Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1230 i The Week

What happened The race to replace May The Tory leadership contenders ratcheted up their campaigns this week in preparation for the formal launch of the contest. Nominations to replace Theresa May will close at 5pm on Monday, after which Tory MPs will embark on a series of votes to whittle down the number of contenders to two, leaving the final choice to a vote by the party membership. May will step down as Tory leader this week, but remain PM until a successor is named in the coming weeks. The list of Tory runners grew to 13 last weekend, but on Tuesday two candidates – James Cleverly and Kit Malthouse – withdrew as the party tightened the rules for the contest in response to concerns that the size of the…

Six of the 11 MPs who formed Change UK in February, with the aim of reshaping British politics, quit the party this week. Chuka Umunna, the party’s spokesman, and Heidi Allen, its interim leader, left – along with Luciana Berger, Sarah Wollaston, Gavin Shuker and Angela Smith. In a joint statement, the six said that they would be “returning to supporting each other as independents”, though some are rumoured to be thinking of joining the Lib Dems. In last month’s European elections, the party took just 3.3% of the vote, and none of its candidates were elected.…

Utrecht, Netherlands Hells Angels banned: A Dutch court has banned the Hells Angels from the Netherlands, and ordered the biker club to close down all its chapters in the country. Calling it a “danger to the public order” and “a club of outlaws” (a slogan the gang itself uses), the court drew attention to the group’s long association with violent crime, including the killing of rivals, shoot-outs and drug offences. It is the first time that the Hells Angels, which was founded in California in 1948 and today consists of 470 chapters in 56 countries, has been slapped with a nationwide ban of this kind. Dutch prosecutors pointed to hundreds of incidents, including an arson attack on a café in the town of Kerkrade in 2015 and a mass brawl…

1 If I Were a Boy by B.C. Jean and Toby Gad, performed by Beyoncé 2 Bedlam, traditional, arranged and performed by Stick In The Wheel 3 Downtown by Tony Hatch, performed by Petula Clark 4 A Case of You, written and performed by Joni Mitchell 5 Nine Pin, written and performed by Kaia Kater 6 Der Rosenkavalier by Strauss, performed by Christian Thielemann with Renée Fleming, Diana Damrau, Sophie Koch and the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra 7* Suzanne by Leonard Cohen, performed by Nina Simone 8 Chuva by Jorge Fernando, performed by Mariza Book: Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy Luxury: endless supply of self-ironing Yaccomaricard shirts * Choice if allowed only one record…

Adopted in 1791, the Second Amendment is only 27 words long: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” Yet two centuries after it was written, people are still arguing over what exactly that sentence means. It was long held that the amendment was meant to protect state militias – groups of self-equipped, part-time soldiers considered a bulwark against tyrannical central government. “Four times between 1876 and 1939, the US Supreme Court declined to rule that the Second Amendment protected individual gun ownership outside the context of a militia,” says Politico. But in the 1970s, encouraged by the NRA, legal academics began arguing that the amendment did guarantee individual gun ownership.…

The number of people dying from strokes has halved in a decade, mainly as a result of improvements in treatment. A team from the University of Oxford analysed data from NHS England and found that between 2001 and 2010, the number of stroke deaths fell from 41,851 per annum to 26,598. Once the figures had been adjusted to take into account the effects of an ageing population, that equates to a 55% reduction in the death rate. This decrease was found to be mainly the result of substantially improved survival rates, the researchers said, though fewer people having strokes accounted for some of the drop. The news wasn’t all positive, however: there was a slight increase in the number of strokes suffered by people under 55, probably because of rising…

It’s hard not to feel cynical about some government reviews, said Richard Brooks in The Independent. Take the one unveiled last week on post-18 education in England. Theresa May commissioned it in a panicky response to the supposed pro-Labour “youthquake” in the 2017 election, and the report, by businessman and historian Philip Augar, has been rushed out in the dying days of her premiership as a “sort of fig leaf to cover an absence of a domestic agenda for the past three years”. Still, look past its dubious provenance and there is much to welcome in this review. It rightly takes issue with the funding gap between universities and technical colleges. And, among other things, it proposes the reintroduction of maintenance grants of up to £3,000 a year for disadvantaged…

