Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1176 i The Week

What happened Bloodshed in Gaza Gaza suffered its bloodiest day in years on Monday, when Israeli troops opened fire on mostly unarmed protesters massed along the border fence between the territory and Israel, killing at least 60 and wounding thousands more. The killings prompted an international outcry, but Israel insisted it had acted in self-defence to defend its border. It blamed the violence on Hamas, the Islamist group that runs Gaza, a view backed by the US. The bloodshed coincided with the opening – on the 70th anniversary of Israel’s founding – of the new US embassy in Jerusalem after its relocation from Tel Aviv. The move is highly contentious because the Palestinian authorities claim East Jerusalem as their capital. Monday’s protests were the culmination of seven weeks of border…

MPs have once again voted against a new Leveson-style public inquiry into press regulation. The House of Commons rejected the proposal by 301 votes to 289 on Tuesday. The result came after the Government promised additional scrutiny of newspapers, including five-yearly reviews of their use of personal data and regular reviews of the system of press self-regulation. MPs had already narrowly voted with the Government to reject Leveson 2 last week, only for the Lords to support it. Peers could push it back to the Commons for a third time, but are unlikely to do so, not least because ditching the probe was a government manifesto commitment.…

Paris Terror attack: The suspected Islamist terrorist who stabbed a man to death in central Paris last Saturday has been identified as Khamzat Azimov, a 20-year-old Chechen-born French citizen who had been on an anti-terrorism watch list. France’s first suspected terrorist of Chechen origin, Azimov (pictured) shouted “Allahu Akbar” as he launched his attack in the busy Opera district, killing his 29-year-old victim and injuring four others before being shot dead by police. There are around 30,000 people of Chechen origin in France, and it is estimated that 8% of French nationals involved in Syria-based jihadist groups are ethnic Chechens. The attack was claimed by Islamic State. Paris Les Anglicismes: The word globish, meaning a basic, globally understood version of English, has entered the French dictionary this year, along with…

This week’s edition of Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs featured entrepreneur and philanthropist Peter Lampl 1 She Loves You by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, performed by The Beatles 2 Prelude And The Sound Of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, performed by Julie Andrews 3 Jumpin’ Jack Flash by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, performed by The Rolling Stones 4 Theme from New York, New York by Fred Ebb and John Kander, performed by Frank Sinatra 5 California Girls by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, performed by The Beach Boys 6 Swan Lake by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, performed by Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra 7* The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, conducted by Charles Mackerras with Bryn…

Daniel Cohn-Bendit became the face of May 1968. Known as “Dany le Rouge” because of both his red hair and his politics, at the time he advocated a mixture of Marxism, sexual liberation and anarchism: he advocated self-governing, stateless societies, regarded elections as a “fool’s trap” and believed that sexual repression led to “fascist” politics. In fact, once the protests got under way, he did not play a big role: the son of German Jews who had fled to France in the 1930s, he had a German passport and de Gaulle had him expelled on 22 May as a “seditious alien”. In the 1970s, Cohn-Bendit worked in an alternative kindergarten in Frankfurt, before building a new career in Green politics: he led the Green group in the European Parliament between…

SWEDEN Why so much fuss over a call to prayer? Aftonbladet (Stockholm) The call to prayer blaring from minarets is common in Muslim countries, but many Swedes think it shouldn’t be heard in Europe, says Ingvar Persson. In the city of Växjö, conservative politicians are kicking up a stink over the request by a mosque for a three-minute call to prayer to be sent out at noon on Fridays. With elections looming in September, it’s become a hot topic, variously presented as “a threat to the Swedish nation” or a crucial test of religious freedom. But is it worth getting so steamed up about? True, we don’t want to hear it five times a day, but one prayer call a week will hardly disrupt Swedish culture or values. As for…

It’s the end of an era in Malaysia, says Isabella Steger. Last week, in a stunning political upset, the country had its first change of government since it gained independence from Britain in 1957. The 60-year rule of the Barisan Nasional coalition ended when an opposition alliance led by Malaysia’s former premier, Mahathir Mohamad, won a surprise majority in parliament, ousting Prime Minister Najib Razak, who had been embroiled in a massive corruption scandal. It’s a “seismic event” not just for Malaysia, but for the broader region, where it’s “almost unheard of for voters to overturn governments”. Indeed, over recent years a “renewed wave of strongman rule” has gripped neighbouring countries such as Cambodia and Thailand. The 92-year-old Mahathir, now the world’s oldest political leader, “is himself no progressive reformer”.…

