Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1351 i The Week

What happened The UK’s 8,000 petrol stations came under siege last week as motorists, panicked by rumours of petrol shortages, rushed to fill up their cars causing lengthy tailbacks. The panic was sparked by a small-scale disruption to fuel deliveries resulting from a shortage of HGV drivers, which morphed into a crisis when motorists rushed to fill their tanks. The Petrol Retailers Association estimated that between 50% and 90% of its members were out of fuel on Sunday and Monday. The shortages led to ugly clashes on forecourts, and to calls for NHS staff and other key workers to get priority at the pumps. The Government put the Army on standby to help with deliveries if necessary. It also issued 5,000 visas to allow more foreign HGV drivers to work…

“Angela Merkel’s decision to quit Germany’s political stage after 16 years as chancellor left millions of votes up for grabs,” said Guy Chazan in the FT. In last Sunday’s election, “Olaf Scholz seized them with both hands – and won.” Scholz, the candidate of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), understood that the loyalty of many voters was to Merkel herself – pragmatic, dependable, experienced Merkel – rather than her party, the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU). As vice-chancellor and finance minister in Merkel’s coalition, Scholz presented himself as her “natural successor”, and ran an uncluttered campaign based on a higher minimum wage, stable pensions, affordable housing and a carbon-neutral economy. The canny strategy nudged his party just ahead of the CDU in the election results (see page 7), something few…

Berlin Coalition talks begin: Germany’s centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) won a narrow victory over the ruling centre-right CDU/CSU alliance in Sunday’s general election, taking 25.7% of the vote (and 206 seats in the 735-seat Bundestag); their centre-right rivals took 24.1% (and 196 seats). The result means that the SPD’s candidate for chancellor, Olaf Scholz (right), is the clear favourite to become Germany’s next leader, but weeks – conceivably months – of delicate coalition negotiations lie ahead. The most likely outcome is an SPD-led “traffic light” coalition, named for the parties’ respective colours, with the Greens (who were third with 14.8%) and the FDP (free-market liberals, fourth with 11.5%). This week, the two smaller parties met to agree a common negotiating position before starting talks with their suitors. Under the German…

1* American Girl by Tom Petty, performed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers 2 You Won’t See Me by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, performed by the Beatles 3 Nichols and May at Work, written and performed by Mike Nichols and Elaine May 4 That’s the Way of the World by Maurice White, Charles Stepney and Verdine White, performed by Earth, Wind & Fire 5 Every Day I Write the Book by Elvis Costello, performed by Elvis Costello and the Attractions 6 They Don’t Know, written and performed by Kirsty MacColl 7* You and I (We Can Conquer the World), written and performed by Stevie Wonder 8 This Is the Sea by Mike Scott, performed by the Waterboys Book: The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend Luxury: nuts * Choice if allowed only one record…

As the host nation of Cop26, the UK has a special onus to lead by example. So how is it faring? In some ways, pretty well. The Government has pledged to reach net zero by 2050, and committed in April to set in law a target to cut emissions by 78% by 2035 compared to 1990 levels – probably the most ambitious legally-binding target in the world, and a 60% reduction on today’s levels. What’s more, the independent Climate Change Committee (CCC) says the UK is currently on track to meet its target of a 37% cut in emissions on 1990 levels by 2022, largely because it has shifted away from coal to gas and renewable energy. In other ways, Britain still has much to do. It accounts for 1.1%…

An Indian model has been awarded 20 million rupees – almost £200,000 – by a judge in compensation for a badly botched hairdo. Lawyers for Aashna Roy said her request for four inches of her hair to be cut off was misconstrued – and it was instead shorn to just four inches long. Alas, she noticed only when she put her glasses back on at the end of the appointment at the salon in the ITC Maurya Hotel in Delhi. Awarding damages, a consumer court said the haircut caused her pain and trauma, and “completely changed her lifestyle and shattered her dream to be a top model”. The BBC’s choice of reporter to cover fuel shortages delighted viewers, who hailed it as a classic example of “nominative determinism”. Phil McCann’s…

CHINA Spare us from these ugly buildings Economic Observer (Beijing) China’s government is calling time on the fad for bizarre architecture, says Chen Zhe. In 2014, President Xi Jinping publicly complained about the “weird” landmark buildings that city authorities commission to compete for attention. But that didn’t dampen their ardour. The new shortlist for an “ugly buildings” competition, now in its 12th year, includes a massive church tower in Guangdong in the shape of a white violin, and a hotel in Inner Mongolia with a themed square featuring giant babushka dolls. Previous contenders were an “upside-down house” and a cultural centre shaped like a crab. The projects are a “misguided” attempt to attract business investment and tourists. They involve a “ridiculous” waste of resources; some are “white elephants” with no…

