Table of contents for 1498 in The Week

What happened The 2024 presidential race took another dramatic turn on Sunday when Joe Biden abandoned his re-election campaign – an act last performed by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968. Biden, who was recovering at home from Covid, said it was “in the best interests of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term”. He had come under mounting pressure from allies to withdraw from the race since his faltering performance in a TV debate against Donald Trump last month. Biden threw his support behind Vice-President Kamala Harris, who swiftly secured the endorsement of the number of delegates she’d need to win the Democratic nomination at the party’s convention next month. Donors…

“Finally”, a judge who “has the guts to do what the British people have long wanted the judiciary to do”, said Carole Malone in the Daily Express: “throw the book at those loony eco-activists who bring whole cities to a standstill”. At Southwark Crown Court last week, judge Christopher Hehir doled out the longest-ever prison sentences for peaceful protest, to five Just Stop Oil protesters. Roger Hallam, who co-founded the movement, was given a five-year term for conspiracy to cause public nuisance. His co-defendants, Daniel Shaw, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, Louise Lancaster and Cressida Gethin, got four years. In November 2022, they had organised a demonstration in which more than 45 protesters climbed onto gantries on the M25 motorway, bringing it to a standstill. People could have been killed. As…

Pret A Manger, which upset many of its customers by ending its £30-a-month subscription offer. The firm said the deal – which was introduced at the height of the pandemic, and entitled people to five free drinks a day – was “too good to be true”. Instead, customers will be offered five half-price drinks for £10 a month. Village cricket, after players at one of England’s oldest clubs were warned that if they hit the ball over the boundary, they’ll no longer score a six. The first time, they’ll get no runs, and the second time, they’ll be out. Southwick and Shoreham Cricket Club introduced the rule in response to complaints from local homeowners about cricket balls breaking windows and roof tiles. Charlotte Dujardin, the British dressage star and six-time…

Brussels Emphatic win: Ursula von der Leyen has won a second five-year term as European Commission president, gaining 401 votes out of 720 in the EU Parliament. A German Christian Democrat, she secured the backing not just of her own EPP centre-right grouping in the parliament, but of liberals, socialists and, crucially, the greens. She won over the latter with a pledge to expand the EU’s Green Deal, setting a new 90% emissions reduction target for 2040. In her campaign, she presented herself as a safe pair of hands intent on developing a “true European defence union”, including an EU-wide “air shield” system to defend its skies. Paris Sinister snub: A hard-left French MP has caused an uproar by saying that Israeli athletes are not welcome at the Games. Thomas…

1* I Say a Little Prayer by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, performed by Aretha Franklin2 Cloudbusting, written and performed by Kate Bush3 Life on Mars?, written and performed by David Bowie4 BWV 988: Aria (from Goldberg Variations) by Bach, performed by Glenn Gould5 Coyote, written and performed by Joni Mitchell6 We Belong Together, written and performed by Rickie Lee Jones7 Who Knows Where the Time Goes? by Sandy Denny, performed by Fairport Convention8 Protection by Andrew Vowles, Robert Del Naja, Grantley Marshall and Tracey Thorn, performed by Massive Attack Book: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Luxury: a piano and sheet music * Choice if allowed only one record…

The first suspicions about Letby came when two doctors at the Countess of Chester, discussing the sudden spate of deaths, said to each other: “It’s always Lucy, isn’t it?” They made the first diagram plotting shift patterns against suspicious incidents, a version of which was shown repeatedly to the jury, and featured prominently in media coverage. Many statisticians say that the jury should never have seen it. It exhibits what they call the “Texas sharpshooter fallacy”, based on a fable about a gunman who fires a series of bullets into a barn, then draws a bullseye around the cluster where most bullets landed. If you draw a circle around any artificially isolated dataset, it can be made to look like a pattern. In this case, the selection was very artificial.…

It was the party that symbolised India’s “coming of age” as an economic superpower, said Gautam Mukherjee on News18 (Delhi). After five months of lavish celebrations, costing an estimated $600m, Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant were married at a star-studded ceremony in Mumbai last week. Anant is the son of Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani – and the couple’s wedding was a suitably “grand celebration of tradition and modern luxury”. There were performances from stars such as Katy Perry, Rihanna and Justin Bieber; huge choreographed Bollywood-style dances; and a dazzling array of saris and gowns. The 1,200 assorted guests filled hotels, private jets and at least one cruise ship. It was a fitting representation of modern India, a country that boasts a 7% growth rate and is fast on the…

