Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1126 i The Week

“Our best defence is maintaining the absolute, impassive insistence that this violence will never move us, will never change us” The deadly assault on Manchester The UK terror threat was raised to its highest level of “critical” this week after a suicide bomber killed at least 22 people, and injured more than 60 others, in Manchester. The bomber – identified as Salman Abedi, a 22-year-old born in the city to Libyan refugees – detonated his device on Monday night in the foyer of the Manchester Arena, one of Europe’s largest indoor venues, as thousands of young fans were streaming out of a concert by the American pop star Ariana Grande. The blast sent a devastating wave of shrapnel through the crowd, unleashing a panicked stampede. Among the dead were an…

New York Car mows down pedestrians: A 26-year-old US navy veteran with prior convictions for drink-driving and harassment mounted the pavement in his car in Times Square, Manhattan, last Thursday, and drove into pedestrians for three blocks before crashing into a row of steel security barriers. An 18-year-old woman was killed and a further 22 injured. The driver, Richard Rojas, emerged from the vehicle and began shouting and jumping about; he was subdued by members of the public and police officers. He later told investigators he had been hearing voices and expected to die. The attack is not being treated as a terrorist incident. Friends of Rojas told the media that his personality had changed after he returned to New York following three years in the navy. He has been…

ITALY A prejudice that shames our nation Avvenire (Milan) The horrific arson attack that killed three girls in Rome last week has opened Italians’ eyes to the poverty and desperation of the Roma, says Marco Impagliazzo. The girls, aged four, eight and 20, were asleep in a camper van with their parents and eight other siblings when a man threw a Molotov cocktail at the vehicle, setting it ablaze. Whether the perpetrator was a xenophobe or had a personal vendetta against the family isn’t really the issue. What Italians must ask themselves is why 13 of their fellow citizens were sleeping packed together “in a metal box… without electricity or water, on the outskirts of a rich and comfortable city”. The prejudice against Roma, once known derogatorily as “gypsies”, has…

As the sushi-sashimi boom continues, doctors may need to be more aware of an associated medical problem: parasitic infections from raw or lightly cooked fish. Although cases are mainly seen in Japan, patients in Europe are now presenting with anisakiasis – a disease caused by parasitic nematodes (worms) burrowing into the stomach wall or intestine. The authors of an article in the journal BMJ Case Reports cite the case of a man in Portugal who was admitted to hospital with fever, abdominal pain and vomiting. Doctors diagnosed the problem after he told them he had recently eaten sushi. They also cite a Spanish study that found there had been 25 cases of the condition between 1999 and 2002: those patients had all eaten raw anchovies. Consumers planning to make raw…

Julian Assange stepped out onto the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in London last Friday “with his fist raised in a victory salute”, said Chris Greenwood and Ben Wilkinson in the Daily Mail. Swedish prosecutors had unexpectedly dropped their investigation into a rape allegation made against him by a woman in Stockholm in 2010. The WikiLeaks founder, who has been holed up in the embassy since seeking asylum there in 2012 – to avoid extradition – hailed the decision as an “important victory”. He said he had been the victim of a “terrible injustice”, “detained for seven years without charge” while his children grew up. “That is not something I can forgive” or forget, he said – adding that his organisation would “accelerate” its leaks of CIA documents. “Call me…

“A painter has so much more talent when he’s dead.” Mark Twain, quoted in The Guardian “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” Upton Sinclair, quoted in Foreign Affairs “The kind of people who are disgusted by an idealised past can often barely contain their enthusiasm for an idealised future.” Author Paul Kingsnorth, quoted in The Guardian “World domination is such an ugly phrase. I prefer to call it world optimisation.” Artificial intelligence guru Eliezer Yudkowsky, quoted on The Browser “One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.” André Gide, quoted in The Guardian “Physics is like sex. It may give some practical results, but that’s not…

Mrs T’s biggest fan To the Financial Times John Paul Rathbone’s obituary of Hugh Thomas describes as a failure the famous evening when the historian attempted to bridge the gap with writers by inviting the Iron Lady to dinner with Stephen Spender and Philip Larkin, because the poets “recoiled from the ‘blue flash’ of Thatcher’s ideas”. This was doubtless true of Spender, but Larkin came away enraptured, claiming the prime minister floored him by quoting what she claimed was her favourite Larkin line “about a girl whose mind was full of knives”, from The Less Deceived, which he was thrilled to report she seemed to picture as a mind “rather along her own lines”. In fact, Hull’s laureate never ceased to “adore” the “Leaderene”, as he told the novelist Anthony…

