Innehållsförteckning för 28 October 2022 från Guardian Weekly

The heart of the forest Étang Baker near East Bolton in Quebec, amid the vivid autumnal colours of the surrounding woodland. Situated near the peaks of Mont Gauvin and Mont Glen, around two hours from Montreal, the naturally occurring heart-shaped lake has become a regular sight on social media. G The Guardian Weekly Founded in Manchester, England 4 July 1919 Vol207 | Issue№ 18 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 to account in…

PLUS ‘A historic moment’ Britain’s first leader of colour Page 15→ Jonathan Freedland Truss’s neoliberal experiment fails Page 16→ Rishi Sunak was confirmed as Britain’s third prime minister in less than two months on Monday, after another week of political turmoil which saw the embattled Liz Truss resign last Friday. He saw off the leadership challenges of rivals Penny Mordaunt and former prime minister Boris Johnson, who had attempted an audacious but shortlived comeback bid. In his first address to MPs on becoming party leader, Sunak told them that the ruling Conservative party was facing an “existential threat” and that it should “unite or die”. He vowed he would return the party to the values of its 2019 manifesto, which helped win the party an 80-seat majority. Ruling out an…

As she was driven by her son out of Dudchany, a small village in the north-east of the Kherson region a few days ago, Rosaliya Kovalchuk, 72, glimpsed something that will haunt her forever. “Hanging from the branches of a tree were guts from a man’s belly,” Kovalchuk said. “A military car had been blown up. I think he was Russian from the boots and the uniform.” Dudchany, one of the stepping stones down the Dnieper River to Kherson city, the regional capital 125km to the south-west, is at the centre of fierce fighting that the west says could be pivotal in the outcome of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. Russian-installed authorities last weekend ordered all residents of the city of Kherson to leave “immediately” ahead of an expected advance…

Everyone in Jerusalem’s district court was tired of looking at old receipts for whiskey, cognac and cigars. Even the key witness in one of former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s three corruption trials was bored with answering questions about how often her boss used to send presents to Israel’s long-time leader. While the judges peered at slide after slide of invoices on that warm day in September, the subject of their investigation was already out on the campaign trail. Next week, Israel will hold its fifth election in less than four years. As with every other poll since the political crisis largely triggered by allegations of breach of trust, bribery and fraud against Netanyahu, who was formally indicted in 2019, the vote on 1 November is a referendum on whether the…

Rana Mitter p45→ Xi Jinping named acolytes in key political positions last Sunday as he was confirmed as China’s leader for a precedent-breaking third term after a weeklong political meeting that eliminated rivals and strengthened his power. Xi loyalists were revealed as members of China’s most powerful political body, the politburo standing committee, as they walked on stage at a press event in order of rank: Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang and Li Xi. Xi’s reappointment after the close of the party congress, the most important meeting of the ruling Chinese Communist party’s five-year political cycle, signalled his consolidation of power, with retention of the role of chair of the military commission, controlling the People’s Liberation Army. He is expected to regain the less powerful title…

In August, there was an unexpected stir in China about a scholarly article. The piece, published in a respected but specialist journal, argued that during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) and Qing dynasty (1644-1911), China had been a country relatively closed off to the outside world. Most recent scholarship has assumed that this was a bad thing and that greater openness in the modern era had led to China’s rise in global standing and growth. But the article took a contrarian position, suggesting that there were economic and social advantages to the doors being closed in large part. The argument was then sent out on the social media feed of a thinktank closely linked to the Chinese Communist party. There was plenty of social media comment, mostly wondering whether the CCP…

Every now and then you play a video game that you just cannot stop thinking about. Candy Crush might leave colourful imprints on the back of your eyelids. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild may creep into your dreams. And then, very occasionally, a game comes along that is so entirely unlike anything you’ve ever played that it becomes an obsession. Immortality, the latest from lauded game-maker Sam Barlow and his studio Half Mermaid, is one of those. It is something that has never existed before: a video game that is also three featurelength films, wrapped around a mystery so compelling that I couldn’t concentrate on anything else for days. It is so delicate and complex that it’s difficult to figure out how it even works. The first…

