Innholdsfortegnelse for 1390 i The Week

What happened Boris Johnson’s leadership came under further pressure last week after the Tories suffered a double-whammy of bruising by-election defeats. Labour won back the “red wall” seat of Wakefield with a 12.7 percentage point swing; and in Tiverton and Honiton, the Liberal Democrats successfully overturned a 24,000-plus Tory majority, the biggest by-election reversal in numerical terms in British political history. Hours after the results, Oliver Dowden resigned as Tory party chairman, pointedly declaring in a letter to the Prime Minister that “we cannot carry on with business as usual” and that “somebody must take responsibility”. Two former Conservative leaders – William Hague and Michael Howard – said Cabinet ministers should put pressure on Johnson to resign. The PM insisted that questions over his premiership were settled by the recent…

“The bodily autonomy of women is under deadly assault,” said Katie Edwards on The Independent. “Think that’s hyperbole? Think again.” Last Friday, in “a sucker punch” to women’s “reproductive freedom”, the US supreme court overruled its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which established a woman’s constitutional right to seek an abortion. Individual states now have the power “to allow, ban or restrict” abortion, effectively criminalising it across swathes of the US. That won’t stop it from happening, of course: some women will travel; others will have life-threatening illegal procedures. The news was a salutary reminder that women’s rights can be “ripped away” in an instant. Change will come fast, said The Economist. Thirteen states introduced “trigger laws” to ban or restrict abortion as soon as Roe v. Wade was…

Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall, with reports that they are to divorce after six years of marriage. The reason for the alleged rift is unclear; however, it is rumoured that Murdoch, 91, disapproved of Hall’s smoking, and that he ended the union by text message. Sheffield Hallam University, which was criticised for scrapping its English literature degree. As part of a government crackdown on “low value” courses, universities could face penalties if fewer than 60% of their graduates are not in professional jobs, or studying for further degrees, within 15 months; however, Sheffield Hallam implied that the move had more to do with falling demand. Robinsons Barley Water, after its 86-year sponsorship of Wimbledon came to an end. Reportedly, the deal broke down because the brand’s owner, Britvic, wanted the…

24% of UK adults think that Labour has been too supportive of the rail strikes. 13% feel it has been too opposed. Over half (52%) say rail workers should be allowed to strike; 36% believe they shouldn’t. The Observer/Opinium 59% of UK adults disapprove of Boris Johnson’s performance on the economy; and 54% think that the PM should resign. The Daily Telegraph/Redfield and Wilton Strategies 17% of adults in the UK don’t believe that climate change is mainly caused by human activities. 72% do think it is mainly “manmade”. Of those aged 55 and over, 60% think it’s not too late to do something about climate change, compared to 34% of 18-34-year-olds. BBC/KCL…

I was stalked by Tony Blair As lead singer of Pulp, Jarvis Cocker was at the vanguard of the “Cool Britannia” era, says Carola Long in the FT. But while it was “an exciting time”, he doesn’t look back on it all that fondly. He objects to the “Britpop” tag because of its “connotations of nationalism”; and he didn’t much care for the way politicians tried to get a sprinkling of the pop fairy dust. “Tony Blair really tried to pick his way in with the scene,” he recalls. “He turned up at the Brit Awards and kept going on about how he could play guitar and stuff. And he just seemed a bit opportunistic.” In 1996, Cocker decided to spend Christmas in New York “to get away from all…

Erika LaBrie, an American competitive archer, describes herself as an “objectum sexual” – someone who is attracted to objects. In 2007, she “married” the Eiffel Tower and briefly changed her surname to Eiffel. Now, in a new documentary, LaBrie, 50, reveals that her affections have turned towards a fence. She is filmed explaining her attraction to it. “He’s perfect,” she says. “I mean… These angles? Fabulous.” She says that ”fences are such dangerous objects for me because they are so perfect in their geometry”, adding roguishly: “I would like to get to know this fence better.” Japanese men are snapping up a new style of underwear: lacy boxer shorts designed to “glamorise the male part”. The Lace Boxer, which comes in seven colours, has proved a hit since going on…

