Table of contents for 1494 in The Week

What happened The Tories’ election campaign was thrown into further disarray by a string of fresh reports about party insiders who had bet on the date of the general election. The story began a fortnight ago when The Guardian revealed that Craig Williams – a Tory candidate and Rishi Sunak’s parliamentary private secretary – had staked £100 on a July election three days before the PM named the date. This wager prompted Ladbrokes to alert the Gambling Commission, which launched an inquiry into last-minute bets on the election date. Last week, more people were drawn into the scandal, including an unnamed police officer in Sunak’s bodyguard unit, a second Tory candidate named Laura Saunders, and two Tory Party officials. Sunak bowed to pressure on Tuesday and withdrew party support from…

“Finally,” said Duncan Campbell in The Guardian. “After more than five years locked inside HMP Belmarsh, Britain’s most secure prison, and seven years confined to the Ecuadorean embassy in London, Julian Assange can breathe some fresh, free air.” But “why, for heaven’s sake, has it taken so long”? It was the culmination of a 14-year saga, said James Landale on BBC News. Assange was first arrested in 2010, over allegations of sexual assault in Sweden. After he was ejected from Ecuador’s embassy – he had jumped bail and sought asylum there – and imprisoned, the US then sought to extradite him on charges related to WikiLeaks’s 2010 release of a vast cache of classified files leaked by the US military analyst Chelsea Manning. The deal that led to his liberty…

Northamptonshire Police, with the dismissal of its chief constable for lying about his military record. Nick Adderley wore a medal issued to veterans of the Falklands War, though he was only 15 at the time; he claimed to have attended the Britannia Royal Naval College, when in fact his application had been rejected; and said that he’d spent ten years in the Royal Navy, when he had actually served two. He also falsely claimed to have been a lieutenant (he was an able seaman), and to have worked as a military negotiator in Haiti: he’d never set foot in the country. Princess Anne, who was admitted to hospital with head wounds and concussion. It is not clear what happened (there were apparently no witnesses), but it seems that she was…

Brussels New Nato chief: The outgoing Dutch PM Mark Rutte has won the race to become the next secretary general of Nato. Rutte (left), who announced his retirement from Dutch politics last year after 14 years at the helm, is a strong critic of the Kremlin and supporter of Ukraine, but is also known as a “Trump whisperer”, ever since Trump called him a “nice guy” at a tricky Nato summit in 2018. Seen as less hawkish than some Eastern European contenders for the job, he clinched it when Romania’s president, Klaus Iohannis, quit the race. Rutte’s four-year term will begin in October, when the current secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, stands down. Paris Macron isolated: President’s Macron’s gamble in calling a snap parliamentary election – the first round is on…

1 Waiting in Vain by Bob Marley, performed by Bob Marley and The Wailers2 Hometown Glory, written and performed by Adele3 Water No Get Enemy by Fela Kuti, performed by Fela Kuti and Africa 704 Eye of the Tiger by Frankie Sullivan and Jim Peterik, performed by Survivor5 One More Chance Freestyle by Christopher Wallace, Sean Combs, Reginald D. Ellis, Norman A. Glover, Carl Thompson and Skrapz, performed by Skrapz6 Shut Up, written and performed by Stormzy7 Love Theme from The Godfather, written and performed by Nino Rota8* Agape, written and performed by Nicholas Britell Book: a Bear Grylls survival book Luxury: a punchbag * Choice if allowed only one record…

In 2023/24, UK government spending was estimated to be £1.2trn, some £17,000 per person, and around 45% of the total size of the economy, as measured by GDP. (By contrast, in 2022, the US spent 36% of GDP, Germany 49%, and France 58%.) Around two-thirds of the total is “day-to-day” spending on public services, such as health (the biggest, at just over £200bn), schools and prisons. Around a quarter is spent on social security, such as universal credit and the state pension (which costs £124bn, the largest item in the welfare budget). The remainder can be split into interest on government debt (around 8% of the total in 2023/24, above the recent norm because of high interest rates) and government investment (around 5%). By contrast, the government’s total income in…

