Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1067 i The Week

What happened The only suspect to be detained in connection with last week’s attack on Brussels was released on Monday, raising fresh criticism of Belgium’s security services. Fayçal Cheffou, a self-styled journalist, had been identified as the “man in the hat” – one of three men seen in CCTV footage taken at Brussels airport minutes before the bombings. Two of the men, Ibrahim el-Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui, blew themselves up in the airport’s departure lounge; the third, whose explosive-packed trolley was safely detonated by security officials, fled the scene. A fourth man – Khalid el-Bakraoui, the brother of Ibrahim and, like him, a petty criminal known to police – blew himself up on the Metro. In total, 35 people were killed. Mohamed Abrini, who is also believed to have been…

Dublin Easter Rising remembered: Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets of Dublin last Sunday for a military parade – the largest in the Republic of Ireland’s history – marking the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising. The insurrection lasted only six days, and failed to end colonial rule, but its bloody suppression galvanised nationalist sentiment and paved the way for the war of independence, in 1919, and the establishment of the Irish Free State, in 1922. The insurrection began on 24 April 1916 – Easter Monday – when Patrick Pearse, the leader of one of three rebel groups involved, proclaimed independence on the steps of the General Post Office in Dublin. By the end of the week, 1,600 rebels were battling more than 18,000 British troops; 485 people…

1 Down Our Street by John Meeks and Colin Radcliffe, performed by The Fivepenny Piece 2 Scherzo from Piano Trio in B-flat Major (Archduke), Op. 97 by Beethoven, performed by the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio 3 (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear by Kal Mann and Bernie Lowe, performed by Elvis Presley 4 Isn’t This a Lovely Day? by Irving Berlin, performed by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong 5 Top of the World by Richard Carpenter and John Bettis, performed by the Carpenters 6 There’s No One Quite Like Grandma by Gordon Lorenz, performed by St. Winifred’s School Choir 7* True Love Ways by Buddy Holly and Norman Petty, performed by Buddy Holly 8 Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee by Sticks McGhee, performed by Dana Gillespie Book: The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy…

Don’t cut our measly pensions Mary Dejevsky The Independent If the welfare axe must fall, let it fall on pensioners: means test their winter fuel allowances; unpick the “triple lock” which decrees that the state pension must rise by whatever is higher – 2.5%, price inflation, or the rate of earnings. After George Osborne’s U-turn on disability payments, that has become the popular refrain, says Mary Dejevsky. Even respectable think tanks such as the Institute for Fiscal Studies claim pensioners have never had it so good. They’re wrong. The incomes of most pensioners are still much lower than those of most working people, even if in recent years they’ve risen relatively faster. An OECD report last year found that the UK state pension was “one of the worst” in the…

Sexual harassment in the wild The dowdiness of many female animals relative to their more flamboyant male counterparts has long puzzled scientists. After all, both sexes want to attract the best mates – so why is it that peacocks, say, have brilliantly coloured plumage, while peahens are relatively drab? Now, researchers at Exeter University have come up with a possible explanation: the female’s more discreet appearance may discourage unwanted sexual advances. Excessive male attention is more than just a nuisance for female animals – it can also reduce their reproductive abilities: fending off randy males, or hiding from them, uses up energy that could otherwise be used for “egg production”. Therefore, females who don’t look very alluring might have an evolutionary advantage, says study leader David Hosken – provided they’re…

“Walk down a street in London, Edinburgh, Madrid or Paris,” said Jason Burke in The Observer. Sit down in a café and order a drink, open a book, or check your phone. Look around, and you’ll see plenty of other people doing the same, normal things. But chances are that after the attack on Brussels last week – hard on the heels of the two in Paris last year – you’ll be looking for signs of something abnormal. You know that the number of people killed in Europe by Islamic militants is still “statistically negligible” – some 400 in a population of half a billion; you also know that 95% of people killed by Islamic extremists since 9/11 are in the Islamic world. Yet you feel vulnerable, because you have…

