Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1195 i The Week

What happened Chequers in tatters Theresa May’s Brexit plan and the future of her premiership both appeared to be hanging in the balance this week as the Tories prepared for their party conference, and in the wake of the PM’s humiliating rebuff at an EU summit in Salzburg. The informal gathering had been widely expected to open the way to a Brexit deal in November, but it ended with EU leaders lining up to reject May’s Chequers plan as unworkable (see page 25). President Macron of France declared that Brexit had been sold to the British public by “liars” and that May needed to come up with “new propositions”. After returning to Britain, May hit back at EU leaders, angrily accusing the bloc of rejecting her proposals out of hand,…

Affordable housing, with news that in the whole of London last week, there was only one home listed for sale at £100,000 or less. The bargain property (reduced from £130,000) was a 16ft x 15ft studio carved out of an old commercial building just off a dual carriageway in Hornchurch. The estate agent described it as an “investment opportunity” in a “central location”. Hornchurch is 15 miles east of Charing Cross, beyond Dagenham. Orla Kiely, the Irish designer known for her distinctive mid-century prints, who announced the closure of her fashion label as its parent company went into liquidation. Commentators speculated that her prints had become too ubiquitous, appearing on everything from handbags to toasters, duvet covers and even bike helmets. However, licensed Orla Kiely homeware will still be sold…

Paris President under pressure: President Macron’s approval ratings have tumbled to an all-time low of just 29% – down ten points in only two months. This comes in the wake of a series of high-profile departures from his government and a scandal over his former security aide, Alexandre Benalla, who was filmed roughing up protesters at a May Day demonstration. Macron (pictured) notched up another PR blunder last week, when he brusquely informed an unemployed gardener, who was bemoaning his inability to find a job, that he should try harder, and needed merely to “cross the road” to find work in a restaurant or café. A clip of the encounter was seized upon by Macron’s critics as further evidence that he is an arrogant “president of the rich”. Madrid Trump’s…

1* Better Not Look Down by Joe Sample and Will Jennings, performed by B.B. King 2 String Quartet No. 15 by Beethoven, performed by the Hungarian Quartet 3 Kalinka by Ivan Larionov, performed by Evgeny Belyaev and the Alexandrov Ensemble 4 How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live? by Alfred Reed, performed by Ry Cooder 5 Down To Zero, written and performed by Joan Armatrading 6 String Quintet in C major by Schubert, performed by the Amadeus Quartet with Robert Cohen 7 Sonata K95 by Domenico Scarlatti, performed by Fou Ts’ong 8 Matthäuspassion by Bach, performed by Philippe Herreweghe with Andreas Scholl and the Collegium Vocale Gent Book: Teach Yourself Ukrainian by James Dingley and Olena Bekh Luxury:…

“Imagine that this is your daily life,” said an expert on Xinjiang, James A. Millward, in The New York Times. “While on the way to work or an errand, every 100 metres you pass a police blockhouse. Video cameras on street corners and lamp posts recognise your face and track your movements.” At checkpoints, police scan your ID card, your irises and your phone. You will have had to complete a survey about your ethnicity, your religious practices, and whether you have relatives abroad or in detention. Based on all this data, the system gives you a ranking: “safe”, “normal” or “unsafe”. That determines whether or not you are allowed to visit certain neighbourhoods, rent a room or apply for a job. “A science fiction dystopia? No. This is life…

Bending the law to suit the cops David French National Review US cops have got a bad rap lately, says David French, but is it any wonder? Too often, they seem to get away with murder, literally. In the past two years, we’ve seen “the sad spectacle of a mistrial after a cop shot an unarmed, running man in the back”; the acquittal of the Minnesota officer who shot Philando Castile dead as Castile “was doing his best to comply with the cop’s panicked, conflicting demands”; and the acquittal of another cop who needlessly killed a drunk man, Daniel Shaver, who failed to follow his instructions. And now there’s Amber Guyger. A white Texas cop, she recently walked into the home of an innocent, unarmed black man and shot him…

Congestion on Britain’s roads is set to considerably worsen over the next three decades, despite the rise of electric and driverless cars, according to the Department for Transport (DfT). A new study predicts that by 2050, up to 16% of roads will be clogged, compared with 7% at present, increasing average journey times by about two minutes. The forecast assumes that vehicle numbers will increase by as much as 51% over the same period – partly as a result of population increases, but also because the rise of zero-emission electric cars will ultimately bring down the costs of motoring. Some experts have claimed that driverless cars will help reduce congestion because they make more efficient use of road space, and don’t brake and accelerate so much. However, the DfT says…

