Innholdsfortegnelse for 1485 i The Week

Italy’s culinary pride, which suffered a blow when two Italian food historians claimed that pizza as we know it – with tomato sauce – was invented in America. The pair argue that pizza in Italy amounted to bits of focaccia topped with a range of ingredients, until Italian Americans discovered the potential of tomato sauce. Huw Edwards, who resigned from the BBC, nine months after he was suspended over allegations that he had paid a young person tens of thousands of pounds for explicit images. The Welsh government, which admitted that it was “refining and finessing” its 20mph speed limit in built-up areas. Officials said that hundreds of roads were likely to be returned to 30mph. Sarah Benn, a retired GP, who was suspended from the medical register owing to…

Viry-Châtillon, France Tough love: The French prime minister, Gabriel Attal, has declared a crackdown on teenage violence in schools, as the government seeks to reclaim the lead on security issues from the far-right ahead of European elections in June. Speaking in Viry-Châtillon, where a 15-year-old died following an attack by other youths this month, Attal said some teenagers were “addicted to violence” and cited Islamist influence as of particular concern. His controversial proposals included sending disruptive children to boarding schools, expanding middle-school hours to 6pm, and treating some offenders aged under 18 as adults in the legal system. Paris “Olympic” evictions: Police have evicted as many as 450 people from a squat in the Paris suburb of Vitry-sur-Seine, in what activists say is an ongoing push to clear homeless people…

“The Government’s gradual elimination of smoking by date of birth (see page 19) sets an interesting precedent. How about setting a ‘best before’ date for lots of our freedoms in this way, thus consoling the old while protecting the young from being triggered by the threat of liberty? As a journalist born in the 1950s, I, for instance, could be allowed to eke out my twilight years attacking, say, mass immigration or gender-neutral lavatories, but those starting out in media would be banned from taking such incorrect positions. Come to think of it, that is pretty much what is happening already.” Charles Moore in The Spectator…

The question of reparations for slavery has rumbled on in the US since the Civil War, when General Sherman ordered that freed slaves should be given plots of land (“40 acres and a mule”). In all but a handful of cases, they did not get it. The debate was revived by African-American radicals such as Malcolm X and the Black Panthers in the 1960s, and again by activists in the past decade. A 2014 essay by Ta-Nehisi Coates in The Atlantic argued that only reparations could ameliorate profound racial inequalities, rooted not just in slavery and the South’s Jim Crow laws, but in systematic legal discrimination which, for instance, made it difficult for black families to take out mortgages as late as the 1970s. The movement was then turbocharged by…

How “Star Wars” saved Israel Daniel Henninger The Wall Street Journal The people of Israel owe Ronald Reagan a debt of gratitude, says Daniel Henninger. For he was the ultimate originator of the missile-defence systems that protected them from Iran’s recent missile barrage. In 1983, Reagan proposed what he called the Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI), an ambitious plan to create systems, some of them potentially space-based, that could shoot down nuclear-armed ballistic missiles. Critics mocked the scheme, nicknaming it “Star Wars”, and warned that it could provoke a response from the Soviets. Then-senator Joe Biden said that Reagan’s pursuit of the plan constituted “one of the most reckless and irresponsible acts in the history of modern statecraft”. But Israel quickly recognised the value of missile-defence technology and signed a deal…

A once-a-day pill that has been found to prevent both chronic and episodic migraines has been approved for use in the NHS in England. Some 170,000 patients who experience the severe head pain could benefit from atogepant (brand name Aquipta), which was approved by regulators in Scotland last year. The pill works by blocking the receptor of a protein in the sensory nerves of the head and neck called calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP). CGRP makes blood vessels dilate, which can lead to inflammation and migraine. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has advised that it be offered to patients who have migraines on four or more days a month and who’ve tried at least three other treatments. “We now need to ensure access is swift, so that migraine…

Once, Britain was known as the “sick man of Europe” because of its failing economy, said the Daily Mail. These days, with 2.8 million people of working age on long-term benefits for reasons of ill-health or disability, and 11 million sick notes issued last year, that title can be taken more literally. As Rishi Sunak noted in a speech last week, there is a moral and economic imperative to address this. Work can be a source of purpose and pride; the Treasury needs the tax receipts workers provide; and the benefits bill is a massive drain. Last year, disability benefits for working-age people cost £69bn in total – more than the UK’s schools budget. To keep more people in work, Sunak wants to remove the right to issue sick notes…

