Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1204 i The Week

What happened Selling the Brexit deal Theresa May embarked on a tour of the UK this week to drum up support for her unloved Brexit divorce deal. She and other EU leaders signed off the agreement in a short meeting last Sunday. Both sides declared afterwards that it was the best and only deal available, and warned MPs that voting it down in Westminster on 11 December would not prompt the EU to make a better offer. May said the deal would deliver on the 2016 referendum by, among other things, ending free movement and allowing the UK to pursue an independent trade policy. The prospects for the agreement – which consists of a 585-page, legally-binding withdrawal treaty and a 26-page broad statement on future relations – nevertheless look bleak.…

Morecambe and Wise fans, with the discovery of two “lost” episodes of the comedy duo’s sketch show that have not been seen since they were first shown in 1968. The tapes were found by archivist Philip Morris in a derelict cinema in Sierra Leone. Nasa, which celebrated the successful landing of its new robot on Mars. The InSight probe, which is scheduled to study the Red Planet’s interior, is currently sitting on a vast plain known as Elysium Planitia, close to Mars’ equator. Denise Coates, the founder of online gambling firm Bet365, after company accounts revealed that she paid herself a record £265m last year – equivalent to £726,000 a day (see page 52). Fiona Bruce, with reports that she is in line to replace David Dimbleby as the host…

Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, is considering recalling one of two Border Force cutters currently working in the Mediterranean to rescue some of the growing number of migrants trying to cross the Channel in tiny boats. Since the start of November, 110 mostly Iranian migrants have been found on ten boats off the coast of Kent. Javid said the numbers are increasing, but warned that any deployment could “become a humanitarian and rescue mission”, which might in turn encourage more people to attempt the journey.…

Washington DC Plea deal scrapped: Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, has scrapped a plea bargain deal with Paul Manafort (pictured), President Trump’s former campaign chairman, on the grounds that Manafort has repeatedly lied to his team since agreeing the deal. The unusual move means that Mueller has lost a potential key witness, and that Manafort could spend up to ten years in jail. Following the news, President Trump once again lashed out at Mueller, accusing him “and his terrible Gang of Angry Democrats” of “doing TREMENDOUS damage to our Criminal Justice System”. Tijuana, Mexico Humanitarian crisis: The mayor of Tijuana, the Mexican border city where about 5,000 migrants from Central America have arrived in the hope of claiming asylum in the US,…

“The reason that technology so often disappoints and betrays us is that it promises to make easy things that, by their intrinsic nature, have to be hard. Tweeting and trolling are easy. Mastering the arts of conversation and measured debate is hard. Texting is easy. Writing a proper letter is hard. Looking stuff up on Google is easy. Knowing what to search for in the first place is hard. Having a thousand friends on Facebook is easy. Maintaining six or seven close adult friendships over the space of many years is hard. Swiping right on Tinder is easy. Finding love – and staying in it – is hard.” Bret Stephens in The New York Times…

Lesson for the Left: it’s the culture, stupid Gary Younge The Guardian How can Donald Trump pose as a champion of the working class? It enrages liberal commentators, says Gary Younge, because to them it’s self-evident that he’s part of the wealthy elite that holds all the power in society. What they forget is that, for many working-class Americans, elitism is a question of culture, not money. The people they most resent aren’t bankers and moguls, but the class of metropolitan opinion-formers – actors, journalists, vegans, “globalists” – who they see as insufferably condescending. Often with justification. Look how Hillary Clinton derided Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables”, or how some Remainers dismiss Brexit voters as too stupid to know what they’re voting for. Right-wing populists are adept at…

Peanut allergy breakthrough Hopes of finding an effective treatment for peanut allergies have been raised by a major new trial, reports The Independent. For this, researchers recruited 500 children from North America and Europe, none of whom could tolerate more than 100mg of peanut protein (the equivalent of one-third of a kernel). They then gave them an immunotherapy drug called AR101. Derived from peanut protein, it is sprinkled over food in doses that gradually increase over time. The idea isn’t to “cure” peanut allergy, but to substantially mitigate the consequences of exposure to peanuts, enabling those with allergies (and their parents) to lead less anxiety-filled lives. After six months, 67% of the children in the trial could eat 600mg or more of peanut protein – the equivalent of two kernels…

John McDonnell, the Labour shadow chancellor, claimed this week that he simply can’t be friends with Tories – but his colleague Diane Abbott says she has no such qualms. She has been on friendly terms with Michael Portillo for years: they appeared in a joint production of Macbeth while at nearby schools, and later appeared as co-panellists on the BBC’s This Week. In 2003, he even invited her to his 50th birthday party, where she met his mother. “His mum came up and said, ‘I really like the way you keep Michael in his place,’ and then she leaned forward confidingly and said, ‘I’m a Lib Dem, you know.’” Baroness Trumpington, who died this week, aged 96, became an online sensation in 2011, when she was filmed making a V…