A new injection will slash the amount of time people with multiple sclerosis (MS) have to spend being treated in hospital. About 9,000 of the 150,000 MS patients in the UK take ocrelizumab (which is prescribed under the brand name Ocrevus) to prevent relapses and slow the progression of the disease. At the moment, this is delivered in the form of an IV infusion – which can take up to four hours. But now an injectable version has been approved by the medicines’ regulator, which should cut the treatment time to ten minutes. Clinical trials have found that the jab is just as effective as the IV version, with 97% of those treated having no relapses over the next year. In MS, a malfunctioning immune system attacks the myelin (the…

Some evangelical Christians in the US have for years believed that Donald Trump was sent by God to lead America and defend their interests as the “chosen people”, said David Gilbert in Wired. But since the attempt on the former president’s life this month, the idea that Trump is divinely anointed – previously mainly espoused by white Christian nationalists – has been embraced by a dramatically broader range of his supporters. On social media, digitally altered pictures of Trump at the rally in Pennsylvania, with Jesus standing behind him, have gone viral. Countless politicians and religious leaders have spoken of the “miracle” by which the would-be assassin’s bullet missed his head. And, at last week’s Republican convention, an informal poll of 18 delegates found that all but two believed that…

Formula 1 drivers are a “fiercely competitive” lot, with an irrepressible desire to win any given race, said Giles Richards in The Guardian. But one of the realities of the sport – and one reason it’s so compelling – is that sometimes they must rein in their competitive instincts for the overall good of their team. That was the lesson learnt on Sunday at the Hungarian Grand Prix by 24-year-old British driver Lando Norris, who was “forced to concede a potential win” on the orders of his bosses at McLaren. Norris had started the afternoon in pole position, but had swiftly been overtaken by Oscar Piastri, his Australian teammate. Piastri had dominated the race, only for Norris to be handed the lead on lap 47 (out of 70) after being…

Golf This year’s Open, at the Royal Troon Golf Club in Scotland, was won by Xander Schauffele of the US, who finished two shots clear of Justin Rose. All four majors this year have been won by Americans – the first time this has happened since 1982. Cricket Batsmen at Southwick Cricket Club in West Sussex have been told to stop hitting sixes, after neighbours complained about damage to windows, cars and sheds. Rugby union England won the under-20 world title for the fourth time since 2016 with a 21-13 victory over France.…

Running time: 2hrs 25mins “Well, hello – this Dolly is a complete delight,” said Nick Curtis in the Evening Standard. Jerry Herman’s glitzy 1964 musical – about a widowed New York matchmaker who finally makes a match for herself – contains a string of classic numbers and has a book, by Michael Stewart, that is laced with “knockabout daftness”. To this production, Imelda Staunton brings splinter-sharp comic timing, radiant charm and dramatic heft, as well as her “formidable voice”. And director Dominic Cooke “throws everything at it [that] the vast Palladium stage can handle”, said Sarah Hemming in the Financial Times. We get marching bands, swirling crowds and an “army of spinning waiters brandishing extravagant, quivering desserts on silver salvers as they pirouette around”. It’s an irresistible joy – funny…

Natalie Portman gives a “scene-stealing” performance in Lady in the Lake, a seven-part period thriller adapted for Apple TV+ from Laura Lippman’s 2019 bestseller, said Ed Power in The Irish Times. Loosely based on real events, it is about a Jewish mother in 1960s Baltimore who is “so distressed by the disappearance of a child that she leaves her husband, and sets off in search of the girl herself”. The drama “isn’t a fun watch: it has a nightmarish quality that occasionally verges on the supernatural”; and its slow pace, “murky camera work and mumbled dialogue” won’t appeal to all. But it makes for “brooding, surreal viewing”, and ultimately casts “a potent spell”. What starts out looking like an “intricate murdermystery” gradually builds into something more complex, said Lucy Mangan…

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway, 1964 (Vintage £9.99). Hemingway loved Paris and was there to witness the liberation. By then his youthful innocence was long gone and the decline into boorishness and self-parody well advanced. He redeemed himself with this memoir of his Parisian salad days, written just before his suicide. It’s touching, beautifully observed and a reminder of his great gifts. Slightly Out of Focus by Robert Capa, 1947 (available secondhand). Also present at the liberation was the legendary war photographer, who described his return to the city where he “learnt to eat, drink and love” in this autobiography. Capa was fun, stylish and greedy for life but had a streak of melancholy. The city was a perfect fit for him and the nearest thing to home. Paris…

