Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1304 i The Week

What happened The knife-edge election The spectre of protracted legal battles and civil unrest hung over America this week as it sought to establish the result of an unexpectedly close presidential election. Democrats had hoped for a decisive win by Joe Biden, who enjoyed a solid poll lead during the campaign. But these hopes evaporated on election night when Donald Trump, buoyed by support from Hispanic voters, won the key states of Florida, Ohio and Texas. The final result looked set to be decided by three Midwest swing states – Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin – where votes were still being tallied as The Week went to press. With millions of these votes still uncounted, President Trump claimed victory on Wednesday morning and accused opponents of trying to steal the election.…

Houseplants will be judged at the Chelsea Flower Show for the first time next year, to reflect the soaring interest in indoor gardening since the first lockdown. The new “houseplant studios” category will consist of plant-filled rooms styled to look like bathrooms, living rooms and bedrooms, and will be judged on design, plant condition and overall impression. A rise in home cooking this year has led to a resurgence in Tupperware – the US container company founded by Earl Tupper in 1946. The firm had been struggling for years, as more people ate out and had fewer leftovers to store. It posted negative sales growth in five of the last six years, but profits in the last quarter quadrupled to $34.4m, and last week its share price jumped 35%.…

In a key concession to farmers and other groups, the Government has promised that post-Brexit trade deals will be examined by the independent Trade and Agriculture Commission before they are finalised. The Commission will assess their impact on agriculture, animal welfare and the environment, and lay its recommendations before Parliament. Created in July, the Commission was due to last six months, but will now be placed on a statutory footing and carry on its work for at least three years. Ministers also indicated that no future deals would allow the import of chlorinated chicken.…

Rotterdam, the Netherlands Saved by a whale: A tube train in Rotterdam crashed through the buffers at the end of an elevated stretch of metro line on Monday – and was only stopped from plummeting into a canal when it was “caught” by a giant sculpture of a whale’s tail. The public artwork, which is entitled Whale Tails, is made of reinforced polyester. It was erected in 2002 to mark the end point of the metro line, a type known as a “tail track”. “I am amazed that it is so strong,” said Maarten Struijs, the artist who created it. “When plastic has stood for 20 years, you don’t expect it to hold up a metro train.” Investigators were this week waiting to interview the shocked driver. Vienna Terror attack:…

1 The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams, performed by Tasmin Little with the BBC Philharmonic (Sir Andrew Davis) 2 How Great Thou Art, traditional with words by Carl Boberg and Stuart K. Hine, performed by Chris Rice 3 Blue Monday, written and performed by New Order 4* She Moved Through the Fair, traditional, performed by Cara Dillon 5 One, written and performed by U2 6 Just Say Yes by Gary Lightbody and Snow Patrol, performed by Snow Patrol 7 Gabriel’s Oboe from The Mission, written by Ennio Morricone, performed by Joan Whiting with the London Philharmonic Orchestra (David Bedford) 8 Paradise, written and performed by George Ezra Book: A Poem for Every Day of the Year by Allie Esiri Luxury: a box of oil paints and brushes * Choice…

Africa’s oldest independent country, Ethiopia is the continent’s second most populous nation after Nigeria. Apart from a five-year occupation by Mussolini’s Italy in the 1930s, it is also the only sub-Saharan African country that was never colonised. And its 9% annual growth rate over the past 15 years makes it Africa’s fastest-growing economy today. There are other reasons for optimism, too: more than 70% of its citizens are under 30, with 50% under 15; and Prime Minister Abiy has overseen a successful process of social and economic liberalisation. But serious challenges remain: Ethiopia is still one of Africa’s poorest countries, with a per capita income of just £651, poor internet and smartphone penetration and a lack of private sector competition. And its complex ethnographic make-up poses challenges to stable governance.…

How Covid has opened prison doors Linda So et al. Reuters America locks away far more people – about 2.1 million – than any other nation, says Linda So. But the pandemic could be what finally caused it to unwind its “signature practice of mass incarceration”. In the spring, the rapid spread of Covid-19 forced officials to take radical steps to reduce prison overcrowding. Inmates were released early; and wrongdoers who’d normally have been sent to jail were given non-custodial terms instead. As a result, the population of the country’s local jails and state prisons plunged by 170,000 between February and May. Since then, officials in some areas have abandoned these measures, and started refilling their jails again. But others are thinking of making the temporary reforms permanent: issuing fines…

