Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1202 i The Week

What happened The moment of truth After months of wrangling, Theresa May finally struck a draft withdrawal deal with Brussels this week, and set about trying to sell it to her divided Cabinet and Parliament. Ministers were summoned individually to Downing Street to be briefed on the terms of the 500-page document. The draft is understood to include a backstop that would avoid a return to a hard border in Ireland, by keeping the UK as a whole aligned with the EU customs union for an interim period, and an arbitration mechanism to allow the UK to exit this arrangement. The backstop apparently includes further provisions that would apply only to Northern Ireland. As May prepared for a crunch Cabinet meeting, backbench Tory Brexiteers and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)…

Lego, with the news that Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright has a “very large” collection of the building blocks, including a 4,500-brick Star Wars Death Star. “Everybody who does any stressful job needs a way to switch off,” said the minister. “Mine is Lego.” Kim Philby, who has had a square in Moscow named after him. An interchange in the southwest of the city, near Russia’s foreign intelligence headquarters, will be renamed Kim Philby Square after the British double agent, who defected in 1963. Books about politics, which are selling like hot cakes. Waterstones said that sales have grown by more than 50% this year, as readers seek “to understand this scary new world”.…

Lord Lester, an 82-year-old peer and former human rights lawyer, is facing a four-year suspension from the Lords for allegedly offering a peerage to a colleague in exchange for sex, and for threatening “unspecified consequences” if she refused. Jasvinder Sanghera was working as a campaigner for the Lib Dems in 2006, when she says the offence took place. Lester, who is currently suspended from the Lib Dems, is the first peer to be investigated for sexual misconduct by the Lords commissioner for standards.…

Washington DC Press row: President Trump’s relationship with the US media soured further last week when his administration revoked a senior reporter’s press pass, claiming he had assaulted a White House aide at a news conference. CNN’s Jim Acosta was asking Trump about the “migrant caravan” and the Russia investigation when the aide tried to grab the microphone (above), but Acosta held on, and their arms briefly made contact. Trump’s press secretary, Sarah Sanders, then tweeted a clip of the incident in an attempt to justify Acosta being banned. The White House later admitted the film had been sped up, making Acosta’s gesture look more aggressive than it was. CNN has since filed a lawsuit seeking the immediate restoration of his credentials. Tallahassee, Florida Rancorous recount: The Republican candidate in…

“There is a strong current of dehumanisation running in our politics. The rival crew, it turns out, is not only wrong but evil. And how can mortal enemies embrace the give and take of a shared political project? Only the raw exercise of power can decide between them. The goal is no longer to win arguments, but to crush opposition. This is the moral risk of extreme political polarisation. It has emerged in the dehumanisation of political opponents and of certain groups, such as migrants and Muslims. This is not politics as usual; it is political pyromania. Our democracy is designed for disagreement. It is broken by mutual contempt.” Michael Gerson in The Washington Post…

We are giving the elderly a raw deal Camilla Cavendish Financial Times It’s a major issue that every rich country has to deal with today: how to care for the swelling number of old people. And in Britain we’re dealing with it badly, says Camilla Cavendish. Local councils have been squeezed of funding; residential homes are being sold to property developers; home services are closing. Allied Healthcare, one of the largest home-care providers, is in danger of going bust. And in hospitals, around one in ten beds are occupied by an elderly person who’s medically fit to leave, but has nowhere else to go. They do things a lot better in two of the most rapidly ageing nations. In 1995, Germany introduced a long-term care insurance system: workers and employers…

Diagnosing dementia with AI Early diagnosis is key to finding an effective drug treatment for Alzheimer’s, because by the time the disease affects cognition, the damage to the brain is almost certainly irreversible. However, the initial neural changes leading to the disease are so subtle that detecting them is far from easy. But scientists at the University of California, San Francisco now think artificial intelligence can be used to detect its spread long before the first symptoms appear. On the assumption that the disease is metabolic in nature, affecting patterns of glucose uptake in specific regions of the brain, they developed a “deep-learning” algorithm to work on a specialised form of brain imaging that measures that process. The algorithm was fed 2,109 brain scans from 1,002 patients, some of whom…

