Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1265 i The Week

What happened Britain after Brexit London and Brussels talked tough this week as they set out their negotiating positions for next month’s trade negotiations. Boris Johnson insisted he was aiming for a comprehensive Canada-style deal, with zero or minimal tariffs or quotas, that would leave Britain in full control of its laws, but said he was willing to fall back on a bare-bones Australia-style deal if necessary. There was no need, he argued, for a new treaty tying the UK to EU rules on state aid, workers’ rights and the environment, because Britain was already committed to matching, and in many cases exceeding, EU standards. But Brussels warned that the UK would not secure a full trade deal unless it agreed to follow most EU rules, defer toEuropean judges and…

Sam Mendes, after his war film 1917 won seven awards at the Baftas, including best film and best director. But the event was again overshadowed by a diversity row. All 20 acting nominees were white, and no women featured on the best director shortlist for the seventh year in arow. Picking up a best actor award for Joker, Joaquin Phoenix took aim at “systemic racism” in the industry, while acknowledging that he was “part of the problem”. David Cameron, with news that the former PM has made more than £1.6m since leaving office in 2016. However, he is lagging some way behind his chancellor, George Osborne, who earns £650,000 a year from just one of his nine jobs, and it’s doubtful he will ever catch up with Tony Blair: he…

52% of Scots now favour independence from the UK, and 48% oppose it, a Panelbase poll in The Guardian found. YouGov has 51% in favour of independence, while Survation has a 50-50 split. 80% of Irish voters say they want a united Ireland, and 42% would like it to happen within the next decade. Panelbase/The Sunday Times In a poll taken as the UK officially left the EU, 46% of voters said they felt the UK had been wrong to vote for Brexit in the 2016 referendum, while 43% said the decision had been the right one. 11% didn’t know. If the referendum were rerun today, 51% would vote to Remain, and 49% to Leave. Survation…

Why Ai left Germany It’s only four months since Ai Weiwei left Germany, but any affection heharboured for the country he previously called home has vanished already. “I don’t think Germany provides a good environment for foreigners,” hetold Simon Hattenstone in The Guardian. The dissident Chinese artist lived in Berlin for four years, and reckons racism was behind various unpleasant experiences he had there, from taxi drivers throwing him out of their cabs to his ten-year-old son being threatened by a shopkeeper. Sipping tea in a hotel in Cambridge, the 62-year-old says he is confident of a warmer welcome in Britain. “In Britain they are colonial. They are polite at least. But in Germany they don’t have this politeness. They deeply don’t like foreigners.” In fact, he found Germany uncomfortably…

Doctors in Texas were stunned to discover the cause of a patient’s violent, vomit-inducing headaches. Gerardo Moctezuma went to hospital in Austin after fainting, and scans revealed a mass at the base of his brain. During emergency surgery, a neurosurgeon removed the culprit: a tapeworm about an inch and a half long. It is believed to have been growing in his skull for a full decade, after he ate undercooked pork in Mexico during a holiday there. A lovelorn Sheffield man has gone to great lengths in his search for romance: he paid £425 for a billboard ad asking for a date. Mark Rofe hopes the sign, on a busy roadside, will help him track down the perfect woman. It features a picture of the 30-year-old along with a link…

KENYA The plague that is devastating East Africa The East African (Nairobi) Not so long ago, the biggest threat facing East Africa was drought, says Charles Onyango-Obbo. But that was before the locusts arrived; hundreds of billions of the creatures have descended on Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia. One single swarm included 200 billion locusts and covered an area double the size of New York City. Kenya alone is home to dozens of swarms, which devour crops and strip trees bare. The UN says the locusts could multiply by a staggering 500 times in the coming months, sparking fears they could “cut a ravenous path to Uganda and South Sudan”. They are helped by extreme weather in the Indian Ocean, where cyclones have brought heavy rain and lush vegetation – giving…

Scientists claim to have recreated the voice of an Egyptian priest who lived during the reign of Rameses XI. Upon his death 3,000 years ago, Nesyamun was mummified and sealed in a coffin bearing the inscription: “Nesyamun, true of voice”. Today, he resides at Leeds City Museum. When researchers carried out CT scans of his body, they noticed that his throat was unusually well-preserved. Using the measurements produced by the scans, they 3D-printed a replica of his vocal tract, and then connected this to an artificial larynx to generate a version of his “voice”. So far, the team has synthesised just a single sound, which they describe as a cross between the “ah” and “eh” sounds in “bad” and “bed”. However, they predict that with further refinements, words and even…

