Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1207 i The Week

What happened Time for a second vote? Theresa May this week strongly rejected the idea of holding a second Brexit referendum. Calls for such a vote have been growing among MPs, who claim it’s the only way of breaking the parliamentary deadlock. But May, who last week survived a Tory leadership challenge, insisted that another plebiscite would do “irreparable damage to the integrity of our politics”. While the Government was this week stepping up preparations for a no deal, a defiant May insisted that she remained committed to winning support for her Brexit deal. Last week, she postponed a Commons vote on that deal for fear she might lose it: she now says she’ll put it to the House in the week beginning 14 January. Earlier in the week, May…

Scrabble fans, with the addition of the high-scoring gender neutral pronoun “ze” to the game’s official dictionary. Other newly acceptable words include the exclamation “yowza” and “bae” (before anyone else), which is slang for a significant other. Meat-loving vegetarians, following reports that the first steak grown from cells in a lab – and not requiring the slaughter of an animal – has been produced in Israel. Its manufacturers say the steak needs more work to improve its taste, but that it has a convincing muscle-like texture. Other meats have been grown in the lab, but have been for processed products such as burgers. Tube drivers, after a freedom of information request revealed that ten are paid more than £100,000 a year, with overtime and pensions contributions; and 30 earn more…

If the Labour Party were to help the Government to secure Brexit by passing a compromise deal with Brussels, the party would fall into third place behind the Lib Dems: support for Labour would fall from 36% to 22%, while the Lib Dems’ would rise from 10% to 26%. YouGov/The Times 63% of teachers in England say they know of more families who are unable to afford adequate winter shoes and clothing for their children than they did in 2015. 46% say more of their pupils go hungry over the holidays than in 2015. National Education Union/ The Guardian 3% of Brits have already started Christmas shopping for next year; 13% expect to start by the end of January. YouGov…

Wek’s love of London Alek Wek has strode the catwalk for fashion’s most luxurious brands, says Jane Mulkerrins in The Observer. It’s a far cry from the supermodel’s early childhood in a two-room house in South Sudan without running water. She and her eight siblings were happy enough to begin with – “We’d run up the hill to spot planes, and we’d take the cows to eat grass, trying to stop them eating the neighbour’s peanuts” – but when she was nine the country slipped into civil war. “I vividly remember asking my parents, ‘Why is the whole town burnt down?’ Militias would come in the middle of the night, and you’d hear screaming and shooting, and the next day people had disappeared. The police ran out of ammunition and…

An irate Santa astonished onlookers at an event in St Ives, Cambridgeshire, by bursting out of his grotto, tearing off his hat and beard, and swearing at a group of children. Santa seems to have panicked after a smoke machine set off the fire alarm in the town’s Corn Exchange: he barged into some 50 children and their parents, and told them to “get the f*** out” of the building. One parent said: ”We told our children he wasn’t the real Santa. He was an impostor and will be going on the naughty list.” How do you get a 26ft Christmas tree into a semidetached house? This year, the inventor Colin Furze cracked it: he chopped a huge Norway spruce into three sections, installing one on the ground floor, one…

PAKISTAN Khan’s chicken scheme may have wings Dawn (Karachi) In a recent speech marking his first 100 days in power, Imran Khan came up with a new plan to alleviate poverty in Pakistan: giving women chickens. The idea sounds crazy, says Myrah Nerine Butt, and politicians of all stripes condemned it as inadequate and insulting. But the people “who are mocking the initiative are actually far removed from the context and lived experiences of rural women”. The fact is, direct-transfer programmes such as cash handouts have a record of strong results in Pakistan. And chickens are even better than cash, because while money can be spent on anything, including gambling, a chicken is “a tied investment or forced saving”. More importantly, while the man of the house is likely to…

It may lack the cheetah’s sleek muscularity and the peregrine falcon’s swooping splendour (left), but a tiny ant has become a contender for being the world’s fastest animal, says The Guardian. High-speed video footage of Dracula ants (below) revealed they snap their mandibles at up to 90 metres a second (200mph) – the fastest animal movement on record. The research found that the ants repeatedly press the tips of their mandibles together to spring-load them, before releasing them in a “snap-jaw” action – a motion likened to humans clicking their fingers. Trap-jaw ants, the previous record-holders, snap their jaws shut from an open position. “Even among ants that power-amplify their jaws, the Dracula ants are unique,” said co-author Adrian Smith, of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Dracula ants,…

