Innehållsförteckning för 23rd April 2021 från Guardian Weekly

Helen McCrory One of the leading stage actors of her generation who found wider fame in the Harry Potter films and TV’s Peaky Blinders. She died of cancer on 16 April, aged 52. Walter Mondale The former US vice-president and 1984 Democratic presidential candidate. He died on 19 April, aged 93. Bernie Madoff Financier who defrauded thousands of investors through a multibillion dollar Ponzi scheme. He died on 14 April, aged 82. Andrew Peacock Former leader of Australia’s Liberal party and foreign minister under Malcolm Fraser. He died on 16 April, aged 82. Mike Mitchell Guitarist who recorded one of the most famous solos of all time for the Kingsmen’s 1963 hit Louie Louie. He died on 16 April, aged 77.…

One month after Michel Castro’s premature brush with death, the coronavirus infection has receded but the nightmares persist. In them the 31-year-old father relives scenes he witnessed as he battled for survival in a Rio ICU. The six-month-old baby who appeared to be suffocating next to him. The man urinating blood after his kidneys failed. The bleep-bleep-bleep of machines warning doctors that yet another life was on the line. “It was agony. When you closed your eyes – God forgive me – but it was as if you were in hell,” said Castro, a systems analyst and devout Christian who fell ill in early March as Brazil was thrust into the deadliest month of a coronavirus disaster that has killed more than 373,000 people. “I saw everything in there. Children,…

It’s after sunset in Jaffna when Anthony Vigrado dives into the waters of Palk Bay, scanning the seafloor to collect what seems to be prized treasure. What he comes back with are sea cucumbers – long, leathery-skinned creatures that are increasingly valuable and the source of his income for the past 12 years. But after a 10-hour search, his harvest is only a fraction of what it used to be, as the shores of northern Sri Lanka and southern India have become a prime spot for exploitation. “Illegal fishermen are coming across our borders and collecting sea cucumbers in places where we dive normally. We are losing our income and our riches to them,” the 31-year-old fisher said. Sea cucumbers are echinoderms with soft, tubular bodies resembling their namesake vegetable.…

If you don’t ask, you don’t get; you can’t turn down what you haven’t gone for… Dr Dayne Beccano-Kelly Dementia Researcher at Cardiff University A 2020 UKRI Future Leaders fellow. From 2014 to 2019 of about 12,700 fellows, fewer than 35 were black Big organisations are coming to us and asking: ‘What can we do?’ But that’s not my role Dr Yolanda Ohene Biophysicist at the University of Manchester She co-founded Minorities in STEM, before starting her PhD at University College London…

A limit on personal wealth could soon be needed Abigail Disney, spokesperson for Patriotic Millionaires and advocate of taxing the very rich, is quoted (Payback time, 9 April) as thinking that a cap on personal wealth is too radical an idea to propose making into law. Perhaps so, immediately; but in the long term only limiting personal holdings makes sense. Extreme concentration of economic resources in the hands of individuals is a social ill, principally because it confers extreme political power. Alan Cottey Norwich, England, UK Time we saw the sinister side of the clown persona What a joy to read Edward Docx’s article Send in the clown (26 March). I had to wipe away tears of laughter; the writer captures a portrait of Boris Johnson better than any other…

It was designed to make sharpening a pencil feel as thrilling as flying a jet. A gleaming chrome teardrop, tapered to a point and adorned with a bullet-like handle, Raymond Loewy’s aerodynamic tail-fin pencil sharpener brought the glamour of the machine age to the humble office desk. As the godfather of American industrial design, Loewy gave his streamlined signature to trains, planes and Coca-Cola vending machines, defining the sleek art deco look of the 1930s. But his go-faster pencil sharpener never made it into production, deemed one chrome-plated, deco-styled step too far. The design does survive in the form of its patent, filed in 1933 and now republished as one of 1,000 such protected inventions, brought together in a new book. “Design critics trashed Loewy’s sharpener,” says Thomas Rinaldi, author…

