Table of contents for 1530 in The Week

Mike Amesbury, the MP for Runcorn and Helsby, who was released from prison after three nights. An appeal court judge had decided that his ten-week prison term for punching a man in the street should be suspended. However, unless he resigns, Amesbury will face a recall petition. Anora, the dark comedy about a stripper who marries the son of a Russian oligarch, which triumphed at the Academy Awards, winning five Oscars including best picture, best actress (Mikey Madison) and best director (Sean Baker). Adrien Brody won his second best actor Oscar for The Brutalist. Conclave, which had been tipped to win big, came away with best adapted screenplay. The high life, with figures showing that in two years, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, has spent more than £180,000 on…

Four out of five school leaders in England, Wales and Northern Ireland say they’ve suffered abuse from pupils’ parents in the past year. 42% have banned parents from the school site. 32% have reported parents to the police. National Association of Head Teachers/The Guardian 47% of British adults think that non-violent offenders should receive community sentences. 36% believe such offenders should go to jail. YouGov/The Times 39% of British voters back Keir Starmer’s idea to send British peacekeeping troops to Ukraine. 30% are against it. 21% think that the Government should prioritise military spending. 36% say it should prioritise other areas, such as welfare. BMG/The i Paper…

Rabat Sheep decree: Morocco’s King Mohammed VI has called on his subjects not to sacrifice sheep during Eid al-Adha this June, as livestock numbers in the country have plummeted and meat prices have soared as a result of a seven-year drought. In a speech read out on television by the minister of religious affairs, the king (who is Morocco’s highest religious authority) referred to the “climatic and economic challenges” facing the country, and said that in these circumstances, the traditional rite risked causing harm to “large segments of our people, especially those with limited income”. The decision was reportedly welcomed by poorer families, many of whom can no longer afford to buy sheep owing to the wider social and economic crisis in Morocco, where youth unemployment now stands at 37%.…

“Watching With Love, Meghan, the Duchess’s new lifestyle show, or scrolling through Instagram (they are almost identical sensory experiences), you note how much of the language is explicitly religious. Time is described as ‘sacred’, practices are ‘rituals’, people are continually feeling ‘blessed’, snacks are ‘an offering’, the emphasis is on ‘honouring’ this or that. It becomes hard not to see all the flower frogs and rosemary sprigs and ‘garbage vessels’ – her word for a bucket – as holy kit, arranged in esoteric fashion as if to summon a form of peace. Or rather, #peace. But peace through retail, always – even if the product turns out to be you.” Marina Hyde in The Guardian…

Why a peace deal with Putin is a mirage Melissa Lawford The Sunday Telegraph A peace deal in Ukraine? Forget about it, says Melissa Lawford. Even if Vladimir Putin wins a favourable one, he won’t stick to it. He can’t afford to. The war has hammered Russia’s economy: prices are soaring, interest rates have hit a post-Soviet high of 21%, sanctions are biting, and there’s a chronic manpower shortage. The one thing that is working – indeed, booming – is Russia’s “war machine”. Military spending now accounts for a staggering 41% of all government spending, generating between 8% and 10% of the country’s GDP. Factories are churning out weapons in vast quantities; inflated military salaries and payouts to casualties are bolstering consumer spending. This helped Russia’s real GDP grow by…

A therapy to help the blind to see Four children who were born blind can now recognise their parents’ faces, thanks to a pioneering gene therapy. All four have leber congenital amaurosis, a rare genetic condition in which a fault in the AIPL1 gene prevents the photoreceptors – the light-sensing cells in the retina – from working properly. This causes such severe sight impairment that sufferers are registered blind from birth. There has been no effective treatment, but now, in a “spectacular” breakthrough, doctors at Great Ormond Street have successfully replaced the defective gene with a working one. Healthy copies of the AIPL1 gene were injected into the patients’ retina in a keyhole operation that took just an hour. The genes were encased inside a harmless virus, which broke its…

