Table of contents for 1437 in The Week

What happened Volodymyr Zelensky attended the G7 summit in Hiroshima last weekend, where the leaders of the world’s richest democracies reaffirmed their support for Ukraine. Prior to Zelensky’s arrival in Japan, President Biden gave Western allies the green light to supply Ukraine with US-built F-16 fighter jets. The White House also unveiled a new $375m package of US military aid. “We will not waver, Putin will not break our resolve as he thought he could,” said Biden. “We have Ukraine’s back and we’re not going anywhere.” Russia warned that supplying F-16 jets to Ukraine would be a “colossal risk”. Separately, the Kremlin congratulated the Wagner mercenary group and regular Russian troops for capturing Bakhmut, the city in Ukraine’s Donbas region that has been fiercely contested for months. Zelensky, who said…

In the UK, we have “plausibly had more immigration in the past two decades or so than in the previous 2,000 years combined”, said Nick Timothy in The Daily Telegraph. Every PM since 2010 has been elected promising to bring numbers down. Every one has failed. In the year to last June, net migration reached “an unprecedented” 504,000. This week’s new net figures for the whole of 2022 were expected to be even higher: over 700,000, possibly as much as one million. Since Brexit, migration from the EU has gone into reverse. At the same time, migration from Nigeria, India and Bangladesh has rocketed, thanks to the loosening of rules under Boris Johnson – salary thresholds were lowered, the definition of skilled work watered down. Britain has become utterly reliant…

Boris Johnson, who was referred to the police over further possible breaches of Covid rules. It seems that lawyers preparing for the Covid inquiry had found entries in his ministerial diary indicating that he’d played host to friends and relatives at Chequers during a period when restrictions were in place. A spokesman for the ex-PM said the events fell within the law, and that he was the victim of a “politically motivated stitch-up”. Phillip Schofield, who abruptly left ITV’s This Morning after weeks of rumours about a rift with co-presenter Holly Willoughby. Cracks are said to have started to appear last year, after the pair were accused of “queue jumping”, for using a fast-track media pass to see The Queen lying in state. Schofield’s brother being prosecuted, and then convicted,…

Ravenna, Italy Flood chaos: Severe floods struck northern Italy last week, killing at least 14 people and forcing more than 36,000 to evacuate their homes. Towns west of Ravenna were emptied. Across Emilia-Romagna and parts of the Marche, six months’ worth of rain fell in 36 hours, on ground rendered impermeable by months of drought. Nearly two dozen rivers burst their banks, roads turned into rivers and huge tracts of farmland were submerged. Thousands of livestock have died and an estimated €1.5bn-worth of crops have been destroyed. In hillier areas, there were more than 300 landslides, rendering many towns and villages inaccessible for days. Extreme weather events appear to be increasingly common in Italy: according to one study, five times as many occurred last summer than were registered a decade…

1 Fast Car, written and performed by Tracy Chapman2 A Boy and a Girl by Eric Whitacre and Octavio Paz, performed by Voces83* Time Has Told Me, written and performed by Nick Drake4 Driving Home for Christmas, written and performed by Chris Rea5 Take a Bow by Matt Bellamy, performed by Muse6 Cantique de Jean Racine, Op. 11 by Gabriel Fauré, performed by the Choir of St John’s College, conducted by Andrew Nethsingha7 Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14 by Hector Berlioz, performed by Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner8 The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Tasmin Little (violin), conducted by Sir Andrew Davis Book: Oxford Textbook of Medicine Luxury: a projector and photographs * Choice if allowed only one record…

Modi’s path to election as PM was paved with violence. A year after he became chief minister of Gujarat, a train carrying Hindu activists through the state was set on fire, allegedly by a crowd of Muslims. Fifty-nine people died. Modi ensured that the bodies of the victims were taken to Ahmedabad, and paraded through the streets. A pogrom ensued, with Hindu mobs killing and raping unrestrained by police. More than 1,000 people died, including some 790 Muslims; over 2,500 were injured. Allegations of complicity in this communal violence dogged Modi for years: in 2005, he was even barred from the US because of his alleged role in inciting the mobs. Modi always denied wrongdoing, and in 2012 he was cleared by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed by India’s…

