Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1166 i The Week

What happened Facing the Brexit facts Theresa May spelled out some of what she called the “hard facts” of Brexit last week, conceding for the first time that the price of Britain regaining more sovereignty was that the UK and the EU would enjoy less access to each others’ markets. In her third major speech on Brexit, the PM played down the prospect of regulatory divergence and accepted that Britain had a responsibility to help find a solution to the Irish border issue. But she made it clear that the UK wouldn’t budge on ending free movement and being able to strike trade deals with other countries. The PM also denied that Britain’s desire for a deep and “ambitious” partnership with the bloc amounted to “cherry-picking”, pointing out that all…

Washington DC Key aide quits: Donald Trump’s communications director – and one of his most trusted aides – announced her resignation last week, a day after she admitted to the House Intelligence Committee that she had told white lies on the president’s behalf (but insisted she’d told none relating to the Russia investigation). Hope Hicks (right), 29, is the fourth White House communications director under Trump, and one of the last remaining members of his original inner circle of White House staff. Her exit comes amid a flurry of departures from Trump’s team and renewed controversy over the role of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner (see page 19). Los Angeles, California Stormy Daniels suit: The porn actress Stormy Daniels has filed a lawsuit against President Trump alleging that the non-disclosure agreement…

Social credit: a new form of tyranny John Harris The Guardian It will “allow the trustworthy to roam everywhere under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step”. That’s how the authorities in Beijing describe their sinister new “social credit” system, says John Harris. Under the plan, due to come into effect by 2020, everyone will be rated on the basis of data about their real-life and online behaviour. Failing to care sufficiently for parents; consorting with the wrong people online: such transgressions will restrict access to jobs, travel visas and the like. Some Chinese firms have already taken to scoring people on the perceived quality of their friends, marking down those who buy video games, and allowing top-scorers to rent a car without a…

The big-nosed monkey For Borneo’s proboscis monkeys, size matters. Males of the endangered species, besides weighing twice as much as the females, sport distinctive, abnormally large noses – a trait that has long puzzled evolutionary biologists. Now an international team of researchers has found that the size of a male’s conk is closely correlated to his overall prowess. Not only are big-nosed males bulkier than their smaller-nosed rivals, they also tend to have bigger testes – and larger female harems. (By contrast, males with smaller noses often live in bachelor groups.) Additionally, the size of a male’s nose affects the quality of his call – perhaps so that females can assess his attractiveness even from a distance. In the journal Science Advances, the researchers conclude that the monkey’s abnormally large…

“It is rare for a dusty old document, fished out of a provincial archive, to become national news,” said David Olusoga in The Observer. But that is what happened last week, when the Daily Mail produced the results of its lengthy investigation into the dark past of the former FIA president Max Mosley. As part of an exposé that ran across more than 20 pages over consecutive days, the paper described how, as a young man, Max Mosley was closely involved with the Union Movement (UM), a far-right party founded after the War by his father, the fascist “Blackshirt” leader, Sir Oswald Mosley. Among other things, the UM was “hysterically opposed” to the immigration of black and brown people from the Commonwealth, and for a by-election in Manchester’s Moss Side…

Schools closed all over the country. Drivers forced to spend the night in their cars. Widespread flooding. There were few of us who weren’t affected by the blizzards that swept across Britain last week, said Eve Livingston in The Guardian. And while it’s unfair to demand “military levels of preparedness” for such a rare weather event, our Government does bear some responsibility. Owing to austerity, cash-strapped councils are no longer able to properly maintain roads or to prepare a proper response to emergencies. As a measure of how our society cares for people, “snow is a hot political issue”. It wasn’t snow that paralysed Britain, said Peter Hitchens in The Mail on Sunday. It was lawyers. A manageable situation was turned into a crisis by officialdom’s “terrible fear of being…

“Even now, 64 years on, 3:59.4 is a number recognisable to every sports fan,” said Sean Ingle in The Guardian. By becoming the first person to run a mile in under four minutes, Roger Bannister – who died last Saturday (see page 47) – achieved a “record for the ages”. Yet Bannister wasn’t the first person to be credited with a sub-four-minute mile, said Duncan Mackay in the same paper. In 1770, almost two centuries before Bannister’s “epoch-making performance”, the feat was attributed to James Parrott, a London costermonger who had accepted a 15-guinea wager that he couldn’t run a mile in under four-and-a-half minutes. The story of Parrott’s run was soon dismissed as a fable, because for a long time no one believed a four-minute mile was physically possible,…

