Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1326 i The Week

What happened The path out of lockdown England’s roadmap out of lockdown is still on track, Boris Johnson declared this week as he gave the green light for shops, pubs and restaurants to begin reopening on 12 April. He said he was hopeful that foreign travel would be possible to certain destinations from 17 May, and that a further easing of restrictions on indoor gatherings would go ahead on that date. However, critics accused the PM of reneging on the plan to lift the remaining restrictions by 21 June when he tentatively endorsed the idea of introducing domestic vaccine passports. A Government review said some form of Covidstatus verification was “likely to become a feature of our lives”. A national scheme is being drawn up which could allow people to…

TikTok has become an online hub for witches. On the social media site, videos with the hashtag #witchtok – offering advice on, for instance, how to discern your future, divine with coins, or perform a hex on a cheating lover – have racked up more than 11.7 billion views. That is 2.3 billion more than #Biden. The global market for “skins” – virtual outfits players can buy for their characters in online games – is forecast to reach £36bn by the end of 2022. Social media users can also buy outfits, and superimpose them onto pictures of themselves. London-based designer Auroboros sells a virtual dress for £780, while Gucci last month produced a pair of neon-green trainers that can be “worn” for just £9.…

The UK’s drugs regulator this week said those aged 18-29 would be offered an alternative vaccine to the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab, due to potential links between it and cases of rare blood clots. Both the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the European Medicines Agency were still investigating the incidence of blood clots this week, but insisted that the benefits of getting the jab continue to outweigh the risks for most people. In the UK, more than 20 million adults have received the AstraZeneca vaccine. Among them, 79 people suffered rare blood clots, 19 of whom died. The MHRA said the move did not mean proof had been found that the jab caused the clots, but said the links were becoming clearer.…

Vienna Nuclear talks: The signatories of the landmark Iran nuclear deal of 2015 have begun negotiations in Vienna aimed at restoring compliance with the agreement – which put strict controls on Iran’s nuclear enrichment in return for the lifting of economic sanctions. Iran and the US are both attending the talks, but their representatives are initially not meeting face to face. The other parties involved are China, France, Germany, Russia and the UK. Under President Trump, the US pulled out of the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in May 2018, and reimposed sanctions; Iran then restarted uranium enrichment in violation of the agreement. Under President Biden, the US says it wants to restore the accord, but won’t drop sanctions until Iran stops enrichment. Iran says the same, but vice…

“I have never met my boss, nor my colleagues. From the virtual application process to the virtual interview to the virtual induction, my job exists solely in a digital realm where my robo-colleagues echo from my laptop speakers. Learning how to be competent at your new job entirely over the internet is not an enjoyable or productive process. Asking questions is awkward. Pre-pandemic, people progressed by learning from senior colleagues, or leaning over their shoulder to ask for help or advice. These simple interactions simply don’t translate to the digital realm. I miss the camaraderie, too. The office is more than a room with a desk in it.” Freddie Jordan in The Daily Telegraph…

The betting queen’s empire of misery Janice Turner The Times Gambling has become big business in this country, says Janice Turner, and nobody has done better out of it than Denise Coates. The boss of Bet365 earned a record salary of £421m in the year ending 29 March. Coates is, in some ways, an exemplary tycoon. Her online betting empire supports thousands of much-needed jobs in Stoke. She pays her taxes. She has set up a charitable foundation, endowed the local hospital with £10m, and she keeps Stoke City FC afloat. Against these benefits, though, you have to set the human costs of a business that turns smartphones into 24-hour casinos. As Bet365’s profits “soared in lockdown, the number of problem gamblers referred for treatment has increased fivefold, while those…

A timebomb of cognitive decline People who pile on the pounds in their 20s and 30s may be more likely to struggle with basic cognitive skills in later life, a study has found. Previous research found a link between cardiovascular risk factors in middle age and worsening cognition in older age, but this study was among the first to show that younger people with unhealthy lifestyles may also be storing up problems for themselves. “These results are striking and suggest that early adulthood may be a critical time for the relationship between these health issues and late-life cognitive skills,” said Dr Kristine Yaffe, of the University of California, San Francisco. “With more young people developing diabetes and obesity in early adulthood, this could have significant public health implications for cognitive…