“If you can’t explain something in simple terms, you don’t understand it.”Richard Feynman, quoted in The Times “There ain’t any answer, there ain’t going to be any answer, there never has been any answer, that’s the answer.”Gertrude Stein, quoted in The New York Times “When one subtracts from life infancy (which is vegetation) – sleep, eating, and swilling – buttoning and unbuttoning – how much remains of downright existence? The summer of a dormouse.”Lord Byron, quoted in The Washington Post “Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable – the art of the next best.”Otto von Bismarck, quoted in The Sunday Times “The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.”Leo Tolstoy, quoted on Lexology “It is impossible to live without brains, either one’s own or borrowed.”Baltasar Gracián, quoted…

To The Guardian I was disappointed by the court ruling on the Michaela School’s prayer ban, and shocked to see the jubilant reaction from prominent politicians. Children praying in school is not disruptive or threatening, and for Kemi Badenoch to suggest that these pupils are attempting to “impose their views on an entire school community” screams of xenophobia. With this ruling, it’s the other way around. The prayer ban tells Muslim children that their religious and cultural practices are foreign and undesirable, and in doing so forces conformity to a homogeneous British identity. I attended a Catholic school in Glasgow with a large number of Muslim students. In a school system where religious education was taught out of a textbook by old white men, having the opportunity to learn about…

by Jonathan Buckley Fitzcarraldo 200pp £12.99 The Week Bookshop £9.99 Stories about the super-rich “tend to focus on their subjects’ dysfunction”, said Benjamin Markovits in The Daily Telegraph. Not so Jonathan Buckley’s 12th novel, which is “just as interested in the virtues and habits” that have enabled its hero – retail tycoon Curtis Doyle – to succeed. The novel is framed as a series of interviews with Doyle’s gardener, who is telling a mysterious interlocutor about Doyle’s life, in the wake of his disappearance from his “palace” in Scotland. The format “yields great rewards”: the gardener is free to jump from episode to episode, “without the structural impositions of a conventional plot”. Packed with “wonderful” anecdotes and character sketches, this is “one of the best new novels I’ve read in…

Iris Schomaker at Huxley-Parlour It’s difficult not to like the drawings of German artist Iris Schomaker (b.1973). Created on panel and on paper, they are at once spiky and angular, and weirdly endearing. Schomaker aims to exploit the hazy gap at which figuration meets abstraction: hardly a revolutionary objective, and thus a challenging point of focus for even a skilled hand. Her pictures in Watching the Perseids veer towards the representational, but embellish it with gorgeously rendered passages of abstraction. A faceless boy on a horse thus finds himself submerged in a river of cubist planes, while a monochrome of two figures at a chessboard (a reference to obsessive but apparently inept chessman Marcel Duchamp?) uses the very blankness of the white background to suggest an uncertain depth of field.…

The “Pie King” hits Paris British cooking has “rarely got its due in France”, said Lindsey Tramuta in The New York Times. But now an English chef nicknamed the “Pie King” is hoping to overcome French scepticism. Known for the “artistically latticed savoury pies” he created as head chef at the Holborn Dining Room in London, Calum Franklin opened his Parisian venture last month. Located in the Opéra district, Public House combines the “brasserie format” with the “relaxed spirit of a British pub”. The menu features a selection of his signature pies – beef and bone marrow, chicken and wild mushroom – alongside Scotch eggs and sausage rolls. It’s common for British chefs to work in France, but not many have opened restaurants there, said Ed Cumming in The Daily…

SOURCE: THE DAILY TELEGRAPH…

Peter Higgs 1929-2024 Peter Higgs was walking in the Scottish Highlands in 1964 when he came up with a theory for how particles acquire their mass. As he would often point out, two other groups of physicists had proposed the same idea at almost exactly the same time (one just before him, one just after). What distinguished his contribution, said Harald Fox on The Conversation, was that he predicted the existence of a massive subatomic particle (a form of boson) left behind by this process. In the following decades, theoretical physicists joined in an almost obsessive quest to detect this particle. But the Higgs boson proved so elusive that the physicist Leon Lederman dubbed it the “Goddamn particle” – which was then shortened to the “God particle”. Higgs, who was…

