Innehållsförteckning för 14 April 2023 från Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly Founded in Manchester, England 4 July 1919 Vol 208 | Issue№ 15 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…

Picking up the pieces A volunteer uses a brush in a beach clean to collect nurdles and other plastic waste at Whitesand Bay in south-west England. According to the UK’s Fauna & Flora association, 11.5tn nurdles end up in the ocean every year. These micro-beads circulate in the ocean and often wash up on beaches. Mostly transparent, about the size of a lentil, nurdles are used to make plastic objects. But like crude oil, they easily escape during transport and are persistent pollutants.…

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, found himself standing last Friday afternoon at the side of a remote road in the vast desert valley that runs the length of the occupied West Bank’s frontier with Jordan. Along with his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, he was inspecting the scene of a shooting attack earlier in the day that had killed British-Israeli sisters Maia and Rina Dee, 20 and 15, as well as their mother, Lucy, whose death was announced on Monday. “For this challenge as well, we are standing united, unified, sure of our righteousness,” Netanyahu said in comments broadcast by Israeli television. “We will act together with total backing for our forces.” Unfortunately for the prime minister, his remarks rang hollow for many Israelis. Israel faces flare-ups in violence on almost…

Crouching in a freezing basement or risking it all on top of a nine-storey building, the drone squads in the war zone of Bakhmut are ubiquitous. Some are forced to lurk a few hundred metres from, or even on, the frontline. Without them, Ukraine’s efforts to hold on to the embattled city would be much harder, perhaps impossible. But the concern for Ukraine, according to three frontline drone operators deployed in the city, is that the Russians are close to countering the most popular models, made by the Chinese manufacturer DJI. “They are manufacturing special jamming systems,” said Yaroslav, 31. “I believe like in three, four months, DJI will not be usable.” It means a scramble for replacements, prompting countless initiatives in probably the most dynamic aspect of the near…

The world needs a “business mindset” to tackle the climate crisis, the president of the next UN climate summit has said. Sultan Al Jaber, the president-designate of the Cop28 summit to be hosted in the United Arab Emirates this year, said he aimed to use the UN talks to set out how the private sector can limit greenhouse gas emissions and give businesses and governments a clear set of tasks and targets at the UN talks, which have traditionally been dominated by policymakers, politicians and civil society activists. “We need a major course correction and a massive effort to reignite progress. This cannot be done by governments alone,” Al Jaber told the Guardian in a rare interview, his first with a global newspaper since taking on the Cop28 role. “The…

Halfway through a trip to Malaysia in January, Gerhard Daniel Campos Wittich stopped messaging his girlfriend back home in Rio de Janeiro. She promptly launched a frantic search for her missing partner. A Brazilian of Austrian heritage, Campos Wittich ran a series of 3D-printing companies in Rio that made, among other things, novelty resin sculptures for the Brazilian military and sausage dog key chains. The Brazilian foreign ministry and Facebook communities in Malaysia mobilised to look for the missing man. But Campos Wittich had disappeared. News about him eventually came from an unexpected source on the other side of the world in Athens, and it was as shocking as it was unexpected. Campos Wittich was allegedly a fake identity, said Greek media, citing sources in the Greek intelligence service. According…

On 16 December 2021, a group of men dressed in the sober, branded casualwear of the Silicon Valley startup gathered on the asphalt at an airstrip outside Salinas, California. In front of them stood a black shiny capsule on three spindly legs, which resembled the offspring of a suppository and a golf trolley, with a V-tail like a humpback whale. Its single cross-span wing had four banks of three rotor blades – six at the front and six at the back – which made the sound of a loud hairdryer. As the spectators bobbed nervously from foot to foot, the machine rose into the air, tipped a bow and hovered for 10 seconds or so before coming gently to earth. Everyone cheered and clapped and exchanged slightly standoffish hugs. Back…

I left Australia three years ago, cutting my sabbatical short as Covid-19 spread and lockdowns ensued. I had just lived through Black Summer, a climate crisis-fuelled disaster marked by unprecedented heat, withering drought and deadly bushfires. Though I went to Australia to research the effects of the climate crisis on extreme weather events, it instead became my lived experience. The governing Coalition had left a trail of death and destruction. Dozens of lives were lost, thousands of homes destroyed, 24m hectares burned, and Australia was shunned from an international climate summit over the then prime minister Scott Morrison’s climate intransigence. Meanwhile, the rightwing Murdoch media machine continued to spew climate disinformation. Things appeared bleak, yet I sensed something had changed. There was fiercer-than-usual pushback against the Murdoch disinformation campaign. The…

The Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked extraordinary destruction and misery, killing nearly 7 million people worldwide thus far and devastating the lives of many more. And yet, viewed through the long lens of human history, writes the public health sociologist Jonathan Kennedy, “there is little about it that is new or remarkable”. Previous pandemics have killed many more, both in absolute numbers and as proportions of populations, and so may future ones. Covid should be a wake-up call that helps us manage deadlier plagues in the future. But will we heed it? Our very existence and success as a species, Kennedy argues in this fascinating book, has been shaped by bacteria and viruses. Where, for example, did all the other species of humans go? At one time, early Homo sapiens shared…

Across 1 A bird traversing lake, a noted flyer (6) 4 Protective plate supports gemstone (8) 9 Observe learner keeping quiet — backward type interacting weakly (6) 10 Friendly note within an urgent message? (8) 11 Aids to those researching wicked Etonian squires (14) 13 A submarine captain, first person to attempt meteorological technique (10) 14 Yield from what’s sown in garden, reportedly (4) 16 Spoil vote, as one looking for revolution? (4) 18 Extended treatise penned by professional wordsmith (10) 21 Absence of instruments to welcome in golden prizewinners (5,9) 23 Brief about pee containing metallic element (8) 24 Problem with this Roman vessel (6) 25 It’s marvellous to celebrate drinking squash (8) 26 Parlay has a king thus functioning (2,4) Down 1 Bar left in sack (4) 2…

Over recent months, on various battlegrounds across the Middle East, Israel has faced off against the Iran-backed Shia Muslim organisation Hezbollah. But for several hours last week, fears were high of a broader conflict after a round of violence sparked by an Israeli police raid on Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam. As Martin Chulov reports this week from southern Lebanon, retaliatory attacks may have failed to provoke all-out war – but it now seems only a matter of time before that outcome materialises. And Bethan McKernan considers how multiple crises are threatening Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s grip on power. The big story Page 10 → The Good Friday agreement 25 years ago may have marked the end of Northern Ireland’s Troubles but, in many places, the province remains divided…

The groves of southern Lebanon had been quiet for nearly 17 years. But as farmers tended to orange trees and banana crops last Thursday, rocket men lurked among them, readying the biggest barrage fired into Israel since the war of 2006 and taking a startled region to the precipice of another conflict that leaders on both sides of the border fear will be worse than all before them. In Beirut and Tel Aviv, an escalation seemed imminent. But as a troubling afternoon wore on, the apocalyptic showdown between Hezbollah and Israel that had been widely predicted started to fizzle. Rhetoric was of measured responses. Israel was content to blame Palestinian groups and put a distance between them and Hezbollah. War could wait for now. But as two mortal foes continue…

UNITED KINGDOM Belfast’s slowly dwindling peace walls Page 22 → For a court system with a back-log of 40m cases, there was one lawsuit that appeared to move through India’s court-rooms unusually fast. The case related to India’s most well-known main opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi, and comments that he had made at a campaign rally during the 2019 general election. In a speech, Gandhi had compared his political rival, the incumbent prime minister, Narendra Modi, with two convicted criminals who also bore the same surname. “Why do all these thieves have Modi as a surname?” Gandhi asked the crowds gathered in the state of Karnataka. Hundreds of kilometres away in Gujarat, Purnesh Modi, an elected representative of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), appeared to take the comment personally. He filed…

The disclosure of highly classified material is the worst US security breach in many years The leak of more than 100 secret US defence documents could be the “tip of the iceberg” of a trove of material that had started circulating long before it was widely noticed, according to a new report. The disclosure of highly classified material already represents Washington’s worst national security breach in many years, including details about Ukraine’s lack of ammunition, US intelligence collection methods used against Russia, and embarrassing evidence pointing to US spying on close allies such as Ukraine, South Korea and Israel. Analysts suggest the damage to the US could still get much worse. One of the documents, dated 23 February and marked “Secret”, outlines how Ukraine’s Soviet-era S-300 air defence systems would…