HONG KONG The sad demise of a floating icon South China Morning Post (Hong Kong) Farewell, then, to the Jumbo Floating Restaurant. Ever since it was opened in 1976 by the casino tycoon Stanley Ho Hung-sun, this fixture of Hong Kong life has delighted visitors to the city, says Kate Whitehead. Admittedly, “the food wasn’t phenomenal”, but it was “bold, brash and demanded attention”. Built in the style of an imperial palace, it was the world’s largest floating eatery. Everyone from the Queen to Tom Cruise flocked to the “flamboyant” venue in the Aberdeen Harbour, drawn by its “neon lights and gold trim”, and the ferry ride to reach it. It featured in several films; it went up in flames in one “epic scene” of the TV version of James…

This “summer of discontent” is starting to get silly, said Richard Littlejohn in the Daily Mail. The railways are already in chaos; British Airways staff are threatening walkouts during the school holidays, over a 10% pay cut introduced during the pandemic; doctors are calling for a 30% pay rise over five years; teaching unions have threatened to ballot their members in support of “inflation-plus” pay rises; and this week, even barristers got in on the action, downing wigs in demand of a hike in legal aid payments. At this rate, the whole country will be on strike before long. We may well be facing a wave of industrial action, said The Independent, which will add to the general sense of “malaise” gripping the country. But don’t put it down to…

A Liberal Democrat canvasser found himself in a quandary last week as he made a final push before the by-election in Tiverton and Honiton, said Toby Helm and Michael Savage in The Observer. Every vote was crucial, yet the house in front of him had a huge Labour poster in front of it. Was it even worth knocking? He decided to give it a go – and was delighted to find that although the homeowner had intended to vote Labour, she had decided to switch to the Lib Dems. She was just one of many Labour supporters who made that choice, helping the Lib Dems win the Tory stronghold. In Wakefield, Lib Dem voters returned the favour, and helped Labour’s candidate to victory. These voters had worked out for themselves…

To The Daily Telegraph The Rt Rev Nick Baines, Bishop of Leeds, is reported to advocate a trading of Ukrainian land for peace with Russia. We’ve been here before; it was called appeasement. It led to a world war because it did not work. Nick Reilly, Esher, Surrey To The Daily Telegraph Does Germany want Ukraine to lose? Promises of military support have been backed up by little action. In fact, more effort seems to be going into blocking the flow of arms to Ukraine. Is Chancellor Olaf Scholz afraid of Vladimir Putin? Or is he anticipating partition and sees no profit in prolonging the inevitable? Nicholas Woodeson, London To The Guardian Jonathan Powell is absolutely right to point out that a lasting peace cannot be achieved in Ukraine if…

by Rebecca Rukeyser Granta 288pp £12.99 The Week Bookshop £9.99 Set in the Alaskan wilderness, Rebecca Rukeyser’s “wistful and sardonic” first novel is part adventure story, part coming-of-age tale, said The Irish Times. Seventeen-year-old Mira is working for the summer at a guest house run by a married couple, Stu and Maureen, alongside two other girls and a troubled chef. Much of her time is spent fantasising sexually about a boy she met the year before. Rukeyser’s descriptive prose is assured and elegant, and the story becomes increasingly tense, as Stu’s predatory behaviour towards the girls becomes apparent. Mira’s adolescent yearning is well captured in this quirky, wry debut, said Siobhan Murphy in The Times. Rukeyser provides a “deftly juggled” mixture of merciless judgement and gentle compassion for her characters’…

Picasso’s “how to draw” books An “extraordinary collection” of sketchbooks and origami sculptures created by Pablo Picasso to teach his eldest daughter to draw has gone on display, says Dalya Alberge in The Observer. The trove was unearthed by the artist’s granddaughter, Diana, when searching for family material in storage. The books are filled with depictions of “animals, birds, clowns, acrobats, horses and doves”; Picasso sketched a “fox longing for grapes” and made “exquisite origami sculptures of birds”. The items were created for Maya Widmaier-Ruiz-Picasso, now 86, who on some pages attempted to imitate her father, and even graded his work; she gives one circus scene an approving “ten”. “It was a very moving moment,” Diana said of the find. “Not only because you’re talking about one of the greatest…

At the B&B, Lynda confronts Adil, accusing him of destroying the community. Chris opens up to Usha about the pressures of the court hearing – she tells him Amy’s met someone new. After Steph cleans the kitchen as thanks for letting her stay, Beth sees a new side of her sister. As Chris and Alice bicker in the playground about arrangements for Martha, she falls and injures her head. At A&E, the doctor confirms she’s OK, but after overhearing Chris and Alice argue bitterly, she says she’s making a referral to social services. Neil advises Chris to tell everything to his solicitor, which stresses Chris further. Adil continues his charm offensive on Lynda to no avail. Kirsty gives him a tour of the rewilding site and they hit it off.…

