Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1297 i The Week

What happened An outlaw government? A controversial new law that would give ministers the power to override key parts of the divorce deal signed with the EU cleared its first parliamentary hurdle this week, despite a Tory rebellion. MPs backed the Internal Market Bill by 340 votes to 263. The legislation – which Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis conceded last week would breach international law “in a very specific and limited way” – had been attacked by all five living former PMs, along with a number of Tory grandees, including Norman Lamont and Michael Howard. Boris Johnson defended the bill in the Commons, saying the powers it conferred were a vital insurance policy designed to protect the integrity of the UK in the event of a no-deal Brexit. He accused…

Disney has launched a line of wedding dresses inspired by characters in its films and aimed at brides who want to feel like a “princess”. The dresses in the Fairy Tale Wedding Collection include ones named after Cinderella, Belle from Beauty and the Beast, Jasmine from Aladdin and Ariel from The Little Mermaid – and promise “magic in every thread”. A new trend for “space burials” – in which a loved one’s cremated remains are sent up to the heavens in a brightly coloured helium balloon – is taking off in Japan. The company behind the idea, Balloon Kobo, has so far carried out 300 of the space burials. It says the balloons reach a height of between 131,000 and 164,000 feet, before bursting and scattering the ashes.…

Charlie Elphicke, the former Tory MP for Dover, has been sentenced to two years in jail for sexual assault. The 49-year-old father of two was convicted in July of groping a parliamentary worker in his office in 2016, and another woman at his London home in 2007. “You’re a sexual predator who used your success and respectability as a cover,” said Mrs Justice Whipple at the hearing. Elphicke lost the Tory whip in 2017 when the allegations were referred to police. He was reinstated in December 2018, but did not stand for re-election. He says he plans to appeal his conviction.…

Bordeaux Hospitals on brink: Health officials in Bordeaux and Marseille have warned that local hospitals are coming under intense pressure owing to a sharp increase in Covid-19 patients. The main hospital in Bordeaux had 25 patients in intensive care with Covid-19 this week, up from none a month ago, and its director warned that all the signs are now “flashing red”. In Marseille, which has 195 cases per 100,000 residents, hospitals were described as “close to saturation”. This week, the governments in both regions announced measures to restrict the spread of the virus, including a ban on public gatherings of more than ten. France is now recording 7,000 to 10,500 new cases a day, up from 2,000 a month ago. However, President Macron has indicated that he is unwilling to…

“I find the welcoming rituals of my sons’ generation exotically warm. Young men dole out back-slapping ‘bro-hugs’. Girls treat friends of both sexes to lingering full-body embraces. The trouble is, they’re still at it. I’d bet the surge in Covid cases among the under-25s has come about because they are habitually touchy-feely. ‘It’s the girls,’ one twentysomething told me. ‘They hug everyone.’ Watching one female stranger move around the pub table dispensing hugs, he resolved to stick out a socially distanced elbow. But as his turn came, restraint faded and he fell into her arms. ‘It’s funny,’ he said, ‘how peer pressure is stronger than fear of the virus.’” Janice Turner in The Times Desert Island Discs returns next week…

Care homes: a tale of cruelty and despair Nicci Gerrard The Observer The way dementia patients in care homes have been treated during this pandemic “should make us sick with shame and pity”, says Nicci Gerrard. Afflicted by an illness that attacks their memory and sense of self, they draw special comfort from the presence of loved ones. Yet in the name of infection control, the Government has seen to it that this vital human link has been denied them. No longer visited, they feel confused; abandoned. But it’s not the fault of the care homes: it’s the grotesquely inflexible official guidelines, which prohibit those who run the homes from devising sensible precautions while still acting humanely towards those in their charge. That’s why John’s Campaign, a not-for-profit movement aimed…

Testosterone “helps weight loss” Severely obese men often have low testosterone levels. Now, researchers have found that giving such men injections of testosterone can help them slim down. The team looked at data on 471 obese men with hypogonadism (a condition that means they produce lower than average levels of testosterone); 276 of them had opted to have the hormone treatment, the rest declined, and thus served as a control group. Eight years later, the testosterone group had lost 23kg, on average, whereas the others had gained 6kg. The waists of the men in the testosterone group shrank, and these men were less likely to develop type 2 diabetes – and by the end of the study, their mortality rate was much lower than the control group, at 7.6% to…

