Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1240 i The Week

What happened Tough Tory justice Boris Johnson sought to restore the Tories’ reputation as the party of law and order this week by announcing a series of new criminal justice commitments for England and Wales. He promised 10,000 new prison places, better security equipment for prisons, enhanced stop-and-search powers for police, and an additional £85m for the Crown Prosecution Service to help the agency manage its increased caseload. The PM also ordered a review into the sentencing of violent and sexual offenders that will consider reforming the current practice, under which most are automatically freed on licence halfway through their sentences. Johnson said he wanted to “keep dangerous criminals off the street” and stop prisons from becoming “factories for making bad people worse”. Home Secretary Priti Patel claimed the enhanced…

Condiment lovers, with the news that Heinz is launching a ketchup-mayonnaise hybrid in the UK. In the US it is called “Mayochup”, but here it will be called “Heinz Saucy Sauce”. Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher thrillers, who was invited to be a judge on next year’s Booker Prize. Child has sold more than 100 million books, and he has a following among the literati. Sardinia, which has recovered ten tonnes of sand stolen by tourists over the past decade. Authorities at Olbia Airport carry out systematic checks on departing travellers’ luggage and return any smuggled grains – white sand from the Emerald Coast is a particularly popular memento – to the island’s beaches. Richard Braine, who was elected leader of UKIP. Braine, who has referred to the…

Britain’s GDP shrank in the second quarter of this year by 0.2% – the first contraction of the economy since the end of 2012. The drop in the three months to June was worse than the flat performance predicted by economists, and has been put down to Brexit uncertainty and a backdrop of weaker global growth; stockpiling also slowed when the Brexit date was delayed. The pound has fallen more than 4.5% against the dollar since the start of July, on fears that the PM is pushing towards a no-deal Brexit.…

El Paso, Texas Anger at Trump visit: President Trump’s visits to the two cities affected by mass shootings a fortnight ago – El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio – were marred by protests on his arrival last week. A photo of Donald and Melania Trump grinning – him giving a thumbs up – while posing with a two-month-old baby whose parents were among the 22 people killed in El Paso caused particular outrage. The baby’s uncle said his brother had been a Trump supporter, but the president was criticised for apparently having the baby brought to the hospital when the eight survivors recovering there would not meet with him. Los Angeles, California Lewinsky brings affair to TV: Monica Lewinsky has signed up to produce a drama series about her affair…

“Thanks to a breakthrough by the fertility expert who pioneered IVF, some women will now be able to delay menopause for up to 20 years. The procedure, says one scientist, allows women to ‘nail their career’, and stop worrying about starting a family. Call me cynical, but I can’t help but notice that all the breakthroughs that enable female biology to fit in with a workplace largely designed by men involve long-term experiments on women’s bodies. How about the workplace changing radically to enable women to break off (and resume) their careers when nature intended? Well, obviously that’s not going to happen. Why not? Because it’s inconvenient for business.” Allison Pearson in The Daily Telegraph…

We’ll all pay for Generation Rent James Marriott The Times I don’t own a home, says James Marriott – and like many people in their 20s I suspect I never will. The proportion of 25-to 34-year-olds who own a house has collapsed over the past 20 years, from 55% to 34%. Getting on the property ladder is famously hard in London, but the problem isn’t limited to the capital. In Greater Manchester, home ownership among that age group fell from 53% in 1984 to 26% in 2017; in South Yorkshire, it fell from 54% to 25% over the same period. The idea of never having a place to call one’s own, and always having to pay exorbitant rent, is “depressing” for millennials like me. But this trend also promises to…

More than 20 years of federal inaction on gun-control measures “have conditioned the public to expect little from Congress after mass shootings”, said Russell Berman in The Atlantic. But the recent massacres in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, may yet deliver one decent reform. In a statement after the tragedies, President Trump threw his support behind the idea of “red-flag laws”. Already enacted in some form in 17 states, these laws allow a judge to order the seizure of firearms from people whose mental state has led family or police to fear they might be on the verge of harming themselves or others. Obviously, “a single presidential statement does not a law make”, but this could lead to “the most significant action Congress has taken on guns in years”.…

Surgery to delay menopause Doctors in Britain have launched a controversial treatment designed to give women the option of delaying the menopause, reports The Sunday Times. The procedure, which costs between £7,000 and £11,000, involves removing and freezing a section of ovarian tissue, which is then transplanted back at the onset of menopause. This “tricks” the woman’s body into producing sex hormones that delay the menopause – potentially by as much as two decades, the scientists claim. Nine British women aged between 22 and 36 have so far undergone the surgery, which is a variant of a technique already used to preserve the fertility of female cancer patients. According to the doctors, it could reduce the portion of women’s lives which they have to spend coping with the unpleasant side-effects…