There’s no point pretending otherwise, said The Economist. Foremost in the minds of many of the people who voted for Brexit was the issue of immigration: Brexiteers had promised that, once the UK was shot of EU rules on free movement, it would be easier to clamp down on new arrivals. For two-and-a-half years, Westminster was remarkably quiet on what that would mean in practice. Now, we have some clues. Last week, the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), established to inform government policy, published its report into the impact of migration over the past 20 years – along with its proposals for managing it in future. Running to 140 pages, it contains “hard truths” for those on both sides of a hotly contested debate. Overall, migrants contribute more in taxes than…

“One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory.” Rita Mae Brown, quoted in the LA Tribune “Show me a man who has enjoyed his schooldays, and I will show you a bully and a bore.” Denis Norden, quoted in the Daily Mail “The reason grandparents and grandchildren get along so well is that they have a common enemy.” Humorist Sam Levenson, quoted in the Jeffersonville, Ind., News and Tribune “Nothing discloses real character like the use of power.” 19th century orator Robert Green Ingersoll, quoted in The Washington Post “Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t.” Erica Jong, quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle “Man does not strive for happiness; only the Englishman does that.” Friedrich Nietzsche, quoted in…

The world’s fastest cyclist The two-decade-old land speed cycling record has finally been broken, says Nick Allen in The Daily Telegraph; and for the first time, by a woman. American ex-pro Denise Mueller-Korenek, a 45-year-old mother-of-three, hit 183.9mph on salt flats in Utah, smashing the previous record of 167mph achieved by Dutch cyclist Fred Rompelber in 1995. She wasn’t unaided: her custom-made bike was attached to a drag race car, detaching itself on reaching 100mph. Each pedal revolution at her top speed propelled her 128ft (a typical Tour de France bike does about 30ft). “Beat that Fred,” yelled Mueller-Korenek after eventually coming to a halt and dismounting. Cipriani’s baffling omission The England rugby coach Eddie Jones is known for his “strong and often contentious instincts with selection”, says Owen Slot…

To The Times The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has concluded that there is no need for low-skilled workers after Brexit. One has to wonder what bubble they live in: have they not noticed that a high proportion of staff in the hotels in which they stay and the restaurants in which they eat are foreign? Speaking as someone in the hospitality industry, all I can say is that if this policy is followed through, then get ready to service your own hotel room, and to collect your own food in a restaurant from a serving hatch. We need these people: they are here doing real, valuable jobs that we can’t otherwise fill. Michael B. Cornish, Bassenthwaite, Cumbria To The Times The committee’s report on migration is generally welcome, but it…

The Little Stranger Dir: Lenny Abrahamson 1hr 51mins (12A) Superior British period horror ★★★ The Little Stranger is “one of the most original British horror films of recent times”, said Geoffrey Macnab in The Independent. Adapted from the novel by Sarah Waters, it stars Domhnall Gleeson as a country doctor called to a crumbling Warwickshire pile to examine a housemaid who claims the house is haunted. There he meets a diverse cast of characters: a crippled war veteran (Will Poulter), a chilly grand dame (Charlotte Rampling) and her troubled daughter (Ruth Wilson). The film includes many touches familiar to fans of period ghost stories – servants’ bells that ring of their own accord, doors that slam shut suddenly and so on. What makes it so unusual is that it’s actually…

The Royal Academy’s Oceania exhibition, which opens this week, is a landmark. Not only is it the largest display of art from the Pacific islands ever seen in Europe; it can also claim to be the “most culturally sensitive exhibition ever staged in Britain”, says Hannah Furness in The Daily Telegraph. The show includes artefacts taken, and sometimes stolen, from island tribes during the colonial era. But for every piece of art included, curators have over the past five years sought approval from the nation from which it came. Before the show opened, tribal leaders from New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, Papua and Tahiti, among others, joined a procession designed to “honour their cultural beliefs”. Sacred objects were blessed. A statue of the Hawaiian god Ku was ceremonially wrapped in a…

The Ambridge cricket team lose to Darrington in the final game of the season. Kenton hasn’t apologised to Fallon, so the cricket party goes ahead at the Tea Room. Freddie tells Johnny he’s realised he needs to face up to everything he’s done. Brian and Peggy sample Jennifer’s Flower and Produce tasting menu. With the wisdom they’ve passed on to her, she’s confident she has a chance in some of the savoury categories. Later, Jennifer tells Brian she knows they’ve been pumping the village for information and really appreciates it. Hannah’s date cancels, and so she and Tom order a takeaway. Hannah hints that she’s still in the mood: they may not be with their ideal partners, but they can still have some fun. Alistair tells Freddie that he too…

