Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1284 i The Week

What happened Racism in Britain Thousands of far-right protesters clashed with police in central London on Saturday – in what Boris Johnson denounced as an “act of racist thuggery that has no place on our streets”. The demonstrators claimed to have descended on the capital in order to protect the Cenotaph, and a statue of Winston Churchill which had been defaced during a Black Lives Matter march the previous weekend, but they ended up lobbing missiles at the police and skirmishing with nearby anti-racism protesters. One was photographed urinating next to a memorial to PC Keith Palmer, the officer killed in the Westminster terror attack of 2017. In the midst of all this, Black Lives Matter supporter Patrick Hutchinson was pictured carrying to safety a partially conscious white man (believed…

Zoos, which finally reopened, along with safari parks. Some reported a rush of demand for tickets: at Chester Zoo, they had a record number of online bookings. But many warned that they still faced an uphill battle to repair the hole in their finances. Emily Sheffield, who was appointed the new editor of the London Evening Standard. Formerly at British Vogue, Sheffield is the sister-in-law of David Cameron; she replaces George Osborne, who joined the paper as editor in 2017. Royal Ascot, which went ahead – but with no spectators present. Jockeys wore masks, and race lovers dressed up in their best hats and threads to watch from home.…

The Government is merging the Department for International Development (Dfid) with the Foreign Office in order to shift the priorities of Britain’s foreign aid spending. Although Dfid’s handling of the aid budget – £15bn this year – has long been criticised, David Cameron joined with charities in condemning the move. Boris Johnson said the “giant cashpoint in the sky” was being closed, and said that the aid budget should be used to boost Britain’s place in the world.…

Brussels Brutal reign: Prince Laurent of Belgium has sought to defend the reputation of his ancestor King Leopold II – whose brutal rule over colonial-era Congo left millions dead – by arguing that since the king never visited his possession, he can’t have harmed anyone there. Leopold colonised the resource-rich Congo Basin in the 1880s. From then on, he treated the Congo Free State as personal treasury, while using a campaign of mass murder, torture and amputations to enforce his authority there. In recent weeks, many statues to Leopold have been defaced by anti-racism protesters, and some have been removed. However, Prince Laurent, brother of the present king, argued that Leopold should not be judged too harshly. “You must know there were many people that worked for Leopold II, and…

This week’s edition of Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs featured Joe Wicks, fitness trainer and author 1 Shotgun by George Ezra, Fred Gibson and Joel Pott, performed by George Ezra 2 Bright Side of the Road, written and performed by Van Morrison 3 Three Little Birds by Bob Marley, performed by Bob Marley & The Wailers 4 When You Were Young, written and performed by The Killers 5 Thunder Road, written and performed by Bruce Springsteen 6* River by Todd Bridges, Austin Jenkins, Joshua Block and Chris Vivion, performed by Leon Bridges 7 Nothing Can Change This Love, written and performed by Sam Cooke 8 You’re Welcome from Moana by Lin-Manuel Miranda, performed by Dwayne Johnson Book: Lord of the Flies by William Golding Luxury: acoustic guitar * Choice if…

Most of the 240 astronauts of 19 nationalities who have visited the ISS have stayed for missions lasting about six months. But others stay longer: the record is held by the American Scott Kelly and the Russian Mikhail Kornienko, who each spent 340 consecutive days on the ISS from 2015-16. Living in a “microgravity” (very low gravity) environment has its challenges. Food comes vacuum-packed, while salt is added in liquid form to stop its sprinkles flying away. Ingredients are taped to tables, and belongings are attached to walls using Velcro. Showers are replaced with dry soap and shampoo; toilets rely on vacuums to dispose of waste. Crew members must exercise for 2.5 hours a day to prevent muscle loss (they use a treadmill connected to a wall and attach bungee…

