Last survivor THE BAD When will of the Profumo BOY OF the bitcoin scandal BALLET bubble burst? OBITUARIES P47 PEOPLE P12 CITY TALKING POINTS P53 16TH DECEMBER 2017 | ISSUE 1155 |EW £3.50 THE BEST OF THE BRITISHEEK AND INTERNATIONAL MEDIA A threat to peace? Trump’s shock diplomacy Pagee6 6 ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT MATTERS www.theweek.co.uk 6 NEWS The main stories… What happened What the editorials said At last, the Brexit talks can move on to trade, said The On to “Phase II” Observer. Given how unlikely this prospect seemed at many EU leaders were expected to give the green points last week, it’s a cause for “tentative light this week for Brexit negotiations to optimism” – but not celebration. The PM is move on to trade and transition issues, “painfully slowly, increment by increment, following on from the last-minute deal edging towards something approaching struck by UK and EU negotiators on the reason”. If only the same were true of her divorce bill, citizens’ rights and the Irish Cabinet, which remains split on the final border. MPs on all sides praised Theresa shape of Brexit. “The hardest fights are still May for pulling the talks back from the to come,” agreed The Times. The Irish brink of collapse last Friday. Yet tensions border issue has been “skilfully fudged, but in the Government became apparent when certainly not resolved”. The basic problem Brexit Secretary David Davis suggested the – that Northern Ireland cannot both diverge deal was a mere “statement of intent” (he from EU rules and retain a frictionless later conceded it was binding). There were May and Juncker: “broad smiles” border with the Republic – remains. also disputes over the interpretation of a clause in the document that pledges “full alignment” between To get a good trade deal, May will need to show “far greater British and EU regulations if a hard border in Ireland cannot political dexterity” than she has over recent months, said The be avoided through other means (see page 15). Daily Telegraph. In her favour is the fact that the UK has never had a problem with the trade aspect of EU membership. Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, said Britain’s Our issue was with the bloc’s “political aggrandisement” demand to break with the bloc’s single market and customs – a trend now gathering pace. Martin Schulz, leader of union left no other option than a deal modelled on the EU’s Germany’s Social Democratic Party, called last week for a 2016 goods-based accord with Canada. Davis said Britain “United States of Europe” by 2025, and France’s President was aiming at “Canada plus plus plus” – by which he meant Macron is also pressing for closer integration. “Since we could a similar deal with sectors added, notably financial services. never have agreed to that, it is better that we get out now.” What happened What the editorials said The Jerusalem question Trump has committed an “act of diplomatic vandalism”, said the FT. Jerusalem’s status is uniquely sensitive because To the outrage of the Arab world and many it contains sites sacred to Jews, Christians and of his own allies, Donald Trump announced Muslims alike. Trump has needlessly chosen last week that the US would recognise to enrage Arab opinion by establishing the Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. To mark the first foreign embassy in the city: he has primed change, the president also said that the US “a≈ticking time bomb”. The delight of Israel’s embassy would be transferred from Tel Aviv right-wing leaders is premature, said Haaretz to Jerusalem. According to Trump, his move (Tel Aviv). “Violating the status quo” in represents a break with the “failed strategies Jerusalem will only inflame international of the past” and would advance the Middle hostility, just as happened with the expansion East peace process. Other world leaders of Jewish settlements on the West Bank. Israel’s were not persuaded: they accused him of isolation will now be worse than ever. endangering peace and breaching a long- standing agreement that Jerusalem’s status Trump is only enacting a decision that must be part of a comprehensive settlement. Congress has previously authorised, said A protest in Tehran The Wall Street Journal. In 1995, it voted The fiercest condemnation came from to≈recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, with Palestinian leaders. Hamas, the Islamist group that runs the proviso that the president was not bound to implement Gaza, called for a “day of rage” and the launch of a new the decision. Successive presidents ducked out of doing so, but intifada. When rockets were fired across the border, Israel Trump, who made relocating the embassy a clear campaign