Football: how Liverpool became kings of Europe No English club has ruled European football like Liverpool, said Sam Wallace in The Sunday Telegraph. Between 1977 and 1984, they won the European Cup four times in eight seasons. Then there was the Champions League final in 2005, when they came back from 3-0 down to defeat AC Milan. And on Saturday night, a sixth star was “sewn onto the Liverpool shirt”, when they beat Tottenham 2-0. It was, truth be told, “the worst Champions League final in memory”: neither side managed to produce their usual “free-flowing attacking game”. But after a season in which Liverpool racked up a dizzying 97 points in the Premier League, yet still finished behind Manchester City, it was nothing less than they deserved. What an “extraordinary”…

Best books… Neil Mendoza The Provost of Oriel College, Oxford, and co-founder of Forward Publishing, recommends six literary works to keep close at hand. He is author of The Mendoza Review: an independent review of museums in England The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works, ed. Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen (Macmillan £19.99). I’ve had this by my bed for the past ten years. I’m part of a group of ancients that form a Shakespeare theatre club and have a constant need to read up, cheat or find a quotation. There are many Complete Works, but this is the excellent scholarly edition one needs to keep close. Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney, 1999 (Faber £10.99). Good to read this when travelling over, or on, the whale-road, while thinking back to the…

Some shameless souls tuck into rosé all year round, says Jane MacQuitty in The Times. But the reward for those of us who have waited until now is that the first flush of 2018 European pinks is properly ready for drinking – and the quality is higher than ever. Try the glorious, syrah-based, pink grapefruit-stashed 2018 MiP* Collection, Côtes de Provence Rosé (£14.95; Lea & Sandeman) before it sells out, as it will. Or try the truly delicious, smoky-toasty, savoury 2018 Château du Rouët, Côtes de Provence Rosé (£8.50 for 50cl; Co-op). Barbecued meats often need bolder pinks; go for Chile’s richly fruited, dark, herbaceous, blackcurrant leaf, organic 2018 Miguel Torres Las Mulas Cabernet Sauvignon Rosé (£9.39; Waitrose) . Or for a real bargain, try the lovely 2018 La Vieille…

Claus von Bülow 1926-2019 Claus von Bülow, who has died aged 92, was the central figure in one of the most sensational criminal trials of the 20th century, said The Daily Telegraph. One of the first in the US to be televised, the trial had “all the ingredients of a soap opera – adultery, drugs, fabulous sums of money”, and a cast of characters that included a wicked stepfather, a society heiress and a suspicious housemaid. Although the public was sharply divided as to his guilt, von Bülow was eventually acquitted of trying to kill his wife, Sunny, by injecting her with insulin, leaving her in a coma from which she never recovered. Claus Cecil Borberg was born in Copenhagen in 1926, the son of well-off parents who divorced when…

The US’s shock threat to hit Mexico with tariffs, combined with a worsening relationship with China, roiled global markets, amid fears that the knock-on disruption could prompt a US recession. After hefty losses, stocks jumped this week following hints by the Fed chair that he would cut interest rates if necessary to protect the economy; futures traders reckon there’s an 85% chance of a rate cut in September. Australia became the first big economy to lower rates, cutting its official cash rate to an all-time low of 1.25%. Market uncertainty helped push gold to a three-month high of $1,328/ounce. In Britain, manufacturing export orders fell to their lowest level since 2016 in Q2, following a slowdown in demand from Europe: it was a significant deterioration on Q1, when there was…

