Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1277 i The Week

“It’s a measure of how dramatically our horizons have shrunk,” said Gaby Hinsliff in The Guardian, that the prospect of a socially distanced trip to a council tip or garden centre “can now be held out by ministers as a reward for six weeks of self-sacrifice”. But these days, we must take “our thrills where we can”. On his return to Downing Street on Monday – just two days before the birth of his new son – Boris Johnson announced that the Government would shortly set out plans to ease social-distancing restrictions in a few limited areas. But he called for patience, insisting that it was still too early to bring an end to the lockdown itself. The Prime Minister compared the coronavirus to “an unexpected and invisible mugger” that…

One thing we’ve become horribly familiar with in recent weeks, said The Guardian, is death statistics. “Europe’s fatalities pass 100,000,” shouts one headline. “Britain passes 20,000 deaths,” says another. But how much store can we set by them? As each country counts Covid deaths in a different way, they’re clearly a very flawed measure for comparing how each is faring in the crisis. Belgium, for example, has the unenviable distinction of having the most deaths per capita in Europe, but that’s partly because it includes suspected Covid-19 deaths in care homes, which account for around half of the total. In Britain, by contrast, official figures didn’t include care homes until this week, said Tom Whipple in The Times. “And since overall fatalities in care homes tripled between the end of…

NHS hospitals are starting to resume non-urgent treatments for diseases including cancer, as officials are now confident that the first peak of Covid-19 infections has passed. The time frame for routine care to resume will vary from region to region, however, and elective operations, such as hip and knee replacements, may yet be delayed as a result of anaesthetists having been diverted to intensive care wards to treat patients who need to go on ventilators. Meanwhile, ministers are considering moving as many non-critical Covid patients as possible to temporary Nightingale hospitals, so that permanent hospitals can become “Covid-free zones”. Patients might be required to take a virus test 48 hours before coming in. Reportedly, the Nightingale hospitals are largely empty, as they don’t have enough staff.…

Berlin Mask duty: New rules have been introduced in Germany, making it mandatory for people to wear some kind of face mask on public transport. In some states, people must wear them to enter shops too, and penalties for flouting the Maskenpflicht (“mask duty”) also vary regionally. Fines range from s25 to s10,000, but in Berlin, officials say they’ll not be levying fines. Germany has a far lower Covid-19 death toll than other western European countries, but its epidemiologists say that its crucial R number (the number of people infected by each infected person) has crept back up to 0.96 from 0.7, owing to the recent relaxation of lockdown restrictions. Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned that the country remains “on the thinnest ice”. Elsewhere in Europe, Greece, Austria, Switzerland and…

“Over the past 20 years, fitness freakery has taken root not only in our day-to-day routines, but has often also intertwined with our sense of self. The notion has formed that feats of strength and endurance are acts of heroism. The last time I checked, being a hero meant doing something brave, at some cost to yourself, to help someone else. Completing a triathlon is unquestionably very hard, but we can’t conflate difficulty with self-sacrifice. Apologies to marathoners, but endurance events are a perverse form of entertainment, not forfeiture for the sake of others; and in the end, what have you got? However personally gratifying, in social terms they accomplish nothing.” Lionel Shriver in The Sunday Times…

$20 barrels turn the world upside down Jeremy Cliffe New Statesman Something unprecedented happened last week, says Jeremy Cliffe. For the first time the price of oil went negative. Admittedly it was only in West Texas, where traders, running out of storage capacity, were paying others to take it off their hands. But the collapse of the general oil price to $20 per barrel – from its recent range of between $50 to $100 – is startling enough. If it stays that way, as well it might if this crisis alters the way we do business, the geopolitical ramifications will be huge. Start with Saudi Arabia. Its economy is utterly dependent on oil profits: remove these and you “remove the whole basis of the Saudi royal family’s power, and of…

