Black Mountains, south Wales: I pass statuesque bulls with brass rings through their nostrils, up a twisting ridge to the top

Holy mountains are ten a penny in the “Celtic realms”, of course, but even among this plethora of landscape spirituality, Skirrid Fawr, at 1,594 feet, stands out, its great distinguishing landslip cleft clearly visible on its weather slope, gothically accentuated and strange.

I’d viewed it the previous evening, a blue peak with a rockfall on its western scarp. So I ambled towards it on a dank afternoon from the valley of the little Afon Troddi, along delightful paths enlivened now and again by statuesque bulls sporting great brass rings through their nostrils.

The film-maker’s 1984 shocker gave pop culture a new, physics-defying villain in the misshape of Freddy Krueger

From the beginning of his career, when he reworked Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring into The Last House on the Left, one of the nastiest (and smartest) exploitation horror films of the 1970s, the director Wes Craven had the unique ability to reconcile high-minded ideas with low-down genre kicks. In person, he had a professorial air because he was once, in fact, a professor, teaching English and the humanities at various north-eastern colleges before picking up a 16mm camera. He would turn The Hills Have Eyes into a cannibalistic shocker that doubled as a stark class critique and give the villainous couple of The People Under the Stairs the unmistakable echo of Ronald and Nancy Reagan. He understood as well as anyone how horror could be a vessel for larger themes, so long as it delivered the goods.

Forty years ago, Craven hopped aboard the slasher movie trend that had started with Halloween and Friday the 13th and transformed it to his own typically shrewd and thoughtful ends with A Nightmare on Elm Street. (Which he would then deconstruct in Wes Craven’s New Nightmare and piece back together in the Scream franchise, as if following an ingenious long-term course he’d set for himself.) Craven was not the first film-maker to imagine a dreamscape that infiltrates the real world – the random appearance of a goat in the film was his hat-tip to Luis Buñuel’s infamous, surreal fake-doc short Land Without Bread – but his boogeyman isn’t some dead-eyed, sociopathic monster. He’s the ghoulish sins of one generation being inherited by another.

Pelosi told the New York Times that had Biden left sooner, the party could have had an open primary

Officials at the Pentagon are having informal discussions about what to do if Donald Trump were to give an illegal order, such as deploying the military domestically, according to a report from CNN. They are also preparing for the possibility that he may change rules to be able to fire scores of career civil servants.

On the campaign trail, Trump has mulled sending the military after his political enemies, and also to turn back migrants at the southern border.

Frenchwoman has battled chauvinism and discredited accusations of cheating to take her place in the 2024 Vendée Globe round-the-world race

There was a moment when Clarisse Crémer stopped working her boat and simply wept. She crouched below deck, sheltering from the wind and waves that were battering the hull into pieces. The solo yachtswoman was mid-race, between France and New York, in May. If she did not finish the Transat CIC, she would fail to qualify for the 2024 Vendée Globe, the round-the-world race that takes place every four years. But there was a crack in her bulkhead more than four metres long. This was not about racing any more, it was about surviving.

“It’s always super humbling,” Crémer says, recalling her emotions that day. “Sailors are competitive people, we like to push ourselves and the boat hard, but suddenly you realise you’re just on a very small boat in the middle of a big ocean and the amount of water around you is infinite.”

Charity relaunches advice page recommending volunteering and getting involved in local civic causes during traumatic world events

After Donald Trump’s US presidential election victory this week, a briefing handily re-appeared in the “most popular topics” section of the Mental Health Foundation website: “Tips to look after your mental health during traumatic world events.”

The briefing has been well-read before, at times of war, conflict, violence and social tension – and people were turning to it for advice once again as Trump’s win ushered in a phase of deep despondency and political uncertainty for many people.

Charity promises to buy and set up new not-for-profit parcels of land with peppercorn rents for two communities

Frustrated beetroot, bean and berry growers can now enter their dream contest: to win two new allotment sites , which will be purchased in neighbourhoods starved of good places to grow fruit and vegetables.

The charity Green Allotments is pledging to buy and set up new not-for-profit allotment sites with peppercorn rents for two lucky communities.

Musician’s reported interest in League Two club has made headlines but rap is full of smart, soulful references to the game

There has been a worrying silence this week around A$AP Rocky’s plans to buy Tranmere Rovers. A co-investor has dropped out. Further finance is being urgently sought. Given the Tranmere consortium also currently features Matthew Bevilaqua from The Sopranos – a bit random, but, hey, it’s just good to see the Bevilaqua kid doing OK – it seems fair to say the field is pretty open here. What’s Badger from Breaking Bad up to these days?

For those who don’t know, A$AP Rocky is a musical superstar, retailer of four million albums, famous for his association with Rihanna. For those who don’t know from the other side, Tranmere are the 1990 Football League Trophy winners, famous for their association with Elton Welsby.

Many brands with famous names attached are a bust. But these are the ones that offer genuinely excellent products

Depending on the source you read, between 50 and 100 celebrity-fronted beauty brands have launched in the past five years. This might seem like the golden era of celebrity beauty, but in reality many have already crashed and burned.

Rosie Huntingdon-Whiteley has exited (the very good) Rose Inc; Harry Styles’ Pleasing seems to be little more than a merch stall with a great name and some mediocre beauty thrown in; Ariana Grande’s r.e.m. makeup line has withdrawn from the UK; Jared Leto quickly severed all ties with his somewhat baffling skincare enterprise Twentynine Palms. Many more, I believe, are teetering on the brink. But which brands deliver more than an additional revenue stream for the rich, making products worth buying regardless of the name?