Innholdsfortegnelse for 1439 i The Week

What happened Thousands of people were being evacuated from their homes in southern Ukraine this week following the destruction of the vast Nova Kakhovka dam, in Russian-occupied territory northeast of the city of Kherson (which Kyiv regained in November). With some areas under three metres of water, the UN warned that the breach would have “far-reaching consequences”: as well as risking lives and affecting the supply of water to countless homes, including in Russian-occupied Crimea, there were fears that the breach could interfere with the cooling of the reactors at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest. Moscow and Kyiv blamed each other for the explosion at the dam, which the EU said may be “violation of international law”. The breach came as Kyiv appeared to be launching the start of…

Controversy of the week “Few items of public policy raise the public’s hackles quite like inheritance tax,” said John Ashmore on CapX. For many Brits, the idea that the state should intervene in the intimate matter of what you leave to your children “sticks in the collective craw”. Then there’s the unfortunate timing: HMRC presents the bereaved with a huge bill, a “death tax”. Others object to it on the grounds that it amounts to double taxation on assets that may have already been taxed when they were amassed, via income or capital gains tax. Inheritance tax certainly polls “pretty damn badly”. (A recent survey by YouGov found that 50% of people in the UK thought it was unfair or very unfair, compared with just 19% who thought it was…

Oxfam, which was accused of portraying J.K. Rowling as a trans-hating villain. In a short animation in support of LGBTQ+ rights, the charity had featured a woman with a resemblance to Rowling, but with demonic eyes, an ugly grimace and the derogatory term Terf on her lapel badge. Oxfam said it was not meant to represent the author, but apologised and deleted the video. 1970s diets, with a new survey showing that one in five British children have never tasted tinned spaghetti hoops. Moreover, 20% have not had frozen burgers, 27% have not tried cream of tomato soup and a quarter have never been served a tuna bake. And 77% of parents said meals such as fish fingers now seem old-fashioned. Holidaymakers, who were warned to expect delays at Heathrow,…

Berlin Far-right on the rise: A senior figure in Germany’s far-right AfD party is being prosecuted for allegedly repeating a banned Nazi-era slogan. Björn Höcke, the party’s regional leader in Thuringia, is accused of having used the words “Everything for Germany” – a slogan of Hitler’s stormtroopers – while speaking at a campaign rally in 2021. Prosecutors said that he did so knowingly. Mainstream parties are growing increasingly concerned about the rising influence of the AfD: the most recent polls indicate that if a general election were held tomorrow, the party would win a record 18% of the vote. That puts it level with Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats, and behind only the conservative CDU/CSU on 28%. The AfD continues to exploit concerns in Germany about immigration, but is also…

1 Let’s Stay Together by Al Green, Willie Mitchell and Al Jackson Jr, performed by Al Green2* Symphony No. 2 in E-Flat Major, Op. 63: II by Edward Elgar, performed by the Hallé Orchestra, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli3 Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18 by Sergei Rachmaninoff, performed by Vladimir Ashkenazy and the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by André Previn4 America by Paul Simon, performed by Simon & Garfunkel5 O soave fanciulla from La bohème by Giacomo Puccini, performed by Plácido Domingo, Montserrat Caballé and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Georg Solti6 Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras by Johannes Brahms, performed by the Berlin Philharmoniker, conducted by Herbert von Karajan7 In My Life by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, performed by The Beatles8 Waterloo Sunset by Ray Davies, performed by The…

British aristocrats used to embark on lavish “grand tours” of Europe from the 17th and 18th centuries, and the better-off went to genteel resort towns; but most Britons didn’t start holidaying until the 1800s, when workers began to benefit from “Wakes Weeks” (weeklong holidays) and bank holidays (introduced in 1871), and the new railways took the middle and working classes to seaside resorts. In the mid-19th century, a cabinet maker called Thomas Cook started arranging affordable excursions, first in Britain, and then to Switzerland, Paris and Florence. The heyday of the British seaside came between the 1930s and 1960s. Billy Butlin built an array of British holiday parks from Bognor Regis to Skegness, promising “a week’s holiday for a week’s wages”. That offer was made possible by the 1938 Holidays…

