Innholdsfortegnelse for 1557 i The Week

The organisers of the Great North Run, who had to apologise after depicting the wrong city and the wrong river on the 60,000 medals issued at the event on Sunday. The map on the medal purports to show the Tyne running through Newcastle; but it is actually the Wear in Sunderland. “Wear sorry!” they said. Jaguar Land Rover, which became the latest firm to be crippled by hackers. The attack on JLR’s systems brought factory operations, and the supply of spare parts, to a near standstill. Samantha Cameron, who confirmed that she was winding down her fashion label. Cameron founded Cefinn in 2017. A year later, it received a £2.5m cash injection from Tory donor David Brownlow and others, but it never turned a profit. Radio 4’s In Our Time,…

Washington DC Farage’s testimony: Nigel Farage told American lawmakers last week that the UK had become like North Korea in its approach to free speech. Citing the cases of Lucy Connolly (who was jailed for tweeting during the Southport riots that asylum hotels should be set on fire) and Graham Linehan (see page 19), the Reform UK leader said that Britain had sunk into an “awful authoritarian situation”, and claimed that the Online Safety Act bestowed “arbitrary powers”. Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee listened sympathetically, but before his testimony to the hearing, a Democrat, Jamie Raskin, launched a stinging attack in which he called Farage a “Putin-loving free speech imposter” and “Trump sycophant”. He said that unlike in the US there was no “free speech crisis” in the…

When Damien McClave, from Aughnacloy in Northern Ireland, was pulled over on suspicion of drink driving last December, he said that he couldn’t give a breath sample as he “identifies as a dog”. Taken into custody, he “barked and growled like a dog” while crawling around on his hands and knees, Dungannon Magistrates’ Court was told last week. McClave made no comment. “One wouldn’t expect a dog to be able to comment,” said district judge Francis Rafferty, fining him £650 and disqualifying him from driving for 19 months. The Croatian village of Jaškovo has reclaimed the world record for the longest line of baked strudels. Its line of 8,940 pastries, stretching more than 3km, smashed the record set by Sisak, a town 107km away across Croatia, in 2019. Jaškovo had…

SOUTH AFRICA Africa’s “continental gerontocracy” Daily Maverick (Cape Town) Africa has a problem with “geriatric leaders”, says Mike Wills. In Ivory Coast, Alassane Ouattara has changed the constitution so he can campaign again for the presidency in October at the age of 83, “after 15 years in office”. In Cameroon, President Paul Biya is seeking an eighth term at 92, “having run the place for 43 years”. He is neck and neck with Teodoro Obiang Nguema, 83 – “who still clings to power” in Equatorial Guinea – as the world’s longest-serving non-royal head of state. The “continental gerontocracy” doesn’t stop there: there’s 81-year-old Denis Sassou Nguesso in Republic of the Congo; Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, at 80, is still a “ruthless boss”; Emmerson Mnangagwa in Zimbabwe is 82. At least…

Peter Sellers was a brilliant self-publicist, says Charlotte Alt in The Times. As an aspiring comic in 1948, he rang the BBC and asked to speak to producer Roy Speer, pretending to be Kenneth Horne (a major star). “Listen, Roy,” he said, “I’m phoning because Dickie and I saw this amazing young fellow called… what was his name?” He then put on the voice of the actor Richard Murdoch and said “Peter Sellers”, before resuming as Horne: “It’d be good if you had him in the show.” When Sellers confessed his real identity, Speer called him a “cheeky sod”, and asked; “What do you do?” “Well,” replied Sellers, “I obviously do impersonations, don’t I?” Eileen Atkins is famously unstuffy, but she has never taken hard drugs – except once, when…

“When a man tells you he got rich through hard work, ask him: whose?” Don Marquis, quoted in Forbes “Preparation is, if not the key to genius, then at least the key to sounding like a genius.” Winston Churchill, quoted in the Daily Mail “How convenient does it prove to be a rational animal, that knows how to find or invent a plausible pretext for whatever it has an inclination to do!” Benjamin Franklin, quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle “There is no sinner like a young saint.” Aphra Behn, quoted in the FT “Rules are there so that you think before you break them.” Terry Pratchett, quoted on The Knowledge “The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.” Former US vice-president Hubert…

