Innholdsfortegnelse for 19 May 2023 i Guardian Weekly

Turkey’s presidential election is going to a runoff after Recep Tayyip Erdoğan comfortably outperformed his chief rival, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, but just failed to clear the 50% vote threshold needed to avoid a second round. The 69-year-old conservative incumbent confounded pollsters’ predictions and his more liberally inclined rival to win the first round of the country’s pivotal election, scoring 49.51% against Kılıçdaroğlu’s 44.88%, with a small number of overseas votes left to count. The runoff will take place on 28 May. Polls and observers had predicted an advantage if not an outright victory for Kılıçdaroğlu, 74, but the final results from last Sunday’s election made clear that Erdoğan had defied expectations, seizing a majority – along with his nationalist coalition partners – in parliament and forcing a second-round vote in the…

The deaths of dozens of civilians in fighting in the far south of Sudan and an outbreak of communal violence in the restive Darfur region have fuelled fears that communities across the frontier regions of Africa’s third-biggest country are being drawn into the bloody contest between two rival generals. Where is Darfur? A huge and largely arid swathe of western and south-western Sudan, Darfur has suffered recurrent conflict, drought, famine and other problems for decades. It covers 500,000 sq km, is split into five states, and has a population of about 10 million, of which up to a tenth live in camps for those displaced from their homes. Conditions vary, but much of the region is a lawless zone where armed groups attack civilians with virtual impunity. It is also…

As a child, John Chweya and his friends scrambled over the mountain of stinking waste at Kachok dump, using a magnet to pull out metal scraps and earn a living. Over the years since, global companies such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestlé have increased plastic production by millions of metric tonnes, and plastic bottles have replaced metal as the source of income for those who pick through the garbage in Kisumu, the third largest city in Kenya. Today in the plastic industry, it is the people who live and work on rubbish mountains in Africa and across the world who are the invisible backbone of plastic recycling and enable multinational companies to meet their targets to reduce its use. According to the UN environmental assembly, 60% of the plastic recycled…

The 40-year history of the open cannabis trade on “Pusher Street” in the heart of the anarchist Christiania neighbourhood of Copenhagen could be over as the city’s mayor said she was willing to shut it down over the commune’s fears about rising gang violence. Christiania is a self-proclaimed autonomous commune in the Danish capital that has been allowed effectively to run itself as a “social experiment” since the 1970s despite periodic threats of a clean-up by national governments. At its heart is Pusher Street, where stalls operated by locals openly sell cannabis. But ever-worsening violence in the “green light” district, as organised criminal gangs have moved in and vied for dominance, has prompted concerns over residents’ safety. The mayor of Copenhagen, Sophie Hæstorp Andersen, warned in an interview with the…

IN THE 1980S, there was no better place than Bulgaria for virus lovers. The socialist country – plagued by hyperinflation, crumbling infrastructure, food and petrol rationing, daily blackouts and packs of wild dogs in its streets – had become one of the hottest hi-tech zones on the planet. Legions of young Bulgarian programmers were tinkering on their pirated IBM PC clones, pumping out computer viruses that managed to travel to the gleaming and prosperous west. In 1989, an article appeared in Bulgaria’s leading computer magazine saying the media’s treatment of computer viruses was sensationalist and inaccurate. The article, in the January issue of Bulgaria’s Computer for You magazine, titled The truth about computer viruses, was written by Vesselin Bontchev, a 29-year-old researcher at the Institute of Industrial Cybernetics and Robotics…

Earlier this month, Serbia experienced two separate mass shootings that killed more than a dozen people, including children. Serbia, a nation tied for the third highest rate of gun ownership in the world, was shaken by this violence: mass shootings are not a daily occurrence. It did not take long for the president, Aleksandar Vučić, to take action, announcing several measures to prevent further tragedy. These include a ban on new gun permits, tougher penalties for illegal weapons possession, psychological checks of gun owners and an amnesty for the surrender of illegal weapons. It only took two days for Serbia to act. Why, after more than 200 mass shootings in 2023 alone, has the United States failed to take similar sweeping action? Day after day, the US experiences senseless gun…

The eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, some 30km from the Russian border, has suffered in the past year. Cruise missiles and shells rained down on it last spring, killing hundreds of civilians, blasting the regional government building and the opera house, cratering apartment blocks, shops, schools, churches and university buildings. Having withstood the Russian assault, the city is now in a state of tentative recovery, despite the occasional artillery hit. Though many buildings are boarded up or ruined, shops and cafes are opening up in pockets. On a recent spring day, teams of volunteers were out tending streetside flowerbeds and sweeping the public squares. In the early days of February 2022, artist Mykola Kolomiets had no idea of the momentous and deadly events that were coming his way. Instead, he…

‘We are standing at a turning point in Europe’s fortunes,” warned the Prussian diplomat Joseph von Radowitz in February 1848. He was speaking of the year in which revolution spread through Europe at startling speed. In January, Sicily erupted in revolt against the Bourbon king Ferdinand II. Six weeks later, an insurrection in Paris overthrew the French king Louis-Philippe. By March, the flames of revolution were engulfing cities from Milan to Vienna, from Berlin to Budapest. The 1848 revolutions occupy a strange place in European historiography. Most historians acknowledge their significance as a Europe-wide set of uprisings. Yet they remain largely a submerged presence in European consciousness, viewed not so much as Radowitz’s “turning point” but “the turning point at which modern history failed to turn”, in GM Trevelyan’s pithy…

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In March 2021, less than a month after his 18th birthday, Lawson, who does not want to reveal his full name, made a decision that would change the course of his life. The previous year, Lawson, like thousands of other Hongkongers, had taken to the streets to participate in pro-democracy protests against the influence of the Chinese Communist party. In November 2019, he said he had been arrested for rioting before being released without charge. In June 2020, Beijing declared victory over the protesters and imposed a draconian national security law. By January 2021, the police had arrested dozens of pro-democracy activists and protesters, who faced charges that could carry a life sentence. Lawson saw the writing on the wall, and a friend bought him a plane ticket to London.…

If Ghardimaou football club’s players had been there to take to the pitch last month, the Tunisian town’s stadium would have been packed with fans, waving the teams’s blue and white colours. The club, which plays in the fourth division of the national league, was due to face the third-placed El Battan. It would not have been an easy game but Ghardimaou FC’s president, Jamil Meftahi, believes his players could have won. The match did not take place. The club has all but ceased to exist after more than 30 of its players left the country, trying, like thousands of their compatriots, to reach Europe. Sitting in a town centre cafe, Meftahi, an ex-player himself, scrolls through a four-page document listing the names of his former squad. “In the last…

Amystery of Donald Trump’s US presidency was the absence of a major sex scandal. The thrice-married billionaire who boasted on Access Hollywood that women let him “grab ’em by the pussy” seemed to commit every abuse of power except the kind that nearly brought down Bill Clinton. Trump’s effort to regain the White House, however, must confront a different reality: he is now legally defined as a sexual predator. Last Tuesday, a jury in New York found that the former president sexually abused magazine writer E Jean Carroll in the 1990s and then defamed her by branding her a liar, awarding $5m in damages. It was a moment of reckoning for a man who was previously accused of sexual misconduct or assault by more than two dozen women but faced…

IN A SILENT COVE JUST ABOVE THE ANTARCTIC CIRCLE, the Collins glacier, a towering slab of ice scored with folds and crevasses, creeps towards the Southern Ocean. “If you stay still you can hear it move,” whispers Iva Vásquez, 27, putting a finger to her lips. Apart from the groans of the ancient ice sheet, only the muffled flipper sounds of chinstrap penguins break the silence as fat snowflakes drift to the ground. Occasionally, one bird squawks and breaks from the huddle to slip noiselessly below the surface of the water, mottled with shards of ice. This summer, Vásquez swapped her home on Chile’s isolated Robinson Crusoe Island for the bustle of Escudero base, a research facility in the South Shetland Islands, where she works as a navigator and guide…

