Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1346 i The Week

Chaos at the airport: fleeing the Taliban If anyone “needed further evidence of the West’s humiliation in Afghanistan”, said The Times, it was provided by its panicked evacuation efforts in Kabul this week. G7 leaders led by Boris Johnson had appealed for President Biden to extend his 31 August deadline for withdrawing US troops, in order to allow more time to evacuate foreign nationals and eligible Afghans. But Biden insisted the US was sticking to the original timetable. He had little choice given that the Taliban had made clear that it would accept no delay. Short of taking up arms again against the group, the US had to comply. The West was reduced to demanding that the Taliban grant safe passage after the deadline to anyone who wants to leave…

The F-word, after a study found that it has overtaken bloody as Britain’s most commonly used swear word. However, the analysis of transcripted conversations also found that the use of all expletives has declined over the past 20 years. Bond fans, who were finally given a release date for the latest film in the franchise. The much-delayed 25th film, No Time To Die, will open in British cinemas on 30 September. It was originally due to be released in the spring of 2020. Women at the bar, with news that there are now as many female full-time judges as male ones at the Old Bailey. Mark Lucraft QC, the Recorder of London, said that it was a “significant step in the right direction”, but acknowledged that more could be done…

Almost half of British adults (48%) think that President Biden’s decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan was wrong. A majority of both Conservative (56%) and Labour voters (54%) oppose the pull-out. 65% think the UK should grant refugee status to Afghan citizens who assisted the UK during its operations in Afghanistan, and to their families. 51% said they still agreed with the UK’s original decision to support the US-led invasion to oust the Taliban regime in 2001. 20% think it was wrong. Opinium/The Observer Sports Direct is the worst internet retailer for customer service, according to a poll of 5,000 shoppers. Marks & Spencer, Screwfix and Amazon rated the highest. Which?…

Gillespie’s good times Singer songwriter Dana Gillespie has enjoyed a long career in music. Now 72, she has recorded as many albums as her years. Yet for decades, she has been defined less by her work than by her relationships with more famous musicians. And there have been quite a lot of them, says Garth Cartwright in The Guardian. Indeed, in her memoir, she enthusiastically recounts her experiences as a “good time girl” (her words) in the 1960s. She met David Bowie in 1964, at a gig in Kent when they were both in their teens; they were friends and lovers for a decade. Then in London in 1965, she met Bob Dylan, who was “smart and funny – really interesting to be around. I don’t often find Americans attractive,…

Alexander Fleming was studying Staphylococcus aureus – a bacterium that causes boils, abscesses, pneumonia and infections of surgical wounds and blood, sometimes causing fatal sepsis – when he discovered penicillin in 1928. Penicillin revolutionised the treatment of staphylococcal (and other) infections, but its power soon began to wane: the first penicillin-resistant staphylococci were seen in 1942; they had evolved to make penicillinase, a penicillin-destroying enzyme. In response, methicillin was developed – an antibiotic that was resistant to penicillinase. Soon after that, in 1961, scientists noticed the first methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). In 1963, the first recorded outbreak occurred, in a Surrey hospital. Since then, MRSA has spread around the world, evolving independently, generally in hospitals, in places from the US to Taiwan. By 2005, it was killing more Americans than…

The GOP is bound for oblivion Harold Meyerson The American Prospect “At some point, at least in most functioning democracies, demography does become destiny,” says Harold Meyerson. And that’s bad news for the Republican Party. The latest data from the US census show that the white majority on which the party’s electoral success now depends will soon be a thing of the past. Between 2010 and 2020 the “white only” share of the population dropped from 64% to 58% – the three main causes being the low birth rate among whites, high levels of immigration and a whopping 276% rise in the number of Americans calling themselves multiracial. Nor is the decline confined to percentages. “For the first time in census data ever, the actual number of white Americans declined…

Fully vaccinated adults who are infected with the Delta variant can have the same levels of the virus as unjabbed patients, a study has found. Oxford University researchers stressed that it is not entirely clear how this affects transmission rates, as they may have high viral loads for shorter periods of time; but their finding suggests that herd immunity is less achievable, and that unvaccinated people are more vulnerable, than previously believed. “The vaccines are better at preventing severe disease and are less effective at preventing transmission,” said lead researcher Dr Koen Pouwels. “The fact that you see more viral load (with the Delta variant) hints towards herd immunity being more challenging.” The team stressed that both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca jabs are still highly effective at reducing the risk…