Worldwide lockdowns have not stopped CO 2 levels rising to a new peak this year, reports The Guardian. In May, the concentration of CO 2 in the atmosphere reached 417.2 parts per million, according to readings from the Mauna Loa Observatory on Hawaii, in the US. The observatory’s peak reading for 2019 was 414.8ppm. Global emissions of CO 2 have fallen sharply – by around 17% in early April, according to one study – but short-term reductions only have a marginal impact on CO 2 concentrations. “The build-up of CO 2 is a bit like trash in a landfill. As we keep emitting, it keeps piling up,” said Prof Ralph Keeling, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California. He and colleagues estimate that for the rate of increase of…

Are you a Waitrose Conservative or a Lidl free marketeer? That’s the question dividing Tory politicians as the Government seeks a potential trade deal with the US, said Katy Balls in The Guardian. The priority of the so-called Waitrose set – which includes Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove and Environment Secretary George Eustice – is to protect British farmers and resist any dilution to animal welfare or environmental standards. By contrast, the Lidl free marketeers such as International Trade Secretary Liz Truss and Chancellor Rishi Sunak prioritise boosting trade and getting cheaper food on our shelves. It is, in essence, the same split that divided the Tories back in the mid-19th century, when Robert Peel abolished the Corn Laws that prevented Britain importing cheaper grain. The ensuing schism kept the…

Wrong then, wrong now To The Times David Starkey asks why we condemn people who lived in the past for not holding modern values about race and slavery. He omits to mention that those who lived in the past also believed slavery to be morally wrong. In 1772, Lord Mansfield made clear that a claim to a slave as property was not acknowledged by the law of England, and that the claim of slavery “can never be supported”; and as far back as the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth I said that the ship owners who traded in human cargo “call down the vengeance of heaven”. As William Hague’s biography of William Pitt the Younger states, Britain’s trade in slaves was at one time more than double that of any other…

The Overnighters When a fracking boom drew jobseekers en masse to a small town in North Dakota during the last recession, a local pastor let the down-and-out sleep in his church, sparking anger among locals. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Sundance in 2014, this is a powerful portrait of hard moral choices and communal strife. Human Flow Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s account of life in the world’s refugee camps was released in 2017. Combining hand-held footage of camps from Italy to Bangladesh with interviews and scrolling news data, it is a beautiful but often devastating chronicle of human endurance and human suffering. The Work Shot in 2017, this is a simple account of four days of group therapy in Folsom Prison, a maximum security jail in California. The…

Tips of the week... how to become a cyclist ● Get a good lock, and make sure it has a Sold Secure rating – your insurance won't pay out without one. ● Make visibility your priority. Legally, you cannot cycle on a public road after dark without lights and reflectors, but a hi-vis jacket or belt is even better. Some helmets and gloves are high-vis too. ● Handlebar baskets are hopeless in the rain, and dangling shopping from your handlebars is dangerous. A pair of rear-mounted panniers is practical and safe. ● Carry waterproofs, a waterproof saddle cover, a small pump and a spare inner tube (even if you don’t know how to change a tyre, a kind passerby might). ● Mudguards will stop the worst of the splatter from…

Amazon/EU: breaking the rules? Rocketing demand for online shopping has helped Amazon boss Jeff Bezos boost his fortune by $31bn since the end of 2019, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The firm’s shares hit a record high last week, said James Clayton on BBC Business. But bang on cue, along came the EU to put a spanner in the works. Competition chief Margrethe Vestager is preparing to charge Amazon with anti-competitive behaviour – encouraging a pack of governments around the world to question whether the tech giant is “too big” and whether “it uses its dominant position unfairly”. Central to EU concerns is Amazon’s “dual role” as both “player and referee”: it runs an online store and sells its own products on that platform. One allegation, reported by…

