Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1286 i The Week

What happened Johnson’s “new deal” Boris Johnson cast himself as a leader in the mould of the US president Franklin Roosevelt this week, as he announced a “new deal” to lift Britain out of the economic slump caused by the coronavirus crisis. His plan included a £5bn programme of capital spending on roads, prisons, hospitals, railways, courts and schools. The PM also promised to streamline planning laws as part of his drive to “level up” Britain, exhorting the country to “build, build, build”. Johnson’s first big public speech since the pandemic, which he made in the West Midlands town of Dudley, came as England prepared for the loosening of many Covid-19 restrictions this weekend, and as the weekly number of UK deaths fell below the five-year average for the first…

At last, “after five painful years”, Labour is finally taking anti-Semitism seriously, said Jonathan Freedland in The Guardian. Keir Starmer promised zero tolerance, and his sacking of Rebecca Long-Bailey as shadow education secretary last week shows “he meant it”. Long-Bailey had tweeted her approval of a lengthy press interview with Maxine Peake, in which the actress wrongly claimed that the police tactic of kneeling on the neck, which killed George Floyd in Minnesota, was “learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services”. Peake’s remark reflects an insidious “cast of mind” which, regardless of “facts or basic common sense”, puts the world’s only majority-Jewish nation at the centre of whatever “horrors are unfolding” in the world. Such ideas are rooted in “age-old anti-Semitic theories of a Jewish plot to bring global ruin”.…

Christmas, after Norwich’s Theatre Royal became the latest venue to cancel this year’s panto. Although pantomimes are a vital source of revenue for regional theatres, many dare not risk scheduling the productions while the future is still so unclear. Fathers of the bride, after official guidelines warned that they cannot walk their daughters down the aisle, unless they live together. Weddings can take place in England as of Saturday, but couples must wash their hands before and after exchanging rings; and they should not speak their vows in raised voices. No more than 30 guests are permitted, and receptions are discouraged.…

In a poll asking who would make the best Prime Minister, Keir Starmer has overtaken Boris Johnson for the first time since winning the Labour leadership in April, with 37% to 35% of the vote. However, the Tories still lead Labour in terms of voting intentions, by 43% to 39%. Opinium/The Times 11% of Britons say the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square should be removed, while 80% say it should not, and 9% don’t know. 26% of 25- to 34-year-olds, and 15% of Britons in general, think Britain would be a better place without any statues at all. 69% of Britons are proud of UK history as a whole, while 17% say it is something to be ashamed of. Policy Exchange/ The Sunday Telegraph…

Chicago, Illinois Shootings rise: Gun crime has surged in a number of US cities over the past few months. This is at least partly due to criminals taking advantage of Covid-19 lockdowns, but senior police believe it also reflects a collapse in police morale since the killing of George Floyd triggered nationwide protests against police racism and brutality, and calls to defund forces. “I had one officer tell me that he feels like a Vietnam soldier returning home to a country that hates him,” said Robert Harris, of the Los Angeles police union. In Chicago, a one-year-old baby was killed last Saturday in a drive-by shooting apparently targeting his mother. And over the course of one recent weekend, more than 100 people were shot in the city, 14 of whom…

This week’s edition of Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs featured the actress Helen McCrory 1 To Be Alone With You, written and performed by Bob Dylan 2 Will Ye Go, Lassie Go, traditional, performed by The Corries 3 Malaika by Adam Salim, performed by Miriam Makeba 4 A Message to You Rudy by Dandy Livingstone, performed by The Specials 5 Un homme et une femme (instrumental) by Francis Lai, performed by Nicole Croisille and Pierre Barouh 6 Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk, written and performed by Rufus Wainwright 7 Pull Up to the Bumper by Kookoo Baya, Grace Jones and Dana Mano, performed by Grace Jones 8* Don’t You Worry ’Bout a Thing, written and performed by Stevie Wonder Book: The complete works of Spike Milligan Luxury: The V&A * Choice…

“Whenever Chris Grayling is shuffled off to a new department, the cleaners come in,” said Politics.co.uk’s Ian Dunt, when the scale of the probation disaster became clear. While serving as justice secretary, Grayling also introduced an effective ban on inmates receiving books. These rules were deemed unlawful by the High Court in 2015 and dropped. His cuts to prison officer numbers (from 23,000 in 2012 to 18,000 in 2015) were criticised for contributing to a serious deterioration in prison safety, and were later reversed by his successor, Michael Gove. So, too, were his plans to overhaul legal aid, and to introduce court charges for those found guilty. Even so, many lawyers believe that his cuts to legal aid have been deeply destructive. As transport secretary, Grayling was at the helm…

