Polymaths are sometimes not easy people, especially when they are always right. I can imagine my cousin, Sheila Sowter, who has died aged 81, excelling as Frank Sinatra’s penance while teaching him the opera-trained version of My Way.

She was played in to her humanist woodland funeral to the sound of The Mikado’s Willow, Tit Willow and out to Ride of the Valkyries, the ceremony attended by friends from all walks of her life – Mensa members, Wagnerians, Open University teachers and students, locomotive and railway buffs, fancy ratters, edible dormouse population assessors and multilinguists.

US president launches unprecedented attack on Angela Merkel’s government

Donald Trump has launched an unprecedented attack on Angela Merkel’s government, tweeting that “the people of Germany are turning against their leadership as migration is rocking the already tenuous Berlin coalition”.

While the US president has previously been openly critical of Germany’s export surplus and defence spending, he has refrained from openly criticising the country’s migration policy since taking office in 2017.

Reports allege oil group’s plan has cost Dutch treasury as much as £6.1bn in lost income

Shell has hit back at criticism of a tax structure it set up as part of a relocation of its headquarters from London to The Hague following reports that it has cost the Dutch treasury as much as €7bn (£6.1bn) in lost income.

Calls have been made for the European commission to investigate the oil group’s tax affairs after reports claimed that a multibillion euro bill has been avoided through the use of an offshore trust in Jersey since 2005.

On a rare press trip to Pyongyang we were presented with a night at the bustling Kaeson Youth Park, where residents are marshalled in line by military personnel for a dose of state-sanctioned fun. But while the UN warns of food scarcity in the rest of the country, is this just a welcome distraction for the privileged few?