To The Times Whatever the rights or wrongs of Graham Linehan’s arrest, surely we are more in danger of becoming a totalitarian state when politicians, including the PM, think they can tell the police which laws they should be enforcing? If our legislators do not like the consequences of their actions, their job is to admit their mistake and amend or repeal the relevant statutes. Les Barnfield, West Bromwich, West Midlands To The Daily Telegraph I do not understand why the police are in an “impossible position” over free speech laws, as Sir Mark Rowley, the Met chief, puts it. They ignore many offences, such as shoplifting, burglaries and car thefts, and don’t appear to believe that the clear illegality of these means they should take some action. They also…

Lean Fall Stand by Jon McGregor, 2021 (4th Estate £8.99). An ice storm in Antarctica leads to tragedy and the beginning of a journey that draws its characters away from notions of heroism and towards humility. It’s charged with immense wisdom and is quietly subversive on the subject of masculinity. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, 1937 (Virago £9.99). A haunting coming-of-age story that explores gender, feminist identity, sexuality and American racial history, in which a huge hurricane influences the fortunes of the protagonist, Janie. This is a tale of love, resilience and selfhood pitted against oppression, and a book that marked its author out as a creative lodestar. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, 1992 (Bloomsbury £9.99). Four very different characters are brought together in Italy…

Programmes Last Night of the Proms: The Finale Includes a 50th anniversary performance of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, a My Fair Lady medley and Alison Balsom performing Bernstein. Sat 13 Sep, BBC1 21:00 (90mins). Coldwater Andrew Lincoln stars in this darkly comic thriller from playwright David Ireland. After witnessing a violent incident in London, John moves his family to the Scottish Highlands. Sun 14-Mon 15 Sep, ITV1 21:00 (60mins each). Walter Presents: Isolated In this drama, a remote island community in Finland is thrown into turmoil when the power and phones go down. Mon 15 Sep, C4 00:00 (55mins). Twiggy A look back at the life and career of the 1960s model, with contributions from Paul McCartney, Brooke Shields, Dustin Hoffman and others. Mon 15 Sep, BBC2 21:00 (90mins). Michael Portillo’s…

Simple homemade kimchi Makes 1 jar 1 cabbage or Chinese napa cabbage 1 daikon sea salt 4 garlic cloves 1 bunch of spring onions, trimmed and sliced 1-2 tbsp Korean chilli flakes (gochugaru) 1 tbsp soy sauce 1 tbsp fish sauce (or fermented miso paste for vegans) • Trim the cabbage and cut it into 4-5mm thick slices. Trim and peel the daikon and cut into thin half-moons. • Weigh those vegetables, tip into a bowl and add 2% salt of the total weight. Using your hands, massage the salt into the veg until they are starting to soften, then cover the bowl and set aside at room temperature for about 4 hours. • Combine the garlic, spring onions, chilli flakes, soy sauce and fish sauce in a processor and…

● Express cycles are good for small loads of lightly soiled items. Denim and delicates need a cold, slow wash. Put towels and high-thread-count cottons on long setting. ● Higher temperatures can deactivate the enzymes in detergent; cooler energy-efficient cycles work just as well, as modern detergents are formulated to work at 20°C. ● But stained items, underwear, towels and bedding are better washed at 60°C or 40°C if you use a bio-detergent. ● Don’t put delicates on a fast spin, and be careful about spinning heavy loads as this can damage the machine. ● Don’t overload your machine – you should be able to move your hand at the top of the drum. Using too much detergent will leave sticky residue, which attracts dirt. ● Put liquid detergent and…

Pret A Manger: chunky writedown How the mighty have fallen, said Mark Sweney in The Guardian. Citing “intense strains” on the hospitality industry, the upmarket sandwich and coffee chain Pret A Manger is “finally caving in to competition from supermarkets” and launching (shudder) “meal deals” in the UK, in an attempt to boost sales and restore its soggy finances. The chain made a £525.5m pre-tax loss last year and, following a chunky writedown, has now lost about a third of its value since being bought in 2018 by JAB Holdings – the German conglomerate behind Kenco coffee and Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Pret is far from alone: last month it emerged that Coca-Cola was mulling a cut-price deal to sell Costa Coffee for nearly half its £3.9bn acquisition price. But Pret…