Only about one in two British women check themselves regularly for signs of breast cancer, a new study has suggested. Since most cases of the disease are diagnosed after a woman notes a change in her breasts, and consults a doctor, regular self-examinations are a weapon against the disease. However, Breast Cancer Now’s survey of 1,086 British women found that 47% said that they didn’t check their breasts regularly, and 10% said that they never did. When asked why not, 46% said they “forgot”; others said they found it embarrassing or cited a desire not to bother their GP. Around 55,000 women in the UK are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, and 11,500 die from it. While a lump is the most common indicator of cancer, other warning signs…

Nobby Stiles, the World Cup-winning footballer who died last week, had such poor sight, he described himself as “half blind” – and it led to the odd mishap. After his England debut in 1965, he got lost in London’s Café Royal, where the post-match meal was being held, said The Times. Finally, he found the dining room and sat down. He was just wondering where his teammates were when a fellow diner leaned over and asked: “So, do you know the bride or the groom?” Kim Kardashian’s father made a surprise appearance at the reality TV star’s 40th birthday last week – 17 years after his death. Robert Kardashian, the celebrity lawyer, materialised in hologram form in what Kim described as a “special surprise from heaven”. In a video, which…

Had Johnny Depp’s libel action been the basis for a film, the pitch would have gone like this: an ageing heartthrob is accused of domestic violence by a “young blonde on the make” – and must go to court in a last-ditch effort to save his name. We know how this movie would have panned out, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph: “decades of thrillers have trained us to side with the dishevelled anti-hero, and to regard with extreme suspicion the femme fatale circling overhead”. But real life is not the movies, and on Monday, Depp comprehensively lost his libel case. In court, Mr Justice Nicol ruled that The Sun’s description of him as a “wife beater” had been “substantially true”. He listed 12 allegations of domestic violence against…

An emotional monopoly To the Financial Times You say that England’s lock-down is necessary, but that the economic and well-being costs will be hard to bear. Unless you know the size of the latter (and epidemiologists do not), how do you know the former judgement is correct? I watched the announcement speech by the PM. The data presented were epidemiological. No information was given on the economic and mental health costs or on the unfairness of pushing decades of debt onto the young. Three recent cost-benefit calculations by David Miles, Sanjay Reddy and Bob Rowthorn and co-authors concluded the costs of lockdowns outweigh the gains. Yet those numbers are not shown in briefings. The PM should put half a dozen economists on Sage, and the FT should be demanding a…

The missing “gifts” to Hackney Thousands of prints produced by a street artist as “a gift for the people of Hackney” have been stolen and put up for sale online, reports the London Evening Standard. Concerned about the impact of the pandemic on his neighbours in the east London borough, Stik, a 41-year-old artist known for his images of stick figures, had arranged with the local council that he’d produce 100,000 copies of his new print, and send one to every household in the area via the council-distributed Hackney Today newspaper. Recipients were invited to either keep the artworks, or sell them. But when the newspaper containing the work was sent out on 19 September, there weren’t enough prints to go around. It wasn’t clear what had gone wrong until…

Ben is glum now that the archaeology students have gone. Susan invites him to talk about their finds on her radio show. Ruth says no – she doesn’t want people to know the dig was at Brookfield – but Ben agrees, as an excuse to contact Evie. Pip feels bad about ending Toby and Rex’s tenancy at Hollowtree but Josh convinces her it’s best. As Elizabeth prepares for a trustees meeting, Lily worries about Freddie’s lack of plans for the Christmas show. Bernard, chair of the Lower Loxley trustees, expresses grave concerns over Freddie to Elizabeth, and says the Christmas show will be a test as to whether he’ll make a worthy future custodian. Susan visits Alice and they end up talking about Susan’s alcoholic brother, Stewart, which gives Alice…

