Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1226 i The Week

What happened Election shock Cross-party talks to break the Brexit deadlock resumed this week amid growing calls from Tories for Theresa May to set a firm resignation date. There was speculation over the weekend that senior Tory and Labour figures were close to a compromise deal, based on a temporary customs union, but a meeting on Tuesday suggested otherwise. With hopes fading of a quick resolution, the Government formally conceded that Britain would have to take part in the European elections on 23 May, and indicated that its new objective was to get a Brexit deal agreed by the summer recess in July. Both the Conservatives and Labour are under pressure to make progress on Brexit in the wake of their disappointing showing in last week’s local elections in England.…

Schools’ academic rankings will, in future, incorporate the exam results of their excluded pupils. The policy is designed to discourage schools from excluding low-achieving pupils in order to boost their overall results, and the practice of “off-rolling”, which is when schools remove pupils from registers informally. The recommendations are among 30 contained in a report on exclusions by former children’s minister Edward Timpson that Damian Hinds, the Education Secretary, has agreed to implement. The number of school exclusions has risen 40% in the past three years, after a period of decline.…

Amsterdam Motor ban: All petrol and diesel vehicles are going to be banned from the centre of Amsterdam as part of the city’s efforts to tackle air pollution. Phased in over several years from 2020, the ban will apply first to any diesel cars made before 2005. From 2022, this will be extended to buses and coaches, and from 2025 motorbikes and even the boats on the city’s canals will be affected. “Pollution often is a silent killer and is one of the greatest health hazards in Amsterdam,” Sharon Dijksma, the Dutch capital’s traffic chief, said. “Amsterdammers live an average of one year shorter due to dirty air.” To ease the transition, the council says it will offer subsidies and the use of free charging stations for buyers of electric…

“There’s an idea gaining traction that young people from less advantaged backgrounds lack a mysterious brew of ‘confidence’, ‘character’ and ‘polish’, without which it is harder to reach the top jobs. When I was 17, my state school sent me on an Oxbridge ‘access day’. At one session, an academic ‘taught’ us to shake hands, then made us practise in front of him. I still remember how humiliating it felt. We were at state schools, not idiots. It almost put me off applying... Even if confidence and ease can be taught, it’s not obvious that they’re qualities we need more of at the top. If recent crises have taught us anything, it is surely that we could do with more leaders who doubt themselves, seek the opinions of others and…

The China scandal no one talks about Jamil Anderlini Financial Times Nothing better illustrates the power of China today, says Jamil Anderlini, than the muted criticism of its treatment of the Uighurs. That two million Muslims in China’s Xinjiang province have been confined to “re-education” camps should be “a global scandal of epic proportions”. Yet most of the world, fearful of losing trade with China, turns a blind eye to it. The leaders of Indonesia and Pakistan, the two most populous Muslim-majority nations, have feigned ignorance, even while slating Myanmar for its treatment of Rohingya Muslims. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, “the collective voice of the Muslim world” as the 57-nation group calls itself, actually commended China for “providing care to its Muslim citizens”. Jacinda Ardern, the New Zealand PM,…

Loss of smell a “warning” It is normal for people’s sense of smell to decline as they get older. However, those who experience extreme smell loss have been found to die younger than those who retain their olfactory powers – suggesting that it could be a “warning sign” of impending ill-health. For the Michigan State University study, researchers looked at data on more than 2,200 people in the US who’d taken a smell test in their 70s, with follow-ups over the next 13 years. During that period, about half the participants died. When the researchers cross-referenced their causes of death with their result in the smell test, they found – after taking account of factors such as smoking – that the poorest smellers had a 46% greater risk of dying…

“Forever – is composed of nows.” Emily Dickinson, quoted in The Independent “We make out of the quarrel with others rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves, poetry.” W.B. Yeats, quoted in The Times “God made the world round so we would never be able to see too far down the road.” Karen Blixen, quoted in The San Francisco Chronicle “Everyone feels 25 until the day they die.” Spandau Ballet star Martin Kemp, quoted in The Sunday Times “Someday is not a day of the week.” American author Janet Dailey, quoted in the LA Times “Isn’t that the excitement of growing up: to think you know it all and then realise you don’t?” Claire Fox, quoted in The Sunday Times “Passed years seem safe ones, vanquished ones, while the future…