Programmes Eiffel Tower: Building the Impossible Documentary about the feats of engineering involved in the construction of the 130-year-old landmark. Mon 29 Jul, BBC4 21:00 (60mins). A Storm Foretold Documentary following Trump ally Roger Stone to what it argues is the Maga movement’s logical end: the chaos of the Capitol riots. Tue 30 Jul, BBC4 22:00 (90mins). Atomic People Powerful film examining the impact of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Wed 31 Jul, BBC2 21:00 (90mins). Catching a Killer: A Stab in the Dark The inside story of Thames Valley Police’s murder investigation into the stabbing of 21-year-old Kyron Lee, and the hunt to find his five assailants. Wed 31 Jul, C4 21:00 (90mins). Films Doctor Zhivago (1965) David Lean’s epic adaptation of…

Ruth Westheimer 1928-2024 These days, it is not hard to find frank discussions about sex, said the Washington Examiner. You could choose from any number of podcasts; listen to a Ted Talk or 20; and there are enough books devoted to the subject to fill a library. But there was a time when reliable, science-based, compassionate advice was as rare as “a snowball in the summer”. One woman changed all that: a 4ft 7in psychologist and sex therapist called Ruth Westheimer; or, as she was better known to her millions of fans, Dr Ruth. Her mission, said The Economist, was to “promote sexual literacy” – so that Americans could speak freely about penises and vaginas, and what they enjoyed, and where, with no blushing or wriggling, shame or discomfort. And…

Georges Elhedery HSBC’s shares barely budged when it announced that it had elevated its finance chief to the top job, said Ben Martin in The Times. Georges Elhedery, 50, was the frontrunner to succeed Noel Quinn, however the new CEO “does not fit the mould of the typical jet-setting financier” – or, indeed, the typical HSBC boss; he has never worked in Hong Kong. Raised in Beirut during Lebanon’s civil war, Elhedery initially studied engineering in Paris, before switching to statistics and economics. He joined HSBC in 2005, after stints with BNP Paribas and Goldman Sachs. Described as having “a passion for running”, Elhedery speaks Arabic, English, French, German, Spanish and Japanese. More recently, he has been learning Mandarin. That should come in handy. Nick Pickles Yorkshire-born Nick Pickles has…

What happened Keir Starmer suspended seven left-wing Labour MPs on Tuesday for voting to scrap the two-child benefit cap. In the first rebellion of Starmer’s premiership, the MPs had backed an SNP amendment to the King’s Speech proposing to reverse the 2017 rule that stops parents claiming benefits for more than two children. The rebels, whose number included ex-shadow chancellor John McDonnell, cited the cap’s impact on child poverty (see page 14); but the amendment was easily defeated. On Sunday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves suggested that some public sector workers could be given above-inflation pay increases. She is said to be poised to accept recommendations by independent pay review bodies that teachers, nurses and other NHS workers should get a 5.5% pay rise, at a cost of some £3bn. There is…

Canary Wharf – London’s gleaming business district – is having to reinvent itself as a leisure destination, owing to a growing number of its corporate tenants either reducing their existing floor spaces or moving out. In the latest sign of the trend, the owners of the 45-storey, 1.1 million sq ft HSBC building have submitted plans to turn it into a mixed-use space with restaurants, hotels and shops, and take large chunks out of the side to create high-level terraces. For the first time, botanists have decided to change a species name because it is offensive. At a congress in Spain, 60% of delegates approved a motion to replace “caffra” (a racial slur in many languages) with “affra” (after Africa) in the names of some 200 species of plant, algae…

The first report from the Covid-19 Inquiry (looking into the UK’s resilience and preparedness) has concluded that the British state “failed its citizens” by preparing for the “wrong pandemic”. In the years leading up to the pandemic, officials had focused too heavily on the possibility of an outbreak of influenza, and ignored lessons that could have been learnt from countries that had experienced outbreaks of coronaviruses such as Sars. Had the country been better prepared for a coronavirus pandemic, says the report, some of the “financial and human cost may have been avoided”. Written by the inquiry’s chair, Baroness Hallett, the report is the first of nine due to be published by the inquiry. It calls for “radical reforms” and issues ten recommendations, including the creation of a single statutory…