Controversy of the week Corbyn under siege The “vultures” are circling to “crush Corbyn”. That’s what a former Militant activist tweeted after Labour’s disastrous showing in last week’s European elections, said Sarah Baxter in The Sunday Times. Labour won a miserable 14% of the vote, losing half its seats in the European parliament. And as a result, the coalition that had sustained the Labour leader – between the old hard-left and the new Momentum activists (slogan: “Love Corbyn, Hate Brexit”) – has split apart. On the one side, we see Labour Party chairman Ian Lavery raging against “left-wing intellectuals” who sneer at working-class Brexiters; on the other, former Newsnight editor and “intellectual guru of Remain-supporting Corbynistas” Paul Mason calling for a purge of “the officials who designed this [election] fiasco”.…

The Labour-led Welsh Government has abandoned a long-discussed plan for a £1.4bn M4 relief road on the motorway around Newport, citing both its cost and its environmental impact. The 14-mile, six-lane stretch, designed to relieve congestion on the main route into South Wales, would have cut through the Gwent Levels, a biodiverse area of wetlands. A £44m inquiry had found in favour of the road, but First Minister Mark Drakeford has scrapped the plan nonetheless – a decision that was hailed by environmentalists, but condemned by some business leaders.…

New York Whales return: Wildlife lovers in New York have been treated to the remarkable sight of humpback whales in the Hudson River. According to the group Gotham Whale, 272 cetaceans were spotted in New York City waters last year, up from only five in 2011. The group puts the surge in numbers down to new environmental regulations, which have led to a reduction in pollution in the river. This has not only made the river safer for whales, but has also created a better habitat for menhaden, the fish they prey on. “People go crazy when they see them,” said a spokesman for the group. “They are amazed.” Washington DC Mexico tariffs: In a surprise move that rattled global stock markets, President Trump threatened to impose a 5% tariff…

“Hillary Clinton is about to launch a film and TV career: she and her daughter, Chelsea, are apparently keen to produce stories focusing on women. Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, have launched Higher Ground, a company that will make programmes that will, he says, “educate, connect and inspire us all”. But if great TV ever does change the world it does so owing to its artistic merits. What the Clintons and Obamas are offering is propaganda masquerading as entertainment. The world of TV and film is too important to be left to political has-beens. They should stick to politics, and when the electorate votes them out they should sink into well-deserved obscurity by writing their memoirs. Enoch Powell said all political careers end in failure. Apparently not: all political…

Sorry, but the poor are not getting poorer Daniel Hannan The Sunday Telegraph Poverty is on the rise in Britain, says Daniel Hannan. That’s the lament you often hear from politicians; as polls show, two-thirds of us believe it. But it’s nonsense. By every credible measure, poverty is falling. In absolute terms it’s incontestable: yesterday’s luxuries (indoor loo, TV) are today’s necessities. On basic measures such as calorie intake, literacy or infant mortality, we’re more equal “than we have ever been”. True, many are in low-paid work, but as the Resolution Foundation revealed last week, the proportion of those who are is lower than it’s been for 39 years. Admittedly, if you define poverty in relative terms – as an income below 60% of the middle household – that definition…

The cosmic origins of bipedalism Did our ancestors leave the trees and get up on two feet because stars exploding in the Milky Way led to Africa’s forests being replaced by savannah? It may sound far-fetched, but this is the thrust of a new academic paper that posits that an upsurge in cosmic ray-induced lightning strikes was crucial to the emergence of bipedalism roughly seven million years ago. The researchers in America drew on previous studies that concluded that from about eight million years ago, a series of supernovae occurred in our cosmic neighbourhood. The dying stars would have sent cosmic rays streaming towards Earth, massively increasing the ionisation of its lower atmospheres. This would have led to an increase in cloud-to-earth lightning bolts that could have sparked wildfires. Although…

Rory Stewart has expressed remorse for smoking opium at a wedding in Iran 15 years ago. Acknowledging that what he did was “very wrong”, the Tory leadership hopeful insisted that he had only taken a puff on the pipe to be polite to his hosts and that it had had little effect. But when pressed by LBC’s Nick Ferrari to take the Theresa May Running Through a Wheat Field Test of youthful misbehaviour, Stewart said that his mother had reminded him that he had erred before. “When I was eight, against her instructions, I sat on a cactus,” he said. “She had to spend an hour picking prickles out of my bum.” Even in her last week as Tory leader, Theresa May was not spared attack – this time, for…