Monkeys floated to America Fossilised primate teeth found in Peru have bolstered the theory that groups of monkeys crossed the Atlantic on “rafts”, millions of years ago. The molars are from a previously unknown species named Ucayalipithecus perdita, and bear striking similarities to teeth belonging to a primate species that lived in Africa, in the same Oligocene period, some 33 million years ago. Scientists believe the only plausible explanation for the likeness is that a group of these small monkeys (they were around 20cm tall) hopped on a floating island of vegetation in west Africa, and “sailed” 900 miles across the Atlantic. “If a small primate caught a ride on a raft like this, it seems very plausible that they could make it such a long distance,” said study leader…

Matt Damon has delighted his Irish fans by choosing to self-isolate among them. The actor was filming in the country when the lockdown started, and has stayed, with his family, in the prosperous seaside town of Dalkey, near Dublin. Now, he is being referred to as Matt O’Damon and locals have closed ranks to protect their new neighbour. “How about just leaving him be?” said one, in response to enquiries. “It’s one of the reasons celebs love Ireland – they get left alone and treated like a normal human.” Val Kilmer has revealed that when he was in his 20s, his heart was ripped from his body by a “dark angel”. In a new memoir, the actor explains that he was in New Mexico when an amorphous figure took his…

The British public seems to be rallying round its leaders during this crisis, said Sean O’Grady in The Independent. Opinion-poll ratings for the Prime Minister and the Conservative Party are still “remarkably high”. But trust in journalists, by contrast, is way down. Many seem to believe that they are “misjudging the public mood”, particularly by attacking the Government over its handling of the early parts of the pandemic. Press and media coverage has certainly attracted a lot of flak, said Michael Deacon in The Daily Telegraph. But it’s hard for the industry to know how to respond, because the criticism is coming from two opposing groups. One is furious about what it sees as the media’s relentlessly negative and partisan attacks; the other believes the press has echoed the official…

Throwaway protection... To The Daily Telegraph My late father was a surgical supplier and medical wholesaler. An element of his business relied upon recycling, repair and refurbishment. In the 1950s and 1960s, laundering and sterilisation were an essential part of clinical and surgical administration. In the 1970s, imports of cheaper, poorer-quality equipment and protective clothing meant that a throwaway approach was adopted. The idea that garments, masks and equipment should be washable and made sterile was abandoned. Perhaps it is time to consider British production of more resilient, recyclable PPE. As the NHS has consumed more than 1,000 items of PPE per employee over the past few weeks, it may even prove economically worthwhile. Roy Wilde, Barford St Martin, Wiltshire ...is a false economy To The Sunday Times My company…

Roy is preoccupied by details of the explosion, and tells Phoebe he’s afraid Philip will be blamed instead of Blake. Lynda is still annoyed with Robert after the Easter Festival, but a visit from Lilian cheers her. At the hospital, Roy is told that Blake has discharged himself and was picked up by his “uncle” – Roy guesses it’s Philip. Philip invites Roy and Helen to dinner to take Kirsty’s mind off the police investigation. Roy asks about his ”nephew” Blake, and Philip gives an explanation; Roy apologises for doubting him, but the evening is spoiled. Kenton mock-interviews Shula ahead of the Bishop’s Advisory Panel, but it ends in an argument. On Tracy’s orders, Lee puts the cricket team through a punishing training session; Jolene does badly and Harrison objects.…

I like to think of this cheese toast as a revved-up version of Welsh rarebit, says Roopa Gulati. Serve it with a cumin-dusted poached egg if you’re extra peckish Chilli cheese toast Serves 6-8 8 slices of white bread 50g unsalted butter 175g mature Cheddar cheese, grated 1 small red onion, diced 1-2 green chillies, deseeded and finely chopped 2 tbsp chopped coriander 1 tsp ground roasted cumin seeds ½ tsp coarsely ground black pepper ½ tsp chilli powder for the tomato topping: 2 tbsp sunflower oil ½ tsp black mustard seeds 200g cherry tomatoes, halved pinch of caster sugar juice of ½ a lime • Heat the grill to high. Put the bread slices on a grill pan and toast on one side. Remove and butter the untoasted sides.…