To The Independent Theresa May is full of good intentions, but has no understanding of Europe. It is a large, homogeneous trading bloc that has set out to protect its citizens by establishing a level playing field with high standards for product safety and employee rights. It will happily enter into an agreement with the UK that maintains that playing field. Any agreement will have to be enforced by a judicial system that accepts those standards. The EU is not being difficult when it insists on this. The US is different: it is a trading bloc that protects its businesses. Any agreement with the US will have to give US businesses the right to do things their way. Where the UK political parties have failed is in not recognising that…

Best books… Jill Dawson The bestselling novelist Jill Dawson picks her six favourite reads. Her latest novel, The Crime Writer – about the author Patricia Highsmith – is published in paperback by Sceptre at £8.99 A Quiet Life by Beryl Bainbridge, 1976 (Virago £8.99). An autobiographical tale about a young girl stuck in a bleak home and her affair with a German POW. There is no one like Beryl Bainbridge. Hard-drinking and smoking, darkly humorous; in her novels she relished the absurd, the inexplicable, the candid and the violent. Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood, 1988 (Virago £9.99). I’m a big Atwood fan and can’t easily pick a favourite. But in Cat’s Eye she nails the cruelty of girls’ friendships. I read it with a shock of recognition. The Plague by…

Fennel, cardamom and coconut soup Serves 4 2tbsps grapeseed oil 3 shallots, finely chopped 30g fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped 1 garlic clove, finely chopped 2 green chillies, finely chopped 2 tsps fennel seeds 15 cardamom pods, crushed and husks removed 2 fennel bulbs (weighing about 500g), quartered and finely sliced 50ml Pernod (optional) 2 x 400ml tins of coconut milk 2 tbsps soy sauce 2 tbsps lime juice 2 tbsps Thai sweet chilli sauce coriander leaves, to garnish • Heat the grapeseed oil in a large pan. Once the oil is hot, add the shallots, ginger, garlic, chillies, fennel seeds and cardamom pods. Cook over a medium heat for 3 minutes. • Add the fennel and Pernod (if you are using it) and cook for 2 minutes, or…

What is a multi-asset fund? When you invest in a fund, the team managing that fund usually splits your money across a bundle of investments where all (or most) of them belong to a single type of asset. For example, most retail funds are equity funds, meaning they hold a selection of shares in a range of different companies. Similarly, a bond fund will put almost all your money into corporate and/or government bonds. A fund has to obey its mandate in terms of what it can invest in, or “hold”. The fund’s mandate will usually state how much of the holding should be within a certain region, the margin of discretion the fund manager has, the amount of cash held at any one time, and so on. A multi-asset…

Who’s tipping what The week’s best buys Conviviality The Daily Telegraph Shares in the drinks distributor are sharply down after disappointing results, but falls have been overdone. The group is well managed and “clearly profitable”, with a decent 4% yield; directors have been buying. Buy. 288p. Croda International The Times The speciality chemicals maker has produced record results, with profits up 6.5% and sales up 4.6%. Its main divisions – life sciences and personal care – are growing, and there’s scope for further returns. Buy. £45.50. Johnson Service Group Investors Chronicle Since selling its laundry arm, Johnson has focused on the higher-margin businesses of textile rental (linens to the catering trade) and workwear. Performing strongly, and cheap compared to peers. Buy. 137p. Rentokil Initial The Times Rentokil has restructured its…

Controversy of the week Trump versus the world Last week, Donald Trump gave “one of the greatest displays of economic nonsense in presidential history”, said The Wall Street Journal. He declared that he would impose tariffs of 25% on all steel imports and of 10% on aluminium – in order to protect US heavy industry from its foreign competitors. The EU and Canada, both big exporters to the US, immediately threatened retaliatory penalties. Trump then doubled down, stating that he would respond by putting a tax on European cars. And that if this were to set off a trade war, so be it. “Trade wars are good, and easy to win,” he declared on Twitter. “This way madness lies,” said The Times. “Western prosperity is built on free trade.” We…

Cruz’s new fairy tales Penélope Cruz may not have experienced sexual abuse in Hollywood, but she is fed up with its sexism. “Since the age of 25, [journalists] have been asking me if I’m afraid of ageing,” she says. “It’s a crazy thing to ask, and I’ve always refused to answer. They would never ask a man such a question.” It’s a drip-drip effect she wants her children (a boy and a girl) neither to experience nor perpetuate. “Fairy tales matter because these are the first stories that you hear from your parents,” she told Mark Smith in Porter. “So, when I read fairy tales to my kids, I’m always changing the endings – always, always, always, always.” These stories, she says, are full of “machismo” that “can have an…

