Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1241 i The Week

What happened Cross-party coalition call Jeremy Corbyn wrote to opposition leaders and Tory backbenchers opposed to a no-deal Brexit last week, calling on them to join Labour in a cross-party coalition to oust Boris Johnson in a no-confidence vote, and to form a “caretaker government” on a “strictly time-limited” basis. The alternative government, which he would lead, would seek “to prevent a deeply damaging no deal”, he said, by asking Brussels to extend Article 50. He would then call a general election in which Labour would campaign for a second referendum which included “an option to Remain”. But several opposition politicians, including Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson, said they would reject any plan that involved putting Corbyn in Downing Street. Swinson called instead for veteran Tory MP Ken Clarke, the…

The Queen’s pharmacy, which was criticised for selling a homeopathic remedy that supposedly contains “essence” of the Berlin Wall. The potion, available from Ainsworths, is made from bits of Wall that have been ground into dust, mixed with lactose and then massively diluted. According to Dr Edzard Ernst, a critic of homeopathy, its manufacturers claim it contains a “vital force” that helps “break down walls” between people. Regional imbalance, after a report found that Londoners are on track to receive almost three times more in transport spending per person than residents of the north of England. French, with news that it is no longer the language of choice among A-level students. The most popular A-level language is now Spanish, which was taken by 8,625 students this year. The Independent Group…

34% of Britons back Boris Johnson’s plan to carry out a no-deal Brexit on 31 October if necessary. 49% think he should either delay Brexit, cancel it altogether, or call a fresh referendum. 19% believe that Johnson will negotiate a new deal with the EU. BMG/The Independent 14% of Britons say they know exactly what the Northern Ireland backstop is, while 12% say they have never heard of it. YouGov 65% of pupils aged 11 to 16 in England and Wales say they think it is important to go to university, down from 75% last year, and 86% in 2013. Nevertheless, 77% still say they are very or fairly likely to attend university. Ipsos MORI/The Guardian…

Khartoum Bashir on trial: Sudan’s former president, Omar al-Bashir, has gone on trial on corruption charges in Khartoum. A vast hoard of cash was reportedly found in grain sacks in the ex-dictator’s home shortly after he was ousted in April. The court heard that Bashir – who ruled for 30 years – has admitted receiving more than $90m from various senior Saudi royals. Separately, Sudan’s military junta and civilian leaders signed a power-sharing agreement, potentially paving the way for a transition to democratic rule. Abuja Anti-fraud official suspended: The senior Nigerian official in charge of leading President Buhari’s drive to tackle entrenched corruption, and recover looted state assets, has himself been accused of corruption and other malfeasance, and suspended from office. Okoi Obono-Obla, the chairman of the Special Presidential Investigation…

Almost half of Americans admit to having worn the same underpants for two or more days in a row. More disturbingly, 13% of respondents to the poll – conducted on behalf of an underwear company – said that they had, at least once, worn the same pair for a week. Men, it turned out, were 2.5 times more likely to wear dirty pants than women. A Russian man trying to sell his flat in Chelyabinsk hit on the idea of making it look as though Quentin Tarantino is interested in the property. In marketing photos, the film director appears standing in the kitchen, inspecting the bathroom, and giving a thumbs-up in the guest room. “I haven’t found a buyer yet, but the ad did get 6,000 views in five hours,”…

GERMANY Falling out with America Der Tagesspiegel (Berlin) If only Germany and the US could have a grown-up relationship, says Christoph von Marschall. President Trump isn’t wrong to urge us to do more to meet our Nato commitments. But that doesn’t excuse the “arrogant” behaviour of his ambassador, Richard Grenell, who’s now saying the US could transfer all its troops stationed here to Poland. Of course, that’s an “empty threat”. There are only 50,000 US troops in Germany, down from 300,000 in the Cold War, but it’s unthinkable that the US would abandon infrastructure that cost billions: the command centre near Stuttgart; the massive air hub in Ramstein; the huge military hospital in Landstuhl. But at the same time, we Germans are much too complacent. Thousands of public-sector jobs depend…

