Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1309 i The Week

What happened The vaccine roll-out On Tuesday – “V-day” – Margaret Keenan, a 90-year-old grandmother from Coventry, became the first person in the world to receive a fully tested and approved Covid vaccine. Hours later, the residents and staff of an elderly care home in Belfast also received the Pfizer/ BioNTech jab. In England, around 50 NHS hospitals were ready to start vaccinating at-risk groups this week; from next week, jabs will be administered at GP hubs, and with four million doses of the vaccine due to arrive by the end of December, vaccination centres will open in large venues such as sports stadiums in the new year. Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, hailed “the start of the fightback against our common enemy”, but warned that the process would take…

The Scottish government has released The Covid Guide to Etiquette... and Pandemic Politeness, which explains how to turn down an offer of birthday drinks, what to do if a stranger gets too close, and how to react if a colleague removes their face mask. Issued in response to research showing that more than 80% of people had “felt awkward when trying to follow the rules”, the eight-page guide suggests offering a “virtual hug” if a friend tries to embrace you. When dealing with people who ignore the rules, it suggests framing comments as “an offer rather than a request”. For example, if a stranger in a supermarket comes too close, try saying: “I’ll step back and give you some space – it’s tricky in busy spaces to keep to two…

A deportation flight to Jamaica went ahead last week, but with only 13 foreign-born criminals on board: 23 people were left off the flight, as a result of last-minute legal challenges. Some 90 high-profile figures, including the model Naomi Campbell and the writer Bernardine Evaristo, had joined in a campaign to prevent the flight. Citing the Windrush scandal, they said it brought “credible risks of unlawful and wrongful” deportations. But Immigration Minister Chris Philp insisted the flight was about “criminality, not nationality”, and had “nothing to do” with the Windrush scandal, while Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, complained that “do-gooding” celebrities were helping to keep “vile criminals” in the country.…

Paris Anti-police unrest: There have been renewed protests in cities across France against police violence, and a highly controversial new security bill. In Paris, a demonstration turned violent, when dozens of hooded protesters smashed windows and threw Molotov cocktails at police. Anger about the law, which would increase the surveillance tools available to police, and restrict people’s right to circulate images of police officers, has intensified since footage emerged of police beating up a black music producer last month. The government has promised to rewrite the bill, but that has not been enough to stop the protests. Madrid Ex-generals talk about a “coup”: Spain’s defence minister, Margarita Robles, has asked prosecutors to open a criminal investigation into a group of retired senior military officers who discussed inciting a coup in…

1 Under the Boardwalk by Kenny Young and Arthur Resnick, performed by The Rolling Stones 2 Lillibulero, traditional, arr. Henry Purcell, performed by the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers band 3 Adhan (Call to Prayer), traditional, performed by anon 4 Ulysses by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, performed by Sir Simon Russell Beale 5 Mallaí Chroch Shlí, traditional, performed by Duncan Chisholm 6 Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Nabucco by Verdi, performed by the Chicago Symphony and Chorus (cond. Sir Georg Solti) 7 7 Seconds by Youssou N’Dour, Neneh Cherry, Cameron McVey and Jonathan Sharp, performed by Youssou N’Dour featuring Neneh Cherry 8* Love Under the Moonlight, traditional, performed by The Khac Chi Ensemble Book: Other Men’s Flowers, anthologised by A.P. Wavell Luxury: a cricket bowling machine * Choice if allowed…

In 2018, no literature prize was awarded, due to a meltdown in the Swedish Academy. Until then, the institution known as “The Eighteen” (for the number of chairs), represented the pinnacle of cultural achievement. At the end of 2017, however, Jean-Claude Arnault, the husband of poet and Academy member Katarina Frostenson, was accused of sexual abuse and rape by 18 women. Arnault, a French author who boasted that he was the Academy’s 19th member, ran a cultural club partly funded by it, and was accused of abusing its prestige and its Paris apartment to commit crimes; he also leaked the names of winners. A bitter internal dispute over how to handle the accusations against Arnault led to the departure of seven of the Academy’s 18 members, including Frostenson. It was…