Starmer: struggling to find a direction It was “hard not to feel sorry for Keir Starmer”, as he marked the end of his first year at the helm of the Labour Party, said Daniel Hannan in The Daily Telegraph. In another time, Starmer “might have made a useful leader, bridging the gap between his woke parliamentarians and the mass of blue-collar patriots who used to back Labour”. But a public distracted by lockdowns – the first announced days before Starmer took charge – has shown little interest in his efforts. To make matters worse, he has been outflanked by a Tory party that is spending vast amounts – a strategy hard to criticise from the left. Not helped by a “bland personality”, he has found himself “looking on helplessly”…

Football: Chelsea’s honeymoon comes to an abrupt end Like many new managers, Thomas Tuchel enjoyed a honeymoon period, said Tom Roddy in The Sunday Times. After he took over at Chelsea in January, following Frank Lampard’s dismissal period, the Blues went on an unbeaten run of 14 matches, winning ten of those games while conceding just two goals. But at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, the honeymoon finally came to a “sudden halt”. Facing the Premier League’s second-bottom side, West Bromwich Albion, the Blues suffered one of the biggest upsets of the entire season: a crushing 5-2 defeat. At first there seemed “little cause for alarm”, said Matt Barlow in The Mail on Sunday – especially when Christian Pulisic tucked away a rebound to give Chelsea a 1-0 lead after 27…

Beware PR To The Times In calling for proportional representation in his letter, Bill Jones should note that last week’s Israeli election asked voters to choose from 36 different parties. After four indecisive elections in two years, we now expect the fifth. Gerald Barnett, London A woman’s work? To The Guardian Your article (“Lost to the virus”) and the subsequent letter about women at home “not working” reminded me of the 1971-72 television series Budgie, written by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall. In one episode, the Soho gangster Charlie Endell (played by Iain Cuthbertson) declared proudly: “Mrs Endell, since the day I married her, has not done a stroke of work – except cooking, cleaning, and bringing up the kids.” Rosemary Johnson, Byfield, Northamptonshire A steal at twice the price…

A bulletproof case for the Lamb “One of the world’s greatest masterpieces” now has a new home – namely, a v30m (£26m) bulletproof glass case, says Daniel Boffey in The Guardian. Located in Ghent’s St Bavo’s Cathedral, Hubert and Jan Van Eyck’s 1432 altarpiece the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb is one of the most celebrated paintings of the northern Renaissance. Standing 19ft tall, the new glass case is intended to display the painting and to provide better climatic conditions: it has suffered damage as a result of being kept in the unheated cathedral. But, understandably, the top priority is the altarpiece’s security: it is among the most frequently stolen artworks in history. During its 588-year existence, it has been pilfered by Napoleon, “cut in half after falling into the…

Jim’s at a loss for a birthday present idea for Jazzer’s girlfriend Jade, but Tracy has a suggestion. Jazzer thanks Tracy; she says she’s happy to see him with someone he really likes. After an eventful Parish Council meeting, Emma and Jim are stunned by Audrey’s election to interim chair and suspect she’s just a front for Hilary Noakes. Eddie approaches Lynda, offering to rejoin the cast, but she turns him down. Later, Kirsty brokers a truce between them, and when Eddie divulges Darrington is using the same script for The Mystery Plays, an outraged Lynda vows to stop it. At Chris’s request, Harrison drops in on Alice and Martha. Initially furious, Alice relaxes as Harrison tells her how well she’s doing. Ben and Ruairi discuss the caravan and their…