● Although there have been “serious losers” among the super-rich – particularly those with interests in oil and gas, luxury and airlines – US billionaire wealth as a whole rebounded by $282bn between 18 March (near the bottom of the pandemic’s financial dip) and 10 April, to stand at $3.229trn. ● On current trends, the “merely rich” will likely fare OK too. Data suggests “upper-income families” in the US have continued building on their wealth since 2001. By contrast, wealth levels among those on median incomes were “lower in 2016 than in 1998” – and “those lower down the ladder did even worse”. ● For a genuine “great leveller”, we have to go back to the 14th century Black Death, which “rewarded the poor at the expense of the rich…

Dame Anna Wintour Rumours of “Anna Wintour’s impending departure from Vogue” are premature, said Women’s Wear Daily. The magazine’s publisher Condé Nast has confirmed that the legendary fashion editor – an inspiration for the book and film The Devil Wears Prada – isn’t “going anywhere just yet”. That’s great news for power-bobs and shades. But Condé Nast has been shaken by allegations of systemic racism from employees past and present, said Ginia Bellafante in The New York Times. And the burning question remains: “Can Anna Wintour survive the social justice movement?” Condé Nast’s long history of “employee concerns over pay disparities and discrimination” was dragged up last week when an old photo emerged of Adam Rapoport, the editor of Bon Appétit magazine, “browned-up” as a parody “Puerto Rican”, said the…

Controversy of the week The statue wars The boarding up of Winston Churchill’s statue in Parliament Square last Friday, to protect it from protesters, says “much about the state of Britain today”, said The Daily Telegraph. “The eradication of a nation’s historical artefacts usually follows revolution or war.” But now we are being encouraged “to erase parts of our past” in response to the death of George Floyd. Ever since the statue of Edward Colston, a Bristol merchant, was thrown in the harbour because of his links to the slave trade, the hunt has been on for others to topple. They range from obvious targets like Cecil Rhodes to the not-so-obvious – Gladstone and Peel, because their families were involved in the slave trade – to the baffling, like Dickens.…

Nigel Farage, the Brexit Party leader, who lost his job at LBC radio after likening anti-racism protesters to the Taliban.“A new form of the Taliban was born in the UK today,” he wrote on Twitter, shortly after the statue of Edward Colston was toppled. Swiss police, who were accused of heavy-handedness for investigating an eight-year-old boy who’d asked a local shopkeeper if he could pay with toy money. The pretend euro, featuring blue Chinese characters, had been given out during a carnival. Police spent three hours at the boy’s house, seized other toy notes and took his mugshot for their records. Flybe, which is facing an investigation into how one of its planes managed to crash into a stationary craft at Aberdeen Airport. The Flybe jet’s nose ended up wedged…

28% of Britons say they trust most of the country’s news media most of the time, down from 40% last year, and 50% before the EU referendum. In Ireland, the figure is 48%; in Germany, 45%; and in the US, 29%. Oxford University Reuters Institute/The Times Students’ satisfaction with their teaching has risen since it moved online, with 42% feeling teachers explore their areas of interest well, compared with 36% before lockdown. 62% of students say staff give sufficient support in independent study, compared with 58% before. However, overall satisfaction is down; only 11% are satisfied with their life, compared with 27% of young people overall. 29% say tuition fees are good value; 57% disagree. Hepi/The Daily Telegraph…

“Bond fans are on red alert: it seems that in the 25th film, No Time to Die, 007 has a young daughter. Many fans complain that Bond having a child would curtail much “Bond-like” activity, such as drinking, fighting, being obsessed with cars and banging multiple women – which suggests they have never had a dinner-party conversation with a divorce lawyer. As for the plot, it’s a godsend. Let’s face it, he’s running out of obstacles. He’s saved the world countless times. A five-year-old is finally an antagonist Bond will struggle to deal with. Unless Q has some exclusive Trolls merchandise, there’s no gadget that will help 007 when little Bondella has an epic hissy fit in the middle of Morrisons.” Caitlin Moran in The Times…

