Innholdsfortegnelse for 1412 i The Week

What happened Rishi Sunak sought to placate fractious Tory backbenchers this week by signalling that he was open to relaxing the de facto ban on onshore wind farms in England that has been in place since 2015. The PM was prompted to act after a coalition of more than 30 Tory MPs, including his predecessors Liz Truss and Boris Johnson, lent their support to a rebel amendment to the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill, aimed at lifting the ban. Labour had indicated that it would vote with the rebels on the issue. Downing Street played down a suggestion that it would accept the amendment in its entirety, saying only that it was “considering” the change. The apparent climbdown came just days after the Government postponed a vote on the bill, in…

Old bangers, with news that the Mayor of London is expanding the city’s Ultra Low Emission Zone. As of August 2023, anyone who drives into (or within) Greater London will have to pay a charge of £12.50 if their car does not meet emissions standards. Britain’s industrial pride, with the demolition of the Redcar blast furnace – the second-largest in Europe when it opened in 1979. As tall as St Paul’s Cathedral, it produced 10,000 tonnes of iron a day for the Teesside steelworks before it closed in 2015. Poultry farmers, who revealed that half of the 1.2 million or so free-range turkeys being bred for Christmas have been culled or died from avian flu. Consumers have been warned to expect “big, big shortages” of free-range birds. Supermarkets have already…

Almost half of UK voters say that the measures announced in last month’s Autumn Statement have made them feel more worried about their finances. 34% say they trust Labour with the economy; 28% trust the Conservatives with it. Ipsos UK/The Daily Telegraph 91% of students in England are concerned about the cost of living. Almost two-thirds say they have cut back on food shopping to get by. ONS/The Guardian More than one in ten Britons love gravy so much that they drink it from a flask, according to a poll commissioned by Schwartz to mark the launch of a new gravy. 11% put it on pizza, 10% have it with pasta, 7% enjoy it on hash browns and 6% pour it over pancakes.…

Sienna Miller on saying “no” Sienna Miller is only 40, but she has seen a lot change for women in the decades since she made her screen debut in 2001, says Olivia Marks in Vogue. Years ago, she was offered a role on Broadway, and found that they were proposing to pay her “less than half” what they were paying her male co-star. “I said to the producer, it’s not about money – it’s about fairness and respect, thinking they’d come back and say, ‘Of course, of course.’ But they didn’t. They just said, ‘Well f**k off then.’” The play went ahead without her, and she was left feeling “embarrassed” by her presumption; but today, she thinks the conversation would have gone differently. Actors ten years her junior “have the…

A growing number of French men are seeking to ease the burden of birth control on women, by making pants designed to render them temporarily sterile. The ideal temperature for sperm production is a few degrees below body temperature, which is why testicles hang outside the body. The pants work, it’s claimed, by lifting the testicles to the groin, which heats them up and cuts their sperm count. According to one pioneer, there are 5,000-10,000 men using “thermal contraception” in France. One of them, Pierre Delepine, 26, said he started wearing the pants after his girlfriend experienced side effects on the pill. “We just expect women to sort it out by themselves,” he lamented. A ginger cat named Smells was found alive and well in a suitcase at JFK Airport…

MOLDOVA A forgotten victim of the Ukraine War Der Spiegel (Hamburg) Moldova, sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine, is “one of the poorest countries in Europe”, says Maximilian Popp. Its 2.5 million population has a per-capita income of just €5,100. “Yet it is at the centre of the conflict between Russia and the West.” Since Moldova declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, it has been largely ruled by pro-Russian politicians. But two years ago voters elected Maia Sandu, a former World Bank economist, as president, and she went on to sack pro-Russian officials and sided with Kyiv in the Ukraine War. As a result, this June the EU accepted Moldova as a candidate country. In retaliation, Moscow has been “doing all it can” to destabilise it: the halving of…

Is this the beginning of “a new winter of discontent”, asked The Times. Over the past fortnight, hundreds of thousands of workers have begun industrial actions designed to bring public services to a halt. Last week, almost every school in Scotland was forced to close by the first teachers’ strike there since the 1980s. Last Saturday, train drivers began their fifth strike of the year; the RMT has promised four more train strikes over the festive season. Lecturers at 150 universities, meanwhile, walked out in a dispute over pensions. Postal workers are staging a series of 48-hour walkouts which will play havoc with deliveries during the crucial Christmas period. This month, nurses are due to stage a national strike for the first time in history. And “if a new generation…

