Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1113 i The Week

What happened The future of Nato US Vice-President Mike Pence pledged America’s “unwavering” support for Nato last weekend, but warned other Nato members that they had to make “real progress” this year on boosting defence spending. Speaking at a security conference in Munich, Pence said his countrymen could lose patience with the alliance if others failed to share the burden. Nato leaders agreed in 2014 that members needed to start spending at least 2% of GDP on defence by 2024. Only the US, Britain, Poland, Estonia and Greece currently do so. Germany spends 1.2%, France 1.8%, Italy 1.1%, and Spain 0.9%. EU leaders rattled by Donald Trump’s rhetoric welcomed Pence’s more emollient tone – as well as his promise to hold Russia to account for its aggression in Ukraine. But…

Washingon DC New security advisor: Donald Trump has selected a highly respected military strategist as his new security advisor, replacing Michael Flynn, who was ousted last week over his pre-election contact with officials in Moscow. Lt General Herbert Raymond McMaster (right, with Trump), 54, commanded troops in both wars in Iraq, and later led an anti-corruption task force in Afghanistan. Known as a soldier-scholar, he was awarded a PhD in US history in 1996 and, a year later, published a history of the Vietnam war that was highly critical of Washington’s handling of the conflict. This week, one of Trump’s more outspoken Republican critics, Senator John McCain, described his appointment as an “outstanding choice”. By contrast, commentators reacted with dismay to the confirmation of Scott Pruitt – a seasoned opponent…

GREECE Don’t be so sniffy about Gucci’s money To Vima (Athens) Greece is bankrupt and needs all the help it can get, says Notis Papadopoulos. But when the Italian fashion company Gucci proposed to pay s2m for permission to mount a 15-minute catwalk show at the Athens Acropolis, the Central Archaeological Council turned it down flat. It was inconsistent with the monument’s “unique cultural character”, it sniffed. Other critics railed at the idea of something so “indecent and profane” sullying the “sacred space” of the Parthenon. What were they thinking? National pride is all very well, but it shouldn’t mean turning a blind eye to the “third-world” condition of so many Greek archaeological sites, abandoned for years to looters and the weather. The Gucci millions would have paid for the…

“In diplomatic speak, nothing says ‘I love you’ more than telling a right-wing Israeli leader that perhaps a Palestinian state isn’t necessary after all,” said Tovah Lazaroff in The Jerusalem Post . Donald Trump could have chosen roses or another typical Valentine’s Day present when he met Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House last week. Instead, he appeared to disavow the two-state solution, the foundation of US Middle Eastern policy for the past generation. “I’m looking at two states and one state,” he told journalists at a joint press conference with the Israeli prime minister. “I like the one that both parties like. I can live with either one.” It seems a “glib” answer at first glance, said Benny Avni in the New York Post . “But the self-styled artist…

In 1939, a year before he became prime minister, Winston Churchill found time to write an 11-page essay outlining his thoughts on that most urgent of topics: alien life. For decades, the unpublished essay gathered dust, first in the home of his publisher, Emery Reves, and then in the US National Churchill Museum in Missouri, where it was recently rediscovered. Writing in the journal Nature, astrophysicist Mario Livio, the first scientist to scrutinise the essay, praises Churchill for his “logic” and “healthy scepticism” about the (then common) belief that the universe contained few other planets. Churchill’s reasoning, he writes, “mirrors exactly what we think today when we think about this question”. Churchill, who read keenly on science throughout his life, concluded that Earth was unlikely to be the “only spot…

Donald Trump has had arguably the worst start to any US presidency in modern times, said Todd S. Purdum on Politico. He has “hung up on the Australian prime minister, cancelled a summit with the Mexican president”, and initiated worrying rows with both China and Nato. He has sparked “global chaos” by banning the nationals of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US, and has viciously turned on the federal judges who struck down the ban. Last Thursday, he rounded it off with a staggering 77-minute press conference, in which he insisted his administration was “running like a fine-tuned machine”; claimed that America’s intelligence agencies were conspiring against him; and argued that he’d won the biggest Republican victory since Ronald Reagan’s. When a reporter pointed out that the last point…

“Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it.” Federal judge Learned Hand, quoted in The Washington Post “Autobiography is probably the most respectable form of lying.” Humphrey Carpenter, quoted on Forbes.com “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.” President Calvin Coolidge, quoted in The Guardian “Technology is the knack of arranging the world so that we need not experience it.” Max Frisch, quoted on The Browser “The day I realised it can be smart to be shallow was, for me, a deep experience.” Donald Trump, quoted in The Guardian “I tell you, we are here on Earth…

You may not have heard of her, but Laura Muir is probably Britain’s finest female track athlete, said Martha Kelner in The Mail on Sunday. Every time she has raced in 2017, she has set a new record. Last month, it was the British record in the indoor 5,000m; then she went one better, setting a European record in the indoor 3,000m; and in Birmingham last weekend, she smashed the 1,000m British indoor record. Remarkably, it was Muir’s first race at 1,000m – yet she is already the second-fastest woman of all time over that distance. The 23-year-old Scot isn’t satisfied with records, however: she’s intent on winning a first senior international title at next month’s European indoor championships. Muir does not come across like a “superstar”, said Ben Bloom…

Baked caramelised apple pancake Serves 4 50g butter 4 large eating apples (Braeburn are good), peeled, cored and sliced 4 tbsps light soft brown sugar, plus 30g for the cream topping 1 tsp ground cinnamon 125g plain flour, sifted 3 tbsps golden caster sugar ¼ tsp salt 175ml semi-skimmed milk 50ml Greek yoghurt 3 large eggs, beaten 1 tsp vanilla extract 2 tbsps Calvados or kirsch (optional) 300ml whipping cream • Preheat the oven to 230°C. Melt the butter in a 24cm ovenproof, nonstick frying pan over a medium heat. Add the sliced apples and sprinkle over the 4 tbsps of brown sugar and the cinnamon. Fry the apples for 8-10 minutes, until they are just starting to soften and caramelise, then transfer to a plate. Set aside. • Mix…

Rock star statistician who devoted his life to fighting ignorance Hans Rosling 1948-2017 “Lies, damned lies, and statistics,” was how Benjamin Disraeli famously dismissed the application of quantitative data to political problems. But in the view of the statistician Hans Rosling, who has died aged 68, Disraeli had it completely wrong, said The Economist. As he saw it, statistics provide the best available guide to what’s really going on in the world. Nor were they dry and unexciting; if properly presented, they could be nothing less than enthralling. They certainly were in Rosling’s hands. His presentations were so entertaining that people dubbed him a “rock star statistician” and a “salesman for the truth”. And the truth that Rosling sold was that the world, on almost every count, was in better…

The French government “can usually be relied on to make an almighty racket” when there’s talk of a multibillion euro merger deal that could lead to thousands of job losses, said the Financial Times. Not last week. The mood in Paris was “relaxed – smug even” when General Motors revealed plans to sell its loss-making European operations to Groupe PSA, the owner of Peugeot and Citroën. For France, the move means creating a “larger French champion”. It’s the German and UK governments that have been left with the headache. They could be “left with thousands of angry workers” at GM’s Opel and Vauxhall plants, “at a time when anti-globalisation extremist parties are already on the rise in Europe’s former industrial heartlands”. The outlook for some 4,500 Vauxhall workers looks precarious,…

The rapper Jay Z has a long pedigree in business, says Josh Constine on TechCrunch.com . And now he’s getting serious about finance too. The entertainment mogul is reportedly starting his own venture capital firm, with his long-time partner and Roc Nation co-founder, Jay Brown. The plan is to focus on “seed investments”. Here’s a rundown of “Mr Beyonce’s” main hits and misses, to date: Hits Stance Roc Nation invested $6m in this “premium sock company” in 2011. It has since raised a total of $116m from investors, “signalling it is doing well”. Uber Jay Z invested in 2011, when Uber was valued at just $300m. In its last funding round in 2015, the taxi app was valued at around $62bn – a 200-times increase. Misses Viddy/Supernova…

