Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1178 i The Week

What happened Ireland’s abortion reform Campaigners across the Republic of Ireland celebrated on Saturday after the country voted overwhelmingly to repeal its near-total ban on abortion. In a landmark referendum, 66.4% voted to strike down the eighth amendment of the Irish constitution, which affirmed that mothers and unborn children had an equal right to life. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar hailed the result as the “culmination of a quiet revolution” in a country that only legalised divorce in 1995. Many people laid flowers under a mural in Dublin of Savita Halappanavar, the 31-year-old Indian dentist whose death in 2012 from a septic miscarriage, after being refused a termination, spurred the reform. The vote led to calls for Theresa May to allow a free vote in Parliament to liberalise abortion laws in Northern…

George Osborne, who has added yet another job to his portfolio. He will now be advising the holding company of Italy’s richest family, the Agnellis, in addition to, inter alia, editing the Evening Standard and working one day a week for BlackRock. Roy of the Rovers, whose comic strip activities are to be revived in Match of the Day magazine. The star footballer’s career ended in 1993 when he had his left foot amputated after a helicopter crash; the new strip harks back to his teenage years. Bitcoin addicts, who are being offered treatment in Scotland. Castle Craig Hospital in Peeblesshire has created the first residential course for people unable to stop themselves from obsessively following fluctuations in digital currencies.…

Hundreds of schools rated “outstanding” by Ofsted have not been inspected for six years or more, a report by the National Audit Office published last week has found. While the schools watchdog is legally required to inspect schools every five years, “outstanding” schools were made exempt from this rule in 2011. As a result, 1,620 schools in total haven’t been inspected for over six years – 296 of them for a decade. Concerns have been raised about the continuing accuracy of the ratings, upon which many parents base their school choices.…

Los Angeles, California Roseanne canned: The US television network ABC cancelled comedian Roseanne Barr’s hit sitcom on Tuesday, after she posted a tweet comparing Valerie Jarrett, an African-American former aide to President Obama, to an ape. Barr, a combative supporter of President Trump, was replying to a tweet claiming that Jarrett, who was born in Iran, had covered up Obama’s alleged “misdeeds”. Barr wrote: “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj”. ABC, owned by Disney, swiftly cancelled the show, calling Barr’s statement “abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values”. Barr apologised, saying she was “not a racist, just an idiot who made a bad joke”. A ratings hit when revived earlier this year, Roseanne originally ran from 1988-97 and was one of the biggest TV shows of…

“The urge to self-photograph and upload, to document and publish our every significant experience, was in the news again last month, when it was reported that several holiday companies are marketing ‘Instagramfriendly tours’, catering for ‘ego travellers’ among the millennial generation. This came hard on the heels of Thomas Cook’s announcement that it might sell Club 18-30. So, millennials would rather pull a duck face in front of Machu Picchu than go to Magaluf for 30 units of alcohol a day and an increased chance of contracting herpes. The message seems to be: young people today are still awful, but in a different way.” David Mitchell in The Observer…

Britain’s green and unpleasant land Ian Birrell the I newspaper Britain prides itself on being a nation of nature lovers, says Ian Birrell. We delight in our countryside and flock to join bodies such as the National Trust and RSPB. How, then, have we “ended up living in one of the planet’s most denatured countries”? That’s the question asked by an important new book by the naturalist Mark Cocker. Our Place highlights just how much habitat we have lost over the past 50 years: half of our ancient woodland, three-quarters of our heathland and ponds, 97% of our wildflower meadows. The big culprit is not population growth (densely populated Kent has retained more ancient woodland than any other county), but rather, “bad policy” – specifically, the encouragement, through subsidies, of…

Clean homes: a leukaemia cause? A lack of exposure to bacteria is making babies more susceptible to the blood cancer leukaemia, Britain’s leading expert on the disease has claimed. In a new paper, Professor Mel Greaves, of The Institute of Cancer Research, says that acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) – the most common form of childhood cancer, affecting one in 2,000 children – is caused by a combination of factors. One in 20 children are born with a genetic mutation that puts them at risk of ALL. They will be fine if their immune systems develop properly – which happens if they encounter benign bacteria and viruses in their first year. But according to Greaves, babies are increasingly being denied this exposure as a result of improved overall hygiene, a decline…

Donald Trump cheats at golf, according a Norwegian tabloid. Suzann Pettersen, a former world No. 2, allegedly told an interviewer, “I’m pretty sure he pays his caddie well, since no matter how far into the woods he hits the ball, it’s in the middle of the fairway when we get there.” However, Trump is a better golfer than Gerald Ford, of whom Bob Hope said: “We have 51 golf courses in Palm Springs. He never decides which one he’ll play until after the first tee shot.” Jilly Cooper (above) was only 32 when she wrote her 1969 bestseller, How to Stay Married, offering tips such as: “Cheerfulness, sexual enthusiasm and good cooking are more important than cleanliness.” She has now apologised for advice that was sometimes “smug” and hypocritical. “I…