How to tell good statues from bad ones Max Boot The Washington Post The US debate on statues is ridiculously polarised, says Max Boot. On one side are right-wingers who insist that nothing should change; on the other are left-wingers who would tear down statues of even revered icons such as George Washington. Both extremes are absurd. The rule of thumb should be that those who made a great contribution to America’s development deserve to be honoured, however flawed they were as people. “The Founding Fathers easily pass the test.” Jefferson and Washington et al may have been slaveholders, but they also produced the Declaration of Independence that declared “all men are created equal”. So, on balance, does Theodore Roosevelt, even though he would be judged a racist by today’s…

Construction is starting near Manchester on the world’s biggest “liquid air battery”, reports The Guardian. As solar and wind energy are only generated intermittently, it is vital to find ways of storing them. Pumped hydro schemes are one option. These use excess power to pump water uphill, where it is stored until demand is high – at which point, the water is released to flow downhill to drive turbines. Such systems are tried and tested, but limited by the need to be close to mountain reservoirs. By contrast, liquid air batteries can be sited anywhere. These use excess power to compress air into liquid. When energy is needed, the liquid is converted back into a gas, and used to power a turbine. The new battery will store 250MWh of energy…

In the past few years, Facebook has lurched from one scandal to the next. Each time, viral campaigns have called for people to delete the app, said CNN – but Facebook has continued to grow, and companies have continued to regard it, with its three billion users, as the “only truly indispensable digital advertising platform”. With ads accounting for 99% of its $70bn a year revenue, it seemed “unstoppable”. But now, a chink has appeared in its armour. In the past week, a growing number of firms have joined in a boycott of the platform, citing its failure to crack down on hate speech, misinformation and voter suppression (attempts to dissuade particular groups from voting). Some are withdrawing ads for a month, but last week Unilever – one of the…

“In America, if your next-door neighbour has a Rolls-Royce, you want one too. But in England, if your neighbour has a Rolls-Royce, you want him to die in a fiery accident.” David Sedaris, quoted in The Daily Telegraph “Society has discovered discrimination as the great social weapon by which one may kill men without any bloodshed.” Hannah Arendt, quoted on BrainPickings.org “After a time, civil servants tend to become no longer servants and no longer civil.” Winston Churchill, quoted in the Daily Express “A culture war is something only the other side fights. The side you are on is merely talking sense.” Robert Shrimsley in the FT “Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover…

Djokovic’s disaster Novak Djokovic is the best tennis player in the world, said Simon Briggs in The Daily Telegraph. “Indeed, he is probably the best the game has ever seen.” But following the catastrophe of the Adria Tour, the exhibition tournament he organised in the Balkans last month, the Serb’s credibility has been “shot to pieces”. The players involved – who included Alexander Zverev and Grigor Dimitrov – behaved as if they were “immune” to Covid-19. They high-fived; they embraced; they danced in nightclubs. So it was hardly surprising that Dimitrov and Djokovic himself, as well as two other players, went on to test positive for the virus, forcing the event to be cancelled. When Djokovic eventually returns to the court, it will take some incredible performances to “eclipse the…

Chariots of Fire This 1981 Oscar-winner, based on true events, is about Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams – two runners, both outsiders, hoping to win gold at the 1924 Paris Olympics. With Vangelis’s now-famous score, it is moving, sharply observed and exhilarating. Raging Bull Martin Scorsese’s 1980 biopic of boxer Jake LaMotta (Robert De Niro) is as much about its anti-hero’s consuming rage and jealousy as his bouts in the ring. Still, the fights are realised with bravura, and their soundtrack, with animal cries and flashbulb explosions, is extraordinary. Bull Durham This 1988 baseball movie introduced Hollywood It couple Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon to the world, but also stars Kevin Costner as a grizzled mentor to Robbins’s ungrateful rookie player. The film’s central focus is on the love triangle…

Kirsty is disappointed that the wedding plans are on hold. Philip has been so grumpy lately, and he gets even more annoyed when she tells him they can’t hold the reception at Brookfield. Josh and Ben are winding each other up. Josh is filming himself for his website in an attempt to sell his remaining farm machinery. Meanwhile, distracted by a call from Chloe, Ben loses Jill’s swarming bees – Susan puts out an appeal to help find them on her radio show. Interest in the show is waning so she’s trying to get listeners to call in on various topics, to little avail. On a call to Kirsty, Helen guesses she needs cheering up, and organises a virtual hen party for her. Tracy is nervous about meeting Roman’s parents…

