Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1343 i The Week

What happened Travel confusion The Government abandoned its proposed new “amber watchlist” for foreign travel this week owing to fears that it would cause more confusion, and lead to mass cancellations of holiday plans. The watchlist would have consisted of “amber” countries at risk of turning “red”, meaning returnees would be obliged to quarantine in hotels. Chancellor Rishi Sunak was among those who had expressed alarm about the impact it would have on the struggling travel sector. The new list would have joined five existing ones – green, green watchlist, amber, amber-plus and red. It had been suggested that Spain and Italy might go on it. Separately, the Government announced that under-30s will be offered incentives to get vaccinated, including discounts for Uber journeys and takeaways. Ministers also suggested that…

Sky Brown, who became Britain’s youngest ever Olympic medallist. The 13-year-old won bronze in the women’s park skateboarding event. Sarah Gilbert, the co-creator the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, who has been immortalised as a Barbie doll. The scientist said that she found the honour “very strange”, but that she hoped the doll would encourage girls to consider careers in the sciences. Dubbed “vaccine Barbie”, the doll has long auburn hair, and wears a black trouser suit with a white shirt. Boris and Carrie Johnson, who are expecting their second child. In a post on Instagram, she revealed that she had had a miscarriage in January, which had left her “heartbroken”, but that she was “blessed” to be pregnant again. She said the “rainbow baby” was due at Christmas. The term refers to…

Just 35% of voters in “blue wall” constituencies in the east and southeast of England think that Boris Johnson is the best person to be PM, while 31% back Labour leader Keir Starmer. Overall, 44% of voters in those areas would vote Conservative now, down from 52% in 2019. Support for Labour has risen four points, to 24%. The YouGov poll for The Times suggests that the Tories would lose up to 16 seats, were an election held tomorrow. According to a separate survey published by Conservative Home, Johnson’s rating among party members has fallen 36 points in four weeks. His net satisfaction rating is now 3.4; by contrast, the Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s is 74. Gavin Williamson is the least popular minister, with a net rating of minus 44.…

Ronson on Winehouse Mark Ronson met Amy Winehouse in 2007, when he was asked to produce her hit album Back to Black – and he adored her from the start. “It was an instant familiarity,” he says. “I just loved being in her presence. She was just so funny.” The pair remained firm friends – though they had some “ups and downs” before Winehouse’s death in 2011, aged 27, after years of spiralling substance abuse. Inevitably, he regrets that he didn’t do more to help her. “I wish I’d been a little bit more upfront or confrontational about [her addiction],” he told Elle Hunt in The Guardian. But he reserves special contempt for paparazzi he used to see camped outside her home. “She would wave to them, occasionally bring them…

Oh Lord, let Facebook hear our prayers Elizabeth Culliford Reuters First it changed our politics. Now Facebook is changing the face of religion, says Elizabeth Culliford. It’s drawing churches and mosques into its orbit. Last month the tech giant held its first virtual faith summit, an event broadcast on Facebook Live: “heart emojis floated across the screen as religious leaders ministered to their congregations”. It has also instituted an Interfaith Advisory Council to hold regular meetings with faith groups, and set up its own internal “faith partnership” team headed by Nona Jones, a pastor in Florida. On the tech side, one of its new initiatives is a prayer tool created, as Jones explains, “after we saw an increase in people asking each other for prayers during the pandemic”. It allows…

The protective antibodies generated by Covid vaccines can decline significantly in the weeks after the second jab, a new study has found – adding weight to the view that at least some people should have Covid boosters this autumn. A fall in antibodies was anticipated, reports The Guardian, and it does not necessarily make people more vulnerable to infection, as the immune system has other defences that are built up by vaccination – but if the levels continue to decline, it could make the vaccine less effective. In the study by the UCL Virus Watch team, the antibodies generated by two doses of the Oxford/ AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech jabs started to wane six weeks after the second jab. By ten weeks, they were down 50% in some cases. The NHS…

“Like a knackered old cruise singer” finally facing the inevitable, The X Factor has left the stage, said Rebecca Nicholson in The Guardian. The talent show hadn’t actually been on air since 2018, but its death knell was officially sounded last week, with ITV’s confirmation that there are no plans to bring it back. In its heyday, the show – which ran for 14 years – was a “well-oiled machine for churning out pop stars and Christmas No. 1s”. Its caustic creator and judge Simon Cowell was a pop “kingmaker” who used it to promote mega-acts such as One Direction and JLS. But the world has changed: fans now “like to find music for themselves”, on TikTok or YouTube. “The X Factor was the last moment where TV reigned supreme,…

