Guardian Weekly - 28 June 2024

A week in the life of the world | Global edition PLUS
28 JUNE 2024 | VOL .210 No.26 | £5.95 | €9 Russia and North Korea’s
unsettling new alliance10
THE
MAN
WHO
WOULD
BE
PM
Up close and personal with Keir Starmer 34
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
Eyewitness Lotus positioning
China Women practise yoga on a footbridge crossing a lotus pond at Tiande Lake Park in
Taizhou as part of the International Day of Yoga on 21 June. The annual celebration,
co-sponsored by the United Nations, is marked by events around the world to
PHOTOGRAPH:
COSTFOTO/NURPHOTO/REX/ promote the benefits of yoga for physical and mental wellbeing.
SHUTTERSTOCK
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Vol 210 | Issue № 26 made is re-invested in journalism.
A week in the life of the world
28 JUNE 2024
4
GL OBAL REP ORT
Headlines from
34
F E AT U R E S
Long reads, interviews & essays
the last seven days The man heading for No 10: the
United Kingdom ................... 8 Keir Starmer interview
Science & Environment ........ 9 By Charlotte Edwardes ......... 34
The big story Saving the next generation
Russia/North Korea Putin and born into Italy’s mafia
Kim’s new world order .........10 By Clare Longrigg ................ 40
45
OPINION
▼ Youth takeover
51
C U LT U R E
TV, film, music, theatre, art,
What young people really think architecture & more
15
about the UK election .......... 45 Visual arts
Salil Tripathi Anthony McCall steps into the
There’s still no room for light with a new show........... 51
dissent in Modi’s India ........ 48 Stage
Rokhaya Diallo The German theatre giving the
Macron’s gamble is a disaster climate a starring role ......... 54
SPOTLIGHT for people like me ............... 49 Screen
In-depth reporting and analysis Black Barbie, by the women
United Kingdom who created her ...................55
Tory support crumbling in
red wall seat ........................ 15
 Books
David Baddiel reveals his
Israel The major family secrets ..................... 58
Fears grow that conflict with
parties are
60
Hezbollah will escalate ........22
Environment failing to engage
Easter Island and its problem
with plastic rubbish ............ 24 with what
Papua New Guinea
Picking up the pieces after
people really
deadly landslide ..................26 want. They LIFESTYLE
Science Ask Annalisa
The library using insect venom constantly miss My private school guilt ........ 60
to heal, not harm................. 30 the mark Kitchen aide
Global Oil-free salad dressings ........61
Assange wins freedom but Recipe
casts a long shadow ..............33 Spicy Tunisian pastries ........61
Join the community On the cover

Twitter: @guardianweekly The UK general election is now just days away
facebook.com/guardianweekly
Instagram: @guardian_weekly and opinion polls have consistently pointed to
the likelihood of a Labour victory. But for many,
the man who could be the country’s next prime
minister remains something of a closed book.
This week, Keir Starmer gives one of his most
personal interviews yet to Charlotte Edwardes.
SPOT ILLUSTRATIONS:
Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/Guardian Design
MATT BLEASE
4
Global
2 U N I T E D S TAT E S 4 RUSSIA
Gunmen who targeted
report religious buildings killed

