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4 NEWS The main story… Terror overshadows the election With just five days to go before the radicalised in the first place. When election, Britain was struck by he was education secretary, Michael another terrorist attack – the third in Gove likened May’s approach to three months. “Enough is enough,” “waiting to shoot the crocodiles declared the Prime Minister, Theresa when they neared the boat, rather May, after the atrocity, carried out by than seeking to drain the swamp three extremists who used a rented in which they bred”. van to mow down pedestrians on London Bridge before attacking the The row over police cuts is a “red crowds enjoying a balmy Saturday herring”, said The Times. While it’s evening in the adjacent Borough true that overall police numbers Market. The attackers were shot dead and spending have fallen since 2010, by police within eight minutes of the the resources devoted to counter- first call to the emergency services, terrorism have risen. As for the drop by which time they had killed seven in the number of armed officers people, many of whom were stabbed (currently being reversed), it’s more to death, and wounded 48 more (see Armed police on London’s streets important that officers are “trained page 20). The main political parties and mobile than that they are suspended their national campaigns for a day, but agreed that numerous”. Besides, said Richard Littlejohn in the Daily Mail, the election, which polls suggested would be much tighter than May, for all her flaws, is surely a safer bet on this front than previously predicted, should go ahead as planned. her rival. Does anyone seriously think Corbyn is a “fit and proper person to entrust with our national security – let alone Theresa May vowed to step up the fight against jihadism in management of the economy or leading the Brexit talks”? This response to Saturday’s attack. Declaring that Britain had been is a man who has “never met a terrorist he doesn’t like”, and too tolerant of extremism, she outlined a series of policy who has “voted against every single antiterrorism measure measures, including more powers for the security services, which has come before Parliament during his time as an MP”. longer prison sentences for extremists, fresh efforts to tackle Having consistently opposed any kind of shoot-to-kill policy segregation in Britain’s cities, and further regulation of the by the police, Corbyn is now claiming to have changed his internet. But May came under fire over her record on security mind on the issue. If you believe that, you’ll believe anything. as PM and as home secretary. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called on her to resign for presiding over cuts to police May was wrong this week to pledge a raft of new antiterror numbers and funding, accusing measures, said The Guardian. the Tories of trying to “protect Leaders should, of course, the public on the cheap”. Sadiq “The attacks in Manchester and London provide reassuring guidance to Khan, the Labour mayor, also forced a serious end to a frivolous, and the public on matters of accused May of failing to weirdly content-free, election campaign” national security. “But they provide enough security should do so in an atmosphere funding for the capital. becalmed by reasoned debate; not in the frenzy of the final days of a general election.” Some May has “serious questions to answer”, said Owen Jones in accused May of politicising the attack by using such strong The Guardian. She presents herself as tough on security, but rhetoric, said Jane Merrick in The Independent, but she would the statistics tell their own story. Between September 2010 and have been damned by others had she reacted in milder terms. September 2016, the number of police officers in England and Downing Street may have been mindful of the fate of former Wales fell by 13% – 18,991 officers. Between March 2010 Spanish PM José María Aznar, whose party lost a general and March 2016, the number of armed police officers fell by election in 2004 after being criticised for his weak response to 19%, to 5,639. May is also vulnerable over her general the Madrid bombings, which happened three days before the approach to counterterrorism as home secretary, said Rachel vote. It’s no bad thing if counterterrorism strategy does Sylvester in The Times. Many of her colleagues were frustrated become politicised, said Janan Ganesh in the FT. For too long, by her department’s “snail-like implementation” of antiterror discussion of the issue has been left to a “closed world of measures, and by the way it only appeared to be interested in security think tanks, consultants and journalists”. The attacks dealing with extremists once they were an imminent threat to in Manchester and London “forced a serious end” to a the public, rather than trying to prevent them from becoming “frivolous”, and weirdly content-free, election campaign.

It wasn’t all bad Ariana Grande made an emotional return to Manchester this week, to perform at a benefit concert for the victims A British daredevil has broken of last month’s terrorist attack, and their families. The the world record for the fastest 23-year-old American singer fought back tears as she speed reached by a human played in front of 50,000 people at Old Trafford cricket without the help of machinery. ground. “Manchester, I love you so much,” she said, as Fraser Corsan, a former engineer she took to the stage. She was joined by the choir of from Salisbury, jumped out of Parrs Wood High School, from south Manchester, for her a plane 35,000ft above California ballad My Everything, and by Coldplay singer Chris last week: wearing a custom- Martin for a cover of the Oasis hit Don’t Look Back in made wingsuit, he endured Anger. Take That, Liam Gallagher and Justin Bieber also temperatures as low as -70°C, played at the event, which was organised in just a week. and on his descent reached a Fans who had been at Grande’s Manchester Arena speed of 249mph. The previous concert were able to apply for free tickets; others paid record was 234mph; however, £40 to attend the One Love gig, raising £1.5m for the Red Cross’s We Love Manchester appeal; a the 42-year-old must now wait further £2.7m was raised during the concert. Several of those injured in the attack at the Manchester for his feat to be ratified by Arena were in the audience, including Lily Harrison, eight, whom Grande had visited in hospital two

Guinness World Records. days earlier. Doctors had let Lily out for the event, along with two other children from her ward. MCWILLIAM HOWARD CARTOON: COVER

THE WEEK 10 JUNE 2017 …and how it was covered NEWS 5

“untrammelled free markets”. But it was the tone Corbyn’s clever campaign of the Tory campaign that was most off-putting, When Theresa May called a snap election seven said Matthew Parris in the Times. Why did it weeks ago, she was quite reasonably banking on have to be so shrill? The silly slogans and the a Tory landslide, said George Parker in the FT. personal attacks on Corbyn have so irritated Simply by projecting an image of strength, the voters that they now say they “might actually Prime Minister was confident she could romp send to Downing Street a man they’ve already home with a clear mandate for the coming Brexit told pollsters they don’t think is up to the job”. talks. How wrong she has proved to be. Instead Or maybe people just changed their minds about of a procession to Downing Street, May has Corbyn, said Louis Staples in The Independent. faced a “slog to reach the finishing line”. Her I have. Before, he struck me as an “unsure, popularity has slumped. Polls show that 38% of inconsistent” liability. But his performance on the voters see her in a more negative light than they stump suggests an altogether smarter politician. did at the start of the campaign – just 21% have a Instead of being “sucked into an endless battle of more favourable view of her. You can see why, said Andrew sound bites over Brexit”, he played to his strengths, banging Rawnsley in The Observer. In the past few weeks, the PM has the drum for better public services and housing. flip-flopped over the cost of social care and ducked a direct TV debate with Jeremy Corbyn. When put under pressure in Corbyn’s trump card was his promise to deliver better services interviews, she has appeared “rattled” and totally “wooden”, without increasing most people’s taxes, said John Curtice in resembling nothing so much as an ill-programmed automaton. The Daily Telegraph, whereas May confronted the electorate Even some Tories now refer to her as the “Maybot”. with problems it was going to have to face. That was a canny strategy for a man who’d been written off as one of the most May’s biggest error was failing to provide any real offer in the unpopular leaders in polling history. Corbyn has also been able manifesto that voters could latch onto, said James Forsyth in to project an image of “humour, modesty and sincerity”, said The Spectator. Tory candidates had difficulty explaining on the Charles Moore in the same paper, a vital advantage in an age doorstep what people would get by voting Tory, aside from where “authenticity” is the quality voters now tend to look for the “Miliband-like cap on energy bills”. She has also managed in a politician, be it Donald Trump on the Right, or Greece’s to alienate her own party members, said The Economist. A PM, Alexis Tsipras, on the Left. In the hard times since the poll last week conducted by the Conservative Home website credit crunch, voters are increasingly rejecting the established found a majority disenchanted with May’s “Red Toryism” – authorities in favour of new prophets. Only later do they her thinly veiled rejection of Thatcherism and of discover that the prophets turn out to be false ones.

Empty promises? are pots of free money – called ‘corporations’ – out there”. There aren’t. Once the taxman turns So where’s the money coming from? How will up the heat on business, as Labour wants him to, you fund your huge spending plans? That’s what corporate profits tend to “evaporate”. And even the Tories have been asking Labour to explain, if corporate taxes do get paid, the cost is just said Chaminda Jayanetti on Politics.co.uk. But if passed on in higher prices and lower pensions. Labour is muddled on how much it’ll be able to collect in taxes, the Tories are just as muddled Home Secretary Amber Rudd has derided about how much they’ll be spending. Their Labour’s policies as the economics of the “Magic manifesto says, for example, that there will be Money Tree”, said Simon Duke in The Sunday £8bn of extra funding over five years for the Times. She’s right. Jeremy Corbyn promises to NHS. Does this mean £8bn in total (a relative make everyone a winner: students will be freed pittance) or £8bn a year (a significant amount)? No one of the burden of tuition fees, fathers will see paternity pay seems to know. The Tory manifesto is downright misleading, double, railways and utilities will return to public owner- said Philip Aldrick in The Times. An analysis by the Institute ship. But the price of such a utopia would be “colossal”. for Fiscal Studies (IFS) found that despite all its promises of Nationalisation alone would cost £237bn, or £8,777 for extra support for schools, social care and the NHS, overall every household. But this isn’t the only deception practised spending would be broadly unchanged from the last Budget. on the electorate. The Tories, too, have been censured – and rightly – for failing to explain how they can pledge to main- The IFS is just as scathing about Labour’s tax plans, said Tim tain public services while keeping taxes low. So “whoever Harford in the FT. They are built on the “fantasy that there wins, the UK’s voters could be left with a bitter aftertaste”.

Editor-in-chief: Jeremy O’Grady Hope wins votes. Tony Blair knew Editor: Caroline Law that. His Third Way became a Deputy editors: Harry Nicolle, Theo Tait THE WEEK Consultant editor: Jemima Lewis joke, and a tired one at that, but Assistant editor: Daniel Cohen City editor: Jane Lewis Contributing editors: Charity Crewe, Thomas Hodgkinson, Editor-in-Chief: Obaid Humaid Al Tayer after years of Tory rule and two recessions, people were desperate Simon Wilson, Rob McLuhan, William Underhill, Digby Managing Partner and Group Editor: Ian Fairservice Warde-Aldam Editorial staff: Alanna O’Connell, Nell Editorial Director: Gina Johnson to believe that there could be another way. Barack Obama tapped Lewis, Tigger Ridgwell Picture editor: Xandie Nutting Art director: Nathalie Fowler Sub editor: Kari Wilkin Deputy Group Editor – Business: Guido Duken into a similar vein during his first presidential campaign. Yes Production editor: Michael Haydock Contributing Editor: Dominic Ellis Founder and editorial director: Jolyon Connell Senior Art Director: Tarak Parekh We Can! he told a country bruised by the Iraq War and the financial Designer: Sanil Kumar Production Managers: Ebony Besagni, Lawrence Brookes Editorial Assistants: Mabel Alphonso, Londresa Flores crisis. This election, coming after years of austerity and in the wake Newstrade Director: David Barker Direct Marketing Director: Abi Spooner Inserts: Abdul Ahad Classified: General Manager – Production: S Sunil Kumar of the divisive Brexit vote, was short on optimism even before the Emma Greenwood, Henry Haselock, Henry Pickford Production Manager: R. Murali Krishnan Account Manager: Ryan Gisborne-Weare Display Assistant Production Manager: Binu Purandaran terrorist attacks. But for a while, Theresa May did seem to offer that Group Head: Caroline Fenner Account Directors: John Hipkiss, Wayne Russell, Victoria Ryan, Jocelyn Sital-Singh Chief Commercial Officer: Anthony Milne magical thing – the possibility of something new. But just as UK Ad Director: Marc Young Publisher: Jaya Balakrishnan Executive Director – Head of Advertising: David Weeks Senior Sales Manager: Manish Chopra quickly as it had appeared, it disappeared. Will Corbyn’s poll surge Chief Executive, The Week: Kerin O’Connor translate into votes? That may depend on whether he is still COO: Brett Reynolds Head office: Media One Tower, Dubai Media City, Group CFO: Ian Leggett PO Box 2331, Dubai, UAE. Chief executive: James Tye holding the hope ball when the roulette wheel stops turning. Tel: +971 4 427 3000; Fax: +971 4 428 2260 Dennis Publishing founder: Felix Dennis email: [email protected] Jeremy O’Grady 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]

10 JUNE 2017 THE WEEK 6 NEWS Politics

Controversy of the week Tory candidate charged A Tory parliamentary Trump breaks the deal candidate has been charged Last Thursday, on “a fine spring day in Washington DC, Donald over alleged election Trump took the podium in the White House’s Rose Garden and expenses offences. Craig Mackinlay, who is standing announced that he was pulling the United States out of the Paris for re-election as the MP for climate change agreement”, said John Cassidy in The New South Thanet, in Kent, faces Yorker. All his big speeches have been distinguished by their two charges of knowingly “alarmism, fearmongering and negativity”. This was no making a false declaration of exception. The president portrayed the 2015 Paris accord not as his election expenses during “the well-meaning, non-binding and in many ways modest deal” his campaign in 2015, when it is, but as yet another attempt to rip off and exploit the US. he defeated UKIP’s Nigel “This was Trumpism in its full glory – the world as a conspiracy Farage by 2,800 votes. His against its sole superpower.” At what point, he asked, “do they election agent in that campaign, Nathan Gray, has start laughing at us as a country”? The answer is that the also been charged, as has laughing stopped a good while back. party activist Marion Little. Other Tory candidates in the The rest of the world, led by the EU and China, declared that they Are they laughing at us? 2015 election have been would stick to the accords without the US, said Bjørn Lomborg in investigated over claims that The Daily Telegraph. But at some point their resolve will weaken, for the simple reason that the Paris the party spent beyond the treaty “will be hugely costly”, and will do “almost nothing to fix climate change”. It demands the permitted limit by allocating delivery of $100bn a year in “climate aid” to developing nations; and the global price tag for all its the cost of “battlebus” visits promises will reach at least $1trn a year by 2030. Yet green energy is nowhere near ready to take over from fossil fuels, and the pledges in the Paris treaty, even if implemented in full, will come nowhere near to meeting its target of keeping temperature rises below 2°C. All this means that “it is foolish for world leaders to stay fixated on Paris”. “By pulling out, Mr Trump has made good on a campaign pledge,” said The Times. He has also offered an opportunity to take a new approach, less reliant on subsidies for renewable energy “that come at the expense of growth and the worst-off”.

“The Paris agreement is not perfect,” said The Guardian, but it is a start. It is designed to “ratchet up slowly to achieve the target of holding global warming to 2°C”, and it has already encouraged the rapid development of renewable energy sources. Declaring that he represented “the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris”, Trump claimed to be defending America’s jobs and industry, particularly its coal miners, said the FT. The irony is that the solar and wind industries now employ almost three times as many people in the US as coal mining. Many of America’s corporate giants, who have invested heavily in green technology, including General Electric, Apple, Amazon and Goldman Sachs, condemned Trump’s move (so too did the mayor of Pittsburgh). Both in terms of jobs and as national (rather than local) “geopolitical influence, America stands to lose most from this decision”. A “truly businesslike spending, but their cases president” would have exploited the US’s leading position in green energy, said The Economist. were not pursued. Mackinlay Instead, by joining Syria and Nicaragua in rejecting the Paris treaty, Trump has chosen “to abuse could face a fine or up to a the health of the planet, the patience of America’s allies, and the intelligence of his supporters”. year in prison if his case goes to the Crown Court.

Good week for: Election fundraising Spirit of the age The Conservatives have Goody-goodies, after Theresa May confessed that “running raised far more money than Once a staple of the through fields of wheat” was the naughtiest thing she did as any other party in the run-up British diet, the traditional a child. Local farmers, she told ITV, “weren’t too pleased”. to this election. Total fund- pie has had its chips. In a Abba fans, with news that Björn Ulvaeus is opening a restaurant raising for the campaign is recent survey, only 5% of inspired by the Abba musical Mamma Mia!, in Waterloo, south not yet known, but the most people named pie as their London. It will have a Greek island feel, and dancing waiters. recent figures show that the preferred choice of pub party has been given £15.2m meal: steak was the most Adrenaline junkies, after an American rock climber became the since January 2017; Labour, popular option. Even the first to scale El Capitan – a massive granite wall in Yosemite by contrast, has received Pie Appreciation Society National Park – alone, and without a harness or safety gear. The £8.1m. In the week after has fallen on hard times. 3,000ft climb used to take people days to complete, with partners 17 May, the Tories raised Last month it had to and all the kit. Alex Honnold, 31, raced up in less than four hours. £3.77m in large donations cancel its annual charity (those of more than £7,500), pie competition, which Bad week for: dwarfing Labour’s £331,499 used to attract hundreds large donation haul, and the of visitors, owing to a lack Banksy, the graffiti artist, who was warned that he might Lib Dems’ £310,500. Big Tory of members. have broken electoral laws by offering free limited-edition donors during this campaign prints to people who voted against the Tories in seats in his include theatre producer The British Museum is to home city of Bristol. “Send in a photo of your ballot paper John Gore, who gave host an X-rated “Love showing you voted against the Conservative candidate and this £1.05m, and hedge fund Hunt” through its complimentary gift will be mailed to you.” The offer comes founder John Armitage, who collection. The erotica- with a disclaimer, however, saying the prints are campaign gave £500,000. Almost all of themed treasure hunt, material, and not for resale. Labour’s big donations came organised by an external from unions, while the Lib company, promises Noel Gallagher, who came under fire from his own brother for Dems received £230,000 visitors the opportunity going on holiday to Italy instead of playing at Sunday’s benefit from the Joseph Rowntree to “titter at some semi- concert in Manchester. Liam Gallagher, who performed Oasis’s hit Reform Trust. Only the Tories exotic fifth century Greek Live Forever with Coldplay’s Chris Martin, fired off a series are expected to come close pots”, as well as “playful” of tweets criticising Noel’s absence: “Noels out of the country,” to the campaign spending photo ops. he wrote in one. “Get on a plane and play your tunes for the kids.” limit of £19.5m.

THE WEEK 10 JUNE 2017 Middle East at a glance NEWS 7

Damascus, Syria Erbil, Iraq Tehran, Iran Fortress captured: US-backed Syrian forces Independence referendum: Iraq’s Heavy water: Iran has told the aiming to oust Daesh from its Syrian autonomous Kurdish region has International Atomic Energy Agency stronghold Raqqa captured a ruined fortress announced it would hold a referendum on (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog, it on the edge of the city last Wednesday. The US- independence, in a move the central would ship 20 tonnes of heavy water backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which government in Baghdad is likely to oppose abroad to avoid breaching a limit on its includes Arab and Kurdish militias, declared strongly. “I am pleased to announce that the stock of that substance under a landmark the start of its offensive last Tuesday to seize date for the independence referendum has deal with six world powers, officials said. the northern Syrian city from Daesh, which been set for Monday, Sept. 25, 2017,” Heavy water, a moderator used in a type overran it in 2014. By Wednesday, the SDF Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani said on of reactor that can produce plutonium, had moved into the western outskirts of Raqqa Twitter. The idea of Iraqi Kurdish is not the most sensitive part of Iran’s and were trying to advance into an eastern independence has been historically opposed nuclear programme. But Tehran’s stock neighbourhood. Shelling and air strikes from by Iraq and neighbouring Iran, Turkey and of it is restricted to 130 tonnes under its the US-led coalition hit targets around the Syria, as they fear separatism spreading to 2015 deal with the major powers. Iran city’s edges, according to a war monitoring their own Kurdish populations. The Kurds has already breached that limit twice group and the YPG. With tens of thousands of have their own armed force, the Peshmerga, since the deal imposed restrictions on its people uprooted by the fighting, a UN official which in 2014 prevented Daesh from nuclear activities in January last year, warned of a dire humanitarian situation, capturing Kirkuk after the Iraqi army fled in when sanctions against Tehran were also with shortages of food and fuel. The SDF the face of the militants. They are effectively lifted under the agreement. The deal calls called for international humanitarian aid. running the region, also claimed by for Iran’s excess heavy water to be sold to Turkmen and Arabs. Hardline Iranian- a foreign buyer. backed Iraqi Shi'ite militias have threatened to expel the Kurds by force from this region.

Doha, Qatar Ratings downgrade: Standard & Poor’s downgraded Qatar’s debt last Wednesday as the riyal currency fell to an 11-year low amid signs that portfolio investment funds were flowing out of the country because of Doha’s diplomatic rift with other Arab states. S&P cut its long-term rating of Qatar by one notch to AA- from AA and put the rating on CreditWatch with negative implications, meaning there was a significant chance of a further downgrade. Another major rating agency, Moody’s Investors Service, assesses Qatar at Aa3, which is equal to S&P’s new rating. Fitch Ratings puts Qatar at AA. Qatar’s stock index tumbled 9.7% last week days, with high trading volumes suggesting some Gulf and international investors were bailing out of the market and sending their Jerusalem money home. New settlements: Last week an Israeli panel approved plans for the first new Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank in two decades, Dubai, UAE Israeli media reports said, drawing Solar record: Dubai Electricity and Water Palestinian condemnation and Authority has received a record low bid defying repeated international of 9.45 US cents per kilowatt-hour for its appeals to avoid such measures. If Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 200MW concentrated solar power (CSP) confirmed, the plans, which media Arms approval: The US State Department has plant. The bid, which reportedly came said also envisage the construction approved the potential sale of more than $1.4 from Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power, is of some 1,800 other settler homes in billion worth of military training and equipment nearly 40% lower than the previous the West Bank, are likely to deliver a for Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon announced, part international record. Others ranged from further serious blow to efforts to of a $110 billion arms deal US President Donald 10.85 cents to 17.35 cents per kilowatt- revive the moribund Israeli- Trump sealed with the kingdom in May. The hour. The plant, which aims to be the Palestinian peace process. The proposed sales include a radar system, as well as biggest CSP project in the world based reported move follows an Israeli a training programme for the Royal Saudi Air on the independent power producer government decision in March to Force and other Saudi forces inside and outside model, forms the fourth phase of the build the new settlement, known as of Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon said. Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Amichai. It will house some 300 intends to use the radars to support its border Solar Park and is due to be operational settlers evicted in February from security by locating the source of incoming by April 2021. Dubai plans to eventually another settlement called Amona. artillery, rockets and mortars and defending generate 1,000MW from CSP as part of Most countries view settlements that against them. Washington and Riyadh are eager plans to boost capacity at the solar Israel has built on land captured in to improve relations strained during President park from 1,000MW by 2020 to the 1967 Middle East war as illegal. Barack Obama’s administration. 5,000MW by 2030.

