r5t6 yh

The journalist who exposed Jeffrey Epstein

HOW SIMONE BILES LOST HER BEARINGS

Sydney’s bin-diving cockatoos

BOOKS P29

TALKING POINTS P22

HEALTH & SCIENCE P 21

THE WEEK

7 AUGUST 2021 | ISSUE 1343 | £3.99

THE BEST OF THE BRITISH AND INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

The Tories’ Mr Fixit

Does money talk at No. 10?

Page 8

31

9 771362 343166

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT MATTERS

theweek.co.uk

The main stories…

6 NEWS What happened

Travel confusion

What the editorials said

The Government’s “bewildering five-coloured traffic-light system” has already plunged millions of holidays into chaos, said the Daily Mail – whether by forcing The Government abandoned its proposed people to cancel trips at short notice, or new “amber watchlist” for foreign travel to rush home to avoid isolation rules. Yet this week owing to fears that it would instead of simplifying travel, No. 10’s cause more confusion, and lead to mass planned rule change would have caused cancellations of holiday plans. The chaos for holidaymakers in “amber watchlist would have consisted of “amber” watchlist” countries, who’d face the risk countries at risk of turning “red”, meaning of having to shell out for hotel quarantine. returnees would be obliged to quarantine Thank goodness that plan was ditched; the in hotels. Chancellor Rishi Sunak was fast-changing isolation rules and pricey among those who had expressed alarm PCR tests are causing enough problems. about the impact it would have on the Why haven’t these restrictions been struggling travel sector. The new list would removed, asked The Daily Telegraph. have joined five existing ones – green, green Crowds at Heathrow airport Travel within the EU’s Schengen area is far watchlist, amber, amber-plus and red. It more “straightforward”, although jab rates there are lower. had been suggested that Spain and Italy might go on it.

Separately, the Government announced that under-30s will be offered incentives to get vaccinated, including discounts for Uber journeys and takeaways. Ministers also suggested that it was a “smart idea” for employers to implement a “no jab, no job” rule for offices and other workplaces. But No. 10 faced a growing backlash from Tory MPs over the proposed use of Covid passports for entry to nightclubs and other large venues.

What happened

The Taliban onslaught

The watchlist U-turn was the Government’s second in a day, said the Daily Mirror; it followed an announcement that the NHS app will, after all, be tweaked to reduce the number of people having to self-isolate. Time and again, the Government has made a bad situation worse through “chaotic messaging”, said The Guardian. It doesn’t augur well for its ability to steer us out of the pandemic, and get Britain back on its feet.

What the editorials said

Biden must rethink the US’s withdrawal strategy or risk a “catastrophe that will mar his presidency”, said The Wall Street Journal. Pulling out may be popular now – bringing Afghanistan’s government was battling for survival this home troops usually is – but what if the week, as its forces struggled to halt the “Taliban rolls over Kabul and chaos ensues”? advance of Taliban rebels across the That looks all too likely, said Bloomberg. Each country. Having gained control of large new victory supports the rebels’ narrative that swathes of the countryside, the insurgents they are “unstoppable”. Overstretched and have switched attacks to key urban centres. demoralised, entire units of the Afghan army Three provincial capitals, including the are fleeing without firing a shot. And it won’t second city, Kandahar, are under siege; just be the Afghans who suffer if the rout thousands of families have had to flee. continues. The country’s already thriving drug Particularly heavy fighting was reported networks will “explode” and “a river of in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand refugees will become a flood”. province, where the Taliban launched an Afghan forces in Lashkar Gah attack on the prison to free jailed militants.

As Western forces withdraw, Britain has one vital moral And eight people were killed in the capital, Kabul, in a bomb attack unsuccessfully targeted at the defence minister. obligation to discharge, said The Times: giving asylum to the interpreters and their dependants who aided our forces in Afghanistan. It’s true that we have taken in more than 2,200 In a speech to the Afghan parliament, President Ashraf already, but too many deserving applicants are being turned Ghani blamed the deteriorating security situation on the away – victims of mean-spirited and “arbitrary” rules. Why, US’s “sudden” decision in April to withdraw the last of for example, do we insist on excluding those applying from its forces by 11 September. Former US commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus, also accused Washington a third country? “Unthinking and pitiless” bureaucracy must not prevail. of abandoning Afghanistan to a “bloody, brutal civil war”.

It wasn’t all bad A French engineer has built an exoskeleton to help his teenage son walk. Jean-Louis Constanza started working on the project in 2012, at the prompting of his son Oscar, who has used a wheelchair since the age of five.

He said, “Dad, you’re a robotics engineer, why don’t you make a robot that would allow us to walk?” Constanza joined a firm working in the field, which now sells exoskeletons to hospitals, and is refining them for private use. Oscar, 16, says they make him feel “independent”.

A giant panda on loan to a zoo in central France has given birth to two healthy cubs, in a rare success for captive breeding programmes. The twins were born at the ZooParc de Beauval to Huan Huan and Yuan Zi. The adult pandas are the zoo’s star attractions, and had thrilled their keepers in March, when they managed to “make contact” eight times over a weekend. (Females are fertile only once a year, for a period of up to 48 hours.) “The two babies are pink. They are perfectly healthy. They are magnificent,” said Rodolphe Delord, president of the zoo. Huan Huan and Yuan Zi were loaned to France in 2012 and had their first cub five years later. It was the first panda ever born in France.

Another 30 black students will receive £20,000-a-year scholarships to Cambridge University, thanks to a scheme launched by Stormzy. The grime star started funding two students a year in 2018. Now, thanks to a partnership with HSBC, his Merky Foundation has been able to expand it to ten a year for the next three years. “I hope this scholarship continues to serve as a small reminder to young black students that the opportunity to study at one of the best universities in the world is theirs for the taking,” he said.

COVER CARTOON: NEIL DAVIES

THE WEEK 7 August 2021

…and how they were covered

NEWS 7

What the commentators said

What next?

At least those staying in Britain this summer have plenty to cheer, said Chris Smyth in The Times. Debate over whether Covid cases are falling or “merely plateauing” may continue, but one thing is unarguable: “they are no longer rising exponentially”. When nearly all restrictions were lifted on 19 July, scientists and ministers reckoned 100,000 cases a day were “almost inevitable”. Instead, they’re about a quarter of that, and hospital admissions are falling – meaning it’s a safe bet that no restrictions will be reimposed this summer.

All 16- and 17-year-olds should be offered a Covid vaccination in a drive to build immunity in young people, the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation said this week.

The policy shift means some 1.4 million teenagers will be eligible for jabs for the first time. Appointments are expected to begin within a fortnight.

Things are clearly improving, so why has the messaging about the vaccine roll-out moved from “jabs for all!” to “jabs or else”, asked Charlotte Lytton in The Daily Telegraph. Having backed the use of vaccine passports for entry to nightclubs or sporting fixtures, ministers are now encouraging companies to ban unvaccinated staff from the workplace. I’m not sure they’ve thought that through, said Sean O’Grady in The Independent. Could they tell me, for instance, where employees with a medical reason that exempts them from vaccination stand? And are they sure that firms enforcing “no jab, no job” rules won’t be found guilty of indirect discrimination, owing to the lower rates of vaccine take-up among ethnic minorities?

The Government’s haphazard and creeping embrace of vaccine passports is generating “swirls of suspicion” as to its motives, said Andrew Rawnsley in The Observer. It’s not clear if it thinks allowing only the vaccinated into certain public spaces is the best way of safely opening up the economy; or if it is merely introducing passport rules as a “coercive stick” to induce the young and other hesitant groups to get jabbed. Instead of explaining its thinking, the Government seems to be introducing vaccine passes on the “sly” – a perception reinforced by the recent, unannounced addition of a domestic “health pass” section to the NHS app. That may not be a bad thing – 13 European countries have passes, or soon will; but if they want the public to be on board, ministers need to be clear about what they are doing, and why they are doing it.

The proportion of British adults with antibodies has now risen to 94%, according to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics.

Among those aged 16-24, 80% had antibodies – a rise of 13% in two weeks – thanks to a surge of cases in young people and the extension of the vaccine roll-out.

What the commentators said

What next?

Joe Biden made a “terrible error” when he announced that the US’s last 2,500 troops would leave by September, said William Hague in The Times. Apart from undermining the morale of government troops, it left Afghan negotiators without any leverage at the stalled peace talks in Doha. With disaster looming, Afghans have every right to “feel betrayed”. To make amends, the least Washington should now do is allow US air strikes and special forces operations to continue after this month’s pull-out deadline has elapsed. Catastrophe is not quite inevitable, said Robert Fox on Reaction.life. Afghan national security forces far outnumber those of the Taliban; they have far better, Western-made weapons; they still control key cities. Kabul will probably be able to hold out for this “fighting season”. And even if the Taliban does succeed in taking it, the militants may lack the manpower to hold down a hostile population: polls suggest 80% of Afghans oppose a return to Taliban rule and its “Stone Age” ways.

The Taliban is poised to take Lashkar Gah: all but one district is now in insurgent hands. The US is set to take in 20,000 Afghan refugees liable to be targeted on account of their involvement in the 20-year war. Washington has accused Iran, Russia and Pakistan of lending support to the insurgents. Pakistan rejects the US charge, and says a border fence to stop Taliban attacks is near completion.

Instability now threatens the whole region, said Najib Sharifi on Al Jazeera. Militants, jubilant at what they see as the defeat of the “strongest global power”, will establish bases in Afghanistan from which to launch international operations. Pakistan could face an uprising by its own emboldened Taliban; in Iran there is unease at the prospect of a hard-line Sunni regime on its doorstep. And new players – notably China – will move into the power vacuum left by the US, said Paul Rogers on Open Democracy. Last week Taliban leaders visited Beijing for talks in which both sides had much to gain. Afghanistan has “formidable mineral reserves” which a Taliban government could exploit with the aid of Chinese investment. As well as getting its hands on valuable copper, lithium and rare earth elements, China could gain a new route to Iran and to Pakistan (where it part-owns the vast new port of Gwadar). Washington recently expressed hope that China could be a stabilising force in Afghanistan. Instead, its hold over the Taliban could prove “yet another toxic outcome” of a “disastrous two-decade war”.

THE WEEK

While much recent news has been concerned with such matters as the fate of the amber watch list, competitive BMXing, and whether or not you should rinse dishes before placing them in the dishwasher, a significant milestone has been passed, largely unnoticed: scientists have finally deciphered the entire human genome. Nearly 70 years ago, James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the double-helix structure of DNA. About 20 years ago, the Human Genome Project mapped out almost all the three billion or so base pairs – “letters” that spell out the genetic code – in our DNA. The decoding of the human genome was declared complete in 2000 (and again in 2003), but it wasn’t: about 8% of it was missing, mysterious regions that were impossible to read with the technology of the day. Over recent weeks, a group of 99 scientists have quietly rectified that, publishing a series of papers that filled in gaps and corrected errors, discovering more than 100 new genes that may be functional – and concluding with confidence that the human genome is 3.055 billion base pairs long.

One of the team, Nicolas Altemose, of the University of California, Berkeley, compared the newly mapped genome to close-up images of Pluto from a space probe: “You could see every crater, you could see every colour, from something that we only had the blurriest understanding of before,” he said. It’s a nice image, but it understates the achievement. This inward journey of Theo Tait discovery into the book of life is far more significant.

Subscriptions: 0330-333 9494; subscriptions@theweek.co.uk © Dennis Publishing Limited 2021. All rights reserved.

The Week is a registered trademark. Neither the whole of this publication nor any part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publishers

Britain and the US claim the Taliban is guilty of war crimes. Scores of officials are alleged to have been killed when the town of Spin Boldak on the Pakistan border fell to the rebels.

Editor-in-chief: Caroline Law Editor: Theo Tait Deputy editor: Harry Nicolle Consultant editor: Jenny McCartney City editor: Jane Lewis Assistant editor: Robin de Peyer Contributing editors: Simon Wilson, Rob McLuhan, Catherine Heaney, Digby Warde-Aldam, Tom Yarwood, William Skidelsky Editorial staff: Anoushka Petit, Tigger Ridgwell, Aine O’Connor, Georgia Heneage, Léonie Chao-Fong Picture editor: Xandie Nutting Art director: Nathalie Fowler Sub-editor: Monisha Rajesh Production editor: Alanna O’Connell Editorial chairman and co-founder: Jeremy O’Grady Production Manager: Maaya Mistry Production Executive: Sophie Griffin Newstrade Director: David Barker Marketing Director (Current Affairs): Lucy Davis Account Manager/Inserts: Jack Reader Account Director/ Inserts: Abdul Ahad Classified: Henry Haselock Account Directors: Jonathan Claxton, Joe Teal, Hattie White Advertising Manager: Carly Activille Group Advertising Director: Caroline Fenner Founder: Jolyon Connell Chief Executive, The Week: Kerin O’Connor Chief Executive: James Tye Dennis Publishing founder: Felix Dennis THE WEEK Ltd, a subsidiary of Dennis, 31-32 Alfred Place, London WC1E 7DP. Tel: 020-3890 3890 Editorial: 020-3890 3787 Email: editorialadmin@theweek.co.uk

7 August 2021 THE WEEK

Politics

8 NEWS Controversy of the week

“Access capitalism” “Is the UK’s democracy for sale,” asked the Financial Times.

Reporters from this newspaper have revealed the existence of a “select coterie of financiers and grandees” who belong to an invitation-only club known as the Advisory Board – and who enjoy frequent, direct access to Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak.

The price of membership? Big donations to the Conservative Party, some as high as £250,000. What they discuss with ministers is not minuted. “The very existence of the board is not documented.” It exists in “a shadowy world of privileged access”. Orchestrating it all is the Tory party co-chairman Ben Elliot, the founder of Quintessentially, a “concierge service” that caters to the super-rich: it secures restaurant reservations and society invitations; it advises on the best schools; it has even sourced “albino peacocks” for a Jennifer Lopez party.

Well-connected: Elliot with the PM That’s fine in business; but “allowing wealth to facilitate access” should not happen in government. Property developers, for instance, have paid £18m into Tory coffers since 2019. With major planning reforms in the works, that’s a clear conflict of interest.

Elliot is certainly well connected, said Robert Mendick in The Daily Telegraph: colleagues call him “Mr Access All Areas”. He’s the nephew of the Duchess of Cornwall and, by marriage, the Prince of Wales. It recently emerged that he arranged for a telecoms multimillionaire and philanthropist called Mohamed Amersi – a Quintessentially client – to have dinner with Prince Charles at Dumfries House in Scotland in 2013. Amersi later donated £1.2m to Prince Charles’s charities, and has given £750,000 to the Tory party. Amersi’s meeting with Charles has caused a minor furore, said Sean O’Grady in The Independent. But should we really care if “social-climbing plutocrats” meet the heir to the throne? Yes, they might try to arrange favours in return for donating to the Prince’s charities.

But they’d be disappointed: Prince Charles has no real power and “very little influence”. Come to that, there’s nothing wrong with donating to a political party, said Daniel Hannan on Conservative Home – or with being a property developer. We know about these donations because they were duly registered with the Electoral Commission. There’s nothing furtive or “sinister” about them.

I disagree, said Sean O’Neill in The Times. Amersi used the euphemism “access capitalism” to describe how his wealth opened doors, allowing him to “wine and dine with the Prime Minister”.

This case came soon after a report describing how the disgraced financier Lex Greensill had enjoyed “extraordinarily privileged” access to David Cameron’s government. And we have heard how friends and associates of MPs were able to wangle lucrative PPE contracts. If this was happening in Iraq, Zimbabwe or Venezuela, we’d call it what it is: corruption. “The easy access to power granted to those with the fattest wallets is having a corrosive effect on trust in government and public life.”

Spirit of the age It’s confirmed: British dog lovers have gone mad for cavapoos during the pandemic. The dogs, a cross between Cavalier King Charles spaniels and poodles, are the most sought after puppy breed, as judged by the number of visitors to adverts on the website Pets4Homes.

However, the website reports that overall demand for puppies, which soared in the lockdowns, is waning, as people start to return to work. The average price for a dog is now £1,873, down from £2,237 in March.

Cat lovers, meanwhile, can download a new app which will tell them whether their pet is happy. The app, named Tably, analyses ear and head position, eyenarrowing, muzzle tension and whisker arrangement, to detect distress.

THE WEEK 7 August 2021

Good week for:

Sky Brown, who became Britain’s youngest ever Olympic medallist. The 13-year-old won bronze in the women’s park skateboarding event.

Sarah Gilbert, the co-creator the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, who has been immortalised as a Barbie doll. The scientist said that she found the honour “very strange”, but that she hoped the doll would encourage girls to consider careers in the sciences.

Dubbed “vaccine Barbie”, the doll has long auburn hair, and wears a black trouser suit with a white shirt.

Boris and Carrie Johnson, who are expecting their second child. In a post on Instagram, she revealed that she had had a miscarriage in January, which had left her “heartbroken”, but that she was “blessed” to be pregnant again. She said the “rainbow baby” was due at Christmas. The term refers to a baby born after a miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal death.

Bad week for:

The Hay Festival, with the resignation of its co-founder and director. Peter Florence, who had run the festival since its launch in 1988, stepped down after an independent inquiry upheld a bullying allegation against him, a finding that was then unanimously endorsed by the board.

Thatched cottages, which are at risk of disappearing within the next 20 years, owing to a dire shortage of the right kind of straw.

According to Historic England, there are now so few farms growing long-stemmed winter wheat that it could become impossible for thatchers to renew thatched roofs.

Scotland’s Covid rules

Almost all of Scotland’s remaining Covid restrictions will be lifted next week, Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed. From Monday, rules limiting the number of people who can meet up inside will be dropped, along with social distancing measures in venues such as pubs and restaurants.

However, the wearing of face coverings will remain mandatory in some public spaces, including buses and secondary schools. The First Minister said the country was able to move beyond Level 0, owing to the success of the vaccine programme, but warned that Covid still poses “challenges” and that restrictions could be reimposed if cases rise again in the winter.

Impact of Delta variant

People who are double jabbed now have only a 59% protection against symptomatic infection with Covid-19, down from 83% earlier this summer, and an overall protection of 49%, according to the latest React survey. Experts say the decline in efficacy is mainly down to the dominance of the Delta variant, which now makes up 99% of cases in the UK. However, vaccination still offers very high protection (of 90% or more) against hospitalisation and death.

Poll watch Just 35% of voters in “blue wall” constituencies in the east and southeast of England think that Boris Johnson is the best person to be PM, while 31% back Labour leader Keir Starmer.

Overall, 44% of voters in those areas would vote Conservative now, down from 52% in 2019. Support for Labour has risen four points, to 24%. The YouGov poll for The Times suggests that the Tories would lose up to 16 seats, were an election held tomorrow.

According to a separate survey published by Conservative Home, Johnson’s rating among party members has fallen 36 points in four weeks.

His net satisfaction rating is now 3.4; by contrast, the Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s is 74. Gavin Williamson is the least popular minister, with a net rating of minus 44.

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

Valletta State to blame: A public inquiry into the murder of the investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017 has concluded that the Maltese state was ultimately responsible for her death.

Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb which prosecutors suspect was orchestrated by Yorgen Fenech, a businessman with ties to senior government officials.

One man has admitted carrying out the attack; Fenech and two other suspects are awaiting trial. In their report, the retired and serving judges on the inquiry panel said they’d found no proof of direct government involvement in the murder.

However, they concluded that the state must “shoulder responsibility for the assassination. It created an atmosphere of impunity, generated from the highest echelons of the administration... like an octopus, the tentacles spread to other institutions, such as the police and regulatory authorities, leading to a collapse in the rule of law.”

NEWS 9

Minsk Athlete flees: The US government has accused Belarus of “transnational repression” for trying to force an athlete home from the Tokyo Olympics. Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, 24, said she was bundled out of the Olympic Village and taken to Tokyo airport after criticising the team’s coaches. Fearful for her safety, she sought help from the Japanese police, and was then granted a humanitarian visa by the Polish government. She had been due to fly directly to Warsaw, but at the last minute, she was reportedly advised to fly to Vienna instead, for her own safety. Separately, a Belarusian dissident was found hanged in a park in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. Vitaly Shishov, 26, led an organisation that helps Belarusians flee repression at home.

Paris Covid protests: Plans to make access to public spaces conditional on Covid health passes have provoked more angry protests in countries across Europe. In France, more than 200,000 people took part in a string of demonstrations against new rules that will require over-18s to show a “health pass”, proving that they are either vaccinated against Covid, or have tested negative for it, to enter restaurants, museums and sports centres, and to use long-distance public transport. In Italy, some 80,000 people demonstrated in various cities against a similar “Green Pass” scheme. It must be shown by anyone over 12 to enter many indoor spaces, including restaurants, and the government has said it might extend its use to schools and offices. In Berlin, 600 people were arrested for allegedly taking part in banned demonstrations against Covid-19 restrictions, and defying distancing rules.

Port de la Gléré, France British hiker: DNA analysis has confirmed that a human bone, found on a mountain pass in the Pyrénées last week, belonged to Esther Dingley, the British hiker who went missing in November. A mountain runner found the skull near the Port de la Gléré pass. The area is close to the Pic de Sauvegarde mountain from where Dingley, 37, was last in touch with her boyfriend, and is the route she’d planned to take. An experienced hiker who had been touring Europe with her partner since 2014, she was exploring the mountains solo at the time of her disappearance. Captain Jean-Marc Bordinaro, head of the local police, said the most plausible explanation was that she had fallen. However, the police stressed that their inquiry was ongoing, and that foul play had not been ruled out. Dingley’s kit has not been found, nor have the rest of her remains, which may have been moved by animals.

Catch up with daily news at theweek.co.uk

Bodrum, Turkey Heatwave and fires: Wildfires were raging along the southern coast of Turkey this week (pictured), as the country was gripped by a heatwave that has seen temperatures rise to a record 49°C. At least eight people have been killed by the fires, which have destroyed homes, agricultural land and swathes of pine forest; and this week, thousands of people, including tourists, had to be evacuated by boat from coastal resorts including Bodrum.