Big Jo 318-326 Hornsey Road, Finsbury Park, London N7 (020-3915 6760) Big Jo may sound like a “terrifically handy neighbour with massive hands whom you could trust to hammer up a flat-pack shed”, says Grace Dent in The Guardian. In fact, it’s the latest member of a family of north London eateries that includes the popular Westerns Laundry in Highbury and Jolene in Stoke Newington. Big Jo is a bit of a mash-up: on the one hand, it’s a “croissant-flogging all-day bakery”; on the other, it’s a small-plates restaurant, where you can also order pizza by the slice. It sounds as if it shouldn’t work – but the food is so tasty, it really does. Our meal begins with meltingly tender beef cheek and plump scallops “doggy-paddling” in garlic-laden…

The Daily Telegraph Rather than any great “technical virtuosity”, what makes the Lexus UX 300e stand out is that it’s Toyota’s first ever battery electric car. Having steered away from fully electric vehicles, and concentrated on its preferred self-charging hybrid tech, the maker has now had a change of heart. This, it says, is a car that hits “the sweet spot of battery-car price, range and environmental impact”. Autocar With a medium-sized 54.3kWh lithium-ion battery, the Lexus has a “respectable” 0-62mph time of 7.5 seconds, and a top speed of 100mph – but most of its electric crossover rivals can beat its 196-mile range. It does feel “brisk” around town, though – with eager acceleration and a nicely soft ride. The steering is “accurate enough” but “lacks feel”, and the…

Ant Group: Chinese Icarus In a “shock move” this week, the Chinese authorities put the stoppers on Ant Group’s $37bn float, just two days before the fintech giant founded by billionaire Jack Ma was set to stage the world’s largest initial public offering, said Lulu Yilun Chen and Richard Frost on Bloomberg. The Shanghai stock exchange suspended its leg of the dual-listing, citing “significant change” in the regulatory environment. Shortly after, the Hong Kong leg was also suspended. Shares in Ma’s e-commerce giant Alibaba, which owns about a third of Ant, plunged 9%. The news also hit overall sentiment in Hong Kong, where the Hang Seng index has been soaring on the prospect of Ant’s blockbuster float. The move is a “huge blow” for Ma, said Business Insider (India),…

Why the race to lead the WTO matters James Harding Tortoise The US election campaign is over – but the underlying issues are still with us, says James Harding. “Economic anxiety and division, populism and nationalism” won’t end this week. The question is how we tackle them. How are we going to “invent a new world”, post-pandemic, when the liberal democracies are “so weak and divided”, and when many international institutions are “old, out of date and no longer up to the job”? One practical way forward is to “fire up” neglected “tier-two” multilateral bodies capable of achieving real action, such as the World Health Organisation and the World Trade Organisation. Hence the importance of the current race to lead the WTO. The two candidates are both women: South Korea’s…

Prisoners in Gloucestershire are going to be paid to build ecohomes, as part of an initiative to cut the reoffending rate. The idea is that they will gain useful skills, and build up savings with which to start new lives upon their release. Panels for the modular houses will be made at HMP Leyhill, then assembled in Torquay with the help of prisoners from Channings Wood in Devon. They will be paid £8.72 an hour – far more than the normal rate for prisoners of 72p. A giant spider which had been thought extinct in the UK for 27 years has been rediscovered in Surrey, on land used for Army training. The Great Fox-Spider, which is just over two inches in diameter, including its hairy legs, was listed as “critically…

School leavers, who will soon be able to start training for a legal career without going to university. Under the reforms, which take effect next September, people can join law firms as apprentices, and after years of on-the-job training, take exams to qualify as a solicitor. Currently, even law graduates must study for a further year before they can become trainee solicitors. Electric car drivers, with the imminent opening of the first dedicated charging station. Located at Braintree in Essex, it will have 24 charging points that can give as much as 200 miles of battery range in 20 minutes, and a range of solar-powered shops. David Miliband, the former foreign secretary, whose salary has soared to over $1m a year. When Miliband became head of the New York-based aid…

Despite the Government’s pledge to “build, build, build”, the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, has this year twice lobbied the Housing Secretary in an effort to stop new homes being built in her Essex constituency. Patel is the second senior minister, after Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office Minister, to oppose small developments in their constituencies, The Sunday Times reports. Patel has opposed at least four developments which would have provided 141 affordable homes, including “A-rated fossil-fuel-free homes”.…