Milwaukee, Wisconsin GOP speech: Donald Trump spoke for fully 92 minutes at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last Thursday – a record for a nomination acceptance speech. With a plaster covering his wounded ear, he kept the audience seemingly spellbound as he described his experience of being shot at a rally in Pennsylvania days earlier. He struck a unifying tone at first, telling the assembled delegates that “the discord and division in our society must be healed”, but soon reverted to more familiar rhetoric: he called the Democratic ex-House speaker Nancy Pelosi “crazy”, accused Joe Biden of overseeing an “invasion” of illegal immigrants, and claimed that the Democrats were “cheating on elections”. As the speech wore on, commentators noted that the crowd started to grow restless and to talk…

“It’s a dangerous, stultifying mantra that dominates political discussion: ‘Elections are always won on the centre ground.’ It sounds right, but it’s actually tautologous: any campaign which gets the support of the majority of the population is, by definition, on ‘the centre ground’ of public opinion. It has proved that fact by winning the election. This does not mean that any party wishing to succeed must find in advance what most voters believe to be the happy medium between two polar opposites. The centre ground is not a pre-existing location that every successful party must seek out. Its limits have, in fact, shifted dramatically within living memory.” Janet Daley in The Sunday Telegraph…

How to cut their lordships down to size Alan Rusbridger The Independent So farewell then, Charles Clotworthy Whyte-Melville Foster Skeffington. The heir to the title of Massereene and Ferrard will never enjoy taking a seat in the upper house “to make laws for the rest of us”, says Alan Rusbridger. Tony Blair did away with most of the hereditaries in the Lords, leaving a self-electing rump of 92; now Keir Starmer is booting out this last contingent, too. But the big question remains: what to do about nearly 800 other peers in the chamber. The need to reform this unelected body, bloated with “assorted donors, crooks, time-servers, has-beens, never-wases, lobbyists, press barons and former aides”, is clearly pressing. But given all the other demands facing ministers, how will they find…

Huge cave found on the Moon More than half a century after the first men walked on the Moon, an international team of researchers has identified a cave network that could provide a site for a permanent base there. The cave, the first to be discovered on the Moon, was found by applying new processing techniques to radar data collected by a Nasa lunar orbiter 14 years ago. Lying about 150 metres beneath the Sea of Tranquillity – the vast lunar plain where the Apollo 11 mission landed in 1969 – the cave is believed to be at least 45 metres wide and up to 80 metres long, giving it an area equivalent to 14 tennis courts. Likely to be just one of many caves forming an “underground, undiscovered world”,…

Europe’s leaders enjoyed a “diplomatic day out” at Blenheim Palace last week, said Freddie Hayward in The New Statesman. They were there to attend the fourth-ever meeting of the European Political Community (EPC). Founded two years ago in response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the EPC is “a self-defined talking shop”. Its meetings don’t produce communiqués, but are simply a forum in which to exchange ideas and build relationships. Last Thursday’s get-together was thus something of a gift for Keir Starmer. It provided the new PM with an ideal platform to highlight his desire for a “reset” in relations between Britain and Europe, as the leaders discussed topics such as illegal immigration, defence and security cooperation, and the war in Ukraine. The meeting was about a lot more than…

Goda 144 Ballards Lane, London N3 (020-8244 2244) This Turkish grillhouse in north London looks much like any other suburban restaurant, says Jay Rayner in The Observer, but it takes one thing “very seriously indeed”. Near its front is a purpose-built rotisserie, on which its chefs grill huge hunks of meat. For £345, you can order a whole roast lamb: one is “rotating gently on its spit when I arrive”. Or you could opt for a roasted lamb’s head (which, like the whole lamb, must be ordered in advance). We content ourselves instead with more modest offerings: “soft and almost sweet” roasted lamb neck; a plate of grilled lamb ribs, which come with a generous layer of “crisped, salty skin”; a satisfyingly meaty rotisserie chicken. All this we eat with…

● Compile a spreadsheet with tabs for everything including shopping lists, jobs to be done, appointments, ideas, films you want to watch and books you want to read. ● Instead of a “to-do list”, create a “first-things list” by breaking tasks down into little chunks until you find one you can do now quickly. Put a checkbox next to each item, so you can see what you’ve done. ● Map your working day and make a note of when you’re most focused and when you are more sluggish, then allocate tricky and more mundane tasks accordingly. ● Work without the internet, if possible, to avoid distraction, or put an elastic band on your phone to remind you to leave it alone. ● Try the Pomodoro method: work solidly for 25…