Imagine if Playboy in its prime had suddenly declared that it was henceforth going to shun nudity and publish only the articles. That’s more or less what the social network OnlyFans did last week, said Sarah Ditum in The Guardian, when it announced that it was banning “sexually explicit” material from its website. The digital platform, which allows users to charge fans for exclusive pictures, videos and other customised content, features more than just pornography. You can get training tips from athletes, for instance, or cooking tutorials. But it’s porn that has fuelled the London start-up’s rapid growth and is responsible for the lion’s share of the £1.7bn in sales it took in the year to November 2020. So OnlyFans’ decision to ban explicit content will “seem perverse to many…

“Political history is far too criminal and pathological to be a fit subject of study for the young. Children should acquire their heroes and villains from fiction.” W.H. Auden, quoted on ArtsJournal.com “In order to haunt, a ghost requires an audience capable of reflection and shame.” Emily Tamkin in the New Statesman “There are few greater dangers to political stability than the existence of an intellectual proletariat who find no outlet for their learning.” Friedrich Hayek, quoted in The Times “The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” Dorothy Parker, quoted in Country Living “There are two impossible professions: politics and education.” Sigmund Freud, quoted on UnHerd “You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in…

Carnoustie, in Scotland, is one of golf’s most celebrated courses, but its 18th hole has often been a source of “carnage”, said Ewan Murray in The Guardian. And in the final round of the Women’s Open, Nanna Koerstz Madsen became its latest victim. Tied on 12-under-par with Anna Nordqvist of Sweden, she began the hole with a “live chance of becoming the first Dane to win a male or female major”. But having found the fairway with her opener, she made a hash of her next two shots. Her double-bogey handed Nordqvist the title. This was a Women’s Open Sunday that “had it all”, said Jamie Corrigan in The Daily Telegraph – a brilliant round of 69 by England’s Georgia Hall, which took her into joint second place; and a…

To The Daily Telegraph The idea that the public should be able to see a GP in person if they wish is a recipe for the waste of GPs’ time. Covid has taught GPs that there are better ways of managing their business by ensuring that they only see patients that need their level of expertise. This has been achieved by triaging, which focuses GPs’ skills where they are most effective, to the considerable benefit of the public. GPs are attempting to implement the valuable lessons learnt during Covid, and resisting pressure to return to the wasteful procedures of the past, particularly from the older generation, who find change very difficult. Brian Whittingham, Dorchester, Dorset To The Daily Telegraph As a GP of over 40 years’ experience, I wholly endorse…

Nicola Benedetti: Baroque Decca £10.99 If, like Nicola Benedetti, you’re a violinist best known for masterly performances of Tchaikovsky and Brahms, “it takes some nerve” to venture into baroque music, said Ivan Hewett in The Daily Telegraph. Baroque violin has tended to be dominated by “scholar-performers”, and requires a lighter instrument with catgut strings and a convex (rather than concave) bow. But the Scottish virtuoso has evidently been studying hard. On this “terrific” collection – four Italian concertos, one by Francesco Geminiani and three by Vivaldi, plus a “beautiful” Vivaldi fragmentary concerto – Benedetti has assembled a crack group of baroque specialists. But she is “very much primus inter pares”, and plays “wonderfully” throughout. Benedetti and her ensemble are “armed with the academic knowledge, but not overwhelmed by it”, said…

This six-part HBO/Sky satire is deeply funny and “bracingly” topical, said Benjamin Lee in The Guardian. It opens with a death at the luxurious White Lotus resort in Hawaii, but doesn’t reveal whose; it then jumps back a week to introduce us to the staff and arriving guests. They include a honeymoon couple (Alexandra Daddario and Jake Lacy), an ambitious CEO (Connie Britton) and her family, and a fragile singleton (Jennifer Coolidge) who’s come to scatter her mother’s ashes. The drama centres on the disparity between the brattishly entitled guests and the locals waiting on them, as the tropical paradise becomes a “clammy vision of hell”; but while the script prods and provokes, it does so without preaching. It’s a “flawless” ensemble piece with the whole cast at their absolute…

Vineland by Thomas Pynchon, 1990 (Vintage £10.99). A haunting and surreal story of betrayal, both in love and politics, set amid the ruins of the 1960s counterculture, the war on drugs and the rise of the US surveillance state. Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman, 1980 (Vintage £10.99). Grossman was a journalist who saw both the Second World War and the Holocaust from the frontline. This masterpiece of 20th century literature was banned for explicitly comparing Nazi and Soviet dictatorships, and had to be smuggled out of the USSR on microfilm. Its author died believing that every copy of his book had been lost. The Red Virgin: Memoirs of Louise Michel, 1886 (University of Alabama Press £32.50). A schoolteacher turned barricade fighter in the Paris Commune, Michel was exiled to…