White House operative who oversaw the Watergate break-in G. Gordon Liddy 1930-2021 A leading member of Richard Nixon’s “dirty tricks unit”, G. Gordon Liddy was responsible for the bungled break-in at the Watergate complex that triggered one of the “gravest constitutional crises” in US history, said The Washington Post. His ruthlessness, fanatical loyalty and conviction that ends-justify-means made him a good fit for an administration determined to “get even with its political enemies”. But even on his own side, there was a suspicion that Liddy – a small, bullet-headed man with a brush moustache – was a bit crazed. “I mean, he just isn’t well screwed on, is he?” said Nixon himself, a week after the Watergate break-in. A sickly child, George Gordon Battle Liddy was born in 1930 and…

The pandemic has proved a boon for Oxford Nanopore, whose specialist DNA technology has been used globally to sequence and detect new strains of Covid-19, said The Guardian. Now Britain’s most potent biotech “unicorn” has announced plans to float later this year, in a move touted as pivotal to the Government’s drive to turn Britain into a life sciences powerhouse. Nanopore, which is still loss-making, is currently valued at around £2.3bn. But City analysts have suggested that it could raise more than double that in one of London’s “largest debuts” this year. Spun out of Oxford University in 2005 by three scientists including CEO Gordon Sanghera, Nanopore has remained loyal to its roots, choosing not to follow the “parade of biotech operations” listing in New York, said Simon Freeman in…

You’ve probably heard of bear and bull markets, cash cows and tech unicorns, but there are many more financial animal metaphors out there. Here Dhruti Shah, author of Bear Markets and Beyond: A Bestiary of Business Terms, takes BBC Business on a safari: Lemming investors The myth that lemmings – small rodents that live in the Arctic – take part in mass suicides by jumping off cliffs has been debunked, but it remains a useful metaphor for investors who follow the crowd “off a financial cliff”. Grey rhinos An obvious threat – a “scary beast with a horn pointed straight at you” – that “you really should have expected and done something about”. The pandemic may be a classic example. Stag investors Punters who want to make a quick buck…

The week’s best shares CVS Group Investors Chronicle The vet operator is benefiting from the current pet frenzy. Replacing freelance with full-time staff has boosted profit margins, and a flurry of puppies should drive long-term demand as the pets age. Buy. £18.39. Entain The Sunday Telegraph The relaxation of US gambling laws creates vast potential for Britain’s gaming firms. Entain’s “impressive” new CEO and “world-beating technology” gives it the edge. Aiming for 100 markets. Undervalued. Buy. £15.29. Gulf Keystone Petroleum The Times Reviving global oil consumption should benefit the Kurdish Iraqi operator. New wells are promising, and it has improved environmental, social and governance (ESG) responsibilities. Still, only for the brave. Buy. 178.5p. Inspired Energy The Times Inspired provides energy purchasing and consultancy services to corporate clients including the NHS.…

What the commentators said Let’s not go down the vaccine passport route, said Charlotte Cornell on Labourlist.org.We need to “move as one nation” out of this crisis, rather than leaving people behind by introducing a measure that would disadvantage those without smartphones or printers to display their Covid-free status, as well as those who can’t get vaccinated owing to allergies and other health reasons. Covid passports are a “revolting idea”, said Tim Stanley in The Daily Telegraph. “Authoritarian. Discriminatory. Un-British.” Government scientists claim that in the future we’ll have to manage Covid like flu. We don’t have passports for that, so why for Covid? It’s a “mark of how far lockdown has warped our values” that some people are hailing this egregious measure as a “freedom pass”. Vaccine passports would…

Kim Kardashian, who has made it onto Forbes magazine’s list of billionaires for the first time. The reality TV star’s fortune is estimated to have grown from $780m in October to $1bn, thanks to her stakes in lucrative clothing and cosmetics businesses. Pam Ayres, with the news the BBC has chosen her as one of its “emergency voices” to calm nerves at times of national crisis. The poet’s 2008 interview with Jane Garvey on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour was picked as one of several broadcasting gems to be played if programming is interrupted by a crisis such as a nuclear war. Croquet, which is booming in lockdown. Croquet clubs have been “inundated” with membership requests, and sales of garden croquets sets have risen sharply.…

