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Colonel Tom Moore, who received a knighthood, in recognition of his fundraising efforts. Sir Tom (formerly Captain Tom) said he was “absolutely overwhelmed” by the honour. Soap fans, with news that EastEnders and Coronation Street will resume filming in June. Stars will have to do their own hair and make-up, however, and some older actors may not appear. Sir James Dyson, who topped The Sunday Times UK rich list for the first time, with an estimated £16.2bn fortune. His wealth has increased, by £3.6bn, but he was also helped by the Hinduja brothers losing £6bn, causing them to drop to second place.…

MPs passed the second reading of the Government’s post-Brexit immigration bill on Monday, despite calls for it to be amended in light of the coronavirus. The bill would repeal EU freedom of movement, and introduce an “Australian-style points system” for immigrants. It passed by 351 to 252 votes, though critics had pointed out that the £25,600 salary threshold for new immigrants would exclude many of the carers and other key workers who have been crucial during the crisis.…

Berlin Debt deal: Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron have agreed a s500bn relief package for the EU countries and economic sectors most affected by the pandemic. The money would be borrowed on the financial markets, and dispersed in the form of grants. Liability for the debt would be added to the EU budget, to which all members contribute in varying amounts. If the Franco-German plan is approved by the rest of the EU27, it will mark a major breakthrough in a crisis that has threatened to rip the bloc apart (see page 12). But by creating a form of common debt, the deal breaks with decades of German economic orthodoxy – and it is facing stiff opposition from other northern members. Paris Rwandan held: A Rwandan businessman accused of funding…

1* Like a Girl by Melissa Jefferson, Warren “Oak” Felder and Sean Douglas, performed by Lizzo 2 Awoo (featuring Betta Lemme) by Tucker Raymond Halpern, Sophie Hawley-Weld and Elizabeth Tonya Lemme, performed by Sofi Tukker 3 Smalltown Boy, written and performed by Bronski Beat 4 you should see me in a crown by Billie Eilish O’Connell and Finneas O’Connell, performed by Billie Eilish 5 I Put a Spell On You by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Herb Slotkin, performed by Nina Simone 6 The Sound of Silence by Paul Simon, performed by Simon & Garfunkel 7 Vogue by Madonna and Shep Pettibone, performed by Madonna 8 Samhradh Samhradh, traditional, arranged by The Gloaming, performed by The Gloaming Book: Your Silence Will Not Protect You by Audre Lorde Luxury: an 18th-birthday necklace…

“Neom is all about things that are necessarily future-oriented and visionary,” says its chief executive, Nadhmi al-Nasr. “So we are talking about technology that is cutting-edge and beyond – and in some cases still in development and maybe theoretical.” Neom aims to set new standards of sustainability. Solar-powered desalination plants would provide carbon-free freshwater for domestic use and irrigation; vertical hydroponic farms would feed the population; cloud-seeding would make it rain in the desert. The city itself sounds like a sci-fi utopia, or dystopia. Classes would be taught by holographic teachers. Drones would be used to ferry workers and groceries around. Robotic maids would clean people’s homes. Robots (which would outnumber humans) would also provide entertainment: plans include a Jurassic Park- style island of robot reptiles, and “robo-cage fights”, pitting…

SLOVAKIA A small nation with a big success story The Atlantic (New York) When the history of the pandemic is written, Slovakia will stand out as a “success story”, says Yasmeen Serhan. A relatively poor country that lacks a strong healthcare system, it has nevertheless achieved the lowest per capita death rate in Europe, with new infections in the single digits. It’s no coincidence: within days of the first confirmed cases – and far earlier than many other European countries – the government sealed borders, and shut down schools and restaurants. Face masks were made mandatory in public places, and Slovakia’s politicians made a point of leading from the front. When a new government took office in March following the previous month’s elections, everyone at the swearing-in ceremony wore a…

