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Maryland NEW Mon-Wed, 9pm, ITV1 Drama (box set, ITVX) Suranne Jones and Eve Best are two sisters who’ve been driven apart by complex family dynamics in this three-part drama. But when the body of their mum is discovered on a beach on the Isle of Man, they soon find it impossible to escape the island and the ripple effect of her secrets and lies. Look out for Grease’s Stockard Channing among the cast. P13 Casualty Saturday, 8.25pm, BBC1 Drama Faith Cadogan gets unsettling news when the police arrive at the ED and reveal they won’t be taking action against Angus (Call the Midwife’s Jack Ashton) due to lack of evidence. Will this push the drug-addicted nurse over the edge? Elsewhere, Teddy tries to summon the courage to ask Paige on a date. Meanwhile, Jodie (Anna Chell) faces…

Liverpool Trial outdoor gig: A crowd of 5,000 people will get the chance to attend a “near-normal” outdoor gig in Liverpool next weekend as part of a government trial. The event at Sefton Park on 2 May will be headlined by the Manchester band Blossoms. The crowd will not have to wear masks or be socially distanced, but will have to take a rapid lateral flow Covid test before arriving at the event; take another test after the gig; and provide contact details to NHS Test and Trace. The concert is one of a series of pilot events, alongside an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley Stadium last weekend. However, music industry leaders complained that not enough had been done for events to go ahead; organisers of the 70,000-person Boomtown festival near…

What happened Cummings’s revenge Boris Johnson came under growing pressure this week to explain how the refurbishment of his Downing Street flat was paid for, amid Labour claims that he was trying to orchestrate a cover-up. It was one of several allegations levelled at the PM: he was also accused by unidentified sources of having screamed last autumn: “No more f**king lockdowns – let the bodies pile high.” The PM’s trouble began when No. 10 sources accused his former aide Dominic Cummings of being behind a series of damaging leaks, including of text messages between the PM and the businessman Sir James Dyson (see page 22). Days later, Cummings hit back with an incendiary blog post in which he denied the charge – and accused the PM of incompetence and impropriety. He claimed…

Clearing up “lonely deaths” Noriyuki Kamesawa’s job is not a happy one, says Richard Lloyd Parry in The Times. Based in Osaka, he makes his living cleaning up after a kodokushi. The term, meaning “lonely death”, refers to the growing number of people who die alone in their apartments, and go undiscovered for weeks or months. Often, it is only when a neighbour reports a foul odour that the body is found. Until a few years ago, Kamesawa’s company dealt with such cases only rarely; now, he handles about a 100 a month, a fifth of which are suicides. Partly, the rise is down to Japan’s ageing society: more people are living and dying alone, in big cities, with dwindling opportunities for human contact – but it’s also a product of…

Suez Canal, Egypt Tanker row: An Egyptian court has impounded the giant container ship that last month blocked the Suez Canal, in a legal tangle over the financial consequences of the accident. The Suez Canal Authority is pursuing the owners of the 220,000-tonne Ever Given for a reported £650m to meet the cost of the salvage operation. The figure also covers compensation for lost transit fees for the six days the canal was blocked, holding up more than 400 vessels. The authority’s head, Lt. General Osama Rabie, said the owners were clearly at fault, but were refusing to pay. “The vessel is now officially impounded,” he told Egypt’s state-run television. “They do not want to pay anything.” Litigation could be complicated, as the Ever Given is owned by a Japanese company,…

What happened The dirty dozen Plans for a breakaway “European Super League” (ESL) competition that would have changed the face of European football collapsed in ignominy this week, in the wake of a furious backlash from fans, players and politicians. The £3.45bn venture, drawn up by the 12 biggest clubs in England, Spain and Italy (“the dirty dozen”), was designed to reshape elite European football in the image of North American sports leagues. The Uefa Champions League – currently the continent’s pre-eminent competition – pits clubs that have won top spots in their domestic leagues against each other. So its participants vary every year. But in the ESL, which would have killed off the Champions League, 15 mega teams (the dirty dozen and three others) would have battled it out each year,…

Just how civil... To The Times The inappropriate relationships between civil servants and business that David Aaronovitch describes is not a new phenomenon. In the 1970s, I was fighting to get an order for a company in my constituency when I found the civil servant in charge obstructive and unhelpful. Eventually I won my case and ministers overruled him. Shortly afterwards he resigned and joined our competitor for the order. When I suggested to the company that it should complain about this, it said that if it did so it would fatally endanger its relationship with the civil service for years to come. Mike Thomas, MP for Newcastle-upon-Tyne East 1974-83; Brill, Bucks ...is our civil service? To The Guardian The current efforts to portray the civil service as systemically corrupt are unfair and unfounded. I have…

A profound shift for the City Jonathan Ford Financial Times “Despite early warnings of mass departures”, the impact of Brexit has so far been relatively “limited” in the City, says Jonathan Ford. About 10,000 jobs – 4% of the total – have gone, although more are expected. In the long run, activity tends to follow assets, and around £1.2trn (or 14%) of the City’s banking assets have been moved since 2016 – mostly to Frankfurt. “Looking beyond the short-term disruption, however, many believe that Brexit is likely to mark a much more profound shift.” For the past half century, the City has benefited from being “both an onshore and offshore financial centre” – onshore to the EU, offshore to the rest of the world – creating a deep pool of liquidity that sucked…