Turkey’s interior minister, Süleyman Soylu, said human “carelessness” was to blame for some of the fires, but also claimed – without offering any evidence – that others had been started deliberately by Kurdish separatists.

Greece, which is also suffering its most extreme heatwave in decades, recorded its hottest-ever temperature this week: 46.3°C (115.3F), in the central Phthiotis region.

Parts of Athens were this week blanketed by smoke from a wildfire that had reached residential areas just north of the capital, forcing many householders to flee, and there were fears that the country’s electricity grid was on the brink of collapse. Fire services were also battling blazes in parts of Spain and Italy. In Sicily, a beach resort in Catania was destroyed by one of several wildfires on the island. In northern Italy, the towns around Lake Como were engulfed by torrential rains and landslides.

7 August 2021 THE WEEK

10 NEWS

The world at a glance

Washington DC Summer surge: At least 70% of US adults have now received at least one Covid-19 vaccination, a milestone President Biden originally hoped to achieve by 4 July. Nevertheless, the US is experiencing a surge in cases of Covid-19: numbers have jumped about five-fold over the past month, to more than 80,000 a day (on average). The case rate is higher than during the surge last summer, when no one was vaccinated. However, deaths have risen far more slowly, to around 300 a day (about a tenth of the US peak in January). Health officials have characterised the surge as a “pandemic of the unvaccinated”: almost all hospitalisations and deaths are now among those who have not been jabbed. In the hotspot of Florida, which accounts for one in five cases, a record number of people (around 11,500) are in hospital with Covid, and officials say they are seeing a “horrifying” number of cases in younger patients, including teenagers.

Washington DC Trump tax fight: The US Department of Justice has ordered the IRS to hand Donald Trump’s tax returns over to a Congressional committee investigating possible conflicts of interest and whether presidential tax returns are being properly audited. The ruling follows a long fight by Trump (unprecedented among US presidents in the modern era) to keep his tax records private. And within days of the order, one of his lawyers had vowed to fight it in court, “tooth and nail”. Even if the returns are handed to Congress, they may not become public; that would require a further vote by the Ways and Means Committee. In an earlier blow to Trump, the Department of Justice released memos revealing that he’d told the acting attorney general to back his false claim that the 2020 election had been “stolen” from him.

“Just say that the election was corrupt [and] leave the rest to me and the [Republican] congressmen,” he told Jeffrey Rosen.

Washington DC Harris “underwater”: More Americans now disapprove than approve of Kamala Harris’s performance as vice-president – making her the most unpopular VP, six months after taking office, since the 1970s. The deficit is only a couple of percentage points, but she is the only VP to be “underwater” with voters at this stage. Tasked with tackling immigration and border control, Harris alienated some Hispanic voters by urging people from Central America not to come to the US; and angered some other voters by being slow to visit the border. Some Democrats had seen Harris – the first woman and first person of colour to become VP – as a strong presidential candidate should Biden serve only one term. Her lack of popularity, including among younger voters, creates a strategic headache for the party.

Port-au-Prince Judge flees: A Haitian judge and two court clerks who collected evidence for the investigation into the murder of President Jovenel Moïse last month have gone into hiding after receiving death threats. In a complaint to the prosecutors office, they said they had received visits and calls from unknown parties who told them to modify witness statements, or “expect a bullet in the head”. In the weeks since Moïse was assassinated by armed men who stormed his residence, 44 people have been arrested, including 18 retired Colombian commandos who are suspected of carrying out the attack, and several security officials who were responsible for protecting the president. However, none have been charged, and no motive for the murder has been established. Last week, Moïse’s widow, Martine, said she believed that only Haitian “oligarchs and the system” could have orchestrated the attack.

Managua More sanctions: The EU has imposed economic and travel sanctions on Nicaragua’s vice-president, Rosario Murillo – the wife of its president, Daniel Ortega – and seven other officials. It holds them responsible for “serious human rights violations in Nicaragua” and/or the undermining of “democracy or the rule of law”. Since early June, Ortega’s authoritarian left-wing government has ordered the arrest of at least 20 opposition leaders, and his ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) party has now confirmed that the president, 75, will seek a fourth consecutive term in elections due in November, with Murillo standing again as his running mate. Murillo, 70, is an exceptionally powerful vice-president: she serves as her husband’s de facto chief of staff, policy chief and main spokesperson. In recent weeks, she has fiercely defended his government’s suppression of dissent.

THE WEEK 7 August 2021

Lima Shock appointment: A day after being sworn in as Peru’s president last week, Pedro Castillo stunned the country by appointing a hard-line Marxist, Guido Bellido, as PM. A former teacher, Castillo had pledged to be a champion of his “peasant sisters and brothers”. However, he had been expected to tack to the centre following his narrow electoral victory over the hard-right Keiko Fujimori. On Saturday, crowds marched through Lima to protest against his appointment of Bellido, a sympathiser of the Maoist Shining Path group, which killed tens of thousands of Peruvians in the 1980s and 1990s. Peru’s stock market slumped on news of his appointment, but was steadied by the naming of Pedro Francke, a more moderate economist, as finance minister.

The world at a glance Deraa, Syria Renewed fighting: The Assad regime launched a major offensive in the southern city of Deraa last week, in an effort to crush a new uprising in the former opposition stronghold. Hundreds of troops and tanks have been deployed to the area, and relief agencies say 2,000 families have fled their homes to escape the fighting. The government regained control of Deraa – where the revolt against Bashar al-Assad’s regime began in 2011 – three years ago, but under the terms of a Russian-brokered deal the army did not enter the town, and instead of being bussed out, the rebels were recruited to help drive away Islamic State.

An uneasy peace in the city began to crumble in May, when residents boycotted the government’s sham general election, and regime soldiers responded by blocking roads and turning off water supplies.

Gulf of Oman Drone strike: Israel, the US and the UK have accused Iran of using an armed drone to attack an oil tanker off the coast of Oman. Two crew, one British, the other Romanian, were killed in the strike on the Mercer Street, a Liberian-flagged tanker managed by an Israeli firm. Israel’s PM, Naftali Bennett, said Israel had evidence that Iran was behind the attack, and described Tehran as “very cowardly” for denying it. Days later, a group of armed men boarded a second vessel as it entered the Gulf of Oman, and reportedly ordered it to sail to Iran. However, the suspected hijackers left the ship – identified as a Panama-flagged asphalt tanker – a few hours later. These incidents are unfolding against the backdrop of fraught talks in Vienna, aimed at resurrecting the 2015 deal curbing Iran’s nuclear programme.

NEWS 11

Naypyidaw Military PM: Myanmar’s military leader has declared himself PM, and extended military rule until August 2023.

When the army ousted Aung San Suu Kyi in February, it said emergency rule would last only a year. In an address last week, General Min Aung Hlaing vowed that multi-party elections would still be held, but denounced the ruling party he ousted, and its supporters, as “terrorists and extremists”. He also accused anti-coup protesters of deliberately spreading Covid-19.

Tokyo Covid surge: Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has extended the coronavirus state of emergency covering parts of the country, including Tokyo, and warned that the country’s health system could collapse if infections continue to rise at their current rate.

Recorded daily cases are now above 10,000 in Japan for the first time during the pandemic.

The PM – who’d resisted intense pressure to cancel the Tokyo Olympics – rejected claims that the Games were to blame for the surge.

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Vaccine U-turn: Tanzania has launched a Covid vaccination scheme, five months after the death of its Coviddenying president. Despite having a PhD in chemistry, John Magufuli claimed that Covid-19 posed no threat to Tanzanians.

He claimed it could be treated with herbal remedies and prayer, and rejected vaccines (although the country had high vaccine rates for other diseases). He died in March, officially of “heart problems”, but reportedly of Covid. His successor, Samia Suluhu Hassan, kicked off the drive last week by receiving a jab live on TV. She said that as a mother and grandmother – as well as “president and commander-inchief” – she had a duty to stay alive, and urged all Tanzanians to follow suit.

Hong Kong Singer held: A Hong Kong pop star has been charged with violating campaign laws for performing at a rally for a pro-democracy candidate in 2018. Anthony Wong Yiu-ming (pictured), 59, has been charged under a law that prohibits the provision of refreshments or entertainment to potential voters. The politician he was supporting has also been charged. Last week, a former waiter became the first person to be jailed under Hong Kong’s Beijing-imposed anti-sedition law. Tong Ying-kit got nine years for crashing his motorbike into police while holding a banned protest flag.

Canberra Still closed: Australia will start reopening its borders only when 80% of adults are fully vaccinated, PM Scott Morrison has announced. The vaccination roll-outs in both Australia and New Zealand have been relatively sluggish. Morrison said he hoped that 70% of adults would be double-jabbed “by the end of the year” (up from 16% now), but said the “timelines are now in the hands of all Australians”.

In New Zealand, fewer than 15% of over-16s are fully jabbed, and PM Jacinda Ardern has yet to announce a plan for reopening her country’s borders.

7 August 2021 THE WEEK

People

12 NEWS Ronson on Winehouse Mark Ronson met Amy Winehouse in 2007, when he was asked to produce her hit album Back to Black – and he adored her from the start. “It was an instant familiarity,” he says. “I just loved being in her presence. She was just so funny.” The pair remained firm friends – though they had some “ups and downs” before Winehouse’s death in 2011, aged 27, after years of spiralling substance abuse.

Inevitably, he regrets that he didn’t do more to help her. “I wish I’d been a little bit more upfront or confrontational about [her addiction],” he told Elle Hunt in The Guardian. But he reserves special contempt for paparazzi he used to see camped outside her home.

“She would wave to them, occasionally bring them out food,” he says. “At first I was like: ‘This is just like a pantomime; you both understand what this is.’ Then I was like: ‘No: this is f***ing horrible and disgusting.’ I know people have to make a living – but I hated a lot of those people.”

An actor’s pandemic A former Royal Ballet star who became a West End leading man, Adam Cooper has had a stellar 25-year career. But his CV didn’t shield him from the impact of the pandemic. The 50-year-old – who made his name in Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake in the 1990s – was expecting a “bumper year” in 2020: he was due to star in Singin’ in the Rain in London and Japan, and to direct two

projects in Germany. Instead, he ended up applying for universal credit because he didn’t qualify for government support when theatres closed.

“I tried to get a job as a delivery driver – I tried four or five companies,” he told Debra Craine in The Times.

“Nothing. So many people wanted to be delivery drivers.”

Now, he’s finally returning to the stage – and curtain up can’t come soon enough. “That first performance will be incredibly emotional. I can’t actually wait to feel that electricity again.”

The weirdness of LA Since making his name in 1987’s cult classic Withnail and I, Richard E. Grant has spent long periods working in Hollywood. But he has never made LA his home. “I don’t have the mental furniture or strength to live there full-time,” he told Fiona Sturges in the FT. “I am too given to paranoia, because every relationship there, in my experience, is predicated on your fame-ometer, and I don’t think that’s an entirely healthy way to live your life.” He recalls an occasion in the 1990s, when he was working with Francis Ford Coppola on Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and was asked to go and have his teeth cleaned.

“Just as the dentist was getting to work, he said, ‘Oh, you’re working for Coppola. Well, I’ve got a sequel to The Godfather.’ And he pulled out a script from his drawer to show me while my mouth was still open. That wouldn’t happen in any other city.”

Castaway of the week This week’s edition of Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs featured the lawyer Nazir Afzal 1 Jump Around by Lawrence Muggerud, Erik Schrody, Earl Nelson and Bobby Relf, performed by House of Pain 2* This Woman’s Work, written and performed by Kate Bush 3 Why Should I Cry For You? written and performed by Sting 4 One In Ten, written and performed by UB40 5 Set You Free (Voodoo & Serano Remix) by Dale Longworth and Kevin O’Toole, performed by N-Trance 6 Woman in Chains by Roland Orzabal, performed by Tears For Fears featuring Oleta Adams 7 One by U2, performed by Mary J. Blige & U2 8 Talkin’ Bout A Revolution, written and performed by Tracy Chapman

Book: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee * Choice if allowed only one record Luxury: an acoustic guitar

THE WEEK 7 August 2021

Team GB’s Dina Asher-Smith is one of the fastest women in the world: an elite 100m and 200m sprinter who’s been winning medals since she was old enough to drive. And although her hopes of an Olympic medal in Tokyo this year were dashed by a pre-existing injury, she had done everything in her power to prepare for the Games – even to the extent of factoring in her menstrual cycle. “Oh my God, I started planning for my periods back in January,” she told Tom Lamont in The Observer. It’s not the same for everyone, she says. Some of her friends in athletics don’t have to think about it. “And some are, like, ‘Arrrrgh! Noooo! Not today!’ Their bodies aren’t as regular. They’re, like, ‘Why now? When I’m wearing white?’ For them, periods can be make or break.” Asher-Smith, 25, falls somewhere in the middle: she’s not been left doubled over in pain before a race; but her performances do suffer, from her period’s physical effects and the insomnia that often accompanies it. “Every major injury I’ve ever had has been on my period. The hormone levels in your body change. Your ligaments change. Your lower back’s sore, which means it pulls on your hamstrings more, and for a sprinter our hamstrings are our bread and butter. It’s not only your moves that are different. You make decisions that normally you just would not make.”

Viewpoint:

Olympic parents “Resilience. Endurance. Everywhere you look in the GB Olympic team you will witness just what it takes to perform at the highest level. But I’m not talking about the participants. It’s the parents who deserve the medals. The kids just have to run, swim or cycle really fast.

The real credit should go to the mothers who put their careers on hold and the fathers who rise before dawn to drive their offspring to training. To allow silver-medal-winner Lauren Williams to join the Olympic taekwondo team in Manchester, her mother Tanya quit her job and lived with her in a caravan for 18 months. Like the stars of track and field, Olympic parents are born not made, and I hail their greatness.”

Judith Woods in The Daily Telegraph

Farewell Steven Weinberg, groundbreaking physicist and winner of the 1979 Nobel Prize, died 23 July, aged 88.

Eric Carter, RAF pilot who fought in a top-secret mission to defend Murmansk, died 26 July, aged 101.

Joey (Nathan Jonas) Jordison, drummer and songwriter with the heavy metal band Slipknot, died 26 July, aged 46.

Mo Hayder, bestselling crime and thriller author, died 27 July, aged 59.

We strive to discover more.

Aberdeen Standard’s Asian Investment Trusts When you invest halfway around the world, it’s good to know someone is there aiming to locate what the ey believe to be the best investments.

At Aberdeen Standard Investments we get to know companies first hand. From Thailand to Singapore, from China to India to Japan, we’re constantly analysing and talking to companies to understand their future e.

To steer your portfolio in the right direction, be with h the fund manager who aims to discover more in Asia.

Please remember, the value of shares and the incom me from them can go down as well as up and you may get back less than the amount invested. Asian fundss invest in emerging markets which may carry more risk than developed markets.

Request a brochure: 0808 500 4000 invtrusts.co.uk/asia

Issued by Aberdeen Asset Managers Limited, registered in Scotland (SC108419) at 10 Queen’s Terrace, Aberdeen, AB10 1XL, authorised and regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority. Please quote 2645.

Briefing

NEWS 15

The state of England’s rivers

How bad is the problem of pollution in our waterways? And what is being done about it?

Why is this in the news now?

Mark Lloyd, chief executive of The In July, a record £90m fine was given to Rivers Trust. On the Windrush, for Southern Water – following the largest instance, campaigners say the water criminal investigation in the Environment upstream of one sewage outlet is mostly Agency’s 25-year history. The water clear and healthy; downstream it is company had pleaded guilty to 51 cloudy and polluted with human waste, pollution offences, and to spilling 16-21 E. coli, domestic cleaning products, billion litres of untreated sewage into the hormones and many other contaminants. coastal waters and waterways of Kent, Sussex and Hampshire between 2010 Why do these discharges happen?

“Combined sewage overflows” are and 2015. But the state of Britain’s rivers, and particularly of England’s rivers, has meant to discharge only during spells been a matter of concern for years. The of heavy rainfall, to stop sewage backing River Wye, on the border of England up into streets and homes. But England’s and Wales, has seen rising levels of algal ageing sewerage network is struggling blooms and declining levels of fish life; to cope. The water companies do face its once-clear gravel bottom is now, in genuine difficulties, because the growing many places, coated in green slime. population and the increasing frequency of heavy rainfall are putting more stress Campaigners say the River Windrush in Under threat: the Wye in Gloucestershire Oxfordshire is “literally dying” because on their systems, and the alternatives, such as installing extra storm tank storage or building new of pollution. On the River Wharfe, Yorkshire Water has been routinely discharging human waste upstream of a popular bathing sewers, are costly; in London, the Tideway, a vast £4.1bn spot. There are also fears that England’s chalk streams, one of the additional sewer, is being built to capture overflows. The UK world’s rarest habitats, could be irreparably damaged. water industry has already invested £30bn in environmental work over 30 years. But environmentalists argue that that isn’t nearly How bad is the problem? enough; and that the water companies save themselves money by Very. Figures published last year by the Environment Agency (EA) using sewage overflows routinely, not just in emergencies. revealed that just 14% of English rivers are classed as being in “good ecological health” under the EU’s Water Framework Why isn’t the pollution stopped?

Directive (which has been retained post-Brexit). These were among Since 2010, the EA’s enforcement funding has been cut by nearly the worst figures in Europe. In Scotland, by contrast, 65.7% of two-thirds, from £120m to just £43m. In a letter obtained under rivers were classed as in good health, and in Wales 64%. For the Freedom of Information laws, the EA chair Emma Howard Boyd first time, none of the 4,600 English rivers, lakes and waterways told George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, that this “has assessed by the EA achieved “good chemical status”. forced us to reduce or stop work it used to fund, with real-world impacts (e.g. on our ability to protect water quality) for which we and the Government are now facing mounting criticism”. Across Why is it happening?

Toxic run-off from cities, oil spills and fly-tipping all contribute England’s 106,000 farms, the EA cut inspections by two-thirds, to pollution. However, the two main sources are agriculture and down from 905 in 2014-15 to 308 in 2019-20. At that rate, the average farm can expect to be inspected once every 344 years. water companies. Pesticides, fungicides and fertilisers used in farming, along with animal slurry, all run off the land and into waterways. These have direct toxic effects, as well as creating high Will things get better?

The EA insists that, in some respects, they already have: England’s levels of phosphates and nitrates in the water, leading to excessive rivers are the cleanest they’ve been since the Industrial Revolution, growth of algae – choking river channels and damaging the habitat of other plants, fish and with pollutants such as ammonia, animals. In the Wye river catchment mercury and cadmium greatly The rise of the wild swimmer reduced over recent decades. But the area, for instance, it is thought that Swimming outdoors has been a popular British an increase in the number of intensive pastime for centuries. Only recently was the term “wild EA’s chief executive James Bevan also chicken farms has led to a damaging swimming” coined for it – in Roger Deakin’s 1999 book admits that “not everything is getting Waterlog, a record of his quixotic quest to swim increase in the amount of phosphates better, and some things are getting through the British Isles, via its rivers, lochs, tarns, in the river. More shocking, though, worse”: notably “water pollution moats, aqueducts, even the “chocolate water” of its and arguably more easily avoidable, incidents” caused by farms and city canals.

Thanks in part to books like Deakin’s, and is the dumping of sewage directly in sewage companies. In theory, things the closure of public pools during the pandemic, it has rivers by water companies. ought to improve. The Government become a craze: searches for the term “wild swimming” increased by 94% between 2019 and 2020. is bound by the Water Framework How big an issue is sewage?

Directive to ensure that all waters Yet the polluted waterways of the UK can pose serious Water companies discharged raw reach good ecological status by 2027; health risks thanks to harmful bacteria such as E. coli, sewage into rivers and coastal waters salmonella and listeria, and – in rare cases – potentially last month it was announced that the in England no fewer than 400,000 number of EA inspectors targeting fatal diseases such as leptospirosis and hepatitis A. times last year, according to the EA. farmers who pollute rivers would be The wild swimmers, though, may turn out to be a powerful force for conservation. A stretch of the River Untreated effluent – including human trebled. But campaigners argue that Wharfe near Ilkley in Yorkshire last year became the waste, condoms and wet wipes – the 2027 target is too far away, and first in the UK to be given “bathing status”, forcing poured into rivers and seas for a that anyway it will be missed (it was Yorkshire Water and the EA to regularly monitor water first set for 2015, then 2021). In the total of 3.1 million hours via sewage quality and publish the results. From Port Meadow on overflow pipes. In 2019, raw sewage meantime, England’s rivers – home the Thames in Oxford to the River Almond in Lothian, was discharged for 1.5 million hours to a range of species such as trout, pushing for bathing water status is being seen as a into rivers alone. The regularity of salmon and kingfishers, and beloved way of driving clean-up campaigns. The Wharfe was these discharges means rivers face of walkers, swimmers and fishermen given its first designation in April: “poor quality”. “death by a thousand cuts”, said – continue to suffer grievously.

7 August 2021 THE WEEK

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

NEWS 17

Edinburgh Drug deaths record: Scotland registered a record 1,339 drugrelated fatalities last year. The figure is up 5% on the previous year; and represents the seventh annual increase in a row. At 25.2 per 100,000 people, Scotland’s drug fatality rate is the highest in Europe, and is now more than three-and-a-half times higher than the rest of the UK, though deaths from drug poisoning have also risen to a new high in England and Wales. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon acknowledged that the figure was “shameful”, but stressed that her government has pledged to spend an extra £250m to tackle the problem, including £100m which is earmarked for new beds in residential rehab clinics. The latest figures confirm a clear link between deprivation and drug deaths: the poorest areas recorded a death rate 18 times higher than the most affluent ones. Glasgow was the worst-affected city.

Belfast High street boost: Every adult in Northern Ireland is to be offered a £100 pre-paid card to spend in their local shops and restaurants as part of a £145m plan to revive high streets. The scheme, which launches in September, has been devised to give a boost to bricks and mortar businesses that have been badly affected by lockdown closures. The cards cannot be used online, and shoppers are being encouraged to support independent businesses in particular. More lavish “helicopter money” policies to stimulate the economy were introduced in the US last year, while voucher schemes are in operation in Jersey and Malta. Members of the public have been urged to register to vote, as applications for the High Street Scheme will be checked against the electoral register.