China: the legacy of the Tiananmen protests Thirty years ago this week, a man dressed in a white shirt, clutching what looked like a shopping bag, stood in front of a column of tanks, “and the world held its breath”, said Vincent Boland in The Times. It was 1989. That spring, Chinese people from all walks of life – emboldened by a new spirit of liberalisation in the country – had started to agitate against official corruption and in support of greater freedoms. Students occupied Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to demand democratic reforms, but the government responded by sending in tanks and 200,000 armed troops – and hundreds, if not thousands, of people were killed. In the West, the lone figure known as Tank Man has become the “enduring image…

We need to burnish steel To the Financial Times Yet again the UK steel industry is in crisis. Cries go up on all sides of the argument for “saving” or allowing “economic forces” to dominate policy by government and others. The industry’s assets are grossly out of date and businesses very badly managed. Its current condition has little to do with Chinese production, global overcapacity or Brexit, or any other outside factor. We employ twice as many people as are needed for producing the steel required by our economy. We use outmoded, economically sub-scale technology to make the raw steel, utilising imported raw materials when we have adequate indigenous raw materials (in the form of scrap) for our needs, if we used modern technology. Downstream in the value chain we…

Theatre: The Starry Messenger Wyndham’s Theatre, London WC2 (0844-482 5120). Until 10 August Running time: 2hrs 50mins Thanks to his turn as a truanting teen in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Matthew Broderick is held in lasting affection “as the epitome of carefree American youth” by the generation that grew up in the 1980s, said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph. More than three decades on, he makes a creditable – albeit downbeat – West End debut in a play that “wistfully acknowledges the passage of time” and the existential tribulations of middle age. The Starry Messenger is a melancholy piece by Kenneth Lonergan, who happens to be an old friend of Broderick’s, said Henry Hitchings in the London Evening Standard. Its central character is a teacher of astronomy whose career…

Charles Avery at Ingleby Gallery The work of Scottish artist Charles Avery (b.1973) is nothing if not eccentric. For the past decade and a half, he has created a vast body of expressive, illustrative drawings and sculptural installations, all of which depict or relate to an imaginary country that is at once fantastical and rooted in the familiar. The works in this new show focus on Onomatopoeia, the fictional state’s capital – a port city that on this evidence resembles a bizarre hybrid of present-day London and the dystopian metropolis of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. It’s lively stuff, the drawings depicting everything from the place’s bedraggled, hippyish citizens to sleek art deco cruise liners docking in the harbour, and the forbidding, M.C. Escher-like arcades that Avery imagines lining the city’s fish…

Alistair and Jazzer discuss the recent return of the bunting and Natasha. Shula tells Alan she wants to be ordained. He wonders if she’s ready and suggests giving it more thought. Tracy and Chris put a bet on the single wicket competition. If Tracy wins, she gets a bottle of vodka; if Chris wins, she’ll buy him beer. Tracy misjudges her throw and hits Chris in the balls, putting him out of play. With Chris injured, Tom wins. Natasha gives Tony tickets to a classic car race to thank him for phoning her. Jazzer is unsure how to spend Tom’s money. Jim suggests investing it, but Jazzer’s not keen. Instead, he buys Webster, a tarantula. Shula and Alistair meet to discuss Jim’s surprise party. Jim decides Shula is Alistair’s secret…

The Crown Inn 2 Helmdon Road, Weston, Northampton (01295-760310) I don’t just need to declare an interest when it comes to this place – I need to “declare a passion”, says William Sitwell in The Daily Telegraph. I live in the village of Weston, and this cosy 16th century coaching inn lies about 150 yards from my front door (“if I’m really thirsty, I can get there in around 26 seconds”). On weeknights, they do a decent menu of fish, pies and curry specials. But if you can, go for the sensational Sunday lunch. On a recent visit, I kicked off with a “fantastic” starter of salt and pepper fried squid, with sweet chilli and chunks of hot chorizo. I followed up with a “carnivore’s dream” dish: pinkish roast beef,…

