Syrian The creatures A WAR FILM refugees and that will WITHOUT Hezbollah outlive us all HEROES BESR ARABIC HEALTH & FILM P25 ARTICLES P14 SCIENCE P18

MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR

29 JUL-4 AUG 2017 | ISSUE 169 | AED 15 THE BEST OF INTERNATIONAL MEDIA Discrimination at the BBC The revolt over pay Page 4

RO 2.00 BD 2.00 KD 1.5 SR 20.00

A Motivate Publication ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT MATTERS Visit the show for EXCLUSIVE DISCOUNTS AND OFFERS!

THE HOME OF REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT Cityscape Global 2017 is the largest and most influential real estate investment and development event for emerging markets globally. Bringing together investors, developers, government officials and real estate professionals, there is no better place to find investment opportunities and new business partners.

REGISTER ONLINE » SAVE AED100

Foundation Partners Platinum Sponsors Silver Sponsor THE LARGEST AND MOST INFLUENTIAL REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT AND DEVELOPMENT EVENT FOR EMERGING MARKETS GLOBALLY

11 13 SEPTEMBER 2017 Dubai World Trade Centre, UAE

+9714 336 5161 [email protected] www.cityscapeglobal.com

Projects Marketing Strategic Partner Official Business Business Partner Official Classified Official Russian Regional Media Organised by Sponsor Website Partner Partner Partner 4 NEWS The main story…

What happened What the editorials said The BBC “fought tooth and nail” to prevent these revelations, Mind the gap said the Daily Mail, which were demanded by the Government Some of the BBC’s best-known female stars, as part of its latest Royal Charter agreement. including Clare Balding, Emily Maitlis and Fiona And no wonder. “Hard-pressed TV owners, Bruce, have called on the corporation to “act forced on pain of prosecution to pay £147 a now” to redress the glaring gap in pay between year” to keep Evans, Lineker and the like “in men and women. Salaries of 96 “creative staff” luxury”, must be furious. There is a debate to earning £150,000 or more were published last be had about “whether anybody is worth” the week. The figures showed that only a third of £2.2m that Evans is paid, said The Times. But the BBC’s highest-paid presenters are women, the “enormous disparity” between male and that its seven highest earners are all men, and female pay is “not only embarrassing for the that its best-paid man makes four times as much BBC but also clearly ridiculous”. as the best-paid woman: Chris Evans received £2.2m-£2.25m in the last financial year, while It is “unforgivable” that the BBC’s top male Claudia Winkleman, eighth on the list, earned talent earn much more than the women, “even £450,000-£499,999. The other highest-paid when they sit side by side in the studio” doing stars included Gary Lineker (£1.75m-£1.79m), what looks “very much like the same job”, said Graham Norton (£850,000-£899,999), Jeremy Lineker: worth nine Baldings? The Guardian. But in its defence, the BBC can Vine (£700,000-£749,999), and John Humphrys point out that the gender pay gap among its (£600,000-£649,999). top earners, of around 10%, is much better than the national pay gap of 18%. And if the salaries seem high generally, we The Prime Minister urged the corporation to “abolish this shouldn’t forget that “the BBC has to fight its corner in a gender pay gap”, while Culture Secretary Karen Bradley said highly competitive marketplace”. Ant and Dec reportedly stars should be conscious of “how this looks to the public”; signed a three-year deal with ITV last year worth £30m. Paul she called on licence fee payers to say whether they thought Dacre, editor of the BBC’s leading critic, the Daily Mail, “is such high salaries were “good value”. paid £1.5m before he counts his share options”.

What happened What the editorials said Edging to the exit Thank heavens for our “cool-headed” Chancellor, said The Mail on Sunday. Philip Hammond seems to have persuaded The first round of substantive Brexit talks his colleagues of the folly of a too sudden ended in Brussels last week with little sign of Brexit. Even hard-line Brexiteers such as Trade progress, and fears of deadlock on key issues. Secretary Liam Fox and Environment Secretary After four days of discussion, the EU’s chief Michael Gove now accept the wisdom of a negotiator, Michel Barnier, spoke of a “transition deal” giving business time to adjust. “fundamental divergence” on the questions Such a “pragmatic” solution amounts to a of how to treat EU citizens in the UK and “wise and typically British compromise”. Britons living in Europe, and the role of the Certainly, it makes practical sense, said The European Court of Justice (ECJ) in settling Times. To build new immigration and customs future disputes. He also insisted that no systems would be impossible in just two years. progress could be made on agreeing a post- At last we have a realistic approach to Brexit Brexit trading relationship with the EU until that “better serves the economy”. Britain “clarifies” how much it is prepared to pay on leaving the bloc. Barnier: “a fundamental Any celebrations are premature, said The divergence” Independent. It is a “dangerous assumption” However, Theresa May’s Cabinet signalled a that Barnier will recommend a transition period new flexibility over Brexit, by agreeing that a “transition to the European Commission – or that member states and the period” was needed to smooth the exit process. The Prime European Parliament will agree to it. The poor progress last Minister told business leaders that such an “implementation week suggests just how intransigent the EU may prove. Plenty phase” would allow EU citizens to work freely in the UK more “British vanities” will have to be “consigned to the for two years after Britain leaves the bloc in 2019. bonfire” before a final deal is reached.

It wasn’t all bad An 89-year-old man who has been A girl fined by her local council studying German at the same for setting up a lemonade stand Two original scores by the university in Leeds for the past has been inundated with job English composer Gustav Holst half-century has now won a prize offers. Two weeks ago, the five- have been discovered in New for modern languages. Thought to year-old was selling cups of Zealand, more than a century be Britain’s longest-enrolled lemonade on her street in east after they were written. The student, former chemical engineer London when four council manuscripts to Folk Songs from Ken Knapton (pictured) first joined officers marched up and gave Somerset and Two Songs the class in 1968; since then, he her a £150 fine for trading Without Words were found in an has received several qualifications, without a permit. Distraught, orchestra’s library, in Tauranga. including a German degree. His she burst into tears. “I’ve done Two Songs is still performed tutors at Leeds Beckett University a bad thing,” she told her father. today, but the original score was have described him as a model But now several festivals and thought to be lost; Folk Songs student. “I’ve continued studying markets have offered her space was conducted by Holst, known German with the university for all for a new stall – an offer her for The Planets, at its 1906 these years because I enjoy it,” Mr father says he hopes might be premiere, but may not have Knapton said. “It’s easy to forget extended to other children. And been heard since. things, so I keep at it.” the council has apologised. COVER CARTOON: HOWARD MCWILLIAM HOWARD CARTOON: COVER

THE WEEK 29 JULY 2017 …and how it was covered NEWS 5

What the commentators said What next? The “great reveal” of BBC salaries “has, for the most part, been grim fun”, said Emine Saner This is likely to be the last in The Guardian. Can Alan Shearer’s “most obvious of observations” really be worth up to time that “top presenters’ £450,000? “How many Clare Baldings would you get for one Gary Lineker? (Nine).” Who, salaries will be open to public outside of Northern Ireland, has heard of Stephen Nolan, a DJ who earns up to £449,999? And view”, says The Times. The who knew that Charlie from Casualty was raking in up to £399,999? The figures don’t tell the BBC intends to move many whole story, said Jane Garvey in The Daily Telegraph: many stars are “conveniently missing”, salaries into the accounts of because they’re paid through independent companies; others work exceptionally long or anti- BBC Studios, a commercial social hours. But they make a clear point. If you want to be valued by the BBC, “be a man with subsidiary that is subject to a very big ego; be a man with a very big brain; be a retired sportsman or, sod it, just be a man”. much more “feeble” transparency rules. It’s shocking that discrimination should be “rampant” at this “beacon” of progressive integrity, said Josie Cox in The Independent. Laura Kuenssberg, Fiona Bruce and Sophie Raworth all The publication of stars’ earned hundreds of thousands less than Huw Edwards. Sarah Montague, Jenni Murray and salaries is likely to fuel Emily Maitlis didn’t even earn enough to get on the list. Why? Having spent many years as another “internal row” at the a BBC executive, “I know that pay is largely governed by how loud the talent or their agent BBC, says The Observer: over screams and complains”, said Janet Street-Porter in the same paper. Some huge salaries are the pay gap between the explained by contracts dating back decades, with built-in yearly pay rises. Either way, the “real highest- and lowest-paid scandal” is the failure of BBC management to confront waste and keep costs down. employees. There are also 100 or so BBC managers who The BBC claims that it has to keep up with the competition, said Will Hutton in The Observer. are paid more than £150,000, This argument is “palpably overstated. Where else are John Humphrys or Jeremy Vine likely to and 400 employees who earn broadcast to such big audiences in such well-loved, prestigious programmes with such fantastic less than £20,000. The union production support?” Given half a chance, dozens of presenters would jump into their shoes. Bectu has stepped up “The most likely result of this BBC sex war will be that the women will get more while the men demands for the minimum stay the same,” said Charles Moore in The Daily Telegraph. “Then the whole point of exposing salary to be increased from the figures in the first place – to force the BBC to control its costs – will have been upended.” £16,000 to £20,000.

What the commentators said What next? Diehard Brexiteers are “frothing” at the very idea of a transition period, said Andrew The length of a transition Rawnsley in The Observer. With some justice, they fear it could be used by Remainers to period has still to be settled, delay our departure from the EU indefinitely. But what the plan really represents is belated but Trade Secretary Liam acknowledgement of the “perilous complexities” ahead. In the words of Brexit Secretary David Fox has said it should not Davis, the task “makes the Nasa moonshot look quite simple”. The belief that we could fix continue beyond the next everything from airline flight paths to the safety of medicines by 2019 was always “for the scheduled election, in birds”. A transition period is all very well, said Simon Nixon in The Times, but transition to 2022. His comments what? Ministers are no closer to resolving the central “dilemma”: do we want to be “rule- reflect fears that a new makers” or “rule-takers”? The former would entail cutting all ties with our largest trading government might seek to partner and so risk economic disaster. Seeking the closest possible relationship with Europe, on reverse Brexit before the the other hand, would inevitably mean accepting the diktats of Brussels and the ECJ. transition period ended.

Cheer up, said Fraser Nelson in The Daily Telegraph. However messy the negotiations may Preliminary talks on a free appear, there are still promising signs. Countries from Brazil to Turkey to the US are lining up trade deal with the US to negotiate free trade deals with us; a newly competitive pound has contributed to a 16% rise began in Washington DC in exports; tourist spending is up 14%. Nor should we beat ourselves up about having held the this week. But business referendum in the first place. Given the “federalist path” the EU is heading down, we’d have leaders warned against a left sooner or later anyhow. And whatever some may fondly wish, our fate is now settled, said swift agreement, claiming Wolfgang Münchau in the FT. Any attempt to reverse Brexit would need the approval of all that big US multinationals the EU states, who would more than likely take it as an opportunity to reset our membership would seek to dictate terms, terms, depriving us of our opt-outs and budget rebate. And Germany and France could well nix and that the UK didn’t have it, as an EU without Britain offers them the chance to create a financial centre to rival London enough experienced inside the eurozone. “If you think Brexit is messy, an exit from Brexit would be no different.” negotiators.

Editor-in-chief: Jeremy O’Grady What’s your opinion? From our Editor: Caroline Law first day at school, that’s the Deputy editors: Harry Nicolle, Theo Tait THE WEEK Consultant editor: Jemima Lewis question we get asked in exams, Assistant editor: Daniel Cohen City editor: Jane Lewis Contributing editors: Charity Crewe, Thomas Hodgkinson, Editor-in-Chief: Obaid Humaid Al Tayer and by examiners. It soon gets to feel almost shameful – a defect Simon Wilson, Rob McLuhan, William Underhill, Digby Managing Partner and Group Editor: Ian Fairservice Warde-Aldam, Tom Yarwood Editorial staff: Asya Likhtman, Editorial Director: Gina Johnson of personality – to be without one. Which is why hymning the Anoushka Petit, Tigger Ridgwell, William Skidelsky Picture Deputy Group Editor – Business: Guido Duken editor: Xandie Nutting Art director: Nathalie Fowler Chief virtue of not having an opinion, as The Guardian’s Marina Hyde did sub editor: Kari Wilkin Production editor: Alanna O’Connell Contributing Editor: Dominic Ellis Senior Art Director: Tarak Parekh Founder and editorial director: Jolyon Connell not long ago, is so refreshing – and so radical. It’s not a plea for Designer: Sanil Kumar Production Manager: Ebony Besagni Senior Production Editorial Assistant: Londresa Flores ignorance or non-judgmentalism. It’s a recognition that opinions Executive: Maaya Mistry Newstrade Director: David Barker Direct Marketing Director: Abi Spooner General Manager – Production: S Sunil Kumar and convictions are a kind of armour – the armour we humans use Inserts: Abdul Ahad Classified: Henry Haselock, Henry Production Manager: R. Murali Krishnan Pickford Account Directors: Scott Hayter, John Hipkiss, Assistant Production Manager: Binu Purandaran to protect ourselves from doubt and uncertainty, from the very Victoria Ryan, Jocelyn Sital-Singh UK Ad Director: Caroline Fenner Chief Commercial Officer: Anthony Milne attributes most conducive to getting at the truth. Consider Brexit. Executive Director – Head of Advertising: David Weeks Publisher: Jaya Balakrishnan Everyone I know has a strong opinion on it. Not just on the narrow Chief Executive, The Week: Kerin O’Connor Senior Sales Manager: Manish Chopra Group CFO/COO: Brett Reynolds question of whether they’ll personally be better or worse off, but Chief executive: James Tye Head office: Media One Tower, Dubai Media City, Dennis Publishing founder: Felix Dennis PO Box 2331, Dubai, UAE. on whether it’s good or bad for the country. But here’s the good Tel: +971 4 427 3000; Fax: +971 4 428 2260 email: [email protected] news. You’re also entitled not to have one. Jolyon Connell THE WEEK Ltd, a subsidiary of Dennis Publishing Ltd, 30 Cleveland St, London W1T 4JD. Tel: 020-7907 6000. The Week is a registered trademark of Felix Dennis. OUR Dubai Media City: Abu Dhabi: London: Editorial: The Week Ltd, 2nd Floor, 32 Queensway, Licensed by Dennis Publishing, 30 Cleveland Street, OFFICES Office 508, 5th floor, Building 8, PO Box 43072, UAE Acre House, 11/15 William Road, London W2 3RX. Tel: 020-7907 6180. Dubai, UAE, Tel: +971 4 390 3550; London NW1 3ER, UK London, W1T 4JD Tel: +971 2 677 2005; Fax: +971 2 677 0124 email: [email protected] Fax: +971 4 390 4845 email: [email protected] email: [email protected]

29 JULY 2017 THE WEEK 6 NEWS Politics

Controversy of the week Charlie Gard decision The parents of Charlie Gard The next prime minister? decided this week to end their five-month campaign to Now that Parliament is in recess, Labour MPs have been left take their critically ill baby to wondering what to do with themselves, said Isabel Hardman on her the US for experimental Spectator blog. They’ve spent the past two summers holed up in therapy, and to allow his life windowless rooms, “listening to contenders for the [party’s] top support to be withdrawn. job”. But they now face the prospect of having to go to the beach, They made their decision because for the first time in three years, there isn’t a leadership after an MRI scan showed contest to fight. Jeremy Corbyn is sitting pretty. After his that Charlie’s condition was unexpectedly strong performance in the election, he’s now seen as too severe to be treated. They the man who put Labour back on the path to power, not – as critics implied that owing to the “J. Corbz”: the only game in town? legal battle, a “window of used to cast him – “the man who killed the party”. opportunity” had been lost. However, Great Ormond Don’t be deceived, said Marie Le Conte in the New Statesman. While MPs are on holiday, a “quiet civil Street Hospital said the scans war” is taking place inside Labour for control of the party machine. No longer the underdogs, the confirmed their view that Corbynites are turning up in droves at constituency meetings to wrest control from the centrists. “We’re Charlie had suffered trying to make it more open and more accessible to younger people,” says a Momentum spokesperson, in irreversible brain damage particular to the 20,000-plus who have joined Labour since the election. Some are calling for the back in December, when he mandatory reselection of MPs. As the man in the Corbyn T-shirt declares in one of the many Corbynista started having seizures. This videos trending on Facebook: “There’s only one game in town and it’s getting our boy J. Corbz into week, Charlie’s parents, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, Downing Street.” That looks a lot less likely now he’s having to spell out his policies, said Peter Oborne in returned to court to argue the Daily Mail. On The Andrew Marr Show this week, Corbyn had to come clean about his belief that that he should be allowed to Britain must leave the single market; he even blamed immigration for harming the lives of British workers. go home to die. Doctors said That places him on a collision course with shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer, and with all 49 Labour that posed many practical MPs who voted for a single market amendment to the Queen’s Speech. Corbyn also had to admit he’d problems, such as the fact been less than honest on student fees, said Iain Martin on Reaction.life. Before the election, he’d upped that his ventilator would not Labour’s manifesto pledge to scrap the system (cost: £11bn) by suggesting he’d also scrap pre-existing fit through their front door. student debt. But as that would cost a whopping £100bn, he had to tell Marr it was just an “aspiration”. Corbyn’s “pious pitch that he is not like all the other politicians” has been revealed as “utter tosh”. Diesel and petrol ban New diesel and petrol cars are to be banned in the UK But here’s the thing, said Stephen Bush in the New Statesman: Corbyn’s reassertion of his Eurosceptic from 2040. As part of the beliefs won’t do much harm to party unity, because most Labour MPs agree with him. Those who don’t Government’s “air quality – the Remainer MPs defending majorities in big cities and university towns – can rest easy in the plan”, all new cars on the knowledge that Remain voters are in tune with him on most other issues. Nor will the young be put off market will have to be fully by Corbyn’s failure to grasp the economics of student debt reduction, said Katy Balls on her Spectator electric (as opposed to blog. Fully 60% of 18- to 24-year-olds voted Labour in this year’s general election (up from 43% in the hybrids); electric cars 2015 election): but they did so not because they thought he was a “sound mathematician”, but “because currently account for less he represented change”. More than that, said Julia Blunck in Prospect, they voted for Corbyn because, than 1% of the total sold in unlike all the other politicians, he did for them what every demographic longs for a politician to do: he Britain. Environmental groups said the deadline didn’t take them for granted. should be sooner.

Good week for: Spirit of the age Alice Cooper, the veteran US rock star, after he found an Andy Poll watch It seems 3D printers aren’t Warhol canvas worth up to $10m rolled up in a storage locker David Davis is Conservative just for plastic. Researchers alongside a collection of 1970s stage props. The singer had members’ preferred choice reckon vegetables should be completely forgotten about the artwork, given to him by a to succeed Theresa May as printed into fun shapes, to girlfriend some 40 years ago. “It was a rock’n’roll time,” said his leader: 21% back the Brexit make them more appealing manager, Shep Gordon. “None of us thought about anything.” Secretary; Boris Johnson is to children. In a trial, they Brenda Hale, who was appointed the first female president of the their second choice, on 17%. put a mixture of bananas, 6% back Jacob Rees-Mogg, white beans, mushrooms Supreme Court. Lady Hale, 72, will succeed Lord Neuberger in and 5% Philip Hammond. and milk into a printer to October. A champion of diversity in the judiciary, she has until PMP/The Observer produce a snack shaped like now been the only woman among the 12 justices of the Supreme an octopus. “Could different Court, but will soon be joined by Dame Jill Black. Theresa May has a net mixtures be mass-produced satisfaction rating of -25, and bought in by schools? Bad week for: the lowest ever recorded We strongly hope so,” said by a PM a month after an one of the team, from the Consumers, with official confirmation that thousands of election. The only previous University of Foggia, in Italy. products – from chocolate bars to packets of fish fingers – PM with a negative rating at have shrunk over the past five years. The Office for National this point was Tony Blair, Seven in ten British children Statistics identified 2,529 products that have fallen victim to who got -13 in 2005. have their first experience of “shrinkflation”, such as sharing bags of Maltesers (10% smaller), Ipsos Mori/London foreign travel before the age and Doritos, which have quietly gone down from 200g to 180g. Evening Standard of five, a survey has Schoolchildren, who finally broke up for the summer holidays suggested. And by the age only to find that the long heatwave was over, replaced by clouds, 74% of voters consider the of eight, one fifth of them Tories to be a divided party, own their own smartphone. blustery winds and, in many areas, relentless rain. The autumnal while 47% consider Labour By contrast, just 12% of over- weather was forecast to ease up for a day or two over the divided. In May, by contrast, 50s had been abroad by the weekend, before resuming next week. just 29% thought the Tories time they were five: on First class rail passengers, who may be ejected from their were divided, while 65% average, they were 14 when comfy seats. Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has vowed to believed Labour were. they first went abroad. scrap first class carriages on busy routes, to tackle overcrowding. YouGov

THE WEEK 29 JULY 2017 Middle East at a glance NEWS 7

Beirut, Lebanon Jerusalem Kuwait City, Kuwait Ceasefire:A ceasefire took effect on Thursday Detectors removed: Muslim leaders have Visas halted: Kuwait has reportedly halted in a mountainous area of the Lebanese-Syrian lifted a boycott of a key holy site in the issuance of family residence visas for border where Lebanon’s Hezbollah says it is East Jerusalem after Israel removed the the parents and siblings of foreign workers on the verge of defeating Islamist militants in last of security measures which had led in the country. Kuwait Times cited security their last foothold at the frontier. The to uproar. They urged Palestinians to sources as saying applications have been ceasefire began at 6 am, halting fighting on all re-enter the compound on Thursday for stalled until the country’s National fronts in areas near the Lebanese border town the first time since the crisis erupted Assembly approves a new health insurance of Arsal where Hezbollah launched its assault two weeks ago. The last remnants of fee list. The list is expected to see on Nusra Front militants on Friday. A source Israel’s recently installed security healthcare fees in the country increase familiar with negotiations, brokered by a apparatus was taken away on Thursday “exponentially”, according to the Lebanese internal security agency, said the morning. Palestinians had fiercely publication. It was unclear if this meant remaining Nusra Front fighters were willing objected to the measures introduced charges beyond the increase from KD50 to accept safe passage to rebel-held parts of after the killing of two Israeli ($165) to KD130 ($430) a year, reported Syria. Talks were continuing, the source said. policemen. They had refrained from in October. The decision includes non- Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah entering the Old City complex known Kuwaiti parents and siblings under the said on Wednesday his group was close to to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif and to sponsorship of citizens and expats but not defeating Nusra Front militants, saying they Jews as the Temple Mount in protest husbands and children of Kuwaiti women. had “effectively lost” most of the land they over what they saw as an Israeli Parents and sibling already in the country held in the barren, mountainous border attempt to exert control over the are being charged the increased rates when region known as Jroud Arsal. contested site. Near-daily clashes they renew their permits. between Israeli security forces and demonstrators have taken place since the metal detectors were introduced. Muscat, Oman E-visa service: Oman has launched a new e-visa service as part of efforts to increase the number of international tourists. Those planning to visit the GCC state can apply online for visas by submitting their applications on a government website (www.evisa.rop.gov.om). Visitors will then need to fill out the form online and attach the necessary documents, as well as pay the application fee by credit card through a Global Payment Gateway that is officially certified by Oman. All applicants will receive notifications through the emails provided. In the first phase, the system will be applicable for non- sponsored tourist visas for people from 67 countries, as well as GCC residents employed in 116 professions. The move is particularly hoped to target tourists from key markets such as China, Russia and the Cairo, Egypt US, a statement said. Terror council: Egypt established a national council for combating terrorism, giving it broad authority to set policies aimed Riyadh, Saudi Arabia at “fighting extremism,” a New city: Authorities in Saudi Arabia have presidential decree stated. Egypt has detailed plans for the Al-Faisaliah City been battling a Daesh-led insurgency development, a major new economic in the Sinai Peninsula that has killed centre that is designed to expand the hundreds of soldiers and police capacity of the holy city of Makkah. officers since 2013, though attacks Damascus, Syria Prince Khaled Al-Faisal said the project have increasingly moved into the Army advances: Syrian government forces are would provide 995,000 housing units and mainland in recent months. After nearing the last major town held by Daesh in Homs accommodate 6.5 million people by 2050. two deadly church bombings earlier province, part of their multi-pronged advance It will also provide one million jobs in this year claimed by Daesh that toward the terror group’s strongholds in the east of sectors including healthcare, education killed at least 44 people, President the country, a military source said on Thursday. The and technology and services. The project Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared a state source said combat operations would accelerate was previously known as Al-Salmaniyah of emergency. The National Council toward the town of al-Sukhna, some 50 km from before being renamed by ruler King to Confront Terrorism and the administrative frontier of Deir al-Zor province, Salman in recognition of the late King Extremism is tasked with where Daesh has redeployed many fighters after Faisal’s care of Makkah. It spans 2,450 formulating a “comprehensive losing ground in Syria and Iraq. Daesh is losing square kilometres from the Makkah national strategy” to combat ground fast in Syria to separate campaigns waged Haram boundary towards the coastline. terrorism and “proposing by the Russian-backed Syrian government on the The current design features a government amendments to existing legislation,” one hand, and to US-backed Kurdish forces and complex, an Islamic centre, meeting and as well as creating job opportunities their allies on the other. Government forces, backed conference venues, schools, healthcare in areas with high levels of by the Russian air force and Iran-backed militias, centres, malls, entertainment venues, extremism and promoting moderate have also been advancing against Daesh in Hama industrial facilities, an airport, seaport, religious discourse, the decree stated. province and in southern areas of Raqqa province. train line, metro, tram and bus service.