Alastair Stewart: a broadcaster’s downfall It was a “schoolboy error” that ended a distinguished career, said Simon Kelner in the I newspaper. Caught up in a “pointless” Twitter spat, the veteran ITN newsreader Alastair Stewart last month turned to Shakespeare, quoting from Measure for Measure to highlight what he saw as the self-importance of his adversary. “But man, proud man / Dress’d in a little brief authority / Most ignorant of what he’s most assur’d / His glassy essence...” he typed – and if he had stopped there, he would still be reading the news. But instead, he went on, continuing the quote: “like an angry ape”. The man on the receiving end, a black Lib Dem local politician called Martin Shapland, took offence, assuming (though Stewart denied it)…

Since Nike’s Vaporfly trainers were launched in 2016, they have transformed running, said Matthew Futterman in The New York Times. The shoes fuse a lightweight foam called Pebax with a carbon plate, creating a spring effect that allows runners to expend less energy with each step. As a result, they improve running times by at least 4%. Since the end of 2018, the five fastest marathons in history have been won by runners wearing some version of the Vaporflys; in October, Eliud Kipchoge was wearing a bespoke pair when he became the first person to break the two-hour barrier. So it’s hardly surprising that critics claim the shoes offer an “unfair advantage”. But they will still be permitted at this summer’s Tokyo Olympics, following a decision last week by World…

Sam Lee: Old Wow Cooking Vinyl £11.99 This third collection from the raffish English folk musician (and former burlesque dancer) takes his career to a “masterful new level of sophistication”, said Neil McCormick in The Daily Telegraph. Old Wow is a “spine-tingling collection of traditional songs, artfully reinterpreted for contemporary ears and concerns”. The “sinuous” arrangements by producer Bernard Butler (of Suede fame) use jazzy piano, double bass and percussion to conjure a kind of dreamy, downtempo folk-pop, while Lee sings with a “quality of understatement that nevertheless conjures intense emotional presence”. The effect is “sublime”. Wow, indeed! An old Gypsy ballad, The Moon Shines Bright, features eerily beautiful guest vocals from Elizabeth Fraser, said Jude Rogers in The Guardian. Another track, Lay This Body Down, marries a “Fleet Foxes-like…

Hedda Sterne at Victoria Miro Mayfair In 1951, Life magazine commissioned a photo of a group of young artists who would later become known as the abstract expressionists. This band consisted of 14 men – among them Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning – and a single woman, the Romanian-born painter Hedda Sterne (1910-2011). Yet while Sterne was easily the equal of many others pictured, describing her as an abstract expressionist seems reductive. Indeed, her genre-defying talent makes it hard to tell whether the paintings in this show conform to pure abstraction or to traditional landscape painting. Generally made up of horizontal bands of colour ranging from rusty browns to evocative greys that recall the North Sea fog at dawn, these immediately arresting paintings stand exactly halfway between…

When it comes to dining, Argentina is mainly known for “Malbec and steak”, says Fiona Beckett in The Guardian. That’s a shame, because its wines are much more varied than this stereotype allows. In terms of reds, there are some excellent cabernet sauvignons (growing conditions are “perfect”) as well as delicate, silky pinot noirs. For an example of the former, try Viña Unica Ambrosia 2015 (£19.95; Berry Bros & Rudd). It’s a “smooth, polished, velvety cab sav for a fraction of the price of a top Napa cab”. Argentinian whites, though, are the “real ones to watch”. Often made from Argentina’s “calling card” white grape, torrontés, these wines were once heavy and oaky, but are now being made in a fresher, lighter style. El Esteco 1945 Old Vines Torrontés 2018…

Owing to economic decline, the young have fled rural Spain in recent decades at a rate unequalled elsewhere in Europe – and nowhere is this trend more extreme than the eastern province of Teruel, says Chris Haslam in The Sunday Times. It’s adisaster in the eyes of many locals, but as nature reclaims tracts of abandoned land, the region’s ever-greater “peace and simplicity” is proving a hit with tourists. Spanish travel writers are already calling it “the new Tuscany”. If you are seeking “a vestige of the ancient Spain”, look no further – but go soon, before its “dragons, castles and buried treasure” give way, as seems likely, to “yoga, craft beers and organic ice cream”. The provincial capital, also called Teruel, struggles to attract visitors, though it’s beautiful and…