Programmes Parkinson at 50 The veteran chat show host looks back over his 50-year career, remembering famous guests from Orson Welles to Ingrid Bergman and Muhammad Ali. Sat 28 Aug, BBC1 20:30 (60mins). Vigil Suranne Jones stars as a detective investigating a murder on board a nuclear submarine in this new drama. Sun 29 Aug and Mon 30 Aug, BBC1 21:00 (60mins each). Stephen Three-part sequel to 1999’s The Murder of Stephen Lawrence, picking up the story of his parents’ fight for justice 13 years after their son’s death. Steve Coogan plays the DCI re-opening the case. Mon 30 Aug, ITV1 21:00 (60mins). 9/11: Inside the President’s War Room Documentary exploring the Bush administration’s reaction in the 12 hours after the 9/11 attacks, with testimony from Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice…

Ma Po tofu with button mushrooms Serves 4 4 tbsp vegetable oil 4 spring onions, green parts only, finely chopped 4 tbsp Sichuan chilli bean paste 2 tbsp finely chopped or grated garlic 2 tbsp peeled and finely chopped or grated fresh ginger ½ tsp freshly ground white pepper 100ml water 600g firm or soft tofu, drained for 20 minutes and cut into 2.5cm cubes 10 small button mushrooms, kept whole 2 tsp potato flour or corn flour to serve (optional): coriander 2 pinches of crushed Sichuan peppercorns steamed rice and greens • Heat the oil in a frying pan, then throw in the spring onions, chilli bean paste and garlic. Cook for 2-3 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse. Stir in the ginger, white pepper and water. •…

Blueair HealthProtect 7470i Air Purifier A good option if you live in a household full of people or with sniffle-prone children, the Blueair’s “GermShield” automatically activates when it detects that conditions are optimal for germ growth ( £700; very.co.uk). Levoit H133 Tower True While not as good-looking as other models featured, the Levoit H133 is very good value for money, with a helpful auto mode that detects air quality in real time, feeding back results using different colours (£170; amazon.co.uk). AEG AX91-404GY 400 air purifier The AEG is an all-rounder that looks great, is a doddle to operate, continuously measures air-quality levels and automatically adjusts the purification rate as needed (£449; johnlewis.com). Philips AC3033/30 Expert Series 3000i connected air purifier Offering a speedy clean (purifying a 20 sq m room…

Miner’s son who was one-half of The Everly Brothers Don Everly 1937-2021 Don Everly, who has died aged 84, was one half of The Everly Brothers – arguably the most influential vocal duo in the history of rock’n’roll. Combining the Appalachian folk traditions of their childhood with the romantic themes that preoccupied teenagers in the 1950s, he and his brother Phil (who died in 2014) produced a string of breezy yet hauntingly melancholic songs, from Bye Bye Love to the self-penned Cathy’s Clown and (’Til) I Kissed You, which sold in their millions. Bob Dylan declared himself “knocked out” by their sound; Keith Richards described their complex fraternal harmonising as “almost mystical”; Simon & Garfunkel’s early work closely mimicked them; and John Lennon and Paul McCartney were such fans, they…

The battle between rival US private equity outfits for Britain’s No. 4 supermarket group has reached the “phase when ego, pride and the thrill of the chase can start to impinge on good judgement”, said Patrick Hosking in The Times. Last week’s £7bn bid from Clayton, Dubilier & Rice – recommended by Morrison’s board to shareholders – is pitched at 20.7 times last year’s profits. That’s a “fabulous sum for a grocer” and a 60% premium to the undisturbed share price. Investors think Fortress, the SoftBank-backed rival group, will now go even higher. But the frothier the price, the harder the winner will need to “drive the business to get their sums to add up”. That may not be good news for anyone. If the “leapfrogging” continues, said Zoe Wood…

Returning to the office soon? Here are five books senior executives should put on their reading list ahead of the “Great Return”, says Orianna Rosa Royle in Management Today: In Working Hard, Hardly Working (Hutchinson £16.99), entrepreneur Grace Beverley explores work-life balance, provides productivity tips, and advises on stepping back when you’re on the edge of burnout. Even post-pandemic, the challenge of managing teams remotely is not going to disappear. In Leading Remotely (Bloomsbury £16.99) Mike Parkes draws on 15 years of research to tell you how to overcome virtual obstacles. FT journalist and anthropology PhD Gillian Tett makes sense of people’s behaviour at work in Anthro-Vision (Random House Business £20). She shows how to identify the “hidden tribes” within your office and the “rituals” binding your teams together. In…