The day the guns fell silent: 100 years on They are no longer with us: the last soldier to have fought in the trenches of the First World War, Harry Patch, died in 2009. But on the 100th anniversary of the armistice, when the guns on the Western Front finally fell silent, we remembered them. All over the country, people paid tribute to those who died on foreign soil or at sea, said Patrick Sawer in The Sunday Telegraph, and to the suffering of those left at home. A century on, “the numbers still have the power to shock”: 886,345 UK troops, and 228,569 from the wider British Empire, were killed. In total, more than 16 million people – including six million civilians – are estimated to have died in…

Rugby union: an uplifting defeat to the All Blacks “So close,” said Mick Cleary in The Sunday Telegraph. “So gut-wrenching.” It wasn’t just that England lost 15-16 to New Zealand, with a mere point separating the two sides at Twickenham. It was that Sam Underhill had a try disqualified five minutes from the end, because Courtney Lawes was supposedly offside. The decision was tight – “too tight for the circumstances” – and England have “every right to feel aggrieved”. Still, this was a “loss that felt like a victory”, said Oliver Holt in The Mail on Sunday. Against the best team in the world, England “rekindled hope” that they can be serious contenders at next year’s World Cup. After a miserable period earlier this year, when they lost five Tests…

To The Times Further to your report “War diaries help India’s forgotten heroes take their place in history”, India’s massive contribution to the First World War is subject to two myths. The British myth, repeated by the Prime Minister last week, was that the War was a fight for democracy. That was not the case for the non-white subjects of the empire. Indians today want to conceal the fact that millions of Indians willingly collaborated with the British – who operated a “martial racial” theory, which held that only certain Indians were genetically capable of fighting. These soldiers were overwhelmingly from northern India; the entire country was not involved. Another complication is the Amritsar massacre in 1919 [where several hundred unarmed Indians were shot by British troops]. The British reaction…

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Dir: David Yates 2hrs 14mins (12A) Second in a series of Harry Potter spin-offs ★★ The second instalment in J.K. Rowling’s five-part Harry Potter spin-off series is just as spectacular as the first, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian: the special effects are terrific, the attention to detail extraordinary. But be warned, said Kate Muir in the Daily Mail: you’ll need a PhD in Potter studies to follow the convoluted plot. The bare bones are these: a young Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) – long before he becomes head of Hogwarts – persuades our diffident magi-zoologist hero, Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), to go to Paris to stop a corrupt magician (Johnny Depp, with peroxide hair) from founding a wizard master race. Katherine Waterston reprises her…

The Asian long-horned beetle is a deadly threat to broadleaved trees, says The Daily Telegraph. It can kill species such as oak by burrowing into their heartwood, and British officials have been battling for years to stop it establishing itself in the UK. But now it transpires that the Royal Academy accidentally imported the invasive species into the UK – inside a sculpture made by the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. Professor Nicola Spence, the Government’s chief plant health officer, recently revealed that she had been admiring Tree, which was installed in the Academy’s courtyard in London in 2015, when she noticed the telltale signs that the beetles had bored their way out of the wooden structure. The work was duly examined and fumigated. It had been made from trees from…

Programmes The Interrogation of Tony Martin Drama based on the story of the farmer who, in 1999, was sentenced to life for shooting dead a 16-year-old burglar who broke into his home. All the dialogue was sourced from police tapes and documents. Sun 18 Nov, C4 21:00 (60mins). Tin Star Rowan Joffé’s crime drama – first shown on Sky Atlantic – stars Tim Roth as a UK detective and recovering alcoholic who moves to the Canadian Rockies. Sun 18 Nov, C4 22:00 (60mins). Long Shadow Historian David Reynolds traces the legacy of WWI. Mon 19 Nov, BBC4 22:25 (60mins). Car Crash: Who’s Lying? A car crash in Hampshire in 2016 appeared to be an accident. But as the police quiz those involved, another side to the story emerges. Using interviews…

This chukander (beetroot) raita has the most gorgeous bubblegum-pink colour, says Asma Khan. Grating the beetroot can be messy; use a food processor if you like Beetroot raita Serves 8-10 ½ tsp cumin seeds 3 large beetroots, uncooked 1kg Turkish or Greek yogurt (10% fat) ¼ tsp chilli powder (optional) ¼ tsp sugar, or to taste 1 level tsp salt, or to taste • In a heavy-based frying pan (skillet), dry-roast the cumin seeds over a low heat until they darken and release a nutty fragrance. Then grind them in a spice grinder or crush them with a pestle and mortar. • Peel the beetroots and grate into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the yogurt with a wooden spoon or balloon whisk until smooth. Add the ground…

