Table of contents for 1492 in The Week

What happened Rishi Sunak sought to get the Tory election campaign back on track this week as he unveiled his party’s tax-cutting manifesto. The centrepiece of the 76-page document is a plan to abolish the basic rate of national insurance for the self-employed, and to cut it by a further 2p for other workers. Other policies include a rise in defence spending, an annual cap on work and family visas, and an extension of child benefit. The manifesto also contains new measures designed to boost home ownership, including a plan to scrap capital gains tax for landlords who sell their properties to tenants. Altogether, the manifesto would deliver around £17bn-worth of tax cuts, which it argues could be funded by reducing welfare spending and cracking down on tax avoidance and…

“There are moments in each election that crystallise the entire campaign,” said Isabel Hardman in The i Paper. In 2010, it was Gordon Brown calling a voter a “bigoted woman”. In 2015, it was Ed Miliband standing in front of what looked like an enormous tombstone engraved with Labour’s pledges. Now 2024 has “gained its moment”. It was Rishi Sunak leaving the D-Day 80th anniversary commemorations early, so that David Cameron had to take his place in line-ups with Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron at the final ceremony. Initially, his absence “raised a few eyebrows”. But when it emerged that he had left to do a pre-recorded interview with ITV, which didn’t even air until this week, “all hell broke loose”. “Tory MPs were in meltdown.” Conservative party headquarters didn’t…

Netflix, which is being sued in the US over its hit series Baby Reindeer. The drama recounts comedian Richard Gadd’s experience of being stalked and sexually assaulted by a Scottish lawyer named Martha. It is billed as “a true story”, but a woman identified by online sleuths as the “real Martha” says it is wildly exaggerated, and she is now demanding $170m in damages. Bulgari, after thieves launched an audacious raid on the jewellers’ store in Rome and escaped with gems worth $500,000. The gang used the large Roman-era sewer tunnels that criss-cross Rome to drill into the shop’s basement, and fled the same way. Young drivers, with news that the average cost of insurance for a 17-year-old who has just passed their test is now £3,075, up from £2,004…

Berlin Cannabis driving limit: Two months ago, Germany’s parliament approved a bill to partially legalise the consumption and cultivation of cannabis; now it has voted through an amendment to make it legal for motorists to drive their cars after having enjoyed a few puffs of a joint. Since April, cannabis users have been permitted to possess 50g of the drug, as long as it has been obtained from licensed growers’ associations: now they’ll be able to drive after taking a small amount. The limit set is 3.5 nanograms of THC (the active intoxicant in cannabis) per millimetre of blood: a €500 fine and one-month driving ban will be imposed on those who exceed it. The opposition conservative CDU branded the move “absurd”, calling it a “black day for transport safety”,…

1 Jamaica Farewell, traditional, by Lord Burgess (Irving Burgie), performed by Harry Belafonte2 Ya Taleen Eljabal, traditional, performed by Rola Azar3 Better Together, written and performed by Jack Johnson4 Fight the Power by Carlton Ridenhour, Eric Sadler, Hank Boxley and Keith Boxley, performed by Public Enemy5 Nuthin’ But a “G” Thang by Tracy Curry, Calvin Broadus, Leon Haywood and Frederick Knight, performed by Dr. Dre6 Supermassive Black Hole by Matt Bellamy, performed by Muse7* How Great Thou Art, traditional, by Carl Boberg, performed by Susan Boyle8 Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of by Bono and The Edge, performed by U2 Book: The Koran Luxury: a photo frame * Choice if allowed only one record…

Electricity can be stored in a variety of ways, including: gravitationally, by pumping water; electrochemically, in batteries; mechanically, by compressing air; or thermally, as heat. The oldest system is “pumped hydro”: when electricity is plentiful, water is pumped from a lower reservoir to a higher one using an electric turbine; when power is scarce, water flows back to the lower reservoir through the same turbine, which spins to create power. This is a large-scale, long-term solution – Electric Mountain in North Wales has been running since 1984 – and it is fairly efficient. But it requires a lot of space and specific geography. Most of the big energy-storage projects in the pipeline in the UK involve lithium ion batteries – 12GW’s worth have either been agreed or are awaiting approval.…

