Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1336 i The Week

What happened Freedom delayed Boris Johnson confirmed on Monday that the final lifting of lockdown measures in England will be delayed because of concerns about the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus, first identified in India. The last social-distancing restrictions had been due to be lifted on 21 June, but that date has now been pushed back four weeks. The Prime Minister said the extra weeks would enable many more people to be vaccinated, and save thousands of lives. He added that he was “pretty confident” that 19 July would be the “terminus date”. The delay means that limits will remain on indoor socialising in England and that people should carry on working from home if possible. However, weddings will be allowed to go ahead with more than…

Dog owners, who can now take their pooches shopping. According to dogfriendly.co.uk, the number of retailers who welcome (or tolerate) non-assistance dogs has grown 10% in a year, and includes large chains such as John Lewis and H&M. Jeff Bezos, after a ticket to join the Amazon founder on an 11-minute journey into space sold for $28m at auction. The money will go to a charity promoting the study of STEM subjects. Gap years, with reports that the Government’s new trade deal with Australia (see page 46) will make it easier for young Britons to travel there. The deal makes it possible for under-35s to live and work in Australia for up to three years – and removes the current requirement that they do some farm work.…

45% of UK voters, including 28% of Tory supporters, think Matt Hancock should resign because of his handling of the pandemic. Savanta ComRes/The Independent 62% of French people believe the EU’s political system is broken, along with 55% of Germans, 57% of Italians and 52% of Spaniards. 36% of Germans believe it is working, down from more than 50% seven months ago. European Council on Foreign Relations/The Times 65% of over-55s say they would never swear in public; among 18- to 24-year-olds, the figure is 25%. A third of people say they swear more than they did five years ago, and 60% say swearing is part of their daily lives. BBFC/The Guardian…

London, Canada Terror charges: A Canadian man accused of killing four members of a Muslim family by ramming them with his car has been charged with terrorism offences. Nathaniel Veltman, 20, is accused of driving at the group while they were out for an evening walk in London, Ontario, on 6 June. The victims, who’d moved to Canada from Pakistan in 2007, were Salman Afzaal, 46, Madiha Salman, 44, Yumna Salman, 15, and Talat Afzaal, 74. A nine-year-old child remains in hospital. Veltman, who has no previous criminal record, was initially charged with four counts of murder and one of attempted murder. This week he was also charged with terrorism offences; prosecutors say the attack was premeditated and aimed at intimidating the wider Muslim community. Reacting to the news, Canada’s…

“It is a life-enhancing thing that languages mutate. But I wonder if English has ever been as restlessly protean as it now. I know native anglophones of no great age who are failing to keep up. I have no clear idea what ‘gaslighting’ means. Nor ‘benching’, ‘mirroring’, ‘sealioning’, or ‘allyship’. Kingsley Amis identified two enemies of the language. ‘Berks’ speak it coarsely and idiomatically. ‘Wankers’ are inflexibly precious. What we are up against now, fellow anglophones, is a sort of hybrid. Imagine a berk’s disregard for tradition, with a wanker’s unsmiling zeal. An ugly change I can live with. The trouble starts when language loses its meaning.” Janan Ganesh in the FT…

Our transport policy is going off the rails Ross Clark The Daily Telegraph This Government’s transport policy can only be described as a car crash, says Ross Clark. One strand of it is colliding into the other. On the one hand, ministers proclaim that “Covid-19 has hastened the end of the private car”, and have accordingly rolled out a host of green schemes to banish motorists from residential neighbourhoods and to encourage more journeys by train, foot and bike. They’ve also brought forward the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars to 2030. Yet on the other, their response to the pandemic has been to force more of us behind the wheel. People have been scared off public transport; city dwellers, dispersed to suburbs and rural areas, rely…

Being “young, female, attractive” and a mother, Annalena Baerbock stands out at the top of German politics, says Inga Barthels. It was grimly predictable that she would face some sexism after being confirmed as the Greens’ candidate for chancellor in September’s elections. Faked nude photos of her have, for instance, been posted online. A less overt example of misogyny is that, like other powerful women, she has found her intellectual capabilities being unfairly questioned by pundits, and on social media. As a Green, she has had to deal with stories claiming that she plans to defund the police and ban pets and barbecues – all of which are demonstrably untrue. Yet as ludicrous as some of these attacks are, the Greens mustn’t use them to deflect legitimate criticism. Baerbock has…

