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ERDOGAN’S The showgirl Britain’s ASSAULT ON who married greatest ever THE PRESS Frank Sinatra swimmer BEST EUROPEAN OBITUARIES P43 SPORT P24 ARTICLES P17 5THAUGUST 2017 | ISSUE 1136 | £3.30EWTHE BEST OF THE BRITISHEEK AND INTERNATIONAL MEDIA Chaos and cruelty Inside the court of King Donald Page 4 ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT MATTERS www.theweek.co.uk There are other ways to travel Transatlantic 4 NEWS The main stories… What happened What the editorials said Any lingering hopes that President Trump “might grow into Trump’s worst week his role as commander-in-chief evaporated this week”, said the A chaotic week in Donald Trump’s White FT – “a chaotic and self-destructive one even House culminated in the firing of both his by the dismal standards of this presidency”. chief of staff, Reince Priebus, and his Trump is “testing the constitutional system to controversial new communications director, destruction”. The president was elected to tear Anthony Scaramucci, a mere ten days after up the Washington rule book, said The Times, his appointment. During an exceptionally “and he is entitled to try”. But he has not turbulent few days, Trump was criticised by managed to advance his agenda, because he Republicans for repeatedly lashing out at his hasn’t convinced Republicans to back it. own attorney general, Jeff Sessions; and by Without discipline this administration will the Pentagon, for announcing a ban on all “fail on the legislative front and may also fail transgender service personnel on Twitter. the most basic test of all – that of survival”. He also saw his campaign pledge to repeal Obamacare voted down in the Senate (see It seems it was Kelly who ordered page 8), and delivered a jarringly partisan Donald and Reince in happier times Scaramucci’s dismissal, said The Wall Street speech to the Boy Scouts of America’s Journal. Assuming that’s true, the new chief Jamboree, railing against the “cesspool” of US politics. of staff has demonstrated at a stroke that he “is already in charge and has the president’s support”, and that “no one Last week the newly hired Scaramucci told The New Yorker should trash their colleagues in public… Not a bad first day.” that chief of staff Reince Priebus was a “fucking paranoid It may be that Kelly is one of the rare people “whom Mr schizophrenic” and would soon be asked to resign. Priebus Trump will heed” outside his immediate family. In the past, was sacked on Friday, and replaced by homeland secretary the president has shown “that he can listen to advice for a few John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general. However, hours, sometimes even a few days”. But the omens are not Scaramucci himself also resigned soon afterwards. On Twitter, promising: he has always broken free eventually, “with a the president declared it “a great day at the White House!”. Twitter barrage or interview tirade”. What happened What the editorials said Venezuela in turmoil Venezuela is not only the “most corrupt country” in Latin America, it is also “the most ineptly governed”, said The World leaders this week accused Venezuela of Economist. The pursuit of “state socialism” has staging a rigged election to consolidate the beggared a country with larger oil reserves than power of its hard-line socialist president, Saudi Arabia. An “astonishing” 93% of Nicolás Maduro. The ballot – boycotted by Venezuelans say they can’t afford the food they the opposition – was to choose members of need; inflation is expected to top 1,000% this a constituent assembly with sweeping powers year. Yet the regime now plans to cement its to rewrite the constitution, scrap elections, place in office through a constitution drafted by and draft laws. The authorities claimed a an assembly made up of hand-picked yes-men. turnout of 41.5%, but independent analysts In the resulting one-party state, Venezuelans say the true figure was far lower. Public will lose even their basic right to throw out sector workers were reportedly threatened “the bums” responsible for their fate. with losing food rations unless they voted. At least ten people were killed in clashes with What’s needed now is a united opposition, said the police when crowds of protesters defied The Guardian. Over the past few months, a ban on public gatherings. Maduro: no skill, no charisma Maduro’s enemies have staged regular street protests in which a total of at least 100 people Washington has denounced the election as a “sham” and have died. But they remain a “mixed coalition”, with no clear slapped sanctions on Maduro, following earlier sanctions figurehead or programme. Venezuela’s crisis has broad against other key members of the Venezuelan regime. Fearing implications, said The Times. Desperate Venezuelans