This week, China lost its most famous dissident voice in Liu Xiaobo, a longtime human rights defender who died under lock and key in hospital. Hermann Aubié, who has studied Liu’s life and works in depth, explains what Liu meant to him, and what we can all learn from a man who refused to let a cruel regime fill him with hate.

Tomorrow night sees the much-heralded return of Game of Thrones and series seven looks set to focus on the struggle between a colourful cast of strong female characters all vying to sit on the Iron Throne of Westeros. Cersei, whose husband and two sons found kingship fatal, is currently in possession but Daenerys, the “mother of dragons”, has her in her sights. But it’s not just the liberal doses of sex and violence that keep us all glued to the screen, narratives such as Game of Thrones answer a number of deep psychological needs in all of us.

Weekends are a good time for a spot of indulgence and those of us who like to eat and drink well have taken solace in the thought that if we take a leaf out of the French cookbook and stick to a Mediterranean diet of red wine, olive oil, cheese and saucisson, we’ll enjoy long lives and healthy hearts. But before you uncork that claret, beware the “French paradox”. As the saying goes: if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

The hoary old cliche beloved of male sports fans is that female fans are only really interested in ogling men in tight shorts and know nothing about what’s happening on the pitch. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Interviews with football and rugby-mad women reveals that women are just as passionate about sport as men – they just don’t have to have a punch-up to prove it.

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