What the experts recommend The new trend for hard seltzers We’ve had craft beer and pink gin, says Harry Wallop in The Times. Now it’s the turn of alcoholic sparkling waters. Hard seltzers, as they are known, are mildly alcoholic and fruit-flavoured drinks “unequivocally aimed” at health-conscious millennials: “nearly all boast of being vegan, gluten-free, full of antioxidants and having fewer than 100 calories a can”. Already big in America – where the market for them next year is expected to be worth $2.5bn – they are now hitting the UK, with Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons all stocking the biggest US brand, White Claw. “Jaded consumers” might be inclined to think that hard seltzers are little more than a “reboot” of the alcopops that teenagers guzzled in the 1990s. Would…

Well-loved director who was accused of “ruining Batman” Joel Schumacher 1939-2020 Joel Schumacher, who has died aged 80, started his film career as a costume designer, and ended it as one of Hollywood’s most commercially successful directors. He was responsible for a slew of hits – from the Brat Pack favourite St. Elmo’s Fire to the vigilante drama Falling Down. But there were also one or two notorious duds, said The New York Times. In particular, he was accused of “ruining Batman”. The caped crusader had been revived in the late 1980s by Tim Burton; but though admired, Burton’s two Batman films were regarded as too dark for family audiences. Schumacher was tasked with making a lighter movie. First, he made Batman Forever – which was camp and gaudy but…

The owner of some of Britain’s largest shopping centres has collapsed into administration, becoming “one of the biggest failures” to date of the coronavirus lockdown, said Zoe Wood in The Guardian. Intu, which had “£4.5bn of borrowing spread over 21 separate debt instruments”, had been “under pressure” before the pandemic. But lockdown delivered the coup de grâce, thanks to rent strikes from struggling tenants. Intu owns nine of Britain’s top 20 malls, including Manchester’s Trafford Centre, Lakeside in Essex and Bristol’s Cribbs Causeway. All will continue trading while administrator KPMG focuses on finding buyers – a tricky proposition. Investors in the former FTSE 100 group have endured a horror story: shares trading at 200p two years ago were worth just 2p last week. But while it’s easy to blame the…

No company better encapsulates the retail shift from bricks to clicks than the fast-fashion outfit Boohoo – owner of brands including Nasty Gal, Pretty Little Thing, Karen Millen and Coast, said Mark Sweney in The Guardian. Business has boomed since the Manchester-based firm floated in 2014, and it has “surged during lockdown”. Now founders Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane intend to cash in. If Boohoo’s shares rise by two-thirds over the next three years, they’re in line for a £150m bonus. Shareholders, who weren’t consulted, are crying “foul”, said The Times. True, Aim-listed Boohoo has given them an extraordinary ride. Shares have swelled to be worth around £5bn – twice the value of M&S. And the company, which reported a 45% sales increase in the three months to May, is…

The week’s best shares Bodycote The Sunday Telegraph Bodycote provides thermal treatment services to the auto, aerospace, defence and energy industries. Expanding in higher-margin specialist technologies and should keep its dividend. Worth a punt. Buy. 632p. City Pub Group The Times A solid start to 2020 was halted by lockdown. But this “quality” London and southeast-focused pub group has cut costs and raised £22m of equity to cut bank borrowings by two-thirds. Buy. 101p. Codemasters Group Investors Chronicle This games developer is an established brand with a growing intellectual property portfolio. Profits are up by 4.5%, and new releases are primed to coincide with Microsoft’s and Sony’s next-gen consoles. Buy. 328p. Cranswick The Daily Telegraph The pork producer’s revenues and profits are up, driven by at-home consumption during lockdown. Momentum…

you don’t steal anyone’s oxygen, because it could be fatal.” He was also puzzled. “This is not the norm. Sometimes, someone might take one to stay alive, but to have a big chunk of tanks stolen...” He managed to feel a brief sense of elation as he embarked on the final stretch, edging closer to an ambition he had held since childhood. But it was a fleeting sensation. “It became less exciting when we started to see people being brought down, dead bodies. It became sad quickly.” By the time he got to the summit, he had walked past a number of corpses. “Just shy of Hillary Step, there was a guy attached to a rope who had passed away, dangling there. I think I saw five bodies that day,…