Bavarian Christmas Enjoy glühwein and stollen at Munich’s Christmas markets. 2 nights at the K+K Hotel am Harras cost from £198pp, including London flights. 0344-493 0125, britishairways.com. Depart 1 December. Stargazing in the Cheviots Winter in Northumberland is ideal for astronomers. There’s an observatory at Beacon Hill Farm, where the Quarry House sleeps 6 for 7 nights from £610. Visit premiercottages.co.uk. Depart 8 December. Caribbean winter break Stay for 7 nights at Dreams Punta Cana Resort in the Dominican Republic, all-inclusive, from £1,380pp, including Manchester flights. 01204-821687, destinology.co.uk. Depart 10 December. Eco-friendly Iceland Spend 3 nights at the boutique 4-star Icelandair Hotel Reykjavik Natura, which includes a spa. From £396pp b&b, including London flights 0844-826 2096, voyage-prive.co.uk. Depart 7 December.…

The pound jumped by more than 1% on news that Britain had agreed the draft text of a Brexit agreement with the EU, but spent the next day oscillating as jittery traders tracked the ins and outs of Brexit politics. PM Theresa May was planning to hold a conference call with business leaders as part of her effort to launch an intensive lobbying campaign in support of the deal. Earlier in the week, a trio of big business Remainers – Lord Myners, Sir Mike Rake and Justin King – called for a final vote on whatever deal is finally struck. The oil price suffered its worst daily fall since July on fears of a slowdown in global demand. The price of Brent crude dropped by 6.6% to below $66 a…

Woodford woes The star fund manager Neil Woodford, who earned a reputation as “Britain’s best stock-picker” during 25 years at Invesco Perpetual, has been in the wars of late, said Sabah Meddings in The Sunday Times. Under pressure to raise cash as “unhappy investors withdraw money from his funds”, he has dumped an estimated £1.4bn of shares in the past six months. The scale of the sell-off is worrying observers because of “the distorting effect” that Woodford can have on the smaller companies he often favours, because of the sheer size of his funds and his tendency “to take big positions”. Shares in the online booking site Hostelworld, for instance, have fallen by more than 52% since Woodford began selling down his 25% holding in April. Woodford has long championed…

Jeff Bezos Amazon has announced it will be splitting its second headquarters between a Washington DC suburb and Long Island City in New York. And the giant retailer’s “corporate arrival” in the Big Apple is a kind of “homecoming” for its founder, Jeff Bezos, says The New York Times. It was when he was working at a hedge fund there in 1994 that the idea for the company was born. But at that point, he was thinking of giving it a different name. The two he had in mind were “Cadabra” and “Relentless”. He liked “the echo of magic” in the former, but worried people would hear it as “cadaver”. Had Bezos, 54, opted for either, Amazon’s future might have been very different. Would you order your goods “from a…

Ziauddin Yousafzai was raised in a land of invisible women. His five sisters were not just uneducated but their births uncelebrated, their very names unrecorded. A woman was called “Daughter of X”, “Wife of Y”, “Mother of Z”. A woman served your tea, hovering unthanked to see that you were satisfied. A woman gave you the cream from the milk, the best cuts of chicken, then returned to the kitchen to pick at bones. The girls Zia grew up with in Pakistan’s Swat valley had a mayfly moment of freedom, playing in the streets with the boys, until at 12 or 13, one by one, they disappeared into the prison of their homes, behind the shroud of their veils, to be readied for marriage and a lifetime of serving men.…

Controversy of the week A king in waiting On Wednesday, Prince Charles turned 70. “Most people of that age have retired,” said The Guardian. Charles, though, is still waiting to inherit the role for which his whole life has been a prelude. He has been heir to the throne for longer than anyone else in British history: “66 years and counting”. Yet it is clear that there are still some doubts that he will make “a worthy successor to his mother”, said Roya Nikkhah in The Sunday Times. In a BBC documentary aired this week, he tackled the most persistent criticisms: that he is prone to “meddling” in affairs of state, and that as King Charles III he will not be able to stop himself campaigning on issues he cares…