How to get Britain back to work Matthew Elliott City AM Britain’s growth problem and slipping living standards are painfully evident, says Matthew Elliott. “The big question for policymakers is how to break out of this cycle.” The answer must lie in the more than nine million UK adults who are economically inactive or on welfare. Getting them back into the workforce must be done if the Chancellor is to stem the ballooning welfare bill and balance the books. But “it will only happen if businesses are able to provide the right jobs and training”. Labour measures such as the Employment Rights Bill and the employers’ NI hike have already set the cause back: some 200,000 people have fallen out of payrolled employment over the past year. Fortunately, there is…

What happened Starmer’s reshuffle Keir Starmer carried out a sweeping Cabinet reshuffle following the resignation of Angela Rayner last Friday. Rayner quit as deputy prime minister, housing secretary and deputy Labour leader after an investigation found that she had breached the ministerial code, by failing to seek proper legal advice about the stamp duty due on a house purchase (see page 18). The PM swiftly began a shakeup that had been intended for later in the autumn. David Lammy was removed from the Foreign Office to lead the Ministry of Justice and become Deputy PM. Yvette Cooper was moved from the Home Office to the Foreign Office, and was replaced in her old job by Shabana Mahmood, the former justice secretary. The reshuffle means that, for the first time, the…

Church attendance in the UK has plummeted over the decades, and 46% of the population can be classed as “religiously unaffiliated” – but when asked if they believe in God, an afterlife, or “something spiritual beyond the natural world”, only 20% say no to all three. According to research by the Pew Research Centre, 33% of those who say they have no religious affiliation say they believe in an afterlife, and 24% believe in God – as do 8% of the self-identified atheists who make up 14% of the UK population. Eight pubs a week closed in England and Wales in the first six months of this year. Many were demolished; others will be converted into flats. In the past five years, more than 2,000 pubs have closed permanently.…

49% of British 18- to 24-year-olds say they are uncomfortable spending time with people who openly support Israel; only 18% are comfortable doing so. 31% of this age group agree that Israel has a right to exist; 20% say that it does not. 26% of the British public believe that Israel’s supporters “control the media”. YouGov/Campaign Against Antisemitism 25% of British voters believe that the dangers of climate change have been exaggerated, a figure that has increased from 16% in the past four years. 30% are in favour of banning new petrol and diesel cars. 16% are prepared to pay higher energy bills to encourage the switch to green power. Public First/The Times/YouGov…

“Be more magic!” Acclaimed for her roles in TV shows such as Slow Horses and the mega-budget House of the Dragon, Olivia Cooke, 31, is quietly becoming one of the most sought-after British actors of her generation, says Matt Alagiah in The Observer. But she’s taken a bumpy road to get there. Growing up in a working-class family in Oldham, she says she “didn’t really have high hopes” for herself; nor did she have any family connections to give her a leg-up in her chosen industry. Aged 18, she was rejected by Rada; but on the same day, she got a part in a film, and at 21 she moved to New York. Although her career took off in the US, the next few years were tough: she’d never lived…

“Who the f**k does he think he is? Who’s the f**king superpower here?” These were reportedly Bill Clinton’s words after his first meeting with Netanyahu, in 1996. The Israeli PM knows the US and its media well, and – buoyed by pro-Israel lobby groups and support from the Christian Right – he has felt confident to push back against Democratic presidents who have sought to rein in Israel. Barack Obama’s officials described him as “untrustworthy” and “disrespectful toward the president”. In 2015, Netanyahu accepted a Republican invitation to address Congress – and railed against the nuclear deal Obama was brokering with Iran. He had better relations with Joe Biden, especially after 7 October. But by the time Biden left office, he was privately referring to Netanyahu as an “asshole”. Donald…

The American invasion of the soccer field Andrés Martinez Los Angeles Times America has long ploughed a lonely furrow in the sporting realm, says Andrés Martinez. While a Hollywood film might make three-quarters of its box office outside the US, and Taylor Swift scheduled two-thirds of her Eras tour abroad, America’s biggest sporting event – the Super Bowl – still attracts little attention outside the US. America proclaims the winners of its domestic leagues “world champions”, but its American football and baseball stars never get to represent their country, because other nations like different games. This gulf is now narrowing, though, thanks to America’s takeover of soccer. The English Premier League kicked off its 2025/26 season with no fewer than 11 of its 20 clubs under US ownership. Will Arsenal…