Elect Trump, and save journalism Timothy Noah The New Republic Whether you were a fan of the Trump presidency or not, says Timothy Noah, there’s no denying that the constant stream of scandals were a boon for the floundering journalism trade. During the administration’s first three months alone, CNN’s total daily viewership rose 21% among Americans aged 21 to 54, making it the network’s most-watched first quarter in 14 years. The New York Times enjoyed a similar “Trump bump”, netting an extra 308,000 digital subscriptions. “Newspapers, television, all forms of media will tank if I’m not there,” Trump boasted at the end of his first year in office. He had a point. Traffic to mainstream news sites has plunged since Joe Biden entered the White House. CNN’s web visitors are…

UK survival rates for prostate, breast, cervical and bowel cancer are lagging years or even decades behind those in some Scandinavian countries, an analysis of new figures has found. For instance, women in Sweden who were diagnosed with bowel cancer in the late 1990s had a better chance of surviving for the next five years than women in England who were diagnosed between 2016 and 2020. Less than 60% of women diagnosed with bowel cancer in England live for at least five years, compared with 72.7% in Denmark, 71.7% in Norway and 70.6% in Sweden. Bowel cancer survival in men lags 15 years behind Sweden, and cervical cancer survival rates were higher in Norway in the mid-1990s than in England decades later. The picture in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland…

If the polls are right, this general election could deliver the most “lopsided” results in modern history, said The Guardian. The Labour Party looks set to enter Downing Street with “a record number of seats and an immense majority”, despite receiving slightly fewer votes than Jeremy Corbyn in 2019. The latest YouGov MRP poll projects Labour taking 39% of the vote, and winning 425 seats, its largest-ever number; the Tories, with 22%, would have only 108 seats. Our first-past-the-post (FPTP) system is notoriously unfair to third parties, but this time the outcome would be particularly “skewed”. Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, according to YouGov, would come third, with 15% of votes, but would win only five seats; by contrast the Lib Dems, with only 12% of the vote, would get 67.…

“As everyone knows who has ever heard a piece of gossip, we do not ‘own’ the facts of our lives at all.”Janet Malcolm, quoted on Bookforum “Good ideology; wrong species.”Biologist E.O. Wilson on communism, quoted in The Spectator “Stronger than all the armies is an idea whose time has come.”Victor Hugo, quoted in The Washington Post “Theology is necessary because man is by nature a fanatic.”Gerhard Ebeling, quoted on ABC “We were told that our campaign wasn’t sufficiently slick. We regard that as a compliment.”Margaret Thatcher, quoted on Bloomberg “The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.”Pablo Picasso, quoted in The Times “All sorts of allowances are made for the illusions of youth; and none, or almost none, for the disenchantments of age.”Robert Louis…

Fifteen years ago, Afghanistan’s national cricket team were toiling in the lower echelons of the international game, facing the likes of Uganda and Papua New Guinea, said Geoff Lemon in The Guardian. That was to be expected, as cricket only began to take root in the country in the mid-1990s, when Afghans who’d developed a passion for the game in refugee camps in Pakistan returned home. But since their first one-day international in 2009, the team have made incredible progress, upsetting several major nations, Sri Lanka, England and Pakistan among them. And last Sunday, they pulled off an even bigger victory, with a 21-run win over Australia in the Super 8 stage of the T20 World Cup. Afghanistan’s total of 148/6 was powered by a partnership of 118 by ever-reliable…

To The Daily Telegraph Nigel Farage’s explanation – not justification – for Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine is an uncomfortable truth that other leaders are too quick to dismiss. As Russia’s empire disintegrated, it was given the clear impression there would be no Nato expansion towards its borders, not least in the assurance offered to Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990 by the then US secretary of state James Baker (“not one inch”). Despite this, three former members of the USSR and all of its former Warsaw Pact satellite states joined Nato. Little consideration was given to the long-term implications of this huge geopolitical shift. Rear Admiral Philip Mathias (retd.), Southsea, Hampshire To The Daily Telegraph Nigel Farage has obviously not read the 1994 Budapest Memorandum signed by Bill Clinton, John…

by Lauren Elkin Chatto & Windus 400pp £16.99 The Week Bookshop £13.99 This entertaining debut novel by the critic Lauren Elkin is a “brainy sex comedy”set in pre-Covid Paris, said Anthony Cummins in The Observer. Its narrator, Anna, is a Franco-American psychoanalyst whose lawyer husband is away for the summer, on a job in London, “leaving her to oversee the long-planned knocking through of a wall in their Belleville apartment”. Anna feels lonely and adrift, until she meets Clementine, an art history postgraduate who has just moved into the same building. Clementine challenges many of Anna’s assumptions – about property ownership, psychoanalysis, marriage – and also “widens” her “sexual horizons”, drawing her into a ménage à trois with her boyfriend. Elkin’s prose can be clumsy, and at times this novel…