If you’re like me, and your eyes glaze over at the words “PPE” and “Covid contracts”, then you may not have taken in the truly “shocking” details of how the Tory peer Michelle Mone allegedly made millions from the pandemic, said Camilla Long in The Sunday Times. In May 2020, the former lingerie entrepreneur emailed Michael Gove and others telling them that “my team in Hong Kong” could help the Government secure desperately needed protective equipment for healthcare workers, and proposing a firm called PPE Medpro as a “VIP fast track” supplier. The company didn’t even exist as a legal entity until five days after that, and it had no assets or special expertise other than contacts at a factory in China. Yet within weeks, this start-up was miraculously awarded…

The winter weather at Twickenham was “nasty” last week, said Andy Bull in The Observer, and “there was a nasty Test” to go with it. England’s 13-27 rugby union defeat by South Africa in the final of their four autumn internationals drew boos from the crowd and a torrent of criticism elsewhere. Where South Africa showed clarity of mind, Eddie Jones’s side remained “stuck in a groove of inconsistency and mediocrity”, said Alex Lowe in The Times. With just five wins in 12 Tests, this has been England’s worst calendar year since 2008, and only five more competitive fixtures remain of their build-up to next year’s World Cup. The England camp claim to have made improvements over the autumn series, said Brian Moore in The Daily Telegraph, but if so,…

Hit Qatar where it hurts To The Times The smell of hypocrisy surrounds criticisms of the Qatar World Cup. I wonder how many of those who condemn it have been happy to visit the UAE or Egypt; or have flown with airlines such as Qatar, Emirates and Etihad; or tap out their comments on smartphones made by cheap labour in questionable countries; or supported Chelsea during the Abramovich years, or Manchester City now. Those who really believe the Qatari regime is evil should turn off their gas and put on more jumpers this winter. Cutting gas consumption would hit Qatar where it hurts – but, unlike condemnation, it requires real sacrifices. Mike Fitch, Milton Keynes What NHS workers need To the Financial Times Camilla Cavendish’s article (“The NHS is failing…

by Michelle Obama Viking 336pp £25 The Week Bookshop £19.99 I’m afraid that I started Michelle Obama’s new book with an “icy sliver of cynicism in my heart”, said Rachel Sylvester in The Times. With its “woo-woo” title and equally unpromising subtitle – Overcoming in Uncertain Times – I feared it would offer “pseudoscientific psychobabble overlaid with political platitudes”. But happily, I was wrong. The Light We Carry is that rare thing: an inspirational text by a public figure that’s “honest, funny, wise and perceptive”. The book is a “practical guide” to helping readers cope with all forms of adversity, said Rohan Silva in The Observer. Obama offers up ten techniques from her “personal toolkit”, including “starting kind” (consciously banishing negative thoughts each morning) and embracing “the power of small”…

Modern British Masters at Robert Upstone The familiar story of British art in the first half of the 20th century overlooks many artists who, though absent from the canon, produced striking work that defies generic categorisation. This show brings together an assortment of pictures created between the 1920s and the 1960s, featuring both major works and assorted oddities by artists who almost unanimously merit reinvestigation. Mixing studio compositions (an impasto-heavy painting of a studio skeleton by John Bratby) with street scenes (Claude Rogers’s 1947 work Request Stop, a view of a north London bus stop) and surrealist-indebted curveballs (Felix Kelly’s bizarre Phryne in the Garden), it is packed with minor revelations. Perhaps most striking is a large 1915 canvas by Charles Ginner depicting a Leeds timber yard, in which towering…

Arezzo, in eastern Tuscany, hosts one of Italy’s largest antiques markets on the first Sunday of every month. It takes place in the town square and nearby cobbled streets, and sells everything from art to china. In the Netherlands, 27 April is a national holiday and anyone can sell items on the street without a permit – so Amsterdam becomes a giant car boot sale. There’s also a regular flea market at Albert Cuyp in the museum district (Mon-Sat, 9.30am-5pm). Plaza Nueva in Bilbao has an open-air flea market every Sunday (9am-2pm), with stalls selling vinyl, books, rare coins and stamps. Don’t miss La Ribera, a huge indoor food market (Mon-Sat, hours vary). Bargains are rare at the Marché aux Puces de Saint-Ouen in northern Paris, Europe’s most famous flea…