It is not the economy, stupid Paul Krugman The New York Times Is that it? After all the feverish speculation about how a standoff over the US debt ceiling might trigger a default and a global financial crisis, last week’s low-key deal came as a surprising anticlimax, says Paul Krugman. The need for the Republican Party to sign off on extra borrowing gave the GOP access to “a financial doomsday machine”, and the party was expected to demand harsh spending cuts as the price of their agreement. In the event, though, they extracted “hardly any major concessions” – mostly, just modest spending caps. What happened? Eventually we may get a blow-by-blow account of how the debt negotiations played out, but my suspicion is that the GOP’s heart just wasn’t in…

Thousands of people who suffer from frequent migraines are to be offered a potentially life-changing drug on the NHS. Rimegepant, which was approved last week by the drugs watchdog Nice, is taken every other day as a wafer that dissolves under the tongue. The new guidelines say it can be given to patients who suffer four to 15 migraine attacks a month, and who have not responded to three or more existing treatments. Rimegepant prevents migraines by stopping a protein – calcitonin generelated peptide – from binding to its target in the brain. The protein’s build-up causes severe inflammation, leading to the pain associated with migraines. Evaluating the drug, Nice noted that migraines were often an “invisible disability” and that they blight millions of lives. Migraine charities welcomed the approval…

In just 23 words, more than 350 leading figures in artificial intelligence research delivered a message last week that was brutal in its simplicity, said Andrew Griffin in The Independent. “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI,” they warned, “should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.” In the past few months, we’ve had a series of apocalyptic warnings about AI; that these have come from the very people who are developing the tech makes them seem all the more alarming: the signatories of the new statement include the CEOs of Google DeepMind and OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT. But before jumping into our bunkers, we should ask why these experts are saying this, and why now? Partly, it’s “reverse marketing”: our products…

“It is easy to be tolerant when you do not care.”Clement F. Rogers, quoted in Forbes “There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.”Economist Thomas Sowell, quoted in The Washington Examiner “Streams of oratory do not always come from mountains of thought.”Charles Grant, quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle “It’s not the notes you play. It’s the notes you don’t play.”Miles Davis, quoted in the New Hampshire Journal “Liberals looked for heretics, while conservatives looked for converts.”Attributed to Michael Kinsley, quoted in The Guardian “My definition of happiness is being alone in a room in a house full of people.”Antonia Fraser, quoted in The Mail on Sunday “Words are to the anthropologist what rolled pebbles are to the geologist – battered relics of past ages often containing within them indelible…

To The Sunday Times Keir Starmer’s plan to ban new drilling in the North Sea and invest in clean energy is sound economics. We have long known that decarbonising energy quickly will avoid climate damage, slash air pollution and stabilise energy prices. We also know that a greener, healthier and safer global energy system will be substantially cheaper. Our research estimates that a fast transition to clean energy by 2050 would save £10trn in global energy costs alone, creating true energy security and preventing climate breakdown. Investing in new oil and gas now is like investing in typewriters ten years into the internet revolution. The sooner the UK gets the infrastructure built, the sooner we will start saving money; the faster we move, the more we will save. Prof J.…

Moby Dick by Herman Melville, 1851 (Wordsworth £3.99). Writing The Winding Stair has thrust me deep into different blends of history and the novel, fact and fiction. Nowhere is this done better than in Moby Dick. From its opening chapters, this book brings the reader on, layering in wonderful characters and slowly building the tension until the final pages bring it to a shattering conclusion. Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans by Louis Armstrong, 1954 (Da Capo £11.99). I grew up intoxicated by the music of Louis Armstrong, and learning to play the trumpet in my 40s only added admiration to my joy. Armstrong invented the jazz solo, and pioneered scat singing. He was born into poverty as the son of a parttime prostitute, grew up playing in brass bands…

