Brexit cross to bear as British port enters second weekend of Easter misery

Image of the week: Dover and out

Jesus might have died on the cross and risen on the third day – too late, alas, for Sunday newspaper deadlines – but for British holidaymakers hoping to mark the occasion by bussing it to the Continent in advance of Easter, last weekend had a distinctly Lenten feel about it.

Children on school trips were among those caught up in delays of up to 14 hours as the need for post-Brexit border checks contributed to a clogging up of the Port of Dover, creating the need for traffic “buffer zones” and extra sailings to clear the backlogs.

A critical incident was stood down on Monday morning, with the port promising a “full review” in advance of this weekend, amid plans to stagger coach traffic between Friday and Sunday and set up a temporary marquee for processing passengers. So far, the signs do not bode well.

The morale-killing, patience-draining, hygiene-undermining chaos has had travellers vox-popped on television vowing to fly next time – bad news for the climate, good news for Ryanair. In the meantime, advice to the Kent-bound was simple: bring supplies.

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In numbers: Murdoch moves on

7

Months that passed between Rupert Murdoch and fourth wife Jerry Hall finalising their divorce and the announcement that Murdoch planned to marry Ann Lesley Smith (66), who he met at an event on his Bel Air estate last September.

11

Number of carats in the diamond engagement ring that the Fox and News Corp supremo (92) gave to Smith, according to pictures published by the Daily Mail. And 11-carat diamonds are forever, right?

2

Number of weeks between confirmation of the engagement and news that it has been called off, with Vanity Fair reporting that the media mogul has grown increasingly uncomfortable with Smith’s outspoken evangelical views. More Murdoch marital updates as we get them.

Getting to know: Alvin Bragg

According to Republican senator Ted Cruz, Alvin Bragg is “a left-wing Democrat who hates Donald Trump and he is targeting Trump by any means necessary”. Other opponents of the Manhattan district attorney say he is soft on crime.

The good news is that one string of alleged crimes he has no plans to be soft on are those of the former president, this week charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and conspiracy springing from his alleged role in hush money payments to two women near the end of his 2016 presidential campaign.

From Harlem, Bragg grew up in a district known as “Striver’s Row” and went to law school after having a gun pulled on him six times, three times by police. The Harvard graduate and former state and federal prosecutor was elected as Manhattan’s first black district attorney in late 2021, announcing shortly after taking office in January 2022 that his office would no longer pursue low-level offences such as cannabis use and fare evasion.

That has freed up a lot of time to put together the case against Trump, which has duly made him 2023′s number one hate figure for ranting Trump and his most crazed supporters. His office last year won a case against the Trump Organization on charges of orchestrating a 15-year tax fraud. Trump was not personally charged that time. Still, opportunity to go up 2-0?

The list: Ex-billionaires

There are 2,640 billionaires on the planet by the latest count of wealth-tracking magazine Forbes, which some might say is 2,640 too many. It is, however, down from 2,688 a year ago, with 254 people dropping off the list and another 33 dying. So, which big names featured among the (still alive) drop-offs?

1. Sam Bankman-Fried: Now facing multiple US federal charges, the former “crypto wunderkind” – who Forbes admits it was seduced by – has seen his wealth collapse from an estimated $24 billion (€22 billion) to “less than $10 million”, and much of that will presumably go on legal costs.

2. Kanye West: “I can say anti-Semitic things and Adidas can’t drop me,” said the musician – except, of course, it could and it did.

3. Bruce Nordstrom: Shares in US department store chain Nordstrom have lost two-thirds of their value over the past five years. Yes, that’ll do it.

4. Ernest Garcia III: Also joining the ranks of ex-billionaires is Ernest Garcia III, founder of Carvana, a used-car marketplace once dubbed the “Amazon of cars”. Wishful thinking.

5. Yvon Chouinard: The founder of outerwear maker Patagonia dropped off the list for a different reason to almost all of the rest: he last year donated his retail company to a trust and a non-profit agency fighting the climate crisis, saying: “Earth is now our only shareholder.”