Tariq Fancy Investors sceptical about fashionable ESG funds – those guided by “environmental, social and governance” considerations – have an unlikely ally in the form of Tariq Fancy. The 43-year-old was the first global chief investment officer for sustainable investing at BlackRock, and as such was partly responsible for making ESG the “popular investment darling” it is today, says Patrick Temple-West in the FT. Now, though, Fancy is the Toronto-based chief executive of an educational charity, and argues that ESG is a “dangerous placebo”: basically marketing guff (“sustain-a-babble”) that helps businesses fend off meaningful change in the form of carbon taxes and regulation. “There’s no compelling reason” to think ESG funds will out-compete others, he warns believers. “Nor will you have any real-world environmental or social impact.” Peter Pritchard Some…

Controversy of the week America’s retreat “No empire is eternal,” said Allister Heath in The Daily Telegraph: they all, eventually, end in “hubris and humiliation”. The “heart-wrenching” calamity of the “botched Afghan retreat is merely the latest sign that the American era is ending”. Washington is no longer “the world’s policeman”: wherever one looks, “America’s blueprint has failed”. In the Middle East, everything the US has touched is in chaos: in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya. In Israel and Palestine, its peace plans have failed. In Asia, China has embraced capitalism – one of the great triumphs of American ideology – but not democracy. US elites, confused and bitterly divided, are losing ground to authoritarians. It’s a far cry from “the glory days of Pax Americana” – the late 1980s…

Snowdon, after conservationists expressed alarm about the crowds converging on Wales’s highest mountain. Snowdon is on course to receive more than 700,000 visitors this year, almost double the number in 2012. There have been reports of 45-minute-long queues to the summit, and of piles of litter and discarded camping equipment being left on the mountainside. McDonald’s, which was forced to take milkshakes off the menu at 1,250 UK outlets, as it became the latest business to be hit by serious supply chain disruptions (see page 42). Staycations, after new figures confirmed that the cost of self-catered accommodation in the UK has soared this year. On average, holidaymakers are paying 40% more than in 2019.…

Paris National heroine: The remains of US-born entertainer Joséphine Baker are to be transferred to the Panthéon in Paris, in recognition of her wartime work for the French Resistance. It will make Baker, who died in 1975, the sixth woman – and the first black woman – to receive the honour, which is reserved for France’s national heroes. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Baker rose to global fame after moving to France in the 1920s. During the War, she used her status to travel widely, mixing with high level officials and gathering intelligence for the Resistance. “The Parisians gave me their hearts, I am ready to give them my life,” she once said. Gijón, Spain Bullfights scrapped: The mayor of the northern Spanish city of Gijón cancelled its annual bullfighting…

“The £6m Marble Arch mound is free to visit during August, so we thought we’d take a look. It is, as reported, a shoddy affair. The turf on the sides is falling off, the steps shake as you ascend and there’s no attempt to create a ‘Voilà!’ moment at the summit with, say, a map pointing out landmarks – but then again, the view is mainly cranes and Park Lane traffic. But it is a fantastically British experience. People are here to enjoy our favourite national pastime: taking the mick. ‘Be honest, mate, do you really think it’s worth six mill?’ asked a middle-aged man to one of the young stewards, who replied with a cheery, ‘Well, it’s something to do!’ Everyone left pleasantly appalled.” Janice Turner in The Times…

We have betrayed those who helped us Kenan Malik The Observer Our scheme for resettling Afghan refugees – 5,000 this year and 15,000 after that – is “one of the most generous in our country’s history”. That’s what Boris Johnson claims, says Kenan Malik. It is a grotesque distortion of the truth. In 1972, Ted Heath’s government took in 27,000 Ugandan Asians who’d been expelled by Idi Amin. Later that decade, Margaret Thatcher took in over 19,000 Vietnamese “boat people”. (France accepted 60,000.) So why set such tight limits for people who, unlike the Vietnamese, we had promised to protect and who often risked their lives aiding British forces? Then we’d have to let in all the refugees, says the Government. Nonsense. Over 80% (2.5 million of them registered) are…