The narrow pavements of Wan Chai are accustomed to the lunchtime rush, with queues spilling from restaurants and promoters pushing flyers on passersby. But on an otherwise unexceptional Monday last month, one main thoroughfare was the site of more commotion than usual. Metres behind a bus stop on Hennessy Road, a truck pulled into a “no stopping” zone, where two neon signs – about 3 metres tall – rested on a trolley. Workers deftly hooked up a rope and hauled the signs on to the truck before driving off. For Cardin Chan, this was just another day as the general manager of Tetra Neon Exchange, a non-profit that collected Hong Kong’s famed neon signs. Tightened government regulations on unauthorised neon signs mean scores of signs, which for decades have hung…

MICHAEL MANN At last, Australia has a climate action policy Page 48 → The United States is a grim warning of what happens when a society dispenses with the idea of truth. Fragmentation, paranoia, division and myth rule – democracy wilts. Fox News, we now know from emails flushed out by a lawsuit from the voting machine company Dominion, feared it would lose audiences if it told the truth about the 2020 presidential election. Instead, it knowingly broadcast and fed Donald Trump’s lie that the election had been stolen – in particular the unfounded allegation that Dominion had programmed its voting machines to throw millions of votes to the Democrats. Fox could have been instructed to tell the truth by its owner, as this month’s Prospect magazine details, but as…

Across 5 Large paper pad on a stand used for making presentations (4,5) 8 Young male horse (4) 9 As is the Pope (8) 10 Reading matter available from the internet (1-5) 11 Toasted bun (6) 13 Despicable (informal) (6) 15 Awkwardly eccentric (6) 16 Japanese dish — I try IKEA (anag) (8) 18 South American cape (4) 19 Prince of Darkness (9) Down 1 Raised horizontal surface (8) 2 Makes more interesting (6) 3 Cadence (6) 4 Consequently (4) 6 Last leader of the Soviet Union, d. August 2022 (9) 7 Mary Quant’s iconic attire (9) 12 Loyal (8) 14 Every 52 weeks (6) 15 Arrows carrier (6) 17 Wild goat (4) Solution No 16,502…

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1 UNITED STATES Fifth victim dies in 146th mass shooting of the year A Louisville bank employee armed with a rifle opened fire at his workplace on Monday, killing five people – including a close friend of Kentucky’s governor – while livestreaming the attack on Instagram, according to authorities. The incident was at least the 146th mass shooting in the US this year. The Gun Violence Archive resource website defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more victims are killed or wounded. Police arrived as shots were still being fired inside Old National Bank and killed the shooter in an exchange of gunfire, Louisville metro police department chief, Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel, said. Nine people, including two police officers, were treated for injuries, University of Louisville Hospital spokeswoman Heather…

POLITICS Starmer defends attack on Sunak’s sex-abuse stance Keir Starmer has said he will “make absolutely zero apologies for being blunt” in an article published after a row over a widely criticised Labour attack advert on child sexual assaults. In a veiled message to critics within his party, Starmer said he would “stand by every word Labour has said on this subject” and would use the Tories’ record on crime as a legitimate criticism “no matter how squeamish it might make some feel”. The advert (below), which drew criticism from left and right, used a picture of Rishi Sunak and said he did not believe adults convicted of sexually assaulting children should go to prison and cited the Conservative record on offenders avoiding jail. Several senior Labour figures distanced themselves…

Fears have grown of a broader conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which have faced off on various battlegrounds across the Middle East with increasing frequency over recent months. Their shadow war has focused on the valleys of southern Lebanon and the skies of northern Israel, but airstrikes have also taken place in Syria and Iraq, where Hezbollah has an extensive presence, and even as far away as the waters off Yemen, where shipping linked to both sides has come under fire. How did the current round of violence begin? Palestinian groups and Hezbollah were angered by an Israeli police raid last week on Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam. The raid took place against a backdrop of increasing violence in the West Bank, the overlap of the…

The Indian government has been accused of rewriting history to fit its Hindu nationalist agenda after school textbooks were edited to remove references to Mahatma Gandhi’s opposition to Hindu nationalism, as well as mention of a controversial religious riot in which the prime minister, Narendra Modi, was implicated. Textbooks were also revised to remove chapters on the history of the Mughals, the Muslim rulers who controlled much of India between the 16th and 19th centuries. The ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), which has pursued a Hindu nationalist agenda that has moved India away from its secular foundations, has been open about its desire to rewrite the country’s history and break away from what it describes as the “slave mentality” of colonial oppressors. Since the BJP came to power in 2014,…

