In the headlines
“Calamity Cressida” is finally gone, says the Mail, following the surprise resignation of Met Police chief Cressida Dick. She stood down after London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he had lost faith in her ability to reform the scandal-hit force. Boris Johnson is expected to claim he didn’t breach rules by attending lockdown parties because No 10 is his home as well as his workplace, says the Times. Thousands of people live above the shop or restaurant where they work, says Gavin Barwell, Theresa May’s former chief of staff, on Twitter. “Why does the PM think he was entitled to behave differently?” Donald Trump has denied allegations that he used to flush documents down his White House loo. A New York Times reporter claims the pipes got so clogged with “wads of clumped-up printed wet paper” that staff had to call in a plumber.
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Noted
When The Guinness Book of Records was first published in 1955, the “human achievements” section contained two entries for drinking vast volumes of booze. One Auguste Maffrey, of France, had the record for beer: 24 pints in 52 minutes. Even more impressive – or worrying – was Spaniard Dionsio Sanchez’s record for wine: 40 pints in 59 minutes.
Eating in
Brooklyn Beckham, son of David and Victoria, dreams of becoming a “great chef”, says the New York Post. But there’s a snag: he can’t cook. Behind the scenes of the 22-year-old’s new online show, Cookin’ With Brooklyn, it took a team of 62 professionals to help him make a simple sandwich. Brooklyn was reportedly given an illustrated “cheat sheet” of culinary terms in case he forgot what things like “whisk” or “par-boil” meant. “He is to cooking what Posh was to singing.”
Quirk of history
Shortly after they campaigned together for Bob Dole in the 1996 US election, George HW Bush sent a note to his fellow former president Gerald Ford. “I hope you don’t think this letter is odd and strange,” it read. “I write simply to say I am very proud to be your friend. This friendship matters a lot to me – it really does. As you and I drove across that Ohio countryside last week, it hit me like a ton of bricks, that too often we fail to tell our friends that we really care about them and are grateful to them.”
On the money
There are only four currencies in the world worth more per unit than the pound (that is, converting £10 would give you fewer than 10 of that currency). They are the Jordanian dinar, the Omani rial, the Bahrain dinar and the Kuwaiti dinar. The latter, the world’s highest-valued currency, is worth a whopping £2.44.
