Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1314 i The Week

What happened The Covid emergency In a stark intervention reflecting mounting concern over the lack of compliance with lockdown rules, Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty this week warned that the UK is entering its “most dangerous” phase of the pandemic. If people refused to stay at home, he said, surging Covid case numbers could overwhelm the NHS within a fortnight. His sobering intervention coincided with news that the UK death toll from the virus had now reached 84,767. On Tuesday, 1,564 people were reported to have died from the virus in the UK – the biggest daily total of the entire pandemic. In London, Mayor Sadiq Khan declared a “major incident”, saying the virus’s spread was “out of control”. Scotland tightened restrictions on Wednesday. On a more upbeat note, the…

Elon Musk, who became the world’s richest person when his net worth exceeded $185bn (£136bn) (see page 41). “How strange,” remarked the Tesla and SpaceX entrepreneur on Twitter. Sex and the City fans, with news that a new ten-part series based on the hit 1990s show is in the works. Three of the show’s female stars will reunite for the reboot, And Just Like That, but Kim Cattrall, who played Samantha Jones, has ruled herself out. Richard Sharp, who was appointed chairman of the BBC. An ex-banker, Sharp, 64, was Rishi Sunak’s boss at Goldman Sachs.…

Local and mayoral elections due to take place on 6 May may be delayed because of the difficulty of holding them while distancing rules are in place. The Cabinet Office is believed to be working on plans to delay the votes until the summer. There have also been calls for elections to the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly, also due on 6 May, to be postponed. Labour has accused the PM of trying to secure a “vaccine bump” by delaying the English votes until the worst of the Covid crisis is over.…

Dublin Dramatic Covid spike: Ireland has emerged as the world’s latest coronavirus hotspot. In early December, the country came out of a six-week lockdown with the lowest infection rate in Europe. But cases have since rocketed, and by the start of this week, Ireland had the highest infection rate in the world. In the seven days to Monday, some 46,000 people were infected with Covid – that’s more than were infected in the seven months from March through to September; and it gives Ireland a daily infection rate of 132 cases per 100,000 people. The spike has been blamed on a “perfect storm” of factors, including the decision to allow socialising between households over Christmas, the reopening of restaurants, and the appearance of the more transmissable variant of the virus…

1 Zombie by Fela Kuti, performed by Fela Kuti and Afrika 70 2 Roll On Buddy, written and performed by Aunt Molly Jackson 3 Black Mountain Blues by Bessie Smith, Ed Allen and Steve Stevens, performed by Bessie Smith 4 Just the Other Day, written and performed by Dr Alimantado 5* Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground, written and performed by Blind Willie Johnson 6 Last Kind Words, written and performed by Geeshie Wiley 7 You Can’t Blame The Youth (Live at The Record Plant ‘73) by Peter Tosh, performed by Bob Marley & The Wailers 8 Precious Lord, Take My Hand / You’ve Got a Friend by Thomas A. Dorsey, Frank Frazier and Carole King, performed by Aretha Franklin Book: An Age Like This, 1920-40 by George…

Arguably the most significant feature of the UK’s new settlement with Europe doesn’t even feature in the TCA: it was settled by the Withdrawal Agreement last January. The Protocol on Northern Ireland replaced Theresa May’s “backstop”, but it had the same aim: to prevent a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, by placing Northern Ireland in the EU’s single market for goods and by having it apply EU customs rules at its ports. This created a new trade border in the Irish Sea, which many see as a threat to the integrity of the UK: all sitting Northern Irish MPs at Westminster voted against the TCA. When the PM declared, late last year, “We have taken back control of laws and our destiny”, it did not…

The shocking failure of the Capitol police Garrett M. Graff Politico The storming of the US Capitol last week must surely represent the “greatest policing failure in American history”, says Garrett M. Graff. The authorities had ample warning of possible unrest, yet when the trouble kicked off, the Capitol Police (USCP) – a 2,000-strong body with a budget of more than $460m, whose sole job is to guard two square miles of Washington DC – simply collapsed. Officers retreated in disarray, ceding control of one of the world’s supposedly most secure buildings to a ragtag mob. There appeared to be no contingency plans, no quick reaction force on hand, no “multi-perimeter, defence-in-depth strategies”. One might have expected this of the USCP 25 years ago, when it was little more than…

