Innehållsförteckning för 5 May 2023 från Guardian Weekly

NO ONE UNDER THE AGE OF 75 can have anything but the haziest memory of the last time we did this. Britain has not witnessed a coronation since 1953, and even those who remember the crowning of Elizabeth II will have little to guide them today. It is a different country, and Charles a very different prospective monarch – if only because of one simple, unavoidable fact: he is an old king. Start not with him, but with the people. The Britain of 1953 would scarcely recognise itself in the Britain of 2023. Obviously the entire world has transformed. Ask someone who recalls the last coronation and they’ll soon tell you about the novel thrill of seeing the ceremony on live television, perhaps at the home of a neighbour who…

Fears remain that Sudan – riven by fighting between the Sudanese army and its paramilitary rival, the Rapid Support Forces – could plunge into a protracted crisis, prompting a humanitarian disaster with broad geopolitical implications. Failed or divided states already exist on Europe’s peripheries, a crescent of instability stretching from the African Sahel and Libya through Yemen, Syria and Ukraine. After the disaster of Iraq and the chaotic Joe Biden-led retreat from Afghanistan, the days of significant direct western interventions are over, although arms are being supplied in volume to Ukraine. In Sudan, the US has been reluctant to deploy its military even to rescue an estimated 16,000 of its civilians. Washington’s efforts have been largely diplomatic, although its principal security concern has been to avoid a repeat of the…

Luiza Kosykh claims she didn’t know the 700-year-old tree she posed naked in front of was sacred. However, the viral shot captured by the Russian national in Bali was enough to infuriate the local community and resulted in her swift arrest and deportation. The case is one of a growing number of incidents involving unruly visitors, as tensions between foreign influencers and locals on the Indonesian island reach boiling point. Once known as a laid-back surfer’s paradise, Bali has become a popular backdrop for “content creators” looking to promote their picture-perfect lifestyles. The streets of towns such as Canggu and Ubud are lined with aesthetically pleasing cafes and bohemian clothes stores seen as perfect settings for attracting Instagram and TikTok likes. According to the province’s bureau of statistics, the number…

THE AUSTRALIAN COMPOSER and entertainer Tim Minchin sits outside a rehearsal room in London. It is a pleasant day in April. Tooled up on tea and creative adrenaline, talking quickly and well, the 47-year-old is comparing the experience of working on two big stage musicals. In 2010, there was Matilda, the planet-devouring omni-smash, which flourished in the West End, on Broadway and on family car journeys, transforming Minchin from an anarchic musical comedian who could fill a good-sized room at the Edinburgh festival into a feted and wealthy man. “I mean, Matilda, fuck,” is all the loquacious Minchin can say about that show’s successes for now. More interesting to him, because more troubled, was the follow-up, Groundhog Day, a 2016 musical adapted from the popular 90s movie of the same…

Food Fight By Alex Latimer The Fruits and the Vegetables are long-standing enemies – until secret friends Grape and Mushroom set off on a pilgrimage to the Wise Old Cheese. Can they find a way to bring peace to fruit bowl and veg drawer alike? A riot of verbal and visual puns makes for a hilarious picture-book treat. Germs By John Devolle For 4+, this stylishly gruesome and colourful introduction to “the good, the bad and the friendly” germs in and around our bodies is full of fascinating, sometimes foul facts. A Child Like You By Na’ima B Robert and Nadine Kaadan This powerful picture book for 5+ readers describes four children’s fears and worries – climate catastrophe, lack of representation, feeling lost and alone – before showing the same…

Prep 10 min Prove 1 hr Cook 40 min Serves 4 • VEGAN Ingredients 12 green asparagus spears, thick, woody ends cut off and discarded, or saved for stock For the pastry 250g plain flour25g za’atar1 tsp salt50g rapeseed oil For the za’atar glaze 25g za’atar50ml rapeseed oil For the dip 1 x 200g pot good-quality vegan yoghurt – I like almond yoghurt50g za’atar1 tsp coarse sea salt2 tbsp pomegranate molasses When I was growing up in West Africa, my school lunch boxes were mostly prepared by my Lebanese teta (grandmother), whose love for meat-free, plant-based cooking was reflected in our daily meals. Thin flatbreads stuffed with crunchy greens, gussied up with delicious, smooth, whipped labneh and dressed in za’atar were a staple, and asparagus is an elegant, seasonal twist…