It had to happen, said Jonathan Wilson in The Guardian. Manchester United’s board is famously laissez-faire, but following the team’s shambolic 3-1 defeat to Liverpool on Sunday, it finally decided to relieve José Mourinho of his position as manager. His dismissal was way overdue. Having accrued only 26 points from their first 17 matches – giving them the worst start to the season in the Premier League era – the Red Devils are currently closer in points to the bottom of the table than the top. They have let in 29 goals, more than they conceded in the whole of the last season. It is only December, but United’s season could already be over: whatever happens now, even fourth place may be out of reach. The performance against Liverpool was…

Labour must back deal To The Guardian Three obstacles to resolving the Brexit crisis are the editors of The Sun, The Daily Telegraph and – alas – The Guardian. Your editorial failed to recognise that the confidence vote underlines that Brexit is not a party political issue, and thus reinforced what is now the biggest obstacle to resolving the crisis – the determination of Labour’s leadership to bring down the Government at any cost. Your editorial commended Theresa May for admitting difficult trade-offs and for making choices. It should have gone further and urged Corbyn to cooperate with her in getting MPs of all parties to support the soft Brexit of the negotiated withdrawal agreement. There is no realistic prospect of a Labour government being able to improve substantially on…

1 Normal People by Sally Rooney Faber £14.99 The Week bookshop £11.99 Sally Rooney’s debut novel, Conversations with Friends, was one of last year’s most talked-about books. The response to the Irish writer’s follow-up – the tale of an on-off relationship between two precocious students – has, if anything, been even more ecstatic. The 27-year-old was praised for her expressive but understated prose and ability to convey subtle modulations of emotion. The novel was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize – but many felt that it should have done better. Number of votes: 16 Who chose it? Susan Hill, Olivia Laing, Claire Harman, David Sexton and 12 others. Praise: “Her genius for capturing people with all their self-conceits and occasional virtues puts her in a tradition of social observation stretching…

Aquaman Dir: James Wan 2hrs 23mins (12A) Blockbuster bouillabaisse with Jason Momoa ★★ This new superhero movie from Warner Bros is the “cinematic equivalent of bouillabaisse”, said Geoffrey Macnab in The Independent. That’s to say, it’s a fish-flavoured “stew” of a film into which “every available ingredient has been thrown”. Jason Momoa is the titular Aquaman, an amphibian hunk – son of a human lighthouse keeper (Temuera Morrison) and a mermaid (Nicole Kidman) – who is the rightful king of the underwater Atlantean race, and comes to accept his destiny: to stop his half-brother, the usurper Orm (Patrick Wilson), from conquering the rest of the underwater realm and the “surface” world. Momoa plays our hero with laid-back charisma, but the film is a mess, said Robbie Collin in The Daily…

Tips of the week... how to time Christmas dinner ● On Christmas Eve, peel, chop and parboil anything you can. You can even part-roast potatoes ready for crisping up the next day. ● Lay the table, and remember to defrost anything you made in advance, and to put any drinks you need to chill in the fridge. ● Write down a schedule based around the cooking time for the meat. Leave a bit more time than usual to account for a full oven – and make sure everything fits in there. ● If you’re having extra pudding, make it. ● Decant things like cranberry sauce into dishes and put them covered in the fridge. ● On Christmas morning, take the meat out of the fridge a couple of hours before…

Top Hotel Hochgurgl Austria For skiers bound for the “snowsure slopes” of the Tyrol, this hotel makes a “charming base”, says Ben Clatworthy in The Times. Perched on a “sunny plateau” above the resort of Obergurgl, with glorious views, “plenty of pine and a bit of chintz”, this is Austrian ski accommodation at its finest. The spa is a highlight, with an outdoor heated pool and sauna – where regular bursts of “rolling in the snow” are “encouraged” – and a full menu of delicious treatments. Rooms are “snug and cosy” with fine views, and the restaurant offers “sumptuous” four-course set menus that change nightly. Doubles from s196pp half-board. 00 43 525 662 65, tophotelhochgurgl.com.…