Washington DC Dire warning: Dr Anthony Fauci, one of the leaders of the White House’s Covid-19 task force, has warned that Americans should not expect normal life to resume for at least another year, and that they should be braced for “a whole lot of hurt” this winter. In his hardest-hitting comments yet, Fauci said he expected that by December, the US will be recording 100,000 new cases a day (there are currently around 88,000, up from 36,000 in mid-September). He also said daily deaths were likely to rise, from the current rate of between around 500 and 1,000. “It’s not a good situation. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly.” Controversially, he also said that Joe Biden was taking the crisis “seriously from a public health point of…

“Lily Allen, who has launched a range of vibrators, has been talking about how great masturbation is. ‘It’s still such a taboo subject,’ she opines. ‘But it’s something most people do. So why wouldn’t we talk about it with pride?’ Some private, rather boring things can stay private and boring, without doing us, or wider society, any harm at all. Like bottom-wiping. Or throwing away The Big Issue without reading it. Or rubbing unwanted bogeys into the underside of bus seats; or flicking fox poo into the next-door neighbour’s garden; or weeing in the swimming pool. We all do it, but we don’t ‘talk about it with pride’ because it isn’t very interesting.” Giles Coren in The Times…

Why the Left needs a lesson in patriotism Matthew Syed The Sunday Times It wasn’t just the anti-Semitism and the “hare-brained economics”, says Matthew Syed. What really did for Jeremy Corbyn and his friends was their evident lack of patriotism and general contempt for the idea of the nation state. What they’ve never understood – and Labour still hasn’t fully grasped – is that a healthy sense of national identity is a prerequisite for a thriving and just society. The introduction of America’s New Deal and the British welfare state relied on a “massive sense of national solidarity”: without that, they’d never have come about. Nor is it coincidence that the nations that fared best in the pandemic have been those with a strong sense of collective identity. People will…

The diabolically hardy beetle It is known as the diabolical ironclad beetle – and scientists have found that it lives up to its name. The three-quarter-inch flightless creature, which lives in wooded areas in western states of the US, was already known to be the only beetle that can survive being run over by a car. Now tests have revealed that it can withstand an applied force of 149 Newtons, or 39,000 times its body weight: that is the equivalent of a human having 280 double decker buses piled on top of them. To better understand the beetle’s load-bearing capability, the team of US researchers took CT scans of its exoskeleton, and discovered several unique adaptations. Its hardened and fused elytra (wing covers) are joined in a jigsaw-like pattern, helping…

A full 237 days after its suspension in March, the Six Nations cup reached a “thrilling” conclusion last Saturday when England claimed the title in nail-biting fashion, said BBC Sport. The final round of matches began with three teams – England, France and Ireland – all still in with a realistic chance of winning. Ireland, on 14 points, held a one-point lead over their rivals, but England had a big advantage: they were to play Italy – the weakest team in the competition – whereas France and Ireland faced each other. Most pundits predicted that a win in Rome with a bonus point (awarded for scoring four tries in a match) would be enough to secure England a 29th win in the competition – and their third in the past…

“Here we go again,” said Hamish McRae in The Independent. England is back in lockdown, and this time, unlike in the spring, we must endure it without the “redeeming bonus of brilliant weather”. It’s a truly gloomy prospect, agreed India Knight in The Sunday Times. The first lockdown did at least have some “novelty value”, making the restrictions easier to bear for those of us fortunate enough to escape any serious health effects from the virus. It brought neighbourhoods together, and inspired an army of volunteers to come forward to offer help to the vulnerable. “Remember the pride and fervour with which we banged pots for the NHS?” There was a feeling that we were rising to a challenge that could bring about positive societal changes. How different the mood…

When he took over as the new Director-General of the BBC in September, Tim Davie declared that restoring its reputation for impartiality was his top priority. It will be a “mammoth task” to ensure that the BBC’s output reflects the views of all sections of British society – not just “the urban, metropolitan middle classes” that make up the bulk of its workforce, said Robbie Gibb in The Daily Telegraph. But last week saw a step in the right direction, when the corporation issued new guidance, instructing journalists not to express political views on social media, nor to take part in protests or gatherings that could be deemed controversial. They were instructed to avoid public “virtue-signalling” that could indicate a political view, “no matter how apparently worthy the cause”. The…

