The Joy of Six 1248

"Travelling to Russia to meet the head of a government under EU sanctions, which has disregarded the territorial integrity of another state, is unprecedented. Doing so in the week Hungary has taken over the rotating Council presidency is bulldozing the norms of the presidency as set out by the EU treaties." Armida van Rij says Viktor Orbán is using Hungary’s EU Council presidency to bulldoze EU norms.

Jess Brown-Fuller, the new Liberal Democrat MP for Chichester, describes her first week at Westminister: "The parliamentary estate consists of more than 3 miles of corridors, 1,000 rooms and 100 staircases. Any MPs wanting to escape the 'Westminster bubble' first need to be able to find the exits."

Mick Channon looks at the causes of an environmental crisis that people are beginning to notice: "Over the past 50 years, the global insect population has plummeted by an alarming estimate of 75 per cent. This drastic reduction is the result of a multitude of human activities that continue to wreak havoc on natural ecosystems."

The number of children's homes is soaring as the number of foster parents children falls, reports Mithran Samuel.

"The Channel 4 team accepts that the eye-catching “superhuman” branding of its 2012 and 2016 coverage was controversial, to say the least, and that many disabled people felt it did more harm than good." Lucy Webster on the channel's decision to rip up its approach to the Paralympics.

"[Paul] Hewitt said the dam-building work of the beavers had helped to create ponds, pools and mudscapes covering an area half the size of a football pitch. All of it was positive, he said. The new ecosystems are attracting so much more wildlife, including kingfishers, grey herons and Daubenton’s bats, which feed in the ponds and pools. He added of the beavers: 'They have been gone for 400 years and you soon realise what we have been missing as a result.'" Mark Brown helps the National Trust celebrates the birth of baby beaver on the Wallington estate in Northumberland.