Innehållsförteckning för 25 November 2022 från Guardian Weekly

Hebe de Bonafini Head and co-founder of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in 1977 after her two sons were arrested and then disappeared during Argentina’s dictatorship. She died on 20 November, aged 93. Sue Baker Pioneering motoring journalist for the Observer and BBC’s Top Gear. She died on 14 November, aged 67. Nik Turner Hawkwind co-founder and saxophonist. He died on 10 November, aged 82. Jean-Marie Straub Radical French director who together with his wife, Daniele Huillet, was responsible for a string of challenging political films. He died on 20 November, aged 89. Jason David Frank Mighty Morphin Power Rangers star and mixed martial artist. He died on 19 November, aged 49.…

On the eve of the Cop27 climate conference that has just finished in Sharm el-Sheikh, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, warned of the stark consequences of failure. “There is no way we can avoid a catastrophic situation, if the two [the developed and developing world] are not able to establish a historic pact,” he said in an interview with the Guardian. “Because at the present level, we will be doomed.” In the end, after two weeks of fraught and often bitter negotiations, the “historic pact” was finally struck. For the first time in 30 years of climate talks, developed countries agreed to provide finance to help rescue and rebuild poor nations stricken by climate-related disasters, known as a loss and damage fund. “Cop27 has done what no other Cop…

Through just 1 sq km in Belgium’s second city pass 86% of the world’s rough diamonds. Into its nondescript offices arrive billion-year old gemstones from mines in Botswana, Canada, South Africa, Angola – and Russia. Despite the war in Ukraine that has halted billions of dollars in trade, Belgium continues to import diamonds from Russia, albeit in much diminished quantities. The EU has stopped importing Russian coal, is phasing out most Russian oil and has stopped buying numerous Russian goods, including gold, caviar and vodka. Yet diamonds have evaded the sanctions list again and again. The omission is even more striking as the trade affects only one member – Belgium – which has always said it would not block a ban. Trade has continued despite moral pressure from Ukraine’s president,…

Indonesian rescue workers were racing to reach people still trapped in rubble on Tuesday, a day after an earthquake struck the main island of Java, as the death toll rose to 252. Monday afternoon’s quake, centred in the Cianjur region of West Java province, struck at a depth of 10km, triggering landslides and damaging buildings, including thousands of homes. The number of people killed was unclear. In an Instagram post on Tuesday, the local government said 252 were confirmed dead, with 31 missing, 377 injured and 7,060 displaced. Ridwan Kamil, the governor of West Java, said the majority of the dead were children, many of them students taking extra lessons. “So many incidents occurred at several Islamic schools,” he said. Provisional data released by the authorities and cited by Save…

Italy’s draconian defamation laws have long been exploited by the powerful to intimidate and silence troublesome voices. Each year, thousands of proceedings are launched against investigative journalists, and the country’s constitutional court has urged much-needed reform to protect freedom of expression and the independence of the press. The outrageous bullying of Roberto Saviano, one of Italy’s best-known writers, illustrates why such action is long overdue. Mr Saviano has just gone on trial, and risks a prison sentence, having been accused of criminal defamation by Italy’s new prime minister, Giorgia Meloni. The case relates to comments made during a television show two years ago, when he condemned Ms Meloni’s campaign as an opposition leader to prevent NGO boats rescuing refugees in the Mediterranean. In an emotional response to footage of a…

Here comes John Banville’s 20th novel under his own name, a wild maskedball rife with gossip about the books that have preceded it. We are in the world of 2009’s The Infinities, with which The Singularities shares an Irish country-house setting and a handful of characters. But here, too, is Freddie Montgomery, the violent protagonist of an earlier trilogy of novels – The Book of Evidence, Ghosts and Athena – itself seeded by a real-life murder in 1982 that not only horrified Ireland but scandalised it when links to the country’s political class emerged. In this new book, Montgomery, now released from prison, returns to the house in which he grew up and which was the scene of his crime. Meanwhile, the academics, actors and their associates from another trilogy,…