“Are the deranged bureaucrats running the European Commission determined to damage the continent’s security in pursuit of their grand federalist project,” asked the Daily Mail. How else to explain their effort to limit the UK’s access to the Galileo satellite system? Britain has been heavily involved in the development of this project, which aims to provide a European alternative to America’s GPS system and is scheduled to be fully operational by 2020. We’ve provided a lot of the expertise and 12% of the overall costs, currently estimated at s10bn. Yet a group of senior Brussels officials, led by the Commission’s most senior mandarin, Martin Selmayr, is insisting that the UK should be locked out of the high-security and military elements of the satnav project after Brexit. Adding insult to injury,…

All season long, Liverpool delighted Europe with “the sheer joy of their football”, said Rob Draper in The Mail on Sunday. In the Champions League quarter-finals they demolished Manchester City with “bursts of exhilarating attacking”, only to repeat the feat against Roma in the semi-finals. But in an “astonishing” final in Kiev last Saturday, they fell at the last hurdle: they lost 3-1 to Real Madrid, who became the first team since the 1970s to win Europe’s top club competition three seasons in a row. From the moment the Reds lost their best player, Mohamed Salah, to a shoulder injury in the 30th minute, defeat “seemed the most likely conclusion”. But no one could have anticipated Madrid’s extraordinary second goal, which came from an overhead kick by Gareth Bale, or…

Rugby union Saracens won their third Premiership title in four seasons, beating Exeter Chiefs 27-10 in the final. In his last match before retirement, Saracens winger Chris Wyles scored two tries and became the first player to score in three different Premiership finals. Football In the Championship play-off, Fulham beat Aston Villa 1-0 to secure promotion to the Premier League. Formula One Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo wonthe Monaco Grand Prix, ahead of Sebastian Vettel. Lewis Hamilton came third.…

To The Times The correspondence about the advantages (or lack thereof) of an RP (received pronunciation) accent stirred painful memories of an incident from my early life. I had just returned home from my first term at Oxford and was having supper with my parents. After a moment or two of conversation my father threw me a suspicious look and demanded: “Where did you get that half-crown voice?” D.J. Taylor, author, Norwich To The Times I am still often asked how many elocution lessons I had to have to speak as I do. In the mid-1970s, watching an Australian tour of the West Indies, I fell foul of Terry Jenner, the Australian leg-spinner at the time. He became increasingly convinced that my accent was contrived and, with the rum punches…

Theatre Peter Pan Playwright: J.M. Barrie Directors: Liam Steel and Timothy Sheader Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, London NW1 (0844-826 4242). Until 15 June Running time: 2hrs 15mins (including interval) ★★★★ Watching this “ingenious, magical, occasionally musical and mournful” production of Peter Pan in the Regent’s Park “gloaming” is thrilling, said Fiona Mountford in the London Evening Standard. The show, which was first seen in 2015, winning rave reviews and Olivier nominations, is a “far more thoughtful and sophisticated” version of Pan than we are used to with this play – yet there is plenty of “fun and boisterousness” too, not to mention some exhilarating flying. Rather than begin the story in the Darlings’ nursery, this version kicks off in a First World War field hospital, “evoking a whole generation…

Between the First World War and his death in 1964, the great German photographer August Sander (b.1876) took portraits of hundreds of people in an attempt to create a comprehensive visual record of his homeland’s society. Sander captured individuals from almost every conceivable social context, priding himself on objectivity while simultaneously distilling something of his subjects’ personality: amputee war veterans, farm labourers, businessmen and artists were all subjected to his austere gaze. Certain details – the individual hairs of a policeman’s waxed moustache, say, or the pockmarked contours of a youth activist’s cheeks – are preserved so vividly that you can almost smell the coffee on the sitters’ breath. That most of the images brought together in this exhibition, Men Without Masks, were taken in the interwar years introduces an…

With everyone falling for Middle Eastern cuisine, it was only a matter of time before we developed an equal taste for the region’s wines, says Jane MacQuitty in The Times. In practice, that means Lebanese, and specifically the “lush, perfumed, dramatically spiced” wines of the Bekaa Valley. Start with the “easy-swigging”, syrah-spiced 2015 Clos St Alphonse, Ksara (£10; M&S) or try the “unusual, grassy” 2017 Domaine des Tourelles Rosé (£9.99; D. Byrne & Co, 01200-423152). The rose and bramble-scented 2015 Château Ksara Réserve du Couvent (£9.95; Wine Society) is a bargain, and similar flavours pop up in the cabernet sauvignon-dominant 2014 Côteaux Les Cèdres (£11.99; Co-op). If you have more to spend, though, try the Boutros family’s glorious merlot-led 2010 Château Belle-Vue La Renaissance – it’s a “gem” (£29.95; Lea…