London Whitty assault: A man who assaulted Professor Chris Whitty in central London in June has been handed a suspended jail sentence. In a clip that went viral, Lewis Hughes, 24, was seen accosting England’s chief medical officer in St James’s Park and putting him in a headlock. Sentencing Hughes – who lost his job as an estate agent following the incident – Judge Goldspring said Whitty should be able to go about “his very difficult job” without being assaulted by “yobs”. A second man pleaded not guilty to the same charge of assault by beating and is due to go on trial in November.

London Holocaust memorial: Plans for a national Holocaust memorial and learning centre to be built in a small park next to the Palace of Westminster have been given the green light following a public inquiry. The proposed £100m memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens had the backing of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, among others, but had faced objections from some Jewish leaders and local campaign groups, who’d argued that the park was not an appropriate site for the centre. In giving the project the go-ahead, the housing ministry acknowledged that it would involve a “modest loss of open space and functionality” at Victoria Tower Gardens, but argued that the positives of the site, next to the seat of British democracy, outweighed the negatives.

Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire Tunnel quashed: The High Court has ruled that the Government’s decision to allow a road tunnel to be built near Stonehenge was unlawful. The £1.7bn project was designed to ease congestion on the A303 by creating a new eight-mile dual carriageway in the area, which would be sent underground for two miles around the Unesco World Heritage Site. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps had given it the go-ahead last November, overruling local planners, who’d warned that it would cause “substantial harm” to the site. Responding to a judicial review brought by a campaign group, the court found that in so doing, he “had not properly assessed the risk of harm to each heritage asset”, and had failed properly to consider alternatives.

Brighton, East Sussex Cat killer jailed: A security guard who stabbed nine cats to death in a series of night attacks around Brighton has been jailed for five years. Steve Bouquet, 54, dubbed “the Brighton cat killer”, had pleaded not guilty to 16 charges of criminal damage and one of possessing a knife. The court in Hove heard that his nine-month killing spree only ended when he was caught on a CCTV camera set up by the owners of one of his victims. His motives remain unclear.

7 August 2021 THE WEEK

18 NEWS

Best of the American columnists

Fires, floods and storms: “the permanent emergency has begun”

Apocalypse Right Now would be In fact, the scientists now wonder an apt title for it, said Maureen if their computer models of climate Dowd in The New York Times. change have been too conservative by an order of magnitude, said This summer of climate horror feels like the “first, vertiginous Andrew Freedman on Axios.com.

The Pacific Northwest heatwave 15 minutes of a disaster movie”.

It began with the hottest June in which killed almost 200 people recorded history: temperature and melted power lines in Portland, records were smashed not just Oregon with mind-blowing temperin hot spots like Death Valley atures of 46.6°C, was “so far from (54.4°C), but in such mild locales the norm”, it has led experts to as British Columbia (49.6°C) and re-evaluate what’s possible. For Seattle (42.2°C). That was followed example, one phenomenon climate by supercharged rain storms which models didn’t foresee is a “stuck” created massive flooding in central jet stream, which instead of moving Europe and China, turning streets weather around, locks in rain into raging rivers. And now we’ve storms, heatwaves, hurricanes and got forest fires ravaging Siberia Firefighters tackle the Bootleg Fire near Silver Lake, Oregon droughts for extended periods.

– Siberia, for heaven’s sake – Canada and the Pacific Northwest, where Oregon’s Bootleg Fire The outcomes of such a disaster has been made worse by climate change, said Ilan Kelman in The Washington Post, but the has so far consumed a staggering 400,000 acres of woodland, in a blaze so intense it has its own weather system – including disasters themselves have “more to do with humans carelessly lightning storms that start more fires. The inferno has also getting in nature’s way rather than with nature itself”. Natural created a continent-wide plume of smoke now reddening sunsets fires as well as prescribed burns are actually needed to cleanse forests of dry timber; the big human mistake is to build housing and making it hard to breathe as far away as New York. in woodsy fire zones. Cities need to build walls and new drainage tunnels to limit damage from surging rivers and rising Wildfires have long been a part of California’s forest environseas. And places like Portland need to set up cooling shelters to ment, said Gary Yohe on The Hill, but their extent and number has hugely increased in recent years. Nine of the ten largest have protect the elderly and vulnerable in heatwaves. occurred since 2012. The August Complex Fire which broke out “Adaptation” has long been a “dirty word” to eco-activists, said in August 2020 became the largest in California history, quickly followed by four more fires which became the third, fourth, fifth David Wallace-Wells on NYMag.com. They see it as surrendering the fight to decarbonise society and halt global warming. But and sixth largest: they were still blazing in October. And now the Dixie Fire raging in California could dwarf them all. The this summer’s “freakish showcases of climate horror” expose probability that this accelerated pattern of outbreaks is due to that as a false choice. Efforts to replace fossil fuels must accelerate dramatically, but it would be “criminal to fail to focus anything other than climate change is minuscule. That’s the one on managing climate change”, now that summer has become a consolation of this “catastrophic summer”, said Sofia Andrade mass-casualty event. People are already suffering and dying in on Slate. More and more people now perceive “the existential 47°C heat, biblical floods and decades-long droughts. We need threat the climate crisis poses”. The dire scenarios climate to help them. The “permanent emergency” has begun. scientists projected for 2030 or 2040 are “already here”.

Oh Lord, let Facebook hear our prayers Elizabeth Culliford Reuters

The cancer at the heart of our democracy Thomas Koenig National Review

THE WEEK 7 August 2021

First it changed our politics. Now Facebook is changing the face of religion, says Elizabeth Culliford.

It’s drawing churches and mosques into its orbit. Last month the tech giant held its first virtual faith summit, an event broadcast on Facebook Live: “heart emojis floated across the screen as religious leaders ministered to their congregations”. It has also instituted an Interfaith Advisory Council to hold regular meetings with faith groups, and set up its own internal “faith partnership” team headed

by Nona Jones, a pastor in Florida. On the tech side, one of its new initiatives is a prayer tool created, as Jones explains, “after we saw an increase in people asking each other for prayers during the pandemic”. It allows a user to request prayers for, say, a daughter’s broken heart or a son’s driving test, and for others to then click an “I prayed” button. The prayer posts will also be used to personalise ads on the platform. So does this spiritual side represent “the best of Facebook”, as chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg declared at the summit. Or is it just that there’s money in religion?

“Anytime Facebook rolls out something new,” as Simcha Fisher of a Catholic women’s Facebook group put it, “you know it’s because they’re hoping... to eventually sell you something, somehow”.

The US is at a crossroads, says Thomas Koenig. Tribalism is destroying what makes it exceptional.

The Founders were true intellectuals. They “thought, read and reasoned” their way to creating a constitution they hoped could lift the new nation out of the ethnic, religious and tribal rivalries that had so scarred Europe. “Let no girl, no gun, no cards, no flutes, no violins, no dress, no tobacco, no laziness, decoy you from your books,” as John Adams put it. In the first Federalist Paper in 1787, Alexander Hamilton wrote that we should govern ourselves through “reflection and choice” not “accident and force”. Of course we’ve often fallen short of the founding ideals; and of course those ideals were warped by the institution of slavery: but they nonetheless sparked a revolution in human affairs “that extends beyond our borders”. Yet today, mindless, venomous tribalism “runs rampant through our politics”. Partisanship is, of course, inevitable, but tribalism requires something more: unquestioning devotion to an in-group – “Us” – and a visceral loathing of “Them”. It comes from “a very old, unreflective part of the brain”: its primary reward is a sense of belonging. The failure of today’s Democrats and Republicans to rise above it, and debate with each other rationally and with basic respect, is deeply corrosive of democracy. Are we still “up to the task of self-government”?

Best articles: International

NEWS 19

Crackdown in Tunisia: the death of a young democracy?

They may have been cheered on by had survived. Unfortunately, instead of millions – but there’s no doubt that the freedom and prosperity they were the events that unfolded in Tunisia on promised, Tunisians have endured 25 July amounted to a “coup d’état”, years of “economic crisis” and “political paralysis”, said Nathalie said Nizar Bahloul in Business News Tocci in La Stampa (Turin). To make (Tunis). After widespread antigovernment protests over Tunisia’s matters worse, the health service has chaotic pandemic response and its buckled under the impact of Covid: shrinking economy, President Kais 20,000 people have died, out of a population of 12 million, and to date Saied invoked emergency powers under Article 80 of the constitution: a mere 8% have been fully vaccinated. the prime minister, Hichem Mechichi, was sacked; parliament was suspended Thousands of Tunisians poured into and ringed by military vehicles. Saied, the streets to cheer Saied’s suspension who was elected two years ago on an of parliament, where the moderate President Saied: “leading a coup d’état” Islamists of the Ennahda party hold the anti-establishment platform, then furthered the appearance of a coup by firing two ministers and most seats, said Al-Bayan (Dubai). Car horns honked, fireworks lengthening an existing curfew. Public gatherings of more than exploded and crowds chanted jubilantly. But I doubt the celebratory mood will last long, said Marwan Bishara on Al Jazeera three people were banned, and security forces raided the offices of Qatar-funded TV channel Al Jazeera. The upshot? “We are (Doha). Saied’s cynical use of the constitution to seize power, and his praise for Egypt’s dictatorship, suggests he plans to facing the real and immediate death of our young democracy.” “eliminate any oversight and all obstacles to his rule” in the coming months. The autocratic leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia Tunisia was once “the cradle of the Arab Spring”, said Tallha Abdulrazaq on TRT World (Istanbul). When protesters toppled and the United Arab Emirates have more to celebrate, said the country’s dictatorship in 2011, it set off an “unstoppable Claire Parker in The Washington Post. They never wanted the Arab Spring – or the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Ennahda – to wave” of fury against “corrupt, violent and oppressive rulers” in nations throughout the Arab world. Yet ten years on, Tunisia succeed. State media there have triumphantly hailed the events was the only one of those countries where genuine democracy in Tunisia as “the death knell for political Islam in democracy”.

ITALY

Our coffee is a national disgrace la Repubblica (Rome)

LEBANON

A wedding that shames Hezbollah Daraj (Beirut)

SWEDEN

The EU hasn’t the first idea about forestry Dagens Industri (Stockholm)

We Italians are proud of our espresso, says Massimiliano Tonelli. In contrast to the “undrinkable soup” served in places like France and Britain, we tell ourselves, our coffee is the best in the world.

Who are we kidding? In truth, our coffee is the most “mediocre” in the West. Why? Start with price.

We are wedded to the idea that a cup of coffee shouldn’t cost more than 80¢ – way below the s2 most Europeans pay. This encourages producers to buy poor-quality and unripe beans. As a result, we roast our beans black to “eliminate all defects” – but also all “merits”. Beans ought to be roasted to a light brown complexion, at which point they give off flavours ranging from the “juice of red fruits” to citrus notes, to the “fermented aromas of wine”. Our coffee, by contrast, tastes mostly of burnt beans and coal. This is why we automatically drink it with sugar. We must learn to be more discerning, as we have about other Italian specialties. Twenty years ago “a pizza was a pizza”; now we know every detail of the flour used and the “life, death and miracles of yeast”. If we really want espresso worth boasting about, we should start showing coffee beans the same respect.

Lebanon is in the grip of its worst peacetime economic crisis. Hyperinflation has sent food prices soaring; power outages and fuel and medicine shortages are common. Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Islamist group that helps rule Lebanon, has responded by urging supporters to “endure” the tough conditions until the country gets back on its feet. So images showing the lavish recent wedding of the daughter of Nawar al-Sahli, a former Hezbollah MP, have gone down like a bucket of cold sick with the Lebanese public, says Hazem El Amin. The opulent celebrations included fireworks and dazzling decorations; guests dined on salmon and truffles and enjoyed alcoholic drinks. The bride, meanwhile, appeared in a glamorous Western-style dress at odds with the conservative religious values preached by the “Party of God”. The photos of the celebrations have shattered the “fragile glass facade” of Hezbollah, which likes to present itself as an antidote to the corruption and double standards that plague Lebanese politics. Realising the scale of his gaffe, al-Sahli has now apologised and suspended himself from his party. But his remorse cannot alter the fact that Hezbollah is a crucial part of a “political class that lavishes wealth on its families and leaves its citizens to poverty and hunger”.

The EU has published plans to curb logging and the use of wood as an energy source, and to plant three billion trees in a drive to meet its ambitious climate targets. Sounds harmless, right? Wrong, says Tobias Wikström. For Sweden, where 70% of land is covered by woodland and where forestry accounts for 10% of all jobs, the plans could be “devastating”. The EU’s strategy breeds a “misunderstanding of forestry”. For starters, it views trees solely as a carbon sink that must stay untouched at all costs. Yet in reality, a responsibly managed forestry industry can help cut carbon emissions by providing alternatives to energy-intensive materials like concrete and steel in buildings, or plastic in packaging. The report also warns of a “worrying trend” towards deforestation; but in fact, forested areas are increasing in Europe and “more trees are planted than felled” in Sweden, where most forests are owned by those who are “long-term entrepreneurs” who understand the need to manage their resource sustainably. Alas, the European Commission seems determined to drive through its plans without interference from the EU parliament or member states. But unless it engages in serious dialogue with forest owners, it will soon find it has a fight on its hands.

7 August 2021 THE WEEK

Health & Science

NEWS 21

What the scientists are saying…

A camera to “see” for the blind

Wearing a chest-mounted camera could help visually impaired people move around independently, a study has found. Researchers tested the camera, which warns the wearer of obstacles by sending alerts to vibrating Bluetooth-connected wristbands, on 31 blind and partially sighted people.

They found that when the device was used in conjunction with a guide dog or long cane, it reduced collisions by 37%, compared to when a dog or cane was used on its own. “Although many blind individuals use long canes to detect obstacles, collision risks are not eliminated,” said Dr Gang Luo, an ophthalmologist who worked on the study. “We sought to develop and test a device that can augment these everyday mobility aids.” Around two million people in the UK are living with sight loss, 360,000 of whom are blind or partially sighted.

Sydney’s bin-diving parrots

A few years ago, residents of Sydney noticed that their wheelie bins were being raided by local sulphur-crested cockatoos, who had learnt how to open the lids.

Researchers investigated, and found that this behaviour was confined to birds living in just three suburbs; but within two years, the famously noisy parrots were opening wheelie bins in 44 suburbs – suggesting the technique was being observed and copied.

“It’s not popping up randomly in those 44 suburbs at the same time,” said Dr Barbara Klump, of the Max Planck Institute in Germany. “It’s following the geographical layout of the suburbs.” Since then, the team has been observing the birds, and found that only around 10% of them (mostly male) are able to open the bins – a multi-step manoeuvre that requires dexterity as well as strength. The rest wait

Research UK, it works by looking for a form of mutated DNA called cfDNA, which is known to be a tell-tale indicator of glioma tumours. In a small trial on patients who’d been identified as having a possible glioma, researchers found the tests could identify mutations in the tiny amounts of cfDNA detected in urine, and even more effectively in blood plasma.

Early diagnoses of brain tumours can be difficult, because people are often sent for MRI scans only once they have started to show neurological impairments.

Potentially, the test could one day be used to screen at-risk patients. It could also be used by GPs to monitor patients whose tumours are in remission, who otherwise have to have regular hospital-based scans to check if their cancer is returning.

A bird on a mission in Sydney

for the lid to be opened, and then dive in.

They also observed that birds in different suburbs had developed slightly different ways of getting into the bins – and that they had learnt to distinguish between the ones containing general waste, which have red lids, and the yellow recycling ones: 89% of the time, the birds opened the red bins. It is not clear how this behaviour arose, but the team speculate that the parrots may have become interested in the bins after finding ones that were overfull, or that had had their lids blown open.

“Those sorts of opportunistic foraging opportunities could actually have been a catalyst for birds to start exploring bins,” said co-author Dr John Martin of the Taronga Conservation Society.

A simple test for brain tumours

A urine test can be used to detect signs of a common type of brain tumour, scientists have found. Created by a team at Cancer

© BARBARA KLUMP/MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOR

Britain is becoming wetter and warmer

As swathes of the UK were braced for more downpours last week, the Met Office released a new report, showing that in the past 30 years, the country has become 0.9°C warmer and 6% wetter.

The State of the UK Climate report also notes that last year was the third warmest, fifth wettest and eighth sunniest since records began, making 2020 the first year to be in the top ten for all three variables.

“A lot of people think climate change is in the future – but this proves the climate is already changing here in the UK,” lead Cars battling floodwaters in London author Mike Kendon told the BBC. He also warned that it was “plausible” that UK temperatures will be regularly hitting 40°C by the 2040s – even if we continue to cut carbon emissions. The highest temperature recorded in the UK is 38.7°C, a reading taken in July 2019.

Changes to the climate are having a clear impact on wildlife, the report adds. Last February was the wettest on record, but the spring was the sunniest ever. As a result, plants opened earlier: the leaf dates for a range of common shrubs and trees were on average ten days earlier in 2020 than in the period from 1999 to 2019.

Rugby’s impact on brain health

Almost a quarter of elite rugby players show signs of possible brain damage, according to a new study. Researchers recruited 44 players from leading clubs, around half of whom had experienced mild injury, and used advanced brain imaging and analysis to compare their brains with those of non-contact athletes, and those of people who do not take part in sports. They found that 23% of the rugby players had changes to their brain’s white matter, the neuronal “wiring”.

These changes were observed in players who had had recent injuries, and those who hadn’t. But in the control groups, the changes were seen in only one person. The players seemed in good health, and it is not clear what effect – if any – the changes to their brains will have over time. However, the Rugby Football Union, which backed the study funded by the Drake Foundation, said it will support more research into head injuries and long-term brain health.

The case for booster jabs The protective antibodies generated by Covid vaccines can decline significantly in the weeks after the second jab, a new study has found – adding weight to the view that at least some people should have Covid boosters this autumn. A fall in antibodies was anticipated, reports The Guardian, and it does not necessarily make people more vulnerable to infection, as the immune system has other defences that are built up by vaccination – but if the levels continue to decline, it could make the vaccine less effective. In the study by the UCL Virus Watch team, the antibodies generated by two doses of the Oxford/ AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech jabs started to wane six weeks after the second jab. By ten weeks, they were down 50% in some cases. The NHS has been urged to prepare for an autumn booster programme, but no final decision about one has been made.

7 August 2021 THE WEEK

22 NEWS Pick of the week’s

Gossip

Princess Diana’s former private secretary Patrick Jephson is worried that Prince Harry’s forthcoming memoir will feature “asskickings on every page”.

It doesn’t help, he wrote in The Spectator, that both sides in the battle of the princes have armed themselves “to the teeth” with spin doctors and PR people.

“Long ago I concluded that the best way of handling royal PR would be to replace all the palace press officers with one slightly deaf octogenarian armed with a crackly phone line and lots of knitting. The result could hardly be any worse.”

The celebrity couple Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher have been telling the world about their shared disdain for excessive washing. “I don’t wash my body with soap,” Kunis told the Armchair Expert podcast.

“I wash my armpits and my crotch but nothing else, ever,” she said. Kutcher is also opposed to soap, and the couple seldom bathe their two young boys. “If you can see dirt on them, clean ‘em,” he said. “Otherwise there is no point.”

Prince Harry isn’t the only royal writing a book. Sarah Ferguson has co-written Her Heart for a Compass, a Mills & Boon novel about a“Titian-haired” Victorian beauty who is monstered by the press but triumphs in the end. In an interview before publication, she also opened up about the pain of not being invited to William and Kate’s 2011 wedding. “I didn’t think I was probably worthy to go to their wedding,” she said. “I took myself to Thailand, actually, to be far away from it so that I could try and heal.”

THE WEEK 7 August 2021

Talking points Simone Biles: was she courageous to quit?

Simone Biles was expected to Yet instead of lamenting her weakness, politicians and be the talk of the Olympics, owing to her “jaw-dropping others have queued up to congratulate her for her performances” in the run-up to the Games, said Jemele supposed “courage” in Hill in The Atlantic. Instead, prioritising her mental health. the US gymnast became the talk of the event for not It wasn’t only about her performing. Last week Biles, mental health, said Gaby who has four Olympic golds Hinsliff in The Guardian. Biles to her name, and who is often has confirmed that she’d been referred to as the GOAT – suffering from the “twisties” – a phenomenon in which Greatest of All Time – sensationally withdrew from gymnasts lose spatial awarethe team events, after botching ness mid-move, and which can The GOAT picking up her bronze a vault in the opening lead to serious injury. Given rotation. Commentators were all Biles has been through, it stunned. “She looked lost in the air,” said one. was not very surprising that she succumbed.

Biles later explained that the pressure had got to Elite athletes endure gruelling regimes (complaints of bullying are rife in gymnastics). her, and that she couldn’t carry on (though this week, she took bronze in the finals on the Female athletes may also have to contend with beam). “I have to focus on my mental health,” being objectified (consider the bizarre insistence she said. The news prompted an outpouring of on beach volleyball players wearing skimpy support, but also complaints that the 24-yearbikini bottoms), and even sexually exploited: Biles was one of the scores of young gymnasts old gymnast had “bottled it”. who were molested by the US squad’s doctor, Larry Nassar. She has suffered from severe That may sound harsh, but isn’t it what depression, and has endured vile racist abuse, happened, asked Hannah Gal on UnHerd.

Athletes are supposed to push themselves to all while under the intense pressure of being the GOAT. Countless young bodies and minds have the limit; that is why we watch the Olympics, been broken in pursuit of sporting excellence, to marvel at the sight of people reaching beyond said Rupert Hawksley in The Independent. what seems possible. By giving in to pressure, Biles let down her team and cast a “shadow Athletes will never stop pushing for gold. But if some have the courage to walk away, rather over the entire premise” of the Games. Her actions were self-centred, and showed a lack than sacrifice themselves on the altar of Olympic glory, we should salute them. of resilience that is typical of her generation.