Why the billionaires back Trump Timothy Noah The New Republic For America’s billionaire donor class, November’s presidential election is about one thing, says Timothy Noah: “Keeping rich people’s taxes low.” Wall Street plutocrats such as JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Blackstone Group’s Stephen Schwarzman and investor Nelson Peltz condemned Donald Trump after the 6 January attack on the US Capitol, while hedge fund manager Kenneth Griffin called him a “three-time loser” after the 2022 midterms. Yet all four of them, and many others, are now “drifting back to Trump”. They claim it’s because – take your pick – they’re worried about inflation, immigration, or rising antisemitism on the Left. The real reason is that they want to keep the tax cuts that Trump gave them in 2017, which are due…

Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured an image of the most distant galaxy in the known universe; owing to the time it takes for light to travel, JADES-GS-z14-0 appears as it did just 290 million years after Big Bang, when the universe was in its infancy. But the new galaxy is not just remarkable for its distance, but also for how big and bright it is. The most luminous galaxies tend to produce most of their light via gas falling into supermassive black holes, but at 1,600 light-years in diameter, astronomers say that JADES-GS-z14-0 is too big for this. Instead, Nasa believes that the light is being produced by young stars. “This much starlight implies that the galaxy is several hundreds of millions of times the mass of the…

In just a few decades, Britain’s literary festivals have become “as vital and as pleasing a part of the nation’s cultural diary as the FA Cup or the Proms”, said The Observer – the key difference being that they tend to be a lot cheaper to attend. “Popular and vibrant”, they give writers a chance to reach new readers; provide a forum for discussing controversial ideas; and boost local communities (including with free events for schools). But for how much longer? Last week, one of the biggest sponsors of literary festivals – the asset manager Baillie Gifford – announced that it was pulling out of its remaining partnerships in response to what it called a “misleading” campaign by Fossil Free Books (FFB), a collective of “book workers” that accuses the…

“That’s not a chip on my shoulder. That’s your foot on my neck.”Malcolm X, quoted in The New Arab “Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.”Mark Twain, quoted on Aeon “A liberal is a conservative who has been arrested.”Tom Wolfe, quoted on Politico “Talent is more erotic when it’s wasted.”Don DeLillo, quoted on UnHerd “Aside from that, Mrs Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?”Attrib. Tom Lehrer, quoted in The River Reporter “I want AI to do my dishes and laundry so I can do art and writing, not for AI to do art and writing so I can do my dishes and laundry.”Joanna Maciejewska, quoted on Medium “The best arguments in the world won’t change a single person’s point of view. The only thing that can do that…

To The Times William Hague believes that electing MPs who were councillors would lead Parliament “towards a meeting of local representatives, each pleading for their own area”. Because of this, he says, we do not have MPs who can face up to Joe Biden or Vladimir Putin. I disagree. For decades, voters have complained about MPs being more interested in their careers than their constituents. This has led to disillusionment with politics because local needs are overlooked. Many (not all) local councillors have excelled in national politics. Likewise, many MPs have excelled in working for their constituencies. All MPs must excel at both. We only need a few MPs to perform well on the world stage, but we need hundreds to perform well in support of their local communities. Andy…

by Claire Messud Fleet 448pp £20 The Week bookshop £15.99 The American writer Claire Messud is responsible for some of the best-loved literary novels of the past two decades, including The Emperor’s Children (2006), said Alex Peake-Tomkinson in The Daily Telegraph. For her seventh novel, she has drawn on parts of her own family history to tell the story of “the Cassar clan”, a French-Algerian family. With its title taken from the “Seven Ages of Man” speech in As You Like It, This Strange Eventful History is a richly satisfying Balzacian saga, and may well be Messud’s “finest book”. The action begins in the 1940s, with patriarch Gaston Cassar – a French naval officer stationed in Greece – hastily arranging for his wife and two children to return to Algeria…

Boscoe Holder / Geoffrey Holder at Victoria Miro Born in Trinidad, the Holder brothers were the Zeligs of the postwar world. Boscoe, the elder, somehow survived a life of great bohemian excess in London, working as an after-hours piano player in venues including the Colony Room, mixing with the likes of Freud, Bacon and the Krays. Geoffrey, meanwhile, followed a rather more lucrative career in the US, directing the Broadway musical The Wiz and starring in Live and Let Die. In truth, the brothers would be better served by a biography – or indeed a biopic – than by an art exhibition. But both did paint, sometimes well. Geoffrey, whose psychedelic mannerist pictures are the thrill here – was rather better than his brother. Yet Boscoe’s male nudes are far…