A present from China wrapped in a threat Ambrose Evans-Pritchard The Daily Telegraph Beijing has issued a veiled threat to the UK: if we freeze Huawei out of running our 5G network, it may walk away from its commitment to help build and finance nuclear power plants here. To which, the response should be “hurrah”, says Ambrose Evans-Pritchard. We should hope China does pull out: then we’d no longer be chained to an outdated energy strategy. As part of a wider nuclear deal struck in 2013, the Chinese were brought in to help the French firm EDF finance a new reactor at Hinkley Point, EDF having negotiated a guaranteed inflation-linked fixed price for the plant’s electricity of £92.50 per MWh over 35 years. That seemed a decent tariff at the…

A dinosaur’s last supper An armour-plated dinosaur that lived 110 million years ago enjoyed a last meal of leaves and twigs – plus a side-helping of charcoal – before it died, scientists have discovered. The fossilised remains of the creature – a type of ankylosaur called a nodosaur – were discovered in an oil mine in Canada in 2011. Inside its skeleton, researchers then found a football-sized mass that they identified as its intact stomach. Only two other dinosaur stomachs have ever been discovered, and neither of them were in nearly such good condition. “The leaf fragments and other plant fossils were preserved down to the cells,” researcher Dr David Greenwood, of the University of Saskatchewan, told CNN. Analysis of the stomach contents suggests that the nodosaur was a remarkably…

People of England: you know your duty. Shops have finally reopened, and now is the time to hit the high street and “spend, spend spend”. That was the Government’s message this week, said Angela Epstein in The Daily Telegraph. Boris Johnson even visited the Westfield centre in Stratford, east London, to reinforce the point. But as much as our economy may depend on it, I am not tempted. I don’t want to put on an uncomfortable mask, and wait in a queue, in order to shuffle around an overheated store, where the whiff of hand sanitiser is in the air, the toilets and fitting rooms are closed, and shop assistants are ready to pounce on the unwary browser who spends too long handling the merchandise. It doesn’t sound fun, and…

To the Financial Times I have two daughters in primary school and am still working full-time from home. There now appears to be every chance they won’t be going back to school until September, and possibly beyond, and could miss more than half a year of learning, and yet I will be able to take them to theme parks from next week! Why is the Government not investing resources in finding a solution? If we can build temporary hospitals, why can’t we find facilities for students? Why are state-school students unfairly disadvantaged at this time? The many private-school students I know have been able to continue their lessons uninterrupted from home. Most state-school students have had virtually no teaching support. Why is no one concerned about the mental health impact…

This time last year, Inigo Philbrick was a rising star of the art market, said Sarah Douglas and Judd Tully in Artnews. A flamboyant figure with a penchant for fine wine and Italian suits, the precocious American-born dealer “was by all outward appearances a tremendous success”. He had established galleries in both London and Miami by the time he was 30; he dined at exclusive restaurants, and he was known to be dating a star of the reality TV show Made in Chelsea. Yet behind the scenes, he was in enormous financial difficulty, which caused him to make a number of questionable steps that have now made his name “notorious”. Philbrick, it seems, had been operating an elaborate con for some time, said New York Magazine. His business model consisted…

What the experts recommend Tree-top dining in Italy Two Italian farmers have brought a new meaning to the concept of socially distant dining, says Tom Kington in The Times – by opening a restaurant in a tree. At their Poggio Brico farm in Umbria, Valerio Andrei and his wife Silvia Mocci have built a raised platform in the branches of a walnut tree, and converted it into a six-seater restaurant. After clambering up, diners call in orders to the kitchen via walkie talkie, and dishes are sent up to them via a pulley. “There doesn’t have to be contact with anyone else, making it perfect for the post-coronavirus world, which is perhaps why we are booked solid,” said Andrei, 59. But the location has another benefit too: the perfume of…