There was a record drop in the number of people seeking A&E care in the first few weeks of the lockdown, official figures have confirmed. In April, 916,581 people in England attended any kind of A&E unit – the fewest since records began in 2010, and 57% less than in April last year. The number admitted to hospital after attending A&E was also down 39%. While the decline could be partly attributed to people being less active, and suffering fewer accidents, doctors are concerned that anxiety about contracting coronavirus – and, perhaps, burdening the NHS – may have discouraged some people with serious illnesses from seeking help. They have warned that this could be creating a “timebomb” of untreated illness that will add to the pressure on the NHS as…

“Politics does not reward the correction of mistakes, given that correcting a mistake also entails admitting to having made one.” Lionel Shriver in The Spectator “The solution to the mystery is always inferior to the mystery itself.” Jorge Luis Borges, quoted in Science magazine “Shyness is just egoism out of its depth.” Penelope Keith, quoted in The Paris Review “Be fond of the man who jests at his scars, if you like; but never believe he is being on the level with you.” Pamela Hansford Johnson, quoted in Forbes “As always, the British especially shudder at the latest American vulgarity, and then they embrace it two years later.” Alistair Cooke, quoted in the Daily Mail “There is no path; the path is made by walking.” Spanish poet Antonio Machado quoted…

The Trick by William Leith Bloomsbury 224pp £20 The Week Bookshop £15.99 In this “entertaining” book, the journalist William Leith ponders the age-old question of why some people get rich, and others never manage it, said Martha Gill in The Times. It is composed of two main strands. In one, Leith revisits his interviews with wealthy people – among them Jordan Belfort, the “Wolf of Wall Street” (portrayed right), and the financier and writer Nassim Nicholas Taleb – and reveals what they told him about making money. In the other, he reflects on his own, far less successful attempts to become rich. From his interviewees, Leith gleans some interesting nuggets: according to one who makes £1m a year betting on horses, the key to wealth is to work “relentlessly” on…

As the coronavirus death toll continues to rise, the question of whether you can pop into an art gallery may seem “trivial”, said Alastair Sooke in The Daily Telegraph. Yet museums could certainly be opened without exposing visitors to unnecessary risk. Over the past few weeks, museums across Europe have been cautiously reopening their doors. In Germany, extra safety precautions have been imposed – such as compulsory mask-wearing – in order to guarantee visitors’ safety. Even in Italy, galleries have opened their doors. We should be doing the same: the British public has proved itself adept at social distancing in other respects. “If this nation of queuers is willing to stand in line safely at the threshold of a supermarket, then why not outside the National Gallery?” Besides, we might…

Theatres are in crisis owing to the lockdown. The Old Vic – which receives no government funding – warned last week that it is only hanging on by a thread. But even so, there as elsewhere, the show goes on. Every Thursday, via YouTube, The Old Vic has been showing one of the monologues from its 2018 series celebrating the NHS; it has commissioned a new monologue by Booker Prize-winner Bernardine Evaristo to mark the current moment, to be released on 5 July (oldvictheatre.com). The NHS is a beneficiary of money raised by Soho Theatre’s sellout production of the original Fleabag one-woman show, performed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and now available to rent online (ondemand. sohotheatre.com). Also on Thursdays, at 7pm, the National Theatre is streaming past NT Live hits via…

Serves 4-6 2 shallots, peeled and finely diced half a leek, thoroughly cleaned and finely chopped half a fennel, finely diced 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped 10 sprigs of thyme, leaves only, finely chopped 50ml olive oil 500g arborio rice zest and juice of one lemon 300ml white wine 1 litre vegetable stock sea salt 100g hazelnuts (skinless is better) 10-12 asparagus spears 150g fresh peas, podded weight (or frozen peas) 125g butter, cut into cubes 125g Berkswell cheese (or Pecorino) a handful of wild garlic leaves (or use herbs such as chives, parsley, tarragon, dill or a mixture), finely chopped • Heat the oil in a wide saucepan over a medium heat, then add the shallots, leek, fennel, garlic, thyme and season with a pinch of…

