Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1082 i The Week

Theresa May became Britain’s second female prime minister this week, just days after launching what she had expected to be a twomonth-long campaign for the Tory leadership. Her sudden elevation was brought about on Monday when her last remaining rival in the race, the pro-Brexit Andrea Leadsom, pulled out. Energy minister Leadsom’s campaign had been dogged by bad publicity since she implied in a weekend interview that being a mother made her better suited to be PM (see page 6). May, Home Secretary for the past six years, said she was “honoured and humbled” to have been chosen by her party, and sought to reassure colleagues who doubted her commitment to negotiating Britain’s departure from the EU. “Brexit means Brexit,” she declared, “and we’re going to make a success of…

Railway “misery” London Mayor Sadiq Khan urged the Government to take over the running of Southern rail this week, following its decision to cut hundreds of commuter trains. Operating company Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) cut 341 trains a day to try to make services – which have been bedevilled by delays and cancellations for months – more “resilient”. Khan said GTR was inflicting “unceasing misery” on travellers. The operator blames industrial action for the delays (see page 45). Women in combat roles Women are going to be allowed to serve in ground close combat roles in the British Armed Forces for the first time, David Cameron announced last week. Female recruits will be eligible to fight alongside male crewmen in the Royal Armoured Corps from November. The policy will then…

The invisible drummer Will Champion is one of the members of Coldplay whom nobody recognises, says Sophie Heawood in The Guardian. The 37-year-old drummer happily admits he seldom has to deal with fans or paparazzi, unless he’s out with the band’s lead singer, Chris Martin. “I do find myself thinking, gosh, I’m glad I’m not Chris. He has to deal with all that. I feel I’m incredibly lucky in that respect. That I get to do my absolute dream job, and be with my best friends, and play these amazing stadiums all over the world, then go back to London…” And just go to the chip shop? “Absolutely. Actually, the guy in the chip shop does know who I am. But just that guy. About once a month, a stranger…

Many young men who fought in the Somme went on to earn a place in history, the most notorious being Adolf Hitler: he served with a Bavarian regiment in the battle and suffered the leg wound that gave rise to rumours about his lost testicle. Other famous German veterans included Otto Frank, Anne Frank’s father, and Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron. Famous names on the British side included the war poet Siegfried Sassoon. Nicknamed “Mad Jack” by his fellow soldiers for his manic courage, he won a Military Cross at the Somme on 27 July 1916 for rescuing wounded men under fire. A few days earlier, his friend Robert Graves, serving in the same unit, was wounded so badly that his family were told he was dead. J.R.R. Tolkien,…

Clinton cleared – in the worst possible way Rich Lowry Politico “The conspiracy theory about Donald Trump,” says Rich Lowry, “is that he intends to throw the election to Hillary Clinton.” But to judge from recent events, you’d think they were both determined to lose. After weeks of “appalling self-inflicted errors” by Trump, Clinton has “countered with a highly characteristic political ‘victory’ – namely, not getting indicted”. The FBI announced last week that it wasn’t recommending charges against her for using a private email server for official correspondence during her term as secretary of state. The outcome of the inquiry was, on the face of it, good news for Clinton, but the way it came out could hardly have been worse. Days before the announcement, Bill Clinton had a supposedly…

“I’m halfway across the street – nose buried in my iPhone – before I look up and see the sign affixed to the wire fence: ‘PATROLLED BY ARMED GUARDS’.” For a moment, said Clem Bastow in The Guardian, I find myself weighing up the pros and cons: is it worth trespassing on a military barracks in the hope of capturing a cartoon monster from a Japanese computer game? “This is my life in a post-Pokémon Go world.” And it’s not just me: all across America, Australia and New Zealand – the three countries where Nintendo’s new smartphone game was launched last week – the streets are suddenly clogged with Pokémon Go addicts, searching for virtual monsters in the real world. The game has overtaken Twitter as the most downloaded app…

Froome’s daring descent With five victories from eight stages, Britain’s cyclists had an outstanding first week at the Tour de France, says Tom Cary in The Daily Telegraph. Chris Froome’s stage-eight win was truly extraordinary. After cresting the fourth of four summits, the 31-year-old “decided to go for it” on the 17km final descent. Essentially sitting on his bike’s top tube, rather than the seat, Froome “hunkered” over the handlebars, with his elbows tucked in and his legs “pumping like pistons beneath him”. With this innovative and hair-raising technique, he reached 91km/h at one point – and opened up a 16-second lead over his yellow jersey contenders. “Incroyable.” Serena’s supremacy “A seventh Wimbledon singles title, a 22nd Grand Slam singles title.” It’s easy to take Serena Williams for granted, says…