Scottish independence: a done deal? Is there anything Labour’s leaders wouldn’t sacrifice “to get their grasping hands on the levers of power”, asked the Daily Mail. We now know Jeremy Corbyn and his comrades would allow the United Kingdom to be destroyed, if it propelled them into Downing Street. Shadow chancellor John McDonnell – widely seen as Corbyn’s brain – abruptly reversed Labour’s policy last week, revealing that it would no longer try to block a second Scottish referendum if it came to power. “The English Parliament,” McDonnell said, would not defy the will of “the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish people”. He meant the UK Parliament, of course, “but this was more than just a slip of the tongue”. He was showing his support for the Scottish Nationalists.…

The Premier League returns “It is the biggest revolution in football in more than a century,” said Martyn Ziegler in The Times. And last week, in the opening weekend of the season, video assistant referee technology – known as VAR – arrived in the Premier League. For the first time, each match is being watched by officials on a screen, from a hub in London. And if they think the referee on the pitch has made the wrong call on a “match-changing situation” – a goal, a penalty, an offence that merits a red card – then they can alert him, giving him the chance to amend his decision. VAR checked 40 incidents in its maiden weekend; in three of those instances – twice in Manchester City’s 5-0 win over…

Funding the police To The Times No one can be certain that there is a direct causal connection between the rise in police numbers, prison places and the strengthening of the justice system, and the significant reduction in crime that took place between around 1995 and 2010. However, the coincidence between these sets of data is uncanny; as has been the reverse since 2010, with cuts in police numbers, a collapse in prosecutions, a weakening of police powers – and rising crime and disorder. Whatever one’s affiliation, the latest announcements from the Prime Minister – reversing cuts and giving the police the powers they need – should be welcomed, and a sensible opposition would have done this, as well as gently pointing out who had been in power from 2010.…

“Forget everything you know about Evita: this one properly rocks,” said Rosemary Waugh in Time Out. It’s hard to revitalise a piece that has been pleasing global audiences for decades, but this “fast, furious and fun” revival from director Jamie Lloyd has pulled it off. There are no romanticised images of sun-soaked Argentina. No “filler numbers” clogging the score. No portraying Eva Perón as a “simpering, blonde starlet”. Instead, Lloyd’s production “wipes the gloss” off Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s 1978 musical – the last of their collaborations – and creates “a pumping, sped-up Evita, edged with dirt, rust and grime”. You can tell it’s going to be different from the start, said Sarah Crompton on What’s On Stage, as Samantha Pauly’s Eva starts to crawl up steps to…

Best books… Diarmaid MacCulloch The historian and Oxford academic chooses six of his favourite books. His critically acclaimed biography, Thomas Cromwell: A Life is now out in paperback (Penguin £12.99). Q by Luther Blissett, 1999 (Arrow £9.99). You wouldn’t think that four mischievous Italians writing under a name borrowed from a 1980s footballer could produce a great historical novel; but reader, they did. As an insight into mid-16th century Europe, this is an extraordinary success. And a mystery, too. The Blanket of the Dark by John Buchan, 1931 (Birlinn £8.99). Buchan had a wonderfully spare narrative style, and this is a most unusual part of his oeuvre: a Tudor historical novel for young adults, counter-factual and deeply atmospheric, though frightfully unfair to poor Thomas Cromwell. Bring Up the Bodies by…

New cars: what the critics say Autocar One of the biggest SUVs on the market, the two-tonne Q7 may not be for everyone. But having now been efficiently tweaked inside and out, it’s definitely one of the top options for those who need the space. Less about thrills than about creating a plush and relaxing experience, it has seven seats as standard and a ride quality so smooth, the car seems “indifferent” to the road surface beneath. The Daily Telegraph Next to a Range Rover Sport, the old Q7 felt a bit “functional”. So this midlife facelift is about adding some “pizzazz”: a more prominent grille, new headlights and a crisper shape. The interior is very “swanky”, too, in sweeping piano black with Audi’s new signature twin touchscreens. Even with…

