Innehållsförteckning för 15 September 2023 från Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly Founded in Manchester, England 4 July 1919 Vol209 | Issue№ 11 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. made is re-invested in journalism. Join the community Twitter: @guardianweekly facebook.com/guardianweekly Instagram: @guardian…

Holding her newborn daughter, Lynne, 33, feels apprehensive about the future. Her elder son, though adorable, is already draining the family coffers and he hasn’t even started school yet. His private kinder-garten in Beijing costs 80,000 yuan ($11, 000) a year. Extracurricular classes, including 10 hours a week of English, sports, painting and online tutorials, cost another 60,000 yuan. She already knows that his five-month-old sister won’t get the same resources. “I don’t have the energy to jiwa again,” she said, using a Mandarin term for helicopter parenting. She longs for her home town of Xingtai, a small city in Hebei province, where school fees are a fraction of what they are in Beijing, and where life is “peaceful and relaxed and happy”. “It’s really hard in Beijing,” she said.…

China’s government last week reportedly expanded its ban of iPhones to local government workers and state-owned companies, soon after it had emerged central government employees were forbidden from bringing the devices to work. Several agencies had begun instructing employees not to bring iPhones to work and the ban was expected to be further extended, Bloomberg reported. Nikkei reported at least one state-owned company had told its employees that anyone working with trade secrets could not bring their iPhones, Apple Watches or AirPods into work from next month. The ban on the use of Apple products is believed to be a sign of Beijing pushing back on its reliance on US tech. Central government has imposed some restrictions on the use of foreign-designed tech in workplaces linked to government since at…

It had been hundreds of years since the world paid much attention to the Danube river port of Izmail at the edge of the estuary that now separates Romania and Ukraine. The Russian and Ottoman empires traded blows here in the 18th century, and one epic battle in 1790 was so central to Moscow’s concept of its military power that it was glorified in the country’s first unofficial national anthem. Then the area slipped back into obscurity, traded back and forth between competing powers, a smuggler’s paradise of sprawling wetlands and loosely policed borders. Until, that is, Vladimir Putin launched a new imperial war and tried to close the Black Sea to Ukrainian shipping. The rusting Soviet-era docks and silted-up shipping channels in Izmail and neighbouring Reni became globally important…

Labour is turning away business leaders who want to attend events at its party conference in Liverpool next month because too many have applied in the belief that Keir Starmer will form the next government. Party insiders say a full complement of 200 senior business people have paid £2,520 ($3,100) each to attend a business forum with Starmer, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves and shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds. Another 180 are on a waiting list. Last year, 130 attended. In a rush of interest that has taken officials by surprise, 300 chief executives and chairs of big UK companies will attend the conference – more than did so during the first term of Tony Blair’s prime ministership. Business sponsorship had risen from £200,000 last year to £500,000, officials said. Evidence…

South Korea’s teachers know why a colleague killed herself after being subjected to abuse from parents, according to Park Seo-yoon*. “We’ve all had similar struggles,” she said. “We’ve all received late-night calls from parents accusing us of dis-respecting their precious children because they were disciplined for not participating in class,” said the primary school teacher. “We’ve had parents yell at us for not providing extra materials to students who didn’t bring their own, insisting that students who don’t do their homework shouldn’t be punished, or complaining about giving three sentences of praise to one student but only two to the other.” Teachers across South Korea protested last week, expressing their frustration over the abusive treatment they say they receive from parents and students, including being accused of child abuse for…

In the face of growing food security concerns due to climate change, scientists in New Zealand are attempting to grow fruit tissue in labs. While work on lab-grown meat has made headlines in recent years, similar work on fruit is less common. Scientists at Plant & Food Research in Christchurch are aiming to change that by growing fruit tissue from plant cells that they hope will one day taste, smell and feel like real fruit. Researchers hope the programme will help safe-guard the country’s food security. “Here in New Zealand, we’re good at growing conventional horticultural crops,” said Dr Ben Schon, the lead scientist for the Food by Design programme at the government-backed Plant & Food Research, “but there’s a lot of change coming in the world with population growth,…