are an escalation in the violence, both the US and Britain are fleeing across the border into Colombia in their thousands, now evacuating their diplomats’ families from Caracas. creating a refugee crisis that could destabilise the region. A young woman who was so ill In the 1950s, the Thames was It wasn’t all bad as a teenager that she went to declared “biologically dead”. For the first time, Kew Gardens court to fight for the right to die Today, however, seals are has opened to the public a vast has celebrated her graduation thriving in the Thames Estuary, swathe of woodland that once from university. Hannah Jones, and have been seen as far west belonged to Henry VII. The from New Quay in Ceredigion, up the river as Teddington Lock. 40-acre site, which used to be was 13 when she was told she A Zoological Society of London part of a deer park connected needed a heart transplant. study estimates that the estuary to the king’s royal estate, was Having already had chemo- was home to 1,552 grey seals donated to the Royal Botanic therapy for leukaemia, followed last year, up from 655 in 2013. Gardens by Queen Victoria in by surgery to repair a hole in her Harbour seals are doing almost 1898. Since then, it has been left heart caused by that treatment, as well: there were 964 last year, largely untouched, but a new she couldn’t face such a major up nearly 50% on 2013. woodland walk offers visitors a operation. She won her case – Conservationists think numbers route through some of its trees but then changed her mind, and received a new heart a year later. are rising because more seals – among them sweet chestnuts Now, aged 22, Jones has received a degree in English and drama are travelling from Lincolnshire, planted in the 17th century and from Aberystwyth University, and is shortly to start a teaching Norfolk and Suffolk to feed species of ancient yew. course. “I am very grateful for the chance to live,” she said. and rest in the estuary. COVER CARTOON: HOWARD MCWILLIAM THE WEEK 5 August 2017 …and how they were covered NEWS 5 What the commentators said What next? “Six months into his presidency, and the Donald Trump show remains compelling viewing,” John Kelly has apparently said Jonathan Freedland in The Guardian. “Outlandish” new characters are popping in “to been able to dictate the terms keep things fizzing”, such as Anthony “the Mooch” Scaramucci, a former Wall Street financier of his new job as chief of who, while speaking on the record with a reporter, not only slated Reince Priebus, but also staff, says The Times. The threatened to “fucking kill all the leakers” in the White House, and declared of Trump’s chief entire White House staff, strategist: “I’m not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own cock.” including Trump’s family, will report to him. “If Mr None of this is “remotely surprising”, said Max Boot in Foreign Policy. As Jeb Bush accurately Trump keeps to his end of the predicted, Trump has become the “chaos president”. What has changed is that his Republican deal, Mr Kelly will sit atop supporters are turning against him, thanks primarily to his public belittling of one of his earliest a hierarchical West Wing and most loyal backers, Jeff Sessions; Trump is furious that the attorney general recused himself power structure not unlike from the inquiry into the campaign’s Russian links. They have excused the rest of it – his the rigid chains of command ignorance and lying; his attacks on women, war heroes, the press, Mexicans and Muslims; “his from his military days.” pussy-grabbing and general, all-round loutishness”; his “kowtowing to Vladimir Putin, Rodrigo Duterte and other loathsome dictators”. It will be interesting to see if this is the “breaking point”. A top commander during the worst years of the Iraq War, The key to understanding the chaos of the Trump administration is the “disparate factions” Kelly is respected, but has inside it, all jostling for power, said Rob Crilly in The Daily Telegraph. There are the “blow-it- little experience in stewarding up-and-start-again revolutionaries”, headed up by the populist Steve Bannon. Against him are legislation through Congress. the New Yorkers: the Wall Street bankers, such as National Economic Council director Gary Trump conceded that his Cohn, and Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. Then there administration had “some are the generals: John Kelly, Jim Mattis at the Pentagon, and national security adviser H.R. interesting situations” to deal McMaster. “Most fragile of all” are the real Republicans. By firing Priebus, the most prominent with, including North Korea. of this group, “Trump has severed a critical connection to his own party”, said Tim Alberta on “But we’ll take care of Politico – to Congress, to donors, and to grass-roots organisations.