Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1331 i The Week

Labour’s election shock: an era-defining defeat? Over the course of my half a century in public life, said David Blunkett in the Daily Mail, I’ve learned that things are “never as bad as they seem at the time”. But I’m struggling to see any upside for Labour in the wake of last week’s election results. The party racked up dismal results in many areas of England, including in the so-called Red Wall constituencies in the Midlands and the North that used to be its strongholds. Most devastatingly, it lost the by-election in Hartlepool, ceding the Labour bastion to the Tories. Although the party fared better in mayoral contests, and in elections in Wales, the results were “highly embarrassing”, said Hugo Gye in the I newspaper. And a botched reshuffle only…

Jeff Bezos, who was reported to have bought himself a new boat, for $500m. Known as Y721, the three-masted superyacht is 417ft long – twice as long as Nelson’s flagship Victory – and comes with a smaller yacht, for landing helicopters on. Magicians, with news that the world’s first state-approved degree course in the craft has proved so popular, it is being expanded. The degree is offered by Double Fond, a Parisian theatre, and includes a performance element, as well as papers on subjects such as self-promotion, and the history of magic.…

The discovery of cracks in the chassis of several intercity trains led to the suspension of almost all services on the Great Western Railway and London North Eastern Railway over the weekend. The affected trains were from Hitachi’s Class 800 series, and more than 150 Hitachi trains were immediately withdrawn from service for safety checks. Although most passed the tests, passengers travelling on trains running between London Paddington and the southwest, and London King’s Cross and Edinburgh, were warned that they could face days, or even weeks, of further disruption.…

New York Vaccine roll-out slows: Several US states are offering incentives to younger adults to get vaccinated against Covid-19, as the pace of America’s roll-out slows. The number of daily vaccinations has been falling for a month, from a (seven-day average) peak of 3.38 million on 13 April, to 2.12 million earlier this week. In the face of falling demand, many states are not taking up their full allocation of vaccines from the federal government, or are scaling back their requests. Now, New York is offering baseball fans free tickets if they get vaccinated at the game; West Virginia is offering $100 savings bonds; and New Jersey, free drinks at breweries. As of early this week, about 153.4 million Americans (58% of adults) had received at least one dose of…

1 Pure Imagination by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley, performed by Gene Wilder for the Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory soundtrack 2 This Must Be the Place, written and performed by Talking Heads 3 Sara by Stevie Nicks, performed by Fleetwood Mac 4 Out of Space by Liam Howlett, performed by The Prodigy 5* Champagne Supernova by Noel Gallagher, performed by Oasis 6 Turn the Page by Mike Skinner, performed by The Streets 7 Halo by Ryan Tedder, Evan Bogart and Beyoncé Knowles, performed by Beyoncé 8 Juicy by Christopher Wallace and James Mtume, performed by The Notorious B.I.G. Book: The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy Luxury: her children’s artwork * Choice if allowed only one record…

After Waterloo, Napoleon optimistically contemplated exile in the US or England. The British had other ideas and packed him off to St Helena, a rocky, windswept island six miles by ten miles, 1,200 miles from the African coast. Upon sighting it from HMS Northumberland, he remarked: “It seems no charming place to live in.” He was accompanied by a small coterie of loyal aides and servants, and was given lodgings appropriate to a captive general, but the deposed emperor chafed against the restrictions imposed: he had to be guarded by a British soldier if he left his garden, and had a 9pm curfew. On St Helena, Napoleon reminisced in detail over his victories and defeats, railing against the subordinates that he held responsible. He read profusely, ate and drank a…

A ban that targets African Americans Eugene Robinson The Washington Post Any measure that helps reduce smoking is, in principle, a good thing, says Eugene Robinson. I’m worried, though, about the federal government’s proposed ban on menthol cigarettes. That these products are particularly harmful is no doubt true: by masking the harshness of smoke with a minty flavour, they make it easier for people to take up the habit, and encourage users to inhale more deeply. But the problem is that making it illegal to sell Newports, Kools and other such brands will have “a massively disparate impact on African American smokers”, nearly 85% of whom favour menthols (as against 30% of white smokers and 35% of Hispanic smokers). This anomaly has its roots in the successful niche marketing of…

China is emitting more greenhouse gases than all the developed nations combined, according to a new report by the US-based Rhodium Group. It found that China emitted 27% of the world’s greenhouse gases in 2019. The US was the second-largest emitter at 11%, while India was third with 6.6%. China’s per capita emissions are still lower than the US’s, however, and on a historical basis, the developed nations are still by far the world’s biggest emitters, because they industrialised earlier. Moreover, many Western nations “outsource” emissions: in 2013, it was estimated that 13% of the carbon emitted by China was the result of it making goods to export. President Xi has vowed that China’s emissions will peak by 2030, and that it will reach zero net emissions by 2060. However,…