Bomber pilot involved in an astonishing act of reconciliation John Wynne 1921-2018 Wing Commander John Wynne, who has died aged 97, was a skilled and courageous wartime bomber pilot, said The Daily Telegraph. Having flown 40 missions, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1943. Decades later, he was presented with a different kind of award – the Cross of Nails – for his involvement in an extraordinary act of postwar reconciliation. On 14 March 1945, Wynne – still only 23, but by then a veteran pilot – took off in his B-17 Flying Fortress. The mission was to provide radar-jamming support for a bomber force attacking an oil refinery near Leipzig. All went to plan, but on his return, his aircraft came under intense fire and was hit…

Vijay Mallya, the Indian “king of good times” whose Kingfisher Airlines went bust in 2012 owing £1bn, fled to Britain two years ago shortly before an arrest warrant was issued in India. No one, though, can run for ever, said The Sunday Times. Last week, “a judge approved his extradition” to India on fraud charges. The tycoon said he would “certainly fight”, but he faces trouble on another front too. Qatar National Bank has launched a legal claim against his son, the actor Sid Mallya, whose company, Gizmo, has fallen behind on loan payments. The bank is seeking the sale of the Mallyas’ yacht, Force India, pledged as security for the £21.6m loan.…

Was that really worth it, asked Martin Kettle in The Guardian. Jacob Rees-Mogg, Steve Baker and their allies on the Eurosceptic right of the Conservative Party had spent months fomenting a leadership challenge against Theresa May. When it finally came last week, it proved a damp squib, merely “a brief distraction from the serious business of Brexit”. May won decisively, by 200 to 117, in a secret ballot of Tory MPs. All that the rebels achieved was “to damage everyone involved”, said Gaby Hinsliff in the same paper. May is “bruised by a victory in which a third of her MPs expressed no confidence in her, but the paper tigers who clawed at her and missed are even more weakened”. When push came to shove, they could produce “neither a…

The New York Times, after it appealed on Twitter for information about petty crime in London – and was inundated with sarcastic responses. “Someone made eye contact with me on the Tube once,” wrote one Twitter user. “A number of people use ‘less’ when they mean ‘fewer’,” noted another. Redcar British Steel, which was named Britain’s least-used station, with only 40 passengers in 2017-18. The station opened to service the huge Teesside Steelworks, and though the works all but closed in 2015, four trains a day still stop there on weekdays. Fake fur, after MP Mary Creagh, the head of a parliamentary inquiry, suggested it be renamed “plastic fur”, to highlight the fact that it’s made from fossil fuels and takes centuries to degrade.…

Brussels PM resigns: The Belgian prime minister’s decision to sign the UN’s new migration pact (see page 19) has led to his resignation and the fall of his ruling coalition, which had been in power for four years. Last week, the anti-immigration New Flemish Alliance (NV-A), the biggest party in the Belgian parliament, pulled out of the coalition in protest at Charles Michel’s decision to sign the pact. And in a protest organised by right-wing Flemish parties, about 5,000 people chanting slogans such as “our people first” gathered in central Brussels. Police used tear gas and water cannon to break up the protest after a minority of demonstrators started throwing paving stones and firecrackers. This week, the Socialist Party, with the support of the Greens, proposed and won a vote…

1 The Partisan by Anna Marly and Hy Zaret, performed by Leonard Cohen 2 Águas de Março by Antônio Carlos Jobim, performed by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Elis Regina 3 Hook by John Popper, performed by Blues Traveler 4 Which Side Are You On? by Florence Reece, performed by Natalie Merchant 5* ’Round Midnight, written and performed by Thelonious Monk 6 La forza del destino by Verdi, performed by Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic 7 Amy Amy Amy (Outro) by Amy Winehouse, Matt Rowe, Stefan Skarbek, Teodress Avery, Donovan Jackson, Astor Campbell, Commissioner Gordon, Ralph MacDonald and William Salter, performed by Amy Winehouse 8 La bambola by Franco Migliacci, Ruggero Cini and Bruno Zambrini, performed by Patty Pravo Book Memoirs…