Tips of the week… how to have a greener home ● Clean the condenser coils behind your fridge to make sure it’s working efficiently. Sites like sust-it.net compare appliances for efficiency and green energy suppliers. ● Swap your cling film for beeswax paper, and halogen light bulbs for LED ones. ● Use recyclenow.com to find out where to deposit worn-out clothes; even if fabric isn’t good enough for a charity shop, it may be recyclable as stuffing for chairs, cleaning cloths or industrial blankets. ● Try to use the 30 wears rule: only buy clothes you can imagine wearing 30 times. ● Look for second-hand furniture, or check it for the Forest Stewardship Council’s mark. ● Try out zero-waste shops (zerowastenear. me) where you can fill your own containers. ●…

Forget Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck: Florida’s “real” celebrity animals are to be found in its rivers and estuaries, not in the Magic Kingdom, says Phoebe Smith in Wanderlust. Each winter, herds of manatees, or sea cows, arrive here to “warm up” in the natural hot springs of the Crystal River. These “gentle giants” were mistaken for mermaids by Christopher Columbus when he first spotted them in 1493 – presumably he’d spent too long away “from both dry land and women”. Today, manatees are protected under US law and, while endangered in other parts of the world, in Florida they are thriving. Between November and April, you can swim alongside them, with the help of a “manatee whisperer” guide. We head out at 6.30am and, after a safety briefing (to…

Nan Winton 1925-2019 Nan Winton, who has died aged 93, was the first woman to read the national news on BBC television. But she only knocked on the glass ceiling, she didn’t break it, said The Independent. Her appointment, in 1960, was described by BBC bosses as an “experiment”. In the press, “Newsgirl Nan” was regarded as a novelty, with her looks generating more attention than the stories she presented. (The Evening Standard observed: “Miss Winton usually hides herself behind a desk. Pity. She has a 36-25-37in figure.”) And her tenure proved short-lived: removed and reinstated several times, she made only six appearances before having her contract terminated. The BBC pointed to audience research suggesting that viewers didn’t think women had enough gravitas to present serious news reports. Winton, however,…

Once feted as Britain’s starriest stock-picker, Neil Woodford has been forced to take the humiliating step of suspending withdrawals from his flagship Woodford Equity Income Fund “after a series of bad bets prompted clients to rush for the door”, said Ben Chapman in The Independent. The fund has been in trouble for a while, shrinking from a peak value of £10.2bn two years ago to only £3.7bn. But matters came to a head this week when a client, Kent County Council, sought to redeem £250m. The freeze is intended to give Woodford “breathing space to reposition the fund” without “a fire sale”, said The Times. But “thousands of small investors”, and some big ones, are trapped indefinitely and “unable to take out their money”. The big problem for Woodford, who…

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall The TV chef turned environmental campaigner cites the late “chef-anarchist” Keith Floyd as a mentor. His BBC series, War on Plastic, takes a similarly barnstorming approach, said The Sunday Times. Fearnley-Whittingstall’s new bête noire is the petrochemical giant Ineos, which turns out more than 300 billion micro-sized “nurdles” (used in plastic bottles and packaging) every week, even though they spell death to fish. The plastics industry plans to grow “by 30-40% over the next 20 years”, notes the chef, who hopes to “shame” Ineos and its multi-billionaire boss Jim Ratcliffe into changing course. Ineos accuses the chef of “pushing an agenda”. Maybe. But this campaign “may well turn out to be his most important and effective yet”. Laura Deming “At 25, Laura Deming has already achieved more in…