● It’s bare feet only on board – guests leave their shoes in a basket on the deck – so be sure to get a pedicure, but upgrade your sandals too. Your chewed up flip-flops will not fly in a sea of Jimmy Choo pumps. ● Tipping takes on a whole new meaning. When your host says, “All you need to bring is a tip for the crew”, know that this means s500 at the very least, placed in an envelope and hand-delivered to your host. ● The yacht will almost inevitably be your host’s pride and joy, so be prepared to feign endless interest when you’re asked: “Who wants a tour of the engine room/bridgedeck/tender garage?“ ● Never dare to question the itinerary. Your trip – mealtimes, bedtimes, entertainment…

This old village house is a b&b “with all the punch of a top-notch hotel”, says Condé Nast Traveller. Inside, original Salentine tiled floors are paired with grey and taupe linens and art from around the world, and the six “vast” bedrooms all have their own terraces. Outside, there is an “enormous” pool and “lush green cacti-filled gardens”, and an 18-metre-long replica of Matisse’s La Piscine occupies a loggia with a flat roof that turns into an outdoor cinema at night. There are bicycles and Vespas to borrow, excellent breakfasts, early morning yoga sessions, and prepared bags of towels and bottled water for beach trips. Doubles from £155. 00 39 0836 992374, www.dontotu.it .…

Philip Roth 1933-2018 Philip Roth, who has died aged 85, “was the last of the great white males”, said The New York Times: that “triumvirate of writers – Saul Bellow and John Updike were the others – who towered over American letters in the second half of the 20th century”. He became famous with his fourth book, Portnoy’s Complaint, an “extended, unhinged monologue, at once filthy and hilarious”, delivered by a neurotic “mother-addicted” Jewish bachelor. The book, with its protagonist so onanistic that he has sex with a piece of raw liver on the way to a bar mitzvah class, caused intense controversy, and Roth later said he sometimes regretted writing it. Yet the themes it explored – male lust, Jewish identity, the Jewish experience in America – were ones…

“Lovers of prosecco, hold on to your flutes,” said William Sitwell in The Daily Telegraph. UK sales of the Italian fizz are slowing. The previously roaring market grew by just 5% last year – “a noticeable downturn”. Indeed, accountants UHY Hacker Young reckon prosecco may now “have reached its ‘Burberry moment’, where the brand suffers from overexposure and loses its luxury image”. Some date the British boom to the wake of the 2008 financial crash, when City traders, with less disposable cash, chose prosecco over champagne. By giving Britons “the confidence to try other affordable fizz styles” – including English sparkling wine – it may have become a victim of its own success.…

“When it comes to data privacy, EU laws run the world”, said Quartz. But most companies were caught on the hop by the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), particularly those operating on the principle of: “extract as much data as possible” from customers “and figure it out later”. As they sought “repermissioning” from users, their emails revealed “a wide variety of emotional states” – not unlike the five stages of grief. Here are some examples taken verbatim from inboxes. Denial “Some (good) news regarding your personal data.” “It’s time to stop fearing GDPR & start embracing it.” Anger “Time is running out!” “Don’t send us to jail!” “PLEASE READ AND RESPOND.” “GDPRrrggg! Your final email.” Bargaining “Stay in touch and win a free T-shirt.” “Last chance for a free…

The week’s best buys Babcock International Group The Times Shares in the engineering services provider (whose main client is the MoD) have been blighted by other contractors’ misdemeanours. But Babcock is diversifying, profits and revenues are rising, and there’s a £31bn order book. Buy. 784p. Future Investors Chronicle This cash-generative specialist publisher is accelerating revenues by diversifying through acquisitions. A fast-growing media business helps offset advertising stagnation. Buy. 522p. Heineken The Times Heineken now owns more than 200 beer, lager and cider brands – typically buying heritage names with a loyal following, such as Sol, Tiger and Amstel. Well diversified with a global presence. Buy. s87. National Grid Investors Chronicle National Grid offers a stable and growing dividend supported by its regulated-monopoly position as owner of the UK’s energy network.…

“The NHS will be 70 in July and Theresa May would prefer that this birthday is a happy one celebrated with cake, not a miserable occasion that makes her government look bad,” said Andrew Rawnsley in The Observer. “That means finding money; a serious amount of money.” By most accounts, an NHS funding crisis is already under way. More than half of trusts reportedly finished the last financial year in deficit. Understaffing is an acute problem. The number of GPs per head of population is dropping. “Waiting times are rising and targets are being missed.” Public satisfaction ratings are going down. With a growing, ageing population, things can only get worse. Both the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, are openly campaigning for…

Boris Becker, who is separating from his second wife, Lilly. The former Wimbledon champion and the Dutch model had spoken about the strain that his bankruptcy had put on their marriage. The Mediterranean diet, after a World Health Organisation report found that many families in Greece, Spain and Italy are abandoning traditional cooking in favour of fast food. Around 40% of children are overweight in those three countries. French bulldogs, which were named as prime targets for dog rustlers. Thefts of the breed have more than doubled in the past two years: the result, say insurers, of the fashion for celebrities posing with them on Instagram. Staffordshire bull terriers are also frequent targets for criminal gangs – who often steal to order – as are cross-breeds such as labradoodles and…