Past research has often found that teenagers who spend the most time on social media are also most prone to anxiety and depression. A new study suggests that while there is a correlation, social media is less to blame than the negative factors – in particular, lack of sleep and cyberbullying – that it can result in. Researchers from the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health revisited data on nearly 10,000 teenagers in England interviewed three times between 2013 and 2015. As well as being asked about social media use and overall well-being, they were quizzed on aspects of their wider lifestyles. Teenagers who used social media most often were most likely to show signs of psychological distress – although the correlation was more marked in girls than…

Mick Jagger knows the importance of a good night’s sleep, and takes no chances when on tour. “Mick always asks for a new mattress in his room, no matter how posh the hotel,” a source told The Mail on Sunday. “But he insists that the plastic stays on while someone else sleeps on the mattress to break it in. It’s an unusual request, but hey – he’s Mick Jagger. Why not?” Elton John (pictured) has sprung to the defence of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. The couple have been accused of hypocrisy, for travelling by private jet first to Ibiza and then to the south of France, while urging ordinary people to do more to tackle climate change. But the rock star has now revealed that he had laid…

Camaraderie is a quality so often lacking in individual sports, said Will Humphries in The Times. So it was hard not to be cheered by the finale of the World Triathlon Olympic Qualification Event in Tokyo. Having already swum 1.5km and cycled 40km, two British triathletes, Jess Learmonth and Georgia Taylor-Brown, ended their run hand in hand, in joint first place. But officials were “less impressed”: both women were disqualified, for breaking a rule prohibiting a “contrived tie”. They were denied their prize money – $18,000 and $12,000 – and prevented from qualifying outright for Britain’s triathlon team at next year’s Olympics. “It should have been a moment of pure triumph,” said Sean Ingle in The Guardian. Learmonth and Taylor-Brown decided to cross the line together because they had “matched…

To The Sunday Telegraph We were surprised to read Matt Ridley’s article (“The war on meat has begun”), given the large body of scientific research showing the serious negative effects of a diet high in meat. Animal agriculture causes over half of food-related greenhouse gas emissions and only provides 18% of our calories. It is also a major driver of deforestation. The primary cause of habitat destruction across Latin America is the conversion of land to livestock pasture and soy for animal feed. Red meat is particularly damaging due to methane emissions and the extensive land requirements of cattle, goats and sheep. Cutting down on meat is also the healthier option. Large-scale studies have shown that eating less meat is linked to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, obesity, type…

Twenty years on from their debut album, the mask-wearing Iowan heavy metallers Slipknot have remained “true to their core”, even as their line-up underwent frequent changes, said Jordan Bassett on NME.com. That core involves being “drunk on rage, self-disgust and lacerating, redemptive nihilism”. And rarely has their aggressive, relentlessly percussive music sounded fiercer or more compelling than on this “astonishing” sixth album – a “roaring, horrifying delve into the guts of the band’s revulsion, a primal scream of endlessly inventive extreme metal”. Fans have drawn comparisons between the new material and Slipknot’s stunning career peak album Iowa from 2001, said Roisin O‘Connor in The Independent. The main difference is that this album “allows each member’s musical prowess to shine through”. There’s no lack of “pummelling force”, but the greater emphasis…

Afterimage: Dangdai Yishu at Lisson Gallery After the Communist Revolution of 1949, China became a country isolated from cultural developments in the West – and with some notable exceptions, it remained largely oblivious to postwar trends in art until the 1990s. However, as this show demonstrates, it has quickly caught up. The show brings together the work of nine Chinese artists born between 1960 and 1990, and its exhibits include art in pretty much every medium imaginable, some of it excellent: Zhao Zhao’s haunting video about the marginalised people of the ethnically diverse Xinjiang region; a (necessarily) small-scale replica of a 1992 performance by Wang Youshen, in which he plastered an entire section of the Great Wall in newspapers; and Yu Hong’s Witness to Growth, a series of four self-portraits…

