Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1061 i The Week

What happened Dozens of civilians were killed in attacks on at least five hospitals and two schools in northern Syria on Monday as the country’s five-year conflict spiralled further out of control. Turkey blamed Russia for the missile strikes, calling them an “obvious war crime” – a charge angrily denied by Moscow. Russian and Syrian jets have been pounding the area as part of a drive to capture the city of Aleppo and cut off rebels’ supply lines to Turkey. This has escalated tensions between Moscow and Ankara, which has launched a bombardment of its own against the Kurdish fighters moving into the territory vacated by beleaguered Syrian rebels. Western diplomats fear Russia is seeking to undermine Nato and the EU by ramping up tensions with Turkey and “weaponising” Syria’s…

“So here we go: the battle of Britain’s place in Europe is about to begin,” said Ian Birrell in The Daily Telegraph. This week David Cameron has been frantically visiting Brussels and working the phones, as he finalises his “fig leaf deal” of EU reforms. Assuming that an agreement has been banged out at the summit on Thursday, there will be an emergency Cabinet meeting on Friday. Then the nation’s “date with destiny” – probably 23 June – will be revealed, and the real fighting will start. Eurosceptic ministers will break ranks and campaign for Brexit. A “brutal information war” will be launched. The result of the referendum will shape both the UK and the continent. It will also determine Cameron’s “place in history”. If he wins, he can spend…

A goat has been arrested in Chhattisgarh, India, for trespassing, after it was caught grazing on the lawn of a local judge. The animal, named Babli, and its owner, Abdul Hassan, both spent the night behind bars after being taken into custody. They were released on bail the next day. Hassan – who also faces charges of trespass and damage to property – admits his animal keeps scaling the garden wall and eating the judge’s plants and flowers. A local police officer confirmed: “An investigation is on.” A drug dealer from Accrington who was spared a jail sentence made the mistake of gloating about it on Facebook. Daniel Sledden, 27, was given a suspended sentence by Judge Beverley Lunt after pleading guilty to selling cannabis. “Cannot believe my luck,” he…

SOUTH AFRICA Jacob Zuma and the $23m chicken coop DailyMaverick.com (Johannesburg) President Jacob Zuma has made a tactical concession, says Richard Poplak. Under pressure, he has agreed to pay back some of the $23m in public money he apparently used to upgrade his country estate. Whether he’ll honour that pledge, however, is doubtful. The whole enterprise was a scam from the start. When lawmakers visited Zuma’s estate, Nkandla, last year, they didn’t find a palace, just a bunch of shoddy buildings serving as “a stopover motel for sycophants”. The millions that Zuma claimed he’d spent on security upgrades had been used to build some thatched-roof huts, a chicken coop, and a new swimming pool. Could these have cost $23m? Of course not, Zuma was just using Nkandla as “another means…

To the cockroach’s famed indestructibility can be added another arthropod superpower – an unparalleled shape-shifting ability. Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley – keen to work out the secret of the pesky insect’s unnerving powers of infiltration – put roaches through an obstacle course to see how they get through cracks. It turns out they perform a complex manoeuvre in which they stick their legs out to the side, and compress their exoskeletons until they are about one-tenth of an inch tall – the height of two stacked pennies. In this state, they can squeeze through spaces less than a quarter of their normal standing height – while maintaining speeds of up to 60cm a second. Scaled up to a human size, that equates to 70mph. Now, the Berkeley…

It was “the greatest Fleet Street success story of modern times”, said Jonathan Foster on TheConversation.com, but it ended in “protracted tragedy”. The Independent announced last week that – along with its sister paper, The Independent on Sunday – it will cease printing next month, becoming an online-only news site. It isn’t exactly a shock: sales of The Independent have slumped from a high of more than 400,000 in 1989 to just over 40,000 today. There are now fewer readers buying the paper than there are UK retailers selling it. Alexander and Evgeny Lebedev, who own both papers, have spent more than £65m propping them up – but their patience has finally run out. It’s a “sad day” for many reasons, said Ian Birrell on CapX.co. Launched 30 years ago…

Peter Tatchell has spent nearly 50 years campaigning for gay equality and human rights, said Tracy McVeigh in The Observer. He has been arrested some 300 times, and was beaten so viciously while protesting against presidents Mugabe and Putin that he has suffered “lasting brain injuries”. And how have today’s young gay rights activists rewarded him? By denouncing him as a bigot. When Tatchell was invited to a debate at Canterbury Christ Church University this week, Fran Cowling, the National Union of Students’ lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) officer, said that she would not share a stage with a man whom she regarded as “transphobic” and “racist”. Tatchell is neither, said Brendan O’Neill in The Spectator. “These are simply the McCarthyite slurs” of student activists who refuse to tolerate…