There was a time when we thought Facebook was a special company, run by special people, said Siva Vaidhyanathan on Slate. Those days are far behind us. With its relentless focus on its profits, Mark Zuckerberg’s behemoth has time and again proved itself to be just as sleazy as any other sleazy corporation. In recent years, it has been outed for selling users’ personal data to third parties; hosting Russian propaganda intended to disrupt US elections; allowing the spread of conspiracy theories, extremist material and hate speech; and amplifying calls for ethnic slaughter in Sri Lanka and Myanmar. Now, thanks to The New York Times, we know that in 2016, under pressure over claims that it was enabling democracy to be subverted, Facebook first tried to mask its failings, and…

Finally, England delivered “something special”, said Stephen Jones in The Sunday Times. Over the previous three autumn internationals, they had impressed only in patches. And while they didn’t consistently play at “the highest level” at Twickenham last Saturday, they still hit it in the first quarter and second half to beat an “incredibly unremarkable” Australian side 37-18. It was their sixth consecutive victory over the Wallabies and their second biggest in history. What a “triumphant” finale to a series in which England won three of their matches, and lost the fourth – to the All Blacks – by a mere point. After all those setbacks earlier this year, we can now “talk of real progress”. There has been plenty to enjoy in this autumn series, said Owen Slot in The…

Cricket Australia beat England by eight wickets to win their fourth Women’s World Twenty20 title. Football Tottenham ended Chelsea’s unbeaten start to the season with a 3-1 victory. Manchester City beat West Ham 4-0. Liverpool beat Watford 3-0. Rugby union Joe Schmidt announced that he will stand down as Ireland’s head coach after the 2019 World Cup. He will be replaced by Andy Farrell, the current defence coach. In the autumn internationals, Scotland beat Argentina 14-9.…

“Covered in mould and lying unloved in a box of trinkets, the portrait had seen better days,” says Anita Singh in The Daily Telegraph. The ivory miniature of a young man (pictured) was picked up as part of a job lot for £27 at an antiques sale in South Africa, by a buyer who had a hunch it could be something interesting. And so it proved: London art dealer Philip Mould identified the man in the picture as Charles Dickens, painted by the artist Margaret Gillies in 1843, when he was 31 and working on A Christmas Carol. Last seen in public at the Royal Academy in London in 1844, the portrait is thought to have gone to South Africa with a family member of Gillies’. “The discovery is truly…

Programmes The Sinner Darkly gripping thriller series, first shown on Netflix, starring Jessica Biel as a mother who fatally stabs a man without knowing why. Bill Pullman is the detective unravelling the mystery. Sat 1 Dec, BBC4 21:00 (85mins). Secrets of British Animation Film looking at a century of British animation, and the trade secrets of its stars, including Bob Godfrey and Aardman. Sun 2 Dec, BBC4 21:00 (60mins). Gun No. 6 Docudrama telling the story of Britain’s most deadly gun: a single weapon that has been used in 11 shootings. Sun 2 Dec, BBC2 21:00 (70mins). Lockerbie: The Untold Stories Just before Christmas 1988, a Boeing 747 travelling to the US exploded above Lockerbie in Scotland, killing all 259 people on board and 11 locals. Thirty years on, those…

Italian beef and barley soup Serves 4 50g pearl barley, rinsed and drained 800ml hot beef stock 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 1 onion, peeled and finely chopped 2 celery sticks, finely sliced 2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped 1 turnip, peeled and finely chopped 1 fresh, medium-hot red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced 2 tbsps chopped fresh oregano, plus whole leaves to garnish 250g lean sirloin steak, cut into thin strips 1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes salt • Put the pearl barley and stock in a medium saucepan over a medium heat and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 10 mins. • Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium to high heat. Add the onion, celery, carrots,…

Auto Express The Santa Fe is undeniably a great family car, offering space, comfort and kit “in spades”, as well as impressive composure on the road. The 197bhp 2.2-litre diesel engine, the only one on offer so far, is “refined in the most part”, and can be paired with an automatic or manual gearbox. But the price has leapt up since its last release, and you can probably get the same package for less elsewhere. The Times Having entered the market “long before 4x4s were cool”, the Santa Fe has had time to evolve into a sophisticated car. It has a mountain of smart safety systems – even a Rear Occupant Alert to stop people accidentally leaving their kids in the back. The newest model is a “real looker” too.…

