Innholdsfortegnelse for 25 July 2025 i Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly Founded in Manchester, England 4 July 1919 Vol213 | 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…

In Gaza, being a helpful, loving child can be a death sentence. Heba al-Ghussain’s nine-year-old son, Karam, was killed by an Israeli airstrike because he went to fetch water for the family, and her 10-year-old daughter, Lulu, was killed because she went to give Karam a hand. The siblings were waiting beside a water distribution station, holding jerry cans and buckets, when it was bombed earlier this month, killing six children and four adults and injuring 19 others, mostly children. Both Lulu and Karam died instantly, torn apart by the force of the blast and so disfigured that their father prevented Heba from seeing their bodies. “They didn’t allow me to say good-bye or even look at them one last time,” she said. “One of my brothers hugged me, trying…

Opposite Treasure Hunter, one of four casinos on the same street in Douala, Cameroon’s commercial capital, money changers and motorcycle taxi drivers such as André Ouandji mill around, calling out to potential clients. Ouandji has worked in the area for three years but has not entered the casinos. He prefers the betting shop in his local neighbourhood of Bonabéri. Cameroon has the second-best performing economy in central Africa, but a third of the population live on $2 or less daily and, according to a 2023 survey by the country’s National Statistics Institute, eight in 10 of the workforce are informally employed. Against this backdrop, gambling and betting have become increasingly popular. “We stopped relying on the government for anything years ago,” said Ouandji, who is 27. Like many young Cameroonians,…

When Mina Nedi graduated with a nursing degree last year, his friends and family expected him to start working in one of Egypt’s overstretched hospitals. Instead, the 25-year-old decided to join his father’s recycling business in Manshiyet Nasr, a neighbourhood on Cairo’s eastern outskirts known as Garbage City. Every day, he sorts through thousands of plastic bottles collected from the city at night, separating them by colour and compressing them into large bundles with the help of a machine, ready to be sold for recycling and reuse. The work has helped Nedi fund his university education, but he is motivated less by that or family pressure than a genuine determination to help the environment. “Climate change, plastic pollution, microplastics. Awareness is growing among young people in Egypt,” he said. “Cairo…

While Trump has defeated many political foes, he has never taken on his own base Last Saturday, Donald Trump asked the justice department to release all grand jury testimony in the Jeffrey Epstein case. In a post on Truth Social, the president said that even if the court gave its “full and unwavering support” that “nothing will be good enough for the troublemakers and radical left lunatics making the request”. But it was the “Make America Great Again” (Maga) base that has been in revolt as never before. The trigger was Trump’s broken promise to release details about Epstein, a wealthy financier and convicted sex offender, who was facing federal charges of sex-trafficking minors when he died in jail in 2019. Spurred by the president and his allies, Trump’s movement…

SOME SAY IT WAS JOHN SATTLER’S OWN FAULT. The lead-up to the 1970 rugby league grand final had been tense; the team he led, the South Sydney Rabbitohs, had lost the 1969 final. Here was an opportunity for redemption. The Rabbitohs were not about to let glory slip through their fingers again. Soon after the starting whistle, Sattler went in for a tackle. As he untangled – in a move not uncommon at the time – he gave the Manly Sea Eagles’ John Bucknall a clip on the ear. Seconds later – just three minutes into the game – the towering second rower returned favour with force: Bucknall’s mighty right arm bore down on Sattler, breaking his jaw in three places and tearing his skin; he would later need eight…

Like a chronic ailment, strategic incoherence gnaws at everything Britain does in the world. Keir Starmer’s real achievement in resetting relations with mainland Europe – witness the recent visits of the French president Emmanuel Macron and the German chancellor Friedrich Merz – does not obscure, and in a way even highlights, this deeper confusion. After 1945, Winston Churchill envisioned Britain’s global role at the intersection of three circles: the British Commonwealth and (then still) empire; the Europe whose postwar recovery and unification he strongly supported; and the United States. As Commonwealth countries have formed stronger ties elsewhere, the first circle is no longer of strategic significance. Having committed itself in the 1970s to the most developed political and economic form of the second circle, now the European Union, Britain has…

What batch cocktails are best for parties in the sunshine? Ella, by email First things first: stand down that cocktail shaker. When you have more than a handful of people over, you need drinks that scale up easily. And a paloma never fails to hit the hot weather happy-hour spot, says Max Venning, director of Three Sheets bars in London and co-author of Batched and Bottled Cocktails. “It’s great for a garden party, because you just whack it all in a jug and into the fridge in the morning, then all you need are iced glasses and soda water.” Combine 350ml good-quality blanco tequila, 250ml fresh pink grapefruit juice, 10ml tomato vinegar (“or white balsamic”) and two tablespoons of caster sugar, stir until the latter dissolves, then chill. “Coat half…