Football Celtic beat Aberdeen 3-0 to secure an eighth consecutive league title. Notts County were relegated from League Two. Man City won the Women’s FA Cup, beating West Ham 3-0. Snooker Judd Trump won his maiden World Championship title, beating John Higgins 18-9 in the final at the Crucible. Cricket England beat Ireland by four wickets in an ODI, and Pakistan by seven wickets in a T20I. Rugby union A 28-19 defeat at Gloucester confirmed Newcastle’s relegation from the Premiership.…

The Tate has long been guilty of not displaying enough art made by women – but the “winds of change” have been blowing through this venerable institution, said Sabine Peschel in Deutsche Welle. In 2017, Maria Balshaw became its first female director, introducing a programme designed to establish “greater gender parity”. Since then, its four museums have staged an impressive run of temporary exhibitions dedicated to overlooked female artists, and made great strides towards showcasing more women in their permanent displays. As part of this drive, Tate Britain has temporarily removed a number of exhibits by male artists, replacing them with a selection of pieces by “female vanguards of contemporary art” from the gallery’s collection. The display contains about 60 works created since 1959, ranging from pieces by such celebrated…

Best books… Novuyo Rosa Tshuma The Zimbabwean author picks her favourite books. She has been shortlisted for the Swansea University International Dylan Thomas Prize for her novel House of Stone (Atlantic £8.99). The winner will be announced on 16 May The Luzhin Defense by Vladimir Nabokov, 1930, (Penguin £9.99). The prose in this bizarre novel is so crisp, and Nabokov’s turn of phrase and zealous care makes the world come gloriously alive. Chess as a philosophical otherworld, unbearable in its beauty, made for a sublime reading experience. The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith, 1955 (Vintage £8.99). There’s something captivating about the way we become entangled in Tom Ripley’s perfectly human needs – love, attention, affection, companionship – and his amoral, at times immoral, pursuit of these needs, which he…

I like a treasured bottle from an older vintage as much as the next woman, says Fiona Beckett in The Guardian. But what I buy most of, as spring heads towards summer, are crisp, fresh wines from recent vintages at reasonable prices. Here are four great 2018 wines to enjoy right away. The Wine Foundry Vinho Verde Avesso 2018 (£6.49; Aldi) is the kind of fish-friendly white you’ll love if you’re a picpoul or muscadet fan; it’s also good with oysters. Fabien Murail Les Clos des Chaumes Fiefs Vendéens 2018 (£12.95; South Downs Cellars) is a refreshingly crisp blend of chenin and chardonnay; the sort of great Loire wine you discover on holiday. Perfect with crab. TM Rosé Rosato Tenuta Monteti 2018 (£15.95; Lea & Sandeman) is a glorious, merlot-based…

Hôtel de Paris Monaco The “great pleasure” of an uberluxury hotel is how “special” it makes you feel, says Fiona Duncan in The Daily Telegraph. Located in Monaco – that “fairytale principality” dedicated to good times for the “nobility, aristocracy and filthy rich” – Hôtel de Paris is “a real treat”. A five-year, £214m renovation has added two “ravishing” new suites, complete with rooftop infinity pools. Its restaurant, Le Louis XV, has three Michelin stars and has been the “domain” of Alain Ducasse since 1987. All guests have free access to the “glorious, gilded” Monte Carlo Casino, where they “can, and do, win – and lose – millions” in a single night. Doubles from £416 per night.montecarlosbm.com.…

