Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1259/1260 i The Week

What happened Johnson’s agenda Boris Johnson unveiled what he described as the “most radical Queen’s Speech in a generation” last week, setting out the Government’s agenda for the next five years. One of its most prominent measures is a bill enshrining in law the Government’s commitment to spend an extra £33.9bn ayear on the NHS by 2023-4. It’s due to be the first piece of legislation passed in 2020. The EU withdrawal bill is also scheduled for early next year. This will take the UK out of the EU on 31 January, put into law Johnson’s pledge to end the transition period in December 2020, and give British judges more power tooverturn rulings by the European Court of Justice. The Queen’s Speech also contained a promise to create a new…

Vera Lynn, who managed to thwart an attempt to have her name used on a bottle of gin. Halewood International argued that “Vera Lynn” was cockney rhyming slang and that its customers wouldn’t associate it with the wartime singer, who is now 102. But at a hearing, the trademark officer was not persuaded. Maurizio Cattelan, the Italian artist, after he sold all three editions of his attention-grabbing conceptual piece Comedian – consisting of a fresh banana stuck to a wall with duct tape – for $120,000 to $150,000 each, at the Basel Art Fair in Miami. The banana is perishable, but the new owners get a certificate of authenticity, which allows them to replace it. Mariah Carey, after her festive classic All I Want For Christmas is You went to…

More than half a million Hotpoint and Indesit washing machines are to be recalled because of a fire risk. Whirlpool, the manufacturer of both brands, said machines sold in the UK between October 2014 and February 2018 may have a flaw that could lead them to overheat. So far, 79 fires are thought to have been caused by the fault. The recall comes five months after Whirlpool recalled 500,000 dryers. The recall (for replacements, not refunds) will begin in January; until then, owners have been advised to unplug their machines, or use only cold water cycles.…

Washington DC President impeached: Donald Trump has become the third president in US history to be impeached by the House of Representatives. He is likely to face trial in January in the Senate – pending the resolution of procedural issues. As the Republicans are in the majority in the Senate, he is almost certain to be acquitted. In voting that split, as expected, along party lines, the House approved two articles of impeachment, finding that Trump had abused his power and obstructed justice. The charges relate to the pressure he had put on a foreign government, Ukraine, to investigate Joe Biden, his political rival. Trump, who denies wrongdoing, has consistently attacked the impeachment process as illegitimate and politically motivated. “SUCH ATROCIOUS LIES BY THE RADICAL LEFT, DO NOTHING DEMOCRATS”, he…

JANUARY Theresa May’s year gets off to a bad start when her Brexit deal suffers its first resounding defeat in the Commons. A journalist calls it “the greatest humiliation ever inflicted on a prime minister”. The acclaimed French writer Yann Moix is ridiculed for declaring that he couldn’t love a woman his own age. “Ah non! That’s not possible!” says the 50-year-old. “I prefer younger women’s bodies.” “We are building China into a space giant”, says lunar exploration chief Wu Weiren, after China becomes the first country to land a probe on the dark side of the Moon. In one of many distressing incidents of gang violence this year, 14-year-old Jaden Moodie is knocked off a moped in east London and stabbed to death by three men. Prince Philip (above)…

Police rushed to a home inthe Australian city of Perth after a concerned passer-by reported that he’d heard a toddler crying, and a man repeatedly screaming: “Why don’t you die!” On arrival, they found arachnophobic father-of-one Rhys Howard clutching the nappy with which he had been trying tokill a large spider. “No injuries sighted (except to spider),” read the police report. A former convict robbed a bank in the US city of Milwaukee because he was missing prison life. Six months after completing a 20-year term for attempted homicide at a jail in New Jersey, William  Gallagher, 68, took the train to Milwaukee – because he’d heard that the prisons in the state of Wisconsin have the best food – and held up a branch of Chase Bank. He claimed…

Extraordinary moments for English football For British sport, 2019 was a vintage year – arguably one of the best of all time. In May, the “most astonishing” of Premier League seasons reached a fittingly nail-biting conclusion, said Martin Samuel in the Daily Mail. Manchester City went into the final weekend leading Liverpool by a point – and duly sealed their second consecutive title with a 4-1 win over Brighton. Across the season, both clubs achieved remarkable dominance. Liverpool’s final point tally of 97 was the third highest ever in the Premier League – pipped only by the 98 points Manchester City earned to beat them and City’s even higher haul (100) the previous year. Liverpool, in other words, had one of the all-time great seasons in top-flight football but, “incredibly,…