24% of people in Britain would object to an obese person marrying into their family. Brits are half as likely as Americans to accept that obesity has a medical cause. Obesity Action Coalition/ The Times WH Smith is the least popular shop on the UK high street, followed by Clintons. Topping the list of consumers’ favourites was cosmetics chain Lush. Which?/The Independent Asked who they would like to play them in a film, the most popular choice for British men aged 18 to 24 is Tom Hardy, who is 40 years old. For women in the same age bracket, the favourite is Emma Watson, 28, and for women aged 25 to 39, it’s 27-year-old Jennifer Lawrence. YouGov…

Growing up with Playboy Cooper Hefner had an unusual childhood: Hugh Hefner was his father and he grew up in the Playboy Mansion. “I thought everyone had pink flamingos and peacocks in their backyard.” Now 26, he doesn’t share all of his father’s interests. When he was a child, the Playmates who babysat him called him “nerdy” because he read history books. “Sitting around with six ladies has never been my thing,” he told Alice Thomson in The Times. But he does work for the family business and is keen to defend his father’s legacy. For instance, he wants to keep publishing Playboy magazine because he thinks it promotes a healthy attitude to sex, in sharp contrast to the violence of online porn, and he insists that Playboy is on…

A New York couple have won a legal battle to force their 30-year-old son to move out of their home. Eight years ago, when he lost his job, Michael Rotondo’s parents said he could stay with them. But by this year they had had enough. They asked him in several formal notices to leave – writing “There are jobs available... Get one” – but Rotondo, who admits he has never done housework, refused, forcing them to go to court. After a judge last week ruled he must vacate by 1 June, Rotondo called the decision “outrageous” and complained he would need to start packing boxes immediately, “but I have to pay for the boxes, which might be a problem”. When Cara Koscinski from South Carolina ordered a cake for her…

THE NETHERLANDS A city bent on keeping the tourists at bay Het Financieele Dagblad (Amsterdam) Tourism has become a blight on many of Europe’s cities, says Lisa van der Velden, but one has now done something about it. Amsterdam’s four-party coalition municipal government – which can agree on little else – has announced drastic measures to curb overcrowding and drunken rowdiness in the city centre. The cruise ship terminal, which disgorges thousands of tourists at a time, will be relocated far outside the city; canal boat tours will now start on the outskirts, not in the centre. Limits will be set on the number of those annoying Segway tours and on multi-person beer bikes (in which passengers pedal as they drink). And there is to be a crackdown on kitschy…

Antique Italian violins have such a sweet tone because they were designed to emulate the human voice, a study has suggested. Hwan-Ching Tai, a chemistry professor at the National Taiwan University and violin aficionado, used speech analysis software to compare a recording of a violinist playing 15 antique instruments with recordings of male and female vocalists singing English vowel sounds. The “formants” – or resonant frequencies – of the voices closely matched those of the violins, which according to Tai is probably no accident: the first violins were used to accompany songs and dances, so blending in with human voices would have been an advantage. However, not all the violins were identical: instruments made by Andrea Amati, regarded as the violin’s inventor, produced formants corresponding to those of a baritone…

The most extraordinary thing happened in a bland west London conference room last week, said Simon Hattenstone in The Guardian: “Slowly, harrowingly, lovingly, life was breathed back into the 72 people killed by the Grenfell fire.” The inquiry into the disaster opened with relatives and friends of the victims speaking about those they had lost: they’d fought for the right to do so, and thank goodness the Government finally agreed. The testimonies were “tender, tearful, funny, haunting”; you couldn’t listen to Nick Burton’s tribute to his wife, Pily, without getting goosebumps. “She was very beautiful and could have chosen anybody,” he said. “I don’t know why she chose me.” Many had criticised the appointment of Sir Martin Moore-Bick to head the inquiry, but – unobtrusive and quietly empathic – “even…

When it comes to Russian money, our politicians have made a “screeching handbrake turn”, said Oliver Bullough in The Guardian. For decades, Britain has welcomed Russian oligarchs and their dubious billions. Now everything has changed. “We will come for their money,” Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, declared after the Salisbury attack, promising to target businessmen with Kremlin links. Last week, the Foreign Affairs Select Committee demanded action, describing “Moscow’s gold” as a threat to “national security”. The problem is that the Government will find this “dirty money” almost impossible to pin down. Officially, there’s £25.5bn of Russian investment in the UK, but this wildly underestimates the total, since it fails to account for the money coming from tax havens – the favoured route into London for Russian cash. The good…

