to return the donations. It had emerged a day earlier that Frank Hester – an entrepreneur who has given the Tories £10m in the past year – had once told his colleagues that looking at the MP Diane Abbott makes you “want to hate all black women”, and that she “should be shot”. Hester apologised for being rude but denied being racist; and initially, Sunak merely said his words had been “unacceptable”. His revised statement was issued after Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch branded the comments racist. Hester’s software company, Phoenix Partnership, has won £400m in government contracts.…

Washington DC UFO report: A Pentagon report into “unidentified anomalous phenomena” – or UFOs – has found “no evidence” of any genuine alien sightings or encounters. The authors of the 63-page report say that purported UFOs usually turned out to be “ordinary objects and phenomena” that had been misidentified, such as test missiles, stealth aircraft and drones; and that having combed through classified and unclassified material, they found nothing to support the “persistent narrative” that the government has covered up the discovery of alien craft and “non-human” bodies. Last year, a former intelligence official told a congressional committee that he knew of a secret UFO programme that had attempted to reverse-engineer a crashed alien craft. The report blamed these claims on “circular reporting” and hearsay. However, it acknowledged that its…

“Much of the rage and fear that saturates our culture has less to do with partisan fervour or moral outrage than an addiction to crisis as a form of entertainment. I suspect many (perhaps most) who participate in apparently furious ‘social media mobs’ are not really that angry. They are just there to participate in a bit of enjoyable chaos. Those who ‘doomscroll’ through X/Twitter are addicted to the thrill of updating catastrophe. In an age of endless stimulation, we would rather be terrified than bored. I am reminded of the experiment which found that when people are left alone in a room with an electric shock device, they prefer to give themselves a shock than do nothing.” James Marriott in The Times…

How the Tories betrayed “red wall” voters Dan Hodges The Mail on Sunday Is there anyone out there who still believes in the Conservatives’ “levelling-up” agenda? Surely not, in light of recent events, says Dan Hodges. Last week, Birmingham’s bankrupt council announced it was planning to dim street lights to save money, as well as scrapping almost all arts funding, reviewing all school transport and hiking council tax by 21%. On the same day, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt set out the latest levelling-up news in his Budget. There will be £15m to “support culture” in the West Midlands; a handful of towns will get £20m for “community regeneration”; an extra £5m will be disbursed to help renovate village halls. Oh, and a handsome £242m will be allocated to prop up Canary…

UPFs linked to poor health Concern about the impact of diets rich in ultra-processed foods (UPFs) has grown sharply in the past year. Now, a major study has found direct associations between UPFs and 32 adverse health outcomes, including cancer and heart disease. The international team of researchers analysed the results of 45 studies published in the past three years and involving nearly ten million people. In their report in the BMJ, they say that this revealed “convincing” evidence that people with a higher intake of UPFs – mass-produced foods that require industrial formulations, such as microwave ready meals and sugary cereals – are 50% more likely to die from heart disease, 12% more likely to have type 2 diabetes; and 50% more likely to suffer from anxiety. There is…

Peter Mandelson has been accused of “fat shaming” for advising Keir Starmer to “shed a few pounds” to boost his election chances. But the Labour leader is by no means the first politician to face jibes about his weight. Women in Labour’s 1997 intake got so infuriated by the Tory MP Nicholas “Fatty” Soames’s sexist remarks that they took to miming a key turning and shouting “Click” when he got up to speak – a reference to the famous line that having sex with Soames was like “having a double wardrobe fall on top of you with a very small key sticking out”. Rupert Murdoch, 93, has got engaged for a sixth time – this time to Elena Zhukova, 67, a retired biologist whose daughter used to be married to…

Rugby can sometimes be so boring and mechanical that it frustrates the hell out of its followers, said Stephen Jones in The Sunday Times. Yet there are days when it’s so exciting, it seems like the “planet’s primary life diversion”. And Saturday’s game between England and Ireland was one such day: quite simply, this was one of the most magnificent matches that Twickenham has witnessed. Before it began, few people gave Steve Borthwick’s men any real hope of beating Ireland, who had been utterly dominant in their first three Six Nations games and looked on course to secure a second successive Grand Slam. Yet remarkably, a different England showed up to the one that had laboured to narrow wins against Wales and Italy before slumping to defeat against Scotland. Gone…

MotoGP Defending champion Francesco Bagnaia got his 2024 season off to a successful start with victory in the Grand Prix in Qatar. Tennis Emma Raducanu reached the third round of the Indian Wells Masters before losing to Aryna Sabalenka 3-6, 5-7. Her defeat ended British singles representation. Cricket India beat England in the fifth Test by an innings and 64 runs to claim a 4-1 series victory. Rugby union Italy beat Scotland 31-29 in round four of the Six Nations. France beat Wales 45-24.…

