Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1290 i The Week

What happened Holiday chaos The Government warned that no foreign travel this summer was risk-free, days after abruptly imposing a two-week quarantine on travellers returning from Spain, and advising against all non-essential travel to the country. The reimposition of controls applies to both the Spanish mainland and the Balearic and Canary islands. Among the millions affected was the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, who cut short his Spanish holiday. Tour operators cancelled many flights and warned of a sharp drop in bookings to short-haul destinations. The rule change came in response to a spike of Covid-19 infections in Spain. The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said the move was “unjust”, pointing out that while the northeast of his country had seen a resurgence of the virus, the prevalence of Covid-19 in…

Jenni Murray, who revealed that she was standing down from BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, the show she has hosted for the past 33 years. Murray, 70, said the decision to resign had been “very hard”, but that it was “time to move on”. Train travel, with news that demand for alternatives to flights across Europe has grown so strong, overnight rail services are being revived in France. The first two, linking Paris with Nice and Tarbes, in the Pyrenees, are due to come into service in 2022. There are also plans for new sleeper services in Sweden, linking Stockholm and Malmö with Brussels and Hamburg.…

28% of Britons agree that it should be easier for people to change their legal gender, while 47% disagree. 16% think a doctor’s approval should no longer be required for a person to obtain a gender recognition certificate; 63% say it should. 46% of people say that transgender women should be allowed to use women’s toilets, while 30% disagree. 46% of women say that letting trans women do so does not present any genuine risk of harm to them, while 28% say it does. YouGov/The Times 89% of parents say it is either fairly or very likely that their children will return to school or college next term. However, 62% say they are very or somewhat worried about the return. Office for National Statistics/ The Daily Telegraph…

Portland, Oregon Protest violence: Six Democrat mayors have urged Congress to stop the Trump administration from sending in federal law enforcement agencies to their cities, after weeks of violent clashes in Portland between government security forces and anti-racism protesters (see page 14). President Trump sent federal officers to Portland in early July, purportedly to protect federal buildings, and says he plans to expand the deployment to other Democrat-controlled cities. The mayors of Portland, Chicago, Seattle, Albuquerque, Kansas City and Washington DC say the presence of federal forces against the wishes of local authorities is unlawful. In Portland, the agents are accused of stoking tensions. The Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the death of George Floyd in May are ongoing across the US. In Seattle, police confronted demonstrators with stun…

“Pret a Manger is to close 30 stores, at a loss of 1,000 jobs. Upper Crust, Café Rouge, Wagamama, Ask, Pizza Express and Zizzi are all shutting branches or scaling back. While the loss of anyone’s livelihood is a terrible misfortune, it is hard not to look at the ‘casual dining’ sector and ask: what the hell did you expect? You grabbed prime spots and squeezed out the old Italian bistro, the quirky coffee shop. You took a special thing people loved – a Patisserie Valerie eclair, Carluccio’s tortellini – sucked out the unique essence, served smaller portions, and flogged it at a ridiculous mark-up. Now, when money is uncertain, you expect families to make a special trip to eat your food?” Janice Turner in The Times…

Beijing must realise that the chips are down David Ignatius The Washington Post The “tech battle” between America and China is hotting up, says David Ignatius, but the US is in a stronger position than people realise. By most estimates, China still doesn’t hold a candle to the US in software and chip development; and US sanctions against Huawei, the Chinese giant currently dominating the 5G telecoms market, have hit China’s supply of tech hardware. A recent analysis by the UK’s communications intelligence agency, GCHQ, predicts that Huawei may begin running out of complex US-designed semiconductors and other essential gear during the next year. Without this gear, the firm will struggle to produce high-quality equipment, and it could take years before it’s able to manufacture reliable alternatives of its own.…

Around 30 million people in England will be offered a free flu vaccine this winter, twice as many as had it last year. Normally, the jab is routinely offered to pre-school and primary children, pensioners, pregnant women, people with certain health conditions and healthcare workers. This year, it is being extended to over-50s, children in their first year of secondary school, and anyone who was required to shield from Covid-19 and the people they live with. The programme is designed to minimise the risk of the NHS being overwhelmed by flu cases at the same time as it may also be contending with a Covid second wave. There is also some evidence that if patients contract both viruses, they’re more likely to die than if they get just one. The…