Alchemilla 192 Derby Road, Nottingham (0115-941 3515) The opening of this Japanese-influenced, fermentation-focused, semi-fine-dining restaurant in Nottingham was a “gargantuan feat”, says Grace Dent in The Guardian. Until last year, this vast, crypt-like underground space – in an abandoned coaching house on the Derby Road – had been “unloved and festering” for more than a hundred years: it was full of moss and memories, rubbish and rot. Now, though, it’s just “gorgeous”. Chef Alex Bond and his team have transformed it – Grand Designs-style – into an impressive vaulted dining room with bare brickwork and a capacious open kitchen. It “feels like a restaurant at the start of a long and important journey”. From the five-course set menu, I had a delicious, and enormous, enoki mushroom draped over duck…

Leopard print  You can get leopard print on just about anything these days, and these Max Mara wool-blend trousers are a particularly chic, yet striking, way to go (£335; maxmara.com). Chunky cardigans Nothing says cosy like a “grandad knit”, and this oversized, pure wool cardigan by Alexa Chung, with its bold geometric print, would do a fine job brightening up a pair of jeans (£275; modesens.com). All things Eighties The 1980s are back in all their might, so think big shoulders, high necks and bold, bold colours. As this dress by Alessandra Rich demonstrates, we’re entering the era of “the great cover-up” (£1,440; matchesfashion.com ). Pleated skirts Calf-length pleated skirts like H&M’s cream and green striped one are brilliantly versatile; dress them up with heels, or down with boots or…

Cultures collide in Sarajevo Its name is “inextricably linked to war and tragedy”, but Sarajevo has been healing itself over the past 20 years, says Hayley Long in The Guardian. The capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina is spectacularly lovely, with a “fascinating” skyline of minarets, onion domes and Romanesque towers surrounded by forested mountains. This clash of “East meets West” is evident on the main pedestrian street, Ferhadija – effectively a “cultural equator”. On one side, Austro-Hungarian architecture, shops and bars; on the other, a “Turkish bazaar” of hookah shops and not a “drop of alcohol to be found”. Street vendors sell ice cream and Bosnian folk music blares out from cafés. There’s “such a good vibe” that the recent horrors are hard to reconcile. If you want to “discover…

Thomas Cook: feeling the heat “Blame it on the sunshine” was the message from Thomas Cook after shares “dived by more than a quarter” this week, wiping some £345m off its value, said Sarah Butler in The Guardian. The hot weather at home was always going to hurt: staycationers are the stuff of nightmares for the UK-listed holiday group, which “makes all its annual profit in the summer”, and relies on tours for two-thirds of its revenues. But investors were nonetheless dismayed by its second profit warning in two months. The downwards move illustrates “just how risky it is to own shares in a company so reliant on earnings from one quarter of the year”, said Jim Armitage in the London Evening Standard. “Next summer might be cooler in northern…

Corbyn and Brexit are a deadly combo David Smith The Sunday Times The prospect of a Labour government should be taken “seriously”, says David Smith. Yet the mood among business people is surprisingly insouciant. “Labour has captured the mood of the times,” declares Jim O’Neill, the former Goldman Sachs banker turned Tory Treasury minister. “I find myself struggling to be that scared.” O’Neill’s is not such an unusual position. “Brexit is taking up so much bandwidth in business” that the possibility of an imminent Labour government is often waved aside. But it’s the combination of the two that holds the greatest dangers. Planned hikes to income and corporation taxes (the latter from 19% to 26%) send out an alarming signal that Britain is no longer “a good place to do…

The week’s best shares Accesso Technology Group The Times This highly acquisitive tech firm develops e-commerce software for theme parks and rock concert promoters. Risky, but customers include Merlin and Carnival, and it is venturing into new markets. Buy. £27.95. Devro The Daily Telegraph The sausage skin-maker’s turnaround plan is on track with strong overseas growth and improved margins. Cash generation is good and shares are set to recover. Yields an appetising 4.5%. Buy. 206.7p. Manx Telecom The Times Shares in the telecoms firm are near four-year lows. But Manx is at the forefront of the Isle of Man’s fast-growing tech sector, and a new hearing product for mobile phones has strong growth potential. Buy. 182.5p. Ricardo Investors Chronicle The engineering group has been hit by Brexit uncertainty and challenges…