What happened The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) fired missiles at Iran last Friday, in retaliation for the barrage of 300 missiles and drones that Tehran had aimed at Israel six days earlier. The strikes targeted an air base near the central city of Isfahan, where a missile-production complex and facilities for Iran’s nuclear programme are located. Iranian officials played down the attack, and said the explosions heard near Isfahan were the result of “air defence firing at suspicious objects”. It said these had caused no damage, and made no mention of any plans for further strikes. Israel didn’t officially comment on the strikes. Analysts said that the limited scope of Israel’s attack showed that it had listened to its allies’ pleas for restraint. However, it drew the ire of some…

A growing number of firms are now offering teenagers “virtual work experience”, stints that are done entirely from home on a phone or computer, The Daily Telegraph reports. The placements, offered via a firm called Springpod, are said to provide teenagers with “relevant skills” to help them on the path to careers in construction, midwifery, nursing and engineering, as well as in the hospitality industry. Heathrow Airport’s course involves “fun quizzes and thought-provoking activities”; while Pret A Manger’s is billed as an “immersive journey into product development”. A quarter of three- and four-year-olds in the UK now own a smartphone, according to Ofcom. Nearly 40% of five- to seven-year-olds use social media.…

The future of the power-sharing deal between the SNP and the Scottish Green Party was thrown into doubt last week when the Scottish government scrapped its pledge to cut the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2030. The move followed a damning report last month from the UK Climate Change Committee, which found that the target was “no longer credible”. Scottish Green co-leader Patrick Harvie said that a vote on the future of the deal (the Bute House Agreement) would be held “in due course”. In a further blow to the SNP, the party’s former chief executive, Peter Murrell, who is married to ex-SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, was re-arrested and charged last week in connection with the embezzlement of party funds.…

New York Campus protests: Scores of students at elite universities across the US have been arrested in the past week while taking part in pro-Palestinian protests on campus. The current outbreak of tensions began at Columbia University in New York, when protesters set up a tented encampment on the college’s main lawn, and said that they would not leave until the college had divested itself from companies with ties to Israel. After a 30-hour “occupation”, police swarmed the camp and arrested more than 100 of them. Columbia’s president, Minouche Shafik – who had just attended a fraught hearing in congress about antisemitism on campuses – said she had requested police assistance to ensure the “safety and functioning of our university”: there had been reports of Jewish students being harassed and…

Terry Anderson, journalist held for six years by Hezbollah in Lebanon, died 21 April, aged 76. Sir Andrew Davis, one of Britain’s greatest conductors, died 20 April, aged 80. Daniel Dennett, cognitive scientist and philosopher, died 19 April, aged 82. Diana Edwards-Jones, ITN director and pioneer in male-dominated TV news, died 14 April, aged 91. Lord (Frank) Field of Birkenhead, long-time Labour MP and minister, died 23 April, aged 81. Desert Island Discs returns later on in the spring…

Put not your faith in faith schools Emma Duncan The Times It was good to hear a judge last week upholding headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh’s right to ban prayer rituals at her school, says Emma Duncan. But I’d go further and ban all state-funded schools from selecting pupils on a faith basis. The proportion of people who believe in God in this country is below 50%, yet faith schools have proliferated and now make up 37% of primaries and 18% of secondaries. It’s claimed they get better exam results, but that’s only because their selective admission policies mean they take in fewer poorer children. So there’s no educational upside to set against a glaring societal downside: they divide communities. And that applies not just to the few Jewish schools that Ofsted…

Coral reefs are in crisis Record ocean temperatures over the past few months have triggered the fourth global mass coral bleaching event, scientists have warned, and it could be the worst yet. Coral reefs provide a home to a quarter of all marine life, protect coastlines from storms and – by supporting the fishing and tourism industries – help keep millions of people in work. But if the waters around them become too warm, the coral will expel the microscopic symbiotic algae that live in their tissues – turning them completely white. Corals can survive bleaching if it is not too prolonged, but may struggle then to grow and will be left more vulnerable to disease. Owing to global warming and the El Niño weather phenomenon, a series of ocean…

