Indholdsfortegnelse for 12th November 2021 i Guardian Weekly

Marília Mendonça One of Brazil’s biggest singers and a Latin Grammy winner. She died in a plane crash on her way to a concert in Caratinga on 5 November, aged 26. Lionel Blair British entertainer whose seven-decade career included a long stint on the TV gameshow Give Us a Clue. He died on 4 November, aged 92. Maureen Cleave British music journalist best known for her profiles of the Beatles in the 1960s. She died on 6 November, aged 87. Bert Newton Mild-mannered Australian talkshow host and entertainer whose career spanned six decades. He died on 30 October, aged 83. Brendan Kennelly Renowned Irish poet, academic and broadcaster He died on 17 October, aged 85.…

Northern Ireland protests lead to clashes Loyalists clashed with police in Belfast last Wednesday during a protest against the Brexit deal Northern Ireland protocol. Trouble continued with two buses being hijacked, while another was set on fire in Newtownards, east of Belfast, by a group calling themselves the Protestant Action Force. They told the driver it was the start of a campaign against the protocol, which set the terms of post-Brexit trading arrangements in the province. UK Opinion p48 →…

It was one of the defining images from Cop26. Seated next to Boris Johnson last Monday and wearing a mask was 95-year-old David Attenborough. The prime minister was mask less and at one point seemed to have nodded off. In front of 120 world leaders, the contrast between the two men was striking. The naturalist was sombre and serious. There was a “desperate hope” we might still avoid disaster, Attenborough said in Glasgow, in the most memorable phrase of the week. Joe Biden was among those to give him a standing ovation. Johnson sought to strike a similarly elevated tone. There were serious moments in his speech. But overall the prime minister appeared to rely on jokes and verbal antics. With the world watching on the most urgent issue of…

Tragedy in Houston Flowers are laid at a makeshift memorial at NRG Park, Houston, where eight people died in a crowd surge at the Astroworld music festival last Friday. Organisers of what became one of the deadliest live music events in US history faced questions about why the rapper Travis Scott continued performing when first responders were already dealing with a mass casualty situation. The eight people who died were aged from 14 to 27, while dozens more were injured, when fans were crushed against the stage. Lawyers representing some of those hurt have begun to file lawsuits, including against Scott and the Canadian rapper Drake. In a tweet, Scott said he was “absolutely devastated by what took place”. About 50,000 people were in the audience when the crowd started…

DESIGN Wasted lives: our throwaway culture on show The Power of the Dog is the first feature film Jane Campion has directed in 12 years. That it happened at all is down to her picking up Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel of the same name and not being able to put it down. “I was actually thinking of retiring before I did this film,” she says, matter of factly, “but then I thought, ‘Oh man, this is gonna be a big one.’ I’d read the book and loved it and afterwards I just kept thinking about it. When I made a move to find out who had the rights, that’s when I knew it had got me. I needed to do it.” Campion’s disillusionment with the mainstream thrust of contemporary Hollywood…

Show me the happy: art, theatre and music that celebrates Black joy Television Chewing Gum Black joy is, to me, ubiquitous and everyday, not rarefied or anomalous as the term itself may sometimes imply. It simply is, in spite of a lot and despite a media landscape that often suggests otherwise. This is why I will forever sing the praises of Michaela Coel ’s 2015 series Chewing Gum, a show synonymous with Black joy not just because of its hilarity, but its ability to depict joy in the everyday, the mundane and even the difficult. Set on a council estate, it remains unlike many depictions of Black working-class life in Britain that predate it, resembling Black British coming-of-age as myself and many others know it to be: chock-a-block with laughs,…

Is the Brexit-bolstered bulletproof screen around Boris Johnson’s Conservative government about to shatter? The UK prime minister is embroiled in yet another sleaze scandal after a thwarted attempt to bend parliamentary standards rules, in order to shield a Tory MP found to have been lobbying for private firms. It’s the latest episode to erode the government’s public standing, as we find out. And, in a week when Johnson welcomed the world to the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow – before departing in a private jet – we find out how his part-statesman, part-standup patter went down with international delegates. The big story Page 10 → As we went to press, Cop26 was entering its final week. Global environment editor Jonathan Watts rounds up what has been achieved in the early stages of…