As early as 3000BC, the Egyptians, Arabs and Greeks believed the heavens revolved around Earth’s northernmost point, located directly under the North Star, which the Greeks called Polaris. The first recorded Arctic explorer, the Greek geographer Pytheas, voyaged north beyond Britain in 320BC and reported seeing huge white bears on a sea of ice, confirming the legend that regions beneath Polaris were watched over by celestial bears named arktos – hence, the Arctic. In 1578, Queen Elizabeth I assigned a scholar to make the case for Britain’s claim to the North Pole. In the 18th and 19th centuries, governments offered substantial prizes for explorers who made it the furthest north, mainly in search of a northwest passage connecting the Atlantic and Pacific: for many years it was believed that beyond…

Despite urgent calls to cut them back, carbon emissions reached a record high this year. Worldwide, fossil fuel use is projected to release 2.7% more CO2 into the atmosphere in 2018 than in 2017, casting doubt on governments’ ability to meet the targets set by the Paris climate change accord to keep global warming to 1.5°C. From 2014 to 2016, fossil fuel emissions had levelled, raising hopes that emissions had peaked. The figures, from the Global Carbon Project, dash those hopes. Most countries are pumping out more CO2. China and India experienced particularly steep rises this year – estimated at 4.7% and 6.3% respectively; but the United States remains the biggest emitter per capita. Its emissions are predicted to rise 2.5% in 2018. The EU’s emissions are nearly flat, but…

On Saturday, Rocky Fielding didn’t get a “Rocky dream ending”, said Jeff Powell in the Daily Mail. There was no grand upset. Instead, the 31-year-old from Liverpool was demolished by one of the greatest pound-for-pound boxers in the world, Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez. The “merciless” Mexican knocked Fielding down four times before the referee called a halt to the fight in the third round. The victory gave Álvarez a WBA world super-middleweight title; he has now been world champion in three different weight divisions. Fielding never had the slightest chance of defeating Álvarez, said Bryan Armen Graham in The Guardian. Only dedicated boxing fans had even heard of him before this fight. He may have gone into it as a world champion, but he held the WBA’s “regular” title, which is…

To The Guardian Mrs May voted to remain in the EU, but changed her mind. She said there would be no 2017 election, but changed her mind. She signed up to the Irish backstop in 2017, but tried to change her mind. She promised a meaningful vote on the EU withdrawal bill last week, but changed her mind. Her former Brexit minister said “if a democracy cannot change its mind, it ceases to be a democracy”, but then he changed his mind about that. Why can’t the British people change their minds too? Chris Webster, Switzerland To The Guardian Guardian columnists now seem united in their certainty that a second referendum is the only option for Labour, but it doesn’t matter whether or not it would provoke rioting by those…

Crossrail isn’t the only major project that has failed to meet its deadline. The BBC’s plan to rebuild the set of EastEnders is even further behind schedule, said Tom Witherow and Henry Goodwin in the Daily Mail. People living near the set, at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, were originally told the project (named E20, after the fictional Walford’s postcode), would be finished by August. Now, that deadline has been extended to 2023 and the cost of rebuilding Albert Square has ballooned from £59.7m to £86.7m. It’s “diabolical”, says local resident Hugo Duckworth. “The noise is thumping away and it’s cracked my ceilings. It’s like they’re saying: ‘We’re the BBC and we don’t give a s***.’” The BBC says the works are vital, said Rajeev Syal in The Guardian. The present…

Ai Weiwei thinks the world has forgotten what human rights mean, says Kate Connolly in The Guardian. So the dissident Chinese artist was more than happy to accept a commission to mark the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: to create a new human rights flag. He was inspired, he says, by the muddy footprints of Rohingya refugees he met in Bangladesh, who had been driven from their native Myanmar by government soldiers. “I thought a footprint relates to everybody who has been forced to flee, whether in Africa, Afghanistan or Bangladesh,” he says. “There is nothing more human than a footprint.” Ai thinks that globalisation has eroded respect for human rights: people “use words like common values instead, so as not to offend the Chinese authorities…