Nicola Peltz Beckham – daughter of the American billionaire Nelson Peltz and daughter-in-law of David and Victoria Beckham – has been accused of being the ultimate “nepo baby” for writing, co-directing and starring in her own film. Critics say that Lola, in which she plays a stripper, exploits every working-class stereotype, and amounts to “poverty porn”. She told The Hollywood Reporter that she’d poured her “heart and soul” into it, but had to cut a cameo by her husband, Brooklyn. “He had one line – ‘Hi.’ But he kept saying it in a British accent and he was staring directly into the camera. I was like, oh God, we have to move on.” Jonathan Van-Tam has been able to let his hair down since he resigned as England’s deputy chief…

“They keep telling us the FA Cup doesn’t matter” as “piece by piece they try to strip it bare”, most recently by scrapping replays from the first round onwards. But then it goes and gives us a contest like Sunday’s semi-final between Manchester United and Coventry City: a match of “impossible, unrepeatable drama”, which was among “the greatest and most remarkable” I’ve ever witnessed, said Ian Ladyman in the Daily Mail. United made all the early running, and were 3-0 up after 58 minutes. But then came a magnificent comeback from the Championship side, who levelled the scores with three late goals – including a penalty in the 95th minute. In extra time, Coventry continued to have the upper hand, said Jonathan Liew in The Guardian. First, Ellis Simms struck…

Formula 1 British driver Lando Norris achieved his 15th F1 podium finish (without a win; a record), as he came second to Max Verstappen in the China GP. Football Jude Bellingham scored a late winner as Real Madrid beat Barcelona 3-2 to all but secure the La Liga title. Tennis Emma Raducanu lost 7-6, 6-3 to world No. 1 Iga Świątek in the quarter-finals of the Stuttgart Open. Golf Nelly Korda won her second major title – and her fifth straight tournament win – with victory at the Chevron Championship in Texas.…

Running time: 2hrs 45mins A new era has dawned at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and if the “first production is anything to go by, it’s going to be a bright one”, said Fiona Mountford in The i Paper. To launch their tenure, the RSC’s new artistic directors, Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey, have chosen Love’s Labour’s Lost. This infrequently revived comedy is a “quietly audacious choice for an opening salvo” – and it pays off handsomely. Directed by Emily Burns, the production is set in the modern day, in a luxury wellness retreat in the Polynesian Islands, said Holly O’Mahony in The Stage – which proves an ideal location for Shakespeare’s tale of attempted abstinence and lovelorn longings. “High-spirited and oozing sparky chemistry”, this is a “laugh-a-minute delight”. Love’s Labour’s…

“Bold. Super stylish. Intelligent. Luxuriously made and unhurried.” It’s hard to watch Disney+’s Feud: Capote vs. The Swans “without reaching for hyperbole”, said Anna van Praagh in the Evening Standard. “In an age of algorithm-inspired” TV, “this eight-part, eight-hour series feels like one from a bygone Hollywood era”. Based on real events, and directed (mostly) by Gus Van Sant, the drama tells the story of Truman Capote (Tom Hollander) and his bevy of “swans”: the New York socialites who welcomed the writer into their inner circle, and then iced him out when he exposed their secrets in a 1975 magazine piece. He’d assumed that they wouldn’t recognise themselves in a thinly veiled fictional account of their lives (an extract from a novel he never published); but they did – and…

“An intimate study” of Winston Churchill that has been in private hands for 70 years has gone on show in the room at Blenheim Palace where the wartime PM was born, says Harriet Sherwood in The Guardian. It was painted by Graham Sutherland, one of the most highly regarded artists of his time, who was commissioned to paint Churchill by the Houses of Parliament to mark his 80th birthday in November 1954. The final portrait was famously not to the great man’s liking; he declared it, derisively, a “remarkable example of modern art”. Instead of being hung in Parliament, it was taken to Chartwell, Churchill’s home in Kent, where it was destroyed in a bonfire. The oil study was painted by Sutherland at Chartwell as he prepared to paint the…