Programmes Best Interests In Jack Thorne’s four-part drama, Michael Sheen and Sharon Horgan star as parents fighting for their disabled daughter to have medical care. Mon 12 and Tue 13 Jun, BBC1 21:00 (60mins each). Africa Rising with Afua Hirsch The writer and broadcaster travels across Africa to meet the young creatives changing its culture: first stop, Morocco. Tue 13 Jun, BBC2 21:00 (60mins). How to Win the Ashes On the eve of the first Test, cricket legends including Ben Stokes describe the intense rivalry that underpins the series. Thur 15 Jun, BBC2 19:00 (60mins). Scandalous: Phone Hacking on Trial Sienna Miller and Hugh Grant are among the phone-hacking victims who give testimony in this powerful documentary about the case against three tabloid newspapers. Thur 15 Jun, BBC2 21:00 (90mins). They…

Serves 4 2 litres shellfish stock 0.4g saffron 120ml extra virgin olive oil 2 dried ñora peppers 2 tomatoes 1kg cuttlefish, cleaned and cut into small strips 8 garlic cloves, peeled 1 tsp sweet smoked paprika 5 sachets of squid ink 440g Spanish paella rice 1kg red prawns (shrimp), shells removed (heads left on) salt, to taste • Heat the shellfish stock in a saucepan over a low heat and crumble in the saffron. Keep warm over the lowest setting. • Place a paella pan over a low heat, pour in the olive oil and fry the ñora peppers for 2 minutes. Remove the peppers from the oil and blend to a paste with the tomatoes using a blender or food processor; set aside for later. • Increase the heat…

● Supermarket herbs are cheap, but they’re hard to keep alive. This is because the seedlings were planted too close together. Take them out of the pot, brush away the soil and plant them individually in their own pots. If you snip just above the side shoots it will encourage them to spread out. ● Ask friends and neighbours for cuttings. It’s the best way to get plants for free, and gardeners are usually very generous. ● When people move, they often sell plants, kit and containers cut-price on second-hand sites such as Gumtree. ● Instead of filling a planter or raised bed with expensive soil, fill it with cardboard, twigs, wood chips or leaves, then top that off with peat-free compost. ● Make your own compost heap or leaf…

Peter Brooke 1934-2023 In a fairer world, Peter Brooke, who has died aged 89, would be remembered as the Northern Ireland minister who laid the groundwork for the peace process in the late 1980s and early 1990s, said The Guardian, or as the founding minister for the National Lottery. As it is, he is more likely to be known as the politician who sang Oh My Darling, Clementine on an Irish TV chat show on the night that seven Protestant construction workers were killed by an IRA bomb. Brooke had had a busy week in Belfast and knew little about the bombing; more to the point, he had been caught off guard by the host, Gay Byrne, asking him about “the traumatic death” of his first wife while his current…

Dame Carolyn McCall After half a decade at the helm of ITV, Carolyn McCall’s tenure could yet be defined by a grilling from MPs “in an anonymous committee room in Westminster”, said the FT. The scandal engulfing the broadcaster’s flagship This Morning show, and the exit of former presenter Phillip Schofield, has raised “uncomfortable questions”. MPs questioned her about allegations of a toxic work culture and safeguarding issues. For the moment, investors seem sanguine: ITV’s shares have fallen only slightly. But during McCall’s tenure as a whole they have fallen by 60%, and the affair is, at the very least, an unwelcome distraction at a difficult time. Some former senior staff are less than positive. “I think she’s toast,” said one. “She’s run out of ideas… If you’re looking for…

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The average cost of attending a stag or hen party in the UK has reached £779, research by Aviva has found. Those travelling abroad for the celebrations can expect to spend £1,200. A third of respondents to the survey said that they’d turned down an invitation to a stag or hen do; of them, four-fifths said it was because of the cost. The sanitary products brand Always is supplying British schools with a 22-page guide to menstruation that contains no mention of women or girls. The pamphlet, entitled “Puberty and Confidence Guide for Everyone”, explains that “every month, bodies with female sex organs prepare for pregnancy”, and uses the phrase “young people with female sex organs” in place of the word girls.…