“It has been a terrible year for the railways,” said Graeme Paton in The Times. January heralded the highest increase in fares since 2013, prompting a “huge backlash”. In May, the east coast main line had to be renationalised after its operator, Virgin Trains East Coast, ran out of money. In the same month, the botched introduction of a new timetable led to the cancellation of almost 800 services a day, and the worst delays in a decade. Last week, the Office of Rail and Road published a damning report into the debacle. It shared the blame between Network Rail, which runs the track; the individual train operators; and the Department for Transport. “Nobody took charge,” it concluded. Is that any wonder, asked Juliet Samuel in The Daily Telegraph, when…

An official inquiry into how contaminated blood came to be given to thousands of NHS patients in the 1970s and 1980s began on Monday – the result of years of campaigning by victims and their relatives. It is estimated that more than 25,000 people were infected with HIV or hepatitis over the course of 20 years as a result of being given contaminated blood; 3,000 of them died. Many of the victims were patients with haemophilia and other bleeding disorders who were given blood plasma imported from the US that had been “donated” for money by prison inmates and drug addicts. The inquiry has the power to demand the disclosure of documents and to force witnesses to testify. At hearings this week, victims spoke of how they had been “betrayed…

“Easy anonymity for noisy opinions is the curse of the internet age, and if we can’t forbid it we should at least jeer at it. Pitch your scorn somewhere between condemnation of drunk drivers and contempt for filthy litterers. Hiding your identity is not admirable, at least not if you’re going to join arguments. Fine if your shtick is posting jokes or videos of baby otters, but if you’ve something harsh to say, own it. Stand up and be counted. Anyone on Twitter calling themselves ‘proudbritishwife’ or ‘angrycomrade’ can be shrugged off. Post jolly dog pictures all you like, mate, but if it’s serious politics, don’t hide under a hound.” Libby Purves in The Times…

Housing isn’t just a game of numbers Ed Conway The Times Clear slums; crack down on unscrupulous landlords; make sure everyone has a roof over their head. Those always used to be crucial aspects of government housing policy, says Ed Conway. But today our politicians are obsessed with one thing only: “build more houses” is their mantra. But it’s seriously misguided. Partly that’s because the target of building 300,000 new homes a year by 2022 is based on a false projection: the Office for National Statistics now admits that household formation is increasing at an annual rate of only 159,000 – which turns out to be “pretty much the recent rate of house-building”. But the key point is that Britain doesn’t have a single housing crisis; it has several different…

Daily aspirin is not for everyone Millions of people take a daily dose of aspirin, but unless they have heart problems, they probably shouldn’t. Several studies have shown that for patients with heart disease, taking regular low doses of the blood-thinning painkiller can help prevent heart attacks and some forms of stroke – a benefit that is thought to outweigh the elevated risk of gastrointestinal bleeding. To see if this remained the case in other patients, researchers from the US and Australia recruited 19,000 healthy people, mostly over the age of 70; half were given a low-dose aspirin to take daily, the rest a placebo. Five years later, they found that the aspirin had made no apparent difference to the risk of heart attack or stroke; nor had it prolonged…

Nigel Farage may no longer be the UKIP leader, but at the party’s conference last week, his face was still emblazoned on its memorabilia – including condoms. The prophylactics, sold by UKIP’s youth wing Young Independence, feature on the packaging a close-up of Farage and the words: “For when you have a hard Brexit.” Although costly at £1 each, or £2 for four, they sold out – to the amusement of UKIP’s critics on social media. “I’ve met a few young kippers,” said one Twitter user. “£2 is very reasonable for a lifetime’s supply.” Jack Kerouac may have been a free spirit – but when travelling as a young man, he felt the pangs of homesickness, and was not above asking his mother for help. In a letter written in…

Things seemed to be going Theresa May’s way in the run-up to last week’s EU summit in Salzburg, said Daniel Capurro in The Daily Telegraph. After the failure of the hard-line Brexiteers to produce a much-touted alternative plan, momentum appeared to be growing behind the PM’s Chequers strategy, which her chief Brexit adviser, Olly Robbins, hailed in a BBC documentary as “a game-changer”. Nobody expected a breakthrough at Salzburg, but they were confident that EU leaders would make encouraging noises to help May through the Tory conference, clearing the path for proper negotiations at a formal EU summit in October. So it came as a shock to everyone, especially No. 10, when European leaders instead let rip. Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, baldly declared that the Chequers plan…