ASTRONOMY First image of jet launched from edge of black hole Astronomers have captured the first image showing a powerful jet being launched from the edge of a black hole’s event horizon into intergalactic space. The observations of the black hole at the centre of the galaxy Messier 87 (M87) could help reveal how black hole jets, which are among the brightest objects in the universe, are created. “We know that jets are ejected from the region surrounding black holes, but we still do not fully understand how this actually happens,” said Dr Ru-Sen Lu, the lead author of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory. The image was published in Nature. Scientists think the jets are powered by the rotation of the black hole. Theory suggests the jets could be anchored close…

In town halls and social media groups, New Zealand’s most committed royalists are planning high teas, concerts, and watching parties. For the most dedicated, the memorabilia will be on display: tea sets and replica tiaras, lifetime collections of Woman’s Weekly front pages and special edition photo books. For others, however – including the country’s dedicated royal watchers – the coronation cupcakes and cucumber sandwiches come with a side of doubt, over the monarchy’s future and the changing way it is viewed in colonised countries. Elizabeth Garlick will watch the coronation live, late into the night, with other royal fans who are planning wine, cheese, and possibly tiaras. She says she fell in love with the royals as a small child, seeing Diana, Princess of Wales in the news, and became…

A long-awaited phone call between Xi Jinping and Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been cautiously welcomed, but China analysts say the timing suggests it could be partly an act of damage control after controversial comments by China’s ambassador to France. Ambassador Lu Shaye, one of China’s diplomats with a history of fiery remarks, caused outrage across Europe last week when he denied the sovereignty of former Soviet states, saying they “did not have effective status”. The comments were roundly condemned, with several European nations summoning Chinese envoys for rebuke, and politicians suggesting it demonstrated China’s untrustworthiness as a neutral party in the Ukraine war. Beijing, which counts Russia as its closest major ally, has sought to present itself as a potential peacemaker and there have been signs that Xi was unhappy with…

Using 8,400 eggs, 25kg of venison sausage and 14 bottles of salt and pepper, New Caledonia’s giant omelette festival aims to bring an often divided region together. “It is important to have festivals like this. The giant omelette is a symbol of sharing,” said veteran chef Reine Chenot. She coordinates a team of “omelette-iers” including 14 chefs and volunteers to feed thousands of people at the annual festival of the city of Dumbéa. Chenot said the giant omelette festival has got “bigger and bigger” over its 40-year-history. It was introduced in 1984 by a New Caledonian woman, Madame Radotin, who hoped the French tradition would bring together the local community during a period of extreme political division, including the assassination of proindependence leader Louis Tjibaou. Colonised in 1853, New Caledonia…

Being vice-president of the United States is not much fun, or so it often seems from the outside. All the trappings of power are present: high-profile events, free foreign travel, big limos, secret service protection and a turreted mansion in the grounds of Washington’s Naval Observatory. But the job itself is a cemetery from which few escape with their political lives. The incumbent is overshadowed by the president, blamed for his blunders, given thankless tasks to perform. To think of the post as a stepping stone is misleading. George HW Bush, Ronald Reagan’s deputy, moved directly into the top job in 1989. Few others have pulled it off. Joe Biden, Barack Obama’s loyal No 2 for eight long years, was passed over in favour of Hillary Clinton. Of course, there’s…

Hope has been hard to find in Yemen. After more than eight years of war, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives, many of them civilians, the situation is desperate. More than two-thirds of the population depend on humanitarian aid. Yet, since the truce between the Saudi-led military coalition and Iran-backed Houthi rebels last April, the country has had a year of relative calm. Last month, there was a huge exchange of prisoners of war. In the background is the thaw between Iran and Saudi Arabia, which have used Yemen as the battleground for their rivalry. Riyadh spearheaded the coalition supporting the internationally recognised government led by Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, which had been ousted by the Houthis. It soon discovered that there would be no speedy victory,…

When Vera Lynn sang about bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover, the whole thing was a nonsense, or at least a colossal projection. The lyrics turn out to be by a New Yorker who had never set eyes on the Kent’s chalk coast, and didn’t realise that bluebirds are never seen outside North America. Still, without realising it, he had nailed a crucial point about the way Britain instinctively imagines itself in terms of its edges rather than its heartland, particularly in times of crisis. In this remarkable book, as bracing as a smack in the face by a stiff sea breeze, Madeleine Bunting tours the English coastline to discover what it reveals about the state of the nation. The result is far from a nostalgic wander around seafronts…

A text from the GP surgery invites me to complete an online questionnaire including my blood pressure. “Please contact us if you don’t have a blood pressure monitor at home,” it says, “so we can arrange an appointment.” It is one of several overtures I have had from the NHS this year – because of my age, I assume – but I am stung by the implication that a home without a blood pressure monitor is incomplete. The drawer where we keep medical supplies is, in fact, poorly stocked: a few face masks, some loose plasters and a half-used blister pack of throat pastilles. Most of the actual medicine is for dogs. The next time I’m out shopping for a particular sort of glue, I wander down the wrong aisle…