Prince Harry became the first senior member of the royal family to give evidence in court for 130 years, when he appeared at the High Court this week to testify in his hacking case against the Daily Mirror. The Prince said that he had been pursued by a hostile press since early childhood, citing numerous stories of anguish, pain and embarrassment caused to him. However, under cross-examination on Tuesday, he struggled to come up with evidence that the stories had been gathered by the Mirror unlawfully. He admitted that he had not owned a mobile phone at the time that one allegedly hacked story came out; other stories had been reported elsewhere first, or were based on statements issued by Palace officials. Some, the Mirror’s lawyers suggested, had been leaked…

New York Smoky city: New York City recorded the worst air quality in the world on Tuesday, as smoke from wildfires blazing in eastern Canada continued to drift south. In New York, the concentration of PM2.5 was more than ten times the guideline set by the World Health Organisation, and some schools cancelled outdoor activities as a result. Air quality warnings were also issued in Toronto and Ottawa. Canada’s fire season began unusually early this year; there are blazes in almost all the country’s regions, but Quebec is currently the worst affected. More than 600,000 acres have burned there. Des Moines, Iowa Pence stands: The former vice-president Mike Pence formally joined the Republican race this week, pitting himself against his ex-boss Donald Trump. Pence served Trump loyally, but the pair…

“This week Mark Zuckerberg posted a picture of himself looking exhausted, verging on ill, on Facebook. He was wearing a 20lb weighted vest, having just completed a fearsome exercise routine called the ‘Murph’. He’s the latest to succumb to the ‘Bezos effect’: the transformation, pioneered by Jeff Bezos, of a tycoon in middle age from nondescript nerd to chiselled Adonis. Whatever happened to fat plutocrats, eh? Eating pounds of caviar in a single sitting, like Robert Maxwell? Lounging around in top hats and opera cloaks, snacking on swans? Only Donald Trump is sticking to the noble tradition of moneybags-as-greedy-slob. Who’s next on the cross-trainer? Bill Gates?” Robert Crampton in The Times…

Paying evil men to “stop the boats” Kenan Malik The Observer Can we defeat the people smugglers by persuading other countries to act as Britain’s immigration police? That’s what Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick seems to think: he visited north African countries last week to enlist their help to “stop the boats”. But he’s no pioneer: he’s following the lead of EU politicians, who for more than a decade have been “stitching up deals” with reactionary and repulsive regimes, paying them large sums to detain would-be migrants to Europe. This policy has had little impact on people trafficking, but it has been “catastrophic” for thousands of innocent people fleeing oppression. Detention centres in Libya, where militias have rebranded themselves as “coastguards”, have been damned by a UN report for the torture…

A blood test for Alzheimer’s Scientists have moved a step closer to developing a blood test that can predict whether people are at risk of Alzheimer’s, reports The Times. The disease has long been associated with the build-up of a protein called amyloid in the brain, but although everyone with Alzheimer’s has these amyloid plaques, not everyone with the plaques gets Alzheimer’s, suggesting that something else is involved. Now, researchers have identified what that might be: a star-shaped cell called an astrocyte. For their study, they gave 1,000 people in their 60s and 70s blood tests and PET scans to gauge their amyloid levels, and also tested for astrocyte reactivity. They found that the patients with abnormal astrocyte activity were the ones whose amyloid levels continued to build up, and…

A cheese company in Oxford that used the Cerne Abbas Giant on one of its labels has been criticised for editing out the chalk hill figure’s famously large penis. The 180ft-tall figure is thought to date back to some time between AD700 and 1,100BC, said The Times, but its age is up for debate. The National Trust recently asked visitors how old they believed the giant was. One woman apparently replied that he “looks about 21”. Edward Enninful is stepping down as editor of British Vogue after six years. His departure from the £500,000-a-year job is being sold as an exciting new move – he will take on a “global advisory position” – but the gossip is that he’s been demoted, having lost a battle for supremacy with US Vogue…