Alice flares up as Kate and Lilian try to talk to her about their concerns. Hannah saves the day in the cricket match against Darrington; afterwards, Chris suggests they go for that drink – as friends. GP Azra warns Alice to be careful about helping others with addiction and to look after herself. Chelsea decides to go for jobs at the Tea Room and The Bull, with plans to play them off each other. Lying about why, Alice asks Chris to look after Martha so she can accompany Harry to his first meeting, forcing Chris to cancel his drink with Hannah. Afterwards, Harry says he’ll support himself from now on. There’s embarrassment at Grey Gables as Fallon and Harrison’s bag, complete with saucy costumes, gets mixed up with the Lord…

Skordostoumbi is a dish found in the Ionian Islands, says Georgina Hayden. It consists of layers of aubergine and tomato, and is heavy on the garlic: its name means garlic cloves. It is traditionally a vegan dish, but here I’ve roasted it in the oven, with the vegetables surrounding a block of feta. It’s super simple but looks impressive, and makes an excellent sauce for pasta. If you want to keep it plant based, just leave out the feta – it’ll still be delicious. Serves 4 1 aubergine 6 garlic cloves 400g cherry tomatoes 1 tsp caster sugar 1 tsp Aleppo pepper (or ½ tsp dried red chilli flakes) 1 tsp dried oregano sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 5 tbsp olive oil 2 tbsp red-wine vinegar 1 ×…

● Be wary of cheap deals for flights or accommodation. Scour reviews, ask questions and be on the alert for clone websites (poor grammar and spelling are red flags). It is not unknown for people to turn up at a holiday let and find they have no booking and another family is in residence. ● Never pay by bank transfer; if you use a credit card you will have protection from £100 up to £30,000. ● Scammers may use fake Atol numbers. You can check if it’s genuine at atol.org/check-for-atol. Abta logos should also be checked at abta.com/abta-member-search. ● If you have booked accommodation via a site such as Booking.com, pay through the site and be very cautious of any emails or calls asking you for more money. Contact customer…

Roberto Cavalli 1940-2024 Known as the “king of bling”, Roberto Cavalli made his name designing maximalist outfits in the 1970s that were worn by the likes of Sophia Loren and Brigitte Bardot; and he kept the faith when other designers embraced a more severe, paredback style. Minimalism (or “meeen-imal-eeezmo”, as he put it) was “anathema to him”, said The Daily Telegraph, and “gravity-defying dresses”, distressed denim, and animal print remained his stock in trade, a look summed up by The Independent as “molto sexy, molto animal print and molto, molto Italiano”. A perma-tanned hedonist, Cavalli claimed to be the only straight man in fashion (he once helped Hugh Hefner revamp his Playboy Bunny outfits) and he lived a jet-set life of “unabashed extravagance”. Roberto Cavalli was born in Tuscany in…

Daniel Křetínský – the billionaire known as the “Czech Sphinx” on account of his inscrutability – “has come knocking for the Royal Mail”, said Tracey Boles in The Times. Earlier this month, Royal Mail’s parent company, International Distributions Services (IDS), rebuffed a 320p per share (L3.1bn) bid from the tycoon’s sprawling EP Group, saying that it “significantly undervalues” the business. But Křetínský is reportedly determined to press on. He has quite a track record as a dealmaker, but the deal is bound to be “emotive”; Royal Mail’s history stretches back 500 years. Not only is IDS opposed to the deal, so too are unions and many politicians – and opposition is growing. Křetínský, who began building a stake in Royal Mail four years ago, made his fortune from investments in…

Sweden’s “highly successful” stock market is defying the “gloom” engulfing other European capital markets. What’s the secret, asks Nikou Asgari in the Financial Times: Market ecosystem The Stockholm stock exchange has recognised that you need a broad investment “ecosystem” – and to encourage it at every step of the way. Look after the minnows Although some big local names, such as Spotify and Oatly, have headed for the US, Sweden has been adept “at encouraging smaller domestic businesses” to raise funds locally. Around 90% of listings are valued at less than $1bn. Establish cornerstones The involvement of “rock solid” local pension funds and insurers increases confidence. By contrast, domestic equity holdings by UK pension funds have fallen to 4%. Retail investors There’s a vibrant retail investment “culture”. Financial literacy is…