Theatre Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour Adapted by Lee Hall from the novel The Sopranos by Alan Warner Director: Vicky Featherstone Duke of York’s, St Martin’s Lane, London WC2 (020-7452 3000) Until 2 September Running time: 1hr 45mins (no interval) ★★★ The opening moments of Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour sum up the show, said Sarah Crompton on WhatsOnStage.com. “Six schoolgirls in kilts step forward, hands folded neatly. They lift their eyes to the hills and sing a snatch of Mendelssohn like angels. But the second the strains of song die away, they slump, puff out their cheeks, and emerge in the disaffected pose of youth.” And there you have it: on the surface, this tale of six Oban schoolgirls using the excuse of a choir competition to go “on…

Best books… Bella Pollen Writer and journalist Bella Pollen, author of the bestselling novel Hunting Unicorns, picks her five favourite books. Her latest book is a memoir, Meet Me in the In-Between, published by Mantle at £18.99 The Raw and the Cooked by Jim Harrison, 2001 (out of print). Harrison was an outdoorsman, cook and self-professed greedy guts. An intellectual who once scoffed 144 oysters in a row, he was also one of America’s greatest contemporary writers, with a dazzling output that included Legends of the Fall. This book tables his mythic relationship with excess of all kinds. How Lincoln Learned to Read by Daniel Wolff, 2009 (Bloomsbury £12.50). Tracking the education of 12 prominent Americans could have been worthy, but Wolff’s examination of the key ingredients for greatness (Helen…

Serves 8 For the pastry: 150g plain flour, plus extra for dusting 75g ground almonds 50g caster sugar 125g unsalted butter, chilled and diced a good pinch of sea salt ½ tbsp iced water 1 tsp lemon juice or cider vinegar 1 medium egg yolk, lightly beaten For the filling: 750g-1kg apricots, washed, dried, halved and stoned 1 vanilla pod or 1 tsp vanilla bean paste 250ml crème fraîche 1 medium egg 2 medium egg yolks 115g caster sugar 50g flaked almonds icing sugar, to decorate • Start by making the pastry. In a food processor, pulse together the flour, ground almonds, sugar, butter and salt until there are only a very few small streaks of butter visible. Tip into a bowl and make a well in the centre. Mix…

Charismatic politician known as the “Father of Wales” Rhodri Morgan 1939-2017 When Ron Davies resigned as leader of the Welsh Labour party in 1998, following his “moment of madness” on Clapham Common, Rhodri Morgan hoped to assume his place as leader-in-waiting of the new Welsh Assembly. Tony Blair wasn’t having it, however, and secured the election of Alun Michael instead. But as Blair, and others, would discover, Morgan was not a man to give up, said The Guardian. So it was that when Michael was forced out, after less than nine months, Morgan became Wales’ second first secretary – and seven months later, its first first minister, a position he held until 2009. Tall, with a shock of Brillo-pad hair, he was a towering figure in Welsh politics, passionate, resourceful…

Theresa May has got it right about business Philip Stephens Financial Times Critics of the Tory election manifesto accuse Theresa May of “breaking faith with the market” and “taking Britain back to the 1970s”, says Philip Stephens. But while there’s “lots not to like” in the document – not least the “complete failure” to map a credible path to Brexit, or a sensible immigration plan – the specific proposals directed at business are neither threatening nor “terribly radical”. They’re largely about dealing with market failures: oligopolistic behaviour in energy markets, out-of-control boardroom pay and predatory behaviour by global, often state-backed, corporations. The bigger point grasped by May is that “market capitalism can only work within frameworks that secure the consent of citizens”; and the present “economic settlement”, which has enriched…

Controversy of the week The “dementia tax” How did they miss the signs warning: “Danger – quicksand”, asked David Brindle in The Guardian. Social care is a notoriously difficult subject, treated by successive governments with a “curious mixture of incomprehension and disdain”. When Theresa May’s team was drafting the Tory manifesto, it must have seemed like a good idea to guarantee that pensioners in England would stop paying for their own care once their savings and assets are down to £100,000 (at present, only £23,250 is protected). If that meant a minority would have to take a financial hit, it “could be spun as a tough but stateswomanlike choice”. But within 100 hours of last week’s manifesto launch, “the policy lay in shreds”. Critics had dubbed it the “dementia tax”,…