“The Victorians lived in brute proximity with other people’s bodies – their sneezes, bums, elbows, farts and breathy whistles” The story about Victorians wrapping little trousers around their indecent piano legs is apocryphal, or at the very least a weak joke. Yet the idea endures that our great-grandparents muffled their bodies in heavy fabric and silence. It’s an idea we picked up from the early 20th century, and then, because it was flattering to imagine ourselves as so different from our buttoned-up ancestors, we refused to let it go. Yet you only have to take a quick imaginative tour of the conditions in which the Victorians lived to realise that a state of chilly physical self-sufficiency would have been beyond them. From the end of the 18th century, Britons piled…

Controversy of the week Blair’s call to arms “In a time of division and dissension, it’s comforting to know that there’s one thing around which Britain can unite,” said Robert Colvile on CapX – “namely, hating Tony Blair”. The former PM made a speech last week urging the nation to “rise up” against Brexit, on the grounds that people had voted with “imperfect knowledge” of the costs of leaving the EU. Safe to say it “didn’t go down well.” Boris Johnson called on the British people “to rise up and turn off the TV the next time Tony Blair comes on with his condescending campaign”. Jeremy Corbyn said the intervention was “not helpful” on the eve of this week’s by-elections in two Eurosceptic constituencies, Copeland and Stoke-on-Trent Central. “The brass…

Mosul, Iraq Offensive to rout Isis: The Iraqi military, backed by British and US special forces, launched a fresh offensive aimed at retaking western Mosul, Isis’s last major stronghold in the country, on Sunday. Eastern Mosul was liberated last month after a gruelling three-month battle; now, Iraqi forces are trying to wrest the remainder of the city from the militants. Coalition forces took 15 villages on the first day of the campaign. However, their advance has since been slowed by rocket fire and improvised explosive devices planted along the route, and the most intense fighting is yet to come. Some 650,000 civilians are thought to remain in Mosul; aid workers have warned of a growing humanitarian crisis, with severe food shortages and no medical supplies. Meanwhile, it was reported that…

The cracks in the global food chain Felicity Lawrence The Guardian The great lettuce panic is over, says Felicity Lawrence. Emergency shipments from the US have made up for the vegetable shortages caused by poor weather in Europe. So we can all relax, right? Not really. For this “blip” is an indication of how vulnerable the global food chain is to disruptions caused by things such as climate change, Brexit and migration. It wasn’t like this 40 years ago. But then came the “third industrial revolution” – the great leap in information technology that enabled big retailers to dispense with stocking food at the back of the store, and instead electronically order it from centralised warehouses whenever needed. So we’ve grown used to buying any food we want at any…

Does football damage your brain? Heading a football day after day could raise the risk of dementia, scientists have warned. Researchers at University College London carried out a small-scale study, performing post-mortems on the brains of six former professional footballers with a history of dementia. All six had signs of Alzheimer’s disease; and four were found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a pattern of brain damage linked to repeated blows to the head that can only be diagnosed posthumously. The condition, whose symptoms include behavioural changes, memory loss and impaired motor skills, has previously been found in athletes who played sports where heavy blows to the head are common, such as boxing and American football. In their study, published in the journal Acta Neuropathologica, the researchers suggest that repetitive…

Until this week, nobody knew that Sir Mick Jagger had written a memoir – including the man himself. Publisher John Blake has revealed that he is in possession of a 75,000-word autobiography penned by the Rolling Stone in the early 1980s. It was handed to Blake three years ago by a mutual friend. When Blake contacted Jagger, the singer admitted he had no memory of writing it. Jagger later confirmed it was his work, but declined to have it published. In an article for The Spectator, Blake says his favourite anecdote from the book “is of Mick returning unannounced to Dartford to see his parents after two years of chaotic world tours, debauchery, mayhem, riots and goodness only knows what else. ‘Oh, Michael,’ says his horrified mother on opening the…

“What is Facebook?” It’s a question that is becoming ever harder to answer, said Will Oremus on Slate. Almost exactly 13 years after its birth, Mark Zuckerberg’s social network is now used by 1.86 billion people – a quarter of the global population – and has evolved into the world’s biggest media platform. It is also – as the 2016 US election demonstrated – “a vector for fake news and sensationalism and a force for ideological polarisation”. This appears to have prompted a bout of soul-searching by Zuckerberg. He has embarked on a “listening tour” of America (seen by many as a sign that he is planning to one day run for office); and last week he published a 5,700-word open letter, laying out his vision for Facebook’s future. It…

