Innehållsförteckning för 23 January 2026 från Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly Founded in Manchester, England 4 July 1919 Vol214 | Issue№ 4 Guardian Weekly is an edited selection of some of the best journalism found in the Guardian’s digital editions in the UK, US and Australia, and the Guardian newspaper in the UK. The weekly magazine has an international focus and four editions: global, Europe, 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…

Lying between the US and Russia, Greenland has become a critical frontline as global heating opens up the Arctic. Its importance has been underscored by Donald Trump considering attempts to take the island from America’s Nato partner Denmark, either by buying it or by force. The climate crisis is shrinking Greenland’s ice sheet, along with the Arctic sea ice, opening new sea routes and exposing resources. Trump’s threats, once dismissed as bluster but now taken seriously, are also seen as a signal of how melting ice is turning Greenland into a geopolitical flashpoint. The average extent of sea ice in the Arctic over the past five years was 4.6m sq km, roughly the size of the EU. But this is a 27% reduction compared with the average of 6.5m sq…

Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s former pro-western monarch, has predicted the country’s Islamic regime will fall and claimed he is “uniquely” placed to head a successor government. His comments follow weeks of mass protests that have left thousands dead after being brutally suppressed by security forces. His credentials are certain to be challenged by other opponents of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime, given Pahlavi has not been in Iran since his family fled the country at the beginning of the 1979 Islamic revolution. Many question his level of popular support, even though his name has been chanted at some protests. Calling on the west to help unseat Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, Pahlavi said last week that the regime was doomed to collapse with or without such assistance. “The Iranian people…

Selling vegetables was Dieudonné Bakarani’s first job. He had a little stall at Kinshasa Central Market. Decades later, the 57-year-old entrepreneur is redeveloping the historic marketplace that gave him his start in business to be an award-winning city landmark. Bakarani hopes to see the market, known as Zando, flourish again and reopen next month after a five-year hiatus. The design has already been recognised internationally; in December, the architects won a Holcim Foundation award for sustainable design. “We have built a market with local people, especially our mothers and sisters, in mind,” Bakarani said. “We have kept the concept of the old one but have enlarged it, and it is more functional.” Inaugurated in January 1944 under Belgian colonial rule, Zando was demolished and rebuilt in 1968, with space for…

High-profile studies reporting the presence of microplastics throughout the human body have been thrown into doubt by scientists who say the discoveries are probably the result of contamination and false positives. One chemist called the concerns “a bombshell”. While there is no suggestion of malpractice, the Guardian has identified seven studies that have been challenged by researchers publishing criticism in the respective journals, while a recent analysis listed 18 studies that it said had not considered that some human tissue can produce measurements easily confused with the signal given by common plastics. Faulty evidence on the level of microplastics in humans could lead to misguided regulations and policies, researchers say. It could also help plastics industry lobbyists to dismiss concerns by claiming they are unfounded. “Levels of microplastics in human…

Ten years ago, a postie delivered eight packages to my door. Each one contained something for me to photograph and promote on social media, and the pile felt ominous. Too much stuff, too much obligation! I was disgusted by the excess. A few years later, my partner and I sold 80% of our belongings, and moved into a caravan to go on a road-trip around Australia, where we live, with our four children. I think this is called overhauling your life; when you subtract what’s superfluous so you’re left with the essentials – the things that really matter. Another word for it is “enoughness”: take what you need, leave the rest – a counter-cultural concept in 2026. After a shift to van life and two slow years on the road,…

Maybe it’s the invitation of the lengthening days, but at this time of year I crave a long view. And here, on the approach to the ringfort of Grianán of Aileach, I have it. As the late afternoon sun squints over the fort’s high walls, it’s easy to understand why early medieval monarchs cherished this summit. My gaze plunges to the Inch Levels reserve, where flocks of wintering whooper swans and greylag geese speckle the flooded fields. I stop for a moment, lingering over the sky’s perfect reflection in the reserve’s brackish lagoon, with Lough Swilly beyond. Not far from here to Ireland’s northernmost edge and the Atlantic Ocean. The peninsula where I stand, Inishowen, is the aileach (“rocky place”) that was once the kingdom of the Owen dynasty. They…

1 US/EUROPE Trump links Greenland threats to Nobel snub Donald Trump linked his repeated threats to seize control of Greenland to his failure to win the Nobel peace prize, as tensions over the Arctic island escalated further and threatened to rekindle a trade war with the EU. In an extraordinary text message sent last Sunday to the Norwegian prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, the US president wrote that after being snubbed for the prize, he no longer felt the need to think “purely of peace”. “Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace,” he wrote, adding that the US needed “complete and total control” of Greenland. Trump has ramped…

It is never ideal in politics to have a senior colleague defect, hurling insults as they depart, but as the dust settles on Robert Jenrick’s move to Reform UK, many remaining Conservative MPs agree on one thing: it has left Kemi Badenoch stronger. “Historically, the party has suffered from two weaknesses: too many people trying to bring down the leader, and not enough leaders getting rid of those people,” one shadow minister said. “Hopefully now we’re all pulling in the same direction. Losing a senior shadow minister is not ideal. But given those basic facts, the day could hardly have gone better.” Badenoch set the agenda in pre-empting Jenrick’s probable defection by sacking him as shadow justice secretary and stripping him of the Tory whip, leaving the Newark MP and…