Wadi al-Shatii, Libya Deadly attack: Forces loyal to Libya’s Tripoli-based, UN-backed Government of National Accord stormed Brak al-Shati airbase last Thursday, killing 141 people – most of them soldiers loyal to Khalifa Haftar, the military strongman who controls much of eastern Libya. Many of the soldiers are believed to have been executed; civilians were also killed. Haftar’s self-proclaimed Libyan National Army does not recognise the government: it is loyal to the rival authorities based in Tobruk. The attack came days after a breakthrough deal between Haftar and the Tripoli PM, Fayez al-Sarraj, to form a “united Libyan army” under civilian control – a plan that is now in jeopardy. Sarraj denied ordering the attack, and has suspended his defence minister and the commander apparently behind the killings. Kinshasa Massive jailbreak:…

Stand by for a huge influx of new migrants Stephen D. King The Sunday Telegraph It’s great that it has at last become politically acceptable to talk about immigration in Britain, says Stephen D. King. But people are still missing the big story. When they think of migrants, they think of cheap workers from central Europe, or Syrian refugees. Yet the immigration that will shape our lives in the years ahead is the influx from Africa. To see why, just consider the contrasting demographics of Nigeria and Italy. In 1950, Nigeria’s population was about 38 million; Italy’s 47 million. In 2015, Nigeria’s had shot up to 182 million, while Italy’s stood at 60 million. By 2100, the UN predicts that declining infant mortality and other trends will have swelled Nigeria’s…

“Fat but fit” still more at risk The idea that you can be “fat but fit” has been undermined by new research suggesting that people who are obese have an increased risk of heart failure and stroke, even if they have none of the standard complications of obesity, such as high blood pressure, diabetes and abnormal blood fats. Researchers analysed the health records of 3.5 million people from 1995 to 2015, all of whom were free of heart disease at the starting point of the study. They found that people deemed “metabolically healthy”, despite having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more, were 50% more likely to go on to be diagnosed with coronary heart disease than people of a healthy weight, and had a 7% increased risk…

Roger Moore was famous for being charming to his fans. After his death this week, aged 89, TV writer Marc Haynes recalled meeting the actor at Nice airport in 1983, when Haynes was seven. Spotting the James Bond star, Hayes asked his grandfather, who’d never heard of the actor, if they could get his autograph. They duly returned with a friendly note, and a scrawl – that didn’t say James Bond. Eventually, they deciphered it: Roger Moore. “I tell my grandad he’s signed it wrong – so [he] heads back to Moore, holding the ticket which he’s only just signed.” From a distance, Haynes saw the actor’s face crinkle up with realisation. He beckoned him over. “When I was by his knee, he leant over, looked from side to side,…

You have to admire the guts of President Trump’s advisers, said Kathleen Parker in The Washington Post. They are dealing with one of the most gaffe-prone, unpredictable leaders ever to grace the White House, a man who can unleash chaos at home with a single tweet. Yet last week, they packed him off on a nine-day trip that would involve him “touching base with three of the world’s largest religions, visiting Saudi Arabia, Israel and Vatican City”. As if that weren’t enough, the itinerary of Trump’s first foreign tour also included a Nato summit in Brussels and a G7 conference in Sicily. And this wildly ambitious foreign odyssey was presented in advance as something that would help promote the cause of tolerance. “Really, what could possibly go wrong?” The centrepiece…

Football: Celtic become the new Invincibles To go through a whole season unbeaten in one’s league is an incredible feat. Arsenal did it in 2003-04; Juventus in 2011-12. And this year, another team will go down in history as the “Invincibles”, said Michael Grant in The Times. Celtic have been so dominant in the Scottish Premiership in recent years that “there is a risk of the glories blending into one”. But this year was special. With a 2-0 victory over Hearts on Sunday, Brendan Rodgers’ men completed their unbeaten season – the first time a team has done so in a Scottish league for 118 years. Rodgers’ “all-conquering side” have probably “set more records than Usain Bolt”, said Stephen Halliday in The Scotsman. They won 34 of their 38 games,…

To The Times Dementia is an illness and those who have it are entitled to be treated as ill. There is no justification in relabelling dementia as a social problem, needing social care, for which the sufferer has to pay. Patients with cancer, heart disease, or any other illness receive free NHS care, and dementia should be recognised in the same way. Dr Jane Bowskill, Isle of Wight The Daily Telegraph I cannot believe how badly the Tory party has explained its social care policy. The reality of its proposal is that children of old people going into care homes could be £77,000 better off. There is already a disparity between the cost of cancer care and Alzheimer’s disease. This is nothing new. How is paying your own care bills…