A few years ago, it looked as if Stuart Broad’s “brilliant” England career was coming to an end, said Tim Wigmore in The Daily Telegraph. The fast bowler seemed to have lost his old “incisiveness”: over 17 Tests, from 2016 to January 2018, he’d managed just 42 wickets, at 38 runs apiece. But in March 2018, just before England’s tour of New Zealand, Joe Root urged him to “attack more with the new ball, even if it meant risking conceding more runs”. Broad took the advice and became a less cautious bowler, with dramatic results: in the 26 Tests since, he has taken 102 wickets – “the highest tally in the world” – at 22 runs apiece. Even so, the 34-year-old was dropped for the first Test against West Indies…

Liverpool finished the season with 99 points, one point short of the Premier League record. In second place, Manchester City were 18 points behind them, with 81 points. Chelsea came fourth; Tottenham finished sixth, to qualify for the Europa League. Aston Villa’s 1-1 draw with West Ham saved them from relegation; Bournemouth and Watford were relegated, alongside Norwich. Leicester striker Jamie Vardy finished as top scorer, with 23 league goals. Manchester City‘s Kevin de Bruyne equalled Thierry Henry’s league record of 20 assists.…

Bacurau This satirical, ultra-violent but ultimately moving Brazilian western won the Jury Prize at Cannes last year. Set in the near future, it concerns a remote village whose inhabitants have been sold out by corrupt politicians to a tourism company with a shockingly exploitative agenda. On Amazon and Mubi. Echo in the Canyon Fronted by Jakob Dylan (son of Bob), this documentary about the 1960s LA music scene was criticised by some for its loose storytelling and narrow chronological focus (Joni Mitchell scarcely gets a look in). Others loved it for its starry array of interviewees and its nostalgic take on bands such as The Byrds and The Mamas and the Papas. On Amazon, Apple, Google and Sky. A White, White Day In this slow-burning Icelandic drama, Ingvar Sigurðsson plays…

New cars: what the critics say The Daily Telegraph You might yawn at the thought of “yet another small SUV”, but this one has a lot to offer – and is worthy of notice. The 2008 has a “stable and comfortable ride”, matched by a “stylish, spacious interior” filled with “all the toys you could ever wish for”. But there is a “price to pay for all this finery”, and in a crowded market you have to ask yourself if it’s really worth the extra money. Top Gear There is a much broader range of engines – petrol, diesel and fully electric – available with the 2008 than with most rivals, which tend to stick with petrol. Some of the other small SUVs are more fun to drive, but the…

The spot price of gold, a traditional safe haven, climbed nearly 2% earlier in the week to hit an all-time high of $1,945/oz, eclipsing the 2011 high of $1,921. The dollar fell nearly 1% to a two-year low. Both reflect continued anxiety about the US economy – following renewed lockdowns across the country – and wrangling in Congress over the White House’s proposed stimulus package, which would greatly cut jobless benefits. Global stocks remained steady ahead of this week’s US Federal Reserve meeting. In Britain, the latest GFK consumer confidence index showed that households have stopped feeling negative about their personal finances for the first time since the lockdown began, thanks to the increase in savings piles. But expectations for the general economy over the next year remain negative. Begbies…

Controversy of the week A “hi-tech genocide” “At last it appears that the British government is willing to address what is perhaps the greatest ongoing human rights atrocity on the planet,” said James McMurray in The Guardian: the mass incarceration, forced political indoctrination and torture of Uighurs and other Muslim people in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region. Last week, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab publicly condemned the “gross and egregious” human rights abuses under way there. The denials of the Chinese ambassador, Liu Xiaoming – even when confronted on Andrew Marr’s BBC show with drone footage of blindfolded, shackled Uighur men being transported in large numbers – were only to be expected. China denied that perhaps a million Uighur people had been interned in “reeducation camps” until the evidence became incontrovertible. The…

Wiley, the grime artist, after Twitter gave into public pressure, and permanently banned him for posting a series of anti-Semitic comments. The musician called Jews “snakes”, linked them to the Ku Klux Klan, and wrote: “I don’t care about Hitler”. Book charts, after an author revealed that he had bought 400 copies of his own novel to get a place on the bestseller lists. Mark Dawson spent £3,600 on copies of his book The Cleaner, to bump himself into The Sunday Times’s top ten. He said he didn’t think it was cheating, though, as he’d found buyers for them overseas. Stephen Lamonby, an engineering lecturer at Solent University, who lost his claim for unfair dismissal. He was sacked after suggesting to his course leader that Jews were “the cleverest people…