29 JULY 2017 THE WEEK 8 NEWS The world at a glance

Minneapolis, Minnesota Washington, DC Police chief ousted: The police chief of Trump’s travails: President Trump caused consternation across the Minneapolis resigned last week over the political spectrum last week by appearing to suggest he could fatal shooting of an unarmed Australian simply pardon himself if found guilty of crimes in connection woman by a police officer. The city’s with Russian interference in the US election. And in a sign of his mayor, Betsy Hodges, said that the police growing frustration, the president used Twitter to attack his own chief, Janeé Harteau, had “lost the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, for his “VERY weak position on confidence of the people”; but protesters Hillary Clinton crimes”. Separately, Trump’s much-mocked press have also called for Hodges to step secretary, Sean Spicer, quit, following the appointment of former down. Justine Damond (pictured), 40, banker Anthony “The Mooch” Scaramucci as the White House’s made an emergency call to police on 15 new communications director. Spicer has been replaced by Sarah July to report a possible sexual assault in Huckabee Sanders. This week, Trump was widely criticised for an alley behind her house; when the making an inappropriately political speech at the Boy Scout police car drew up, she approached it – only to be shot, for Jamboree attended by tens of thousands of children; in a rambling reasons that remain unclear, by Mohamed Noor, a recent recruit 35-minute address, he lauded his own victory, and railed against who had been on an accelerated training programme. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the “cesspool” of politics.

Bountiful, British Columbia Sect leaders guilty: Two former leaders of a breakaway Mormon sect, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, have been found guilty of polygamy by the Supreme Court of British Columbia. Winston Blackmore, 61, fathered 146 children with 24 wives. James Oler, 53, had five wives. Seen as testing the limits of religious freedom in Canada, the case may end up in the federal Supreme Court. The sect has been based in the tiny community of Bountiful, close to the US border, since the late 1940s, and the authorities have been considering prosecutions since the 1990s. The mainstream Mormon church abandoned polygamy in 1890.

Carson City, Nevada Simpson gets parole: O.J. Simpson has been granted parole after serving nine years of a 33-year sentence for armed robbery, and could be freed as early as 1 October. The former American footballer was sensationally acquitted in 1995 of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman, at the end of one of the most watched trials in history. Many continued to believe that he was guilty, however, and in 2008, he was jailed following a bizarre incident in which he and armed accomplices broke into a Las Vegas hotel room to retrieve sports memorabilia that he still maintains were his. “I’m not a guy who has conflicts on the street,” he told a parole hearing in Carson City, Nevada, last week. “I’m a guy who’s got along with just about everybody.”

San Antonio, Texas Migrants found dead in truck: Police discovered more than 100 migrants crammed into an airless truck parked outside a Walmart in the Texas town of San Antonio last Saturday night. Eight of them were already dead; two more died soon after. Many of the others were rushed to hospital suffering from extreme dehydration and heat stroke. The youngest was only 15. The migrants are believed to have paid traffickers to take them across the Mexican border, 150 miles away. The truck had no air conditioning, and its air vents were blocked. The driver – who has been charged with transporting undocumented workers, resulting in death – claims he had no idea there were people on board until he stopped to relieve himself and heard them banging. Temperatures in San Antonio reached 38ºC on Saturday. Caracas, Venezuela Washington, DC Turmoil ahead of controversial McCain has cancer: The Republican vote: Five people were killed last senator John McCain has been diagnosed Thursday in clashes during a with an aggressive form of brain cancer, one-day national strike in Venezuela, he revealed last week. The tumour, taking the number killed in the violent unrest that has racked the known as a glioblastoma, was discovered country since April to at least 100. A further 48-hour general when he underwent surgery to remove strike was due to take place this week, ahead of voting on Sunday a blood clot above his left eye. McCain in elections for a new “constituent assembly” that President (pictured) – who endured torture during Maduro has said will rewrite the constitution. Many Venezuelans more than five years of captivity as a believe the proposal for the constituent assembly is a nakedly prisoner of war in Vietnam – is widely anti-democratic attempt to seize power from the existing elected respected across the political spectrum. parliament, where the opposition parties have a majority of seats. Barack Obama, who defeated McCain in the 2008 presidential Maduro’s opponents are boycotting the poll; the president says election, was among those to send messages of support. it is the only way to restore order to the country.

THE WEEK 29 JULY 2017 The world at a glance NEWS 9

Jerusalem Clashes over holy site: Israel has removed Mosul, Iraq metal detectors from the entrance to an Gruesome revenge: Iraqi government forces important holy site known to Jews as the have been accused of perpetrating horrific Temple Mount, and to Muslims as the revenge attacks on Daesh militants, and on Noble Sanctuary. The detectors were ordinary Iraqis they suspect of supporting the installed a fortnight ago, after Arab Israelis group during its occupation of Mosul. attacked and killed two policemen Commentators say that the attacks – many of guarding the site, in Jerusalem’s Old City. which were recorded on mobile phones – have The introduction of the new security tarnished Iraq’s victory in recapturing the city measures triggered days of unrest and a earlier this month, and threaten to unleash a diplomatic crisis with Jordan, which is the further cycle of violence. In one clip, troops are seen killing an unarmed fighter by custodian of the holy site as a result of the throwing him off a cliff. Other footage appears to show a special forces unit torturing peace deal it struck with Israel in 1994. and executing Sunni civilians. Bodies of prisoners, their hands tied, are a frequent Four Palestinians were killed in clashes sight on roads close to the city. The Iraqi PM, Haider al-Abadi, has said that the with Israeli security forces: hours later, perpetrators of such atrocities will be dealt with – but not yet, because it would three members of an Israeli family were “interfere with the current congratulatory victory messages”. stabbed to death at their home in a West Meanwhile, German authorities have confirmed that a 16-year-old Daesh fighter Bank settlement. The crisis then spread to captured by Iraqi troops in Mosul is German schoolgirl Linda Wenzel (pictured), Jordan, where two Jordanians were killed who went missing from her home near Dresden a year ago. by a guard at Israel’s embassy in Amman.

Pyongyang, North Korea Defector “kidnapped”: A North Korean defector who became a celebrity in South Korea appears to have been kidnapped and taken back to Pyongyang. Lim Ji Hyun – who frequently appeared on TV discussing the brutal conditions in the North – hadn’t been seen since April until she turned up last week in a North Korean propaganda video, in which she is seen weeping, castigating herself as “human trash” – a phrase often applied to defectors – and denouncing the “evils” of life in the South.

Salak, Hwange, Cameroon Zimbabwe Suspects tortured: Cecil’s son Hundreds of people killed: One of accused of having the offspring links to the Islamist of Cecil, the militant group Boko Haram – often on the lion whose Jakarta, Indonesia basis of flimsy evidence or no evidence at killing by an “Shoot drug dealers”: The president of all – have been tortured by security forces American trophy Indonesia has urged police to shoot dead in Cameroon, according to Amnesty hunter in 2015 drugs traffickers who resist arrest, to tackle International. In its report, the group says caused global the “narcotics emergency” in his country. the torture amounts to war crimes. Most outrage, has also “Be firm, especially to foreign drug dealers of the 101 documented cases involved men been shot dead. who enter the country and resist arrest,” aged 18 to 45, but Amnesty says women Xanda (pictured), a six-year-old male who said President Joko Widodo at a political and children were also tortured. Many of had fathered a number of cubs himself, meeting last week. Though the president’s the victims were held at the headquarters was shot earlier this month just outside the spokesman insisted he was not advocating of the Rapid Intervention Battalion in Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe by a a shoot-to-kill policy, Widodo was accused Salak, in the north of Cameroon. Although tourist, as part of an organised hunt. Such of emulating the Philippines’ President Nigeria has borne the brunt of Boko activity is controversial but legal; the Duterte, whose call for an anti-drugs Haram atrocities, the group has killed hunter is believed to have paid around crusade last year has led to thousands of around 1,500 Cameroonians in the past £40,000 for the shoot, and for Xanda’s drug dealers, and suspected drug dealers, three years. head to be cured and mounted. being killed.

29 JULY 2017 THE WEEK

10 NEWS Europe at a glance

Paris, France Berlin, Germany Donetsk, Ukraine Honeymoon over: Emmanuel Macron’s Crisis deepens: Deadliest fighting of the year: At least approval ratings have slumped ten points Tensions 15 Ukrainian soldiers were killed, and in the past month. Although the French between Nato 24 more wounded, over three days last president still enjoys the support of 54% allies Germany week, making it the bloodiest stretch of of voters, the fall is the most precipitous and Turkey fighting in eastern Ukraine this year, for a new president since Jacques Chirac escalated sharply according to figures from the Kyiv Post. At in 1995. A number of factors have been last week, after least six armed separatists were also killed. blamed for the abrupt end to Macron’s Germany’s The war in eastern Ukraine began in honeymoon period, including perceptions foreign minister 2014 after Russia annexed Crimea, and that he is arrogant and domineering, and advised German pro-Russian rebels – who the West believes anger over his proposed budget cuts. Last firms and are being funded, armed and aided by week, the head of the French armed forces investors to avoid doing business in Turkey, Moscow – proclaimed independent resigned after Macron unveiled an s850m and warned that German visitors to the “people’s republics” in the Donetsk and cut to defence spending. General Pierre country are “no longer safe from arbitrary Luhansk regions. Since then, the UN de Villiers said the cuts would leave him arrest”. Sigmar Gabriel said Germany was estimates that at least 10,090 people, unable to “guarantee the protection of “reorienting” its policy towards Turkey including 2,777 civilians, have been killed, France and the French people”. Days following the arrest of a German consultant, and nearly 24,000 wounded. earlier, Macron, 39, had used the Bastille Peter Steudtner, three weeks ago (see page Day parade to tell the military top brass: 17): he’s since been charged with supporting “I am your chief. I don’t need any pressure a terrorist group. President Erdogan (above, or commentary.” He is the first postwar with Angela Merkel) has further fanned French president who has neither been in the flames by warning that the army nor carried out military service, Western agents are “roaming which was scrapped in the 1990s. free” in Turkey.

Saint-Tropez, France Coastal blaze: Wildfires raging in southern France forced the evacuation of at least 10,000 people overnight on Tuesday. The fires broke out on Monday, in tinder-dry woodland close to tourist towns including Saint-Tropez, and on Corsica: 3,000 campers were among those escorted to safety. Meanwhile, in Italy the drought is becoming so severe that water is being rationed in Rome; and this week, Vatican officials announced they would be turning off the 100 or so fountains in Vatican City for the first time in living memory.

Rome, Italy Istanbul, Turkey Bodrum, Turkey Corruption verdicts: The two leaders of Free press on trial: Seventeen journalists, Quake hits tourist spots: At least two a criminal gang that plundered Rome’s city editors, executives and cartoonists who people were killed and hundreds more coffers – as well as some 40 accomplices, work at one of Turkey’s last independent injured last Friday when a powerful 6.7 including politicians, officials and newspapers have gone on trial in Istanbul magnitude earthquake struck the tourist businessmen – have been found guilty of on charges of supporting terrorism, in a resort of Bodrum in southwest Turkey and corruption at the end of a high-profile trial case that has become a symbol of the the neighbouring Greek island of Kos, that started in November 2015. Massimo collapse of press freedom under President which lies a few miles off the Turkish Carminati, 59, a one-eyed former member Erdogan. The accused, most of whom coast. The undersea quake, the strongest in of a notorious right-wing gang, who is have been in pretrial detention since last the region for decades, struck at 1.31am, known as “the last king of Rome”, was autumn, are accused of being covert when many people were still out enjoying sentenced to 20 years in prison; his members of the Gulenist movement that the nightlife. In Kos, two men – one sidekick, convicted killer Salvatore Buzzi, Erdogan claims was behind the failed Swedish and one Turkish – were killed 61, got 19 years. They were accused of army coup a year ago. In defiant court when a wall collapsed onto the crowded using bribery and intimidation to win a statements, the journalists said they were courtyard of a nightclub. More than 120 host of valuable public contracts covering victims of a cynical government assault people were injured on the island. On the everything from building refugee centres on Cumhuriyet – a staunchly secular Turkish mainland, around 360 people to collecting refuse, and then skimming off newspaper that was founded in 1924. were injured in Bodrum and other coastal millions. This corruption is believed to be “I am here not because I… helped a towns and villages, many of them after one of the reasons Rome has fallen into terrorist organisation,” said Kadri Gürsel, jumping out of windows as buildings such disrepair in recent years, with a columnist and long-time critic of the shook. The earthquake also triggered rubbish piled up on the streets, and its Gulenists, “but because I am an indepen- 2ft-high tidal waves that caused extensive roads riven with potholes. dent, questioning and critical journalist.” flooding.

THE WEEK 29 JULY 2017 VOTE NOW • ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR   CSR INITIATIVE OF THE YEAR 

gul usiness.com/awards

VOTING CLOSES AUGUST 31ST

SPONSORED BY VOTE PROCESSING PARTNER PRESENTED BY 12 NEWS People

Britain’s top male vlogger People are drawing parallels If you’re over 20, and haven’t between its dystopian vision got teenage children, you may and Trump’s America. Others not have heard of Alfie Deyes. see Daesh in it. The author But the 23-year-old is one of insists that Gilead – the violent Britain’s most successful patriarchal theocracy that uses vloggers, worth an estimated Islamist terrorism as a pretext £4m. With his girlfriend and to seize power – is not based fellow YouTube star Zoe on any one group. That said, “Zoella” Suggs, he’s half of everything in the story, about a media power couple. But he female oppression and didn’t set out to be. Aged 15, state-sanctioned rape, has when he began making videos happened. “I put nothing in in his bedroom in Brighton, that people had not done at “it wasn’t a job”, he told Anna some time, in some place,” she Pointer in The Daily Telegraph. says. “Men have been stealing “There was no path to follow women for 5,000 years. or goal to achieve. It’d never Look at Argentina under the been done before.” Some might generals, look at Hitler, look struggle to understand quite at the Soviet Union in its what it is Deyes does now. His early phase… Just remember, videos notch up some 700,000 nobody’s off the hook – except views a day, yet only show him maybe the Quakers.” (and sometimes Suggs) “doing random stuff” – shopping in Gordon Ramsay’s drive Sainsbury’s, or playing with his Gordon Ramsay certainly has dog. He thinks people like it grit, says Natalie Whittle in the because it’s “real” – yet the FT. He is now a multi- couple try to keep a degree millionaire with an interest in She made her big-screen debut in the Australian film Flirting – and of privacy, which isn’t easy. 30 restaurants worldwide. But has worked in Hollywood for years. But Naomi Watts is actually “People knock on our door,” he started at the bottom, and British by birth. Her mother, Myfanwy “Miv” Roberts, was a model; he says. “Every single day, worked his way up through her father, Peter “Puddie” Watts, was a sound engineer for Pink parents drive their kids over London’s best kitchens. Floyd. They were young when Naomi was born, in 1968, and hip. – and the adults are the ones Finally, in 1998, he opened One of the few surviving photos the actress has from that era shows who get annoyed when we a restaurant of his own – and her with her parents and the band on a beach in Saint-Tropez. Yet it say we won’t do pictures. They funded it by selling his and his was a very different life she craved. “I’d had enough of cool,” she lift their kids onto the walls wife Tana’s first home. “You told Tom Lamont in The Guardian. “I didn’t want cool. I wanted my around our house, and throw can imagine her thoughts: parents to wear three-piece suits and tweed, not leather pants and stuff over. I’m always polite, ‘Well, how long are we going four-inch platform boots.” Her parents divorced in 1972: they but the way I see it, not even to have to rent for?’” he says. reconciled in 1976, but just weeks later, her father died, apparently my mum turns up uninvited.” “I didn’t shy away from [the of a drug overdose. The members of Pink Floyd helped the family pressure]. I needed that kind of financially (“It was kind that they did that”), but her life became yet Atwood on her dystopia drive, to make sure it had to more unsettled, as her mother moved from town to town trying to Margaret Atwood wrote The work. It wasn’t maybe, or what build a career. Each time, Watts had to start at a new school, and Handmaid’s Tale in 1985, says if, or we’ll see what happens. each time, she says, she’d stand on the edge of the playground, and Hannah Betts in The Times. No, this place is going to work try to work out what role – what accent – would get her admitted to Three decades on, her novel, and be one of the best the group. All perhaps useful training for the future, but that wasn’t now adapted into a TV drama, restaurants in the country. I am a silver lining she perceived at the time. “I just remember always has found a new relevance. going to eat, drink, sleep it.” wanting to be something else. Quite sad, isn’t it?”