33% of Britons are satisfied with the job Keir Starmer has been doing as Labour leader. 42% are dissatisfied, giving him a net score of -9%. In June 2020, Starmer had a net rating of +31%, while in October, approval had slipped to +15%. Ipsos Mori/The Guardian 27% of people living in Latin America and the Caribbean – roughly 120 million – say they would like to move to another country permanently. Of those who want to move, 35% – a total of 42 million – say they would want to go to the US. Gallup 22% of black adults in Britain reported hesitancy about having a Covid vaccine from mid-February to mid-March, down from 44% a month earlier. ONS/The Independent…

A Georgia man has accused his former employer of “childish” behaviour – after he received his final payment of $915 (£666) in pennies. Andreas Flaten discovered the haul of 91,000 coins, covered in an oily substance, at the bottom of his driveway. On top of the pile was his final payslip, along with a rude parting message from the car workshop where he worked. Flaten left the job last year, and had had trouble getting paid. When questioned, the owner of the garage, Miles Walker, said: “He got paid, that’s all that matters.” He then called Flaten a “weenie”. Vladimir Putin has been voted Russia’s hottest man, once again. According to a poll by the SuperJob.ru jobs website, 18% of men and 17% of women named the 68-year-old bachelor as the…

EGYPT Is the pharaoh taking his revenge? The Jerusalem Post A series of “strange and devastating disasters” has convinced some Egyptians that their country is suffering from an ancient curse, says Aaron Reich. A “golden parade” was held on Saturday, in which the mummified remains of 22 pharaohs, including Ramses II, were paraded through Cairo from Tahrir Square’s Egyptian Museum to their new home in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation. The move had been planned for years, but superstitious citizens have been quick to link it to recent troubles: the warning from Tutankhamun’s tomb, that “death will come on quick wings for those who disturb the king’s peace”, has been circulating on social media. The country has, it’s true, experienced a series of unusual misfortunes. A building collapse in…

Among their many other extraordinary properties, octopuses have the ability to vary the colour of their skin, and even create changing patterns on it. They appear to do it to camouflage themselves from prey, and to warn others that predators are nearby, yet they also change colour when they are sleeping. And now, scientists think they know why: they suspect that the animals are dreaming, perhaps of catching crabs, or of fleeing from sharks. A team from the University of Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil studied four tropical octopuses in the lab, to assess their sleeping behaviour, and found that their skin colour tended to change during “active sleep” – when their bodies twitched, their suckers contracted, and their eyes flickered. The team think it is analogous to REM…

The diaries of the Tory MP and former minister Sir Alan Duncan have been serialised in the Daily Mail, and they are not very flattering to his colleagues. He describes the Education Secretary Gavin Williamson as a “venomous little shit” – a former “fireplace salesman” who is “ludicrously unqualified” for ministerial office. Duncan calls Priti Patel a “deceitful, brassy monster” who “should be in the Tower of London”. Theresa May, he says, is “dumbstruck, leaden”, with a “charisma bypass” – and the Tory MP Steve Baker is “a little tick, so simplistic he might as well not have a brain”. The actor Jason Watkins says that when he got the role of Harold Wilson in The Crown, he was “jumping up and down in my dressing room”. “At least no…

Normally, it’s the most traditional of tournaments, said Neil McLeman in the Daily Mirror – but this year Wimbledon is ditching many of its historic customs. The famous queue for show court tickets is being scrapped because it flouts social-distancing rules. Nor are tickets being offered by ballot: instead, the All England Club will sell them online in June once it has confirmed how many spectators can attend. Players and support teams won’t be allowed to rent houses in the area; instead, staying in “official bubble hotels” will be mandatory – a restriction that applies even to “home-based stars like Andy Murray”. The start date for Wimbledon is 28 June, said Oliver Brown in The Daily Telegraph – exactly a week after 21 June, a date at which, according to…