MARINA HYDE Elon Musk has the world in his hands Page 47 → Spread over an area almost 7km long, Cairo’s Necropolis is a sprawling district of tombs, mausoleums, mosques and courtyards. Also known as the City of the Dead, it is very much alive with memories of those buried there, and with the real families who live in it and have done so, in some instances, for generations. It dates back to the seventh century, and, like so much of historic Cairo, has always existed in an almost dizzying proximity with modernity. Billboards, construction and heavy traffic rub shoulders with the silent tombs. Buried there are not just ancient kings and dignitaries but more contemporary politicians, celebrities and Cairenes who passed in recent decades. Their slumber is now an…

By the time Los Pinochet Boys formed in Santiago, Chile, in 1984, the band’s teenage members had already spent a decade living under the brutal dictator-ship of Augusto Pinochet. You’d hear of their gigs only through word of mouth; their name alone meant they were under constant threat. “Those were extremely dark times,” says Daniel Puente Encina, the band’s bassist and vocalist. “The fear of being detained or tortured to death was always present.” He remembers their clandestine gigs as a “symphony of chaos and violence” – the band never finished a complete set as they were always interrupted by the police. “All of our shows ended with one, or more, band members injured and bleeding and the most unfortunate of us going to jail. Many times we were beaten,…

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15 September 2023 Much of the world’s attention towards China of late has focused on its geopolitical ambitions, but a picture is emerging from within that could have equally profound consequences. From squeezed middle classes to a manufacturing jobs drought – compounded by a property industry crisis – China’s economy is slowing down. Amy Hawkins looks under the lid of the world’s second-biggest economy and asks, are we reaching peak China? The big story Page 10 → Desperate searches for survivors continued in Morocco’s Atlas mountains following last Friday’s 6.8-magnitude earthquake. Peter Beaumont reports from remote villages devastated by the country’s deadliest quake in six decades. Spotlight Page 15 → First there were the bewildering DNA test results, then the long-forgotten fertility blog. Jenny Kleeman tells the remarkable tale of a discovery that would change…

When finding a job feels as unlikely as winning the lottery, playing the actual lottery may seem like a more productive use of time. In the first half of 2023, faced with a struggling economy, Chinese consumers spent 273.9bn yuan ($37bn) on lottery tickets, an increase of more than 50% on the same period in 2022. It’s just the latest symptom of an economy in distress. A record high youth unemployment rate of 21.3% in June prompted the government to stop publishing data on the issue – along with other measures such as the consumer confidence index – all of which showed that China’s economy was struggling. Several factors have contributed to the unusually high youth unemployment rate. Education, real estate and technology – industries that graduates previously flocked to…

BRAZIL Fight for the Amazon takes to the air Page 22→ As the dirt roads leading to some of the areas worst hit in last Friday’s earth-quake in Morocco were gradually cleared, the full extent of the disaster was being revealed, including whole villages destroyed in Al-Haouz province. In the hamlet of Tarouiste, in the Atlas mountain foothills above the town of Amizmiz, not one of a dozen houses was left standing. Only the mosque was not reduced to rubble. With the first international search and rescue teams finally deploying to the worst-affected areas on Monday, after a disaster that has claimed at least 2, 800 lives, it was clear that the window to find anyone alive beneath the rubble was rapidly closing. As relief efforts stepped up, the Guardian…

The medicine man flashed a mischievous grin as he dabbed his warriors’ eyeballs with a feather soaked in malagueta pepper and watched them grimace in pain. “They’re going into battle and this will protect them,” José Delfonso Pereira said as he advanced on his next target with a jam jar of his chilli potion. “It burns,” the Macuxi shaman admitted. “But it will help them see more clearly and stop them falling ill.” It was a crisp morning and a dozen members of an Indigenous self-defence team had assembled in the village of Tabatinga to receive Pereira’s blessing before launching their latest mission into one of the Amazon’s most secluded corners, close to Brazil’s border with Guyana and Venezuela. Some of the men clutched blood-wood truncheons as they prepared to…

While life on Earth has flourished for billions of years, much of it has been single-celled and microscopic. None of the first organisms had brains, or even neurons (nerve cells). None could “think”. The first animals to evolve were also brainless: harnessing hormones or other chemicals, rather than neurons, to coordinate their bodies. But some soon evolved central nervous systems – and the first “thoughts” pulsed. For decades, biologists have assumed that this only happened once and was a one-way process. Once animals had evolved brains, why would they lose them? But in the past 15 years, evidence has accumulated that this may be wrong; that sponges and other brainless animals that exist today may be descended from brainy ancestors that lost their minds. These huge mysteries about the origins…