A “blank space at the top of the map”, Greenland is the world’s most sparsely populated country, says Tom Robbins in the Financial Times. An ice cap covers its treeless landscape; its human residents are confined to the villages that lie “scattered around the island’s rocky fringe”. Tourism is “in its infancy” here: there are no five-star hotels, and Greenland gets fewer visitors in a year (85,000) than the British Museum gets in a week. But attempts are being made to lure more of them. One is Camp Kiattua, a luxury wilderness camp, accessible by boat or helicopter, which is set up for four months in the summer, then vanishes “without trace” before winter sets in. It is like an “upscale African safari camp”, but without the “big-ticket” animal encounters:…

Renault/Nissan: coup d’etat The arrest last week of Nissan’s chairman Carlos Ghosn “stunned the business world”, and has put in doubt “one of the most successful car alliances of the last 20 years”, said Phillip Inman in The Guardian. Japanese prosecutors accuse Ghosn, who also ran the French carmaker Renault, of “under-reporting” his income as chairman by about 5bn yen ($44m). He denies the allegations. As Ghosn’s incarceration without charge drags on, “it is increasingly obvious that this is a coup d’etat”, said Jim Armitage in the London Evening Standard. The plotters are “Japanese managers opposed to his plan” to increase Renault’s domination over Nissan in a formal merger. At any rate, Ghosn’s career at Nissan is dead. Unions in Britain, where Nissan operates the country’s largest car plant in…

The eurozone is still hooked on QE Liam Halligan The Sunday Telegraph “The European Central Bank is on a knife-edge,” says Liam Halligan. Will it, as promised, end its “gargantuan quantitative easing programme” by the end of 2018, and deliver on its pledge to raise interest rates? Don’t count on it. Unlike both the US and Britain, the eurozone “remains on life support” and is “still hooked on QE”. ECB nominal interest rates remain negative, at minus 0.4% – “deep in Alice in Wonderland territory”. Perhaps that’s no surprise given that the single currency bloc grew by little more than 0.2% in the last quarter. But the “wildly expansionary monetary policy” of the ECB supremo, Mario Draghi, is courting political disaster. It remains “deeply unpopular” in Germany, the eurozone’s “paymaster”…

Controversy of the week The People’s Vote For a long time, the idea of a second Brexit referendum looked like “a fringe obsession”, said Andrew Rawnsley in The Observer. But now that the potential gains from Brexit appear ever more illusory, and the Brexiters are “falling apart under the weight of their undeliverable promises and irreconcilable contradictions”, the odds on there being a new EU vote are being slashed by the hour. The latest polls show that a growing number support staying in the EU, and the campaign for a People’s Vote is on a roll. In October, 700,000 people marched in favour of EU membership, “a sight never previously witnessed in British politics”. According to Labour sources, Jeremy Corbyn is close to throwing his weight behind the campaign, said…

St Mary’s, a primary school in Chiswick, which has been forced to ban children from its playground in the mornings, to protect them from toxic emissions. The school borders the six-lane A4 into London. One of at least 50 schools to have recorded nitrogen dioxide levels above legal limits, St Mary’s is now trying to raise the funds for a “living wall” of plants to absorb pollution outside, and an air purification system for its classrooms. Treading the boards, after the latest survey found that 63% of actors and performers earned less than £5,000 from their profession in the last year, and only 13% made more than £20,000.…

47% of Leave voters in the EU referendum believe the Government is deliberately hiding the truth about how many immigrants live in the UK; 14% of Remain voters agree. 31% of Leave voters and 6% of Remain voters believe immigration to the UK is “part of a bigger plan to make Muslims a majority of the country’s population”. 12% of Leave voters and 2% of Remain voters think global warming is a hoax. Trump voters in the US are similarly much more likely to believe conspiracy theories than Clinton voters. YouGov/The Guardian 90% of drivers say they are careful and competent, though 58% admit to going through amber traffic lights as they turn red. 52% admit to ignoring 20mph limits; 57% ignore 30mph ones. Brake/The Times…

Dan Brown’s top tips For anyone hoping to write a thriller, Dan Brown has some good news: you don’t need a startlingly original idea. James Bond, for instance, always defuses the bomb and gets the girl. It’s not what happens, it’s how it happens. “Every single idea has been done over and over and over,” says the novelist, 54. “You don’t need a big idea. You need big hows.” The first piece of advice he received was “write what you know”. That wasn’t very helpful: he was 16, he didn’t know anything. So he decided instead to write what he wanted to know. His interests included technology, religion, art – and eventually he produced The Da Vinci Code, says David Smith in The Guardian. His books have sold in their…