Two glorious cities in Lombardy Images from Brescia and Bergamo shocked the world in early 2020, when these neighbouring northern cities were at the epicentre of the pandemic in Italy. But next year they will be in the spotlight for a happier reason, says Julia Buckley in the FT. They are to be the country’s Capitals of Culture, and it is a worthy honour given their glorious artistic heritage. Brescia’s Roman remains rival Rome’s in their grandeur, and their frescoes are as vivid as any in Pompeii. Bergamo’s old town has changed little since its Renaissance heyday. Take a tuk-tuk tour around its “gargantuan” walls. Seek out Lorenzo Lotto’s unique cycle of Old Testament scenes depicted in inlaid wood in the Romanesque basilica, and the masterpieces by Titian and others…

Mickey Kuhn 1932-2022 Mickey Kuhn, who has died aged 90, was the last surviving credited cast member of the multiple-Oscar-winning 1939 film Gone with the Wind. He was six, and already something of a Hollywood veteran, when his mother answered a casting call for the civil war epic. They arrived to find about 100 children in a crowded waiting room. But when he went up to the desk and gave his name, the woman replied: “Mickey, we’ve been waiting for you.” She then told the other children to go home, because the part had been filled. As Beau Wilkes, he was the son of Melanie (Olivia de Havilland) and Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard). But one of his bigger scenes was with Clark Gable – and he repeatedly fluffed it. “My…

Business leaders told Rishi Sunak last week that the UK must increase migration to tackle “vast” labour shortages. One company has already taken the matter into its own hands, says Emma Taggart in The Times. Cranswick, one of Britain’s biggest food producers, “is flying in 400 butchers from the Philippines to avert a Christmas shut-down” after an exodus of staff following Brexit. The process isn’t cheap: CEO Adam Couch reckons that securing visas, flights and accommodation will cost £10,000 to £12,000 per butcher. But he says he has no choice given the impossibility of recruiting in Britain. This is “absolutely necessary if we want food on the plates”, he said.…

When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World’s Most Powerful Consulting Firm by Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe (Bodley Head £20). A five-year investigation, by two New York Times reporters, into the firm’s unwholesome corporate culture and great reach, says Tim Adams in The Guardian – ending with a timely deconstruction of the UK’s Covid Test and Trace programme. Megathreats: Ten Dangerous Trends that Imperil Our Future and How to Survive Them by Nouriel Roubini (John Murray £20). “People who like horror stories will love this book,” says Martin Wolf in the FT. Roubini, the economist who predicted the 2008 crash, surpasses his own “high standards of doomsaying”. The Chief by Andrew Roberts (Simon & Schuster £25). The Daily Mail founder Alfred Harmsworth (later Lord Northcliffe) had…

What happened The UK Supreme Court ruled last week that the Scottish Government does not have legal authority to hold an independence referendum without agreement from Westminster, dealing a blow to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s plans to stage a vote next year. Led by the court’s president, Lord Robert Reed, the panel of five judges unanimously agreed that any bill legislating for a plebiscite would pertain to the future of the Union, making it a matter reserved to Westminster. The Scottish National Party had argued that a referendum would only be “advisory”, and as such would have no legal effect on the Union. Sturgeon said the ruling had “galvanised the Yes movement right across Scotland”. She also confirmed that she planned to make the next UK general election a “de…

Fewer than half of students at Cambridge University identify as heterosexual, a survey has suggested. Of the 600 undergraduates who took part in Varsity’s online poll, 49.7% said they were heterosexual, 11.9% identified as homosexual and 29.7% as bisexual. The results echo those of a survey at Oxford University, which found that 49% of its students were heterosexual and 32.8% bisexual. Merriam-Webster has announced that its word of the year, based on web searches, is “gaslighting”. Although the word, which derives from the title of Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 play Gaslight, has been used to refer to psychological manipulation since the 2010s, Merriam-Webster had 17 times more searches for it in 2022 than in 2021.…

The Home Office is considering fast-tracking the removal of asylum seekers from Albania, and other countries deemed “safe”, to reduce the number of migrants crossing the Channel, The Times has reported. Under the scheme, applications from those countries would be presumed to be unfounded, unless contrary evidence was produced. Separately, Home Office research concluded that creating a “hostile environment” for asylum seekers does not deter migration, as most aspiring migrants don’t know about the UK’s welfare system. Instead, they are drawn to the UK by community ties.…