✱ All solutions published next week Across 1 Deity and prince direct (7) 5 Sticker insect attached to mammal (7) 9/20 A chevron in a figure behind curved shape, really? (2,2,1,6) 10 Permitted furniture in retirement home? (9)  11 Tedious, anything but in the wisdom of cattle? (10)  12 Bone first of all in upper legs? No, arms (4) 14 Cuts of beef taken from this, say what oughta go with knife? (11) 18 In this, leader flies solo round outskirts of Chile? (3,5,3)  21 Question posed by Buddhist, right out of holy book (4) 22 One gets squeezed in front of carriage as soon as train moves (10) 25 Designer range of beers with one exported? (9) 26 Smack heel in disco dance (5) 27 Stripper managed to break…

1 UNITED STATES Trump sues Murdoch for libel over Epstein article Donald Trump has sued Rupert Murdoch and two Wall Street Journal newspaper reporters for libel and slander over claims that he sent the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein a lewd letter and sketch of a naked woman. Trump’s lawsuit last Friday, which also targets Dow Jones and News Corp, was filed in the southern district of Florida federal court in Miami. The lawsuit seeks at least $10bn in damages. It came after the Journal reported on a 50th birthday greeting that Trump allegedly sent to Epstein in 2003 that included a sexually suggestive drawing and reference to secrets they shared. Trump vehemently denied the Journal report and claimed the letter was fake. He said on Truth Social that he warned Murdoch,…

Recognition of Palestine as a state would put beyond doubt that the Palestinian Authority (PA) is entitled to develop the natural gas resources of the Gaza Marine field, according to Michael Barron, one of the experts who worked on the stalled project. Barron, the author of The Gaza Marine Story, has suggested the field could generate $4bn in revenue at current prices and that the PA could receive $100m a year over 15 years. Plans to develop the field have a near 30-year history, during which time legal controversies over ownership have stalled exploration. A law firm representing Palestinian human rights groups sent a warning letter to the Italian state-owned firm ENI that it should not exploit the gas fields in an area known as Zone G, where six licences…

Conservative ministers used an unprecedented super-injunction to suppress a data breach that led the UK government to offer relocation to 15,000 Afghans in a secret scheme with a potential cost of more than £2bn ($2.7bn). Details of members of the SAS were among more than 100 Britons named in the database of 18,700 Afghans, the accidental leak of which by a defence official led to thousands being secretly relocated to the UK. Defence sources said the highly sensitive document contained names and email addresses belonging to people sponsoring or linked to some individual cases. Personal information about MI6 officers was also included. The Afghanistan Response Route (ARR) was created after it emerged that personal information about Afghans who had applied to come to the UK had been leaked in error…

Tsutomu Nishiwaki raises the shutters of his store, the rattle marking the start of a new day at a shopping arcade in Tokyo. He wheels out a display case and stands behind the counter. It is a ritual Nishiwaki has been performing almost daily for 60 years. But like the fresh noodles its owner makes every morning, the store has a limited shelf life: in a few years from now, the 80-year-old will pull down the shutters for the last time. Dozens of shops, restaurants and bars lining the streets of Tateishi Nakamise, a covered arcade – or shotengai – in the capital’s eastern suburbs, will make way for a new development. It will transform the skyline, but also transform an entire community whose roots lie in the destruction caused…

French maritime enthusiasts are battling to save a replica of an 18th-century warship that became a symbol of the country’s historic relationship with America. The copy of L’Hermione, a three-mast, 32-gun frigate that carried the Marquis de Lafayette across the Atlantic to announce France’s support for American independence from Great Britain in the revolutionary war, has been in dry dock at Anglet, near Bayonne, since its oak hull was found to be riddled with fungus four years ago. Campaigners raised €5m ($5.8m) to replace part of the rotted structure but say they need another €5m to make the vessel seaworthy. Despite launching an appeal two years ago, the funds have not been found. A fresh plea for funds comes as relations between France and the US enter a stormy period…

The Hotel Oloffson, a cultural and architectural landmark in Port-au-Prince, was set ablaze on the night of 5 July, in what local media described as retaliation by armed gangs after a police operation in its vicinity. For many, its ruins are a sobering symbol of a capital city on the verge of collapse. The mansion, built in 1887 in the ornate “gingerbread” style, once welcomed celebrities including Elizabeth Taylor, Mick Jagger and Graham Greene. A magnet for the rich and famous in the 1960s and 70s, it was reborn in the 80s as a hub for vodou musicians and foreign correspondents. Watching the white wooden fretwork – likened to lace – that adorned the balconies reduced to ashes has been tough for former patrons, who were enchanted by its dreamlike…

