Innehållsförteckning för 17 March 2023 från Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly Founded in Manchester, England 4 July 1919 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 the name of the public interest, to uphold liberal and progressive values, to fight for the common good, and to build hope. Our values, as laid out by editor CP Scott in 1921, are honesty, integrity, courage, fairness, and a sense of duty to the reader and the community. The Guardian is wholly owned by…

Every dog has its day A miniature poodle is prepared for competition on the opening day of Crufts 2023 at NEC Arena in Birmingham, England. Billed as the world’s greatest dog show, the Kennel Club event expected 130,000 visitors and 24,000 dogs over its four days. Dogs took part in contests including agility, flyball and obedience, as well as competing to take the Best in Show title. The event also showcased canine “good citizen” training, launched following a spate of serious dog attacks in England and Wales in recent months.…

Jutting out of the permafrost on a Spitsbergen mountain-side in the Svalbard archipelago, the entrance to the world’s “doomsday” seed vault is worthy of a James Bond movie. Surrounded by snow, ice and the occasional polar bear, the facility houses 1.2m seed samples from every corner of the planet as an insurance policy against catastrophe. It is a monument to 12,000 years of human agriculture that aims to prevent the permanent loss of crop species after war, natural disaster or pandemic. The Global Seed Vault in the Norwegian Arctic, which opened in 2008, is closed to the public, shrouded in mystery and the subject of conspiracy theories. Now, to celebrate the vault’s 15th anniversary, everyone is invited on a virtual tour to see inside the vast collection of tubers, rice,…

On the first day of 2023, Xu was in no mood to celebrate the new year. He had just arrived in the Colombian beach town of Necoclí along with dozens of other Chinese citizens, weary from a two-day bus trip from Ecuador. Their goal was the US via the Darién Gap, a roadless, lawless and extremely dangerous stretch of rainforest connecting South and Central America. He wanted to leave China far behind him. “After I leave the country [China], I have no plans to go back alive,” said Xu later, speaking to the Guardian in a Necoclí hotel room. “I feel like this country has been deceiving us, persecuting us. I have to do something.” Necoclí is a tourist spot known for its Caribbean music festivals but it is also…

Four decades ago, Silicon Valley Bank was born in the heart of a region known for its technological prowess and savvy decision making. The California bank grew to become the 16th largest in the US, catering for the financial needs of technology companies around the world, before a series of ill-fated investment decisions led to its collapse. What happened to SVB? As the preferred bank for the tech sector, SVB’s services were in hot demand in the pandemic years. The initial market shock of Covid-19 in early 2020 gave way to a golden period for startups and established tech companies, as consumers spent big on gadgets and digital services. Many tech companies used SVB to hold the cash they used for payroll and other business expenses, leading to an influx…

Two weeks ago, residents of Machulishchy were intrigued as soldiers and police swarmed across their small town on the edge of Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Cordons and checkpoints were hastily erected around the local airbase, which has hosted Russia’s forces during its abominable war against Ukraine. It was clear that Belarusian security services – known as the KGB – were panicking. The Belarusian people, who are disgusted at their government’s support for the Kremlin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, had struck a symbolic blow right at the heart of Russia’s military. Our anti-war partisans had flown two drones over the base and bombed a Russian spy plane used to pinpoint targets inside Ukraine, leaving it severely damaged. Unfortunately for the Belarusian KGB, the heroic resistance fighters who made a mockery…

What else can I use oats for other than porridge and crumble? Clare, Stroud, England, UK Oats have a lot going for them: they’re nourishing, filling and good value. Yes, they’re the main player in porridge and, for some, in crumbles – but they also present many other sweet and savoury possibilities. It all comes down to which oats Clare has knocking about. Jumbo ones are at home in soda bread, both worked into the dough and sprinkled on top before baking. Besides making cracking toast, the charm of this loaf lies in its simplicity: “You just mix all the wet ingredients, mix all the dry ingredients, then combine the two,” says Roberta Hall-McCarron, chef/owner of The Little Chartroom in Edinburgh. Another breakfast option is pancakes, for which Ben Tish,…

The skyline of Tel Aviv began to change about 20 years ago. Its elegant white Bauhaus buildings have been joined by tower after tower, each a salute to Israel’s transformation into an important advanced technology centre. It is no accident that the rise of the “ start up nation ” dovetail s with the career of its longest serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Bibi, as he is widely known, has championed Israel’s vaunted hi-tech sector as a personal achievement. At 15.3% of GDP, it is Israel’s main engine of economic growth, employing 10% of the salaried workforce, and generating about a quarter of income taxes. Which perhaps makes it all the more surprising that the tech sector is rebelling over government proposals to neuter the Israeli judiciary. Spooked by predictions…