Tolerating cold is in our DNA Early humans successfully migrated to freezing northern climates thanks to a genetic mutation that made them better able to withstand the cold – but which also made them more prone to headaches, new research suggests. In the human body, there is only one known receptor that controls how we respond to the sensation of cold. A team led by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology has now discovered that a variant in the DNA upstream of the TRPM8 gene that codes this receptor is far more prevalent at northern latitudes. The further north you go, the more widely the variant is found: only 5% of people with Nigerian ancestry carry it, but 88% of Finns do. As previous studies have found that some…

Grammar schools are “the zombie policy that won’t die”, said Fiona Millar in The Observer. By rights, the idea of bringing them back should have been killed off long ago. Grammars are a middle-class racket. It is well established that they “do little for social mobility”; the majority of their students “come from better-off homes”. A recent long-term study of exam data revealed that they “add barely any value. Their stellar results simply reflect the higher prior attainment of their pupils.” Even so, before the last election, Theresa May promised to create a new generation of grammar schools across Britain. The plan was, thankfully, “seen off” when she lost her majority. But now, at a time when the education budget is under massive pressure, the Government has set aside £50m…

Boxing has had “brawlers and maulers”, said Tris Dixon on Boxing Scene. It has had artists and warriors. But it has never had “anything like Vasyl Lomachenko”. Last Saturday in New York, “the little genius from Ukraine” stopped Jorge Linares in the tenth round to claim the WBA lightweight world title. Just 12 fights into his professional career, the 30-year-old has won world titles in three weight classes: his previous belts came at featherweight and super-featherweight. On this occasion, he weighed 9st 9lb – almost a stone less than his Venezuelan opponent, who had put on 15lb since the weigh-in. But you would never have known that Lomachenko was at a disadvantage: he operated “like a defensive master with the attacking prowess of a hungry lion”. The Ukrainian’s statistics are…

To The Times Why does it apparently require a bold scholar – in this case Bruce Gilley – prepared to brave the social media storm even to suggest that “colonialism” may have had positive aspects? An advantage of being a historian of much earlier periods is that one views the repetitions of history from a far distance. A hunt for blame then gathers pace in the fashionable terms of a later age. Dante argued in his De Monarchia that it had all gone wrong for Europe when imperial power lost its grip. In his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon thought the Roman Empire’s syncretism had been a better bet than a tyrannical new Christianity. Alexis de Tocqueville saw the rise of democracy in…

Entebbe Dir: José Padilha 1hr 47mins (12A) Flawed recreation of the Entebbe hostage crisis In June 1976, four anti-Israel terrorists – two German and two Palestinian – hijacked Flight 139 from Tel Aviv, redirected it to the dusty airport of Entebbe in Uganda and issued their demands. In response, Israel launched an extraordinary rescue mission: 100 commandos stormed the airport and saved most of the hostages. It’s the stuff of which movies are made, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail, and indeed several have been – the “starriest” of which, 1976’s Victory at Entebbe, featured Burt Lancaster and Elizabeth Taylor. This time the big names are Rosamund Pike and Daniel Brühl, who play the German terrorists, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. And the result is “intensely silly and…

Best books… Paul Theroux Novelist and travel writer Paul Theroux picks his six favourite books. A collection of his writing and essays, Figures in a Landscape: People and Places, has just been published by Hamish Hamilton at £16.99 Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, 1856 (Penguin £8.99). Emma Bovary, married to a good-hearted drudge, has a healthy libido, a shopping addiction and an unhealthy sense of romance. Flaubert’s landmark work is both modern and memorable. Crowds and Power by Elias Canetti, 1960 (out of print). This is one of those books that explain everything – in this case, the way humans gather in groups, how they seize power and the symbols they value. It is a study in tyranny and in other forms of domination – among them, a mother serving…