Sales of lingerie, chocolates, sparkling wine and flowers surged last week as new lockdown guidance on “support bubbles” meant that some couples who live apart could reunite for the first time. Lacy underwear and satin nightdresses shot up Amazon’s sales rankings, while on Waitrose’s site, searches for chocolate boxes rose by 58%, champagne by 15%, and champagne glasses by 60%. There has been a surge in demand for puppies during lockdown – leading to a sharp increase in prices. Some puppies are fetching up to £10,000, and popular crossbreeds such as cockapoos and labradoodles are going for more than four times their normal price. Buyers have been urged to use reputable dealers and warned to avoid scammers.…

The Government announced this week that 1.3 million children from low-income families in England will receive free school meals over the summer holidays, in response to a campaign by the footballer Marcus Rashford. Boris Johnson had insisted the vouchers would stop as usual in the summer, saying councils could use emergency funding to help poor families. But then Rashford gave a moving TV interview about the struggle his own mother faced, to feed a family of five, and wrote a letter to MPs, urging them to put aside their differences to take action. Faced with a rebellion from Tory MPs, the PM unveiled a £120m “Covid summer food fund”.…

Greater Manchester Rave on: Around 6,000 people ignored lockdown rules last weekend to attend two illegal raves in the Manchester area. Police said that a man died of a suspected drug overdose at an event attended by an estimated 4,000 people at Daisy Nook Country Park, in Failsworth; at the other event, in Carrington, Trafford, a woman was raped, and three men were stabbed. Elsewhere, up to 1,000 people were reported to have attended a rave in Whittington, Staffordshire, while police in Leeds said they were forced to intervene when hundreds of people gathered for an illegal sports car rally. Liverpool Tainted wealth: Almost a third of the National Trust’s 300 houses and gardens have links to slavery, or have collections that include treasures plundered from overseas, according to an…

Gareth Thomas on HIV Gareth Thomas didn’t want people to know he was HIV positive. The former Wales rugby captain had become one of the highest-profile gay men in British sport after coming out in 2009 – but revealing his health condition seemed harder. “It felt much more shameful,” he told Chris Godfrey in The Guardian. “This was something that I felt people wouldn’t understand.” For a long time, he didn’t even tell his parents. Then, one day last year, his father was driving him to the train station when someone approached their car. “It was a reporter,” says Thomas. “He stuck his head in the window and he said to my father: ‘Do you have any comment about your son having HIV?’” Thomas told his father it was just…

A personal trainer who claims his online date gave him cold sores is suing her for £136,328. Londoner Martin Ashley Conway, 45, said a woman he knew as Jovanna Lovelace failed in her “moral, ethical and legal duty” by not informing him of her sore before they kissed during a date last year. He claims he contracted mouth ulcers and was diagnosed with the herpes simplex virus days later, adding: “I feel traumatised by the sudden reduction in my quality of life.” Lawyers for Ms Lovelace said the claim was “frivolous and vexatious”. A horseman was left “humiliated” after being refused service when he took his horse and cart to a KFC drive-thru. Ian Bell and his horse Jon Jon were forced to turn around after travelling 23 miles and…

INDIA Closing the door to female advancement Outlook (New Delhi) Women seem to be taking India by storm at the moment, says Sonakshi Chaudhry. The media and popular culture are full of stories about women at work, everywhere from boardrooms and factories to call centres. The country has even finally acquired its first female fighter pilot. Yet here’s the weird thing: over recent years, women have actually been “dropping out of India’s labour force at an alarming rate”. In 2005, the female participation rate was 31.7%, but the latest estimates now put it at just 20.5%. That’s lower than Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Egypt. Despite popular perceptions of female advancement, the evidence shows that women in India are still much less likely to be hired than men, and…

Living around 1,000 feet below the ocean surface, giant larvaceans are a “marvel of nature”, says The New York Times. Though their gelatinous bodies are less than four inches across, these creatures, which look a bit like tadpoles, live inside a thee-foot-wide balloon of floating mucus, which they use to filter their food. (When these become clogged, the animals simply shed them, and secrete new ones.) Studying giant larvaceans has always been difficult, because of the remoteness of their habitat and the delicacy of their “snot palaces”, but now scientists have used laser imaging techniques to map these incredible structures for the first time. Researchers from the US and Chile mounted their laser imaging device on a diving robot to scan a giant larvacean; using the images, a computer visually…

