Innholdsfortegnelse for 2 May 2025 i Guardian Weekly

Sweeping through Kumpos, a traditional figure and dance from the Jola people of the Casamance region of Senegal and the Gambia, is performed on Malibu beach in the Guédiawaye district of Dakar, as part of the Herds public art and climate action project, which aims to cross about 10 countries between central Africa and the Arctic by August. The Guardian Weekly Founded in Manchester, England 4 July 1919 Vol212 | Issue№ 18 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.…

“Crimea will stay with Russia,” Donald Trump told Time magazine in a largely sympathetic profile last Friday. And with that statement, the US president made clear that he wanted to carve up another country, Ukraine, and so legitimise the forcible seizure of land made by Moscow 11 years ago. From reading the transcript of the interview, Trump’s thinking is hardly coherent. Crimea, he says, wouldn’t have been seized if he had been president in 2014, but “it was handed to them by Barack Hussein Obama” and now Crimea has “been with them [Russia] for a long time” – so it is time to accept the seizure. The president does not even pursue the argument that a recognition of Russia’s occupation of Crimea is a necessary price of ending Russian military…

Riding two horses is hard enough, but diplomats are joking in private that Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are trying to ride three. At the IMF summit in Washington last week, Reeves sought to position the UK as a beacon of free trade, open to business – with the EU, US and China. Riding those three horses is central to the government’s strategy for growth and navigating choppy global waters as the post-cold-war order is redrawn. What Reeves did not address was that the UK was being pulled in opposing directions that may force ministers to make choices between Brussels, Washington and Beijing. Before the chancellor’s trade talks last week with the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, it emerged that the US was pushing the UK to relax its rules…

At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be anything special about the sea bass circling around a tank in the small scientific facility on the outskirts of Palavas-les-Flots in southern France. But these fish are on a mission. When the fish are fully grown, they will produce offspring that will be the first to be launched into space as part of a scientific project called Lunar Hatch that is exploring whether sea bass can be farmed on the moon – and eventually Mars – as food for future astronauts. The project is the brainchild of Dr Cyrille Przybyla, a researcher in marine biology for the French National Institute for Ocean Research, who will be watching the fish’s progress like any anxious parent. “Fish is an excellent source of protein because…

THE TUNNEL IN WHICH ATHLETES WAIT before they enter a stadium ahead of a major race is “by no means a friendly place to be”, says Lisa Dobriskey – and as a former Team GB athlete who won Commonwealth gold and world championship silver at 1500m, she has stood in enough of them to know. “Different people handle it differently,” she says. “Some people are really relaxed and friendly; other people just look right through you. It’s scary. I remember my coach saying to me, ‘When you go to the Olympics, you’ll be standing next to the meanest, toughest, hardest people that you’ll ever face.’ Everybody wants to win.” As it turned out, the wait to walk into London’s Olympic stadium for the final of her event in August 2012…

I am not even inside the building but a creeping sense of foreboding has already set in. As I try to find the entrance to Nikolaj Kunsthal, a gothic-style former church in Copenhagen, I hear the lamenting strings of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde – the soundtrack to Lars von Trier’s 2011 end-of-the-world film Melancholia. Inside, I take a seat in a tent-like structure, similar to the one in the film, and watch as a planet hurtles towards Earth, Wagner still blasting away. With the world still reeling from the arrival of Trump 2.0, and Europe at war amid increasing polarisation, looming AI takeover and the escalating climate emergency, the experience feels strangely current, but in other very important ways, Von Trier is deeply irrelevant in 2025. As well as attracting criticism…

‘Creation of Life,” read the headline of the Boston Herald in 1899. “ Lower Animals Produced by Chemical Means.” The report described the work of the German-American marine biologist Jacques Loeb, who later wrote: “The idea is now hovering before me that man himself can act as a creator, even in living nature.” In fact, Loeb had merely made an unfertilised sea urchin egg divide by exposing it to a mixture of salts – he was not even close to creating life in the lab. No scientist has ever done that. But that dream hovers today over the discipline called synthetic biology, the very name of which seems to promise the creation of artificial life forms. Take one of the most dramatic results in this field: in 2010, scientists at…

Across 1 Shade of a bird? (6,6) 9 Acclimatise (5) 10 High Renaissance great master (7) 11 In-and-out trend (4) 12 State and river (8) 14 Intensely hot or emotional (6) 15 Take first golf shot (3,3) 18 Moment of final confrontation (4,4) 20 Bluefin fish (4) 22 Attention-seeker’s device? (7)  23 Central stage – or where one may be found (5)  24 Windbag (12) Down 2 To shreds (7) 3 Hoary? (4) 4 Pungent medicinal herb known as old man’s pepper (6)  5 Hireling (8) 6 Peruvian animal? (5)  7 Cold dish from a NY hotel? (7,5) 8 Talking talent (4,2,3,3) 13 Demonic (8) 16 Sumptuous (7) 17 Humdinger – one securing wine? (6)  19 Greek letter – of brain waves? (5) 21 Ruff – rough coating of tree…