The novelist and screenwriter David Nicholls is “hard to avoid” at the moment, said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph. A new screen adaptation of his 2009 bestseller One Day has become a huge hit on Netflix; his forthcoming novel You Are Here is hotly anticipated; and his 2003 debut, Starter for Ten, which was filmed in 2006, has now been turned into a feel-good stage musical. The show, which has just premiered at the Bristol Old Vic, is not an “epic masterpiece”, but it’s colourful and stirring, offers oodles of 1980s musical nostalgia, and looks set to reach a wider audience. The story concerns Brian, a working-class youth from Essex who has won a place to read English literature at Bristol University and is now desperate to be selected…

The Gentlemen is Guy Ritchie’s first TV series, and is loosely based on his 2019 film of the same name; “but it takes a little while for the Guy Ritchie-ness to kick in”, said Anita Singh in The Daily Telegraph. The Netflix series begins with Army officer Eddie (Theo James, from the second season of The White Lotus) being summoned home to the family seat, where his father, the 12th Duke of Halstead, lies dying. Also present are Eddie’s haughty mother (Joely Richardson) and “cocaine-addled” older brother Freddy (a scene-stealing Daniel Ings). “So far, so Saltburn.” It’s at the reading of the will that everything changes. To everyone’s surprise, it is revealed that Eddie has inherited the estate, news that sends his brother into a foul-mouthed tailspin. “I’ve been stabbed…

Akira Toriyama, one of Japan’s leading manga artists, died unexpectedly from a bleed on the brain earlier this month, at the age of 68, says Roxy Simons on Yahoo News. Toriyama was the creator of the “iconic” comic book series Dragon Ball, a work that “redefined the manga and anime industry”. Toriyama had his first manga published at the age of 23, in 1978, after quitting his job as a poster designer at an advertising agency. Between 1984 and 1995, he published Dragon Ball, his manga series that told the story of Son Goku (pictured), a boy on a quest to collect magic dragon balls, in order to protect the planet from alien humanoid invaders. It became the archetypal shonen manga – aimed at adolescent boys – of its time,…

As Brian visits Alice, Harry arrives to apologise. Furious Brian speaks his mind; later Alice calls Harry to apologise and asks him to vouch for Harrison at his disciplinary hearing. Alistair tells Jim and Jazzer he can’t work with Denise and wants to transfer. When Denise hears, she confronts Alistair and they end up sharing their feelings, and a kiss. Harrison and Fallon are preoccupied about his hearing. Harry comes to the Tea Room to apologise to Fallon and say he’ll speak up for Harrison; she tells him to leave and reveals the situation to Emma. Back from St Lucia, Paul tells Denise that John, her husband, is a wreck and needs her. After calling John, she puts things on hold with Alistair, leaving him hurt and determined to transfer.…

This spicy Indonesian-style fried rice is one we make at home most weeks, says Laura Strange. Packed with veggies, a tingly level of spice and topped with a fried egg, it’s comforting and oh-so good. I should also say that this is my very unauthentic gluten-free version of the original dish, made using easy-to-source ingredients. Serves 2 150g basmati rice 1 carrot 1 shallot or 1 small brown onion 5 spring onions 100g baby sweetcorn 100g tenderstem broccoli 100g red pepper 2 tbsp sriracha, plus extra to garnish 3 tbsp gluten-free tamari 1 tbsp light brown sugar 1 garlic clove, grated or minced sesame or vegetable oil, for cooking 2 eggs sliced red chillies or chilli flakes, to garnish (optional) • Cook the basmati rice according to the packet instructions,…

Bath is famous for its geothermal springs and mineral water. The Gainsborough Bath Spa has warm pools, an ice alcove, saunas, a hammam and flotation pool with hydro jets (thegainsboroughbathspa.co.uk). Sulphuric waters were first discovered in 1571 in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. Sip the waters at the Royal Pump Room Museum and bathe at the Turkish baths, or try Rudding Park, with a rooftop spa with spring water from the grounds (ruddingpark.co.uk). The waters in Buxton, Derbyshire were first discovered by the Romans. Sip them at St Ann’s Well and try the spa at the Buxton Crescent hotel, with its renovated Victorian baths, saunas, steam rooms, ice fountain and salt cave (ensanahotels.com). Malvern, Worcestershire was revered for the purity of its natural spring waters, which can be sipped at the Malvhina…