Tracy bamboo parasol If you want to splash out on a statement piece for the garden, look to the East London Parasol Company. This parasol has a hand-carved wooden pole, and a shade hand-painted with gold ink. You can’t leave them outside, but they’re easy to carry and come with a bag (£399; eastlondonparasols.com). Multicoloured lantern outdoor string lights Great for some garden ambience – or for making you feel like you’re on holiday – this colourful string of lanterns is waterproof, and uses low-voltage LED bulbs for a longer battery life (£8; dunelm.com). Ornamental fire pit Made from rusted metal to give it an aged finish, this fire pit has an intricate, laser-cut woodland scene, which makes it attractive, even when not in use (£170; waitrosegarden.com). John Lewis Ellipse…

The price of oil rallied from its lows as concerns over storage capacity eased. Brent crude rose to $22.73/barrel midweek, and the US WTI benchmark escaped its plunge into negative prices, rising to $14.13/barrel. The FTSE 100 broke back through the 6,000 barrier. Barclays reported bumper profits in its investment bank. The transatlantic rally gathered strength after the US biotech giant Gilead reported positive results from a study of its Remdesivir drug. Hopes of a coronavirus treatment helped alleviate a 4.8% annualised fall in US GDP in the first quarter – the biggest quarterly decline since 2008. EU leaders agreed to draw up plans for a s1trn emergency fund to help rebuild battered economies. The credit-rating agency Fitch joined Moody’s in downgrading Italy’s rating to a single notch above “junk”,…

Jack Ma China’s richest man is famous for being “the charismatic English teacher” who created Alibaba – the “Amazon of the East” – from a tiny Hangzhou apartment in 1999, said Celia Hatton on BBC News. But Jack Ma is fast gaining new renown as a hero of the crisis. Alibaba has become “the driving force” behind an operation to ship life-saving medical supplies to more than 150 countries – many, such as those in Africa, “elbowed out of the global brawl” for Covid-19 kit. “One world, one fight!” Ma, worth $41bn, declared on Twitter. But his “bold venture into global philanthropy” raises new questions. Is Ma “the friendly face of China’s Communist Party”, or an independent player? And if the latter, will his profile “put him in the cross…

Ed Croft, the founder of the analytics platform Stockopedia, has made a list of UK shares that have gone up this year – and it makes for “fascinating reading”, said The Times. Here are some of the bullet points: ● There are 182 listed companies whose shares are in positive territory (up until 21 April) from a total of 1,738. So 10% of listed companies are doing quite well – not bad considering many forecasts suggest we’re entering a slump as bad as the Great Depression. ● Pharmas and those making hand sanitiser or disinfectant are, unsurprisingly, doing well. Cambridge-based Avacta, which is developing a Covid-19 antigen test, has seen shares triple. ● There is also evidence of a “clear flight to safety”. The best performer of all London-listed shares…

Across the country, people are keeping their spirits up by organising street discos and neighbourhood singalongs. On Banner Road, Bristol, residents recently lined up at two-metre markers painted on the road to do the Macarena. In Canton, west Cardiff, people are taking turns to plan and lead singalongs at 6:30pm on Fridays. While on Kingsmead Road in Streatham, London, there is a disco every Sunday morning. Last week, the final track was Nina Simone’s Feeling Good. A 12-year-old girl who was given a 3D printer for Christmas is now using it to make protective visors for health workers. Esther House, from Kent, initially made two visors for her pharmacist neighbours. She was then given three more printers, and has so far made 300 – following plans that have been made…

