Tory MP Geoffrey Cox has been referred to the Commons watchdog for apparently using his office in Parliament to earn almost £1,000 an hour working for the British Virgin Islands. Polls suggest sleaze has lost the Conservatives three points in the past week. “It’s more than a storm in a teacup, but not yet a tsunami,” says John Curtice in the I newspaper. A draft Cop26 report published this morning is thin on concrete promises. Carbon-emitting nations are trying to fudge it, but “there’s no fudge available”, former UK climate envoy John Ashton tells the BBC. Christmas grottoes have been hit by a Santa shortage, with some businesses offering £40 an hour to would-be Santas. It’s “a lost Claus”, says The Sun.
Fed up with rambling professors, students are watching lectures online at twice the normal speed, says Laura Spinney in The Guardian. And it works, according to Canadian psychologist Evan Risko, who found speed-watching had little negative impact on students’ memories. Woody Allen felt differently. He once joked that he’d taken a speed-reading course and got through War and Peace in 20 minutes. When he tried to summarise it, all he could say was: “It’s about Russia.”
On the money
People are buying digital clothes to wear in Instagram photos and on video calls, says Vice. The virtual clobber, which only exists online, appeals to influencers who buy new clothes for every photo shoot. Prices at the digital fashion company DressX range from $21 for a T-shirt to $1,400 for a futuristic body suit. Users upload a photo of themselves to an app or website, then have the outfit edited onto their bodies.
Gone viral
A shirtless David Beckham has painted a Christmas tree on a huge canvas – using a football. “Created a bit of a mess at work today,” Becks posted on Instagram, beneath a video of him kicking the paint-covered ball at the picture. It’s an advert for his whisky company, Haig Club. “When r u starting our family Christmas card?” replied his wife, Victoria.
Quoted
Quoted 10-11
“I don’t care what is written about me so long as it isn’t true.”
Dorothy Parker
Snapshot answer
It’s the great-granddaughter of oil tycoon J Paul Getty, Ivy Love Getty, who married photographer Tobias Engel this weekend. The bride wore a dress made from broken mirrors; a chihuahua carried the rings down the aisle; The Queen’s Gambit star Anya Taylor-Joy was maid of honour; congresswoman Nancy Pelosi officiated the marriage; and, next day, IV drips were supplied for hungover guests. “Fairly typical stuff for a family reportedly worth nearly $5bn,” says Alaina Demopoulos in the Daily Beast.