Cuttlefish remember their meals Age tends to rob humans of their “episodic memories” – the ability to remember what happened at a particular time and place. Yet even a wrinkly old cuttlefish could tell you what it had for lunch last week, reports The Guardian. In tests, two groups of the eight-armed cephalopods (one young and one old) were trained to approach a location in their tank marked by a waving flag. At one flag, they got a prawn; at the other, a grass shrimp – a treat they much preferred. The prawn flag was waved hourly, but the shrimp one was waved every three hours. After four weeks, the elderly cuttlefish were just as good as the youngsters at identifying which flag was associated with which food, and so…

On becoming a cross-bench peer last year, Ian Botham pledged to attend the House of Lords only “when they’re debating something I know about. Not much point if it’s a trade deal with Japan,” the ex-cricketer said. Now, he has been made UK trade envoy to Australia – despite a record of unflattering remarks about England’s Ashes rivals. In 1992, he described the crowd at Melbourne Cricket Ground as “100,000 convicts”, and threatened to “flatten” the pro-republican Aussie PM Paul Keating. He also famously once declared: “Aussies are big and empty – just like the country.” It’s well known that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown divvied up the New Labour leadership at Islington’s Granita restaurant in 1994. Less well known is that Brown didn’t actually eat anything there. According to…

“When is a coalition not a coalition?” When it’s called a “Co-operation Agreement”. That, said Chris Deerin in the New Statesman, is the name for the newly-minted deal between the SNP and the Scottish Greens, by which the two pro-independence parties will “jointly run Scotland for the next five years”. Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP gets a built-in majority for its legislation in Holyrood – for which it was previously “one MSP short” – but still retains nearly all the power. The Greens are given two ministerial roles, and the profile of their party and its co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater will be raised. The Scottish Greens are “by far the most left-wing party ever to have held power in the UK”: their manifesto for May’s Scottish elections displayed an “open…

The “rights and wrongs” of The Hundred, the new competition introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board, have been endlessly debated, and will doubtless go on being so for some time to come, said Matt Roller on ESPNcricinfo. Purists object that a contest between sides from different English cities – one that does away with cricket’s basic unit, the six-ball over, in favour of “sets of five” – undermines the sport’s very soul. Others contend that the game faces such severe problems, from a decaying county structure to the younger generation’s lack of interest in the game, that it makes a gamble like The Hundred fully justified. Well, now we’ve had the first acid test, said Isaan Khan in The Mail on Sunday. After all the heated debate about…

Tennis Ashleigh Barty beat Jil Teichmann 6-3, 6-1 in the final of the Western & Southern Open. The world No. 1 didn’t lose a set to claim her fifth title of the season. Athletics Elaine Thompson-Herah ran the second-fastest 100m of all time at the Diamond League meeting in Oregon. The Jamaican’s time of 10.54 seconds was just 0.05 seconds slower than the world record set 33 years ago by Florence Griffith Joyner. Football Manchester City beat Norwich 5-0, with new signing Jack Grealish scoring his maiden goal for the club.…

Love triangles speak to the most fundamental of human passions; they also give a director the chance to cast an extra screen god or goddess. Here are five of the best movies that pivot on them: Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell’s novel, set in the antebellum south, is controversial now, but it was so popular in the 1930s that Vivien Leigh had to beat 1,400 other actresses to the role of Scarlett O’Hara. Leslie Howard plays the elusive object of her affections, Ashley Wilkes, while Clark Gable is Rhett Butler, the cad who sweeps her off her feet. Casablanca Ingrid Bergman is mesmeric as Ilsa Lund, the woman torn between her love for her hard-bitten former lover – Humphrey Bogart – and her decent and high-minded husband (Paul Henreid),…

When this frustratingly patchy summer finally gives us another warm spell, “many of us will dash outside to light the coals and get some red meat on the grill,” said Susy Atkins in The Daily Telegraph. Then comes the question of which wine to drink with it. While most reds will do, you can increase your chances of a “blissful marriage” by opting for “fairly full-bodied” bottles that aren’t too mature and savoury: “you need bright, youthful wines with plenty of ripe, juicy fruit”. Overall, I favour the rich but rounded flavours of New World reds – especially cabernets, zinfandels and malbecs. With its blueberry and plum flavours and rounded, smooth texture, Viñalta Malbec 2019, Mendoza, Argentina (£9; M&S) would work well with a steak that’s charred on the edges…

● Assess the danger. Furniture is more stable when it is low, wide, deep and bottom-heavy. Antiques you inherited from your grandmother might be built to be sturdy in this way; modern lightweight flat-pack furniture tends to be less so. ● Anchor pieces where possible. If you are buying new, look for furniture that comes with anchoring kits or straps to save you having to make a separate trip to the hardware shop. ● Think carefully about furniture placement. Put a chest on a thick or uneven carpet and it is more likely to tip. And don’t put heavy items like televisions on top of furniture not intended to support their weight – it can make both units unstable. ● To stabilise chests, put heavier items in the bottom drawers…