10 JUNE 2017 THE WEEK 8 NEWS The world at a glance

Woodstock, Ontario, Canada Norristown, Pennsylvania Serial killer nurse: A former nurse has pleaded guilty to the Cosby trial begins: Bill Cosby, for many first-degree murder of eight elderly patients in nursing homes in years one of America’s best-loved stars, Ontario between 2007 and 2014, in one of the worse serial killer has gone on trial in Norristown, outside cases in Canadian history. Elizabeth Wettlaufer, 49, admitted to Pennsylvania, charged with aggravated injecting 14 residents in total with large doses of insulin. Eight of indecent assault. Cosby (pictured), 79, the victims, aged between 75 to 96, died as a result. Wettlaufer faces up to thirty years in jail if found developed an “urge to kill” after becoming frustrated with her job guilty of drugging and sexually and life, prosecutors said. She “got that ‘red surging feeling’ – and assaulting Andrea Constand at his God telling her, ‘this is the one’”, heard the court, in Woodstock. Philadelphia mansion in 2004. Cosby’s “I just had a sense after my marriage broke up that God was defence team concede that the comedian had a sexual encounter going to use me for something,” she said in a videotaped with Constand, and that he gave her drugs to “calm” her down, confession. “After a while, I started to really wonder, after some but insist that the sex was consensual. In all, some 60 women of the murders, if it was God or if it was the Devil fooling me.” have accused Cosby of sexually assaulting them, but in most She is due to be sentenced later this month. cases, the statute of limitations has expired.

Washington, DC Friends like these: Donald Trump has come under fire from across the political divide in the US for attacking the London mayor’s response to the deadly terrorist assault on the city. Following the atrocity, Sadiq Khan had told Londoners that they would see an increased police presence on the streets in the coming days, and said that they should not be alarmed by this. In response, Trump tweeted: “At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is ‘no reason to be alarmed!’” Trump was accused of deliberately misquoting the mayor, and there were renewed calls from British politicians, including Khan, for his proposed state visit to the UK to be cancelled.

Augusta, Georgia Intelligence leaker charged: An intelligence contractor working for the National Security Agency has been arrested and charged with leaking a classified report on Russia’s attempts to meddle in the US election. It is the first such case brought since Donald Trump’s inauguration, though he has often complained that leaks are undermining his administration. The document reportedly details two cyberattacks by Russia’s intelligence unit, the GRU: one, last August, against a firm that sells voter registration software; the second, a few days before November’s vote, against election officials. Hours after it was published, on Monday, the Justice Department revealed that the alleged leaker, Reality Winner, 25, had been arrested in Augusta, Georgia, two days earlier.

Caracas, Venezuela Violence continues: A Venezuelan judge has been killed in a street protest in Caracas. Nelson Moncada, 37, was – according to some reports – set upon by a gang as he tried to avoid a street barricade in a district that has been the site of frequent clashes between demonstrators and police. He was shot dead, and robbed. His death brings the total number killed since the latest wave of unrest began, on 1 May, to 61; the victims include protesters from both anti- and pro-government groups, police and bystanders. There have been daily demonstrations in Caracas and other cities since President Maduro announced plans to rewrite Venezuela’s constitution, in order – his critics say – to cement his grasp on power.

Santiago, Chile Pinochet’s secret agents jailed: São Paulo, Brazil More than 100 former secret Right-hand man arrested: In the agents have been jailed for latest twist in the corruption saga kidnapping, torturing and that has plunged Brazil into a killing 16 left-wing activists political crisis, police have arrested a close aide and friend of during the Pinochet era in Chile. President Michel Temer, on suspicion of being a corrupt It is the biggest mass sentencing middleman for the president. In a police video released last to date for human rights abuses month, Rodrigo Rocha Loures can be seen running out of a committed during Augusto restaurant in São Paulo carrying a bag that police say was stuffed Pinochet’s dictatorship, between 1973 and 1990. Several of the with 500,000 reals (about £118,000) in cash. Prosecutors believe 106 former agents involved are already serving time for other this money was a bribe from the owners of the country’s biggest crimes. Some 3,000 people were killed or “disappeared” under meatpacking company, JBS. In plea bargain statements, two of Pinochet. Thousands more, including the current president, JBS’s biggest shareholders have admitted to spending 600m reals Michelle Bachelet (pictured), were tortured or forced into exile. (£142m) over several years on bribes to some 1,900 politicians.

THE WEEK 10 JUNE 2017 The world at a glance NEWS 9

Mosul, Iraq Kabul, Doha, Qatar Last stand for Daesh in Iraq: Iraqi civilians Afghanistan Neighbours break off ties: Qatar’s three trapped in the pocket of central Mosul still Funeral bombed: immediate neighbours – Saudi Arabia, the controlled by Daesh say the militant group At least four United Arab Emirates and Bahrain – has been shoring up its defences around people were shot severed diplomatic ties and cut all the city’s Grand al-Nuri Mosque, on the dead by police last transport links with the wealthy Gulf state west bank of the Tigris, apparently in Friday, during on Monday, accusing it of supporting preparation for a final battle with Iraqi violent protests terrorism in the region. Qatari citizens in government forces, which is expected in sparked by the those countries were given two weeks to the coming days and weeks. The Sunni government’s leave. Egypt also expelled Qatari supremacist group captured the city failure to prevent diplomats, and closed its airspace to flights exactly three years ago, and it was from the horrific truck from Qatar. The move follows years of the al-Nuri mosque that its leader, known bombing (blamed on Daesh) two days simmering tensions caused by Qatar’s ties as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared his earlier, in which at least 150 people died. To to the Muslim Brotherhood and to Hamas; self-styled caliphate the following month. compound the sense of a city spiralling into by its funding of the broadcaster Al Jazeera Only a few hundred militants are now chaos, the funeral on Saturday of one of the (which often criticises the Saudi and believed to remain in the Old City and dead protesters was then targeted by a Egyptian authorities); and by the surrounding areas, along with at least multiple bomb attack that killed at least 12 perception that it is open to closer links 200,000 civilians. More than 580,000 mourners. The dead man was the son of a with Iran. In Qatar, which is heavily reliant civilians have fled Mosul since the battle to politician; those attending his funeral on imports, people immediately began retake it began last October. included senior politicians and officials. stockpiling food.

Tokyo, Japan Birth slump: The number of babies born in Japan last year fell below one million for the first time since records began in 1899, a worrying mile- stone in a country already facing a demographic crisis. In 1949, when its rate of population growth peaked, 2.7 million babies were born. Japan’s population reached 127 million at the start of the 2010s, but is now falling. It is projected to plunge to 88 million by 2065, while the proportion of people over 65 looks set to climb.

Dirkou, Niger Manila, Migrants die in Philippines Sahara: At least Casino fire: 44 migrants from Catania, Italy Although West Africa, most of Nationalists block migrants: Daesh claimed them Ghanaians and “Identitarians” from France, Italy, responsibility for Nigerians hoping to reach Europe via Austria, and other European countries last week’s blaze Libya, died of thirst in the Sahara last have raised more than $100,000 to pay for at a Manila week when their truck broke down in boats to harass the charity missions that casino complex, northern Niger. The dead included three rescue migrants from drowning in the police in the babies, two children and 17 women. The Mediterranean Sea. The Identitarian Philippines believe six survivors, all women, trekked to a movement, which started in France, aims the man who started the fire, killing 36 remote village, and are now at a migrant to protect white European identity by people, was not a terrorist but a heavily centre in Dirkou, a Red Cross official said. banning immigration. “We want to get our indebted gambler attempting a robbery. The number of migrants trying to cross the crew, equip a boat, and set sail to chase Father of three and former civil servant desert has surged in recent years, but it is down these enemies of Europe,” said one Jessie Carlos (pictured), in his early 40s, all but impossible to know how many member. Last month, Austrian burst into the casino toting an assault rifle, have died there. Last year, the migration Identitarians blocked SOS Mediterranee, then swept through dousing tables with monitoring group 4Mi published a report, an aid group, from launching a rescue petrol and setting them alight. Most of his based on migrants’ testimonies, which said from Catania in Italy. At least 1,650 victims died of smoke inhalation. He it’s likely that more migrants are dying in migrants have died so far this year trying stuffed chips into a bag, before fleeing to the Sahara than in the Mediterranean Sea. to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. the casino’s hotel, where he shot himself.

10 JUNE 2017 THE WEEK 10 NEWS Europe at a glance

St Petersburg, Russia Dublin, Republic of Ireland “Patriotic” hackers: President Vladimir Ireland’s new prime minister: Leo Varadkar, the Putin has admitted that “patriotic” private son of an Indian immigrant, has been elected citizens could have been involved in leader of Ireland’s governing centre-right Fine hacking attacks in last year’s US election, Gael party and will become prime minister but repeated his insistence that the Russian (or taoiseach) as early as next week. Varadkar state played no part in them. The (right), the social protection minister in suggestion, in response to questions from departing PM Enda Kenny’s government, will be reporters in St Petersburg, is a departure its youngest ever PM at 38. He was a doctor from the Kremlin’s previous blanket before entering politics; his father is a doctor denial of any Russian involvement. Putin’s from Mumbai, and his mother a nurse from new stance is reminiscent of a previous County Waterford. He won a clear majority among Fine Gael’s MPs and councillors, claim made by the Kremlin that Russian who make up two parts of the party’s three-part electoral college. Among party soldiers fighting alongside separatists in members, however, he lost out to the only other candidate, Simon Coveney. eastern Ukraine were simply volunteers. In Though Varadkar’s rise is seen as emblematic of Ireland’s move towards more liberal January, US intelligence agencies social attitudes, he is himself a staunch conservative known for his right-wing views on concluded that Putin himself directed welfare, economics, law and order, and abortion. By far the biggest policy challenge a Russian “influence campaign” involving facing him is Brexit, which threatens to stir up tensions with Northern Ireland and to cyberattacks and disinformation. severely disrupt Ireland’s economy.

Copenhagen, Denmark Blasphemy law scrapped: The case against a Danish man who had filmed himself burning the Koran and then posted a video of it on Facebook in 2015 was dropped this week, after MPs ruled to scrap the country’s 334-year-old blasphemy laws. The unnamed defendant had been due to appear in court on blasphemy charges this week. There have been only a handful of prosecutions for blasphemy in the past 80 years in Denmark, the most recent being in 1971, when two Denmark Radio producers who had aired a song mocking Christianity were acquitted. Other high-profile cases have been considered but were not pursued. “Religion shouldn’t dictate what is allowed and what is forbidden to say publicly,” said the MP Bruno Jerup. However, it remains illegal to threaten or degrade people on account of their religious beliefs, under other laws.

Paris, France Macron party “heading for landslide”: Rotterdam, Netherlands Turin, Italy Opinion polls suggest that the fledgling Sperm donor scandal: A Dutch court has Piazza stampede: political party created by France’s new ruled that DNA tests should be carried out More than president, Emmanuel Macron – La on items belonging to the recently deceased 1,500 people République En Marche! (REM) – is set to director of a fertility clinic, who is were injured in secure a landslide victory in parliamentary suspected of using his own sperm to father a square in Turin elections scheduled for this weekend and dozens of children. Jan Karbaat, who died on Saturday the next. It had been thought that sleaze in April at the age of 89, had refused DNA when a stampede allegations against one of Macron’s tests during his lifetime. But according to a broke out among ministers (see page 17) might have dented lawyer representing 22 plaintiffs (both the football fans his popularity, but the polls (which children and their parents), he once watching their team, Juventus, on giant accurately predicted the presidential result) claimed to have fathered 60 children: the TV screens. The Piazza San Carlo was suggest otherwise – and that he might even plaintiffs now want to establish whether packed with thousands of people watching secure the biggest absolute majority for a he was their biological father. Karbaat’s the Champions League final, in Cardiff, single party in modern French history. Such clinic, in Rotterdam, was shut down in when loud bangs – possibly from fire- a victory would boost Macron’s chances of 2009 over allegations that he had falsified crackers – triggered a stampede in which pushing through his ambitious plans to data and sperm donor descriptions, and people were crushed, knocked down and reform France’s labour laws. His party is had exceeded the permitted maximum of trampled. “They shouted, ‘There’s a bomb, fielding candidates in 526 seats (out of a six children per donor. However, the court evacuate the square’,” a member of the total of 577), of whom 266 are women. ruling is only the first step in the plaintiffs’ crowd told La Stampa. “So we ran away.” More than half have never before held quest: it also ruled that the DNA samples Most of the injured were treated for cuts political office; those who have are drawn should remain sealed pending further or light injuries; but three people were from both sides of the political spectrum. corroborating evidence of paternity. reportedly in a serious condition.

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560818 ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT MATTERS motivatepublishing.com 12 NEWS People

The Trump tape accomplice of a pleaser, wanting celebrities Billy Bush is still reeling from to like me and fit in… I wish I “Pussygate”. Last October, at had changed the topic. I wish the peak of the US presidential I had said: ‘Does anyone want election, an 11-year-old water?’ or ‘It looks like it’s recording was leaked to the gonna rain.’ I didn’t have the press featuring Bush – then a strength of character to do it.” rookie TV reporter – chatting off-camera with Donald Ecclestone’s precious bond Trump. While Trump boasted Tamara Ecclestone’s life has about grabbing women , Bush taken an unexpected turn since (a nephew of George H.W. the birth of her daughter, Bush) giggled ingratiatingly Sophia, three years ago. The and egged him on. The tape multimillionaire daughter of didn’t stop Trump becoming Bernie Ecclestone, she was president, but it did torpedo previously best known for her Bush’s career. He was sacked £70m Kensington mansion, from his dream job as a with its crystal bathtub, and presenter at NBC, and pilloried her collection of 45 Birkin bags, for sexism. But the worst thing, but is now an ardent advocate he told The Hollywood of “attachment parenting”. Reporter, was explaining “Until January, when I first himself to his three daughters. took Sophia to nursery, the The eldest, Mary, then 15, longest we had ever been apart called him in tears when the was six-and-a-half minutes, story broke. “She said, ‘Why when I went on a television were you laughing at the things show,” she told Louise Gannon that he was saying on that bus, in The Sunday Telegraph. Dad? They weren’t funny.’ It Sophia still breastfeeds, and hit really hard, and I stopped has never spent a single night LA’s favourite lifestyle guru for a second, and I said, ‘I have in her own cot – preferring to Amanda Chantal Bacon is the queen of the wellness industry, said no answer for that that’s any sleep between her parents. This Molly Young in The New York Times. The founder of Los Angeles good. I am really sorry.’” has, admits Ecclestone, caused health spot Moon Juice, a high-end, “plant-sourced alchemy” store Seeing it from his daughters’ some friction between her and where celebrity customers purchase juices laced with vanilla perspective was a wake-up call. her husband, businessman Jay mushroom powder and “Brain Dust,” Bacon pioneered the lifestyle “When a woman watches that Rutland. “Jay is not the most scene – paving the way for fellow wellness gurus like Gwyneth tape – and this is what really important person in my life. Paltrow and Jessica Alba. Bacon, 34, has been on a strict diet ever hit me – they may be asking Sophia is. He’s found that since she was a sickly child, when an Ayurvedic doctor visiting from themselves, ‘Is that what difficult at times, which I think India approached her after hearing her cough. He asked her a series happens when I walk out of a lot of men do.” But their of questions – “very typical Ayurvedic ones, like ‘How often do you a room? When I walk out of marriage is strong, she says, poop?’” – and examined her tongue. The man gave her mother a list a meeting, is that what they’re and they have the right of forbidden foods, including cow’s milk, wheat, and white sugar, saying about me? Are they priorities. “I wouldn’t care if I and she became a vegetarian shortly thereafter. Today, Bacon sizing me up?’ I can’t live with lived in a council house if it recommends a host of exotic foodstuffs, including ho shou wu, that. If a moment like that was just me, Sophia and Jay. In silver needle tea, pearl, reishi, Cordyceps, quinto shots, and bee arose again, I would shut it my house, there are rooms I pollen. She sells a line of mixed herbs designed for specific effects, down quickly.” Alas, at the never even go into. As long as including “Power Dust”, for $30 a jar. Bacon insists they’re worth time, Bush was just starting out, we were together, I could every penny. “I hear incredible stories from people. The herbs, they and “an insecure person, a bit survive anything.” work. They all work.”

Castaway of the week Viewpoint: This week’s edition of Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs featured Farewell the award-winning British theatre producer Sonia Friedman Being European Roy Barraclough, “Hearing someone use the first-person actor who played 1 Hide and Seek, written and performed by Imogen Heap plural in such a way as to exclude you never pub landlord 2* Clair de Lune by Debussy, performed by Clair Llewellyn Friedman feels good. So I was lower-lip-tremblingly Alec Gilroy in 3 Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor BWV 1043 (Second hurt when I heard of Angela Merkel’s speech Coronation Movement) by Bach, performed by Leonard Friedman, Richard declaring that the US and Britain were no Street, died 1 Friedman and members of The Scottish Baroque Ensemble June, aged 81. longer to be relied upon. ‘We Europeans 4 Children and Art (from the musical Sunday in the Park with Helen Dunmore, George) by Stephen Sondheim, performed by Maria Friedman must take our destiny in our own hands,’ she said. We Europeans! All my adult life poet and Orange 5 Our Time (from the musical Merrily We Roll Along) by Stephen Prize-winning Sondheim, performed by Mark Umbers, Damian Humbley and I’ve been thinking of myself as a European. author, died 5 Jenna Russell Merkel’s speech will come to have the same June, aged 64. 6 The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams, performed by Richard importance as the 1962 press conference at Peter Sallis, actor Friedman, the London Festival Orchestra and Ross Pople which Charles de Gaulle was asked to name who lent his voice 7 Sunrise, Sunset (from Fiddler on the Roof) by Jerry Bock and authors who in his view represented the to Wallace and Sheldon Harnick, performed by the Friedman family greatness of Europe. Without hesitation, he Gromit, died 2 8 And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going (from Dreamgirls), by replied: ‘Dante, Goethe, Chateaubriand.’ June, aged 96. Henry Krieger and Tom Eyen, performed by Amber Riley The journalist who had asked the question Sir Jeffrey Tate, Book: The Oxford Book of English Verse said, ‘Shakespeare…?’ De Gaulle fixed him conductor, died with a gaze and replied: ‘Européen?’” Luxury: a cello * Choice if allowed only one record 2 June, aged 74. Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian

THE WEEK 10 JUNE 2017 Briefing NEWS 13 A disunited kingdom at the polls This election, it’s said, is essentially about Brexit. But if that is true for England, it is even more so for the other home nations

How does Brexit play in Scotland? could rejoin the EU were it to become It’s an overriding issue that has given part of a united Ireland. Such a guarantee new impetus to the SNP’s push for is unprecedented, says the Irish columnist independence. Scotland, of course, voted Fintan O’Toole: the EU “has offered an strongly (by 62% to 38%) to remain in incentive to part of an existing European the EU; and the main announcement in state to join another state”. the SNP’s election manifesto, launched last week, was its call for another And is Irish unity likely? referendum on independence, “Indyref2”, In principle, Sinn Féin wants a to be held at “the end of the Brexit referendum on Irish unity, though it is process”, whenever that might be. (This is unlikely to pursue this in the short term: a slight softening of Nicola Sturgeon’s it has been ruled out by British and Irish earlier demand for a vote in 2018 or governments, and recent polls suggest 2019.) The SNP won last year’s Holyrood that little more than 20% of Northern election with a manifesto demanding Irish voters would like to join the Indyref2; it also won a recent vote on the Republic. Even in the South, only 60% subject in the Scottish Parliament. So of voters support the idea of unification. a big win in this election will seal what Sturgeon calls the referendum “triple Sturgeon: demanding another referendum So how will Brexit affect the vote? lock” – making it that much harder for Northern Ireland’s 18 Westminster seats Westminster to deny the legitimacy of holding another one. are at present split on nationalist/unionist lines: the nationalists have seven (Sinn Féin four; the SDLP three); the unionists have 11 What does the SNP want to do about Brexit? (the DUP eight; the UUP two; and one independent). The SDLP It would like an independent Scotland to reapply to join the EU. and the Greens, like Sinn Féin, are also “anti-Brexit”, while the But as long as Scotland stays part of the UK, SNP policy is that, non-sectarian Alliance seeks “the softest Brexit possible”. But post-Brexit, it should remain inside the EU single market and the unionists are divided: the DUP has long been Eurosceptic, and customs union (while the Tory manifesto promises to take Britain campaigned strongly for Brexit. The more moderate UUP went out of both). It’s unclear if that would be possible, but the SNP the other way, deciding that leaving the EU posed an “existential argues there are precedents for such a mix-and-match approach: threat” to the UK. In practice, views on Brexit probably won’t the Channel Islands, for instance, are outside the EU but largely affect the result, though Sinn Féin, currently riding high, may take inside the single market. But one thing both the Tories and the the ultra-marginal seat of Fermanagh and South Tyrone from the SNP do agree on is that as the UK leaves the EU, some powers UUP. However, the issue is sure to add to the bad feeling between repatriated from Brussels should go to Edinburgh. Sinn Féin and the DUP, the two largest parties in the Stormont Assembly. The devolved power-sharing government between them How do Scottish voters feel about the SNP’s stance? has been suspended since January. Unless a compromise can be Since the Brexit vote, support for both independence and another reached by 29 June, direct rule from London could be imposed. referendum on the subject has declined sharply. Even so, the SNP looks set to secure a big majority once again (it has consistently And how has Brexit affected the situation in Wales? polled above 40%), though it seems unlikely to match its stellar Unlike Northern Ireland and Scotland, Wales voted for Leave (by 2015 result, when it won 56 out of 59 seats. All the opposition 52.5% to 47.5%). And though not as marked as in Scotland, this parties, however, are against another independence referendum. too represented something of a turning point. The Brexit vote And it is the Tories, under Ruth Davidson, who are seen as being showed a deep resentment in Labour heartlands, against both best placed to oppose one. Scottish politics has, in fact, been immigration and the current Welsh political elite. It underlined the reshaped by the two referendums. The 2014 one on independence fact that Labour’s historical grip on Wales, particularly strong in precipitated the collapse of Scottish Labour, which found itself the heavily industrialised and unionised South Wales Valleys, has outflanked on the Left by the SNP, and outshone by a more vital gradually fallen as heavy industry has crumbled. grass-roots operation. Since then, the Tories seem to have overtaken Labour UKIP: the voice of English nationalism? Who is likely to win there? as Scotland’s second party. Yet Brexit, many have observed, has turned UKIP into In April, polls suggested that by everything could change if the final a single-issue party without an issue. Certainly it appealing to disaffected Labour Brexit deal is perceived as a poor one. seemed to implode after the referendum. Nigel Farage voters, the Conservatives might win quit; his successor, Diane James, resigned after 18 in Wales for the first time since the What about Northern Ireland? days; the favourite to succeed her, Steven Woolfe, was 1850s; they gave the Tories around Northern Ireland also voted for hospitalised after an “altercation” with a colleague. In 40% to Labour’s 30%. But Labour Remain (by 56% to 44%). And, as in March this year, its only MP, Douglas Carswell, still has a strong party machine in resigned from the party, describing it as a case of “job Scotland, the vote brought constitu- done”. Short of both money and enthusiasm, UKIP is Wales, and in recent weeks Labour’s tional issues to the fore. The big issue standing in only 378 seats at this election, compared resurgence has been particularly here is the border with the Republic. with 624 seats in 2015. pronounced. The most recent polls Currently near-invisible, it could The party’s new leader, Paul Nuttall, thinks its future suggest the current distribution of become a hard border once again if it lies in championing “Englishness”, which he calls “the seats – 25 for Labour, 11 for the is the UK’s only land frontier with the one national identity in our island that is not allowed to Tories, three for Plaid Cymru and one EU – opening old wounds from the speak its name” – a departure from UKIP’s hitherto for the Liberal Democrats – would Troubles. The Tories have promised strong endorsement of unionism. His manifesto insists remain largely unchanged, with a “frictionless” border, but how this on English votes for English laws; a “one in, one out” Labour perhaps even gaining a seat. would be achieved remains unclear. immigration system; and a ban on wearing the burka As Professor Roger Scully of Cardiff The EU has called for “flexible and in public. The response hasn’t been encouraging. UKIP University puts it, Labour seems “to imaginative solutions”, and has even won 12.6% of the vote at the last election: polls now be winning the campaign, if not the suggest it will win less than 5% this time around. guaranteed that Northern Ireland election as a whole”.