“Some memories are realities, and are better than anything that can ever happen to one again.” Willa Cather, quoted in Lapham’s Quarterly “If we want the rewards of being loved, we have to submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known.” Essayist Tim Kreider, quoted on Paste Magazine “I like to think of Death not as a murderer, but as someone with an unpleasant job.” Novelist Rivka Galchen, quoted on The Browser “Diplomacy is the art of saying ‘Nice doggie’ until you can find a rock.” Will Rogers, quoted in The Tribune “Everything you see I owe to spaghetti.” Sophia Loren, quoted in Vogue “No man knows his true character until he has run out of gas, purchased something on the instalment plan and raised an adolescent.” US journalist Marcelene…

To The Sunday Times Your review of a book on Oliver Cromwell notes that his London statue stands “unchallenged by any demands that Oliver must fall”. More is the pity. His war crimes led to the deaths of about a quarter of the Irish population. There is nothing of which you can accuse Hitler or Stalin that is not also true of Cromwell. Give me a licence and a JCB. I will deal with his statue. Stephen Dowds, Ireland To The Sunday Times My ancestors came to England from the Highlands of Scotland. In researching my ancestry, I also discovered “slavery” – in slate mines in the Northeast. Some of my ancestors were forced to work there from as young as nine years old. Do I feel enmity towards those…

This year’s Oscar for best foreign film went to Another Round, a tragicomedy about Denmark’s drinking culture. Here are five other acclaimed films in which alcohol plays a starring role: The Lost Weekend Adapted from the novel by Charles R. Jackson, Billy Wilder’s 1945 Oscar-winner is a startlingly frank and intense film about alcoholism. Ray Milland stars as a New York writer who dodges his concerned brother and girlfriend to spend a weekend drinking himself into oblivion. Drunken Angel An alcoholic doctor and one of his more troubled patients – a gangster and fellow alcoholic – struggle towards redemption in Kurosawa’s melodrama. Shot in 1948 amid the wreckage of postwar Japan, it was the director’s eighth film, but he said it was the first of which he felt proud. Sideways…

Tips of the week… exercising in the heat ● Sip an ice-cold drink about 15-20 minutes before exercising. The cooling effect has been shown to improve performance and encourage effective hydration. ● It’s a good idea to lower your skin temperature too. Stick a towel in the freezer and place it around your neck for a few minutes, or immerse your hands in icy water to precool. ● You could also spritz your clothing with some water. This will help to both cool the skin and accelerate the mechanism that triggers sweat to evaporate from the skin. ● When choosing new exercise kit, opt for clothes that are made from the kind of hi-tech fabrics that wick away sweat. Avoid heavy cotton as it will hamper the evaporation of sweat.…

Writer whose affair with Tony Hancock caused a scandal Joan Le Mesurier 1931-2021 To the general public, Joan Le Mesurier, who has died aged 90, was best known for the “doomed but passionate” relationship she had with the comedian Tony Hancock, while she was married to his friend John Le Mesurier. The Dad’s Army star was not dissimilar to the affable and diffident character he played in the show, said The Times. When his second wife, the actress Hattie Jacques, had installed her lover in their home, he’d responded by simply moving to the spare room. He didn’t walk out, he explained, as he loved his wife, and he hoped the damage could be repaired. He took a “similarly forbearing” approach to this fresh, double betrayal. “He didn’t get angry,”…

Having remained silent while “great swathes of Britain’s aerospace and defence industries” disappeared “into private equity and overseas hands”, ministers have apparently decided “enough is enough”, said Alex Brummer in the Daily Mail. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng is considering intervening in a £6.3bn bid (including debt) for the Coventry engineering firm Meggitt by its US rival, Parker Hannifin. The move is timely: two other UK defence firms – Ultra Electronics and Senior Engineering – “are also under siege”. It’s time to draw a line. Meggitt dates back to 1850, when its founders invented the world’s first altimeter for hot air balloons. But there’s a lot more at stake than nostalgia, said Ben Marlow in The Daily Telegraph. Its components are used in Rolls-Royce engines and F-35 fighters. Losing “another significant…