It is, without doubt, “one of the most giddying comebacks in sport”, said Oliver Brown in The Daily Telegraph. Just over a year ago, Tiger Woods was a “husk” of a man: struggling to recover from a fourth operation on his injured back; addicted to painkillers; unsure if he’d ever play golf again. “His game, his health and his reputation all looked shredded beyond repair.” But on Sunday night, more than five years since his last tournament victory, the 42-year-old won the PGA Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship at East Lake in Georgia. The victory had been on the cards for a while. Woods led the field “for a few precious moments” at this year’s Open at Carnoustie, and ran Brooks Koepka close at the US PGA. But those “near-misses” amplified…

Football Liverpool kept up their 100% winning record, beating Southampton 3-0. Cricket Surrey opener Rory Burns, Kent batsman Joe Denly and Warwickshire seamer Olly Stone all made the England squad for the winter tour of Sri Lanka. Rugby union Saracens and Exeter remain first and second in the Premiership, after victories against Gloucester and Newcastle. Athletics The World Anti-Doping Agency lifted its suspension of Russia’s anti-doping agency, outraging clean-sport campaigners.…

Sword of Honour by Evelyn Waugh, 1965 (Penguin £14.99). Waugh is surely the greatest writer of English prose in the 20th century. Short sentences. Razor-sharp. Wounding and side-splitting. A world in a few bitter words. This story of one man’s Second World War shows us life ruled not by ideals but self-interest and fake news. Could be about now. A Dictionary of the English Language: an Anthology by Samuel Johnson, 1755 (Penguin £14.99). Odd to read a dictionary, but this is much more: one man’s heroic attempt to capture the whole of the English language as it was spoken in the 1750s. As he illustrates meaning through quotes, you join Johnson on his huge journey through English literature, on which he disses the Scots (we love it, really) and mocks…

Programmes Albert: The Power Behind Victoria Narrated by Samantha Bond, this docudrama recounts how an obscure, 20-year-old German prince become one of the most powerful men in the world – a champion of the Industrial Revolution and king in all but name. Sat 29 Sept, C5 20:35 (125mins). The Cry Four-part thriller starring Jenna Coleman and Ewen Leslie as a couple whose baby is abducted from an Australian town. Sun 30 Sept, BBC1 21:00 (60mins). Drowning in Plastic Trillions of pieces of plastic are affecting the world’s marine life. Liz Bonnin visits scientists at the cutting edge of plastics research and leading marine biologists to discover the scale of the problem. Mon 1 Oct, BBC1 20:30 (90mins). The Bank that Almost Broke Britain The story of RBS, the small Scottish…

If you’re pressed for time, but still want to eat well, try one-pan skillet cooking, says Anna Helm Baxter. If you buy a stainless steel pan, choose one that’s tri-ply or “clad” with an aluminium or copper core, and get it nice and hot before you start to cook Mediterranean prawns Serves 4 3tbsps olive oil 2 large yellow peppers, seeded and cut into 10cm pieces 4 garlic cloves, chopped 4 spring onions, thinly sliced, whites and greens separated 450g peeled and deveined prawns 1 x 400g tin butter beans, drained and rinsed 2 tbsps white wine 1 tbsp lemon juice 1 tsp grated zest 100g feta cheese • Preheat the oven to 220°C. Heat a large skillet over a medium heat, add 2 tbsps of oil and cook the…

Christmas in Luxembourg This 5-day trip includes b&b, excursions to Little Switzerland and Luxembourg city, and 3 evening meals, from £549pp.01709-787463, leger.co.uk. Local coach departure 23 December. A taste of South America Explore Argentina and Chile, with 10 nights b&b, multiple city and wine tours, and internal flights from £1,599pp. Dublin flights incl. 020-3011 1520, citrusholidays.co.uk. Depart 28 November. A week in the UAE All-inclusive stay at the 4-star Ramada Beach Hotel Ajman, with Sharjah and Dubai near by, from £1,100pp. Manchester flights incl. 020-3897 1185, loveholidays.com. Depart 9 November. 5-star Riviera Maya break The idyllic TUI Sensimar El Dorado Seaside Suites in Mexico is offering 7 nights, all-inclusive, from £1,402pp. Bristol flights incl. 020-3451 2720, firstchoice.co.uk. Depart 20 October.…