Jonathan Joseph is “a wrecking ball reborn”, said Oliver Brown in The Daily Telegraph. On Sunday, in England’s 40-9 Six Nations win over Italy, the outside centre was unstoppable. The “fulcrum” of England’s attacks, he scored a hat-trick of tries. It was “quite a turnaround” for the Bath player. This time last year, he took the Six Nations by storm with a series of “eye-catching displays”. Joseph was tipped for great things at the World Cup – yet he injured himself in the tournament’s opening game, and by the time of England’s dead rubber against Uruguay, he “cut a haunted figure”. Now he has put his troubles behind him, and brings to the side “devilish” speed and “near-flawless” tackling. Joseph is sure to be “instrumental” in England’s efforts to lift…

Theatre The End of Longing Playwright: Matthew Perry Director: Lindsay Posner Playhouse Theatre, London WC2 (0844-871 7631) Until 14 May Running time: 2hrs 15mins (including interval) When you hear that Matthew Perry – Chandler from Friends – is starring in his own playwriting debut in the West End, the words “ego trip” float before the eyes “as inevitably as pound signs no doubt floated before the producer’s”. But let’s not be snobbish about it, said Holly Williams in The Independent. Anything that pulls a new audience into the theatre is great – in this case, a nightly gaggle of excitable Friends fans. It’s just a great shame that they are seeing this “woeful” play. Perry’s attempt at a “dark-but-redemptive romcom” is aiming at the edgy, sexualised style of early David…

We tend to think of Renaissance art as a “largely Italian achievement”, said Waldemar Januszczak in The Sunday Times. Yet of all the artists of the period, few have had the same impact as the Netherlandish painter Hieronymus Bosch. His “crazy imaginative leaps”, hideous monsters and “violent envisionings of hell on Earth” resonate far more widely today than, say, the work of Michelangelo. Without Bosch, there would be no symbolism, no expressionism, no surrealism; no Goya, no Dalí, no Magritte, no Chapman brothers. His influence has been, quite simply, “galactic”. Now, 500 years after his death, the Noordbrabants Museum, a small institution in Bosch’s home town of ’s-Hertogenbosch (also known as Den Bosch) has put together an “extravaganza” of an exhibition, loaned from collections around the world. It features 20…

Highroad to the Stake: a Tale of Witchcraft by Michael Kunze, 1987 (out of print). There are many good books on witchcraft cases in 16th and 17th century Germany, but none come as close to this for a gripping narrative and detailed insight into an individual “witch” and her accusers. The Emperor’s Old Clothes: Constitutional History and the Symbolic Language of the Holy Roman Empire by Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger, 2015 (Berghahn £75). Despite its long title and eye-watering price tag, this is one of the most enlightening books on German history to appear for decades. It traces how the development of a political culture based on written communication transformed the nature of power. Frederick the Great: King of Prussia by Tim Blanning, 2015 (Penguin £30). The latest of innumerable biographies of…

Programmes The Night Manager Six-part drama based on the le Carré novel. With Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston. Sun 21 Feb, BBC1 9pm (60mins). Storyville: The Black Panthers Film exploring the Black Panther Party, its impact on the US and the painful lessons wrought when the movement derailed. Sun 21 Feb, BBC4 9pm (105mins). First Contact: Lost Tribe of the Amazon In 2014, videos emerged of some tribesmen making their first ever foray out of the rainforest. Here Angus Macqueen meets members of the tribe, one of the last to have had no contact with the outside world. Tue 23 Feb, C4 9pm (60mins). The Prosecutors: Real Crime and Punishment Series following the Crown Prosecution Service in action. Here prosecutors must decide how to charge a driver after a child…

Mirkatan (Armenian fruit compote) Serves six 175g pitted prunes 175g dried apricots 175g dried peaches or pears freshly brewed tea to cover the dried fruit 50g walnut halves 100ml fruity red wine 3 strips of orange zest 1 cinnamon stick 50g caster sugar 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice 1 tbsp orange blossom water 2 navel oranges, peeled and sectioned • Put the dried fruit in a bowl and pour the strained tea over it. Cover and leave overnight. • The next day, strain into a bowl (reserving the liquid) and insert the walnut halves into the prunes. Pour out 200ml of the reserved tea, adding water if necessary. Put in a wide pan together with the wine, orange zest, cinnamon stick and sugar. Bring to the boil and simmer, uncovered,…

