Innehållsförteckning för 7th May 2021 från Guardian Weekly

India’s prime minister suffered a rare political defeat in a key state election, amid signs of a voter backlash over his handling of the coronavirus disaster as the country reported a record number of deaths. Narendra Modi had been expected to make significant gains last Sunday in West Bengal, one of few states where his rightwing Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) does not have a parliamentary majority. Instead, Mamata Banerjee, a powerful regional politician and prominent Modi critic, won a third term as chief minister. Banerjee’s All India Trinamool Congress won a comfortable majority, clocking up 216 seats in the 294-seat assembly. The BJP won 75 seats, up on its performance in 2016 when it won three, but well short of predictions. Modi made dozens of speeches on the campaign trail…

Poppy Gustafsson runs a cutting-edge cybersecurity firm on the brink of a £3bn ($4.1bn) stock market debut. Launched in Cambridge, UK, eight years ago by an unlikely alliance of mathematicians, former spies from GCHQ and the US, and artificial intelligence (AI) experts, Darktrace provides protection, enabling businesses to stay one step ahead of increasingly smarter and dangerous hackers and viruses. Marketing its products as the digital equivalent of the human body’s ability to fight illness, Darktrace’s AI-security works as an “enterprise immune system”, can “self-learn and self-heal” and has an “autonomous response capability” to tackle threats without instruction as they are detected. “It really does feel like we’re in this new era of cybersecurity,” said Gustafsson. “The arms race will absolutely continue; I really don’t think it’s very long until…

Frederick Voigt’s 1926 exclusive was the kind of scoop every foreign correspondent dreams of. His uncovering of a secret collaboration between the German military and the Soviet Union that broke the terms of the Versailles treaty was of such a “sensational nature” that it led the front pages of German newspapers for days. Voigt’s scoop embarrassed the Communist party, whose Soviet allies were revealed to be in cahoots with German counter-revolutionaries, and humiliated German nationalists, who called the pact a lie while defending it as a response to “French treachery”. Followed up a few days later by revelations about a Junkers warplane factory outside Moscow, Voigt’s revelations were debated in the German parliament. His report led to a no-confidence vote against the chancellor, Wilhelm Marx, and the government’s collapse –…

According to Republicans, Joe Biden was supposed to be sleepy, senile and socialist. He was also allegedly a puppet of secret powers – unlike his predecessor, who acted like the puppet of a former KGB officer. Sean Hannity of Fox News claimed, last month, to be worried about Biden’s cognitive health. This is quite something, coming from Hannity. He began a recent interview, with a Florida man by the name of Donald Trump, as follows: “I know a lot of people that are around you every day. This is what they are all telling me: you are working as hard as you did when you were in the White House, except you play a little golf more. That you’re keeping an insane schedule, seven days a week. You really don’t…

Few documents are venerated as much as the American constitution. Until recently, one million people a year filed past the original copy on display in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom in Washington DC. Yet, as Linda Colley’s brilliant new book shows, viewing constitutions as national tablets of stone tells us more about their contemporary charisma than the complex histories from which they were wrought. In this compelling study of constitutions produced around the world between the mid-18th century and the outbreak of the first world war, she upends the familiar version of history at every turn. Out goes the myth that constitutions were the product of democratic aspirations or revolution – rather they arose from the ashes of war or the threat of invasion. Nations may have been…

‘We should probably go out now,” I say to Danny as I vegetate in front of the TV. “Yeah, we should, but I can’t be arsed,” Danny replies, sitting in an identical pose. “C’mon, we need the exercise; can’t sit here all day,” I insist. “Well, we can ’cause that’s what we did yesterday and the day before,” he answers. “Exactly! That’s why we have to go. C’mon!” I yell. “God! Fine, then!” he shouts back. So we head out for a much needed dose of fresh air and exercise. Only there is no we. There’s only me. I’ve had a shouting match with myself pretty much every day since Covid came along. Do I need help? Not particularly, says Paloma Mari-Beffa, a senior lecturer in psychology at Bangor University.…

1 UNITED STATES Biden sets out $1.8tn plan to rebuild in Congress address Joe Biden argued that “America is on the move again” in his first address to Congress, where he unveiled a $1.8tn package for families and education and pitched his “blue-collar blueprint” to re-build America. Flanked by two women – Vice-President Kamala Harris and House speaker Nancy Pelosi – for the first time in US history, the president gave his speech on the eve of his 100th day in office as the country continues to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Due to social distancing measures, only 200 people, mainly politicians, attended rather than the usual 1,600 guests. The supreme court’s chief justice, John Roberts, was the only member of the high court present. The address centred on the administration’s…

UK NEWS Noel Clarke has shows cancelled over allegations Allegations of sexual harassment and bullying made against the actor-producer Noel Clarke prompted two broadcasters to cancel popular shows he stars in and launched a debate about the treatment of women on sets. The allegations against Clarke also led to questions about the decision by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to give the actor a special award for outstanding British contribution to cinema in March. ITV cancelled plans to show the final episode of the primetime drama Viewpoint after the Guardian revealed it had spoken to 20 women with allegations against Clarke, including that he secretly filmed naked auditions. Sky halted Clarke’s involvement in any of its productions, effective immediately, as six more people came forward with allegations.…