Dora Maar at Amar Gallery Dora Maar (1907-1997) is one of the saddest figures in art history. Raised in Argentina and France, she studied at Paris’s École des Beaux-Arts and became a highly respected avant-garde photographer, producing strange, monochrome images that saw her classed as a fellow traveller of the surrealist movement. All was well until she met Pablo Picasso in 1935 and embarked on a relationship that would diminish her reputation and drain her of her creative force. This exhibition, Behind the Lens, brings together a fine selection of some of Maar’s most memorable images, from eerie, X-ray-like abstract compositions made of thin strings of white light, to architectural images, to portrait photography – notably several rarely seen shots of Picasso, the context endowing his likeness with malevolent force.…

The booze cruise in reverse The merits of English wine – especially the sparkling variety – are well established, says Victoria Moore in The Daily Telegraph. “But there’s something else that English wine producers are quietly doing extremely well.” In recent years, wine tourism has become “essential” to the English wine industry – so much so that it now accounts for a quarter of producers’ revenues. And these days, when you visit a vineyard, you can expect more than just a tour and a tasting. Many estates now have restaurants or cafés. A “wine-loving day-tripper could practise yoga among the vines at Tinwood Estate in West Sussex or glamp beside the vineyards at Yorkshire Heart near York.” At Albury Estate in Surrey, visitors can “take a wildlife walk through the…

Holkham Beach, Norfolk, is dog-friendly all year round, but dogs have to be on leads from 1 April to 31 August to protect nesting birds. Walk along boardwalks through pine forest to the beach, which has a good café. There’s lots for dogs to explore in the grassy dunes at Bamburgh, Northumberland, a swath of soft sand backed by an imposing castle. Beware of adders in warmer weather. Catch a steam train from Hythe to the shingle beach at Dungeness, Kent, and see the former home of artist and activist Derek Jarman, plus the bleak, black lighthouse. The Britannia Inn (britanniadungeness.co.uk) does excellent fish and chips. Broad Haven South, Pembrokeshire, on the Wales Coast Path, has views of the dramatic Church Rock in the distance. Access it over the dunes…

The Rectory Crudwell, Gloucestershire Despite its “super-smart” decor, this hotel in the Cotswolds village of Crudwell has an air of “laissez-faire informality” that makes it feel like “a home away from home”, says Susan d’Arcy in The Sunday Times. It occupies a Georgian manor house, and many of its 18 rooms have original beams, elegant fireplaces and lovely views, but their “Scandi-influenced” decor is “sinfully decadent”. All have free-standing baths – a boutique hotel “prerequisite” these days. There’s a “moody” bar, an airy restaurant offering modern British cuisine of “refined informality”, and a lovely garden with a pool. Doubles from £170 b&b; therectoryhotel.com.…

Sir Will Lewis The past has returned to haunt Will Lewis, the British newspaper and PR man appointed by Jeff Bezos to turn around The Washington Post. US journalists have been raking over his former career and questioning his ethics – including his role in the phone-hacking scandal that rocked Fleet Street more than a decade ago, said Mike Allen on Axios. Lewis, 55, who joined the Post as publisher and CEO last November, is currently in the surreal position of being investigated by his own newspaper. In response to “a list of detailed questions” from Post reporters earlier this month, he “declined to comment”. “The newsroom revolt” at the loss-making broadsheet has been brewing for months, said the FT: fuelled by Lewis’s replacement of top journalists with his own…

A new downbeat aesthetic has taken hold in parts of the fashion world, reports The Guardian. The look is varied, but its disparate elements – camouflage, combat boots, grungey plaid, goth-inspired makeup, bleached eyebrows and T-shirts emblazoned with nihilistic slogans – project the same grotty, greasy, crumpled energy. “I used to wipe away stains but now I don’t mind a little oil or a little spaghetti on my shorts,” a fashion-conscious 20-year-old told the paper. “I think it’s chic.” Nearly all couples in the UK now live together before getting married, data from the Office for National Statistics has shown. In 1994, 59.6% of couples had shared a home before tying the knot; by 2022, that had risen to 91.3%.…