My wife, the middle one, the youngest and I are watching TV. It is rare for us to watch the same thing without complaints, but we have selected an old episode of a sitcom we have all seen before, some of us many times. As the credits roll, the streaming service tees up the next episode automatically, with a countdown. “ Eighteen seconds? That’s ridiculous,” says the middle one, using the remote to shorten the countdown. Ah, the impatience of youth, I think. But I also think: I would like to know how he did that. By the end of the second episode, which coincidentally focuses on an older character’s inability to operate a TV remote, the novelty of togetherness has worn off. “That’s enough of that,” my wife says.…

QUIZ 1 Which king of England spent less than 10% of his reign there? 2 Cygnus X-1, in 1971, was the first of what to be identified? 3 What did Marilyn Monroe sing on 19 May 1962? 4 Which Mancunian is called a “cultural catalyst” on his gravestone? 5 Which island was once called Van Diemen’s Land? 6 In what sport were the Astros guilty of sign stealing? 7 Which writer was also known as Madame D’Arblay? 8 Relative to size, which big cat has the most powerful bite? What links: 9 Fool’s funnel; destroying angel; death cap; jack o’lantern? 10 John Giorno (Andy Warhol); Isobel Boyt (Lucian Freud); David Beckham (Sam Taylor-Johnson)? 11 Kirk Yetholm and Edale? 12 Musca domestica; small chicken; plumage; visible radiation? 13 Pale Rider; The…

Cop27 ended in a now-traditional blur of last-minute horse-trading, resulting in the welcome agreement of a finance deal for developing countries affected by global heating. But progress on eliminating fossil fuel usage – the key to slowing climate change – again seemed beyond the international community. Environment correspondent Fiona Harvey looks back at a summit that had some successes, but overall felt like another missed opportunity. Then Damian Carrington argues that the international community must retain hope, despite the vanishing likelihood of keeping global heating to within 1.5C. The big story Page 10 → As winter descends on Ukraine, we focus on some of the war’s ripples around Europe. Jennifer Rankin reports from Antwerp, where the continued trade in Russian diamonds shines a light on loopholes in EU sanctions on Moscow. And Emma…

FERTILITY Reproductive crisis looms as sperm count falls, study finds Humans could face a reproductive crisis if action is not taken to tackle a drop in sperm count, researchers warned after finding the rate of decline is accelerating. A study published in the journal Human Reproduction Update, based on 153 estimates from men who were probably unaware of their fertility, suggests the average sperm concentration fell from an estimated 101.2m per ml to 49.0m between 1973 and 2018 – a drop of 51.6%. Looking at data collected in all continents since 1972, the researchers found sperm concentrations declined by 1.16% per year. However, when they looked only at data collected since the year 2000, the decline was 2.64% per year. SPACE ‘Pristine’ meteorite may solve mystery of Earth’s water A…

‘If you see a mother and children running away, you don’t ask questions’Małgorzata Kozicka Polish resident Patriot missiles ring the airport in the Polish border city of Rzeszów, and US troops have taken over the Holiday Inn opposite the terminal. On its runway, once the preserve of budget carriers, private jets are lined up beside cargo planes crammed with weapons. The circle of military protection, set up hastily in early spring as the historic town became the world’s gateway to the war in Ukraine, is both a shield and a constant reminder of the conflict. When a Russian-made missile slammed into a farm last week and killed two men in the village of Prze-wodów, about 160km away, many people wondered if it was enough. “Is this the beginning of something worse?”…

WRITE TO US Letters for publication weekly.letters@theguardian.com Please include a full postal address and a reference to the article. We may edit letters. Submission and publication of all letters is subject to our terms and conditions, s ee: THEGUARDIAN.COM/LETTERS-TERMS Editorial Editor: Graham Snowdon Guardian Weekly, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU, UK To contact the editor directly: editorial.feedback@theguardian.com Corrections Our policy is to correct significant errors as soon as possible. Please write to guardian. readers@theguardian.com or the readers’ editor, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU, UK Why I’m not watching the funereal World Cup For the first time in my adult life (I am nearly 80), this year I will not engage in any way with the World Cup (Big story, 18 November). The event is nearly always…