Five people responsible for
multiple gun attacks on churches
and synagogues in the Dagestan
region were “eliminated”,
Headlines from the authorities said as the region
last seven days began three days of mourning.
A criminal investigation was
launched under anti-terrorism
1 UKRAINE Assange goes free after deal
laws after gunmen killed 19 people
with US justice department in coordinated attacks in two cities
Zelenskiy replaces leading
Julian Assange was expected in the North Caucasus.
commander in Russia war to plead guilty to violating US Russia’s Investigative
Copyright © 2024 President Volodymyr Zelenskiy espionage law this week in a deal Committee said 15 law
GNM Ltd. All rights replaced the commander of to allow him to return home to his enforcement officers and four
reserved the Joint Forces Command of native Australia. The 52-year-old civilians, including a Russian
Ukraine’s military, after a was released from a British prison Orthodox priest, were killed
Published weekly by well-known soldier accused the on Monday and flew to Saipan to during attacks on religious
Guardian News & commander of causing mass plead guilty to a single count of buildings in the cities of Derbent
Media Ltd, casualties in the war with Russia. conspiring to obtain and disclose and Makhachkala on Sunday
Kings Place, In a video address on Monday, classified US national defence evening. Two Orthodox churches,
90 York Way,
Zelenskiy said Lt Gen Yuriy Sodol documents. Under the deal, which two synagogues and a police
London, N1 9GU, UK
(below) had been replaced by could spell the end to a years-long checkpoint were attacked.
Printed in the UK, Brig Gen Andriy Hnatov, without saga, it was expected Assange Reuters reported that gunmen
Denmark, the US, giving a reason for the shake up. would face no further jail time. burst into an Orthodox church and
Australia and Sodol was removed shortly after The WikiLeaks founder has a synagogue in the ancient city of
New Zealand Bohdan Krotevych, the leader of been heralded by many around Derbent, killing 66-year-old priest,
Ukraine’s revered Azov regiment, the world as a hero who brought Nikolai Kotelnikov.
ISSN 0958-9996 accused the general of causing to light US military wrongdoing The Russian president,
significant military setbacks and in Iraq and Afghanistan, but Vladimir Putin, offered his
To advertise contact major losses in personnel. his reputation has also been “deepest condolences” to those
advertising.
In a post on the Telegram tarnished by rape allegations, who had lost loved ones in
enquiries@
messaging app, Krotevych did not which he denies. Dagestan and Crimea, the Kremlin
theguardian.com
identify Sodol by name, but said Spotlight Page 33 said on Monday.
To subscribe, visit an unnamed general “has killed
theguardian.com/ more Ukrainian soldiers than any
gw-subscribe Russian general”.
3 U N I T E D S TAT E S 5 U N I T E D S TAT E S
“All the military personnel
Manage your now understand who I am talking
subscription at
Series of mass shootings Hunter Biden requests new
about because 99% of the military
subscribe. hate him for what he does,” in a weekend of violence trial after gun conviction
theguardian.com/ Krotevych said, adding he had A series of mass shootings rocked Lawyers for Hunter Biden have
manage
appealed to Ukraine’s state bureau the US early on Sunday, leaving requested a new trial. Biden was
of investigation to conduct an at least one dead and 34 others found guilty earlier this month on
USA and Canada
gwsubsus
investigation into Sodol. wounded in four cases reported three felony counts related to a
@theguardian.com Ukraine has recently made in New York, Alabama, Missouri handgun purchase while he was a
Toll Free: several military changes as Kyiv’s and Ohio. user of crack cocaine.
+1-844-632-2010 forces aim to turn the tide. The shootings came amid a In a court filing on Monday,
The big story Page 10 broader spate of mass shootings, Biden’s lawyer argued the
Australia and including one at an Arkansas “convictions should be vacated”
New Zealand grocery store last Friday that left because the judge lacked
apac.help four dead and nine wounded. jurisdiction to hold a trial because
@theguardian.com The violence brought the of pending rulings in his appeals
Toll Free:
number of mass shootings in the case. A federal appeals court had
1 800 773 766
US so far this year, as of Sunday, to rejected two attempts to dismiss
UK, Europe and more than 240, according to the the gun charges, but Biden’s
Rest of World Gun Violence Archive. The high lawyer said that the court had
gwsubs@ rate has prompted calls for more not yet issued a formal mandate
theguardian.com substantial gun control. denying one of those appeals.
+44 (0) 330 333 6767
The Guardian Weekly 28 June 2024

UK headlines p8
9 N AT O
Outgoing Dutch PM to
become secretary general
6 CANADA The outgoing Dutch prime
minister, Mark Rutte, has won the
Brain illness investigation
race to become the next head of
curtailed, scientist says Nato at a perilous moment for the
A senior Canadian scientist has western alliance, after his only
alleged the government shut rival withdrew his bid.
down an investigation into a The long-serving Dutch leader
1
mystery brain illness that he says was expected to be confirmed
may have affected 350 people. formally as Nato’s secretary
In a leaked email seen by the general in the coming days and
Guardian, Prof Samuel Weiss, take over when the incumbent 8
5
a neuroscientist working for head, Jens Stoltenberg, steps
the Canadian federal agency down on 1 October after nearly a
responsible for funding medical decade in charge.
research, wrote that the Rutte’s appointment comes as
government had deliberately Ukraine faces relentless pressure
curtailed the search for an from Russian bombardment in
explanation. its eastern regions, while Nato-
He is the second federal sceptic Donald Trump vies for
scientist to accuse the government another term in the White House.
of deliberately halting the
investigation and to say that
the caseload is higher than the
government has acknowledged.
10 U N I T E D S TAT E S
7 PERU
Ancient Maya vase bought

