Innholdsfortegnelse for 25 August 2023 i Guardian Weekly

Tristan McConnell The Lionesses lost, but they have inspired a generation of girls Page 12 → Sue Anstiss It’s time to shake off the ingrained idea that sport is a male domain Page 14 → Lucy Bronze and Ona Batlle held each other. One in defeat and one in victory. But in that moment they were not rivals or adversaries, just Lucy and Ona: friends, soulmates, former Manchester residents, and in very short order teammates at Barcelona. And as both sets of players embraced after last Sunday’s draining final, there was more than a degree of the familiar between them. Bronze has been joined by Keira Walsh at Barcelona, who provided eight of Spain’s finalists. Hannah Hampton grew up in Spain and spent part of her childhood in the Villarreal…

The Netherlands and Denmark have announced they will donate up to 61 F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine once pilot training has been satisfactorily completed, as Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited both countries after months of entreaties to bolster the Ukrainian air force. Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said her country would provide 19 jets – “hopefully” six around new year, eight more next year and the remaining five in 2025. “Please take this donation as a token of Denmark’s unwavering support,” Frederiksen said. Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, did not put a number on the Dutch donation, but said the Netherlands had 42 in its air force. The country is in the process of replacing them with more advanced US-made F-35s. “Today we can announce that the Netherlands and Denmark commit…

Scientists and academics say they have been warning for several years that invasive grasses covering a quarter of the Hawaii islands are a major fire risk. Untamed grassland helped fuel the spread and intensity of the deadly fires on the island of Maui, according to experts. The fires, which broke out on 8 August, have killed more than 100 people and destroyed the island’s historic town of Lahaina. Hawaii’s last sugarcane mill, which wasfedbya 14,570hectare-plantation on Maui, closed in 2016. “The lands around Lahaina were all sugarcane from the 1860s to the late 1990s. Nothing’s been done since then – hence the problem with invasive grasses and fire risk,” said Clay Trauernicht, an ecosystems and fire specialist at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa. Asked if the non-native grasses made…

When Antonio Castrignanò listens to pizzica, he hears much more than tambourines and drums. “This music really feels like a dream,” is how the musician and composer puts it. “It gives dignity to the sacrifices my people made for their own freedom, to no longer be inferior to anyone.” It’s an emotion other natives of Salento would doubtless understand. Birthed in village squares and olive groves, right at the heel of the Italian boot, pizzica acted for centuries as the region’s daily soundtrack. Nowadays, however, pizzica has transcended its peasant roots – and nowhere is that clearer than at the Notte della Taranta. At the same time, the music has become known far beyond Salento, its fevered rhythms common at weddings and fashion shows. Yet musicians like Castrignanò worry that…

It was standing room only when Kevin O’Keeffe, wearing a Robert Kennedy Jr campaign T-shirt, joined the audience to welcome the candidate, introduced as “Bobby Kennedy”, who walked across the sunbaked stage decked with hay bales to whoops and applause. “He supports freedom of speech, and he’s questioned the efficacy of the vaccine, which is legitimate at this point,” said O’Keeffe. “I like his views on foreign policy and keeping us out of the war. He cares about his fellow Americans in a way that a lot of the politicians nowadays I don’t think really do.” O’Keeffe was far from alone in rooting for Kennedy at the Iowa state fair this month. The long-shot challenger to Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination in 2024 drew one of the biggest and…

GAIA VINCE Just how many migrant deaths are acceptable? Page 48 → It’s uncanny, the way America’s declining influence across the Middle East seems to be tracking the previous, humbling retreat of the British empire from the same area. It’s as if the countries of the region, having ditched one overweening imperium, are rejecting another. Ruling regimes and authoritarian leaders are asserting their independence and freedom of action – some democratically, most not – while courting new allies. This reflects a fundamental shift towards a multipolar world, where solo superpowers no longer dominate. In Saudi Arabia and the UAE, ruthless royals inculcate a homogenous national identity and project power abroad through financial clout, oil and sport. Trading on their strategic importance, they reject the status of western protectorate conferred by…