The X Factor: farewell to the talent circus “Like a knackered old cruise certainly made for “great singer” finally facing the telly”, attracting 20 million inevitable, The X Factor has people on Saturday nights left the stage, said Rebecca at its peak in the noughties, Nicholson in The Guardian. said Amy Nickell in The The talent show hadn’t Independent. But it was, to actually been on air since a large extent, about laughing 2018, but its death knell was at people: to this day, “Worst officially sounded last week, X Factor auditions” easily with ITV’s confirmation that outperform “Best X Factor there are no plans to bring it auditions” on YouTube.

Live TV’s last hurrah back. In its heyday, the show And there was a human cost: – which ran for 14 years – was a “well-oiled vulnerable teenagers and people with mental machine for churning out pop stars and illnesses were exploited for entertainment, with Christmas No. 1s”. Its caustic creator and judge none of the safeguarding that even the most Simon Cowell was a pop “kingmaker” who gruesome reality TV shows offer today. used it to promote mega-acts such as One Direction and JLS. But the world has changed: It wasn’t just about humiliation, said Julie fans now “like to find music for themselves”, Burchill in The Spectator. The X Factor was one on TikTok or YouTube. of the few places where “a talented workingclass kid could make their voice heard – “The X Factor was the last moment where TV literally”. And it did feature some “breathtaking reigned supreme, and everyone had to share a performances” by such genuinely talented artists screen,” said Sean O’Neill in Vice. It could as Leona Lewis, Alexandra Burke and Little command the attention of the whole family – Mix. Yes, the desire to wring every last drop of of a vast range of different demographics. And emotion out of contestants’ stories grew cloying. it traded on a “moving idea”: that there were But “in its cheap and cheesy heyday”, the show “bona fide stars kicking about your sixth form, “communicated more about the human desire to or working on your dentist’s front desk, just aspire and achieve than any boring old quality waiting to be propelled into stardom”. It drama ever could”.

Talking points Climate change: hot air and empty rhetoric “There is nowhere to symbolic of our failure to hide from climate face up to the immense change,” said the New task ahead. Britain is Statesman. “Every day, meant to be leading by example, and it has set new evidence accumulates that humanity is on ambitious targets: to cut an unsustainable path.” emissions by 78% relative to 1990 levels by In China last month, unprecedented rainstorms 2035, and to reach “net forced the relocation of zero” by 2050. However, more than a million “it has yet to set out in people in Henan any detail how it province. In the US, proposes to achieve this”. smoke from massive Flooding in Henan province: the new normal?

The UK is often told that wildfires in California has spread as far afield as New York. In Germany, it is acting much too slowly on climate change, said Nick Timothy in The Daily Telegraph. Yet floods killed more than 150 people last month.

In London, flash floods submerged cars and since 1990, it has cut its carbon emissions at train stations. Temperatures are now 1.1-1.3°C almost twice the rate of the EU. China, higher than pre-industrial levels. The world may meanwhile, is opening a new coal-fired power have only a decade left to prevent them rising station at the rate of one a week. Even in by more than 1.5°C – the point at which the risk Germany, 24% of electricity still comes from coal; and a meeting of the G20 large economies of irreversible and catastrophic climate change “significantly increases”. So the UN Climate broke up last week without any deal to phase Change Conference in Glasgow in November, out coal. Does it really make sense for Britain, known as COP26, could hardly be coming at which generates 1% of global emissions, to a more crucial moment. impose big costs on taxpayers in order “to reach net zero before everybody else”? This is There are less than 100 days until COP26, said the problem with climate politics, said Philip The Times. “Yet Britain has spent the past week Stephens in the FT. They happen on the global debating whether it is necessary to rinse the stage, often completely removed from the “gritty dishes before putting them in the dishwasher.” local politics” that decide what actually gets Allegra Stratton, Boris Johnson’s COP26 done. The gap between the “soaring rhetoric” of spokeswoman, has suggested that such “microinternational conferences and “policy inaction at actions” can help to reduce greenhouse gas home” will have to be bridged, and soon. “Look emissions. This may be so, yet her advice seems at the weather.”

The Marble Arch Mound: a £2m folly It was meant to be an “iconic Street was facing an “identity crisis” as it filled up with landmark” that would entice shoppers back to London’s “tacky tourist shops”. As footfall plummeted last year, Oxford Street. Alas, Westminster Council’s it was further undermined by “Marble Arch Mound” didn’t the closure of flagship stores quite live up to the billing when like Debenhams. Admittedly, spending £2m on a mound it opened to the public last week, said Lloyd Evans in The isn’t guaranteed to fix those Spectator. Instead, unhappy issues, said Alexander Jan on punters paid up to £8 for the Can a hairy hill save Oxford Street? OnLondon.co.uk. But that dubious privilege of ascending outlay is nothing compared a “glorified stepladder” cut into the side of a to the billions central government squanders on 25-metre artificial hill made up of “invisible failed IT systems or unusable PPE. Perhaps we scaffolding” covered with a skin of brown turf should cut councils a bit of slack when their panels and scraggy trees. And what were they “relatively modest” efforts to boost local greeted with, at the summit of this knoll on a economies fall flat. noisy roundabout? A view of “morose shoppers”, queues of buses, and a few Hyde Ultimately, Westminster Council’s dose of Park treetops. There was outrage on Twitter. “summer silliness” is pretty harmless, said “Worst thing I have ever done in London,” Edwin Heathcote in the FT. But rather than said one disgruntled visitor. The Mound was build a “hairy hill”, would it not have been temporarily closed after just two days, and will better off examining what can be done with the reopen to visitors next week as a free attraction.

West End’s newly vacant department stores and offices? These empty “hulks” could, for instance, It’s “easy to laugh” at this ill-conceived ploy, be transformed into theatre spaces, music venues said Mark Faithfull in Forbes. But times are or artists’ studios. If Oxford Street – one of the seriously tough for London’s West End, and the world’s most polluted roads – is to have any desire to do something – anything – to help is future, it must look beyond fake hills to a more understandable. Even pre-pandemic, Oxford considered mix of “culture and commerce”.

NEWS 23

Wit & Wisdom “Some memories are realities, and are better than anything that can ever happen to one again.”

Willa Cather, quoted in Lapham’s Quarterly “If we want the rewards of being loved, we have to submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known.”

Essayist Tim Kreider, quoted on Paste Magazine “I like to think of Death not as a murderer, but as someone with an unpleasant job.”

Novelist Rivka Galchen, quoted on The Browser “Diplomacy is the art of saying ‘Nice doggie’ until you can find a rock.”

Will Rogers, quoted in The Tribune “Everything you see I owe to spaghetti.”

Sophia Loren, quoted in Vogue “No man knows his true character until he has run out of gas, purchased something on the instalment plan and raised an adolescent.”

US journalist Marcelene Cox, quoted in Forbes “Fame and rest are utter opposites.”

Richard Steele, ibid “How small, of all that human hearts endure, that part which laws or kings can cause or cure.”

Samuel Johnson, quoted in The Sunday Telegraph “I knew my marriage was over when I stopped giving my husband the last strawberry.”

Anon, quoted by Deborah Moggach in The Times

Statistic of the week

In the week after 19 July, when nightclubs were allowed to reopen in England for the first time since March 2020, 78% said they were missing staff owing to Covid19 self-isolation rules, while a quarter had all their staff in quarantine.

Financial Times

7 August 2021 THE WEEK

Sport

24 NEWS

The rocky road to Olympic glory More remarkable than most performances at the Games so far have been the personalities who achieved them Stories off the track race, an extraordinary feat given The lack of a dominant figure like that funding for the women’s Usain Bolt has left a “slight sense events was cancelled five years of emptiness, of absent spectacle”, ago and she’d had to support in the track and field events at herself working as a teaching assistant. Whyte’s story is just Tokyo, said Barney Ronay in The Guardian. It’s more the humanas remarkable. The youngest of interest angle that has captured three brothers growing up on a attention. In the men’s high jump, deprived estate in Peckham, south Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim and London, he began racing at the Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi took age of three, after his father had athletics’ first shared gold since co-founded the Peckham BMX Club on a dilapidated track in 1912, after the best friends tied an area blighted by gang crime. with each other jump for jump “I was known as the wheely kid, and declined a “jump-off” to separate them. And on Sunday not part of [the gang culture],” another Italian became the first he says. “BMX kept me on the man from his country not just to straight and narrow.” He and Shriever have trained together and compete in the 100m, but to win it, said Ben Bloom in The Daily suffered countless injuries in this Charlotte Worthington’s “outlandish 360-backflip” Telegraph. Lamont Marcell unforgiving sport, and the close Jacobs was born in Texas, but has lived in his Italian mother’s bond between the two has been heartwarming to behold, said Mike Walters in the Daily Mirror. After Shriever’s race, when she homeland since he was a baby. He hadn’t got to know his dad until shortly before this Olympics – a reunion that inspired him to was unable to stand after her exertions, Whyte ran up to her and lifted her in his arms. “Training with her has been great,” he says. victory, he says. Until 2019 he was best known as a long jumper, and before this May had never run under ten seconds. To call his “It’s taught me to be respectful in front of women.” victory unexpected “is an understatement of epic proportions”.

Equally impressive was Charlotte Worthington’s success in the The race itself wasn’t that special. Although Jacobs’s time of 9.80 Olympics’ first ever BMX freestyle event, in which riders have secs was a European record, it was still way off the world (9.58) two 60-second windows to showcase their skills on the ramps. and Olympic (9.63) records. By contrast, the women’s final was Worthington fell in her first run after botching “an outlandish the “greatest women’s 100m race” ever, said Sean Ingle in The 360-backflip”, said Vithushan Ehantharajah in The Independent; Observer. As in Beijing 2008, it finished with three Jamaicans on but when she saw the US favourite Hannah Roberts land a huge the podium. Former Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce score (96.10) in her second run, she decided to risk all and try it had “detonated” off the blocks to take the lead, but with 30m to again. No woman had performed the gravity-defying manoeuvre go, teammate Elaine Thompson-Herah “burned past her” to before in competition, but somehow she pulled it off, and won the break the Olympic record with the second-fastest time in history. gold with a score of 97.50. Four years ago, she was working 40 “It was a stunning moment in a breathtaking race.” But again the hours a week as a chef in a Mexican restaurant and fitting her personal angle came to the fore. The two women are locked in a BMX hobby around her job, said Rob Maul in The Sun. After bitter feud and it was the frostiness between the pair after the race this victory “it’s now the BMX bandits who rule the world”. that caught the eye. And as she’d done in Rio, Thompson–Herah went on to win the 200m – a historic “double-double” in track.

Victories on horseback The London and Rio gold medallist Charlotte Dujardin didn’t Britain among the medals win another gold, said Alexandra Topping in The Guardian, but Few world records may have fallen, but from a British perspective her two bronze medals in the individual and team dressage still the Games have been far from disappointing. After their most makes her Britain’s most decorated female Olympian and cements successful ever start – four golds in the first four days – Team GB “her place in the history books”. Dujardin didn’t start the sport has continued to enjoy extraordinary success, including a bestuntil the “relatively advanced age of 20”, and used to get too ever performance from its swimmers, who secured eight medals. nervous to compete, until she discovered sports psychology.

Duncan Scott won four, the most a Briton has won at an Olympics. Max Whitlock became the first British gymnast to However Britain did win gold in eventing, its first in nearly 50 retain an Olympic title, with gold on pommel years, said Mark Palmer in The Times. And it horse; there was a first team medal since 1928 was “worth the wait”. Eventers perform a for the women’s gymnasts, double gold on the variety of cross-country, jumping and dressage first day of the sailing competition and the best tasks over three days, and the last time a British medal haul in boxing in 100 years. But more team stood on top of the podium they included thrilling still were the personal triumphs in two the Queen’s son-in-law, Captain Mark Phillips. lesser-known sports: BMX and equestrianism.

This time, they included the son of a milkman, Oliver Townend, who left school at 16 and “BMX bandits rule the world” sold his car to set himself up as a horse trader.

Although British cycling has boomed for years, He’s now the world No. 1. His teammate said Andrew Ellson in The Times, bicycle motoLaura Collett, whose single mother juggled cross or BMX has always been its poor relation. jobs and night shifts to pay for her children’s The sport was introduced to the Olympics only sport, was nearly killed in competition eight in 2008, and Team GB has never won a medal years ago. Suffering horrific injuries, she had to in it. Until now. Moments after 21-year-old Kye be resuscitated five times and put in an induced Whyte won silver in the men’s racing final, coma: she’s still almost blind in her right eye.

Bethany Shriever, 22, took gold in the women’s Dujardin: cementing a place in history “Few better deserve their moment in the sun.”

THE WEEK 7 August 2021

What does discovery mean to you? Is it exploring a leafy Caribbean isle? Or finding out that you love a good Mojito? Well, whatever it is, you do you and we’ll do the rest. As Britain’s favourite cruise line, we understand our guests like nobody else so why not join us?

We’ll be proud to give you a holiday that will knock your socks off.

Holidays as varied as you 14 NIGHT CARIBBEAN HOLIDAY WITH FLIGHTS INCLUDED FROM £1,799PP†

POCRUISES.COM 03453 566 699 Local call charges apply

Early Saver Price of £1,799 per person is based on two adults sharing the lowest grade of Inside cabin available on cruise B301. Prices are subject to availability and may go up or down. Fly-cruise price shown is inclusive of economy class flights from/to London and transfers. Prices may vary for other departure airports. All flights are subject to availability. Bookings are made at the relevant cabin grade and a cabin number is allocated by P&O Cruises prior to departure. Dining preferences are not guaranteed. Shuttle buses in ports are an additional cost. Early Saver prices apply to new bookings only. These terms and conditions vary, where relevant, the applicable booking conditions which are otherwise unchanged. Duration shown excludes overnight flight to the UK, which is included in the price. ^Transfer your Select Price or Early Saver booking as many times as you’d like, free of charge, up to the date the balance for your holiday is due. This policy modifies the transfer policy in our Booking Conditions. This policy may be changed or withdrawn at any time without notice. For up-to-date prices and full P&O Cruises terms and conditions, visit pocruises.com. †

LETTERS Pick of the week’s correspondence The cost of staying To the Financial Times

Many are quick to focus on the costs of US troops leaving Afghanistan after 20 years of war. But, curiously, too few bother to recognise the even greater costs of staying. Gideon Rachman argues that keeping several thousand US forces in Afghanistan would have been far preferable, morally and strategically. Yet he discounts the likely consequences of such a decision, most notably the resumption of large-scale Taliban assaults on the Americans, who would be ordered to maintain positions.

Sure, US forces haven’t suffered casualties for the last year. This isn’t due to Taliban generosity, but rather to the February 2020 Doha accord, which ceased Taliban attacks against US forces in exchange for a US troop withdrawal.

Delay that withdrawal, and the US would very likely enter a situation where the Taliban resumed those offensive operations in retaliation.

Nobody is suggesting peace in Afghanistan will blossom across the land after US troops depart. But it would be a big mistake to assume a few more months or years of maintaining a stalemate would be any more successful today than it was one, five or ten years ago.

Daniel R. DePetris, fellow, Defense Priorities, US

No smokes for Gen Z To The Guardian

Having read that even Big Tobacco is now apparently willing to fall on its sword for the sake of our children’s future, or whatever (“Tobacco firm Philip Morris calls for ban on cigarettes within decade”), I wish to put forward that the simplest way to approach this, instead of endlessly trying to warn people off with public health campaigns, would be to ban the sale of tobacco to anyone born after 2005.

This would prevent the uptake of smoking by a new cohort, while products could remain available for another decade in which smokers would have ample opportunity to curb their addictions.

Having passively smoked for the first five years of my life, watched my father’s various attempts to quit and my

Exchange of the week

Doing away with statues To The Sunday Times

Your review of a book on Oliver Cromwell notes that his London statue stands “unchallenged by any demands that Oliver must fall”. More is the pity.

His war crimes led to the deaths of about a quarter of the Irish population. There is nothing of which you can accuse Hitler or Stalin that is not also true of Cromwell.

Give me a licence and a JCB. I will deal with his statue.

Stephen Dowds, Ireland To The Sunday Times

My ancestors came to England from the Highlands of Scotland.

In researching my ancestry, I also discovered “slavery” – in slate mines in the Northeast. Some of my ancestors were forced to work there from as young as nine years old.

Do I feel enmity towards those who inflicted such cruelty?

No. They’re dead. Am I interested? Yes. How would I feel if a statue had been erected in honour of the man who committed these acts? Resentment. Then I’d have a cup of coffee and get on with it.

Stuart Rae, St Albans, Hertfordshire schoolfriends’ eventual adoption of the habit, I have no idea why this dirt-simple measure hasn’t already been implemented to break the rolling cycle of stupid, healthdestroying addiction across the generations. Perhaps now is finally the time.

Emily Marston, Harrogate, North Yorkshire

Essential triage

To The Daily Telegraph

There cannot be a single medically trained person who was surprised by the “secret plans” to deny care to elderly care-home residents in the event of “resources becoming exhausted”. This is the basic principle of the triage system – if there is a severe crisis where it is impossible to help all who need treatment, priority is given to those with the highest chance of survival. Would anyone argue that it was better to put the needs of a 90-yearold above those of a 20-yearold if both needed a ventilator?

We may find these types of decisions distasteful, but until unlimited funds are made available to the NHS, medical professionals will be in the unenviable position of having to make them.

Dr Julia Sharpe, Salisbury, Wiltshire

The RNLI’s core principle To the Daily Mail

I am responding to the reader who has cancelled his

membership of the RNLI because he says he “will not be a party to aiding migrants to land on our shores”.

If he’s supported the RNLI’s aims and principles as a member, he should be aware of its Royal Charter. This states: “The object of the institution shall be to save lives at sea and on inland and flood waters.”

The RNLI also states: “We value every life and look to prevent loss of life, whoever it may be and wherever they may be in trouble.” It’s not there to assist migrants to land illegally or make it easier for them, but to ensure there is no loss of life.

Crews rescue all manner of people who take risks and put their lives in danger, without apportioning blame. They do it for the satisfaction of knowing lives have been saved.

Given this reader’s attitude to the brave RNLI crews, who are not responsible for the problem, perhaps his support is no loss.

David Keenan, Canvey Island, Essex

27

trend of autocratic leaders undermining climate change protection.

As US climate envoy John Kerry noted last week, China’s emissions, which at 28% of the global total are now greater than those from the developed world combined, are continuing to climb, effectively preventing a peaking of worldwide emissions. China also built more new coal capacity last year than the rest of the world put together, while using forced labour to claim competitive advantage in its solar panel industry.

Russia has done nothing to cut its emissions, instead doubling down on its oil and gas-dependent economy, and hoodwinking Germany into the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which, if utilised, will only deepen the EU’s dependence on methane-heavy Russian gas imports, while filling Vladimir Putin’s coffers to fund domestic repression and attempts to subvert democracy abroad.

Saudi Arabia’s repressive regime has routinely disrupted progress at UN climate meetings for decades, while manipulating oil prices to prevent adoption of cleaner substitutes.

As climate change becomes both a top global security and social justice issue, democracies must confront the climate recklessness of dictators just as they did nuclear proliferation during the Cold War and at other key turning points in history. Climate action and human rights are turning out to be interconnected moral obligations.

Paul Bledsoe, professorial lecturer, Center for Environmental Policy, American University

Polluting autocrats To the Financial Times

Leslie Hook’s insightful story on G20 climate action noted that regimes in China, Russia and Saudi Arabia deliberately prevented a decision to end fossil fuel subsidies.

This latest roadblock of a key global climate action is part of a longer-term

“We might be on your green list, but we have our own rules...” © PRIVATE EYE

● Letters have been edited

7 August 2021 THE WEEK

Open. Every issue.

theweek.co.uk

ARTS Review of reviews: Books Book of the week Perversion of Justice

by Julie K. Brown HarperCollins 464pp £20 The Week Bookshop £15.99

Jeffrey Epstein’s name is “so universally reviled” now that it’s easy to forget how different things once were, said David Enrich in The New York Times.

Not long before he died in jail while awaiting trial for sex-trafficking, he had many of the world’s most powerful men on speed dial; he owned a Gulfstream jet and a Caribbean island. Even journalists were bamboozled – but not Julie K. Brown. In 2018, the Miami Herald reporter published three “explosive” articles about how, a decade earlier, the authorities had allowed Epstein to escape investigation by pleading guilty to two minor charges of soliciting prostitution.

Prosecutors were galvanised and Epstein was arrested; now Brown has written a “gripping” account of how she exposed him.

At its heart is her long search for victims, who speak at length and in “searing” detail. There are some gaps in her narrative. How did Epstein get so rich? How much did his friends know? Even so, there’s no doubting the magnitude of Brown’s achievement.

“Perversion of Justice reads like a thriller,” said Christina Patterson in The Sunday Times, “but it is a searing indictment

29

of a society in thrall to money and power”. Epstein spent millions trying to ensure that his victims’ voices would never be heard: he donated to the police, to politicians, to charities. The cushy plea bargain that long allowed him to evade justice was approved by Alex Acosta, who would become President Trump’s secretary of labour.

Brown’s “blistering” account of institutional corruption shows exactly why independent journalism is so vital.

As a guide to how a man with deep pockets circumvented the criminal justice system, this is a “vomitinducing” book, said Lloyd Green in The Guardian – but for the tenacity of Brown, who tracked down around 60 young women who alleged that he had abused them, Epstein would have got away with it. In many ways, this is “a good ol’-fashioned newspaper yarn”, said Laura Miller on Slate, replete with stonewalling public officials, conspiratorial whisperings and threatening phone calls; Brown had to trawl through reams of court documents, and win over the only two policemen in Palm Beach who seemed willing to risk their careers for justice. The assumption that the victims – vulnerable girls aged 17 or under – were insignificant and disposable pervaded everything Epstein did. But Brown, whose own background was not so different from theirs, never doubted that their stories were important enough to be told: “They were just waiting for the right person to tell it.”