Brussels World Cup riots: Riots broke out in Antwerp and Brussels this week, after Belgium’s shock 2-0 defeat to Morocco in the football World Cup, a result that leaves Belgium’s chances of qualifying for the knockout stages in doubt. Police sealed off parts of Brussels during Sunday’s disorder, the authorities using tear gas and water cannon to disperse crowds. Twelve people were detained in Brussels, and eight more were arrested in Antwerp. Disorder was also reported in several other towns, including Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Morocco’s win was celebrated in many Belgian and Dutch cities that are home to large Moroccan immigrant communities. Brussels Drugs haul: A drugs “super-cartel” that controlled roughly a third of Europe’s cocaine supply has been dismantled in an international police operation that has led to the…

1 Changes, written and performed by David Bowie 2 One by Harry Nilsson, performed by John Farnham 3 Spanish Flea by Julius and Cissy Wechter, performed by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass 4 Suspicious Minds by Mark James, performed by Elvis Presley 5* Che gelida manina (from La bohème) by Giacomo Puccini, performed by Luciano Pavarotti 6 Unfinished Sympathy by Robert Del Naja, Grantley Marshall, Shara Nelson, Jonathan Sharp and Andrew Vowles, performed by Massive Attack 7 Lady Marmalade by Bob Crewe and Kenny Nolan, performed by Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mya and Pink 8 No Church in the Wild by Kanye West, Shawn Carter, Lonnie Breaux, Terius Nash, Charles Njapa, Mike Dean, James Brown, Phil Manzanera, Joseph Roach and Gary Wright, performed by Jay-Z, Kanye West, Frank Ocean…

TikTok evolved out of Musical.ly, a Shanghai-based app founded in 2014 on which users shared short lip-syncing videos. In 2016, a tech firm, ByteDance – set up in 2012 by two young Beijing-based software engineers, Zhang Yiming and Liang Rubo – launched a similar service, Douyin, which acquired Musical.ly and merged the two in 2018. Douyin is still the Chinese version of TikTok. The two share an interface, but have no access to each other’s content. TikTok has long faced scrutiny from US lawmakers, who have questioned its exploitation of user data. In 2020, a US national security panel ordered ByteDance to sell the US TikTok service because of fears that US user data could be passed on to the Chinese government. US lawmakers and TikTok are now negotiating a…

Women in Britain are more than three times as likely to die during pregnancy, or just after having a baby, than those in Norway, a study has found. An international team of researchers examined data on millions of live births in eight European countries: Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia and the UK. In all the countries, maternal deaths (either during pregnancy, or within 42 days of giving birth) were highest among the youngest women and the oldest women. Overall, Slovakia had the highest rate of maternal death, at 10.9 women per 100,000 births, while Norway had the lowest, with 2.7 per 100,000. The UK was second on the list, with 9.6 per 100,000. Across the countries surveyed, the leading causes of death were heart disease and suicide;…

“This country desperately needs more houses,” said John Oxley on UnHerd. According to one estimate, there are 4.75 million households in “housing need”; in the past decade, house prices have vastly outstripped wages, leaving even high earners unable to buy suitable homes. Yet instead of pushing for the Government to meet its 2019 manifesto pledge, to build 300,000 houses in a year, some 50 rebel Tory MPs are now backing an amendment to the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill that would end Whitehall-mandated house-building targets, and remove the presumption in favour of development from many planning decisions in England. As councils often reject applications that are locally unpopular, it is estimated that this would reduce the number of houses built by up to 40%. The Tories risk alienating an entire generation…

“Every hero becomes a bore at last.”Ralph Waldo Emerson, quoted in Politico “The imagined community of millions seems more real as a team of 11 named people.”Eric Hobsbawm, quoted on UnHerd “Men, like peaches and pears, grow sweet a little while before they begin to decay.”Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr, quoted in Forbes “It remains a damning fact of life that we ask too much of those who are marginalised and too little of those who are not.”Michelle Obama, quoted in The Guardian “Man is quite insane. He wouldn’t know how to create a maggot, and he creates gods by the dozen.”Montaigne, quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle “War hath no fury like a non-combatant.”C.E. Montague, quoted in the LA Times “A gentleman is simply a patient wolf.”Lana Turner, quoted on…