“Guided by the science.” The phrase has become “the mantra of the Government’s response to the coronavirus crisis”, repeated whenever its approach has been questioned, said Daniel Capurro in The Daily Telegraph. But it’s hard to know what “the science” actually means, and harder still to know who conveys it to ministers. Essentially, it comes from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), the body of experts convened by the Chief Scientific Adviser to advise during crises; however, Sage’s meetings were – until recently – shrouded in secrecy, its members largely unknown. One possible reason for that secrecy emerged last Friday, said The Guardian, when this paper revealed a list of those attending its crucial meetings in March. They included Dominic Cummings (right), the PM’s chief adviser. Sage is meant…

Public approval for the Government’s handling of the crisis has fallen to 52%; 40% of people disapprove. At the start of the lockdown in late March, the approval rating stood at 67%; it then fell to 59% in April. ORB/The Daily Telegraph Meanwhile, the proportion of Britons who say they fully back the police’s response to the pandemic has fallen to 36%, from 42% in mid-April. A further 33% say they are still supportive in general, but think the police have gone too far at times. YouGov/The Daily Telegraph 12% of Britons living with a partner in lockdown are re-evaluating their future together. Among 25- to 34-year-olds, that figure rises to 21%. Relate/The Independent…

Washington DC The disinfectant debacle: President Trump’s erratic handling of the Covid-19 emergency took a bizarre turn last week, when he suggested, at his daily televised briefing on the crisis, that patients might be injected with disinfectant or blasted with ultraviolet light. To the visible discomfort of Dr Deborah Birx, one of the White House’s chief advisers on the epidemic, Trump asked if the disease could be treated by “hitting the body” with a “very powerful light”, or by administering disinfectant “by injection inside or almost like a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs and does a tremendous number on the lungs.” Following a torrent of criticism from doctors and scientists – and warnings from disinfectant makers not to ingest or inject their products – Trump claimed,…

Sex dolls have become so realistic that, in Germany, discarded models are causing a nuisance to police. Last week, a couple in the Bavarian village of Gebenbach thought they had found a dead body when they saw a pair of legs poking out from a rug under a bridge. They called the police, who discovered that it was, in fact, a lifelike silicone sex doll. Its box was found nearby, complete with the owner’s address; he initially claimed ignorance, but eventually confessed to dumping it. He now faces a complaint for violating waste disposal laws. The mayor of the Texan city of Beaumont has been caught breaking her own lockdown rules – by paying a visit to a nail bar. Becky Ames was pictured at the salon weeks after closing…

GERMANY A Syrian killer brought to justice in Berlin Le Soir (Brussels) At last, one of Bashar al-Assad’s most notorious henchmen is facing justice, says Baudouin Loos. Anwar Raslan, a Syrian intelligence colonel, allegedly oversaw a detention unit in Damascus from April 2011 until September 2012, where Assad’s opponents were beaten, electrocuted and hung by their wrists. In 2014 – having defected to rebel forces and fled to Germany as a refugee – Raslan was spotted in Berlin by an exiled Syrian human rights lawyer he’d once interrogated. The lawyer spent years gathering evidence against him, and he was finally arrested last year. Now – thanks to German laws allowing offences which took place abroad to be prosecuted there – he stands accused of crimes against humanity, rape and 58…

Humans aren’t the only primates to use perfume to attract a mate. A scent which lemurs dab on their tails has been found to have a “fruity and floral” aroma that is appealing to the opposite sex. Male lemurs continually secrete scents from glands on their wrists and shoulders, mainly to mark out territory and warn off rivals. But during their breeding season, from October to February, they also rub scent onto their tails, which they then wave at females in a practice known as “stink flirting”. When researchers at the University of Tokyo analysed these scents, they found they changed during the breeding season, becoming more plentiful and containing a greater variety of aromatic compounds, including one that is found in pears. In Current Biology, the researchers claim that…

On 23 January, Wuhan became the first city in the world to go into lockdown. For 76 days it was sealed off, said Kyle Almond on CNN. Flights in and out of the sprawling metropolis were cancelled; train and bus services were suspended; roads were blocked. The streets were deserted, as Wuhan’s 11 million residents abided by a lockdown so strict that only one person in each home was allowed to go out every three days to buy essentials. Now, three weeks since the rules eased on 8 April, “things are starting to look different”. Children are playing in the parks; businesses, including the “wet markets” where wild animals are slaughtered, have reopened. But with reports that infection rates are going up in other parts of China, people are still…