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg wants to turn the social networking giant into a “metaverse company”, said Daniel Broby on The Conversation. What on earth does that mean? What is the metaverse? The term is a description of how the internet might evolve into a virtual world – “a 3D virtual living space, where individuals dip in and out, interacting with each other in real time”. The idea was first advanced in 1992 by the American novelist Neal Stephenson in his sci-fi classic Snow Crash. When can we expect it? Many in Silicon Valley are working towards the metaverse. But Facebook appears the most committed. Zuckerberg expects Facebook to make the transition “within the next five years”. What are the chances? Facebook has a head start because it also owns VR…

Controversy of the week “Access capitalism” “Is the UK’s democracy for sale,” asked the Financial Times. Reporters from this newspaper have revealed the existence of a “select coterie of financiers and grandees” who belong to an invitation-only club known as the Advisory Board – and who enjoy frequent, direct access to Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak. The price of membership? Big donations to the Conservative Party, some as high as £250,000. What they discuss with ministers is not minuted. “The very existence of the board is not documented.” It exists in “a shadowy world of privileged access”. Orchestrating it all is the Tory party co-chairman Ben Elliot, the founder of Quintessentially, a “concierge service” that caters to the super-rich: it secures restaurant reservations and society invitations; it advises on the…

The Hay Festival, with the resignation of its co-founder and director. Peter Florence, who had run the festival since its launch in 1988, stepped down after an independent inquiry upheld a bullying allegation against him, a finding that was then unanimously endorsed by the board. Thatched cottages, which are at risk of disappearing within the next 20 years, owing to a dire shortage of the right kind of straw. According to Historic England, there are now so few farms growing long-stemmed winter wheat that it could become impossible for thatchers to renew thatched roofs.…

Paris Corruption charges: France’s former justice minister has been charged with corruption over payments she received from Carlos Ghosn, the former Renault boss who fled Japan after being charged with financial crimes. Rachida Dati, a protégée of Nicolas Sarkozy who had been tipped as a possible candidate for the Republicans in next year’s presidential election, could face 15 years in jail if convicted. The charges relate to s900,000 she was paid in consultancy fees in 2010-2012, when she was also an MEP. The allegation is that the payments were actually for illegal lobbying. Dati has denied wrongdoing, and described the charges as politically motivated. Paris Covid protests: Plans to make access to public spaces conditional on Covid health passes have provoked more angry protests in countries across Europe. In France,…

1 Jump Around by Lawrence Muggerud, Erik Schrody, Earl Nelson and Bobby Relf, performed by House of Pain 2* This Woman’s Work, written and performed by Kate Bush 3 Why Should I Cry For You? written and performed by Sting 4 One In Ten, written and performed by UB40 5 Set You Free (Voodoo & Serano Remix) by Dale Longworth and Kevin O’Toole, performed by N-Trance 6 Woman in Chains by Roland Orzabal, performed by Tears For Fears featuring Oleta Adams 7 One by U2, performed by Mary J. Blige & U2 8 Talkin’ Bout A Revolution, written and performed by Tracy Chapman Book: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Luxury: an acoustic guitar * Choice if allowed only one record…

Swimming outdoors has been a popular British pastime for centuries. Only recently was the term “wild swimming” coined for it – in Roger Deakin’s 1999 book Waterlog, a record of his quixotic quest to swim through the British Isles, via its rivers, lochs, tarns, moats, aqueducts, even the “chocolate water” of its city canals. Thanks in part to books like Deakin’s, and the closure of public pools during the pandemic, it has become a craze: searches for the term “wild swimming” increased by 94% between 2019 and 2020. Yet the polluted waterways of the UK can pose serious health risks thanks to harmful bacteria such as E. coli, salmonella and listeria, and – in rare cases – potentially fatal diseases such as leptospirosis and hepatitis A. The wild swimmers, though,…

A camera to “see” for the blind Wearing a chest-mounted camera could help visually impaired people move around independently, a study has found. Researchers tested the camera, which warns the wearer of obstacles by sending alerts to vibrating Bluetooth-connected wristbands, on 31 blind and partially sighted people. They found that when the device was used in conjunction with a guide dog or long cane, it reduced collisions by 37%, compared to when a dog or cane was used on its own. “Although many blind individuals use long canes to detect obstacles, collision risks are not eliminated,” said Dr Gang Luo, an ophthalmologist who worked on the study. “We sought to develop and test a device that can augment these everyday mobility aids.” Around two million people in the UK are…