PREVIEW SCI-FI Black Mirror Netflix Our worst nightmares are about to become a stark reality once again as Charlie Brooker’s dystopian sci-fi anthology Black Mirror is finally returning for a sixth season, featuring five new mind-bending episodes loaded with huge stars and uniquely unsettling themes. Coming to Netflix this June, the brilliantly observed series created by Brooker and his long-time collaborator Annabel Jones boasts a top-notch cast, including Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul, Frida star Salma Hayek, Penny Dreadful actor Josh Hartnett, Schitt’s Creek favourite Annie Murphy and many more. Viewers can expect Brooker’s satirical, anxiety-laden and often frightening stand-alone stories to explore the darker aspects of society and the human condition through technological advancement. However, Brooker says this latest batch of episodes promises a fresh approach with ‘more variety than ever before’ (see our guide,…

new Time SUN 6 June, 9pm BBC1 Drama All three episodes will be on BBC iPlayer after the first ep airs Sean Bean plays Mark Cobden, who’s jailed for accidentally killing an innocent man, in Jimmy McGovern’s thrilling prison drama. He ends up befriending prison officer Eric McNally (Stephen Graham), who tries to protect Mark from the dangers of life behind bars. But when one prisoner identifies Eric as ‘weak’, Eric faces an impossible choice between his principles and his family. Siobhan Finneran and Sue Johnston also star. FULL STORY P9 live! Euro 2020 FRIDAY 11 June, from 7pm BBC1 Sport After its delay from last year, the international football tournament finally kicks off and matches will be shown across BBC1 and ITV for the next month. While the home nations don’t start until Saturday 12 June with…

Paris Republicans swing right: An archconservative known for his anti-immigrant views has been elected leader of Les Républicains, suggesting that the party is making a decisive shift to the right. Les Républicains (and its predecessors) governed France for much of its postwar history, but was last in power under Nicolas Sarkozy, over a decade ago, and it is now squeezed between Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance and the far-right National Rally. In April’s presidential election, its candidate scored just 4% of the votes. Observers say the choice of Éric Ciotti – a eurosceptic MP who once called for France to have its own Guantánamo Bay – suggests its days as a centre-right Gaullist party are over. The 57-year-old was selected in a ballot of 62,000 members. He has vowed to keep the…

LIVE! The British Soap Awards Saturday, 8pm, ITV Awards After an absence of two years, the stars of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Coronation Street, Doctors and Hollyoaks gather at London’s Hackney Empire to celebrate their soap’s achievements over the past year and discover who’s won the awards voted for by fans. The glittering night is again hosted by Phillip Schofield. P11 The Outlaws Sunday, 9pm, BBC1 Comedy With only eight weeks to raise and then launder a mountain of cash to repay sinister crime lord The Dean, the community-service offenders are nervous wrecks. After Frank, Myrna and John fail in their attempts to retrieve the money they’ve already spent, Rani decides that the only way to earn a fast buck is to become drug dealers themselves. But they’re soon out of their depth. Can they settle into their dodgy…

The whitest ever white You could be white as a sheet, as white as the driven snow, or even as white as a ghost. But none of those, said Tom Whipple in The Times, are nearly as white as a heterogeneous surface of barium sulphate particles. That is the very whitest white – “a paint that repels 49 photons out of every 50 that land on it and radiating the heat from the 50th back into space”, according to the team that developed it. It could make for a dazzling painting, but its purpose is to provide a low-cost alternative to air-conditioning. On a surface, normal white paints reflect about 80% of sunlight: they keep buildings cooler than if they were painted black, but can’t make walls cooler than the ambient…

Time for you to vanish, my lords and ladies Andrew Rawnsley The Observer “No one would invent it, but it kind of works.” That’s the line you always hear from apologists for the House of Lords, says Andrew Rawnsley. Complacent nonsense. The Lords “doesn’t work and must be fixed”. If the chaotic premierships of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss proved anything, it’s that the upper house provides no adequate check on rubbish laws and unconstitutional behaviour. Another common excuse for inaction is that Lords reform is a “boring” topic people don’t care about. Not so: polls show voters are “very troubled by the decayed state of their institutions”. With reason: it’s embarrassing that while the US relies on 100 senators, Britain has an upper chamber of some 800 members, some owing their place…

What happened Moscow warned this week that the conflict in Ukraine risked escalating into a third world war. The remarks, by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, came after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Kyiv and promised more military assistance to Ukraine. Austin said that the US wanted to see Russia “weakened” so that it wouldn’t be able to launch further such offensives. The US later hosted more than 40 countries for defence talks in Germany, where Berlin, which has faced criticism for not offering more help, joined others in pledging to supply heavy weaponry to Ukraine. Western allies, said Austin, were gearing up “for the long haul”. On Wednesday, the Russian energy giant Gazprom said that it had halted gas exports to Poland and Bulgaria…

ACTION FANTASY Friday, Sky Premiere HD, 10.15am & 8pm ⋆⋆⋆⋆ This fourth movie in Legendary’s MonsterVerse series, directed by Adam Wingard (You’re Next), serves up a family blockbuster rather than embracing the beasts’ roots in the horror genre. The carnage starts when Godzilla, established as Earth’s protector in 2019’s King of the Monsters, emerges from the ocean to attack Florida, marking him out as a bit of a heel. What’s more, he’s heading towards the Monarch facility that acts as Kong’s new home, spurring Rebecca Hall’s Dr Ilene Andrews and Alexander Skarsgård’s geologist Nathan Lind into frantically transporting Kong to safety. No such luck… None of the characters under 6ft tall – or 6ft 5in in Skarsgård’s case – quite hold the attention, and there are a fair few of them scurrying about (including…

