Table of contents for 1538 in The Week

What happened Trump’s peace deal Two days after Donald Trump accused him of stringing him along in peace negotiations, President Putin proposed another temporary ceasefire in Ukraine. It would run from 8 to 10 May, to coincide with Russia’s Victory Day celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany. Kyiv, which accused Moscow of violating a similar truce over Easter, said the Kremlin was stalling for time and called for an immediate ceasefire lasting “at least 30 days”. Following a three-hour meeting between Putin and the US special envoy Steve Witkoff last Friday, Trump had suggested that Russia and Ukraine were “very close to a deal”. But the next day, after a one-on-one meeting with President Zelensky at Pope Francis’s funeral in Rome, he condemned Russia’s continuing attacks on Ukrainian civilians and…

Controversy of the week Trump’s first 100 days Donald Trump wasn’t kidding when he promised “the most extraordinary first 100 days of any presidency in American history”, said Jonathan Chait in The Atlantic. Since his 20 January inauguration, Trump has passed an avalanche of executive orders (139 and counting) designed to dismantle traditional constraints on presidential power, and to advance his agenda: threatening law firms, universities and media owners into compliance; authorising Elon Musk’s Doge to “cripple” the federal bureaucracy; firing the heads of 18 federal watchdogs; “disappearing” innocent migrant workers; and deporting foreign students who have written anti-Israel articles. It’s “less a new administration”, said Andrew Sullivan in The Times, and more a “vengeful monarchy”. The “trappings of a republic remain”, but they are increasingly mere “facades”. And for…

Migrants convicted of sexual offences will be banned from claiming asylum in the UK, under a new law announced by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper. The Refugee Convention allows countries to refuse asylum to those who have committed serious crimes; the rule is currently used to block claims from criminals given sentences longer than one year (see page 14). Labour will extend the provision to include anyone convicted of a crime which places them on the sex offenders’ register, regardless of sentence length. It will also apply to those who have already been granted leave to remain.…

Nuuk Alliance affirmed: Denmark’s King Frederik X arrived in Greenland this week, for a trip aimed at showing unity with the semi-autonomous territory in the face of President Trump’s recent threats to take it over. In January, Greenland’s then PM Múte Egede stepped up demands for independence from Denmark, but this week his successor, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said that Greenland and Denmark needed to “move closer together” given the “foreign policy situation”. In response, the Danish PM, Mette Frederiksen, has unveiled plans to invest more in the strategically important, mineral-rich territory, even as it takes greater control of its domestic affairs, in what she called a “modernisation” of their relationship. Both also said they were ready to strengthen defence in the Arctic region in collaboration with the US. La Grand-Combe, France…

“The average cost of a child’s birthday party in the UK is £524. The average wedding now costs over £25,000. The average family spends over £900 on Christmas. Halloween is about £25 per person, Easter £37 per person. Are these outlays justified? I know society needs circuses as well as bread, but we’ve gone childishly all in on the circuses in recent decades. The average Briton spends £1,700 a year on holidays. I heard a dad recently being interviewed about the cost of living. ‘No father,’ he said in the tone of a man enduring a shockingly unjust sacrifice, ‘should have to tell his child they can’t go on holiday.’ Really? Why not? It used to happen all the time.” Robert Crampton in The Times…

Child rapists don’t deserve asylum Jenni Russell The Times Last week, for the second time in his long criminal career, a jailed Congolese drug dealer was spared deportation; he has a sick son who, it was ruled, benefits from having him in the UK. The judge ruled that deporting him would contravene the Human Rights Act (HRA), which enshrines Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights – the right to family and private life. If there’s one thing guaranteed to make the public lose faith in our institutions, says Jenni Russell, it is this tendency of immigration judges to adopt an absurd interpretation of the HRA. Examples are legion: in February, a Pakistani paedophile escaped deportation on the basis it would be “unduly harsh” on his young daughters…

