Hundreds of thousands of passengers faced misery yesterday after Britain’s air traffic control systems failed, in the worst shutdown for more than a decade. Close to a thousand flights were grounded and cancelled with many more delayed as chaos engulfed one of the busiest travel days of the year. Airline sources warned last night that passengers faced “days of disruption”, which could continue until Friday, after schedules were torn apart, leaving thousands of holidaymakers stranded and scores of planes out of position. Nats, the UK’s air traffic controller, said it was “sincerely sorry” for the meltdown. An easyJet pilot told passengers that he had never experienced such a failure in 20 years of flying. Problems emerged yesterday morning at the organisation’s headquarters in Swanwick, Hampshire, when its flight planning system failed. It wiped out the ability to automatically process the plans, which are submitted by airlines, leaving them to be input manually at a significantly slower speed. A “flow restriction” was imposed on all arrivals and departures, forcing planes across Europe to sit on the tarmac. In Britain, with departures largely halted, arriving aircraft were left waiting for a gate. Government sources and aviation officials ruled out a cyberattack. Sources suggested that the issue could be the result of an incorrectly filed plan by a French airline, although Nats would not comment. It is understood that officials are aware of what caused the issue, but do not yet know why it was able to disable Ben Clatworthy Transport Correspondent Labour is more trusted than the Conservatives on immigration and asylum, a poll has found, as the party steps up its attacks on Rishi Sunak’s record of tackling the small-boats crisis in the Channel. A YouGov survey for The Times asked voters which party they thought Labour more trusted than Tories on tax, immigration and law George Grylls Political Correspondent would be better at handling various problems affecting the country. It indicated that a large number remained undecided about key issues in the next election. But Labour had edged ahead in areas traditionally dominated by the Tories including immigration, law and order, and tax. Twenty-two per cent of voters believed Labour would do a better job with immigration and asylum compared with 16 per cent for the Conservatives and 4 per cent for the Liberal Democrats. More people were undecided than supported any of the main parties’ plans, however, suggesting that Sunak could yet win round floating voters. Twenty-six per cent were unsure and 20 per cent rejected all the options, with the remainder saying they supported another party’s plans. The poll tested voters’ reactions to ten policy areas. In total, Labour was more trusted across nine of the ten questions polled and the Conservatives were ahead only on the issue of defence and security. On law and order, 24 per cent of voters backed Labour against 20 per cent for the Conservatives. On taxation the figures were 27 and 19 per cent. The polling suggests that Labour’s focus on issues traditionally important to Tory voters could be paying off. Over the weekend Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, ruled out introducing a wealth tax or increasing the top 45p rate of income tax, and the party is now increasingly set on drawing attention to Sunak’s record on small-boat Tuesday August 29 2023 | thetimes.co.uk | No 74187 £2.80 £2.00 to subscribers (based on a 7 Day Print and Digital Subscription) Julia Bradbury I changed my life after breast cancer 10 ways to be healthier the experts recommend 2G INSIDE TIMES2 Thousands stranded in air traffic control chaos The collapse of Britain’s air traffic control system led to cancelled flights around Europe. Delays at Mallorca airport were compounded by the aftermath of Storm Betty the system. An investigation has been opened. The failure was resolved by about 3pm, although it will affect schedules for days. Nats said that engineers were “carefully monitoring the system’s performance as we return to normal operations”. More than 500 flights to and from Britain had been cancelled by midafternoon, according to the aviation analytics company Cirium. Hundreds more were cancelled later. At the height of the problems, only a tiny number of flights were being processed each hour, Warnings of disruption until Friday after system meltdown grounds hundreds of flights Get a grip on lifestyle to cut heart attacks, men urged Eleanor Hayward Health Correspondent Amsterdam British men have been urged to get a grip on their unhealthy lifestyles after a study revealed they are twice as likely to suffer heart attacks as women. The NHS will start offering blood pressure checks to men in barbershops to find those at high risk of heart disease. The move came as landmark research provided the first comprehensive breakdown of the scale of the increased risk of heart problems that men face. The study, presented at the European Society of Cardiology congress in Amsterdam, followed 20,000 middle-aged men and women in Britain for 22 years. Men were twice as likely to suffer a heart attack, 12 per cent more likely to have a stroke and 42 per cent more likely to die overall from cardiovascular problems compared with women. They were also 50 per cent more likely to have heart failure or atrial fibrillation. Cardiologists urged men to act on the findings by taking simple steps that could add years to their lives, including “swapping their pub session for a gym session”. Men’s extra risk is partly down to them smoking more, drinking more and having higher obesity rates. But the new study showed that the raised risk applied after taking into account lifestyle factors, suggesting biological and genetic factors played a significant role. The lead researcher, Dr Tiberiu Pana, from the University of Aberdeen, said: “Men should start looking early at risk factors, like obesity, lack of exercise, smoking, alcohol consumption, and reach out to their GP.” Official figures show that 69 per cent of men are obese or overweight, compared with 59 per cent of women. Fifteen per cent of men smoke, compared with 12 per cent of women. Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, of the British Heart Foundation, said: “There’s never been a better time to get physically active and replace that pub session with an extra session in the gym.”
2 2GM Tuesday August 29 2023 | the times News A federal judge has set a March 4 date for Donald Trump’s trial in Washington over his attempt to overturn his defeat at the 2020 election, forcing the former president to appear in court at a key moment in his campaign to win back the White House next year. US District Judge Tanya Chutkan denied a request by Trump’s team to delay the trial until April 2026 — some 17 months after polling day — and warned that Trump must appear in court “regardless of his schedule”. The March 4 hearing means that Trump will be due in court the day before Super Tuesday, the biggest date in the Republican primary race, when voters in 16 US states will cast ballots for the party’s presidential nominee. Trump took to his social network, Truth Social, to demand that the case be dismissed and to call lead prosecutor Jack Smith “deranged” and Chutkan “biased”. “I will APPEAL,” he added, despite his own lawyers saying earlier they would abide by the judge’s ruling. Trump, 77, pleaded not guilty to the charges in a court appearance this compared with hundreds on a normal day. Yesterday was one of the busiest days of the year for air travel as Britons returned from summer holidays before the start of the new school year. Cirium reported that 3,054 flights had been scheduled to arrive at British airports yesterday, amounting to 543,000 seats. A further 3,049 flights were due to depart, with more than 540,000 seats. Mark Harper, the transport secretary, said the government was “working with Nats to help them manage affected flights and support passengers”. Members of the British athletics team, who had been competing at the World Championships in Budapest, were among those caught up in the delays. Keely Hodgkinson, who won silver in the 800m on Sunday night, was stranded in Amsterdam. British Airways said its flights were “severely disrupted as a result of a major issue experienced by Nats”, a statement that was echoed by other carriers including easyJet. Last night passengers said that they had been abandoned by airlines and told they were being rebooked on flights departing as late as Friday. A senior airline source said: “This is massive. The disruption is going to last for days. Airlines have been proactively cancelling flights but the schedules are a mess with planes and crews all out of place.” The disruption bill for airlines will run into the millions. Passengers are not owed compensation, as the failure was outside the control of the airlines, but carriers do have a duty of care that includes food and overnight accommodation. Heathrow urged passengers to travel to the airport only if their flight was confirmed as operating, adding: “Teams across Heathrow are working as hard as they can to minimise the knock-on impacts and assist those whose journeys have been affected.” A spokeswoman for Nats said: “We have identified and remedied the technical issue affecting our flight planning system. We are now working closely with airlines and airports to manage the flights affected as efficiently as possible. “Our priority is always to ensure that every flight in the UK remains safe and we are sincerely sorry for the disruption this is causing. Please contact your airline for information on how this may affect your flight.” continued from page 1 System failure grounds flights Trump faces March trial at key stage in primaries Hugh Tomlinson Washington month. He was not required to attend yesterday’s procedural hearing in Washington, where Chutkan said that a defendant’s professional schedule, even the presidential campaign, could not be used to delay a criminal trial. March 4 was also later than the January trial date requested by Jack Smith, who has charged Trump on four counts over his bid to overturn his 2020 defeat. Trump’s lawyer, John Lauro, described Smith’s proposition as “a request for a show trial, not a speedy trial”, saying having just four months to prepare would be “absurd and ridiculous”. Chutkan said neither proposal from the two sides was acceptable. “We will certainly abide by Your Honor’s ruling, as we must,” Lauro told the judge after she announced her decision. But he added: “The trial date will deny President Trump the opportunity to have effective assistance of counsel.” Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, faces four criminal indictments in separate cities as he campaigns for the presidency. He has denied all the allegations. Drivers of the most polluting cars will have to pay a daily £12.50 charge across London from today, as the mayor said he had taken the “very tough decision” to expand the capital’s ultra-low emission zone. Designed to improve air quality and the health of Londoners, the growth of the clean air zone has faced opposition and unsuccessful legal challenges. In what Sadiq Khan called a “landmark day”, the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) will expand from its boundaries at the South Circular and North Circular roads to encompass the city. London’s outer boroughs have the highest proportion of the estimated 4,000 premature deaths a year caused by dirty air. The charge applies to diesel cars made before 2015 and petrol models from before 2005. Khan’s office has calculated that fewer than one in ten motorists will have to pay. The mayor widened scrappage compensation to all Londoners this month. The penalty for failure to pay is £180, or £90 if paid within 14 days. HM Revenue & Customs and the Greater London Authority have conExpanding Ulez a tough call but the right thing to do, says Khan Adam Vaughan Environment Editor firmed that “white van” drivers and other people driving into the zone solely for work purposes will be able to claim tax relief on the charge. The loophole does not cover commuting by car. Khan said: “It was a very tough decision to expand the zone, but with toxic air leading to around 4,000 premature deaths each year and our children growing up with stunted lungs, it is the right thing to do.” Doctors, health groups and pollution campaigners welcomed the expansion. Simon Birkett, director of the campaign group Clean Air in London, said: “The greatest lesson from the ‘great smog’, more than 70 years ago, is that big problems need big solutions. The Ulez expansion will create the biggest, strongest ultra-low emission zone of its type in the world and make London a world leader in cleaner air again.” Dr Mark Hayden, a consultant at Great Ormond Street Hospital, in central London, said: “I’m relieved to see this commonsense policy enacted today. Paediatricians are united around the Ulez because we know it will improve the lives of the families and children we treat across the city.” The larger Ulez is expected to cut emissions of toxic nitrogen oxide gases from cars by about 10 per cent in outer London. Emissions of tiny particles of soot and other matter from cars, known as PM2.5, should drop by almost 16 per cent. The expansion will result in Britain’s biggest clean air zone after it was created in 2019 with a decision by the former mayor Boris Johnson. Despite being created by a senior Conservative, the Ulez has become the trigger for Tory opposition to environmental policies after the party narrowly won the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election last month, which it attributed to campaigning against the expansion. The government considered a legal challenge against the expansion but dropped the plans after its lawyers advised it would fail. The High Court ruled last month the expansion was lawful, thwarting a legal challenge by four Tory-run boroughs and Surrey county council. Anti-Ulez protests took place at the weekend outside Tooting Broadway Tube station, in south London, the heart of the mayor’s constituency when he was an MP. DAB RADIO l ONLINE l SMART SPEAKER l APP Today’s highlights 7.15am 8.35am 11am 2pm 3.35pm T O DAY ’ S E D I T I O N FOLLOW US thetimes timesandsundaytimes thetimes Sunak prepares for Xi meeting Rishi Sunak has opened the door to a first face-to-face meeting with President Xi of China. The prime minister will go to the G20 gathering in India next week and civil servants are preparing for bilateral talks in the likely event that Xi does attend. Football boss faces inquiry Prosecutors have opened a preliminary sex abuse inquiry into the conduct of Luis Rubiales, the Spanish football federation president, during the medal ceremony of the Women’s World Cup. His mother has gone on hunger strike in support of him. Afghan workers living in hiding An estimated 400 Afghans who worked with the British Army and are eligible for resettlement under the government’s relocations and assistance policy are still living in hiding in the country two years after the Taliban swept back to power. Murray accuses Wimbledon Andy Murray believes that late-night play at Wimbledon has compromised fair conditions in favour of boosting the value of television contracts. He lost this year in a second-round match that did not start until 7.46pm and resumed the next day. EU sets 2030 Ukraine target Brussels wants Ukraine to be a full European Union member by 2030 in an expansion that also includes the western Balkans. Ukraine would be the poorest EU nation, with the bloc’s fourth-largest population and the biggest territory. Trust falls in supermarkets Trust in British supermarkets has fallen to the lowest level for a decade as households grapple with high prices, despite the inflation rate for food easing this month, according to the latest consumer insight tracker from Which? COMMENT 19 THUNDERER 20 LETTERS 22 LEADING ARTICLES 23 REGISTER 41 LIVES REMEMBERED 43 SPORT 46 CROSSWORD 56 TV & RADIO TIMES2 OFFER FOR UK STUDENTS A digital subscription to The Times and The Sunday Times for only £9.99 a year THETIMES.CO.UK/STUDENT days since Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was detained in Russia #FreeEvan 153 Sadiq Khan, London mayor, on the Ulez expansion Mark Harper, transport secretary The Political Editors: Matt Chorley, right, speaks to Francis Elliott about covering the demise of the coalition, Theresa May’s Brexit years and Boris Johnson’s handling of the pandemic The director Saul Dibb on his new TV drama, The Sixth Commandment Jane Garvey interviews Martine Wright, London 7/7 bombings survivor Gove to relax water pollution building rules George Sandeman The housing secretary is planning to announce a rewriting of rules on waterway pollution and housing developments today, according to reports. Michael Gove is understood to be ready to rip up “nutrient neutrality” rules, which have been criticised by developers and some Tory MPs for blocking much-needed housebuilding, The Guardian and The Sun reported. The rules are designed to ensure a development does not dangerously increase nutrient levels in local wetlands and waterways in protected areas. Natural England rules on nutrient neutrality will become guidance that local officials can ignore or follow, The Sun said. Property developers could be asked to contribute to a “mitigation fund” to help to tackle any pollution caused by building on greenfield and brownfield sites, it added. A government spokesman said that ministers remained “committed to delivering housing in areas affected by nutrient neutrality”. Sunny periods with the chance of showers, some thundery in the northwest. THE WEATHER 20 13 27 17 18 22 20 17 16 16
the times | Tuesday August 29 2023 3 News A billionaire Tory donor has been ordered to tear down his luxury hotel, which was the backdrop to the signing of the Windsor agreement and a Conservative Party away day. Surinder Arora has been told by Runnymede council that he will have to demolish all or part of the five-star Fairmont Windsor Park Hotel after making it bigger than planning permission allowed, with an extra wing and extending into the eaves. Arora, founder of the Arora Group, has until October to appeal against the enforcement notice, which said that the hotel had a “harmful effect on the green belt”. The final decision could end up on the desk of Michael Gove, the communities secretary. Arora could also have to pull down five luxury treehouses built on an adjoining site, after councillors denied him planning permission. The 251-room hotel was the backdrop to the signing of the Windsor framework in February, where Rishi Sunak won over Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission. The cost to the taxpayer of using the hotel was £16,325. In the same week the hotel, on the edge of Windsor Great Park, was used to hold an away day for Tory MPs with presentations on how to hold on to their seats at the next election, a pub quiz hosted by Greg Hands, the party chairman, dinner with the prime minister and drinks. The event was paid for by the Conservative Party. A council spokesman said it was “disappointed that these works were undertaken on the site without planning permission”. Arora said: “We are truly sorry for the mistakes made during the construction of the Fairmont Windsor Park. It was a highly challenging construction site being developed in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. We are now constructively engaging with Runnymede council and other local stakeholders to find mutually acceptable solutions to the planning concerns.” It is understood that the Arora Group could offer to demolish structures of the same volume as the additions. In a report commissioned by the Englefield Green Village Residents’ Association, and seen by The Times, an independent planning consultant said there were “a number of large additions to the hotel” that did not appear to have planning permission. These included an extra wing, two extensions and the hotel being about 2.5 metres taller than planned. The report said: “There have been no approved plans found within the council’s planning records available online which show these apparent additions”. Arora applied for permission in December for the treehouse lodges with Wing and a prayer 2018 approved plan Fairmount Windsor Park Hotel Extra wing Two extra extensions Source: Runnymede.gov.uk LONDON hot tubs but had started building them eight months earlier. Councillors rejected his application and he has submitted revised plans. The council said this could not be “realistically determined [. . . ] any time soon” because the structures were to be additions to the hotel complex. In a letter of objection to them, one resident accused Arora of a “habitual approach of ignoring the rules by which regular citizens live”. Another said that the building work had caused “irreparable damage” to mature woodland. Some residents feared there was a conflict of interest as the council was discussing buying land from Arora. Runnymede denied this and said there was a “glass wall” between the planning and housing departments that would avoid any conflict. It costs more than £1,000 a night to stay in one of the hotel’s suites or £400 for a room. Its spa offers caviar facials. Arora was previously embroiled in a scandal after it was revealed that Priti Patel, then the home secretary, and Kwasi Kwarteng, then the business secretary, had met him at Heathrow airport’s Hilton Garden Inn without officials from their departments. Arora also previously submitted a rival plan to expand Heathrow airport and build a third runway. At the time Arora said: “I’ve known Kwasi and Priti for years. I said pop in and have lunch and see my new hotel. I don’t do politics. I don’t support anyone. There wasn’t any agenda.” Through Arora Management Services Ltd, of which he is a director, Arora previously donated £5,000 to the Tories in Runnymede & Weybridge, plus another £1,450 in sponsorship. The Fairmont Windsor Park Hotel has been developed by Surinder Arora, a Tory donor and friend of former ministers, but has breached planning permissions Tory donor’s five-star demolition row A billionaire’s luxury new hotel wing has been found to extend right off the plans, writes Geraldine Scott
4 2GM Tuesday August 29 2023 | the times News Millions of middle-aged adults will be offered free blood pressure checks in their neighbourhoods under an NHS drive to prevent thousands of heart attacks and strokes. Local pharmacies are receiving funding to carry out 2.5 million checks across England over the next year, with all over-40s eligible. Pharmacy teams will also go out into local communities, using mobile equipment to visit barber shops and community venues including sports grounds, churches, mosques and supermarkets. With the proactive testing, people who would previously have been unaware they had high blood pressure will be referred to their GP or a specialist, and able to get life-saving interventions including medication. Health chiefs hope the free checks will prompt patients to think about their heart health and lose weight, cut down on drinking, and start medication such as statins before it is too late. High blood Britain does not have enough defibrillators, meaning the public would have to walk on average almost half a mile to find their nearest life-saving device if they saw someone having a cardiac arrest. Research has mapped the exact walking distance from the centre of every postcode in the UK to the nearest defibrillator, finding they are usually loYour nearest defibrillator could be half a mile away cated too far away to save lives. Defibrillators provide an electric shock to the heart of someone who is in cardiac arrest. Survival rates are 70 per cent if a defibrillator is used within five minutes, but this drops by 10 percentage points for every minute after this. The British Heart Foundation analysed data on 78,000 defibrillators in unrestricted public spaces, finding they were on average 726 metres — almost half a mile — away from the centre of any given postcode. Access is particularly poor in the most deprived areas of England and Scotland, according to the findings presented at the European Society of Cardiology congress in Amsterdam. The lead researcher Dr Chris Wilkinson, a consultant cardiologist and senior lecturer at Hull York Medical School, said: “Our study has clearly shown that defibrillators are too far away and a few minutes of delay can make the difference between life and death. This is 19 minutes [there and back] at an average walking pace to retrieve a defibrillator. In the context of a cardiac arrest, that is a long time.” There are 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests each year in the UK, which is when the heart suddenly stops beating. Victims currently have just an 8 per cent chance of survival, with quick CPR and defibrillation vital to give someone the best chance. Eleanor Hayward Sauce code Competitors in the world gravy wrestling championships at the Rose N Bowl in Rossendale, Lancashire, were advised to bring a towel and a change of clothes Storm curtails cruise Hundreds of passengers are to leave the P&O cruise ship MV Britannia early after it came free from its mooring and collided with another boat during a storm in Mallorca on Sunday. A few people received minor injuries and a lifeboat was damaged. The ship will return to Southampton with fewer passengers, and 321 people will fly home early. Wild ass celebration Marwell Zoo in Hampshire is celebrating the birth of an African wild ass, one of the rarest mammals on the planet. The male foal arrived on August 20. The animals are native to Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia and fewer than 200 are left in the wild. A spokeswoman said the foal would “play an important role in the future preservation of its species”. A A A B B C C D E E G G H I I I K L L M N O O O R R S S T T T X Solve all five concise clues using each letter underneath once only 1 All-male party (4) 2 Snap (one’s fingers) (5) 3 Church o"icer who digs graves (6) 4 Biblical adversary of David (7) 5 Royal Artillery rank (10) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Quintagram® No 1719 Solutions MindGames in Times2 Cryptic clues every day online NHS takes fight to heart disease with free blood pressure checks pressure is called the “silent killer” and affects 15 million adults in the UK, but one in three cases currently go undetected. The condition puts extra strain on blood vessels and vital organs including the heart, kidneys and eyes. David Webb, chief pharmaceutical officer at NHS England, said: “With the number of people living with major illnesses including heart disease and other cardiovascular conditions set to grow substantially over coming years, it has never been more important to put in place preventative measures like easy-to-access blood pressure checks. These can pick up the early signs and risks, with figures showing teams are on track to prevent more than 1,300 heart attacks and strokes this year alone.” Heart and circulatory diseases cause a quarter of all deaths in the UK — 160,000 a year — and treating the conditions costs the NHS at least £7.4 billion a year. It is forecast that 9.1 million people will have a chronic illness by 2040, 2.5 million more than in 2019. The NHS scheme offering free blood pressure checks at pharmacies was first launched in 2021. Over the past year, more than one million checks have been carried out with local pharmacies paid up to £45 to perform each check. John Maingay, director of policy at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Having high blood pressure can significantly increase your risk of having a heart attack and stroke, but it can be difficult to know you have it unless you check, because it doesn’t usually have any obvious symptoms. The checks in local communities include a scheme in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, which is operating a mobile blood pressure service called “How’s Thi Ticker”. This travels around local neighbourhoods including to barber shops, supermarkets and community centres. Meanwhile in Brixton, south London, NHS teams have offered checks at a dominoes club,. Tips to cut the risks Exercise regularly to keep your heart muscle strong. Eat a healthy diet featuring lots of fresh vegetables. Do not sprinkle extra salt on your meals. Avoid ultra-processed foods such as ready meals. Lose weight if you have a body mass index over 25. Give up smoking, which can cause blood clots and thickens the arteries. Cut down on alcohol and avoid binge drinking, which can trigger heart attacks. Get your blood pressure checked at your GP or pharmacy. Take prescribed medicine such as statins if offered by your doctor. Eleanor Hayward Health Correspondent in Amsterdam Labour stalwart dies The Labour peer Lord Haworth has died of a heart attack aged 75, the party has confirmed. Haworth, who was secretary to the Parliamentary Labour Party from 1992 to 2004, died while on holiday in Iceland with his wife, Maggie Rae. Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, said Haworth had “played a key role in delivering Labour’s 1997 landslide and ensuring the party was re-elected”. Sir Tony Blair said the peer was a close friend and “wonderful, warm and witty”. New pandemic alert A public health expert says that bird flu mutations should be seen as warning of the risk of another pandemic. “There is a pattern and [bird flu] . . . isn’t good in terms of the range of mutations . . . and it jumping into humans,” Professor Devi Sridhar, of Edinburgh University, said. Bird flu has killed hundreds of thousands of wild birds worldwide since 2021.
the times | Tuesday August 29 2023 2GM 5 News controls. “Flight delayed — but visit to cockpit such a buzz!” he tweeted. As the day wore on, however, goodwill faded. Lyudmila Hristova, 57, said she and her husband had their plans to attend their niece’s wedding in Bulgaria “ruined” when BA cancelled their flight from Heathrow to Sofia. Hristova, from Catford in southeast London, said: “We are looking for some information on how we can arrange another flight. It is so difficult. They just got us out of the airport, it was very rude. There was no information, just some leaflets. Everything is ruined.” Last night tens of thousands of passengers faced a night at airport hotels, or worse — stranded in terminals with nowhere to sleep. Irene Franklin, 60, had her Delta flight back to Austin, Texas, cancelled at the last minute. Speaking outside Heathrow Terminal 3, she said: “It was [delayed by] two hours, now it’s cancelled. It’s now not until tomorrow morning at 10. It’s frustrating but what are you going to do?” When asked if she had been helped, she said: “No. Not for a place to stay tonight, not for a cab ride.” Additional reporting by George Greenwood Travel plans stuck to the tarmac Holidays, homecomings or getting to the church on time . . . it was a truly awful day at the airport, reports Ben Clatworthy Row after row of aircraft parked at Heathrow as flights all over Europe were grounded. Passengers were sitting on the floor, and Stansted, below left, was packed Analysis T he timing could not have been worse. Of all the issues likely to affect one of the busiest flying days of the year, few would have predicted a meltdown of the UK’s air traffic control system (Ben Clatworthy writes). This morning officials at Nats, which runs the UK’s airspace, airline bosses and ministers will have woken up with one question: how? How in this day and age could a system so critical to the whole aviation system be allowed to fail, resulting in flight plans being entered not automatically but manually into the central computer? Senior government and security sources were quick to rule out an attack by a hostile state. Yet still such a serious failure of a system so vital to national infrastructure should never have been allowed to become a reality. Last night there were rumours that a flight plan had been incorrectly submitted by a French carrier, setting off a cascade of problems. This may or may not be true and Nats was not willing to comment. Such a failure would suggest a classic, mundane — but (almost certainly) preventable — IT failure. A full investigation has begun. There is history of such cases in the UK aviation sector. In 2017 British Airways’ fleet was virtually grounded after a contractor working over a May bank holiday disconnected the power supply to one of its data centres before reinstating it incorrectly. The incident caused travel mayhem that cost the airline millions but was without malice. Even if the incident this time was as innocent, it will be considerably more costly for airlines. Privately, bosses are furious: they pay steep fees to Nats, only to be let down. “It’s hard to think of any other industry where something outside your control happens but you pay millions,” an aviation source said. Whether the airlines will seek recompense it is too early to say. The priority in the days ahead will be getting passengers, crew and planes back into the right places. What is clear, though, is that there will be calls for ministers, who were quick to criticise airlines and airports last summer, to ask questions of Nats to ensure such a situation never happens again. Mainly, though, everyone in the aviation sector and stranded abroad wants one answer. It was forecast to be one of the busiest days of the year in the skies as millions of families returned, bronzed and refreshed, from their summer holidays. For those passengers, flying home on the August bank holiday was always going to be hectic, made worse by the prospect of returning to work and the start of a new school year. What no one predicted was that by lunchtime Britain’s national air traffic control system would have failed, causing a day of travel chaos across Europe and beyond. On the tarmac at airports across the continent, passengers sitting on aircraft were starting to be given the bad news. Nats, which manages UK airspace, had suffered a meltdown affecting its flight-planning system, forcing ordinarily automated procedures to be done manually. A “traffic flow restriction” was in place, meaning that only a tiny number of flights could arrive and depart each hour. Inside the terminals, departure boards turned into a sea of orange and red as flights were delayed or cancelled. Gemma Saleh, a 43-year-old former barrister who teaches part-time at a law school, boarded an easyJet flight from Sardinia to Gatwick at 11.30am only to be sitting on the tarmac for two hours. She said: “We were told as we started to taxi there was an issue with the air traffic computer but [the pilot] didn’t know more and we’d wait on the tarmac till we got a slot.” Saleh said the pilot told passengers over the PA system that he had not seen such a situation in 20 years of flying. After waiting two hours, the passengers were bussed back to the terminal and told to “wait there”, she added. Across Europe passengers faced a similar plight as airlines struggled to cope, while in the UK airport officials did their best as operations were grinding to a virtual halt. Joshua Itano, travelling from Houston to Milan via London, said it had been hard to get any usable information. “I don’t think the staff or crew know what’s going on. We’ve seen a few flights take off so there’s movement. No rhyme or reason as to why some are going and the rest are grounded.” After an hour and a half waiting for his BA flight, he gave up hope. “The crew just walked off, which I assume was because no one knows what’s going on.” By mid-afternoon a clearer picture was emerging. Hundreds of planes, scattered about Europe, were late and staffed by crew whose shifts were ending. Pilots did their best to calm and placate frustrated passengers, emerging into the cabin to address the rows of weary holidaymakers. The most charming among them used the trump card they know works best on children and adults alike — throwing open the door to their office for all to see the view from the flight deck. Justin Peter, from London, was on a delayed flight from Santorini when presented with the opportunity to see the How could a meltdown like this be possible?
6 Tuesday August 29 2023 | the times News Labour and the Liberal Democrats will battle it out to challenge the Conservatives in the Mid Bedfordshire by-election after an uneasy truce between opposition parties broke down. Sir Keir Starmer secured an impressive win in Selby & Ainsty last month and Sir Ed Davey overturned a huge Tory majority in Somerton & Frome when both parties withheld resources from by-elections that they stood less chance of winning, to concentrate their attacks on the Conservative Party. Tactical voting is thought to have played a significant role in overturning sizeable Conservative majorities in both by-elections. Labour’s vote was squeezed to such an extent in Somerton & Frome the party’s candidate lost his deposit. But there is a major disagreement over who is best placed to chalSunak has faced criticism in the past from some Tory MPs who have argued for the government to take a tougher approach on China. Liz Truss had been planning to declare China a threat to British national security before she was ousted as prime minister last year. Since then she has continued to campaign on the issue, visiting Taiwan earlier this year and demanding a stronger approach to Beijing. The G20 is a major diplomatic moment for Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, who is hosting the summit in Delhi. There had been speculation that President Putin could attend, given Russia’s relationship with India. But he confirmed that Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, would attend in his stead in a phone call with Modi over the weekend in a further sign that he is increasingly forced to restrict his travel because of the International Criminal Court’s warrant for his arrest. Putin was absent from the Brics summit in South Africa last week, appearing via video link. Xi made a rare visit this week to Xinjiang, the northeastern Chinese province taken, despite forecasts of crossings increasing,” the prime minister’s press secretary said. “Thanks to the action this government has taken, including passing the toughest laws ever to tackle Starmer gains trust across the board crossings. Labour accused ministers of allowing record arrivals in the past 12 days after 3,014 migrants reached Britain between August 16 and 27. “More than anything else, immigration is about whether voters think the government has got a grip, can run the system properly, and that there are clear rules,” a Labour source said. “What the small-boat crossings show is that under the Tories none of those things are true.” Sunak defended his record, pointing to the overall number of crossings being lower than record figures last year and Labour’s refusal to vote with the government on measures designed to impede people smugglers. “Small-boat crossings are down by about 15 per cent compared with last year thanks to the radical action that this Conservative government has illegal boat crossings, striking deals with our allies to return illegal migrants and increasing patrols on the Channel, we are making progress to deter and stop these dangerous boat crossings, unlike the Labour Party, who have voted against these measures at every turn and have presented no alternative plan.” In addition to winning over voters on issues where the Tories have traditionally been strong, Labour maintained a lead in the areas in which it has often been ahead in the past. Labour’s most significant lead came on the NHS, where 39 per cent of voters backed it, against 12 per cent for the Conservatives. On education and schools, Labour had a lead of 35 per cent to 15, on housing by 33 per cent to 10, and on the economy by 25 per cent to 21. The party was also ahead on Brexit, with 19 per cent favouring its policies compared with 17 per cent for the Tories. Here is a list of problems facing the country. Could you say for each of them which political party you think would handle the problem best? Q Asylum and immigration Law and order 24% 19% 25% 27% 24% 16% 22% 20% 19% 21% Taxation The economy in general Defence and security C Lab Source: YouGov, Aug 22-23. 2,106 adults End of Lib-Lab truce gives George Grylls lenge the Conservatives in Mid Bedfordshire. The by-election was triggered by the resignation of Nadine Dorries, who stood down last week after months of uncertainty. Mid Bedfordshire has been held by the Conservatives since 1931 and Dorries has been the constituency’s MP for the past 18 years. The Tory majority in Mid Bedfordshire is 24,664 — significantly larger than the 20,137 majority the party had in Selby & Ainsty and the 19,213 in Somerton & Frome. But despite the size of the majority, opposition parties are increasingly confident they can win, given local frustrations over the manner of Dorries’s resignation. The former culture secretary was accused of abandoning her constituents when she spent months threatening to stand down after the resignation of Boris Johnson, her close ally. She eventbut it was cancelled at the last minute when a stray missile killed two people in Poland and it briefly appeared as though the war in Ukraine had spilled over into Nato territory. “The PM will be having a range of meetings at the G20, all of which will be confirmed closer to the time,” a government source said. James Cleverly will meet his Chinese counterpart while Rishi Sunak may meet President Xi Rishi Sunak has opened the door to a first face-to-face meeting with Xi Jinping amid a wider diplomatic thaw between the UK and China. The prime minister will travel to the G20 summit in India next week for the annual gathering of the world’s largest economies. Xi’s presence at the G20 is not yet confirmed but preparations are being made in Whitehall for a bilateral meeting in the event he does attend. James Cleverly will become the first foreign secretary to visit China in five years when he arrives in Beijing for a meeting with his Chinese counterpart this week. Cleverly was due to arrive in the Philippines on the first leg of the trip yesterday before moving on to China today. A meeting with Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister, is expected tomorrow. The foreign secretary’s visit was originally scheduled for July but a sudden purge of the politburo in Beijing led to complications organising the trip. The previous foreign minister, Qin Gang, was removed from his position amid rumours of an extramarital affair. Both Sunak and Cleverly have consistently talked about the importance of dialogue with Beijing despite disagreements between the UK and China over the crackdown of democracy in Hong Kong, the handling of the Covid pandemic, the treatment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang and threats made towards Taiwan. In a speech at the lord mayor’s banquet last year, Sunak declared an end to the “golden era” of relations with Beijing but defended the need to maintain “diplomacy and engagement”. A Whitehall source highlighted the need to engage with China on issues ranging from climate change to the war in Ukraine. “You just cannot resolve many of the world’s major issues if you ignore Beijing. We’ve been clear that you have to engage at the same time as acknowledging our differences,” the source said. Sunak and Xi were due to meet at the G20 last year in Indonesia News Politics Sunak lays ground for talks with George Grylls Political Correspondent The other hot issues Rishi Sunak, pictured during a visit to a farm in his Richmond constituency, has backed up his talk of a need for india trade deal Rishi Sunak will hope to speed up negotiations with India at the G20 summit. A practising Hindu, the prime minister is likely to receive a warm welcome from Narendra Modi on his first official visit to India, the country of his ancestors and where he got married. However, free trade negotiations remain stalled amid differences over the number of visas that the UK is prepared to grant to Indian nationals. ukraine The UK will be lobbying the US and Germany for further pledges of military assistance to help Ukraine with its counter-offensive. Unlike the UK and France, which have given Storm Shadow and Scalp missiles to Kyiv, America and Germany are yet to supply Ukraine with long-range weapons that can hit deep behind the Russian defensive lines. It was at the G7 summit in Japan earlier this year that a breakthrough was made on giving Ukraine US-made F-16 fighter jets. us & china Tensions between the world’s largest superpowers will play out at the summit amid disagreements over the international economy and Taiwan. President Biden met with Chinese premier Xi Jinping at the summit last year and it remains to be seen whether the pair will have the opportunity to talk through the world’s big issues face to face.