To The Guardian Helen Pankhurst’s article (“My suffragette grandmothers are now seen as heroes. Today’s climate protesters will be too”) struck a chord with me as it expressed the same mix of emotions I have experienced as a climate activist. As a 76-year-old man who grew up in a privileged and conservative environment, I have found it difficult enough marching, holding up placards and speaking publicly against climate vandalism and the greenwashing of fossil fuel firms. At the same time, I feel guilt at not joining with the Knitting Nannas or Extinction Rebellion, who give their time and risk the opprobrium that comes with protest. I am full of admiration for their courage and steadfast spirit. Climate protesters, who are predominantly women, are heroes, and they are on the right…

by Cho Nam-Joo (trans. Jamie Chang) Scribner 240pp £14.99 The Week Bookshop £11.99 The South Korean writer Cho Nam-Joo is best known for her 2016 novel Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, said Ellen Peirson-Hagger in The Independent. A story of “everyday sexism”, it sold more than a million copies in South Korea and sparked a national conversation about the status of women. Cho’s latest novel, Saha, is “just as political” – though this time the focus is on class. Set in a dystopian future, the novel follows a disparate group of characters who live in some dilapidated buildings on the outskirts of “Town”, a fiercely hierarchical “privatised city-nation” where all aspects of life are tightly controlled. Offering a powerful critique of “plutocracy, systemic inequality” and “gendered violence”, the novel is “utterly…

Matilda the Musical Dir: Matthew Warchus 1hr 57mins (PG) Energetic adaptation of the beloved West End show When Netflix paid $500m for the rights to Roald Dahl’s works, “plenty thought it had overpaid”, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail. But on the strength of Matilda the Musical, it looks like a “shrewd” investment. Adapted from the West End hit, and featuring Tim Minchin’s music, the film could have had a “constraining theatrical feel”; but director Matthew Warchus imbues the story, about a child prodigy with telekinetic powers, with “a whole new energy”. Irish newcomer Alisha Weir is a wonderful Matilda, and it all adds up to an “exuberant joy”. It struck me as a bit “shrill and stage-schooly”, said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday; but there are…

John Betjeman’s campaign to save Liverpool Street station is being revived, in response to a new £1.5bn plan to redevelop the station, says Matthew Weaver in The Guardian. The poet led the campaign to save what he called “London’s most picturesque terminus”, which opened in 1874, from an attempt to replace it with a brutalist complex a century later. Now a consortium, including the developer Sellar and Network Rail, has submitted plans designed by Herzog & de Meuron, the architects of Tate Modern, to build office blocks flanking the station, and retail space above it. The Victorian Society points out that the plans involve destroying the station’s Victorian-style roof and entrances. It says a new roof to support the new towers will cause “serious harm to the listed buildings and…

Neil’s starting a Christmas choir and tries to recruit George, to no avail – until George hears Fallon is the coach. As Jill stays with Kenton and Jolene, Kenton’s keen to get her back to Brookfield, but Jolene wants time to bond. Fallon gives George a private singing lesson. After the Hunt Ball, Paul tells Elizabeth he thinks Ruairi isn’t interested, but Alistair encourages him to ask Ruairi out again. Their date goes well, but Paul says he’s seen Ruairi’s texts from “JW” and isn’t interested in something casual. David is talking to Tracy at The Bull, when Vince comes in and demands repayment of the loan and the New Zealand trip. Ruth and David bicker as Stella makes an offer for the Brookfield land. Back in London, Ruairi tries…

Legend has it that this dish from Puglia was created when a drunk cook accidentally added uncooked spaghetti to a pan of simmering tomato sauce, after being distracted by a beautiful woman, says Nadia Caterina Munno. Alerted to his mistake by the pasta catching on the base of the pan, he tried to save the dish by adding a tomato-paste broth, risotto-style. In the process, he invented this. Serves 4 60g tomato paste sea salt 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 tbsp Calabrian chilli flakes, or to taste 60g extra-virgin olive oil 400g tin of peeled plum tomatoes, crushed by hand 450g spaghetti whole fresh long red chillies (I like cayenne varieties such as Pinocchio’s nose), for garnish • In a medium pot, bring 1.4 litres water to a rolling boil…