The pound suffered its biggest one-day fall in 15 months, falling from $1.33 to $1.31, after EU leaders snubbed Theresa May’s Chequers Brexit plan at last week’s summit in Salzburg. The PM faced a business backlash at home over the Government’s post-Brexit immigration policy, which, if implemented, would give equal status to non-EU migrants and emphasise skills, thereby slashing the availability of cheap labour from the Continent. With the threat of “no deal” looming, a report by Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply suggested that delays of only 30 minutes at UK ports would risk one in ten UK firms going bankrupt. Oil prices hit a four-year high as the price of Brent crude jumped beyond $82/ barrel following Opec’s decision not to increase production. Labour outlined a radical new…

Chinese moon runes Although likened by some detractors to “edible hockey pucks”, Moon cakes are an essential feature of China’s Mid-Autumn festival, which fell this week, says The Economist. Traditionally given to employees and exchanged by business contacts, they’re also a useful economic barometer. “So it is heartening to know that, amid rising trade tensions with America, the Chinese bakery association has forecast that sales of moon cakes will rise by a solid 5-10% this year.” Equally reassuringly, consumers are still plumping for “more expensive varieties”. Enter a bear… Actually, when you take the temperature in China, the message is “both reassuring and concerning at the same time”, said Jeremy Warner in The Sunday Telegraph. “Little noticed in the West”, the country has entered a bear market. Stocks are down…

A male director at Credit Suisse who sometimes goes to work in a wig and dress has accepted a place on a list of the top 100 women in business, prompting outrage in some quarters. Philip Bunce, who spends about half of his time as Pippa, identifies as “gender fluid”, but has said that he climbed the career ladder as a man, and began cross-dressing at work only once he was “very established”. Britain’s golf clubs have been urged to modernise fast, to halt a steep decline in the sport’s popularity and combat its image as a game for middle-aged white men. Researchers suggest clubs introduce more women’s toilets and facilities for children, and adopt “speed golf”– a version that is quicker and easier to play.…

According to an analysis of recent YouGov polls, if Labour were to back a second referendum on the final Brexit deal, the party would lose 200,000 votes, but gain an extra 1.75 million. If distributed equally across constituencies, the boost could be enough for the party to win a general election. Peter Kellner/ The Independent More than 80% of UK manufacturers say they are unprepared for a no-deal Brexit. 16% say reverting to World Trade Organisation rules would make their business “untenable”. EEF/Financial Times 72% of Brits pay not much or no attention to what is said at party conferences. 3% pay a lot of attention. YouGov…

Ralph Lauren’s dream Both in his life and his work, Ralph Lauren epitomises the American dream, says Anna Murphy in The Times. Born Ralph Lifshitz, he grew up in the Bronx, the son of Jewish immigrants from Belarus. “I wasn’t poor, but my father was an artist and my parents had four kids. I grew up wanting certain things. You look in a window and you think, ‘Can I get those shoes?’ I had to work for it. If I’d been born to it, I wouldn’t have had the same dream.” Aged ten, he learnt the difference clothes can make. “I was president of my class. I rolled up my sleeves and put on a tie that was hanging low. I felt cool – and there was a reaction: the…

An unnamed visitor to Lusty Glaze beach in Cornwall has called for the removal of a troublesome rock. “It is a gorgeous place,” she wrote in an online review, “but there is a big rock in the middle part of the beach, which is so dangerous. I was there last week for a swim and I fell over it and badly injured my leg. Something needs to be done about this rock as it is covered with beautiful waves and nobody can see it!” Lusty Glaze is not the only Cornish beach to have attracted criticism recently: a tourist in Perranporth complained that the sand was “too damp for building sandcastles”. Domino’s Pizza has dropped an innovative promotion in Russia after it proved alarmingly successful. The company promised 100 free…

GERMANY Neo-Nazi video enrages the Left Die Tageszeitung (Berlin) Germany’s ruling coalition is almost pathologically fractious, says Bettina Gaus. The latest spat concerns Hans-Georg Maassen, until recently head of domestic intelligence. He recently enraged the German Left with his casual attitude to a video showing neo-Nazi hooligans chasing foreigners through the streets of Chemnitz. The video went viral, but Maassen – showing a familiar leniency towards the far-right populist party, AfD – claimed it might be fake. This enraged the left-wing SPD, junior partner in Angela Merkel’s coalition, which called for his dismissal. But that was blocked by hard-line interior minister Horst Seehofer, leader of the CSU (the Bavarian sister party to Merkel’s CDU), which faces an electoral threat from the AfD. That left the chancellor stuck in the middle;…