Revolut: cash upfront Britain’s record in transforming tech start-ups into genuine global behemoths is notoriously “lousy”, said Ben Marlow in The Daily Telegraph. Many are hoping London’s burgeoning fintech sector will change that. But “those tempted to pile into the looming float” of Revolut, the challenger digital banking app, should note its never-ending diversification into the “more speculative areas of finance”. In the past year alone, Revolut – which lost £200m last year, but is valued at around £24bn – launched an Airbnb rival service called “Stays”; moved into precious metals trading; and created a cryptocurrency app. Its latest “whizz-bang” wheeze, said Lex in the FT, is a financial product that gives people access to up to half their salaries early, thus smoothing out cashflow. Revolut insists the upfront…

The Globe Theatre has been mocked for issuing a trigger warning for performances of its new production of Romeo & Juliet. “This production contains depictions of suicide, moments of violence and references to drug use. It contains gunshot sound effects and the use of stage blood,” reads a notice on its website. The Globe defended itself, saying that the production seeks to de-romanticise the play’s tragic ending and that the suicide is unusually realistic. Sales of pygmy goats for use as pets has risen by as much as fivefold, partially driven by the soaring cost of puppies. Experts say the goats – usually less than two foot tall – are not only relatively cheap to buy, at around £150 for a castrated male, but cheap to feed, too.…

The Cornish tourist board this week urged visitors to stay away unless they had pre-booked accommodation, in response to a spike in cases of Covid-19 in the county. Visit Cornwall also asked that visitors take lateral flow tests before and during their stays, and remain vigilant about hand-washing and social distancing. The latest figures show that Cornwall has 770 cases per 100,000 people, double the figure for the previous week. A single event – the Boardmasters surf and music festival in Newquay – may be linked to about 5,000 cases. The festival, in mid-August, was attended by around 70,000 people from all over the country. The UK recorded 174 new Covid-related deaths on Tuesday – the highest number since March, but still well below the peak of 1,820 deaths a…

New Zealand’s Covid minister raised eyebrows with an unfortunate slip of the tongue during a live briefing on Sunday. Chris Hipkins encouraged people in cities to “get outside and spread their legs”. He later acknowledged his slip-up, explaining that he’d meant to say “stretch your legs”, and saying that the media would “have fun with me later”. New Zealanders, who are in a new lockdown, embraced the hashtag #spreadyourlegs and urged each other to “spread your legs and save lives”. A man from Idaho has broken an unusual record, by balancing 101 toilet rolls on his forehead. David Rush, who holds over 200 Guinness World Records, celebrated wildly after smashing the previous record of 57 – using an ingenious double pyramid design. A rescue operation was launched after a man…

TAIWAN Ignore Beijing: Afghanistan is not a portent Taipei Times If the US can so easily abandon Afghanistan to the Taliban, won’t it just as casually betray its ally Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion? That’s the taunt from Beijing propagandists, who gleefully predict that the island will be “the next chess piece the US casts away”. Yet in reality there’s little comparison, says Gerrit van der Wees. Afghanistan fell, in part, because of its weak government and the formidable threat from within its own borders. Taiwan, by contrast, is a stable democracy facing an external enemy whose forces would struggle to gain a foothold on its rocky coast. But the crucial difference is one of motivation. Afghanistan’s economic worth is negligible, and the terror threat that led…

Scientists have unravelled the travel diary of a mammoth that lived in Alaska 17,000 years ago – and discovered that it wandered 70,000km in its lifetime, almost far enough to circle the globe twice. The details of the creature’s journey were locked away in its 1.7 metre-long tusks: by analysing the ratios of different forms of isotopes in the tusks’ layers, and comparing them to data gathered from hundreds of rodent teeth found across Alaska, the team was able to work out what the mammoth had eaten, and where, at particular points in its life. It seems the mammoth spent the first two years of its life in the Yukon River basin. Then it roamed more widely, probably as part of a herd. Aged 16, however, the pattern of its…