A state school in Tokyo that was rash enough to introduce Armani-branded uniforms has had to hire security guards, after several of its students were harassed in the street. “Is this Armani?” one passing adult demanded to know as he grabbed a child’s uniform. Taimei primary school, in the wealthy Ginza district, has faced heavy public criticism after its decision to adopt the designer uniforms, which cost ¥80,000 (£550). The Canadian government has been forced to deny a rumour that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is the love child of Fidel Castro, whom he is said to closely resemble. Trudeau’s mother, Margaret, was 22 when she married his father, Pierre, also Canada’s prime minister, who was then 51; she had affairs with Ted Kennedy and Jack Nicholson, and once danced the…

INDIA Trudeau’s gaffe-filled “vacation” The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Prime ministers looking for an example of how not to conduct a foreign tour could profit from a study of Justin Trudeau’s recent visit to India, says John Ibbitson. A “slow-moving train wreck”, one observer called it. A key goal of the Canadian premier’s eight-day visit was to allay the suspicions of India’s political leaders that Canada is soft on Sikh separatism. (The armed insurgency for a separate Sikh homeland of Khalistan has had big support in Canada.) Yet the Canadian delegation somehow managed to invite Jaspal Atwal – a Sikh militant convicted for a failed assassination attempt on an Indian minister in British Columbia in 1986 – to a dinner reception. As if that weren’t bad enough, the Trudeaus made…

Cave paintings in Spain have been dated back to a period well before modern humans are believed to have migrated to the continent about 40,000 years ago – providing the strongest evidence yet that Neanderthals had artistic skills of their own and did not merely copy Homo sapiens. Experts said the pigment markings, which include a striking ladder-like design (depicted right), also suggest that Neanderthals were capable of symbolic thought. Dating cave art is difficult, and often archaeologists have had to estimate its age from that of objects around it. In this case, the team studied mineral deposits that had grown up over paintings at three caves, and used uranium-thorium dating to work out a minimum age for the markings beneath them. (Uranium-thorium analysis has long been used to date…

Keith Richards has apologised to his bandmate Mick Jagger for suggesting that it was time the 74-year-old Rolling Stone got a vasectomy. “Mick’s a randy old bastard,” Richards told The Wall Street Journal, referring to Jagger becoming a father again in 2016, aged 73. “It’s time for the snip – you can’t be a father at that age. Those poor kids!” Jagger’s eighth child – a boy called Deveraux – is younger Barbra Streisand was so devoted to her dog (pictured together), she decided to clone it – twice. Shortly before the Coton de Tulear, Samantha, died last May aged 14, cells were taken from its stomach and mouth, and sent to a lab in Texas. The result was two new puppies, Miss Violet and Miss Scarlett. They are estimated…

“Home is where you come to when you’ve got nothing better to do.” Margaret Thatcher, quoted in The Oldie “Everyone thinks forgiveness is a lovely idea until they have something to forgive.” C.S. Lewis, quoted on The Browser “Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities was first serialised in two local newspapers. It was the Bicester Times, it was the Worcester Times.” Richard Osman tweet, quoted in The Mail on Sunday “Nobody does self-deprecating humour better than I do.” Donald Trump, quoted in The Independent “The chains of love are never so binding as when their links are made of gold.” US jurist Royall Tyler, quoted in Forbes “I suppose true sexual equality will come when a general called Anthea is found having an unwise lunch with a young unreliable male…

Athletics Team GB won seven medals at the World Indoor Championships in Athletics. Katarina Johnson-Thompson took gold in the women’s pentathlon; Andrew Pozzi took gold in the men’s 60-metre hurdles. Tennis Kyle Edmund rose to No. 24 in the world rankings, overtaking Andy Murray to become the British No. 1. Rugby union Exeter extended their lead at the top of the Premiership table to seven points with a 24-12 victory over Saracens. Football Manchester City beat Chelsea 1-0.…

