Patrick Ruane had targeted individuals online including chief medical officer

A Covid denier who suggested “whacking” Prof Sir Chris Whitty with a rounders bat has been jailed for five years after being convicted of encouraging terrorism.

Messages posted by Patrick Ruane on social media were described by a judge who sentenced him at the Old Bailey as “extremely dangerous” during a volatile time.

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Do you fancy a weekend sword fight or touring a castle dressed as a laundress? Volunteers devoted to ‘living history’ events explain their enduring appeal

A horse in colourful medieval garb ambles past, its rider heading off to the first sword fight of the day. From across the fence, music from a group of jitterbug dancers boogie-woogies through the air. And here, in a small field dotted with picnic benches, a group of red-coated cavaliers are preparing for a musket demonstration. “I’ve tried muskets but I close my eyes when I fire,” confides Victoria Barton, who chooses to stand behind the safety line with me as the fighters load and light up their weapons. “Plus,” she says, as their guns fire, clouds of smoke blooming over the soldiers’ heads, “I like my eyelashes.”

When I visit, there are 65 re-enactors here at Chiltern Open Air Museum , a 45-acre site that has hosted the filming of Horrible Histories, Downton Abbey and Masters of the Air. Most of the participants at this weekend event , all re-creating battles or soldiers’ encampments not just from the civil wars but across the ages, are volunteers. They give up their evenings and weekends to breathe life into old stories.

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Police last year recommended charging ex-officer with misconduct over deaths of soldiers at barracks

Prosecutors have spent 18 months considering whether to charge a former army instructor at Deepcut barracks where five recruits died over two decades ago.

A file recommending that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) charge a former member of the Royal Logistics Corps for misconduct in a public office was sent last year but prosecutors said they were still unable to provide guidance on when a decision would be made.

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Barbican, London
A turbo-charged performance from the young conductor, carefully paced and full of bold choices, brought out the beauty and the terror of Stravinsky’s score

The programme might have looked conventional on paper but there was nothing safe about Klaus Mäkelä’s debut with the London Symphony Orchestra. The 28-year-old Finn, who in 2027 will take on the top job at both the Royal Concertgebouw and Chicago Symphony Orchestra, gave a turbo-charged demonstration of what all the fuss is about, concluding with an earth-shattering account of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.

He opened on home turf with Sibelius’s Tapiola, a 20-minute evocation of the vast northern forests that ranks among the Finnish composer’s darkest utterances. Striding forth into the twilight with broad, confident gestures, Mäkelä swayed in time as woodlands thrashed and heaved, or crouched as if to brace himself against the musical onslaught. Physicality aside, this was an imaginative, rigorously crafted interpretation, which the orchestra conveyed in dazzling shades of grey – the tectonic rumble of the icy crescendo was overwhelming.

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New figures show ability to work from home differs greatly by factors such as age, job type and education

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Workers with degree-level education are 10 times more likely to have a hybrid working arrangement than those with no qualifications, according to official figures that suggest a societal divide has formed since the first Covid lockdowns.

Almost five years since the start of the pandemic, the Office for National Statistics said hybrid working – part travelling to work, and part at home – appeared to be “here to stay” for some workers more than others.

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Deliciously earthy and savoury mushroom tacos with celeriac slaw and peanut sauce

A mixture of chestnut and oyster mushrooms works so well in this easy, weeknight taco feast. I love the spicy mushrooms piled on to warm tortillas with the peanutty celeriac slaw and soured cream (although my husband declines the latter because it detracts from the heat). Don’t hate me for suggesting that you grate celeriac on a weeknight – if you have a food processor with a coarse grater attachment, it is the work of seconds, and one small celeriac will give you enough slaw to go with tomorrow’s lunch, too.

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The economy matters, but the likes of Trump succeed by offering voters revenge for problems both real and imagined

Donald Trump, for the first time, won a majority of the popular vote. He took the US presidency with huge swings in his favour, increasing his share of first-time voters, young voters, black voters and Latino voters. And he gained among voters earning under $100,000 , while wealthier voters preferred Harris – a reversal of the class alignments in 2020. Current voting tallies suggest the swing to the Republicans was largely caused by mass abstention among Democrat voters. This result echoes global trends. Trump and his new coalition will now head a loose alliance of far-right governments from India to Hungary, Italy, the Philippines, Argentina, the Netherlands and Israel.

The rhythm of far-right successes began with Viktor Orbán’s landslide in Hungary’s 2010 parliamentary election. Since Narendra Modi’s victory in the 2014 Indian general election, it has scarcely paused: Trump’s first ascent to the White House, the Brexit vote and Rodrigo Duterte’s success in the Philippines all took place in 2016. Two years later, Jair Bolsonaro scored an upset in Brazil. Since the pandemic, the Brothers of Italy won the Italian general election in 2022 and Javier Milei took the Argentinian presidency in 2023. For most of this period, Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud has ruled Israel in coalition with far-right parties. Even where it is not in power, the far right is gaining, as in France and Germany. In the long view, the defeat of Trump in 2020 and Bolsonaro in 2022 were predictable oscillations in a general pattern of ascent.

Richard Seymour is an author and founding editor of Salvage. His latest book is Disaster Nationalism: The Downfall of Liberal Civilization

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Company to shed about 6% of its workforce of 9,000 as it loses car insurance customers

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Direct Line is to axe about 550 jobs as part of a cost-cutting drive at the insurance company.

The Kent-based company said that it was consulting on the jobs, which would represent about 6% of its total 9,000-person workforce, as part of drive to save £50m next year.

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• ATP finals updates from 1pm GMT start in Turin
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Hello and welcome to our live blog of the ATP Finals group stage match between Carlos Alcaraz and Casper Ruud. The two are the first to face off in the John Newcombe Group at the Inalpi Arena.

Alcaraz has had a fantastic year, winning two grand slams and winning silver at the Olympics. The world No 3 has a chance to move up a spot in the year-end rankings should he do well here in Turin.

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