A one-square-mile island about 45 miles off the coast of Nicaragua, Little Corn is that rarest of things, an unspoiled corner of the Caribbean – and the ideal place to live out a “castaway fantasy”, says Chris Bryant in the Financial Times. A British protectorate from 1655 until 1860 (along with the rest of eastern Nicaragua), it was long a haven for pirates, and has an ethnic mix that’s markedly different from that on the mainland. Its 1,000-odd inhabitants are mostly black Creole, rather than Hispanic, and speak a range of languages including Creole, English, Spanish and Miskito. There are no roads, and only a single village of simple green, blue and pink houses with corrugated iron roofs. The island never feels crowded: at its more remote reaches, it’s “not…

What Car? The 3 Series has long been “one of the best compact executive cars”. Now, BMW has produced a “new variant”: the 330e plug-in hybrid. The carmaker thinks it can convert business buyers with the promise of 25 miles of all-electric driving off one charge – enough, in most cases, for a petrolfree commute. It plugs into the mains and a charge should take no more than four hours. The Daily Telegraph In full electric mode, the 330e can travel at speeds of up to 62mph, running smoothly and almost silently. And when the four-cylinder, turbocharged petrol engine does kick in, it gives a “welcome snarl”, and “pretty swift” performance – although the car is slowed down by its heavy electrical gear. It rides well, too, even if the…

Following another torrid week in financial markets, bargain hunters stepped in – helping to sustain a rally across most US and European equity indices. Commodity prices bounced and the price of crude surged midweek as traders warmed to the idea of a deal between Russia and Saudi Arabia to freeze current oil output levels; there are hopes that a cut in supply might follow. With banks still under the spotlight following last week’s turmoil, Neel Kashkari, the newest US Federal Reserve member, called for a break-up of big banks into “smaller, less connected, less important entities”. In Britain, the Bank of England rejected claims by Sir John Vickers, the architect of UK banking reform, that the BoE had diluted capital requirements for lenders. Anglo American, once the world’s biggest mining…

● Glittering again There’s nothing like a dose of fear to boost the fortunes of gold bugs, said Marcus Leroux in The Times. Gold enjoyed its “best single day since the depths of the financial crisis in 2008” last week as a “fresh wave of anxiety” swept over equity and bond markets, rising by 5% to $1,255 an ounce. Indeed, after a three-year downturn, the precious metal recorded its best start to the year since 1980, rising by 18% since 1 January. Providers of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tracking the gold price have reported record inflows. The question is, will the momentum last? ● Accentuate the negative A lot depends on central bankers, said Henry Sanderson in the FT. Last year, gold slumped because investors fretted about the US Federal Reserve’s…

Matt Brittin How much do you get paid? “Er, search me” sums up the response of Google’s European chief, Matt Brittin, when facing the Commons’ Public Accounts Committee last week. No wonder MPs accused him of “living in a different world”, said The Guardian. Brittin’s evasiveness about his salary was actually perfectly understandable – given that he was trying to mount a defence of Google’s controversial £130m UK tax deal, said The Independent. A straight comparison of the figures might have been even more embarrassing. Still, this episode adds “to the picture of a company that disdains any form of public oversight”. Brittin thinks anger should be aimed at the tax system. “He is right, but there’s plenty to spare for a company so willing to exploit its every loophole.”…

This week’s crossword winner will receive an Ettinger (www.ettinger.co.uk) Brogue Collection coin purse in black, which retails at £150, and two Connell Guides (www.connellguides.com). ACROSS 1 Do not fail to order US beer (2,4) 4 West London borough getting better? Not hard at first (6) 8 What’s backed in Aberdeen academy? It shouldn’t be! (4) 9 Soon in front of pine (6,4) 11 Swallow from Germany’s capital is in France (6) 12 Extending for ages, it’s what bored pupils may dislike (4-4) 13 Smearing learner crudely? They may do (9) 15 Contagious tropical disease – not mine by the sound of it (4) 17 Leave English composer short of tenor (4) 18 Balls perhaps after game put in a corner (9) 21 Tanker is turning for homeland as before (8)…

What happened Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt provoked outrage last week when he announced that a new contract overhauling pay and conditions would be imposed on striking junior doctors. Hunt told MPs that he was acting to end “uncertainty” in the NHS after the breakdown of negotiations. But the British Medical Association (BMA) said the new contract, linked to plans for a seven-day health service, had “alienated a generation of junior doctors”. The BMA said its leadership would now “consider all options” for opposing the contract. Earlier in the week, thousands of junior doctors staged a second one-day strike in protest at the contract, forcing the cancellation of almost 3,000 non-urgent operations. Their leaders rejected a last-minute offer of a pay boost for doctors working one or more Saturdays a month;…