Owing to the smallest French grape harvest since 1945 – and Brexitrelated price rises – Francophiles on a budget need to start exploring alternative regions and countries, says Jane MacQuitty in The Times. For instance, if the “bone-dry twang of Chablis” is your thing, why not try Muscadet, which “shares some of Chablis’ high acidity and dry, tangy, lemon-twist oomph for half the price”? The 2016 Domaine Gadais, Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine Sur Lie, France (£8.50; M&S) is “mouth-watering”, with lots of “Chablis-like, minerally, lemon-flavoured zing”. Well-priced substitutes for creamy, oak-influenced white Côte d’Or burgundies such as Meursault and Puligny are easier to find. Try the smoky, buttery 2015 Clos du Bois North Coast Chardonnay, California (£16.99; Majestic). Or the ”ripe, toasted hazelnut” of a 2016 Taste the Difference Limoux Chardonnay (£9;…

Roger Bannister 1929-2018 Sir Roger Bannister always said that he was prouder of his long career in medicine than of anything he achieved as an athlete in his youth. But to the rest of the world, he will be remembered as the man who broke the four-minute mile. A sportsman in the true amateur tradition, Bannister, who has died aged 88, was at that point a junior doctor at St Mary’s Hospital in London, working long hours. On 6 May 1954, he got on a train to Oxford, for a 6pm race at Iffley Road running track. It was a cold, wet day and the wind was blowing hard, said The Times. Even at 5:30pm, he was thinking he might withdraw. Then, with his pacesetters – Chris Brasher and Chris…

Berlin Merkel secures coalition deal: Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, secured a fourth term in office this week, after rank-and-file members of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) voted convincingly to take their party into another left-right grand coalition with her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Despite opposition from within the SPD’s radical youth wing, a substantial majority – 66% – of SPD members approved the coalition, ending five-and-a-half months of political uncertainty in the EU’s biggest economy. Under the deal, the SPD takes six cabinet positions, including the key finance, foreign affairs and labour ministries. Merkel (pictured) is due to be officially sworn in on 14 March. The CDU and SPD have dominated the Federal Republic since its foundation in 1949. However, both endured their worst ever result in September’s inconclusive…

SWEDEN The moral cost of a sunshine break Dagens Nyheter (Stockholm) My conscience is bugging me, says Jonas Mosskin. Like most Swedes eager to escape our nation’s dark winters, I spend much of my six weeks of annual holiday abroad, often in sunny Spain or Thailand. And I fly to get there. In any given year, 2% of the population, some 200,000 Swedes, take a Thai vacation. But a trip to Thailand generates about two tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions – as much as an average passenger car spews in a year. Wealthy Stockholmers who shun plastic and insist on vegetarian food at their children’s kindergartens barely give a thought to the impact air travel has on climate change. They should. The number of foreign flights taken each year by…

A wave of immigration by the mysterious Beaker people largely replaced Britain’s pre-existing population some 4,500 years ago, a new study has found. At about that time, distinctive bell-shaped pots began appearing in the archaeological record. These vessels, which were probably used for drinking, were found in grave sites across Europe, raising two possibilities: that a people from central Europe, the so-called Beaker people, spread across the continent at this time – or, more simply, that their pot art spread as a result of the exchange of ideas. Now scientists have shed light on this “pot versus people” debate by undertaking the largest analysis of ancient DNA yet. Hundreds of researchers analysed more than 400 prehistoric skeletons from both before and after the Beaker period, and concluded that both theories…

“Housing is the Government’s most pressing domestic issue,” said Liam Halligan in The Daily Telegraph. “Relentless” demand and inadequate supply have caused prices to spiral. Average house prices across the UK are now eight times the average wage – “a historically high multiple”. “Millions of hard-working people, who should be natural Tory voters” are unable to buy their own homes. This week, Theresa May gave “the first indication that she might be serious about solving this national emergency”. The planning system is partly to blame, as she conceded in her speech on housing on Monday. But, as she pointed out, it is the private sector that has really failed to deliver. Since the 2008 financial crisis, an average of 150,000 houses per year have been built, well short of the…

Bradley Wiggins was supposed to be different, said David Jones in the Daily Mail. When he became the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France, in 2012, we thought he had triumphed through “hard graft and God-given talent”. After all, as the star rider for “the oh-so virtuous Team Sky”, he had “spearheaded the crusade to clean up cycling”. We were wrong, said Tom Cary in The Daily Telegraph. The publication of a damning report this week has left the reputations of both Wiggins and Sky “hanging by a thread”. Chief among the “stunning claims” made by the Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee is that the cyclist used the drug triamcinolone to improve his chances of winning – and not for medical reasons, as previously…