The subject of Jay Owens’s new book has long been trying to kill me. Like 300 million or so people around the world, I am asthmatic; what’s more, I am allergic to dust mites. As such, I have long considered dust an enemy, to be eradicated with the help of a vacuum cleaner or a wipe with a cloth. But Owens is out to broaden our perspective on what we might have thought of up to now as a mere nuisance. Dust contains multitudes, from minerals to the black carbon emitted by cars and industry, to “skin flakes, pet dander, hair, textile fibres … the dust under your sofa contains the world”. Owens brings to the subject a microscopist’s eye and an infectious zeal. As a result of dust’s near…

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‘Wooh! Good finish,” calls out coach Ian Westlake as 10-year-old TJ fires a shot at goal. “Set it,” he shouts to the next player, “and then run. You want to come off your left foot.” It’s halfway through the Kesgrave Kestrels’ regular 90-minute Thursday evening training session – somewhere between the opening drills and the finishing game – and a brisk southwesterly wind is blowing in from the Suffolk coast, 15km away, gusting across the pitch of blue artificial turf. Volunteer coaches Westlake, Dan Spurling and Paul Berry formed the team three years ago, but really it was started by their daughters. Summer, TJ and Hettie had played together at one of more than 1,700 FA-backed Wildcats football centres established in 2017 to bring football closer to young girls and…

Shevchenkove wants its villagers to come home. There is, however, one significant obstacle: many of its buildings do not have windows. From the early days of the war until November last year when the Russian forces were pushed across the Dnipro River, Shevchenkove and surrounding hamlets in the southern region of Kherson were on the frontline. The mayor was taken prisoner and the population terrorised by hourly shelling. Many fled. After the Russians withdrew, the danger of rockets remained, but many people returned. There are 11,000 people in the region now; that is 5,000 fewer than in peacetime. In Shevchenkove, where the prewar population was 3,200, there are 2,200 residents. This is not enough for Oleg Pylypenko, the mayor, who was released in a prisoner swap. He wants everyone back.…

S eventy years ago, the fate of Iran hung in the balance, when a US-UK coup to oust the elected prime minister appeared to have failed. The CIA was ready to pull the plug on the operation, but a 28-year-old British intelligence officer, monitoring events from Cyprus, insisted on persevering. The coup – which took place this month 70 years ago – ultimately succeeded, Mohammad Mosadegh, the leader who was popular in Iran for nationalising a British-run oilfield, was detained, and the Shah flew back to Tehran, strengthened. British interests were restored in the short term but the shah went on to become a reviled dictator, paving the way for the 1979 Islamic Revolution and an enduring state of enmity between Iran and the west. Very little was known about…

If the language used on the internet is a reliable indicator, we’re more psychologically enlightened than ever. We discuss attachment styles like the weather. We joke about our coping mechanisms. We project, or are projected on to. We shun “toxic” people. We diagnose, or are diagnosed: OCD, depression, anxiety, ADHD, narcissism. We make, break or struggle to “hold” boundaries. We practise self-care. We know how to spot gaslighting. We’re tuned into our emotional labour. We’re triggered. We’re processing our trauma. We’re doing the work. The language of the therapy room has long permeated popular culture. Common terms like “repression”, “denial”, “slip of the tongue”, “hysteria” and “inner child” all lead back to Freud. But over the last decade or so, with the vast expansion of social media networks, a new,…

It’s the middle of summer, which means a new football season. The glory game hardly sleeps these days: the Women’s World Cup has only just concluded and there is the constant spectre of the Saudi power grab on men’s elite football. As a fan, I’ll still embrace this hypothetical moment of renewal. The big kick-off for me, however, will come in early September, with the return of the Thursday night football game that, for the past 25 years, I’ve played in almost every week. I first got involved with it in 1998, invited along by friends in the time-honoured way. Back then I was working at the Independent, and the 9pm kick-off suited me well as I could generally get there after the first edition of the paper had gone…

