 9 October, 2021 Hello, Mo Gawdat, a Silicon Valley tech wizard, has written a terrifying book predicting that the end is nigh – or rather, as he puts it, that we're fast approaching the "singularity": the moment when artificial intelligence eclipses human beings as the smartest consciousness on the planet. And there's nothing we can do to stop it. (See this week's issue.) Many of the things we worry about are overblown by the media, with its relentless focus on bad news. But I have to confess that I find Gawdat's thesis worrying. Once upon a time we emerged from the swamp as the most intelligent form of life, and made our fellow creatures subject to our whims. Are we one day going to face the same fate they did? All good wishes,
Jon Connell Editor-in-chief
Newcastle takeover  Saudi Arabia shakes up football Newcastle United – currently languishing second bottom of the Premier League – has just become "one of the world's richest football clubs", says Ian Watson on Football365. Thousands gathered outside St James' Park stadium yesterday to celebrate the £305m buyout by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), some dressed in Saudi robes and waving beer cans in the air. Amanda Staveley, the British businesswoman who brokered the deal, insists the kingdom won't be in direct control and bats away accusations of "sportswashing". But supporters couldn't care less. It's been a bleak 14 years under Sports Direct supremo Mike Ashley: two relegations, stagnation and a vicious disregard for "one-club city" fans. Newcastle finally has a return "ticket to the elite". At what cost, says Barney Ronay in The Guardian. The chief operator behind the Saudi fund, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is – according to the CIA – personally responsible for ordering the murder and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. "The bone-saw boys are at the door" – the FA's "fit-and-proper-person test" be damned. This isn't about sport, or even money. It is about hijacking beloved community clubs as projector screens for whichever sovereign state happens to be passing. In Saudia Arabia, homosexuality is punishable by "public whipping or chemical castration". How does that square with the Premier League's claim to be "against all forms of discrimination"? The grim reality is that the Saudis' PR drive will probably work, says Sam Wallace in The Daily Telegraph. Manchester City positioned itself as the saviour of post-industrial east Manchester when it was bought out by the UAE. The expectation is that the PIF consortium will similarly attach itself to the wholesome "Geordie nation" brand, dovetailing nicely with Boris Johnson's levelling-up drive. In a region desperate for investment, "they are pushing at an open door". Frankly, I don't see why Newcastle fans should have to defend something over which they have no control, says the club's record goal-scorer, Alan Shearer, in The Athletic. And where do you draw the line? Other Premier League owners hail from Russia, China and Abu Dhabi – countries not celebrated for their human-rights records. Next year the World Cup will be held in Qatar, where an estimated 6,500 migrant workers have died working on new stadiums. Obviously I'm not thrilled my club are now representing an "authoritarian regime". But eventually football makes hypocrites of all. Perhaps it's just our turn.
Noted Congratulations to free-speech activists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov for winning the Nobel Peace Prize. But if recent performance is anything to go by, we should start awarding it posthumously, says Adam O'Neal in The Wall Street Journal. Aung San Suu Kyi won in 1991, but the Rohingya Muslims find that bitterly ironic. Barack Obama got the gong in 2009, yet as he waged war in Iraq and Afghanistan, he admitted: "Turns out I'm really good at killing people." And the 2019 winner, Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed, has since been accused of ethnic cleansing.
Inside politics Iain Duncan Smith had a traffic cone lobbed at him during the Tory conference, but in general politics is much more peaceful than it used to be, says Leo McKinstry in The Spectator. In 1780 the prime minister, Lord North, was "besieged" in Downing Street by an angry crowd and had to be rescued by the military. Joseph Chamberlain was hit in the face by a herring at a rally during the 1874 general election; in the 1892 campaign, William Gladstone was hospitalised by a gingerbread biscuit. (It hit his eye.) Lord Winterton recalled how, during a hustings in Dundee in 1910, he was left smelling "like an amateur sewage farm" after having a bucketful of excrement dumped on him. "Thus perish all Tories," the culprit declared.