8 S PA I N for $4 returned to Mexico
Soldiers found guilty of Mexico has regained a lost ancient
Barcelona to ban apartment
rape in historic verdict Maya vase because of a US woman
rentals to tourists by 2028 who bought the artefact for just
Ten soldiers have been found Barcelona, a top Spanish holiday $4 at a thrift store.
guilty of crimes against humanity destination, has announced it will Anne Lee Dozier received an
for rapes committed four decades bar apartment rentals to tourists expression of gratitude from the
ago during the country’s civil war. by 2028, an unexpectedly drastic Mexican embassy in her home
A panel of three judges in move as it seeks to rein in soaring town of Washington DC for
Lima said the systematic use of housing costs and make the city her role in reuniting the 1,200-
rape by soldiers in the Manta livable for residents. to 1,800-year-old vase with
y Vilca case – named after the The city’s leftist mayor, its motherland.
communities where the abuses Jaume Collboni, said that by In an article for National Public
took place – qualified as a crime November 2028, Barcelona would Radio, Dozier said she bought
against humanity. scrap the licences of the 10,101 the vase in 2019 at thrift store in
The case is the first collective apartments currently approved as Clinton, Maryland. Dozier had
proceeding in Peru over the mass short-term rentals. thought the vase was no more
use of sexual violence during The boom in short-term than three decades old.
the state’s conflict with the Mao- rentals in Barcelona meant
inspired Shining Path rebels some residents could not afford
between 1980 and 2000. an apartment after rents rose
68% in the past 10 years and the
cost of buying a house rose by
38%, Collboni said.
28 June 2024 The Guardian Weekly

13 INDIA
11 A FG H A N I S TA N
Excluding women from

UN conference a ‘betrayal’ 19
Excluding Afghan women from
a UN conference on Afghanistan Open letter calls for end to
would be a “betrayal” of women
Arundhati Roy prosecution
and girls in the country, said rights
groups and former politicians. More than 200 Indian academics,
The Taliban are reportedly activists and journalists have
demanding no Afghan women be published an open letter urging
allowed to participate in the UN the government to withdraw last
meeting in Doha starting on 30 week’s decision sanctioning the
17
June to discuss the international prosecution of the Booker prize-
community’s approach to winning author Arundhati Roy
Afghanistan, and that women’s under stringent anti-terrorism law.
rights are not on the agenda. One of the signatories, the
Since taking power in August history professor Ajay Dandekar,
15
2021, the Taliban have restricted said the decision was unjustified.
women’s access to education, Others also voiced support for Roy,
employment and public spaces. In including an umbrella group of
March, it was reported they would farmer unions. Protests by rights
reintroduce public flogging and groups and students in Delhi and
stoning of women for adultery. Bengaluru have also taken place.
Opinion Page 48
12 NAMIBIA
High court overturns law

banning gay sex 14 NEW CALEDONIA
The high court has overturned a
Unrest after activists flown
law that criminalised gay sex in a
victory for LGBTQ+ campaigners to France for detention
16 after a number of setbacks in Buildings, including a police
the battle for rights in African station and a town hall, were set
countries in recent years. on fire, authorities said, as the
Namibia inherited a law French Pacific territory was hit by
banning “sodomy” when it a new surge of unrest.
gained independence from South It came after seven 20
Africa in 1990. While the ban was independence activists linked to
rarely enforced, activists said it a group accused of orchestrating
contributed to discrimination deadly riots last month were sent
against LGBTQ+ people, including to France for pre-trial detention.
violence by the police. The decision to transfer some
Friedel Dausab, the Namibian defendants to mainland detention
LGBTQ+ activist who brought the centres has sparked outrage
case, said: “I feel elated. I’m so among independence activists.
happy. This really is a landmark Riots broke out last month over
judgment, not just for me, but for electoral reform that would have
our democracy.” allowed long-term residents to
participate in local polls.