Moderna/Sanofi: searching for a vaccine Stock markets everywhere got off to a roaring start this week after the US drugmaker Moderna revealed “promising early results for its coronavirus vaccine candidate”, said DealBook in The New York Times. Shares in the biotech jumped by 29%. Moderna’s good tidings have succeeded in “drumming up a media cyclone of excitement”, said Arianne Cohen on FastCompany.com. But what does the breakthrough actually mean? Sadly, probably “not as much as you hope”. Phase 1 of the project succeeded in producing “neutralising antibody levels similar to those found in recovering Covid-19 patients” in lab tests. Great news! “But it doesn’t mean that the vaccine will work” – its “efficacy” at protecting real humans will only be tested in Phase 2 and 3 trials this summer.…

A pivotal moment for Europe Editorial Financial Times The Franco-German proposal for a s500bn recovery fund to help repair the economic damage from the pandemic is an “important breakthrough” in the quest for greater EU solidarity, says the FT. “Berlin has long resisted French ambitions for more fiscal burden-sharing” and Angela Merkel’s support for “large transfers to hard-hit regions” – financed by commonly issued EU debt – is a concession “commensurate with the gravity of the crisis”. Believers in a politically united Europe have long yearned for “an irrevocable act of fiscal integration” – equivalent to the agreement made by Alexander Hamilton and other US founding fathers that the federal authorities should assume the debts of individual states. This deal isn’t quite a “Hamiltonian moment” – it doesn’t create a…

There were “no fans and no caddies, but there were men in shorts”. After a nine-week drought, golf has returned to TV, said Rick Broadbent in The Times. Sunday’s charity match in Florida featured Dustin Johnson, Matthew Wolff, Rickie Fowler and our own Rory McIlroy. It wasn’t what you’d call a high-pressure game; but if the Northern Irish golfer didn’t exactly have “the weight of the sports world on his shoulders, at least he carried his own bag”. Everyone on site had had a test for Covid-19 or a temperature check; PPE was handed out to staff whenever a situation arose where social distancing couldn’t be enforced. And on 11 June the PGA Tour is scheduled to make its return at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Texas. With hundreds of…

Controversy of the week The coming storm “I blame this blasted weather,” said Daniel Hannan in The Sunday Telegraph. “It lulls us into thinking that we are passing through a sunlit dreamtime, a holiday from reality after which things will get back to normal.” But they won’t. “Our problems are only just starting.” The British economy has collapsed. The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, warned this week that the UK is facing a recession “the likes of which we haven’t seen” before. A new generation is about to learn “what mass unemployment feels like”: claims for out-of-work benefits rose by 856,000 between March and April. We have taken on debt at a rate not seen since 1945. “The sums we are borrowing, hour by hour, will condemn us to decades of tax…

Neil Gaiman, who apologised to the people of Skye for breaking lockdown rules by travelling to his second home there. The writer was visited by police after describing in his blog his 11,000-mile journey from New Zealand. He said he and his wife had “needed to give each other some space”, so he had moved to the UK. He said he’d been “foolish”, and urged others not to follow his lead. Publicans, who may be forced to pour away as much as 70 million pints of beer. Beer doesn’t keep for long, and with reports that pubs won’t reopen before 4 July, at the earliest, pub owners are either having to pour it away, or find other uses for it (some have donated beer to be used as feed for…

41% of Britons expect their financial situation to get worse over the next 12 months. However, 67% say that post-pandemic Britain will be a “kind” country, whereas only 39% think it was kind before. ONS/The Daily Telegraph 61% of the British public think care workers and nurses should be exempt from a salary threshold in a new immigration system. ICM/The Daily Telegraph Boris Johnson’s approval rating has dropped to -3%, from +42% on 26 March. It is the first time the figure has been negative (meaning more people disapprove of his performance than approve) since late March. 56% say they are not clear who they’re allowed to meet outside their household. Opinium/The Observer…