1 UKRAINE/RUSSIA Putin declares a three-day truce for Victory Day Vladimir Putin declared a three-day full ceasefire in the war with Ukraine from 8 May to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union in the second world war. The Kremlin called on Ukraine to join it as well. In response Kyiv called for an immediate month-long ceasefire. Putin, in his statement, also said he was ready to engage constructively with international partners to address the “root causes” of the conflict. If respected by both sides, the May ceasefire would mark the first full ceasefire since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago. However, the temporary nature of the truce suggests that US efforts to broker a broader peace deal remain elusive.…

For Sunil Singh, there is only one way for India to respond to last week’s attack by militants in Kashmir. “Those terrorists and their supporters should be shot dead, and their houses should be blown up,” the shopkeeper said. “We should even use the air force and drop bombs on the residential areas where these terrorists find shelter. There should be a bloodbath in Pakistan to teach them a lesson.” Since 25 tourists and one local guide were killed by militants last Tuesday afternoon, as they strolled peacefully through Kashmir’s verdant Baisaran valley, much of the Indian public has been baying for vengeance. It was the deadliest attack on civilians in more than two decades in India’s restive region of Kashmir. The gruesome details of the attack from survivors –…

Mark Carney, the economist, banker and politician, has long professed a simple article of faith when navigating through crisis: “A plan beats no plan.” And his rapid ascent to Canada’s top job might be taken as evidence of such preparation. But Carney’s election victory on Monday was shaped by a series of chance events that hinged more on circumstance than meticulous forethought. Half a year ago, the Liberal party was in crisis. In late October, nearly two dozen backbench Liberal MPs signed a letter calling for then prime minister Justin Trudeau to step down amid fears that his unpopularity could lead to a crushing electoral defeat. Separately, a “code red” petition circulated among grassroots party supporters calling for a secret ballot on Trudeau’s leadership. The Conservatives had already attempted the…

Soaring prices of basic food-stuffs, diminishing stocks of medical supplies and sharp cuts to aid distribution threaten newly catastrophic conditions across Gaza, Palestinians and international aid officials in the battered territory are warning. Humanitarian organisations including the World Food Programme and Unrwa, which supplies food and services to more than 2 million Palestinians across Gaza, have now distributed the last of their stocks of flour and other foodstuffs to the dozens of community kitchens in the territory that serve basic meals to those with no other option. Aid groups’ warehouses were filled during the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that came into effect in mid-January and ended in early March. They are now empty. “There isn’t anything left to give them now, so once the last supplies have been used…

Poaching busts are familiar territory for the officers of Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), an armed force tasked with protecting the country’s iconic creatures. But what awaited guards when they descended in early April on a guesthouse in the west of the country was both larger and smaller in scale than the smuggling operations they typically encounter. There were more than 5,000 smuggled animals, caged in their own enclosures. Each one, however, was about the size of a little fingernail: 18-25mm. The cargo, which two Belgian teenagers had apparently intended to ship to exotic pet markets in Europe and Asia, was ants. Their enclosures were a mixture of test tubes and syringes containing cotton wool – environments that authorities say would keep the insects alive for weeks. “We did not come…

“ This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy!” screamed Elon Musk, wielding the power tool before a cheering crowd at a rightwing political conference. The tech titan promised to slice and dice the US federal government and save taxpayers a trillion dollars. Oozing confidence, the world’s richest person seemed unstoppable. That was February. Last week Musk announced that he is hanging up his chainsaw and stepping back from his role overseeing the unofficial “department of government efficiency”, or Doge, to focus on Tesla, his beleaguered electric vehicle company. It is possible that the relative lull in the chaos unleashed by Doge presages a new, more dangerous phase. CNN has reported that Doge is building a master database to accelerate deportations of undocumented immigrants by combining data from across the federal government.…

LUNCHTIME IN COPENHAGEN, DENMARK. The place is packed and staff are talking customers through the menu. Would we like slow-roasted pork with pearl barley and mushrooms? How about rye pancakes with salmon, cream cheese and avocado? I decide on beetroot tartare with horseradish and rye toasts, and a spelt side salad. This isn’t a fancy new Nordic restaurant – it’s a work canteen. These chefs feed 900 workers from DSB (Danish State Railways) every weekday. As well as looking and tasting great, each dish served here contains fuldkorn (wholegrains), from breakfast smoothies with oats to afternoon treats such as today’s wholemeal scones. There’s a good reason for this: DSB recently signed up to a national programme that aims to get more wholegrains into employees. The initiative is spearheaded by the…

Somebody give George Clooney a medal. In a recent interview with CBS, the actor claimed he has never, in 11 years of marriage, argued with his wife, the human rights lawyer Amal Clooney. Let’s just accept it to be true that you can be married to a lawyer for more than a decade and never find yourself in an argument. And in this case, I suppose, why should it not be? These are some of the most beautiful people in the world. On top of this, they are extremely rich. They can have houses and holidays wherever they want. They can buy whatever clothes and dinners they choose. What would you have to argue about if you lived such a gilded existence? And actually, I do find myself wondering about…