Trump’s dangerous intervention John Cassidy The New Yorker The spectre of a government default is looming over America, says John Cassidy. If Joe Biden and Republican leaders don’t strike a deal on raising the debt ceiling (in effect, the nation’s self-imposed credit card limit), the US could soon be unable to meet all its financial obligations. It’s a tense situation, made worse by an intervention from Donald Trump. Republicans should drive a hard bargain, he says, and not worry about triggering a default, the consequences of which could be “maybe nothing”. Trump has experience with defaults. During his career, his hotels and casinos have filed for bankruptcy six times, “stiffing his creditors” but somehow allowing him to escape relatively unscathed. Perhaps that’s why he thinks a US default would be…

Obese patients cost the NHS more than twice as much as people of healthy weight, a study at Imperial College has found. Whereas each healthy weight person costs the NHS £638 a year on average, researchers found that the service spends £1,375 a year per obese patient. It means that if everyone was of a healthy weight, the NHS would save £14bn a year. However, the true cost of obesity is likely to be higher, as these figures do not take into account the impact of people being off sick for long periods. Obesity makes people vulnerable to a range of health problems including diabetes, cancer and heart disease. Separately, a trial in the US found that when 134 obese adolescents were given weekly injections of the drug semaglutide, 45%…

Let’s be clear, said Sean O’Grady in The Independent. We will be witnessing, in the coming months and years, “the slow death” of the British car industry – another success story sacrificed on the altar of Brexit. Honda in Swindon is closing. Nissan in Sunderland is considering its options. Last week, Stellantis, the maker of Vauxhall, Peugeot, Citroën and Fiat cars, stated bluntly that if the cost of making electric vehicles (EVs) in the UK becomes prohibitive, then “operations will close”; its electric vehicle plant in Ellesmere Port in Cheshire is at risk. Ford and Jaguar Land Rover issued similar warnings. Why are they worried? It’s a question of “rules of origin”, a fiddly issue that Boris Johnson somehow forgot to mention when he trumpeted his “zero-tariff” EU trade deal.…

“We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet.”Stephen Hawking, quoted in the New York Post “Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.”James Baldwin, quoted in The Village Voice “With publicity comes humiliation.”Tama Janowitz, quoted in Forbes “The business of progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of conservatives is to prevent mistakes from being corrected.”G.K. Chesterton, quoted on The Knowledge “Death gives us something to do. Because it’s a full-time job looking the other way.”Martin Amis, quoted in The Daily Telegraph “The world’s most effective form of contraception is the London housing market.”Ed West on Substack “A painter’s got a canvas. The writer’s got reams of…

Cycling British cyclist Mark Cavendish has announced he will retire at the end of the season. The 38-year-old plans to compete in this summer’s Tour de France. Tennis Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, the world No. 2, won his first-ever clay court title, beating Denmark’s Holger Rune in straight sets in the Italian Open final. Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan won the women’s event: her opponent, Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina, was forced to retire with a leg injury. Cricket England’s Ollie Robinson has been cleared to join the squad for next month’s Ashes, following an injury scare. The first Test of the summer begins on 1 June.…

This entertaining co-production of Anna Karenina, which transfers to Bristol Old Vic next month, “began as a dare”, said Fergus Morgan in The Stage. The British-Russian director Polina Kalinina was complaining to the Scottish writer Lesley Hart that Russian literary texts typically “suffered from staidness and staleness in translation”. In response, Hart challenged Kalinina to collaborate with her on a stage adaptation, to put this situation right. The result is a “fluid and febrile” production that makes frequent use of freeze-frames and flashbacks. Inevitably, much is lost in condensing Tolstoy’s 800-page-plus novel into a two-and-a-half-hour play, but the “central three intertwining love stories are explored with raw, riveting intent” – and there’s a “terrific” performance from Lindsey Campbell in the title role: “fierce yet fragile, vicious yet vulnerable, passionate yet…

In a 2006 interview to celebrate receiving his CBE, Rolf Harris was asked why he was so popular. “I guess it’s because I’m real,” said the entertainer, whose death aged 93 was reported this week. “I’m not putting over a huge, phoney facade. The bloke you see up on the screen is the same bloke you meet by the stage door.” It was, said Anita Singh in The Daily Telegraph, a “brazen lie, as we now know”. Harris was convicted of child sex offences in 2014, and was later “stripped of that CBE”. ITV’s two-part documentary combines an outline of his career with interviews with his victims. In one “disturbing” clip from Jim’ll Fix It, Savile places his hand on the shoulder of a schoolgirl and says to Harris: “Do…