Whatever has happened to Arsène Wenger, asked Henry Winter in The Times. In his early years at Arsenal, he changed the face of English football: all those “radical changes to diet”; all those “flowing moves” that made Arsenal “champions of England and champions of good football”. But the memory of those heights underlines just how far the Frenchman has fallen. It’s strange to think that Arsenal used to be terrified by the prospect of “life after Wenger”, said Oliver Kay in the same paper. Now, it’s the possibility of him sticking around that’s frightening. He must depart this summer. That’s a lot more likely after last week’s result, said Daniel Taylor in The Guardian. Once again, Arsenal “flatlined” in the final 16 of the Champions League: in the first leg,…

A world-class narcissist To The New York Times Fevered media speculation about Donald Trump’s psychological motivations and psychiatric diagnosis has encouraged mental health professionals to disregard the usual ethical constraints against diagnosing public figures at a distance. They have sponsored several petitions and written to The New York Times suggesting Mr Trump is incapable, on psychiatric grounds, of serving as president. Most amateur diagnosticians have mislabelled President Trump with the diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder. I wrote the criteria that define this disorder, and Mr Trump doesn’t meet them. He may be a world-class narcissist, but this doesn’t make him mentally ill: he does not suffer from the distress and impairment required to diagnose mental disorder. Mr Trump causes severe distress, rather than experiencing it, and has been richly rewarded,…

Theatre The Winter’s Tale Playwright: William Shakespeare Director: Max Webster Royal Lyceum Theatre, 30b Grindlay Street, Edinburgh (0131-248 4848) Until 4 March Running time: 2hrs 35mins (including interval) ★★ Whenever I see a production promising “a uniquely Scottish take” on a play, it “fills me with dread”, said Simon Thompson on WhatsOnStage.com. It’s often shorthand for “lowest-common-denominator cliché”. Thankfully, Max Webster’s production sidesteps that trap, but his Scottish interpretation still falls short. Webster has transposed the action of Shakespeare’s play from “urbane” Sicily and “rustic” Bohemia to modern-day Edinburgh and Fife – the former full of “minimalist furnishings and refined conversation”, the latter a “technicolour riot”. The contrast works well, highlighting the Scottish capital’s “self-important view of itself”. However, Webster’s other major change – “translating” the Fife dialogue into Scots…

Best books… Sarah Moss Award-winng author Sarah Moss picks her six favourite books. Her latest novel, The Tidal Zone (Granta £12.99), has been longlisted for the 2017 Wellcome Book Prize, which celebrates books that engage with topics of medicine or health The Grasmere Journals, 1800-1803 by Dorothy Wordsworth (The Folio Society £25.95). I repeatedly reread this because it offers a radical model of the writer’s life; one where domestic labour, reading, writing and outdoor exercise are mutually sustaining and all part of the work of literature. Findings by Kathleen Jamie, 2005 (Sort of Books £6.99). How to write beautifully and accurately about nature and place without a trace of self-aggrandisement or nostalgia. Not many can do it. I love Jamie’s insistence on the small-scale, her rigorously intelligent attention to particular…

Hardly had the 2015 grapes been picked when Burgundy producers began talking up the vintage, says Jane MacQuitty in The Times. Alas, having tasted hundreds of examples, I can’t say that it’s destined to be a great vintage. The finest reds are “a joy, with pure, intense, velvety” brilliance. But the quality of the whites is variable, and they lack the “thrilling minerally zing” of a truly great year such as 2014. My advice, if you are a confirmed Burgundy fan, is to stock up now on the lesser wines from the great 2014 white vintage and the early, excellent 2015 reds. Good white Burgundies include the gorgeous, nutty, toasted almond-ish 2014 Rully Blanc, Remoissenet Père et Fils (Oddbins, £21.50), and Brocard’s racy, herbaceous 2014 Chablis Premier Cru (Sainsbury’s, £18).…

Ten Trinity Square, London Back when the Thames was still the “lifeblood” of the capital, this “commanding pile of stone and marble” was the Port of London Authority’s headquarters, says Simon Usborne in the Financial Times. Last month it reopened its doors as a luxury hotel and private members’ club. Inside, it’s a “fine space for afternoon tea or a cocktail”, although the bedrooms, while impressive, “miss opportunities to celebrate the past”. Still, where original features survive, the building’s heritage “really sings”. The old boardroom, with its elaborately carved walnut panelling, is “breathtaking”, and the glorious restored facade, when illuminated, “is a gift to London”. Doubles from £390 per night. 020-3297 9200; www.fourseasons.com .…