PSNI’s data blunder puts my whole family at risk I’m a serving officer with the Police Service of Northern Ireland, from a nationalist background in west Belfast. I couldn’t join the RUC as it would have been too dangerous because of who I was and where I was from. Nevertheless, I took the plunge and eventually joined the PSNI. My immediate family had to be schooled with an elaborate backstory. Wider family were not told – I made my siblings lie to their children for years because I couldn’t trust who they would tell. For 18 years I’ve relied on my family to help me protect my identity. I’ve denied myself a social life, and gave up sports I loved. I can’t stay in touch with old friends on social…

What are the best fruit salads to make in summer? Sarah, Bradford, England, UK There comes a point in summer when all meals point to fruit – and to salad. Happily, berries, apricots, nectarines, melon and the like work well in both sweet and savoury recipes. For Naz Hassan, head chef at Pidgin in east London, peaches reign in savoury dishes: “They take salt well, the flavour profile can change completely once seasoned [especially if you add chilli] and the soft flesh absorbs flavour really well.” To make his tamarind-peach salad, Hassan starts by sprinkling chunkily chopped peaches with salt. A dressing is then made by soaking tamarind “for at least two hours in lukewarm water, extracting the pulp from the flesh, then seasoning with salt and sliced bird’s-eye chillies”.…

WELLINGTON Somerset, England, UK It’s hard to believe it, but just a year ago our lush, fragrant, bee-buzzing cornucopia of flowering herbs was a bare patch of charred ash. The field containing our beloved forest garden had been tinder-dry, and it took just a casual spark to set it alight. The blaze was mercifully contained, but it’s now clear that the fire has fuelled an incredible green recovery – thanks in part to the decision to turn one corner into a herbal patch. It’s been mizzling rain and scattering sun, on and off, for at least a month now. The air is humid and cool. A group of us have come to the herbal area to learn about some of the plants from a medicinal herbalist, Helen Kearney. She runs…

1 CLIMATE CRISIS Zero-degree line at record height as Europe heats up A Swiss weather balloon had to climb to an unprecedented 5,300 metres before the temperature fell to 0C, meteorologists have said, as a late-summer heatwave and wildfires continue to pummel swathes of continental Europe. A man was found dead in a blaze raging north of Athens on Monday as the Greek government warned of an “extreme” risk of fire across the country, while more than half of mainland France was placed under an amber heat alert. MétéoSuisse said the zerodegree line – the altitude at which the temperature falls below freezing – was measured at 5,298 metres overnight. The figure, registered by a weather balloon flown from Payerne in western Switzerland, constituted “a record since monitoring began in 1954”,…

CRIME Nurse to spend life in prison for killing seven babies The serial killer nurse Lucy Letby will never be released from prison after a judge sentenced her to a rare whole-life term for the “sadistic” murder of seven babies. Letby, 33, is only the third woman alive to be given the jail term in the UK. She was sentenced at Manchester crown court on Monday. The former neonatal nurse, the worst child serial killer in modern British history, was also convicted of attempting to murder six more babies at the Countess of Chester hospital. Sentencing Letby, Mr Justice Goss described her crimes as a “cruel, calculated and cynical campaign of child murder involving the smallest and most vulnerable of children”. Letby knew her actions were “causing significant physical suffering…

This Women’s World Cup has been compelling viewing. Fans enjoyed a heady mix of breathtaking skill, dramatic incidents and unexpected results, with record attendances and viewing figures at every stage of the tournament. But it’s not just women’s football that’s enjoying momentous growth. Rugby, cricket and netball have seen record-breaking crowds this year, vast increases in TV viewing figures and new sponsorship deals, with England’s women’s sides enjoying unprecedented success – far more so than their male counterparts. So how should we now refer to these championships? Is it time to drop the “women’s” descriptor? World Rugby did this in 2019 when, in a first for a major sports federation, the women’s designation was dropped, and the tournament was renamed the Rugby World Cup 2021. But can that really work…

