Innholdsfortegnelse for 31 January 2025 i Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly Founded in Manchester, England 4 July 1919 Vol212 | Issue№ 5 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 The weekly magazine has an international focus and three editions: global, 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…

In the heady mountain air of Davos last week, away from the parties and the back-slapping tech bros, another, more beleaguered crew touted their wares: the multilateralists. On the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, representatives of aid agencies, development banks and multilateral lenders grabbed a moment with the many world leaders present, vying for attention among the glitz. But at a summit dominated by the second coming of Donald Trump, and where the overwhelming concentration of power in the hands of a few giant corporations was blatant, theirs seemed like voices from another age. Trump’s arrival in the White House cements a shift that began even before his first term: away from the march of globalisation, towards a more fragmented world. Russia, once welcomed into what became the G8,…

The single-stone granite pillars and Burmese teak beams of Chettinad’s heritage hotels are adorned with strands of marigolds, while the verandas and corridors are hung with small, handmade palm-leaf parrots that sway gracefully among fragrant blooms. Six-metrelong banners made of Chettinad cotton saris proclaim “The Chettinad Heritage and Cultural festival”. Built by the Chettiar merchant community, which from the middle of the 19th century to the 1950s spread across the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, it’s hard to believe these grand mansions were ever neglected. “Economically, there was no growth in Chettinad for half a century. So how do we save such heritage?” asked Yacob Thomas George, the festival’s coordinator and manager of the Bangala hotel. “The only way is tourism. I was inspired by the Kochi-Muziris Biennale [India’s…

Ruby Franke was a family vlogger who made videos about her six children and perfect-seeming life. But when the cameras were off, she was a cruel and manipulative mother who had fallen under the spell of a dangerous ‘life coach’. Now both women have been jailed for child abuse, Ruby’s eldest daughter Shari tells how, at only 21, she has already lived through more than many will in a lifetime THE VIDEO DOORBELL FOOTAGE IS BLURRY, but you can make out the young boy approaching. He has blond hair, his legs are alarmingly skinny, duct tape is strapped to his wrists and ankles, and he is shoeless. In the background, the magnificent Red Mountains rise imperiously over the desert city of Ivins, Utah. The boy rings the bell. His voice…

Rachel Reeves might give the impression of being someone who’s never late for social engagements, but she is increasingly late to the party. At a breakfast event at Davos last week, after she’d spelled out her faith in artificial intelligence and a high-skilled workforce, someone asked Britain’s chancellor how she felt about “wealth creation” – was she relaxed, in a Blairite sense ? “Absolutely,” Reeves replied. “Absolutely relaxed.” Wealth creation isn’t quite the same as just wealth, but “wealth creators” is famously the moniker the super-rich use for themselves. And so Reeves’s exceedingly relaxed tone here puts her in a minority – possibly a minority of one. As Elon Musk salutes his way into political power, not even rich people are relaxed about wealth any more. At the World Economic…

I love baking, particularly biscuits, but I want to reduce my sugar intake. What’s the best way to do this? “People always ask: ‘Can I just cut the amount of sugar in half or by a quarter?’” says Guardian Feast baker Benjamina Ebuehi, “but it will change everything!” And that, of course, is because sugar isn’t just about sweetness; it also keeps cakes moist and soft, adds flavour and caramelisation, as well as longevity. Sugar is integral to biscuits and cookies, too. “The sugar content for those is high because it is part of the binding, the crispness and the flavour,” says Rosie Sykes, author of Every Last Bite. Low sugar and sugar substitutes are going to require trial and error, so there will inevitably be some trade-offs. Abigail Sarne,…

* All solutions published next week Across 9 Candour shown by this type of operation (4,5) 10 Driver reaches the end here? (5) 11 Policeman at ease coming to grips with issue (7) 12 Tony Blair, not heartless yob, may be appearing before a judge (2,5)  13 Drawing unopened boat (5) 14 Appreciate a couple of drinks when starting a meal (7,2)  16 Moves to cover one person who can’t spell with arse essentially in minimal attire (6,9) 19 Party not settled? Seatbelt fastened incorrectly (9) 21 Fire is strong, then weak (5) 22 Skirt-wearing Hanks undressed to put this on for the beach? (7) 23 Locate last piece of shrapnel in bone before hospital or perish? (7) 24 Lamenting golf after bankruptcy (5) 25 Away, clutching can, and sober…