Commuters, who are facing ever longer journeys. More than 1.4 million people in the UK take an hour or more to get to work, up from 1.08 million in 2011, according to official statistics. London has the biggest proportion of one hour-plus commutes, at 18%. Gambling, as the Government bowed to pressure to reduce the maximum bet on fixed-odds betting terminals ahead of schedule. It had planned to slash the maximum allowed bet from £100 to just £2 by October 2019, so as to give the industry time to adapt. But following an outcry, and the resignation of sports minister Tracey Crouch, the measure was brought forward to April. The BBC, whose biggest star has been poached by Netflix. The US streaming giant has recruited David Attenborough and the production…

More than 44% of Germans believe Muslim immigrants should not be allowed to settle in the country, up from 36.5% in 2014. 10% say that Jews have “too much influence even today” and “do not really fit in with us”. Competence Centre for Right-wing Extremism and Democracy Research/ The Independent 56% of rail passengers would rather stand or look for another seat than ask someone sitting in their reserved seat to move. LNER/The Daily Telegraph A third of Londoners who have children and also own dogs would sacrifice living within the catchment area of a decent school, if it meant they could be sure their dog would have a happy home. Foxtons/ London Evening Standard…

Why Sheridan freaked out Sheridan Smith can pinpoint the moment her acting career started to go wrong, says Tom Lamont in The Guardian. It was in 2011, when she was starring in the stage adaptation of Legally Blonde, a role that catapulted her to fame. She knew the part backwards – she had given some 600 performances. “Then, suddenly, I forgot a line.” It had never happened before. “All the girls on stage are giggling. The orchestra’s vamping to cover it: ‘Dah! Dah! Dah!’ I remember I stayed in an American accent and said, ‘Oh my God, I forgot my line’ ... and there was a round of applause. It should have been funny, but it really freaked me out.” She told herself it was just a blip, but the…

A surprise victor in the recent US elections was a dead Republican brothel-keeper. Dennis Hof won a seat in Nevada’s state legislature with 68.3% of the vote, despite having passed away after his 72nd birthday party in October. Nicknamed the “Trump from Pahrump”, Hof owned five legal brothels and a strip club, and was the author of an autobiography, The Art of the Pimp. A live Republican will now be appointed in his place. When residents of Port Talbot spotted a 4ft Great Dane lying in a state of collapse on a church roof, they were quick to call the RSPCA. But the official sent to help discovered an unexpected reason for its listlessness. “In my 37 years as an RSPCA inspector, I have never been called to rescue a…

POLAND Warsaw’s brave mayor takes a stand Gazeta Wyborcza (Warsaw) At last someone in power has had the gumption to confront Poland’s far-right nationalists, say Aleksandra Sobczak and Wojciech Karpieszuk. In recent years, they’ve hijacked the annual celebrations of the restoration of Poland’s independence on 11 November 1918. What should be a “beautiful holiday” is now a demonstration of hatred against immigrants and liberals. Neo-Nazis descend on Warsaw from all over Europe for a nationalist march that is one of the biggest of its kind in the world. Our ultra-conservative government always turns a blind eye: last year, officials blithely assured us the day would be a family occasion but, just as we feared, it was teeming with people shouting racist slogans, and drunken hooligans vandalising bus stops and cars.…

A painting thought to be at least 40,000 years old has been discovered on a cave wall in Borneo – making it the world’s earliest known example of figurative art. The patchy image of an animal, thought to be a type of wild cattle that still lives on the island, was found in a remote limestone cave in the East Kalimantan province of Indonesian Borneo. It was dated by researchers from Australia and Indonesia using a technique called uranium series analysis. This was applied to calcites found on the painting that had formed after it was made, setting a benchmark for its minimum age. The oldest known examples of figurative art were previously the charcoal drawings of animals in Chauvet cave in Ardèche in France, thought to be at least…

