Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1182 i The Week

What happened Big business vs. Brexit Business leaders launched a concerted attack on the Government’s handling of Brexit last week, warning that continued uncertainty was destroying long-term investment and jobs. The aerospace giant Airbus, which employs 14,000 people at 25 UK sites, said it could quit Britain if the country leaves the EU without a deal. Days later, BMW demanded “clarity” on future trading arrangements, warning that it, too, would have to close UK plants if it could not import components quickly and reliably from mainland Europe. Greg Clark, the Business Secretary, urged ministers to listen “with respect” to companies’ concerns. This was seen as a rebuke to cabinet colleagues Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson: the former had accused Airbus of undermining Brexit talks with its “completely inappropriate” intervention; the…

Coca-Cola, which had to suspend production of its fizzy drinks owing to a CO2 shortage. Booker – the wholesale giant – has been rationing supplies of beer and soft drinks to its retail customers; deliveries of fresh foods have also been affected, because CO2 is used in the packaging process. The shortages are mainly due to the shutdown for maintenance of several ammonia and bioethanol plants in Europe that supply CO2 to the UK. Online retailers, with news that British shoppers return half the clothes and shoes they buy online, mostly because they don’t fit. St Paul’s Girls’ School, in London, which was ridiculed for holding an “austerity” lunch, where pupils swapped their usual meal (typical option: duck leg confit with braised red cabbage) for “simple food” – baked potatoes…

Fort de Brégançon, France Presidential pool: President Macron has ordered a new swimming pool to be built at his official summer retreat, leading to further complaints about his supposedly imperious and profligate ways. Built on a tiny island off France’s south coast, the Fort de Brégançon was first used by Charles de Gaulle in the 1960s, but more recently it has fallen out of favour – partly because of the ease with which paparazzi on boats can photograph people on its private beach. President Hollande stopped using the fort after he and his then-partner Valérie Trierweiler were snapped in their swimwear. This month, Macron has also been attacked for reportedly ordering s500,000’s worth of new crockery for the Elysée Palace, and for publicly humiliating a teenager whom he had accused…

My debt to Dustin Hoffman Elaine Paige has never forgotten her debt to Dustin Hoffman, says Richard Barber in The Mail on Sunday. In 1977 she was 29; her career was flatlining, and she was losing heart. Then she met the actor at a party in a hotel in London. They got talking, and bonded over the difficulty of getting good parts if you are short (she is 4ft 11). When he asked her to come up to his suite, she was wary – but it turned out he just wanted her to sing a song he’d written with Bette Midler. “I sang it for all my life was worth. When I finished, he had tears running down his cheeks.” Bowled over by her talent, Hoffman insisted she persevere in…

A Japanese civil servant has been reprimanded and fined for leaving his desk three minutes early for lunch. The 64-year-old official, who works at the waterworks bureau in the city of Kobe, went on his designated lunch break three minutes too early on 26 occasions over a period of seven months, according to a city spokesperson. Senior officials at the bureau called a televised news conference to apologise. They described the worker’s conduct as “deeply regrettable” and bowed in apology. The man, who was docked half a day’s pay, said that he had left his desk early to get a bento box because he needed a “change of pace”. A 10ft wooden statue of a grizzly bear has been removed from its position outside the town of Llanwrtyd Wells, in…

FRANCE Macron puts a schoolboy in his place Libération (Paris) Emmanuel Macron is sending out some very mixed messages, says Didier Péron. At a public event commemorating France’s wartime Resistance last week, he rounded on a schoolboy who’d had the temerity to call him by the nickname “Manu”, telling him: “You address me as Mr President, or Sir.” The 15-year-old boy, who had also been singing the socialist anthem L’Internationale, was embarrassed, and quickly apologised. But Macron piled on the humiliation, adding: “If you want to start a revolution, fine, but first get a degree and learn to feed yourself.” This was no momentary loss of temper: to ensure the entire country saw it, Macron’s office tweeted a video clip of the encounter. Many were appalled: the lad had merely…

The UK’s vaccination programme for the cancer-causing human papilloma virus (HPV) is expected to be extended to boys. The vaccination was introduced for teenage girls in 2008, and since then rates of HPV among young women have fallen by 86%. Over time, this is expected to lead to a considerable reduction in the number of women diagnosed with cervical cancer. HPV has also been linked to cancers of the neck and head in men, but it wasn’t offered to boys because government health officials calculated that there were insufficient HPV-linked cases to make it cost effective. It was also assumed that if girls were vaccinated, that would offer “herd protection”, to heterosexual men at least. Now, though, with levels of head and neck cancers rising rapidly in men, they have…

After more than 25 years in the limelight, Catherine Zeta-Jones is sick of apologising for her success. The Welsh actress, who has been married to Michael Douglas since 2000, told the Daily Mirror: “One thing I’m not is humble any more. I’m sick of being humble. I really am. ‘So sorry I’m rich, so sorry I’m married to a movie star, so sorry I’m not so bad looking.’ No sorrys. Enough. All that is important to me now is my work,” she went on. “That’s what I love, and the rest of my life is a joy because I’ve got two beautiful kids and a healthy, happy husband. It’s all good, and I’m not going to be humble for that either.” Pop star Mariah Carey is said to have put…

