Comment
Epstein and Mandelson. US Department of Justice
Jeffrey Epstein and the shady world of modern capitalism
Jeffrey Epsteinâs appalling crimes tarnish those who knew him, says Gerard Baker in The Times. But the idea that these people were all drawn to him out of a desire to participate in anything depraved is misguided. Epstein enticed them not with his âharem of adolescent girlsâ, but with the prospect of a âsumptuous Manhattan dinner with a big hedge fund guyâ; lunch on a yacht with a renowned scholar; a movie premiere with a Saudi prince. There was âentertainmentâ of course â a helicopter ride over his ranch in New Mexico or a jaunt around his island on a jet ski. But most of these people can get that sort of thrill â and seedier ones if they want â anywhere. The real value was âthe tradeâ.
For those who wield a âcontrolling influenceâ over our economic and political architecture, there is always something to exchange: money, access, advice, information and above all connections. The chance for a word in the ear of someone who could make you even richer, even more powerful. A little inside info, a whiff of a deal, what hedgies call âalphaâ, can make generational fortunes. Much of this is legal, though unfair on those outside the network; some of it is probably illegal. We only know Peter Mandelson was sharing valuable information with a powerful financier because the latterâs criminal depravity came to light. How many other exchanges take place daily that weâll never know about? The irony is that the populist revulsion at these mutually back-scratching elites has resulted in a US president who essentially acts like one. But as the network is exposed, âa real populist backlash is surely inevitableâ.
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Property
THE STONE HOUSE Tan y Coed II is nestled deep in a Shropshire valley, says The Guardian. On the ground floor are a modern kitchen, a dining room, a utility, a living room with a woodburner, and a garden room with floor-to-ceiling windows. Upstairs are the four bedrooms, one of which has a balcony, and two bathrooms. Thereâs also a one-bedroom annexe with its own kitchen, sitting room and utility. The surrounding gardens have a terrace, a pond, a stream and more than a thousand daffodils. Shrewsbury is a 30-minute drive. ÂŁ1.1m. Click on the image to see the listing.
Heroes and villains
âPlease, weâre just trying to get to Pizza Express.â Hayley Atwell and Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible â Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
Villain
Tom Cruise, who has reportedly moved out of his ÂŁ35m Knightsbridge flat amid concerns about crime. Yes, says Giles Coren in The Times, the same Tom Cruise who famously does all his own stunts in the Mission: Impossible movies, from climbing the Burj Khalifa in Dubai to riding a motorbike off a cliff. Who would have thought that what finally caused this âfearless action heroâ to wimp out was being told: âYour mission, should you choose to accept it, is to nip down the Brompton Road Waitrose for a pot of hummusâŚâ
Hero
A teenager in Australia who swam for four hours in choppy waters and fading light to raise the alarm after a freak gust of wind swept his family out to sea on inflatable paddleboards and a kayak. Austin Applebee, 13, was tasked by his mum with kayaking back to shore to get help, but the vessel took on water so he had to swim the 2.5 miles to land. On reaching the beach, he sprinted another mile to the nearest phone and alerted the coastguard, then (understandably) passed out with exhaustion. Rescuers found his mum and two younger siblings clinging to the paddleboard about nine miles offshore.
GarcĂa in action. Martina Saenz Garrido, Ainize Urdiales Gonzalez
Hero
Juan LĂłpez GarcĂa, an 82-year-old who is ageing so well that scientists are studying him to see if they can learn any tricks. The retired mechanic from Toledo in Spain is the world record holder in the 80-84 age group for 31-mile ultramarathons and set the European record for his age group in regular 26-mile marathons last year with a time of 3:39:10. He runs about 40 miles a week â double that in the build-up to a race â including interval sprint training. All of which is especially impressive, says The Washington Post, given he only took up running when he was 66.
Villain
Kemi Badenoch, for choosing Wet Wet Wetâs Love Is All Around â her wedding song â on Desert Island Discs. Iâd actually come round to the Tory leader in recent months, says Julie Burchill in The Spectator, but this really is unforgivable. Even the band themselves came to loathe their cover of the 1967 classic by The Troggs â so much so that they asked their record label to delete it âto save both ours and the nationâs sanityâ.
Villains
The bus company Metroline, which sacked one of its drivers for chasing down a thief who had stolen a necklace from a passenger. Mark Hehir leapt into action after the assailant snatched a womanâs jewellery as she boarded the 206 in northwest London. When the thief tried to throw a punch, Hehir knocked him out with a right hook. Despite police taking no action, he was fired by Metroline for âbreaching protocols designed to keep staff and passengers safeâ.
Tomorrowâs world
Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty
The âChinese Dr Frankensteinâ
In 2018, Dr He Jiankui edited the genes of three embryos and inserted them into the wombs of two women, says Andrew Higgins in The New York Times, resulting in the worldâs first genetically modified babies. The modification was benign: their fathers were HIV positive, and the babies were resistant. But the experiment caused outrage around the world. The âChinese Dr Frankensteinâ had been reckless, colleagues said, because so little is known about the side effects of editing individual genes. Others feared he had opened a âPandoraâs boxâ on the road towards designer babies and eugenics. Chinese authorities declared he had misled them, and he was imprisoned for three years. Today, as China ramps up its ambitions to become a biotechnology superpower, he is out, and remarkably unrepentant.
Living in a cavernous flat in Beijing, paid for â along with a bodyguard â by a mysterious benefactor he refuses to name, He is working, unmuzzled, at a government-backed research hub, âboasting about his workâ and insisting his country is âready to embrace himâ. He canât travel abroad â his passport has been seized â but he has become an outspoken figure in Chinaâs biotech landscape, âneither silenced nor fully rehabilitatedâ. His own argument is that, in a period of increasing tension between China and the West, thereâs growing demand for researchers who are willing to take risks and push boundaries. His latest research is using the same relatively straightforward techniques that made him famous to find ways to eliminate Alzheimerâs disease, which his mother suffers from, and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Itâs only a matter of time, he says, before he is celebrated as a pioneer. And having once resented the Frankenstein nickname, he now embraces it. âI like the name now,â he says, because it shows âI have superpowerâ.
The Knowledge Crossword
What to see
Ouze Bridge, Armathwaite by Lady Mary Lowther (c 1770-80)
Itâs generally felt that British art only emerged as a serious force in the 18th century, says Michael Prodger in The New Statesman, with watercolours of the English countryside by the likes of Gainsborough, Constable and Turner. Missing from this story are the many accomplished female watercolourists working at the same time. After all, watercolour was an approved âfeminineâ medium, unlike messy sculpting or oil painting, which required a study of figure drawing that was then forbidden for women. This forgotten â âor never recognisedâ â group is the subject of a âsmall but intriguingâ exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery. The most distinctive paintings are those by Mary Lowther â daughter of the Tory prime minister, the Third Earl of Bute â who married the landowner and coal magnate the First Earl of Lonsdale. She was so unhappy with him at Lowther Hall, near Penrith, that she painted 91 watercolours of the surrounding landscapes in a single year. Runs until May 2026.
Weather
Quoted
âIt takes 20 years to build a reputation, and five minutes to ruin it.â
Warren Buffett
Thatâs it. Youâre done.
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