Beavers, once native to these shores, were hunted to extinction in the 16th century, said William Atkinson on Conservative Home. “But for the past 20 years, legally and illegally, the furry rodents have been making their gradual return to our rivers.” There are now about 400 in England – the biggest colony, “somewhat ironically”, is on the River Otter in Devon. These are the result of a “rogue” rewilding effort by activists, known as “beaver bombing”; but a study found that they “brought considerable benefits, including reducing flooding risks, and increasing biodiversity”. Natural England has spent years planning for wider releases into the wild. Now, after months of pondering, ministers have decided to follow Scotland in giving their approval. Various “beaver plans” are ready to go across England: the National…

Crystal Palace’s 3-1 defeat of Millwall in the FA Cup last Saturday is a match that will be remembered for years to come, said Barney Ronay in The Observer. But sadly, that will have nothing to do with the excitement, or quality, of the football. Rather, it will be because of a “single outstanding act of violence” that scarred proceedings after just five minutes. As Palace’s forward, Jean-Philippe Mateta, chased a long ball, Millwall’s keeper, Liam Roberts, rushed from his box and “launched an adrenal, wildly dangerous flying challenge” into the side of Mateta’s head. “Less a kick, more an assault”, it left the Frenchman flat on the turf: he was stretchered off and taken to hospital, where he received 25 stitches on a gash on his ear. Having consulted…

To The Guardian As a university lecturer in the humanities, where essays remain a key means of assessment, I am not surprised to hear that there has been an explosive increase in the use of AI. It is aggressively promoted as a time-saving good by tech companies, and wider political discourse only reinforces this view without questioning AI’s limitations and ethics. While AI may be useful in several academic contexts – in writing basic reports and conducting initial research, for example – its use by students to write essays is indicative of the devaluing of humanities subjects and a misunderstanding of what original writing in disciplines such as history, literature and philosophy enables: critical thinking. “How can I tell what I think till I see what I say?” asked the…

The terrific third series of the award-winning investigative podcast Bed of Lies is “not for the faint-hearted”, said James Marriott in The Times. Its subject is the execution-style murders of three Catholic men in Northern Ireland in the 1980s, none of whom had connections to paramilitary activity. The first episode focuses on Michael Power, who was shot dead by three gunmen who forced his car to stop as he was driving to Mass. His wife and children were in the car with him – and one of them was horrifically injured by shattering glass. Written and presented by the Telegraph journalist Cara McGoogan, the podcast examines the devastating impact of these murders. But it also explores the links between the killers – members of the loyalist Ulster Defence Association (UDA)…

Best books… James Daunt The founder of Daunt Books and managing director of Waterstones picks his favourites. He will be in conversation with David Shelley, CEO of Hachette UK, at The London Book Fair on 11 March (londonbookfair.co.uk). Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz, 1956 (Transworld £9.99). This made a deep impression when I first read it more than 30 years ago; rereading it recently, Mahfouz’s extraordinary evocation of Cairo and the iniquities of a patriarchal society hold a different but no less powerful fascination. This, the first of the trilogy, is a masterpiece. Rattlebone by Maxine Clair, 1994 (Daunt Books £9.99). An exquisite novel, funny, sharply observed and unsentimental, with – as one review said – magic dust sprinkled over each and every page. A tale of growing up in…

Programmes Is Greenland for Sale? A look at Donald Trump’s ambitions in Greenland, and what local people – and those in Denmark – think of his plans. Mon 10 March, BBC2 19:00 (30mins). The Au Pair First of a four-part drama starring David Suchet as a grandfather whose family life is turned on its head when his daughter (Sally Bretton) hires an au pair. Mon 10 March, C5 21:00 (60mins). Storyville – Eternal Spring: The Heist of China’s Airwaves Animated documentary about the Falun Gong group’s attempt to hack into Chinese state TV in 2002. Tue 11 March, BBC4 22:00 (80mins). Birdsong Film charting ornithologist Seán Ronayne’s attempt to record the sound of every bird species in Ireland. Wed 12 March, BBC4 21:00 (60mins). Arena – Steven McRae: Dancing Back to…