Spring’s threads are woven throughout the woodland: clutches of primroses, emerging bluebells and tightly wound fern fronds ready to unfurl. At the bases of trees, hazel dormice will still be hibernating, curled up among damp mosses and leaves, soft bodies dozing the last of the cold weather away. I meet the licensed ecologist Ellie Smart and trainee Peter Roseveare as they clean out last year’s dormice nest boxes. Just over a century ago, hazel dormice were so prevalent that they were often kept in the pockets of Victorian schoolchildren – but populations have dropped 75% since 1996, primarily caused by the loss of appropriate woods and hedgerows. Each box reveals a new secret: some are empty, some have velveteen moss rugs where tits have appropriated the space, others have signs…

EMPLOYMENT EU ready to accept youth mobility proposal limits The EU is ready to make major concessions in negotiations with London to allow British and European 18- to 30-year-olds to travel and work freely, potentially paving the way for a long-awaited reset with Brussels. A scheme that would allow thousands of young Europeans to live and work in the UK has been seen as a key EU demand in reaching a post-Brexit pact incorporating defence, energy and migration. It is understood that EU member states could now be willing to limit work visas to 12 months, with quotas on numbers and restrictions on the sectors EU citizens could work in. They are also open to a “one in, one out” plan being considered by the home secretary. EU sources said…

IT WAS A FITTING MOMENT for an epiphany, if that’s what this was. Donald Trump sat in the morning light in St Peter’s Basilica hunched over in conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as the assembled royalty and foreign leaders, the cardinals and bishops, and thousands of faithful gathered outside to prepare for the papal funeral. His revelation soon came in the guise of a Truth Social post. “There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days,” Trump said. “It makes me think that maybe [Putin] doesn’t want to stop the war.” For months, Zelenskyy and European leaders have struggled to deliver that message to Trump. Now, in part thanks to Trump’s unlikely pilgrimage to the Vatican for Pope Francis’s…

As bells tolled and the coffin emerged from the gloom of the basilica, a solemn hush fell across St Peter’s Square, but the crowd itched to break it. Death had silenced Pope Francis but those who had come to see him off were not going to stifle their love or grief. He had requested a simple burial, not a silent one. The quiet held while 14 pallbearers placed the wooden casket on the edge of the stairs for the start of the mass and continued while cardinals streamed to one side to form a blazing red bloc. On the other side was an array of dark-suited prime ministers, presidents, kings, queens and other royals. And in front, crowds gathered under Rome’s azure spring sky last Saturday to bid farewell to…

How much of a $450 pot would you give to a charity that cuts carbon emissions by investing in renewable energy, and how much would you keep for yourself? That was the question posed in a recent academic experiment. The answers mattered: real money was handed out as a result to some randomly chosen participants. The average person gave away about half the money and kept the rest. But what if you had been told beforehand that the vast majority of other people think climate action is really important? Might you have given more to the charity? That is what a second experiment tested. Before dividing the cash, these participants were told that 79% of people thought citizens should try to fight the climate crisis. This mattered, because in earlier…

For Catholics who cherished Pope Francis’s relentless defence of the dignity of migrants and minorities, the footage of his deeply awkward meeting with JD Vance on Easter Sunday made for unsettling viewing. Here, looming over him on what turned out to be the eve of his death, was the White House embodiment of the insular, bullying politics he spent so much energy fighting against. What now? The pope “from the ends of the earth” was laid to rest last Saturday in an unadorned tomb in Rome’s Santa Maria Maggiore basilica, after a funeral attended by about 50 heads of state and 130 delegations from around the world. Progressives inside and outside the church will hope that encounter with the US vice-president was not an ominous portent. The antipathy shown by…

What sauces and dressings can I make to jazz up weekday meals? Sauces and dressings make even the simplest meals taste better. The formula, says Gurdeep Loyal, author of Flavour Heroes (published in June), is “a really good fat and a really good sour”. That fat could be oil, but it doesn’t have to be. “It could be an egg yolk, it could be avocado, but if it’s oil, go for a flavoured one,” Loyal says, and in place of vinegar or fresh citrus, try gherkins, capers or preserved citrus instead. “My go-tos are preserved lemon whizzed up with a bit of their brine, some garlic-infused olive oil and maple syrup. Or avocado blitzed with gherkins, gherkin brine, a bit of sugar and herbs such as chives or tarragon. Or…

✱ All solutions published next week Across 8 Prime number heard fighting with indefinite number (8) 9 Clamour from attention seeker, case of someone beyond redemption, ultimately (5) 10 Fellah in deer? Not entirely! (4) 11 Our etching, though sketchy, improving (10) 12 Stuff lying around flat interminably, one hasn’t quite grown up (6) 14 Surrender, wobbling one run short of century, ending on ninety-nine (8) 15 See 24 Across  17 Procedure on defining both possibilities for batter? (7) 20 Sin ends in tragedy, prophetic in month of Aquarius, say – the Water Carrier? (5,3) 22 Name associated with lectures announced award (6)  23 Cold Scottish island toured by a dog expert (10) 24/15 Cryptic clues for gags with sketch (4,7) 25 See 22 Down 26 Liquid starter from waitress,…