After five years of living in London, I was ready for a change: I was yearning for the Mediterranean lifestyle but not quite ready to return to my native city of Barcelona, so Rome seemed like the most theatrical choice. It was not until I relocated in 2018 that I started to work with oil paints and came up with my first work for exhibitions. This is where I got the inspiration for my Plats Bruts, a series of trompe-l’oeil still lifes of finished plates of food at restaurants in the city, some of which are included in my list of favourites below. One of my current projects is the set design for the new staging of the ballet La Bayadère, which opens at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma on February…

IN NOVEMBER 1997, a young physicist named Juan Maldacena proposed an almost ludicrously bold idea: that space-time, the fabric of the universe and apparently the backdrop against which reality plays out, is a hologram. For many working in the fields of particle physics and gravity at the time, Maldacena’s proposal was as surprising as it was ingenious. Before it was published, the notion of a holographic universe was “way out there”, says Ed Witten, a mathematical physicist at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton (IAS), New Jersey. “I would have described it as wild speculation.” And yet today, just over 25 years on, the holographic universe is widely revered as one of the most important breakthroughs of the past few decades. The reason is that it strikes at the mystery of…

For the families of missing children, time brings no comfort. Whether their kids have been missing for days, weeks or even years, the pain of not knowing where a child is or if they will ever come home alive and safe is a constant ache. And each milestone that passes—a favorite holiday, the start of a new school year, a birthday—is a crushing reminder of what is lost. The children featured here all disappeared under different circumstances, but each is endangered, says John Bischoff, vice president of the Missing Children Division at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. “In 63 percent of family abductions, children are harmed,” he says. “And missing children who are runaways face endangerments on the street … kids can be coerced out of their homes.”…

Brussels Fighting a new wave: The EU agency tasked with strengthening the bloc’s defences against infectious diseases has warned that unless there is a sharp acceleration in vaccination rates, the continent is likely to see a wave of Covid infections, hospitalisations and deaths similar to that experienced last autumn. So far, around 30% of European adults have received at least one jab, and 17% have been fully vaccinated. Dr Andrea Ammon, of the European Centre for Disease Control, has predicted that the more transmissible Delta variant will account for 90% of all infections in the EU by the end of August, partly as a result of it spreading among unvaccinated younger adults. This week, anxieties about the variant led Malta, Spain and Portugal to re-impose restrictions on British travellers who are…

“Browning produces flavour compounds, which vary with the temperature, cooking time and chemical make-up of the food. These give browned meat its tantalising aroma and taste” Food writer (and self-confessed food obsessive) Lucas Hollweg The science-y bit 1 The basics Browning involves initially cooking meat at a temperature that’s high enough to brown/colour the surface. When you sear a steak, for instance, the aim is to give it a dark brown crust. Steaks and other small pieces of meat are usually seared in a pan, but with larger joints browning can be done in the oven – as when you roast a joint at 220ºC fan/gas 9 for 20 minutes to give it colour, for example, before reducing the temperature for the rest of the cooking time. 2 Why do it? Browning gives meat…

NEW The British Soap Awards Tuesday, 8pm, ITV1 Awards Our favourite soap actors hit the red carpet for their glittering night at The Lowry theatre in Salford. Stars from Corrie, EastEnders, Emmerdale, Doctors and Hollyoaks battle it out for a series of coveted awards celebrating a year of intense drama. Up for a gong as the Best Leading Performer are EastEnders actors Danielle Harold (Lola) and Shona McGarty (Whitney), Corrie’s Charlotte Jordan (Daisy), plus Sally Dexter (Faith) and Dominic Brunt (Paddy) for Emmerdale. Other prizes up for grabs include Villain of the Year, Best Young Performer, Best Family, Scene of the Year and the most-anticipated of the night, Best British Soap! P11 The Derby LIVE! Sat, from 12.30pm, ITV1 & ITV4 Sport All the action from one of the crown jewels in the racing calendar is shown live,…

What happened Covid: is the end in sight? There were cautiously optimistic predictions this week that the third wave of Covid infections in the UK may have peaked. The number of reported cases fell for seven days in a row and by Tuesday was down to 23,511 – almost half the previous week’s figure. Daily deaths climbed to 131, the highest number since March, but analysts said this might be the lagged effect of high infection rates in preceding weeks. In any case, the Government was careful to dampen expectations. “People have got to remain very cautious, and that remains the approach of the Government,” warned Boris Johnson. No one should “run away with premature conclusions” that the virus has been beaten. As part of its efforts to keep infections low, the Government…

LAST IN SERIES! Line of Duty SUNDAY 2 May, 9pm BBC1 Drama Get ready for some seriously frayed nerves and some jaw-dropping curveballs as the crime thriller reaches a dramatic climax! After the shocking revelations of last week, the pressure is on now for Hastings, Kate and Steve to bring the final pieces of the jigsaw together to try to work out who ordered the killing of journalist Gail Vella. But as tension mounts and the stakes get higher, will the elusive ‘Fourth Man’, AKA ‘H’, ever be revealed? FULL STORY P9 Casualty SATURDAY 1 May, 8.20pm BBC1 Drama The ED team are tested this week when teenager Keira is brought in, quickly followed by her nasty, racist mother. Jacob instructs everyone to remain calm and professional, but Jade – secretly shaken by a horrific attack on…

