Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1187 i The Week

What happened Preparing for no deal Ministers have confirmed that the Government is preparing for major disruptions at UK borders, in the event that Britain leaves the EU on 29 March 2019 without a deal. Prime Minister Theresa May suggested last week that people should take “reassurance and comfort” from official plans to ensure that adequate supplies of food and medicines are maintained. The Government is also working on plans to turn a 13-mile stretch of the M20 near Dover into a giant lorry park to ease cross-Channel jams. However, No. 10 denied reports that the army might be used to deliver food, fuel and medicines to the vulnerable. Last week, the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, stated that Brussels would never accept the proposal for the bespoke customs deal…

Charlotte Caldwell, after Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, said that her campaign, on behalf of her epileptic son Billy, had influenced his decision to allow medicinal cannabis to be made available on prescription. As Billy celebrated his 13th birthday, his mother said that for him, it was the “best present”. EastEnders, with the return of Dr Harold Legg, one of the soap’s original, and best-loved, characters. Leonard Fenton, who plays Dr Legg, is now 92; he will be reunited with June Brown, who is still playing Dot Cotton at 91. Gold prospectors, after a hobbyist revealed that he’d found an 85.7g nugget worth £50,000 in a river in Scotland.…

British voters would rather have David Cameron as Prime Minister than Theresa May. In a head-to-head, 28% chose Cameron, 22% May, and most of the rest neither. May is, however, preferred over Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Cameron’s strongest support is among 18- to 24-year-olds: 38% of that age group chose him and only 13% opted for May. YouGov Around a third of 18- to 34-year-olds would consider plastic surgery or cosmetic procedures; among over-55s, only 9% would. ComRes/BBC Radio 5 Live More people now support a second referendum on the final Brexit deal (42%) than oppose it (40%) for the first time since YouGov started asking the question in 2017. YouGov/The Times…

Growing up a Witness In his remarkable debut film, Daniel Kokotajlo draws back the curtain on a strange world, says Rachel Cooke in The Observer (see page 29). Most of us know very little about the Jehovah’s Witnesses – but Kokotajlo, 37, was once a Witness himself. When he was eight, growing up in Manchester, his mother was converted by a “nice old couple who talked about the fact that the end of the world was coming, and [how] all our problems would be fixed. It was very appealing, growing up where we did.” They stopped celebrating birthdays and Christmas, and Daniel had to dress in a suit and go around knocking on doors. Doubt set in only slowly. “When I first read Darwin, I thought: ‘This makes so much…

A Japanese company has found an unusual place to sell advertising: in young women’s armpits. The Wakino Ad Company (waki is the Japanese for armpit) charges 10,000 yen (£69) per hour to place a rectangular full-colour ad under the arm of a model, who shows it off while grasping overhead handles on the Tokyo subway. Wakino also plans to stage a beauty contest to find the most attractive armpits in Japan. So far, it has snagged only one client: Seishin Biyo Clinic, which offers underarm hair removal. A silversmith who has been sculpting a privet hedge outside his Sheffield home into the shape of a reclining woman for nearly 20 years is “disgusted” by drunk people pretending to have sex with it. Keith Tyssen has been woken up dozens of…

Donald Trump may be president, said Paul Waldman in The Washington Post, but is he even in charge of this government? Two weeks ago, he invited Vladimir Putin to visit the White House. The visit has now been shelved. Last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was having to tell the Senate Foreign Relations committee, that, no, it wasn’t the case – as Russian officials are hinting it was – that in Trump’s Helsinki meeting with Putin, the president had verbally agreed to drop sanctions against Russia. Nor had he agreed that a referendum to determine their political future should be held in the breakaway republics in Ukraine held by Russian-backed separatists. Almost every policy stance Trump takes seems to be reversed by his own administration. Trump expresses doubt about…

Humanity has already busted its ecological budget for 2018, using up a year’s worth of the Earth’s resources in just seven months, reports The Guardian. Earth Overshoot Day marks the point each year when our use of natural resources (from fresh water and fish to timber) exceeds nature’s capacity to regenerate them. And according to Global Footprint Network, the think tank which “hosts” the concept, this year’s overshoot occurred on 1 August – the earliest ever recorded. Consumption first become unsustainable in the 1970s; 30 years ago, the overshoot took place on 15 October; 20 years ago, on 30 September; and 10 years ago, on 15 August. We are “running a Ponzi scheme with our planet”, said Mathis Wackernagel, the think tank’s chief executive. “We are borrowing the Earth’s future…