Eric Clapton’s mid-1970s habit of snorting drugs through £50 notes, which he then screwed up and threw in the bin, was a nice little earner for his handyman Arthur Eggby. In his new biography of Clapton, Philip Norman describes how Eggby would retrieve the notes, sponge them, hang them up to dry and spend them on holidays to the Isle of Wight. When, in later life, he became a keen karaoke performer, he always included the Clapton standard Cocaine in his set. “It may surprise people, hearing a pensioner singing about drugs,” he said. “But if they knew about me and Eric, they’d understand.” Paul Daniels (pictured) was often ridiculed for his toupee, but he started wearing it long before he needed to, according to his widow, Debbie McGee. “He…

It’s the most anticipated chess match in a generation, said Sean Ingle in The Guardian. Since last week, Magnus Carlsen, a 27-year-old from Norway, and Fabiano Caruana, an American 26-year-old, have been facing off in the 12-game World Chess Championship. A child prodigy who became a grandmaster at 13, Carlsen has won the past three championships; his peak rating of 2,882, in 2014, is the highest in history. Yet he has been “struggling to hit the highest notes” recently. Caruana, by contrast, has been on “brilliant form”. The players drew their first three games, but there is a sense that Caruana “might just spring an upset”. Carlsen and Caruana are members of chess’s new breed, said Pia Peterson in The New York Times. Players now believe that it’s not enough…

Best books… Rowley Leigh The chef and restaurateur picks his six favourite books. His latest book, A Long and Messy Business, a collection of recipes and essays from his cookery column in the FT, is published by Unbound at £25 The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth, 1932 (Penguin £9.99). Against the background of the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the hero’s failure to live up to his father’s ideals and his downfall are enough to make this supposedly grown man weep. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, 1905 (Virago £9.99). Another weepie. I love all Wharton, she is much more honest and kind than Henry James. Lily Bart did not deserve her fate. Daydream Believer by Hugh Massingberd, 2001 (Macmillan £14.99). Hugh was The Daily Telegraph’s brilliant obituaries editor.…

BMW fills a new niche: “high-performance automotive art” Is it better to be brilliant at one thing, or pretty good at everything? Judging by this car, BMW clearly thinks the latter, said Alex Ingram in Auto Express. With the brand new 8 Series, the carmaker has occupied a “previously unfilled niche between a GT and a sports coupé” – fast and sharp, yet refined and luxurious. The four-wheel-drive four-seater – which will later spawn both convertible and four-door “gran coupé” models, is a “stunning” car that’s smooth to drive and feels well worthy of its asking price, even if it just misses the ultimate precision of sportier rivals. The 8 Series is a 21st century revival of a grand-touring coupé that came off the market in 1999, said Matt Saunders…

The Machrie, Islay In another lifetime it was a “weekend getaway” for Blair-era politicos, but the Machrie hotel has now been reborn as a contemporary luxe destination hotel, says Ruaridh Nicoll in the FT. The open-plan bar, restaurant and lounge area is now modern and bright – decorated in a style best described as “McScandi”. The whole hotel is “filled with clear island air”, with views across the historic golf course to the sea that are nothing short of “astonishing”. But what sets this place apart is the atmosphere. The hotel aims to be a “snob-free zone” – and it succeeds: judging by the clientele, it appeals to locals as much as to dedicated golfers. Doubles from £145 b&b. campbellgrayhotels.com .…

Scientist who tried to save the world’s coral Ruth Gates 1962-2018 Growing up in Kent in the late 1960s, Ruth Gates was mesmerised by the television series The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau. Inspired to become a marine biologist, she devoted her entire adult life to protecting the world’s coral reefs. Often called the “rainforests of the ocean”, coral reefs cover less than 0.1% of the ocean floor, but support perhaps a quarter of all marine species, said The Daily Telegraph. If the planet is a jigsaw puzzle, Gates would say, they are one of its essential pieces. Yet under pressure from warming seas, acidification and human activity, the reefs are in rapid decline. At the time of her death, aged 56, Gates was leading research into whether they could…

Top Shop tycoon Philip Green has always loved hobnobbing with celebs and movie stars. Now he too may become immortalised on the screen. The Radio Times reports that Mammoth Screen – the company behind TV hits Poldark and Victoria – has bought the rights to Damaged Goods, Oliver Shah’s damning exposé of the behind-the-scenes goings-on at Green’s retail empire. Shah has produced “an unparalleled account of the last 40 years of big business in this country”, says Mammoth boss Damien Timmer. “We look forward to adapting this extraordinary book into a gripping and seminal drama for our times.”…

