Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1105 i The Week

What happened The evacuation of Aleppo Convoys of buses ferried thousands of people out of east Aleppo this week as Syrian government forces evacuated the city’s last remaining rebel enclaves. The operation followed a ceasefire deal brokered by Russia, the Syrian regime’s main supporter, and Turkey, which backs some large rebel groups. It is hoped the evacuation – which began last week, but was put on hold for several days owing to renewed outbreaks of fighting, and arguments over the precise ceasefire terms – will ease the suffering of east Aleppo residents, who have been living under siege in freezing temperatures, with scant supplies of food and water, and under constant bombardment. The displaced people are being transferred to west Aleppo and to rebel-controlled Idlib province. The evacuation was held…

Washington DC Trump names hardliner as Israel ambassador: Donald Trump has named David Friedman, a bankruptcy lawyer closely aligned with the Israeli hard-right, as his nominee for US ambassador to Israel – an appointment that suggests a radical shift in US policy in the Middle East. A long-time friend of Trump with no diplomatic experience, Friedman is opposed to a two-state solution, is a fervent supporter of settlement-building in occupied territory, and has said he would immediately move the US embassy to “Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem”. For decades, the embassy has been in Tel Aviv: US policy is that the status of (divided) Jerusalem can be determined only through negotiations as part of a final peace settlement. Friedman has previously called Barack Obama an anti-Semite, and likened liberal Jews in…

JANUARY The Mexican authorities recapture Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, seven months after the drug lord’s escape from a high-security prison. In a bizarre twist, officials claim the actor Sean Penn unwittingly played a key role in the capture: the authorities apparently tracked Penn when he interviewed Guzmán in his jungle hideout. The world mourns David Bowie following his shock death at the age of 69. Head teacher Kate Chisholm is accused of snobbery for writing to parents at her school in County Durham suggesting they get dressed in the morning rather than dropping off their children in their pyjamas. FEBRUARY The governors of Oriel College, Oxford, announce that a statue commemorating the college’s colonial-era benefactor, Cecil Rhodes, will be left in place, despite the vocal Rhodes Must Fall campaign. England’s…

Are we a nation of believers? For a supposedly secular country, an unexpectedly large number of us profess a religious allegiance. 46% identify themselves as Christians, and a further 8% as belonging to another religion. Only 41% of the Christians say they definitely believe in a Creator, however. More of us believe in the existence of aliens (30%) than we do in Hell – 27% (YouGov/Independent). Unbelief is more widespread among younger people. 56% of the under-40s say they have no religion. Even so, 16.5% of those people still believe there is “definitely” or “probably” a higher power (YouGov/Sunday Times). How conservative (small “c”) are we? Hard to say. 77% of us see ourselves as occupying the political centre, though 43% place Theresa May there, too: only 28% consider her…

Fake expectations To The Daily Telegraph In the run-up to Christmas, we are constantly being urged to stock up on extra food and drink for “unexpected visitors”. Where are these people? I have never seen them. Are they exempt from stocking up their own larders, because they are paying unexpected visits to others and eating them out of house and home? Rosemary Aldridge, Poynton, Cheshire Timely reminder To The Guardian You report that the European finance ministers have frozen the Greek debt relief deal. The reason was that the Greek government had made small surpluses on its budget (after complying with the imposed austerity measures) and had used some of them to help Greek pensioners with a one-off Christmas bonus. This was to be given to pensioners with an income…

Cockroach superpower Cockroaches have an alarming ability to squeeze themselves through the tiniest cracks, and in February, researchers in the US explained how they do it: the bugs have compressible exoskeletons that enable them to squash themselves as flat as two stacked pennies. And even in this state, with their legs splayed outwards, they can move at speed. The team at UC Berkeley is using cockroaches as a model for robots that can get into tight spaces, for use at disaster sites. Storks favour junk food Storks are abandoning their migratory habits: instead of flying south in winter, they’re hanging around in European cities, so that they can feast on the junk food in landfill sites. Having tracked 48 birds, a team at the University of East Anglia estimates that…

“What is the one thing you need for a play about the Garden of Eden? You need a tree, decorated with apples” The Nativity The only New Testament gospels with a Nativity in are Matthew and Luke, which were probably written some time around AD80-90 – around half a century after Jesus’s death. Let’s start with Luke. It’s the story we all know. Joseph and Mary are living in Nazareth when Mary becomes pregnant by the Holy Spirit, but there’s a census and they have to go to Bethlehem. When they get there, there’s no room at the inn. So Mary gives birth in a stable and lays the baby Jesus in a manger. Then some shepherds who were abiding in the fields see an angel who tells them to…