New AI software that analyses CT scans rapidly to identify the type and severity of the stroke a patient has suffered should vastly increase the number who make a full recovery. When a person has a stroke, the supply of blood to part of their brain is cut off. With every minute that passes, more of their brain cells die – and so the sooner they are treated, the better their chances of making a partial or full recovery. The new diagnostic tool, now available in all 107 of England’s stroke centres, takes just a minute to identify the nature of the stroke and the most appropriate treatment for it. As a result, the patient can be given drugs or surgery much quicker. On average, the system cuts the time…

A year ago, Reform UK’s conference was “a curiosity on the fringe of British politics”, said Fraser Nelson in The Times. But its gathering last week felt like the “main event”, such is the momentum behind the party. The halls were packed; Heathrow Airport sponsored a corporate lounge; the Institute for Government was hosting seminars. For £10,000, you could have your company logo on a Reform bus; a £60,000 package included a champagne breakfast with the man who says he’ll be the next prime minister. “Once, a laughable claim. Less so now.” “Folks, it’s happening,” declared a triumphant Nigel Farage from the stage, speaking in the wake of Angela Rayner’s resignation from the Government. “We are all ships rising on a turquoise tide headed ever closer towards winning the next…

From the start of his surge to the top of tennis, it has been clear that Carlos Alcaraz’s “greatest opponent would probably be himself”, said Matthew Futterman in The New York Times. The Spaniard’s “top level is better than anyone else’s”, and he can hit shots of which no one else is capable. Yet at times it has seemed that “putting on a show” is what the 22-year-old cares about most; and this has prevented him from achieving the kind of consistency needed truly to dominate tennis. At least, that has been the case up until now; but at this year’s US Open, a different Alcaraz emerged – one who, in his own words, is “getting mature”. For the first time at a major tournament, he dominated every opponent he…

Tennis World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka beat Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 7-6 in the final of the US Open to win her fourth grand slam title. F1 Max Verstappen claimed his third win of the season at the Italian Grand Prix. Lando Norris came second, ahead of his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, who now leads Norris by 31 points in the drivers’ standings. Football Nuno Espírito Santo has been sacked as Nottingham Forest manager, after reportedly falling out with the club owner. Former Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou has been appointed.…

Rosenclaire at Goodman Gallery The South African-born artists Claire Gavronsky and Rose Shakinovsky (both b.1953) collaborate under the name “Rosenclaire”. Although they often work independently, they always exhibit together, their output running the gamut from hardcore conceptualism to traditional academic draughtsmanship. This show covers both bases. Downstairs, Gavronsky’s pictures reflect her close observation of Florentine Old Master drawings. Mostly pitted against single-colour backgrounds, these large, delicate works depict figures in various states of emotional catharsis; over what, we can only guess. Shakinovsky’s are a different kettle of fish: working from news photographs of natural disasters and civic upheaval, she has broken the images down to essential colour elements, pinpointing particular points of focus and eliminating everything else. The results are lively, seemingly abstract works reminiscent of Albers, Arp and the British…

Burgundy may be the “historical homeland” of chardonnay – but whites from the region have become so sought after that even entry-level bottles can cost hundreds of pounds, says William Lyons in The Sunday Times. Luckily, “you can find great chardonnay” at more affordable prices by venturing further afield. The Limoux region produces some good examples – such as 2023 Cuvée IIIB Auromon from Jean-Claude Mas (£14.50; Waitrose), which has a “lovely floral nose”; or Mark Hoddy’s “rich and creamy” 2024 La Voûte Vin de France (£17.99; Laithwaites). From the Languedoc, 2024 Pays d’Oc Chardonnay (£10.90; Tanners) is good, with “plenty of juicy white fruit on the finish”. From South Africa, 2024 Journey’s End Honeycomb Chardonnay (£9; M&S) is “creamy” with “appley hints”. From Australia, 2023 Heggies Vineyard Cloudline Chardonnay (£15.15; Co-op)…

