On Saturday Sir Keir Starmer marks 100 days as Britain’s prime minister. Since Labour’s general-election victory on July 4th his government has unveiled some chunkily interventionist economic policies, with legislation to give workers more rights, to renationalise railway operators and to create a state renewable-energy firm.

But its first weeks were marred by anti-immigration riots. And it has since made political missteps. Sir Keir has been dogged by accusations that he accepted free clothes and concert tickets, having promised to clean up Westminster. Weeks of internal feuding ended with the removal of Sue Gray, his chief of staff, on October 6th. Internal critics grumble that the government’s project for office is undefined.

Two chances to regain its footing are coming up. On Monday the government will host international investors in London. Then on October 30th Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, will present a budget which, she strongly indicates, will promise higher public borrowing for investment in infrastructure.

Besides Earth, Mars has long been considered the place in the solar system most likely to host life. That is changing. Soon a spacecraft called Europa Clipper will blast off for Europa, one of Jupiter’s 95 moons, after its launch was postponed because of Hurricane Milton.

Europa is a snowball with a surface temperature of -180°C and a crust of thick ice. Below the ice, though, sits an enormous ocean, kept liquid by gravitational kneading and squeezing from Jupiter itself. There are several such “icy moons” in the solar system. Besides Europa, Jupiter hosts Ganymede and Callisto. Enceladus orbits Saturn, while Triton orbits Neptune.

The mission will help scientists work out whether, besides water, Europa possesses the other ingredients necessary for life, such as six essential elements (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulphur) and an energy source to power them all. There is already evidence that Saturn’s Enceladus possesses them. Perhaps Europa does too.

On Saturday President Volodymyr Zelensky was hoping to present to the Ramstein group, a collection of Ukraine’s arms donors, his five-point “victory plan” for ending the war next year. But Hurricane Milton intervened. President Joe Biden decided to monitor the storm from Washington and preside over the relief effort, postponing his state visit to Germany this week. The Ramstein summit will be rescheduled.

In the meantime Mr Zelensky is holding separate meetings with the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy to gain their support for the plan. Though still secret, it undoubtedly includes increases in military support, permission to hit military targets in Russia with Western missiles and an accelerated path to NATO membership.

In Ukraine itself, Mr Zelensky’s frequently outnumbered and outgunned troops are continuing to fight bitter defensive actions across the Donetsk region. But separate strikes deep into Russia have destroyed a drone-storage base and set ablaze an arms depot crammed with North Korean shells and missiles.

As if the weeks leading up to America’s presidential election weren’t eventful enough, this weekend “The Apprentice”, a drama about Donald Trump, hits cinemas. Directed by Ali Abbasi, an Iranian-Danish film-maker, it is a shrewd character study of a callow bumbler (played by Sebastian Stan) desperate to establish himself as a real-estate mogul in 1970s New York.

He finds a mentor in Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), a proudly amoral lawyer with three key rules: always attack, never accept blame and never admit defeat. Ring any bells? As Donald takes those rules to heart, a snappy black comedy curdles into a bitter tragedy. The fictional Mr Trump is even depicted raping his first wife, Ivana (Maria Bakalova).

A spokesperson for Mr Trump has described the film as “pure malicious defamation”. His legal team sent a “cease and desist” letter after the film debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in May. But “The Apprentice” probably doesn’t reveal anything that his supporters and detractors don’t already know.

One of Britain’s richest men, Sir Jim Ratcliffe was long considered a magnate who kept a low profile. It helped that INEOS, a chemicals firm he founded in 1998, produced materials that consumers needed but rarely thought about, such as plastics used in food-packaging. But now Sir Jim has stepped into the limelight by expanding into a business that is not needed, but is constantly thought about: sports.

Since buying FC Lausanne-Sport, a Swiss football club, in 2017, Sir Jim and INEOS have built a sprawling sports empire. On Saturday INEOS Britannia, the group’s sailing venture, will become the first British team since 1964 to take part in the final of the America’s Cup, the oldest competition in the sport. Success would be an astonishing coup in the rarefied world of sailing. But it would not quell doubts about INEOS’s sporting strategy.

The biggest source of concern comes from Sir Jim’s investment in Manchester United. In February he spent $1.6bn to purchase a 27.7% stake and control over sporting operations at the football club from the Glazers, an American family. United’s fans rejoiced: the Glazers are unpopular owners and Sir Jim, a supporter himself, was well placed to restore the club’s past glories. So far, such success has proved elusive: United are 14th in the Premier League.

A guiding mantra at INEOS, Sir Jim has said, is “don’t do dumb shit”. The phrase features on the “INEOS compass”, a diagram he devised to guide the firm’s growth from a single chemicals plant in Belgium to a global conglomerate reporting $65bn in annual revenue. Pointing north are words Sir Jim likes: “scepticism”, “safe”, “a beer”. To the south are those he doesn’t: “politics”, “winging it”, “lukewarm cappuccino”.

The buzzwords also refer to Sir Jim’s upbringing. “Northerners” is on the positive side of the chart. Now 71, he was born on a council estate in Failsworth, a town now in Greater Manchester. The smokestacks outside his bedroom window sparked his interest in industry. That led to an early career in the oil sector and then private equity, which sharpened his dealmaking skills. He grew INEOS through a series of acquisitions.

Critics argue Sir Jim is now trying to launder his and his company’s reputation through sports. His strong support for fracking provokes environmentalists. Sir Jim has suggested the sporting ventures are simply an enjoyable way to spend his company’s profits. He is a fitness and adventure enthusiast, who in April ran the London marathon in just over four and a half hours. As well as sport, INEOS has moved into carmaking, producing a 4x4 off-road truck, the Grenadier. Why is Sir Jim pursuing such projects? He would probably respond: “Why not?” The unlikely sports mogul might even add that answer to the company compass.