the times | Tuesday August 29 2023 7 News Suella Braverman has become embroiled in a row with Home Office officials after she appeared to blame civil servants in her department for the shutdown of the Bibby Stockholm barge. The home secretary criticised Landry & Kling, the third-party contractor tasked with running the vessel, and civil servants who “oversaw” the contract after migrants were evacuated only days after moving on to the barge this month. The Bibby Stockholm, moored in Portland Port, Dorset, was supposed to house 506 men as they waited for their asylum applications to be processed. But the Home Office was forced to evacuate the vessel days after 39 migrants moved in when traces of Legionella bacteria were found in the water system. “Am I disappointed with what’s hapBraverman blames officials for barge pened? Am I frustrated with what’s happened? Am I angry with what’s happened? I absolutely am. I’ve made it very clear to the parties involved, to the civil servants involved who oversaw that,” Braverman told Today on BBC Radio 4, adding: “I ultimately take responsibility, the buck stops with me.” Dave Penman, the general secretary of the FDA trade union, which represents civil servants, accused Braverman of engaging in “cowardly attacks” on officials. “The home secretary knows full well that she can tour the broadcast studios blaming civil servants, safe in the knowledge that they are not allowed to publicly defend themselves.” Braverman stepped up attacks on the European court of human rights, saying the government would “do whatever it takes” to send migrants to Rwanda if plans were “thwarted in Strasbourg”. Rishi Sunak is under pressure from some parts of the Conservative Party to withdraw from the ECHR. Braverman is among those who have lobbied behind the scenes for a tougher stance. However other cabinet members including James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, and Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, are opposed to leaving and Sunak is yet to be convinced of the merits of withdrawing. “It would cause more problems than it solves,” one government source said. Firefighters yesterday threatened to take action to prevent more migrants being housed on the Bibby Stockholm. Lawyers acting for the Fire Brigades Union have written to ministers threatening to challenge the policy in the courts. Ministers have until Thursday to respond. Braverman said the FBU, a Labouraffiliated union, was guilty of launching a “political attack”. George Grylls Tories hope in by-election ually resigned last week with an attack on Rishi Sunak. Starmer visited Mid Bedfordshire last month to meet disaffected Tory voters, and Labour maintains it has the best chance of winning the seat. A succession of recent polls has placed the party well ahead of the Lib Dems. “It’s a big ask, but so was Selby,” one senior party source said. “Voters have shown that if they want to defeat the Tories, they can work out who they need to vote for, and in Mid Beds they know that’s Labour.” But the Liberal Democrats are refusing to tone down their campaign and have already posted tens of thousands of leaflets. A Lib Dem source admitted that the Conservatives stood a better chance of winning the by-election thanks to the lack of agreement with Labour but was unrepentant about launching a full-blooded campaign. The party has accused Alistair Strathern, the Labour candidate, 33, of not being local, given that his most recent job was as a councillor in London, even though he grew up in Bedfordshire. The Lib Dem source said: “This is blue wall territory and the demographics are in our favour. We stand the best chance of winning.” Davey is expected to appear regularly on the campaign trail over the coming weeks. The Conservative candidate, Festus Akinbusoye, 45, was selected months ago and is the police and crime commissioner for Bedfordshire. A Conservative Party source said: “It will be extremely difficult. The circumstances of the last ten weeks have made it harder.” No date has been announced for the by-election but it appears likely it will be held in the lead-up to the Conservative and Labour Party conferences. red box For the best analysis and commentary on the political landscape where Beijing has been accused of multiple human rights abuses. Uighur Muslims have been beaten, indoctrinated, sterilised and rounded up into camps, according to testimonies from survivors who have fled Xinjiang. UK MPs voted to declare their treatment a genocide two years ago. On only his second visit to the region, Xi encouraged Chinese officials there to maintain the “hard-won social stability”. He said officials needed to “more deeply promote the sinicisation of Islam and effectively control illegal religious activities”, according to remarks reported on Chinese state television. “We will better build a beautiful Xinjiang that is united and harmonious, wealthy and prosperous,” he said. B ritain is in the fourth year of its fourth term of Conservative-led government. It has run a budget deficit during all but one of them. Our tax burden is projected soon to reach its highest level for 50 years. Our debt is very close to exceeding GDP. These are facts. Many Conservatives — usually with a capital C — will make a plea for context, citing Vladimir Putin’s bloody war in Ukraine and the worst worldwide pandemic in a century. Others (often with a lower case c) will complain, variously, of rampant overspending and overtaxation. Some will set the good against the bad: Iain Duncan Smith’s universal credit (without which the social security system would have collapsed during Covid), the 2012 Olympics, the speed of the coronavirus vaccine rollout, the best G20 decarbonisation record. If they collectively feel, having weighed the evidence both ways, that the past 14 years have been a disappointment, who can blame them? But whatever conclusion Conservatives and others reach, none can fairly claim that our problems began roughly a year ago, on September 6, 2022 — when Boris Johnson left Downing Street. Which takes us to Nadine Dorries’s farewell letter. Bits of it are brilliantly written, but the core of it is bonkers — precisely because it implies that Britain was flourishing until Johnson was replaced by Rishi Sunak. She can’t reasonably suggest in her letter that all was well when Johnson was in Downing Street — not, at any rate, without conjuring up what may be her greatest work of fiction to date. The significance of her letter lies elsewhere: to be specific, in the light it casts about where politics in News Chinese leader at G20 summit Dorries’s resignation epic is more fiction than fact Britain is going, and on the difference between fiction and facts — even, perhaps, between fiction and truth. You may reply that the last is best left to philosophers. I apologise if all this sounds a bit abstracted, so let me come down to earth with a bump. One of the most contested arguments in the liberal West is whether a man can be a woman, or vice-versa: not whether he can be so legally, but whether he can be so really. A central aspect of woke is that it believes you can. In other words, woke has faith in “your truth”, as Meghan Markle would put it, not the truth — an incomprehensible way of thinking to conservative, liberal and Marxist alike. As it is also to another writer of fiction who’s even more of a bestseller than Dorries. “Dress however you please. Call yourself whatever you like. Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you,” J K Rowling tweeted in 2019. “Live your best life in peace and security. But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real?” The creator of Harry Potter was speaking out in support of Maya Forstater — who lost her job after saying exactly that. The more I think about Rowling’s interventions, the more appealing and persuasive they look, whether in relation to the Forstater case or more widely. Never underestimate the scale of change that a single voice can force. It’s no exaggeration to say that Rowling was the stone, excuse the pun, that set off the avalanche now burying the SNP, or at least Nicola Sturgeon's leadership of it. Rowling and Dorries are ships passing in the night. Rowling has gradually made the journey from fiction to public affairs. Dorries seems to be travelling the other way. “Why is it that we have had five Conservative prime ministers since 2010, with not one of the previous four having left office as the result of losing a general election?” she asks in her letter. Because David Cameron resigned after Remain lost the EU referendum. Because Theresa May did so after her EU negotiation plan lost any hope of passing the Commons. Because Boris Johnson lost the confidence of two fifths of Tory MPs. Because Liz Truss was losing the confidence of those same MPs. Not, then, because of “the machinations of a small group of individuals”. “As I spoke to more and more people . . . a dark story emerged which grew ever more disturbing” she writes. One of the people Dorries has spoken to is presumably herself, since she voted Leave in 2016, playing her part in the downfall of Cameron, and opposed May’s deal the first time round. It might be Dorries’s truth to assert otherwise, but it wouldn’t be the truth — any more than it would be to claim that Johnson was laid low by a dodgy whizbee. There’s more fun to be had — and perhaps money to be made — with fiction than fact. But, either way, Dorries’s letter is important not because of what it says, but what it signifies. Maybe the future isn’t Leavers v Remainers, or even Conservative v Labour. Perhaps it’s post-truth v the truth — Dorries v Rowling. I’m for Rowling. You? This is an edited version of an article first published in Conservative Home Paul Goodman Comment dialogue by making plans to meet the Chinese president in Delhi next week Dorries suggests Britain was flourishing until Johnson was replaced
8 Tuesday August 29 2023 | the times News Private clinics are “taking advantage” of vulnerable patients by wrongly diagnosing Lyme disease so they can prescribe long courses of expensive treatment, an expert has warned. The prominent consultant microbiologist argues that the misdiagnosis of Lyme disease, which is spread by tick bites, was imported from the United States, where “a profitable medical industry grew up” around the practice. In a letter to The Times, Dr Matthew Dryden — who retired from Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital this year but still works for the NHS — said patients with chronic fatigue syndrome, known as ME, are frequently misdiagnosed as suffering from Lyme. Dryden pointed out that Lyme is common on America’s east coast and that frequently US medical insurers did not cover the costs of treating ME. However, health costs for chronic Lyme disease were covered. As a result, said Dryden, “a profitable medical industry grew up around this”. He added that “patients are treated with dangerously long courses of antibiotics and other drugs” for Lyme disease, while “serious treatable diagnoses are sometimes missed”. Dryden suggested that the practice Private clinics ‘cash in with false Lyme disease diagnoses’ of misdiagnosing conditions as Lyme disease had spread across Englishspeaking countries including the UK and Australia, though Lyme has never been found in the latter. “Lyme disease is being misdiagnosed by private concerns using unvalidated diagnostic tests,” Dryden writes, adding: “These clinics and laboratories are taking advantage of vulnerable and desperate people with chronic symptoms.” Speaking to The Times, Dryden said that in some cases private clinics send tests to overseas laboratories that often “provide the result that they want, a positive result for Lyme”. But in many cases, especially involving younger people, the patients are suffering from chronic ME or another condition. Dryden said he was “not criticising all private clinics”, adding: “People pay their money and they get a lot of attention, which in many cases the NHS cannot provide.” However, he warned that some clinics were “putting profit over care” by turning a blind eye to a misdiagnosis of Lyme so they could prescribe expensive treatments. Lyme is an infectious disease that is most often caused by a tick bite. In many cases, patients do not realise that they have been bitten and therefore the condition can be difficult to diagnose. Jonathan Ames Help on way for those with ‘chemo brain’ A course to help people with “chemo brain” is being rolled out across the UK by a cancer support charity after being trialled successfully in Scotland. The condition, known as cancerrelated cognitive change (CRCC), is experienced by some people who have undergone chemotherapy and can cause memory and attention problems, as well as slowing down how quickly people process information. The course, Memory and Concentration Changes after Cancer Treatment, will be rolled out across England and Wales by Maggie’s, the cancer charity, after being judged successful at the charity’s eight Scottish centres. The effectiveness of the course was confirmed through a study by Andrea Joyce, a trainee health psychologist at Glasgow Caledonian University. “Everyone I spoke to found [it] helpful,” she said. “They found that the knowledge provided and the group format . . . addressed feelings of isolation.” Dellasie, 31, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2019, said chemo brain still affects her now and she often forgets things. “In the last year, there have been a few incidents where I have left the oven on and come back to find my house smelling of smoke . . . I think this course would be very helpful.” Head of steam The Flying Scotsman heads to Horsted Keynes, West Sussex, on the Bluebell Railway’s “breakfast run”
the times | Tuesday August 29 2023 9 News An elderly couple who died after becoming trapped in their car in a flooded underpass in Liverpool have been named. Philip Marco, a retired restaurateur, 77, and his wife Elaine, 76, were travelling in a black Mercedes when it became stuck in deep floodwater on Saturday evening. Passers-by battled to help the pair and emergency workers were eventually able to free them, but they were pronounced dead after being taken to a local hospital. Video footage recorded sion if the sports court opens proceedings for “very serious” offences or an “abuse of authority”. The government, which has said it wants the controversy to be Spain’s “MeToo moment”, cannot sack Rubiales but is seeking to get him suspended using a legal procedure before the sports tribunal. Hermoso has denied Rubiales’s claim that the kiss was consensual, saying she felt “vulnerable and a victim of an impulse-driven, sexist, out-of-place act”. She and the team have said they will not play more games while he is in charge. Their next match is away to Sweden in the Nations League on September 22. Following an emergency meeting yesterday, the regional heads of the Spanish football federation unanimously called for Rubiales’s “immediate” resignation “after the latest events and the unacceptable behaviour that have seriously damaged the image of Spanish football”. The futures of de la Fuente and Vilda, as well as that of Andreu Camps, the general secretary, are also thought to be in doubt. Camps, who is Rubiales’s right-hand man, has lodged a complaint with Uefa about the Spanish government’s “interventionism”. Rubiales is a vice-president of Uefa, with a £214,000 salary. Spanish media have criticised Uefa for refusing to comment. Andrés Iniesta, who scored in the 2010 men’s World Cup final to win the trophy, also said Rubiales’s conduct was “damaging the image of our country and our football”. Last night hundreds of people gathered in Madrid for protests against Rubiales. Some called for his resignation, chanting: “It’s not a kiss, it is aggression.” Flood deaths of retired couple leave community ‘devastated’ around the time of the incident shows water gushing on to the road, which dips below a bridge. There was heavy rainfall in the area at the time. Witnesses also speculated that a burst pipe may have contributed to the deluge, with water visibly shooting into the air at the far end of the bridge on Queens Drive in the Mossley Hill area of the city. The couple were members of the local Jewish community and one friend told Jewish News that their deaths had left “the entire community, friends and family absolutely devastated”. Another friend of the couple wrote online: “Terrible tragedy with the passing of our dear friends, Philip & Elaine Marco. May Hashem [a Hebrew term for God] heal the torn hearts of their children and grandchildren. A huge loss to our community.” The road remains closed as a police investigation continues, with officers appealing for locals with dashcam footage to come forward. Detective Chief Inspector Mike Dalton said: “Our thoughts go out to the family of the man and woman who sadly lost their lives in this tragic incident, despite the best efforts of passing members of the public, our officers and Merseyside Fire and Rescue Services at the scene. We are at the early stages of an ongoing investigation on Queens Drive to establish the circumstances of this tragic incident. Road closures remain in the area as we continue with this investigation and motorists are advised to avoid the road. “We are continuing to appeal to anyone who was on Queens Drive, between North Mossley Hill Road and Dovedale Road at around 9.20pm [on Saturday]and saw the accident, or who stopped to try help or anyone who had any dashcam footage from their car to come forward as soon as possible.” Billy Kenber Philip and Elaine Marco were members of Liverpool’s Jewish community Prosecutors opened a preliminary sex abuse investigation into the conduct of Luis Rubiales, the Spanish football federation president, yesterday as his mother went on hunger strike in protest at the “witch-hunt” against her son. Ángeles Béjar said that she would confine herself to the Divina Pastora church in Motril, the southern Andalusian town where Rubiales grew up, declaring that her hunger strike would last until a solution was found to the “inhumane and bloody witch-hunt that they are conducting against my son”. Rubiales has faced a week of condemnation after he grabbed Jennifer Hermoso, a Spain player, and kissed her on the lips during the World Cup final medal ceremony. Fifa suspended him for 90 days after he refused to quit. Last night the pressure on Rubiales increased as his own federation called on him to resign. Béjar had earlier said her confinement in the church would continue “indefinitely”, according to the state news agency EFE. She asked Hermoso to “tell the truth” and “maintain the version she had at the beginning of the events”. Béjar, who arrived with her sister, said that her son was “incapable of harming anyone” and that she believed that there was “no sexual abuse as there is consent on both sides”. To applause from his predominantly male audience at a federation meeting on Friday, Rubiales called the kiss consensual and described demands for him to quit as a witch-hunt led by “false feminists” intent on “social assassination”. Yolanda Díaz, an acting deputy prime minister, said: “On Friday we saw the worst of Spanish society, of the structural machismo of this country. They clapped and humiliated and made fun of a person they had the obligation to protect under the sports law.” She said Spain was predominantly “feminist” but regretted that it had not acted faster against Rubiales. She said: “I think we are going slowly . . . I am very sorry that it was Fifa that suspended Rubiales and we did not do it in our country. “The coaches who applauded Mr Rubiales are not are not fit to continue in their posts,” she added, referring to Luis de la Fuente, the coach of the men’s national team, and Jorge Vilda, the women’s team coach, who have since condemned him. Prosecutors at Spain’s top criminal court announced an investigation “to look into the facts, which could constitute an offence of sexual assault”, a statement said, indicating that Hermoso would have a chance to file a legal case. Rubiales could face a longer suspenYolanda Díaz, with Amanda Gutiérrez, the president of Futpro, said that Spain should have been swifter to act against Luis Rubiales. His mother, Ángeles Béjar, is on hunger strike Sex abuse inquiry into football kiss Isambard Wilkinson Madrid
10 2GM Tuesday August 29 2023 | the times News Hundreds of Afghans who worked with the British Army are still living in hiding in Afghanistan two years on from the fall of Kabul. When the Taliban swept back to power in August 2021 the UK promised asylum to Afghans who had risked their lives to support the British military. An estimated 400 people eligible for resettlement under the government’s Afghan relocations and assistance policy (Arap) remain trapped in Afghanistan along with 1,600 family members. Afghans who managed to escape Taliban rule have described living isolated in windowless rooms for months, eating nothing but bread and water, for fear of reprisal attacks from the Islamic fundamentalist group. Thousands more Afghans eligible for the scheme remain stuck in hotels in Pakistan, Turkey and Iran. The UK government spent more than £15.7 million housing Afghans in hotels overseas 400 Afghan interpreters still in hiding George Grylls Defence Correspondent Larisa Brown Defence Editor from January last year to March this year. One of those still in Afghanistan waiting to hear back from the Arap unit is Mohibullah, whose brother was an interpreter working alongside British troops when he was killed in June 2010. Such is the chaos in the Ministry of Defence’s Arap team that he was told months after the fall of Kabul that his dead brother, Naveedullah, had been accepted for sanctuary in Britain. Mohibullah’s story is told in The Gardener of Lashkar Gah, a book by Larisa Brown, the Times defence editor. “When your life is at threat you don’t know what will happen one minute to the next,” Mohibullah said. “I am the next target for the Taliban after my brother died.” The government is scrambling to evict Afghan interpreters and their families from hotels before a deadline at the end of the week. Ministers announced an ultimatum this year for almost 9,000 Afghans living in temporary accommodation in the UK to leave by August 31, but have been reluctant to disclose how many have moved out. Local authorities claim that in some areas one in five Afghans were unable to find accommodation and have been declared homeless. In Northampton, 50 per cent of Afghans living in hotels at the beginning of the month were facing homelessness, local reports suggest. A government source said that 400- 450 Afghans a week were being moved out of hotels. “The difficult decision to set a hard deadline for exits . . . has proven to work,” the source said. One of those who has successfully moved out is Mohammed Sayyid*, 34, who served as a patrolling interpreter with the army from 2010 to 2012. He went into hiding for nine months after the Taliban came to power. He eventually fled across the border to Pakistan in February last year, and finally made it to the UK in October. He has been living in a hotel in Liverpool but has now found a home in Milton Keynes. Another who has moved out is Sayed Ahmadi*, 35, who was a frontline interpreter in Helmand province and survived a roadside bomb that killed four British soldiers in 2008. From 2010 to 2014 he worked as a translator for the Royal Irish and Royal Scottish regiments. Ahmadi went into hiding for seven months when the Taliban regained power in 2021 before eventually escaping to Britain in March last year. Afghans unable to find accommodation have been made offers of interim housing by the Home Office beyond the eviction deadline, letters seen by The Times suggest. The offers have been made if a family member is receiving treatment at a specific hospital or if a property becomes available after the deadline but before December. With most hotels emptying, there is pressure on the government to put on more flights for Afghans trapped in Pakistan and elsewhere. Only 45 people were evacuated in the first seven months of the year but ministers are reluctant to welcome more until permanent accommodation is found. Sara de Jong, co-founder of the Sulha Alliance, a charity that supports Afghan interpreters, said: “Having waited for their turn . . . eligible Afghan interpreters now have the right to finally get an answer from the UK government to the simple question: ‘When will I be moved to the UK with my family to start our new life?’” A government spokeswoman said: “We owe a debt of gratitude to those staff eligible under the Arap scheme who worked for, or with, the UK government in Afghanistan. We made one of the largest commitments of any country to support Afghanistan, and so far we have brought around 24,600 individuals to safety to the UK.” *Sayyid and Ahmadi’s names have been changed to protect their families. The Gardener of Lashkar Gah: The Afghans Who Risked Everything to Fight the Taliban, by Larisa Brown, is published on August 31 (Bloomsbury Continuum, £25). To order a copy go to timesbookshop.co.uk. Free UK standard P&P on orders over £25. Special discount for Times+ members Winning gaze A photograph of a gelada monkey entitled My Copyright, a nod to a celebrated legal dispute over “selfies” taken by Indonesian macaques, won the 2023 Black and White Photo Awards. The landscape winner was The Power of Thunder. Hands of Freedom by a Calcutta photographer was second in the portrait prize Migrants cut off GPS tags in social media posts Billy Kenber Albanian migrants have posted videos on TikTok showing them cutting off electronic tags using kitchen scissors. The Times reported yesterday that Suella Braverman, the home secretary, was considering extending the use of GPS tags to all migrants arriving illegally in Britain as a way of tackling the lack of space in detention centres. However, several migrants have boasted of how easily they can be removed. In one video a man cuts off his tag and throws it into a river. Electronic GPS tags allow the authorities to monitor an individual’s location at all times. Migrants removing their tag risk being jailed or deported. The Daily Telegraph reported that in one video the man cutting off his tag is asked: “Where are the police?” He replies: “In the police station, lol.” Another posted a comment asking: “If I cut mine off and changed my address, would that work or am I still in trouble?” A reply read: “When you cut it off, don’t go back home lol.” A fourth warned that removing the tag could result in an automatic 28-day prison sentence, but a reply claimed “doing 28 days in prison is nothing. It is as easy as eating bread and cheese.” The videos have been removed from TikTok. The Home Office is running a pilot scheme testing electronic monitoring of some migrants who arrived in the UK via an illegal route. The pilot has been extended to December to allow more data to be gathered. Speaking yesterday, Braverman said she was considering “all options” to “exert some control” over migrants arriving in small boats. The government has a duty under the Illegal Migration Act to detain and remove migrants who come to the UK illegally but has space in detention for only 2,500 people. A Home Office spokeswoman said: “Individuals who have breached their conditions of bail, including taking their tag off, may be prosecuted or, if appropriate, removed from the UK.”
the times | Tuesday August 29 2023 2GM 11 News More than 90 per cent of treasures reported lost or looted from British museums have never been recovered, The Times has learnt. Nearly 3,700 artworks and antiquities have been logged as missing from museums and galleries over the past 30 years, and only 295 — about 8 per cent — have been reported as returned. The figures, from the Art Loss Register, the world’s largest private database of stolen art and collectables, have emerged amid warnings that the British Museum is in a “race against time” to locate thousands of precious objects feared missing from its vaults. Art recovery specialists believe that if stolen items are not tracked down within 12 months, they are likely to be traded internationally and end up lost in private collections for “a generation”. George Osborne, chairman of the British Museum, said at the weekend that some stolen objects, which include gemstones and jewels more than 3,500 years old, had now been recovered. However, the institution is under pressure to disclose exactly how many artefacts are lost and what they are. About 2,000 — many uncatalogued — are reported to have been plundered and possibly sold over two decades. The museum has remained silent while police investigate. A man has been interviewed under caution but no one has been arrested. It is facing calls to repatriate the Chinese artefacts it holds, after similar demands from Greek and Nigerian figures last week. MPs have defended the museum as a safe place for the world’s treasures, despite the apparent security lapse. The Art Loss Register, based in London, has held records since 1990 and is used by police forces, museums and antiquities purveyors internationally to check the provenance of pieces. Antonia Kimbell, its recoveries manager, said that the recovery rate of stolen pieces was typically “highest within the first year”, but “changes according to several factors such as the nature of the object, material alterations to the items stolen, and generaWhen Alison Jacques took on her new gallery in Mayfair it was a concrete shell with no floor and no electricity. In October, the transformed 6,000 sq ft space will open with Infinite Potential, an exhibition of work by the American artist Sheila Hicks, who at 89 is the hottest thing in textiles. The title is a good summing up of the UK art market. Jacques is bullish: “I wouldn’t be making this move if I didn’t have total confidence in London.” Even after Brexit? “I’m almost ashamed to say it because I was a staunch Remainer,” she said. “But if I’m honest we have benefited businesswise. It has been a massive boost for us.” Paul Hewitt, director general of the Society of London Art Dealers, is not so sure. “It’s tough,” he said. “But it’s not as bad as we thought it could have been.” This year’s Art Market Report by Art Basel, the art fair, and UBS, the Swiss bank, shows the UK overtaking China to move into second place in terms of share of the global art market. The US is top with 45 per cent, followed by the UK with 18 per cent, China with 17 per cent and France fourth with 7 per cent. While down from 21 per cent in 2015, the UK’s share is up from a low of 17 per cent in 2021 during the pandemic. Anthony Browne, chairman of the British Art Market Federation, said the state of the market post-Brexit was not as “apocalyptic” as feared, but added: “Where the show is going on is the T he SS Express was a vital lifeline for the people of Orkney. It linked them to the Scottish mainland, brought them supplies and provided a line of employment for many of the locals before it sank in February 1918 (Jack Blackburn writes). At last, more than 100 years on, the final resting place of the 13 men who lost their lives has been found, bringing some relief in one of the islands’ sorriest stories. The Express was found ten miles southeast of the island of Copinsay by a team of divers whose extensive planning paid off when they discovered the wreck on the second day of their expedition. The group’s leader, Will Schwarz, said the team was “absolutely bouncing” after they made their discovery. “It was very poignant the fact that this is giving the local community some closure on what happened to some of their ancestors,” Schwarz said. “It’s absolutely incredible.” On February 9, 1918, while in transit between Leith and Kirkwall, the Express collided with HMS Grenville, a Royal Navy destroyer. It was just north of Scapa Flow, location of the UK’s chief naval base during the First World War. Of the 13 men who died on board, two were navy gunners. The rest were all local boys, working on this all-important cargo ship. The Express was discovered in 80 metres of water, and it appears to have snapped it two. Hauntingly, much of its cargo has remained undisturbed. The divers found a large number of bottles. Investigations suggested that the two ships had collided after struggling to see each other in the dead of night until it was too late. HMS Grenville was travelling at 15 knots and without lights when it caught sight of the Express 60 yards away. The engines were stopped and the ship was turned to starboard, but all was in vain. The circumstances of the fatal collision were subsequently of much debate, with the owners of the SS Express taking legal action to recover damages. The case was heard by Mr Justice Roche in the Admiralty Division. It was decided that the Grenville had had a sufficient lookout and had taken appropriate action but the collision was unavoidable, so Roche found for the defendant. Islanders get closure as shipwreck found Divers have found the SS Express cargo vessel which sank north of Scapa Flow in 1918 after a collision with the navy destroyer HMS Grenville with the loss of 13 lives Nine in ten lost museum treasures never recovered London’s post-Brexit art market a picture of health Laura Freeman Chief Art Critic Charlie Parker United States. There may be a lot of hype about Paris, but the situation since Brexit isn’t a case of ‘our loss, Europe’s gain’. It’s our loss, America’s gain.” In the run-up to the 2016 referendum, voters were promised bonfires of red tape, liberation from Brussels and a loosening of regulatory corsets. “For years we complained about the EU’s tax on imports. Brexit gave us the opportunity to do something about it,” Browne said. Import tax on works of art entering the EU is set at 5 per cent. In the UK it is at 5 per cent too, but the administrative burden on a gallery is worse than before because now, Browne said, “there’s a hurdle here and a hurdle in Europe”. There is no import tax on works entering the US or Hong Kong. Browne said: “If you could say ‘look, there is no import tax’, it’s immediately more attractive. Here’s something that would be a shot in the arm and the one thing that would put clear, blue water between us and our competitors in the European time zone.” VAT on art imports generated an estimated £18.8 million in 2021. Melanie Gerlis, editor-at-large at The Art Newspaper and author of Art as an Investment?, said the burden of administration from import taxes, shipping paperwork and compliance with anti-money laundering rules was “very hard work for these tiny businesses. What used to take three days now takes three weeks . . . we’re insanely good at the art business. Why wouldn’t you support that?” Fragments of an Iron Age silver chain match a description of missing items tional changes”. She added: “The passage of time and distance from the theft can leave parties such as deceased estates or beneficiaries more willing to sell an item in the open market unaware that they are stolen or in the hope that they won’t be identified.” Some Roman artefacts known to have been taken from the British Museum were defaced, with parts melted down before fragments were sold through online auction sites. Anthony Amore, author of Stealing Rembrandts, said the fact that several objects had been listed on eBay gave hope that police could track down the culprit and locate some “but not all” of the missing objects. However, Christopher Marinello, the founder of Art Recovery International, argued that British police lacked the resources to reclaim items from dealers and collectors around the world. He said that it was difficult to determine exactly how many missing or stolen items from museums had been recovered in the UK as many institutions kept their losses hidden to avoid embarrassment and did not report recoveries to databases. The British Museum should publish a list of lost artefacts immediately and pass it to public and private databases “so people can see what’s been stolen and give tips to the museum”, he said.
12 2GM Tuesday August 29 2023 | the times News A noticeboard at one of London’s biggest hospitals is advising staff not to ask patients their name in case it causes offence to trans people. Critics have warned that the poster, at the Royal Free Hospital, would in effect leave doctors unable to access a patient’s records and is against General Medical Council rules. The hospital has been displaying materials as part of an “allyship scheme” that is supposed to be more inclusive. However, Policy Exchange, a rightwing think tank, which found the materials on display as recently as last week, said the lanyards risked setting a damaging precedent by creating a divide between staff who could be deemed safe or unsafe in providing care for LGBT patients. Another banner at the hospital shows that staff have made an antiracism pledge under the See ME First scheme. Both the LGBTQ+ Ally and See ME First schemes have operated on the basis of staff either making a pledge to obtain a badge or lanyard or participating in Allyship Training. One notice cites a 2018 Stonewall survey which claims that one in five LGBT people “are not out” to health professionals when seeking help. The think tank has questioned why it would be appropriate to disclose sexual orientation to a medical professional when seeking general care unless it was a choice or of clinical relevance. Lottie Moore, head of the Biology Matters project at Policy Exchange said: “It is unclear why certain staff should be deemed ‘safe’ for LGBTQ+ patients. As set out in the NHS Constitution for England and equality legislation, no NHS staff member should discriminate or deliver lesser care to patients with protected characteristics.” Sean Phillips, head of health and social care at Policy Exchange, said that cases of poor care “should be dealt with through disciplinary action and the Hospital staff told not to ask patient’s name courts, not through ‘allyship’ schemes which have been inconsistently regulated and where there has been a paucity of evidence to suggest they deliver improved outcomes”. The material included a noticeboard entitled “7 Ways to be a good Trans Friend”. One suggestion is to “stop asking inappropriate questions” and gives the example of “What is your name?”, along with asking about someone’s genitalia. It adds: “Such questions are rude, intrusive and insensitive.” A Royal Free London spokeswoman said she could not verify whether the material was genuine, although it did have the hospital logo on it. She added that the wording in the “7 ways to be a good trans friend” poster was possibly taken from a Health Education England document. If so, the word “real” had been left out of the sentence: “Don’t ask what is your real name”, she added. The LGBTQ+ Ally badge worn at the Royal Free emerged as part of a wider Rainbow Badge initiative, which began as a pilot scheme at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital in 2018. It was a collaboration by several LGBT groups commissioned by NHS England and introduced partially after the survey conducted by Stonewall in 2018 found that “one in seven LGBTQI+ people have avoided treatment for fear of discrimination”. More than 90 per cent of NHS trusts are participating or have developed their own initiative. A source close to Steve Barclay, the health secretary, said: “Taxpayers would rightly expect that the NHS focuses on frontline care for patients, and the secretary of state shares that view. He has been very clear that the role of biological sex and freedom of speech should be upheld, and any disregard for that guidance raises serious questions.” The Royal Free said there was no trust policy of refraining from asking a patient’s name, and the preferred name would always be used. Ben Ellery In fine feather A samba dancer at Notting Hill Carnival. At least two million people attended Europe’s largest street party No backing causes on duty, Met tells officers Metropolitan Police officers will not be allowed to express support for social causes while on duty, the commissioner has said. Sir Mark Rowley explained such restraint was necessary to maintain impartiality and that a perception that officers were not impartial could be “fatal” for policing. Among the acts of support that would no longer be permissible for officers while working were taking the knee, flying rainbow flags and wearing badges in support of various causes, including the environment. Rowley told The Daily Telegraph: “Wearing a poppy in the autumn is perfectly proper but there is not a lot that we should align to because the danger is that once you say, ‘we are going to align ourselves to a cause because 90 per cent of the population support it’. What about the 10 per cent? . . . I’m fairly narrow minded on this. There are very few causes policing should be attached to.” Sir Mark added: “Engaging with communities to understand what worries them is not ‘woke’. Starting to align yourself to causes is not something policing should be doing. “The challenge in the modern world of activists and protest groups — and so much of it is online — is they do drift in different directions, some groups you can think of do have a very sensible majority membership and then a few people with extreme views and you can’t legislate that from outside it. “If people don’t believe we operate without fear or favour that is pretty fatal to us more than pretty much anybody else and that is why I think we have to be tougher on that.” George Sandeman
the times | Tuesday August 29 2023 2GM 13 News Adele stopped a show in Las Vegas to help a fan she thought was being “bothered” by security guards. The singer, 35, was halfway through her Weekends With Adele set at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace when she spotted an altercation in the crowd. Videos posted by audience members on social media show the singer cutting short her rendition of Water Under the Bridge to come to the fan’s aid. The young man, identifying as @juanp_lastra on TikTok, had been Revellers at Reading Festival who managed to break into the event this year have been posting their tips on social media to help others escape paying for one of the UK’s largest summer parties. Several videos appeared on TikTok over the weekend of people trying to break into the festival, which attracts about 100,000 music fans and bigname artists. The problem is a recurring issue according to security at the festival, mostly because of its accessible location: the festival is a 15-minute walk from Reading train station, making it easy for people coming from London who want to try their luck at jumping the fence. “They come up with ropes and ladders and they try and sneak into the festival because they can’t afford it and Attempts to get in are shared on social media Reading’s fence jumpers draw a crowd others just want to sell drugs,” one security guard said. Tickets cost £101.20 for a day ticket and £286.20 for a weekend ticket. One video on TikTok shows a group using a temporary fence as a ladder to climb over the six-foot barricades at the outer limit of Reading’s campsite. Another shows a group arriving at Reading station in the night before jumping the gates and videoing from inside the central arena the next day. Reading takes the issue of intruders seriously; security guards are stationed next to all of the closed gates to intercept people trying to scale them. Other guards are positioned in front of holes under the fence near the campsite, which are caused by The Thames, which runs alongside. “There are holes where the water flows out from the site and obviously we can’t play with nature, we can’t cover all of them but on every hole we can get to, there is an officer sitting there,” said the guard. One person who broke into the festival this year, and posted his attempt on social media said: “The way in through the fence is easiest, I’ve snuck in to multiple festivals before. The main thing is that you have to be confident with what you do.” Several videos on social media from previous years document people sliding under the festival’s fences. Alongside the security guards stationed by the perimeter, large towers are set up in each of the main camping grounds. The guards inside surveil the areas outside the festival grounds to try to spot people sneaking up to the perimeter. Those who make it into the campsite still need a wristband to get into the main area, where artists perform. To get past this final layer of security, intruders buy fake wristbands online or make their own. One video even shows an intruder gaining access to the festival’s main stage in the days before the event had started. “With events like this, where they are expecting like 100,000 people, or whatever it is. You cannot control every loophole but we do our best,” the guard added. Break-ins usually happen on Sunday, the last day, when some of the biggest artists perform, according to those working on the perimeter. The last day is also when people start to leave the campsite. This year, people left behind acres of litter. Discarded tents, empty bottles and used food containers are strewn across the site. While some tents can be repurposed by charities, many end up in landfill. A typical tent is estimated to contain the equivalent of 9,000 plastic straws. A report from Resource Futures found that UK festivals produce about 25,800 tonnes of waste annually, 68 per cent of which goes to landfill. A large amount was produced by single-use items such as cutlery and plates used to serve food. Festival Republic, which manages the event, was approached for comment. Thomas Saunders Pop Lisa Verrico Billie Eilish was back in the bright colours, big shorts and baseball cap of her early years. The next morning fans left behind a sea of discarded tents Reading Festival Little John’s Farm, Reading HHHHI Billie Eilish reigns over a messy teen party If you want to know where music is headed, Reading Festival is a great gauge. This magnet for teens paved the way for grime to storm main stages and is now more pop than rock. On Sunday night Billie Eilish, at 21, became Reading’s youngest headliner. She may, however, have been older than most of the audience. One rumour over the weekend was that the average age of revellers had sunk to 17. The festival has gained a second main stage — a post-Covid development to accommodate more big names. The result was the messiest Reading in years, as fans flowed between the two through a food court where the grass doubled as a bin. Still, it made it simpler to see who pulled the crowds. The Snuts’ superb set showed how far they’ve moved from their indie-rock roots. These days the Scots sound not unlike the 1975 and even snuck in a blast of Robbie Williams. Bakar has been described as pop’s new Lily Allen and his playful stories of London life charmed an audience he described as “his tribe”, which got bigger for his TikTok hit Hell n Back. At 33, Rina Sawayama is ancient by Reading standards, but she was easily Sunday’s most jaw-dropping act, performing with two arty dancers, changing outfits until she was down to a scarlet latex one-piece with matching cowboy boots while cracking a whip. She flitted seamlessly from prog to hip-hop to grunge to electro-pop and even included a square dance. And Eilish? She landed on stage as balloons from Imagine Dragons’ set on the other main stage sailed across the sky. Gone was her Gucci, back were the bright colours, big shorts and baseball cap of her early years. Musically too, she looked back, with more songs from her debut than 2021’s Happier Than Ever album. It was her old anthems — My Strange Addiction, idontwannabeyouanymore, Bad Guy and a spellbinding When the Party’s Over, — that were easily the stand-outs. An acoustic segment with big brother Finneas was subdued, but sitting on stage for her Barbie film song What Was I Made For? she sparkled. At the end she climbed into the crowd to hug fans, some of whom she can expect to see at her climate change summit in London this week. Follow @timesculture to read the latest reviews Adele is the bridge over troubled water at Las Vegas performance Charlie Parker standing in the seated section and singing along during the set. Another man sitting directly behind stood up to confront him, saying, “Everybody’s upset with you,” before security staff intervened to ask him to remain calm. “What is going on with that young fan there who’s being bothered so much since I’ve been on for standing up?,” Adele said through her microphone. “Can you leave him alone, please?” Speaking directly to the fan, she added: “They won’t bother you any more, darling. You enjoy the show.” After telling the rest of the audience, “He’s here to have fun, all of you are here to have fun,” she resumed the song. Posting footage of the incident on TikTok, the fan said: “Adele, thank you so much for this breathtaking night and for standing up for me . . . I’m also sorry that I didn’t respond back to anything you asked me. You started talking to me and I literally stopped breathing. “I did not expect everyone in my section to be mad at me for having the time of my life, and wanting to stand up and sing with her, but I honestly did not care at all what anyone was saying to me . . . I did not have time for them haters.” The intervention has been compared to action taken by Taylor Swift, who was praised for helping a fan on her Eras tour. During a performance of her hit Bad Blood in Philadelphia, Swift shouted “she wasn’t doing anything” to a security guard. Adele recently joined a growing number of performers calling for objects not to be thrown at them during sets. Bracelets, bottles phones, sweets are among some of the items that have been hurled at artists in recent months. Joking about the trend during her Las Vegas residency, Adele told an audience she would “kill” anyone who tried to lob something at her. The singer broke off her show to speak up for a fan