Loch Lomond, Stirling Antisocial camping: There has been a surge in the number of people wild camping in the Scottish Highlands, leading to littering and environmental damage. Although wild camping is legal in Scotland, visitors are expected to abide by a code of conduct – and in some areas, there are by-laws to restrict it. In July, 21 people were charged in a single weekend with breaking such laws in the Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park. Officials said they’d lit fires illegally, damaged trees and left “unacceptable” amounts of litter and discarded equipment. In the Cairngorms, the fire brigade put out 50 fires in 48 hours last week. At Aviemore, locals called for a local caravan park to reopen, after scores of tents and motorhomes were pitched on the…

How George became a poet Growing up on an estate in west London, George Mpanga – now better known as George the Poet – wanted to be a rapper. The son of refugees from Uganda, he was “talking street” by the age of five. He learnt to MC at his grammar school and won a record deal after graduating from Cambridge. But his label wasn’t keen on his lyrics exploring racial politics. And he wasn’t sure people would listen anyway. “I felt like if everything I said was all about how hard it is on the streets, there would be no distinction between me and the prevailing narrative of rap music,” he told Decca Aitkenhead in The Sunday Times. So he started writing poetry. “I just wanted to subvert all…

Tackling the virus: a British success story Editorial The Observer It’s not every day you see a piece entitled “The Brits are on course to save the world”, says The Observer. But the truly startling thing about that recent headline – from an article on Bloomberg Opinion by leading US economist Tyler Cowen – is that it referred to Britain’s role in dealing with Covid-19, a crisis our Government is widely seen to have botched. Cowen isn’t being contrarian. He’s just pointing out that, while our politicians may have fallen short, British scientists assuredly have not. They’ve not just produced the leading vaccine contender for Covid-19; they’ve excelled in the hunt for successful treatments. It’s thanks to scientists at Oxford that hospitals around the world are now treating Covid patients…

What the scientists are saying… “Campfires” on the Sun The closest images of the Sun ever taken have revealed that its surface is dotted with looping solar flares, reminiscent of campfires, reports Hannah Devlin in The Guardian. The footage was captured by the Solar Orbiter, a joint mission between the European Space Agency and Nasa. On its first close approach, the craft, which launched in February, came within 48 million miles of the Sun’s surface (about equidistant between Earth and its star). The images it has sent back show a series of flickering beacons; each spans a few hundred miles across, and lasts mere minutes before fizzling out. “The campfires are little relatives of the solar flares that we can observe from Earth, million or billion times smaller,” said Dr…

The Sussexes: let down by the Firm? “Is there anything we do not know about Harry and Meghan,” wondered Joanna Williams in The Spectator. They stepped back as “senior royals” last year and moved to California, to avoid the media spotlight, and they’ve made it clear they’ll go to court to defend their privacy. And yet this week, intimate details of their lives came spilling out all the same, in a new book, Finding Freedom. It tells us that Harry was “in a trance” on his first date with Meghan Markle; that he was furious when his brother urged him to take time to “get to know this girl”; and that after discussing marriage with her prince, Meghan performed the “perfect” yoga pose. The Sussexes insist they didn’t cooperate…

“The Government’s dedicated efforts to destroy our economy and an entire way of life have moved up a step,” said Peter Hitchens in the Mail on Sunday. Just as Britain’s embattled high streets were stirring “feebly back into life” after the lockdown, the great “muzzle edict” came into force last Friday – killing off any hope of a genuine consumer revival by making the wearing of face masks compulsory in shops, banks, takeaways, stations and airports. Somehow, our hapless leaders have convinced themselves that mandating the use of “face nappies” will increase consumer confidence. But making us all wear a piece of soggy cloth over our mouths, on the most flimsy evidence, will do the opposite. It will simply make people more afraid to venture out, thereby hastening the destruction…

It was a match worth £100m, said Phil McNulty on BBC Sport. With just a single point separating Manchester United and Leicester when they met on the last day of the season, United knew a draw would be enough to finish in the top four and secure Champions League qualification, whereas the Foxes had to win to be sure of making the cut. In the event, United won 2-0, putting them third, while Leicester finished fifth. At the final whistle, as the Red Devils “gathered in a corner in a jubilant huddle, many of their Leicester counterparts were on their knees”. After an extraordinary start to the season, the Foxes expected more, said Rob Tanner on The Athletic. Between late August and December, they won 12 of their 14 matches;…