Oxney Organic Estate, in Rye, East Sussex, is the largest single-estate organic wine producer in England. Stay in shepherds’ huts beside the vineyard in an AONB (from £320, incl. tasting; oxneyestate.com). Established in 2020, the family-run Wolds Wine Estate in Nottinghamshire is known for its fun, juicy natural wines. There are four glamping pods with vineyard views (from £160; woldswineestate.com). Stay in a treehouse overlooking the vines at Black Chalk near Andover, Hampshire, which makes traditional-method sparkling wine (from £272.50; blackchalkwine.co.uk). Tuffon Hall Vineyard in Sible Hedingham, Essex, makes award-winning wines from vines planted in 2011. Guests can stay in a converted grain silo, a poacher’s hut, or a bothy (from £150; tuffonhall.co.uk). Wraxall Vineyard, in Somerset, makes a small range of wines including a sparkling rosé. Stay in a cottage…

Collegio alla Querce Florence, Italy This recently opened hotel lies in the leafy neighbourhood of Le Cure – on the first hill above central Florence – and commands superb views of the city, says Stanley Stewart in Condé Nast Traveller. It occupies what was once a palace, and later a boarding school, and its refurbished public spaces are “grand” but not short on “domestic cosiness”. The 83 rooms are neutrally decorated, but feel “glamorous”: some have “baths big enough for two”. There’s an excellent restaurant serving classic Italian food, a lovely spa and gym, and a large, terraced garden with a 35-metre heated pool. Doubles from £1,400 b&b; aubergeresorts.com.…

Vashi Domínguez “The jewellery industry is built on clarity and trust,” said CEO Today. Yet the fate of Vashi Domínguez – the charismatic Spanish entrepreneur behind Vashi Diamonds, which collapsed owing £170m in 2023 – is anything but clear. In one of Britain’s “strangest business mysteries” he has disappeared; and anger is growing at the failure to find or investigate him. Tenerife-born Domínguez, 47, made his name selling diamonds to wealthy clients before opening shops in Birmingham, Manchester and London, and a ritzy flagship in Covent Garden. “He claimed to offer customers a different experience,” said Mark Ludlow in The Times: “they could work with designers and then watch their jewellery being made on site”. He attracted “a string of high-profile investors” including John Caudwell, founder of Phones4U, Nick Wheeler,…

What happened President Macron named his ally, Sébastien Lecornu, as his fifth prime minister in two years on Tuesday, following the collapse of François Bayrou’s nine-month-old government. Bayrou had resigned after losing a confidence vote he’d called in an effort to drive through his budget, which included €44bn of spending cuts and tax rises, and the abolition of two bank holidays. The defeat was heavier than expected: 194 MPs voted for Bayrou; 364 against. Lecornu, the former armed forces minister, must now try to get a budget through France’s National Assembly – deadlocked since last year’s snap elections. The scale of the challenge facing the new PM was immediately underlined when the Bloquons tout (“Let’s Block Everything!”) anti-government protests got under way on Wednesday. Thousands of people took to the…

Lachlan Murdoch, who won the succession battle for control of his 94-year-old father’s media empire. According to the terms of a settlement to end a long dispute over the future of the business, Lachlan – who is regarded as the most conservative of Rupert Murdoch’s older children – will run it solo, while his three oldest siblings receive $1.1bn each for their stakes in it (see page 36). The National Trust, which reported a surge in younger people becoming members. The charity said that 40,000 people signed up to its discounted membership package for people aged 18 to 25 in the last financial year, a year-on-year increase of 39%.…

Paris Assad warrant: French judges have issued international arrest warrants for Syria’s former president, Bashar al-Assad, and six senior regime officials, over the killing and wounding of a group of journalists in the Syrian civil war. In 2012, Assad’s soldiers targeted a makeshift media centre in the besieged city of Homs: the US reporter Marie Colvin, who worked for The Sunday Times, and French photographer Rémi Ochlik were killed; three others were wounded. In July, France’s highest appeal court, the Cour de cassation, cancelled a 2023 arrest warrant for Assad for complicity in war crimes on the grounds he had immunity as head of state. But it also ruled that new warrants could be issued now that Assad, who fled with his family to Moscow in December 2024, no longer…