Castaway of the week Viewpoint: Farewell This week’s edition of Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs featured The new Wild West Jayne-Anne Gadhia, the chief executive of Virgin Money John Heard, best “Last year, a website called Adulthub known for playing the 1* Canon in D Major by Johann Pachelbel had 23 billion visits. Some of the father in the Home 2 Bohemian Rhapsody by Freddie Mercury, performed by Queen popular search terms were ‘crying in Alone films, died 3 Parisienne Walkways by Gary Moore and Phil Lynott, performed by pain’, ‘sleep assault’ and ‘teen’. It’s 21 July, aged 71. Gary Moore possible that people watch this stuff Lord McCluskey, 4 Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty, performed by Hugh Burns, Tommy online and remain loving partners and former solicitor general Eyre, Nigel Jenkins, Glen LeFleur, Raphael Ravenscroft, Henry for Scotland, died 20 Spinetti, Gary Taylor and Gerry Rafferty pillars of society. It’s more likely that they don’t. The internet has changed July, aged 88. 5 Keep on Loving You by Kevin Cronin, performed by REO Speedwagon so much of our culture. We rage. We Michael Nyqvist, Swedish actor, died 6 Now We are Free (from the film Gladiator) by Hans Zimmer, shriek. We hate. We do this in the name 27 June, aged 56. Lisa Gerrard and Klaus Badelt, performed by Lisa Gerrard, of free speech. We buy things with a The Lyndhurst Orchestra and Gavin Greenaway click. We want instant everything, all Raymond Sackler, 7 Survivor by Donny Osmond, Paul Begaud, Vanessa Corish, James the time. When Tim Berners-Lee pharmaceutical tycoon Jayawardena and Eliot Kennedy, performed by Donny Osmond imagined an ‘open platform that would and philanthropist, 8 Everything I Do (I Do it for You) by Bryan Adams, Michael Kamen allow everyone, everywhere, to share died 17 July, aged 97. and Robert Lange, performed by Bryan Adams information…’, he probably didn’t Mary Turner, president Book: Les Misérables by Victor Hugo dream of a Wild West that would do us of the GMB union, died 19 July, aged 79. Luxury: a sari * Choice if allowed only one record so much harm.” Christina Patterson in The Guardian

THE WEEK 29 JULY 2017 Briefing NEWS 13 The ups and downs of opinion polls Polls are a central feature of modern democratic politics, but wayward electoral predictions have caused many to lose faith in them

Where did opinion polling begin? likely balance of power based on polling Like most modern political phenomena, predictions. They can also induce a in America. Between 1916 and 1932, a “bandwagon effect” – voters plumping popular news magazine, the Literary for the party that the polls deem the Digest, attracted much publicity by likely winner. A detailed study of the correctly predicting the results of 2003 Netherlands election found some presidential elections by mailing millions 20% of voters were affected by polls, of mock ballots to voters and counting with many swinging behind the surging the returns. But in 1936, George Gallup, PvdA (Labour) party. Such distortions of a statistician turned market researcher, “the people’s will” are even more striking became convinced the magazine was when predictions are wrong. heading for a fall: the mailing lists it used came from telephone directories and car And have they often been wrong? registrations, and thus excluded poorer In recent times spectacularly so, both in voters. So Gallup conducted his own the US (where almost all polls predicted poll. It was far smaller but it used “quota a win for Hillary Clinton), and in sampling”: it targeted a proportionate Britain, where the pollsters have called mini-electorate, reflecting the race, age, three UK elections wrongly in three sex and income ratios of the real one. George Gallup on the show America Speaks (1948) years. In the 2015 general election, they Gallup correctly predicted both that FDR said Labour and the Tories were neck would win, and that the Literary Digest would wrongly call his and neck; in the EU referendum, they predicted a win for rival, Alfred Landon, as the victor at 56%. The Literary Digest Remain; in this year’s election, they foretold a clear Tory win, went out of business, and the polling industry was born. wildly underestimating Labour’s vote share. This distorted media coverage: in 2015, the media fixated on the prospect of a hung Was it greeted with enthusiasm? parliament and the SNP holding the balance of power. As a From the beginning there were doubts: the word pollster was result, many voters probably cast their vote on a false prospectus. initially an insult, like “huckster”. But polls were enthusiastically “If the polls had reflected reality,” said an aide of then-Labour adopted by the media, and by interest groups eager to commission leader Ed Miliband of the 2015 election, “it would have been a pollsters to ask leading questions and gather “scientific” proof totally different campaign.” It has also been suggested that many that the public agreed with their concerns. Pollsters were soon voted for Brexit as a protest, thinking Leave would lose, and then claiming to be able to assess matters as elusive as whether we suffered pangs of “Regrexit”. believe in God, whether we’re happy, and who we trust. Their surveys have come to influence everything from policy on such What can be done to correct such distortions? key questions as immigration, marriage and drug legislation, to Some 40 nations now ban opinion polls in the run-up to elections, to what kind of consumer products we get offered. For Gallup, the avoid affecting the result. In Norway, there’s a 24-hour ban; South new technique offered the best way to “take the pulse of Korea has a blackout lasting seven days. However, in the US such a democracy”. But many remained sceptical. To French philosopher ban would be unconstitutional on freedom of speech grounds; it Jean Baudrillard, polls were a sorry reflection of a mass media age would probably be unacceptable in this country too. In any case, for in which “there is more and more information, and less and less all their shortcomings, polls are still arguably preferable to the meaning”. They fail to distinguish between strong and flimsy alternative. “I think a society is likely to operate more effectively if it preferences, say the critics, and they tend to trivialise politics. understands itself better,” says the psephologist John Curtice. Without polls “all you get is a bunch of politicians saying everybody thinks In what way are polls said to cheapen politics? that, or everybody thinks this, we’re winning votes, no, we’re winning It’s often suggested they encourage politicians to pander to the latest votes. How the hell do we know who’s right?” The best solution is popular sentiment – usually based on probably for the media to give less ignorance or short-term self-interest – Polling in theory and practice credence to polls (the BBC now won’t rather than making long-term decisions Most polling in the UK is done by locating between lead a bulletin on a poll result) and for for the general good. Polls are also said 1,000 and 4,000 interviewees who fill quotas based on the polling companies to improve their to divert attention from the issues: their demographic characteristics – young and old, southern accuracy. dominant role in the news narrows the and northern – and weighting the results to take into media focus to the performance of the account a range of factors, such as the likelihood of How can the polls get better? leaders, turning elections into horse voting. Most polls are done by phone, some are done An in-depth study commissioned by races. But the most telling criticism is face to face (which is thought to be less accurate), and the British Polling Council after the some (a minority) on the internet. In theory, most 2015 result has identified a series of that polls undermine the democratic results are accurate to within a margin of error of +/-3% process by influencing the election – so, in a close election, even at the best of times that failings, including giving insufficient result itself. could easily mean calling the wrong result. weight to postal votes and to the As it happens, pollsters before 2015 did tend to call the low turnout among certain social And do they influence elections? result correctly, though they got it wrong in 1970 and groups. Pollsters were also Almost certainly. For a start, they 1992 (when failure to predict John Major’s win was considered to be guilty of “herding” often affect the timing of elections, blamed on “shy Tories” hiding their intentions). But – adjusting their results to bring because politicians only call elections today, polls are often well outside the margin of error. them closer to other companies’ when they think they can win. The key problem seems to be that finding interviewees results. But the basic problem was Research over the past 30 years is getting harder: people are less inclined to share their “unrepresentative sampling”: their suggests they also influence the way views. When Gallup was polling, the response rate was samples of voters under-represented people vote, particularly in the late over 90%; in 2015, ICM had to call 30,000 numbers to some types of voter and over- get just 2,000 responses. And those who do respond stages of a close-fought campaign. are often too politically engaged to be representative – represented others – a problem They can encourage more tactical one reason errors are more common. that goes to the very heart of voting, as voters bear in mind the polling (see box).

29 JULY 2017 THE WEEK 14 NEWS Best of the Arabic language articles

The Jabarin youth’s action came on Friday, July 14, after years of waiting and watching as Israel changed realities on the ground and proceeded with plans for the spatial and temporal Jerusalemites division of Al-Aqsa mosque. Meanwhile, official Arab government positions remained limited to condemnation, verbal rejection, and a handful of UNESCO resolutions. initiate Everything at ground level was working in favour of a handful of Zionist settlers and politicians, who continually changed the reality. The Israeli response, totally indifferent to protests Arab governments – further exploited events to impose more restrictions at Al-Aqsa mosque. Some Palestinian voices criticized the Jabarin operation, saying it provided justification for Dr Ahmed Jamil Azm Israeli retaliation and policy changes. But Jerusalemites have another view; they, like the Jabarin youth, could take no more. Certainly, Jerusalem’s anger is not limited to the Al-Ghad Newspaper electronic gates (there are already gates in some of the city’s neighbourhoods and alleys). The protest was distinctive and unusual in that prayers were held around Jerusalem. Amongst the praying ranks were the religious and the non-religious, Christians and Muslims. In this way Jerusalemites proved that this is an uprising against Zionism. More importantly, the Jerusalemites’ protest is a statement that they own East Jerusalem. They decide the rhythm of life in this city when their anger and frustration has reached its limits.

On July 17, 2017, the Lebanese prime minister announced that the army would conduct a “well planned” operation in Syrian Jaroud Arsal, without coordinating with the Syrian regime. However, Prime refugees Minister Saad Hariri knows that Hassan Nasrallah, secretary-general of the party, and Hezbollah ordered the operation over two months Dr Radwan Al Sayed ago. As for being “well planned”, the author of Kalila wa-Dimnah once wrote: Al Ittihad newspaper “The bravest of the brave are those who taste poison for the experience.” Two predictions come to light after listening to statements issued by the Lebanese army and politicians, monitoring army statements, speaking to officers in service at Arsal, and based on previous experiences with the army and Hezbollah. The first says there will be a massacre in Arsal and its camps, causing another exodus and displacement, which will clear the border for Hezbollah and its gunmen – as the population there is predominantly Sunni Muslim. The second states that an attack in the Al Jaroud mountains is unnecessary as militants are mostly based well inside the rugged mountainous Syrian territory, and army bases are strategically located to make any militant attacks on Lebanon very difficult. Rather, the purpose of the attack would be to help the Syrian regime and Hezbollah forces fight the displaced militants taking refuge in the mountains, and who are the very people Hezbollah previously displaced from their villages.

Al-Bayan recently conducted two online surveys; one on its website and the other on the newspaper’s Twitter account. The surveys revealed that over 60% of respondents believe that Exploiting tensions the Israeli occupation’s plan to divide Al-Aqsa mosque (also called Haram esh-Sharif) is due to a combination of three factors: (1) Internal division; (2) A weakened Palestinian Authority in the region to and tensions in the Arab world; and (3) The absence of a unified Arab and Islamic position. In the online poll, 7% of respondents said that the occupation began its plan to divide pass policies Al-Aqsa mosque as a result of internal division and a weak Palestinian Authority; and 6% believed Israel decided to go ahead with its plan by taking advantage of tensions in the Arab Editorial world. A larger group of respondents (21%) attributed this move to the absence of a unified Al Bayan Arab and Islamic position; while the majority of respondents (66%) believed that putting the division plan into action was the result of all three of the above factors combined.

The surprise proposal for elections in March by Fayez al-Sarraj, head of the internationally-backed Al Wifaq Situation in Libya government, might be the first sign of conflict resolution – particularly as it comes too important to within the context of rapprochement with military leader Khalifa Haftar, who controls ignore the eastern region. It is encouraging that concerned international and regional powers Mohammad Al-Haddad recognise the need to give the people of the Al Hayat newspaper Eastern region broader rights. However, it is important to treat these new developments with caution. In the past, Libya has seen two failed electoral campaigns. The outcome of the first in 2012 gave victory to the liberals. But the complex election system, combined with the spread of Islamist militias, disinformation, and hundreds of millions in bribes from abroad, led to the manipulation of election results and the imposition of a general national conference dominated by Islamists and their allies. They exploited this control to abort the democratic transition, and a law that led to political isolation was issued. This led to a diminished political presence of some Al Wifaq figures – who had supported the revolution from the beginning – including the president of the conference himself. This lost what little political and administrative experience there was, which could have been the starting point for building a modern state.

THE WEEK 29 JULY 2017 Best articles: International NEWS 15

The Nobel Prize-winner who terrified China’s leaders China has earned a grim place in was making great strides economically, history with its mistreatment of Nobel lifting hundreds of millions of people Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, said out of poverty. “Western forces and The Globe and Mail (Toronto). The dissidents like Liu are disrupters of 61-year-old Chinese thinker and China’s steady progress.” No surprise dissident died of liver cancer earlier this that China’s state-controlled press month while under guard in hospital: should seek to denigrate Liu, said the officials had refused to let him go South China Morning Post (Hong abroad for treatment. The only other Kong). Beijing saw him as a direct Nobel Peace Prize laureate to die in threat to one-party rule. The kind of custody was the German pacifist Carl open debate Liu advocated has been von Ossietzky, who was imprisoned by the “persistent fear of Chinese leaders the Nazis. Liu had spent much of the through the centuries”: in Beijing’s eyes, previous 30 years in jail. He was first it could only “lead to disputes and then detained in 1989, for his part in the Liu with his wife, the artist Liu Xia chaos”. But for China and the world, Tiananmen Square protests. His final Liu’s death is actually “a tragedy”. stretch began in 2009, when he was locked up for co-authoring the pro-democracy manifesto Charter 08, which called for China’s Communist Party cadres are “not uniformly heartless”, “such dangerous innovations” as free speech, freedom of said Jamil Anderlini in the FT. “I know several who think Liu’s religion, and an independent judiciary. The regime remains so treatment was disgraceful.” But they also see it as a necessary afraid of Liu’s ideas that it had his body cremated and the ashes evil to avoid the civil strife that would result if his ideas were scattered at sea, depriving his supporters of a memorial site. allowed to spread unchecked. Yet the party is storing up trouble for itself. “By rejecting gradual top-down democratisation, it is Enough with the deification of this convicted criminal, said the increasing the likelihood of an eventual bottom-up rejection of Global Times (Beijing). The Western media has heaped laurels authoritarian rule.” No doubt when that time comes, demon- on Liu, likening him to Nelson Mandela. In fact, he was a strators will carry banners featuring Liu’s image and the words “paranoid, naive and arrogant” political agitator. During the he wrote, but was forbidden to read, at his 2009 trial: “There is decades that he was attempting to stir up trouble here, China no force that can put an end to the human quest for freedom.”

UNITED STATES President Trump is “incompetent at countless aspects of his job”, says Ronald A. Klain, but he has been “wildly successful” in one area: lining up conservative nominees for the federal courts. When he entered the White House, there were more than 100 judicial vacancies – largely because Senate Liberals in a Republicans had obstructed dozens of judicial picks at the end of Barack Obama’s second term. And in his first six months in office, Trump has not only had a new Supreme Court justice confirmed, but spin over also selected no fewer than 27 lower court judges – three times as many as Barack Obama managed in his first six months, and more than twice as many as Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Trump’s judges Clinton combined managed in that time period. Trump’s picks are mostly young and “strikingly The Washington Post Trumpian”, which is very bad news for liberals as federal judges serve for life. And the Democrats, being a minority in the Senate, can do little to block such picks since the Republicans have abolished the use of the filibuster for judicial appointments. Trump may not be around for long, but many of his judicial nominees will still be interpreting America’s laws “in the year 2050 – and beyond”.

RWANDA “After decades of searching,” says Simon Allison, “Africa’s leaders think they have found a homegrown, Afrocentric development plan that works.” It’s called the “Rwanda model”. And you only need to visit that country to see why they’re so excited. Kigali is unlike any other African The downside capital. It’s an “immaculate” city of well-tended verges and world-class hotels. You can walk anywhere safely at night. The nation as a whole is also thriving, leading some to dub it “Africa’s of an African Singapore”. Life expectancy has shot up from 49 to 64.5 years since 2000. The key to Rwanda’s success is a strict system of accountability, in which each layer of society, down to the village level, success story must monitor its progress and answer to the one above. The system allows for “extraordinarily Mail & Guardian direct governance”, but also includes elements of “peer shaming” and “Big Brother” surveillance. (Johannesburg) And there are other darker aspects to Rwanda, too: there’s no free media, for instance, and human rights groups talk of “undesirable” people being rounded up off the streets and held in “rehabilitation centres”. Many would say these authoritarian aspects are an “acceptable trade-off” for the progress elsewhere. But the danger of holding up Rwanda as an example for other African nations is that the “repressive elements” of its model are “much easier to replicate than anything else”.

UNITED STATES Health officials claim that the US is in the throes of an “unprecedented opioid epidemic”, says Stephen Mihm, but that’s not quite true. There’s no denying the country is suffering an epidemic of drug abuse, stemming from the overprescription of a powerful new class of painkillers in the 1990s. We’ve faced a But unprecedented? No. A similar epidemic beset America 150 years ago, and it began in much the same way, with well-meaning doctors embracing a new type of drug as the answer to all manner of drug crisis like aches and pains. Back then, however, it was morphine, use of which became ever more prevalent in the 1870s thanks to the widespread introduction of the hypodermic needle. Many wounded veterans this before became addicts, but so, too, did many people suffering from arthritis. “Women also became addicts Bloomberg en masse, thanks to the practice of treating menstrual cramps – or for that matter, any female (New York) complaint of pain – with injections of morphine.” Eventually, doctors adopted a more responsible approach, and the epidemic of morphine addiction began to burn itself out. But it took decades. “It may take just as long before doctors kick the habit of prescribing powerful pain pills.”

29 JULY 2017 THE WEEK 16 NEWS Best articles: British

Why are so many people on the Left so down on Brexit, asks Larry Elliott. It’s partly because when Thatcherism was in the ascendant, IT MUST BE TRUE… If you’re on the Labour saw Brussels as a check on “free-market zealotry”. But a I read it in the tabloids clutch of Labour MPs, including Jeremy Corbyn, always realised Left, you should that neo-liberalism was “hardwired into the European project”. Michael Phelps not only lost his made-for-TV race with support Brexit They saw that its “stability and growth” pact had a bias towards a shark; it now turns out he austerity; that its common agriculture policy was disastrous for wasn’t even competing with developing nations; that its neo-liberal competition laws inhibit Larry Elliott a live fish in the much-hyped new approaches to state aid, state ownership and public procure- Phelps vs. Shark event. The Guardian ment. Brexit provides the impetus to change all that: without it, Instead, the 23-time Olympic this country will never get the chance to adopt a “radical socialist champion was pitted against programme”. It’s not as if the status quo is so great. As a member a computer-generated shark of the single market, Britain has become a low-wage economy swimming at a pre-recorded with stagnant pay levels and a chronic balance of payments deficit, shark speed. Online, viewers said they felt conned: even if where growth is “ever more dependent on consumers’ appetite for they hadn’t expected Phelps debt”. As Corbyn rightly recognises, the EU is part of the problem and the shark to swim in inherent in modern capitalism, not part of the solution. adjoining lanes, they had at least thought that a real If Donald Trump can be shown to have colluded with Russia, animal was going to be will his supporters “finally peel off”? Liberals are hoping so, says involved in the race. But Why football Simon Kuper. What they don’t realise is that many Trumpsters are Phelps insists he made it “more than just voters. They are political fans.” This is a modern clear that he had no intention is the template phenomenon, stoked by social media, that’s more like supporting of getting into the water with a great white. “I don’t think a sports team than a politician. As traditional sources of identity that would probably end very for our politics – race, class, religion, geography – fade or become less socially well,” he told Vanity Fair acceptable, political fandom appeals to those in need of a tribe. It Simon Kuper before the race. In the event, works best in two-party systems, as in the UK and the US, which Phelps – wearing flippers designed to mimic a shark’s Financial Times mimic the “us versus them” format of sport. Partisans gather on Twitter or Facebook to root for their candidate and boo at the tail fin, to boost his speed – other side. They go to rallies wearing branded merchandise lost to the pre-recorded shark declaring their affiliation, like football fans. Policy is a secondary by just two seconds. issue: that’s why Corbyn’s Euroscepticism is easily brushed off by left-wing Remainers. And as with football, diehard fans support their teams even – or especially – in adversity. “They cannot see their own team’s fouls, so presume that referees are against them.”

The free movement of people is the EU’s “most incendiary issue”, says Janet Daley. This “sacred principle” to which the Brussels Free movement ideologues remain devoted isn’t just a sticking point in Brexit negotiations, it’s a source of tension across the Union: currently, is a principle France violates its spirit by patrolling the Italian border to stop migrants slipping through. More than that, it’s played a key role in that’s doomed creating Europe’s mass migration problem. Movement of people from poor, chaotic countries to rich, stable ones has long been Elephants are good Janet Daley a fact of life – what’s new is “the miraculous invitation offered by swimmers, but in Sri Lanka the creatures seem to be The Sunday Telegraph a borderless Europe”. It sends a message to the world: “set foot on any Greek island, or on the southernmost rocky prominence of overdoing it a bit. Earlier Italy”, and you can “make your way unhindered to the flourishing this month, the navy had to nations of Western Europe”. Underpinning it is a basic refusal to rescue a wild elephant accept that member states have different needs: northern ones that had got into difficulty benefit from an influx of cheap labour, but many of the migrants ten miles out to sea; and are trapped in Italy, which has 40% youth unemployment. To this week, two youngsters save the EU, free movement will have to be restricted. “The only had to be towed to safety question is how organised or chaotic that process is going to be.” after being seen struggling about half a mile offshore. How often statistics that grab the headlines divert attention from It was, said rescuers, a what’s really going on, says Paul Johnson. From the furore over “mammoth effort”. Worry about BBC pay scales, you’d think incomes in the UK are getting more A rail operator in Sweden has unequal, and the pay gap between men and women larger. Not so. vowed to name one of its flat wages, not Income inequality is lower than it was before the financial crisis; trains Trainy McTrainface, after and though women still earn less, their “earnings are higher it came top in a public poll. unequal pay relative to those of men than they have ever been”. It’s not rising Trainy McTrainface swept to victory with 49% of the vote. Paul Johnson inequality but “the massive squeeze on incomes right across the population” that presents the biggest challenge of the past decade. This is “news that will be received with joy by many, The Times Average real incomes are below their 2008 level, a fall “unique in not just in Sweden,” said the at least 150 years”. But that’s not because more are out of work: operator, MTR Express, most of those classed as poor live in families where someone has a referring (it seems) to the job. As for middle-income families with children, a striking trend Britons who voted to have is that half now rent their property: in the 1990s, more than a new polar explorer named two-thirds were owner-occupiers. Many also get in-work benefits, Boaty McBoatface, only to be so they increasingly feel they’ve more in common with the poor overridden: the £200m boat is than the rich. These are the key trends shaping our society, not to be called RRS Sir David some “non-existent spiralling in income inequality”. Attenborough.

THE WEEK 29 JULY 2017 Best articles: Europe NEWS 17

Is democracy dying in Poland? A major assault on democracy and rein to pursue PiS critics, said Ewa judicial independence is under way Siedlecka in Polityka (Warsaw). in Poland, said Ingrid Steiner-Gashi All those who demonstrate against in Kurier (Vienna), yet the EU the monthly church services he has seems powerless to stop it. The introduced to honour his dead ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) – brother (the former president, who buoyed by the way Donald Trump died in the 2010 Smolensk air appeared to approve of their crash) could be given jail sentences authoritarian policies on his recent for “disrupting religious rites”. We visit – sought to take control of the might even see the former prime independent body that appoints minster Donald Tusk – whom judges. And now it has pushed Kaczynski has long blamed for through further bills, including one causing the crash through his that allows it to replace Supreme negligence – being put on trial. Court judges with party loyalists. Protesters in front of Krakow Court last week The PiS claims it is obliged to In Warsaw, thousands of people enact the new reforms because carrying candles took to the streets on Sunday to protest. Poland’s judges are corrupt and because the court system is too There is also “massive outrage” in Brussels. The European slow, said Leonid Bershidsky on Bloomberg (New York). Commission is threatening to invoke Article 7 of the EU Treaty, Neither claim is true: only five judges have been convicted of which is triggered when all the other member states in the bribe-taking in the past 15 years, and court hearings take about European Council agree that the offending state is guilty of a the same time as in Germany. Not that it’s necessarily a bad “serious and persistent breach” of the union’s values. If they do, thing for politicians to have some say in choosing judges: it this could lead to Warsaw being deprived of voting rights in the happens in both the US and in Germany, for example. European Council. But the EU is bluffing. The Council will never achieve the unanimity required as long as Hungary’s But the difference is that in those countries, the opposition has Viktor Orbán continues to side with Poland. But thanks to some say in confirming the candidates, said Bartosz Dudek in Poland’s President Andrzej Duda, there has at least been a Deutsche Welle (Berlin). It won’t in Poland. So disregard all the temporary reprieve, says Rick Lyman in The New York Times. PiS talk about “democratic legitimacy”. When Kaczynski Normally a staunch PiS supporter, Duda surprised everyone on speaks of “returning the courts to the people”, he really means Monday by vetoing two of the three bills before him. tightening his party’s grip on power, just as he did last year, when he began “reforming” the state media in the name of Poles shouldn’t think that the only victims in all this will be the “news diversity”: he actually turned it into an instrument of politicians and journalists – all of us are threatened, says Cezary state propaganda. The worrying thing, however, is that he will Michalski in Newsweek Polska (Warsaw). Imagine the effect on probably get away with his reform. The press may have given a women’s rights once fanatical Catholic conservatives are running lot of attention to the candlelit protest, but in reality, it was no our courts. Without the curb of judicial restraint, think how more than 10,000 people in a city of nearly two million. What’s easy it will be to fire teachers for opposing school reforms, or more, the PiS still polls at 35% to 40%, compared to 22% to to eavesdrop on our phones. PiS leader Jarosław Kaczynski, the 25% for the largest opposition party. “We can only hope that power behind the throne in Polish politics, will now have free the thousands of protesters did not carry their candles in vain.”