● Beware Big Tech? Shares in Google’s parent, Alphabet, tumbled this week on news that US regulators may launch an investigation into “potential anti-trust violations”, said Tomi Kilgore on Marketwatch. The stock dropped briefly into “bear market” territory (defined as 20% or more off its bull-market peak). Google wasn’t the only one to suffer, said James Dean in The Times. “Investors wiped $182bn” off the combined market values of Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Alphabet amid concerns they might face US competition investigations because “they wield too much power”. If the sector is in the sights of US investigators, expect more ructions. It would mark “a major policy shift” for the US government which, unlike the EU, “has done little to restrict Big Tech”. ● Pensions vs. houses There are only…

A pedestrian version of Uber is now operating in Los Angeles, so that the city’s residents never have to walk alone. The People Walker app puts users in touch with freelance walkers, who charge around $7 for a half-hour walk. Chuck McCarthy started the business three years ago by putting up flyers asking if anyone disliked walking alone, or was scared to do so at night. The response was so huge he now has ten staff and 200 freelancers. M&S has come under fire for selling ready-peeled garlic cloves in plastic pots – despite recently pledging to cut its plastic waste to zero by 2025. The garlic is shipped from China, and the pots are from Belgium. Loose unpeeled bulbs of British garlic are sold in the same aisle for…

Conflicting national polls this week showed either the Lib Dems or the Brexit Party in the lead. A YouGov poll for The Times had the Lib Dems on 24%, followed by the Brexit Party on 22%. The Tories and Labour were tied at 19%. The Opinium poll in The Observer put the Brexit Party in the lead with 26%. Labour was second with 22%, followed by the Tories on 17% and then the Lib Dems on 16%. 71% of atheists and 92% of agnostics in Britain hold at least one belief in the supernatural, which could include karma, astrology or reincarnation. A third of atheists and 40% of agnostics think some events are “meant to be”. Understanding Unbelief/ The Times…

Chris Packham’s thick skin Chris Packham has had death threats and excrement sent to him through the post as a result of his campaign to tighten the restrictions on killing wild birds, says Donna Ferguson in The Observer. It upsets his family, but the Springwatch presenter, 58, says he simply isn’t troubled by that kind of thing. Owing to his Asperger syndrome, he finds it easy to ignore his attackers and focus his mind on what he thinks is important. “I’m very pragmatic about what goes on. I don’t let it get to me at all. I see much of the activity of my opposition being counterproductive because it soaks up their time. It wastes their time.” He is similarly unperturbed by the calls for the BBC to sack him.…

Is there a call for tighter gun laws? Yes. The rate of mass shootings in the US – 59 people were killed in the Las Vegas shooting in 2017; 17 were killed in the Florida shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018; 12 died in the massacre in Virginia Beach last week – has accelerated markedly since the turn of the century. This has prompted widespread calls for tougher laws on gun control. For Democrats it’s now a regular part of the policy agenda: presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren made it her key pitch at last week’s Democratic convention. And polls consistently show high support for such a move. In early 2018, a Politico poll showed 88% of Americans are in favour of universal background checks on those buying…

A conductor on a South Western Railway service appears to have accidentally broadcast the soundtrack of a porn film they were watching over the train’s public address system. In a video of the incident, commuters on the train from Wandsworth to Clapham can be seen giggling, while one woman asks, “Is this coming from the driver?” As if in response, the voice demands: “More! Oh… more!” The rail operator has apologised. Royal Mail finally managed to deliver a postcard to an address in Plymouth last week, 112 years after it was sent. Featuring an image of the nearby Crownhill Barracks, it was sent on Christmas Eve, 1907, to a Miss V. Wiltshire. The card reads simply: “Dear Vie, Don’t be disappointed if I don’t come down tomorrow, Tuesday, as I…

Malaysia has warned that it will no longer act as a dumping ground for foreign rubbish – and has vowed to send 3,000 tonnes of non-recyclable plastic waste back to the UK and other countries. China was once the centre of the global recycling trade, importing seven million tonnes of plastic waste annually. But in 2017 it declared that it was overwhelmed by “foreign garbage”, and banned the import of waste plastic. It was suggested that the West should start dealing with its own rubbish; instead, the ban led to a surge in the amount of plastic exported to other countries in southeast Asia, where much of it is either burnt, releasing toxic chemicals into the air, or dumped, polluting rivers and ultimately the oceans. Last week, the BBC released…