Conservationists have long been concerned that panda populations are being threatened by road building and other development. But according to a new study, making their habitats a little more uncomfortable might actually be good for them, in the long term. The contention, put forward by a team at Michigan State University, is that in peaceful forest settings, the bears are so contented, they can’t be bothered to go off in search of a mate, resulting in a serious lack of genetic diversity. Having analysed genetic diversity and spread in panda populations in China, the researchers found that the groups with the most diversity lived in areas where 20% of the land across their territory was unsuitable for habitation – because it was either too rugged, or affected by some form…

At Rushey Green Primary School in Catford, where Sabina Nessa taught Year One, she was “fondly known as the most glamorous teacher, and one of the kindest”, said Fiona Hamilton and John Simpson in The Times. Since the revelation of Nessa’s sudden death, shocked former colleagues have been struggling to comfort her distressed pupils. The 28-year-old was attacked and killed on Friday 17 September, on her way to meet a friend in a pub just five minutes’ walk away from her home in Kidbrooke, southeast London. Her body was found by a dog walker in nearby Cator Park the following day: a delivery driver, Koci Selamaj, has now been charged with her murder. Hundreds attended a vigil in a nearby square for Nessa last Friday, where her sister Jebina declared:…

If you’ve been driving around London over the past fortnight, “chances are you’ve been witness to a very special form of stupidity”, said Noel Yaxley on Reaction.life. On multiple occasions, protesters have blocked junctions of the M25, throwing paint, gluing themselves to the road, and creating hours of chaos for commuters. The group responsible, Insulate Britain – an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion – demands immediate action on home insulation. Most of us want to do the right thing by the environment, but it’s hard to see how being inconvenienced by a group of “upper-middleclass activists” will advance the cause. Zealots should at least practise what they preach, said Zoe Strimpel in The Sunday Telegraph. So it rather undermined the group’s credibility when its spokesman, Liam Norton, was asked on TV…

It was “supposed to be a formality”, said Josh Glancy in The Sunday Times – a “gentle speedbump” on Anthony Joshua’s route to a long-awaited showdown with Tyson Fury. It didn’t work out that way: at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday, 31-year-old Joshua surrendered his triple-heavyweight crown with a points defeat to 34-year-old Oleksandr Usyk. Joshua’s hopes of facing Fury – an all-British fight that would see the winner crowned undisputed heavyweight champion – now rest on him winning a rematch against the Ukrainian. Sadly for Joshua this was no freak result, said Gareth A. Davies in The Daily Telegraph. Usyk was simply the better boxer. Despite carrying a weight advantage of 19lbs, Joshua was “unable to land with brute force” on his fleet-footed opponent, whose darting movement proved decisive…

Panic talk creates panic To The Guardian Grant Shapps may be urging people to “be sensible” by not panic buying fuel, but stockpiling fuel when there are warnings about petrol pumps running dry is a perfectly sensible response. The problem of perceived scarcity leading to a vicious circle of panic buying and real scarcity, which then induces even more panic buying, is familiar to anyone with knowledge of the history of famines. Most infamously, the Bengal famine of 1943 in colonial India was not caused by an actual shortage of food, but rather an increase in demand, which eventually led to the unnecessary deaths of up to three million people. The fact that this famine took place under a Tory government is no coincidence. Elliott Green, associate professor, department of…

The Many Saints of Newark Dir: Alan Taylor (2hrs) (15) “Tony Soprano is back!”, said Kevin Maher in The Times. It’s been 14 years since the mobster was last seen, in the ambiguous closing scene of the TV drama, and eight since the actor who played him, James Gandolfini, died aged 51. Now, The Sopranos’ creator David Chase’s prequel has hit the cinemas – featuring Gandolfini’s own son, Michael, as the teenage Tony. He delivers a “soulful, sad-eyed turn that fills” the story with “crushing levels of authenticity”. But the focus of this “outlandishly satisfying” movie is not Tony but the man who becomes his mentor: mid-level mobster Dickie Moltisanti (his surname gives the film its title), who is played with “incendiary charisma” by Alessandro Nivola. Dickie is “silky smooth”…

You’ve got to admire the gumption of the curators at London’s Wallace Collection, said Alastair Sooke in The Daily Telegraph. At a moment when “museums and galleries are obsessed with diversity”, they have opened a show that “couldn’t be more pale, stale or male if it tried”. Frans Hals (c.1582-1666), was a Dutch Golden Age portraitist renowned for his likenesses of “rich and powerful men”, and best known for the Wallace’s “beloved” The Laughing Cavalier (1624) – that “primped and perfumed dandy”, with his “buoyant waxed moustache” and “smirking aura”. Yet however unfashionable the artist’s subject matter may now seem, Hals was a true pioneer who “revolutionised” portraiture, depicting his sitters with “swashbuckling brushwork”, and giving them an “immediate, sparky and natural” quality previously unknown in European painting. From his…