Home-made elderflower cordial My grandmother was an inveterate forager, says Alice Lascelles in the FT, and in the summer, her kitchen would be filled with “wonky bottles of elderflower cordial”. These days you can pick it up at the supermarket, but I am convinced that it is “always better home-made”. The time to gather the elder’s “lacy white clusters of flowers” is May and June, when hedgerows and parks are filled with their “citrussy, honeyed, slightly musky-rose perfume”. Pick the heads on a dry day, preferably early in the morning, and use them as soon as possible, having first given them a gentle shake to dislodge any insects (don’t wash them: it diminishes the flavour). Making cordial is then essentially a case of steeping the flowers in sugar syrup, although…

Valeting professional Mark Elliott, of Ness Car Care, offers his tricks of the trade: Wash cars with a pH-neutral shampoo with no wax additive. Rinse with water and dry the car before polishing. If a car is left outside all the time, use a polish or wax on it at least once a year. Never leave bird lime on a car. While it is still fresh, use a microfibre cloth and warm water to gently wipe it away. If you have chrome, do not leave it to degrade, as it will cost a lot to rechrome. It is easy to look after – wash and dry it, then add a good layer of quality polish. A wet chamois leather is best for cleaning glass; dry it with a microfibre cloth.…

Marian Robinson 1937-2024 Marian Robinson’s great-grandmother was born into slavery; her father grew up in Jim Crow-era Alabama, where he was barred from whites-only restaurants and lavatories. But Robinson, who has died aged 86, raised her own family on the South Side of Chicago, and in 2008 she was sitting on a sofa with her son-in-law, Barack Obama, when he learnt that he had become America’s first black president. Robinson had by then been widowed, and her daughter, Michelle, urged her to move to the White House with them. Initially, she refused, saying she wanted to stay in Chicago and couldn’t sleep in a “museum”. But she relented, in order to serve as “First Grandma” to the Obamas’ two daughters. A stabilising, grounding influence, she rode with them to school…

Nine months after the departure of CEO Bernard Looney for failing to disclose details of personal relationships with colleagues, BP has updated its code of conduct. “All 90,000 employees must now declare who they’re having it away with at work or risk getting fired,” says Alistair Osborne in The Times. Call it “a sort of sack to sack policy for any staffer failing to kiss and tell”. The oil giant’s 4,500 senior staff face even more draconian rules relating to “in-house exploration activities” – they have three months to reveal all “intimate work relationships that have occurred over the past three years”. What does BP stand for these days? Try “Bonking Police”.…

It’s easy to knock politicians in “campaign mode”, said Martha Lane Fox in The Sunday Times. But there are valuable lessons for companies in how political parties market themselves. Here are three things I’ve learnt from watching the campaigns… They are impressively speedy The pace at which campaigns get going, and keep the momentum, leaves many business projects in the dust. The surprise early election meant ramping up funding support networks, deploying on-the-ground organisers, arranging messaging and media presence – all at short notice. “Having a finite timeline and very clear expectation of the project goal really does help.” They are masters of communication Whether or not you endorse the sentiments behind “Take Back Control”, “Build Back Better” or “Stop the Boats”, clear, concise messaging works. The same is true…

The week’s best shares Adriatic Metals The Mail on Sunday Global demand for silver – used in solar panels, data centres, EVs and phones – is rising, and this junior miner’s progress is accelerating as costs fall and profits rise. One for the more adventurous. Buy. 203p. Associated British Foods The Times Supply chain and cost pressures are easing for the owner of Primark and grocery brands including Twinings and Ovaltine. Investing in new Primark stores while ramping up digital capability. Profits are up, and there’s a well-covered 2.6% yield. Buy. £25.85. Carrefour The Daily Telegraph After years of “going nowhere”, the French supermarket is set for growth via improved logistics and procurement, more convenience stores, better e-commerce and site redevelopments. Forecast yield 6.4%. A “bargain”. Buy. €14.86. National Grid…

What happened President Macron stunned France on Sunday by calling snap parliamentary elections after his centrist Renaissance party was trounced by the far-right National Rally (RN) in the European election. In a televised address, he said that he had taken the “grave” decision because he couldn’t “carry on as if nothing had happened” after the RN, led by Marine Le Pen, won about 31% of the vote in France, the most of any party. The elections will take place in two rounds, on 30 June and 7 July – weeks before the Paris Olympics. The far-right also fared well in Germany, where the anti-immigrant AfD won more votes than each of the three parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s centre-left coalition, and was beaten only by the centre-right CDU. As expected,…