If you were to invent a scandal expressly to convince conspiracy theorists they were right all along, the story of the Afghan superinjunction would be hard to beat. A secret back door into Britain through which thousands of immigrants were brought, under cover of a draconian legal gagging order that helpfully also concealed an act of gross incompetence by the British state? It’s a rightwing agitator’s dream. It was hard enough already to counter paranoia about alleged grooming gang cover-ups, policing of immigrant communities or imaginary supposed plots to flood the UK with refugees just so they can vote Labour. Now, like stopped clocks fleetingly getting the time right twice a day, the usual suspects will pounce: see, the deep state does lie to you! Meanwhile fantasists of all political…

Episodes of Trainwreck, the Netflix anthology documentary series that revisits shocking real-life media sensations, run the gamut from pop culture disasters (Travis Scott’s Astroworld tragedy) to public meltdowns (crack-smoking Toronto mayor Rob Ford) and wild fiascos (the Carnival “poop cruise”). The common link is a kind of viral popularity not traditionally associated with the form. The Poop Cruise episode alone, about a stricken liner with major plumbing issues, debuted to 21m views and zoomed to No 1 in a week, according to Netflix’s public-facing ranking system. And there’s already plenty of anticipation for forthcoming instalments in the series on the Facebook campaign to storm Area 51 and the “balloon boy” media hoax. How did Netflix turn the documentary, the most sober of screen genres, into the most bingeable popcorn TV?…

A head of the 2016 US presidential election, opinion polls predicted a win for Hillary Clinton. She lost, and the polling industry went through one of its regular spasms of self-criticism and supposed reform. France and Spain ban the publication of opinion polls in the days leading up to an election, but we should go one better and ban their publication at any time. No doubt it adds much to the gaiety of the British nation to see the Conservative party slip to third or fourth in the polls, but any poll asking who you would vote for if there were a West-minster election tomorrow, held at a time when there almost certainly will not be an election for another four years, is meaningless as a guide to the makeup of…

Across 1 Jittery (6-6) 9 Made of a particular wood (5) 10 Top voice (7) 11 Void partner? (4) 12 Music recorder – in the 1980s? (4,4) 14 To vary (anag.) – staunch believer (6) 15 Good (business) judgment (6) 18 More than peckish! (8) 20 Mastery – hold tight! (4) 22 Persistently annoying (7) 23 Amalgamate (5) 24 Radio set (6-6) Down 2 Test smudge? (7) 3 Goose sound (4) 4 Bootlicker (3-3) 5 Very little money (8) 6 Employment (5) 7 Struck instrument (12) 8 It could just happen! (3,5,4) 13 Adriatic seaport – toast (8) 16 Gin and dry vermouth (7) 17 Precious lump (6) 19 Prayer period to keep? (5) 21 Taurus charger (4) Solution No 17,214…

POLICE Government orders inquiry into Orgreave, 40 years on More than four decades after the violent policing at Orgreave during the miners’ strike and a failed prosecution criticised as a police “frame up”, the government has established a statutory inquiry into the scandal. The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, announced the inquiry having informed campaigners last Thursday at the site in South Yorkshire where the Orgreave coking plant was located. The inquiry into the policing on 18 June 1984 and the collapsed prosecutions marks the culmination of remarkable persistence by campaigners, who argue that the miners’ strike remains an enduring source of injustice. The present-day focus on Orgreave developed after 2012, when the Guardian highlighted the violence and alleged manipulation of evidence afterwards by South Yorkshire police, and the fact that…

Over the past decade, Gennadiy Shukin has increasingly struggled to recognise the landscape he has known his whole life. River crossings that used to stay solidly frozen until spring now crack underfoot. Craters have begun erupting from thawing permafrost, and in the shallow waters where thick ice should be, newborn reindeer calves are drowning. “Last December, the cold barely came,” said Shukin, a reindeer herder in the Russian Arctic. The Arctic is warming 2.5 times faster than the global average, and in Russia’s far north these effects are existential. “We’re the canary in the coalmine,” Shukin, 63, said. “We are the first to witness climate change in such a dramatic way. It’s no longer a distant threat. I hope the rest of Russia is paying attention.” The impact of the…