Programmes Queen Victoria and Her Tragic Family Three-part series looking at Queen Victoria’s relationship with her nine children, and the iron control she exerted over them. Sat 19 May, C5 21:20 (60mins). A Very English Scandal Hugh Grant stars in Stephen Frears’ three-part drama based on John Preston’s riveting book about the downfall of MP Jeremy Thorpe, who in 1979 was tried for conspiring to murder his ex-lover Norman Scott (Ben Whishaw). Sun 20 May, BBC1 21:00 (60mins). The Handmaid’s Tale Second series of the acclaimed drama adapted from Margaret Atwood’s novel, set in a future in which an environmental disaster has caused mass infertility. With Elisabeth Moss. Sun 20 May, C4 21:00 (75mins). Imagine... Rupert Everett: Born to Be Wilde The story of the actor’s ten-year quest to write,…

Scandinavians use a lot of marzipan in baking, but only the good quality, 50% almond kind, says Brontë Aurell, and it’s really easy to make your own (see below). I think apricots are delicious with spice, so I’ve added cardamom and cinnamon, but omit if you prefer. Apricot tart with mazarin Serves 8-10 sweet shortcrust pastry: 200g unsalted butter, cold and cubed 350g plain flour 125g plus 2 tbsps icing sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract or seeds from ½ a vanilla pod 1 egg marzipan: 200g finely ground almonds 100g caster sugar 100g icing sugar 1 tsp almond extract 1 medium egg white, ideally pasteurised mazarin: 150g marzipan (as per recipe, or shop-bought with 50% almond content), grated…

● In so far as it’s possible, replicate your usual night-time routine. Changing into pyjamas, brushing your teeth, removing your make-up or washing your face will send signals to your brain, telling it that it’s time to get ready for sleep. ● Scent can be a very powerful relaxation tool; use hand cream or dab essential oils on your neck or pulse points to nudge you towards sleep. Scents that aid sleep include lavender, camomile and ylang-ylang. ● At least half-an-hour before you hope to doze off, put away any electronic devices, turn off the in-flight film, and read or meditate instead. ● Before you fly, work out what types of pillow, earplugs and eye mask work best for you. Look for a dark mask with a soft lining and…

The 19th Soho House has opened its doors in the old BBC Television Centre – and this west London outpost of the empire is “weirdly delightful”, said Steve King in Condé Nast Traveller. From the outside it may look like the “faculty buildings of a 1960s polytechnic”, but inside the members’ club, the decor is an ostentatious “display of wit and whimsy”. In the quirky communal spaces, there are curved, timber-panelled walls and retro squishy armchairs, where attractive people work on laptops; there’s a 24,000 sq ft gym, and two swimming pools – one on a rooftop with views over “the anonymous grey suburban smear that extends all the way to Heathrow”. Back in the day, if a pop star wanted a drink after lip-synching to their latest hit on…

BT: hanging up In its most radical overhaul for over a decade, BT last week announced plans to slash 13,000 jobs, shake up its business and leave its HQ, said Nic Fildes in the Financial Times. But one of the biggest surprises for investors contemplating the job cuts was that the chief executive, Gavin Patterson, “was not among them”. After revealing a profit warning and a ballooning pension deficit (now a troubling £11.3bn), BT’s stock sunk to its lowest level since Patterson took charge in 2013. The “always immaculately attired” boss “put on a brave face” as he pledged to lead a turnaround. But “questions over his tenure – ranging from the decision to spend billions on football rights to the handling of an accounting scandal in Italy – will…

His wealth increased by more than £15bn last year and The Sunday Times has just named him the richest person in Britain. It has taken the fracking and chemicals billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, 65, “just 20 years to make a fortune of more than £21bn”, said Robert Watts in that paper. He built up his private petrochemicals empire, Ineos, “by acquiring a string of cast-offs from BP, ICI and other corporate giants”. To his critics that makes him an “asset stripper”. To his supporters, however, “he is something between a Womble and an alchemist”. Brought up in a council house near Manchester, the son of a joiner and office manager, Ratcliffe was sacked from BP after three days – on account of the fact he had eczema, he claims – before…

Controversy of the week The rendition scandal “It was one of the most shaming, self-abasing apologies ever made in the House of Commons,” said Will Hutton in The Observer. In a letter read out to MPs last week, Theresa May acknowledged Britain’s complicity in what she described as the “appalling treatment” meted out to Libyan dissident Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his wife, Fatima Boudchar. In 2004, at the behest of the Libyan dictator, Colonel Gaddafi, they were seized by CIA agents in Thailand and then – hooded and shackled – flown back to Libya to be tortured in Gaddafi’s jails. And it was MI6 who gave the tip-off as to their whereabouts. Boudchar – who, heavily pregnant, was forced to hear her husband’s screams under torture – was freed after…