“Death is a long journey and you can’t take anything to read on it.” Philanthropist Drue Heinz, quoted in The Spectator “It is an iron law of British weather that as soon as you comment on it in print, it changes.” Charles Moore in The Daily Telegraph “People always ask how I managed to buy a house aged 25. I tell them I did it the old-fashioned way: worked hard, saved up all my free time and invested it into one elderly relative.” Comedian Kiri Pritchard-McLean, quoted in The Observer “Effective action is always unjust.” French playwright Jean Anouilh, quoted in Forbes “Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.” Voltaire, quoted in The Daily Telegraph “Mostly it’s fools who start a war. Only the brave and wise can…

Formula One Lewis Hamilton won the Hungarian Grand Prix; Sebastian Vettel came second. Hamilton goes into the summer break with a 24-point world championship lead over Vettel. Boxing British boxer Dillian Whyte beat Joseph Parker on points. Dereck Chisora knocked out Carlos Takam. Darts Gary Anderson beat Mensur Suljovic in the World Matchplay final, becoming the third man to complete the sport’s “triple crown”. Football Liverpool beat Manchester United 4-1 in the International Champions Cup.…

The Salt Path by Raynor Winn The uplifting true tale of the couple who lost everything and embarked on a journey of salvation across the windswept South West coastline. The landscape is magical: shape-shifting seas and smugglers’ coves; myriads of sea birds and mauve skies. Our price: £11.99, usually £14.99 The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane, Jackie Morris The rich landscape of wild imagination and play is fading from our children’s minds. From bestselling author Macfarlane and acclaimed artist & author Morris, The Lost Words stands against this and is a joyful celebration of nature words and the natural world they invoke. Our price: £16.00, usually £20.00 Outskirts by John Grindrod Green belts are part of the landscape and psyche of post-war Britain, but have led to conflicts at every…

Best books… Mark O’Connell Mark O’Connell, a journalist and author based in Dublin, chooses five of his favourite books. He won the 2018 Wellcome Book Prize for his debut, To Be a Machine, published by Granta at £9.99 At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O’Brien, 1939 (Penguin £9.99). This is both one of the funniest books of all time, and one of the most ingenious fictional experiments ever conducted. It’s futile to attempt an account of its plot, but it involves a university student whose effort to write three separate stories gets wildly and hilariously out of hand. The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm, 1989 (Granta £9.99). This is not just a great work of literary journalism, it’s also one whose greatness resides in it being about journalism; it’s about…

If alcoholic drinks make your head too fuzzy in hot weather, or you’re just not a fan, there are plenty of “tasty alternatives” around, says Jane MacQuitty in The Times. Good substitutes for cocktails are a challenge, but Seedlip’s two copper pot still-distilled, nonalcoholic spirits work well, topped up with your favourite mixer and a citrus slice. The Seedlip Garden 108 Herbal, Distilled Non-Alcoholic Spirit (£26, 70cl; Tesco) is a “striking, fresh, grassy, mint and peapodlaced”, non-alcoholic spirit that is splendidly summer. Its richly spiced sister, Spice 94, fragrant with cinnamon, clove and cardamom, and orange (£26; Tesco) is even better. Alcohol-free spritzers are far easier to pull off. Monte Rosso Naturally Non-Alcoholic Apéritif (£2.55, 27.5cl; Waitrose) is a great raspberry, tomato and cranberry-stashed alternative to Aperol. T&E No 1is…

Skagen Falster The subtly designed Falster, powered by Wear OS, includes Google Assistant and smartphone notifications, and has a battery life of 24 hours (from £179; www.skagen.com). Ticwatch E The best budget smartwatch out there, with few obvious compromises to achieve its price. Features include GPS, a heart-rate monitor, battery life of 1.5 days and water resistance (from £146; www.amazon.co.uk). Apple Watch Series 3 Still a market leader, the Apple Watch is chock-full of features, and with the higher-spec model you can make and take calls even if you’ve left home without your iPhone (from £329; www.apple.com). Nixon Mission For those apprehensive about wearing a fragile, expensive piece of tech on their wrist, the rugged, waterproof Mission is well worth a look (£339; www.nixon.com). Samsung Gear S3 Available in two…