Theatre The Mighty Walzer Adapted by Simon Bent from the novel by Howard Jacobson Director: Jonathan Humphreys Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester (0161-833 9833) Until 30 June Running time: 2hrs (including interval) Table tennis is “hardly the sexiest of sports”, said Sam Marlowe in The Times. Yet in Howard Jacobson’s 1999 semiautobiographical novel, adapted by Simon Bent, humble pingpong “becomes a lesson in love and the game of life itself”. Set in 1950s Manchester, this “tender and wise” play tells the tale of Oliver Walzer, a shy Jewish boy – twin passions: table tennis and onanism – as he wrestles with the agonies and mysteries of adolescence, and “negotiates his threadbare, chaotic and colourful family life”. At times, the material “flirts overenthusiastically with stereotype”, but there’s a “full-flavoured wit and luminous…

A warning to all would-be punters: this exhibition of Peter Howson’s prints since the 1980s is not for the fainthearted. His expressionistic style flatters almost no one, and his subject matter – ranging from his depictions of drunks and vagrants, to the series of pictures based on his experience as Britain’s official war artist in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s – is as far from the pastoral idyll as can be. Still, it would be foolish to miss this excellent, if macabre, show. For all his apparent pessimism about the human condition (Howson himself has suffered heavily from addiction), he takes an empathetic view of the characters he depicts. Even the subject of The Noble Dosser – at first glance, the Platonic ideal of a Glasgow bruiser – appears…

The Ned Pinot Rosé Marlborough, New Zealand (£10.99, or six for £7.99 each; Majestic Wine). White pinot gris and red pinot noir grapes go into this juicy, rich pink. It’s bursting with bold, zesty, spiced strawberry and black pepper notes. Flaxbourne Sauvignon Blanc Rosé, New Zealand (£10.50; M&S). The perfect outdoor wine, enjoy this spritzy, grapey, currant and passion fruit-scented rosé well chilled. L’Hydropathe Élite Rosé, Côtes de Provence Sainte Victoire, France (£15.95, or 12 for £14.25 each; Lea and Sandeman). A great pink, mostly syrah, with a 40% dollop of grenache. I love its peppery, cherry and berry fruit flavours. Miraval Côtes de Provence Rosé, France (£17.99, or six for £15.99 each; Majestic Wine). Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have brought out the finest vintage yet from their Miraval…

With its standing stones, sweeping beaches and lonely farmhouses, Wales’s Llyn Peninsula is like a more hilly Cornwall – but without the crowds. And just two miles off its tip lies a wild island that is “heaven” for wildlife fans, says Brian Jackman in The Daily Telegraph. A place of pilgrimage in the Dark Ages, Bardsey still houses the ruins of a medieval abbey, together with a lighthouse and a few cottages. But there are no cars, and no mains electricity – indeed, nothing to disturb its “ancient silence” except the eerie cries of seabirds and the “mournful” calling of seals. The latter gather in their hundreds around the tiny harbour where boats from the mainland dock, and the former nest in their thousands on the island’s cliffs. The island…

Burberry: reality check “It’s just not possible to be a fashion luminary and a strong leader at the same time,” said Matthew Vincent in the Financial Times. Jeremy Corbyn – credited with “completely reinventing the late-1980s brown jacket/loose red tie look” – still refuses to face that truth. But Burberry has finally accepted it. After months of unrest, the fashion house has relieved its chief designer, Christopher Bailey, of the burden of running the company, enabling him to concentrate on being “a dedicated follower of fashion”. He’ll be replaced as CEO by Marco Gobbetti of Céline. Shares duly jumped 6% on the news. It was clear from the moment Bailey took control in 2013 that his dual role would be problematic, said Simon English in The Times. “He didn’t like…

Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley by Antonio García Martínez (Ebury Press £12.99). “The most fun business book I have read this year,” says Andrew Ross Sorkin in The New York Times. A “tell-all” by a former Facebook exec whose “score-settling anecdotes will occasionally make you laugh out loud”. Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant (WH Allen £20). A great exploration of how innovators make breakthroughs, says Andrew Hill in the FT. “Procrastinate strategically” is a nugget that will please anyone lying on the beach. The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability and Avoiding the Next Collapse by Mohamed A. El-Erian (Yale £18.99). A timely explanation of the power and limits of central banks. El-Erian argues that a new global architecture is…

This week’s crossword winner will receive an Ettinger (www.ettinger.co.uk) Brogue Collection nut coin purse, which retails at £150, and two Connell Guides (www.connellguides.com). ACROSS 1 Red-faced graduate in a cast (7) 5 John ignoring one indication of vacancy (2,3) 8 Capital permits? Number falling (6) 9 Nuts? You may need them (8) 10 Where to find the Bull in a boring place? (4,6) 12 During mass, assistance needed outside (4) 13 Joined clergyman in joint! (6) 15 Hit on a chart without pictures (5) 18 Eliminate brushwood (5) 20 Rendering of a paint gives sheen on the surface (6) 22 Helper’s notion: the last shall be first (4) 23 Bags of empty instruments (10) 25 Mostly pick up rubbish that gives summer complaint (4,4) 26 Recently concerned with Latin and…

The crisis in the Labour Party came to a head this week when two former shadow cabinet ministers, Angela Eagle and Owen Smith, launched leadership challenges. Jeremy Corbyn has little support in Parliament – 81% of his MPs backed a no-confidence vote against him, and most of his front bench has resigned. Had he been obliged to abide by the same rule as his challengers – who have to secure the backing of 20% of Labour MPs/MEPs – he might well have failed the test. But in a major victory for Corbyn, Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) this week ruled that since he was the party leader, his name should automatically be included on the ballot paper. Eagle’s people “have been plotting and conniving”, crowed Corbyn’s lieutenant, shadow chancellor John…

Bruges, Belgium Beer pipeline: Belgium’s first beer “pipeline” is shortly to open in Bruges. Two miles long, the pipe will carry 1,500 gallons of beer an hour, at a speed of 12mph, from a 16th century brewery in the centre of Bruges to a bottling plant on the outskirts. The owner of De Halve Maan brewery came up with the idea four years ago, when he saw workers laying cables under the road. He was at that time growing increasingly concerned about the impact of his trucks on Bruges’s medieval streets – and realised the solution was to carry the beer through an underground pipe instead. He then crowdfunded it, by offering donors a lifetime supply of beer. Berlin Rape law rewritten: Germany’s parliament has passed a new rape law,…

1 Piano Trio in A Minor, Op. 50 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, performed by Martha Argerich, Gidon Kremer and Mischa Maisky 2 Ne me quitte pas, written and performed by Jacques Brel 3 I Feel Like Going Home, written and performed by Muddy Waters 4 Ebben? Ne andrò lontana (from the opera La Wally) by Alfredo Catalani, performed by Maria Callas, the Philharmonia Orchestra and Tullio Serafin 5 Générique, written and performed Miles Davis 6 Le Déserteur by Boris Vian, performed by Serge Reggiani 7 The Man I Love by George and Ira Gershwin, performed by Sarah Vaughan 8* Spring from Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss, performed by Gundula Janowitz, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Herbert von Karajan Book: À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost…

Never glad confident morning again? Janan Ganesh Financial Times They’re calling him a liar now, says Janan Ganesh. But in his heyday it wasn’t his cynicism that made Tony Blair a man of his time, “it was his almost childlike lack of it”. He believed “he could save Africa, turn the Middle East round… and make his compatriots see their European destiny”. Looking back at the 1990s, you realise we were all equally credulous. “Banks believed they could leverage indefinitely.” Scholars spoke of the end of history: liberal democracy had triumphed; the idea of territorial conquest had vanished with the Soviet Union. Like the period between the Great War and the Depression (the Jazz Age), that between the end of the Cold War and the 2008 crash was a time…