The Scottish parliament on Tuesday rejected the EU Withdrawal Bill, the Government’s flagship Brexit legislation. MSPs voted 93 to 30 against the bill, which First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has called a “power grab”. Holyrood’s approval is not legally necessary for the bill to become law, but imposing it on Scotland without a deal would create “the biggest political rift between the two institutions since devolution,” said The Times. The Government has vowed to “push on”, but says there is still time for an agreement.…

“Join me in a campaign against the new buzzword, ‘learnings’. We may have failed to stop ‘going forward’ go forward, and made no headway against the onward march of ‘challenges’, but by ridicule we could surely stop ‘learnings’ in its tracks. The term is part of the idiot speak of modern business communications – ‘And what learnings to do you take, Nikki, from your experience at Carillion?’ – and really means ‘lessons’, but manages to avoid any hint that someone might actually have made a mistake. Think positive! Nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl presented challenges to those affected by radiation, but we have taken useful learnings from the episode.” Matthew Parris in The Times…

British justice simply isn’t working Gaby Hinsliff The Guardian There’s a strike going on that you’ve probably barely heard of, says Gaby Hinsliff. Yet “its implications are as grave as any that make the headlines”. It involves criminal barristers from about 100 chambers who are refusing to take on new taxpayer-funded cases. They’re in despair over sustained cuts to the criminal justice system that have been so severe, they’ve left many junior barristers struggling on less than the minimum wage... and many defendants without proper legal assistance. Owing to fresh restrictions on entitlement to legal aid – and now the barrister strike – more and more people, on charges ranging all the way up to murder, are trying to “represent themselves, often with only the vaguest idea of what they’re…

“Imagine paying more than $900 to a government agency just to be allowed to blog,” says Larry Madowo. That’s the latest idea from the government of Tanzania: it thinks all online content providers should have to pay a fee and submit documents to gain a licence. On the other side of Lake Victoria, Uganda wants to impose a tax on users of social media. Rights groups have complained, but that won’t bother President Museveni: he famously shut down social media during the 2016 election. Neighbouring Kenya has shown a similar contempt for free speech: it closed three TV stations for a week earlier this year. Together, these countries are “presiding over a systematic shrinking of the democratic space in East Africa”. And “cultural censorship” is a big part of the…

The island of South Georgia, in the South Atlantic, was this week officially declared rodent-free after a massive cull. Rats arrived in the 19th century on whaling vessels, and as their numbers grew to several million, they gnawed their way through the eggs and chicks of millions of ground-nesting birds, devastating their populations. In 2011, conservationists launched a project to kill the rodents by dropping poisonous pellets from the air across the 100-mile-long island. Their efforts have worked. To check the rats had been eradicated, the South Georgia Heritage Trust employed three terriers from New Zealand to traverse the island sniffing out rodents. It also deployed more than 4,600 rodent-detecting devices, such as chew sticks and small tracking tunnels to record footprints. Not a single rat or mouse was found.…

With days to go before the royal wedding, Meghan Markle’s father Thomas (one of only a handful of her relatives to be invited to the occasion, and due to walk her down the aisle), was reported to have pulled out of the proceedings. The former lighting director, who lives quietly in a small city in Mexico, was said to have been upset and embarrassed by reports that he had helped stage what had appeared to be paparazzi photographs of him preparing for the big day. His older daughter Samantha (Meghan’s half-sister, who is not on the guest list) took the blame for the episode, saying that she had encouraged him to cooperate with the photo agency, to help “recast” his image. If Thomas Markle (pictured, with Meghan) does not come,…

“I am glad not to have been a revolutionary when I was young, because it prevented me from becoming a reactionary bore in old age.” Robert Lowell, quoted in the London Review of Books “I doubt alcohol kills more people than it creates.” Author John LeFevre, quoted on The Browser “Without Mozart we still have a great deal of great music. We have Bach and Beethoven and Handel and Schumann etc. But with Mozart, we can dance to heaven.” Pianist Menahem Pressler on BBC Radio 3 “Music is liquid architecture; architecture is frozen music.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle “Your guilty conscience may move you to vote Democratic, but deep down you long for a cold-hearted Republican to lower taxes, brutalise criminals and rule you…

