Innholdsfortegnelse for 1434 i The Week

What happened Unions representing NHS workers collectively accepted a pay offer from the Government this week, in a step that ministers hope will end much of the industrial action affecting the health service. Reached a day after nurses in England staged their latest 24-hour walkout, the deal gives more than a million NHS staff in England, including nurses and ambulance workers, a 5% pay rise, and a one-off payment of at least £1,655. It was agreed at a meeting between ministers and the NHS Staff Council, which is made up of 14 health unions covering all NHS staff except doctors and dentists. However, two of those unions – the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and Unite – declined to be party to the deal, and announced plans to re-ballot their…

“A word of advice for anyone who has worked hard to acquire a reputation they cherish,” said Jonathan Freedland in The Guardian. If Boris Johnson “comes anywhere near, run a mile”. Richard Sharp, who resigned as chairman of the BBC last Friday, is the latest proof of Johnson’s ability to “turn good names bad”. Sharp, a Tory donor who was Rishi Sunak’s boss at Goldman Sachs, was employed as a Treasury adviser during the pandemic. When, in 2020, he applied for the job of BBC chair, he was required to declare any “real or perceived conflict of interest” to the appointments panel. Sharp failed to mention that he had helped to broker an £800,000 loan guarantee facility from a Canadian financier, Sam Blyth, for Johnson, whose finances were then in…

Liz Truss, who was reportedly handed a £12,000 bill related to her use of Chevening House, her grace and favour home in Kent when she was foreign secretary. The bill is thought to be for food, wine and items that went missing during her tenure, including slippers and a bathrobe. The Government foots the bill only for official business conducted at Chevening; ministers must cover the costs of any personal or party political events. Jolyon Maugham, the anti-Brexit KC and founder of the Good Law Project, who was widely mocked for writing a book with what was described as possibly the worst-ever first line. “The life I have is hard, but I got to choose it, and the road that brought me here I did not,” begins his memoir Bringing…

62% of British adults have a positive view of King Charles, up from 54% this time last year when he was still Prince of Wales (YouGov). However, only 55% of UK adults think it’s very or quite important for Britain to continue to have a monarchy (the National Centre for Social Research); 25% think it’s not important at all or want the monarchy abolished. In 1994, 66% deemed the monarchy very or quite important, and 15% thought it not important at all or supported abolition. 65% of adults in the UK are very or fairly worried about climate change, as are 60% in Sweden, 63% in Germany, 77% in Spain, 79% in France and 81% in Italy. In all the countries, no more than 5% denied that climate change was…

An heiress’s close shave The heiress and singer Daphne Guinness may come from fabulous wealth – she was born into the Guinness brewing dynasty – but her life has been full of lurid and disturbing moments, says Sophie Heawood in The Observer. Among the most extreme of these was in 1972, when, aged five, she was nearly murdered. Guinness’s mother was out having lunch with a friend, the American socialite Barbara Daly Baekeland, when the latter’s 25-year-old son Tony turned up at the Guinness home in Kensington. He was let in by the staff, and found his way up to the nursery. Guinness remembers being pleased to see him, and hoping he might read her a story. Instead, he grabbed her, pulled out a knife and started ranting that he…

Hemedti, who’s thought to be in his late 40s, comes from a Baggara Arab family of nomadic traders, and grew up in south Darfur. Some say he started his career as a camel dealer, said Nesrine Malik in The Guardian; others that he was “a highwayman”, who raided camel trains along Sudan’s porous borders with Libya and Egypt. When war broke out in Darfur in 2003, he joined the Janjaweed – he has claimed that rebels killed members of his family – and became an “emir”, leading crews that attacked non-Arab populations. Over the years, he used his power “to extract more and more support from Khartoum”, and leveraged his political activities to further his commercial aspirations. In 2012, gold was found at Jebel Amir in Darfur. The Janjaweed then…

Who’s the real star at Fox News? Jack Shafer Politico Farewell then, Tucker Carlson. The host of the most popular show on Fox News, America’s most popular cable TV network, has been fired. Will Fox ever be the same again? Of course it will, says Jack Shafer. The network’s success has never depended on its individual presenters, who are as replaceable as members of a manufactured boy band. Fox’s architect Roger Ailes, who founded the network in 1996 with Rupert Murdoch, spelled this out in a 2017 interview while discussing the formula behind The Five, an early-evening show on the network with a panel of pundits. “Go around the table,” he said. “Over on this end, we’ve got the bombshell in a skirt, drop-dead gorgeous … But smart!” Next, he…

The pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly is seeking approval for a drug that, in trials, helped patients lose an average of two-and-a-half stone. Tirzepatide, which is delivered as a weekly injection, was tested on 938 overweight or obese patients with type 2 diabetes. During the 72-week trial, those on the highest dose lost on average 15.7% of their body weight (34lb or 15.5kg). Members of a placebo group who followed dietary and exercise advice lost 7lb (about 3kg). Like semaglutide (sold as Ozempic or Wegovy), the drug approved for use on the NHS earlier this year, tirzepatide works by mimicking the effects of the appetite-suppressing hormone GLP-1; but it also mimics GIP, which plays a role in breaking down sugar. It was approved in the US last year to treat diabetes;…

“Of all the social evils, it is gambling that is both the most insidious and the most scandalously ignored by government,” said The Independent. According to the Gambling Commission, more than 50,000 children in this country are problem gamblers; and campaigners link gambling to hundreds of suicides a year. Yet the legislation regulating the industry has scarcely been reformed since 2005. The Gambling Act was designed to promote legal gambling, said The Guardian. This was dubious in itself; to make matters worse, the Act failed properly to account for the impact of the online revolution, which would see gambling shift from betting shops and casinos to laptops and smartphones. Today, with a virtual Las Vegas in their pocket, “almost anyone can gamble cashlessly” wherever they are, using services provided by…

“The world is not driven by greed; it’s driven by envy.”Charlie Munger, quoted on The Knowledge “A civilisation flourishes until it starts to analyse itself.”A.N. Whitehead, quoted on UnHerd “Damn your principles! Stick to your party.”Disraeli, quoted in The Scotsman “No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.”C.S. Lewis, quoted in The Observer “Patience is not the ability to wait, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.”Joyce Meyer, quoted on Lexology “Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions.”Winston Churchill, quoted on the Inter Press Service “In my older face, I see my life. My face carries all of my memories. Why should I erase them?”Diane von Fürstenberg, quoted on NPR.org “Action…

To The Times Your leading article on the “slow march” tactic adopted by Just Stop Oil goes too far when it calls on the police “always [to] deem such protests as ‘serious disruption’”, and thus always to be unlawful. Using the public highway for advertising one’s political views is just as legitimate as using it for commercial purposes. One could justifiably say that much of the time vehicle drivers get in the way of potential protesters. The law requires the police to balance the interests of different users of the highway. It is not an easy job and sometimes the police get the balance wrong, but they should not be condemned for seeking to respect all the competing interests and refusing to make a blanket judgement that political protest is…

by Deborah Levy Hamish Hamilton 256pp £18.99 The Week Bookshop £14.99 “From Dostoevsky to Hitchcock’s Vertigo, the doppelgänger is among the delights of literature and film alike,” said Olivia Laing in The Observer. And it’s a theme that Deborah Levy explores to striking effect in her “deeply Freudian” ninth novel. Elsa M. Anderson is a concert pianist who has recently lost her nerve and “walked off stage mid-performance” in Vienna. In the wake of this “unforgivable act”, she is “drifting around Europe”, teaching piano to the children of the wealthy. One day, in an Athens market, she spots a stranger wearing the same coat as her, and is “compelled by the sense that she is looking at herself”. Over the pages that follow, the doppelgänger reappears, as she pursues Elsa…

Joe Tilson at Cristea Roberts Gallery Now aged 94, Joe Tilson is an undisputed great of postwar British art. A contemporary of Peter Blake and David Hockney, Tilson was one of the first pop artists, though he subsequently turned his back on the style after becoming disillusioned with the consumer culture that it fed off. Breaking the Rules is an entertaining show: a career-spanning survey of his printmaking, a medium that suited Tilson’s early pop inclinations and has remained a primary concern in his output ever since. The most immediate examples here are classic 1960s images – the widely reproduced Sky 1 (1967), addressing the space race, is probably one of the era’s most memorable screenprints – but later efforts hold their own, too. It’s a delight to see exhibits…

A smoky tea from a bygone age “It’s a brave person who tampers with an Englishman’s tea,” says Eleanor Steafel in The Daily Telegraph – advice you’d think that Twinings would heed, given that it has “been in the business for 300 years”. Yet the company has enraged tea connoisseurs by ditching lapsang souchong, and replacing it with a blend called Distinctively Smoky. Originating in China in the early 19th century, lapsang souchong gets its distinctive flavour from the tea leaves being dried over a pinewood fire. It became “seen as a quintessentially British brew”, and was Sir Winston Churchill’s drink of choice, which perhaps “contributed to its reputation as a masculine drink”. Twinings said it had delisted lapsang because of challenges in sourcing supplies, but its decision may also…

