Table of contents for 1452 in The Week

What happened Days before the start of the autumn term, the Government ordered the shutdown or partial closure of more than 100 schools, because of the potential threat posed by crumbling concrete. On Wednesday, the Department for Education (DfE) published a list of the 147 affected schools in England. Four have had to switch fully to remote learning; a further 20 have switched to hybrid learning. Ministers said that they’d acted after a spate of collapses over the summer caused by defects in a material called reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac), that was widely used from the 1950s to the 1990s. Jonathan Slater, the DfE’s former top civil servant, claimed that, as chancellor, Rishi Sunak had cut the school rebuilding programme, halving the target from 100 schools a year to…

“The Blairites are back,” said Paul Waugh in The i Paper. On Monday, Keir Starmer reshuffled his shadow cabinet. Having campaigned from Labour’s “soft left” to replace Jeremy Corbyn, he has now turned ruthlessly on his former wing of the party – demoting Lisa Nandy and Jonathan Ashworth from the levelling up and welfare portfolios, respectively, and filling his front bench with figures from the Blairite Right such as Liz Kendall, who ran against Corbyn for the leadership in 2015, and the former foreign secretary Hilary Benn. (“I’ll be surprised if we are not invading Iraq by tea time,” tweeted the SNP’s David Linden.) Deputy leader Angela Rayner remains in post, with her position beefed up. But it is Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, who is “the pre-eminent partner for…

The French, with reports that they are facing an infestation of bed bugs. The bugs are estimated to have invaded 11% of French homes, as well as hotels, holiday rentals, theatres and cinemas. The Great Wall of China, after construction workers used a bulldozer to demolish a section of the ancient structure in Shanxi province. The workers had allegedly wanted to create a shortcut for trucks carrying equipment to a nearby building site. Gavin Williamson, the former education secretary, who was ordered to issue a formal apology for bullying a colleague. The Independent Expert Panel found that Williamson had breached conduct rules by sending ex-Tory chief whip Wendy Morton a string of “offensive and intimidating” expletive-laden texts after he was not invited to the Queen’s funeral last year.…

82% of prospective Labour voters in England and 53% of prospective Conservative ones are in favour of immediately extending access to free school meals to all children of families receiving universal credit, with a view to the policy being rolled out to all school children in the future. Public First/School Food Review Working Group Under-40s in Britain rank improving mental health as a higher priority than tackling climate change or bringing down crime rates. More in Common/Rethink Mental Illness Among voters in traditionally safe Tory seats in the South, Labour is now more trusted than the Conservatives to combat crime, by 28% to 21%. Redfield & Wilton Strategies…

Escape from a township Even on a grey day in central London, the Strictly Come Dancing professional Johannes Radebe radiates joy, says Louise Carpenter in The Times. He smiles and laughs, and is more than happy to pose for fans seeking selfies (“Of course, darling,” he says every time. “How are you, darling?”) His happiness is hard-won: as a Barbie-mad boy growing up in a township in South Africa, he was a target for bullies. “Aged six, I would say to my mum, ‘What is a sissy boy?’… [Much later] I got a clear explanation: faggot. That was the translation. It brought such shame.” He knew, he says, that boys from townships such as his ended up in the mines, and he thought, “I can’t be working in the mines.…

A Delta flight from Atlanta to Barcelona was forced to turn back two hours into its journey, after a passenger had diarrhoea “all the way through” the plane. In an audio recording from the cockpit, the pilot can be heard describing the situation as “a biohazard issue”. “It was a mess,” recalled a passenger who was on the flight. “The pilots made the right decision to turn around. The ground crew ripped out the carpet and put [a] new [one] in.” The plane finally made it to Barcelona the following day. A Swedish pensioner was shocked to find the face of Donald Trump staring back at him from a pork steak that he’d marinated in a paprika and orange dressing, and put on a barbecue. “It was looking at me…

ITALY A PM’s trouble with the man in her life La Repubblica (Rome) Pity the political leader lumbered with an “embarrassing” spouse, says Gabriele Bartoloni. And in particular pity the Italian PM Giorgia Meloni. Her long-term partner, TV journalist Andrea Giambruno, has made headlines for his comments in a TV programme about a recent spate of gang rapes. “If you avoid getting drunk and losing consciousness,” he advised, “perhaps you’d also avoid getting into trouble, because then you’ll find the wolf.” It was victim-blaming, pure and simple. Meloni must have been furious – especially as it coincided with her planned visit to a town in the south, where two children, aged ten and 12, were recently raped by a gang of youths. Yet this was by no means the first…