Top Gear “Sensuous Sportiness.” That’s how Hyundai describes the design philosophy behind the new i20, its answer to the Ford Fiesta, Peugeot 208, Volkswagen Polo and “leagues of other vastly popular superminis”. The new generation i20 is a more striking car than the one it replaces, which is just as well as it was “a nice enough thing”, but “quite tedious to look at, sit in and drive”. The Daily Telegraph On the inside, the new Hyundai looks quite smart, though owing to ribbed strakes covering the door panels, it looks as though they’ve been “half-inched from a Marvel villain’s costume”. And despite being a compact vehicle, it’s not at all cramped in either the front or the rear seats; in the back, the i20 is more spacious than most…

Lord Gowrie, who has died aged 81, was a somewhat unlikely member of Margaret Thatcher’s second Cabinet. A Byronic-looking aristocrat, he wrote poetry, was a former lecturer in American and English literature, and had a penchant for bow ties. He looked more like a flâneur than a Thatcherite politician, said The Guardian. The manner in which he left her government was unusual too. Gowrie was not driven out by scandal or incompetence. In 1985, he resigned as arts minister and chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, saying that it was quite impossible to live in central London on his salary of £33,000 a year. (At the time, this was a “comfortable executive salary.”) The furore and ridicule this prompted rather overshadowed his achievements, which included overseeing the inauguration of Antony…

The price of sterling fell to its lowest level against the dollar in eight months as the fuel crisis compounded fears of a UK economic slowdown. Stock markets across the US and Europe fell sharply on worries that prolonged inflation will push central banks to raise interest rates. The price of Brent crude oil hit $80 a barrel for the first time in nearly three years. Both the US Fed and the Bank of England indicated that their first post-pandemic interest rate rises would arrive sooner than expected. The latter has pencilled in early 2022, if not before. The teetering Chinese property giant Evergrande is to sell its $1.5bn stake in Shengjing Bank for $1.5bn to a state-owned asset management company to drum up funds. Beijing is reportedly “encouraging” state-owned…

● Looming disaster? China “perma-bears”, like fund manager Jim Chanos of Kynikos Associates, have been predicting a full-scale “China crisis” for years, said Niall Ferguson on Bloomberg. Could the saga of Evergrande – the embattled property giant – mark a turning point? If so, plenty of foreign investors are “on the wrong side” of the bet. In the 15 months to June 2021, they poured $527bn into Chinese stocks and bonds – with much of the cash finding its way, “via the offshore dollar bond market”, into high-yielding real estate debt. Funds holding Evergrande debt include BlackRock, Fidelity International, and UBS Asset Management. Millions of retail savers are exposed to the wider market via China, Asian and tech funds. The veteran financier George Soros recently warned that investors face “a…

Jony Ive Since leaving Apple two years ago, the iPhone’s British-born designer has been tinkering around with his own “creative collective”, LoveFrom, said Tim Bradshaw in the FT. Now a properly glamorous project has roared into view. Jony Ive is teaming up with Ferrari to help the Italian “supercar-maker” develop its first electric vehicle – part of an “alliance” struck with Ferrari’s parent Exor, the holding company of the Agnelli automotive dynasty. “As Ferrari owners and collectors, we could not be more excited,” raved Ive and his “long-time collaborator” Marc Newson. The deal will also open new vistas. Having recently staged “its first runway show” at its Maranello factory, Ferrari is pushing hard into “fashion”. Sidney Neuhaus and Jessica Warch Are “lab-grown” diamonds still a girl’s best friend? The founders…

What happened In his first in-person conference speech as Labour leader, Keir Starmer sought to bury the legacy of Jeremy Corbyn for good this week, declaring it time to get “serious” about winning elections, and that the party was now “back in business”. In a clear swipe at his predecessor, he said Labour must never again go into an election with “a manifesto that is not a serious plan for government”. And in a broadside directed at left-wingers who heckled throughout his 90-minute address, he said his party had a choice between “shouting slogans or changing lives”. His speech in Brighton was the finale to a conference overshadowed by infighting over planned changes to Labour’s rulebook. To add to Starmer’s difficulties, Andy McDonald, a Corbyn ally, quit as shadow employment…

The Lancet’s decision to describe women as “bodies with vaginas” on the cover of its latest issue has caused a furore. It is thought that the term – a quote from a review of an exhibition about menstruation – was an attempt to describe women as biological entities while acknowledging that some women (such as trans women) might not possess a vagina. Critics pointed out that the term dehumanised women. Editor Richard Horton later apologised for any offence caused. A new trend is said to be sweeping the world of interior design: cardboard furniture. The Daily Mail reports that a company in Berlin is specialising in the lightweight, recyclable units, which include beds, coffee tables and shelving sets. All come in pale brown.…