AGRICULTURE Ireland needs to cull 1.3m cattle to reach climate targets Up to 1.3 million cattle would have to be culled in Ireland to reach anticipated government targets for reducing greenhouse gases in the agriculture sector. Irish farmers are expecting the worst after taoiseach Micheál Martin described the report by KPMG, commissioned by the Irish Farmers Journal, as “scaremongering”. The country has long relied on farming, alongside multinational investment, to drive its economy. But Irish agriculture is under huge pressure: 35% of national greenhouse gases come from the sector, the highest level in Europe, where the average is 11%. And more than 60% of that comes from methane associated with belching by ruminant animals. GLOBAL HEATING UK’s oldest snow patch melts for eighth time in 300 years The UK’s longest-lasting…

Senior figures in Iraq believe a brazen drone attack on the home of Iraq’s prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, marks an unprecedented escalation between the country’s leaders and Iran-backed militant groups attempting to overturn last month’s election The attack last Saturday night is seen by Iraqi officials as an assassination attempt, and the first of its kind against a prime minister since the US-led invasion to remove Saddam Hussein nearly 19 years ago. Kadhimi was slightly injured when a drone exploded near the front door of his residence in Baghdad’s fortified green zone. Seven of his guards sustained more significant injuries, although none were life-threatening. Regional intelligence figures say the attack was probably launched by Iran-linked groups, which lost two-thirds of their parliamentary seats in the national election and had on…

A study of Pfizer’s experimental antiviral pill, paxlovid, has found the drug can cut hospitalisations and deaths from Covid by nearly 90%, the company has said. The US firm’s encouraging results, which are not yet peer-reviewed, suggest oral pills that can be taken at home are poised to take an increasing burden off hospitals. The company released the study data last Friday, a day after the UK medicines regulator announced it had approved molnupiravir (Lagevrio), a drug developed by Ridgeback Biotherapeutics and Merck Sharp and Dohme, as the first oral antiviral pill for Covid. Under deals announced in October, the UK expects to receive 480,000 doses of molnupiravir this year, with 250,000 courses of paxlovid due in late January. Paxlovid is a combination of an antiviral drug with ritonavir, a…

The US commerce department’s blacklist is usually reserved for America’s worst enemies, such as Chinese companies that have been accused of aiding human right abuses, and Russians who proliferate biological and chemical weapons programmes. But last Wednesday, Israel’s NSO Group joined their ranks, marking a rare decision by the Biden administration to include a major technology company that is closely regulated by the Israeli government on its list of entities that threaten US national security. Also included on the list was another Israeli surveillance company, Candiru, whose technology was recently alleged by researchers at Citizen Lab, working in conjunction with Microsoft, to have been used by its foreign government clients to target members of civil society with “untraceable” spyware. The US government said the two companies were added to the…

Founded 1821 Independently owned by the Scott Trust That wars are easy to begin and hard to end is a commonplace, but one that ambitious leaders still forget. Within weeks of launching his assault on the region of Tigray last November – saying its authorities had attacked a military camp – the Ethiopian prime minister announced the operation had been completed. In fact, one year on, the conflict continues to escalate. Thousands of Ethiopians have died and millions have been forced from their homes. Atrocities have been committed by all parties, including massacres of civilians, sexual violence and the use of food as a weapon. Last week, the prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, declared a state of emergency as the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) suggested its soldiers might advance towards the…

Helen Oyeyemi is a bamboozler, a dis-combobulator, a peddler of perplexity. She crushes fables and fairytales down to a powder and then laces her fiction with it like some kind of literary hallucinogen. In her most recent books, the British author seems to have been experimenting with how much expository and explanatory weight she can jettison to make space for filigree and romp. In 2019’s Gingerbread, the result was something akin to immersive theatre – an invitation to explore. What we lost in orientation, we gained in play space. Gingerbread could be read as a novel about Brexit insularity, the tenacious forces of social immobility, or just a high fantasia about stupendous biscuitry. Oyeyemi’s seventh novel, Peaces, is set on a train, a chimerical engine so scaled and silvered it…

I am 16, and identify as an ace lesbian. I have questioned my sexuality since the age of 12 or 13, thinking I was bisexual. I downloaded TikTok, which allowed me to explore my identity more and interact with other queer young people. Until this summer, I questioned my identity multiple times a day (exhausting and not affirming), but I slowly began to feel confident in labelling myself as a demi-romantic, asexual lesbian (I like to use labels). However, that feeling didn’t last long. I felt dysphoric a lot of the time, and I hated my breasts. Fortunately, after about a month, I found the term “demigirl” and it just fitted. I am also trying out she/they pronouns, but haven’t told anyone. My gender is quite fluid – some days…