Oscar Wilde-inspired hotel Spend 3 nights in a studio at the Wilde Aparthotel Paddington, with Little Venice and Regent’s Park nearby. From £249pp (2 sharing) room-only. 00353 1 539 0900, staycity.com. Arrive 8 January. Four nights in Córdoba Take in the pretty surroundings of the Old Town from the comfort of the NH Collection Amistad, a former palace. From £247pp b&b (excl. flights). 020-3788 0445, expedia.co.uk. Arrive 15 March. Four-star Stockholm stay The exclusive Elite Eden Park Hotel is located by the greenery of Humlegården park. Three nights cost from £240pp b&b (incl. London flights). 0344-493 0787, britishairways.com. Depart 12 January. Boutique hotel in Phuket Situated on a headland overlooking the Andaman Sea, the Mom Tri’s Villa Royale hotel offers a 7-night stay from £913pp b&b (excl. flights). 020-3027 7900,…

Brexit has made us more European Janan Ganesh Financial Times “What a continental country Britain has become” since leaving the EU, says Janan Ganesh. Beneath the “surface tiffs”, a quiet “convergence” has been going on. The recent trajectory of the two currencies is one example. The pound/euro exchange rate has fallen to €1.1 – showing that “the ultimate dream, that of parity, is alive yet”. Another is politics: we used to laugh at the “many prime ministers of Italy”; since Brexit, we’ve had five in six years. But the most profound factor “hitching us closer to our European brothers and sisters” is “big government”. By 2028, the UK’s tax burden is projected to be five percentage points higher than in 2016, partly due to the costs of Brexit. Paradoxically, Britain…

Archaeologists excavating the remains of a Roman villa in Rutland have found evidence of an early barn conversion, with underfloor heating and a sophisticated spa. The villa, dated to the third century AD, was discovered in 2020, along with a striking mosaic depicting scenes from The Iliad. Now the team have found a separate building, that was originally wood and later rebuilt in stone, and which was equipped with a steam room, a warm pool, and a cold plunge pool. A border terrier that is thought to have been snatched by thieves 12 years ago has finally been reunited with her family. Missie was just over one when she vanished. Liz Eldridge spent years looking for her, driving to rescue centres all over the country before deciding the search was…

Matt Hancock, who reached the final of I’m A Celebrity…, and eventually came a respectable third – behind Jill Scott, the former England footballer, and the actor Owen Warner. The ex-health secretary is thought to have impressed viewers with his energy and resilience. Hancock was stripped of the Tory whip for going on the show; a vote on his future in the party is due next week. Air travellers, with reports that the 100ml limit on liquids taken through airport security will be scrapped within two years. The rules were brought in after terrorists plotted to bring down planes using explosives disguised as soft drinks. The plan is that, by 2024, all major airports will have installed advanced scanners that mean liquids – as well as laptops – can remain…

A report into the London Fire Brigade has found that it is “institutionally misogynistic and racist”, and has a bullying culture. In one incident, a black firefighter had a noose placed above his locker; in another, a Muslim firefighter had a sausage put in his coat pocket. Male firefighters took bets as to who’d have sex with them at work, and on home visits, were accused of rifling through women’s drawers, in search of underwear and sex toys. Female firefighters reported being groped, physically assaulted and having their helmets filled with urine.…

Big Island, Hawaii Volcano eruption: Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano – the largest active volcano in the world – erupted for the first time in 38 years this week, sending lava shooting 200ft into the air. The 200,000 residents of Big Island were told that the eruption posed no imminent threat to populated areas; however, people with respiratory conditions were advised to remain indoors, to avoid breathing in ash and “Pele’s hair” (volcanic glass fibres), and the local authorities opened shelters to house people who decided to leave their homes on the flanks of the volcano. Mauna Loa has erupted 33 times since 1843. The last eruption, in 1984, lasted three weeks and sent lava flows to within five miles of Hilo, the island’s most populous town. Tallahassee, Florida Maxwell appeal…

“I’ve always enjoyed Lucien Freud’s portraits, but at the major retrospective at the National Gallery, I had the odd experience of admiring him less the more I saw. The story that emerges from viewing his work chronologically is an artist of limited curiosity. Women he paints are nameless lovers; his daughters, part of a tribe of carelessly fathered children, pose naked, perhaps the only way to command his attention. His gaze is penetrating yet cold. Sitters invariably come to the great man, so chairs and sofas recur until you feel trapped in his studio. He never experiments or takes risks or evolves much. You sense him growing complacent with fame, flattered by his wealthy subjects and acolytes.” Janice Turner in The Times…