“There have been some strange days in this job,” said Michael Deacon in The Daily Telegraph – “but never did I expect to find myself in an almost deserted House of Commons, being berated by a row of enormous Peter Bones”. The Tory MP’s face was glaring out from an “Orwellian” bank of TV screens, erected in the chamber to allow MPs to address the Commons remotely, from the safety of their homes, during the pandemic. To watch this surreal experiment in democracy via video link last Wednesday was “peculiar”, and “often disorienting”: one minute we in the gallery were “confronted, in startling close-up, by the scowling face of a backbench MP”; the next, we were “peering down at the chamber”, where Dominic Raab was deputising for a recovering Boris…

To The Times I was stunned by the suggestion that over-70s may be kept in isolation until a vaccine is developed. Even when you are fit and active, as are my wife and I, you become aware that the clock is running, and there is a strong desire to make the best of whatever time you have left. Each year becomes precious – and there’s a thought in the back of your mind that this summer may be the last you can fully enjoy. This proposal could only have come from politicians in their 40s and 50s, who have no idea of our perspective. Richard Martin, Portsmouth To The Times While sympathising with, and sharing, the wish of other locked-down elderly to meet their children and grandchildren, I fear that…

Fiona Apple: Fetch the Bolt Cutters Epic £10 Fiona Apple’s 1996 debut, Tidal, was packed with “dramatic, heart-on-sleeve” songs – and sold millions, said Will Hodgkinson in The Times. Yet the US singer-songwriter has always seemed like an “experimental artist who fell into pop by mistake”. Eight years since her last release, she is back with a “totally original, utterly compelling album that has a touch of Kate Bush’s poetic melancholy”, married with a “tougher, more American spirit” reminiscent of Tom Waits or Rickie Lee Jones. It’s a five-star triumph that “combines rawness, fantastic tunes and wild flights of the imagination” to brilliant effect, and “is like nothing else you will hear this year”. Apple’s singing is by turns “confiding, furious, growly, confrontational and ironic”, said Ludovic Hunter-Tilney in the…

Deborah Feldman was raised in a Hasidic Jewish sect in New York and escaped an arranged marriage after the birth of her child, said Brigid Delaney in The Observer. Her memoir, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots, inspired this four-part miniseries. Like Feldman, 19-year-old Esty (Shira Haas) escapes her ultra-religious community, and heads to Berlin – a city that represents a “chance at a new life”. It is a story of “rebellion and freedom” that unfolds like a “thriller”, said The Guardian, as Esty is chased across continents by her clueless husband (Amit Rahav), and his brooding cousin (Jeff Wilbusch). All this unfolds at a breathless pace, but the best scenes are those depicting life in the sect, said Camilla Long in The Sunday Times. Sets are filled…

Best books… Gloria Steinem The American writer, political activist and co-founder of Ms. magazine picks her favourite books. Her latest book is The Truth Will Set You Free, But First It Will Piss You Off! (Murdoch Books £10) Trauma and Recovery by Judith Herman, 1992 (Basic Books £15). From childhood abuse to wartime torture, the damage of trauma is shared. So is the process of healing. As Herman writes: “Remembering and telling the truth about terrible events are prerequisites for the restoration of the social order and for the healing of individual victims.” Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present by Frank M. Snowden, 2019 (Yale University Press £17). How will this pandemic affect our future? This book shows us horrors and positive results of the past,…