A woman who went to hospital in Australia suffering from forgetfulness and depression was found to have an 8cm-long parasitic worm living in her brain. The patient, a 64-year-old from New South Wales, had initially been admitted in 2021 suffering from abdominal pain and diarrhoea. A year later, when she was also experiencing neurological problems, doctors sent her for an MRI scan. This revealed abnormalities in her brain that required surgery. “But the neurosurgeons certainly didn’t go in there thinking they would find a wriggling worm,” said infectious disease specialist Dr Sanjaya Senanayake. Unable to identify the roundworm, doctors sent it to an expert in parasites who told them it was Ophidascaris robertsi, which is normally found in pythons – and which has never before been found in a human.…

The Tories just can’t seem to decide how to deal with China, said Simon Tisdall in The Guardian. Eight years ago, David Cameron hailed a “golden era” of relations with Beijing and took President Xi out for a convivial pint in a pub near Chequers. Then Boris Johnson slapped sanctions on China in response to its crackdown in Hong Kong and banned Huawei from the UK’s 5G network. His successor Liz Truss went further, by declaring China a threat. But now, it seems, Rishi Sunak wants to mend relations with Beijing. Last week, James Cleverly became the first UK Foreign Secretary in five years to visit China, where he talked of addressing “the challenges and differences of opinion that all countries have in bilateral relations”. Tory hawks were furious: Iain…

“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” John F. Kennedy’s exhortation to his fellow Americans, in 1961, has become so famous, it’s easy to overlook how “shocking” it was, said Gavin Rice in The Critic. It is, after all, a tenet of liberal conservatism that the state is there to serve us, not vice versa. And yet in the Tory Party, there is a persistent view that even in peacetime, individuals should sacrifice their freedom for it. The idea of restoring national military service – long cherished by some – has faded; but MP Danny Kruger has called for a year’s compulsory civic service; and last week, Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the House of Commons, backed the think-tank Onward’s…

We were promised “ad nauseam” that England under new coach Steve Borthwick would peak at the right time, said Oliver Brown in The Daily Telegraph. “All the low-water marks” of recent times – November’s capitulation to South Africa; March’s record loss to France – were “passed off with the blithe assurance” that things would be better “come the World Cup”. Well it’s here – England play Argentina on Saturday – and the long-heralded improvement has failed to materialise. Instead, England begin their campaign on the back of a 30-22 loss to Fiji – one of their worst-ever defeats. The side’s supporters “could be forgiven for feeling they have been taken for fools”. There are many reasons England are in such disarray, said Gerard Meagher in The Guardian. Domestic crises, from…

by Marie Darrieussecq Fitzcarraldo 272pp £12.99 The Week Bookshop £9.99 This book by the “distinguished” French novelist Marie Darrieussecq isn’t easy to describe, said Samantha Harvey in The Guardian. In part, it’s a memoir of the insomnia from which Darrieussecq has suffered for most of her adult life. It is written in “fragmentary, footnoted” prose and is full of illustrations: one of its pages consists of photos of hotel rooms around the world in which she has stayed. Darrieussecq also surveys “insomniac literature”, asking why so many writers – from Franz Kafka (“the patron saint of insomnia”) to Sylvia Plath – have been terrible sleepers. Such a book might have been pretentious and incoherent, but her writing is so “intelligent and searching” that the overall effect is “electric”. Marked by…

The representation of the black female body in art is a “complicated” topic, to say the least, said Waldemar Januszczak in The Sunday Times. It is “a fiery stew of big issues” – of sexual, racial and colonial politics – which are all explored in this “riveting” exhibition. Black Venus: Reclaiming Black Women in Visual Culture examines “the image of the black woman in art” using works by 18 black artists, as well as a wealth of archival material. It looks at the way in which black women have responded to their historical subjugation, fetishisation and objectification through art, and how they have reclaimed their own image. It is an “accusatory” exhibition, but also an “involving” one that never once settles into “an obvious path”. Above all, “it proves how…