The big story p10
Global report 7
15 SAUDI ARABIA 17 ISRAEL 19 RUSSIA/VIETNAM D E AT H S
Intense phase of Gaza war Putin agrees to strengthen

nearly over, Netanyahu says ties during state visit
Benjamin Netanyahu has said Russia and Vietnam pledged to
the most intense phase of Israel’s strengthen ties as Vladimir Putin
assault against Hamas in Gaza made a state visit to Hanoi that Donald
is coming to an end, freeing up was intended to signal his country Sutherland
forces to move to the Lebanese still has allies in the region. Canadian actor
border, where fears of a wider war The Russian president was met whose career
with the militant group Hezbollah at Hanoi airport by the Vietnamese included such
have increased. deputy prime minister Tran Hong highly acclaimed
At least 1,300 hajj pilgrims
In his first public interview Ha and the top party diplomat films as Don’t
die during extreme heat with a Hebrew-language network Le Hoai Trung. He arrived from a Look Now,
At least 1,300 people died during outlet during more than eight high-profile visit to North Korea, M*A*S*H and The
the hajj pilgrimage, which took months of conflict, Israel’s where he signed a defence pact Hunger Games. He
place during intense heat, Saudi prime minister also walked with Kim Jong-un. died on 20 June,
Arabia has said. back on his commitment to a The Vietnamese president, aged 88.
“Regrettably, the number of US-backed ceasefire proposal with To Lam, and Putin signed 11
mortalities reached 1,301, with Hamas, instead suggesting a far memorandums for cooperation Anouk Aimée
83% being unauthorised to more limited offer. in areas including civil nuclear French actor
perform hajj and having walked Netanyahu made the remarks projects, energy and petrol who starred in
long distances under direct on Israel’s rightwing Channel 14 cooperation and education. European New
sunlight, without adequate shelter as the top US military officer Putin told reporters that both Wave classics
or comfort,” the official Saudi warned of the risk that Iran sides had “identical or very close” including La Dolce
Press Agency (SPA) reported. would be drawn into a wider war positions on key issues. Vita and A Man
Last Friday, a senior Saudi with Hezbollah, threatening US The big story Page 10 and a Woman. She
official gave a toll of 577 deaths forces in the region. died on 18 June,
for the two busiest days of hajj: “We will have the possibility aged 92.
15 June, when pilgrims gathered of transferring some of our
in the blazing sun on Mount forces north, and we will do Willie Mays
Arafat; and 16 June, when they that,” Netanyahu said. He said US Hall of Fame
participated in a ritual in Mina. he hoped a diplomatic solution baseball player.
The Saudi health minister, Fahd to the crisis could be found but He died on 18
al-Jalajel, on Sunday described the vowed to solve the problem “in a June, aged 93.
management of the hajj this year different way” if needed.
as “successful”, SPA reported. Spotlight Page 22 Kazuko Shiraishi
Japanese poet.
She died on 14
June, aged 93.
16 SOUTH AFRICA 18 PHILIPPINES 20 NEW ZEALAND
James Chance
MP suspended after using Boats rammed and boarded Woman sues boyfriend after
US singer-
racist language in video by Chinese coastguard he fails to give her a lift saxophonist
An MP was suspended by the Manila has accused China’s A woman has taken her long-term who helped start
Democratic Alliance (DA) for coastguard of piracy in the boyfriend to a disputes tribunal the No Wave
racist comments, less than a week disputed South China Sea after a for breaching a “verbal contract” movement of the
after the white-led party formed violent confrontation in which it by failing to take her to the airport, late 1970s. He
a coalition government with the said its boats were rammed and resulting in her missing a flight to died on 18 June,
African National Congress. boarded by Chinese personnel. a concert and forcing her to delay aged 71.
A clip of Renaldo Gouws saying One Filipino sailor lost a thumb her travel by one day.
“Kill all the kaffirs” – a racial in the incident, according to the The woman told New Zealand’s George
slur – and the N-word, has gone Philippines military. tribunal that she had entered Woodwell
viral online. “Black people are China blamed the Philippines into a “verbal contract” with her US ecologist who
discriminating against white for the collision and has said “no partner that he would take her to was one of the
people and the black people direct measures” were taken the airport and look after her dogs. first scientists to
are singing about killing white against Filipino personnel, But the tribunal referee Krysia sound the alarm
people,” Gouws, a YouTuber, said adding that its coastguards “were Cowie said for an agreement to be about climate
in the video, which appears to be professional and restrained”. enforceable there needed to be change. He died
from 2010. The DA said Gouws had It is the latest in a series of an intention to create a “legally on 18 June,
been suspended while he faced escalating confrontations in binding relationship”. aged 95.
disciplinary charges. the South China Sea. The claim was dismissed.