Oscar-nominated writer and director of Boyz n the Hood John Singleton 1968-2019 In 1992, John Singleton became the youngest person, and the first African American, to be nominated for a best director Oscar. He was 22 when he started making Boyz n the Hood, and 24 when he received the nomination – two years younger than Orson Welles when he was nominated for Citizen Kane in 1942. Like Welles, Singleton had also written his film, and he was worried that his career would follow a similar trajectory: “You do something spectacular, your first shot, and then, no matter what you do, you can’t follow it up.” But that was precisely what happened, said The Guardian. Singleton, who has died aged 51 after a stroke, made other well-regarded films,…

Fancy a piece of plant-based vegan “meat”? Plenty on Wall Street do, said James Dean in The Times. Shares in Beyond Meat – touted as the first “alternative meat” start-up to go public – jumped by more than 150% during their “full-blooded” debut last week, taking the loss-making company’s value to $3.8bn. Beyond Meat is one of several new outfits taking advantage of rising demand for “meat-like food synthesised from plant proteins”. Its biggest seller is the Beyond Burger, currently stocked in Tesco’s meat-chiller cabinets. High-profile backers include the actor Leonardo DiCaprio, the Microsoft founder Bill Gates and a “former chief executive of McDonald’s”.…

Controversy of the week Cambridge and slavery To many, the mention of Cambridge University conjures up images of “magnificent colleges, black-gowned students and long, lazy afternoons punting down the river”, said Dominic Sandbrook in the Daily Mail. But storm clouds are gathering over “one of the greatest educational establishments”, threatening to wash away that sense of languid calm. The university’s vice-chancellor, Prof Stephen Toope, has announced plans for a two-year inquiry into its links to the slave trade. Two researchers will be employed to find out whether it benefited “through financial and other bequests to departments, libraries and museums”, and to investigate whether generations of dons may have “reinforced and validated race-based thinking” between the 18th and 20th centuries. And Cambridge is not the only wealthy institution pouring resources into…

Chris Grayling, the Transport Secretary, has cancelled all the contracts he awarded to ferry companies to bring supplies to the UK in case of a no-deal Brexit, at a cost to the taxpayer of £50m. This sum is on top of the £33m paid to settle a lawsuit with Eurotunnel, after it said it should have been allowed to bid for the contracts. They were awarded to three firms, including Seaborne Freight – which had no ships. Similar contracts could be signed again, if a deal is not agreed well before the Brexit deadline of 31 October.…

Ottowa New life for Bibi: The Christian farm worker whose acquittal on blasphemy charges caused riots across Pakistan last year, has finally been flown to Canada, to be reunited with her family. Asia Bibi’s ordeal began when she was accused of blasphemy following a trivial row with some of her Muslim neighbours. Convicted on flimsy evidence in 2010, she was sentenced to death. Two politicians who criticised her conviction were murdered, and when last October, after years on death row, she had it overthrown on appeal, there were violent mass protests and calls for the judges to be killed. Although Canada is believed to have offered her asylum early on, Bibi, 48, was kept in protective custody and prevented from leaving the country. Reportedly, it took sustained diplomatic efforts to…

Hundreds of people flocked to Conway Hall in London this week to attend the 2019 Boring Conference. The festival, created in 2010 in response to the cancelling of the Interesting Conference, is billed as “a celebration of the ordinary, the obvious and the overlooked”. This year’s topics included police telephone boxes (real ones, not the Tardis) and the Albertus typeface. “There is sincerity to these talks,” said conference founder James Ward, an expert on postcards of the Post Office Tower. “People genuinely love their subjects and know a lot about them, but they also tend to realise they have wasted their time.” A solid gold lavatory is to be installed in Blenheim Palace. The 18-carat WC forms part of an exhibition of work by the artist Maurizio Cattelan, but it…

THE NETHERLANDS Venice is right to make its visitors pay De Volkskrant (Amsterdam) The beautiful towns of Europe are turning into “tourist bordellos”, says Bert Wagendorp. They’re groaning from the effects of mass publicity. In the quiet cobbled streets of Dubrovnik’s old town all “hell broke loose” after it started being used as a set for Game of Thrones in 2011: now it’s visited by 1.27 million tourists a year and most of the remaining residents have been forced to flee. Here in the Netherlands, Giethoorn (the “Dutch Venice”) is visited by up to two million Chinese tourists a year; you see them crashing their boats into each other on the canals, and taking selfies next to unsuspecting locals “peeling potatoes in their kitchens”. Something clearly has to be done…