A shackled skeleton uncovered in a garden in Rutland could be the first physical evidence of the practice of slavery in Roman Britain, archaeologists have said. Carbon dating suggests that the individual, whose remains were discovered during building works at a house in the village of Great Casterton, died sometime between AD 226 and AD 427. Lockable iron fetters had been used to bind his feet, and his body seems to have been thrown into a ditch. The fact that it was just outside a Roman cemetery may suggest that a conscious decision had been made to deny him a proper burial. Analysis of the skeleton shows that the man had led a “physically demanding life”, but the cause of his death could not be established. Michael Marshall, a finds…

In a year when the Royal Family has endured plenty of family drama, Her Majesty has turned to a police drama for solace. “The Queen was very into Line of Duty,” a royal source told The Sunday Times: she enjoyed discussing it with her aide Vice-Admiral Sir Tony Johnstone-Burt. It seems she also enjoys watching Downton Abbey (and pointing out the mistakes) and perhaps The X Factor, too. In 2011, she told contestant Mary Byrne: “You are the lady off The X Factor. Your song was fabulous.” This week’s launch of Andrew Neil’s “anti-woke” GB News channel was marred by technical glitches from the off. An early segment featuring Neil Oliver went unheard as the presenter of the BBC’s Coast suffered problems with his microphone – prompting him to joke…

“Don’t ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.” Robert Frost, quoted on The Browser “Everyone ought to reflect how much more unhappy he might be than he really is.” Joseph Addison, quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle “The imagined community of millions seems more real as a team of 11 named people.” Eric Hobsbawm, quoted in The Guardian “Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it.” Joan Didion, quoted in The Wall Street Journal “At 50, everyone has the face he deserves.” George Orwell, quoted in The Frederick News-Post “Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism.” Carl Jung, quoted on ArtsJournal.com “The truth isn’t always beauty, but…

With a “decent-sized crowd” permitted at a cricket match for the first time in over a year, England’s second Test against New Zealand should have had a celebratory feel, said Mike Atherton in The Times. Instead, it “turned into a funeral”. England were skittled out for 122 in their second innings, handing New Zealand victory inside four days and a 1-0 win in the two-match series. NZ will head to their next engagement – the World Test Championship final against India, which starts in Southampton on Friday – in a buoyant mood. England, by contrast, urgently need to rediscover form and confidence ahead of their five-match Test series against India later this summer. The trouble with English cricket is that it seems mired in unnecessary complexity quite at odds with…

To The Times The Northern Ireland Protocol raises a fundamental constitutional issue: the cohesion of the United Kingdom. By keeping Northern Ireland (NI) within the EU’s internal market it disrupts Britain’s internal market, unless we align with EU rules – which was rejected in the 2016 referendum and by the electoral mandate given to Boris Johnson in 2019. By presuming that goods exported from Britain to the province are at risk of subsequently being moved into the EU, the protocol treats NI as effectively outside UK customs territory. In consequence, NI has become a condominium, jointly ruled by Britain and the EU. NI will be subject to EU regulations without being represented in the EU, the very issue that inflamed Americans in the 18th century. NI has a right not…

Jimmy McGovern’s new three-part BBC prison drama Time is “just about perfect”, said Hugo Rifkind in The Times. It stars Sean Bean as a middle-class teacher, Mark, jailed for causing a death through drink driving, and Stephen Graham as a prison guard, Eric. Mark is an older man guilt-stricken about his crime, and is “immediately clocked as a victim by vicious young inmate bullies”; Eric is a decent person coerced into bringing in drugs by a gang. A common theme unites their stories and a handful of equally “deft” subplots: how is it possible “to atone for past inhumanity” in a system that “perpetuates inhumanity anew”? McGovern and director Lewis Arnold “pile on the claustrophobic menace” until it feels “as if the violence could spill out of the screen”, said…

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, 1865 (Penguin £5.99). Aged ten, I was cast as the Mock Turtle in our school play and, like the old pro I already was, I did my research and read the book. It blew my mind. The odd, funny, upside-down world of Alice was so eccentric, strange and slightly frightening that I was hooked. Plus, I had a crush on the Queen of Hearts (the girl in our play, not the one in the book). A hormonal and literary explosion that left me altered forever. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, 1861 (Penguin £6.99). A wonderful, gripping story of crime and guilt, crushed ambition and ruined fortunes, snobbery and anxiety, with a spectacular cast of characters and a beautiful ending. Near perfection. Don’t Point…