She Said Dir: Maria Schrader It’s tempting to eye-roll She Said, an adaptation of New York Times journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey’s 2019 book of the same name on their investigation into Harvey Weinstein. I was concerned the film, from the Unorthodox director Maria Schrader and screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz, would feel too self-congratulatory for the diffuse, difficult, ongoing #MeToo movement. There was high potential that it would be too focused on Weinstein as a singularly villainous figure, or sunk by distracting impersonations of famous people. But Schrader and Lenkiewicz have crafted a sensitive, emotionally astute film that avoids such pitfalls. Flashbacks to multiple women’s younger selves weave throughout the film in brief, potent snippets. The work sequences, in which Kantor (Zoe Kazan) and Twohey (Carey Mulligan) call and call again…

The executive suite of General Electric’s headquarters in the US was known as “carpet land”. Persian rugs and wool carpet covered every floor, creating an atmosphere of hushed probity. For almost a century, GE had stamped its curling blue logo on just about everything, from wind turbines to submarine detectors, fridges, televisions, toasters and lightbulbs. Jeff Immelt, the final chief to occupy this floor, enjoyed the use of a shoeshine station, a pantry and dining room and travelled by private jet. At its peak, GE was an industrial empire worth almost $600bn. When Immelt became CEO in 2001, he inherited one of the most valuable companies in the world. It was so trustworthy that it had a triple-A credit score. Fast forward two decades; in November 2021, General Electric announced…

When the history of the climate crisis is written, in whatever world awaits us, Cop27 will be seen as the moment when the dream of keeping global heating below 1.5C died. Does that mean giving up? Absolutely not. The 1.5C target is not a threshold beyond which hope also dies. Every fraction of a degree means an increase in human suffering and must therefore be fought for. How? With everything we have, to tear down the barrier between us and climate stability: the fossil fuel industry. The 1.5C target, beyond which the most disastrous climate impacts lie, is not yet physically impossible to meet. To achieve that, global carbon emissions must be reduced by 50% by 2030, yet record levels of pollution are still being pumped into the atmosphere. The…

The G20 meeting in Bali signalled Xi Jinping’s emergence from three years of self-imposed pandemic isolation, with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, among those keen to secure a chat and photo opportunity with the Chinese leader. Despite condemnation of Chinese human rights abuses and anxiety over its intentions in the Taiwan Strait, the largely positive tone set by Xi’s bilateral meeting with President Joe Biden continued until the end of the summit. But they were also opportunities for Xi’s counterparts to communicate their grievances in person. Albanese, the first Australian prime minister to meet Xi since 2016, described their meeting as “positive and constructive”, but had raised the detention of the Australian citizens Cheng Lei and Yang Hengjun, as well as human rights abuses…

Personal tax Liz Truss was elected by Tory members as a tax cutter, yet weeks after her departure, a Tory government is putting up taxes. A range of income tax thresholds have been frozen for two more years, on top of an existing four-year freeze, to April 2028. This has been branded a stealth tax by Tory critics, as tens of thousands of people are dragged into paying tax for the first time. Immigration Since David Cameron’s vow to cut immigration to the “tens of thousands”, the issue has been an obsession with some Tory factions. However, the Office for Budget Responsibility has made clear that net immigration running at above 200,000 props up the economy. Hunt accepts this level, but the Tories’ problem is that home secretary Suella Braverman,…

We’re on the hunt for brown bear dens in Poland’s Car-pathian mountains, on the border with Ukraine. The lairs lie within the gnarled caverns that form naturally at the base of decaying fir trees when they get to about 130 years old. Each den is slightly different – some have rocky bottoms, others have been lined with beech leaves. Looking inside gives an insight into the character of each bear, just like visiting a friend’s house. We pass half a dozen caverns in a 15-hectare area on the steep, rocky slope of Lutowiska forest district, just outside Bieszczady national park. There are an estimated 110 brown bears left in Poland and this slope is dense with dens and likely to be home to one mother and one or two cubs,…