Remarkable light has been shed on David Cameron’s close-knit clique, by the wife of one of his Old Etonian friends. In Diary of an MP’s Wife, Sasha Swire (who is married to Sir Hugo Swire) portrays the ex-PM as competitive, boozy and lewd. During a weekend visit to Chequers, Swire says they watch Poirot on Sunday night – but the men then stay up “to admire Keira Knightley’s nipples when she comes out of the fountain in Atonement”. On a break in Cornwall in 2011, just after the intervention in Libya, she finds the PM “pumped up and happy”. At Polzeath beach, he points out his teenage snogging haunts, and says: “What more do I want? A great day on the beach... and I’ve just won a war.” Later, on…

The Oscars have been “agonisingly slow” to tackle their “diversity problem”, said Kevin Maher in The Times. For most of this decade, campaigners have complained about the dearth of non-white actors and artists nominated for Oscars, and the snubbing of black films. Yet by 2019 the membership of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – which runs the awards – was still 84% white and 68% male, and that year, they nominated only a single non-white person in all the acting categories. Last week, though, the Academy took a momentous step. From 2024, any film seeking a best picture nomination will have to meet eligibility standards for “representation and inclusion”, both on and off screen. The measure was well-intentioned, but there is something disturbing and “anti-artistic” about imposing…

Premier League: Liverpool pip Leeds in opening-day thriller Liverpool’s title defence began last Saturday with “one of the grand fixtures of English football”, said Andy Hunter in The Observer: a match against last season’s “Championship champions”, Leeds United – who are back in the Premier League after a 16-year absence. And the match more than lived up to its billing: it was a pulsating, “wildly entertaining contest” that ended in a 4-3 victory for the Reds. Leeds played like a team “intent on making up for lost time”, said Paul Joyce in The Sunday Times. Sticking to the “adventurous principles” that earned them promotion, they swarmed forward at every opportunity, and drew level three times – twice in a frenetic first half that yielded five goals, and again in the…

Join the club To The Daily Telegraph Those people, including Lady Hale, who seem to think that the Garrick Club should be stripped of the right to determine its own membership rules on the grounds that these discriminate on grounds of sex, ought perhaps to reflect on the membership rules of the Girl Guides, the Soroptimists, the University Women’s Club, the Women’s Institute, women-only gymnasia, and many other organisations that exclude men and boys because of their sex. What is most depressing is the attitude of the claimant, Emily Bendell. Does she wish to belong to the Garrick because she likes the members? Does she seek a place of refuge from the pressures of professional life? A home-from-home in the city? Is she motivated by the pleasing amenities of the…

Hokusai’s Book of Everything The British Museum in London has bought 103 recently rediscovered drawings by the great Japanese painter and printmaker Hokusai (1760-1849), said Gareth Harris in The Art Newspaper. The works had remained out of view in a private French collection for more than 70 years, but “resurfaced” in Paris last year. They “appear to have formed part of one of the most ambitious publishing projects ever conceived”, said David Keys in The Independent – a Japanese plan to create a huge pictorial encyclopaedia. Known as the Great Picture Book of Everything, it was conceived by Hokusai (best known for his masterpiece The Great Wave) but was never finished. It was designed to offer Japanese people “comprehensive access to images of people, cultures and nature around the world”,…

Emma tells Jolene about her and Ed’s row with Chris and Alice, while Susan laments to Tracy that the family barbecue was a disaster, with everyone avoiding each other. Meanwhile, Tracy hears from Emma about the solicitor’s letter sent to Gavin threatening legal action, supposedly on her part. It’s a hoax: Tracy knows nothing but later works out that her son Brad sent the letter, hoping to bring in some money. She confiscates his phone as punishment. Robert asks Leonie if he can stay for a while to give Lynda some space. When he tells Lilian, she is aghast that things are so bad and urges him to stand up to Lynda. Lynda later confronts Lilian, who convinces her to see that she’s losing Robert and to fight for her…