New York Kelly guilty: The American singer R. Kelly has been found guilty of exploiting his superstar status to run a decades-long criminal scheme that recruited and sexually abused women and children. Kelly, 54, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was convicted by a jury following a six-week trial in which 11 witnesses – nine women and two men – described multiple incidents of rape, physical and mental abuse, sexual humiliation and false imprisonment. Kelly was convicted on nine counts of sex trafficking and racketeering – a charge normally brought against organised crime groups – and could face the rest of his life in prison. He will be sentenced next May. Gloria Allred, a lawyer who represented several victims, said that of all the sexual predators she has pursued…

“Last week the Prime Minister announced with regard to the AUKUS submarine debacle that the French should, ‘y’know, prenez un grip about this and donnezmoi un break…’ The reason that franglais works so well in the lexicon of diplomatic insult, as the PM well recognises, is that it not so subtly reminds the French that their language isn’t quite as successful as our one. The French, bless them, are always trying their hardest not to speak franglais. Yet their language is so littered with English loan-words that they can’t help it. ‘Je vais à Monaco pour le weekend,’ they say. ‘Steak-frites,’ their menus announce. Yet the libre-born Englishhomme can get through weeks on end without uttering such absurdities.” Sam Leith in The Daily Telegraph…

Edinburgh Vaccine passports: Enforcement of Scotland’s new vaccine passport scheme, which was due to start this week, will be delayed until 18 October. From Friday, Scots over the age of 18 will need to prove they have been double-jabbed in order to get into nightclubs and some large venues. However, Nicola Sturgeon told Holyrood that during the “grace period” no action would be taken against businesses that do not comply, in order to give them time to “test, adapt and build confidence in the practical arrangements they will need to put in place”. Opposition parties at Holyrood voted against the passports, which are also facing a legal challenge from Night Time Industries Association Scotland, the group that represents nightclub and venue owners. Plans for a similar scheme in England were…

The US is flying blind in Afghanistan Kevin Carroll The Wall Street Journal The Biden administration has finally admitted that one of its last acts in Afghanistan was a horrible mistake. The victim of a US drone strike in Kabul during the chaotic withdrawal was not a member of Isis-K planning a suicide bombing; it was an Afghan aid worker, who was killed along with nine relatives, seven of them children. He had been filling his car with water canisters that aerial surveillance mistook for bombs. It’s a terrible demonstration of the limits of “over the horizon” counter-terrorism operations, says Kevin Carroll. Popular culture advances the illusion that military leaders receive up-to-the-minute, granular intelligence through modern technology, which they use to order fast, clinical strikes. The reality is of “exhausted…

One in ten drugs dispensed by GPs and pharmacists in England are unnecessary and potentially harmful, a landmark review has found. Led by England’s chief pharmaceutical officer Dr Keith Ridge, it concludes that over-prescription is a “serious problem”, with harmful consequences: the report notes that 20% of hospital admissions among over-65s (and 6.5% of all admissions) are caused by the adverse effects of medicines, and the more drugs a person takes, the higher their risk of reacting badly to one of them. Around 15% of people take at least five medicines a day. The Government, which commissioned the review, has accepted all its recommendations, which include better handovers between hospitals and the community, and more use of “social prescribing” – referring patients to nonclinical services, such as exercise sessions or…

In 2017, Judith Cook decided to set up an energy company in her three-bedroom semi in Bridgend, South Wales. It was easy in those days, said Ali Hussain in The Sunday Times. You could, in effect, “buy one off the peg” by acquiring shell companies with a ready-made licence to supply electricity and gas. It was then just a case of setting up a website, buying energy on the wholesale market and selling it on for a quick profit. Cook was one of many small operators who rushed into this crowded market before licensing rules were tightened up in 2019. There was money to be made from it back then. Today, not so much. A sixfold rise in wholesale gas prices over the past year amid global shortages has wiped…

“What makes a nation great is not primarily its great men, but the stature of its innumerable mediocre ones.”Philosopher José Ortega y Gasset, quoted in Forbes “It’s not true that life is one damn thing after another – it’s one damn thing over and over.”Edna St. Vincent Millay, quoted in The Washington Post “It’s hard to be a diamond in a rhinestone world.”Dolly Parton, quoted in Reader’s Digest “Beware of too much explaining, lest we end by too much excusing.”Lord Acton, quoted on The Browser “We are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, hammering on the mind’s door at 4am of a dark night and demand…

Lewis Hamilton claimed his 100th race victory at the Russian Grand Prix on Sunday, said Rebecca Clancy in The Times – with the help of a major slice of luck. The race was dominated by the young British driver Lando Norris, who with just a few laps to go seemed on his way to the “greatest day of his Formula 1 career”. Hamilton, lying second, had been closely tailing the 21-year-old McLaren driver – but had been unable to overtake him. Then the “heavens opened” and Norris decided to take the gamble of seeing out the race on his dry-weather tyres – rather than coming into the pit for the “intermediate tyres used in wet conditions”. The gamble backfired, said Giles Richards in The Guardian. Unable to properly control his…