A British company has created a wine bottle made from recycled paperboard that is five times lighter than a conventional glass bottle. The makers of the Frugal Bottle (which looks like a normal wine bottle and has a food-grade liner) say its carbon footprint is a sixth that of a glass bottle –- and that it keeps wine cool for longer too. The Ipswich-based firm Frugalpac has already signed a deal with one Italian vineyard, and it is in talks with several British supermarkets. A ten-year-old from Shrewsbury who got in trouble for doodling on his school maths book has won a publishing deal in the US. When Joe Whale was told off for doodling in class, his parents signed him up to an art club. His drawings so impressed…

More than 300 Covid-19-themed games have been launched during the pandemic, including Corona Wars: Survival – a card game in which you “fight friends or form alliances while controlling a faction in a post-Covid world”; and Infected! The Covid-19 Board Game, where you must try to accumulate toilet paper and sanitiser. You miss a turn if you land on the “self-quarantine” space. English Heritage is trying to attract younger people to its sites by advertising them on the social media app TikTok. A promotion for Stonehenge features footage of the monument overlaid with facts, emojis and music by Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg. The charity has also posted tutorials, showing how to apply make-up like an Elizabethan.…

Sanctions on benefits claimants were reinstated in England this week after a three-month freeze. The sanctions were suspended when face-to-face meetings at jobcentres were stopped in March. But with the centres now reopening, Work and Pensions Secretary Thérèse Coffey said “claimant commitment” must return. Under “claimant conditionality” rules, people can lose four weeks or more in benefit income if they fail to attend a jobcentre interview, or to spend enough time searching for work. Labour had called for the pause to be extended, as Britain faces a “looming unemployment crisis”.…

A’ Mhòine peninsula, Sutherland Space race: Plans were approved last week to build Europe’s first vertical launch rocket site on the A’ Mhòine Peninsula, in the north of Scotland. Building work on Space Hub Sutherland, a £17.3m scheme proposed by Highlands and Islands Enterprise and backed by the UK Space Agency, could now begin this year, subject to a review by the Scottish government – with the first satellites set to be launched in 2022. The project’s backers say that up to 40 jobs could be created at the 740-acre site, and point out that Scotland is already a space technology hub: more satellites are made in Glasgow than in any city outside the US. The scheme has met opposition, however, from environmental groups. Anders Holch Povlsen, the billionaire Danish…

Karachi, Pakistan Separatist attack: Four members of a militant separatist group stormed the Pakistani stock exchange in Karachi on Monday, killing at least four people before being shot dead themselves. The attack was claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which is proscribed as a terrorist group in Pakistan and the UK. The militants are fighting for self-determination in the province of Balochistan, which is one of the most impoverished in Pakistan – despite being rich in oil, gold and copper. Last year, the BLA attacked a five-star hotel in Balochistan’s port of Gwadar, the centre of a multibillion-dollar Chinese infrastructure project. In 2018, they attacked the Chinese consulate in Karachi, killing four people. The group opposes Chinese investment, saying it does not benefit local communities. Hong Kong End of…

“In sitting rooms and gardens across the land, people have been recreating Glastonbury, which should have happened last weekend. Only, how accurate were they? Was every tent pitched on a slope, next to the bins and drenched in vomit, while a semi-naked mother of four from Chalk Farm dispensed life advice and wet wipes? Was there a couple in the tent next door taking drugs or playing the bongos at 2am, as their exhausted two-year-old slept in a bag? Did a bedraggled public-school boy called Raj offer therapy sessions? Was there non-stop clanging music on a mud-lashed stage four miles down the road? It’s funny how you forget what you’re really missing.” Camilla Long in The Sunday Times…

Getting tough with a nation of litter louts Clare Foges The Times The drunkenness and brawling in last week’s “end-of-lockdown bacchanals” were bad enough, says Clare Foges, but what really depressed me was the litter. All those cans, bottles and fast-food cartons strewn over the nation’s beauty spots: 33 tonnes of trash left on Bournemouth beach in a single day, three tonnes at Durdle Door. On Port Meadow in Oxford, a “deluge of litter” left five horses and ten cows needing treatment for glass cuts. Alas, this was no aberration. We are, according to the Hygiene Council, the dirtiest developed country in the world. It’s time we did something about it. It’s not enough to ask people to do the right thing; we must crack down on malefactors. Double the…