The bill was meant to be a triumphant riposte to right-wing critics of the UK Conservative government’s perceived failure to stop migrants from crossing the Channel from France to the UK in small boats. But last week, the introduction of a contentious new law – which would give the government the right to criminalise, detain and deport asylum seekers – had been overshadowed by a row triggered by the suspension from the BBC of the TV sports presenter Gary Lineker, who was accused of breaking BBC guidelines over political impartiality. The sequence of events threatened to bring down the BBC’s most senior leaders and even to derail parts of the controversial new asylum policy. The former footballer was criticised by the home secretary, Suella Braverman, after he compared, in a…

Seaweed is packed with nutrition, it sucks up carbon and is an amazingly versatile addition to the green economy. But one type of seaweed is not a benign force. Vast fields of sargassum have bloomed in the Atlantic Ocean. The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, as it’s known, is visible from space, stretching like a sea monster across the ocean, with its nose in the Gulf of Mexico and its tail in the mouth of the Congo. “ I’ve replaced my climate change anxiety with sargassum anxiety,” said Patricia Estridge, the head of Seaweed Generation, a UK startup working to make seaweed commercially viable. Sargassum’s appearance can be deceptive. It is beautiful, layered like golden mats on the ocean’s surface. Distinguished by bubble-like formations in its stems that keep it floating…

Hydrogen is the smallest, lightest and most abundant molecule in the universe. On Earth, it does not occur by itself naturally, but can be separated from water (H2O) or hydrocarbon compounds (fossil fuels) such as gas, coal and petroleum to be used as an energy source. It’s already used for rocket fuel, but is now being pushed as a clean and safe alternative to oil and gas for heating and earthly transport. Political support is mounting with almost $26bn of US taxpayer money available for hydrogen projects. Hydrogen is politically hot, but is it the climate solution its cheerleaders claim? Why all the hype about hydrogen? The fossil fuel industry sees hydrogen as a way to keep on drilling and building new infrastructure, and has successfully deployed its PR and…

In Turkey’s southern province of Hatay, one of the most ravaged cities in earthquakes last month, 25-year-old Alev Altun, the mother of two young children, became homeless in one night, like thousands of others. Having nowhere to go, she agreed to take refuge in the house of her ex-husband, on his invitation, assuming it would be safer to stay with the father of her children than alone in a tent or in a building at risk of collapse. While she was sleeping, her ex-husband allegedly poured scalding water all over her, shouting she should be grateful he had not killed her. She remains in intensive care, with severe burns. Hers is one of many harrowing stories of women and girls in crisis zones. Women suffer disproportionately in the aftermath of…

By now, most organs have their own biography. Writers advocate with visceral passion for their chosen body part. While the UK is thigh-deep in controversy about what it means to be a woman, the uterus is having a moment. “For a very, very long time, western medicine has not given a shit about the womb apart from it being a container for the next male heir,” a doula tells Leah Hazard. Now this pear-shaped muscle nestled in the bellies of half the population has become a “clenched fist” on the frontline of the culture wars. Hazard, an NHS midwife in Scotland praised for her 2019 memoir Hard Pushed, is here to speak – eloquently and vigorously – for this “most vital” organ. She is tired of the uterus being treated…

Across 1 Dry white wine, resembling Chablis (10) 7 Turkish dynasty that ruled an empire from the 13th century until after World War I (7) 8 Collision of vehicles (informal) (5) 10 Standard (4) 11 Person of long-standing loyalty (8) 13 Someone legally empowered to witness signatures, certify documents and take depositions (6) 15 Spread rumour (6) 17 Medicinal cream (8) 18 Stupefy (4) 21 Pervert (5) 22 Type of lettuce (7) 23 Cheap trinket (5-5) Down 1 Provide eg food (5) 2 Money or goods contributed to the needy (4) 3 Give as a gift (6) 4 Card game – emperor (8) 5 New personifications of familiar ideas (7) 6 Homeless and destitute person (4-3-3) 9 Drive (3-2-3-2) 12 Fragrant (8) 14 Emotional strain (7) 16 Pull apart, eg…

1 UNITED STATES Pence: Trump put me in danger in Capitol attack Mike Pence offered a rebuke of his one-time boss Donald Trump, saying history will hold the former president accountable for his role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. Pence, then vice-president, was in the Capitol when thousands of Trump supporters breached the building in an attempt to stop Congress certifying the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden. Throughout the siege, Trump sent several tweets, one calling on Republicans to “fight”. He also criticised Pence for certifying the results. Some rioters chanted: “Hang Mike Pence.” A makeshift gallows was erected outside. Pence was spirited to safety by Secret Service agents. Last Saturday at the Gridiron dinner in Washington, Pence told guests: “President Trump was…