14 Tuesday August 29 2023 | the times News IN THE TIMES TOMORROW DAVID SMITH A phoney tax war MAIN PAPER BUSINESS SPORT IN SEARCH OF DUPONT The French regions that made the world’s best player MAIN PAPER COMMENT Roger Boyes Age of the drone will change global alliances MAIN PAPER Charity accuses gambling lobby chief of ‘twisting’ suicide guidance The Samaritans have accused the head of a gambling lobby group of “twisting” its guidance on suicide to minimise links to the betting industry. The charity’s chief executive said she was “appalled” at how Michael Dugher, head of the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) and a former Labour MP, had deployed its guidance during evidence to a parliamentary committee. Julie Bentley said the former shadow culture secretary, who stood down as an MP in 2017, had used “diversionary tactics” similar to those previously adopted by tobacco firms to defend the gambling sector. She has raised concerns about the comments in letters to Dugher and Dame Caroline Dinenage MP, chairwoman of the culture, media and sport committee. The gambling industry is under particular scrutiny after the government published a long-awaited white paper on reforms this year. Dugher referred to the Samaritans’ guidance in evidence to the committee in July during its inquiry into gambling regulation. He was being asked questions concerning the death of Luke Ashton, 40, who took his own life after developing a gambling addiction that left him with debts of up to £18,000 while making 100 bets a day. A coroner ruled last month that a “gambling disorder” had contributed to his death and that the safeguarding measures of the gambling firm, Betfair, were “inadequate”. Ashton’s wife, Annie, has called on Peter Jackson, chief executive of Flutter Entertainment, Betfair’s parent company, to hand back the £2.8 million bonus he received in the year Ashton died. Asked if it was right that products with a high addiction rate, such as those used by Ashton, were available, Dugher cited almost verbatim Samaritans’ advice that states “suicide is complex”, adding: “Most of the time it isn’t one event or one factor that leads someone to take their life. It is usually a combination of lots of different factors interacting with each other to increase risk.” Dugher went on to address the coroner’s findings and acknowledged how they “talked about the failure of the system and the operator in relation to his [Ashton’s] gambling”. In her letter to Dugher, seen by The Times, Bentley said that while suicide is usually caused by interrelating factors, Dugher appeared to be using this messaging to “evade recognition of the established link between gambling and suicide risk”. Bentley said: “I am appalled someone would attempt to twist Samaritans’ words in an effort to deflect from the devastating harm that gambling products can cause. “This kind of diversionary tactic is reminiscent of what we saw from the tobacco lobby and it would seem the gambling industry is now taking a similar approach.” Bookmakers and other groups were warned by the Gambling Commission this month not to misrepresent gambling statistics — something the regulator said was “wholly unacceptable”. The parliamentary standards commissioner has opened an investigation into Scott Benton after the Conservative MP was filmed as part of a Times investigation offering to lobby ministers on behalf of gambling industry investors and leak confidential information. A spokesman for the BGC said: “Neither Michael Dugher, nor the BGC, has ever sought to manipulate guidance supplied by the Samaritans while discussing the tragedy of suicide. To suggest otherwise is a smear. “Michael was clear in his evidence that he acknowledged the full findings of the coroner in the case of Mr Ashton, including specifically that Mr Ashton was suffering with an undiagnosed gambling disorder, a recognised psychiatric condition, and the coroner had highlighted a failure of the systems used by the operator at that time.” Mario Ledwith Shiver me timbers Landlubbers were kept to a minimum at this year’s Praa Sands pirate raft race in aid of Cornwall Hospice Care, after the orgainsers restricted the number of entries to only 20. Last year’s race raised more than £9,000 for Shelter Julie Bentley accused Michael Dugher of using diversionary tactics
the times | Tuesday August 29 2023 15 News When skiers arrived at the French Alps resort of Méribel in January, they were greeted by mud and narrow pistes of artificial snow down green mountainsides rather than fairytale white slopes. But while the prospects for skiing and boarding might have seemed bad this year amid record-breaking temperatures they pale in comparison to the future in a warming world. Climate change is expected to make snow shortages much worse this century, even if artificial snow-making takes up some of the slack, a peerreviewed study has found. A team of researchers at French and Austrian universities discovered that if the world warms by 3C above preindustrial levels, as the UN climate science panel expects, 91 per cent of European ski resorts would be at very high risk of snow shortages. In the French Alps, home to popular British holiday destinations such as Courchevel, 93 per cent of ski resorts are expected to be affected. Austria, where Innsbruck, a mecca for snow sports, suffered from grass and mud this January, will see the figure rise to 94 per cent. “This does not mean the immediate end of ski tourism in Europe, but increasingly challenging conditions for all ski resorts, some reaching, within a few decades, critically low snow supply for operating as we know it at present,” said Samuel Morin, research scientist at Météo-France and one of the paper’s authors. The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, looked at what different levels of future climate change would mean for more than 2,000 ski resorts in 28 European countries. The team projected snow cover in 100-metre altitude bands under temperature rises of 1.5C, 2C, 3C and 4C. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change expects the world to warm by 3.2C based on present government policies to cut emissions. Very high risk of a snow shortage was defined as a snow-scarce year — meaning on a par with the poorest fifth of years between 1961 and 1990 — being likely to happen once every two years. Artificial snow-making, which was already used on about half of Swiss slopes during the 2020-21 ski season, is expected to extend a lifeline to some resorts. For example, while 53 per cent of resorts are expected to be at very high risk of shortages under 2C of global warming, the figure drops to 27 per cent with snow-making. But Morin’s team caution that the water and energy demands of making snow mean it is no panacea. Skiers are increasingly seeking out higher altitude resorts, such as Tignes in France, to “snow-proof” their winter getaways. At lower elevations, some people struggled this year. Joel, a father from England, told The Times earlier this year that he had ended his weeklong trip to Samoëns in the HauteSavoie region a day early due to poor conditions including daily rain. “The only thing open in Samoëns was the beginner slope,” he said. Crystal Ski, which belongs to Tui, was accused by customers of breaking a guarantee to arrange alternative skiing for customers when resorts are forced to close. George Gilfoyle, 27, and his friends spent £4,250 on a trip to Borovets in Bulgaria, where most ski runs were closed — but the guarantee did not apply because one lift was still running. “We are being forced to go to a resort with no snow,” he said. Morin’s research suggests Norway may become an increasingly popular destination. The study found the Nordic mountains, at 70 per cent, had a lower proportion of resorts at very high risk under 3C of global warming. Paul Peeters, associate professor of sustainable transport and tourism at Breda University of Applied Sciences, said pushing all existing skiers and snowboarders into higher elevation resorts would be problematic. “Hence, another skier reaction might be to stop skiing, adding to the economic risks but potentially alleviating some environmental impacts,” he said. The study illustrates how the future of European skiing will depend significantly on how much humanity reins in its carbon emissions. If the world were to hold temperature rises to the Paris Agreement goal of 1.5C, only 32 per cent of resorts would be at very high risk. “Faster cuts in emissions would limit the risk to snow supply to ski tourism,” said Morin. Many alpine ski resorts, such as Villars-sur-Ollon in Switzerland, are having to rely on artificial snow to cover their pistes as climate change threatens their future Warming ski resorts on a slippery slope Snow is on course to be scarce on nearly all Europe’s pistes this century with a 3C rise, writes Adam Vaughan
16 Tuesday August 29 2023 | the times News For decades scientists have used the music of Mozart to test their strange hypotheses and his songs have variously been proven to help cow’s produce more milk and even assist microbes in breaking down sewage. Now, researchers have turned their attention to babies and their latest findings suggest that playing Mozart’s Lullaby may help reduce the pain that newborns feel when undergoing a heel prick blood test. An investigator wearing noise-cancelling headphones assessed the pain levels of 100 babies before, during, and after the heel prick as part of routine screening for conditions such as jaundice and phenylketonuria at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center in New York between April 2019 and nish, and their two sons after completing his 330-date Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour in July. A month earlier, he performed a career-spanning headline set on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival. He announced in 2018 that the show would be his last, and the globetrotting crescendo to his live music career finished at the Tele2 Arena in Stockholm in July. Farewell Yellow Brick Road is one of the highest-grossing concert tours since records began, with the music magazine Billboard reporting that it is the first to have $900 million of ticket sales. John said he had played to more than six million people since it began five years ago. I’m still standing: Elton John ‘in good health’ despite fall Keith Perry Mozart may help to ease babies’ pain February 2020. The test involves a healthcare professional pricking the heel of a two-day-old child and collecting drops of blood. The pain levels were determined according to the infants’ facial expressions, degree of crying, breathing patterns, limb movements, and levels of alertness. In the study, 54 of the 100 babies had listened to an instrumental of Mozart’s Lullaby for 20 minutes prior to and during the heel prick and for five minutes afterwards, while the others did not. The procedure was consistently performed in a quiet, dimly lit room at an ambient temperature and the babies were not provided with dummies or physical comfort. According to the findings, similar pain levels were observed in both groups of children before the heel prick, with pain scores for both groups at zero, out of a maximum possible score of seven. However, the average pain score of babies who listened to the lullaby was significantly lower during and immediately after the heel prick, compared to those who did not listen to music. The pain score for babies who listened to the lullaby was four during the test, and zero at one minute two minutes after. In the group that did not listen to the lullaby, the pain scores were seven, 5.5 and two at the same time points. There was no difference in average pain scores of infants in both groups three minutes after the procedure, the study published in Paediatric Research found. According to the scientists, future research could investigate whether recordings of parental voices can also reduce pain in newborns during minor procedures. Ben Ellery Sir Elton John was admitted to hospital after falling at his villa in the south of France. The singer-songwriter, 76, was taken to the orthopaedic department of the Princess Grace Hospital Centre in Monaco, where he was treated for minor injuries. He was kept in overnight and discharged yesterday. A statement from his representative said: “Elton visited the local hospital as a precautionary measure. Following check-ups, he was immediately discharged this morning and is now back at home and in good health.” John has been spending the summer in France with his husband, David FurPeople have used animal bones to make music since they lived in caves. Now Matthew Herbert, an artist, DJ and composer, has used a horse’s skeleton to craft instruments and create an album of experimental, ritualistic tracks with the London Contemporary Orchestra. Before the release of The Horse, flutes were fashioned from thigh bones, bows from horse hair, drums from skin and strings from sinew. The resulting sound has led Herbert to suggest his efforts have brought the horse back to life. That view is also likely to be strengthened with the endorsement of a horse whisperer. The renowned Argentine gaucho Martin Tatta stars in the video released to promote the album’s lead track The Rider. Directed by the Academy award-winning film-maker Sebastián Lelio, the five-minute film follows Tatta and his horse semen. “I found somebody [online] that makes semen jewellery — she mixes it with clay and things,” he told The Guardian. “We got the semen made into little balls I could use as shakers.” He also collected horse-related paraphernalia including bits, whips, horseshoes and trophies. Some were thrown into a cement mixer to represent the churn of the “exploitation” of the animal by people. “I tried to squeeze as much out of The Horse as possible to show its service almost entirely for the benefit of humans,” he added. In March, Herbert published a music “manifesto” in which he pledged to eschew sounds that already exist, including vetoing drum machines, sampling and mixing desks. Based on the evidence of his latest project, he seems to have backed a winner. Composer is back in saddle with air on a gee-gee string New album celebrating primitive music uses instruments made from a horse’s skeleton, writes Alex Farber herd of horses in the wild. The aim is to show the unique relationship that exists between man and animal and demonstrate that with trust an understanding and an unbreakable bond can form. Tatta has tapped into his Doma Indian heritage to train horses since he was a child, using the whispering technique known as mansedumbre. He said he was self-taught and relied on intuition to master the skill. “I didn’t watch people doing it or learn from a teacher,” said Tatta. “I just did what felt right, in my own way.” In the video, he gently persuades one of his herd to lie down before lying on top of it and touching noses in a remarkable display of horsemanship. Herbert, a Bafta and Ivor Novello award-nominated musician, said that The Horse told a version of the history of music and instruments. “I wanted to tell the story of the most primitive form of music,” he said. As well as fashioning an array of equine instruments from a skeleton he found on eBay, Herbert bought some Matthew Herbert crafted instruments such as a thigh bone flute and used strings made from the sinews of a dead horse. A film to accompany the album features a famous Argentinian horse whisperer
the times | Tuesday August 29 2023 17 News A former deputy head teacher of Edinburgh Academy is facing charges in connection with alleged historical offences against boys. In April The Times named John Brownlee, who taught at the private school for more than 30 years, after several former pupils accused him of physical abuse. Nicky Campbell, the BBC radio and television broadcaster, is among those to allege that Brownlee acted in a violent and sadistic manner towards young people in his care. A Crown Office prosecutor has informed Brownlee’s accusers that a date for a court hearing has been set. “I can confirm that an indictment has now been served, initiating criminal proceedings which will call at a procedural hearing at Edinburgh sheriff court on October 17,” he wrote. The Crown Office said: “The complainers will continue to be updated on significant developments in this case. To protect the integrity of any Nicky Campbell’s deputy head to face abuse charges Marc Horne potential proceedings, Scotland’s prosecution service will not comment publicly at this time.” A source added: “He has not been arrested but has been served with an indictment.” Brownlee was employed at the school from 1964 to 1995 and for many years was the deputy headmaster as well as a housemaster with responsibility for the welfare of boarders. In 1982 Laurence Ellis, who was then rector, or headmaster, of the school but has since died, wrote to parents and praised the role Brownlee had played in overseeing the school’s Dundas House residential unit. “The court of directors and I have been delighted at the way Dundas House has flourished under Mr and Mrs Brownlee,” he said. “We hope and expect that the same happy family atmosphere will continue.” The academy paid tribute to Brownlee when he retired after 31 years, describing him as “the confidant of four headmasters”. A pen portrait of him was published in the school magazine, which said that his colleagues could occasionally find his sense of humour to be “disconcerting”. “John harbours strong convictions and can be strongly confrontational,” it said. “Brought up in Kirkcaldy, Fife, against a working-class background he has no time for artificiality and is quick to sense if anyone is being less than straight with him. “As housemaster for 11 years he and his wife Margaret created a happy, closely knit group, just like their own family.” Brownlee’s family and solicitor say that he is seriously ill and unable to comprehend the allegations made against him. They have declined to make any formal comment. Police Scotland said: “An 88-yearold man is the subject of a report to the procurator fiscal for alleged non-recent abuse incidents at Edinburgh Academy.” The school has been at the centre of a month-long hearing at the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry. The Edinburgh Academy Survivors group said: “We are putting our faith in the justice system and will be watching with interest.” The school has not commented specifically on Brownlee. It has offered an unreserved apology to all those who suffered abuse in the past. John Brownlee’s family say he is ill and cannot comprehend the allegations jack blackburn TMS [email protected] | @timesdiary Not a role for a grown man For many actors, being cast as a jedi is a childish dream, but some were more childish about it than others. Liam Neeson, who starred in the first Star Wars prequel, below, tells Conan O’Brien’s podcast that he and his co-star Ewan McGregor were less than professional when they started filming their first lightsabre battle. George Lucas, the director, called action and they drew their blades but Lucas instantly shouted: “Err . . . let’s cut there.” They didn’t understand what they could have done wrong until Lucas said: “Boys, we add the sound effects in later.” No actor ever feels like they’ve really made it. Neeson says that he recently bumped into his old colleague Sir Anthony Hopkins, who worked with him on the film Bounty. Since then Hopkins has won two Academy Awards, but as they reminisced about their younger selves 40 years on, Hopkins said in pure sincerity: “I haven’t been found out yet.” another satisfied customer The actress Maureen Lipman perhaps got her performing gene from her father. He had a clothes shop in Hull, but was more of a showman than an outfitter. “He didn’t know what he was doing at all,” she tells Rosebud, Gyles Brandreth’s new podcast about childhood memories which begins this Friday. She recalls a man once coming to the shop with particular demands for a shirt, so one was produced. “That’s exactly what I want, Mr Lipman,” the customer said, “only darker”. Mr Lipman acquiesced to his request, by turning the lights out. The Church Times reports that a charity, Friends of the Holy Land, is on a very particular fundraising drive. There is perhaps nothing unusual in Christians looking for a flock, but they are looking to acquire 50 sheep that will provide milk for a burgeoning dairy enterprise in the region. A case of blessed are the cheesemakers. wharton’s salvaged wit A lost play by The House of Mirth author Edith Wharton is getting its debut at Canada’s Shaw Festival. A Shadow of a Doubt holds all of Wharton’s trademark wit and one feels that, had the play been known back in 1901, some lines would now be in a dictionary of quotations. One of the characters speaks about the inevitability of marriage by saying: “Women who have quarrelled with society at thirty have been glad to make up the quarrel at forty. The first wrinkle sends the penitent to the confessional.” Much has been made of Kim Cattrall’s $24,000-a-second appearance in And Just Like That . . . but it should be remembered that cameos have always been lucrative. Ronald Colman was given a Cadillac in return for his brief appearance in Around the World in Eighty Days. A lady saw it and remarked: “You got all that for a day’s work?” Colman replied: “No — for a lifetime’s.” judicial insouciance Our judge’s comments series continues with one from Richard Lawrence, whose source was the late Ipswich district judge Alan Lam. It concerns a judge who was quite deaf, asking a convicted man whether he had anything to say before sentence was passed. The judge was so hard of hearing he had to ask a clerk to repeat the man’s words to him. “He said ‘F*** all’, ” the clerk told him. “Strange,” the judge responded. “I thought I saw his lips moving.”
18 Tuesday August 29 2023 | the times News been Mary Sidney’s copy. Braganza was curious and began querying Jackson’s theory, as many elements did not chime with it being a modern fake. For a start, the ink and style of handwriting looked contemporaneous to the early 17th century. Braganza did further investigation on “Ancram” and found him to be the Scottish nobleman Robert Kerr, 1st Earl of Ancram, a relation by marriage to Mary Sidney. As he’d been an MP, he left behind many examples of his writing and, when Braganza studied these, the realisation was instant. “They all matched Robert Kerr’s signature,” she said. Jackson, it seemed, had made an error. After more digging, Braganza found that Jackson had compared the Ancram signature with ones he had found in a 1930s sale of Ancram family items. Unfortunately, he had got the wrong family member and did not have the email address of the National Archives to help him double check. Braganza took her work to Professor Rosalind Smith of the Australian National University, who is co-editing a forthcoming book called Early Modern Women and English Marginalia for Cambridge University Press. She declared the reassessment to be “watertight”, saying: “I’m absolutely convinced by the Ancram case that she’s made.” Jackson was right that the binding was fake, but old books were often rebound. This faux binding seems to have misdirected him into doubting the text within. “He literally judged a book by its cover,” Braganza said. Braganza went on to examine the little scribbles in the book and noticed similarities with Mary Sidney’s own handwriting. Both hands had a slanted h, a ridged r and the t was crossed only on the right. Some of the edits appear in subsequent editions of the text. It could well be that this is evidence of a literary great at work. “The hands are definitely similar and it is very possible,” Smith concurred. The news has been welcomed by another Philip Sidney, a descendant of the family, who lives at the ancestral home of Penshurst Place in Kent. “I was delighted to hear of Vanessa’s rediscovery,” he said. “It provides touching evidence of Mary’s continued remembrance of, and literary conversation with, her brother decades after his death. It enriches the family’s history as well as its literary heritage.” This is the second significant piece of detective work that Braganza has completed in the past 12 months. Last year she discovered a love message to Henry VIII in the cypher of his jilted wife Catherine of Aragon. Vanessa Braganza found the book while helping a librarian at Harvard The academic world is full of debunking: theories are disproven, works are discredited and artefacts are disbelieved. However, on a few occasions, the debunking is itself debunked. At Harvard a case of “rebunking” has rediscovered a previously discredited relic. It belonged to a woman who inspired Shakespeare and seems to reveal evidence of how she worked. The curio is a book that belonged to Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke, a giant of the Elizabethan literary scene, who directly influenced Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra with her translation of Antonius, by the French poet Robert Garnier. Her copy of The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia, a pastoral romance written for her by her brother, Philip Sidney, seems to show that, years after his untimely death, Mary was still making careful notes on her brother’s work to prepare it for new editions. It is a fascinating piece but it has been overlooked for 77 years since it was declared to be a “dangerous fake”. That ruling, by the renowned Harvard librarian William Jackson, meant the title remained on a university bookshelf for decades, until a PhD student and selfdescribed book detective, Vanessa Braganza, spotted it while helping a librarian. There, visible between the rungs of a bookcase ladder, was a tangible link to a rare heroine of 16th-century literature, but Braganza’s excitement was quickly quashed. “The librarian said, ‘Oh, that’s a famous fake’,” Braganza said. “They told me that, in 1946, William Jackson very gleefully did a public takedown of this book.” Jackson had two key planks to his case. One was that the binding was anachronistic, and the other was to do with the inscription at the front. This was supposedly made by the book’s subsequent owner, who signed their name as “Ancram” and declared it to have Sleuth gives a twist to story of a notorious literary ‘fake’ Jack Blackburn History Correspondent Mary Sidney, who owned the annotated copy of her brother’s book, was a giant of the Elizabethan literary scene and influenced the work of William Shakespeare
‘Deep state’ delusions are hard to shake off Hugo Rifkind Page 21 West will pay heavy price if we ignore the Sahel Turmoil in north Africa threatens stability in Europe unless security, investment and education are provided Comment and severe drought. There is justified hope that an African-led response to the Niger coup, with neighbouring democratic countries threatening an invasion if legitimate government is not restored, will be more successful than the interventions of former western empires. While African leadership is crucial, the Sahel countries will not be able to sort out all their problems on their own. Nor can the West just hope for the best — imagine an Afghanistan, but several times bigger and more populous, on Europe’s very doorstep. The impressive unity western capitals have shown on Ukraine needs to be extended to a new strategy on the Sahel, abandoning the assumption that France can handle it alone. Such a strategy should encompass the offer of education, in particular for women, along with private sector investment and support for civil society and democratic governance. It would include security assistance in support of those objectives for the long term, rather than a quick counterterrorist operation. It would represent a real partnership, rather than the fleecing of poor countries by mercenaries who care nothing for human rights, democracy or development. Its credibility would come from being sustained and supported in the United States, UK, France, Germany and the whole EU. Demography and geography make the Sahel a vital issue over the next decade. The West has a chance to anticipate events and act accordingly — something Prigozhin forgot to do. state institutions, France is now bitterly resented across the region for failing to defeat violent groups, making suspect alliances and giving little attention to the condition of the mass of the population. It is into this vacuum that the Wagner network has gleefully moved, finding profits, battle experience and natural resources for Russia in countries that do not know where else they can turn. A letter published three weeks ago by French senators bemoaned this defeat but, tellingly, made no proposals for a new policy other than a review. The West, collectively, does not know what to do. British ministers have recently given serious attention to the Sahel, opening new embassies, visiting the region and increasing development aid, particularly to address malnutrition The coup in Niger brought unrest to the streets of Niamey, its capital city Last year, nearly half of all the deaths caused by terrorism anywhere in the world were in their region. Niger, where the elected president was overthrown in a military coup last month, has the highest fertility rate on the planet. The 26 million inhabitants are on course to become 67 million by 2050, with their capital, Niamey, predicted to become the seventh-largest city in the world by the end of this century. The Sahel is part of the wider picture of an African continent that now represents the greatest opportunity for human development and economic growth — Niger, for instance, is rich in uranium and could generate solar energy on a vast scale — but is also a huge risk for western countries. Without stability in the Sahel, terrorist groups will multiply and migration flows will be the largest the world has ever seen. It is no exaggeration to say that the future of this region will determine the fate of Europe. Until recently, the Sahel was a minor concern to most western foreign ministries. When I visited Mauritania in 2011, I was the first British foreign secretary to set foot there in half a century. This was because, seen from Washington or London, Paris had this region covered. The old colonial ties meant the French were the experts and would know what to do. In the last decade, France did indeed step up to the challenge of escalating violence across the region, with President Macron launching Operation Barkhane; 5,000 French troops were deployed to combat terrorism. The result, little discussed in Britain, has been a disaster. Last year Macron officially abandoned the operation. Relying too much on military force without accompanying efforts to strengthen governance and We saw last week that even if you are a ruthless, callous, calculating, battlehardened criminal mastermind and warlord with global reach and huge resources, you can still be comprehensively deceived and spectacularly assassinated. For Yevgeny Prigozhin and his closest lieutenants to have boarded the same plane together, for a flight entirely within Russian airspace, they must have been lulled — consistently, convincingly and elaborately — into a very false sense of their own security. The complacency of Prigozhin and his acolytes up to the moment their plane was blown from the sky is the only surprising aspect of their fate. It is almost reassuring to know that such a heartless, violent mindset can be combined with such naivety. From the moment of Prigozhin’s aborted march on Moscow at the end of June, President Putin needed him to die, as I noted at the time. In the gangster state that Putin has created, there was no possible escape from the logic of that, only an interval until the arrival of the perfect opportunity not only to kill him but to decapitate the Wagner network he led. Sadly, this event does not change the current trajectory of the war in Ukraine. It confirms that Putin is unlikely to be overthrown unless the Russian military mutiny against him. It strengthens the internal position, for now, of his top generals and the defence ministry as they battle against a Ukrainian counteroffensive that is inching forward. And it underlines how much Putin will need and want to keep the support of other Russian hardliners beyond the Wagner group. He will be unlikely to show genuine interest in a peace settlement any time soon, at least until he knows, in late 2024, whether Donald Trump will be returning to the White House. This terrible conflict still looks like a long one. The only major uncertainty that emerges from Prigozhin’s death is further afield, across the vast swathe of north Africa known as the Sahel. There, he and his Wagner mercenaries have become the partner of choice for a growing list of juntas in what has become the “coup belt” of the continent. It is unclear how Russian military support for regimes across that region will now be led and financed. That presents a moment to take stock of the very serious failure of western policy in that region and the intensifying importance of the countries there to peace and stability in Africa and thereby, to the UK and the whole of Europe. Foreign affairs in 2023 is dominated by the situations in Russia, Ukraine, China and Iran. By 2033 it will be just as much about the Sahel. The people of the Sahel — a region normally defined as including Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Niger, Chad, Sudan and Burkina Faso, along with parts of other countries — face some of the bleakest circumstances currently known to humanity. Tens of millions of them live in extreme poverty. They are in the front line of the expanding desert brought by climate change. Africa represents the greatest opportunity for economic growth Imagine Afghanistan, but several times bigger and more populous William Hague the times | Tuesday August 29 2023 19
20 Tuesday August 29 2023 | the times Comment driven in London (or anywhere else) recently? If so, you’ll have noticed that traffic lights simply don’t work any more. Because since the advent of the smartphone, drivers are so desperate to use the queueing time to check their phones that each light only releases about half as many cars as it was programmed to, as one in four of the those lined up checks to see what’s happened on TikTok since the last time they checked (about three minutes ago) and thus misses the change, gets honked by the furious guy behind them, panics, stalls and nobody else gets out. Shamed, they exit the next light promptly, but within four cars of them there’ll be someone else desperate to see if his crap Twitter joke has been “liked” in the last 200 seconds who will himself miss it, panic and stall, and the cycle goes on. Infuriating. And it’s all because people are afraid to check their phones while driving, which they know for sure is criminal. So here’s what we do: first, we make it legal to check your phone while driving. Then — and this is the clever part — we make it compulsory to check your phone while driving. That way, when people get to the traffic lights, they will not have this raging panic on to make up for the four minutes when they weren’t able to look at their phone and will sit there patiently waiting for the lights to change, having already established that no more cute cat reels have been posted since the last time they looked. Indeed, they will be so freaked out by the near-death horror of driving at speed with their eyes on their phone that they will be desperate for a phoneless pause to get their breath back. Which means that traffic lights will again start to work as they were intended to and a decent number of people will get through each time, just like in the good old days. Red hot Waitrose has reported that sales of red wine T he controversy around CyclingMikey — the angry little Dutch bloke who cycles round London filming drivers using their phones at the wheel while stationary at traffic lights and then grasses them to the plod — rumbled on through last week and into total domination of the Sunday Times letters page this weekend, after a profile in our esteemed sister paper brought his existence to an even wider audience than the 800,000 Twitter followers of his number-one superfan, the BBC cycle-avenger Jeremy Vine, who broadcasts Mikey’s busts pretty much daily. Most correspondents (and, I suspect, readers) think he’s a horrible snitch (Mikey claims his snooping has led to 1,200 penalty points being doled out and more than £100,000 in fines) and that the drivers, because stationary, are not doing any harm. But have you Israeli mass protests are not what they seem Demonstrations reflect the left’s fears that secularism is losing sway to religious conservatism American billionaire Arthur Dantchik, was harassed by Israeli demonstrators outside his home in Philadelphia and had his character blackened until he cracked under the pressure and ended his funding. A video has also surfaced of a leader of the insurrection, the physics professor Shikma Bressler, drilling ranks of masked men dressed in black T-shirts standing to attention with legs apart and hands behind their backs like a paramilitary army. The real cause of the protesters’ hysteria lies in a demographic shift. The Israeli left are mostly Ashkenazi Jews, who are from European backgrounds and form an intelligentsia committed to secular values such as feminism, gay rights and other forms of liberal politics. But the number of religiously observant, socially conservative Jews, particularly the lower-class Mizrahi whose families came from Middle Eastern countries, is increasing. So the progressive intelligentsia see their power slipping away. Intensely hostile to religious observance, they are therefore desperate to maintain the power they exercise through the court to marginalise the Mizrahi and other religious Jews. The extremists in government whom they loathe and fear were democratically elected. So the insurrectionists are intimidating individuals and harming Israel’s economy and security in order to get what they want. As an expression of anguished existential dislocation, it’s understandable. But a campaign to save Israeli democracy and human rights it is not. Ehud Barak, declared this was their aim from the start. For Barak, at least, its genesis lay even earlier. A video surfaced recently from 2020 in which Barak laid out, for a group of military reservists, what can be interpreted as a plan for a coup d’état which turned out to be a template for these mass demonstrations. His strategy was to encourage the population to revolt by exaggerating the danger to democracy and bankrolling protests that would manipulate popular patriotism by the mass display of Israeli flags. Such an uprising, said Barak, had to be spun as a defence of democracy rather than a coup against Netanyahu. All this has been carried out to the letter. The protesters have weaponised the economy. They have encouraged investors to move their money out of Israel in order to lower its credit rating and produce an economic meltdown that would cause Netanyahu’s voters, many of whom are poor, to suffer badly. Even more unthinkably, in a country where defence of the population against near-permanent attack is a sacred duty, military reservists are blackmailing the government by threatening to refuse their call-up to military service even if the country is attacked. As an article in the Haaretz newspaper boasted: “A military coup is under way in Israel — and it’s completely justified.” The Kohelet Policy Forum, a scholarly conservative think tank that helped formulate the reforms, had its offices barricaded with barbed wire and rubbish. Its senior thinkers have been demonised, threatened and abused. Its principal funder, the P eople in Britain may justifiably be baffled by the protests in Israel over its government’s judicial reform programme. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators have been on the streets every week for the past eight months, paralysing major road arteries, compromising the economy and threatening the security of the country. Judicial reform seems an unlikely cause for such uproar. Moreover, many protesters say they don’t even know the details of the policy. Yet they claim it will end democracy in Israel and usher in a dictatorship. So what’s going on? Several different agendas are overlapping. Some protesters are concerned that the reforms will remove a crucial judicial brake on government power. Others are driven by loathing of Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and horror at certain religious and nationalist extremists in his coalition government. At a more fundamental level, the secular left in Israel are terrified that the ground is shifting underneath their feet. For many years, they have been unable to gain political power. This is because the Israeli public has decided that the “two-state solution” to which the left remain wedded is never going to happen, since the Palestinian Arabs remain determined to wipe Israel out. So protection against mass murder, on which the left are seen as weak, has become the overriding public concern. The one political lever that remains in the hands of the left is Israel’s supreme court, which is dominated by liberals committed to progressive universalist doctrines. In the 1990s, the court began to overreach. It arrogated to itself arbitrary powers to overrule laws passed by the Knesset on the basis of little more than its own opposition to those policies. No less an observer than Lord Macdonald of River Glaven, a former director of public prosecutions, has said the powers assumed by Israel’s court would never be tolerated in the UK. The reforms are aimed at curbing these powers. Certainly, there are grounds for criticising aspects of this policy. However, it would merely reinstate the balance between judges and politicians that existed from Israel’s foundation in 1948 until the supreme court started its power grab. So it’s absurd to claim that it would destroy Israel’s democratic character. As has become increasingly clear, the real driver of the protests is the intention to bring the Netanyahu government down altogether. The two former Israeli prime ministers leading the protests, Yair Lapid and The progressive intelligentsia see their power slipping away are through the roof this summer because the fashion for chilling red wine has made it more popular in warm weather, with experts lining up to confirm that drinking cold red wine is ever so fashionable and new. But it isn’t. The notion of drinking red wine at “room temperature” dates from a time when that room was in a draughty old castle in Burgundy and no warmer than 16C or 17C, which was the maximum temperature your wine eventually rose to after coming up from the 11C or 12C of your cellar. But as central heating caught on and the average room heat went up to a steamy 21C or 22C, that started being the temperature people believed they should drink red wine at, when it is actually far too warm. Even the great reds taste cheap and lazy, almost mulled, at that temperature. The knock-on effect of all this central heating, of course, and the fossil fuel it burns, is that the world itself is now boiling to death, climate change is rewriting the world wine map, harvests are failing and many of the great châteaux are on the brink of disaster. So the lesson for wine lovers in 2023 is not that you should start chilling your wine but that you should stop overheating your houses. Giles Coren Notebook My plan for motorists driven to distraction Brightest prospects must be harnessed for future security James Rose T he Battle of Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington is alleged to have said, was won on the playing fields of Eton. Whatever the truth of that, the conflicts of the 21st century will instead be won and lost in the science parks of Oxford and Cambridge. This reality is recognised by the government, which in the 2021 integrated security review declared “sustaining [the UK’s] strategic advantage through science and technology” to be one of its four key security objectives. To support this, the government should introduce a national security bursary scheme where each year the 2,000 most promising students in science and technology would be awarded bursaries covering their £9,000 tuition fees and a £12,000 annual living allowance. In exchange, the recipients would commit to spending four years after university either working directly in military or intelligence research and development, or in a research role for a domestic small or medium-sized enterprise (SME), developing key future technologies. Students unwilling to do this would see their bursary payments instead converted into a conventional student loan. The benefits of this should be manifold — including that more of the top young scientists stay in scientific research for longer and resist the siren call of betterremunerated careers in finance or consulting. It should also mean that military and intelligence research departments can access the very best intellectual talent, which is essential for getting the maximum value out of the £6.6 billion the Ministry of Defence declared it would invest in R&D in the 2021 integrated review. By allowing bursary recipients to work for eligible domestic SMEs in high-tech fields, a de facto subsidy would be provided for a key commercial sector, enabling it to compete with global banks and consultancy firms in the competition for young talent. Finally, the government should work to provide networking and further support for bursary recipients, with the aim of creating an environment where recipients are encouraged and supported to set up their own hightech businesses. Such a scheme would cost comparatively little, with each annual cohort of 2,000 costing just £42 million. It is worth remembering that computing had its origins in code-breaking at Bletchley Park during the Second World War, when the best young scientists of their generation were put to work for the good of national security. Based on this, who knows what transformative technology recipients of a national security bursary could be responsible for creating? Melanie Phillips @melanielatest
the times | Tuesday August 29 2023 21 Comment Buy prints or signed copies of Times cartoons from our Print Gallery at timescartoons.co.uk or call 020 7711 7826 ‘Deep state’ delusions are hard to shake off There is quick political capital to be made blaming a rigged system but the Tories must resist sliding into Trumpism female changing rooms bustle with ladies who look like Brian Blessed. Covid restrictions launched a new sort of populist paranoia, which persists, even though the restrictions didn’t. You can feel its legacy in everything from the smashing of Ulez cameras to outrage over Nigel Farage losing his bank account. Boris Johnson’s tirades against judges and parliament did their damage, too. When Nadine Dorries writes of “the machinations of a small group of individuals embedded deep at the centre of the party and Downing Street” she echoes the “deep state” rhetoric of Trump himself, whether she realises it or not. Who knows what all that could become? Effective opposition is a grind. At its best, British conservativism embodies exactly the skillset required to do it very well, being wary of grand projects and cautious about upheaval. This, ironically enough, has been the secret of Starmer in opposition, with Labour jettisoning the Corbynite urge for change that comes like a tsunami. When it’s their turn, will the Conservatives be able to show the same restraint? I hope so, but I wonder. Because there is always an easy, early win in claiming the game is rigged, particularly when it’s a game you’ve just lost. And as America shows, it’s a long, hard road back. broadsided in the same way that Trump broadsided America. This belief lingers, even though it is scarcely seven years since that’s exactly what happened. We have all spent a lot of time since 2016 agonising — or gloating, depending — over how badly the European Union’s defenders lost their way during the Brexit debate, able to find no tone other than condescension or incredulity. Rarely, though, do we ponder how badly a softer Eurosceptic faction messed up, too. Generations of Conservatives, particularly, had spent so long raising cheers by demonising the EU that they now found themselves adrift, with no language left in which to say: “Hang on, actually leaving would be madness.” Many, even despite previous careers which valued economic soundness above all else, ended up convincing themselves that this was what they had wanted all along. To steal from John Updike, the mask ate the face. Today there are new currents running beneath the surface of British politics. Writing about Sir Keir Starmer last week, I joked that he was “about as frightening as a Hovis loaf”. Reading the comments beneath my article, though, I was reminded that not everybody thinks this. For some, a Starmer future is one in which immigration runs even more riot than it already has and our he’s damaging the very fabric of American justice — becomes simply invalid. Because he’s on your side and the rules are not. People of all political persuasions can fall into this sort of trap but few have fallen so hard, or sunk so deep, as the American right. Worse still, once you’re down in the pit it’s extremely hard to find a ladder out again, because it’s immediately suspect that you’d even want to. You certainly don’t want to say, “Guys, we all sound like loonies,” because the moment you do, your supporters ditch you for somebody prepared to tell them otherwise. Witness, for example, the Republicans’ forlorn televised debate on Fox News last week when Chris Christie — a former federal prosecutor — was loudly booed for suggesting Trump’s conduct had been “beneath the office of the president”. As Gerard Baker put it in these pages: “There is no postTrump party and no prospect of one in the near future.” Now to Britain. We nurse a belief here that our political system is more stable and couldn’t possibly be Again? There are people who want to do it all . . . again? Four years of global ridicule, ending with an actual attempted coup, and it wasn’t enough? They really want to give him another go? That mugshot of Donald Trump in Georgia may look like a mad Stanley Kubrick villain or it may look like Vigo the Carpathian, the creepy bald villain from Ghostbusters II. Who cares? The point is, the mugshot is now on mugs. It has earned his campaign $7 million. Because some people want to do it all again. We can roll our eyes. We can shrug and tell ourselves we’ll never understand, and that some people are just nuts. Where, though, does this get anyone? Hillary Clinton spoke of Trump’s “basket of deplorables” in 2016 and immediately wished she hadn’t. The writer David Sedaris captured the same incomprehension rather better in The New Yorker that year when he likened the election to being offered a choice of food on a flight. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” asks the stewardess. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?” Even with the Republican nomination, they say, Trump is unlikely to win this time. Then again, they said that last time. On Saturday, on Times Radio, I heard the black American evangelical pastor Mark Burns, sometimes dubbed “Trump’s spiritual adviser”, suggest Trump’s mugshot was the equivalent of those taken of Martin Luther King Jr after his many arrests in the 1960s. Just as Dr King had motivated anti-racists, he explained, so Trump was the hero of “freedom-loving patriots who are now being considered, very similar to black Americans during the civil rights movement, as second-class citizens”. And in Joe Biden’s America, he said, the new oppressed were people who wanted men out of women’s sport, opposed abortion and wanted to keep their guns. For the purposes of this column, forgive me if I don’t dwell on precisely why the oppression faced by black Americans in the 1960s was perhaps worse than that faced today by a heavily armed Texan dentist. For Trump’s fans, the point is that he is a bulwark against a whole rigged system that wishes them ill. As a result, any rules-based argument against him — that he lost the election, that he broke the law, that Covid restrictions launched a populist paranoia that persists Hugo Rifkind @hugorifkind