The Widow Couderc by Georges Simenon, translated by Siân Reynolds, 1942 (Penguin £10.99). Every year Simenon would rage at the “idiots of Stockholm” who yet again had refused him the Nobel Prize. I used to think this was crazy; now I think it quite sane. His romans durs are spare and harsh, with a deep understanding of human nature; this is one of his finest. Boys in Zinc by Svetlana Alexievich, 1989 (Penguin £9.99). Now, she did win the Nobel, and rightly, in 2015, for her polyphonic oral histories of the end of Soviet Communism. Boys in Zinc, about the terrifying experiences of Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan, was the first to be translated into English. Later she assembled voices from Chernobyl, and the experiences of women and children in wartime.…

Programmes Laura Kuenssberg: State of Chaos Kuenssberg looks back on the roller-coaster ride in British politics that took place during her seven-year stint as BBC political editor from 2015. Mon 11 Sep, BBC2 21:00 (60mins). Living Next Door to Putin In this two-parter, Katya Adler travels through Poland and the Baltic states to find out what it is like to live on the border with Russia. Tue 12 Sep, BBC1 20:00 (60mins). Voyage to Mars: The Longest Goodbye Documentary about a Nasa psychologist who is preparing astronauts for the mental strains of a three-year mission to Mars. Wed 13 Sep, BBC4 20:30 (85mins). Coco Chanel Unbuttoned Chanel biographer Justine Picardie and model Jerry Hall are among the contributors to this documentary about the French designer. Fri 15 Sep, BBC2 21:00…

Cycling along the Danube A leisurely nine-night bike tour of Austria, enjoying the scenery of the Great Loop and visiting historic landmarks, costs from £750pp (excl. flights). 01273-977762, freedomtreks.co.uk. Arrive 7 October. From Brazil to Argentina This week-long guided adventure takes in highlights including a trip to the scenic Iguazú Falls. From £1,045pp b&b (excl. flights). 020-8004 8886, theadventurepeople.com. Arrive 27 October. Jordan in nine days Explore the wonders of the Hashemite Kingdom, from the Wadi Rum Desert to the Lost City of Petra. From £1,199pp half board (incl. flights). 020-3582 5173, exoticca.com. Depart 17 November. Hiking the Wild West Get back to nature with this four-day retreat in Utah, with tours of the Zion and Bryce Canyon national parks. From £1,620pp (excl. flights). 0808-274 5111, intrepidtravel.com. Arrive 24 September.…

Colm Kelleher When the Irish-British chairman of Swiss bank UBS was at Oxford, he was a keen player of the boardgame Diplomacy, said Oliver Bullough in The Sunday Times. The game, which involves conquering Europe, may have “given him an insight into his adopted country”: no one is allowed to invade Switzerland. Earlier this year, the country’s secretive banking culture was blown open when UBS was pressed into the rescue of its national rival Credit Suisse, then on the brink of collapse. The combined bank has just announced $29bn in profits – “the largest quarterly profit reported by a bank”. Meanwhile, the doctor’s son from Warrington – one of nine children born to a family of Irish heritage – has become “Europe’s most powerful banker”. “Almost everybody in the upper…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1379 An Ettinger pass holder and two Connell Guides will be given to the sender of the first correct solution to the crossword and the clue of the week opened on Monday 18 September. Send it to The Week Crossword 1379, 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 an Ettinger (ettinger.co.uk) travel pass holder in assorted colours, which retails at £115, and two Connell Guides (connellguides.com). ACROSS 1 Spot associated with setter in Indian city (6) 4 Helps to protect second and first teams (1-5) 9 What summer does reportedly for cutter (4) 10 Leningrad’s unusual flier (10) 11 A board member’s residence? (6) 12 One developed Cinerama (8) 13 Advocate block…

What happened Rishi Sunak prepared for an autumn relaunch last week by conducting a mini reshuffle of his Cabinet. He appointed Grant Shapps as Defence Secretary, to replace Ben Wallace, who is standing down at the next election. It is Shapps’s fifth cabinet job in less than a year: over the past 12 months he has also served as transport secretary, home secretary, business secretary and energy security secretary. Shapps is regarded within the party as a safe pair of hands, and an assured media performer, though some colleagues and ex-service heads have voiced concern about his lack of security and defence experience. To fill Shapps’s vacant role at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Sunak brought in his former special adviser and close political ally Claire Coutinho.…

The Church of England was once described as “the Tory party at prayer”, but that doesn’t describe its current clergy, a poll has found. Asked how they’d vote in an election tomorrow, just 13% said they’d vote Tory, compared to 36% who said Labour and 18% who said they’d opt for the Liberal Democrats. The survey also found that 75% of clergy backed Remain in 2016, and only 19% voted Leave. The streets of Oxford have become so clogged with vans delivering goods to students that six colleges have asked for online shopping to be sent to a depot a mile outside the city as part of a trial scheme. The items will then be sorted and transported to each college once a day by cargo bike, reducing emissions and…