John Lewis: a troubled dream The John Lewis constitution – a manifesto penned in the 1920s by the department store’s founder, John Spedan Lewis – states that the ultimate purpose of the “partnership” is “the happiness of all its members, through worthwhile and satisfying employment in a successful business”. The daunting responsibility of achieving that goal for some 81,500 employee-owners passed this week to new chairman Dame Sharon White, “at anaugust ceremony at one of the retailer’s country piles”, said Zoe Wood in The Observer. It looks a tall order. “With dozens of senior staff being axed, profits in the doldrums and the prized annual bonus in jeopardy, the business in its current form is struggling to fulfil Lewis’s dream.” And White, fresh from the regulator Ofcom, has no…

Controversy of the week Terror in Streatham To his distraught mother, 20-year-old Sudesh Amman was a “polite, kind, lovely boy”, said Caroline Davies in The Guardian. But to the judge who jailed him – after he admitted 13 counts of possessing and distributing terrorist material in 2018 – he was a dangerous Islamist extremist whose declared “life goal” was to die a shahid (martyr). And to the armed undercover officers who last weekend were monitoring him on the streets of Streatham, south London, he was an “immediate and real threat to life they were forced to eliminate in front of panicked families and Sunday shoppers”. It is only thanks to their swift actions that a greater tragedy was prevented when Amman – who just ten days earlier had been released…

Tracy Brabin, the Labour frontbencher, who sparked a Twitter war by appearing in the Commons in an off-the-shoulder dress. A photo posted online prompted around 3,700 replies – with her attackers calling her dress inappropriate and her a “slapper”, while she said that she was just a victim of “everyday sexism”. Sales of a similar £35 dress from Asos have since rocketed. Prince Charles, who was accused of hypocrisy for using a helicopter to fly the 125 miles from Highgrove to Cambridge – where he gave a lecture on the perils of man-made emissions. Reportedly, he then flew 53 miles to Sandringham, to see the Queen. Clarence House says the Prince is not personally involved in his travel arrangements, and all his flights are offset.…

Dublin Sinn Féin leads tight race: A shock opinion poll published ahead of this weekend’s general election has suggested that Sinn Féin is now the most popular party in the Republic of Ireland. The Ipsos MRBI poll gave Sinn Féin – which was once seen as the political wing of the IRA – a 25% share of the vote. Fianna Fáil, the centrist party that was last in government from 1997-2011 under Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen, emerged second, with 23%, while the current PM Leo Varadkar’s broadly centre-right Fine Gael was placed third on 20%. Analysts say that owing to Ireland’s complex electoral system, Sinn Féin’s proportion of the vote is unlikely to translate into seats won in this election; however, it could well emerge as the kingmaker in…

1 I’ve Known Rivers by Gary Bartz and Langston Hughes, performed by Gary Bartz NTU Troop 2* Les Fleurs by Charles Stepney and Richard Rudolph, performed by Minnie Riperton 3 Key to the World by L.J. Reynolds and William Brown, performed by L.J. Reynolds 4 Martha, written and performed by Tom Waits 5 Tennessee by Todd Thomas and Aerle Taree, performed by Arrested Development 6 To Forgive But Not Forget, written and performed by Outside 7 Last Train to Clarksville by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, performed by Cassandra Wilson 8 Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, traditional, performed by Marvin “Hannibal” Peterson Book: Coming Through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje Luxury: genie in a lamp * Choice if allowed only one record…

Last year, scientists from the Wuhan Institute of Virology wrote in a paper that it was “generally believed” that “the next disease outbreak” would be caused by a bat-borne coronavirus, adding: “In this regard, China is a likely hotspot.” Mers and Sars originated in bats; the Chinese horseshoe bat is thought to be the likely source for the Wuhan strain. Other dangerous emerging diseases originated in bats, such as the Ebola-like Marburg virus, and the Nipah virus, which is spread by fruit bats and can cause fatal brain inflammation. Bats are also the natural host for Ebola and rabies, and possibly the origin of measles. Birds, rodents and primates also carry diseases. But there are good reasons why bats are, as CNN put it, a “biological supervillain”. They have long…