Two Just Stop Oil protesters were arrested last week for spraying orange powder paint on parts of Stonehenge in Wiltshire. A video clip of the incident showed Niamh Lynch, 21, and Rajan Naidu, 73, covering three stones before being stopped by members of the public. There were fears that the powder would harm or discolour rare lichen on the stones, but English Heritage said they had managed to remove it using blown air and that there appeared to be no damage. Separately, tens of thousands of people took part in the Restore Nature Now march in London last Saturday. Backed by various groups, including the National Trust, the RSPB and Extinction Rebellion, it called on the UK’s political leaders to do more to restore and protect the natural world.…

Washington DC Trump funding boost: Donald Trump’s campaign raised a total of $141m in May – boosted by a $50m donation from the billionaire businessman and banking heir Timothy Mellon. That money was donated the day after Trump’s conviction for falsifying business records, when his campaign team recorded around six times more donations than usual. Trump’s total for the month dwarfs that of the Biden campaign, which raised just $85m. However, Biden is believed to have raised tens of millions this month, including $20m from media magnate and former New York major Mike Bloomberg. Washington DC Extreme weather: More than 44 million people across the US were living under some kind of heat warning at the start of the week, while in the Midwest, floodwaters forced thousands of people from…

“If you’ve spent any time online recently, you may have noticed that some grown adults have regressed to a kind of cutesy, baby language, even while discussing serious topics. The cost-of-living crisis is the ‘cozzie livs’; the upcoming general election is the ‘genny lec’, and a mental breakdown is a ‘menty b’. New phrases are created and submitted online for approval faster than you can say ‘panny d’ (yes, for pandemic). Some people find this cringe, or even offensive. I say, rejoice in these daft expressions from a nation of punmakers and word-players. They are a source of national pride. Or should I say nashy p?” Coco Khan in The Guardian…

It’s voters who are guilty of abuse of office James Marriott The Times Amazing what politicians have to endure these days, says James Marriott. Over the past month, I’ve seen Keir Starmer subjected to countless derisive and prurient questions by interviewers, I’ve watched him being scolded over his stance on Gaza by a camera-wielding member of the public, I’ve listened as “aggrieved listeners addressed him with brisk overfamiliarity as ‘Keir’” on a radio phone-in. “Michelle from Reigate demanded to know why he hadn’t responded to her email.” You might call this democracy in action, but the tone of “hectoring aggression” with which we now confront politicians is actually undermining the system. It’s ineffective against shameless ones such as Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson, who laugh off the hostility or use…

Hope for a PCOS breakthrough A drug that is already used to treat malaria has been found to be effective against polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a painful condition that is a leading cause of infertility, and which affects an estimated 10% of women worldwide. Sufferers of PCOS experience hormone imbalances, including the over-production of testosterone, which leads to symptoms such as irregular periods, acne and an excess of body hair. They are also prone to insulin resistance, which puts them at higher risk of diabetes and heart disease. Existing treatments only ease the symptoms, and do not work for everyone. But when, for a small clinical trial, 19 women took the anti-malarial drug dihydroartemisinin for three months, all of them experienced a drop in their testosterone levels and 12 saw…

The four members of Abba didn’t choose the group’s name, Björn Ulvaeus has revealed on the Rosebud podcast. They were all well known in Sweden, and so they initially released their music as Agnetha, Benny, Björn and Anni-Frid. But DJs on the radio and people in the office “got tired of saying that – ‘Agnetha, Benny, Björn and Anni-Frid’ – as you can imagine. And so they just abbreviated it to the initials Abba.” Ulvaeus didn’t approve. “I thought it was such a stupid name. And it is. I had thought we should have a cool name like the Rolling Stones… The Northern Lights was one of our thoughts – and here we are with Abba.” When Justin Timberlake, 43, was pulled over on suspicion of drink-driving in the Hamptons…