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1 US/PALESTINE Trump’s ‘just clean out’ Gaza proposal roundly dismissed Donald Trump’s proposal that large numbers of Palestinians should leave Gaza to “just clean out” the whole strip was rejected by US allies in the region and attacked as dangerous, illegal and unworkable by lawyers and activists. The US president said he would like hundreds of thousands of people to move to neighbouring countries, either “temporarily or could be long-term”. Destinations could include Jordan, which already hosts more than 2.7 million Palestinian refugees, and Egypt, he added. “I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they can maybe live in peace for a change,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people,…

In the dawn light on Monday morning, tens of thousands of Palestinians flooded back into northern Gaza after Israel opened military checkpoints that had divided the strip for more than a year, ending a forced exile from homes and loved ones that many feared could become permanent. Crowds that had waited by the road overnight began the long walk back to their homes and business – or what remained of them – as soon as the crossing opened. A column heavy with emotion and trepidation spread up along the coast, parallel to the Mediterranean Sea, and into the ruined wasteland that was Gaza City, and the north of the strip beyond it. More than 80,000 buildings here have been damaged or destroyed, according to UN data. Dancing children, families carrying…

Little more than a week ago, Stewart Rhodes was serving an 18-year prison sentence for seditious conspiracy over his role in a deadly attack on the US Capitol. Last Wednesday, two days after Donald Trump’s inauguration as president, Rhodes was inside the Capitol building, wearing a Trump 2020 hat and relaxing at a Dunkin’ Donuts. With mere strokes of a pen, Trump has launched a rightwing political revolution in America, deploying troops to the US-Mexico border, assailing a constitutional right to citizenship, reversing gender and diversity policies, all but abandoning the fight against the climate crisis and freeing violent criminals who backed him. The president, back in the White House for mere days, electrified his support base with a series of pardons and actions designed to reshape the nation. From…

The armed group M23 and Rwandan soldiers entered the centre of Goma last Sunday after weeks of advancing on the main city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s North Kivu province. The advance risks sparking a broader war between Rwanda and DRC and has intensified a humanitarian crisis in the province. It was not clear early this week how much of Goma was controlled by the rebels, but witnesses in the city said rebel fighters could be seen in the centre. Residents said gunfire could be heard near the airport, city centre and near the border with Rwanda. What is M23? M23, or the March 23 Movement, is one of more than 100 armed groups fighting Congolese forces in the mineral-rich eastern DRC. It is present in North Kivu…

Seven years before Axel Rudakubana launched the Southport attack, a new category was quietly added into the UK’s Prevent counter-terrorism scheme. Labelled “mixed, unstable or unclear ideology”, it aimed to cover a growing number of cases where people had been flagged as a potential security threat but did not fit into existing boxes, such as Islamist or far-right extremism. “In cases such as these, the individual may not have a coherent or single ideology, but may still pose a terrorism risk,” said an official bulletin announcing the change in 2017, warning of a significant increase in these kinds of cases. By the time a 13-year-old Rudakubana was flagged to Prevent in November 2019, more than half of all referrals to the scheme were put in the “mixed, unstable or unclear…

Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions, a novel about growing up in colonial Zimbabwe, is one of the most important works of 20th-century African literature and features on university curriculums across the UK. British students can order a used copy for less than £3 ($3.70). But readers struggle to find it in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe and Dangarembga’s home town, even though it is published in neighbouring South Africa. “It’s very, very difficult to find my books anywhere in Zimbabwe,” said Dangarembga. African literature is thriving, and its impact on the global scene continues to grow. In 2021, African authors won the Nobel prize for literature, the Booker prize and the Camões prize for literature, the Portuguese-speaking world’s highest literary award. The New York Times hailed it as “the year for…