“There’s no room for demons when you’re self-possessed.” Carrie Fisher, quoted in The Sunday Times “An error is always the more dangerous in proportion to the degree of truth which it contains.” Henri-Frédéric Amiel, quoted in Forbes “Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can; all of them make me laugh.” W.H. Auden, quoted in The Daily Telegraph “Be confident, not certain.” Eleanor Roosevelt, quoted on The Browser “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” Carl Jung, quoted in The Daily Telegraph “The trouble with some women is that they get all excited about nothing – and then marry him.” Cher, quoted in The Providence Journal “Treason doth never prosper;…

Something is “gnawing away” at Novak Djokovic, said Kevin Mitchell in The Guardian. He used to be the kind of passionate, energetic player who would “rip open his shirt, eyes blazing, and beat his chest as if he were about to explode”. But after losing his quarter-final in the French Open earlier this month, the Serb was so drained that he was “unsure if he would even play at Wimbledon”. He made it to Queen’s last week, where he lost to Marin Cilic in the final, throwing away a match point. But he did not appear to have “shaken off” the demons that have stalked him over the two years since he last won a Grand Slam title, and spent the week “fending off questions about his downbeat mood”. Still,…

“It may only be June, but we already have a runaway favourite for worst film of the year,” said Tim Robey in The Daily Telegraph. John Travolta’s latest offering, Gotti – a biopic of the New York mafia boss John Gotti – has flopped at the US box office and been panned by critics. One reviewer called it “the worst mob movie ever”. At the time of writing, the film has a score of 0% on the review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes. That “rare achievement” puts it among an elite band of turkeys that also includes Jaws: The Revenge, Return to the Blue Lagoon and Look Who’s Talking Now, another Travolta vehicle. “This life ends one of two ways: dead or in jail,” intones Travolta in an over-the-top New York…

The true face of the Mystic Lamb, the central figure of a world-famous 15th century Flemish altarpiece, “has been revealed after almost six centuries”, says James Crisp in The Daily Telegraph. A giant 12-panel masterpiece by Jan and Hubert van Eyck, completed in Ghent in the 1430s, the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb was unveiled last week after a painstaking restoration. During this work, experts discovered that the lamb’s face had been overpainted in the 16th century, so that it became an “impassive, rather neutral figure”, according to Hélène Dubois, the project leader. Now restored (pictured), the lamb is “much more intense and expressive”, she said, and “connects far more directly with the people, with big eyes”. The altarpiece, which is on display in St Bavo’s Cathedral in Ghent, is…

Magpie 10 Heddon Street, London W1 (020-3903 9096) “It would be hard not to love Magpie,” says Tim Hayward in the FT. This relaxed, friendly new restaurant, sitting in a cosy pedestrianised nook off Regent’s Street, is from the same pair (Sam Herlihy and James Ramsden) who brought us the excellent Pidgin in Hackney. I can give it “no more glowing recommendation than to say that it totally lacks a ‘concept’, and, in its place, has serious heart”. It also has a knack for producing innovative dishes with a “spirit of cheeky larceny”. A “cocky little starter” of sourdough and sheets of lardo topped with pickled jalapeño slices really shouldn’t work, but “God, it’s a cracking combo”. “Lovesome” cod brandade on crisp-fried polenta and topped with “honking” kimchi is…

The Daily Telegraph “Selling large saloons in Britain is a dying art.” Even the Germans struggle to sell their classic models, and the French had seemed to have given up: in the last six years, Citroën and Renault have taken saloons off the market. And yet here’s Peugeot, with this great-looking car and plans for an estate version – and a plug-in hybrid – next year. Could this be the “start of the fight-back against SUVs”? What Car? It comes in a range of five engines – two petrol, three diesel – but a manual gearbox is only available with the entry-level 1.5-litre diesel. Interior options are also many and various and include massaging front seats, wireless phone charging, and ambient lighting. The fit and finish are nice, and there’s…

Great for those new to gardening, Lazy Flora will send you a bundle of seasonal plants every quarter, along with plenty of soil, plastic gloves and planting instructions (from £12 per month; lazyflora.com). Seed Pantry, for those with some plant know-how, lets you choose a mix of flower and food seeds for your monthly box (£13 per month; www.seedpantry.co.uk). To get kids outdoors, Mud & Bloom sends them a monthly box with a gardening activity, like growing cucumbers or giant sunflowers, and a nature-based crafts task (£8 per month; www.mudandbloom.com). Bloombox helps you create a stylish green interior, sending out a new houseplant each month, complete with ceramic pot (from £35 per box; bloomboxclub.com). Plant ‘n’ Grow supplies fun pick ‘n’ mix seed boxes like a “gin botanical” kit and…