“Labour has come to life,” said John Rentoul in The Independent. After a long period during which journalists have complained about an absence of detail, Keir Starmer’s party is suddenly unveiling lots of new policies – many of which unashamedly invade Tory territory. On immigration, Labour wants to scrap rules that allow employers in certain sectors to hire overseas workers at below the market rate. On housing, it wants to enable local councils to buy land and capture the gain in value from the granting of planning permission. On Brexit, Starmer has ruled out trying to rejoin the single market or customs union, saying “Britain’s future is outside the EU”. The point of these announcements is to close off lines of Tory attack, to flesh out the broad “missions” set…

Since Ben Stokes became England’s Test captain a year ago, only one player has been ever-present in his side, said Paul Newman in the Daily Mail. That player is Jack Leach. The left-arm spinner may not be the most flamboyant member of Stokes’s squad, but his bowling has come to be regarded as indispensable to the success of a team that has won 11 of its past 13 Tests. So the news that they will be without their “No. 1 slow-bowling option” strikes a “huge blow” to England’s prospects in the Ashes – which start on 16 June. The 31-year-old began experiencing back pain during last week’s Test against Ireland, which England won comfortably. On Sunday, a scan revealed that he has a stress fracture in his lumbar spine. He…

Golf The 20-year-old American Rose Zhang became the first player in 72 years to win on her pro LPGA Tour debut at the Mizuho Americas Open. Football Australian manager Ange Postecoglou, 57, has been named manager of Tottenham Hotspur. Barcelona beat Wolfsburg 3-2 to win the Uefa Women’s Champions League for the second time. Tennis Top seed Carlos Alcaraz will face Novak Djokovic in the semi-final of the French Open after beating Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-2, 6-1, 7-6. The first women’s semi-final will be between Karolina Muchová play Aryna Sabalenka.…

Alina Grasmann at Niru Ratnam It’s easy to see why Florida might hold appeal for a painter. It is at once a place of untameable nature and unimpeded artifice, home to both the Everglades and to Disney World. In Florida Räume, a series of recent paintings, the German artist Alina Grasmann (b.1989) imagines it as a kind of tropical Ballardian idyll, in which swamp vegetation encroaches on pristine landscaping and art-historical references run riot. We see melting clocks, as if from Dalí’s The Persistence of Memory, draped over a pool lounger. Read the image literally and they are deflated pool toys; alternatively, you could see them as escapees from one surrealist fever dream to another. Brâncusi columns hang from trees like paper lanterns, while the lovers in Rodin’s The Kiss…

The New Forest’s heaths and bogs are a great place to spot orchids, including tiny bog, heath-spotted and butterfly orchids. Among the dunes of the Unesco Biosphere Reserve at Braunton Burrows, north Devon, you might see densely packed early marsh orchids, ranging in colour from white to red. In another dune habitat, at Kenfig in South Wales, you’ll find a huge number of orchid varieties. The real gem is the rare fen orchid with its pale-green, skyward-facing flowers. Upper Teesdale in County Durham is an area “arguably unmatched for British flora”, and home to the dark red helleborine orchid. Overlooking the Thames, Hartslock Reserve in Oxfordshire is a good place to see England’s “little men” orchids, plus monkey and lady orchids and their hybrid, “lonkeys”. Ayrshire’s Feoch Meadows is one of Britain’s best…

China’s new barbecue hotspot A once-obscure manufacturing hub 270 miles south of Beijing, Zibo has risen in just a few months to become China’s hottest tourist destination, says Vivian Wang in The New York Times. And it’s all down to two things: barbecues and the power of social media. The city is home to 4.7 million people, yet it received 4.8 million visitors in March alone, not long after the local BBQ technique – you grill your meat on skewers then wrap it with condiments in tortilla-like pancakes – began trending on social media. Keen to please, the authorities have set up a “Barbecue Experiential Ground” the size of 12 football fields, with hundreds of grills, and even far-flung suburban eateries are doing a roaring trade. Tourists queue for hours,…