The tiny states that skew the primaries David Leonhardt The New York Times The 2020 presidential election primaries have finally begun, says David Leonhardt, and, in keeping with tradition, two states are leading the way: Iowa, which held its caucuses on Monday; and New Hampshire, which holds its primary next week. Their “first-in-the-nation status” gives these states an outsize influence over whom the Democrats and Republicans select as their presidential nominees – one that is hard to justify given how much whiter, older and more rural they are than most states. With an 88% non-Hispanic white population, Iowa and New Hampshire demographically resemble “the America of 1870”. Neither has a city with more than 250,000 people. Yet these tiny states play a major role in winnowing the field and setting…

Prostate has overtaken breast cancer as the most commonly diagnosed cancer in England, new NHS figures have revealed. In 2018, 49,209 cases of prostate cancer were diagnosed – up from 41,201 the year before – compared with 47,476 cases of breast cancer (up from 45,790). Prostate cancer also kills more people than breast cancer, though lung and bowel cancer remain England’s two biggest cancer killers. The spike in prostate cancer diagnoses is thought to be the result of the ageing population (men’s risk of the disease increases significantly as they age) and a surge in referrals prompted by recent high-profile cases: Stephen Fry, for instance, revealed that he had prostate cancer in February 2018. “It is a good thing that awareness of this killer disease is increasing, and more men…

“The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.” John Kenneth Galbraith, quoted in The Daily Telegraph “The first rule of politics: its practitioners need to be able to count.” Lyndon B. Johnson, quoted in The Sun “Most humans have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.” Aldous Huxley, quoted in Harvard Business Review “Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.” Dolly Parton, quoted on Today.com “The desire for isolation, the knowledge that it is impossible – these are the two poles between which the needle of the British compass continues to waver.” Historian R.W. Seton-Watson, quoted in The Guardian “Prime ministers are wedded to the truth, but like many other married couples they sometimes live apart.” H.H.…

Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton Viking 320pp £14.99 The Week Bookshop £12.99 “Three Hours is based on every parent’s nightmare,” said Christina Hardyment in The Times. At a progressive school in rural Somerset, two gunmen appear and take pupils and staff hostage. As the attack unfolds, we follow various groups and characters: a drama class which has been rehearsing Macbeth; abadly injured head teacher; a Syrian boy who returns to the building to search for his traumatised younger brother. Written in prose of great “immediacy”, this is both anail-biting thriller and a “disquisition” on courage and risk-taking, on “tolerance versus brainwashed extremism”. With its rotating ensemble and echoes of Greek tragedy, this “flawlessly orchestrated story” owes as much to theatre as it does to crime fiction, said John Dugdale in…

The Lighthouse Dir: Robert Eggers 1hr 49mins (15) A “starkly beautiful” descent into madness ★★★ Robert Eggers’s “ferociously entertaining” film is one of 2020’s first essential cinematic experiences, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph. Set in New England in the 1890s, it begins as lighthouse keeper Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe) and his taciturn new apprentice Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson) are arriving through a cloak of fog for their month-long shift on a remote island. What then follows is a “salt-chapped and storm-battered maritime horror” in which tempers fray and identities “splutter and warp”. The two leads are tremendous: Dafoe is “astounding”, while Pattinson gives the performance of his career. Shot in “starkly beautiful” black and white, The Lighthouse is visually arresting too, said Deborah Ross in The Spectator. And…

The Tate has shocked the art world by advertising for a job as “Head of Coffee” on wages of £39,500 per year – more than most of the institution’s curators. The average salary for professional art curators in London is believed to be around £37,300, says Lanre Bakare in The Guardian. The trade union Prospect said that the discrepancy was a reminder of how badly paid museum professionals are in comparison with other jobs in the arts sector. The potter Grayson Perry tweeted the story with the words: “I give up, they’ve won.” However, the Tate defended the advert, saying that “All Tate’s departments have a variety of roles with different responsibilities and salaries”, and that a “more accurate comparison” would be not with a curator, but with a curatorial…

