Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1216 i The Week

What happened May backs down Theresa May bowed to pressure from pro-EU Cabinet members and ministers this week and conceded a possible delay to Brexit – an option that until now she has refused to countenance. The Prime Minister promised that if her reworked Brexit blueprint is not passed by MPs on or before 12 March, she will offer the Commons two votes over the following couple of days. The first would allow MPs to declare whether they support a no-deal Brexit – a position that would almost certainly be rejected. The second would enable them to instruct the PM to request a brief extension to the two-year Article 50 process to delay EU withdrawal beyond 29 March. May’s U-turn came shortly after Jeremy Corbyn also announced a significant shift…

Chicago, Illinois R. Kelly charged: The R&B singer R. Kelly has appeared in court in Chicago charged with ten counts of aggravated sexual abuse against four women, three of whom were underage. The charges, which Kelly denies, date back to 1998. He was arrested last Friday and spent the weekend in jail before being released on bail. Kelly, 52, has for decades faced claims that he has sexually abused and enslaved women and girls, some of which were detailed in a recent TV documentary series, Surviving R. Kelly. However, he has always denied any misconduct, and in 2008 he was acquitted of child pornography charges relating to a video he had made. Washington DC Explosive testimony: Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, was due to appear before Congress on…

1 Myfanwy by Joseph Parry, performed by the Morriston Orpheus Choir 2* Mood Indigo by Duke Ellington, Barney Bigard and Irving Mills, performed by Duke Ellington 3 La traviata by Verdi, performed by Carlos Kleiber with Ileana Cotrubas and the Bavarian State Orchestra 4 Un Canadien errant by Antoine Gérin-Lajoie, performed by Bonnie Dobson 5 Horn Concerto No. 2 in E flat major by Mozart, performed by Herbert von Karajan with Dennis Brain and the Philharmonia Orchestra 6 Blowin’ in the Wind, written and performed by Bob Dylan 7 Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg by Wagner, performed by Mariss Jansons with the Oslo Philharmonic 8 Der Rosenkavalier by Strauss, performed by Christian Thielemann with Sophie Koch, Renée Fleming, Diana Damrau, Franz Grundheber and…

In 1821, when Mexico won its independence from Spain, it owned much of present-day western America, which in those days was remote and sparsely inhabited. But as the United States pushed west in pursuit of its manifest destiny, that changed rapidly.US expansion led to the Mexican-American War of 1846-48, a series of comprehensive Mexican defeats, after which Mexico ceded, in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, what would become California, Texas, Utah and Nevada, and parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma and Kansas. The new border, finalised in 1853, followed the Rio Grande from its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico to a point upstream of El Paso in west Texas, and thence to the Pacific. In its early days, the border region was barely policed; the Border Patrol…

Teenagers who smoke cannabis are more likely to suffer depression in later life than those who abstain, according to a report in the journal JAMA Psychiatry. An international team of researchers looked at data on 23,000 people, taking into account such factors as age, mental health and socio-economic status. They found that those who used cannabis before the age of 18 were 37% more likely to develop depression by the age of 32, and three times more likely to attempt suicide (though the study noted the figure was imprecise). The study appears to bear out concerns that THC – the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis – can be particularly damaging to young users, harming the brain at a key stage of development. “Especially for teenagers there may be an effect that…

Martina Navratilova wasn’t just the greatest female tennis star of her day: she was also unafraid to proclaim that she was gay in an age when it took real guts to do so. And for decades she has been a champion of diversity and equality in sport. So it beggars belief, said Ella Whelan on Spiked, that she now stands accused of being a bigot. For arguing in a newspaper article that it is unfair for transgender women to compete in women’s sports, she has been vilified on social media and dropped as an ambassador by the LGBTQ sports organisation Athlete Ally. Her reasoning, that those born male build up greater muscle and bone density from childhood and thus have an unfair advantage, makes total sense. But trans activists will…

This had to be “one of the great Wales victories”, said Stephen Jones in The Sunday Times. Despite having blown away France and Italy, they went into last Saturday’s Six Nations tie against England as distinct underdogs. But in Cardiff, they pulled off a “massive triumph”. Behind for most of the match, the Welsh came through in “marvellous style”, scoring two tries in the final quarter to record a 21-13 victory. They have now won 12 matches on the trot, a national record. These “red-shirted warriors” are the only unbeaten team in the competition, said Mick Cleary in The Sunday Telegraph. That leaves them in “pole position” for the title. If they win their remaining matches, against Scotland and Ireland – no small task – they will seal the coveted…