“It’s a strange new world out there” for hiring managers, said Brit Morse in Fortune. Just ask Dawid Moczadło, the co-founder of Vidoc Security Lab, whose footage of a weird Zoom call with a job applicant recently went viral after he posted it on LinkedIn. During the interview, the candidate’s face blurred and glitched repeatedly. Suspecting that the candidate was using an AI filter to disguise his appearance, Moczadło asked him to hold his hand in front of his face, to disrupt the filter. The request was repeatedly ignored, so he terminated the interview. Moczadło’s experience is far from unique. According to a survey in March, around 17% of hiring managers in the US have encountered candidates using deepfake technology in video interviews. It seems to be a particular problem…

The arrival of the “skinny pill” Millions of people have injected themselves with Wegovy and other GLP-1 drugs, in an effort to lose weight: in the US, it is estimated that 12% of adults have tried the so-called “skinny jab”. Now, once-a-day pills, which have the potential to be even more popular, may be on the way. Last week, Eli Lilly revealed promising results from a stage three trial of its oral GLP-1 drug: orforglipron was found to lower blood sugar levels in patients with type 2 diabetes, and it also helped them lose weight, with those on the highest dose shedding 7kg on average over 40 weeks. The company, which is awaiting the results of a section of the trial involving patients who are overweight or obese, plans to…

The death of Virginia Giuffre brings to an end “one of the grimmest and saddest sagas” in recent public life, said Alexander Larman in The Spectator. Last week, the family of the 41-year-old – who was preyed upon by the billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his enabler Ghislaine Maxwell – announced that she had taken her own life. Giuffre had not long escaped the clutches of a sex trafficker when, aged 16 and working as a spa attendant at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club, she met Maxwell. She was “thrust into a nightmarish existence”: abused by Epstein and, as she put it, “passed around like a platter of fruit” to other powerful men. One of her abusers, she alleged, was Prince Andrew. Giuffre achieved justice of sorts: Maxwell is serving a…

England’s women are “grand-slammers yet again”, and Six Nations champions for the seventh year in succession, said Stephen Jones in The Times. They achieved this “magnificent record” by beating France at Twickenham on Saturday. Yet what the record books “will not show” is how easily John Mitchell’s team could have lost against a French side who made up for what they lacked in structure with impressive “attacking intent”. The early stages were dominated by the Red Roses, who “notched up five tries inside the first quarter” and raced to a 31-7 lead, said Fiona Tomas in The Daily Telegraph. Whether it was Abby Dow gliding over the line after latching onto a “cute grubber” from Zoe Harrison, or “Megan Jones slicing through a pair of navy shirts”, England “were emphatic”…

Pacts can go both ways To The Guardian Talk of electoral pacts between the Conservatives and Reform UK for the right-of-centre vote has been widely reported. [And] as the policies of these parties move further to the right, some Conservative voters will shift their allegiance. Yet these voters are not going to the Labour Party, as its leadership follows rightwards. A litany of government policies must seem as abhorrent to “old-school” Conservatives as they do to traditional Labour values. Instead, there is steady growth in support for parties that are broadly soft-left: the Lib Dems, Greens, the SNP and Plaid Cymru. These parties, albeit each with their own policy stance or geographic focus, now have a combined voting-preference share larger than that of Labour, the Conservatives or Reform. The trend…

The acclaimed Irish playwright Conor McPherson’s last original straight play was in 2013, and so the opening of The Brightening Air, which returns him as writer-director to the Old Vic (where his acclaimed Bob Dylan musical Girl from the North Country premiered in 2017), feels like a “major theatrical event”, said Dzifa Benson in The Daily Telegraph. Haunting and very funny, it is set in rural Sligo in the early 1980s, where Stephen (Brian Gleeson) and his sister Billie (Rosie Sheehy) still live in their crumbling family home, and seem likely to die there until relations arrive to disrupt their “self-made rut”. The play, which has (acknowledged) echoes of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, veers into the numinous and the supernatural, said Nick Curtis in The London Standard. There’s “a religious revelation,…