10 JUNE 2017 THE WEEK 14 NEWS Best of the Arabic language articles

Commenting on the 1967 war and the resulting Israeli occupation of Arab lands, Hazem Saghieh writes: “The Arab defeat in 1967 is strongly associated with a destructive military- The 50th ideological system. Good examples of this are the destruction of education, nationalisation of journalism, dissolution of parties, suspension of parliament and a brain drain. As a result, some anniversary of well-known Arab intellectuals – who have analysed the 1967 war – believe the grounds behind it not only defeated the ruling regimes and their armies, but also all aspects of Arab life. The the Six-Day War military structures, according to the late Syrian intellectual Yassin Hafez, recovered quicker than the cultural and intellectual structures that are more important.” Saghieh believes this Hazem Saghieh interpretation turns a blind eye to the important truth that political regimes have a major role in forming and adjusting cultural and intellectual structures. The An-Nasiriya and Baathist Al-Ittihad Newspaper regimes clearly intruded into activities beyond state control. This doesn’t necessarily mean that authoritarian regimes can’t win wars nor respect the self-determination of their people. “It has been 50 years since the Arab defeat in the 1967 war,” says Saghieh. “In the wake of the Arab Spring, concerns are rising that the conditions behind the 1967 defeat are appearing again.”

Al-Arab columnist Khairallah Khairallah writes: “A Palestinian rift is increasingly Gaza strip deepening under the weak national authority. This is considered a minor mired in matter compared to Hama’s role in taking control of the Gaza Strip and foiling the crises Palestinian national project. In the summer of 2005, Israeli forces withdrew Khairallah Khairallah from the Gaza Strip and vacated their Al-Arab Newspaper settlements. The reason behind that was not innocent as they planned to take over the West Bank and Western Jerusalem. Hamas subsequently filled the void and it has not established a Palestinian authority in Gaza that serves as a nucleus for the State of Palestine. Instead, Hamas does its utmost to prove that Palestinians are not capable of statehood. It has plunged Palestinian hopes into chaos ranging from deploying weapons in Gaza, staging a 2007 coup and firing random rockets, which allows Israel to justify its blockade of the Gaza Strip,” says Khairallah. “Ten years later, the Muslim Brotherhood in the Gaza Strip has achieved their aims in foiling the Palestinian national project, as well as spreading poverty, depression and darkness. More importantly, Israel loses nothing as long as Hamas and its hooded men ‘represent’ the people of Palestine,” concludes Khirallah.

Columnist Elias Harfoush writes: “While the Arab country is mired in massacres, the horrors of war, as well as remapping its boundaries, the Lebanese people are also facing Sectarian the enactment of a new law on elections. The Lebanese people are pinning all their hopes on this law to establish a new parliament, especially as the constitutional term of the war in current parliament expired four years ago.” Harfoush thinks that the new law is as dangerous as the sectarian divides in the region. Each party has its own region and self- Lebanon determination, resulting in mutual fear between parties. Unlike other countries that deal with such divides through violence, the Lebanese people are enshrining sectarian Elias Harfoush divisions into the constitution and legislation. In fact, the law that is on the table is Al-Hayat newspaper derived from the slogan “rectifying the sectarian representation in the Parliament”, which was coined by the Christian parties who point to the importance of Christian representatives according to the Orthodox law that provided that each party shall elect its representatives. On the other hand, this law has not currently entered into force. “The verification of such representatives was not a problem before the civil war triggered off sectarian parties which still control the political process in Lebanon. The Lebanon Christians are justifiedly proud of their open-mindedness and communication with the other parties as well as their role in Arab development,” believes Harfoush.

“Since the bloodless coup in 1995, Qatar Qatar has adopted a political approach that undermines regional unity and deepens rifts undermines that are consistent with Iran’s policies to destabilise other states and disseminate regional unity terrorism. Furthermore, Qatar has supported radicalism by providing the Syrian militants Roqaya Al-Zumea and Salafis with tens of millions of dollars Al-Arabiya.net through secret funding networks for more than 20 years worldwide. This political approach is incompatible with the GCC policies that stress a united front and respecting the sovereignty of states,” writes Roqaya Al-Zumea on Al-Arabiya.net. Terrorism is strongly associated with Qatari funding, Iranian support and the Libyan adventures of Qadhafi, which are the basis for funding, training and supporting the terrorist groups. According to the conduct of Qatar and Iran there is a desire to influence and meddle in other countries by supporting organisations, outlawed persons and the agendas of those countries to achieve their goals,”adds Al-Zumea.

THE WEEK 10 JUNE 2017 Best articles: International NEWS 15

Is Trump’s “young princeling” way out of his depth? “He was supposed to be the calm Observer, and used its columns, so one, cool and unflappable under his its editors have alleged, to “strike Ray-Bans and beltless blue bespoke back” against business rivals. He suits,” said David Freedlander on stepped down as head of Kushner Politico. Jared Kushner, President Companies when he joined the Trump’s handsome son-in-law and White House, but he remains a senior advisor – a soft-spoken stakeholder in the firm, with trusts Manhattan liberal – was going to worth an estimated $600m. be the moderating influence in the White House who would temper Jared also served as a “slumlord” Trump’s worst instincts. It hasn’t in another part of the Kushner worked out that way. Kushner, 36, empire, said Alec MacGillis in The is now the focus of an investigation New York Times – a subsidiary into possible collusion between the firm, JK2 Westminster, which owns Trump campaign and Russia. It was some 8,000 run-down properties Kushner who reportedly tried to set from Baltimore to Toledo, and up a secret communications channel which has filed hundreds of law with the Kremlin while President Charles and Jared Kushner: a “clannish mentality” suits against impoverished tenants Obama was still in office. It was he for breaking leases or missing rent who is said to have urged Trump to fire then FBI director James payments. When one former tenant was told his landlord was Comey over the Russia probe. People who know Kushner from the president’s son-in-law, he replied, “That Jared Kushner? Oh his real estate days say ruthless risk-taking has always been “part my God. And I thought he was the good one.” As a rich kid of the Kushner way: unfailingly polite and urbane on the surface with a glamorous wife, Kushner was bound to stir resentment, while searching for the soft underbelly to stick the knife in”. said Andrew C. McCarthy on NationalReview.com. But if he has erred, it is likely to be from naiveté. The “young princeling”, To understand Kushner, said Ted Sherman on NJ.com, you must as West Wing rivals call him, has been given an absurdly broad look at the family drama that forged him – an epic family feud policy portfolio, “the holy grail of Middle East peace” included, worthy of The Sopranos that brought down Kushner’s father, even though he has no experience of diplomacy or government. real estate mogul Charles Kushner. In a bid to stop his sister’s His worst crime is probably being completely “out of his depth”. husband blabbing to federal agents probing the family’s tax affairs, Charles paid a prostitute to seduce the brother-in-law. Even so, Kushner represents a major liability for Trump, said But the attempted blackmail backfired and Jared’s father was David Brooks in The New York Times. Our nation’s founders sent to jail after pleading guilty to 18 felony counts. His sought to “build a government of laws, not of hereditary blood imprisonment weighed heavily on Jared, who visited him weekly lines”, but Kushner and Trump share a “clannish mentality” in in jail in Alabama. He also took over the family business, said which there is no right or wrong – just fierce loyalty to family. Michael Kranish in The Washington Post. And, determined to When your clan is under attack, you fight, and seek vengeance restore the Kushner reputation, he then made an incredibly risky against the enemy. It was that clannishness which motivated move that almost sank it: he paid a then-record $1.8bn for a Kushner to defend his father and expand his empire, and which 41-storey office building on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue. Kushner will prompt Trump to stick by the husband of his beloved has spent years searching for investors to save the over-leveraged daughter Ivanka no matter what, even to the point of damaging deal – Chinese ones, and very possibly Russian ones, too. He himself. As federal and congressional investigators focus on even went out and bought a newspaper, The New York Kushner, it could spell the Trump administration’s undoing.

Will America never learn, asks Maseer. President Trump’s new strategy in Afghanistan appears to be AFGHANISTAN to boost US troop numbers and give them greater latitude to call in air strikes. But we know what that means: more US air strikes result in more dead Afghan children. It’s already happening. Last America will week, after the Taliban clashed with Afghan security forces in the eastern Nangarhar Province, a US aircraft responded by bombing civilians instead of the insurgents, killing two children and three pay for these women. In another air raid in the same province, one man lost three of his children, including a baby, and all his livestock. Needless to say, Afghan officials, who welcome the increased US involvement in deadly raids the war, remain “silent about these crimes”. But people know what’s going on. And as the Americans Maseer repeat their attacks on “women, children and other innocent people”, as more civilians die at their hands, grieving survivors will throw their support behind the Taliban instead of the government in (Kabul) Kabul. “They will take up arms to take revenge.” If the government is genuinely committed to stability in Afghanistan, it should “ask its strategic allies to stop these barbaric acts”.

South Africa is no longer a democracy, says Ranjeni Munusamy. It’s now a business run for the profit SOUTH AFRICA of President Jacob Zuma and the Gupta family. The brothers Ajay, Atul, and Rajesh Gupta relocated from India to South Africa in 1993 as apartheid was ending, and became friendly with the Zumas. A country All too friendly. A network of companies linked to the Guptas, involved in everything from mining to media and IT, now receives virtually all government contracts. To make matters worse, in March that’s now run the president fired the highly respected finance minister Pravin Gordhan, and replaced him with a Gupta crony: Malusi Gigaba. As public enterprises minister at the start of this decade, it was Gigaba by crooks who paved the way for a Gupta empire by giving Gupta-linked firms preferential access to govern- ment contracts. But Zuma may have overreached himself: the sacking of Gordhan has outraged Daily Maverick everyone – businesses, churches, unions, academics. A team of leading academics from four (Johannesburg) universities, the State Capacity Research Project, has now written a detailed report showing how South Africa fell victim to “a ‘silent coup’ by an organised criminal network”. The next step is clear: a judicial inquiry into “corruption, fraud, money laundering, racketeering and, possibly, treason”.

10 JUNE 2017 THE WEEK 16 NEWS Best articles: British

The media have characterised this election as a clash between the generations, says Peter Preston. And so it is: in the media as much IT MUST BE TRUE… Too many as in the electorate. For the fact is that election coverage in Britain I read it in the tabloids is dominated by “shouty” old white men: Andrew Neil (68), John “shouty” old Humphrys (73), Robert Peston (57) and Jeremy Paxman (67). An antisocial Spanish woman reportedly pretended to be white men And that’s a problem: the belligerent, impatient tone of these men blind for 28 years, so that she reduces too many interviews to quick-fire, ritual put-downs. The wouldn’t have to stop and say routine assumption –“that the politicians are in the studio to lie Peter Preston hello to people in the street. and be taken down” – is an excuse for endless interruptions, Carmen Jiménez, 57, told The Observer which just lead the politicians to retreat into sound bites. Yet when everyone, including her own issues are calmly discussed at length, as they are in France, say, or family, that she’d lost her Spain, the viewer learns so much more. It’s no coincidence that the vision in an accident. Her most-reported interview last week was a low-key discussion on husband and family were Woman’s Hour between Jeremy Corbyn and presenter Emma shocked when she came clean, yet not entirely Barnett (32), someone young enough to have experienced the surprised. They’d felt there struggles with debt and housing being discussed. It’s not just our was something fishy about politics that needs to move forward: it’s the way they’re presented. her story: her husband said she could put on her makeup The Tories are “encouraging segregation in our playgrounds”, perfectly, and that they says Alice Thomson. Ten years ago, owing to fears that our sometimes caught her Faith schools education system was becoming ghettoised, a cap of 50% was looking at the TV from the introduced on the percentage of pupils that new faith schools corner of her eye. “I’ve never just encourage could select on the basis of their parents’ religious beliefs. But the been a very social person,” she said. “By pretending to division Tories want to change this: their manifesto includes a little-noticed be blind, I was able to avoid pledge to let new schools select entirely by faith. It’s not a response many social responsibilities.” Alice Thomson to public demand: a recent poll showed that four out of five voters want the cap retained. No, the reason it’s in the manifesto is that The Times the Tories are desperate for people to set up more free schools. They promised 500 new ones by 2020, but are “finding it hard to attract enough sponsors. Barely any free schools authorised to open last year were parent-led.” The Catholic Church, however, has hinted that if the cap were lifted, it would open new free schools; Muslim and Hindu communities may follow suit. So the Tories may hit their schools target, but at the expense of fostering division and indoctrination. And that is too high a cost.

Jeremy Corbyn goes on about closing the gap between rich and poor, says John Rentoul. How odd then that his party plans to do If you care so little about it. Look at Labour’s spending plans. The big item in its manifesto is axing tuition fees and reinstating student grants, at about the poor, a cost of £11bn a year. But as graduates tend to end up in the top A 70ft-high cutout of half of the income range, this is really a subsidy for the better-off. Theresa May mysteriously – vote Lib Dem Likewise the £5bn a year pledge to extend free childcare from the and briefly – appeared on “means-tested poor” to everyone else: it’s a handout to the middle the White Cliffs of Dover John Rentoul class. The surest way to protect the poor would be to reverse the this week. The giant 2D benefits freeze and the cut to working tax credits – two Tory The Independent effigy featured the PM in a policies that entail a big transfer from the bottom third of income Union flag skirt, and earners to the rest of us. Yet Labour has balked at doing so. The sticking two fingers up upshot, as an analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies reveals, is towards the Channel, and that in terms of the impact on the poor, there’s little to choose Europe. It was erected on between Corbyn’s programme and Theresa May’s. Both end up Monday, by parties taking from the badly off and giving to the upper income brackets. unknown, filmed by a drone, Only the Lib Dem’s policies would protect poor people’s incomes. and then taken down again. So if you’re a socialist, you should vote for Tim Farron’s party. An Indian judge has been How times change, says Simon Kuper. If you’d told me back in May mocked for claiming that 2005 that in 2017 the Tories would be on course to extend their rule peacocks do not mate, but The Tories: a to 12 years, I’d have laughed. That was the year in which the party sire offspring through their lost its third straight election in a row. It “looked doomed”. Its tears. Justice Mahesh return from voting base of ageing white men was “literally dying out”; its Chandra Sharma made the bizarre remark after the dead reactionary stance on issues such as traditional relationships and recommending that the cow single mothers was hopelessly out of tune with the times. Essentially, – considered holy by Hindus – it was “a resistance movement against the zeitgeist”. True, by 2005 Simon Kuper be declared India’s national people had come to see the Iraq invasion as a mistake, but not one animal, because it is “as Financial Times which would change their world. At that time, voters would tell pious as a peacock”. pollsters that they preferred the present to the past. Indeed, 2005 “A peacock is a lifelong was “Britain’s last upbeat election”: it had just enjoyed its longest celibate,” he explained, at period of economic growth in 200 years; IRA terrorism had ended; the Rajasthan High Court, on Islamist terrorism had barely begun here. And if many shared the his final day before retiring. “It never has sex with the Tories’ dislike of large-scale immigration, just 8% named it as their peahen. The peahen gets key electoral issue, and hardly anyone wanted to talk about the EU. pregnant after swallowing Who’d have guessed back then that the “enduring Tory promise to the tears of the peacock.” return to the past” would so quickly regain its allure?

THE WEEK 10 JUNE 2017 Best articles: Europe NEWS 17

A neo-Nazi party that makes the National Front look civilised It’s one thing having to rub shoulders for instance, by proposing semi-official with far-right populists, said Radovan vigilante patrols be set up in Roma Geist on Euractiv.com (Bratislava). But areas. A ban may be legally justified, how do you cope with ardent neo- but that doesn’t mean it will work, said Nazis? That is the problem facing Peter Morvay in Denník N (Bratislava). democratic politicians in Slovakia. Kotleba has faced bans before: a party They’re desperate to see the back of he founded previously, Slovak Marian Kotleba and his People’s Party Togetherness, was dissolved in 2006, Our Slovakia – an outfit so toxic it but he simply came up with a new one. makes France’s National Front look As long as he fills a need, he’ll do well. civilised by comparison. The party His supporters, many of them first-time glorifies the wartime leader Jozef Tiso, voters in depressed areas, yearn for whose Nazi puppet regime sent more “strongman” rule. And they can’t just than 70,000 Jews to German death be wished away by decree. Bavaria camps, and who was hung as a war Kotleba: strutting around in a black uniform outlawed Hitler’s Nazis in the 1920s – criminal. Kotleba caused consternation that didn’t stop them gaining power. in 2013 by getting himself elected as a regional governor, but worse was to follow. In elections last year, his party won 8% of The Slovak political scene is a “shabby mess” of corrupt politi- the vote and 14 seats in parliament, and recent polls put them in cians who’ve lost voters’ trust, said Martin Ehl on Transitions third place at 11%. Now the general prosecutor has appealed to Online (Prague). Fortunately, it also has a rich history of civic the country’s Supreme Court to ban the party, on the grounds activism. In the 1990s, Slovakia was dominated by the three- that its behaviour is unconstitutional. time prime minister Vladimír Meciar, an autocrat with links to organised crime, who clearly hoped to make himself dictator. It’s a drastic step, but the government should have acted sooner, But he was eventually seen off, largely thanks to initiatives by said Márius Kopcsay in SME (Bratislava). A party like Kotleba’s ordinary Slovaks who raised cash and organised rallies. That’s “has no place in any civilised country”. Its supporters are happening again. Activists have been engaging with Kotleba’s skinheads who wear Nazi regalia and shout “sieg heil” at rallies; supporters to try to dissuade them: in April, thousands took until elected governor, Kotleba used to strut around in a black part in an anti-fascist protest in Bratislava, organised by two uniform. He and his crew deny the Holocaust, “cynically mock 18-year-olds. Will any of this stem the neo-Nazi tide? We’ll only its victims”, and fuel hatred of other religions and ethnic groups; know after the regional elections in November.

After less than a month in office, President Macron is being tested by scandal, says Sylvain Courage. FRANCE Richard Ferrand, his campaign manager and now housing minister, stands accused of financial impropriety: as former head of an insurance fund, he is said, among other things, to have channelled Macron won’t the fund’s legal contracts to a former partner. Ferrand insists it was all above board, but it’s exactly the sort of sleaze – abuse of position to benefit friends and family – that scuppered the chances of let the media Macron’s conservative rival François Fillon. Macron had sworn he would “rehabilitate the morals of the political establishment” and force any minister put under judicial investigation to resign. And the bully him public is taking him at his word. In polls, 70% want Ferrand sacked, and press editorials are calling on Macron to do so. But Ferrand is not under investigation and it’s far from clear that his acts, L’Obs though unethical, were illegal. Besides, it’s no business of the media to act as judge and jury. Macron (Paris) has told ministers to stand firm behind Ferrand. Quite right, too. The French want to give Macron a chance to govern: it would be disastrous to let whipped-up media scandals get in his way.

How much longer must Germans put up with provocations from Turkey’s President Erdogan, asks GERMANY Volker Witting – the arrests of journalists, the Hitler jibes. Smarting at political asylum being given to “traitors” from his country, he’s now refusing to let our MPs visit the US-Turkish military base at It’s vital our Incirlik, where some 270 German soldiers have joined the fight against Daesh in a reconnaissance role – they supply high-resolution aerial images for ground operations. This is no ordinary fact-finding soldiers stay trip: Germany’s contribution is mandated by parliament, and the MPs need to oversee it. Erdogan’s move is such a disgraceful way to treat a fellow Nato member that left-wing MPs are clamouring for in Turkey Angela Merkel to relocate the soldiers, perhaps to Jordan. Time, they say, to show we won’t take this behaviour lying down. But is that wise? Germany’s expertise is vital in the coming attack against the Deutsche Welle Daesh stronghold of Raqqa. The reason our soldiers are there, let us never forget, is to help end the (Berlin) Daesh terror. Painful as it is to accept, we should hold our noses and carry on for as long as we can.

RUSSIA Russians are wearily resigned to heavy-handed behaviour by the police, but arresting a ten-year-old for reciting passages from Hamlet marks a new low, says Gazeta. The small boy was declaiming near a Moscow metro station last week when a police patrol drew up, grabbed the child, who began Arrested – just screaming, and bundled him into the squad car. He’d been reading Shakespeare aloud as an exercise to overcome a speech defect; his stepmother was sitting nearby. But unabashed, the police insisted on for reciting pressing charges for begging, and the stepmother could end up in jail. Far worse cases of innocent citizens being arbitrarily detained and roughed up are recorded daily, but this one struck a nerve and Hamlet has caused an outcry. The rot set in with Vladimir Putin’s re-election five years ago: it has got so bad Gazeta.ru that citizens who try to protect themselves from police violence, or come to someone’s aid, can (Moscow) themselves be jailed for up to five years. Polls show that most Russians are now as fearful of the police as they are of criminals. Parents are teaching their children to scream “help” when they see police coming, and the internet is full of advice about people’s legal rights in the event of detention.