● Electric cars give plenty of warning before they run out, with audible and visual warnings at around 15-20% charge, which get more frantic as it gets lower. Factor in charging stops at 20% on long journeys. ● When the charge is dangerously low, the car will switch to “tortoise mode”, reducing power and speed to conserve energy. ● If this happens and you can’t reach a charge point, find a safe place to stop and call a recovery service. Try to conserve some power so that you can keep your hazard lights and touchscreen working. ● Most electric cars can’t be towed, so check your handbook. Recovery services will always ask if you’re in an EV or not, and can send a low-loader rescue truck if needs be. ●…

Roberta Flack 1937-2025 A classically trained pianist, Roberta Flack soared to worldwide stardom aged 34, when Clint Eastwood arranged for her version of Ewan MacColl’s folk song The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face to feature on the soundtrack of his film Play Misty for Me (1972). She had recorded the song for her debut album three years earlier, and after the film was released it was rushed out as a single. It spent six weeks at No. 1 in the US chart and won her a record of the year Grammy. A year later, she had a second hit with Killing Me Softly With His Song, which again won the Grammy. She was the first person to win consecutive Grammys, a feat that has only been achieved twice since…

After years of “Square Mile sniggering”, abrdn has performed “a shocking branding U-turn”, said Elliot Gulliver-Needham in City AM. The new boss of the FTSE 250 asset manager has ordered a return to the full spelling – to remove the “distractions” of its vowel-less state – but without capitals, so it will be aberdeen group plc. As RBC analysts observed: “The previous rebranding had been generally negatively received.” Can the restored Aberdeen restore its financial fortunes too? Things are looking up, said Kate Beioley on FT.com. Aberdeen “grew profit for the first time in three years in 2024”, and the £1.1bn of outflows is rather less than the £17.6bn suffered in 2023. Better not call it prgrss.…

Coin toss Faced with a sea of red on Wall Street in reaction to his tariff plans, Donald Trump managed to spark at least one compensatory rally, said Max Matza on BBC News. All it took was the announcement of a US “crypto reserve” to jog the prices of the five coins he’d like included out of their recent torpor. Bitcoin, ethereum, XRP, Solana and Cardano “all swiftly jumped” – though details of the “new national strategic stockpile” are thin on the ground, and it’s unclear how it would work. Nothing cryptic Having previously declared bitcoin “a scam”, Trump “now wants to add it to the Fed’s balance sheet”, said Edward Luce in the FT. But there’s “nothing cryptic” about the president’s endorsement. Like everything else he does, it’s acquisitive.…

Imagine a world beyond the dollar Katie Martin Financial Times Is it possible to imagine “a world beyond the dollar”, asks Katie Martin. It’s not as crazy as it sounds. The free trade, free markets, globalisation era that underpinned US dominance of the financial system is over – and nobody knows what will replace it. What was once outlandish is becoming plausible: big investors are concerned about their exposure to the US. This hands Europe a big opportunity. But is it prepared? The continent’s bond markets are fragmented and no national market is simultaneously “large, safe and liquid enough” to suit the “big beasts of bond markets”, such as foreign central banks. Yet history may now play a part. If the urgent need for European defence spending spurs joint borrowing,…

3i Infrastructure The Times This trust has assets across energy transition, digitalisation, infrastructure renewal and demographic change. The discount looks too wide, given rising net asset value and profits – and the team’s record of solid returns. Buy. 312p. Costco Wholesale Corp. The Daily Telegraph Costco runs 897 retail warehouses in the US, the UK and beyond. Cash-generative, thanks to a minimum annual £52 membership fee conferring discounts and perks. “Quality”, with good growth still to come. Buy. $1,048.61. Filtronic The Mail on Sunday Filtronic develops radio frequency products used by industries from aerospace to quantum computing. Shares have doubled, but a new deal with SpaceX, which operates Starlink broadband, bodes well. Undervalued. Buy. 104p. McBride Investors’ Chronicle Self-help measures and improved trading conditions have boosted the own-brand detergents maker,…