Helen breaks it to Pat that she’s moving in with Tom and Natasha while she looks for her own place. Freddie tells Lily that he’s sure the hidden camera wasn’t a prank – he’s determined to find out who planted it. Rochelle meets with Saskia, who wants access to the abattoir and tells Rochelle she’ll have to burn her bridges in Ambridge when they’re done. At Beechwood, Helen and Joy chat and Helen reports bumping into Rochelle with a friend in Felpersham; Rochelle is meant to be cooking dinner but rushes off after Saskia calls. Rochelle stalls for time with the abattoir plan, but Saskia says they need to be ready. Joy offers to help Rochelle get her own place, but a wrong-footed Rochelle refuses. Tensions emerge with Helen as…

The boom in “food chat” “For an indicator of the state of British culture”, look no further than next year’s programme for the Albert Hall, says Ed Cumming in The Daily Telegraph. First up is not a touring symphony orchestra, nor yet another Eric Clapton concert, but a live edition of the food podcast Off Menu, hosted by comedians James Acaster and Ed Gamble. The podcast – on which guests talk about their “dream restaurant”, while the hosts “riff gamely” – has been downloaded more than 200 million times. And it’s by no means the only successful “food chat” podcast: others include Jessie and Lennie’s Ware’s Table Manners, Angela Hartnett and Nick Grimshaw’s Dish, and Grace Dent’s Comfort Eating. You can see why celebrities like appearing on such podcasts –…

Lonely Planet’s female writers offer their advice for women travelling alone. ● Doing things alone can feel a bit odd to begin with. To acclimatise (and see if it’s for you), begin with a short solo outing close to home – to a museum, say. ● You’re never too old to stay in a hostel. Many cater to different age groups and have private rooms for extra comfort. ● If you’re taking a big solo trip, and feeling apprehensive, arrange events for each day – a food tour, perhaps, or a class of some sort. It will give the day structure, and you might meet interesting people. ● Pack a good book. It’s always useful to be able to whip out a book, whether to fill in the time when…

Jean Marsh 1934-2025 Jean Marsh, who has died aged 90, was a struggling actress when she and her friend Eileen Atkins had an idea for a new TV series. Both came from working-class families, said The Guardian, and were frustrated by the paucity of TV dramas about people of their backgrounds. She recalled that watching The Forsyte Saga, they wondered – “who is cooking the food and ironing the clothes?” The result was Upstairs, Downstairs, a drama following the lives of the upper-class Bellamy family and their servants, in the early part of the 20th century. The show ran for five series in the 1970s. It attracted up to 18 million viewers in the UK, was sold to 80 countries, and won two Baftas. For her performance as Rose Buck,…

No surprise, perhaps, said Derek Saul in Forbes, that the “top stock” of Trump’s first 100 days is Palantir, “the artificial intelligence and government contractor extraordinaire” chaired by Peter Thiel – Trump’s long-time Silicon Valley backer and “a mentor” to Vice-President J.D. Vance. Shares have gained around 54% since the inauguration: “by far the strongest return of any company listed on the benchmark S&P 500”. This “blistering start” to Trump 2.0 builds on a “red-hot run”: Palantir was also 2024’s “top returner”. But while other tech rivals have stumbled, it has emerged as the “clear winner” of “the reimagining of the federal government”. “Palantir is on the right side” of the “spending mix shift” towards AI, notes UBS. It’s also on the right side of the president. “Daddy’s home,” posted…

Klaus Schwab It’s been quite a week on the Magic Mountain, where the World Economic Forum has been rocked by the ousting of its 87-year-old founder, Klaus Schwab, amid an investigation into “financial and ethical misconduct”, said Kalyeena Makortoff in The Guardian. “Mr Davos”, who began the totemic international get-together in 1971, stands variously accused by whistleblowers of using WEF funds to pay for “massages”, asking staff “to promote him for a Nobel Peace Prize”, and “manipulating” statistics “to curry favour with certain governments”. It is also suggested that his wife, Hilde, lived a luxury life at the WEF’s expense. The Schwabs plan to sue, saying they are victims of “character assassination”. “Hubris has a way of catching up,” said Samuel Gregg in The Spectator. A mechanical engineer turned business…