Mental health care boost The NHS in England has pledged to spend an extra £1bn a year on mental healthcare by 2020, extending services to a million more people. The announcement came after a review found that three-quarters of people with mental health problems received no help, and that inadequate care had led to “thousands of unnecessary deaths”. The NHS says the money will fund talking therapies for an extra 600,000 people; it also plans to put mental health teams in all A&E units, and to give new mothers and pregnant women more support. But critics said similar pledges had been made in 2011, only for funding to be cut. No boycotts for councils Local councils and other public bodies are to face “severe penalties” if they boycott “unethical” foreign…

The high-flying Eagles Maria and Angela Eagle have always been magnificently self-confident. The twin sisters – now occupying two of the most important posts in the shadow cabinet – come from working-class, Merseyside stock; but their parents encouraged them to aim high. Both sisters studied PPE at Oxford, confounding those friends who thought they would never get a place. “I remember thinking, what are you on about? Of course I’ll get in,” says Angela. “I was astonished anyone could think I wouldn’t. It sounds arrogant, doesn’t it? But right from the beginning we were brought up to believe there was nothing we couldn’t do… I was shocked rigid the first time I came across sexism.” This epiphany occurred when she was eight, and competing in a chess tournament. “I had…

The next big question in education is to figure out what is going on in Shanghai. The city of 24 million people takes part in international surveys as a nation in its own right, and it doesn’t mess about: it was No. 1 in all three categories of the last two Pisa surveys. At the age of 15, Shanghai pupils are studying at a level equivalent to the second year of A-levels, while UK students are still doing their GCSEs. Students from the poorest 30% of Shanghai’s population do better at maths than children from the richest 10% of Britain’s. Last year, British ministers and experts were sent to the city to find out how they teach maths there. One salient difference is that even in primary school, Chinese teachers…

A century after Einstein unveiled his general theory of relativity, the last piece of the puzzle has fallen into place. In a discovery as significant as that of the Higgs boson particle, in 2012, a team in the US has finally detected what Einstein predicted – gravitational waves; ripples in space and time that travel across the universe at the speed of light. Einstein theorised that space and time are a single stretchable fabric, and that movements of mass produce ripples which stretch and squash spacetime, causing distances between objects to shorten and lengthen as they pass. However, it would require a cataclysmic event to create a measurable effect. At the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (Ligo) in the US, physicists have for more than 20 years been searching for signs…

“Credible and true.” These three words have been haunting the Metropolitan Police ever since a senior officer used them 14 months ago to describe the allegations of a man, known as “Nick”, about a paedophile ring at the heart of the establishment. Until I heard those words, I hadn’t really taken the story seriously, said Gaby Hinsliff in The Guardian, but the unequivocal statement led me to think that the police must have damning evidence. But it seems not: officers were unable to corroborate any of the claims against the suspects in Operation Midland – including former home secretary Lord Brittan and former head of the Army Lord Bramall – and the £2m inquiry is reportedly due to close soon. Met chief Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe has refused to apologise for…

“Pretentiousness is interesting. At least you’re making an effort. Your ambition has to outstrip your ability at some point.” Musician Howard Devoto, quoted in The Guardian “I feel the only thing you can do about life is to preserve it, by art if you’re an artist, by children if you’re not.” Philip Larkin, quoted on Goodreads.com “Life isn’t easy. If it was easy, everyone would do it.” Frank Bruno, quoted in The Times “The Conservative Party has two states: complacency and panic.” William Hague, quoted in The Guardian “The human body is the best picture of the human soul.” Ludwig Wittgenstein, quoted in The Sunday Times “The toughest thing about success is that you’ve got to keep on being a success.” Irving Berlin, quoted on Forbes.com “Atheists take religion too…

Why were guns loaded? To The Daily Telegraph I have always been puzzled by the sad events at Deepcut barracks, where four soldiers lost their lives by shooting between 1995 and 2002. When I did my national service, in 1960, it was almost impossible for servicemen to come into possession of live ammunition, except on the rifle range. There, it was always counted out, and on ending the session, any remaining rounds and empty cases were checked back in. Although the camp guards sometimes carried rifles, they were issued with no ammunition. At one time I served at Arborfield in Berkshire a few years after the IRA had raided the armoury there, but even so the guard only had wooden batons, though I believe the guard commander had access to…

Bodley Head 256pp £12.99 The Week bookshop £10.99 (incl. p&p) This book “opens with a trainee surgeon examining a set of images from a CT scan”, said Alice O’Keefe in The Guardian. His highly trained eye takes in the tumours, dispersed across the body. The diagnosis is clear – “cancer, widely disseminated”. But this case is different from the dozens he deals with every week: these are scans of his own body. The doctor was Paul Kalanithi (pictured), who discovered he had inoperable lung cancer at the age of 36. At the time, he was about to qualify as a neurosurgeon after a decade of training, and was planning to start a family with his wife, Lucy. Instead, he found himself confronting a terminal illness. “This account of his transition…