22 Tuesday August 29 2023 | the times Letters to the Editor Letters to the Editor should be sent to [email protected] or by post to 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF Sir, Further to your report that the most able students do better if they avoid grammar schools, I wonder if the latest results achieved by the remaining grammars might be, in part, a result of their continuing to teach traditional, demanding subjects while comprehensive schools have been more astute at entering students for less demanding ones that offer higher grades. Stephen Shaw Newthorpe, Notts Sir, Despite the evidence contained in your report indicating that bright pupils are more likely to get top GCSE grades at comprehensive schools, I am confident that grammar schools will remain popular — for the simple reason that no one is obliged, in effect, to send a child to a grammar school, no more than to an independent school or to one with a religious foundation. These schools can all more readily expect the support and co-operation of parents, which other supportive and co-operative parents will appreciate. Peter Inson Head of Twyford Church of England High School 1985-88; East Mersea, Essex Nessie dormant Sir, It is unlikely that the unexplained “distinctive noises” heard underwater in Loch Ness (report, Aug 28) are caused by a large animal unknown to science but that is no reason to stop looking. As Sir Peter Scott said, the only way to exclude the existence of the Loch Ness Monster is to drain all the water out of the loch and see what is left on the bottom. Gareth Williams Author, A Monstrous Commotion: the Mysteries of Loch Ness Sir, Further to your report “Private and state school pairing ‘gives little benefit’ ” (Aug 26), the Private Education Policy Forum study does not reflect sophisticated partnerships between independent and state schools as we know them. Successful collaborations between schools are true partnerships: long term, mutually beneficial and aligning with both schools’ objectives. Because they involve a considerable investment of time and resources by both parties, their impact is measurable. To portray state schools as the silent subject in partnerships is not only patronising and incorrect but could also undermine the trust that is essential for these partnerships to thrive. For example, our schools contribute to a partnership where 50 children from 12 primary schools receive weekly maths coaching, one of many state and independent school collaborations that benefit thousands of children in Southwark. Importantly, our wide-ranging partnerships involve and inspire pupils and staff in both our schools — something we cherish. Helen Ingham, head, Ivydale Primary School, London SE15; Jane Lunnon, head, Alleyn’s School, London SE22 Genius has a price Sir, Apropos Sir John Eliot Gardiner (letters, Aug 26 & 28): yes, he can be abusive, arrogant, selfish, silly and even stupid, as was probably the case with his alleged attack on William Thomas. Like many others, I have suffered from his tongue. But we should not forget that his tireless and pioneering advocacy of Monteverdi and Purcell, not to mention his 52- week pilgrimage in 2000 performing all of Bach’s 200 sacred cantatas, all with little or no Arts Council support, raising the money himself. Almost single-handedly he has brought the music of these composers to the very forefront of our musical consciousness. Genius has a price, always. After all, who could resist spending an evening with the foul-mouthed Beethoven or the ranting antisemitic Wagner and his evil wife, or the unpredictably cruel Benjamin Britten, although I suspect one might finish by wanting to throttle the lot of them? We should not expect great creative artists to be nice people, as on the whole they are not. Gardiner deserves our opprobrium for his behaviour. But he also merits our considerable praise for his mighty achievements. Tony Palmer London W3 Car-free sheds Sir, It is not just parking spaces that are too small (“Bigger cars leave us no space to park”, Aug 28). In Surrey, and I imagine all across the country, homes are still being built with garages that are too small, save for the tiniest cars. The width of garage doors has not kept up with increased size of vehicles. Hence, garages are used for storage and cars end up being parked on driveways or on the road. Robert Evans Weybridge, Surrey Leaseholder’s plea Sir, As a leaseholder, although I am pleased that Sir Keir Starmer is planning new towns (news, Aug 26) and am aware that building more homes is on the Tory agenda, I hope MPs are not forgetting the millions like me who need help over the feudal doubling of our ground rents. Jean Gaffin London NW7 Hollow ring Sir, Further to the letters (Aug 26 & 28) from readers who couldn’t finish Harry Potter, I spent 40 years trying to get past the first 20 pages of The Lord of the Rings. I eventually gave it to my grandson, who fell on it with delight. As Muriel Spark said (via Jean Brodie): “For those that like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like.” Sylvia Berry Godstone, Surrey Wine with an edge Sir, There is little experimental about the use of flat plastic-sided wine bottles (news and editorial, Aug 28). In 2017 I received through the letterbox a flat-sided bottle of Chilean sauvignon blanc that I had ordered. The wine didn’t last but the bottle has, as a souvenir, and it is virtually identical to the ones being used by the Wine Society. A price reduction might be wise if its idea is to catch on. Malcolm Watson Ryde, Isle of Wight Corrections and clarifications The Times takes complaints about editorial content seriously. We are committed to abiding by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (“IPSO”) rules and regulations and the Editors’ Code of Practice that IPSO enforces. Requests for corrections or clarifications should be sent by email to [email protected] or by post to Feedback, The Times, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF Transplantation of a donated womb Sir, Janice Turner makes some valid points about uterine transplantation and the exploitation of donors, in this case women (“A womb must not become a spare part for sale”, comment, Aug 26). Because you can does not necessarily mean you should. In order to get a leash of vessels to anastomose to the recipient requires radical dissection to the pelvic side wall, dissection of the ureter, the bête noire of gynaecological surgery, and significant downward displacement of the urinary bladder, all procedures fraught with potential complications. Not withstanding the undoubted technical competence of the team, to leave a fit woman with possible unrecoverable urinary problems, the possible need for further complex surgery and a shortened vagina for only temporary gain for the recipient, in whom pregnancy is by no means certain and in whom there may be significant complications both for her and her foetus, seems to me to fall into the category of can but shouldn’t. Jeremy Wright, MD, FRCOG Consultant gynaecologist, Woking, Surrey Sir, Janice Turner raises some interesting points about the possibility of womb donation and transplants, but fails to articulate why womb transplants should be in a different moral category to other transplants of non-vital organs. Why does the donation of a uterus from a braindead donor elicit revulsion but the donation of corneas from the same donor does not? Lucy Solomon London N2 Comprehensive schools and top GCSE grades Sir, Research claiming that bright pupils are more likely to get top GCSE grades at comprehensive schools than grammars underlines the need for clear measures of performance for all schools (“Best pupils ‘do better by avoiding grammars’ ”, Aug 28) At present parents are in the dark as to how good their child’s school really is, often with only raw examination results as a guide. Unsurprisingly, selective secondaries that attract high-achieving pupils in Year 7 get impressive public examination results five years later. But it is not clear, for parents at least, how much value a school has added though good teaching. League tables of attainment and Ofsted inspections should be primarily driven by value-added scores, which show the progress that pupils make compared with similar children elsewhere. Such measures exist in the form of Progress 8 but are buried on the Department for Education’s website and are not published for many months, leaving parents with little indication of a school’s true accomplishments. Neil Roskilly Trustee, Diamond Learning Partnership Trust Sir, Christopher Herbert (Thunderer, Aug 25; letters, Aug 26 & 28) makes a plea for the NHS to wake up to the serious risks of Lyme disease and for the government to recognise it as such. Both do that. The nub of the problem is so-called chronic or pseudo-Lyme. Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), aka ME, is poorly understood and debilitating, triggered by infections including Covid but rarely Lyme. The mechanism of CFS/ ME is unknown and there are no effective treatments. On the East coast of the US where Lyme is common, the health costs of those with CFS/ME were not covered by medical insurance but they were covered if it was diagnosed as chronic Lyme disease. A profitable medical industry grew up around this. Patients are treated with dangerously long courses of antibiotics and other drugs. Serious treatable diagnoses are sometimes missed. The phenomenon of pseudo-Lyme and its treatments have spread across the Atlantic to mainly Anglo-Saxon countries and even to Australia, where Lyme disease has never been found. Lyme disease is False Lyme disease being misdiagnosed by private concerns using non-validated diagnostic tests. These clinics and laboratories are taking advantage of vulnerable and desperate people with chronic symptoms . More research is required into the mechanism of CFS/ ME and its treatment. While ticks are increasing and real Lyme disease is certainly prevalent, the arthropod and its bacteria cannot take all the blame. Dr Matthew Dryden, MD, FRCPath Longparish, Hants from the times august 29, 1923 BEST TESTS FOR DRUNKEN DRIVERS Age of experience Sir, Trevor Phillips’s reference to B&Q’s hugely successful Macclesfield experiment in hiring over-50s staff in the 1990s (comment, Aug 28) reminded me of how it came about. Our agency, Bates Dorland, did B&Q’s advertising, and its boss and I sat together among the 2,000-strong audience at the Retail Advertising Conference in Chicago listening to Home Depot recount how it did exactly that (we also pinched its idea of increasing store traffic at slow midweek trading times by offering a discount to OAPs on those days). What was particularly encouraging was the huge response if received from their recruitment campaign from local “senior” job applicant, and the research indicating that customers preferred to buy their wallpaper from staff who had clearly hung a roll or two, rather than being served by younger staff who obviously hadn’t. If only politicians would take a leaf out of business’s book, by trawling other countries’ proven successes with “best of breed’’ ideas and copying them, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, which so often results in costly failure. Neil Kennedy Burnham on Crouch, Essex thetimes.co.uk/archive Tagging migrants Sir, The possibility of electronic tagging of illegal migrants (“Electronic tagging plan to stop migrants fleeing”, news, Aug 28) should lead to a reopening of the question of identity cards. The opposition to identity cards based on privacy is difficult to understand, given that vast amounts of our personal information is contained in countless databases and electronic cards. The absence of a British identity card must surely be an added attraction of Britain as a place of refuge. France, Germany and Italy all have electronic identity cards. Professor Philip Allott Trinity College, Cambridge To the Editor of The Times Sir, During this period of the year, when all kinds of motor vehicles, driven by all kinds of persons, are on the roads, the best and most careful driver is at the mercy of the least cautious and most daring. Only the other day a cyclist was practically decapitated in an avoidable motor collision within a mile of my gates, and if this can happen when drivers are experienced and sober, it is simply intolerable that any person even under the slightest influence of strong drink should be permitted to drive a car and so to risk the lives of valued workers. Sir Reginald Clarke (The Times, August 20) asks for “something better than the present police tests,” implying that they are unreliable because drink affects men in different ways, “making the grave gay and the gay solemn”; but these apparent contradictions are separate and sequential stages in the influence of alcohol which, as all know, influence the human faculties in the reverse order of their development and origin, the faculty last acquired being the first to go. Co-ordination of logical thought and of muscular action are attainments of the highest level. Speech, the use of the hand (in writing), and the upright position are among the latest acquirements, and therefore the first to be overcome. The old-fashioned tests of speech, writing, and walking — for instance, along, a straight line between the planks of a floor — remain among the best tests of whether a person is “jolly” drunk, ‘stupid” drunk, or “dead” drunk, indicating, as they do, the first stage of lessened selfcontrol, the second of impaired action and, last, the anaesthetic stage. Every doctor and constable knows that a driver, even in the first stage, is absolutely untrustworthy in traffic, and should not be tolerated at the wheel, or permitted to hold a licence. If he is in this state he should be made to suffer the maximum penalty that can be inflicted. When, many years ago, I acted as deputy to the surgeon of the Y Division of the Metropolitan Police, these tests were then considered satisfactory, and they never failed to convince those who had to decide upon the evidence. I am your obedient servant, robert armstrong-jones, md, Plas Dinas, Carnarvon.
the times | Tuesday August 29 2023 23 Leading articles The campaign makes good sense. The NHS, under pressure as never before, is fighting a losing battle to improve the nation’s health: figures show that the steady postwar rise in life expectancy has now stalled and may even be falling. Prevention is better, and cheaper, than cure. But the NHS is so busy trying to reduce waiting lists and carry out urgent operations that it has little time or money for preventative measures that could significantly cut the need for medical intervention. It must therefore be left to government to introduce public health campaigns, and to public opinion to nudge people into less self-destructive lifestyles. This often works well. Publicity, campaigns, changes in the law and creating a climate of social pressure have brought remarkable results in cutting smoking, stopping drink-driving, making drivers and passengers wear seat belts, encouraging safe sex or getting people to wash their hands after using the lavatory. Social pressure costs nothing and is usually the most effective way of countering the macho bravado that abuses alcohol, drives recklessly and wolfs down more calories than a normal physique can process. Women, also, suffer heart attacks, and indeed many women die because they are not seen as being at particular risk. A public campaign to increase blood pressure checks, now being expanded from about a million to 2.5 million a year, should not focus only on males. And just as effective campaigns on breast screening and cervical smears should not neglect prostate cancer, so blood pressure checks should target both sexes. Leaving public health campaigns to the government will inevitably produce resistance to the nanny state. This can become absurd when health and safety becomes blanket prohibition and any form of risk is outlawed, usually because liability insurance is increasingly targeted by lawsuits. Males especially are attracted to risk. But unhealthy living costs all taxpayers. And the statistics are often striking. Russia provides one of the most startling examples. In Soviet times men died at about 63 years old, almost a decade earlier than women. The reason was rampant alcoholism, violence, an unhealthy lifestyle — and in the postSoviet chaos these figures worsened considerably. Only recently, with less dependence on vodka, have the figures improved. Britain’s life expectancy, compared with many of its European neighbours, is disappointing. When the Queen came to the throne, it was seventh in the world; now it is 29th. Preventing heart disease is a good step to rectifying this telling decline. under a new “special procedure”. The EU responded quickly, with the European Commission granting it candidate status in June and giving Kyiv a list of seven political and economic reforms it must now undertake to maintain that status. Some of these, especially those relating to anti-corruption laws, judicial reform and an anti-oligarch law, will be difficult to enforce, especially in a time of war. Ukraine has a lamentable record of corruption and oligarchic monopolies, and although national cohesion has been galvanised by its struggle, it may find it hard to satisfy Brussels or several EU states that still harbour doubts about its joining. Those doubts relate as much to the upheaval this new enlargement will cause to the EU’s own structure, budget and cohesion as to the challenge that Ukraine, far larger, significantly poorer and now in ruins, will pose to the existing members. The Common Agricultural Policy would be unsustainable in its present form: Ukraine would be the biggest beneficiary by far, and Poland, for one, would resent the free import of so much Ukrainian grain. Repairing the infrastructure, even if the war stopped tomorrow, would cost an estimated $143.8 billion and it will be unclear who would pay for that. And with the admission also of western Balkan nations, longstanding EU members such as Germany will demand more decisions be taken by majority vote, otherwise special interests by EU members will make unanimous decisions all but impossible. There are also doubts by some original EU members in the west about the balance of power moving decisively to eastern Europe. And the European parliament, with a limit of 751 members, would have to ask all states to cut their MEP totals. None of this is insuperable. EU public opinion is largely favourable, especially in Poland and elsewhere in the east. The very fact that Moscow tried to block closer alignment, and saw this as a pretext for invasion, makes it politically expedient. But a rush to meet some arbitrary deadline must not risk weakening the entire bloc. There are tough negotiations to come, within Ukraine and within the EU itself. It is the right step and will sustain a country that is fighting desperately for the right to determine its own future. Russia wants to close the door to the West. Brussels must hold it wide open. The Reading Festival — Magaluf by the M4, as one headline put it — states in the rules on its website that “clothing/garments/items which promote cultural appropriation” are banned and cannot be taken into the campsite or arena. There were no notable expulsions from this year’s festival, which has just ended, and traders were still displaying an array of brightly coloured kaftans and harem pants with no festival heavies coming round to overturn their stalls. Other rock festivals also, apparently, have such a ban, including Leeds and Wireless, in Finsbury Park, but, scandalously, no one seems to have noticed. Dressing down for a rock concert does not, it seems, allow dressing up. But where should the ban begin or end? Blackface entertainment, popular on television even in the 1960s, is clearly insulting. Wearing a full native American feather headdress looks ridiculous, as Susan Boyle doubtless discovered. But what to do about the Rasta imitators, white men wearing beanie hats or women far from the subcontinent sporting garments that could pass for saris? Maybe the notion of cultural appropriation could be appropriated as a compliment rather than an insult. The more we dress up as each other, the more fun we might have. In Good Heart Providing more free blood pressure checks is a good way of cutting heart disease, a significant killer of men especially, that contributes to Britain’s low life expectancy For centuries, and in most countries, men have died earlier than women. Fighting, heavy manual labour, dangerous environments such as mines and factories took their toll. Health and safety regulations have utterly changed the working environment, but men still die younger. A main reason nowadays, according to a study of 20,000 men and women in Britain over 25 years, is that men are twice as likely as women to suffer heart disease and have heart attacks. And these attacks are because men are far worse at taking care of their health: they drink more, they are more often obese and they are less likely than women to go to the doctor or check their blood pressure. The study by the University of Aberdeen comes as little surprise. But it underlines the importance of keeping fit, eating sensibly and living a life of moderation — something not naturally associated with most British males. And it comes at a time when the National Health Service is proposing a campaign to prevent heart attacks and strokes. Hundreds of thousands of men will be offered blood pressure checks in barbershops and neighbourhood clubs. Pharmacy teams will be expanded to offer mobile blood pressure checks in local communities, and those with high readings will be offered statins or other medication. Heading to the EU Brussels promises to admit Ukraine to membership by the end of the decade Ukraine has been told that it should expect to be a member of the European Union by the end of the decade. Charles Michel, president of the European Council, said yesterday that Brussels had set 2030 as the deadline for the admission of Ukraine and several other states in the western Balkans. It is a message that will be received with rejoicing and hope in Kyiv, and confirms that Europe’s political and military support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s brutal aggression is to be strengthened and institutionalised in the future. The announcement culminates more than a decade of steadily growing relations between Brussels and Kyiv — but it is a path that has been far from smooth and one that poses a huge challenge to the EU. If Nato is also to make good on recent promises that Ukraine will be admitted as a full member in the near future, Russia will see that its invasion, part of a desperate attempt to keep its neighbour out of the western orbit, has proved catastrophic for Russian nationalists. Ukraine formally applied for EU membership last year, four days after the Russian invasion. President Zelensky requested immediate admission Dressing Up and Down Banning those at pop festivals from cultural appropriation of dress is inappropriate Every child loves dressing up. The more exotic the finery, the more fun to be had. It is the same with adults. Fashion is ever on the search for a style that can be borrowed from elsewhere and popularised at home. But beware the new taboo on “cultural appropriation”, a move now deemed deeply distressing, insulting to those whose culture is robbed and likely to pile on the agonies of victimhood. And be especially careful not to wear a sombrero, feather headdress or Kufi hat if you’re clearly from Maidenhead or Wigan and not Mexico, North America or Nigeria, as you will be denied admission to a pop festival. UK: The expansion of the ultra-low emission zone comes into effect in London; Mexico: The ruling Morena party votes to select a presidential candidate. Mermaid’s purses are common finds along the shoreline. The egg cases of sharks, skates and rays, they are made of collagen and are usually between 2.5 and 10cm long, rectangular and with a horn at each corner. Both skate and ray lay their egg cases in sand offshore; the empty, black cases wash in once the eggs have hatched. However, dogfish, a type of shark, lay their egg cases in seaweed, attached by the long tendrils at each corner of the case, and sometimes these paler-coloured purses can be found intact on clumps of weed, occasionally with an embryo visible inside. melissa harrison In 1782 the warship HMS Royal George keeled over at anchor in the Solent during repairs and sank with the loss of about 900 lives, including as many as 300 women and 60 children who were visiting the ship. Only one boy survived, by clinging to a sheep. Sir Lenny Henry, pictured, comedian and actor, Soon Gone: A Windrush Chronicle (2019), The Witcher: Blood Origin (2022), co-founder of the charity Comic Relief, 65; Dame Susan Bailey, chairwoman, Centre for Mental Health (charity), president, Royal College of Psychiatrists (2011-14), 73; Bob Beamon, athlete, best known for setting a long jump world record (Mexico Olympics, 1968), 77; Rebecca De Mornay, actress, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992), 64; Terence Kearley, Viscount Devonport, architect and landowner, 79; Elizabeth Fraser, singer, Cocteau Twins, PearlyDewdrops’ Drops (1984), 60; Elliott Gould, actor, M.A.S.H. (1970), the Ocean’s film series, 85; Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla, principal guest conductor, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (music director 2016-22), 37; Chris Hadfield, astronaut, the first Canadian to “walk” in space, 64; Edel Harris, chief executive, Mencap (2020-Aug 21, 2023), 59; Angela Huth, author, Nowhere Girl (1970), Land Girls (1994), 85; Martin Ivens, editor, Times Literary Supplement, The Sunday Times (2013-20), 65; Lady (Nicola) Mendelsohn, head of Meta’s (formerly Facebook) Global Business Group, 52; Daryll Neita, sprinter, silver medallist, world athletics championships (2017, 2019), 27; Liam Payne, singer, One Direction (2010-15), 30; Sir Andrew Pollard, professor of paediatric infection and immunity, University of Oxford, and director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, 58; Eddi Reader, singer, Fairground Attraction, Perfect (1988), 64; Matthew Reed, chief executive, Marie Curie, Children’s Society (2012-19), 55; Prof Sir Adam Roberts, president, British Academy (2009-13), 83; Simon Thurley, architectural historian, chairman, National Lottery Heritage Fund and the National Heritage Memorial Fund, chief executive, English Heritage (2002-15), writer, Palaces of Revolution: Life, Death and Art at the Stuart Court (2021), 61. “When I was at home, I was in a better place; but travellers must be content.” William Shakespeare, As You Like It (1599-1600) Nature notes Birthdays today On this day The last word Daily Universal Register
24 2GM Tuesday August 29 2023 | the times World Above the remains of Robotyne, a tiny village which became a Russian bastion in Ukraine’s occupied south, a blueand-yellow flag is finally fluttering in the wind. Its liberation is the culmination of an 11-week battle and marks a breakthrough for Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the Zaporizhzhia region, with troops now fighting through Russia’s main defensive line and pushing further south towards the next. In a row of hospital beds some 200 miles to the west, a group of special forces soldiers from the Lubart battalion watched video of Robotyne’s recapture by soldiers from the 47th Brigade, supported by 82nd Air Assault Brigade equipped with British Challenger 2 tanks. They were missing four men and all were still concussed by artillery, but they smiled at the news, knowing that their sacrifice helped to bring about this moment. Three weeks ago Sergeant “Rave”, 29, led 18 men of Lubart against an estimated 300 Russians from Storm-Z battalion, a unit made up of convicts. He and Lieutenant “Vitold”, 30, shared with The Times details of their part in a daring operation to draw Russian reserves away from Zaporizhzhia to the Kherson region at a critical moment in the counteroffensive. It also paved the way for a possible assault in force across the Dnipro river. It was early August when Rave’s two squads began training on boats for the first time after being told that they would be tasked with crossing the Dnipro. It was not long before they learnt they would also need to cross swampland on the other side, and then a second river, the Konka, before they could attack the Russians at the village of Kozachi Laheri. Most units would not contemplate a march into battle through mined swamplands after two river crossings against a far larger enemy force. Yet Lubart is a highly motivated force of volunteers from the Rivne and Volyn region of western Ukraine, initially formed to fight a guerrilla war then transformed into a special operations unit. “Ninety-nine per cent of our guys are young, between 19 and 35, so we can still fight and be real operators. Most of the guys knew each other before the invasion and decided to join one unit to fight shoulder to shoulder with those who they know,” said Rave, evoking a parallel with the British “Pals” battalions of the First World War. Lubart was withdrawn from the trenches of Bakhmut early in the year to train with elite US Rangers troops in Europe, where they drilled in ambushes, use of armoured vehicles, special The prime minister of Estonia has been summoned for interrogation by MPs amid intense pressure on her to resign after her husband was revealed to be involved in shipping supplies to Russia. Kaja Kallas, an outspoken supporter of Ukraine once regarded as a contender to become Nato’s next leader, has refused to stand down despite reports that she had personally lent €350,000 to her husband’s company. The scandal has damaged the public image of a leader who has taken a strong moral stance against the Putin regime and derided those who continued to do business with Russia as “hypocritical”. The flag flying in Robotyne signifies a breakthough of Russia’s defensive lines Dnipro river Kozachi Laheri Robotyne Konka river UKRAINE 20 miles Russian-held territory Ukrainian counter-o!ensive Zaporizhzhia Husband’s Kremlin deals threaten Estonian leader The Estonian Internal Security Service said it had concluded that Kallas’s husband, Arvo Hallik, had not violated European sanctions against Russia. But the anticorruption and state budget committees in parliament, the Riigikogu, are holding an extraordinary joint session and have asked Kallas to attend. It is unclear whether she will turn up. Hallik owned a 25 per cent stake in Stark Logistics, which worked closely with Metaprint, which is estimated to have sold about €30 million of goods, mostly steel products, to Russia since its invasion of Ukraine. He said he had decided to sell his stake in Stark and resign as its chief financial officer. He said he acted lawfully but understood that to many Estonians the activities did not “seem moral”. President Karis, the head of state, said Kallas had “difficult and unpleasant questions” to answer and suggested the affair risked tarnishing the Baltic state’s credibility with its allies. He appeared to contrast her husband’s logistics business with other Estonian companies that had pulled out of Russia. “They did the right thing so as not to be associated with the aggressor state,” Karis said. Two polls published at the end of last week found that between 48 and 57 per cent of Estonian voters wanted Kallas to resign immediately, while another 20 per cent or so felt she probably ought to. Kallas said she had no plans to do so and denied that she and her husband had discussed his business affairs. “There must be punishments for dealing with sanctioned goods. Everything else is a matter of moral compass,” she told ERR, Estonia’s public broadcaster. Estonia Oliver Moody Ukraine’s flag flies again as Russians beaten back operations planning and trench clearing. Yet this was their first time using fast boats. A small special forces reconnaissance team had been deployed earlier to clear the first Russian trenches near the riverbank by the time Rave’s platoon arrived, he recalled. They had taken the enemy by surprise, but by the time Lubart arrived the Russians had recovered and were using the thick summer foliage for cover as they encroached on the positions of Rave’s men. The Ukrainians fought off soldiers emerging from the bushes, but the reserves trying to reach them were running into trouble. “At that point we had a lot of problems with boats hitting mines in the rivers. Perhaps it was just luck that we had got through, or perhaps after that they mined at night or by long range. Every metre was mined. “They’d attack in the direction of the trenches, from the left side and right side. Contact was just 20m-100m away. I have a soldier who shot three guys at the moment he could see the colour of their equipment.” As the Russians regrouped to mass for another attack at the end of the second day, Rave surveyed his platoon. Two of his men were badly wounded and their landing point had been compromised. “The counteroffensive is really hard. I know our allies can be frustrated with the speed we are going. But we are putting everything into taking back metres of our land, we are paying with our lives.” Rave emphasised that his men were grateful for western support. “We would fight with rocks and stones because we can’t be slaves to the Russians, but 90 per cent of our weapons are now from Nato allies. Of course we still need more. Without them we would probably lose.” Most of the Ukrainian units that fought in the battle had since withdrawn from the area, said Lieutenant Vitold, but it was not the end of Ukraine’s ambitions to cross the Dnipro. “Between Kozachi Laheri and the Antonovsky bridgehead, something is still going on,” he said with a wry smile. “But I can’t tell you now.” Ukraine Maxim Tucker EU wants Kyiv to join within seven years Brussels wants Ukraine to be a full member of the European Union in less than seven years as part of a dramatic expansion to also include the western Balkans (Bruno Waterfield writes). A top EU official said that it had set 2030 as a deadline for the “big bang”. The date fires the starting pistol in what will be a gruelling marathon for Brussels to agree the most radical programme of reforms, ranging from its budget to the European voting system, since the Lisbon Treaty in 2007. Charles Michel, president of the European Council, the EU’s highest decisionmaking body, comprising Europe’s leaders, announced the enlargement target date at a Balkans summit in Slovenia. “To be credible, I believe we must talk about timing and homework,” he told the Bled Strategic Forum, which includes leaders from Moldova, Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Bosnia. War-torn Ukraine would be the poorestever EU member with its fourth largest population and the biggest geographical territory of all the bloc’s countries, making integration highly costly for other member states without a significant overhaul to Brussels budgets. Membership for poor countries, such as Ukraine, will reignite simmering debates across the EU over the impact of free movement on lowering wages in existing members. The gross monthly average wage in Ukraine was only €361 before Russia’s invasion compared with more than €4,000 in Germany or €1,700 in neighbouring Poland, posing the risk of large population flows to the West. Michel said: “We must set ourselves a clear goal. I believe we must be ready — on both sides — by 2030 to enlarge. This is ambitious, but necessary. It shows that we are serious.” T he granddaughter of a Lithuanian man accused of collaborating with the Nazis to kill thousands of Jews has called on the nation to stop treating him as a hero (Lianne Kolirin writes). Silvia Foti, 62, grew up in Chicago’s close-knit Lithuanian community hearing stories about her nationalist grandfather Jonas Noreika, known as General Storm. At the end of the war Noreika masterminded an uprising against the occupying Russians but was captured and executed in prison in 1947. Streets and schools across Lithuania are named after him, with My ‘hero’ grandfather murdered 2,000 Jews Kaja Kallas with her husband, Avro Hallik, who said his activities may not “seem moral”
the times | Tuesday August 29 2023 2GM 25 58-mile a day runner sets new Pacific trail record United States Keiran Southern Los Angeles A Belgian dentist has broken the record for running and hiking the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail, knocking more than five days off the previous best time. The trail represents one of the toughest challenges in ultrarunning and takes hikers through searing desert temperatures, lush forests and snowy mountain ranges. It begins near the US-Mexico border in the town of Campo and finishes at the Canadian border. Its lowest point, on the border of Oregon and Washington, is almost at sea level and its highest is at 4,009m, nearly four times the height of Snowdon, in the Sierra Nevada. Karel Sabbe, a 34-year-old dentist, crossed into Canada on Saturday with a final time of 46 days, 12 hours and 56 minutes, according to a GPS tracker on his website. Sabbe, who embarked on the challenge on July 10, ran or hiked for an average of 58 miles a day. “Pacific Crest Trail, you are the most beautiful, epic trail in the world,” Sabbe said on Instagram after finishing. “What a journey!” he added, before thanking his support team and saying: “And now some sleep.” Sabbe had kept his followers updated throughout his attempt. Looking gaunt and bearded, though still smiling, he shared a video to Instagram last week revealing that he had to take a detour due to wildfires in Washington state. “It is what it is. We are still in good spirits,” he said. “It’s incredible, the PCT is just the most magnificent trail in the world and at the moment there is no place I’d rather be.” Earlier on his journey Sabbe revealed that he had crossed California in less than a month, taking 29 days, 23 hours and 58 minutes. That was also a record time, he said. Sabbe is a veteran of the Pacific Crest Trail. He set a previous record for completing it in 2016, with a time of 52 days and eight hours, according to the Fastest Known Time website. That record was broken in 2021 by the celebrated ultrarunner Timothy Olson, who completed the route in 51 days and 16 hours. Olson encountered wildfires and mountain lions during his trek and got through eight pairs of shoes. “There were some really dark moments. There were a few days I felt like I was going to throw up, I was in so much pain,” Olson told the San Francisco Chronicle. “It’s the closest I’ve felt to God.” Despite his day job Abbe has still managed to become one of the world’s best ultrarunners. As well as his recordbreaking exploits on the Pacific Crest Trail, he has also completed another of America’s toughest routes. Earlier this year he finished the notorious Barkley Marathons in Tennessee. The ultramarathon trail race is held each year at the Frozen Head State Park and tasks runners with tackling five loops of about 20 miles each. The route was inspired by the 1977 prison escape of James Earl Ray, Martin Luther King Jr’s assassin. It is known as “the race that eats its young” and athletes often get lost in the unforgiving terrain. bronze plaques bearing his image found at numerous locations. But Foti has denounced the maternal grandfather she never met as a murderer in a prize-winning documentary. J’Accuse, written and directed by Michael Kretzmer, a British film-maker of Lithuanian descent, recounts the country’s role in the Holocaust through interviews with Foti and Grant Gochin, whose family members were among Noreika’s victims. According to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial centre in Jerusalem, Lithuania welcomed the Nazis, “seeing them as liberators from Soviet occupation”. About 141,000 of the country’s 168,000 Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, with “a significant part carried out by Lithuanian auxiliary forces”, its website states. In 2000 Foti’s mother, on her deathbed, asked her to finish a book she had started writing about her famous father. But the book Foti published more than two decades later, called Storm In The Land of Rain, could not have been further from her mother’s intention. Years of research led Foti, a former journalist who now teaches English, to uncover proof that Noreika, as a captain in the Lithuanian army, was complicit in the murder of thousands of Jews. The evidence included a pamphlet he wrote in 1933 entitled Hold your head high, Lithuanian, which Foti describes as the equivalent of Hitler’s Mein Kampf. On her website she writes: “What has been kept a secret is that Jonas must have approved the killing of 2,000 Jews in Plunge in July 1941 ... He signed paperwork to round up Jews. He signed about 100 documents related to the Holocaust in Lithuania. During that time, 5,000 Jews were placed in ghettoes and shot in Siauliai, and another 7,000 in Telsiai.” Foti’s research led her to Gochin, a South African-born activist in California, whose grandfather hailed from Lithuania. He has spent years petitioning the government to admit “the truth” about the country’s role in the Holocaust. “They have erased most of the crimes and used it to show us Lithuania as this wonderful country,” Gochin told The Times. According to Kretzmer, a memorial to Noreika was “removed for cleaning” before the Nato summit in Vilnius in July. Foti, who has been nominated for the Nobel peace prize for her campaigning, said: “I would like to respect the Lithuanian government again and I just wish they would do the right thing and not celebrate anyone who was involved in killing Jews. Unfortunately that includes my grandfather.” Kretzmer, who made the film on a budget of barely $30,000, said: “The people are entirely innocent of these crimes. It’s the government who is guilty of obliging them to honour heroes who are murderers.” The Lithuanian government did not respond to a request for comment. J’Accuse tells of the murder of an entire class of nursery school children; one of countless atrocities committed by Lithuanians collaborating with the Nazis. Left: Captured German soldiers are marched through Vilnius in 1944. Right: children are forced to undress before being shot Below: Silvia Foti with an image of her grandfather, known as General Storm French pupils banned from wearing abaya dresses Page 28 Tripoli in flames after secret Israel talks revealed Page 26
26 2GM Tuesday August 29 2023 | the times World Libya’s foreign minister has fled the country amid widespread rioting after it emerged that she met her Israeli counterpart in Rome last week to discuss formal recognition of Israel. Conversations between diplomats on the topic often take place in private, but the Israeli foreign minister, Eli Cohen, went public with a press release, thanking Najla al-Mangoush, his Libyan counterpart. She has since been suspended from her post. Mangoush, born in Wales and educated in the United States, is a member of the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity, led by Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, the prime minister. In the statement, Israel portrayed the meeting as having been carefully scheduled, with “possibilities of co-operation between the countries and the preservation of Jewish culture in Libya” discussed. Cohen said it was “a first step in the ties between Israel and Libya”. Mangoush’s office issued a contradictory statement insisting that the meeting had been “unplanned” and denied any “discussions, agreements or consultations”. It said that she had emphasised Libya’s support for the Palestinians and “rejection of normalisation with the Zionist entity”. Dbeibah then announced that he had suspended her, pending an investigation into the matter. Violent demonstrations broke out on Sunday night in Tripoli and elsewhere in Libya in protest at the talks. Mangoush flew out of Tripoli later that night in a government jet, bound for Turkey. Senior Israeli officials were said to be incensed at the way their foreign minister had jeopardised the role of an Arab counterpart. “There are meetings like this all the time, between Israeli and Arab ministers, but the golden rule is that they can never be published,” one diplomat told The Times. “It’s incredible boastfulness and sheer incompetence to do what Cohen did. I can’t begin to understand why he did it. No Arab minister will trust him from now.” In November 2021 it emerged that Saddam Haftar, son of the Libyan warlord Marshal Khalifa Haftar, had secretly visited Israel, where he engaged in talks with officials. However, none of the meetings were officially confirmed. Yair Lapid, a former Israeli prime minister and foreign minister, now the country’s opposition leader, tweeted that “the nations of the world are looking at the irresponsible leak of the Israel-Libya foreign ministers’ meeting and asking themselves: is this a country we can have foreign relations with?” As the storm continued yesterday, both sides began changing their versions of events. Sources close to Cohen insisted initially that the Libyans had agreed on publicising the meeting. Later in the day, however, the foreign ministry in Jerusalem changed its position, claiming that “the leak on the meeting with Libya’s foreign minister did not come from the foreign ministry or the office of the foreign minister”. Sources close to Cohen sought to accuse Mossad, the spy agency, and the National Security Council of being behind the leak. Libyan government officials said that Dbeibah had indeed been aware of the A rabbi who allegedly duped up to 30 women into romantic relationships by using fake dating profiles has been arrested in Israel on suspicion of rape by deception. Yosef Paryzer, an American-born married father of two, posted on multiple apps under the name Jake Segal and other aliases to connect with women in Jerusalem. He is said to have embarked on dozens of relationships, many simultaneously, after claiming to be looking for love and marriage. Paryzer, 34, would swap his ultraOrthodox garb for more secular clothing in his profile pictures, presenting himself as a moderately observant Jew who worked for a guide dog charity. “His profile seemed very legit, he used multiple photos of his face and a full name; there was nothing he concealed on the site, so it all seemed very normal,” one woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said. They had “connected deeply” and discussed marriage and children. Despite the rabbi regularly cancelling their dates, not always responding to texts and refusing to spend the night with her, the woman continued to trust Paryzer, who is thought to have arrived Israel Ruth Eglash Jerusalem Yosef Paryzer dressed for work as a rabbi and, right, his dating profile “unplanned” meeting and had even given his agreement to it taking place during his own visit to Rome a month earlier. Libya has long been a fierce proponent of the Palestinian people’s cause. Many members of the Jewish community in the country fled during the Second World War when it was occupied by the Nazis. Colonel Muammar Gaddafi later went on to persecute many of those who remained. Fukushima businesses suffer abuse Japan Richard Lloyd Parry Tokyo Protests in Tripoli over the meeting between Najla al-Mangoush and Eli Cohen quickly spread to other cities in Libya Tripoli in flames after ‘secret’ talks with Israel are revealed Libya Anshel Pfeffer Wronged women join forces to catch philandering rabbi in Israel from New York a decade ago. “He explained it all very well,” the woman said, describing how he would claim to suddenly feel unwell or experience a panic attack, while also saying he was still hurting from a previous relationship so needed space. “Now I understand that this was his method.” Doubts arose after an argument. When the woman went to where she believed Paryzer lived to apologise, she found nobody there of that name. Trying to piece together the mystery, she remembered him mentioning two women he followed on Instagram. “Israel is a very small country, and I quickly found their phone numbers,” she said. “I called and asked them about him. One said, ‘I can’t believe you’re contacting me about this guy, I just broke up with him.’ Another said: ‘He’s my current boyfriend, we’ve been together for ten months. Last week he came and met all my family.’ Obviously, it was all very shocking and was not an easy thing to hear,” she said. Together the three women confronted Paryzer and captured him on camera admitting to maintaining relationships with several women, the longest of which lasted several years. Eventually, it was revealed that he was married, had two young sons — one four months old — and was a rabbi. Two of the women made a complaint of rape by deception to the police. Following an investigation by the fraud unit, Paryzer was arrested last week and promptly fired from the religious school in Jerusalem where he taught. A police spokesman said that statements had been taken from 18 women. At least ten others have come forward since his arrest was made public. His detention has been extended for a week. Businesses and officials in Fukushima have been overwhelmed with abusive phone calls from Chinese people angry about the controversial release of treated waste water from the city’s nuclear power plant. Japan’s foreign ministry called in the Chinese ambassador to Tokyo to make a formal diplomatic protest after the incidents. Most of the calls targeted businesses and institutions that have no connection to the decision to release the water from the nuclear power plant, which suffered a meltdown after the 2011 tsunami. A Japanese school in the Chinese city of Qingdao was targeted by a stone thrower, and the following day eggs were thrown at a school in Suzhou. A ramen noodle shop in Fukushima was forced to disconnect its phone after receiving more than 800 abusive phone calls from Chinese numbers. “It’s causing problems as we can’t respond to questions from our customers,” said Ippei Yamamoto, proprietor of the Gattsuri Ramen Ichibuta ramen shop. The Fukushima city office has also been subjected to abuse, although responsibility for the discharge of the water lies with the national, rather than local, government. Local schools have received angry calls, as has a cultural centre in Tokyo, with anonymous callers demanding: “Why are you releasing dirty water?” Chinese internet users have posted videos of themselves calling random businesses in Fukushima. The Japanese embassy in Beijing has warned its citizens in the country to be cautious and to avoid speaking Japanese loudly in public places, for fear of abuse and attacks. Sperm donor tries to visit his 96 children United States Will Pavia New York Several times in the history of assisted reproduction, there have been warnings that if sperm donors were not granted anonymity, young men would no longer be willing to make donations for fear of a phone call, years later, from a child they had never met. This was not the case for Dylan Stone-Miller, 32, a software developer from Atlanta who was known to families all over the United States as Xytex 5186, and whose donations have resulted in 96 children. Over summer, StoneMiller has been pitching up with toys and books to spend time with some of his progeny. He had been a donor for six years while in college and had given the Xytex sperm bank permission to disclose his identity to his biological children when they reached adulthood. But in 2020 two mothers contacted him, having traced his identity. A few months earlier he had broken up with his wife, and she and their child had moved out. He discovered a Facebook group named after his donor profile — Xytex 5186 Offspring. Stone-Miller asked if families would be willing to let him meet them. About 20 responded. “Am I a parent?” he told a medical journal. “It’s not for me to say, but it feels like parenting every once in a while.”