No sport has done more to blaze a trail for women’s rights than tennis, said Paul Newman in The Independent. Thanks in large part to campaigns by Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova, among others, most of the big tournaments now give the two sexes equal billing, and equal prize money. But alas, there are still some “dinosaurs” about the place. Among them is Raymond Moore, chief executive of the Indian Wells tournament in California, who declared last week that “lady players” were riding “on the coattails” of the men’s game, and that they should “go down on [their] knees every night” and “thank God” for the likes of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, who “carry” the sport. To his discredit, the World No. 1 Novak Djokovic then piled in,…

What a way to go out, said BBC Sport online. In their final match of the World Twenty20 (T20) Championship, Afghanistan pulled off a “shock” win, beating West Indies by six runs. It was a historic feat for Afghanistan – victory over the No. 3 T20 side in the world; the first time they had beaten anyone in the top eight – and it was “fully deserved”. West Indies still topped the group, despite England’s impressive win over Sri Lanka; and the Afghans came bottom, having lost their first three matches. But at no stage were they remotely “outclassed”, said Jonathan Liew in The Daily Telegraph. Afghanistan “make a virtue of their amateur spirit”: there may be better sides in the tournament, but “virtually none you would rather watch”. They…

“There is something spiritually refreshing about this new RSC Hamlet,” said Michael Billington in The Guardian. It is not just that the RSC has finally cast a black actor in the title role, and that the “highly expressive” Paapa Essiedu is leading a mostly black ensemble. It is also that director Simon Godwin has taken a play often wreathed in what a senior critic once described as “baffled half-lights and glooms” and staged it in “a vivid Technicolor brightness”. Although the text has not been radically changed, we know from the start that we’re getting something different. We open with a glimpse of Hamlet graduating from Wittenberg University, Ohio. He then returns to post-colonial West Africa. There is, admittedly, a lack of clarity in the politics. Is Claudius a military…

If you want to get rich quick in Hollywood, your best bet may be to make an animated film, said Kyle Stock on Bloomberg.com. For this, it turns out, has been by far the most lucrative movie genre over the past decade. Animated films have made an average profit of 36% – far more than the 26% recouped by the next most profitable genre, which is sci-fi/fantasy. No surprise, then, that the big studios are keen to cash in. This year will see the release of 16 major animated features – three more than last year. But nothing is without risk in the movie business: and animated films are risker than most, because they are also the most expensive films to make. One reason is that modern fans of the…

It has been called “the Sistine Chapel of the early Middle Ages”, said Nick Squires in The Daily Telegraph: a 1,500-year-old church in Rome that has been restored to display some of the world’s earliest Christian art. The church of Santa Maria Antiqua is located in the ancient Roman Forum, but was buried under debris by an earthquake in AD847, and only rediscovered by archaeologists in 1900. A painstaking 30-year restoration has now been completed, revealing an “exquisite interior, decorated with multicoloured frescoes of saints, martyrs, angels and emperors”. The church itself was built in the sixth century, but the main pictures were painted under Pope Martin I, who was in office from AD649 to AD655. The fact that the church was buried ensured that, unlike other such churches, the…

Pat throws a tea party for Ursula before she leaves Ambridge. Rob puts the boarding school idea to Henry, saying he’ll be “just like Daddy”. Henry says okay. The egg-mobile burns down. Toby decides that rather than delaying the arrival of the hens, they’ll put them in the caravan. He and Rex move into Bert’s cottage. The police confirm the fire was arson. Helen’s appalled when Kirsty tells her she rang a helpline for her. Kirsty gives Helen the number; she tells her to go away. The consultant tells Helen a home birth would be against medical advice. Helen disciplines a rowdy Henry at Ursula’s party; he says he hates his mum because she wants to send him away. Realising Rob is plotting to send Henry to boarding school, she…

Dickie Fitz 48 Newman Street, London W1 (020-3667 1445) This splendid new eating house on the site of the former Newman Street Tavern in Fitzrovia has a “commanding presence”, says John Walsh in The Independent. You walk into a “fabulously light and airy dining room, with white walls, wooden floors and banana-yellow seating”. Lights like “huge, electrified dandelions” hang from the ceiling, and there’s a beautiful art deco stained-glass staircase. All this puts quite a lot of pressure on the Pacific Rim food to live up to the setting, and in terms of starters and finishers, it does. We had wonderful chicken poppers (cubes of thigh meat, fried very fast and served with a sesame oil, soy, chilli and garlic dip); outstanding crudités served on ice; and a heavenly tuna…