England’s cricketers and rugby players were not the only national teams to dazzle this year, said Sean Ingle in The Guardian. Over several “extraordinary” weeks in the summer, the country became fixated on the Lionesses, who made “dizzying progress” in the football World Cup in France. After a string of thrilling wins, Phil Neville’s team were edged out in the semi-final by eventual champions the US (pictured), who have now won the last two World Cups, and four of the eight to have taken place. Four years ago, the Lionesses reached exactly the same stage, losing through a late goal to Japan, said Jason Burt in The Daily Telegraph. Then, the feeling was that they were “fortunate” to even get that far – whereas this time, their success seemed fully…

Nearly 70 years after it first took Broadway by storm, Guys and Dolls remains a “miracle” of a show, said Ron Simpson on What’s On Stage. This most perfect ofmusicals is based on the work of one “man of genius” – Damon Runyon, the “incomparable” chronicler of the “gamblers, gangsters, sharpers and boosters” of 1950s New York. It features 20 or so sparkling songs from another genius, Frank Loesser. And there’s a “superbly engineered” book (by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows) that cleverly bridges Runyon and Loesser, full of “wit, sentiment, wisecracks, wordplay and horseplay” – all a director needs, in fact, to stage this marvel “brilliantly”, with a crack cast, terrific band and thrilling choreography. And at Sheffield Crucible, that’s exactly what Robert Hastie has done. This is a“stylishly…

Since the silent era, there have been countless adaptations of Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel – but this is surely the “definitive” Little Women, said Helen O’Hara in Empire. Confirming her status as a major film talent, writer/director Greta Gerwig has taken a familiar story, about young women striving to lead independent lives in uncertain times, and made itfeel “immediate”. One of the significant ways in which this version differs from its predecessors is its “non-chronological approach”, said Kenneth Turan in the LA Times. The book begins with the March sisters as girls, facing genteel poverty in Massachusetts during the US civil war. Gerwig starts seven years later, when the women are in their 20s, then flashes back and forth. Because we are introduced to the characters as they are…

Retrieved In the summer of 1993, a team of burglars went on an art theft spree across Los Angeles: dozens of valuable items – among them a Picasso, a Miró and documents bearing the signature of former president Ronald Reagan – vanished from the walls and cabinets of wealthy Hollywood homes. Although Los Angeles police did arrest two men for the crimes, they never recovered the stolen artworks. But this September, detectives got the telephone call they’d been waiting for for 26 years. An auctioneer in California, who wants to remain anonymous, said he could give them four addresses where much of the booty could be found. The detectives duly searched the addresses and retrieved more than 100 pieces, the Picasso (pictured) included. It turns out that one of the…

The Kinneuchar Inn 9-11 Main Street, Kilconquhar, Fife (01333-340377) “Sometimes you come across a place so enchanting, it might as well have a sparkling halo surrounding it,” says Marina O’Loughlin in The Sunday Times. This “tiny inn” in Fife is such a place. It was recently taken over by James Ferguson and Alethea Palmer, formerly of the Rochelle Canteen in east London. They have given it a no-frills redesign that has preserved the inn’s “thick-walled” character, and a similarly “pared back” ethos informs the cooking, which had us “beaming with pleasure” throughout. Squid in the “crispest casing” came with a skordalia (creamy mash) “absolutely guffawing with garlic”. My “massive slab” of wild turbot was “golden-skinned from butter”. Hebridean hogget was served with turnips in anchovy dressing – “a truly…

Land Rover Defender The new Defender’s unveiling was the car industry’s biggest splash of 2019, and its launch next year is eagerly awaited. A revival of Land Rover’s iconic off-roader, this all-new model retains the distinctive boxy look of the original, but the maker claims the latest tech will allow it to go further off-road than anything else on the market. On sale around mid-year, from £45,240. Volkswagen ID.3 The most important VW for a generation, possibly two. Having been made to sit on the naughty step for some time after the emissions scandal, VW is introducing a whole family of new all-electric models. The first in the range will be the ID.3 hatchback, available with three batteries varying in size, with ranges between 143 to 342 miles. On sale…