Ije Nwokorie When Ije Nwokorie joined Dr. Martens as its first brand officer in February, he was tasked with making the bootmaker’s marketing communication with customers “the cleanest it’s ever been”, said Grace Gollasch in Marketing Week. Two months on, his remit has been extended to a full clean-up job. Elevated to the top role last week (he’ll take over as CEO a year from now), Nwokorie inherits a 77-year-old brand in crisis – Dr. Martens has lost 85% of its market value since its 2021 float, and is now fighting to retain its status as a standalone company. The company’s chair, Paul Mason, says Nwokorie is that rare thing: “a brand visionary, with great marketing skills” and “a really commercial brain”, too. No one doubts the former, said the…

In a sheltered life based largely at a desk, I have managed to avoid any sort of scenario in which head-butting seemed like a good move. Now I’m being asked to do it with conviction, and it feels so weird that I’m struggling not to laugh. To be fair, the stakes are high. I’ve been taken hostage by captors unknown and am being frogmarched towards an uncertain fate. As a menacing man approaches, I kick him in the stomach. And so begins the “choreo” (fight choreography) that I’ve been trying to memorise. I turn to the baddie to my left and – WHAM! – toss her to the floor. Now I turn to the right and – BOSH! – I swing my head at Nikita Mitchell, a 34-year-old former dancer…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1411 Two Connell Guides and three Week-branded items will be given to the sender of the first correct solution to the crossword and the clue of the week opened on Monday 6 May. Send it to The Week Crossword 1411, 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 Week-branded items including a notebook, coffee mug and tote bag, as well as two Connell Guides (connellguides.com). ACROSS 1 Stays in Scotland near the Borders (7) 5 Reading players disheartened about holding United (7) 9 What in music could be represented as sliding? (9) 10 Oscar’s excellent last letter (5) 11 Toy gun seen behind bandit’s back (6) 12 Vocal pieces fare well together in…

News Group, after Hugh Grant agreed to settle his phone hacking case against The Sun’s owner. The actor said he’d wanted to have his day in court, but had he done so, and been awarded even a penny less than the “enormous” settlement offer, he’d have been liable for News Group’s nearly £10m in costs. The Black Dog, a pub in Vauxhall, south London, which was inundated after it was mentioned in an eponymous song on Taylor Swift’s new album (see page 26). Thousands of Swifties made a pilgrimage to the pub last weekend, amid speculation that the singer had visited it with actor Joe Alwyn, her ex-boyfriend.…

Only 19% of British adults say they would vote Conservative in a general election, the lowest proportion ever recorded by the polling group Ipsos. 44% say they would vote Labour. 40% of voters think that the row about where Labour’s Angela Rayner lived when she sold her house “sounds like a smear campaign”, as do more than half of Labour voters. Savanta/Labour List About 25% of parents with £250k in liquid assets say they plan to remove their children from private school if VAT is added to fees. 50% say that they would keep their children in private education but would have to make changes, such as sending their child to a less expensive school. Censuswide/The Times…

Salman Rushdie’s recovery Twenty months ago, Salman Rushdie was taking part in an event in upstate New York when a man ran onto the stage and stabbed him repeatedly in a frenzied attack that lasted 27 seconds. There was “quite a stunning amount of blood”, he told Mick Brown in The Daily Telegraph; and he thought he’d had it. “But it was very matter-of-fact. It wasn’t fear of [death]; just, this is what’s happening, how things are. I’m about to die. Mainly the feeling was of loneliness, the sadness of dying far away from the people you love.” But he didn’t die. He was rushed to hospital where he had eight hours of surgery. A doctor told him he’d been unlucky and lucky. “I said, what’s the lucky part? He…

A Brazilian woman has been charged with attempted theft and the violation of a corpse, after wheeling her dead uncle into a Rio de Janeiro bank and trying to take out a $3,300 loan in his name. In footage of the incident, Érika Nunes, 42, can be seen asking Paulo Braga, 68, who had died hours before: “Uncle, are you listening? You need to sign.” When a suspicious bank employee pointed out that Braga “doesn’t look well at all”, Nunes replied: “He doesn’t say anything. He’s like that,” – then tried to force a pen into his hand. A nine-year-old has become the first British winner of a European seagull impression championship. Cooper Wallace, from Derbyshire, scored 92 out of 100 in the junior category at the EC Gull Screeching…