● Check Defra’s daily air-quality index – if it is a high pollution day, then it’s better to exercise indoors. Avoid exercising outside at dawn or dusk in polluted areas (which are not confined to cities): as the temperature drops, the atmosphere traps airborne pollutants near the ground. ● Indoor pollution is an overlooked problem. It can be emitted by cleaning products, scented candles and new furniture. Open windows, and invest in an air purifier. Get one with a Hepa filter, and change the filter regularly. ● Use the extractor fan when cooking or cleaning in the kitchen or bathroom. Induction or electric cookers are less polluting than gas cookers. ● The air quality on trains or buses can be worse than outside. Passengers in the rear carriages are more…

Harry Belafonte 1927-2023 Harry Belafonte, who has died aged 96, was not the first black entertainer to “transcend racial boundaries” in the US, said The New York Times. The likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong had achieved stardom before he did. But none of them did it with quite such a splash. At a time when black faces were still rare on screen, Belafonte was starring in Hollywood films – “and for a while no one in music, black or white, was bigger”. Born in Harlem, but brought up partly in Jamaica, “he almost singlehandedly ignited a craze for Caribbean music with a series of hits including Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)”, and his 1956 album Calypso is believed to have been the first by a single artist to…

Jack Dorsey In the run-up to Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter for $44bn last year, he could count on “few champions more public, and unusual, than his fellow tech mogul Jack Dorsey”, said DealBook in The New York Times. The Twitter co-founder famously called Musk “the singular solution I trust”. Fast-forward a year, and he appears to be having second thoughts. “I think he should have walked away,” Dorsey wrote this week, claiming that Musk hadn’t “acted right” during a seven-month tenure that has seen Twitter’s workforce decimated while advertisers have fled. “It all went south.” No coincidence, perhaps, that Dorsey, who rolled over his $1bn stake into Musk’s privatised Twitter, made his remarks on Bluesky – an independent social media project that he championed when still Twitter CEO, says…

What happened Rehearsals were under way this week for Saturday’s coronation of Charles III and his wife Camilla. It will be the 40th such ceremony held at Westminster Abbey since 1066. The service will feature the rite’s usual key elements – the recognition; the oath; the anointing; the investiture and crowning; and the enthronement and homage – but will depart from tradition in some respects. It will begin, for instance, with Charles being greeted by a 14-year-old chorister, to whom the King will say: “I come not to be served but to serve.” And whereas previous coronations featured a “Homage of Peers”, this one will have an “Homage of the People”, which will involve the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby inviting everyone – both in the abbey and watching at…

Teenagers are so attached to their phones that they cannot even bear to give the devices up for a few hours during public exams, the exam regulator Ofqual has claimed. It says that phones have become a “comfort blanket” for youngsters, and that invigilators think this (rather than an epidemic of cheating) explains the rising numbers of students being found with devices in exam halls. Some 1,845 penalties were issued last year, up from 1,385 in 2019. Sales of new and pre-owned private jets will reach $34.6bn this year, their highest level ever, a US think-tank has forecast. According to the High Flyers report, there were 23,133 private jets in operation globally last year, up from 9,895 in 2000, and they collectively made 5.3 million flights.…

Using “cold calls” to sell financial products will be banned as part of a new crackdown on fraud. Unsolicited calls are often used to trick people into investing in fake cryptocurrency schemes and the like. The total ban means that anyone who gets a call asking them to invest in a financial product can be confident it’s a scam, the Government said. Other measures include a ban on “Sim farms”, devices that enable fraudsters to send text messages in bulk; a new National Fraud Squad; and an advertising campaign to alert people to the types of scams being used. Fraud currently accounts for four in ten reported crimes.…

Uman, Ukraine Russian strikes: Russia has launched its first widespread air strikes in more than a month against civilian targets in Ukraine, in an apparent attempt to demoralise the population ahead of Ukraine’s anticipated spring offensive (see page 21). In the first barrage, at least 23 people were killed in Uman, 200 miles from the front lines (pictured). A second assault this week injured at least 34 civilians in Pavlohrad. And to punish dissent in occupied areas of Ukraine, President Putin has signed a decree declaring all residents who fail to pledge allegiance to Russia to be foreigners. Meanwhile, Kiev has been hitting Russian logistical capacity with drone attacks in preparation for its offensive: one sparked a fire at an oil depot in Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea. Last week, the…