The RSC has been mocked for warning audiences about the “bullying in the form of bodyshaming” of Sir John Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor. In Shakespeare’s comedy, two married women liken Falstaff (who has designs on their husbands’ money) to a whale, “with so many tons of oil in his belly” and refer to him as “a gross watery pumpion [pumpkin]”. In an effort to capitalise on the city’s industrial history, developers in Manchester have named a luxury £2.5m penthouse flat The Engels, after the revolutionary socialist Friedrich Engels. He lived in Manchester while researching his 1845 book The Condition of the Working Class in England. The flat is in a skyscraper off Deansgate, which was once a slum area.…

The Scottish Conservatives’ campaign was thrown into disarray this week when Douglas Ross announced that he will stand down as leader after the election. He said if he were elected MP for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East, he’d also stand down as an MSP. Ross, who was MP for the abolished seat of Moray, had said he would not stand again as an MP, so that he could focus on his work at Holyrood. But he changed his mind, and was parachuted in to Aberdeenshire North – a seat from which David Duguid had just been effectively de-selected. Tory officials said Duguid was too ill to stand. He insisted he was fit enough. Ross had also come under fire over allegations that he’d used his expenses to pay for travel…

Washington DC Straight to jail: Steve Bannon (pictured), the right-wing podcaster who served as Donald Trump’s chief strategist for the first seven months of his presidency, has been ordered to report to prison by 1 July to serve a four-month term for criminal contempt of congress. He had defied a subpoena to testify before a congressional committee that was investigating the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot. His legal team say the charges were politically motivated, and he is appealing the federal judge’s ruling that he must now begin serving his jail term; he says he’ll take it to the supreme court “if necessary”. Boca Chica, Texas SpaceX success: Elon Musk’s dream of colonising Mars moved a step closer last week when Space X’s Starship spacecraft – a prototype of the…

“I’m definitely old and getting tetchy at the bossiness of machines. My husband’s Kia won’t start until he’s confirmed he understands the Highway Code. My car won’t go on unless the doors are locked, the lights on, my seatbelt buckled and the gear in Park. Everything wants passwords or codes I don’t remember. The burglar alarm asks questions I can’t answer; the induction cooker-top turns itself off if I put a wooden spoon down on it. And absolutely everything beeps: the fridge, freezer, microwave, dishwasher, vacuum-packing machine. The whole kitchen is talking at me. Why can’t I just shut them up?” Prue Leith in The Spectator…

Tell enough lies and you get Farage Matthew Syed The Sunday Times Nigel Farage’s popularity is built on lies, says Matthew Syed. Not his own lies, mark you, but the lies his critics keep telling about the issue he’s made his own: mass immigration. Whether you see it as a good or bad thing, it’s undeniable that our main political parties have consistently misled voters over it. In 1997, Tony Blair promised “firm control”, only for his party to preside over a net intake of 640,000 between 1998 and 2001. In 2005, he insisted “only skilled workers” would be allowed to settle long term; net migration then ballooned to over a quarter of a million. That was nothing to what the Tories did: in their manifestos they vowed to cut…

“Off the charts” trial results A new lung cancer drug has stopped the disease’s advance for longer than any previous treatment, a result doctors have described as “off the charts”. Although survival rates have improved in recent years, lung cancer remains the most deadly form of the disease, killing around 1.8 million people a year. And in cases where the tumour has spread, the outlook is particularly poor. But in a phase three trial of lorlatinib, well over half of patients with advanced forms of non-small-cell lung cancer were still alive after five years, with no disease progression. For the trial, 296 patients with advanced ALK-positive non-small-cell lung cancer were randomly assigned to receive either lorlatinib, or crizotinib. Both are ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitors, treatments that block the growth of…

Gyles Brandreth has been keeping a diary since he was about 11 – a habit that helped him bond with Tony Benn, perhaps the most prolific diarist of his day. “It’s a dreadful burden,” the Labour MP told him, “but you’ll be grateful in the end.” In later life, Benn dictated his entries, which led to the odd error. “He told me how he had found ‘cuddly Pooh’ in the middle of one entry, and that it had taken him a while to work out that the sentence should have read ‘Cudlipp, who…’” Kameron Saunders, a dancer on Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, was mindful of all the potential pitfalls before he posed in a kilt in Edinburgh last week. “I’ve always wanted an authentic kilt but I wanted to be…