When it comes to student debt, the chances are that you fall into one of two camps, says Ben Clatworthy in The Times. There are those who “shrug” and “barely give it a second thought”. And those who are keen to rid themselves of the burden as quickly as possible. For anyone in the latter camp, opting out of a workplace pension scheme in favour of paying off the loan, can seem like an attractive option. “But it’s a dangerous game.” According to insurer Royal London, if a graduate on an average salary opts out of pension auto-enrolment to pay off the typical £40,000 loan, their pension pot could shrink by more than half to £73,000. Ditching the pension means missing out on employers’ contributions – and also the government’s…

Children’s commissioner Anne Longfield warns in a new report that personal data on children is being collected on a huge scale via the online devices they use – including smart toys and speakers and school apps. One in four children under two have their own tablet; by the time they’re 13, children typically have had some 1,300 pictures of themselves posted online. Between 11 and 18, when children take up social media, they make nearly 70,000 posts on average. Men are copying women and removing their body hair. 42% of men aged 16-24 now remove hair from their underarms, up from 16% in 2016, according to Mintel. The trend is being pinned on TV shows like Love Island where male contestants flaunt hairless bodies.…

Families in England and Wales will be forced to pay up to £6,000 in probate fees to execute the will of a deceased relative under new government plans. The current flat fee of £215, or £155 if estates are settled through a solicitor, is set to be replaced with progressive fees from £250 to £6,000 for estates worth more than £2m, in April 2019. The reforms, which appeared to have been scrapped last year during the general election, have been called a “stealth tax”. Ministers point out, though, that the threshold of estate value above which fees are due will rise from £5,000 to £50,000, and that the income raised will fund the struggling courts system.…

Prague Abduction claim: The prime minister of the Czech Republic – billionaire businessman Andrej Babiš (pictured) – has denied reports that he had arranged for his son to be abducted, to stop him giving evidence in a fraud case. Andrej Babiš Jr told reporters who traced him to his mother’s home in Switzerland that he had been taken against his will to Crimea. His father alleges he is mentally ill. Both father and son have been charged over allegations that one of Babiš’s businesses fraudulently obtained s2m in EU funds; so far the PM has survived the scandal, but this week opposition parties were pressing for a vote of no confidence. Leipzig, Germany Green tensions: A row over migration has broken out at the top of Germany’s Green party, overshadowing…

1 Trout Quintet by Schubert, performed by Jacqueline du Pré, Daniel Barenboim, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman and Zubin Mehta 2 Mélodies hébraïques by Ravel, performed by Nina Koshetz 3 Fiakerlied by Gustav Pick, performed by Paul Hörbiger 4 Carolina, written and performed by Keita Fodeba and his African Ensemble 5 The Song of the Birds (traditional), performed by Pablo Casals and Mieczyslaw Horoszowski 6 Piano Sonata No. 8 by Beethoven, performed by Sviatoslav Richter 7 Gute Nacht from Winterreise by Schubert, performed by Thomas Quasthoff and Charles Spencer 8* ”Gentlemen, to arms!” from The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart, performed by John Eliot Gardiner with Bryn Terfel, Rodney Gilfry and Hillevi Martinpelto Book: Scorn by Matthew Parris Luxury: a custom-made armchair…

Tradition had it that Pythagoras – who believed in the transmigration of souls – was a vegan avant la lettre: early English vegetarians were referred to as “Pythagoreans”. However, vegetarianism was rare in Christian Europe – in Genesis, God tells Noah: “Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you.” Temporary avoidance of flesh-eating as a spiritual exercise was common enough; and some religious eccentrics, wishing to return to the diet of Adam and Eve, lived off fruit and vegetables. But vegetarianism only really established itself when travellers returning from India in the 17th century brought back reports of Hindu Brahmans living off “herbs” and practising ahimsa – the principle of not causing harm to any living thing. This, derived from Buddhism and Jainism, was linked to ideas of…

