Parts of Europe will receive a brief respite from searing summer heat this week with the first solar eclipse in nearly three decades.

Where will it occur?
On Wednesday parts of Greenland, Iceland, northern Russia, Spain and a small corner of Portugal will be plunged into darkness as the Moon briefly passes directly between the Earth and the Sun, the first time this has happened on the continent since 1999.

This time around, most of the UK will experience a partial eclipse, where around 90% of the Sun’s rays will be blocked by the transit of the Moon. “First contact”, when the Moon first covers the disc of the Sun, will begin shortly after 6pm, reaching its “maximum”, when most of the Sun is covered, at 7.05pm in Scotland, 7.10 in Manchester and Liverpool, and 7.12pm in London, Bristol and Cardiff. Some parts of Cornwall will have a 95% blackout, rising to 97.7% in the southwest of Ireland.

For the rest of the country, enough of the Sun will be covered to make a “noticeable difference in the temperature and light levels” but, “unlike with a total eclipse, the sky will not become dark”, said Royal Museums Greenwich, home to the Royal Observatory.

Is it dangerous to look at?
Because the Sun is so bright, even with a partial eclipse it is still “extremely dangerous” to look at it without taking safety precautions, said the Royal Astronomical Society, otherwise it could cause permanent damage to your eyes or even blindness.

How should you view it?
“Never look directly at the Sun without appropriate solar viewing equipment,” said the RAS president, Professor Jim Wild. “Certified eclipse glasses, specially designed solar filters for telescopes and binoculars, or indirect methods such as pinhole projectors are all safe ways to observe the event.” 

The American Astronomical Society advises trying them on indoors first. You should not be able to see anything through them, except very bright lights, which should appear very faint. Even in regular sunlight outdoors you should only be able to see a slight reflection of the Sun off a shiny surface. Looking at the Sun for a second you should see a sharp-edged disk that is comfortably bright.

“There is no one more deserving of an exhibition of this scale than John Galliano,” said Anna Wintour in Vogue, as the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute announced that it will celebrate the work of the flamboyant and controversial British fashion designer.

The New York exhibition, due to open next spring, “won’t shy away” from “any of the darkness” in his past, she added.

‘Astonishing comeback’
Galliano made a series of racist and antisemitic comments in 2011, so it’s “an astonishing comeback”, said Zoe Sottile on CNN. It “resurfaces” the question that has “dogged” artistic and cultural institutions during the “past quarter-century” of reckonings: what do we do with “great artists who do bad things”?

This is a man who “once proclaimed my whole family – and millions like us – should die”, said Faran Krentcil in the New York Post. But the exhibition is still “a fine idea” because Galliano has repented, his clothes are “extraordinary” and Jewish “scripture” calls on us to “gaze at our former enemy and search for shared humanity”.

High fashion, an “explicit celebration of wealth inequality”, has “never been the place to look for lessons on virtue”, said Dana Thomas in The New York Times. But Galliano’s “rehabilitation” and “coronation” is a “terrible idea” because his “infamous antisemitic rants” were “not an aberration”. Not all “great creators” deserve a retrospective, and someone as “incendiary” as him “certainly shouldn’t be the subject of one during his lifetime”.

‘Epitome of fashion’s nostalgia’
But he “apologised often” for his “outburst”, claiming he had suffered from alcoholism and drug addiction, said Craig Saueurs on Euronews, and “many Jewish leaders” have “accepted his contrition as genuine”. The Institute consulted the Anti-Defamation League and the Union for Reform Judaism and they “signed off” on the project.

The Met is “tapping into something very current: nostalgia”, said Isobel Van Dyke on Dazed. We “look back on the runways of the past” and “moan” that fashion “will never be as good again”. Perhaps it won’t but “either way”, Galliano is “the epitome of fashion’s nostalgia” because he’s a “creative genius”, so there’s “a strong case” for exhibiting his portfolio and “confronting his contributions” to “fashion history”.

A child uses an umbrella to shelter from the rain a day after Typhoon Dolphin made landfall in Shanghai. In addition to evacuating at least 30,300 people, Shanghai has cancelled about 1,500 flights.

Hector Retamel / AFP / Getty Images

Nostalgia for trifle has led to a “sudden resurgence” in sales of the classic British dessert, said The Times. Made with layers of “sherry-soaked sponge, fruit, custard, whipped cream and jelly”, the traditional pudding is even popping up on the menus of fancy restaurants.

The origins of the dish go back to the late Tudor period but the cake base layer was only added to the recipe in the mid-18th century. Today, the dessert is no longer “just a festive centrepiece” but instead the “ultimate nostalgic crowd-pleaser” embraced “all-year-round”, said Charmaine Katz, chef tutor at Waitrose. Its popularity comes down to how “versatile” the dessert is: recipes can be either “quick and easy” or “dramatic and technical”.

Chefs are finding ways to put innovative spins on the traditional dish. At Restaurant Roots in Bournemouth, for example, the “bitter chocolate millionaire’s trifle” is “laced with Rémy Martin cognac”. Nowhere is “seemingly too posh for a trifle” as five-star hotels and restaurants, including The Ritz, have found their own “twists for a modern palate”.

Want to try making one yourself? Nigella Lawson’s show-stopping “Anglo-Italian” trifle recipe is a “delightful summer pudding” perfect for “garden gatherings”, said WalesOnline. The recipe calls for soaking trifle sponges in limoncello then layering – the “shiny black of the berries” and “soft whiteness of the mascarpone”, topped with the “golden toastiness of the almonds”, making it look ”beautiful”.

For a “gloriously pink” version, try Georgina Hayden’s “twist on the traditional Greek dessert ekmek” on the BBC. Swap sponges for “crisp, buttery kataifi” as your base, then drizzle over rhubarb syrup and top with custard and whipped cream.

Burnham is wrong. Devolution will only grow Whitehall
Arthur Reynolds in City A.M.
Labour’s “economic vandalism has forced the private sector to cut jobs” but, “in a surprise to no one”, senior civil servants have “kept expanding their fiefdoms”, writes Arthur Reynolds. Since Rachel Reeves’ promise to “reduce the size of the Civil Service”, more than 40,000 recruits have joined, “far dwarfing” the 2,690 who have been made voluntarily redundant. Devolution will “further inflate” this “burgeoning bureaucracy”, with more officials to tell others “how to do their jobs” while “achieving nothing themselves”.

These are the dog days, times of ill omen. And now an eclipse as well
Jane Shilling in The Telegraph
“August is a strange month”, when “human activity seems suspended”, writes Jane Shilling. From “Homer to Hesiod, Horace to Virgil”, the “ancients” dreaded the “languid, heat-haunted days of July and August”. Now, we have “wildfires, drought in half the country, crop-flattening rain in the other”, a parliamentary election with an “independent space warrior”, “bluetongue in our livestock” and “an imminent solar eclipse”. The “faint whiff of autumnal melancholy” means September is an “attractive antidote” to the “August blues”.

What’s with this finger lickin’ food obsession?
Sathnam Sanghera in The Times
When I spoke at a school recently, the “interrogation” was “even more bizarre than usual” because “almost every query” related to when I briefly worked at KFC for an article, writes Sathnam Sanghera. “Chicken is now our culture” – politicians are asked about their “cheeky” Nando’s orders and “chicken shops have colonised most high streets”. We used to “fetishise McDonald’s and the occasional pizza” but “we didn’t make it our entire purpose in life”.