New technology: “still the best Android phone you can buy” The release of the Galaxy S6 was a “watershed moment” for smartphones, said Dan Seifert on The Verge. Finally, Samsung proved that an Android device could match the iPhone for design and performance. But impressive as the standard S6 was, the high-end S6 Edge, featuring a screen that curved at the edges, was even more eye-catching. With its latest models, the S7 and S7 edge, Samsung has decided not to “rewrite the formula” – and has instead refined the S6 and “produced something much better”. Apple has just revealed that its new iPhone SE is going to be small, with a four-inch screen. The S7 Edge is big, like the iPhone 6s Plus, with a phablet-sized 5.5in screen, said Samuel…

This small family festival is a place where children can be safe – and run wild, says Gavin McOwan in The Guardian. Spread over three enclosed fields, the site has a “village green“ atmosphere, yet feels “unbounded” owing to its surroundings at the foot of the Black Mountains. It’s organised on a moderate scale – only 250 families can attend – so “your kids are never that far away”. There are local bands and reasonably priced beer tents for the adults, and a vast programme of events for younger attendees, from discos and film screenings to circus-skills training, stargazing and model-making. You can bake your own bread “by wrapping dough around a stick and holding it in the campfire”, or go on a guided forest walk – “no adults allowed”.…

Stock markets globally continued to rally as hopes that the US Federal Reserve will put a brake on interest-rate rises unleashed a fresh burst of risk appetite. Wall Street climbed to its highest close of the year. Fed chair Janet Yellen cheered traders by reiterating the need to “proceed cautiously”: the chances of a rate rise in April are now put at “zero”. The Bank of England ran into further trouble with Brexiteers after warning that uncertainty over the referendum was feeding into a “deteriorating outlook” for Britain’s financial stability, and could lead to further falls in sterling and a possible credit crunch. Two hundred and fifty business chiefs – including Capital Economics’ Roger Bootle, phone tycoon John Caudwell, Reebok co-founder Joe Foster and Tim Martin of J.D. Wetherspoons –…

● Donald the loser Although he frequently describes himself as one of life’s winners, Donald Trump “is not immune to shifts in the market”, said James Burton in the Daily Mail. The presidential hopeful has lost money on 18 of the 21 hedge and mutual funds he backed last year, according to Reuters’s calculations. The funds – managed by Paulson and Co, BlackRock and Baron Capital, among others – lost an average of 8.5%. It was a difficult year for funds, and Trump did score some hits: he also put money into Gamco Global Gold, Natural Resources and Income, which is up by around 16%. But the news inevitably provoked jibes from American analysts about his “very pedestrian” investment prowess. “This rather sums up Trump’s ability to lose, rather than…

Andy Grove The former Intel boss, who has died aged 79, was less well-known to the wider public than other Silicon Valley titans such as Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison and Mark Zuckerberg, says The Daily Telegraph. But he was “revered by all of them as one of the true creators of the digital era”. Grove didn’t found Intel, but he was the chipmaker’s first employee, joining in 1968, and “under his forceful leadership” it grew into one of the world’s largest companies by market value. Grove drove the business forward in a manner that could be brutally direct. One former executive described being personally mentored by him as “like going to the dentist and not getting novocaine”. András Gróf was born into a middle-class Jewish family in Budapest in 1936.…

What happened At least 72 people were killed and some 300 injured in a suicide bomb attack aimed at Christians celebrating Easter in Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s Punjab province. The bomb, packed with ball bearings, ripped through crowds at a weekend funfair in one of the city’s largest parks. Exploding close to a busy playground, it killed at least 29 children. Responsibility for the attack was claimed by a Taliban splinter group, Jamaatul-Ahrar, which said it had deliberately targeted the country’s Christian minority. However, most of the dead were Muslim. The regional government declared three days of mourning, and Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, condemned the terrorists as a “coward enemy trying for soft targets”. The attack was the deadliest that Pakistan had seen since the 2014 massacre of…