Justin Trudeau’s admirers have long marvelled at his glossy hair – but interest has peaked in lockdown. As the Canadian PM honourably keeps his distance from his barber, videos of his ever-growing mane have been viewed thousands of times online, and Twitter is awash with fawning posts. ”One thing he understands very well is the importance of symbolism,” PR expert Peter Donolo told The New York Times. “Also, it helps that he looks like a million dollars with his hair long.” Living in a palace isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, according to the fiancé of F1 heiress Petra Ecclestone. In 2017, Sam Palmer, 37, moved into the Manor – a 123-room French-style château in California that Ecclestone bought for $85m in 2011. At 56,000 square foot, the house…

“The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.” John Maynard Keynes, quoted in The Times “It takes all types to make the world. But sometimes you wish it didn’t.” Gloria Naylor, quoted on GoodReads.com “If one can’t be happy one must be amused, don’t you agree?” Nancy Mitford, quoted in The Irish Times “There is nothing in this world as invisible as a monument. They are impregnated with something that repels attention, causing the glance to roll right off, like water droplets off an oilcloth.” Robert Musil, quoted in The Observer “One discovers the light in darkness – that is what darkness is for.” James Baldwin, quoted on BrainPickings.org “One of the difficulties of being alive today is that everything is absurd but fewer and fewer things…

Elgar & Beach: Piano Quintets Hyperion £10.50 Elgar’s Piano Quintet in A minor (for piano accompanied by string quartet) is one of the “immortal” chamber works he wrote in the summer of 1918 after a period of mental and physical collapse, said Fiona Maddocks in The Observer. It is at once “ghostly and expansive, tender and passionate”, and evinces an “intimate” side to the composer that’s only hinted at in his major works. Pianist Garrick Ohlsson and the Takács Quartet “plumb every emotional possibility” without excess or hysterics; the “glowing”, yearning, viola playing of Geraldine Walther is a particular highlight. The Elgar has been well-paired with Amy Beach’s Piano Quintet in F sharp minor from 1907, and both works are performed powerfully and expressively on this excellent disc, said David…

Michaela Coel is the writer, star, executive producer and co-director of I May Destroy You – and that’s not hubris, said Anita Singh in The Daily Telegraph. It’s indicative of her “exceptional talent”. The show is based on an incident in Coel’s own life: in 2016, she was on an evening out with friends when her drink was spiked and she was sexually assaulted. Somehow she has pulled off the “seemingly impossible”, by creating from these events a serious drama that is also “frequently funny”. The drama (divided into 12 short episodes) unfolds as a kind of thriller, as Coel’s character, successful novelist Arabella, tries to piece together what happened that night, said Lucy Mangan in The Guardian. Her social group is so large and chaotic, the plot becomes almost…

Best books… Fatima Bhutto The writer chooses her six favourite books. Born into the Pakistani political dynasty, Bhutto is the author of five books of fiction and non-fiction. Her latest novel, The Runaways (Penguin £8.99), is out now in paperback The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley, 1965 (Penguin £9.99). This has long been one of my favourite books, the only memoir I’ve ever read that’s written truthfully. It’s a powerful telling of US history and oppression. Malcolm said he had no special education to lead a movement, “but I am sincere”. My life hasn’t been the same since reading it. Telex from Cuba by Rachel Kushner, 2008 (Vintage £9.99). Kushner is the sharpest novelist out there. I love all of her books, but her blade-sharp…