Controversy of the week Starmer’s foreign aid cut “The sad fact is this,” said Michael Deacon in The Daily Telegraph: “foreign aid is a luxury that Britain can no longer afford.” When Keir Starmer announced last week that the aid budget would be slashed, from 0.5% of the UK’s national income to 0.3% – in order to boost defence spending to 2.5% of GDP – there were predictable outbursts. Anneliese Dodds, the minister for international development, resigned. Jeremy Corbyn, the SNP and the Greens were all very cross. But polls suggest that about two-thirds of Britons recognise that, “right now, defence of the realm simply has to come first”. We “can no longer complacently rely, as we have for decades, on the US to protect us”. And for a nation…

Abrdn, the investment group formerly known as Standard Life Aberdeen, which bowed to years of ridicule by rebranding again: it will now be known as (lower case) aberdeen (see page 39). Sainsbury’s, after Debrett’s spoke out against its new “meal deal”, offering a can of low- or no-alcohol beer to go with the usual sandwich and packet of crisps. The etiquette bible cautioned people that having an alcohol-free beer with your lunch “makes you look like someone who really wants a drink”.…

Mannheim, Germany Car attack: An 83-year-old woman and a 54-year-old man were killed this week in Germany after a car drove directly into shoppers at a crowded market place in Mannheim. At least 11 other people were seriously injured. A 40-year-old landscape German citizen from Ludwigshafen was arrested at the scene and taken to hospital, having shot himself in the mouth with a gun loaded with blanks. Authorities say that the man shows “signs of mental illness”, and that there is no evidence of a “political background” to the crime. The assault is the latest in a string of deadly car and knife attacks in Germany in recent months, the suspects of the previous attacks all being asylum seekers from the Middle East. Last month, a mother and her two-year-old…

The scourge of “rest” Katharine Birbalsingh has famously strong views on how children should behave at school, says Nicola Woolcock in The Times. And the head teacher also has opinions about what parents should be doing at home (see page 19). She despairs of the new child-led approach to parenting: she thinks parents need to exert some authority; and she is baffled by those who think learning is just for school. Children need to be “learning all the time in the household”, she says – whether by counting the peas on their plate, or reading out loud with a parent every evening. That used to be understood, she says. Yet “when I talk about that now… people look at me aghast: ‘Why should we be doing that at home? Home…

I read it in the tabloids Tommy Cash, the rapper representing Estonia at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, has said he never intended to offend Italy, after his entry was accused of peddling stereotypes about the country. “Ciao bella, I’m Tomaso, addicted to tobacco,” Espresso Macchiato begins. “Me money numeroso, I work around the clocko. That’s why I’m sweating like a mafioso.” Later on, Cash opines: “Life is like spaghetti, it’s hard until you make it.” Some Italians have defended the lyrics, however. “‘No stresso, no stresso, don’t need to be depresso’ – as an Italian, I think I’m going to get this tattooed,” commented one. A cliff by the Yangtze River in China has become a viral sensation after a social media user noticed its resemblance to a puppy.…

JAPAN The world is better off with more nukes Asia Times (Hong Kong) It’s a tale of two countries, says Noah Smith. One “gave up” nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees in 1994 – only for that agreement to be violated with “an unprovoked invasion” in 2022. The other, having first tested a nuclear weapon in 2006, now has an arsenal rumoured to be as high as 50, and “has never been seriously threatened with war since”. The contrasting fates of Ukraine and North Korea make one thing “uncomfortably clear”: liberal democracies need to “go nuclear”, and fast. After the Cold War, it became “an article of faith” that disarmament made the world “a lot safer”: fewer nukes meant a smaller risk of catastrophe. But the old order has…

The Oscars broadcast lasts a bladder-busting three-and-a-half hours, but when the cameras pan to the audience, it’s rare to see an empty seat. That’s because the organisers bus in around 300 “seat-fillers” to jump in whenever a famous guest nips out, explains Marina Hyde on the podcast The Rest Is Entertainment. If you’re one of these stand-ins, you have to look appropriately glitzy – dress up in black tie or a gown – and, it being Hollywood, “you’re not allowed to speak unless you’re spoken to”. Archie and Lilibet don’t appear in the Duchess of Sussex’s new Netflix show, but Meghan does treat viewers to a few parenting tips. To create “just a little morning plate” of fruit for breakfast, she suggests arranging berries and other fruits into a rainbow…