Bob Newhart 1929-2024 At the age of 30, Bob Newhart was a balding former accountant, living at home with his parents in the suburbs of Chicago, said The Washington Post. He looked nothing like a future showbiz star, yet within a year he had released a comedy album, consisting of a series of deadpan monologues, that had turned him into a national sensation. The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart spent 14 weeks at the top of the billboard charts in 1960, and sold more than one million copies. Newhart, who has died aged 94, went on to star in two hit sitcoms, and to influence a generation of younger comedians, including Jerry Seinfeld. Newhart’s talent was for a cerebral observational comedy, delivered with a sort of stammer. One of his…

European markets have had a tough time lately, said Holly Thomas in The Times. But Aegon Asset Management’s Jordy Hermanns argues that these seven mega-cap “Eurostars” are giving America’s “Magnificent Seven” a run for their money: The line-up The Eurostars comprise: Danish pharma Novo Nordisk (maker of obesity and diabetes drugs Wegovy and Ozempic); luxury goods giants LVMH and Hermès; Dutch chipmaker ASML; its compatriot, the credit card company Adyen; Italy’s Ferrari; and the French digital/energy giant Schneider Electric. Performance Since the start of 2020, the Eurostars have delivered “a phenomenal total return of 224%”, said Piero Cingari on Euronews, equal to an annualised return of 30%. This performance mirrors that of the Magnificent Seven, with the benefit of much lower volatility. A big plus is that, unlike the tech-focused…

Eluned Morgan, the new leader of Welsh Labour, looks set to become Wales’s first female first minister. The Health Secretary is known to have the support of at least 26 of the 30 Labour members of the Senedd, and is running unopposed. Midges, with reports that the warm wet weather is providing perfect conditions for the insects. Entomologists said they arrived in the Scottish Highlands two weeks early this summer, and in much greater numbers – and might achieve a rare third hatching. The National Trust for Scotland recently added midges to its risk assessments for workers maintaining footpaths in the summer.…

Nominations for the next leader of the Conservative Party opened this week, after the 1922 Committee finalised its timetable for the contest. Contenders will need to have secured ten nominations from Tory MPs by 29 July. Candidates will then be able to campaign over the summer, before MPs vote to whittle their number down to four in September. Following hustings at the party conference, MPs will vote again to decide the final two at the beginning of October. Their names will be presented to Tory members who will vote online for the winner, with the name of the new leader set to be announced on 2 November.…

Surviving Aberfan On 21 October 1966, Gaynor Madgwick was eight years old and sitting in class at her school near Merthyr Tydfil when she heard a monstrous rumble. “It was like thunder,” she told Emine Saner in The Guardian. “It was so overwhelming it pinned everyone to their seats.” Her instinct was to move. But before she could, the window went black, and in an instant she was swept away. “When I woke up, there was debris everywhere. Another survivor was underneath me, another was next to me. We couldn’t move – we were just pinned.” A child’s arm was hanging from a crack in the wall between her classroom and the one next door, and she took the hand, thinking it might belong to her seven-year-old brother Carl. It…

A quiet village in Lincolnshire played host to the country’s largest swingers’ festival last week. The four-day adultsonly “Swingathon”, at Allington, near Grantham, featured “play tents”, pole dancing, hot tubs, foam parties, whip throwing and mobile dungeons, and hosted stalls selling bondage kit and spanking paddles. Tickets cost up to £265, and more than 1,000 visitors attended. In past years, residents have complained to police about “screaming and moaning” coming from the site. “It’s not the sounds you want to hear when you’re trying to sleep,” one villager explained. Sometimes it’s leaves on the line, but when trains were delayed between Ascot and Bagshot last week, Network Rail blamed a runaway tortoise. The tortoise had been spotted by a train driver moving “at pace” towards Bagshot on the adjacent track.…