Washington DC Trump self-medicates: President Trump has revealed that he is taking the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a defence against Covid-19, even though the US Food and Drug Administration has warned there is no basis for thinking it an effective treatment, and that it can cause abnormal heart rhythms and a rapid heart rate. Trump, however, said that he’d been taking it for the past couple of weeks “because I think it’s good, I heard a lot of good stories”. He has even dismissed a recent US study that indicated the drug was ineffective as a “Trump enemy statement”. The president began touting the drug as a potential cure back in March; and last week Rick Bright, the ex-director of a key federal vaccines agency, testified to Congress that he…

“I predict by next summer a kind of lockdown nostalgia will have emerged among those who suffered little more than boredom. Ostalgie is the sentimental attachment to aspects of East German life before the Berlin Wall fell, like Trabant cars or salty pickles. The Stasi is forgotten: people recall only a simpler time. Already people are getting wistful about empty streets and birdsong. As we begin the economic fight of our lifetimes, we will look back with lockstalgia on the cocoon days of banana bread and Zoom family quizzes. Nostalgia is memory minus complexity.” Janice Turner in The Times…

The state of Britain needs a total clean-up Nick Timothy The Daily Telegraph At least Covid-19 has done one good thing, says Nick Timothy: it has exposed, in glorious Technicolor, how utterly dysfunctional is the constitution of the British state. Across the system, confusion reigns. The UK’s Prime Minister may unveil plans for exiting lock-down, yet he has no power over schools outside England, and no say in the health systems of Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. At every level, accountability and responsibility “are misaligned” and we end up with local governments “that cannot govern, mayors with so few powers that their time is spent lobbying ministers, and devolved governments that blame policy failures on England”. We have the First Minister of Scotland saying she’ll defy the PM’s orders; Liverpool’s…

The trend-setting early humans The first humans settled in Europe thousands of years earlier than was previously thought – and when they arrived, it seems they influenced local fashions. In 2015, researchers excavating a cave in central Bulgaria found various Upper Palaeolithic items, including a tooth, fossilised bone fragments, tools and jewellery. The inhabitants of the caves were presumed to be Neanderthals, but five years on, the researchers say they have established that the remains were in fact those of Homo sapiens – and they are between 43,000 and 46,000 years old. Until now, it had been believed that the first human migrations to Europe occurred 40,000 years ago. “We are talking about the oldest modern humans in Europe,” said Prof Jean-Jacques Hublin of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary…

Photos of David Beckham looking distinctly sparse up top have reawakened interest in the mysterious case of his vanishing – and reappearing – hair. Only a year ago, Beckham suddenly developed a thatch that was much darker and thicker than before. Was it a hair transplant? Experts say that’s unlikely (transplants usually last 15 years). More likely he had started using hair-thickening fibres, which must be applied daily, said hair consultant Spencer Stevenson. “You sprinkle them onto your scalp and they use an electrostatic charge to cling to your hair roots. They are very popular in Hollywood.” Anna Wintour’s former consigliere at Vogue has published a memoir lifting the lid on what it’s like to work for the fashion queen. It is not flattering. André Leon Talley describes Wintour (who…

The perils of home tests To The Guardian I have just carried out the self-administered Imperial College/NHS/Ipsos Mori Covid-19 home test. I assume I was invited to participate as the result of a random selection. I was required to take a swab from my tonsils, and (using the same swab) from well inside my nostrils. The instructions for the tonsil swab warned that “this may be uncomfortable, and you may feel like gagging”. And yes, it was uncomfortable and I did gag. Which worries me. I fear I did not take the swab properly, so should my result be declared “negative”, I have no confidence that this would be valid. Do others share the same concern? How reliable are the survey results likely to be? If there are an unknown…

Natalya Romaniw: Arion – Voyage of a Slavic Soul Orchid Classics £13.50 The outstanding young Welsh soprano Natalya Romaniw was singing – “stunningly” – the role of Puccini’s Madam Butterfly at ENO when the lockdown cut the run short, said Fiona Maddocks in The Observer. Opera buffs were also looking forward to seeing her as Dvorák’s Rusalka at Garsington this summer. That’s off the cards, but they can console themselves with her debut disc (dedicated to her Ukrainian grandfather), a celebration of Slavic song which explores the work of the Russians Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Rachmaninov, and the Czechs Dvorák, Janácek and Novák. Romaniw’s voice suits the material perfectly – its “timbre flecked and speckled with character and emotion”. Seconds into the first Rimsky-Korsakov song, you’re “in her grip – seduced,…