Operation Conifer To The Times It is now evident that there was insufficient basis for launching Wiltshire Police’s investigation into allegations of child abuse by Sir Edward Heath (Operation Conifer). The unwarrantable public disclosure of the investigation in the summer of 2015 generated a cloud of suspicion and a series of concocted and unfounded allegations. The summary closure report of 5 October 2017 on the investigation showed that, despite wide-ranging enquiries of those who had known Sir Edward over many years, including the police officers responsible for his personal protection, the investigation had produced not a shred of credible incriminating evidence. If the police and crime commissioner for Wiltshire and Swindon is still not prepared to commission the independent judicial review of the operation that he has repeatedly said that…

“It’s been a while,” said Kevin Maher in The Times. “You probably have to go back as far as Crash in 2005, or maybe even Chicago in 2002, to find a best picture Oscar winner that’s as dubious, divisive and, frankly, weak as Green Book.” The film arrived in the Oscars race “loaded with awkward issues”. Pitched as a true story about the friendship between an African-American pianist, Don Shirley (played by Mahershala Ali), and his bigoted Italian-American bodyguard as they tour the Deep South in 1962, it was denounced for its inaccuracies by Shirley’s relatives. The director, Peter Farrelly, was also revealed to have frequently flashed female colleagues earlier in his career. This might not have mattered had the film “dazzled”. But Green Book is “grossly simplistic, teetering on…

Programmes Fleabag Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s eponymous anti-heroine is back for a second series. Fleabag is forced to celebrate her father and godmother’s engagement. Mon 4 Mar, BBC1 22:35 (30mins). Derry Girls The new series of the hit comedy opens with the girls navigating the highs and lows of teenage life against the backdrop of the Northern Irish peace process. Tue 5 Mar, C4 21:15 (30mins). MotherFatherSon A new eight-part political drama starring Richard Gere and Helen McCrory. A media mogul’s family is plunged into crisis when his son suffers a catastrophic breakdown. Wed 6 Mar, BBC2 21:00 (60mins). Leaving Neverland: Michael Jackson and Me The first of a two-part documentary explores the experiences of two boys befriended by Michael Jackson at the height of his fame. Interviews with the men –…

For me, as for most French people, this brings back memories of childhood – coming home from school and tucking into a slice with a glass of milk, says Richard Bertinet. It is a really simple recipe and is quick to make by hand. The addition of rye flour gives the crumb both rich flavour and a little acidity. Pain d’épices Makes 1 loaf 350g good honey (I use a brilliant fir-tree honey with a distinctive pine flavour; orange blossom or heather would also be good) 40g soft dark brown sugar 125g plain flour 125g rye flour 1 tbsp mixed spice (typically ground ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, mace and cloves) 1 tsp star anise 20g baking powder 2 medium eggs 100g full-fat milk 20g butter, for greasing the tin • Preheat…

Karl Lagerfeld 1933-2019 “I would like to be a one-man multinational fashion phenomenon.” That was Karl Lagerfeld’s stated ambition, and he achieved it. The creative director of Fendi, Chanel and his eponymous label, he was “the most prolific designer of the 20th and 21st centuries”, said The New York Times. Even in his 80s, he was designing an average of 14 collections a year, ranging from haute couture to mass-market fashion. Yet his greatest creation was perhaps his own myth. With his trademark dark sunglasses, high-collared white shirts, black trousers, fingerless leather gloves and pristine white ponytail, he was both instantly recognisable and strangely unknowable. “I am like a caricature of myself, and I like that,” he once said. “It is like a mask, and for me the Carnival of…

The Government published its assessment of the impact of a no-deal Brexit on business and trade, claiming “there is little evidence” that businesses are “preparing in earnest”, and that, in the crucial food supply industry, “some food prices are likely to increase”. It said customs checks could cost business £13bn a year. The report forecast that a no-deal scenario could leave the UK economy 6.3% to 9% smaller after 15 years, and that the worst-hit areas would be Scotland (-8.0%), Wales (-8.1%), Northern Ireland (-9.1%) and the northeast (-10.5%). A series of tweets from President Trump led to the price of oil falling and stock markets globally jumping. Stock markets in China put on 5% on news that Washington and Beijing were “very, very close” to a deal ending tariff…

