• The Government has performed a U-turn on tax relief (BBC website) for charitable donations. Fifth policy climbdown this week, say Randeep Ramesh and Juliette Jowit. Our Polly Toynbee won't like it. But lots of people in charities and the arts will.
• Michael Haneke's Amour took the Palme D'Or at Cannes. Not a surprise: it was nearly everyone's nearly favourite film, though some felt that the memorably barking Holy Motors, by Leos Carax, should have taken the big prize for its extraordinary vision. Also Cannes-related: a really entertaining interview with the star of Ken Loach's The Angels' Share Paul Brannigan, though I doubt it will warm the hearts of the chiefs of Glasgow City Council.
• Against the odds, debut novelist and Latin and Greek teacher Madeline Miller took the Orange prize for fiction – the last year of the mobile company's sponsorship. I wrote about why this represents a great moment for classics. Sarah Crown interviewed her on our podcast. In other classics-related news, Antigone has been given an amazingly confident, assured production by the still 29-year-old director Polly Findlay at the National Theatre. Chapeaux, madame.
• North of the border, controversy on the new arts funding regime: David Greig has got everyone talking with his open letter to Creative Scotland. Trust between artists and the funder is "haemorrhaging day by day", he says. More on Storify. In better news, there is optimism about the Edinburgh international film festival's first edition under Chris Fujiwara and the Edinburgh festival fringe announced its line-up. Director Kath Mainland admitted that, while 22% of of ticket sales are from London visitors, only 2.5% of tickets are sold to Glaswegians.
• BBC Radio 4 is doing a big Ulysses day for Bloomsday, 16 June, with a five-and-a-half-hour-long adaptation of the novel running through the schedule. Learning from the success of Radio 3's immersive programming, I wonder? Certainly benefitting from Ulysses's recent exit from copyright. Press release here.
• The Serpentine pavilion, designed by Ai Weiwei and Herzog & De Meuron, was unveiled. Jonathan Glancey (now writing for the Telegraph) enjoyed it. Unable to leave China, Ai collaborated with the Swiss architects via Skype.
• In need of something instantly cheering? Look at Jenny Colgan's blissful compilation of scary/sad French children's book covers. My favourite is Le Poids d'un Chagrin - The Weight of Disappointment. Eat your heart out Proust, Sartre et al.
• Long read: an extract from Jonathan Franzen's new book of essays, Farther Away, to be read in conjunction with Stuart Kelly's stinging review of the volume.