This Grade I 18th century mansion set in “luscious” Capability Brown parklands has a distinctly “National Trust vibe”. The difference is, in this hotel, complete with spa and golf course, “you’re very much encouraged to sit on the seats”, says Zak Thomas in The Independent. The service is “discreet and friendly” and the atmosphere welcoming, from the log fire in the entrance hall to the disability access and pet policy (£30 per night). Most of the rooms have views; even some of the cheapest have balconies; and heavy curtains, floral prints and patchy Wi-Fi are standard across the board. The Wernher restaurant lays on a “variety of rich seasonal courses”, while the lounge is straight out of Casino Royale with its “chandeliers, wooden panelling” and jazz standards played on the…

Deutsche Bank: clearing off News that Deutsche Bank has moved “almost half” its euro clearing business to Frankfurt will come as a blow to the City, said Caitlin Morrison in The Independent. It may be unglamorous, but “clearing” – the process through which financial transactions are settled – is a vital part of the financial system’s plumbing. And since the Brexit vote, it has become a key battleground between London and rival European centres. The City has long “dominated” the sector, with LCH – the clearing house owned by the London Stock Exchange – processing almost £900bn daily. Deutsche’s decision to jump ship to Eurex (owned by the LSE’s rival exchange Deutsche Börse) won’t have an immediate impact on jobs – “effectively, the move means the bank will push a…

Facebook suffered the “largest one-day wipeout in American corporate history” last week, said James Dean in The Times. A “shock” quarterly earnings report saw shares plunge by 19% – knocking a whopping $119bn off its market value and some $17bn off the personal fortune of its founder, Mark Zuckerberg. The company warned that “profit margins would narrow in the coming years as it spent more on improving privacy and security”, following this year’s Cambridge Analytica scandal. But what really freaked investors was the slowing rate of daily user growth: it was just 1.5% higher than in the previous quarter – “the slowest on record for Facebook”. According to eMarketer, the company has a “teen problem”, with Zuckerberg “lampooned as awkward, weird and even lizard-like in online memes”. Although some defecting…

Britain’s lurch to economic nationalism Jeremy Warner The Sunday Telegraph Say what you like about Donald Trump, “but he’s certainly caught the zeitgeist”, says Jeremy Warner. Even the Labour Party has incorporated some of his thinking. In a Trump-like “Britain First” speech last week, Jeremy Corbyn espoused “a positively protectionist agenda” on everything from foreign takeovers to government contracts. “Buy British, reject the foreigner was his overtly nationalistic message.” This, of course, “runs completely counter” to the open, liberal market regime first championed by Margaret Thatcher nearly four decades ago – when foreign takeovers were not just allowed, but encouraged, and “value for money took priority over all other considerations” in procurement. Transformational change in business “has a habit of creeping up on you unawares”, and we’ve belatedly woken up…

Controversy of the week Trump’s two-step You have to hand it to Donald Trump, said Marc A. Thiessen in The Washington Post. His tough-guy strategy pays dividends. His critics had a fit when he scolded Nato allies for scrimping on defence: he was endangering the Atlantic alliance, they said. Yet by inducing the allies to spend more, he has actually strengthened Nato. Now the same is proving true with his tough line on trade. Back in May he imposed tariffs on EU steel and aluminium exports; and when the EU responded with levies on Harley-Davidsons and orange juice, he went a step further and threatened to impose steep tariffs on European cars. “Tariffs are the greatest!” he tweeted shortly before the European Commission’s president, Jean-Claude Juncker, arrived in Washington last…

Jeremy Corbyn, who was forced to issue an apology after The Times reported that he’d hosted – on Holocaust Memorial Day in 2010 – an event at the House of Commons at which Israeli actions in Gaza were likened to the Nazi Holocaust. The remarks were made by Hajo Meyer, an Auschwitz survivor and anti-Zionist. Corbyn praised him at the time, but this week said he’d sometimes shared platforms with people whose beliefs he rejects, and apologised for any “anxiety” this might have caused (see page 20). KitKat, after a European court ruled that there was nothing particularly distinctive about its design – “four trapezoidal bars aligned on a rectangular base” – and that it therefore did not deserve protected status in the EU. The ruling will have come as…

Paris Slap video goes viral: Footage of a man walking up to a woman in the street in central Paris and striking her in the face has gone viral in France, reigniting long-standing concerns about the harassment faced by women in the capital. According to Marie Laguerre, 22, she was walking home when the man started making “dirty noises” at her. She told him to “shut up”. In response, he threw an ashtray at her, then hit her, in front of a busy café terrace. The government is introducing a law that will see anyone caught harassing women (or men) in the street fined up to s750, but apprehending them may be a challenge: police are still trying to identify the man in this case. Rome Salvini branded a fascist:…