QUIZ Thomas Eaton 1 The Iris trophy is now awarded to winners of what? 2 What former country was known as the “threeletter state”? 3 Emerald is a form of which mineral? 4 Which sports commentator had the car number plate PUT 3? 5 Who was ancient Rome’s last dictator? 6 Which spice comes from the stigma of Crocus sativus? 7 Which global writing system uses 63 different characters? 8 After Brazil, what is the world’s biggest coffee producer? What links: 9 Carnation; Long Neck; Pinks; Pomegranate; Yarnwinder? 10 Wishing-Chair; Faraway Tree; Circus; Naughtiest Girl? 11 Gluttony; the Dutch; French watchmaker Robert Hubert; Catholics? 12 Cyberdyne Systems; InGen and Biosyn; Tyrell; Weyland-Yutani? 13 Bandy-bandy; boiga; boomslang; bushmaster? 14 Box; cascade; columns; fountain; Mills mess? 15 Penelope Pitstop; preceded Thriller; Eat…

Seventy years have passed since Britain last held a royal coronation. But, with polls suggesting public support for the monarchy is at a historic low, Charles’s big day comes at a moment when Britain feels more generationally divided than ever. Can the 74-year-old king really offer a compelling vision to reunite the realm? As Jonathan Freedland writes, it may be that Charles’s best hope is simply to lay the ground for the next generation. For an outside perspective, Tess McClure and Leyland Cecco report from New Zealand and Canada, where some residual fondness for the monarchy remains, but an air of general indifference also seems to sum up many of the wider challenges facing the crown. The big story Page 12 → A calm before the storm has been felt in Ukraine ahead…

More than 800 dives beneath metresthick ice were not enough to prepare Joe MacInnis for the stress of bringing a member of the British royal family deep into the blisteringly cold depths of the Arctic Ocean. Especially a future king. “This is one of the most hostile places on the planet and hazards are everywhere,” he said of the waters near Qausuittuq, an Inuit hamlet on the north shore of the Northwest Passage, where the royal dive took place in 1975. “So yes, I was nervous.” MacInnis, the famed Canadian scientist and explorer, guided then-Prince Charles through a two-metre deep shaft cut through the ice to give access to the ocean. As they moved through the water, Charles seemed enraptured by ice stalactites and tiny amphipods, later commenting on his…

Cast your mind back to 2008, and you may remember the imminent end of the world. According to various doomsayers, the opening of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at Cern was set to create a black hole that would destroy the Earth and everyone on it. We are still standing today – but this fact has not stopped continued speculation about other dark deeds in those subterranean tunnels. In the stranger corners of the internet, you can find reports that the institute is riddled with Satanists, who are set to blast open a multi-dimensional portal into hell – rumours that have been fuelled by a video purporting to reveal a human sacrifice. Unless you are aparticularly devoted – and credulous – fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it is easy…

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, see: 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 How privatisation has set lower standards in water I was working in the UK water industry during privatisation and beyond as a contractor and consultant to the new water companies (Feargal Sharkey’s unlikely second act, Spotlight, 21 April). When visiting sewage works, I…

TELEVISION Sweet Tooth Netflix A bunch of kids are imprisoned in a cell, planning their escape. The floor is earth, so it’s obvious: the child who’s half-chipmunk should burrow out. The kid with the lion’s mane, the girl with the pig’s nose and the little guy who has the full face and trunk of an elephant all agree. Welcome back to Sweet Tooth, the pandemic dystopia drama the whole family can enjoy. The world has been devastated by the Sick, a virus that sprang up when babies started being born with animal features. These “hybrids” are seen as vermin by fearful humans. Season two feels like more of a kids’ show than ever, albeit with plenty of sly nods to parents, but this is a series for older kids only.…

‘The universe (which others call the Library) is composed of an indefinite, perhaps infinite, number of hexagonal galleries.” That’s how Jorge Luis Borges starts The Library of Babel, beloved by maths geeks and book nerds alike for the way it toys with the mathematical concept of infinity. I liked the short story so much I nicked its main idea when I started Libreria bookshop, blanketing the inside with mirrors to suggest a “perhaps infinite” space. (The mirrors require a near infinite amount of cleaning, but there we go.) As for maths professor Sarah Hart, she’s so enthralled by the ways her academic field has enriched the work of poets and novelists that it is the subject of her ebullient debut book. “By seeing mathematics and literature as complementary parts of…