the times | Tuesday August 29 2023 27 World As many as 5,000 pilots in the US could be hiding health issues that would disqualify them from flying, according to a report by the safety body. Federal investigators have been looking into cases in which pilots are receiving benefits for medical disorders that would ordinarily disqualify them from flying aircraft. About 600 of those under investigation are licensed to fly passenger aircraft and all are former military airmen and women who told the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that they were fit to fly despite claiming benefits for disabilities and sometimes mental health disorders. 5,000 pilots may be hiding health issues United States Alistair Dawber Washington The FAA refused to be interviewed but issued a statement saying that it had been investigating 4,800 pilots, “who might have submitted incorrect or false information as part of their medical applications”. The agency said it had now closed roughly half of those cases and had ordered about 60 pilots — who “posed a clear danger to aviation safety” to stop flying, while records are reviewed. It was officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs who first discovered that some pilots had maintained their licences despite claiming the benefits. According to The Washington Post, which first reported the story, the discovery was made two years ago but the FAA has since declined to publicise the findings. “The Federal Aviation Administration is offering an opportunity for certain pilots who served in the US military and may be receiving disability benefits from the US Veterans Administration to reconcile medical applications and records on file with the FAA,” the agency said in a blog that it published in June. Federal contracting records obtained by The Washington Post show the FAA has assigned $3.6 million to hire medical experts to re-examine certification records for 5,000 pilots who pose “potential risks to the flying public”. “The FAA used a risk-based approach to identify veterans whose medical conditions posed the greatest risk to safety and instructed them to cease flying while the agency reviews their cases,” the FAA said in its statement to the newspaper. “The vast majority of these pilots may continue to operate safely while we complete the reconciliation process.” There has not been a fatal crash involving a US passenger airline since 2009 when a Colgan Air Flight crashed near Buffalo in New York state killing all 49 on board and one person on the ground. However, there have been crashes around the world since then that have brought into question whether the pilots involved ought to have been allowed to be at the controls. In 2015, the pilot of a Germanwings plane apparently deliberately crashed his jet into the Alps during a flight between Barcelona and Dusseldorf. He had previously been treated for mental health issues, including suicidal tendencies. More recently, the pilot of a China Eastern airliner crashed the jet he was flying into a mountainside. Pilots in the US who suffer from depression or anxiety are not automatically barred from flying, but the FAA requires their conditions to be monitored and that pilots maintain records of any medication they may be taking. Last year, the FAA began to notify some pilots that their records were being investigated and at the same time hired researchers to investigate the cases. People involved in the project say they were told that their work was to be kept confidential. A potentially major hurricane swollen by abnormally high ocean temperatures is expected to hit Florida tomorrow, placing 46 of the state’s 67 counties in a state of emergency. Idalia formed in the Caribbean as a tropical storm and was forecast to intensify as it headed northeast across the Gulf of Mexico, where water temperatures have in recent weeks climbed several degrees above the seasonal average. Warm, deep water acts as fuel for hurricanes. “There really doesn’t seem to be anything to prevent it from continuing to strengthen; this is going to be a major impact,” said the state governor, Ron DeSantis. The National Hurricane Centre in Miami forecast that Idalia would make Light entertainment Spectators enjoy the pyrotechnics display at the 19th International Fireworks Festival in Stuttgart, Germany, which was held at the weekend Pure nitrogen set to execute for first time Will Pavia New York Alabama is seeking to execute a death row inmate by forcing him to breathe pure nitrogen, using an untested method partly inspired by accounts from pilots losing consciousness from lack of oxygen. The state’s attorney general’s office has asked the Alabama Supreme Court to set an execution date for Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, indicating in its filing it intends to put him to death by “nitrogen hypoxia”, depriving him of oxygen. The proposed method has been authorised in Alabama, Mississippi and in Oklahoma, where it was first suggested by a law professor, Michael Copeland, as an alternative to lethal injection. Copeland presented a study to a state committee in Oklahoma in 2014. No other state or nation had used the method, and no medical professionals were willing to assist in the analysis, so his team relied on accounts from pilots who suffered oxygen deprivation. Joel Zivot, an associate professor of anesthesiology at Emory University in Atlanta, told Scientific American that he believed the claim nitrogen inhalation would represent a peaceful death, was “baseless”. Prosecutors said Smith and another man were paid $1,000 each to kill Elizabeth Sennett, wife of pastor Charles Sennett, who hired them to carry out the murder, to collect insurance. Florida braces for hurricane to strike landfall along Florida’s Big Bend region in the northeastern Gulf, possibly as a Category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of 115mph. The region, also known as the Nature Coast, is a less densely populated area whose marshy coastline is scattered with fishing communities. Cities such as Panama Beach and the state capital, Tallahassee, could also be affected. The coastline is highly vulnerable to storm surge, which meteorologists said could reach up to 11ft (3.3m), with the present supermoon having already contributed to higher than normal tides. Residents in coastal evacuation zones were urged to move inland. “There’s a lot of trees that are going to get knocked down, the power lines are going to get knocked down — that is just going to happen, so be prepared for that,” said DeSantis. The state has mobilised 1,100 members of the National Guard and fleets of rescue and recovery vehicles stood ready, including 2,400 high-water vehicles for navigating floods and 12 aircraft. Hurricane season stretches from June 1 to November 30, typically peaking in late August to late September. Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned earlier this month that this season had a 60 per cent chance of seeing an “above normal” level of activity, due to the El Niño weather pattern — which typically inhibits storm activity in the Gulf — blooming late, combined with Atlantic surface temperatures reaching their highest level since records began in 1950. Jacqui Goddard Miami Silicon Valley investors have emerged as the mystery buyers of $800 million of land near San Francisco, with plans to build a new city. Politicians and farmers in Solano county had been alarmed after a company called Flannery Associates acquired thousands of acres of farmland over the past five years. Locals feared that China could be the real owners of the company as the land is near a US Air Force base, but it has now been disclosed that they are some of Silicon Valley’s biggest investors. They include Michael Moritz, a billionaire venture capitalist born in CarMystery buyers are tech elite planning green city diff; Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple; Reid Hoffman, a co-founder of LinkedIn; and Marc Andreessen, a venture capitalist and software engineer. The group wants to turn swathes of agricultural land into a city that would run on clean energy, generate thousands of jobs and alleviate California’s housing crisis, reports suggest. Critics however, have pointed out that it is notoriously difficult to get housing built in California. John Garamendi, a Democratic congressman who represents the area, accused the group of bullying. He said: “Flannery Associates used strong-arm mobster tactics to purchase the land, including suing farmers.” Keiran Southern
28 2GM Tuesday August 29 2023 | the times World French school pupils have been banned from wearing abayas, the long dresses worn by some Muslim women, because they amount to a “political attack” on France’s secular state. Gabriel Attal, the education minister, said the government was moving to stem a trend in secondary schools for girls to wear Muslim clothing despite the ban on religious garb, including the hijab, in the strictly secular state system that was introduced in 2004. “Our schools are being tested. These past few months, violations of our secular rules have considerably increased, particularly with regard to the wearing of religious clothing such as abayas or qamis,” Attal said. The qami, also known in the Middle East as the thawb, is being worn by male pupils to a lesser degree, officials said. “The school of the Republic was built around strong values. Secularism is one of them,” Attal added. “When you enter a classroom, you shouldn’t be able to identify the religion of pupils.” As Muslim leaders and hard-left parties denounced the new measure, Olivier Véran, the government spokesman, said the abaya was clearly an item of religious clothing. “It is a political attack, it’s a political sign,” he said, adding that its wearers were trying to convert others to Islam. About 150 schools, mainly sixthform lycées, reported last year that some pupils were wearing abayas, according to a leaked ministry study. School heads welcomed the order from Attal, 34, who was appointed in July after his predecessor had ruled the abaya a grey area, mixing cultural identity and religion. This year the French Council of Muslim Faith , a national body, said that the abaya and the qami were not in themAn Italian government clampdown on charity ships saving migrants in the Mediterranean has provoked a protest by dozens of humanitarian organisations as the migrant death toll at sea so far this year tops 2,000. Some 56 charities said they were “horrified” by the “harrassment” of rescue boats by Rome after Italian authorities detained three vessels in port. “Search and rescue ships are urgently needed to prevent further loss of life on the deadliest migration route in the world yet EU member states — most prominently Italy — are actively obstructing civilian search and rescue efforts,” the groups stated. Italy temporarily impounded eight vessels this year after they defied orders from Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government to return to port immediately after a rescue, even if they receive other distress calls and can save more lives. Italy has accused the charities of actThe cheese was sold to Iván Suárez, the owner of El Llagar de Colloto, a restaurant near Oviedo, Asturias. “The passion for the land and recognising the work of the cheesemakers made me raise the bid,” Suárez said. The previous Guinness World Records highest price was €20,500 in 2019 — and that cheese was also bought by Suárez. Semi-hard, strong-tasting cabrales is made using raw cow’s milk or a mixture of cow’s, sheep’s and goat’s milk. It matures in caves in the Cabrales area in the Picos de Europa national park. The mature cheeses are taken down the mountain on foot as the caves are an hour from the nearest road. The usual price of cabrales is €35 to €40 a kilo. When asked for the address of her factory, Vada said: “Póo [high place] de Cabrales. The town is so small they don’t name the streets. It’s best to ask.” Cheese matured in a cave sets a new world record Spain Isambard Wilkinson Madrid Rome faces outcry at 2,000 migrant deaths ing as a “pull factor” after 107,000 migrants arrived from north Africa this year. The charities say they have picked up less than 10 per cent of that total with the remainder being rescued by Italian authorities or arriving by their own effort, often on the Italian island of Lampedusa. About 4,000 migrants arrived on the island at the weekend, many sailing the 132km (83 miles) from Tunisia where sub-Saharan migrants have been subjected to evictions and sackings from jobs following an anti-migrant drive by the autocratic President Saied. Humanitarian workers in the country say the number of people sailing has been boosted by migrants from countries such as Sierra Leone arriving in Tunisia via Algeria. The official number of migrants drowning on the route to Italy from Libya and Tunisia this year is 2,013, but the actual figure is feared to be higher as many migrants drown without trace after setting out on flimsy metal boats from the port of Sfax, Tunisia. This year Italy has ordered rescue ships with migrants to offload at ports in northern Italy, a tactic the charities say is aimed to wasting their fuel and reducing time spent making rescues. In April the German-flagged Humanity 1 search-and-rescue ship was ordered to take 69 migrants to Ravenna, 70 miles south of Venice and more than 1,000 miles from where they were picked up off Libya. After a stand-off this month the rescue ship Aurora, operated by the charity Sea-Watch, was allowed to dock in Lampedusa by grudging officials when it nearly ran out of fuel and water. The surge in migrants has heaped pressure on Meloni, who was elected on a promise to reduce the numbers. The charities say officials switch from impounding ships to asking for assistance when the risk of drownings is too great. “One day they are sending the charity ships to far-off ports and the next they are asking for their help,” Flavio Di Giacomo, of the International Organisation for Migration, said. Italy Tom Kington Rome The renowned cabrales blue cheese of northern Spain is matured in mountain caves and often adorns towering sirloin steaks. But the Asturian delicacy scaled new heights at the weekend when a 2.2kg wheel fetched €30,000. It earned the honour of being the world’s most expensive cheese at auction after it was named best cabrales of the year at the principality’s 51st annual competition. “We knew we had a good cheese but also that it is very difficult to win,” Guillermo Pendás, who made it for his family’s Los Puertos factory, told EFE, Spain’s state news agency. Rosa Vada, his mother and the company’s owner, said the cheese had been matured in a cave at an altitude of 1,400 metres, at a temperature of 7C, where it spent “a minimum of eight months”. French pupils banned from wearing Muslim abaya dresses France Charles Bremner Paris selves a “religious sign”. Abdallah Zekri, deputy leader of the council, said the education minister should have consulted his organisation first. “The abaya is not a religious outfit. It’s a type of fashion,” he told the French news channel BFMTV. “It’s a long and flowing dress that has got nothing to do with religion.” The ban was yet another example of politicians using dress to attack French Muslims, he said. After subsiding since the 2004 schools ban, tension over displays of Muslim faith in schools increased again in 2020 after the gruesome murder by an Islamist terrorist of Samuel Paty, a teacher, as he left his school in a Paris suburb. Last month Yaël Braun-Pivet, the parliamentary speaker and a member of President Macron’s Renaissance party, called for “a totally secular state school” where there is “no Ramadan, no abaya, no religious signs”. Conservative leaders, who have been calling for the ban on the wearing of religious symbols to be widened to universities, welcomed the decision. In last year’s presidential election the runnerup, Marine Le Pen, leader of the rightwing National Rally, promised to ban women from wearing the hijab or other Muslim head coverings in public. Only full-face covering is prohibited, under a 2010 law, though the hijab is not allowed for public service employees. Politicians from the left-wing Unbowed France Party attacked the abaya rule, calling it discrimination against France’s five million Muslims. Clémentine Autain, a prominent MP with the party, said it was a new attempt by the government to “police” women’s clothing and a sign of its “obsessive rejection” of Muslims. Manon Aubry, an Unbowed MEP, said the minister was making “a little bit of cloth” more important than helping the poor to equip children for the new school year. T he “triumphant” return to France of a portrait of one of the country’s greatest writers has been put on hold after a breakdown in communications between Paris and Palm Beach (Adam Sage writes). In May, the French National Centre for Visual Arts announced that almost a century after the portrait of Anatole France, the Nobel prize-winning author, was stolen by the artist who painted it, the work was about to be sent back to France by the descendants of Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company. The centre said that its lawyer was “confident that there will be a happy outcome. Our Anatole France should return to France, triumphantly.” Now officials are not too sure. Le Figaro says they have been unable to contact the Ford family trust that is thought to have the painting, and are considering a lawsuit in an attempt to obtain it. The work was painted in 1921 by Kees van Dongen, the FrancoDutch master, who lived next door to Anatole France, author of such novels as The Gods Are Athirst, in the chic 16th arrondissement of Paris. In 1926, the French government asked celebrated artists to donate a work to the state, which were to be sold to raise funds to combat a run on the franc. Van Dongen, a member of the radical Fauves movement, donated the portrait, but the work failed to find a buyer — unsurprisingly, perhaps, given that critics said the subject’s face looked green and long. Instead, it was kept by the state and exhibited in what is now the Jeu de Paume centre in Paris. Five years later, Van Dongen asked for the painting to be lent to him for an exhibition. But instead of returning it afterwards, he sold it to an art collector for 20,000 francs in 1932, who in turn sold it to Henry Ford II for $80,000 in 1968. When Ford died in 1987, the work passed to Kathleen DuRoss Ford, the model and socialite he had married seven years earlier. When she died in 2020, the painting was meant to be among her collection of 650 artworks and objects put up for auction by Christie’s. It was estimated to be worth up to €350,000 but was withdrawn from the sale at the last minute after France objected, saying it was stolen property. The painting is thought to be in Palm Beach, where DuRoss Ford lived. French officials say they have been pressing for it to be sent to Paris. In May they said it “should soon be returned by the Ford family trust”. Now they say their emails and telephone calls have gone unanswered, and add that they do not know how to contact the trustees. Return of a literary hero is lost in translation The portrait of Anatole France was given to the state by Kees van Dongen in response to a French appeal for help in an economic crisis. Five years later the artist stole it back and sold it
the times | Tuesday August 29 2023 29 Business Trust in British supermarkets has fallen to the lowest level for a decade as households grapple with high prices, despite the rate of food prices inflation easing this month. The latest monthly consumer insight tracker from Which?, the consumer group, found that confidence in the grocery industry had dropped in August to the lowest level since February 2013, a time when horse DNA had been discovered in frozen beef burgers and lasagne sold in some Irish and British supermarkets. Less than half of shoppers surveyed this month said they trusted the supermarket sector to act in their best interests, with food prices on a par with energy bills as a source of concern. Just over three quarters said they had adjusted their habits in response to high food prices, including buying budget ranges and skipping meals. Separately, figures compiled by the British Retail Consortium showed that food prices inflation had eased to 11.5 per cent, down from 13.4 per cent in July. It is the fourth consecutive month that the rate has declined, having hit a record high of 15.7 per cent in April, according to figures from the BRC and Nielsen, the data specialist. Food prices continue to run ahead of the annual rate of consumer price inflation in the UK, which declined to 6.4 per cent in July, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, led by lower electricity and gas prices. Katie Alpin, head of strategic insight at Which?, said: “Supermarkets have the power to ease the huge pressure Jul 30 Aug 6 13 20 28 Jul 30 Aug 6 13 20 28 Jul 30 Aug 6 13 20 28 Jul 30 Aug 6 13 20 28 Jul 30 Aug 6 13 20 28 Jul 30 Aug 6 13 20 28 37,500 35,000 32,500 30,000 1.400 1.300 1.200 1.100 1.300 1.200 1.100 1.000 commodities currencies $ $ 2,200 2,000 1,800 1,600 FTSE 100 7,338.58 (unchanged) 8,500 8,000 7,500 7,000 world markets Brent crude $83.78 (-0.23) Dow Jones 34,559.98 (+213.08) $ £/$ $1.2591 (+0.0019) £/€ €1.1648 (-0.0004) ¤ (Change on the day) 120 100 80 60 Gold $1,920.10 (+10.12) The group has customers in more than 130 markets. Jonathan Milner, 58, Abcam’s founder, who has a 6.1 per cent stake, had joined activist shareholders including Starboard Value, the hedge fund, in calling for a sale of the company. He had called for a shareholder vote this summer on whether he should be appointed executive chairman, but ended his campaign when it emerged that suitors had expressed an interest in the company. Peter Allen, 67, chairman of Abcam, Investors managing £1.5 trillion in assets have warned the government that a lack of clarity on green policies risks stalling investments needed to reach the 2050 net zero target. They say recent signals around key policy areas, including a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by the end of the decade, could stop the finance sector from investing the £50 billion to Investors demand more clarity from government on net zero Emma Powell £60 billion a year needed to hit the emissions goal. The warning comes in a letter sent to the prime minister and signed by 36 financial institutions that are members of the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association, including Jupiter Asset Management, Royal London and Scottish Widows. James Alexander, chief executive of the association, said: “The global competition to capture billions of pounds of private investment in the clean industries of the future is intense. Ministers’ recent remarks are undermining investor confidence and putting the UK’s net zero head start at risk.” They have asked for certainty over long-term policy in areas including the transition to electric vehicles, improved energy efficiency standards for housing and carbon-pricing mechanisms. Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, has told cabinet colleagues previously that electric vehicle targets being imposed on the industry could damage investment. Alexander said that in recent years there had been positive policy signals, allowing the finance sector to invest with confidence in the infrastructure for the green transition. “The problem is, as soon as the government starts making comments or noises suggesting that might not actually be the direction of travel after all, it saps the confidence of private investors and we need that money to make this transition possible,” he said. Last month Rishi Sunak said that the government would press ahead with awarding more than 100 new licences for North Sea oil and gas exploration. A spokesman for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: “We are fully committed to our legally binding target of achieving net zero by 2050.” said that the sale to Danaher “maximises value for shareholders”. Danaher, a $190 billion conglomerate that specialises in medical services and goods, has made a series of acquisitions in recent years. The Washingtonbased company bought General Electric’s life sciences business for $21.4 billion four years ago and purchased Aldevron, a maker of proteins and DNA for the biotechnology industry, for $9.6 billion in 2021. Shares in Danaher rose by 2.3 per cent, or $5.97, to close on $261.50. Rainer Blair, 58, president and chief executive of Danaher, said: “Abcam’s long track record of innovation, outstanding product quality and breadth of antibody portfolio positions them as a key partner for the scientific community. We look forward to welcoming Abcam’s innovative and talented team to Danaher.” Public trust in supermarkets at decade low Emma Powell faced by shoppers, especially families and those on low incomes, by putting low-cost budget range items in hundreds of more expensive convenience stores. Which? research has found that these stores rarely, if ever, stock the cheapest products.” Food prices have risen sharply across Europe this year after bad weather and amid poor harvesting conditions. There is evidence that retailers in Europe have raised prices even as the costs of transportation and energy has fallen. Britain is vulnerable to shifts in global commodity prices as it relies on imports for half of all food consumption. In June the bosses of Britain’s four largest supermarkets — Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons — rejected accusations from MPs that the industry was behaving like “a cartel” and was fuelling inflation by profiteering from rising food prices. The supermarkets argued that on top of higher energy costs, they faced rising wage bills and logistics expenses. A separate investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority last month found no evidence of profiteering by the industry, but said supermarkets were making it difficult for shoppers to spot the best deals by using inconsistent and unclear pricing. Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said that while inflation was set to continue to fall, supply chain risks remained. She said Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea grain deal and its targeting of Ukrainian grain facilities, as well as poor harvests across Europe and beyond, could serve as potential roadblocks to getting inflation down. Helen Cahill One of Britain’s leading life sciences companies is to be taken over by an American group in a $5.7 billion deal after its founder called for a change in strategy. The Cambridge-based Abcam is a global supplier to the pharmaceuticals research industry. Quoted on Nasdaq, the technology-heavy New York stock exchange, it has agreed to a $24-pershare offer from Danaher under which it would continue as a standalone entity within the parent group. The offer represents a 2.7 per cent premium to its closing price last week. Abcam shares fell by 4.3 per cent, or $1.01, to $22.35 on Wall Street last night. Abcam was founded in 1998 and is a key supplier of antibodies and other materials used by about 750,000 researchers in the life sciences industry. Food price inflation piles pressure on households 6 In light trading and with little activity expected before figures on jobs and inflation are published at the end of the week, Wall Street indices advanced, with the Dow Jones industrial average up 213.08 points, or 0.6 per cent, to 34,559.98. Abcam agrees $5.7bn US takeover deal Cold comfort Unilever is facing increased pressure over its presence in Russia, where the “essential food products” that it provides include Ben & Jerry’s, the ice cream promoted by figures including Ava DuVernay, the filmmaker.
30 V2 Tuesday August 29 2023 | the times Business have said that a “clean sweep of management” ultimately is what Unilever has needed. Now the bosses need to get the big calls right. First on the agenda is likely to be Russia. Unilever continues to operate in the country, selling what it classes as “everyday essential food and hygiene products”. As the maker of Ben & Jerry’s, this includes ice cream. British companies identified by researchers at Yale University in the United States as carrying on “business as usual” in Russia are BT, the telecoms group, JKX, an oil producer, and FS Mackenzie, a logistics company. Only Antal International, an executive headhunter, continues to actively hire and advertise in Russia. Unilever is graded as “buying time”, along with the likes of AstraZeneca and GSK, the London-listed Big Pharma groups that continue to provide essential medicines but have suspended investments, and Reckitt Benckiser, the households products maker, which said last month that it was continuing the process of transferring ownership of its Russian business. However, a recent analysis from the Moral Rating Agency, a think tank spent on advertising in 2022, up from 19.7 billion roubles in 2021. Spending on “marketing services”, however, dropped to zero from 1.7 billion roubles. None of the Russian social media pages for big Unilever brands have been active since the start of the war. Unilever said it had suspended all Russian imports and exports of products, had cut further capital investment in the country and would make no profit from its presence there. In an updated statement this year, it reiterated its position on the war as a “brutal and senseless act by the Russian state”, adding that it had donated “more than €15 million of support and essential Unilever products to the humanitarian relief effort”. The decision to retain Unilever’s eight Russian enterprises was made by Jope, Schumacher’s predecessor, who said that leaving the country would risk its assets falling into Russian state hands. Indeed, in his letter to Simoroz and while promising to keep Unilever’s operations in Russia under close Hein Schumacher, below right, has 1 Britain’s airspace was hit by a “network-wide failure” of the air traffic control system, with some flights into the country delayed by 12 hours. National Air Traffic Services said the issue had been “identified and remedied” and that engineers would be monitoring the system’s performance as it returned to normal. 2 The chief executive of the Samaritans has accused Michael Dugher, the chief executive of the Betting and Gaming Council, of “twisting” the charity’s guidance on suicide to minimise links to the betting industry. A spokesman for the Betting and Gaming Council denied the claim. 3 Trust in British supermarkets has fallen to its lowest for a decade, according to a survey. The Which? consumer insight tracker found that confidence in the grocery industry had dropped in August to the weakest level since 2013, a time when horse DNA had been discovered in products being sold as containing beef. 4Abcam, one of Britain’s leading life sciences companies, is to be taken over by Danaher, of the United States, in a $5.7 billion deal. Abcam is a global supplier to pharmaceuticals researchers. 5 Investors managing a combined £1.5 trillion in assets have warned the government that a lack of clarity on green policies risks stalling investments needed to reach the 2050 net zero target. They say recent signals could stop the finance sector investing the £50 billion to £60 billion a year needed to hit the emissions goal. 6 Calls are growing louder for Unilever to leave Russia. It is one of the few multinationals still to operate there, selling “everyday essential food and hygiene products”. 7 The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia is to take control of the aircraft leasing division of Standard Chartered. The $3.6 billion deal is being done by AviLease, a company owned by the sovereign wealth fund. 8 The pensions industry has offered cautious support for proposals to allow employers to claw back surpluses from pension schemes. The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association said fears that members could be disadvantaged were misplaced, as long as safeguards were in place. 9 Vegan “meat” still has a future despite the rising cost of living, Jim Laird, chief executive at Enough, said after his vegan protein company attracted fresh venture capital investment. It has raised €40 million. 10Britain faces a “continued and increasing gap” with rival international markets under government plans for a new NHS sales levy on drug manufacturers, according to a letter sent by the head of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry. Need to know Abu Dhabi group to buy Circle Health for $1.2bn One of Britain’s biggest private healthcare companies is set to be acquired by a Middle Eastern provider in the latest example of consolidation within the industry. The $1.2 billion takeover of Circle Health by PureHealth will mark the Abu Dhabi-based group’s entrance into the UK healthcare sector. In 2012 Circle Health became the first private company to run an NHS hospital, when it took over Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridgeshire. The hospital was handed back to the NHS later after the health regulator rated the trust “inadequate”. The company runs 54 hospitals in Britain and specialises in areas including orthopaedics, neurosurgery and oncology. It employs more than 8,200 people. Its expansion was accelerated through the acquisition in 2020 of BMI Healthcare, at that time Britain’s biggest private hospital chain. Last year Circle Health generated more than £1 billion in revenue, with two million visits from patients. The group was founded in 2004 by Ali Parsa, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker, and Massoud Fouladi, a consultant ophthalmologist. It was floated on the London Stock Exchange’s alternative investment market in 2011, but was delisted subsequently by Toscafund, a private equity group that had been its biggest shareholder. Since 2021 the company has been wholly owned by Centene, an American healthcare insurer. The deal, which is expected to be completed early next year, is another sign of overseas interest in Britain’s private healthcare. In 2021, shareholders in the London-listed Spire Healthcare rejected a £1 billion takeover bid from Ramsay Health Care, an Australian rival, despite the deal being recommended by the board. Companies are expected to benefit from an increase in work from the NHS and a surge in private patients as waiting lists rise. PureHealth operates more than 25 hospitals, more than 100 clinics and 160 laboratories in the Middle East and has 24,000 staff. It says it uses artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies “to reimagine health spans and challenge life spans”. The company is majority-owned by ADQ, the Abu Dhabi investment fund, with International Holding Company also holding a stake. ADQ and IHC are chaired by Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the national security adviser and brother of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the UAE president. PureHealth recently completed the $500 million purchase of a stake in Ardent Health Services, America’s fourth largest private healthcare group. Emma Powell Russia tops agenda for Unilever’s new restructuring boss A Ukrainian soldier injured in the war with Russia received a response this month from the new boss of Unilever. Oleh Simoroz had urged the consumer goods group to stop doing business in the country, complaining that “you’re paying taxes to the aggressor country and thus financing terrorism”. In his reply, Hein Schumacher said the matter was “not straightforward” and that Unilever, one of a few western multinationals to continue operating in Russia, had been unable to arrange an exit that met the company’s “objectives”. Nevertheless, the Dutchman promised Simoroz, 26, that he and his team would look at the situation “with a fresh pair of eyes”. Quitting Russia, where Unilever’s profits doubled to about £110 million last year, is unlikely to be the only issue getting Schumacher’s fresh pair of eyes. The 52-year-old former head of FrieslandCampina, the Dutch dairy cooperative, took on the chief executive role only last month — and at a crucial time for the maker of Marmite, Dove soap and Hellmann’s mayonnaise. Not least among his immediate challenges is the pressure from investors over the FTSE 100 group’s stagnant share price performance — disquiet that came to a head at the start of 2022 after a botched £50 billion bid for GSK’s consumer health business. Among these critics is Nelson Peltz, the veteran American activist investor, who joined its board a year ago and is a top-ten shareholder. Peltz, 81, who previously has led activist campaigns at Heinz and Procter & Gamble, rival consumer goods heavyweights, wants Unilever to improve its sales volumes, margins and share price. His presence has had obvious effects already. Since setting his sights on Unilever there have been leadership changes, including the exits of Alan Jope, the former chief executive, Graeme Pitkethly, as chief financial officer, and Conny Braams, the chief digital officer. Ian Meakins will become its chairman in December, replacing Nils Andersen, who announced his decision to step down this year. Analysts at Royal Bank of Canada focused on the morality of doing business with Russia, found that Unilever was contributing £500 million annually to the Russian economy. Its estimate includes Unilever’s costs and taxes expended in Russia on production, wages and rent. Mark Dixon, the British mergers and acquisitions consultant who founded the agency, said: “[Unilever’s] support for Russia singlehandedly reverses about 10 per cent of Britain’s support for Ukraine. “The company’s support can pay for 39 bullets per second being fired 24 hours a day. Schumacher’s crocodile tears about trouble exiting must stop. He needs to make a U-turn and get out of Russia without further delay.” Campaigners are also keen to point out what they regard as the hypocrisy of Unilever touting socially conscious values such as “always working with integrity” and “positive impact”. Ben & Jerry’s sold its Israeli branch, saying that it was “inconsistent with Ben & Jerry’s values for our ice cream to be sold in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”. Criticism from British politicians has often featured the continued sales of ice cream by Unilever in Russia. Its Magnum and Cornetto brands are produced by factories in Tula, south of Moscow. Sir Chris Bryant, the Labour MP, said last month: “The idea of Unilever making money out of selling Magnums to Russians, as essential items apparently — it angers me beyond belief.” Ukraine’s government called Unilever a “sponsor” of the war after the company paid 3.2 billion roubles (about £27 million) in corporate taxes in Russia last year. In May, Unilever Rus LLC, the group’s Russian subsidiary, reported total revenues of 91.3 billion roubles in 2022, up from 87 billion roubles in the previous year. Net profits nearly doubled to 9.2 billion roubles. The parent company attributed the rise to the changing value of the rouble and inflation. On March 8, 2022, within weeks of Russia’s invasion, Unilever said it had stopped all media and advertising expenditure. Detailed accounts for the subsidiary show 21.7 billion roubles Slice of the pie £44 43 42 41 40 39 38 Oct Jan Apr Jul Source: Google Finance Source: Unilever Unilever’s turnover in Russia represents just under 1.5 per cent of total sales across the group Turnover Profit Russia Group Share price £763m £77m £52bn £8bn 2022 2023 Isabella Fish, Max Kendix
the times | Tuesday August 29 2023 V2 31 Business going directly to Russian government coffers. In a response to the B4Ukraine campaign group in July, the company confirmed that it would allow its Russian employees to be conscripted if required to do so by the state. Dixon noted that Unilever’s continued presence, therefore, “may result in a British company’s Russian employees being called up to fight a British ally whose soldiers are simultaneously being trained in Britain”. Unilever’s new management team will be careful, however, not to let pressures to get out of Russia distract them from other pressing tasks in their in-trays. They have inherited a company whose sluggish sales and share price have trailed behind sector peers such as Nestlé and Procter & Gamble — in part, Bank of America analysts argue, because its bosses have been “overly focused” on profitability and unwilling to step up investment. Unilever has delivered volume and review, Schumacher argued that trading in the region remained the “best option” to avoid the risk of its business ending up in the hands of the Russian state, “either directly or indirectly, and to help protect our people”. The Unilever boss has said previously that pulling out “could result in it being nationalised”, pointing to the takeover of the Russian subsidiary of Danone, the French yoghurt maker, this summer. Unilever has said it had three options for leaving the country: to try to close the business; selling it; or carrying on within the restrictions it imposed in March. The company argues that the first two would benefit the Russian government. Sudden asset seizures, as happened with Danone and Carlsberg, the Danish brewer, could mean Unilever brands being taken over by Kremlin-appointed managers, threatening its 3,000 staff. Under new rules, any deal to sell the business to a local partner would lead to 5 per cent of the company’s value Saudi Arabia plans to become a significant player in international aircraft leasing. Not content with shaking up the worlds of golf and football and taking a stake in the Aston Martin sports car company, the country’s Public Investment Fund is to take control of the aircraft leasing division of Standard Chartered. The $3.6 billion deal is being done by AviLease, a fledgling company wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund , which is overseen by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia. The acquisition tried to reassure campaigners against Unilever’s continued presence in Russia, but one accused him of “crocodile tears” product-mix growth of 1.8 per cent a year on average since 2003, compared with Nestlé’s 3 per cent figure, according to an analysis by Jefferies, the investment bank. That gap has widened significantly since the first quarter of 2020. Unilever has a market value of £102 billion, while Nestlé’s is about £256 billion and that of Procter & Gamble is £287 billion. Last year, the company was attacked by Terry Smith, a leading shareholder, who lambasted its “ludicrous” virtue-signalling on everything from sustainability to Knorr stock cubes, “at the expense of focusing on the fundamentals”. A change of direction seems likely. Schumacher, a restructuring specialist, has a track record of working on bigportfolio organisational changes and disposals across various consumer goods companies, including selling parts of FrieslandCampina’s German consumer business. Indeed, Peltz helped to recruit him as Unilever’s new boss, fuelling speculation that an overhaul could be on the cards. The former executive at Heinz said his task was to use Unilever’s core strengths to “drive improved performance and competitiveness”. He will need to lay down a strategy for how to revive growth across a diverse, complicated portfolio of about 400 brands at a time of changing consumer tastes, high input costs and pressure on household budgets. And if he can’t achieve it within the company’s existing structure, he could look at a more radical solution: spinning off parts of the business. Last year, Jope signalled that sections of Unilever’s foods and refreshment division could be up for sale as its longterm growth profile was “below other parts of the portfolio”. However, Schumacher’s background is in this area and, as Bruno Monteyne, an analyst at Bernstein, asked: “Why hire a food executive if you’re planning to sell the food business?” Last summer, Unilever siphoned off ice cream into its own division during a company-wide restructuring that split the brands into five main groups: beauty and wellbeing; personal care; homecare; nutrition; and ice cream. The move prompted speculation over the future of its ice cream business, but Matt Close, president of the new division, said there was “no reason to believe” a sale could be on the horizon and that it planned to tap into trends such as vegan and non-dairy. Ice cream has been something of a hot potato for Unilever in recent years, one that has forced it to address another turbulent geography. When its socially conscious American subsidiary announced in 2021 that it would no longer sell its products in territories occupied by Israel but claimed by Palestine, that sparked anger in Tel Aviv. There was more discontent when Unilever struck a deal to sell the ice cream business’s operation in Israel, much to the dismay of Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the Ben & Jerry’s founders, who claimed the British company had breached the terms of its takeover in 2000. Then there is the issue of sustainability that so irked Smith. Planted firmly on centre stage under his predecesors, it remains to be seen if Schumacher will adopt a similar approach. He will reveal his plans for the business when he announces the company’s thirdquarter results in October. Investors will expect fast action and for Unilever to close the gap on its peers. Pressure on the services sector hits bottom line Emma Powell Profits for Britain’s services sector companies have fallen for a seventh consecutive quarter, new figures suggest, as businesses continue to struggle under the weight of higher interest rates and stubborn inflation. The latest quarterly services sector survey by the CBI has found that cost pressures and disappointing business volumes drove down profits for the consumer and professional services industries over the three months to August. A net balance of 27 per cent of consumer services operators suffered a fall in profitability over the three months, albeit better than 53 per cent in the previous quarter, while a net balance of 19 per cent of professional services companies reported a decline. The consumer services industry also recorded a sharp decline in business volume, with a net balance of 34 per cent of companies reporting a fall in volumes, compared with 22 per cent during the previous quarter. Professional services business was steady, with a net 2 per cent of companies reporting a weakening in activity. With costs expected to remain well above the long-term average, the fall in profits is expected to slow in professional services but to decline at the same rate in consumer services. The research echoes findings from the monthly composite purchasing managers’ index, which showed that a surprise downturn in the services industry in August had caused the private sector to contract at its fastest pace since the start of 2021. The economy has recorded modest growth this year, boosted by the dominant services sector, which had continued to power ahead despite rising interest rates and inflation. However, S&P Global, which helps to compile the PMI survey, said that services industries had reported the weakest output in 31 months amid pressures from the cost of living crisis. Both sets of figures will add to expectations that UK GDP is set to have contractedc during the third quarter, meaning that the economy would meet the first leg of a technical recession, which is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth. Charlotte Dendy, the CBI’s head of economic surveys and data, said: “Many companies will continue to face a challenging time this autumn and winter as pressure on household budgets and tighter credit conditions continue to have an impact. “Despite a fall in inflation and moderately lower energy costs, help is needed from government in the autumn budget to assist businesses in navigating another difficult winter where cost pressures are likely to continue to impact firms’ decisions to grow and invest.” Elevated inflation and higher financing costs have caused investment plans for the next 12 months to deteriorate in both sub-sectors, with cutbacks expected on land and buildings and on vehicles, plant and machinery. Aircraft leasing is the latest game for Saudi Arabia of the Dublin-based aircraft leasing interests of Standard Chartered, the £20 billion FTSE 100 Asia-focused bank, will create a business with 167 aircraft leased to 46 airlines worldwide. Ted O’Byrne, an industry veteran who has been hired as AviLease’s chief executive, said: “We have the ambition to become a top-ten global aircraft lessor and this acquisition brings us one step closer. We are purchasing a very high-quality portfolio of narrow-body aircraft on lease to top-tier airlines globally.” Fahad al-Saif, AviLease’s chairman, put the deal in the context of Saudi Arabia’s desire to use its huge petrodollar wealth to become a leading global investment player similar to its neighbouring Gulf states. “This acquisition,” he said, “will propel AviLease and will in turn support Saudi Arabia’s aviation ecosystem on our path to help realise the Saudi Vision 2030’s objective of diversifying the economy and adding high value employment opportunities for Saudi citizens.” The transaction comes not only at a time of a fast-recovering international air travel market, but also when Saudi Arabia plans for Riyadh Air — an airline also owned by the Public Investment Fund — to become an aggressive competitor to rivals in the region such as Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways. Standard Chartered’s own internal issues about its future led to the aircraft leasing business being put up for sale this year. At the time, Simon Cooper, chief executive of the bank’s corporate, commercial and institutional banking business, said: “We believe that a new owner can drive the next phase of growth while we continue to focus on our commitment to improve shareholder returns and delivering on our 2024 targets,” The global aircraft leasing business is dominated by the Dublin-domiciled, New York-listed AerCap. After its acquisition of the air lessor interests of General Electric, the American group, it owns more than 2,000 aircraft serving 300 airlines and operators. Robert Lea Industrial Editor 34% Net balance of consumer services companies reporting fall in volumes