An app to cut waiting times Patients are to be given access to live NHS A&E waiting times through a phone app, says The Times. WaitLess, which has already been launched in ten UK regions, uses data to show the lengths of queues and estimated waiting times at local hospitals and urgent treatment centres (UTCs). It is hoped the app – which is expected to be rolled out across England within a year – will ease pressure on hospitals by diverting people with minor injuries to GP-led UTCs, where many will be seen more quickly. “This is a great example of the type of innovation that should be offered to every patient as part of our long-term plan for the NHS,” said Health Secretary Matt Hancock. A bad influence? If…

Anjelica Huston believes that Oprah Winfrey has never forgiven her for winning the best supporting actress Oscar in 1986, when Huston (pictured) was nominated for Prizzi’s Honor and Winfrey for The Color Purple. “She never had me on her show, ever. She won’t talk to me. The only encounter I’ve had was when I was at a party for the awards. I was talking to Clint Eastwood and she literally came between us: all of the sudden I was confronted with the back of Oprah’s head. Nobody else would dislike me so much.” But, “I admire Oprah”, she added. “God knows, she’s made some big steps.” Bobby Robson was a brilliant manager – but he wasn’t always on the ball. Gary Lineker recalls an occasion when Robson had misplaced his…

Football: Liverpool’s miraculous comeback There have been plenty of “glorious, entirely improbable games in Liverpool’s European history”, said Barney Ronay in The Guardian. But their stunning 4-0 semi-final win over Barcelona on Tuesday really was “something else”. Trailing 3-0 after the first leg at Camp Nou – and missing injured stars Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino – Jürgen Klopp’s side seemed down and out. Even after an early goal in the first half from Divock Origi, victory looked beyond reach. But early in the second half, the game turned on its head, with two goals in as many minutes from half-time substitute Georginio Wijnaldum. Then, in the 79th minute, Origi popped up again to score the winner, latching on to a quick corner by Trent Alexander-Arnold that caught Barca’s defenders…

Cambridge and slavery To The Times Cambridge’s proposal to devote resources neither to teaching nor to research, but to virtue signalling over slavery is not only questionable for a charity, but also an endorsement of notions of hereditary guilt. Leaving aside the prevalence of coercive labour systems across much of the world, including Africa, throughout much of history, and the major role of African polities in the enslavement and sale of people, there is a preference for beating up on the past rather than addressing slavery in the world today. Public slavery in the shape of those oppressed under totalitarian rule, for example in North Korea, is particularly serious. With the Left unable to use the Holocaust as a key signifier in historical consciousness, it has focused on the slave…

Tom Hammick at Flowers Gallery This show of new paintings by British artist Tom Hammick (b.1963), called Night Animals, is an immediately compelling proposition. At once gentle and slightly spooky, Hammick’s canvases are haunting things, combining near-naïf simplicity with sci-fi imagery and a Munchian atmosphere of alienation. The dozen paintings here are all night scenes that are both romantic and eerie: lights from solitary bungalows on dark horizons are a recurring feature, as are lone figures in the wilderness and imposing trees that seem more sturdy than any of the built environment Hammick depicts around them. In his hands, a campfire appears more like the focal point of a pagan ritual than a holiday activity, while the strange figures around it are irradiated in a mysterious glow. These works send…

Tom struggles to concentrate at the cricket: his mind is on the absent Natasha. Ambridge win anyway and praise is heaped on Chris as captain. Shula’s art project meeting is a disaster, as Lynda, Jim and Russ agree on nothing. Shula calls the meeting to an early end. Clarrie’s lost some of the money donated to Nic’s Lent appeal and worries it has been stolen. Shula tells Alistair she feels bad about the divorce. Alistair assures her it was for the best. Fallon is short-staffed at the tea room. She hires Jazzer at Jim’s suggestion, but immediately regrets it. Although he’s a hit with the customers, he’s too chatty and breaks things. Ed accompanies Tim on a dodgy delivery. Ed’s alarmed by the surly contact they meet up with, and…