Around the world, engineers are developing new technologies to stave off the climate crisis – and their efforts are being transformative, said Robin McKie in The Guardian. Electric cars are starting to oust petrol and diesel ones, and wind and solar plants are generating more and more of our electricity. But these changes, vital as they may be, are not entirely “green”. For instance, lithium and cobalt are required to make batteries for electric cars, and to store power from wind farms. Demand for both is growing rapidly; but 60% of the world’s cobalt comes from DR Congo, where children as young as seven work in unregulated mines. These produce waste that pollutes local rivers, while lithium mining has led to devastating toxic leaks, and requires huge amounts of water…

“We British like to think of ourselves as a moderate people,” said Stephen Glover in the Daily Mail, and most of us believe that our police are “equally measured and sensible”. Not for us the “heavy-handed policing which is the bane of European countries”. But is all that changing under the pandemic? Are lockdown rules bringing out a “latent authoritarianism” among those who enforce the law? “Are we even witnessing disquieting signs of a prototype police state?” That may sound “fanciful”, but we are seeing worrying trends. Fines of £200 are being handed out willy-nilly, as in the case of two young women who were penalised by Derbyshire Police for driving to the country for a walk. People have been cautioned for sitting on benches, and having snowball fights. The…

The third round of the FA Cup – the stage at which Premier League clubs enter the fray – can be relied on to throw up David vs. Goliath clashes, said Henry Winter in The Times. And this year it featured the biggest mismatch in the competition’s history: a clash between Merseyside-based Marine FC – a team made up of “teachers and students, bin-men and plumbers” – and eight-time champions Tottenham Hotspur. Marine compete in the eighth tier of English football, and are currently 161 league places below Spurs, said Sam Carroll in the Liverpool Echo. Most years, they get eliminated from the FA Cup in the qualifying stages; this season, however, a series of unlikely victories – including a penalties win over Colchester – secured them a third-round berth.…

A day to forget To The Guardian Donald Trump tells the rioters: “Remember this day forever!”. That’s exactly the danger. America’s 6 January 2021 recalls France’s 6 February 1934. That day, right-wing crowds, fuelled by anti-Semitic fantasies and fascist myths, tried to storm the Assemblée nationale and overthrow parliamentary democracy. They were beaten off (15 people died), but they remembered that day as a moment of patriotic sacrifice, and the boast that “I was there on 6 February” inspired the ultra-right collaborators in the murderous Milice, who hunted down resisters and Jews during the Nazi occupation a few years later. Now the “veterans” of 6 January in Washington will treasure their memories and wait for their hour to return. Trumpism goes underground, distilling its venom. Neal Ascherson, London Let Trump…

In shock over the revelations about Philip, David and Ruth feel terrible about the work done at Brookfield using slave labour; David kicks himself for never questioning Philip’s low rates. As Justin scrambles to limit the damage of BL’s dealings with Philip, Martyn tells Justin he must take the blame, forcing him to resign. A shaken Kirsty tells Lynda the truth about the Grey Gables explosion and Philip’s cover-up. At Berrow Farm, DC Tanners interviews Neil about Philip’s business, making him feel like he’s the criminal. On a walk up Lakey Hill, Lynda urges Robert to let go of his rage over Philip’s crimes. Later, Alan asks her to help him in an online service to comfort the villagers. As Emma tells Clarrie of the excitement around her and Eddie’s…

Cautious hope for restaurateurs The latest lockdown is, by any standards, a cruel further blow to the hospitality industry. But for those restaurants that make it through this period of further restrictions, there “may well be a sunny glow on the horizon”, said Jay Rayner in The Observer. History teaches us that sustained deprivation creates a “pent-up appetite for fun”. And one of the “inequities” of this pandemic is that while it has devastated the finances of millions, many of those who have remained fully employed have seen their bank balances swell – and are looking forward to being able to go out and spend their money again. While “predicting a boom may be the product of wishful thinking”, insiders expect the sector to rebound strongly in the spring and…