Armit Wines The fine wine specialist has free delivery to the UK mainland on orders over £100. And with every order placed through its website, it will donate £10 to The Drinks Trust’s Covid-19 fund (armitwines.co.uk). Berry Bros The legendary St James’s wine merchant is still delivering across the UK, though delivery times are slightly longer than usual (bbr.com). Wanderlust Wines The online shop, which sources wines from lesser-known producers, and specialises in sustainable and natural wines, is delivering across the UK during lockdown (wanderlustwine.co.uk). Beer 52 This craft beer subscription service puts together a pack of eight dark and light beers – or light only, if you prefer – and sends them to you monthly, with a magazine and snacks, for £24. It also takes individual orders at its…

Hotelier who hosted Mrs Thatcher and Arthur Scargill George Goring 1938-2020 George Goring, who has died aged 81, took over the family business in the 1960s, and proceeded to turn the Goring Hotel, in London’s Belgravia, into one of the finest in the capital. His German-born grandfather, Otto Richard Goring, had opened the hotel in 1910, with central heating and a bathroom for every bedroom – a world-first. But his father, Otto Gustave, had not kept up the standards. When he took the helm, George gave the hotel a much-needed refurbishment, said The Times – and a spark of eccentricity. A mischievous man, he reacted to being told that, owing to its calm atmosphere, the hotel had a “country house feel” by filling it with fluffy wooden sheep. Over the…

“At a time when the Government is refusing to lay out its plans to end the lockdown”, the private sector “offers a glimpse of how the economy might begin to open up”, said The Economist. Builders, manufacturers, retailers and fast-food joints are at the vanguard of those resuming operations – albeit on a limited scale. Burger King is reopening, some 15 KFCs are back in business, and the sandwich and salad chain Pret a Manger was last week “prêt à ouvrir” ten of its 400 branches. No one is downplaying the challenges of negotiating a completely changed landscape. Indeed, the debate currently splitting the Cabinet is being re-run in boardrooms across many sectors, said Joanna Bourke in the London Evening Standard. Although some construction companies and factories “appear keen to…

The week’s best shares Abbott Laboratories Investors Chronicle This US healthcare group’s strength lies in size and diversity – spanning nutrition, pharma and medical devices in 160 countries. This member of the S&P 500 is rapidly scaling up for three new Covid-19 tests. Buy. $95.94. Barclays The Daily Telegraph The Big Four listed London lenders have all suffered steep share falls. But Barclays’s investment banking arm is raising debt and equity for struggling firms, and improving returns by accelerating the shift to digital. Buy. 86.51p. Halma The Times This resilient safety and hazard detection specialist is performing well, with demand from the healthcare sector offsetting falls from corporate customers. Shares are pricey, but debt is low and profits rising. Buy. £21.13. Pennon Group The Sunday Telegraph Promoted to the FTSE…

Suspicion that people are letting some standards slip in lockdown has been confirmed by Unilever: it says worldwide sales of personal grooming products such as shampoo have fallen significantly in the past few weeks, and that it suspects sales of deodorant are going to be lower than normal too. On the other hand, its cleaning products such as Cif and Domestos are flying off the shelves. We all now know about Zoom meetings, Zoom quizzes and Zoom parties; but a growing number of people are also taking part in Silent Zooms – in which they use the video conferencing app to spend quiet time with people. Some meditate in “virtual monastic retreats”, while others are reading together in silence, or working.…

Stornoway, Outer Hebrides Island sanctuary: Scotland’s Western Isles may be the only area of the UK in which no one has died with Covid-19. As of Tuesday, only six of the archipelago’s 27,000 permanent residents had been diagnosed with the virus. With no new cases reported since 11 April, it appears an early decision to ban non-essential ferry travel to the islands may have paid off. It could also be that islanders, knowing the limitations of the local NHS services, were quicker than average to embrace lockdown. Greater Glasgow and Clyde is NHS Scotland’s worst hit region, with 513 deaths. Darwen, Lancashire Switching production: John Lewis is reopening its Herbert Parkinson textiles factory in Lancashire to produce 8,000 clinical gowns for NHS workers. The department store chain is bringing back…