To The Sunday Times Your reporter Emily Dugan is right to say that identity parades are very unreliable. I took part in one some years ago, with unexpected results. I was on a course at Aberystwyth University with half a dozen other Army officers, and one Sunday morning we were invited to take part in a line-up. It was very much as one sees in TV dramas: we were lined up in a room and the suspect was brought in and allowed to choose his place in the line. The witnesses came in one at a time and surveyed the group. The first, an elderly woman, seemed very frightened and left saying she could not identify anyone. The second, a rather cocky man, strolled along the line, stopped, looked me…

On DSCH: Works by Shostakovich and Stevenson (Igor Levit, piano) Sony Classical (three CDs) £60 Passacaglia on DSCH, by Scottish composer Ronald Stevenson, is “one of the most singular works of the 20th century piano repertoire”, said Andrew Clements in The Guardian. This 80-minute piece, composed between 1960 and 1963, contains hundreds of variations on the DSCH motif – a musical “spelling” (D, E-flat, C, B-natural) of Dmitri Shostakovich’s initials. It’s a “wild ride through a cornucopia of musical forms, quotations and allusions”, from Bach to 20th century rebel songs. Although it has been recorded five times before, Igor Levit’s “magnificent” rendering is surely “unequalled”. Levit “dazzles and seduces on every page”, agreed Richard Fairman in the FT. But not content with scaling one “epic” summit, he has paired the…

Earlier this year, the pilot for Alma’s Not Normal won a Bafta for its creator and star Sophie Willan, and now this “rambunctious” comedy is back for a series on BBC Two, said Michael Hogan in The Daily Telegraph. Willan had a chaotic upbringing in foster care, owing in part to her mother’s heroin addiction, and she has mined her experiences for this Boltonset tale about a “loveable loose canon”, Alma Nuthall, who is struggling to get her life on track after splitting from her childhood sweetheart. Alma dreams of becoming an actress, but has no money or qualifications and, foregoing the opportunity to become a “sandwich artiste” at fast-food chain SubNGo, decides to try out sex work. The show is “a breath of fresh air”, said Rebecca Nicholson in…

The painters who rewrote art history When it comes to dating a picture, wouldn’t a dated signature indisputably in the artist’s hand be completely authoritative? Apparently not, says David Sanderson in The Times. A forthcoming book by the art expert Philip Hook reveals that many painters have given their works disingenuously early dates in order to make them appear more cutting edge. This kind of deception was particularly prevalent in the early 20th century, when radical new developments in painting were taking place across Europe and artists wished to look as if they “had been the prime movers in a new-ism”. The German painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, for instance, gave a false 1906 date to Girl under a Japanese Umbrella, which had, in fact, been finished as late as 1909…

Brian tells Jennifer, who is judging at the Flower and Produce Show, that Eddie’s been asking people to hold back from a few categories so he can win in Joe’s centenary year. Eddie doesn’t win a thing. He’s mollified when Jennifer announces a new category: one that Raises the Biggest Smile, in memory of Joe Grundy. Poppy wins it with her animal collage. Joy tells Tony she’s seen a man lurking around Beechwood. Amy and Fallon meet a drunk Chris in The Bull. He admits he and Alice have separated. Jolene asks Chris to leave after he asks the pub to toast to Cecil Jackson, the man with the smallest wallet and biggest marrow in Ambridge. Lee tells Tony he’s found a footprint in a flowerbed in front of his…

● Making your case well can be the difference between getting an offer or not. Your aim is to demonstrate your passion for your subject (without using the word “passion”, please), so try to show evidence of your commitment to your subject outside what you have studied at school or college. ● Ignore your opening line until you have the bulk of your argument arranged and polished. And use your last paragraph to reveal a bit about you as a person, your hobbies and interests, and what you can contribute in your time at university. ● Common pitfalls to avoid include repetition, generic statements and clichés. Neither are admissions tutors impressed by flowery language that can ruin the flow. So don’t go mad with the thesaurus. ● Pay close attention…

In 1967, the harpist Sheila Bromberg got a phone call, offering her a session at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios. It would involve her having to work from 9pm to midnight, said The Times, and as she’d started work that day at 8am, Bromberg was reluctant to take it on. But the “fixer” on the phone was someone who gave her a lot of jobs, so she thought it would be a mistake to turn it down. She hadn’t been told who she’d be playing with, but when she arrived at the studio, and started tuning her instrument, a man walked up behind her and asked, in a familiar Liverpool accent: “Well, what you got on the dots [the music score]?” Turning around, she saw Paul McCartney. That night, she played…

