Innehållsförteckning för 24th September 2021 från Guardian Weekly

Clive Sinclair British inventor and entrepreneur who was instrumental in bringing home computers to the masses in the 1980s. He died on 16 September, aged 81. Abdelaziz Bouteflika Algeria’s longest-serving president, who resigned in 2019 amid pro-democracy protests after two decades in power. He died on 17 September, aged 84. Norm Macdonald American comedian known for his deadpan style who was a stalwart contributor to Saturday Night Live. He died on 14 September, aged 61. Jimmy Greaves English former footballer who was one of the greatest goalscorers for Tottenham Hotspur and his country. He died on 19 September, aged 81.…

It didn’t take long for the debate in San Marino to turn toxic. Soon after campaigning in the leadup to a referendum on legalising abortion officially got under way, the walls of the tiny country, landlocked within central Italy, were slapped with posters from anti-abortion activists featuring a child with Down’s syndrome. The caption read: “I’m an anomaly, does that mean I have fewer rights than you?” Other posters featured the image of a foetus alongside the message: “I’m a child even at 12 weeks, save me!” There was widespread indignation across the population of 33,000 in response to the billboards, including from those who are against lifting the ban on abortion. But whether it’s enough to turn the tide in the extremely conservative San Marino, where abortion was criminalised…

Following the decision by the US president, Joe Biden, to introduce a vaccine mandate for millions of workers, and the UK government’s decision to row back on its push to require vaccine passports for nightclubs and other crowded events, where does the issue of insisting on vaccination stand globally? What has Biden announce d? The new US rules require most federal employees to be vaccinated as well as staff at companies with more than 100 employees who will either have to be vaccinated or face mandatory testing. The tough new requirements apply to about 17 million health care workers as well as educators in federally run schools and programmes. Biden has also called on governors to require vaccinations for school workers. In all, between 80-100 million people would be covered…

The Covid crisis came scything through Alejandro’s* life with a speed, ferocity and vindictive thoroughness that stuns him to this day. Almost overnight the widowed craftsman’s business supplying leather pieces to shops, markets and the military folded, his meagre savings gave out, his father died from coronavirus, the electricity was cut off and he found himself relying on food banks to feed himself and his teenage daughter. “Things were hard before the pandemic,” he said. “But if you’d told me one day that everything that’s happened to me would happen to me, I’d never have believed you. “I started skipping meals so that I could feed my daughter properly. I lost 12 kg through nerves, not eating and not sleeping. I used to lie and tell her I wasn’t hungry…

Any passing American might have been forgiven for thinking they had stumbled on one of the great human rights struggles of our time. The speakers managed to mention Martin Luther King, Gandhi and the Nazi persecution of Jewish people. They told of prisoners held in conditions with echoes of the Soviet gulags. Then there was the sheer injustice of the roundups. Innocent people spirited away by secret police for daring to criticise the government. Except this was a protest to demand the release of hundreds of people arrested for their part in the storming of the US Capitol on 6 January, in an attempt to stop Congress certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election. As the Republican party and Donald Trump’s more ardent supporters work to rewrite the…

Nomi has it together. She’s highly competent and highly skilled, but she’s a real human being and sometimes she’s awkward Lashana Lynch knew she was on a very short shortlist. She had taped a couple of auditions for Barbara Broccoli, the producer of the James Bond films since 1995. She met and read with Daniel Craig, who would be making his fifth and final appearance in No Time To Die, the 25th 007 adventure, a new release that you may have caught wind of by now. Then, finally, there was the stunt test, overseen by the Bond stunt and armoury teams Is that like circuit training? “Deeper than that,” Lynch replies. “They hand you a bunch of weapons and they teach you a routine for a few seconds or a…

In August 1939 Thomas Mann was in Sweden, staying in a seaside hotel. The mornings, as always, were devoted to his writing. After lunch with his family, he would take his afternoon walk on the beach. Most of the hotel guests gathered in the lobby early to await the arrival of the foreign newspapers, but the Manns didn’t bother. They were not thinking much about international affairs. As Colm Tóibín describes it in this compelling fictionalised biography, it was a tranquil time. Then one morning Katia Mann broke the prohibition on disturbing her husband at work. She came to his room to tell him that war had broken out. Days of suspense ensued. Telegrams. Anxiety. Places were found for them on a plane chartered by the Swedish authorities to evacuate…

Everyone has someone who made them feel inadequate in lockdown, whether it was a neighbour who grew tomatoes in their window box or one of those Twitter people who learned three languages. For me, that person was Adam Tooze While I was struggling to teach long division to my kids and begging editors for deadline extensions, he was being a voice of sanity on social media; writing lengthy articles about how Covid-19 was rewiring the world economy; coherently explaining the long-term consequences on multiple podcasts; and sending a regular email newsletter with equal felicity. As if that wasn’t enough, he was also writing a book. Tooze is a professor at Columbia University, and Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World’s Economy is his fourth book. He specialises in analysing how the…

