The Week

An injured loggerhead sea turtle that washed up on a beach in Cumbria in February, showing no signs of movement, has made a full recovery. Nazaré, as the turtle was named, was found caked in a thick layer of algae, and suffering from pneumonia, in Barrow-in-Furness. He was taken to Sea Life Blackpool, and nursed back to health, plus thoroughly cleaned, at points with a toothbrush. He has now been flown to the Azores and released back into the wild. A former salesman from Dorset has transformed his allotment into an award-winning vineyard. Andrew Waring, 66, planted the vineyard on his southeast-facing plot – which measures just 26ft by 49ft – after teaching himself how to make wine by reading books and watching YouTube videos. He now has 60 vines of…

What happened A damning report released last week accused the Tories of having left England’s NHS in a “critical condition”. The review, by the surgeon and former Labour peer Ara Darzi, blamed the dire state of the service on three major factors: the Covid pandemic; the “disastrous” 2012 shakeup by the Conservative health secretary Andrew Lansley; and a “decade of austerity” from 2010, which had starved the service of £37bn in investment, forcing it to raid infrastructure budgets to cover day-to-day spending. This had left the NHS with crumbling buildings, low productivity, long waiting lists and some of the worst cancer survival rates in the Western world. In response to the review, Keir Starmer pledged to carry out the “biggest reimagining of our NHS since its birth”, and insisted that the service…

What happened “Only consequential presidents get shot at,” declared Donald Trump on Tuesday, just days after surviving what seems to have been a second attempt on his life. On Sunday, he was playing golf at his course in West Palm Beach, Florida, when, at around 1:30pm, he heard gunfire. Some 400 metres away, an FBI agent had seen a gun barrel poking through a foliage-covered fence. The agent opened fire on the suspect, who fled by car, leaving behind a semiautomatic rifle, a scope and a GoPro camera. He was arrested soon after and identified as Ryan Routh, a 58-year-old construction worker from North Carolina. Data from his phone revealed he had taken up his position before 2am. It is not clear how he knew that Trump would be there: the…

Controversy of the week It seems that Vladimir Putin’s threats worked, said Elliot Wilson in The Spectator. Last weekend, Keir Starmer travelled to Washington to meet President Biden, and to discuss lifting restrictions placed by Ukraine’s Western allies on the munitions it supplies to Kyiv. Britain had been pushing for a change of policy, and there had been hopes the US might agree that Ukrainian forces should be allowed to use the Anglo-French Storm Shadow cruise missile, and other long-range weapons, to strike vital launch sites, airfields and command centres inside Russia itself; at present, they can be used only in Ukraine or very close to its borders. But before the meeting, Putin issued a clear threat. Such a step would “substantially change … the nature of the conflict”, he said.…

A Labour-run council has decided to serve only plant-based food at its internal meetings. In future, councillors in Nottingham will not be offered cow’s milk with their tea, and the biscuits will be butter-free. The council said it was part of its drive to cut its carbon footprint, but Andrew Rule, an independent councillor, argued that the decision should have been put to a full vote. “I think it goes against freedom of choice, if I’m honest,” he said. Advent calendars containing gifts for adults are expected to do good business this year, reports The Daily Telegraph. For £800 you can get one with a rare whisky miniature behind each door; and numerous retailers are selling calendars packed with beauty products. Liberty’s costs £260.…

Deloitte, which won plaudits for becoming the first of the Big Four accounting firms to offer equal parental leave. From next year, new fathers at the firm will get 26 weeks of fully paid leave, as new mothers already do. Deloitte is also offering an extra week’s paid leave for staff who care for a relative or friend. Rachel Reeves, who was awarded the use of Dorneywood, the 21-room grace and favour mansion in Buckinghamshire. Although Dorneywood is usually allocated to the chancellor, when Tony Blair was PM, he gave it to his deputy, John Prescott – raising speculation that Angela Rayner might be in the running.…