Just as in Soviet times, we’re becoming ever more in need of protection from our protectors. © JÁN KROŠLÁK SME.SK

10 JUNE 2017 THE WEEK 18 NEWS Health & Science What the scientists are saying… Statins may boost heart health that people of black Caribbean origin had Stains not only reduce cholesterol levels, a 4.6 times greater risk of developing a they also seem to improve heart health, psychotic illness than white British people; a new study has found. Researchers at the risk for black people of African origin Queen Mary University of London used was 4.1 times higher, while for those of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to scan Pakistani origin it was 2.3 times higher, the hearts of 4,622 people without cardio- reports The Guardian. White non-British vascular disease. The 785 who were taking people had no increased risk. The risk statins had been judged to be at greater increase was mainly seen in second- or risk of heart disease; they had higher BMIs third-generation immigrants, though there and blood pressure, and were more likely was also a higher risk among immigrants to be older – yet their hearts seemed to be who had moved to Britain in childhood. in better shape. “People using statins were While the researchers did not look for less likely to have thickened heart muscle reasons for the disparity, they theorise and less likely to have a large heart that it’s down to people from immigrant chamber,” said study leader Dr Nay Aung. backgrounds facing extra pressures, “Having a thick, large heart is a strong stemming from discrimination, and the predictor of future heart attack, heart difficulties of integrating. “It is not to do failure or stroke, and taking statins appears with higher rates in other countries,” said to reverse the negative change in the heart.” Three Men and a Little Lady: doting fathers study co-author Dr James Kirkbride, of University College London. Fathers do dote on daughters and reward – to pictures of their child Parents may try to treat their sons and looking happy. The fathers of sons Sports drinks no better than water daughters the same – but it seems that responded more positively to pictures of In terms of boosting performance, sugar- gender bias still creeps in. For a study in their child with a neutral expression. The filled sports drinks are no better than the US, 52 fathers of toddlers were fitted reactions of both sets of fathers to sad water, a new study suggests. Academics at with wearable computers that randomly faces were the same. “Most parents really the universities of Cambridge and East recorded them for 50 seconds every nine are trying to do the best they can for their Anglia studied 19 competitive swimmers minutes over 48 hours. The data showed children,” said Dr Jennifer Mascaro, who over 1,118 races, and found that they that the fathers of daughters were more led the study, published in Behavioral swam 10% faster after drinking water likely to sing to their children – but less Neuroscience. “[But] the fact that fathers than after drinking a sports drink (a likely to engage in rough-and-tumble play. may be less attentive to the emotional difference that was deemed statistically They also used more words related to the needs of boys… is important to recognise.” insignificant). Sports drinks contain body, such as “belly” and “cheek”, and to electrolytes, minerals lost through sad emotions, such as “cry” and “lonely”, Psychosis and ethnicity sweating, and may be better at boosting while the fathers of sons used more words People from ethnic minorities have a far hydration than water – but lead author related to achievement, such as “best” and greater risk of experiencing psychotic Dr Graham Briars points out that we can “win”. The fathers were then shown disorders than the white British function just as effectively while mildly pictures of their own children, and of other population, new research has found. dehydrated. The researchers didn’t identify children and adults, with different facial Researchers analysed data on 687 people, which drinks were involved, but said their expressions, while undergoing brain scans. aged 16 to 35, who’d been diagnosed with finding applied to all popular brands; and Compared with the fathers of sons, the a psychotic disorder at hospitals in the east though the study only involved swimming, fathers of daughters had stronger responses of England. After accounting for socio- they said they could see no reason why it – in areas of the brain related to emotions economic status, age and sex, they found wouldn’t apply to other sports.

A seven-year mission to the Sun The hot-water washing myth Nasa is developing ambitious plans to send The advice to wash your hands in warm a probe into the Sun’s outer layer, or soapy water is flawed: you can get rid of corona. Travelling at 430,000mph, the just as many germs using cold water. 10ft-long Parker Solar Probe will fly to For a study in the US, scientists asked within 3.9-million miles of the Sun’s 20 people to wash their hands 20 times surface. Exposed to temperatures reaching each with water that was 15°C (59°F), almost 1,380°C, it will be encased in a 26°C (79°F) or 38°C (100°F), and with varying amounts of soap – 0.5ml, 1ml or 4.5in-thick carbon heat shield, designed to 2ml. Each time, their hands had first keep its instruments near room been covered with harmless bacteria. temperature. Once inside the corona, the The analysis showed that it didn't make probe will use telescopes to take close-up any difference how warm the water was, pictures of the Sun, and an array of sensors or how much soap was used. “This to “taste” the solar wind, the charged study may have significant implications particles that stream out of the Sun. The probe is named after Eugene Parker, who towards water energy, since using cold first predicted the existence of these particles in 1958. water saves more energy,” said study One of the seven-year mission’s aims is to improve our understanding of solar author Professor Donald Schaffner. “Also, we learned even washing for ten storms, or coronal mass ejections. These are caused when radiation builds up in the seconds significantly removed bacteria Sun’s corona, then bursts out. Accelerating rapidly, this material can gather enough from the hands.” The NHS guidance is to speed and energy to reach Earth in hours, and disrupt the magnetic field surrounding use warm or cold water, but it stresses it. Knocking out satellite and power supplies, a major surge – relatively harmless when that hands should be covered in soap, the last one occurred, in 1859 – could now cause at least £1trn worth of damage. and washed for at least 20 seconds. © JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY APPLIED PHYSICS LABORATORY ARTIST’S CONCEPT OF THE PARKER SOLAR PROBE SPACECRAFT APPROACHING THE SUN APPROACHING SOLAR PROBE SPACECRAFT THE PARKER CONCEPT OF ARTIST’S APPLIED PHYSICS LABORATORY HOPKINS UNIVERSITY © JOHNS

THE WEEK 10 JUNE 2017 Technology NEWS 19

Bitcoin: The digital currency’s Innovation of the week “Despite places like Australia being latest wild ride bathed in sun, the cost of traditional “A little over two months fulfilling prophecy.” silicon-based solar ago, bitcoin achieved a I wouldn’t convert your cells hasn’t inspired symbolic milestone,” said savings just yet though, said people to buy, buy, buy,” said Johnny Stan Schroeder on Klint Finley on Wired.com. Lieu in Mashable. Mashable.com. For the “Bitcoin has crashed com. But new first time, a single unit of before.” In November 2013, superthin, printable solar panels could the digital currency for example, bitcoin surged bring the price of rooftop solar power became worth more than from about $200 to more down dramatically. Researchers at the an ounce of gold, then than $1,200, before falling University of Newcastle in Australia are testing solar cells that use electronic inks about $1,200. But the to less than $600 within printed on plastic film to conduct rally didn’t end there. The three months, after the electricity. The panels are less than one- price of bitcoin continued implosion of the bitcoin tenth of a millimeter thick and can be to surge, nearly doubling exchange Mt. Gox. The printed quickly in large quantities. since early March, and A record-breaking rally currency’s price has Eventually, the panels could cost as little as $8 per square meter, says Newcastle the cryptocurrency is reached record highs of professor Paul Dastoor, who is leading now trading well above $2,000. This is an near $2,800 in the past few weeks, only to the project. That’s considerably less than asset known to be “highly volatile, with plummet nearly 20 percent in the space of a Tesla’s new solar roof shingles, which run wild price swings,” said Arjun Kharpal on few days. “When it comes to bitcoin, the around $235 a square meter. “We expect CNBC.com. But for once, I understand all only real rule is volatility.” We’re also in a short period of time the energy we those folks who say to me, “I wish I’d talking about a small-bore market here, said generate will be cheaper than that generated via coal-based fire stations,” invested in bitcoin.” If you bought $100 of Matthew Lynn on MarketWatch.com. The Dastoor said. the currency in May 2010, when a single world’s roughly 16 million bitcoins bitcoin was worth 0.003 cents, “you’d now currently have a combined value of $35 be sitting on around $75 million.” billion, compared to $8.2 trillion for the world’s gold supply. In the grand scheme of Why is bitcoin rocketing now? asked Timothy things, “bitcoin is hardly that important.” Lee on Vox.com. Soaring demand from Asia is one reason. International money-transfer The real game changer isn’t bitcoin – it’s the services using bitcoin are catching on there, technology underpinning it, said Jeff John because digital currencies are faster and Roberts on Fortune.com. The blockchain is cheaper than traditional wire transfers. The the open, distributed online ledger that Japanese government also moved to formally makes bitcoin trans-actions secure, reliable, recognize the currency in April, “giving it and anonymous. Its powerful authentication greater legitimacy in Asia’s richest major features are already being used to create economy.” Bitcoin is also untraceable, and a a whole new generation of internet wave of high-profile ransomware attacks by technologies that could prove impervious to criminals demanding the currency has raised hackers and protect our web-browsing habits its profile. But above all, bitcoin’s price is from the likes of Facebook and Google. In climbing because more people are piling in, the future, we might all be using a convinced that the price has room to run. And blockchain-based internet “superior to the so the increase in value “has become a self- broken web we use today.” Bytes: What’s new in tech Sell your house with a click A real estate startup called Opendoor wants to make buying and selling homes as easy as any other online transaction, said Farhad Manjoo in The New York Times. After you register your address on the site and answer a few basic questions, Opendoor will make an offer on your home within 24 hours. Once you’ve accepted the offer, the company can close on the sale in as little as three days following a home inspection. Opendoor then sells your house on its own online marketplace. Unlike traditional real estate agents, who typically charge a commission of between 5 and 6 percent, Opendoor charges an average of around 7.5 percent. Right now, Opendoor operates in Dallas, Las Vegas, and Phoenix, with plans to expand to new markets by the end of the year. Apple drops some coding knowledge Apple wants to help high schools and colleges train the next generation of app developers, said Greg Toppo in USA Today. The tech giant recently unveiled a free app-building curriculum, including 180 hours of lesson plans and instructional projects “designed to stretch out over the course of a school year.” The course focuses on Swift, a programming language used to create apps for Mac and iOS devices, and builds on Apple’s “Everyone Can Code” curriculum, which covers kindergarten through 12th grade and is geared toward students “with little to no prior coding experience.” Apple says six community college systems have already committed to teaching the material this fall to an estimated 500,000 students. The course materials are available online in the iBooks store.

10 JUNE 2017 THE WEEK 20 NEWS Talking points The London Bridge attack: nine minutes of hell Nine minutes. That was all it took for month of Ramadan to attack infidels in three terrorists to bring carnage to the “their homes, their markets, their roads streets of London on Saturday night, and their forums” – was quick to claim said Robert Mendick in The Daily responsibility for the atrocity. Telegraph. The horror began to unfold at around 10.07pm, when they drove a The police response was exemplary. Yet rented van at speed across London once again, there will be questions about Bridge, weaving from side to side to hit why the attack was able to happen in as many pedestrians as possible. the first place. One of the trio, Pakistan- Witnesses spoke of “bodies everywhere”, born Khuram Butt, 27, a father of two and people screaming in terror. “It’s from Barking, east London, was known happening,” shouted one woman, as she to Scotland Yard and MI5, and had raced for cover. Seconds later, the van actually been seen holding an Daesh flag careered to a halt. The three men burst in the Channel 4 documentary The out, carrying knives with 12-inch blades, Jihadis Next Door. But there are and began attacking their victims as Attacker Khuram Butt on The Jihadis Next Door thousands of suspected extremists in this they lay on the ground. Then they ran country, said Richard Walton in The towards Borough Market, and – running into its crowded bars Daily Telegraph. The Met now has 2,000 specialist officers and restaurants – began stabbing people at random. working on terrorism in London alone. We can’t “arrest our way out” of this crisis. That MI5 has foiled five attacks since 22 There were countless attempts to stop them: an unarmed British March illustrates the sheer scale of the task, said the Daily Mail Transport Police officer confronted them with only a baton, and – a task which is made much harder by extremists launching was badly injured; a Romanian chef ran out of his bakery, and hit “impromptu attacks” that require very little planning. So while we one of the men over the head with a crate, then ushered 20 people should extend police powers, to detain and monitor suspects, we back in with him, and closed the shutters; in pubs and restaurants, must also insist that Muslim families, many of whom have been customers and staff tried to fight off the knifemen by throwing allowed to insulate themselves from British life, do their duty, and bottles and chairs at them. But in the root out the radicals in their midst. chaos and confusion, the killers calmly carried on. “This is for my family,” they “MI5 has foiled five attacks You can’t demonise a community and told their victims, as they pushed their since 22 March, illustrating the then expect it to cooperate, said Tariq blades home. The first fatality to be Ramadan in The Guardian. Muslims named was 30-year-old Canadian sheer scale of the task” have a right to protest against UK Christine Archibald, who’d worked in a foreign policy, say, without being night shelter for homeless people before moving to the UK to be targeted by MI5. Stigmatising Muslims will only further alienate with her fiancé, in whose arms she died on London Bridge. In a the disaffected, and play into the hands of Islamophobes. Besides, statement, her family said she would have had “no understanding homegrown terrorists are often divorced from their communities of the callous cruelty that caused her death”. (Butt had been expelled by his mosque) and radicalised online, by preachers based abroad. Yet urging social media firms to remove This was the sort of scenario the Met had been fearing, and extremist content isn’t a solution either, said the FT. Yes, the likes preparing for, since the Mumbai attack of 2008, said The Times: of Facebook could do more, but 400 hours of video are uploaded terrorists running amok in a crowded area. In the roads around to YouTube every minute. They can’t monitor it all. Besides, when Borough Market, they had three attackers to find – and there they do crack down, the extremists simply move to encrypted were hundreds of ordinary citizens, some horrifically injured, services. This is a battle that will have to be fought on many others distressed and confused, who might stray into the line of fronts, said Juliet Samuel in The Daily Telegraph. But we have fire. “Get down! Get down!” armed police screamed, as they faced more severe challenges in the past: our history is “rich with swept through restaurants. They’d been trained to “locate, examples of fanaticism succumbing to moderation, rational contain and neutralise” the threat, and they did. Within eight debate winning arguments, and peril giving way, in turn, to peace. minutes of the first 999 call, they had shot all three killers dead. Progress isn’t easy, or automatic, and it doesn’t come from Daesh – which had just urged its supporters to use the holy denying a problem.” But we can overcome.

and pop music, and “would other one’s breasts better.’ Pick of the week’s always stop tuning if he I didn’t get the job.” stumbled across a Mary J. Blige song”. He enjoyed talking In the 1960s, Stanley Kubrick Gossip to the guards about their became so alarmed by the families, and comparing notes threat of nuclear war that he Saddam Hussein spent his final on the trials of fatherhood. decided to move to Western days pottering in the prison Hussein recalled how cross he Australia. “Famous for not garden and listening to Mary had been after his son Uday flying, Stanley had bought J. Blige on the radio, according raked a party with gunfire, tickets for the ocean liner,” says to his former guard. In a new killing several friends. “I was Mick Broderick, the author of a memoir, Will Bardenwerper – very angry with him so I new book about Kubrick’s film one of the US soldiers who burned all his cars,” he said. Dr. Strangelove. “But when he watched over Saddam in a found out he would have to Baghdad jail as he awaited the Robin Wright was outraged share a bathroom, the trip was death sentence – says the when she discovered that she off. The idea of spending former Iraqi dictator came was being paid less than Kevin months at sea sharing toilet across as a polite man of Spacey, her on-screen husband industry, or her worst. That space with complete strangers simple pleasures. He loved in the political drama House of took place at a casting in Paris was intolerable; he would flowers, food – especially “the Cards. But it wasn’t her first when she was 17. “They said, much rather face siren call of a sugary muffin” – experience of sexism in the ‘Lift up your top… No, I like the thermonuclear war.”

THE WEEK 10 JUNE 2017 Talking points NEWS 21 Brexit: a deafening silence Wit & This was supposed to be customs procedures. the “Brexit election”, said “Otherwise, the Wisdom Martin Kettle in The administrative burdens Guardian. Yet seven become impossibly “The best argument against weeks after Theresa May cumbersome.” Even democracy is a five-minute announced she was going adopting WTO trade conversation with the to the polls in order to rules, as many Brexiters average voter.” strengthen her hand in blithely propose, wouldn’t Winston Churchill, quoted Europe, “all is silence” on solve this problem, since in The Daily Telegraph the issue. Labour, deeply WTO rules are chiefly “The historian will tell you divided on Brexit, has concerned with tariffs what happened. The novelist chosen to campaign on rather than regulation. will tell you what it felt like.” domestic issues instead. A float in Germany: is this what Brexit means? E.L. Doctorow, quoted And May, while insisting The stakes could hardly in the Financial Times she is the only politician capable of handling the be higher, said Will Hutton in The Observer. Brexit negotiations, has revealed next to nothing To take one example: a quarter of British “Whom the gods would about her intentions. Too “cowardly” to tell exports to the EU (worth £3bn a month) go destroy, they first voters the truth – that any decent trade deal with through Calais. At present they are waved tempt to resolve the Europe would involve compromise, especially on through as “EU goods”. But if we crash out of Arab-Israeli conflict.” freedom of movement – she just keeps insisting the single market without a new trade deal, Irving Kristol, quoted in that “no deal is better than a bad deal”. every consignment of British goods will have to The Washington Post be inspected to ensure it meets EU regulations. “The rule of thumb of UK This “mantra” is almost as meaningless as France has no incentive to invest heavily in elections is that the party “Brexit means Brexit”, said Jeremy Warner in expanding its customs service just to keep British leader who looks most like The Daily Telegraph. Any post-Brexit deal with exports flowing smoothly. “The M20 and M2 Middle England wins.” Europe must be worse than the current one; will become giant truck parks as drivers wait to Simon Kuper in the FT otherwise there is no benefit for those countries be inspected.” The same is true the other way: “Writing is the art of remaining in the union. “Having cake and eating over 10,000 trucks go in and out of Britain from applying the ass to the seat.” it has never been an option.” So the question is, the EU every day, transporting “vital food and Dorothy Parker, “where on the spectrum” of inferior deals does goods”. If huge customs delays build up, quoted in The Guardian it turn into a bad deal, and “therefore give way “who will organise food rationing in our to no deal”? The very idea of “no deal” is supermarkets”? Voters should be warned of the “If the yellow-spotted “nonsensical”, said Martin Wolf in the FT. In real consequences of “no deal”. Yet even as we toad is so rare, why is it the modern world, it is impossible for countries choose who should lead this nation through “the found on every building to trade with each other without first agreeing most important negotiations since the War”, site in the land?” terms on issues such as regulatory standards and there is no real debate. “Instead, silence reigns.” Lord (Digby) Jones, quoted in The Sunday Times I have failed over and David Cameron: a toe-curling moment? over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” “While Theresa May entered the picture is “slightly gross”: it has Michael Jordan, final frenetic days of a general a post-coital feel about it. It’s quoted on Forbes.com election campaign, her predecessor certainly “overintimate”, said was having an altogether more Camilla Long in The Sunday “The further a society relaxing time,” said Robin de Times. But what’s worse is that the drifts from the truth, the Peyer in the London Evening toes seem so “demanding and more it will hate those Standard. David and Samantha imperious”. The picture doesn’t that speak it.” Cameron celebrated their wedding say: “Ooh, look at us having fun George Orwell, quoted in anniversary last week in a on our anniversary.” It says: “Kiss The Daily Telegraph boutique hotel in Spain. Samantha my feet.” Even from “beyond the “How much larger your life marked the event by posting a political grave”, Dave appears would be if your self could photo of their feet on Instagram, “superior”, offering up his feet become smaller in it.” accompanied with the words: while everyone back home clears G.K. Chesterton, quoted on “Married for 21 years today!” up the “silly mess” he left behind. LAReviewOfBooks.com

There has been “a degree of Not a “verruca in sight” Cameron’s behaviour since leaving sniffiness” concerning the foot office has been “quirky”, said Statistics of the week selfie, said Barbara Ellen in The Observer. Andrew Pierce in the Daily Mail. He spent British trade unions last year experienced their biggest “I don’t mean sniffiness in olfactory terms”: £25,000 on a “chic” shepherd’s hut in which to recorded fall in membership, the feet look “well maintained, without a write his £800,000 memoirs. He made a bizarre dropping by 275,000 to verruca in sight”, and strangely smooth. But short video with Arnold Schwarzenegger, posted 6.2 million. In 1979 there were some complained that the timing was by the actor, in which he declared: “I’ll be 13.2 million union members. “questionable”. As Cameron’s party limped, back.” And recently he was filmed by a member Office of National Statistics battered by negative polls, towards election day, of the public trying to queue barge while buying it may not have been a helpful contribution. white sports socks at JD Sports on Oxford Almost 55% of teaching Arguably, though, there is never a good time to Street; he was reportedly heard “muttering assistants have been see a former PM’s feet. “Did Churchill unleash loudly that he was going to be late for an physically assaulted at work; 18% say they’re attacked at his toes? Did Harold Wilson publicly entwine appointment with Barack Obama”. Perhaps, least once a week. his bunions with Mary’s?” Let’s not beat around like so many former PMs, David Cameron is The Observer the bush, said Kevin Maher in The Times. The struggling to adapt to life outside No. 10.