“I was interested to see Nigel Farage in the US Congress, describing this country as ‘North Korea’, where free speech is ‘under assault’. Could this be the same Nigel Farage who, in 2015, tried to get me arrested by Kent police for something I said? I had joked that he’d only been to South Thanet, where he was running, ‘a few times’. He complained. Not for Nigel, though, a mere libel writ. He reported me under the Representation of the People Act 1983, which makes it a crime to spread false information about candidates. I was scared. Fortunately, Kent Police thought it was nonsense. It’s not that I don’t agree about the free speech problem, but he is as guilty as the rest of them, Biggin Hill’s Kim Jong Un.…

Britain is about to be bashed by a Boriswave Jenni Russell The Times Never mind about stopping the small boats, says Jenni Russell. At least as urgent a task for the new Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, is dealing with the “Boriswave”: the unprecedented influx of legal migrants initiated by Boris Johnson. Between January 2021 and June 2024, a staggering 3.8 million people got UK visas. Fewer than a fifth came in as workers; the rest came as dependants, students or via humanitarian routes. And, as of next January, they will start qualifying to apply for indefinite leave to remain (ILR), which is granted almost automatically after five years’ residence (unless applicants have a serious criminal record). At that point, they’ll be eligible to claim all welfare benefits (their rights are…

A better pill for heart disease Millions of people with heart disease take a low dose of aspirin every day, to slash their risk of developing the clots that can lead to heart attacks and strokes. Now, a study has found that an alternative blood-thinning drug, which is similarly inexpensive but prescribed to far fewer patients, does this even more effectively. Scientists analysed the results of clinical trials involving nearly 30,000 people from Europe, North America and Asia. The participants had an average age of 65, and all had coronary artery disease. About half were taking aspirin; the others clopidogrel, which is only available in the UK on prescription and costs four pence per pill. The research showed that, after about five years, those on clopidogrel were 14% less likely…

“How many police officers does it take to arrest one middle-aged sitcom writer?” Unfortunately, it’s not a joke, said Frank Furedi in the Daily Mail. When Graham Linehan, the co-creator of Father Ted and The IT Crowd, landed at Heathrow from his home in the US last Monday, five armed police were waiting for him. His alleged offence? A series of posts on X/Twitter in which he had inveighed against trans rights activists. In one, he called them “misogynists and homophobes”. In another, he had tweeted that if a woman saw “a trans-identified male” in a “female-only space”, she should “make a scene, call the cops and if all else fails punch him in the balls”. Linehan insists he meant it as humour; but even if you think it’s unfunny…

Thomas Tuchel was appointed England manager with the remit of winning next summer’s World Cup. And on Tuesday, in the German’s sixth game in charge, we “actually got to see a glimpse of that glorious possibility”, said Jason Burt in The Daily Telegraph. At the famously hostile Rajko Mitic Stadium in Belgrade, England gave Tuchel a statement victory as they routed Serbia 5-0 – and in the process took “total command” of their World Cup qualification group. Serbia, it’s true, “offered next to nothing”, but this was still a hugely encouraging performance, said David Hytner in The Guardian. In possession, England were “full of personality”, and produced several show-stopping moments – none more delightful than their second goal, a “dinked finish” by Noni Madueke after he was released by Morgan…

“It’s theatre, not a history lesson,” says Will Shakespeare early on in Liz Duffy Adams’s “firecracker” of a new play. This line, said Sarah Hemming in the FT, serves as a warning to the audience that they should “take everything” here “with a pinch of salt”. Steamy, “mischievously provocative”, and “peppered with literary gags”, Born With Teeth imagines the relationship between Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe as they collaborate on the Henry VI plays. It’s highly entertaining, and sensationally acted: Edward Bluemel makes a convincingly gauche but steely Will, the young man from the sticks, while Ncuti Gatwa (Doctor Who) is superb as Kit – a “hypnotic presence twirling a ridiculously camp quill”. But what holds the play back is its failure “to dive deeper into the huge themes” it raises,…

The discovery of a previously unknown miniature portrait by “one of Elizabethan England’s greatest artists”, Nicholas Hilliard, would always be significant, says Dalya Alberge in The Guardian. But it is made yet “more exciting because it has a possible link to William Shakespeare”. The work by Hilliard, Elizabeth I’s official “limner”, or miniature portraitist, is thought to be of Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton; it was in the collection of a family with a link to him. Wriothesley, known for his “androgynous beauty”, was Shakespeare’s friend and patron – and possibly the “fair youth” of his sonnets. Miniatures were pasted onto playing cards for a backing, and encased in lockets. On the card, behind this portrait, the red heart has been painted over with a black spear. Why, is…