Octopuses are highly intelligent but – outside of mating season – extremely solitary. But give them MDMA (aka ecstasy) and they’ll become touchy-feely and playful, just like humans. The finding will intrigue ravers, but the team behind it says it has a wider significance, indicating that although octopus and human lineages split 500 million years ago, they evolved with similar mood-regulating mechanisms, and that serotonin – the “happy chemical” released by MDMA – has been regulating social behaviour for a very, very long time. The researchers, at Johns Hopkins University, placed a small group of octopuses in water steeped in ecstasy, which they absorbed through their gills. They were then transferred to three connected tanks, one empty, another containing a plastic toy and a third a fellow (male) octopus in…

“For the first time in the modern era, the world’s two largest economies are engaged in an all-out trade war,” said Gerard Baker in The Times. Last week, Donald Trump imposed new 10% tariffs on $200bn worth of Chinese goods imported to the US, from baseball gloves to network routers and industrial machinery. China retaliated immediately with new tariffs of 5% to 10% on $60bn worth of US goods, including meat, chemicals, clothes and car parts. The cycle looks set to continue: Trump has promised to raise tariffs if China doesn’t back down. This is, as one Chinese official put it, “a very scary moment”. Trump himself seems fixated on the trade deficit – the fact that the US imports more from China than China does from the US. “He…

If not for Boudicca Rising, the police would never have launched their hunt for a sadistic pet-murderer, said Adam Lusher in The Independent. Three years ago, the mutilated bodies of cats began to show up in different areas of Croydon, and it was Rising (not her real name, but “the only one you’re getting while I run around after a psychopath”) and her partner, Tony Jenkins, who first detected a pattern. The cats were found neatly dismembered, with body parts left in places which seemed carefully chosen – on the owner’s doorstep, say, or the penalty spot of a garden football pitch. More than 400 cases were eventually reported; the police warned that the killer might move on to “vulnerable women and girls”, and were keen to interview a man…

It’s the question every boxing fan is now asking, said Steve Bunce in The Independent. “Just how good” is Anthony Joshua? The 28-year-old Londoner retained his three world heavyweight titles in brilliant form at Wembley on Saturday, stopping Russian challenger Alexander Povetkin in the seventh round. It was his 22nd victory, all but one by knockout, and his seventh consecutive world title fight. His wins “compare favourably with just about every champion in history”: all that’s missing is a “real nemesis”. The true greats in boxing “fight their equals and those fights must be peak against peak”. Muhammad Ali had Joe Frazier; Mike Tyson had Evander Holyfield. Who will Joshua prove himself against? Everyone already knows the answer, said Kevin Mitchell in The Guardian. Joshua’s next fight will be at…

The lure of gambling ads To The Daily Telegraph Richard Flint, the CEO of Sky Bet, argues that banning television adverts for betting won’t tackle problem gambling. However, he overlooks three points. First, this year the gambling industry will spend some £312m on advertising, up 63% since 2012, with 73% of Premier League teams advertising gambling on shirts and hoardings. This is designed to encourage more people to gamble. Secondly, there are now 400,000 problem gamblers in Britain – up by a third in three years. The rate of problem gambling has nearly doubled from 0.4% to 0.7%, and the rate among 16-to 24-year-olds has risen from 0.7% to 1.5%. Thirdly, children are being targeted online with games such as Slots and Fortnite. We must seriously consider the example of…

Theatre Touching the Void Playwright: David Greig, based on the memoir by Joe Simpson Director: Tom Morris Bristol Old Vic, until 6 October. Royal & Derngate, Northampton, 9-20 October, then on ( fueltheatre.com ) Running time: 2hrs 40mins (including interval) ★★★★ It feels “wonderfully apt”, said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph, that the Bristol Old Vic has reopened – following a magnificent £26m renovation project – with a staging of Joe Simpson’s memoir Touching the Void. The 1988 bestseller relays one of the most remarkable stories of endurance and survival in mountaineering history. And the Old Vic has itself “battled overwhelming odds” in recent decades to remain the country’s oldest continuously working theatre (founded in 1766). There are obvious challenges in putting mountain climbing on stage. But…