Camp Zero Italy With a long, low, pine-clad exterior like a higgledy-piggledy cluster of mountain huts, this “swish” five-star “eco-resort” sits between the “pretty” Italian ski resorts of Champoluc and Frachey, says Ben Clatworthy in The Sunday Times. The 30 suites all have floor-to-ceiling windows with fine forest or mountain views; those with two storeys are ideal for families. There’s a 25-metre indoor pool (also with great views), a spa and two climbing walls, as well as a helipad for roll-out-of-bed heliskiing. Doubles from s449; campzero.com. Le Refuge de Solaise France Perched 700 metres above Val d’Isère, and accessible only via the Solaise gondola lift, this is the highest hotel in the French Alps, at 2,551 metres. Inside you’ll find acres of exposed stone, floor-to-ceiling windows with great…

● The “good” company “The American dream is alive but fraying,” said JPMorgan boss Jamie Dimon at the launch of a startling initiative in August. The Business Roundtable of America – whose nearly 200 members, from Amazon to General Motors, generate $7trn a year –had just announced arevolutionary proposal. In a departure from the “bedrock belief” that companies exist to serve shareholders, the BR’s new “statement of purpose” placed shareholders as “one of five stakeholders”, said the FT, “alongside customers, workers, suppliers and communities”. The move wasn’t as radical as, say, the UK Labour Party’s plans to redistribute some £300bn in shares to workers. Even so, dropping the “shareholder primacy” creed championed by economist Milton Friedman – “which has driven US capitalism for decades” – was a symbolic moment. ●…

Politics Lady (Marcia) Falkender, political secretary, died 6 February, aged 86. Bob Hawke, former Australian PM, died 16 May, aged 89. Mohamed Morsi, former President of Egypt, died 17 June, aged 67. Tim Bell, Tory spin doctor and advertising executive, died 25 August, aged 77. Robert Mugabe, former president of Zimbabwe, died 6 September, aged 95. Jacques Chirac, former French president, died 26 September, aged 86. Frank Dobson, former Labour minister, died 11 November, aged 79. Writers and thinkers Diana Athill, publisher and memoirist, died 23 January, aged 101. Rosamunde Pilcher, novelist, died 6 February, aged 94. Andrea Levy, novelist, died 14 February, aged 62. Mary Warnock, philosopher, died 20 March, aged 94. Judith Kerr, writer and illustrator, died 22 May, aged 95. Brenda Maddox, biographer, died 16 June, aged…

Controversy of the week Is the BBC biased? Britain’s political culture may be bitterly divided, but at least all our leaders can agree on one thing, said Sean O’Grady in The Independent: “the BBC is institutionally biased against them. All of them.” Nigel Farage and Jo Swinson have both expressed fury at the way the Beeb has treated them. On the Labour left, it’s an article of faith that the BBC is “consciously” biased against Jeremy Corbyn – as the shadow transport minister Andy McDonald put it – and was partly to blame for its poor election result. The Tories, meanwhile, are so angry about the corporation’s election coverage that they are threatening to cut its funding. “Well, as BBC folk often reply, their critics cannot all be right.” In…

Laurent Simons, the Belgian child prodigy, who dropped out of university. The boy’s parents had wanted him to complete his engineering degree before his birthday, on 26 December, so that he could be the first graduate under ten. But Eindhoven University told them it wasn’t in his interests to rush through the course. Rather than delay his graduation, his parents withdrew him. Bus travel, which has dropped to its lowest level on record. Only 4% of all the journeys made last year were by bus, down from 42% in the 1950s. Over the long term, the rise of the car is to blame, but recent fare rises and cut to routes have not helped.…

33% of Britons think they could do a better job as PM than Boris Johnson. 39% think they could have done better than Theresa May; 40% than David Cameron. YouGov President Trump’s approval rating has increased by 6 points since the launch of the impeachment inquiry, from 39% in October to 45%. Gallup/The Hill 44% of Britons say they trust the BBC to tell the truth, down seven points since October. 34% say they trust “upmarket newspapers” like The Times and The Guardian, down from 38% in October. 14% say they trust “mid-market” papers like the Daily Mail and the Express, and 7% say they trust tabloids such as The Sun and The Mirror. YouGov/The Guardian…

