The US president’s new imperialism could make real the apocalyptic world depicted by cold war filmmakers

In 1965, the British government blocked the BBC from broadcasting The War Game, a pseudo-documentary film it had commissioned depicting just what a nuclear attack on the UK would entail. The film, the government judged, was simply too “horrifying” for the public. Two decades after that, The War Game finally aired, prior to the release of the 1984 film Threads, which, in imagining the aftermath of a nuclear attack on the UK, was the first movie to deal with the scientific reality of nuclear winter.

When I was 11, I had nightmares for a few weeks after seeing a trailer for a nuclear doomsday film (The Sum of All Fears) that ran prior to a cinema screening of The Fellowship of the Ring (I had just read the three Lord of the Rings volumes). The Nazgûl were disturbing, of course, but they were not of the real world, unlike nukes. This January, I was confronted with The War Game at an exhibition on The Atomic Age at Paris’s Museum of Modern Art; I finished the exhibit in near silence. A week later, I watched Threads; it ruined the remainder of my afternoon.

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From spring blooms in the Netherlands to early sunshine in Sicily, our tipsters share their favourite seasonal escapes

In the Netherlands the Keukenhof near Lisse is well known for the beauty of its bulb fields in springtime. But if you are looking for a cycling holiday away from the crowds you’re better off heading 40 miles north to the Kop van Noord-Holland. Here you will find the largest contiguous bulb area in the country. April is the best time to cycle among the millions of colourful crocuses, daffodils, hyacinths and tulips. Between Schagen, Den Helder, Den Oever and Middenmeer you will find flower fields as far as the eye can see. I’d highly recommend the dune road from Callantsoog to Den Helder. The mostly well-paved surfaces are easy to cycle on and great for any fitness level.
Peter Diender

The producer of the world’s most advanced chip technology is investing on US soil but some fear that could reduce the leverage Taiwan holds to ensure its future security

TSMC’s chief executive, CC Wei, smiled broadly as he stood next to Donald Trump in the White House on Monday, announcing what he said was the biggest foreign direct investment on US soil in history. His company – the producer of most of the world’s most advanced semiconductors – would boost its existing $65bn US presence by a whopping $100bn.

For TSMC the deal meant they would avoid massive tariffs Trump had flagged for the global chip industry. For the US it mean tens of thousands of construction jobs, and the eventual development of crucial technology on US soil, far away from the threat of China taking control of it if it one day annexed Taiwan.