The Daily Telegraph Can a battery-powered SUV crossover be a “proper” Mustang? Ford is hoping so. The maker “needs to sell some electric cars quickly” if it is to avoid large EU and UK fines for failing to meet its CO2 targets, and it has “done good work” making the Mach-E appealing, with no blue oval Ford badging and only the iconic pony. The Mustang could be “a drivers’ choice” in a crowded market. What Car? The spacious interior of the Mach-E isn’t like that of “any other model in the Ford line-up”. It has a huge 15.5in central infotainment screen, which lets you control most of the car’s functions. It’s not always intuitive, but you do get Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.There’s a full-width Bang & Olufsen speaker bar…

Signature Aviation: dogfight Demand for private aviation has soared as the world’s wealthy shun commercial flights in favour of “lower-risk” options, said Lex in the FT. Hence, perhaps, the scramble for Signature, the British engineer, formerly known as BBA, which is an essential supplier to private-jet operators. News that private equity giant Blackstone had teamed up with Bill Gates’s investment group Cascade to table a potential £3.1bn offer lured in another, successful suitor – New York’s Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) – which raised the stakes to £3.43bn. London-listed Signature, whose biggest customer is Warren Buffettowned NetJets, operates 370 private-jet bases globally. It was one of a “dwindling band” of UK aerospace firms, said Alex Brummer in the Daily Mail. Having “long held competitive advantage” in this sector, the UK…

A country where no one is untouchable Leo Lewis Financial Times The “sinister invisibility” of Alibaba founder Jack Ma suggests the Chinese state is determined to show “that nobody, and no business, is untouchable”, says Leo Lewis. China’s most famous businessman disappeared in October after making a “calamitous” speech criticising both Chinese regulators and the country’s state-owned banks. Soon after, the $37bn flotation of his financial tech conglomerate Ant Group was pulled. We don’t know yet whether Ma’s retreat was “forced” or “judiciously self-imposed”. The bleakest interpretation is that – egged on by bank supremos – President Xi has followed Russia’s President Putin in “cutting down a billionaire challenger and seizing the source of his strength” (as Putin did to the Yukos oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 2003). China’s own history…

“In the end, two billionaires from California did what legions of politicians, prosecutors and power brokers had tried and failed to do for years,” said Kevin Roose in The New York Times. “They pulled the plug on President Trump.” Twitter last Friday permanently suspended the president’s account, citing “the risk of further incitement of violence”, after last week’s deadly riot on the Capitol. The day before, Facebook banned him at least until the end of his term. These companies like to pretend they act according to “due process”, but ultimately the decisions were made by their chief executives, Jack Dorsey of Twitter and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, under pressure from liberal opinion generally and their own employees. It “was a watershed moment in the history of social media”. Instagram, Snapchat,…

Jake Angeli, the “QAnon shaman” photographed storming the US Capitol, with reports that he is suffering in pre-trial detention because the jail doesn’t serve organic food. His mother told a judge that “he gets very sick if he doesn’t eat organic”. Officials have now been told to ensure his dietary requirements are met. British hauliers, who found that Brexit had complicated their lunch arrangements. Truck drivers arriving at the Dutch border last week were filmed having their ham sandwiches confiscated by border officials, who explained that, owing to new import regulations, they can no longer bring dairy and meat products into the EU. “Welcome to Brexit,” said one official. Chartwells, an outsourcing firm, which was summoned to the Department for Education to explain why the taxpayer-funded free school meal packages…

43% of Britons think Boris Johnson should resign as Prime Minister; 40% think he should stay on. Among Tory voters, 87% think Johnson should stay on, and 7% think he should resign. 20% of voters believe Keir Starmer should resign as Labour leader, and 52% say he should stay on. Opinium/Observer In a poll taken after Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol last week, 56% of Americans said he should be removed from office; 43% said he should not. Among Democrats, 94% said he should be removed, but only 13% of Republicans did. 67% of Americans said Trump was to blame for the chaos at the Capitol; 15% said he bore none of the responsibility. ABC News/Ipsos Mori/ Independent…

“It’s easy to become disheartened when we see or hear of people wilfully flouting the lockdown rules. Personally, though, I don’t think we should let it get us down. This type of fecklessness is nothing new. During the Second World War, there were, believe it or not, 925,000 prosecutions for failure to comply with the blackout rules. Almost a million. A startling number of British people who failed to follow regulations designed to prevent themselves, and their neighbours, getting bombed to kingdom come. It’s made me see Chief Air Raid Warden Hodges from Dad’s Army in a whole new light. I used to think of him as a jumped-up little fusspot. Now I view him as a cruelly maligned hero.” Michael Deacon in The Daily Telegraph…