Best books… Simon Callow Actor and writer Simon Callow picks five favourite books. His one-man staging of A Christmas Carol is at the Arts Theatre, London WC2, until 7 January. One-Man Band, the third volume of his biography of Orson Welles, is out now A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, 1843 (Puffin £9.99). Though by no means his greatest novel, it remains an extraordinary distillation of Dickens’s big themes: the healing potential of social life, the vulnerability of children, life versus anti-life. The form of the piece is astonishing, cinematic, almost cartoonish: Dickens the writer as conjuror. The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton, 1908 (Penguin £5.99). Chesterton was – amongst other things in a huge output – a great Dickens expert, and author of a number of perceptive…

Christmas isn’t Christmas without some sort of fizz, said Jane MacQuitty in The Times. This year, my pick of the big-name non-vintage champagnes is the “easy-quaffing” Lanson Black Label Brut, which is crammed with “brown bread-scented” fruit, and finishes on a “pleasing lemon brioche note” (£20, down from £30; Co-op and Sainsbury’s until 1 January, Tesco until 3 January). Waitrose’s Blancs de Blancs Champagne Brut (£17.99, down from £22.99 until 24 January) is also a “brilliant bubbly that oozes zingy, zesty, citrus peel elegance”. Or, if you fancy going English, try the rich, creamy Nyetimber Classic Cuvée (£32.99; Waitrose), crammed with spicy lemon. If you are fortunate enough to be in the market for a prestige cuvée with a three-digit price tag, said Jancis Robinson in the FT, my recommendations,…

Cyrus Mistry The ousted chairman of India’s largest conglomerate, Tata Sons, is not going quietly, says Simon Mundy in the FT. Cyrus Mistry – who was fired in October and replaced by the family patriarch Ratan Tata, 78 – has threatened to bring legal action against the company “to tackle what he claims are governance flaws”. The ongoing war of words between Mistry and the Tata board has been highly divisive: some shareholders have continued to back Mistry, who was the first outsider ever to chair the family firm. Mistry is now dropping dark hints about mismanagement and even breaches of insider trading rules. “Beware the wrath of the CEO scorned” is a lesson that Ratan Tata may be about to learn to his cost. Marissa Mayer Yahoo boss Marissa…

The march of the ETF My candidate for the “year in a word”, said Patrick Jenkins in the FT, is “ETF” – the abbreviation for Exchange Traded Fund. Invented in the 1980s as a “cheaper and more tradeable alternative to mutual funds”, ETFs can now be bought tracking everything from equities, bonds and precious metals to “Peruvian securities”. They continued to sell like hotcakes in 2016. “ETFs are portrayed by their fans as a force for democratisation”, but the scale of the $3trn industry has sparked concern that ETFs may be driving “the valuation of many stocks and sectors, rather than just reflecting it”. Regulators are on alert. “2017 may be the year when we find out if the sceptics’ fears are justified.” City bonuses 2016 was a year of…

Politics Cecil Parkinson, former Tory party chairman, died 22 January, aged 84. Antonin Scalia, US Supreme Court justice, died 13 February, aged 79. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, sixth secretary general of the UN, died 16 February, aged 93. Nancy Reagan, former actress and US first lady, died 6 March, aged 94. Rob Ford, crack-smoking former mayor of Toronto, died 22 March, aged 46. Daniel Berrigan, radical priest, died 30 April, aged 94. Jo Cox, Labour MP, died 16 June, aged 41. Shimon Peres, former Israeli prime minister and president, died 28 September, aged 93. Fidel Castro, former president of Cuba, died 25 November, aged 90. Writers and critics Sir George Weidenfeld, publisher, died 20 January, aged 96. Margaret Forster, novelist, died 8 February, aged 77. Umberto Eco, novelist, died 19 February, aged…

Controversy of the week The hacked election The meeting of the US Electoral College to choose the president is usually little more than a “formality”, said Jonathan Martin in The New York Times. “Yet as with so much else in this turbulent election year”, this one was “punctuated by anger and dissent”. One New York elector, Bill Clinton, cast his vote for his wife, and then suggested that she only lost because of outside interference – “the Russians and the FBI”. Anti-Trump groups had hoped that they might persuade enough electors to withhold their votes. But members of the college are bound by tradition, and in some cases by state law, to support their party’s candidates; and in the event, only two Republican electors declined to vote for the president-elect…

Society will be flattened by the self-driving car John Harris The Guardian Last week something happened in San Francisco that heralds a revolution in our civilisation, says John Harris. People were ferried around the city in cabs “whose every move was controlled by computer”. It was Uber’s second experiment in making a city’s taxis go driverless (its first was in Pittsburgh), but it’s not the only company involved. In California alone, 20 firms have driverless car permits; Ford and General Motors are investing heavily in the technology. It’s a matter of time before one of civilisation’s basic requirements, getting people from A to B, is changed utterly. Then what? The nightmare of finding places to park in a crowded city will end; the old and the disabled will be able…