It’s no accident our politicians are so awful John Maier UnHerd Why has British politics today become such a soap opera? Is it that our current crop of leaders are unprecedentedly terrible, or have we just become more aware of their failings? Actually, I subscribe to a third theory, says John Maier. It’s this: we’ve made our political leaders’ jobs so impossible that only deeply flawed people feel capable of doing them – which then leads to disaster, because they can’t. In today’s climate of 24-hour online news, when every failing is endlessly scrutinised and every gaffe threatens to set off a clattering bandwagon of Twitter condemnation, it takes an unusually thick-skinned politician to make any headway. But that almost pathological ability to block out noise, so useful at times,…

For years, we’ve been told that self-driving cars are just around the corner. But it’s time to accept the truth, said Darrell Etherington on TechCrunch: they “aren’t going to happen” in our lifetimes. I’ve long been excited about the potential of this technology, but my remaining optimism finally left me last month when Ford and Volkswagen announced they were winding up Argo AI, their autonomous driving-tech joint venture. Argo was considered a leader in the field. But Ford feels that “profitable, fully autonomous vehicles at scale are a long way off”, and it could no longer stomach the spiralling costs. This is just the latest setback. True, Google spinoff Waymo and GM’s Cruise are still making progress in trialling driverless vehicles on the roads, but these are on a small…

Money’s mood-boosting potential Researchers have given away $2m to find out if money makes people happy. Organised by the TED Foundation and funded by anonymous donors, the study involved asking people, via a notice on Twitter, if they’d like to take part in an “exciting” and possibly “life-changing” project. Applications poured in, and 200 people were chosen from seven countries. Each were then given $10,000, tax free, and told to spend it in 12 weeks. A further 100 were recruited as a control group, and given $25 for filling in questionnaires. The results were clear, if hardly revelatory, said The Times: being given the cash did raise people’s moods, but the effect was markedly greater among those with the lowest incomes. Recipients in poor countries reported happiness gains three times…

After nine months of war in Ukraine, Russia is deploying what may prove to be its deadliest weapon yet, said Richard Lloyd Parry in The Times: the “winter cold”. It launched a fifth round of missile attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure last week, leaving millions of households without heating, light or running water. President Volodymyr Zelensky accused the Kremlin of reviving the genocidal tactics of Joseph Stalin, likening the attacks to the man-made Holodomor famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in the 1930s. With temperatures set to fall as low as-20°C in the weeks ahead, the repeated assaults on Ukraine’s power grid will have a devastating impact, said Ben Farmer in The Daily Telegraph. The nation’s soldiers may be better equipped to endure winter than their poorly supplied Russian opponents,…

“Three Lions. Three Goals. Three games from the final!” England turned Dragonslayers this week, said Sam Greenhill in the Daily Mail. Their 3-0 victory over Wales saw them into the final 16 – while condemning Wales to an early exit. England had much to prove after their lacklustre game against the USA, said Jane Fryer in the same paper. But prove it they did. From the kickoff, it looked “as if they’d been jump-started, given electric shock treatment, or just a massive kick up the arse.” Both teams had disappointed in previous games, said Daniel Storey in The i Paper. Wales had shown “little of the brio of qualifying”; their star players Aaron Ramsey and Gareth Bale looked “like a Euro 2016 tribute act”. They got a scrambled draw against…

Cricket A private equity firm – the Bridgepoint Group – has made a £400m bid for 75% of English cricket’s newest tournament, The Hundred. Tennis Canada defeated Australia in the Davis Cup final in Málaga to secure their first title in the tournament’s 122-year history. Félix Auger-Aliassime beat Alex de Minaur in the final singles round to clinch the win. F1 has launched an all-female academy to support women in their bid to join the top tier of motor racing. The opening season, in 2023, will pit five teams and 15 cars against each other in 21 races.…

The Curve in Leicester has become a “musical theatre powerhouse” in recent years – staging a stream of hit shows and Christmas spectaculars, said Veronica Lee in the Daily Mail. Artistic director Nikolai Foster’s “sumptuous” new production of The Wizard of Oz is his latest triumph – a “visual as well as a musical feast”, with “lavish” costumes and charming puppetry: Toto is so “delightful” that the little dog “threatens to steal the show”. The set design is clever too. To remind us that the original 1939 film was set in Depression-era America, there are projected newspaper headlines, and at the Wicked Witch’s castle, there is a “strong Nazi vibe”. In short, this terrific show will please theatregoers who like a production “to have a political or moral message, as…