Philip and Kirsty are thrilled with their decision to marry in secret. Fiona surprises Jim by arriving to stay for a few days. Over lunch, she tells Alistair she’s met someone, but is worried about coming out to Jim when he’s been through so much lately. Vince arrives to inspect Brookfield for his daughter’s wedding. As he’s being shown around, the police arrive to arrest Josh on suspicion of stealing machinery. Ruth and David are distraught as he is kept in overnight. When he gets home, Josh admits he’s been careless with his paperwork, to Ruth’s fury. Later, Johnny calls in to offer moral support. Gavin tells Philip and Kirsty that his wedding plans have changed from Bali to Crete – it’s cheaper; Kirsty feels guilty. Jim asks Fiona if…

Karma Great Western Hotel, Cowley Bridge Road, Exeter (01392-661212) This Indian restaurant – located in a “distinctly unprepossessing” hotel close to Exeter St. Davids station – makes a point of doing things differently, says William Sitwell in The Daily Telegraph. Unlike at many curry houses, their chicken is from young birds, not “old egg-layers”, and they serve a number of Manchurian dishes, in which Chinese influences have been adapted to Indian traditions. Such effort is reflected in the quality of the food: “every little ingredient – from green chilli to coriander leaf – seemed to proudly pop its head over the parapet”. We kicked off with Manchurian king prawns that were “bursting with fresh and zesty flavour”. Then came “heavenly” baigan bhartha (smoky aubergine), an “epic” daal, and the…

New cars: what the critics say Auto Express The Land Rover Discovery Sport has been given a mid-life facelift so radical, it could almost be a new model. From the outside, it doesn’t look all that different, but a host of mild-hybrid engines have been added, and there’s lots of new clever tech for off-roaders, such as a three-camera system that allows you to see what’s under the car. With seven-seater practicality, “Land Rover is on to awinner”. The Daily Telegraph The interior is now “just as classy” as anything you would find in a BMW, Mercedes or Audi, with agreat central screen, useful rotary dials and comfortable seats. (Though as ever, there are a few too many distracting touch-operated controls.) And unlike some of its “faux-sporty” rivals, the Discovery…

This family-owned boutique hotel is in arguably the best location in Rio de Janeiro, perched on the city’s only pedestrianised stretch of seafront, at the eastern end of Ipanema, its most beautiful beach. Following a recent rebuild by the fashionable Brazilian architect Thiago Bernardes, the Hotel Arpoador is now “equal to its setting”, with “good looks” and the best service in the city, says Doug Grey in The Daily Telegraph. Interiors are pale and “low-key”, with “nautical influences” (including portholes looking out onto the beach in the, wood-panelled corridors upstairs). On the roof it has a steam room, a sauna, a small outdoor pool and a bar that may be the best place to watch the sunset in Rio. Ocean-facing rooms have floor-to-ceiling windows, and some have balconies with hammocks.…

China injected £130bn into its financial system to battle the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, but local markets fell steeply at the start of the week – echoing previous falls in Western markets. Last week, Wall Street’s S&P 500 notched up its worse week since October. Reports of a breakthrough in coronavirus treatment later saw indices globally regain some ground. Goldman Sachs forecast that the virus crisis will hit Chinese growth by 0.4% this year; it is also expected to drag on the US economy. Both the US Fed and the Bank of England kept interest rates on hold. Britain’s formal departure from the EU bloc caused few market ructions, although the pound took a drubbing – falling back to its pre-election levels below $1.30, before recovering. UK public finances…

● Electric power Tesla shares continued to rocket this week – surging by another 14% on Tuesday alone after Panasonic revealed that its battery venture with the electric carmaker “is in the black for the first time”, said Tom Howard in The Times. What adisaster for the many hedge funds who have bet big against the company. “Tesla is the most shorted stock in the US”, and short-sellers have already lost more than $8bn from the rally in the carmaker’s shares since the turn of the year, according to data group S3 Partners. If shares (which have more than doubled in 2020 and are up 400% since last June) continue to rocket, many could face “wipe out”. ● Short cuts Hedge funds that have targeted Tesla include Greenlight Capital, Stanphyl…

What do City analysts know about disease? Nils Pratley The Guardian When the main Chinese share index opened on Monday after an extended shutdown, it immediately plunged by 8%. That was to be expected, says Nils Pratley: this was the first opportunity to weigh the short-term economic impact of the coronavirus. Harder to grasp is why City analysts seem so bent on comparing the outbreak with the 2002-03 Sars crisis. Presumably the intention is to “warn long-term investors against panic” by reminding them that after Sars, markets regained lost ground within months. Yet just as “one wouldn’t expect stock market tips from an epidemiologist”, it’s absurd for City pundits to pronounce on viral outbreaks. For a start, China’s economy is “far larger and more connected with the rest of the…