The Year of the End

Novel of the week

by Anne Theroux Icon Books 256pp £12.99

The Pages

The Week Bookshop £9.99

by Hugo Hamilton Fourth Estate 304pp £14.99

Several years after her marriage collapsed, Anne Theroux saw her ex-husband being interviewed on television. Writers, Paul Theroux declared, need to marry “a specific type of woman – protective and self-sacrificing types… a secretary, mother, guardian of the gate”. In response, she sent him a note: “If you had given me the job description in advance, I wouldn’t have applied.” The Year of the End, her memoir of her disintegrating marriage, is “wise and vivid”, said Fiona Sturges in The i Paper. From the moment the couple met in Uganda in 1967, it was clear that Paul’s career was to take precedence: he insisted that Anne give up her cherished teaching job, and though she subsequently worked as a BBC radio presenter, she was often left to cope with their young sons (Louis and Marcel) while he travelled the world, having frequent affairs. The book is based on her diaries from 1990, when the two separated, and the entries find her pinballing between longing and fury. However, retribution isn’t the point of this book: it’s a “funny and self-deprecating” portrait of a woman “learning how to be alone”.

Revenge it may not be, said Rachel Cooke in The Observer, but it is a last word of sorts. It’s clear why the author was dazzled by her dashing young husband, but she also sees him very clearly – “his amateur dramatics, his sentimentality, his hypocrisy”. Professional travellers, she notes, tend to be charming and adventurous, but also distant and brutal. Some of the diary entries are a bit Pooterish, but the overall tone is “dignified and moving”. Indeed, said Paul Perry in The Irish Independent: though deception and betrayal are the watchwords of this “candid” memoir, Anne Theroux – who went on to become a relationship therapist – shows great restraint. “Good for her, one thinks.”

The Week Bookshop £11.99

On one level this ingenious book is “a pretty straightforward mystery yarn”, said Andrew Motion in The Guardian. Lena Knecht, a Manhattan-based artist of German-Irish parentage, has inherited a first edition of Joseph Roth’s 1924 novel Rebellion. At the back of it is a hand-drawn diagram: is it a vital clue in a treasure hunt? There’s only one way to find out – by travelling to Berlin, where the book narrowly escaped a Nazi bonfire. But here’s the twist: the story is narrated by the book itself.

The book’s narration intertwines Lena’s family history with episodes from Roth’s own tragic life and encounters with present-day refugees, said Boyd Tonkin in the FT. It teems with ideas about memory and legacy, but never gets bogged down, thanks to its “brisk and swift” narrative. Hamilton has great fun with the central conceit, said Michael Arditti in The Spectator, but his underlying purpose is “deeply serious”, and there is considerable subtlety in the way he shows modern-day horrors mirroring those of the past. The Pages is a “remarkable” novel, worthy of Roth’s own great works.

To order these titles or any other book in print, visit theweekbookshop.co.uk or speak to a bookseller on 020-3176 3835 Opening times: Monday to Saturday 9am-5.30pm and Sunday 10am-4pm

7 August 2021 THE WEEK

30 ARTS

Drama & Podcasts Theatre: the pick of London openings

The pandemic has cost Andrew handed” production that has prompted my rethink – or was Lloyd Webber millions, and the “pingdemic” recently delayed the bias in my head, and not in the much-anticipated opening Mamet’s play? It seems to me of his new musical Cinderella that what was once a reaction to until 18 August – but a revival political correctness “connects more vividly than ever after the of his and Tim Rice’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor #MeToo movement”: the culture wars have shaken up Dreamcoat has reopened at the Palladium – and it is “firing on our views about “where power all cylinders”, said Arifa Akbar lies”. Fine acting helps, said in The Guardian. Jac Yarrow Jessie Thompson in the looks like “a chiselled biblical London Evening Standard. superhero in his coat of many It is “exhilarating” to watch Jonathan Slinger and Rosie colours, and he belts out ballads” with a power that Sheehy interrupt one another, rivals that of Alexandra Burke, “grandstand, pace and then The “magnificent” Danny Sapani and Adrian Lester in Hymn who makes a “winning” deflate”. This is a cracklingly intelligent production, packed with thought-provoking Narrator (though in her shiny leggings and sparkly trainers, she looks oddly like an aerobics instructor). To add to the fun of a moments (until 23 October). production that brims with “personality and mischief”, Jason Donovan (who played the title role for years in an earlier Hymn, which has reopened at the Almeida, is “an object lesson” production) appears in cameo as a “rockabilly Pharaoh”. in the power and glory of live theatre, said Fiona Mountford in The Daily Telegraph. Lolita Chakrabarti’s new two-hander about David Mamet’s campus drama Oleanna (Arts Theatre) is so brothers, fathers and families was due to open in February, but divisive, it triggered stand-up rows between audience members lockdown saw it shift online. On a laptop, the piece felt exposed, when it opened in the early 1990s, said Dominic Maxwell in its longueurs magnified by the medium. But in the flesh – sharing The Times. At the time, I thought of it as an “exciting but rigged” the “same space and air” as the actors, Adrian Lester and Danny verbal battle between a “smug but fairly decent” male professor Sapani – it’s a different story. Both are “magnificent”: physically and a “failing female student” whose complaints are not committed yet easeful and fluid. While the play is not perfect – the unjustified, but who “lets principle overrule her humanity”. plot turns on a business proposition that “strains credulity” – Hymn offers plenty to “sing about” (until 13 August).

Now I am not so sure. Is it Lucy Bailey’s “thrillingly even-

If you’re stuck at home this influence of the wooden pallet on the global economy, the summer and “craving audio” to transport you to “wild places”, historical significance of the Scotland Outdoors crinoline, and how algorithms dictate the price of books. Lots podcast (from BBC Radio of podcasters “talk crap”, but Scotland) is a must-listen, said Patricia Nicol in The Sunday Get Flushed “gets down and Times. In two recent episodes dirty with actual effluent”, its main presenters, Mark sharing “dispatches from the Stephen and Euan McIlwraith, sharp end of the sanitation meandered down the Tay from industry”, covering subjects Killin to the Ben Lawers Nature such as the best (and worst) Reserve, and on to Dunkeld – loo paper, chemical treatments chatting along the way to and odour elimination. And if “botanists, rangers, storytellers, you’ve “ever wondered what anglers, craftsmen, musicians, the job of a skeletal articulator, and boat and swimming an anatomical pathology “Millennial taxidermist” Elle Kaye hosts the podcast Specimens enthusiasts”. The sound quality technologist or a pet mortician is “stunning”, and so are the aural pictures they paint: “A wagtail really entails”, then Specimens, hosted by “millennial just braving the rapids there… A snell blast pouring straight down taxidermist” Elle Kaye, is the “slightly icky” podcast for you. the loch.” In a different vein, but equally transporting, is Jon Holmes’s “satirical soundscape show” The Skewer (BBC The Ways to Change the World podcast by Channel 4’s Sounds), which has just won best radio podcast at the British Krishnan Guru-Murthy – which features interviews with Podcast awards. “Irreverent, moving, whipsmart, necessary, this politicians, journalists, geographers, chefs and more – is is one of the past year’s best programmes”: its sharpness “has at excellent, said James Marriott in The Times. There’s something times left me slack-jawed”. for everyone, with guests ranging from Margaret Atwood and Michaela Coel to Yotam Ottolenghi and the Dalai Lama. “If One of the joys of podcasting remains its “indulgence of niche you are starting at the top, the two most recent episodes are very and, frankly, weird pursuits”, said Fiona Sturges in The Guardian. good. Manchester’s Labour Mayor Andy Burnham comes across Among the “crème de la crème of obscure stuff to stick in your as “convincing and likeable”. And I found journalist George ears” is The Boring Talks, in which the writer James Ward and Packer’s description of the US as “four Americas (which he calls an array of guest speakers expound on dry subjects with the real America, just America, free America and smart America) so “utmost passion”. Their perversely compelling topics include the intriguing I immediately bought his recent book”.

THE WEEK 7 August 2021

© MARC BRENNER

Podcasts... wild places, wooden pallets and WCs

Film & TV Films to stream This year’s Oscar for best foreign film went to Another Round, a tragicomedy about Denmark’s drinking culture.

Here are five other acclaimed films in which alcohol plays a starring role: The Lost Weekend Adapted from the novel by Charles R. Jackson, Billy Wilder’s 1945 Oscar-winner is a startlingly frank and intense film about alcoholism. Ray Milland stars as a New York writer who dodges his concerned brother and girlfriend to spend a weekend drinking himself into oblivion.

Drunken Angel An alcoholic doctor and one of his more troubled patients – a gangster and fellow alcoholic – struggle towards redemption in Kurosawa’s melodrama.

Shot in 1948 amid the wreckage of postwar Japan, it was the director’s eighth film, but he said it was the first of which he felt proud.

THE FILMS ARE ON APPLE TV, GOOGLE PLAY (EXCEPT DRUNKEN ANGEL) AND AMAZON (EXCEPT DRUNKEN ANGEL)

Sideways Failing writer and oenophile Miles (Paul Giamatti) and his friend, failing actor and womaniser Jack (Thomas Haden Church), tour California’s wine country in a desperate attempt to stave off their midlife crises in Alexander Payne’s brilliantly observed and exquisitely sad comedy from 2004.

Casino Royale One of the more glamorous of fictional drinkers, James Bond invented the Vesper Martini in Ian Fleming’s 1953 novel Casino Royale. The 2006 screen version, Daniel Craig’s first film as 007, is one of Bond’s best cinematic outings, and at the time of release, it was one of his booziest, too.

Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets A verité account of an 18-hour drinking session in a Las Vegas bar in 2016, this docudrama was improvised by real-life barflies recruited from around New Orleans by directors Bill and Turner Ross. As they joke, flirt and argue, a moving and funny sense of their personal stories emerges.

31

New releases The Suicide Squad

Dir: James Gunn (2hrs 12mins) (15)

★★★★

Released in 2016, the original Suicide Squad was “an absolute mess of a superhero film”, but just five years on, Warner Bros. has made a new version of the niche DC series, and it’s a triumph, said Ed Potton in The Times. It has a new writer-director in James Gunn, but the story set-up is essentially the same – a black-ops team of minor supervillains is plucked from prison to conduct a “foolhardy” mission for the US government. Margot Robbie reprises her role as “squeaky-voiced psychopath” Harley Quinn, but the team is now led by Idris Elba’s has-been assassin Bloodsport, and raucous comedy is introduced by other newcomers, including Ratcatcher (Daniela Melchior) with her army of vermin, and Nanaue, a man-cumshark voiced by Sylvester Stallone.

The film’s cascade of “torn limbs and blasted brains” recalls Gunn’s roots in B-movie-style horror, said Clarisse Loughrey in The Independent, but there’s “tender sincerity” beneath the spectacle. Gunn understands “the transgressive power of the outsider figure”, and the main characters are written as “products of, and eventual champions over, their own trauma”. The cast hit these notes of truth beautifully, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph: Elba, for instance, summons “Lee Marvin-like battered gravitas”. Yet the key to the film’s success is its sheer daftness. There’s even a battle with a Godzilla-sized starfish called Starro the Conqueror. In a genre “hooked on formula”, such moments make The Suicide Squad feel “like a gust of nitrous oxidelaced fresh air”. In cinemas.

Limbo

Dir: Ben Sharrock (1hr 44mins) (12A)

★★★★

Politics and poetry meet in this “eccentric” film about refugee lives in limbo, said Alex Godfrey in Empire. Housed together on a bleak, unnamed Scottish island (the film was shot on North and South Uist), four asylum seekers

Limbo: an “eccentric” but gentle drama

must wait as their applications are processed agonisingly slowly. Barred from working, they have nothing to do but attend “ridiculous” cultural-awareness classes and watch teenagers drive doughnuts in the “drab” local town.

Omar (Amir El-Masry) is a Syrian musician who feels so “stuck” he can’t bring himself to play his oud (a Middle-Eastern lute). His Afghan friend Farhad (Vikash Bhai) keeps a chicken named Freddie Mercury. And Wasef (Ola Orebiyi) is a Nigerian football fan whose plan to play for Chelsea invites ridicule from his Ghanaian friend Abedi (Kwabena Ansah).

“Limbo is virtually plotless, and that’s the point,” said Tim Robey in The Daily Telegraph – it’s about an “unvarying second act” in these refugees’ lives, their horizons “stretching out as barren as the scrub”. To pull off this “flat continuum” takes some daring, but writerdirector Ben Sharrock succeeds, thanks to his “very sure” grasp of character and tone. The film is funny, but gentle and melancholic too, with a “deadpan aesthetic” and “gravely beautiful” cinematography. El-Masry is “tremendous” as Omar, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian, “stricken with repressed rage, guilt and doubt” about the choices he has made. His phone conversations with his mother, stuck in Turkey, are “heart-rending”, as is the scene where he shows Farhad the design on his oud – a stylised representation of his garden in Damascus. In cinemas.

The Sparks Brothers: a joyous new rock doc Edgar Wright’s documentary As a result, the film sometimes is a “fanboy love letter” to Ron feels like “a grand work of comic and Russell Mael, the eccentric fantasy”. A “dizzying array” of brothers who comprise the US interviewees – from Neil Gaiman band Sparks, said Dave Calhoun to Mike Myers – discuss the in Time Out. Although born in LA, excitement, bewilderment and the pair first found fame in the even hilarity the duo can provoke, UK, with their 1974 single This while anecdotes are brought to Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both life with weird animations. The of Us. Now they are entering the brothers’ deliberate “opaqueness” sixth decade of a “shapeshifting” creates “a danger of irony career that has “straddled glam overload”, said Tom Shone in The rock, teen pop, electro, new wave Sunday Times. But Wright locates The shapeshifting Sparks and more”. Theirs is a “pop a “strain of melancholy” in Ron’s survival story”, told here with “infectious, lyrics, and his film is also “a touching childlike glee”. testimony to their doggedness”. As Todd Sparks has always cultivated an “air of Rundgren remarks, it’s comforting simply to mystery”, said Mark Kermode in The Observer. know that “something this weird can survive”.

7 August 2021 THE WEEK

32 ARTS

Art Exhibition of the week Bernardo Bellotto

National Gallery, London WC2 (020-7747 2885, nationalgallery.org.uk). Until 31 October. Free entry Of all the many fortress from afar, castles in Saxony, the in which Bellotto deploys “every medieval fortress of weapon of perspective Königstein is by some distance “the most in his arsenal” to impressive”, said emphasise and Lucy Davies in The exaggerate the Daily Telegraph. already vast Perched on an architectural scale. imposing hilltop, it The Venetian was hired “to make his towers 800 metres over the Elbe River boss look big and and dominates the impressive. And it landscape for miles worked.” Yet, around. “This is why, somehow, he also in 1756, Frederickfinds the space for impossibly precise Augustus II, Elector of Saxony and one detail: the works teem with minuscule of Europe’s most powerful rulers, likenesses of The Fortress of Königstein from the North-West (1756-8): a “towering” series of works commissioned the “shepherds shepherding, gardeners gardening, courtiers courtiering”. This greatest view-painter of his day to record its splendour for all the world to see.” Bernardo Bellotto (1722–1780), nephew of the is especially evident in the other two pictures, which view the Königstein from within its walls. much more famous Canaletto, had already spent a decade as a court artist to Frederick-Augustus, painting remarkable urban Indeed, it often “looks as if the entire Dresden court are whiling landscapes of his magnificent capital, Dresden. It took him two away their time in the castle precincts”, said Jonathan Jones in years and five canvases, each one studying the citadel from a The Guardian. In one of the views inside the walls, we see different perspective, to capture the fortress to his satisfaction. “bewigged men and women with parasols” strolling in the Ironically, by the time Bellotto was “applying his final touches” sunshine. Elsewhere, in “a Hogarthian touch amid the to the series, hostile Prussian forces had crushed Saxony’s armies splendour”, a man is glimpsed “reaching for his wallet as he and were laying siege to Dresden. Frederick-Augustus, who had makes an agreement with a young woman”. In a similar vein, initially taken refuge in the Königstein itself, had to flee to his wall texts highlight another mildly sordid detail: the fortress of lands in Poland. As a result, the series was dispersed across Europe, eventually ending up in collections across Britain and the Königstein, we learn, contained “a 60,000-gallon wine cask in its cellar”, which Bellotto acknowledges by depicting “a gang US. It is only now, in this small, free exhibition at the National of ragamuffins at its door, eager to drown their sorrows”.

Gallery – Bellotto: The Königstein Views Reunited – that the Although ostensibly propaganda images, these paintings contain works have been brought together as intended. The chance to all forms of human life. They also look forward to Romanticism, see these wonderfully detailed and atmospheric paintings should not be missed. finding “awe in the rocks, walls and dark windows of an enigmatic castle”. This is a beautifully curated exhibition which gives an “eye-opening” perspective on a chapter of European “These are big, towering heavy works,” said Eddy Frankel in history largely ignored in this country. Small though it is, this is Time Out. “They loom over you with their pillars of grey stone a “seismic” show. and stark, sharp angles.” Three paintings here are views of the

News from the art world Should Stanley be pulled down?

An antiques dealer who was presented with A statue of the explorer Henry Morton a seaside scene bought in a flea market has Stanley in Denbigh, his birthplace in North identified it as a valuable stolen work by the Wales, could be removed after being French impressionist Eugène Boudin, says targeted by Black Lives Matter protests, Daniel Angelini in the Swindon Advertiser. says Craig Simpson in The Daily Telegraph.

Jon White of Old Bank Antiques, in Royal The statue was erected in 2010 at a cost of Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire, was first shown £30,000, but a petition for its removal – citing the canvas, a scene depicting the French Stanley’s “excessive violence” and racist resort of Trouville, by a woman whose late attitudes – has now attracted more than father had, quite innocently, acquired it at a 8,000 signatures. Last year, Denbigh council London flea market years before. Realising narrowly voted to maintain the sculpture it looked “special” and wanting to offer a pending a public consultation, which will fair price for it, White began researching its take place in the coming weeks. Stanley provenance. His enquiries revealed that in was long celebrated for an 1871 expedition May 1990, it had disappeared from Richard on which he tracked down the Scottish Green gallery in Mayfair, and – in spite of a missionary David Livingstone, who had £40,000 reward offered for its return – had disappeared into the African interior six Jon White with the “special” Boudin not been seen since. White is now seeking years before. In recent years, however, information about the painting, and is in search of its original attention has focused on the fact that he helped claim the Congo owner. Boudin was known for his depictions of the beaches and for the Belgian King Leopold II, under whose regime countless skies of northern France, and is said to have inspired his friend atrocities were committed. His fellow explorer Sir Richard Burton Claude Monet. His works have sold for more than £1m. also noted that Stanley shot Africans “as if they were monkeys”.

THE WEEK 7 August 2021

© COURTESY NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, WASHINGTON

A flea market treasure

The List

33

Best books… David Hare

The award-winning playwright and screenwriter chooses his six favourite books. His latest volume, We Travelled: Essays and Poems (Faber £14.99), a collection of his prose and poetry, is published this week A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940 by Victoria Wilson, 2013 (Simon & Schuster £14.99). The history of Hollywood told through the life of one superb working actress. Its 1,056 pages leave our heroine in 1940, aged 33. It’s one of the greatest books about cinema, but where is Volume Two? With Simon Callow’s longawaited fourth volume on Orson Welles, it’s the great white whale of film publishing.

for a liar. Applebaum’s book asks why conservatives in the West have so willingly embraced deceit, corruption and authoritarianism. She has answers, too.

Twilight of Democracy

by Anne Applebaum, 2020 (Penguin £9.99). If you’ve read the British press during the pandemic, you will know that once creditable and witty rightwing journalists are now shills

Faith Healer by Brian Friel, 1979 (Faber £9.99). Friel’s landmark play. A healer has a gift, and he has no idea where it comes from – or why it departs. Sensational and unsurpassed.

Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt, 1963 (Penguin £10.99). The definitive account of the trial of Adolf Eichmann.

Isaiah Berlin was once asked to define overrated. He bitched, “Hannah Arendt”. Asked the same, I’d say “Isaiah Berlin”.

The Beautiful Fall by Alicia Drake, 2006 (Bloomsbury £16.99). About the rivalry and shared loves of a genius, Yves Saint Laurent, and a jealous showman, Karl Lagerfeld.

Lagerfeld is Salieri to Saint Laurent’s Mozart. I’ve read it three times, and the dark, destructive world of Paris fashion goes on deepening.

The Hand (La Main) by Georges Simenon, 1968 (Penguin £8.99). This is the novel I adapted into a stage play, The Red Barn, memorably directed by Robert Icke, and starring Mark Strong. But I might have chosen any of Simenon’s romans durs. Bleak, swift, brutal and unwavering.

Titles in print are available from The Week Bookshop on 020-3176 3835. For out-of-print books visit biblio.co.uk

The Week’s guide to what’s worth seeing Showing now

Book now

The Turner Prize-winning artist brings his unique take on life’s big questions to the stage with a one-man (in a dress) show, Grayson Perry: A Show for Normal People. Touring nationwide 28 August-28 November (fane. co.uk/grayson).

For one night only, Nicola Benedetti performs

BBC Proms: The Golden Age of Broadway West End

stars perform classic numbers from Broadway musicals including Oklahoma!, live from the Royal Albert Hall. Sat 7 Aug, BBC2 18:30 (120mins).

The Riots 2011: One Week in August A decade on from

Britain’s worst riots since the 1980s, convicted participants, police and victims of the violence share memories. Mon 9 Aug, BBC2 21:00 (90mins).

Guy Martin: The World’s Fastest Electric Car? The

former motorcycle racer explores the world of electric vehicles and tries to set a new record by fitting a classic VW Beetle with Tesla engineering.

Mon 9 Aug, C4 21:00 (90mins).

The Watch Captain Vines

faces Death (Wendell Pierce) in the first episode of this fantasy police procedural, based on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. Thur 12 Aug, BBC2 21:00 and 21:45 (45mins each).

Deceit Four-part drama

Films

Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami (2017) Sophie

Grayson Perry: A Show for Normal People

three contrasting works for solo violin, including Bach’s Partita in D minor and Wynton Marsalis’s Fiddle Dance Suite. 23 September, Barbican, London EC2 (barbican.org.uk).

English PEN 100 celebrates the veteran human rights organisation’s centenary with a weekend of events. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Edmund de Waal and Max Porter are among those taking part. 24-26 September, Southbank Centre, London SE1 (southbankcentre.co.uk).