1 Walking On Sunshine by Kimberley Rew, performed by Katrina and the Waves 2 Leaving On A Jet Plane by John Denver, performed by Peter, Paul and Mary 3 You’re The Best Thing by Paul Weller, performed by The Style Council 4 This Is The One by Ian Brown and John Squire, performed by The Stone Roses 5 Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want by Johnny Marr and Morrissey, performed by The Smiths 6 The Dark Eyed Sailor, traditional, performed by Olivia Chaney 7* Northern Sky, written and performed by Nick Drake 8 It’s Oh So Quiet by Hans Lang and Bert Reisfeld, performed by Björk Book: Anthology of 20th and 21st century poetry written by women Luxury: Bath…

Insects have been on the Earth 1,000 times longer than humans, and in many ways they created the world we live in: flowering plants, for instance, wouldn’t exist without them. They are “the little things that run the world”, according to the Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson. “If all humankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed 10,000 years ago,” he wrote. “If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.” Without them and other land arthropods – spiders, millipedes and the like – Wilson thinks that humanity would last only a matter of months. “After that, most of the amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals would go, along with the flowering plants,” says the journalist Jacob Mikanowksi in The…

A dangerous appetite for meat The global population’s appetite for meat keeps growing – and is liable to have a “devastating” impact on the environment, a new report has warned. In the past 50 years, per capita meat consumption across the world has nearly doubled, from 23kg a year to 43kg, while total consumption has risen fourfold. And though there are signs that some higher-income countries have reached “peak meat”, the UN has estimated that global consumption will rise a further 76% by around 2050, owing to growing demand from middle-income countries such as China – with huge knock-on effects: livestock farming is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions; it leads to biodiversity loss, as wild land is cultivated to grow animal feed – which in turn puts a…

The heatwave: a sign of what’s to come? For people who like to discuss the weather it has been quite a summer. Last Friday, the UK’s extraordinary five-week-long heatwave came to a dramatic (if temporary) halt when the skies opened and temperatures plunged by up to ten degrees overnight, said The Independent. In parts of Northern Ireland, a month’s worth of rain fell in hours, causing serious flooding; in Dorset, Camp Bestival was so battered by winds, it had to close; trains were cancelled after lightning knocked out the signals, as were several flights. But if the rain brought misery to some, to others it brought relief from the relentless heat. Last week the UK was the hottest place in Europe. Fire services were called to hundreds of grass fires;…

“It’s hard to imagine a more down-to-earth champion” “Brits used to flock to France to buy holiday homes in the Dordogne,” said Paul Hayward in The Daily Telegraph. “Now they go over there to win the Tour de France.” First it was Bradley Wiggins; then Chris Froome. And this Sunday, Geraint Thomas, like his predecessors riding for Team Sky, became the latest British cyclist to join the Tour’s winners’ club. He is the first Welshman ever to win cycling’s biggest race. This was a “meticulously planned” victory, said Sean Ingle in The Guardian. But it was also a “slightly accidental one”. When the Tour began, Froome was still Sky’s leading cyclist; Thomas was a mere “underdog”. Yet over the following three weeks the 32-year-old went from strength to strength, and…

“The pinging noise is a broken valve, and the knocking noise is some dude in the trunk.” The ascent of English To The Guardian Jacob Mikanowski writes with unconscious irony: “Behemoth, bully, loudmouth, thief: English is everywhere, and everywhere, English dominates. From inauspicious beginnings on the edge of a minor European archipelago…” I can’t wait to read more of what he says about English syntax affecting German and changing the grammar of Scandinavian languages, but he seems to ignore the English language’s penchant for borrowing from other languages. Behemoth (actually plural) is from Hebrew and archipelago is Greek. The point is made graphically by a famous description attributed to James Nicoll: “We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and…

Hardbacks Lullaby by Leïla Slimani Faber £12.99 (£11.99) A stressed-out Parisian couple hire a seemingly perfect nanny – who then murders their two children. This “shocking” novel, a sensation in France, “illuminates the darkest fears of many parents”, said The Sunday Times. Having opened with this crime, the novel “rewinds” to examine what drove the nanny to it, said The Daily Telegraph. Leïla Slimani writes “compellingly” about “the tedious, interminable anxiety dream that is normal parenthood”. The Incurable Romantic by Frank Tallis Little, Brown £18.99 (£16.99) In his “riveting” new book, the therapist Frank Tallis “opens his casebook” to describe the plight of clients made unhappy by love, said The Observer. The resulting stories, written with “clarity and wit”, present romantic love “as a kind of mental disorder”. Among the…