The boom in organic food Lockdown had many effects on the nation’s food-buying habits: early on, sales of pasta and flour surged, while those of champagne bombed. Now another trend has surfaced, says Rebecca Smithers in The Guardian: sales of organic food and drink “rose sharply” while people were confined to their homes. Figures released by the Soil Association show that in the 12 weeks to the end of May – ten of which covered the lockdown – spending on organic products in supermarkets was up 18.7% on the previous year; by contrast, spending on non-organic goods went up 14.2%. At Waitrose, sales of organic chicken rose 42%, while spending on organic veg went up 23%. It’s not clear why, but polls suggest that people started to value food more…

Tips of the week... how to take care of your lawn ● September marks the start of a time of fast growth for lawns, and it is also often wet, so take the opportunity to mow on dry days whenever you can. In general, it’s not a good idea to scalp long grass, so when you start mowing again in February, keep the blade high, and lower it in summer. ● While raking can make a lawn look worse temporarily, it does it good in the long run. At the end of summer, rake vigorously before mowing to get out all the thatchy, mossy debris. Do it again gently in spring. ● Autumn is also a great time to aerate a lawn, especially a compacted one. This is best done…

Dame Diana Rigg 1938-2020 Diana Rigg, who has died aged 82, was “one of the most gifted classical actresses of her generation” – a founder member of the RSC, acclaimed for her performances in works such as Euripides’ Medea and Brecht’s Mother Courage. And yet she never quite escaped the memory of the TV role that made her famous, said The Daily Telegraph. From 1965 to 1968, Rigg dressed in a tight-fitting PVC catsuit to play Emma Peel – the karate-chopping, quick-witted private investigator in The Avengers. She’d taken over from Honor Blackman (Cathy Gale), and her character proved a similarly powerful partner for the urbane secret agent John Steed (Patrick Macnee). An “expert in the martial arts, a gifted chemist, brainy at business, sensitive to the arts and a…

UK inflation fell to its lowest level since 2015 in August, according to the Office for National Statistics. The consumer prices index fell to 0.2% in August, from 1% in July – driven in part by the cheaper meals provided by the Eat Out to Help Out scheme. Other factors included falling air fares and static clothing prices. The fall could increase pressure on the Bank of England to take further action to stimulate the economy. Heartening news of a sharp rebound in growth in July, when the UK economy grew by 6.6%, was offset by worries about the rising unemployment rate and the impact of the withdrawal of government support schemes. President Trump attacked a World Trade Organisation ruling that US tariffs levied on more than $200bn worth of…

● Lloyds conundrum “Something doesn’t seem to tally” in the current property market, said Patrick Hosking in The Times. On the one hand, estate agents have been talking up a “mini-boom” in housing. On the other, shares in Lloyds Banking Group –“Britain’s biggest mortgage lender by a country mile” – are on the floor “because investors are so worried about a possible surge in defaults and loan losses”. Surely they can’t both be right? ● Gloomy forecast The “gloom” over Lloyds (whose share price for most of the past five years has been double the current 26p level) isn’t just about the risk posed by mortgages: the lender also has a large business-banking unit which is vulnerable to a protracted recession. Moreover, “as a bellwether for the domestic economy”, Lloyds…

Jane Fraser For the first time in history, “a big Wall Street Bank will be led by a woman” – and a Brit to boot, said Jasper Jolly in The Guardian. Citigroup, which has assets of more than $2.2trn, has appointed Scottish-born Jane Fraser, 53, as its new CEO, making her “one of the few women at the top of the global banking industry”. Fraser, who was born in St Andrews and studied economics at Cambridge and Harvard, started her banking career at Goldman Sachs in London before heading stateside. She has worked for Citi for the past 16 years. Sometimes described as “gutsy”, Fraser is credited with working “frantically” to “keep the bank afloat” during the 2008-09 financial crisis, said The Sunday Times. As head of strategy and M&A,…

After a difficult few months during lockdown, booksellers have reported their best first week of September since records began. Almost 600 new hardbacks came out that week, many of them delayed releases from earlier in the year – prompting a rush to the shops. According to The Bookseller, sales were up 11.1% on the previous week. “We haven’t seen anything like it since Harry Potter,” Pat Booth, of the Plackitt & Booth bookshop in Lancashire, told The Guardian. The National Trust’s 200 apple orchards have had such a bumper crop this year that visitors are being offered fruit in exchange for a donation. The Trust’s orchards, which grow such rare varieties as Dog’s Snout (an old Yorkshire cooking apple), Catshead (which was widely grown in the 19th century) and Pig’s…

