Table of contents for 1567 in The Week

Controversy of the week The Starmer drama “Keir Starmer’s Labour Party never promised much excitement,” said the FT. Its main appeal, after 14 years of Tory chaos, was the offer of “stability and grown-up government”. The events of the past week have “shredded” that “claim to quiet competence”. Not only did the Chancellor perform a “startling” pre-Budget U-turn on raising income tax, but in an even more bemusing turn of events, sources within No. 10 launched a clumsy briefing operation against Health Secretary Wes Streeting. Anonymous allies of the PM claimed that the ambitious cabinet minister was plotting to oust Starmer, and vowed that he would fight off any challenge to his leadership. Streeting, who is a far better communicator than Starmer, handled the episode with “deft wit” – declaring…

Ticket touts, with news that the Government plans to ban the reselling of tickets to live events at prices above their face value. Dozens of acts have complained about touts buying up tickets in bulk then reselling them at vastly inflated prices. The ban will apply to resale sites such as Viagogo and StubHub (see page 39). White House decorum, after Donald Trump referred to a Bloomberg News reporter as “piggy” during a press opportunity on Air Force One last week. Catherine Lucey had asked the president a question about his attitude to the Epstein files; in response, he pointed to her and said “Quiet. Quiet, piggy.” Your Party, as feuding between Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana over the handover of membership levies threatened to overshadow its first conference this…

Berlin Military-service plan agreed: Germany’s coalition government has agreed a new plan to boost the size of its military, following months of debate. It decided against a system of compulsory conscription, opting for a voluntary model instead: all 18-year-old German men will have to fill out a questionnaire indicating their readiness to serve from next year. There are currently around 182,000 soldiers in the Bundeswehr, the German army. The new plan, which lawmakers will vote on by the end of the year, aims to increase the number by 20,000 over the next year, rising to between 255,000 and 260,000 over the next ten years. If these targets are not met, conscription could be considered. Some on Germany’s political Left remain deeply opposed to mandatory service; many young Germans are wary,…

1 All Through the Night (Ar Hyd Y Nos), traditional, with additional lyrics by Sir Harold Boulton, performed by Aled Jones 2 Erie Canal, traditional, performed by The Daybreakers 3 Streets of London, written and performed by Ralph McTell 4 Alice’s Restaurant, written and performed by Arlo Guthrie  5 Brothers in Arms by Mark Knopfler, performed by Dire Straits 6* Four Strong Winds by Ian Tyson, performed by Ian and Sylvia 7 Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, Prélude by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by Yo-Yo Ma 8 End of the Line by Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty, performed by the Traveling Wilburys Book: A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa and Murray Silverstein et al Luxury: a chromatic harmonica * Choice if allowed only one record…

For decades, climate scientists have warned that the UK should brace for a warmer climate. However, a growing cohort believes that the temperature in northwest Europe could actually drop. This is due to the shifting of an ocean current, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (Amoc), which carries warm, salty water northward near the surface, from the tropics towards Europe and the Arctic via the Gulf Stream, then returns cold, dense water southward at depth. It keeps Britain several degrees warmer than places at similar latitudes, such as Moscow and southern Alaska. However, in the past 75 years currents have weakened by some 15%. The Amoc depends on warm water cooling and sinking in the Arctic, then drawing more warm water in behind it; but melting ice sheets and rising temperatures…

Has Trump lost the Latino vote? Jonah Goldberg Los Angeles Times A key factor behind Donald Trump’s election victory one year ago, says Jonah Goldberg, was his “record-breaking success with Latino voters”. Whereas Joe Biden in 2020 won Latinos by nearly two to one (61% to 36%), Trump in 2024 secured almost half the Latino vote. Among Latino men, he won by a ten-point margin (54% to 44%). Trump hailed the result as a “historic realignment”. A year on, the picture looks very different. In off-year elections earlier this month, Latino voters swung back to the Democrats en masse. In a recent survey, almost two-thirds of Latinos said that it was a “bad time” to be Latino in America. Slightly more than half said that they feared for their or…