“Never trust a preacher with more than two suits.”Lenny Bruce, quoted in The Economist “It took me 15 years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give up because by that time I was too famous.”Robert Benchley, quoted on The Knowledge “Cynicism is the only form in which base souls approach honesty.”Nietzsche, quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle “History has so far shown us only two roads to international stability: domination and equilibrium.”Henry Kissinger, quoted in The Washington Post “You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, and you will have war.”Winston Churchill to Neville Chamberlain, quoted in The Guardian “Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it.”Jonathan Swift, quoted in The Daily Telegraph “We tell ourselves stories in order to…

Val Cenis, France, has the longest green run in Europe: L’Escargot, a six-mile piste follows the mountain road with gentle bends through the forest. Lessons are cheaper than in many other resorts. Jasná, in the Low Tatras in Slovakia, has easy green and blue runs among the 30 miles of well-groomed pistes and 20 modern lifts, plus a choice of ski schools. It’s around 40% cheaper than France or Austria, and there’s a giant waterpark for children. Cervinia, Italy, has extensive, sheltered and gentle nursery slopes close to the main hotels, plus some easy blue runs. There are three good-value ski schools, with plenty of English-speaking instructors. Laax, in Switzerland, is the perfect place to learn to snowboard. Its Freestyle Academy has airbags, jumping towers and trampolines to help you…

Bullo River Station Baines, Australia A working cattle station since 1959, this sandstone homestead is set in the remote northwestern reaches of Australia’s Northern Territory, 50 miles from the nearest road. Guests “swoop in” by helicopter, says Chloe Sachdev in Condé Nast Traveller, to enjoy a luxurious dose of outback life. The 12 stylish, spacious bedrooms are arranged around a “palm-tree shrouded” pool. The food (steaks, beef stews, “zesty” salads) is excellent. And there’s no end of activities on offer, from swimming in waterholes to seeking out Aboriginal rock art in a “craggy” landscape so vast, it seems to swallow you whole. Doubles from £1,177; bulloriver.com.au.…

With the suspension of US military aid, Zelensky is facing his “nightmare scenario”, said Harriet Barber in The Daily Telegraph. If the freeze becomes permanent, many experts give Ukraine’s exhausted army just six months until its front collapses (propped up until then by a shipment of arms rushed through by the Biden administration in its final weeks). While Europe has provided an almost equal amount of military aid as the US (about £51bn) over the three-year conflict, “the cream” of supplies has come from across the Atlantic, said Dan Sabbagh in The Guardian – notably “Patriot air defence systems and their missiles”. When these run out, cities and strategic locations across Ukraine will suddenly be “at risk” – and Kyiv could struggle to keep Putin’s forces at bay. Ukrainians have…

Britons are nowadays spurning traditional funerals in favour of more personalised send-offs. According to the insurance firm SunLife, 15% of funerals now feature “unusual” requests. One funeral director said he’d led a Wild West-themed funeral; another had been asked to dress as Tolkien’s wizard Gandalf; a third said he’d arranged a “floral tribute in the form of Fruit Pastilles” for a deceased sweet lover. With all their menus and graphics, modern car touchscreens risk being as distracting to drivers as mobile phones, the car magazine Auto Express has warned. It looked at ten popular systems, and found that even something fairly simple such as “tune to Radio 4” took more than 19 seconds in some cars.…

The sale of new leasehold flats is set to be banned in England and Wales, the Government has announced. With leasehold flats, the building is often owned by a third-party freeholder who can control how it is managed. Ministers say this leaves homeowners vulnerable to “unfair practices and unreasonable costs”. Instead, it wants to make commonhold – in which homeowners own a share of their building – the default tenure. A draft bill setting out how this would work is due to be published later this year. There are some five million leasehold properties in England, most of which are flats. Landlords say leasehold is a simpler way of managing big blocks. More funding for judges Ministers have pledged to increase the number of days that Crown Court judges in…