Melanoma surge in older people Rates of skin cancer have increased dramatically in the past 20 years, especially among older people. In the mid-1990s, around 3,000 over-55s were diagnosed with melanoma each year in Britain; by 2014, that figure had increased more than threefold, to 10,000. Overall, there were 15,400 new cases of the disease in 2014 – compared with 5,600 two decades ago – making it the UK’s fifth most common cancer. Partly the increase is due to Britain’s population getting older; but skin cancer rates are also thought to have been fuelled by the overseas holiday boom, says Cancer Research UK. Over-55s are particularly badly affected because they form part of the “sun, sea and sangria generation” who began flocking to southern Europe in the 1960s, before the…

Serena Williams may have triumphed again in the Wimbledon final, but her visit to London had some disappointments. First she was spurned on the dance floor by Andy Murray, who said the tradition whereby both champions dance at the winners’ ball should be put “into retirement”. Murray then added insult to injury by going clubbing in Mayfair after the ball; he was seen dancing until 4am with his wife, Kim, and members of the boy band One Direction. Williams will have had a further nasty shock on returning to the US and converting her Wimbledon winnings into dollars. Thanks to Brexit, the £2m prize money is now worth $380,000 less than when she arrived in Britain for the tournament. David Cameron was proud to declare himself the “heir to Tony…

“Only plebs resign; the elite ‘step down’.” Kevin Clinton, in a letter to The Guardian “The art of statesmanship consists as much in foreseeing as in doing.” 19th century reformer John Bright, quoted in The Sunday Telegraph “Anger is to make you effective. That’s its survival function. That’s why it’s given to you. If it makes you ineffective, drop it like a hot potato.” From Philip Roth’s novel I Married a Communist, quoted in The Guardian “Almost every desire a poor person has is a punishable offence.” Louis-Ferdinand Céline, quoted on The Browser “How desperately difficult it is to be honest with oneself. It is much easier to be honest with other people.” Edward F. Benson, quoted on Forbes.com “Always remember that the crowd that applauds your coronation is the…

Brighten up over Brexit To The Observer These are important times I know, but would it be unfair to suggest that the use of “chaos”, “rancour”, “pitiful”, “wreckage”, and more of this sort, in the first column of your Brexit leader could be considered a tad over the top? The sun is still shining. All over the country, cricket and tennis are being played in parks where children’s laughter can be heard coming from the playgrounds. There are festivals and fetes, car boot sales; there is cycling, riding, walking, and pints being drunk and food being tasted in pubs. Emotive rhetoric should be kept for people who are really hurting – the poor, the weak, the sick, the ill-educated, refugees, and people caught in war zones. So please turn down…

Jonathan Cape 384pp £18.99 The Week bookshop £15.99 “Travis Elborough is the affectionate chronicler of faded Englishness,” said Andrew Martin in the FT. Having “covered” the Routemaster bus and the LP record in earlier works, he now turns his attention to parks, charting their “evolution from aristocratic hunting grounds into public utilities”. Parks, he shows, have often reflected wider social trends: for the Victorians, they were a “means of pacifying the urban poor”; after the First World War, they were associated with the “cult of physical fitness”. A funnier writer than most supposed “humorists”, Elborough leavens his account with droll vignettes – describing, for instance, how, during the Second World War, the “dogged” keeper of Alexandra Park in Manchester would every night complete a threemile circuit to lock its six…

The Neon Demon Dir: Nicolas Winding Refn 1hr 58mins (18) A lurid art-house shocker When The Neon Demon was booed at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, its director, Nicolas Winding Refn, declared that it had always been his intention to provoke. Nice try, said Camilla Long in The Sunday Times, but actually the problem with the film is not that it’s too provocative, it’s that it isn’t any good. A “horror film about being a model”, it stars Elle Fanning as a 16-year-old ingénue who travels to Los Angeles in the hope of conquering the catwalk. What follows is a “rancid, voyeuristic, pretentious exploitation” whose “main point is how horrid women are”, said Libby Purves in the Daily Mail. As our youthful heroine rises through the ranks, she becomes an…

The streets of Hull were filled last Saturday morning by a “crowd of 3,200 naked people, covered headto-toe in blue paint, in what has been hailed as the UK’s largest-ever art installation”, says Harry Cockburn in The Independent. Waves of people from across Britain and beyond arrived in the city centre at 3am to take part in the project by the US artist Spencer Tunick, who is famous for his large vistas of naked volunteers. There, “they all stripped off and painted one another in specific shades of blue”. Tunick addressed the mass of blue people from a crane, while helpers with megaphones directed the crowds into position. The spectacle, designed to highlight Hull’s relationship with the sea, was commissioned by Hull’s Ferens Art Gallery.…