Unloved but rewarding? “Global markets are on the rise” after a hoped-for truce in the China-US trade war, observed IG analyst Joshua Mahony this week. So what better time to take a look at the emerging markets (EM) weighting in your portfolio? “If you’re looking for an unloved but potentially rewarding place to put your Isa money”, countries like China, India, Brazil, Russia, Argentina, Indonesia and Vietnam may be a worthwhile bet, said Mark Atherton in The Times. True, the MSCI emerging markets index “has fallen in four of the past six years, and the frontier markets index has gone nowhere over the past five”. But these countries are “home to some of the most dynamic companies in the world” and “past gloom could work in their favour”. Political and…

Dave Jenkinson By rights, we should be applauding homebuilder Persimmon “as it joins the garlanded club of FTSE 100 firms earning £1bn a year”, says Alex Brummer in the Daily Mail. But the triumph “has failed to lift the stain of greed”. True, Persimmon – which made nearly half its 2018 sales through the Government’s Help to Buy scheme – has ditched its former CEO Jeff Fairburn, following a row about his £75m pay package. But it then promoted his sidekick, Dave Jenkinson, who snaffled a neat £40m himself. Not much is known about Jenkinson except that, “in his munificence”, he has acquired the Shambles pub in Morpeth, Northumberland. “Hopefully, it will be free beer for all those Persimmon employees earning the living wage.” Karren Brady “Roll up, roll up,…

Controversy of the week Can the centre hold? “The ice has cracked, finally,” said the Financial Times. For the past two years, British politics has been stuck “between entrenched positions on the Left and Right” – between a Tory and a Labour party that have both “caved into their extreme fringes”. But last week, a new centrist bloc emerged at last. First, eight MPs including Luciana Berger and Chuka Umunna left Labour to form The Independent Group (TIG). The arrival soon after of three Tories – Anna Soubry, Heidi Allen and Sarah Wollaston – meant that the new grouping was no longer just a refuge for Labour MPs disgusted by the hard-left policies and resurgent anti-Semitism of Jeremy Corbyn’s regime. Instead, it heralded a new, much-needed force in British politics:…

Kashmir Rising tensions: In a major escalation of tensions between South Asia’s two nuclear powers, Pakistan claimed on Wednesday to have shot down two Indian fighter jets that had entered its air space. Pakistani generals said that their air force had attacked six targets in India, without entering its airspace, and that the Indian air force had responded by entering Pakistani airspace. India would only confirm that a MiG-21 jet had been lost (it said it crashed in Indian-controlled Kashmir), and that a pilot was missing. The sorties came a day after Indian jets crossed the heavily militarised line of control that divides Kashmir – a territory both countries claim – to launch an attack in Pakistan for the first time since 1971. The strikes, on what India said was…

“For years, teachers have told me that ‘this generation’ of children ‘really’ cares about the environment. Yet each generation of adults buys bigger cars, drives further, takes more frequent flights, and protests more hysterically against wind farms, rises in fuel costs, and more or less anything that could slow global warming. Today’s young people could become ultra-green adults, as the recent protests by schoolchildren may cause us to hope. But 12-year-olds don’t have bills to pay, jobs to travel to or, indeed, children pestering them for designer clothes imported from the other side of the planet. It’s easy to take a day off school to demonstrate. The acid tests come later.” Peter Wilby in the New Statesman…

The future belongs to the radical Left Wolfgang Münchau Financial Times Centrist political movements are springing up across Europe, says Wolfgang Münchau. Italy’s former PM, Matteo Renzi, is about to form one; France’s President Macron already has; now one has popped up in the UK. But the odds are against them: the age we’re entering is one that “favours radicalism over moderation”. Liberal democracy is in decline. Liberalism has extended human rights, broken trade barriers and at a generalised level brought prosperity. But the “usual economic statistics” disguise the collateral damage inflicted on those on lower incomes: less job security, stagnating pay, reduced access to credit. For now it’s the “Trumpian” Right who are exploiting these discontents – by focusing in particular on the immigration issue. But the big concerns…

A roasting for the Sunday roast It may be a long-lived and much-cherished tradition, but cooking a Sunday roast can produce air pollution worse than that found in the world’s most toxic cities, says The Daily Telegraph. Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder discovered that roasting meat and vegetables can result in dangerous airborne particles being released into your kitchen at levels more than 20 times higher than the World Health Organisation (WHO) limit: 13 times higher than in central London on a congested day, and notably higher than the New Delhi average. Conducted in a specially adapted house, the experiment was the first to use sensors able to detect the finest, and most dangerous, particulate matter, including PM2.5 particles (smaller than 2.5 micrometres across). Small enough to be…

