Lucy Letby has become only the fourth woman in Britain to receive a "whole-life" sentence, meaning she will die in prison. Stephen Brearey, the consultant who first raised concerns about her, told the Today programme that hospital managers should face the same routine scrutiny as doctors and nurses, after reports that Letby's bosses failed to act on warnings about her behaviour. Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant will begin releasing radioactive water into the sea on Thursday, despite opposition from locals and neighbouring countries. The UN's atomic watchdog has approved the plan, says BBC News, which will see about 1.34 million tonnes of wastewater released over 30 years. A joke by the 28-year-old comic Lorna Rose Treen has been voted the funniest at this year's Edinburgh Fringe. "I started dating a zookeeper," it goes, "but it turned out he was a cheetah." |
Biden visiting Saudi Arabia in 2022. Anadolu Agency/Getty |
Biden's Middle East plan is "delusional" |
It's "uncanny", says Simon Tisdall in The Observer, how America's declining influence across the Middle East is tracking the previous retreat of the British Empire from the same area. One by one, ruling regimes are "asserting their independence and freedom of action", while courting new allies. So it's perhaps unsurprising, "given his lifelong belief in American pre-eminence", that Joe Biden has launched an "ambitious push" to re-establish US dominance in the region. The President is trying to pull off an "improbable hat-trick": a working "understanding" with Iran; a "historic Saudi Arabia-Israel" peace deal; and a breakthrough on Palestinian statehood. |
The whole thing looks faintly "delusional". He is apparently proposing to completely lift US sanctions on Iran in exchange for a few American prisoners, a halt to Tehran's attempts to build nukes and a possible end to Iranian military drone sales to Russia. Then, to try and win back Saudi Arabia from the increasingly influential Chinese, Biden is reportedly offering his blessing for a Saudi nuclear power programme, if Riyadh normalises relations with Israel. His hope seems to be that the "domestically besieged" Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, is so desperate for a win that he'll take a Saudi deal even if it means opening discussions on Palestinian statehood. That would be a "big pre-election win" for Biden, but even if Netanyahu could be persuaded, his far-right coalition partners certainly can't. And time is not on Biden's side. Regional leaders "wonder how long he will last", and whether Trump will replace him. The US President can "do his darnedest", but like Britain's lost "imperial age", the "American century" in which he's so firmly rooted is passing swiftly into history. |
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Forget the "Vanilla Girl" and "Strawberry Girl" trends, says Vogue: it's time to embrace your "Asparagus Girl" credentials. Hailey Bieber, Rita Ora and actress Sophie Turner have all recently stepped out in a "distinct fluoro green"; designers Acne Studios, Collina Strada and Karoline Vitto featured the hue in recent runway shows. It's the perfect shade for those who "harbour a faint bitterness and go limp in the heat". |
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In your story about Suella Braverman you describe her as a polarising figure, with some of her colleagues deriding her as "totally useless" and others hailing her as a future party leader. I'd like to point out that, based on recent experience, the one doesn't rule out the other. |
Ian Jones, Lingfield, Surrey |
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The trader Michael Burry, played by Christian Bale in The Big Short (above), made $2.7bn correctly predicting the 2008 financial crisis. Now, despite the "sunny backdrop of an apparently rallying stock market", says The Times, Burry is ploughing $1.6bn – more than 90% of his portfolio – into a bet that Wall Street will crash. |
Romola Garai as Cassandra Mortmain in the BBC's 2003 adaptation of I Capture the Castle. Allstar/BBC |
It's easy to overlook the magic of children's books |
When asked if he would ever write a children's book, says Nikhil Krishan in UnHerd, the late Martin Amis replied: "If I had a serious brain injury." It's part of the crusty idea that reading kids' books is somehow lazy, because they lack the complex characters of Hamlet or Anna Karenina. It's a snobbish misapprehension. I recently picked up I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, who's best known for The Hundred and One Dalmatians. It's about a 17-year-old aspiring novelist, Cassandra Mortmain, and re-reading it with my adult sensibilities revealed just as much important social commentary as any supposedly sophisticated adult novel. |
There's a sense of class consciousness baked into the book: young Stephen, the maid's son and "general dogsbody", is more economically productive than any of the central characters. When he's told not to "presume" he can play with "Miss" Cassandra, any "adequately empathetic" child will feel sorry for him – but it takes a grown-up to be "indignant on his behalf". Then there's Cassandra's "moral seriousness", which alerts us to the "paralysing self-consciousness" of being a teenager, and how society "demands more maturity of girls than of boys". The novel is full of "clever, self-conscious whimsy", and acknowledges that feelings of fear, love and failure are shared by young and old alike. In a world of adult responsibilities, it's refreshing to be reminded "just how much grown-ups have in common with the child they once were". |
Shakira and KarolG singing their 2023 hit single TQG, en Español |
Only 35 non-English songs have reached the Top 10 of the Billboard chart since it began in 1958, says Popbitch. "Six of those have been this year." |
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Britain is being plagued by a sharp rise in bed bugs because of the booming second-hand furniture market. Pest killers Rentokil report a 65% year-on-year jump in infestations of the blood-sucking creatures, which bug boffins have put down to more people buying fusty furnishings on Facebook Marketplace and eBay. The small brown critters are also benefitting from the hotel industry's post-Covid boom: they hop into a traveller's clothing or luggage, cling on until their host gets home, then lay thousands of eggs within weeks. |
It's an ultra-rare spotless giraffe, which was recently born in Tennessee. Staff at Brights Zoo believe the monochrome mammal is the only solid-coloured giraffe of its subspecies on the planet; the last one recorded was born in Tokyo in the 1970s. Visitors are being asked to vote on a name: Kipekee, which means unique; Firyali, which means extraordinary; Shakiri, which means "she is most beautiful"; or Jamella, which means "one of great beauty". |
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"Marriage is a fine institution, but I'm not ready for an institution." Mae West |
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