Birmingham City Council has declared itself effectively bankrupt. The Labour-run council – the largest local authority in Europe, serving more than a million people – issued a section 114 notice this week, indicating that it can no longer balance its budgets. It has blamed its predicament on the need to find up to £760m to settle historic equal pay claims, the spiralling cost of fixing flaws in its new Oracle IT system, and government cuts. The council will henceforth provide only the core services that are required by law, such as social care and waste collection.…

Munich, Germany Nazi scandal: The deputy premier of the German state of Bavaria appears to have weathered a scandal over reports that he was found in possession of an antisemitic leaflet when he was at school in the 1980s. Hubert Aiwanger – the leader of the populist Free Voters party – denied writing the leaflet (which suggested that the “greatest traitors to the Fatherland” should win “a free flight up the chimney at Auschwitz”); but he admitted to having had at least one copy of it in his school bag. Former classmates then claimed that he had given Nazi salutes at school and brought in copies of Mein Kampf. Aiwanger apologised for “following an inhumane path” in his youth, but said he had been the victim of a smear campaign,…

“Laughing at ‘bonkers’ children’s names is now a popular pastime. A recent list featured Galaxy, Dzyre, Princiss, Strawberry Rain and Iamunique. There’s a class issue here: if you’re poor, words are often the only thing you have. If you’re presumed to be good only for three GCSEs and a zero-hours contract, having a name like Strawberry Rain is the most definitive way a parent can say to its child, ‘You are incomparable. You are a special thing – and there is nothing like you in the world.’ Besides, it’s all relative, isn’t it? I remember when I first started meeting posh people, being astonished that grown humans could be called Geoffrey, Cordelia or Jemima.” Caitlin Moran in The Times…

As creation myths gave way to systematic calendars, various human civilisations attempted to work out the age of the Earth. The Greeks and Romans spilled much ink trying to date the creation of mankind and the primeval flood of Ogyges, but deemed everything before that ádelon (obscure). The Bible, however, gave a clear account of the Earth’s six-day creation, and the Byzantine calendar traditionally dated the first day of the first year (Anno Mundi) to 1 September 5509 BC. In 1650, the Irish archbishop James Ussher calculated that the world began on 23 October 4004 BC, based on the Old Testament and the biblical patriarchs’ ages. This was widely accepted until the end of the 18th century, when James Hutton, a Scottish landowner known as the father of modern geology,…

The president should skip the debates Doug Gordon Newsweek Donald Trump was right to skip the first primary debate with his Republican rivals, says Doug Gordon. He has no need to waste his time with “a bunch of runners-up, has-beens and never-going-to-bes”. Come next autumn, Joe Biden should likewise skip the presidential debates with Trump. Not because he’ll be so far ahead that it wouldn’t be worth his while, but because Trump would only use the debates “to amplify his lies, distract from his legal troubles and stoke chaos”. Why give him that opportunity? Presidential debates are part of US “political folklore”, and the idea of Biden skipping them would no doubt shock Washington pundits. But let’s face it: the voters who will decide the 2024 election probably wouldn’t notice…

More than 120,000 of the people who died in England last year were on NHS waiting lists, according to analysis of official figures obtained by the Labour Party. That is a record high, and almost double the number five years ago. NHS waiting lists are currently running at over seven million, although PM Rishi Sunak has made reducing them one of his core pledges. Separate research by the Lib Dems has revealed the low numbers of NHS hospital beds available in some areas. The UK overall has 2.4 hospital beds per 1,000 people, which is among the lowest rates in Europe: the average across the OECD EU nations is five. But the Homerton University NHS Foundation Trust in northeast London has 0.9 beds per 1,000 – fewer than in Mexico,…

Almost two weeks into Sadiq Khan’s “all-out war on motorists”, and an “anti-UIez uprising” is under way in London’s newly “radicalised” outer suburbs, said Allister Heath in The Daily Telegraph. Owing to the expansion of the Labour Mayor’s Ultra Low Emission Zone, drivers of older, more-polluting vehicles must now pay £12.50 a day to drive anywhere in Greater London. This “cash grab” has triggered a “wave of French-style disobedience”: vigilantes have put hundreds of the 3,000 cameras needed to run Ulez out of action by spray-painting their lenses or knocking them over. And at an angry rally last week, protesters bore a coffin emblazoned with the words “RIP London”. It’s been a predictably chaotic start for this “deeply flawed” policy, said the Daily Mail. We would never condone wanton acts…