Programmes Piers Morgan’s Life Stories: Joan Collins The 88-year-old star opens up to Morgan about her seven-decade film and TV career, her ex-husbands and her sister Jackie’s final illness. Sun 20 Jun, ITV1 21:00 (60mins). The Handmaid’s Tale The dystopian drama based on Margaret Atwood’s novel returns for a fourth season. On the run, June and her fellow handmaids seek refuge. Sun 20 Jun, C4 21:00 (70mins). Philly DA: Breaking the Law Documentary series about Philadelphia’s radical district attorney Larry Krasner, elected in a shock landslide in 2017 on a promise to reform the criminal justice system and end mass incarceration. Parts one and two: Tue 22 Jun, BBC4 22:00 and 23:00 (60mins each). Films An Impossible Love (2018) Critically acclaimed French drama, set in the 1950s. An unassuming young…

Serves 4 For the sweet pastry: 150g unsalted butter, softened 75g caster sugar 235g strong white flour 15g ground almonds ¼ tsp salt 2 large egg yolks 2 large eggs ½ a vanilla pod, seeds removed and whisked into the egg zest of ½ a lemon for the lemon curd: 2 large eggs 3 large egg yolks 125g caster sugar ¼ tsp cornflour 3 tbsp finely grated lemon zest, from about 4 lemons 115ml lemon juice, from about 3 lemons 85g unsalted butter, cut into small pieces • Butter and flour a 23cm tart tin. Begin by making the pastry. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl, then sift in the dry ingredients and add the eggs, vanilla and lemon zest. Mix gently until you have a…

Boeing/Airbus: truce at last President Joe Biden’s diplomatic mission to Brussels this week has yielded at least one “tangible” result, said The Wall Street Journal. The US and EU have finally called a truce ending – or at least suspending for five years – a 17-year-old trade fight over government subsidies to plane-makers Boeing and Airbus. The deal comes “at a crucial time” for the companies as they “wrestle with the pandemic-driven downturn in air travel”. It also ends “the longest and most costly” dispute in the World Trade Organisation’s history, which had escalated way beyond aviation to encompass goods including tractors, wine, cheese and whisky. Under the deal, both sides will remove tariffs on some $11.5bn worth of goods, though separate tariffs imposed on imported EU steel and…

The Wall Street boom in special purpose acquisition vehicles (Spacs) may have subsided, but there could be plenty of car crashes ahead, said Robert Cyran on Reuters Breakingviews. Since January 2020, there have been 587 US Spac listings worth $190bn in total, “and it’s a good rule of thumb that such rapid financial innovation on Wall Street usually stores up problems”. This week, Donald Trump’s favourite electric pick-up truck maker, Lordstown – once valued at $5bn after using a Spac to go public – hit the skids. After admitting that the firm had “overstated the quality of its book of pre-orders” and “might not remain as a going concern”, the CEO and CFO have quit. Lordstown’s Steve Burns “fancied himself as the next Elon Musk”, said The New York Times,…

Andrew Lloyd Webber “Possibly the most garlanded composer alive,” Andrew Lloyd Webber is also one of the most determined, said Jan Dalley in the FT. The theatre impresario, who made his fortune with musicals such as Cats and Evita, has said he is “prepared to face a jail sentence” rather than accept any further delay to the opening of his latest show, Cinderella, which is due to start previewing on 25 June. The Conservative peer argues that large-scale productions are only sustainable with full-capacity houses, and claims to have “the mother of all legal cases” against the Government. The PM may be listening, said The Guardian. Ministers have stated that Cinderella “could be exempt” if chosen as one of the “pilot events” that will go ahead in the next month.…

They came from outer space, at least that’s how it felt. One moment there were no NFTs in the universe. The next moment they were popping up everywhere and multiplying crazily. It was like an episode of Doctor Who or, less fortunately, like the arrival of a virus. Art was imitating life. I first became aware of NFTs, or Nifties, as the friendlier writers had renamed them, in the art press. It was late February this year. At an internet auction in America, a graphic artist who called himself Beeple had reportedly sold an NFT of a naked Donald Trump, covered in graffiti, for $6.6m (£4.7m). Slumped by a pavement, looking dead, the naked Donald had the word LOSER scrawled on his back. “Wow”, we gaped collectively. Beeple’s real name…