David tells Lynda that the leak in the barn is bad, so The Canterbury Tales can’t be held there. Jill goes shopping with Shula and returns home to find Bess is sick after eating a load of mince pies. Shula and Jill take her to Alistair, who puts her on a drip. Alistair tells Shula that the sale of the practice is going well, but his role will be greatly reduced. Tony and Pat join Tom, Jazzer, Johnny and Natasha planting trees. Natasha is a great worker, so Tony begins to change his opinion of her. Elizabeth tells Lily they can’t go to Les Soeurs Heureuses for dinner, but doesn’t admit that she forgot to book. Christine tells Peggy she’s too scared to move back to The Lodge and wants…

For some, sprouts are the unwanted element on the Christmas lunch plate, says Gizzi Erskine. Others, including me, adore them. The secret is to embrace the vegetable’s true flavour – spicy, full of iron and with a mustardy tang. On Christmas Day, I make creamed sprouts with nutmeg, then top a dish of this with stir-fried sprouts, smoked bacon and chestnuts. Pure sprout heaven! Stir-fried sprouts with smoked bacon and chestnuts Serves 6-8 500g small Brussels sprouts a knob of unsalted butter 150g pancetta, cut into strips 250g vacuum-packed chestnuts sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper • Trim the sprouts, halve or quarter them, then cook them in boiling water for 2-3 mins, until just done. For me this is when they are most definitely cooked through, but…

Root7 cocktail bag and titanium tools Take out this set of titanium-coated stainless steel tools, including a three-piece shaker, and you’ll have everything you need to prepare Martinis, mojitos and the rest. It all wraps in a handsome waxed canvas bag (£80; root7.com). Holy Lama Spice Drops cocktail collection These spice drops are highly concentrated blends of natural ingredients. This set contains mint, ginger, rose and lemongrass drops, all of which last a long time and give a strong flavour (£16; holylama.co.uk). Tipplesworth old fashioned cocktail case With this set, just add ice and an orange, and you have everything you need to make an old fashioned. It contains 14 servings of Woodford Reserve bourbon, Angostura bitters, sugar syrup and two heavy-based glasses (£195; tipplesworth.com). The Margaritas Kit by Taste…

Cuba by campervan Car hire in Cuba can be expensive. But if you hire a campervan, you can drive around the island for $180 a day – about the cost of a car plus a “bog-standard” hotel room, says Lydia Bell in The Guardian. There are 20 powered campsites on the island, but wild camping is also allowed. A family-sized Fiat Ducato 3000 van is “an unwieldy beast”: it’s like manoeuvring “an Ikea wardrobe”, but it means you can tour gems including national parks, waterfalls and the odd civil war monument. Playa Ancón, 15 kilometres from the colonial town of Trinidad, is one of Cuba’s best beaches. At sundown, as the other tourists rumble back into town in their rented classic cars, you can stay behind, drinking cold beers until…

LVMH: “experiential” luxury We’re always being told these days that “it’s the experience that counts”, said Dominic Walsh in The Times: that rich millennials are less likely to buy a Swiss watch or fountain pen than to travel in style and stay “in swanky hotels”. The world’s biggest luxury group, LVMH, seems to agree. The French group, which is run by billionaire Bernard Arnault (pictured), has paid a punchy $3.2bn to acquire Belmond – London-based owner of trophy properties including the Hotel Cipriani in Venice, Orient Express trains and Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Oxfordshire. LVMH, whose brands include Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior, is tapping the trend of “experiential” luxury: Grand View Research thinks the global luxury hotel market, worth $83bn in 2017, will grow by 4.3% annually over…

Brexit should be the least of our worries Jeremy Warner The Daily Telegraph In our solipsistic way, we’ve grown used to thinking Brexit is “the biggest of the economic threats” facing Britain and Europe, says Jeremy Warner. Yet it’s probably the least of them – likely to produce no more than a “comparatively minor” change in the UK’s terms of trade with Europe. “Largely unnoticed amid the political madness that grips our nation” are the other more significant factors that could “pull the global economy towards recession”. The EU itself – outside Germany – remains “an unmitigated disaster”; inbuilt contradictions at the heart of the single currency “are coming back to haunt it”. And the world’s other economic superpowers, the US and China, are “locked in a potentially highly destructive…