Snap Inc: photo opportunity? The company behind the disappearing-photo messaging app Snapchat is promoting its imminent float with “a daring proposition,” said Heather Somerville on Reuters Breakingviews. Snap has told investors it is morphing into “a camera company”: it will make its own “hot-selling hardware gadgets”, as well as maintaining its own software – which will enable it to “stay one step ahead of Facebook”. It’s a tough sell: there is “little precedent” for a company with similar roots “succeeding in the notoriously difficult consumer hardware business”. Investors buying into the IPO, which values Snap at up to $22bn, are clearly taking a gamble, said Patrick Hosking in The Times. “Yet Snap does have a seductive story to tell.” It is “changing the way the young communicate”, with a “potent…

Are investors too complacent about Trump? Gillian Tett Financial Times “Stock market hits new high with longest winning streak in decades. Great level of optimism and confidence.” That’s what Donald Trump tweeted last week, says Gillian Tett. And he’s right. But the market’s high spirits are hard to reconcile with the political chaos widely predicted: Ladbrokes is now offering “even odds” that the US president is either impeached or resigns before his first term ends. Bookmakers are not infallible, and it may be that they’re “just wrong” – that once the Trump administration’s more “seasoned operators” get into their stride, the turmoil will abate. Alternatively, it could be that the so-called Trump rally “is not really about the president” – it’s more the expression of “a wider hope about reflation”…

Spijkenisse, Netherlands Far-right in front: The leader of the far-right Party for Freedom, Geert Wilders, launched his election campaign last week by claiming that some Moroccan immigrants are “scum” who “make the streets unsafe”. Canvassing in his party’s stronghold of Spijkenisse, he called on voters to “make the Netherlands ours again”. Wilders (pictured), who was convicted of inciting racial discrimination in December, is ahead in the polls; but even if his party gains the most seats in next month’s elections, he will almost certainly be unable to form a government as no significant party is willing to go into coalition with him. Paris “Penelopegate”: François Fillon, the centre-right candidate in France’s presidential election, has announced he will remain in the race, even though he is being investigated for the possible…

A loud and out there MP Being ordinary is Jess Phillips’ raison d’être. The 35-year-old lives in a messy terraced house in her home town of Birmingham, with her two kids and husband Tom (a former lift engineer – “much more working class than me”). But then, two years ago, she decided to go into politics. “I had one goal and purpose when I stood,” she told Decca Aitkenhead in The Guardian. “I wanted to be an MP who was normal.” Her parents had been staunch socialists, and Phillips spent much of her childhood making protest banners and pamphlets. But she could see how disengaged most people felt from the political scene. “I believe in politics, I’m a proud parliamentarian, and I want people to want parliamentarians again,” she says.…

A workmen’s cafe in central France was inundated with bookings last week, after it was awarded a Michelin star. Reporters, TV crews and gourmets who turned up to Le Bouche à Oreille, in the small town of Bourges, were amazed to find a cheerful eaterie with plastic tablecloths, serving charcuterie, home-cooked lasagne and boeuf bourguignon to a loyal clientele largely made up of local tradesmen, many of them wearing high-vis vests. The guide later rang the owner to apologise, saying it had mixed up her café with a restaurant of the same name in Boutervilliers, near Paris. A Russian model, who posed dangling from one of Dubai’s tallest buildings for a video, has been asked to sign a pledge promising not to risk her life again. Viktoria Odintcova, 23, was…

UNITED STATES Say goodbye to small-town America National Review (New York) If US conservatives want to help the white working class, says Kevin D. Williamson, they need to get over their sentimental nostalgia for small-town America. They’re trying to think up ways of reviving dying rural communities in Appalachia and the Rust Belt, when what they should be doing is persuading people in those communities to leave and “seek a better life for themselves elsewhere”. After all, it was only by moving out of crumbling inner cities, and escaping their awful schools and social chaos, that the “ambitious poor” created the black and Hispanic middle classes. “Mobility works.” Despite what protectionists tell you, no federal policy can bring back factories to blighted communities with few skilled workers. “If the work…