There was a risk that the story of this book might overwhelm the story in the book – its origin tale is quite something. It was written immediately after Kristallnacht, the pogrom in November 1938 that signalled the lethal nature of Nazi intent towards Jews. The author was a 23-year-old German Jew who had got out three years earlier, making his way to England. His name was Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz, and though he published an early version of his novel in England and France, few noticed it. Once war broke out, he was deemed an “enemy alien” and interned before being deported to New South Wales. Redesignated a “friendly alien” and allowed to return to England in 1942, his ship was torpedoed by a German submarine, killing him and 361…

The report from the UK’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities was rapidly criticised as “divisive”, something one should never be in politics unless it is to one’s advantage. “To devise” – to imagine or invent – comes from the same Latin root. But the newfangled word was just as soon adopted, in the 17th century, to mean encouraging of dissent or discord, as when in 1649 the poet John Milton ridiculed the claims of Ulster Presbyterians that they were not “sowers of Sedition, or authors of divisive motions”. One reliable way to avoid being “divisive” is to speak only in pleasant cliches. In the meantime, we may reflect on the wisdom of Thomas Carlyle, who in 1829 remarked: “Vanity is of a divisive, not of a uniting nature.” In…

Prep 10 min Cook 40 min Serves 4 Ingredients 250g puy lentils750ml chicken stock or water2 bay leaves500g smoked haddock fillets300ml whole milk300g purple sprouting broccoli, thick stems split lengthways7 tbsp extra-virginolive oilSalt and black pepper For the anchovy cream 30g butter8 anchovies3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped4 tbsp creme fraiche Juice of ½ small lemon 1 handful parsley leaves, roughly chopped A simple poached piece of smoked fish, some charred but tender purple sprouting broccoli, green lentils cooked until al dente and an anchovy-rich cream dressing that brings the whole dish together. There are a few steps here, but none complicated nor long, and you will be rewarded with a sumptuous, nourishing feast. Tuck in. Be brave when charring the broccoli – it will provide deliciously bitter notes as…

No one with an attachment to the top end of professional football over the past few decades could have been shocked by this week’s news that 12 clubs are planning to create their own European Super League. But, for fans of the beautiful game, the announcement was heart-breaking. Does this near-closed shop of a league – if it goes ahead – signal the breaking point of a sport already bast ardised by money? The furious reaction from governing bodies, politicians, other clubs and, most importantly, the fans suggests so. This week, chief sportswriter Barney Ronay tries to make sense of the greed that brought the world’s favourite sport to this point, while Sean Ingle looks at the behind-the-scenes mechanisms that led to the announcement. Then, Jonathan Liew suggests that the Super…

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE Whitest-ever paint could help cool temperatures The whitest-ever paint, which reflects 98% of sunlight as well as radiating infrared heat into space, has been produced by academic researchers. In tests, the new paint cooled surfaces by 4.5C below the ambient temperature, even in strong sunlight. “Our paint can help fight against global warming by helping to cool the Earth – that’s the cool point,” said Prof Xiulin Ruan at Purdue University in the US. The paint uses barium sulphate, which does not absorb UV light, has a 60% concentration of pigment and particles of varied size, and was revealed in a report in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. Researchers said the paint could be on the market in one or two years. SPACE Nasa celebrates helicopter’s…

It was only last Saturday morning that a senior executive of one of Europe’s biggest football clubs realised that long-rumbling talks about a breakaway European Super League were suddenly – in his words – “about to go nuclear”. For months, clubs had batted round proposals for a €6bn ($7.2bn) breakaway league, that would see 15 founding clubs receive between €89m and €310m immediately for signing up. But while each of them had been given documents and contracts, and asked to come back with ideas, Uefa, the game’s European ruling body, appeared to have blocked the plan by agreeing to reform the Champions League – the leading European club competition – into a new format with more guaranteed group stage games. That all dramatically changed last weekend. One by one the…