Five years ago, it ruled a self-proclaimed caliphate that covered 34,000 square miles across Iraq and Syria, and some eight million civilians lived under its black banner. Now, as Islamic State’s fighters defend what remains of their territory – a tiny pocket of land around the eastern Syrian village of Baghuz – the civilians of Isis are slowly emerging from its ruins, said Raf Sanchez in The Daily Telegraph. Thousands of bedraggled women, many of them accompanied by scared and exhausted-looking children, have fled Baghuz and surrendered to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the past weeks. Once screened, they are transported in cattle trucks to displacement camps in the north, a journey some will not survive. And while a few of these women claim to have had nothing to…

There is a special category in literature, said Catherine Bennett in The Observer, which is reserved for male geniuses who are also “wife torturers”. Its ranks include Philip Roth, Ernest Hemingway and Ted Hughes. Must we now add Charles Dickens to that list? Despite his long-documented maltreatment of his wife, Catherine, Dickens’ saintlike reputation as a social reformer has “largely survived” down the years. But a cache of unpublished letters has been discovered that paints a far darker picture of the great novelist. The letters, written by Catherine’s friend Edward Dutton Cook, claim that Dickens went so far as to try and bend the law to have his wife placed in an asylum. Why such cruelty? Because she’d grown old and fat, and he was “besotted” with an 18-year-old actress…

For once, things seemed to be going Maurizio Sarri’s way, said Jim White in The Daily Telegraph. Three weeks ago, the beleaguered Chelsea manager saw his side thrashed 6-0 by Manchester City. Yet for most of the Carabao Cup final on Sunday, when the two sides met again, the Blues had the edge. As the end of extra time beckoned, and with the score still at 0-0, Chelsea’s 24-year-old Spanish goalkeeper, Kepa Arrizabalaga, fell to the floor with cramp. Penalties were looming, so Sarri decided to substitute him for Willy Caballero, a penalties specialist. Then something extraordinary happened: Kepa refused to come off. His teammate David Luiz tried to help him see reason, to no avail. Sarri was livid – he raged like a “five-year-old refused a second portion of…

To The Times Shamima Begum and the other Bethnal Green girls have been the focus of much media attention. The issue, however, is much wider. Hundreds, if not thousands, of militants from many countries went to Syria and Iraq to join Islamic State and other terrorist groups. They were followed by would-be brides, who have produced a significant number of children. It would be short-sighted to refuse to allow them to return home, particularly if their families were willing to accept and care for them. Where there is evidence that they committed crimes overseas, they should be charged and tried. Making them stateless would be a serious mistake and may encourage them to pursue lifelong terrorist acts and other crimes. On the contrary, each country sending out jihadists and their…

Exhibition of the week Diane Arbus: In the Beginning Hayward Gallery, London SE1 (020-3879 9555, southbankcentre.co.uk ). Until 6 May Diane Arbus is undoubtedly one of the “most significant photographers” of the 20th century, said Waldemar Januszczak in The Sunday Times. She may even be “No. 1”. Born in New York in 1923, she came late to an independent career – after a decade working with her husband in fashion photography – and is still best known for the “notorious” images produced in the years prior to her suicide in 1971. Although world-famous, those “disquieting portraits” of dwarfs, strippers, gender-swappers and other “freaks” (as she called them) do not prompt much “tenderness”. Yet as this new exhibition reveals, her earlier solo work is an altogether warmer proposition.…

At this time of year, I can think of few things more cheering than hunkering down with a valpolicella, says David Williams in The Observer. Made in the Veneto region in Italy’s northeast – mostly from the local corvina grape – these are “wonderfully uninhibited” reds with a “moreish sour-cherry tanginess”. Buglioni Valpolicella Classico, Veneto, Italy 2016 (£14.95; Slurp.co.uk) is a “vivacious” wine that makes a natural partner for all things tomato-based. Amarone wines are famously expensive, but ripasso wines from the same area can provide an “affordable fix of that dried-grape bittersweetness and richness”. In the case of Novare Valpolicella Ripasso, Veneto, Italy 2015 (£11; Co-op), it makes for a “plush, richly satisfying” and great value rosso. In the very finest examples, such as Tommasi Amarone della Valpolicella Classico,…