HUNGARY A hypocrite gets his comeuppance Deutsche Welle (Bonn) A gay orgy in Brussels has triggered a political earthquake in Hungary, says Keno Verseck. The “gangbang”, as local media dubbed it, held above a gay bar on 27 November, was so rowdy it was raided by police for breaching coronavirus restrictions. Among the two dozen male guests was József Szájer, an MEP from Hungary’s ruling right-wing Fidesz party. The married father-of-one fled half-naked down a drain pipe, but was later arrested. He pleaded diplomatic immunity, but has nonetheless been forced to resign. The scandal is an embarrassment for Hungary’s ultra-right-wing prime minister, Viktor Orbán, who counted Szájer as a close ally. The MEP had helped write the country’s 2012 constitution, which contains “homophobic” provisions, and had spent his years in…

Until now, DeepMind has been best known for its “superhuman performance” in games such as chess and Go, said The Guardian. Now, though, the Google-owned AI company has turned its attention to a rather more serious challenge: predicting how proteins curl up from chains of amino acids into the 3D shapes that enable them to perform specific tasks in the body. This is called the “protein folding problem”. It’s considered a “holy grail” of biology; and DeepMind appears to have cracked it (see page 22). Proteins are present in every cell, and are essential to all biological processes. Only by knowing the complex shapes they form can scientists really understand how they work, and develop drugs that can change or alter their behaviour. But determining the shapes is fiendishly difficult:…

“Basildon has been here before,” said Jonathan Eley and George Hammond in the FT. In 2005, the department store Allders went bust – leaving a large gap in the town’s Eastgate Shopping Centre. It was soon filled by a Debenhams; but last week, that chain warned that it was about to go into liquidation, potentially dealing a huge blow to town centres across the country. The failure of Debenhams, following the collapse of the Arcadia Group – which includes Topshop and Burton – a day earlier, will leave fallow some 15.5 million square feet of retail space nationwide. Twenty-five thousand jobs are at risk. Of course, the high street has been in decline for years; but since lockdown restrictions forced bricks and mortar retailers to close, and many workers to…

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” Albert Einstein, quoted in Forbes “Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.” W. Somerset Maugham, quoted in the I newspaper “The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.” Winston Churchill, quoted on BBC News “Old age is the right to be absolutely ourselves.” Writer Jan Morris, quoted in The American Scholar “That which it is impossible to force, it is impossible to hinder.” Poet Marianne Moore, quoted on The Browser “The suburbs are where they cut down all the trees and then name streets after them.” Mad cover boy Alfred E. Neuman, quoted in The Daily Telegraph “A mystic is someone…

Cricket England’s tour of South Africa was called off without the one-day series being played, after five members of England’s touring team tested positive for Covid. Motor racing Sergio Pérez won the Sakhir Grand Prix to claim his first ever F1 victory. Mercedes’s George Russell led for most of the race, but a tyre mix-up forced him into a double pit stop. With 13 laps to go, he had to stop again after suffering a puncture. He finished 9th. Football Crystal Palace moved to 11th place in the Premier League after beating West Brom 5-1 .…

This year saw the release of one of the best prison dramas ever made, Clemency. Among other fine examples of the genre, some, such as The Shawshank Redemption, need no introduction. Here are five more: Cool Hand Luke Paul Newman is a convict on a Florida chain gang whose free spirit sets him on a collision course with authority. Along with other films that came out in 1967, Stuart Rosenberg’s nerve-jangling drama helped usher in a decade of countercultural American cinema. Escape from Alcatraz Not to be confused with John Frankenheimer’s celebrated Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), this 1979 classic tells the true story of the only three inmates ever to have escaped from the notorious prison island. Starring Clint Eastwood, it is austere, authentic and gripping. Scum One line from…

The work of British-Ghanaian artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye (b.1977) addresses a very timely question, said Rachel Campbell-Johnston in The Times: “How do we read artistic images of black people?” Where non-white subjects have featured in historical European painting, they have been treated as exotic specimens, often depicted in servile roles. Yiadom-Boakye’s art turns this convention on its head, using the most traditional of Western art forms – oil portraiture on canvas – to create “sombre, slightly blurry” likenesses of ordinary black people that allude to Manet, Goya and Sargent. The people the artist paints are both “enigmatic” and oddly familiar – yet they are entirely imaginary, based on “found images, memories, imaginings and dreams”. Sometimes painted in groups but mostly pictured alone, these fictitious sitters wear “nondescript” clothes. Their “teeth, eyes…