A Northern Irish cliff path The Gobbins Cliff Path on Northern Ireland’s north coast offers “hardcore rock climbing with none of the effort”, says Nicola Brady in The Times. A winding trail of “crooked stone steps and tiny tunnels”, it hugs the cliffs of the Irish Sea, offering up wildly beautiful views and fleeting glimpses of “wonky-faced” puffins. Only 30 minutes from Belfast, it’s part of the 153-mile Causeway Coastal Route – named for the famous Unesco rock formation that’s one of its highlights. It “twists and turns” from the capital all the way to Derry, past “choppy little bays” and impressive landmarks. One of those is the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, a “rickety”, swinging 100ft-high crossing that would test anyone’s nerve. Standing on it, with the wind whipping past, is…

Cathay Pacific/Versace: China crisis Most companies hate getting involved in politics – but sometimes they have no choice, said Jack Torrance in The Daily Telegraph. Take Hong Kong’s flagship airline, Cathay Pacific, which is currently wedged between a rock and a very hard place. Under the auspices of “improving safety for passengers”, China’s aviation regulator has ordered it to ban any staff supporting the current pro-democracy protests from flying on routes over the mainland. With little option but to comply, the airline has fired two employees and suspended two pilots. That figure could rise following this week’s airport protests. This is “the starkest sign yet of Beijing’s growing readiness to make high-profile businesses choose” between Hong Kong and China, said Sue-Lin Wong in the FT. Cathay’s main shareholder is…

Shrinking Britain sends a Brexit warning Editorial Financial Times News that the economy contracted for the first time in seven years in the second quarter “could not be a stronger warning” to the Government not to “take further unnecessary risks with the economy”, says the FT. True, the 0.2% contraction isn’t just Brexit-related – factories are struggling globally. And some of the weakness is “payback for a strong first quarter” when manufacturers accelerated production to stockpile ahead of the original exit date. Still, growth in the crucial services sector, which accounts for 80% of UK output, is at “a crawl”, and business investment is falling – “raising questions over whether Britain will be able to rescue itself from the lowest productivity growth since the financial crisis”. Against this backdrop, Chancellor…

Compass Group Shares in the food services provider reached an all-time high last month, prompting COO Gary Green to take advantage of the performance. He sold shares worth £2.87m for “personal reasons”, retaining a holding of 191,382. Form guide Shares tipped 12 weeks ago Best tip Games Workshop Group Investors Chronicle up 3.1% to £45.94 Worst tip Workspace Group The Times down 16.51% to 801.5p. Market view “US equities are at the second most expensive period in 150 years... I don’t think it’s a question of whether we’ll see a crash – the question is why we haven’t seen one yet.” Ulf Lindahl of AG Bisset Associates. Quoted in the FT…

Controversy of the week A crisis of confidence Downing Street is usually “half-empty” in August, said Andrew Grice in The Independent. Not this year. Parliament may be in recess, but No. 10 is “buzzing with activity”. With planning for a snap autumn election reportedly afoot, and “every desk occupied”, political advisers have been told to cancel their holiday plans. Boris Johnson has written to all civil servants urging them to “urgently and rapidly” prepare for Britain to leave the EU on 31 October, deal or no deal. But another possibility looms even larger in MPs’ minds, said The Guardian. When the Commons returns on 3 September, Labour is poised to hold a vote of no confidence in the Government. Johnson, who is opposed by Remain-supporting MPs from across the House,…

Visitors to the Louvre, who are now reportedly given less than a minute to admire the Mona Lisa. Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece receives an estimated 30,000 visitors per day. The Brexit 50p piece, after anti-Brexit activists vowed to return every coin – which is set to be issued to mark the UK’s departure from the EU – that turns up in their change to the bank. Cauliflowers, which are in short supply. Britain’s crop was damaged by floods in June, and Europe’s by the heatwave in July. Commuters, with the news that rail fares are due to rise again by 2.8% next January. Controversially, the increase is based on the retail price index of inflation, not the lower consumer price index.…

64% of Britons aged 25 to 34 think having “strong leaders who do not have to bother with Parliament” would be a good idea, compared with 52% of over-65s. 26% of 25- to 34-year-olds think democracy is a bad way to run the country, and 35% would support having the army in charge. Hanbury Strategy/ The Daily Telegraph 87% of people who watch porn say it has affected their sex lives in a positive way. 77% say it has been good for their relationships. News Insights/The Times In a general election, the Tories could lose 13 out of 20 marginal seats in constituencies where they have small majorities and where the Lib Dems came second in the 2017 election. YouGov/The Times…