Washington DC Republicans get ugly: The increasingly acrimonious contest between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz became yet more personal last week, as the Republican front runners traded insults over each other’s wives and private lives. The latest round of hostilities kicked off when a pro-Cruz super PAC produced a campaign ad featuring a nude photo of Trump’s wife, Melania (pictured). Taken when she worked as a model, it bore the words: “Meet Melania Trump. Your next First Lady.” In retaliation, Trump threatened to “spill the beans” on Cruz’s wife, Heidi, and retweeted a picture of her scowling alongside a picture of his own wife. Cruz denied having anything to do with the PAC’s advert, and branded Trump a “snivelling coward” for going after his wife. He also accused the mogul…

A US man was pulled over in his car, arrested and handcuffed – for failing to return a VHS he’d rented 14 years earlier. James Meyers said he was driving his tenyear-old daughter to school in Concord, North Carolina, when a cop pulled him over for a broken tail light. The officer ran his licence – then, after a 25-minute wait, ordered him to step out of the vehicle. “He said: ‘I don’t know how to tell you this but there’s a warrant for your arrest from 2002. Apparently you rented the movie Freddy Got Fingered and never returned it.’” Meyers says he has only a dim memory of renting the film, a gross-out comedy that scores just 11% on Rotten Tomatoes. A young Kenyan woman who began Photoshopping herself…

The flash of a dying star exploding has been captured in visible light for the first time. For three years, Nasa’s Kepler space telescope scanned 50 trillion stars in 500 distant galaxies, in a bid to detect signs of massive stellar death explosions known as supernovae. Now scientists have analysed the data – and found that in 2011, two stars known as red supergiants exploded in Kepler’s view. One was about 300 times the size of our Sun and 700 million light years from Earth. The second was 500 times our Sun’s size and 1.2 billion light years away. A type II supernova occurs when a massive star’s internal nuclear fuel burns out; unable to withstand the pressure of gravity, its core collapses and then rebounds, exploding outwards. The process,…

Tracey Emin is no longer single. The former enfant terrible, now 52, has revealed that she married a rock last summer, in a quiet ceremony in the garden of her house in France. As her gown, she wore her father’s white funeral shroud. “It just means that at the moment I am not alone,” Emin – who has a new show opening in Hong Kong – told The Art Newspaper. “Somewhere, on a hill facing the sea, there is a very beautiful ancient stone, and it’s not going anywhere. It will be there, waiting for me.” Allies of Jeremy Corbyn have drawn up a list of the party’s MPs, divided into categories according to how loyal they are to their leader. These range from “core group” and “neutral but not…

“You have to take money where you find it, from the poor. OK, they don’t have much money, but there are a lot of them.” French writer Alphonse Allais, quoted in The Guardian “Martyrdom… the only way in which a man can become famous without ability.” George Bernard Shaw, quoted in The Times “Nuance is the first casualty of politics and, too often, decency is the second.” Alex Massie, on Slate.com “The most dangerous world view is the world view of those who have not viewed the world.” Naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, quoted in the journal Nature “Most critics are educated beyond their intelligence.” Critic Kenneth Tynan, quoted in the Pasadena Star-News “The world is not dangerous because of those who do harm. It’s dangerous because of those who watch…

Academy trouble To The Daily Telegraph I have read with interest of the Government’s plans to force every school to become an academy. Two months ago, we were notified (entirely unexpectedly and with no scope for consultation before or after the announcement) that my daughter’s school in Sunderland is to close at the end of this academic year. The school is managed by United Learning, one of the largest academy groups in the country. It is based 200 miles away from us and has 36 academies under its belt. The way the news was broken to us was bad enough – with pupils finding out via social media before parents had been informed – but even worse was the subsequent admission that it wasn’t the local governing board that had…

by Mervyn King Little, Brown 448pp £25 The Week bookshop £21 (incl. p&p) Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England from 2003 to 2013, has long been “at the heart” of Britain’s financial establishment, said Liam Halligan in The Daily Telegraph. Yet his new book “is a fearlessly honest explanation of the 2007-08 financial collapse”, providing “disturbing insights” into what he calls “the worst banking crisis the industrialised world has ever seen”. Despite its catastrophic effects, he writes, “nothing much has really changed” in the basics of the banking industry; and he thinks that without reform “another crisis is certain… sooner rather than later”. Part memoir, part manifesto, The End of Alchemy gives “a genuine insider’s account” of the crisis, and proposes a blueprint for extensive reforms. “This is…