The best… barbecues Jamie Oliver Go BBQ A genuinely portable option, this lightweight charcoal barbecue sits close to the ground, allowing you to cook from the comfort of a chair. The coals lie close to its griddle, ensuring quick grilling (£46; www.jamieoliverbbq.com). Verycook Plancha Grill This Spanish-style, gas-fired griddle offers a smoke-free, healthier form of cooking. Unlike traditional barbecues, it can go on a table, providing a more communal grilling experience, and it heats up in just three minutes (from £299; www.verycook.co.uk). Gentlemen’s Hardware Portable Suitcase Barbecue A briefcase that opens up to reveal a charcoal barbecue, this is a doddle to take along on a picnic or day out. It sits on chrome legs, and has a 16cm x 25cm grill (£50; www.iwantoneofthose.com). Fuego Element Gas Grill Somewhere between…

Segro: making shedloads A good deal has changed for Amazon since it became a public company 20 years ago, pitching itself as “Earth’s biggest bookstore”, said Michelle Lodge on TheStreet.com. Jeff Bezos’s company has since “morphed into a digital beast, hawking everything from cloud computing services to potato chips”, and has, in the process, upended traditional bricks-and-mortar retail. That much is clear in the changing fortunes of FTSE property companies, said Tom Knowles in The Times. Just a decade ago, logistics firms majoring on large warehouses (or “sheds”) were “the least glamorous part of the property world”. Now they’re “making shedloads from the shift to online shopping”. The warehouse group Segro looks set to enter the FTSE 100 index of top blue-chip shares shortly – “a remarkable turning point for…

The former Fox News boss, who has died aged 77 following an accidental fall, “was arguably the most important shaper of American politics of the past half-century”, said The Guardian. A “political king-maker”, Ailes was crucial to the election of at least four Republican presidents – starting with Richard Nixon, who hired the young TV producer as his media consultant in 1967. He later launched, built and ran the Fox News Channel for nearly three decades, “shifting the template of TV journalism” and making huge profits for Rupert Murdoch. But Ailes’ reign came to an ignominious end last July, when he was forced out following “an avalanche of sexual harassment accusations from the network’s female stars”. Born into a blue-collar Ohio family, Ailes “understood the intensity of the unhappiness and…

Who’s tipping what The week’s best buys Electrocomponents The Sunday Times This “Amazon of the electronics and industrial worlds” is going great guns, with a turnaround fuelled by the recovering economy and the internet of things. Good profit projections, and cash for acquisitions. Buy. 536p. Dignity The Times The funeral and cremation services group operates through a network of family-run regional undertakers. Acquisitive and adaptable – its latest offer is cheap, no-frills “direct cremation”. Profits are rising. Buy. £25.13. Marshalls Investors Chronicle The booming domestic construction market is proving a boon for materials supplier Marshalls. Well financed, with a strong order book, it is investing in R&D and improving operational efficiency. Buy. 408p. PureCircle The Daily Telegraph PureCircle produces Stevia, a plant extract-based sweetener with the potential to combat the…

Dublin PM Kenny quits: Enda Kenny has resigned as leader of his Fine Gael party and announced that he will step down as Ireland’s PM, or taoiseach, once the party has chosen a successor, with a deadline of 2 June. Kenny has led Fine Gael for 15 years and has been PM since 2011. He is widely respected abroad, thanks to his management of Ireland’s economy after it was brought to the brink in the years that followed the global financial crisis: Ireland has been the EU’s fastest-growing economy for the past three years, and its unemployment rate has more than halved to below 7% since 2012. But at home, Kenny has been weakened by his party’s failure to win a majority in last year’s election, and by his fumbled…

The ideas man The return of Twin Peaks – David Lynch’s cult TV drama about strange happenings in small-town America – has prompted feverish speculation. More than 25 years on, will it match the macabre, puzzling spectacle of the original? And what did it all mean in the first place? Not much, according to Lynch. “They say if you want to send a message, go to the Western Union,” he told Richard Godwin in The Times. “I’m not trying to say anything about anything. I’m throwing out a lot of ideas… Ideas that I fall in love with – I say they’re like gifts. It wasn’t there, and oh! Suddenly it’s there.” And if there are unanswered questions or loose threads – so much the better. “I love mysteries –…