When American voters headed to the ballot box in November, opinion polls suggested the cost of living, immigration and reproductive rights ranked among their biggest concerns. But tucked within last week’s barrage of presidential executive orders was an attack on initiatives that had in recent years become increasingly weaponised: measures that sought to tackle discrimination. Donald Trump signed two orders aimed at unwinding the federal government’s decades-long push to ensure an inclusive workplace that reflects US society. The directives also instruct federal agencies to develop plans to deter diversity, equity and inclusion measures – referred to as DEI – in the private sector, a move viewed by some as an attempt to ward off companies from addressing discrimination in their workplaces. What is DEI? Put simply, it is a generic label…

Humming away in offices on Capitol Hill, in the Pentagon and in the White House is a technology that represents the pragmatism, efficiency and unsentimental nature of American bureaucracy: the autopen. The device stores a person’s signature, replicating it as needed using a mechanical arm that holds a real pen. Like many technologies, this rudimentary robotic signature-maker has always provoked ambivalence. We invest signatures with meaning, particularly when the signer is well known. During the George W Bush administration, the secretary of defence, Donald Rumsfeld, generated a small wave of outrage when reporters revealed that he had been using an autopen for his signature on the condolence letters that he sent to the families of fallen soldiers. Fans of singer Bob Dylan expressed ire when they discovered that the limited…

Europe is in trouble. Multiple, long-simmering external and internal challenges are coming to the boil. Taken together, they comprise the modern EU’s biggest existential test since its creation in the early 1990s. But strong, united leadership is lacking. Questioning Europe’s will to survive, Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, warned last week of a “ spiritual crisis”, of a “palpable mood of uncertainty, of loss”. The EU’s borders, democracies, laws and liberties are threatened by an aggressive Russian nihilism. Relations with the US, transatlantic blood brother and key Nato partner, are coming under unprecedented strain. China, an expansionist, authoritarian superpower, circles like a predatory foe. The economies of leading countries, notably Germany, are contracting or stagnating. The EU as a whole lacks competitiveness and capital investment, amid high levels of debt…

You are never far from a great wave. Its foaming crest froths and sputters like ghostly fingers or monstrous claws raking over tote bags and journals. You can probably find it miniaturised in your emoji keyboard on your phone, and fading on a mouse mat or pair of socks somewhere nearby. The image – officially known as Under the Wave off Kanagawa, from Katsushika Hokusai’s series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji – depicts small boats facing down a large wave, and almost two centuries after its creation its appeal spans generations, continents, and socioeconomic bands. In 2023, a Great Wave print sold for a record $2.76m at Christie’s in New York. The following year, in Japan, the image debuted on the new 1,000-yen banknote, the country’s lowest-value paper money. You…

CRIME Southport killer sentenced to 52 years for knife attack The Southport killer Axel Rudakubana was jailed for a minimum of 52 years for the “ferocious” and “sadistic” knife rampage at a children’s dance class. The 18-year-old refused to appear in the dock as the judge said he would probably “never be released and he will be in custody for all his life” for the “savage” murder of three girls and attempted murder of eight others, as well as two adults who tried to save them. It was revealed that two years before the Southport attack, Rudakubana’s parents had called police four times in six months asking for help. On one of those occasions, he was caught carrying a blade on a bus, but officers took him home and told…

Nineteen-year-old Naama Levy became an indelible symbol of Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel. In footage from that day, an armed man dragged the barefoot and bleeding soldier out of the back of a Jeep on to a street in Gaza. Her arms were tied behind her back and blood pooled in the seat of her pyjamas. Onlookers cheered at her distress. For months, the women of Levy’s all-female surveillance unit – tatzpitaniyot – had noticed unusual practice raids and drills taking place on the other side of the fence, but their reports and warnings were ignored by commanders. Fifteen women from the unit were killed when Hamas fighters stormed their base on the Gaza border, and seven taken hostage. Now, not just Levy’s abduction, but her redemption, will…

The US and Colombia pulled back from the brink of a trade war last Sunday after the White House said the Colombians had agreed to accept military aircraft carrying deported migrants. Donald Trump had threatened tariffs and sanctions on Colombia to punish it for earlier refusing to accept military flights carrying deportees amid his sweeping immigration crackdown. But in a statement late on Sunday, the White House said Colombia had agreed to accept the migrants and Washington would not impose its threatened penalties. Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, had earlier said he would only take back citizens “with dignity”, such as on civilian planes, and had turned back two US military aircraft with repatriated Colombians. The US president responded fiercely, posting that the flights had “a large number of illegal criminals”.…