Russia’s most precious icon — The Trinity, painted by Andrei Rublev in the 15th century — is to be handed over by President Putin from the state to the Russian Orthodox Church, says Pilar Bonet in El País. The icon, which was painted during the Mongol invasions, depicts three angels visiting Abraham. It was confiscated from the Church by the Bolsheviks in the 1920s, and had hung in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. Now it is being transferred to the Trinity Lavra of St Sergius, a monastery near Moscow that is the spiritual centre of the Orthodox Church. The Church has supported Putin’s presidency, and his war in Ukraine, “blessing Russian soldiers and promising them salvation if they perish on the battlefield”. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the leader of the…

Helen tells Harrison she knows Rob made the call, in spite of his alibi. With Jazzer off, the Berrow workers are exhausted – Neil brings forward the interviews for his replacement. Tony is livid when he discovers the twins modelled for Schaeffer Baas, and confronts Tom and Natasha. He rejects Tom’s apology, saying they can no longer work together at Bridge Farm, but later apologises. After spotting a market garden for sale, Tom wonders if he and Natasha should strike out on their own. Martyn joins Neil for the interviews and overrules Neil’s choice, instead giving the job to surprise candidate George. After meeting his half-sister Erin, Adam is disappointed when she’s evasive about him visiting her in Dublin. Later, Brian comforts him; Adam agrees to help Brian on the…

Cooking fish over an open fire might sound daunting, says James Whetlor, but it’s really very easy. Once the fish is secured, it is all about the fire management. Traditionally, one would use cedar wood, which lends a subtle flavour, but you could equally use a bit of pine soaked in water. Plank fish Serves 4 Kit required: 1 x large wooden plank just a bit bigger than your side of fish 7 x nails herb brush temperature probe 750g-1kg fillet of salmon, pin-boned 125g melted butter sea salt and freshly ground black pepper • Lay the side of fish on the plank and hammer six nails in, through the fish, on either side of the fillet. Hammer the final nail into the top of the fillet, taking care to secure…

● Yellow leaves are a sign of overwatering, underwatering, nutrient deficiency or being rootbound and needing a bigger pot. ● Roots should be firm and cream or beige. If they smell damp and are brown and mushy, they’re rotting. Snip away rotted roots and rinse the rest. Put in a smaller pot with fresh soil; leave a few days then water. ● Overwatering can also cause wilting. But if the soil is parched, pour water in slowly. If it rolls off, drive holes in the soil to help it reach the roots. Or leave the pot in a tub of water for half-an-hour. Cut off any brown leaves and wait for signs of recovery. ● Stunted growth or deformed leaves are likely to be due to a lack of light…

Martin Amis 1949-2023 A “blazing, once-in-a-generation talent”, Martin Amis “provoked, inspired and outraged readers … across a literary career that set off like a rocket, and went on to dazzle, streak and burn for almost 50 years”, said Boyd Tonkin in The Guardian. He wrote 15 novels, as well as journalism and essays that stretched from “an account of arcade video games, through literary studies and critiques of pop culture, to a meditation on Stalin’s crimes: Koba the Dread (2002)”. For years, he was rarely out of the headlines, said The Daily Telegraph – with his “flamboyant lifestyle”, complete with glamorous girlfriends and roistering literary confrères, often attracting as many column inches as did “the pyrotechnics of a prose style that divided the critics more than any other contemporary writer”.…

Why the Bank deserves a bashing Patrick Hosking The Times Every time the Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, appears before Parliament, “he gets more brutally beaten up”, says Patrick Hosking. “Quite right too, given his lousy record in either forecasting inflation or taming it.” As the Commons Treasury Committee chair, Harriett Baldwin, put it this week: Threadneedle Street’s approach is “slightly making me despair”. In particular, why it is still basing “so much of its forecasting on a model using data from the past 30 years when inflation was falling and quiescent”, rather than modelling the “perhaps more apt 1970s and 1980s”? Given the failure to get a handle on food inflation, which has soared to 19%, there are also questions about whether the Bank has been “too credulous”…