Cricket England lost to Australia by 36 runs in their second match of the T20 World Cup. They need wins in their remaining two group games – against Oman and Namibia – to have a chance of qualifying for the semi-finals. F1 England’s Lando Norris finished second in the Canadian Grand Prix, behind Max Verstappen. Rugby union George Ford will miss England’s summer tour of Japan and New Zealand with an achilles injury. Steve Borthwick’s 36-man squad for the tour includes six uncapped players.…

For their last production, The Burnt City, immersive theatre pioneers Punchdrunk invited masked audiences to move freely around vast “performer-populated environments depicting ancient Troy and the besieging Greek camp”, said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph. Their new one, Viola’s Room, is a far more intimate, contained affair, and captivating with it. This time there is no live cast, said Andrzej Lukowski in Time Out. Instead, groups of six travel around barefooted through a series of “eerily beautiful” spaces filled with exquisite miniature models and life-sized sets, while listening (via headsets) to Helena Bonham Carter’s recorded narration of the story, a gothicky fairy tale adapted by Daisy Johnson from Barry Pain’s The Moon-Slave (1901). It’s a slow burn, but he cumulative effect is intensely powerful: it’s Punchdrunk’s “best show in…

To commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the BBC has been showing Mark Radice’s superb three-part documentary D-Day: The Unheard Tapes, said Barbara Ellen in The Observer. In a technique previously employed for 2022’s Aids: The Unheard Tapes, it features actors who lip sync the recorded testimony, gathered from archives around the world, of some of the thousands of people involved in the landings, and the fighting that raged afterwards. We hear, of course, the voices of British and American veterans, but also those of local people, French Resistance fighters and German veterans. It is phenomenally effective. You feel “you’re there with the soldiers”, trying, under heavy gunfire, to make it over the “blood-splattered beaches”. This is a “sombre, vital, masterful retelling” in which “the immediacy is jolting”, and “the…

Lynda writes a play for the D-Day event based on Fallon’s aunt’s love letters and, forgetting their history, asks Ben and Chelsea to perform. At the abattoir, Jason confesses to stealing the meat – Vince fires him, but Freddie feels bad. Fallon makes a fuss of Harrison on his birthday and they tenderly make up. At the Stables, Jakob diagnoses Oliver’s horse Duke with strangles; Lilian can’t find crucial paperwork and worries that Alice was drinking at work. Joy and Mick make up; she tells him there are things she can’t talk about. George confesses to Emma that he’s had enough of the heroism chat; as Emma and Ed disparage Alice, a guilty George tries to defend her. On another stakeout, Vince and Freddie discover that Markie, Kenton’s attacker, is…

This combination of garlicky garam masala butter and hot grilled prawns is a winner, says Genevieve Taylor. When grilling unpeeled prawns, I always “butterfly” them by scoring the shell. To do this, rest a prawn on a board with the back facing your dominant cutting hand. Press firmly down with your other hand to tension the body and, using a sharp knife, slice through the shell a few millimetres into the flesh. Once all the prawns are scored, use a finger to wipe out the vein running just inside the cut. Serves 2-4, depending on greed 1kg large, raw shell-on prawns 1 tbsp flaked sea salt For the garam masala butter: 2 tbsp coriander seeds 1 tbsp cumin seeds 2cm piece of cinnamon stick, crumbled 1 tsp black peppercorns 10 cardamon pods…

Wild With Consent gets special access from landowners. New to their books is a field backing onto woods by the 14th century Preston Tower in Northumberland (£45 for a camper van; wildwithconsent.com). The new Isle of Gigha site has 17 pitches for tents and ten for camper vans. It has a wilderness feel and communal fire pit (from £15; gighacampsite.co.uk). Coppet Hill, a dairy farm and campsite near Bridport, Dorset, has a new Pond Hideaway, a two-storey tent for families (sleeps four). The site has a sunflower maze in summer (from £95; coppethill.co.uk). Gastro operator Woodfire Camping has a new site: Chapel Field on the Firle Estate, in the South Downs. Off-grid, there are pitches for tents and camper vans, plus five Touareg tents (from £21pp; woodfire.co.uk). Himley Hall, in…