“The world and his wife are doing therapy nowadays, as far as I can tell – and there are some unintended consequences. One of them is people weaponising therapy-speak. Being dumped, today, can feel like an HR tribunal. ‘It’s not you, it’s me’ is rather passé. Instead, it’s: ‘It is important that I establish boundaries within my life.’ I keep hearing from people who have found themselves ghosted by a friend, and on further inquiry are told that their ghoster was ‘practising self-care’ or ‘at emotional capacity’. People bailing on their mate’s birthday dinner last minute, saying, ‘I need to preserve my energy.’ I can’t help but feel that this is not quite what therapists were intending.” Charlotte Ivers in The Sunday Times…

Let’s wash our hands of the water firms Rod Liddle The Sunday Times There can be no companies in this country quite so inept as our water giants, says Rod Liddle. South West Water, operating in one of “the very wettest parts of England, after the wettest March for 40 years and an even wetter January”, has just extended a hosepipe ban. What do they do with all that water? Meanwhile, just along the coast, Southern Water spends its time spraying excrement into local water courses. In 2021 it was fined £90m for no fewer than 51 sewage-dumping offences. Admittedly, many of our water problems stem from the legacy of an ageing water grid. Yet instead of investing to tackle the problem, the companies make short-term returns their priority. Thames…

The organisms thriving on rubbish The Great Pacific Garbage Patch – a mass of discarded waste that floats in the ocean between Hawaii and California – has become home to an entirely new ecosystem, reports CNN. Researchers have found that dozens of marine species that usually live on the coast, including sea anemones, Asian oysters and mussels, are now thriving on detritus floating in the deep sea, thousands of miles from their normal habitats. Researchers examined 105 bits of junk that had been fished out of the patch, which is largely made up of tiny bits of plastic, and found clinging to the debris 484 marine invertebrate organisms from 46 species, 80% of which are normally found in coastal areas. On more than two-thirds of the objects, the coastal creatures…

When the former Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown gave Rory Stewart a copy of his memoirs, Stewart was disappointed to discover that there was no inscription in the front, he recalled on his podcast The Rest is Politics. Then he turned to the index and next to his name found the message: “I thought you’d look here first, love Paddy.” Robbie Williams and his wife Ayda Field have admitted that they rarely have sex – but don’t mind in the slightest. “No sex in a marriage is only a problem if you’re on different pages,” Williams told The Sun. “But really, everyone knows there is no sex after marriage. That’s just the way it is.” They do sometimes have a stab at it, though. “Ayda will turn to me on…

Ukraine is preparing to launch its counteroffensive against Russian forces, said The New York Times – and the future of the war hinges on its outcome. According to leaked Pentagon documents, 12 new Ukrainian brigades of 4,000 soldiers each, trained and supplied by the US and its Nato allies, are ready to go to war. Although shrouded in secrecy, “the operation is likely to unfold in the country’s south”, near the Black Sea coast and Russian-occupied Crimea. The hope is that these troops can penetrate Russian defences in one or more places along the 600-mile front line, said David Axe in The Daily Telegraph. If they succeed, “tanks and infantry can push through into the enemy’s undefended rear areas” and split its forces in two. In military parlance, this is…

When Luca Brecel first appeared at the World Championship 11 years ago, as an extravagantly talented 17-year-old, he made a bold prediction, said Aaron Bower in The Guardian. By the age of 19, the Belgian said, he would be crowned world champion. The prophecy didn’t materialise: until three weeks ago, Brecel had suffered first-round defeats in each of his five appearances at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre. Yet on Monday, the boy from Dilsen-Stokkem, who first picked up a cue at the age of nine, finally made good on his promise. In an enthralling final, he survived a “nerve-shredding” fightback from “snooker’s granite-like grandmaster”, Mark Selby, to prevail 18-15. Brecel is the first world champion from mainland Europe, and – at 28 – the youngest winner at the Crucible since Shaun Murphy…

Tennis Emma Raducanu withdrew from the Madrid Open without playing, citing a hand injury. It means Britain’s No. 1 falls out of the top 100 for the first time since winning the US Open in 2021. Football Liverpool beat Tottenham 4-3 at Anfield to move to fifth place in the Premier League. The Reds had let slip a 3-0 lead before Diogo Jota’s 94th-minute winner. Rugby union Exeter Chiefs failed to make the final of the Champions Cup, losing 47-28 to La Rochelle in Bordeaux, France.…

Ryan Calais Cameron is having quite a year, said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph. This spring, his breakout play For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy completed its journey from fringe to West End. Now he has given us something utterly different, and even more brilliant. Retrograde is a crisp three-hander that propels him “to the front rank” of British playwrights. “Even-handed and light of touch”, the drama – about an incident in the early career of the actor Sidney Poitier – has echoes of today’s “cancel culture” debates. Yet it “rigorously honours its 1950s setting, attaining a peak of articulate defiance that recalls Arthur Miller’s The Crucible”. Yes, it’s “that good”. The set-up sees rising star Poitier arrive at a film studio’s…