“Knackered-out seaside towns on the Kent coast” are not everyone’s dream destination, says Mark C. O’Flaherty in The Daily Telegraph. But these days they are home to a growing number of former east Londoners, who found they could swap their small flats in Clapton for sprawling family houses in faded south coast resorts adorned with “UKIP rosettes and a mega-Wetherspoons”. Places where “every newcomer is dismissed as a gentrifying upstart by last year’s newcomers”– they’re not my cup of tea. That said, I can see the appeal of Deal. Its Hackneyfication began long ago, and the latest establishment to get the treatment is The Rose. This used to be one of Deal’s “most notorious pubs... each pint came with a frisson of danger”. Now, thanks to a makeover by interior…

Pod Point: a sparky investment The future of transport is electric – of that there is now little doubt. According to one estimate, more than a million plug-in vehicles will be using British roads by the end of 2022, and all those drivers will need somewhere to charge their vehicles. That’s what inspired the creation of Pod Point in 2009, to build support networks and accelerate the mass adoption of clean, green vehicles. “The amount of charging infrastructure we’ve got to build to enable the mass adoption of electric vehicles is immense,” says Erik Fairbairn, Pod Point’s founder and chief executive. “It’s simultaneously the most frightening and most inspiring part of what we do.” Venture debt funding High-tech companies in emerging sectors of the economy, which may prioritise long-term growth…

While the top brass of ad conglomerate WPP attempt to right the ship, an intriguing subplot has developed at one of the group’s satellite companies – the PR firm Finsbury, said Jim Armitage in the London Evening Standard. The chauffeur of Finsbury founder Roland Rudd has been questioned by the Financial Conduct Authority as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged insider trading. While there is “no suggestion” that either the driver or the City PR guru “have done anything wrong”, the investigation is believed to involve shares in a firm on Finsbury’s client list, which “includes many of the biggest companies in the FTSE 100”.…

The Bank of England governor is due to step down next June and the hunt is on for his replacement, says Phillip Inman in The Observer. In the running are “Chicago school economists”, old Threadneedle Street hands, and some “genuine outsiders” too. Andrew Bailey The current head of the Financial Conduct Authority “knows his way round Threadneedle Street”, but is not a macroeconomist, and is “thought by some to be too hesitant to handle the rough economic seas” post-Brexit. Nemat Shafik Both well connected internationally from her time at the IMF and a former Bank MPC member, she is “not afraid of making tough decisions”, and “would bring in fresh thinking”. Andy Haldane The Bank’s current chief economist is a good communicator with a strong grip on how the UK…

The week’s best buys Cineworld Group The Times Strong cash flow is helping to fund expansion and to cut debt, while a promising slate of releases, 4DX technology and “superscreens” are enticing cinemagoers. The dividend’s up too. Prospective yield 4.6%. Buy. 260p. Iomart Group The Times Iomart, which supplies digital infrastructure and cloud services, has some nicely “sticky” business customers. It operates in a wide spread of sectors and has the firepower for deals. Analysts are bullish. Buy. 392p. Johnson Matthey The Daily Telegraph The speciality chemicals group has several divisions, each with the potential for gains in sectors that include the motor industry and pharma, where there is scope to double or triple profits. Buy. £37.25. PTSG The Mail on Sunday Many of the highly specialised building and maintenance…

Is this “chocks away” at last for Heathrow, asked the Daily Mail. On Monday night, MPs voted by an overwhelming 415 votes to 119 to build a third runway at Britain’s biggest airport. After “50 years of wrangling, dithering and delays”, it seems that “the longest chapter of political cowardice in our history” is finally drawing to a close. Few emerged with much credit from the debate over where to site the first full-length runway in the southeast since the Second World War. Jeremy Corbyn gave his MPs a free vote – because the plan has strong union support – but suggested that he may reverse the decision if he came to power. And the Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, who had promised his Uxbridge constituents that he would lie down…

The UK must spend significantly more on defence if it is to maintain its international influence, the Commons Defence Committee has warned. MPs said the defence budget, which is currently equivalent to 2.14% of GDP, should be raised by about £17bn to 3% – a call echoed by Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson. The report, published ahead of next month’s Nato summit, at which President Trump is expected to repeat his demands that members spend more on defence, claims the rise is crucial for the UK to maintain a “leadership position” in Nato and “fruitful” relations with the US. The Government responded that it will “continue to exceed” Nato’s 2% spending target, noting that the UK defence budget is Europe’s biggest.…

Washington DC Border separations: President Trump gave in to intense political and public pressure last week, and signed an executive order to end the separation of families crossing the border illegally from Mexico. “I didn’t like the sight or feeling of families being separated,” said the president (see page 14). The White House insisted its “zero tolerance” policy, of prosecuting all adults crossing the border illegally, was continuing and that children would simply be kept with their parents during that process. However, on Monday officials said that they had temporarily stopped handing migrants with children over for prosecution because there was not enough room to house them, and a judge in San Diego ruled on Tuesday that children should be reunited with their parents within 30 days. Meanwhile, 17 states…