The week’s best shares Burberry Group The Times The fashion house’s shares have dipped, reflecting falls across European luxury goods. But sales in China are up 13%, and a focus on recognisably British-design should drive momentum. Buy. £23.89. Diploma The Times Diploma sources and supplies seals, gaskets and cabling to industries from healthcare to renewable energy. Defying expectations of slowing demand with improving sales and profits. There is also plenty of cash for expansion. Buy. £28.98. Greggs The Times Sales at the bakery chain are up, and it’s gaining market share. Expanding the estate with 150 new stores, and keeping shops open till 8pm to capture evening trade. “A clear path to profit growth.” Buy. £27.48. JD Sports Fashion The Times Shares in the athleisure “juggernaut” have slipped despite a…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1364 An Ettinger pass holder and two Connell Guides will be given to the sender of the first correct solution to the crossword and the clue of the week opened on Monday 5 June. Send it to The Week Crossword 1364, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London W2 6JR, or email the completed grid/listed solutions to crossword@theweek.co.uk. Tim Moorey (timmoorey.com) This week’s winner will receive an Ettinger (ettinger.co.uk) travel pass holder in assorted colours, which retails at £115, and two Connell Guides (connellguides.com). ACROSS 1 Stopgap team’s put out – it may get a licking (7,5) 9 Idle talk from top conductor behind piano (7) 10 Desert tribe in fierce competition (3,4) 11 Disc’s out, a Beethoven symphony for this girl (5) 12 Put off explosive resolve (9) 13…

What happened Rishi Sunak threw a lifeline to Suella Braverman this week, by deciding that the Home Secretary should not face an official probe into allegations that she had breached the ministerial code last year. After being caught speeding in June 2022, Braverman had requested that civil servants arrange a one-to-one speed awareness course for her. Concerned that they were being asked to involve themselves in her personal affairs, in a potential breach of the code, civil servants declined her request. There had been speculation that she might be forced to resign, but the PM said that having consulted his ethics adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, he was satisfied that there had been no breach. In turn, Braverman apologised for “the distraction” the issue had caused. She confirmed that rather than…

Millennials and Gen Z are less religious than previous generations – yet they are significantly more likely to believe in hell than Baby Boomers. Overall, only 41% of Britons now believe in heaven, down from 57% in 1981, according to data from the World Values Study. But belief in hell has remained consistent, and currently stands at 26%. Broken down by age, 32% of under-40s believe in hell, whereas only 18% of 59- to 77-year-olds do. Younger people are also more likely to say they believe in life after death. The survey showed that 49% of Britons believe in God, down from 75% in 1981. Only five of the 22 countries surveyed (Norway, South Korea, Japan, Sweden and China) came lower on that table. The Philippines topped it, with a…

Sinn Féin secured control of six of Northern Ireland’s 11 councils in this month’s local elections. The better-than-expected result means that it is now the biggest party in local government, with 144 council seats – up 39 on 2019. Last year it emerged as the biggest party in an assembly election for the first time. The DUP came second, with 122 seats, unchanged from four years ago. The cross-community Alliance Party won 67, up 14. Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill said its gains reflected frustration at the DUP’s boycott of power-sharing, which has paralysed Stormont and prevented her from becoming First Minister. The DUP’s Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said the results showed that voters were fed up with unionist infighting, noting that the unionist vote had been split three ways.…

Edmonton, Canada Wildfires rage: Massive wildfires continued to rage in western Canada this week. In the worst-affected province, Alberta, the blazes have forced more than 30,000 people from their homes, and burned two million acres of land. A state of emergency was declared on 6 May and fires have also broken out in neighbouring British Columbia. Smoke from the fires has spread up to 2,000 miles, creating a haze in the sky in northern US states, including New York, Illinois and Iowa, that turned the Sun a startling shade of red. Wildfires in western Canada are not uncommon at this time of year, but this month’s look set to be among the most severe on record, owing to the unusually hot, dry spring. Canada isn’t alone in experiencing a bad…

“Susie Dent, the serenely authoritative lexicographer from Countdown, appealed to her 1.1 million followers on Twitter to name the hated words and expressions they would like to see expunged from the English language. The most unpopular expression among her fans was ‘Going forward’, followed by ‘No disrespect, but…’; the word ‘like’ used as a filler; ‘I wanted to reach out’; ‘Basically’; and ‘My bad’. As for my own list, high up on it would come two expressions used by politicians: ‘Let me be absolutely clear’, invariably preceding a statement that’s anything but, and ‘our NHS’, used protectively with a touch of reverence, as in Our Lady the Virgin Mary.” Tom Utley in the Daily Mail…