Obesity linked to dementia People who are obese in late middle age are at greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s than slimmer people, scientists have discovered. For the study at University College London, researchers gathered information on the health, height and weight of 6,582 adults over 50. They then followed them up around a decade later, and found that those who’d had a Body Mass Index of at least 30 (the medical definition of obese) at the outset were 31% more likely to have developed dementia than those with a “normal” BMI of under 25. The scientists also looked at “abdominal obesity” – defined as a waist circumference greater than 34½ inches for women and 40 inches for men – and found that this, too, was linked to a greater risk…

Both David Cameron and Theresa May have been seen standing in supermarket queues in the past year; but Tony Blair admits that he hasn’t done a grocery shop, put on the laundry, or even driven a car since 1997. In an interview with The Sunday Times, Blair said it had been “impossible” for him to return to normal life after he left Downing Street. Even in lockdown, he left Cherie and their children to do all the housework. But he hasn’t entirely shirked the chores. “I did actually cook something for me and my youngest son the other day,” he said. What was it? “It was an omelette.” Hollywood stars lined up last week to pay tribute to Joel Schumacher, citing his kindness and wisdom (see page 37). Minnie Driver,…

It was the week that Bournemouth beach came to resemble a “human ant heap”, said Robert Hardman in the Daily Mail. Last Thursday – as temperatures reached 31ºC on the hottest day of the year so far – an estimated 500,000 people ignored official advice and crammed themselves onto the usually sedate southcoast resort’s beaches. Along with an increased risk of “killer germs”, there were “three stabbings, numerous fights, and umpteen complaints of human waste” littering public places – such a breakdown in order that the council declared a “major incident”. And things were no better in other parts of the country: 22 officers were also injured last week when riot police tried to close down a street party in Brixton; a spate of stabbings were reported in the West…

“Make no mistake, this was an annihilation,” said Barney Ronay in The Guardian. From the moment the season began, Liverpool seemed to be operating “to a different set of physical laws, marching the Premier League around in a headlock”. And last Thursday, Manchester City’s 2-1 loss to Chelsea secured the Reds the title for the first time in 30 years. Having dropped just seven points all season, they have won the league with seven matches to spare. No side before them, in the history of the top flight, has done it with more than five. Liverpool are now “champions of England, champions of Europe and champions of the world”, said Rory Smith in The New York Times. Such success would have been unthinkable a decade ago, when the club “came…

Be civil to civil servants To The Times In his speech on civil service reform, Michael Gove lamented the concentration of government in London and the resulting lack of understanding of those living outside London. As I live in Sheffield, I can only agree. However, we used to have government offices across the country designed to overcome this deficiency. They were abolished by the coalition government as part of its programme of austerity, as was the relocation of civil servants, who were moved to London from places like Sheffield. Any government approaching civil service reform ought to do so with some sense of humility. Today’s civil service is as much a product of government decisions as it is the actions of the civil service itself. Lasting reform will only come…

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin, 1963 (Penguin £8.99). First published nearly 60 years ago, this is an emotionally searing account of the Black experience in America. To reread it now is to understand how little has changed. In my dog-eared copy, I see I had marked the following: “It demands great spiritual resilience not to hate the hater whose foot is on your neck.” Black lives matter. The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai, 2018 (Fleet £8.99). This is a novel about another pandemic that once seemed destined to spin out of control. Makkai powerfully evokes the tragedy that engulfs a group of friends as Aids makes its insidious advance in mid-1980s Chicago. The Lie of the Land by Amanda Craig, 2017 (Abacus £8.99). This is not a Brexit…

The acoustic guitar used by Kurt Cobain in Nirvana’s famous 1993 MTV Unplugged session recently sold for more than $6m at auction, breaking five world records, including for the most expensive guitar. So collectors of rock memorabilia will be keeping a close eye on the sale of a black leather jacket that belonged to the singer, in Bonhams’s upcoming online Music Memorabilia auction. Other highlights include the signed, custom-made guitar Keith Richards used on The Rolling Stones’ 1978 tour of the United States, and a hat worn by AC/DC’s Angus Young. Bidding ends 15 July (bonhams.com).…

This tea cake is a modern version of the Welsh bara brith – made without yeast, says Regula Ysewijn. A wonderfully moist cake that stays good for days, it is heavenly spread with good butter. Tea loaf For 6-10 people 175g currants 80g raisins 250ml hot strong English tea 260g plain flour 110g raw (demerara) sugar 120g soft brown sugar ó tsp mixed spice 50g candied citrus peel 15g baking powder 1 egg butter, for greasing flour, for dusting • Put the currants and raisins in a large bowl. Pour in the hot tea and leave to soak overnight. Preheat your oven to 150°C, and grease your 900g loaf tin with butter, then line with greaseproof paper. • Add the flour, sugars, mixed spice, candied peel, baking powder and egg…