On a day of startling blue skies, Auschwitz survivors stood before princes and presidents on Monday to remind the world, perhaps for the final time, of the horrors they suffered there during one of the darkest moments of human history. Beneath a marquee erected in front of the gate to the former Nazi death camp, four former inmates – the youngest 86, the oldest 99 – warned world leaders on the 80th anniversary of its liberation against the danger of rising antisemitism. Tova Friedman, 86, was five when she came to the camp, but said her memories were still “so vivid”. “We are here to proclaim … that we can never, ever allow history to repeat itself,” she said. But eight decades after the camp’s liberation, she said, “our Jewish-Christian…

In the bowels of a commercial building in Tokyo’s Shinbashi neighbourhood there is little to suggest that office workers seeing in the year of the snake have lost their appetite as they tuck into plates of charcoal-grilled chicken, bowls of edamame and flasks of sake. Calls of “Irasshaimase!” welcome new diners. It wasn’t that long ago that curfews and alcohol bans introduced to limit the spread of Covid-19 forced izakaya – informal, boozy salons that range in size from cosy joints serving yakitori (chicken skewers) to cavernous spaces with seemingly endless menus – to call last orders at what would have been the busiest time of the evening. The pandemic has passed, but Japan’s thousands of izakaya are battling soaring costs and declining demand. Often described as Japanese-style pubs, izakaya…

When Jeremy Wotherspoon laced up his skates and took to the ice, his field of vision narrowed. His world fell silent except for the deep cuts of his blades. On a good day, he would move at blistering speeds. On better days, he would travel faster than anyone else, shattering 17 world records. To race at the edge of human limits is an over-whelming sensation, he said. “It wasn’t until after I stopped that I would hear the wind for the first time or notice how hard I was breathing.” Heralded as one for the greatest speed skaters of all time, Wotherspoon set most of his world records at a single venue: Calgary’s Olympic Oval. Long track speed skaters gathered last weekend for a world cup race at the 400-met…

West End theatre is in a weird and unsettling place. It feels as though something that might once have been good and exciting is coming to an end. Many of the big shows, the ones that might have posters on the tube, are TV or film adaptations, like The Devil Wears Prada. Or familiar staples, like Mamma Mia!. Or ones with star casting, like the much-derided The Tempest with Sigourney Weaver. Which is not to say all of these shows are bad, just that there is a kind of stasis. Producers are chasing post-Covid, theatre-shy audiences at a time when the pipeline of new material flowing in from the increasingly impoverished subsidised theatre world is running dry. In this mix, though, there is something surprising: a lot of Sophocles. One…

In 2020, when the statue of slaver Edward Colston was toppled into Bristol harbour, the public were treated to weeks of confected outrage and faux-philosophising about the aesthetic, civic and social meaning of sculpture. Around the edges of the reactionary culture war nonsense were occasional good-faith attempts to grapple with how best to talk and think about these large, static objects that pepper what is left of the public realm. Lumps of stone and brass; often representational, often hagiographic, often stately, often decaying and often deeply, unnervingly strange. It is precisely this sense of strangeness – of statues hovering somewhere between architecture and painting, and between repose and movement – that animates the latest novel by the Irish artist and writer Adrian Duncan. From its opening pages, The Gorgeous Inertia…

The morning after the frost, the field basks in sunshine. Waders are foraging among the sheep and my gaze falls on the bobbing head of a redshank as it probes a tuft of grass. A golden plover dashes past. At speed, the plover’s head is steady; but when it slows, the head starts to bob; and then the bird pecks at the ground. Head-bobbing is found in about half of all avian species. It happens for similar reasons that my mammalian eyes make involuntary flickers as they look at something; that is, to build up a picture of the scene, picking out the important bits from the unimportant. As I look back at the redshank, I know my eyes are minutely moving and pausing their focus. I can assess where…