15 October - The Knowledge

In the headlines

The Queen has been caught on microphone criticising the inaction of world leaders over climate change. “It is very irritating when they talk, but they don’t do,” she says. Britain certainly isn’t above criticism: a leaked document from the Department for International Trade recommends prioritising economic growth over the environment in trade deals. But down under, an Australian government source has called Britain’s High Commissioner a “sanctimonious bore” for her environmental “haranguing”, says Lucy Fisher in the Telegraph. The EU is considering curbing British access to European energy, says the FT, if negotiations over the Northern Ireland protocol get ugly. Good thing Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, has been showing energy bosses a Met Office briefing predicting that we’re in for a mild winter.

Snapshot

Life

Jemima Khan became such a fan of arranged marriages that she helped set them up for her friends in Pakistan. When she moved to the country at 21 to marry cricket legend Imran Khan, she thought it was a “mad, outdated idea”, she tells the Evening Standard. But she soon came round, saying it “injected” pragmatism into a world “led entirely by love”. “I genuinely ended up arranging marriages. Quite often these children of friends of my ex-husband would say: ‘OK, we’ll have an arranged marriage, but can Jemima be involved?’”

Noted

Reality TV star Gemma Collins, plagued with guilt after spending £1,450 on gold-encrusted steaks at the Nusr-Et Steakhouse in Knightsbridge, decided to “give some good back to the universe”, she says in her podcast. She donated “four bags of really nice bras” to charity.

Shopping

Charlotte Gainsbourg, daughter of 1960s icons Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg, has launched a denim-based fashion collection for Zara. The 50-year-old actress and singer tells Vogue she inherited her style from her parents: “My father really had two pairs of jeans, four shirts, four T-shirts and his white Repettos, and that’s it.” Her 19-piece collection includes jeans, denim shirts and a corduroy trench coat. The blazer, leather boots and cashmere sweater have sold out.

Quoted

Quoted 15-10

“It’s hard to think of a single thing that you can do for your mind and body that’s better than a little dose of awe.”

American psychology professor Dacher Keltner

Snapshot answer

It’s a painting by the star of this week’s Frieze London art fair, Issy Wood, whose works on velvet and linen sell for as much as $300,000. The 28-year-old American, who is based in London and trained at the Royal Academy, has been described by Artnet as a “young painting sensation”. Last month she sold two of her latest works – which often depict fetishist leather interiors and relics from her grandmother’s house – for six-figure sums at Art Basel.