China’s vandalism To The Daily Telegraph John Billington is right to say in his letter that China is the most aggressive and totalitarian power since the Second World War. In Tibet, the Chinese authorities have ordered the destruction of prayer flags – innocuous strips of coloured cloth with prayers printed on them, which are very important in Tibetan culture. They are found hanging throughout the country, and when the wind blows, messages of peace and compassion radiate out to the four corners of the universe. Tibetans are being forced to take them down as part of the Communist campaign of “behavioural reform”. This is an act of pure vandalism and shows utter contempt for Tibetan religion and culture. Zara Fleming, Ruthin, Denbighshire Is it hot in here? To The Guardian…

Pinpointing Vermeer Once described as “the most beautiful painting in the world” by Marcel Proust, Johannes Vermeer’s The View of Delft is perhaps “the most famous cityscape of the 17th century”, says Daniel Boffey in The Guardian. Yet we hardly know anything about Vermeer, and the date at which he painted it has been a matter of scholarly debate for decades. Now, though, an astronomy professor thinks he has the answer: 8am on 3 September 1659. Texas State University’s Donald Olson and colleagues reached this impressively precise conclusion after mapping out landmarks on a visit to Delft, studying the light patterns, and establishing the angle of the Sun that would be required to create the painting’s light effects. He then used astrological software to determine the exact dates at which…

Ed is furious: there’s been more fly-tipping and one of his ewes is injured. Emma is growing veg using Joe’s old seeds; she wants to help Clarrie with the gardening but is wary of treading on her toes. Reminiscing about the Flower and Produce show, she wonders about having it online this year, but no one else thinks it’s a good idea. Chris is in a state: his client Thandi has accused him of spreading gossip and injuring her horse. He’s sure he did neither, but her online abuse will hurt his business. Brian muses about Alice giving up her job – he’s not sure why she quit, but she’s got her head screwed on. A very hungover Alice has some hair of the dog to feel better and has…

Titan of the American civil rights movement John Lewis 1940-2020 John Lewis, who has died aged 80, was a towering figure of the US civil rights movement, said The New York Times. An “apostle of non-violence”, he was the last surviving speaker from the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom; he played a pivotal role in the March from Selma, in 1965, and later carried a “mantle of moral authority” into Congress. During his years of activism, he was beaten, spat upon and often arrested, but his commitment to the cause of racial justice never wavered. John Lewis was born near Troy, Alabama in 1940 to parents who were sharecroppers. One of ten children, he grew up on the farm, and went to segregated schools. As a child…

“HSBC’s political agonies go on,” said Nils Pratley in The Guardian. “In the West, the bank is being bashed for its disgraceful public support for draconian security laws in Hong Kong.” In China, meanwhile, state media have begun portraying it as the evil “accomplice” of Washington in its battle with 5G specialist Huawei, which the US has named a national security threat. It’s hard to see how HSBC can possibly win in this stand-off. “The bank seems to have gained no credit with Beijing for being cuddly over Hong Kong.” Instead, “the authorities seem to enjoy making soft threats” against its Chinese business. Last weekend, HSBC took the risky step of communicating directly with the Chinese public via the social media app WeChat – claiming it hadn’t participated in the…

● EUphoria... Regardless of whether you think the EU is “the best thing since sliced bread, or a monstrous antidemocratic Trojan horse”, the s750bn Covid-19 recovery deal agreed last week by the bloc’s leaders really matters to investors, said John Stepek on MoneyWeek.com. Why? For one simple reason: it “kicks the most dangerous global financial tail risk – a deflationary eurozone breakup – into the long, long grass”. Of course, financial markets have already been pricing that in, but European stocks could well have further to go. This looks like a good time to “take a look at your exposure” to the region. ● …with caveats “Signs of a newly upbeat mood are everywhere,” agreed Michael Mackenzie in the FT. The euro is close to a two-year high against the…

Needs must: it’s time to tax homes Nils Pratley The Guardian The Office for Budget Responsibility reports that Britain’s public finances are “on an unsustainable path”. What’s new, asks Nils Pratley. The difference now is that Covid-19 has made the debt numbers so large that “big, radical long-term solutions” are needed. Ultimately, “there are only two places that a hard-up Chancellor can go to raise large sums slowly: pensions and property”. The former presents “huge political pitfalls” – so how about tapping the £5.1trn estimated to sit in home equity? The Social Market Foundation reckons that a 10% capital gains tax when selling primary residences could raise £421bn over 25 years. True, the idea is likely to be “toxic” to home-owning older voters. “Yet the list of virtues is long”…