What happened The former central banker Mark Carney led his Liberal Party to a fourth consecutive election victory, less than two months after succeeding Justin Trudeau as Canada’s prime minister. It marks a remarkable turnaround for the Liberals. In January, they were trailing the Conservatives by 25 points in the polls. But in a campaign dominated by Donald Trump’s trade war and his threats to make Canada the US’s 51st state, they closed that gap and, in Monday’s election, they won 169 seats, 25 more than Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives. The result leaves the Liberals just short of an absolute majority. Carney, 60, had presented himself as the man to save Canada from Trump.“America wants our land, our resources, our water, our country,” he said in his victory speech. “That will…

A growing number of people are taking advantage of working from home to secretly hold down two or more full-time jobs at once – a practice known as “polygamous working”. Online, people trade tips on how to get away with it, reports The Times, and it seems to be rife at local councils. When the National Fraud Initiative conducted a pilot study of London boroughs, it identified 23 cases over a few months that had cost about £500,000 in overpaid salaries. The magazine Social Work News reports that a social worker who had taken jobs with two councils was caught when, during a video call with colleagues in Hampshire, an unmuted mic picked up them saying: “Hi, you are through to Southend Children’s Services.”…

Millions of public sector workers in England should be given pay rises of as much as 4%, ministers have been advised. Independent pay review bodies have recommended that 514,000 teachers should get a pay rise of close to 4%, and that 1.38 million NHS workers should receive about 3%. The Government insists there will be “no additional funding” beyond the 2.8% pay rises for which it has already budgeted. Some unions have signalled that they could take strike action if offers fall short of expectations. Private sector pay growth is expected to top 5% this year.…

Washington DC Amazon attack: The White House blasted the online giant Amazon this week, in response to reports that it planned to display the extra costs resulting from new tariffs on its site. “This is a hostile and political act,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. Amazon said staff had mooted the idea for its budget site Haul, but that it had never been approved. Donald Trump later said he’d had a “great” call with Jeff Bezos, and that the Amazon founder had “solved the problem”. Amazon gave $1m to Trump’s inauguration fund, but Bezos’s own net worth has slid by $30bn this year, according to Bloomberg, owing partly to the tariff policy (see page 37). Vancouver, Canada Lethal car ramming: A 30-year-old man has been charged with multiple…

A man who bought a £20,000 car to replace his stolen Honda Civic discovered that he had actually bought back his own car. Ewan Valentine, 36, from Solihull, woke up to find his car missing in February. He later found the same model, with different plates and lower mileage, 70 miles away. Driving home, Valentine discovered not only various familiar-seeming items – a tent peg and Mars bar wrappers – but also his and his parents’ address in the satnav. “I nearly crashed, to be honest,” he said. A medieval scholar believes that he has spotted a hitherto unacknowledged penis in the Bayeux Tapestry. The Oxford professor George Garnett is the acknowledged authority on the issue: he counted 93 of them in 2018, (88 of which belong to horses). But…

FRANCE Our Republic is “committing suicide” Le Point (Paris) “The faster history moves, the more France stands still,” says Nicolas Baverez. Europe faces a “maelstrom” of the kind last seen in the 1930s: the US is sliding into illiberalism, globalisation as we know it is ending, “high-intensity warfare” has returned to the continent. Germany, for its part, has changed its constitution to unleash new borrowing, which will help reverse chronic underinvestment. Northern Europe is “rapidly” rearming. Southern European governments are rushing to support their businesses. But France? France remains “frozen in denial”. The president is largely powerless. The national assembly is divided, without a clear majority. Instead of launching emergency measures, our authorities remain “passive”. Foreign investment is stagnating, thanks to “a wall of taxes and red tape”. Bold talk…