The shocking arrests of human rights activists in Turkey is new cause to regret the EU’s refugee deal TURKEY with President Erdogan, says Benjamin Abtan. The ten detainees include Amnesty International’s director for Turkey, Idil Eser, and a German consultant, Peter Steudtner, who was visiting Istanbul Scrap the for a seminar; both are charged with supporting “armed terrorism” and may be in jail for two years before going on trial. Erdogan thinks that as long as we need him to stop refugees travelling to refugee deal Europe (for which the EU is giving him s6bn) we can’t do a thing about it. But the agreement, made back in March 2016, has served its purpose and should be scrapped. The new European Border and with Erdogan Coast Guard Agency set up in October gives Europe a lot more control than before over its external Público borders, making it far less dependent on Turkey should the crisis erupt again. Erdogan will of course (Lisbon) threaten to unleash a new surge of refugees. But he has good reason to keep them in Turkey – to aid his campaign against Kurdish separatism. Settled in the southeast of the country, they’ll put pressure on the Kurds by competing for jobs and, once granted citizenship, will be a reliable source of support for the ruling AKP. The German public, livid at Steudtner’s detention, is putting pressure on Chancellor Merkel to act. She could make a start by cancelling this “useless” agreement.

In a disturbing echo of the 1930s, anti-Semitic tropes are reappearing in Hungary, say Christian Böhme HUNGARY and Judith Langowski. Members of Viktor Orbán’s right-wing government have been staging a public campaign against George Soros, the Hungarian-born Jewish philanthropist who funds the The anti-Soros pro-democracy groups that they see as enemies. So they’ve taken to calling Soros the “true president” of the EU, the shadowy financier who pulls the strings of “puppet” leaders like Jean-Claude Juncker. attacks echo They claim that in support of the EU’s refugee settlement policy, Soros has been calling for a million immigrants to be let into Hungary, a claim he dismisses as nonsense. This month giant posters of his the 1930s face were plastered around Budapest, even on metro station floors, with the slogan: “Don’t let Soros Der Tagesspiegel have the last laugh” on immigration, a deliberate play on the Nazi “laughing Jew” stereotype. That’s (Berlin) not all. Orbán has heaped praise on former Hungarian dictator Miklós Horthy, a man who did not stop the Nazis deporting hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews to the gas chambers. Oddly, none of this seemed to trouble Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu on his visit to Hungary last week. He sees the autocratic Orbán as an ally: usually so quick to complain of anti-Semitism, he turned a blind eye. We must hope Europe’s leaders prove less supine in the face of such provocation.

29 JULY 2017 THE WEEK 18 NEWS Health & Science What the scientists are saying… Poor sleep linked to Alzheimer’s high as 150°C for a few minutes, and as Sleeping badly could put people at greater low as ­200°C for days. They’re at home in risk of Alzheimer’s disease. So say the low­pressure vacuum of space; they’re researchers in the US, who have found a equally at ease in the crushing pressure of significant association between breathing the Marianas Trench, in the Pacific. “It is disorders such as sleep apnea, and the hard to work out how to kill tardigrades,” accumulation of biomarkers for said Dr David Sloan, an Oxford University Alzheimer’s. And though a cause and effect astrophysicist. “Could you get the planet link has not been proven, they think that cold enough? No. Increase the pressure treating these disorders might reduce enough? No. Make the oceans acidic people’s risk of the disease, or at least slow enough? No.” To eliminate them, he its progression. Obstructive sleep apnea is reckons you’d have to boil the oceans dry believed to affect around 30% of men and – “not a simple task”. The existence of 20% of women, and occurs when the such resilient creatures raises the chances upper airway closes during sleep. In one of life existing on planets with conditions study, the team looked at the accumu­ that would seem to preclude it. It also lations of amyloid plaques – a marker for offers reassurance that long after the Alzehimer’s – in the brains of 500 people human race has been wiped out, life on who did not have dementia, and found Earth will continue. that people with sleep problems had more The remarkably resilient tardigrade of this plaque than those who did not. In a Beavers restoring wetlands second study, they looked at nearly 800 of plastic is piling up in landfill sites, or in Beavers reintroduced to rivers in Scotland people with mild cognitive impairment – the natural environment. In Britain, it is are helping to restore the local landscape, often a precursor to dementia – and found estimated that we throw away 16 million turning fields drained for farming back that levels of beta­amyloid were higher in plastic bottles every day. into biodiverse wetlands. A team from those with sleep problems. “These findings Stirling University looked at the effects of a indicate that sleep apnea may be facilitating The last survivors group of beavers on land near Blairgowrie, cognitive decline,” said Megan Hogan, of When the nuclear war has been lost, and in Tayside, and found that over 12 years Wheaton College, Illinois. “Screening for the asteroid has struck, when our oceans from 2003, the number of plant species and [treating] sleep apnea should be a high are dead, and even the cockroaches have grew by 148%; in the same period, the priority, especially in individuals with mild given up the ghost, one creature will creatures built 195 metres of dams, 500 cognitive impairment.” endure: the tardigrade. These tiny, eight­ metres of canals, and an acre of ponds. legged “extremophiles”, also known as “Wetland restoration normally involves Our modern, plastic world water bears, are so resilient, scientists raising water levels, for example by ditch Before the War, it barely existed. Since believe they will outlive every other species blocking, plus mowing or grazing to then, we have produced 8.3 billion tons of – and could even outlive our Sun. In fact, maintain diversity,” said Dr Alan Law, an plastic – equivalent to the weight of 25,000 it’s hard to imagine a cataclysmic event author of the study. “Beavers offer a more Empire State Buildings, according to a that could eliminate them. Deprived of hands­off solution.” However, farmers study published in the journal Scientific water, they dry into husks, but come back continue to express strong concern that if Advances. Some 70% of the plastic to life if rehydrated; put them in a freezer their populations are not contained, the produced has been thrown away; of that, at ­20°C, and they’ll go into a suspended rodents are liable to cause enormous only 9% has been recycled, and 12% animation in which they can survive for damage to productive farmland – by, for incinerated. Which means billions of tons decades. They can endure temperatures as instance, destroying vital drainage systems.

“My hands can always help me” Life expectancy slowing The first child to receive a double hand transplant has Having risen for a century, life achieved his ambition of swinging a baseball bat. expectancy in England is grinding to a Zion Harvey’s hands and feet had to be amputated halt. The reason is unclear; however, Sir when, aged two, he contracted a life­threatening sepsis Michael Marmot, of University College infection, which also caused his kidneys to fail. He London, told the BBC that austerity had a kidney transplant aged four, using an organ could be to blame. According to Office donated by his mother, Pattie Ray, and had the hand for National Statistics figures, life transplant in 2015, at the Children’s Hospital of expectancy at birth had, until around 2009, been going up so fast that women Philadelphia, when he was eight. Involving 40 people, were gaining an extra year of life every the 11­hour operation was risky, but doctors decided five years, and men every three-and-a- that the fact that Zion (pictured) was already taking half years. But post-2010, there has been immunosuppressant drugs, combined with his positive a dramatic deceleration. Now, women personality and determination to lead an independent are only likely to gain an extra year life, made him a good candidate. every decade; and men every six years. Within days, he was able to move his new fingers, Dismissing the idea that humans have and after 18 months of therapy, he was able to write, simply reached their natural lifespan, Sir feed himself, and dress himself. He can stroke his Michael noted that some other countries have longer life expectancies; he said mother’s face and feel her skin; he can catch and that it was far more plausible that cuts to throw a ball, and, of course, grip a bat. It’s unclear social care funding and the NHS were how far his therapy can take him. However, his doctors are optimistic, and so is he. having a negative impact on the quality “I have got one left hand and one right hand,” says the ten­year­old. “They can of care given to elderly patients – always help me. When I fall down, I’ll get right back up.” leading to their earlier deaths.

THE WEEK 29 JULY 2017 Technology NEWS 19

Gadgets: The return of Google Glass Innovation of the week “Temporary tattoos aren’t Google Glass is Enterprise is still just for style back, said Steven about as expensive anymore,” said Levy on Wired. as the original Aneri Pattani in com, and the version, “but the The New York people wearing difference between Times. Japanese scientists have it this time what a business is developed a definitely aren’t willing to pay to wearable sensor “Glassholes.” help its workers be that can monitor That epithet was more productive or patients’ vital often applied to safer versus what a signs, and also “looks and feels like a anyone wearing consumer will pay henna tattoo.” That’s a big advantage over current devices made out of the notorious for a new gadget is polyester or rubber sheets that aren’t computer glasses vast.” The software New and improved for the factory floor breathable enough to allow air to pass before 2015, can also be through, making the wearer sweaty when Alphabet, Google’s parent company, customized to different businesses, so that and itchy. The prototype sensor is pulled the device from the market after a a medical-device maker, say, and a tractor constructed from nano-scale mesh, “a spaghetti-like entanglement of fibres a backlash over privacy concerns. Now Glass manufacturer get precisely what they need thousand times thinner than a human has been re-imagined as a practical tool for to make their factories run more efficiently. hair,” and can be applied in the same manufacturing workers. Unlike the earlier, way as a temporary tattoo. The sensor consumer iteration, which was meant to be “So why didn’t Google think of this can be rubbed off in water, “so in worn all the time and could check email or before?” asked Leonid Bershidsky on reality, it will need to be replaced after take hands-free videos, Glass Enterprise Bloomberg.com. Probably because Silicon every shower or bath,” but researchers hope that problem will be solved with Edition is strictly for business. Assembly Valley’s first instinct “is to aim for the future research. line workers can get step-by-step masses.” Google was fixated on a quixotic instructions delivered right to their sight effort to invent the next smartphone, and lines, or fast, hands-free assistance on belatedly realized Glass’ industrial potential, where to locate the right tool in a mostly after companies began experimenting warehouse. Corporate heavyweights like with the technology on their own. “Google General Electric, Boeing, and DHL have Glass may yet break out of factories into the been quietly testing Glass for the past two wider world – but only if workers start years, and “have measured huge gains in missing the headsets outside their jobs.” productivity and noticeable improvements That doesn’t mean workers should in quality.” wholeheartedly embrace the new Glass, said Jennings Brown on Gizmodo.com. “In a lot of ways, the factory floor is where Sure, it shaves some time off certain tasks, Glass should have always been,” said but the new Glass has the same problem Jake Swearingen on NYMag.com. The as the old: It can capture and record consumer version was “too creepy, and everything around it. No matter how not useful enough” to make it worth the useful it is, employees are justified in being $1,300 price tag, not to mention “the wary of “a company-owned device that social stigma of looking like the world’s tells them what to do and could be used to most gung ho laser-tag player.” Glass constantly monitor their work.”

Bytes: What’s new in tech Beijing’s new censorship tools “China’s already formidable internet censors have demonstrated a new strength,” said Eva Dou in The Wall Street Journal. Authorities can now delete images sent in one-on-one chats as they’re being sent, so that the intended recipient never sees them. Activists say the new capability saw its first widespread use following the recent death of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo from liver cancer, with Beijing moving aggressively to block supporters from sharing tributes online. In recent years, Chinese internet users have turned to sharing photos to avoid cyberpolice who use word-screening software to filter politically charged messages. Censors initially responded by purging images from public forums and group chats, but one-on-one images are now being blocked mid-transmission. “The speed is too fast for human intervention,” suggesting that censors are using an algorithm. Facebook to test subscriptions You might soon have to pay to get news on Facebook, said Gerry Smith on Bloomberg .com. The social network is planning to test a subscription service that will let media companies charge readers for access to their stories, with a pay-wall kicking in after a certain number of free articles. The new feature will be part of Facebook’s Instant Articles program, which hosts complete stories within Facebook instead of links sending users to a separate website. Publishers have been able to make money from ads sold through Instant Articles, but some have cut back on the feature after struggling to profit from it. The move could win over publishers, many of which have increased their focus on selling subscriptions to make up for shrinking ad sales.

29 JULY 2017 THE WEEK 20 NEWS Talking points

Pick of the week’s Vince Cable: can he revive the Lib Dems? Vince Cable is no stranger to Brexit, yet left-leaning Remainers Gossip Lib Dem leadership, said knew that to get the Tories out, Paula Keaveney on The they had to vote Labour. Cable is Returning from a recent G20 summit dinner in Hamburg, Conversation. Ten years ago, he now the only party leader Donald Trump told the press was touted as a contender to offering a second referendum he had been seated next to replace Menzies Campbell. He on the terms of the Brexit deal Akie Abe, wife of the didn’t stand – but he did stand – but the chances of a substantial Japanese president. in, until Nick Clegg was proportion of the electorate Unfortunately, he said, they appointed. Now the former taking him up on it, and so had sat in silence for almost business secretary has taken the splitting the anti-Tory vote, two hours. “She’s a terrific reins on a more permanent basis. “are negligible”. woman, but doesn’t speak He formally declared his English. Like, not ‘hello’.” Mrs Abe is known to be candidacy last month, and when It’s funny that Cable is making reluctant to speak English – no other contenders emerged “exit from Brexit” such a central but not incapable. A from the party’s pool of just 12 plank of his leadership, said Asa YouTube video has emerged MPs before last week’s deadline, Bennett in The Daily Telegraph. of her delivering a he became, at 74, Britain’s oldest Only a year ago, he warned his 15-minute address at a New party leader since Churchill Cable: “too tardy” party that seeking to undo Brexit York climate symposium – resigned in 1955, aged 80. at this point was “disrespectful” entirely in English. “There is a huge gap in the centre of British to the electorate, and counterproductive. Yet politics, and I intend to fill it,” Cable said. He now he is having to sell that same policy with a indicated that he would start by exploring ways straight face. Is this what his party wants? A of easing inequality by, say, aligning capital gains leader offering the same approach as Tim tax with income tax. Farron, “but with greyer hair”? The Lib Dems face a dilemma, said Philip Collins in The Times. At 74, Cable is not too old, said Deborah Orr in If they can come up with some tub-thumping The Guardian, but he is “too tardy”. He should policies, they could – given the EU mess have put himself forward ten years ago, and so engulfing the Tories, and the feuds within perhaps have spared the party the damage Labour – win enough protest votes to play a key wrought by the decision to go into that “awful role in the formation of a future government. coalition”. Clegg’s slavish support for the Tories But were they to get back into power, they’d was such a disaster for the party that it cost Sir immediately once again lose their appeal as a Vince his own seat in 2015, and there was really sanctuary for protest voters. To break this cycle, no hope for the Lib Dems at the last election, the fissures in the two main parties will have to Jacob Rees-Mogg, who under our first-past-the-post system. Neither of split wide open. If they do, then Sir Vince’s “final recently became a father the main parties were offering an alternative to act” might get interesting. for the sixth time, has admitted that he has never changed a nappy. “I’ve made no pretence to be Retirement: only for the rich? a modern man at all, ever,” he told Nigel Farage on “Pensions? Just don’t go there.” Truth is, many a “serious challenge” for any government; one LBC radio. The Tory MP of us prefer not to think about how we’re going that is complicated by the myriad ways in which (pictured) said he left such to fund our lives in retirement – and there’s a the world of work is changing. The idea that matters to “Nanny” – aka reason for that, said Iain Macwhirter in The people will stay in one career, let alone one job, Veronica Crook, who looked Herald (Glasgow): the figures are simply too for life is fast becoming outdated; and such is the after him as a child and now frightening. Consider this: if you want to buy pace of change, it’s not clear what kinds of jobs cares for his own brood. a pension delivering a modest £20,000 a year, we might be doing in a few years, let alone “She knows a thing or two index-linked, you’ll need to have saved well over decades. Nor is there any certainty that we’ll be about doing it properly.” £600,000 at present annuity rates. “That’s more able to work until we’re 68, said Gaby Hinsliff The human rights lawyer than someone on average earnings of £26,000 in The Guardian. Which is why the rise in the Geoffrey Robertson had earns in 20 years – all of it.” Now, to make our pension age is worrying even for the lucky few better excuses for avoiding prospects yet more bleak, the Government has of us who have cushy jobs that we’d love to keep nappy duty. Novelist Kathy announced that it’s raising the state pension age doing. Assuming we’re still in good health, and Lette revealed this week that earlier than planned. The upshot is that if you automation and new technologies haven’t swept her 27-year marriage to are 47 or younger, you won’t even get your away our roles, who will want to hire us when Robertson has come to an far-from-easeful £155 per week from the state we’re 62? As for manual workers, exhausted by amicable end. She added: (assuming that you’ve made 35 years of solid decades of labour, they may not be physically “The trouble with being married to a human rights NI contributions) until you are 68. The change capable of doing their jobs into their late-60s. lawyer is you can never get (which could yet be blocked in Parliament) is the moral high ground. expected to save the Government £74bn over We should be doing more, sooner, to address the When I’d say to him, ‘Geoff, the years up to 2045-46. issue, which is only going to be made worse by can you come in here and restricting immigration, said Nick Cohen in help me change this There’s a problem with pensions, said Jane Parry The Observer. Today’s pensioners are enjoying nappy?’, he’d say, ‘I’d like to, on The Conversation. The state system was set unparalleled prosperity. But as Theresa May but I have 250 people on up to serve “a very different demographic, with learned to her cost when she tried to tackle the death row in Trinidad.’ I a much shorter expected period of retirement”. social care crisis and tinker with the triple lock started saying, ‘Oh, let them die!’ After the second baby, I People aged 65 today can expect to live about on pensions, the baby boomers won’t forgo was like, ‘I’m going to go 20 years, on average, in retirement; up from their privileges without a fight – and they have there and kill them myself!’” 12 in 1940. To make sure future generations can serious political clout. “They cannot be made to have a good quality of life well into their 80s is pay, so their children must suffer instead.”

THE WEEK 29 JULY 2017 Talking points NEWS 21

Afghanistan: Putting the Pentagon in charge Wit & President Trump’s decision promises to deliver a to delegate the Afghanistan strategy to blunt Taliban Wisdom War to the Pentagon is momentum, likely by a “dereliction of duty,” boosting special “A change of nuisance is said Michael Fuchs on operations forces backed as good as a vacation.” USNews.com. He’s given with air power. Hard and David Lloyd George, quoted Secretary of Defence James costly as it may be, the US in the New Statesman Mattis authority to must commit to years of “I have never taken any determine troop levels continued involvement in exercise except sleeping and there, and Mattis plans to Afghanistan, to avoid the resting, [but] we can’t reach add 4,000 troops to the disaster of the country old age by another man’s 8,400 now mired in the falling back into militant road. My habits protect my nation’s longest war, which hands. No strategy can life, but they would grinds on after nearly 16 A fallen American soldier returning home succeed, though, “without assassinate you.” years and 2,400 American reducing Pakistan’s Mark Twain at his deaths – three just this month. Allied forces are support for the Taliban,” said Stephen Hadley 70th birthday party, losing ground to the Taliban, al Qaida, and and Moeed Yusuf in The New York Times. quoted in The Times Daesh. Decisions must be made, and Mattis, a Pakistanis give the Taliban safe haven chiefly to retired four-star general, is “extremely capable.” counterbalance the growing influence of rival “Economics is the study But Trump is shirking his responsibility as India, which has increased economic and of human motivation civilian commander in chief by letting Mattis military aid to Kabul. The US should also with all the interesting put more Americans in harm’s way, without “ “get serious about a political settlement in variables set to zero.” an overall diplomatic, economic, and regional Afghanistan” involving all elements of its Ad executive Rory strategy” to end the war. Perhaps Trump “wants society, “including the Taliban.” Sutherland, quoted on to insulate himself from responsibility” if The Browser Afghanistan deteriorates further. Regardless, Politically, delegating Afghanistan to the generals “For what do we live, but it’s “another step down a dangerous path of “is clever, even brilliant – in the short run,” said to make sport for our militarising US foreign policy.” Noah Feldman on Bloomberg.com. “It insulates neighbours, and laugh at Trump from criticism if the move fails, and them in our turn?” “Trump is right,” said The Washington Post in allows him to take credit if by some chance the Jane Austen, quoted on an editorial. Deferring to the Pentagon “is a troops bring greater stability.” In the long term, The Atlantic worthy corrective” to President Obama’s however, outsourcing foreign policy to generals “The meek don’t inherit micromanagement, which “badly undercut” US only leads to one result. “Put simply, the Pentagon the Earth, not without military efforts. Obama set troop withdrawal will always ask for more”: more troops, more a good agent.” timetables “unlinked to conditions on the funding, and more years of Americans fighting a Janice Turner in The Times ground,” enabling a Taliban resurgence. Mattis war that may go on indefinitely. “Everything in life is memory, save for the thin Love Island: the summer’s surprise hit edge of the present.” Cognitive neuroscientist “There was only one story in town win. So it’s The Krypton Factor Michael Gazzaniga, this week,” said Ayesha Hazarika with Hep B.” The passion for quoted in The Guardian in The Guardian. ITV2’s Love turning people’s intimate moments “You often hear reports that Island, the surprise hit of the into TV entertainment began with some action or other has summer, reached its finale on Big Brother in 2000, said Sam ‘prompted outrage on social Monday night. Some 2.43 million Taylor in The Mail on Sunday. media’. Why is viewers – a record for the channel But 17 years on, reality TV has this considered news? – tuned in to see Kem, a reached a “sordid” new low. Outrage on social media is hairdresser from Romford, and a daily occurrence, like rain Amber, a dancer from North The show may be “manipulative” in the Hebrides.” Wales, crowned the winning and “crass”, but it’s not grubby or Charles Moore in couple. “Not since George explicit, said Ben Macintyre in The Daily Telegraph Galloway donned a leotard, got The implausibly taut winners The Times. And it’s “appallingly, on all fours and purred, ‘Shall I be compulsively watchable”. As “an “The trouble with life the cat?’, has there been so much interest in a anthropological experiment, it is quite isn’t that there is no reality television show.” If you’ve been living remarkable”. The islanders create their own answer, it’s that there are under a rock for the past two months, the primitive society, complete with mating rituals so many answers.” premise is this, said Emine Saner in The – the men “preen and posture”, while the Anthropologist Ruth Observer: “a group of implausibly taut young women do the selection – and even have their Benedict, quoted in people, most of them the colour of a digestive own language. (To “mug someone off” is to The Washington Post biscuit”, are put up in a Mallorcan villa. They make a fool of them; to be “pie-ed” is to be are encouraged to couple up; and then have to dumped.) I thought Love Island would be convince the viewers to keep them on the show “exploitative and semi-pornographic”, said Statistic of the week in weekly voting rounds. The last couple Caitlin Moran in the same paper. But in fact, it’s One in three primary school standing win the prize, of £50,000. relatively low-key and realistic: a bit like going leavers cannot swim. In on a holiday as a teenager, where all you do is total, 300 Britons drowned last year, with summer In short, “Love Island puts young men and drink and talk about who you fancy. A retired holidays the worst period women in a villa and invites romance”, said Tim colonel would certainly describe it as “truly for child drownings. Stanley in The Daily Telegraph. “The more appalling”, but as reality TV goes, the show The Daily Telegraph intimacy they have, the more likely they are to provides innocent, good-natured escapism.