Joe Biden has decided that 20 years is enough for America’s longest war, and has ordered the remaining troops out of Afghanistan, no matter what happens between now and September. Biden’s withdrawal is one area of continuity with his predecessor, although unlike Donald Trump, this administration consulted the Afghans, US allies and its own agencies before announcing the decision. But both presidents were responding to a national weariness of “forever wars”. To the surprise of no one, the Republican party that acquiesced in Trump’s order to get the troops out by May is launching attacks on Biden’s “reckless” decision. The political attacks will mount if, as many expect, the current peace initiative fails and the Taliban steps up its offensive. In Afghanistan, any US president is damned if you do…

Rachel Whiteread began by casting the void under a chair, then she cast the gap under a bed. She cast tiny, humble things – the interior of hot-water bottles, resembling little human torsos. She went huge, casting an entire room, then a house in Bow, east London. House won her the 1993 Turner prize: she was the first woman and the youngest artist to do so, aged 30. She went on to cast rows of bookshelves, and fashioned them into the bunkerlike Holocaust memorial in Vienna. She won London’s Fourth Plinth project, and elegantly skewered the monumental enterprise by casting the plinth itself in icy, translucent resin and inverting it. House became a lightning rod for angry debates, about contemporary art, housing policy, communities and regeneration. It took her two…

1 The number 1089 is the only 4-digit number that reverses when you multiply it by 9. 10989 is the only 5-digit number and 109989 the only 6-digit number reversing under multiplication by 9. What is the smallest value of n for which there are two n-digit numbers that reverse on multiplication by 9? What are they? 2 Wordpool Find the correct definition: GLONOIN a) nitro-glycerin used as medicine b) substance giving fireflies their glow c) bat hormone d) extinct Australasian language 3 E pluribus unum Rearrange the letters of APRICOT LOVER to make a single word. 4 County Lines Identify these words differing only in the letters shown: ***E********* (county) ***T********* (county) 5 Missing Links Find a word that follows the first word in the clue and precedes the…

NOTES & QUERIES An unfortunate sequence of events What is the worst email you sent to the wrong person? “I didn’t think they would come to visit.” In and of itself not horrible but it ruined a good friendship. Doreen Forney Pownal, Vermont, US • Mercifully, as it was sent by accident, it was the same as the best message I sent to the right person. Edward P Wolfers Corrimal, NSW, Australia Angels and demons If the devil’s in the details, what’s the saint doing? Marching in – an important rally. Was it BLM, March 4 Justice or School Climate Strike? Phillip Dicalfas Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia • Generally halocinating. Margaret Wyeth Victoria, British Columbia, Canada • Julian of Norwich beats him at his own game, by seeing the…

How would it work? There would be 20 participating clubs, with 15 permanent founding clubs and a mechanism for a further five teams to qualify annually. When would matches be played? There would be midweek fixtures with all participating clubs hoping to compete in their respective national leagues. There would be two groups of 10, playing home and away fixtures, with the top three in each group automatically qualifying for the quarter-finals. Teams finishing fourth and fifth would then compete in a two-legged play-off for the remaining quarter-final positions. A two-leg knockout format would be used to reach the final at the end of May, which would be staged as a single fixture at a neutral venue. When is it due to start? The clubs said in their statement that…

Russia’s unexplained buildup along Ukraine’s border set alarm bells ringing in the west last month as military analysts noted unusual flourishes – such as new field hospitals, long-distance shipments of armour and artillery and last-minute railcar bookings – that did not feel like a normal exercise. Whether it is merely an attention-grabbing feint or a prelude to an escalation will depend on the Kremlin’s will. But Russia has already signalled that if a larger war does take place, it is prepared to deliver a hammer blow. “My take is that all the signalling from Russia’s side is that the next war with Ukraine will be a much larger one … and that it will result in a much larger defeat in terms of Ukrainian force,” said Michael Kofman, a senior…