Still hurt after her clash with Clarrie, Susan tries to coax Emma out of her room, to no avail. Shula tells Freddie and Kenton about her interview for ordainment. To Lynda’s horror, Tracy ends up getting the receptionist job at Grey Gables. Tracy succeeds in getting Emma out for a walk, and they bump into Will. Later, Emma drops in some lotion for Poppy’s suspected chickenpox and Will confesses to feeling guilty about Ed’s job loss. Emma says she doesn’t hold it against him. Jazzer admits to Jim and Alistair that he’s been talking to Harrison about Jim’s plight, to Jim’s distress. Susan and Clarrie’s row spills over into work, with Helen having to intervene. Will rushes Poppy to A&E. Kate and Jakob unwittingly end up on a date, arranged…

What the experts recommend Haywards Restaurant 111 Bell Common, Epping, Essex (01992-577350) This six-year-old, Michelin Plate-holding, husband-and-wife operation in a pretty converted stables on the edge of Epping Forest deploys “significant levels of chefly firepower” to striking effect, says Keith Miller in The Daily Telegraph. The food, served in a “suavely neutral” space, offers bold and original flavours: a “fantastic” main course of roast cauliflower didn’t follow the “beaten path of Ottolenghoid orientalism”, but arrived with a Sicilian-style sauce of pine nuts, raisins and capers (more usually served with fish) and some “lovely” little cylindrical ricotta dumplings. There are interesting takes on familiar treats: a “Proper Sunday Roast” of côte de boeuf and braised ox cheek for two, with all the trimmings, for example. And there is beautiful presentation…

New cars: what the critics say Auto Express Entering the compact SUV class out of the blue is a “big ask”. DS is the Peugeot/Citroën group’s premium brand, and the DS 3 Crossback is trying to compete with posh models like the Audi Q2 and Mini Countryman. There are plenty of “smart touches” here to justify its price: generous kit, standout design. But the biggest challenge DS faces is convincing buyers that it’s on the same level as Audi. The Daily Telegraph Few SUVs catch the eye like the DS 3 Crossback. While not “conventionally pretty”, with its frowning face and sculpted sides, it looks like nothing else on the road. Inside, it’s equally “stylized”, with a diamond motif applied from corner to corner. There are lots of modern touch-sensitive…

Vineyards in the Aeolian isles One of Sicily’s oldest winemaking dynasties, the Tasca family have recently opened two of their estates to paying guests, offering vineyard tours, wine tastings, great food and “pretty” accommodation, says Mia Aimaro Ogden in The Sunday Times. There’s a sense of “splendid isolation” at Regaleali, a bumpy two-hour drive south of Palermo, but Capofaro is even harder to reach. Still, this remote hideaway on Salina – the greenest of the Aeolian islands, 25 miles off the Sicilian coast – is well worth the “pain” of the six-hour journey there via hydrofoil and taxi. Comprised of white buildings clustered around an old lighthouse, rooms are decorated in the traditional Aeolian style, and there’s a “sexy” outdoor restaurant overlooking Stromboli and overseen by Ludovico De Vivo, a…

Cathay Pacific: drop the pilot Following a week of pressure from China over staff participation in Hong Kong protests, the territory’s flagship airline has abruptly “replaced” its CEO, said Sue-Lin Wong and Hudson Lockett in the FT. What has particularly shocked local market analysts is the way the resignation of Rupert Hogg, a 33-year veteran of Cathay’s largest shareholder, Swire, was handled. The management change “was first revealed by mainland Chinese state-run media” rather than Cathay itself – “an unprecedented development for a Hong Kong private sector company” and, as many see it, an ominous development. Hogg’s replacement is Augustus Tang, who currently heads another Swire Pacific subsidiary, the Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Co, and is presumably in favour on the mainland. Indeed, if Hogg’s head was the price…