FINANCE £1 rescue deal as HSBC buys SVB’s UK operation The government struck a last-minute deal for HSBC to buy Silicon Valley Bank’s UK operations, saving thousands of British tech startups and investors from big losses after the biggest bank failure since 2008. The takeover, on Monday, overrode the Bank of England’s initial decision to place SVB UK into insolvency, after a run on the lender that was originally sparked by fears over a multibillion-dollar shortfall on the US parent company’s balance sheet. The US bank was closed and its assets seized by authorities last Friday. The acquisition – which cost HSBC £1 ($1.20) – followed talks between Downing Street, the Bank of England and HSBC bosses as authorities rushed to protect SVB UK’s 3,500 customers. Those customers included venture…

In Xi Jinping’s closing speech at China’s annual parliamentary meeting on Monday, his message was clear: China is back. Speaking to nearly 3,000 delegates in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Xi, newly anointed as president for a precedent-busting third term, said: “After a century of struggle, our national humiliation has been erased … the Chinese nation’s great revival is on an irreversible path.” The speech comes as Xi is trying to position himself as a global statesman, leading a China that is ready to dominate the world stage. After three years of isolation caused by the zero-Covid policy, Chinese diplomats and Xi himself are jetting across borders to participate in international summits once again. Last Friday, Iran and Saudi Arabia announced a Chinese-brokered deal to restore diplomatic…

As Georgian protesters marched on parliament against a new “foreign agents” law last week, they bore signs that said “No to Russian law!”, and others decrying the spirit of autocracy and imperialism that is firmly associated with Moscow’s influence in the region. By all appearances, the law they opposed was a local initiative to allow the ruling Georgian Dream party to crack down on civil society and win forthcoming elections. But that party’s perceived closeness to Moscow and the similarities to a notorious Russian law against “foreign agents” were a popular rallying cry for Georgians who joined the protests. “Everybody knows that Russia is not popular here,” said Kornely Kakachia, a professor at Tbilisi State University and the director of the Tbilisi-based Georgian Institute of Politics. “And [the protesters] also…

‘It’s just a tweet on a forum. It shouldn’t be the furore it is’ ‘Garyis 100% right,” said lifelong Leicester City fan John Farrell as he stood in the queue for a match-day programme before kick-off at King Power Stadium. While the 67-year-old, who was in the stands for Gary Lineker’s Leicester City debut against Oldham Athletic on New Year’s Day 1979, didn’t necessarily agree with the star striker turned broadcaster’s tweets, he supported his right to an opinion: “I agree with freedom of speech. This is not Russia.” Farrell, who runs a cleaning business – and whose son, Lee, also used to play for the team – said Lineker was a talismanic figure for the city where he had been a regular sight at his father’s fruit and vegetable…

‘He’s a demonic force, a destroyer. But he’s not going to destroy us … We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait … I hate him passionately.” These were not the text messages of a liberal journalist feeling their spirit crushed by the Donald Trump era. They were, according to US court papers, the words of Tucker Carlson, one of the former US president’s biggest cheerleaders on the rightwing Fox News network. A $1.6bn defamation lawsuit, brought by a voting machine maker that claims it was maligned, has pulled back the curtain on one of the most consequential relationships in modern political history: Trump and Fox News. The private venting of Fox News’s stars, expressing contempt for Trump and his election…

When Patrick Bringley’s beloved older brother fell ill with cancer, he found he no longer had much appetite for his ritzy job in the events department of the New Yorker. Life then was about hospital rooms and love and “all the very basic things” in this world. But what to do instead? In 2008, Tom died, and Patrick knew he needed the kind of work that would not require him to constantly “muscle his way forward”. Acting on a whim, he applied for a position as a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and by the autumn there he was, standing next to Raphael’s Madonna and Child Enthroned With Saints – the first post in a job he held for the next 10 years of his young life (at…

Fiona McFarlane’s intimate and unnerving debut, 2014’s The Night Guest, described a woman’s mental disorientation as she reaches the end of her life. It was shortlisted for the Guardian first book award and won several prizes in the author’s native Australia. Her second equally distinctive novel also deals with our precarious place in the world, taking its title from the Swedish expression for the setting of the sun. There are seven sunsets in the story, which unfolds during a September week in 1883 in the South Australian outback surrounding the Flinders Ranges. They are a violent “apocalyptic red” and coincide with a dust storm that sweeps through the small town of Fairly and its neighbouring farms. Once the storm has passed, six-year-old Denny Wallace is missing from his parents’ small-holding.…

It’s well after teatime but we are working late, scanning yows. There is a regular clunk as the scanning crate doors open to let one yow out and another in. I have to juggle my spray cans so I use the right colour on the yow to show if she is carrying a single lamb, twins, triplets or is geld – empty. The barn is full of activity. The scanner and me by the door, and my son and the scanner’s son dashing about in the barn moving animals around and making sure the “race” is always full of yows so there is no delay. We scan the yows so we can match their nutritional intake to the number of lambs they are having. While we scan, we chat about…

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