| Russia and North Korea have signed a military pact pledging that they will come to each other's aid if either is attacked. Vladimir Putin announced the deal following talks in Pyongyang with Kim Jong-un, who said the treaty took their relationship to a "new, high level of alliance". A second Tory candidate is being investigated by the Gambling Commission over an alleged bet on the date of the general election. Laura Saunders, the Conservative candidate in Bristol North West, is married to the party's director of campaigning, who has taken a leave of absence amid the deepening scandal. One of Rishi Sunak's police protection officers has also been arrested in connection with election gambling. Danish fans are offering free pints to their English rivals in Frankfurt today, aboard the country's "anti-hooligan" bus. Dubbed "football's friendliest fans", the Danes have hoisted a Saint George's cross up a flagpole on the 30-year-old vehicle, which is stashed with 15 25-litre kegs of beer. Skål! | | |  | Hay Festival: no longer under the auspices of Baillie Gifford. David Levenson/Getty |
| Bringing down capitalism one book festival at a time | Most coverage of the attack on book festival sponsorship assumes that the Fossil Free Books activist group opposes Baillie Gifford because it invests in fossil fuels and Israel, says Daniel Finkelstein in The Times. "I think this has it the wrong way round." What is really happening is that these protesters are against fossil fuels and Israel because Baillie Gifford invests in them. In other words, the target is not either of these clearly distinct issues – if you're against fossil fuels, Iran would be a better enemy – but the thing that unites them: capitalism. | Those who naively imagine book festivals will be able to move on to "cleaner" sponsors are missing the point. The Scottish money manager was chosen as a target "precisely because it hardly has any investments in fossil fuels or Israel". If a firm as ethical as Baillie Gifford can be driven out, "almost any sponsor can". And what of the cry, from all quarters, that without sponsorship book festivals and the arts in general are doomed? "This isn't an eventuality that would embarrass the protesters." If anything, it's a desired outcome. The aim is to "degrade life under capitalism" so much that the system itself begins to crumble. The fact that this appears ludicrous doesn't mean it isn't true. Remember: these are the same people who thought Jeremy Corbyn could win a general election. | | | | THE ESCAPE Brae Cottage, a traditional stone house in Scotland, has gone viral after social media users became obsessed with its remote location. The property is described as "uninhabitable" by estate agents, who gamely add that it's a "perfect renovation project" and offers a "unique off-grid living experience". They're not kidding. The nearest shop is six miles away down a barely used single-track road, and there isn't a supermarket for 14 miles. What it does have is two acres of wild land backing onto a picturesque stream, and unspoilt views in every direction. "I have seen way too many werewolf films to live there," wrote one social media user, while another called it the "perfect zombie apocalypse retreat". £130,000 |
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| | | For once, says BBC Ideas, here's some good news about things that don't, in fact, give you cancer. First, there is no evidence that sugar or artificial sweeteners contain carcinogenic nasties. If you like your tea sweet, good for you. Mobile phones, while probably not great for the attention span, are also not giving you cancer. The radiation they produce is far too weak to have any effect on health. And finally, burnt toast and other blackened or charred bits. Not cancerous. So if you like your bacon really crispy, tuck in. | | | | | | Advertisement | | Are you a political watcher craving the latest news? A DIY enthusiast seeking summer projects? A sports fan devouring the latest analysis? Or simply in need of relaxing reads? Whatever type of reader you are, Readly has you covered. | With access to 7,500 digital newspapers and magazines at your fingertips, your Readly subscription can be shared on up to five devices, so you and your family can enjoy a summer of reading. Stay informed with The Guardian or your local paper, get inspired with Gardens Illustrated or Ideal Home, or unwind with New Scientist or Autocar. | To get an exclusive three months free, click here. |
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"Forget the fight for Britain's right-leaning hearts and minds", says Bethan Holt in The Daily Telegraph. The real battle on Nigel Farage's hands right now is a fashion one. Labour's candidate in Clacton, where Farage is hoping to win a seat, is Jovan Owusu-Nepaul, dubbed Britain's "most stylish politician" and admired by the likes of Vogue and GQ. There's no denying Farage has a certain look – bright tweeds and the odd novelty tie – but the preppy young Labour hopeful looks like he "walked straight out of a vintage Ralph Lauren advert". Faced with this dapper combination of chunky knitwear, checkered shirts and chinos, "if you were voting on fashion credentials alone, you couldn't help but be won over". | | | | | | Enjoying The Knowledge? Click below to share | | |
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| | |  | Philosophers at odds: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, left, and Edmund Burke. Getty |
| Burke, Rousseau and the fight for the Tory soul | The most convincing explanation for the collapse of the "world's most enduring right-of-centre party" is Brexit, says Adrian Wooldridge in Bloomberg. And I think the best way to understand what really happened is that the EU referendum marked the moment the Tories turned from "the party of Edmund Burke into the party of Jean-Jacques Rousseau". Not literally of course – the party still has the odd intellectual, although not enough for a philosophical debate – but in spirit. Rousseau provided the inspiration for the French Revolution. Burke explained why it would lead inevitably to bloodshed and dictatorship. Rousseau believed in the primacy of the "general will". Burke believed in restraining that will with institutions, conventions and, "for want of a better word, experts". | When David Cameron offered the electorate a simple "in or out" vote in 2016, he inadvertently injected the Rousseauean idea of the general will into the heart of Britain's democracy. (Margaret Thatcher had dismissed referendums as "devices of demagogues and dictators".) Suddenly, the Tories were no longer the party that tempered popular mania, but the one that appeased it. That Rousseauean spirit has since "corrupted the wider conservative ecosystem". The Mail and Telegraph are full of "hysterical" headlines about the "betrayal of Brexit and the end of civilisation", and the Tory think-tank world is addicted to the notion of "tearing up the established order and starting again". It's no wonder so many Conservatives are answering Reform's call to "join the revolt". To survive, the Tories need to remember that the true dividing line between statesmen and demagogues isn't taxes or culture wars, but whether they are willing to satisfy the vagaries of public opinion or relearn the Burkean "art of government". | | |  | University of Córdoba |
| A fluid found in an untouched 2,000-year-old Roman tomb in Spain has been confirmed as the oldest wine ever discovered, says the Guardian. Archaeologists say the sherry-like liquid was poured into a funeral urn and buried in a tomb in the Andalucían town of Carmona. It lay there undisturbed until five years ago when it was found by a local family doing up their house. The primordial plonk has turned a reddish-brown colour due to chemical reactions that took place over the centuries. It's also, "quite conceivably, full-bodied" – as well as wine, the urn is thought to have contained the bones of a Roman man. |
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| | | British democracy is not to be sniffed at, Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba tells The New Statesman. "While Labour and the Conservatives are fighting each other so fiercely in the elections, it was actually the former foreign secretary James Cleverly who introduced me to the shadow foreign secretary David Lammy. And I think that's beautiful." | | | | | | | | It's the corpse flower of Kew Gardens, says BBC News. The titan arum plant, which is said to stink like rotting flesh, burst into bloom on Tuesday, prompting an influx of visitors to the south-west London idyll to witness the "magnificent sight and disgusting stench". It typically emerges once every two years, reaching "peak stink" right after the bloom and wilting 24 to 36 hours later. The pongy plant has the world's largest flowering structure, reaching almost 10ft tall and complete with a heat-producing spike to help its hum travel long distances. | | | | | "I do not think this poem will reach its destination."
Voltaire, reviewing Rousseau's Ode to Posterity |
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