Vintry and Mercer London Located near the Thames, close to Mansion House, this new opening seeks to appeal to the “discerning traveller”, says Laura Hampson in the London Evening Standard. Running entirely on renewable energy, it harnesses wind, solar and organic waste. The 92 rooms, while on the small side, have king-sized beds and turquoise-tiled en suites with deep baths and rainfall showers. There’s the obligatory “speakeasy” bar below ground, but the real “star of the show” is the Mercer Roof Terrace, with glass panels and views towards the South Bank. With a “vibrant” atmosphere and an interesting menu, word is bound to get out about this place before long. Doubles from £195 per night. vintryandmercer.com .…

Lady Falkender 1932-2019 Lady Falkender, who has died aged 86, was the most powerful woman at Downing Street until the Thatcher era. As Harold Wilson’s private and political secretary, she had unrivalled access to the prime minister during his two stints at No. 10. Her intelligence and political acuity made her hugely valuable to him and the party. Among other things, Wilson credited her with his first, wafer-thin victory in 1964: she urged Granada to shift the time of Coronation Street on election night to ensure more Labour voters went to the polls. However, there were many who felt she had too much influence, said The Daily Telegraph. According to Wilson’s press secretary, Joe Haines, “she dictated cabinet reshuffles, dealt with Wilson’s post from home during periods of nervous collapse…

The price of gold is on the move and action in the sector is hotting up. So are tempers, said August Graham in City AM. The proposed merger of two of the world’s most prominent gold miners, Barrick and Newmont, has been gingered up by a lively exchange of insults between their bosses. Barrick’s Mark Bristow dismissed his counterpart at Newmont, Gary J. Goldberg, as a “loser” while launching an $18bn hostile bid. But the latter punched back by questioning Bristow’s “anaemic” leadership and his experience. Zap! Pow! This mega-merger “would create the undisputedly largest gold miner in the world”. But these two seem unlikely to make the best of colleagues.…

“George Osborne’s key policy as chancellor had unintended consequences” that are only now becoming fully apparent, says Josephine Cumbo in the FT. Since the rules were dramatically relaxed in 2015, “more than a million over-55s have gone on a freedom-fuelled spending spree”, cashing out more than £23bn from the nation’s pension pots. Here are three traps for the unwary. Too much tax Since 2015, more than 170,000 savers have been overtaxed to the tune of £400m. Under current rules, withdrawals beyond the tax-free lump sum are taxed at an individual’s marginal rate. But when a lump sum is taken from a defined contribution pot, HMRC requires providers to apply a temporary tax rate – “which can often put savers into a higher tax bracket”. Scammers’ bonanza Last year, over-55s were…

The week’s best shares Ascential The Times Ascential has reinvented itself as an analytics specialist, providing services for the digital economy. It should profit long term from its strategy of buying high-growth, high-margin businesses. Buy. 382p. BBA Aviation The Mail on Sunday US trade wars have “dented optimism” surrounding the world’s largest operator of private jet facilities. But BBA has “robust” potential. Its spare parts division has big clients, including Boeing, and is growing fast. Buy. 248p. Costain Group The Daily Telegraph This specialist engineering outsourcer operates in regulated infrastructure sectors, including water supply and railways. Margins are under control and turnover is expected to grow. Yields 3.9%. Buy. 362p. HarbourVest Global Private Equity The Times This trust, which invests in private equity funds, has accumulated a “richly diverse portfolio”:…

The Hague, Netherlands Chagos Islands ruling: The International Court of Justice, the UN’s highest court, has decreed that the UK’s acquisition of the Chagos Islands in 1965 was a “wrongful act”, and that it must bring its administration of them to an end “as rapidly as possible”. Although the ruling is advisory and non-binding, it will ramp up the diplomatic pressure on the UK to cede the archipelago back to Mauritius – which claims it was forced into giving it up in order to gain its independence in 1968. Britain effectively paid Mauritius £4m for the islands; it then granted the US a long lease over them and forcibly removed at least 1,500 native residents, to make way for a US military base on the largest atoll, Diego Garcia. The…

Life after Bobbitt At the time, it seemed like a fairy-tale romance. Lorena Gallo, a young woman from a poor Ecuadorian family, met Lance Corporal John Bobbitt at a US army ball, says Ben Hoyle in The Times. “He was a nice, handsome young man, American and a marine. I fell in love. The chemistry we had was amazing. I had never had a boyfriend before.” They were married in 1989; but soon after, she says, he began to beat and sexually abuse her (Bobbitt has always denied this, but has since been convicted of assaulting two other women). One night in 1993 he pushed her too far: as he lay in a drunken stupor, she took a kitchen knife and sliced off his penis. All she remembers is trying…