As the latest twist in a Brexit drama that already had a “looking-glass quality”, last week’s news that Boris Johnson has been summoned to court to answer charges of misconduct in a public office was a zinger, said The Independent. The case is being brought by an activist named Marcus Ball, who has crowd-funded £340,000 to prosecute Johnson for claiming, during the Brexit campaign, that Britain would be £350m per week better off outside the EU. A district judge has decided that the case should proceed, raising the possibility that if Johnson wins the Tory leadership, we could see a serving prime minister facing a jury trial for charges that carry a possible life term. Is Johnson guilty? Certainly, the £350m figure was misleading, said Stephen Glover in the Daily…

“The essential characteristic of a nation is that its individuals must have many things in common, and must have forgotten many things as well.” French philosopher Ernest Renan, quoted in The Guardian “UFOs are better explained in terms of known irrationalities of terrestrial beings rather than by any unknown rationalities of extraterrestrial beings.” Physicist Richard Feynman, quoted in The Times “Dictators fear laughter more than bombs.” Author Arthur Koestler, quoted in The New York Review of Books “It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis.” Author Margaret Wander Bonanno, quoted in the I newspaper “If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.” Albert Einstein, quoted on The Browser “Wit lies in recognising the resemblance among things which differ and the…

To The Daily Telegraph As we approach the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, it is time to correct Hollywood’s view that Britain’s role was minimal. Strategic plans for the Normandy landings were actually conceived and developed by a British general, Frederick Morgan. True, the Supreme Allied Commander, General Eisenhower, was American, but all Allied forces on the ground were under the command of General Montgomery. In addition, the Deputy Supreme Allied Commander, Arthur Tedder, was British, as were the Allied Air Commander in Chief, Trafford Leigh-Mallory, and the Allied Naval Commander in Chief, Bertram Ramsay. On D-Day itself, British and Canadian forces put 75,215 troops ashore over three separate landings and 8,500 paratroopers; the US landed 57,500 troops over two landings and 13,100 paratroopers. Of the 1,213 warships taking…

Bought last year for £3.6m by London’s National Gallery, Artemisia Gentileschi’s Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria (c.1615-17) is a “remarkable” painting, said The Guardian. It was completed when the artist was in her early 20s, and contains references to her own complex life story, including her rape as a teenager in Italy. But as well as telling a powerful personal history, its autobiographical elements have also been provoking candid discussion in recent weeks as the painting has made a unique tour of unusual British venues – part of the gallery’s efforts to take great art to people who may not normally encounter it. It stopped off at a doctor’s surgery in Yorkshire, a library in Glasgow and a girls’ school in Newcastle before going on display at Surrey’s HMP…

Programmes Killing Eve Villanelle and Eve are back on our screens as the spy thriller returns and their game of cat and mouse continues. Sat 8 Jun, BBC1 21:15 (45mins). The Handmaid’s Tale The acclaimed dystopian US drama in which women are the slaves of the state returns for a third series. Sun 9 Jun, C4 21:00 (60mins). My Gay Dog and Other Animals A documentary that explores same-sex behaviour in animals. Wed 12 Jun, C4 00:55 (55mins). Wild Bill Rob Lowe stars as a cocky US cop who moves to England with his daughter, and soon becomes chief constable of east Lincolnshire, in this fish-out-of-water comedy drama. Wed 12 Jun, ITV1 21:00 (60mins). Secrets of Sugar Baby Dating Documentary exploring “sugar dating” websites, which connect young women with wealthy…

