In numbers: Body measurements
3,000
The Body Shop, the ethical beauty chain founded by the late Anita Roddick in 1976, has more than this number of outlets worldwide. That's a lot of White Musk.
£4,000
Size of the bank loan used by Roddick and husband Gordon to set up the company, which had its first outlet in Brighton. On her first approach to the bank manager, she wore jeans and a Bob Dylan T-shirt and was turned down.
€1 billion
French cosmetics giant L’Oréal, which has owned The Body Shop since 2006, is reported to be keen on offloading the chain for about this much. These days the kids shop at Lush.
Image of the week: Mind the gap
You can make millions out of the first dotcom era, you can rise up the political ranks to become prime minister of Australia, but there's still not much you can do to stop a massive hole in the ground manifesting outside a property worryingly close to your own mansion. After heavy rain in Sydney, a giant sinkhole opened up near the personal residence of Malcolm Turnbull (not pictured) in Point Piper, rupturing a gas pipe that had to be clamped off to prevent an explosion. It doesn't quite work as a visual shorthand for the "lucky" Australian economy, though as a metaphor for the Australian prime minister's relationship with Donald "worst call so far" Trump, it does just fine.
Photograph: Reuters/David Gray
The lexicon: Vegenomics
"Vegenomics", not just poor weather in southern Europe, is at the root of vegetable shortages in the UK and Ireland, according to the Financial Times, which defines it as the refusal of supermarkets to raise prices for customers in response to the shortage and a tripling in market prices for things like a humble lettuce. Supermarkets would rather make a loss on a courgette sale than put up the price of a courgette. But they don't want restaurateurs or corner shop owners popping in and taking advantage, so they're rationing the supply of vegetables they have. "Ordinary people don't buy three lettuces at a time," one supermarket told the newspaper. Reports that aubergines are now so rare they're being auctioned at Sotheby's could not be confirmed at the time of going to press.
Getting to know: Oscar Munoz
Oscar Munoz is the chief executive of United Airlines, and like most airline bosses, he's not a fan of crude anti-immigration policies, criticising White House policies as "damning and damaging" to the United States. The Mexican-American businessman has spoken out against the poor handling of the executive order, which changed the immigration status of passengers mid-air. "How do you tell somebody who lives in America . . . that they can't come back?" Munoz, who is not a fan of walls either, has had an eventful time of it since becoming United's chief executive in 2015. He suffered a major heart attack 38 days into the job and went on to have a heart transplant – returning to his desk after a remarkably short recovery period of just two months. That's life in the C-suite for you.
The list: Walt Disney Presents
Entertainment and media giant Disney reported a set of first-quarter financial results this week that would almost certainly displease Lord Vader. Its profits were as happy as ever, but why were its revenue figures so Mickey Mouse?
1. Poor year-on-year comparison: yes, Rogue One did good box office, but it wasn't quite the record event that was Star Wars: the Force Awakens.
2. ESPN: the cable sports network has been the victim of "cord-cutting" by pay-TV subscribers in recent years and now its ad revenues are off the boil.
3. Television generally: declining ratings at its US broadcast network ABC aren't helping. Even awards ceremony perennial Modern Family has dipped.
4. Home entertainment blues: anyone for a DVD? Anyone?
5. Slower merchandise: the Frozen sequel isn't out for years yet, so it will be down to the Jedi to turn toy sales around.