Exhibition of the week Dorothea Lange: Politics of Seeing Barbican Art Gallery, London EC2 (020-7638 4141, www.barbican.org.uk ). Until 2 September Dorothea Lange (1895-1965) was a pioneering documentary photographer who captured the hardship of the Great Depression like no other, said Lucy Scovell on The Culture Whisper. Indeed, her 1936 photograph Migrant Mother is probably the most famous image of the era: taken on a pea pickers’ farm in California, it pictured a destitute but “defiant” woman sitting in a makeshift shelter, gazing into the distance as her “cowering” children huddled around her. As soon as it was published, this “harrowing yet poignant portrait” alerted America to “the devastating plight” of the Dust Bowl refugees, and became a timeless symbol of dignity “in the face of adversity”.…

Pip leaves the fete alone, and by the time she gets to Brookfield she has gone into labour. She can’t get hold of Ruth or Toby, but Rex happens to be passing by and rushes her to hospital, picking up Ruth on the way. Toby finally arrives, and Pip has to have a caesarean. She gives birth to a baby girl. Rex tells Anisha he won’t be joining her in Newmarket – he belongs in Ambridge. She’s upset but understands why he has to stay. Before Debbie leaves, Brian thanks her; she expresses her concern about how the sale of the house will affect Jennifer. Pip and Toby return to Brookfield, where they announce the baby’s name: Rosie Ruth Archer. Toby tells Pip how glad he is that she went…

The Parsons Table  2 & 8 Castle Mews, Tarrant Street, Arundel, West Sussex (01903-883477) This friendly restaurant in ancient Arundel has the benefit of being set in a little tucked-away courtyard. When we visit, it is “aglow with greenery”, and the effect is heavenly, says Michael Deacon in The Daily Telegraph. “Sunbeams bathing on the leaves. Music cooing softly in the background. So quiet and secluded and restful.” The food, too, lifts the spirits and calms the soul. Pork pies can so often disappoint, but the large slice of Orchard Farm pork pie I kick off with here is a gem: “meat, meat, meat, and complemented nicely by a sweet-onion chutney”. To follow, a “pressing” of rabbit is “cool, slim and lissom”, and comes with a fennel remoulade, and my…

Tips of the week… how to give your home an MOT ● Hire a drone with a high-definition camera to inspect your roof, but do ask your neighbours for permission, and hire a CAA-certified drone and pilot. ● Remove old bathroom sealant with a Stanley knife, clean the area and apply new sealant between two lines of masking tape. ● To reduce the risk of burst pipes, close and open your stopcock every six months to stop it seizing up, but don’t keep it fully open; give it a turn-and-a-half to the right. ● Get your boiler serviced in the summer, when engineers are less busy. Also check water pressure; if it’s below one bar, there could be a leak, which is better to fix when the central heating is…

Our website is updated regularly with new promotions – simply register at TheWeekSociety.co.uk  to access all offers. SAVE £50 on a luxury summer yacht trip Book now to spend a summer day sailing the Solent on a luxury yacht with professional skipper and crew, for just £99 per person. Includes champagne on arrival, a 2-course lunch or dinner, plus tea or coffee. The Wider Earth, from just £25 In the new Jerwood Gallery at the Natural History Museum will be unveiled for the European premiere of award-winning drama about the story of a young Charles Darwin. Features a cast of seven, remarkable puppetry, an original score and cinematic animations to bring to life uncharted landscapes. 250th Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London The annual Summer…

New data showed that the US economy grew at 4.1% in the last quarter – its fastest rate since 2014. President Trump claimed the figure was proof that “we’ve accomplished an economic turnaround of historic proportion”. Markets were heartened by the declaration of a truce in the US-EU trade war, banishing – for the moment – the threat of a tit-for-tat tariff battle. The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee met to decide interest rates: the betting in the City was on a quarter-point rise to 0.75%. Sanofi, the French drug-maker, became the latest company to announce its preparations for a no-deal Brexit: it plans to stockpile drugs in UK warehouses and move some of its operations to Europe. Theresa May appointed William Vereker, a former UBS investment banker, as…