That within a year of the declaration of a global pandemic, we had not one, but several, vaccines against Covid-19 is remarkable testament to scientific progress, said The Guardian. But this success has proved “bittersweet”. For while in rich nations, such as the US and the UK, around half the population has had their first dose, across Asia and Africa, billions of people have no access to vaccines at all. This is a “glaring inequity” that badly needs addressing – and there are now hopeful signs that the world is taking action. Last week, in an “unexpected and welcome reversal”, President Biden delivered a shock blow to the pharmaceutical giants that Washington has long protected, by endorsing a proposal to waive patent protections for Covid vaccines. The plan needs to…

“To refuse awards is another way of accepting them with more noise than is normal.” Peter Ustinov, quoted on iNews.co.uk “Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.” Voltaire, quoted in The Nashville Tennessean “We live our lives in two distinct halves. The first half lasts until we are 18 and the second is all the years that follow.” Judith Kerr, quoted in The Observer “War is God’s way of teaching Americans geography.” Ambrose Bierce, quoted in The Washington Post “The art of statesmanship is to foresee the inevitable and expedite its occurrence.” Talleyrand, quoted in Forbes “One inheritance of living under the male gaze for centuries is that heterosexual women often look at other women the way a man would.” Lisa Taddeo, quoted on the Daily Maverick…

Formula 1 Lewis Hamilton won the Spanish Grand Prix to claim his third victory of the season. He now has a 14-point lead over Max Verstappen, who finished in second place. Tennis Aryna Sabalenka beat Ash Barty 6-0, 3-6, 6-4 in the final of the Madrid Open. It was the first time Barty, the World No. 1, had lost a set 6-0 in four years. Boxing Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez of Mexico beat Billy Joe Saunders of Britain to unify the WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight titles. Saunders suffered multiple eye socket fractures.…

Revenge is one of the great dramatic themes, and has of course often cropped up in movies. Here are five of the best films in which it is the protagonist’s primary motive: Winchester ’73 Released in 1950, this was the first of several great westerns directed by Anthony Mann and starring James Stewart. Stewart’s tormented hero Lin McAdam is determined to avenge his father’s murder and recover a prized rifle that was stolen by his killer. The Virgin Spring Ingmar Bergman’s austere but gripping drama from 1960 is set in a 14th century Sweden still torn between Christianity and pagan beliefs. Max von Sydow stars as a devoutly Christian peasant determined to wreak merciless vengeance for the rape and murder of his daughter. Theatre of Blood Vincent Price hams it…

In October 1944, an exhibition opened in Paris that scandalised the newly liberated city’s art world, said Jonathan Jones in The Guardian. The artist responsible was Jean Dubuffet, a middle-aged provincial wine seller who had never before shown his work in public – but whose art made the ageing avant-garde movements of the time look tame. Dubuffet (1901-1985) looked not to art galleries for inspiration, but to the city’s graffiti-strewn walls, faithfully reproducing them in scrappy collages that made no concession to prettiness. His palette – “a melange of snot greens, piss yellows and shit browns” – could hardly have been uglier. His materials were not just oil, paint and clay, but urban detritus: dirt, broken glass, discarded newspapers, even dead insects. Most shocking of all was that Dubuffet seemingly…

Rosé season is upon us, says Susy Atkins in The Daily Telegraph – which will mean a lot of Provençal pink being poured. Provence’s rosé is everywhere, crowding out our shelves – but while many of us appreciate its distinctive bone-dry style, it’s a wine that can get a bit uniform. So it’s worth looking further afield. I’m a big fan, for example, of Spanish rosado, which tends to be highly fruity and lively with lots of red-berry flavour – though still dry on the finish. Cune Rioja Rosado 2020 (£8.50; Co-op) is a fine example, with delicious fresh strawberry and tangier red cherry, but a finish that is “mouth-watering, dry and balanced”. Another one to check out is the red-cherryish but crisp Taste the Difference Vinedos Barrihuelo Rioja Rosado…