To The Times The Scottish government sought to explain the need for its Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill [which would create an offence out of what we might say in our homes] by stating that “hate crime and prejudice threaten community cohesion” and a “cohesive society is one with a common vision and a sense of belonging for all communities”. Whether such a “common vision” is achievable, experience shows that criminalising the things people think and say does not produce community cohesion, but more often leads to division and resentment. Prosecutors find it hard not to make use of the criminal law to punish the expression of views and thoughts they disagree with or which make them feel uncomfortable. More laws and stricter laws are rarely, if ever,…

Adrianne Lenker: Songs/ Instrumentals 4AD £12 Adrianne Lenker is the lead singer of the New York indie rockers Big Thief – “like The Band, but for millennials”; but when her touring schedule was cut short by the pandemic, she decided to hole up in a cabin in Massachusetts and make a solo album, said Will Hodgkinson in The Times. “In fact, she made two.” Songs comprises 11 lovely folk-tinged ballads, including Anything, which is surely “one of the sweetest and most evocative love songs yet written”. Songs’ companion piece, Instrumentals, consists of two beautiful long guitar pieces. And together they form one of the most graceful and intimate records for years. “It really is very moving indeed.” It is a triumph, agreed Ilana Kaplan in NME – a balm not…

Sky Atlantic’s psychological thriller opens with therapist Grace (Nicole Kidman) and her oncologist husband Jonathan (Hugh Grant) living an idyllic New York life. Their bubble bursts when Grace helps organise a school event at which the rich mothers feel threatened by a sexy young mother named Elena (Matilda De Angelis). There follows a murder and a missing spouse. Grant’s shifty demeanour and Kidman’s brittle elegance make a brilliantly “combustible” match, said Ellen E. Jones in The Guardian, but it’s the supporting cast that leaves you wanting more. Édgar Ramírez and Michael Devine excel as a pair of NYPD detectives, “like Columbo split in two halves”. The Undoing is darkly comic, said Ed Cumming in The Independent, but it’s not entirely sure if it wants to be a “keen satire” or…

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray, 1848 (Penguin £8.99). One of the greatest 19th century novels, the perfect antidote to Dickens’ sentimentality and George Eliot’s didacticism. Thackeray knew, as does his splendid heroine Becky Sharpe, that the forces driving society are money, sex and power; they are all in free play here. A glorious work. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, 1955 (Penguin £8.99). This tale of ecstatic paedophilia still holds its place at the pinnacle of English prose in the 20th century – or any century. Graham Greene was right to call it a transcendently beautiful love story. All the same, lock up your daughters. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, 1883 (OUP £5.99). The greatest adventure story ever written. One may lament the absence of a “love interest”, but it…

The Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, the largest fair of its kind in the UK, is taking place online, with work by more than 500 artists. This year sees the launch of the Studio Collection, a specially commissioned range of limited-edition wallpapers and textiles by four female artists. As usual, there will be an accompanying programme of talks, hosted on Instagram Live, including how to start an art collection and a practical demonstration by Jason Hicklin, head of printmaking at City & Guilds of London Art School. From 12 November to 13 December (woolwichprintfair.com).…

After making this cake, adapted from an old Venetian cookbook, for a bake sale at my son’s school a few years ago, I was swamped with requests for the recipe, says Skye McAlpine. Despite its sumptuous appearance, chocolate cake is often dry and rather disappointing. But this one strikes the ideal balance of velvety chestnut and rich, fudgey chocolate. The rosemary, which is optional, makes it taste just a little bit more grown-up. Serves 8-10 Salted butter, for the tin 500g sweetened chestnut purée (or a 400g tin of unsweetened chestnut purée blended with 100g of icing sugar) 4 eggs 75g ground almonds 40g cocoa powder leaves from 4 rosemary sprigs, plus extra sprigs for the top icing sugar, to dust • I use the cans of sweetened chestnut purée…

GoPro Max If you’re in the market for a 360° camera, the GoPro Max is top of the range. With offset front- and rear-mounted lenses, you can take 360° 18MP photos and videos that are stitched together on the GoPro app (£380; gopro. com). Olfi One.Five Black A great option for those on a tighter budget, this 4K camera does the basics very well. It has a microphone, an LCD screen and speaker. The waterproof case for an extra £25 is also excellent (£150; olficamera.com). Insta360 One R Twin Edition Clipping together like a jigsaw, this clever camera is really several in one. It allows you the option of 360° footage or high-quality 4K wide-angle footage, depending on the lens you attach. It’s easy to adapt on the go, though…