Ahilya Fort Maheshwar, India Long home to the maharajas of Indore, this 18th century fort in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh was partially converted to a hotel by their descendant, Prince Richard Holkar, in 2000. It is “a place to sink into the slower, spiritual side of India”, says Shunali Khullar Shroff in Condé Nast Traveller, with “birdsong filling” the air in the gardens, which overlook the Narmada River, and a 250-year-old Ganesh temple. The 19 guest rooms are scattered around its ramparts. Meals include organic lunch salads, thali suppers, and afternoon teas on a wooden boat; and staff can arrange excursions, including temple visits. Doubles from £333, all-inclusive; ahilyafort.com.…

Reddit: ready, set, go After several years limbering up, Reddit has finally fired the starting gun on its New York IPO with a hoped-for valuation of $6.4bn, said Dan Gallagher in The Wall Street Journal. The idiosyncratic social network – whose WallStreetBets message board was a key player in the meme stock frenzy that blew up in 2021 – looks to have got its timing right, given the current “dearth of major IPOs” and strong tech market. It has helpfully also “curbed its own enthusiasm”, slashing its most recent private valuation ($10bn in 2021) by 35%. The downside is that, after 18 years in the game, it is still “burning cash” – losing $91m last year. Bulls point out that Reddit, whose forums range from the mainstream to the extremely…

The future of the Telegraph newspaper group is once again in the headlines, said Muvija M. on Reuters. On Monday, the UK’s competition and media regulators submitted reports to Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer on the planned sale of the group’s titles – the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, and The Spectator. She must now decide whether the Abu Dhabi-backed investment group, RedBird IMI, can go ahead with its proposed purchase. It’s a tricky question. The mooted deal led to “howls of protest” from politicians and journalists, who fear that letting an “authoritarian” state buy the Telegraph would undermine British democracy. Yet the Government has long “had an open approach to foreign takeovers”, and has tied itself in knots for months over the sale of the Conservative Party’s house newspaper. Frazer could…

A zero-hours ban would be bad economics David Smith The Times Keir Starmer isn’t the first Labour leader vowing to outlaw zero-hours contracts as part of a wider move to enhance workers’ rights, says David Smith. Tony Blair made a similar pledge nearly 30 years ago. Once in office, however, pragmatism prevailed and he abandoned the plan. For good reason: “a ban on zero-hours contracts is a good slogan but bad economics”. There are now many more Britons on these casual contracts than there were in Blair’s day: 1.15 million at the last count, nearly 200,000 more than on the eve of the pandemic. The latter point is telling. “Often described as a symptom of job insecurity”, zero-hours contracts have flourished during “the tightest labour market in living memory” –…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1405 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 25 March. Send it to The Week Crossword 1405, 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 Clown of the month? (6) 4 Destroyer leaving France, parted for exercises (8) 9 Tons of City headgear (6) 10 Excellent range shown by Charles (8) 12 Fifle soon misused in battle (9) 13 Associated with the blue and orange mentioned (5) 14 Victory by the…

The vinyl revival, which has been so strong that LPs have been returned to the basket of goods used to calculate inflation for the first time since 1992. Air fryers are among other new entries; hand sanitisers have been removed. The Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer’s chilling Holocaust drama, which became the first British film to win the Academy Award for the best international feature. The film, which focuses on the everyday life of Auschwitz’s commandant and his family, also won best sound. Picking up the award, Glazer dedicated it to the memory of the former teenage resistance worker who was the model for one of the characters. Most of the other major awards, including best director and best picture, went to Oppenheimer. The night sky, with reports that a…

48% of voters now perceive the Conservatives as a high-tax party, despite the cuts to national insurance announced in last week’s Budget. The figure includes 40% of those who voted Tory at the last election. 31% of voters associate the Tories with low taxes. For Labour, the figures are 42% and 28%, respectively. More in Common/The Daily Telegraph Three-quarters of people in England and Wales say they would support making it lawful for terminally ill adults to access assisted dying in the UK; about one in eight oppose such a move. More than half would consider travelling to Switzerland for an assisted death if they were terminally ill, though less than a third could afford it. Opinium/Dignity in Dying…

Penny Mordaunt’s dress Penny Mordaunt gave a lot of thought to what she should wear to the coronation, says Charlotte Williamson in The Sunday Times. The head of the Privy Council at the last coronation wore elegant court dress, she explained – but that was for a man. She felt she needed something suitable for an occasion that was full of historic symbolism, and that she could wear next to her female colleagues, as well as senior clergy and uniformed service personnel – and still fit in. She settled on a caped dress, which she then had embellished by Hand & Lock, an embroidery house founded in 1767. On the day, her outfit – and her holding up of a ceremonial sword – nearly stole the show. But now, she…