Primal Scream: Chaosmosis 1st International £9.99 Bobby Gillespie is “essentially a fan paying homage to his record collection”, and that gives Chaosmosis, Primal Scream’s 11th album, a “particular kind of charm”, said Will Hodgkinson in The Times. Trippin’ on Your Love harks back to the “groovy gospel meets acid house” sound of Loaded, the band’s 1990 breakout hit. Elsewhere, Gillespie tries out “a variety of new personas: sexy jazz singer on I Can Change, alfalfa sprout-eating folkie on Private Wars, even Bono-like rock god on Where the Light Gets In”. It’s not always easy to take Primal Scream seriously, but they’re “fun, full of ideas and imbued with an indomitable spirit that lets them get away with it in style”. In my view, said Tim Jonze in The Guardian, Chaosmosis…

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson, 2011 (Vintage £8.99). The true story behind Winterson’s novel, Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, this is a memoir of a childhood shot through with fire-and-brimstone parenting, resilience and survival. The disturbing portrait of her adoptive mother is balanced by Winterson’s crisp wit. The Great Western Beach by Emma Smith, 2008 (Bloomsbury £8.99). Smith was in her 80s when she wrote this account of growing up in Cornwall between the Wars, but her recall is pinpoint perfect. An ostensibly idyllic world of donkey rides, ice creams and innocence is underpinned by the frustration of her bad-tempered father and the unhappiness of her mother. Wait for Me! by Deborah Devonshire, 2010 (John Murray £9.99). That Mitford voice, the self-deprecating jokes…

Programmes The Durrells Drama series based on Gerald Durrell’s memoirs of growing up in Corfu, including his muchloved book My Family and Other Animals. Sun 3 April, ITV1 8pm (60mins). Undercover Six-part thriller starring Sophie Okonedo and Adrian Lester as a couple with big secrets. Maya is about to become the first black director of public prosecutions when she discovers her husband has been lying to her for years. Sun 3 April, BBC1 9pm (60mins). Marcella Drama series written by The Bridge screenwriter, Hans Rosenfeldt. Marcella (Anna Friel) returns to the Met’s Murder Squad after her husband leaves her. Mon 4 April, ITV1 9pm (60mins). Workers or Shirkers? Ian Hislop’s Victorian Benefits Entertaining and provocative look at Victorian attitudes to the poor. Thur 7 April, BBC2 8pm (60mins). Army Girls…

Antonio Carluccio’s minestrone di verdure Serves 4 4 tbsp olive oil 1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped 1 onion, peeled and finely chopped 2 litres chicken or beef stock about 1kg vegetables (see above), prepared and cubed 150g dried tubettini pasta 1 x 400g can borlotti beans, drained 3 tbsp fresh pesto salt and pepper, to taste 40g Parmesan, freshly grated • Put the oil in a pan and fry the garlic and onion for a few minutes. Add the stock and prepared vegetables, and cook for about 12 minutes. • Add the pasta and drained beans, and cook until tender, about another 6-7 minutes, then remove from the heat. • Mix in the pesto and salt and pepper to taste, and heat very gently. Serve straight away, sprinkled…

The miner’s son who wrote A Kestrel for a Knave Barry Hines 1939-2016 Barry Hines, who has died aged 76, spent more than four decades writing about working-class lives, said The Guardian – and though “the results were sometimes gloomy (reality often is), he kept an eye for the decency and hope in people”. His best-known book, A Kestrel for a Knave (1968), tells the story of Billy Casper, abused at home and bullied at school, left to “shuffle through life in a ten-bob anorak and half-mast trousers” – who finds hope and meaning by nurturing a wild kestrel. It was an instant hit, became a staple of school English curriculums, and was turned into the classic film Kes (1969), directed by Ken Loach. At one point, a Hollywood studio…

Britain’s “insatiable thirst” for gin has seen the number of distilleries double in six years to 233, with 49 opening last year alone, says Sean O’Neill in The Times. The revival began in 2009 when the would-be distillers of Sipsmith won a two-year battle with HMRC “for the right to produce gin in small rather than industrial quantities” – overturning a prohibition dating back to the 18th century, when Hogarth’s vivid illustration of the evils of drink, Gin Lane, bolstered the campaign to outlaw “mother’s ruin”. Sipsmith boasts that it has sparked a “gin-aissance”. Doubtless the Treasury, which has pocketed an extra £38m in tax and duty in the past year, is raising a glass too.…