Highland Base Kerlingarfjöll, Iceland This new “off-grid retreat” lies in the heart of Iceland, in a silent landscape of “snowdrift-blanketed peaks”, glaciers and lava fields, says Stephanie Rafanelli in Condé Nast Traveller. Getting to it is “a mission”, especially in winter, but for “adventure extremists” it’s worth it for the activities on offer, which include cross-country skiing and hiking. The hotel, which looks like “a Nordic minimalist space station”, has 28 rooms, six pod-like lodges, and some A-frame huts. There are geothermal baths, too – great for admiring the Northern Lights “after dinners of Arctic char and warming shots of Brennivin schnapps”. Doubles from £285; highlandbase.is.…

The dangerous allure of the Beijing model Editorial The Economist Twenty years ago, we first heard about the “Beijing consensus”, says The Economist – China’s challenge to the Washington consensus “of financial liberalisation, floating currencies and openness to foreign capital”. Beijing, instead, was exporting its own state-led model of development: an export-led economy with close political control of investment and the financial system. It has proved popular in the developing world. “Most similar of all is Vietnam, which has an export- and manufacturing-intensive economy governed by its own Communist Party.” But nations from Turkey to India, Ethiopia to Azerbaijan, have emulated “at least some aspects”. Recently, China’s economy has “stumbled”, with a property crisis and trade “clashes” with Western nations. Meanwhile, most countries that have adopted it have “fallen far…

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 1418 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 24 June. Send it to The Week Crossword 1418, 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 Persuade one of eight to include amateur (4) 3 Ready to absorb large amount in real business (5,5) 10 Friction about arousing sequel in variety show (9) 11 Burning mostly behind leg (5) 12 Clumsy Italian holds enclosure the wrong way around (5) 13 Cheat tax?…

Around 20,000 motorcyclists took part in a 300-mile procession from London to Barrow-in-Furness last Saturday, to pay tribute to the TV chef and “Hairy Biker” Dave Myers, who was born in Barrow, and who died in February, aged 66. The event raised more than £80,000 for charity. The police said there had been no major incidents, and thanked the bikers for their safe driving. Myers’s fellow Hairy Biker, Si King, told the crowd that his late friend would have been “very proud”. An Army veteran is set to become the first commercial pilot without legs since Sir Douglas Bader. Luke Sinnott, 43, lost both his legs in an explosion in Afghanistan in 2010. He is now training to pilot commercial aircraft, having been fitted with advanced prosthetics that enable him…

Disfrutar, a three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Barcelona, which was named the best in the world. It is the first time in nine years that Spain has topped the prestigious World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. A Spanish restaurant also came second. Only two UK restaurants feature: Kol and Ikoyi, both in London. Hollywood endings, after a plane carrying 180 people made a safe landing, even though its cockpit windscreen had been shattered by hailstones. The Austrian Airlines flight had already been pummelled by turbulence when it flew into a thunderstorm that had not appeared on its radar. Its windscreen burst; its nose cone was torn off and it lost several panels, but though flying blind, the pilot managed to land safely at Vienna’s Schwechat airport.…

More than 70% of British parents believe that the school system puts too little emphasis on preparing young people for work. YouGov/The Times Only 40% of 18- to 24-year-olds say they are likely to vote next month. 43% are still wondering whether to do so, and 17% say they’re unlikely to vote. Reasons given for not voting include the sense that it will not make a difference (31%) and that political parties cannot be trusted to keep their promises (30%). Thinks Insight & Strategy/Duke of Edinburgh’s Award 70% of British voters believe the economy is in a bad way. 52% who feel that way blame decisions made by Liz Truss and her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng. Ipsos/FT…

Nightmare in New York When the Blondie guitarist Chris Stein was writing his memoir, he told Tim Lewis in The Observer, he was worried readers simply wouldn’t believe the “weird-ass” stories he’d collected during his years at the coalface of the music industry. The book certainly contains some crackers – like the time in 1977, when David Bowie was alone with Debbie Harry, then Stein’s girlfriend. He asked her: “Can I f**k you?” She replied: “I don’t know, can you?” But it is surprisingly clear-eyed about New York in the 1970s and 1980s. Pre-gentrification, the city may have been a creative hotbed, but Stein says that it was a horrible place to live – druggy, run-down and dangerous. In one of the book’s more disturbing chapters, he recalls the time…