The Archers: what happened last week

© IONA WOLFF

Programmes

about the real-life “honeytrap” operation used in the wake of the murder of Rachel Nickell in 1992. Eddie Marsan and Niamh Algar star. Fri 13 Aug, C4 21:00 (60mins).

An “icon of modern Scottish art”, Joan Eardley painted tenement children in Glasgow, and the landscapes of Catterline, the fishing village where she settled. Both feature in a new show of her work (Guardian). Until 31 August, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (nationalgalleries.org).

Based on the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, when the townsfolk of Gander, Newfoundland gave shelter to 7,000 stranded airline passengers, the Olivier Award-winning musical Come From Away feels newly relevant as it reopens. Until 12 February 2022, Phoenix Theatre, London WC2 (comefromawaylondon.co.uk).

Television

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

When a longhorn tramples her tent, Leyla complains to Phoebe, unaware she’s Roy’s daughter.

After further misunderstanding and Kate making matters worse, Leyla has had enough and leaves.

Kate tells a dejected Roy that he should try meeting people just for fun. The idea appeals and he downloads an app, but Kirsty warns him to be careful. Lynda and Lilian’s hare-brained plan to lure a celebrity to Ambridge fails but Lynda has an idea – with her MBE, she should be the celebrity!

Fiennes’s film follows the disco diva backstage, in the recording studio, and as she travels to her family home in Jamaica. Sat 7 Aug, BBC2 23:30 (115mins).

The Peanut Butter Falcon

(2019) Acclaimed film about a man with Down’s syndrome who escapes from a residential home to follow his dream of becoming a wrestler. Fri 13 Aug, BBC1 22:35 (90mins).

New to subscription TV Ted Lasso The second season of this comedy about an American football coach in charge of an English football team touches on recent events. “They shot and they’ve scored” (Guardian).

On Apple TV+.

Modern Love New season of the anthology series based on stories in a New York Times column. From 13 August, Amazon Prime Video.

7 August 2021 THE WEEK

Best properties

34 Fairy-tale properties

▲

Midlothian: Borthwick Hall, Heriot.

A historically notable Scottish baronial mansion in a rural setting, with approximately 12 acres of amenity land/ woodland and trout fishing on the Heriot Water. Within easy commuting distance of Edinburgh by road or rail. Main suite with dressing room, 2 guest suites, 4 further beds, family bath, shower kitchen/breakfast room/ snug, recep hall, 3 further receps (1 with kitchenette), study, pantry, wine cellar, gym with en-suite bath, cloakroom with shower, 3 apartments, garage, paddocks, gardens.

OIEO £1.95m; Rettie (0131-624 4074).

▲ Hampshire: The Round House, Bishop’s Waltham, Southampton. A unique converted Victorian water tower with south-facing views over the South Downs and beyond. Main suite with walk-in wardrobe, 4 further beds (2 en suite), family bath, kitchen/breakfast room, open-plan living area with art studio and music room, study, snug, cloakroom, swimming pool, garage, garden, summer house, orchard, further land, 12.5 acres. £2m; Knight Frank (01962-677234). ▲

Cornwall: The Old Chapel, Carclew, Perranarworthal, near Truro. On the market for the first time in 20 years is this Grade II* house, in an idyllic location on the prestigious Carclew Estate, with views towards Devoran and the creek and surrounded by approx 2.5 acres of mature and level grounds. Main bed, 2 further beds, family bath, kitchen/dining room, 1 recep, detached study/store, static caravan, shed.

OIEO £700,000; Lillicrap Chilcott (01872-273473).

THE WEEK 7 August 2021

on the market

35

▲ Warwickshire: The Water Tower, Tainters Hill,

Kenilworth. This iconic former 18th century windmill was converted to a water tower in 1885. Main suite, 3 further beds, family bath, kitchen/breakfast room, 1 recep, study, hall, WC, balcony, garage, sun terrace, garden. £1.4m, Fine & Country (01926-455950).

▲

Cornwall: East Lodge, Illogan, near Tehidy. This beautiful detached Grade II thatched 18th century lodge was once a gateway into the Tehidy Estate, and is set in a magical sylvan setting with Tehidy Woods on the doorstep. Main double bed, 1 single bed, family bath, kitchen, 1 recep, entrance hall, open-fronted porch, rear and side garden, gravelled drive. £395,000; Lillicrap Chilcott (01872-273473).

Tyne & Wear: The Red Cottage, Whitburn, Sunderland. Built in 1842 by noted local architect Benjamin Green, this Grade II property was created as a show house for a brickworks owner, displaying a range of ornate designs including detailed finials and a variety of roof tiles.

Lewis Carroll is believed to have been in residence while writing about Alice. Main suite, 4 further beds, 2 baths, kitchen/breakfast room, 4 receps, terrace, private walled garden, garage. £999,999; Sanderson Young (0191-223 3500).

▲

▲

London: 12 Henry Tate Mews, Streatham SW16.

Built in the 1830s, this mansion at the top of Streatham Common, close to The Rookery, was previously occupied

by Sir Henry Tate and was redeveloped in 2000. This incredible house is centred on the original billiard room, illuminated by the original glass clerestory which runs the length of the room and was the prototype for the Tate Gallery. 3 suites, 2 further beds with jack and jill bath, kitchen/breakfast room, mezzanine, 1 recep, utility, patio garden, garage. £1.8m; Hamptons (020-3369 4574). ▲

Norfolk: Wayford Mill, Smallburgh.

Lovingly restored with the reinstatement of the cap and sails and a stylish extension, this former drainage mill on the banks of the River Ant, in the heart of the Norfolk Broads, sits in 2.5 acres at the end of a meandering driveway, with 500ft of private river frontage, mooring and a small lake. Main suite, guest suite, 4 further beds, family bath, shower, kitchen/ breakfast room, 3 receps, utility, workshop/garage with office above, parking, garden. £1m; Sowerbys (01603-761441).

▲ Warwickshire: Highfield, Dorsington, Stratford-upon-Avon. Built as a modern folly, Highfield was commissioned by the late Felix Dennis who combined his passion for Treasure Island and his love of tithe barns to create an extraordinary home. 2 bed suites, hall with aquarium, pool with seating and changing areas, steam room, sauna, laundry, kitchen, recep, cinema, 2 2-bed cottages, garaging, gardens. £4m; Savills (01451-832832).

7 August 2021 THE WEEK

ADVERTISEMENT

Give them a back-to-school head start

“

The Week Junior’s well-researched and compelling content makes it one of the most useful and well-rounded resources for enhancing your child’s learning at home.

Holly King-Mand, the nation’s favourite English teacher.

Get kids back into a learning mindset with The Week Junior. It explains the news clearly and safely for 8 to 14 year olds, encouraging them to explore theirr world and develop their own opinions.

It brings core curriculum topics to life in n a way that makes learning fun - the perfect way to give them a head start going back to school this autumn.

Get 6 issues plus our back-to-school guide FREE theweekjunior.co.uk/back-toschool

6 ISSUES FREE!

PLUS Free back to school download

”

LEISURE Food & Drink

37

What the experts recommend Britain embraces the drive-through One of the pandemic’s lasting impacts on the UK hospitality industry could be the “resurgence” of the drive-through restaurant, says Tomé Morrissy-Swan in The Daily Telegraph. Although Britain’s first, a McDonald’s, opened in the 1980s, the concept had been slow to take off until the pandemic put a new value on “contactfree service”. There were, analysts estimate, an extra 40 million visits to the country’s existing 2,500 drive-throughs in the year to April 2021, and around 200 new sites are expected to open this year.

While the sector is currently dominated by fast-food chains (notably McDonald’s, which has 938 drive-through branches in Britain, and Canadian coffee and doughnut store Tim Hortons, which is rapidly expanding its UK operation), “independent restaurants are slowly entering the arena”. One that has done so recently is Cue Point, an Afghan-inspired barbecue joint in west London, which has seen a big upswing in its revenues since it launched its “kerbside pick-up” earlier this year. Mursal Saiq, Cue Point’s co-founder, described drive-through as a “life-saver” for the business in this difficult period.

The formula for perfect dressing What is the key to a perfect salad dressing, asks Richard Godwin in The Times.

According to Chet Sharma, who is “one of vanishingly few chefs with a physics degree

Mayfair, London, guests will be able to sample his Bengali-style dressing made with sugar, tamarind, lime juice, mustard and grapeseed oil.

Drive-throughs: a “resurgence”

from Oxford University”, the key is a simple 1-2-3 formula. “One part sweetness, two parts acidity, three parts oil,” he says. “Once you get that formula down, you can’t go wrong.” For a classic French vinaigrette, Sharma uses honey plus mustard for the sweet part, red wine vinegar for the acidity, and vegetable oil (which he generally prefers to “thick and overpowering” olive oil). Once you’ve mastered the formula, you can easily range between cuisines. “A Japanese dressing might be one part mirin, two parts brown rice vinegar, and three parts a neutral oil,” Sharma says. And at his soon-to-belaunched Indian restaurant, Bibi in

Don’t throw away your shells The next time you eat crustaceans at home, make sure you save the shells and heads, says Tom Hunt in The Guardian.

Although often discarded, these can be used to make an “exquisite stock” that can form the basis for “restaurant-quality paellas, risottos, gumbos and curries”. To make it, sauté 500g of shellfish shells and offcuts in one tablespoon of oil in a heavybased pan over a medium heat. Cook for ten minutes, or until the shells become caramelised and turn red, and then add 50ml of white wine and bring to a boil, stirring. Meanwhile, in a second pan, heat another tablespoon of oil, and sauté one small onion, one green leek top, one stick of celery, one small carrot and half a fennel bulb until caramelised (about ten minutes). Now tip the veg into the shellfish pan, add three peeled garlic cloves, three bay leaves, three sprigs of fresh thyme or oregano, and a tablespoon of tomato purée. Cover with water and bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to a simmer and leave to bubble gently for two hours, skimming off any scum as it rises to the surface. Once cooked, strain through a fine sieve, and either keep in the fridge for four to five days, or freeze.

Charcoal sardines in saffron vinegar and almond oil “This simple combination of saffron, almond and sardines is wonderful, says Josh Niland: “the saffron vinegar brings an elegant floral sweetness that perfectly complements the savoury minerality of the grilled fish. It is important that the whole sardines are rested for a couple of minutes after grilling to ensure the flesh comes away from the bone nicely.”

Serves 4 as a starter or 2 as a main 8 sardines, gutted, head and tail on 80ml grapeseed oil sea salt flakes and freshly cracked black pepper 1 tbsp almond oil garum or fish sauce, to taste slivered almonds, to garnish (optional) to make the saffron vinegar: small pinch of saffron threads 1 litre of chardonnay vinegar

• To make the saffron vinegar, add the saffron to

© ROB PALMER

the vinegar in a sterile mason jar or clean airtight container. Stir to combine and store at room temp for 24 hours minimum. The longer you can leave this to develop flavour the better – it can be made in advance and will keep in the pantry, gradually becoming more flavourful. Use it in salad dressings.

• Either preheat a chargrill pan over a high heat or a charcoal grill with evenly burnt-down embers.

Thread the sardines onto metal or soaked bamboo skewers. Brush with the grapeseed oil and season with salt flakes.

• Grill for around a minute on each side, or until evenly coloured and the flesh is warm to the touch.

Tip the grill rack to free the fish onto a clean surface, or use an offset spatula. While you want the skin to be well coloured, it is critical that the sardines are still a little underdone.

The saffron vinegar will finish off the “cooking” process. Leave the fish to rest for 2 mins.

• Brush with almond oil and season with a little salt and a touch of pepper, then place in the centre of a plate. Dress with a spoonful of the saffron vinegar, garum or fish sauce to taste, and a few drops of almond oil. Top with slivered almonds, if you like.

• To make the garum: calculate the total weight of heads, bones and scraps you have from small fish such as sardines, mackerel, sardines or gurnard (removing the gall bladder). Measure 50% of that weight in water and add to the trimmings. Calculate 20% of the combined weight and add this quantity of fine salt. Mix, transfer to a mason jar, seal and place in a circulator bath set to 40°C. Stir once a day for 7 days. Store in an airtight jar in the fridge for up to a month.

Alternatively, garum is available from online food specialists.

Taken from Take One Fish: The New School of Scale-to-Tail Cooking and Eating by Josh Niland, published by Hardie Grant at £26.

To buy from The Week Bookshop for £20.99, call 020-3176 3835 or visit theweekbookshop.co.uk.

7 August 2021 THE WEEK

Consumer

38 LEISURE

New cars: what the critics say

Hyundai Ioniq 5

from £36,995

The Daily Telegraph Since its launch in 2016, Hyundai’s Ioniq has been seen as an “unexceptional” family hatchback; the hope is that this new electriconly platform will change that. The new model uses 800-volt electronic architecture that has, until now, only been available in the Porsche Taycan and Audi e-tron GT. But while the car looks good, inside and out, the ride lets it down, and “that might put off more than a few”.

Autocar The ride isn’t a disaster.

In most conditions, it is soft and comfortable, and it helps that the driver sits high up with a good view.

But it would benefit from more control, as the car can feel “floaty” and the steering response can be unpredictable. Plus, the body rolls, and on nasty ridges you may feel as if you’re in a “ship at sea”.

Still, if you take it easy, the Ioniq 5 can offer a “relaxed experience”.

▲

Bluefin SUP 10’ 8’’ Aura FIT This extrade inflatable paddle board is designed wid for water-based yoga and Pilates, but it’s alsso a good option for beginners. It has excellent stability and a relatively light paddle (£549; bluefinsupboards.com).

▲

Jobe Ve entura 10 0.6 Ba amboo Board This rigid bam mboo boarrd is sturdy y, and designed d i d tto be b fast f and easy to manoeuvre and control. The downside is its bulk, which makes it harder than others to transport and store (£899; thesupco.com).

Quroc Qi Crossover This inflatable board has been designed for the all-round paddler. It strikes a nice balance between stability and speed, and is shaped to help you maintain a straight line (£729; qurocpaddle boards.co.uk).

▲

The best… paddleboards

Auto Express In any case, the Ioniq 5’s stylish design, on-board tech and practical range and charging speeds mean this model still has a lot going for it. The infotainment system has two 12.3-inch displays, and climate control and smart cruise control are included as part of its impressive entry-level kit. All in all, it’s a very compelling option that is more than likely to persuade some EV buyers.

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

Avoid heavy cotton as it will hamper the evaporation of sweat. ● Although it sounds counterintuitive, studies suggest that you should take a hot shower or warm bath after exercising.

Apparently, this helps the body acclimatise to hot conditions.

SOURCE: THE TIMES

THE WEEK 7 August 2021

▲

Tips of the week… exercising in the heat

iRocker All-Around With a W weight limit w att the upper en nd of the sc cale at 19 97kg (434lbs), s) this durable inflatable board can ac ccommodate multiple pa assengers, while its generous wiidth provides extra stability, making it a good choice for families (£749; irockersup.co.uk).

And for those who have everything…

Where to find… English hotels with outdoor pools

The Traeger Ironwood 650 barbecue is Wi-Fi connected so the temperature and other parameters can be controlled from an app on your phone. There’s even an electronic probe which alerts your phone (or smartwatch) if your food is at risk of burning. from £1,499; traeger.com

The Grove Hotel, just a few miles north of London, has three swimming pools including a heated one within a walled garden. The hotel has croquet, tennis and volleyball too, making it great for families (doubles from £455pn; thegrove.co.uk).

Another firm favourite with families is Woolley Grange, in a Jacobean manor house near Bradford-on-Avon in Wiltshire.

Its outdoor pool has lovely views across the countryside (doubles from £139pn; woolleygrangehotel.co.uk).

The pool setting at Rudds, a boutique b&b overlooking Lulworth Cove in Dorset, is remarkable. If you fancy a bigger swim, you can just amble down to the beach. It’s not for families: no children under 16 (doubles from £185pn; ruddslulworth.co.uk).

Ockenden Manor Hotel is a ten-minute taxi ride from Haywards Heath in West Sussex.

Children are welcome, but they can swim in the pool only at certain times of day (doubles from £239pn; hshotels.co.uk).

SOURCE: FINANCIAL TIMES

SOURCE: THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

SOURCES: T3/THE INDEPENDEN NT

▲

Red Paddle Vo oyager Best su uited to ex xperienced, tallerr pa addlers, this inflatable bl board b d is ideal for longer outings. It sh hould stay stable in all conditions; it has a tensioned carrgo system, useful for camping kit; and is long enough for a child or d dog to sit at the front (£1,199; supiinflatables.co.uk).

Obituaries

39

Writer whose affair with Tony Hancock caused a scandal Joan, and in 1965, they divorced. Gallantly, he To the general public, Joan agreed to be cited as the adulterous partner, to Le Mesurier, who has died aged 90, was best known for protect Jacques from negative publicity. the “doomed but passionate” Joan loved her husband. “I felt as if I had put relationship she had with the comedian Tony Hancock, while she was married to his friend on a comfortable old coat,” she said of their John Le Mesurier. The Dad’s Army star was relationship. But when she met Hancock – who was then a huge star, but battling depression not dissimilar to the affable and diffident character he played in the show, said The Times. and chronic alcoholism – it sparked something When his second wife, the actress Hattie different. In her memoir, she described an Jacques, had installed her lover in their home, intense attraction that she’d found irresistible.

Their affair, which began six months after her he’d responded by simply moving to the spare room. He didn’t walk out, he explained, as he wedding, when John was filming in Paris, caused a scandal. Some damned Joan as a loved his wife, and he hoped the damage could be repaired. He took a “similarly forbearing” shameless adventuress, others thought she was Hancock’s “best and only hope” of beating his approach to this fresh, double betrayal. “He didn’t get angry,” Joan recalled. “It would have demons. Her husband seems to have taken the latter view. However, having been married to been so much easier if he had. He just walked a violent alcoholic himself before the War, he up and down hugging himself, and then he was worried about her: Hancock was parawept.” Later, when Hancock’s drinking, and their shared guilt, made Joan miserable, he Joan and John: ultimately “steadfast” noid, jealous, and often vicious when drunk. became her confidant. “I was steadfastly in love and John steadfastly loved us both,” she wrote, in a memoir.

Eventually, Hancock urged Joan to go back to her husband, for her own safety. John welcomed her home; but he knew the affair Joan Long was born in 1931, and brought up in Ramsgate. After was ongoing, so he was relieved when Hancock got a job on a leaving school at 14, she worked in fairgrounds, then trained as a sitcom in Australia. Then news came that the comic had killed dental nurse. In 1953, she married Mark Eden, who went on to himself, aged 44, and he was heartbroken. As for Joan, she was star in Coronation Street. They had a son but the marriage didn’t hysterical, and went to stay with a friend in Spain. It was Jacques last, and in 1960 she moved to London and found an evening job who persuaded her to go home to John. By the time she did, he had been cast in Dad’s Army, and was becoming a major star in a theatre bar. After work one night, she was invited to go on to Peter Cook’s Establishment Club, where she met Le Mesurier. He of British TV. But it all came too late, said Christopher Stevens. was 20 years her senior, and still living unhappily with Jacques.

Years of drinking had taken their toll, and his health was shaky.

He adored the Carry On star, and their two children, said Joan never stopped loving Hancock, but she cared for John for 15 Christopher Stevens in the Daily Mail, but he’d long struggled years, until his death from cirrhosis aged 71. After that, she wrote to keep up with Jacques, both professionally and personally, and a book about her affair with Hancock called Lady Don’t Fall when he wasn’t away filming, he had resorted to propping up Backwards, which was later turned into a BBC drama, and a biography of Le Mesurier, called Dear John. In her home in various bars, while she entertained her friends at their home.

Having taken a lover herself, Jacques encouraged his affair with Ramsgate, she kept photographs of both men, side by side.

Joan Le Mesurier 1931-2021

Secretary who worked for Winston Churchill Doreen Pugh, who has died said The Daily Telegraph. Her original Doreen Pugh aged 96, worked as Winston contract was for a month. In the event, she 1925-2021 Churchill’s secretary for the stayed for the rest of his life. Many of her last ten years of his life, said duties revolved around his love for animals.

The Times – a job that required hard work He’d once been given a lion, Rota, which he and considerable patience. One of a team who liked to visit at London Zoo; he also liked visiting the pigs at Chartwell. And on longer were on call 24 hours a day, she took dictation from the former PM when he was in bed, in car journeys, she often had to contend with the bath, and even in the car: she recalled once the presence of his budgie Toby, out of his writing up his notes as they sped to Chequers cage, and “fussing about and chewing edges to discuss the Suez crisis with Anthony Eden, of papers and generally enjoying himself”. his successor as PM. It was very difficult, she Churchill liked to take Toby everywhere, said, but Churchill was “terribly helpful” in which made foreign trips complicated. Once, Pugh with Churchill in 1963 handing her pencils. Her other duties ranged in France, he decided it would be nice for from dealing with his correspondence (there were a few Toby to meet another bird and arranged for a visit by “some “maddies” who wrote often) to fixing his dogs’ haircuts and young virgin budgies” in a clear breach of French regulations. washing his paintbrushes. She often worked 13-hour days, and at “Anthony Eden was terribly upset,” she recalled. first was allowed only two weeks holiday a year: it never occurred to Churchill that his staff had “other lives” (unlike Lady As Churchill started to lose his hearing, he became gloomy at Churchill, who loved to hear about their romantic adventures). times, she said, but he was always good at “putting on the right But despite the job’s trials, Pugh soon grew fond of her boss and face”. She was away when he suffered his final stroke, in January she became a staunch defender of his legacy.

1965, but was called back. “We were all there in those last few days... and Lady Churchill sat with him sweetly so long. And the Doreen Pugh was born in Leamington Spa in 1925. Her father cat on the end of the bed.” In his will, he left her £650, the was the director of ATCO, the lawnmower manufacturer; her equivalent of more than £13,000 today. She kept in touch with mother had been a secretary. She trained as a secretary after the Churchill family for many years; helped the National Trust leaving school, and was recruited to join Churchill’s staff in May when it opened Chartwell to the public; and collaborated with 1955, in the unhappy period just after he’d stood down as PM, Martin Gilbert on the final volume of his biography of Churchill.