After the custody hearing, Helen tells Kaz she’s worried about Henry’s safety and blames herself for putting him at risk. Carol and Anna discuss the case that caused Anna and Max to split up. Anna was prosecuting and lost. Afterwards the defendant killed his partner. Anna explains that she fluffed her opening speech at Helen’s hearing because she had a flashback to this case. Kenton’s keen to meet Beverley (Wayne’s invented girlfriend), so Jolene tells him that she has died. Kenton is so amazed by Wayne’s stoicism in coming to work that he offers him a permanent contract at The Bull. Helen tells Kaz about Rob’s controlling behaviour: his comments on her appearance and the tracking software the police found on her mobile. Rob visits Pat and Tony to tell…

The Barbary 16 Neal’s Yard, London WC2 (no bookings) When The Palomar opened two summers ago, just off Shaftesbury Avenue, it was immediately hailed for its kick-ass attitude and thrilling take on Middle Eastern food, says David Sexton in the London Evening Standard. Now, a smaller sister restaurant has opened in Covent Garden, and it is every bit as “exhilarating”. The Barbary is such an intimate space – just 24 covers and a jam-packed open kitchen – that the “whole place is the chef’s table: you hardly have a choice but to see your food being made right there for you”. And what food! From the nishnushim (snacks) menu, Moroccan cigars are zingy “fish finger perfection” – ultra-light filo pastry cylinders filled with fresh cod, preserved lemon and coriander, served with…

New cars: what the critics say Evo MG’s recent rebirth has been far from “joyful”. Since the British brand was taken over by Chinese firm Shanghai Automotive, it has produced the “ungainly” MG6 and the underwhelming MG3. But the new GS promises to be the company’s “best chance for success”: a small crossover SUV, with two-wheel drive, and a punchy engine for the price, it’s the most advanced MG yet. Autocar The GS isn’t “a badlooking thing in the metal”. But the interior is far less appealing: while there’s “lashings of leather”, the cabin is marred by a surfeit of “cheap-feeling plastic”. The centre console is behind the times, as is the infotainment system. Still, this is a spacious car in the front and back, with a decent-sized, 335-litre boot…

“The Theresa May bounce” boosted equity markets and the pound. The FTSE 100 rose close to its highest level since last August and the pound stabilised above $1.30. But more volatility was expected later in the week as the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee met to decide on interest rates for the first time since Brexit. Markets globally were buoyed by the prospect of looser monetary policy for longer in Europe and Japan. But an element of risk aversion remained. Yields on ten-year gilts fell to a new record low of 0.7%. It was estimated that more than $11trn of sovereign debt globally now carries a negative interest rate. Suspended property funds began offloading prime assets to provide liquidity to investors. Henderson Global put 440 Strand, HQ of Coutts,…

Europe’s next crisis? Italy’s banks Editorial The Economist Italy’s banks are “in deep trouble”, says The Economist. Burdened by s360bn of souring loans – equivalent to a fifth of the country’s GDP – they have suffered an intensifying sell-off since the Brexit vote and are teetering on the brink. Italy is Europe’s fourth-largest economy, and size alone makes this “bank mess” dangerous. But it also illustrates “the tension between rules made in Brussels and the exigencies of national politics”. The EU principle of “bailing in” creditors – demanding that they take some losses “rather than sticking the bill to taxpayers” – is a good one. But equally, the Italian PM, Matteo Renzi, is right to argue for a rescue: many small investors would be hit if the bail-in rules are…

The week’s best buys Associated British Foods The Times Shares in the Primark owner fell on fears that the weaker pound would erode margins. But half of profits are derived abroad, and currencies in key markets have strengthened. Expect an unheralded earnings increase. Buy. £27.80. Imagination Technologies The Daily Telegraph Despite suffering the worst losses in its history, the microchip designer still looks attractive. Most of its sales are made in dollars, taking advantage of the weakened pound, and it is a strong takeover target. Buy. 168.5p. Melrose Industries The Times The mooted purchase of Nortek, a domestic heating and air-con specialist, is fiendishly complicated. But the potential efficiencies stemming from the deal trump these difficulties, and the market has reacted favourably. Buy. 597.5p. Premier Foods Daily Mail The food…