Serves 4 4 tbsp olive oil 2 onions, finely chopped 2 celery sticks, finely diced ½ tsp salt 7 garlic cloves, finely chopped 2 tbsp chipotle paste (or 1 tsp smoked paprika and chilli powder or flakes), to taste 2 tbsp tomato purée 400g tomatoes, peeled (or 400g can of plum tomatoes) 3 bay leaves, scrunched 1 x 400g can of black beans, drained and rinsed 800ml chicken stock or water, plus extra if needed salt and freshly ground black pepper To serve: 1 avocado, peeled, stoned and diced 100g sour cream 100g feta cheese, crumbled ½ small bunch of coriander, roughly chopped 80g corn tortilla chips, crushed 1-2 habanero or jalapeño chillies, thinly sliced hot sauce of choice 1 lime, cut into wedges • Heat the oil in a…

Pen Y Bryn Treehouse is a quirky pod in the Powys hills, with a dramatic wooden spiral staircase. Sleeps 2 adults and 3 children, from £127 a night; canopyandstars.co.uk. Built in an ancient oak tree in the North Devon Biosphere Reserve, Treetops Treehouse has a copper bathtub, a wood burner and a deck overlooking the fishing lake. Sleeps 2 adults and 2 children, from £260 a night; foxandhoundshotel.co.uk. The Lodge Treehouse is in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the Kent Downs, and has a log burner and an openair bathtub on the gallery. Sleeps 2, from £190 a night; thelodgetreehouse.co.uk. Lost Meadow Treepod is a spherical bedroom suspended between trees on the edge of Bodmin Moor, Cornwall. Sleeps 2, from £105 a night; canopyandstars.co.uk. The fairytale Fernie Castle…

Rewilding in the Apennines Exodus Travels’ six-day Rewilding the Apennines adventure offers visitors a deep dive into the ecology of central Italy’s great mountains, says Andrew Purvis in The Daily Telegraph. With naturalists as your guides, you might spot wolves, golden eagles and rare Marsican brown bears in the national parks of Majella and Abruzzo, and there are visits to one of the five “coexistence corridors” between them, where efforts are being made to encourage wildlife migration while minimising conflict with humans. Accommodation is at the “characterful” Albergo Villino Quintiliani in Pescasseroli, and the trip ends with an ascent through one of Europe’s oldest beech forests to the “cosy, charming” Terraegna mountain refuge, for a slap-up meal with “superb” local wines at 6,234ft. The trip costs from L2,349pp including flights…

Jean-Louis Trintignant 1930-2022 Jean-Louis Trintignant, who has died aged 91, was a legend of 20th century French cinema. An actor of “understated magnetism”, said The Washington Post, he shot to fame in 1956 when he appeared in Roger Vadim’s And God Created Woman – the film, set in St Tropez, that propelled Brigitte Bardot to overnight stardom. Trintignant didn’t have the roguish charm of Jean-Paul Belmondo, nor the prettiness of Alain Delon, but there was a sense of something lurking under his ordinary, rather blank good looks; and to the viewing public, that was borne out when he had a passionate off-screen affair with Bardot that ended both their marriages. Such was the furore, Trintignant entered military service to get away from it. Jean-Louis Trintignant was born in Piolenc, in…

Since the supreme court overturned Roe v. Wade, many US women “have been rushing to stock up on emergency contraceptive pills”, said DealBook in The New York Times. Some pharmacies in short supply are now limiting purchases. The demand uptick could mean “huge profits” for the “all-male teams of investors” at Kelso and Juggernaut – the two private equity firms behind the best-known morning-after pill, Plan B. But they could also find themselves “in the middle of the abortion rights fight”. Plan B works mainly by stopping the release of an egg. But its label says “it may also prevent a fertilised embryo from attaching to the uterus”. In some states, that distinction now matters.…

The Missing Cryptoqueen by Jamie Bartlett (WH Allen £16.99). OneCoin was meant to be “the people’s crypto-currency”, says The Sunday Telegraph. It turned out to be one of the biggest cash scams in history, run by “Cryptoqueen” Ruja Ignatova (aka “Dr Ruja”), who is still on the run. “An astonishing read, plunging you into a toxic world of insta-wealth, betrayal and ruthless ambition.” The Worm in the Apple by Christopher Tugendhat (Haus Publishing £20). How did the largely pro-European Tory party turn so Eurosceptic? Lord Tugendhat, a former EU commissioner, delves into the history, says The Economist. “He pins much of the blame on leaders from Harold Macmillan to Edward Heath”, who never came clean that membership “entailed a loss of sovereignty”. Black Gold: The History of How Coal Made…

