Top story: University ‘must try harder’ on diversity

Hello – I’m Warren Murray, welcome to your mid-week briefing.

Oxford University has admitted it is falling short on diversity as figures show more than one in four of its colleges failed to admit a single black British student each year between 2015 and 2017. White British applicants were twice as likely to be admitted to undergraduate courses as their black British peers.

Releasing the figures, Oxford said it recognised the need to make more progress and was adding 500 more places to its spring and summer school programme for students from under-represented backgrounds. Wadham stands out as one Oxford college that has made inroads by admitting more state school students. Samina Khan, the university’s head of admissions and outreach, argues it is difficult to convince parents of minority-background applicants that they should look beyond their traditional goals of law and medicine to courses such as English literature or theology. “A degree from Oxford opens doors to so many careers,” Khan said.

David Lammy, the Labour MP who has criticised Oxford and Cambridge over the issue, said: “The underprivileged kid from a state school in Sunderland or Rochdale who gets straight As is more talented than their contemporary with the same grades at Eton or Harrow, and all the academic evidence shows that they far outshine their peers at university too.”

‘It’s all me, nothing is me’ – The novelist Philip Roth, author of Portnoy’s Complaint and American Pastoral, has died overnight aged 85 from congestive heart failure. Roth’s controversial first collection of short stories, Goodbye Columbus, was published in 1959 and followed the fortunes of middle-class Jewish Americans caught between old ways and new. Ten years later the comic erotic monologue of Alexander Portnoy made the author a scandalous celebrity. Over more than six decades – in work sometimes channelled through the alter egos of Nathan Zuckerman and David Kepesh – Roth won the Pulitzer, the National Book Award and, in 2011, received the National Humanities Medal from Barack Obama.

Quick catch-up – Here is a look at some of the week’s developing stories.

> A Birmingham woman will be sentenced today after being found guilty of orchestrating the forced marriage of her teenage daughter in Pakistan. Victims’ campaigners are “elated” after the first successful prosecution of its kind in the UK.

> Theresa May is under more pressure from hard Brexit Tories over how long Britain might stay attached to the EU customs union. Michael Gove has lashed out at the Treasurer, Philip Hammond, over Brexit bill defeats in the Lords. Boris Johnson, visiting South America, suggested he needs an official Brexit jet in a decent colour.

> Proceedings at the Grenfell inquiry were suspended when people became severely distressed during a video presentation about the deaths of six members of the same family. Anger and grief poured out as more stories of victims were recounted.

> Donald Trump is saying there is a “very substantial chance” of his 12 June meeting with Kim Jong-un being delayed though South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, says there is a “99.9%” chance things will go ahead as planned. Trump suggested the Chinese president had persuaded Kim to harden his position about denuclearisation – “I can’t say I’m happy about it,” Trump said, describing Xi Jinping as a “world-class poker player” – but experts say the North Korean leader never committed to an up-front handover of his arsenal.

> Manchester last night concluded a day of commemorations marking one year since the Arena attack. Our north of England editor, Helen Pidd, who covered the atrocity, was back last night for the mass singalong of Don’t Look Back In Anger that closed proceedings.



Dinner with friends, then a lie-in – Two studies that the Briefing is liking the look of today. The first, from Oxford Economics, finds that regularly eating alone is best avoided – the associated loneliness is the single biggest factor associated with unhappiness, apart from mental illness. It dovetails with previous findings about the profound benefits of regular social contact with friends. For the second study we can thank the Swedes, who have found that the ill effects of short sleeps over a few days may be countered by a later lie-in. Researchers warn that always getting five hours of sleep or less, without ever catching up, is associated with a 65% higher risk of premature death.

Baked holiday weekend – Some early notice that Britain is expecting highs of 30C (86F) for the coming bank holiday. Parts of south-east of England could experience temperatures double their usual level for the time of year, says the Met Office. There is a risk of thunderstorms, though, in the south-east and south-west leading up to Monday, which could keep temperatures down.

‘You are hereby evicted’ – A mother and father have successfully sued their adult son to move out of home. The parental admonishments of Christina and Mark Rotondo that Michael, 30, should get a job and a place of his own are now backed by the force of law in New York state. He had demanded to stay another six months. The judge called that “outrageous” and served him with an eviction order.

Lunchtime read: Investing your pension the DIY ethical way

“Even 10 years after the crash, the finance sector is that thing so close as to evade perspective,” writes Aditya Chakrabortty this morning. “It gets bashed for bonuses, for tax dodging, for reckless innovation. What you hardly ever hear about is the vital part: how badly it does its supposed job of investing productively in society.” He writes that its great wealth, including our pensions money, sloshes around between financial institutions, getting loaned out to unproductive ends such as property speculation.

There are, Chakrabortty says, ways to bring back what investment was supposed to be: one person puts money into another’s endeavours, said endeavour flourishes, the investor earns a return “and the country grows a little bit richer”. In Kirby, north of Liverpool, you can invest in building affordable family homes and supported living flats. You get 4.5% annual interest (versus a base rate of 0.5%), and the housing scheme gets the £3.9m it needs. In big French companies, pension savers are offered the chance to invest 10% of their money in a fond solidaire supporting social enterprises. In Britain, “desperately deficient” in everything from social housing to roads, “the big battle is to give us agency over our own savings, rather than leaving it all to some pinstriped manager on a fat commission”.

Sport

Rafael Benítez, the former Liverpool and Real Madrid manager, says a sixth European Cup is not beyond the Anfield club when the pair meet in the Champions League final on Saturday. Toni Kroos, meanwhile, says his side will face “11 animals” in Kiev and insists that Liverpool will be “tough,” “aggressive” opponents. The man who is set to be named as the new Arsenal manager has already joined the club – according to Unai Emery’s official website.

Andrew Strauss is to take a summer-long break from his role as director of England cricket with Andy Flower stepping in as a temporary replacement. Harry Kane has marked his appointment as England’s youngest World Cup captain by insisting Gareth Southgate’s inexperienced side are capable of winning the tournament in Russia. Alex Sanderson has been urged to stay at Saracens and reject any approach to be England’s next defence coach but his current director of rugby, Mark McCall, will not stand in his way if Eddie Jones comes calling. And Thomas Bjorn has completed his selection of vice-captains for the Ryder Cup with the additions of Graeme McDowell and Luke Donald for Europe.

Business

Asian indexes have mostly slipped amid continuing worries about North Korea. The Dow dropped 200 points on Tuesday after Donald Trump said he was not satisfied with US-China trade talks and cast doubt on whether a summit with Kim Jong-un will take place.

The pound has been trading at $1.341 and €1.140 overnight.

The papers

The Mail rolls out its well-worn taunt to call peers “Dinosaurs in ermine” on the front page (recently it had them as “traitors” in that same fur). The Times reports on Bank of England governor Mark Carney saying the Brexit vote has cost every British household £900 by damaging the economy. The Guardian leads with the diversity fail at Oxford University.

The Mirror is outraged by the idea of a “Jumbojo Jet” for Boris Johnson. The Sun reports on BBC presenter and triathlete Louise Minchin being accused by rivals of cheating during a race (British Triathlon told the paper she was not under investigation). Both those red-tops, and the Telegraph and the Express, have a front-page picture of Meghan Markle giggling … in actual news, the Telegraph splashes on Michael Gove attacking the chancellor, while the Express demands a “minister for the elderly”. The FT reports that Donald Trump has angered Republicans by softening his stance towards China’s ZTE corporation.

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