European stock market indices opened sharply lower on Wednesday on uncertainty about the outcome of the US election, later recovering some ground. Investors, who had been factoring in a possible landslide win for Joe Biden, were caught off guard. The outcome will remain unclear for days, and the US could be left with a divided government to tackle the pandemic. That “does not mean we won’t have a fiscal stimulus package”, said Tom McLoughlin of UBS. “But it will be a shadow of what might have happened.” The US Fed is likely to compensate by increasing monetary policy support via more bond purchases and rate cuts – possibly going negative. In Britain, the Bank of England was also expected to act this week to cushion the impact of renewed lockdown…

● Dogfight “The polls suggested that Joe Biden would win the White House in a knockout,” said The Economist. “Instead, he got a dogfight” – failing to deliver the “decisive early blow he had hoped for” in large states that voted for President Trump in 2016. As was the case then, investors were caught off guard. Markets had positioned themselves for a “blue wave” in which Democrats took control of Congress as well as the White House, said Reuters. Before the election, “the dollar slid and global equity markets rose... on bets of increased stimulus” under a Biden administration. By Wednesday, the one thing clear was that that status quo was unlikely to hold, even if Biden clawed his way into the White House. The “blue wave” trade has been…

Jean-François van Boxmeer The former Heineken boss has taken up a new role as chairman of Vodafone – and is already dialling up trouble, said The Sunday Telegraph. The mobile phone group is “facing anger” about the brewing group’s mistreatment of “promo girls” on van Boxmeer’s watch. The Belgian businessman, 59, led Heineken for 15 years from 2005 and “oversaw an army of up to 15,000 ‘promo girls’ recruited to sell beer in Africa and other developing nations”. Investigations have shown many were sexually harassed, but van Boxmeer repeatedly failed to end the practice. Vodafone has defended its new recruit, describing him as one of Europe’s “most respected CEOs”. Still, his record sits oddly with its aim of being the “world’s best employer for women” by 2025. Freddie Garland He…

The week’s best shares Bloomsbury Publishing Investors Chronicle The publisher behind Harry Potter has outstripped market expectations with interim figures showing 17% growth in its consumer arm, boosted by digital. Second-half prospects are favourable. Buy. 248p. Compass Group The Share Centre The catering group has been hit hard by the pandemic. But it has substantial cash, and sales are spread across many regions and sectors. Should benefit from the trend for outsourcing – especially in the US. Buy. £10.60. Experian Investors Chronicle Experian provides data and analytical tools for governments, healthcare and utilities. High margins and a competitive advantage leave it well-positioned in the ongoing “data revolution”. A fund manager pick. Buy. £28.48. Microsoft The Times Shares in Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, Azure, have dipped, creating an opportunity. Revenues are…

Controversy of the week Labour’s disgrace “A mainstream political party engaging in unlawful harassment and discrimination is unusual in a democracy,” said The Times. Yet that was the conclusion of the report published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) last week into Labour’s handling of anti-Semitism in the party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. The report was “shocking and shaming”. It described “a culture which, at best, did not do enough to prevent anti-Semitism and, at worst, could be seen to accept it”. It found that many complaints about anti-Semitism were not investigated at all, and that “political interference in the handling of complaints” was so recurrent that it amounted to unlawful behaviour. The EHRC concluded that Labour had, through its agents, committed harassment and discrimination against Jews –…

Amazon, which was mocked for its bungled launch in Sweden. On its new site, it mixed up Sweden’s flag with Argentina’s, described a baking mould as suitable for “faeces, goose water and bread”, referred to Calvin Klein boxer shorts as “men’s luggage trunks”, and translated the name of a computer game called Need for Speed: Payback as Do You Require Speed: Refund. M&S, which revealed that it had suffered its first loss in its 94-year history as a publicly listed company. The retailer, which cut 7,000 jobs in the summer, said its half-year results had been hammered by the closure of non-essential shops in the spring.…