1 Life on Mars?, written and performed by David Bowie 2 After the Gold Rush, written and performed by Neil Young 3* Galway Bay by Arthur Colahan, performed by Ruby Murray 4 Wish You Were Here by David Gilmour and Roger Waters, performed by Pink Floyd 5 Ain’t No Sunshine by Bill Withers, performed by Michael Jackson 6 Georgia on My Mind by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell, performed by Ray Charles 7 Summertime by George Gershwin, DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin, performed by Billie Holiday 8 Word on a Wing, written and performed by David Bowie Book: Hatter’s Castle by A.J. Cronin Luxury: beautiful underwear * Choice if allowed only one record…

For nearly 13 years after Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, the UN imposed comprehensive sanctions on Iraq, banning nearly all foreign trade to a country that imported some 70% of its food. Iraq had previously been a success story of the developing world, but in the 1990s, incomes plummeted to nearly 10% of their previous levels, while malnutrition and disease rocketed. A Unicef report estimated that 500,000 children had died as a result, though this is now accepted as a serious overestimate. “We are in the process of destroying an entire society,” said Denis J. Halliday, the UN’s then humanitarian coordinator. Sanctions achieved some of the UN’s explicit goals: Iraq paid war reparations and did, as it turned out, dismantle its weapons of mass destruction. But far from…

It’s high time we stood up to China Scott Paul RealClearPolitics.com Critics have denounced plans to impose tariffs on Chinese goods, says Scott Paul, but this is one instance “when the White House should actually be applauded”. It’s about time we took a stand against China’s theft of our hard-earned intellectual property (IP). Consider the numbers. IPintensive industries in the US support about 45.5 million jobs, represent more than 38% of GDP and account for more than half of our exports. We have, meanwhile, amassed more than $4.3trn in merchandise trade deficits with China since 2001. Much of that is “the result of China’s protectionist market policies – of which IP theft is part and parcel”. None of this is any secret. Barack Obama waged a long campaign to dissuade…

A robot has debated publicly with humans for the first time, and performed so well, the contest was deemed a draw. On a stage in San Francisco, IBM’s Project Debater – a 6ft-tall black panel with an animated blue “mouth” – took part in two debates with prize-winning human debaters, one on the merits of subsidised space travel, the other on telemedicine. The audience voted that the robot’s delivery was not as good as the humans’, but that it had better substance to its arguments. Arvind Krishna, of IBM, said it had pushed the boundaries of artificial intelligence in a way that Google’s game-playing AI hadn’t. “Language is nuanced,” he told the BBC. “In this case also, there is no particular right or wrong.” The robot has access to a…

“Something strange” happened at Prime Minister’s Questions last week, said Oliver Wiseman on CapX. A hard-left Labour leader attacked a Conservative Prime Minister for her recklessness in promising to increase NHS spending by 3.4%. It was quite “absurd” of Jeremy Corbyn to lecture anyone on fiscal responsibility; he only did so because his usual lines of attack had been closed off. Boosting NHS spending was a smart move, said Philip Collins in The Times. “More public spending please” was the message of last year’s election. After eight years of austerity, the cuts “had started to hit the bone”. By agreeing a generous increase for the health service, the Tories have insured themselves politically. When the next NHS crisis occurs, it will be less plausible to blame them for starving it…

It was hard to know what to make of England’s 6-1 thrashing of Panama, said Martin Samuel in the Daily Mail. After all, it came against a team ranked No. 55 in the world, competing in their first World Cup. And there are “considerably harder tests” ahead: a final group match against Belgium, on Thursday, will test England’s sometimes shaky defence. Still, “six, against anybody, is a rare dividend” – before Sunday, England had never won a World Cup tie by more than a three-goal margin. Once again, Harry Kane was at the heart of the match, said Henry Winter in The Times. His hat-trick put him top of the tournament’s scoring table, with five goals. Manchester United midfielder Jesse Lingard, “all quicksilver movement”, scored the finest goal of the…

Stop helping Brussels To the Financial Times The Brexit negotiations and the arguments in Parliament are within a whisker of becoming a major constitutional crisis with appalling potential consequences. About half the MPs and a majority in the House of Lords support the EU, and are actively aiding it in the negotiations. The Government is trying to carry out the wishes of the electorate after Parliament had decided by large majorities to grant the decision on EU membership to them. Of course, many had assumed that there would be a different referendum result. If the Remainers persist, the consequences will be dreadful. As it is, they have encouraged the EU to offer no sensible arrangements, so that our country is being pushed into a corner. When the negotiations began there…