It beggars belief, our country’s propensity for corruption, said Zoya Kazanzhy in Vysoky Zamok (Lviv). Even as a terrible enemy “rages, kills and destroys” our people on the battlefield, the government of our supposed protector, President Volodymyr Zelensky, is robbing us blind at home. I’m talking about the vast corruption scandal revealed last week by Nabu and SAP, Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies, which for 15 months have been investigating the financial dealings of Energoatom, the state nuclear-power company. High officials involved in negotiating contracts for the company have been collecting bribes worth 10% to 15% of each contract: Nabu estimates that $100m in kickbacks were laundered through a secret Kyiv-based office. So far, seven people have been charged and two government ministers (for energy and justice) have resigned for their role…

About a quarter of UK homes are sitting on an untapped source of energy – disused coalmines. Across the country, mines long closed have filled with water, which has slowly warmed to 12-20°C. In a new report, a Durham University team suggests that, using pumps and heat exchangers, this geothermal energy could be extracted and fed into district heating systems, to provide low-cost, low-carbon heat to buildings. If widely adopted, these mine-water geothermal heat (MWGH) systems could cut the UK’s carbon emissions by 10-20%, the report says. Added to that, they’d create specialist jobs in economically deprived areas. The report says that the technology has been proved at scale: a 6.2MW plant in Gateshead heats 350 homes; but it warns that a complex regulatory system is increasing upfront costs and…

Only six weeks ago, Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, struck a conciliatory note with the members of the BMA, said Eleanor Hayward in The Times. Warning that they needed to “pick a side” between Labour and Reform UK, he assured them that this Government was one that “wants to work with you”. Last week, as resident doctors began another five-day strike, that tone changed markedly. In a strongly worded speech, Streeting branded the action “morally reprehensible”. He had hoped to stave off the strike with a deal that included doctors no longer having to pay hundreds of pounds in exam fees; but the BMA said it was holding out for a further 26% pay rise, to make up for what it says are years of real-terms pay cuts. This is…

“Human beings may be divided, roughly speaking, into drains and radiators.”Rachel Cooke, quoted in The Guardian “The best way to teach your kids about taxes is by eating 30% of their ice cream.”Warren Buffett, quoted in The Knowledge “A nation… is born stoic and dies epicurean.”Historian Will Durant, quoted in The Sunday Times “We try not to judge. I think the only thing you do judge is crocodiles. They are absolute bastards.”Simon Blakeney, editor of David Attenborough’s Kingdom, in The Daily Telegraph “A divorce is like an amputation; you survive, but there is less of you.”Margaret Atwood, quoted on Forbes “Turmoil returns to the BBC almost as regularly as Alan Partridge.”Henry Mance in the FT “Patience is a minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue.”Ambrose Bierce, quoted in The…

To The Guardian Rachel Clarke is right to highlight the pressures on palliative care, but wrong to suggest that assisted dying debates have sidelined these concerns. In fact, the opposite is true. The CEO of Hospice UK, Toby Porter, has stated that the Government’s £100m investment in hospices, announced last December, would probably not have materialised without the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. He recently told a special Lords select committee that the bill has sparked more conversation about end-of-life care than at any point in his long career. The Health Minister, Stephen Kinnock, similarly acknowledged that the bill has been a catalyst for long-overdue improvements in palliative care. As a member of the aforementioned Lords committee, I can confirm that palliative care was at the heart of…

Life & Times of Michael K by J.M. Coetzee, 1983 (Vintage £9.99). Possibly my favourite book of all time, mostly because of the taut, sparse prose. It generates a stunning effect. There is simply not a word out of place – and every word resonates with meaning. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, 1966 (Penguin £7.99). A prequel to Jane Eyre, which takes us to Jamaica, through the life and marriage of the soon-to-be Mrs Rochester, the madwoman of the attic. An agonisingly poignant novel, made all the more so by the fact that Jean Rhys wrote it while living in poverty and obscurity; the recognition it earned her came far too late. Far North by Marcel Theroux, 2009 (Faber £9.99). I’m not sure if I would have read this…

Programmes The Serpent Queen Unconventional period drama starring Samantha Morton as Catherine de Medici, recounting her rise to power through flashbacks. Sat 22-Sat 29 Nov, C4 22:05, start times vary (55mins each). Chris McCausland: Seeing into the Future The visually impaired comedian and Strictly champion looks at future technologies and what they might mean for him. Sun 23 Nov, BBC2 20:00 (45mins). Prisoner 951 Narges Rashidi and Joseph Fiennes star in a dramatisation of the story of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, her imprisonment in Iran and the campaign to free her. Sun 23 Nov, BBC1 21:00 (70mins). Civilisations: Rise and Fall Four-part series that uses expert interviews and dramatised reconstructions to explore the final years of the Roman empire. Mon 24 Nov, BBC2 21:00 (60mins). Poison Water Documentary investigating the mass contamination of…

