 20 October, 2021 In the headlines NHS chiefs are imploring Boris Johnson to deploy "Plan B" coronavirus restrictions now, with Covid patients occupying one in five hospital beds. But a lockdown is "not going to happen", Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng told LBC's Nick Ferrari this morning. It's time to ask "how many Covid deaths can we live with", says Daniel Finkelstein in The Times. Every death is a tragedy, but lockdowns have "a massive economic cost with a potential impact on life expectancy". They also divert hospital treatment from conditions such as cancer. Doesn't Boris Johnson realise that trying to reach net zero by 2050 is going to bankrupt Britain, asks The Sun. His pricy plans will "become a millstone round our economy's neck". The Queen has refused The Oldie's Oldie of the Year award – because, at 95, she feels too young.
Comment of the day  Xi Jinping in Beijing on September 30. Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images President Xi fears a coup in Beijing One reason Xi Jinping won't leave China to come to Glasgow for Cop26 – or go anywhere else – is that he's terrified of a coup, says Peter Hartcher in The Sydney Morning Herald. After nine years as president, he projects "an air of serene imperial command", but he hasn't dared to leave the country for nearly two years and sees enemies everywhere. The head of China's security apparatus, Fu Zhenghua, who oversaw the punishment of nearly 180,000 security officials this year, has himself just been purged. And two "semi-official" Chinese news websites published credible reports last month about a foiled plot against Xi when he was visiting the city of Nanjing – the reports disappeared within a day. The coup was supposedly financed by a billionaire, Lai Xiaomin, who was executed in January. Xi's control of the People's Liberation Army is also "less than iron-clad". He has changed the senior officer in charge of western China four times in the past year. Is he right to be paranoid? It's hard to say, but he won't have forgotten the failed army coup against Chairman Mao in 1971. He's certainly doing everything he can to ensure the that Chinese Communist Party rubber-stamps his third term as leader at its congress next October. Xi once said of party discipline: "To forge iron, you need a strong hammer." He's wielding the hammer harder than ever. Why it matters
The West is hellbent on "energy masochism" The West's climate policies are a self-defeating "disaster", says The Wall Street Journal. What's the point of Joe Biden and European leaders heading to Glasgow hellbent on "energy masochism"? Without coal-guzzling baddies such as China signing up to Cop26, this idiotic climate agenda will have "net zero" impact on the climate. What it does do is "empower the bullies" in Beijing – and in the Kremlin. European energy prices are more than five times higher than they were a year ago. Russia provides half of Europe's gas and its ambassador to Brussels, Vladimir Chizhov, is promising even more. "Change adversary to partner and things get resolved easier," he says. As winter approaches, in other words, Europe finds itself at the "tender mercies" of Moscow. "Europe's willingness to harm itself in the name of unachievable climate goals is one of the greatest acts of democratic self-sabotage in history." Leaders have poured billions into wind and solar at the expense of coal, gas and nuclear. "This has transformed European leaders into the equivalent of 16th-century naval explorers, praying for favourable winds and weather as energy prices rise and fall depending on cloud cover and wind conditions." Now Biden wants to throw away US energy security in Glasgow. The world's despots cannot believe their "strategic luck".
Life "One of my staff has asked for paternity leave because he has a new puppy. What do you think?" asked Roger Wade, founder of the pop-ups business Boxpark, on LinkedIn. Thousands responded, with 39% backing the idea of "pawternity leave". Others were unimpressed. "This sounds barking," wrote one.
Gone viral Teenage Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg performed Rick Astley's 1980s No 1 Never Gonna Give You Up at a climate concert in Stockholm on Saturday. She was joined by 17-year-old fellow campaigner Andreas Magnusson. "We are just teenagers fooling around with each other," Thunberg told the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. "Not just the angry kids the media often portrays us as." Astley was impressed: "Fantastic and Tack så mycket! Rick x," he tweeted. That's Swedish for "thanks so much".
Zeitgeist A school in Miami has asked students who get the Covid vaccine to quarantine for 30 days, based on a debunked theory that they might infect others. The private Centner Academy, which charges parents up to $30,000 a year, has form here, says The Washington Post. In April it barred vaccinated teachers from having any contact with pupils and in January it invited anti-vaxxer Robert F Kennedy Jr as a guest speaker.
Love etc Professor Mary Beard, 66, recalls her wild teenage years in Jay Rayner's Out to Lunch podcast. "So you went off and shagged a lot of men twice your age," says Rayner. "Jay, I couldn't have put it better myself. Yes!" replies Beard.
Snapshot 
Noted The Vatican will launch its Click to Pray 2.0 app on 1 November after a test run involving monks and nuns, says France24. An earlier version of the app, which allows users to join global prayer groups, has been downloaded by 2.5 million people since its launch five years ago.
Snapshot answer It's Ye, formerly known as Kanye West. The 44-year-old rapper, who legally changed his name this week, was spotted roaming around New York in a mask on his way to lunch with Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen, PR guru Ronn Torossian and Israeli judo champion Or Sassoon. He says he changed his name because "Ye" is the most used word in the Bible. "Seems a bit suspicious to me," says Sarah Hagi in Gawker. "I'm no Christian, but you're telling me it was used more times than 'the' or 'a'?"
Quoted "Whenever things are frightening, it is a good idea to measure them." That's it. You're done. Been forwarded this newsletter? Sign up to receive it every day and get free access to up to six articles a month Subscribe for a free three-month trial with full access to our app and website. Download our app from the App Store or Google Play
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October 20, 2021
President Xi fears a coup in Beijing
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