A 62-year-old German man has been vaccinated against Covid 217 times. The bizarre case was documented in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal. Researchers from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg said the unnamed man received the high number of vaccinations “for private reasons” (it seems he may have sold forged vaccination cards to people who wanted to avoid being inoculated). He has suffered “no noticeable side effects”, but the researchers stressed: “We do not endorse hyper-vaccination.” Male workers at a Japanese telecoms company, Exeo, have been given the opportunity to experience period pain. The pain was generated using a “perionoid” device that sends electrical signals via pads placed in the lower abdominal region, to induce menstrual-style cramping sensations. “It hurts. Oh my goodness!” said Masaya Shibasaki, 26, as he winced in pain.…

UKRAINE He’s spoiling you, Mr Ambassador The Kyiv Post President Zelensky has finally appointed a Ukrainian ambassador to the UK, and it’s certainly good to hear the post has finally been filled, says Bohdan Nahaylo: the UK is one of Ukraine’s key allies, and Kyiv has sorely missed a presence in London since the last envoy – the “very capable” Vadym Prystaiko – was inexplicably fired in July. But what’s not so good to hear is that his successor is to be the former head of Ukraine’s armed forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi. It’s a strange choice, to say the least. Ousted last month after a power struggle with Zelensky, the general was expected to go on playing a vital role in Ukraine’s defence. Instead, he’s off to London where – with…

Even when Theresa May was in office, she seemed of the past, said Robert Colvile in The Sunday Times: the cricket-loving vicar’s daughter who’d met her husband at a Tory disco. And after leaving No. 10, there were no “moneygrubbing entanglements” for this former PM. It was typical of May, that when she revealed last week that she will stand down as an MP at the next election (along with at least 60 other Tories), it was to her local paper in Maidenhead; and the tributes that followed made much of her dedication to public service. Yet to recall May as “a Malory Towers head girl” who somehow ended up in No. 10 is to miss “so much about” this most “inscrutable” of politicians. That May is now being lauded…

The photograph of the Princess of Wales and her children published on Mother’s Day “could hardly have been more charming and reassuring”, said Simon Jenkins in The Guardian. Taken by William, it was designed to send the message that Catherine was well, and end weeks of speculation about her health following an abdominal operation. Instead, it had the opposite effect. By Monday, major photo agencies had pulled the picture from circulation, stating that it had been “manipulated”. Soon after, the Princess apologised, saying that, “like many amateur photographers”, she sometimes experimented with editing. But by that point a full-blown media frenzy was under way, with suspicious minds poring over every aspect of the picture. “What dark secrets lie behind the daughter’s misaligned sweater, the blurred skirt and twisted zip? What…

Sometimes, you don’t need a ton of goals for a match to be an “instant classic”, said Oliver Holt in the Daily Mail. Sunday’s game at Anfield between Liverpool and Manchester City may have finished 1-1, but it was a match that “had everything”: chance after chance, superlative skill, and breathless drama until the final whistle. Moreover, it was a “magnificent manifestation” of two contrasting managerial philosophies: Pep Guardiola’s “meticulously curated order” versus Jürgen Klopp’s “gut-churning, irresistible chaos”. City had the better of the first half, and went into the interval ahead thanks to a John Stones goal from a corner, said Henry Winter in The Times. After the break, it was the Reds who dominated: Alexis Mac Allister scored from the spot, and from then on their press was…

United to divide us To The Sunday Times My own background may hold lessons about integration. My father, an orthodox Sikh and a leading surgeon who served the British community all his working life, married a Jewish woman, my mother. He was once reprimanded by his employer for advising a Muslim man to avoid consanguineous marriage. He refused to apologise, as the science was on his side – and he was not being Islamophobic, whatever that means. My grandfather Ji was also a proud British Sikh, who came here as an economic immigrant from Punjab in the early 1960s. He believed this was the best country in the world, the land of Shakespeare, Newton, Darwin, Elgar, Constable, Dirac and Churchill; of parliamentary democracy, law and order. He would be turning…

by Catherine Coldstream Chatto & Windus 352pp £20 The Week Bookshop £15.99 Catherine Coldstream was a promising 24-year-old musician from north London when the death of her father – the British realist painter William Coldstream – prompted an intense spiritual awakening, said Catherine Taylor in the FT. Convinced that there must be an afterlife, she converted to Catholicism. Subsequently, in 1989, she joined a Carmelite order, took a vow of silence and entered a priory in rural Northumbria. The radical seriousness of the Carmelite life initially delighted Coldstream, said Alice O’Keeffe in The Times. She loved the “singing, the prayer, the digging in the vegetable patch, and the endless cleaning with strange old-fashioned implements”. But as her absorbing memoir, Cloistered, details, rapture gave way to disillusionment. As a “posh southerner”…