Keir Starmer interview p34
8 Global report
United Kingdom
ELECTION 2024 WILDLIFE
Tories denounce Farage’s Wildcat kittens born in

defence of Putin’s war ‘major milestone’
Rishi Sunak and a string of senior The birth of wildcat kittens in the
Conservatives condemned Nigel Cairngorms national park has been
Farage for claiming the west hailed as a “major milestone” in
provoked the Russian invasion of efforts to rescue the mammals
Ukraine, amid a growing internal from extinction in the UK.
Tory battle over how to deal with These are potentially the
ELECTION 2024 the Reform UK leader. first wildcats to be born outside
The prime minister accused captivity in Scotland for more
Pressure on PM as election
Farage of playing “into Putin’s than five years after 19 wildcats,
betting scandal grows hands” after he made the claim bred at the Highland wildlife park,
As general election campaigning in a BBC interview, in which he near Kingussie, were released last
entered the final week, Rishi linked Nato and EU expansion to summer in a pilot project.
Sunak’s Conservatives were the conflict in eastern Europe.
engulfed in a growing scandal over Labour leader Keir Starmer also
a number of bets placed on the condemned Farage’s comments
timing of the election. as “disgraceful”.
The Guardian originally The Tories are divided over
revealed earlier this month that Farage. Some senior Conservatives
Craig Williams, who was Sunak’s fear the party could break in two,
closest parliamentary aide, especially if a new leader opens
was being investigated by the the door to Farage joining.
Gambling Commission for betting Spotlight Page 17
£100 ($125) on a July election three
days before Sunak surprised the
country by naming the date.
Since then at least five R O YA L FA M I LY PRISONS
people linked to Sunak or
Princess Anne treated for Capacity close to ‘breaking
the Conservatives have been
identified as being part of the injuries after horse incident point’, governors told
watchdog’s inquiries. Senior The Princess Royal was in hospital Prison governors have been
Conservatives called for this week with a head injury and warned that jails will be so
candidates and officials to be concussion after an incident in overcrowded by the second week
suspended pending the result which she was understood to have of July that they will struggle to
of investigations. been injured by a horse. accept any more inmates.
Last weekend the veteran Tory Princess Anne, 73, who is the The heads of jails in England
cabinet minister Michael Gove king’s sister, suffered a concussion and Wales were informed by HM
said the betting row could be as and minor injuries thought to Prison and Probation Service
damaging to the Conservatives as have been caused by a horse on officials earlier this month that
the Partygate scandal that led to her estate at Gatcombe Park in data pointed to an “operational
the downfall of Boris Johnson. Gloucestershire. She was expected capacity breaking point” only days
77.2k
Opinion polls in the run-up to to return home from hospital after the 4 July general election.
the 4 July vote have consistently this week, but a working visit to The development signals
pointed to the likeliest outcome Canada was postponed. a logistical headache for an
The number of being a large majority for the Buckingham Palace said in a incoming justice secretary. It is
likes, as of last Labour leader, Keir Starmer. statement that the princess was expected to trigger a crisis measure
Friday, on TikTok If correct, that result would in hospital as a precautionary allowing offenders to be housed in
for a deepfake also signal a crushing defeat measure and was expected to police cells when jails are full.
video of Nigel for Sunak, who has suffered a make a full and swift recovery. Tom Wheatley, the president of
Farage playing disastrous campaign. the Prison Governors’ Association,
Minecraft, in An Opinium poll for the said the situation had been
which the Reform Observer last weekend put predicted “some time ago”. He
UK leader Labour on 40%, with the Tories added: “The outgoing government
purportedly says languishing on just 20%. Reform did not take the necessary action
he has located UK, led by Nigel Farage, was in a timely fashion to avoid this.”
Rishi Sunak’s breathing down the Tories’ necks Wheatley said any attempt
virtual base in on 16%. The Lib were on 12% to fill prisons beyond the
the video game while the Greens stood at 9%. operational capacity could be
and intends to Spotlight Page 15 challenged in the courts.
blow it up

Do you have a recently taken picture you’d like to share with
Guardian Weekly? Scan the QR code or visit theguardian.com/
9
pictures-guardian-weekly and we’ll print your best submissions
Reader’s
eyewitness
Take the heat
‘This gull had
chosen a castle
wall in Alicante,
Spain, as the
place to shade
its chicks from
the sun and was
totally unfazed
by the many
sightseers.’
By Andrew
Clinton,
Brighton,
England, UK
SCIENCE AND PA L A E O N T O L O G Y ▼ An artist’s specialised immune cells could see