David Cameron’s former “guru” Steve Hilton (pictured) has ditched his hug-a-hoodie messaging since moving to California – and is now a Donald Trump supporter with his eye on becoming the state’s next governor. If he makes it to the gubernatorial mansion, it would be a vast upgrade on his tiny Downing Street office, which Hilton shared with ex-Lib Dem adviser Polly Mackenzie during the coalition. Mackenzie told the How To Win An Election podcast that they were both initially surprised by how small the room was – but all became clear when Tory grandee Ken Clarke burst in during their first week. “He charged into the office without knocking and stopped abruptly on seeing me,” she said. “Oh,” he exclaimed. “This used to be where we put the coats.” Donald…

“The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.”Warren Buffett, quoted on The Knowledge “Always make the audience suffer as much as possible.”Alfred Hitchcock, quoted in the Philippine Daily Inquirer “Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”Arthur C. Clarke, quoted on Phys.org “There is no such source of error as the pursuit of absolute truth.”Samuel Butler, quoted in Forbes “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”Carl Jung, quoted in The Daily Telegraph “Never trust a man who, left alone with a tea cosy, doesn’t try it on.”Billy Connolly, ibid “Principles aren’t principles if they don’t cost you anything.”Chris Packham, quoted in The Independent “When women gossip…

To The Times Some of your correspondents hanker after a Love Actually moment where we stand up to President Trump. Unfortunately, as Edward Lucas says, our security arrangements – and particularly our nuclear deterrent – are intertwined and dependent on the US. The realpolitik (much as it may be unpleasant) is that we have to make nice in the short term, while planning and working to reduce this dependency in the medium term. Sadly, I fear the Government will do the former without bothering with the latter. Simon Cook, Bridge, Kent To The Times Contrary to Edward Lucas’s opinion that we should flatter Donald Trump, I think now is the time to do the reverse. Trump’s attitude to President Zelensky, and the US president’s appeasement of Vladimir Putin, must drive…

Old School by Tobias Wolff, 2003 (Bloomsbury £10.99). I love novels that feature fictionalised versions of authors, and this one – set at an elite boarding school in 1960s America – is among the best. The teenage narrator longs to be a writer, encountering Robert Frost, Ayn Rand and Ernest Hemingway during his final year and making some questionable choices that he lives to regret. Barracuda by Christos Tsiolkas, 2013 (Atlantic £10.99). My favourite 21st century novel is Tsiolkas’s The Slap, but this is also in the top ten. The tale of a young Greek-Australian swimmer with aspirations towards the Sydney Olympics; he’s good, but just not good enough. What does it mean to fail, especially when so young? Tsiolkas answers that in a novel that utterly succeeds. The Mysterious…

Programmes 24 Hours: The Fall of Nazi Germany Documentary about the negotiations between the Allies and Nazi High Command that brought an end to the Second World War. Sat 3 May, C4 20:00 (60mins). Families Like Ours Gripping drama from Bafta-winning director Thomas Vinterberg. A family is forced to leave home as sea levels rise and Denmark is evacuated. Sat 3 May, BBC4 21:00 and 21:50 (50mins each). Malpractice Second season of the hospital drama. Investigators are called in when a psychiatrist makes a decision with terrible consequences. Sun 4-Tue 6 May, ITV1 21:00 (60mins each). Dead Man Walking: Dan Walker on Death Row With polls suggesting a resurgence of public support for the return of capital punishment in Britain, Walker visits prisons in the US to discover the complex realities of…

When I go on hiking trips, I always scan the surroundings for edible plants, says Hisham Assaad. The mountains around Beirut are filled with a wide variety of fantastic edible greens, such as za’atar (wild thyme), wild garlic, sour sob and many others. Dill weed, with its anise aroma and flavour, is particularly common in the hills and always reminds me of these delicious fritters, which my neighbour used to make from the bunches of wild dill she would collect. Serves 4 450g courgettes, grated 2 tsp sea salt 60g fresh dill, chopped, plus a few sprigs to garnish 50g spring onions, finely sliced 6 eggs 1 tsp allspice 80g plain flour 1 tsp baking powder olive oil, for frying To serve: pita breads labneh cucumber and yoghurt salad • Place…