I learnt to love Chinese food while living in London in the mid-1980s, says Stephen Harris. I’d go to Poon’s on Lisle Street, and watch Ken Hom on the TV. Today, I still crave the flavours of Chinese food, but find that most takeaways don’t hit the spot. So I buy some basic ingredients and make myself this simple recipe. Although 1980s Ken Hom would probably tell me to thicken the sauce with cornflour, I’m happy to leave it a bit thin, and drink it from the bowl at the end. Serves 1 1 tbsp olive oil 1 high-quality rib-eye steak, seasoned in advance knob of fresh ginger root, finely grated 1 large garlic clove, bruised and finely grated 1 chilli, finely chopped (use whatever suits your preferred heat levels…

James Watson 1928-2025 In 1953, a brash young American biologist named James Watson and his older British research partner, the physicist Francis Crick, burst into a pub in Cambridge and declared that they had discovered the “secret of life”. It was no exaggeration, said The Observer. Their work – revealing the double-helix structure of DNA – solved a fundamental mystery that had preoccupied scientists for centuries: how inheritance occurs; how genetic information is stored and passed down generations. Watson and Crick’s findings revolutionised biology and medicine, and paved the way for a huge range of major scientific innovations – the elimination of disease-causing genetic mutations, the design of genetically modified crops, the mapping of serious diseases, the development of the gene-splicing Crispr technology. Their work ultimately made it possible for…

Nearly 60 years after creating his first French Fancy, the nation’s favourite baker, Mr Kipling, remains a formidable force. Is continued success baked in, asks John Gapper in the FT. Early career Born in 1967, to the baking group Rank Hovis McDougall (now part of Premier Foods), Mr Kipling was “wholly invented” by ad agency J. Walter Thompson to launch a new range of processed cakes. “JWT believed brands needed personalities to resist the rising power of supermarkets”, and dreamt up a traditional artisan who “bakes exceedingly good cakes”. The enduring slogan was created “to evoke nostalgia for a passing world”. Mr Kipling saves the day Following acquisition by Premier in 2006, Mr Kipling hit a lean period. The financially troubled group nearly sold the “neglected” brand. Yet reinvestment has…

The week’s best shares Eli Lilly The Wall Street Journal Lilly now captures most US obesity drug prescriptions: Mounjaro and Zepbound should generate $40bn in 2026. Close to a $1trn valuation, but the GLP-1 surge is still in its infancy – and doesn’t hinge on AI sentiment. Buy. $1,016.78. Fresnillo The Times The Mexican gold and silver miner’s outperformance reflects a sustained period of reliable delivery and rising precious metals prices. A new Canadian deal brings attractive growth prospects and further gold exposure. Buy. £23.10. FRP Advisory Group Investors’ Chronicle The restructuring and insolvency specialist has seen double-digit growth thanks to resilient corporate finance activity and high demand. Expects the “good” times to continue, given the spectre of further tax rises. Buy. 140p. Games Workshop Group Sharecast After the success…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1492 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 1 December. Send it to The Week Crossword 1492, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London W2 6JR, or email the completed grid/listed solutions to crossword@theweek.co.uk. By Paul McKenna This week’s winner will receive Week-branded items, as well as two Connell Guides (connellguides.com). ACROSS 1 Revisiting Balmoral we heed what could be a bloomer (9,5) 10 Fight waste (5) 11 For the most part certain names may be aids for theatre-goers (9) 12 Test piano and in Paris the model (7) 13 Who draws up a great deal in German article? (7) 14 Bags of kids about contented at heart…

What happened Labour’s asylum shake-up Shabana Mahmood unveiled a string of tough measures this week, which she said amounted to the most significant reform of the asylum system since the Second World War. The plans are designed to make the UK less attractive to refugees and make it easier to remove failed asylum seekers. The Home Secretary’s proposals include: making refugee status temporary and subject to review every 30 months; extending the period refugees have to spend in the UK before they can apply for settled status, from five to up to 20 years; requiring asylum seekers with assets to contribute to their upkeep; deploying a new AI age-estimating tool to stop adult migrants falsely claiming to be children; and deporting families whose asylum claims have been rejected if they…