It was the Lib Dems wot won it Simon Jenkins The Guardian Yet again, the Liberal Democrats have won a general election – for the Tories. All the fuss about Boris Johnson’s emphatic victory, says Simon Jenkins, obscured the fact that his party only secured 329,000 more votes than it did in 2017, whereas the Lib Dem tally soared by 1.3 million. Labour would have won dozens more seats – Kensington, Keighley, Bridgend, Chingford to name a few – had the Lib Dems not “calamitously split” the Left’s vote. Now “leaderless and in disarray”, surely it would be better for everyone if the Lib Dems just called it a day. They’ve never been close to winning an election themselves, nor ever offered any truly radical policy ideas. Instead, their party…

Scottish Borders  In January, an Edinburgh vet became the first woman to win the gruelling 268-mile Montane Spine ultramarathon. Jasmin Paris finished in 83 hours, beating her nearest male rival by 15 hours and the previous record by 12, despite having to pause en route to express milk for her 14-month-old dbaby. Competitors in nthe race must run through thePeak District, along the Pennine Way and into the Scottish Borders. By the end, Paris, 35, was so tired she started hallucinating, yet she insisted she was not special. “If other people tried, they could do it too... All you need to do is keep putting one foot in front of the other, and feed yourself.” Lockerbie  A company that aims to help solve the plastic waste crisis by using discarded…

Blaming Corbyn... To The Times In the past five days I have listened with mounting incredulity to the catalogue of excuses from the Corbyn/ McCluskey leadership as to why my party went down to its worst defeat since 1935. The central charge of the Corbyn apologists is that the media, including the BBC, went in for a sustained campaign of character assassination. Anyone who takes a leadership position in any national party is going to have their character examined. The media did not invent Corbyn’s links with the terrorist organisations Hamas and Hezbollah, his support for the aims of the Provisional IRA when it was killing innocent people, his tardiness to recognise the virus of anti-Semitism that hehad allowed to grow, nor his chronic indecisiveness, by which he permitted the…

In May 2017, Tiger Woods hit rock bottom, said Oliver Brown in The Daily Telegraph. In the dead of night, he was found “slumped at the wheel on a deserted Florida road”, his system flooded with painkillers. For a long time he’d suffered devastating injuries and had confided to friends that he was “done” with golf. Yet in April this year, at the age of 43, Woods triumphed in the Masters at Augusta to claim his 15th major – and his first in 11 years. “Lazarus has competition,” said Ewan Murray in The Guardian: few sporting rebirths have been as spectacular as this. And how “poetic” that it should have occurred at Augusta – the course where, as a 21-year-old, Woods “began altering the shape of golf”. Woods’ path to…

Exhibitions David Hockney: Drawing from Life National Portrait Gallery, London WC2 The first major exhibition of Hockney’s drawings for 20 years, this show will examine his draughtsmanship from the 1950s to the present, focusing on his self-portraits and his depictions of five people – including his mother and his muse, the designer Celia Birtwell, who often sat for him over the years. 27 February to 28 June, booking now. Young Rembrandt The Ashmolean, Oxford Exploring the first ten years of the Dutch master’s career, this exhibition features Rembrandt’s earliest known works – the prints, paintings and drawings he made in his native Leiden in the 1620s, before he burst to stardom in Amsterdam. 27 February to 7 June, booking now. Andy Warhol Tate Modern, London SE1 Thirty…

Back in July, teaser trailers for Cats attracted a torrent of ridicule, and caused a degree of fear. But it turns out they did the film a favour, said Tim Robey in The Daily Telegraph – by hiding the big numbers, silencing most of the singing, and minimising some of the most excruciating performances. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit musical based on T.S. Eliot’s poems was always odd. Oscar-winning director Tom Hooper’s disastrous film adaptation is not only bizarre, confusing, and almost plot-free: it is downright horrifying, with its “Frankensteinian marriage of live performance, ‘digital fur technology’ and human/cat anatomical splicing – the boobs! The cats have boobs??!!” Yes, they have furry breasts, said David Sexton in the London Evening Standard; and “let’s not think about those tails that keep erecting…