Finally, 109 years after the Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper “decided to hold a bike race across Italy to boost sales”, Britain has its first Giro d’Italia winner, said Sean Ingle in The Guardian. At the end of three “thrillingly unpredictable” weeks of racing, Chris Froome sealed his victory in Rome on Sunday. It was the Team Sky rider’s sixth Grand Tour title, after four victories at the Tour de France and another at the Vuelta a España. And it was “surely the sweetest” for coming after a difficult opening fortnight. Froome crashed before the first stage; with three days to go, he was still in fourth place. “Yet somehow he found a way.” He joins a “super-exclusive club”: he is only the third cyclist, alongside Bernard Hinault and Eddy Merckx,…

On Wednesday 27 June, the South of France comes to London as we team up with Yapp Brothers for a four course dinner matched with wines from the Languedoc-Roussillon region. Our wine editor Bruce Palling will be joined by Christine Campadieu from top Roussillon winery, La Tour Vieille, and Yapp Director Tom Ashworth. Together they will introduce the stunning wines from this exciting locale. Hosted in the atmospheric surroundings of the newly opened Authentique Epicerie & Bar, this is set to be another fantastic evening with The Week Wines, giving you the opportunity to enjoy delicious food and wine in an intimate setting. Tickets cost £99 and are strictly limited. You’ll be greeted with a sparkling wine reception on arrival, followed by a four course dinner paired with wines from…

One of Russia’s most famous paintings, depicting Ivan the Terrible cradling his dying son, has been badly damaged after a man attacked it with a metal pole in Moscow’s State Tretyakov Gallery. The 1885 work by Ilya Repin “portrays a grief-stricken tsar holding his son in his arms after dealing him a mortal blow” in a fit of rage, says Matthew Bodner in The Guardian. Recently, the painting has become controversial: some Russian nationalists have tried to rehabilitate the 16th century leader’s reputation, arguing that the story of Ivan’s son’s murder is actually a myth concocted by Western propaganda. And last Friday, a 37-year-old man hit it repeatedly with a metal security pole, reportedly because he disputed its historical veracity. Igor Podporin told police that he drank some vodka in…

Hannah moves into No. 1 The Green. Freddie asks Lily what she sees in a thirtysomething with terrible dress sense. Lily says that she feels too mature for boys her age, and that Russ is going to leave his wife and join her when she goes to university. Freddie thinks she’s being naive. Jennifer runs into Martyn Gibson’s wife, who makes a pointed remark about the Aldridge’s finances. Riled, Jennifer mocks her hairstyle. Martyn is then put in the tricky position of having to buy land from Home Farm against his wife’s orders. Kate is keen to introduce goat yoga at Spiritual Home. Freddie warns Russ to stay away from Lily, and threatens to report him to the principal. Russ argues that Lily is an adult and warns Freddie that…

Core by Clare Smyth 92 Kensington Park Road, London W11 (020-3937 5086) Clare Smyth’s fine-dining restaurant occupies a “cursed site” in Notting Hill that “hasn’t had a success since Prue Leith opened her eponymous place back at the fag end of the 1960s”, says Tom Parker Bowles in The Mail on Sunday. But I suspect that Core will last. Smyth is “one of our very best chefs”, and here her “painstakingly pretty” dishes “dance between the subtle and the sensational”. Bold, utterly assured snacks include a “beautifully rendered” foie gras tart and another “peerless pastry” filled with smoked eel in a shimmering jelly with a whisper of seaweed. Other highlights include “light and lovely” Périgord truffle-scented gougères; smoked duck wings that are “all crisp, burnished fat and luscious flesh”;…

Auto Express “It’s fair to say that Volvo can now officially be spoken about in the same breath as Audi, BMW and Mercedes”, and the V60 gives it a real contender in the compact executive car market. A celebration of “Scandinavian cool”, it’s a handsome, comfortable, quiet car, and practical too – with a 529-litre boot that is bigger than any of those competitors’. It looks like “Volvo could well have yet another hit on its hands”. The Daily Telegraph The V60 is styled with “simplicity and thought”, and has comfortable, “commodious” seats with ample leg room. It boasts a truly state-of-the-art safety system, which includes break mitigation, steering intervention, and pedestrian and hazard recognition. Volvo’s estates may not be glamorous, but they “have a way of getting under your…

The Maldon Mud Race has 300 people clambering across the muddy bed of the Blackwater River in Essex at low tide (10 June; £50; www.maldonmudrace.com). The Great Knaresborough Bed Race involves teams pushing a member in a trolley-type “bed” up and down the dales of North Yorkshire, and even across a river (9 June, free; www.bedrace.co.uk). Eroica Britannia Classic Ride in the Peak District celebrates classic, pre-1987 bicycles. Routes run from 30 to 100 miles long, and there’s a bike beauty pageant (15-17 June; £80; eroicabritannia.co.uk). At Color Obstacle Rush, which comes to several UK cities, participants navigate 20 inflatable obstacles while spectators fling coloured powder at them (Until 28 July; £44.50; www.colorobstaclerush.co.uk). The Henley Classic is a bracing dawn swim up the Thames, following the route of the Henley…