Seven months on from Bashar al-Assad’s fall, Syria is battling yet another wave of bloody sectarian violence. A local dispute between a Bedouin tribesman and a member of the Druze minority sparked clashes that drew in Syrian government forces and triggered Israeli airstrikes – leaving a trail of bodies in their wake. The scenes were reminiscent of the coastal massacres of March, when 1,500 mostly Alawite civilians were slaughtered in revenge for a failed assault by fighters loyal to Assad, who came from the sect. The killings have halted the enthusiasm that abounds over the new Syrian state and are a grim reminder of the challenges it faces in unifying the country after nearly 14 years of brutal civil war. The Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa – whose Sunni Islamist group…

Half a century since the national voting age was last lowered, Keir Starmer has decided the time is right to include more than a million 16- and 17-year-olds in democracy for the first time. The thinking behind the move, promised in Labour’s manifesto, is that encouraging younger people to vote at an age when they are still largely in education will persuade them to make it a lifelong habit. There is also an issue of fairness. Many young people work and contribute taxes, or serve in the military in non-combat roles. And it will bring England and Northern Ireland into line with Scotland and Wales, where those aged 16 and 17 are able to vote in Holyrood, Senedd and local council elections. “If you pay in, you should have the…

On the third floor of a community centre in Dongdaemun in Seoul’s east, a massage chair hums gently at the entrance to an airy room – a cool refuge from the sweltering summer heat. Inside, the space buzzes with quiet activity: soft bleeps from a touchscreen game, muted chatter from the cooking area, the rustle of turning pages. Eom Mi-hui, 53, settles into an infrared foot spa with a look of contentment on her face. “This feels really nice,” Eom said. “My body isn’t feeling great, so I think the foot spa helps.” She then moves next to the massage chair. This venue is one of Seoul’s “mind convenience stores”, places where residents struggling with loneliness can sit in comfort, enjoy a simple meal, watch a film, or simply spend…

If we believe her parents, Constance Marten and Mark Gordon, a baby girl was born on Christmas Eve, 2022, in the upstairs bedroom of a cottage in Northumberland. The baby spent the first days of her life in the small stone-terraced cottage and then began her travels, mostly carried by her mother in a sling. She travelled far for a newborn, passing through bus stations and port towns, hotels and cafes, cities and fields, from north to south, west to east. We know she lived for at least two weeks, but we don’t know, and can never know, precisely how she died. She was called Victoria. On 3 March 2025, the first day of the pre-trial hearing in the case of Marten and Gordon, neither defendant turned up to court.…

Few public brands have ever garnered as much unbridled popular affection as the London underground. From the moment that architect Leslie Green unleashed his first station facades of gleaming oxblood-red terracotta tiles on to the streets of Edwardian London, the tube has offered a masterclass in the power of design to represent a truly public service. The famous roundel badge, designed in 1917 by Edward Johnston, who also created the network’s classic typeface, has become one of the most recognisable logos in history. The tube map, first drawn up by Harry Beck in 1933, is a stunning model of stripped-back clarity that has influenced transport maps the world over. The graphic moquette seat fabrics, introduced in the 1920s, are so adored that they now cover cushions, scarves and tote bags.…

‘I think of it as a very sexy, dangerous game of Elizabethan cat and mouse.” Ncuti Gatwa is describing his new project with the Royal Shakespeare Company, a two-hander about William Shakespeare and fellow playwright Christopher “Kit” Marlowe. In Born With Teeth, Will and Kit collaborate on a play about Henry VI – for “collaborate”, read flirt, fight and ruminate betrayal. Gatwa plays Marlowe and Shakespeare is Edward Bluemel; the pair last worked together on TV’s Sex Education. Bluemel followed that series about horny teens with playing a vampire (A Discovery of Witches), an MI6 agent (Killing Eve) and a brooding lord (My Lady Jane), while Gatwa was cast as one of the Kens in the Barbie movie and starred in Doctor Who. A note from playwright Liz Duffy Adams in…

My participation in the British Trust for Ornithology’s annual breeding bird survey has, until this year, meant a longish drive out of Belfast to record the species at a rural site. This year, however, I was offered an urban site close to home. Its route led me along a variety of streets, some with well-established gardens and mature trees. Swifts screamed across a blue sky, goldfinches flashed through the foliage and blackbird song was a constant refrain. Birds don’t demarcate the city from the countryside. While many species are long established in Europe’s cities, studies have shown that birds are quick to adapt to newer urbanised areas too. Songbirds like the goldfinch can thrive on ample sources of food, including those offered by feeders and bird tables. Buildings can provide…