A solitary figure stands on the shore of Thailand’s Tang Khen Bay. The tide is slowly rising over the sandy beach, but the man does not seem to notice. His eyes are fixed on the small screen clutched between his hands. About 600 metres offshore, past the shadowy fringe of coral reef, his drone hovers over the murky sea, focused on a whirling grey shape: Miracle, the local dugong, is back. Theerasak Saksritawee, known by his nickname Pop, has been visiting Tang Khen Bay almost every day for the past 15 months to monitor the dugongs, including Miracle, which have come to live in this pocket of the Andaman Sea. After dropping his daughter off at school, Pop, 42, makes the short drive from his home in Phuket city down…

What do a purple cartoon cat and abortion have in common? Nothing – and that is the point, say the women behind Jacarandas, a Colombian abortion helpline. Determined to set themselves apart from more traditional reproductive health organisations, Jacarandas commissions street and graphic artists to create eye-catching illustrations – most recently a cartoon feline called Gataranda, inspired by the team’s much-loved office pet. The aim is not to make light of abortion but to appeal to the teenagers and young women who use Jacarandas’ services. “A lot of people do not connect with [an image of] the uterus on fire, so we thought: ‘ What can we do to connect more with young women?’” said Carolina Benítez Mendoza, the deputy director. “We try to stay current and make things that…

As the harsh reality sets in that Venezuela’s authoritarian regime remains essentially unchanged even without Nicolás Maduro, activists who have spent years fighting for the country’s return to democracy are unsure about what the next steps should be. They agree that the country should very soon either hold new elections or install the retired diplomat Edmundo González – widely believed to have won the 2024 election – but neither option appears to be on the White House’s agenda at the moment. After capturing Maduro and taking control of Venezuela’s oil, Donald Trump could have chosen to install González – whose victory the opposition has demonstrated through collected tally sheets – but instead decided to leave the former dictator’s entire cabinet in charge of the country, claiming it would now operate…

From Greenland’s icy mountains, from India’s coral strand, as the old hymn has it, we seem to inhabit a world that is more seriously troubled in more places than many can ever remember. In the UK, national morale feels all but shot. Politics commands little faith. Ditto the media. The idea that, as a country, we still have enough in common to carry us through – the idea embedded in Britain’s once potent Churchillian myth – feels increasingly threadbare. Welcome, in short, to the Britain of the mid-1980s. That Britain often felt like a broken nation in a broken world, very much as Britain often does in the mid-2020s. The breakages were of course very different. And on one important level, misery is the river of the world. But, for…

When my son makes marmalade, he never warms the jars or uses circles of baking paper – he just puts the lids on. It never goes mouldy, so am I wasting my time doing it the “proper” way? Dagna, Berkhamsted, England, UK You can’t get much sweeter than marmalade, and this is most likely the reason for both Dagna and her son’s success, despite their differing strategies. “The chance of mould developing is low because there’s so much sugar to balance the bitterness of the orange peel,” says Camilla Wynne, preserver and author of All That Crumbs Allow. “Mould needs water to do its thing, and sugar binds to water.” In terms of this family dispute, Dagna’s son is more right than she is, says Pam Corbin, author of Pam…

* All solutions published next week Across 1 Everything is a burden, it’s said unfailingly (6) 5 Bat’s preparatory move, dramatically illuminated when female enters (8) 9 Stop working with rock star’s ultimate fixer (8) 10/13 Explosive agent and critic put off introducing one (6,4) 11 Many a flutter initiated by this US money (and a bit English) (7,5) 13 See 10 14 Trainee mobile phone, yet complicated (8) 17 Pure iodine added to a tobacco (8) 18 Low temperature? That’s debatable (4) 20 Exaggerating what a sewer might be doing (12) 23 Hot sort of scarf with neck opening (6) 24 Maybe Burton’s ex at piano, learning rock intro (8) 25 One has copies, right, to correct and certify (8) 26 Presidential term: ‘Career’s over in golf course support’…

REFORM UK Robert Jenrick defects after sacking by Kemi Badenoch Robert Jenrick made a dramatic defection to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK last week, declaring the Conservatives “rotten” and a “failed” party, after being sacked by Kemi Badenoch for plotting against her. The defection deepens the schism on the right as Badenoch struggles to keep the Conservatives together after a series of high-profile moves. The former shadow justice secretary, who stood for the Tory leadership against Badenoch, said the Conservative party in Westminster “isn’t sorry, it doesn’t get it, it hasn’t changed, it won’t change, it can’t change”. Jenrick had the whip removed and his party membership suspended after Badenoch said she had found “irrefutable evidence” that he was planning to defect. The Tory leader appointed the West Suffolk MP Nick…

