The Week Unwrapped: Gambling, flying and a cinematic comeback

Olly Mann and The Week delve behind the headlines and debate what really matters from the past seven days.

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In this week’s episode, we discuss:

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Place your bets

Is the government planning to water down what had been billed as the “biggest shake-up of advertising since tobacco promotion was outlawed”? Two decades after gambling laws were liberalised, there have been widespread calls for a rethink after a rise in problem gambling, in part fuelled by wider access to online betting sites. But the gambling industry is a big source of income for sports clubs, many of which it sponsors – and for many people placing a bet is a harmless pleasure. What balance should MPs strike?

A flying shame

Bristol mayor Marvin Rees has done much to reduce the city’s impact on climate change, but this week it’s emerged that he took a flight to Vancouver last month, where he participated in a Ted talk on carbon policy. Campaigners have been quick to criticise, with some suggestion that Rees is guilty of climate hypocrisy. Is a call out culture on climate change doing more harm than good?

Mavericks assemble

Four decades on from the original, Top Gun: Maverick has provided Tom Cruise with his first ever $100m opening weekend at the US box office. Its success seems to herald a comeback for cinema after so many theatres were closed by Covid and home-streaming looked like the only way ahead. The Oscars is also reversing its pandemic-era decision to include films that had only been available on streaming platforms: they must now be released in cinemas in order to qualify.