To the Financial Times I do enjoy the FT. Your leader enthusiastically welcomes the recent round of Western sanctions in response to Chinese actions in Xinjiang, while on another page John Dizard (“US sanctions on Russia are easy to announce but hard to implement”) delicately notes that sanctions have “uncertain long-term utility for behaviour modification”. Dizard understates it. Sanctions do not work against major powers. Close to a decade of accumulating actions against Russia have not changed that country’s policies one jot. When I ask those responsible what the aim is I get vague waffle about “strategic patience”. Meanwhile, China is visibly ready to let its new investment agreement with the EU go, and indeed sacrifice Hong Kong’s standing as an international financial centre, rather than give in to Western…

Mahler: Symphony No. 10 (cond: Osmo Vänskä) BIS £13 There have been seven serious attempts to “complete” the symphony that Gustav Mahler left unfinished at his death in 1911, said Andrew Clements in The Guardian. The most established is the version pieced together between 1960 and 1976 by musicologist Deryck Cooke (aided by three other composers). As part of his superb Mahler cycle with the Minnesota Orchestra, conductor Osmo Vänskä has now recorded that score, and it ranks “as one of the finest Mahler Tenths on disc”. The approach is “stoic”, tempi are slow, and the sheer attention to detail and “unswerving sense of symphonic coherence and continuity” make it “overwhelming”. In the Covid-age, this pre-pandemic recording offers a “bittersweet reminder of the sonic fireworks that only huge orchestras can…

I grant you that this documentary may not sound very exciting, said Camilla Long in The Sunday Times. It’s about corruption in the Romanian health service, and its heroes are a group of pasty, “untelegenic” hacks. “But, oh my God, what a story they unravelled.” In 2015, a fire in Bucharest’s Colectiv nightclub led to the deaths of 64 people. Of those, 38 were burns victims who died later, from bacterial infections in hospitals, because the surgical disinfectant used on them had been diluted: the company producing it divided the profits with hospital managers and local politicians. This is “proper documentary-making”: hard-hitting and unsentimental, with “no nannying voice-overs”. The scandal would have been swept under the carpet if not for an investigation carried out by a “most unlikely” source –…

Best books… Michela Wrong The award-winning journalist and author chooses five titles that informed the writing of her new book, Do Not Disturb (Fourth Estate £20), about the legacy of the Rwandan genocide Stalin’s Nemesis: The Murder and Exile of Leon Trotsky by Bertrand Patenaude, 2009 (Faber & Faber £12.99). I gobbled this up. The fatal contest between Joseph Stalin and his former comrade-in-arms, which climaxed in Trotsky’s ice-axe murder in his Mexico study, had so many echoes with Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame’s relentless pursuit of former aide Patrick Karegeya. Politics is always personal. Your most merciless foe is the friend you once trusted with your life. Small Country by Gaël Faye, 2016 (Vintage £8.99). When research involves wading through human rights reports and dry academic tomes, well-written fiction comes…

Many opera festivals are scheduled to go ahead this summer. Glyndebourne opens (at 50% capacity) with new productions of Janácek’s Kát’a Kabanová and Rossini’s Il turco in Italia. 20 May-29 August; general booking from mid-April (glyndebourne. com). Grange Park Opera presents the world premiere of The Life & Death of Alexander Litvinenko, and Bryn Terfel in the title role of Verdi’s Falstaff; 10 June-18 July (grangeparkopera.co. uk). A remodelled Opera Holland Park welcomes back audiences with productions of La traviata, The Pirates of Penzance and other favourites. 1 June-7 August; general booking from 14 April (operahollandpark.com).…