When Elon Musk posted a personally crafted 280-character “ peace plan ” for the war in Ukraine last October, a Ukrainian diplomat offered a carefully considered review. It ran to two words: “ Fuck off”. Last week’s allegations that Musk shut down his Starlink system (on which the comms-shattered Ukraine relies to defend itself against Russia) right in the middle of a counteroffensive last year – apparently deliberately to neuter it – forces a new question. When he does finally make it there in his big space rocket, will even Mars be far enough for Elon Musk to fuck off to? For now, it’s time to take another turn around the block with Phoney Stark, as Musk’s biographer Walter Isaacson reveals that the edgelord magnate (and edgelord magnet) ordered his…

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 Failing school concrete reflects Tories’ 13 years It is no surprise that all the schools threatened with closure because they contain reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) are in the state sector, and not the private fee-paying schools that the Tories send their kids…

Many of the rituals of food shopping are based on habit. Basket or trolley at the ready, we cast our eyes across the shelves, look for marked-down items, feel for firm apples and check for brown spots on beans. But do we really know what we’re doing? I started talking to greengrocers, asking how to pick seasonal fruits and vegetables that are good quality and affordable. No matter the season, their advice is tried and tested. Here are five tips for becoming a better shopper. If at all possible, steer clear of supermarkets Shopping with a small greengrocer can make a difference to your wallet. Greengrocers often say the smaller they are, the better they know their produce, because they have to carefully consider what to stock. Customers also have…

Across 8 Don’t attach much importance to power – give up (4,4)9 Troublesome place with an effigy? (6)10, 24 down I need source of metal, Al? Wrong! (4,4)11 Expert awfully nice about financial gain? The opposite (10)12 Backward boy, not about to become a chemist (6)14 Most primitive aristocrat that is a good man? (8)15 Stone tool in hotel ground (7)17 An eleven dismissed, not half worried (7)20 College gym by end of term in financial difficulties? (8)22 Explanatory figure lacking a couple of letters together (6)23 Being put out, goad union’s dinosaurs (10)24, 2 Well off, hiding nothing and gawping with awe (4-4)25 Think much of Paul? (6)26 School group getting a toy package (5,3) Down 1 Strangeness seen in a time where deceit is hidden (8)2 See 24…

Headlines from the last seven days 1 CLIMATE CRISIS Deadly humid heat will spread rapidly at 2C rise Life-threatening periods of high heat and humidity will spread rapidly across the world with only a small increase in global temperatures, a study has found. The extremes, which can be fatal to healthy people within six hours, could affect hundreds of millions of people unused to such conditions. The study used a limit based on experiments showing that when combined heat and humidity, as measured by so-called wet bulb temperature, passes 31.5C, the body is no longer able to cool itself. Without cooling aids, such as cold water, fans or air conditioning, death is likely within hours. The research analysed data from thousands of weather stations across the world to show that 4%…

SECURITY China criticises UK over arrest of ‘spy’ researcher China’s embassy in the UK labelled the scandal surrounding the arrest of a man in London on suspicion of spying for Beijing as “malicious slander” and a “political farce”. Last Sunday, it emerged that a parliamentary researcher with links to senior Conservatives and potential access to sensitive information had been arrested over allegations of spying for China. The man, who is in his 20s and was arrested in March with another person under the Official Secrets Act, held a parliamentary pass that allowed him unescorted access to much of Westminster. In a statement released through his lawyers, the researcher – who on Monday had yet to be officially named by police – insisted he was “completely innocent”. On the sidelines of…

Select foreign aid and rescue teams joined desperate efforts to find any remaining survivors high in Morocco’s Atlas mountains this week, as the death toll passed 2, 800 people after a powerful earthquake that rendered many villages inaccessible. Moroccan authorities said they had “responded favourably” to offers of help from visiting search and rescue teams from Spain, Qatar, Britain and the United Arab Emirates, but were yet to accept further offers of aid from other countries despite the urgent nature of the disaster. Turkey, which experienced a deadly earthquake in February, offered emergency response teams and aid. Its president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said it would help “with all means” if its offer was accepted. Emmanuel Macron, the French president, told the G20 summit in Delhi that France stood ready to…

News that Luis Rubiales had resigned, three weeks after his unsolicited kiss and defiant refusal to step down sparked outrage around the world, was welcomed as a win for feminism even as questions swirled about his decision to make the announcement in an English-language interview. Late last Sunday evening, the head of the Spanish football association said that after speaking with his family and friends he had come to the conclusion that he had no choice but to resign after he grabbed the footballer Jenni Hermoso by the head, pulled her towards him and planted a kiss on her lips during the medal ceremony at the World Cup in Sydney last month. “They say to me, ‘Luis, now you have to focus on your dignity and to continue your life,’…