STAR RATINGS TARGET PRICE The What Car? Target Price is the maximum you should pay for a new car and is set by our mystery shoppers. It’s updated each month and most of our approved dealers will match it. However, in a lot of cases they can save you even more: just visit whatcar.com/new-car-deals or call 03302 216207 between 9am and 5pm (standard network fees apply). All Target Prices are correct at the time of going to press. TARGET PCP The Target PCP is a fair monthly fee if you’re taking out a personal contract purchase (PCP) finance deal, also set by our mystery shoppers. Most are over 48 months with a 15% deposit and an 8000-mile annual limit. Those marked with an asterisk are over 36 months and those with an apostrophe are…

Book of the month THIS FAMILY by Kate Sawyer Who doesn’t love a book about a big, messy family? After Rosie’s mum dies, she finds out her dad has a second family and she acquires two half-sisters. Years later, the three of them are back together for a wedding and the tensions between them that have been simmering come to the boil. A hugely atmospheric, multilayered family drama that sings with emotion. Nail-biting THE LAST PASSENGER by Will Dean This thriller has the most spine-chilling set-up ever: Caz wakes up after her first night on a luxury cruise to find that not only has her partner, Pete, disappeared but she’s entirely alone in the middle of the ocean. Where the story goes from there (without giving spoilers) is a rollercoaster ride. I barely had any…

The clan chief who wrote the Macpherson Report Sir William Macpherson 1926-2021 When Doreen and Neville Lawrence learnt that William Macpherson had been appointed to the inquiry into “matters arising” from the murder of their 18-year-old son Stephen, in a racially motivated attack on 22 April 1993, they were not impressed, said The Guardian. Macpherson’s rulings, as a high court judge, suggested a conservative, possibly illiberal outlook; as a former Army officer, and the 27th chief of his Scottish clan, he was clearly an establishment man; and as another lawyer put it, he was not “exactly up to date with racial awareness training”. The Lawrences’ lawyers asked for him to be removed; but as the hearing got under way, the Lawrences and their supporters realised that Macpherson was a man of “integrity”.…

From politics to royal events, Reeta Chakrabarti has spent the past three decades bringing us stories from across the globe. She has anchored the BBC’s coverage of the 70th anniversary of the partition of India, presented live from the Platinum Jubilee celebrations and reported from war-torn Ukraine – delivering the headlines with equal parts heart and aplomb. At the GH cover shoot, Reeta, 58, remains the epitome of professionalism, but we’re also introduced to her fun-loving side. She laughs at memories of her three grown-up children telling her: ‘You have your BBC voice on, Mum,’ confesses her love of clothes (‘I have far too many and yet I’m always looking for more’) and reminisces on her ‘carefree’ days at Oxford University, where she was known as the ‘disco queen’. Here, Reeta, who…

Edmonton, Canada Wildfires rage: Massive wildfires continued to rage in western Canada this week. In the worst-affected province, Alberta, the blazes have forced more than 30,000 people from their homes, and burned two million acres of land. A state of emergency was declared on 6 May and fires have also broken out in neighbouring British Columbia. Smoke from the fires has spread up to 2,000 miles, creating a haze in the sky in northern US states, including New York, Illinois and Iowa, that turned the Sun a startling shade of red. Wildfires in western Canada are not uncommon at this time of year, but this month’s look set to be among the most severe on record, owing to the unusually hot, dry spring. Canada isn’t alone in experiencing a bad start…

A cruel experiment To The Guardian As people who were detained indefinitely in Australia’s offshore camps on Nauru and Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, and as professionals who were employed there, we are deeply concerned that the UK Government will attempt this week to grant itself the same power to send people seeking asylum to offshore detention centres. We have watched as the UK Government has drafted legislation that allows for the indefinite detention offshore of women, men and children; refused a probing amendment to exclude survivors of trafficking and torture; and ignored the failings and financial costs of the Australian experiment, which saw the Australian government spend £8.6bn to detain 3,127 people in appalling conditions, while failing to end dangerous boat journeys. Two of us lost a combined 13 years of our lives…

VANESSA KIRBY Our cover star won a Bafta for her portrayal of Princess Margaret in The Crown, and her turn in the drama Pieces of a Woman earned her an Academy Award nomination. As she reprises her role as the White Widow in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning this summer, she talks to Gavanndra Hodge about her passion for playing courageous women. The royal palace you’d live in ‘Buckingham, because I’m a Londoner. I’d be able to walk up to Soho and have a nice cocktail.’ A skill you’d like to learn ‘A second language. I’m so ashamed I don’t have one, I just didn’t get with it at school.’ The most memorable trip you’ve taken ‘The six months I travelled on my own in Africa when I was 18.’ Your favourite British tradition ‘A…

What happened Italy has elected its most right-wing government since the Second World War, headed by a party with roots in the country’s fascist past. The coalition led by the hard-line Brothers of Italy won a clear majority in both houses of parliament; and the party itself, which was founded only ten years ago, took 26% of the vote, more than five times its share at the last election in 2018. Its leader, Giorgia Meloni, 45, is set to become Italy’s first female prime minister. Her campaign had emphasised traditional family values, tax cuts, euroscepticism and hostility to immigration. The party’s main rival on the right, the League, led by Matteo Salvini, saw its vote almost halved. It will now be a junior member of Meloni’s coalition, with Forza Italia, led by…

When Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz said “I do” in front of their nearest and dearest in April this year, it was an occasion of sheer joy for both families. But in the wake of their extravagant Floridian wedding – which was held at the Peltz's mansion in Palm Beach – there has been a seemingly ever bigger divide growing between the Beckhams and the newlywed couple. And now, insiders say that despite initial hopes that the festive season could be a healing time, there's been more tension over Christmas plans with the Beckhams’ eldest son, 23, and Nicola, 27, very likely spending it apart from David, 47, and Victoria. A source says, “Vic has been dealt a massive blow with Nicola announcing that she and Brooklyn will not be spending Christmas…

What happened Volodymyr Zelensky attended the G7 summit in Hiroshima last weekend, where the leaders of the world’s richest democracies reaffirmed their support for Ukraine. Prior to Zelensky’s arrival in Japan, President Biden gave Western allies the green light to supply Ukraine with US-built F-16 fighter jets. The White House also unveiled a new $375m package of US military aid. “We will not waver, Putin will not break our resolve as he thought he could,” said Biden. “We have Ukraine’s back and we’re not going anywhere.” Russia warned that supplying F-16 jets to Ukraine would be a “colossal risk”. Separately, the Kremlin congratulated the Wagner mercenary group and regular Russian troops for capturing Bakhmut, the city in Ukraine’s Donbas region that has been fiercely contested for months. Zelensky, who said Bakhmut now…

For Alexi Lubomirski, shooting high-wattage celebrities is one part talk therapy, one part first date. “You want to make sure they’re comfortable and being listened to,” says the 47-year-old photographer, who has snapped A-listers for People, Vogue, Esquire and Harper’s Bazaar and brands like Dior and Louis Vuitton. “It’s understanding all their desires and insecurities and how they want to be portrayed. Hopefully, by the end of the day, you’re both having a wonderful time.” Born in London and raised in England and Botswana, Lubomirski discovered his passion for photography at age 11 and spent his early days learning the industry as an assistant to the legendary fashion photographer Mario Testino. His unique ability to disarm and energize subjects has helped him thrive in what he calls a “fickle business”—and that…

What happened Rishi Sunak sought to placate fractious Tory backbenchers this week by signalling that he was open to relaxing the de facto ban on onshore wind farms in England that has been in place since 2015. The PM was prompted to act after a coalition of more than 30 Tory MPs, including his predecessors Liz Truss and Boris Johnson, lent their support to a rebel amendment to the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill, aimed at lifting the ban. Labour had indicated that it would vote with the rebels on the issue. Downing Street played down a suggestion that it would accept the amendment in its entirety, saying only that it was “considering” the change. The apparent climbdown came just days after the Government postponed a vote on the bill, in the face…

The contented comic Rob Brydon doesn’t fit the sad clown stereotype. “I heard someone say the other day that every comedian was bullied, and I thought to myself, ‘Well no, it’s not true,’” he told Fiona Sturges in the FT. His childhood in Port Talbot was a pretty contented one. “I was short for my age but not Dudley Moore short. In fact, for Wales I was rather towering. I had terrible skin as a teenager, but I was already performing by the time that came on.” Yet his rise to fame was by no means rapid. A spell in radio was followed by years working on shopping channels and in advertising: his career only took off in 2000, with the BBC comedy Marion and Geoff, followed by his role in…

‘We wanted our festival to be family friendly’ Illustrator Josie da Bank, 49, and her husband created Bestival, which has developed into a music festival for all ages. Twenty years ago my husband, Robby, was running the Sunday Best record label and we did club nights in London and Ibiza. Organising a music festival in the UK felt like a natural progression. What we didn’t realise was how hard it was to sell tickets; it was all done via paper flyers and billboards. While Robby took care of the music, I led the creative side, sorting out the art and stage designs. Our first Bestival was on the Isle of Wight in 2004. It was a massive success and we wanted to carry on. By the time of our second Bestival, I…

TURKEY Erdogan’s awful, but he has his uses Politico (Brussels) Western leaders have reason to dislike Turkey’s President Erdogan, says Suzanne Lynch. During his 20 years in power, he has jailed countless opposition figures and journalists, “violently cracked down on protesters”, and woefully mismanaged Turkey’s economy. On the world stage, he has “cosied up to Russia, launched an incursion into Syria” and been a block on Nato expansion. Yet for all that, believe it or not, many in Brussels are hoping he triumphs over his rival, Kemal Kılıçdaroglu, in the second round of Turkey’s presidential election on Sunday. Why? Because Erdogan’s authoritarian turn of recent years has been a “useful political foil” for EU leaders who want to stop Turkey joining the bloc. They really don’t want to have to open arduous negotiations over…

The mirage of full employment Larry Elliott The Guardian The message from the Government is clear, says Larry Elliott: the “booming labour market” is “the silver lining to the dark cloud hanging over the economy”. There are now “more job vacancies than there are people officially classified as out of work”. Still, there are two big problems with this idea that “Britain has returned to the balmy days of postwar full employment”. The first is that job losses will likely rise as recession looms. The second is that the “narrative only holds true for the better-off parts of the country”. Indeed, a study by Sheffield Hallam University into Britain’s “hidden unemployed” (defined as people who are on incapacity benefits, who would be working in a full-employment economy) suggests an unemployed total of 2.34…