The homeware shop Anthropologie, which is renowned for selling expensive but inessential items, has been mocked for offering twigs at £40 per bundle. “If you’re looking to bring a rustic quality to your home, then this bundle of birchwood is the perfect piece for you!” declares the retailer’s website. Despite being widely ridiculed, Anthropologie refused to back down. “Our large (80cm) decorative branches are a lovely contemporary decoration for Christmas. Used with foliage, real or faux, they add drama into floral arrangements,” said a spokesman for the store. Five members of the new women’s parliamentary football team have been reprimanded for having a kickabout in the House of Commons chamber. Hannah Bardell, an SNP MP, posted a video of herself playing keepy-uppy between the green benches, prompting a ticking off…

JAPAN “Japan Inc.” needs to clean up its act Asia Times (Hong Kong) Another “Japan Inc. icon” has been “caught asleep at the wheel”, says William Pesek. Last week the boss of Nissan, Carlos Ghosn, was arrested at the company’s HQ and fired. If the charges against him are true, it seems “Nissan’s internal controls – and auditors – failed to notice Ghosn fudging his income statements for at least five years”. This reflects badly on the management of Japan’s second-largest automaker, and on PM Shinzo Abe’s claim to have improved standards of corporate governance. Abe’s team like to claim that management reforms are “reanimating Japan’s animal spirits”. But there’s still all too much evidence of inefficiency, rigid practices and “groupthink”. Witness the “drip-drip-drip of bad news from Tokyo Electric…

Wombats, as quiz lovers may know, are the only animal whose faeces are cuboid. Why the furry marsupials might have evolved this peculiarity is generally agreed. Wombats leave their droppings in large piles on rocks and outside their dens to mark out territory, and perhaps share other information too. If the droppings are cubes, they can be stacked high, and are far less likely to roll away. But how they produce this shape, in the absence of a square-shaped anus, has long puzzled scientists. Now, thanks to research at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, the mystery has been solved. By examining the intestines of wombats that had been euthanised after being hit by cars, reports The Guardian, the team discovered that in the final section, where their waste…

The world’s most isolated tribe, the Sentinelese have not been contacted by the outside world for decades. To protect them and their way of life, it is illegal to come within five nautical miles of the small island in the Bay of Bengal where they have lived for 30,000 years, and which is regularly patrolled by Indian naval vessels. Yet last week, a 27-year-old American missionary ventured to North Sentinel Island, hoping to carry the Christian message to what he described as perhaps “Satan’s last stronghold”. The islanders were having none of it: it seems that moments after John Allen Chau, a graduate of the evangelical Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma, set foot on their white sand beach, bearing gifts including a football and fish, they shot him with a…

A delegation from Easter Island arrived at the British Museum last week, said Carla Herreria on The Huffington Post. Its purpose? To petition for the return, on behalf of the island’s indigenous community, of an eight-foot-tall sculpture named Hoa Hakananai’a, meaning “lost or stolen friend”, which they believe contains the spirit of one of their ancestors. The monolithic statue – one of nearly 1,000 created by the island’s early Polynesian inhabitants between the 11th and 17th centuries – was taken by a British naval ship in 1868 as a present for Queen Victoria. “We came here, but we are just the body,” declared the tearful Easter Island governor, Tarita Alarcón Rapu. “The British people have our soul.” Western museums are coming under growing pressure to return artefacts to their places…

The last time England whitewashed a team in a three-match series away from home, “the Beatles were preparing to release their first album”, said Paul Newman in the Daily Mail. Now, 55 years later, they’ve done it again, with a “totally unexpected, thrillingly achieved” 3-0 series win in Sri Lanka. It’s hard to believe this is the same team that started the year with a “miserable” Ashes thrashing, followed by a loss to Pakistan at Lord’s in May. Since then, England have enjoyed a remarkable turnaround: they have embraced a “fearless brand of cricket” and won eight of their last nine Tests. Jos Buttler has been at the heart of that resurgence, said Mike Atherton in The Times. He was recalled to the Test side, following 18 months in exile,…

Has Britain lost its puff? To Financial Times Philip Stephens declares that “the Brexit vote has drained Britain of energy, purpose and international influence”. This portentous phrase, if left unchallenged, might be thought rather worrying. Yet what do these words actually mean? And perhaps, in particular, who is “Britain” in this context? There is little hard evidence that by voting to leave the EU Britain has been drained of “international influence”. Was our influence really magnified by membership of an organisation which can only proceed on the basis of the lowest common denominator of policy, among countries with widely different views and interests? In the continuing EU dogfight over immigration, have we exercised any particular influence? Whereas “international influence” is a subject beloved of politicians and the commentariat, “energy” and…