Here we go again, said Mario Ledwith in the Daily Mail. Londoners braced themselves this week for another “wave of disruption”, as the climate change activists of Extinction Rebellion (XR) returned to the streets for a fortnight of marches, site occupations and publicity stunts. The “opening ceremony” of their “Impossible Rebellion” campaign on Monday saw demonstrators erect a four-metre-high pink table to block a busy junction close to Leicester Square. Others scaled Guildhall in the City to spray red paint, light flares and hang a banner bearing the words “co-liberation – freedom together”. The group’s primary aim is to pressure the Government into halting all new investment in fossil fuel. But this time, it’s specifically targeting the City, identified by an XR spokesman as “the arch financier of the carbon…

There’s nothing like a Daniel Craig interview to put one’s own problems in perspective, said Camilla Long in The Sunday Times. “Never has anyone been more horribly embarrassed or clinically depressed by his life choices than the star of five hugely successful James Bonds.” Last week the actor was brooding about what he would do with the estimated £116m “he has amassed flying around the globe pretending to shag lovely ladies while reciting laughable dialogue”. Describing the idea of large inheritances as “distasteful”, Craig said he was not planning to leave “great sums” to either of his daughters. “My philosophy is: get rid of it or give it away before you go,” he said. There will be “a lot of giving away to do”, said Rebecca Nicholson in The Guardian.…

It won’t please English football fans, said Susy Campanale on Football-Italia.net, but Romelu Lukaku got it right. Italy’s Serie A, said the Belgian striker, who has just returned to the Premier League after being lured away from Inter Milan by Chelsea, is “tactically and technically a better league” than the premiership. The chatter in the opening week of this season has focused on Lukaku’s transfer fee (a club record of £97.5m) and whether he was worth the money – a question he helped answer with his terrific opening goal in Chelsea’s 2-0 victory over Arsenal this week. But of equal interest are the questions Lukaku raised about English football. In England, he said, football is “all about the intensity”. The Premier League is certainly intense, said Henry Winter in The…

A billionaire’s pandemic To The Guardian Analysis by Oxfam and others concludes that a 99% one-off tax on the increased wealth that billionaires have accumulated during the pandemic would still leave them with $55bn. Divided among the world’s 2,690 billionaires, that means each would have a gain of more than $20m. This is one way of imagining the sum of $5.5trn that they have gained in the past 18 months. Jeanne Warren, Oxford The missing monarch To The Times The fall of Afghanistan is the end result of a decision made two decades ago: the US’s refusal to allow the return of the country’s former king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, as the constitutional monarch he offered to be. The most progressive politician in the country until he was deposed by his…

A colonial artist with a shady past Two previously unseen portraits by a 19th century Tasmanian convict were sold this week for £84,000, says David Sanderson in The Times. Thomas Griffiths Wainewright is now acknowledged as “one of the greatest portraitists of Australia’s colonial period”, but what makes him an object of particular fascination is that he was also a suspected serial killer. Born in London in 1794, he was a dandy who turned to fraud following a series of disastrous investments; it is rumoured that he poisoned his grandfather, mother-in-law and sister-in-law in order to receive insurance payouts. This was never proved. However, he was convicted of fraud and transported to Tasmania, which is where he turned to portrait painting. Oscar Wilde was fascinated by this “dilettante of things…

There’s trouble at the fête when anti-scarecrow protesters picket the tea tent. Luckily celebrity guest Jackie Weaver – experienced in mediating fraught situations! – saves the day. Alice has checked herself back into rehab with secret help from Shula, who owns up to Jennifer; she understands and is thankful. Adam has been offered a new farm manager job, which Ian urges him to accept. Vince disinvites Elizabeth to his daughter’s wedding, blaming tight numbers, but Lily later discovers it’s a lie. Lily and Russ enjoy a romantic night at Grey Gables. While there they end up agreeing to help Tracy, who’s worried about wayward Chelsea’s education. Adam tells Brian about his new job, and they both inform Jennifer of Adam’s departure from Home Farm. She doesn’t take the news well,…

What the experts recommend Are “speedy groceries” the future? In recent months, an “eye-popping number of companies” have sprung up, all pledging the same thing, said Harry Wallop in The Times: to deliver groceries to your door in minutes. Gopuff was the original “speedy grocery” company: it launched in Pennsylvania in 2013 and is now “worth more than £10bn”. No wonder, then, that so many imitators have launched here (though mainly only in London). These companies tend to have “silly names” – Dija, Weezy, Zapp, Getir – which suggests they are targeting stoned students. But their range of products suggests a broader customer base: alongside “Red Bull, condoms and large bars of chocolate”, most stock fresh vegetables and more rarefied foods, such as truffle flavoured crisps. I tested several, and…