The week’s best shares Bloomsbury Publishing Investors’ Chronicle Fears that reading might fall out of fashion are unfounded – sales at the Harry Potter publisher are up 24% and profits up 40%. Now expanding its lucrative academic and professional resources arm. Buy. 390p. Gresham House The Sunday Times The UK’s largest global forestry asset manager is focused on sustainability and heavily involved in battery storage, onshore wind and solar power. Assets under management have jumped 65% to $6.5bn. Buy. 830p. Newmont Mining The Daily Telegraph The gold miner expects to reap rewards from the industry’s first fully autonomous, electric, zero-carbon mining system. Well-run, with extraction costs set to fall amid a predicted gold price hike. Buy. $65.17. Procter & Gamble The Sunday Telegraph The “very high-quality” US consumer goods firm,…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1318 An Ettinger shoe horn and two Connell Guides will be given to the sender of the first correct solution to the crossword and the clue of the week opened on Monday 11 July. Send it to The Week Crossword 1318, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London W2 6JR, or email the completed grid or listed solutions to crossword@theweek.co.uk. Tim Moorey (timmoorey.com) This week’s winner will receive an Ettinger (ettinger.co.uk) Bridle Hide travel shoehorn in black, which retails at £75, and two Connell Guides (connellguides.com). ACROSS 6 Fearing bar opening in Berkshire town (7) 7 In company of some wandering nomad returning (5) 9 Game line taken by new edition of Echo (4) 10 Bum not working, stopped again (10) 11 Capital veg (8) 13 Remedy when one’s dog…

What happened Russia was accused of war crimes this week, after launching a missile strike on a busy shopping centre in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk. At least 20 people were killed in Monday’s strike; dozens more were injured or missing. Russian forces finally seized full control of the key eastern city of Severodonetsk on Friday; over the weekend they launched fresh strikes on Kyiv. Meeting in Bavaria, G7 leaders condemned the Kremenchuk attack as “abominable”. The leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US promised to extend their financial, military and humanitarian support to Ukraine “for as long as it takes”. Nato leaders later met in Madrid, where it was announced that Turkey had dropped its opposition to Sweden and Finland joining the alliance…

John Lewis shoppers could soon be rounding off their browse through bed linen and haberdashery with a spot of facial enhancement, as the retailer prepares to offer Botox at six of its stores. John Lewis said it was responding to “increasing awareness and demand”, and that injections would be reserved for customers aged 25 or older. Amazon’s virtual assistant, Alexa, may soon be able to speak to us in the voices of our dead relatives, the company has revealed. The tool – which was unveiled at a conference last week, but is still in development – uses recordings of under a minute to clone voices. In a promotional video, a boy asks his late grandmother to finish The Wizard of Oz – and her “voice” begins reading the story.…

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has revealed that she is seeking a ruling from the UK Supreme Court on the legality of her plan to hold a second independence referendum next year. Her preferred date for the “consultative” poll is 19 October 2023, she said. If the court rules that IndyRef2 cannot go ahead without permission from Westminster, in the form of a Section 30 order, Sturgeon said that her party, the SNP, would fight the next general election on the single issue of independence, turning it into a “de facto referendum”.…

Milan, Italy Drought hits fountains: The mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, ordered that the city’s public fountains be switched off last week, in an attempt to save water as northern Italy continued to endure one of its longest droughts. Only drinking fountains and those containing fish and plants were exempt, he said. To conserve energy, and avoid power cuts, residents and businesses were also told not to set their air conditioning units below 26°C. Earlier in the week, a state of emergency had been declared in the entire Lombardy region – of which Milan is the capital. In neighbouring Emilia-Romagna, the mayor of the small town of Castenaso ordered that hairdressers stop the practice of double shampooing their customers’ hair, arguing that it wasted “thousands” of litres of water each…