Health experts have called on the Government to introduce a “meat tax”, claiming it would save many lives while easing the burden on healthcare. Since 2015, the World Health Organisation has classified processed red meat – including sausages and bacon – as carcinogenic. And unprocessed red meat is linked to heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Researchers from Oxford Martin School and the Nuffield Department of Population Health – the first organisation to advocate a sugar tax – claim that increasing the cost of red meat by 14%, and processed meat by 79%, would prevent nearly 6,000 deaths in the UK each year, and would save the NHS £700m annually. Dr Marco Springmann, who led the research, said that while eating meat was a “personal” decision, it was unfair for all…

“President Trump is a sort of punishment for liberals. He is what they get when they refuse to listen to much nicer people, such as me.” Peter Hitchens in The Mail on Sunday “I am inclined to say that what doesn’t damage our world view makes us stronger.” Elle Hunt in The Guardian “Single-mindedness is all very well in cows or baboons; in an animal claiming to belong to the same species as Shakespeare, it is simply disgraceful.” Aldous Huxley, quoted on Forbes “Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.” Henry Adams, quoted in The Times “Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket.” George Orwell, quoted in The New York Times “Bravery is not being afraid to be afraid.” Marie Colvin, quoted in The Guardian…

Europe’s schism... To the New Statesman Often ignored by Remain campaigners – and the likes of the EU’s Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk – are the discontinuities within the EU itself, as Timothy Less wrote in his provocative cover message (“The Great Schism”). The EU is not a unified bloc. Some eastern states – Poland, Slovakia, Hungary – are increasingly advocates of a malign form of “illiberal liberalism” at odds with the ethos of the EU. Hard-line national populists are in government in Italy; in Germany, the far-right AfD are the official opposition. Meanwhile, liberals act as if there is nothing to worry about, but the EU is fragmenting; Brexit is the most dramatic symbol of this. Unless European leaders wise up to what is distressing and radicalising voters, the…

Theatre The Watsons Playwright: Laura Wade, adapted from the unfinished novel by Jane Austen Director: Samuel West Minerva Theatre, Chichester Festival Theatre, West Sussex (01243-781312). Until 1 December Running time: 2hrs 10mins (including interval) ★★★★ One of the chief pleasures of this adaptation of Jane Austen’s unfinished novel, The Watsons, is that it takes us endlessly by surprise, said Michael Billington in The Guardian. And I don’t give anything away by saying that it defies expectation. Austen’s fragment concerns the dilemma facing Emma, the Watson family’s marriageable but impecunious daughter who has to decide who would make the best spouse – a “conceited flirt, a diffident aristocrat or a sententious clergyman”. To flesh out this tale as a drama seemed bound to be little more than a “literary exercise”. Yet…

Ilse D’Hollander at Victoria Miro The Belgian painter Ilse D’Hollander’s career was a tragically short one. In 1997, four months before her 29th birthday, she took her own life. She had been the subject of only one solo exhibition, yet had established herself as a singular talent, and had already created a large and unquestionably impressive body of work. Equally at home working in abstract and representational styles, she had an uncanny knack for evoking the flat landscapes and oddly imposing skies of her native eastern Flanders, making exceptional use of a palette – one largely composed of greys, browns and greens – that in other hands might have been drab and depressing. This show serves as a good introduction to D’Hollander’s quiet but powerful paintings. The lasting impression is…

David hears about Ruairi joyriding and twigs that Ben must have been with him. David is furious when Ben admits to everything, including driving on the road. Ruth thinks Ben needs to feel more involved in the farm, and suggests he chooses and trains a new sheepdog. Ben goes with David to collect the dog, taking his new role very seriously. Natasha visits Bridge Farm to discuss fruit drinks with Helen. Tom meets her for a coffee and she apologises for ignoring his messages; she was coming out of a long relationship and it felt wrong to be texting another man. Lynda doesn’t respond well to script supervisor Jim’s rehearsal notes. Lexi is distant with Roy on her return from Bulgaria. Emma’s scathing comments about Lower Loxley’s Halloween are printed…