Car Magazine The Bayon is Hyundai’s second compact SUV, sitting just below the Kona at the base the South Korean company’s high-riding range. However, this mild hybrid isn’t some “sparsely equipped bargain-basement special”: in many ways, it is “more practical” than its pricier, flashier sibling. Admittedly, the interior is a bit dour, but looked at dispassionately, the Bayon “makes a lot of sense”. The Daily Telegraph Power in the Bayon comes from Hyundai’s “fizzing” three-cylinder turbo petrol unit, “displacing 998cc and delivering a choice of 98 or 118bhp”, with a 48-volt mild hybrid assistance system. The engine starts with a “characteristic thrum” and the drivetrain “feels as eager as a Labrador pup on a leash”. The top speed is 115mph, 0-62mph in 10.4sec and CO2 emissions are 121g/km. Top Gear…

Edinburgh’s Market Street Hotel won new hotel of the year at the 2020 Scottish Hotel Awards for its innovative architecture, locals-meet-visitors vibe, and panoramic views from the top-floor lounge and reception (doubles from £141 b&b, marketstreethotel.co.uk). Set in a former textile mill, Cow Hollow Hotel in Manchester is a 16-room boutique hotel, which combines original Victorian architecture with contemporary design (doubles from £99 b&b, cowhollow.co.uk). Clifton is one of Bristol’s hippest suburbs, and Number 38 Clifton – a 12-room boutique hotel in a Georgian town house at the top of the city – is great base from which to explore it (doubles from £135 b&b, number38clifton.com). A new addition to Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, Frederick Street Townhouse is a sister property to the adjacent Button Factory, one of the city’s most…

Fears and warnings mounted over UK supply bottlenecks and a slowing of the UK’s economic recovery. Iceland ‘s boss Richard Walker estimated that the UK’s shortage of lorry drivers was now about 100,000. Advertised job vacancies in the UK rose to pre-pandemic levels. Sharon Graham, backed by the Socialist Workers Party, was elected leader of Unite, becoming the union’s first female general secretary. The planned $40bn takeover of UK chip designer Arm by Nvidia is in doubt after being referred for full investigation by UK competition authorities. Unilever and Diageo, two of the UK’s biggest listed companies, could be expelled from the Government’s Prompt Payment Code unless they improve their treatment of suppliers. Lloyds Bank has plans to own 50,000 rental homes within nine years. John Lewis plans to accelerate…

● Fresh eye Unloved UK stocks are suddenly all the rage, says Pierre Briançon in Barron’s. The private equity battle for Morrisons – and a rumoured swoop for Sainsbury’s – have sent supermarkets soaring. And there’s a growing sense that the premiums being offered by private equity are evidence that public markets are undervaluing British stocks more broadly. The UK market has significantly underperformed European and US markets in recent years. And this year the FTSE 100 is up less than 8%, compared to 15% for the equivalent index in Germany, and 20% in France. “Investors, feeling that other markets are now fully valued, may be looking at UK equities with a fresh eye.” ● Takeover talk The surge in private equity bids is set to continue, said David Brenchley…

Stop the “car boot sale” of UK assets Ben Marlow The Daily Telegraph The UK Business Secretary’s decision to intervene in the US-led £2.6bn takeover bid for UK defence supplier Ultra Electronics is very welcome, said Ben Marlow. At a time of intense geopolitical uncertainty, it’d be nuts to hand control of a “critical strategic asset to unaccountable, financially-motivated foreign investors”. Kwasi Kwarteng has blocked Ultra from sharing details of sensitive Government contracts with its US-owned suitor, and ordered the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate whether the deal puts national security at risk. That’s good, but he must go further – and stop the “glorified car boot sale” of UK assets. For decades, Britain has adopted a short-sighted “help yourself” approach to foreign investment that has weakened our ability…

The week’s best shares Advanced Micro Devices The Daily Telegraph AMD is stealing microprocessor market share from Intel by replacing single chips with clusters of “chiplets”, and outsourcing manufacturing to Taiwan. The server market offers huge potential. Buy. $107.56. BP The Daily Telegraph An improving economic outlook, rising inflation and higher forecast demand for oil, driven by Asia, puts BP in a strong position to manage its transition to lower-carbon energy. Yields over 5%. Buy. 298p. Deliveroo Investors Chronicle The food delivery platform is continuing to see revenues rise despite the end of lockdowns. Not yet profitable, but the purchase of a £284m stake by German rival Delivery Hero is encouraging. Buy. 390p. Genuit Group Investors Chronicle The plastic piping producer’s earnings and profits have been boosted by the residential…