10 JUNE 2017 THE WEEK 22 NEWS Sport

Football: Real Madrid make Champions League history Since the start of the 21st century, Real netted 41 times, more than any Premier Madrid have tried to create “the ultimate League player, and took fewer shots for winning machine”, said Sam Wallace in each goal than ever before. In the past three The Sunday Telegraph. Now, at last, that seasons, the 32-year-old had “struggled “dream has been realised”. Last Saturday, towards the finish line”. But he avoided a fortnight after becoming Spanish that this time around, thanks to Zidane: the champions, Madrid thrashed Juventus 4-1 manager convinced Ronaldo to sit out more in Cardiff to become the first side to win games – in the league, he skipped four of the Champions League two seasons in a Madrid’s final seven away ties – so he could row, and for the third time in four years. peak in the important ones. In Cardiff, Juventus had conceded just three goals in “that plan came together”. their previous 12 European matches, yet they were “ruthlessly exposed” by Zidane’s handling of Ronaldo points to Zinedine Zidane’s players. So impressive the manager’s greatest strength, said James were Madrid, particularly their Gheerbrant in The Times: his ability to get “dominant” midfield of Luka Modric, the best out of his players. When he took Toni Kroos and Casemiro, that there can over last year, having only previously be no doubt they are “one of the greatest coached Madrid’s junior team, few teams in history”. expected him to be a “roaring success”. And it’s true that he’s not a brilliant As always, Cristiano Ronaldo was at the tactician – 17 months into the job, his centre of the game, said Jonathan “coaching philosophy” remains unclear, Northcroft in The Sunday Times. He had and he leaves much of the training work scored in two previous Champions League to his assistant, David Bettoni. But that finals, but this was his “deadliest European Ronaldo: peaked in the important games hardly matters. As the greatest footballer club final performance” yet: the Portuguese of his generation, Zidane commands forward scored twice, netting his 600th goal for club and country, respect from everyone in this “notoriously mutinous” side, and to win the competition for a joint-record fourth time. To think that knows exactly how to talk to them. Having achieved some of us had suggested Ronaldo’s best days were behind him, said “extraordinary, unmitigated success” – not even Pep Guardiola Sid Lowe in The Observer. “How foolish we were.” True, this was or José Mourinho can match his successive Champions League his “worst goalscoring season” in seven years. But that’s only triumphs – he deserves to be “bracketed with the elite managers because he has set such extraordinarily high standards – he still of the modern game”. Rugby union: do the Lions have a chance? The British and Irish Lions’ tour of New Zealand own”, with several players taking sleeping pills to got off to a “pathetic” start, said Stuart Barnes in deal with the jet lag. To make matters worse, the The Sunday Times. Last Saturday, they Lions went into the tour “woefully under- “sleepwalked to victory”, beating the New Zealand prepared”, said Sam Peters in The Mail on Sunday. Provincial Barbarians 13-7 – and scoring just one They’d hardly spent any time together; there were try. The Lions had the finest talents in all of Britain separate training camps, one in Wales and one in and Ireland at their disposal, yet they struggled to Ireland; and many players were unable to attend beat an invitational team of “fringe” semi- either owing to club commitments. Their task has professionals, whose ranks include a nurse, a fruit been made harder still by the absence of the picker and a sheep farmer. If this is how the Lions injured Billy Vunipola – “the one Lion guaranteed fare against such modest opposition, what hope do a start in any world XV” – and a “ludicrous they have in their three Tests against the All Blacks, schedule” of ten matches in six weeks. Lions which begin later this month? manager Warren Gatland may have “a core of world-class warriors” at his disposal – Maro Itoje But it was unfair to expect anything more of this and Sam Warburton, as well as Owen Farrell and side, said Sir Ian McGeechan in The Sunday Farrell: “world class” Johnny Sexton (both vying for the role of fly-half); Telegraph. They had only arrived in Auckland three yet his side still have a “mountain to climb”. days before the match, after travelling some 12,000 miles; they Consider the Lions’ record in New Zealand: they have not won a were “operating in a time zone 12 hours removed from their single Test there in 24 years.

Beggy beats the odds Sporting headlines Cricket In the group stage of In its 237-year history, the extraordinary was that he the Champions Trophy, India Epsom Derby has rarely was ridden by a jockey beat Pakistan by 124 runs. “thrown up long-odds bolts “whose greatest previous South Africa beat Sri Lanka from obscurity”, says Oliver claim to fame was failing a by 96 runs. Brown in The Sunday drug test”. The little-known Telegraph. But last weekend, Padraig Beggy, 31, has had Rugby league Castleford the race was won by a 40-1 few winners to his name. And beat St Helens 16-12 to outsider. At the end of the first when, in 2014, the Irishman extend their lead at the top mile of the race, Wings of received a 15-month ban for of the Super League to four Eagles was third from last; but taking banned substances points. he “tore past his vaunted and giving false evidence, it Football Chelsea Ladies beat stablemate Cliffs of Moher in looked as if his career was Birmingham City 2-0 to win the dying strides” to secure “the most over. But last Saturday, he “sealed his the Women’s Super League glittering prize in flat racing”. Even more redemption in one fell swoop”. One Spring Series.

THE WEEK 10 JUNE 2017 ARTS 23 Review of reviews: Books

she was often reprimanded Book of the week for her tendency to “gobble”, said Lucy The Greedy Queen Lethbridge in The Observer. by Annie Gray During her marriage to Profile 400pp £16.99 Albert, food was less important – largely, it seems, because he wasn’t very interested in it. But Queen Victoria was exceptionally after his death, it functioned fond of eating, said Jane Ridley in as a comfort and she The Spectator. For breakfast, she became a “trenchant if would enjoy a “hearty” meal of joyless eater, ploughing enriched breads, eggs and lamb through course after course, chops. Though lunch might be still gobbling”. Though this relatively simple, dinner would book makes interesting typically be a multi-course affair, wider observations about consisting of a “choice of soups” 19th century food culture, it followed by a fish dish, an entrée is marred by Gray’s of meat (“often lamb chops tendency to project modern again”), a roast (“typically game, ideas back into the cooked on the spit”), a selection Victorian Age, said Lewis of “puréed and creamed” vegetables and, finally, a “variety of Jones in The Daily Telegraph. She calls Victoria’s greediness an sweet dishes such as meringues and profiteroles and jellies”. “escape mechanism”, and describes the young Queen as a Not only did Victoria eat a lot; she also “wolfed her food at “party animal” who was “deeply in lust” with Albert. Sadly, record-breaking speed”, often getting through “all six courses” the “feasts that punctuated” Victoria’s life eventually become as in half-an-hour. Not surprisingly, this had digestive “tedious to read about as they must have been to sit through”. consequences – including irregular bowel movements and, I disagree, said Paula Byrne in The Times: The Greedy Queen is especially later in life, chronic flatulence. She also had to wear “one of the most fascinating royal biographies I have read”. Gray very large bloomers and loose gowns. In The Greedy Queen, draws on “extensive new research” to take us behind the scenes food historian Annie Gray tells the story of Victoria’s life of the royal household. And she contrasts Victoria’s extravagant through her dietary habits, uncovering, in the process, an often diet with the far more modest fare – “mainly” meat and potatoes overlooked “slice of royal history”. The result is “a wonderfully – consumed by the working classes. Culinary biography is an researched and entertaining book”. “undersubscribed genre”, but this book, written with “authority, In her youth, Victoria’s weight fluctuated considerably, and verve and confidence”, suggests it has “great potential”.

Roots, Radicals and Rockers by Billy Bragg Novel of the week Faber 448pp £20 Peculiar Ground by Lucy Hughes-Hallett 4th Estate 496pp £16.99 Skiffle, the subject of Billy Bragg’s new book, is a “neglected” genre, said Ludovic Hunter-Tilney in the Financial Times. A stripped-down fusion of Lucy Hughes-Hallett is an acclaimed biographer, jazz, blues and folk, today it is associated mainly said Stephanie Merritt in The Observer. Her last with “duffle coats, washboards and epic bouts of book, The Pike, a life of the fascist Italian poet coffee-drinking” – and is surrounded by a “tang Gabriele D’Annunzio, won the 2013 Samuel of embarrassment”. Yet in its heyday in the late Johnson Prize. “She might have been expected 1950s, it was immensely popular, and played a to attempt a repeat of this success,” but instead, crucial role in the development of British pop. As in her 60s, she has turned to fiction. Peculiar Billy Bragg points out in this “wittily written” book, John Lennon, Pete Ground is an “ambitious” debut which tells the Townshend and Jimmy Page were “all skifflers in their youth” (though they later story of a fictional Oxfordshire country estate. tended to downplay that fact). The genre’s “three-chord primitivism”, Bragg Its opening section begins during the Restoration suggests, also paved the way for punk. In Roots, Radicals and Rockers, the and describes the building of a garden on the “Bard of Barking” has produced a “first-rate work of history” that restores estate; later sections are set in the second half of skiffle to its rightful place at the “fountainhead of British pop music”. the 20th century. Rich in detail and “made vivid The skiffle craze was kick-started by Lonnie Donegan’s 1955 cover of Lead by meticulous research”, reading this book it Belly’s Rock Island Line, said Michael Henderson in The Times. Donegan, a jazz seems “extraordinary” that Hughes-Hallett guitarist, recorded the song almost as an afterthought, but it became a hit on didn’t come to fiction earlier. both sides of the Atlantic, and “opened a door” through which the “young and Country house novels can be “glorious” and voiceless” marched. Having previously been “force-fed” music by their parents, “intriguing” or simply “cold and boring”, said British teenagers now started buying “guitars by the lorryload” and forming Melissa Katsoulis in The Times. Peculiar Ground bands. At the height of the craze, up to 50,000 bands were “hammering away in belongs in the former category. Hughes-Hallett’s youth clubs and church halls”, said Victoria Segal in The Sunday Times. Skiffle prose is “elegant but easy-going”, and she was, as Bragg points out, the “first music for teenagers by teenagers” – and it describes the inner lives of her characters with played a crucial role in the growth of modern youth culture. Full of “fascinating “ingenuity and respect”. This is “one of the best digressions”, and written with an “archivist’s sense of mission”, as well as a novels of the year so far”. “musician’s knowledge”, Roots, Radicals and Rockers illuminates a lost world.

10 JUNE 2017 THE WEEK 24 ARTS Drama

“Did the gentry frolic semi- there and giving it a modern naked at foam parties in Jane twist”. Thus Anne’s foolish Austen’s day?” Probably not, father is a “raddled hippy” in a said Roger Foss in The Stage. velvet dressing gown. Mary, her But they do in Jeff James’s younger sister, is an exhausted Theatre “radically rejigged” stage stay-at-home mother. And adaptation of her posthumously Penelope, her widowed father’s published last novel. By the time “ambiguous companion”, is now the interval arrives, “mega- the best friend of her elder sister, Persuasion gallons of slurp” have descended Elizabeth. The result is a from the ceiling, and everyone on “terrific” show that is both stage is “wallowing in a sea of subversively modern and utterly Adapted by Jeff James and bubbles”. Does this “spectacular true to Austen. James Yeatman, from the ejaculation” symbolise class Traditionalist crinoline- novel by Jane Austen rigidities being swept away on fanciers need not worry, said Director: Jeff James the beach at Lyme Regis? Or Lyn Gardner in The Guardian. does the “orgasmic messiness” I took about 25 minutes to be represent the liberated passions “persuaded” by the modern foaming inside Austen’s heroine, Rossi’s Anne: “a grave dignity” reworking: after that, “I was Royal Exchange Theatre, Anne Elliot, who is on the shelf hooked”. Lara Rossi “brings a St Ann’s Square, at 27? Perhaps both. Either way, the fabulous grave dignity” to Anne, while Caroline Moroney Manchester foam party is a bold stroke that’s typical of the and Cassie Layton have “brilliant fun as the (0161-833 9833) show: clever and enormous fun. Musgrove sisters, all teenage self-consciousness Persuasion is Austen’s most “mature and and casual cruelties”. In sum, a “bold, enjoyable Until 24 June melancholic novel”, said Claire Allfree in The and often exhilarating” production. Daily Telegraph – a “frost-tipped exploration of Running time: the meaning of love and a quietly savage critique The week’s other opening 2hrs (including interval) of Regency England’s obsessions with money Julius Caesar, Crucible Theatre, Norfolk Street, and class”. The running joke of this “inventive Sheffield (0114-249 6000). Until 10 June and extremely funny” adaptation is that Anne, If Robert Hastie’s first production as artistic ★★★★ her sisters and their friends are aware of director of Sheffield Theatres is typical, “I hope 21st century courting conventions yet are stuck to be at every show”, says Clare Brennan in within the confines of Austen’s times. It’s a The Observer. This Julius Caesar could not be conceit that “mines terrific comedy” from clearer, or more urgent. Austen’s setup – “amplifying what is already

“If it’s deluxe new versions of metal structure, “there’s barely big and balletic Broadway any let-up”. You will, admittedly, musicals you’re after, London is “go hungry for drama”; the plot Musical spoiling us this summer,” said is not so much slender as non- Dominic Maxwell in The Times. existent. But you are unlikely to Hugely enjoyable revivals of An see a finer account of this show. American in Paris and 42nd New York, as they sing in this On The Town Street are wowing the West End. musical, is “a helluva town” – And now Regent’s Park has and this “breezy, joyful navy given us a “lavish and lark is a helluva lot of fun”, said Music: Leonard Bernstein imaginative rendering” of this Lyn Gardner in The Guardian. Book and lyrics: 1944 musical (best known from As the trio of sailors, Samuel Betty Comden and the 1949 Gene Kelly/Frank Edwards, Jacob Maynard Adolph Green Sinatra film) about three “horny and Danny Mac (of Strictly Director and sailors” determined to make the Come Dancing fame) dance most of their 24 hours of shore athletically and are “immensely choreographer: leave in New York City. These likeable”. But it’s the women Drew McOnie “bell-bottomed buddies” are out who really shine. As Ivy, Siena to “seize the day and to lasso the Filled with dazzling dance numbers Kelly “dances every step as if night” – and director Drew her life depends on it”. Lizzy Open Air Theatre, McOnie “ensures that they do it in style”. Connolly is hilarious as Hildy, notably in the This cracking revival certainly hasn’t cut any number I Can Cook Too. And Miriam-Teak Regent’s Park, corners, said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Lee “ratchets up the comedy” as anthropologist London NW1 Telegraph. “It looks exquisite and sounds Claire de Loon. (0844-826 4242) gorgeous,” with the hard-working 15-strong Until 1 July band rising to the “bravura challenge” of CD of the week Bernstein’s score, with its “clarinet siren wails, Les Talens Lyriques, cond. Christophe clownish shifts of tempo, and thrilling collision Running time: Rousset: Lully – Armide Aparté £18 of Jazz Age dreaminess with bombardments of Armide was the most famous of Jean-Baptiste 2hrs 15mins brass”. The tireless company of 27 execute Lully’s 17th century baroque operas, or tragédies (including interval) McOnie’s dazzling dance numbers with aplomb: en musique, and Rousset’s recording of it could from the moment a “sextet of matelots come scarcely be bettered: “if you don’t know much ★★★ a-leaping into the Brooklyn dockyard”, conjured Lully, this will convert you” (Sunday Times).

up by designer Peter McKintosh’s imposing HOBSON PERSSON; JANE © 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 10 JUNE 2017 Film ARTS 25

Wonder Woman ★★★ A thoroughly silly but highly entertaining superhero romp Dir: Patty Jenkins 2hrs 21mins (12A) This was definitely a case of “last chance soldiers. Wonder Woman resolves to save saloon” for Warner Bros.’s DC them, seizing her magic shield and lasso, Entertainment, said Jamie East in The and heading to London to enlist. The Sun. In its mission to break Marvel’s film’s “trump card” is its villains, said stranglehold on the superhero movie Geoffrey Macnab in The Independent – market, the studio had released three Anaya is super-sinister, and Danny “flabby” blockbusters in a row: Man Huston delivers a “bravura” performance of Steel, Batman v Superman and Suicide as a saturnine German general with Squad. So a lot was riding on Wonder superpowers. They nicely set off Wonder Woman, which also happens to be the Woman’s appealing, often very funny, first superhero film in a decade to centre quality of innocence, as she struggles to on a female protagonist. And I’m happy comprehend human depravity. to report that the director, Patty Jenkins, “absolutely nails it”. With a pitch-perfect The “pitch-perfect” Gadot as Wonder Woman In one of the sillier scenes in this turn from Gal Gadot as the titular ridiculous but highly entertaining film, heroine, Wonder Woman is “not just the best DC Cinematic said Kate Muir in The Times, Wonder Woman charges across no Universe movie”. It is “quite possibly one of the best superhero man’s land, deflecting machine gun fire with her shield and movies full stop”. bullet-repelling bracelets. It’s a good metaphor for her “raid” on the male-dominated world of the superhero movie. And it’s For an “action-packed belter” of a film, it has a slightly wobbly rendered all the more believable by Gadot’s athleticism as an opening, said Cath Clarke in Time Out. We’re introduced to the action heroine. The former Miss Israel trained in the Israeli Greek goddess Diana (aka Wonder Woman) on the woman-only Defence Forces, and “it shows”. Wonder Woman isn’t perfect, island of Themyscira, where “hot chicks” waft around in sandals said Chris Hewitt in Empire. Like many such films, the ending is looking like something out of a Dolce & Gabbana ad. Yet once a confusing CGI fireworks display. But it’s still a relief to find the tranquillity is broken by the arrival of Captain Trevor, a that a decent superheroine film has at last been made, said Jill cocky American soldier (Chris Pine), things pick up. It’s the First Lepore in The New Yorker. “I’m not proud that I found comfort World War and Trevor has learnt that evil German chemist Dr in watching a woman in a golden tiara and thigh-high boots Maru (Elena Anaya) is making a dirty bomb to massacre Allied clobber hordes of terrible men. But I did.”

Baywatch ★★ The film Baywatch fans deserved Dir: Seth Gordon 1hr 56mins (15) As a TV show in the 1990s, Baywatch was the film sure doesn’t.” The nadir of the “a kitsch classic serving up sun, semi- sketchy plot, which involves gangsters naked beauties and very silly storylines”, distributing drugs along the Florida coast, said Patrick Smith in The Daily Telegraph. requires one of the characters to inspect This new film version of the TV series the scrotum of a corpse – which is meant “takes all these elements and jacks them to have us all falling about in laughter, said up with steroids and machismo”. But Steve Rose in The Guardian. Not me: on sadly, the result is merely “brash and the contrary, I soon found myself bombastic”, with a “wafer-thin” plot, and “drowning in a sea of boredom”. some painfully unfunny gags. The acting is uniformly “appalling”, Dwayne Johnson plays the lead while the script, credited to no fewer than lifeguard, beefcake Mitch Buchannan, while Zac Efron is the six screenwriters, follows the same template as an episode of rebellious new recruit, who has to learn a thing or two about Scooby-Doo, said Kevin Maher in The Times. The best thing that teamwork, said Nick de Semlyen in Empire. “As for the three can be said for the end result is this: that if you happen to be the female lifeguards – played by Alexandra Daddario, Kelly sort of person who wants a Baywatch movie, then this is the Rohrbach and Ilfenesh Hadera – well, don’t worry about them: Baywatch movie you deserve.

My Life as a Courgette ★★★★ Touching French animation Dir: Claude Barras 1hr 6mins (PG) My Life as a Courgette is a “lovely” backstories”, our youthful protagonists stop-motion animated film which was prove irresistibly appealing. And the nominated for the best animated feature French-language script by Céline Sciamma Oscar this year, but lost out, “probably is as funny as it is touching. I particularly unjustly”, to Zootropolis, said Peter enjoyed such “joyous set pieces” as the Bradshaw in The Guardian. The story, orphans’ trip to a ski resort, and their based on a successful novel, follows the hilarious speculations about sex, said fortunes of “Courgette”, a little French David Parkinson in Empire. In fact, the boy (voiced by Gaspard Schlatter) who “only downside” of this “charming” gem accidentally kills his alcoholic mother and is that, at 66 minutes, it’s too short. is placed in a rural orphanage. There he It’s that word “charming” that sets off must fend off the resident bully (Paulin Jaccoud) and cope with the alarm bells, said Nigel Andrews in the Financial Times. Could his feelings for the gamine Camille (Sixtine Murat). My Life as a Courgette be manipulative, even twee? I’ve watched “Super-depressing, right? Well, fortunately not,” said Kevin it twice, the second time wearing the “armour of sceptical Maher in The Times. With their “massive eyes” and “soul-searing caution”. I still think it’s “a little masterpiece”.

10 JUNE 2017 THE WEEK 26 ARTS Art

Exhibition of the week Canaletto and the Art of Venice The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London SW1 (0303-123 7301, www.royalcollection.org.uk). Until 12 Nov

Canaletto (1697-1768) views of the city. is “one of the most Venetophiles will be popular – and derided fascinated to see how – of artists”, said Mark Canaletto depicted Hudson in The Daily landmarks that no Telegraph. His longer exist, including “defining” views of churches and palazzi Venice and its that were demolished “glittering ceremonial to make way for barges, darting Venice’s train station. gondolas and iconic Similarly intriguing are buildings” are rendered some “shadowy and with “near- mysterious” interior photographic paintings of San Marco precision”. Yet it is and his views of Rome precisely because of this – especially The Arch “sheer technical of Titus (1742), a work mastery” that many so “huge and looming” view him as the that it is almost “ultimate in chocolate- “menacing”. Sadly, box art”. A new Canaletto’s The Mouth of the Grand Canal looking West towards the Carita (c. 1729-30) most of the works by exhibition at The other Venetian artists Queen’s Gallery seeks to challenge this view by offering a much here are disappointingly “soft and sugary” – aside from a more “complex and contradictory” perspective. The show brings “marvellous” set of chalk portraits by Giovanni Battista Piazzetta. together a “sumptuous array” of Venetian paintings by both Canaletto and some of his lesser-known contemporaries. Indeed, 18th century Venetian painting was generally Everything in it was owned by Joseph Smith, an 18th century “impoverished in technique and pictorial scope”, said Ben Luke in British consul to Venice, who acted as Canaletto’s dealer and who the London Evening Standard. Canaletto stood apart from this later sold his “vast” collection to George III. The exhibition “malaise”, partly because he had trained as a theatrical scene proves that despite his reputation for meticulous detail, Canaletto painter – traditionally considered the “lowest rank among could also be spontaneous and varied: his sketches, for instance, artists”. As a result, he was accorded scant respect in his home are “almost impressionistic”. You will leave with a “richer and city, where he remains “little regarded” to this day. Yet scene more diverse sense” of Canaletto as an artist. painting allowed him to master “vivid effects” that made his work stand out, evident here in six paintings of the area around San Many of the Venetian scenes here are “obvious, not to say Marco that count as his “greatest masterpieces”. True, Canaletto’s touristy”, said Martin Gayford in The Spectator. But beyond the Venice was a “picture postcard” take on the city, but as this countless vistas of the Grand Canal, there are many less familiar “excellent” show proves, at his best he was “magnificent”.