Helen impulsively invites Lee to have Christmas dinner at Home Farm. Pip gives David a wedding magazine as inspiration for Brookfield Barn. Lilian, Pip and David discuss events at the signing. David’s still angry at Justin but Lilian says it’s a good opportunity for the Rewilders – they could learn a lot. Adam can’t understand why Phoebe said nothing. Eddie puts Harrison through his paces for his role as Father Christmas. Harrison visits Brookfield with questions for Josh, who’s in Thailand; a digger has gone missing. Lynda’s presence at Ghost Story rehearsals irks Jim and Robert. On set, she finds a painting by Russ – is it of her? Brian challenges Adam over problems at the farm; Adam says Brian is undermining him, but later admits to Ruth that he…

The veteran US pianist Chick Corea has added “another brilliant chapter to his career” with the release of Trilogy 2, said Jim Worsley on All About Jazz. A follow-up to his “sensational” 2014 recording with bassist Christian McBride and drummer Brian Blade, this two-disc set goes beyond offering simply “more of the same”. With a “delicate balance of trio symmetry and soloing”, the music takes you on a wondrous journey. It may be “straight-up traditional jazz”, but it “pops, sizzles and simmers”. Fly or Die – the debut from UStrumpeter and bandleader Jaimie Branch – was one of 2017’s notable albums, introducing her as a powerful presence on the avant-jazz scene. Its follow-up, Fly or Die II (left), is “darker, denser and more experimental”, but “no less resonant”, said Marcus…

Madeira and tawny port come into their own “when the days are short and the temperature drops”, says Will Lyons in The Sunday Times. Their attractions are threefold: they can be served both as a warming aperitif or a reviving digestif; they keep fresh in the bottle for many weeks (or months, in madeira’s case); and being permanently out of fashion, they tend to be inexpensive. For a port that represents “outrageous value”, try Tesco Finest 10-Year-Old Tawny Port (£12.50). It has a “sweet, raisiny taste” and a “creamy finish”. A “real step up” is Graham’s 20-Year-Old Tawny Port (£39; The Wine Society): with “notes of caramel, orange peel and dark fruit”, it’s a regular in our household. Henriques & Henriques 10-Year-Old Malvasia Madeira (£19.50, 500ml; The Wine Society) has…

The car industry loves an acronym, and ACES is one we’ll hear a lot about through the 2020s. It stands for Autonomous, Connected, Electric and Shared – four buzzwords mapping out the automotive future. Electrification is already very much upon us, said Autocar, and next year will be the biggest yet for electric vehicles (EVs), with major launches from electrical pioneers such as Tesla, Nissan and Renault, as well as new EVs from Audi, Mercedes, Ford, BMW, Mini, Seat, Fiat, Vauxhall, Volvo and Škoda. Most predictions see the EV market globally growing by perhaps 18% to 25% per year. In Britain, electric cars still make up less than 5% of new registrations, but this is rising fast. “Autonomous cars are on the way,” said Auto Express – but the revolution…

With pristine powder snow and great views, Hokkaido’s ski resorts are justifiably popular – but the cultural delights of Japan’s northern island are an equally good reason to visit in winter, says Cat Weakley in The Daily Telegraph. Most spectacular is the week-long Snow Festival held each February in the main city, Sapporo, with its ice sculptures and “mouthwatering” food stands. But no less charming is the Snow Light Path festival in Otaru, when the port city is decorated with snow lanterns and snow sculptures, and floating candles are set adrift on its icy central canal. The cities have great restaurants, and the local ryokans are particularly serene at this time of year – at Toya Kanko, for instance, you can bathe in natural hot spring pools amid snow-clad trees…

Silversands Grenada Despite its majestic jungled mountains and white-sand beaches, Grenada has dodged intensive tourist development. But while its established five-star hotels are low-key, this new opening is clearly aimed at “the international jet set”, says Claire Irvin in The Daily Telegraph. Owned by Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris, it sits beside Grand Anse, the island’s most “glorious” beach, and has a 100-metre pool – the longest in the Caribbean, and an Instagram influencer’s dream. Interiors are “cool, modernist and pared-down”, with lots of pale marble and “blonde” wood in the 43 suites and nine immense shorefront villas. The “Balearic beats” in the beach club are a little loud, but the main restaurant, Asiatique, is excellent. Doubles from £620 b&b; silversandsgrenada.com.…