Trekology Yizi GO Portable Camping Chair Thanks to its collapsible legs, this camping chair folds into a remarkably small storage bag, which is kept under the seat. It has a side pocket, but no cup holder (£40; amazon.co.uk). Thermarest NeoAir XLite Regular Sleeping Mat This inflatable mat is extremely lightweight and fits into a tiny bag, but can still keep you well insulated from the cold. It makes for a supportive sleep surface, and comes in several sizes (£116; amazon.co.uk). Aeropress Go Already beloved by coffee drinkers as an easy way to make an espresso in a minute, the Aeropress is now more portable than ever. The “Go” version comes with a lid and packs down into its own plastic mug (£32; aero press.co.uk). Overboard Classic Waterproof Backpack There’s nothing…

Olympia Dukakis 1931-2021 Olympia Dukakis was a respected stage actress who found wider fame at the age of 56, after she starred as Cher’s plain-speaking Italian mother in the hit film Moonstruck (1987). When she was nominated for a Golden Globe, she was so sure she wouldn’t win that she turned up in an old frock, having not even bothered to have her hair styled. At the podium, she had no speech prepared. So when she was up for a best supporting actress Oscar soon after, she took the precaution of buying a new dress. It proved a wise move, said The Times: she won (while Cher took best actress). However, not all her family were lucky that year: a few months later, her cousin Michael lost the US presidential…

After 141 years of “fleecing the poor”, Provident Financial has pulled the plug on its doorstep lending arm, said Alistair Osborne in The Times. It will seek to either close down or sell the business – though even the boss, Malcolm Le May, doesn’t seem too confident of a sale: he is talking of a “managed run-off”. But since he also reckons that the demand is still there – noting that those who cannot live within their means will always “need access to credit” – it’s worth asking what went wrong. The Provvy’s “home credit” unit has never been a “nice” business, said Osborne. But its terms (a “mere” 535% APR) were better than those demanded by “the baseball bat brigade”, which conferred “a veneer of respectability”, and “grabbed it…

Dambisa Moyo As a black woman in a white man’s world, Dambisa Moyo brings “valuable perspective” to the role of non-executive director, said The Times. “At her first Barclays AGM in 2010, a private shareholder demanded of the chairman what credentials she had.” The Zambian-born economist’s credentials are impeccable: a former Goldman exec, she has also held positions at SAB Miller, Chevron, and 3M. Now she has written a book, How Boards Work, to address “ignorance” on the subject. A cheerleader for capitalism and big companies, Moyo thinks boards need to probe prospective CEOs more deeply. Her favourite killer question is: “What’s the worst thing you’ve done to another human being?” As she observes: “It’s not an easy one to skirt by.” Rachel Reeves Labour’s new shadow chancellor is a…

Controversy of the week Sturgeon’s victory Scottish elections “have become as routine as the short walk to the polling station”, said Adam Ramsay on openDemocracy. Each one brings another victory for the SNP. “Support for independence continues to rise. The Union is still in crisis.” So last week’s result was “the most boring in the history of the Scottish parliament, and yet, at the same time, the most important”. The SNP’s fourth straight term in office is an amazing feat: “in two years, there will be people old enough to vote in Scotland who have only ever known SNP governments in Holyrood”. But the real point is that Nicola Sturgeon now has a clear mandate for a second independence referendum. The fuse has been lit, agreed Robert Shrimsley in the…

The Golden Globes, after Tom Cruise handed back the three Globes he has won, and NBC cancelled its plans to air the ceremony next year, in protest at a lack of diversity in its organising body. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which runs the awards, is made up of 87 Los Angeles-based journalists who work for foreign news media. None are black. West Midlands Trains, which was criticised for sending its staff an email promising them a one-off gift, for all their hard work in the pandemic – which turned out to be a “phishing test”. Staff who clicked through from the email were warned that it was a “simulation” and that they could have been scammed. Homeworking, after the billionaire founder of Zoom admitted that even he is suffering…

Bolton Indian variant cases rise: Surge testing began in parts of Bolton last week, after the town was identified as a hotspot of the so-called Indian variant of coronavirus. With Bolton recording the second-highest infection rate in the country, public health officials also launched a new campaign to encourage people to be vaccinated against Covid-19. There were 89 recorded cases of Covid-19 for every 100,000 people in Bolton for the week ending 3 May, up 78% on the week before, and about four times the rate for the whole of England. Public Health England said that across the country, there were 520 cases of the Indian variant, B16172, which has now been labelled a “variant of concern” – up from 202 the week before. Most were in Bolton and London,…