Never let a good crisis go to waste – a message fully absorbed by challenger power supplier Octopus, which has been slinking through the chaos wrapping “tentacles” around dead and ailing rivals, said Mark Kleinman on Sky News. Reported to be exploring a bid for Bulb Energy and its 1.7 million customers, Octopus has already sucked in 580,000 “stranded” Avro customers, taking its total to 3.1 million. Now the UK’s fifth-biggest supplier, the green tech specialist has proved adept at pulling in cash from big names, said The Daily Telegraph. Octopus crowned the week by announcing $600m in backing from former US vice-president Al Gore’s sustainable investment fund. Gore’s 13% stake values Octopus at around $4.6bn. That puts it up there with “market leader Centrica, owner of British Gas”, said…

Watch out Tesla, Polestar’s coming for you, said Rebecca Bellan on TechCrunch. The Swedish electric vehicle-maker hopes to significantly boost its US presence when it goes public in New York via a Spac deal with Gores Guggenheim. The move is expected to value the company at $20bn and raise valuable capital – which will be needed if Polestar is to succeed in positioning its Polestar 2 sedan “as a better car than Tesla”, and emerge as a trustworthy “household name”. Last year, the company had to recall all its vehicles globally because of “faulty components”. Polestar (a spin-off of Volvo, itself owned by the Chinese carmaker Geely) joins a horde of other EV and EV-related companies “to go Spac” over the last two years – including Arrival, Nikola, EVgo, Proterra…

The week’s best shares Central Asia Metals Investors Chronicle The red-hot commodities market has supercharged this low-cost copper, zinc and lead producer, which finds, processes and sells metal for a hefty profit. Demand for copper is set to outstrip supply. Buy. 246p. Craneware Investors Chronicle The healthcare software firm’s acquisition of American peer Sentry is a “real step change”. Profits, which are already up 8%, are expected to see a substantial increase, and revenue visibility has doubled. Buy. £23.20. Fidelity Japan Trust The Daily Telegraph Shares in the Japan-focused investment trust are up 74% in three years, yet trade at a 10% discount. Fund manager Nicholas Price, who favours small- and medium-growth firms, has a strong track record. Buy. 254p. Next The Sunday Telegraph Sales were 7% higher than in…

When Sir Nicholas Soames was a little boy, he went into his grandfather’s bedroom and asked: “Grandpa, is it true that you’re the greatest man alive?” to be told, “Yes it is. Now bugger off.” In his way, Sir Winston Churchill has been saying that to all of us ever since, daring us to challenge the verdict. He was the most famous man of his age: Time magazine’s “Man of the Year” in 1940; “Man of the Century” as one book title had it; “The Greatest Briton” in a BBC poll 19 years ago. Now his visage glares from our £5 notes. Since his death 56 years ago, he has continued to loom – literally so, as when a vast effigy of him reared up somewhat incongruously at the closing…

More than 7,500 acres of woodland are to be planted along England’s rivers, in a government scheme intended to improve water quality and reduce flooding by slowing down rivers. England is among the least forested countries in Europe, with just 10% of its land covered in woodland, versus 31% in France and 33% in Germany. The tree-planting scheme will be carried out by a partnership involving various groups, including the Beaver Trust and the National Trust. A woman has been appointed president of The Magic Circle for the first time in the society’s 116-year history. At the age of 28, Megan Swann is also the youngest person to lead the Circle, whose members must pledge not to disclose “magical secrets”. Swann, from Eltham in London, has been practising magic since…

19% of UK voters named Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, as their top choice for leader of the Labour Party. 14% chose Keir Starmer, and 7% Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London. Among those who voted Labour at the last election, Burnham was also the favourite, with 25%. Angela Rayner was the preferred leader for only 4% of Labour supporters. Savanta ComRes/The Independent Nearly half of Britons expect there to be a fourth national lockdown this winter. Over 70% expect a “significant rise” in cases over the winter; 61% say they would support a lockdown, with only 19% opposed. 6% think the remaining restrictions should be scrapped. The i Paper/Redfield & Wilton Strategies…

Evangelista’s revelation In the 1990s, Linda Evangelista was one of the world’s most sought-after supermodels – but a few years ago, she rather disappeared. Now she has revealed why. In an Instagram post last week, she explained that after having a procedure that involves “freezing” fat cells, she developed a condition that causes cells to grow instead – radically altering her appearance. “I have been left, as the media has described it, ‘unrecognisable’.” This has “not only destroyed my livelihood, it has sent me into a cycle of deep depression, profound sadness and the lowest depths of self-loathing. In the process, I have become a recluse.” But now she is suing the firm behind the procedure, and has decided to stop hiding. “I’m so tired of living this way. I…

