The theme word is MARCH. The examples are CROWN IMPERIAL (1A/22) and COLONEL BOGEY (26/33). The March sisters from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, Jo, Meg, Amy and Beth, appear in SOJOURN (12), OMEGA (34A), CRYPTOGAMY (10) and BETHINK (28). ALCOTT (in the third column) is to be shaded. Title: (pabulu)M + arch (defined).
Home Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, said that British fighter jets had shot down ‘a number of drones’ fired at Israel from Iran. Additional RAF jets were deployed over Iraq and Syria, where Britain was already taking part in Operation Shader against the Islamic State group. Some people decided not to attend the annual Downing
Why is Britain poised to ban cigarette smoking, when the habit is already dying out anyway? Smoking is seen by the young as disgusting and outdated. A generation ago, 50 per cent of school pupils said they had smoked at some point. By the time David Cameron came to power, this was down to 25
From our US edition
Plus: HHS secretary Xavier Becerra’s unsatisfactory abortion answer
From our US edition
Plus: House cancels ‘Appliance Week’ & is it finally time to defund NPR?
From our US edition
Plus: The Republican gone rogue on primary endorsements
Meet market Who uses the gay dating app Grindr? – The site claims 27m users worldwide, 80.5% of whom identify as gay. – 13m users are active on a monthly basis. Some 923,000 are paid users. – 80% are younger than 35. – 39% are single. – 48% are in the US. – The average
Good trade-off Sir: I applaud your excellent editorial (‘Trading in Falsehoods’, 6 April) – a succinct and insightful essay on the role of Great Britain in the abolition of slavery and the slave trade. All are agreed that slavery in any form was and is reprehensible. As a white and proud Barbadian, initially educated there,
The unclued lights were the cooks known as the TWO FAT LADIES at 18/2 who were 25/8 and 29A/38/3) and the HAIRY BIKERS at 14/3 who are/were 31 and ‘In memoriam’ 26/10. First prize R.A. Percy, Southport, North Carolina, USA Runners-up Peter Tanner, Hertford; James Bristol, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
The publication this week of the Cass Review into gender-identity services for young people marks a welcome return to reason in an area of medicine which for the past few years has been driven by identity politics. No one is denying that there are those who deserve psychological – and in some cases physical –
Home The review by Dr Hilary Cass of gender-identity services for people under 18 called for an end to prescribing powerful hormone drugs; warned that children who change gender may regret it; and found that many had experienced trauma, neglect and abuse. More than 150,000 patients had to wait more than 24 hours in A&E
From our US edition
Plus: Women jailed for swiping Ashley Biden’s diary
From our US edition
Plus: Heritage in the crosshairs & the GOP’s fight on Ukraine
From our US edition
Plus: Democrats slam Hillary for telling voters ‘get over yourself’
Unclued lights were characters in DAD’S ARMY which was set in WALMINGTON-ON-SEA. First prize John and Di Lee, Axminster, Devon Runners-up Andrew Garth, Ley Hill, Buckinghamshire; Val Urquhart, Butcombe, Somerset
Screen tests Sir: As somebody whose teaching career coincided with the digital revolution, I must take issue with Sophie Winkleman’s well-meaning but blinkered views on screens in schools (Actress’s Notebook, 30 March). I shall ignore the several familiar yet unsubstantiated opinions presented as facts, but I cannot let ‘straight back to books, paper and pens’
Ballot points Michael Gove hinted that the general election could be on 14 or 21 November. Have we had a November election before? – General elections were held on 15 November 1922, when the Conservatives won a 74 seat majority and on 14 November 1935 when the National Government won a majority of 242. –
It was bound to happen sooner or later: a guest on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow presented an artefact which derived from the slave trade – an ivory bangle. One of the programme’s experts, Ronnie Archer-Morgan, himself a descendant of slaves, said that it was a striking historical artefact but not one that he was willing
Home The Hate Crime and Public Order Act came into effect in Scotland, making it a crime to communicate or behave in a manner ‘that a reasonable person would consider to be threatening or abusive’, with the intention of stirring up hatred based on age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or being intersex. The
From our US edition
Plus: State Dept hires DEI guru & celeb chef’s team dies in Gaza