Hilary Mantel, who failed to make the Booker Prize shortlist. The writer had been tipped by some to win her third Booker, for the final part of her Wolf Hall trilogy. The six-strong list, hailed as the most diverse ever, features four books by black and ethnic minority authors, and four by women. All but one of the nominees are either American, or currently resident in the US. The BBC, with news that 250,000 fewer TV licences were sold last year than the year before – the sharpest drop in recent history. A report said this was down to more people limiting their viewing to online services such as Netflix, and a rise in unlawful evasion. Disney, after its new live-action film Mulan failed to impress in China. Based on…

In a poll comparing the views of young British Muslims and white non-Muslims (WNMs), one in five 18- to 30-year-olds in both groups agreed that there is an “unresolvable conflict between Islam and the West”. 15% of Muslims agreed that people should be prepared to forcefully defend their religion or culture, along with 9% of WNMs. Onne in five WNMs agreed that British culture is “under threat from invasion”. Savanta ComRes/ The Independent Only 51% of Americans say they would get a Covid-19 vaccine if one became available. In April, the figure was 72%. Among Republicans, 47% would accept a vaccine (down 22 points), while for Democrats, 61% would (down 20 points). Morning Consult/The Times…

A hot air balloonist has been ordered to pay v68,000 in compensation to a bird collector after scaring three of his rare parrots to death during a balloon race. The parrots – two macaws worth v40,000 and a yellow-naped amazon worth v1,250 – died of shock after a balloon’s burner was fired 160 feet from their cage in 2017, a Dutch court heard. After a three-and-a-half-year legal battle, the court ruled the balloonist must compensate the owner for the value of the parrots – plus any chicks they could have produced. It has been a bad few weeks for “gender reveal” parties, where an unborn baby’s sex is unveiled in a spectacular way. First, a firework at one of the parties sparked a wildfire in California; then the “biggest gender…

A revolutionary aircraft – which promises to use 20% less fuel than the most fuel-efficient commercial planes flying today – has undergone its first successful test flight. The Flying-V is, as its name suggests, V-shaped, which means that passengers and cargo are all accommodated in the plane’s wings (which are merged with the fuselage). This, its designers say, makes it much lighter than normal aeroplanes, and more aerodynamic. The test flight, at an airbase in Germany, involved a remote-control scale model, three metres wide and weighing 23kg. The model took off easily enough, after reaching a speed of 50mph; but it was a bit wobbly mid-air, and the landing was a “little rough”, according to a statement from the Delft University of Technology, which is overseeing the project. The full-scale…

At my home in southern California, “the outdoors is filthy grey at noon”, and the air reeks of smoke, said Helaine Olen in The Washington Post. Ash covers every surface – from the chairs on the lawn to the books on my coffee table; and everywhere I go, my eyes burn. “All this is from... well, I don’t know exactly.” It could be the Bobcat fire, which has destroyed 42,000 acres in the Angeles National Forest; or the El Dorado fire – started by a couple lighting fireworks at a “gender reveal” party; or another fire entirely: there are dozens raging in California, Oregon and Washington state. In San Francisco, the sky is so red, the city looks as though it has been “transported to Mars”. In Portland, the air…

“Keir Starmer resembles an armadillo,” said John Rentoul in The Independent. “That would be my answer to the popular focus-group question: if this or that politician were an animal, what would they be?” He’s a “well-armoured, compact, defensive unit” who protects himself well against “natural predators” such as Boris Johnson: the PM’s wild recent claim that he was an “IRA sympathiser” simply “bounced off”. And his “political style is to give little away”. For instance, Starmer almost certainly has a low opinion of Jeremy Corbyn, but any attempt to elicit criticism is “met with a blank face, an ambiguous smile and a brisk moving on of the conversation”. In his cautious way, he has “done a remarkable job” of pulling Labour back from its worst election defeat since 1935, while…