New York Discrimination law: New York City’s council has approved a bill aimed at preventing people from being discriminated against based on their weight. The measure, to make size a protected characteristic alongside race, gender, age and sexuality, would outlaw such discrimination in housing, employment and access to public places, including shops and restaurants. Supporters of the bill, which is likely to be signed into law later this month, argue that tall and overweight people face a range of challenges, from not fitting in restaurant seats and falling foul of weight limits on rental bikes, to being turned down by landlords; but critics said the bill was badly drafted and that it could create an intolerable burden for businesses, employers and the courts (see page 41). Size-based discrimination is already banned…

‘WELCOMING A FOURTH CHILD IS SOMETHING THEY'VE ALWAYS BEEN OPEN TO’ Posting a candid behind-the-scenes photograph on their Instagram account last week, Prince William and Kate Middleton appeared stronger and more in love than ever, after what has been a turbulent 2022 for the couple. And now, as their uncertain year draws to a close, the source reveals how they are keen to start tire New Year and plan to add another baby to their family in 2023. The insider says, “First and foremost, William and Kate both take the view that they're totally blessed and fortunate to have three healthy and beautiful children who light up their lives and keep them incredibly occupied and busy in the best way possible. “Parenthood and watching their children grow has surpassed all their wildest dreams and…

Paris Airport man dies: The man whose story inspired the Steven Spielberg film The Terminal has died in the airport where he lived for 18 years. Born in Iran in 1945, Mehran Karimi Nasseri came to Europe in the 1970s in search of his biological mother, reported the BBC, claiming to have been expelled from Iran for protesting against the Shah. Lacking a passport, he ended up at Charles de Gaulle airport, and stayed on from 1988 to 2006, initially owing to difficulties in proving his refugee status, later by choice. After 2006, he moved between hotels and a homeless shelter in France, but a few weeks ago he returned to live in the airport, where officials said he died from a heart attack. Milan, Italy Referee arrested: A top Italian refereeing official…

Edinburgh A border with England: Were an independent Scotland to rejoin the EU, there would have to be a physical trade border with England, Nicola Sturgeon conceded this week. However, the First Minister said that she’d try to negotiate agreements that would “keep trade flowing easily”, so that businesses did not “suffer”. Last week, an SNP candidate, Emma Harper, had claimed that a physical border could “create jobs”. Appearing on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Sturgeon distanced herself from that remark, saying that “nobody in the SNP” is in favour of one. She agreed, however, that owing to EU rules requiring checks on goods, a border was unavoidable. It was, she said, one of the issues raised for Scotland by the “absurdity of Brexit and the Tory Brexit obsession”. Scottish Tory…

Dublin Mountbatten apology: Sinn Féin has for the first time apologised for the IRA’s assassination of Lord Mountbatten in 1979. Speaking after the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh, a nephew of Mountbatten, Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald said: “I am sorry that happened”, describing the murder as “heartbreaking”. Mountbatten was on a fishing trip off the coast of Sligo when a bomb tore through his small boat, killing him and three others, including his 14-year-old grandson and a 15-year-old local boy. McDonald’s predecessor, Gerry Adams, had previously expressed regret for the murder, but said that Mountbatten had known the risk of visiting Ireland. Berlin A Green Chancellor?: In a reflection of its growing strength, Germany’s Green party has, for the first time, nominated a candidate to stand as chancellor in September’s…

NEW His Dark Materials Sun, 7pm, BBC1 Fantasy drama (box set, iPlayer) Will (Amir Wilson) and Lyra (Dafne Keen) must come to terms with their destinies as the final series of the epic fantasy drama gets under way. Lyra, however, has been kidnapped by her mother, Mrs Coulter (Ruth Wilson), who claims she wants to keep her safe. As Will embarks on a quest to find her, he crosses paths once more with imposing polar bear Iorek Byrnison. Meanwhile, James McAvoy is back as Lyra’s single-minded father Lord Asriel, who’s determined to wage war on the ominous Authority at any cost. P9 Strike LAST IN SERIES! Sunday & Monday, 9pm, BBC1 Drama As Robin and Cormoran continue their investigations into what happened to GP Margot Bamborough, who vanished in 1974, Cormoran secures an interview with serial killer Dennis…

Anna Nicole Smith climbed into her son’s coffin and began clinging to his body. As with so many moments in her life, the flashes of a camera trailed her. It was September 2006. Daniel, 20, had died of an accidental overdose three days after Smith gave birth to her daughter Dannielynn. At the service Smith stood with her boyfriend and attorney, Howard K. Stern, and best friends Pol’ Atteu and Patrik Simpson. “She just couldn’t let him go,” Atteu, 57, remembers. “Daniel was who kept Anna Nicole grounded, and now he was gone.” Remembers Simpson, 54: “Even in her son’s death there was nothing private for her. Everything was a public spectacle.” It was the beginning of the end. Smith died five months later, also from an accidental overdose, at age…

