What we learned this week
Buzzing
An image of two cuckoo bees asleep on a blade of grass (above), taken by Yorkshire-based photographer Luke Chambers, has won the 2023 Royal Entomological Society Insect Week photography competition. Swedish photographer Gustav Parenmark, 17, won the under-18 category, with a photograph of a banded demoiselle damselfly at rest.
Wizard sale
The original artwork for the cover of JK Rowling’s ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s
Stone’ sold for $1.9m (£1.5m) at Sotheby’s auction house in New York this week. It is the most valuable Harry Potter item ever sold at auction. The watercolour illustration by Thomas Taylor fetched more than three times the estimate of $400,000-600,000, which Sotheby’s claimed was the ‘highest pre-sale estimate ever placed on an item of any Harry Potter-related work’.
Moving the goalposts The English Premier League generated a record £6.1bn in revenue in the 2022-23 football season, up 11 per cent on the previous year (£5.5bn), according to a report by Deloitte’s Sports Business Group. In contrast, the English Football League, comprising the Championship, League One and League
Two, generated
£1.1bn in revenue during 2022-23.
Clash of the titans
Anthony Joshua (below) will fight his fellow Briton Daniel Dubois for the IBF heavyweight title at Wembley Stadium on 21 September, after undisputed champion Oleksandr Usyk gave up the belt. In a post on X, Usyk said: “Anthony and Daniel, I know the IBF title is important to you. It is my present to you.”
Star turn Sir Derek Jacobi (inset), Damian Lewis and Sir Tony Robinson are among the actors set to perform readings of William Shakespeare in London. They will recite poetry, speeches and scenes from Allie Esiri’s ‘Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year’ at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre next month.
Robot therapy A pill that releases micro robots into the body to treat inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has been developed by researchers at the University of California San Diego. The micro robots in the pill are made of inflammation-fighting nanoparticles attached to green algae cells. The nanoparticles absorb and neutralise pro-inflammatory proteins in the gut, and are spread by the green algae. When tested in mice, the pill reduced symptoms of IBD and promoted the healing of damaged colon tissue without causing side effects, according to the findings of the research published in the ‘Science Robotics’ journal.
Surge in arrivals The number of migrants arriving in the UK after crossing the Channel reached a record high in the first six months of this year, at 12,901 – a rise of 17 per cent on last year’s total of 11,433 arrivals between January and June.
Splashing out Britons are set to spend an average of £3,322 this summer on ‘memorable experiences’ such as sports events, holidays and live entertainment, according to research by Barclays. Those aged 18-34 plan to spend the
most – £5,531 on average – while over-55s intend to spend £2,123.
Gridlock capital London’s roads are the most congested in Europe, with drivers spending an average of 99 hours stuck in traffic in 2023, according to a report by traffic information supplier Inrix.
Licence to print money
A first edition of Ian Fleming’s 1953 debut James Bond novel ‘Casino Royale’, bought for £1 at a car boot sale, fetched £10,000 at auction in Devon.
Electric investment Carmaker Volkswagen is to invest up to $5bn (£3.94bn) in electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian.
Historic win Georgia made history by reaching their first ever major football tournament knockout stage after a shock 2-0 victory over Portugal at Euro 2024 this week.
The result took Georgia into the last 16, where they face Spain tomorrow for a place in the quarter-finals.
Fall from grace Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, has been sentenced to 45 years in prison for drugs and firearms offences. Hernández was extradited to the US in April 2022 and earlier this year was found guilty of drug trafficking. At his sentencing, Hernández claimed he had been ‘unjustly accused’. But US Attorney General Merrick Garland said the ex-president ‘abused his power to support one of the largest and most violent drug trafficking conspiracies in the world, and the people of Honduras and the US bore the consequences’.