Melanie Goldsmith and Emile Bernard The duo behind confectioner Smith & Sinclair started out selling “edible cocktails” – sweets infused with daiquiris or whisky sours – from a stall in London’s Soho, said The Sunday Times. They made headlines two years ago with a cheeky range of “Trump Sucks” alcoholic lollipops, and have since pushed annual sales to £2m. Now a new future beckons for the start-up. It has been bought by Tilray, the Canadian cannabis business, which has big plans for European expansion and has asked the pair to come up with a range of weed-infused sweets. Although “recreational cannabis” is illegal in the UK, products made with CBD, a non-psychoactive compound, are not. The confections will hit America and Canada first, and land in Britain sometime soon after.…

About one in seven five-year-olds about to start primary school are not fully protected against measles, mumps and rubella, due to a drop in the uptake of the MMR vaccine, Public Health England has warned. Some 30,000 children have not received the vaccine at all, and 90,000 have only had the first of two injections. Just 87% of children now get both jabs – well short of the 95% target – and the World Health Organisation has withdrawn the UK’s “measles-free” status due to outbreaks. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has urged the social media giants to do more to combat “anti-vaxx” misinformation online.…

Utrecht, Netherlands Multistorey bike park: The world’s largest multistorey parking facility for bicycles has opened in Utrecht, the Dutch city that in 1885 became one of the first in the world to have a cycle lane on its roads. Tens of thousands of people ride bikes in Utrecht every day, and the local infrastructure has been heavily modified to accommodate them. The new three-storey bike park, at Utrecht’s main railway station, has space for 12,656 bikes, including “cargo bikes” that can hold a family. Parking is free for up to 24 hours. According to government statistics, a quarter of commuter trips in the Netherlands are made by bike – but in the main cities, including Utrecht, the proportion is even higher. Paris English lessons: President Macron’s favoured candidate for mayor…

Corden’s progress When he was a young boy, James Corden remembers watching a play and thinking: “Well, this is incredibly boring, sitting down here when you could be up there.” And his life has been an all-out pursuit of “up there” ever since, says Tom Lamont in GQ. Early in his career, Corden (below) was a successful supporting actor, but he wanted to be a leading man. “I was learning that if you looked like me, people reckoned you were about right for playing a newsagent in a Hugh Grant movie... Nobody was about to pull a seat out at the table and say, ‘Come and sit down.’ I was going to have to get to this table and budge people up.” So he co-wrote his own comedy, Gavin &…

Article 370 of the Indian constitution, in force since 1949, has guaranteed the distinctive character of Jammu and Kashmir, giving it its own constitution, flag and the freedom to make its own laws. The most significant of those, enshrined in Article 35A of the Indian constitution (which derives its authority from Article 370 and was introduced in 1954), is the right to define who counts as “permanent residents”, and their rights and privileges. These include the right to buy property, to vote, and to receive state benefits. Non-permanent residents, even if Indian citizens, are not entitled to such “privileges”. In this way the state’s delicate demographic balance has been preserved. But the presidential order of 5 August, making Article 370 inoperative, threatens that balance: Kashmiris fear that it will allow…

Let immigrants learn to fend for themselves Jonathan S. Tobin New York Post “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” The words etched under the Statue of Liberty have long symbolised America’s approach to immigration, says Jonathan S. Tobin. But Donald Trump now stands accused of dishonouring them, by introducing a new rule under which immigrants who are in the US legally will have a harder time obtaining permanent citizenship if they’ve received food stamps or other public benefits. The Trump official in charge of the policy, Ken Cuccinelli, appalled critics last week by jokingly declaring: “Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet, and who will not become a public charge.” Yet the outrage is unjustified.…