Princess Diana’s former private secretary Patrick Jephson is worried that Prince Harry’s forthcoming memoir will feature “asskickings on every page”. It doesn’t help, he wrote in The Spectator, that both sides in the battle of the princes have armed themselves “to the teeth” with spin doctors and PR people. “Long ago I concluded that the best way of handling royal PR would be to replace all the palace press officers with one slightly deaf octogenarian armed with a crackly phone line and lots of knitting. The result could hardly be any worse.” The celebrity couple Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher have been telling the world about their shared disdain for excessive washing. “I don’t wash my body with soap,” Kunis told the Armchair Expert podcast. “I wash my armpits and…

A flea market treasure An antiques dealer who was presented with a seaside scene bought in a flea market has identified it as a valuable stolen work by the French impressionist Eugène Boudin, says Daniel Angelini in the Swindon Advertiser. Jon White of Old Bank Antiques, in Royal Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire, was first shown the canvas, a scene depicting the French resort of Trouville, by a woman whose late father had, quite innocently, acquired it at a London flea market years before. Realising it looked “special” and wanting to offer a fair price for it, White began researching its provenance. His enquiries revealed that in May 1990, it had disappeared from Richard Green gallery in Mayfair, and – in spite of a £40,000 reward offered for its return –…

Leyla and Roy finally meet and, in spite of nerves, all goes well. They agree on a second date in Ambridge. Still suspicious about an affair, Ian checks Adam’s messages and finds he’s meeting a man called Michael at a pub. Unaware that it’s about work, Ian storms in to confront Adam. In the heat of the showdown, Adam discloses his “loan” from Home Farm, and Michael retracts the job offer, leaving Adam furious. Lynda’s on the hunt for a celebrity to open the fête. Ian and Adam attempt to move on from their bust-up. Leyla and Roy meet at the campsite for their second date. When a longhorn tramples her tent, Leyla complains to Phoebe, unaware she’s Roy’s daughter. After further misunderstanding and Kate making matters worse, Leyla has…

Britain embraces the drive-through One of the pandemic’s lasting impacts on the UK hospitality industry could be the “resurgence” of the drive-through restaurant, says Tomé Morrissy-Swan in The Daily Telegraph. Although Britain’s first, a McDonald’s, opened in the 1980s, the concept had been slow to take off until the pandemic put a new value on “contact-free service”. There were, analysts estimate, an extra 40 million visits to the country’s existing 2,500 drive-throughs in the year to April 2021, and around 200 new sites are expected to open this year. While the sector is currently dominated by fast-food chains (notably McDonald’s, which has 938 drive-through branches in Britain, and Canadian coffee and doughnut store Tim Hortons, which is rapidly expanding its UK operation), “independent restaurants are slowly entering the arena”. One…

The Daily Telegraph Since its launch in 2016, Hyundai’s Ioniq has been seen as an “unexceptional” family hatchback; the hope is that this new electric-only platform will change that. The new model uses 800-volt electronic architecture that has, until now, only been available in the Porsche Taycan and Audi e-tron GT. But while the car looks good, inside and out, the ride lets it down, and “that might put off more than a few”. Autocar The ride isn’t a disaster. In most conditions, it is soft and comfortable, and it helps that the driver sits high up with a good view. But it would benefit from more control, as the car can feel “floaty” and the steering response can be unpredictable. Plus, the body rolls, and on nasty ridges you…

Bankers’ pay: bonuses and burnout What’s the easiest way to make post-Brexit London more attractive than Frankfurt, Paris or Dublin? Try axing the bonus cap, said Katherine Griffiths in The Times. Egged on by bank chiefs, the Treasury has been considering ditching EU rules that limit annual payouts to “a maximum of two times salary”. For the moment, the Chancellor is taking no chances, said the FT. Wary of “a political elephant trap”, Rishi Sunak is resisting pressure to use “post-Brexit regulatory freedoms” to enrich bankers. That, however, might change. The Treasury’s long-standing view is that the rule, introduced in 2014, is flawed. Bankers’ pay has begun rocketing again – with or without a bonus cap. Last week, Goldman Sachs became “the last of the big US investment banks”…