Walking along the Bosporus in Istanbul, you see men standing behind small barbecues grilling fresh mackerel for these takeaway sandwiches, says Yasmin Khan. My version substitutes frying for grilling, but cook over charcoal if you prefer. They’re a great way to feed a crowd. Serves 2 For the dressing: 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus more to serve 2 tbsp lemon juice 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses ¼ tsp sumac ¼ tsp pul biber (Aleppo pepper, or any mild chilli flake) ½ a garlic clove, bashed salt and black pepper for the sandwiches: ¼ of a small red onion, or enough for 2-3 rings per sandwich, or to taste 2 ciabatta rolls, each cut to the size of a mackerel fillet 2 mackerel fillets olive oil small handful of mint…

Credit Suisse/GFG Alliance: financial fallout One big blow-up might be regarded as a misfortune, two looks like carelessness – or so the thinking seems to go at Credit Suisse. Having lost billions of dollars in the space of a month, courtesy of implosions at first Greensill Capital and then Archegos Capital, the bank has swung the axe, said the Financial Times. This week it parted company with its chief risk and compliance officer, Lara Warner, and the head of its investment bank, Brian Chin. Doubtless the bosses in Zurich are hoping the bloodletting will draw a line under one of the bumpiest periods in the bank’s recent history. But the financial fallout will be severe. Credit Suisse stands to lose about $4.7bn from the collapse of Archegos, a New…

No, Prime Minister: greed isn’t good Roger Bootle The Daily Telegraph Apparently echoing Gordon Gekko’s “greed is good” quip from Wall Street, the PM recently observed that the UK’s successful vaccine programme was “because of greed, my friends”. Rubbish, says Roger Bootle. True, we owe the development of the vaccines partly to profit-seeking Big Pharma. But the UK programme owes next to nothing to greed. AstraZeneca has provided vaccines at cost, and the roll-out has been administered by “a huge army of volunteers”. The whole episode highlights an issue that has long plagued Conservative economic thinking: namely, the relative roles of “self-interested individualism” and “public service”. The real weakness in our capitalist system is the tendency to deliver “huge rewards” to senior executives “without a corresponding contribution to the public…

The strong public reaction to “the outpouring of testimony of sexual harassment and abuse in schools” on the Everyone’s Invited website is “encouraging”, said The Guardian. Girls whose terrible experiences have previously been ignored “have found a way of being heard”; both schools and the police are taking action. This is, no doubt, a grave problem, said Dominic Lawson in The Sunday Times. But it is complex territory and it needs sensitivity, not “crude generalisations”. It was disturbing to hear Simon Bailey, the “media-savvy” chief constable of Norfolk, who leads a national taskforce on child protection, calling peer-on-peer abuse in schools “the next big national child abuse scandal”, and claiming – without evidence – that some schools were covering it up. It’s worth noting that many accounts on Everyone’s Invited…

Joe Biden’s dog, Major, who has bitten a human for a second time in a month. Officials said the victim wasn’t seriously hurt, and attributed the German shepherd’s behaviour to the fact that he “is adjusting to his new surroundings” in the White House. German humour, after Volkswagen’s premature April Fool backfired spectacularly. The carmaker announced on 29 March that it was changing its name to “Voltswagen” to reflect its commitment to electric vehicles. It was forced to set the record straight after journalists around the world picked up the story – sending Volkswagen’s share price soaring in the process. Chocolate lovers, as many shops reported shortages of Easter eggs. Supermarket sales data showed that Britons spent some £50m more on Easter treats than in a normal year.…

London Neo-Nazi police officer: A Metropolitan police officer has been found guilty of being a member of the banned neo-Nazi group National Action. Benjamin Hannam, from Edmonton, became the first British police officer to be convicted of a terrorism offence. He was exposed when the names of users of an extremist right-wing forum were leaked. The 22-year-old also pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to possessing an indecent image of a child. The Met’s vetting procedures were criticised: it had failed to ask for a reference from Hannam’s school, which had raised concerns about his views. Blackpool Strip club ban: Blackpool councillors are attempting to ban strip clubs from the seaside town, to help it shed its “seedy” image. Under plans being put to an eight-week public consultation before a…