“Job interviews are galling at the best of times,” says Emma Haslett in City AM, “but imagine being asked how to squeeze an elephant into a fridge.” That particular poser, devised by digital security company Gemalto, is one of the ten toughest questions to have been asked in interviews this year, according to jobs marketplace Glassdoor. The idea is to test candidates’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Based on the questions below, some may consider that a moot point. Top Shop: Which magic power would you like to have? Topdeck Travel: If you were a fruit, what kind would you be and why? IBM: How many hours would it take to clean every window in London? BT: How many people born in 2013 were named Gary? EY: What will you…

Who’s tipping what The week’s best buys Centrica Investors Chronicle Falling wholesale gas prices have hammered the energy supplier. But the US business is fast-growing, and a strategic overhaul and new smart products should help Centrica stand out from rivals. Yields over 5%. Buy. 226.5p. Firestone Diamonds London Evening Standard Panmure Gordon is impressed by the diamond explorer and miner’s interim numbers, and is particularly cheered that the Liqhobong mine in Lesotho “remains on target”. It names a target price of 27p. Buy. 20p. M&C Saatchi Investors Chronicle The advertising agency is fuelling robust growth by signing big clients, including Samsung and Airbus, expanding overseas through stake-building, and rolling out popular new services. Yields a decent 2.9%. Buy. 315p. Micro Focus The Daily Telegraph Micro Focus sells high-margin, essential software…

Controversy of the week “I feel uncomfortable writing this,” said Matthew Parris in The Times, about “my former Spectator editor, an essentially liberal-minded fellow Tory… who has never been anything but friendly to me”. But somebody has to do it. So here goes. Boris Johnson is a “dangerous charmer” who will plunge the Tory party into an abyss if its members elect him as their next leader. It’s not his lust for office, or applause, or susceptible women, that makes one cringe at the thought of him being PM. “It’s the casual dishonesty, the cruelty, the betrayal.” As a wannabe MP, he ridiculed Labour’s attempt to repeal Section 28 (which made it illegal for councils and schools “to promote homosexuality”): now he’s calling on gay people to back Brexit because…

Clarkson vs. Cohen There is no love lost between Jeremy Clarkson and the man who sacked him, says Charlotte Edwardes in The Sunday Times. Even before Clarkson disgraced himself by punching a producer in the face, he was regarded with suspicion by Danny Cohen – the politically correct executive who was then the BBC’s director of television. Once, Cohen summoned Clarkson to his office to ask if it was true that he’d named his West Highland terrier Didier Dogba, after the former Chelsea striker Didier Drogba (Clarkson is a Blues fan). “I confirmed it was true. He said: ‘What colour is it?’ And I said: ‘It’s black.’ And he said: ‘You can’t call your black dog after a black footballer.’ So I said: ‘Why not? Would you rather I called…

Crispr has prompted fears that rogue scientists will create “Frankenbabies”, but researchers have been using the technique to resurrect a completely different kind of beast. In March 2015, a team led by Harvard geneticist George Church announced they had successfully copied the genes from the frozen tissue of a woolly mammoth, a species extinct for the past 4,000-odd years, and pasted them into the genome of an Asian elephant. The next step will be to insert those genomes into an elephant egg cell for implantation. The team hopes to create a woolly elephant-mammoth hybrid that can survive in cold temperatures, so that elephants can live comfortably outside of Asia and Africa, where their own existence is threatened by conflict and poverty. What was once purely the realm of science fiction…

The GOP is on the brink of disaster Jonah Goldberg Los Angeles Times It’s all over for the Republican Party as we know it, says Jonah Goldberg. If, as seems likely, Donald Trump falls just short of securing enough delegates to win the nomination outright, there will be a brokered convention in July at which Republican leaders will have to decide either to deny Trump the nomination, causing his supporters to riot and desert the party en masse, or crown him, causing lots of other party members to jump ship in disgust. Many Republicans have yet to face up to this fact and still hope there might be some happier resolution to the situation. Forget it. Only three things can stop a calamitous bust-up in July: Ted Cruz winning the…