In recent weeks, thousands of young Ukrainians have gone through their last training drills, checking their weapons and waiting for D-day. In the imminent big Ukrainian counteroffensive, some will be killed, many more wounded. None will be unchanged. We thought we had said goodbye to all that in 1945, but this is Europe in 2023. Nobody knows what will happen in this campaign. But we can at least be clear what we want to happen – and firm in supporting the Ukrainians to achieve it. Decisive Ukrainian victory is the only sure path to a lasting peace, a free Europe and ultimately a better Russia. This alone would be the new VE Day. Ukrainians have a theory of victory. It goes from success on the battlefield to change in Moscow.…

‘IT WAS TRULY AWFUL FROM START TO FINISH,” says Armando Iannucci, recalling the painful process around the US remake of his satirical comedy The Thick of It back in 2007. “The pilot was so boring. There was no swearing, no improv … everything The Thick of It had, it didn’t have. I played it for the cast and people just started wandering off. It couldn’t even hold our attention.” On paper, the US version had looked juicy. Mitch Hurwitz, creator of Arrested Development, was producing, with Christoper Guest of Spinal Tap fame directing. But the BBC sold the show to ABC and the culture of US network television – compared with cable or, latterly, streaming, where there’s more freedom around language and content – proved suffocating for Iannucci. “Everything is…

If you want to make the most of green peppers, get ‘em stuffed Supermarket packs of peppers always include a green one – nasty, bitter things that I only use in minestrone. What else can I do with them? Mel, Evesham, England, UK This is all too familiar to Luis Gonzalez-Castro, founder of London-based Cuban supper club Cocina Cuca, who “doesn’t love their raw, bitter flavour, either”. That said, green peppers have always featured in his family’s cooking, so Gonzalez-Castro has “learned to appreciate them” – and you can, too, Mel! The road to recovery might start with aji relleno, a favourite of Gonzalez-Castro’s father: “He cuts the tops off a few peppers, gently coats in olive oil, then fills with picadillo [a mix of mince, herbs, raisins and olives].”…

Across 5 Some domestic leverets, by no means harebrained (6)6 Rabbit’s friend finally gave the okay to enter home (6)9 Rabbit’s retreat from beach, going back into vessel (6)10 eg scorpion in car had run amok (8)11 Divine female among she-rabbits, a variety of hare (4)12 American rabbit time after time found in strange location (10)13 Cheesy offering for poor performer in red jersey (5,6)18 VIP’s moving appearances in public (10)21 Raise something that may be brought up by latecomers (4)22 Article’s lacking in inspiration regarding name for fellow believers (8)23 Old marketplace importing new kind of yarn (6)24 Fluctuate in encounter, with tense change in second half (6)25 Punished author who supposedly prioritised catching hare, we hear (6) Down 1 Extremely depleted bag, ie awfully bad result of rabbiting?…

1 UKRAINE Bombardment of Kyiv ranks among war’s most ferocious Authorities were assessing the damage after Russian forces carried out a massive strike of “exceptional intensity” on Kyiv on Monday night, in one of the biggest attacks on the capital since last year’s invasion. Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said Kyiv’s defenders had shot down all 18 Russian rockets and drones. The city had came under an intense and sweeping attack from the “north, south and east”, by missiles fired from air, sea and land, he said. Air defence batteries intercepted six hypersonic Kinzhal missiles, the most potent long-range weapon in the Kremlin’s arsenal. They had also stopped nine cruise missiles, three ballistic missiles, six kamikaze drones and three unmanned aerial vehicles, according to Ukraine’s military high command. The attacks came amid…

Reclining in a leather chair framed by shelves of colourful shampoo bottles, washing powder and jars of deep golden honey, Rakkan Talib surveys the small business he has made his own. Talib, 26, arrived in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep in 2014 after fleeing Islamic State’s advance on his home town of Deir ez-Zor, determined to transform his fortunes after abandoning his dream of becoming a doctor. He worked his way up until he bought his corner shop two years ago. “I lost my education, and my future. I lost everything to come here and live in safety and dignity. Now they’re talking about restoring relations with Bashar al-Assad and deporting us to Syria,” he said. “These election results will be fateful for me, and for all Syrians in…