Here in Blighty… The Bank of England was expected by most economists to raise interest rates this week “for only the second time since the 2008 crash” – from 0.5% to 0.75%, said Phillip Inman in The Observer. As ever, commentators were divided ahead of Thursday’s announcement. Bring it on, said Alex Brummer in the Daily Mail. True, having “dropped to the bottom of the G7 growth league”, the UK is hardly “going like a bomb”. But the economy is “far from moribund” – as evidenced by an unemployment rate of just 4.2% and other encouraging data. “There comes a moment when the Bank must return to targeting inflation” (currently above 2.4%) and recognise that “keeping rates too low for too long” has a distorting effect. I’m not convinced, said…

Sergio Marchionne Everyone has their favourite CEOs: Sergio Marchionne, the Fiat Chrysler boss who died last week aged 66, “was one of mine”, said Alisa Priddle on MotorTrend.com. A consummate rescuer of companies, Marchionne – “to the amazement of many” – saved first Fiat and later Chrysler, eventually merging them. The combined outfit’s market value rose tenfold over his tenure. However, it is for his other qualities that he will be remembered. An accountant and lawyer by training, Marchionne was often sniped at for not being a “car guy”. Yet he was “a master at proving his critics wrong”. Eschewing the usual jargon of industry executives, he was “outspoken and relished debate” – filling his speeches with “references to poets and philosophers”, punctuated by the occasional colourful expletive. Marchionne was…

The Freemasons are to allow women members for the first time – but only if they were men when they joined. The secretive society, which has been male-only since it was founded in 1717, issued guidance to members last month that “a Freemason who after initiation ceases to be a man does not cease to be a Freemason”, though the member would still be addressed as “Brother”. Not long ago, perfecting a signature was a crucial rite of passage; now one in five adults do not even have a consistent signature, and just write out their name when required. According to a study by a cybersecurity consultancy, 41% of signatures written in the UK are to sign for deliveries, and are often just messy scrawls on electronic pads.…

Tommy Robinson, the co-founder of the English Defence League, was released from prison on bail this week, after a court ordered a retrial on his contempt of court charges. Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) was convicted of contempt in May, for posting online footage from outside a trial in Leeds that was subject to strict reporting restrictions. This week, the Court of Appeal ruled that the process had been “flawed”: there was a “muddle” over the nature of the contempt in question, and the trial (just five hours after his arrest) had been rushed. However, a second conviction, relating to an earlier case in Canterbury, was allowed to stand. Robinson has become something of a “martyr” for the far right: some 630,000 people (many abroad) had signed a petition calling…

Alexandria, Virginia Aide on trial: Paul Manafort – Donald Trump’s former campaign chief – has gone on trial in Virginia on charges of bank fraud, tax fraud and conspiracy. If found guilty, he could spend the rest of his life in jail. The charges were brought by Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. However, they don’t relate to Russia, but to Manafort’s earlier financial dealings, and are being seen as an effort to get Manafort, 69, to agree to a plea deal in which he’d plead guilty to lesser charges, in return for assisting with the Russia investigation. Shasta County, California Wildfires: Some 12,000 firefighters were battling eight major wildfires across California this week. The Ferguson Fire was threatening the Yosemite National…

“A friend visited a colleague’s house and in the hall saw a sign reading: ‘Leave your worries (and shoes) at the door.’ Oooh, that’s passive aggressive, isn’t it? That’s an order disguised as a hug. I do understand that people want to save their carpets, but I’m always saying: being asked to remove my shoes in someone’s house feels infantilising. You’re suddenly shorter and disempowered. Your socks may be holey or mismatched, which is humiliating. In this weather, feet stink. But as my friend pointed out, there’s an entire industry in such signage. ‘Little fingers touch the floor so please leave your shoes at the door’ – that sort of thing. Ugh.” Carol Midgley in The Times…

The day ministers take out the trash Polly Toynbee The Guardian Did you hear that they’re closing down two RAF bases (one being the home of the Red Arrows) and seven law courts? Did you see that the number of Armed Forces personnel seeking mental health support has doubled in the past decade? You probably missed these and many other grim bits of news, says Polly Toynbee. But you were meant to: that’s the whole point of “take out the trash day”. It’s an annual Westminster tradition: ministers use the eve of Parliament’s six-week summer recess to sneak out unpopular decisions and unflattering statistics. On “trash” day last month, they quietly released no fewer than 21 official statements, adding to the 18 slipped out a few days earlier. Despite their…