Agreen wind of change is blowing through Germany’s political landscape as a poll-of-polls on Monday put the Green party above Angela Merkel’s ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) only five months before national elections. The aggregate poll, published by Pollytix Strategic Research, puts the Greens in the lead for the first time since June 2019. Germany’s party landscape has long proven more resistant to sudden upheavals than its European neigh-bours, with the CDU holding on to its status as the country’s supreme political power while sister parties in France or Italy slipped into oblivion. But latest polls suggest the conservatives, who have governed Germany for the last 16 years, could no longer be the strongest party in the Bundestag after 26 September. Six out of 10 polls published in recent weeks…

Covered up and boxed in a storage vault in Enniskillen, two oil paintings gathered dust. King William III com-missioned the portraits of himself and Queen Mary after he routed Catholic forces in the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, a turning point in Irish history that established Protestant ascendance. Unionists revere King Billy, also known as William of Orange, as a hero who saved their settler ancestors. The portraits used to gaze down from Enniskillen town hall, a reminder of their link to the crown, until the council voted to remove them in 2002. For some unionists in this corner of County Fermanagh, it felt like a fore-shadowing of their own fate. This week they were due to celebrate Northern Ireland’s centenary, the 100th birthday of a state made from…

What is the golden thread that links today’s Guardian journalists with those of the 1820s? It takes imagination to summon up the atmosphere of the paper’s beginnings, a small-scale but bold enterprise on which “Tory journalists looked with contempt”, as a contemporary onlooker recalled. John Edward Taylor was the paper’s proprietor, founder, leader writer and reporter. He would typeset his own articles directly from his shorthand notes, recalled his partner, reporter Jeremiah Garnett. Then he’d help with the manual labour of the press, and lend a hand with distribution. Garnett himself was richly embroiled in Mancunian politics, and would report both his own oratory in meetings and that of his opponent, occasionally inserting a parenthesis to the effect that if his antagonist chose to speak unreasonably quickly then he couldn’t…

In October 2017 Paulette Wilson was arrested by immigration officials, driven to Yarl’s Wood detention centre and booked on a flight to Jamaica – a country she had left 49 years earlier, when she was 11. For two years, this 61-year-old law-abiding grandmother had been getting letters from the Home Office telling her she was in the UK illegally, that she had no right to work, that she faced arrest and deportation. She found it hard to understand why the Home Office was targeting her – she had attended school in Britain, and worked and paid taxes for decades. Wilson spent months trying to convince officials a mistake had been made. An immigration charity, the Refugee and Migrant Centre, secured her release from detention and a temporary stay of deportation.…

I used to work for the Guardian as a freelance, from my home in Sussex. In late June 2009, I made a rare trip into the office, and over lunch with the then editor, Alan Rusbridger, I told him I’d been working for months on a story that would start a fight with the most powerful media group in the country, the most powerful political party, the most powerful police force and, for good measure, the official press regulator. There are plenty of editors who would have walked away and left me to pay the lunch bill. Rusbridger was never scared of a fight. He sent the investigations editor, David Leigh, to see me at home a few days later, to check and recheck the detail of what I had…

Yes, it’s a real scandal. Despite the apparent absurdity of a Westminster village obsessing over soft furnishings, there is a hard offence underneath all those cushions and throws. By refusing to say who first paid for the refurbishment of his Downing Street flat, Boris Johnson is denying Britons – his boss – the right to know who he owes and what hold they might have on him. Offence is the right word because, even before the Electoral Commission determines whether the law on political funding was broken, Johnson’s failure to come clean may well be, by itself, a breach of the ministerial code. That bars not only actual conflicts of interest between ministers’ “public duties and their private interests” but even the perception of such conflicts. In refusing to admit…

Before the pandemic, it wasn’t uncommon for DJs to fly between three European cities in a weekend. The carbon footprint of globetrotting tours was massive. Streaming services, requiring ever more processing power, have had a burgeoning impact, as has the recent craze of selling music via NFTs (non-fungible tokens). But a series of announcements, coordinated by the Music Declares Emergency collective, have challenged the idea that the industry is not taking the climate emergency seriously. Perhaps this is an inflection point: can the recovery from Covid-19 be green? “The music industry has the opportunity to lead,” says Lewis Jamieson, a spokesman for Music Declares Emergency. “It can become the exemplar of a green recovery, and help the public understand and support what that idea means.” British independent label Ninja Tune…

DURING A PARTICULARLY POLARISING ELECTION CAMPAIGN IN THE STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH IN 2017, India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, waded into the fray to stir things up even further. From a public podium, he accused the state government – which was led by an opposition party – of pandering to the Muslim community by spending more on Muslim graveyards (kabristans) than on Hindu cremation grounds (shamshans). With his customary sneer, he stirred up the crowd. “If a kabristan is built in a village, a shamshan should also be constructed there,” he said. “Shamshan! Shamshan!” the mesmerised, adoring crowd echoed back. Perhaps he is happy now that the haunting image of the flames rising from the mass funerals in India’s cremation grounds is making the front page of international newspapers.…