It’s confirmed: British dog lovers have gone mad for cavapoos during the pandemic. The dogs, a cross between Cavalier King Charles spaniels and poodles, are the most sought after puppy breed, as judged by the number of visitors to adverts on the website Pets4Homes. However, the website reports that overall demand for puppies, which soared in the lockdowns, is waning, as people start to return to work. The average price for a dog is now £1,873, down from £2,237 in March. Cat lovers, meanwhile, can download a new app which will tell them whether their pet is happy. The app, named Tably, analyses ear and head position, eye-narrowing, muzzle tension and whisker arrangement, to detect distress.…

Almost all of Scotland’s remaining Covid restrictions will be lifted next week, Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed. From Monday, rules limiting the number of people who can meet up inside will be dropped, along with social distancing measures in venues such as pubs and restaurants. However, the wearing of face coverings will remain mandatory in some public spaces, including buses and secondary schools. The First Minister said the country was able to move beyond Level 0, owing to the success of the vaccine programme, but warned that Covid still poses “challenges” and that restrictions could be reimposed if cases rise again in the winter.…

“Resilience. Endurance. Everywhere you look in the GB Olympic team you will witness just what it takes to perform at the highest level. But I’m not talking about the participants. It’s the parents who deserve the medals. The kids just have to run, swim or cycle really fast. The real credit should go to the mothers who put their careers on hold and the fathers who rise before dawn to drive their offspring to training. To allow silver-medal-winner Lauren Williams to join the Olympic taekwondo team in Manchester, her mother Tanya quit her job and lived with her in a caravan for 18 months. Like the stars of track and field, Olympic parents are born not made, and I hail their greatness.” Judith Woods in The Daily Telegraph…

Broxbourne, Hertfordshire Lights, camera, action: An ambitious plan to build a major, “world class” film studio in Hertfordshire has been hailed by Boris Johnson as “excellent news” for the UK’s film and TV industry. Two US firms have jointly acquired a 91-acre site, just off the M25 in the borough of Broxbourne, for £120m, where they intend to build a facility for film, TV and digital production. The proposed £700m development must still clear planning hurdles, but the local council is said to be broadly supportive of the proposal. The venture – which is expected to create more than 4,500 permanent jobs and to contribute £300m a year to the local economy – is by investment firm Blackstone and developer Hudson Pacific, and will be the first overseas extension of…

ITALY Our coffee is a national disgrace la Repubblica (Rome) We Italians are proud of our espresso, says Massimiliano Tonelli. In contrast to the “undrinkable soup” served in places like France and Britain, we tell ourselves, our coffee is the best in the world. Who are we kidding? In truth, our coffee is the most “mediocre” in the West. Why? Start with price. We are wedded to the idea that a cup of coffee shouldn’t cost more than 80¢ – way below the s2 most Europeans pay. This encourages producers to buy poor-quality and unripe beans. As a result, we roast our beans black to “eliminate all defects” – but also all “merits”. Beans ought to be roasted to a light brown complexion, at which point they give off flavours…

As swathes of the UK were braced for more downpours last week, the Met Office released a new report, showing that in the past 30 years, the country has become 0.9°C warmer and 6% wetter. The State of the UK Climate report also notes that last year was the third warmest, fifth wettest and eighth sunniest since records began, making 2020 the first year to be in the top ten for all three variables. “A lot of people think climate change is in the future – but this proves the climate is already changing here in the UK,” lead author Mike Kendon told the BBC. He also warned that it was “plausible” that UK temperatures will be regularly hitting 40°C by the 2040s – even if we continue to cut…

Simone Biles was expected to be the talk of the Olympics, owing to her “jaw-dropping performances” in the run-up to the Games, said Jemele Hill in The Atlantic. Instead, the US gymnast became the talk of the event for not performing. Last week Biles, who has four Olympic golds to her name, and who is often referred to as the GOAT – Greatest of All Time – sensationally withdrew from the team events, after botching a vault in the opening rotation. Commentators were stunned. “She looked lost in the air,” said one. Biles later explained that the pressure had got to her, and that she couldn’t carry on (though this week, she took bronze in the finals on the beam). “I have to focus on my mental health,” she said.…