The week’s best shares BlackRock Throgmorton Trust The Times A high-performing investment trust with a diverse portfolio that consistently delivers market-beating returns. Notable holdings include WH Smith, 4imprint, Workspace and Team17. Buy. 692p. CrowdStrike The Daily Telegraph Tipped as a “star of the future”, CrowdStrike’s cloud-based AI software could be a cybersecurity game-changer. Loss-making, but should be cash-positive soon – with potential margins of 30%-40%. Buy. $59.55. HomeServe Investors Chronicle HomeServe provides emergency insurance and repair services in the UK and is expanding in the US. Its digital online platform, Checkatrade, which matches vetted tradespeople with customers, looks promising. Buy. £13.36. NWF Group Investors Chronicle A string of recent acquisitions is helping this fuel and animal feed distributor to build scale. Cash generation is strong – and there’s a fruitful…

I never went on to study higher level maths. I spend my life working to inspire kids to engage in the subject at that basic level, the point at which so many disconnect. That’s also how I keep myself interested – for me, it’s all about new and exciting educational ideas. My skills used to be useful for companies, who would want me to look for patterns in trades. But since the advent of the super computer, I’m a little less helpful to them. I’d have been more useful, I think, if I’d been born hundreds of years ago. My next big thing is a calendar I’ve invented. I’m all about efficiency, and the way we measure time is a mess. Sure, we have no control over the fact there…

Animal rights activists from Peta have argued that the term “pet” is derogatory to animals, and should not be used. Instead, they suggest words like “companion”, which is less patronising. Refering to oneself as an owner of a pet “implies that the animals are a possession, like a car, for example”, rather than “their own individual beings”, the charity’s spokesperson said. Visitors to the Tower of London this month will be able to take an “all singing, all dancing” tour of the landmark’s LGBT+ history, led by a “drag raven”. Drag artist Mahatma Khandi will dress in black PVC and a feather boa to tell visitors about Piers Gaveston, the probable lover of Edward II, and “how King James I earned the nickname ‘Queen James’”.…

A “culture of avoidance and denial” enabled a rogue breast surgeon to subject more than 1,000 patients to unnecessary or damaging procedures over 14 years, an independent inquiry has found. Some women operated on by Ian Paterson – who is serving a 20-year term for wounding with intent – didn’t have cancer; in other cases, he used unregulated procedures. The report into his malpractice has advised that 11,000 of the patients he treated, in the NHS and privately, should be recalled to have their cases reviewed. His patients, it says, were “let down time and again”: first by him and the hospitals where he worked in the West Midlands, then by healthcare regulators. Five of his colleagues have been referred to a watchdog and one to the police.…

Des Moines, Iowa Caucus chaos: Following months of jockeying for position among a gradually thinning field of candidates, the process of picking the Democratic Party’s candidate for US president began this week with the caucus in Iowa, which by tradition is always the first state to vote. However, the long-awaited contest ended in humiliation for the Democrats when technical problems, blamed ona“coding issue” in a new app used to tabulate voting data, led to the result, which had been due on Monday, being delayed. Partial results finally published on Tuesday put Pete Buttigieg (above), the openly gay former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, almost neck and neck with Senator Bernie Sanders. In total, five candidates scored double-digit shares of the vote, reflecting the fractured state of the party. Trump –…

In praise of familiarity “The world, it goes without saying perhaps, has changed far too much for my liking. That is pretty much a given when you are 54. The great Eastern tradition of Vipassana meditation teaches the principle of universal change, and the necessity of accepting it if one is to have peace on this Earth. No doubt there is wisdom in that. But I remain enormously grateful to the familiar faces, familiar voices, familiar names that have walked beside me thus far. Even those whose views and allegiances I once detested have come to be – yes – familiar. Like Larkin’s Toad, I am glad to take their arm as we walk together down Cemetery Road.” Simon Evans on UnHerd…