Showing now Orlando at the Present Time at Charleston, Sussex (charleston.org.uk). The country home of the Bloomsbury set has a new exhibition space, designed by Tate St Ives architect Jamie Fobert. Its inaugural show is inspired by Virginia Woolf’s novel. Ends 6 January. Hogarth’s Progress at the Rose Theatre, Kingston (020-8174 0090). Keith Allen and Bryan Dick star in Nick Dear’s double bill about the life of William Hogarth: the award-winning The Art of Success, and The Taste of the Town, in its first run. Ends 21 October. Book now Yayoi Kusama, the Japanese artist with a fondness for spots, has new paintings and flower sculptures on show. Free, but timed tickets must be booked in advance. 3 October-21 December, Victoria Miro, London N1 (victoria-miro.com). Kwame Kwei-Armah’s first season as…

Tips of the week... how to pet-proof your home The chewing puppy phase is temporary, so just move things like shoes off the floor and onto shelves or pegs for this period. Install child-proof locks on cupboards that contain food or cleaning products. You can get magnetic ones that fit to the inside of cupboards so they don’t spoil the look. Ensure your bins have sturdy lids that are hard to open, and keep the toilet lid down. Use throws to protect your furniture, and opt for removable cushion covers over fixed upholstery. Companies like The Lounging Hound make stylish sofa toppers and cushions aimed specifically at dog owners. For removing hair, run a lightly damp sponge over sofas or rugs (which collects much of the fluff) and then vacuum.…

Heckfield Place, Hampshire Nine years in redevelopment, this hotel is finally “over the finish line”, says Sally Shalam in Condé Nast Traveller – and it has been worth the wait. The exterior may not inspire (its 1980s wing “could be mistaken for a retirement complex”), but inside “is another story”. An entrance hall flooded with light; “subtle palettes” of blush rose and forest green; and “magnificent parkland views”. The bar and lounge are “more downtown than Downton”, the two restaurants are directed by Michelin-starred Skye Gyngell and the detailing in the 45 rooms is “infinitesimal”. It all adds up to a “triumph” of understatement. Doubles from £350. 0118-932 6868; heckfieldplace.com .…

Comedy writer who presented It’ll be Alright on the Night Denis Norden 1922-2018 Denis Norden, who has died aged 96, was one of the last surviving members of a postwar generation of entertainers, said Roger Lewis in the Daily Mail: ex-servicemen who, having experienced the darkness of the War, were happy to provide audiences with what was patronisingly referred to as “light entertainment”. A skilled wordsmith, Norden teamed up with Frank Muir in the late 1940s to become one of Britain’s leading comedy writers, responsible for several now well-worn phrases including “Trouble t’mill” and “Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells”; later, he became a familiar face on TV, as the twinkling, wryly humorous presenter of the out-takes show It’ll Be Alright on the Night. “Hello,” he said, at the start of one…

The mooted $18bn combination of Canada’s Barrick Gold and London’s Randgold Resources has been three years in the making and will create the world’s largest gold miner, said Jon Yeomans in The Daily Telegraph. But it follows “a tough year for the sector”. Gold has slumped in price to about $1,200/ounce, and shares in miners have followed suit – raising the question of whether “this combined beast”, capable of producing 6.5 million ounces of gold a year, has “a glistening future”. Or whether it’s a case of “two drunks supporting each other at the bar”. Randgold’s Mark Bristow, who has in effect led a reverse takeover of a larger company, is confident that he can turn “New Barrick” into a “champion for sustained profitability”. But much will depend upon management,…

Labour has outlined radical plans to boost “employee ownership” by insisting that every British company with more than 250 employees must hand over “10% of its equity to workers”, says the FT. The Institute of Directors has attacked shadow chancellor John McDonnell’s proposal as “draconian”. How would it work? Companies would have to set up “an inclusive ownership fund” on behalf of workers, building up their 10% stake gradually over a decade by handing over 1% chunks each year. Workers wouldn’t be able to buy or sell the shares, but would get dividends, up to maximum of £500 per person. A key aspect of the policy is that any payments above the £500-a-head threshold would be diverted “to the state coffers”. Labour reckons that would generate £2bn annually after five…

Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger Time to unfriend Facebook? Instagram’s co-founders seem to think so, says The New York Times. Kevin Systrom, 34, and Mike Krieger, 32, who sold their photo app to Facebook six years ago and then stayed on to run it, have finally decided to quit. Neither has stated why, or what they plan to do next. But tech sites, citing anonymous sources, claim there were “tensions over Instagram’s degree of independence from Facebook” and clashes with its supremo, Mark Zuckerberg, over product changes. The duo’s exit is “more than a symbolic change”. Instagram ad revenues now account for nearly 30% of Facebook’s revenues. Whoever is chosen to lead this “engine of growth” faces “a daunting task” maintaining the pace. Facebook shares, down 24% since their July…