Mayr runs detox and gut-health retreats (minimum seven days) at its clinic on Lake Wörthersee, Austria. These can be tough, but devotees swear by them (from €2,850; original-mayr.com). Not your typical wellness retreat, Sanctum takes physical exercise to the next level with “mindful movement” classes, designed to leave you feeling spiritually energised. At luxury locations from Ibiza to Anguilla (from £1,940; wearesanctum.com). Designed for readers, writers and creatives, Daisy Buchanan’s week-long Read Yourself Happy literary retreat in Zakynthos, Greece, includes workshops, hiking, relaxation and cookery classes (from £2,100 for a twin room; aweventurer.com/travels). Santalan is a 12-month coaching plan for busy women, starting with a four-day retreat in Suffolk and followed by monthly one-to-one coaching sessions. The retreat includes meditation and group bonding (from £2,300; santalan.com). SOURCE: STYLIST…

Brach Madrid Madrid, Spain Part of the French-owned Evok collection, the Brach is the latest in a recent wave of new luxury hotels to open in Madrid, says Lydia Bell in Condé Nast Traveller. Housed in an “elegant” 1920s building, it has interiors designed by “the man who invented the boutique hotel”, Philippe Starck. The 53 rooms and four suites have warm, earthy tones, dark wood joinery, and appealing curios; and the “low-lit” restaurant is similarly stylish, with 1920s brasserie mirrors and lots of leather. The pan-Mediterranean cuisine is wonderful, and there’s a 20m pool and a spa with an impressive suite of “biohacking gadgets”. Doubles from £480; brachmadrid.com.…

Deliveroo/DoorDash: delivery deal “Tony Xu has picked a good time to chow down on a rival,” said Karen Kwok on Reuters Breakingviews. The DoorDash boss – who presides over America’s largest food delivery app – has “offered to gobble up” Deliveroo, in a deal valuing the British company at around $3.6bn. That looks like a mere amuse-bouche for a $79bn giant, but the intervention is timely. In February, the investment group Prosus snapped up Deliveroo rival Just Eat Takeaway, promising heavy investment to drive growth. Deliveroo’s long-suffering shareholders are certainly delighted, said Jenni Read on CNBC, though some think the celebrations hollow. The 180p-per-share offer, after all, is a fraction of the 390p at which Deliveroo listed in 2021, cementing the company’s “Floperoo” tag. It also means another high-profile exit…

The rich are more useful inside the tent David Smith The Times In her October Budget, the Chancellor confirmed the replacement of the previous “non-dom” regime with a new “residence-based system”, aimed at “attracting the best talent and investment”. It doesn’t seem to be working, says David Smith. There are reports of “an exodus of non-doms and entrepreneurs fleeing higher-tax UK for friendlier locations” – potentially “cutting a swathe” through the rich lists. Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal is among those said to be packing their bags; Goldman Sachs International boss Richard Gnodde is reportedly heading for trendy Milan. “The rich aren’t popular”, but alienating them is never a good idea. The highest-earning 1% accounted for 28.2% of all income tax last year; the top 5% contributed 48.8%, or £147bn. Reports…