“The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ but ‘That’s funny.’”Isaac Asimov, quoted on Universe Today “I’ve decided to sell my Hoover… well, it was just collecting dust.”Tim Vine, quoted in the Daily Mail “All cruel people describe themselves as paragons of frankness.”Tennessee Williams, quoted in The Hindu “A person doesn’t know how much he has to be thankful for until he has to pay taxes on it.”Ann Landers, quoted in U.S. News “Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build bridges even when there is no river.”Nikita Khrushchev, quoted in the Boston Herald “A psychotic builds a castle; a neurotic lives in it.”Yoko Ono, quoted in The Guardian “News is what someone wants suppressed. Everything else is advertising.”Attrib.…

To The Guardian Alex Renton’s arguments in favour of us feeling guilty for the historical phenomenon of slavery are muddled and irrational. Of course we must abhor the crimes that were some of the worst in the history of humanity. However, to suggest that the people of contemporary Britain should feel guilty for wrongs perpetrated 200 years before their birth, and act on that guilt by way of apology or reparations, is morally incoherent. Unless you are a Christian believing in original sin, the concept of moral responsibility as something that can be inherited is profoundly misjudged. To hold people responsible for what their ancestors may have been responsible for at more than ten generations of distance is absurd. Stephen Smith, Glasgow To The Guardian It is interesting that the…

by Paul Lynch Oneworld 320pp £16.99 The Week Bookshop £13.99 Paul Lynch’s Booker-longlisted fifth novel is the “Irish offspring of The Handmaid’s Tale and Nineteen Eighty-Four”, said Melissa Harrison in The Guardian. Set in a “shadow version” of present-day Dublin, where an unspecified crisis has led to the creation of a police state, it centres on a biologist named Eilish Stack, whose teacher husband mysteriously vanishes, one of hundreds “swallowed whole” by the state. Lynch writes in a “heightened, sometimes biblical language”, and eschews paragraph breaks – a device that intensifies the sense of claustrophobia, even if it initially takes some getting used to. Powerful and “horribly real”, Prophet Song is “as nightmarish a story as you’ll come across”. I wasn’t convinced, said Max Liu in The i Paper. While…

Gaston Chaissac at Michael Werner Gallery “Outsider art” is a term that can carry with it an air of snobbery, implying that the efforts of untrained artists might be considered “coarse” (the French term for it is “l’Art Brut”). Any such prejudice will immediately be vanquished on contact with the work of Gaston Chaissac (1910-64). A jack-of-all-trades from provincial France, Chaissac was a truly brilliant graphic mind, creating genre-defying paintings and drawings that meld abstraction with expressive, occasionally ribald illustrative gestures. This show is a wonderful primer, showcasing Chaissac’s genius for composition: blobby shapes hemmed in by thick black outlines float across the space, sometimes embellished with cartoonish faces and other bizarre doodles: they often appear to be leaping straight out of the two-dimensional. Yet while there is no concession…

● Use a spreadsheet or an app to monitor your spending. Snoop connects your bank accounts and credit cards on one dashboard and lets you set budgets. Splitwise allows housemates to manage and split bills. Squirrel can help save for trips with friends. ● Do your homework before shopping. Trolley.co.uk tracks the cost of groceries across supermarkets and has a search function. Comparison websites such as PriceRunner and PriceSpy are good for finding the best deal on pricey kit like laptops; try Lyst for fashion brands. ● Cash stuffing – withdrawing money each week and “stuffing” it into envelopes for food, travel, going out etc. – is a good way to make sure you don’t overspend. Doing this digitally is safer: Monzo allows you to put money into different “pots”…

Mohamed Al Fayed 1929-2023 “If the novelists P.G. Wodehouse, Jackie Collins and Naguib Mahfouz had been asked to pool their creative talents, they would have struggled to invent a character as bold and controversial as Mohamed Al Fayed,” said Andrew Anthony in The Observer. A flamboyant Egyptian entrepreneur who acquired the Paris Ritz in the 1970s, and then double-crossed the ferocious Lonrho tycoon Tiny Rowland to seize control of Harrods in the mid-1980s, he was razor-sharp in his business dealings, and cultivated a larger than life image that helped ensure that for many years he was rarely out of the headlines; yet he repeatedly blurred fact with fiction, and almost everything about him was subject to dispute, even his age. To his critics, Fayed, who has died aged 94, was…