White ball cricket these days tends to be about “the big scores and the big hits”, said Steve James in The Times. But sometimes low-scoring contests are just as “compelling”. And so it proved with England’s “extraordinary and thrilling” victory over Australia in the second one-day international at Old Trafford. With his team trailing 1-0 in the series, Eoin Morgan opted to bat on a “tricky pitch” and, before Chris Woakes began the fightback with 26 from 39 balls, England were soon “truly in the mire” on 117 for five. Then, a “remarkable” ninth-wicket partnership of 76 between Tom Curran and Adil Rashid took England to 231 for nine, a total that had seemed “beyond their wildest dreams”. Even so, Australia looked set for a comfortable victory when Aaron Finch…

To the FT Many Irish people are not surprised by Britain’s decision to ignore an international treaty. Although its current popular usage dates to the French Revolution, the French idiom Albion perfide has been in use here for centuries. Irish history is replete with examples, not least of which was disregarding the Treaty of Limerick. The latter gave rise to the battle-cry of the Irish Brigade soldiers in the French service at Fontenoy in 1745. They, at a decisive point, drove the British back with the battle-cry “Cuimhnígí ar Luimneach agus ar fheall na Sasanach” (remember Limerick and Saxon perfidy). Bob Frewen, Ireland To The Daily Telegraph The civil service code has only ever said that a civil servant must “comply with the law”. Some seek to argue that “the…

Various: AngelHeaded Hipster – The Songs of Marc Bolan & T. Rex BMG £13 Marc Bolan was the “platonic ideal of a pop star – glamorous, impish, lovable yet elusive”, said Tim de Lisle in The Mail on Sunday. Now, 43 years after his death, he receives “one of the biggest compliments known to songwriters” – a tribute by Hal Willner, the great producer who sadly died earlier this year of Covid-19, soon after completing work on this wonderful album. Willner’s special gift was for matching material and artist, and here a starry array of Bolan fans – including U2 with Elton John, Joan Jett, Nick Cave, Peaches, and Marc Almond – deliver beautifully realised covers of some of his best songs. There are moments when Bolan’s “defiantly gibberish” lyrics…

“Endearingly gawky” film-maker Louis Theroux has been making documentaries about the wilder extremes of human nature for 25 years, and in this four-part BBC series, he takes a wry look at his past work, said Michael Hogan in The Daily Telegraph. Clips from the original interviews, with a UFO hunter, a patriot survivalist, a “hypnotist-cum-snake-oil-salesman” and more, are riveting. Theroux catches up with some subjects via Skype: it’s a relief to see that twins Lamb and Lynx Gaede, raised to be a “white-supremacist pop duo” called Prussian Blue, have renounced their racist beliefs. Lamb and Lynx’s story highlights the hope of progress lurking in much of Theroux’s work, said Ed Cumming in The Independent. Some subjects are “outright funny”, too. But there are shocking moments, such as when a neo-Nazi…

The author, broadcaster and cultural campaigner picks his five favourite books. His latest, An Elephant in Rome: Bernini, the Pope and the Making of the Eternal City (Pallas Athene £19.99), is out now The Story of Babar: The Little Elephant by Jean de Brunhoff, 1931 (Egmont £6.99). A constant companion and inspiration since it was first read to me by my mother. De Brunhoff’s marriage of text and illustration is one of the finest in the whole history of the book, and is there any scene in literature more heartrending than the murder of Babar’s mother? The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, 1958 (Vintage £9.99). Lampedusa captures the birth pangs of modern society in a way that is both analytical and emotional; he paints a vividly cinematic picture of…

In what has been described as “the best news for musicians”, London’s Wigmore Hall has announced a series of 100 concerts for autumn (Observer). Currently set to go ahead with socially distanced audiences, the performances will also be live-streamed and free to watch on demand for 30 days, with lunchtime concerts broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Performers include mezzo Sarah Connolly and harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, and there will also be talks. Until 22 Dec (wigmore-hall.org.uk).…

Cooking courgettes slowly combats their wateriness, making them fantastically soft and flavourful, say Yotam Ottolenghi and Ixta Belfrage. Good hot, this dish is even better after 15 minutes, once the flavours have got to know each other. Super-soft courgettes with harissa and lemon Serves 4 85ml olive oil 6 garlic cloves, finely sliced 1 tbsp rose harissa (adjust according to the brand you are using) 1 red chilli, finely chopped ½ a preserved lemon, finely chopped, discarding any pips 1½ tbsp lemon juice 1kg courgettes, finely sliced 10g basil leaves, roughly torn salt • Put the oil and garlic in a large sauté pan on a medium-high heat and gently fry for 4 minutes, stirring often until soft. You don’t want the garlic to become at all browned or crisp,…