ARGENTINA How populists turn the past on its head Agência Pública (São Paulo) Rewriting history is the party trick far-right populists love to use to revive “old-fashioned, religious, patriarchal values” and persuade voters that “before was better”, says Natalia Viana. They talk of the benefits brought by colonialism; they even “relativise the evils of slavery”. No surprise, then, that in Argentina, on the anniversary of the infamous 1976 military coup, its new populist president Javier Milei should have released a video glorifying the junta that seized power and went on to commit hideous human rights abuses. (Almost 1,200 people were later convicted of crimes against humanity.) This caused a storm of protest, but Milei didn’t care. He has learnt from the likes of Donald Trump and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro that…

“The Conservatives seem set on turning 2024 into a record-breaking year,” said The Independent – “but not in a good way”. The endless stream of scandals felling their MPs has surpassed, “in both quality and quantity”, even those in the dying days of John Major’s premiership. The latest involves Mark Menzies, who represents Fylde in Lancashire. The Times claimed last week that the MP rang his 78-year-old former campaign manager at 3:15am one morning in December begging for £5,000 to pay off “bad people” who were holding him against his will. The sum, which rose to £6,500, was allegedly paid the next day by Menzies’ office manager, who was reimbursed from campaign funds, which Menzies had previously raided to pay £14,000 of “medical bills”. The 52-year-old MP, who denies any…

Liz Truss thinks it’s “profoundly un-Conservative”. Boris Johnson calls the idea “nuts”. But if Rishi Sunak gets his way, and Parliament passes his Tobacco and Vapes Bill, he will “for ever be remembered” as the man who stopped Britain smoking, said Camilla Tominey in The Daily Telegraph. Under the legislation, the legal age for buying cigarettes will rise by one year, every year, from 2027. That means that today’s 14- to 15-year-olds will never be able to buy tobacco legally, and smoking will, in theory, gradually die out. The bill passed its first hurdle last week, with Labour support. But more than 100 Tories abstained or were absent, and 57 voted against, including the favourite to succeed Sunak as leader, Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch. There could yet be trouble ahead.…

Since 2021, World Athletics has recognised two types of world record in the women’s marathon. One, known as the women’s-only record, applies to races where only women take part. The other, known as the “mixed” or “overall” record, applies to races where men and women run together, and where male pacemakers are permitted. The London Marathon is a women’s-only race, because the elite women set off 35 minutes before the men, and so effectively run the course on their own, said Rick Broadbent in The Times. In this year’s marathon, which took place on Sunday, Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya set a new women’s-only record with a time of 2hr 16min 16sec. The 30-year-old shaved more than 40 seconds off the previous best, set by Mary Keitany in 2017. In truth,…

How to unsettle Putin To The Times I agree with Matthew Syed’s condemnation of the Government for its capitulation over Russian participation in the Olympics. We need only recall how Hitler used the 1936 Games to legitimise the Nazi regime. As an ex-South African, I can testify to the effects of sports boycotts in Apartheid South Africa. During Apartheid, everything else could be explained away as being the effect of something else, similar to the way that the effects of Brexit are being explained to the British public. But the effects of the sports boycott could not be explained away in South Africa: it was the most visible condemnation of Apartheid, a festering sore that was apparent to everyone in the country, and which could not be “pretended away” –…

Three Women by Lisa Taddeo, 2019 (Bloomsbury £10.99). This book has become a kind of litmus test for me: I’ve given it to more friends than I can remember. A journalistic deep dive into female desire and the lies we tell ourselves, it provokes visceral reactions. After I read it, I tracked Lisa down and insisted we become friends. She’s a one-off. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, 1926 (Everyman £12.99). It’s fashionable not to like Ernest Hemingway, especially for his misogyny, but he also wrote scathingly about men’s treatment of women. Lady Brett Ashley is one of the great female characters in literature. “Yes… Isn’t it pretty to think so?” is a devastating last line to a love story. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, 2021 (Faber…