In a recent interview, Pret a Manger’s CEO, Pano Christou, observed that the ubiquitous fast-lunch joint is “a measure of economic activity as well as a sandwich shop”, said Bryce Elder in the FT. It turns out that Bloomberg has been using Pret sales data to create “a real-time index” tracking activity in financial districts, transport hubs and shopping centres. The Bloomberg Pret Index is deemed so useful that it’s also published by the Office for National Statistics. But does it cut the mustard? Christou claims that Pret’s “till roll volumes” reflect “the new normal” of the three-day week in the City. That may not, however, be the whole story. “Because, as any Pret customer will attest, the sandwiches have become bloody expensive.” The bestselling tuna and cucumber baguette has…

The week’s best shares Bunzl Investors’ Chronicle Profits are rising at the essential products distributor, thanks to higher own-brand sales as food-service customers seek to cut costs. Cash-generative and expanding its geographical footprint via acquisitions. Buy. £28.17. CT Private Equity Trust The Daily Telegraph This investment trust, run by an experienced team, has a “highly diversified” portfolio of around 500 mature firms in the UK, US and Europe – around half in tech and healthcare. Yields a well-covered 5.4%. Buy. 494p. Keller Group The Sunday Times The infrastructure and housing crisis has meant strong demand for this specialist ground engineer, which prepares brownfield land for development. US profits have doubled, and the order book is at near-record levels. Buy. 765p. M&G The Mail on Sunday The savings giant, demerged from…

It took 38 years to build the main body of Salisbury Cathedral. Now, a 37-year project to restore the great medieval building is finally complete, and the scaffolding that has shrouded it for decades – as specialist stone masons and glaziers worked their way around the exterior – is set to be removed. By mid November, all traces will be gone, said clerk of works Gary Price, “and the cathedral will stand in glory as it did in the 14th century, after the spire was added”. A paramedic is transforming the lives of firefighters, police officers and soldiers suffering from PTSD by taking them swimming with his Newfoundland dogs. Those taking part in the therapy put on a dry suit and a lifejacket, and wade into the middle of a…

Woody Allen, who received a lengthy ovation as he arrived at a press conference at the Venice Film Festival. The director, whose adopted daughter Dylan Farrow has accused him of sexually abusing her as a child, said that he thinks cancel culture is “silly”, and that his fall from grace in the US has not affected his work. But the 87-year-old said that his latest film – made in France, and described by some critics as his best for years – could be his last. The UK economy, after revised ONS figures added almost 2% to its size. Previously, it was thought that the economy was, by late 2021, still 1.2% smaller than its pre-pandemic level. However, it is now clear that it was 0.6% larger, putting the UK’s recovery…

The Government has eased rules that effectively banned new onshore windfarms in England. Previously, such developments could be thwarted by a single local objection. But under the reforms announced this week by Michael Gove, local concerns will in future only need to be “appropriately addressed” – rather than “fully addressed”. Councils will also be told to run online consultations, to encourage more younger residents to give their views. Critics say the changes don’t go far enough, and that wind developments will still face higher barriers to approval than other energy projects.…

Washington DC Proud Boy jailed: The former leader of the far-right Proud Boys has been sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in the storming of the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, 39, was convicted of seditious conspiracy in May. Though he wasn’t in Washington that day, he’d organised and directed the Proud Boys’ military-style assault. His term is the longest yet handed down in relation to 6 January. Four other Proud Boys were also sentenced last week to terms of up to 18 years. In court, Tarrio said he was ashamed of his actions, and conceded that Trump had lost the last election. Black Rock Desert, Nevada Burning Man chaos: Tens of thousands of people were stranded at the Burning Man music festival…

Jimmy Buffett, American singer, songwriter and businessman, died 1 September, aged 76. Lawrence Churcher, last surviving Navy veteran to have taken part in Dunkirk evacuation, died 10 August, aged 102. Gayle Hunnicutt, US-born actress, died 31 August, aged 80. Hilary Lowinger, long-time “gatekeeper” of Private Eye’s office, died 26 July, aged 79. Gloria Stewart, Moscow-based correspondent for UK press, died 12 July, aged 84. Desert Island Discs will return to BBC Radio 4 on Sunday 17 September…