Where to buy… The art of nothingness The Week reviews an One of exhibition in a private gallery Scotland’s top art galleries has unveiled “a Alison Wilding bizarre new at Offer Waterman show”, said The Scottish Sun, “which treats Since the 1970s, Alison Wilding has punters to an been producing sculptures that are by empty room”. turns beautiful, perplexing and Dutch artist downright menacing. Although Marlie Mul’s renowned among those in the know, installation at Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), which will run for five months, is called she remains obscure compared to some This exhibition is cancelled. “Visitors can of her contemporaries, possibly due to wander through the vacant space taking in the her reluctance to take on the kind of complete absence of exhibits,” said The Daily grand public commissions that have Telegraph. But they can also propose their own catapulted the likes of Anish Kapoor Starcrossed (2016) projects to fill the room: so far, the space has and Antony Gormley into the public been booked for yoga classes, film screenings consciousness. This new exhibition by Sir Anthony Caro, while some of the and baby “Bounce and Rhyme” sessions. brings together a dozen sculptures smaller works here have the rather “Removing the exhibition from the gallery created by Wilding over the last decade, disquieting air of pagan fertility totems. space forces us to question the value and function of cultural institutions such as GoMA,” along with a host of drawings, and It’s hard to define quite how, but there’s observed curator Will Cooper. Perhaps GoMA showcases an artist committed to something intrinsically and delightfully (pictured) and other galleries, he suggested, blending modernist simplicity with British about Wilding’s work. Prices might be “better placed as a space for another traditional, sometimes ancient, craft. range from £3,000 to £48,000. kind of activity”. Mul’s previous works have Mesmer, a sinister wooden sculpture included a collection of cigarette butts and held together by magnets, looks for all 17 St George Street, London W1 a room with dirty puddles on the floor.

the world like a clothes horse designed (020-7042 3233). Until 21 June. TRUST COLLECTION © ROYAL

THE WEEK 10 JUNE 2017 The List 27

Best books… Carlo Rovelli Television Scientist Carlo Rovelli, author of bestseller Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, Programmes picks five of his favourite books. His latest book, Reality is Not What it The Loch Six-part crime Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity, is published by Penguin at £9.99 drama starring Laura Fraser as a novice detective dealing with History: A Novel by Elsa objected, calling it an that somewhere, everywhere, two murders in a close-knit Highland community. Sun Morante, 1974 (out of print). outrageous story of rape and something subterranean is still 11 June, ITV1 21:00 (60mins). I consider Elsa Morante to be the abduction of an underage happening now… the best Italian novelist ever. girl. I think it is both. Cyber Attack – The Day the The title La Storia plays on the The Politics of Experience NHS Stopped Horizon tells double meaning of “storia” in Journey to the End of and the Bird of Paradise the inside story of the recent Italian: history and the story. the Millennium by A.B. by R.D. Laing, 1967 (Penguin cyber attack that crippled the And both are here. But it is Yehoshua, 1999 (Halban £10.99). “We are Them to NHS, affecting everything from Elsa’s compassionate and Publishers £16.99). I love this Them as They are Them to appointment systems to CT enchanted gaze on the tragedy vast, deep, intense fresco of the Us.” An insightful and scanners. Mon 12 June, BBC2 21:00 (60mins). of life during the Second Middle Ages, set around the profoundly intelligent political World War, where even those story of a righteous man’s love book by the iconoclastic Fearless Helen McCrory plays committing the worst for his two wives. psychiatrist, who has intensely Emma Banville, a human rights atrocities are regarded with influenced many in my lawyer known for defending affection, that remains with The Subterraneans by Jack generation, and who I believe lost causes. In this six-parter, the reader forever. The child Kerouac, 1958 (Penguin still has much to teach in these Banville tries to prove the character, little Useppe, £9.99). It may be little known, dangerous times. His innocence of a man convicted is unforgettable. but this short, crude love story radicalism, which perhaps of killing a schoolgirl 14 years is my favorite Kerouac; the sounded outdated a few years earlier. Mon 12 June, ITV1 21:00 (60mins). Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, writer sings of an era when ago, is once again ringing true. 1955 (Penguin £8.99). Lolita rebellion was being nurtured. “Them” and “Us” has Jo Cox: Death of an MP has been called the greatest I wish rebellion could be reappeared to poison the Documentary about the love story ever. Other people nurtured today as well. I hope grammar of our coexistence. murder of Jo Cox in the run-up to the EU referendum. Using the testimony of Cox’s family, Your guide to what’s worth seeing and doing police and those who knew her killer, this film looks at why by What’s On magazine a man with no history of violence decided to murder the highly regarded Labour MP, EXHIBITION ART whom he’d never met. Tue 13 REFLECTIONS OF RAMADAN ALMOST HOME June, BBC2 21:00 (60mins). In the most aptly-named As an Iranian-American exhibition for the month, more immigrant, Amir H. Fallah Films

than 24 artworks from ten UAE knows what it’s like to be The Devil Wears Prada (2006) Comedy set in the cut- artists will be showcased in the uprooted from a homeland, and throat world of fashion. Anne lobby of this Deira hotel. Different attempt to adapt to a new ACTIVITY Hathaway is the naive new Islamic styles – from traditional environment. So, for his new COYA FOOD DRIVE assistant to a tyrannical watercolours to modern abstract body of work, he delved deep editor of a glossy style bible, – will be on display from a range into his own history, and Coya’s third food drive with the played with relish by Meryl of talented artists, including reflected on just that. The bold Humanitarian Society invites Streep. Sun 11 June, C4 Angela Abou Alwan, Jeff Scofield and intricate works of Almost employees, volunteers and even 14.30 (130mins). and Hessa Almualla. Home are about belonging guests to prepare, package and deliver dishes from the Coya Blue Valentine (2010) Moving May 17 to June 17, Pullman Dubai without a safe haven, and kitchen to employees at Dubai tale of a doomed marriage, Creek City Centre, Deira, Dubai, adapting to change. starring Ryan Gosling and labour camps. Head along every daily 24 hours free. Tel: (04) May 24 to July 1, The Third Michelle Williams. Mon 12 Sunday and Wednesday from 2941222. Metro: Deira City Line, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, June, Film4 01:20 (140mins). May 28, Coya Dubai, Four Centre. pullman-dubai-creek- Sat to Thu 10am to 7pm, Seasons Resort, Jumeirah Beach citycentre.com free Tel: (04) 341 1367. Road, Jumeirah 2, Dubai, Tel: (04) Taxi: Alserkal Avenue. 3169600. Taxi: Four Seasons New to Sky Atlantic thethirdline.com Resort. coyarestaurant.com The Wizard of Lies Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer SPORTS SHOPPING star in this one-off drama NAD AL SHEEBA SPORTS RIPE FARMER’S MARKET AT about the havoc caused by TOURNAMENT REFORM SOCIAL & GRILL Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. This annual tournament Every Friday, from May 26 to June Available on Catch Up. welcomes able-bodied and 23, Ripe Farmer’s Market will be disabled athletes, and offers a popping up at this well-known Riviera Ten-part thriller full agenda of sporting events Lakes restaurant. Expect all the following the moral descent including wheelchair basketball, best bits of Ripe; fresh fruit and of an American art dealer futsal, and more. The best bit? veg, plenty of stalls, family activities, (Julia Stiles), whose charmed It’s inside. and then enjoy iftar at Reform. life in the south of France is shattered when her billionaire June 1 to 20, Nas Sports Lakes Club, The Lakes, Emirates husband is killed. With Adrian Complex, Dubai, free. Tel: (050) Hills, Dubai, Fridays noon to 8pm, Lester. All episodes available 5070311. Taxi: Nas Al Sheba free. Tel: (04) 4542638. Taxi: Lakes from 15 June. Sports Club. nasst.ae Club. ripeme.com

10 JUNE 2017 THE WEEK 28 Best properties

UAE Properties Dubai: Magnificently huge with the ambiance of a chateau, this 6-bedroom villa is located in Al Manara, Jumeirah. Spanning over 15,000 sq.ft, this stunning residence is graced by soaring ceilings and a generous open plan living space. The property features a separate dining and living area, a family room, maid’s room, driver’s room, a contemporary kitchen and parking. Further features include an outdoor pool, a landscaped garden ideal for entertainment and a children’s play area. The property lies within easy reach of Jumeirah beach, shopping malls, food outlets, schools and other services. $4.5m; BetterHomes (971) 6000 52 2233.

Houses off the beaten track ▲ Cornwall: Lloyd’s Signal Station, Bass Point, The Lizard, Helston. This Grade II former signal house was built in 1872 and sits atop the cliffs of Bass Point on the Lizard Peninsula – England’s most southerly point and an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The property is around 215ft above sea level and has panoramic views over the Atlantic. Master bed, 2 further beds, family bath, shower, kitchen, 2 receps, study/bedroom 4, open roof terrace, parking, garden, about 0.33 acres. £750,000; Savills (01872-243200).

▲ Argyll: West Glen, Glen Caladh, Tighnabruaich. A period home dating from around 1860, with a detached cottage, large boathouse, shore frontage, 13 acres of gardens and grounds, and stunning panoramic views over the Kyles of Bute. Main house: master suite with dressing room, 5 further beds, 3 further baths, kitchen, 2 receps, laundry room, cloakroom, utility, various outbuildings. Cottage: 2 beds, 1 bath/shower, WC, recep, kitchen. £850,000; Bell Ingram (01738-621121).

THE WEEK 10 JUNE 2017 on the market 29

Dubai: This luxurious and spacious family villa is set in the heart of the Green Community West and offers all the amenities available within the community. The two-storey residence features a soaring hallway, open kitchen with marble countertops, open terraces, laundry room, maid’s room, driver’s room, storage room and parking for 4 cars. The large outdoor area is ideal for a children’s play area, relaxing and entertainment. $1.2m; Luxhabitat (+971 4 ) 550 8335.

▲ Gloucestershire: Elysium, Charlton Kings, Cheltenham. An award-winning contemporary house on the west-facing slopes of the Cotswold escarpment. Master suite with dressing room, 2 further suites, kitchen/dining room, study, 2 receps, gym, utility/boot room, store, 1.8 acres. £3m; Savills (01242-548000).

▲ Gloucestershire: Wresden Farm, Uley, Dursley. In a tranquil rural setting in the Cotswolds, about midway between Cheltenham and Bristol, this unique property comprises a Grade II, 17th century farmhouse, a self-contained flat, and an early 18th century unconverted Cotswold barn, with about six acres of paddocks and woodland. Farmhouse: 3 beds, 1 bath, 2 receps, ▲ breakfast/kitchen, pantry, store room, porch. Flat: 1 bed, ▲ Cornwall: Churchbridge Cottage, Duloe, Liskeard. This charming cottage sits in shower, recep, kitchen. a beautiful, sheltered wooded valley, about one mile from the village of Duloe. 3 £899,995; Murrays beds, family bath, WC, kitchen, 2 receps, study, utility, garden, terrace, shed, (01453-755552). summerhouse, driveway, about 1 acre. £459,950; Stags (01752-223933).

10 JUNE 2017 THE WEEK 30 LEISURE Food & Drink What the experts recommend: London openings nonsense, just reliable, consistent and easy to love. Rather like the great man himself.” We start with fat chunks of mackerel, “still possessing the sweetness of the truly fresh”, mixed with cubes of tart, vinegared rhubarb, whole peppercorns and curls of orange peel. It’s a dish that “fills the mouth with the sprightly joys of spring, simple, yet beautifully put together”. Lacklustre sashimi is a disappointment, but fish soup is “rich and sonorous”. And even the smaller £25 portion of fruits de mer is “lavish”: razor clams, scallops, langoustines, winkles, cockles, whelks, mussels and a whole crab. “They’re fresh cooked, sweet and undulled by the ice’s grasp. Four thumbs up from Freddy.” Lunch for two, about £70.

Demoiselle by Galvin: “friendly on the wallet” Henrietta 14-15 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London WC2 (020-3794 5314) Demoiselle by Galvin City Walk, room for dessert – the apple tarte tatin is One of the cocktails at this relaxed and Al Wasl, Dubai (04 5905076) an “example of pastry perfection”. It was friendly hotel restaurant is called Language, Miss the Rivington Grill? Craving the like eating a “rich toffee apple, minus the Truth and Logic, says Fay Maschler in the bistro fare of the defunct Ivy? Well, “we’ve sore teeth”. The “triumph of the meal” London Evening Standard. Anywhere that found a replacement”: and the good news was the date and chocolate gluten-free names a drink after philosopher A.J. Ayer’s is this unlicensed spot is “friendly on the cake: like a fondant but with more balance seminal exposition of the verification wallet”, reports What’s On. Demoiselle By of flavour. The bitterness of dark chocolate principle would, I am certain, be all right by Galvin is the “first of many GCC “played against the punch of coffee and me – but it helps that the food is so damn outposts” from French-cuisine-loving the sweetness of dates”. We would order good. A flatbread to share – soft, pliable British brothers Chris and Jeff Galvin this again. And again. “We’ll be back”. but slightly charred – is “heaped with (there’s also a Demoiselle in Harrods) – Price: Dhs250 to Dhs749 (for two) freshly picked crab lavished with garlic and “the food is excellent”. The salmon butter and topped with ‘coastal’ herbs”. My starter came with “fresh rye, giant capers Rick Stein, Barnes Tideway Yard, companion, a chef, identifies dill, oyster leaf and eggs”, and the Faroe Island fish tasted 125 Mortlake High Street, London SW14 and sea aster. “I just cram it in.” A bowl more like “trout than salmon” – the (020-8878 9462) of spring vegetables and flowers with “flavour isn’t one-note-fishy”. The cheesy I took my son Freddy, a seven-year-old wild garlic and Graceburn cheese is a Comte croquettes “were delicious” – but “seafood obsessive”, with me to try out “balm to the senses”. Quail is unusually it’s not hard to make deep-fried-cheese Rick Stein’s first London restaurant, succulent (for quail). There is the odd taste good, so the “real star” was the “tart overlooking the Thames in Barnes, says misfire (under-seasoned beef tartare; walnut pickle on the side” (like Branston, Tom Parker Bowles in The Mail on bland taramasalata), but the desserts – just way better). Order the Wagyu short Sunday. He reckoned it was the best lunch cherry blossom ice cream, and an rib to share – the “buttery soft beef” sits he’d ever had. While I wouldn’t go that far, inspired raspberry puff with sweet-and- in an umami-filled mushroom sauce and it is “now firmly on my list of best places sour rose petals – “reassert eminence”. came with a “crisp, cheesy crust”. Save to eat seafood in London. No fuss or Meal for two, with wine, about £130. Recipe of the week Thai chefs call bird’s eye chillies “scuds”, as in the missiles, says Sebby Holmes. They give this recipe a fiery kick – just be sure to keep them clear of your eyes! Green nahm jim cured salmon with apple and dill Serves 4 as a snack or a side 1 sour eating apple, grated 10g coriander leaves, roughly torn 10g mint leaves, roughly torn 200g salmon, bloodline and pin bones removed, sliced into 1cm-thick pieces 10g dill, chopped For the nahm jim (dipping sauce): 2 tbsps chopped coriander roots 8 garlic cloves, peeled 8 green bird’s eye chillies pinch of coarse sea salt 2 tbsps caster sugar juice of 5 limes juice of 2 mandarins (or clementines) 4 tbsps fish sauce

• First make the nahm jim. Using a pestle and ingredients varies greatly; adjust the seasoning mortar, pound the coriander roots, garlic and to suit your tastes. then chillies (in that order) to a coarse paste, • Divide the nahm jim dressing between two using the salt as an abrasive, if necessary. Add large bowls. In one, add the apple, coriander the sugar and pound for a few more seconds, and mint; in the other, add the salmon and until you have a relatively smooth paste. gently toss to ensure that all the fish is coated. • Add the lime and mandarin juices and the Leave the salmon in the dressing for 1-2 fish sauce. The mixture should taste sweet, minutes, then remove and gently toss in the salty, sour and hot. Exact quantities are apple and mint sauce. Serve on a large plate impossible to give, as the strength of the sprinkled with the dill. Taken from Cook Thai by Sebby Holmes, published by Kyle Books at £19.99.

THE WEEK 10 JUNE 2017 Consumer LEISURE 31 SPONSORED CONTENT New BMW M240i M Performance Edition BMW M is now launching a special The aerodynamic flow patterns around series with the new BMW M240i M the BMW M240i are optimised by the Performance Edition, which will be performance components and BMW replacing the BMW M235i M. The M’s expertise in motorsport cars that Edition model already features many results in excellent handling and driving high-grade exterior components from performance. The powerful BMW the M Performance accessory M240i M Performance Edition can be programme ex works. These have been ordered either with a 6-speed manual harmonised with care and enhance the wheels are as beautiful as they can get gearbox or an 8-speed Steptronic sports sporty appearance and dynamic appeal with bicolor Orbit Grey finishing and a transmission. The compact sports car of the powerful Coupé even further. diamond polished visible side. At the boasts impressive performance figures. Carbon fibre or black detail parts front the special edition features In conjunction with the all-wheel drive, provide distinctive contrasts to the areodynamic parts consisting of air it sprints from zero to 100 km/h in only Alpine White paintwork. The BMW guides, splitter and bumper front 4.4 seconds, the top speed is 250 km/h M240i M Performance Edition is section, whose spoiler lip is finished in for every drive variant. powered by a 250 kW/340 hp inline matt black. The radiator grille including 6-cylinder engine with M Performance kidney grille bars is also in black. The Only 750 units of the BMW M240i M TwinPower Turbo Technology. car’s sporty appeal is amplified by the Performance Edition will be produced partly painted rear diffuser and a and this car is now available in The high-quality double-spoke forged carbon-fibre rear spoiler. showrooms across UAE.

The best… running watches Whatever your ability, these watches will help you improve your performance by tracking your vital statistics in real time ▲ Garmin Forerunner 630 ▲ Suunto Ambit3 Vertical Light and streamlined, but with If you’re a hill runner, this exhaustive running metrics, watch is the one to go for. this is a superb piece of kit. It has an altimeter that With a heart rate chest strap, tracks the elevation and it tracks everything from builds a profile of cadence (steps per minute) mountain routes, and an to recovery times (£310; impressive 15 hours of www.buy.garmin.com). battery life (£270; www. suunto.com).

▲ Fitbit Surge Unlike its ▲ TomTom Spark 3 Cardio Fitbit cousins, the Surge + Music With a built-in has built-in GPS, making heart monitor, this model ▲ Microsoft Band 2 it a good buy for offers the usual stats, plus This watch may not be outdoor runners. It it has space for 500 songs the most elegant nor doesn’t offer in-depth and is compatible with the most comfortable, fitness tracking, but it is various Bluetooth head- but with 11 different more affordable than phones – ideal for people sensors, it is versatile, most of the alternatives who like to run to music and fits discreetly beneath a shirt cuff (£185; (£158; www.currys.co.uk). (£220; www.tomtom.com). www.argos.co.uk). SOURCE: T3 Tips of the week… eating on a plane ● Food tastes different at 35,000ft: the (MSG) onto the plane, and sprinkling it on combination of dryness and low pressure your food to enhance the umami flavour. affects the sense of smell, and reduces ● A fruity South African Malbec is likely our sensitivity to sweet and salty foods, to taste better on flights than a dry making food taste blander. European grape, which can acquire a ● However, umami – the sweet-savoury bitterness. flavour known as the “fifth taste” – is not ● Avoid carbonated drinks – gas expands affected, and may even be enhanced by in the digestive system at low air pressure. on-board conditions. That helps explain ● Don’t be swayed by “freshly prepared” why tomato juice is so popular on flights. labels: most airline meals are made ● Some experts recommend taking your between 12 and 72 hours in advance, and own sachets of monosodium glutamate then zapped in the on-board ovens.

10 JUNE 2017 THE WEEK 32 Travel

This week’s dream: discovering Hokusai in the Japanese Alps The subject of a new exhibition at the of a prominent local merchant, and British Museum, Katsushika Hokusai is returned several times before his death, the most famous of all Japanese artists. seven years later. At the heart of the Monet and van Gogh were ardent town lies a “beautifully maintained” admirers of his work, and the best old estate, Obusedo, the wooden known of the delicate woodblock prints entrance gate of which Hokusai for which he is principally renowned – portrayed in one of his prints. Within The Great Wave (1831) – is now “one stands a hotel with a minimalist of the world’s most recognisable contemporary interior, and the Hokusai artworks”, says Danielle Demetriou in Museum itself, where the exhibits The Sunday Telegraph. Hokusai was include two large wooden festival floats born in what is now Tokyo, in 1760, with “richly painted” panels. A short and in his home neighbourhood you will walk away along a “winding chestnut find the Sumida Hokusai Museum. But path” lies the Takai Kozan Memorial there is little trace left here of the district Museum, where you can see the rooms he knew – so fans should also visit in which Hokusai’s patron, the Obuse, the pretty little town where he Spring at Obuse’s House of Iwamatsu merchant, hosted his cultural salons. worked in his final decade. Unlike the And an “idyllic” 30-minute walk capital, it retains its old atmosphere, and it also has a fine further on is the mountainside temple of Ganshoin. On its museum dedicated to his work. cypress-wood ceiling is painted a “swirling” phoenix in “dramatic Nestled in the Japanese Alps, Obuse is known for its wooden gem-reds and greens” – Hokusai’s final work. Inside Japan houses, its chestnuts and its flower gardens, which are worthy of (0117-370 9730, www.insidejapantours.com) has a seven-night haiku poetry. Hokusai first visited at the age of 82, at the behest Hokusai Japan trip from about £2,590pp, excluding flights.