If you think Gary Lineker would love to meet you in the pub, or rejoiced when Taylor Swift got engaged, you may be in a parasocial relationship. Now, Cambridge Dictionary has marked the prevalence of such relationships in the social media era, by naming “parasocial” its Word of the Year. The term was coined by American sociologists in 1956 to describe the way people were developing a feeling of closeness to the personalities who were being brought into their homes by the expanding medium of television. Waitrose says it won’t be selling whole frozen turkeys this year, as Britons turn to gammon, beef, chicken, or no meat, at Christmas. Fewer than half of households are expected to eat turkey this year.…

MI5 issued a warning this week that MPs, peers and their staff were being targeted by “headhunters” on LinkedIn, working on behalf of Chinese intelligence. The alert identified two profiles, under the names Amanda Qiu and Shirly Shen, which it says are being used by the Chinese Ministry of State Security to “conduct outreach at scale”. They offer “large financial incentives for seemingly low-level information” in order to build long-term relationships, particularly with people who are “one step removed” from priority political targets. It is not known whether the LinkedIn personas are genuine; Chinese spies often use false identities, MI5 said in its alert, particularly of young women with anglicised first names. China’s embassy in the UK accused British officials of engaging in “pure fabrication and malicious slander”.…

“AI might be coming for our jobs, but cheer up: most artistic visions of looming dystopia are way off the mark. Soylent Green (1973) had us all eating cannibalistic wafers by 2022. A Clockwork Orange (1971) didn’t specify a date, but whenever it was, it has been and gone. Mad Max (1979) says it’s set ‘a few years from now’ and we’re still waiting both for nuclear war and a Tina Turner-ruled Thunderdome. The mad, sentient computers of 2001: A Space Odyssey are 24 years late. The eerie replicants of Blade Runner (1982) were due by 2019. The overlords of The Terminator (1984) are likewise way behind schedule. Also, don’t get me started on George Orwell’s 1984.”  Hugo Rifkind in The Times…

Don’t sit there moaning: get out and vote Daniel Hannan The Sunday Telegraph It’s my fault, says Daniel Hannan. I’m the man who came up with the idea of police and crime commissioners (PCCs), a scheme that’s now being axed. But I won’t take all the blame for its failure. This is on the British voter, too. On online forums and down at the pub, people are always moaning that “rozzers should focus on proper crimes”. When PCCs were introduced in 2012, the hope was that independently elected candidates would fill the posts, generate fresh ideas and bring police priorities closer in line with the public’s. Yet the scheme never took off. Since turnout for elections was typically below 25%, many PCCs ended up being “recycled party hacks from the…

Many big roads are Roman roads Everyone knows the Romans built roads, but new research has concluded that they built an astonishing 186,000 miles of them – enough to circle the Earth seven times over, and almost twice as many as previously thought. An international team of scientists used sources as diverse as archaeological digs, inscriptions on milestones, topographical and satellite images to work out what the road network looked like in AD150. The map, the most comprehensive yet, shows roads criss-crossing one-and-a-half-million square miles, from Motherwell, in central Scotland, to southern Egypt. Viae publicae, connecting major towns and cities, make up about a third of the network, and are supported by many thousands of miles of secondary roads linking smaller towns, ports, military outposts and so on. Many follow…

Peter Mandelson is in disgrace yet again – this time, for relieving himself against a wall in London’s Notting Hill after a dinner at George Osborne’s house. The Labour peer’s explanation – that he was “bursting” after being stood up by two Uber drivers – was accepted by James Reed, the owner of the house whose wall it was. But other local residents were less forgiving. “We have to put up with this sort of revolting behaviour during the Notting Hill Carnival,” fulminated one. “[It’s] quite outrageous that the person responsible should be a peer of the realm.” Rosamund Pike takes her movie prep very seriously. Before filming the 2014 thriller Gone Girl, the actress bought a Dora the Explorer doll, to practise a scene in which she had to…

The convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein may be long dead, said Katy Balls in The Sunday Times, but “he continues to haunt his associates in the living world”. Just ask Donald Trump. During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump stoked conspiracy theories by suggesting that, if he won the White House, he’d release secret Epstein files that exposed wrongdoing by senior Democrats. But since April, when Attorney General Pam Bondi disappointed the Maga faithful by claiming that no secret “client list” existed, the president has come under attack over his own links to Epstein, and he has until now resisted growing calls to release all of the Justice Department’s files on the late financier. Last week a House committee released new emails provided to it by Epstein’s estate, adding to the…

Ten wins in a row is an impressive achievement, but what England have long been craving is “a statement victory to underline just how far they have come in the past 18 months or so”. And last Saturday, on a dull grey afternoon at Twickenham, “they finally secured” it, said Robert Kitson in The Guardian. Beating the All Blacks by 33-19, England claimed their first home win against New Zealand “for 13 long years” – their ninth overall in the 47 Tests the two countries have contested. It was the visitors who made the early running, scoring two tries in the first quarter to forge a 12-0 lead. But England kept their composure, and reduced the half-time deficit to a single point thanks to a try from Ollie Lawrence and…

Darts Luke Littler, 18, became the youngest-ever PDC world No. 1 with his semi-final win at the Grand Slam of Darts. He went on to lift the trophy, beating Luke Humphries 16-11. World Cup The Republic of Ireland secured their place in the play-offs with a 3-2 victory over Hungary. Troy Parrott scored a hat-trick. England qualified for the tournament with a perfect record of eight wins, no goals conceded. Rugby union Scotland lost to Argentina 33-24, a week after losing to New Zealand. Wales finally ended an 18-game losing streak with a 24-23 victory over Japan.…

● Always load back to front and bottom to top for best results. Load the lower rack with large, heavier items, dirty side down. Space out dishes so the water can circulate. ● Cutlery should go in the basket top down for better cleaning and safety. ● Scrape off large bits that will clog the filter, but unless it’s dried-on food such as porridge, there’s no need to pre-rinse. ● The top rack is best for glasses and mugs, or lighter kitchenware, plus plastic items, as it’s cooler up there so less risk of warping. ● Wooden spoons, delicate glass, cast-iron or non-stick pans need to be handwashed. ● Powdered detergents are cheaper and can be more effective for hard water. Pods are more powerful and include rinse aid. ●…

HICL/TRIG: controversial mega-merger HICL Infrastructure and The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG) this week agreed to join forces to create the UK’s largest listed infrastructure fund, with assets worth more than £5.3bn. Mike Bane, chair of HICL, said the tie-up was “a unique opportunity” to “straddle” both core infrastructure and energy transition markets. But shareholders weren’t exactly partying, said Mike Sheen on This is Money. While TRIG shares rose 5.6%, HICL tumbled 6.6%. It’s questionable whether HICL shareholders, who value the trust’s focus on transport, healthcare and traditional utilities, want exposure to the more volatile world of renewable energy brought by TRIG, noted Russ Mould of AJ Bell. “The share price reaction would suggest not.” One big investor, CG Asset Management, slammed the merger as “value destructive”. Other analysts reckon it…

Tech platforms make a mint out of fraud Martin Wolf Financial Times Earlier this month, Berkshire Hathaway warned people not to be fooled by videos purporting to be of Warren Buffett that had appeared on YouTube. Having been impersonated myself by a “deepfake” offering investment advice, I have every sympathy, says Martin Wolf. The growth of cyber fraud “on an industrial scale” has been fuelled by huge “scam hubs” in Southeast Asia – jail-like complexes where trafficked foreign nationals, lured by fake jobs ads, are forced to carry out online scams. Yet this ghastly racket wouldn’t be possible without the connivance of the big tech platforms. Companies such as Meta insist they are dedicated to stamping out fraud. Yet internal documents, seen by Reuters, suggest that Meta itself projected that…

Curaçao, which became the smallest nation ever to qualify for the football World Cup. The tiny Caribbean island won its spot in the tournament after drawing with Jamaica. Rosalind Levine and Maxie Allen, the couple arrested last year for repeatedly criticising senior figures at their children’s primary school, after Hertfordshire police agreed to pay them £20,000 in compensation. Six officers arrived to arrest the couple on suspicion of harassment and sending malicious communications. They were then held for 11 hours. The force has now admitted that the “legal test around necessity of arrest” had not been met.…