Shell: wealth hazard Shell has a rule of thumb that for “every $10 a barrel movement” in the price of Brent crude, “cashflows are dented by $6bn”, said Anjli Raval in the Financial Times. News that the Anglo-Dutch oil group plans to take a whopping $15bn-$22bn write-down in the second quarter of 2020 has blown such metrics out of the water. The clear message is that Covid-19 has changed the landscape completely: not just by stalling demand for oil and gas for a “prolonged period”, but by accelerating the “global shift towards cleaner fuels”. Shell’s move follows a similar announcement from BP in June, “indicating growing awareness... that tens of billions of dollars’ worth of oil, gas and refining assets could be rendered economically unviable”. The impairments, combined with…

The scrabble for Covid-19 treatments Sarah Boseley The Guardian So much for hopes of international cooperation in the fight against Covid-19, says Sarah Boseley. The US has just bought up “virtually all stocks” of the drug Remdesivir – leaving the rest of the world with none “for the next three months”. The drug, made under patent by the US pharma giant Gilead, is one of just two treatments proven to help people recover faster from the virus. The Trump administration has repeatedly shown it is “prepared to outbid and outmanoeuvre all other countries” to secure vital medical supplies. Still, the announcement this week was certainly timely: it coincides with evidence that the pandemic in the US is “spiralling out of control”. Other Western countries could secure supplies of the drug…

What the commentators said To compare Johnson’s spending plan to FDR’s New Deal is absurdly flattering, said George Eaton in the New Statesman. The £5bn announced by the PM this week amounts to just 0.2% of the UK’s GDP. By comparison, FDR’s stimulus added spending worth 40% of America’s GDP. Nor is the PM’s plan really new. The sum has just been brought forward from a package of £600bn capital spending already promised by Chancellor Rishi Sunak between now and the middle of 2025. By itself, the £5bn amounts to less than £100 a head, said Larry Elliott in The Guardian. Len McCluskey, general secretary of the Unite union, joked that while the US got the Hoover Dam we’re getting “a reannouncement of repairs to some bridges in Sandwell”. The…

Sir Ian McKellen, 81, who revealed that he has been cast in the lead role of an age-blind production of Hamlet at the Theatre Royal Windsor. Rehearsals are about to begin, but no opening date has been set, as live performances at theatres are still banned. Art-lovers, as public galleries in England started to announce their reopening dates. The National Gallery plans to open on 8 July (see page 30). Visitors will need to pre-book and follow one of three one-way routes through the gallery. The Tate will open in Liverpool, London and St Ives on 27 July. Celebrities, who have been able to boost their income during lockdown by making personalised video messages for their fans. Since lockdown began, hundreds of British actors and sports personalities have signed up…

The Government is planning to open emergency courts, along the lines of the Nightingale hospitals opened during the pandemic, to help tackle a backlog of more than half a million criminal cases in England and Wales. The first ten venues – in town halls and university lecture theatres, among other places – were due to be announced this week. The number of cases waiting to be dealt with by magistrates’ courts has risen by 22% to 484,000 since March, while the number of outstanding Crown Court cases has risen by 4% to 41,000.…

Paris Jail terms: France’s former prime minister, François Fillon, has been found guilty of embezzling more than a million euros in public funds by falsely claiming, when he was an MP, that his wife and two of his children were working as his aides. Fillon, who was prime minister under Nicolas Sarkozy, was sentenced to two years in jail. He remains free pending an appeal, however. His Welsh wife, Penelope, was found guilty of complicity, and given a suspended term. Until the scandal broke, in January 2017, Fillon was the clear favourite to win the presidential election. The allegations sank his campaign, clearing the way for the election of Emmanuel Macron. Dublin Power sharing: Ireland’s two main political parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, have gone into government together for…

Herzog’s multitudes “I’m constantly being made fun of as this terrible doom-sayer,” says Werner Herzog, “‘The dour German.’ But this is not the whole story.” In fact, the 77-year-old director contains multitudes, says Xan Brooks in The Guardian. Once he was known for making European arthouse films. Since then, he has developed a sideline as an actor, with roles in everything from The Simpsons to the Jack Reacher movie. Last year, he even appeared in the Star Wars series The Mandalorian – despite never having seen a Star Wars film. “Doesn’t matter,” he barks. “You exaggerate the importance.” What does matter, he says, is absorbing the culture. Herzog reads voraciously. “I don’t say read Tolstoy and nothing else. Read everything.” Even bad books can offer “fabulous insights” into human nature.…