If the G7 meeting of Western leaders in sunny Cornwall was meant to project “unity and harmony”, it was “not an unmitigated success”, said Dominic Lawson in the Daily Mail. The “sausage war” with the EU cast a long shadow. President Biden arrived in the UK issuing stern warnings that Boris Johnson should not inflame tensions over the Northern Ireland Protocol – which, from 1 July, will no longer allow chilled meats from Great Britain into Northern Ireland, because the latter will be in the EU’s customs territory. In Cornwall, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, lined up to tell Johnson there could be no renegotiating his Brexit deal. A “sulphurous exchange” between Johnson and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, followed. When…

Matt Hancock, after Dominic Cummings published a series of text messages from Boris Johnson, in which the PM referred to the Health Secretary as “totally f***ing hopeless”, and suggested replacing him with Michael Gove. The messages date from March and April last year, when the Government was struggling to acquire enough PPE and ventilators for the NHS. GB News, the new TV news channel, after several firms pulled their advertising in response to concerns about its content. The channel, which had more viewers than BBC News on its opening night (see page 24), says it is politically impartial, but it has also made much of its desire to fight “cancel culture”. Grolsch, Nivea and Ikea were among the brands that withdrew their ads this week, saying that GB News did…

Loch Lomond Sea eagles return: The UK’s largest birds of prey – white-tailed eagles – have appeared on Loch Lomond for the first time in more than 100 years. A pair of the birds, commonly known as sea eagles, were first spotted in the Loch Lomond National Nature Reserve in March and have been searching for nest sites since, suggesting they intend to stay. The eagles, which have a wingspan of 200cm-240cm, were made extinct in the UK in the early 20th century due to persecution and habitat changes, but have been reintroduced since the 1970s. There are now estimated to be over 150 breeding pairs. Hay-on-Wye, Powys Festivals suffer: The Government has been criticised for piling pressure on Britain’s struggling literary festivals, by refusing to make digital recordings of…

When O’Connor met Prince It was Sinéad O’Connor’s peerless cover of Nothing Compares 2 U that made her name; yet her memories of the song’s composer are far from fond. Nine months after her record was released, O’Connor was in Los Angeles when her phone rang. It was Prince. He was sending a car to bring her to his mansion in the Hollywood Hills. The limo driver dropped her off in silence; she was then led through a dark house to the kitchen, where Prince himself appeared – “wearing all the make-up that was ever in history applied to the face of Boy George”. He offered her a drink; then, inexplicably, flew off the handle, and slammed a glass down onto the table. From that point on, O’Connor says, things…

Michael Packard, a US lobster fisherman, claims to have been briefly swallowed by a whale. He was diving in the waters off Cape Cod last week when he felt a “huge bump” from behind him. “Everything went dark,” he said. He thought it was a shark attack, before he realised: “Oh my God, I’m in a whale’s mouth and he’s trying to swallow me.” The whale, a humpback, then went up to the surface “and started shaking his head. I got thrown in the air and landed in the water.” Packard was rescued by his crewmate and hospitalised with minor injuries. Experts said that such incidents are practically unheard-of. An Indian man believed to be the head of the world’s largest family has died at 76 – leaving 38 wives,…

In southeast Budapest, a number of streets have recently been renamed, says Meret Baumann. One is now called “Dalai Lama Street”; another “Free Hong Kong Road”; another still “Street of the Uighur Martyrs”. It was a clear message to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán from the opposition-controlled capital, and its liberal mayor Gergely Karácsony. Orbán has spent months trying to woo Beijing by promising to build a 520,000-square-metre campus for China’s elite university, Fudan, in Budapest. The plan was to cater for 8,000 students, at a cost of s1.5bn – more than Hungary’s entire 2019 higher education budget – with most of the money due to be loaned by Beijing. But Budapest’s authorities were dead against it – hence the street name stunt. Thousands of residents have also turned out to…