Matt Healy X The Foundry 1 Saw Mill Yard, Leeds (0113-245 0390) This place has on its wall a huge neon sign bearing the legend “Food to swear by”, says Jay Rayner in The Observer. And I can vouch for its accuracy: tucking into a steak tartare, I found myself muttering a more profane version of “Bloody hell, that’s good!” I first came across Matt Healy’s cooking on MasterChef: The Professionals in 2016. Now ensconced in his own bright and airy restaurant in Leeds – raw brick, concrete floors, filament light bulbs – the luxuriantly tattooed chef can be seen at the pass, “his big meaty forearms and Captain Haddock beard” a “killer disguise for pocketsful of precision, finesse and wit”. We enjoyed chorizo in cider; a “special” plank…

New cars: what the critics say Auto Express In designing its first all-electric car, Audi has taken a different approach to its rivals. Rather than trying to make the e-tron look futuristic, it has designed it to make drivers feel at home: the styling departs very little from the maker’s other SUVs, though overall it’s “more refined, comfortable and practical” than Audi’s equivalent Q5. But at this price, it needs to offer a lot to set it apart from the pack. What Car? The e-tron has two powerful electric motors – one for each set of wheels. These can produce 402bhp and hit 0-62mph in 5.7sec, though to conserve battery life, you can only access the top 47bhp in 8-second bursts. The 243-mile range can’t match the 292 miles of…

Spotting eagles on Mull For those who “like to feel the outdoors on their skin and in their lungs”, Scotland’s Inner Hebrides are hard to beat, says Graeme Green in Wanderlust. The 35 inhabited and 44 uninhabited islands are wild places where people are outnumbered “not only by cows and sheep”, but by all kinds of wildlife from deer to dolphins. If you want to spot white-tailed sea eagles, head to Mull, which has 22 breeding pairs. “Revered” for centuries – Vikings were often buried with an eagle’s skull – they’d been hunted to extinction by 1918. Reintroduction began in the 1970s, and the first chick was born in 1985. On a visit to Mull Eagle Watch’s hide, you can see Britain’s largest bird of prey up close, with its…

Bombardier: Ulster shock The Canadian aerospace group Bombardier has been an important player in Northern Ireland since the late 1980s, when it bought Short Brothers – one of the oldest names in aviation. But no longer, said Alex Daniel in City AM. Last week, the Montreal-based company abruptly announced it will sell its Belfast wing-making factory, which employs about 4,000 people, as part of a wider consolidation. Unions are up in arms and politicians are running scared, said Alistair Osborne in The Times. Certainly, “as business stories from the region go, it’s hard to think of a trickier one for our Brexit-crazed PM”. The Canadian plane-and train-maker is Ulster’s “biggest employer of skilled workers” and “the former Short Brothers plant is bang in DUP territory”. Theresa May has already…

Will Carney disappoint again on rates? Jeremy Warner The Sunday Telegraph When it comes to raising interest rates, Bank of England governor Mark Carney is “hot to trot”, says Jeremy Warner. The Bank has issued a “firm warning” to markets that “there will be more – and more frequent – interest rate rises than the markets anticipate” because growth prospects are on the up, assuming a smooth Brexit. This “hawkish pivot” sets the Bank apart: both the US Fed and the European Central Bank “have put monetary tightening on hold”. But for Carney the policy is something of a holy grail. He has been “promising to get rates up” for ages, yet at every attempt, “some wretched thing” has come along to derail plans; today’s Bank rate is still only…