Scientists in Japan have developed a technique for separating sperm by sex, using it to produce litters of mice, pigs and cows in which around 90% of offspring conform to the desired sex. And they admit the technique, outlined in PLOS Biology, could potentially be applied to humans, making it possible for those undergoing IVF to select their child’s sex prior to fertilisation. The team, from Hiroshima University, chanced upon the method while studying the differences between X (female) and Y (male) sperm cells in mice. Sperm with X chromosomes, they discovered, carry more genes than Y ones, and so produce a wider range of protein receptors. When they used a chemical to bind to the X sperm’s receptors, they found that the sperm swam more slowly – enabling them…

“Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.” Søren Kierkegaard, quoted in the I newspaper “I suppose lesbian sex is a bit like cricket, in that it goes on forever and there’s a lot of men watching it at home, alone, on the internet.” Catherine Bohart at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, quoted in The Sun “Your mind is like a parachute: if it isn’t open, it doesn’t work.” Buzz Aldrin, quoted on BusinessInsider “If you can only be tall because somebody is on their knees, then you have a serious problem.” Toni Morrison, quoted in Mother Jones “To the old, the old do not look old.” Novelist Howard Jacobson, quoted in the FT “Every generation, civilisation is invaded by barbarians – we call them ‘children’.” Hannah Arendt, quoted in The Daily Telegraph…

Football Manchester City drew 2-2 with Tottenham. Liverpool beat Southampton 2-1. Chelsea drew 1-1 with Leicester City. Bayern Munich signed Philippe Coutinho, Barcelona’s attacking midfielder, on a season-long loan. Rugby union France beat Scotland 32-3. New Zealand beat Australia 36-0. Athletics British sprinter Dina Asher-Smith finished second in the 200m at the Birmingham Grand Prix. Tennis Daniil Medvedev and Madison Keys won the men’s and women’s Cincinnati Masters titles.…

It’s hard to fathom the ”creative process” behind great art, but that’s what an exhibition at the National Gallery, which opens in November, sets out to do for Leonardo da Vinci, says Robert Dex in the London Evening Standard. The show will be devoted to an “immersive exploration” of Leonardo’s celebrated painting, The Virgin of the Rocks (1495-1508). Exhibits will range from a mock-up of the chapel (in the church of San Francesco Grande, Milan) for which the painting was made, to X-rays of the canvas that reveal two “hidden” drawings. These were Leonardo’s initial designs for the Virgin and the infant Christ, painted over when he settled on a final composition. Perhaps even more fascinating will be high-resolution images of a number of ghostly handprints also detected just below…

Programmes Peaky Blinders The Shelby family is back for a fifth series of the hugely popular period gangster drama, with Cillian Murphy and Helen McCrory. Sun 25 Aug, 21:00; with episode 2 on Mon 26 Aug, 21:30; BBC1 (60mins). A Black and White Killing: The Case that Shook America The story of Larnell Bruce, whose murder by a white supremacist in 2016 was captured on CCTV footage that went viral. In this two-part documentary, Bafta-winning journalist Mobeen Azhar unpicks events from every angle. Sun 25 Aug, BBC2 21:00 (60mins). Sanditon Jane Austen’s final, unfinished novel gets the Andrew Davies treatment in ITV’s new eight-parter. Young Charlotte Heywood arrives in the fishing village of Sanditon, and is soon being courted. Sun 25 Aug, ITV1 21:00 (60mins). The Great British Bake Off…

Avocado and pistachio softies Makes approximately 750ml 1 large avocado (about 200g) 500ml plus 2 tbsps of almond milk 60g unsalted shelled pistachio nuts, chopped, plus extra to serve 125ml coconut milk 150g agave syrup or clear honey 2 tsp pistachio paste, or a few drops of almond extract 1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice ice cream cones, to serve (optional) ice-cream machine (optional) • Remove the pit from the avocado and scoop the flesh into a blender. Add the almond milk, pistachio nuts, coconut milk, agave syrup (or honey) and either the pistachio paste or almond extract. Blend until really smooth. Add the lemon juice and blend briefly to combine. • If you have an ice-cream machine, use this to churn the mixture according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Or,…