The crowds gathered peacefully, jostling outside the home of the man they call the “saviour of Pakistan”, hoping for a glimpse. Two days earlier, these same streets in the city of Lahore had resembled a war zone as tens of thousands of protesters violently took to the streets, ransacking buildings, burning cars, throwing petrol bombs and clashing with police, with several dying from gunshot wounds. By Saturday, however, there was calm. Late last Friday, Imran Khan had finally returned to his home, after he had been arrested on Islamabad high court premises by 100 paramilitary officers. He was detained for two days but, to the surprise of many observers, was granted bail and allowed to walk free after his arrest was declared illegal by Pakistan’s supreme court. With Khan released,…

Sylvia Brady does not romanticise her life as a newlywed in northern England in 1959. “We’d get up in the morning and we’d go to work in the dark. We’d come home at night in the dark. It was always raining and there were these big posters everywhere: ‘Australia wants new migrants and it’s only 10 pounds.’” So when her husband came home one evening and said: “Let’s give Australia a go,” she didn’t bat an eyelid. Brady was among more than one million Britons who migrated to Australia under the Assisted Passage Migration Scheme between 1945 and 1982, known colloquially as “10-pound poms”. Despite the British being the single-largest migrant intake in Australia for the entirety of that period, Alistair Thomson, a history professor at Monash University, calls them…

In autumn 1958, soon after 82% of voters had backed a new constitution for arguably western Europe’s least governable country, Charles de Gaulle turned to his confidant, Alain Peyrefitte, and observed, with evident satisfaction, that he had successfully reconciled monarchy and republic. But as France’s Fifth Republic nears its 65th anniversary later this year, there can have been few moments in its history when it has seemed more contested – and it is the constitution’s elevation of the nation’s president to the status, almost, of an elected monarch that appears most to blame. “Down with the Fifth Republic!” has been one of the chants of the millions of demonstrators who, 13 times now, have taken to the streets, sometimes violently, in a rolling nationwide protest that has become about far…

María Zapata Escamilla woke to the sound of shattering glass. Armed men in military fatigues had burst into her home: they dragged her disabled husband outside, along with her 14-year-old son, still in his pyjamas. Then they drove away into the night. Two weeks later, her husband’s brutalised body turned up along with nine others. But after more than a year, her son remains missing. “I was left navigating alone,” she said through tears. “If they told me ‘give up your life in exchange for your son’, I would.” Zapata’s ordeal has become terrifyingly common in Fresnillo, a city in the central state of Zacatecas which is being torn apart by a battle between the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels. More than 70 people went missing between January and March –…

“The European Broadcasting Union, which organises Eurovision, is like the European Central Bank: whenever it’s called upon to make an important decision, you can rely upon it to make the wrong one, and it’s wholly dependent on the mixture of goodwill and inertia that leads the international community not to go on about it. Its bet is a generalised feeling of “Oh well, it made the wrong call again. Never mind. Better luck next year/next global financial crisis”, and it’s one that mainly pays off. This time next week we’ll have forgotten that it wouldn’t let Volodymyr Zelenskiy address the contest, in lieu of Ukraine hosting it, because it didn’t want the event politicised. So I just want to pause for one second to remark how dumb that was. Inevitably,…

In 2010, writer and musician Howard Fishman went to a Christmas party at a friend’s house where, not knowing many people, he took to scanning the bookshelves. As he did so, a song called Talkin’ Like You (Two Tall Mountains) came on the stereo that, he recalls, “swallowed me. The party froze. The room disappeared.” Set against a backdrop of gentle guitar picking, it was sung by a woman, plaintively and without affectation, about “a place they called Lonesome” where everything, from the brook to the pigs in the yard, reminds her of an absent lover. Fishman sought out the host to ask who was singing, and she told him about Connie Converse, who recorded songs in her kitchen in 1950s Greenwich Village, and whose musical talents had gone largely…