It has been a dreadful few weeks for David Cameron, the former prime minister and golden boy of the Conservative party. His reputation – already damaged by losing the 2016 Brexit referendum and his resignation – has now sunk to depths that once would have seemed unimaginable. After winning a majority at the 2015 election, Whitehall civil servants remember Cameron and his chancellor, George Osborne, strutting around Downing Street, radiating extraordinary power and confidence. “At that time you just couldn’t say no to them. They were completely untouchable. It was incredible to witness that total confidence. It seemed impossible to raise any doubts at all,” said one former high-ranking civil servant. Six years on, for Cameron at least, the reverse is the case. It is difficult to imagine how he…

When Hideki Matsuyama sank the putt that won the Masters earlier this month, he not only made history by becoming the first Japanese man to win a major golf title – he gave the organisers of the Tokyo Olympics rare cause for celebration. Days earlier his compatriot Rikako Ikee secured a place at the rescheduled 2020 Games in the 100m butterfly less than eight months after she had recovered from leukaemia. Their feats were a reminder of why so many view the Olympics and Paralympics as the sum total of individual human struggles, and help explain why the Tokyo organisers and International Olympic Committee continue to insist the Games will – and should – go ahead. But at the same time as the newly crowned Matsuyama suggested he was open…

In one respect, the punitive measures imposed on Russia last week by the Biden administration are an attempt to clean up the mess left by Donald Trump. On issue after issue, such as Russian meddling in the 2016 and 2020 elections and cyber-attacks and hacks of US government agencies and businesses, the former president failed to take prompt retaliatory action or any action at all. Trump cast doubt on Russia’s responsibility for these and other hostile acts, contradicting the findings of America’s intelligence agencies. He routinely declined to criticise Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, for his support for Syria’s murderous regime, the 2018 Salisbury poisonings and the persecution of the opposition activist Alexei Navalny. Why Trump behaved in such a fawning, servile way towards Putin is one of the great unsolved…

Rachel Whiteread: Internal Objects Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill, London, until 6 June I bet plenty of us have grappled with metaphorical ghosts in the loneliness and unease of lockdown. But Rachel Whiteread has quite literally been coming to terms with her Ghost. In 1990, she showed a sculpture of that name in London. It was bought by Charles Saatchi and became an icon of a new kind of British art. A plaster cast of a room in a ordinary old house, Ghost is a memory of a vanished space. After Ghost, Whiteread cast the interior of an entire vacated family home for her 1993 modern masterpiece, House. It stood like a grey concrete revenant on a London green until the council bulldozed it. In the pandemic, Whiteread has created two alarming,…

‘It is necessary to deprive the German command of all initiative, forestall the adversary, and to attack the German army when it is still in the deployment stage and has no time to organise the distribution of forces at the front,” wrote the Soviet commanders to Joseph Stalin. The day on which they did so is by far the most surprising part of the document: 15 May 1941, one month and one week before Hitler attacked the USSR. In the spring of 1941, the Soviets considered attacking the Germans first, writes Sean McMeekin in his latest book, Stalin’s War. The volume is impressive even by the standard of histories of the second world war. It is more than 800 pages long, including a 20-page list of archival collections and files…

From Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behaviour to Jenny Offill’s Weather and Doggerland by Ben Smith, the “cli-fi” genre is growing exponentially – no surprise. In fact, as an artist, it can feel self-indulgent to be making work about anything else, no matter what the medium. Jessie Greengrass’s second novel tackles the subject of global heating head-on, conjuring a near-future vision of a flooded East Anglia. Where it excels is in its characters’ recollection of the incremental progress towards disaster. “Crisis slid from distant threat to imminent probability and we tuned it out like static,” Caro, one of the survivors, recalls. As the novel opens, Caro is a teenager. Her father’s partner, Francesca, is a high-profile climate scientist and campaigner; it’s a mission on which Caro’s father will join her. Francesca may…