Created by Álex Pina (Money Heist), Netflix’s new Ibiza-set crime caper White Lines has been hyped as the hit of the summer, and it’s “massive fun”, said Lucy Mangan in The Guardian. It kicks off with the discovery of the corpse of Axel Collins (Tom Rhys Harries), a DJ from Manchester who disappeared on the island 20 years ago. His sister (Laura Haddock) flies out to investigate, reconnecting with Axel’s friend Marcus (Daniel Mays), himself a DJ and smalltime drug dealer, and tangling with the island’s powerful, club-owning Calafat family. Set to a wildly nostalgic 1990s soundtrack, the series is violent, sex-saturated and full of “gleeful absurdity”. Mays’s first scene, involving an inflatable banana full of cocaine, is “hilarious”, said Michael Hogan in The Daily Telegraph, and Laurence Fox (“taking…

Best books… Richard Ford The Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer, best known for his Frank Bascombe novels, chooses his five favourite books. His latest collection of short stories, Sorry for Your Trouble (Bloomsbury £16.99), is out now The Moviegoer by Walker Percy, 1961 (Methuen £10.99). The best New Orleans novel there is; very Southern, but as far from Faulkner as imaginable. Percy’s 1962 National Book Award winner is a tone perfect, letter perfect evocation of Henry James’s injunction that no themes are so human as those that reflect – out of the confusion of life – the close connection of bliss and bale. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry. The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty, 1980 (Mariner Books $17.99). Welty is the other great Mississippi genius. Her sensate vocabulary, matched to her limitless…

The best… stylish kitchenware Boska Almond Blossom Van Gogh cheese knives The four cheese knives in this set are decorated with van Gogh’s famous almond blossoms. The handles are ceramic, while the blades are stainless steel (£30; selfridges.com). Bodum Mocca Siphon vacuum coffee maker Invented by Peter Bodum in 1956, this clever coffee maker has since acquired its own gas burner, so you can use it outdoors or indoors. The idea is that the vacuum brewer makes for more flavourful coffee (£133; selfridges.com). Marcato Atlas 150 pasta maker With a design first used in 1965, this classic pasta maker can make anything from lasagne sheets to fettuccine. It’s easy to use and, at just 20cm x 21cm, it doesn’t take up too much space on your counter (£74; boroughkitchen.com). Smeg…

Equity markets pushed higher – boosted by vaccine hopes and prospects of economic recovery as countries lift lock-downs. But as UK jobless claims soared at a record rate to more than two million, Chancellor Rishi Sunak warned that the economy could suffer permanent scarring – or, at the very least, a period of mass unemployment. A further 7.5 million workers are currently relying on the state to pay their wages via the extended furlough scheme. The World Bank warned that the virus would push 60 million people globally into poverty. The oil price remained stable, with Brent crude at around $35/barrel. There was speculation on Wall Street that the Fed could cut interest rates below zero for the first time. In Britain, inflation as measured on the CPI fell from…

● Tick vs. stick Few people now expect a V-shaped economic recovery, said Andrew Ross Sorkin in The New York Times. But the concept of “a more prolonged U-shaped recovery is also falling out of favour”. Instead, the challenge is on to depict what “a steep initial fall” followed “by a long drawn-out recovery over a year or more” might look like. Nike’s “swoosh” logo has become the “go-to descriptor” for many. Deutsche Bank’s chief economist has even suggested that a “swoosh recovery” is appearing in data on restaurant bookings. Others prefer what Americans call a “check mark” and the British call a “tick”. But the CFA Institute, which represents some 13,000 investment professionals, “uniquely positioned to opine what the economic recovery might look like”, has gone for a hockey…