A new treatment for Alzheimer’s – the first for 20 years – has been approved by regulators in the US, raising hopes that it will become widely available, although there is some doubt as to its efficacy. The drug, aducanumab, prevents the build up in the brain of the amyloid plaques that are believed to cause Alzheimer’s. However, trial results are not clear. In March 2019, late-stage trials were halted when analysis showed that the drug was no better at slowing the deterioration of memory and cognitive ability than a placebo. But soon afterwards, the drug’s manufacturer analysed more data and concluded the drug did work, provided it was given in high enough doses. In Britain, even those experts who welcomed the news of the drug’s approval in the US…

“Travelling by scooter was once the preserve of children making their way to primary school,” said Kaya Burgess in The Times. No longer. Countless people have been buying electric scooters and flouting the law by riding them on public roads. Meanwhile, those who wanted to ride these devices legally have been able to do so under trial rental schemes in more than 40 UK towns and cities, including Birmingham and Manchester. Last week, London followed suit, allowing five boroughs to experiment with hiring out e-scooters. For an initial £1, plus 15p a minute, users can zip along roads and cycle paths at a maximum speed of 12.5mph. Altogether, there are now more than 11,000 rental e-scooters in the UK, which have already been used for some three million trips, said…

The opening weekend of the European Championship was dominated by an incident that “left the football world paralysed with shock”, said The Daily Telegraph. In the 42nd minute of his team’s group match against Finland, Danish midfielder and former Tottenham star Christian Eriksen collapsed to the ground while attempting to receive a throw-in. As his distraught teammates formed a human shield around him, medics massaged his heart and performed defibrillation. The match resumed nearly two hours later (once it was clear that Eriksen was out of danger), and with the Danish players still in shock, they slumped to an understandable 1-0 defeat. Eriksen, it was later confirmed, had gone into cardiac arrest, said Ian Sample in The Guardian: this condition, unlike the majority of heart attacks, poses an instant risk…

Tennis Barbora Krejciková of the Czech Republic won the French Open to claim her maiden grand slam title. The Czech player beat Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 in the final. Football France banked a 1-0 win over Germany in the group stage of the Euros, and defending champions Portugal won 3-0 against Hungary, with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring twice. Rugby union Saracens beat Ealing Trailfinders 60-0 in the first leg of the Championship final. The result all but guarantees their return to the Premiership next season.…

Unlike TV sitcoms, films rarely focus on the ordinary routines of working life. But the workplace is at the heart of our collective existence, and seethes with dramatic potential. Here are five comedies that exploit it: Modern Times Chaplin’s first sound film contains some of his most flawless acts of physical comedy. The Little Tramp, in his final screen outing, struggles to keep up with the pace of an ultramodern factory production line. Released in 1936, it is a brilliant satire of the dehumanising effects of industrialisation. I’m All Right Jack An upper-class twit gets a job at a missile factory, and accidentally triggers an industrial dispute, in this British state-of-the-nation satire from 1959. Skewering both corrupt capitalists and devious unionists, it features a host of star names, including Peter…

New cars: what the critics say The Daily Telegraph Toyota is hoping this second-generation Mirai will be the car that persuades us to “make hydrogen a very real part of our automotive future”. It has a range of up to 400 miles, and the “swooping” four-door coupé lines that are favoured in premium saloons. Crucially, it can also compete with battery electric rivals on price. It would be an “instant hit”, if only there were more hydrogen filling sites. What Car? This version of the Mirai is certainly “sleeker” than its “frumpy” predecessor. The inside has a mix of buttons and digital tech, some of which is not as easy to use as rival setups. A reversing camera comes as standard, and a self-parking system is on offer in top-trim…

The UK Consumer Prices Index rose to its highest level for almost two years in May, jumping to 2.1% as the easing of lockdown sparked a rise in consumer spending. But the biggest single cause was fuel prices, affected by the rise of crude oil. The price of Brent crude has shot to above $74/barrel as demand recovers. The UK inflation rise echoes more dramatic moves in the US and China. The 9% rise in Chinese factory gate prices and America’s 5% hike in consumer prices are the highest since the 2008 financial crisis. UK business leaders warned that the night-time economy and the hospitality industry were facing a “cliff edge” as a result of the longer pandemic restrictions. But economists argued that the damage to the economy would be…