● The Brown bottom Twenty years ago this week, the then chancellor of the exchequer, Gordon Brown, announced plans to sell down the nation’s gold reserves. At the time, it seemed “a perfectly sensible” move to some, said Russell Hotten on BBC Business online. But it has since gone down as “one of the worst investment decisions of all time”. Inadvertently, Brown called “the bottom of gold’s two-decade bear market”. Between 1999 and 2002, the Treasury sold 401 tonnes of gold from Britain’s 715-tonne holding, at an average of $275 an ounce – netting the nation about $3.5bn. Since the sales ended, the average price of “the yellow metal” has been “almost $1,000” an ounce, according to BullionVault. After a spectacular rise, gold hit a record high of more than…

Not long after, my mum said she had something to tell me. Not again! I tried to stay calm as she took my hand. Cancer. She went on, “It’s ovarian, but it’s spread and that’s why my hip hurts.” She took a deep breath. “They’ve told me it’s terminal,” she said. “I’m so sorry, James, I won’t be able to meet your children.” I went to see Dad to see how he’d taken Mum’s news. He must have been devastated. But when I arrived I was miffed to find it was business as usual. In fact, business seemed to be booming. There was now a large L-shaped sofa in the living room, with lots of men sitting on it. One of them said, “So you’re Richard’s son?” There was a…

New York is having a boom in the “sober nightlife” scene, with a growing number of clubs offering booze-free nights where only mocktails (costing up to $13) are served. At the twice-monthly Ecstatic Dance night, the rules are: no booze, no drugs, no shoes and no speaking on the dance floor. There are shots, but they contain no spirits, only Amazonia – a “non-alcoholic elixir” that tastes like cold herbal tea. Tulip farmers in the Netherlands are erecting barriers around their fields to stop tourists trampling their crops to take selfies among the flowers. Crowds of tourists are a growing problem for the Dutch. The country (pop. 17 million) had 19 million overseas visitors last year, up from 11 million in 2005 (see page 15).…

28% of Britons think the benefits of immigration outweigh the costs, making Britain the most pro-immigration of 19 European countries polled. 24% of Germans agree with that statement, along with 21%, of French people and 19% of Danes. Britons are also the least trusting of social media of any of 23 countries polled. 12% say they trust information they find on social media, compared with 20% of Germans, 51% of Poles, and 52% of people in India and Saudi Arabia. YouGov-Cambridge Centre/ The Guardian Once “don’t knows” are excluded, 49% of Scots now think Scotland should be an independent country; 51% do not. In June 2018, the figures were 45% and 55% respectively. YouGov/Reuters…

Fletcher’s lost youth It’s hard to square Dexter Fletcher with the child star that he once was. As a boy, he agrees, he was quite a looker, says Sally Williams in The Daily Telegraph, with his wild hair, full lips and deep-set eyes – which was, he admits, “great for me”. After starring as Baby Face in Bugsy Malone (1976), he was cast as everything from the young Caravaggio to a teenage reporter in the hit TV show Press Gang. Fast forward 40 years, and Fletcher is a beefy 53-year-old with a grey beard. But that’s OK, because he has moved behind the camera (as a successful director) – and because the old Fletcher had lost everything. During a tricky period in his teens, he’d started dabbling in drugs, and…

Huawei isn’t just the leading player in the development of 5G networks: it’s the world’s largest manufacturer of routers, switches and other telecoms equipment, and the second-largest smartphone-maker (after Samsung). It has 180,000 employees in 170 countries and is one of the world’s top-three patent applicants. It’s a remarkable achievement for a company founded in 1987 as a sales agent in the Chinese city of Shenzhen for Hong Kong-based phone and cable companies. The fact that Huawei is now playing such a leading role in the development of a critical technology has put it at the heart of the geopolitical struggle for supremacy between China and the US. But for the US and other Western nations the concern is not just related to its market dominance, but to its potential…

Ex-cons are getting a raw deal Kevin D. Williamson National Review If you’re convicted of a felony in the US, says Kevin D. Williamson, you almost always lose the right to vote. In some states, you get that right back when you leave prison, or a few years later; in others, you never regain it. But if Bernie Sanders has his way, this will change. The Democratic presidential candidate wants all prisoners, past and present, to be free to vote. His motivation is pretty clear. It’s a ploy to gain more African-American voters, who lean heavily Democrat and are about five times as likely to be jailed during their lives as white voters. If this were really all about offering ex-cons a fresh start in the name of rehabilitation, as…