Tourist officials in China have admitted to making a “small enhancement” to a famous waterfall, after a video by a hiker showed that the 1,030ft cascade was actually being fed by a water pipe. Officials explained that the pipe had been installed to make tourists who visit the waterfall during the dry season feel that they have made “a worthwhile trip”. Online reviews were divided on the pipe. “The move does not respect the laws of nature nor the visitors,” said one user of the social media site Weibo. “Better than seeing no water at all,” observed another. Voters in Brighton will be able to vote for a new kind of politician at the election: an AI MP. “AI Steve” is an avatar and chatbot created by Steve Endacott, a…

RUSSIA Don’t let the lunatics win Putin’s ear Vzglyad (Moscow) Hardliners in Russia are urging Vladimir Putin to up the ante against his enemies, says Sergey Khudiev. Rarely a day goes by without these “patriots” insisting that only the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons will persuade Western states to cut off military aid to Ukraine. Are they insane? Can’t these blowhards see that most Russians are terrified of the repercussions this would bring, rightly viewing such a strike as a sure way of endangering not only their lives, but “humanity as a whole”. It would also result in a fatal breakdown of relations with China and India – not to mention Russia’s friends in the Islamic world, who justifiably fear the prospect of “radioactive fallout”. And it wouldn’t help Russia’s…

Just as Keir Starmer is trying to persuade us that he should be entrusted with the keys to 10 Downing Street, the Welsh branch of his party is “doing an excellent job of demonstrating why he should not”, said The Daily Telegraph. The fruits of 25 years of continuous Labour rule in Wales since devolution were already dismal: compared with the rest of Britain, it has lower economic growth and poorer standards in both the NHS and education. Now the new First Minister, Vaughan Gething, has pulled off the “remarkable feat” of losing a vote of no confidence in the Welsh parliament, the Senedd, just 77 days into the job, said Jawad Iqbal in The Spectator. The vote – called by the Conservatives in response to a row about Gething’s…

“The Taylor Swift juggernaut rolled into Scotland” last weekend, said Will Hodgkinson in The Times, “and Edinburgh was hit with a tsunami of pink cowboy hats, sequinned outerwear, and unusually good behaviour.” Swift’s Eras tour, the highest-grossing of all time, began its UK leg at Murrayfield Stadium on Friday night. “Oh hey!” she said as the show began, “managing to sound surprised” at bumping into 73,000 fans. Swift is “the biggest musical phenomenon of her era”, said Mark Savage on BBC News. To mark her arrival, trams were adorned with her picture; Edinburgh Zoo named two newborn monkeys “Taylor” and “Swift”; Loch Tay was rebranded “Loch Tay Tay”. The Murrayfield show, Scotland’s biggest-ever concert, was the first of 15 UK dates, which will culminate in a record-breaking eight nights at…

The Gallagher Premiership has had its travails of late – it lost three clubs to insolvency between September 2022 and June 2023 – but it has never lost its ability to produce matches that “shred your nerves to pieces”, said Stephen Jones in The Sunday Times. Saturday’s Premiership final between Northampton Saints and Bath Rugby – the league’s first- and second-placed teams this season – was a case in point: quite simply, this was “one of the greatest finals” that Twickenham (or indeed any stadium) has ever witnessed. The Saints were handed a big advantage when Bath’s Beno Obano was red-carded after 21 minutes for a dangerous tackle, said Robert Kitson in The Observer. And for a while, it looked as if that incident would propel them to a comfortable…

Global security… To The Guardian Jeremy Corbyn writes: “Security is not the ability to threaten and destroy your neighbour. Security is getting on with your neighbour.” This may be true in Islington, but how does Mr Corbyn propose that the people of Ukraine, the Baltic states or Poland – and ultimately the UK – “get on” with Vladimir Putin and his forces? One cannot help but be reminded of Neville Chamberlain. Ted Schrecker, Canada …and global power To The Guardian I agree with Jeremy Corbyn’s opinions of Keir Starmer, but I take issue with his view of the actions of Russia. In 2014, Vladimir Putin made it clear that Russia needs neutral buffer states such as Ukraine. Russia lost about 27 million citizens last time it was invaded. It does…

by Tom Lamont Sceptre 320pp £16.99 The Week bookshop £13.99 When Téo, a thirtysomething Londoner, agrees to babysit the two-year-old son of his “childhood crush” Lia, events take a tragic turn, said William Pimlott in Literary Review. That night, Lia dies by suicide. And since Joel, her son, has no “obvious relatives” (no one seems to know who his father is), Téo gives up his “hard-won independence” to become Joel’s surrogate dad. In less agile hands, such a premise might have been “depressing”, but journalist Tom Lamont pulls off “something remarkable”. With a mix of sensitivity and humour, he captures the “gradual and thorny journey of Téo and Joel towards becoming father and son, almost despite themselves”. What most impresses about Going Home is the brilliant portrait of Joel, said…