The legacy of a murder Stuart Lawrence (pictured) was 16 when his brother, Stephen, was stabbed to death by racist thugs at a bus stop in southeast London. Twenty-eight years on, he still remembers the knock on the door that night, and the sight of his father – a big, tall man – bent double in shock and grief. The next day Stuart insisted on going to school, says Louise Carpenter in The Times. In the playground, he learnt the names of four or five of Stephen’s suspected killers; but the police investigation went nowhere – and so it was that Stuart didn’t just lose his adored older brother; he lost his parents, too. As they embarked on their long quest for justice for Stephen – separating under the strain…

Among the half a dozen uprisings in Paris in the 1800s, the Commune stands out, even today. One reason for this is that, by the standards of revolutions, it was bloodless and innocently idealistic – yet it was crushed with a brutality exceptional for the period. This made martyrs of the Communards. Marx and Lenin revered their memory and learnt from what they saw as the Commune’s mistakes: they thought it should have dealt more harshly with its class enemies and properly abolished the old state, centralising powers in the hands of a revolutionary organisation. The second reason, suggests the historian Robert Tombs on UnHerd, “is that it was short... It didn’t have time either to moderate into bourgeois banality, or to start devouring its own children.” As Marx noted,…

Biden’s policy is even worse than Trump’s Eli Lake The Boston Herald One of the disastrous things Joe Biden inherited from his predecessor, says Eli Lake, was Trump’s policy on Afghanistan. Under the agreement Trump made with the Taliban, the last US troops were to pull out a few weeks from now: on 1 May. What that would mean, quite simply, is that the elected government the US helped create would fall: it is pure fantasy to believe the Taliban will share power with the current regime. In Trump’s deal, a key precondition for troop withdrawal was that the Taliban end cooperation with al-Qa’eda; yet a January report from the Treasury Department notes that al-Qa’eda is “gaining strength in Afghanistan while continuing to operate with the Taliban under the Taliban’s…

Seven out of ten patients admitted to hospital with coronavirus in the UK still have symptoms five months after being discharged, a study has found. Researchers examined more than 1,000 patients who left hospital between March and November 2020. They found that 71% had not fully recovered five months later; and among those who had previously been employed, 18% were no longer able to work. One in five met the threshold for a new disability; a quarter were suffering from clinically significant levels of anxiety and depression; and 17% had some kind of “brain fog”. Other common symptoms identified in the study (which has yet to be peer-reviewed) included muscle pain, difficulty sleeping, breathlessness, short-term memory loss and joint pain. Almost four in ten of those studied were deemed to…

“All science is either physics or stamp collecting.” Ernest Rutherford, quoted on The Browser “One reason I don’t drink is that I wish to know when I’m having a good time.” Nancy Astor, quoted in The Times “No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.” C.S. Lewis, quoted on Vox “Why is it a surprise to find that people other than ourselves are able to tell lies?” Alice Munro, quoted on GoodReads.com “Poetry might be defined as the clear expression of mixed feelings.” W.H. Auden, quoted in The Hindustan Times “Happiness is a mystery like religion and should never be rationalised.” G.K. Chesterton, quoted in the Daily Mail “If it wasn’t for the effort, I could argue against hard work all day.” Janan Ganesh in the FT…

Golf Former world No. 1 Jordan Spieth won the Texas Open, beating Charley Hoffman by two strokes – his first tournament victory for four years. Rugby union Exeter beat Lyon 47-25 to earn a quarter-final berth against Leinster in the Champions Cup. Sale Sharks beat Scarlets 57-14 in the same round, while Bristol lost 36-17 to Bordeaux. Tennis Hubert Hurkacz beat Jannik Sinner of Italy to win the Miami Masters – the Pole’s first Masters 1000 victory. World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty of Australia won the women’s event.…