NOTES & QUERIES A bald statement that has no obvious advantage What evolutionary advantage comes from women having much less body hair than men? Women have less body hair and are smarter because men evolved from apes more slowly. The evolutionary advantage is that women make the best political leaders. Reiner Jaakson Oakville, Ontario, Canada • Maybe it’s not so much an advantage derived from evolution but an inevitability in human design, given the higher testosterone levels in men. Ursula Nixon Bodalla, NSW, Australia • Certainly – at least in certain parts of east London – possession of an extravagant and fulsome beard is a strong indicator that the owner professionally makes a really good cup of coffee or has direct access to craft beers – both strong mating advantages…

The announcement of a new trilateral defence pact between the US, UK and Australia last week seemed to take everyone by surprise – not least France, left red-faced after a multibillion-dollar submarine contract with Australia was ripped up. But amid the fallout, the reaction of China – whose Indo-Pacific military build-up is widely assumed to be behind the new Aukus alliance – was strangely muted. In our cover story this week, Helen Davidson examines regional fears over China, Patrick Wintour dissects the Aukus alliance and Rana Mitter explains why it signals an emerging new global order. The big story Page 10 → The coming days see elections of note in two European nations large and small, and to quite different ends. In Germany, federal elections will determine chancellor Angela Merkel’s successor, potentially…

CLIMATE CRISIS Hole in ozone layer now bigger than Antarctica The hole in the ozone layer that develops annually is currently bigger than Antarctica, say researchers from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service. They have reported that this year’s hole is growing quickly and is larger than 75% of ozone holes at this stage in the season since 1979. Ozone exists about 11-40km above the Earth’s surface and acts like a sunscreen for the planet, shielding it from ultraviolet radiation. Every year, a hole forms during the late winter of the southern hemisphere as the sun causes ozone-depleting reactions, which involve chemically active forms of chlorine and bromine derived from human-made compounds. “The 2021 ozone hole is now among the 25% largest in our records since 1979,” Vincent-Henri Peuch, the service’s…

The new anti-abortion law in Texas is a “terrifying” reminder of the fragility of hard-won rights, pro-choice activists have said, as they warn of a “more aggressive, much better organised [and] better funded” global opposition movement. Pro-choice campaigners have seen several victories in recent years, including in Ireland, Argentina and, most recently, Mexico, where the supreme court ruled earlier this month that criminalising abortion was unconstitutional. Another is hoped for on 26 September when the tiny enclave of San Marino, landlocked within Italy, holds a highly charged referendum. But Texas’s law, which bans abortions after about six weeks, once embryonic cardiac activity is detected, and does not make exceptions for incest or rape, has sent shock waves around the world. Sarah Shaw, head of advocacy at MSI Reproductive Choices, said…

When Zaki Anwari scaled the fence of Kabul airport, he was determined to escape. The 17-year-old footballer with the Afghan national youth team had taken a break from studying maths for his exams to accompany his brother as he tried to catch a flight. Zaki had always told his family he was not interested in going abroad, unless he could return to Afghanistan. But the Taliban takeover had changed things. Zaki did not have a passport but, as night fell on Kabul after the Taliban took control of the city, he told his brother Zakir that he wanted to leave. Zakir did his best to talk him out of it, but he would not let go of the idea. Zaki was one of at least a dozen men who clambered…

On the second day of TB Joshua’s funeral in Lagos, his disciples took to the stage. A microphone was passed around as more than 60 disciples introduced themselves by name and nationality. They came from 18 different countries, among them Nigeria, South Africa, Indonesia, Mexico, the US and the UK. Some seemed barely out of their teens; others were in late middle age, having spent decades serving Joshua, the millionaire Nigerian pastor and self-proclaimed prophet being laid to rest. A senior Nigerian disciple, recently promoted to prophetess, began her tribute. “How to describe someone so indescribable?” she said. “How to define someone so indefinable? Human and divine?” Joshua died on 5 June 2021, a few days before his 58th birthday. The news spread on social media, before the Synagogue, Church…

France’s decision to recall its ambassadors to the US and Australia reflects deep anger over its exclusion from the Aukus defence pact and the cancellation by Canberra of a $66bn submarine-building contract. Similar action has not been taken against Britain. But the row marks a new low in Anglo-French relations. The Aukus row highlights fundamental problems with the “global Britain” project that the new foreign secretary Liz Truss champions. One is the UK’s increasing subordination to the US when the Biden administration is exhibiting strong unilateralist tendencies. Britain was dragged along in the US’s slipstream during the and forced to follow a withdrawal policy it did not support. Biden promised European partners last summer that post-Trump America was “back” in terms of transatlantic cooperation. That’s not how it looks now…