This six-part drama reportedly cost Amazon Prime “somewhere north of $250m”, said Lucy Mangan in The Guardian. So was it worth it? “You betcha. It’s Mission: Impossible meets The Bourne Identity meets James Bond while glancing off Indiana Jones a few times along its irresistible way.” Richard Madden stars as Mason Kane, a spy for a global espionage network, whom we first see causing chaos on a train with his “permanently pouting” partner and ex-wife (Priyanka Chopra Jonas). The drama then skips forward eight years, with our agents now living normal lives in separate cities with no memory of their previous existence as swashbuckling spies. “Twists, turns, explosions, old-fashioned fisticuffs”, outrageous gadgetry and glamorous locations are all “parcelled out in one glorious stream”; and just as you’re thinking “I could…

The museum of contemporary art in Lyon organised an evening at its latest exhibition that was “open to everyone on one condition”, says Adam Sage in The Times: “that they take off all their clothes”. Only naked visitors were allowed to pay €11 to see the exhibition on the human body at macLYON for a 90-minute session last Thursday, followed by a drink and discussion. “Our idea is to question the issue of the body in a given space, to see how bodies interact with other bodies,” said a spokesman for the museum, which organised the event with the local branch of the French Naturist Federation. Incarnations: The Body in the macLYON Collection (which includes Edi Dubien’s 2020 work Synergie, pictured) was inspired by the notion that the philosopher René…

Pat asks Harrison if he has heard back from Hampshire police about Rob. Alice enjoys her first bell-ringing session with Chris; Susan warns him to be careful about his feelings for Alice. After Justin weasels out of supporting the Eurovision event, Paul recruits Lynda to help. With urging from Adam, Stella plans a holiday, but she’s worried Brian’s not ready to return to work. Den tries to make amends with Chelsea and Brad, saying he’s lonely, but they say no to seeing more of him. Kenton learns that Justin is using the withdrawn Eurovision money to put on a Coronation light show – he doesn’t want The Bull to enter but Jolene insists. Adam and Alice have an awkward moment with Brian after she mentions his will. When it seems…

This is a great all-year-round dish, says Rosie Reynolds: the apples and cider make it beautiful and warming for autumn and winter, but it’s bright enough for spring and summer – when it’s best served with a hearty green salad containing plenty of fennel and more apple. Even if you are only cooking for one or two people, I urge you to make this, as the leftovers are even better. Serves 4 2 small onions, cut into wedges through the root ½ tsp chilli (hot pepper) flakes 1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for rubbing salt and freshly ground black pepper 8 good-quality sausages (pork or chicken work well) 1 stock cube in 200ml boiling water 200ml cider or apple juice 1 tsp wholegrain mustard 1 tbsp Dijon mustard 1…

Jubilee Park, Woodhall Spa, on the edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds, is home to a charity-run campsite, with tennis courts, table tennis, a putting lawn and a 33-metre heated lido (from £22/night, swimming £9; jubileeparkwoodhallspa.co.uk). Shrewsbury’s Love2Stay boutique glampsite has safari tents and lodges, plus 118 pitches in 22 acres of grounds with a large natural swimming pool, a lake for paddleboarding and a hot-spring pool (from £30/night; love2stay.co.uk). St Monans Holiday Park, Fife, has a simple range of tent and touring pitches or rentable mobile homes, and there’s a beautiful tidal swimming pool on the beach below (from £23/night; abbeyford.com). Guests at the Trewan Hall Campsite, in the grounds of a 17th century mansion in Cornwall, can enjoy a 25-metre outdoor pool (open May half-term, July and Aug), plus…

A South Seas metropolis Most tourists in the South Pacific spend their time on deserted beaches and in “bucolic” villages – but the port of Suva, the capital of Fiji and the region’s largest city, is worth a visit too, says Tom Downey in The New York Times. Surrounded by “cloud-topped” mountains, it is home to 100,000 people, mostly of Indian, Chinese or indigenous iTaukei descent – a rich cultural mix reflected in its great restaurants. Its elegant old town was laid out by the British and includes a “lively” cricket pitch and the famous Grand Pacific Hotel. There’s a “bustling” market, plenty of bars where you can try kava (a ritual drink with “mellowing” effects), a newly opened Centre for the Arts (at the time of my visit showcasing…