29 JULY 2017 THE WEEK 22 NEWS Sport

Cricket: England’s thrilling World Cup win This Sunday saw the climax of the Women’s World all Edwards’ ability, her “dominant presence could Cup in cricket, said Mike Atherton in The Times. be stifling”, and she was too dependent on a And it was “one of the best Lord’s finals I’ve ever handful of players; but since her sacking, a seen”. England edged India, bowling them out number of talented cricketers – among them with just eight balls to spare. It was a “thrilling, Tammy Beaumont and Lauren Winfield – have almost unbelievable finish”: with ten overs to go, managed to establish themselves in the team. India appeared completely in control; but as the This tournament showed just how much the pressure mounted, they collapsed, losing their last women’s game has changed, said Jonathan Liew seven wickets for a measly 28 runs. This isn’t in The Daily Telegraph. At the first World Cup, in England’s first World Cup triumph, however – 1973, players paid for their own kits and travel; they’ve won it three times before. India, by they had to put up their own promotional posters contrast, are still awaiting their first victory, and and, in the case of Rachael Heyhoe-Flint, “wrote were “devastated” to lose. Yet both teams can be up the newspaper reports”. Even at the 1993 “immensely proud” of their performance. tournament, the players were still banned from the Lord’s Pavilion. On Sunday, however, that Anya Shrubsole was the player who “cracked” ground was packed to the rafters with an India, said Vithushan Ehantharajah in The Shrubsole: a “remarkable spell” unusually vocal crowd, made up equally of male Guardian. It was the “performance of a lifetime”. and female spectators, while as many as 100 The 25-year-old pace bowler arrived at this tournament short million people tuned in on television. But there’s still a “long of match practice, but she peaked at exactly the right time: in a way” to go, said Elizabeth Ammon in The Times. Since 2014, “remarkable spell”, she took six wickets for just 46 runs, the best England’s women players have had professional contracts, yet bowling figures in any Women’s World Cup final. England have their salaries are a fraction of “what men earn”: their captain, improved dramatically over the past year, said Stephan Shemilt Heather Knight, makes about £60,000 a year, whereas the top on BBC Sport online. And it’s their coach, Mark Robinson, men make “something near seven figures”. But more and more who deserves much of the credit. Last year, he stunned the side girls and women are playing cricket, and standards only keep by axing their captain, Charlotte Edwards – one of the greatest rising. The World Cup was proof of that: it felt like “a female players in history. That proved to be a master stroke. For breakthrough moment for the women’s game”. Golf: Spieth purges his demons Jordan Spieth did not merely triumph at the Open, “ornithological sequence” marks the point when said James Corrigan in The Daily Telegraph. The Spieth’s “status as golf’s prodigy was restored”, said “remarkable” Texan also purged the demons that Paul Hayward in The Daily Telegraph. In 2015, have “stalked him” since last year’s “infamous” when he won the Masters and the US Open, he was Masters, when he lost dramatically after being five hailed as the sport’s future. Polite and friendly, he shots ahead. On Sunday, too, he appeared to be in was “just about everything America wants its “free fall”: on the 13th hole, he hit a wayward drive golfers to be”. But after his “horrible experience” at 120 yards off the fairway and into the rough. But in the 2016 Masters, that status seemed to be in perhaps “the greatest turnaround” in any of golf’s jeopardy. Now he has been “set free”. majors, Spieth rescued himself, and 90 minutes later he was lifting the Claret Jug. He is now the second The Open may be England’s elite golf competition, man ever to win three different majors before his said Ian Ladyman in the Daily Mail, but it has now 24th birthday. gone 25 years without an English winner. This time, Spieth: “golf’s prodigy” the only “domestic challenger” who produced a The 13th hole was a half-hour “mini-epic”, said performance of note was the “relatively unheralded” Tom Fordyce on BBC Sport online. Spieth hit the ball so far astray Matthew Southgate. When he was diagnosed with testicular that it cleared a “long line of humpbacked dunes”; so far that cancer two years ago, at the age of 26, it was unclear whether when it was first apparently found, “it turned out to be the wrong he’d ever play golf again. But on Sunday, in just his third major, one”. Yet, miraculously, he escaped with only a bogey, then went Southgate was unflappable, and finished joint sixth. He now on a remarkable charge: birdie, eagle, birdie, birdie. That looks ready for “a move up to the next level”.

An unpopular champion Sporting headlines You’d expect the have an under- Swimming In the heats man who has just appreciated sense of of the World Aquatics won the Tour de humour). And some of Championship, Adam Peaty France for the fourth Froome’s detractors sliced 0.32 seconds off his time to be “one of don’t even consider own 50-metre breaststroke the most loved him British, as he was world record. sportsmen of this or born in Kenya, any other era”, says schooled in South Football Tom Fordyce on BBC Africa and lives in Manchester Sport online – Monaco. Yet he’s hardly City signed particularly in his unique in that regard: French home country. Yet Bradley Wiggins was left-back despite Chris born in Belgium, while Benjamin Froome’s triumph on Lewis Hamilton is also Mendy from Sunday, the Team a Monaco resident. Monaco for Sky cyclist remains Froome is not “a man £52m, making Britain’s “least loved to bemoan his lot”, but him the world’s most great sportsman”. True, he’s not an especially you could forgive him for wondering “what else expensive defender. elegant or charismatic cyclist (though he does he must do” to be “cherished”.

THE WEEK 29 JULY 2017 ARTS NEWS 23 Review of reviews: Books

The best newly published holiday reads, based on summer round-ups in the press Hardbacks Other Minds Adults in Conversations by Peter the Room With Friends Godfrey-Smith by Yanis by Sally Rooney William Collins Varoufakis Faber £20 Bodley Head £14.99 This is a fascinating £20 This Dublin-set look at the “sly In this “superbly debut is a “page- brainpower” of the written” memoir, turning novel octopus, said The Greece’s ex-finance about love Mail on Sunday. It minister recounts his and a four-way shows they are capable of a wide range bid to persuade Europe’s leaders to relationship”, said The Sunday Times. of skills and emotions: “puzzle solving, alleviate the harsh austerity they’d imposed It is full of bold and arresting ideas, but playfulness, contempt”. These remarkable on his country, said the FT. That he failed “wears its learning and sophistication creatures have evolved separately from “was – and is – a tragedy”. Varoufakis’s lightly”. Rooney’s characters matter to us vertebrates for the past 500 million or so “convincing critique” is most “jaw- – “we care about what kind of world they years, said the FT. For scientists searching dropping” in its portrayal of the “cynicism are going to make for themselves”, said for alien intelligence, they offer its “closest and duplicity” of the continent’s power The Daily Telegraph. This is an counterpart here on Earth”. players, said The Daily Telegraph. “extraordinary first novel”.

The Road to Missing Fay Darke Somewhere by Adam Thorpe by Rick Gekoski by David Jonathan Cape Canongate Goodhart £16.99 £16.99 Hurst £20 In Adam Thorpe’s This debut novel from This is a “thought- mould-breaking novel, rare-book dealer Rick provoking analysis”, Fay, a teenager from Gekoski – who is in said the FT, of the Lincoln, goes missing his 70s – centres on a growing gap in our after a row at home, misanthrope who society between the said The Times. “Is “hates everything” geographically mobile, well-educated she a runaway or has she been apart from Dickens, said The Times. It’s “anywheres” and their provincial counter- kidnapped?” The author “shows off his a book that will make “you laugh out parts, the “somewheres”, who retain a finest literary tricks” as he weaves Fay’s loud”, but which also explores death strong attachment to locality. It’s this split, story with those of locals who cross her and grief with “unflinching honesty”. claims David Goodhart, that drives the rise path. Thorpe is still best known for his How the protagonist came to “wall of populism in Europe. An intelligent study 1992 debut Ulverton, said The Sunday himself off from the world” is the of our changing political landscape, it has Times. Missing Fay, a “tour de force of “mystery at the heart” of this “moving introduced new and useful terminology to depth and nuance”, marks a “significant meditation on loss and redemption”, the debate, said The Sunday Times. return to form”. said The Mail on Sunday. Paperbacks The Dry Conclave The Power by Jane Harper by Robert Harris by Naomi Abacus Arrow Alderman £7.99 £7.99 Penguin In Jane Harper’s After the death of a £8.99 Australian-set thriller, pope, 118 cardinals, Alderman’s novel a detective returns to locked in a chapel imagines a world the drought-stricken within the Vatican, where women can town he left in dissemble and scheme control men by disgrace, for the as they choose his releasing electrical funeral of a friend who appears to have successor. Harris’s jolts from their murdered his family, said the FT. Praise for latest thriller demonstrates all the “versatility fingertips, said The Daily Telegraph. this book has been “resounding”, and and flair” we have come to expect from Armed with this power, they soon “replace rightly so: it’s truly “remarkable”. him, said The Mail on Sunday. Fast-paced men as the bullies”. A deserving winner of Exploring the tensions of small-town life and “brilliantly constructed”, this is a this year’s Baileys prize, The Power is and “the limits of human endurance”, The “thriller with a difference”, said The “simultaneously a high-concept thought Dry is a “chilling murder mystery”, said Observer. “All you wanted to know about experiment and a rollercoaster, action- The Mail on Sunday. the Vatican but were too scared to ask.” packed read”, said The Observer.

29 JULY 2017 THE WEEK 24 ARTS Drama

“The Chichester hit factory production is firmly within this triumphs again,” said Fiona more realistic tradition, while Mountford in the London remaining both funny and Evening Standard. Over joyous. The set is a “distinctly recent years, Britain’s most austere and modern” space that Musical “consistently classy regional can be transformed with just a theatre” has served up a string few planks and suitcases. The of stonking musical revivals, and acting is emotionally honest and under its new artistic director, truthful, and the villagers come Fiddler on Daniel Evans, it proves “tuneful across not as remote figures from business as usual” with this the past, but as contemporary the Roof “rich and detailed” production people – they could be today’s of the 1964 classic. Omid Djalili, refugees – driven from their Book: Joseph Stein the Anglo-Iranian comedian, is homes by global politics. Music: Jerry Bock “inspired casting” as Tevye, the I actually felt Evans’s “fleet Lyrics: Sheldon Harnick Jewish milkman coping both revival” could have done with Director: Daniel Evans with family life in the shtetl and even more “grime and grit”, said with the rumbling threat of Dominic Cavendish in The Daily pogroms, said Christopher Hart Djalili: “inspired casting” Telegraph. Still, Djalili is a in The Sunday Times. In a “triumph” – more than earning Chichester Festival “superb” performance, Djalili is both hilarious the “temporary right to sport a yarmulke” – and Theatre, Oaklands Park, and touching, and proves more than capable of the show still “raises the roof”. “Mazel tov!” Chichester, West Sussex putting over such brilliant numbers as Tradition, In sum, it’s a winner, agreed Dominic Maxwell (01243-781312) To Life, and, of course, If I Were a Rich Man. in The Times. “Don’t be surprised if it reaches Tracy-Ann Oberman is also “terrific” as his the West End.” Until 2 September comically ghastly wife, Golde. For decades, Fiddler on the Roof was one of The week’s other opening Running time: those shows, much like West Side Story, whose Twilight Song Park Theatre, Clifton Terrace, 2hrs 45mins “brilliance” was obscured by revivals which London N4 (020-7870 6876). Until 12 August remained “locked into the staging traditions of Kevin Elyot’s final play (before he died in 2014) (including interval) the mid-20th century Broadway musicals”, said explores the historic pressures felt by gay men. Lyn Gardner in The Guardian. In recent years, The fine acting in this premiere underlines the ★★★★ that has begun to change: productions have guilt and passions lurking under a “polite, become less folksy and schmaltzy, and more Rattiganesque surface” (Guardian). realistic, restrained and dark. Evans’s excellent

The recent output of director Times. Beatriz Romilly “oozes Matthew Dunster has been a dubiousness” as Beatrice, the “head-scratching mixture of woman who “speaks in knives” the good, the bad and the ugly”, but is itching for someone to Theatre said Dominic Cavendish in match her wits. And as Benedick, The Daily Telegraph. His New Matthew Needham “has that York-bound staging of Martin rare ability to make his verse feel McDonagh’s Hangmen was like real thinking out loud, while Much Ado “flawless”, but his appalling he handles the physical gags as “mash-up” of A Tale of Two nimbly as he masters his later about Nothing Cities is currently “driving them slide into maturity”. out in droves” from Regent’s Needham is great, agreed Ian Playwright: Park Open Air Theatre. And Shuttleworth in the FT. But William Shakespeare I still “suffer flashbacks to his Romilly is so “strident”, it’s as if Director: Matthew Dunster grim (and grime-music stuffed) “Kate the shrew has wandered ‘gangster’ treatment” of into the wrong play”, making Cymbeline at the Globe last year. Benedick’s love for her utterly So it’s a relief and a pleasure to implausible. Another issue is the Shakespeare’s Globe, report that Dunster’s staging of Romilly: “adorable” “seemingly mandatory handful 21 New Globe Walk, Much Ado, set in the Mexican of Globe sex changes” – in this London SE1 Revolution of the 1910s, is a “colourful, warm- case, the elderly Antonio, and chief villain Don spirited and abundantly comic” triumph. John. Gender switches are all very well, but not (020-7401 9919) In place of ruff collars and a focus on textual when they “start making a nonsense of assorted Until 15 October clarity, this merry “romp” offers ponchos, lines, character traits and bits of business”. sombreros, machine-gun belts, a set dominated Running time: by a massive and brightly coloured goods train, CD of the week loud sound effects and multiple tweaks to the 3hrs (including interval) Mahler: Symphony No. 3 Channel £17.35 text, said Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail. “I’m Conductor Iván Fischer’s account of Mahler’s no trendy neophile”, but I loved the whole thing. “Pastoral” symphony is “textually scrupulous,

★★★ It stays true to Shakespeare’s “generous vision expansive, richly coloured and, finally, deeply KENTON TRISTRAM of a world where love conquers cynicism”; moving”. One marvels anew at the “fresh, audiences will revel in its joyous “colour and pristine quality” of the playing from the verve”. The sparring lovers give “adorable” Budapest Festival Orchestra (Sunday Times).

performances, said Dominic Maxwell in The PERSSON; © JOHAN

Stars reflect the overall quality of reviews and our own independent assessment (4 stars=don’t miss; 1 star=don’t bother)

THE WEEK 29 JULY 2017 Film ARTS 25

Dunkirk ★★★ A war film without heroes Dir: Christopher Nolan 1hr 46mins (12A) Most of us know the basic facts about the down enemy planes as his fuel gauge dips Dunkirk evacuation: how in May 1940, towards zero. And then, of course, there’s 300,000, mainly British, troops escaped the pop star Harry Styles, said Jamie East from the beach of a northern French port in The Sun. He has a significant role in while being bombarded by the Luftwaffe. the movie as another soldier fighting for The achievement of Christopher Nolan’s survival. And against expectations, he harrowing new film is that it makes these proves a “confident and watchable” events seem impossible to predict, said actor. Yet for all its glittering cast (which Dave Calhoun in Time Out. With a short also has Kenneth Branagh as a grizzled running time and minimal dialogue, it naval commander), this isn’t an “actory” exposes us to a concentrated dose of the film, it’s a director’s offering. But “what “oddness and horror of war”. One an incredible treat it is”. moment, we see Nazi propaganda leaflets, bearing the words “We surround you!”, A “staggering feat of immersive terror” I’d recommend doing a bit of historical falling like snow from an empty sky. The research before you see it, said Deborah next, we’re plunged into the churning sea with panicking Ross in The Spectator. Tricky structure and mumbled dialogue soldiers, struggling to keep our heads above water. A war film (itself drowned out by Hans Zimmer’s ear-shattering score) often “without heroes or a straightforward story”, Dunkirk is also a make the narrative confusing. These “106 clamorous minutes of “staggering feat of immersive terror”. big-screen bombast” are so taken up with spectacle, said Kevin Maher in The Times, they neglect “the most crucial element – From Memento to Inception, Nolan has always liked to drama”. There’s plenty of tension and explosions galore, but challenge our linear concept of time, said Mark Kermode in The where’s the character development? At least that spares us the Observer. Dunkirk continues the theme, skilfully blending three melodrama of a Pearl Harbor or Titanic, said Nick de Semlyen distinct timescales. There’s one week on land, following Fionn in Empire. If anything, Dunkirk “hews towards the art house”, Whitehead’s soldier as he waits to be rescued from the crowded its “spume-flecked tableaux” beautifully photographed by beach. There’s one day at sea, as Mark Rylance joins the civilian cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema. The film is “effectively flotilla, skippering his pleasure boat across the Channel to one enormous, stunningly rendered and thunderously intense set France to do his bit. Lastly, we spend an hour in the air with piece stretched to feature length”. There have been many WWII Tom Hardy’s hard-bitten fighter pilot, relentlessly shooting epics, but “never one like this”.

City of Ghosts ★★★★ Compelling documentary about the Syrian tragedy Dir: Matthew Heineman 1hr 32mins (18) Recent Daesh-backed terrorist acts in tactics”, said Charlie Phillips in The Western Europe “pale by comparison” Guardian. It shows how Daesh uses film- with those perpetrated in the city of making techniques deliberately evocative Raqqa, in northern Syria, said Geoffrey of Hollywood movies as part of their Macnab in The Independent. Matthew recruitment drive. Be warned: some images Heineman’s “grimly compelling” are extremely disturbing, said Andrew documentary follows the activities of the Lowry in Empire. But what shocked me citizen journalists from the city who most was the “brainwashing” of Daesh formed the Raqqa is Being Slaughtered victims. In one scene, a child of four, in full Silently (RBSS) group. Their mission: to combat gear, merrily beheads a teddy bear. smuggle to the outside world videos and It’s a moment I found as “unsettling” as news about the atrocities being carried out by an organisation any horror film. Don’t let the harrowing subject matter put you whose propaganda presents it as a noble saviour. The stakes off, said Joshua Rothkopf in Time Out. As front-line, on-the- couldn’t be higher. If caught, RBSS members are killed. ground journalism goes, this “inspiring” documentary “has few City of Ghosts is a fascinating exploration of “modern media recent peers”. It is “essential viewing”.

Captain Underpants ★★★ Hilarious superhero spoof Dir: David Soren 1hr 29mins (U) Captain Underpants is an “unexpected no very impressive superpowers) needs a treat”, said Peter Bradshaw in The nemesis, and one is duly provided in the Guardian. It’s a “thoroughly entertaining form of a malevolent Germanic science and likeable film: two qualities that look teacher, said Ed Potton in The Times. easy but are anything but”. It’s true, said “Hiya, class,” he says at his first lesson. Nigel Andrews in the FT. There simply “I’m your cool new teacher, not some aren’t that many animated films that adults scary guy with a secret evil agenda.” All can enjoy just as much as children. “Zoo­ the while, he is plotting to disable the tropolis? In bits. Inside Out? Here and part of everyone’s brains that enables them there. Captain Underpants: The First Epic to laugh. Movie? Now you’re talking.” One thing the film’s makers have a feel In this hilarious superhero spoof, two naughty schoolboys, for, said Geoffrey Macnab in The Independent, is the power of George (voiced by Kevin Hart) and Harold (Thomas repetition in comedy. If the first mention of the villain’s name – Middleditch), hypnotise their stern headmaster and convince him Professor Poopypants – doesn’t force a smile, maybe “the second that he’s the titular hero. Naturally, Captain Underpants (who has one will, or the third or the fourth or the fifth”.

29 JULY 2017 THE WEEK 26 ARTS Art

Exhibition of the week The Encounter National Portrait Gallery, London WC2 (020-7306 0055, www.npg.org.uk). Until 22 October

“Some art can be made in solitude, his portrait of John Godsalve, straight out of the artist’s head,” a courtier to Henry VIII, is said Martin Gayford in The simply “unforgettable”. Spectator. Portraiture, however, is Elsewhere, however, this show has “a game for two”, a “complicated serious faults. Its title promises work business” that is essentially a by Leonardo and Rembrandt, yet it “record of a meeting between two contains only one drawing apiece people”. A portrait will be affected from both. There is a smattering “not only by what the artist knows of big names, but it generally about art, but also by how well he focuses on an “eccentric selection” or she knows the subject”. That is of obscure artists. Few of them the “lesson” we take from The are very compelling, and it reaches Encounter: Drawings from a nadir with two “horribly ugly” Leonardo to Rembrandt, a pictures of young men by the “marvellous” new exhibition of German Renaissance artist works on paper at the National Leonhard Beck. Despite including Portrait Gallery. The show is some of the “greatest artists in essentially a “medley” of Old history”, this exhibition somehow Master drawings from various manages to seem “unfocused British collections, bringing together and slight”. around 50 pictures by the likes of Holbein, Parmigianino, Pontormo There are “moments of graphic and Dürer. It contains many brilliance” here, said Waldemar “intimate” works that “take you Januszczak in The Sunday Times. physically close to the marks of the There’s a “thrilling” large work by artist’s hand”. Though this all Pontormo depicting a “snakily makes it sound “a little on the quiet strange and elongated” figure side”, the exhibition is “full of picking up a child, while the visual pleasures” and poses some Baroque artist Annibale Carracci’s “intriguing questions” about the likeness of a man with a physical nature of portraiture. deformity is impressive: his pose Holbein’s Woman Wearing a White Headdress (1532-43) “is awkward, and so is the intense Holbein is the “star” here, said psychological contact he makes Jonathan Jones in The Guardian. His work gives a “genuine and with us”. However, the show at large is “short on direction”, electrifying sense of encounter between artist and subject”. trying and failing to stick to a coherent theme and revealing Woman Wearing a White Headdress (c.1532-43), for example, nothing new about Old Master portraiture. These highlights and “stares at you with a cool disdain and self-possession”, while the wonderful Holbeins aside, this is a decidedly “flawed event”.