32 Tuesday August 29 2023 | the times Business The pensions industry has offered cautious support of government proposals to allow employers to claw back surpluses from their traditional pension schemes. The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association said fears that scheme members could be disadvantaged were misplaced, as long as safeguards were in place. Calculations by Barnett Waddingham, the actuarial services provider, suggesting that employers could extract as much as £50 billion from their defined-benefit schemes have drawn a horrified response from some readers of The Times, who called the proposals “dangerous”, “shocking ”, “ridiculous” and “an accident waiting to happen”. However, Joe Dabrowski, deputy director at the association, said concerns that watering down rules could lead to a Robert Maxwell-type scandal were overdone. “The regulatory regime is completely different from the lighttouch era of the 1980s,” he said. Pension fund members were far more protected. Allowing employers access to surpluses could enable them to put more money into research, to pay higher wages or to recycle the money into their downturn in values. Given such a backdrop, Aviva has reported “relatively little competition” for buildings, allowing it to pick up some assets on the cheap. For example, it bought a warehouse this year for 40 per cent below what the site had been worth last December. “Obviously valuations have fallen, but then [the seller] also had redemption pressures and needed an exit,” Sanderson, 53, said. Aviva has remained so active because it has enough firepower not to rely on debt, which has become increasingly expensive. Similarly, changes to its funds that give it more time to repay investors wanting to cash out mean it has not faced heavy redemption pressures. Danny McHugh, 50, Aviva Investors’ chief investment officer, insisted there was further liquidity available to take advantage of opportunities. “There’s a sequence of pricing triggers . . . The bit we haven’t seen is a repricing as a result of liquidity pressures on refinancing. The other aspect we haven’t seen is a repricing due to demand and economics.” Sanderson said there was a “huge financing gap about to come” as owners that needed to refinance found they could not borrow as much as they had hoped and that their properties were no longer worth what they had thought. “The pain has not come through yet on the scale that we think it will at some point. There are going to be some more serious pressures coming forward.” Property sector woes give Aviva ‘buying opportunity’ Tom Howard Pension clawback fears are overdone, claims industry defined-contribution pension schemes, he said. It might also persuade schemes to allocate extra money to riskier and more productive assets, as the government hopes. “Employers might be prepared to shoulder more downside risk if they could benefit from the upside,” he said. A reform could be particularly beneficial for the 10 per cent of definedbenefit schemes that are still open to new accrual and are much more interested in boosting long-run returns, the PLSA said. The association represents thousands of pension schemes that together stand to provide retirement incomes for more than 30 million people in the UK. It also represents some sponsoring employers of definedbenefit schemes. Dabrowski said many schemes were reporting huge surpluses as a result of soaring bond yields, which are used to calculate the cost of liabilities. However, some fund members are concerned that allowing access to surpluses could leave schemes in deficit again in future if conditions change. Other industry experts have expressed scepticism that companies would start to see their legacy defined-benefit schemes as potential profit centres. Tessa Page, a partner at Mercer, an investment consultancy, said employers would be extremely nervous about allocations to riskier assets. “I’m not sure anyone is going to see their [defined-benefit] scheme as a kind of pocket money fund,” she said. Mercer said any attempt to put a number on the size of any possible clawback was “flawed” and “largely ... guesswork”. Ddefined-benefit schemes promise to pay pre-determined pensions to members regardless of market movements or how long they live. Almost ten million people are still members of defined-benefit schemes, although most in the private sector have been closed to new members and new accrual. They hold £1.7 trillion of assets. The Department for Work and Pensions issued a call for evidence last month on whether it should be easier for employers to extract surpluses and whether it should be allowed before a scheme reaches the wind-up stage, which is usually when it is handed over to an insurer. It gave no details on its thinking on how rules could be relaxed, but actuaries say one option would be to issue statutory legislation overriding an individual scheme’s rules. Another would be to cut the 35 per cent tax applied to surpluses extracted. The proposal on surpluses was one of several measures floated by Jeremy Hunt in his Mansion House speech last month. Patrick Hosking Financial Editor Britain’s biggest property investor has warned of “more distress coming” for landlords as they battle sliding valuations and spiralling debt costs. However, Aviva Investors is not complaining because it sees the challenges faced by the sector as a “buying opportunity”. The commercial property market has been effectively paralysed since last autumn, with few players looking to add to their portfolios given sharp falls in the value of real estate. Even those that have wanted to strike deals have been unable because debt has been too expensive. Aviva Investors, which has £24 billion invested in property, mostly in the UK, is the investment division of Aviva, the British insurer. While others have sat on the sidelines, it has invested £1 billion in UK commercial property this year. Over the past 12 months, it has spent nearly £1.6 billion. “We’ve put a lot of money into the market and that’s been taking advantage of what we see as a great buying opportunity,” Ben Sanderson, its managing director of real estate, said. The biggest chunk of its money has gone into rental homes and warehouses. Commercial property valuations broadly peaked in 2021, but the minibudget last autumn triggered chaos in the bond markets and sent borrowing costs soaring, bringing on a sharp Asian stocks lifted by tax cut on trades Helen Cahill The latest efforts by China to support its stuttering economy and stock markets were welcomed by investors across Asia yesterday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng share index climbed by 1 per cent, or 174.36 points, to 18,130.74 as it continued to recover from four weeks of losses, while the Nikkei in Japan gained 545.71 points, or 1.7 per cent, to close on 31,169.99. The CSI 300, China’s leading index, ended the day up by 43.47 points, or 1.2 per cent, at 3,752.62, having leapt by 5.5 per cent in early trading. Beijing has confirmed that it will halve taxes on stock trading and has moved to slow the pace of listings to stop a drain on liquidity. The finance ministry is cutting stamp duty from 0.1 per cent in the first such move since the 2008 financial crisis. Regulators are also assessing whether to allow longer hours for trading stocks and bonds and are considering a cut in transaction fees for brokers. China’s economy appears to have been cooling after the end of its strict Covid lockdown policy prompted a rapid revival in its fortunes. The country is suffering from a fall in spending by consumers and a high level of youth unemployment. Profits at China’s industrial companies fell by 6.7 per cent year-on-year last month as the struggles in the sector extended for a seventh month in a row. Analysts have said China is on course to miss an annual growth target of 5 per cent. The Hang Seng and CSI 300 indices have been under further pressure amid fears about the health of China’s debtladen property companies. Foreign funds offloaded holdings in leading publicly quoted companies worth $10.7 billion in a 13-day run this month. Unhappy return for Chinese developer T he stock market value of China Evergrande Group tumbled yesterday after trading in its shares restarted for the first time in more than a year (Helen Cahill writes). The Chinese property developer’s shares plummeted by 90 per cent after the Hong Kong market opened yesterday with the ending of a 17- month suspension of the stock. Evergrande’s shares recovered slightly in the afternoon to record a fall of 79 per cent on the day. The company’s market capitalisation fell to HK$4.6 billion (£470 million) from HK$21.8 billion. Creditors are in talks with the group about restructuring its debts, but Evergrande said that a meeting to agree terms yesterday had been pushed back to September 26. It said it was “crucial” for all creditors to “understand the process of the proposed restructuring and the terms”. Creditors representing more than 75 per cent of each class of debt will need to approve a proposal that will swap their debt for new bonds and equity instruments. Evergrande, one of China’s largest housebuilders, recently filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States to shield its assets during the restructuring of its liabilities. Two years ago it nearly collapsed under the weight of debts reaching about $340 billion, equivalent to about 2 per cent of China’s entire GDP. The company has $19 billion in international market bonds and its troubles two years ago rattled global markets. Analysts feared the disruption could prompt a rerun of the American sub-prime mortgage crisis that caused the 2008 financial crash. At one point Evergrande provided homes for 12 million Chinese families and it has expanded into areas such as electric cars and football. Steven Leung, a Hong Kong-based director of UOB Kay Hian, a Singaporebased broker, said: “There’s little hope that Evergrande can rely on selling houses to repay debt because homebuyers would prefer state-owned developers and it won’t be able to benefit from stimulus policies.” Evergrande is facing more than 2,000 legal cases over unpaid loans and delayed construction projects. It says it is “actively communicating with relevant creditors” to resolve the disputes. The group’s financial issues led to other builders missing debt repayments and it has been estimated that companies accounting for 40 per cent of the country’s home sales have defaulted since 2021. Country Garden, another large Chinese property developer, recently missed payments on its international bonds and its share price fell by almost 20 per cent. Trading resumed in shares of Evergrande, one of China’s biggest housebuilders, with a fall of almost 80 per cent on the day in Hong Kong
the times | Tuesday August 29 2023 33 Comment Business Delhi summit opens a window of opportunity in a changing world President Biden and Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, could help low-income nations to develop green energy Next month marks 15 years since Lehman Brothers went phut. The bank collapse that spawned an award-winning play and provided images of employees carting away their belongings in cardboard boxes is probably as good an event as any by which to date the global financial crisis. Those young bankers who stuck with the industry will have known little but abundant money in the intervening period. Now, in their late thirties or early forties, they will occupy pivotal positions within the financial system, but not necessarily be equipped to handle the shift in economic conditions that has taken place in the past year. I’ve seen much evidence of denial, if not outright bewilderment, among this cohort. Markets adjusted swiftly to the outbreak of war in Ukraine last year that triggered a leap in inflation worldwide, although prices were already on the up. Central banks played their part in the adjustment, with the US Federal Reserve implementing its first rate rise in March 2022, only 21 days after the Russian invasion. There have been ten further increases since then. Asset valuations have adjusted to reflect the jump in the cost of US money from a sliver over zero to about 5.5 per cent. However, while traders’ screens may show different prices than before and an apparent coherence across investment types, a gut resistance to accept that higher borrowing costs are the new reality rather than a temporary shift may prove the undoing of many investors, bankers and entrepreneurs. The effect of this denial is already evident in the diminished volume of mergers and acquisitions, where the gulf between the expectations of buyers and sellers is too often proving impossible to bridge. Think the stagnant British housing market on an industrial scale. And it is not only corporate buyers that are unwilling to rise to meet the hopes of sellers stubbornly rooted in the era of easy money. The dearth of company flotations similarly speaks to fund managers who are both wary of uncertain economic conditions and who have responded more quickly to changed circumstances than the private equity and industrial owners of businesses. This is the difference between those operating in the markets every day and others who check in only periodically when they have a transaction in mind. The cost of debt and its suddenly reduced availability may prove to be the undoing of businesses and of many investors’ strategies. The spate of bank implosions this spring, with Credit Suisse to the fore, has heightened the challenge of securing and renewing banking facilities. The premium demanded by lenders over risk-free government rates has climbed and often companies with less than cast-iron prospects are finding that there isn’t any price at which they can nail a loan from a nervy, risk-averse banker. Those financial players who have earned their stripes in the age of free cash need to build new models and to plug in borrowing costs that remain higher for far longer than they might ever have imagined. Politicians desperate for more economic activity won’t like the results. Debt repayment will become a strategic imperative. Investment will be sluggish, being both costly and predicated on longer payback periods in a time of slow growth. Today’s angst about low volumes across the various elements of the investment markets will persist. I’m just back from a short trip to Iceland (as eye-poppingly beautiful and eye-wateringly expensive as everyone had led me to expect). Its economy infamously crashed in the global crisis, its GDP plummeting by 40 per cent in two years. The recovery to pre-crash levels took a decade of introspection, recrimination and recalibration. We’re not all in post-bubble Iceland now, but we certainly need a swifter recalibration of expectations to lay the basis for a sustainable recovery in activity in both the financial and “real” worlds. Ed Warner India hosts the G20 summit in Delhi on September 9 and 10. Rishi Sunak and President Biden will be among the world leaders attending. There are so many global gatherings, it is sometimes easy to lose track of them, but this summit has the potential to stand out, notably because India is the host and it is occurring at an important juncture in global economic and political terms. From Britain’s perspective, it is another opportunity to strengthen bilateral ties ahead of a future trade deal. Two conditions need to be in place for such summits to deliver immediate action: national priorities need to be aligned with global goals; and there needs to be a reason to act. This does not mean that such forums fail if they do not deliver instant results. They can be critical in moving the debate and policy agenda forward and can lead to subsequent action. Delhi could do the latter in terms of the green agenda, as the theme of India’s G20 presidency is One Earth, One Family, One Future. Summits should be judged in the context of a shift in the balance of power. In economic terms, this is to the IndoPacific, stretching from India in the west to the United States and the Pacific Rim in the east. The scale of this shift is dramatic. Within 25 years India’s economy will be larger than that of the entire European Union. In addition, there has been a geopolitical shift in the wake of the Ukraine War to a G3 world compassing three groups: America and its allies; China and its partners; and a new group of non-aligned countries, with India as one of its lead members. This third group may grow in economic importance as there is a watering down of globalisation in favour of fragmentation. Companies are relocating to safer countries, with “onshoring” and “friends-shoring”. China is building its global network and India is keen to play a lead role. There is no better opportunity, then, for India to push for some positive outcomes. In 2021 President Xi proposed a Global Development Initiative to widen China’s reach. Beijing hosts the next Belt Road summit this October. Critics see the Belt Road as financial colonialism as China extends loans and credit. Yet it retains strong support. At last week’s Brics summit in South Africa, there was talk of creating a new common currency to challenge the dollar. This did not make it into that summit’s communiqué — and just as well, as it is a non-starter, not least because of the economic disparities between the various members. The dollar dominates globally. This is creating headwinds across the emerging world as higher US interest rates contribute to tighter global liquidity. China’s slowdown and weaker global trade are adding to difficulties. When it comes to the green agenda, a key impediment is cost. In particular, many low and middle-income countries lack the money to act. In recent years western economies have felt unable to help fully. Can Delhi move us in the right direction to fill this financing gap? As a counterweight to China, the US wants to strengthen the role of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, boosting the latter’s lending power. The dilemma is that it may need China’s support in achieving this. America has highlighted the clean energy transition. One solution is for the G20 summit to push to increase the power of multilateral development banks, like the World Bank. They could then help to close the energy and financing gap faced by low and medium-income countries. Multilateral development banks are effective in raising public finance globally and allocating it to countries where private finance is lacking. Another focus should be on deeper bilateral ties between India and Britain. India is set to be the fastestgrowing big economy this year. However, while its likely 6.5 per cent growth sounds good, when you take into account its population growth it is effectively a growth recession: growing without living standards really rising. India has displaced the UK as the world’s fifth largest economy, but its income per head is low, at 139th. Thirty years ago it had the same per capita income as China, which has now far surpassed it. While China’s population is ageing, India’s is still young and its growth potential huge. Often India has been let down by poor infrastructure and by protectionism, failing to open up its economy. That has to change if it is to prosper. India needs to generate enough jobs. It initiated “Make in India” nine years ago for manufacturing jobs. Last year the IMF’s assessment said it had “a world-class public digital infrastructure” that was facilitating innovation, productivity and access to services. There are many areas where Britain and India can deepen ties to the mutual benefit of each other. The UK can’t make many inroads in manufacturing, but it can in life sciences, services and finance. While Britain may wish to capitalise on the potential from India’s growing market, it needs to be cognisant of India’s desire to be a strategic business partner. It also can be open to even more inward investment from India than is the case now. One area is education. The UK is a world leader in tertiary education and now we have more students here from India than any other country. Another is the financial sector. A central aspect of India delivering its potential growth will be to deepen and broaden its capital markets and thus remove barriers to international investment and competition. This creates a huge opportunity for the UK, given its expertise in insurance, business and financial services, and should be one of the areas we push in a future bilateral trade deal. There are many more. The Delhi summit will be the latest sign of how the world economy is shifting and of how the UK needs to reposition itself in this changing environment. ‘‘ ’’ Dr Gerard Lyons is chief economic strategist at Netwealth Ed Warner sits on a number of boards. He is writing in a personal capacity Expectations need to be updated to account for today’s new realities Gerard Lyons ‘The cost of debt and its reduced availability may prove to be the undoing of businesses and many investors’ strategies’
34 Tuesday August 29 2023 | the times Business Andrey Ivanov turned to Israel and its Inflation may be starting to come down but the UK’s economic growth is still struggling and the risk of recession remains. With the market expecting further rises in interest rates that could affect the growth outlook, access to the latest news and analysis has never been more important. Get our latest economics and business coverage at 8am and 12.30pm each weekday, direct by email from the Business Editor Richard Fletcher and the Business News Editor Martin Strydom. Business briefing Sign up at home.thetimes. co.uk/ myNews we need the water infrastructure to support horticulturalists in the dry season.” For the farms neighbouring Tiptree, some of which do not have reservoirs, last year offered a brutal illustration of Knox’s point. The hot summer followed a dry spring that had left rivers and groundwater levels below normal in parts of Essex. That, in turn, prompted action from the Environment Agency restricting water extraction. “Lots of [farms] were really struggling,” Ivanov, 46, said. “Because of low river levels, they couldn’t make full use of their abstraction licences and they didn’t know where to get their water from. Some even ordered tankers from other farms who had enough water.” Ivanov’s crops were kept healthy not only by the seven reservoirs on the farm but also by state-of-the-art irrigaStrawberry fields can’t go on for ever without water For many farmers, the summer of 2022 was exceptionally difficult. With temperatures hitting a record-breaking 40C, reservoirs emptied and tough choices had to be made about which crops to irrigate and which to let shrivel and die. Yet when Andrey Ivanov talks about last year’s strawberry crop, he can smile with satisfaction. Tiptree Farm in Essex, where Ivanov is the general manager, defied the odds and produced its “best strawberries ever”. This year seems to be going well, too, with some strawberries said to be nearly the size of tennis balls. Without the water in its reservoirs, the 850-hectare farm would have no chance of turning out the 1,500 tonnes of strawberries that it produces each year. The £778 million-a-year strawberry industry in Britain depends on irrigation to ensure that the crops stay juicy and perfectly formed, even when the weather doesn’t play ball and it doesn’t rain. But in this part of eastern England, water for irrigation is increasingly difficult to find. Essex receives an average of only 626mm of rainfall a year, less than half the UK average, and in future climate change is expected to bring hotter, drier summers. At the same time, the government’s Environment Agency is reducing the amount of water that many farmers can take out of rivers and aquifers to ensure that enough is left over for nature and for a growing population. According to Ali Capper, the executive chairwoman of English Apples & Pears and a director of the British Hop Association, it is unfair on farmers and bad for food security that their water use is being restricted before that of industry and households. In her view, “the Environment Agency should prioritise food production”. Few are more vulnerable to decreasing water supplies than strawberry farmers. Their crops can easily be ruined by hot, dry weather. Indeed, researchers at Cranfield University have found that, for every cubic metre of water that strawberries need but do not get, their yield falls by 40lb, making them 20 times more vulnerable to drought than potatoes. The implications are clear. “If farms don’t adapt now, they could suffer poor yields more often,” Jerry Knox, a professor of agricultural water management at Cranfield, said. “If we want to support domestic food production, food security in the uk In part two of our series, Verena Mueller reveals how one fruit farm in Essex has addressed the twin problems of climate change and drought
the times | Tuesday August 29 2023 35 Business farmers will finance the investments they will need to make to adapt will only grow. Indeed, if farmers were to receive more support to invest in such infrastructure, Knox believes that horticulture might actually benefit from climate change, as amply watered plants could make the most of the warmer temperatures. Achieving that goal, Ivanov said, would mean Britain’s agriculture would have to pay more attention to farmers in places such as Israel. “We can just learn a lot from dry but still-green places.” But the fruits of those lessons would be plain for all to see. in the rainy years that followed 2012 Ivanov — who arrived in Britain 20 years ago from Bulgaria, began his agricultural career as a fruit picker and went on to climb through the ranks to his present role as farm manager — worried that he had made a bad investment. He had spent more than £600,000 on the irrigation system. Many of his neighbours had shied away from making similar cash-heavy outlays. But in the drought of last year, it was clear his foresight had paid off. Amply watered, Ivanov’s strawberries even benefited from the prolonged warmth. The government has pledged £10 million to help farmers to pay for reservoirs and irrigation technologies such as Ivanov’s. However, according to Knox, this money is “not nearly enough”. As the impact of climate change intensifies, questions over how the polytunnels in which the strawberries are grown. A “nanobubble ozone system” purifies the water, destroying algae and bacteria contained within it. Nutrients are added and its levels of salt and acidity are carefully controlled. Once purified, the water is sent out into the polytunnels in minute doses and any water that the plants don’t take up is collected in gutters below them and returned to the cycle. “Every drop counts.” Ivanov has an app on his phone that displays near-real time data from sensors at the plants’ roots. If one of the plants is not sufficiently watered for even a moment, an error message pops up. Thanks to this technology, the farm now uses about 75 per cent less water for each kilogram of fruit than it did 20 years ago. Despite that remarkable efficiency, his reservoirs and inside a large metal container, the Israeli technology is hard at work. The noise from the pump is deafening. The container houses Ivanov’s control centre. From here, he can direct water from his reservoirs through a network of underground pipes and into tion technology. “If we get our 650mm of rain a year, we’ll be 100 per cent water self-sufficient.” If not, the farm will still be able to take some water from the landscape. Ensuring the farm’s water supply was not always so straightforward. In the spring of 2012, after a dry winter and as that year’s crop was about to be planted, Ivanov’s reservoirs were less than halffull. “It wasn’t even enough for a quarter of our berries.” Instead of sitting idly by, he went in search of ultra-efficient irrigation technology. He flew to Israel, saw lush plantations on the edge of the desert and learnt how a country so dry had managed to become an important grower of strawberries, bananas, pineapples and avocados, exporting fruit worth £562 million last year. “Everything that was irrigated was green.” Today, back in Essex, next to one of Vegan “meat” still has a future despite the rising cost of living, a former executive at Quorn has insisted after his new vegan protein company was served with fresh venture capital investment. Enough, which is based in Britain and the Netherlands, has raised €40 million in growth funding. Formerly known as 3F Bio, the company has already struck agreements with Marks & Spencer, the retailer, and Unilever, the consumer goods conglomerate, for the use of its technology. The investment comes despite signs that consumers are losing their taste for such meat-free products amid Vegan meat firm has Enough on its plate and is hungry for more concerns about higher prices and highly processed food. The market value of Beyond Meat, which supplied McDonald’s, the fast-food powerhouse, with vegan burgers, has plummeted from $14 billion after its 2019 initial public offering to only $700 million. Pret A Manger has closed half of its vegetarian stores in the past year, and Meatless Farm, a British supplier of plant-based fake meat, has fallen into administration. “There’s a decline in food generally and within the meat alternative market there is undoubtedly a flattening,” Jim Laird, Enough’s chief executive, said. “But the macro trends in this market are unchanged and making a protein ingredient using fungi is inherently more efficient than growing a chicken.” Enough’s meat is made with mycoprotein, which is produced from fungi fed with sugars from grain and then fermented. This is in contrast with the plant-based protein of Beyond Meat or the emerging laboratory-cultured meat industry. Laird, 54, who led Quorn’s international division before co-founding 3F Bio in 2015, admitted that there was a tension between providing bettertasting food and having a shorter list of ingredients that appeals to people conscious of the origin of their food. “Nine out of ten customers don’t care what it’s made out of,” he said. “They care if it’s delicious and what it costs. If we think about the same question for chickens or cows, I think the vast majority of customers will turn a blind eye.” He said the company would be helped by its sole focus on business-tobusiness sales and by a newly opened factory in the Netherlands capable of producing the equivalent of one cow’s worth of protein every two minutes. Craig Douglas, a founding partner at World Fund, a technology investor that is co-leading the funding round with CPT Capital, the investment firm, said: “The company is tackling bottlenecks in the creation of sustainable protein while using fewer resources and maintaining a zero-waste process, which is enabling Enough to have a lower carbon footprint compared with other plant-based protein sources.” Max Kendix The problems faced by Beyond Meat have raised concerns over the sector tomorrow Vertical farms are raising hopes for British growers fruit industry to solve the problems of insufficient water for the ever-thirsty strawberry farm that he manages in Essex Rainfall in England and Wales 2023 2022 1931-2022 average Apr Jul Oct Jan 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 mm Spring Autumn 14-day average. Source: Met Office Precision is introduced to boost agricultural breeding Behind the story Demand for Britain’s favourite fruit has grown quickly, from 67,000 tonnes of strawberries in 1996 to 197,000 tonnes in 2019 (Verena Mueller writes). Last year alone, according to British Berry Growers, strawberries worth £778 million were sold in the UK. Of these, less than a half were grown on home soil. Much of the rest came from southern Europe and northern Africa, regions significantly more affected by drought than Britain. Now, however, “precision breeding” offers the chance of growing far more strawberries domestically — 59,000 tonnes of them, according to the National Institute of Agricultural Botany. With this technique, berries could be grown about four months longer a year and in areas previously considered too cold. “Above all, the method would make domestic strawberries cheaper and thus more competitive with imports,” Mario Caccamo, chief executive and director at the institute, said Precision breeding speeds up the process of conventional breeding, where farmers pair organisms to spread desirable genes. If they want juicier strawberries, they pair the juiciest specimens with each other. Via precision breeding, scientists can look at strawberries’ DNA and insert genes for juiciness into it. In March, the government passed the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act, legalising the technique and distinguishing it from still-illegal genetic modification. In genetic modification, genes are swapped between species, creating results that could never happen in nature. In precision breeding, genes are swapped within species, speeding up changes that could theoretically happen naturally. Genetic modification has long been controversial and not everyone is convinced that precision breeding is safe from its dangers. In January, Lord Winston, the scientist, told the House of Lords that “genes vary depending on what happens around them. So if one carries out a modification just by editing a genome, that does not necessarily prevent all sorts of other genes changing the way in which they express afterwards. That is one of the big problems in nature.” So far, no strawberries, other plants or animals produced via precision breeding have been approved for sale in Britain, but researchers are using the technique to develop varieties that photosynthesise more efficiently and are more drought-resistant. According to Jane Langdale, professor of plant development at the University of Oxford, precision breeding could help to make supermarkets’ supply chains more robust. The new law “will set in motion changes to allow farmers to grow fruits and other crops which are more efficient and resistant towards drought and disease, which in turn also means less fertilisers and pesticides”, she said.
36 Tuesday August 29 2023 | the times Business Unit Trusts The Times unit trust information service Prices as of 5pm Friday. Markets were closed yesterday Sell Buy +/- Yld Sell Buy +/- % Yld Sell Buy +/- % Yld Sell Buy +/- % Yld Sell Buy +/- % Yld % Sell Buy +/- Yld % British funds Data as shown is for information purposes only. No offer is made by Morningstar or this publication This is a paid for information service. For further details on a particular fund, readers should contact their fund manager.
the times | Tuesday August 29 2023 37 Business HM Revenue & Customs has issued the highest number of winding-up petitions since before the pandemic as its debt balance remains twice as high as it was before lockdown. Directors were presented with 348 winding-up petitions in July as authorities signed off the highest number of court orders in any single month since 2019, according to data from Kroll, the restructuring specialist. The number of Taxman’s winding-up petitions at highest level since before pandemic Helen Cahill time-to-pay agreements negotiated with struggling companies — where payments can be made in instalments — also rose by 20 per cent in the first quarter compared with the final three months of 2022. Kroll said in a report that HMRC had become “more aggressive in its enforcement and collection processes” in the first six months of the year and had “restricted its discretion” with time-to-pay arrangements. The tax authority was blocked from serving winding-up petitions during the pandemic. The ban was fully lifted last year and it has been more active with demands for repayment since, with MPs calling for more action to restore the nation’s finances. HMRC’s tax debt reached close to £50 billion at the end of last year compared with a previous balance of about £20 billion and the Commons’ public accounts committee has warned that restoring the status quo will be an “enormous task”. The overall debt owed to the tax authorities stood at about £46 billion in the first quarter of 2023. David Fleming, UK head of restructuring at Kroll, said that the tax office was “broadly supportive” of companies with a strong underlying business. However, he said the authority was generally keen to impress upon directors that “they are not a lender, and they are certainly not a lender of last resort. “It will be interesting to see how HMRC reacts to what is coming across on their desks in the run-up to Christmas. They need to get comfortable that they are dealing with a viable underlying business that is worthy of support as opposed to a lend-and-extend scenario, where the business fails three or four months down the line.” In a report last year, the Commons committee said: “The longer that tax remains uncollected, the greater the risk that HMRC will never be able to collect it. This is unfair to the majority of taxpayers paying their fair share.” Rishi Sunak late last year calling for “urgent resolution” to “prevent an acceleration in pharmaceutical disinvestment from the UK”. Formal talks over a new scheme, to come into force in January, began in May between the industry and Sir Hugh Taylor, a former permanent secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care, appointed as the government’s chief adviser. The industry has urged the department to slash the rate back to “historical norms” as part of a wider overhaul to attract investment. It argues that a rate of 6.88 per cent would generate more than £1 billion a year for the NHS, about £300 million more than the average under the existing scheme before this year and “comfortably more than the highest contributions” made before the pandemic. However, in the letter, dated June 30 and written to update company bosses as part of their post-2023 investment planning cycle, the association says the government’s initial proposal “did not meet any” of its “four underlying tests”. Torbett says the government’s negotiating team is understood to have been authorised since then to explore options “allowing an expanded financial envelope beyond their initial position”. But he adds that the association is “preparing to transition to a statutory framework should an appropriate new voluntary scheme not be agreed”. He also cautions that it “may now be unlikely we reach heads of terms as early as we had hoped”, which is by the end of the summer. The health department and the association declined to comment on whether progress had been made since the letter was sent. A department spokesman said: “Our priority remains to negotiate a mutually beneficial scheme that supports better patient outcomes, a strong UK life sciences industry and the sustainability of NHS spend on branded medicines.” The department has said the levy is set to achieve savings of £7 billion over five years and that the recent rise reflected “the scheme working as intended to adjust for increased sales of branded medicines to the [NHS]”. An Aim-listed company that tests infectious and respiratory disease products on volunteers is preparing to move its operations to Canary Wharf. Amid booming demand for its services, hVIVO, which infects volunteers with safe doses of virus agents, then quarantines them before testing the efficacy of vaccines and antivirals — in so-called human challenge trials — will move from its clinics in Whitechapel, east London, to a new larger facility Canary Wharf move means expansion for drug trials operator near by owned by Canary Wharf Group early next year. Canary Wharf is aiming to attract businesses from the life sciences and health sectors in a drive to become a sciences hub and less reliant on the financial services industry. The new facility at the Thameside business district spans two floors and comprises laboratories, an outpatient unit, offices and 50 quarantine bedrooms that potentially could expand to accommodate 70 beds in future. The investment, believed to be worth several million pounds, is understood to have been largely funded by several of hVIVO’s clients. The move a few miles east will allow hVIVO to increase its capacity to fulfil a growing order book. It will be able to conduct more trials concurrently and the move also is expected to help with operational cost savings and will improve the efficiency of trials. The company entered the second half of the financial year with a record order book of £78 million, an 11 per cent increase on the same period a year earlier, amid resilient demand for human challenge trials from the global pharmaceuticals industry. For the full year, hVIVO expects to report revenue of £53 million. The company, formerly known as Open Orphan and once a large holding in Woodford Capital’s Equity Income Fund, provides clinical development services to clients that include four of the ten largest biopharmaceuticals groups in the world, including Pfizer. It has developed 11 human challenge models, covering various strains of influenza, asthma, Covid-19 and malaria. Since the start of the year, hVIVO has won a £13.1 million contract with a leading pharmaceuticals company to develop an influenza trial, as well a £6.8 billion contract with an Asia-Pacific group to test a drug for respiratory syncytial virus, which causes infections of the lungs and respiratory tract. It also has a contract with a North American biopharmaceuticals player to conduct a study of an hMPV virus, which causes respiratory infection. Jessica Newman The pharmaceuticals industry in Britain faces a “continued and increasing gap” with rival international markets under government plans for a new NHS sales levy on drug manufacturers, according to the contents of a leaked letter that has been seen by The Times. It claims that the government’s initial proposals do not meet any of the four key tests demanded by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry in its negotiations with Whitehall, but instead are merely a continuation of an existing scheme for another five years. The letter, marked “confidential” and sent to the bosses of multinational drugs companies by Richard Torbett, the association’s chief executive, warns that this means the “clawback the government expects from industry versus international comparators” is set to widen. The warning comes amid a dispute between drug multinationals and ministers over the “rocketing” £3.3 billion NHS sales levy, which has led to a deterioration in relations and to the leaders of some of the industry’s biggest companies saying that it is hitting both investment in the sector in the UK and Britain’s wider and stated NHS levy ‘will leave Britain further behind global rivals’ ambition to be a life sciences “superpower”. Sir Pascal Soriot, chief executive of AstraZeneca, Britain’s biggest drugs company, which is among those leading the negotiations for the industry, has blamed the country’s uncompetitive tax policies for its decision to invest $360 million in a manufacturing facility in the Republic of Ireland instead of the UK. Eli Lilly, the American drugs group, said in May that it had suspended a potential investment in London because of the country’s “stifling commercial environment”. The industry is lobbying the government to overhaul the levy, called the voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing and access. The scheme, under which drugs companies must return a percentage of their NHS sales to the government, is designed to limit the health service’s medicines bill while supporting innovation. However, the rate has surged from 5 per cent in 2021 to 26.5 per cent this year owing to increased demand and backlogs since the pandemic. Soriot and Dame Emma Walmsley, the chief executive of GSK, Britain’s other FTSE 100 Big Pharma company, were among the leaders of 28 international drugs groups who wrote to Alex Ralph Chief Business Correspondent Sir Pascal Soriot and Dame Emma Walmsley are among those critical of the sales levy, as Astra Zeneca looks beyond the UK
38 Tuesday August 29 2023 | the times Business Equity prices Prices as of 5pm Friday. Markets were closed yesterday 12 month Price High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v Health v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v Construction & property v v v v v v v v v 12 month Price High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E v v Consumer goods v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v Engineering v v v v v v v v 12 month Price High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E v v v v v v v v 12 month Price High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E v v v v v v v v v v v v v 12 month Price High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E Automobiles & parts Banking & finance v v v v v v v v v 12 month Price High Low Company (p) +/- Yld% P/E v v v v v v v v v Investment companies 12 month Price Yld Dis(-) High Low Company (p) +/- % or Pm v 12 month Price Yld Dis(-) High Low Company (p) +/- % or Pm v Dividend yields Please note that the information in the dividend yields column has been suspended due to technical problems at Morningstar, the provider. 12-month high and low High/low prices for UK equities are based on closing prices. Investment trust high and low prices are based on intra-day figures.