Leeds has become the first city in the UK to see a fall in obesity levels among primary-school children – after introducing an innovative programme that aims to help parents set boundaries for their children, and so make it easier for them to say no to junk food. Based on government data, obesity rates among reception-age pupils in Leeds fell from 9.4% to 8.8% between 2013 and 2017, while flatlining in England as a whole. The biggest fall, of 11.5% to 10.5%, was in the most deprived fifth of children. Lead researcher Professor Susan Jebb, of Oxford University, hailed this as “astonishing”, given the widening obesity gap between rich and poor. Although it’s not clear what turned the tide in Leeds, much of the credit is being given to a…

Caster Semenya: forced off the track “Few athletes have been as blessed and cursed as Caster Semenya,” said The Economist. The South African runner’s prodigious speed has enabled her to win back-to-back Olympic golds over 800 metres. But her success on the track has been accompanied by years of humiliating “speculation and censure” over her sex. Last week, she lost a landmark battle to be allowed to compete in the body she was born with, when the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the highest legal body in sport, upheld a ruling that female athletes born with intersex traits should have to take medication to suppress their naturally high levels of testosterone, if they wish to compete in any event between 400 metres and one mile. In other words, if…

Call it the “rise of the little men”, said Austin Healey in The Daily Telegraph. Three nominees for the Premiership’s player of the year – Cobus Reinach, Santiago Cordero and Faf de Klerk – are under 6ft tall. The other two – Henry Slade (6ft 3in) and Danny Cipriani (6ft 1in) – are “play-makers who rely upon brains rather than brawn”. It’s the same elsewhere: the best player in the Champions Cup has been Toulouse’s Cheslin Kolbe (5ft 7in), while Darcy Graham (5ft 10in) has been “ripping it up” in the Pro14. Why, in this “bigger is better” era, are they prospering? Three reasons. We’re seeing more rucks, which tire out the big guys, enabling smaller players to make more breaks. And back-three players are receiving more kicks, which gives…

To The Guardian The campaign about anti-Semitism in Corbyn’s Labour Party is getting absurd. Hobson’s Imperialism: A Study has been taught for years in universities. No one has ever felt the need to highlight the ten lines, in a 400-page book, which are anti-Semitic, but Corbyn was expected to do so [in a foreword to a reissue of the book]. Anyone who had not heard of this text would be forgiven for thinking it is anti-Semitic. It is not. It was an influential study of imperialism and has always been read as such. I do not remember any article in scholarly journals making a point about that paragraph on the Rothschilds and the “race” that, Hobson claims, was so influential. The paragraph is completely marginal to the text. So why…

Among the more eye-catching exhibits at the 58th Venice Biennale (11 May to 24 November) is sure to be Lorenzo Quinn’s spectacular new installation, says Josephine McKenna in The Daily Telegraph. Entitled Building Bridges, it features six gigantic pairs of human hands and towers 12 metres above the city’s historic Arsenale shipyards. Drawing on Italy’s sculptural heritage, the resin-fibre work is only the latest monumental installation by the artist – the son of the Oscar-winning actor Anthony Quinn – to draw attention to the city’s fragility in the face of rising sea levels. During the 2017 Biennale, his 9-metre-tall sculpture of hands reaching out of the Grand Canal also highlighted the effects of climate change. So why return to the same subject? “The job is not done yet,” he says.…

Programmes A German Life – Storyville (2016) Goebbels’s secretary Brunhilde Pomsel was among the faithful holed up in Hitler’s bunker. Aged 103, she was interviewed for this powerful documentary about her life. Mon 13 May, BBC4 22:00 (85mins). Years and Years Set in the near future, this six-part drama follows 15 years in the life of one family. With Rory Kinnear and Emma Thompson. Tue 14 May, BBC1 21:00 (60mins). Nadiya: Anxiety and Me The Bake Off winner talks about her extreme anxiety, in one of the films shown to mark Mental Health Awareness Week. Wed 15 May, BBC1 21:00 (60mins). David Harewood: Psychosis and Me The Homeland star looks at the roots of his psychotic breakdown 30 years ago. Thur 16 May, BBC2 21:00 (60mins). The Virtues Shane Meadows…