Jerusalem Conflict flares: Weeks of escalating tension between Israelis and Palestinians in East Jerusalem exploded into deadly violence this week, after police stormed the compound of the al-Aqsa mosque, and used stun grenades and rubber bullets to clear crowds of Palestinians, injuring some 300 people. The site is holy to Muslims and Jews, who know it as Temple Mount, and Jewish activists had planned to visit as part of their celebration of “Jerusalem Day” – which marks Israel’s capture of East Jerusalem in 1967, and which Palestinians regard as an intense provocation. Hundreds of Palestinians had occupied the site to defend the mosque, and protest against the threatened eviction of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem to make way for Jewish settlers. Police said they had been hurling rocks. Over the…

“Shopping for a buggy on Oxford Street last year, I had the depressing thought that I have measured out my life in John Lewis departments. Standing among the other parents-to-be, waiting to spend £500 on what amounts to a nylon shopping trolley, I remembered being taken to have my feet measured for school shoes. Whenever I embarked on a new stage of life, John Lewis had been there. Its partners, with dark green badges on their lapels, had sold me my first suit, a toaster for university, entry-level bedlinen. There I was, in the baby zone, subconsciously passing on the baton to my unborn child. Soon, I realised, I would be shopping for comfort footwear.” Ed Cumming in The Observer…

Mind your own business, not my morals James Marriott The Times The moral posturing of today’s corporations never fails to amuse me, says James Marriott. There is, after all, something absurd about Coca-Cola declaring that it “stands with those seeking justice and equality”, as if it were some moral arbiter and not just a business selling fizzy drinks. Yet not only do we regard this sort of thing as normal these days; we expect, even welcome, it. Where once we relied on the Church for moral guidance, we now look to companies to fulfil that role. Employers used to be just people paying your salary: the idea that they’d concern themselves with your inner life and offer behavioural tips would, until recently, have been unthinkable. Yet now we troop along…

Cancer in medieval Britain In the medieval period, when no one smoked and there were no factories producing tumour-inducing chemicals, cancer was very rare: only around 100 people in Britain suffered from it. That, at least, has been the received wisdom. But according to a new study, the disease was ten times more prevalent than that. Prior research has been based on signs of lesions on the exterior of bones; the team led by the University of Cambridge used radiological imaging to analyse the interior of bones from 143 skeletons. They included monks, farm labourers and wealthy townspeople, who had lived between the sixth and 16th centuries. The researchers found evidence of malignancy in the bones of five of them – a prevalence of 3.5%. But as CT scans do…

Seth Rogen has had plenty of odd encounters with A-listers. In 2012, George Lucas told him the world would end by the new year. “It’s science,” Lucas said confidently. Then there was the time the comic actor and his wife were accosted by Kanye West in a hotel lobby. The rapper summoned them into a van parked outside, before half-rapping, half-describing his new album at them for over two hours. They found it bizarre, but Rogen thinks celebrities view such moments differently. “I don’t think they’re, like, ‘That was a weird night for me’,”he says. “I think they’re just, like, ‘That was a normal Thursday for me’.” Gwyneth Paltrow has a reputation for clean living, thanks to her Goop “wellness” brand; but she went “totally off the rails” during the…

Can you really draw a line under the past in Northern Ireland? The Government is trying to do just that, said Larisa Brown in The Times. It announced last week that it plans to introduce a statute of limitations, making both British veterans and terrorists exempt from prosecution for their actions during the Troubles. This would apply to incidents that took place before the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, with exceptions only for cases of “war crimes, genocide or torture”. Instead, a South African-style “truth and reconciliation” process would allow all those involved to talk without fear of prosecution. The move would mean scrapping the £150m unit set up under the 2014 Stormont House Agreement to investigate all Troubles deaths. The policy – and the way it was announced, hastily, at…

Football: a cringeworthy moment for a City legend The Panenka, or chipped penalty, is a curious beast, said Oliver Brown in The Sunday Telegraph. When it works, it’s a “delicious piece of devilment”, but the sight of a fluffed one is utterly cringeworthy – as Sergio Agüero discovered on Saturday. At the Etihad, Manchester City’s all-time leading goalscorer “conjured a Panenka so dismal that it deserved its own place in the Premier League’s hall of infamy”. The howler occurred with City up 1-0 against Chelsea – and within grasp of a victory that would have secured them the Premier title. Instead of lashing the ball past Edouard Mendy, Agüero opted for subtlety – but his resulting chip was so feeble and obvious that “Mendy had time not just to check…

A union in perpetual flux To The Guardian The establishment of a parliament for Northern Ireland through the 1920 Government of Ireland Act was indeed a remarkable event, giving powers to a devolved administration in Belfast for six northern counties, and separately to a parliament for 26 counties in Dublin. What was more significant in the history of the Union, however, was that, in 1921, the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed. Under its provisions, the union of Ireland with Great Britain was dissolved and the Irish Free State was recognised the following year, 1922. The occasion of the centenary might prompt us to recall that James VI united the Scottish and English crowns in 1603; a political union for all of Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) was enacted in 1707;…