Mexico’s phoenix city Founded in 1531, the Mexican city of Puebla has a “historically important” centre, full of baroque mansions. A reputation for dowdiness and cultural decline has tended to keep visitors away, but massive investment is changing that, says Claire Wrathall in the FT. Housed in a dazzling new building by Japanese architect Toyo Ito, the International Museum of the Baroque is worth the 130km drive from Mexico City in itself, with its impressive exhibits – many loaned from abroad – and “towering, curved” walls (which create an apt chiaroscuro effect, alternating pools of light and shadow). And there are now roughly 50 other museums, dedicated to everything from Mexican music to automobiles, as well as some “handsome” historic landmarks (the 17th century Biblioteca Palafoxiana has a “terrifying” old…

Pret A Manger: lucrative exit After weeks of agonising over whether to float or sell, Bridgepoint Capital, the private equity owner of Pret A Manager, finally bit the bullet this week, said the Financial Times. Pret will be sold to the German conglomerate JAB Holdings for an estimated £1.5bn, marking “a lucrative exit” for Bridgepoint, which paid £364m including debt to buy the business a decade ago, and has built it into an operation with 530 stores globally. JAB, an investment vehicle that manages the fortune of Germany’s Reimann family, has “a strong foothold in the coffee market”, with majority stakes in Jacobs Douwe Egberts and the US chain Caribou Coffee, said Catherine Neilan in City AM. It also owns Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Pret, founded in 1986, has recently struggled…

The real cost of Brexit? The “lost years” Janan Ganesh Financial Times Britain’s leading business groups have written to Theresa May urging her to “get on” with expanding Heathrow, says Janan Ganesh. They worry that a vote on the airport’s enlargement will be shunted off the parliamentary agenda this summer because politicians and civil servants are “too lost in the next stage of Brexit” to address it. Heathrow is a “parable” of Britain’s predicament since the 2016 vote. “The dry work of unmooring from the EU” has become an “open-ended mission” diverting attention from the crucial business of fixing the country’s healthcare, infrastructure and productivity. “Even if the direct cost of exit turns out to be exaggerated, as Leavers suggest, the opportunity cost is, if anything, underplayed.” Twelve years passed…

MPs keen to boost their social media following can now send their staff on an Instagram course, and claim it on expenses. The £420 one-day course by Parli-Training explains “how Instagram works”, and gives tips for better content. An email asked MPs: “Would you like your staff to have the ability to produce creative posts without appearing stilted and corny, attracting ridicule?” London’s cyclists are too male, white and middle-class, the city’s walking and cycling commissioner has said. Will Norman, who is responsible for the mayor’s efforts to make cycling easier and safer, wants to set “diversity targets” for cyclists, and to tackle the “gender divide” that has left cycling dominated by middle-aged men in Lycra.…

Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, has launched a review into England’s protected natural areas, which could lead to the creation of more national parks. Gove stressed that the review would seek to strengthen, rather than diminish, the protection of England’s current network of ten national parks and 34 areas of outstanding natural beauty. It will examine the challenges raised by population growth and habitat decline. The former government aide and journalist Julian Glover will carry out the review, which was wholeheartedly welcomed by National Parks England.…

Liège, Belgium Attacker kills four: A man who fatally shot two police officers and a bystander in the city of Liège on Tuesday was confirmed by Belgian authorities to be the same person who had killed a man the day before. Benjamin Herman, a prisoner on day release, reportedly shouted “Allahu Akbar” as he carried out Tuesday’s atrocity, before being shot dead by police. Belgian prosecutors said they are treating the attack as a terrorist incident. Herman reportedly stabbed two female police officers in the back before using their guns to kill them. He then shot and killed a student in a nearby parked car, before taking a female cleaner hostage in a school. He wounded four more police officers before he was shot; the woman was unharmed. Belgium’s interior…

1 Sal Tlay Ka Siti by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone, performed by Nikki M. James, featured in The Book of Mormon 2 Conversation Piece, written and performed by David Bowie 3 Mad Man Moon by Tony Banks, performed by Genesis 4 Monochrome by David Gavurin and Harriet Wheeler, performed by The Sundays 5 Three Lions by Ian Broudie, David Baddiel and Frank Skinner, performed by Baddiel & Skinner & The Lightning Seeds 6 Love Will Find a Way by Erran Baron Cohen and David Baddiel, performed by Erran Baron Cohen 7* Your Song by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, performed by Dolly Banks Baddiel 8 Do not go gentle into that good night, written and read by Dylan Thomas…

One result of legal aid cuts is that people accused of a crime who prove their innocence in court can, in addition to all the misery caused by the accusation and trial, be left cripplingly out of pocket. Legal aid used to be available to everyone tried in a Crown Court. Depending on their income, defendants might have to pay “contributions”. However, these could formerly be recouped under “Defendants’ Costs Orders” if they were acquitted. But in 2013, the Government introduced means testing for Crown Court trials, meaning that those with a disposable household income of £37,500 or more would be excluded from legal aid representation, and so would be forced to pay privately – or represent themselves. Such defendants, when acquitted, can still apply for Defendants’ Costs Orders –…