The tax hike the Tories are hiding from us Liam Halligan The Daily Telegraph Imagine the political storm were Rishi Sunak to hike the basic rate of income tax from 20p to 24p in the pound, says Liam Halligan. Yet amazingly, the Government is launching a tax raid of just that size on middle-income employees by freezing personal tax thresholds for the next five years. It will drag millions more people into the 40% tax bracket – a “tax band designed for the seriously well-paid”. In the early 1990s, just 3.5% of UK adults paid income tax at the higher rate. By 2028, 14% of the workforce are set to do so, including 13% of NHS nurses, 11% of construction workers and over a quarter of teachers. The biggest hike…

A warning about sweeteners Replacing sugar with aspartame and other artificial sweeteners does not help weight loss in the long term – and may raise the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, the World Health Organisation has concluded. Rather than switching to non-sugar sweeteners (NSS), it says that people should be aiming to use raw or lightly processed fruit with naturally occurring sugars as their source of sweetness, while also trying to reduce their taste for sweet foods, ideally from early on in life. The WHO says the advice applies to everyone except those with pre-existing diabetes, and to all NSS – whether included in manufactured food and drinks, or sold on their own to be added by the consumer. “It’s not surprising to me that the World…

Suella Braverman has come under fire for trying to get out of a speed awareness course. But as the actor Eddie Marsan has pointed out on Twitter, such courses can be quite an ordeal for VIPs. “I had to do a speed awareness course and, as a famous actor, it was really humiliating,” he said. “No one recognised me.” Jude Law went to some lengths to channel Henry VIII while playing him in a new film, Firebrand. Having read that people could smell the king from “three rooms away”, the actor got a perfumer to brew him a scent which reeked of “blood, fecal matter and sweat,” and applied it liberally. It worked. “When he walked on set, it was just horrible,” said the film’s director Karim Aïnouz. The novelist…

At the start of this year, Manchester City had a “rough” few weeks, said Sam Lee on The Athletic. Their Premier League campaign was stuttering (at one point in January they were eight points adrift of Arsenal), and on 11 January they were dumped out of the Carabao Cup by relegation-bound Southampton. Even more concerning for manager Pep Guardiola was that “word of disharmony in the Manchester City camp had spread far and wide”. He himself acknowledged this, referring in interviews to the poor “body language” and “mood of his players”. How things have turned around since then. Last weekend, having won their previous 12 Premier League matches, City were crowned champions for the third year in succession. And with the FA Cup final (against Manchester United) and the Champions…

by Claire Dederer Sceptre 288pp £20 The Week Bookshop £15.99 There was a time when the “awful” behaviour of artists wasn’t an impediment to enjoying their work, said Laura Miller on Slate. But those times are gone. In her “tangled and fascinating” book, the American essayist Claire Dederer “wrestles” with the way she – as a reader, filmgoer and art lover – negotiates the gap between her moral values and what she calls her “art love”. Dederer begins by observing that “much of her favourite art – Roman Polanski’s Chinatown, Woody Allen’s Annie Hall, Michael Jackson’s I Want You Back – was produced by people who had done terrible things”, said Megan Nolan in The Sunday Times. From there, her book becomes a “nimble, porous exploration” of various artists and…

When it comes to British podcasting, politics seems to be king, said Patricia Nicol in The Sunday Times. Alastair Campbell (see page 27) and Rory Stewart’s The Rest is Politics consistently tops the charts, and now has an interview offshoot show, Leading. The News Agents (with Lewis Goodall, Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel) has become “a daily fix” for many. A more “knockabout” podcast, The Trawl – a scroll through the news via Twitter with Jemma Forte and Marina Purkiss – has found a loyal audience. So too has Novara Live, an alternative news bulletin “for those whose leanings are more Corbynite than Conservative”. Its popularity reflects the move away from traditional media by younger audiences. Politics podcasts are indeed big business now, said James Marriott in The Times. But…

The Welsh-born painter Gwen John is generally remembered as a “fragile”, isolated figure, said Mark Hudson in The Independent. Neglected for some time after her death, John (1876-1939) was rediscovered in the 1980s, when she was reassessed as a reclusive talent overshadowed by two “bombastic male egos”: her brother, the celebrated painter Augustus John; and the great French sculptor Auguste Rodin, with whom she pursued a doomed romance for a decade. This new exhibition sets out to prove that our understanding of John as a solitary melancholic is a misconception. It argues that she was in fact an artist in tune with all the major movements of her day, and a “socially gregarious” character: she befriended James McNeill Whistler and the poet Rilke, met Picasso and Matisse, and enjoyed “numerous…