Adam’s annoyed with Brian over Jazzer’s departure for Berrow and the future of the aquaponics. Lee is aghast to learn he must model nude for the life-drawing class and, after a showdown with Russ, pulls out. Joy agrees to step in if she can give a campaign speech for the parish council. After an awkward start, Jennifer and Susan bond over making biscuits for the christening. Alice has a comforting chat with Alan, and later tells Chris she can envisage a future with Martha. Mia interviews Ruairi for her environmental project; Ben guesses that she has a crush on Ruairi. Brian berates Fallon for dropping out of godparenting. Harrison feels bad after Chris asks him for space to work things out with Alice; Fallon and Harrison agree they’re lucky to…

Fact-checking Seaspiracy Seaspiracy has been the “surprise documentary hit of the year so far”, said Xanthe Clay in The Daily Telegraph. Confrontational in style, and shocking in content, the Netflix film suggests that our oceans are heading for disaster – and to save them we must stop eating fish. Experts have accused it of being sensationalist, and it does contain some inaccuracies, said Melanie McDonagh in The Spectator – notably its assertion that the “oceans will be empty of fish by 2048”, which has been shown to be based on an “unwarranted projection”. But much of its criticism of the fishing industry is fair, and “devastating”: it rightly draws attention to the horrors of intensive salmon farming, and points out that certification logos – such as those awarded by the…

Tips of the week… how to be green in the bathroom ● To avoid plastic bottles, buy soap bars instead of shower gels and even shampoos. Lush sells shampoo bars, or you can get eco hair products from WeDoAct.com. ● Toothpaste tubes are made of plastic and metal fused together, making them difficult to recycle. Try eco dental subscriptions from HappierBeauty.com or GetFloe.com. ● Buy a set of reusable lotion bottles, and fill them from large containers. ● Cutting your shower by a minute saves about ten litres of water. Consider a digital shower clock to keep track of the time. ● Don’t assume it has to be disposable. You can now get reusable cotton buds that can be washed (LastObject.com), and all kinds of washable wipes and pads (CheekyWipes.com).…

Nick Kamen 1962-2021 A strikingly handsome young man walks into a laundrette in 1950s America, to the pulsing beat of Marvin Gaye’s I Heard It Through the Grapevine; he takes off his dark glasses, and pours a bag of stones into one of the machines. Then, as female customers look on, he casually pulls off his T-shirt to reveal a bronzed torso, unbuttons the flies of his jeans and strips to a pair of pristine white boxers, before settling down on a bench to wait for his wash cycle to finish. The tagline reads: “501: The original shrink-to-fit jeans, now available stonewashed.” On the back of this advert, which came out in 1985, sales of Levi’s jeans rocketed 800%; Gaye’s song went back into the top 10 in the UK…

The Hut Group/SoftBank: feeling hut hut hut “In a stunning comeback” from last year’s “worst-ever loss”, the giant Japanese tech investor SoftBank is set to report a net profit of more than $40bn, said Chris Nuttall on FT.com. Some $2.3bn of that is now headed into one of Britain’s hottest e-commerce prospects, The Hut Group, founded by Mancunian Matt Moulding. THG has come a long way since it began trading in 2004 as an online DVD seller, said The Times. On flotation last September, it boasted more than 200 separate websites, many of them lifestyle brands such as Myprotein. Yet the most “highly rated” division is the group’s technology business and e-commerce platform, THG Ingenuity. That’s what has caught the eye of SoftBank’s chief executive – and Japan’s richest…

Bosses at the Football Association last week revealed they had updated England’s Three Lions crest to promote diversity in football. The logo, based on a medieval symbol, will now feature a lion cub, lion and lioness. The reaction of fans has been mixed. “Why can’t it be two lions with a cub, or two lionesses? This is not inclusive of alternative wildlife lifestyles. Do better,” was one response. Residents of Rome can now make use of the first 24-hour pizza vending machine, which dishes out freshly baked pizza in three minutes. The Mr Go Pizza booth, which opened last month, serves up four varieties of pizza starting at s4.50. But not all locals are sold on the idea. “It’s a bit sad to see pizza coming out of a machine,”…