Something to cheer about amid the gloom Matt Ridley The Daily Telegraph Britain has got so many things wrong during this pandemic, says Matt Ridley, it’s easy to overlook one it got right: our scientific performance. Even The New York Times, never slow to denigrate the UK, noted last week that we’ve sequenced far more viral genomes than any other nation. It’s partly a result of our pioneering research in DNA profiling, but it’s also due to the government decision in March to invest £20m in setting up the Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium, which pulled together expertise from across the country. Another British breakthrough has been the Recovery Trial, also set up in March. The world’s largest clinical trial of treatments for Covid-19, it has proved invaluable in identifying the…

Early humans hibernated Animals from bears to dormice survive the winter by sleeping through it. Now there is evidence that hundreds of thousands of years ago, early humans hibernated too. Scientists examining fossilised human remains uncovered at a cave in northern Spain called Sima de los Huesos (the pit of bones) have found indications that bone growth was disrupted for several months a year. These include lesions symptomatic of particular diseases, which, they say, the hominids probably contracted as a result of “poorly tolerated hibernation in dark cavernous hibernacula”. Similar lesions are found on the bones of animals that hibernate. The researchers admit that it sounds like “science fiction”, but they point out that many primates hibernate; and it makes sense that the hominids would have entered a metabolic state,…

“Don’t worry – they won’t cancel exams again,” I assured my 15-year-old son before Christmas, said Katherine Forster in The Spectator. His elder brother’s A-levels had been called off in the summer, but there wouldn’t be another last-minute retreat – not after Education Secretary Gavin Williamson had just given a “cast-iron guarantee” that exams would go ahead in England. But then, of course, up popped Williamson last week to say that exams were being cancelled after all. As for what form of assessment will take their place, a consultation is under way and a plan will be in place by late February. In the meantime, with no exams to prepare for, what are students meant to focus on? How can they “stay motivated, stuck at home and with everything up…

The Third Test between Australia and India, which ended in a draw on Monday, was, in cricketing terms, an absolute belter, said Jack Skelton on BBC Sport. With this thrilling series poised at 1-1, Australia dominated much of the match, and set India a fourth-innings target of 407. Undaunted, the tourists went for victory – for a while, it looked as if they might “pull off the third-highest fourth-innings chase in Test history” – before settling for a draw. Alas, pulsating cricket isn’t what this match will be remembered for, said Adam Shergold in the Daily Mail. On two separate days, India’s cricketers complained to the umpires that sections of the Sydney crowd were racially abusing them. During the second of these incidents, play was held up for ten minutes…

To the FT Asian capitalistic and free market democracies such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea stand out in having effectively combated the virus because they are collectivist and less individualistic than their Western counterparts. Collectivism stands for group loyalty and obedience to superiors. These characteristics help explain their success in containing the virus given that their contingency-planning-minded authorities very early on decided on the correct ways to fight the virus. In this connection, a special prize should go to Taiwan. Given the experience of Sars in 2003, the head of Taiwan’s Centres for Disease Control, Professor Su Ih-Jen, devised a unique management structure in which infectious disease specialists have equal rank with government ministers. Legislation was passed allowing them to override politics and provide a legal basis for…

Steve Earle & the Dukes: J.T. New West £11 Justin Townes (“J.T.”) Earle, who died of an overdose in August aged 38, was a talented singer-songwriter cut from “the same mould” as his more famous father, Steve Earle, said Neil Spencer in The Observer. J.T. had the “same mix of Americana influences, the same wearied twang to his vocals, the same inspired way with a lyric” – and, alas, the same personal demons. On this farewell album to his beloved son, Steve Earle reprises ten of J.T.’s songs, and the results are made all the more moving by the fact that he “delivers the songs straight, only occasionally letting a sense of loss intrude”. There’s a sense of catharsis here; many of the tracks are “up-tempo, upbeat anthems to carefree…