Nigel Farage built a thriving political brand on the idea that he’s a “fearless defender of democracy” and a “patriot who is fighting for freedom”, said Ian Birrell in The i Paper. What grim hypocrisy, then, that he “has sided with an enemy of our nation” – and dismissed the right of nations in eastern Europe to defend themselves against Russian aggression. In a BBC interview last week, the leader of Reform UK claimed that the West had “provoked” Vladimir Putin into invading Ukraine, by letting former Soviet satellites join Nato and the EU. It’s a shameful claim, which parrots Kremlin propaganda. Farage has form when it comes to giving succour to Putin, said Andrew Neil in the Daily Mail. In 2014, after the annexation of Crimea, he praised the…

After the slog of their opening Euro 2024 ties against Serbia and Denmark, it was “universally accepted” that England needed to “reinvigorate their fans” by producing a rousing performance against Slovenia on Tuesday, said David Hytner in The Guardian. And on a “claustrophobic and emotional night” in Cologne, there were definite signs of improvement. Gareth Southgate’s men “brought greater intensity” than previously and played higher up the pitch. For the first time at this tournament – other than in their excellent opening half-hour against Serbia – they “looked like a team”. Yet by the end of the game, the “overriding emotion” remained one of frustration. Against the lowest-ranked team in their group, England could only eke out a 0-0 draw. Once again, there was a predictability to their play, a…

Rugby union England beat Japan 52-17 in the first match of their summer tour. They play two Tests against New Zealand next month. Football 2022 World Cup semi-finalists Croatia were denied a place in the knockout stages of the Euros when Italy scored an equaliser against them in the 98th minute. Cricket England made it through to the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup. They will face India on Thursday. Formula 1 Max Verstappen won the Spanish Grand Prix, narrowly beating Britain’s Lando Norris, who’d begun the race in pole position.…

Cole Porter’s 1948 musical Kiss Me, Kate is a giddy love letter to the theatre, said David Jays in The Guardian. Filled with “falderol frivolity” and glorious songs – Too Darn Hot, So in Love and more – the show is a Broadway classic, and Bartlett Sher’s “exhilarating” and luxurious revival should prove a big summer hit for the Barbican. A witty spin on The Taming of the Shrew, the set-up is that a divorced couple – producer/director/actor Fred and his movie star ex-wife Lilli – are opening in a musical version of the Shakespeare play. As their tempestuous offstage and onstage relationships intertwine, the “characters bicker in dialogue but unpack their hearts in song”. Now best known for his role in TV’s Line of Duty, Adrian Dunbar is “unorthodox…

The descendants of a German-Jewish art collector have failed in their attempt to claim a Picasso owned by New York’s Guggenheim Museum since 1979, said Samuel Lovett in The Times. A lawsuit filed last year in Manhattan alleged that Woman Ironing (1904), pictured right, was sold under duress by Karl Adler and his wife in 1938. Thomas Bennigson, one of Adler’s great-grandchildren, and seven other heirs sought compensation of up to $200m. The Adlers ran a leather manufacturing company in Baden-Baden, and bought Woman Ironing in 1916. After the rise of the Nazis, the family were stripped of their wealth and rights. The painting was sold to the dealer Justin Thannhauser for 6,887 Swiss francs. The lawsuit described the sale as “forced” and the price as “well below” market value.…

Fallon tells Paul about her drunken night out; she feels as if a reset button has been pressed. Tony blows up at George for falling asleep against a bale. At a GP appointment with Azra, Paul explains that he has spots in an embarrassing place; could his newly opened relationship be to blame? As it turns out, they’re just insect bites, but Azra suggests that Etienne and Paul give safe sex a go anyway. Alice goes to the police station to be formally charged, and Adam learns she’s had a drink in the toilets. At The Stables, Justin starts interviewing candidates to replace Alice, even if it’s just on a temporary basis. Jakob successfully carries out a procedure on Oliver’s horse; it looks like the outbreak of strangles at The…

Cooked lettuce is ideal for summer days when the weather is that of a damp autumn, says Ceri Jones. This dish, a variation on a French-style recipe for braising lettuce with peas and sometimes bacon, uses just a little pancetta: it’s a really good example of how meat can be used in small quantities to add depth of flavour without distracting from the veg. Serve with bread to mop up the juices. Serves 2 as a main 100g diced pancetta 2 baby gem lettuce (approx. 100g each), sliced into quarters through the core 2 spring onions, finely sliced 1 x 400g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed 160g frozen peas 200ml chicken stock 2 tbsp crème fraîche 1 tbsp finely chopped herbs (e.g. tarragon, mint or parsley, or a combination) salt…