THE LONDON ART WORLD is in for a feast this summer as the National Portrait Gallery reopens its doors on 22 June with Yevonde: Life and Colour, an exhibition that explores the incredible career of the pioneering society portrait photographer behind some of Tatler’s most iconic imagery. Madame Yevonde also, as it happens, photographed my grandmother posing as Circe for her Goddesses exhibition in 1935 – a personal connection that inspired a tribute feature in this issue, where we bring together 10 of society’s most notable young women, including Vimbai Masiyiwa and the Spencer twins, to recreate the best of Yevonde’s photography archive (see page 78). Portraiture is uniquely evocative for each of us – and in this coronation year, it’s having a moment. Former Bystander photographer Hugo Burnand has taken…

Edinburgh Lockdown easing paused: Much of Scotland will remain at Level 2 in the nation’s five-tier system, owing to rising Covid cases, Nicola Sturgeon announced this week. Lockdown restrictions had been expected to be eased next week. However, while some areas outside the central belt can move to Level 1, meaning entertainment venues can reopen, the First Minister said 13 council areas will not see an easing of restrictions. Glasgow, meanwhile, which has been under a stricter Level 3 lockdown for nine straight months, will enter Level 2 on Saturday, meaning six people from up to three households can meet up indoors. And island communities such as Orkney and Shetland will move to Level 0, or “nearly normal”, rules. Sturgeon said a “slight slowing down” of the easing was needed as…

WHEN HER MAJESTY accompanied the King on his first state visit to Germany at the end of March this year, she attended her first state evening engagement as Queen Consort, at the Schloss Bellevue in Berlin. Naturally, she wanted to shine. For the occasion, I designed a shimmering black evening gown with intertwining crystal leaves, made by my team at Bruce Oldfield Couture. I’ve been dressing Her Majesty for more than a decade. My team knows her figure, her foibles, the bits that we want to exaggerate, the things that we want to diminish, as we do with every client. Like all women, she simply wants to look beautiful. She wants to be in skilled hands, with someone who knows what they’re doing – someone who can pull off what they…

What happened The Tory leadership candidates Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss traded blows in two televised debates this week, as the acrimonious tone of the campaign intensified. Sunak used Monday’s BBC debate to warn that his rival’s tax-cutting plans would send inflation and mortgage rates soaring, and “tip millions into misery”. Truss, in turn, accused Sunak (whom her allies labelled “a totally boring failed economist”) of using “Project Fear” tactics and overseeing sluggish growth as chancellor. Both, however, committed to levelling-up Britain, and agreed that Boris Johnson would have no place in their Cabinets. A second debate on TalkTV was cut short when host Kate McCann fainted midway through the programme. Truss could be seen looking alarmed as a loud crash was heard off-camera. The debates followed a week in which allies…

THERE are two questions that I somewhat dread when communicating science to the public. And, unfortunately, they are rather common, because they are interesting to everyone, myself included. The first is: “What was there before the beginning of the universe?” The second: “What is space-time?” You might think that I would actually relish the opportunity to answer such queries because they go to the heart of what theoretical cosmologists like me do. It is literally in the job description, which I often tell people is to try to understand the origin and evolution of space-time and everything inside of it. Despite this clear and rather monumental mandate, I actually try to avoid answering the question of how the universe began or what was there before, because it isn’t clear that this is…

The Larkins new SUNDAY 10 October, 8pm ITV Drama This new adaptation of The Darling Buds of May stars Bradley Walsh as Pop Larkin and Joanna Scanlan as his wife, Ma. Set in the 50s, the six-parter follows the couple and their six children living off their land, but battling authority and snobbish villagers. Other stars include Peter Davison as the local vicar, and Bridgerton’s Sabrina Bartlett as Mariette, who catches the eye of tax inspector Cedric ‘Charley’ Charlton (Tok Stephen). Will everything be ‘Perfick’? FULL STORY P15 Holby City TUESDAY 12 October, 7.50pm (Scot, 8.20pm) BBC1 Drama Holby boss Henrik Hanssen is thrown by the impromptu arrival of an old colleague, Russ, who asks him to mentor a young doctor with ‘limitations’. After some convincing, Hanssen reluctantly agrees – and gets a big surprise when the…

ELLEN PONG “CLAY IS REALLY INTUITIVE. IF YOU can think of something you want to make, you can create it.” So says Ellen Pong, the artist whose ceramic furniture has been featured by galleries including New York City’s Superhouse and Los Angeles’s Marta. She grew up near Seattle, studied art history at the University of California, Berkeley, and now works out of a shared studio in Queens, New York, where she creates unusual ceramic pieces—including lamps, chairs, and vessels—that marry function with an irreverent sensibility. Each design is formed through a process of hand-building, sometimes for many weeks. Though firmly contemporary, Pong’s work takes cues from a wide range of historical influences. “I saw some pre-Columbian artifacts at the Diego Rivera museum in Mexico City and was inspired by how relatable and…

Are cats befuddled by mice? The sight of cats playing with mice before killing them can be disturbing; but it may be the result of a strategy mice have acquired to help them escape, says the New Scientist. When mice are caught they produce sweat chemicals called lactones – which are similar to the nepetalactone molecules found in catnip. This comes from the herbaceous plant Nepeta cataria, and when cats get a whiff of it, it triggers the release of beta-endorphins in their bodies, which sends them wild: they chew on the leaves, they roll around, shake their heads, they drool and become slightly sedated. Feline expert Prof Benjamin Hart, of UC Davis Veterinary School, California, suggests that mice may have evolved to excrete lactones when stressed because it has a…

