Oldies and goodies

Captain Tom Moore, 99, raised more than £26 million by walking 100 laps of the garden of his old people’s home. Who
are the oldest people to have achieved various feats?

— Yuichiro Miura climbed Everest aged 80 in 2013.
— Dr Fred Distelhorst climbed Kilimanjaro at the age of 88 in 2017.
— Mike Cross, 60, is the oldest person reported to have walked to the South Pole, in 2003. Buzz Aldrin visited it (and fell ill there) at the age of 86, but he was flown there as a tourist.

Long gone to press

This is The Spectator’s 10,000th issue since first publication in 1828, making it Britain’s longest continuously published magazine. There are newspapers that were established even earlier, however:

Berrow’s Worcester Journal — published irregularly until 1709 and continuously since then — 1690
Wiener Zeitung — 1703
Hildesheimer Allgemeine Zeitung — 1705
Stamford Mercury — 1712
Gloucester Gazette — 1722
Gazzetta di Parma — 1735
News Letter (Belfast) —1737
Yorkshire Post — 1754

Print run

Who has edited The Spectator the longest?

Meredith Townsend — 36 years, 8 months (1861-97)
Robert Rintoul — 29 years, 7 months (1828-58)
John St Loe Strachey — 27 years, 3 months (1897-1924)
Wilson Harris — 20 years, 6 months (1932-53)
Fraser Nelson — 10 years 7 months (2009-present)

Virus ups and downs

Some assorted coronavirus reports:

— In Britain, shoplifting is down 54% since the lockdown was imposed.
— At the peak of the virus in China in February it was the 49th most common cause of death reported in the country.
— On 3 April, 2,029 critical care beds in England were reported to be free and ready for patients. This is more than before the coronavirus crisis. On the last day of February, 18.9% of England’s then 4,122 critical care beds — i.e. 779 — were reported to be free. Capacity has been increased in the meantime.