1 Show Me the Way, written and performed by Peter Frampton2* Every Grain of Sand, written and performed by Bob Dylan3 Abide With Me by Henry Francis Lyte, William Henry Monk, Lars Halapi and Ulf Schagerstrom, performed by Emeli Sandé and the Fron Male Voice Choir4 Dead in the Water (live at RTÉ 2FM Studios, Dublin) by Noel Gallagher, performed by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds5 Ice Cream Sundae by Elijah Hewson, Josh Jenkinson, Robert Keating and Ryan McMahon, performed by Inhaler6 Agolo by Angélique Kidjo and Jean Hébrail, performed by Angélique Kidjo7 La Traviata, Prelude to Act 1 by Giuseppe Verdi, performed by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, conducted by James Levine8 Someone Somewhere (In Summertime) by Charlie Burchill, Derek Forbes, Jim Kerr and Michael MacNeil, performed by Simple Minds…

The UK-Rwanda Migration and Economic Development Partnership was launched in April with a £120m payment to the Rwandan government. Under the five-year pilot scheme, any adult (except for Rwandan citizens) who comes to the UK “illegally” – by boat or in the back of a lorry, say – could be considered for relocation. Those who are removed would be put on a one-way flight to Rwanda, 4,000 miles away, where they would be given accommodation and permitted to apply for asylum in the African country – a process that usually takes around three months, during which time Rwanda says they’d be able to move freely around the country. Initially the policy will focus on single men. If their applications are successful, they will be able to stay there with up…

Mike Pence the hero? Hardly Jack Shafer Politico Mike Pence is the hero of the hour, says Jack Shafer. Amid the congressional hearings into the 6 January storming of the Capitol, a slew of politicians and pundits have been hailing the former vice-president as a “saviour of democracy” for defying Donald Trump that day by officially validating the election result. Is all this praise deserved? Hardly. Yes, Pence did his duty by counting the electoral votes, as every vice-president before him has done. And yes, he showed some courage by insisting on completing this ceremonial role, when the Secret Service wanted to whisk him away from the mob to safety. But this plucky act followed years in which Pence slavishly deferred to Trump and passed up countless opportunities to challenge…

Thousands of women in England who have breast cancer could benefit from a pill that has been approved by the NHS’s treatments watchdog, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice). Trials of the drug, named abemaciclib, have shown that people who take it while receiving hormone therapy have a more than 30% improved chance of their cancer not returning, compared with those who have hormone therapy alone. The pill works by targeting and inhibiting proteins in cancer cells that cause the cancer to grow. It’s taken twice a day, and is recommended for people with hormone receptor positive, HER2-negative, node-positive early breast cancer at high risk of recurrence, post-surgery. A packet of 56 pills normally costs £2,950, but Eli Lilly, the manufacturer, has agreed to sell the drug…

The European Court of Human Rights has “arrogated to itself” much more power than it was originally meant to have, said The Daily Telegraph. It was designed to interpret the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), introduced in 1953 to ensure that the horrors of Nazism were never repeated. But it has gone “far beyond” its remit, creating its own laws, above the heads of elected governments. It has, for instance, overruled the UK Government’s decision not to give prisoners the vote, and more recently blocked the deportation of asylum seekers to Rwanda. Now Dominic Raab, the Justice Secretary, has proposed a new UK Bill of Rights, designed to inject “more common sense” into the legal system. It will replace the Human Rights Act passed by Tony Blair in 1998,…

“The ordinary is the proper domain of the artist, the extraordinary may be safely left to journalists.” James Joyce, quoted in The Sunday Times “I have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is; I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.” Rebecca West, quoted on Slate “A reputation once broken may possibly be repaired, but the world will always keep their eyes on the spot where the crack was.”Bishop Joseph Hall, quoted in The Times “Love that stammers, that stutters, is apt to be the love that loves best.”Gabriela Mistral, quoted on The Browser “I have found some of the best reasons I ever had for remaining at the bottom simply by looking at the men…

The Tour de France begins on 1 July in Denmark, where the first three stages will be held. Tadej Pogacar, the 23-year-old Slovenian, who has won the last two editions of the race, is the overwhelming favourite. England’s rugby team play three Tests in Australia, with the first on 2 July. The Women’s Euro 2022 will take place in England from 6-31 July. Sarina Wiegman’s England team have been on impressive form in their warm-up games: they beat defending champions Holland 5-1. In golf, the 150th Open Championship takes place at St Andrews from 10-17 July. The 2022 World Athletics Championships will be held in Oregon, USA, from 15-24 July. England’s cricketers have a packed schedule in the coming weeks, with their series-concluding Test against India (delayed from last summer)…