Two years ago the band I’m in recorded a charity Christmas single, and I had an idea for a video. What started with me emailing a rough outline ended with me sitting on a toilet dressed as Santa while young people filmed me. After that day I decided to embark on a period of keeping my ideas to myself. At the beginning of last year the band released an album, and even though I had another idea for a video, I didn’t say anything for a long time. Eventually, however, I was persuaded to explain the idea to a director called Martin over lunch. “It’s basically about this deluded loser,” I said, “living in a sad flat and dreaming of escape.” Several months later, this conversation yields predictable results. “Someday…

Rishi Sunak is the UK’s first prime minister of colour and the first Hindu prime minister, both milestones in Britain’s evolution as a multicultural and multi-faith society. Although there has been a marked increase in politicians of colour being appointed to senior cabinet roles, including the key posts of chancellor, home secretary and foreign secretary, the UK has never had a black or brown prime minister before. It was “a historic moment” that “simply would not have been possible even a decade or two ago”, said Sunder Katwala of the British Future thinktank, which focuses on identity and race. “It shows that public service in the highest office in Britain can be open to those of all faiths and ethnic backgrounds. This will be a source of pride to many…

Piet Ploeg felt a glimmer of hope that justice would, at last, be served when he read the news that the prominent Russian nationalist Igor Girkin may be returning to the battlefield in Ukraine. Ploeg’s brother, sister-in-law and nephew were killed alongside 295 other passengers and crew when the plane they boarded in Amsterdam on 17 July 2014 was shot down over Ukraine’s separatist-held territory of Donetsk by what international investigators believe was a Russian-made surface-to-air missile. Dutch prosecutors say Girkin, who was a commander of the Kremlin-backed separatist forces during Vladimir Putin’s first invasion of Ukraine in 2014, helped supply the missile system used to shoot down the plane. “The chances aren’t huge that Holland will get him. Ukraine first needs to capture him alive and then hand him…

Abank robber, a gunrunner and a weed smuggler sat down in a square, surrounded by rifle-toting bodyguards and became locked in debate over their country’s political future. “Life’s been easier under Bolsonaro. It’s easier to get guns. It’s easier to get ammunition,” said the gun trafficker as he and his clique pondered the battle for power between Brazil’s far-right president and his challenger Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. “But the one who governed for the poor was Lula,” he said of the leftist former president whose social programmes helped millions escape poverty. “For me and my family, Bolsonaro’s better. But what about my roots? What about the kids around here?” he asked, pointing to the deprived favela around him. “Bolsonaro’s the rich man’s president, blud,” the gunrunner summarised. “He’s the…

After more than two years of near-total isolation, Japan has reopened its borders to overseas visitors – but the road back to the pre-Covid tourism boom could be long and bumpy. Early this month, the country lifted some of the strictest pandemic border controls in the world when it removed a 50,000 daily cap on arrivals, reinstated waivers for short-term visas and dropped a rule requiring tourists to visit as part of group tours. The reopening could not have come quickly enough for the world’s thirdbiggest economy, already reeling from the damage inflicted by coronavirus. The prime minister, Fumio Kishida, is pinning his hopes on free-spending visitors taking advantage of a weak yen, which recently reached a 32-year low against the dollar, to boost businesses and resurrect Japan’s reputation as…

It should have been a show of British sporting dominance when Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita made it to the 100-metre final of the European Championedly, ships in August. Then, unexpect Asher-Smith pulled up and Neita was not quick enough for the gold, both because of cramps. Later, Asher-Smith revealed hers to be a symptom of her period and shared her frustration at its impact on her sport. If it were a men’s issue, she argued, it would have been fixed by now. It is a feeling shared by many fellow athletes and coaches, including Chelsea FC’s manager, Emma Hayes. “Once a month for potentially up to around five days, many female players have an event that can cause significant distress and impact heavily on their performance,” she wrote in…

No one knows what happened to the lost climate letter. All that is known is this: Alaa Abd El-Fattah, one of Egypt’s most high-profile political prisoners, wrote it while on a hunger strike in his Cairo prison cell last month. It was, he explained later, “about global warming because of the news from Pakistan”. He was concerned about the floods that displaced 33 million people, and what that cataclysm foretold about climate hardships and paltry state responses to come. A visionary technologist and intellectual, Abd El-Fattah’s first name – along with the hashtag #FreeAlaa – have become synonymous with the 2011 pro-democracy revolution that turned Cairo’s Tahrir Square into a surging sea of young people that ended the three-decade rule of Egypt’s dictator Hosni Mubarak. Behind bars almost continuously for…