It was meant to be an “iconic landmark” that would entice shoppers back to London’s Oxford Street. Alas, Westminster Council’s “Marble Arch Mound” didn’t quite live up to the billing when it opened to the public last week, said Lloyd Evans in The Spectator. Instead, unhappy punters paid up to £8 for the dubious privilege of ascending a “glorified stepladder” cut into the side of a 25-metre artificial hill made up of “invisible scaffolding” covered with a skin of brown turf panels and scraggy trees. And what were they greeted with, at the summit of this knoll on a noisy roundabout? A view of “morose shoppers”, queues of buses, and a few Hyde Park treetops. There was outrage on Twitter. “Worst thing I have ever done in London,” said one…

The cost of staying To the Financial Times Many are quick to focus on the costs of US troops leaving Afghanistan after 20 years of war. But, curiously, too few bother to recognise the even greater costs of staying. Gideon Rachman argues that keeping several thousand US forces in Afghanistan would have been far preferable, morally and strategically. Yet he discounts the likely consequences of such a decision, most notably the resumption of large-scale Taliban assaults on the Americans, who would be ordered to maintain positions. Sure, US forces haven’t suffered casualties for the last year. This isn’t due to Taliban generosity, but rather to the February 2020 Doha accord, which ceased Taliban attacks against US forces in exchange for a US troop withdrawal. Delay that withdrawal, and the US…

Edgar Wright’s documentary is a “fanboy love letter” to Ron and Russell Mael, the eccentric brothers who comprise the US band Sparks, said Dave Calhoun in Time Out. Although born in LA, the pair first found fame in the UK, with their 1974 single This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both of Us. Now they are entering the sixth decade of a “shapeshifting” career that has “straddled glam rock, teen pop, electro, new wave and more”. Theirs is a “pop survival story”, told here with “infectious, childlike glee”. Sparks has always cultivated an “air of mystery”, said Mark Kermode in The Observer. As a result, the film sometimes feels like “a grand work of comic fantasy”. A “dizzying array” of interviewees – from Neil Gaiman to Mike Myers – discuss…

Best books… David Hare The award-winning playwright and screenwriter chooses his six favourite books. His latest volume, We Travelled: Essays and Poems (Faber £14.99), a collection of his prose and poetry, is published this week A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940 by Victoria Wilson, 2013 (Simon & Schuster £14.99). The history of Hollywood told through the life of one superb working actress. Its 1,056 pages leave our heroine in 1940, aged 33. It’s one of the greatest books about cinema, but where is Volume Two? With Simon Callow’s long-awaited fourth volume on Orson Welles, it’s the great white whale of film publishing. Twilight of Democracy by Anne Applebaum, 2020 (Penguin £9.99). If you’ve read the British press during the pandemic, you will know that once creditable and witty right-wing…

Programmes BBC Proms: The Golden Age of Broadway West End stars perform classic numbers from Broadway musicals including Oklahoma!, live from the Royal Albert Hall. Sat 7 Aug, BBC2 18:30 (120mins). The Riots 2011: One Week in August A decade on from Britain’s worst riots since the 1980s, convicted participants, police and victims of the violence share memories. Mon 9 Aug, BBC2 21:00 (90mins). Guy Martin: The World’s Fastest Electric Car? The former motorcycle racer explores the world of electric vehicles and tries to set a new record by fitting a classic VW Beetle with Tesla engineering. Mon 9 Aug, C4 21:00 (90mins). The Watch Captain Vines faces Death (Wendell Pierce) in the first episode of this fantasy police procedural, based on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. Thur 12 Aug, BBC2…

“This simple combination of saffron, almond and sardines is wonderful, says Josh Niland: “the saffron vinegar brings an elegant floral sweetness that perfectly complements the savoury minerality of the grilled fish. It is important that the whole sardines are rested for a couple of minutes after grilling to ensure the flesh comes away from the bone nicely.” Serves 4 as a starter or 2 as a main 8 sardines, gutted, head and tail on 80ml grapeseed oil sea salt flakes and freshly cracked black pepper 1 tbsp almond oil garum or fish sauce, to taste slivered almonds, to garnish (optional) to make the saffron vinegar: small pinch of saffron threads 1 litre of chardonnay vinegar • To make the saffron vinegar, add the saffron to the vinegar in a sterile…