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the times | Tuesday August 29 2023 41 Register Holocaust survivor whose book inspired the film Defiance Nechama Tec Page 42 spawned one of the great small-screen rotters. Jacobs initially doubted whether Hagman was tough enough to play a villain but was persuaded when the Texas-born actor arrived to a meeting sporting boots and a Stetson and spoke in a voice that could carry across a crowded honky-tonk. “JR proved unexpectedly appealing,” Jacobs wrote in a 1990 essay. “His unapologetic commitment to self-interest, his unabashed belief in the corruptibility of others, linked him to a generation that would soon be told that greed was OK and read on bumper stickers that Jesus wanted people to get rich.” Though it was his career-defining achievement, Jacobs said that in the early years he “had very little emotional investment in Dallas. It was a guilty pleasure for me because it was like, well, here come the cheques!” With the exception of Barbara Bel Geddes (the Southfork Ranch matriarch, Miss Ellie), Jacobs was less than awed by the acting of the female leads and felt that the network’s insistence on Bobby’s heroism made him dull and conventional. As Dallas flourished, CBS was suddenly far more receptive to Jacobs’s old cul-de-sac pitch, which became Knots Landing, a spin-off that aired from 1979 to 1993. Though its ratings were lower, Jacobs preferred Knots, arguing that it had an aspirational allure that Dallas lacked. The thrill of watching Knots, he argued, was vicarious; in Dallas, seeing the super-rich suffer was voyeuristic. David Arnold Jacobs was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1939, to Melvin, a bookmaker, billiards champion, singersongwriter and later an insurance salesman, and Ruth (née Levenson), a housewife. He spent his early years writing and watching films, distributing circulars for local cinemas in return for free tickets. He preferred radio to television until he was captivated by coverage of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Near the bottom of his high school class, Jacobs went to college to avoid the military draft and studied painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art, graduating in 1961, before taking a master’s degree in art history at Hunter College in New York. Not talented enough to become a professional artist, he turned to freelance writing, initially for children, and wrote magazine articles and books on art, history and biography, authoring works on topics as diverse as the architecture of the Middle Ages and the life of Charlie Chaplin. In the mid-Seventies he switched to fiction and wrote short stories for women’s magazines. He married Lynn Oliansky, a literary agent, in 1963, and they had a daughter, Albyn. After the union ended in divorce, his former wife married an actor and relocated to Los Angeles, prompting Jacobs to follow them in 1976 to be near his daughter. After nine fruitless months searching for work, he was so broke that he could not afford to buy fries with his burger at a restaurant. Finally, producers at Lorimar hired him to rewrite an episode of a police drama, The Blue Knight, because it was the Labour Day holiday weekend and hardly anyone else was available. They were so impressed by his speed and ability that they hired Jacobs as a staff writer on $950 a week [the equivalent of about £4,000 today]. The Blue Knight was promptly cancelled but Lorimar gave him a deal worth $2,500 to develop his own ideas. Later endeavours did not come close to replicating the prominence and longevity of Dallas and Knots Landing, but in the Nineties Jacobs co-created Bodies of Evidence, a detective series with a pre-stardom George Clooney, and was an executive producer on The New Adventures of Superman. In 1977 he married Diana (née Pietrocarli), an illustrator, who survives him along with their children, Aaron and Molly, as does Albyn, a novelist and psychotherapist. He was unimpressed by the 2012 reboot of Dallas, which featured several original cast members but not his input. “I hated it,” he told The Daily Beast in 2021. Jacobs prided himself on his lack of ego; the shadowy lot of a screenwriter meant he remained relatively unknown even as the Dallas actors became celebrities. At a Broadway theatre for a 1980 performance of 42nd Street, Jacobs was knocked to the floor in a crowded lobby as patrons mobbed Hagman, who by chance was also among the audience. “This woman said to my wife as I got up, that’s Larry Hagman! That’s JR!” Jacobs recounted. “My wife — and she never did this — said, ‘Well, this is my husband, David Jacobs. He created Dallas.’ ” The woman stared at Jacobs with blank indifference, turned on her heels and rushed off to get closer to Hagman. David Jacobs, screenwriter, was born on August 12, 1939. He died of infections after suffering from Alzheimer’s on August 20, 2023, aged 84 ‘Tom Stoppard told me I was a more important writer than he was’ Obituaries David Jacobs Screenwriter who combined cowboy culture with modern materialism to create Dallas, the soap opera that became a global sensation David Jacobs‘s creation Dallas ran for 14 seasons between 1978 and 1991. Some 21.5 million British viewers tuned in to discover who shot JR, one of the most famous television cliffhangers of all time The reaction was as tepid as spring in Stockholm when David Jacobs pitched a soap opera based around families living on a Californian cul-de-sac. It would be, he explained, an American version of Scenes from a Marriage, the 1973 Swedish television mini-series written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. This sounded much too highbrow for executives at the CBS network, who liked the idea of a domestic drama but wanted less realism and more razzledazzle. “A saga,” Jacobs understood. “Which meant Texas to me.” Not that he knew much about the Lone Star State. “I had driven through it once,” he recalled. “Fast”. Undaunted, Jacobs wrote a proposal in a couple of days and his creative partner Mike Filerman, a producer at Lorimar Productions, sent it to CBS. Jacobs dubbed his presentation “Untitled Linda Evans project”, expecting the actress would be offered a lead role. The novice screenwriter was perplexed when Filerman told him that he had ripped off the title page and renamed the show after a city. “Dallas? Kennedy was killed in Dallas. I don’t know if I want to do this in Dallas,” Jacobs retorted. “‘First of all, it was oil people and Houston is the oil city. Dallas is the banking city.’ Mike said: ‘Well who knows that? Who cares? What, you wanna watch a show called Houston?’” CBS commissioned five episodes, with Jacobs handing in the script for the pilot in December 1977, only a few weeks before shooting was scheduled to begin. Since he had never been to Dallas, he stuffed the story with stereotypes, intending to rein back the clichés and add nuance later. “And then I went to Dallas and realised I had to take it way further,” he said in a 2008 interview for the Television Academy. “They’re extravagant and they’re opulent but they’re bumpkins and they stay bumpkins and it’s almost a deliberate thing.” Jacobs conceived Dallas as a collision of cowboy culture and modern materialism, powering the soapy and overblown narrative with themes of love and family and memorable characters, the nefarious oil baron, JR Ewing (Larry Hagman), chief among them. The marriage between JR’s righteous younger brother, Bobby (Patrick Duffy), and Pam Barnes (Victoria Principal) was the relationship at the core of a feud between families — Jacobs had in mind Romeo and Juliet on a ranch — while the sibling rivalry between Bobby and JR was inspired by Cain and Abel. It all made Dallas one of the most successful series in television history. It aired for 14 seasons between 1978 and 1991, peaking in popularity in 1980 with a phenomenal cliffhanger. An estimated 83 million Americans tuned in to learn who had shot JR at the end of the previous season. Worldwide, the audience for the big reveal was reported to be 350 million, including 21.5 million British viewers, which then amounted to nearly 40 per cent of the UK population. Flat-hunting with his oldest daughter when she moved to London, Jacobs was treated to the estate agent imitating the characters’ southern drawls: an “uppercrust English guy doing a Texas accent”. He had stepped back from writing Dallas and the whodunnit was not his idea, yet at the height of the frenzy, he said with incredulity: “Tom Stoppard told me I was a more important writer than he was. Cut it out!” British bookmakers took more than £100,000 in wagers on the identity of the assailant (which turned out to be Kristin Shepard, JR’s scheming sisterin-law and mistress). The suspense was, declared one American newspaper, “Driving the British Daft”. Brazen, gaudy and not a little absurd, Dallas embodied Eighties excess and the thirst for wealth in the Reagan era, though Jacobs admitted that the timing was pure luck, given that he created the series three years before the 1980 presidential election. With JR, Jacobs and Hagman
42 V2 Tuesday August 29 2023 | the times Register When Nechama Tec began research into historical accounts of the Holocaust, which she had survived as a young Jewish girl by posing as the niece of a Catholic family, there was in her view one glaring omission. Jews seemed to be frequently depicted as passive victims, but this was not the whole story. Tec would spend the best part of her career as a historian seeking to redress this, yet for decades she buried an instinct to plumb the memories of her traumatic childhood. Eventually, in 1975, such stirrings became a “compelling force” and she decided to write an autobiography, Dry Tears: The Story of a Lost Childhood. It was published in 1982. “An extra layer of secretiveness, combined with a fear of discovery, became part of my being,” she wrote, reflecting on how she had survived the war by disguising her religious identity and living under the protection of a Polish community. “All my life revolved around hiding: hiding thoughts, hiding feelings, hiding my activities, hiding information.” She wondered what it had been like for other Jews who took similar measures and what had made some Poles risk their lives to save them. Digging deeper, Tec came across the story of a Jewish teenager called Oswald Rufeisen who had hidden in a convent, converted to Christianity and worked as a translator for the German gendarmerie. By carefully changing certain words in his translations Rufeisen had helped to save hundreds of Christians and Jews from persecution. In 1990 Tec wrote his biography, Into the Lion’s Den: The Life of Oswald Rufeisen. She realised that perceptions of the “rescuer” and “the rescued” were more complex than histories of the Holocaust had typically suggested. So began her search for more Holocaust survivors who had rescued other Jews. The exercise resulted in her first scholarly work on the Holocaust, When Light Pierced the Darkness (1986). That same year she began researching her magnum opus, Defiance: The Bielski Partisans. She had been approached by the Organisation of Partisans, Underground Fighters and Ghetto Rebels in Israel to write a factual account of a Jewish resistance group for a Nazi official: after she overheard plans to deport the town’s Jews, the family first hid in the upper room of a chemical factory and then in late 1942, having obtained false identification papers, they moved to Warsaw, where they lived as Catholics. With her sister, Giza, Tec was sent to the city of Otwock, where they passed as the nieces of a Catholic family, later rejoining their parents in Kielce, where they lodged with a family of poor labourers. Unlike her parents Tec had blonde hair and blue eyes, which aided her disguise, though she often overheard antisemitic slander from her new friends. “At the end of the war I resumed my former identity, determined to put this past behind me, and shied away from all wartime memories.” Hers was the only one of three Jewish because it would be played in his home city of Rome. Carletto, as he was universally known, was in turn humbled, excited and then ecstatic for his protégé when Barcelona duly triumphed. Mazzone had begun in management himself at lowly Ascoli in 1968. He had previously captained the club from the Marche region for a decade, but no one expected him to propel them up two flights in three seasons and into Serie A for the first time. Moreover, he kept them there until leaving in 1975. who survived the war by fighting and hiding in the forests of Western Belorussia (present-day Belarus). The unit was led by four Bielski brothers, Tuvia, Alexander (known as “Zus”), Asael and Aron, who had grown up as the only Jews in Stankiewicze, a village in what is now Belarus. After their parents were killed in a ghetto in 1941, they began rescuing Jews from extermination camps and carrying out acts of sabotage against the German troops. Gradually they built a forest community of 1,200 people, making it the largest Jewish rescue mission during the war. The unit was perpetually on the move but they established a hospital — with smuggled medication from military hospitals — a tannery, a school and a bathhouse. There were expeditions to collect berries, mushrooms and wood: some of those in the group fell in love. In her book, Tec described frightened men clutching repossessed Schmeisser sub-machineguns. She relayed the relief many felt at the absence of yellow stars: “When I thought about the ghetto with the shameful star of David sewn into our clothes I felt free,” one recalled. “It felt like paradise. My first day at the base passed in constant wonderment.” Tec travelled across much of Europe and to Israel and America to interview as many survivors of the unit as she could. When she finally found Tuvia, he was on his deathbed, but he grew animated recalling his men shuddering as they fired a round. Nechama Bawnik was born in 1931 in Lublin, Poland, to Esther (née Hachamoff) and Roman Bawnik, a factory owner. Nechama was eight when the Germans arrived. When she was banned from going to school her father hired the daughter of his accountant to teach her and her sister in secret, at the kitchen table with the blinds drawn. The lessons had a profound effect on Nechama, an insatiably curious child. Her mother worked as a housekeeper ‘All my life revolved around hiding: thoughts, activities, information’ Nechama Tec Holocaust survivor and historian whose book Defiance, about a Jewish resistance group, was made into a film with Daniel Craig Tec in the early 1950s. She moved to Israel and later the US families in Lublin to have survived the war. When the Germans surrendered in May 1945, she emigrated and later moved to Israel, where she married the Polish-born Leon Tec, her mother’s doctor. He would become a renowned child psychiatrist in New York, where the couple moved in 1952. Leon died in 2013 and Tec is survived by their son Roland, a playwright and film-maker, and daughter Leora, who runs Bridge to Poland, an organisation that works with Christian Poles to pay tribute to lost Jewish culture. After gaining a PhD in sociology at the University of Columbia in 1965, Tec wrote academic books on subjects as diverse as gambling in Sweden and marijuana use in suburban America. In the 1980s she moved to Connecticut, where she focused on Holocaust scholarship and taught sociology at the University of Connecticut in Stamford. Her work was little known beyond the world of academia and American Holocaust survivors until Defiance was made into a Hollywood blockbuster in 2008, starring Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber as the Bielski brothers Tuvia and Zus. Sales of her book soared and interview requests poured in from around the world. The director of Defiance, Edward Zwick, recalled initial scepticism about making “yet another” film about the horrors of the Holocaust, but he was moved when he read Tec’s account, which seemed to touch a different nerve. In a foreword to a later edition of her book, Zwick wrote: “To read of the Bielski brothers and their fight to create a safe haven in the midst of a hell-on-earth evokes in me something utterly primitive and deeply personal, a roiling wave of fear, awe, humility and admiration. And outrage, too — that such a story was not better known.” Tec was moved, too, when she visited the film set with her son Roland, who co-produced the film and helped to deliver the notes that Tec wrote for Zwick. Recalling her experience on set in a Guardian interview in 2009, she said: “As I wandered from one ziemlanka [forest bivouac] to the next, it was as if pages of my book were greeting me . . . First I came upon the main kitchen, a dirt hut in which a fire pit had been rigged so that iron pots could hang above. Rows of potatoes hung along one wall in a neat row leading to the pot.” When she met Craig he asked her a flurry of questions. She remembered him as serious in purpose and remarkable for the “depth” of his performance. Nechama Tec, historian and Holocaust survivor, was born on May 15, 1931. She died on August 3, 2023, aged 92 Mazzone took on 16 management jobs Carlo Mazzone Popular Italian football manager who influenced Pep Guardiola and helped to launch the career of Francesco Totti At the press conference after Manchester City’s victory over Newcastle earlier this month, the champions’ manager Pep Guardiola sported a distinctive T-shirt. He explained it was a tribute to Carlo Mazzone, his own late manager during his stint at Brescia. Last year, Guardiola revealed for a documentary about Mazzone’s life, Come un padre (Like a Father), that in the dressing room of the unfashionable Lombard team he had learnt things he had not experienced in his palm-laden days at Barcelona. One was humility. Another was joy at winning, for though Mazzone would go on to take the record for the most matches managed in Serie A, he largely laboured for smaller clubs and claimed few trophies. In May 2009, after Mazzone had retired, he received a telephone call. The voice on the other end said he was Guardiola. “And I’m Garibaldi!” scoffed Mazzone, knowing there were only four days more for the Catalan to prepare for his first Champions League final as manager, between Barcelona and Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United. It was Guardiola, however, and he wanted Mazzone at the match, not least It was to be the first of 16 different management jobs over the course of almost 40 years in the merry-go-round of Italian football. His success with Ascoli gained him a higher-profile post with Fiorentina, with which he won the Anglo-Italian Cup in 1975 and which he steered to third place in the league in 1977. He had another spell with Ascoli before getting Lecce promoted to Serie A. Gaining qualification for Europe with Cagliari brought him home in 1993 as the manager of Roma. He garnered two fifth-place finishes, but more importantly for the tifosi, the Italian fans, masterminded a 3-0 defeat in 1994 of the local rivals Lazio. Mazzone’s tended to be pragmatic teams — gritty in defence, quick to counterattack — because he made the most of what he had. “Technique is the bread of the rich,” he mused, “tactics that of the poor.” This underplayed his own talent for unifying a group of players, achieved largely through his direct, open-hearted manner, acting as a surrogate parent for many. Not least this was true of his relationship with his most celebrated pupil, Francesco Totti. It was Mazzone who first began to pick the 17-year-old regularly for Roma. When there was speculation that Jari Litmanen would be bought to play the same role, Mazzone told the club’s president, Franco Sensi, not to waste his money: “Abbiamo il ragazzino” (We’ve got the lad). After several years at Bologna from 1997, where he won the Intertoto Cup and reached the semi-final of the Uefa Cup, Mazzone fetched up at Brescia. There, besides working with Guardiola (whom characteristically he told at once was the owner’s choice, not his) he was to be remembered for two things. The first was switching Andrea Pirlo to the role of deep-lying playmaker that was to make his name. The other came in a derby against Atalanta in 2001. Their fans insulted the memory of Mazzone’s mother for much of the match. When, in injury time, Roberto Baggio conjured up an unlikely comeback for Brescia, the burly Mazzone ran to the Atalanta end to give his tormentors a piece of his mind. A photograph of the moment became widely known in Italy and was that which adorned Guardiola’s T-shirt. Carlo Mazzone was born in Rome in 1937. His father was a car mechanic and the family lived in Trastevere. A tall, prematurely balding centre-half, Mazzone came through Roma’s youth teams, but was selected only twice for the senior side before going to Ascoli, initially on loan, in 1960. He played 219 games for them, including that in 1965 when the goalkeeper Roberto Strulli was killed by a knee in the face as he dove for the ball. Mazzone’s own career was ended by a broken leg three years later. He married a local woman, Maria Pia, who survives him with their daughter, Sabrina, and son, Massimo. Mazzone’s final job, in 2006, was as coach of Livorno. At the age of nearly 70, he at last surpassed Nereo Rocco’s score, sitting in the dugout for a record 792nd time in Serie A. At 1,298, he also held the mark for the most club matches managed in Italy. Among Italians, only the former Juventus boss Giovanni Trapattoni has managed more, including for Ireland. Journalists would sometimes call Mazzone the “Trapattoni of the poor”. “No,” he would riposte, “he’s the Mazzone of the rich”. Carlo Mazzone, footballer and manager, was born on March 19, 1937. He died after a long illness on August 19, 2023, aged 86
the times | Tuesday August 29 2023 43 Register LEGAL, PUBLIC, COMPANY & PARLIAMENTARY NOTICES To place notices for these sections please call 020 7481 4000 Notices are subject to confirmation and should be received by 11.30am three days prior to insertion The simple way to place your announcement in The Times. Available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. newsukadvertising.co.uk Lives remembered Sir Michael Parkinson Valerie Grove writes: Michael Cole’s recollection of Michael Parkinson (Lives Remembered, August 22, and obituary, August 17) being very much a Yorkshireman on the make in his early TV years reminds me of the day he told me he was about to be given his own chat show by the BBC. We were travelling on a train from Newcastle to London, having just taken part in Tyne-Tees Television’s Face the Press, in 1972. But the BBC’s original suggestion had been a show called The Three Michaels. The news host Michael Barratt, the affable Michael Aspel and Michael Parkinson were to share the interviewing role. “But I said no — it’s just me or nothing,” Parky told me. I was terribly impressed by his boldness and confidence that they would bow to his proposal. minimum unit price. That such a pricing policy is now in place, saving hundreds of Scottish lives, is a fitting legacy for an outstanding doctor. The Rev Professor Peter Brunt Dr Charles Crichton, retired GP, writes: I noted with appreciation the obituary regarding the Rev Professor Peter Brunt (August 22). I had the privilege of receiving both undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and career advice from him — part of his greatness was that he made time to listen and advise on the most mundane matters that us juniors brought to his attention. An abiding memory in our undergraduate teaching on gastroenterology was the Peter Brunt lecture. This was in the late 1970s, in the days before flexible endoscopy became the norm. About 30 minutes into the presentation, he would whip forward his right forearm and a rigid sigmoidoscope (a tube used to examine the lower part of the colon) would suddenly appear in his right hand, accompanied by the suitably imperious statement: “Eighteen inches of cold steel, ladies and gentlemen!”. The instrument had been hidden up his sleeve until that moment. If we had fallen asleep (which was unlikely in his lectures), that act of magic certainly woke us up. But, apart from keeping us alert, his purpose was to emphasise that sigmoidoscopy was difficult for the patient, and not to be requested lightly or carried out carelessly. His academic and clinical skills did not compromise his profound empathy for his patients. Dr Alastair MacGilchrist, chairman, Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems, writes: Peter Brunt was an exceptional clinician. But at least as significant as his contribution to the health of his own patients was the leading role he played in advocating for effective public health policies on alcohol. In the early 2000s he realised that an increasing number of his patients were suffering and dying from liver disease due to alcohol. Always a strong supporter of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (which he served as vice-president), he was one of the prime instigators of the Scottish Intercollegiate Group on Alcohol, which became the Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems. In 2007, at the height of the “epidemic” of alcohol-related deaths in Scotland, the group called for action on the price of alcohol and specifically for the introduction of a Niel Immelman Barbara Manning writes: I first had a lesson from Niel Immelman (obituary, August 18) when he deputised one week for Phyllis Sellick, my professor at the Royal College of Music from 1973-1976. He made pertinent comments on the second movement of Rachmaninov’s third concerto, which I was ambitiously studying back then. Forty years on, when I was about to perform Beethoven’s fourth concerto with the professional orchestra Pro Arte, I felt the need for tuition, and discovered that he was on the staff at RCM. Although he was busy preparing students for end-ofyear exams, he offered to give me a lesson at 8.30pm on a Friday evening, pointing out that we were in the adjoining teaching room to Miss Sellick’s. Afterwards, I walked back along Prince Consort Road as if on air. @ PRAY then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6.9-10 (ESV) Bible verses are provided by the Bible Society Births, Marriages and Deaths Births COYLE on 23rd August 2023 to Fiona (née Smith) and Paul, a daughter, Georgia Hope. PRESTON on 10th August 2023 to Sophie (née Hale) and Chris, a son, Felix Alexander Scott, brother to Heidi. Forthcoming Marriages CAPTAIN A. WOODWARD AND MISS L. SAUL The engagement is announced between Captain Andrew Woodward, son of Mr Paul and Mrs Julia Woodward of Whimple, Devon, and Louise, daughter of Professor Nigel and Mrs Jane Saul of Egham, Surrey. Marriages MISS A. CHRYSANTHOU AND MR D. SCHOFIELD The marriage took place on 26th August at Port Lympne Hotel and Reserve in Kent, between Athena, daughter of Mrs Julie Chrysanthou, of London, and the late Rolandos Chrysanthou, and David, son of Paul and Lisa Schofield of Shoeburyness, Essex. Deaths DEW Josephine Evelyn Mary (née McKay) died peacefully on 9th August 2023, aged 93. Beloved wife of the late Norman Peter, stepmother to Harriette, Eileen, Sebastian, Nicholas and much loved by her friends. FITZGERALD Ruth (née Spence) died peacefully on 20th August 2023, in her 100th year. Widow of Michael, much-loved mother of Peter (deceased), Sarah and Annie, and grandmother. Private family cremation. Service of thanksgiving, with details through Julie Sullivan Funeral Directors, 01608 637430. Family flowers only. Donations if desired to Kate’s Home Nursing. KIRK David died suddenly on 13th August 2023, aged 74. A great loss to his wife, Penny, and his beloved sons, Henry, Edward and Charlie. An announcement about his memorial will be made soon. KRELLÉ Jack Frederick, died peacefully on 11th August 2023. Beloved husband, father, uncle and friend. Remembered with joy. MCLINTOCK Sylvia Mary on 20th August 2023, aged 94, peacefully. Beloved wife of the late Alan, and adored mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. Thanksgiving service at Burford Parish Church on Wednesday 27th September at noon. MOORHEAD/INGLE Caroline Margaret (née Williams) died peacefully on 24th August 2023, aged 83. Dearly-loved wife of Richard (and Michael, deceased) and mother of Vickie, Alex and Hennie. ORR Jean died peacefully on 22nd August 2023 after a long illness. She had been married to the composer Buxton Orr and will be remembered for her generous and loving support for her extended family. ROSS Valerie Alice (née Gardner) died on 15th August 2023, aged 88. Beloved and devoted wife of the late Michael Ross. Loving mother of Emma, Bobbie and Jessica, grandmother of six. Funeral on Friday 29th September 2023 at 10.30am at Easthampstead Crematorium, South Road, Bracknell RG40 3DW, to which all are welcome. Family flowers only. Donations if desired to the Dogs Trust via Val’s tribute site www.valerieross.muchloved.com or c/o Lines Bannister Funeral Directors, Ascot. STEWART John Barry Bingham (Edinburgh) died peacefully at home on 22nd August 2023. Beloved husband of Ailsa and much-loved brother, uncle and friend. A private family cremation will be held on Tuesday 5th September 2023 at 10.30am at Mortonhall Crematorium, Pentland Chapel, followed by a thanksgiving service at the Parish of St Cuthbert’s Church at 2.30pm, to which all are welcome. WOODCOCK Mireille passed away peacefully on 6th August 2023, aged 53, after a long battle with illness. Beloved wife of David and friend to many. Memorial service at St Nicholas Church, Longparish, Hampshire, on Friday 15th September at 2pm. Donations, if desired, are to the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity and may be made online at mireillewoodcock.muchloved.com For further details please contact S. & J. Maddocks Independent Funeral Directors on 01264 355600. Thanksgiving Services CAMPBELL Elspeth. A Service of Thanksgiving for the life of Elspeth, Lady Campbell of Pittenweem, will be held in St John’s Episcopal Church, 1A Lothian Road, Edinburgh EH2 4BJ at 2.30pm on Friday 15th September, to which all friends are invited. Birthdays GRANDPA GEORGE Happy birthday. Still loving you, still missing you D, L, CB, AS x 020 7782 7553 newsukadvertising.co.uk Commemorate the life of a friend or relative in Readers’ Lives, a service in contracted tributes Call 020 7782 5583 or email [email protected] Readers’ Lives Model and producer who travelled to the North Pole 50% discount for subscribers GABY BEDFORD, WHO DIED AGED 76, FEATURED IN THE TIMES ON NOVEMBER, 23, 2019 There is no Court Circular for August 28, 2023
the times | Tuesday August 29 2023 45 Weather The Times weather page is provided by Channel Islands NORTH SEA CHANNEL IRISH SEA ATLANTIC OCEAN Aberdeen Glasgow Edinburgh Carlisle Newcastle York Manchester Liverpool Hull Llandudno Shrewsbury Nottingham Sheffield Norwich Cambridge Oxford Bristol Swansea Cardiff Plymouth Exeter Southampton Brighton London Londonderry Belfast Galway Dublin Cork Birmingham CELTIC SEA Orkney Shetland 8 Friday 22 19 20 22 Aberdeen Aberporth Anglesey Aviemore Barnstaple Bedford Belfast Birmingham Bournemouth Bridlington Bristol Camborne Cardiff Edinburgh Eskdalemuir Glasgow Hereford Herstmonceux Ipswich Isle of Man Isle of Wight Jersey Keswick Kinloss Leeds Lerwick Leuchars Lincoln Liverpool London Lyneham Manchester Margate Milford Haven Newcastle Nottingham Orkney Oxford Plymouth Portland Scilly, St Mary’s Shoreham Shrewsbury Snowdonia Southend South Uist Stornoway Tiree Whitehaven Wick Yeovilton Around Britain Key: b=bright, c=cloud, d=drizzle, pc=partly cloudy du=dull, f=fair, fg=fog, h=hail, m=mist, r=rain, sh=showers, sl=sleet, sn=snow, s=sun, t=thunder *=previous day **=data not available Temp C Rain mm Sun hr* midday yesterday 24 hrs to 5pm yesterday Noon today 15 D 1.8 2.3 15 C 1.2 0.3 16 C 2.4 0.1 14 R 0.4 1.2 17 C 1.8 ** 18 C 0.0 ** 15 C 0.8 0.7 17 C 0.0 ** 19 PC 0.0 4.9 17 C 0.0 ** 16 C 0.0 2.2 16 C 0.0 0.2 17 C 0.2 1.3 17 C 0.0 1.0 14 C 0.0 1.8 14 D 0.4 3.5 16 C 0.0 ** 18 PC 0.0 6.1 18 PC 0.0 5.6 15 C 0.0 0.1 18 C 0.0 ** 18 PC 0.0 3.2 16 C 0.2 ** 16 C 1.0 2.9 14 C 0.0 ** 12 D 1.8 0.6 17 C 0.0 0.9 18 PC 0.0 4.3 17 C 1.2 ** 18 C 0.0 7.5 16 C 0.0 4.3 15 C 2.2 0.3 18 ** 0.2 7.5 16 C 0.0 ** 16 C 2.8 ** 17 C 0.0 1.4 14 C 0.0 0.5 18 C 0.0 ** 18 C 0.2 ** 17 C 0.0 ** 16 C 0.0 ** 17 C 0.0 8.4 14 R 0.0 1.5 13 D 1.6 ** 18 C 1.8 5.9 15 D 0.8 ** 15 C 1.2 0.0 16 C 0.8 0.1 14 C 0.0 4.0 14 R 1.0 ** 18 C 3.2 1.0 The world All readings local midday yesterday Alicante Amsterdam Athens Auckland Bahrain Bangkok Barbados Barcelona Beijing Beirut Belgrade Berlin Bermuda Bordeaux Brussels Bucharest Budapest Buenos Aires Cairo Calcutta Canberra Cape Town Chicago Copenhagen Corfu Delhi Dubai Dublin Faro Florence Frankfurt Geneva Gibraltar Helsinki Hong Kong Honolulu Istanbul Jerusalem Johannesburg Kuala Lumpur Kyiv Lanzarote Las Palmas Lima Lisbon Los Angeles Luxor Madeira Madrid Malaga Mallorca Malta Melbourne Mexico City Miami Milan Mombasa Montreal Moscow Mumbai Munich Nairobi Naples New Orleans New York Nice Nicosia Oslo Paris Perth Prague Reykjavik Riga Rio de Janeiro Riyadh Rome San Francisco Santiago São Paulo Seoul Seychelles Singapore St Petersburg Stockholm Sydney Tel Aviv Tenerife Tokyo Vancouver Venice Vienna Warsaw Washington Zurich 30 S 20 PC 30 S 13 PC 43 S 33 PC 32 PC 25 PC 28 S 30 B 36 S 18 B 30 PC 24 B 20 PC 34 S 33 S 14 S 34 S 34 S 14 C 26 S 24 PC 17 B 32 PC 34 S 43 S 18 B 29 S 25 SH 18 S 15 R 27 S 17 R 32 PC 31 B 30 PC 32 PC 17 S 26 T ** ** 28 PC 27 PC 20 DU 26 S 24 PC 40 S 26 PC 23 PC 28 PC 26 PC 31 S 14 PC 22 B 33 B 16 B 29 PC 21 B 20 PC 30 S 16 B 21 B 25 R 36 S 28 PC 22 B 33 PC 18 PC 18 S 22 B 14 R 13 D 18 C 17 R 43 S 26 PC 20 PC 17 S 12 B 22 R 29 PC 31 T 21 S 15 B 20 PC 32 PC 29 S 34 PC 24 B 22 PC 23 PC 22 PC 31 C 14 R Five days ahead Unsettled with showers or longer spells of rain at times, warmest in the southeast Today Sunny periods with the chance of showers, some thundery in the northwest. Max 22C (72F), min 6C (43F) Tides Tidal predictions. Heights in metres Today Ht Ht Aberdeen Avonmouth Belfast Cardiff Devonport Dover Dublin Falmouth Greenock Harwich Holyhead Hull Leith Liverpool London Bridge Lowestoft Milford Haven Morecambe Newhaven Newquay Oban Penzance Portsmouth Shoreham Southampton Swansea Tees Weymouth --:-- -- 13:03 4.1 06:28 11.6 18:55 12.4 10:26 3.2 22:40 3.4 06:14 10.8 18:43 11.5 04:59 4.8 17:19 5.3 10:32 6.2 23:00 6.4 11:01 3.8 23:06 4.1 04:27 4.6 16:47 5.0 11:51 3.1 --:-- -- 10:58 3.6 23:32 3.9 09:51 5.1 22:03 5.5 05:22 6.8 18:08 7.0 01:33 5.0 14:13 5.3 10:33 8.5 22:51 9.1 --:-- -- 13:16 6.4 08:29 2.4 21:25 2.5 05:28 6.2 17:53 6.7 10:45 8.5 23:02 9.1 10:29 6.2 22:50 6.4 04:22 6.2 16:46 6.7 05:35 3.4 17:52 3.9 03:55 4.9 16:19 5.3 10:56 4.4 23:05 4.5 10:41 5.8 23:01 6.0 10:00 4.2 22:15 4.4 05:32 8.4 17:59 9.0 02:37 5.0 15:20 5.2 05:55 1.6 18:20 2.0 Synoptic situation An occlusion associated with an area of low pressure over northern Scotland will bring scattered heavy showers to Northern Ireland and northern and western Scotland. A series of fronts associated with the same area of low pressure will bring a band of showery southeastwards across England, Wales and southern Ireland during the day. Highs and lows 24hrs to 5pm yesterday Warmest: Holbeach, Lincolnshire, 21.4C Coldest: Cairnwell, 4.7C Wettest: Hull East Park, Yorkshire, 13.0mm Sunniest: Charlwood, 8.4hrs* Sun and moon For Greenwich Sun rises: Sun sets: Moon rises: Moon sets: Full Moon: August 31 Hours of darkness Aberdeen Belfast Birmingham Cardiff Exeter Glasgow Liverpool London Manchester Newcastle Norwich Penzance Sheffi eld 20:44-05:36 20:54-05:57 20:33-05:45 20:37-05:52 20:37-05:54 20:50-05:47 20:40-05:47 20:24-05:39 20:37-05:44 20:37-05:38 20:21-05:32 20:43-06:03 20:33-05:41 General situation: Sunny periods and the chance of showers, heavy in northern and western Scotland. London, SE Eng, E Mids, Cen S Eng, Channel Is, E Anglia: A dry morning with sunny periods, turning partly cloudy in the afternoon with showery rain spreading southeastwards. Gentle westerly winds. Maximum 22C (72F), minimum 7C (45F). Wales, SW Eng, W Mids: Sunny periods with the chance of a few showers during the morning. A mostly cloudy afternoon with outbreaks of showery rain. Gentle westerly winds. Maximum 20C (68F), minimum 6C (43F). Lake District, NW Eng, SW Scotland, Cen N Eng, NE Eng, E Eng, Borders, IoM: Sunny periods with heavy showers. The showers will become more isolated in the late afternoon. Moderate westerly winds. Maximum 20C (68F), minimum 7C (45F). Republic of Ireland, N Ireland: Thick cloud and showery rain will clear southeastern areas in the morning, otherwise a day of sunny spells and the chance of an isolated shower. Gentle to moderate northwesterly winds. Maximum 19C (66F), minimum 7C (45F). Edinburgh and Dundee, Cen Highland, Argyll, Glasgow, Moray Firth, N Isles, Aberdeen, NW Scotland, NE Scotland: Sunny spells with scattered heavy and perhaps thundery showers. Gentle to moderate west or northwesterly winds. Maximum 18C (64F), minimum 6C (43F). Tomorrow 18 18 17 21 Thursday 18 17 19 20 Saturday 21 19 20 22 Sunday 22 19 20 22 10 afternoon with outbreaks of showery 12 6 Hull 11 Liverpoo 17 Edinburgh Newcastle 7 25 24 21 Orkney Shetland 10 8 19 18 18 17 16 17 15 14 14 15 22 21 20 18 18 17 19 16 16 18 eter 18 21 Norwich SEA Llandudno rk Hull F 95 86 77 68 59 50 41 32 23 14 5 C 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 -5 -10 -15 Wind speed (mph) Temperature 28 (degrees C) 34 Sea state Calm Slight Moderate Rough Flood alerts and warnings At 17:00 on Monday there were no fl ood alerts or warnings in England, Wales or Scotland. For further information and updates in England visit fl ood-warninginformation.service.gov.uk, for Wales naturalresources.wales/fl ooding and for Scotland SEPA.org.uk Cold front Warm front Occluded front Trough LOW HIGH LOW LOW HIGH HIGH LOW LOW LOW 1024 1024 1016 1008 1008 1008 1000 1000 1000 Sunny periods and scattered showers across Wales, Scotland, Ireland and northern and western England. Mostly cloudy in southeast England with outbreaks of rain. Max 22C, min 7C Dry in southern England with sunny spells. Sunny periods with the chance of showers in Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland and northern England. Cloudy and wet in southern Ireland. Max 21C, min 5C A largely cloudy day in southern England and Wales with outbreaks of heavy rain. Elsewhere, some sunny periods with the chance of a few showers. Max 21C, min 6C Sunny periods with the chance of a few showers in southern England and Wales. Dry elsewhere with spells of sunshine. Max 22C, min 6C Sunny spells with the chance of an isolated shower in southeast England. Cloudy in the far northwest with outbreaks of rain. Largely dry elsewhere with sunny spells. Max 23C, min 7C 06.07 19.54 19.46 04.40 Wed 17 I t probably comes as no surprise that rainfall this month has been above average across the UK, with the exception of Scotland. But for future water supplies it is too risky to hope for adequate rains each year, and longterm plans are urgently needed for more reliable sources of water, especially in the drier climates of southern England and East Anglia, areas that also face huge demands for water from rapidly growing populations. One suggestion is to pipe water from the wettest parts of the country to drier regions. In eastern England, Anglian Water is building a network of large water pipes from the wetter parts of its region to Norfolk, Suffolk and southern Essex. The finished project will pump 265 million litres of water each day from Elsham in north Lincolnshire near the River Humber to supply water to the south of Anglian’s region in a network of underground pipes that will together stretch to longer than the M1 motorway. The project is estimated to cost £500 million and is due to be completed in 2025. As well as the new water pipelines, Anglian Water plans to build two new reservoirs, together with Cambridge Water and Affinity Water, in a project costing about £4 billion. Anglian has also suggested supplying all its customers with smart water meters to encourage less water use and help households spot leaks in their homes. The need for the extra water supplies is particularly urgent in this region, where the demand is projected to outstrip supply as early as 2030. Not only is East Anglia the driest region of the UK, with just under 630mm of rainfall each year, but the area is also facing a trend for even lower rainfalls as the climate becomes drier. Currently the majority of the water supplies in the region come from reservoirs and aquifers — underground rocks that can hold huge amounts of water. But the aquifers and reservoirs are slow to refill, and so the region is particularly vulnerable to any shortages of rainfall, which can last months. Speak directly to one of our forecasters on 09065 777675 8am to 5pm daily (calls are charged at £1.55 plus network extras) weatherquest.co.uk Weather Eye Paul Simons