Best books… Meera Syal The actress and writer picks her favourite books. She is appearing in Pinter Three at the Harold Pinter Theatre, London SW1 until 8 December. The Pinter at the Pinter season runs until 23 February (pinteratthepinter.com) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, 1960 (Arrow £6.99). This classic coming-of-age novel changed my life when I read it at 13. Set in the 1930s and told through the eyes of a little girl, Scout, it explores with compassion and humour the irrationality and cruelty of adult attitudes towards class and race in the Deep South. This book made me understand how the roots of racism are often embedded in self-loathing and watered by suspicion and fear. Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary by Anita Anand, 2015 (Bloomsbury £10.99). The extraordinary…

Appassimento reds (made using partially dried grapes) are in vogue, and as production has been cranked up to meet demand, quality has dipped, says Jane MacQuitty in The Times. The good news is that there are still lots of great-value valpolicella ripasso and other Italian reds enhanced by a dash of dried grapes. For instance, Waitrose’s 2016 Terre di Faiano Primitivo, Salento (£9.99) is an absolutely delicious, oak-aged, appassimento-enhanced primitivo, with “extra-seductive, savoury, chocolatey style”. The juicy, plum and prune-stashed 2017 Montidori Sangiovese Romagna (£8.99; Waitrose) is also a winner. And the Co-op’s 2015 Novare Valpolicella Ripasso (£11) has all the rich yet zingy red cherry fruit and figgy finish that any ripasso fan could ask for. If it’s a bargain amarone-proper you want, try Aldi’s bold, beefy, dried fig…

Photosynthesis This unique and rather beautiful game for the eco-minded lets you take on the role of Mother Nature as you sow and grow trees in a forest, strategise against other players, and try to keep up with the shifting sun piece (£32.50; amazon.co.uk). Civilization: A New Dawn The classic video game series Civilization has now entered the world of board games. Players are cast as rulers of small, scattered tribes that they must try to build into global empires (£38; amazon.co.uk). FReNeTiC This game is like a free-for-all Scrabble, in which all the tiles come from the periodic table. Race against the clock to make as many words as you can and add their atomic numbers for points (£18.50; amazon.co.uk). Azul Two to four players compete as tile layers…

With 94,000 Soho House members across 23 venues, Nick Jones is running short of cities in which to continue his “takeover of global monied hipsterdom”, says John Arlidge in The Times. For his latest opening, he has gone east. Soho House Mumbai opened last month in a new beach-front building that’s been “sneakily designed to look like a relic”. There’s a predictably glamorous rooftop pool with a view over the Arabian Sea, 38 rooms, several bars and restaurants, a cinema and a gym. The “gilded inner sanctum” is “London chic offset by local accents” – antique furniture and sari fabric lampshades; “candy-striped sunbeds” and traditional Jaipur tiles. The dining is “more Indian than international”, and all the better for it. Membership for here and the other venues costs £2,730 a…

The pound and domestically-focused equities bounced back after UK and EU negotiators outlined a blueprint for relations following Britain’s departure from the bloc. RBS and builders Persimmon and Barratt clawed back some of their losses and sterling rallied against the euro. A new government analysis suggested that Britain will be poorer economically under any form of Brexit. According to official figures, the economy could be up to 3.9% smaller after 15 years under Theresa May’s Brexit plan. But a no-deal Brexit could deliver a 9.3% hit. Amazon was accused of hogging warehouse space, which is at a premium currently as retailers and manufacturers stockpile goods ahead of a possible “no deal”. The price of oil fell to $60/barrel – a one-year low – as rising US inventories and uncertainties about…

Oil conundrum In the past month, the price of oil “has fallen off a cliff”, said Dominic Frisby on MoneyWeek.com. From just shy of $87/ barrel at the beginning of October, Brent crude has lost “about a third of its value” – and is currently sitting at around $61. Oil seems to experience these “violent sell-offs every few years”. During “The Great Oil Bust” beginning in 2014, the price dropped from $115 to land at an “extraordinarily” cheap $27 in early 2016, after President Barack Obama lifted US sanctions against Iran and US shale production surged. Back then, I called oil “the trade of the lustrum” (a lustrum is a five-year period). Does that still stand? With global demand predicted to tail off, the price could yet fall further. But…