Lynx has teamed up with Marmite to create a breakfast infused version of its top-selling body fragrance. It describes the new Africa & Marmite scent – which comes as a body wash and a deodorant – as the joining together of “two iconic legends that have shaped dating and breakfast culture across the nation”. Others have suggested the new product might be an effective social-distancing tool. Barcelona’s El Liceu opera house hosted its first postlockdown concert last week, to a sold out audience of potted plants. More than 2,200 plants filled the seats in the auditorium, where they enjoyed a performance of Puccini’s Cristantemi that was live-streamed to music lovers at home. In the video of the event, the plants sit quietly during the performance, but appear to rustle their…

SERBIA Djokovic crowns himself covidiot champ Deutsche Welle (Bonn) The news that Novak Djokovic has tested positive for the coronavirus raises one important question, says Andreas Sten-Ziemons: “How naive and stupid can you be?” With matches on the elite ATP tennis tour suspended, Djokovic hatched a plan to stage his own charity tournament, the Adria Tour, in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, where bans on large gatherings have been lifted. It was a nice idea – to get some practice while raising money for a good cause. Unfortunately, he and the tournament’s organisers “arrogantly ignored all conventional anti-corona hygiene measures”. Thousands of spectators sat close to each other, without face masks and with scant regard for social distancing. Players hugged, signed autographs in large crowds, and went partying in the evenings.…

In 2011, Chilean scientists working in Antarctica found a curious-looking fossil that resembled a deflated football. Nicknamed The Thing, after the classic sci-fi movie, the object sat, unlabelled, in Chile’s National Museum of Natural History for almost a decade. Now, an analysis at the University of Texas at Austin has revealed it to be a 66-million-year-old egg. Measuring more than 11 by 7 inches, it is the largest soft-shell egg ever found and the second-largest egg of any known animal. For years, every geologist that visited the museum was asked if they could identify The Thing. All were baffled, until Prof Julia Clarke took a look – and suggested it might be a deflated egg. Her theory was confirmed when further analysis revealed tell-tale layers of membrane. It also revealed…

“A hard rain is coming” to Whitehall. Thus Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister’s senior adviser, reportedly warned political aides last week, as he signalled a planned shake-up of the civil service. Days later, Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove formally presented the reform agenda in a speech, calling for Whitehall departments to be dispersed around the country and for civil servants to be made more accountable, said Ailbhe Rea in the New Statesman. There should, he said, be a wider talent pool, greater rewards for success, less buck-passing, and an end to the departmental merry-go-round to encourage specialisation. In a further sign of the shifting climate in Whitehall, Sir Mark Sedwill, the Cabinet Secretary and head of the civil service, subsequently announced his resignation. The move was officially Sedwill’s decision, but…

“Nobody personifies the madness of our times, and the moral cowardice of our leaders, like the Archbishop of Canterbury,” said Nick Timothy in The Daily Telegraph. Last Friday, “under pressure from precisely nobody”, Justin Welby announced a review of statues and memorials in Anglican churches and buildings. Some statues, he said, “will have to come down. Some names will have to change.” He even compared some figures commemorated by the Church to the founder of the Soviet Union’s secret police, Felix Dzerzhinsky, whose statues were pulled down in 1991. “It’s what people do in times like this, and it’s a good thing,” he declared. Welby went on to take issue with the way Jesus is portrayed in Church art – the “sense that God is white” – saying it would…

From the day he “walked into Liverpool”, in 2015, Jürgen Klopp has looked at home, said Martin Samuel in the Daily Mail. “He got the club, he got the city.” The German understood that the odds were “stacked against him” – that the Reds lagged behind the league’s top teams. But he was used to it: his previous successes had always come “at the expense of a wealthier and more powerful rival”. At Mainz 05, where he became manager after playing as a striker and then defender, the team were promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time. At Borussia Dortmund, he won back-to-back league titles and reached the Champions League final. Klopp’s influence is “spiritual”: more than perhaps any other manager today, he knows how to inspire his footballers.…

To The Guardian What a shame that yet another story has been written about that iconic photograph of the medal ceremony for the 200 metres in the 1968 Mexico Olympics, without giving credit to the dignity and courage shown by the silver medallist, Peter Norman of Australia – a country that had strict apartheid laws, almost as strict as South Africa. Tommie Smith and John Carlos had asked Norman before the ceremony if he believed in human rights. Norman said he did. They asked him if he believed in God, and he, who had been in the Salvation Army, said he believed strongly in God. “We knew that what we were going to do was far greater than any athletic feat, and he said ‘I’ll stand with you’,” remembers John…