A review into the murder of ten-year-old Sara Sharif by her father and stepmother in 2023 identified a series of official failings in the run-up to her death. The review said that Surrey Children’s Services “did not identify that Sara was at risk of being abused”, despite her father’s history of violence against women and his own children. It found that the process by which a family court judge gave custody of Sara to her father, in 2019, did not “maintain sufficient focus” on Sara’s needs. It found that the authorities had not investigated why she’d started wearing a hijab that hid bruises, partly out of fear of “causing offence”. The review also identified a series of missed opportunities for intervention: staff had tried to check on her the day…

My father, Donald Trump Donald Trump’s parenting style has been described as “absent”; but his son, Eric, refutes this, says Tim Stanley in The Daily Telegraph. Yes, his father was busy; but he was always on the end of a phone, and the family had plenty of fun at weekends. That said, neither of his parents were pushovers. His mother, Ivana, was adoring but she “spanked the hell out of” the kids when they stepped out of line. “If we didn’t have manners, you had two fake nails in your throat, and you felt the hand go back and forth across your face,” he says. As for Donald, he put the kids to work on building sites from the age of 11, paying them the minimum wage. “I was pouring…

An obnoxious tour guide is proving an unlikely hit with visitors to Düsseldorf’s Kunstpalast museum. Joseph Langelinck, whose sell-out €7 tours are billed as “highly unpleasant”, admonishes his customers for their failure to answer questions about the works he shows them – often treating them to loud tuts or eye-rolls. “I never insult visitors directly,” says Carl Brandi, the performance artist behind the Langelinck character; rather, he tries to make the group as a whole “feel as ignorant as possible.” The launch of one of the first Russian robots to be powered by AI ended in embarrassment – when it fell flat on its face. According to its makers, the Aidol robot can walk, handle equipment and communicate fluently with people; its face is even designed to mimic human expressions.…

INDONESIA Putting a vile dictator on a pedestal Asia Times (Hong Kong) The decision to award the late dictator Suharto the title of “National Hero” tells you everything you need to know about the “instincts and ambitions” of our current president, says Ronny P. Sasmita. Prabowo Subianto’s government announced the decision last week, claiming it was merely an acknowledgement of the late dictator’s “administrative” talent in “modernising” Indonesia. What a travesty. In reality, Suharto’s 31-year tenure – only brought to an end in 1998 when he was ousted by the popular clamour for democracy – “was drenched in blood and fear”. More than 500,000 people were killed in the anti-communist massacres of 1965/66; countless others were imprisoned or otherwise silenced. “Parliament became an ornament of legitimacy”; cronyism was institutionalised. Horrifying,…

“I remember singing it in the playground in the late 1970s,” said Guy Walters in The Independent: “Hitler has only got one ball/The other is in the Albert Hall.” We all assumed the ditty was just a morale-boosting marching song. Now it turns out Hitler really might have been “one nut short of a lunchbox”. For a new Channel 4 documentary, genetics experts analysed Hitler’s DNA, extracted from a bloodied swatch of fabric that a US soldier had cut from the sofa in the Berlin bunker on which the dictator “blew his brains out” – and found that he had Kallmann syndrome. This genetic disorder hinders puberty, often resulting in undescended testicles and, in one in ten cases, a “micropenis”. The “startling” discovery correlates with notes made by a doctor…

Could Donald Trump save the BBC from itself, asked Jake Wallis Simons in The Sunday Telegraph. It has had to admit that its flagship Panorama show misleadingly edited Trump’s January 2021 speech before the Capitol riots, yet the corporation seems unrepentant. Accusations of bias on this and other matters have been met with “deflection, denial and counterattacks”. The BBC apologised to Trump last week, but claimed the mistake was “unintentional”, and made no offer of compensation. Trump was unimpressed. In fact, he then upped the ante, by promising to sue them for up to $5bn. Trump’s lawyers pursue such cases aggressively: ABC News and CBS News have paid $15m and $16m respectively to settle defamation claims. This case “will be ugly”, but it might be the “shock therapy” the BBC…

Hampden Park has borne witness to some great occasions in its 123-year history; but it’s “hard to imagine” any topping what unfolded there on Tuesday night, said John McGarry in the Daily Mail. Having waited since 1998 to reach their ninth World Cup, Scotland booked their place at next summer’s tournament with an unforgettable 4-2 victory over Denmark. In a rollercoaster of a match, Scotland went ahead with an “astonishing” overhead kick from Scott McTominay, before Denmark levelled with a dubious penalty. Lawrence Shankland put the nation ahead with 12 minutes remaining, “only for the Danes to hit back again”. Well into injury time, a 20-yard stunner from Kieran Tierney returned the lead. Still the Danes kept coming, until an audacious lob from the halfway line by Kenny McLean sealed…