A series of “astonishing” photographs of vegetables taken by gardener Charles Jones are “only one revelation among many in a magnificent show” at Dulwich Picture Gallery (Observer). Unearthed: Photography’s Roots traces the history of the medium through images of botany and the natural world, from the 1840s to today. Until 9 May, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London SE21 (dulwichpicturegallery.org. uk). The V&A’s Bags: Inside Out delves into the function, design and style of bags of every sort, from Churchill’s despatch box to Kate Moss’s Mulberry tote. Until September, V&A, London SW7 (vam.ac.uk).…

What the experts recommend The Elder Hotel Indigo, 2-8 South Parade, Bath (01225-530616) This newly opened restaurant in one of Bath’s countless “Georgian honeyed town houses” is a real beauty, says Jay Rayner in The Observer. From the rarefied dining space – a series of interlinked panelled rooms – to the meticulous and “engrossing” cooking, it’s the sort of place that “makes the world seem better”. Vegan and vegetarian menus are available – offering the likes of coffee-roasted carrots with dukkah – but I can’t lie about why I’m here: owner Mike Robinson is “renowned for his game cookery”. And it certainly doesn’t disappoint. There’s “lip-smacking” bullshot tea (venison stock enriched with sherry); mains of partridge breast and venison with a “lot going on”; a “dirty mash” which proves…

Tips of the week... how to pair wine ● A good rule of thumb is to try to match the intensity of the saltiness, sweetness, bitterness or acidity of the food with the wine. For example, accompany briny seafood with a salty white such as muscadet. ● Focus on the sauce rather than the dish; salmon served with a buttery hollandaise works well with a rich, buttery white, like chardonnay, but a zingy tomato sauce pairs with a sharp white or red with high acidity. ● You can also get creative by contrasting flavours: serve salty blue cheese with a sweet wine, and duck with a tart, tangy red to cut through the fatty meat. ● Also think about the “weight” of your dish – a winter stew needs a…

Salesforce/Slack: cloud solution Working from home has meant boom times for cloud computing in 2020, said the FT. Fittingly, the year has ended with a mega-deal. Salesforce, the world’s third-biggest software firm, has agreed to buy Slack, the office collaboration app, for $27.7bn, “setting up a battle with Microsoft for pole position in one of the tech market’s hottest corners”. Slack’s product has a “cult-like following” of 12 million users, said The Economist, but its share price has lagged during the pandemic – partly because of poor marketing, and partly because it lacks videoconferencing. Like many alliances, this one is “about power and feuds”. Slack piqued Microsoft a few years back, when co-founder Stewart Butterfield promised to wipe out email – threatening Microsoft’s Outlook and Exchange programs. MS shot…

Ivan Glasenberg Glencore’s billionaire boss is hanging up his shovel after 18 tumultuous years leading the controversial Anglo-Swiss miner and commodities trader, said The Guardian. On flotation in 2011, Glasenberg landed a personal paper fortune of £6bn – “a figure so large that his 3,600 neighbours in the Swiss village of Rüschlikon got a tax cut”. But after a disastrous 2015, shares are still below their float price. “The old problems hover about Glencore like flies at Alice Springs,” said Lex in the FT. There’s a US Justice Department probe into African transactions; geopolitical risk “from Australia to Zambia”; and a “hefty coal cellar” that sits uneasily with greener investors. Glasenberg aimed for “net zero” emissions by 2050. Fortunately for him, it will be up to his successors to deliver…

Boris Johnson cleared the way for a last-ditch push towards a Brexit deal this week by dropping his threat to break international law and renege on parts of the EU Withdrawal Agreement. As talks went down to the wire, the PM said that the UK and EU had reached a deal on the implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol governing future trade between mainland Britain and the province – a major boost to relations between London and Brussels. But as The Week went to press, significant differences remained between the two sides over fishing, “level playing field” rules against unfair competition, and future governance of those rules. Johnson travelled to Brussels this Wednesday for showdown talks with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, as both sides sought to narrow…

The taxpayer, after Tesco and Morrisons promised to repay more than £850m in business rates relief. The rates holiday was introduced in March to help retailers struggling in the pandemic. But Tesco’s pre-tax profits soared 28.7% in the six months to August, and it has been able to pay out £900m in dividends. Bob Dylan, who sold the copyright to his entire back catalogue for a reported $300m. Universal Music now owns the right to 600 Dylan songs, recorded over six decades. Dylan has until now licensed rights himself, quite liberally: his songs have been covered by thousands of artists, and have been used in countless adverts. Scotch egg makers, who have experienced a surge in orders, since it emerged that they counted as a “substantial meal” in a pub.…

