The Spectator

There is something bizarre about a sporting event designed to bring people and nations together but from which spectators have been excluded. Most foreigners are currently forbidden from setting foot inside Japan, let alone inside the Olympic stadium. In many senses, Tokyo 2020 — which like the Uefa Euros retains its original name, despite a year’s delay — encompasses the worst of our pandemic-ridden world: the global elite can attend while the rest of us have to settle for watching it on TV. Yet a successful Olympics — even a week in, it looks as if the Tokyo Games will be judged a kind of success — could provide the impetus the world needs to re-establish normal working relations.

Reinventing the wheels Skateboarding made its debut at the Olympics. Who invented the skateboard? — There are many reports of homemade skateboards being created in the 1940s and 1950s by Californian surfers who wanted to continue a form of their sport out of season, but the first commercial skateboard was marketed by roller-skate company Roller Derby in 1959. The sport, however, failed to catch on until 1973, with the introduction of urethane wheels and a curve at the end of a board known as the ‘kick-tail’, which allowed acrobatics to be performed. Water logs There was more surface flooding in London. Is heavy rain becoming more common in London? The Met Office uses different ways to measure long-term rainfall trends. 1.

Home The daily number of coronavirus cases detected by tests fell from 54,674 on 17 July to 23,511 by 27 July. About 92 per cent of adults in England and Wales had coronavirus antibodies at the beginning of July, according to an estimate by the Office for National Statistics. In the seven days up to the beginning of the week, 447 people had died with coronavirus, bringing the total of deaths (within 28 days of testing positive) to 129,130. (In the previous week deaths had numbered 284.) In a week, numbers remaining in hospital rose from 4,121 to 5,238. By the beginning of the week, 88 per cent of adults had accepted a first vaccination; 70.3 per cent had received two doses.

CHERRY, NETTLE, SMOKE, PLUM-PUDDING, BEES, EGG, SUNBEAM and WIND are the perimetric answers to riddles posed by NUTKIN in The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin by Beatrix Potter. Nutkin’s brother is called TWINKLEBERRY (19/11) and Nutkin is a SCIURUS VULGARIS (33/35A) (red squirrel). Shaded squares give the letters of POTTER.

There are two certainties whenever England’s football team plays; one that is long-established and the other a recent phenomenon. Players who never miss a penalty during training sessions will end up fluffing their attempts under the pressure of a shoot-out. And the post-match discussion of football will quickly move on to the issue of racism. England’s first appearance in the final of a major tournament since the 1966 World Cup ought to have been a moment of national celebration. Indeed, that is how it seemed until the three missed penalties. Within hours, though, few seemed to be talking about anything other than the racist abuse directed at the three players who missed the target.

Space cadets Richard Branson joined a test flight on his Virgin Galactic craft to the edge of space, to promote the tourist space trips he has been promising for over a decade. How much does it cost to be a space tourist (assuming any succeed in taking passengers)? £180,000: Price for a Virgin Galactic trip to the edge of space. Passengers will experience a few minutes of weightlessness but will not orbit the Earth or cross the Karman Line deemed to mark the boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and space. Price includes spacesuit. £20m: Price of a seat in Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft, auctioned in June. Includes an 11-minute flight into space, sitting next to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. £39.