John Payne 1925-2023 John Payne, who has died aged 98, is believed to have been the last surviving member of the Royal Navy’s wartime “P” Parties. These were small secret units of divers, whose task it was to clear enemy mines from the ports of northwest Europe in the period after D-Day. Collectively, the demolition divers searched more than 20 million square feet of harbour and port facilities. Diving into cold, dark water, they located and cleared unexploded ordinance, booby traps and general debris, and so enabled the return of military ships carrying supplies and reinforcements vital to the Allied advance. The Germans had anticipated that it would take the Allies months to reopen each port; but these “human minesweepers” got the job done in days. John Edwin Payne was…

“There’s a barrage of AI-related hype juicing up the financial markets,” according to Jason Hollands of investment platform Bestinvest. Some liken it to the dotcom boom of the late 1990s. Still, it’s worthwhile checking out the options, says David Brenchley in The Times – particularly funds that track AI firms, which are now surging. ETFs The L&G Artificial Intelligence exchange traded fund (ETF), whose top holdings are Microsoft, Alphabet (Google) and chipmaker Nvidia, is up 24% so far this year. Hollands also likes Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF, which includes Japanese automation specialist Keyence, and Intuitive, which makes robotics products for surgery. Actively managed funds Hollands suggests the Sanlam Global Artificial Intelligence fund, which charges 0.5% a year (only slightly more than L&G’s ETF); or Polar Capital Automation…

Skylark numbers declined 75% between 1972 and 1996, owing largely to changes in agricultural practices, including more intensive methods, but the birds are now making a modest recovery. The latest breeding bird survey by the British Trust for Ornithology found that populations of the skylark, Wordsworth’s “pilgrim of the sky”, have grown 10% in the past five years. In some areas, such as the east Midlands and southeast England, they are up nearly 20%. A Mediterranean miniature donkey foal that was stolen from a community farm in Hampshire has been found by police and returned to its mother. Moon, who is three months old, and just 18 inches tall, went missing from Miller’s Ark in Hook on 15 May. An appeal to find her soon gained traction on social media,…

Talent spotting, after a pub landlord who’d bet £100 that his friend’s 11-year-old son would one day play a Test match for England picked up his winnings. Josh Tongue, who is now 25, made his debut against Ireland last week; and Tim Piper, the cricket-lover from Redditch who’d been awed by Tongue’s skills years earlier, collected £50,000. Sue Gray, who was cleared to take up her new role as Keir Starmer’s chief of staff. Some Government officials had allegedly called for the former civil servant, who led the Partygate inquiry in 2022, to have to wait up to two years before she could take up the job. But a vetting board said she could start in the autumn.…

Rishi Sunak claimed in a speech in Dover this week that his plan to tackle small boat crossings was “starting to work”. The PM highlighted figures showing that crossings have fallen 20% this year. He also confirmed that the Government has acquired two barges big enough to accommodate 1,000 asylum seekers. Separately, Border Force figures showed that French authorities are intercepting more than half of attempted crossings for the first time since the small boat crossings began in earnest five years ago. So far this year, 8,635 people have been prevented from crossing the Channel by French officials, while 7,610 have arrived in the UK – an interception rate of 53%, up from 42% last year. Border Force officials said that the figures were a sign that the £480m deal…

A cinematic childhood Nancy Spielberg grew up immersed in films. From an early age, her older brother Steven was fascinated by the medium, and would dragoon her and her two sisters into acting as his cast and crew. “We just did whatever Steve said because he sort of ruled the house,” she told Anne Joseph in The Times. She didn’t always enjoy it, “but this is what we did, and I guess we grew to love some of it in the end”. Years later, when Steven told her he was making a film based on their childhood, and their parents’ painful divorce, Nancy – who is a documentary producer herself – felt “overwhelmed” by the idea. But he took care to make sure his sisters were on board, and employed…