Normally by this time of year Thongpoon Moonchansong’s fields are submerged in still waters, with scattered rice plants reaching up to her knees. The waters are usually so abundant that if you plunge a net into the fields, you can draw out fish and crab to eat. This year, though, is different. Rain has been falling in her village in Uttaradit province in the north of Thailand, but it has not been heavy or consistent enough. The canal next to Thongpoon’s family home is dry. Her family has given up hope of harvesting any rice. “Usually it would be heavy rain and it would be flooded in the canal – this year there has been no water at all. We had to sow dry,” said her daughter, Thanunkan Potudomsin. “Even…

David Cox is trying to persuade his union members that Joe Biden has done more for working-class Americans than any president he has seen in his decades as a construction worker and organiser in eastern Ohio. But Cox is not sure they really want to hear it. The Democratic brand was in decline here long before Donald Trump won Ohio in 2016 and then increased his support in 2020. “Biden’s been great. He’s done so much for labour like we haven’t never seen in my lifetime,” he said, citing legislation to revitalise manufacturing, the new jobs those changes created, as well as labour department decisions in favour of workers. “But whether it brings back those we lost to Trump remains to be seen.” Cox, an ironworker and director of the…

THE OTHER DAY, I was looking for a quote in Proust, so I thought I would ask ChatGPT. Here’s how it went. Elif Batuman: Is there a passage in In Search of Lost Time when Proust talks about how love affairs repeat themselves, and says that when you’re writing about a love affair in the past, you’re often drawing inspiration from a different love affair in the present? CHATGPT: Yes, there is a passage in Marcel Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time” (also known as “Remembrance of Things Past”) where he discusses the repetition of love affairs and the influence of present experiences on writing about past love affairs. The passage can be found in the first volume of the novel, “Swann’s Way” (Du côté de chez Swann). In this…

Is this the dawn? Have we reached the glimmer of a new beginning? Rishi Sunak’s about-turn on joining the European Union’s Horizon programme is a first note of sanity since Britain left the EU. Let it not be the last. The story itself is miserable. Horizon is a €95.5bn ($102bn) continent-wide programme to give Europe’s scientific research community a critical mass to compare with that of the US or China. It acknowledges that advanced scientific research needs collaboration rather than competition. Britain’s universities had been leaders of the pack, and were among Horizon’s main beneficiaries. If anything made sense of a united Europe, it was Horizon. Brexit was an act of sabotage. In a measure of infantile daftness, its adherents declared that here, as in all things, Britain could go…

Soon after he was elected as a Conservative MP, Rory Stewart tried to sit down next to a party colleague. “This seat is reserved,” the MP growled at him. Stewart pointed out there was no “prayer card” in the brass holder at the back of the seat, meaning it was free. The unnamed Tory glowered. “Why don’t you just fuck off,” he told Stewart. Stewart’s memoir of his nine years in British politics is an excoriating account of a dysfunctional governing system. At every level – back-bench MP, minister, permanent secretary – Stewart finds shallowness where there should be depth, vapidity instead of seriousness. His book is a brilliant insider portrait of a nation in decline, penned by an exasperated modern Boswell. Educated at Eton, and the son of a…

Across 1 Grilled ‘sur l’herbe’? (9)8 13 down is said to have been the first (4)9 Nonsense (9)10 Advantage (4)13 Short laboured intakes of breath (5)15 German field marshal, the Desert Fox, killed himself 1944 (6)16 Fanatic (6)17 Astute (6)19 Facade (6)20 Palindromic system for determining an object’s location (5)21 ___ Gwyn, actress and Charles II’s mistress, d. 1687 (4)24 Lively and energetic (9)25 Job (4)26 Army rank above colonel (9) Down 2 Desiccated (4)3 Bits and ___ (4)4 Breakfast food (6)5 Artificial (6)6 Venetian transport operator (9)7 Fond of sitting still (9)11 Urban areas designated for specific or restricted purposes (9)12 Make prettier (9)13 One of the Twelve Apostles (5)14 Seamster (5)18 Cardi B or Tupac, for example (6)19 Alternative to smoking (6)22 Central African country and lake (4)23…