The term pyrrhic victory doesn’t quite cover it, said Tom Peck in The Independent. “King Pyrrhus himself survived”, while “there is no precedent for what must now be recorded as a ‘Brexit victory’”: a win that was “a crushing defeat for every last person involved”. The victims were not just those who actually lost, but winners such as Boris Johnson, stabbed in the back by Michael Gove; and Gove himself, voted out by colleagues shocked at his treachery. Andrea Leadsom, the last Brexiteer standing, also bowed out of the Tory leadership contest this week. A junior energy minister, she briefly shot to fame thanks to her performance in a BBC EU referendum debate, said Robert Booth in The Guardian. After apparently being let down by Johnson, she launched her own…

Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Manning suicide attempt: The US army whistle-blower Chelsea Manning (formerly known as Bradley Manning) tried to kill herself in prison last week, her lawyers have confirmed. Manning, a transgender ex-intelligence analyst, is serving 35 years in a male military prison in Kansas for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks. Last year she was approved for hormone therapy after being diagnosed with gender dysphoria. However, she is being required against her will to wear her hair short, in line with male military standards. In a statement on her Twitter account (presumed to have been dictated to her representatives over the phone), she said: “I am okay. I’m glad to be alive. Thank you for all your love. I will get through this.” Portsmouth, New Hampshire…

A couple from Milton Keynes came home to find that their “professional and reliable” agency cleaner had got drunk on their booze and trashed their house. Oliver Morris and his partner left the woman at 10am, and came back two hours later, expecting to return to a pristine house. Instead, they found her sitting on the stairs, reeking of alcohol, having apparently drunk more than half a litre of their whisky. She’d smashed a jar of marinade; scribbled on a cream-coloured sofa (possibly in a bid to cover marinade stains); urinated on a carpet – and taken a nap in their bed. The cleaning firm sent flowers as an apology. An Australian man called the police to complain that his father had thrown his cannabis plants onto a bonfire after…

CHINA A small beacon of democracy snuffed out The Diplomat (Tokyo) China’s little “Petri dish for democracy” is finally being tossed out, says Ankit Panda. The fishing village of Wukan seized headlines five years ago after villagers publicly complained about corrupt officials illegally selling off their farmlands to developers. To the world’s amazement, provincial chief Wang Yang, instead of ordering a bloody crackdown, gave them permission to elect their own officials. Alas, Wukan’s elected leader has now been arrested, charged with accepting kickbacks and forced to go on TV to read a scripted confession. It was inevitable really. Wang, a relative liberal and a protégé of former president Hu Jintao, is one of many who have been edged out by Hu’s successor, Xi Jinping. Not that Xi himself cares about…

Goats are not only highly intelligent; they can also form emotional bonds with humans, a study has suggested. Researchers from Queen Mary University of London set goats a series of challenges involving taking the lids off closed boxes to win rewards. The results of these tests suggested their cognitive ability isn’t far behind that of apes. Then, the scientists altered the test, so that when the goats opened the lids, the reward was gone – and monitored the animals’ reactions. They found that when the goats realised the treat was gone, they tended to gaze directly at the humans in the vicinity – in the same way as dogs do when a treat is out of reach. Among other animals, only horses have been found to communicate with humans via…

Joshua Brown died in May when his Tesla electric car collided with a lorry trailer that had turned into its path on a Florida road. The crash was only made public two weeks ago, said John Gapper in the FT, and the media promptly declared it the first fatal road accident involving a self-driving car. That’s not strictly true, though. The Tesla Model S is not an autonomous vehicle. It’s merely equipped with an enhanced cruise-control package called Autopilot, which can keep a car in lane, adjust its speed to keep up with traffic, and brake to avoid collisions. The software doesn’t claim to be foolproof, and drivers are meant to stay alert and keep their hands on the wheel at all times (although YouTube is full of clips of…