Where to buy… Dalí’s moustache miracle The Week reviews an Salvador Dalí’s exhibition in a private gallery remains were exhumed last Thursday night, Bram Bogart says The Guardian – at the Saatchi Gallery pulled from his crypt in Figueres, Catalonia, by officials Recently, the Saatchi Gallery has hoping to settle a devoted a small space in its basement paternity suit. The to showcasing international artists results of the DNA whose work has, by and large, been test will not be ignored or forgotten in this country. available for at least a month, but forensic The latest such is the Belgian painter experts did make one Bram Bogart (1921-2012), who is discovery: Dalí’s famous moustache remains represented here by a selection of intact. Narcís Bardalet, the embalmer who imposing paintings that cover his tended Dalí’s body after his death in 1989 and career from the early 1950s up to Variété (1961), 132cm x 110cm helped with the exhumation, said it was still in his death. Bogart initially trained as its classic “ten past ten” position, just as he a painter-decorator, and on the be rectangular sections cut from the liked it. “It’s a miracle,” said Bardalet, adding evidence of the sparsely coloured walls of dilapidated old buildings, that the body resembled “a mummy”, and was abstract works on show, his original such is the weight of the impasto. so hard that an electric saw, rather than a scalpel, had to be used to collect bone samples. trade played a key role in his art. Simply hanging them must require Dalí and his wife, Gala, had no children, and the Paint is trowelled on and manipulated a minor miracle of engineering. artist left his estate to Spain. María Pilar Abel, a to an almost impossibly heavy Prices on request. 61-year-old fortune teller, claims she is the result consistency: many of the earlier of a liaison her mother had with Dalí in 1955. If works here have taken on the physical Duke of York’s HQ, King’s Road, she is successful in her suit, she will inherit a property of warped concrete. Indeed, London SW3 (020-7811 3070). quarter of Dalí’s considerable fortune.

some of these paintings could almost Until 10 September. ELIZABETH II QUEEN HER MAJESTY TRUST, COLLECTION © ROYAL

THE WEEK 29 JULY 2017 The List 27

Best books… Marina Warner Television The author, critic and cultural historian Marina Warner picks her favourite Programmes books. She has written the introduction to the reprint of Down Below, Leonora Wild Alaska Live The second Carrington’s memoir of her descent into madness (NYRB Classics £8.99) episode in the stunning three- part series filmed live in the The Hearing Trumpet by detailed historical account, follows a young girl, the Alaskan wilderness. Sun 30 July, BBC1 19:00 (60mins). Leonora Carrington (Penguin while adding depths to the daughter of a migrant labourer £9.99). The Surrealist artist wooden hero of The Aeneid. family who are squatting in a also wrote darkly comic luxury block of flats – which stories. Here, in her only full- Out of Egypt by André has no outside walls. length novel, published in l974 Aciman, 1994 (Tauris Parke but written in the 1960s, she £11.99). In the current turmoil, Finders Keepers: Selected foresees decrepitude and fights I want to learn more about the Prose 1971-2001 by Seamus back against being sentenced to transformations that the people Heaney (Faber £20). Deep, a care home. Droll, irreverent, of the Middle East have lived wise, full of goodness and the story twists and turns with through. This memoir is a humour, Heaney has more to irrepressible invention. remarkable tale of growing up say about the reasons for I am Bolt Benjamin and Gabe in Egypt during its last years of literature than anyone. These Turner’s reverential but Lavinia by Ursula Le Guin, cosmopolitanism. Aciman’s richly varied essays offer one engaging look at the life of the 2008 (W&N £9.99). Under- Jewish family were among the important insight after another. world’s fastest man. Mon 31 sung novel by the sci-fi many forced to leave. July, BBC1 20.30 (90mins). utopian, which persuasively Memorial by Alice Oswald, enters the mind of Aeneas’s Ghosts by César Aira, 1990 2011 (Faber £10.99). The Iliad Man in An Orange Shirt wife, and tells the story of the (New Directions £9.20). A remade, without gods or epic Novelist Patrick Gale penned heroes. The compressed grief in this two-part drama that foundation of Rome from her strange fable by the madcap follows two love stories 60 point of view. Le Guin is Argentinian author who these poems is sublime, and the years apart, but linked by a always brilliant at imagining combines fantasy with social resonances with contemporary mysterious painting. With alternatives, and she builds a alertness. This spooky story troubles very powerful indeed. David Gyasi, James McArdle For out-of-print books visit www.biblio.co.uk and Vanessa Redgrave. Mon 31 July, BBC2 21:00 (60mins). Your guide to what’s worth seeing and doing Public Enemies: Jay Z vs by What’s On magazine Kanye One-off documentary about the meteoric rise of two MUSIC LEARN Throughout August , Lapita Hotel, world-famous rappers, and Dubai Parks & Resorts, Dubai, NILE IN CONCERT TAPAS COOKING CLASS their colossal falling out. Mon daily 6.30pm to 11pm. 31 July, C4 22:00 (65mins). Hailing from Greenville, South Tel: (04) 810 9412. Taxi: Lapita Carolina, American metal band Hotel. marriott.com Films Nile make their debut at The Pride (2014) Imelda Staunton Music Room – and it’ll be noisy. and Dominic West star in this COMEDY film inspired by the true story August 5 , Majestic Hotel, THE LAUGHTER FACTORY of an unlikely alliance between activists and striking Welsh Mankhool Road, Bur Dubai, Sat Known as ‘The king of 10.30pm to 3am, Dhs175. Tel: (04) miners in the 1980s. Sun 30 devastating punchlines’, prepare July, BBC2 22:00 (110mins). 359 8888. musicroomdubai.com to get smacked around the chops by comedy heavyweight Nick Force Majeure (2014) Page at The Laughter Factory. Deliciously dark comedy about Swedish couple on a skiing August 4 , Grand Millennium holiday, whose relationship is Hotel Dubai, Barsha Heights, tested by a near miss with an avalanche. Tue 1 Aug, Film4 Get hands-on culinary experience Dubai, 7.30pm, Dhs140. Tel: (050) 23:10 (140mins). making tapas with the master 8786728. Taxi: Grand Millennium chef at Al Hambra as part of Hotel. thelaughterfactory.com Arbitrage (2012) Sleek, Jumeirah’s 90 Ways To Summer gripping thriller set in the campaign. Later, enjoy tapas world of high finance. With dégustation and matching drinks. Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and Tim Roth. Thur 3 Aug, C4 Throughout August , Al Hambra, 01:30 (105mins). Al Qasr, Dubai, daily, Dhs375. T el: (04) 432 3232. Taxi: Al Qasr. New to Netflix jumeirah.com/90-ways-to-summer Ozark Ten-part crime drama starring Jason Bateman as a FOOD Chicago-based financial DINING DEAL adviser with a sideline in Prove your mettle by taking on laundering Mexican drug seven dim sum dishes with 16 money. When his dodgy pieces each for Dhs80 at Hikina. dealing catches up with him, Once you’ve completed the he is forced to relocate with challenge, you can enjoy a 40% his wife (Laura Linney) and discount on the á la carte menu. family to rural Missouri. Streaming now.

29 JULY 2017 THE WEEK 28 Best properties

Houses with lovely swimming pools

▲ Devon Holystreet Manor, Chagford. A restored Grade II house on Dartmoor, with a 3-bed cottage, two 2-bed flats, plus a heated “natural” swimming pool, AstroTurf tennis court and private fishing on the River Teign. Master suite with dressing room and fitness suite, 7 further beds, 5 further baths (2 en suite), kitchen/dining room, 2 receps, study, library, utility, conservatory, cinema room, boot room, 3 WCs, chapel, laundry, listed garage block and stables, listed mill house, woodland, kitchen garden, manège, paddocks, terrace, barn, 19.5 acres. OIEO £5.5m; Knight Frank (020-7861 1528).

▲ Surrey: The Lime House, Rushmoor, Tilford. A Georgian house set in 2.5 acres of lovely gardens with a heated swimming pool with slide, a summer house, tennis court, gazebo and large stone barn. 2 suites, 3 further beds, family bath, dressing room/bed 7, playroom/bed 8, kitchen, 3 receps, study, orangery, family room, utility, larder, 2 cloakrooms, terrace. £3.25m; Savills (01252-729002).

▲ Somerset: Bank House, Sheepway, Portbury, Bristol. Built in 1991 and winner of the 1995 Riba Regional Award, this bespoke detached low-energy house is single-storey and U-shaped, so that all rooms face onto the focal point – the 12m illuminated swimming pool. 2 suites, 2 further beds, shower, WC, breakfast/kitchen, 3 receps, gallery, garage with wine store, herb and kitchen garden, formal gardens, summer house. £1.2m; Savills (0117- 933 5800).

THE WEEK 29 JULY 2017 on the market 29

▲ Kent: Great Wadd Farmhouse, Frittenden. A Grade II farmhouse with a detached 4-bed oast house, plus a 16th-century timber- framed barn housing a heated swimming pool, changing and shower rooms and a mezzanine gallery/studio. The 33 acres of land include gardens with a tennis court, garaging and storage, and there is also planning permission for a 2-storey extension. Main house: 4 bed suites, 1 further bed, breakfast/kitchen, 3 receps, family room, study, hall, utility, 2 cloakrooms. £2.195m; Knight Frank (01892-515035). ▲ ▲ Somerset: Kent: The Rookery Farm, Grange, Chillenden, Ashwick, Oakhill. A Canterbury. A wonderful family Grade II thatched home in formal cottage with an gardens, featuring a enclosed heated Mediterranean garden, swimming pool a swimming pool with with entertaining automated solar cover, area, all set in about a hot tub and a pool an acre of gardens room, a tennis court, and grounds. 3 paddocks and suites, breakfast/ parkland. Master suite kitchen, 3 receps, with dressing room, 5 hall, WC, double further suites, kitchen, garage with WC breakfast room, 3 and office/studio receps, family room, above, further orangery, utility/boot double garage with room, office, hall, 2 workshop, cloakrooms, barn, greenhouse. 18.37 acres. OIEO £995,000; Jackson- £2.55m; Knight Frank Stops & Staff (020-7861 1717). (01227-781600).

▲ Gloucestershire: Springfield, Rendcomb. A family house in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty with fine views and beautiful gardens of 2.5 acres, which include an outdoor swimming pool, a tennis court, double garage and a small productive orchard. Master suite, 4 further suites, breakfast/ kitchen with Aga, 3 receps, conservatory, utility, cloakroom, study, 1-bed annexe ▲ Lincolnshire: The Grange, Dunsby, Bourne. A Grade II Georgian with sitting room, house with a fenced, solar-heated outdoor pool with a pool house, with kitchen and private sitting area, kitchenette and shower. Master suite, 5 further beds, family garden. £2.5m; bath, kitchen/double recep, 2 further receps, study/snug, utility, WC, boot Butler Sherborn room, workshop, courtyard, double garage, stable block, formal gardens, (01285-883745). vegetable garden, greenhouse. £845,000; Humberts (01780-438788).

29 JULY 2017 THE WEEK 30 LEISURE Food & Drink What the experts recommend pickled vegetables, sour orange juice and quince jam. The flurry of small dishes we tried included kash_k bazanjon (“all descriptions very much sic”), which turned out to be a lentil and smoked aubergine dip boosted with whey, with garlands of crisp garlic and onion; and naan-o-paneer, which was fluffy bread “with an exuberance of dill and mint, feta and walnuts in a sekanjabin dressing (an ancient drink made with honey and vinegar)”. Don’t go hoping for a quick meal: everything is cooked to order and “it’s not speedy”. But do go. About £25 a head, plus drinks and service.

Five great trattorias in Rome There’s a southern Italian proverb that I swear by, says Rachel Roddy in the FT: “whatever can be fried is good to eat”. With that in mind, my first Roman recommendation is that you order all the fritti at the trattoria Cesare al Casaletto: DXB Grill Millennium Airport Hotel they are “hot and crispy”, not to mention anchovies, small coral-coloured octopus and Dubai, Garhoud, Dubai (04- 7028888) “delicious” when dipped into the spicy artichokes. It’s an easy tram ride from the Could this steakhouse near the airport peppercorn sauce. Stick to the steaks here Piazza Venezia and is more than worth the “rival the big boys around town?” asks and you’ll be “pleasantly surprised”. effort. A few minutes from the Testaccio What’s On. The answer appears to be Price Dhs250 to Dhs749 street market is my local, La Torricella: it “yes!” If you find yourself in Garhoud serves traditional, homely food with and “feel the need for a steak dinner”, the Kuch 133 Whiteladies Road, Bristol “brusque charm and generosity”, and new dining outlet in Millennium Airport (0117-253 0300) specialises in fish. Or, if you want the best Dubai is “worth a stop”. The team at For those seeking “freshness, value and of the offal cookery for which this DXB Grill takes “their steaks seriously”. a bit of a culinary adventure”, look no slaughterhouse district is famous, try So seriously that you “need to pick out further than this unassuming restaurant trattoria Agustarello, and go for the “rich your very own steak knife” for the serving “southern Persian soul food”, says and silky” oxtail. Right by the Pantheon, occasion. But is all the pomp and Marina O’Loughlin in The Guardian. I’d recommend the “smart but not fussy” circumstance really worth it? “We think Kuch offers treat upon treat: bowls full of Armando al Pantheon for classic Roman so.” Our advice is to “go with the fresh, colourful salads and glossy olives; pastas and traditional dishes. And over on sirloin”. Our shiny new knife cut through hot, oily flatbreads and spiced meats; the other side of Rome, a new trattoria, the grain fed Oakey slab “like butter”. dishes that are sweet with pomegranate SantoPalato, recently served me “two of the The accompanying waffle potatoes might and date molasses, tangy from tamarind, most delicious things I’ve eaten lately”; a “not fair well” against the triple-cut fries and pungent with dried lime; and shelves dish of peas, soft-boiled egg and Parmesan, of other steakhouses around town, but stacked with jars of kashk (“liquid curd”), and a marigold-yellow carbonara.

Recipe of the week Soups made from matsoni, or cow’s milk yoghurt, are a popular and delicious aspect of the national cuisine of Georgia, says Carla Capalbo. Many are cooked with onions, rice and herbs and served hot. But I also love this traditional chilled soup – it’s so refreshing on a hot summer’s day Matsunis shechamandi (chilled yoghurt soup) Serves 4 500g plain yoghurt 240ml water 85g very finely sliced and chopped cucumber 2 spring onions, finely chopped, white and green parts 1 tbsp finely chopped coriander 1 tbsp finely chopped dill 1 tsp finely chopped mint leaves 1 tsp finely chopped chives ½ tsp finely chopped medium-hot green chilli salt and freshly ground black pepper

• Whisk the yoghurt with most of the water until smooth. The consistency should be creamy but soup-like. If necessary, add a little more water. • Whisk in the remaining ingredients and season with salt and pepper. • Allow the soup to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before serving in order to bring out the flavours of the herbs. Serve chilled. • Tip: for the best results, use good-quality organic yoghurt with a nicely acidic tang to it.

Taken from Tasting Georgia: A Food Journey in the Caucasus by Carla Capalbo, published by Pallas Athene at £30

THE WEEK 29 JULY 2017 Consumer LEISURE 31 SPONSORED CONTENT Bentley’s Flying Spur Design Series now in Middle-East Bentley has a fan base that echoes the bold colour accents reflects its uniqueness, and in all of the limited-edition that is why the carmaker is Flying Spurs. There is also a presenting an exclusive coloured 12 o’clock stripe on limited edition. Only 100 the steering wheel. The hide examples of this limited on the seat bolsters, and on edition will be produced by the door inserts, is exquisitely Mulliner, Bentley’s personal quilted by Mulliner. This commissioning division. The highly technical finish was Design Series is applicable used in the aviation industry across the four-car Flying and it is now being used for Spur range – V8, W12, V8 S Bentley. This new limited and W12 S – and it is now edition delivers a unique and available for customers in the exclusive design take on Middle East. The exterior Lamps. The front is special touch are the Welcome Bentley’s luxury sedan. The highlights a bold, front- highlighted with striking Lamps that reflect the word new edition has been created bumper design available for colour accent detailing on the ‘Mulliner’ on the ground. The for the Bentley drivers so they the V8 S and W12 S models bumper and the lower fine pierced hide on the leather can enjoy a “high-end, only. Also, there is a lower line, which runs along the seats reveals a secondary bespoke interpretation” of the fine line and LED Welcome doors to the rear. Giving a colour underneath, which performance-oriented sedan.

The best… wireless noise-cancelling headphones ▲

AKG N60NC Wireless ▲ Philips SHB8850NC Excellent Released to great acclaim value, these Philips headphones earlier this month, the offer a punchy, surprisingly lightweight N60NC Wireless detailed sound for the price. do a very good job of The bass is a little weak, though, blocking out noise. They sit and they’re not as well made comfortably on your ears as more expensive models and sound superb, (£90; www.currys.co.uk). offering weighty bass (£250; uk.akg.com).

▲ Bose

QuietComfort 35 ▲ Sony MDR-1000X If noise The MDR-1000X sound

cancellation is a ▲ Lindy BNX-60 unusually good for noise- priority, the These headphones cancelling headphones, QuietComfort are essentially a low- and have clever features: series are budget version of Bose’s they have customised the gold QuietComfort headphones. noise-cancelling effects, standard. They’re not quite as elegant and you can pause Sound is or comfortable, but the sound a song by putting clear and crisp quality is still impressive your hand over the (£330; www.bose. (£90; www.lindy.co.uk). right earpad (£305; co.uk). www.amazon.co.uk). SOURCES: STUFF/T3/WHAT HI-FI? SOURCES: STUFF/T3/WHAT Tips of the week… how to fireproof your home ● Book a free fire safety visit from your local fire ● Fires can be started by overloaded service. These are available for everyone; some sockets. Find out if yours are safe by using areas, however, limit them to households that the special calculator at www.london-fire. have elderly, disabled or young inhabitants. gov.uk/overloading-electrical-sockets.asp. ● You should have a smoke alarm on every ● In house fires, one of the biggest floor. Which? recommends the brands Kidde, dangers is people wasting time looking for FireAngel and First Alert. insurance forms, passports, and so on, ● Change the batteries in your alarm annually. instead of getting out, or otherwise Ideally, the alarm itself should be tested weekly. protecting themselves. Investing in a ● Don’t leave mobile devices or e-cigarettes fireproof safe for key documents should charging overnight. stop that temptation.

SOURCE: THE SUNDAY TIMES

29 JULY 2017 THE WEEK 32 Travel

This week’s dream: a tuk-tuk tour of Thailand’s wild hills Though it has “less grunt than some tourists (with higher roofs, bigger lawnmowers”, does 0-50mph in back seats and beefier suspension), 20 seconds, and makes for “a numb and its guests tend to drive them in bum” and sunburnt calves on the open convoy around a 470-mile circuit road, a tuk-tuk is the ideal vehicle for west of Chiang Mai. The route twists a self-drive tour of Thailand’s north- high into the jungled hills, past western mountains, says James Stewart “ramshackle” teak villages, plenty in The Sunday Times. This is “full- of elephants, and rivers that “wind beam exotic Asia”, far from the tourist slowly between banana trees”. trail, and pottering around it in one of Arriving in the old town of Mae these open-sided motorised rickshaws Sariang at dusk as “nasal chanting” allows you to “breathe in the aromas drifts from its temples is “magical”. of the country” – “composting jungle, The “no-name, tin-roof” café wood smoke, incense” – and make opposite the temple in Khun Yuam the most of the passing views. Go with serves some of the world’s best Thai the Tuk Tuk Club of Mae Wang and The villages of the Lahu hill tribe: time itself seems to drift food, including “sour, lemony” you’ll also benefit from prearranged mushroom soup, and larb, a mix of accommodation (“including one pinch-me jungle hideaway ground meat, chilli, mint, shallots and lime. And in the villages of where Brad and Angelina stayed a few years back”) and a support the Lahu hill tribe, where chickens chuckle among stilted wooden car to take care of your luggage. houses, time itself seems to drift – making for a peaceful end to Tuk-tuks are rarely seen outside Thailand’s big cities, so drivers this “backcountry journey into a nation’s soul”. The Tuk Tuk attract plenty of smiles, thumbs ups and selfie requests from Club (+66 92 250 5182, www.thetuktukclub.com) has an 11-day locals. The club has a fleet of six, specially adapted for Western self-drive tour from £1,295pp, excluding flights.