7 August 2021 THE WEEK

Marketplace

40

A New Challenge?

Unique Access to Confidential Opportunities InterExec is the global leader in enabling Top Executives to access £200k to £2m+ unadvertised vacancies worldwide.

We act discreetly through a 15,000 strong international network. london@interexec.net www.interexec.net +44 (0)20 7256 5085

FABRICS, FURNITURE AND HOME FURNISHINGS

DESIGN WITH A CONSCIENCE Beautiful collections of British-made eco-friendly fabrics and wallpapers, influenced by Vanessa’s rural way of life and the surrounding countryside.

Available by the metre online.

Along with a made to measure service by local makers using traditional methods.

SHOWROOM APPOINTMENTS, BROWSING & VIRTUAL DESIGN CONSULTATIONS Visit our website or call the showroom to book.

Love In The New Normal

CONTACTS

01285 831437 enquiries@vanessaarbuthnott.co.uk VanessaArbuthnottFabrics vanessa_arbuthnott_fabrics vafabrics

vanessaarbuthnott.co.uk THE WEEK 7 August 2021

E XCLUSIVELY S AME S EX R ELATIONSHIPS

bloomandcadogan.com

To advertise here please email classified@theweek.co.uk or call Henry Haselock 020 3890 3900

CITY Companies in the news ...and how they were assessed

CITY 41

Bankers’ pay: bonuses and burnout

What’s the easiest way to make post-Brexit London more attractive than Frankfurt, Paris or Dublin? Try axing the bonus cap, said Katherine Griffiths in The Times. Egged on by bank chiefs, the Treasury has been considering ditching EU rules that limit annual payouts to “a maximum of two times salary”. For the moment, the Chancellor is taking no chances, said the FT. Wary of “a political elephant trap”, Rishi Sunak is resisting pressure to use “post-Brexit regulatory freedoms” to enrich bankers. That, however, might change. The Treasury’s long-standing view is that the rule, introduced in 2014, is flawed. Bankers’ pay has begun rocketing again – with or without a bonus cap. Last week, Goldman Sachs became “the last of the big US investment banks” to raise base salaries for junior staff – to $110,000 in their first year, said The New York Times. It hopes to head off an exodus to private equity or tech groups after junior staff complained about “burnout”. The mood is less accommodating on this side of the pond, said The Times. In an interview last weekend, former London Stock Exchange chief Xavier Rolet remarked that “entitled” junior bankers should stop moaning and think of the poor.

Morrisons: Amazon in the wings?

The “tense bidding war” for Morrisons between two private equity groups has sent shares to their highest level since 2013, said Tom Witherow in the Daily Mail. They’re now trading well above the 254p bid tabled by a consortium led by Fortress last month, backed by the Bradford-based grocer’s board. Investors are anticipating a fresh offer from Clayton Dubilier & Rice. The rising price might please some shareholders, but it’s worrying those who want to keep Morrisons intact. Bernstein analysts said they “struggled to see the returns… without significant asset sales”, even under the current offer. A further rise would increase pressure to sell food factories, warehouses, supermarkets and petrol stations. “We may have seen nothing yet,” said Matthew Lynn in The Sunday Telegraph. There are rumours that Amazon, which already has a delivery tie-up with Morrisons, is “waiting in the wings” with an offer. “If so, the political and media backlash would be ferocious” – and short-sighted. “A takeover by the retail titan would electrify the British grocery market, forcing everyone to raise their game.”

Credit Suisse: fishy smell

Bad news for Credit Suisse as it “struggles to shake off a succession of crises” including its role in the Greensill and Archegos scandals, said Owen Walker and Stephen Morris in the FT. A London High Court judge has ruled that the Swiss bank must face trial over an eight-year-old “tuna bonds” scandal. The case stems from a 2013 deal to arrange $2bn of loans and bond issues for Mozambique, ostensibly to fund projects including “a state tuna fishery”, which were “partly concealed” from the IMF and other donors. When the loans were discovered in 2016, these bodies “promptly cut off support” – impoverishing “what was once one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies”. Auditors later found that $500m of the money raised had disappeared. Investors including Banco Comercial Português and United Bank for Africa allege “fraud and conspiracy” and are seeking damages from the bank, which blamed three former employees for the affair. It has plenty of time to prepare its defence: the trial has been scheduled for September 2023.

Seven days in the Square Mile Global stocks pushed close to all-time highs again as optimism about improved corporate earnings trumped pandemic concerns and inflation worries. Markets in Asia continued to rebound, despite another crackdown on gaming stocks by the Chinese authorities which wiped 11%, or $60bn, off the value of Tencent on Monday. The company responded by pledging to curb children’s access to its most popular video games to one hour a day in its domestic market, and blocking under12s from spending money within games.

The Bank of England was predicted to unveil the biggest price shock for more than a decade. Analysts were braced for an inflation forecast of 4% in the final quarter of 2021 – a massive increase on the Bank’s May estimate of just 2.5%. The RAC reported that, after nine straight months of rises, UK petrol prices have reached an eight-year high, averaging 135.13p a litre.

Pfizer reported that its Covid vaccine had brought in $7.8bn in revenue in the last quarter and is on track to generate $33.5bn this year. Pfizer and Moderna both raised the price of their vaccines in their latest contracts with the EU. Digital payments platform Square agreed to take over the Australian firm Afterpay for $29bn (A$39bn) – the biggest buyout in the country’s history. Huawei’s former finance director, Meng Wanzhou, began a three-week defence against extradition from Canada to the US on fraud charges.

Meggitt: worth defending in the national interest?

Having remained silent while “great swathes of Britain’s aerospace and defence industries” disappeared “into private equity and overseas hands”, ministers have apparently decided “enough is enough”, said Alex Brummer in the Daily Mail. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng is considering intervening in a £6.3bn bid (including debt) for the Coventry engineering firm Meggitt by its US rival, Parker Hannifin. The move is timely: two other UK defence firms – Ultra Electronics and Senior Engineering – “are also under siege”. It’s time to draw a line.

in The Times. “The PM keeps saying Britain is ‘open for business’. If it is, it would be political sabotage to ground [this] deal.”

Yes, Meggitt supplies the Ministry of Defence (though that accounts for a tiny percentage of sales). But so too does Parker, which is promising “a whopping 70% premium” to Meggitt’s share price, with “generous offers” to maintain R&D spending and headcount, said Ed Cropley on Reuters Breakingviews.

All in all, not much to moan about.

What the size of the deal actually shows, said Nils Pratley in The Guardian, is that UK investors have again been “guilty of seriously undervaluing a FTSE 250 industrial company”. Parker, it is true, may well be a better steward of Meggitt “than most potential suitors”, yet most of its “promises” are time-limited and smack of gesturing. “If Kwarteng is minded to do more than twiddle his thumbs”, he needs “to secure commitments that don’t evaporate”.

Meggitt supplies Rolls-Royce

Meggitt dates back to 1850, when its founders invented the world’s first altimeter for hot air balloons. But there’s a lot more at stake than nostalgia, said Ben Marlow in The Daily Telegraph.

Its components are used in Rolls-Royce engines and F-35 fighters.

Losing “another significant slice” of our defence industry would be “an act of serious self-harm”. Nonsense, said Alistair Osborne

7 August 2021 THE WEEK

Talking points

42 CITY

Issue of the week: Robinhood’s market debut The disruptive app has hit the public markets it seeks to democratise. It could be a wild ride Robinhood marched its merry men to Tesla, and cryptocurrencies such as dogecoin, to all-time highs – and brought Wall Street last week in one of Nasdaq’s biggest IPOs in years, valuing the discussion about financial markets “back disruptive online brokerage at $32bn, to dinner tables across the US”. But its said James Phillipps on Citywire. It was progress has also been “pockmarked by a fittingly “unconventional listing”: the crisis and scandal”. Robinhood’s role in company offered a third of its shares the January trading frenzy around the to its own customers. Hundreds of “meme stock” GameStop has come thousands signed up, only to see it flop. under congressional scrutiny. And it has Shares fell by over 8% on the first day – faced fines and regulatory investigations a “limp opening” in “stark contrast” for everything from lousy customer with Robinhood’s “stratospheric growth support to designing game-like features since the start of the pandemic”, during that inspire customers to compulsively which it has “won over an army of fans, check the app. “It’s easy to make positive speeches about democratising finance particularly among younger investors”, doubling its customer base to 31 million. when everything is going up,” observes Shares in the outfit, which offers equity, economist Patrick Krizan of Allianz. “It Bhatt and Tenev: “revitalised” day trading cryptocurrency and options trading as will be more interesting to see how well as cash management, have since bounced back well above the people behave when we democratise the downturn.” $38 float price, said Maggie Fitzgerald on CNBC.com. They Perhaps Robinhood’s greatest contribution has been the surged by more than 24% on Tuesday confirming, belatedly, the market’s faith in Robinhood’s mission “to democratise” finance. “laudable” way it pioneered lower costs for investors, said The Economist. “For a time, the big retail brokers ignored the plucky upstart”, but after “a quick, brutal price war”, they all surrenThe company, founded by Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt in 2013, dered. There are plenty of caveats, said Matt Schifrin and Antoine has “revitalised” a type of day trading last seen in the dotcom bubble at the turn of the century, said the FT. Robinhood’s pitch Gara in Forbes. But “Robinhood’s long-term success and legacy” will depend on whether the good it is achieving – disrupting Wall to investors – that everyone, not just the giants of Wall Street, should have access to the US stock market – has “become Street and introducing millions of newcomers to investing – marketing folklore”. Investors on its app have sent stocks like “outweighs the negative effects and risks”. The jury’s still out.

Investing in wine: what the experts think

By contrast, prices of Europe’s best Climate change has investment wines have shifted the boundaries been rocketing, said of wine production in Katie Souter on the Europe and North investment site Vin-X. America, said Patrick “In a buoyant market, Temple-West in the the leading wines have FT. Canada, for delivered 25-35% example, has made growth in the first six “big strides as a pinot months” – led by pink noir producer”; and champagne, according Chapel Down: scaling up production Britain, along with to the fine wine other countries like marketplace Live-Ex, which places Louis Denmark, is now part of Europe’s Roederer Cristal, Rosé 2008 at the top of “northern wine frontier”. That is already its top ten list. Champagne may be fizzing, affecting drinking and investment trends, said Lucy White in the Daily Mail. Sales of but “the key observation” from the list is that price increases and returns “are being Chapel Down, England’s largest sparkling enjoyed across all regions and at an wine producer, have been on a roll, impressive level”. Investors should ensure prompting the Kent-based firm – which is they “adopt a similar regional composition listed on “the challenger stock exchange”, when planning their portfolio”.

Aquis – to scale up production and open a new, larger winery. “I used to say we were a pimple on the backside of the champagne ● Red tape victory elephant,” said CEO Frazer Thompson, The Government’s decision to scrap a who is leaving this week after two decades costly piece of “Brexit red tape” has given leading the business. “Now I think we’re the UK trade a welcome filip, said Richard more of a festering boil.”

Woodard on Decanter.com. The move to junk compulsory “VI-1 certificates” on ● In the pink imports was dubbed “a fantastic outcome” Chapel Down investors with more than

by The Wine and Spirit Trade Association, 2,000 shares (currently worth around which had warned that the forms – £1,200) get a third off the price of wine “plus the need for lab tests on wine” – bought through its website – perhaps would bring imports from the EU “to easing the disappointment of the a standstill”. Avoiding that disaster is company’s flat shares in recent years. certainly something to toast. ● Northern frontier

THE WEEK 7 August 2021

Meta-versity challenge Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg wants to turn the social networking giant into a “metaverse company”, said Daniel Broby on The Conversation. What on earth does that mean?

What is the metaverse? The term is a description of how the internet might evolve into a virtual world – “a 3D virtual living space, where individuals dip in and out, interacting with each other in real time”. The idea was first advanced in 1992 by the American novelist Neal Stephenson in his sci-fi classic Snow Crash.

When can we expect it? Many in Silicon Valley are working towards the metaverse. But Facebook appears the most committed. Zuckerberg expects Facebook to make the transition “within the next five years”.

What are the chances? Facebook has a head start because it also owns VR headset maker Oculus – and other apps such as WhatsApp and Instagram, providing “unbeatable” insights into how people behave online. Still, the real challenge is making a success of “immersive realism” – creating the feeling of being in space with others.

Is this a game-changer? It could be.

“Imagine a computer game with 2.9 billion avatars”, representing real people, combined with AI that harvests “all known information on them”. The possibilities are endless.

Commentators What are the chances of cryptocalypse?

Editorial The Economist

A welcome jolt to the charging network Lex Financial Times

The great landgrab in luxury goods Carol Ryan The Wall Street Journal

A Fringe flop would be no joke Tom Rees The Sunday Telegraph

The rapid expansion of the “crypto-universe” has created a new disaster scenario, says The Economist. What would happen if the price of bitcoin (now around $40,000) crashed “to zero”? How would it affect the mainstream financial system? Such an extreme scenario is unlikely, even given the e-currency’s “wild gyrations”.

But it could happen, if the technology failed or a big exchange was hacked. And modelling it is a useful way of grasping how “entwined” crypto markets have become with conventional ones.

In the event of a total crash, “perhaps $2trn might be lost” from the “first shock wave”, with the big losses falling on hedge funds, university endowments and mutual funds. “Contagion” might then spread “through several channels” – via leveraged derivatives based on crypto, and via “stablecoins” pegged to mainstream currencies, now “the main means of exchange” on crypto platforms. There could also be a big hit to “broader” market sentiment. A lot would have to go wrong to produce such a shock. But one thing is clear: as the “cryptosphere” grows, so does its potential to cause “general market turmoil”.

The mass transition to electric vehicles is being hampered by a “chicken and egg problem”, says Lex. “Motorists are reluctant to buy EVs when there is no extensive public charging network.” But building one is complex – it needs buy-in from power companies, landlords and equipment makers. Carmakers such as Volkswagen and BMW are ploughing in funds amid welcome signs of cooperation: “in a surprise move, Elon Musk has signalled plans to open up Tesla’s charging network to other EVs”. But there are now only about 25,000 charging stations in the UK: “about one for every 20 EVs”, barely a tenth of the number needed by 2030 when new petrol and diesel cars are banned. The Government’s move “to give a jolt” to a competitive national charging network is therefore timely. The £950m Rapid Charging Fund should encourage more competition. As things stand, Electric Highway, part of the privately owned Gridserve, “has an 80% stranglehold at motorway service stations”. With everything to play for in a rapidly consolidating market, there’s bound to be “plenty of activity” to occupy the competition authorities in the years ahead.

The pandemic has proved a “bonanza” for Europe’s big listed luxury groups, which are racing past their pre-Covid sales figures, says Carol Ryan. Sales at Cartier-owner Richemont, LVMH and Kering have all rocketed and, last week, Birkin handbag-maker Hermès reported first-half revenues “one-third higher than in the equivalent period of 2019”. These firms are chasing a growing market. Consultants at Bain think the global spend could be 5% larger than it was in 2019, which “may prove conservative” if hoarded savings and cash normally spent on travelling pours into luxury brands. The fact that the big groups are expanding their sales at multiples of that 5% rate hints at “a massive land grab”.

Some smaller listed brands – such as Moncler, Burberry and Prada – are “holding their own”, but “they are exceptions”; “plenty of privately owned brands”, such as Etro, Jil Sander and Christian Louboutin, have had to sell big stakes during the crisis. When it comes to luxury stocks, “top quality no longer comes in small or discrete packages” – the pandemic has only accelerated that trend.

The world’s largest arts festival, The Edinburgh Fringe, is returning this year, but as “a shadow of its former self”, says Tom Rees. “The city’s labyrinth of tiny makeshift venues” means many events are impossible if even minor Covid restrictions are in place after Scotland’s expected “freedom day” on 9 August. Tensions are rising. Business leaders and the festival’s organisers “have repeatedly voiced their frustration” at the Scottish government’s “slow removal of rules”, and concern is growing about “the toll that another bad year will take on the city’s economy”. The Centre for Economics and Business Research estimates that the pre-Covid Fringe boosted Edinburgh’s GDP by just over a £1bn in August, “between a third and half” of the city’s output. Many local businesses – notably cafés, bars and restaurants – have been sunk by the loss of revenue. It isn’t just Scotland that will suffer from a second Fringe flop. Given the festival’s proud history of forging new careers and productions, the impact will be felt across the UK’s wider culture sector “long after Covid is defeated”.

CITY 43 City profile Jay Hambro Sanjeev Gupta – the metals tycoon “battling to maintain control” of his GFG Alliance empire following the collapse of his main lender, Greensill Capital – has lost “one of his closest and most senior lieutenants”, said Bloomberg. Jay Hambro, 45, has quit following a row over a deal to sell two big European aluminium plants to the US private equity group American Industrial Partners. Hambro had planned on moving to AIP to manage the plants. Stung by his protégé’s “willingness to jump ship” and the relatively low price offered by AIP, Gupta rejected the bid.

The rift robs Gupta of a righthand man whose “deep” establishment connections “opened doors to politicians and global banks”, said the FT. A scion of the historic London banking dynasty, the tall, “physically imposing” Old Harrovian “grew up steeped in the tight-knit worlds of finance and mining” – taking jobs at Rothschilds and HSBC before joining Petropavlovsk, the Russia-focused gold miner co-founded by his father Peter. He reportedly joined Gupta in 2016 because “he wanted to emerge from his father’s shadow”. And he was quickly hailed as the “ultimate salesman”, masterminding GFG’s acquisition of Wyelands Bank and sweet-talking national leaders. GFG now faces a Serious Fraud Office inquiry and Hambro’s reputation, like Gupta’s, is “on the line”. The knives are already out in Westminster.

One former government minister called him a “consummate namedropper”, and said: “I suspect that he is not as clever as he thinks.”

7 August 2021 THE WEEK

SCOTTISH MORTGAGE INVESTMENT TRUST

We invest in profound change, disruptive technologies and big ideas.

Not just the stock market.

We don’t see Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust as simply trading stocks on the world’s markets. We see our role as seeking out those genuinely innovative businesses that are shaping the future. We call it investing in progress. And by using our skills as actual investors, not simply stock traders, we believe we can deliver strong returns for your portfolio.

Please remember that changing stock market conditions and currency exchange rates will affect the value of the investment in the fund and any income from it.

Investors may not get back the amount invested.

Find out more by watching our film at scottishmortgageit.com A Key Information Document is available. Call 0800 917 2112.

Actual Investors

Your call may be recorded for training or monitoring purposes. Issued and approved by Baillie Gifford & Co Limited, whose registered address is at Calton Square, 1 Greenside Row, Edinburgh, EH1 3AN, United Kingdom. Baillie Gifford & Co Limited is the authorised Alternative Investment Fund Manager and Company Secretary of the Trust. Baillie Gifford & Co Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. The investment trusts managed by Baillie Gifford & Co Limited are listed UK companies and are not authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Shares

CITY 45

Who’s tipping what The week’s best shares FirstGroup Citywire The rail and bus operator is on track for recovery, but this isn’t reflected in the valuation, says Liberum, which sets a 105p target. The market has overlooked the growth potential in UK transport. Buy. 84.3p.

Croda International Investors Chronicle The acquisitive chemicals company, which makes lipid nanoparticles used to deliver mRNA vaccines, has filed a “record” first half. Strong demand for Covid-related products is backed by growth in cosmetics and crop additives. Buy. £82.52.

Games Workshop Group The Times The hobby shop chain behind Warhammer has delivered a stellar 1,500% return over six years. Accelerating international sales and an army of loyal hobbyists suggest “much more to come”.

Heading for the FTSE 100.

Buy. £111.40.

Microsoft The Times The software giant has trounced revenue expectations for a tenth consecutive quarter, driven by its Azure intelligent cloud business. Priced for higher growth than peers, but “outsized expectations” seem credible. Buy. $286.24.

Zoo Digital The Sunday Times Hired by major film studios and streamers to translate content into different languages, Zoo is piggybacking their push into global markets.

Massive content budgets at Netflix, Amazon and Disney bode well. Buy. 137.6p.

Berkeley Group 5,000

4,750

4,500

CEO buys 65,000

4,250

4,000

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Hitherto mainly a seller this year, the housebuilder’s CEO Rob Perrins splashed out almost £3m on shares in July – timing his purchase neatly.

Perrins, who started at the firm in 1994, now owns 0.9% of the shares, worth nearly £50m.

…and some to hold, avoid or sell

Form guide

Breedon Group Investors Chronicle UK construction is growing at its fastest rate in 24 years – a boon to this building materials group. Well set to continue, but a forward rating of 26 times forecast earnings suggests the market is up to speed.

Hold. 109p.

Fidelity China Special Situations The Daily Telegraph Beijing’s corporate crackdown has dragged the trust’s shares down a third since February.

Yet the market is strong and fund manager Dale Nicholls is “adept” at finding “exciting” companies. Hold. 360p.

RELX The Times The business information and publishing group behind The Lancet and Cell is a consistent performer and rising dividend payer, taking steps to improve “undramatic” organic growth.

A solid long-term play.

Hold. £20.92.

Capco Investors Chronicle The West End landlord reports increased enquiries, transactions and footfall since non-essential shops re-opened, but the outlook is uncertain.

The end of state support and the shift online could accelerate vacancies. Sell. 168.3p.

Moonpig Investors Chronicle “Priced-to-perfection” shares in the e-greeting card company fell 10% on its maiden results.

The “pandemic boost” is unwinding as shops re-open and debt has hit £115m. “One to watch – but we remain neutral for now.” Hold. 392p.

Spire Healthcare The Times Shares in the indie hospital group have retained some heat following a failed takeover attempt by rival Ramsay.

Yet the still “undemanding” valuation shows the market doesn’t much rate Spire’s profit potential. Hold. 223p.

Shares tipped 12 weeks ago Best tip Reach The Times up 72.28% to 404p Worst tip Smith & Nephew The Daily Telegraph down 10.28% to £14.07

Market view “It’s the height of irresponsibility to give Chinese stocks a second chance.”