Most workers in the UK have less leisure time than they did 40 years ago, according to research by the Resolution Foundation. Men are spending slightly less time on average on paid work than in 1974, but are doing more unpaid work, such as cooking and shopping. Women are spending 45 more minutes a day on paid work – and also spending 30 minutes more on active childcare, having reduced the amount of time they spend socialising, cooking and doing sport. A street in Newquay that was named Bank Street in the 1800s because there were so many banks on it will soon have none. A branch of Barclays is the last one standing, and it is closing in October. Locals have suggested it be renamed No Bank Street.…

Labour has been warned that fighting a slew of lawsuits relating to allegations of anti-Semitism in the party during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership is taking a serious toll on its finances. This week, lawyers from a firm in Manchester are believed to have notified party officials about nine new claims they are making on behalf of current and ex members, for alleged breaches of privacy and data protection laws. All nine had made confidential complaints about anti-Semitism, only for their messages to be included in an internal party report that was leaked to the media. Last week, the party agreed to pay “substantial” damages to whistle-blowers it had defamed. Settling the new cases could cost hundreds of thousands, sources have said; fighting them would cost a lot more.…

Paris Terrace chill: Café owners in France are to be banned from using outdoor patio heaters, to help the country meet its climate change targets. Unveiling the measure, the ecology minister, Barbara Pompili, described the use of outdoor heaters as akin to assisting “ecological aberrations”. Some towns already ban them. However, she said that as the restaurant sector is already struggling in the pandemic, the national ban won’t come into force until next year. It was one of a number of proposals put forward by a citizens’ body for climate action set up by President Macron. Others included a ban on shops and other public buildings from keeping their front doors open when using central heating or air conditioning. Bilbao, Spain Subsea link: Google has announced plans to build a…

1 Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide, written and performed by David Bowie 2 The Queen Is Dead by Morrissey and Johnny Marr, performed by The Smiths 3 Kids’ Song, written and performed by Mic Christopher 4 Telephone Thing by Mark E. Smith and Coldcut, performed by The Fall 5 The Only One I Know, written and performed by The Charlatans 6 Everything Goes My Way by Joseph Mount, performed by Metronomy 7 The Suburbs (continued), written and performed by Arcade Fire 8* Moments of Pleasure, written and performed by Kate Bush Book: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway Luxury: a word processor * Choice if allowed only one record…

Baboons at Knowsley Safari Park on Merseyside are notorious vandals, known for damaging visitors’ cars. Now, they’ve been spotted wielding knives and screwdrivers. “We’re not sure if they are being given weapons by guests who want to see them attack cars, or if they’re fishing them out of vans,” said one park worker. “One of the baboons was seen lugging around a chainsaw.” A park spokesman insisted the reports of armed primates were an “exaggeration”. Londoners were startled last week when a man strutted through town wearing nothing but a face mask. Tim Shieff, 32, covered only his modesty with the mask in protest at rules making face coverings compulsory in shops. “I’m not going to be muzzled for other people’s lack of awareness,” he declared. Erotic massage parlours and…

CHINA The crisis brewing at the Winter Games Bloomberg (New York) The Covid-enforced postponement of the Japan 2020 Olympics, which were due to open last week, is the most serious crisis to hit the Games in decades, says Adam Minter. “But in all likelihood, it will soon be the second most serious.” Back in 2012, when bidding to host the 2022 Winter Olympics opened, officials wanted the Games to return to Europe. But a slew of contenders pulled out – leaving organisers to choose between Beijing and Almaty in Kazakhstan, a city woefully ill-equipped to put on such a huge event. Beijing still only managed a narrow victory: its “largely snowless” winters counted against it; and officials were influenced by long-held concerns over China’s autocratic regime, which had made Beijing…

By the end of the century, polar bears will have largely disappeared from the Arctic, a study published in Nature suggests. The authors examined the possible impact on the bears of two climate change scenarios: a “business-as-usual” one, in which greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise at their present rate; and a second in which they are moderately mitigated. In the former case, they found that most polar bears would begin to experience “reproductive failure” by the 2040s, and that by 2100 only one population would remain – in Canada’s Queen Elizabeth Islands. The outcome of the other scenario was only slightly less bleak, with most populations predicted to experience reproductive failure by 2080. Unable to find all the sustenance they need on land, polar bears do much of their…

