Innehållsförteckning för 15 April 2022 från Guardian Weekly

Recipe for reflection A woman in Yogyakarta prepares food for iftar, the fast breaking meal, during the holy month of Ramadan. Observed by Muslims worldwide, Ramadan is a month of fasting during daylight hours to allow for spiritual reflection and to gain an understanding of the life of those who are less privileged. The Guardian Weekly Founded in Manchester, England 4 July 1919 Vol206 | Issue№ 16 Guardian Weekly is an edited selection of some of the best journalism found in the Guardian and Observer newspapers in the UK and the Guardian’s digital editions in the UK, US and Australia. The weekly magazine has an international focus and three editions: global, Australia and North America. The Guardian was founded in 1821, and Guardian Weekly in 1919. We exist to hold power…

At a vast refugee centre in northern Warsaw, a table holds a generous mix of free goods: baby food, clothing, coffee and sim cards. A pyramid of dog food cans sits in the middle. At the front desk, volunteers field questions. Yes, public transport is free; yes, everyone qualifies for a 300 zloty ($70) stipend; yes, you can register for stadium. On the walls, QR codes link to information about onward travel to western Europe. The Poles, it seems, have thought of everything. In a matter of weeks, they have mounted an extraordinary response to a refugee crisis that has brought 2.5 million Ukrainians (along with thousands of pets) to their country. About one in 10 people in Polandis now Ukrainian. Lower Silesia, which has taken in at least 250,000…

When the far-right Marine Le Pen posed for a selfie with a smiling teenager in a Muslim headscarf in Dunkirk on the northern coast, it was a turning point in the presidential campaign. Le Pen wants to ban the Muslim headscarf from all public places, calling it a “uniform of totalitarian ideology”. So after posing happily with a girl in hijab, she was attacked for going soft by her far-right rival, the TV pundit Éric Zemmour. “Let me teach you about humanity,” Le Pen shot back at one of Zemmour’s lieutenants in a TV debate. “What would you have done? Pulled her veil off and mistreated her?” One analyst called Le Pen’s tactic of appearing softer in person than her policy proposals a “masterclass”. She also sought to present herself…

While angry cries and anti-government slogans filled the streets of Colombo last Saturday, Chanda Upul desperately pushed his wares of soft drinks and bottled water on protesters. But in his heart he was chanting along with them. Sri Lanka has descended into its worst financial crisis since independence, with food, fuel, medicine and electricity increasingly scarce, and calls for the president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa – frequently referred to as Gota – to step down. Upul is among those pushed to the brink of survival. As petrol became scarce and expensive, Upul was no longer able to afford repayments on his rented rickshaw and lost his only means of income. He and his four children survive on rice and water. Vegetables and milk powder are too expensive. “The only thing we can…

High in la Alpujarra, on the slopes of the majestic Sierra Nevada in Andalucía, the silence is broken only by the sound of a stream trickling through the snow. Except it is not a stream but an acequia, part of a network of thousands of kilometres of irrigation channels created by Muslim peasant farmers more than 1,000 years ago. The channel begins at an altitude of 1,800 metres and, fed by the melting snow, for centuries supplied water to the village of Cáñar and beyond until it fell into disuse in the 1980s through the gradual depopulation of the area. Now it is flowing again thanks to a project devised by the laboratory of biocultural archaeology at the University of Granada and backed by local and European funding. With the…

Valeria Ramírez Castañeda, a Colombian biologist, spends her time in the Amazon studying how snakes eat poisonous frogs without getting ill. Although her findings come in many shapes and sizes, in her years as a researcher, she and her colleagues have struggled to get their biological discoveries out to the wider scientific community. Spanish is her mother tongue, and her research had to be translated into English to be published by international journals. Budget shortfalls or time constraints meant some of her findings were never published. “It’s not that I’m a bad scientist,” she says. “It’s just because of the language.” Ramírez Castañeda is not alone. There is a plethora of research in non-English-language papers that gets lost in translation, or is never translated, creating a gap in the global…