The Daily Telegraph You’re likely to either love or hate the Toyota C-HR. Its “wild curves and creases” make it look like a real-life “concept car”, and it has divided opinion since its launch in 2016. Now, it has been given a “much-vaunted” 2.0-litre hybrid powertrain from the Corolla to boost performance, as well as comfort and handling. The old C-HR sold well, and this upgrade could bring it closer to the mainstream. What Car? While its dramatic styling might put it next to the Nissan Juke, the C-HR is actually closer to the popular Qashqai in size. However, its distinctive looks “don’t do wonders for practicality” – the rear seats are “cramped” and the boot is disappointing compared with those of competitors. However, the interior feels fairly solid and…

Sir Ronald Harwood 1934-2020 Ronald Harwood, who has died aged 85, was one of Britain’s best-known, and most prolific, playwrights. Having started writing in the 1960s, he had his first major success in 1980 with The Dresser – inspired by his time working with the actor-manager Donald Wolfit in the 1950s. Two decades later, he won global recognition as a screenwriter, with his Oscar-winning adaptation of The Pianist, the Polish musician Władysław Szpilman’s book about his life in the Warsaw ghetto. “The best thing about my life is that everything happened to me so late,” Harwood remarked. “I learnt to be phlegmatic, and no one wants to put you down when you have taken so long to get there.” He was born Ronald Horwitz in Cape Town in 1934. His…

One of the more accurate predictions at the start of the coronavirus pandemic was that it was likely to lead to a deluge of lawsuits. In that context, the “jilting of Tiffany” is fast emerging as a perfect period piece, said Liam Kelly in The Sunday Times. When the French luxury-goods giant LVMH declared last week that its $16.6bn (£12.9bn) offer to buy the celebrated US jeweller was effectively dead, Tiffany immediately sued to have the deal terms enforced – only to be whacked by a “counter claim” from LVMH alleging “dishonesty and mismanagement”. What an inglorious end to a tie-up which, when it was announced last November, was hailed not just as the “biggest luxury deal ever”, but also a “perfect match”. LVMH boss Bernard Arnault (aka “the wolf…

Former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn famously escaped his Japanese captors in a daredevil flit that saw him turn up in Lebanon on New Year’s Eve. His sidekick Greg Kelly was less fortunate, however. And this week his trial began in Tokyo. Prosecutors allege Ghosn, Kelly and Nissan “underreported Ghosn’s compensation by ¥9.2bn ($87m) in company filings over eight years through to 2018”, said Peter Landers in The Wall Street Journal. But while a Nissan representative “pleaded guilty on behalf of the company”, Kelly, an American lawyer, denied the charges, and defended his former boss in court. You might say he’s a classic fall guy. Certainly, his trial will provide the “closest thing to a legal judgment” on Ghosn himself. Ghosn was once hailed as a hero in Japan for turning…

“Perhaps Boris Johnson was just trying to cheer the nation up,” said The Times. The new rule of six restrictions had just been imposed last week when the PM announced Operation Moonshot, with his “trademark optimism”. This is a plan to introduce same-day mass testing by early next year: the idea, according to leaks, is that ten million people could be tested every day using only saliva samples, with the results given within 20 minutes. Even in the absence of a vaccine, this would allow normal life to resume. But in fact, “far from boosting the nation’s morale”, the announcement merely raised fresh doubts about Johnson’s “grip on the crisis”. Why? Because the cost would be vast, at around £100bn; because mass-testing on this scale is immensely complex; and, most…

The speed limit on four stretches of motorway in England is to be cut to 60mph, as part of a trial scheme to reduce pollution. Highways England says the new limit will apply for at least a year, on roughly five-mile-long stretches of road where high levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) have been recorded. These are on the M6 near Birmingham, the M1 near Rotherham, the M602 in Greater Manchester and the M5 in the West Midlands.NO 2 , released in exhaust gas, is a harmful pollutant, and an indirect contributor to climate change. If the trial is deemed a success, limits elsewhere may be reduced.…