Hotel of the week Getting the flavour of… The ancient secrets of Jordan the adventure. A stone marks its source in a There can be few guides capable of bringing field near Cheltenham, and by the time you Jordan’s ancient sites to life like Professor reach nearby Cricklade, the history – and the Konstantinos Politis, says Alice B-B in the FT. river – is flowing thick and fast (think battles Amid the rock-carved ruins of Petra, the with Romans and fortifications built by King veteran archaeologist and “ace” raconteur Alfred). Persevere through London to one of evokes the rose-coloured city’s heyday as a the most beautiful sections of all – the first-century Las Vegas, where frankincense marshes of the Hoo Peninsula, where herons traders from southern Arabia would party “stand sentinel” by ancient dykes. Tom after their long journey across the desert. Chesshyre’s From Source to Sea: Notes from Following an air-balloon flight over Wadi a 215-mile Walk Along the River Thames is Bill and Coo Coast, Rum, he leads you to the ancient Bedouin published by Summersdale (£16.99). Mykonos petroglyphs hidden deep amid this great valley’s “burnt ochre” cliffs. And most Summer in the Rockies The latest Bill and Coo hotel on haunting of all is the cave he discovered in Think of Aspen and chances are “snow and this fashionable Greek island (the original is in Mykonos Town) 1991, in which the name of Lot was carved celebrities” spring to mind – this is the resort sits on an “enviably hard-to-find” three times – suggesting an ancient belief that into which the Kardashians sweep each beach on the Agios Ioannis this was the hideout from which the Biblical January. But it is beautiful in summer too, Peninsula. Designed, by “super- patriarch watched the destruction of Sodom and more peaceful, says Georgina Wilson- hip” Athenian architects k-studio, and Gomorrah. Cazenove + Loyd (020-7384 Powell in The Independent – with outdoor with “upper-A-list” guests in 2332, www.cazloyd.com) has a group tour concerts and famers’ markets, festivals, and mind, it is a pleasing exercise in from £4,433pp (excluding flights), departing endless hiking, biking and rafting to enjoy. “understated chic”, says Condé 4 October 2018. Perched at 2,400m in one of the most Nast Traveller. Rugged stone, “stunning” parts of the Rocky Mountains, it bleached wood and cast iron dominate the 15 “secluded” suites, Walking the Thames has swanky shopping streets, but also a which have private terraces and Churchill called it “the golden thread of our counter-cultural history and a “rebel heart”. plunge pools with sea views. nation’s history” – and on a walk along the To celebrate this, go for a drink at the Hotel There’s a pretty pool, and a Thames from its source in Gloucestershire to Jerome, where Hunter S. Thompson (a past lunchtime-only taverna whose the sea, you’ll discover “a tale or two” in Aspen resident) often held court, ordering fans allegedly include Heston every mile, says Tom Chesshyre in The “weird” dishes in order to test the chefs. Blumenthal. Times. The river is 215 miles long, but add Scott Dunn (020-8682 5400, www. Doubles from £420. +30 228 902 the most tempting diversions and you’ll cover scottdunn.com) has a seven-night trip from 6292, www.bill-coo-hotel.com. nearly twice that, so set aside three weeks for £2,525pp, including flights.

Last-minute offers from top travel companies Two nights in Oxford 4-star Barcelona stay Hawaiian beach resort Full board Malaysian break Ideally set in the medieval city The Serhs Rivoli Rambla has Revel in stunning shores by Enjoy a private paradise with a centre, the Vanbrugh House much on offer as it’s right on the Wailea Beach Resort as 7-night stay at the Meritus Hotel is offering two nights Las Ramblas. 4 nights on a you spend 5 nights on a b&b Pelangi Beach Resort, with breakfast from £174pp b&b basis costs from £615pp, basis. From £667pp, excl. Langkawi. From £1,055pp, (based on two sharing). 020- excl. flights. 0871-474 3000, flights. 020-3564 5165, incl. Manchester flights. 01293- 3024 8216, www.hotels.com. www.onthebeach.co.uk. www.tripadvisor.co.uk. 762404, www.hayesandjarvis. Arrive 29 August. Depart 8 September. Arrive 8 September. co.uk. Depart 15 September.

THE WEEK 29 JULY 2017 FROM VISIONARIES TO ENTREPRENEURS, PHILANTHROPISTS, ARTISTS AND YOUNG TALENT, IT’S TIME TO HONOUR THE UAE WOMEN WHO ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN OUR LIVES VOTE NOW EMIRATESWOMAN.COM/AWARDS

ARTIST CATEGORY SPONSOR YOUNG TALENT CATEGORY SPONSOR ACTIVATION PARTNER VENUE PARTNER

BEVERAGE PARTNER VOTE PROCESSING PARTNERPRESENTED BY

emirateswoman 34 Obituaries Hollywood director who gave new life to zombies

George A. Romero, who has casting gave the film “extra resonance”, said George A. died aged 77, didn’t invent the New Statesman, “which was exploited in Romero the zombie movie. The first shooting and editing”. Then, just before its 1940-2017 film to feature zombies – release, Martin Luther King was murdered; at figures from Haitian folklore – came out in that point, Romero realised that they had 1932. But he revolutionised the genre by caught the zeitgeist. In 1999, Night of the stripping the undead of their cultural context, Living Dead was declared “culturally, and making his horror films social and political historically, and aesthetically significant” by commentaries on contemporary America, said the US Library of Congress. The Guardian. Released during the civil rights era, and when the Vietnam War was at its Though panned by many critics, who objected height, his big-screen directorial debut, Night of to everything from its goriness to its shaky the Living Dead (1968), featured a bunch of camerawork, the film was a box office smash. misfits who, holed up in a house in rural Yet fans had to wait ten years for the sequel, Pennsylvania, come under attack from flesh- Dawn of the Dead. The highest grossing of the eating zombies. Filmed in black and white, to series, it had the zombies stumbling around give it a newsreel quality, it featured in the lead a shopping mall. “It is gruesome, sickening, role a black actor, Duane Jones, who survives disgusting, violent, brutal and appalling,” said the onslaught – only to be shot dead by a the critic Roger Ebert. “It is also… brilliantly member of a redneck posse that has come to crafted, funny, droll and savagely merciless in drive the zombies away. “The zombies, they could be anything,” its satiric view of the American consumer society.” Day of the Romero said in 2008. “They could be an avalanche, they could be Dead came out in 1985; Romero described it as a “tragedy about a hurricane. It’s a disaster out there. The stories are about how how a lack of human communication causes chaos and collapse”. people fail to respond in the proper way.” A flop, it was followed by Land of the Dead, in 2005, and Diary of the Dead, in 2007. By then, there were so many zombies about Born in The Bronx in 1940, Romero was the son of a Cuban- the place, Romero joked that he wouldn’t be surprised to see one born commercial artist, and his mother was of Lithuanian on Sesame Street, teaching children to count. descent. A fan of horror comics, and a keen moviegoer, he studied drama and design at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, His other films included Martin (1978), about a man who thinks and started his career in television. That first film – made for just he is a vampire, but who may be a serial killer, the biker drama $110,000 – was originally titled Night of the Flesh Eaters. The Knightriders (1981), and Creepshow (1982), written by Stephen word zombie isn’t in the script: the undead are referred to as King. Romero’s own favourite film, the one that inspired him to ghouls. “I didn’t think of them as zombies,” Romero recalled. make films, was Powell and Pressburger’s The Tales of Hoffman “Then people started to write about them, calling them zombies, (1951). He liked to recall travelling as a teenager to a distribution and all of a sudden that’s what they were.” As for the fact that the house in Manhattan, hoping to rent it on 16mm – only to learn it lead character was black, that was “damn near a complete had already been taken out by a “kid” named Martin Scorsese. accident”. Jones had simply given the best audition. But his Russian poet sentenced to seven years’ forced labour dead end, she went to university to study physics. Irina On her 29th birthday, Irina After graduating, she became a teacher and Ratushinskaya Ratushinskaya was sentenced married Igor Gerashchenko, a childhood friend. 1954-2017 to seven years’ hard labour in a Soviet prison. Her crime was In 1980, both became involved in human rights writing poetry, and being in jail didn’t stop her. protests; they lost their jobs and were briefly Using burnt matchsticks, she’d scratch her poems jailed. Though she described herself as apolitical, on bars of soap, before memorising them. Then, she was jailed again in 1982, for her writing; then, when the chance arose, she’d scrawl them on in 1983, she was convicted of anti-Soviet agitation cigarette papers and pass them to her husband, and propaganda and given the maximum term. who smuggled them to the West. “The Soviet In prison, she was held in the “small zone” for Union, as Russia was before it, is a land where dangerous female prisoners; they survived by poet is the proudest and the most dangerous of all forming strong bonds of friendship and loyalty. professions,” wrote Professor Maria Carlson, in a In her memoir, Grey is the Colour of Hope, New York Times review of one of Ratushinskaya’s Ratushinskaya describes enduring regular poetry anthologies. Her themes, Carlson noted, beatings, a diet that consisted of little more than were those that have tortured so many Russian Ratushinskaya: a cause célèbre bread and rotten fish broth, and sub-zero poets – “memory, history, fate, love, poetry, faith temperatures. “Hair starts falling out, your skin and freedom” – and she wrote without rancour. “If you allow gets loose,” she wrote. “There are days and weeks when you can’t hatred to take root, it will flourish and spread,” she said, “and stand up because of hunger. I was quite close to death.” ultimately corrode and warp your soul.” Thanks to Igor’s efforts, her poems were published in the West, Born in Odessa, Irina was the daughter of an engineer and a and her plight became a cause célèbre. In 1986, on the eve of the teacher of literature. Her parents, who had Polish roots, brought Reykjavík Summit, President Gorbachev announced her early her up an atheist – it was safer – but she developed a strong faith release. Seriously ill, she came to England for treatment. She, her all the same. She began composing poetry at the age of five, but husband and twin sons lived both here and in the US – her Russian only rarely wrote them down. Once, a Soviet official came across citizenship having been revoked. But she never felt settled, and in one of her written works: he told her if she wanted state sanction, 1998 wrote to Boris Yeltsin, asking for permission to go home. she should write a poem about the Communist Party, and Lenin. “To be a Russian poet, I need to be together with my people,” she She declined. In 1971, having realised that humanities were a said, in 1999. She died of cancer earlier this month, aged 63.

THE WEEK 29 JULY 2017

36 BUSINESS Companies in the news ...and how they were assessed

Emirates NBD: remaining profitable Dubai’s largest bank Emirates NBD will manage to remain profitable despite increased competition in the market from a new, larger rival and dull economic conditions in the market, according to a new report by Moody’s Investors Service. Earlier this year, National Bank of Abu Dhabi and First Gulf Bank completed a merger to form First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), creating the UAE’s largest lender with assets of more than Dhs670bn. However, competition from FAB will be softened by the limited overlap in corporate Seven days in the lending between Dubai and Abu Dhabi – where FAB is dominant, the report said. Square Mile “Emirates NBD’s unique position as the Dubai government’s bank of choice, its large low- cost deposit base and healthy loan book will support its profitability as it negotiates the The IMF slashed its growth forecast for the UK to 1.7% this year, from a challenges of a more competitive environment, a weaker economy, and rising interest previous forecast of 2%, citing a slump rates,” said Mik Kabeya, analyst at Moody’s. The agency expects Emirates NBD to in economic performance since last continue to provide financing for World Expo megaprojects. year’s Brexit vote. But there are rays of hope. In an upbeat monthly Goldman Sachs: fried squid manufacturing survey, the CBI found It was a “tale of two banks” on Wall Street last week, as Morgan Stanley and Goldman that UK production in July rose by its Sachs reported their second-quarter results, said Brooke Masters in the Financial Times. fastest rate since 1995 – and that the Most of the gloom was being felt by Goldmanites. “Both banks are suffering from the balance of manufacturers reporting that long slowdown” in their fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) businesses, total order books were “above normal” in June was at its highest in 29 years. but traders reckon that Morgan Stanley is dealing with the problem better. Certainly, Expectations that the US Federal Reserve Goldman has been hit much harder than its peers: trading revenues were down by would keep interest rates on hold at its 40% on the same period last year. “According to an old Wall Street adage, one should monthly meeting fuelled confidence in never bet against Goldman Sachs,” said Iain Dey in The Sunday Times. But if the bank emerging markets: the MSCI Asia Pacific memorably christened the great “Vampire Squid” doesn’t “crush its rivals in the brutal Index neared a ten-year high. business of trading, what is its purpose”? CEO Lloyd Blankfein “is thrashing around in The Bank of England renewed its all directions”, into areas far removed from the bank’s core business. Over the past year, warnings about “dangerous” levels of he has bought Honest Dollar (a retirement savings business) and another firm that consol- personal borrowing in Britain, outlining idates high-risk credit card debt, on the grounds that it’s easier to turn a profit lending to that outstanding car loans, credit card ordinary consumers. Classy stuff. “All empires come to an end eventually. The great balance transfers and personal loans Vampire Squid is increasingly looking more like a piece of breadcrumbed calamari.” have risen by 10% in a year. The German carmaker BMW announced German carmakers: cartel probe plans to build an electric Mini at its plant Congratulations if you’re the proud owner of a German automobile, said David Charter in Oxford, after rejecting alternative locations in Europe. Boots, the high- in The Times: you could be in for a windfall. “Millions of British motorists may be owed street pharmacy chain, apologised for compensation for overpriced cars” following allegations, now under investigation by the charging twice as much for emergency European Commission, that leading German carmakers Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler contraception as other retailers – to operated a cartel. Last year, almost one in three new cars registered in Britain (about avoid “incentivising inappropriate use”. 800,000 vehicles) were made by German firms. Shares in the three car giants plunged this Arconic, the US company which sold week, wiping some s10bn off valuations, as investors digested allegations of “decades of the combustible panels installed at collusion”, said Alan Tovey in The Daily Telegraph. The three companies are alleged to Grenfell Tower, reported better-than- have shared information about emissions, engines, brakes and other technologies in expected profits. The TV presenter secret meetings dating back to the 1990s. “The whiff of scandal around the German car Noel Edmonds upped his compensation claim following a long-running fraud at manufacturing industry” is intensifying, said Gwyn Topham in The Guardian. Investors Lloyds/HBOS, to £300m. are right to brace themselves. If the allegations are proved, the ensuing fines and compen- sation could eclipse the emissions scandal, which has so far cost VW s25bn worldwide. Ryanair/easyJet: the battle for Europe Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary is planning quarter, and the airline is sticking to its “a new push for European dominance”, forecasts for the rest of the year. Yet shares fell beginning with a bid for all, or part, of Alitalia, by 4% following the update, echoing an even said Robert Lea in The Times. The Irish carrier – bigger 10% drop suffered by its fellow already the Continent’s largest short-haul expansionist rival easyJet last week. Why airliner – is reportedly one of around ten is the City in such a funk? potential buyers staking out the Italian flag carrier, which went into administration in May, Put it down to “altitude sickness”, said Lex with s3bn of debt. “A combined Ryanair- in the Financial Times. “Frankly, Ryanair’s Alitalia could speak for 50% of the Italian valuation already incorporates plenty of hope” short-haul market,” and is bound to prompt – particularly given pressure from strapped competition concerns. But Italy is just one of consumers to cut fares. The financial hit has several countries where the “ambitious” been partly cushioned by lower fuel prices, Irish outfit is “aiming to take advantage of said Nils Pratley in The Guardian. But it’s also struggling incumbent airlines”. It revealed this O’Leary: has a beady eye on rivals “easier for smaller rivals to buy new aircraft week that it is also keeping a beady eye on the and add new routes” when fuel prices are low. fortunes of Air Berlin in Germany, and of Poland’s Lot. “Both easyJet and Ryanair have been guilty of overhyping the thought that competitors can’t live with the pace they are Overall, Ryanair looks in good financial shape for expansion, setting.” Thankfully, for flyers, those rivals are “still capable of said The Daily Telegraph: pre-tax profits rose by 55% in the last being irritating by surviving”.

THE WEEK 29 JULY 2017 Talking points CITY 37 Issue of the week: Dr Fox and his chickens The International Trade Secretary’s attempt to further a UK-US trade deal has been hampered by a row over poultry “Chlorinated chicken is hardly the most EU, but not both”. On the face of it, it appetising sounding of dishes,” said The doesn’t “make a lot of sense” to Independent, “but it is now firmly on the abandon “one well-established trading political menu.” When Trade Secretary relationship” to sign up with a country Liam Fox travelled to the US this week, whose president promises to put to sow the seeds of a future post-Brexit “America first”. “The dangers of Britain trade deal, his agenda was hijacked by being rolled over in its desperation to questions about cheap US poultry secure post-Brexit deals with the US imports. Americans don’t seem to mind and beyond are obvious.” eating chicken that has been chlorine washed to kill bacteria, but the practice A “rushed deal” with the US, however is currently banned under EU rules. Cue politically attractive, “risks handing an outcry. “Is this what Brexit means? American firms the upper hand”, said Is this what Liam Fox is going to bring Michael Savage in The Observer. As us back for supper?” Adam Marshall, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, points When challenged by the pro-EU pressure Fox: challenged to eat a chlorinated chicken out, we’re up against some of “the group Open Europe to eat chlorinated world’s toughest trade negotiators”, and chicken on live TV, Fox accused the British media of obsessing there’s a danger that British companies will “continue to face over a detail, said Jeremy Warner in The Daily Telegraph. But tiny higher upfront costs and regulatory requirements”, while though the trade of chicken is, in the context of access to opening themselves up to the risk of predatory takeovers by America’s £2trn economy, the row “goes to the heart” of the post- “bigger, cash-rich US competitors”. Clearly, any agreement with Brexit free trade debate. If reaching a trade agreement with the US the US, our single biggest trading partner, “will impact on some necessitates “opening up our markets to chlorinated chicken and trading sectors”, said The Daily Telegraph. But that’s no reason otherwise lowering our agricultural standards”, it creates a big for defeatism. On the contrary, America’s clear “enthusiasm” problem when it comes to trading with the EU, “which will want for a free trade deal should be cheered. It is encouraging that to ensure that no non-compliant foodstuffs get into its food Dr Fox has been “able to provide an optimistic counterweight to chain”. The fuss rams home the point that Britain “can have a those who see nothing but gloom ahead”. Trade deals can take free trade agreement on its own terms with either the US or the years to negotiate, “but the direction of travel is what matters”.

Making money: what the experts think Pass the freehold “biggest casualty” of ● Greek milestone Good news for homebuyers, said The Greece’s return to the the debt crisis – Times. The Government is putting an sovereign bond market particularly as “the end to the “great scandal” of new this week, after a three- eurozone’s recovery is houses being sold on leases that year absence, has been in full swing”, and the “force owners to make escalating rental billed as a major ECB is “starting to payments on top of their mortgages”. “milestone” in the edge towards an exit Communities Secretary Sajid Javid has from stimulus”. outlined plans to ban the practice in country’s return to new builds, and “reduce ground rent economic health, said payments to almost nothing” where Liz Alderman in The ● Beyond Dover… they already apply. Most flats are sold New York Times. The Super Mario’s 2012 as leaseholds, so the owner can recover “jubilant” Greek PM, A return to economic health in Athens? “bazooka” marked a the costs of the building’s upkeep Alexis Tsipras, called turning point in the through ground rent. But in recent the sale of five-year bonds – which raised euro crisis – and “investors have good years, developers such as Bellway and s3bn for Athens’ coffers – a “significant reason to celebrate”, said Ian Cowie in Taylor Wimpey have extended the step” towards ending the country’s The Sunday Times. European Assets Trust, practice to houses – “often without buyers fully understanding the “unpleasant adventure” with bailouts. The for instance, has delivered a “remarkable” contracts” – before flogging the sentiment is bound to be echoed elsewhere: 37% total return over the past year. Better freeholds on to investment companies. since 2010, when Athens was “shut off yet, it’s still yielding 5.7%. “Who says you As a result, ground rents have soared. from borrowing in global markets”, the can’t have income and growth?” European EU and the IMF have provided a funds still “look inviting”: as Darius Among the biggest players in the field “staggering” s326bn in financial lifelines. McDermott of Chelsea Financial Services are Vincent Tchenguiz’s Consensus notes, they’re “an opportunity to buy into Business Group, said to hold 300,000 ● Super Mario anniversary a region where company profits are being residential freeholds worth £4bn; and Let’s not get too carried away about revised upwards”. McDermott tips HomeGround, which administers freeholds on behalf of various investor enthusiasm for Greek risk, said BlackRock Continental European Income, landlords, and whose directors Kate Allen and Eleftheria Kourtali in the and Fidelity European Values, which has include David Cameron’s brother-in-law, FT. About half of the bond’s buyers were “consistently beaten performance William Waldorf Astor IV. The “pass-the- owners of existing Greek debt, who were benchmarks”. Alternatively, you might parcel world of freehold speculation” “enticed to swap their holdings” with a consider Schroder European Alpha has proved a gravy train for landowners s40m sweetener from the government. Income, or JPM Europe Dynamic, and “mysterious” offshore firms, said Even so, “there could be few better ways” which has a bias towards mid-sized and Patrick Collinson in The Guardian. Many to mark the fifth anniversary of Mario smaller companies. Whatever happens of the funds claim their investors are Draghi’s pronouncement that he would do with Brexit talks, investors would do pension groups looking for “secure long-term income”. Homeowners call it “whatever it takes” to preserve the euro well to remember that “opportunities do “daylight robbery”. than a successful bond issue from the not end at Dover”.

29 JULY 2017 THE WEEK 38 CITY Commentators

The summer holidays are a lifesaver for the travel industry, says The Economist: all those “all-inclusive trips to the Mediterranean” City profiles Why Britons more than make up for losses incurred in lean winter months. But tour operators and hoteliers are entering this summer with Masayoshi Son are puking The SoftBank founder has trepidation owing to “an epidemic of food-poisoning claims”. The a warning for any human for payouts number of such claims made by Britons has surged by 500% since foolish enough to dismiss 2013, according to the Association of British Travel Agents. Most Pepper, his pet “humanoid”, are fake, but with claimants typically demanding £5,000 in Editorial as a novelty, says Tim compensation, and up to £100,000 in lawyers’ fees, they’re costing Bradshaw in the FT. Those s The Economist the industry dear. Hoteliers in Mallorca reckon they’re losing 50m who “deride Pepper will face a year. The surge in “puke for payout” claims is the “unintended a future in which they will be result” of the crackdown on car-insurance whiplash scams: when overtaken by robots”, he the Government imposed a cap on the fees lawyers could charge, warned darkly last week – it excluded claims for injuries sustained abroad. A further crack- “smart robots” that “can learn by themselves and down might dissuade tourists from making claims out of an “iffy act on their own”. Son’s tummy”. But evidence that organised criminals are now getting in Japanese conglomerate is on the act suggests the sickening bonanza is likely to continue. investing heavily to bring this future closer. Last week, Better electricity storage is one of the modern world’s biggest its $93bn Vision Fund technological challenges, says Patrick Hosking. That’s why splashed out on Brain Corp, The UK’s flat batteries are the “product of the moment”. In the US, where a Californian outfit whose electric-car entrepreneurs, including Tesla founder Elon Musk, mission is to make robots approach to “as commonplace as have invested heavily in battery power, there is great business computers and mobiles are battery power enthusiasm for supercharging; but in the UK, the best we can do today”. Son reckons artificial is set up a Whitehall committee. The worthy aim of the Faraday intelligence will “outstrip Challenge Advisory Board, formed by Business Secretary Greg Patrick Hosking human capabilities” within Clark last week, is to make battery technology more accessible 30 to 50 years, but professes The Times and affordable. But how this fits into the Business Department’s to be quite relaxed about “slowly evolving industrial strategy” is “anyone’s guess”: batteries that. “AI is not created to put appear to be just one of a string of sectors that Clark “likes the mankind at risk. It is created look of”. The Government has wisely warned against “the to make humans happy.” discredited 1970s practice of trying to pick industry winners”, yet Jayne-Anne Gadhia Clark has “gone to the other extreme and seems to want to pick everything”. The first of Musk’s zippy new Model 3 cars are due for delivery this week – “probably before the Faraday committee gets round to ordering its first consignment of paper clips”.