Property  THE HIDEAWAY Fearnmore Church is a one-bedroom bolthole near Applecross, on the west coast of Scotland, with views across Loch Torridon and the Torridon Mountains. The fully furnished cottage is run as a holiday let and has hiking, fishing and sailing on the doorstep. It's a two-hour drive to Inverness. £250,000.
Zeitgeist The 10 judges of France's Prix Goncourt – equivalent to the Booker – are literary grandees who, once appointed, serve until they are 80. Deliberations happen on the first Tuesday of each month, over lunch at the venerable Parisian restaurant Drouant, each judge eating with their own engraved cutlery. Judges' lovers have been barred from consideration after a string of recent nepotism scandals.
Long reads shortened  Chinese police put down a riot in Xinjiang in 2009. Guang Niu/Getty Images Confessions of a Chinese torturer A former Chinese detective identified only as Jiang can't sleep at night, says CNN. Jiang (not his real name) was one of 150,000 police officers paid double to work on an operation called Aid Xinjiang, beating Uighur Muslims and forcing them into the "re-education" camp system. In a three-hour interview, the whistleblower says he joined President Xi Jinping's Strike Hard campaign to root out "terrorists" in 2014. Jiang and his colleagues were told to treat Xinjiang "like a war zone", and were given quotas. "If you want people to confess, you use the electric baton with two sharp tips on top," he says. "We would tie two electrical wires on the tips and set the wires on their genitals while the person is tied up." If anyone resisted arrest, officers would "hold the gun against his head and say, 'If you move, you will be killed'". Many new male prisoners were raped. Other interrogation methods included shackling people to a "tiger chair" (designed to immobilise suspects), hanging them from the ceiling and waterboarding. Everyone was beaten: men, women and children as young as 14. Inmates were incarcerated for simply "wearing a veil", growing "a long beard" or having too many children. Jiang claims that if he had resisted, he would have been arrested too. Some people saw it as a job; others "are just psychopaths". Now in exile in Europe, he is close to a breakdown. "I just feel numb." Read the full article here.
Eating in  Chef Nusret Gokce, aka Salt Bae, is an internet sensation The steak that will set you back £700 Nusr-Et Steakhouse is "a carnival for rich carnivores", says Jan Moir in the Daily Mail. The new restaurant in Knightsbridge serves chargrilled tomahawk steaks wrapped in 24-carat gold leaf for £700. Why does somewhere with such obscene prices have queues stretching around the corner? Because the owner is the Turkish butcher turned chef Nusret Gokce, aka Salt Bae. Gokce become an internet sensation in 2017, when a video of his signature style – arm "bent back like a swan", letting salt crystals "bounce off his muscled forearm and on to the steak" – went viral. Now the 38-year-old has 19 restaurants from Dubai to Beverly Hills, more than 38 million Instagram followers and fans from David Beckham to Rihanna to Leonardo DiCaprio. To his followers he is, quite simply, a meat god. "If your idea of sexy is a Johnny Depp-alike charmer in black plastic gloves", wielding an enormous knife and squeezing the juices out of meat, "then baby, you are in luck". Gokce wiggles his hips suggestively, forking meat into my mouth "like a sparrow feeding her nestlings". But my £120 steak is nothing special – the overriding flavour is salt. To eat a golden steak "is to sit under a shame cloud and just hope it clears away soon".
Staying young "The secret to daily health is as easy as 123," says Dr Michael Mosley, creator of the 5:2 diet, in the Daily Mail. Have a one-minute cold shower in the morning, take two brisk walks and drink three cups of coffee. Cold showers boost your immune system and coffee helps to ward off depression. In addition, drink four large glasses of water, eat five portions of fruit and vegetables, and aim for six wees to ensure you're drinking enough. Do a seven-minute workout, get eight hours sleep, eat nine nuts – great for the heart and brain – and meditate for 10 minutes.
Quoted "Dance like nobody's watching, they say. Well, I did. But they were watching." Michael Gove on his Aberdeen nightclub escapade That's it. You're done. Been forwarded this newsletter? Sign up to receive it every day and get free access to up to 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 09, 2021
Saudi Arabia shakes up football
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