No sign of sleigh bells So much for Santa and his rally, said The New York Times. The US S&P 500 “sank to its lowest level of the year” this week as investors anticipated a Federal Reserve decision on interest rates. Wall Street’s benchmark index has now lost almost 5% this year. If it doesn’t rebound by the end of the month, the losses could represent the Street’s “worst year since the 2008 financial crisis”. One reason for the subdued mood is that traders were expecting the Fed to raise rates again this week, as it eased away “from the lows of the financial crisis” – and this despite President Trump’s protestations that it should hold off, said The Times. But the situation in London isn’t looking much prettier. The…

The week’s best shares Codemasters Group The Sunday Telegraph This video games veteran has carved out strong franchises with F1, and off-road and track-racing games DiRT and Grid. Rising sales in digitally downloaded games generate extra revenue from add-ons. Buy. 161p. GVC Holdings The Sunday Times Despite the impending crackdown on stakes in fixed-odds betting terminals, this cash-generative gambling giant is a strong operator in the UK, and is benefiting from the legalisation of sports betting in the US. Buy. 721.5p. Informa The Daily Telegraph The exhibitions group is a market leader with good margins and cash generation. Its sectors are well diversified, and there are opportunities for organic growth and acquisitions in a fragmented market. Buy. 655.6p. Portmeirion Group Investors Chronicle The homewares group is coping with an uncertain…

When it comes to choosing a baby name, it seems American parents are increasingly finding inspiration in the “wellness” movement. According to one website, names such as Peace, Harmony and Hope are all becoming more popular – along with some reflecting the “clean eating” trend. Newly popular girls’ names last year included Kale (up 35%), Kiwi (up 40%) and Rosemary (up 20%). One in 12 people in the UK will enjoy an entirely vegan or vegetarian Christmas Day this year, according to Tesco, and UK supermarkets are finding new ways of catering to them. Tesco is offering cauliflower Wellingtons (in pastry) while at Waitrose you can buy jackfruit-stuffed tacos and butternut squash’age rolls.…

Retailers and the producers of packaging will be made to pay for the full cost of collecting and disposing of waste packaging, as part of the Government’s new “waste strategy”. At the moment, they pay only 10% of the cost. Unveiling the strategy this week, the Environment Secretary Michael Gove said that there would be extra penalties for firms who put hard-to-recycle materials (such as black plastic trays) onto the market. Other measures include a deposit scheme for bottles and cans; laws to specify the materials that councils must have the facilities to recycle; a commitment to consider banning plastic packaging where there are alternatives; and the introduction of food waste collections for every household.…

Washington DC Alleged spy guilty: A Russian woman has admitted that she conspired to infiltrate the Republican Party as part of a Kremlin-backed effort to influence US politics. In court last week, Maria Butina, 30, pled guilty to acting as an illegal foreign agent, and agreed to cooperate with law enforcement in return for a reduced prison term. Prosecutors say that Butina (pictured) joined the National Rifle Association in an attempt to connect with senior Republicans. She is believed to have been acting on the instruction of a senior Russian official, Alexander Torshin. Her American boyfriend, a right-wing activist named Paul Erickson, is also under investigation. The case is separate to the Mueller investigation into the Trump presidential campaign, which brought down Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen (see page…

“Wandering around the shops of Copenhagen this month, a great ennui came over me. That old thrill of discovering a foreign city through its wares has gone. Every pair of boots, each scarf, perfume, gadget was available in London or, if not, on the internet. We complain of Britain’s identikit high streets. But in retail terms, Paris, Moscow, Berlin, New York are globalised clones. You might as well shop at the airport. Only in poorer countries – Turkey, Mexico, Georgia – can you escape the tyranny of the brand. In the West, the sole nationally specific souvenir is food. So I loaded up with Danish rye bread, a gingerbread heart, a heap of pastries. Nothing says ‘look where I’ve been’ now except baked goods.” Janice Turner in The Times…

How the EU fuels populism in Italy Kenan Malik The Observer Tense negotiations, cries of betrayal, murmurs of social unrest. No, not Brexit, says Kenan Malik, but “the EU crisis everyone seems to have forgotten”: the stand-off between Brussels and Rome over Italy’s budget. Brussels had turned it down, claiming it would push Italy’s annual deficit above 3% of GDP – the limit set by the EU’s Maastricht Treaty. So last week Rome caved in and drafted a more austere one – a victory for Brussels, but also a sure way of hardening anti-EU sentiment. It was public resentment over the savage austerity package introduced in 2011 by the unelected, EU-approved technocrat Mario Monti that brought the populist government to power. Yet Brussels, effectively saying “we don’t care what the…