A rock ‘n’ roll childhood With one of rock’s most notorious hellraisers as her father, Nettie Baker had a chaotic upbringing, says Maureen Paton in The Daily Telegraph. Ginger Baker, the drummer for the 1960s supergroup Cream, was an irascible heroin addict. When Nettie was a young child, she says, her dad “would hand me a spliff and say to me, ‘Take a puff of this, it’s much better than cigarettes’.” George Harrison offered her up as first prize in a pool competition at a wild party when she was just 15. “I was naively thrilled at being the centre of attention, but although nothing happened, a line was definitely crossed.” In time, her father blew all his money on drugs, women, polo ponies and disastrous business ventures. Nettie’s mother…

A Spanish fly-tipper who threw a fridge over a cliff has been fined s45,000 and sentenced to hard labour – carrying the fridge back up from the bottom of the ravine. The man, named only as Mario, was identified from video footage of his crime taken by a friend. “We’re going to recycle it!” he jokes in the film. “How many twists and turns has it done?” But he appears to have learnt his lesson. “I just want people to see how sorry I am,” he said, “and stop viewing me as though I were a murderer.” Bedale AFC, in Yorkshire’s North Riding football league, is famous for its idiosyncratic team shirts. Sponsored by local sausage maker Heck, its latest strip features sausages, peas and mashed potato (which also appears…

SOUTH AFRICA Moscow’s misadventures in Africa Daily Maverick (Johannesburg) Vladimir Putin’s strong-arm approach to foreign policy is having little success in Africa, says Simon Allison. Russian activity on the continent came to light last year when three journalists were killed while investigating the shadowy Wagner Group, a Moscow security firm with links to the Kremlin. Now, leaked documents show Russian operatives trying to bolster the country’s presence in at least 13 African countries, striking military deals and grooming new leaders beholden to Moscow. It’s all designed to boost Russia’s superpower status and to develop new markets. But compared to other players, Russia is a “clumsy latecomer”. The US already has a “vast network of secret military bases” in Africa, while China is “building bridges and Confucius Institutes at a furious…

In 2008, the fossilised leg bones of a large bird were discovered on the site of an ancient lake in Central Otago, New Zealand. Initially assumed to be from an eagle, the Miocene-era fossils, thought to be 19 million years old, languished in lab storage for a decade before palaeontologists reanalysed them earlier this year. And their conclusion is that the bones almost certainly belonged to a giant parrot, which stood nearly one metre tall and weighed 7kg – making it twice as heavy as the biggest known parrot, the critically endangered kakapo, also from New Zealand. The parrot’s name, Heracles inexpectatus, reflects the shock nature of the discovery. Yet it fits into the story of New Zealand, where an absence of large mammals enabled birds to become the top…

Some civil servants have an unofficial test for their briefing documents. The object is to make them so clear that even the dimmest of ministers can grasp the essential points by the third time of reading. For a while it was dubbed “the Amber Rudd test” in honour of one slow learner, but when Rudd became Home Secretary, it was decided that she deserved more respect. So the name was changed – to “the Priti Patel test”. Now, thanks to Patel’s unexpected promotion to same position, yet another name is under discussion. Hugh Grant (pictured) admits to allowing himself one prima-donna outburst per film, swearing at inanimate objects to disguise the fact that he’s forgotten his lines. An example is “F*****g cables! How am I supposed to act when I’ve…

Seven months ago, Andy Murray’s career appeared to be finished, said Simon Briggs in The Daily Telegraph. When he gave a teary press conference at the Australian Open, admitting he was in so much pain that he might not play another tournament, it was easy to think we’d never see him on a tennis court again. But since undergoing hip-resurfacing surgery later that month, the 32-year-old has made a “remarkable” comeback. First there was his triumphant return to Queen’s, in June, when he claimed the men’s doubles title with Feliciano López. And on Monday, in the opening round of the Cincinnati Masters, he played his first singles match since his operation. He may have lost 6-4, 6-4 to Richard Gasquet, but it was an encouraging performance nonetheless. After an understandably…

To The Times It appears that I have been too complacent in relying upon legislators to uphold the highest possible animal-welfare standards. Until reading your leader, “Food and Fairness”, I believed that stringent new laws had long ago abolished the barbarous broiler chicken regime. In the 1970s my family had the misfortune to live next to a broiler chicken farm. Four dilapidated sheds housed 56,000 birds which, when they were eight weeks old, were stuffed into crates and transported live in open lorries to the processing factory. During that eight-week period, the stench of ammonia in the sheds became unbearable and many of the birds suffered hideous deaths. Growing piles of fly-blown carcasses around the sheds defiled farming as we knew it, and we were fortunate in being able to…