Wimbledon: Murray’s winning partnership “How ironic that the man who used to be portrayed as a misery guts has become a national antidepressant,” said Simon Briggs in The Daily Telegraph. Andy Murray’s 6-4, 7-6, 7-6 victory over sixth seed Milos Raonic in the Wimbledon final on Sunday was “nothing short of inspirational”. It was the first time in his 11 Grand Slam finals that the 29-year-old had faced a lowerranked opponent. Giving away only two break points himself all game, Murray dealt with the 6ft 5in Canadian’s thundering serve with ease. At one point, he swatted back a 147mph body serve – the second-fastest in Wimbledon history – “like a batsman hooking a bouncer off his eyebrows”. Had Murray lost, he “would have become the first man in the Open…

To The Times The Chilcot report is wrong to say the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was unnecessary. Saddam Hussein’s regime had to be brought down immediately. He was a long-term supporter of terrorism. He had links to al-Qa’eda that could easily have developed into full-blown cooperation. The potential threat posed by a terrorist organisation that had proven its intent to kill our citizens without restraint, supported by a state’s resources – with or without weapons of mass destruction – had to be prevented at all costs. The invasion of Iraq was not just reasonable action by George W. Bush and Tony Blair, it was their duty. I agree with the report, however, about the shortcomings in military equipment and advice, and the inadequate planning for post-invasion Iraq. These are…

Imagine Me Gone Hamish Hamilton 368pp £16.99 The Week bookshop £14.99 Adam Haslett’s Imagine Me Gone might have been just another novel about a dysfunctional American family, said Randy Boyagoda in the Financial Times. What makes it “distinctive and winning” is its unflinching depiction of mental illness. Narrated by several family members, it describes the suicide of “patriarch” John, an unsuccessful businessman, and then shows how this event reverberates through the lives of his widow and three children. The most memorable character, Michael, is a “brilliant obsessive” who inherits his father’s mental problems. Haslett has a gift for capturing the “strikingly different inner worlds” of his characters, said Lara Feigel in The Observer. The voice of each “emerges from somewhere between speech, thought and writing”; at times there are “conscious…

For much of her life, Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) was the “best-known woman artist in America”, said Waldemar Januszczak in The Sunday Times. Indeed, by the time of her death, she was “an American national treasure”, and her work had become ubiquitous to a degree that many – myself included – found “ghastly”. Most famously, she painted flowers that supposedly resembled female genitalia. These became so familiar that they acquired the status of “tourist tat” which would “look fully at home pinned by a magnet to a fridge door”. It is against this “problematic backcloth” that Tate Modern has tried to shed new light on her seven-decade career. And, to my surprise, it has done so “remarkably well”. It foregrounds O’Keeffe’s “exciting way of seeing”, covering her “most fertile years”, from…

The White King by György Dragomán, 2005 (Black Swan £7.99). Politics and history come to life when you catch them unawares on the pavements and playing fields of childhood. This schoolboy’s tale from the suburbs of Hungarian communism was a vivid guide to some things I never saw in manifestos. The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño, 1998 (Picador £10.99). A road trip across deserts, decades and cultures, with 53 narrators following four members of a Mexico City literary movement on their hunt for fabled poet Cesárea Tinajero. As exotic and sprawling as it sounds, Bolaño’s masterpiece was the book that most pulled me in as an active player. Jernigan by David Gates, 1991 (Serpent’s Tail £8.99). Sometimes a novel really puts you inside a character’s head. This head is Peter…

Programmes The Secret Agent Toby Jones stars in a new three-part adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s thriller about terrorism in 19th century London. Sun 17 July, BBC1 9pm (60mins). Trump’s Angry America Panorama goes to Bakersfield, California, to meet the Trump supporters who back his calls to oust 11 million illegal immigrants and ban Muslim visitors to the US. Mon 18 July, BBC1 8.30pm (30mins). Swim the Channel Touching documentary about the volunteer coaches who dedicate months each year to helping people achieve their dream of swimming the Channel. Mon 18 July, BBC4 9pm (60mins). The Refugee Camp: Our Desert Home Two-part film looking at life in Zaatari, a desert refugee camp in Jordan that’s home to some 80,000 Syrians. It is the size of a city, and contains 24,000 homes,…

Sicily’s unique cuisine is bright, earthy and suffused with the intensity of the Sicilian sun, says Ursula Ferrigno. This ice cream recipe is my very determined effort to emulate a true Sicilian classic. It’s served throughout the island and devoured by young and old alike Gelato di cocomoro (watermelon ice cream) Serves 4-6 1 medium watermelon (you’ll need 720ml of watermelon puree) 200ml milk 200ml double cream 60g caster sugar 1 tsp vodka (this is to help with the freezing, not for the taste, but it’s optional) 2 tbsp dark chocolate chips, to serve (optional) • Prepare the watermelon by removing the seeds and processing the flesh in a food processor until you have the consistency of a purée. • Mix together all the ingredients except for the chocolate chips,…