After conversations with Rex, Tom and Lynda talk about payment of players, Lawrence guesses the truth and blackmails Lynda, threatening to tell the cricket team about the secret payments unless she drops the Golf Association complaint. A bored Stella helps out at Brookfield. Amber declines Chelsea’s invitation to her 21st, hearing school friends will be there – instead, they have an awkward drink at The Bull. David encourages Stella to apply for a job he’s seen advertised. Zainab and Chelsea have another run-in with Lawrence at the golf club; when he insults Zainab, she throws her drink over him. Amber rejects Oliver’s suggestion of apologising to Neil and Susan, saying they should apologise. During a massage at Spiritual Home, Amber tells Kate about her wedding to George; when shocked Kate…

Tips on freezing fruit I’m a fan of fruit preservation in all its forms, says Silvana Franco in The Daily Telegraph, from “bottles of foraged-sloe gin” to “bright berry jams”. But the technique I rely on most is freezing. Not only is it very simple, but it offers the most flexibility: you can put frozen fruit to all kinds of uses, in smoothies and sauces, cakes and crumbles. Of course, you can buy fruits ready-frozen, but it’s more economical – not to mention satisfying – to freeze your own, whether to preserve a homegrown glut or a seasonal batch you bought. The only fruits that are not suitable for freezing are those with a very high water content: citrus fruits, for instance, and most melons. For everything else, follow this…

Giorgio Armani 1934-2025 Presiding over the fashion empire that bore his name for 50 years, Giorgio Armani, who has died in Italy aged 91, was one of the most influential designers of the late 20th century, said The Times. At the start of his career, in the 1960s, he had spotted that members of the middle classes had different aspirations from their parents. Members of this postwar generation rejected the stiff conventionality of the past, and yearned instead for comfort, ease and understated luxury. His first great innovation was to deconstruct the traditional tailored suit, by removing canvas linings and thick shoulder pads, lengthening the coat and moving buttons. Armani suits were soft, slouchy and fluid, designed to suit lean, muscular men who didn’t need tailors to disguise the shape…

Like a stately galleon, gold continues to navigate the squalls of economic uncertainty – this week sailing to a new high above $3,600/per ounce, having “more than doubled over the past three years”, said Bloomberg. ● The latest force driving gold up is speculation the US Fed will shortly resume its cycle of rate cuts – reducing the opportunity cost of holding gold. Assuming no nasty surprises in this week’s inflation figures, some traders are even forecasting “a jumbo rate-cut” later this month, said Aiden Reiter in the FT, particularly given America’s significantly weakening labour market. ● Gold’s status as a safe haven is being further burnished by President Trump’s assaults on the Fed’s independence. The latest to warn of the “steep costs” of this “risky game”, said DealBook in…

The week’s best shares EasyJet The Daily Telegraph After a “truly abysmal” last eight years, the budget airline is poised for a comeback, given sound finances and strong growth prospects with rising passenger numbers and a rapidly expanding holiday arm. Buy. 477.8p. Halfords Group The Times The car/cycle retailer is making progress amid its shift towards services. But with more than 12,000 employees across 1,750 sites, it’s been hit by rising labour costs. A punt on new boss Henry Birch’s revenue-boosting strategy. Buy. 135.6p. Journeo The Mail on Sunday This transport systems specialist provides buses with onboard digital display information, “intelligent” wing mirrors to help prevent accidents, and station security systems. Profitable with momentum. Buy. 459p. Morgan Advanced Materials The Daily Telegraph Morgan makes carbon and ceramic materials used in…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1482 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 22 September. Send it to The Week Crossword 1482, 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 9 Courteous founders get goods from elsewhere (9)  10 Flat time is happening (5) 11 Hear Conservative giving up nothing (3) 12 Welsh chap upset about Yankee caught by milk maids? (5,6) 13 Give the green light to bit of software to roam (7) 14 Among French the female peer is not included (4,3)  16 Calm…