Ottawa “Dumb thing”: Justin Trudeau described the US president as a “very smart guy” who had done a “very dumb thing” in a speech delivered hours after the White House imposed 25% tariffs on Canadian goods and a 10% levy on Canadian energy. Unveiling retaliatory tariffs, the PM, who is about to step down, said that Donald Trump was trying to “collapse” Canada’s economy, and so make it easier for the US to annex the country; but this, he said, would “never happen”. Instead, he warned that Trump’s trade war would just risk American jobs and lead to higher prices for American consumers. He noted that while Trump was alienating its northern neighbour and long-term ally, he was “talking about working positively with Russia… aligning with a murderous dictator”. He…

1 Sunday by Stephen Sondheim, performed by Bernadette Peters, Mandy Patinkin, Paul Gemignani and the Sunday in the Park with George Ensemble 2 Sorry Sorry, written and performed by Femi Kuti 3 Away Down the River by Julie Lee, performed by Alison Krauss 4 Que reste-t-il de nos amours by Charles Trenet and Léo Chauliac, performed by Charles Trenet 5* Daniel by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, performed by Elton John 6 Violin Concerto, Op. 15: 1. Moderato con moto by Britten, performed by Janine Jansen and the London Symphony Orchestra (cond. Paavo Järvi) 7 Horn Trio in E-flat major, Op. 40: 1. Andante – Poco più animato by Brahms, performed by the Beaux Arts Trio (György Sebök, Arthur Grumiaux and Francis Orval) 8 Al otro lado del río, written and performed by Jorge Drexler Book: Pale Fire by…

Britons have long been preoccupied by potholes: the line “four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire”, in The Beatles’ 1967 song A Day in the Life, came about because John Lennon read an article about the terrible state of the town’s roads. But over the past decade, the subject has become something of an obsession, perhaps not surprisingly, when 68% of people in the UK commute by car. The AA, British Cycling and other organisations now mark National Pothole Day every 15 January. Last year, The Daily Telegraph started a national campaign on the issue. Pothole activists and vigilantes have appeared, either mending potholes themselves or pushing for action: Mark Morrell, a retired Northamptonshire man known as “Mr Pothole”, claims that his 11-year campaign led to 10,000 road repairs before he…

How to solve a border crisis Marc A. Thiessen The Washington Post An amazing thing has happened on America’s southern border since Donald Trump won the election, says Marc A. Thiessen: the number of people trying to sneak over from Mexico, previously at crisis levels, has fallen off a cliff. On 22 February, border patrol agents encountered just 200 people trying to cross the border – the lowest single-day total in 15 years. Contrast that with the all-time high of 11,000 encounters on 18 December 2023. Thirty-day figures for southwest border encounters are down 91% from their 166,900 monthly average during President Biden’s term. Just the promise of a crackdown and mass deportations was enough to deter many would-be illegal migrants. But on taking office, Trump has backed his words…

Rates of deaths from cancer are almost 60% higher in the poorest parts of the UK than the wealthiest, a new report has shown. The analysis of data from the NHS, Office for National Statistics and other sources found that in the most-deprived areas, 337 per 100,000 people die from cancer each year. This compares with 217 deaths per 100,000 in the wealthiest areas, said Cancer Research UK. The charity has calculated that 28,400 cancer deaths a year are associated with deprivation – more than a tenth of the total. There are also huge disparities in diagnosis and care: people living in the poorest areas are less likely to take part in national screening programmes than residents of the richest areas; and, once their cancer is diagnosed, they are up…