“Sharp-witted, sexy but never sentimental”, Netflix’s new regency romance, Bridgerton, is just the kind of “bingeable” television we need right now, said Sarah Hughes in The Daily Telegraph. Adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling novels, it centres on an aristocratic family of eight children – the Bridgertons – as they negotiate the “treacherous waters” of the London season. It’s like Jane Austen, then, but with less concern for “the (often bitter) realities of life”. The first series focuses on the beautiful Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) and the eligible Duke of Hastings (Regé-Jean Page). They make an “appealing” pair – but all the characters – including Julie Andrews’s narrator – are “fully imagined”. The series “feels about as English in spirit as Dallas”, said Ed Cumming in The Independent, and shows scant concern…

Best books… Roy Foster The historian and literary biographer chooses five books for “the examined life”. His latest book is On Seamus Heaney (Princeton University Press £14.99), a short study of the life and work of the Irish poet The Grey Goose of Kilnevin by Patricia Lynch, 1939 (Puffin, out of print). The kind of children’s book that stays with you forever. The arrested-development rural, mid-20th century Ireland, its little towns, country fairs and lonely roads peopled by talking animals, angry Travelling-people, ballad singers and lost children – all bent on a quest for home. Station Island by Seamus Heaney, 1984 (Faber, £10.99). Chosen not only for its tremendous title poem – an autobiographical pilgrimage through past lives and literary inspirations – but also for the freewheeling “Sweeney” poems. A…

One of the upsides of literary events moving online has been access to festivals beyond the local. An annual highlight in Ireland, the Borris Festival of Writing and Ideas presents its Winter Series of online conversations, including Ruby Wax with Alastair Campbell on 22 January, and Carl Bernstein with Fintan O’Toole on 30 March (festivalofwritingand ideas.com ). Closer to home, 5x15 brings together Max Porter and Booker Prizewinning American author George Saunders to talk about his latest novel, A Swim in the Pond in the Rain; 7pm on 9 February (5x15.com).…

Serves 4 3-4 tbsp olive or vegetable oil 700g chestnut mushrooms, thickly sliced ½ a large celeriac (about 500g), peeled and cut into 2cm cubes a large thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, grated 4 garlic cloves, sliced 2 x 400g tins of beans (black, white or kidney), drained and rinsed a bunch of spring onions, trimmed a bunch of chard (200g), washed about 2 tbsp white/shiro miso paste (optional) 2 tbsp soy sauce juice of 2 limes or 1 lemon, plus extra to taste sea salt and black pepper 3-4 tbsp chopped coriander, to finish (optional) • Set a large frying pan over a high heat. Add 2 tbsp of the oil, then half the mushrooms with a pinch of salt. Fry them “hard” for 6-8 minutes, stirring only occasionally…

Neato Robotics D701 Intelligent Robot Vacuum Particularly good for carpet, this vacuum has mapping technology in its app that lets you set “no-go” lines. Its D shape means it can reach corners, and the battery lasts for 120 minutes (£491.30; amazon.co.uk). iRobot Roomba 980 Roomba is the best-known brand for robot vacuums. Its top models cost over £1,500; this mid-range one is versatile, clever and runs for two hours on a charge (£799; currys.co.uk). Dyson 360 Heurist Dyson claims this model learns and maps terrain as it goes; it also lets you set restricted zones. It gives a great clean, and moving on tank-like tracks instead of wheels, it adapts easily to different surfaces (£800; dyson.co.uk). Proscenic 820S Robot Vacuum Cleaner This budget model comes with a handy remote control.…

Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey said the British economy is facing its “darkest hour” in the Covid-19 crisis; BoE policymakers believe the country is already in the grip of a “double-dip recession”. Bailey said that GDP ended 2020 “around 10% lower than at the end of 2019” – the sharpest annual decline since 1920. The onslaught of a third lockdown means it is likely to fall again in Q1 this year. Monetary policy committee member Silvana Tenreyro repeated her call for negative interest rates to stimulate the economy. But the governor played down the idea. A survey by the Federation of Small Businesses found that a record 250,000 UK small firms expect to fold this year.US crude prices reached $50/barrel for the first time since the pandemic began, spurred…

● Rolling forward For “cold-blooded markets”, the big political event last week wasn’t so much the lawless mob storming the Capitol, but the resumption of business as usual in America, said Michael Mackenzie in the FT. After a brief wobble on Wednesday, US and global equities continued their “recent trend of setting all-time highs”. Investors were looking past the chaos to the transfer of presidential power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden on 20 January and a potential “year of opportunity”. An evenly divided Senate (with Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris breaking ties) will “give the Democratic Party more leeway to push through a spending boost to support the economy”, even as the rolling out of vaccines gathers pace. What’s not to like? ● Micro vs. macro “On both sides of the…