Behind the Mirror at Eames Fine Art The subjects of this show are two game-changing, near-legendary art magazines that championed the work of some of the most radical and important artists of the 20th century: Verve, published from 1937 to 1960, and the slightly later Derrière le Miroir, which ran from 1946 to 1982. Both printed full-colour lithographs, created specifically for the publications by artists including Ellsworth Kelly, Marc Chagall and Henri Matisse, and copies often became collectors’ items in their own right. The exhibition brings together a comprehensive selection of these original works, ranging from the abstractions of Alexander Calder and Jean Arp to the nightmarish figuration of Francis Bacon. Highlights include Matisse’s ingenious L’Escargot (1953); a gloriously exuberant 1956 Miroir cover lithograph by Joan Miró; and a number…

Susan is fretful over Emma’s situation but Neil advises her to be patient. Alastair tells Shula that Jim seems a bit more like his old self. Will announces flooding at No. 1 The Green, meaning Eddie and Clarrie won’t be able to move in for a while. Susan wants to get Ed and Emma together for lunch for Emma’s birthday, but Clarrie thinks it’s too soon. Ed confesses the pesticide scam to his parents, to their shock, and admits there is still some left in the barn; Eddie agrees to help him get rid of it. Susan is disconcerted that Emma is confiding in Tracy instead of her, and is frustrated that Tracy won’t share the information. She gets more upset when she hears that neither Emma nor Ed turned…

What the experts recommend The Dumpling Tree 8 Homerton Street, Cambridge (01223-247715) Once, we Brits talked simply of “Chinese” cooking, says Tom Parker Bowles in The Mail on Sunday – as if an “ancient, vast and thrillingly varied” collection of regional cuisines could be reduced down into a homogeneous whole. Now we recognise the diverse delights of Cantonese dim sum and char siu; the fiery, numbing charms of Sichuan; the sweet, oily Shanghai-style, and so on. A region that’s still under-represented in the UK, though, is Yunnan, in China’s southwest. Thus my lunch at this cracking Yunnanese restaurant in Cambridge was both an “education” and a “delight”. Rubing – a goat’s milk cheese that’s like a more refined halloumi – has been pan-fried and dragged through a mixture of…

Private island holiday Spend 7 nights full-board at the Santo Stefano Resort in Sardinia’s stunning Maddalena archipelago. From £862pp, including London flights. 020-8973 2292, sardatur-holidays.co.uk. Depart 14 September. Modern Warsaw b&b Stay at the lovely Vienna House Mokotow hotel for 5 nights, with easy access to the city centre, from £266pp, including Liverpool flights. 020-3897 1185, loveholidays.com. Depart 26 September. Four-star Madeira A 7-night stay at the Golden Residence Hotel, which enjoys outstanding views of the scenic coast, costs from £887pp full-board, including Bristol flights. 020-3368 6221, broadway travel.com. Depart 3 October. Honolulu luxury Seven nights room-only at the delightful and friendly Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel cost from £1,819pp, including Manchester flights. 0344-739 1142, virginholidays.co.uk. Depart 4 October.…

Shares worldwide suffered a wave of selling – exacerbated by fears sparked by renewed protests in Hong Kong and a political shake-up in Argentina. Meanwhile, key bond yield curves, in both the US and Britain, “inverted” for the first time in a decade, flashing a traditionally ominous recessionary signal. Investors were reported to have rushed into bond funds at the fastest rate since the financial crisis in the first half of 2019. German investors are at their most pessimistic since the eurozone debt crisis, as the country battles a deepening industrial downturn. The UK Government stepped up preparations for a possible no-deal Brexit, prompting the pound to continue falling. President Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, said the UK was “first in line” for a trade deal with the US…

● Argy-bargy The market pain in Argentina became more pronounced this week, said Tim Wallace in The Daily Telegraph. And it could get worse. The prospect of “the political renaissance” of former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has “raised the prospect of the country again defaulting on its debt, causing markets to go into freefall”. The peso has lost almost a third of its value this year. And stocks haven’t fared much better. The fallout this week saw Argentina’s main Merval index plummet by 31% on Monday, with some of the country’s largest companies worst affected. Cement producer Loma Negra lost 55%; the financial services firm Galicia Financial suffered a 46% value erosion. ● Dangerously “overweight” Spare a thought for “the emerging market bond guru” Michael Hasenstab, whose 16 bond…