Jamie Dimon The billionaire boss of “America’s largest bank”, JPMorgan Chase, has called on business and government to create a more “inclusive economy” as the US recovers. He thinks the crisis should be used as a catalyst to create opportunity “for dramatically more people, especially those who have been left behind for too long”. Nice words, says The Times. Especially given speculation that Dimon, 64, “has his eyes on the White House” further down the line. Still, his “increasingly regular proclamations on social issues” are somewhat at odds with another achievement. For five years on the trot, he has garnered the title of “Wall Street’s best-paid boss”, taking home $31.5m last year. It might well be said that “we don’t need lessons on inequality from Dimon”. Masayoshi Son The Japanese…

The Archers is about to resume on Radio 4 – but for the next few weeks, the residents of Ambridge will not be talking to each other. Instead, they will share their private thoughts with the listening public in lengthy soliloquies, the BBC has revealed. With the cast in lockdown, producers decided it was too difficult to record group scenes, so each episode will have only a couple of characters, each recounting the day’s events. It used to be a man’s job, but now women account for half of the people training to be butlers, up from just 10% in 2015, according to the British Butler Institute. The institute’s principal, Gary Williams, says that the ITV series Downton Abbey has led to an increasing demand for home help, particularly from…

The influential Public Accounts Committee has published a highly critical report concluding that the HS2 project has gone “badly off course, and is now estimated to cost up to £88bn, significantly more than the original budget of £55.7bn”. The all-party parliamentary committee accuses officials at the Department for Transport of knowing that the project was running over budget for at least eight months before the problems were disclosed, and warned that further delays and cost increases could not be ruled out. The report comes three months after the Prime Minister sought to end uncertainty over HS2 by saying it would go ahead.…

Loch Lomond Tourist hotspot: Police reiterated warnings that people should stay away from Loch Lomond last week, after the area was revealed to have had the highest number of lockdown breaches in Scotland. In the 30 days to 6 May, 2,291 visitors were ordered to go home. Many of them are believed to have arrived from Glasgow, which is just 25 miles away by road. With driving long distances to beauty spots still forbidden in Scotland, police have also had to warn people away from popular coastal areas near the big cities. Meanwhile, dozens of business leaders representing hotels and restaurants in the Highlands and Islands signed a letter to the First Minister last week, warning that if the government heeds calls to extend the lockdown there beyond the rest…

Helping the rich in a crisis Lucy Challenger’s job is finding household staff for the global super-rich. And when, during the first part of the lockdown, none of their cooks, housekeepers, butlers and nannies could come to work, and they suddenly had to look after their homes themselves, it was to her that they turned. “People were wanting to know – literally – how to do the laundry,” she told Hilary Rose in The Times. “They’d never used a washing machine. To you and me, maybe this is common sense, but if you’ve never had to do it before, it’s a bizarre new world of skills.” A client in Chelsea rang her to ask how to change a loo roll. Another was in tears because she’d used the wrong cleaning…

Armed police swooped on a park in Cardiff after a cloaked man dressed as a medieval knight was seen wielding a 3ft sword. Lennon Thomas, 20, was confronted at gunpoint and ordered to put the weapon down, before explaining that he was simply trying out a costume he uses for his hobby of fantasy role-play. Thomas apologised for a “lapse in judgement”, saying: “Perhaps it was a little stupid of me to bring the sword, as from a distance it does look realistic.” He added: “Life is a lot more fun when you don’t care how weird you are.” A South Korean football club has had to apologise after the “mannequins” it used as substitute fans while playing behind closed doors turned out to be sex dolls.FC Seoul dotted its…

INDIA How the crisis could boost the subcontinent The Statesman (Calcutta) As many as 400 million Indians could lose their livelihoods in the aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis as economic growth shrinks to zero, says Sitaram Sharma. Yet experts predict that in the longer term, India could emerge an economic winner. And that’s because global supply lines are sure to shift as nations become less and less inclined to trust their manufacturing to China. There is now worldwide rage against Beijing over the way it tried to conceal the true nature of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan – it didn’t even let it be known the disease could be passed from human to human – so denying the rest of the world a chance to prepare for it. America, in…