In 2007, shortly before the start of the great financial crash, the International Monetary Fund confidently predicted that the global The IMF wants economy looked “well set” for robust growth, says Larry Elliott; so we tend to approach the fund’s pronouncements more cautiously to keep its these days. Nonetheless, its latest growth downgrade for the UK looks “perfectly reasonable”. The IMF expects the economy to trousers on expand by just 1.7% this year, some 0.3 points lower than its last prediction, in April. That tallies with evidence at home that the Larry Elliott economy is hardly “going gangbusters”. Indeed, unless stronger The Guardian growth in the eurozone and emerging markets generates higher demand for UK exports, “a further IMF downgrade to about Seeing as how bankers have 1.5% in the autumn looks probable”. But might a surging world been personae non gratae economy ride to Britain’s rescue? The IMF “is still hedging its for much of the last decade, it took a brave BBC producer bets”. It worries about China’s credit bubble and the risk of a to put Virgin Money chief US-inspired trade war; it fears that overvalued financial markets Jayne-Anne Gadhia on are “heading for a fall”. Its caution is understandable. “The IMF Desert Island Discs, says has no desire to be caught with its trousers down a second time.” Alex Brummer in the Daily Mail. But Gadhia “came up News that Facebook and Google are trying to combat soaring with the goods”, blaming an rents in Silicon Valley by building new houses marks a revival of “alpha-male” culture for the Google is going the 19th century concept of the “company town”, says George downfall of her ex-employer, Hammond. Both companies stress their role as “responsible” RBS. Her claim that banking back to the corporate citizens (Facebook’s new Willow Campus includes plans has been “transformed” by the crisis isn’t strictly true, 19th century for 15% of the 1,500 homes to be made available to the public at however. On the contrary, below-market rates), but they’ve a self-interested reason for behaviour in the “post-crisis George Hammond upping housing provision. If rents in “Googleville” (aka period” (Libor fixing, money Mountain View in California) rise much higher, even Google’s laundering, fraud…) has Financial Times well-heeled workers will be outpriced. Will the schemes succeed? been “as ugly as ever”. And The record is mixed. Some 19th century company towns – with the huge build-up of Hershey in Pennsylvania, Cadbury’s Bournville in Birmingham – consumer debt, “there are dramatically improved conditions for workers; but Henry Ford’s signs of history repeating bid to establish “Fordlandia” in Brazil was a spectacular failure. itself”. Gadhia may be the “acceptable face” of banking, Problems occur when a company’s fortunes start to fade – which but she can’t claim the sector is why Hershey and Bournville established trusts “to guarantee has been completely the future of the towns after their founders were gone”. Google reformed. and Facebook should regard that as a safeguard worth repeating.

THE WEEK 29 JULY 2017 Sharewatch CITY 39

Who’s tipping what

The week’s best buys Directors’ dealings CentralNic Glencore Shaftesbury Dixons The Mail on Sunday The Sunday Telegraph Investors Chronicle Turnover at this top-level Shares in the commodities Shaftesbury’s property 340 domain name seller has jumped giant are up fourfold since their portfolio – which includes 113%, and underlying profits 2016 nadir, and its balance nearly 600 buildings and 320 have grown by 68%, thanks to sheet hasn’t been so strong 14.5 acres in London’s West expansion and the “astute since its flotation. Given rising End – seems “Brexit-proof”. 300 acquisition” of Instra Group. commodity prices, there’s hope A steady income stream and Expect further growth as the of more to come. Worth a rental growth should ensure Deputy CEO sector consolidates. Buy. 51.1p. short-term punt. Buy. 313.55p. it weathers any economic 280 sells 1m downturn. Buy. 978p.

Conviviality Morgan Sindall Group 260 Shares The Sunday Times Walker Greenbank Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Drinks wholesaler Convivality This construction firm “can do Investors Chronicle remains “resilient” in a tough little wrong”, consistently This luxury interior furnishings Back in February, Dixons Carphone’s chief exec and consumer market, thanks to its topping the list of contractors group has bounced back from CFO offloaded shares. Now competitive pricing and market winning the most work. They a devastating factory flood. it’s the turn of deputy chief reach. Full-year profits are up aren’t blockbuster deals, but International orders and executive Andrew Harrison. 100%, and “compelling cash “they add up”. Shares are up licensing sales are rising, and He has netted nearly generation” has boosted the 119% in a year, but there is there’s a major acquisition in £2.8m through the sale of total dividend. Buy. 339.7p. “room to grow”. Buy. £12.84. the pipeline. Buy. 228p. a million shares. SOURCE: FINANCIAL TIMES

…and some to hold, avoid or sell Form guide

British Land National Grid Paddy Power Betfair Shares tipped 12 weeks ago The Times The Times Sharecast Best tip The commercial property firm National Grid enjoys a The bookie’s market Associated British Foods is “flush with cash”, but the reputation as a safe haven dominance, strong balance The Times market looks due a correction. stock, but regulatory risks may sheet and exposure to online up 7.47% to £29.21 Tesco and Sainsbury’s sites weigh on the share price. sports betting bode well for the comprise nearly 10% of British Watchdog Ofgem is under future. But a recent lacklustre Worst tip Land’s book, giving worrying increasing pressure to deliver performance, and a worsening Totally exposure to any consumer a “tougher regime” that could regulatory outlook, raise short- The Mail on Sunday down 13.51% to 48p slowdown. Sell. 624.50p. hit returns. Hold. 945.50p. term concerns. Sell. £69.70.

Halfords N Brown Group Pearson Investors Chronicle Investors Chronicle The Daily Telegraph Market view The bicycle retailer had a The plus-size fashion specialist The market is confused by the “When it comes to European robust first half, but squeezed faces a compensation bill of up educational publishing firm’s crises, the markets have margins suggest vulnerability to £40m for selling customers decision to sell part of its stake learned that it is always wise to a low pound. Cracks are flawed insurance products. in Penguin Random House. to bet on a deal. But Brexit showing in the autocentres Underlying trading remains Given profit warnings and an may be different.” arm, and strategic leadership strong, but cash flow, post- expected dividend cut, wait for Simon Nixon in The Wall has been lacking since CEO Jill Brexit, is a worry, and shares August’s interim results to Street Journal McDonald left. Sell. 334p. may be vulnerable. Sell. 211p. reassess. Avoid. 631.5p. Market summary

KeyKey numbersnumbers for investors BestBest andand worst performing shares Following the Footsie

25 July 2017 Week before Change (%) WEEK’S CHANGE, FTSE 100 STOCKS 7,600 FTSE 100 7434.82 7390.22 0.60% RISES Price % change FTSE All-share UK 4068.25 4046.36 0.54% Antofagasta 951.00 +7.52 Dow Jones 21634.07 21548.01 0.40% Standard Chartered 841.20 +4.59 7,500 NASDAQ 6416.05 6326.15 1.42% Sage Group 700.50 +4.24 Segro 519.50 +3.90 Nikkei 225 19955.20 19999.91 –0.22% Hargreaves Lansdown 1349.00 +3.85 7,400 Hang Seng 26852.05 26524.94 1.23% Gold 1254.40 1240.75 1.10% FALLS Brent Crude Oil 50.09 48.77 2.71% Easyjet 1271.00 –10.05 7,300 DIVIDEND YIELD (FTSE 100) 3.77% 3.80% Provident Financial 2163.00 –7.56 UK 10-year gilts yield 1.32 1.27 Royal Bank of Sctl.Gp. 585.50 –5.72 US 10-year Treasuries 2.32 2.26 Royal Mail 391.80 –4.69 7,200 UK ECONOMIC DATA G4S 325.40 –4.60 Latest CPI (yoy) 2.6% (Jun) 2.9% (May) BEST AND WORST UK STOCKS OVERALL Latest RPI (yoy) 3.5% (Jun) 3.7% (May) Alba Mineral Res. 0.66 +114.52 7,100 Halifax house price (yoy) +2.6% (Jun) +3.3% (May) RM2 International 7.50 –44.44 Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Source: Datastream (not adjusted for dividends). Prices on 25 July (pm) £1 STERLING $1.303 E1.120 ¥145.681 6-month movement in the FTSE 100 index

29 JULY 2017 THE WEEK 40 The last word Is most of what we’re told about autism wrong? The novelist David Mitchell has a son with severe, non-verbal autism. He was told his child was intellectually disabled. Then Mitchell read, and helped translate, a first-person account of the condition, The Reason I Jump, written by a 13-year-old Japanese boy

Naoki Higashida is an amiable and my son’s autism – but a little thoughtful young man in his early mortification never hurt anyone. 20s who lives with his family in On YouTube I found a few clips of Chiba, a prefecture adjacent to Naoki and was taken aback at how Tokyo. Naoki has autism of a type visibly manifest his autism was – labelled severe and non-verbal, so a more so than my own son’s. This free-flowing conversation of the gap between Naoki’s appearance kind that facilitates the lives of and his textual expressiveness made most of us is impossible for him. a deep impression. Clearly, he By dint of training and patience, struggled with meltdowns, physical however, he has learned to and verbal tics that not so long ago communicate by “typing out” would have ensured a short, bleak sentences on an alphabet grid – a life of incarceration. Yet in The keyboard layout drawn on card Reason I Jump, the same boy was with an added “YES”, “NO” and exhibiting intelligence, creativity, “FINISHED”. Naoki voices the analysis, empathy and an phonetic characters of the Japanese emotional range as wide as my hiragana alphabet as he touches the own. What intrigued me as much corresponding Roman letters and as anything was that these last two builds up sentences, which a attributes – empathy and emotional transcriber takes down. (Nobody range – are precisely what people else’s hand is near Naoki’s during with autism are famous for this process.) lacking. What was going on? There were two possibilities: either If you think this sounds like an Naoki Higashida is a one-in-a- arduous way to get your meaning million person, who has severe across, you’re right, it is; in non-verbal autism yet is also addition, Naoki’s autism bombards intellectually and emotionally him with distractions and prompts intact; or society at large and many him to get up mid-sentence, pace Naoki: the second most widely translated living Japanese author specialists are partly or wholly the room and gaze out of the wrong about autism. window. He is easily ejected from his train of thought and forced to begin the sentence again. I’ve watched Naoki produce a Evidence against the “uniqueness possibility” came in the form complex sentence within 60 seconds, but I’ve also seen him take of other non-verbal writers with severe autism, such as Carly 20 minutes to complete a line of just a few words. By writing on Fleischmann. Naoki’s ability to communicate might be rare but a laptop, Naoki can dispense with the human transcriber, but the it’s not one in a million. The “wrong about autism” theory is screen and the text converter (the drop-down menus required for bolstered by the errors that could serve as chapter headings in the writing Japanese) add a new layer of distraction. history of autism. Leo Kanner, the child psychiatrist who first used the word “autism” in the 1940s I met Naoki’s writing before I in a context distinct from met Naoki. My son has autism “Naoki’s autism is classified as ‘severe’. Yet in schizophrenia, blamed the and my wife is from Japan, so his book, he exhibits intelligence, empathy and condition in part on when our boy was very young “refrigerator mothers”, a notion and his autism at its most grimly an emotional range as wide as my own” whose credibility now is on a par challenging, my wife searched with demonic possession. The online for books in her native language that might offer practical 1960s and 1970s saw psychiatrists advocating autism “cures” insight into what we were trying (and often failing) to deal with. based on electrotherapy, LSD and behavioural change techniques That led to The Reason I Jump, written when its author was only that utilised pain and punishment. 13. Our bookshelves were bending under weighty tomes by autism specialists, but few were of much “hands-on” help with I understand that science progresses over the bodies of debunked our non-verbal, regularly distressed five-year-old. theories, and I know that judging well-intentioned psychiatrists from the higher ground of hindsight isn’t particularly fair, but When the book arrived, my wife began translating chunks of it when I consider the damage they surely inflicted on children like out loud at our kitchen table, and many of its very short chapters my son, I don’t feel like being particularly fair. What if the shed immediate light on our son’s issues: why he banged his head current assumption that people with severe autism have on the floor; why there were phases when his clothes seemed matching severe intellectual disabilities is our own decade’s unendurably uncomfortable; why he would be seized by fits of wrongness about autism? What if Naoki’s conviction that we laughter, or fury, or tears, even when nothing obvious had are mistaking communicative non-functionality for mental happened to provoke these reactions. Theories I’d read previously non-functionality is on the money? were speculations, but The Reason I Jump offered plausible explanations directly from the alphabet grid of an insider. My wife and I saw no harm in “assuming the best” and acting as

Illumination can mortify – I realised how poorly I’d understood if, inside the chaotic swirl of our son’s autism and behaviours, GUARDIAN PATTERSON/THE ADAM © JUN MUROZONO;

THE WEEK 29 JULY 2017 The last word 41 there was a bright and perceptive – if a truer understanding of the grievously isolated – five-year-old. condition. Autism has a habit of We stopped assuming that because making clean labels such as “verbal” he’d never uttered a word in his life, and “non-verbal” murky. While he couldn’t understand us. We put my son’s comprehension appears morsels of food he didn’t eat on the to be good and he can name many edge of his plate of pasta, like Naoki hundreds of objects in English and suggests, in case he was feeling Japanese, his spoken communication experimental that day. Often he is limited to a few phrases, and wasn’t, but sometimes he was, and he’s never had a conversation longer his food repertoire grew. We started than three or four exchanges of these asking our son to pick things up that phrases. Compared with some of his he’d dropped by taking his hand to peers who have never uttered a word the object, instead of thinking, “Oh, and, indeed, compared with Naoki, why bother?” and doing it for him. my son is rather verbal: but relative We began speaking to him normally, Mitchell: endured a crash course in the politics of special needs to his neurotypical contemporaries, rather than sticking to one-word he’s a step away from muteness. sentences. I didn’t know what percentage of these longer, more natural sentences our son understood – I still don’t – but I do Naoki, meanwhile, has a near-total inability to conduct a spoken know that our daily lives got better. His eye contact improved, conversation or give verbal answers to questions. He is better able he engaged with us more and, with help from an inspiring tutor, to deploy the short menu of set phrases drilled into Japanese our son came into the kitchen one day and almost made me fall children and used throughout their lives – such as the universal off my chair by asking, “Can I have orange juice please?” His pre-meal expression of gratitude “itadakimasu”, though this has vocabulary snowballed and episodes of self-harm dwindled away morphed into a fixation whereby he has to check that every other to near zero. diner in the room has also said it. (Problematic at large gatherings.) If Naoki’s mother uses her ordinary voice when she Autism is not a disease, so there are no “cures” – never give your calls out his name to check where he is in the house, Naoki is credit card details to anyone who tells you otherwise. But The unable to respond. If she uses his full name in the formal manner Reason I Jump did help us understand our son’s challenges and of a schoolteacher taking the class register, however, Naoki can the world from his point of view more than any other source. confirm his presence verbally. Initially, my wife and I translated the book for our son’s special needs assistants; now it has been published in more than He can also say – or, more accurately, is compelled to repeat – 30 languages. To the best of my knowledge, this makes Naoki words or short phrases that have embedded themselves in his Higashida the most widely translated living Japanese author after mind. These might be advertising jingles, place names or words Haruki Murakami. that catch his fancy. Verbal fixations are deeply rooted: during most of a 20-minute drive I was surprised and pleased by along slowish winding Irish the success of Naoki’s book. My “What loving parent wants to be told we’ve lanes, Naoki repeated the involvement in it, however, gave been underestimating our child’s potential? Japanese word for “expressway” me a crash course in the politics in order to prompt his mother of special needs. Entrenched Shooting the messenger is less messy” into replying with the sentence: opinion is well armed, and its “No, it’s an ordinary road.” default reaction to new ideas is often hostile. The accusation was (As he explains in the book, Naoki would love to stop being a levelled that nobody with “genuine” severe autism could possibly slave to these verbal overrides, but the fixation is insurmountable.) have authored such articulate prose. Therefore, Naoki must have been misdiagnosed and doesn’t have autism at all; or he’s an Naoki’s verbal comprehension, however, is comparable to a impostor at the Asperger’s syndrome end of the spectrum; or his neurotypical adult. In general he understands my less-than-fluent books are written by someone else, possibly his mother. Or me. spoken Japanese, but because he’s unable to let me know that he The New York Times reviewer cautioned the translators against has understood, I can be left dangling until he begins to spell out “turning what we find into what we want”. his answer letter by letter on his alphabet grid. Naoki has only ever answered one of my questions aloud, without using his I was told point-blank by a fellow contributor to a radio alphabet grid. We were at lunch. His answer was a simple “Yes” programme that The Reason I Jump couldn’t be genuine because and the whole table smiled in surprise at this achievement, Naoki Naoki employs metaphor, and people with severe autism can’t included. (I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve forgotten the question.) understand what a metaphor is, let alone create one. In fact, I’ve watched Naoki spell out similes and metaphors on his alphabet Naoki’s autism is classified as “severe” by the Japanese grid on a number of occasions. My co-contributor’s son also had authorities and he carries an ID card bearing this designation in severe autism, and I’ve tried hard to understand her indignation. case a swift explanation is needed. What the designation “severe” To be told that we’ve been underestimating our child’s potential involves, however, is as relative as the label “non-verbal”. My can feel like we’re being accused of collaborating in our child’s son is free from many of the classic autistic “tics” that Naoki is imprisonment, and what loving mum or dad would sign up for burdened with, and over short periods he can even pass as that? Shooting the messenger is a less messy reaction. neurotypical. In contrast, ten seconds in Naoki’s company is enough for his autism to become unmistakable. My son, However, I do believe that while severe non-verbal autism looks however, shows no sign – yet – of being able to communicate the like a severe cognitive impairment, the truth is that it’s not: it’s richness of his inner life in the way that Naoki can. Whose autism a severe sensory-processing and communicative impairment. is more severe? These words hold a world of difference. To deny that a severely autistic brain may house a mind as curious and imaginative as Naoki Higashida’s follow-up book, Fall Down 7 Times Get anyone else’s is to perpetuate a ruinous falsehood. If a critical Up 8: A Young Man’s Voice from the Silence of Autism, about mass of people hadn’t called time on previous “truths” about his experiences, thoughts and feelings as a young adult with autism, the refrigerator mother theory – or even the demonic autism, is published by Sceptre. It has an introduction by David possession theory – would still be reigning supreme. Naoki Mitchell, and is translated by Mitchell and K.A. Yoshida. A and other pioneers may be flagging up the next shift towards longer version of this article first appeared in the New Statesman.

29 JULY 2017 THE WEEK 42 Crossword

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 169

ACROSS DOWN 7 Starry with temperature dropping (6) 1 Making denial say, in a state (8) 8 Who has change in his care? (7) 2 Third-rate laptop due for repair is 10 Effeminate and theatrical David, say in shattered (7,3) America (4) 3 Heard King in ruins (6) 11 Glowing in short Canadian fall (10) 4 Image of semi-conductor not entirely 12 Various water-birds (6) visible (4) 13 Sweet afternoon treats winning lots of 5 Record is broken by policeman? On trophies? (8) the contrary (4) 15 Gen’s pregnant, Al’s gone missing! (4) 6 Fruit for duck on top of cooker (6) 16 Irons perhaps and clubs used in round 9 Express tears over one Woody Allen recalled (5) movie (7) 17 Name of US State line (4) 13 More attractive coastal patrol boat leaking tons (5) 19 PM out to stop leaks from top of the House? (8) 14 Finish sounding like a drunken side- kick! (10) 21 Silly old man is a nut (6) 16 Lack of belief he is showing in source 22 Woozy could make neat birdie (10) of money (7) 25 Vegetable vessel overturned (4) 18 Stay that is pants? Could be! (8) 26 Many eat bananas (7) 20 Sweeties: humbugs not opened (6) 27 Cordial help mostly given by 21 Quote from a dead Italian leader (6) Conservative (6) 23 Some fear bankruptcy coming up for Scottish bank (4) 24 Fish and a loaf served up (4)

Clue of the week: What an MP does before he takes his seat (6, first letter S, last S) Financial Times, Dante

Solution to Crossword 167 ACROSS: 1 Usages 5 Budgeted 9 Appendices 10 I see 11 Cadavers 12 Aweigh 13 Dali 15 Attorney 18 Bonehead 19 Lynx 21 Stasis 23 In the can 25 Fast 26 Even number 27 Hebrides 28 Supper DOWN: 2 Supra 3 Grenadine 4 Sadder 5 Backseat drivers 6 Distaste 7 A PIONEERING BOOK Elite 8 Evergreen 14 About-face 16 Relief map 17 Bedstead 20 Stones 22 Sitar 24 Adele ABOUT HUMAN CAPITAL Clue of the Week: Winning batsman to take out (6, first letter U) Solution: UPROOT OPPORTUNITIES Sudoku 169 IN THE GCC Fill in all the squares so that each row, column and each of the 3x3 squares contains all the digits from 1 to 9

Solution to Sudoku 228

Solution to Sudoku 168

Charity of the week

Adopt-a-Camp Available at all leading bookshops and selected Adopt-a-Camp (AAC) is an initative designed to improve the lives of the outlets in the Gulf and at booksarabia.com thousands of migrant labourers who live and work in the UAE. It has been working for eight years and currently has 50 camps and more than 50,000 Published with the support of men under its wing. Programmes offered by AAC include English language lessons for labourers and the delivery of Ramadan care packages. Visit www.adoptacamp.ae to find out how you can help.

THE WEEK 29 JULY 2017 VOTE NOW

WhatsOn.ae

WhatsOnDubai WhatsOnAbuDhabi #WOawards

Sponsors Vote Processing Partner Presented by