Truth be told, this wasn’t the most exciting of Premier League seasons, said Martin Samuel in the Daily Mail. As early as last October, it was clear that Manchester City were going to run away with the title. What is staggering, though, is the number of records that the champions broke along the way. By beating Southampton 1-0 on Sunday, thanks to a last-minute goal by Gabriel Jesus, they finished with 100 points – the highest tally in the history of English top-flight football. They ended the season 19 points ahead of second-placed Manchester United, giving them the largest title-winning margin; with 106 goals, they were “the most prolific goalscorers” since 1962-63, when Tottenham scored 111 in 42 matches (today, teams play only 38 games a season). Highest win percentage…

Autocar The Sorento is not a crossover spun from a family hatchback: it’s got proper SUV architecture. That means this spacious seven-seater is a capable tow car that feels “built to last”. But it also means it’s in a highly competitive class. For the price, this latest model (which has 4WD as standard) is a compelling option, but it lacks the “polish and sophistication” of its many impressive rivals. The Daily Telegraph At 4.8 metres long, it’s a big car – “hard to miss”, in fact. But even after this midlife facelift the exterior isn’t up to much, with “a tough, ready-for-anything mien chosen over conventional beauty”. Inside, it all feels a bit retro, and while the car is well put-together in general, the seats aren’t that comfy (even if…

Eat & Drink Festival in Glasgow will have mouth-watering food trucks and an array of popular street food dishes (31 May-3 June; www.eatanddrinkglasgow.com). For Taste of London, the capital’s best restaurants gather in Regent’s Park and provide scaled-down versions of their signature dishes (13-17 June; london.tastefestivals.com). Wilderness, Oxfordshire, is largely about the music and theatre, but there’s great food to be had too: a highlight is the banquet cooked by Yotam Ottolenghi (2-5 August; www.wildernessfestival.com). River Cottage Festival in Devon has cooking masterclasses, talks (Prue Leith and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall are on the line-up), music and yoga (25-26 August; www.rivercottage.net). At The Good Life Experience in north Wales, you can learn wild cooking, fermenting and spatula-making skills (14-16 September; www.thegoodlifeexperience.co.uk). SOURCE: THE DAILY TELEGRAPH…

The first rule of any business is “know your customer”, says Christian Koch in The Sunday Times. The hotel industry is certainly taking that to heart: in order to “enhance” their guests’ experience, a growing number of hotel companies are now scouring social media in search of the kind of information we used only to share with our friends and families. So, tweet about your favourite beer and you may find it in the minibar on arrival. If you stay at a hotel owned by Groupe Germain while in town for a job interview, don’t be surprised if the staff leave you a good-luck card. Kimpton Hotels admits to having a whole team of “social agents” monitoring social media 24/7 in an effort to “surprise and enthral” guests – or…

The Bank of England kept interest rates on hold at 0.5% citing a soft patch in the economy, and predicting that inflation would return to its 2% target within two years and remain on track. EU leaders met to discuss their response to the US threat to impose sanctions on European companies doing business with Iran, and the prospect of looming steel and aluminium tariffs. Japan ended eight straight quarters of consecutive growth; the economy surprised on the downside, shrinking by 0.6% in the first quarter. The World Trade Organisation ruled against Airbus and the EU in a long-running row involving Boeing. The US had accused the EU of providing $22bn of improper aid to build A380 and A350 jets. The ruling could lead to more trade sanctions, but may…

An excoriating report by MPs into the fate of construction giant Carillion claims that “shyster” bosses were “too busy stuffing their mouths with gold to show any concern for the workforce or pensions” – and are “directly to blame” for the company’s collapse in January, said Rachel Millard on MailOnline. A prolific government contractor that employed 58,000 people, Carillion wildly pursued growth and misrepresented its finances, according to the Commons Select Committee report, which also slammed the “feeble” response of regulators supposed to keep tabs on the company. Carillion’s senior team “could now face disqualification”, said Rhiannon Curry in The Daily Telegraph. The report paints a damning picture of directors’ greed. Treating smaller firms with contempt, they used aggressive accounting techniques to cover their own problems. Britain’s biggest corporate failure…