Here in Iceland, in the (mostly) quiet days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, fairy lights frame the darkness outside, the aroma of biscuits furls around the house, waistbands are tight and, lounging on the sofa in their woollen socks, families are deep in their new books. For this nation of book lovers, the annual Jólabókaflóð, the ‘Yule Book Flood’, is over. A period which begins in November with the thud of Bökatidindi onto the doormat - a free catalogue of new books which has been delivered to every household since 1944 - and ends with a pile of books, wrapped and ribboned, under the Christmas tree. A culture of gifting books dates back to World War II, when Iceland was newly independent from Denmark. As one of the only…

Reparations: a Democratic con trick? Adam B. Coleman New York Post Bad luck, folks, says Adam B. Coleman. California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, has announced that he doesn’t support handing up to $1.2m each to black residents who can claim to have suffered state-sponsored racism. This was the recommendation of a reparations task force Newsom himself set up. In a report published last week, it proposed allocating a sliding scale of payments to eligible black residents based on their exposure to systemic prejudice. For instance, residents who lived in the state from the early 1930s until the late 1970s, and were subject to the policy of “redlining” certain districts to create racially homogenous neighbourhoods, might receive $148,099. More recent residents impacted by “over-policing and mass incarceration” could get $115,260. Unsurprisingly, Newsom decided that implementing…

Active people like a drink People who keep fit are more likely to drink alcohol than their sedentary peers – possibly because they reward themselves for taking exercise, a study has found. Scientists at the Cooper Institute, in Texas, analysed data on almost 40,000 people ranging in age from 20 to 86. The volunteers answered questions about their alcohol intake and ran on a treadmill to demonstrate their cardiorespiratory fitness. They were deemed light drinkers if they had fewer than three drinks a week, and heavy drinkers if they had more than seven a week for women, and 14 for men. Moderately fit women were found to be 58% more likely than their unfit counterparts to report drinking heavily, while the most fit female volunteers were more than twice as likely…

The Hague No reprieve for Mladic: The former military commander of the Bosnian Serbs, Ratko Mladic, has failed in his bid to have his conviction for genocide overturned. Mladic, 78, led Bosnian Serb forces in Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, and was responsible for terrorising the civilian population of Sarajevo during a 43-month siege, and the massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995. He was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by a special UN court in 2017. Mladic’s appeal lawyers argued that he could not be held responsible for crimes carried out by his subordinates, but the appeal was dismissed in its entirety. He will remain in prison for life. Limburg, Belgium Manhunt: The Belgian authorities have stepped up their search for a fugitive soldier who…

‘I can’t describe how grateful I am to Emily. It seems trite to try’ Siân, 54, works for British Red Cross, and is married to Ian, 58, a TV film editor. They live in west London with Molly and Trilby. I don’t recall the moment when I discovered I was pregnant. After five years of struggling to conceive, it was just another marker in a long series of highs and lows. I couldn’t let myself celebrate early. The moment I do remember, however, was just more than a year earlier and the feeling of euphoria when I discovered my friend Emily was serious about donating her eggs to me. When I met Ian, my now husband, I was 39. We were already trying for a family when we married two years later, not…

SCI-FI ADVENTURE Wednesday, on demand, Disney+ ⋆⋆⋆⋆ Since most people have visited Avatar’s planet Pandora before, director James Cameron wastes little time on scene-setting for his blockbuster sequel. The opening parachutes into its jungle, where gone-total-Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) now raise their family. Jake believes protecting them gives him purpose. So when villainous Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) returns in (fully explained) ‘Recombinant’ avatar form seeking ‘payback’ for his demise, the Sully family seeks refuge among Pandora’s sea clans. While this bare-bones set-up reflects Cameron’s pulp punch as a writer, his staggering proficiency as a world-builder is also displayed. This time, he leaves little time to pause and admire Pandora’s plant life. The verdant jungle now feels lived-in, alive. Meanwhile, with life on earth barely viable, the RDA (Resources Development…

What happened Covid resurgent The country’s reopening plans hung in the balance this week, as officials considered whether to delay the schedule in response to the spread of the new Indian variant. On Monday, residents of England, Wales and most of Scotland were able to enjoy new freedoms, such as hugging people who are not members of their household, drinking inside pubs, and travelling abroad for leisure (at least to the destinations on a “green” list). But Boris Johnson urged people to be cautious with their new freedoms, warning that the Government may yet have to postpone the plan to lift virtually all remaining lockdown restrictions in England on 21 June. Cases of the Indian variant have spread to 86 local authority areas in England, and have surged in hotspots such as Blackburn…

IT’S SATURDAY NIGHT AT Flipper’s Roller Boogie Palace in west London, and the rink is rocking. House music blares as a platoon of glamorously athletic twentysomethings – among them Lady Mary Charteris, Kesewa Aboah and the actress and model Zenobia Voegele-Downing – swirl, a parade of wheels, a circle of legs skating in unison. (Stare too long and you’ll get dizzy.) It’s fun and it’s hot right now, just as it was at the Camden Palais in 1977 or at the Embassy Club in Bond Street in 1978, where satin-shorted waiters skated hither and thither as loud disco music throbbed and le tout Londres misbehaved. Yes, the ’70s are back – along with the decade’s nostalgic trappings, skates included. Blame it on King Charles III, whose official coronation dish is the…