Denise Coates “If Denise Coates’s record-breaking £265m pay packet was stacked up in new £50 notes, it would form a tower almost twice as high as The Shard,” said Rob Davies in The Guardian. The Bet365 founder’s enormous pay package was more than three times greater than the £80m Tim Cook earned running Apple. And it wasn’t even a one-off. Last year, Coates handed herself £217m from the profits of what remains a family-owned business. Bet365’s online positioning means it enjoys a 25% margin on profits – far higher than traditional bookmakers. The firm is, in effect, “a licence to print money”. The story of how “the quiet queen of online betting” and her family came to build their empire from a Portakabin in a Stoke-on-Trent carpark is the stuff…

Animal rights charity Peta has appealed to the Dorset village of Wool to change its name, to highlight what it describes as the “rampant cruelty” of sheep farming. Peta promised the local parish council that if it agreed to rename the village Vegan Wool, it would send it “cruelty-free blankets” made from plant-based fibres, one for each of the residents of Wool (which is a derivation of Welles, or water springs). The idea wasn’t well received, but Peta chalked it up as a win, as the story won its cause so much free publicity. Separately, the Shoulder of Mutton pub in York has been renamed because its owners felt that its old name didn’t reflect their focus on vegan and vegetarian food, and was off-putting to some tourists. It’s now…

UKIP’s leader, Gerard Batten, has defended his decision to hire Tommy Robinson, the far-right activist and former leader of the English Defence League, as a special adviser on “rape gangs and prison reform”. Batten said that Robinson, who has several criminal convictions, and who now styles himself as an expert on grooming gangs, was “a good person to have on side”, because “a lot of people respect his stand”. Nigel Farage, UKIP’s former leader, called for Batten to be ousted for the “shameful” appointment, which led one MEP to quit UKIP. Batten has been widely criticised for leading the party to the far-right.…

Paris Riots on the Champs-Élysées: More than 100,000 “gilets jaunes” protesters took to the streets of Paris and other cities last weekend for a fresh wave of demonstrations against the Macron government and its proposed hike in fuel taxes (see page 16). Although the turnout was lower than that of the previous weekend, and the demonstrations were more peaceful overall, there were riots in central Paris. The unrest began when demonstrators tried to breach barriers that had been set up on the Champs-Élysées. In the ensuing chaos, protesters tore up paving stones to hurl at the police, and made barricades from uprooted bins and road signs. Fires were lit, and shopfronts smashed before police firing tear gas managed to disperse the crowd. The government said the violence had been fomented…

1 In The Mood by Wingy Manone, Andy Razaf and Joe Garland, performed by the Glenn Miller Orchestra 2 The Keel Row, a traditional folk song, performed by Kathleen Ferrier and Phyllis Spurr 3 Wake Up Little Susie by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, performed by The Everly Brothers 4 This Land Is Your Land (Live In Japan 1967) by Woodie Guthrie, adapted and performed by Peter, Paul and Mary 5 Suzanne, written and performed by Leonard Cohen 6 For he’s going to marry Yum-Yum from The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan, performed by the D’Oyly Carte Opera Chorus, Peggy Ann Jones, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Royston Nash 7 The House That Built Me by Tom Douglas and Allen Shamblin, performed by Miranda…

It’s not only in universities where platforms are a hot topic. When the ex-Trump strategist Steve Bannon, hero of the US alt-right and champion of European nationalists, was invited to be interviewed at The New Yorker Festival this year by the magazine’s editor, David Remnick, outrage ensued. Several celebrity guests threatened to pull out of the festival – in other words, they refused to share Bannon’s platform. “To interview Bannon is not to endorse him,” Remnick wrote in defence, before withdrawing the invitation. He said he had hoped for an opportunity to interrogate this controversial figure, who he agreed holds “white nationalist, racist and anti-Semitic” views, but soon bowed to the concerns of his staff and readers. A debate in London entitled “Is Rising Ethnic Diversity a Threat to the…

GERMANY Copyright is not a matter of taste Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung “Chefs are not artists.” That’s what the European Court of Justice has just decided. It has ruled that a Dutch company can’t enforce a copyright on the garlicky taste of its Heksenkaas brand of cream cheese to prevent a rival cheesemaker from selling a nearly identical flavour. Taste, said the court, is an idea, not a work of art like a book or a painting. The judgment is bound to “wound top chefs and revolt gourmets”, but let’s face it, it’s correct, says Jakob Strobel y Serra. If cooks could claim copyright to their dishes, “the entire culinary industry would crumble”. Same goes for food brands. The first company to market a paprika-flavoured crisp was not, and should not…