A Bigger Splash Dir: Luca Guadagnino 2hrs 4mins (15) Gripping thriller starring Ralph Fiennes A “dark” remake of the 1969 psychological thriller La Piscine, A Bigger Splash stars Tilda Swinton as a rock star recovering from a throat operation that has left her temporarily mute. She and her younger boyfriend (Matthias Schoenaerts) rent a villa on an Italian island, only to have their idyll disturbed by the arrival of her former flame, an egotistical record producer (Ralph Fiennes) forever banging on about his friendship with Keith Richards. To make matters worse, he’s accompanied by his sultry daughter (Dakota Johnson), who takes a fancy to Schoenaerts. The always-excellent Swinton manages to speak volumes without saying a word, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph. But Fiennes’s extraordinary turn as a “rapturous…

Federico Beltrán Masses at Stair Sainty Many great artists spend their careers largely ignored, their brilliance only acknowledged years, sometimes decades, after their death. The less wellknown narrative is of figures for whom the reverse was true. Federico Beltrán Masses was just such a painter, one whose dark and sensual works made him hugely successful in the 1920s and 1930s, but whose name would now struggle to raise so much as a shrug. Born in Cuba in 1885, he was raised in Barcelona, and by the age of 16 he was exhibiting in Madrid. He moved to Paris, where, soon enough, his exotic romanticism made him something of a star. You can see why: the deep blues and blacks of these paintings are as seductive as the beautiful figures they…

Showing now Vogue 100: A Century of Style at the National Portrait Gallery, London WC2 (020-7306 0055) celebrates 100 years of the British fashion bible. A “compendium of contemporary culture”, it features photographs by all the big guns, from Cecil Beaton to Corinne Day (London Evening Standard). Ends 22 May. Vogue 100: A Century of Style at the National Portrait Gallery, London WC2 (020-7306 0055) celebrates 100 years of the British fashion bible. A “compendium of contemporary culture”, it features photographs by all the big guns, from Cecil Beaton to Corinne Day (London Evening Standard). Ends 22 May. Book now Richard Bean’s new comicthriller The Nap is about a snooker star who finds himself being preyed on by his ex-con dad. It stars Jack O’Connell. Richard Wilson directs. 10 March-2…

The world’s earliest known wineries, dating back 5,000 years, were located by archaeologists in 2011 in modernday Armenia, says David Williams in The Observer. Here are three great wines from there and from neighbouring Georgia, which also has a claim to be the birthplace of wine. Zorah Karasi Areni Noir, Armenia 2013 (£21.95; Slurp). Italian-Armenian Zorik Gharibian’s Karasi, made from Armenia’s most-planted grape variety, is a “vibrant, highly polished red”; and the “sense of history brings an added frisson”. Khareba Saperavi, Kakheti, Georgia 2013 (£9.95; Tanners Wines). With its liquorice and juicy black berry flavours, this bold and supple saperavi pairs beautifully with lamb. Iago Bitarishvili Chinuri Qvevri 8, Kakheti, Georgia 2013 (£16.65; Bottle Apostle). Iago Bitarishvili’s arrestingly chewy, honeyed white is one of the best “qvevri” wines, which are…

“Prim and proper”, “sedate” and “standoffish” – given a cursory glance, Zurich is among the last places in Europe you’d choose to start a cultural revolution. Yet it was here that the Dada movement was launched 100 years ago this month, with an “absurdist and anarchic” manifesto that sent shock waves through all the arts. The city is celebrating its centenary with a year-long programme of events, says William Cook in The Independent on Sunday – including walking tours of places associated with the movement’s founders. Refugees from the brutality of the First World War trenches, they chose the Caberet Voltaire as their main “hangout”, putting on performances intended to subvert all existing conventions. The liveliest stop on the walking tour, the Cabaret (pictured) is now an “experimental space” with…

Publicity-shy writer who made her name with Georgy Girl Margaret Forster 1938-2016 Margaret Forster, who has died aged 77, wrote more than 40 books, ranging from a life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning to the novel Georgy Girl, about a young working-class woman finding her feet in 1960s Swinging London. A committed feminist, Forster wrote wittily and compassionately about women’s lives, but she preferred to keep her own private. Famously reclusive, she rarely gave interviews, refused to appear at book-signing events, and eschewed literary parties. Friends and neighbours, however, recall a woman who was “vibrant and forthright”, said The Daily Telegraph, and who enjoyed a long and “conspicuously happy marriage” to the writer Hunter Davies, who was as gregarious as she was hermit-like. Margaret Forster was born in Carlisle in 1938,…