Russia fixation is letting Trump off the hook Frank Bruni The New York Times “Mueller and Russia, Russia and Mueller”: that’s all Washington talks about these days. Everything seems to hinge on whether or not the FBI probe headed by special counsel Robert Mueller will prove there was collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, or an attempt to obstruct justice, says Frank Bruni. The trouble with this fixation is that it’s distracting attention from the president’s other misdeeds. If people weren’t so mesmerised by the convoluted twists of the inquiry, more of them might have noticed that Trump is stacking the judiciary with conservatives and “gutting” government agencies of ideological opponents. They might have been more outraged by the recent revelation that he is still using a mobile…

Scientists have detected a sharp rise in emissions of a banned ozone-destroying chemical, suggesting that somewhere, manufacturers are still producing it in secret, reports The Guardian. The chemical, CFC-11, is the second most damaging of all CFCs. Like other CFCs, it was banned in the late 1980s, and since 1997 its reported production has been zero. But beginning in 2013, scientists at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Colorado noticed admissions increasing in east Asia at a rate that could not be attributed simply to CFC-11 present in buildings and old appliances leaking into the atmosphere. Other possibilities – such as a change in how the atmosphere distributes the chemical – were also ruled out. “You are left with: ‘Boy, it really looks like someone is making it…

“It’s hard to believe it has finally arrived,” said Tim Dowling in The Guardian: “the last day I will ever receive an unsolicited email from Greater Anglia offering me 20% off a Family & Friends Railcard”. There will be no more special deals “on replacement dishwasher wheels from Matt @ eSpares. No daily updates from that bicycle shop I visited six years ago.” At midnight last Friday it all stopped, thanks to the EU’s new General Data Protection Regulation. The GDPR may well “go down in history as the last nice thing Europe ever got to do for us”. As the deadline approached, the pleas from companies keen to keep stuffing our inboxes with promotional rubbish shifted from the official-sounding (“urgent – action required”) to “something more desperate, like a…

“In Britain, to govern is difficult. In Italy it is pointless.” Senior Italian official, quoted by William Hague in The Daily Telegraph “The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything.” Warren Buffett, quoted on Business Insider “Literature takes a habit of mind that has disappeared. It requires silence, some form of isolation, and sustained concentration in the presence of an enigmatic thing.” Philip Roth, quoted in Newsweek “At 18 our convictions are hills from which we look; at 45 they are caves in which we hide.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, quoted in Forbes “The best number for a dinner party is two – myself and a damn good head waiter.” Nubar Gulbenkian, business magnate and frequenter of The Ritz, quoted…

Anyone who follows the England cricket team has seen them be “every shade of abject over the years”, said Andy Bull in The Observer. But their first Test against Pakistan, which finished on Sunday with a nine-wicket defeat, was “something new”. England were playing at Lord’s, in conditions that seemed “almost tailor-made to suit them”; they were facing a relatively weak and inexperienced Pakistan team ranked seventh in the world. Yet the English could produce only “sickly, consumptive cricket”. They were “out-batted, out-bowled, out-fielded”. And to make matters worse, the team had to spend the aftermath of the match denying allegations that England players tried to fix a Test against India in 2016. This is arguably the worst England Test side since “they crashed to the bottom of the rankings”…

A bridge for Brexit To the Financial Times Consider a rail-only bridge across the Irish Sea from Lancashire to Belfast, with a link to Dublin and perhaps also a spur to Glasgow. China has built the 100-mile long Danyang-Kunshan bridge for $8.5bn. Here in the UK a similar link would probably cost £15bn, a national investment to be recouped via modest transit charges. Connected to High Speed 2, Ireland would gain direct rail access to Europe, in customs-sealed containers. Export costs and times would be cut. Travel would be much easier. There already exists a tax border between the Republic and Northern Ireland. For years, cheap “red” diesel was smuggled across with impunity, with the colours being laundered out and dumped as waste, contaminating drinking water in border counties. HMRC…

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs, 2014 (Scribner £11.99). The true story of the life (and untimely death) of an amazing young black man struggling to straddle different cultures – the traditionally white, elite, Yale campus and his drug-fuelled, impoverished and gang-ridden home town – as told by his white best friend and university room-mate. The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success by William N. Thorndike, 2012 (Harvard Business Review £22). This argues that firms that outperform their peers and financial benchmarks over long periods of time are doggedly focused on capital allocation. Generally, the most successful have a CEO whose (only) job is to invest the company’s money, and a president who is charged with the day-today aspects of…