Hospital admissions in England for mental disorders linked to cocaine use have almost trebled in the past decade, reports The Guardian. In 2017-18, there were 14,470 admissions involving patients experiencing mental or behavioural disorders where the use of cocaine or crack cocaine was a suspected causal factor, up from 5,148 in 2007-08, according to NHS data. Experts said the finding wasn’t surprising, given the increased availability of higher-purity cocaine – a consequence of increased coca leaf production in Colombia and the opening up of new smuggling routes. “While higher-purity cocaine may give users a better bang for their buck, it also makes it easier to take more and higher doses, [which] increase the risk of unwanted and harmful effects,” said Professor Adam Winstock, an addiction medicine specialist and consultant psychiatrist.…

Over recent months, many optimistic delusions about Brexit have been dispelled, said The Economist. Yet “the last, and most dangerous” fantasy lives on: the idea that, if all else fails, Britain can prosper outside the EU without making a deal at all. The public, egged on by some Tory MPs, seems worryingly relaxed about a potential no deal, which would in fact be catastrophic. It’s not just the impact of swapping the single market for bare-bones World Trade Organisation rules. Britain would adjust to that in time, though it would be painful: car-making would be “ruined” by the 10% tariffs that the EU would impose; farming would “wither”. But more destructive still would be the “rupture” of 45 years’ worth of legal arrangements with the EU, governing everything from border…

“It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.” Writer Joseph Joubert, quoted in The Observer “I think of Europe as a hardcover book, America as the paperback version.” Don DeLillo, quoted on The Browser “Egotism is the anaesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.” American coach Frank Leahy, quoted in Forbes “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” Virginia Woolf, quoted in The Times “Better a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.” King Solomon, quoted in The Sunday Telegraph “It is awfully easy to be hard-boiled about everything in the daytime, but at night it is another thing.” Ernest Hemingway, quoted in The San Francisco Chronicle…

It was a fitting end to “a season of unanswerable dominance”, said Oliver Brown in The Daily Telegraph. Lewis Hamilton’s victory in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was his 11th of the season – equalling his previous best, in 2014. The Mercedes driver didn’t need to win the race – he’d already sealed his fifth world title last month, in Mexico – but he still gave a “masterclass”, another “exhibition of a man and a machine in perfect union”. At the start of the year, it looked as if we would get “the tensest of duels” between Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, the German Ferrari driver. But Vettel lost his lead months ago, and finished a staggering 88 points behind Hamilton in the standings. The British driver, meanwhile, ended up with…

To The Times Philip Collins notes that the medical profession opposes legalisation of physician-assisted suicide. It is right to do so. Doctors can diagnose illness and offer an estimate of life expectancy. But many of the key issues here, such as the presence of a settled wish to die or the absence of pressure, are personal or social, rather than medical. Embedding assisted suicide in medicine may help to wrap it in an aura of beneficence, but handing lethal drugs to seriously ill patients is not a role for doctors. Professor Rob George, medical director, St Christopher’s Hospice, London To The Times We should congratulate Philip Collins for putting the arguments for assisted dying so eloquently. I have been a palliative care nurse for nearly 20 years. We can give…

A month into sessions for this album, frontman Matty Healy’s bandmates were “gearing up to stage an intervention” over his heroin habit, said Dan Cairns in The Sunday Times. Happily, Healy beat them to it: he came clean about his addiction, and after intensive rehab, got clean. And what a good thing he did. This record showcases such a stunning gift – brilliantly combining “pop perfection”, “state-of-the-nation stadium slayers”, supper-club jazz and electronica – that “chucking it all away” would have been criminal. “Clever and profound, funny and light, serious and heartbreaking, painfully modern and classic-sounding all at the same time”, this is a “game-changing” album, said Dan Stubbs on NME. The biggest surprise is Mine, a breathtaking Cole Porter-influenced jazz number. It’s one of many songs here that suggest…

Jörg Immendorff at Michael Werner Although not celebrated nearly as rapturously as his contemporaries Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke or Georg Baselitz, Jörg Immendorff (1945-2007) was among the most exciting German artists of the postwar period. Taking his cues from expressionist interwar painters such as George Grosz, and the tawdry socialist realism commonplace behind the Iron Curtain (though he himself was based in West Germany), he created grand, Hogarthian cycles of figurative works, presenting a panoramic view of contemporary German society. This exhibition, entitled Questions from a Painter Who Reads, brings together a selection of paintings realised between the 1970s and his death, which are notable for their depressing and uncomfortable critique of consumer society. Immendorff depicts the time and place he inhabited as a nightmare of debauchery and turbulence,…