What comes first in Haiti: disaster or foreign intervention? The conventional, eg first world, wisdom has it that disaster comes first. The underlying assumption is that Haitians cannot manage their own affairs. The government is corrupt or ineffective or both. Left alone, Haiti would descend into chaos and humanitarian crisis: disease, violence, death. That’s when Haiti’s so-called international friends – chiefly the US, along with Canada and France – are forced to come to the rescue. That’s the direction of the thinking today. The international community is deliberating the deployment of a “multinational rapid action force” to Haiti, followed by another UN peacekeeping mission. The US has sent personnel, armoured vehicles and “equipment” to aid Haiti’s police in battling a conglomerate of gangs who have taken control of the country.…

I’ve just got a slow cooker. What good, flavourful dishes should I make in it? Pete, Horsham, England, UK Put aside its cumbersome appearance and you’ll be hard pushed to deny the allure of the slow cooker: add your ingredients in the morning and, without supervision, you’ll have a meal ready at dinner time. “I love coming home when it’s cold and dark and the kitchen smells amazing,” says Feast columnist and slow cooker fan Tamal Ray. Slow cookers save on energy, too. According to research by energy supplier Utilita based on current UK energy costs, slow cookers cost about 16p (18c) a day to run (electric ovens typically cost 87p). When cooking low and slow, Ray often turns to lamb on the bone. “Fry that with garlic, ginger and…

County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland Compared with the surrounding rushy fields that were hard-won from upland bog, the enclosure’s grass is a well-trimmed lawn. Gravel beds, added in the 1960s, complete the impression that Drumskinny stone circle, cairn and alignment may be an eccentric garden feature. However, the monument is one of the plethora of megalithic structures that began to emerge across Ireland during the neolithic period (from about 6,000 years ago). After the land’s widespread deforestation, a highly organised agrarian society became established. These people built massive edifices, including the famous tomb at Newgrange in County Meath, which was the resting place of a ruling elite. That society’s demise is marked by more modest monuments. Like this one. The tallest stone of Drumskinny’s circle reaches to my nose, while those…

1 UNITED STATES Trump must submit Capitol attack account under oath The House January 6 select committee has formally transmitted a subpoena to Donald Trump, compelling the former president to provide an account under oath about his potential foreknowledge of the Capitol attack and his broader efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The subpoena made sweeping requests for documents and testimony, dramatically raising the stakes in the highly charged congressional investigation and setting the stage for a constitutionally consequential legal battle that could ultimately go before the supreme court. “Because of your central role in each element,” the panel’s chairman, Bennie Thompson, and vice-chair, Liz Cheney, wrote, “the select committee unanimously directed the issuance of a subpoena seeking your testimony and relevant documents in your possession.” Most notably, the committee…

Rishi Sunak becomes PM after Liz Truss resigns Liz Truss announced last Thursday she was quitting No 10 after a calamitous six weeks in office, triggering a Tory leadership contest. On Monday the winner, Rishi Sunak, became the fifth Conservative prime minister in six years. Truss admitted that she could not deliver the radical economic mandate on which she was elected by Conservative members. She is the shortest-serving UK prime minister, having presided over one of the most politically turbulent and economically damaging periods in modern history. Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, led calls for an immediate general election, arguing it was untenable for the Conservatives to appoint another premier without a fresh mandate. Instead, Tory grandees embarked on a leadership contest, which was won by Sunak without a vote…

Achant with five syllables, dating from the 1980s, has roared back to divide Ireland, anger British politicians and subvert history: ooh, ah, up the ’Ra. The chorus of Celtic Symphony, a song by the folk group the Wolfe Tones, celebrates the IRA with a catchy, upbeat rhythm. For years it has been belted out in pubs and sporting clubs across Ireland, but usually in semi-private, away from the limelight. That changed on 11 October when members of the Ireland women’s football team were filmed singing it in their changing room as they exulted qualifying for the 2023 World Cup. The footage went viral and triggered a row about glorifying the IRA’s campaign during the Troubles that has left Ireland grappling with fraught questions about national identity, pride and history. Northern…