Madrid’s arts district Stay 3 nights at the TRYP Madrid Atocha Hotel, a converted palace dating back to 1913, from £388pp b&b, including Edinburgh flights. 0871-277 1070, lastminute.com. Depart 3 October. Short Iceland break Spend 3 nights at Hotel Reykjavík Centrum, enviably situated in the downtown area, from £349pp (room only) including London flights. 020-3993 4700, fleetwaytravel.com. Depart 11 November. 5-star Zante beach stay Be pampered on a 3-night stay at The Lesante Luxury Hotel & Spa, from £710pp (half-board, two sharing), including Birmingham flights. 020-8492 6868, olympicholidays.com. Depart 26 September. All-inclusive retreat Seven nights at the idyllic beachside TUI Sensatori Resort Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, cost from £933pp including Manchester flights. 020-3636 1931, tui.co.uk. Depart 4 November.…

Global markets continued their rocky ride, amid rising tensions in Hong Kong, continued US/China trade fears, weak German GDP data and “a flipped yield curve” on US two-year and ten-year bonds. The yield on 30-year US bonds fell below 2% for the first time in history. The US president lambasted the Fed chairman, Jerome Powell, for his “horrendous lack of vision”. Argentina’s economy minister, Nicolás Dujovne, resigned after presiding over a 20% crash of the peso against the dollar. In Britain, sentiment was affected by the leaked Operation Yellowhammer no-deal Brexit dossier: analysts fear a “wildly volatile” September and October for the pound. The tech industry, however, has bucked uncertainty. According to government figures, UK tech firms secured a record £5.5bn in foreign investment in the first seven months of…

The leaked report on Operation Yellowhammer – which warns of shortages of food, fuel and medicine in the event of no deal – will have a “familiar ring to anybody au fait with the Fall of France” and “the mood of establishment defeatism” in Britain in May 1940, said Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in The Daily Telegraph. The Joint Chiefs had drawn up a paper entitled “British Strategy in a Certain Eventuality”, warning that Britain now faced starvation, occupation and an “internal attack by the ‘Fifth Column’.” None of that came about – and the same is probably true of the dire scenarios in the leaked report. Lurid predictions of port chaos are “not even Project Fear”, they’re “slapstick”. Business groups are not so sanguine, said Richard Vaughan on iNews. The Freight…

Women at a maternity unit in Cardiff are to be given virtual reality headsets, to ease their labour pains. For the trial, at University Hospital Wales, women will be invited to don a headset and offered a range of 360° simulations – of being on a white sand beach, watching the Northern Lights, wandering among penguins or roving on Mars. Virtual reality “distraction therapy” is already used by the NHS for pain management in some cases, and though the VR experiences last for only seven and a half minutes, the pain-relieving effects are said to last for up to 45. The student union bar at Dundee’s Abertay University is to stop selling alcohol, as today’s students tend to prefer coffee. Since 2015, the bar’s sales of alcohol have fallen by…

The Government has launched a review into the costs and benefits of the HS2 rail link. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said a “go or no-go” decision on the £56bn plan, which has come in for heavy criticism, would be made by the end of the year. Phase one of the high-speed route from London to Birmingham is scheduled to open in 2026. Though billions have already been spent on it, Shapps refused to rule out scrapping the project. “Just because you’ve spent a lot of money on something does not mean you should plough more and more into it.”…

New York Epstein suicide confirmed: The New York City medical examiner has ruled that Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide by hanging himself. The billionaire’s death in prison on 10 August, while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, prompted speculation that he had been killed to stop him revealing information that might damage his powerful friends. The ruling scotches that, but there remain questions about why he was left unsupervised in custody. This week, it emerged that just before his death, Epstein signed a new will leaving $577m in assets to a private trust in the US Virgin Islands – which may make it harder for his alleged victims to get compensation. Pressure is now growing on the Duke of York to tell investigators what he knows about Epstein. Prince Andrew invited…