La Valse des Mansengs Domaine Horgelus 2017 This is the most exciting discovery I have made since I began writing this column — a true revelation! It soars from the glass with an extraordinary vitality and energy that belies its modest origins. It is drinking perfectly now, so I would merely enjoy it while it is so intense and delicious. There are traces of citrus and apricots in the background with floral notes from the small amount of Sauvignon Blanc grapes included. Made in the foothills of the Pyrenées, the owners only pick the grapes in the early hours of the day to preserve their aromatics. Fabulous. Titos Garnacha Familia Bastida 2015 Produced in the heartland of Don Quixote’s Castilla La Mancha, this has to be one of the best…

Madame Tussauds is moving with the times and replacing wax models with animatronic ones – in China, at least. Visitors to the Shanghai outpost will be able to meet an interactive robot version of the Chinese film star Jing Boran. While this is Tussauds’ first “intelligent figure”, the London branch recently introduced a model of actor Tom Hardy heated to 37°C, and with a heartbeat, for a more realistic cuddling experience. Rolls-Royce has launched the world’s most expensive SUV, marketing it as a “weekend car you can put the kids in”. The £250,000 Cullinan is aimed at “ultrahigh net-worth” millennials – thirtysomethings who got rich in tech, say, and who are a decade younger than the average Rolls buyer.…

The Tories have a five-point lead over Labour: the parties are on 43% and 38% respectively, following a dip in Labour support since mid-April. Asked who’d make a better PM, 39% say Theresa May and 25% Jeremy Corbyn. YouGov/The Times In the US, the Republicans are experiencing a surge in support as they gear up for November’s midterms. In February the Democrats led by 16 points. Now they’re only three points ahead. CNN/The Daily Telegraph One in four parents have altered parts of classic fairy tales when reading them to their children because they think that they’re inappropriate or too scary. Little Red Riding Hood is the story most often changed. OnePoll/Daily Mail…

In bed with rock’s greats Pamela Des Barres was the ultimate groupie, says Craig McLean in The Observer Magazine – and she believes she played a part in nurturing rock’s great talents. She hung out with The Doors and Jimi Hendrix, and her lovers included Jimmy Page and Mick Jagger – but she has a special place in her heart for Keith Moon. “He was such a needy soul… When he’d wake up screaming about being a murdering f*** [Moon had accidentally run over and killed his driver] I could calm him. It was my duty as a muse to take care of this brilliant genius.” She denies that fans like her were victims of sexual abuse – the 1960s and 1970s were “a whole other universe” – but admits…

A retired Dorset couple have been convicted of attacking their pagan neighbour, a druid witch calling himself Bearheart, after losing patience with his full moon rituals. Mark and Anne Denyer became infuriated by the chanting and drumbeats coming from the garden of John Bennett’s bungalow during the monthly ceremonies, and stormed over on last November’s full moon, after a verbal altercation over the fence. Mrs Denyer hit Bennett with an umbrella, and Mr Denyer stabbed him with a kitchen knife. Luckily, Bennett’s 22st frame protected him and he was only superficially injured. A Spanish potato farmer has become a social media star because of her likeness to Donald Trump. Dolores Leis posed for an article about life on her farm in the local paper, La Voz de Galicia, and in…

The “cultural appropriation police” have struck again, says David Frum. The latest target of their wrath is an 18-year-old girl from Utah who dared to post a picture of herself on social media wearing a Chinese-style dress, a cheongsam, to her high school dance. “My culture is NOT your goddamn prom dress,” raged one Twitter user, Jeremy Lam. Like many of these silly controversies about “people of one background adopting and adapting the artefacts of another”, this one was petty, coercive and infantilising – but it also exhibited a particular historical ignorance. The style of dress worn by the student was conceived in China after the overthrow of the Qing dynasty in 1912, when Chinese women found themselves free for the first time in 250 years to dress as they…

Britain has fewer doctors and nurses per head of population than most developed countries, new research has found. Researchers from the King’s Fund health think tank compared data from 21 OECD countries. Britain was ranked 19th for the number of doctors per capita, 16th for nurses per capita and 18th for hospital beds. Britain has only 2.8 doctors per 1,000 people, barely half the number in Austria, which has the most, at 5.1 per 1,000. Britain has fewer than 8 nurses per 1,000, whereas Switzerland has 18. On hospital beds, Britain has 2.6 per 1,000; Germany, the best performer, has 8.1. The analysis also revealed that Britain has fewer MRI and CT scanners per capita than any of the other nations on the list. Yet as a proportion of GDP,…