The Revenge of Power by Moisés Naím, 2022 (St Martin’s Press £16.99). This book by a former Venezuelan politician was one of the inspirations for mine. It analyses what he calls 3P autocrats, who win and wield power through populism, polarisation and post-truth. The shaming thing is the extent to which Brexit and Boris Johnson figure so large. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, 1947 (Penguin £7.99). This features in my section on role models. What is remarkable about her story is that she died never knowing she would become one, and never knowing that her diaries would be published. No One is Too Small to Make a Difference by Greta Thunberg, 2019 (Penguin £3.99). Thunberg is another fantastic role model. Her short but superb book is…

Programmes Barry Humphries at the BBC Alex Jones looks at the late comedian’s long career, with archive clips of his creations Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson. Sun 28 May, BBC2 21:00 (60mins). 60 Days on the Estates In this hard-hitting three-parter, the filmmaker Ed Stafford moves onto some of the UK’s most deprived estates to see what life is like for their residents. Sun 28 May, C4 21:00 (60mins). Close to Vermeer Film following Gregor Weber, the curator of Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, as he prepares for the largest Vermeer exhibition ever. Tue 30 May, BBC4 21:00 (75mins). Gender Wars Leading figures in the polarising debate, including the philosopher Kathleen Stock and trans rights campaigner Stephen Whittle, discuss their views. Tue 30 May, C4 22:00 (65mins). The Gallows Pole New…

The rise of Provence rosé has led to a number of “Provençal pretenders”, says Susy Atkins in The Daily Telegraph: pink wine from other regions in a similar pale, bonedry style. They tend to be rather cheaper than Provençal wines – but can they offer anything like the same quality? To find out, I tasted 30 under-£10 rosés on the high street. Many were pallid and sour – but I found five that were “better balanced”: Aldi’s Specially Selected Chassaux et Fils Coteaux de Béziers Rosé 2022 (France) has “cranberry and strawberry tones and a succulent finish” – and at £6.99 is the “best value French pink around”. The Co-op’s Irresistible Solo Rosé 2022 Campo de Borja, (£7.95; Spain) is a “crowd-pleasing party pink”. From Tesco, the Finest Western Cape…

Kimpton Clocktower Hotel in Manchester has lots of extras for your pet, from soft toys to doggy cologne and a luxurious dog bed. Dogs are welcome throughout the hotel and there’s even a Sunday roast for them (from £209 b&b, dogs free; kimptonclocktowerhotel.com). Dogs get their own bed, bowls, towel and treats at The Fish in the Cotswolds. There are walking trails and a Pooch’s Playground – a dog activity area (from £220 b&b, dogs £30; thefishhotel.co.uk). Knockderry House in the Scottish Borders is a former winner of Scotland’s best dog-friendly award. There’s a doggie package, with a dog menu and a list of dog-friendly walks (from £169 b&b, dogs £10/night, £15 for two; knockderryhouse.co.uk). The Harper, near the north Norfolk coast, allows dogs everywhere, apart from the restaurant. It…

Tiger-spotting in India This year is the 50th anniversary of India’s Project Tiger, launched in 1973 to save the big cat from extinction. At that point, there were 1,827 tigers left in the wild in India, down from 40,000 in 1900. Today, there are 3,167 – so the project has not been a huge success, says Chris Haslam in The Sunday Times, but it has made a difference. The presence of humans in tiger reserves has been much reduced, by relocating villagers and banning tourists in many areas. As a result, your chances of spotting a tiger are limited. To maximise them, go in March or April (when foliage is sparse), and take at least five game drives in Bandhavgarh, Satpura, Kanha, Pench or Panna national parks. My advice: go…

Allen & Overy/Shearman & Sterling: magic upgrade? In one of the biggest-ever transatlantic legal tie-ups, the City “magic circle” law firm Allen & Overy has announced a $3.4bn merger with the New York partnership Shearman & Sterling, said Hannah Boland in The Daily Telegraph. The move, still to be approved by partners, will create “one of the world’s largest law firms”, with around 4,000 lawyers across 49 offices globally. It is considered a big step forward in A&O’s bid to conquer the lucrative US market, but may prompt a retrenchment – amid signs that “years of red-hot growth and surging pay” may “finally be coming to an end”. A&O’s partners will be cheered that the English firm – co-founded in 1930 by George Allen, who advised Edward VIII during the…