SOUTH AFRICA Take the land from these white farmers Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) The farming town of Vryheid was once the capital of a Boer republic, says Paddy Harper, and last month a parliamentary committee went there to hold hearings of vital importance. It was getting feedback on the South African government’s plans to amend the constitution to enable it to expropriate land from white farmers without compensation, and redistribute it to blacks. And listening to the stories of the many black families whose ancestral lands had been taken by the security forces of apartheid South Africa, it was hard to think of a good reason not to. Ironically enough, vryheid means “freedom” in Afrikaans, but the ancestors of the black people attending the hearing hadn’t seen much of that.…

Could being infected by a parasite found in cat poo be the key to a career in business? Around two billion people are believed to be infected with Toxoplasma gondii. In most cases, they don’t have symptoms, but past studies have found that in rodents, the infection can alter the metabolism of the neurotransmitter dopamine – which may be why infected rodents become bolder and less fearful. This makes them more likely to be eaten by cats, helping the parasite spread from host to host. In humans, T. gondii has been linked to higher rates of car accidents and suicide; now, a study has suggested those who carry the parasite are more likely to be entrepreneurial. Researchers in the US analysed 1,495 students and found that those who tested positive…

Madonna has confessed that being a soccer mom is more demanding than being a pop star. “You have no life in a way, because games change from weekend to weekend: sometimes they’re in the city, sometimes they’re not, and we never know until Thursday night whether they’re on Saturday or Sunday, at 12pm or later. It’s impossible to make plans.” As well as ferrying her 12-year-old son David to and from games, the singer has even moved home so that he can attend one of the world’s best football academies. “It was between Turin, Barcelona and Lisbon. I went to all those places and tried to imagine myself living there.” She liked Turin (“a city for intellectuals”) and Barcelona (“super fun”) but settled on Lisbon. “I always say the three…

Richard McEvoy is the ultimate “journeyman” golfer, said Matthew Lewis in Golf Digest. For 17 years, the Essex native struggled to “find his way in professional golf”: he competed in 284 events on the European Tour and failed to win a single one. On Sunday, however, McEvoy finally broke his hoodoo. At the age of 39, he saw off fierce competition – from Masters champion Patrick Reed and talented young American Bryson DeChambeau – to win Hamburg’s Porsche European Open and claim his maiden title. It was “one of the great underdog victories in European Tour history”, said Derek Lawrenson in the Daily Mail. After McEvoy bogeyed the 17th hole, “the pressure went through the roof”. But he held his nerve, sealing this “fairytale triumph” with a birdie at the…

To The Guardian That the number of students receiving unconditional offers for university places has leapt again this year is only to be expected, given that higher education is the one area of public spending untainted by any form of austerity. While every other public service has a finite budget limited by the Treasury, university education is funded by a never-ending supply of student loans, most of which are likely never to be repaid and are given without any of the restrictions and questioning associated with loans from banks, finance companies or mortgage providers. In these circumstances, it is unsurprising that the supply of provision (university places) increases in line with the endless supply of funding available. The question is: how has this situation been allowed to arise and how…

Theatre Exit the King Playwright: Eugène Ionesco Translated and directed by: Patrick Marber Olivier, National Theatre, South Bank, London SE1 (020-7452 3000). Until 6 October Running time: 1hr 40mins ★★ In the 1950s and 1960s, the Theatre of the Absurd “delighted some audiences and baffled many more”, said David Lister in The Independent. It was a dramatic format that explored life’s deepest questions through “surreal plots and settings and crazed, sometimes nonsensical dialogue”. It is thus pretty “astonishing” that the National Theatre has never before performed a work by one of the movement’s chief architects, the French-Romanian playwright, Eugène Ionesco. But now, for his first outing, they’ve gone all-out by putting on Exit the King, a mostly plotless meditation on the inevitability of death, and staging it in the National’s…

The National Portrait Gallery is sending some of its famous faces home, says Mark Brown in The Guardian. As part of a project called Coming Home, 50 portraits from the national collection will be sent to towns and cities closely associated with their subjects. Next year, Sir Thomas Lawrence’s portrait of William Wilberforce will travel to Hull, where he was born, to be shown in the Ferens Art Gallery. David Hockney’s Self-Portrait with Charlie will go to his hometown, Bradford; and Tracey Emin’s bronze Death Mask to hers, Margate. Kate Peters’ photograph of the athlete Jessica Ennis-Hill will go to Sheffield, Emma Wesley’s portrait of the Victoria Cross recipient Johnson Beharry will go to his regiment’s museum in Dover – and a 16th century painting of Richard III (above) will…