The need to Impress To The Observer Nick Cohen is right (“We need a special court for free speech, delivering justice to all”) to call for an inexpensive court, but if he looks at the inquiry report he will see that is precisely what Leveson has proposed. A newspaper, said Leveson, did not have to belong to a recognised regulator, and thus an inexpensive arbitration scheme, but if it didn’t, and insisted on using the courts, it could be ordered to pay the costs of both sides if this were “just and equitable in all the circumstances of the case”. Is that not fair? If you and I are going on a journey together and I can only afford the bus, surely you should pay if you insist that we…

Theatre Fanny & Alexander Adapted by Stephen Beresford, from the film by Ingmar Bergman Director: Max Webster The Old Vic, The Cut, London SE1 (0844-871 7628) Until 14 April Running time: 3hrs 30mins (including intervals) ★★★ This “leisurely and expansive” adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s sprawling autobiographical masterpiece is set among a family of actors in the Swedish city of Uppsala, in the early 20th century. “Actors acting actors, theatre about theatre – for three-and-a-half hours, including two brief intervals. You have been warned,” said Christopher Hart in The Sunday Times. Those willing to commit, however, are in for a proper treat. What unfolds is a “lovable portrait of a warmhearted and squabbling tribe of extrovert, extravagant misfits”, the Ekdahls, and a memoir of childhood that is by turns “thrilling and…

The Blackbird Bagnor, Newbury, Berkshire (01635-40005) Some great chefs like to do their thing in out-of-the-way places, says Marina O’Loughlin in The Sunday Times. There’s Magnus Nilsson at Fäviken, in rural Sweden, many miles away from any city, and Francis Mallmann on his Patagonian island. Now Dom Robinson, a “beardy young gun” who used to be Tom Aikens’s head chef, has chosen to “squirrel himself away” in a tiny Berkshire hamlet. He is a long way from the bright lights, but like the others, he produces food that is worth travelling for. Smoked haddock and cheddar croquettes are “gorgeous”; a wheaten loaf of bread made with treacle and buttermilk is “insanely good”. There’s a “magnificent” wild boar and apple rigatoni with blue cheese curds, golden raisins and marjoram. Roast…

New cars: what the critics say Evo When the RS4 was launched in the 1990s, it was the first “Germanic super estate”. Combining power and four-wheel drive with “estate body practicality”, it had more in common with a hot hatch than with your typical estate. The latest generation has a smaller engine – a twin-turbo 2.9-litre V6 replaces the old V8 – but it’s faster than ever, sprinting from 0 to 62mph in 4.1 seconds. Car magazine In the flesh, the RS4 has “far more presence” than it does in pictures: the “widescreen” wheel arches are especially striking. Inside, the finish is “hard to fault”: this is one of the nicest cabins around. Audi’s Virtual Cockpit instrumental panel sits behind the wheel, while a “genuinely useful” display is beamed onto…

GKN/Melrose: gruesome meddling What frightens the biggest company bosses, asked Sean Farrell in The Observer. Parliamentary committees. This week there was further evidence of the willingness of MPs to get stuck in to blue-chip companies, as they hauled in big cheeses from GKN and Melrose for a grilling about a highly politically charged takeover battle. Melrose, a turnaround expert, “admits its £7bn bid for GKN is hostile”, said Matthew Vincent in the Financial Times, “but some politicians now deem it positively gruesome”. In a cross-party letter to the Business Secretary, Greg Clark, 16 MPs have called for the deal to be blocked to prevent the aerospace and automotive engineer from being “dismembered”. Never mind that under CEO Anne Stevens’s (pictured) defensive plan (“Project Boost”) GKN “has already promised to cut…

Cohn’s gone, and Powell’s in the spotlight Christopher Beddor Reuters Breakingviews Markets have tended to be rather “phlegmatic about disorder in Washington”, says Christopher Beddor. “That can no longer be taken for granted.” The exit this week of President Trump’s top economic adviser, Gary Cohn, “turns White House chaos into the markets’ problem”. Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs banker, “stood as a buffer” against anti-trade voices in the administration. His departure, just as the protectionist talk ramps up, “threatens to accelerate the White House’s zero-sum trade agenda”. No wonder stock futures and the Mexican peso plunged on the news. Given the crucial decisions on trade ahead – from Nafta talks to the ongoing investigation into China’s intellectual-property practices – investors are right to worry. Much depends on the US Federal…