A man in Texas filed a lawsuit against his date, after she began texting during a film. Brandon Vezmar, 37, had paid for the two of them to see the new Guardians of the Galaxy movie – and was incensed when she became engrossed in her phone. She refused to turn it off, and eventually stormed out. Afterwards he filed a lawsuit against her, demanding she refund him the $17.31 he paid for her ticket, describing her behaviour as a “threat to civilised society”. She eventually relented, but not before the director of the film, James Gunn, had weighed in. “Why stop at suing? She deserves jail time!” he wrote on Twitter. A morbidly obese wild monkey known as Uncle Fatty has been sent to a fat camp, in a…

CHINA The £1trn plan that makes Europe nervous The National (Abu Dhabi) China last week launched the largest infrastructure development programme the world has ever seen, says Rashmee Roshan Lall. And not everyone is happy about it. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a $1trn investment plan aimed at building ports, railways and other facilities across a swathe of countries, to establish new economic corridors between China and Central Asia, Europe and Africa. It’s hugely ambitious, but “has been met, in some quarters, with equal parts suspicion and scepticism”. India is furious about the infusion of Chinese money into its rival, Pakistan; Japan is distrustful of China’s motives; the EU is worried about countries becoming too indebted to Beijing. These fears reflect the world’s “collective nervousness” about the rise…

An uninhabited coral atoll in the South Pacific has been identified as one of the most litter-strewn places in the world. Henderson Island is just six miles long, and is more than 3,000 miles from the nearest major human centre, yet researchers estimate that its white sand beaches are littered with around 38 million pieces of man-made debris (99.8% of them plastic), weighing around 17.6 tons – giving this otherwise untouched shore the highest density of plastic pollution on Earth. Marine biologist Jennifer Lavers, of the University of Tasmania, says she is used to finding such pollution even on far-flung beaches, but that she thought Henderson Island’s isolation might have lent it some protection. “I was totally wrong,” she told The Guardian. “The quantity left me speechless and that’s why…

“In these troubled times, it is only fitting that the nation should turn for solace to the one thing at which we can be sure to excel,” said Dan Glaister in The Observer: “the celebrity wedding.” And so to Berkshire last Saturday, for the nuptials of Pippa Middleton and James Matthews – she famed for her bottom and her brother-in-law, he for being the multimillionaire financier engaged to her. The sun shone, the medieval church was crammed full of flowers, and villagers, wearing wristbands, cheered dutifully when the bride arrived in her bespoke Giles Deacon gown. At the reception, security was so tight guests, ranging from Roger Federer to Princess Eugenie, needed a password to get in, said The Daily Telegraph. But details leaked out: of a glass marquee full…

We’re supposed to be equal before the law, said James Moore in The Independent. But are we? In a drug-fuelled rage, Oxford University student Lavinia Woodward, 24, punched her boyfriend in the face, gashed his leg with a bread knife, and threw a laptop at him, followed by a glass and a jam jar. In court last week, she admitted to unlawful wounding, but her defence QC pleaded for clemency, arguing that her dreams of becoming a heart surgeon would be dashed if she were jailed. The judge, Ian Pringle, sympathised. Referencing her “extraordinary” talent, her “troubled life”, her commitment to staying off drugs and previous good character, he hinted that she might be spared a prison term, and deferred sentencing until September. Just occasionally, I come over all angry…

MotoGP Former world champion Nicky Hayden died five days after colliding with a car while cycling in Italy. He was 35. Football David Moyes resigned as Sunderland manager and Sam Allardyce quit Crystal Palace. Harry Kane won the Premier League Golden Boot. Real Madrid beat Málaga 2-0, clinching the La Liga title. Tennis Novak Djokovic has hired Andre Agassi to coach him at the French Open. The Serbian player lost Sunday’s Italian Open final in straight sets to Alexander Zverev.…

Dastaan 447 Kingston Road, Ewell, Surrey (020-8786 8999) When Angela Hartnett, one of our “undisputed culinary queens”, offers me a restaurant tip, my “ears prick up like a cat scenting a rodent”, says Marina O’Loughlin in The Guardian. Even so, when she told me that Indian food of the most astonishing vibrancy and freshness, “zip and zing”, was to be found on a traffic-clogged highway in “unexciting” Ewell (“Sorry, Ewellites, but you know it’s true”), I was sceptical. But I followed it up and, by golly, I’m glad I did, because at Dastaan, two ex-Gymkhana chefs are serving “Mayfair cooking at mundane prices”. Tumeric-licked Malabar prawns were a “study in luxurious subtlety”. Pork vindaloo was “hauntingly” sharp and resonant without being “bullying”. “Velvety” spiced lamb chops were a tenner…