The Government used the Queen’s Speech on Tuesday to unveil 30 proposed new laws, many of which seem designed to appeal to voters in formerly Labour-held seats in the Midlands and the north of England. They include controversial plans to make it harder for migrants who have crossed the Channel to claim asylum; and to give police new powers to limit public protests. There are plans to boost adult learning opportunities, and improve bus and rail services in England. The Fixed-term Parliaments Act will be repealed. In a blow to some Tory MPs, the Government is pushing ahead with its plan to relax planning controls, to encourage more house building. Countryside campaigners have warned that this will make it easier for developers to build on greenfield sites. But much of…

The Hague, Netherlands Ex-child soldier jailed: The International Criminal Court has sentenced a Ugandan former militia leader to 25 years in jail for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Dominic Ongwen, once a commander in the Lord’s Resistance Army, was convicted in February of rape, murder, sexual slavery and other charges. At the age of ten, he had himself been abducted by the LRA. The court found him to be a “perpetrator who wilfully brought tremendous suffering upon his victims” and who chose, as an adult, not to leave the group. But owing to the “extreme suffering” he’d endured as a child, it gave him 25 years rather than life. Paris “Civil war” warning: Thousands of serving personnel in France’s armed forces have anonymously backed an open letter warning that…

Hilary Mantel’s health Hilary Mantel has remarkable drive, says Jessamy Calkin in The Daily Telegraph: as a young girl, she had such a thirst for learning, her parents (a clerk and an ex-mill worker) gave her the complete works of Shakespeare, just to keep her quiet. But she has also faced lifelong health problems. In her 20s, she started to suffer terrible pain and nausea. Doctors thought it was stress-related, and prescribed anti-psychotic drugs – which triggered psychosis. Eventually, she diagnosed herself with endometriosis. She had her womb, ovaries and part of her bowel removed in 1979, but it didn’t cure her. So, she was given hormone treatments that caused a once slim woman to become – in her own words – “startlingly round”; then she was given steroids, which…

A Belgian farmer redrew his country’s border with France, by moving a stone marker that was blocking his tractor’s path. A local history buff noticed that the stone, dating from 1819, had been moved 7.5ft into France. “He made Belgium bigger and France smaller, it’s not a good idea,” said the mayor of Erquelinnes in Belgium, David Lavaux. But Aurélie Welonek, the mayor of the neighbouring French village, was forgiving. “We should be able to avoid a new border war,” she said. An Ohio state senator has been caught driving on an official Zoom call. During a meeting of the Ohio state board, Andrew Brenner set a background appearing to show him sitting in an office at home. But his cover was blown by the fact that he was wearing…

GERMANY Africa’s plundered art must go home Bayerischer Rundfunk (Munich) At last, a meaningful restitution is to be made for the colonial plunder of African artworks, says Martin Zeyn. Hundreds of beautiful centuries-old metal plaques and sculptures, known as the Benin Bronzes, were looted by British forces from Benin City, in what is now Nigeria, in 1897, and sold off to museums in Europe and North America. Three years ago, President Macron declared that France would return some of its bronzes to Nigeria. But nothing happened, and now Germany is taking the lead: the culture minister Monika Grütters says a binding schedule will be made for a substantial portion of the hundreds of Benin Bronzes held in German museums to be sent back next year. This is a historic breakthrough.…

We love, cherish and protect bees, yet wasps are considered a pest, and squished on sight, says Tom Whipple in The Times. They both sting, so why are we so waspish about wasps? The answer, according to a wasp expert, is simple: we don’t know what wasps do. Now, she is seeking to rectify that. For a new paper, Dr Seirian Sumner, of University College London, and her colleagues drew on the existing research in order to make the case for wasps. They found evidence that wasps pollinate at least 960 plant species, including 164 that are dependent on them. The insect world’s “top predators”, wasps play a vital role in regulating insect populations, and so protect a wide variety of crops. Their nests and larvae are a source of…

How did it come to this, asked James Crisp in The Daily Telegraph. How did a row over scallops, lobsters and sea snails lead to the blockade of St Helier harbour in Jersey by French fishing boats – and to the Royal Navy and French naval patrol ships “eyeing each other across the waves”? Under the Brexit deal, French fishermen must now apply for licences in order to fish in Jersey’s waters. Not all French skippers have been able to prove that they have fished in these waters for years: as a result, many smaller French boats have had their licences refused by Jersey’s authorities, or faced restrictions designed to conserve fish stocks. Paris branded this “unacceptable”, and even threatened to cut off Jersey’s electricity. When fishing boats from Normandy…