When Donald Trump said he would “rescue” protesters if Iranian authorities started shooting, Siavash Shirzad believed the US president. The 38-year-old father had seen protests rise up before, only to be brutally crushed by authorities. But this was the first time in his life that the president of the United States had promised to help demonstrators. Reassured, Shirzad took to the streets, ignoring his family’s warnings and joining the growing crowds. Authorities started shooting, but no help came. On 8 January, the internet was shut off and Iran went dark; Shirzad was shot at a protest in Tehran and died of his wounds hours later, leaving behind a 12-year-old son. “Siavash hoped until the very end that Trump’s help would arrive,” his cousin said, speaking anonymously for fear of repercussions.…

Outside the main pumping station for Bucha, three engineers, bundled up in parkas, are working on the emergency generator keeping the Ukrainian city supplied with water. One holds a heat gun to the generator’s filter in an effort to unfreeze it, his face reddened by blowing snow and a daytime temperature of-12C. Watching attentively is the city’s mayor, Anatolii Fedoruk. The generator in his office is also frozen. Four years ago, in the first days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Bucha and the neighbouring city of Irpin became emblematic of the brutality of Moscow’s brief occupation of this area amid the murder of civilians. While the buildings in Bucha have largely been repaired, and the Russians pushed away long ago, Ukraine’s long war is still very much being felt here…

Tsotleho Mohale was addressing a group of people gathered on a mountainside still damp from an intense rainstorm that morning. The peaks on the other side of the steep valley were draped in cloud. Mohale was speaking in siPhuthi, a language spoken by just a few thousand people in parts of southern Lesotho and the north of South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, about the plants he used and the ailments he cured as a traditional healer. The questions came from Sheena Shah, a British linguist, and were translated into siPhuthi by Mohale’s grandson Atlehang. Shah’s German colleague Matthias Brenzinger was filming the exchange. The two academics have been travelling regularly to Daliwe, a remote valley in Lesotho 25km from the nearest paved road, since 2016, working with interpreters and activists…

It is one India’s most ubiquitous garments, with origins in the grand Mughal courts and Rajasthani kingdoms of times past, and still widely favoured by grooms at wedding receptions. But last week, the distinctive highcollared bandhgala jacket – known to many as the “princely jacket” in a nod to its royal origins – was at the centre of a lively debate after it was denounced by the Indian railways minister as a symbol of a “colonial mindset”. In an attempt to “banish” such colonial hangovers, Ashwini Vaishnaw has declared the bandhgala will be immediately removed as part of the formal uniform of Indian Railways staff. “We have to get rid of all colonial mindset,” Vaishnaw said. “We need to find each of them and remove them, whether it’s in our…

Fifteen minutes after takeoff, the call came for Serbia’s central bank governor: millions of dollars’ worth of gold bars, destined for a high-security Belgrade vault, had been left on the runway of a Swiss airport. In air freight – despite the extraordinary value of bullion – fresh flowers, food and other perishables still take priority. “We learned this the hard way,” Jorgovanka Tabaković told a conference late last year. Serbia’s is among a growing number of central banks to hastily amass vast stockpiles of gold, upending decades of conventional economic logic and fuelling an increase in the gold price amid mounting geopolitical tensions. As Washington challenges the US Federal Reserve’s independence, sending jitters through financial markets, the price soared to a record $4,643 an ounce last week, and analysts have…

Did you notice history being made last week? I am not referring to what may have been the most pathetic moment in recorded time – Donald Trump gratefully taking the Nobel peace prize medal from the woman who actually won it – nor the defection of a politician from one British rightwing party to another, but something grimmer. For last week witnessed what could well prove to be a landmark chapter in the blood-soaked history of the Middle East. Thanks to an information blackout caused by Tehran’s decision to switch off the internet, it is hard to be precise about what just happened on the streets of Iran. But one official has admitted to a death toll of 2,000. CBS News put the number of dead at 12,000, while some…

In the last 15 years, a linked series of technologies have changed the experience of personhood across most of the world. It is estimated that nearly 70% of the population of Earth possesses a smartphone, and these devices constitute about 95% of the planet’s internet access-points. Globally, on average, people spend close to half their waking hours looking at screens, and among young people in the rich world the number is higher than that. History teaches that new technologies always make possible new forms of exploitation, and this has been exemplified by the rise of society-scale digital platforms. It has been driven by a new way of extracting money from human beings: call it “human fracking”. Fracking (of the Earth and of our minds) produces toxicity and the despoliation of…

Across 1 Change (6) 4 Kind of nut (5) 7 Half a crotchet (6) 8 Big gun (6) 9 Ululate – like a Marley bandmate? (4) 10 Always given similar roles (8) 12 Gifted (and shining?) youngster (6,5) 17 Building block shade? (5,3) 19 Arrange in order (4) 20 Corner of attic network? (6) 21 Blow out, like sails (6) 22 Cut through, leaving dust? (5) 23 Idolise (6) Down 1 Sharp sticks? (7) 2 Italian composer, d.1741 (7) 3 Patient carrier (9) 4 Aircraft (5) 5 Horse-man? (7) 6 Football game minutes, without injury time (6) 11 Spanish dance (4,5) 13 Arc of seven colours (7) 14 Exonerate (7) 15 Often slurred and off-key amateur singing? (7) 16 Old counter (6) 18 Naked (anag) (5) Solution No 17,369…