Supernovas – or the death throes of giant stars – are the biggest explosions in the universe. Though the light they cast is so brilliant that it can often be detected from Earth, the challenge has always been to detect them in their earliest phases: unable to predict the whereabouts or times of the explosions, astronomers have tended to chance upon them only days or weeks later. But now, for the first time, a supernova has been captured in its infancy. Scientists at an observatory near San Diego, California, spotted the flash – caused by the detonation of a star some 160 million light years away – within three hours of it reaching Earth. They immediately sent an alert to astronomers around the world, who were able to follow events…

“Grabbing the attention of the world is North Korea’s strong suit,” said John Nilsson-Wright in The Independent. It managed it twice last week, first with a ballistic missile test and then with the apparent assassination of Kim Jong Un’s half-brother, Kim Jong Nam. The 45-year-old father of three was killed at Kuala Lumpur International Airport with what police believe was a fast-acting poison. The full details of the incident have yet to be established, but Jong Nam seems to have been ambushed by two women, one of whom, dressed in a white top emblazoned with the letters “LOL”, covered his face with a spray or toxic cloth. He sought medical help from airport staff before collapsing. Malaysian police have arrested four people, including the two women, one Indonesian and one…

Winston Churchill drank with virtually every meal, and still won the War – so clearly midday boozing doesn’t have to be a barrier to achievement, said Dan Jones in the London Evening Standard. Yet at Lloyd’s of London, they have decided to call time on the alcohol-fuelled lunch: last week, the insurer’s 800 staff were told that they are not to drink a drop between the hours of 9am and 5pm, on pain of dismissal. The pubs around Leadenhall Market, which throng with City workers clutching pints of lager, will be a bit more peaceful for everyone else – but will it be good for Lloyd’s? The insurer introduced the ban after noting that roughly half of disciplinary cases were alcohol related. The new “zero limit”, reads a corporate memo,…

“There was a breathless hush as Sean Raggett’s header floated towards goal”, said Jonathan Liew in The Sunday Telegraph; a few “excruciating” seconds before the referee confirmed that it had crossed the line. “And then pandemonium.” With that 89th-minute goal last Saturday, Lincoln beat Burnley 1-0, becoming the first non-league side to reach the FA Cup quarter-finals since 1914. Turf Moor is Burnley’s fortress: they have the fourth-best home record in the Premier League. Yet that was no help against a National League side 81 places below them, who did what Burnley have themselves done to so many teams this season: “sat deep, dug their heels in and turned it into a scrap”. Lincoln has “always been regarded as a footballing backwater”, said Joe Bernstein in The Mail on Sunday.…

To The Times Melanie Phillips is quite right: we cannot compare today’s child refugees with Holocaust refugees. The former are passing through safe countries that are not at war nor likely to be so; nor are these states likely to be invaded in the near future. Further, these children are not in danger of being killed for religious reasons, as was the case in the 1940s. Why then do they not want to live in any of the European nations through which they passed to reach Calais? Andrew Edwards, London To The Times Melanie Phillips acknowledges that the Kindertransport went alongside more restrictive measures in Britain during the 1930s limiting the entry of Jewish refugees, but she should realise that those who fought against the victims of Nazism coming to…

Cabotte 48 Gresham Street, London EC2 (020-7600 1616) If you love Burgundy wines as much as I do, then get along to Cabotte, says Fay Maschler in the London Evening Standard. This warm and friendly French restaurant is named after the word for the stone huts that provide shelter for vineyard workers. The blokes behind the venture are two master sommeliers; a dozen Burgundy vintners have backed it, and “all the staff seem to possess the soul” of a wine expert and are keen to advise. I’m a lover of white Burgundies in particular, and was much taken with the Puligny-Montrachet we went for. But Cabotte is not just notable for its great wine list; the food is first-rate, too. Confit veal breast with squash purée, sweet and sour…