Programmes Journey in the Danger Zone: Iraq In this two-part series, journalist and ex-soldier Adnan Sarwar returns to Iraq to explore how the country has changed since he served there during the war. Sun 3 June, BBC2 20:00 (60mins). The Jeremy Thorpe Scandal Tom Mangold updates his 1979 Panorama investigation into the former Liberal leader with new details. Originally made on the assumption that Thorpe would be found guilty of conspiracy to murder, the exposé was shelved on his acquittal. Sun 3 June, BBC4 22:00 (60mins). Suffragettes with Lucy Worsley The historian marks 100 years since women’s partial suffrage by looking at an extraordinary group of Edwardian working-class women and their campaign to win the vote. Mon 4 June, BBC1 20:30 (90mins). Great Art: The Artist’s Garden – American Impressionism…

Pan-fried cauliflower steaks Serves 4-8 coating: 175g unseasoned breadcrumbs (I prefer panko) 1 heaped tbsp lemon pepper (or black pepper mixed with lemon zest) 1 tbsp dried basil 1 tbsp dried oregano or zaatar ¼ tsp ground ginger ¼ tsp garlic powder 1 tsp paprika 40g shredded Parmesan 15g finely chopped fresh parsley or 1 tbsp dried parsley cauliflower: 130g plain flour (or cornmeal) 4 large egg whites, beaten 2 large heads cauliflower 1 tsp sea salt ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper vegetable oil • Coating: combine all the coating ingredients in a large bowl. • Cauliflower:…

Philips Hue Phoenix The Hue range is the gold standard of smart lighting. Thiss desk lamp, which must be used with a Hue Bridge hub, can shift from cool to warm light, and also workss as a wake-up light alarm clock (£159; www.pcworld.co.uk). Furbo With the Furbo dog camera, which has a microphone and speaker, you can see and talk to your dog when you’re out. It can alert you when the dog barks and hand out treats, and is controlled via a smartphone app (£199; www.furbo.com). Ring Video Doorbell 2 With a a motion sensor and instant smartphone alerts, this video doorbell doubles as a security camera and enables you to talk to whoever is at the door, even if you’re not at home (£179; www.ring.com). Yale Conexis L1…

Leeds city centre break Set in a gorgeous terracotta Grade II building, The Met hotel is offering a 2-night b&b stay from £95pp, with dinner on the first night. 01904-717362, www.superbreak.com. Arrive 13 July. 4 nights in Malmö The 4-star Elite Hotel Savoy is in close proximity to the Stortorget and Sankt Petri Kyrka. From £274pp b&b, including Edinburgh flights. 0800-083 4000, www.lastminute.com. Depart 18 July. The “Moroccan Circle” A 13-day round trip taking in Marrakech, the Atlas Mountains, the Sahara and Essaouira. From £1,095pp b&b, excluding flights. 020-7112 0019, www.fleewinter.com. Arrive 28 September. A Peruvian adventure Discover the highest lake in the world and visit Machu Picchu during this 13-day trip. From £1,599pp b&b, including London flights. 020-3006 2722, www.lumle.com.Depart 12 September.…

Investors exposed to eurozone markets, and Italy in particular, suffered heavy paper losses as political turmoil sparked a lengthy rout in bonds and equities. The scale of the moves in the debt market stunned markets. Yields on Italy’s two-year government bond jumped in a day from 0.27% to 2.72%; the ten-year bond yield jumped from 2.4% to a high of 3.39%. The Italian ructions, combined with a renewal of aggressive US rhetoric against China, rattled equity markets globally. The Trump administration said it would proceed with a series of punitive trade-related measures on China, increasing pressure on Beijing to make concessions in trade talks. The Bank of England’s governor, Mark Carney, said that in the event of a “disorderly” Brexit, he would protect the economy by postponing rises in interest…

2012 redux? It feels like 2012 all over again as European markets “shudder” over Italy, said Bloomberg. In a day of frenetic trading on Tuesday, the euro slipped to a ten-month low, stocks dropped, and yields on Italian, Portuguese and Greek bonds surged as nervous investors reacted to the political chaos in Rome – and to what George Soros described as the “existential threat” posed to the EU. Italian assets “sank across the board”, with the country’s banks particularly badly hit. Italy is always just a few steps away from the “very serious risk of losing the irreplaceable asset of trust”, said the Bank of Italy governor, Ignazio Visco. This week, many traders felt inclined to believe him. Global sell-off Some, noting the eurozone’s recent economic resilience, reckon that the…

Sir Martin Sorrell After his “acrimonious departure“ from WPP in April, the former boss of the advertising giant has made a “spectacular return”, said The Times. Sorrell has become executive chairman of a UK-listed shell company, Derriston Capital, and will use it as a vehicle to build up a new multinational communications group, dubbed S4 Capital, in the mould of WPP. It seems Sorrell, who is injecting £40m of his own funds into the new venture and has secured £11m more from City backers, is seeking to “repeat history”. Meanwhile, WPP remains headless and is struggling to avoid breakup. The speed of Sorrell’s return has rattled some former colleagues. “You would have thought he would have kept his head down for a while,” the Financial Times reports one as saying.…