A woodyard worker from Kent is so “addicted” to cheese that he has spent more than £60,000 funding his habit. Mark King, 54, eats two blocks of cheddar a day; his favourite is a sandwich containing one whole block, along with Marmite, white pepper and mayonnaise. He avoids dishes like macaroni cheese, however, as he finds them insufficiently “cheesy”. His wife Tracey told the Daily Mirror that she isn’t worried. “I took him to the GP for bloods and all that and everything came back perfect. The GP said because he’s been eating it for so long it’s like he’s acclimatised to it.” A funeral firm in Edinburgh is hoping to break down the taboos around death by offering novelty coffins, including one that looks like a Greggs sausage roll.…

ITALY The threat Brussels poses to Italy’s pride Les Echos (Paris) “Gastronationalism.” That’s what Italian MEPs are being accused of, say Karl De Meyer and Olivier Tosseri. They keep trying to skewer EU food initiatives. They’ve tried to foil the launch of the Nutri-Score, a system – already adopted by France and Germany – which rates food from “A” (the healthiest) to “E”. It caused outrage in Italy because its evaluation method resulted in olive oil and parmesan being awarded an “ignoble” C and D, lower than French fries. Rome has also revolted against the EU’s approval of powdered insect larvae in foods such as flour: in its view, Italian cuisine and bugs don’t mix. Some see this stand as a desperate attempt by the ruling Brothers of Italy party…

With all eyes on the war in Ukraine, insufficient attention has been paid to “another chronic conflict in the heart of Europe that, yet again, threatens to spill over into violence and bloodshed”, said The Times. Last week, Nato sent 700 more peacekeeping troops to Kosovo, boosting its 3,800-strong force there, in response to days of rioting in three towns in the north of the country. Ethnic Serbs – who form a majority in the area – had boycotted local elections, with the result that ethnic Albanian candidates won. Though turnout was just 3.5%, the government in Pristina ordered the new mayors to take up their office, infuriating ethnic Serbs and Kosovo’s Nato allies. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Kosovo’s Albanian-nationalist PM, Albin Kurti, was to blame…

Saturday’s FA Cup final was the “first all-Manchester FA Cup final there has ever been”, said Oliver Holt in the Daily Mail. And for both teams there was a great deal at stake. For Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, victory would keep alive hopes of ending the season with the treble. For Manchester United – so far the only treble-winning club in English football – victory would prevent “the new blue empire across the city from equalling their feat”. The match got off to a dramatic start: City’s captain, Ilkay Gündogan, opened the scoring inside the first 13 seconds. His perfectly struck edge-of-the-area volley was the fastest-ever goal in an FA Cup final – a rout seemed on the cards. Yet to United’s credit, they battled hard, said Sam Wallace in…

Benjamin Myers’ 2017 novel The Gallows Pole “told the true-life tale of the 18th century gang of coin clippers led by ‘King’ David Hartley, whose illegal work and attendant violence came to dominate Cragg Vale in West Yorkshire”, said Lucy Mangan in The Guardian. Now, it’s been turned into a three-part BBC drama directed by Shane Meadows (This is England) – and it’s a treat. We meet David (Michael Socha) as he is returning to his home village after a long absence, with a stab wound in his side and an idea for how to make some money. If you clip a tiny bit of gold from ten coins, he tells his family and friends, you can melt the trimmings and create an 11th coin, thus delaying “starvation, eviction and…

Freddie is organising Lower Loxley’s Late Mayfest, hoping the trustees will notice his hard work. Hungover Jim lost his glasses at Jazzer’s stag and muddles up the scoring at the T20 match, making it a tie. Brian is furious to discover Stella has bought an expensive new drill without his approval. Adam claims he didn’t authorise it, although he did urge Stella to use her initiative. Ian tells him to keep mum. There’s bitter disappointment as Helen learns the CPS has decided not to charge Rob. Tony wants to fight on, but Helen just wants Rob out of her life. At the Mayfest, Brian and Adil hit it off, while Freddie discovers the trustees have delayed his inheritance. Justin assures Brian that Stella was always professional when working with him.…

