Financial Times Sunday No.5 – News by Buccaneer

British novelist Martin Amis, best known for London Fields and Money, died on 19 May at the age of 73.

I can’t help wondering if this clue was inspired by Buccaneer attempting to travel on Transpennine Express, who have become notorious for pre-planned cancellation of scheduled services. After a long period of poor performance, the franchise was stripped from the operators this week and taken into national ownership.

The best thing on TV in recent years (not even listening to any arguments) comes to an end tomorrow with a feature-length episode. The people behind the show have promised it won’t be coming back.

To ensure the coronation wasn’t disrupted, the Met Police used controversial new legal powers introduced just a few days previously to pre-emptively arrest people they suspected were planning to demonstrate during the event.

Stellantis, owners of car brands Vauxhall, Peugeot, Citroen and Fiat, last week said they may have to close their UK factories because components for electric cars being sourced from outside the UK or EU means they are liable to higher EU export tariffs.

Polish politician Donald Tusk was the president of the European Commission from 2014 to 2019.

On 9 May, a New York court ordered Donald Trump to pay $5m in damages to E Jean Carroll after finding him liable for sexual abuse and related defamation charges, but not liable for rape.

It was recently revealed that Home Secretary Suella Braverman had asked civil servants if they could arrange for her to take a private speed awareness course as her punishment for a speeding offence, rather than have to join a public course. When they said no, she accepted the fine and points on her licence instead.

Rishi Sunak, UK prime minister.

Perhaps more likely to be the other way round in real life? Prince Harry recently claimed that he and Meghan Markle had been pursued through New York by paparazzi in a high-speed car chase.

The Russian private paramilitary Wagner Group recently admitted it had lost 20,000 troops during its attempts to capture the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

Swedish singer Loreen won the Eurovision Song Contest this month with her song Tattoo. She previously won the competition in 2012 with a song called Euphoria.

The coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla took place this month.

The dispute between rail workers’ unions and government over pay and working conditions is ongoing. As a keen cyclist, I could be picky and point out that a trike has three wheels while a bicycle has two but I’m not going to lose any sleep over it.

This story isn’t going away any time soon – the date for the trial in which Donald Trump will face fraud charges over payments he is alleged to have made to Stormy Daniels has been set for March next year.

Labour leader Keir Starmer said in an interview a couple of weeks ago that it “feels wrong” that EU citizens living in the UK can’t vote in our elections.

Conservative MP Dominic Raab, until recently Deputy Prime Minister, Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor, has announced that he will be standing down as an MP at the next election.

Manchester City FC have already won the Premier League this season and are due to appear in the finals of the FA Cup and European Champions League. 

Local government elections were held across the UK earlier this month. Overall, the Conservatives lost over 1,000 seats.

It’s probably for the best if I don’t comment on this story.

Nick Gibb, the UK Schools Minister, promised last week that he would review SATs (standard assessment tests for primary school children) that were reportedly so hard they left some children in tears.

Conservative MP Penny Mordaunt got a lot of media attention for carrying a sword as she processed ahead of the king during the coronation ceremony. The sword is now on display in the Tower of London.

Obligatory earworm: Werewolves of London by Warren Zevon, which mentions beef chow mein in the first verse.

Ding Liren became World Chess Champion after beating Ian Nepomniachtchi last month. He’s the first Chinese player to hold the title.

Another thinly veiled reference to the Met Police’s behaviour around the coronation.

Along with beer, Rishi Sunak has also claimed women’s sanitary products are cheaper post Brexit.

Eric is the third child of Donald and Ivana Trump. He was in the news himself recently for making posts on Twitter about his dad’s rape trial.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is planning a second Starship launch for mid-June so expect this to be a recurring story too.