Collections of empty shopping bags and boxes from high-end brands are being sold for hundreds of pounds on eBay. Boxes for Rolex watches are typically listed at £160 each, while a single Louis Vuitton paper bag recently sold for £32. Speculation is that they are bought by Instagram users who want to create the impression that they have been on a shopping spree. In an effort to please customers who are tired of Zoom meetings, but still reluctant to travel to a physical office, WeWork is rolling out hologram functions in 100 of its work spaces worldwide. It won’t be cheap, though: it will cost $2,500 for a single hologram to be displayed on a standard pod, and $25,000 for several to appear together on a virtual stage.…

A judge-led tribunal has ruled that the view that people cannot change their biological sex is a “protected belief” under the Equality Act. The Employment Appeal Tribunal case was brought by Maya Forstater, who lost her job at a think tank after tweeting thoughts on gender identity. In 2019, she lost her first case at an employment tribunal when the judge ruled that such views ignore the rights of transgender people and are “not worthy of respect in a democratic society”. But last week, a High Court judge upheld her appeal, ruling that “gender-critical” views are “beliefs that are and must be tolerated in a pluralist society”, and are protected by the Act, as they don’t seek “to destroy the rights of trans persons”.…

Berlin Restrictions lifted: Countries across Europe are relaxing coronavirus restrictions as Covid cases continue to fall to a small fraction of their peaks. Exceptions are Russia (at 45%), Belarus (43%) and Greece (22%). In Germany, restrictions have been loosened over several weeks with no increase in transmission. The government’s scientific advisers say the Delta (“Indian”) variant makes up only 2.5% of new cases. There has been a surge in holiday bookings after Berlin lifted its warning against travel to most countries, and took some popular destinations off the high-risk list, notably Mallorca (pictured) – Germans’ favourite holiday spot – Italy and Croatia. In France, the nationwide curfew has been pushed back from 9pm to 11pm. Denmark has begun to phase out the requirement to wear face masks in supermarkets and…

This week’s edition of Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs featured the world-famous cellist and classical musician Yo-Yo Ma 1 Hallelujah, written and performed by Leonard Cohen 2 Erbarme Dich by Bach, performed by Kai Wessel with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra 3 Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15: Maestoso by Brahms, performed by The Cleveland Orchestra 4 First movement Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85 by Elgar, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra 5 Tin Tin Deo by Gil Fuller and Chano Pozo, performed by The Oscar Peterson Trio 6 No. 4 Lieder, Op. 27: Morgen! by Richard Strauss, performed by Janet Baker and Gerald Moore 7 Podmoskovnye Vechera (Moscow Nights) by Vasily Solovyov-Sedoi, performed by Dmitri Hvorostovsky and the Moscow Chamber Orchestra 8* Piano Trio No.…

Not long ago, Ethiopia was in the grip of “Abiymania”. Having been elected in 2018, Ethiopia’s prime minister initiated a raft of ambitious reforms aimed at unifying a historically fractured nation. Thousands of political prisoners were freed; street sellers in Addis Ababa hawked stickers, posters and T-shirts featuring his face; radio stations aired gushing songs about him. In 2019, Abiy was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for ending his country’s 20-year war with Eritrea. “War is the epitome of hell,” he said in his speech, in which he thanked the Eritrean dictator Isaias Afwerki. Two years on, forces under his control are waging a brutal war on his own people. The US has accused Abiy’s government of ethnic cleansing in Tigray; the patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has said…

European leaders often talk about the need for dialogue with Russia, says Anton Shekhovtsov. But they’re kidding themselves if they think Vladimir Putin’s meeting with President Biden this week signals a willingness to talk to them too. “The Kremlin believes that the EU does not deserve dialogue with Russia.” Discussions with the US affirm Russia’s view of itself as a global superpower – but Putin views Europe with “disdain”, considering it “weak, indecisive and on the verge of collapse”. In the eyes of Russia’s president, Europe is essentially a “shopping centre” – led by people who claim to have values when in office, yet are happy to betray them for the right price as soon as their political careers are over. And he has a point. The former German chancellor…

Humans can learn echolocation Bats used echolocation to navigate their environments. Now a study has found that most people can learn the technique too, in just ten weeks. The research involved 12 volunteers who had been diagnosed as legally blind in childhood, and 14 sighted people. All were given 20 training sessions in echolocation, which involves producing sounds – typically mouth clicks – and listening to their echoes, to get a sense of the location and shape of nearby objects. The participants, who were aged 21 to 79, practised navigating a maze using echolocation during their training, and were then tested again at the end. The results showed that they had significantly fewer collisions than when they started the course, indicating that they had picked up the skill. A few…