“Hey, Londoners – been stabbed or shot yet this week?” asked Rod Liddle in The Spectator. If not, count yourself lucky. The capital’s murder rate has overtaken New York’s in recent months and is “approaching Detroit’s”. So far this year, there have been 63 suspected murders in the city. Had the victims been “nice little old white ladies called Betty, this carnage would have captured a bit more of our attention”. But almost all these killings have involved young men from ethnic minorities, both as victims and perpetrators. To point out this demographic reality, though, is to risk being “cast as a racist”. Liberal critics are bizarre. They argue – “correctly, in my opinion – that we are doing little to stop the crimes because we don’t care enough about…

Irish rugby’s remarkable year shows “absolutely no sign of ending”, said Robert Kitson in The Observer. In March, Ireland won the Six Nations with a clean sweep. And in Bilbao, Spain, last Saturday, Dublin’s Leinster beat Paris’s Racing 92 15-12 to win the Champions Cup, the top club tournament in European rugby, for a joint-record fourth time. Remarkably, they won the title with a 100% win record, a feat that has been achieved just once before in this competition. All season, Leinster have been the best team in Europe, said Gerry Thornley in The Irish Times. In the group stage, they faced Exeter, Montpellier and Glasgow – the leading teams in their domestic leagues. Yet Leinster comfortably beat all three, home and away, before disposing of Saracens, the back-to-back European…

Blame the parents To The Sunday Times Justine Greening talks of the need for more help in white working-class homes, but I do not agree with her that “overwhelmingly parents want to do their best for their children”. I have seen many parents from poorer backgrounds who have no interest in their children’s education, and we need to be honest enough to admit this. Some of my daughter’s friends received not the slightest support from their parents when they took their GCSEs. They coped with serial new partners in their parents’ lives, received no help with exam preparation and faced total indifference at sixth-form information events. All this resulted in these young people having no academic success and no ambition beyond low-skilled work. We must call parents out on this…

Theatre An Ideal Husband Playwright: Oscar Wilde Director: Jonathan Church Vaudeville Theatre, Strand, London WC2 (0330-333 4814). Until 14 July Running time: 2hrs 45mins (including interval) An Ideal Husband was first staged 123 years ago, said Caroline McGinn in Time Out, and I’ve no doubt West End audiences will be enjoying revivals of Oscar Wilde’s brilliant society comedy for at least another 150 years. This tale of an upright politician with a dark secret, as well as his witty but frivolous friend and a dastardly female blackmailer, is “light yet indestructible”. And when it’s played, as here, with “dapper footwork, faultless patter and emotional, moral depth, it blooms as brightly as a dandy’s buttonhole”. I’m not sure I’d back director Jonathan Church’s claim that this is Wilde’s best play, said…

David and Peggy Rockefeller’s vast collection of artworks and other treasures set a new world record at Christie’s in New York last week, said The Guardian – selling for $832m, considerably more than any other private collection. The top lot was a Picasso of a naked girl holding a basket of flowers (pictured), which had previously hung in their Manhattan home; it sold for $115.1m. A Monet water lily painting went for $84.7m, while a Matisse depicting a woman in a Turkish harem fetched $80.8m; both were records for the artists. All the 1,500 lots sold. Art dealers spoke of the “Rockefeller premium”, said The Times: the fact that the lots had been kept in the home of one of America’s most famous families drove up prices by about a…

Adam’s pleased Brian has come clean about the insurers not paying out. Adam’s worried about the lack of pickers and fears they may have to leave one of the fruit tunnels to rot. Will tells Clarrie and Eddie that Andrew’s spoken to a solicitor about having custody of Jake and Mia. Will’s worried that Andrew, as their biological father, could win custody. Harrison’s keen to announce his engagement, but Fallon’s embarrassed – as she was so anti-marriage, she is worried that people will judge her, especially as she proposed. At the quiz, Harrison surprises Fallon by staging a second proposal. Fallon accepts. Freddie suggests Hannah rent the spare room at No. 1 The Green. While Johnny and Freddie are showing her around, a brick flies through the window, hitting Johnny’s…