Edinburgh Building renamed: Edinburgh University has announced that it is to rename its David Hume Tower, in response to protests about the enlightenment philosopher’s racist views. Around 1,800 people had signed a petition calling for the change, noting Hume’s use of “racist epithets”. While “nobody is demanding that he be erased from history”, it said, there’s “no reason the tallest building on campus should be named after him”. In 1753, Hume wrote that he suspected that “negroes” were “naturally inferior” to whites. Later, he encouraged his patron, Lord Hertford, to buy a slave plantation. Durham “Abhorrent” group chats: Durham University has launched an investigation into claims that a group of new students planned a competition in which a “posh lad” would aim to “shag the poorest girl” on campus. In…

Fonda’s radical life Jane Fonda’s father, Henry, was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars – but as a child she didn’t see much of him: he was either working or with one of his mistresses. When Jane was 12, her mother, Frances, killed herself. Henry sent her away to school, and they never spoke about her mother again. Yet she revered her father – so much so that when she began her parallel career as a political activist, campaigning against the Vietnam War, she tried to convert him to the cause. It didn’t work – but she remained firmly on that path. Her anti-war protests in the 1970s were so controversial, people demonstrated outside her films for years after, says Hadley Freeman in The Guardian. In the 1980s, she made her…

Computer scientists have dubbed it “Y2Q”: the year in which quantum code-cracking becomes a major problem. Although it is still some distance off, any business or government planning to store data for decades should be thinking now about the risks the technology poses: encryption technologies are deeply embedded in so many different systems that unravelling them and implementing new ones can take a great deal of time. As a result, there is already a big push to develop post-quantum cryptography. At present, encryption uses complex mathematics to scramble data so that it can’t be read without a key. Most common are “trapdoor functions” based on the maths of prime numbers – so-called because they are relatively easy to compute in one direction, but hard to compute in the other direction…

ITALY Why Covid has been the Mafia’s friend La Repubblica (Rome) The coronavirus pandemic has been a huge opportunity for Italy’s Mafias – and the rest of Europe could have the same problem, says Roberto Saviano. Never has the need for ready cash been so acute and widespread. Many Italian businesses were unable to pay rents and salaries before state aid began to flow; some never received any at all. Mafia loan sharks filled the void, with small business owners succumbing to offers of easy loans at extortionate interest rates. After all, such businesses are the perfect cover under which to launder gains from their criminal activities. The problem is especially acute in Italy, where Mafia groups boast “staggering” turnovers: the ’Ndrangheta in Calabria earns some s44bn a year; the…

During lockdown, road traffic fell dramatically all over the world. In Scotland, it was down 65%. And yet all those cars being off the road didn’t make much difference to levels of air pollution. A team at the University of Stirling analysed levels of PM2.5 fine particulate matter recorded at 70 roadside locations around Scotland from 24 March – the day after lockdown was introduced – to 23 April. They then compared the data to the same periods in previous years, and found no significant difference. However, they did detect a fall in levels of nitrogen dioxide. Based on these findings, the researchers say that cars may not be key contributors to outdoor pollution in Scotland, and that people there may be at greater risk from air pollution in their…

The brutal repression of peaceful protests in Belarus is “an affront to everyone who cherishes democracy”, said The New York Times. Since claiming victory in a “blatantly fixed election” last month, President Aleksandr Lukashenko has deployed security forces to beat up and detain demonstrators. Leading opposition figures, meanwhile, have been forced into exile. One of the women at the forefront of the protests, 38-year-old flautist Maria Kolesnikova, was driven to the Ukrainian border last week and, according to her lawyer, told she’d be removed from the country “alive or in bits”. She responded by tearing up her passport and remains in custody in Belarus. Despite such intimidatory tactics, tens of thousands of marchers have continued to take to the streets of Minsk each weekend. But whether dissidents can sustain this…