The idea for this cornbread cake came to me as I devoured a chocolate tamale at Mucho, a remarkable chocolate shop, café and museum in Mexico City, says Sue Quinn. I originally envisioned it as a sweet treat, but it also works superbly as an accompaniment to meat dishes, such as a spicy chilli, or pork carnitas Chocolate, chilli and lime cornbread For the cornbread: 2 tbsps olive oil, plus extra for oiling 180ml natural yoghurt 2 large eggs 60ml lime juice finely grated zest of 2 limes 200g cornmeal 70g masa or plain flour 40g cocoa powder 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 75g soft light brown sugar 2 tsps crushed chipotle chillies for the lime and maple butter: 100g unsalted butter, softened 2-3 tbsps maple syrup finely grated zest…

Five nights in the Algarve Surrounded by vineyards, the Vale D’el Rei Resort offers the promise of a relaxing break. Half-board from £522pp, Birmingham flights included. 020-3767 5457, teletextholidays.co.uk . Depart 8 June. Four-star Cape Town stay Six nights at the Villa Atlantica Boutique Guesthouse, with a beach nearby, cost from £1,011pp (room only), including Manchester flights. 020-8974 7200, travelrepublic.co.uk. Depart 25 June. Dream Maldives getaway Spend six nights in a garden bungalow at the Kuredu Island Resort & Spa from £1,293pp (full board), Bristol flights included. 020-8705 0071, southalltravel.co.uk. Depart 3 July. All-inclusive in Jamaica Stay at the five-star Hyatt Zilara Rose Hall, Montego Bay, on a private beachfront. From £1,599pp, including London flights. 01342-889241, tropicalsky.co.uk. Depart 10 June.…

Donald Trump’s threat to raise tariffs on $200bn of Chinese goods from 10% to 25% – just as the two sides seemed set to reach an agreement this week – caused ructions in global stock markets. Wall Street indices fell to six-week lows and markets tumbled across Europe and Asia. US negotiators placed the blame for the impasse squarely on China, whose chief negotiator agreed to attend talks in Washington this week, albeit with a much-reduced Chinese delegation. IMF chief Christine Lagarde led calls to resolve the dispute, “because clearly tensions between the US and China are a threat to the global economy”. In Britain, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee kept interest rates on hold at 0.75%. But the governor, Mark Carney, signalled that rate rises would be…

Warren Buffett The Sage of Omaha treated thousands of fans to a solid defence of capitalism at last week’s Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, said The New York Times. While other billionaires are helplessly “apologising” for it, there’s something “oddly refreshing” about Buffett’s frank belief that the pursuit of capitalism is “fundamentally moral – that it produces prosperity and progress even when there are immoral actors, and even when it creates inequality”. One reason baby-boomers flock to Buffett, 88 – who has just spent $10bn buying into Occidental Petroleum – is because he “doesn’t burden them with weighty musings” about the planet, said John Foley on Reuters Breaking-views. But this “anti-virtue signalling” could return to bite. “Years from now, their children may not agree that decades of slightly above-market returns” justified…

Investment is crucial to achieving “net-zero” emissions by 2050, says Hugo Cox in The Times. Here are some ways you might profitably do your bit Electric vehicles The cheapest way to invest in EVs is through an exchange-traded fund. James McManus of Nutmeg likes iShares Electric Vehicle & Driving, which offers exposure to companies in developed and emerging markets. Another approach from Impax Environmental Markets has a focus on “components and materials”. As Impax’s Jon Forster observes: “The jury is still out on which car manufacturers will win, but all will need the parts.” Home power At present, 14% of Britain’s greenhouse gas emissions come from our homes – and there’s big potential for investors to help reduce that statistic by backing new insulating materials and heating control systems. Among…