A past version of me described herself politically as a “pessimistic optimist”. Oxymoronic? Yes. Pretentious? Certainly. But it felt the most accurate way of characterising an outlook that was always prepared for the worst, but able to bear it because things, one day, might get “better”. Back then, I invested my hopefulness in mass political movements, believing that with the right chord-striking campaign – or even party leader – the country would be mobilised and sweeping, vaguely defined change would follow. Unquestionably, “better” has not come to pass. During my lifetime, material conditions for Britons have measurably degraded. In-work poverty has risen to record highs; nearly one in five children in poverty live in a household where all adults are working. Cut through the government’s protestations about increases in public…

What simple desserts can I make for Easter that don’t contain chocolate? Laura, Oxford It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking Easter desserts are all about chocolate. So you’re right, Laura, to look for something lighter and brighter (Citrus! Rhubarb! Meringue!) – after all, it is spring. For baker Flora Shedden, the owner of Aran in Highland Perthshire, Scotland, the simplest solution is affogato. “Really good vanilla, ginger or even coffee ice-cream, espresso [to pour over] and crushed amaretti on top.” She often chills out with semifreddo, too, combining two parts whipped cream with one part condensed milk, meringue and a few shots of espresso. She freezes it in a loaf tin, then serves it in slices. “The condensed milk and meringue stop it from crystallising.” And it…

In the window of a tobacco shop in the eastern Tuscan town of Arezzo is a yellow sign with red letters reading: “We only accept payment in roubles.” “It’s just a provocation,” said Anthony Brucato, the owner, pointing out the blue and yellow flag of Ukraine and a drawing of a dove with a peace flag in its beak. “I want to make people talk about what’s happening.” Italy’s government stands squarely with other EU nations in opposing Russia’s war in Ukraine. Rome has imposed sanctions on the Russian economy, stopped dealing with its banks, and called for a negotiated settlement to the conflict. Polls show that between 80 and 90% of Italians support the government’s stance, according to the polling firm Opinioni. Yet Italy continues to rely heavily on…

Priti Patel, Britain’s home secretary, has apologised for the time it has taken for Ukrainian refugees to arrive in the UK under two visa schemes, after new figures showed 12,000 have so far reached Britain. About 1,200 people have arrived in Britain under the Homes for Ukraine scheme for those who are sponsored by UK hosts while another 10,800 have arrived under the Ukrainian family scheme for those with existing family connections to the UK. Other European countries have accepted hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the Russian invasion. The figures show that, by last Thursday, the government had received 79,800 visa applications from Ukrainians for visas and had issued a total of 40,900 visas. In a pre-recorded interview with the BBC, Patel said: “I apologise with frustration myself… it…

The tragedy discovered amid the rubble of Bucha and Borodianka overshadowed any jubilation that Kyiv had defeated Russian forces that had spent a month trying to envelop the capital and snuff out the Ukrainian nation. Nevertheless, the defeat of Russian forces in the north marks a turning point in the war. For the medium term, Ukraine will survive. But for its soldiers there is no respite for, having had its first objective denied, Moscow has turned its gaze on the Donbas, where a major offensive is imminent. The Donbas has been at war for eight years. More than 90 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in 2021 defending the line of contact. Since late February, Ukrainian positions have come under regular artillery fire, with mobilised civilians from Russian-occupied Donetsk and Luhansk pushed…

He is known as the diligent administrator with such a great love of poetry that he often opens official meetings with recitals of famous revolutionary Urdu poets. Indeed, as Shehbaz Sharif was sworn in as Pakistan’s 23rd prime minister on Monday, his first words to parliament were those from a poem by Ata Ul Haq Qasmi, a modern Pakistani poet and commentator. Shehbaz’s ascension to the prime minister’s office this week marks the return of the wealthy Sharif family as one of the most powerful political dynasties in Pakistan. His brother, Nawaz Sharif, was prime minister three times between 1990 and 2017, during which time Shehbaz served as the chief minister of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous state. While Nawaz was often seen as the one who could pull in the…

Last May, as war in Gaza raged and clashes over Palestinian access to Jerusalem intensified, large protests swept across almost every Arab and mixed city in Israel. In Haifa, the Israeli coastal city with a mixed Arab and Jewish population, Yousef Ibrahim attended almost every demonstration. Over the years, the activist and organiser from Daburiyya, an Arab village in the north of Israel, has had his fair share of confrontations with Israeli undercover agents who pose as Arab citizens, known as Mista’arvim. But this time was different, he said. Previously, the agents had been a ghostly presence, more sensed than seen, but this time, activists like Ibrahim, along with legal organisations, sent out warnings on WhatsApp and Telegram groups to raise awareness about these agents – and instructions on how…