Over 32 years at the BBC, John Humphrys interrogated politicians of all stripes – but he’ll never forget his first encounter with Margaret Thatcher. He had planned to trip her up by asking her what she thought was the “essence of Christianity” – assuming she’d answer “love” or “charity”. “I would say vehemently: ‘Ha, you talk about love, you talk about charity, look at the state of the country,’” he recalled. “She would resign on the spot and I would be the hero of a grateful nation. Of course, it did not work out like that... She did not hesitate for a millisecond and snapped back: ‘Choice.’” Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis faced a backlash over her damning monologue condemning Dominic Cummings for his trip to Barnard Castle during lock-down. She was…

“One likes people much better when they’re battered down by a prodigious siege of misfortune than when they triumph.” Virginia Woolf, quoted in the Daily Mail “He could nutmeg a mermaid.” Sam Saunders, Brentford’s assistant coach, of winger Saïd Benrahma, quoted in The Observer “Economic forecasts are like sausages; when you’ve seen how they are made you don’t want to go near them.” Matthew Goodwin on UnHerd “If you want to be a millionaire, start with a billion dollars and launch a new airline.” Richard Branson, quoted on Bloomberg “It is easy to be tolerant when you do not care.” Theologian Clement F. Rogers, quoted in Forbes “Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything.” John Kenneth Galbraith, quoted on iNews.co.uk “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not…

In recent weeks, tennis has been pretending that it’s undergoing a “slow recovery”, said Kevin Mitchell in The Observer. After all, there have been “small tournaments and brave experiments in reinventing formats of the game”: this week’s Battle of the Brits is a good example. But when it comes to competitions that really matter – we are “a long way from normality”. Of the 62 events scheduled between now and Christmas, “only a handful have a chance of happening”. The Davis Cup finals have already been cancelled; the ATP World Tour Finals, which are due to take place in London in November, could also be “put out to pasture”. The grand slams aren’t safe either, said Stuart Fraser in The Sunday Times. The French Open made the smart decision of…

To The Times The smart money seems to be on the “given” that nothing can be done about Russian interference in the Scottish and EU referendums and the 2019 election. Would not a prudent nation call a halt to the process of leaving the EU until it could be established that the referendum result was sound? We may have left already, but how many millions of us will cling to our belief that we have done so on a forged ticket. Paddy McEvoy, March, Cambridgeshire To The Times It is concerning that the Russian state tried to surreptitiously influence democratic processes in the UK. In future, perhaps it should follow the example of celebrities, multinational companies, the head of the IMF and the leader of the free world, who all…

James Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook: Solitude Chandos £10.50 As a pairing, tenor James Gilchrist and pianist Anna Tilbrook are “well-established and ever-brilliant”, said Fiona Maddocks in The Observer; and they are true to form on this “compelling” new disc of songs and song cycles exploring various facets of solitude. The programme takes in Purcell’s 1685 song O solitude, my sweetest choice! (in Britten’s 1955 arrangement); Schubert’s relatively little-heard first song cycle Einsamkeit; and Barber’s Hermit Songs. But the centrepiece is Jonathan Dove’s 2017 Under Alter’d Skies, a “restless and beguiling” rendition of poems by Tennyson. Gilchrist is a “hugely clear and communicative singer”, said Erica Jeal in The Guardian, and as usual, he is “in perfect balance with Tilbrook’s sense of focus and poise”. They are especially good at “building…

In the news coverage, we rarely hear from the ordinary civilians and soldiers caught up in wars, but they are the stars of the BBC’s “riveting” five-part documentary series about the 2003 invasion of Iraq, said Anita Singh in The Daily Telegraph. Director James Bluemel takes a simple approach, intercutting interviews to camera with archival footage. But it’s deeply effective, not least because his subjects describe their experiences so clearly. What emerges is a tragic portrait of a nation that was released from tyranny only to be plunged into a new era of “misery and chaos”. One Iraqi civilian was a teenager playing in a heavy metal band in 2003, said Carol Midgley in The Times. He longed to be American, until he first saw a civilian family obliterated in…

Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez, 2020 (Dialogue Books £14.99). Described as “explosive”, “beautiful”, “original”, this exciting debut novel is all of these things. A young, black, gay Jehovah’s Witness from the Midlands runs away to London, becomes a prostitute and finally makes sense of the world. Full of lust, longing and pathos. Dear Reader by Cathy Rentzenbrink, 2020 (Picador £12.99). This is a reader’s companion from a wise and compassionate writer who leads us through the difficult and joyous bits of her life as a mother and bookseller, recommending books on themes like motherhood and loss. Buy two copies when it comes out in September: one to keep and one for the reader in your life. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo, 2019 (Penguin £8.99). Following the lives of 12…

In a welcome bit of news for theatre-goers, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre has announced a late summer reopening, having previously postponed its entire 2020 programme. A concert version of its 2016 hit production of Jesus Christ Superstar will play to socially distanced audiences from 14 August to 27 September, while its MoreOutdoor Mondays will feature performances by comedians Rob Beckett (17 August) and Jimmy Carr (24 August), and Russell Brand’s typically brash take on recent events, Brand-emic (14 September). Face coverings will be mandatory. For information and tickets, visit openairtheatre.com.…

This crisp, battered manifestation of the humble cauliflower is based on salt and pepper squid – a dish I can’t resist when I go to a Chinese restaurant, says Ravinder Bhogal. Coated in a batter laced with mouth-tingling Sichuan peppercorns, these “popcorn” won’t last long on the plate Serves 4 as a starter 1 cauliflower, cut into small florets small handful of Thai basil leaves 6 spring onions, thinly sliced 2 red chillies, thinly sliced 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced groundnut oil, for deep-frying lime wedges, to serve for the dipping sauce: 100ml Chinkiang black vinegar 80ml light soy sauce 1 red chilli, finely chopped small thumb of ginger, finely grated 2 tsp toasted sesame oil 1 tsp caster sugar 1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted for the batter: 2 tsp…

Unilever: top of the pile Unilever has never exactly been a glamorous company – but, thanks to the pandemic, it has finally achieved its moment in the sun. The consumer conglomerate last week “leapfrogged” drugmaker AstraZeneca to “take the top spot in the blue-chip FTSE 100 index” as Britain’s most valuable company, said Laura Onita and Chris Johnston in The Daily Telegraph. It didn’t take much. Shares jumped by as much as 8% on news that “sales were almost flat in the first half of the year”: the results were crucially “far better than a sharp fall predicted by analysts” – and they gained an extra fillip from the suggestion that the conglomerate might sell its PG Tips tea business. In earlier recessions, the term “lipstick effect” has been…

“It is two decades since the US government took on Microsoft over allegations that it illegally crushed competition,” said James Titcomb in The Sunday Telegraph. Since then, Silicon Valley’s main competition watchdog has been the EU. That changed this week when the “four horsemen of Big Tech” – Apple’s Tim Cook, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Google’s Sundar Pichai – appeared before the US Congress’s anti-trust committee. If these titans were hoping to downplay their power, the timing couldn’t have been worse. All four were expected to file buoyant figures this week – and Apple alone has enjoyed a 32% surge in its market capitalisation this year to $1.61trn. Indeed, tech’s four big hitters are now jointly worth $5.85trn – “nearly treble” the value of the entire FTSE…

Stuart Wheeler When Stuart Wheeler, who has died aged 85, lost his job in the City during the 1973 banking crisis, a friend suggested he set up a betting business to cash in on the “fevered speculation in gold”, said The Times. Wheeler started his spread-betting firm IG Index with £30,000 invested by six friends, swiftly expanding its scope to encompass shares, sporting events and election results. It turned out to be a “fabulous investment”. On IG’s flotation in 2000, shares originally worth £100 a piece romped home at £12m. If pioneering the growth of spread betting secured Wheeler’s place in the financial history books, the deployment of his £90m fortune helped change British history, said The Daily Telegraph. He became one of the Conservative Party’s “most powerful financial backers…

The week’s best shares Anglo Pacific Group Investors Chronicle Anglo buys royalties on mining projects, taking a percentage of revenues. Collapsing coal prices knocked millions off first-half revenues, but a better second half beckons and, crucially for an income stock, a dividend “revision” looks unlikely. Buy. 119p. Britvic The Times The cancellation of Wimbledon was “a blow” for the drinks company, which sponsors the event. But the CEO’s warnings of an uncertain future, short term, seem “overly cautious”. Shares should rise. Buy. 795p. Caretech Holdings The Mail on Sunday These are “torrid” times for the social care sector as a whole, but Caretech – which specialises in homes and schools for children and young adults – has proved “resilient”. The dividend has increased every year since 2007. Shares look cheap…