Like mechanised Valkyries, nine helicopters filled with armed men and women in camouflage uniforms swoop over dense forests and remote rivers – but this is not a scene from Apocalypse Now; it is a Brazilian government mission to forestall catastrophe in the Amazon rainforest. The aircraft from the country’s two main environmental agencies, Ibama and ICMBio, fly for hours above the Tapajós basin, then break formation when they approach their targets: illegal goldmining camps contaminating the waters and earth of the forest. As the helicopters descend in a cloud of dust, the prospectors flee, abandoning their excavators, dredges and high-pressure pumps. The environmental agents leap out and secure a perimeter, then set fire to every piece of equipment and drop of fuel. Plumes of thick, black smoke billow up into…

Half an hour’s drive uphill from the busy beaches of Nerja, on Spain’s Costa del Sol, lies the isolated village of El Acebuchal, pretty but spookily quiet on a summer’s morning. Seventy-five years ago, its people were victims of a grievous injustice. In August 1948, Francisco Franco’s Guardia Civil exacted a cruel and unusual punishment on every man, woman and child by summarily ordering them out of the pueblo in eastern Andalucía. Given no time to prepare, the 250 villagers fled on mules or on foot, leaving their belongings behind. Already poor and struggling to survive, many had nowhere to go. Their alleged crime? To have given food, sometimes money, occasionally shelter, to hungry and desperate guerrillas – including local men and about 20 from the next village of Frigiliana,…

Meta began blocking news from appearing across its platforms in Canada this month after prolonged negotiations with the government over Canada’s Online News Act. As Canada grapples with its worst ever wildfire season, thousands of Canadians could be affected by a reduced news coverage across Meta’s platforms. Why has Meta banned news access on its platforms in Canada? Meta started banning links to news articles on its social media platforms Facebook and Instagram in Canada in response to the federal law requiring tech companies to pay news publishers for the use of their content. The act was passed in June in an effort to ensure that technology companies, such as Meta and Google’s parent company, Alphabet, negotiate commercial deals with news publishers for the use of their material hence making…

THE SCOPE OF SAUDI ARABIAN ambition in global sport is so broad as to be dizzying, but to get a sense of how it works you can look at the history of one of the country’s first investments, in the antics of professional wrestling. In 2014, Saudi Arabia brought WWE to Riyadh. Held at the Green Halls Stadium and billed as a “live event”, the debut wasn’t televised and it aped wrestling contests previously staged in the United Arab Emirates. Fighters such as Roman Reigns, Dolph Ziggler and John Cena contested six bouts in front of a delirious, all-male crowd. “Everyone is truly proud that we’ve visited their city,” said Cena, posing for selfies with dignitaries wearing traditional thawbs. A placard in the crowd read: “I’ve WWEaited for this my…

What’s an acceptable number of dead people in European waters? What about dead children? I’m asking largely about healthy, albeit exhausted, young people. Migrants, who have braved long, terrible journeys, often experiencing horrific violence and terror. So how many should we write off as justifiable collateral damage in our war against … what, exactly? There is no war except with ourselves: it’s a culture war. The cause is “strong borders”, but strong against what? Despite the rhetoric, this is not an invasion. If the strong borders are to protect our economy – well, these are young, fit workers who could boost our economies. The question of what number of deaths is acceptable is pertinent because we are actively pursuing policies that increase these avoidable deaths. So far this year, more…

Zadie Smith has spent a long time concertedly not writing historical fiction. Determined to stay in the present, she has been on guard against the lures of the past. But history got her in the end, calling her to a Victorian village called Willesden. Thank goodness: we need minds like hers on the job. The Fraud, her sixth novel, is partly about an enslaved man on a Jamaican sugar plantation, and it’s a comedy: those two things at once. Few would dare; fewer could pull it off as Smith does here, mixing narrative delight with a vein of rapid, skimming satire as she sketches scenes of life in 19th-century England and the Caribbean. The novel is a complicated mosaic of episodes from interleaved plots. Much of it follows a court…