Hotel of the week Getting the flavour of… Your own private Idaho leather sofa. Begin your visit as Tolstoy America’s national parks are spectacular, but began his days, with a stroll through the they can feel overcrowded and overburdened surrounding birch woods, and, before with tourist paraphernalia. Not so the leaving, make the pilgrimage to his Sawtooth Mountains of central Idaho, says unmarked grave in the grove he called the Kevin Rushby in The Guardian. One of “green wand”. Then cross the street for a 765 areas protected by the National meal at Preshpekt, a “cosy” café serving Wilderness Preservation System, this is “the Tolstoy family recipes. If you want to stay real American wilderness”, with no roads, no overnight, try the Bolotov Dacha, a “sleek, signs, and few footpaths through its jagged Scandi-style” hotel nearby. For more peaks and ancient forests. On a four-day information, see ypmuseum.ru/en. The Great House at hike, you could progress from the clear Sonning, Berkshire waters of Redfish Lake to the top of Reward The sublime sea cliffs of Milos Peak (10,070ft) at the very heart of the range Best known as the place where the Venus de Home to Theresa May, George Clooney and Uri Geller, the – quite possibly without seeing any other Milo was discovered in 1820, buried within village of Sonning is still the human beings. At the end, there’s the chance ancient ruins, the Greek island of Milos is “fairy-like little nook” Jerome K. to soak, quite alone (save perhaps for a often overlooked by tourists in favour of Jerome described in Three Men in watching osprey), in a natural hot spring neighbours such as Santorini and Mykonos. a Boat – and this “lively” inn sits pool beside the beautiful Salmon River. But it is like a work of art in itself, says at its heart, right beside the River Sawtooth Mountain Guides (+1 208 774 Timothy O’Grady in Condé Nast Traveller – Thames, says Tom Chesshyre in 3324, www.sawtoothguides.com) has a four- a spectacularly arid, wild place ringed by The Times. Following a revamp day trek from about $1,000pp (£775). sea cliffs that are streaked with mineral by Hugh Osmond (of the Strada colours and curved, rippled and pockmarked restaurants) and Sinclair Beecham (of Pret A Manger), it A Tolstoy pilgrimage like modernist sculpture. A boat trip around has a “laid-back” restaurant For fans of Russian literature, little can the island is the best way to appreciate these offering good (sometimes match the thrill of a trip to Yasnaya Polyana, cliffs, along with the island’s 70 or so “superb”) pasta, pizza and says Noah Sneider in The Economist’s 1843 “glorious” beaches. But there’s much else to steaks, and 49 rooms done out in magazine. Three hours by car from Moscow, see too – an ancient amphitheatre, dramatic “city slicker” style (brick walls, the Tolstoy family estate – where Leo wrote catacombs and several museums, as well as designer lights, leather seats). War and Peace and Anna Karenina – is some excellent harbourside restaurants in the Doubles from £60. 0118-969 2277, almost exactly as it was when the great “serene” town of Pollonia. Serendipity (+41 www.greathouseatsonning.co.uk. novelist died in 1910, save for a gash 078 700 85 87, www.serendipitygreekvillas. subsequently left by Nazi soldiers on his com) has villas in Milos.

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THE WEEK 10 JUNE 2017 A collection of inspirational quotes from Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan a man who fought for unity, preached equality and transformed the UAE.

‘I had many dreams. I dreamt of our land keeping pace with the growth of the modern world.’

– SHEIKH ZAYED BIN SULTAN AL NAHYAN

available in all major bookstores and at booksarabia.com

#FatherOfOurNation 34 Obituaries Daredevil TV presenter from Blue Peter’s golden age

John In the 1970s, when Britain Viewers fondly remembered the time Lulu the Noakes had only three TV channels, baby elephant dragged her keeper around the 1934-2017 and even VCRs were almost studio, then defecated on the floor. “Oh dear, unheard of, eight million I’ve trod right in it,” yelled Noakes, in his children tuned in to watch Blue Peter. And for distinctive Yorkshire accent (regional accents many of them, the main attraction was John were then a rarity on the BBC). Animals were Noakes (and his excitable Border collie, Shep). a major part of the show’s appeal. Soon after Boyish and tousle-haired, Noakes brought a joining, Noakes was put in charge of Patch, fresh energy to the magazine programme, puppy of the first Blue Peter dog, Petra. Patch whether he was struggling with sticky back died aged five in 1971, and was replaced by plastic, or crashing a bobsleigh on the Cresta Shep, whom he adored, but whose bounciness Run at 90mph. The show’s resident daredevil, he struggled to control. “Get down, Shep!” he broke the civilian free-fall parachute jump became a catchphrase, and even inspired a record in 1973 (five miles); and in 1977, he novelty pop song. In that golden age of Blue climbed, without a harness, 170ft up two Peter, fans sent in around 1,000 letters a day, ladders, and over a protruding edge, to clean and in school playgrounds Blue Peter badges the pigeon droppings off the top of Nelson’s were highly prized items. Column – then, owing to a sound problem, he had to do it all over again. It has been said that Noakes, however, was a more complex in those days, the BBC risk assessments often Noakes and his beloved Shep character than viewers realised. He had, he simply read: “John may die”. said, developed his jokey, gung-ho persona (“Idiot Noakes”) to cover up his nerves on camera – and he Noakes was born in the village of Shelf, in Yorkshire, in 1934, the switched it off when he left work. In real life he was shy, and in only child of Arthur, a millworker, and Sallie. They split up when interviews he could be prickly. Long after leaving Blue Peter in he was nine, and he went to live with a grandmother. At school, 1978, he said that he wished he’d never gone on the programme: he excelled at cross country running, said The Times, but left he’d found acting far more fulfilling. The filming schedule had without any qualifications. He joined the RAF and trained as an been so relentless, he’d come close to a breakdown, and the pay engine fitter, but he secretly wanted to act, and in the 1950s he had been poor. As for Baxter, she was an “awful woman” and a enrolled at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama (taking odd “bully”. His anger was partly related to Shep, said The Guardian: jobs to pay his way). He was starring in Hobson’s Choice in the BBC had let him keep the dog, but refused to let him appear Leicester in 1965 when he was spotted by Blue Peter editor Biddy with Shep in a series of dog food advertisements, which upset Baxter. Struck by his vitality, she knew that she’d found her next him. He made one other show, Go With Noakes, which ran for presenter to join Valerie Singleton and Christopher Trace (later five series until 1980, then largely retired from broadcasting. After replaced by Peter Purves and Lesley Judd). Noakes, then 29, stayed that, he and his wife, Vicky, decided to sail around the world, but on the show for 12 years, becoming its longest-serving presenter. were thwarted when their yacht capsized. They later sailed to Majorca, and liked it so much they stayed. In 1987, Noakes made Blue Peter followed a largely unvarying format, and was tightly a brief reappearance on British TV to announce, tearfully, that scripted by Baxter – yet it was not without unexpected incident. Shep had died. CIA “asset” who became Panama’s “Maximum Leader”

Manuel The brutal dictator and drug civil war in El Salvador, and helped the Contras Noriega runner Manuel Noriega was for fighting the leftist Sandinista government in 1934-2017 decades a key US ally in Central Nicaragua. It has been claimed that he also America, and a go-between in helped the CIA traffic cocaine, to raise money for the region’s dirty wars. The US had assisted his rise the Contras. A prized CIA “asset”, he was paid to power, but later found it had created a monster well. But at home, Noriega was growing it could not control, said Simon Tisdall in The alarmingly repressive; opponents disappeared, Guardian. Eventually, as his crimes grew more and in 1985 his long-time critic Hugo Spadafora extreme, Washington decided that Pineapple Face, was found beheaded. Washington suspected as he was known, had outgrown his usefulness, Noriega was also working for its leftist enemies and was becoming a liability. In 1989, President in the region, and helping the Colombian cartels Bush sent in 27,000 troops to topple him. When traffic cocaine to the US. Congress cut off aid to Noriega took refuge in the Vatican’s embassy in Panama in 1987, and in 1988, Noriega was Panama City, US forces got stadium-sized speakers indicted in Florida on drug trafficking charges. and blasted the building with rock and heavy Also known as Pineapple Face There was a failed coup, and in 1989 he metal. He surrendered days later. annulled the results of a presidential election. With tensions mounting, a US soldier guarding the Panama Noriega was born, in 1934, into extreme poverty, but was then Canal was killed, and Noriega – now styling himself as the adopted by a better-off family, and sent to a military academy in “Maximum Leader” – was filmed waving a machete, declaring Peru. At some point, he was recruited by the CIA and, in 1967, he that Panama was at war with the US. The US mission to topple enrolled at the School of the Americas in Columbus, Georgia, – him that December was named Operation Just Cause. which had been set up to train military personnel from countries that backed the US in Latin America (turning out Chile’s Convicted in the US of money laundering, racketeering and drug General Pinochet, among other dictators). Noriega rose through trafficking, Noriega was sentenced to 30 years. He was released the ranks of the Panamanian armed forces, and in 1981, after early – but was then extradited to Paris (where he’d laundered the death of Panama’s strongman leader General Torrijos in an some of his drugs money). He spent a year in a French jail, before unexplained air crash, he gained de facto control of the country. being sent back to Panama in 2011, and jailed there. In failing

© BBC In the early 1980s, Noriega intervened on the US’s behalf in the health, he was finally released into house arrest in January.

THE WEEK 10 JUNE 2017 The Middle East’s architecture, design, interiors + property magazine

DESIGN AWARDS 2017

SUBMISSIONS OPEN CATEGORIES Residential Interior Residential Exterior Hospitality - RECA Hospitality Interior - Hotels Office Interior - Boutique Office Interior - Corporate Retail Interior Public Building Outdoor Space Design of the Year Designed by the World for the GCC Most Prominent UAE Project Project of the Future Editor’s Choice Lifetime Achievement

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

Saudi Aramco: City spoilsports? Saudi Arabia’s powerful deputy crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, will shortly make a final decision about where to list the country’s $2trn state oil company, said the FT. And the stakes are hotting up. New York and London have been in battle for months to secure what is likely to be “the world’s biggest ever flotation”. New York was thought to have the edge, because Saudi Aramco’s financial advisers considered it the more “prestigious” venue, with “the deepest pool of investors”. But lawyers trump financial Seven days in the advisors, and Aramco’s legal firm, White & Case, has reportedly warned that a US listing Square Mile would be “reckless” given the country’s “litigious culture” – making London the “front runner”. Hosting Saudi Aramco would certainly be a feather in the City’s post-Brexit The FTSE 100 hit a new all-time high of cap, but the deal could yet be scuppered from within, said Aimee Donnellan in The 7,599 as global markets continued their Sunday Times. The Investment Association (the trade body for top fund managers) is upward ascent, boosted by a “rip- roaring” US jobs report. The fall in the trying to “torpedo” the float, on the grounds that it doesn’t adhere to FTSE rules pound last week, amid speculation that requiring companies to float at least 25% of their shares – the percentage needed to Theresa May may fall short in the protect the market’s “integrity and standards”. Aramco wants to list just 5%. The Saudis election, also boosted the Footsie. The oil are reportedly “confident” they’ll be granted an exception. But we can expect a standoff price took a tumble below $50/barrel between the City’s do-gooders and “those who stand to make a fortune in fees”. following Qatar’s standoff with Saudi Arabia and other Arab states. There are B T: bank boost fears it may complicate Opec’s efforts to Great news for anyone who has been losing sleep over the huge shortfalls in British curb production. The price of vanilla corporate pensions, said Christopher Williams in The Sunday Telegraph. The country’s more than doubled after a cyclone destroyed crops in Madagascar: it is now “biggest private retirement fund”, the BT pension scheme, has just received “a £7bn more expensive than silver. boost on the back of Brexit”, taking its total assets to £50.1bn at the end of the last financial year: the weaker pound has worked wonders on its stock market investments. Theresa May announced plans to set up a network of nine trade commissioners BT is far from the only big company to have profited from soaring stock markets this to boost Britain’s global trade after year, said The Observer. According to pension adviser Mercer, the collective deficit of Brexit. The billionaire financier George final salary pension schemes among FTSE 350 companies has fallen by more than £10bn Soros predicted that Britain may be back in the past month alone, reducing the black hole in retirement schemes to a mere £134bn. in the European Union in little more than Another, less welcome, factor affecting liabilities is “a slowdown in decades of improving five years if the common market life expectancy”. After showing “fairly steady improvements” between 2000 and 2011, radically reinvents itself. mortality rates have plateaued. If the trend persists, accountant PwC estimates that total The loss-making Scunthorpe Steelworks, liabilities for Britain’s 5,800 final salary schemes – which it currently puts at £2trn – offloaded by Tata Steel, was reported to could fall by 15%, or £310bn. It’s certainly one way of getting the bill down. have turned a profit in its first year under new management. PPG Industries Vodafone: poker-faced walked away from its planned takeover of Dulux-maker Akzo Nobel. Channel 4 The sun is definitely shining on Vodafone boss Vittorio Colao, who took home a £6m appointed former Shine boss Alex pay package last year (up 15% on the year before) even though the company reported a Mahon as its CEO; one of her first moves s6.1bn loss. It makes no sense, says Patrick Hosking in The Times. Had you invested will be negotiating the broadcaster’s £100 in Vodafone stock eight years ago, your investment would now have grown to move out of London. HSBC admitted £285 – some £2 less than if you’d plonked your cash into a passive index such as the that it is struggling to fill more than Stoxx Europe 600. Colao’s total rewards over those eight years, by contrast, come to a 1,000 posts at its new Birmingham HQ. It “breathtaking” £59.3m. Val Gooding, who chairs Vodafone’s remuneration committee, is offering cash bonuses of up to £2,500 insists the firm’s pay plans “only deliver significant rewards if and when they are justified to staff who persuade colleagues still by business performance” – and she manages “to keep a straight face, too”. based in the capital to make the move.

British Airways: raking over the ashes After last week’s reputational trashing, tend to see IAG as one of a near the news keeps getting worse for British “oligopoly” of long-haul carriers with a Airways, said Mark Hookham in The “powerful position in a growing industry” Sunday Times. Cabin crew affiliated to – so who cares about standards? Given the Unite union are planning to strike for the growing threat from Middle Eastern four days later this month over pay. carriers on long haul, and the “drubbing Meanwhile, cost-cutting and poor service inflicted on BA by the low-cost carriers in mean that industry experts Skytrax have Europe”, that could prove short-sighted. threatened to strip the airline of its “four-star” status – “leaving it with a Michael O’Leary of Ryanair “couldn’t resist worse rating than Russia’s Aeroflot” and a Twitter dig at BA’s plight”, just ahead of on “a par with Uzbekistan Airways, Worse than Aeroflot? his announcement of record profits of Ethiopian Airlines and Ryanair”. s1.3bn for the year to March, said Martin Vander Weyer in The Spectator. He’d be wiser to test his own BA’s explanation for how it came to strand 75,000 passengers backup systems, “rather than indulging in schadenfreude”. Still, was “about as solid as a paper aeroplane”, and the airline now O’Leary seems to have got things right on IT. Ryanair is a faces compensation claims of up to £100m, said Neil Collins in “paragon of thrift”, but one thing it hasn’t skimped on is the Financial Times. But shares in the airline’s parent, IAG, were investment in its digital operations, said The Economist. Unlike back where they started within days. Clearly, “inflicting misery on BA, it seems, O’Leary views “slashing spending on IT systems” passengers is not something that bothers investors unduly”. They as a “false economy”. He’s right.

THE WEEK 10 JUNE 2017 Talking points CITY 37 Issue of the week: the election, the pound and Brexit Markets are still factoring in a Tory victory, but the pound has become the political barometer of continued Brexit uncertainty “Until last week, markets were not Barometer, “showed confidence expecting the UK election to offer any slumping last summer, then embarking twists, let alone a shock redolent of last on a jagged recovery, before slumping summer’s Brexit vote,” said Michael again last month”. Since “election Mackenzie in the FT. Hence the uncertainty” is likely to “give way to “swoon in the pound” after a YouGov new uncertainties”, there’s no sign of poll raised the possibility of a hung a let-up. Two things worry business. parliament. Markets take the view First, the impact of a significant cut that a strong mandate is needed to in immigration. Secondly, the negotiate Brexit – and that a less PM’s “no deal is better than a bad clear-cut victory for the Tories “only deal” rhetoric. According to the compounds the uncertainty over how Centre for Economic Performance, the UK will leave the EU as the clock leaving the EU without a deal would ticks down to March 2019”. When the result in a 40% drop in exports to the Tories were riding high in the polls last May: worrying business with her rhetoric EU over ten years, and a 3% fall in month, the pound rose above $1.30. GDP per capita. Last week it briefly slipped below $1.28 – and some in the City reckon it could slump below $1.20 if Labour wins an outright Whatever the election result, Brexit negotiations are likely to majority, or forms a coalition with the SNP. But even a Tory mean “a partial reprise of the 1970s”, said The Economist. victory could lead to sterling weakness – if the “legacy” of this “Politics will be paralysed – this time by negotiating Brexit rather election is that Theresa May emerges as a “weaker leader”. than fights with unions. The economy will stagnate thanks to a mixture of uncertainty and business flight.” And the “roiling Markets aren’t always averse to hung parliaments, said David discontent that produced Brexit will find new targets”. In the Smith in The Sunday Times. Neither a minority government nor 1970s, Britain “edged its way” forwards by adopting the a moderate coalition is an automatic negative for the pound. But “neo-liberal” economic consensus – privatisation, deregulation, in the past, there wasn’t the “additional huge complication of tax cuts and globalisation – that both main parties now appear Brexit”. This election is just “the latest hurdle” for the economy to have rejected. Addressing the problems that “neo-liberalism and business to negotiate following a “rollercoaster ride” over the allowed to fester”, such as rising inequality and social past year. One measure of confidence, the Lloyds Bank Business disintegration, is a worthy aim. But it’s no quick economic fix.

Making money: what the experts think Election wish list

● Defying gravity Nationwide – showing UK business faces a “disconcerting “The old order is average prices edging choice”, says Simon Duke in The Sunday crumbling,” said Patrick down by 0.2%, the third Times: between “a party with a Hosking in The Times. consecutive monthly drop fundamentally insular vision of Britain’s “In another era, we’d be – certainly points in that future role in the global economy, and a buying tinned food and direction, with London penchant for meddling in free markets” preparing for anarchy. “seeing slightly sharper – and a party “that wants to nationalise falls than everywhere else”. large chunks of industry, and squeeze Now we shrug and buy businesses until they are dry”. Here’s an shares.” Whatever fresh Given that the number of “alternative” manifesto… shocks and setbacks come £1m-plus properties in along, the indices keep Britain has jumped by Cut fees for “Stem” subjects We’re not going up. The FTSE 100 124% in a decade – and producing enough graduates with the has risen some 400 points The £293,000 handbag that most of them are in skills to forge the businesses of the since Theresa May called the capital – it’s hard to future. Abolishing fees for science, the election on 19 April; meanwhile, “the argue that falling prices are a bad thing. technology, engineering and maths policy U-turns and pantomime antics of A “healthy readjustment” would level degrees would be a useful first step. regional disparity and aid social mobility. the Trump administration” don’t appear to Keep the door open to foreign talent have unnerved American investors at all. “Yet it would also whack a large chunk off Companies cannot thrive without a Sebastian Lyon, who runs the “ultra- the nation’s stored wealth.” flexible immigration system. We should cautious” Personal Assets Trust, points out start by guaranteeing the right of EU that US price-to-earnings ratios have only ● Handbagged migrants already in the country to been higher “at the end of the Roaring If all else fails, buy a handbag, said Rupert remain indefinitely. It’s the right thing Twenties” and at the peak of the tech Neate in The Guardian. Rare and to do “morally and economically”. boom, in 2000. “We know what happened expensive versions – especially super-luxe next.” PAT, which is heavily invested in French labels such as Hermès – are the Invest in 5G and batteries Up-to-date wireless technology and energy storage gold and government bonds, under- new “must-have collectable” for the super- are crucial to developing everything performed the UK market by 7% last year. rich. Last week, a diamond-encrusted from driverless cars to renewable Lyon stoically quotes Rousseau: “Patience Hermès Birkin sold for a record £293,000 power. We’ve got world experts in these is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.” A crash at Christie’s Hong Kong, and the fields: let’s deploy them. now would make him look “very smart”. auctioneer plans six more dedicated bag sales this year. Baghunter.com estimates Scrap National Insurance Rather than ● Crumbling houses that, over the Birkin bag’s 33-year lifetime, raising NI for self-employed workers, “Nothing strikes fear into hearts as much it “has beaten both the stock market and a better way of managing the “gig as the thought that the family home could gold as an investment class”, yielding an economy” would be to scrap it altogether. Raised income tax rates be worthless,” said Iain Dey in The average annual return of 14.2%. would make good the shortfall. Sunday Times. And the latest data from Recession-proof? We may shortly find out.

10 JUNE 2017 THE WEEK 38 CITY Commentators

For the first time in almost 30 years, the credit agency Moody’s has downgraded China’s national rating, arguing that a steady City profiles The threat of buildup of debt could erode the country’s strength in the years ahead. The immediate concern, says Nathaniel Taplin, is Ambarish Mitra a Chinese The founder of the red-hot “short-term stability”. Beijing’s recent attempt to tackle China’s tech start-up Blippar is credit crunch dangerously leveraged financial markets, by clamping down on heading to Monaco this corporate bonds and bank lending, hasn’t “sparked the systemic week to represent Britain in credit crunch that many feared”. Yet its cash-strapped firms have Nathaniel Taplin the prestigious EY World only avoided more defaults by “skulking back” to shadow lenders Entrepreneur of the Year The Wall Street Journal instead. China’s economy remains in “decent shape” for now awards, said Kiki Loizou in (industrial profits jumped 14% in Q1), and policymakers are The Sunday Times. Being unlikely to tolerate a slowdown ahead of a critical Communist inventive is vital to business Party congress in the autumn, when the next generation of leaders building, especially if you’re will be chosen. But at what price? Forcing firms to refinance at in the “augmented reality” game (the Blippar app allows exorbitant rates, without the “discipline” of the bond market, or you to scan or “blip” real- proper risk control, is “storing up trouble”. “It begs the question: world objects, and provides once the party conclave is finished this fall, what happens next?” relevant digital information). But Ambarish Mitra, 38, has “Sizeable City floats” have been rare of late, so the return of been a little too inventive. He Allied Irish Banks to the markets is an event worth celebrating, was “recently exposed” for Irish bank float says Alex Brummer. “Despite all the hype about banks fleeing falsely claiming that he had London post-Brexit, this eurozone bank is heading in the opposite studied at the London School has lessons of Economics, and for saying direction, with a dual Dublin-London listing.” The float also that he had previously for Whitehall shows that even banks “most damaged by the financial crisis can floated a business in India, be resuscitated and freed from public ownership”. AIB was in when he hadn’t. such dire straits in 2008 that it needed a s20.8bn state rescue. Alex Brummer But now that “the Irish economy is again the fastest growing in Daily Mail the eurozone”, Dublin “clearly feels it is worth taking an initial loss if it can get AIB off its books”. The listing is likely to be “closely watched in Whitehall”, where successive governments have “been reluctant to return Royal Bank of Scotland to the markets at a loss”. Yet RBS’s continuing troubles are surely proof that Treasury micromanagement has hindered, rather than helped, recovery. That’s worth remembering as Britain goes to the polls: if the Corbynistas triumph, RBS faces the “ghastly prospect” of being turned into “some kind of Venezuelan-style state lender”.