“The boom time for Britain’s super rich appears to be coming to an end,” said Mario Ledwith in The Times. For the first time since the 2008 financial crash, the number of billionaires making The Sunday Times Rich List has fallen (from 177 in 2022, to 171 this year), even though the total wealth shared by Britain’s richest has jumped by 4.5% to £683,856bn. It brings a “golden period” for the super rich to a close, said the list’s compiler Robert Watts. “This is not a crash, but there are household names who lost vast sums over the past year. The bursting of the tech bubble, the end of rock-bottom interest rates and the jitters creeping through the banking industry have all taken their toll.” For a fifth year running,…

John Allan The reverberations of the CBI scandal “continue to be felt in the City”, said Kate Beioley in the FT. The lobby group’s former president, John Allan, has now resigned his chairmanships of both Tesco and the builder Barratt, following claims of “inappropriate” behaviour towards women. Allan, 74, denies three allegations, which relate to touching, and has “unreservedly” apologised for a fourth: he admitted to telling a CBI employee that her dress “suited her figure”. It’s a sad end to the career of a respected figure, said Oliver Shah in The Sunday Times – particularly as no evidence has yet been supplied except “anonymous briefings”. Had Allan been accused of fraud, “Tesco would have waited for the proof”. Workplace safety is crucial, but so too is “fairness”. Lorenzo Bertelli…

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Political donations, after an Egyptian-born billionaire gave £5m to the Tory Party. Mohamed Mansour said he had faith in Rishi Sunak to achieve economic growth. It represents the party’s biggest single donation since 2001, but it is dwarfed by the £8m that Lord Sainsbury gave the Lib Dems in 2019. Fix Radio, a station aimed specifically at builders and other tradespeople, with reports that it has notched up 300,000 listeners in the 12 months since expanding nationally last year. Its schedule includes music, industry news and construction-related comedy.…

More than half (53%) of 16- to 18-year-olds believe that it is “likely” that the world will end in their lifetimes because of climate change. Civitas/The Daily Telegraph More than a third of voters who backed Leave in the 2016 referendum think that Brexit has been more of a failure than a success; a fifth think it has been more of a success than a failure. Of all voters, 62% (including half of over-65s) think leaving the EU has been more of a failure, and only 9% more of a success. Seven in ten think the Government has handled Brexit badly. YouGov/The Independent 63% of adults expect Labour to win the next election. Labour is on 44%, down five points on March; the Tories are on 28%, up two points.…

The reluctant runner The rugby star Kevin Sinfield has raised more than £7.5m for motor neurone disease charities since his former teammate Rob Burrow was diagnosed with the condition in 2019, says Matt Dickinson in The Times. His first feat was to run seven marathons in seven days; then came others: a 101-mile run in 24 hours; seven ultra marathons back-to-back. He doesn’t actually like running very much, and he knows he is risking knee problems; but he carries on for the sake of his friend. “After 13 years as his captain, just because we stopped playing does not mean I stop looking after him,” he says. And he has realised that pushing himself to ever-tougher challenges is the best way to keep the cash rolling in. “The harder you…

A hospital in western Germany has expressed regret after it emerged that one of its surgeons used a cleaner to assist in a toe amputation. The incident occurred at Mainz University Hospital in 2020, but has only recently been revealed. The surgeon decided to go ahead with the procedure, although no qualified assistant was available. When the patient, who had received a local anaesthetic, became restless, the doctor asked a nearby hospital cleaner to hold the man’s leg and pass surgical instruments. There were no complications, but the surgeon has since been fired. A stolen car somehow ended up balanced on a metal drum in the middle of a roundabout in Annan, Dumfries and Galloway. The Honda Civic was found close to a Tesco supermarket last week. “Not something you…

TURKEY Erdogan’s awful, but he has his uses Politico (Brussels) Western leaders have reason to dislike Turkey’s President Erdogan, says Suzanne Lynch. During his 20 years in power, he has jailed countless opposition figures and journalists, “violently cracked down on protesters”, and woefully mismanaged Turkey’s economy. On the world stage, he has “cosied up to Russia, launched an incursion into Syria” and been a block on Nato expansion. Yet for all that, believe it or not, many in Brussels are hoping he triumphs over his rival, Kemal Kılıçdaroglu, in the second round of Turkey’s presidential election on Sunday. Why? Because Erdogan’s authoritarian turn of recent years has been a “useful political foil” for EU leaders who want to stop Turkey joining the bloc. They really don’t want to have to…