“Gratitude is merely the secret hope of further favours.” François de La Rochefoucauld, quoted in Forbes “Hollywood is a place where they’ll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and 50 cents for your soul.” Marilyn Monroe, quoted in The Sunday Times “A learned fool is more foolish than an ignorant one.” Molière, quoted in The Guardian “The trouble with socialism is socialism. The trouble with capitalism is capitalists.” Journalist Willi Schlamm, quoted on The Conversation “So convenient a thing is it to be a reasonable creature, since it enables us to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to.” Benjamin Franklin, quoted in The Guardian “The roulette table pays nobody except him that keeps it. Nevertheless, a passion for gambling is common, though a…

Tennis Dominic Thiem became the first male debut Grand Slam winner for six years when he beat Alexander Zverev in the US Open final. The Austrian beat the German 2-6 4-6 6-4 6-3 7-6. Formula One Lewis Hamilton won the Tuscan Grand Prix to claim his 90th race victory, one short of Michael Schumacher’s all-time record. Premier League Arsenal opened their campaign with a 3-0 win over Fulham; Tottenham lost 1-0 to Everton. Rugby Union Premiership leaders Exeter lost 40-17 to bottom-placed Saracens.…

Courtroom dramas have figured large in film history. Here are five of the best, some with lawyers for protagonists, others centred on ordinary people (or saints) caught up in the legal process: The Passion of Joan of Arc The 35-year-old Maria Falconetti gives one of the most intense of all screen performances in Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1928 film about the trial of Joan of Arc. It’s not an easy watch, but its stylistic purity and integrity lend it a mesmeric power for which it has often been called the greatest of all silent films. Anatomy of a Murder James Stewart is cast against type as an unprincipled defence lawyer who persuades his client – an army officer who killed a man for allegedly raping his wife – to submit an…

If there’s one upside to the pandemic, it’s that people have been doing more to support their local food and drink “purveyors”, said Melissa Cole in The Daily Telegraph. And that includes breweries and beer businesses: demand for local beer deliveries is estimated to be up 500%. That’s “great news”, because if small breweries are to thrive, they need a lot of public support. To help the industry you could start by ordering “my current three favourites”. Tapestry Brewery Hubble Bubble (4.1%, tapestrybrewery.com, £18 for 6 x 440ml cans) is a pale ale from the Australian hop, Galaxy, that’s “full of ripe peach flavours and fresh grassy notes”. Bristol-based Tapestry does free deliveries in the area, but also ships nationwide. Fallen Brewing Co’s Big Raspberry Dog Chew (10%, fallenbrewing. co.uk,…

Google Pixelbook Go Although it’s probably the best Chromebook out there, this one still has only 64GB in storage, since the idea is that you store everything in the cloud. It looks great, with sharp colours and is very fast compared with its competitors (£629; johnlewis.com). Acer 514 14” Chromebook Acer’s version of a Chromebook is £400 cheaper than Google’s own, but it contains only half as much RAM, and half the internal memory (32GB). It has a USB port, and if you pay more, you can get it with a touchscreen (£229; currys.co.uk). Apple MacBook Air A student probably doesn’t need a laptop as good – or as expensive – as this, but the MacBook Air is temptingly sleek and glamorous. With 12 hours of battery life, it has…

TikTok: victory for Oracle? Just days before a deadline set by President Trump, Oracle has “edged out” its rival Microsoft to reach a “technical partnership” with TikTok – the wildly popular Chinese-owned video app whose US operations the White House had threatened to shut down unless they were bought by an American company. The move has raised “more than a few eyebrows” on Wall Street, said Michael Cogley in The Daily Telegraph. Oracle – a $174bn behemoth that sells database technology and cloud-based systems to business – is an unlikely fit for a viral-video streaming app used by millions of young people. Then again, Oracle’s founder Larry Ellison is a big Trump supporter, said Cat Rutter Pooley in the FT. Go figure. In fact, this outcome is a win…

Sadly, the Japan deal is just a sideshow Editorial The Observer The trade deal struck with Japan last week has been hailed as “historic” – Britain’s first agreement as an independent country for 47 years, says The Observer. But what does it actually amount to? It is hoped that the deal will boost trade between the two nations by £15bn, adding 0.07% to UK gross domestic product. By contrast, government economists estimate that leaving the EU customs union and single market will result in a 5% GDP loss. That may not bother International Trade Secretary Liz Truss, whose main mission is to “bolt together as many trade deals with non-EU countries as she can” while No. 10 negotiates with Brussels. But it certainly worries business leaders. A deal with Japan…