At first glance, Beryl Cook (1926-2008) and Tom of Finland (1920-1991) might seem “like an odd pairing for an exhibition”, said Osman Can Yerebakan in AnOther Magazine. The former was a hobby painter from Plymouth whose jolly depictions of “voluptuous small-town ladies” became extremely popular in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s; the latter, a gay Finnish emigrant to America who fetishised biker culture and created “euphoric” black-and-white fantasies of “sexual encounters between leather-clad hunks”. Nevertheless, this show insists that the two shared more than a roughly contemporaneous lifespan: both artists, the exhibition’s curators point out, focused on curvy bodies and extravagant outfits; both examine unfiltered desires, if in very different ways. While Tom of Finland was explicit with his sexuality, Cook hid hers behind “tongue-in-cheek depictions of everyday life”.…

The Changeling by Robin Jenkins, 1960 (Canongate £9.99). A heartbreaking novel by one of Scotland’s finest writers, weirdly little known outside his own country. In the 1950s, Jenkins was a schoolteacher in Glasgow, like this novel’s unlikeable protagonist, who decides to conduct an experiment in moral improvement with a boy from the tenements. Babette’s Feast and Other Stories by Karen Blixen/Isak Dinesen, 1958 (Penguin £9.99). A Danish aristocrat born in the 1880s, Karen Blixen wrote under different names – Isak Dinesen being the best known to English readers – and she lived for a while in Kenya. Her experiences there are recalled in her best-known book, Out of Africa. Her short stories are wonderful, such as Babette’s Feast – about what generosity means in practice rather than in theory. Bertie:…

Programmes Lost Boys & Fairies Concluding episode of the “sad, beautiful” drama about a gay couple trying to adopt (Guardian). Mon 17 Jun, BBC1 21:00 (60mins); catch up on earlier episodes on iPlayer. Storyville: Flee A powerful – and mostly animated – documentary, telling the story of a gay Afghan man, Amin, and his attempts to flee persecution at home. Tue 18 Jun, BBC4 22:00 (85mins). The Stormtrooper Scandal Two-part investigation into Ben Moore and his Art Wars NFT project, a “get-rich-quick” scheme in which investors were persuaded to buy digital images of Star Wars stormtrooper helmets. Thur 20 Jun, BBC2 21:00 (90mins). Talking Doctor Who As part of the show’s 60th anniversary celebrations, David Tennant delves into the archives to explore the first incarnations of the Time Lord. Thur…

Michael Mosley 1957-2024 Michael Mosley, who has died in Greece aged 67, was one of Britain’s “most recognisable TV doctors”, said The Times, known for his cheerful willingness to use himself as a guinea pig in an effort to make scientific topics engaging and accessible. Although he said that his wife had vetoed “the idea of infesting myself with pubic lice”, he consumed tapeworm eggs for the BBC documentary Infested!, ate a black pudding made with his own blood for The Wonderful World of Blood, and swallowed a camera for Inside the Human Body, giving viewers “a never-to-be-forgotten close-up of his inner workings”. But, arguably, his most significant legacy was his popularisation of the 5:2 diet. In 2012, Mosley had gone to his own doctor, thinking he might have a…

Mike Lynch The verdict, when it finally came, was “stunning”, said the FT. More than 12 years after being accused of what one investigator called “the biggest fraud ever to hit Silicon Valley”, Autonomy’s founder Mike Lynch, 58, was cleared on all 15 counts by a San Francisco jury last week. It was “a moment of pure vindication” for the formerly high-flying British tech entrepreneur – one of the leading figures of the “Silicon Fen” scene around Cambridge in the 1990s. Lynch’s troubles began in 2011, when he sold Autonomy to the US tech giant Hewlett-Packard for $11bn. A year later, HP’s CEO Meg Whitman accused him and other executives of “falsely inflating” revenues, causing HP to overpay by $5bn. Had he been convicted, Lynch would have faced 20 years…