Having more than doubled in two months, the price of bitcoin hit a new all-time high above $2,800 this week, says The Economist. Bitcoin’s Is this just a “speculative mania”, or evidence that the electronic currency “is taking on a more substantial role as a medium of “healthy” “I don’t know what got into exchange or a store of value”? Put another way, is bitcoin “like my head and I take full a tulip, gold or the dollar – or is it something else entirely”? The responsibility for it,” says bubble first three can be ruled out. Bitcoin’s trajectory might look as Mitra – who has raised more “manic”, but it’s unlike “tulipmania” because it has “real uses” – than £77m for Blippar from Editorial even if the price is too volatile to be a store of value like gold. And investors including Qualcomm, Lansdowne The Economist for the time being, a dollar bill still beats it “hands down” for convenience. Perhaps the best comparison is the dotcom boom: Partners and the property like the internet, cryptocurrencies “both embody innovation and tycoon Nick Candy. “There was no agenda.” The give rise to more of it”, which is one reason regulators should “founding myth” of Mitra’s tread lightly. Bitcoin speculation might seem “a dangerous way to career is certainly seductive, generate innovation”, but buyers are hardly unaware of the risks, said Kadhim Shubber in the and since it is “still a fairly self-contained system”, contagion is FT: his “frequently told tale of unlikely. “If there is such a thing as a healthy bubble, this is it.” triumph over adversity in the slums of Delhi” prompted Plenty has changed in Slough since the Berkshire town was the BBC to dub him a “real- established as a “manufacturing hub” by the then newly formed life slumdog The glories of Slough Trading Company in 1920, says Rhiannon Bury. One multimillionaire”. Has this thing that hasn’t is its “bad reputation as an industrial waste- story, too, perhaps been Slough still “augmented”? Still, what land”. Much of the blame for that lies with John Betjeman’s poem matters now is Blippar, Slough (“Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough!”), written in which lost £26m in the shine bright 1937, when it housed some 850 factories, including those of 16 months to March 2016, Rhiannon Bury Mars and Citroën (both still there). The town was “further but reportedly has some compromised” by its association with the 1990s sitcom The 65 million users, along with corporate clients such as The Daily Telegraph Office. Yet, “despite its infamy”, Slough is actually “the second most productive place in the UK”, according to a recent Centre McDonald’s and Heinz. “It is for Cities report. It’s also a vital cog in Britain’s digital economy. a shame that my CV is in The old trading estate’s “whirring and clicking factories” have question,” says Mitra, who admits the bad press hasn’t been replaced with “barbed-wired fences and Fort Knox-like entry helped his capital-raising systems”, because it is now “the second-largest home of data efforts. “I’ve never hired centres in the world”. The Slough Trading Company, now called anyone based on their Segro, has just been promoted to the FTSE 100: a fitting tribute to grades and stuff like that.” Slough’s resilience against Betjeman’s “metaphorical bombs”.

THE WEEK 10 JUNE 2017 Sharewatch CITY 39

Who’s tipping what

The week’s best buys Directors’ dealings Brooks MacDonald Group Kainos Group Renold Just Eat Investors Chronicle The Times Investors Chronicle 700 The wealth manager is Kainos provides “exceptional” Trading conditions are still performing robustly in digital tech solutions to clients tough, but the industrial 650 uncertain markets, having including the NHS, the Home engineer’s restructuring is Director’s trust attracted substantial net Office and the NSPCC. starting to have a beneficial sells 17m inflows, helped by structural Currently benefiting from impact on profitability. The 600 drivers such as pension strong demand and expansion; order book is up 9% and 550 freedom changes. Multi-asset revenues have jumped 9%. profits should rise by the end funds are performing well too. Buy. 240.5p. of 2018. Buy. 58p. Buy. £24.81. 500 Lloyds Banking Group Volution 450 Go-Ahead Group The Mail on Sunday The Times Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun The Daily Telegraph Having cut costs and This Sussex-based ventilation The rail and bus operator has streamlined, Lloyds is now a supplier to the construction Despite slowing growth rates at the online takeaway service, been hit by the Southern “solid, back-to-basics bank”, industry has acquired Swedish shares haven’t lost momentum. network rail disruption. But it with the largest branch firm VoltAir, taking it further Still, director Frederic Coorevits is cash generative, with a network in Britain. Its takeover into the new-build market. is taking profits. STM Fidecs, a strong balance sheet, and the of credit card giant MBNA Expanding with cash, rather trust in which he’s “beneficially 5.6% yield is covered by bus looks profitable as well. than debt. There’s a decent interested”, has sold 17 million profits. Buy. £18.13. Yields 6.4%. Buy. 69.25p. 2.2% yield. Buy. 196.5p. shares, netting £102m. SOURCE: INVESTORS CHRONICLE SOURCE: INVESTORS

…and some to sell Form guide

Acacia Mining Hogg Robinson Pets at Home Group Shares tipped 12 weeks ago Investors Chronicle Investors Chronicle Investors Chronicle Best tip The political crisis engulfing Hogg’s travel management The pet products supplier is IG Design Group the miner in Tanzania has business has been hit by Brexit. moving away from heavy The Daily Telegraph worsened. The government, Its lowly rating reflects the promotions to a more up 29.06% to 342p which has accused Acacia of risks posed to revenue streams “competitive approach”, to misreporting the mineral as client spend drops. The increase sales volumes. But Worst tip content of its gold and copper company’s £265m pension the turnaround looks Vertu Motors ore, has extended an export deficit doesn’t help. Sell. 70p. unconvincing, and hiked The Times down 10.34% to 44.38p ban. Production could be wage costs leave margins suspended. Sell. 260p. Lonmin vulnerable. Sell. 166p. The Mail on Sunday Berendsen Peel Hunt admires the Wentworth Resources Market view The Daily Telegraph platinum producer’s plans to Investors Chronicle “Here and there we find Shares in the laundry services reopen one of its major mine Production from Mnazi Bay, nuggets, but mostly valuations firm have risen from 797p to shafts, but has “real concerns” the East African driller’s main cause us nosebleeds.” £10.82 following a hostile bid about cash flow. The gas asset, is in line with Charles de Vaulx of International Value Advisers from French rival Elis. probability is that, after using guidance. But delayed bemoans the lack of bargains Berendsen “now looks quite up existing funds, Lonmin payments from a partner are in expensive equity markets. fully valued”. Take profits. Sell. will have to raise money. straining cash flows, and gas Quoted in the FT £10.82. Sell. 76.5p. demand could slip. Sell. 22p. Market summary

KeyKey numbersnumbers for investors BestBest andand worst performing shares Following the Footsie 5 June 2017 Week before Change (%) WEEK’S CHANGE, FTSE 100 STOCKS 7,600 FTSE 100 7525.76 7526.51 –0.01% RISES Price % change FTSE All-share UK 4114.40 4119.58 –0.13% 3i Group 932.50 +7.37 7,500 Convatec Group 344.00 +5.85 Dow Jones 21210.41 21038.50 0.82% 7,400 NASDAQ 6298.85 6203.71 1.53% Randgold Resources 7500.00 +4.17 Nikkei 225 20170.82 19677.85 2.51% London Stock Ex. Grp. 3499.00 +3.18 7,300 Hang Seng 25862.99 25701.63 0.63% Paddy Power Betfair 8575.00 +3.13 Gold 1279.95 1262.70 1.37% FALLS 7,200 Brent Crude Oil 49.43 51.95 –4.85% Taylor Wimpey 183.50 –8.11 7,100 DIVIDEND YIELD (FTSE 100) 3.68% 3.67% ITV 188.30 –5.94 UK 10-year gilts yield 1.14 1.07 Antofagasta 776.50 –5.82 7,000 US 10-year Treasuries 2.18 2.23 National Grid 1034.00 –5.22 6,900 UK ECONOMIC DATA Marks & Spencer Grp. 371.10 –3.93 Latest CPI (yoy) 2.7% (Apr) 2.3% (Mar) BEST AND WORST UK STOCKS OVERALL 6,800 Latest RPI (yoy) 3.5% (Apr) 3.1% (Mar) Spectra Systems 40.00 +45.45 Halifax house price (yoy) +3.8% (Apr) +3.8% (Mar) Tertiary Minerals 0.67 –98.92 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Source: Datastream (not adjusted for dividends). Prices on 5 June (pm) £1 STERLING $1.292 E1.149 ¥141.656 6-month movement in the FTSE 100 index

10 JUNE 2017 THE WEEK 40 The last word How Lego conquered the world

Fourteen years ago, Lego was in big trouble – sales were down, debts were climbing and bankruptcy loomed. Today, it is the world’s most powerful brand. Johnny Davis chronicles the greatest turnaround in corporate history

From its founding in 1932 until think he’s a better model for 1998, Lego had never posted a innovation than Steve Jobs,” loss. But by 2003 it was in big Robertson has said. trouble. Sales were down 30% year-on-year and it was $800m in Last month I flew to Billund, a debt. An internal report revealed small town in the Jutland it hadn’t added anything of value Peninsula, where Lego was to its portfolio for a decade. founded. The landscape was flat Consultants hurried to Lego’s and grey, but as I drove from the Danish HQ. They advised airport, a large primary-coloured diversification. The brick had arm or head would occasionally been around since the 1950s, they appear though the pine trees: the said, it was obsolete. Lego should Lego Group owns several look to Mattel, home to Fisher- buildings here and has decorated Price, Barbie, Hot Wheels and the landscape accordingly. Matchbox toys – a company “Billund was built to function, whose portfolio was broad and not to please,” explained Roar varied. Lego took their advice: in Trangbæk, Lego’s cheerful, doing so, it almost went bust. It bearded publicist. “There’s not a introduced jewellery for girls. lot of fun here.” He meant there There were Lego clothes. It wasn’t a lot to do – it’s hard to opened theme parks that cost imagine the nightlife is up to £125m to build and lost £25m in much – but given that 120 million their first year. It built its own Lego bricks are manufactured video games company from here every day, fun was very scratch, the largest installation of much the point of the place. As if Silicon Graphics supercomputers to prove it, Trangbæk handed me in northern Europe, despite Last year Lego sold 75 billion bricks his business card. It was a having no experience in the field. minifigure of himself. Lego’s toys still sold, particularly tie-ins, such as their Star Wars and Harry Potter-themed kits. But only if there was a movie out The following morning, the Lego Group was due to announce its that year. Otherwise they sat on shelves. latest annual results. Today was an opportunity to tour the factory and be among the first to step inside Lego House – a In 2015, the still privately owned, family-controlled Lego Group 130,000sq ft marvel that will open in September, and is expected overtook Ferrari to become the world’s most powerful brand. It to draw 250,000 visitors a year. It has been designed by Bjarke announced profits of £660m, making it the No. 1 toy company in Ingels, the hottest name in architecture right now, whose Europe and Asia, and No. 3 in North America, where sales commissions include Google’s HQ, the new World Trade Centre topped $1bn for the first time. From 2008 to 2010 its profits and last year’s Serpentine Pavilion. Ingels certainly seems to have quadrupled, outstripping enjoyed himself: Lego House Apple’s. Indeed, it has been resembles 21 giant Lego bricks called the Apple of toys: a “Lego minifigures – the 4cm-tall yellow stacked into a 30 metre-tall profit-generating, design-driven characters with dotty eyes and hooks tower. Visitors can climb up to miracle built around premium, for hands – now outnumber humans” the rooftop garden and down the intuitive, covetable hardware other side, pausing to take in that fans can’t get enough of. attractions, restaurants, play Last year Lego sold 75 billion bricks. Lego “minifigures” – the zones and a gallery dedicated to fan-made Lego extravaganzas. 4cm-tall yellow characters with dotty eyes, hooks for hands and pegs for legs – outnumber humans. When The Lego Movie came Vig Knudstorp rescued Lego by methodically rebuilding it, brick out in 2014, the film reviews website Rotten Tomatoes awarded it by brick. He dumped things it had no expertise in – the Legoland a 96% approval rating. This year’s follow-up, The Lego Batman parks are now owned by the British company Merlin Movie, outperformed the last “proper” Batman movie, Batman Entertainments. He slashed the inventory, halving the number of v Superman: Dawn of Justice, to such a degree that DC Comics individual pieces Lego produces from 13,000 to 6,500. (Brick now faces a genuine problem: audiences overwhelmingly prefer colours had expanded from the original bright yellow, red and the Dark Knight in his pompous plastic version voiced by Will blue, sourced from Piet Mondrian, to more than 50.) He also Arnett, rather than Ben Affleck’s portrayal. encouraged interaction with Lego’s fans, something previously considered verboten. The internet has played a vital role in Lego’s revival has been called the greatest turnaround in corporate allowing fans to share their creations and promote events such as history. A book devoted to the subject, David Robertson’s Brick Brickworld, an adult Lego fan convention. Lego also launched by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation, has a crowdsourcing competition: originators of winning ideas get become a set business text. Sony, Adidas and Boeing are said to 1% of their product’s net sales, designs that so far include the refer to it. Google now uses Lego bricks to help its employees Back to the Future DeLorean time machine, the Beatles’ Yellow innovate. Lego’s saviour is Jørgen Vig Knudstorp – a father of Submarine, and a set of female Nasa scientists. four, perhaps not uncoincidentally – who arrived from management consultants McKinsey & Company in 2001 and was “Lego has this incredible ability to engage with people, and that

promoted to boss within three years, aged 36. “In some ways, I has single-handedly enabled it to weather very, very difficult seas,” GROUP THE LEGO © 2017

THE WEEK 10 JUNE 2017 The last word 41 says Simon Cotterrell, from brand analytics adapted Croydon-based inventor Hilary firm Interbrand. “What’s made them Fisher Page’s self-locking bricks (billed as successful over the past ten years is their his “sensible toy”) – plastic cubes with two ability to create new entities, movies, TV rows of four studs to enable stacking. The shows, by partnering with brilliant people. final part of Lego’s success clicked into place They’ve said: ‘We might not make as much in 1958, when it created its “system”. Where money if we outsource it, but the product will previously they’d made toys of all shapes and be better.’ That mentality is very Danish. It sizes, now every brick fitted with every other: comes from saying: ‘We’re engineers. We everything was backwards compatible. A know what we’re good at. Let’s stick to our mathematician recently deduced that just six knitting.’ That’s a very brave thing to do and eight-stud bricks could be combined it’s where a lot of companies go wrong.” 915,103,765 ways.

Lego also started making hit toys again. As During the factory tour, we saw some of well as putting the focus back on classic Lego those bricks being created. Here, 768 lines such as City and Space, it has launched moulding machines work 24/7, 361 days the ninja-themed Ninjago line and of the year. There was a constant hiss: the Mindstorms, kits that allow you to build sound of raw granulate being fed into the programmable Lego robots. And for grown- vast machines. Then something akin to up kids, Lego Architecture: replicas of the Wonka magic: brightly coloured pieces of joy Guggenheim, Burj Khalifa and Robie House materialising at the other end. Lego’s quality control and precision is rigorous. The bricks (that last one is not for the time-poor – it Vig Knudstorp: encouraged fan interaction contains 2,276 bricks). Most impressively, for have to be strong enough to hold together, a company with a customer base that in 2011 was 90% boys, it but not so strong they can’t easily be pulled apart by a child. They finally cracked the girls’ market. Lego Friends features a call it “clutch power”. It is a huge industrial process, with similar reconfigured “mini-doll” and centres on five characters in the plants in Hungary, China and Mexico. But Lego is increasingly fictional Heartlake City. None of this has happened by chance. concentrating on bridging the physical and the virtual. This year it Lego is said to conduct the largest ethnographic study of children rolled out Lego Life, a social network for kids too young for in the world. “We call it ‘camping with consumers’,” says Anne Instagram to share their creations, gaining “likes” from peers and Flemmert Jensen, senior director of its Global Insights group. Lego characters alike. There’s also Nexo Knights, a video game “My team spends all our time travelling around the world, talking where powers are unlocked by scanning Lego pieces. They’re to kids and their families and participating in their daily lives.” researching VR and AR. “Some of the things we’re looking at are This includes watching how kids play on their own and with very near to being feasible now,” says William Thorogood, an friends, how siblings interact, and why some toys remain irrepressibly bouncy Brit and the senior innovation director with perennial favourites while others are relegated to the toy box. Lego’s creative play lab. “Other things are very exciting, but probably not feasible for ten years.” Ninjago was crowdsourced: its first iteration featured skeletons as enemies, because tests proved they were the most popular baddies The next morning in Billund, Lego announced the highest among six-year-old boys, globally. Lego Friends took four years of revenues in its 85-year history. Since December, the company has research (plus a $40m global marketing push) to get right. “One been run by another Brit, Bali Padda, the first non-Dane in charge, of the main things was [girls] couldn’t really relate to the after Vig Knudstorp moved into a new role to expand the brand minifigure,” says Mauricio Affonso, Friends’ model designer. globally. “The reality is that the last few years, the growth has “It’s too blocky. Boys tend to be a lot more about good versus been supernatural,” Julia Goldin, Lego’s chief marketing officer, evil, whereas girls really see themselves through the mini-doll. tells me. “But we look at every year starting at zero, because you They wanted a greater level of detail, proportions and realism.” have to recruit every child again and make the brand exciting for Lego Friends sets (bakery, amusement park, riding camp, etc.) them. That becomes a good challenge, of course.” tend to feature something else missing from boys’ sets: a loo. Earlier I had met Bo Stjerne The boys don’t care, the girls’ “Girls want a greater level of detail and Thomsen, the director of pragmatism demanded it. realism. The girls’ sets tend to feature research and learning with the Lego Foundation, an Roar Trangbæk shows me the something missing from boys’ sets: a loo” independent body that owns original Lego House, where the 25% of the Lego Group and company’s founder Ole Kirk Christiansen lived. It’s now a studies early-childhood development through play. (It has private museum that tells the Lego chronology through artefacts, funded the world’s first professor of play, at Cambridge packaging and toys. More than one adult visitor has been known University.) Thomsen produced two plastic bags containing a to burst into tears when confronted by a key line from their few red and yellow bricks, part of a basic kit they use to engage childhood: in my case, the Space Lego of the mid-1970s. (Lego learning. “Quickly build a duck,” he instructed me. “Everybody gets inundated with requests for rereleases, but they won’t do it. can usually do it in 40 seconds.” We set to work. Thomsen’s Their focus is the kids of now and tomorrow, not yesterday.) duck had two outstretched wings. Mine had a red bill, a red Christiansen was an expert carpenter when the Great Depression slab for feet and a yellow block for a tail. “Oh, that’s fun!” he hit. He figured the one thing people would always find money said. “I like that.” There was no wrong or right duck, of for was toys for their children. His company motto is carved course. That was the point. “It’s about the process of making into a plaque here – “det bedste er ikke for godt” (only the best and investigating and learning,” Thomsen said. “How fast do is good enough) – something borne out when Christiansen’s son you think anyone can do a duck?” I’m not sure, I said. Godtfred returned home one day to proudly inform his dad Ten seconds? “Ten seconds? OK, let me count.” Then he he’d saved them some cash by only applying two of the usual slammed another set of pieces straight down on the table. three coats of varnish to a wooden duck. He got a tongue- “That’s my duck!” he beamed. “I just sliced it up so it’s ready lashing for his trouble. “It is a good story, but it’s also a true for the oven. Ha ha!” Lego is a serious business. It just happens story,” says Trangbæk. to be in the business of fun.

In 1946, against everyone’s advice, the family invested in a A longer version of this article first appeared in The Observer newfangled plastic-injection moulding machine. Later, they © The Observer/Guardian News & Media Limited

10 JUNE 2017 THE WEEK 42 Crossword

THE WEEK CROSSWORD 162

ACROSS DOWN 1 Throwing event in Cumbernauld is 9 Is Heather not about in this London customary (6) borough? (9) 2 Chap behind a long recess (6) 10 Leave house with depression (3,2) 3 Former Head beginning to drop off (4) 11 Miss entering sporting competition 4 Lethargy shown by sheep in affliction, gets intimate examination (5-2) short of energy (6) 12 Millions unsettled, climate’s changing? 5 Home petrol supply for cops (8) It can adapt to change (7) 6 This could be Conservative lady 13 It can give a fine result by the way (5,4) hoarding lots (10) 15 Damage ground after parking 7 Pot former PM is into without delay (8) introduced (5) 8 Perfectionist adherent holding line? (8) 16 What should working gateman display? (4,3) 14 Firm put off by colliery depth (10) 19 Beginner in Latin alongside 16 No overeating or going out to get employee (7) drunk (8) 20 Unit in Greece is thing that’s 17 Piece on singer Bobby in foreign doomed (5) language (8) 21 Pop backing platter ordered dessert 18 A second soprano in good group (5-4) singing (8) 25 They’d crawl to a heartless rich man (7) 22 In various places overtake on motorway going north (6) 26 Drink with army unit chief (7) 23 Warnings picked up in past 28 Love to get stuck into failing relationships (6) spokesman (5) 24 May perhaps put about ambassador’s 29 Catch dangerous dog? It’s a tense assumption (6) situation (4-5) 27 Bass in unfinished market bars (4)

Clue of the week: Great place to pee, in regularly scrubbed urinal (6, first letter U) The Times

Solution to Crossword 160 ACROSS: 1 Manchester City 9 Spotter 10 Aintree 11 Pillion 12 Tripoli 13 Resit 14 Enchanted 16 Packs it in 19 Teeth 21 Interim 23 Eyespot 24 Toaster 25 Diagram 26 Demonstrations DOWN: 1 Misappropriate 2 Noodles 3 Hit list 4 Stringent 5 Enact 6 Cantina 7 Turnout 8 Behind the times 15 Contender 17 Citrate 18 Stretto 19 The past 20 A powerful narrative Esparto 22 Moro Clue of the Week: Ravel composed ten new pieces, keeping only the second (7, first letter E) on how gender balance is Solution: ENTWINE (anag of ten new & (p)i(eces)

Sudoku 162 transforming Arab society

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 161

DAVID B. JONES

SOPHIE LE RAY Charity of the week

R ADHIK A PUNSHI

UAE Dolphin Project The UAE Dolphin Project is a non-profit initiative dedicated to investigating the dolphin population along the UAE coastline to provide scientific AVAILABLE IN ALL MAJOR BOOKSTORES information and to support the conservation of these local marine species. AND AT BOOKSARABIA.COM This is done through the implementation of a research programme, as well as running a media campaign and educational programmes involving    the public and private organisations. The ultimate goal is to promote the conservation of dolphin species and the local marine environment. To find out more visit wp.uaedolphinproject.org

THE WEEK 10 JUNE 2017 The region’s bestselling cross-cultural guide for the past two decades

‘This is a wonderful book ... well written ... it corrects some stereotypical images of the Gulf ... a superb e ort.’ DR OBAID ALI BIN BUTTI JUMA AL MAJID CENTRE FOR CULTURE AND HERITAGE, DUBAI

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