Edinburgh New rules: Scotland’s new five-tier Covid restrictions system came into force this week. Applied on a local authority basis, the tiers range from 0 (“the closest we can get to normality”) to 4 (“close to a return to full lockdown”); but at the start of the week, none of the 32 council areas were in either Level 0 or Level 4. Most, including Edinburgh and Glasgow, were in Level 3 (where mixing at home is banned, and cafés, restaurants and bars must not serve alcohol, and must close at 6pm); eight, including Aberdeen, were in Level 2; and five (including Highland, Orkney and Shetland) in Level 1. Nicola Sturgeon said the system would be reviewed weekly, from 10 November. Separately, Boris Johnson confirmed that the Government’s furlough scheme would…

Don McLean’s lyrics When Don McLean was 15, he had a premonition of his father’s death. Distraught, he rushed to tell his grandmother. “Don’t be ridiculous, Donny, why would you say such a thing?” she said. “Because it’s going to happen,” he replied. Days later, his father dropped dead in front of him. Blaming himself, McLean “cried for two years”. Eleven years later, he wrote American Pie, his 1971 lament for America’s cultural and political decline. And while he has rarely commented on them, its lyrics have been the subject of speculation ever since, says Rob Walker in The Guardian. The opening verses about “the day the music died” are widely agreed to refer to the death of Buddy Holly in 1959. But couldn’t he also have been writing about…

Traffic stopped and dozens of drivers left their cars in Chongqing, southwestern China, last month, when what local media described as a “heavenly rain of banknotes” suddenly fell from the sky onto a busy road. It emerged that a 29-year old man, allegedly high on methamphetamine, had thrown a large amount of money from a 30th-floor window after falling into a “trance”. He was arrested and is “receiving treatment”. During the pandemic, the Scottish Championship football team Inverness Caledonian Thistle has been live-streaming its games to fans at home, using an automatic camera system with advanced “AI ball-tracking technology”. Alas, a crucial flaw in the technology emerged during a recent game against Ayr United. It proved unable to distinguish between the ball and another shiny white object on the field:…

CHILE At last we’ve put Pinochet in his grave El Tiempo (Bogotá) Chile has finally buried the last vestiges of its authoritarian past, says El Tiempo. Last week, an overwhelming 78% of the people voted to rewrite the country’s constitution, which dates back to the military rule of Augusto Pinochet (1973 to 1990). The result, greeted by jubilant celebrations across the land, means that Chileans must now vote again to choose the members of a constituent assembly. This must go down as a victory for the thousands of protesters who took to the streets last year to condemn the drift towards ever greater inequality. Chile is South America’s richest nation when measured on a per capita basis, but also one of the world’s most unequal nations. Now it can start…

As we age, we tend to stop acquiring new friends – and instead focus on a few established friends. This holds true across many cultures; and now researchers have observed the same tendency in male chimps. “We know that as humans age, their social networks shrink but their social bonds grow stronger, and we see the same thing here in chimpanzees,” said Asst Prof Zarin Machanda, a primatologist at Tufts University in the US. The team studied 21 male chimps at the Kibale National Park in Uganda (because males have bigger social networks than females, making them easier to analyse) and noted grooming patterns, and more general interactions, to decide if their friendships were mutual, or one-sided. They noted that as chimps grew older, they had fewer one-sided friendships than…

Nobby Stiles, who died last week at the age of 78 after a struggle with dementia, was a football legend, albeit an incongruous one, said Jeff Powell in the Daily Mirror. He’s best remembered as the man who “warmed the cockles of a nation” by dancing across the turf after England’s World Cup victory in 1966, one hand clutching the Jules Rimet Trophy, the other his just-removed dentures. Indeed, Stiles didn’t look anything like what we expect footballers to look like, said Martin Samuel in the Daily Mail. Balding, skinny and missing his front teeth (the legacy of a teenage scuffle), he was the myopic son of a Manchester undertaker. He once described himself as a “half-blind dwarf”. Yet rather than denting his popularity, his appearance made him all the…

