Nvidia has launched an investigation into reports that its chief executive Jensen Huang had an affair with a Chinese spy. Huang apologised to his family and the chipmaker’s staff yesterday after admitting that he had been in a romantic relationship with an executive at a Singapore-based data centre company, who is believed to have been recruited by Beijing. A gunman suspected of killing six people in central Kraków, including one Briton, has died in hospital. The 24-year-old Polish national, who is thought to have been motivated by far-right ideologies and is suspected of killing his parents and sister at their home beforehand, was wounded during a shootout with police after he opened fire on a busy market square on Saturday afternoon. Iceland’s 2kg bag of premium ice cubes was Deliveroo’s top trending item in Britain this year, as the country endured its hottest summer on record. The second most sought-after item on the “Deliveroo 100” list – which tracks changes in order volumes and ratings, rather than what sells the most – was the Diavola pizza from Horsham’s Monte Forte pizzeria, followed by the chilli broccoli salad from Dishoom in Manchester. To see the rest, click here.

For years before Russell Brand’s much-deserved comeuppance, says Matthew Syed in The Sunday Times, his obviously dodgy behaviour was ignored or explained away by people who wanted to use his celebrity to bolster their cause. Environmental campaigner George Monbiot hailed him as a “hero of 2014” and “the best thing that has happened to the left in years”. Ed Miliband went to his home in 2015 to record a podcast, in hope of winning the comedian’s endorsement; Andy Burnham defended him from charges of hypocrisy and urged him to “keep going”; the Guardian’s Owen Jones interviewed him at a public event and defended Brand against the “all-too-smug, seen-it-all-before snottiness” of his detractors. He was also honoured with gushing editorials, guest editorships and star column space in the leading left-wing newspapers and magazines. “Why?”

Here’s my theory: “progressive virtue” isn’t just a political identity but a “shield”. As far as progressives themselves are concerned, their cause is, by definition, “fundamentally good”, so almost any amount of bad behaviour can be covered up or airbrushed on the march to utopia. “Why would you weaken the cause by exposing the wrongdoing of one of our own?” It’s exactly the same mentality that led leftists like George Bernard Shaw to brush off reports of mass starvation in the Soviet Union in the 1930s (he called the allegations “offensive and ridiculous”). It’s why Stalin’s show trials and gulags were “invisible to the progressive gaze” and Fidel Castro’s crimes were rubbished. Some criminals hide from view by putting on a mask or using a fast getaway car. “The most heinous criminals hide in plain sight by donning the invisibility cloak called virtue.”

The TV survivalist Bear Grylls once had to apologise for sleeping in a luxury hotel while filming Born Survivor. Ray Mears, Britain’s “king of bushcraft”, is the opposite, says Henry Mance in the FT. The 62-year-old says one of the “worst experiences” of his life was when he was booked into an ecolodge in Costa Rica for a TV show. He felt so out of place that he headed into the jungle to “spend the night alone”.

In 1998, says The Wall Street Journal, a dodgy entertainment company in the Chinese gambling hub of Macau bought an old aircraft carrier for $20m. The new owners said the Soviet-era Varyag, which had been left to rust unfinished in a Ukrainian shipyard, would be turned into a casino. It was a ruse. China, which had never built or operated a carrier, spent 15 years transforming the rugged hulk into a functioning vessel and figuring out how to fly planes from it. The renamed Liaoning (pictured) is now one of three carriers in the vast Chinese navy, with a fourth – likely nuclear-powered – on its way.

Anyone tempted by Andy Burnham’s push for electoral reform should consider the recent elections in America and Israel, says Dominic Lawson in The Telegraph. The US midterms offered perfect clarity, with Democrats winning both legislative chambers in an undeniable rebuke of Donald Trump. In Israel, more than a week after election day, no one has “the faintest idea” what government will emerge. America, of course, uses Britain’s first-past-the-post model. Israel runs an unusually undiluted form of proportional representation, where parties need just 3.25% of the vote to win seats, and it tends to result in chaos. To cobble together a majority in 2022, Benjamin Netanyahu teamed up with extremists Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. Under first past the post, his Likud party would probably have governed alone.

It’s true that British politics hasn’t exactly been an oasis of stability in recent years. But at a general election there’s accountability – it’s always clear who’s in charge and “the rascals can be kicked out”. Under proportional representation, Margaret Thatcher – whose Tories were outpolled by Labour and the Liberal Democrats combined in 1979 – might never have reached No 10. In 2010, PR could have allowed the “deeply unpopular” Gordon Brown to cling on in No 10 with Lib Dem support. Nigel Farage, who called the current system “bankrupt” when Reform UK won four million votes but only five seats in 2024, suddenly says changing it is no priority. Why? Presumably because, until very recently, his party was polling so high it was on course to annihilate the Conservatives. As he conceded, first past the post “can be your enemy” before it becomes your friend. I’d argue it’s a friend to anyone who believes that the most vital element in politics is accountability.

The social media account WeRateDogs has racked up more than 20 million followers across X, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, with a very simple tagline, says Sarah Lyall in The New York Times: “your only source for professional dog rating”. Founder Matt Nelson rated his first dog in 2015 for no better reason than he thought it would be funny to leave a Yelp-style review for his friend’s pooch: “8/10 would pet”. Since then, he has parlayed this simple format into a thriving merchandise business, a podcast and a charity that has raised almost $5m for needy hounds. See rated dogs for yourself here.

Among the major winners of the mass uptake of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic are tailors and cobblers, say Danielle Kaye and Alexander Marrow in Reuters. More than one in 10 Americans now takes GLP-1 drugs, but research shows that when users stop, they tend to regain around 60% of their lost weight. So instead of buying a whole new wardrobe, fat-jabbers are having their clothes taken in. Cobblers Direct, an online shoe and handbag repair shop, has recorded double-digit year-on-year growth in its belt-shortening business.

It’s a Tin Can, says Jessica Salter in The Times: a screen-free, wifi-enabled landline that is fast becoming the “hottest tween accessory”. Styled like an old-fashioned home phone, the vibrantly coloured device is controlled through a companion app, allowing parents to approve every contact and set “quiet hours” when the phone can’t ring. Watching my daughter use the handset to call her friend reminds me of the good old landline days: lying on the floor, twiddling with the cord, giggling about whatever nine-year-old girls talk about. It’s already a hit in the US and launches in Britain, priced at £100, just in time for Christmas. Pre-order yours here.