“Blissfully funny and ineffably touching”, Stephen Beresford’s new play about an Anglican vicar wrangling with his “mutinous” flock would have “worked wonders” with audiences had it reached the stage when it was supposed to, in 2020. Now, after two years of “biblical upset”, it feels almost “heaven-sent”, said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph. Alex Jennings plays David, a vicar in Dartmouth who has dug in his heels over a request from a grieving family to decorate his church with Disney balloons for their little girl’s funeral. His apparently “snobby callousness” enrages locals, leading to a stand-off “so tightly enwoven with competing principles and conflicting emotions”, it creates “an almost Ibsenite intensity”. Yet the play’s wry tone, and its “dexterous” mix of light and dark, “puts you more immediately in…

We haven’t seen much of Rowan Atkinson since 2018, when his third Johnny English film failed to set the box office alight. Now, though, he is back, said Camilla Long in The Sunday Times, starring in a glossy new comedy for Netflix. To judge by the number of “adverts, gala screenings, special previews and exclusive glossy interviews the man has undertaken for this curious little show”, the streaming platform is “thrilled to have him”. Whether Man vs. Bee will live up to the hype, however, is far from clear. Atkinson plays Trevor, an accident-prone house-sitter tasked with the upkeep of a mansion “that, for maximum audience reach, could be anywhere from Surrey to Kazakhstan”. Just as he’s settling in to the job, a CGI bee turns up, unleashing chaos. Over…

Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman, translated by Robert Chandler, 1980 (Vintage £10.99). This is one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. In this brilliant translation, it can be compared with Tolstoy, with touches of Chekhov. A huge Russian contribution to European civilisation despite the efforts of Soviet leaders to suppress it. On Warne by Gideon Haigh, 2012 (Simon & Schuster £9.99). The finest contemporary writer on cricket on the greatest ever spin bowler. Two of Australia’s finest contributors to contemporary culture, of which red-ball cricket is such a key part. No argument there, OK? Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik, 2000 (Quercus £12.99). Gopnik, a New Yorker magazine writer, has written superbly in recent years about liberal values, but this early work is one of my…

Programmes Freedom: Fifty Years of Pride Feature documentary marking 50 years of LGBT+ activism and looking at the movement’s origins. With contributions from Sir Ian McKellen, Peter Tatchell and Holly Johnson. Sat 2 Jul, C4 20:00 (90mins). Inspector Montalbano The latest instalment of the Italian detective series sees Montalbano investigate the death of a charismatic amateur dramatics director. Sat 2 Jul, BBC4 21:00 (120mins). Mick Jagger: My Life as a Rolling Stone In the first of four programmes – each featuring a different Stone – Jagger talks about his 60-year career in rock ’n’ roll. Sat 2 Jul, BBC2 21:30 (60mins). Storyville: On the Morning You Wake (to the End of the World) Documentary recalling a morning in January 2018, when Hawaiians were told that they had just minutes to…

All-inclusive Jamaica Enjoy a relaxing beach holiday with a 7-night stay at the Riu Negril, in a double room with garden view and terrace. From L1,303pp, Birmingham flights included. 020-3451 2688, tui.co.uk. Depart 20 July. Fourteen nights at sea Discover hidden Nordic treasures with stops in Helsinki and Tallinn on this “interactive circus cruise”, from L685pp full-board. 020-3514 3133, iglucruise.com. Depart 23 July, from Tilbury. Seven nights of luxury The Domes of Corfu resort is set on Glyfada beach; seven nights cost from L699pp half-board, including Bristol flights. 020-3368 3117, inspiredluxury escapes.com. Depart 12 October. Room-only stay in Kent Spend 2 nights in a Pinewood pod, with entrance to Port Lympne Hotel & Reserve and Howletts Wildlife Park, from L199pp. 01303-234112, aspinallfoundation.org. Arrive 14 September. Covid-19: please check government websites…

Millions are being plunged into crisis Andrew Atkinson Bloomberg The Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey was slammed by ministers in May when he warned that surging food prices could be “apocalyptic” for the world’s poor. But the “distress” is already palpable here in the UK, says Andrew Atkinson. A new survey by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation paints “a bleak picture of life for the bottom 40% of the income spectrum”. About seven million households – “equivalent to every family in the north of England” – went without essentials such as heating, toiletries or showers, or didn’t have enough money for food, in May. Some two million households are now in hock to high-interest “loan shark or doorstep lenders”. The hardship is so acute that the Chancellor’s £15bn support package…