The week’s best shares Alfa Financial Software Holdings The Mail on Sunday Alfa operates in a highly regulated industry, providing software to streamline vehicle finance. Customers, across 37 countries, are sticky and the order book is at a record high. Forecast: 300p. Buy. 210p. Bytes Technology Group The Times BTG sells software, AI and cybersecurity products to public and private sectors in the UK – including the NHS, where opportunities are “bountiful”. Worries about the Microsoft partnership are overdone. Buy. 487.4p. Downing Renewables and Infrastructure Trust The Daily Telegraph This investment trust, with exposure to UK solar power, benefits from inflation-linked subsidies. Investments also include Swedish hydropower and grid infrastructure. The discount is unjustified. Yields 7.5%. Buy. 78p. Insig AI The Mail on Sunday Insig’s smart database enables financial services…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1463 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 12 May. Send it to The Week Crossword 1463, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London W2 6JR, or email the completed grid/listed solutions to crossword@theweek.co.uk. By Tim Moorey (timmoorey.com) This week’s winner will receive Week-branded items, as well as two Connell Guides (connellguides.com). ACROSS 9 Game with Victorian conventions? (10,5) 10 Shabby place bound to be shown in correspondence (7) 12 Lower graduate into Scottish river (7) 13 Complex situation of steersman at sea (5-4) 14 Flip through part of Northumberland (5) 15 Fighter hit around top of leg (7) 18 Sober about awful crime? Could be curtains! (7)…

A tree that was thought to have become extinct two million years ago is now growing well in a garden in Worcestershire. The Wollemi pine, which is related to the monkey puzzle, was rediscovered by hikers in Australia in 1994, after which cuttings and saplings were sold around the world. One was bought by Pamela and Alistair Thompson, who planted it in their garden in the Malvern Hills. Fifteen years on, the tree is 13ft tall, and this month, it bore fruit for the first time. A woman who posed as a boy in order to join the Magic Circle has been readmitted – 34 years after her ruse was discovered by its all-male members and she was ejected from the society. In her 20s, Sophie Lloyd disguised herself as…

Safety warnings, after a Chinese student who climbed Japan’s Mount Fuji out of its official climbing season had to be rescued twice. On Tuesday, he was plucked off the peak by a helicopter because he’d lost his crampons and couldn’t get down. Days later, he went back to retrieve his phone and other belongings – and had to be rescued again, after suffering altitude sickness. M&S, which continued to reel from the impact of a crippling cyberattack over Easter that has forced it to suspend online orders, and also disrupted its deliveries to Ocado. In a report last year, the retailer had warned that the shift to home-working had left it more vulnerable to cyberattacks (see page 35). Decorum, after many of the thousands of people who queued for hours…

54% of Americans think President Trump is “exceeding the powers available to him” (this includes 16% of Republicans). 66% would describe his second term so far as “chaotic”. The New York Times/Siena College 75% of Britons expect the economy to get worse over the next 12 months, and just 7% think it will improve. This net economic optimism score, of -68, is the lowest ever recorded by Ipsos. Ipsos/The Times 29% of Britons place themselves on the “left” of the political spectrum; 26% place themselves on the “right”; and 22% place themselves in the “centre”. A further 22% say they don’t know where they sit. YouGov…

A Gen Z phenomenon Bella Ramsey is, in many ways, the archetypal Generation Z star, says Zing Tsjeng in Vogue. Plucked from obscurity in rural Leicestershire aged 11 and given a role in Game of Thrones, one of the biggest TV hits of recent years, Ramsey is now starring in another massive show – the post-apocalyptic zombie drama The Last of Us. Empathetic, vegan, worried about climate change and largely dressed in second-hand clothes for environmental reasons, the 21-year-old has never been drunk (“I’ll have, like, half a pint of beer or Guinness”) and has only once been to a nightclub. Two years ago, Ramsey (below) also came out as non-binary, and asked to be referred to with the pronouns “they” and “them”. That process was awkward: “People who aren’t…

Retailers’ greatest single concern is violence and abuse against staff. The BRC report identified 45,000 violent incidents over the 2023/24 year, equivalent to 124 per day, including more than 25,000 involving a weapon; in addition, there were nearly 700,000 incidents of abuse. Most commonly these come when workers are confronting shoplifters, or trying to enforce the rules about selling age-restricted items. Only a third of violent and abusive incidents were reported to police, and just 10% of the total resulted in police attendance; only 2% resulted in a conviction. The effects are profoundly negative on shopworkers, who are disproportionately young and female, and who are usually paid little more than the living wage (£12.21 per hour, with an additional £1.64 recommended for workers in London). In October 2024, the Retail…