Motherhood is losing its attraction Janice Turner The Times “Which country will be the first to strike a medal for women who produce large families?” Given plunging fertility rates across a lot of the world and the frantic efforts of many nations to reverse this, it’s a plausible idea, says Janice Turner. In Hungary, where fertility has fallen to 1.49 live births per female (replacement level is 2.1), IVF is free and mums of four get lifelong exemption from income tax. Russia (1.8) hands out “cash for kids” bonuses. A Danish TV show even calls on couples to “Screw for Denmark” (1.76). All to no avail. Whether from Catholic Spain (1.3), Italy (1.32) or Brazil (1.7) or from South Korea (0.88) or Malaysia (1.8) – those “pesky women just don’t…

Heat turned man’s brain to glass The heat produced by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79 was so extreme, it turned a man’s brain to glass. Vitrification, the process by which glass is produced, occurs when a material is heated until it liquifies before being rapidly cooled. It is known that human tissue can be vitrified (the process is used in some forms of cryopreservation), but it has never been found to have occurred accidentally. Yet researchers believe that this is exactly what happened to a man who was trapped in a house in Herculaneum when Vesuvius erupted, and whose face-down body – he is thought to have been sleeping – was unearthed in the 1960s. When scientists at the University of Naples Federico II recently re-examined his remains,…

Brad Pitt has emerged as the darling of this year’s awards season, says The Guardian. Over the past few weeks, the A-lister has won plaudits for everything from his humility (he was spotted wearing a name badge at an Oscars lunch) to his newly revealed comedic talent. But according to insiders, all of this is part of a minutely “curated” PR campaign designed to ease Pitt’s way to Oscar glory. Even his various jokes will have been written for him – rumour has it by two of the stars of Saturday Night Live. “They all use speechwriters,” said Anne Thompson of IndieWire. “ Carrie Fisher used to do it. This one is good, whoever they are.” Not content with building rockets and developing electric cars, entrepreneur Elon Musk has entered…

Six Nations: England humbled by France England arrived in Paris last week, for the first match since their World Cup final defeat, “seeking to begin the healing process”, said Gavin Mairs in The Daily Telegraph. Their opening game of the Six Nations was a chance to return to the heights they had hit in their glorious victory over the AllBlacks in the World Cup semi-finals. Yet at the Stade de France, England “only managed to aggravate their World Cup scars”, losing 24-17 –a scoreline that flattered them. Their first-half performance was the worst of Eddie Jones’s tenure as head coach; not since 1988 have they failed to score a single point in the opening 40 minutes. Their performance was marred by“missed tackles, lost line-outs, hesitant attacking play, aimless kicking”. Itwas…

To The Guardian The reaction against wokeness isn’t always a backlash. It could be a natural part of the journey that people go through when first exposed to these ideas. White privilege and intersectionality are difficult ideas to confront even if you are left-wing or liberal, and I’ve seen the process described as like going through the stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance). I’ve witnessed first-hand at least two people go through similar changes when confronted with their own privilege – getting angry and crying, then reading and learning, then accepting. Maybe what we’re seeing is not always a simple backlash, but rather the first vital steps to acceptance. For many it will take a painfully long time, but then history is a long game. Penny Southgate,…

For centuries, the Flemish master Jan van Eyck (c.1390-1441) was believed to have invented oil painting, said Waldemar Januszczak in The Sunday Times. This was, in fact, one of the many “tall tales” spun by the 16th century Florentine art historian Vasari; the technique has probably existed since classical times. Yet while van Eyck may not have invented oil paint, the uses he put it to were “revolutionary”. Put simply, he was the first artist to create “an utterly tangible record of his world”, picturing the faces, surfaces and phenomena he saw around him in an “intensely realistic” style that made his contemporaries look “primitive”. This new exhibition in Ghent, which accompanies the restoration of his famous altarpiece at nearby St Bavo’s Cathedral, explores his achievements in unprecedented detail –…

The geneticist, author and presenter of Radio 4’s Inside Science chooses his favourite books. His book, How to Argue With a Racist: History, Science, Race and Reality, is published this week by W&N, priced £12.99 A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes, 2019 (Mantle £16.99). Peculiar fact: I tried and failed to become a classicist before settling on genetics, but I still consume as much classical literature as I can. Haynes is the nation’s great muse, and her latest is a retelling of the story of Troy told from the perspective of Helen and the women of The Iliad, and it is beautiful. The Idea of the Brain by Matthew Cobb, 2020 (Basic Books £30). A working scientist, who is also a historian and an exceptional writer, Cobb isarare jewel. His…