“The landing gear’s down, the flaps are fully extended and the runway safely in view,” said Henry Deedes in the Daily Mail. “Our long flight through the lockdown wilderness” is at last nearly over. At a news conference this week, Boris Johnson confirmed that a further easing of Covid restrictions would go ahead in England as planned on 17 May (Scotland and Wales are bringing in similar changes at the same time; Northern Ireland is due to follow suit a week later). As of Monday, customers will be allowed back inside pubs, restaurants and hotels. Families and friends will be able to hug again. Theatres and cinemas can reopen, albeit with audience limits. Schoolchildren will no longer have to wear masks. On the strength of the encouraging data (on Monday,…

The final day of the Women’s Super League began with the title still undecided, said Suzanne Wrack in The Guardian. Leaders Chelsea had only to beat mid-table Reading to guarantee their fourth title in five years – but had they lost, a victory for Manchester City over West Ham would have given them the title instead. That the Blues would prevail was never really in doubt, said Molly Hudson in The Times: under the guidance of manager Emma Hayes, this team has become a “winning machine”. They duly “cantered to victory” over Reading, scoring their first goal after just 68 seconds – and then adding four more. City’s 1-0 win over West Ham was likely little consolation for a side that has now finished as runner-up five seasons in a…

To The Times Questions about who paid what to whom in the refurbishment of the Downing Street flat are legitimate, yet they miss the real point: namely, that we treat our prime ministers appallingly compared with other senior figures in the public sector. We pay the PM about £160,000 a year: the chief executive of Surrey County Council earns £220,000; heads of academy chains are paid £300,000; and the highest-paid managers in the NHS earn £300,000 plus bonuses. That is before one considers the private sector, where CEOs are paid millions. There is an allowance of £30,000 to refurbish an apartment in Downing Street, which sounds like a lot of money, but pales into insignificance when one considers that it is a listed building and that to redecorate a normal…

This album features an ageing pop star reciting a selection of her favourite 19th century poems – Byron, Shelley, Keats – while her muso mates conjure an “ambient odyssey” in the background. That might sound like a “bum-clenchingly awful vanity project”, said Helen Brown in The Independent – but when the pop star is the “formidable” Marianne Faithfull and her pals are Warren Ellis, Nick Cave and Brian Eno, you know you’re in for something good. Faithfull makes these “200-year-old visions of beauty, love and death feel as urgent as the latest true-crime podcast”. And the backing – a misty soundscape of waves, birdsong, electronica, street sounds, piano and cello – turns the album into an “unsentimental spine-tingler”. Ellis’s “beautiful” settings and Faithfull’s “impeccable” readings make even the most familiar…

Any translation of a classic book to screen is sure to be frowned upon by its “purist fans”, said Lucy Mangan in The Guardian. But for those of us who have not read Nancy Mitford’s 1945 novel The Pursuit of Love, this three-part adaptation (written and directed by Emily Mortimer) is “glorious” television. Lily James stars as headstrong, passionate Linda Radlett, conspiring with her cousin Fanny (Emily Beecham) to escape the confines of her chilly ancestral home, and start her real life. It moves at a terrific pace; and Mortimer’s script captures both the madcap comedy of Linda’s pursuit of love, and its melancholy. Some of the acting is superb, said Anita Singh in The Daily Telegraph: Dominic West is a treat as the family’s roaring patriarch; Andrew Scott mesmerises…

Best books… Adam Buxton The comedian and host of The Adam Buxton Podcast chooses five books he recommends to friends. His memoir, Ramble Book (HarperCollins £9.99), is out in paperback. For details of his book tour see adam-buxton.co.uk A Thousand Small Sanities by Adam Gopnik, 2019 (riverrun £9.99). Now that political discourse is often a contest for who can shout the loudest, and express the most passionate condemnation for anyone who doesn’t subscribe to their world view, this book, celebrating the key figures and ideas of Liberalism, is a soothing dose of perspective. A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L’Engle, 1973 (Square Fish £5). A young girl travels into her brother’s cells to battle disease with the help of aliens. I hated reading as an adolescent, but this microcosmic…

Programmes Titanic: Into the Heart of the Wreck As the doomed ship slowly disintegrates, this documentary recounts the various missions to explore it, from its 1985 discovery to James Cameron’s shoots for his film Titanic. Sun 16 May, C4 19:30 (90mins). Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and the Legendary Tapes Atmospheric docudrama about the electronic sound pioneer behind the Doctor Who theme. Sun 16 May, BBC4 21:00 (90mins). Innocent The crime drama returns: a teacher is freed from prison after being found not guilty of murdering a 16-year-old student. But who did? Mon 17 May, ITV1 21:00; then Tue, Wed, Thur (60mins each). Second Wave: Did the Government Get it Wrong? Dispatches examines the Government’s handling of the lethal second wave. Mon 17 May, C4 22:00 (65mins). Extra Life: A Short…