35% of people who have watched the Netflix series The Crown say their impression of the royals has improved. 42% say it has stayed about the same, while 23% say it has worsened. A quarter of viewers say their perception of Prince Charles has worsened, while 34% say it has improved. Focaldata/Sunday Times The proportion of Britons who expect to spend Christmas alone is up from the usual 4% to 8% this year. Opinium/Observer 27% of Britons are very confident the Pfizer/ BioNTech vaccine is safe, and 43% are fairly confident. 11% are not very confident, and 9% are not confident at all. 44% oppose making the vaccine compulsory by law. YouGov/Times…

Sacramento, California Pandemic worsens: More than 23 million people in southern California have been placed under the harshest lockdown yet imposed in the US, as Covid-19 cases surge in America’s most populous state. The three-week stay-at-home order took effect on Sunday. In the US as a whole, the seven-day average number of daily new cases has quadrupled in the past two months, to around 210,000 a day. Over the same period, the daily death toll has roughly tripled, to more than 2,300 a day: it’s now higher than the previous peak in late April. The federal Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has issued new guidelines, including “universal face mask use” indoors (other than at home); avoidance of “non-essential indoor spaces” and postponing travel. President-elect Joe Biden (above), warning of…

“As I write, EU negotiations are foundering on the seemingly insurmountable rock of fishing quotas, which is unfathomable to me when you consider how yucky fish is. I mean, come on, who actually likes fish? Nobody. Who arrives at a friend’s house for dinner, catches that sweaty dustbin whiff from the kitchen as the front door opens and thinks, ‘Oh good, they’ve done fish’? Who really prefers whittling grey flakes of bummy doom from a gawping mullet skeleton to slicing into a fat, juicy steak? And who, having ordered even the fanciest fish dish in a restaurant, doesn’t regret it when a cheeseburger arrives for the person sitting opposite?” Giles Coren in The Times…

Your right to your view; my right to trash it Camilla Cavendish Financial Times Things have come to a pretty pass, says Camilla Cavendish, when you can’t even count on a distinguished university to recognise the basic principles of free expression. Cambridge has been engulfed in an extraordinary row in the past few months over a proposed new code of conduct demanding that staff, students and visitors be “respectful” of different opinions. This “harmless-sounding” clause was introduced with the intention of protecting free speech, but, as critics pointed out, its effect will be the opposite. What begins as an appeal for civility all too easily slides into a demand for a kind of deference. That is the antithesis of the spirit of academic progress, which is founded on “the right…

Detecting Alzheimer’s For the first time, scientists have found a way to accurately predict which people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) will go on to develop Alzheimer’s, says The Daily Telegraph. Roughly half of MCI patients are later diagnosed with dementia, and being able to identify them in advance has long been a goal of researchers in the field. The new test, developed at Lund University in Sweden, is based on analysis of blood biomarkers in two proteins that are known to damage the brains of Alzheimer’s sufferers. Known as tau and betaamyloid, these proteins form deposits in the brain that tangle with, and eventually kill, brain cells. The team analysed data on 573 patients with MCI and found that when they took blood plasma levels of the two proteins…

It has long been rumoured that the young Keir Starmer was the inspiration for Mark Darcy, the dashing lawyer played by Colin Firth in the Bridget Jones films. The author of the books, Helen Fielding, finally put the claim to bed this week, saying she’d never met Starmer. But she does think the men share some traits. “He’s so good and decent and intelligent,” she said of Labour’s leader, “but so buttoned up. I always want to say ‘Come on, Keir, loosen your tie, ruffle up your hair.’” Valery Giscard d’Estaing, the former French president who died last week, had a soft spot for Princess Diana. After sitting next to her at a dinner, he penned a bizarre love letter in a magazine. “You may think she is good-looking in…

Keira Bell’s story is a distressing one, said Sarah Vine in the Daily Mail. As a troubled teenager, she was referred to the youth gender-identity clinic at the Tavistock Hospital in London, where – at the age of 16 and after just four assessment appointments – she was put on a course of puberty-blocking drugs. A year later, she began injections of testosterone, and at 20, she had a double mastectomy. Now 23, Bell is living as a woman again and bitterly regrets the whole thing. She feels that her earlier gender confusion was simply a symptom of her mental health issues, and that she had been too young to understand the implications of her treatment. Last week, the High Court agreed with her, saying children under 16 were unlikely…