A mid the triple crisis of the war in Ukraine, the still-raging pandemic and escalating inflation, climate scientists have just pulled off a truly impressive achievement. They have stood firm and persuaded the world’s governments to agree to a common guide to solving the climate emergency. Despite the despair of mounting global problems, the release of the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows some grounds for hope. After the recent reports on the causes and effects of climate change, this one covers solutions – with a summary signed off by the world’s governments. The summary is blunt and clear, and in many places acknowledges realities that scientists and campaigners have known for years but governments often avoided directly admitting. First, it is clearly acknowledged that North…

Music writing has come a long way since the days of the inkies – the papers that would leave marks on readers’ fingers – when a handful of male gatekeepers dictated the tastes of music-loving teens. While female writers were occasionally admitted to this hallowed club, they were the exception rather than the rule. Since then, the music press has been at once democratised and straitened by the advent of free content. Previously marginalised voices are being heard This Woman’s Work, an anthology of 16 essays by female writers compiled and edited by Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon and the critic Sinéad Gleeson, is a piquant reminder of the talent, musical and literary, that has always been under editors’ noses, if only they cared to look. The contributions cross genres, decades…

Cumbria, England A part from two early lambs, there are few signs of spring yet in the Howgill Fells. Inside the sheds we have 60 cattle, eating the hay and silage that was made in our meadows last summer. Soon it will be time for them to be turned out to the fields or sold on to another farm. Some of last year’s calves are to be sold, and so we must test them for tuberculosis before they can move. We’ve never had TB, but because there are farmers in our area who have, we are under restrictions. It is still below freezing when the vet arrives with a hat pulled tightly over her ears. She fills a bucket with disinfectant and water, and brushes her wellies and waterproof trousers…

1 UNITED STATES Appointment of first Black woman to supreme court Ketanji Brown Jackson, a liberal appeals court judge, was confirmed to the supreme court last Thursday, overcoming a rancorous Senate approval process and earning bipartisan approval to become the first Black woman to serve as a justice on the high court in its more than 200-year history. Jackson earned narrow – but notable – bipartisan support to become the 116th justice of the supreme court. The vote was 53 to 47, with all Democrats and Republican senators Mitt Romney of Utah, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine in favour of Joe Biden’s nominee. Jackson, who currently serves on the US court of appeals for the DC circuit, will replace Stephen Breyer, 83, the most senior member of…

CONSERVATIVES Sunak asks for a review of his own financial affairs Rishi Sunak requested a formal investigation into his own affairs after days of criticism over his wife’s “non-dom” tax status and lack of transparency over their financial affairs. The chancellor wrote to the prime minister, Boris Johnson, asking him for a referral to Lord Geidt, the independent adviser, requesting a review of all his declarations since becoming a minister in 2018. Sunak said he was confident it would find “all relevant information was properly declared” on the advice of officials. It follows criticism that his entry on the list of ministers’ interests contains no mention of Akshata Murty’s £690m ($900m) stake in the Indian company Infosys – which has UK government contracts. He is also facing scrutiny over his…

About 30km west of the Belarusian border, the enemy’s tanks were rolling through the pine forests of Lithuania at speed until a makeshift obstacle made of barbed wire blocked their path. Soldiers carrying bolt cutters jumped out of the armoured vehicle at the front to clear the road. Then, a deafening bang. In its rush to victory, the advancing party had neglected to check for mines. Luckily, for them, this was merely a dress rehearsal for a showdown between Russia and the North Atlantic alliance. No live explosives were used in Nato’s “Rising Griffin” manoeuvre at the Pabradė military base in western Lithuania. Instead, referees politely informed the tank commanders that their vehicles would have been ripped to shreds. The Russian enemy was being impersonated by American and Norwegian troops.…