Parents have been urged to look out for the symptoms of scarlet fever following a spike in cases across England. There were 6,157 cases from September 2015 to March 2016, according to Public Health England – up from 1,457 in the same period in 2010-11. Early signs of the infection include a sore throat, headache and fever, with an itchy pinkish rash appearing within a couple of days. The rash usually starts on the chest and stomach. Most common in children aged between two and eight, scarlet fever is highly contagious: it spreads through close contact with infected people, and through contact with contaminated objects and surfaces. If the patient is promptly treated with antibiotics, symptoms usually clear up within a week. But if left untreated, it can lead to…

The civil war in Syria is so horrifying, it “defies easy comparison”, said The Washington Post. But one analogy of recent times might be the violence that engulfed Yugoslavia, a quarter of a century ago. As that multi-ethnic federation began to fall apart, in 1991, the inhabitants of its various republics were propelled into a bitter war over territory and physical assets – with the worst savagery taking place in Bosnia. Backed by the government of Serbia, Bosnia’s Serbs launched a vicious campaign of “ethnic cleansing”, mainly aimed at Bosnian Muslims. Genocide was being perpetrated on European soil – and world leaders resolved that those responsible for atrocities in Yugoslavia must be held accountable. An international tribunal was established in 1993, and last week it achieved its most significant conviction…

Johan Cruyff: the Dutchman who revolutionised football “If a single moment could be said to have changed the way a generation looked at football, it was the turn with which Johan Cruyff bamboozled Jan Olsson,” said Richard Williams in The Guardian. At the 1974 World Cup, the Dutch forward made as if to pass – but tricked the Swedish defender by flicking the ball through his own legs, before spinning around to collect it. The “Cruyff turn”, as it will forever be known, was “football from another planet”. It was a moment of characteristic elegance from the Dutchman, who died last week aged 68. In an era when opponents “employed all the dark arts” to crush attackers, he still managed to glide through defences, said Henry Winter in The Times.…

To The Times Geoff Wilkins is right that no one can predict the consequences of a vote either way in the EU referendum. What we can do is make a judgement as to how to approach the future. Should we aim for as much independence and sovereignty as is possible for a trading nation in a globalised world, or should we be willing to sacrifice some of this in the interests of neighbourliness and teamwork? Go-it-alone was great when Britannia ruled the waves, but the uncertain and dangerous world of the 21st century calls for good neighbours who negotiate to build strong partnerships, and for team players who work with and listen to other members of the team. It is not only our EU partners but major trading partners such…

How to Measure a Cow by Margaret Forster Chatto & Windus 256pp £16.99 The Week bookshop £14.99 (incl. p&p) “In the late Margaret Forster’s final novel, a woman with a terrible secret seeks to escape her past,” said Stephanie Cross in The Observer. Tara Fraser has murdered her husband; newly released from prison, “she flees north to start a new life”. In her new Cumbrian home, she piques the interest of her neighbour Nancy, an elderly widow with a “devouring curiosity”. The premise is gripping, if not always convincing; but Nancy is a “memorable creation”, and their friendship is drawn “with sympathy and wit”. Forster is still perhaps best known for her 1965 novel Georgy Girl, which was made into a successful film. But How to Measure a Cow is…

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Dir: Zack Snyder 2hrs 31mins (12A) Crash! Bang! Wallop! If you like your superhero movies fun and frothy, steer clear of this year’s most hotly anticipated blockbuster, said Nick de Semlyen in Empire. In director Zack Snyder’s film, Gotham City and Metropolis are wreathed in shadow and darkness – and Batman (Ben Affleck) is as troubled as ever. Horribly scarred and deeply paranoid, The Dark Knight has decided that Superman’s building-razing tendencies make him a threat to civilisation, and is bent on his destruction. Meanwhile, the Man of Steel’s old foe Lex Luthor (a twitchy, babbling Jesse Eisenberg) is hatching his own dastardly plots. All of which sets the scene for some explosive, and truly stunning, action set pieces, said David Edwards in the…