Rugby: one-dimensional England score a lucky win England were expected to cruise to victory in their Autumn Nations Cup final against France on Sunday, said Chris Foy in the Daily Mail. Les Bleus went into the match at Twickenham with a severely depleted squad – the result of a legal challenge launched by the country’s top clubs, who want to limit players’ availability for national duties. Deprived of two dozen of his “leading stars”, head coach Fabien Galthié fielded an assortment of “second- and third-choice players”. Yet this team came tantalisingly close to winning – and in the end were only prevented from doing so by some refereeing decisions that favoured Eddie Jones’s team. Trailing 12-19 with just two minutes remaining, England were awarded a penalty. They capitalised on the…

Vaccine politics To The Times The UK medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), is the largest such agency in Europe and has particular expertise in vaccines. Before Brexit, it frequently led the scientific assessment of new vaccines for the EU, including the accelerated assessments of pandemic swine flu vaccines. The MHRA has approved a highly effective vaccine against the virus causing Covid-19. That approval was granted under EU law and could be recognised by all member states. EU health ministers, however, have decided on a “harmonised” process of approval through the European Medicines Agency, concluding in early January at the earliest. No reason has been offered to justify this delay. EU ministers should immediately reverse their decision, or explain to their populations the public health cost…

The monolith files “First it was the Utah desert,” said Kaya Burgess in The Times. “Then a hilltop in Romania, and a mountaintop in California.” A series of shiny obelisk-like structures have appeared in remote locations around the world, without explanation or permission. One appeared at the top of Pine Mountain in Atascadero, and another on an archaeological site in northeastern Romania. Both vanished soon after, the former apparently pulled down by a group of young men chanting: “Christ is king!”. Still another pillar appeared in another part of California. Then, last weekend, residents on the Isle of Wight woke up to find that one of the mysterious monoliths had appeared at Compton Beach on the west of the island. There has been much speculation that they are the work…

Helen tells Tony her plan to try and buy Kirsty’s house. Tony ends up getting emotional as he shares the news with Joy – he’ll miss his grandsons. Later, he offers to help Helen with the deposit. David complains to Shula about Elizabeth dating Vince, and is irritated that she wants the two men to go for a drink. Philip tells Gavin he’s closing the business: he’ll give Gavin the tools and van, and they’ll sell on the workers. Gavin is horrified when he hears Philip is selling the lads to a ruthless character. Susan and Tracy talk about Christmas plans, but Tracy has to rush home. She finds a drunk (and underage) Brad has been sick after drinking home brew. Everyone, from Shula to Neil, has noticed that Chris…

It’s tempting to steer away from supermarket own-label wines, says Fiona Beckett in The Guardian – especially when stocking up for a social event. But they’re often better than their independent equivalents, and with the smaller gatherings we’ll be having this Christmas, who cares what name is on the label? The best buys, unsurprisingly, are to be found in top-end ranges. From Tesco Finest, the “rich, spicy” Côtes du Rhône Villages 2019 (£8) is a recent highlight. Marks & Spencer’s own-label white burgundy range is generally pretty sound, and offers some real bargains. M&S Macon Villages only costs £9 – “though make sure you get the 2019 vintage”. It’s worth remembering, too, that some wine merchants and upmarket grocers also do own-label – and can offer even better value than…

Stockpiling due to Covid and Brexit was reported to be causing chaos in Britain’s port system. Honda paused production at its Swindon plant because of parts shortages; Tesco warned that a no deal might mean a 5% rise in food prices. With a deal hanging in the balance, currency traders were braced for volatility. But the pound passed $1.34 on Wednesday – close to its year-high – on renewed expectations of success. Global stock markets were boosted by continuing vaccine optimism and hopes of a renewed US stimulus package. The Government disclosed plans to suspend punitive tariffs against the US over aircraft subsidies – breaking ranks with the EU in an attempt to pave the way for a post-Brexit trade deal. The Bank of England faced criticism from MPs for…

“When so many people are worried about their finances”, shop-bought Christmas presents can feel a bit “off”, says Suzanne Woolley on Bloomberg. So how about something that could set your loved one on a “firmer path to financial independence”? Fractional shares “Fractional share programmes” – now offered in the UK by many investment platforms – “allow pretty much anyone to buy portions of stocks they might not otherwise be able to afford”. A useful way of introducing kids to investment. Fractional bitcoin The same principle applies. You can “gift bitcoin directly” on a platform such as Coinbase, or from a Coinbase account to a “cryptowallet”. The digital currency “has been on fire” of late, so this could be the gift that keeps giving – or it could “implode”. A piece…