Sir Malcolm and Richard Walker It’s further evidence that Brexit disputes are undermining even the closest relationships, said Liam Kelly in The Sunday Times. In a “harrowing dispatch” from an Iceland store, the chain’s managing director, Richard Walker, 39, has bemoaned the Government’s “lack of clarity” on a no-deal – warning that “turbulence will hit the most vulnerable communities worst”. What a contrast to the firm’s bullish chairman, Sir Malcolm, 73, doubles as Richard’s father. Last week, he broke his holiday in Mallorca to express astonishment at the way “the media and liberal elite” are undermining the PM’s negotiating hand. Sir Malcolm thinks Rod Liddle’s Brexit polemic, The Great Betrayal, is “absolutely brilliant” and has given his son a copy. “I’ll stop his salary if he doesn’t read it.” Alison…

The growing number of celebrities caught up in scandals has inspired a new industry in “disgrace insurance”. SpottedRisk, a startup, offers film studios and other brands tailored insurance in case they lose business after a celebrity they have hired is hit by scandal. The insurer combs gossip columns and news reports for warning signs, and rates people according to 224 risk factors. Anti-Brexit slogans scrawled in chalk around Wakefield in Yorkshire have been revealed to be the work of a 71-year-old grandmother. Hazel Jones, a retired teacher who has chalked up hundreds of protest slogans over the past three years, was unmasked when she was filmed by a passerby. “It’s my grandchildren that I’m doing it for,” Jones said.…

The Government has launched an investigation into the biggest power cut to hit the grid in a decade (see page 49). Last Friday, nearly a million homes and businesses were left without power when both the Little Barford gas-fired power station in Bedfordshire and Hornsea wind farm off the Yorkshire coast failed within minutes of each other, shortly before 5pm. The blackout caused severe travel disruptions, with some stranded on trains for up to nine hours. National Grid insisted that its systems “worked well”, despite the “incredibly rare event”, but the Government ordered it to report to Ofgem, the energy watchdog, on why the incident occurred.…

Berlin Fall in nudism: Germany’s tradition of naturism is in decline, with membership of the national Freikörperkultur (“free body culture”) association down to 32,000 people – half of what it was in the 1980s. Skinny-dipping is no longer allowed in most of Berlin’s lakes, reported The Times, and a third of Berliners consider the practice to be “revolting”. The decline, which is most pronounced among 18- to-30-year-olds, is largely due to the “reign of terror” of modern ideals of beauty, according to a new book by a Leipzig sexologist, Kurt Starke. Hamburg SS guard trial: A 92-year-old former SS private is to go on trial as an accessory to the murder of more than 5,000 people. Bruno Dey was a guard at the Stutthof concentration camp near Danzig (now Gdansk)…

1 Little Fluffy Clouds by Martin Glover, Alex Paterson and Steve Reich, performed by The Orb 2 Wátina, written and performed by Andy Palacio and the Garifuna Collective 3* I Wanna Be Like You by Robert and Richard Sherman, performed by Louis Prima 4 Fly Me to the Moon by Bart Howard, performed by Frank Sinatra 5 You’re So Vain, written and performed by Carly Simon 6 La Isla Bonita by Madonna, Patrick Leonard and Bruce Gaitsch, performed by Madonna 7 Careless Whisper by George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, performed by George Michael 8 Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner, performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Otto Klemperer Book: Edible: An Illustrated Guide to the World’s Food Plants Luxury: her pillow * Choice if allowed only one…

Mike Leigh’s 2018 film Peterloo revived the memory of the massacre: the director argued that it had been largely forgotten, and that it should be taught in schools alongside “1066 and Magna Carta and Henry VIII”. Peterloo has, however, long been commemorated in British culture. In 1819, George Cruikshank published a savage satirical cartoon of the scene, featuring fat yeoman cavalry – they were mostly gentlemen, freeholders and tenant farmers – scything down the poor. At the time, commemorative handkerchiefs, teapots and plates were sold. But the most famous cultural tribute to Peterloo is Percy Bysshe Shelley’s visionary poem, The Masque of Anarchy. Shelley wrote it in September 1819, as soon as the news reached him in Italy. The poem actually entreats non-violent resistance – it inspired Gandhi, among others…