The lockdown billionaire Eric Yuan is one of Silicon Valley’s newest-minted billionaires, said Francesca Steele in The Times. Since the coronavirus confined many of us to our homes, his video conferencing app, Zoom, has soared in popularity. It’s now being used for 200 million meetings and calls a day – sending its share price rocketing, and inflating Yuan’s fortune to about £4.6bn. Yet his office, at his home in San Jose, is relatively modest. “I don’t feel like a tycoon,” he says. “I’m just an engineer.” In any case, Yuan, who was born in China, is so focused on his business, he hasn’t much scope to enjoy his new-found riches. “I don’t exercise,” he says. “I sleep four hours a night. I just work all the time. Sometimes my wife…

Comparing the performance of health systems is a notoriously fraught business, much dependent on what measure is given most emphasis. When cost effectiveness, ease of access and fairness are the key criteria, the NHS gets good marks: the Commonwealth Fund even names it a world leader. Yet other studies don’t even include the NHS among the top 12. Germany is often ranked higher, and its strengths are well-documented: waiting times are supremely short – 81% say that they can get an appointment with their GP the very next day. (This helps explain why we go to the doctor only five times a year on average while the Germans go twice as often.) And with SHI, Germans can choose their specialist consultant; the number who have to wait more than two…

Space warriors: girding up for star wars David Ignatius The Washington Post The US space force has achieved lift-off, says David Ignatius. The new branch of the US armed forces launched for real a fortnight ago when “86 newly minted space warriors” graduated from the air force academy. The project has had more than its fair share of critics. They dismissed it as a fantasy or a presidential folly, and predicted a horrendous turf war among the military top brass. But things have gone relatively smoothly so far. The new space commander, Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond, wants to build a “lean, agile service”, made up of 10,000 to 15,000 people, many of them civilians. For a military infrastructure burdened by wildly expensive aircraft carriers and other legacy equipment, the…

Used electric car batteries are to have a second life powering objects in the home, reports The Times. Most car batteries have warranties of between five and eight years. After that, they can no longer be used in vehicles, although they may still retain up to 90% of their original capacity. Disposing of the batteries is costly; it can be damaging to the environment, and is a waste of the valuable elements, including lithium and cobalt, batteries contain. Now, in a joint initiative between Honda and the Italian energy infrastructure company Snam, thousands of batteries are to be converted into electricity storage units, to help homes and businesses use power more efficiently. The batteries could, for example, store energy from rooftop solar panels, or be used by consumers who are…

Michel Barnier returned to the Brexit negotiating table last week having fully recovered from his brush with Covid-19, but the talks he is leading with the UK “are in much less good health”, said Jim Brunsden in the FT. Britain resumed negotiations – now being conducted by video – with a bald statement that it would not seek to extend the transition period beyond the end of the year. Barnier said that, by taking this stance while refusing “to commit seriously on a number of fundamental points”, the UK was effectively pushing the talks to the edge of no-deal. There is, for now, no prospect of a breakthrough. The EU wants “an overarching” relationship overseen by its own institutions, enforcing its rules on the labour market, competition and environmental laws;…

“The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for.” Columnist Maureen Dowd, quoted in The Guardian “When you mix politics and science, you get politics.” Historian John M. Barry, quoted on PhillyVoice.com “No one really listens to anyone else, and if you try it for a while you’ll see why.” US journalist Mignon McLaughlin, quoted in Forbes “We are pathetically eager to believe that if human affairs are managed right, nothing unpleasant need happen to anyone.” Max Hastings in The Times “You have to go to work every day as if it were a party.” Derek Jarman, quoted in The Independent “Just went outside and found a scallywag siphoning petrol into my car.” James Coney, The Times’s money expert, on the oil…