Controversy of the week Eton and the patriarchy Britain’s most famous school has dismissed a teacher for spreading “dangerous ideas”, said Jenni Russell in The Times. Will Knowland, an English teacher at Eton College, had intended to deliver an online lecture to older students as part of a series called Perspectives, which encourages critical thinking: his talk, entitled The Patriarchy Paradox, criticised what he called “the current radical feminist orthodoxy”. However, Eton’s head master, Simon Henderson, told Knowland to remove it from the school intranet and YouTube. He kept the YouTube version and was sacked for gross misconduct. Pending an appeal, the father of five will lose both his job and his tied home. Whether or not you agree with his arguments, it’s shocking that Eton, famous for its “fearless…

Kay Burley, the Sky News presenter, who became the latest high-profile figure to be caught breaking lockdown rules. She had met ten friends – including three Sky colleagues – to celebrate her 60th birthday. They had visited a private members’ club in Soho, but Burley said that they’d only gone in so she could “spend a penny”, and the rest of the outing was legal. Under London’s Tier 2 rules, meeting anyone indoors not in your bubble is illegal. Cinemas, with news that Warner Bros has decided that from next year films will be released online and in cinemas on the same day (see page 55). Warner’s films will be on HBO Max, which is due to become available in Europe in the second half of 2021.…

Edinburgh Vaccine pressure: Residents of 11 Scottish council areas that were placed under the tightest Covid restrictions on 20 November, as part of a “short and sharp” effort to contain the virus, were told that they would all move out of Level 4 this week, as originally promised. Nicola Sturgeon said that most would go into Level 3. On Tuesday, her government confirmed that the first doses of the Pfizer vaccine had been delivered to NHS boards across Scotland, and that vaccinators were about to be given the first doses. After that, the focus will be on vaccinating the elderly residents of care homes, their carers and other frontline health workers. In the meantime, fast lateral flow Covid tests were being trialled at 14 care homes in Scotland. If the…

Lipman on ageing At 74, Maureen Lipman has an ongoing role in Coronation Street, and she sees no reason to slow down. She knows that in that respect, she is doing better than many of her contemporaries: Judi Dench and Maggie Smith do well, she told the Radio Times, but there is not a lot of work for people of her age. “And you have to understand that every older actress thinks she’s 34. Just because you’re 74, it doesn’t mean that you believe it. Whenever I talk to young people, I can never understand why they don’t invite me out clubbing. I can dance and I’m good fun.” Yet, at the same time, she is sanguine about the prospect of the roles drying up. “I don’t sit around thinking…

A man named Adolf Hitler has won a local election in southwest Africa – but insists he has no plans to emulate his namesake. Adolf Hitler Uunona won 85% of the vote in the town of Ompundja in Namibia, a former German colony. He said his father, who named him, “probably didn’t understand what Adolf Hitler stood for”. It was “a perfectly normal name for me when I was a kid,” he said. “It doesn’t mean I’m striving for world domination.” Uunona, 54, only uses his full name on official documents; he is an ardent civil rights activist. An Australian family returned home to find their Christmas tree adorned with a novel ornament: a wild koala. The McCormicks found the confused koala after it apparently entered through an open door…

UNITED STATES A warning from German history The New York Times Perhaps Germans have “a special inclination to panic at spectres from the past”, says Jochen Bittner, but I can’t help hearing an uncomfortable historical echo in the “Stop the Steal” campaign President Trump has run since election day. It brings to mind the refusal of German conservatives a century ago to accept that their country had lost the First World War, a form of denial that “gave birth to arguably the most potent political lie of the 20th century – the Dolchstosslegende, or stab-in-the-back myth”. That the German army could have fought on, had it not been betrayed by shadowy forces, was “palpably false”, but the idea only grew stronger after 1918, and the resentment it generated fuelled the…