Genghis Khan got his dying wish: despite attempts by archaeologists and scientists to find the Mongolian ruler’s final resting place, the location remains a secret 800 years after his death. The search for his tomb, though, has inspired an innovative project that could help protect polar bears. “I randomly tuned into the radio one night and heard an expert talking about the use of synthetic aperture radar [SAR] to look for Genghis Khan’s tomb,” said Tom Smith, associate professor in plant and wildlife sciences at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Utah. “They were using SAR to penetrate layers of forest canopy in upper Mongolia, looking for the ruins of a burial structure.” Talking to engineers, including BYU’s David Long, Smith learned that SAR is used by the military to…

Moreen Tanhara waits patiently for officials to inspect her tobacco. The 49-year-old has travelled nearly 150km overnight in an old lorry to reach Tobacco Sales Floor, an auction house in Harare. Tanhara sits quietly on one of the fragrant sacks she has brought from Guruve, a farming area north of Zimbabwe’s capital. This year, due to Covid-19 restrictions, only a few farmers are allowed on the auction floor. Dozens more wait outside, among them Chinese tobacco dealers, the country’s main buyers. Every year Tanhara, a widowed mother of four, comes here to sell her crop. Her tobacco is given a high grade and opening prices are strong – $4.30 a kilo. If she turns a healthy profit, it will be thanks in part to a stokvel she and other women…

When the first reports surfaced of a mysterious disorder that was afflicting dozens of US diplomats in Cuba, Mike Beck’s reaction was one of recognition and relief. Beck was at his home in Maryland, scrolling through the day’s news on his computer, when he spotted the story, and remembers shouting out to his wife. “I got excited because I thought: well, it’s coming out now that it’s not a mirage,” he said. “I felt bad for the victims but thought: ‘Now I’m no longer one of one. I’m one of many.’” Beck, a former National Security Agency (NSA) counter-intelligence officer, had been forced into retirement in late 2016 by a rare early-onset, non-tremor form of Parkinson’s disease. He had evidence, supplied by the NSA and the CIA, that he could…

As part of the Guardian’s 200th celebrations, we look back at some of our stories that changed the world As the first world war entered its final year, the Manchester Guardian published a string of scoops revealing the contents of the secret treaties being agreed between Britain, France and Russia on how they hoped to carve up Europe and the Middle East if they were to prevail. It was the work of Morgan Philips Price, the Guardian’s special correspondent in Russia throughout the war. The journalist had become close to the Bolsheviks, who had come to power in October 1917. A month later his connection with Leon Trotsky, the new commissar for foreign affairs, paid dividends. Trotsky had gained control of the ministry’s archives and was preparing to release its…

It was a story that started with perhaps the most famous napkin in the history of journalism. It came from the Leopold hotel in Brussels where Guardian reporters Nick Davies and Ian Traynor had tracked down Julian Assange, then a relatively unknown Australian hacker and freedom of information activist. On it Assange had circled several words and scrawled the instruction: “No spaces.” The password written on the napkin would unlock one of the biggest and most explosive caches of secret information ever obtained by journalists. Over the following six months it would unleash a torrent of stories that would touch every corner of the globe. It would usher in a new kind of journalism, leave the soldier who leaked it in a military prison and Assange holed up in a…

My phone pinged close to midnight last Christmas with a message from Moscow. “Merry Christmas, my old friend. Sending love from all of us.” It was from one of the world’s most wanted men: Edward Snowden. Attached were pictures of Snowden, his wife, Lindsay, and their newborn baby. The chance of such happy portraits would have seemed remote in spring 2013. At that time Snowden was holed up in a Hong Kong hotel with a small team from the Guardian. I thought then – and so did he – the likelihood was he was going to be bumped off or spend the rest of his life in jail in the US. My pleasure at receiving his text is mainly down to the fact he managed to avoid either fate. But…

If 23 of your 27 devolved assembly members, plus four of eight Westminster MPs, along with local councillors and party members, have signed letters calling on you to resign, then politically speaking, you are toast. This was Arlene Foster’s unhappy fate, duly confirmed last week. For the Democratic Unionist party leader and Northern Ireland first minister, it is the end of the road. Foster’s ousting has many causes and it will have many consequences. It is also an event without local precedent. Remarkably, the DUP has never in its history had a leadership contest (nor, of course, has its rival, Sinn Féin). The DUP’s no-surrender founder, Ian Paisley, led the party into a power-sharing government without being seriously challenged. His successor, Peter Robinson, survived a marital crisis without losing his…

Hanif Abdurraqib got into writing through the poetry slam circuit in Columbus, Ohio, which might explain why reading A Little Devil in America, his book of essays on black culture, feels like hearing him speak. He addresses the reader and skates between subjects. He might consider astrology, Michael Jackson, Blade Runner 2049 and the musician Sun Ra in pursuit of a single thought, as if in late-night, errant conversation with a friend. This is not to say the essays lack discipline. Every subject is carefully chosen in the service of a broader critical project, which is to understand the significance of black performance in the US across media such as music, dance, comedy and even card games. Take the piece on “magical negroes”, a term that is applied to black…