GERMANY Good riddance to the far-right’s hate rag Der Spiegel (Hamburg) Censorship, pure and simple. That’s how some commentators have reacted to the newly announced ban on Compact, which, with a circulation of 40,000, is – or was – Germany’s most prominent hard-right magazine. As they see it, the German media, for historical reasons, enjoys “special protection”: no newspaper, no magazine, can be banned, they say, “no editorial office turned upside down by the police”. Which is all well and good if we’re talking about journalism, says Anton Rainer. But let’s be clear: Compact wasn’t worthy of the name. It peddled the worst kind of antisemitic tropes; claimed 9/11 was an “inside job”; and believed the world was run by “powerful puppet masters” such as George Soros. Worse still, it…

After 36 years, Matthew Parris is giving up his column in The Times. Looking back over his long career in politics and journalism, he recalled being a postgraduate student at Yale, and lamenting to his friend Peter Ackroyd: “My life’s going nowhere. What’s wrong with me, Peter?” There was a long pause. “I can’t tell you,” Ackroyd replied. “It’s too cruel.” “You must,” Parris insisted. “Too, too cruel. I simply can’t,” Ackroyd said. “Please, Peter,” Parris begged. Finally, Ackroyd gave in. “No talent, darling.” Keir Starmer’s children have reportedly little enthusiasm for moving into Downing Street, said Alice Thomson in The Times – and who can blame them? Life in what Cherie Blair called the “goldfish bowl”, and Carrie Johnson likened to a “prison”, is hardly normal. Harold Wilson’s wife…

“All God’s children are not beautiful. Most of God’s children are, in fact, barely presentable.”Fran Lebowitz, quoted in AnOther Magazine “Creditors have better memories than debtors.”Benjamin Franklin, quoted in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “You’ve got to be able to fail, and the ubiquity of cell phones makes failure scarier than it needs to be.”David Duchovny, quoted in The Times “Football is the most important of the least important things in life.”Arrigo Sacchi, ibid. “Democracy means that anyone can grow up to be president, and anyone who doesn’t grow up can be vice-president.”Johnny Carson, quoted on TheArticle “I am not a member of an organised political party – I am a Democrat.”Will Rogers, quoted in the Financial Times “Do what we can, summer will have its flies.”Ralph Waldo Emerson, quoted in…

To The Times I wonder if it occurs to Nimbys that their present dwelling may well have been objected to. William Beaugie, Dumfries To The Times Keir Starmer says he will remove the power from local people to block new homes and infrastructure. What power? No development in my area has ever been stopped because of local opposition. Instead, we are subjected to several new blocks of flats, which are too expensive for the “workers” Sir Keir wants to help. When a two-bed flat goes for £750,000 or more, even so-called affordable housing is not affordable for key workers or most young couples. Instead, the flats are bought by investors or wealthy people needing a pied-à-terre in London. Marcia MacLeod, London To The Times While your leading article rightly criticises…

by Rebecca Watson Faber 304pp £14.99 The Week Bookshop £11.99 With her “typographically disruptive debut little scratch (2021)”, about an office worker raped by her boss, Rebecca Watson announced herself as a “one-of-a-kind storyteller”, said Anthony Cummins in The Observer – a writer both unorthodox and “compulsively readable”. Her follow-up is “even better”: it tells the story of twentysomething journalist Rosa, whose life is thrown into turmoil when she learns of her estranged older brother’s death. The news prompts her to revisit her childhood, which was dominated by him abusing her, both “physically and psychologically” – acts dismissed by their mother as “child’s play”. Written, like little scratch, in fragmentary, “snipped-up sentences”, this is a “chilling portrait of household dynamics gone poisonously awry”. I wasn’t impressed, said Susannah Butter in…

At the music festival, Freddie gets shoved by co-worker Antonio and admits to Lily that he’s being bullied at work. Pip’s organising a hen party and asks the Tea Room to cater and Chelsea to provide pampering; Fallon’s wary of Natasha’s reaction, but Chelsea convinces Fallon to cater it herself. Celebrity chef Milo Haywood is hosting a foraging masterclass at Grey Gables; Neil is inspired to create a feast for Susan with Jazzer and Tracy. Denise tells Paul that her and John’s marriage is over, but can’t face confessing about Alistair. Freddie tells Vince about the bullying – Vince says he needs to show Antonio who’s boss. Stella and Pip have an awkward conversation about marriage, but agree to adopt a kitten. Natasha says she needs Fallon to work on…