New cars: what the critics say Autocar The last Civic was “classic Honda”. With oddball looks and a petrol engine that “dated like cottage cheese”, its “also-ran” status was guaranteed. A big fix was required, and the Japanese firm have done exactly that: this latest model of their family hatchback is “wholly new and enhanced”. Built in Swindon, it’s quite a bit longer and at least 91kg heavier – the equivalent of a hefty extra passenger. The Daily Telegraph The car’s design is something of an “acquired taste”. Put frankly, it looks rather weird: the exterior is “muscular, yes, but distorted”, like an oiled bodybuilder. The cabin is more sober than in past models – despite boasting a “riot” of different materials – and more comfortable, too, with extra headroom…

A country park retreat Saltmarsh, a 16th century farmhouse in the South Downs, East Sussex, has a suite with 2 double bedrooms and a sitting room for £300 per night b&b. 01323-870218, www.saltmarshfarmhouse.co.uk. Glamping in Morocco Three nights at Morocco’s Les Jardins d’Issil, staying in luxury tents with en-suite bathrooms, costs from £143pp b&b, excl. flights. 020-7112 0019, www.fleewinter.com. Arrive March or early April. Beautiful Barbados Spend a week at Sugadadeze, a 3-bedroom villa with a private pool. From £775pp (when fully occupied by 6 people); excl. flights. 0800-368 9626, www.hammertonbarbados.com. Until 31 March. Singapore and Bali stay Enjoy 3 nights at Singapore’s Park Hotel Clarke Quay followed by 7 nights at the Bali Dynasty Resort. From £1,329pp, incl. flights. 01293-762456, www.hayesandjarvis.co.uk. Depart 26 April.…

Official statisticians revised up their estimate of UK economic growth in the last quarter of 2016, from 0.6% to 0.7%, citing faster than expected growth in manufacturing. MPs grilled experts from the Bank of England, including governor Mark Carney , about its forecasting record. Carney said the Bank had suspected that surveys before the EU vote were overly gloomy, and conceded that the Bank should have been bolder. He said it had taken serious steps to mitigate financial stability risks. “We just have to accept that we’re never going to get any credit for it.” German short-dated bond yields fell to a record low of -0.92% on French election worries and concerns about the future of the euro . Investors are piling into the safety of German bonds as a…

Jim Ratcliffe Having built his private empire, Ineos, into one of the world’s largest chemicals companies, Jim Ratcliffe seems bent on “branching out”, says John Collingridge The Sunday Times. The Manchester-born tycoon plans to build a new off-road car inspired by Land Rover’s iconic, but now defunct, Defender model: the target market is “farmers, explorers and residents of upmarket areas”. An ardent Brexit supporter who last year moved Ineos’ HQ back to Britain, Ratcliffe rejects criticism that reviving the “Landy” is a vanity project: “We’ll only do it if we can be economically successful”, he said. If it doesn’t work out, he can always fall back on another hobby. As the Daily Mail once noted, Ratcliffe has “a curious passion for sit-on lawnmowers, which he is believed to collect”. Felix…

Unlike other renewable energies, nuclear still relies on mining, in this case to extract uranium. Where are we going to get the uranium to fuel the renascent demand for nuclear power? At the moment the largest producer is Kazakhstan, which produces more than a third of the total used to generate nuclear power around the world. Australia, Canada and the United States have sizeable uranium deposits, but countries with questionable safety standards like Niger, Namibia and Uzbekistan also remain prominent. In the EU, around 60 per cent of the uranium demand is met by imports from Kazakhstan, Russia and Niger. By the end of next year however, a new mine will be rapidly building production of uranium within the EU, in Salamanca in north-western Spain. Berkeley Energia’s facility is the…

Who’s tipping what: the week’s best buys… Halma Shares Halma manufactures a wide range of health and safety products. Organic growth is being supplemented by acquisitions, and its margins consistently beat peers’. An unrivalled record of dividend growth. Buy. 955.5p. M.P. Evans Group Investors Chronicle The palm oil producer has only one remaining minority investment to sell (which could mean a special payout) and will then be in full control of its acreage. Oil prices are rising and there’s a buyer circling. Buy. 719p. Parity The Daily Telegraph The recruitment specialist’s higher-margin consultancy arm is targeting a potentially lucrative niche in the utilities sector. Parity is a high-risk play, but a management shake-up could trigger a turning point. Buy. 9.38p. Primary Health Properties The Times PHP buys NHS properties and…