Theatre An Octoroon Playwright: Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Director: Ned Bennett Dorfman, National Theatre, South Bank, London SE1 (020-7452 3000). Until 18 July Running time: 2hrs 40mins (including interval) ★★★★ “What a bold, exhilarating piece of work” this award-winning American play is, said Sarah Crompton on What’s On Stage. First seen at Richmond’s Orange Tree, the piece has transferred to the National like a “heat-seeking missile, releasing its energy and power, its comedy and its deep, dark anger”. An Octoroon is a playful refashioning of a wildly popular 1859 Broadway melodrama, The Octoroon, about slaves and their masters on a Louisiana cotton plantation. This “slippery and compelling” reworking by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins opens with the appearance on stage of a black playwright, BJJ (Ken Nwosu), who explains to the audience that he admires…

Frida Kahlo (1907-54) is one of the most recognisable cultural figures of the 20th century, said Mark Hudson in The Daily Telegraph. The Mexican artist’s likeness, with her joined-up eyebrows and “singular dress sense – Mexican peasant with a touch of baroque fantasy” – has been reproduced on everything from jewellery to Barbie dolls. Yet she was little known in her lifetime, and even now, most of us have only the “sketchiest idea of who she was and what she did”. This new exhibition at the V&A “goes a long way” towards redressing that. The show narrates the story of her life through her art and possessions, bringing together paintings, photos, documents and personal belongings – many of which were only recently discovered in a previously sealed room in the…

The Corner That Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner, 1948 (Virago £8.99). A book about a community of East Anglian nuns in the 14th century with no main character and no obvious structure shouldn’t work. But the author uses it to explore every kind of human frailty, and creates a fascinating, touching and uplifting novel. A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov, 1840 (Penguin £8.99). The titular hero is an utterly unheroic man (of course). There are seductions, smugglers, a kidnapping and a duel, but Pechorin is still bored and self-indulgently melancholic. Throughout the novel, the sublime is tempered with fatalism and frustration. Irritatingly irresistible. The Pumpkin Eater by Penelope Mortimer, 1962 (Penguin £8.99). Quirky is an overused word, but it does sum up this brilliant book. It begins…

Kate goes for it at Ruth’s party, knocking over the cake stand and initiating a drinking competition. Kenton reveals his big surprise – an adults’ bouncy castle. It’s a hit with David, but Kate finds her heels are a problem. Toby isn’t drinking so he can drive Pip home, but is not around when needed. Ruth tells David the evening’s been perfect. As Kenton gets The Bull ready for the England game, he laments to Toby that his bouncy castle is torn. The TV breaks just as the match kicks off and The Bull empties. Will is off to meet his solicitor to discuss custody when Jennifer calls to say his birds have escaped. To Eddie’s relief, Will misses his appointment. Kate, needled by the recent family secrecy, tells Pip…

Wicked potato salad with dill Serves 4-6 as a sharing dish 85g beluga lentils 600g baby potatoes dressing: 60ml olive oil 2 tbsps apple cider vinegar 1 small shallot, finely diced 1 tbsp chopped dill, plus extra to garnish ½ tbsp strong mustard (I love a good Dijon) ½ tbsp maple syrup 1 tbsp chopped capers 1 green apple, cored and finely diced pink Himalayan salt and black pepper, to taste to serve:…

Dyson Cool™ AM07 Tower Fan The remote-control Dyson Cool™ creates a smoother and more consistent airflow than most bladed fans. It has a hollow centre and forces air out of invisible vents (£340; www.johnlewis.com). Swan Retro 16-inch Stand Fan If you’re worried that a fan will be an ugly addition to your stylish home, try this retro model. It comes in nine colours, is height-adjustable, and is also available in a desktop size (£50; www.leekes.co.uk). MeacoFan 1056 Air Circulator The super-efficient MeacoFan is also super-powerful, and it turns vertically and horizontally to cover the most space. In Eco mode, it adjusts fan speed according to the temperature (£100; www.meaco.com). Arctic Air Unlike most fans, the Arctic Air can blow a chilled breeze using an evaporator and a small water reservoir.…

The last of the girls who followed the rabbit-proof fence Daisy Kadibil 1923-2018 When she was eight years old, Daisy Kadibil was forcibly removed from her Aboriginal mother and sent –with her half-sister Molly, 14, and their cousin Gracie, ten – to live in a bleak government institution hundreds of miles away, where they were to be trained for a life in domestic service. The story of how the girls escaped and made their way home – following a fence that had been built north-to-south across the continent, to stop rabbits spreading from the east to the farmlands of western Australia – inspired the acclaimed film Rabbit-Proof Fence, said The Daily Telegraph. Released in 2002, it shone a light on a shameful (and for years shamefully little-known) period in Australian…

Countrywide: roof falls in? Shares in Britain’s biggest estate agency group tanked by 30% this week after it issued a fresh profit warning and put out the begging bowl to investors, said Ben Woods in The Daily Telegraph. Countrywide, whose agency brands include Hamptons, John D. Wood and Mann, lost £212m last year and is asking for about £100m to tackle its “huge debt pile”. The company has lost “substantial market share” in both sales and lettings thanks to “competition from cut-price online rivals and a cooling housing market”. Shares have crashed some 84% since a group of private equity owners took it public in 2013. “In a contrast of fortunes”, shares in Purplebricks – the online estate agency now led by former Countrywide manager Lee Wainwright – have more…