Should we eliminate mosquitoes? Timothy C. Winegard The New York Times For more than 100 million years, the mosquito has been “our apex predator, the deadliest hunter of human beings on the planet”, says Timothy C. Winegard. About 100 trillion of these blood-sucking insects patrol our world, transmitting diseases that kill 700,000 people every year. By infecting humans with yellow fever, malaria and a host of other parasites, viruses and bacteria, mosquitoes “may have killed nearly half of the 108 billion humans who have ever lived”. Now the “life-and-death” battle between mosquitoes and people may be “coming to a head”. Scientists armed with a gene-editing technology called Crispr-Cas9 have designed mosquitoes that produce infertile offspring. If released en masse into the wild, these biologically altered bugs could render mosquitoes extinct.…

Climate change made Britain’s recent heatwave up to 2.5°C hotter than it otherwise would have been, a leading climatological body has said. By drawing on long-term temperature observations and climate models, the World Weather Attribution Group (WWA) estimated that human interference increased the July heatwave – which peaked with a temperature of 38.1°C in Cambridge – by between 1.5°C and 2.5°C, with temperatures on the European continent up to 3°C higher. “This July 2019 heatwave was so extreme over Continental western Europe that the observed magnitudes would have been extremely unlikely without climate change,” said Oxford University’s Dr Friederike Otto, a WWA member. Meanwhile, the Copernicus Climate Change Service has confirmed that July was the hottest month ever recorded.…

“It is no good having a virtuous media without a virtuous public.” Douglas Murray on UnHerd “Good ideas are always crazy until they’re not.” Larry Page, quoted in the London Evening Standard “I’m not denyin’ the women are foolish. God Almighty made ’em to match the men.” George Eliot, quoted in Forbes “A cowboy asked me if I could help him round up 18 cows. I said, ‘Yes, of course, that’s 20 cows.” Comedian Jake Lambert, quoted in The Daily Telegraph “Healthy desserts – possibly the most disappointing combination of two words in the entire English language.” Alex James, quoted in The Sunday Times “Some men change their party for the sake of their principles; others their principles for the sake of their party.” Winston Churchill, quoted in The Independent…

Football Manchester United beat Chelsea 4-0. Tottenham beat Aston Villa 3-1. Arsenal beat Newcastle 1-0. Rugby union Australia scored six tries in their 47-26 win over New Zealand – their biggest-ever victory against the All Blacks. Gymnastics Simone Biles won her sixth all-around title at the US Gymnastics Championships, equalling the record set by Clara Schroth Lomady in 1952. Tennis Rafael Nadal retained his Rogers Cup title with a straight-sets victory over Daniil Medvedev.…

Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood Tarantino’s love letter to Tinseltown Dir: Quentin Tarantino 2hr 41mins (18) “He’s finally done it. Quentin Tarantino has made his masterpiece,” said Kevin Maher in The Times. Even in 1994’s revered Pulp Fiction, the narrative was compromised by the director’s weakness for pastiche and obscure references to forgotten B-movies. The tendency has worsened in recent offerings. Yet in his latest film, Tarantino “swings his camera round” to focus on Tinseltown itself, thereby bringing story and style into harmony. The result is a black comedy thriller which is also a compelling love letter to Hollywood, studded with glittering star turns, moving moments and droll humour. That’s not to say it’s always easy to watch: the climax is shockingly violent. But the writing is his most…

It was painted as a “stark reminder” of the violence of the Troubles. But 50 years after the events it commemorates, a 20ft mural in Derry of a boy holding a petrol bomb has become “something else: a tourist attraction”, says Rachel Hall in The Guardian. The mural – based on a famous photograph by Clive Limpkin, taken during the August 1969 riots that are often seen as the beginning of 30 years of armed conflict in Northern Ireland – is one of 12 painted between 1994 and 2006 by a group known as the Bogside Artists. Although criticised at the time by Catholics and Protestants for “glorifying” violence, the murals have nevertheless become Northern Ireland’s eighth most-visited attraction – prompting the council this year to take the “controversial step”…

Programmes Comedy Shorts: Lazy Susan Comedy double-act and Edinburgh favourites Lazy Susan bring their playful brand of humour to the screen in a bite-size sketch show. Sun 18 Aug, BBC2 22:00 (15mins). The Day Mountbatten Died Documentary telling the story of 27 August 1979, when Lord Mountbatten was killed by an IRA bomb aboard his boat. Forty years on, those directly affected by the events share their memories. Mon 19 Aug, BBC2 21:00 (60mins). Call the Cops New series going inside the nerve centre of policing: the communications centre. Episode one is set over the Easter weekend in Devon and Cornwall. Mon 19 Aug, C4 21:00 (60mins). Jamie Oliver: The Naked Chef Bares All Charting 20 years since Jamie Oliver first appeared on our screens, Davina McCall talks to the…