Donald Sutherland 1935-2024 When Donald Sutherland was a young man, contemplating a career in the theatre, he asked his mother if he was good-looking. “No, but your face has a lot of character,” she replied. This was arguably an understatement, said The Daily Telegraph. The Canadian actor, who has died aged 88, was among “the most distinctive-looking men ever to make it as a leading Hollywood star”. Six-foot four-inches tall, rakish and loose limbed, he had unruly hair, “big ears, a toothy grin, prominent pale blue eyes and a hang-dog expression”. He was no one’s idea of a pin-up, and on screen he could be menacing or just vaguely unsettling. A producer once rejected him for a role saying: “This part calls for a guy-next-door type. You don’t look like…

The Trading Game: A Confession by Gary Stevenson (Penguin £25). Stevenson’s “darkly funny” account of his rise from east London poverty “to the bonus-driven, burn-out world of high finance”, said The Guardian. When Women Ran Fifth Avenue by Julie Satow (Doubleday $32.50). A glittering portrait of the golden age of department stores and the women who ran them – when “American apparel-makers emerged from the shadow of Paris and came into their own”, said Bloomberg. The Shortest History of Economics by Andrew Leigh (Old Street £14.99). A concise, readable history. “Invaluable” for “anybody trying to understand how humanity moved from hunter-gatherer bands to today’s hi-tech world economy”, said Martin Wolf in the FT. The Formula by Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg (Octopus £22). The riveting story, by two Wall Street…

The week’s best shares Allison Transmission Holdings The Daily Telegraph Rising US defence spending is a growth opportunity for this specialist automatic gearbox-maker, which has customer relationships in diverse markets – supplying trucks, school buses and off-road industrial vehicles. Buy. $74.41. B&M European Value Retail The Sunday Times Sales growth at this discount retailer has slowed, and costs have risen due to the acquisition of 40 Wilko stores. Still, the chain has scaled up and is highly cash-generative, with 11%+ margins. Buy. 469p. Bodycote The Times The metal processor has a recovering aerospace and defence arm, and an industrial division serving the EV and hybrid vehicle market. New technologies are delivering higher growth and fatter margins. “Underestimated.” Buy. 727p. Greencoat UK Wind The Mail on Sunday This “cheap fund with…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1420 Two Connell Guides and three Week-branded items will be given to the sender of the first correct solution to the crossword and the clue of the week opened on Monday 8 July. Send it to The Week Crossword 1420, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London W2 6JR, or email the completed grid/listed solutions to crossword@theweek.co.uk. Tim Moorey (timmoorey.com) This week’s winner will receive Week-branded items including a notebook, coffee mug and tote bag, as well as two Connell Guides (connellguides.com). ACROSS 1 Some NHS cuts may be bound up with this (8,7) 9 Splendid addition to a cake (7) 10 Spurs ground limits restricting United (7) 11 Box at Lord‘s perhaps for Dick Hill (9) 12 Intends to convey great wealth (5) 13 Second eleven get very angry…

U-turns, after Volvo announced that its estate cars – beloved by the English middle classes for decades for their size, sturdiness and safety – would go back on sale in Britain, 11 months after they were axed. Confirming the reintroduction of its V60 and V90 models, the Swedish manufacturer said that it had experienced a “resurgence in demand” for its “estate products”. Queen, after the rights to the band’s back catalogue, plus limited other rights, were reportedly sold to Sony for £1bn – a music industry record. This surpasses the sum paid for half of Michael Jackson’s catalogue, which is believed to have sold for $600m.…

66% of adults in the US want their country to strengthen its commitments to address climate change, as do 73% in China, 77% in India and 93% in Italy. Across 77 countries, 72% are in favour of a quick transition away from fossil fuels, including in fossil fuel-producing countries such as Saudi Arabia (75%) and Nigeria (89%). United Nations Development Programme/University of Oxford 53% of British adults don’t think they’d have anything in common to talk to Rishi Sunak about, if they met him at a party. Public First/Daily Telegraph 43% of undecided voters say that a large Labour majority would be “a bad thing for the country”. YouGov/Times…