Shakespeare’s tragedies have been filmed many times since the earliest days of cinema. Rendering his plays in cinematic form is a tough challenge, but directors occasionally pull it off – as in these famous examples: Throne of Blood Roman Polanski’s and Justin Kurzel’s films of Macbeth (1971 and 2015, respectively) are excellent. But the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s 1957 adaptation reigns supreme, conjuring dark cinematic poetry in every scene, from the rustle of Lady M’s dress to the volleys of arrows in the final battle. William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet Baz Luhrmann’s kinetic MTVstyle film briefly made Shakespeare cool in 1996, proving a gift to English teachers everywhere. His style appalled some critics, but the verse is gimmick-proof, and Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes bring real chemistry and youthful zest…

In February 1897, Admiral Sir Harry Rawson led a force of 1,200 Royal Marines on a punitive expedition against Edo, the capital of the Kingdom of Benin, said Alex Marshall in The New York Times. Located in the south of present-day Nigeria (not the modern nation state of Benin), the kingdom was a flourishing nation famed for the exquisite metalwork and carvings of its craftsmen. It had dominated the region for centuries – yet in a matter of weeks, the British would wipe the city off the map, reducing an entire civilisation to ashes. They slaughtered large numbers, torched towns and sent the kingdom’s Oba, or ruler, into exile. They also ransacked Benin of its dazzling artistic treasures, looting everything they could get their hands on. Among the thousands of…

New cars: what the critics say What Car? The ID.4 is a “very 21st century machine”. The electric SUV doesn’t just have zero emissions at the exhaust pipe. Volkswagen claims it’s entirely carbon-neutral, thanks to the use of renewable energy in manufacturing, and the planting of trees to offset emissions. Its “smooth and unfussy” design is also very on-trend, and while it can’t beat every rival, it is a practical option in a growing market class. Top Gear Everything inside is controlled via a screen and touch-sensitive sliders, which are frustratingly fiddly. But the graphics are good, and the satnav is linked to an LED strip under the windscreen that sweeps left or right when you should turn. The lack of switches makes for a pleasing minimalism; materials are “tasteful”;…

Stock markets globally continued to rally fuelled by hopes of a rapid rebound as economies reopen. America’s leading indices, the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones, hit new highs; Europe’s Stoxx 600 wiped out its pandemic losses. The FTSE 250, a barometer of the UK domestic economy, hit a record high, having jumped by around a third since the beginning of November. Markets overall were buoyed by US data showing a strong recovery in the service sector and labour market – nearly one million jobs were created in March. As bitcoin hit a new high above $60,000, the IMF said that unprecedented stimulus fuelled “excessive risk-taking”. In Britain, where the Government confirmed that shops and pub gardens would reopen next week, hopes of a faster economic bounce-back were boosted by…

● Eyes on Greenland Elections in Greenland rarely trouble the investment world, but the victory of the left-wing Inuit Ataqatigiit party this week could have a major impact on future supplies of a crucial global commodity, said Mary Hui on Quartz. The party opposes a mining project at Kvanefjeld in the south of the country owned by the Australia-listed Greenland Minerals, which claims the mine “has the potential to become the most significant Western world producer of rare earths”. This group of 17 elements is crucial to the manufacture of electronics and weapons, as well as solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and electric motors. ● China’s stranglehold “If asked to identify the chemical elements on which they most rely, few Britons would be quick to name neodymium, praseodymium and dysprosium,”…

Alex Chesterman When Alex Chesterman’s wife said no to more children after their second, the entrepreneur matched the decision “by calling it a day” on new companies, says Daniel Thomas in the FT. The Londoner had, after all, already formed two “successful but time-consuming businesses” – the property website Zoopla, and the DVD rental service Lovefilm. “That pledge was quickly broken” and the result was Cazoo – the online used car dealer which has just revealed plans to list on Wall Street, via a Spac, valued at $7bn. The deal is Chesterman’s “biggest yet” and the highest initial listing value of any UK company on the New York Stock Exchange. “I think this is probably my last one,” he says. “But I have been caught saying that before.” Shaquille O’Neal…