It was the worst ever accident involving refugees trying to reach Britain by boat, said Adam Sage in The Times. Last Tuesday morning, Rasoul Iran-Nejad a 35-year-old Iranian Kurd, his 35-year-old wife Shiva Mohammad-Panahi, and their three children, aged nine, six and 15 months, were among seven people to drown when their boat capsized in the Channel. The family were on a small vessel crammed with migrants when it turned over in choppy seas off Dunkirk. Fifteen of those on board were rescued, but the family were trapped in the boat’s cabin, and were unable to escape. The incident takes the number of those to have died attempting the crossing this year to at least seven, up from four last year, while the overall number of people to have made…

“The worst thing that can happen to a good cause is not to be skilfully attacked, but to be ineptly defended.” French economist Frédéric Bastiat in The Daily Telegraph “There’s no sense dying on a small cross.” Joe Biden, quoted in The New Yorker “No one worth possessing / Can be quite possessed.” US poet Sara Teasdale, quoted in Forbes “It’s wanting to know that makes us matter. Otherwise we’re going out the way we came in.” Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, quoted in The Guardian “There are lots of ways of being miserable, but there’s only one way of being comfortable, and that is to stop running round after happiness.” Edith Wharton, quoted on GoodReads.com “Life can get so interesting that we forget to be afraid.” Don DeLillo, quoted in The…

As a famously literary city, Dublin has provided a backdrop for a number of films based on novels. Here are five of the best films set there currently available to stream online: The Commitments Alan Parker launched the career of Andrea Corr among others when he assembled a cast of unknowns for this uproarious tale of a band billed as “the saviours of Soul”. Adapted by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais from Roddy Doyle’s novel, it’s set on the city’s rough North Side and brims with scatological humour as well as great songs. The Dead Based on James Joyce’s great short story, John Huston’s final film as director brilliantly evokes middle-class life in Dublin at the turn of the last century. His daughter Anjelica stars opposite Donal McCann as…

Tips of the week... how to buy a puppy ● Search for the seller’s name online and check their profile; if they are advertising many litters from different breeds, this is a red flag. Fraudsters also often use multiple phone numbers or addresses in several ads. ● Consider choosing a Kennel Club-assured breeder (thekennelclub.org.uk). ● Don’t get a dog you haven’t seen with its mother at home, and beware of a seller making excuses as to why the mum isn’t there. Also look out for a “fake” mum that doesn’t interact with the puppies. ● Make sure to visit more than once, even if it’s just by video call. ● Don’t pay a deposit until you have seen a dog in the flesh. Pets4Homes lets buyers put down a deposit…

Sir Sean Connery 1930-2020 Sir Sean Connery, who has died aged 90, was a bona fide movie star with a 65-year career. He made some 70 films, and worked with countless big-name directors, from Alfred Hitchcock and Sidney Lumet to Gus Van Sant. But to many cinema-goers, he will always be Bond, James Bond – the original screen 007, and the best. Suave, swaggering and sexually magnetic, with a hint of menace undercut by a wry wit and laconic demeanour, Connery took the “shallow, charmless protagonist” of Ian Fleming’s novels (“that cardboard booby”, in the author’s own words) and transformed him “into a screen superman”, said The Daily Telegraph. In the process, he transformed himself into a superstar, and one of the biggest names of the 1960s. Yet Connery had…

Britain might be turning its back on Chinese tech firms like Huawei – but when it comes to softer supplies, we’re still very much in market. Hence, the metamorphosis of DaddyBaby – a Chinese company specialising in “adult nappies”, which has just been certified by the British Standards Institution to “provide protective masks to the UK”, said Justin Harper on BBC Business. Having retooled its production lines, DaddyBaby reckons it can produce 4.5 million face coverings a day – a boost to China’s “mask diplomacy” and its own bottom line. Nappy sales are “flat” in China, reports Shaun Rein of the China Market Research Group. So this is a huge opportunity for them “to grow”.…

Market shocks may come and go, but there are certain basic lessons that any DIY investor can learn in order to “minimise the risks and maximise rewards”, said Ian Cowie in The Sunday Times. With that in mind, here’s a rundown: Diversify to diminish the danger... “Granny’s advice not to put all your eggs in one basket may seem obvious, but many people put too much money in too few sectors.” To take a topical example, look at technology, and beware over-reliance on the local market. “Uncertainty about Brexit means it has never been so important to get a global spread of assets.” ...but keep an eye on costs Pooled funds, such as unit and investment trusts or exchange-traded funds (ETFs), offer “convenient ways” to spread money over many different…