The sad decline of the Balti Triangle Birmingham’s “Balti Triangle” is justly famed, says Jessica Murray in The Guardian. Located just south of the city centre, the area has “one of the largest Pakistani Kashmiri populations in Britain”, and is credited with popularising the “balti” – a curry served in a thin steel bowl. In its 1990s heyday, the Triangle was “home to more than 30 authentic balti houses”. It “still attracts plenty of tourists” – but now there are only four. This decline has various causes. The area’s former popularity led to rent rises, which forced some restaurants to relocate. Some of the offspring of the original restaurateurs were reluctant to take over when their parents retired: the closure last year of the “Triangle mainstay” Adil’s was down to…

North Macedonia getaway Stay 7 nights at the Inex Olgica Hotel & Spa, on Lake Ohrid, making use of its bike hire to explore the area. From £558pp b&b (incl. London flights). 020-3451 2688, tui.co.uk. Depart 21 July. All-inclusive in Tunisia The One Resort Aquapark & Spa, in Monastir, offers beachfront luxury. A 7-night stay costs from £606pp (incl. Manchester flights). 020-3474 3075, blueseaholidays.co.uk. Depart 26 June. Beautiful Bali A 9-day trip, during which you’ll get to visit a temple, hike up Mount Batur and explore an underwater world. From £792pp b&b (excl. flights). 0808-274 5111, intrepidtravel.com. Depart 17 July. Atlantic Islands cruise The 7-night cruise on board the Marella Explorer sails between the Canary Islands and Madeira. From £831pp all-inclusive (incl. flights). 020-3993 6988, iglucruise.com. Depart 27 January 2024.…

Zellis/MOVEit: Russian payroll hack Hackers targeting UK businesses have found a new weakness, said the FT – payroll transactions. Tens of thousands of employees at organisations including British Airways, Boots and the BBC have been warned that their personal data has been compromised, owing to a security breach at payroll software provider Zellis, which “serves nearly half the FTSE 100”. The cyberattacks have been attributed to a Russian-linked criminal gang known as “Lace Tempest”, which is affiliated to the Clop ransomware group and runs an “extortion site” carrying data stolen in attacks, said Dan Milmo in The Guardian. Hackers took advantage of a “vulnerability” in a file transfer system used by Zellis called MOVEit. And therein lies the rub, said The Times. MOVEit is “a widely used piece of software”…

Armageddon gives way to fiscal hell Editorial The Economist The latest instalment of the US debt-ceiling soap opera, “having threatened the world with a sovereign default and financial disaster”, is finally over, says The Economist. After all the drama, the “piddling resolution” seems incongruous. The Republicans have managed to whittle down federal spending by $1.3trn over the next decade, which sounds impressive – until you set it against the $80trn of outlays forecast for the same period. “A weak deal is infinitely preferable to no deal, which might have provoked a meltdown in global markets.” Still, America’s fiscal path remains worrisome. Federal debt is now about 93% of GDP: “almost triple its level on the eve of the global financial crisis of 2007-2009”; the US will shortly “spend more annually…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1366 An Ettinger pass holder 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 19 June. Send it to The Week Crossword 1366, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London W2 6JR, or email the completed grid/listed solutions to crossword@theweek.co.uk. Tim Moorey (timmoorey.com) This week’s winner will receive an Ettinger (ettinger.co.uk) travel pass holder in assorted colours, which retails at £115, and two Connell Guides (connellguides.com). ACROSS 7 Swimmer holds on for brief rest period (8) 9 Dane’s head of a city port? This one maybe (6) 10 Minor instruction not on (4) 11 Willy’s aware of latest trends in club group (10) 12 Spell what ends a sentence for Trump (6)…