Programmes Dopesick This powerful and disturbing drama about America’s opioid crisis made its debut on Disney+ and is now showing on the BBC. Michael Keaton stars as the doctor in a poor mining community unwittingly prescribing OxyContin, while the Sackler family ruthlessly markets its wonder drug, and the DEA investigates. Sun 28 Apr, BBC2 22:00 and 23:00 (60mins each). Stalking: State of Fear Investigation into the stalking of women, highlighting the experience of victims who feel abandoned by a system meant to protect them. Tue 30 Apr, ITV1 21:00 (60mins). Boxing, Belief and Me Uplifting documentary about the Midland Langar Seva Society Boxing Academy in Walsall, and coach “Pops”, who helps run the community project. Wed 1 May, BBC1 22:40 (60mins). Films The Shop Around the Corner (1940) Two rival…

Most smart doorbells have a single lens, but the Eufy Video Doorbell Dual has two – one aimed straight ahead, the other downwards, to spot parcels left on the doorstep, or small children. It records 2,000p HDR pictures and has 16GB of storage (£229; uk.eufy.com). Great value, the Alexa-compatible Blink Video Doorbell has 1,080p picture, with infrared night vision, plus two-way audio. Like the Eufy, it offers a cloud service, but you don’t need it (£39; amazon.co.uk). Arlo Essential Wireless Video Doorbell Camera has a 180-degree field of view and a 1,080p HDR picture with night vision. It video calls your phone when pressed, and you get live view, motion alerts and two-way audio without a subscription. It is waterproof, wireless and rechargeable (£100; arlo.com). Aosu Video Doorbell Pro will…

The Siam Bangkok It only opened a decade ago, but with its superb interior design and “lush” riverside setting, The Siam feels like “a portal to a bygone Bangkok”, says Chris Schalkx in Condé Nast Traveller. Mid-century heirlooms – vintage Pan Am posters, “tattered” travel trunks – share its marble-floored hallways with a fine collection of older antiques. Recent refurbishment has kept the suites and private villas with pools looking fresh, and the Thai restaurant – which occupies three “ancient teakwood houses” – offers good food and “classic Thai hospitality”. The hotel is not ideally located for the city’s “postcard sights”, but for peace and “timeless beauty”, it is unrivalled. Doubles from £600 b&b; thesiamhotel.com.…

Thames Water: Project Timber Water companies in England and Wales have “paid £2.5bn in dividends” and “added £8.2bn to their net debt” in the two financial years since 2021, said the FT. The news will only add to the pressure on the industry. Not a good moment, then, to demand yet more cash from bill payers, said Luke Barr and Ben Marlow in The Daily Telegraph. But Thames Water has done just that. The utility, which serves 16 million households and is drowning in £18bn of debt, is plotting a 45% rise in annual bills to an average £627 by 2030. Assuming, of course, that it’s still around by then. Thames is causing such “deep concern” that the Government has reportedly drawn up “a blueprint” for effective renationalisation, said David…

Markets are in denial about Iran and Israel Mohamed El-Erian Financial Times Traders are behaving like “the frog in boiling water” over the Middle East, says Mohamed El-Erian. Unlike national security experts, they don’t seem to have fathomed that “multiple lines have been crossed” by Iran and Israel. For the first time in history, the two have attacked each other directly rather than through the use of proxies and targets in third countries. Yet the markets’ reaction to the risk of a major escalation has been “relatively tame and contained”. Even oil – “by far the most sensitive international price” – isn’t signalling alarm. The global economy might cope with “a transitory bump”. But it is “already too fragile to handle a large new economic shock” that would push up…

Who’s tipping what The week’s best shares Costain Group The Sunday Times After supply-chain disruption, high material prices and labour shortages, the construction sector is set for recovery. This “vastly improved” housebuilder has tentacles in many sectors and a strong pipeline. Buy. 75p. JPMorgan Global Growth & Income The Daily Telegraph This investment trust majors on US-listed equities, with large holdings in Microsoft, Nvidia and Amazon. An “attractive track record” and a “likely beneficiary” of upcoming US rate cuts. Buy. 546p. J Sainsbury Sharecast Worries about the supermarket group’s “excess capex burden” have been dismissed as “overstated” by Jefferies. Set to capitalise from a multipronged approach to an emerging “supportive competitive backdrop”. Target 300p. Buy. 268.4p. Marks & Spencer Group The Daily Telegraph An improving economy will benefit this “quality…