Rather than “stuffing fivers and tenners” into Christmas cards for children, here are some alternative ideas, says Claer Barrett in the FT. Gold bars The Royal Mint sells a 24-carat gold “bar” the size of a Sim card for £52. Other websites, like Bullion by Post, offer gift-boxed mini bars and sovereigns. “It’s a great novelty gift” – if, ounce for ounce, it’s a very expensive way of buying gold. Coins As well as being valuable, “every old coin contains a history lesson”, and the numbers minted by the Romans mean they cost less than you think. At Baldwins in London, £150 buys you a silver denarius featuring the Emperor Hadrian. Junior Isa Only parents can open these tax-free savings accounts – but a novel way of “giving” one might…

Satya Nadella When Satya Nadella took over at Microsoft – becoming only its third-ever CEO – the once-dominant software house “looked like it might be on the fast track to technological irrelevance”, says the FT. In a “stunning exercise in wealth creation”, Nadella has “put it back at the top of the tech heap” as a next-gen cloud company: total returns to shareholders on his five-year watch exceed $1trn. Remarkably, he has done it “without attracting the resentment and anxiety provoked by other tech leaders”. Nadella, who grew up in Hyderabad and joined Microsoft in 1992, has made the firm “exciting” again – exorcising its image as a “corporate bully”. The equanimity surrounding its rebirth is testament to the boss’s achievements. Andrew Bailey We thought Dame Minouche Shafik was “the…

Parents eager to foster in their children a love of computing helped make coding kits some of this Christmas’s bestselling toys. John Lewis says it increased its range of coding-based toys by a third, to meet expected demand, with the Osmo Little Genius Starter Kit among those on its hot holiday list. The London-based firm Kano says it has sold more than a million of its coding kits in five years. Google claimed back in 2014 that 93 million selfies were taken each day on its devices; now a London doctor says he is seeing an increasing number of young patients with “selfie wrist”. Dr Raj Ragoowansi reckons the repeated inward flexing of the wrist required for selfie-taking is behind a rise in patients with a form of carpal tunnel…

The number of households in England considered newly homeless or at risk of becoming homeless has increased by 11.4% over the past year, according to government figures. Between April and June, 68,170 households were initially assessed as homeless, an increase of 23% on the same period last year; around 36,000 were at risk of being so. At the end of June, 13,450 households were in temporary accommodation with shared facilities (widely considered the worst type of housing), 40% more than five years ago. Almost 130,000 dependent children were in temporary accommodation.…

Paris Christmas chaos: The protests against planned pension reforms that have gripped France since early December turned violent in the run-up to Christmas, as riot police clashed repeatedly with demonstrators in Paris. Protests across the country continued to attract vast crowds, and strike action by transport workers caused chaos, threatening people’s holiday plans. Meanwhile, electricity workers cut power to tens of thousands of homes in Paris, and in the cities of Lyon, Nantes and Orléans. France spends far more (14% of GDP) on state pensions than the OECD average (of about 8%). Its pension age, 62, is one of the lowest, and under a web of 42 sector-specific schemes, many workers – especially in transport – can retire with a state pension in their 50s. President Macron says he wants…

When Leanne Chapman and her partner heard birds making a commotion on her balcony in Brisbane, they went to investigate – and found a 10ft python wrapped around her Christmas tree. “It wasn’t bothered by us,” she says. “It just stayed there for a good few hours as we watched it through the window. After the initial shock wore off, it was a really beautiful snake. It was nice to see it that close up.” Residents of Marin County in California woke up last week to find one of their most idyllic beaches covered in thousands of unpleasant-looking sea creatures. Fat innkeeper worms – popularly known as “penis fish”, and considered adelicacy in Korea – usually live inthe safety of underground burrows, but when strong waves at Drakes Beach washed…

A devout Buddhist won $671,240 at a high-stakes poker game in January – and promptly gave it to charity. Canadian Scott Wellenbach, 67, said he didn’t need the money: Buddhists “sit around and meditate a lot – and that’s free”. In June, a ten-year-old girl became the youngest person to climb the 2,900ft face of El Capitan – the fabled rock formation in America’s Yosemite national park. Selah Schneiter, from Colorado, made the five-day climb with her father, a climbing guide (pictured). She slept on a portaledge (a tent attached to the rock face) and carried gear equal to a third of her weight. An eight-year-old Nigerian refugee who was living in a homeless shelter in Manhattan won New York state’s junior chess championship in March – despite having only…