Prep 15 min Cook 20 min Serves 2-4 Ingredients For the sauce 3 tbsp gochujang2 tbsp sake1 tbsp sugar1 tbsp soy sauce1 tsp sesame oil2 garlic cloves, peeled and grated1cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated1 tsp Korean chilli powder (optional) 2 boned, skin-on chicken thighs, cut into bite-size pieces1 tbsp oil½ small sweet potato (about 100g), peeled and cut into 5mm-thick slices1 small carrot, cut into 5mm-thick slices1 small onion, peeled and finely sliced½ sweetheart (hispi) cabbage, cored and roughly chopped30g edam or similar mild cheese, grated2 slices processed cheese, torn up1 spring onion, trimmed and finely sliced Cheese dakgalbi is an indulgent Korean dish that’s incredibly popular in Japan. Its appeal is self-evident: chicken and vegetables sauteed in an intoxicatingly tasty chilli sauce, then pushed to the…

Known locally as Southmere, the 3-hectare field at the end of my road is a traditional hay meadow – threatened habitat that has declined by 97% since the 1930s. It hasn’t been ploughed or artificially fertilised since the second world war, so in summer the grass is aglow with meadow buttercups, red clover, common knapweed, meadow thistle, great burnet and pyramidal orchids. This floral abundance supports a plethora of insects, which in turn attract birds and mammals. Three species of pipistrelle bat – common, soprano and the rarer, migratory Nathusius’ – are a common sight. Surveys have found serotines, noctules, western barbastelles, and Leisler’s bats. In 2020, a greater horseshoe was found – extremely rare in the county and a first record for the borough. In addition to the ubiquitous…

1 CLIMATE ‘Gas is the new coal,’ warns report into soaring use Growing use of gas for heating, power and cooking is turning it into the “new coal” and its use must be cut by nearly a third this decade to avoid disastrous climate effects, a new report warns. Gas has often been referred to as a “bridge fuel” as it emits about half the carbon dioxide of coal, and many countries have embraced it while also promising to transition to renewable energy. But gas, which has become easy and cheap to access due to advances in fracking, is still a fossil fuel, and the analysis finds it is the fastest-growing source of CO2 emissions, jeopardising global heating thresholds. If the world is to avert disastrous 1.5C of global heating…

PARLIAMENT Minister ‘regrets’ bid to alter rules to spare Paterson A cabinet minister expressed regret and admitted it was a mistake to try to spare a Tory MP from suspension by ripping up the standards system in a move that sparked a huge backlash from colleagues and the public. After being hauled to the Commons to speak in an emergency debate called by the Liberal Democrats over the prime minister’s bid to protect Owen Paterson, Stephen Barclay, the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, did not apologise but conceded it was wrong to try to change the standards process at the same time. Boris Johnson was not at the debate, leading opposition MPs to accuse the prime minister of “adding insult to injury”. Tory MPs were also indignant that he…

Who is fighting in Ethiopia? Ethiopian forces and their allies have been fighting the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the ruling party of the northern region, for just over a year. The conflict developed rapidly after the government side, which includes irregular combatants from Amhara, south of Tigray, suffered a series of losses and the TPLF recruited more allies. On the government side are troops from Eritrea, which borders Tigray. The TPLF was the dominant force in Ethiopia’s coalition until 2018, when discontent among the largest ethnic groups, the Oromo and Amhara, led to the elevation of Abiy Ahmed, of Oromo-Amharic parentage, as prime minister. What has been the toll on civilians? Estimates suggest more than 100,000 people have died. There are accusations that a government blockade of Tigray has…

The racism that cricketer Azeem Rafiq suffered while playing for Yorkshire goes to the heart of the English game. For decades, cricket has drawn a veil over racism and become less diverse, not more so. There is, of course, a particular Yorkshire problem, which explains why Rafiq’s teammates, and his club itself, might have felt that calling him the P-word was acceptable dressing-room banter. That was not the only racist banter he was subjected to. While researching my book, The Impossible Dream, Rafiq told me how, for about two years, some of his Yorkshire teammates had called him “Rafa the ka fir”. For Rafiq, a practising Muslim that meant he was an unbeliever and is a devastating charge. He was puzzled because none of the people calling him “ka fir”…