Is Max Verstappen a bad thing for Formula One? It seems an almost rude question to ask of a man who has two world titles to his name, is streaking away to a third, has won 11 of this year’s 13 races and has just equalled Sebastian Vettel’s record of nine consecutive grand prix victories. Nor is it a question that you would have posed anywhere in the vicinity of Zandvoort at the weekend, when the vast majority of the 105,000 fans who packed into the Dutch Grand Prix venue were rooting for their local hero. The list of great Dutch F1 drivers is not a particularly long one, so the Max bandwagon is one they have been happy to jump on. In their eyes, he can do no wrong. In purely sporting terms, they probably have a point. With nine races left, it is already clear that Verstappen, 25, is assembling one of the great F1 seasons. He will almost certainly have the title sewn up well before its end, and when the curtain comes down in Abu Dhabi in November he will have a heap of records against his name. There are those, of course, who will resent every one of them. Some, perhaps, because Verstappen can appear frosty or even spiky in public; more, almost certainly, for the way he was anointed world champion in 2021 — even if it was the consequence of a gruesome error by a race director he has no bitterness (at least not any more) towards Verstappen and Red Bull, and stresses that others simply have to step up to the plate, but he recognises the drawback of having one man dominate F1. “Unpredictability is what makes the sport exciting,” Wolff said on Saturday. “You want to watch television on a Sunday and see a fight, but that’s not the case at the moment. It’s not happening because one team and one driver are doing a much better job than anyone else. We need to acknowledge that.” As he spoke, my mind went back to a conversation with Wolff in Austria a couple of months ago. He was recalling the time when his Mercedes team were the dominant force in F1, when Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg looked unbeatable. As they clocked up the wins, Wolff took less and less pleasure from their success. Even the tradition of posing for a team photograph after a victory began to feel as if it was a chore he could live without. As the Red Bull chief, Christian Horner, has observed, convergence is the norm in a technology-driven sport. One team gain an advantage, and little by little the others gnaw away at it. Will that be the process that leads to the downfall of the Red Bull/Verstappen empire? Or will they fall away through complacency, sated by all their success? At a more prosaic level, the raft of technical changes that are due to be introduced in 2026 will be a significant game-changer. Theoretically, they could level the playing field, as all teams have to start with a clean sheet. Horner, unsurprisingly, has sounded decidedly cool about the sport’s direction of travel, but nobody expects Red Bull to fall off a cliff when the new rules come into play. Not least because they have Verstappen under contract until 2028. The measure of the driver’s excellence is not only in the way he wins, but his margin of superiority over his team-mate, Sergio Pérez. On a good day, the Mexican can give Verstappen a run for his money, but there haven’t been many of those this year. He is 138 points adrift of the Dutchman in the championship. “It’s odd,” Wolff said. “Checo [Pérez] is not an idiot. We have seen it over the years that Checo is a grand prix winner, a multiple winner. I cannot comprehend.” One suggestion is that Pérez’s confidence has deserted him. Another is that Red Bull have designed a car around Verstappen’s particular driving style and although its parameters can be adjusted it is fundamentally not one that suits Pérez. Or we could conclude that Verstappen is just a much better driver. And maybe the sport should be grateful for that. Sport Verstappen is invincible – and hurting F1 Alasdair Reid Red Bull on a roll Verstappen can break the all-time record for consecutive wins at Monza this weekend M Verstappen Red Bull, 2023 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull, 2013 Alberto Ascari Ferrari, 1952-53 Michael Schumacher Ferrari, 2004 Nico Rosberg Mercedes, 2015-16 Michael Schumacher Ferrari, 2000-01 9 9 7 7 7 6 Verstappen celebrates with Red Bull colleagues after winning his ninth consecutive grand prix of the season in Zandvoort rather than anything he or his Red Bull team had done. Others, a growing number it would seem, are finally prepared to recognise that Verstappen is one of the great drivers of all time, one whose name will come to be mentioned alongside those of Jim Clark, Juan Manuel Fangio, Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna and all the other giants of the sport. Yes, he is blessed to be in a team that appear incapable of making a single strategy error and he has the benefit of a car designed by the legendary Adrian Newey, but even with all those advantages — to which he can add an immersion in motor sport almost from the time he could walk — Verstappen still rises above. So why should there be any reservations about what he is doing? Because, put simply, by destroying his rivals, he is undermining the competition as a whole. Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team principal, is at pains to make it clear that 46 Tuesday August 29 2023 | the times
the times | Tuesday August 29 2023 47 Sport Cartmel Chepstow Epsom Ripon Southwell Yesterday’s racing results Musselburgh Rob Wright 5.25 Restricted Maiden Stakes (£3,240: 1m 1f) (5) 6.00 Handicap (2-Y-O: £3,664: 1m) (7) 6.30 Handicap (£3,664: 5f) (11) 7.05 Handicap (3-Y-O: £3,664: 1m 1f) (7) 7.35 Handicap (3-Y-O: £3,664: 7f) (9) 8.05 Handicap (£3,664: 1m 4f 104yd) (9) 5.45 Novices’ Hurdle (£4,357: 2m) (7) 6.20 Handicap Hurdle (£4,225: 2m 4f) (10) 6.55 Memorial Handicap Hurdle (£4,225: 2m 4f) (10) 7.25 Mares’ Maiden Hurdle (£4,357: 2m 4f) (6) 7.55 Richard Hitchings Memorial Handicap Hurdle (£3,406: 2m 7f) (12) Course specialists 4.00 Handicap (£6,281: 6f) (10) 4.30 Handicap (£4,711: 1m) (12) 5.00 Handicap (£3,664: 2m) (10) Worcester Rob Wright 4.40 Handicap Chase (£3,406: 2m 4f) (9) 5.15 Handicap Chase (£4,859: 2m 7f) (7) Newbury Rob Wright 2.00 Maiden Fillies’ Stakes (2-Y-O: £15,702: 6f) (16) 2.30 Handicap (2-Y-O: £4,527: 7f) (12) 3.05 Handicap (3-Y-O: £6,621: 7f) (13) 3.40 Handicap (£10,800: 1m str) (10) 4.15 Handicap (3-Y-O: £4,527: 1m 4f) (10) 4.50 Handicap (3-Y-O: £6,621: 1m 2f) (12) Ripon Rob Wright 2.15 Apprentice Handicap (£4,711: 1m 2f) (10) 2.50 Novice Stakes (2-Y-O: £5,400: 5f) (7) 3.25 Handicap (2-Y-O: £4,711: 5f) (7) The head of performance at UK Athletics will seek to clear the air with Reece Prescod after he withdrew himself from the sprint relay squad, his absence almost certainly costing the team a medal at the World Athletics Championships. The British teams made the podium in UK Athletics planning peace talks with Prescod after relay row the four other relays but Prescod, as one of three British athletes who has run under ten seconds for the 100m this season, informed the selectors that he did not want to be considered only days before the start of the championships in Budapest. Britain finished fourth in the 4x100m final on Saturday, behind the United States, Italy and Jamaica. While Prescod accused British officials of “emotional blackmail” after he claimed his failure to appear for key relay practice sessions was due to injury concerns, there was a sense of frustration among coaches and athletes that the 27-year-old did not want to be part of the team. After failing to secure a place in the individual 100m final, Prescod left Budapest for a holiday. Stephen Maguire, the technical director at UKA, spoke of the importance of culture and behaviours, which suggested that the onus will be on Prescod to repair any damage. “One of the things that we’re trying to do, from a cultural point of view, is have a real understanding of what it takes [to succeed],” Maguire said. “That’s an understanding of what performance is, and an understanding of the behaviours that are necessary, the values we’ve tried to instil, and the culture we’re trying to grow. “When I started with the relays, for example, in 2014, we inherited a messy situation and we turned it around. This is similar. I like Reece. Him and I’ll talk. “I’m not sure it’s clearing the air . . . I think there’s a conversation needed, absolutely. High-performance sport is difficult, and the ability to compete at this level is difficult. I’ll have no problems chatting to Reece at the end of September or October time.” Athletics Matt Lawton Chief Sports Correspondent, Budapest
48 Tuesday August 29 2023 | the times Sport Cricket The Sciver-Brunts are not the only married couple in women’s cricket. Nevertheless, it is unusual in sport to have the personal and professional so closely entwined. How do they manage on the field and at home with the occasional tensions that must surely arise? “Playing against each other is a hell of a lot worse, that’s why she [Nat] moved to Yorkshire so we wouldn’t have to do that. If I bowl a bouncer to her in the nets, I’d tell her it was coming. I’m a bit over the top; she’s very calm, always in a competitive bubble. If I was bowling pants, she’d definitely take me off. She’s got my feelings in hand, but she keeps it very professional. “We are at different stages of our careers, and at home occasionally that’s been a bit tough. She’s absolutely in her prime, whereas I’m at the end. So she’s often doing really well, winning awards, and she’s getting praise from my brothers and sisters on the family WhatsApp group and there’s nothing about me! So occasionally I just need a bit of quiet time to sulk. It’s a good job she’s modest and doesn’t rub it in my face. We’ve never had a fall out on tour or anywhere around cricket. That’s rare.” more accepting now but still finds it difficult. He’s very traditional. So am I, really. I’ve always struggled to be OK with myself, but I just can’t not be because it would be so crippling. My mum is 77, has been a Christian her whole life, and you can’t change someone 60 years in the making. “Small things have got better. Like before, I’d take my ring off when I went home and I wouldn’t mention Nat’s name. Now she says to me things like, ‘Say happy birthday to Nat for me.’ Small things but I’m really grateful for them. It affected my relationship with my mum, because I didn’t see her as often. She hasn’t seen me play a game of cricket since my debut. I’ve struggled with that a lot. It’s become easier to talk about and accept in my own head.” shitty my school life was I tried extra hard at cricket because, basically, the better I became at cricket the more friends I had, the more accepted I was. It might seem fake but it became genuine. “Boys at the time thought the game wasn’t for girls and that we didn’t belong — that’s what they were taught to believe — but I had to try to change that and the only way to do that was to be great. They became grateful for it, because I helped them win games and I genuinely did get a lot of love from those lads, so it will always be a special place for me.” At this stage, the thought of making a living from the game was a pipe dream. It took ten years, for example, after her England debut for women’s central contracts to kick in, a decade combining semi-professional cricket and a range of jobs to make ends meet. As a mark of the different world women’s cricket now inhabits, her wife, Nat Sciver-Brunt, earned £320,000 for a month’s work in the inaugural Women’s Premier League in India this year. “I worked in a solicitors as a filer, moving files from the vault to the computer,” Katherine says. “Then I worked at my dad’s electrical company, which my brother is taking over now; he needed a PA so I did that for three days a week and then I did some coaching with Drax power station. That was gold for me, absolute gold. “They were in Selby and they were doing cricket sessions. They wanted an ambassador and I headed up the community cricket section. I got my foot in the door and for the next eight to ten years they sponsored me. They paid me a monthly wage which was twice the amount of what I was getting with England. It allowed me to buy my first home and get on the ladder. “I had to have those three jobs otherwise the future that I’ve built for myself would not have existed now and that’s just through hard work. It wasn’t easy but I knew what my goal was and I knew it had to be done. “I dropped those three jobs around 2012-ish and that freed up more time for me. Nat earned in one month probably what I earned in the first 15 years of playing for England. It’s mental. Absolutely mental.” It’s not just money, though. There has been a dramatic change in terms of opportunities, facilities and exposure. “I played for the Northern Diamonds and Yorkshire my whole career and we had one game where we were put in the park, with daisies a foot high, because we never got the nets at Headingley,” she says. “We had an overseas player and we were so embarrassed on their behalf. It’s all 100 per cent better now. “In the Hundred we get to play alongside the men and the crowds and atmosphere are unreal. We are on a par with the boys, in terms of facilities, what we wear, how we train and practice, the interaction we have. Simple things like the boys knowing your name. Joe Root [part of the Trent Rockets with Sciver-Brunt] saying, ‘Morning, Katherine.’ It doesn’t sound much, but it’s important. I get emotional thinking about it.” Sciver-Brunt has challenged a few perceptions in her time. Firstly, as an aggressive fast bowler in a female game, someone prepared to bowl a bit rough. Second, as she has recounted on many occasions, as an openly gay woman who is in a same-sex marriage, despite the reservations of her parents, her mum in particular. “The older I’ve got the easier it has become for me to be in my own skin,” she says. “My dad is Retiring Katherine Sciver-Brunt tells Mike Atherton that cricket gave her a ‘reason to exist’ and why she doesn’t regret missing out on boom in women’s game ‘Power station sponsor paid me twice as much as England did’ About a mile or so from Stuart Broad’s country pub in Nottinghamshire, Katherine Sciver-Brunt sits in her kitchen contemplating a personal and professional journey that has been transformative. During a conversation that is reflective, emotional and funny, she dispels any doubts about the value of sport: “It saved me, basically,” the 38-year-old says. “I don’t know in what regard it saved me, but it gave me a reason to exist.” Like Broad, Sciver-Brunt retired from all cricket at the end of the summer with a legacy as one of the most significant players of her generation assured. She won three World Cups, four Ashes series and is England women’s highest wicket-taker of all time, with 335 across the three formats in 267 appearances as a strike bowler. It is only 19 years since her debut for England in 2004, but it feels a lifetime away as far as women’s cricket is concerned. A lifetime, too, for the once shy, young girl who first turned up at Barnsley Cricket Club traipsing behind the brother, Daniel, she adored, desperate to find some solace from a difficult educational start. Cricket became something to cling to. “There wasn’t a women’s team at Barnsley, obviously, and I didn’t know that women’s teams existed at all,” Sciver-Brunt says. “I’d never seen it on TV. Obviously, there was some Yorkshire women’s cricket going on, but I didn’t know about it, nor did my parents. All I knew was that boys were allowed to play and I was allowed to play with them. “I knew there was a Yorkshire men’s team and we had some VHS tapes at home, one of which was called Bats, Balls and Bouncers, and the West Indians stood out, particularly Curtly Ambrose. I remember thinking he was terrifying. I thought how great it would be if I could do that and the only person in the area who was close to that, who I thought could be a bit of me, was Darren Gough. “I’d already played with my brother in the back garden. We had a big tree that was the stumps and my brother would continually smash me into the school field and I’d have to go and fetch it among the nettles. So I soon learnt how to bowl short because that was the only way to stop him hitting me into the field. “After that, he said to come and train with the lads at the club. I was quite anxious as there were no other girls around, but my dad was the assistant groundsman and my mum did the teas. A lot of the boys looked up to my brother, so I was fairly confident having bowled to him in the garden, even though I was very small and very shy. I got a couple of the lads out in my first net session and they said, ‘She’ll do.’ “I could be this person they didn’t expect and I knew that was the way to win them over. I got accepted really quickly. I think because of how Where she ranks Source: ESPNCricinfo Total career wickets in ODIs J Goswami S Ismail C Fitzpatrick A Mohammed K Sciver-Brunt E Perry 2002-22 2007-22 1993-07 2003-22 2005-22 2007- 255 191 180 180 170 162 with the boys — they know our names. It doesn’t sound much In the Hundred we’re on a par “ but it makes me emotional
the times | Tuesday August 29 2023 49 Sport It was on the balcony at Lord’s after the World Cup final in 2017 that Katherine plucked up the courage to ask Nat out, with their team-mates having gone down to lie on the outfield to spell out an ‘I love you’ message. “Yes, that’s true. It was extremely cringeworthy. We’d been watching that horrific programme Love Island and the girls had seen it on there and decided that was what they were going to do. I went along with it. It was memorable, though, and that was what was important.” That World Cup win is one of the three main highlights that Sciver-Brunt picks out when asked to reflect on her favourite moments of her career. “My first Ashes win [in 2005], is without doubt the number one. It was the first big thing. I didn’t really know what I was getting into. I didn’t know what the Ashes meant really or the history of it. “I’m so glad I didn’t know: everyone in that team was terrified of the Aussies and it’s priceless if you’re not because you can be your natural, authentic self. And it was the best series ever; we won it and it was this enormous, absolutely enormous thing in a world where we were fairly insignificant. To start off like that was a bit of a blessing but also a curse, because it was hard to top that. “Winning the County Championship with Yorkshire [in 2015] for the one and only time was memorable. We got to meet the Queen. So that’s another standout because I’m a very proud Yorkshire girl. Obviously the World Cup final [2017] at Lord’s was awesome. A sold-out Lord’s seemed crazy at the time; we couldn’t really work out what was happening. “As a kid from Barnsley; not much opportunity; from being a small, unconfident, shy, bullied child who absolutely hated school and anything to do with education, having this little offering saved me. I don’t know in what regard it saved me, but it gave me a reason to exist. And the things that have happened from it, the memories I’ve made have been unforgettable and irreplaceable, so I’m extremely grateful to the sport. “And I don’t regret not being part of this era to come. I’m sad not to be, but I’m happy to see where it’s come from in the last 20 years. Being part of every stage of that fills me with pride.” Crowds flock but Hundred’s future is still uncertain Three editions of the Hundred are now complete, and that is enough of a sample size to be able to make some observations about the success — or otherwise — of the competition and what its long-term future may be. What is working? One of its stated aims was to bring new fans to the sport by making a shorter, sharper, quicker tournament suitable for younger audiences. There is no doubt that this target has been met. Attendances are rising year on year and in the latest men’s tournament, grounds have been about 85 per cent full. The women’s competition has attracted record crowds: the final at Lord’s on Sunday, in which Southern Brave defeated Northern Superchargers, was attended by 21,636 — a record for a domestic women’s game. It was also the biggest crowd at a women’s game in England this summer (higher than any in the women’s Ashes). The standard of the cricket has been back to the highs of the first year after last year’s blip, when the pitches were slow and there were few close games. Tammy Beaumont hit the first women’s century in Hundred history, Harry Brook hit the fastest 100 in the men’s competition and Manchester Originals — who went on to lose the final to Oval Invincibles — achieved the tournament’s highest run chase in the men’s eliminator against Southern Brave. In total, 580,000 tickets were sold — an increase on the first two years. The percentage of female ticket buyers was 30 per cent, while 23 per cent of tickets went to juniors, both an increase on the first two years. The average number of television viewers per men’s match was up 8 per cent to 400,000, while the average number of viewers per match for the women’s competition on Sky has grown 20 per cent from last year to 132,000. Eight of the women’s games featured in the ten most-watched women’s domestic sports broadcasts of the year. The Hundred’s digital channels have had 70 million video views, 50 per cent up on 2022, and merchandise sales are up 21 per cent on last year. Growing a fan base for the eight teams created for this competition was always going to take time, but there is evidence support is increasing. The 2023 edition had a clear block in the schedule, allowing most of England men’s Ashes stars to feature. What isn’t working? The Hundred’s most important aim was to have an elite tournament with the best players on show, and that has not been achieved. There is an issue with attracting the biggest overseas stars and this is only set to get worse. In the men’s competition, the quality of foreign players is low-rent at best. None of the Australian Ashes stars stayed on; both Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Marsh pulled out on the eve of the tournament, as did the Afghanistan spin bowler Rashid Khan. There are no Indian players in the men’s tournament and nor are there likely to be. The Indian board, the BCCI, continues to resist giving its players “No Objection Certificates” to play in domestic tournaments in other countries. In the future, it is likely to do so only for franchise tournaments that have links to IPL franchises, such as the SA20 in South Africa, the UAE-based ILT20, and Major League Cricket (MLC) in the United States. It is the latter that poses the biggest threat to the ECB’s competition. As MLC expands, there is likely to be a direct clash with the Hundred, but the American competition has access to much greater financial resources. To attract the biggest names, the Hundred would need to considerably up the value of its top contracts (presently £125,000) but the tournament isn’t making any money, and nor is it likely to. It made a loss of £9 million in its first two years, which rose to £37.1 million after factoring in costs and the £24.7 million paid to counties and the MCC by the ECB in return for supporting the competition. While it is not unusual for such competitions not to make money initially, with a deal with Sky locked in until 2028, there is limited scope for additional TV revenue. Raising ticket revenue will not be possible without increasing prices and the sponsorship market is difficult at present. One option for the ECB would be to try to attract private capital, but that would involve selling off either the tournament in its entirety or the individual teams, as is the case in the IPL, for example. For the tournament’s critics, the quality of the cricket has never been the issue, rather the effect it has on the rest of the English cricketing landscape by squeezing county cricket out of the height of summer and devaluing the T20 Blast and One-Day Cup. That the Hundred was given its own window this summer meant the final Test of the English season ended on July 31 and there was no international cricket at all in August — something that did not go down well with seasoned cricket fans. What is the tournament’s future? The new administration of the ECB — the chairman, Richard Thompson, and the chief executive, Richard Gould, both formerly of Surrey — have stated their support for the tournament but are also opening up discussions in the autumn with the counties, the Professional Cricketers’ Association and other parties about its long-term future. One of the options is to end the Blast and the Hundred and replace them with one short-form competition. It is unlikely there will be any change before 2025 at the earliest and, perhaps, not until 2028 when this TV deal runs out. By then, the women’s competition may be able to stand alone. It is clear, though, the jury is still out on whether the undeniable benefits of the tournament outweigh the also undeniable negative consequences of it. Brook’s 100 was one of the notable highs Elizabeth Ammon Clockwise from main: Winning the 2017 World Cup at Lord’s; with her wife, and Trent Rockets teammate, Nat; playing with the boys at Barnsley Cricket Club; celebrating an Australian wicket in the second ODI during the 2019 Ashes
50 2GM Tuesday August 29 2023 | the times Sport Football National League P W D L F A GDPts Solihull Moors.....6 4 2 0 11 4 7 14 Barnet....................6 4 1 1 13 8 5 13 Chesterfield.........6 4 1 1 15 11 4 13 Hartlepool............6 4 0 2 15 11 4 12 Rochdale...............6 3 1 2 10 7 3 10 Altrincham...........6 2 4 0 12 10 2 10 Woking..................6 3 1 2 10 8 2 10 Ebbsfleet Utd......6 3 0 3 10 9 1 9 FC Halifax.............6 2 3 1 6 5 1 9 Maidenhead .......6 2 3 1 6 5 1 9 Gateshead............6 2 2 2 12 10 2 8 Wealdstone..........6 2 2 2 7 9 -2 8 Dag & Red............6 2 1 3 6 8 -2 7 Aldershot..............6 2 1 3 10 14 -4 7 Eastleigh...............6 1 3 2 7 8 -1 6 Boreham Wood..6 1 3 2 6 9 -3 6 Bromley.................6 1 3 2 5 8 -3 6 Kiddrmnstr...........6 1 3 2 2 5 -3 6 Oxford City..........6 1 2 3 8 9 -1 5 Oldham..................6 1 2 3 7 10 -3 5 AFC Fylde.............6 1 2 3 12 16 -4 5 Dorking W’ers.....6 1 1 4 7 14 -7 4 York........................6 0 3 3 7 11 -4 3 Southend..............6 3 0 3 12 7 5 -1 AFC Fylde (0) 3 Altrincham (2) 3 Haughton 57 (pen) Omotayo 78 Obi 90+8 Linney 32 Angus 34 Conn-Clarke 87 (pen) Barnet (1) 3 Ebbsfleet Utd(1) 2 Kabamba 45+7, 61, 79 Poleon 21, 68 Bromley (1) 2 Southend (0) 1 Dennis 18, Cheek 55 Husin 56 Chesterfield (1) 3 Hartlepool (2) 2 Colclough 14 Grimes 46 Naylor 90+4 Dieseruvwe 2 Mancini 6 8,451 Eastleigh (1) 3 Aldershot (0) 0 Maguire 37 Boldewijn 64, 70 Sent off: Van Stappershoef 34 FC Halifax Town(0) 0 Gateshead (0) 0 1,946 Sent off: Hannant Kidderminster H (0) 0 Maidenhead Utd (0) 0 Oldham (0) 0 Solihull Moors(0) 2 Sent off: Fondop-Talum 6,815 Beck 57 Kelly 90+4 Oxford City (0) 4 Boreham Wood(0) 0 Kirby 65, Parker 75, 80 McEachran 86 Wealdstone (0) 0 Dagenham and Redbridge(0) 2 1,513 Hill 48, Mussa 83 Woking (1) 2 Dorking Wanderers(0) 0 Korboa 34, Lewis 82 York City (1) 1 Rochdale (1) 3 Crookes 45+9 Sent off: Crookes Sinclair 36 (pen), 53 (pen) Henderson 87 National League North Banbury Utd 0 Buxton 3; Bishop’s St 1 Boston Utd 0; Blyth Sp 2 Spennymoor 0; Chester FC 2 Farsley Celtic 0; Darlington 2 South Shields 2; Gloucester C 2 Rushall O 0; Kings Lynn 2 Alfreton 1; Peterborough Sports 0 Brackley 3; Scunthorpe United4 Scarborough Athletic 1; Southport 0 Chorley 2; Tamworth 4 Hereford FC 0; Warrington Town 1 Curzon Ashton 4. National League South Aveley 3 H & Richmond 0; Chelmsford City 1 Eastbourne B 0; Chippenham 2 Slough 1; Dartford 2 Dover Ath 0; H & Waterlooville 4 Yeovil 3; Maidstone United 1 Taunton Town 1; St Albans City 0 Bath City 2; Tonbridge Angels 0 Welling Utd 1; Torquay 2 Braintree 1; Truro City 3 Farnborough 1; Weston-super-Mare 1 Hemel Hempstead 1; Worthing 2 Weymouth 0. Cycling La Vuelta Stage 3 (Súria to Arinsal, 158,5km): 1, R Evenepoel (Bel, Soudal Quick-Step) 4hr 15min 39sec; 2, J Vingegaard (Den, JumboVisma) at 1sec; 3, J Ayuso (Sp, UAE Team Emirates) at same time. Overall positions 1 Evenepoel 8:43.11; 2, E Mas (Sp, Movistar) at 5sec; 3, L Martinez (Fr, Groupama FDJ) at 11sec. Tennis US Open Flushing Meadows, New York (Seed in brackets; Briton in blue) First round: Men B Shelton (US) bt P Cachin (Arg) 1-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4; S Ofner (Aut) bt N Borges (Por) 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 7-6 (9-7), 6-4; D Thiem (Aut) bt (25) A Bublik (Kaz) 6-3, 6-2, 6-4; F Marozsan (Hun) bt R Gasquet (Fr) 6-3, 6-1, 6-7 (5-7), 6-7 (1-7), 6-2; J M Cerundolo (Arg) bt I Ivashka (Russ) 2-6, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 6-3, 6-3; A Mannarino (Fr) bt Y Watanuki (Japan) 7-5, 6-7 (3-7), 6-3, 7-5; Z Zhang (China) bt J J Wolf (US) 7-5, 7-5, 6-7 (5-7), 4-6, 6-3; A Davidovich Fokina (Sp) bt M Giron (US) 6-4, 6-4, 6-2; R Carballes (Sp) bt (4) H Rune (Den) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2; (10) F Tiafor (US) bt L Tien (US) 6-2, 7-5, 6-1; (32) L Djere (Ser) bt B Nakashima (US) 7-5, 6-4, 6-4. . Women M Frech (Pol) bt E Navvarro (US) 7-6 (12-10), 1-6, 6-2; T Townsend (US) bt V Graceva (Fr) 6-4, 6-2; (15) B Bencic (Switz) bt K Rakhimova (Russ) 6-2, 6-4; A K Schmiedlova (Slovakia) bt K Baindl (Ukr) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3; V Azarenka (Bela) bt F Ferro (Fr) 6-1, 6-2; R Masarova (Sp) bt M Sakkari (Gr) 6-4, 6-4; K Muchova (Cz) bt S Hunter (Aus) 6-4, 6-0; D Saville (Aus) bt C Ngounoue (US) 6-0, 6-2; (1) I Swiatek (Pol) bt R Peterson (Swe) 6-0, 6-1; L Davis (US) bt D Kovinic (Montenegro) 6-2, 6-2; D Collins (US) bt L Fruhvirtova (Cz) 6-2, 6-0; (19) B Haddad Maia (Br) bt S Stephens (US) 6-2, 5-7, 6-4; S Sorribes Tormo (Sp) bt A Kalinina (Ukr) 6-4, 7-5; B Pera (US) bt (16) V Kudermetova (Russ) 7-5, 6-4; L Miyazaki bt M Betova (Russ) 6-3, 6-3; (4) E Rybakina (Kaz) bt M Kostyuk (Ukr) 6-2, 6-1Xin Wang (China) bt K Volynets (US) 6-3, 6-4; K Juvan (Slovenia) bt E Cocciaretto (It) 6-2, 7-5; L Zhu (China) bt M Sherif (Egypt) 6-3, 7-5. Results Carabao Cup second round North group (7.45 unless stated): Bolton Wanderers v Middlesbrough; Port Vale v Crewe Alexandra; Sheffield Wednesday v Mansfield Town; Stoke City v Rotherham United; Tranmere Rovers v Leicester City; Wolves v Blackpool; Wrexham v Bradford City; Salford City v Leeds United (8.0). South group Swansea City v Bournemouth (7.30); Birmingham City v Cardiff City; Bristol City v Norwich City; Exeter City v Stevenage; Fulham v Tottenham Hotspur; Luton Town v Gillingham; Newport County v Brentford; Plymouth Argyle v Crystal Palace; Portsmouth v Peterborough United; Wycombe Wanderers v Sutton United; Reading v Ipswich Town (8.0). EFL Trophy Milton Keynes Dons v Chelsea U21 (7.0); Grimsby Town v Manchester City U21 (7.0). Cricket Metro Bank One-Day Cup semi-finals Edgbaston Warwickshire v Hampshire (11.0). Leicester Leicestershire v Gloucestershire (2.0). Football fixtures for the grand-slam return of Jack Draper. There was concern last week when the 21-year-old retired at the WinstonSalem Open in only his fifth match back from a shoulder injury that sidelined him for close to three months. Speaking before his first-round match against Moldova’s Radu Albot, he assured his followers that it was a precautionary move rather than a fresh setback. “My shoulder just played up a little bit, so I had to be cautious with this coming around the corner,” Draper said. “The injury I had was relatively serious. I dodged having surgery, which was great, but obviously I had to rehab from the start. “I didn’t serve for many weeks, so when I came back my shoulder was very stiff. Obviously when you’re trying to hit 120mph to 130mph serves, the shoulder doesn’t enjoy that straightaway.” Murray has also had to contend with A bonanza of British players in action at the US Open today was preceded by a promising result for the most inexperienced of competitors from this country at Flushing Meadows yesterday. Lily Miyazaki, the 27-year-old world No 198, backed up her run through qualifying by claiming her first win at a grand-slam tournament. It would be outrageous at this stage to suggest that Miyazaki can emulate Emma Raducanu’s 2021 triumph here, given that she still requires six more victories in the main draw. But this is still a very creditable effort from an unheralded player who did not compete in a single warm-up event on American soil prior to her arrival in New York last week. Instead, Miyazaki played third-tier events in the United Kingdom at Foxhills and Roehampton before starting her bid for a place in the US Open. After three wins in qualifying, she took full advantage of a generous draw against Margarita Betova, a former world No 41 who has only recently returned to action after becoming a mother, winning 6-3, 6-3 yesterday on Court No 8. “Coming into this tournament I didn’t expect to be at this stage,” Miyazaki said. “I am really happy and proud. Playing qualifying helped. I had matches under my belt. I felt comfortable with the conditions.” Born in Tokyo, Miyazaki has lived in London since she was ten when her father’s job in finance meant the family moved there. After spending five years at the University of Oklahoma, where she competed on the American college circuit alongside studying for a degree in mathematics and a masters in information technology management, she took the decision last year to give up her Japanese nationality and switch to Great Britain. With a solid all-round game, Miyazaki’s efforts here have guaranteed at least £98,000 of prize money and a new career-high ranking close to the top 150. Tomorrow she faces the toughest test of her career against Belinda Bencic, the No 15 seed from Switzerland, “The good thing is that I have seen her many times and she probably hasn’t seen that much of me,” Miyazaki said. Those with a vested interest in British tennis will not know where to look today as the first round continues. Even seasoned observers are struggling to recall such a packed schedule involving Britons at a grand-slam tournament overseas. The luck of the draw — good or bad, whatever way you wish to see it — has resulted in this unusual scenario. All four British men’s entrants and two of the three women’s competitors were randomly placed in the same halves, creating this clash of matches across the grounds. It is also an encouraging indication of the depth in the British game. While this is not a record for US Open participation — eight played in the 2016 event — it is a vast improvement on the low point of 2009 when Andy Murray was the only representative in either singles draw. Court No 15 is of particular interest Evenepoel crashes after stage victory Cycling John Westerby The opening days of his La Vuelta title defence could scarcely have been more dramatic for Remco Evenepoel. The Belgian rider won the third stage on Monday, sprinting clear of Jonas Vingegaard at the top of the final climb to Arinsal in Andorra, before crashing into team personnel after the finish line. On Saturday evening, Evenepoel had been at the forefront of the peloton’s widespread criticism of race organisers for staging a team time-trial in heavy rain and treacherously dark conditions. Despite his frustrations, Evenepoel’s victory in the first mountain stage of the three-week race has given him a fivesecond lead in the general classification over Enric Mas, with Vingegaard a further 26 seconds back. Riding for Soudal-QuickStep, Evenepoel had made his decisive burst in the last phase of the climb to the summit at Arinsal, accelerating clear of Vingegaard, the Tour de France winner. He crested the summit and spread his arms in celebration on the slope to the finish. Race organisers, it seemed, had not anticipated the riders coming through the finish at such speed and team personnel were clustered in Evenepoel’s path. He crashed into them and fell to the floor, gashing his right eyebrow. This was the third consecutive stage in which the peloton had felt frustration with the organisers, after the opening stage in near darkness was followed by multiple crashes on the second stage. “It’s the third day in a row now and it’s breaking my balls,” he said. “But I’m super-happy with the win. It shows that my preparation was good and I’m ready for the next three weeks.” Evenepoel had also been outspoken over conditions on the opening day, when Laurens de Plus suffered a crash that put him out of the race. “We are not monkeys in a circus,” Evenepoel said at the time. “It’s just dangerous. It’s like driving your car at 200km/h in the full dark on the highway with no lights on,” he said. “In my eyes it’s just ridiculous.” Evenepoel will hope for a quieter day today on a 114-mile stage to Tarragona that is expected to suit the sprinters, but he has already established himself as one of the men to watch in the pursuit of the red jersey. Miyazaki leads the charge with first grand-slam win physical issues in the build-up to the final major tournament of this season. An abdominal strain suffered during the Canada Open three weeks ago put paid to his hopes of a US Open seeding, although the draw worked out in his favour by pitting him against Corentin Moutet, the French world No 72, rather than the likes of Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz. Cameron Norrie and Dan Evans have both been given what should be a comfortable start to their respective US Open campaigns as seeded players, while Katie Boulter and Jodie Burrage benefited from generous draws against unseeded opponents. There are high hopes for Boulter, the British No 1, here after she recently reached a new careerhigh ranking of world No 61. “I want to keep pushing and I really feel like I’ve got a great chance to do so as long as I can stay physically fit,” Boulter said. Stuart Fraser Tennis Correspondent, New York Britons in action today 4pm UK Katie Boulter v Diane Parry — Court 6 Approx 6pm Andy Murray v Corentin Moutet — Grandstand Approx 6pm Cameron Norrie v Alexander Shevchenko — Court 11 Approx 8pm Jack Draper v Radu Albot —Court 15 Approx 10pm Dan Evans v Daniel Galan — Court 12 Approx 10pm Jodie Burrage v Anna Blinkova — Court 9 Evenepoel suffered a cut just above his right eye yesterday US Open Flushing Meadows, New York Day two TV: Sky Sports from 3.30pm Miyazaki has set up a meeting with Bencic in the second round