To The Independent Trade deals do not need tobe difficult or prolonged. The 2005 Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) was negotiated and signed in just over a year, despite opposition from the agricultural lobby in both countries. This unmatched feat in trade negotiations was driven by the determination of John Howard, Australia’s then prime minister, and George W. Bush, America’s then president, to strike a deal. Political will determines the speed and serenity of international negotiations. Will the EU put at risk its £94bn bilateral trade surplus with Britain? Dr John Doherty, Austria To The Independent Will the EU put its £94bn bilateral trade surplus with Britain at risk? The simple answer to Dr Doherty’s question is “yes”. It is barely credible he believes that a trade agreement between…

Tennis Novak Djokovic defeated Roger Federer in the longest ever Wimbledon singles final: it lasted four hours and 57 minutes. Athletics In October, Eliud Kipchoge became the first man in history to run a sub-two-hour marathon, breaking the mark by 20 seconds. His time won’t stand as a world record because he ran on his own, assisted by pacesetters. Gymnastics Simone Biles won her 25th world medal at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart, to become the most decorated gymnast in history. Football Leicester’s 9-0 win over Southampton equalled the biggest-ever winning margin in the Premier League.…

Metropolis by Philip Kerr Quercus £8.99 (£7.99) Philip Kerr, who died aged 62 last year, winds the clock back in this final outing for his much-loved Berlin detective, Bernie Gunther. Previous books in the series had Second World War or Cold War settings; here, the action takes place in 1928, with Gunther as a promising young detective probing the murder of four prostitutes. “Gunther is the perfect world-weary investigator for the glittering, doomed demi-monde of Weimar Berlin,” said The Guardian. A “bittersweet ending to a superb series”. Putney by Sofka Zinovieff Bloomsbury £8.99 (£7.99) A subtle novel about an affair in the 1970s between Ralph, a composer in his 30s, and Daphne, then a teenager. Although Daphne willingly participated (and even years later, believes she was “truly in love”), a…

When it comes to Star Wars – a franchise that inspires cult-like devotion in its millions of fans – there can be no pleasing everyone. The good news about The Rise of Skywalker – the last in the trilogy that began with The Force Awakens – is that it provides the send-off the Skywalker saga deserves, said Steve Rose in The Guardian. “The bad news is, it is largely the send-off we expected.” Sure, there is plenty of spectacle and excitement, but “given the long buildup”, some of its “big revelations and developments” may seem to fans a little unsatisfying, on reflection. After the polarising last instalment, The Last Jedi, J.J. Abrams guides us back to more straightforward Star Wars territory, said Adi Robertson on The Verge. “Instead of being…

The Black Hole War by Leonard Susskind, 2008 (Back Bay Books £12.99). This book is wonderfully written. It’s part memoir and part explanation of the physics, and explores why, interms of the deep problems we have in understanding fundamental physics, black holes are sointeresting. The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald, 1995 (Vintage £8.99). I reread this recently and loved it. I think there’s only one question, philosophically, which is how we should live our intensely meaningful but short lives in a vast, infinite, meaningless universe? Part of the answer is in this book. It’s a meditation on transience and the beauty inherent in transience. It’s magnificently translated, too. Gustav Mahler by Jens Malte Fischer, 2003 (Yale University Press £19.99). I was recently involved in another musical collaboration about Mahler.…

Take a punt on getting your hands on an authenticated Picasso still life for s100 in the online charity raffle 1 Picasso for 100 euros. In its debut year, in 2013, the raffle raised nearly s5m. Proceeds this time will go to the international charity Care, and will be used to fund a project providing clean water and sanitation to villages in Cameroon, Madagascar and Morocco. The draw takes place on 6 January in Paris, and will be streamed live; to watch and buy tickets, visit 1picasso100euros.com.…