YouTube and Facebook are allowing disinformation to be spread about Brazil’s election campaign in an already polarised and violent election, according to a report by human rights organisation Global Witness. The NGO produced a series of purposely misleading ads during an election season that has been dominated by the bitter race between farright incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and his leftist challenger, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Some of the mock ads urged people not to vote; others, like Bolsonaro himself, questioned the credibility of the election; and a few gave a false date for the ballots. YouTube approved all of them and Facebook approved half, Global Witness said, although the ads were withdrawn and not published. Jon Lloyd, Global Witness’s senior adviser, said: “If it wasn’t already obvious it…

It has been a drenched 2022 for many parts of the world, at times catastrophically so. A year of disastrous flooding perhaps reached its nadir in Pakistan, where a third of the country was inundated by heavy rainfall from June, killing more than 1,000 people in what UN secretary general António Guterres called an unprecedented natural disaster. While floods are indeed natural phenomena, a longstanding result of storms, the human-induced climate crisis is amplifying their damage. Rising sea levels, driven by melting glaciers and the thermal expansion of water, are increasingly inundating coastal areas, while warmer temperatures are causing more moisture to accumulate in the atmosphere, which is then released as rain or snow. Scientists have said flash floods are becoming a problem in some countries, with short, severe bursts…

Astandoff over the debt ceiling. Aid to Ukraine on the chopping block. And impeachment proceedings against homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas – or perhaps even president Joe Biden himself. With polls indicating that they have a good shot of winning a majority in the House of Representatives in the 8 November midterms, top Republican lawmakers have in recent weeks offered a preview of what they might do with their resurgent power, and made clear they have their sights set on key aspects of the Biden administration’s policies at home and abroad. Kevin McCarthy, the top Republican in the chamber, last week signalled in an interview with Punchbowl News that if Congress is going to approve an increase in the amount the federal government can borrow – as it is expected…

CHELSEA MANNING’S MEMOIR OPENS LIKE A JASON BOURNE novel with a scene in which the then 22-year-old, on t he last day of two weeks’ military leave, tries to leak an enormous amount of classified data via a sketchy wifi connection in a Barnes & Noble bookstore in Maryland. Outside, a snowstorm rages. Inside, Manning, a junior intelligence analyst for the US army, freaks out as the clock ticks down. In 12 hours, her flight leaves for Iraq. Meanwhile she has half a million incident reports on US military activity to upload from a memory stick to an obscure website called WikiLeaks. The military would later argue she didn’t have the clearance even to access these files – “exceeded authorised” as Manning puts it, in army parlance – but the…

Nato planners have always worried about the Storskog border crossing in Finnmark, where Arctic Norway comes face to face with Russia. In Soviet times, the 195-km frontier was a potential flashpoint. The Red Banner Northern Fleet’s nucleararmed submarines are still based at nearby Murmansk, on the freezing Barents Sea. Reasons to worry afresh are multiplying following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Norwegian police recently arrested several Russians, equipped with drones and cameras and showing an interest in oil and gas installations, some of whom entered via Storskog. Since Russia cut energy supplies to Europe – and after last month’s sabotage of the Nord Stream Baltic pipelines – Norway has become the continent’s biggest gas supplier. And while the Oslo government is not directly accusing Moscow, it knows that makes it…

The land of the short story is a brutal land, a land very similar, in its strictness, to the land of the joke.” George Saunders was writing about the unforgiving nature of the short form, but he might as well have been referring to the worlds in which his characters are trapped. Why is such a nice man so mean to the nice people he invents? In interviews, Saunders comes across as a benignly thoughtful regular guy, a practising Buddhist who constantly tries for kindness. Some part of his writing day, however, is spent imagining complex and original ways to punish the people he has created. They are trapped by their own foolishness, or by the dreams of hyper-capitalism. They are also sometimes locked up underground, or suspended in intriguing…

Ballet Kids By Holly Sterling At their ballet lesson, little Thomas and his friends plié and sauté, twirl and thump – until it’s time to choose costumes for their big show. A candy-sweet, inclusive picture book capturing the magic of dancing and performance for the very young. My Rhinoceros By Jon Agee When a boy buys a rhino, he’s disappointed to discover it can only pop balloons and poke holes in kites. But perhaps those skills will come in handy some day – and is that really the limit of his pet’s special powers? This hilariously unexpected and dynamic picture book has the feel of a perfectly constructed joke. What Feelings Do When No One Is Looking By Tina Oziewicz, illustrated by Aleksandra Zając Though it has few words, this…