HSBC is to remain on “its London perch”, said The Wall Street Journal. The bank has concluded that it might, after all, enjoy “the best of both worlds” by keeping its $2.6trn balance sheet in Britain, “while focusing on Asia for growth”. The outcome is “a strong vote of confidence” in the UK Government, effectively ending the debate over whether “regulation is suffocating banks”. Countries from Jamaica to Canada courted HSBC during its ten-month domicile review, attracted by its standing as “a linchpin” of global trade. The rejection of the leading contender, Hong Kong, “prompted soulsearching” there on how the former colony’s “growing ties with China are perceived by investors”. What a pointless exercise in navel-gazing, said Tim Wallace in The Daily Telegraph – and what a waste of political…

The Chinese stock market’s sharp falls have focused attention on the Middle Kingdom, says Mark Atherton in The Times. And things could get worse before they get better. But if you’re sanguine about China’s long-term prospects, here are some investment options to check out… Matthews Asia Pacific Tiger. Picked by Darius McDermott of research group FundCalibre, Matthews is a specialist Asian fund manager with about a third of the fund invested in companies in China and Hong Kong. Invesco Perpetual Hong Kong & China. McDermott also rates this Invesco fund, which invests in “quality companies that hold leading positions in their industries”. Consistently beats markets over one, three, five and ten years. Fidelity China Special Situations. Picked by Charles Cade of Numis Securities, who notes that manager Dale Nicholls, “aims…

Who’s tipping what The week’s best buys Booker Group Investors Chronicle The cash-and-carry supplier has a “formidable” record of strong cash-generation and consistent profit growth, and should benefit from its acquisition of Londis and Budgens. Forward yield 4.5%. Buy. 163p. Conviviality Shares The acquisition of Matthew Clark transforms Conviviality into the UK’s leading indie drinks wholesaler and offers numerous competitive advantages. Sales are up and the retail expansion is working. Yields 4.3%. Buy. 203.25p. Greene King London Evening Standard Panmure Gordon is impressed by the pub landlord, which had a “particularly strong” Christmas. The broker reckons the firm’s acquisition of Spirit could add £30m profit, and gives shares a £10.90 price target. Buy. 835p. Halma The Times The health and safety specialist supplies a wide range of industries, from medical…

A new footbridge opened in Tadcaster last week, reuniting the Yorkshire town’s two halves. Tadcaster’s 18th century road bridge collapsed during the December floods, splitting the town and forcing locals to take a ten-mile detour to get to the other side. It will take a year to repair, but locals can now use the temporary bridge in the meantime. Among the first to use it was Chrissie Wilson, from the east side of town, who met her mother Babs, who lives on the other side, in the middle. A dog who has learned to “read” written commands is now encouraging children to read too. Fernie, a two-year-old Labrador, was taught to recognise “sit”, down”, “roll over” and “spin” by Nik Gardner, the head teacher of Winford Primary School, near Bristol.…

Warsaw Death camp law: The Polish government is drawing up new laws to ban the use of the phrase “Polish death camps” when referring to the Nazi camps built in occupied Poland during the Second World War. The Nazis operated several of their most infamous death camps, including the Auschwitz-Birkenau, Sobibór and Treblinka complexes, in occupied Poland rather than in Germany itself. Polish officials have long sought to discourage use of the potentially misleading phrase “Polish death camps” to describe them, and there was outrage when President Obama used the words in 2012. Justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro has complained that Poles “are blasphemed in the world, in Europe, even in Germany” by the implication that “they are the Holocaust perpetrators”. “Enough with this lie,” he said. “There has to be…

1 Oh Happy Day by Edwin Hawkins (based on an 18th century hymn), performed by the Edwin Hawkins Singers 2 Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft by Terry Draper and John Woloschuk, performed by The Carpenters 3 Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver, Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert, performed by John Denver 4* Mad Rush, written and performed by Philip Glass 5 They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.), written and performed by Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth 6 Crazy (acoustic) by Seal and Guy Sigsworth, performed by Seal 7 Just One Second (Apex Remix) by Tony Colman, performed by London Elektricity 8 Lone, written and performed by Thinnen Book: The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard Luxury: Pen and paper * Choice if allowed only one record…

Rein in the public sector fat cats Ian Birrell The Independent You don’t have to be a banker to be a fat cat these days, says Ian Birrell. The public sector is increasingly full of people on vast salaries. More than 150 council chiefs, for instance, now earn more than the Prime Minister’s £142,500 salary. Pay levels are also soaring in the upper echelons of some police forces and many state schools: the latest figures show that one head teacher is raking in an extraordinary £360,000 a year. But even that figure pales besides the riches showered on university heads. Two years ago, coalition ministers called for restraint on vice-chancellors’ pay, citing the “stretched” public finances. In vain, it seems: a new study shows that 23 university chiefs enjoyed pay…