Programmes The Pale Horse Two-part Agatha Christie adaptation starring Rufus Sewell as a man who finds himself drawn into a series of mysterious deaths. Sun 9 Feb, BBC1 21:00 (60mins). Advocate: A Lawyer without Borders Fly-on-the-wall Storyville documentary about Lea Tsemel, an Israeli lawyer who defends Palestinians, reflecting on the political impact and personal cost of her work. Mon 10 Feb, BBC4 22:00 (95mins). The Split Second series of Abi Morgan’s hit drama about a family of divorce lawyers. Hannah and her sisters continue to navigate their own relationships while dealing with their clients’ cases. Tue 11 Feb, BBC1 21:00 (60mins). A Very British History Musician Angela Moran tells the story of Birmingham’s Irish community, including the impact of the 1974 pub bombings, using interviews and archive footage. Wed 12…

Butterbean, pepper and walnut salad Serves 2 generously for the dressing: 3 red, orange or yellow peppers 75g walnuts large bunch of parsley, finely chopped 1 garlic clove, finely chopped 5 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp sherry vinegar for the salad: 200g cherry tomatoes, halved 400g tin butterbeans, drained and rinsed 1 small red onion, sliced as finely as possible 2 tbsp capers, drained and roughly chopped salt and freshly ground black pepper • Preheat the oven to 220°C. Put the whole peppers on a roasting tray and roast for 30-35 minutes until well blackened, adding the walnuts to the tray for the final 3 minutes of roasting, until a shade darker and smelling fragrant. • Once the peppers are cooked, tip into a bowl and cover with clingfilm (this…

Quick-witted and long-serving quizmaster Nicholas Parsons 1923-2020 Nicholas Parsons, who has died aged 96, was the presenter of one of BBC Radio 4’s longest running shows. He hosted Just a Minute for 50 years, with almost no deviations or hesitations. In fact, in all that time, the unflappable, smooth-talking quizmaster missed just one episode. Tasked with keeping an array of panellists in check, Parsons came across as “a quibbling pedant from the professional classes”, said The Guardian. But “in many ways, the testily humorous chairman was just another character role for a performer who’d spent the first 20 years of his career as a jobbing actor”, playing everything from a Greek seaman and a Scottish ghillie to an Egyptian camel-herder. Nicholas Parsons was born in Grantham in 1923, the middle…

Great news for the nation’s coffers, said Robert Lea in The Times. “The British taxpayer will be nearly s1bn better off” now Airbus has struck a High Court deal with the Serious Fraud Office to settle claims of “bribery and corruption across five continents”, following a three-and-a-half-year international inquiry. Overall, Europe’s largest aerospace firm will pay a record s3.6bn in penalties – about a year’s profit – after admitting it used a “network of middlemen” dangling large backhanders to land contracts in 20 countries. France will get s2.1bn and the US is due s530m. Dame Victoria Sharp, president of the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court, described the corruption in parts of Airbus as “endemic”. The SFO investigation focused on the planemaker’s activity in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Taiwan…

Oil and metals The price of Brent crude is down by 17% since the start of the year – slipping to below $54/barrel this week in reaction to Chinese factory closures. A prolonged “industrial freeze” could prompt “a serious drop in demand”, say Tim Wallace and Hannah Uttley in The Daily Telegraph. “Citi predicts oil could fall to $47/barrel, its lowest since mid-2017.” The prices of base metals have also taken big hits; copper has lost 9% on the London Metal Exchange, notes the FT. Coffee The benchmark index for coffee futures has plunged by more than one-fifth since the start of the year to around $1 a pound – a “bigger dip” than either crude oil or copper. Even though China only accounts for about 2% of global consumption,…

Bob Dudley The outgoing BP boss marked his last set of results with a 26% fall in year-on-year profits, said the FT. But his parting gift to shareholders was “a bump in the quarterly dividend” – up 2.4% on last year. Dudley is widely credited with rescuing BP in the aftermath of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill off the US coast – one of the worst-ever American environmental disasters, described by Dudley himself as “a near-death experience” for the company. Environmentalists clearly still have BP in their sights, said Energy Voice. Greenpeace marked the ascension of Dudley’s successor, Bernard Looney, this week by staging a “shutdown” of BP’s corporate HQ in London and claiming it had “delivered hundreds of solar panels to the new CEO”. Navinder Singh Sarao The…