An invasive marine creature has adapted to tough Europe conditions by preying on its own young, a study has revealed. Warty comb jellies are jellyfish-like animals that are native to North America, but that in recent decades have spread to Europe. European waters tend to be colder and less nutrient-rich than north Atlantic ones, and scientists have long wondered what has enabled the creatures – whose presence has severely affected local fish stocks – to flourish there. Now they think they know the answer: cannibalism. In late summer, shortly before the availability of their normal prey slumps, adult comb jellies produce an enormous volume, or “bloom”, of larvae. By incubating adults and some of these larval jellies in a lab, scientists were able to prove that the juveniles are devoured…

Care homes: a scandal of neglect “Few governments can claim to have handled the pandemic flawlessly,” said The Times. They have had to grapple with a new disease on the basis of imperfect information – and inevitably, many mistakes have been made. Polls suggest that most British voters are ready to accept “early missteps”. But Boris Johnson “is now in danger of forfeiting this goodwill, not so much because of mistakes that have been made, but because of the Government’s refusal to admit to them”. Most obvious is the disaster unfurling in our care homes, where the “evidence suggests ministers were too slow to recognise the risks and too quick to discharge vulnerable patients from hospitals to the care system without testing for Covid-19”. According to official figures, at…

To The Daily Telegraph Supermarket staff are exposed to thousands of customers every day. At our local Waitrose I regularly thank the staff for their efforts and enquire about casualty rates from Covid. None reported to date. I wish our teachers were as willing to serve rather than being herded by their unions into a policy of non-cooperation. Michael Willis, Stirling To The Times Today the Government says I can meet one friend in an open, public space, as long as we remain two metres apart. On 1 June, the Government would like three of my grandchildren to meet up to 15 of their friends, and at least one adult, in an environment where they are highly unlikely to remain two metres apart, given the age of the children and…

The Motion of the Body Through Space by Lionel Shriver The Borough Press 352pp £16.99 The Week Bookshop £12.99 “Lionel Shriver’s scabrously funny 15th novel presents a dyspeptic view of people in thrall to exercise,” said Alfred Hickling in The Guardian. Serenata is a 60-year-old voice-over artist from upstate New York whose devotion to solitary jogging has left her with “ruined knees”. To make matters worse, her “formerly sedentary” husband, Remington, suddenly catches the fitness bug and, under the “rather-too-intensive guidance” of his young fitness trainer, Bambi Buffer, enrols for a super-triathlon. Serenata is “appalled” by her husband’s conversion. The novel also offers “sharp, contrarian volleys on race and political correctness”, said Nick Curtis in the London Evening Standard. Remington loses his job after a “stupid and combative black woman”…

It is often said that we’re in a golden era for television drama, but there are plenty of gems from the past to enjoy, too. Here are some classic British TV dramas currently available to stream: Our Friends in the North This superb nine-part BBC series follows the lives of four Geordie friends from their youth in the 1960s to middle age, and charts the demise of the old Labour movement in the process. First screened in 1996, it stars Daniel Craig and Christopher Eccleston, among others. On BritBox. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Carried by Alec Guinness’s hypnotic performance as spymaster George Smiley, the BBC’s 1979 adaptation of John le Carré’s espionage novel is still unmatched in its evocation of the cynical Cold War era. On Amazon Prime. Brideshead Revisited…

How to eat out, how to eat in Will restaurants survive? Restaurants that survived being in “enforced hibernation” during the lockdown face further challenges when it ends, says Jay Rayner in The Observer: it won’t be cheap for them to reopen their doors: wage bills will return; kitchens will need to be restocked. But will they have enough customers to cover those costs? The optimistic view is that after a lengthy lockdown, “everyone” will be desperate to return to normal life. Yet many restaurateurs fear the opposite: that a lingering fear of crowded spaces (and, perhaps, a newly discovered love of home cooking) will result in people continuing to stay at home. But even if the punters do come, social distancing measures are likely to restrict how many diners any…