This dish might sound fancy, but in fact it’s incredibly easy to assemble, says Claire Thomson. You beat the ricotta with the eggs and parmesan and then bake it snugly in the oven, along with a pile of chopped cherry tomatoes. Then you serve the two with the most delicious tomato, chilli and sesame dressing – so delicious it will make you dream about other ingredients and dishes you’d like to serve with the same dressing. Sharp, sweet and glossy all at once, it’s the perfect foil for the soft cloud of seasoned cheese. Serves 4 2 tbsp olive oil, plus 1 tbsp for greasing 2 x 250g tubs of ricotta 2 eggs 60g parmesan or vegetarian alternative, finely grated, plus more to serve 2 big pinches of dried oregano…

Blooming Green near Maidstone, Kent, has six acres of delphiniums and dahlias, grown without chemicals (Sat from 1pm, until Oct, £25/40 stems; bloominggreenflowers.co.uk). Family-owned Hitchin Lavender, in Hertfordshire, covers 30 acres with lavender, sunflowers and a wildflower meadow for PYO, plus a lovely farm café (daily Jun-Oct, entry from £7; hitchinlavender.com). Vale Pick Your Own, in Vale of Glamorgan, is a family-run farm with a meadow of cosmos, poppies, marigolds and cornflowers; plus strawberries and raspberries and a café (Tue-Sun, entry £5; valepickyourown.co.uk). Amelia’s Flower Farm, in Newton Abbot, Devon is also family-owned, and grows a huge range of flowers – from hydrangeas to dahlias – over two acres from May to Nov (£20/bucket; ameliasflowerfarm.co.uk). The Flower Belt, in Helmsley, Yorkshire, is a low-key flower farm with 32 varieties of…

Schloss Fuschl Austria Built as a hunting lodge in the 15th century and much expanded since, Schloss Fuschl overlooks a “stunning” glacial lake in Austria. Recently revamped and rebranded as a Rosewood hotel, it is a “warm and inviting” base from which to explore the Salzkammergut region, says Simon Usborne in the FT. Decor in the 98 rooms is “pared-down”, with parquet floors and much dark-green Austrian loden wool felt; and there are two excellent restaurants, a spa, indoor and outdoor pools, and a lake club with its own kitchen. Activities include lake swimming, hiking, hot-air ballooning, and trips to Salzburg, 30 minutes away. Doubles from €600 b&b; rosewoodhotels.com.…

CrowdStrike: gut punch “The confidence we built in drips over the years was lost in buckets within hours, and it was a gut punch,” wrote CrowdStrike’s chief security officer on LinkedIn this week. The cybersecurity firm has certainly paid dearly for the “defective update” to its Falcon protective software, said Jordan Novet on CNBC – losing nearly a quarter of its value, before recovering slightly on Tuesday, as investors digested the carnage. IT staffers, working round-the-clock to fix computers, weren’t helped by hackers seeking “to take advantage of the confusion by setting up malicious websites that appeared to offer software updates”. At least CrowdStrike had a decent cushion to help it withstand the shock, said BBC Business. Shares in the company, co-founded in 2011 by CEO George Kurtz, had risen…

Pay rises are bound to fuel inflation Patrick Hosking The Times Rachel Reeves is reportedly minded to give teachers and NHS workers a 5.5% wage rise from next April, says Patrick Hosking. The decision, which may yet be extended across the six-million-strong public sector workforce, has been largely seen “through the prism of its effect on the public finances” – and it’s hard to see how taxes won’t have to rise to foot a multibillion-pound bill “unless a very speedy pick-up in growth comes to the fiscal rescue”. But another significant consequence could be the effect on the wider labour market. “The public sector does not operate in a vacuum”: it competes with private sector employers for sometimes scarce skills in IT and finance, as well as in lower-skilled areas…

Who’s tipping what The week’s best shares Alpha Services and Holdings The Daily Telegraph Greece’s third-largest bank, listed in New York, has enjoyed a remarkable turnaround: profits jumped 55% to nearly €1bn last year. Well placed to continue capitalising on the improving Greek economy. Buy. $0.41. Bango Investors’ Chronicle The mobile payment platform provider has reported a 130% rise in annual recurring revenues – driven by its digital vending service, which allows telco customers to manage subs on one bill. Encouraging new contract wins too. Buy. 145p. Bluefield Solar Income Fund The Times Rate cuts could reignite this high-yielding UK solar and wind energy fund, currently trading at a wide 19% discount to net asset value. The 8% yield is an attractive draw for those seeking greener income. Buy. 108p.…