Lounge on the Green 27 The Green, Houghton, Carlisle (01228-739452) I frequently complain that my native county, Cumbria, has far too little to offer in the way of first-rate middle-ground cuisine: it’s decent pub grub or it’s “foraged and tweezered Michelin-star tasting menus” in country house hotels, says Grace Dent in The Guardian. Nothing in between. So let’s hear it for chef James Hill, who is dishing up outstanding experimental cooking in a comfortable, friendly restaurant in a small commuter village just north of Carlisle. The friends I went with “rampaged through the menu”, making short work of Lakeland beef rump topped with haggis-stuffed potatoes, and a “well-judged” fillet of sea bass with buttered lobster and saffron potatoes on orange and dill root veg. Even better was a rich,…

DeLonghi Dragon4 TRD4 0820 This quite heavy 2kW oil-filled radiator is more a permanent heating solution than for occasional use. It comes with a timer, three power settings and a ten-year guarantee (£109; amazon.co.uk). Prolectrix EH0197 This 1.2kW halogen heater is most handy for use outdoors. It uses infrared to focus heat in a given area rather than heat a whole room. It has good safety cut-out features, like a ”tip-over switch”, and wide-angle oscillation (£17; amazon.co.uk). Dimplex DXUC2B This bestselling 2kW ceramic fan heater is cheap and impressively quick at heating a room given its small size. It has a three-year guarantee, but is a little noisy (£35; amazon.co.uk). Mill Heat 99470 Hot air rises out of the top of this sleek, Norwegian, oil-filled radiator. It has a (fairly…

The world’s first AI ski instructor High on Austria’s Hintertux Glacier, there’s nowhere to hide, says Tom Robbins in the Financial Times. As I ski down the mountain, every move I make, “from the angle of my ski edges to the relative pressure exerted by each toe”, is being logged and scrutinised by Carv – the word’s first AI ski instructor. Sensors in my boots, Bluetoothed to a smartphone, send the data “back to a server in Frankfurt”. It analyses thousands of pieces of information a second, giving an overall score, or “Ski:IQ” at the end. It can also talk, and offers tips and feedback such as “go get ’em tiger!”, or “try not to make an A-frame with your legs”. It’s “surprisingly addictive”, but ski instructors needn’t worry about…

Goldman Sachs: Malaysian mud Goldman Sachs “spent years repairing its image” after the 2008 global credit bust, said Claire Ballentine on Bloomberg. But the Wall Street bank is now so up to its ears in a Malaysian corruption scandal that its reputation is “facing one of its biggest crises of the decade”. Earlier this month, three senior bankers were publicly implicated by the US Department of Justice in a massive fraud surrounding Malaysia’s scandal-tainted investment fund, 1MDB. The probe centres on the $6.5bn the fund raised in 2012-13, much of which was allegedly siphoned off by corrupt officials. Goldman reaped almost $600m in fees from the deals. When the Malaysian finance minister demanded a “full refund” this week, it tipped the bank’s shares into “their biggest drop since 2011”. But…

Sterling could give May a nasty shock Nils Pratley The Guardian If Theresa May’s Brexit deal faces a humiliating defeat in the Commons, “the currency markets don’t seem to have noticed”, says Nils Pratley. Having moved gently to-and-fro in the run-up to this week’s draft agreement, sterling jumped by 1.2% on the news, reaching $1.30. Investors are just as “confused as everybody else”, but are clearly clinging to the idea “that some form of grand fudge” will result in an orderly Brexit next March. Yet if the “parliamentary arithmetic” really is against May’s deal, they should “be pricing up alternative outcomes”. In theory, MPs don’t want a no deal either, but accidents happen and a chaotic exit might result in a 15% fall in sterling. Conversely, if another referendum were…

The week’s best shares Asos The Times Profits at the “fast fashion” retailer, serving 18.4 million customers in 240 countries, jumped 28% to £102m this year. There’s a risk in the price, but there is still potential for “significant” growth, especially in the US. Buy. £53.44. C&C Group Shares The acquisitions of Matthew Clark and Bibendum mark a turning point for the Irish brewer, whose brands include Bulmers and Tennent’s. Revenues and profits are up in the core business, and it yields 4.8%. Buy. s3.39. SDL The Daily Telegraph The market-leading translation expert has established a substantial network of translators and freelancers, and its proprietary technology imposes high barriers for competitors. Efficiency improvements should lead to higher profits. Buy. 484p. Bunzl Investors Chronicle The distribution and outsourcing group operates in…