Brussels faces a “brutal clash” with Italy Alex Brummer Daily Mail European leaders have agreed a plan that will finally take Greece off financial life support, ending the eight-year eurozone bailout programme. “But the underlying social and economic fissures are as wide as ever,” says Alex Brummer. Since 2010, there have been 95 eurogroup finance meetings on Greece, yet the results have been “catastrophic”. National output has fallen by 25%. Youth unemployment is at 40%. Even so, containing the crisis was relatively easy because Greece represents “a small part” of the euro area. But “even the most devoted EU enthusiasts” accept that fixing “the economic basket case that is Italy” will be a very different matter. If the new PM, Giuseppe Conte, sticks with the economic policies on which his…

“Her vocabulary grew to dozens, then hundreds of words. When she didn’t know a word, she combined others to create new ones” Every pet owner has said it: “I swear that animal understands every word!” For Koko the gorilla, who lived in California with her devoted keeper, scientist Francine “Penny” Patterson, that claim was literally true. Koko knew at least 1,000 words of American Sign Language and appeared to respond to thousands more that she heard spoken. Once, listening to Patterson and another zoologist debating whether to label Koko a “juvenile” or an “adolescent”, she interrupted in sign language: “No, me gorilla!” That was 40 years ago, about the time Koko first became an international celebrity in the late 1970s, starring in TV documentaries and on magazine covers. Since then,…

The Church of England is divided over how best new ministers should celebrate their ordination. In recent years, clerics have been photographed holding L-plates, jumping for joy in a line – and even “dabbing”, a dance move popular with children. Some welcome the new spirit of joyous informality. But others are not convinced all this “silliness” really helps the Church’s image. “It connects with my general fear about the Church’s attempts to look relevant in the modern world,” said the Rev Patrick Gilday. The television has overtaken the kitchen table as the most likely place for British families to gather. According to a new report, 48% eat an evening meal together every day, while 54% gather every day to watch TV.…

Half of British workers say a regional accent and a working-class background are barriers to success in their workplaces. A quarter say having a regional accent had held them back at work, rising to almost half of people in London. The Guardian 70% of UK voters say they want a reduction in immigration – 42% a “big” reduction and 28% a “small” one. In terms of EU immigrants, 57% want to welcome only those with specialist skills, 22% want continued free movement and 11% want a blanket ban. Delta Poll/Channel 4 News 48% of Britons say that they would like a second referendum, to accept or reject the final Brexit deal. 25% oppose the idea. Survation/The Independent…

Plateau state, Nigeria Scores die in cattle clashes: As many as 169 people have been killed in renewed violent clashes between ethnic Berom farmers (mainly Christian) and ethnic Fulani cattle herders (mainly Muslim) in central Nigeria last week. The two groups have for decades fought over land and grazing rights, but the conflict is intensifying owing to droughts becoming more frequent, and the number of settled farmers rising. Already the conflict has caused more deaths – 1,000 this year – than the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast of the country. The Fulani roam with their cattle across a vast belt of central and west Africa from the CAR to Senegal, constantly in search of grass and water. A search of villages after the clashes found 50 houses had been…

“‘In this warm weather,’ shouted the loudspeakers at Derby station, ‘remember to stay hydrated! Carry a bottle of water at all times!’ Why? How over 193 years of railway history have passengers survived until now without clutching bottles of water? How many people died of thirst on Britain’s trains last year? Why add to the mountain of plastic Michael Gove scolds us about? Why the inevitable discarded bottles? Sooner or later someone who was not holding the handrail because they were clutching a plastic bottle will trip on another bottle and then, prostrate, choke on a torrent of water. Then, this being Britain, we’ll have a minute’s silence.” Matthew Parris in The Times…

Wooing Trump is a waste of time Dan Hodges The Mail on Sunday It’s astonishing that Theresa May has agreed to roll out the red carpet for Donald Trump, says Dan Hodges. A policy of constructive engagement might have made sense 18 months ago, when there was still room for hope that “his bombastic rhetoric was merely campaign braggadocio”. But it has become more than apparent since then that Trump is every bit as bad as we feared, and that efforts to court him are futile. Emmanuel Macron, for instance, thought he’d formed a special bond with Trump during his visit to Washington in April – but it counted for nothing at the G7 summit weeks later. Trump isn’t interested in making international friends. He came to power on a…

Mammals turning into night owls Many mammal species are so distressed by human activity, they are starting to live by night just to get away from us, a study has suggested. Researchers in the US drew on data from more than 70 previous studies to get an impression of 62 mammal species. When they cross-referenced the results with levels of human disturbance – everything from road-building to hiking – they found that higher levels were associated with a 1.36 times increase in nocturnal activity, on average. The phenomenon could be observed regardless of the type of human interference, and persisted when a species’ habitat was unchanged, leading the researchers to conclude that fear must be its main driver. The earliest mammals were exclusively nocturnal, and are thought to have only…