Richard Coles’ faith Having retired as a priest in 2022, Richard Coles recently revealed that, for years, he’d lied to Anglican officials about his sex life, by maintaining that he and his late husband David were celibate. He is aware that “rather a lot of people” were offended by this, he told Louise Carpenter in The Daily Telegraph; but he feels that in the Church, people “never really understood the choices you have to make if you are gay and in a relationship. When [honesty] could cost you your job, your home, your career, your parish, your parishioners.” Today his cassock is hanging in a wardrobe; but his faith is still a big part of his life. “One of the practices of a priest that I try to observe is…

THE PHILIPPINES Put not your trust in the United States Asia Times (Hong Kong) Ukraine, Gaza, Taiwan: that’s where people tend to focus when gauging America’s status as a reliable ally, says Grant Newsham. But the country where that reputation now faces its sternest test is the Philippines, and there it’s “going down the drain”. Despite having a long-standing mutual defence treaty, the US has already “sold out” the Philippines to China. It did nothing to help when, in 2012, the Chinese occupied the Scarborough Shoal – a reef in the Philippines’ territorial waters; then, in 2016 it did nothing to help enforce the international ruling that backed Manila’s position in the dispute. And now it’s letting Manila down yet again. The latest flashpoint is the Second Thomas Shoal, a…

The Tories aren’t the only ones facing the prospect of “electoral Armageddon” next week, said John Crace in The Guardian. Things are also looking bleak for the SNP. The latest polls suggest that, in the face of a Labour resurgence, the scandal-racked party could win just 15 of the 57 Scottish seats in Westminster, down from their current 43. The SNP’s election manifesto, unveiled last week by the party’s new leader, John Swinney, is unlikely to transform the situation. It sounds just like the last one, and the one before that. There is the usual demand for Scottish independence. The same talk of joining the EU. Predictably, it calls for an end to austerity, including a £10bn increase in health funding in England – which would generate an extra £1bn…

“It is a truth of the technological age,” said The Times: “the greater our dependence on computer systems, the more vulnerable we are to the dangers of their infiltration.” In recent years, cybercriminals have attacked countless UK organisations, from British Airways to the British Library – stealing data and/or paralysing IT systems, then demanding ransoms to put things back to normal. But even by these gangs’ “low moral standards”, this month’s attack affecting seven NHS hospitals was “vicious”. The hackers, a seemingly Russia-based group called Qilin, encrypted and stole reams of data from Synnovis, an NHS healthcare company that processes 100,000 blood tests a day. As a result, more than 3,000 operations and appointments have had to be cancelled; and last week, the hackers started posting sensitive patient data online…

Around 100,000 members of the Tartan Army descended on Stuttgart last Sunday, ahead of Scotland’s third and final group match at the 2024 Euros, said Jason Burt in The Daily Telegraph. They were there because they knew that if their team beat Hungary, they would almost certainly progress to the knockout stages. And that would be a first for a country with a notably “sorry record” at major finals: in 11 appearances prior to the 2024 Euros – starting at the 1954 World Cup – they’ve never once made it out of their group. Alas, this time was to be no different, said Michael Grant in The Times. Over the course of a “painful night”, not only did Steve Clarke’s team fail to score, they failed to prevent Hungary snatching…

A new political contract To The Times James Marriott is surely right when he argues that politicians deserve to be treated with an appropriate degree of respect and without point-scoring questioning by journalists in radio and TV interviews. However, the quid pro quo is that the electorate has an equal right to be treated honestly, and to not have its intelligence insulted by politicians not answering questions put to them, promising what they and the electorate know cannot be achieved, and talking over each other in public debates. This would represent a new and more effective contract between politicians and the electorate. Prof David T. Llewellyn, Ruddington, Nottinghamshire Build up, not out To The Economist It is an unpopular opinion these days, but green belts are doing their job well…

by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones Wildfire 384pp £25 The Week Bookshop £19.99 “Cleopatra may be the most written-about woman in history, and is certainly the most famous female ruler of any kingdom,” said Toby Wilkinson in The Daily Telegraph. We tend to think of her as an anomalous figure, but as Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones shows in this entertaining and often “juicy” book, she was actually “by no means unique”. She was preceded by six other Egyptian queens, all bearing the name Cleopatra. These Cleopatras “have long been confined to the footnotes of history, but here they emerge as fascinating figures in their own right”. Moreover, Llewellyn-Jones argues, they greatly influenced the seventh (and final) Cleopatra (pictured), who was indebted to them for both her “self-image” and her “political strategy”. The Cleopatras were part…