Bokkeumbap is such a cherished everyday favourite in Korea that several K-pop songs have been written about the dish, says Jonas Cramby. If you like kimchi, you just have to add this to your weekday repertoire. Ideally, you should use kimchi that’s slightly old: it will give more flavour and umami. Bokkeumbap (fried kimchi rice) Serves 4 250g of finely chopped kimchi 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped 1 brown onion, finely chopped 2 tbsps cooking oil 4 tbsps juice from kimchi 3 tbsps gochujang 400g boiled rice (preferably leftovers) 2 tbsps Korean or Japanese soy sauce 2 tbsps sesame oil 4 eggs, fried 2 spring onions, finely sliced 2 tbsps toasted sesame seeds gim or nori (toasted seaweed), shredded • Fry the kimchi, garlic, onion and oil together in a…

What Car? Tesla has kept British buyers waiting a long time for its entry-level Model 3, which it first revealed three years ago. Deliveries are now “pencilled in” for July, and the car looks like it will mostly live up to the hype. It’s not perfect, but it’s “great to drive, packed full of tech, fast and even reasonably practical”. Factor in its competitive price – the first Tesla has offered – and you have something quite special. The Daily Telegraph The Model 3 really feels like “a car from the future”. On the dashboard you’ll find only a 15-inch touchscreen, and a steering wheel with two buttons and a couple of stalks. There’s tonnes of tech, and a credit card-shaped key, but the “impressively clear” screen ends up taking…

The cobbled streets of St Catherine’s Quarter in Frome, Somerset, may look “like the set for an English romcom”, but Bistro Lotte, at the top of Catherine Street, is “a decidedly French affair”, says Jane Dunford in The Guardian. Its lunchtime menu offers moules-frites, chèvre Provençal and wine by the carafe. Housed in a former car parts shop, the bistro has high ceilings, stained-glass windows and “scrubbed wooden tables bearing rose-filled vases”. Above it is Frome Town House, offering six spacious and unfussy guest rooms, with walls in a “calming” grey, huge beds and the kind of bathrooms “you wish you had at home”. In the evenings, the bistro becomes a “candlelit cocoon”. The wine is sourced from small European vineyards and the meat comes from “the butcher next door”.…

Kier Group: in a dark place Outsourcers have been concerning investors ever since Carillion imploded last year – and now another one looks to be in trouble, said Alan Tovey and Charlie Taylor-Kroll in The Daily Telegraph. A shock profit warning at Kier Group – which is “in charge of the delayed Crossrail contract”, and works on infrastructure projects including the HS2 railway and Hinkley Point C nuclear plant – sent shares crashing by 41% on Monday, wiping £185m off its value. Kier, which launched an unsuccessful rights issue last year, blamed a fall in revenue in its building division, and “volume pressures” in its highways, utilities and housing maintenance arms. But it was described by broker Brewin Dolphin as being “in a dark place”, having “broken trust with…

Save the planet and embrace capitalism Mark Littlewood The Times The Greens are on the march across Europe, winning more seats than ever before in last month’s elections, says Mark Littlewood. But why credit the drive to save the planet solely to the progressive Left? What’s often forgotten is that most of the gains in recent environmental history have been made in the capitalist West. In Britain, for instance, total carbon emissions are now at their lowest level since 1890. Compare that with “the truly appalling green record” historically in the defunct USSR and Eastern Europe, and in contemporary socialist states like Venezuela. Many supporters of free markets have avoided the emerging environmental debate. They should embrace it. “We don’t face a choice between capitalism and saving the planet, quite…

Large institutions, wary of stock-market volatility, are upping the share of their portfolios devoted to “alternative investments” unaffected by market movements, said Carol Lewis in The Times. Here’s a selection to consider: Debt investment A survey by FJP Investment found one in five investors now consider juicing up their returns by lending to people or businesses. You can opt for peer-to-peer lenders like Zopa, or structured finance deals such as Blackstone/GSO Loan Financing. Litigation funding is also popular: Connection Capital creates syndicates to finance class-action lawsuits. Property Commercial property has been offering some of the highest investment returns of late. Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are the easiest way in, but you could also track the sector via exchange-traded funds (ETFs) like the Vanguard Real Estate Index. Venture capital A…