EN V IRON M EN T impression of the off the virus at an early stage.
Horned dinosaur dug up in newly identified “We now have a much greater
dinosaur understanding of the full range of
Montana may be new species
Lokiceratops, immune responses, which could
POLLU TION
Scientists may have dug up a new whose fossils provide a basis for developing
dinosaur species in Montana. were unearthed potential treatments and vaccines
Study f inds 2,000 children die The Lokiceratops is possibly the in Montana that mimic these natural protective
every day from air pollution fifth species of a large, horned family SERGEY KRASOVSKIY/ responses,” said Dr Marko Nikolić,
REUTERS
Nearly 2,000 children under five are of dinosaurs found in the Kennedy senior author of the study at
dying every day from air pollution, Coulee, a dry gorge along the border University College London.
which has overtaken poor sanitation of Montana and Alberta, Canada.
and a lack of clean water to become Mark Loewen, a palaeontologist
S PA C E
the second biggest health risk factor who contributed to an article in the
for young children around the world. journal PeerJ, told Science News:
More than 8 million deaths, of “It’s becoming more clear that
Lunar probe returns samples
children and adults, were caused by [horned dinosaurs] were using these from far side of the moon
air pollution in 2021, according to a [bony features] as ornaments, in China has become the first country
new study from the Health Effects order to attract mates or intimidate to gather samples from the far side
Institute (HEI). Globally, dirty air is rivals of the same species.” of the moon and bring them back to
second only to high blood pressure Part of the Ceratops family, the Earth in a landmark achievement for
as a risk factor for death among the Lokiceratops roamed the Earth the Beijing space programme.
general population. nearly 78m years ago. A capsule containing the precious
This year’s State of Global Air cargo parachuted into a landing zone
report also shows that the death rate in the rural Siziwang Banner region
MEDICA L R ESE A RCH
linked to air pollution in children of Inner Mongolia on Tuesday after
under five is 100 times higher in being released into Earth’s orbit by
most of Africa than it is in high
Covid research could explain the uncrewed Chang’e-6 probe.
income countries. why some escape infection The return of the material wraps
Pallavi Pant, the lead author of Scientists have discovered up a successful mission for the China
the report and head of global health differences in the immune National Space Administration amid
at HEI, said: “Far too much of the response that could explain why a wave of interest in which space
burden [is] borne by young children, some people seem to reliably agencies and private companies will
older populations, and low and escape Covid infection. The study, build instruments and bases on the
middle income countries.” published in Nature, suggested that moon and exploit its resources.

Vladimir Putin’s defiant friendship pact with Kim Jong-un and
North Korea marks a return to cold war politics – and raises big
questions not just for Washington and Seoul, but also for Beijing
Partners in crime
Vladimir Putin
and Kim Jong-un
met last week
in Pyongyang
VLADIMIR SMIRNOV/
AFP/GETTY

Explainer Simon Tisdall The big story 11
What do Russia Ostracised
and North Korea leaders seek a
Russia/North Korea
of fer each other? new world order
Page 12 Page 14
RU S S I A
By Andrew Roth
policy programme at the Carnegie