Fans of TV crime thrillers are spoilt for choice online. If you have ploughed through all the seasons of Breaking Bad, Line of Duty and Killing Eve, try one of these. Gangs of London A visceral new series about a powerful London crime family searching for the killers of their patriarch, while struggling to maintain control of the city’s criminal underworld. It explores themes including race, class and poverty – and contains some stylish, but very brutal, fight scenes. On Sky Atlantic. Money Heist Now in its fourth series, this Spanish-language thriller has been a global smash hit for Netflix. Following a group of bank robbers as they attempt to pull off the greatest heist in Spanish history – infiltrating the Royal Mint in order to print and steal s2.4bn…

“For many of us in self-isolation, it can feel like the coronavirus has put the world on hold” as we wait out our “imprisonment”, said David Robson in The Observer. However, growing numbers of people are using the time productively, exploiting the educational resources available on the internet to learn new skills and explore new fields. Online self-education platforms such as edX, FutureLearn and Coursera offer a large range of “massive open online courses” – Moocs – open to all, and free or nearly free. There’s some wonderful mind-expanding stuff out there: the University of Tokyo’s From the Big Bang to Dark Energy or Princeton’s Buddhism and Modern Psychology, both via Coursera; Professor James Engell’s Harvard rhetoric course, via edX; or the University of East Anglia’s An Introduction to Screenwriting,…

Thrift at home, waste outside The lockdown appears to have had at least one positive effect on British eating habits, said Rebecca Smithers in The Guardian: we seem to be throwing less food away. There were fears that the surge in panic buying would lead to vast quantities of waste, but according to a recent survey by environmental charity Hubbub, 48% of us are throwing away less food than before, and only 5% are throwing away more. Many people say they are planning meals more carefully and getting better at using up leftovers. Yet outside the home, the opposite may be true, said Ben Chapman in The Independent. Normally, around 35% of the food we eat is in restaurants, cafés and school canteens. The disappearance of this market has created…

Ocado: profiteering? After calling for evidence last month, the Competition and Markets Authority reports it has received 21,000 “complaints about unfair price rises” and has written to 187 companies to follow up, said Andrew Ellson in The Times. The watchdog was coy about naming offenders. Not so Ocado shoppers, who have sensationally accused the wholesome online grocer of “profiteering”, after an analysis showed its prices have “jumped by up to 16% during the lockdown”. According to leaked industry data, Ocado removed more than 11,000 promotions and increased the price of 918 products between 4 March and 8 April – “four times more than Tesco”. Ocado disputes the findings – pointing out that it is a “price follower”, promising to match Tesco’s prices. But “rivals and MPs” have “demanded government…

The liberating power of Covid-19 Editorial The Economist When the Indonesian volcano Mount Tambora erupted in 1815, dust and ash blotted out the Sun – causing failed harvests, famine and disease globally, says The Economist. “Against this dismal backdrop”, the inventor Karl von Drais dreamt up the first prototype bicycle “to replace equine locomotion”. Companies should draw inspiration from that now. This pandemic has the power to liberate firms “to experiment with radical new ideas”. We’re already seeing big changes. “Usually prickly pharmaceutical rivals are working arm in arm”; and big companies that hitherto had favoured the advice of “elite consultancies” are engaging with customers as never before. “But the defining feature of the latest innovation is breakneck speed.” Confronted with an uncertain new landscape, “companies are being forced to…

● Chasing the tail So-called “Black Swan” crisis-hunting hedge funds “enjoyed blowout returns in March”, said the FT. Their strategy “of waiting years for markets to crumple” paid off in spades. Overall, funds seeking to profit from collapses have gained 57.2% in 2020, but some have done much better. Standouts include New York-based Capstone (up 350%) and London’s 36 South Capital Advisors, whose $2bn flagship fund is up more than 130%. But probably the biggest winner is Mark Spitznagel’s Universa Investments, which boasts that its “tail risk strategy” – designed to profit from highly unusual swings in asset prices – has made an extraordinary 4,000% for its investors this year. Spitznagel, who also runs a cheese farm in Michigan, expects to continue cleaning up, said Bloomberg. “Looking ahead, the world…