Enigmatic German musician who changed the face of pop Florian Schneider 1947-2020 Florian Schneider, who has died aged 73, was the co-founder of Kraftwerk – one of the most important bands in the history of pop music. At the vanguard of the experimental West German “Krautrock” movement, Kraftwerk was founded in 1970, and went on to use some of the earliest synthesisers to produce pure electronic sounds – presaging “a shift from the age of analogue instruments, blues rhythms and melodic harmony to synthetic mechanised grooves”, said Neil McCormick in The Daily Telegraph. Kraftwerk influenced everyone from David Bowie (whose 1977 album “Heroes” has a track called V-2 Schneider), Ultravox and Gary Numan to the hip-hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa; by the end of the 1980s, “a whole new dance scene…

EasyJet could have done without more bad news, said James Sillars on Sky News. But now the discount airline – “currently mired by the grounding of flights and a leadership tussle led by its founder” – has fallen victim to a cyberattack at the hands of what it describes as a “highly sophisticated” gang of hackers. The data breach exposed the email addresses and travel details of nine million passengers – along with the credit card details of 2,208 customers. The airline “stressed there was no evidence that data had been misused by criminals”. But customers could be forgiven for wondering why it took them so long to come clean about an attack apparently first discovered in late January. Directors have their hands full dealing with easyJet’s “toddler king” founder,…

Some of Britain’s most successful money managers have gone on a “buying spree” following the market plunge “to reposition their investments for new trends”, said Holly Thomas in The Sunday Times. Who’s doing what? Richard Buxton, Merian Global Investors Normally known for his “patient” long-term style, and for keeping “trading to a minimum”, Buxton has used the drop in valuations to top up holdings in Barclays and Lloyds, and has made his first new purchase in more than a year. His chosen stock? The builder Taylor Wimpey – he believes that the housebuilding sector “will be part of a V-shaped recovery alongside retail”. Jim Leaviss, M&G Global Macro Bond Fund Leaviss has initiated a “huge shift” from gilts to investment-grade corporate bonds – up from 3% of the fund to…

The week’s best shares AA The Times Motoring may be in the doldrums but the roadside recovery group is increasing membership, raising profits and improving cashflow. Debt has reduced to £2.6bn, leaving an attractive “rock bottom” valuation. Buy. 26p. Games Workshop The Daily Telegraph The fantasy figurines and board games specialist’s deal to develop video games could give it a “very material” boost. Margins are 33%, and the firm makes an “extraordinary” 100% per year return on capital. Buy. £60. FRP Advisory The Mail on Sunday Insolvency firms are often loathed, but FRP has a strong culture of fairness and helping struggling businesses. Shares have shot up since listing in March, as turnover and profits rise. Well set for the future. Buy. 124p. Hilton Food Group Investors Chronicle The meat-packer…

The Westfalenstadion, a huge stadium in Germany’s industrial Rhineland, is usually “one of the noisiest places on Earth”, said James Gheerbrant in The Sunday Times. In normal times, when home team Borussia Dortmund play there against arch-rivals Schalke the ground is crammed with more than 80,000 fans, and “the noise levels crest well above 100 decibels”. But when the two sides met last Saturday, the stadium was eerily quiet – “a strange, sterile stage”. Welcome to football in the coronavirus era. Germany’s Bundesliga is the first elite sporting competition to get back in action, and before the first kick-off last week, all players and staff taking part in the first of the nine games they had left to play had been quarantined in hotels, where they were regularly tested for…

“It wasn’t meant to end this way,” said Andrew Benson on BBC Sport. When Sebastian Vettel joined Ferrari in 2014, his dream was to “win the world championship with the Italian team”, adding to the four world titles he’d already claimed at Red Bull. Instead, the German’s time at Maranello will end in frustration: he’s set to leave the team at the end of the season. The rupture “completes an extraordinary deterioration” in his relationship with Ferrari, said Oliver Brown in The Daily Telegraph. Vettel was apparently offered a chance to stay, but only for an additional 12 months, and with a “huge reduction” to his £36m salary. In the absence of viable suitors, the decision to walk away leaves him with few options. Now, at just 32, he faces…