The living world beneath our feet Beneath the Earth’s surface lurks a “subterranean Galápagos” that is home to billions of microorganisms, scientists from the Deep Carbon Observatory have announced. Their ten-year study is the most sophisticated yet to map the subsurface: the region directly below the Earth’s crust, which is characterised by extreme heat, crushing pressure and a complete absence of sunlight. And it capitalised on two technological advances – drills that can bore miles below ground, and unprecedentedly powerful microscopes – to uncover a remarkable variety of life, much of it virtually unrecognisable. Finds included single-celled bacteria-like organisms that don’t have a nucleus, just a single chromosome; and others that have stayed alive for millennia. “They are metabolically active but in stasis, with less energy than we thought possible…

Last Wednesday, “the sky fell in” on Team Sky, said Matt Lawton in the Daily Mail. Sky and 21st Century Fox, the media giants who own the cycling team – with an 85% and 15% stake respectively, announced that it would pull the plug on funding at the end of next year. Since the team was formed in 2009, it has “chalked up a staggering 322 victories”, including six of the past seven Tour de France titles. But in recent years, a series of controversies has tarnished its brand. Now, as Dave Brailsford, their general manager, fishes around for a new backer, its riders are wondering “what the future holds”. Every now and then, a “new force” arrives and completely transforms a sport, said Richard Williams in The Guardian. So…

Rugby union Toulouse ended Wasps’ hopes of progressing to the knockout stages of the European Rugby Champions Cup by beating them 42-27. Bath’s hopes of qualifying were ended by a 42-15 loss to Leinster. Saracens beat Cardiff Blues 26-14. Cricket Former England cricketer Ashley Giles was appointed head of the England and Wales Cricket Board. Football Southampton ended Arsenal’s 22-match unbeaten streak with a 3-2 victory. Chelsea beat Brighton 2-1. Manchester City beat Everton 3-1.…

Looking back on 2018 1 Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman were among the stars who lent their names to a new campaign, announced with a full-page advert in The New York Times at the start of the year. What was it? 2 Of which country did ex-footballer George Weah become president, in January? 3 “Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart,” said Donald Trump, in response to claims in Michael Wolff’s latest book that he is unfit to serve. What was the book called? 4 Why did fast-food giant KFC briefly re-brand itself FCK this year? 5 Which player was awarded the Golden Boot in this year’s football World Cup, for scoring more goals than any other in the tournament?…

R&B Janelle Monáe: Dirty Computer Atlantic £9.99 On this sensational album, the Atlanta “polymath” matches the musical vision of Prince, says Will Hodgkinson in The Times, and does it with a sense of humour and political engagement. The record jumps from Talking Heads-style art pop (Pynk) to tight 1980s funk (Make Me Feel) without “being constrained by concepts of genre, race or gender. Monáe tackles identity and populism along the way, but she never sounds hectoring; only joyous.” Rock Arctic Monkeys: Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino Domino £10.99 This sixth album is the “biggest leap of Arctic Monkeys’ career so far”, says Roisin O’Connor in The Independent. Five years on from the last LP – the muscular, raucous AM – Alex Turner and his bandmates have re-emerged with a completely…

The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig, 1942 (Pushkin Press £12.99). A portentous suicide note for our times. Zweig, a star of the Viennese intelligentsia, was destroyed by the rise of Hitler and nationalism in Europe. Woodbrook by David Thomson, 1974 (Vintage £9.99). Seamus Heaney’s poem The Spring is about his friend Thomson, who wrote this memoir of lost love for a girl he tutored in the 1930s. Part history book, it charts the disintegration of another elite: the Anglo-Irish, and the grand houses forever haunted by the Great Famine of the 1840s. A Lion in the Bedroom: The Fabulous High Life of the Heiress Who Couldn’t Say No by Pat Cavendish O’Neill, 2004 (Jonathan Ball £18). Pat has spent her life saving animals. I met her at her home…