Great Ormond Street Hospital has received a £50m donation from a couple whose nephew had life-saving treatment there. When Joe Gulliford was four days old, he was rushed to the hospital with a rare birth defect that had left him with a twisted bowel. Eleven years on, Joe is a tennis fanatic and doing well at school. His uncle, John Grayken, a financier, and aunt Eilene Davidson, a theatre producer, said they’d been “amazed” by the care he’d received, and had wanted to give something back. A new national monument in honour of the Windrush generation was unveiled at London’s Waterloo station last week. Created by the artist Basil Watson, who is originally from Jamaica, it portrays a man, a woman and a child dressed in their Sunday best, standing…

Sir Paul McCartney, after around 120,000 people gathered to watch his set at Glastonbury – making it one of the largest crowds ever at the festival. The ex-Beatle, who’d turned 80 a few days earlier, performed on the Pyramid stage for almost three hours. Extravagance, with claims that Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie planned to erect a £150,000 treehouse, complete with bulletproof glass, in the grounds of Chequers. According to sources quoted by The Times, the couple came up with the idea in the autumn of 2020, when their son Wilf was a few months old, and hoped Tory donor Lord Brownlow would help pay for it. But the scheme was dropped after police raised security concerns.…

Criminal barristers in England and Wales went on strike for two days this week in a long-running dispute over legal aid funding. The Government has proposed a 15% hike in legal aid fees, but the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), which represents 2,400 barristers, has said the rise isn’t enough, especially as it seems it would not apply to backlogged cases. It estimates criminal barristers have, on average, suffered a real-terms cut in earnings of 28% since 2006. Barristers in their first two years of practice earn a median net income of just £18,800pa after expenses. The strikes are due to increase by one day a week until mid-July.…

Dawson City, Canada Baby mammoth: Gold miners have found the remarkably well preserved remains of a baby woolly mammoth that had been mummified in the permafrost of the Yukon region. The body, thought to be of a female, dates from some 30,000 years ago. Palaeontologist Grant Zazula, who works in the area, described it as “one of the most incredible mummified Ice Age animals ever discovered”. He said that the mammoth, which was about a month old when it died, had probably wandered a few steps away from its mother and got stuck in the mud. Washington DC Washington DC Gun reforms: President Biden has signed into law the first major package of gun controls to be passed by Congress in nearly 30 years. The legislation expands background checks for…

“Perhaps the airport chaos will make us reconsider the nature of holidays. When I was small, holidays meant rising at dawn, pausing for hard-boiled eggs in a lay-by in Uckfield, before fetching up in the West Country for a fortnight of strenuous avocet-viewing. I was nine before I crossed the Channel, and I’ve never quite got over the glamour of Abroad. The genie of low-cost air travel cannot be put back in the bottle. But the current conditions of mass tourism, demanding the resilience of a 19th century explorer with none of the pristine novelty, makes me think almost wistfully of the prelapsarian innocence of those hard-boiled eggs, consumed by the Sussex roadside.” Jane Shilling in The Daily Telegraph…

Fossil power makes Russia a great power Helen Thompson The New Statesman “A gas station masquerading as a country.” That’s how the late senator John McCain once dismissed Russia. It summed up the West’s post-Cold War view that Russia’s dependence on fossil fuel exports doomed it to increasing irrelevance in a brave new world of technological innovation and borderless trade. But the Ukraine invasion has delivered a jolting reminder of the importance of material resources and geography, says Helen Thompson. Russia became a 20th century power largely thanks to its acquisition of “oil-rich Baku from Persia and what became the Black Sea oil port of Batumi from the Ottomans”. It remains a 21st century power because the Soviets “pursued energy extraction in Siberia and built a transport infrastructure connecting those…

A balance test for longer life Balancing on one leg may seem an inane exercise, but a major new study has suggested that the ability to do so, for more than ten seconds, is an overlooked marker of health, and should be integrated into routine health screenings for older people. For the study, 1,702 Brazilians aged 51 to 75 were asked to do a balance test, and then they had their health monitored for a decade. Once the researchers had accounted for age, sex and underlying health conditions, they found that the participants who had not been able to balance on one leg for ten seconds were 84% more likely to die of any cause over the ten-year period than the others. Nearly one in six of the poor balancers…