“When the Greens’ co-leader Siân Berry says we should be limited to one flight a year, I suspect this is the change many cannot make. I’ll switch to an electric car, cycle, give up meat – just don’t tell me I can’t see Patagonia or Japan before I die. After clearing out my childhood home, I’ve concluded most physical stuff will end up in landfill, but holidays are time and money rarely wasted. They measure your passing years from backpacking youth to Rhine-cruise old age. And when you have children they are the golden times: only when away from chores, work and friends do you feel the shape and weight of your family, know who you really are, forge in-jokes and memories that will endure.” Janice Turner in The Times…

How populism poisons modern politics Ryan Bourne The Daily Telegraph “Populism” is a word much bandied about these days, says Ryan Bourne. It’s often used by left-wingers as a stick to beat Trump or Brexit supporters. Or it’s seen as a blind refusal to accept the wisdom of professional economists – as the antithesis to rule by “experts”. Neither definition gets to the heart of the dominant trend in modern politics – particularly in the US. No, the essence of populism is the idea that an elite, working against the people’s interest, has rigged the system in its favour. The elite may consist of international agencies, the liberal establishment and Big Tech, as it does for Trump; or of Big Oil, Big Pharma and… Big Tech, as it does for…

A snack-laden commute People whose commutes take them near fast-food restaurants have a greater-than-average tendency to pile on the pounds, research suggests. Prof Adriana Dornelles, a statistician at Arizona State University, analysed food outlets along the work journeys of 710 female employees at 22 schools in New Orleans. Those who drove past the most fast-food joints tended to have a higher body mass index (BMI) – and this remained true even when other potentially influential factors, such as income and race, were taken into account. Dornelles thinks it is probable that tired commuters are more likely to be tempted by the offerings of convenience food outlets if they are easily accessible. “After a long day at work, the last thing you are going to think about is [going] home and…

Sexist ads: is the ASA right to ban them? Motherhood has become an “offensive gender stereotype”, said Katie Glass in The Sun. At least, that’s the message of a new ruling from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which last week banned two “supposedly sexist” television adverts under new rules, introduced in June, that outlaw harmful “gender stereotypes”. So what were these appalling ads? “Did they feature women in lingerie chained to the kitchen sink?” Or a businessman smacking his secretary’s bottom? “Er, no.” One of the ads – for Volkswagen – depicted a succession of men involved in adventurous activities, from athletics to space exploration, before a closing shot of a woman sitting next to a pram. The other – for Philadelphia cream cheese – showed two new dads…

The Ashes: Archer takes aim at Smith “In the end, it took an act of God to stop Jofra Archer,” said Andy Bull in The Guardian. On the final day of the second Ashes Test, as “a thick bank of black cloud” flew over the Lord’s Grand Stand, the umpires brought the match to a close. They decided it was too dark for Australia’s batsmen to face the England bowler – “if they ever could safely face him at all”. It meant that, for all Archer’s efforts on his Test debut, England failed to beat Australia, and had to settle for a draw. But in his two innings, Archer did more than enough to prove himself “the most lethal fast bowler in the world”. He bowled the fastest over by…

The story of Romeo and Juliet is famously that of a “mad passion” between teenagers, and the “naivety, enormity, insatiability, delusion” of young love, said Lyndsey Winship in The Observer. But rarely can this crazed spirit have been captured so brilliantly, and so intensely, as the great English choreographer Matthew Bourne does in this new piece of dance theatre set to a reworked version of the familiar Prokofiev score. This is a couple “so besotted that they dance connected at the mouth, one long snog as their bodies roll and twist across the stage”. From beginning to end, the “visceral” storytelling is “ferociously” on the side of youth, said Sarah Crompton in The Guardian – and the work is “stunningly danced” by a young cast led by Cordelia Braithwaite as…