Elon Musk Tesla’s rocket man has reached a new milestone, said Austin Carr on Bloomberg. He is now the richest person on the planet. What a far cry from the “darkest days” of 2017, when Tesla was under siege from the “bears” and Musk, mired in scandal, reached out to Apple boss Tim Cook to explore a sale of his electric car-maker. “Cook refused to take the meeting.” Musk’s success rides on pursuing goals that seem “completely delusional”, as he put it in 2017. The Musk hype cycle typically starts with “wild promises, followed by product delays, production hell, shareholder anger and finally, hopefully, redemption”. Tesla’s very existence is evidence of this trajectory. Congratulating his team, Musk recently tweeted: “At the start... I thought we had (optimistically) a 10% chance…

For the first time ever, Kurt Geiger has not included a single pair of high heels in its new collection. Reflecting the way that the pandemic has accelerated the move away from formal wear, the retailer – once synonymous with four-inch stilettos – is instead focusing solely on flats and trainers. It told The Sunday Times that there had been a “complete reversal” of trends over the past five years. The world’s biggest plumbing firm has launched a smart lavatory that claims to monitor users’ physical and mental well-being by analysing their waste, and scanning their bodies. The Wellness Toilet – unveiled by Japanese firm Toto at the Consumer Electronics Show – then sends its “wellness improvement” recommendations to an app.…

The Government is imposing measures to prevent the import of goods linked to alleged human rights abuses in China, the Foreign Secretary announced this week. The aim, said Dominic Raab, is to “ensure no company that profits from forced labour in Xinjiang can do business in the UK, and that no UK business is involved in their supply chains”. Deterrent fines will be imposed on firms that fail to show due diligence in making sure there is no slave labour in their supply chains; procurement rules will exclude suppliers with links to rights abuses; and export controls to Xinjiang province will be reviewed.…

Whitehaven, Cumbria Green light for coal: Robert Jenrick, the Communities Secretary, has declined to challenge the building of a controversial new deep coal mine in Whitehaven – the first facility of its kind to gain planning approval in 30 years. Cumbria Council gave its blessing to plans put forward by West Cumbria Mining (WCM) last year, but under planning laws, the Government has the right to reverse the decision. Yet despite opposition from environmental groups and local Lib Dem MP Tim Farron, Jenrick confirmed last week that he would not intervene. WCM says the mine will extract 2.5 million tonnes of coal a year and create 500 jobs, but Friends of the Earth’s Tony Bosworth claims the “jaw-dropping” decision will totally undermine the UK’s credibility at the UN climate summit…

Greta Thunberg turns 18 It’s hard to believe that Greta Thunberg has just turned 18, says Rosie Kinchen in The Sunday Times. It feels only yesterday that she first made global headlines, as an impish 15-year-old, by inspiring the “school strike” movement and accusing world leaders of stealing her future. She was never an obvious candidate for the spotlight: as a child she was precocious, but she was bullied at school and developed an eating disorder. Eventually, she was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. “It definitely helped me,” she says of her diagnosis. “You could understand yourself better. You understand why you aren’t like the others, why I’m so socially awkward and so on.” Now, she refers to the condition as her superpower. “Some people see Asperger’s or ADHD or any…

Residents of a neighbourhood in New York are being “terrorised by a highly aggressive squirrel”, The Guardian reports. At least three people in Rego Park, Queens, have been bitten by the “deranged” animal of late, including Micheline Frederick, who was attacked last month. “The squirrel ran up my leg... the next thing I knew the blood started to fly,” she said. “It was angry, vicious and incredibly strong.” City officials have now hired a trapper to apprehend the squirrel. A children’s TV show about a man with a giant penis has sparked fierce debate in Denmark. John Dillermand, which loosely means “John penis man”, is broadcast on the Danish version of the BBC, and features the title character using his prodigious member to hoist a flag, tame a lion and…