Rosaleen Petticrew once had compelling reason to appreciate the high walls that separated her Catholic part of Belfast from the adjoining Protestant neighbourhood. For five dreadful months in 2000, she and other mothers from Ardoyne had to walk their daughters to Holy Cross school past a mob of loyalists who hurled insults, rocks and bottles. Even by Northern Ireland standards it was a vile protest and made headlines around the world. Walls did not cover the whole school route, but Rosaleen still valued them as a bulwark. “I’d never felt that hatred before.” Retaining Troubles-era “peace walls” between Catholic and Protestant areas seemed advisable even though the 1998 Good Friday agreement had supposedly ushered in an era of peace and reconciliation. The sentiment might have calcified, like so much else…

Japan has added to its large and eclectic pool of vending machines with a model that sells fresh bear meat – and it has proved an unlikely hit. The machine, in the northern prefecture of Akita, has attracted a steady stream of customers since it was installed at the end of last year, according to media reports. The meat, which sells for ¥2,200 ($16.50) per 250g, is proving popular with passengers alighting at a nearby railway station in the town of Semboku, but the operator has also received requests for mail order deliveries from Tokyo, about 500km away. The machine, which touts its contents as a regional speciality, was stocked with locally killed wild bear and sold a mixture of lean and fatty meat, the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper said. The…

It was the day that Donald Trump got mugged by reality. After years of dodging legal accountability, the former US president found himself being driven towards a New York court where he would be charged with a crime. “WOW, they are going to ARREST ME,” he wrote on his Truth Social media platform. “Can’t believe this is happening in America.” Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records relating to hush money payments; it represented only the first drop of rain in what could be a legal thunderstorm, with more cases fast approaching. Michael D’Antonio, a political commentator and author of The Truth About Trump, said of the first former US president in history to be arrested and arraigned on criminal charges: “His attitude prior to…

Comparing the cost of Europe’s royal dynasties is akin to comparisons between apples and oranges. Each family is unique, and each government has a different way of paying for them. Some royal budgets cover the cost of maintaining palaces, staff and security; others are limited to annual stipends to individual kings or queens. Tax is paid by some European royals but not others. Some countries are highly transparent, providing detailed breakdowns of how public money is spent on individual royals. Others are more opaque. One thing, at least, is clear: European royal families come with vastly different price tags. United Kingdom Family name/House: The Windsors Monarch: King Charles III Approximate public funding: $107m-$152m There is no breakdown of how much individual members of the royal family receive for their official…

he Catholic church in Poland is close to an existential crisis. For one of the most Catholic countries in the world, and the homeland of Pope John Paul II, this is unprecedented. Poland is not becoming an atheist country overnight, but the trend is indisputably towards secularisation, especially among younger Poles. This will have significant political consequences for the ruling national conservative Law & Justice party (PiS), which has close ties with the church. Meanwhile, the next parliamentary elections are due towards the end of the year. The Catholic faith has long been one of the distinctive pillars of Polishness, and played an important role in the nation-making process. In times of partitions, Nazi occupation and communism, the Catholic church portrayed itself as a bastion of resistance in the long…

I buy a jar of preserved lemons to make chicken and chorizo stew, but I only ever use a couple of them. Any suggestions for what to do with the rest of the jar? Joseph, Glasgow, Scotland, UK “There are so many things,” says chef and writer Sami Tamimi. “I could write a book about this very question.” But, until that day comes, know that the fragrant, slightly tart fruit will brighten and add depth to all sorts, from dressings and dips to salads, stews and Sunday roasts. The first lesson in these lemons, however, is one of storage. “You don’t have to keep them in the fridge,” Tamimi says. “The salt content means they’ll last happily in the cupboard for a few months.” But when life gives you too…

The flash of yellow is almost hidden from the roadside, a sort of blink-and-youmiss-it as the cars whoosh by. My dad had spotted the colourful interruption the day before, and wants to share his discovery with me and my mum. Over the crash barrier, our feet land softly on last year’s dead leaves. A gentle hillside swoops down in a cascade of winter aconites. They are a golden secret, the biggest patch we’ve ever seen in Scotland. Probably escapers from someone’s garden that have thrived in this scrap of woodland. The start of the year has been grey and raw, so the aconites are a welcome whisper that there will always be fresh growth. But there’s a huge amount of litter too. Crisp packets, plastic bottles, drinks cans. We’re on…