Jerry Springer 1944-2023 Jerry Springer was a former lawyer and politician who became one of the most controversial figures on US television, said The Sydney Morning Herald. His daytime talk show, The Jerry Springer Show, was launched in 1991, and ran until 2018. When it started, it covered topical news; then, with its ratings falling, it transformed itself into a modern “freak show”, in which “ordinary people” – mostly the poor and socially marginalised, and including a steady stream of white supremacists – were encouraged to air their secrets and scandals in front of a baying studio audience. Springer, sensibly dressed in dark suits, acted as ringmaster. With the production motto “No subject too indecent, no individual too pathetic”, the show was divided into segments with titles such as “You…

The UK’s tech industry reached $1trn in value last year – making it “only the third country ever to hit this milestone after the US and China”, says Simon Hunt in the Evening Standard. “London on its own has created more than 20 unicorns – firms worth more than $1bn – since 2021.” When it comes to fintech, the capital’s speciality, London has outgunned New York and San Francisco in attracting funding, pulling in around £8bn in investment last year alone. The Evening Standard’s inaugural “tech rich list” features 100 people with a combined wealth of £60bn – “more than a tenth of the entire GDP of London”. The list is still led by an old-timer, James Dyson, whose eponymous high-tech appliances firm has helped boost his net worth by…

The week’s best shares AB Dynamics Investors’ Chronicle The acquisition of Ansible Motion, which provides advanced simulator testing for new cars, is the driving force of AB’s momentum. It has a promising driving robots arm, and “decent” levels of cash generation. Buy. £17.35. Admiral Group The Daily Telegraph Once a motor insurer, Admiral now also provides travel insurance and financial and legal services. Robustly financed, US losses are coming down and European growth could boost profits. Yields 5.4%. Buy. £22.59. Currys The Sunday Times Shares in the electrical retailer, which has 830 shops in eight countries, are 75% lower than in 2018. But with debt down 65%, improved margins and “sustainable cost reductions”, it looks like “a Currys bargain”. Buy. 57p. GSK The Times The pharma giant is embroiled in…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1361 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 15 May. Send it to The Week Crossword 1361, 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 American dullard Henry coming in two seconds (4) 3 What smoked salmon, soup and scallops have in common (8) 8 Wind instrument caught out? Put in another request (7) 10 Excellent trade involving Little Women (5) 11 Illumination with slight reach? Wrong (11) 13…

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Music fans, with news that HMV is reopening its flagship store on London’s Oxford Street. The store will sell vinyl LPs, CDs and even cassettes, as well as pop merchandise and headphones. The shop, which was officially opened by Sir Edward Elgar in 1921, had been taken over by an American candy store (see page 41). Eva Green, the Bond actress, who won her legal battle over her $1m fee for an axed film. The star had become involved in an acrimonious dispute with the film’s makers; in court, it emerged that she had described one of its producers as “pure vomit”, and referred to crew members as “peasants” – something she blamed on her Frenchness. The judge said he did not find that excuse satisfactory, but did concede that…

The Government has watered down its plans for a post-Brexit “bonfire” of EU laws. In January, the Prime Minister gave his backing to the Retained EU Law Bill, under which 4,000 EU-derived laws would be culled on 31 December, unless they’d been repealed or reformed before then. But last week Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch reportedly told senior Tories that it was not possible to scrub that many laws, and that the aim now was to remove only 800 by the end of the year.…

Mountain View, California AI “godfather” quits: A British computer scientist known as the “godfather of AI” has left Google, warning about the “scary” speed at which the technology is developing. Geoffrey Hinton, a pioneer of modern machine learning, said that he had stepped down partly so that he could speak freely about the risks of artificial intelligence, at a time when companies are racing for market dominance. In an interview with The New York Times, he warned that AI could surpass human intelligence far sooner than expected, and that it could usurp more human jobs than predicted. He also referred to the risk of “bad actors using it for bad things”. Admitting that he had regrets about his life’s work, the 75-year-old echoed a recent call by researchers and tech…

Police in Nottinghamshire caught a prolific shoplifter after he tried to escape arrest by hiding in a barbershop – despite being completely bald. The 46-year-old, who has not been named, attracted the suspicions of officers when he ducked into the shop as they approached. He was escorted out, and a search of his belongings revealed 16 items stolen from a Boots in Beeston – including some haircare products. A statue of a buxom mermaid that has been erected in a fishing village in Puglia has been criticised for being “too provocative”. The statue, created by students at Luigi Rosso art school, was unveiled in a square dedicated to the Nobel prizewinning neurobiologist Rita Levi-Montalcini. The headteacher of the art school insisted it was a “tribute to the great majority of…