Barry Flanagan at Waddington Custot Despite the enormous variety of work he produced in the course of his career, the Welsh-born artist Barry Flanagan remains best known for the strange series of giant bronze hares he created from the 1970s onwards. Though these sprightly sculptures have a certain kitsch charm, they are not even on nodding terms with the excitement of his best work. This marvellous show at Waddington Custot forces the point home, concentrating on the imaginative, diverse and often very funny pieces he produced early on in his career. The brightly coloured collages, quasi-surrealist sculptures and oddly runic symbols on display pay testament to an uninhibited and rather mischievous imagination – one much missed since Flanagan’s death, in 2009. If you’re not already familiar with his work, head…

When it comes to size, there’s a kind of “inverse-machismo” at work in the wine business, says David Williams in The Observer, and rightly so – some of the best wines are from small producers. Here are three: Kutch McDougall Ranch Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir, California, 2014 (£55; Roberson Wine). Jamie Kutch’s pinot from a yard high up above the Pacific on California’s Sonoma coast is “lucid, limpid, graceful and pure”. Undurraga Cauquenes Estate Viognier Roussanne Marsanne, Maule, Chile 2015 (£6.95; The Wine Society). This superbly peachy, expressive, balanced bargain is inspired by the white wines of the Rhône Clos Cibonne Cuvée Tradition Rouge, Côtes de Provence, France 2014 (£19.99; Red Squirrel Wine). From its retro label to its use of the lesser-known variety tibouren (in tandem with syrah), this…

Three hundred islands floating in the Bay of Bengal, the Andamans are “perfectly, heart-singingly beautiful and lovely”, says Martin Hemming in The Sunday Times. They are remote, and most are uninhabited, or impossible to visit. The only known island is probably North Sentinel – famous for being home to “uncontacted” tribes who remain deeply hostile to outsiders: anyone who lands on its shores is likely to be greeted by “volleys of arrows”. Havelock Island, by contrast, has no indigenous population and was thought to be inhabited by Bengali Hindus after Partition in 1947. “The only Andaman geared up to show tourists a good time”, the island is reached by catamaran (or “rusting government ferry”) from the capital, Port Blair – a two-hour flight from Chennai. On first impressions, Havelock offers…

Premier Foods: Aah! Bisto It was once dubbed “Britain’s biggest zombie company”, but there is clearly life in Premier Foods, said Patrick Hosking in The Times. The maker of Bisto gravy, Oxo, Ambrosia and Mr Kipling cakes last week revealed that it has rejected two approaches from the huge American foods group McCormick & Company, which was prepared to pay “a mouth-watering 90% premium” on the share price. Shares duly rocketed. “Premier is no ordinary company. It’s essentially a vast, deficit-plagued pension fund with a small, struggling cake-maker attached.” Why, then, did executives send the Americans packing? Perhaps because they are betting on “jam tomorrow”. Premier recently struck a deal with Japanese noodle-maker Nissin, which has taken a sizeable 17% stake, noted Christopher Williams in The Daily Telegraph. The two…

Executive pay is damaging capitalism Merryn Somerset Webb MoneyWeek.com I recently interviewed a FTSE 100 CEO who justified his £2m pay on grounds that “lots of other people running companies are paid more”, says Merryn Somerset Webb. That’s undoubtedly true – the average FTSE 100 CEO makes £4.6m – but I wanted to know if he thought his pay was too much. Not really, he said. And anyway, it is set by a committee. Everywhere you look, business leaders are showing the same “tin ear”. Take Lord Browne: in a new book, he attacks what Americans call “pay for pulse” – getting piles of money just for being there – yet makes no mention of the £22m pension pot he accrued at BP on top of his vast pay packet.…

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 Capacity to accept opposing beliefs, possibly both unliked (11) 9 Sixty minutes alongside one beautiful young woman (5) 10 What sea dogs won’t find for relief! (4,5) 11 It’s rumoured tango dance has authority (4,3) 12 More annoying exercises by one going downhill? (7) 13 Charts impact on row of shops (3,6) 16 Queen not entirely backing a republic! (5) 17 Half expect to get the Spanish force out (5) 18 Financier with time to get behind housing firm (9) 20 Cossack leaders in wild Tasmania I overlooked (7) 22 Stick around East Barking and get attacked (7) 24 Invalid’s home help avoiding a…