For the Indigenous Maya Ch’orti’ people of La Unión in eastern Guatemala, the daily struggle for water involves catching every drop of rain that drips from sloping metal roofs and walking long distances to fill plastic containers from overused streams. In this parched region, communities rely on rainfall to feed their families and, in 2019, worked together to build water reservoirs high in the mountains in order to better cope with increasingly frequent droughts and unpredictable rains, which caused their maize and bean crops to fail. But the following year brought the opposite problem. After years without enough rain, two powerful hurricanes, Eta and Iota, struck within a fortnight, causing flash floods and landslides that left dozens of people trapped in partially collapsed houses. “We always worried about not enough…

ON SATURDAY 29 OCTOBER 2011, the day the entertainer Jimmy Savile died aged 84, a couple of comments were posted on the Duncroft School page of the networking site Friends Reunited. Duncroft was designated as an “approved school” by the Home Office, and offered residential care for “intelligent but emotionally disturbed girls”. “He died today, RIP no RIH yes rot in hell,” read one message. “Perhaps some closure for the childhoods that were ruined by this animal.” Over the next few days a handful more messages appeared: “You child molester – you were no better than all the other pervs who have been banged up … only your celebrity status saved you.” Someone else wrote how she would never recover from what “JS” did to her. Across the news bulletins…

WRITE TO US Letters for publication weekly.letters@ theguardian.com Please include a full postal address and a reference to the article. We may edit letters. Submission and publication of all letters is subject to our terms and conditions, see: THEGUARDIAN.COM/LETTERS-TERMS Editorial Editor: Will Dean Guardian Weekly, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU, UK To contact the editor directly: editorial. feedback@theguardian.com Corrections Our policy is to correct significant errors as soon as possible. Please write to guardian. readers@theguardian.com or the readers’ editor, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU, UK Britain’s mixed attitude to Covid comes from the top I read Andy Beckett’s column (Opinion, 29 October) with interest and agreement that Britain’s response to the Covid threat is mixed and unpredictable. I, too, have noticed that mask-wearing is for…

Spencer Dir: Pablo Larrain Spencer is an entertaining, if overwrought, overpraised and slightly obtuse movie, an ironised fantasy opera without music. It is about Diana having a “crack-up” over one stifling Christmas in 1991, with which screenwriter Steven Knight appears to have transcribed a dream he once had after eating his bodyweight in brie. Diana is cleverly impersonated by Kristen Stewart, who is particularly good at shoulder-shrugging convulsions of misery and protest. She has showed up to Sandringham alone, committing an unpardonable error of taste in arriving after the Queen (Stella Gonet). She is semi-estranged from Charles (Jack Farthing), and menaced by a fictional glowering flunkey, Major Gregory (Timothy Spall). The fictional cook Darren (Sean Harris) is her confidant, and she has her devoted fictional dresser, Maggie (Sally Hawkins). The…

The first page of Howard Markel ’s comprehensive history The Secret of Life reads like the opening scene of a movie. “On February 28, 1953, shortly after the chapel bells struck noon, two men hurtled down a stairwell of Cambridge University’s Cavendish Physics Laboratory. Bursting with exhilaration, they had just made the scientific discovery of a lifetime…” Delving into the human lives and relationships behind “the race to unravel DNA’s structure”, the book frequently zooms in on such visual details, from the “crusty yellow remains” of fried egg at Francis Crick ’s breakfast table to the “clickety clack” of Rosalind Franklin ’s heels echoing “on the slick, wet marble floor” of King’s College London. A movie needs a hero and a villain. In this story they are Franklin – brilliant,…

QUIZ Thomas Eaton 1 In Tokyo, Eddy Alvarez became the sixth Olympian to do what? 2 Which French “saint” died in Kent in 1943? 3 What unit is equal to about 9.46 trillion km 4 Which promontory was built by Finn McCool? 5 What is thought to be the world’s oldest alcoholic drink? 6 Which 2003 song has spent more than five years in the UK Top 100? 7 What condition was known as woolsorters’ disease? 8 Oprah’s stylist Andre Walker designed a system to categorise what? What links: 9 UK; Ireland; Malta; Cyprus (on the road)? 10 Rapper Cheryl James; chef Nusret Gökçe; cold war arms talks? 11 Roman deities (6); Greek deities (1); neither (1)? 12 War on the Shore; Battle of Brookline; Miracle at Medinah? 13 Barwick…

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