Endowment for International Peace.
Kim admired Russian space technol-
ogy and fighter jets during a summit
last year with Putin in Russia’s far east,
and his wishlist could include tech-
nologies that would aid North Korea’s
space and missile programmes, as well
as economic and energy support.
Putin’s immediate goal is to develop
a partnership that has delivered
millions of artillery shells, as well as bal-
quarter of a century ago, Vladimir listic missiles, desperately needed for
Putin flew to Pyongyang to sign a his war in Ukraine. But the roots of the
“friendship treaty” with Kim Jong-il relationship go deeper: the two leaders
that helped revive Russia’s relations have aligned in a growing anti-west-
with North Korea without obliging the ern coalition and seem increasingly
two sides to come to each other’s aid unrestrained by western threats.
in case of a military attack. The image of Putin – who once
With his visit last week, Putin has regularly met US and European lead-
in effect gone further into the past, ers – flying to Pyongyang to be feted
signing a deal with Kim Jong-un remi- by Kim was striking. Putin gave Kim a
niscent of the 1961 security pact that second Russian-built Aurus limousine,
existed under the Soviet Union dur- in a symbolic rejection of the sanctions
ing the cold war. But today Russia is the two sides have taken pleasure in
engaged in a hot war in Ukraine that flouting. “The two leaders really just
Putin has made his foreign policy pri- don’t care,” said Howell. “That high-
ority, and a nuclear North Korea has lights how, for Kim Jong-un, he now has
become a crucial lifeline of munitions a partner who is as delinquent as he is.”
for his military. US and Nato officials have voiced
“The treaty that Putin signed with concern over potential support for
Kim Jong-un was a return to the cold North Korea’s missile and nuclear
war, but of course in the cold war North programmes. A copy of the treaty
Korea had no nuclear weapons,” said published by North Korea explicitly
Dr Edward Howell, the Korea Foun- listed cooperation in “peaceful nuclear
dation fellow with the Asia-Pacific energy”, while US officials told NBC
programme at Chatham House, and News that Russia would also be pro-
a lecturer at the University of Oxford. viding technology to aid North Korea’s
While last week’s summit was years atomic submarine programme.
in the making, it nonetheless marked But analysts said the scope of
a watershed in Russia’s relationship support for North Korea’s military
with North Korea, and one that US offi- nuclear programme could remain lim-
cials have warned could destabilise ited, in part because Russia is nervous
an uneasy balancing act in the region. about sharing sensitive technology.
“Russia has now put in writing Some of the most concerning
just how willing and committed it aspects of the agreement are more
is to deepening and expanding its conventional: the reportedly growing
cooperation with North Korea,” said arms trade between the two countries
Jamie Kwong, a fellow in the nuclear that could embolden North Korea and
complicate western war planning in
‘The two leaders just the case of an open conflict on the
Korean peninsula.
don’t care. Kim now Matthew Miller, a US state depart-
ment spokesperson, said the provision
has a partner who is of Russian weapons to Pyongyang
as delinquent as he is’ “would destabilise the Korean

12 The big story
Russia/North Korea
EXPLAINER
DI PLOM AC Y
Friends
reunited
What can
Russia and
North Korea
do for each
other?
By Justin McCurry TOKYO
C
peninsula, of course, and potentially that this would be a “big mistake” ▲ Kim Jong-un hina accounts for
… violate UN security council resolu- and that Moscow in response could and Vladimir more than 90% of
tions that Russia itself has supported”. make “decisions which are unlikely Putin go for a North Korea’s trade
The US secretary of state, Antony to please the current leadership of drive during the and has been its
Blinken, and South Korea’s foreign South Korea”. Russian leader’s most dependable
ministry said the treaty between Rus- The deal is also seen as a headache trip to Pyongyang aid donor and
sia and North Korea posed a “serious for China, which is caught between STR/KCNA/KNS/AFP/ diplomatic ally. But as Vladimir
GETTY
threat” to peace and stability on the concerns about competition for Putin’s visit to Pyongyang proves,
Korean peninsula. Blinken said the US influence in North Korea and the the secluded state’s behaviour
would consider “various measures” in potential for the US to extend its sup- is being increasingly influenced
response to the pact. port to South Korea as a result. Xi Jin- by its security and economic ties
“There’s a lot that Russia can still ping may seek a summit with Kim by with Russia.
give North Korea at this juncture that the end of the year, Howell said.
would significantly improve North The meeting also marked a new How does Russia help North Korea?
Korea’s ability to reconstitute its con- low point for international efforts at China is not the only regional power
ventional military deterrent,” said promoting nonproliferation, once to have allegedly helped North Korea
Ankit Panda, the Stanton senior fel- a rare area of cooperation between skirt UN sanctions and prevent
low in the nuclear policy programme Russia and the US. its economy from collapsing. Last
at the Carnegie Endowment for Inter- Even in 2017, after the annexation month, the US claimed Russia had
national Peace. of Crimea and the accusations of Rus- been shipping refined petroleum
He believes the Russians would be sian interference in the US elections, to North Korea in quantities that
ready to help North Korea improve its the US still persuaded Russia to vote reportedly exceed the limit imposed
air defence capabilities, supply spare for new UN sanctions against North by the UN security council. John
parts and maintenance for its ageing Korea, albeit watering them down Kirby, the White House’s national
air force, and help modernise its navy, in the process. security spokesperson, said the
including technology for nuclear sub- Those days are clearly now over. ‘Moscow proximity of the two countries’
marines. That would “substantially “The agreement sends yet another commercial ports meant the
complicate planning for the US-South signal that Putin is willing to put his war
could make provision of oil could continue
Korea alliance, which would support of aggression against Ukraine above all decisions indefinitely. Border closures
both Russian and North Korean stra- other interests, including promoting unlikely to introduced during the Covid-19
tegic objectives”, Panda said. and safeguarding the nonproliferation pandemic dramatically reduced
The deal has already led to a heated regime – a regime that the Soviet Union
please the North Korea’s ability to trade and
back-and-forth between Russia and really helped to establish in the first current inflicted further damage on its
South Korea. Seoul last week indicated place,” said Kwong. Observer leadership fragile economy. Kim is believed
it could provide Ukraine with lethal to have secured supplies of food,
weapons for the first time in response
ANDREW ROTH IS THE GUARDIAN
AND OBSERVER’S GLOBAL AFFAIRS
of South as well as energy, from Russia, to
to the treaty. Putin, in turn, warned CORRESPONDENT Korea’ address shortages, and was expected