Unproductive cities? I blame the buses Emma Duncan The Times Why has Britain so stubbornly failed to raise its productivity over recent years? No one’s quite sure, says Emma Duncan, but the reason could well lie in our cities: they’re places that are hard to get around. Urban productivity is fuelled by lots of people working together in close proximity – the “agglomeration effect” – but to harness this, cities need good transport links. London has them, but all our other big cities are very poorly equipped compared with their European counterparts. If you measure the “effective size” of a city by the share of its population that can reach the city centre in 30 minutes, then as a Centre for Cities study has shown, Turin is effectively twice the…

Do “beer goggles” exist? It seems there is no such thing as “beer goggles”. A study has found that having a couple of drinks does not make other people seem better-looking to us; however, it may make us more confident in approaching the people we find attractive. For the research, at the University of Pittsburgh, 18 men were invited into the lab, and asked to bring a friend to recreate the atmosphere of a social occasion. In two separate sessions, the 36 participants (all of whom were heterosexual) were asked to rate the attractiveness of various women (seen in photos and videos), and also to select which of them they’d like to meet for a future part of the experiment. During one of the sessions, the men were given enough…

Former Tatler editor Kate Reardon has revealed her idea of top-notch service. When she was appointed to the job, she met each of her new colleagues for tea at Claridge’s. Once, returning from a trip to the lavatory, a waitress began walking alongside her, saying nothing and making no eye contact. There was “a smart whipping sound”, then the waitress veered off. It turned out, Reardon recalled in The Times, that she had been “striding, editor-in-chiefly, through the lobby of Claridge’s with my skirt firmly tucked into my pants”. During the making of the Absolutely Fabulous film in 2015, Jerry Hall (who appeared in cameo) was surprised that no one asked about her then-blossoming romance with Rupert Murdoch. In the end, it fell to co-star Kathy Burke to mention the…

Erling Haaland back scoring hat-tricks; Arsenal looking like title contenders; Chelsea continuing to stutter: in so many ways the opening weeks of the Premier League season have looked like business as usual, said Jason Burt in The Daily Telegraph. But in one crucial respect, things are different. The “mass raiding” of Premier League talent by the Saudi Pro League – which began in earnest during the off season – has shown no sign of slacking. Players of the calibre of Rúben Neves, Riyad Mahrez and Aleksandar Mitrovic have already been prised away – from Wolves, Manchester City and Fulham respectively. And now Al-Ittihad – one of four Saudi clubs controlled by the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund – has offered Liverpool £150m for the Egyptian striker Mohamed Salah. Although the offer…

Football Jude Bellingham scored the winning goal for Real Madrid on his home debut. The 20-year-old England star found the net in the 95th minute, to give his side a 2-1 victory over Getafe. Tennis World No. 1 Iga Świątek suffered a shock defeat in the fourth round of the US Open, losing in three sets to Jeļena Ostapenko. Britain’s Jack Draper was beaten in the round of 16 by Russia’s Andrey Rublev. Formula 1 Max Verstappen won the Italian Grand Prix to claim his tenth straight victory – the most races ever won in a row by an F1 driver.…

There ought to be a special word, said Jenny McCartney in The Spectator, for that “vicarious fragility you feel when hearing of a minor decision with catastrophically heavy consequences”. In the case of John O’Hegarty – the subject of an “engrossing” new podcast called I’m Not Here To Hurt You – the catalyst for disaster was literally taking a wrong turn. An academic with a master’s degree in psychology, O’Hegarty was working as a bicycle courier in Dublin when he took a shortcut down a one-way street. He hit a pedestrian, a 56-year-old auctioneer called Roger Handy, who later died of his injuries. Unable to come to terms with what he had done, O’Hegarty became addicted to heroin and crack cocaine, and slid into a life of crime. Bearing a…

“I was nervous” about watching the third season of the BBC Three romcom Starstruck, because I so enjoyed the first two, said Deborah Ross in The Mail on Sunday. I needn’t have worried: “it’s witty and warm and terrific, all over again”. “The premise, essentially, is Notting Hill in reverse.” The romance is between Tom (Nikesh Patel), a film star, and Jessie (Rose Matafeo), a New Zealand expat who has a dead-end job at a London cinema. At the end of the last season, they got together; at the start of this one, the “happy-ever-after” we assume had been theirs comes unstuck in a montage showing them squabbling, sulking and finally splitting up. Jessie finds a new love interest in the form of an electrician (Lorne MacFadyen) who can match…