Every era has its own parenting style, said Ed Cumming in The Daily Telegraph. In the 1940s, discipline was key: a “well-administered slap” was “not only excusable”, argued one parenting guide, “but beneficial”. Baby boomers were reared in a more liberal style advocated by experts such as Dr Spock. Later came the “helicopter parents”, eagerly inserting themselves into “every aspect of their little darlings’ lives”. Today, it’s all about “gentle parenting”: instead of punishing or disciplining naughty children, the emphasis is on “talking feelings through” – so as not to shame or damage your child. Instagram is full of gentle-parenting gurus proclaiming that “the naughty step is out”. But there are now growing signs of a backlash. Glance at Mumsnet and you’ll see “frazzled” parents tiring of “deferring to their…

Jos Buttler’s reign as England’s full-time white-ball captain “began with triumph” in autumn 2022, with victory in the T20 World Cup Down Under, said Tim Wigmore in The Daily Telegraph. That made England the first team ever to hold both the ODI and T20 World Cups simultaneously. How things have changed. Last week, Buttler’s tenure ended in ignominy, as England “crashed to a new nadir” at the ICC Champions Trophy in Pakistan. Having just lost seven of eight games in India, Buttler’s men entered the tournament short of confidence. And in Pakistan, their woes continued as, for the first time ever at a global tournament with a round-robin format, they failed to win a single game. They lost their opening match to Australia by five wickets, despite posting a total…

Voting for butter not guns To The Times While commentators, including Tim Marshall, have eloquently explained why the 80-year-old postwar world order has run its course, they have omitted at least one significant factor: the workings of political democracy in Europe. Parties seek power on the basis of electoral promises that not only exceed the capacity of almost any country’s capability to meet them, but also minimise the commitment to spending on defence. This reflects the low importance electors accord to it: health, pensions, benefits and education rank considerably higher than defence. We omit or ignore its importance at our peril. Christopher Clarke, Windlesham, Surrey The US needs Europe To The New Statesman Lawrence Freedman and Bruno Maçães invited a sobering consideration of the new realities both Nato and Europe…

Running time: 2hrs “If there is an afterlife”, then the late Michael Abbensetts must be “looking down from it in delighted surprise”, said Andrzej Lukowski in Time Out. The Guyana-born playwright, who settled in London in the early 1960s, became known in the late 1970s for the black-led TV drama Empire Road, which aired on the BBC. Around the same time, he wrote Alterations, a “bittersweet” drama about a Windrush-era immigrant who is desperate to own his own tailoring shop on Carnaby Street. It premiered at a London fringe venue in 1978. Now, it’s being given its first revival in 40 years – on the National Theatre’s vast Lyttelton stage, said Sarah Hemming in the FT. Alterations turns out to be a thought-provoking play, even if it lacks the depth…

“Ah, Bergerac,” said Ben Dowell in The Times: “that twangy guitar and accordion earworm theme tune; that lovely John Nettles burr; a world of sun, sea, shoulder pads and our man’s burgundy-coloured, open-topped Triumph Roadster”. The 1980s BBC series, set on Jersey, was “the kind of TV perfection that no self-respecting viewer would want to be tampered with”. Yet now it has a reboot (streaming on the free-to-view platform U) and, remarkably, it is not bad at all. Starring the Irish actor Damien Molony, this is not Bergerac as we know it, but it’s not meant to be, and it works “on its own terms” as a “darker, slightly more pained, noirish drama”. Whereas in the “zippy original” Bergerac solved a different crime in each episode, this one follows a…

Natasha is worried about the Tea Room, which is still losing customers. Emma suggests putting on an event for Pancake Day – a pancake-eating contest perhaps? Freddie spots an opportunity for Casey Meats: it could work with an academy trust to supply local produce to schools. Natasha and Tom tell Kirsty they won’t buy the house until they’ve had another drain survey done, at Kirsty’s expense. At The Bull, Natasha is amused when Fallon sees off some customers who are being rude about the Tea Room – then Natasha notices that The Bull is doing breakfasts. Is Fallon trying to take advantage of the Tea Room’s downturn? Khalil is annoyed he’s not allowed to fast for Ramadan. Azra tells Lynda it’s because he had leukaemia when he was younger, but…