We’re often urged to watch our weight, but the NHS should warn over-65s that they need to maintain a higher BMI than younger people, Dame Patricia Hewitt, the former health secretary, has warned. She revealed last week that on holiday in Australia recently, she became severely ill with dehydration after going on a bushwalk, and her weight dropped “catastrophically”. The medics who looked after her explained the concept of geriatric BMI – the idea that the optimum BMI for over-65s is higher than for younger people. Carrying a bit more weight gives older people a “buffer” for if they fall ill and shed kilos rapidly; but it is also the case that slimmer adults tend to have less muscle mass – which increases the risk of frailty and falls. “What…

“It’s nearly nine years now since Britain lost its collective mind,” said Gaby Hinsliff in The Guardian. But as the Brexit referendum recedes into the past, some sense may at last be returning to our country’s dealings with Brussels. Labour, which has long been terrified of sounding too pro-European, is catching up with the public and becoming a little bolder about acknowledging the benefits of improved links with our friends across the Channel. With an UK-EU “Brexit reset” summit in London approaching on 19 May, sources have suggested that the Government is open to the idea of a reciprocal youth mobility scheme – or, as they prefer to call it, a “youth experience” scheme. The programme would be open to 18- to 30-year-olds and would confer the freedom to travel,…

When Liverpool ended their 30-year wait for a league title in 2020, the celebrations were muted as it happened during the Covid pandemic, said Andy Hunter in The Guardian. With matches played in empty stadiums, and restrictions making a trophy parade impossible, it felt like a frustratingly pent-up triumph. But last Sunday, thankfully, there was no such need for restraint as Liverpool secured a record-equalling 20th league title with a 5-1 victory over Tottenham. After an early setback, when Dominic Solanke headed Spurs in front after 12 minutes, Liverpool hit back with three goals before half-time, from Luis Díaz, Alexis Mac Allister and Cody Gakpo. “The second half was a sun-kissed title party, crowned when Mohamed Salah swept in for Liverpool’s fourth” – the Egyptian’s 28th league goal of the…

Football Crystal Palace beat Aston Villa 3-0 to reach the final of the FA Cup. They will face Manchester City, who beat Nottingham Forest 2-0. Snooker Ronnie O’Sullivan reached a record 23rd quarter-final at the World Snooker Championships, with a 13-4 victory over Pang Junxu. Cycling Tadej Pogačar won the Liège-Bastogne-Liège classic race for the third time. Rugby union Exeter Chiefs suffered their worst-ever defeat, losing 79-17 to Gloucester. Bath, who lead the table by 15 points, beat Newcastle Falcons 55-19.…

Djordje Ozbolt at Herald St The Serbian artist Djordje Ozbolt’s current show – Birdsongs of Praise – is a distinctly wacky affair, consisting of a recent series of paintings depicting birds in fantastical, glitchy situations. On the one hand, there’s a whimsical side to it – if you’ve ever, for instance, wanted to see what a barn owl might look like with a lit cigarette dangling from its beak, like some kind of avian Humphrey Bogart, look no further. On the other hand, the work is an intriguing bid to jam disparate artistic styles together to see what happens: another owl, this time almost transparent, sits in a landscape straight from van Gogh’s years in Arles, but elements of the composition point to the surrealism of Magritte or Paul Delvaux.…

Mario Vargas Llosa 1936-2025 A giant of world literature, Mario Vargas Llosa, who has died in Lima aged 89, was a Peruvian novelist and essayist, and one of the stars of the “Latin American boom”, along with Colombia’s Gabriel García Márquez, and the Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes. Translated into more than 30 languages, his books sold in their millions. He was fêted all over Europe (he had homes in London, Paris and Barcelona); and, in 2010, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Although his books covered a wide range of genres, they tended to explore political themes, said The Daily Telegraph. Like most of his contemporaries in the intelligentsia, he’d embraced Marxism in his youth, and welcomed the revolution in Cuba. But he was later appalled by Castro’s…