Why President Macron should be smiling Aris Roussinos UnHerd There’s something perverse, says Aris Roussinos, about France’s furious reaction to the military pact between the US, the UK and Australia. For it actually helps Paris fulfil a long-held desire: the holy grail of true European integration. Britain, fearing the threat to Nato, has always been a brake on EU efforts to develop strategic autonomy: it’s why Charles de Gaulle tried to stop the UK joining the European Community at the outset. As he saw it, a maritime nation linked to the US by language and culture would always have different priorities from the rest of the bloc – a view that Brexit and now AUKUS have completely vindicated. The pact is geared around the US’s new foreign policy priorities: to…

Bitcoin’s waste problem We know that bitcoin mining consumes phenomenal amounts of energy: according to some estimates, it will be responsible for 0.9% of all carbon emissions within ten years. Now a study has warned that it also generates huge quantities of electronic waste. Miners use their computers to audit bitcoin transactions and receive bitcoin in reward. Running the computers is very energy intensive; but it burns through hardware too: in particular, miners are constantly replacing specialised computer chips in order to invest in faster, more powerful ones. With no other uses for the old chips, they are simply discarded. The new analysis, by a team at MIT and the Dutch central bank, estimates that in total, the world’s miners create 30,700 metric tonnes of e-waste per year. “This number…

When Elon Musk told his 60 million Twitter followers last year that he was selling his “physical possessions” and would “own no house”, many took his claims with a pinch of salt. Yet 17 months on, he has sold all but one of his six California homes (he still rents one out for events), and is living in a $50,000 Texas prefab which he rents from his SpaceX company. It’s smaller than he’s used to, measuring just 375 sq ft. But “it’s kinda awesome”, said the man who made an average of $383m a day last year. Angela Merkel loosened up a little at the end of her final election campaign: she was photographed screaming as she was pecked by lorikeets at a bird park in Pomerania. But in 16…

“Labour’s annual conference was supposed to be all about Keir Starmer winning over a lukewarm supporter base,” said Gordon Rayner in The Daily Telegraph. “Instead, all anyone is talking about is a single word: ‘scum’.” At a late-night fringe event, Angela Rayner, Starmer’s “strident deputy”, described the Conservatives as “a bunch of scum: homophobic, racist, misogynistic… banana republic… vile, nasty, Etonian… scum.” Challenged about the outburst later on TV, she refused to apologise, saying she was merely firing up the crowd and expressing her “anger and frustration” with the Government’s policies – adding that the word scum was “street language” that “you hear very often in northern working-class towns”. It was “outrageous”, but that’s the point, said Sarah Vine in the Daily Mail. Rayner “doesn’t sound like a politician. She…

The US went into the 43rd Ryder Cup – originally slated to be played last year – having lost this biennial competition on four of the last five occasions. “Their response could barely have been more emphatic,” said Ewan Murray in The Guardian. At Whistling Straits, by Lake Michigan, Steve Stricker’s team steamrolled Europe 19-9 to earn one of the most comprehensive victories in Ryder Cup history. The US dominated the three opening days and went into day four with an 11-5 lead, giving it the feel of “an epilogue”, said Rick Broadbent in The Times. In the first of the day’s 12 matchplay singles, Rory McIlroy briefly raised European hopes by beating Xander Schauffele 3&2. But there was to be no miracle comeback: the US required only four more…

Premier League Liverpool drew 3-3 with Brentford to go one point clear at the top of the table. Chelsea lost 1-0 to Manchester City, who go second in the table, while Arsenal beat Tottenham 3-1. Tennis Team Europe won the Laver Cup, defeating Team World 14-1. Europe has a 100% record in the competition, having won it on four consecutive occasions since its launch in 2017. Women’s cricket England beat New Zealand by 203 runs in the fifth one-day international to claim a 4-1 victory in the series.…

Film-makers have often used their work to explore the complex relationships that can exist between siblings. Here are five worth watching: Rocco and His Brothers An impoverished southern Italian family migrates north following the death of the patriarch, in Luchino Visconti’s 1960 film. Rocco (Alain Delon) falls for Nadia (Annie Girardot), a prostitute with a heart of gold, as he tries to keep the wolf from the door. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? In this 1962 psychological horror, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis – bitter rivals in real life – play two warring sisters, living in an old Hollywood mansion. Jane (Davis) is a former child star; Blanche (Crawford) was more successful, but is now in a wheelchair, living at the mercy of her sister. Dead Ringers Jeremy Irons…

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American Pastoral by Philip Roth, 1997 (Vintage £9.99). Roth’s reputation has taken a battering but I am a huge fan, especially of the trilogy of novels, published in the 1990s, which revisit key moments in postwar American history. This novel is about many things – politics, family, class – but above all it is about the dark side of 1960s’ idealism and the souring of the American Dream. It is gorgeously written with passages of breathtaking beauty filled with wisdom and pathos. One on One by Craig Brown, 2011 (Fourth Estate £9.99). Craig Brown is a stone-cold genius and I am endlessly recommending this book. He writes of 101 unusual celebrity encounters that together form a daisy chain of 20th century history: Kipling meets Twain, Twain meets Helen Keller, and…