For 45 minutes last week, “a company that most people have never heard of” showed us just how vulnerable our global internet infrastructure is, said Chris Stokel-Walker in Wired magazine. When Fastly – a content distribution network, or CDN – suffered an “outage”, it knocked out the websites of every organisation that used its services, including Amazon, PayPal, eBay, Reddit, the White House, the British Government, The New York Times and The Guardian. Fastly runs “a piece of the internet most people don’t think about”. It provides a global network of “edge servers”, which deliver “content hosted in one place closer to internet users in another place”, moving data quickly around the web, and protecting clients’ websites from becoming overloaded by spikes in visitor numbers. But CDN services are heavily…

Two hours into the French Open final, a victory for Novak Djokovic looked a “challenge too far”, said Tumaini Carayol in The Guardian. He’d had to summon all his “willpower” to topple “king of clay” Rafael Nadal in a truly epic semi-final; now he was two sets down against the young Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, looking tired and short of ideas. Yet the 34-year-old Serb has always been supremely good at lulling “opponents into a false sense of security”, said Stuart Fraser in The Times. Looking spent at the end of the second set, he took a bathroom break and returned a different player. The “defensive wall” he erected on the baseline took Tsitsipas by surprise. The Serb won the next two sets comfortably. Tsitsipas is “the real deal, a ball-striker…

A Victorian solution To The Guardian Dalya Alberge’s article (“Nor any drop to drink: why Victorian fountains are filled up with cement”) is a reminder that from 1859, drinking fountains offering free water were installed throughout London, including public parks and gardens. Of those that remain, the majority are broken and dry. Rome, Paris and Zurich keep their old drinking fountains in working order, recognising the value they add to life in a city. The Victorian drinking fountain movement installed fountains from Lerwick, in Shetland, to Penzance. Using less plastic bottled water is one of the easiest ways to reduce our carbon footprint. How much easier would it be if our fountains worked? Sebastian Bulmer, London Inescapable alliances To the Financial Times Robert Shrimsley’s article, “Starmer should swerve calls for…

Should We Stay or Should We Go by Lionel Shriver Borough Press 266pp £18.99 The Week Bookshop £14.99 “Anyone looking for a comfort read” should avoid Lionel Shriver’s books, said James Walton in The Times. Her new novel is certainly deeply “discomforting”. Kay and Cyril are a married couple (a nurse and a doctor) whom we first meet in their 50s. Convinced society is wrongly extending old people’s lives, Cyril persuades Kay to join him in a pact to commit suicide on her 80th birthday. The novel then skips to the appointed day, at which point it reveals itself as a speculative work, serving up “12 alternative scenarios” for what might happen next. In one of these scenarios, the couple decide against killing themselves, and their “callous, awful children commit…

It’s likely you’ve never heard of Jan Matejko (1838-93), said Melanie McDonagh in the London Evening Standard. In Poland, however, he is a household name, often seen as the country’s greatest artist. Now, one of his most famous works is on loan to the National Gallery, where it forms the centrepiece of a tiny but fascinating free exhibition – amazingly, the first one the institution has ever dedicated to a Polish artist. The painting is Matejko’s vision of the 16th century astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, “one of the greatest Poles” of them all. Copernicus changed the world’s understanding of science by articulating “the principle that the Earth moves around the Sun”, not vice versa, and – like Matejko – is venerated as a national hero. Painted in 1873, the work depicts…

Jennifer asks Ed about addiction and he opens up to her. Emma wants to organise a night out for Chris with his mates; Harrison agrees but Fallon has her doubts and doesn’t like how Emma badmouths Alice. Later, Fallon sympathises with a distraught Jennifer – Alice is sick and needs help. Brian berates Fallon for taking Alice to the pub; Fallon tells him she’s going to keep an eye on Alice and, chastened, he apologises. Later, Fallon talks to Chris about her own childhood and says that if they leave Alice out in the cold, it will be bad for Martha’s future. Peggy admits to Jennifer that she knew about Alice’s alcoholism months ago, and advised Chris to put Martha first. Jennifer is furious and blames Peggy for the current…