Ukraine is proving a massive disappointment to its Western backers, said Benoît Vitkine in Le Monde (Paris). The Maidan protesters aimed to rid the country of corrupt government, but more than two years on, criminality at the top is as rampant as ever. Take the legal system. Under prosecutor general Viktor Shokin – a Soviet-era apparatchik and “the most hated man in Ukraine” – the courts have essentially become a weapon the rich can hire to use against rivals. President Petro Poroshenko pledged to sort this out: in return for Western aid, he agreed to replace all the prosecutors. Yet instead of getting rid of Shokin, Poroshenko handed him the task of carrying out the reform. Result? The prosecutors were all sacked, as demanded by the US and Europe, only…

Manipulative parasites Could a microscopic cat parasite change our behaviour? It sounds implausible, but there is anecdotal evidence that Toxoplasma gondii – which breeds in cats but is also thought to be living in up to 60% of humans worldwide – can trigger a range of behaviours, from risky driving to a raised propensity for schizophrenia. Now this theory has received a boost from a study showing that infection by T.gondii alters the behaviour of chimps. Researchers in Gabon studied 30 captive chimps, and found that when infected by the parasite, they were three times more likely than non-infected chimps to investigate the urine of their only serious predator – the leopard. The team argues that since T.gondii can only breed in felines, it is to the advantage of any…

Kanye West has never been one for penny-pinching; when he proposed to reality star Kim Kardashian, West rented out a baseball stadium in San Francisco, and hired the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to serenade her. But this extravagance may be catching up with him. The rapper claimed on Twitter this week that he is $53m in debt, and called on Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to help fund his artistic endeavours. In a series of tweets, he pleaded: “Mark, I am publicly asking you for help… All you dudes in San Fran play rap music in your homes but never help the real artists… You’d rather open up one school in Africa… If you want to help… help me…” West went on: “Yes I am personally rich and I can buy furs…

“There are moments in science when the word ‘breakthrough’ is no hyperbole,” said Steve Connor in The Independent. We saw one last week when scientists announced they had detected gravitational waves resulting from the collision of two black holes 1.3 billion light years away. It was a “beautiful confirmation of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity”. Before Einstein, we saw the cosmos as defined by Newton, said Bryan Appleyard in The Sunday Times. The usual metaphor for this is a billiard table, with “astral bodies moving like the balls across a flat plane of universal time and unchanging space”. But Einstein showed that it was more like a trampoline: a 3D surface that is constantly warping, because space and time are indissolubly linked, and change in the presence of mass.…

Football: a “fat-free, ego-free” Tottenham The Premier League title appears to be “destined for north London”, said Martin Keown in the Daily Mail. On Sunday, Arsenal took the wind out of Leicester’s sails, beating the league leaders 2-1 to close the gap at the top. And more significant still was Tottenham’s 2-1 win at Manchester City. Spurs’ fifth successive league victory put them in second place, just two points behind Leicester and with a superior goal difference. For all the focus on Leicester’s unlikely success, Tottenham are “writing a fairy tale of their own”, said Oliver Kay in The Times. In previous years, they would have happily settled for a draw with City. But this “hungrier” side don’t sit back: they play with conviction, and attack with “guile”. Spurs are…

To The Guardian Andrew Marr asks if the demise of The Independent matters. I can think of four reasons straight off: any depletion of the fourth estate is to be regretted – who else will shine a light on the machinations of government? Secondly, outside niche TV shows, who will challenge our politicians before a wide audience? Third, any reduction in the plurality of the press increasingly leaves the field open to proprietors with the deepest pockets, or the biggest axe to grind. Fourth, for all these reasons, we should regret that all our national newspapers are on the same terminally downward slope. None of them has yet found a purely online business model that works, nor shows any signs of doing so. Andrew Lugton, North Harrow, Middlesex To The…

The High Mountains of Portugal Canongate 352pp £16.99 The Week bookshop £14.99 (incl. p&p) “Move over chick lit, here comes chimp lit,” said Claire Lowdon in The Sunday Times: Yann Martel’s new novel is the third I’ve read in as many years featuring a chimpanzee character. The book is made up of three discrete stories set mostly in Portugal: the first in 1904, the second in 1939, the third in 1981. The first culminates with the discovery of a carved wooden crucifix featuring a chimpanzee on the cross. In the third, a widowed Canadian finds happiness with a flesh-and-blood chimp. There are “moments of real wonder” that recall Martel’s Booker winner Life of Pi. Overall, though, his latest work is “clever(ish), but rather unsatisfying”. This is Martel’s “weirdest book yet”,…