Programmes Ridley Road Based on Jo Bloom’s novel, this four-parter follows a Jewish hairdresser who goes undercover inside a fascist group in 1960s London. With Agnes O’Casey and Rory Kinnear. Sun 3 Oct, BBC1 21:00 (60mins). Blair & Brown: The New Labour Revolution Five-part series charting the story of New Labour. Featuring contributions from Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and their closest allies. Mon 4 Oct, BBC2 21:00 (60mins). Murder Island Crime writer Ian Rankin has penned this sixpart murder-mystery series, in which members of the public take on the role of detective. The amateur sleuths are sent to the Scottish isle of Gigha to compete to solve the crime. Tue 5 Oct, C4 21:30 (60mins). Hunting the Football Trolls Documentary following former England footballer Jermaine Jenas’s campaign to combat the…

Serves 2 250g ball of high-quality buffalo mozzarella 4 slices of stale bread (at Flor, we use a house-made milk bread) ’nduja (I suggest purchasing it from my friend Giuseppe at De Calabria in Borough Market) drizzle of honey sprinkle of dried Sicilian oregano 300g plain flour 3 eggs splash of milk, plus extra to brush 300g fine breadcrumbs or panko breadcrumbs vegetable or sunflower oil, to deep-fry 8 good-quality anchovies sea salt and freshly ground black pepper • Slice your mozzarella into 1cm planks and carefully dab them between sturdy paper towels to remove excess moisture. Arrange 2 slices of the bread face up and, using a butter knife, spread a thin layer of ’nduja onto each slice. • Follow with a generous drizzle of honey and a sprinkle…

On Planet Patrol’s paddleboarding cleanups, participants paddleboard, parkour and yoga their way to plastic-free beaches and rivers. The non-profit has forthcoming dates all around the country (see website for dates, free; planetpatrol.co/clean-ups). Be a citizen scientist for the day by taking part in a clean-up on Plymouth’s waterfront; what you find will help scientists researching litter on the Channel coastline (every Tuesday until end of November, free; oceanconservationtrust.org). Every year, a two-hour clean-up takes place on the beaches of Spurn National Nature Reserve, Yorkshire. Explore the beaches, mudflats and dunes and visit Spurn Point, where the Discovery Centre and café are open all day (17 October, free; ywt.org.uk). Travel from Tonbridge and back on a four-hour, 10km paddle down the River Medway, Kent – an adventure on which you’ll dig…

Entain/DraftKings: gambling, a great British export In 2018, the US Supreme Court repealed a ban on sports betting outside Nevada, said Oliver Gill in The Sunday Telegraph – and US casinos looked to Britain for expertise in online gambling. The latest to “fancy a flutter” is America’s second-biggest sports gambling company, DraftKings, which has sprung a “surprise” £16bn takeover bid for Entain – the group behind Ladbrokes, Coral and bwin. Cheers all round in the City, where Entain’s stock hit an all-time high – but an awkward situation for Entain’s existing Las Vegas partner, MGM Resorts, “which could be forced out of” their “joint venture” if the new suitor gets its way. MGM tried to nail Entain in January with an £8.1bn offer, but was turned down. Entain “bet big…

A hint of warmth in the new Cold War? Pete Sweeney Reuters Breakingviews Washington’s decision to abandon its attempt to extradite Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou for alleged fraud is a “propaganda victory” for the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, says Pete Sweeney. “Meng did admit to some wrongdoing, yet as far as China’s elite is concerned, this sends the message that they – and their children – are untouchable abroad.” It will reinforce China’s confidence that it can beat the Americans back “on other fronts”. This, after all, is just the latest concession by the US, which has also abandoned a push to ban Chinese social media apps TikTok and WeChat, and halted a probe into Chinese researchers with military links. Yet on the biggest issues, the two powers remain deadlocked. US…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1280 An Ettinger travel pass case and two Connell Guides will be given to the sender of the first correct solution to the crossword and the clue of the week opened on Monday 11 October. Email the answers as a scan of a completed grid or a list, with the subject line The Week crossword 1280, to crossword@theweek.co.uk. Tim Moorey (timmoorey.com) This week’s winner will receive an Ettinger (ettinger.co.uk) travel pass case (assorted colours), which retails at £105, and two Connell Guides connellguides.com). ACROSS 1 First-class officer is key (1,5) 5 Veto support for string instrumentalist (8) 9 The crime is slaughtering type of seal (8) 10 Not just moderate, Macron’s one upfront (6) 11 Where to find improved risktaker? (1,6,5) 13 Song from Callas needing no…