When physicist Ruth Schwarz learns that her parents have died in a car crash, she travels to their hometown in remote rural Austria to arrange their burial. Greater Einland has no internet and no ATMs; the local economy runs on a complex system of IOUs. Even more remarkably, it is being gradually sucked down into a vast subterranean hole of unknown provenance. The imperious countess who governs the town enlists Schwarz to help fix the problem. While investigating this geological puzzle, Schwarz unearths a conspiracy involving mass graves linked to second world war atrocities. Raphaela Edelbauer’s impressive debut novel is a subtle allegory of historical memory and collective guilt, combining a dreamy, gothic strangeness with whimsical humour and an element of farce. Its narrator-protagonist encounters a number of eccentric characters,…

As Annalena Baerbock stepped on to the stage, the downpour in Chemnitz’s Theater Platz ceased. “Minutes ago it was raining, now the sun has come out – it can happen,” the Green party candidate said with a huge grin, hinting that the change in the weather was a good omen for her party’s fortunes. Days before one of the most open and tense German elections this Sunday, Baerbock is in the last stages of a campaign that she looked like winning weeks ago, succeeding Angela Merkel as Chancellor. She is now fighting for second or third place. With Germany on the brink of its biggest political switch since 2005, the drama of the final days of campaigning has pulled in the crowds. Brigitte Jung, 73, a retired kitchen help, insisted…

Usually the bad news is dumped late on Friday when most Muscovites are heading out for the evening: a new list of names of journalists and outlets declared “foreign agents”, a label that for some Russians evokes such Soviet-era terms as “enemy of the people” and has sent a chill through the newsrooms under threat. “We are being told that we are the enemy,” said Tikhon Dzyadko, the editor of Dozhd, Russia’s main independent television station and a recent addition to the list. “And I am not an enemy and I am not an agent. It’s a spit in the face.” For more than a decade, the Kremlin has been engaged in a cat-and-mouse game with Russia’s independent media. Outlets with independent journalists were periodically purged by their businessmen or…

“WE ARE THE 99 %.” Ten years ago that unifying slogan travelled around the world. Some attribute its origin to the economist Joseph Stiglitz, who first popularised the distinction between the 1% of people with great wealth and power and the rest of us. Others say that it was the late anthropologist and anarchist David Graeber who coined the phrase. But everyone agrees that it went global when it was voiced by demonstrators who gathered in lower Manhattan’s financial district on 17 September 2011 What took place that day, and in the two months that followed, would become known as Occupy Wall Street, a protest movement against economic inequality and injustice that spread to 28 other US cities, to European capitals and financial centres, including London, Paris and Berlin, as…

Questions still remain from the aftermath of 9/11 Twenty years after 9/11, we are still struggling to comprehend the enormity of such a heartless and malicious attack (Big story, 10 September). That was a ruthless onslaught on everything our human family stands for: peace, openness, tolerance, equality, social justice and cohesion. Sadly, since then, our world has been marred by inter-ethnic conflicts, unbounded deprivation, irrational hatred, unspeakable suffering, unabated exploitation of natural and cultural resources, climate change, transboundary pandemics, human rights transgressions and the endless “war on terror”. My questions are: 1) how many lives should be lost in order to impel us to end wars, the arms trade and suffering? 2) when will we act holistically to tackle the underlying roots of terror? Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob London,…

1 Andy had to prove that the sum of the coefficients in the expansion of (1 + x)n, where n is a positive integer, is equal to 2n. He knew that (1 + x)2 = 1 + 2x + x2 (the coefficients are 1, 2 & 1, summing to 22); and that (1 + x)3 = 1 + 3x + 3x2 + x3, (the coefficients are 1, 3, 3 & 1, summing to 23) but how to prove the general proposition? Luckily Candy was on hand. What might she have suggested? 2 Wordpool Find the correct definition: MAJOON a) oriental game b) oriental mixture of narcotics c) dry wind d) cousin in Raj 3 Jumblies Rearrange the letters of SPYPLANE to make another word. 4 Dropouts Replace each asterisk with…

Prep 15 min Rest 1 hr+ Cook 40 min GLUTEN FREE 125g chickpea flour50ml olive oil, plus extra for fryingSalt and black pepper1 tbsp finely chopped rosemary leaves For the greens 300g chard, or a mix of spinach leaves and extra fennel4 tbsp olive oil1 white onion, peeled and finely sliced1 head fennel, outer layer discarded, the rest finely sliced3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely sliced2 tsp fennel seeds¼-½ tsp urfa, Korean or ancho chilli flakes1 dash vinegar or lemon juice (optional) Parmesan or pecorino, shaved I first tried farinata at a slow food conference in California, where the aim was to highlight the need to protect the diversity of our ingredients for future food security. The conference was far more fun than it sounds, with amazing food, including that…