Peter Rhodes on declining populations, elusive artefacts and comparing Putin with Hitler

China's population has fallen by 2.08 million over two years. China is not alone in facing the challenges of demography and throwing up some fascinating statistical tit-bits in the process. For example, Japan now manufactures more nappies for old people than for babies. The future is damp.

In Digging for Britain (BBC1) TV historian Alice Roberts creates the impression that the wealth and trinkets of empires are waiting to be found just beneath our feet. As they are – sort of. I have a friend who, while walking in the Peak District, dug up a microlith, a tiny, tooled piece of flint used 15,000 years ago for skinning creatures or as an arrow-head. However, to put this in perspective, he is the only friend, colleague or acquaintance I know who has ever dug up anything archaeologically interesting, anywhere.