Imagine you could “feel” the physical sensations experienced by the characters in a film, as well as seeing and hearing them. It sounds like the stuff of science fiction; indeed, like the “feelies” described by Aldous Huxley in his dystopian novel Brave New World. But it’s precisely this kind of immersive entertainment that a team of scientists at Sussex University are working to create, said James Dean in The Times. Their research is focusing on a gadget called a “haptic” device (meaning it relates to our sense of touch), which they claim can create sensations including that of falling rain, a breeze, and even a solid object in the hand. The user holds his or her palm over the device, which emits ultrasound waves that create the requisite feelings. Not…

Today, Vincent van Gogh’s two full-sized paintings of his bedroom at Arles seem virtually indistinguishable, said The Daily Telegraph. But scientists at the Art Institute of Chicago have examined them and found significant differences. Microscopic analysis of the first version, painted before Christmas in 1888, reveals that it has faded considerably and that the original colour of the walls was purple (as above), not the cornflower-blue seen today. In real life, the walls of his room were whitewashed. It is thought van Gogh used the colour to portray “a sense of repose”, said lead researcher Dr Francesca Casadio. Her team found that the artist picked a far more sombre palette for the later version, painted in 1889 – betraying his “gloomier outlook”. By that time, van Gogh had confronted his…

Toby chats up Kirsty in the village shop. Ruth warns her that Toby has a bit of a reputation. Kirsty’s shocked when Ruth tells her Helen collapsed in the shop. At the hospital, Helen’s told she has anaemia. Rob’s comforting, but chastises her for not eating properly and endangering their baby. Rob intercepts Helen’s mobile call from Kirsty. He tells Kirsty that only family are allowed to visit. He then lies to Helen, saying Kirsty made the conversation all about herself “as usual”. Jennifer and Peggy refuse to invest in Kate’s business. Pip tells Ruth that she and Matthew had their first row, and she’s worried they won’t last as a long-distance couple. The Bull’s new chef, Zoe, quits after the Flippin’ Pancakes event. Jolene tells Kenton that either they…

Macellaio RC 38-40 Exmouth Market, London EC1 (020-3696 8220) To say that Macellaio RC has a “striking frontage” would be an understatement, says Marina O’Loughlin in The Guardian. In one of its windows, meat dangles on hooks “like a scene from Saw”, huge sides of Piedmont’s fassone beef “ageing into purple splendour”. In the other, a “vast, silvery tuna is gradually butchered”. This is not just for show: the meats are being dry-aged – the beef for 50 days, the tuna for seven – in the name of “richness and tenderising”. And the resulting dishes more than live up to the theatre. Dressed simply with Ligurian olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt, the sirloin is “the sort of thing to make you want to close your eyes and…

Tips of the week… how to bowl a strike ● Don’t assume that a heavy ball will knock over more pins. It’s actually sensible to use a lighter one, which will be easier to handle and control. ● Try not to grip the ball; instead, support it with your palm upwards. ● Aim the ball slightly to the right of the head pin (the one at the front). Or if you’re left-handed, aim it slightly to the left. ● Starting with your left foot slightly right of centre (start with your right foot if lefthanded), make a four-step approach before you swing the ball. ● As you approach, swing the ball backwards to shoulder level. It’s important to keep your arm straight, as its pendulum motion will help generate force.…

Facebook: digital colonialism? Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is convinced his Free Basics initiative, which provides free access to a limited number of sites via mobile phone, is a boon to emerging economies. They don’t see it quite like that in India, said Mike Isaac in The New York Times. Following an outcry from local tech firms, the Indian regulator has banned the scheme, on the grounds that large foreign companies shouldn’t be allowed to “shape the users’ internet experience”. Bang went Zuckerberg’s hopes of easy access to the “next billion” internet users. But it got worse. Marc Andreessen, the venture capitalist and Facebook board member, was so incensed by the ruling that he took to Twitter to denounce the ban as “suicidal”, adding: “Anti-colonialism has been economically catastrophic for the…

Osborne’s gilt-edged opportunity Larry Elliott The Guardian As investors sought safety from plunging stock markets last week, yields on ten-year UK Government bonds fell to their lowest level since records began in the 17th century. “Should he wish to do so,” says Larry Elliott, “George Osborne could borrow money in the markets more cheaply than any of his predecessors.” He should grab the opportunity. No doubt the Chancellor sees record-low yields as proof of investor confidence in his handling of public finances. But the real reason that gilt yields are so low is that the prospect of a UK interest rate hike has receded so far into the distance that “it would take the Hubble telescope” to spot it. Indeed, the Bank of England’s next move may be to provide…