In May, an archaeologist in Greece made headlines worldwide when he said he had found Aristotle’s tomb, in the village where the great philosopher was born. Experts have since cast doubt on the claim – but for fans of history and philosophy, there are other reasons to visit Stagira and its environs, says Jonathan Lorie in The Sunday Telegraph. This part of northeast Greece – Halkidiki, in the ancient land of Macedonia – is a world apart from the country’s sun-splashed holiday islands. Lying at a cultural crossroads, it remains a patchwork of “dreamy” lakes and chestnut forests, with villages built on a “dazzling overlay” of Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman influence. And scattered across the region are relics of the kings of Macedonia whom Aristotle knew – his patron,…

Policeman’s son who became one of England’s great poets Sir Geoffrey Hill 1932-2016 One of Britain’s greatest postwar poets, Sir Geoffrey Hill produced “searching, searing work on England’s troubled history, the Holocaust, the meaning of Christianity, and the decline of modern culture”, said Sameer Rahim in The Daily Telegraph. In the literary world, he had many champions. Yet Hill – whose work was serious, scholarly, steeped in history and wilfully oldfashioned – was more admired than loved: his poems are rarely taught in schools, and he was never as popular as the likes of Larkin, Heaney and Hughes. In The Triumph of Love (1998), he summed up what many in the poetry establishment thought of him: “Rancorous, narcissistic old sod – what / makes him go on?” Born in Bromsgrove,…

The Chancellor, George Osborne, was on Wall Street this week reassuring US investors that the UK will not retreat into a “Little Britain” mindset. But America’s big investment banks are still fretting about how Brexit threatens their operations in London, said Patrick Hosking in The Times. Senior City executives from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan have insisted they remain committed to the Square Mile. But if bank “passporting rights” guaranteeing EU access are removed, it could be “bye-bye London” for substantial tranches of business, as JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon intimated again last week. Dimon doubts the EU will tolerate “passporting” when Britain triggers Article 50, and could therefore “force banks to become smaller in London”. UBS analysts agree, said Lauren Davidson in…

May day The markets loved Theresa May’s swift coronation as PM, said Larry Elliott in The Guardian. The FTSE 100 “burst into bull market territory”: it was up by more than 20% since its February low. And, the pound, which last week hit a new 31-year low against the dollar, put in its best day since the EU vote – though it was still 20 cents lower than its pre-Brexit $1.50. The end of acute political uncertainty was a driving factor, said Connor Campbell of Spreadex. So, too, May’s “relatively less contentious relationship with the EU”. That, argued Chris Beauchamp of spread-better IG, was the main reason for a 2% rally in the UK-focused FTSE 250 index, which suffered the worst Brexit shock. “The bounce in UK mid-caps is more…

José Manuel Barroso Goldman Sachs has secured a useful ally to help it through the “fallout” from Brexit, says Laura Noonan in the FT: no less than the former president of the EU Commission, who has been hired as chairman of the bank’s international subsidiary, with an additional advisory brief. Joining the Great Vampire Squid marks quite a journey for Barroso – a former Portuguese PM who served as president for a decade until 2014, says the Algarve Daily News. He was “a Maoist in his youth”, but his “conversion to capitalism can be confirmed as complete”. Unsurprisingly, the news has gone down like a lead balloon in some quarters. The left-wing French daily, Libération, said the appointment was “a boon for Europhobes” – and that it was tantamount to…

How one young mother’s life changed Sasha, 18, and her daughter Meghan, now two, arrived at Collier’s home straight from the maternity ward. My dad died in a work accident when I was ten, just before my twin sisters were born, and my mum turned to drink. I have two brothers who are quite a bit older than me and as Mum deteriorated, they worked hard to provide for us all, but she’d steal whatever money they didn’t give her. As I got older, I’d go to the local park and hang around there for hours to get away from the house. I met Carl there when I was 15, truanting. I knew he was no good, but he always seemed up for a laugh, lively, quite a character. When…