Best books… Peter Frankopan The writer and historian picks his six favourite books. His latest, The New Silk Roads (Bloomsbury £8.99) – the follow-up to 2015’s prizewinning The Silk Roads (Bloomsbury £11.89) – is out now in paperback. The Alexiad by Anna Komnene (Penguin £16.99). A history written by a Byzantine princess in Constantinople in the 12th century. Sparkling, witty and a delight from start to finish. I spent days, weeks and years studying this text – and found something new each time I read it. Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev, 1862 (OUP £7.99). Turgenev is one of my favourite novelists, and Bazarov one of my favourite characters. I read this when I was 15 and it made a big impression on me. It opened a new world of…

Hungarian furmint is a grape variety to watch, says David Williams in The Observer. It has long been known as the base of the country’s great sweet wine, Tokaji. But it’s in its incarnation as a dry white that it’s making waves right now. Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Royal Tokaji Dry Furmint, Hungary 2017 (£10) offering a “tongue-tingling mouthful of Cox’s apple”. If you like that, I’d also recommend the Royal Tokaji Mézes Mály Furmint Dry 2016 (£17.99; Ministry of Drinks), which combines “resonant fruit richness, a waxiness of texture and delicate floral notes”. There’s a “similar ripe tanginess combined with the steely swish” of acidity in Hetszolo Tokaji Dry Furmint 2016 (£17; The Good Wine Shop), while Kardos Furmint, Hungary 2017 (£10.99; Kwoff) has a racy, citrussy style that’s…

Cabins at Walnut Tree Farm Mellis, Suffolk Environmentalist Roger Deakin’s 1999 book Waterlog “frog-kicked wild swimming and nature writing into the mainstream”. Since his death, the friends who own his beloved Suffolk farmhouse, Walnut Tree Farm, have often let fans look around, and now they have put the cabins where he liked to sleep on Airbnb, says Patrick Barkham in The Guardian. A railway wagon and a wood-clad cabin, they are private and beautifully decorated, and offer “profound peace” among 12 acres of woods and wild meadows. Guests can also swim, as he used to, in the moat. Search Airbnb for a railway wagon and a wood cabin in Mellis, email jasminkymoss@gmail.com or call 07813-025176.…

“Brother Number Two”, Pol Pot’s right-hand man Nuon Chea 1926-2019 Nuon Chea, who has died aged 93, “was Pol Pot’s right-hand man in the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia that killed up to three million of its own people”, said The Times. Known as “Brother Number Two”, he was the regime’s chief ideologue, ensuring that its “ultra-extremist brand of Maoist and Stalinist thinking was murderously implemented”. So committed was Nuon Chea to the Khmer Rouge that he personally authorised the murder of dozens of his own family. Two of his nieces were sent to the notorious Security Prison 21, a former school in the capital Phnom Penh that was used for interrogations and executions. Decades later, Nuon Chea was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity by UN tribunals.…

At last, there’s some good news for industrial Britain. After a protracted search for a saviour, the future of British Steel appears to have been secured – and with it, more than 4,000 jobs at its Scunthorpe and Teesside plants. The prospective buyer – the Turkish pension fund Oyak – was chosen above several other bidders, including British-based Liberty, noted Tom Witherow and Ruth Sunderland in the Daily Mail. Oyak – also known as the Turkish Armed Forces Assistance Fund – already owns steel mills in Turkey, and is believed to be offering around £70m for the business, which went into liquidation in May, plus “a promise to invest £900m to double production”. There’s no shortage of cash or clout here, said The Guardian. With £15bn in assets, Oyak presides…

A lopsided trade deal is not a disaster Roger Bootle The Daily Telegraph You don’t have to have a trade deal with another country to have “a successful trading relationship”, says Roger Bootle – but it can be useful. In the post-Brexit world, the most important deal the UK strikes will be with the US (our largest single export market). But critics say that if we do get such a deal, it is bound to be a bad one. They point out that the US economy is far larger than ours, and argue that our negotiating hand is liable to be very weak post-Brexit. Yet several countries with smaller economies than ours (including Canada) have benefited from their US deals. More importantly, this negativity rests on a false premise –…