Dundee: A Scottish primary school asked its pupils to sign a contract in order to be allowed to play football at break times. Children at Forthill Primary School in Dundee were required to agree to 17 terms – including no chanting, no gloating, no hogging the ball, no “banter” and no being a “sore loser”. Breaking a rule triggers a three-day football suspension; players who break three risk being banned for the rest of the term. Buckinghamshire: Teachers at a primary school in Milton Keynes were told not to blow a whistle to mark the end of playtime because it is “too aggressive”, and the noise could startle the children. Instead, staff at St Monica’s Catholic Primary were asked to raise a hand in the air, and wait for pupils…

London drivers spent an average of 101 hours (or 12 working days) stuck in traffic in 2015, up 40% from 72 hours in 2012. The Sunday Times One in four British athletes competing at the Rio Olympics was educated at private school, compared with 7% of the general population. The Times By the time the average child is five, its parents have posted 1,500 images of him or her on social media. The Daily Telegraph HS2 has cost more than £2bn of public money so far – before the legislation to build it has even been passed by Parliament. The Sunday Times The average Briton drinks 11.6 litres of alcohol a year – 65% more than in the 1960s. Daily Mail The teenage pregnancy rate in England and Wales has…

To The Guardian I was interested to read about the Institution of Engineering and Technology highlighting the problem of girls not being given toys that might lead to an interest in science and engineering. The report blames the marketing of toys. However, pressures exist elsewhere. As a male former scientist, I have made attempts to encourage people to buy toys for girls that are gender neutral, educational and linked to practical exercises. In every case I have been thwarted by various female adults and told, for example: “She is a ‘girly’ girl, she must have a pink toy, dress or something relating to cooking.” It seems to be the practice in many cultures that the pressure for girls to behave or dress in a certain way, or to become a…

Looking back on 2016 1 In his first cabinet reshuffle, Jeremy Corbyn appointed Emily Thornberry his shadow defence secretary. Who did she replace? 2 The drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was recaptured in January, after almost seven months on the run. Which Mexican cartel does he lead? 3 Wada made headlines this year, with a devastating report into corruption. What does the acronym stand for? 4 They were dubbed the Bad Grandpas on social media. What had they done? 5 “Yo, Chris. Come check me out,” tweeted Don Cheadle. “They got me parking cars on G level.” Who was he addressing, and to what event was he referring? 6 Alphabet is the parent company of which mega-corporation? 7 George Bingham finally assumed his father’s title this year, following a…

Musical Dreamgirls Music: Henry Krieger Book and lyrics: Tom Eyen Director: Casey Nicholaw Savoy Theatre, London WC2 (0844-871 7687) Booking until 21 October Running time: 2hrs 30mins (including interval) Without question, the biggest reason to buy a ticket to Dreamgirls is Amber Riley, said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph. The American actress, best known for her role in the TV series Glee, stars here as Effie White, the lead singer of a fame-hungry girl group who finds herself edged out by their smooth-talking manager – also her lover – just as The Dreamettes are hitting the big time. Riley has the voice and stage presence to make “even the more ordinary numbers sound like showstoppers”. And when she reaches the “absolute belter” that closes the first half – And…

The best… skiing equipment Salomon MTN W Charge Weighing just 300g, this women’s helmet (also available in a men’s version) is aimed at freeriders. It uses moulding technology to keep the wearer comfortable as well as protected (£100; www.salomon.com). Arc’teryx Lithic Gloves These ultra-warm gloves are stuffed with three kinds of insulation, and keep out the cold while retaining flexibility. The Gore-Tex fabric keeps out water, too (£220; www.arcteryx.com). PIQ Robot Strap this handy gadget to your ski boots and it’ll track your performance, measuring your G-force and the angle of your turns, as well as how high you’re jumping. You can look at the data on PIQ’s smartphone app (£169; www.piq.com). Osprey Kresta 20 This backpack is designed specifically to fit women and has heaps of useful features, including…

Winners The average British punter In a year of shocks, perhaps the greatest surprise for investors was that markets came through with so little damage, said Dan McCrum in the FT. Indeed, the “typical diversified UK investor” is probably 10%- 20% richer this year. The collapse of sterling – which helped the FTSE 100 gain some 16% – was a factor. But who would have predicted “a worldwide bull market” for both stocks and bonds? The decisive factor was the year’s “first big shock” – the market mayhem in January, which persuaded investors that central banks would remain supportive. After that, they took successive political tremors in their stride. Stock markets Trump fervour helped propel the US Dow and the S&P 500 indices to record highs, making North America the…