Susan steps in to help Tracy as the “real” marriage day approaches. Pip opens up to David and confides that she has feelings for someone else – a woman. Ruth later winkles it out of David and wonders who it can be. Tracy convinces Emma to apply for the head of housekeeping job at Grey Gables. Tracy is on the warpath when Jazzer offers Hannah a place to stay, until Brad sets her straight. Adil insists Emma’s not qualified for the job and Oliver breaks the news; initially downcast, Emma decides to go back to college. Chelsea and Brad save the day when the registrar calls in sick – Tracy and Jazzer are finally married. Pip tells Stella her true feelings. Evasive at first, Stella eventually agrees to dinner. Oliver…

Harissa is my go-to spice paste whenever I want to achieve a big hit of flavour with minimal effort, says Sophie Godwin, and it’s especially good in pasta. I love fennel, but even if you are usually put off by its strong flavour, do try it here. Caramelised and soft, it adds texture and complexity to what is basically a very simple cherry tomato sauce. Serves 2 30g pumpkin seeds (pepitas) 1 large fennel bulb 200g-250g rigatoni or tortiglioni (depending on how hungry you are) 3 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling 3 fat garlic cloves 250g cherry tomatoes handful of dill or parsley 1 lemon 2-3 tbsp harissa (depending on how spicy you like it) 30g parmesan, pecorino or veggie alternative (optional) sea salt and freshly ground black…

The Great Bath Feast will host Michelin chef Chris Cleghorn and MasterChef Champion of Champions Ping Coombes. There’s also an artisan market and street food stalls (22-24 Sept; greatbathfeast.co.uk). The York Food & Drink Festival is a tenday festival focusing on local chefs and producers, with cookery workshops and a junior chef competition, plus live music and stalls (22 Sept-1 Oct; yorkfoodfestival.com). Cockermouth is Taste Cumbria‘s flagship festival. There will be a street party, children’s activities, live music and a pop-up restaurant by Michelin-starred chef Simon Rogan (23-24 Sept; visitallerdale.co.uk). Producers from North Wales and beyond set up stalls at Llangollen Food Festival, which also includes cookery demos and tastings (14-15 Oct; llangollenfoodfestival.com). Mark Hix will be attending the Dartmouth Food Festival. It has workshops and a tent for foodie…

A lonely walk on Chesil Beach An 18-mile “ribbon of wilderness” that stretches along the Dorset coast, Chesil Beach has been immortalised in fiction, from Thomas Hardy’s The Well-Beloved to the eponymous Ian McEwan novella. Its loose shingle makes it difficult – indeed, potentially “ankle-shredding” – to walk here. Some think it “monotonous”, too, says Oliver Smith in the FT, but I found the beach “calming”, with its pebbles “raked by wind and tide” like in a Zen garden. Particularly “eerie” is the eight-mile stretch between Portland and Abbotsbury, where a lagoon separates the beach from the mainland, so there’s no way off but to walk on or walk back. It tends to be lonely going, and perhaps made only more haunting by the sight of the abandoned medieval chapel,…

Airport chaos: blame game As thousands of passengers, stranded by the bank holiday weekend’s air-traffic control chaos, struggled to get home, the blame game began, said Alistair Osborne in The Times. While government ministers hinted that “the dastardly French” might be responsible, the airline lobby – led by former BA boss Willie Walsh – laid into both Nats (National Air Traffic Services) and the Civil Aviation Authority for not exercising “oversight”. Walsh thinks it’s “very unfair” that Nats, which was responsible for the failure, won’t “pay a single penny”, while the airlines are landed with a £100m bill. One can see his point. Stranded passengers peering through the fog should blame Nats’ owners – who’ve taken some £550m in dividends from an “under-invested” service since the company was part-privatised in…

The economic narrative looks much rosier… John Stepek Bloomberg Last week brought a rap on the knuckles for those “who remain emotionally invested in the idea that the UK is uniquely bad”, says John Stepek. Revised data from the Office for National Statistics showed that the GDP collapse during the pandemic year of 2020 was “less bad” than first thought, while the rebound in 2021 was “stronger than estimated”. The upshot is that, contrary to popular belief, the country isn’t still mired below pre-pandemic growth levels, let alone “the worst G7 economy ever”. That’s quite a dramatic change. As Simon French of Panmure Gordon puts it: “the entire UK economy narrative – post pandemic – has just been revised away”. I don’t think you can blame the ONS for struggling…