Pundit Jim Cramer urges investors not to buy the dip. Quoted on CNBC.com

Market summary Key numbers for investors FTSE 100 FTSE All-share UK Dow Jones NASDAQ Nikkei 225 Hang Seng Gold Brent Crude Oil DIVIDEND YIELD (FTSE 100) UK 10-year gilts yield US 10-year Treasuries UK ECONOMIC DATA Latest CPI (yoy) Latest RPI (yoy) Halifax house price (yoy) £1 STERLING

3 Aug 2021 7105.72 4074.79 35019.30 14717.31 27641.83 26194.82 1811.45 72.50 3.27% 0.52 1.17

Best and worst performing shares Week before 6996.08 4010.29 34991.02 14581.67 27970.22 25086.43 1800.20 74.23 3.12% 0.56 1.24

2.5% (Jun) 3.9% (Jun) 8.8% (Jun)

$1.394 E1.174 ¥152.146

2.1% (May) 3.3% (May) 9.5% (May)

Change (%) 1.57% 1.61% 0.08% 0.93% –1.17% 4.42% 0.62% –2.33%

WEEK’S CHANGE, FTSE 100 STOCKS RISES Price % change 838.40 +11.19 Fresnillo 3393.00 +10.43 Anglo American 567.00 +8.29 Rentokil Initial 723.40 +7.84 Rightmove 1594.00 +5.70 St James’s Place FALLS Smiths Group Weir Group Smith & Nephew ITV Ashtead Group

1414.50 1700.00 1409.50 112.50 5312.00

–10.98 –10.64 –7.36 –5.74 –5.65

BEST AND WORST UK STOCKS OVERALL 732.00 +61.10 Meggitt 225.00 –13.50 Convatec

Source: Datastream/FT (not adjusted for dividends). Prices on 3 Aug (pm)

Following the Footsie 7,200 7,100 7,000 6,900 6,800 6,700 6,600 6,500

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

6-month movement in the FTSE 100 index

7 August 2021 THE WEEK

SOURCES: SHARES/INVESTOPEDIA

Carlsberg The Daily Telegraph The craft beer movement has re-energised the whole market, and the Danish brewer is set to benefit. Chawton Global Investors predicts “double-digit profit growth” in coming years. Buy. Dkr 1,169.5.

Directors’ dealings

The last word

46

How private schools lost their grip on Oxbridge As state-school admissions rise at elite universities, some parents who shelled out for private education have come to regret it. Brooke Masters reports “Five years ago, my son would have got a place at Oxford. But now the bar has shifted and he didn’t,” says my friend, a City of London executive who has put several children through elite private schools in Britain.

“I think he got shortchanged.”

concerned for their child’s future, but complaining about a loss of privilege comes across as tone deaf.

At Eton, attended by 20 UK prime ministers including the current one, the number of Oxbridge offers dropped from 99 in 2014 to 48 this year. At King’s I’ve been hearing this College, Wimbledon, more and more from fellow parents with kids offers have fallen by at top day and boarding nearly half in two years to 27, as The schools in recent years.

Sunday Times reported Some of it sounds like in February. Both whining: most of us schools still sit near like to think the best of the top of the national our progeny. But my league tables for total friend has a point. After offers. But their students years of hand-wringing are finding it harder about unequal access to to get in, rankling elite higher education, parents who shell admissions standards are The University of Oxford: seeking “the most able, not the best prepared” out up to £28,000 finally shifting. a year for day school or £44,000 for boarding.

A decade ago, parents who handed over tens of thousands of The anger of wealthy, mostly white parents about losing the pounds a year for the likes of Eton College, St Paul’s School or King’s College School in Wimbledon could comfortably advantages they expected to be able to buy their children is part of a broader pattern of status anxiety among some sections assume their kids had a very good chance of attending Oxford or Cambridge, two of the best universities in the world. A 2018 of the British and American upper classes. It is out of step with reality: children from such backgrounds will typically Sutton Trust study showed that just eight institutions, six of enjoy greater opportunities and financial security throughout them private, accounted for more Oxbridge places than 2,900 their lives. other UK secondary schools combined. When the headmaster of Westminster School boasted at an open evening that half the Nevertheless, the potency of this anxiety was on display in the sixth form went on to Oxbridge, approving murmurs filled the US during 2019’s “Varsity Blues” admissions scandal, when wood-panelled hall. (I was there.) actors and private equity giants were jailed for trying But growing anger about “At St Paul’s, I heard one grouchy father press to buy their kids into Yale and inequality, rising applications from an improved state sector Stanford, among others, with the high master to explain how he would and a flood of international faked entrance test results and protect the boys from ‘social engineering’” students have prompted Oxford counterfeit athletic skills. and Cambridge to rethink. They give more credit to students who have overcome barriers on “When you have something that is very valuable to people, their way to top grades. This means that fewer middling private the system gets distorted,” says Daniel Markovits, a Yale school students who have been groomed to excel at interviews law professor and author of The Meritocracy Trap. “Attending are getting in. these universities makes a difference in people’s income and status ... The parents see how much it costs them to live in “We want to select the academically most able – the really the neighbourhoods they live in and send children to private strong candidates versus those that are average but have been schools, and they realise that their children will be in the well-prepared,” says Dr Samina Khan, Oxford’s director of same bind.” undergraduate admissions. This is surely fair. But it also means that hothouse independent schools are losing their edge. At For decades, some UK private schools traded on their high St Paul’s, I heard one grouchy father press the high master Oxbridge admission rate to help justify their astronomical and to explain how he would protect the boys there from “social constantly rising fees. If that bargain no longer stands, what are engineering”. they selling parents instead?

What should parents do when a policy that is good for society seems bad for their kids? I feel genuine sympathy for anyone THE WEEK 7 August 2021

“Knowing what I know now, I would absolutely reconsider my decision” to choose elite boarding schools, the City

The last word

© STORMSY

executive tells me. “The fees are absolutely out of whack with reality.” He even worries that he has disadvantaged his offspring.

At his global workplace, he says, applicants who attended top independent schools are treated with a “certain amount of sniffiness. ‘Oh those guys got such a good education, of course they did well. We need someone hungrier.’”

47 inspire rapper Stormzy to fully fund two scholarships for black students at Cambridge.

Several of the elite UK private schools were established in the late Middle Ages to provide free schooling to gifted boys from poorer backgrounds.

Over the centuries, fee-paying pupils became more numerous and they took off as training grounds for the establishment and the administration of the British Empire.

Another parent, who attended Oxford but saw an EtonToday, private schools educate educated son rejected, frets that attending a top independent 6.5% of UK children, but school “has become a label that Stormzy (centre): funded Cambridge scholarships for black students as recently as five years ago stays with you for life and it’s they accounted for 42% of Oxford’s domestic intake and 37% at Cambridge. Since then, not a good label. It clearly means that when they are applying for university or jobs, they are at a disadvantage unless they are the private school share has fallen sharply, but it is still three truly brilliant.” in ten. That has sparked resentment among fee-paying parents without assuaging diversity campaigners.

Dr Sam Lucy, an archaeologist who specialises in Roman “It catches parents in a dilemma,” says Mark Bailey, a former and Anglo-Saxon Britain, has served as an admissions tutor high master of St Paul’s who now lectures at the University of at Cambridge since 2009. She has little truck with parents who claim their children are getting the short end of the stick.

East Anglia. “They may be committed to broad notions of social “Nobody is entitled to get into Cambridge. You have to earn justice in the workplace and society, yet here is a situation where your place by being serious about your subject and going above that aspiration cuts against them.” and beyond the school curriculum. No one should expect to get in, but if they do, they will have deserved it.”

Independent-school parents point out that state-private ratios that compare Oxbridge offers to the total stock of UK students Now director of admissions, Lucy has been asked so many times are misleading. Oxford and Cambridge generally won’t look at students unless they have at least three A or A* grades at why smart students are getting turned down that she carries a chart that illustrates what has changed. Since 1981, annual A-level, and private schools churned out one of every four of applications to Cambridge have risen from just under 5,000 them before the pandemic. to 20,426 last year.

Those results are a key reason “Since 1981, annual applications to parents shell out school fees.

Highly selective state sixth forms such as Harris Cambridge have risen from just under 5,000 “Why the heck would anyone ever pay the thick end of half Westminster and Brampton to 20,426 last year” a million quid per child (aged Manor Academy in London have sprung up, partly to 4-18) pre-tax to send them to prepare children from disadvantaged backgrounds for Oxbridge private school if it didn’t give them seriously better grades than and other top universities. They not only produce students with someone equally bright who went state?” asked one person on high exam scores and impressive essays, but also train them for Mumsnet, the parenting forum. interviews, an area where posh schools have long excelled.

Within the pool of high-achieving applicants, the Oxbridge In 2021, 55 students at Brampton Manor secured conditional colleges now rely on “contextual admissions” that look at Oxbridge offers, exceeding Eton’s 48; most have ethnic minority how students have arrived at their top marks. “If someone has backgrounds, receive free school meals or were the first in their done really well despite being in care, that tells you something about their ability,” says Oxford’s Khan. “State schools are family to apply for university. Cambridge and Oxford have also doing so much better, particularly in London. We are getting had a big increase in overseas applications. much stronger candidates than we used to. It is getting more competitive for everyone.”

Meanwhile, the two universities, which promise small-group teaching by dons, and rooms in ancient stone quadrangles, Few private-school parents openly dispute the need for this have not expanded appreciably. That means it is roughly four approach. They just hate the impact on their own children. times harder now to get one of the 6,800 places than it was “I agree we need social justice, but the problem needs to be when today’s parents were applying. “That’s the mismatch in fixed much earlier,” says a St Paul’s mother, who has donated expectations. Parents say, ‘I got in and you are as clever as me. generously to bursary funds that bring less-privileged boys to Why haven’t they made you an offer?’” Lucy says. the school. “These [private school] kids are all really bright and it is unfair to penalise them at this point.”

Outside the wealthiest sections of British society, the main critique of Oxbridge admissions is about too little inclusion, Of course, not all parents who choose private schools do so not too much. Some Cambridge colleges failed to admit a single expecting their kids will win a top university place. Many are black student between 2012 and 2016, and most state-sector drawn by their exceptional facilities and low student-to-staff students historically came from selective grammar schools or ratios. “We never had set in our mind that our kids would be wealthy areas. going to Oxbridge or an equivalent,” says Catherine May, who sent two boys to City of London School. “I’ve loved that we “The upper classes have a vice-like grip on Oxford admissions have well-rounded children and we were very grateful for the that they will not willingly give up,” Labour MP David Lammy excellent pastoral leadership.” proclaimed in 2018 as he led a campaign for change that helped 7 August 2021 THE WEEK

48 I attended one of the US’s elite private schools 35 years ago.

I and roughly half of the class went on to Harvard and the rest of the Ivy League. These days, the school is still a top Ivy feeder, but that share is down below 30%. Most of Harvard’s undergraduate class is non-white (reflecting the US high-school population) and 55% of undergraduates receive financial aid.

The last word For independent schools, the growing emphasis on international admissions is all part of the expertise they sell. Consider their mastery of the Oxbridge admissions process, which requires students to apply to a specific college for a specific subject. The elite independent schools maximise acceptance numbers by dispersing applications away from the most oversubscribed subjects and colleges. That helped give the strongest schools an Oxbridge success rate of at least 33% last year.

But there are two dirty little secrets that explain why so many springtime posts on my Facebook feed feature parents on the other side of the Atlantic boasting Source: FT analysis of data from University of Oxford and University of Cambridge about their children’s college Then Covid-19 struck and destinations. Top American universities still offer “alumni A levels were cancelled. Oxford and Cambridge had already preference” – children of graduates don’t always get in, but they made their offers, but they were caught up in the chaos. After have a much higher acceptance rate – and they of course find schools assessed their students, the exams watchdog fed the spaces for children of big donors. There is a back door for the results through an algorithm that reduced nearly 40% of grades. Universities revoked thousands of conditional offers, 0.1% and the well-connected, if not the merely wealthy. Oxford and Cambridge resolutely reject this. Cynics will tell you this is with disadvantaged students hit worst. When the Government evident in their shabbier facilities and shallower donor pools.

U-turned, restoring the teacher-assessed grades, Oxford and Cambridge found themselves with hundreds of extra students, driving total acceptances up 12% to 7,692. “I still have no All of which puts the heads of the UK’s elite independent schools in a bind. On the one hand, they are under pressure to idea how colleges managed to find enough rooms to turn into justify their tax-exempt status by improving access for poor and bedrooms, but thankfully they did, so we didn’t need to insist minority students, either by offering more bursaries or helping that anyone defer,” Lucy says. state schools in their neighbourhoods. On the other hand, they must also please their paying customers. And that means The bulge and another year of cancelled A levels have put preserving their effectiveness at admissions tutors under university admissions. pressure – teacher-assessed “Many top independent schools are now marks will probably produce “We feel quite irritated by scrambling to prove they can smooth students’ grade inflation, but the politicians who bang on about facilities cannot accommodate paths to other options in the UK and abroad” another independent-state school supersized class. ratios,” says Barnaby Lenon, a So they are making fewer former head of Harrow School who now chairs the Independent offers – at Oxford, just 3,541 for 3,300 places, down from Schools Council. “One-third of the most needy bursary students 3,932 last year. “The landscape is more competitive than it at Oxbridge are from independent schools, and the top state has ever been,” says David Goodhew, head of Latymer Upper grammar schools are stuffed with wealthy parents.”

School in west London. “High-flyers are still getting offers, but universities were uber cautious because they got their fingers burnt last year.”

Optimists hope that the changing admissions profile will reduce the outsize hold Oxbridge has on the UK’s psyche and Some private-school parents worry that admissions tutors, its politics. “If more and more really talented kids are pushed faced with a plethora of candidates with high predicted grades, to other universities, the reputation of those schools will rise. will focus on improving their diversity statistics. They point That’s really valuable for society,” says the Eton parent. And indeed, many top independent schools now are scrambling to the lower offer numbers at the elite schools. “These great to prove they can smooth the path for their students to other kids with flawless records are getting turned away not just by brand-name options inside the UK and, increasingly, abroad.

Oxbridge but Durham too?” says the St Paul’s mother. “How They are hiring admissions officers who are experts not only in can that be?” the requirements for US universities, such as SATs, but also for other hot destinations such as Trinity College Dublin, McGill At Hills Road, a selective state sixth-form college in Cambridge University in Montreal and Bocconi University in Milan. that gets similar offer numbers to Westminster, Jo Trump, the principal, says that she sees slightly more Oxbridge offers St Paul’s and St Paul’s Girls’ School even employ recent to students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Now in her graduates of top American universities as “Colet Fellows” to fourth year as principal, Trump has spent years trying to coach students through writing the personal essays favoured convince ambitious parents – some of them Cambridge dons by the Ivy League. “The obsession with Oxbridge misses the – that it is not the end of the world if their children do not get point,” says Sarah Fletcher, SPGS’s high mistress. “Our job is into Oxbridge. to genuinely guide people to the right schools.” This year, total UK applications to US universities shot up 23%.

“Things have changed very dramatically in 30 years,” she says.

For parents, “it’s about learning to let go a bit and learning to That may well be the right choice for students who are attracted let students drive the process... Our job is to walk alongside to American institutions’ liberal arts approach, which allows them. It is not to go in front and drag them.” them to take a wider range of subjects, Lenon says. But, he adds, “it is not good for the UK if we send too many of our best The article first appeared in the Financial Times © Financial students abroad because a proportion never come back”.

Times 2021.

THE WEEK 7 August 2021

Online learning that will entertain your brain and make you smarter Learn about Behavioural Science, Creativity, Happiness and more.

Visit www.42courses.com and use the code RoryWeek for preferential pricing.

Crossword

50 THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1272

This week’s winner will receive an T Ettinger (ettinger.co.uk) travel pass E case (assorted colours), which retails c a £105, and two Connell Guides at (connellguides.com).

An Ettinger travel pass case 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 16 August.

Email the answers as a scan of a completed grid or a list, with the subject line The Week crossword 1272, to crossword@theweek.co.uk. Tim Moorey (timmoorey.com) ACROSS 1 Legal fee concerning new student (9) 9 Cheese on grilled meat cut is a Japanese dish (7) 10 Join end of queue in case (7) 11 Run into power cut and show anger (7) 12 Stupid having no support around home (9) 14 She grooms? It’s the opposite in the Islands (8) 15 Charge too much for a jacket (6) 17 A trip with TV Boy to a Sussex castle (7) 20 Fish that makes yours truly sullen (6) 23 Advanced boy in clinch? Not all the time (8) 25 Carpet repair damn slapdash?

Only one answer (9) 26 Girl back in ballet sessions (7) 27 I got a fifty rarely – leads to a complaint in the pavilion? (7) 28 Grass half-cut in seaport (7) 29 Another fast race for paper (9)

DOWN 2 Story about drunken sort written up in Portuguese resort (7) 3 Catch on broken espalier needing pressure (7) 4 Hitlerites liberated it?

Ridiculous! (2,6) 5 Sleep on incomplete puzzle (6) 6 Minister getting a drink for work about the county (9) 7 Joker in Brazil regularly gets a drink (7) 8 Sellers overlapping mock place by the Thames (9) 13 Singular nervous complaint found on the beach (7) 15 University student keeping small space for stimulant (9) 16 Singers getting about on large cars (9) 18 Times are changing in regions abroad (8) 19 Notice China put up computers (7) 21 Finish of ailing stroller getting better (7) 22 Gins ordered in pub – it’s normally on the house (3,4) 24 A student event being aired from Spanish region (6)

1

2

4

5

6

7

8

9 10 11 12

13 14

15

16 17

18

19

20

23

21

22

24 25

26 27 28 29

Name Address

Clue of the week: Liverpool’s two sides are evenly matched?

(5-5, first letters Fi) The Times

Tel no Clue of the week answer:

Solution to Crossword 1270

ACROSS: 8 Senator 9 Portico 10 Side order 11 Cleft 12 My word

13 Abu Dhabi 14 Joint enterprise 19 Tap dance 21 Glance 23 Issue 24 Tall story 25 Oversee 26 Prosper DOWN: 1 Verity 2 Cameroon 3 Porridge 4 Sparable 5 Braced 6 Literati 7 Contrite 14 Jettison 15 Imposter 16 Niceties 17 Regulars 18 Road test 20 Ageism 22 Carpet Clue of the week: Newspaper taking offence (5, first letter T) Solution: THEFT (the FT and theft is a “taking offence”) The winner of 1270 is Edward Barratt from Bristol The Week is available from RNIB Newsagent for the benefit of blind and partially sighted readers. 0303-123 9999, rnib.org.uk/newsagent Sudoku 814 (very difficult)

9 3

5 9 8

2 7 3 4 8

2 9

5 1

1 9

Solution to Sudoku 813

6

8 2 7

4 1

Fill in all the squares so that each row, column and each of the 3x3 squares contains all the digits from 1 to 9

5 1 4 2 8 6 9 3

9 6 8 3 7 5 4 1

3

2 3 7 9 1 4 8 5 6

3 2 1 4 5 9 7 6

6 8 9 1 3 7 5 2

4 7 5 6 2 8 1 9 3

7 5 3 8 9 2 6 4

8 4 2 5 6 1 3 7

1 9 6 7 4 3 2 8 5

Broaden your worldview with The Week magazine and enjoy a balanced, unbiased and refreshing take on current affairs.

Join over 300,000 readers who rely on The Week to cut through the noise of the media and see the bigger picture.

WORTH

£23.94

Subscribe today and your first 6 issues are completely free.

Why subscribe?

Money-back guarantee If for any reason you’re not satisfied with your subscription, you can cancel anytime and we’ll refund on any issues not received.

Great savings As a subscriber you’ll benefit from great savings off the RRP and from special offers and discounts.

Charity of the week

Free delivery

At Suicide&Co we support those bereaved by suicide by opening up the conversation about suicide-related grief.

5,691 people die by suicide a year across England and Wales. Every suicide leaves a huge hole in people’s lives; for every person lost, 135 people are affected, equating to 768,285 annually (ONS).

Suicide&Co supports individuals by providing one-to-one counselling sessions to people across England and Wales. Our website helps people navigate suicide loss and is packed with over 60 resources: signposting to other services, curating useful books, podcasts and apps, and sharing lived experience through volunteer articles.

By donating you can help us grow and support the huge number of people bereaved. Support us through our monthly donation at suicideandco.org/ donate or buy one of our beautiful products!

THE WEEK 7 August 2021

Subscribe to The Week today and get your first 6 issues free

A subscription includes free delivery so you can receive the magazine directly to your door every week.

Visit theweek.co.uk/offer Or call 0330 333 9494

Offer code P1343

For binders to hold 26 copies of The Week: modernbookbinders.com, £9.50

Registered as a newspaper with the Royal Mail. Printed by Wyndeham Bicester. Distributed by Marketforce (UK) Ltd. Subscriptions: subscriptions@theweek.co.uk.

Exclusive Experiences Unlocked

Reinvigorate your lifestyle with Exclusive Collection membership After 12 months spent in and out of lockdown, now is the opportunity to make up for lost time and reinvigorate your lifestyle. Whether you are looking for a place to get fit, relax after a busy day at work or running around after the kids, or a change of scenery for some remote working, with Exclusive Collection membership all this and more is possible.

With award-winning spas, an outstanding range of pools, thermal cabins and spa treatments (with discount!), as well as cutting edge gym equipment you can take relaxation to a whole new level or ramp up your fitness regime. Incredible foodie experiences from fine dining to afternoon tea can be enjoyed with friends and family, clients or colleagues. And new for 2021, is an exclusive event programme for members across our hotels from new openings, guest speakers, cookery classes, and more.

To top off the VIP experiences, we’ve recently partnered with Home House Collection to unlock access to two of London’s most coveted membership clubs, so members can now enjoy unique experiences in the countryside and the capital. You’ll be able to visit Home House or Home Grown and enjoy exceptional restaurants, bars and lounges, a beautiful courtyard garden, gym and health spa, whilst benefiting from preferential rates for their elegant bedrooms and suites.

Living through a pandemic has been a life-changing experience for us all, and there is no better time than now to take back control of your lifestyle choices! www.exclusive.co.uk/membership/ | Quote ‘TheWeek’ when enquiring.