The Other Side of the Wind Orson Welles’s comeback film became mired in financial problems in the late 1970s. Now, 33 years after the director’s death, this found-footage-style autobiographical portrait has been realised with the help of Peter Bogdanovich – who is in the film – and Welles’s daughter, Beatrice. Starring John Huston, it’s about a legendary director whose final work seems doomed to remain unfinished. It’s as “brilliant, chaotic and exasperating as you would expect” (Guardian). Netflix.…

Year in, year out, there’s one “outstanding” own-brand supermarket champagne that puts the rest in the shade, said Victoria Moore in The Daily Telegraph. The Co-op’s Les Pionniers Champagne Brut NV (£18.99) is a “magnificent” blend of pinot noir (50%), pinot meunier (30%) and chardonnay (20%). Piper-Heidsieck makes it for the Co-op, and it recently beat the likes of Moët & Chandon to come joint top (with Mumm Cordon Rouge) in blind tastings by Which? experts. Moving up a price bracket, go for Vilmart Grand Cellier Premier Cru Brut NV (£39.99; Waitrose). It’s a “brilliant, tightly wound” champagne delivering citrus, roasted nuts and orchard fruit. But several of the big supermarkets have serious, great value champagne offerings this Christmas and New Year, said Will Lyons in The Sunday Times. Sainsbury’s…

Twin-centre break Spend 2 nights in Stockholm and 2 nights in Copenhagen, with Edinburgh flights and train journey included, from £329pp b&b. 020-3011 1520, citrusholidays.co.uk. Depart 11 February. 4-star Verona stay The wonderful Leon d’Oro Hotel is 15 minutes from the historic city centre. 3 nights’ b&b from £148pp, including London flights. 020-3897 1185, loveholidays.com. Depart 22 January. Chic spa in Switzerland Stay 3 nights at the luxurious Kurhaus Cademario Hotel & Spa, overlooking Lake Lugano, from £236pp b&b (based on two sharing), excluding flights. 020-3397 0085, chicretreats.com. Arrive 8 February. Malaysia retreat A 7-night stay at the Ritz-Carlton, Langkawi, with private transfers and flights, costs from £1,599pp b&b (two sharing). 01494-678400, www.turquoiseholidays.co.uk.Valid for travel 1-22 March.…

The ongoing stock market rout continued to take its toll. Wall Street’s main indices fell further into “correction territory” (defined as 10% or more down from a recent high) after a surge of selling in the tech, energy and financial sectors, eventually hitting their lowest level in 14 months. Traders blamed everything from trade tensions and fears of slowing global growth to an expected interest rate rise from the US Federal Reserve. President Trump attacked the Fed for “even considering” a hike given that “the outside world [is] blowing up around us, Paris is burning and China way down”. In Britain, the brunt of market anxiety was focused on retailers. Stocks including M&S, Dunelm, JD Sports, Next and Sports Direct all suffered after Asos warned that early Christmas trading had…

Alexandre Ricard Pernod Ricard, the family-run French distiller built from “a humble anise-flavoured liqueur called pastis”, faces “the greatest threat” in its history, says the FT: the arrival of the “aggressive” US activist fund Elliott Management, which has bought a 2.5% stake worth nearly s1bn. True to form, Elliott is calling for “an overhaul of the board” to address “perennial under-performance” – a direct challenge to Pernod’s CEO, Alexandre Ricard, grandson of the founder. “Despite a calm and reserved demeanour that can lead some to underestimate him”, Ricard, 46, is “well prepared” for a fight, say colleagues. Steeped in the business since childhood, he “embodies the values” of the founder, they claim, and has “methodically prepared for this moment”. Let battle commence. Eben Upton Almost a decade ago, while overseeing…

December is “the peak month for charitable donations”, says the FT. Here’s how to give in ways that can be good for your finances – as well as your sense of wellbeing. Gift Aid “One of those examples where in giving you receive,” says Charles Calkin of James Hambro & Partners. The charity can reclaim the basic rate tax you’ve already paid on a donation – making a £1 donation worth £1.25. Higher-rate taxpayers benefit particularly. “For every £1 donated by a 40% rate taxpayer, they can claim back 25p in personal tax relief.” Share giving A little known, but very tax-efficient, way of giving. “The charity does not get the 25% uplift that it gets from cash donations, but it avoids having to pay any capital gains tax (CGT),…