Kavita Puri’s Three Million is “the most thought-provoking history series I have heard in months, possibly years”, said Patricia Nicol in The Sunday Times. In Britain, the Bengal famine is remembered – if at all – as a stain on the reputation of Winston Churchill. The wartime prime minister was slow to take the crisis seriously, and refused requests for food aid from the British colonial government. However, the focus of Puri’s series (on BBC Sounds and Radio 4) is not on the failed response to the famine, and the ways in which that worsened the crisis, but on the three million killed by it. “Eighty years on, there is no museum, memorial or monument to those mostly impoverished, nameless dead.” Thanks to vivid accounts from people who were children…

This exhibition at the Royal Academy could be seen as a long-overdue “homecoming”, said Chloë Ashby in The Art Newspaper. The Swiss-born artist Angelica Kauffman (1741-1807) was one of 18th century Europe’s most in-demand painters, famed for her portraits, self-portraits and history paintings. As “savvy as she was talented”, she “had a knack for befriending the right people”, one of whom included Sir Joshua Reynolds: in 1768 he invited her to become one of the 34 founding members of the Royal Academy (along with the English painter Mary Moser, she was one of only two women accorded the honour). Time, however, was not kind to her reputation. In the 19th century, her neoclassical style fell out of fashion, and like many women artists, she was “sidelined from history”. This, the…

An Equal Music by Vikram Seth, 1999 (Orion £10.99). I reread this exquisite novel about a love affair between two musicians when I first started writing about Callas. Seth writes so well about making music, not just the sound but the physicality of playing. The Celebrity Circus by Elsa Maxwell, 1963 (available used). Despite being neither beautiful nor rich, Maxwell made herself the hostess of 1950s café society. Her secret: “I never make the wives jealous.” She was in love with Callas but could not resist introducing her to Onassis, and she never got over their affair. Maxwell knew everybody from Noël Coward to the Aga Khan, and this book is an acerbic portrait of a lost world. Those Who Are Loved by Victoria Hislop, 2019 (Headline £9.99). A visceral…

Programmes The Gone New crime series. When an Irish couple go missing in New Zealand, detectives from both countries must work together. Sat 16 Mar, BBC4 21:00 and 21:50 (50mins and 55mins). Whites Only: Ade’s Extremist Adventure In a bid to find common ground, Ade Adepitan spends a week in Orania, a town in South Africa that allows only Afrikaner residents. Mon 18 Mar, C4 22:00 (65mins). Coma Four-part drama about a family man (Jason Watkins) who confronts a menacing youth outside his home, with fateful consequences. Mon 18, Tue 19, Wed 20 and Thur 21 Mar, C5 21:00 (60mins each). The Dropout Acclaimed series about the rise and fall of biotech CEO Elizabeth Holmes and her company Theranos. Amanda Seyfried stars. Tue 19 Mar, BBC2 22:40 and 23:30 (50mins…

Edward Bond 1934-2024 Edward Bond, who has died aged 89, was the most polarising British dramatist of the postwar era, said Benedict Nightingale in The New York Times. To some, he was “an unholy terror”, relentless in his doctrinaire socialism and “disconcertingly fond of violent theatrical effects”. To others, he was “a secular saint, a writer of unflinching integrity in a world of compromise” who shone much-needed light on oppression and exploitation, and their effects on the human animal. Both sides would agree on one thing, however: the key role he played in ending censorship in British theatre in the late 1960s, with his hugely controversial 1965 play Saved. Set in south London, Saved follows a group of unemployed and disaffected youths who, in one scene, kill a baby in…

Dame Carolyn McCall Even Mr Bates couldn’t boost ITV’s numbers in the teeth of an advertising downturn. Despite record revenues in its studios business, profits last year fell by 61% to £193m. That shouldn’t overly concern chief executive Carolyn McCall, said Nils Pratley in The Guardian. Having crashed the shares by 27% in a day when she launched an expensive adventure into streaming with ITVX two years ago, it is finally paying off: 2023 was the year of “peak investment”, she said, and ITV is now “well placed” to profit. “My mandate was to kick ITV into the future,” McCall, 62, said last year – a trick she previously pulled off at EasyJet. When she arrived there in 2010, Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary dismissed her unchivalrously as “some old media luvvie”.…

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