CHINA Where in the world is Jack Ma? Nikkei Asia (Tokyo) Jack Ma hasn’t been seen in over two months, says William Pesek. The vanishing of the billionaire owner of the Chinese tech giant Alibaba has sparked fevered speculation (see page 45). His unexplained absence follows the forced cancellation in November of Ma’s plans to offer $37bn of shares in his Ant Group, an affiliate of Alibaba, in what would have been the biggest IPO in history. Beijing says it pulled the plug on the IPO for “financial stability”. In reality, it was “torpedoed” after Ma launched a blistering attack on China’s financial regulators, and accused the country’s state-owned banks of a “pawnshop mentality”. Ma isn’t the first high-profile business figure to disappear from view after criticising China: in March,…

Archaeologists excavating the site of a reconstructed Iron Age village in Pembrokeshire were shocked by the amount of debris that had been left behind by visitors over the past 35 years or so. The village at Castell Henllys is a popular tourist attraction and education centre, built on the site of an original Iron Age village. When two of its roundhouses came to the end of their lifespan and were due to be demolished, the team from Liverpool University asked to excavate them so they could learn more about how original Iron Age structures would have decayed. They had anticipated that during the excavation they’d come across some litter, but were taken aback by the sheer amount of it. Although the site is regularly cleaned, and the roundhouses had looked…

Concern is growing that Matt Hancock may be conducting Zoom TV interviews from his downstairs lavatory. The Health Secretary was interviewed about the state of the vaccination roll-out for the BBC and Sky last weekend, from a small room with red walls adorned with frames and bookcases. “Is Matt Hancock doing interviews from his toilet,” asked one Twitter user. “It looks like he’s trapped in the most middle-class toilet ever,” said another. Still another suggested that “he must have a laptop on the cistern and be sitting backwards on the bog”. He’s best known for shaking his maracas in a drug haze as the Happy Mondays’ dancer – but “Madchester” icon Bez has now launched his own lockdown exercise classes. In a new YouTube series, Get Buzzin’ With Bez, the…

“If we winter this one out, we can summer anywhere.” Seamus Heaney, quoted in The Times “I’m sure genius is largely a question of energy.” J.G. Farrell, quoted in The Irish Times “Revenge is a confession of pain.” Latin proverb, quoted in Forbes “The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike.” Delos Banning McKown, quoted in The San Francisco Chronicle “Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes.” John le Carré, quoted in The Economist “For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. / And next year’s words await another voice.” T.S. Eliot, quoted in the I newspaper “Always take the offensive. The defensive ain’t worth a damn.” US senator Huey Long, quoted in The New Yorker “A man is…

They call the Australian Open the “Happy Slam”, said Stuart Fraser in The Times. It’s not a label likely to chime with this year’s event. With some 1,270 people arriving in Melbourne for the tournament, details have emerged of the Covid-19 protocols that will be enforced – and the penalties for any breach. Players and their teams, who must travel on one of 18 charter flights, will arrive in Melbourne under police guard, and will then have to spend 14 days quarantining in their hotels, allowed out for “no more than five hours a day to train at Melbourne Park”. Those who break quarantine “could be liable for a fine of up to £11,500” and even face arrest or deportation. No great surprise that Roger Federer – who usually travels…

Last year, the BBC put 39 classic films from RKO – one of the major studios of Hollywood’s Golden Age – on iPlayer. Here are some of the highlights of the Silver Screen Favourites strand: Top Hat Often held to be the best of the ten films Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers made together, this 1935 musical has a silly romantic plot, great music by Irving Berlin, and some of the most breathtaking dance numbers ever captured on film. Bringing Up Baby Howard Hawks’s 1938 screwball comedy stars Cary Grant as a stuffy palaeontologist and Katharine Hepburn as the unhinged heiress who turns his world upside down. Involving a pet leopard called Baby, it’s a heady mix of manic dialogue, madcap plot and wild physical comedy. Cary Grant fans will…

Francis Bacon (1909-1992) had a “lifelong fascination” with the animal kingdom, said Mark Brown in The Guardian. He liked to watch chimps at the zoo and big game in South Africa; he amassed a huge collection of wildlife books. And he painted bulls, dogs, horses, birds of prey and baboons. The artist believed that “he could see true, normally camouflaged, human nature in animals”, and that only a veneer of civility separated man from beast. When pandemic restrictions are lifted in the coming months, the Royal Academy will play host to a stellar selection of Bacon’s works in an exhibition that will, for the first time, chart his development as an artist through his fascination with animals – tracing his career from the 1930s, when he created his earliest paintings,…