One of the candidates running for mayor of the city of Edmond, Oklahoma, has made it through to the final round of the election – even though he died in December. Charles Lamb, who had been mayor since 2011, put his name forward for re-election before he died. When he passed away, it was too late to remove his name from the ballot or to add anyone else. Lamb finished second in a three-horse primary. The candidate who came first, Dan O’Neil, said that the final round of voting on 2 April would be “sort of awkward”. France’s fencing federation has officially recognised lightsaber duelling as a competitive sport – granting LED-lit polycarbonate replicas of the weapons used by Jedi knights in Star Wars the same status as the traditional…

INDIA Bollywood is fuelling the Kashmir crisis The National (Abu Dhabi) The “verbal warfare” between India and Pakistan may be about to escalate into something much worse, says Rashmee Roshan Lall. There is “cold, hard” anger in India over the recent killing of 40 of their soldiers in Kashmir, in a car bomb attack claimed by the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed group. India’s PM has promised a “jaw-breaking” response, and the media are stoking up popular fury. The atmosphere has been further heightened by a jingoistic new Indian film, titled Uri: The Surgical Strike, a dramatic retelling of India’s response to a previous attack in Kashmir in 2016. “How’s the josh?”, referring to the zeal for battle – a question posed by the film’s hero to Indian military recruits – has become…

How did the zebra get its stripes? It’s a conundrum worthy of Rudyard Kipling – and has puzzled scientists for more than a century. Now researchers may finally have found the answer: the stripes confuse flies. A study published in the journal Plos One looked at how horseflies interacted with horses and zebras. “The flies seemed to be behaving relatively naturally around both – until it comes to landing,” said the University of Bristol’s Dr Martin How, a co-author of the research. In the case of zebras, “we saw that horseflies were coming in quite fast and almost turning away, or even colliding with the zebra, rather than doing a nice, controlled flight”. The scientists accredit this behaviour to the flies’ low-resolution vision: the “sudden reveal” of the stripes confuses…

Dolly Parton has been giving interviews to mark the London opening of 9 to 5, the musical based on her hit 1980 film. For TV presenter Richard Madeley, it brought back fond memories of his own encounters with the great country star. “Once, mid-interview, she stretched out her legs and considered her shoes,” he recalls. “I laughed. ‘You’ve got really tiny feet, haven’t you, Dolly?’ She nodded, adjusting her embonpoint with both hands. ‘Nothing grows in the shade, honey.’” As her obituarists have reported (see page 43), there is no shortage of colourful anecdotes about Lady Falkender, Harold Wilson’s powerful private and political secretary, who died recently at the age of 86. Radio 4’s Last Word related the story of how she was once called a “bad-tempered old bitch” by…

“There are two kinds of fools. One says, ‘This is old, therefore it is good’; the other says, ‘This is new, therefore it is better.’” William Ralph Inge, quoted in Forbes “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” Maya Angelou, quoted in The Marshall News Messenger “I don’t know why we are here, but I’m pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves.” Ludwig Wittgenstein, quoted in The San Francisco Chronicle “On what principle is it that, when we see nothing but improvement behind us, we are to expect nothing but deterioration before us?” Thomas Babington Macaulay, quoted in The Times “Philosophy may teach us to bear with equanimity the misfortunes of our neighbours.” Oscar Wilde, quoted in The…

Finally, Chris Eubank Jr has emerged from his father’s “suffocating cloak”, said Kevin Mitchell in The Observer. On Saturday night, in a fight for the IBO super-middleweight title, the 29-year-old British boxer beat his countryman, the two-time world champion James DeGale, unanimously on points. Dispelling his reputation for being a “notoriously slow starter”, he went in full throttle from the off; by the end, the fight had “morphed from grim to forlorn” for his opponent. With this victory, Eubank has set his career on “what could be an irresistible upward curve”. It was “comfortably the best performance” of the boxer’s career, said Ron Lewis in The Times. His fitness and work rate have always been impressive. But “all the hype that surrounded his rise” disappeared when he was defeated by…

