The Week 1515

What happened On Sunday, President Biden authorised Ukraine to launch strikes into Russia using US-made long-range missiles, for the first time. Previously, the US had insisted that such missiles should only be used in occupied Ukrainian territory. The first long-range Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory were reported early in the week: US-supplied ATACMS ballistic missiles struck ammunition stores more than 100 miles from Ukraine’s border. On Tuesday, Biden agreed to supply Ukraine with anti-personnel landmines, which had so far been withheld, to slow Russian advances. On Wednesday, British Storm Shadow missiles were reportedly fired at military targets in Russia for the first time. The Kremlin reacted by accusing Washington of “adding fuel to the fire”, and warned of a “tangible” response. President Putin approved changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine, which…

What happened An estimated 13,000 farmers descended on central London on Tuesday to protest against the inheritance tax (IHT) reforms announced in last month’s Budget. Among those marching in Whitehall was the TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson, who warned that the planned measures spelled “the end” for family farms. Under the reforms, agricultural estates, which were previously exempt from death duties, will be subject to a 20% levy on their value over £1m (half the standard IHT rate). The change is set to apply from April 2026. Ministers said the reforms were needed to help fund public services, and would deter wealthy individuals from buying farmland as a tax dodge. They insisted that, once other allowances were taken into account, many farmers would be able to pass on as much as…

Ronald Blythe made his name by chronicling changing rural life in a Suffolk village in the 1960s. Now, his yeoman’s house on the Suffolk-Essex border is to be preserved as a studio and nature reserve. Bottengoms and its wild garden had been bequeathed to Blythe in 1977 by the artists John and Christine Nash, who’d settled there in the 1940s. When Blythe died aged 100 in 2023, he left it to the Essex Wildlife Trust, which is now turning it into a retreat for artists, writers and naturalists. A telecoms giant has rolled out a new weapon against fraud: an “AI granny” named Daisy who has been programmed to keep scammers on the phone for as long as possible. In calls featured on Virgin Media O2’s promotional video, the scambaiting…

Controversy of the week “It is right that Justin Welby resigned” last week, after the publication of the damning report by Keith Makin into the Church of England’s handling of John Smyth, its most prolific known child abuser, said Richard Coles in The Sunday Times. A barrister and a “muscular Christian” of the conservative evangelical kind, Smyth ran holiday camps for the Iwerne Trust in Dorset in the 1970s and 1980s, evangelising young men from public schools for ministry in the Church of England. Smyth groomed boys from the camps, and also from Winchester College, near his home – convincing them that he needed “to beat the sin out of them”. The review describes these “traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks” in detail, said The Church Times. In the…

Scammers are finding it increasingly easy to clone voices – as various celebrities have discovered to their cost. David Attenborough said he had been “disturbed” to learn that his voice had been used to deliver partisan news in the US; others have had their voices cloned for use in bogus endorsements. Fraudsters are also said to be using voice cloning in an update of the “Hi Mum” text scam, in which they pose as a child in distress pleading for emergency funds. “Manifest” – to use the power of visualisation to will something into existence – has been chosen by Cambridge Dictionary as its word of 2024. Singer Dua Lipa and gymnast Simone Biles are among those who have said they “manifested” their successes.…

The British Museum, with news that it has been given the highest-value gift in UK museum history. Trustees of the Sir Percival David Foundation have announced that they are handing the museum 1,700 pieces from the late businessman’s collection of Chinese ceramics. The pieces, which have been on loan to the museum since 2009, are estimated to be worth £1bn. San Marino, the world’s bottom-ranked national football team, who won an away game for the first time in their history – 3-1 against Liechtenstein. It was also the first time they’d scored more than once in a competitive game. San Marino measures 61sq km, making it about a third of the size of Liechtenstein.…