Hide 85 Piccadilly, London W1 (020-3146 8666) Ollie Dabbous’s grand new restaurant is the capital’s biggest opening of 2018, and probably its most expensive – and it’s a “barnstorming success”, says Frankie McCoy in the London Evening Standard. Dabbous’s backers, the Russian-owned Hedonism Wines (which also provides Hide’s vast choice of wines) could have invested in the flashiness of another Sexy Fish, say. Instead, they’ve created a fabulous “cellar-cool refuge from sticky Piccadilly”, with not one but two superb restaurants. Ground (on the ground floor), is a relatively casual all-day space, where we enjoyed gorgeous turbot, in a sauce of its own bones, and charred asparagus. Then up the art deco tree trunk staircase there’s Above, where huge windows offer cinematic views across Green Park, the inspiration behind the…

Black & Decker GL7033 This two-in-one edger and trimmer is light and manoeuvrable, but heavy-duty. Just switch it to vertical mode and use the guide wheel for an immaculate lawn (£66.50; www.tesco.com). Gardena Smart Sileno This robot lawnmower can handle the most complex shapes and slopes. Part of Gardena’s smart range, it can be controlled remotely via an app, or linked to their sprinklers, so it doesn’t get in their way (£1,197; www.argos.co.uk). Niwaki GR Secateurs A pair of razor-sharp secateurs can make a world of difference to a day in the garden, so treat yourself to this pair. Hand-forged in Japan with carbon steel, they are beautifully balanced and robust enough to tackle the toughest work (£69; www.niwaki.com). Black & Decker GW3031 Collect your leaves into a pile with…

Labour minister who helped bring London the Olympics Dame Tessa Jowell 1947-2018 Dame Tessa Jowell, who has died aged 70, was often depicted in the media as a prim, slightly nannyish figure said The Times. But at Westminster, she was known not only for her sense of humour, but for a quality that is far more rarely found in politics, said Stephen Bush in the New Statesman: her kindness. As an MP, and later as a minister, this least tribal of politicians made a great effort to be kind to people she had no need to be kind to. Of course, she was other things besides. She was astute and extremely effective: her achievements included the London Olympics, 24-hour licensing and the Sure Start programme. But it was partly because…

Donald Trump’s recent threat to impose tariffs on some $150bn of Chinese goods looked like “the first volley” of a “full-scale trade war”. Yet suddenly the US president “seems ready to make peace”, said The New York Times. Trump has indicated that he will help to save ZTE, a Chinese electronics-maker that is on “the brink of collapse” after being punished by US officials last month for breaking sanctions against Iran and North Korea. State-backed ZTE, which majors on mobile technology and employs 75,000 people in more than 160 countries, is “an important geopolitical pawn for Beijing” in an increasingly frosty “technological cold war”. Trump clearly views it as a useful “bargaining chip” too in his new quest to keep China onside as events hot up in Iran and Korea.…

Is it folly to downplay Roman risks... Nils Pratley The Guardian You’d think the arrival of “a populist, free-spending and Euro-sceptic” government in Italy would have sent markets spinning. But the reaction so far has been one “big yawn”, says Nils Pratley. That’s extraordinary given “the radicalism being contemplated in Rome” by the League-Five Star Movement coalition, whose programme, “even in watered-down form”, packs a punch against EU orthodoxy. It proposes a parallel currency to run alongside the euro; a flat tax rate of 15% for most companies and households; a “universal income”; and the repeal of tough-minded pension reforms. Depending on the precise version adopted, “that collection” of policies could increase government spending by s60bn-s100bn a year, in a country whose stock of debt is already 132% of GDP.…

This month’s wines are more eclectic than usual, which is what I have come to expect when I select from Swig — one of the most interesting online wine merchants in the UK. Founder Robin Davis is tireless at exploring new regions and grape varieties, which is how we have come across Domaine Horgelus and its spectacular La Valses de Mansengs. For me, this month was a double first as I had never previously had wines either from this domaine or grape varieties. I’ve already bought some cases to enjoy immediately, as when the initial pleasure is so intense, why wait? The same could be said of the Rote Cuvee Groszer Wein and the Blaufränkisch grape — an equally attractive introduction to dual new experiences. It’s thanks to merchants like…