Best books… Patrice Lawrence The award-winning author of young adult fiction picks her favourite books. Her new short story, Snap, published by Hodder, is one of 12 £1 titles released for World Book Day on 7 March (worldbookday.com) The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon, 1956 (Penguin £8.99). Published eight years after the Empire Windrush docked in England, this showcases funny, poignant and eye-opening linked short stories about the “fellas” from the Caribbean negotiating bleak, postwar London. The pigeon-catching scene made me laugh out loud. Sawbones by Catherine Johnson, 2013 (Walker £7.99). Sixteen-year-old Ezra, a surgeon’s apprentice, must join forces with a magician’s daughter to solve a murderous mystery in 18th century London. You can virtually smell the dank cellars frequented by the resurrection men, and the blood from the operating…

What the experts recommend Gilpin Spice Gilpin Hotel, Crook Road, Windermere, Cumbria (01539-488818) This exuberant, colourful restaurant draws on a range of Asian cuisines, in particular Desi-Chinese – an amalgam of Chinese and Indian cooking that originated in the Hakka Chinese community in Kolkata, says Jay Rayner in The Observer. Serving this kind of grub would be a bold move in a metropolitan melting pot. Doing it here, a “polished stone’s throw from Windermere”, seems “almost wilful”. Yet on a wintry lunchtime, the “flames flickering a deep-orange welcome” from the open kitchen, this feels like “exactly the right place to be”. Pani puri, puffed rice salad, flaky flatbreads, seared salmon – all are great. There’s a “serious” buttermilk-fried turkey, and pork belly that’s been spiced, slow-roasted for 12 hours,…

Rolls-Royce’s first ever 4x4: beautifully crafted but “unloveable” The Cullinan, Rolls-Royce’s first 4x4, is a “strangely unlovable” car, said Andrew English in The Daily Telegraph. The luxury carmaker’s belated response to the SUV boom has been controversial to say the least, and while on a test drive I found it sparked a lot of interest, “none of it was terribly complimentary”. The craft and engineering skills that have gone into creating it are “self-evident”, and attempts at modernising the interior have largely succeeded. But outside, frankly, the car is “ugly”. Think of it what you will, the order book for the Cullinan is full for more than a year, said Matt Prior in Autocar. It’s a Rolls to “take the family in, take skiing, shooting or replace a Range Rover…

Porth Veor Villas Set within the grounds of Porth Veor Manor, these 2-bed beach-view villas are available for 4 adults on a self-catering basis from £146pp. 01637-873274, breaksincornwall.com. Arrive 17 April. California adventure Spend 5 nights at Andaz West Hollywood, and 2 nights at Hyatt Regency Newport Beach, from £1,565pp room only, including London flights. 020-3542 8888, travel planners.co.uk. Depart 1 May. 7-night tropical getaway Stay at the 3-star Butterfly Beach Hotel (room only) in Barbados, with its gorgeous sea views, from £1,336pp, including Belfast flights. 020-8475 7671, holidaygenie.com. Depart 18 April. Relax in Turks and Caicos Overlooking the most pristine section of Grace Bay Beach, the Ocean Club is offering 7 nights from £1,425pp room only, including London flights. 0844-499 9333, bluebaytravel.co.uk. Depart 5 May.…

Tesla: legal jeopardy Elon Musk is back in trouble with the US authorities – over his apparently compulsive use of Twitter, said DealBook in The New York Times. The Securities and Exchange Commission claims that a series of tweets “about a manufacturing triumph” recently published by the Tesla boss are in violation of a legal settlement struck in October. It is now pushing for him to be “held in contempt of court”. Musk (left) got into hot water last year after tweeting – incorrectly – that he had “funding secured” to take the electric carmaker private. In the subsequent fraud settlement, the SEC insisted that all written communications, including tweets, should be vetted by company lawyers – an instruction Musk ignored when he took to Twitter last month to boast,…

Trump’s China deal is likely just a truce Editorial Financial Times Thanks to apparently “productive” trade talks, the Trump administration has postponed its planned move to raise punitive tariffs on $200bn of Chinese imports to 25%, says the FT. “No one’s tweets move markets like Donald Trump’s”, and everything from global stocks to oil prices and the Aussie dollar rose on the news. But while any progress is welcome, “there are reasons for markets to contain their exuberance”. Details of the deal remain unknown; more significantly, it is probably “little more than a brief truce in a longer war”. China and America have “entered a new epoch of strategic competition” in which “Trump’s obsession with the trade balance is a short-term distraction”. The “real friction” comes from China’s stated goal…