The Electric Pitchfork

Roger Federer nets record-breaking sponsorship deal worth £230m After 20 years with Nike, the champion has changed team The winner of 20 grand slams showed off his new Uniqlo kit on Centre Court yesterday, but still wore his Rolex and Nike shoes from his other sponsors. Roger Federer used his opening match at Wimbledon to unveil the world’s most valuable sponsorship deal, worth a reported £230 million and lasting long after he is expected to retire from top-flight tennis. The reigning men’s champion ended his career-long association with Nike and walked on to Centre Court yesterday wearing Uniqlo clothing after signing the ten-year contract. The deal, estimated to be three times more valuable than his Nike contract, will cover Federer, 36, well into retirement and help Uniqlo to promote its colourful clothing to middle-aged sport fans. It will also cement Federer’s position as the sports star with the highest value of endorsements, which  Forbes  magazine cal...

OBITUARY Lord Carrington obituary Lord Carrington, one of the last surviving British politicians to have served in the Second World War, was the oldest member of the House of Lords at the time of his death Dignified foreign secretary and Tory grandee who served in Churchill’s government, did not mention his MC in his memoirs and was admired for his honourable resignation over the Falklands conflict Three days after Argentina invaded the Falklands in 1982, Lord Carrington resigned as foreign secretary, despite Margaret Thatcher’s strenuous efforts to dissuade him. He bore little blame for the government’s failure to avert the calamity, but “the nation feels there has been a disgrace,” he wrote in his autobiography. “Somebody must have been to blame. The disgrace must be purged. The person to purge it should be the minister in charge. That was me.” Carrington’s resignation won him praise, not obloquy. It was seen as an honourable act by a principled politician and it was one ...

Lost landscapes are emerging in drought The 1950s road and bridge that disappeared under a reservoir can be seen again as the waters recede in the heatwave The heatwave has led to two lost structures being discovered in Ireland: one from 2,500 years ago and another the 1950s. An unrecorded henge, or circular enclosure, in the Unesco site close to Newgrange, Co Meath, was found. In Co Down, a road and bridge submerged 60 years ago for a dam have re-emerged due to the drought. The henge, which could measure up to 200 metres in diameter, is believed to have been built some 500 years after Newgrange, which dates from 3,000BC. Crop hues give away an ancient henge in Co Meath Anthony Murphy, a historian, made the discovery when taking pictures with a drone. He said: “The weather is absolutely critical to the discovery of this monument. I have flown a drone over the Boyne Valley regularly and have never seen this.” Mr Murphy said the moisture in the soil that was lodg...

Opioid Nightmare Haunts Corporate America A new drugs crisis looks set to repeat the drama of the Big Tobacco legal battles of the 1990s James Dean, US Business Editor July 9 2018, 12:01am,  The Times United States Health Retail The opioid epidemic has taken hold across the United States, adding another layer to the problem of drug addiction rather than easing pain for cancer patients All too often, Cleveland is overlooked. Sitting unobtrusively on the banks of Lake Erie, it suffers many of the inner-city woes of the struggling, creaking, industrial Midwest, its fortunes summed up somehow by the miserable travails of the Browns, its NFL team that failed to win even a single game last season and became a laughing stock. Yet suddenly corporate America is taking Cleveland very seriously indeed. More precisely, it is thinking of the city’s drug addicts. Cleveland is the focal point, the template, for a national opioid addiction that across the Un...

What caused the water crisis in the Middle East? Drought and poor management of resources have led to financial hardship, protests and strained relationships across the region. Governments were warned but did not act, writes Richard Spencer In Baghdad you can wade across the River Tigris for the first time in recorded history. In northwest Iran, pleasure boats lie idle and rusting in a bed of salt that was once the magnificent and huge Lake Urmia, the waters they used to ply having receded so far into the distance that they are out of sight. In Syria, water shortages have come full circle. A decade ago a drought, exacerbated by poor water management, in the Euphrates valley forced hundreds of thousands of people off the land, into the poorer quarters of its ancient cities. At Lake Urmia in Iran, the water has receded so far into the distance that it is out of sight ALAMY Now satellite analysis reveals that some of Syria’s reservoirs are dangerously deple...

Thai cave rescue: Starved boys must gain weight for three‑hour swim to freedom George Styllis, Chiang Rai, Thailand British and Thai rescuers are in a race against time to save the 12 young boys and their football coach trapped in a flooded cave before further rainfall in the next few days. As Thailand enters the heaviest part of its  monsoon season , the deep caves where the emaciated boys have been sheltering for the past ten days will suffer more flooding. Two British divers found the group on Monday after they had been taken there on a trip by their coach after football practice. The divers aim to teach the boys, none of whom can swim, basic scuba techniques to escape along the three-hour route back to safety once they recover their strength. The boys, who are aged 11-16, are being given high-calorie gels,  paracetamol and liquids to prepare their bodies for solid food. “If the water falls enough and they are s...