Carrots can be a rather unexciting vegetable, says Helen Graves. However, when marinated then grilled over a live fire, and served shiny and aromatic with a hot spiced butter, they really come into their own. Barbecued marinated carrots 500g carrots, peeled and cut into quarters lengthways for the carrot marinade: 4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed or grated 3 tbsp lime juice 2 tsp cumin seeds 2 tsp coriander seeds 2 cardamom pods, crushed and seeds removed 4 tbsp neutral oil e.g. groundnut for serving: strained yoghurt or other thick, cold yoghurt (around 250g should do it) a good knob of butter (about 25g), or ghee a good handful of fresh curry leaves 2 tsp brown mustard seeds • Toast the cumin and coriander seeds in a dry pan over…

The Daily Telegraph This is a “Peugeot performance car unlike any you’ve seen before”. A successor to the fairly obscure 505 Turbo, it’s a sporty, fast saloon/estate that is also a plug-in hybrid. PSE stands for Peugeot Sport Engineered, and fittingly, it is a car with the “effortless suavity of a well-dressed Parisian”. It’s expensive, and can’t quite compete with German rivals, but it is still a “brilliant fast cruiser”. Auto Express The PSE models should “represent the ultimate expression of performance through electrification”. The 1.6-litre turbo petrol engine and two electric motors on the front and rear axles deliver 355bhp all in all. That makes this “the most powerful Peugeot production road car ever”. It feels “rapid”, and the electric motors do well at taking the load off the…

Lord Rossmore 1931-2021 Lord Rossmore, who has died aged 90, was a diffident Irish peer and photographer who became briefly famous in 1970 as the unlikely boyfriend of Marianne Faithfull. A tall, sensitive, almost monkish man, 16 years her senior, he could hardly have been more different from her ex-lover, Mick Jagger. But within days of meeting at a house party at Glin Castle, in Co Limerick, the pair had become engaged. Jagger was consumed with jealousy on learning of their affair, and wrote her long beseeching letters begging her to come back to him. She later admitted that she had used Rossmore as her escape route from him. Faithfull was addicted to heroin when they met, and she had trouble getting hold of the drug in Ireland. “They did…

Iron ore and copper prices shot to new record highs on expectation of a global industrial bounce-back. Three-month copper futures breached a decade-old record on the London Metal Exchange, surging to $10,747/tonne, as investors worried about missing out. The sharp increases prompted renewed speculation about a commodities “supercycle” and its possible inflationary impact, prompting stock markets – also riding high on recovery hopes – to wobble. US government bond yields jumped to their highest levels since 2011. US consumer prices, meanwhile, registered their biggest monthly increase in April since 2008. CoinDesk, the cryptocurrency price tracker, reported that the market capitalisation of Dogecoin, whose price has increased by some 10,000% this year, is $65.8bn – bigger than Ford, Heinz and Twitter. A London-based Goldman Sachs director reportedly quit after making millions…

Ransomware has gone corporate Chris Nuttall Financial Times “Hacking is one form of remote working that has thrived in the pandemic,” says Chris Nuttall – partly because it is so easy to exploit the many “non-hackers working from home”. Security experts speculate that DarkSide – the Russian group behind the cyberattack that shut down America’s oil and gas Colonial Pipeline – “would have found plenty of entry-point possibilities” via engineers working remotely. DarkSide seems “taken aback” at the impact of the hack; the US government had to enact emergency powers to keep fuel supply lines open. In a statement, the group said it regretted “creating problems for society”, blaming “partners” that had rented its technology. Its only interest, it said, was financial. The incident highlights how ransomware – which jams…

Who’s tipping what The week’s best shares DS Smith The Times With Amazon as a key client, the sustainable packager has enjoyed a surge in demand. The company has sold its plastics arm and embraced a circular approach of collecting and recycling cardboard. Yields 3.5%. Buy. 420p. Publicis Groupe Investors Chronicle The advertising giant should thrive as the market rebounds. It’s also set to benefit from a strong digital foothold and exposure to the US market – thanks to the 2019 acquisition of tech business Epsilon. Buy. s54.26. Reach The Times The Express and Star publisher is a “sleeping giant” poised to awaken following a digital transformation. Overheads have shrunk and the group has maintained its 3.04% yield. Numis has raised the target to 350p. Buy. 234.5p. Smith & Nephew…