This is my all-time favourite summer dessert, says Clodagh McKenna. It is so decadent in flavour and looks absolutely fabulous – everyone loves it! I love the flavour of rosewater, and its gentle floral taste works perfectly with the light and fluffy pavlova. I make the pavlova the evening before and leave it to cool overnight. This dish also works well with strawberries or peaches. For the raspberry syrup: 100g fresh raspberries 1 tbsp caster sugar for the meringue: 9 egg whites, at room temperature 500g caster sugar 2 tsps cornflour 1 tsp white wine vinegar 1 tbsp rosewater for the filling: 500ml whipping cream 1 tbsp icing sugar 1 tbsp rosewater 200g fresh raspberries • Preheat the oven to 160°C, and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. •…

Equinox New York Instead of champagne on arrival, guests at this luxury new opening are offered “a reviving vitamin IV drip”, says Susan d’Arcy in The Sunday Times. Not surprising – it’s the first hotel by “America’s most exclusive fitness club”, and sits in the redeveloped Hudson Yards overlooking The Vessel sculpture. Here, you won’t get a room but a “sleep chamber”, a walnut-and marble-decked cocoon that’s “serenity itself”, with “superior” soundproofing, “next-generation” gadgets and a revelatory minibar. There’s a lap pool, an “outdoor poser’s pool” and a high-tech gym. The restaurant, Electric Lemon, serves supremely healthy food that somehow tastes anything but. Doubles from £650; equinox-hotels.com…

Toni Morrison, who has died aged 88, wrote fiction that focused overwhelmingly on black American lives – “in particular, the often crushing experience of black women” – using “luminous, incantatory prose resembling that of no other writer in English”, said The New York Times. She was the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature – and remains the only one. But she was also that rare thing in American letters, a writer “whose books were both critical and commercial successes”. The great achievement of her fiction was to show how past injustices – above all the legacy of slavery – live on in a “harrowing present”. At the same time, the elements of magic and superstition in her novels gave them a mythical, timeless feel. “The marriage…

Carson Block, founder of the San Francisco hedge fund Muddy Waters, has a formidable reputation as “one of the world’s most feared short-sellers”, said Laurence Fletcher in the FT. He roots out companies “he believes are using suspect accounting practices”, takes a short position, betting that their shares will fall, and then stages a high-profile “bear attack”. The effect can be “devastating”, as litigation finance specialist Burford Capital – one of London’s fastest-growing listed companies – discovered last week. Shares plunged by 60%, wiping some £1.2bn off its value in a day, after Muddy Waters released a damning 24-page analysis of “a poor business masquerading as a great one”. Burford has launched a furious counter-attack, said Nils Pratley in The Guardian, describing the report as “false” and – “perhaps inevitably…

At the 2016 Conservative party conference, Andrew Davies – then leader of the Welsh Conservatives – made delegates sit up by pledging to make “breakfast” (rather than “Brexit”) a success. It was a slip of the tongue, says Ben Wright in The Daily Telegraph. But the traditional fry-up is actually “a pretty good illustration of some of the issues we might face”. Here’s a rundown of the main ingredients: Eggs and bread The good news is that Britain is “entirely self-sufficient” on the egg front. The same is true for wheat. “We sometimes import from France or Germany if we get a poor harvest. But on the whole, we’ll be fine.” Tomatoes “There’s not much fruit or veg in a fry-up, which is just as well.” In 2017, roughly 76%…

The week’s best shares Coca-Cola HBC The Times This blue-chip Coca-Cola bottler is moving into the fast-growing “adult soft drinks” market. Despite a profit miss blamed on restructuring costs, revenue growth is expected to be 5-6%. Buy. £27.99 Hastings Group The Times The car insurer has suffered falling prices and margin erosion. But thanks to its technology-focused model, it has 2.8 million customers and almost 8% of the market, and is winning new business. Buy. 185.25p. H&T Group The Daily Telegraph The pawnbroker is offering more services from existing shops (such as loans and forex), selling more online and expanding its UK footprint. Strongly cash-generative with growing profits and a 3.4% yield. Buy. 325p. InterContinental Hotels Group Investors Chronicle The hotel operator is looking to the “long-term health of established…