Paul Weller: On Sunset Polydor £11 Once the “archetypal angry young man”, Paul Weller turns out to be an old hippy at heart. The 62-year-old’s new album is a “rich tapestry of cosmic soul, rustic folk rock and psychedelic jazz, all befitting the spiritually inclined, dapper bohemian” he has become, said Will Hodgkinson in The Times. The erstwhile “Modfather” has even allowed his spikily cropped hair to “grow into a fine shoulder-length sweep” to match his new mellow mood. On all counts the style suits him: On Sunset is Weller’s “most adventurous album in years”. This strikingly diverse album is held together by “uniformly strong melodies” and an overriding lyrical theme of “contentment and growing into yourself”, said Alexis Petridis in The Guardian. Mirror Ball has “shimmering synths” that wouldn’t…

We tend to think of Alan Bennett as “an amusing figure in a cardigan”, said Anita Singh in The Daily Telegraph. But return to Talking Heads, his monologues to camera “in which outwardly respectable people reveal their inner thoughts”, and you’ll soon remember that he does darkness too. First broadcast in 1988 and 1998, ten of the original 12 pieces have been filmed again with actors including Kristin Scott Thomas and Martin Freeman, and two new pieces have been added. Bringing them back now was “a smart move” – they’re perfectly suited to “socially distanced filming”, and their introspective tone seems curiously apt, in lockdown. In the 1980s, “telly was just theatre on a screen”, said Hugo Rifkind in The Times: seeing Talking Heads is a reminder of how much…

The solar-powered car: a new future for EVs? It may not look like much, said Greg Potts in Top Gear, but the Sono Motors Sion is something very special: a crowdfunded, solar-powered electric car that should be on our roads by 2022. Of course, the Sun can’t power it all the time – it’s still a plug-in electric vehicle (EV) – but its German makers say a mid-summer day in Munich should give it a pure solar range of about 21 miles. That is “impressive”. With a total plug-in range of 158 miles, it has a top speed of 87mph and goes from 0-62mph in under nine seconds. So is this the future of EVs? “We’ve seen solar-powered cars before,” said Andrew English in The Daily Telegraph. But only “featherweight”…

Boris Johnson laid out his vision for getting Britain back on its feet, pledging to “build, build, build”. But a YouGov survey revealed that 42% of UK businesses expect to lay off employees in the coming months – giving weight to the Bank of England’s view that although the country is recovering faster than was predicted, there is still a risk of high and persistent unemployment. Britons in jobs, meanwhile, are continuing to save: the latest BoE data shows that household savings soared by £56.6bn during the three months of lockdown. The end of Q2 was marked by significant gains on stock markets in the US and Europe. The S&P 500 rose 20%, its biggest quarterly gain since 1998. But over the past month, European stocks have outperformed – driven…

● London stalling London has emerged as the “most unloved equity market” in the second quarter, putting in a “sluggish performance” compared to its peers, said James Dean in The Times. While New York, Frankfurt and Tokyo surged ahead with double-digit gains of around 20%, the FTSE 100’s Q2 gain (measured last Friday with two days of trading to go) came in at just 8.6%. It seems Covid-19 fears are “being compounded by concerns about Brexit”. Goldman Sachs’ Sharon Bell points out that the London market looks “exceptionally cheap”. But to regain its former popularity, three things need to happen: Brexit negotiations must be “seen to be going well”; oil prices need to recover; and the UK economy must continue to “improve”. Quite a tall order. ● Claret club Amid…

Markus Braun The disgraced boss of the German tech firm Wirecard – whose shares have crashed by 90% in recent months amid accusations of fraud – once claimed that he “sheds tears” when he goes to the opera, said the FT. But to most of his employees, Markus Braun, 50, came across as a cold fish, “aloof and mysterious”. The self-styled “tech visionary”, who adopted “Steve Jobs-style black turtlenecks”, reserved his energies for conferences, said The Wall Street Journal: he became renowned for his “grand predictions”. But when analyst Toby Clothier of Mirabaud Securities started studying Braun’s speeches, “his obsession with certain words” became clear, he told the FT – particularly “strong”, “machine-learning” and “ecosystem”. To the gullible, he was a visionary. But when you looked closely, “it was gobbledegook”.…