A blob-like creature from the ocean depths has become the first species to be identified solely by video camera. No physical specimen of the tiny animal has ever been collected. However, in 2015 a remote-controlled drone captured footage of three of the creatures in high definition. The images were taken 12,828ft (3,910 metres) below the surface, in a canyon northwest of Puerto Rico. Because the footage was of such high quality, scientists from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were able to use it to formally classify the animal, which is now known as Duobrachium sparksae. In a paper published in Plankton & Benthos Research, they identify it as a ctenophore, or comb jelly – a family of animals that look like jellyfish, but which are not in fact…

In many ways, the tech revolution has been a great disappointment, said Harry de Quetteville in The Daily Telegraph. “Amazingly bad”, in fact. We think that technology moves at lightning speed today, but just compare the advances made in, say, the life of the late Queen Mother with those in the life of her great-grandson Prince William. In her first 40 years, “she got refrigeration, stoves, antibiotics, cars, flight, tractors, telephones, televisions”. Genuinely “game-changing stuff”. And what does Prince William have that she didn’t? “He can order a burger from his phone”, and post a picture of it on Instagram when it arrives. Once in a while, though, our computer-driven world takes a giant leap into the future. One of those moments was revealed last week, when the UK artificial…

“The stuff of science fiction has landed on our plates,” said Jenny Kleeman in The Guardian. Last week, “meat grown in a lab, instead of inside the body of an animal” was approved for sale to the public by a regulatory authority for the first time. The Singapore Food Agency gave its thumbs-up to the “chicken bites” created by California-based Eat Just, which grew them from a bird that’s still alive and well today. The start-up took the chicken’s cells, bathed them in a nutrient medium and put them in a bioreactor, “where they grew exponentially until the meat was harvested, encased in batter and turned into nuggets”. This process promises anguished carnivores “flesh without the blood, meat without murder and the beginning of the end of the environmental damage…

Crowd-free matches Banishing fans from football stadiums was expected to rob teams of the “home advantage”, says Jamie Doward in The Observer. But analysis of 6,481 professional matches played in 17 countries in the 2019/20 season shows that this is not actually the case. The study found that the home team was only three percentage points less likely to win in matches played behind closed doors than in those played in front of fans. But the researchers did unearth one significant difference: in matches without crowds, visiting teams were issued with fewer yellow cards – suggesting that the absence of pressure for referees to “punish” the away team more harshly was inducing them to make fairer decisions. Racing’s cocaine problem Senior figures in the horse racing world have reported a…

To The Guardian Simon Jenkins is absolutely right (“Boris Johnson must give up on fishing: it’s the only way to get a Brexit deal”). It would be an extraordinary act of self-harm if Britain failed to do a Brexit deal owing to the minuscule issue of fishing. Significantly more people work in Debenhams than in fishing. I think I’d describe the situation as mad if our Government decides to destroy the economy in an attempt to help a few fishermen. It’s a sad sign that jingoistic nationalism before all else is still the Government’s priority. Sebastian Monblat, Sutton, London To The Guardian Uncharacteristically for him, Simon Jenkins misses the point: commercial fishing might be economically irrelevant to England, but it is of enormous political significance in Scotland. Nicola Sturgeon would…

Daniil Trifonov: Silver Age Deutsche Grammophon £17 Daniil Trifonov’s new two-disc set, Silver Age, is devoted to “dazzling” piano works by three Russian greats of the early 20th century, said Richard Fairman in the FT: Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Scriabin. “There is plenty of virtuoso” musicianship to cherish here. In Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No.2, for example, the Russian’s playing is as “memorable for its delicate flights of fantasy” as for its trenchant power. Scriabin’s early Piano Concerto “takes off with tremendous, soaring élan”. And there’s “wholehearted support” from the Mariinsky Orchestra and Valery Gergiev. If you are looking for “lockdown comfort”, this might not be quite your thing, said Geoff Brown in The Times. The “agitated” Russian repertoire is not cuddly, while Trifonov’s “fondness for the fierce attack” makes Stravinsky’s Serenade…

John Boyega gives a “magnetic” performance as real-life former Metropolitan Police superintendent Leroy Logan in Red, White and Blue, the third film in Steve McQueen’s Small Axe series about the black experience in London from the 1960s to the 1980s, said Hanna Flint in Empire. The drama opens in the early 1980s, when Logan gave up his job as a lab technician in order to join the Met. His own father had just been viciously beaten up by two police officers, and he was determined to tackle racism from within. In a remarkable scene, we see him put on his new uniform, and gaze into a full-length mirror with a combination of pride and “utter terror”, said Kevin Maher in The Times. And the road he then climbs is very…