Surrounded by reporters against a backdrop of bombed-out apartment buildings and rubble in Borodianka, a town in the Kyiv region, stands Iryna Venediktova, Ukraine’s prosecutor general. Venediktova is carrying the weight of bringing almost 2,000 cases of war crimes committed by Russian forces to court at home and abroad. Her office is the only body in Ukraine with the power to investigate. It is through her office that information relating to war crimes is collected, before investigations are conducted and domestic and international cases built. In a sortie reminiscent of Volody-myr Zelenskiy’s trip to newly liberated territories outside Kyiv, Venediktova walked around Borodianka with her subordinates observing the damage, wearing a flak jacket and baseball cap. “I watched while the bodies were exhumed in Bucha,” Venediktova, who was appointed in…

Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen went in opposite directions this week in an attempt to drum up support from new voters they need to win the final round of France’s presidential election on 24 April. On Monday Macron headed north, where he spent several hours talking to crowds at Denain, a former mining town once controlled by socialists but now a far-right stronghold, and promised he would listen to candidates “who failed to qualify” in last weekend’s first round of the election. Le Pen headed south into northern Burgundy where the Paris commuter belt meets countryside and where she already enjoys support. Both candidates need to convince the 49% of voters who did not support either of them last Sunday and the 25.1% who did not vote at all…

Boris Johnson had been in a running argument with his security detail about the feasibility of a visit to Kyiv for weeks and, last Saturday, he finally won his battle. It was more than three weeks after the prime ministers of Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Poland took the train to Kyiv on 15 March, when the capital was under greater assault from Russia; more than a week after the president of the European parliament, Roberta Metsola, spoke to the Ukrainian parliament; and a day after the commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and her foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, stood horrified in Bucha. Borrell, clearly moved by the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s bravery, said he had returned with a clear to-do list. Johnson is the most high-profile national leader…

It is nearly 8,000km from the scrub and deserts of south-west Sudan to the Netherlands, and a journey that Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-al-Rahman never thought he would make. Eighteen years ago, the 65-year-old was a “feared and revered” commander of a brigade of the infamous Janjaweed militias deployed alongside Sudanese government forces to carry out a scorched-earth campaign against rebels and their communities that the UN says left 300,000 people dead and displaced 2.5 million. Last Tuesday, Abd-al-Rahman, who is also known as Ali Kushayb, appeared before the international criminal court (ICC) to face 31 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, rape and torture. “I am innocent of all of these charges,” Abd-al-Rahman told the three judges after they were read out at the start of…

An exuberant Chris Smalls reflected after winning a historic victory over Amazon, the second-largest US employer to establish the first union at the company: “The revolution is here.” For more than two years, Smalls and his co-organiser Derrick Palmer led a campaign to form a union at a Staten Island warehouse. Hosting cookouts and other small gatherings with Amazon employees, Smalls and Palmer signed up more than 4,000 workers for a vote, with staff voting to establish a union by more than 500 votes. While their quest began in March 2020, when Smalls led a workplace walkout over pandemic working conditions, Smalls said problems with Amazon had started earlier. When staff had complained of low pay, unsafe working conditions and short breaks, management had been complacent. “Amazon doesn’t really know…

Since forming in 1991, Australian children’s group the Wiggles have pretty much seen it all. They’ve created a vast discography spanning 59 studio albums alone – and last year, they were the second-highest streamed Australian act on Spotify across all genres. But in recent years, they’ve been noticing something new: a generational crossover. Their fans have grown up, many have formed their own bands – and they’re still Wiggles fans. This became obvious in 2018, when Brisbane hard rock duo DZ Deathrays invited guitarist Murray Cook to guest in their video Like People – in which a demonically possessed Cook appears to be taken over by his old character, Red Wiggle. Later that year, Cook appeared with DZ Deathrays at the Splendour in the Grass festival. This set the stage…

I am a divorced woman in my 50s and for the past four years I have been in a long-distance relationship with a kind and considerate man. He runs his own business and visits me for extended periods; we spent most of 2020 together at my house. He is helpful with chores, and was very supportive of me through an intense work-from-home period. Material wealth is not a priority for me. Having a good income myself, I don’t need to consider my partner’s income. I earn significantly more than him and I have always been clear that my main priorities are building a pension and supporting my children, who are now at university. I pay most of the costs for us visiting each other, and other trips. I have also…