Restaurateurs get fiercer To deter no-shows, last-minute cancellations and reservation bots, many restaurants in Britain have started asking customers to pay a deposit when they book, say Josh Spero and Bryce Elder in the FT. Now high-end establishments in the capital are taking this one step further, by imposing a “minimum spend” on diners. In November, Gymkhana, the two-Michelin-starred Indian restaurant in London’s Mayfair, introduced a £100 minimum spend for dinner, which customers are required to pay when booking. Other restaurants to have such policies include Hutong, a Chinese restaurant in the Shard, Chutney Mary in St James’s, and Jean-Georges at The Connaught hotel. The move is partly a reaction to the “significant cost inflation” of the past few years, which, combined with a recent exodus of high-spending non-doms, has…

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN…

Gene Hackman 1930-2025 With a distinctive gravelly voice and magnetic screen presence, Gene Hackman, who has died aged 95, was one of the great film actors of the late 20th century. Yet few have had such an unlikely route to stardom, said The Guardian. His family background was fraught; he had no early contact with showbusiness; and his looks were, at best, “homely” – he joked that he had the face of “your everyday mine worker”, and he always looked middle-aged. He only settled on a career in acting when he was in his 20s, and was in his late 30s by the time he got his breakthrough as the elder brother in Bonnie and Clyde, in 1967, which garnered him an Oscar nomination. Four years later, he was cast…

US stocks saw almost all of their postinauguration gains wiped out on mounting concern about the economic impact of President Trump’s trade tariffs. The S&P 500 lost 3.5% over five days, as investors headed for the exit in a broad sell-off that extended to Asia and Europe. The US administration slapped 25% on imports from Mexico and Canada, and doubled a tax on Chinese goods to 20%. Immediate retaliations raised the spectre of an inflationary trade war, potentially hamstringing the US Fed’s interest-rate cutting programme. Shares in carmakers, highly dependent on cross-border supply chains, were particularly pummelled. On Wednesday, the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, indicated that some sectors might receive “relief”, sending auto stocks higher. UK trade unions declared victory as Labour bolstered a string of measures in its…

“The perfect storm for crude oil has intensified,” said IG market strategist Tony Sycamore. “Crude oil just cannot take a break.” After being whacked by news that the Opec+ cartel will increase output, prices fell further as the prospect of a global trade war mounted, said Anna Hirtenstein on Reuters. Fears that tariffs will weigh on economic activity and energy demand – intensifying an existing supply glut – prompted Brent futures to fall below $71/barrel. Energy stocks fell “hard” in sympathy, said Avi Salzman in Barron’s. The US Energy Information Administration forecasts the global oil market will stay “in oversupply” until at least 2026, while, “oil use may struggle to grow above 1% annually” until 2030, according to Bank of America strategist Francisco Blanch. The surprise opening of Opec’s spigots…

Jensen Huang “One honourable exception to the roster of tech billionaires standing behind Donald Trump” at his inauguration was Jensen Huang, said The Economist. The Nvidia chief “took a quieter approach” – meeting the president days later, during the week his company, the dominant supplier of AI chips, lost $600bn in value in the DeepSeek sell-off. Nvidia’s shares haves since made up lost ground – the latest results were “sizzling”. But geopolitics continues to cause difficulties: 15% of the US chipmaker’s sales are in China. Although not part of Trump’s “broligarchy”, Huang is well connected. He recently “lavished praise” on Elon Musk for his speedy building of “an enormous data centre in Memphis”. He may hope Musk can still use his power in the White House to counter the China…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1455 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 17 March. Send it to The Week Crossword 1455, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London W2 6JR, or email the completed grid/listed solutions to crossword@theweek.co.uk. This week’s winner will receive Week-branded items, as well as two Connell Guides (connellguides.com). ACROSS 1 Extremely high tree in eastern Tangier damaged (3-8) 7 Hindu teacher took a dip before one (5) 8 Awkward alien gent could be this (9) 10 Engineer procured electronic copy (9) 11 Hear publicity sounding like criminal group? (5) 12 More wanting new phone service on dire mobile (7) 14 English poet to adopt perfect pose? (7) 16…

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