Bitch: A Revolutionary Guide to Sex, Evolution and the Female Animal by Lucy Cooke, 2022 (Doubleday £20). This book is not just hilarious, but properly important, laying out how Victorian views on gender shaped evolutionary biology and caused the female of the species to be overlooked and misunderstood by the scientific establishment. You’ll never look at a hyena in the same way again. Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood, 2017 (Penguin £9.99). A scabrous, scorching, deadpan and heartbreaking memoir. Lockwood’s father converted on a submarine while watching The Exorcist and eventually became a Catholic priest, keeping his wife and family through special Vatican dispensation. He rarely wears pants, plays the guitar “like a whole band dying in a plane crash in the year 1972” and despises cats, believing them to be Democrats.…

Programmes How to Break the Class Ceiling Amol Rajan talks to young people from working-class backgrounds who are trying to break into elite professions. Tue 6 Dec, BBC2 21:00 (60mins). The Richard Dimbleby Lectures at 50 Jonathan Dimbleby looks back at 50 years of the annual BBC lectures. Tue 6 Dec, BBC4 22:00 (60mins). I’m an Alcoholic: Inside Recovery For the first time in Britain, film-makers were given access to an AA meeting to make this documentary assessing the programme’s impact. Wed 7 Dec, BBC2 21:00 (60mins). Christmas at Blenheim Palace With 250,000 visitors expected, an army of staff works around the clock to prepare the seasonal celebrations at Blenheim. Thur 8 Dec, C4 20:00 (60mins). I Am Ruth Drama about a mother whose daughter is succumbing to the pressures…

● Vacuum cleaners can get filthy. Remove the roller brush, and cut away tangled hair or thread after every use. Wipe the cleaning head with a cloth, dust and rinse washable filters and replace disposable ones often. ● Sponges and cloths should be cleaned every time they are used by rinsing in hot water and leaving to dry completely, ideally in sunlight. Every few days put them in the washing machine for a thorough clean, with rubber gloves and tea towels. ● Put a cup of vinegar on the top rack of the dishwasher weekly to help remove grease and limescale, and sprinkle bicarbonate of soda on the bottom to freshen the smell, then run on a hot cycle. Once a month, use a toothbrush and paper towels to remove…

Wilko Johnson 1947-2022 In the early 1970s, Dr. Feelgood emerged from the pub-rock circuit to become one of the most influential bands of the era. Made up of four friends from the shabby Essex resort of Canvey Island, the Feelgoods were known for their unsmiling, “no fashion” style (short hair, grubby ill-fitting suits); their aggressive, roughhewn R&B sound; and their sweaty, anarchic gigs, said The Times. All this set the band apart from the glam and prog rock acts of the time – and helped open “the door to the insurrection that was punk”. Wilko Johnson, who has died aged 75, was the band’s lead guitarist, renowned for his ferocious, staccato riffs, and the writer of most of their songs. He was also Dr. Feelgood’s “main visual attraction”. A tall,…

Howard Marks In America, Oaktree’s billionaire co-founder is a “legendary investor whose ‘memos’ are must-reads”, said the FT. But if you say the name Howard Marks in the UK, people think of a Welsh drug smuggler. This has led to interesting moments down the years. Marks, 76, “a closely followed observer of market psychology”, was first alerted to his late namesake when friends visiting the UK brought back a book by the notorious “Mr Nice”. He was so “tickled” that when he and his wife moved to London, they asked the other Howard Marks to tea at their Belgravia flat, and spent “a lovely afternoon” chatting. Were there ever any cases of mistaken identity? “I always figured it would happen at some border, but nobody ever said a word,” he…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1340 An Ettinger pass holder 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 12 December. Send it to The Week Crossword 1340, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London W2 6JR, or email the completed grid/listed solutions to crossword@theweek.co.uk. Tim Moorey (timmoorey.com) This week’s winner will receive an Ettinger (ettinger.co.uk) travel pass holder in assorted colours, which retails at £115, and two Connell Guides (connellguides.com). ACROSS 6 More confident in pressure restrictions (5) 7 Publicity in favour of resolution (9) 9 Stays and checks, keeping mum (7) 10 Small stuff (7) 11 Two nuts in conversation abroad? (4-1-4) 12 Butterfly, orange and brown? There’s one in this clue (5) 13 Pole…

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