Roger Mayne: Youth is the first photography exhibition ever staged at London’s Courtauld Gallery, said Charlotte Jansen in The Guardian. It features 60 works by Mayne, a self-taught photographer “known for his documents of working-class children on the poor and battered streets of postwar London”. Born in 1929, he was an Oxford chemistry student when he identified photography as his calling. In the 1950s, he set up in the slums of North Kensington and began documenting the world he saw around him. Mayne “sought to embed himself in the communities he photographed”, and although the bombed-out streets he worked in were “virtually uninhabitable”, he saw that the area was “vibrating with life”. The pictures he took there focused particularly on the local children who used the streets and ruined buildings…

The Diaries of Samuel Pepys, edited by Robert Latham, 1825 (Penguin £18.99). The Restoration, the Great Plague and the Fire of London are the backdrop, but for me it’s Pepys’ vivid and frank descriptions of his personal life that enchant – romantic entanglements, haircuts, ailments and, on 25 September 1660, his first “cup of tee (a China drink) of which I never had drank before”. Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Céspedes, translated by Ann Goldstein, 1952 (Pushkin £9.99). A new translation of a forgotten novella in diary form. It’s 1950 and, on a whim, 43-year-old housewife Valeria Cossati buys a notebook and begins in secret to record daily events in her life. One reviewer called it “the female Stoner”. The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith, 1892…

Programmes Skint: The Truth About Britain’s Broken Economy with Tim Harford The More or Less presenter looks at what the numbers tell us about the state of the economy, and how it might be fixed. Mon 1 Jul, C4 21:00 (60mins). The Baby Scandal that Shocked the World Film about the “cash for babies” scandal, when two couples – one in Wales and the other in the US – paid to adopt the same set of twins. Tue 2 July, Channel 5 21:00 (125mins). Storyville: Inheriting the Castle Documentary about an Argentinian maid whose employer gave her a mansion deep in the Argentine Pampas as a reward for her work. Tue 2 Jul, BBC4 22:00 (75mins). Tom Kerridge Cooks Britain The chef hits the road in a 1950s food truck…

Have a “go bag” ready in your car with a phone charger, battery pack, clothes, a wash bag, glasses and pills. Keep the tank filled with petrol. Store water, a foil blanket and a torch plus some food in your car, and keep plenty of cash and your passport handy. Invest in a power bank or a small generator for power cuts. If the mobile phone network goes down, you’ll need a radio to hear emergency updates. A wind-up one is ideal. Make sure that you have enough food for at least 72 hours that doesn’t need cooking. Don’t forget some treats. You can buy bottles to purify any water (from £22.50; watertogo.eu). Get a gas camping stove, spare canisters and matches. If there is good ventilation, you can use…

Nvidia: Nvidiaaaaaargh Plenty of investor newbies have been buying into Nvidia after a “hot tip” from a friend. They were rewarded last week when the roaring ascent of the US chipmaker saw it leapfrog Apple and Microsoft to become the world’s biggest company, with a market capitalisation that peaked at $3.5trn, said The Economist. But what a fall from grace followed. In just three trading sessions, the poster child of the AI revolution lost a staggering $430bn which, said Bloomberg, was “the biggest three-day drop – in terms of nominal value – ever seen on the US stock market”. Many investors, it seems, decided the time was ripe to take profits. Wall Street traders have been “turning to technical analysis for clues on where the bottom may be”, said Jeran…

Labour’s options on Brexit Phillip Inman The Observer Labour’s plans to re-engage with Brussels will be welcomed by all those who viewed Brexit as “an act of self-harm”, says Phillip Inman. But how might Britain’s relationship with the EU actually change? So far, Labour has put forward only “tentative proposals tackling discrete issues”, such as easing border checks on animal products and forging a “bespoke” deal for the chemicals industry. It has ruled out rejoining the single market and customs union. That, however, might change. Among potential options is a “Norway-style deal”, enabling access to the single market without losing “formal sovereignty”. But since this would involve paying up, without any vote on how rules are made, it’s far from ideal. The more radical alternative of rejoining the EU is…

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