Lily asks her mum about Geraldine leaving, but Elizabeth is vague and changes the subject to Russ and the college investigation. Lily says it was decided he didn’t groom her. Russ can still teach, but any potential employer will know why he was fired. Lily calls Russ to tell him she has to stay longer to help with the Hunt Ball. After returning to work, Neil complains to Susan that Hannah seems to be launching a takeover bid. Susan says he’s being paranoid. Will asks for Brian’s help when joyriders wreck two of the shoot’s drives. Brian works out a way for the shoot to go ahead. He’s touched when Will tells him the shoot isn’t the same without him. Helen bumps into Lee, who asks her out for coffee.…

The Stagg Inn Titley, Kington, Herefordshire (01544-230221) In 2001, The Stagg Inn was the first repurposed old pub to win a Michelin star, says Tim Hayward in the FT. Seventeen years on, it’s still a “hell of a lot more gastro than pub” – and still “very much worth the detour”. Inside it is a model of restrained good taste, with lots of “smoky beige”; the furnishings are a “carefully curated collection of well-scrubbed old curiosities and some genuine antiques, as is the clientele”. As for chef Steve Reynolds’ “lovely” food, it’s hard to fault. I had hoped they wouldn’t kick off with foam – too much of an early-2000s cliché – but then a big bowl of freshly fried crisps arrived with a pot of intensely vinegar-flavoured spume…

Tips of the week… how to survive a teen house party ● Teenagers “predrink”. Whatever time the party starts, guests will be at least tipsy when they arrive. Have bottles of water ready and hide all your booze. ● Be firm about the guest list and make it clear that “plus ones” will be turned away. On no account let your teen mention the party on social media. And define a time for everyone to leave. ● When teens get drunk, they regress. If you have a trampoline, bikes, scooters or anything that’s for younger kids, hide it. ● Provide carbohydrates to soak up booze, but avoid food with projectile possibilities. You will regret that bowl of tangerines. ● Accept the inevitable: people will vomit and there will be love…

Influential film director who made Don’t Look Now Nicolas Roeg 1928-2018 Nicolas Roeg, who has died aged 90, was one of Britain’s most influential film directors, said The Daily Telegraph. He came to directing relatively late in his career, and his reputation rests on a clutch of films – including Performance, Walkabout, Don’t Look Now and The Man Who Fell to Earth – which were not all well received at the time, but which have come to be hugely admired. Although Roeg did not set out to be “avant garde”, his work was challenging; he rarely told stories with beginnings, middles and ends, while “finite meaning was not a prerogative”. His films were passionate, daring, visually arresting and often dreamlike, but he disliked talking about them. Pressed to…

On one analyst’s reckoning, The Restaurant Group’s proposed £559m buyout of noodle chain Wagamama “could be the highest per restaurant ever paid in the UK”, says Nils Pratley in The Guardian. True, a few “trophy restaurants” might have gone for more, but with 133-directly-owned restaurants, Wagamama would be changing hands at roughly £4m per site. A few shareholders have opposed the buyout, but The Restaurant Group reckons it’s got enough votes to push the deal across the line. “Good luck.” Paying a record-breaking sum, all in cash, for a noodle chain in the current environment is “brave”.…

US “Faang” stocks have lost their bite, says Mark Atherton in The Times. But there are still many British tech stocks worth looking at. Here’s a sample: Blue Prism This Merseyside-based software outfit specialises in robotic process automation. “Any US or Asian start-up would kill for its pace of expansion,” says Leigh Himsworth of Fidelity. Revenues jumped 145% in the half-year to April. IMImobile A London cloud software company which enables blue chips like BT, Pizza Hut and banks to communicate more effectively with customers through mobile and digital channels. Victoria Stevens of Liontrust’s UK Micro Cap fund rates its “truly global” potential – rare given IMImobile’s “relatively small” £200m market cap. GB Group Headquartered in Chester, this identity management specialist provides ID verification and fraud prevention software, and “appears…

The week’s best shares Diageo Investors Chronicle Diageo is selling 19 brands to focus on its portfolio of “premium and above” alcohol brands. Organic growth looks sustainable, the dividend is well covered and there could be further buy-backs. Buy. £27.87. easyJet Investors Chronicle The airline is capitalising on misfortune: spending £35.6m on the defunct Air Berlin’s slots at Berlin Tegel and possibly buying parts of ailing regional airline Flybe. It’s well prepared for all Brexit outcomes. Buy. £11.48. Faroe Petroleum The Times Despite share volatility, this UK-Norway oil and gas firm has a “solid track record”, and boasts rising production while costs remain economic. If it becomes a bid target, it will not be going cheap. Buy. 158p. James Halstead The Mail on Sunday This floor-maker produces quality vinyl in…