“Housing is a vital issue but, surprisingly, a Cinderella one in politics,” said Andrew Grice in The Independent. Last week, though, Keir Starmer declared his determination to put it “at the top of the political agenda”. In a speech to the British Chambers of Commerce, he said that a Labour government would be on the side of the “builders, not the blockers”, and would reinstate the national plan to build 300,000 homes per year. He also opened the door to housebuilding on green belt land. It was a canny move. The Conservatives are already losing this battle: because Rishi Sunak scrapped compulsory local housebuilding targets to head off a backbench rebellion, the number of homes built in England is expected to dip to around 110,000, far below what is needed.…

“Some recollections may vary,” the late Queen famously remarked, in response to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021. Last week, said The Times, the same observation was made about the couple’s reports of a “near catastrophic” chase, in which they were pursued around Manhattan by “aggressive” paparazzi, who – they said – ran red lights and mounted pavements resulting in multiple near-collisions, and endangering pedestrians and police. The Duke told friends it was the “closest thing I have ever felt” to understanding what his mother went through on the night of her death, in 1997. The initial reaction was sympathetic. But when the media looked into what had transpired that night, after the couple left an awards ceremony, a different picture emerged. The police…

To The Times As a member of the Lib Dems, I am usually happy to support reasonable attacks on the Government. However, whatever one’s opinion of Suella Braverman, she is a minister of the Crown and has better ways of spending her time than attending a speed awareness course. Hence it seems reasonable for her to have asked if the course could come to her. It appears that this was not possible, so she paid the fine and accepted the points. To have an investigation into this storm in a teacup would also seem a great waste of time. Michael Morton, Redbourn, Hertfordshire To The Times I am a lawyer specialising in traffic offences, and I am always heartened to see the majesty of road traffic law treat a government…

by Tom Hanks Cornerstone 416pp £22 The Week Bookshop £17.99 Weighing in at more than 400 pages, Tom Hanks’s debut novel is excessively long, said Andrew Billen in The Times. But that’s its only real flaw. The story begins with “legendary director and screenwriter” Bill Johnson inviting a film reviewer named Joe Shaw onto the set of his latest project, a superhero movie called Knightshade. What follows is Joe’s account of the production, with every aspect of the process described in detail, from the absurd behaviour of the leading actors (one insists on sleeping in a tent) to the “ruthless euphemisms of Tinseltown”. The results are both revealing and entertaining: “there will never be a superior account” of how a blockbuster gets made. It would be nice to see this…

Richard Avedon at Hamiltons Richard Avedon (1923-2004) was always fascinated by celebrity, by postwar glamour, and by the ways in which they came to dominate the media. Often shot against stark white backgrounds, his monochrome portrait images of the great, the good and indeed the questionable were endlessly imitated and remain instantly recognisable. This exhibition, Glamorous, which brings together a selection of his celebrity pictures, is as good an overview as any. It’s difficult to say where the line between portrait photographer and fashion photographer blur with Avedon, but it hardly matters. In the show’s course, we see photos of Tina Turner mid-performance; the model Ingrid Boulting styled as a Pre-Raphaelite muse; and Andy Warhol and his Factory stars captured as if posing for a police lineup. Perhaps most striking…

Suffolk family cottage Spend 3 nights in Penty on the Hoo, conveniently located 5 minutes from Aldeburgh Beach and its high street. From £156pp (based on 10 sharing). 07597-690647, byquince.co.uk. Arrive 29 June. The Turku archipelago Island-hop and enjoy the culture and cuisine of the Finnish harbour villages for 7 days. From £1,124pp b&b (excl. flights). 020-8004 8886, theadventurepeople.com. Depart 25 June. Charming Cornwall break Nestled in the charming fishing village of St Mawes, the Ship and Castle Hotel offers a 2-night stay from £171pp b&b (incl. a free dinner). 01905-792801, greatlittlebreaks.com. Arrive 22 July. Majorca getaway Stay 7 nights at Club Santa Ponsa, set on a hilltop facing the bay among stunning surroundings, from £442pp all-inclusive (incl. flights). 01234-230440, loveholidays.com. Depart 25 September. Covid-19: please check government websites for…