Vegetables rarely get a look-in on the barbecue, says Gill Meller, which is a shame because many respond fantastically to the charring heat of an open fire. Asparagus – in season in the UK till the end of the month – works particularly well cooked this way 2 tbsp raw almonds, skin on 1 tbsp sunflower seeds 1 tbsp pumpkin seeds 2 tsp cumin seeds 1 tbsp tamari sauce pinch of chilli flakes (optional) 1 rosemary sprig 10-12 asparagus spears 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra to serve sea salt and freshly ground black pepper flatbreads, to serve (optional) for the yoghurt: 500ml natural yoghurt ½ tsp fine sea salt 1 handful of mint 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil freshly ground black pepper • First, make the yoghurt.…

The “sporting baronet” who inherited £16m Sir William Pigott-Brown 1941-2020 Sir William Pigott-Brown was one of the last survivors of a generation of aristocrats whose gilded but racy lives – moving between high society and the demi-monde – made them staples of the gossip columns in the Swinging Sixties, said Richard Kay in the Daily Mail. Known as the “sporting baronet”, Pigott-Brown, who has died aged 79, dated a series of models and heiresses; played tables at the Clermont Club (made infamous by Lord Lucan); bred racehorses; and at his country estate in Oxfordshire, threw wild parties where aristocrats mingled with actors and rock stars. He founded the fashionable Mayfair nightclub Sibylla’s, in partnership with George Harrison; opened the Molton Street boutique Browns; and owned a quarter share in Island…

● Monzo slides Britain’s booming fintech sector was thought to be one of the pillars of the emerging 21st century economy. But even the great Monzo – the challenger bank whose coral-coloured bank cards have proved such a hit among millennials – isn’t immune from a virus-related battering, said Emily Nicolle in City AM. The digital bank this week “confirmed a fresh funding round from existing investors”, including General Catalyst and Y Combinator. But it is “understood to have been accompanied by a significant cut to its valuation” – perhaps as much as 40% – despite a “busy start to the year” that saw Monzo plunge into business banking and a planned US expansion. The outfit now has 4.2 million customers. They’ll be relieved to hear it is still clinging…

Is HSBC really a British bank? Tom Braithwaite Financial Times Politicians continue to shower opprobrium on HSBC for kowtowing to Beijing’s new security law for Hong Kong. But the outcry is based on three questionable assumptions, says Tom Braithwaite: that HSBC had a choice in whether to support the law; that its heart is against it; and that it is a British bank. Despite management appearances, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation has never been a “typical British company”. More than a century after its 1865 foundation, it was still “regarded in London as a foreign entity” – prompting a Bank of England warning in 1981, when it expressed interest in buying RBS. On paper, this changed when HSBC moved its HQ to London in 1993, after buying Midland.…

The week’s best shares Aveva Group Investors Chronicle The software group’s oil and gas-related clients are prone to turbulence in a downturn. But Aveva is protected by its growing cloud business, recurring revenues, no debt and a healthy cash pile. Buy. £41.95. DFS Furniture Investors Chronicle A flexible cost base has helped see Britain’s biggest sofa-maker through the crisis – online spending on home improvements rose 27% in April. Has a useful knack for buying distressed competitors. Buy. 177p. Harworth Group The Daily Telegraph Harworth specialises in land regeneration, with significant developments in the Midlands and the North. Fairly valued, with 30,000 residential plots and 25 million sq ft of commercial space for industry and logistics. Buy. 101.75p. Pennon Group Investors Chronicle The sale of Pennon’s waste-management business brings £3.7bn…

Football: why are there so few black managers? The Premier League has made its decision, said Jonathan Liew in The Guardian. It has decided that, this week, “black lives will matter”. When the season resumes this week, players will be allowed to have the phrase “Black Lives Matter” on their shirts. Yet welcome as this gesture may be, the underlying issues around race and racism in football still remain untouched. And the most glaring of these is the dearth of black managers, said Carl Anka on The Athletic. Black footballers account for 30% of the Premier League’s players, yet only one of its managers – Wolves’ Nuno Espírito Santo – is black. In English football’s top four divisions there are just six Bame (black, Asian and minority ethnic) managers. This…