EGYPT Keep Cleopatra out of US race politics Arab News (Riyadh) Egyptians are generally a pretty laid back bunch, says Faisal J. Abbas – but they don’t take kindly to having their history or icons “misrepresented”. Witness the ongoing controversy over a new Netflix series, Queen Cleopatra, in which the lead role is played by the brilliant black actress Adele James. Her casting has got under the skin of many Egyptians, who point out that Cleopatra was almost certainly of Macedonian-Greek origin, and therefore white. The fact that the producers chose to represent her as black was a “political act”, they argue, driven by a desire to “bring Cleopatra into the 21st century”. That wouldn’t have been a big deal “had the series been fictional”, but it was billed as…

For years, a debate has simmered about Britain’s policy towards China, said Juliet Samuel in The Times. The hawks say Beijing is an “untrustworthy menace”, and that we should limit our cooperation and dependence. But it is the doves – who see China as a “golden goose” for British exporters – who are now in the ascendant in the Government. That was made clear last week, when James Cleverly, the Foreign Secretary, gave a speech in which he reasserted a policy of “engagement” with Beijing. Warships may be massing in the seas around China; jets may be circling over Taiwan. But Cleverly says a clash with China is not inevitable, and that with constructive dialogue, we can exert influence over its rulers. Yet the only evidence he could cite for…

Britons “need to accept” that they’re getting poorer. That was the message from the Bank of England’s chief economist last week, said The Guardian. In an interview, Huw Pill called on workers to stop seeking wage hikes and firms to stop pushing up their prices, and to instead come to terms with the fact that we’re all worse off. Pill is right on one level, said Julian Jessop on CapX. Higher energy prices are bound to reduce the spending power of a net importer of energy like the UK. But his comments were “insensitive” and came across as an attempt by the Bank to blame others for stubborn inflation. More importantly, they won’t work. They won’t lead anyone to moderate their pay demands. And they won’t stop firms trying to…

Craven Cottage – Fulham’s home since 1896 – has played “witness to many prolific scorers down the decades”, said Henry Winter in The Times. Few have been as astonishing as Erling Haaland, Manchester City’s “22-year-old goal machine from Norway”. At this “wonderful, atmospheric stadium”, Haaland kicked his way into “English history” last Sunday by becoming the first top-flight player to score 50 goals in all competitions in a season since Aston Villa’s Tom Waring in 1930-31. He required less than three minutes to reach the mark, stroking an “unstoppable penalty” into the bottom corner. The goal was Haaland’s 34th in the Premier League this season, drawing him level with the record jointly held by Alan Shearer and Andy Cole, “whose achievements came in 42-game seasons”. And there may be further…

Conservatism’s schism To The New Statesman In both your editorial and Andrew Marr’s column there is a suggestion that the division between “National Conservatives” and “Liberal Conservatives” is a post-Thatcherite development. Yet this tension spans two centuries, reflecting the Conservative Party’s DNA and the reasons for its success. The party emerged in the 1830s from an uneasy synthesis of two opposed philosophies: Toryism, with its stress on order, tradition, community and the periodic extension of state power; and Whiggery, with its focus on free trade, capitalist innovation and individual freedom. These sets of principles may seem contradictory, but for 200 years they’ve reflected the hybrid wishes of voters. Should the Tories eschew (rather than clumsily manage) this contradiction, their philosophy would be more coherent. But their electoral appeal would be…

by Michael Frayn Faber 272pp £25 The Week Bookshop £19.99 Michael Frayn is a “maestro” of literary multitasking, said Peter Kemp in The Sunday Times. “As a dramatist, he wrote the funniest play of the 1980s, Noises Off (1982), and the brainiest play of the 1990s, Copenhagen (1998).” His back catalogue also includes 11 novels, various “substantial books of philosophy”, and translations of Chekhov’s great plays. Now nearly 90, he has written a “splendid” memoir. Frayn is “the sort of writer who feels like a friend”, said Ian Sansom in The Daily Telegraph. So it seems appropriate that in his latest book, he has turned his attention to his “actual friends”. Among Others is an “ingenious” memoir in which Frayn remembers those he has known well, including the “dashing and…

Tartan may well be “the most categorised textile on Earth”, said Cal Revely-Calder in The Daily Telegraph. There are more than 11,000 recognised varieties of this grid of “geometric patterns of coloured thread”, each one of them loaded with symbolism. Over the centuries, tartan has been “a source of pride, contempt, sedition, comfort, embarrassment and cool”. To wear it “is to enter a miasma of folklore and social rules”. Yet among the many things that this new exhibition demonstrates is that most of these rules are relatively recent inventions. This show at the V&A in Dundee brings together more than 300 objects to explore tartan’s history and significance, covering everything from Culloden to the Bay City Rollers. In its sweep, it encompasses a “dizzying” but never disorienting mix of art,…