The Dropout ABC News Free on Apple and Google Not long ago, Elizabeth Holmes, a Stanford University dropout, was the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire. Theranos, the biotech company she founded at age 19, promised to revolutionise blood testing. Now Theranos is defunct, and Holmes is facing 20 years in prison for fraud. This six-part podcast presented by Rebecca Jarvis “brilliantly” documents her fall from grace, says Fiona Sturges in the FT. The Missing Cryptoqueen BBC News Free on BBC Sounds Dr Ruja Ignatova persuaded millions to join her financial revolution by investing in her cryptocurrency OneCoin. Then she disappeared. Jamie Bartlett presents a story of greed, fraud and herd madness over ten episodes. The Missing Cryptoqueen is gripping, says Antonia Quirke in the New Statesman. I’ve never “truly hung…

The Luminaries Eva Green will star in this lavish, six-part adaptation of Eleanor Catton’s epic 2013 Man Booker Prize-winning novel set in New Zealand during the gold rush of the 1860s. Due to be broadcast on BBC2 in the new year. I Hate Suzie Co-written by Billie Piper and Lucy Prebble, this eight-part comedy-drama is about a fading celebrity whose marriage and professional reputation are jeopardised by the leaking online of a damaging photograph. It will air on Sky Atlantic. Belgravia Downton Abbey fans will be anticipating the release of this new series, adapted by Julian Fellowes from his own novel, and set in the upper echelons of 19th century London society. It stars Harriet Walter, Tamsin Greig, and Philip Glenister, and will air on ITV1. A Suitable Boy Twenty-seven…

A tangy treacle tart From the menu at The Laurels Serves 6 2eggs, beaten 450g golden syrup grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon 125g brown breadcrumbs for the pastry: 250g plain flour, plus extra for rolling pinch of salt 150g cold butter, diced 1 large egg, beaten • First make the pastry. Put the flour, salt and butter in a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the beaten egg and pulse again until the mixture starts to come together. Turn it out into a bowl and shape it into a round. • Roll the pastry out on a floured surface until it is about the thickness of a pound coin. Line a 23cm tart tin and trim the pastry to fit – keep the trimmings to…

The best… skiing gear Norrøna Lofoten Gore-Tex Insulated Jacket This top-of-the-range jacket from the Norwegian brand Norrøna (available for both men and women) is very warm and waterproof, (50% of its insulation is from recycled material). It has plenty of vents, or you could get the uninsulated version (£449; norrona.com). Phoozy Apollo phone warmer While a phone warmer might sound like an entirely frivolous purchase, it can extend your phone’s battery when you’re out in the cold. This one claims to be adapted from Nasa’s spacesuit technology (from £21; amazon.co.uk). Scott Track Plus Helmet With clever perforated sound-capturing earpads, this helmet maximises your hearing. It also has MIPS safety technology: a sliding layer minimises damaging rotational forces on impact (£90; scott-sports.com). Vert Clip-Anywhere Wireless Earbuds Designed so that you don’t…

The hacking of a “naive” Old Lady Nils Pratley The Guardian Short of breaking into the vaults and nicking the gold, central bank security breaches “do not come much worse than this”, said Nils Pratley in The Guardian. Hedge funds, it emerged last week, have managed to gain access to an audio feed of the Bank of England governor’s press conferences – thereby securing “an advantage of a few seconds” over viewers of the slightly-delayed TV broadcast. “In modern, frantic markets, seconds can matter.” The outgoing governor, Mark Carney, has made it his mission to modernise ops (with information security a top priority), so he “must be squirming with embarrassment” at this breach – reportedly the work of aso far unnamed “third-party supplier”. At the very least, “Threadneedle Street stands…

JANUARY As the year began, Amazon unseated Microsoft and Apple as “the world’s most valuable public company” with a market value of $797bn. Founder Jeff Bezos announced his forthcoming divorce on 9 January; some feared the settlement could affect the share price. Elsewhere, the new year dawned with a bump: Apple abruptly cut sales forecasts, blaming a sharp slowdown in China, and investors took fright. Washington upped the pressure on European and other allies to ban the Chinese telecoms giant Huawei from their 5G networks on security grounds, amid talk of the growing tech cold war. The US Department of Justice laid fraud charges against Huawei’s former CFO, Meng Wanzhou (below) – daughter of founder Ren Zhengfei – who had been arrested in Canada in late 2018. The first UK…