Bluefin SUP 10’ 8’’ Aura FIT This extra-wide inflatable paddle board is designed for water-based yoga and Pilates, but it’s also a good option for beginners. It has excellent stability and a relatively light paddle (£549; bluefinsupboards.com). Jobe Ventura 10.6 Bamboo Board This rigid bamboo board is sturdy, and designed to be fast and easy to manoeuvre and control. The downside is its bulk, which makes it harder than others to transport and store (£899; thesupco.com). iRocker All-Around With a weight limit at the upper end of the scale at 197kg (434lbs), this durable inflatable board can accommodate multiple passengers, while its generous width provides extra stability, making it a good choice for families (£749; irockersup.co.uk). Quroc Qi Crossover This inflatable board has been designed for the all-round paddler. It…

Global stocks pushed close to all-time highs again as optimism about improved corporate earnings trumped pandemic concerns and inflation worries. Markets in Asia continued to rebound, despite another crackdown on gaming stocks by the Chinese authorities which wiped 11%, or $60bn, off the value of Tencent on Monday. The company responded by pledging to curb children’s access to its most popular video games to one hour a day in its domestic market, and blocking under-12s from spending money within games. The Bank of England was predicted to unveil the biggest price shock for more than a decade. Analysts were braced for an inflation forecast of 4% in the final quarter of 2021 – a massive increase on the Bank’s May estimate of just 2.5%. The RAC reported that, after nine…

● Northern frontier Climate change has shifted the boundaries of wine production in Europe and North America, said Patrick Temple-West in the FT. Canada, for example, has made “big strides as a pinot noir producer”; and Britain, along with other countries like Denmark, is now part of Europe’s “northern wine frontier”. That is already affecting drinking and investment trends, said Lucy White in the Daily Mail. Sales of Chapel Down, England’s largest sparkling wine producer, have been on a roll, prompting the Kent-based firm – which is listed on “the challenger stock exchange”, Aquis – to scale up production and open a new, larger winery. “I used to say we were a pimple on the backside of the champagne elephant,” said CEO Frazer Thompson, who is leaving this week after…

What are the chances of cryptocalypse? Editorial The Economist The rapid expansion of the “crypto-universe” has created a new disaster scenario, says The Economist. What would happen if the price of bitcoin (now around $40,000) crashed “to zero”? How would it affect the mainstream financial system? Such an extreme scenario is unlikely, even given the e-currency’s “wild gyrations”. But it could happen, if the technology failed or a big exchange was hacked. And modelling it is a useful way of grasping how “entwined” crypto markets have become with conventional ones. In the event of a total crash, “perhaps $2trn might be lost” from the “first shock wave”, with the big losses falling on hedge funds, university endowments and mutual funds. “Contagion” might then spread “through several channels” – via leveraged…

Jay Hambro Sanjeev Gupta – the metals tycoon “battling to maintain control” of his GFG Alliance empire following the collapse of his main lender, Greensill Capital – has lost “one of his closest and most senior lieutenants”, said Bloomberg. Jay Hambro, 45, has quit following a row over a deal to sell two big European aluminium plants to the US private equity group American Industrial Partners. Hambro had planned on moving to AIP to manage the plants. Stung by his protégé’s “willingness to jump ship” and the relatively low price offered by AIP, Gupta rejected the bid. The rift robs Gupta of a right-hand man whose “deep” establishment connections “opened doors to politicians and global banks”, said the FT. A scion of the historic London banking dynasty, the tall, “physically…

The week’s best shares Carlsberg The Daily Telegraph The craft beer movement has re-energised the whole market, and the Danish brewer is set to benefit. Chawton Global Investors predicts “double-digit profit growth” in coming years. Buy. Dkr 1,169.5. Croda International Investors Chronicle The acquisitive chemicals company, which makes lipid nanoparticles used to deliver mRNA vaccines, has filed a “record” first half. Strong demand for Covid-related products is backed by growth in cosmetics and crop additives. Buy. £82.52. FirstGroup Citywire The rail and bus operator is on track for recovery, but this isn’t reflected in the valuation, says Liberum, which sets a 105p target. The market has overlooked the growth potential in UK transport. Buy. 84.3p. Games Workshop Group The Times The hobby shop chain behind Warhammer has delivered a stellar…