JANUARY Global markets suffered the biggest New Year sell-off since 2000: some $8trn was wiped off the value of shares globally, owing to fears about the falling oil price and faltering Chinese growth. Having hit a 12-year low of less than $28/barrel, the price of oil was forecast to plummet to $20 or lower if Opec members failed to agree production cuts. Warning of a deflationary crisis, RBS economists predicted a “cataclysmic year ahead”. In Britain, a potential EU departure was dubbed the greatest economic danger; bookies put the odds of a UK exit at 36%. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley pledged large sums to the nascent In campaign – evidence, said some Eurosceptics, of a conspiracy between big banks and big government. James Murdoch’s return to Sky as…

Paris Lagarde found guilty: The head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, has been found guilty of negligence over a massive payout to a French tycoon in 2008, when she was Nicolas Sarkozy’s finance minister. The case stems from a dispute between the controversial businessman Bernard Tapie and the Crédit Lyonnais bank. Tapie claimed that in 1993, the state-owned bank had defrauded him during the sale of his stake in Adidas. The two sides had been embroiled in a legal battle for years when Lagarde ordered that the case be referred to a private arbitration panel, which awarded Tapie (who’d recently thrown his support behind Sarkozy) s404m. She insists she acted in good faith; and the prosecutor admitted the case against her was “very weak”. Yet the special court, in Paris,…

A man who’d lost his friends’ new address sent a Christmas card addressed simply to “Tony and Sarah Wren, somewhere near the sea in Suffolk” – and four days later, it was safely delivered. Royal Mail explained that Suffolk has only one sorting office, so when the card (which also bore the message “good luck with that, postie” on the envelope) arrived from Essex, it was shown to all the local post men and women to see if any of them recognised the recipients’ name from their rounds – and one of them did. An Australian women who reached out to adjust a piece of tinsel on her Christmas tree was horrified to spot a 3ft-long deadly snake entwined among the baubles. “She didn’t panic, she just took a photo…

An Edinburgh University student was threatened with expulsion from a student union meeting in March for raising her arms. Imogen Wilson’s gesture, in response to an accusation from a fellow student during a debate, fell foul of the student union’s “safe space” policy, which bans head-shaking and “hand gestures which denote disagreement”. Cambridge students cancelled an Around the World in 80 Days-themed party this spring on the grounds that it could encourage “cultural appropriation”. Pembroke College’s Junior Parlour Committee said guests would be likely to dress up in costumes belonging to other cultures, and that this might cause offence. A Canadian academic has condemned the canoe as a symbol of genocide. Dr Misao Dean argued that although the boats may come across as “morally untouchable” and “natural”, they actually represent…

A 91-year-old visitor to a gallery in Germany was questioned by police after filling in a crossword that was actually an artwork worth some £67,000. The 1965 piece, by the avant-garde artist Arthur Köpcke, features a partially completed puzzle and the phrase “insert words”. Taking this as an instruction, the nonagenarian got out a ballpoint pen and did exactly that. The Neues Museum in Nuremberg reported the incident to the police for “insurance reasons” – but said they understood that the woman hadn’t meant “any harm”, and that they didn’t want her to have “sleepless nights” about it. A benefits claimant who said he couldn’t leave the house because of his acute anxiety was caught working as a “stripping ninja”. Mark Hetherington, 52, told benefits officers that his anxiety was…

What the scientists said in 2016 Fruit is well known to keep people healthy, but it may have an additional benefit in later life: staving off middle-aged spread. For a study published in January, researchers tracked 124,000 people over 24 years, and found that they typically put on 1-2kg every two to four years in middle age. However, those who ate diets rich in flavonoids – compounds found in grapes, strawberries, blueberries and apples, as well as onions and peppers – had tended not to gain any weight, despite consuming similar overall numbers of calories; some had even got slightly leaner. Turning the lights off was another weight-loss tip put forward this year, after researchers found that people eat less when they can’t see their food. In the study in…

The new winter of discontent Robert Lea The Times The Communication Workers Union “has made no apology for targeting the Christmas postal rush” with strike action in order to publicise its long-running dispute with the Post Office over branch closures, says Robert Lea. And that typifies the trend for smaller, shorter, “smarter” strikes, designed to have “a disproportionate effect on business”. Trade union membership is at half its 1970s peak, “yet organised labour has never been so organised”, and industrial action “never quite so well targeted”. Quantitatively, the working days lost to strikes are a fraction of the number lost in 1979. “But qualitatively, you need only ask the average Southern rail commuter for the impact of targeted action.” That is why changes to trade union law that have sought…