“Failures were compounded by a ‘complete unwillingness’ to listen to complaints and respond to them” Imagine a “dark corner” of the healthcare system, where older patients are “put to sleep” with powerful drugs, said Judith Woods in The Daily Telegraph. They may be suffering from a bone fracture, and in need of nothing more than physio and paracetamol; they may be sitting up in bed, chatting to nurses and loved ones, and looking forward to going home. But none of this will save them, because “someone somewhere has unilaterally” deemed their lives not worth saving. It would sound like the plot of a horror film, but as we know now, that is what went on for 12 years at Gosport War Memorial Hospital in Hampshire from the late 1980s. According…

The recent case of Billy Caldwell – the young epilepsy sufferer who had his supply of cannabis oil confiscated by the authorities – has been a godsend for the pro-legalisation lobby, said Ross Clark in The Spectator. It perfectly fits their narrative of a “demented prohibitionist policy”. Look, they cry: the cannabis ban isn’t just “taking the fun out of rock festivals”, it’s “killing kids as well”. Don’t be fooled. There’s a very good reason why cannabis oil isn’t currently licensed as a treatment for epilepsy, which is that “there is not, as yet, good scientific evidence for its efficacy”. A few trials have shown that THC – the compound in cannabis that makes you high – can reduce seizures, but others suggest that it can increase them. Billy’s mother…

Just when England were wobbling, Jos Buttler came to the rescue, said Paul Newman in the Daily Mail. The team needed to win their fifth one-day international (ODI) to seal a first 5-0 demolition of Australia in any format. And it started well, with a “close to perfect performance” in the field that bowled out the Australians for only 205. Yet England made “a complete Horlicks of what should have been a routine chase”, crashing to 114 for eight. At that point, it looked as if even a batsman as talented as Buttler would be incapable of turning the match around. But what followed was a 110 not out that was “indubitably the best century” he has produced. It was one of the great ODI performances, said John Westerby in…

To The Daily Telegraph Another former soldier is to be prosecuted for events that took place in Northern Ireland decades ago. I served in Northern Ireland during the 1970s and the 1980s, and recently added my name to a petition addressed to the Government entitled “British soldiers who served in Northern Ireland must have immunity from prosecution”. The Government’s written response stated that prosecutions were a matter for the police and the prosecuting authorities, who acted independently of the Government. The paragraph ended: “We do not support amnesties or immunity from prosecution.” This sentence encapsulates the double standards that exist in dealing with immunity: the government of the day acted contrary to the present policy when it made a political decision to allow an amnesty and immunity for hundreds of…

There is a slightly unnerving quality to the paintings of the Philippines-born, London-based painter Maria Farrar. At the first, superficial glance, they appear to contain little more than stylised doodling applied directly to grey, unprimed canvas, rather like 1940s fashion illustrations as interpreted by a Pinterest-addicted millennial. Yet something deeply odd is going on in these dreamlike, weirdly unsettling compositions. Farrar paints innocuous subjects that nevertheless hint at secret symbolic meanings: beautifully observed details of clothes, small animals, floral patterns and cakes, all floating about in an undefined spatial relationship in which perspective has ceased to matter. Frankly, it’s all a bit Magritte: in one work, a slice of sachertorte levitates above a pair of gloves; in another, a pair of elaborate stilettos hover beside a dining table loaded with…

Programmes The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan The comedian goes “way beyond his comfort zone” to visit challenging destinations. In the first episode he explores Haiti. Sun 1 July, BBC2 21:00 (60mins). Olympic Dreams of Russian Gold Described as the Black Swan of sports documentaries, this Storyville film follows the brutal training regime demanded of Russian gymnasts in the lead-up to the Olympics. Sun 1 July, BBC4 21:00 (70mins). Night and Day Walter Presents screens this dark Spanish thriller about a forensic pathologist who becomes personally involved in a serial murder investigation. Sun 1 July, C4 22:15 (65mins). Violent Britain: Drugs, Knives and Gangs As the rate of stabbings and shootings across the country surges, Tonight explores key factors behind the rise in knife and gun crime. Thur 5 July, ITV1…

This summer you’ll find more “wild and wacky, yet absolutely delicious craft brews” than ever: the range and quality are superb, says Jane MacQuitty in The Times. With citrus big right now, I loved Wild Beer’s 4.1% Pogo (£2.19; Waitrose, 330ml can), a terrific passion fruit, orange zest and guava “wallop” from Somerset. It’s hard to pick just one of Beavertown’s brilliant beers, but the 6.7% Lupuloid India Pale Ale (£2.40; Waitrose, 330ml can) is an “elegant, smoky, citrus delight”. Fruit beers are especially summery, so nab the “splendid” coriander and cherry kernel-spiked 3.5% Belgian Cherry Wheat Beer (£2.50; M&S, 330ml bottle). From the excellent Kernel Brewery in Bermondsey, I’d suggest the richly yeasted, herby 5.2% Pale Ale (£2.60; Oddbins, 500ml bottle). They also make my favourite lower-alcohol beer, Table…