“Welcome to the Humdrum Games,” said Clive Davis in The Times. Troubadour Theatres, the company staging Starlight Express in a disused TV studio near Wembley, has now built a 1,200-seater auditorium in London’s Canary Wharf, for the first theatrical adaptation of The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins’s novels and later films for young adults – about teenagers being ordered to fight each other to death, for a live TV event. The show has a superfit young cast, who race around a digital landscape as they hunt each other down; and special effects galore, including fireballs and blinding lights, said Robert Gore-Langton in The Mail on Sunday. But with no real point to it, beyond the killings, this “screen-to-stage event” ends up feeling somewhat underwhelming. To justify the £26m cost of the…

Ruth is curious after she hears Leonard on the phone, talking about a “little secret”; he gets terse when she teases him. Susan sticks to her guns about resigning from the shop, but when George insists that she mustn’t on his account, she relents. As George struggles to fill his time and worries that Amber is losing interest, Will lends him £500. Treating Amber to a night out, George proposes with a ring, but a lukewarm Amber says there’s no rush, blaming the rift with her parents. In a bid to reconcile them, George visits Amber’s father Bill at work and invites him to speak to Amber. Susan and Joy need to find a new home for the village shop. Kate fusses over pregnant Phoebe, who has arrived in Ambridge…

Why beans are beneficial The Food Foundation, a UK charity, has launched a campaign – Bang in Some Beans – calling on the country to double its bean intake. It’s a worthy goal, says Peta Bee in The Times: as well as being affordable, beans are extremely good for you. A study published in The Lancet found that keeping to a bean-rich diet resulted in “dramatically improved gut health” in just eight weeks. Beans help with weight control, since they’re “high in fibre and protein, which help to control blood sugar and keep us feeling full”. They contain a range of essential vitamins and minerals, and there’s growing evidence that bean-rich diets contribute to the “prevention of cardiovascular disease” as well as certain kinds of cancer. Yet our intake is…

Stay in one of four Pullman carriages at The Old Railway Station b&b in Petworth, West Sussex. There are rooms in the main station house too; breakfast is served in the old waiting room, and there is a restaurant dining car (from £165; old-station.co.uk). With fine views of the Cairngorms, the selfcatering  Signal Box is next to Newtonmore station on the Highland Main Line. It sleeps two and has a woodburner and sauna (7 nights from £624; sykescottages.co.uk). The Old Station at Heacham, Norfolk, was on the old King’s Lynn to Hunstanton line. Stay in a first-class carriage or the Victorian waiting rooms, and sit on the platform overlooking the garden (3 nights self-catering from £267; oldstationheacham.com). A converted railway carriage at the end of the tracks of a former…

The Station Agent’s House Manchester Built in 1830, Liverpool Road Station in Manchester is the world’s oldest surviving passenger railway terminus. Today, it houses the city’s Science and Industry Museum, and this adjacent redbrick house – once occupied by the station manager – has recently opened as a Landmark Trust holiday let, says Jennifer Williams in the FT. The restored interiors are opulent but “cosy”, with parquet floors and old British Railways posters. There are four bedrooms and four bathrooms, one with a magnificent rolltop bath. Rates start at £804 for four nights, but there’s a 50% reduction if only four people or fewer are staying. Landmarktrust.org.uk.…

Kim Kardashian “A blizzard of mockery and criticism” greeted Kim Kardashian’s assertion, on a recent episode of The Kardashians, that the 1969 Moon landing was fake, said the Daily Mail. Even Nasa’s acting boss, Sean Duffy, has issued an online rebuke. Still, the reality TV star can afford to shrug her shoulders. In a new $225m funding round, led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives, her Skims underwear and loungewear brand has been valued at $5bn, said Caroline Petrow-Cohen in the Los Angeles Times – marking “one of the largest private raises for a consumer brand in the United States this year”. The Hollywood-based brand, known for its sleek bras and sculpting bodysuits, has “gained a cult-like following” but is no flash in the pan. Launched in 2019, in partnership with the…