The broadcaster Gyles Brandreth’s first job was singing in the choir at Holy Trinity Brompton church in London, where funerals were far better remunerated than weddings. “We choirboys would kneel down and through our fingers we would survey the congregation and agree on who was the oldest-looking member,” he wrote in The Daily Telegraph. “And we would pray to God to kill them.” God had a tendency to answer these prayers, he added. “I loved the fact that God was on the side of the entrepreneur.” The Queen gave an assured performance opposite Paddington Bear in a sketch to mark the jubilee last month. And if the ex-French president François Hollande is to be believed, she’d have liked to have done more of that kind of thing. “I would have…

Gordon Richardson was only three when he was paralysed by polio. “At first I could only use my right eyelid,” he told Eleanor Hayward in The Times. “Gradually the feeling returned to my head, shoulders and arms.” But his legs “never worked again”, and he has no memory of being able to walk. At his boarding school in Yorkshire, he’d drag himself upstairs to his dormitory using only his arms.“I was the first pupil in a wheelchair to attend the school. Sometimes the other boys would help by picking me up and carrying me around. But mostly I just got on with life.” Richardson had caught the disease in 1956, towards the end of a wave of epidemics that swept western Europe in the 20th century. At its peak in…

England’s fourth innings run chase in the third Test against New Zealand this week was never going to finish with a “dribbled single into the leg side”, said Mike Atherton in The Times. That just “wouldn’t have been fitting” for the new approach initiated by England’s new head coach, New Zealander Brendon McCullum, and its new captain, Ben Stokes. Instead, England sealed their 3-0 series victory with Jonny Bairstow belting the gentle off-spin of Michael Bracewell over long on and into Headingley’s Football Stand for six. Set a not insubstantial 296 for victory, England had knocked off the runs for the loss of three wickets, in a mere 54.2 overs. Bairstow, in particular, had seemed a man “in a rush”: joining Joe Root at the crease in the first over…

Barristers must choose… To The Times To The Times I wonder what advice the learned Lord Chief Justice (salary £267,509 per annum) feels able to give those young barristers doing solely criminal work and on the edge of penury. Give up the Bar? Stay at the Bar but give up criminal work? Or carry on doing solely criminal work but join the queue at your local food bank? Malcolm Bishop QC, 3 Hare Court, London …but rules are rules To The Times It is ironic that a letter from so many QCs would demand special pleading (24 June). The Lord Chief Justice cannot take a side in the Bar’s dispute with the Government but must continue to enforce rules neutrally and without fear or favour. If barristers fail to keep…

by Ed Yong Bodley Head 464pp £20 The Week Bookshop £15.99 “We may feel like we are the masters of our planet, having mapped every inch of its landmass and stared into the guts of an atom,” said Killian Fox in The Observer. But when it comes to understanding what it’s like to be another animal – say, a bird navigating by the Earth’s magnetic field – we “barely know where to start”. This “magnificent” book about animal perception reveals a world more wondrously strange than we could have guessed: it’s full of “little astonishments, beautifully rendered”. We learn that scallops have up to 200 eyes on the edge of their shells, that crickets have ears on their knees, and that most animals can see in ultraviolet colours. Ed Yong,…

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Bernard Levy 1926-2022 In peacetime, Bernard Levy would not have been regarded as soldier material, said the Jewish News. At just seven stone and standing 5ft 3½in, he was 18, severely asthmatic, and had “only one good eye”. But it was April 1944; the Armed Forces could not afford to be choosy; and a few weeks after D Day, Levy found himself heading across the Channel with the Royal Army Service Corps. Having landed at Arromanches-les-Bains, his unit pushed through France and Belgium into northern Germany, and a year later, they arrived, war-weary, at Bergen-Belsen. The concentration camp had been liberated a few days earlier; typhoid was rampant; most of its 60,000 surviving inmates were only clinging to life; and all around, thousands of bodies lay unburied. So horrific were…

Sam Bankman-Fried The 30-year-old founder of the FTX exchange, one of the most youthful crypto-billionaires, is now playing a pivotal role in the “crypto-winter,” said the FT. Sam Bankman-Fried has emerged as “a lender of last resort” to an industry now suffering its own “credit crisis”. In the past fortnight, he has “extended loans worth hundreds of millions of dollars to troubled blockchain outfits including BlockFi and crypto-lender Voyager” – to “steady” them and “boost confidence in the system”, preventing more dominoes from falling. Bankman-Fried’s influence extends far beyond digital assets, said The Verge. He was reported this week to be mulling a buyout of the stock-trading and investment app Robinhood, which has lost some 75% of its value since floating last year. Changpeng Zhao The founder of Binance –…