Programmes Blitz: The Bombs That Changed Britain This series focuses on just four of the bombs dropped on Britain during WWII. The first episode is about one that fell on the East End. Sat 4 Aug, BBC2 20:00 (60mins). The Foreign Doctors are Coming A documentary following doctors from around the world as they try to get jobs in the UK. Tue 7 Aug, C4 22:00 (65mins). Mechanical Marvels Historian Simon Schaffer looks at some of the engineering marvels of the 19th century – from giant telescopes to computers made of cogs. Wed 8 Aug, BBC4 21:00 (60mins). Hang Ups In this new comedy series, Stephen Mangan plays a therapist whose life is unravelling. The starry cast includes Richard E. Grant and David Tennant. Wed 8 Aug, C4 22:00 (35mins).…

This super-refreshing drink brings back memories of happy, sunny days on the beach in Mexico, where nutritious chia seeds, much beloved by the Mayans, are liberally added to most things, say David and Charlotte Bailey. This is an all-round winner for summer barbecues or picnics Homemade lemonade with chia seeds Makes 1 litre 5 unwaxed lemons, peeled and roughly chopped (reserving the zest of 1) 150ml agave syrup 1 litre cold water 8 sprigs of fresh mint, plus extra to garnish ice 2 tbsps chia seeds • Put the lemons, lemon zest, agave and water in a blender and combine on high speed for about 1 minute. Add the mint and blend for a further 10 seconds. • Put a few ice cubes in each glass, top with the lemonade…

The Daily Telegraph The X4 is a car that many keen motorists overlook on principle: it’s “an SUV that thinks it’s a coupe”. But it’s more than just a traditional “upright” X3 SUV with limited rear headroom. It’s sportier, and though it can’t deliver “sports car sharpness”, it drives “wonderfully well” for an SUV. In its first iteration, the X4 wasn’t a commercial hit, but now “the coupe-SUV might finally have arrived”. Auto Express There’s no denying it’s an “odd-looking thing”. The combination of a bluff front end and huge grilles with a sleek, sloping roof gives the impression that “its face is too big for its body”. But inside, it’s put together “beautifully”, and if you get the larger 10.25in touchscreen, it’s got “arguably the best infotainment system in…

When visitors first land at Kerry Airport, they’re “bombarded with posters” advertising the delights of the Ring of Kerry and the Wild Atlantic Way, says Will Humphries in The Times. Yet there’s no mention of the fact that just 30 minutes’ drive away, there’s an area that could “rival the Lake District or the west coast of Scotland” for its panorama of peaks, mountain lakes and golden beaches. It’s called the Reeks District, and if you’ve never heard of it, that’s because it was only christened this year. The name is taken from the MacGillycuddy’s Reeks mountain range, and this “rebranding” is the brainchild of local business owners who want to lure visitors away from Kerry’s more showy locations. The Coumloughra Horseshoe is a “fairly strenuous” seven-mile hike across Ireland’s…

After four profit warnings in the past eight months, Britain’s biggest chain of estate agents, Countrywide, “is putting the finishing touches to a call for up to £125m of emergency finance”, said Larry Elliott in The Guardian. Revenues have been hit by “a sharp downturn in house sales” and “competition from online rivals is intense”. Shares in the group, which has debts of £200m, have plunged 70% in the past year. The situation at its London-based rival Foxtons is marginally better, said The Times. At least the outfit, renowned for its shiny offices and trademark Mini fleet, is debt free and the City is confident it can pay its dividends. “And while Foxtons’ image may be a bit 1980s, it has not actually been pushed aside by the online newcomers.”…

Trump resigns The US president’s position is already precarious. And with the economy growing at 4% and major tax reforms in place, it might occur to the Donald, who is “predictable only in his unpredictability”, that leaving now “would be a lot more satisfying” than “years of legal arguments leading up to a drawn-out impeachment”. A German bank collapses The massive imbalances between the eurozone’s core and its periphery have to show up somewhere – and one place is the German banking system. If so, cue a fresh eurozone crisis. Italy quits the euro True, the country’s new leaders appear to have “backed away from their hostility”, but were they to stage a coup against the euro, “a quiet weekend in the middle of August would be the perfect time”.…