There has always been tension between the White House and the press corps charged with monitoring the motives and actions of the US president, writes Richard Hogan.

AROUND the year 1450, Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, and the world has never been the same since. Gutenberg knew, instinctively at least, that paper never refuses ink, and began printing indulgences even before he printed the Bible, the first book ever printed.

The invention of printing meant we needed glasses and they led to changes we can hardly comprehend. Richard Fitzpatrick on history’s game changers.

Masters of the Word

THERE is a scene in an old Hollywood movie where Charlton Heston, playing the part of Moses, holds up a stone tablet on which is inscribed the rules that the faithful must obey.