Beloved by Toni Morrison, 1987 (Vintage £9.99). I’ve always loved Morrison’s books exploring black identity and racial justice. This novel in particular gives a voice to so many black women who were overshadowed by their male counterparts, and is a constant reminder that the past should not be an impediment to the present. The Baby-Sitters Club series by Ann M. Martin, 1986-2000 (Scholastic from £5.99 each). I read a lot of these books growing up, and I really believe they don’t get enough credit for being the first diverse teen novels of their time. People underestimate the importance of young ethnic girls reading books which feature characters with whom they can identify. A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam, 2007 (Canongate £9.99). A spellbinding novel about a widowed mother of two,…

Programmes The Coronation of HM the King Kirsty Young, Huw Edwards and others present live coverage of the day’s events in three parts: The Preparation, The Coronation and The Celebration. Sat 6 May, BBC1 07:30 (450mins). Storyville: Blue Bag Life The artist and filmmaker Lisa Selby’s intimate documentary about two of her closest relationships: with her partner and her late mother, both heroin addicts. Tue 9 May, BBC4 22:00 (90mins). Turkey: Empire of Erdogan Two-part look at the authoritarian leader’s rise to power, examining how his initial popularity gave way to mass protests against him. Tue 9 and Wed 10 May, BBC2 21:00 (60mins each). Amol Rajan Interviews… Piers Morgan The broadcaster and journalist discusses everything from phone hacking to the Duchess of Sussex. Thur 11 May, BBC2 19:00 (45mins).…

Egypt beach break Stay 5 nights at the Sunrise Holidays Resort, Hurghada, with its own lagoon & close to the city centre. From £749pp all-inclusive (incl. London flights). 020-3451 2688, tui.co.uk. Depart 4 June. Fifteen-day Sri Lanka tour Starting from Negombo, this hill country to Colombo tour immerses you in the must-sees and tastes of Sri Lanka. From £1,573pp b&b (excl. flights). 0808-274 5111, intrepidtravel.com. Depart 4 June. Seven nights in Phuket Mom Tri’s Villa Royale hotel overlooks the white-sand beach of Kata Noi in Thailand. The stay costs from £1,440pp b&b (incl. Birmingham flights). 0871-474 3000, onthebeach.co.uk. Depart 12 September. Sicilian countryside The Relais Parco Cavalonga in Ragusa has two pools, and there are plenty of good places to eat close by. A 4-night stay costs from £212pp b&b…

HSBC/Barclays/Pearson: revolting shareholders The annual general meeting season is under way and there may be some fireworks ahead. We can expect the usual grumbling about fat executive pay packages, said The Times: at the educational publisher Pearson, nearly half of shareholders have voted against a three-year plan “to increase performance-based incentives from 200% to 300% of salaries”. But this week, the problems of two banks were centre stage. At Barclays, the “old ghosts” of former CEO Jes Staley and his one-time client, the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, are still haunting the bank, two years after Staley quit, said Kalyeena Makortoff in The Observer. Barclays bosses were “steeling themselves for a grilling” over whether they’d placed “undue trust” in Staley’s account of his relationship with Epstein in his previous job…

A blueprint to revive the City Nils Pratley The Guardian The number of companies listed on London’s main stock market has fallen by 40% since 2008. Something has to be done, says Nils Pratley, but does the UK stock market really need “the biggest shake-up” in listing rules since the 1980s? The grand plan put forward by the Financial Conduct Authority could be summarised as “if you can’t beat ’em, join them” – “them” being the US markets that have never shared London’s worries over shareholder rights and boardroom governance. The core proposals are to adopt a single class of listed company (goodbye to the “premium” segment with strong governance standards); fling London’s doors open to companies with “unequal voting structures”, US techstyle; and free boards to make big deals…

Almost 80 years have passed, but Josef Lewkowicz can vividly recall the day, shortly after the end of the Second World War, when he tracked down the Nazi concentration camp commandant who had once terrorised him and left him for dead. “I can remember the moment as if it is in front of my eyes,” he says. “I found him lying on the ground like a dog. I approached him and couldn’t believe that our situations were reversed. I thanked God that this moment had come and I could catch the murderer.” The man Lewkowicz describes as a “monster” was Amon Goeth, the notorious “Butcher of Płaszów,” who was made famous by Ralph Fiennes’s portrayal of him in Schindler’s List. Lewkowicz is only now telling the full story of his…