retaliated with air strikes on targets in Gaza, which, along pledge, has decided to go ahead. This may make Arab leaders with clashes with Israeli troops, killed four Palestinians. unhappy, but they can’t complain of “a radical departure”. A primary school in A Thai roadside restaurant It wasn’t all bad Essex is bringing where diners sit on metal stools Scientists have, for the first elderly people suffering scattered around plastic tables time, suppressed the effects of from depression and has been awarded a Michelin the mutation that causes early dementia into the star. Raan Jay Fai in Bangkok Huntington’s disease, in what classroom to work with is named after its 72-year-old experts say could prove to be its younger pupils. owner, who is known for her the biggest breakthrough in Downshall, in Ilford, is noodle dishes and cooking neurodegenerative diseases in thought to be the first over hot charcoal – and for her decades. By injecting an school to host a day habit of wearing goggles to experimental drug into centre for older people, protect her eyes from spitting patients’ spinal fluid, the team who read books and oil. Her restaurant was one of at University College London sing songs to four- and 17 awarded stars in the new was able to lower levels of toxic five-year-olds. The elderly visitors come in three times a week, Michelin guide to Bangkok proteins in their brains, raising accompanied by their carers and support workers. “We had one and probably the least upscale hope that the progress of the lady who said she could not remember being so happy,” said – although with dishes costing devastating genetic illness Dr David Hinchcliffe, the psychiatrist behind the project. “She around £25, it is very expensive can be slowed. wakes up in the morning and can’t wait to go to school.” by street food standards. © GRAEME ROBERTSON/GUARDIAN NEWS & MEDIA COVER CARTOON: HOWARD MCWILLIAM THE WEEK 16 December 2017 …and how they were covered NEWS 7 What the commentators said What next? Theresa May “has delivered the goods”, said Dan Hodges in The Mail on Sunday. Her decision Cabinet members are due to hold out for concessions on citizens’ rights was rewarded: there is now a limit of eight years to hold their first formal on the supremacy of the European Court of Justice over our courts regarding the rights of EU discussion about the “end- nationals in the UK, instead of the indefinite jurisdiction previously mooted. Britain’s agreed state” of Britain’s relations divorce bill of £35bn-£39bn is also “well below the s60bn many had anticipated”. What’s with the EU on Tuesday, more, the prospect of a calamitous “cliff-edge Brexit is all but dead” now that we’ve agreed reports The Guardian. to default to regulatory alignment if talks falter. Brexit negotiators, The EU’s agreement to a two-year transition period after the UK formally leaves the EU in meanwhile, have until March 2019 is a major concession, said Gideon Rachman in the FT. “Without it, there was a October 2018 to strike a growing risk of a haemorrhaging of jobs as businesses took steps to protect themselves from the broad agreement on trade risk of a hard Brexit.” But the broad smile on the face of Jean-Claude Juncker, the European and transition. That will Commission president, during his conference with May told its own story. The reality is that allow time for the deal to be the UK conceded far more than the EU in this phase of talks. Indeed, given how “tantalisingly ratified before the end of the close” last week’s deal brings us to a soft Brexit, it’s a wonder that Tory Eurosceptics welcomed two-year Article 50 deadline it, said Gaby Hinsliff in The Guardian. That they haven’t kicked up more of a fuss is down to in March 2019. However, May’s “deliberate obfuscation”, and their belief that the deal isn’t that meaningful. EU officials expect final settlement of the trade deal Brexiteers are saving their energies for a more important battle, said Andrew Rawnsley in The to take much longer. “Now, Observer – the Cabinet fight over the final shape of our future relationship with the EU. Despite you have got 15 pages [in the their different opinions, it should be possible for ministers to reach some compromise positions, agreement between the UK said William Hague in The Daily Telegraph. “Even ardent Brexiteers have to accept that much and EU],” said one. “That of our manufacturing industry will have little interest in having different product standards” took nine months. The from the EU. Equally, ministers on the other side “have to accept that it is positively desirable [EU-Canada free-trade deal] to decide on our agricultural subsidies and unthinkable to allow Britain’s massive financial is 1,598 pages.