● Phones can give away more about you than computers because they’re always with you, and always connected. To limit this, switch off bluetooth and Wi-Fi when you’re not using them. ● In your app settings, block access to your location for apps you don't feel need it. Companies use it to find out your habits. ● Think about each app on your phone. If you haven’t used it for six months, delete it. ● To stop seeing targeted adverts based on your online activity, go into your browser settings and clear the history. You can also download no-track browser extensions. ● Google yourself, and see if you’re happy with the information and photos available. If they’re on your social media, you can delete them or change your privacy settings.…

Failed musicians keen to “face up to their demons” should spend a weekend at Finchcocks, says Giles Smith in The Times. At this pile in rural Kent, rusty piano players can fine-tune their skills on a range of mini-courses. Some participants may still play regularly, others might not have sat down at a piano since their teens. Whatever their level, Finchcocks promises to “jump-start” their playing and banish any fears and frustrations. Guests stay in an attractive former coach house, where they get to play on a collection of first-class grands. Musical director Dave Hall is a “powerhouse”. He reveals the music’s “structural mysteries”, branches into melody and soloing, then circulates between the pianos, offering “bespoke wisdom”. Guests can expect to leave revitalised, with renewed enthusiasm for their hobby –…

Cambridge lab will teach computers to study emotions Samsung will open an artificial intelligence research lab in Cambridge, creating 150 highly-skilled jobs in a cutting-edge sector that the government says will be key to Britain’s industrial future. The new lab, which will teach computers to recognise human emotions and improve the way they interact with us, will increase the South Korean electronics firm’s UK-based research team by almost half. The team will be led by Professor Andrew Blake, a “pioneering researcher in the development of systems that enable computers to interpret visual data”, says Bloomberg. As research director of the Alan Turing Institute, Blake helped develop the technology that allows computers to recognise human faces. The news was welcomed by Prime Minister Theresa May, who said the centre will “create…

Corporate leaders on both sides of the Atlantic spoke out for the first time about the threat to free trade posed by a cliff-edge Brexit and the brewing global trade war. While Airbus and BMW led the charge in Britain, Harley-Davidson defied President Trump by announcing plans to move a sizeable chunk of its production outside the US to beat EU sanctions (see page 47). Markets took fright when the White House indicated it would stop foreign companies from investing in US tech businesses and block exports of sensitive technology. Trade adviser Peter Navarro later clarified that any restrictions would only apply to China. Emerging markets continued to be battered by deepening trade worries. The Bank of England kept interest rates on hold at 0.5%, but markets are now factoring…

Finding positives After another rocky week on markets, said Gavin Lumsden on Citywire, traders have become so used to conflicting signals from the White House that they’ve almost learnt to love them. “At this point, markets are treating confusing guidance as a de facto positive,” observed Ken Odeluga of City Index. “Any delay that results offers a chance for less damaging trade solutions to prevail.” On the plus side, the global economy is still looking healthy enough. Yet there’s a sense that many are battening down the hatches against rising “macro uncertainties”. BlackRock’s global chief investment strategist, Richard Turnill, is urging everyone to build “increased resilience into portfolios” – noting that even if the US and China avoid a full-blown trade war, tensions between the two could hurt business confidence…

Dara Khosrowshahi Uber’s successful appeal to regain its taxi licence in London is “a victory” for Dara Khosrowshahi, 49, the chief executive, “who has been trying to reboot the company’s culture” following the disastrous regime of his predecessor, Travis Kalanick, said The New York Times. The ride-hailing service has been granted a new 15-month licence by Westminster magistrates – provided it agrees to regular audits and a clean sweep of senior managers who approved the Greyball software used to dodge regulatory scrutiny. Regaining London, Uber’s biggest European market, was Khosrowshahi’s most significant “public test”, said Lex in the FT. His presence in court, and full disclosure of UK accounts – currently “funnelled” to a Dutch holding company – “would have helped even more”. Whitney Wolfe Herd The founder of Bumble…

“Reports of animals that could talk, read and even do complex calculations have appeared and reappeared over the years,” said Charles Seife on Slate. In early 20th century Berlin, a stallion named Clever Hans (pictured) became famous for answering questions and even doing basic arithmetic, by shaking his head yes or no, and tapping out numbers with his hoof. On closer examination, however, it emerged that Hans could only respond correctly when his owner, Wilhelm von Osten, a retired schoolmaster, knew the answer. Hans, it turned out, had been conditioned to pick up “subtle, involuntary cues” from his owner: when the horse had tapped out the correct number, von Osten would raise his head and the horse would stop tapping. Starting in the 1950s, a series of researchers taught sign…