More than enough food is produced to feed all of the 8 billion people currently alive on the planet, yet after a decade of steady decline hunger is back on the rise, affecting 10% of the global population. According to the World Food Programme, ripple effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have contributed to one of the worst food crises in decades, with acute food insecurity affecting 200 million more people globally than in 2019 due to rising costs of food, fuel and fertiliser. As the global population passes 8 billion and is predicted to reach 10 billion by 2050, farmers, governments and scientists face the challenge of increasing food production without exacerbating environmental degradation and the climate crisis, which itself contributes to food insecurity in…

It’s the middle of a third set tie-break on Wimbledon’s Centre Court, and 15,000 tennis fans are clapping to their own beat, whipping up anticipation for a crucial line call. Hawk-Eye, the automated line system the tournament uses, the tennis equivalent of a Roman emperor’s thumb – able to overrule the traditional lines-people with their ostentatious crouching – flashes on to the big screen. The clapping reaches a climax: Jannik Sinner, a wiry, 21-year-old Italian has hit a backhand long by a few centimetres of the All England Club grass. A few minutes later, he loses the tie-break – and I lose £800 ($940). In the preceding two years, I have lost much, much more betting on tennis. I have lost £40,000. I didn’t see it coming, the gambling addiction.…

We exist in a once unimaginable world of musical abundance. The internet means that more or less the entirety of pop history is available to anyone at the touch of a button; more than 100,000 new tracks are uploaded to just one streaming service every day. Complete obscurity has been essentially eradicated: even if a song is too arcane for Spotify or Apple Music or Tidal, it is more than likely someone will have uploaded it to YouTube. Indeed, music is so abundant, the sheer volume on offer can feel overwhelming – where do you start? The obvious answer is a greatest hits record or a best-of playlist, but there is something more fulfilling about taking in a complete statement from an artist, even – or perhaps more so –…

The Book of the Most Precious Substance By Sara Gran American genre-bender Gran’s latest book is a biblio-mystery that poses the question of how far we will go to save someone we love; more insidiously, it examines how life has a habit of giving us both more and less than we desire. Having lost her writing mojo when her husband Abe developed a rare degenerative neurological disorder, Lily Albrecht, a promising young novelist, now deals in antiquarian books. When she finds herself on the trail of a vanishingly rare 17th-century manual of sexual magic, Lily begins to hope that she can heal Abe. However, a lot of people connected with the book seem to end up dead, and the final step involves committing murder … A clever, sexy, insightful story…

Prep 15 min Cook 1 hr 10 min Serves 8-10 Ingredients For the apple sauce 4 eating apples, three peeled, cored and roughly chopped into 1-2cm chunks, the fourth left whole Juice of ½ lemon For the cake 200g unsalted butter, at room temperature200g caster sugar3 eggs220g wholemeal spelt flour50g ground almonds½ tsp ground nutmeg1½ tsp baking powder Salt A handful of flaked almonds1 tbsp demerara sugar Icing sugar, to serve Apple cakes come in many forms. Some are pudding-like and need to be eaten warm with lots of custard. Others have a toffeeapple vibe, pair ing the fruit with caramel and brown sugar for a warming sweetness, while others still are more apple than cake. This recipe is what I call a good three o’clock cake : just sweet…

No 28,915 Across 1 Laureate’s wiles manipulated with delicacy (5,3,5) 10 Suggest taking off front wagon that could be so split (2,5) 11 Help a councillor get returned by a rural area (7) 12 Organised data for board (5) 13 Fight some paper disposal scheme (9) 14 Squeezed wife and spoke (5) 16 Complains at length when volume’s zero (6,3) 18 Popular English composer has died? I’m flabbergasted (1,5,3) 19 Mass behind small hill in bad weather (5) 20 Tricky in the extreme? Shorten it drastically (9) 23 Expand length and sound menacing (5) 24 Note pocketed by sweet little thing needing no deciphering (2,5) 25 Saint, tortured about a month, sustained energy (7) 26 Getting rid of car in industrial park (7,6) Down 2 Almost speak up, wretch: you…