Tips of the week... how to grow an avocado plant ● Large avocado trees that bear fruit need warmth and moisture, so grow well in conservatories or greenhouses. ● A smaller houseplant, however, can be easily grown from an avocado stone and should live for three or four years. ● Take a stone and shave a thin slice off the pointed end. Then plant it in light soil with the newly blunted end just above soil level. ● Keep it in a dark, warm place, such as an airing cupboard, and keep the soil moist. ● Alternatively, stick four cocktail sticks in a stone’s sides and suspend it pointed side up in a glass of regularly topped up water. Pot it when it starts to root. ● It can take…

French chef who helped transform Britain’s restaurant scene Albert Roux 1935-2021 Albert Roux, who has died aged 85, had a passion for fine dining that dated back to his childhood in Paris, said The Times. “I’m afraid I was always exposed to good food and can’t resist it,” he once confessed. “I’m overweight, I have a bad back, and I suffer for it...” In the 1960s he brought his love of French cuisine to England, and with his brother Michel, he revolutionised the “staid British restaurant scene” when he opened Le Gavroche in London. Serving such unashamedly luxurious dishes as gruyère-clad soufflé Suissesse and a lobster mousse with caviar and champagne butter sauce, it was the first British restaurant to win one, then two and finally three Michelin stars, and…

Prepare for a stomping big float, said the Financial Times. Dr. Martens, the classic British boot brand favoured by everyone from skinheads to fashionistas, is planning to float in London, in “one of the first big IPOs of 2021”. The company, 75% owned by the private equity group Permira, comes to market on a roll. “The brand name has always been much bigger than the business,” said CEO Kenny Wilson, but in recent years “we have taken the business to a completely different level.” Indeed, the pandemic has proved a boon for the gritty boot manufacturer. Dr. Martens sold 700,000 more pairs year-on-year in the six months to October, many via its online shop. The company likes to “emphasise the variety of its offerings”, said Saabira Chaudhuri in The Wall…

Is it a plane, is it a bird? Nope it’s bitcoin, which last week soared to a new record above $40,000 per unit in frenzied trading – a doubling of the price since early December. No wonder the City watchdog is concerned, said The Daily Telegraph. The Financial Conduct Authority has warned investors in the cryptocurrency to be prepared for “massive losses”. The price duly plunged before clawing back some ground this week. “You could have lost 25% by getting your timing wrong in the last couple of days,” said Nils Pratley in The Guardian – another example of bitcoin’s “price silliness”. Regulators seem most concerned about “unregulated firms pushing implausible promises of sky-high returns” from bitcoin “investment schemes”. Quite right, too. It’s worth reminding punters that they “almost certainly…

The week’s best shares Associated British Foods The Sunday Telegraph Sales and margins are rising at ABF’s global grocery business, and its loyally followed fashion chain, Primark, has gained UK market share (about 50% of offline) and is expanding in the US. Undervalued. Buy. £22.19. Grafton Group The Mail On Sunday Grafton owns builders’ merchants, including Buildbase and Selco, and is expanding into bespoke staircases and quality ironmongery via acquisitions in December. Well-run with good potential and geographical spread. Buy. 957p. Phoenix Group The Times The “colossal” retirement specialist and life insurer is cash-generative, thanks to its closed life funds. Underwriting pension schemes is lucrative, and there are good cross-selling growth opportunities. Yields 6.7%. Buy. 724.5p. Premier Foods The Sunday Times The Mr Kipling and Bisto maker has benefited from…

Edwidge Danticat was born in Haiti in 1969, during the dictatorship of François “Papa Doc” Duvalier (1907-1971) – a totalitarian regime sustained by his fearsome paramilitary force, the Tonton Macoute, which indiscriminately killed those it perceived as Duvalier’s enemies. When Danticat was two, her father left to work as a cab driver in New York. Her mother, Rose, a seamstress, joined him two years later, leaving Edwidge and her younger brother in the care of their uncle, Joseph. She began writing at the age of nine. At 12, she joined her parents in Brooklyn, where the family lived in a heavily Haitian-American neighbourhood. She studied at the Ivy League Barnard College and, in 1993, gaining a master’s degree in creative writing from Brown University. Since the publication of her acclaimed…