What the experts recommend 111 by Modou 111 Cleveden Road, Glasgow (0141-334 0111) “You’d need a heart of stone” not to be moved by the story of how this restaurant came into being, said Marina O’Loughlin in The Sunday Times. Previously called 111 by Nico, it was part of the empire of Nico Simeone, the Glasgow-born chef behind the hugely successful Six by Nico chain, which offers diners “accessible, affordable six-course tasting menus”. Last year, Simeone decided to hand over his “baby” to 26-year-old Modou Diagne – an immigrant from Senegal and former rough sleeper who had joined the restaurant as kitchen porter in 2013, before rising up its ranks to become head chef. In its new guise, the restaurant serves a five-course tasting menu, which costs a “gentle…

The polymath behind the “six thinking hats” Edward de Bono 1933-2021 Edward de Bono, who has died aged 88, was a doctor, a management guru, and the self-described inventor of “lateral thinking” – devising creative and unorthodox solutions to problems large and small. Although his critics argued that to claim to have invented creative problem-solving was like claiming to have invented poetry, or grief, his books – which he promoted with a “salesman’s flair” – sold in their millions; and he himself fizzed with ideas, said The Daily Telegraph. Towns, he declared, could solve their traffic problems by obliging motorists to leave their lights on when they park. As for the Arab-Israeli conflict, the solution was Marmite. The theory went something like this: owing to the bread in the region…

BT boss Philip Jansen has been looking for an outside investor to speed up and finance the roll-out of superfast fibre in Britain. “But no one expected the cavalry to arrive quite so precipitously,” said Alex Brummer in the Daily Mail. The City was stunned by news that the Franco-Israeli telecoms tycoon Patrick Drahi has stealthily amassed a 12.1% stake, worth £2.2bn, putting him in the driving seat as BT’s biggest shareholder. The billionaire – who owns a swathe of telecoms networks globally via his company Altice, as well as auctioneer Sotheby’s – insists this isn’t a prelude to an all-out takeover. His stated aim is to help BT’s infrastructure arm, Openreach, wire up 25 million UK households by 2026. Still, Drahi has a history of “financial engineering”, asset-stripping and…

● Footsie fetish Stone the crows, said Patrick Hosking in The Times. “For the second month running, global investors say they actually like the UK share market.” According to Bank of America’s latest snapshot of sentiment, 4% more institutions are “overweight” in UK equities than “underweight” in them. “This is very rare. Before last month, international investors had been net negative about the UK every month since March 2014” – and “you have to go back to 2003 to find another month when the UK was in vogue”. The recent bullishness is likely to be because UK stocks are “comparatively cheap”. Moreover, the successful vaccine roll-out bodes well for a decent economic bounce, and “banks and miners” – a speciality of the FTSE 100 – are “in fashion”. The “embarrassing…

The premature ending of the furlough James Moore The Independent The furlough scheme is “high on the short list of things that the Government has done well during the pandemic”, says James Moore. “It has largely kept a public health crisis from morphing into a full-scale jobs crisis.” So it beggars belief that ministers are willing to sully this achievement by allowing the scheme to “taper” off next month, in the teeth of continued pandemic restrictions. As well as paying national insurance contributions and pension payments for furloughed employees, as they do now, hard-hit companies will also have to start contributing 10% of their wages, at a time when revenues may be severely reduced. The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, is understandably concerned about the scheme’s impact on public borrowing. “But pushing…

The week’s best shares Go-Ahead Group The Times Shares in the transport group have fallen since the Government announced rail reforms. But as well as Southeastern and GTR, the group runs some 6,000 buses, and passenger numbers are recovering. Buy. £11.91. MJ Hudson Group The Mail on Sunday MJ Hudson operates in a growing niche market, advising small start-ups, pension funds and giants, such as Goldman Sachs, on alternative investment services. Revenues set to grow 35% with soaring profits. Buy. 50p. PZ Cussons The Daily Telegraph The Carex and Imperial Leather owner’s turnaround is gathering pace. Shares are up 36% as it focuses on hygiene, baby and beauty brands in the UK, Australia, Indonesia and Nigeria. Buy. 245p. Safestore Investors Chronicle Strong UK demand, boosted by a booming housing market…