Best books… Alex Bellos The writer, broadcaster and Guardian puzzle-setter chooses his favourite books about language. His latest book, The Language Lover’s Puzzle Book (Guardian Faber £14.99), is out now In the Land of Invented Languages by Arika Okrent, 2009 (Random House £12.25). I’m never going to learn Klingon (a language invented for Star Trek), but I’m grateful that Okrent did. Her journey into the world of constructed languages is both a hilarious romp and a serious introduction to linguistics. The Riddle of the Labyrinth by Margalit Fox, 2013 (Profile Books £10.99). In 1900, the British archaeologist Arthur Evans discovered tablets bearing an unknown script at a site in Crete. The race to decipher Linear B took half a century. Fox tells the story of the decipherment like a thriller,…

I often serve this soup when I have people over for dinner, says Karoline Jönsson: I like the fact that you can make it in advance and then just reheat it. It’s so good that, usually, all the talking stops completely when it’s served, and is replaced by a chorus of slurping. Sardinian fennel and chickpea soup Serves 4-6 1 large fennel bulb (approx. 300g) 3 tbsp olive oil 1 brown onion, sliced 2 large garlic cloves, crushed 6-7 tbsp of chopped fresh parsley 3 potatoes, peeled and finely diced 350g plum tomatoes, diced 350g cooked chickpeas 100g small pasta shapes salt and black pepper • Cut the fronds from the fennel and chop them finely. Cut the fennel in half and trim a thin slice off the base. Slice…

Aloof French president whose common touch failed Valéry Giscard d’Estaing 1926-2020 Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, who has died aged 94, was a “constant puzzle to his countrymen”, said The Times. A “suave yet aloof” politician of the centre-right, he was the product of an elite, haute-bourgeois background, and made much of his noble antecedents – yet on entering the Élysée Palace in 1974, he tried to come across as a man of the people. He wore ordinary business suits (instead of ceremonial dress); entertained dustmen for breakfast; visited bistros; and played the accordion on TV, while his aristocratic wife, Anne-Aymone, was photographed cooking in their kitchen. Meanwhile, he pursued a modernising agenda, relaxing the laws on divorce – in the teeth of fierce opposition from the Catholic Church – and even…

In a dramatic 11th-hour intervention that could save up to 12,000 jobs, the retail tycoon Mike Ashley has “revived his interest in taking over the struggling department-store chain Debenhams”, said Sam Chambers in The Sunday Times. A deal to buy the 242-year-old group would bring “much-needed relief” to Britain’s reeling high streets: Debenhams had looked set to disappear “for good” after JD Sports ditched a buy-out offer last week. It would also “mark a happy culmination to Ashley’s dogged and often rancorous pursuit of Debenhams”: he lost an estimated £150m last year when his shares were wiped out in a debt-for-equity swap. “Let it go, Mike” is never a line that works with the stubborn Sports Direct founder, said Nils Pratley in The Guardian. He was bound to show up…

A profound shift for the City Jonathan Ford Financial Times “Despite early warnings of mass departures”, the impact of Brexit has so far been relatively “limited” in the City, says Jonathan Ford. About 10,000 jobs – 4% of the total – have gone, although more are expected. In the long run, activity tends to follow assets, and around £1.2trn (or 14%) of the City’s banking assets have been moved since 2016 – mostly to Frankfurt. “Looking beyond the short-term disruption, however, many believe that Brexit is likely to mark a much more profound shift.” For the past half century, the City has benefited from being “both an onshore and offshore financial centre” – onshore to the EU, offshore to the rest of the world – creating a deep pool of…

The week’s best shares Avon Rubber Investors Chronicle The protective kit specialist has sold its dairy equipment arm, and profits have surged. Numerous contracts, including those for the US defence department. Should now benefit from the UK defence spending boost. Buy. £42.85. Ceres Power The Times This loss-making tech engineer develops fuel cells using various energy sources, including electricity, biomass and hydrogen, for powering vehicles and homes. A punt on a potential winner in a growing market. Buy. 859p. Costco Wholesale The Daily Telegraph This cautiously expanding wholesaler operates no-frills membership warehouse shopping, focused on high-quality at low prices. Products are about 30% cheaper than on Amazon. Annual sales and profits growth are both around 7%. Buy. $387. Paragon Banking Group The Times Borrowers in arrears have fallen to 0.15%,…