13
to do the same when he met Putin missiles have been used in Ukraine.
last week. South Korea’s defence minister,
In 2022, Russia and North Korea Shin Won-sik, said in an interview
restarted train travel for the first with Bloomberg News that Seoul
time since railway journeys were had identified at least 10,000
cut after the emergence of Covid. shipping containers sent from the
Among the cargo on the first journey North to Russia that are believed
were 30 thoroughbred horses. to hold artillery ammunition and
other weapons.
What can North Korea offer Russia? North Korea also has a lucrative Vladimir Putin
North Korea is one of the most export industry in human resources: and Kim Jong-un
impoverished societies on Earth, workers sent overseas to earn in Pyongyang
but it has one commodity that has much-needed foreign currency for GAVRIIL GRIGOROV/
facilitated the burgeoning friendship the regime. Russia is no exception. AFP/GETTY
between Putin and Kim Jong-un: Russian officials have discussed Is Russia trying to stymie sanctions
military hardware. When they met “working on political arrangements” against North Korea?
in Vladivostok nine months ago, to employ 20,000 to 50,000 North In its role as a permanent member
the leaders reportedly agreed to a Korean labourers, in defiance of a of the UN security council, Russia
deal that would see Russia share UN mandate requiring all its workers has made tightening sanctions
technological knowhow to assist to be repatriated by the end of 2019. against the North far more difficult.
North Korea’s space programme in In 2022, Russia’s ambassador in Along with China, it voted against
return for munitions and weapons Pyongyang, Alexander Matsegora, additional measures in response to
for use in Ukraine. While the said North Koreans could also ▼ Vladimir Putin ballistic missile launches in 2022,
Kremlin has described reports of be deployed to rebuild the is welcomed to and in March it vetoed the renewal
an arms deal as “absurd” there is infrastructure in occupied regions North Korea of a UN panel of experts tasked with
evidence that North Korean ballistic of Ukraine. KCNA VIA KNS/AFP/GETTY monitoring the implementation of
security council sanctions. Despite
political tensions among its five
permanent member states, the
security council once managed to
maintain unanimity in frustrating
Pyongyang’s ballistic missile and
nuclear ambitions. That consensus
has been shattered.
What has changed since Putin’s

last visit?
When Putin last visited Pyongyang,
in 2000, Russia was a member of
the G8. North Korea, then ruled by
Kim’s father, Kim Jong-il, was still
six years away from conducting its
first nuclear test. The geopolitical
climate has changed beyond
recognition, driven by a more
hardline Putin and a younger Kim
determined to turn his county into
a genuine nuclear power. Russia’s
February 2022 invasion of Ukraine,
coupled with a record number of
North Korean missile tests the same
year, have deepened both countries’
international isolation. That, in
turn, has driven Putin and Kim
together in a mutually beneficial
challenge to a “hostile” US and its
allies. It culminated last week in
economic and security agreements
that, in Putin’s words, demonstrate
that these “comrades-in-arms” are
“ready to confront the ambition of
the collective west”.
JUSTIN MCCURRY IS THE GUARDIAN’S
TOKYO CORRESPONDENT

14 The big story
Russia/North Korea
the Korean peninsula ground to a halt. Kim shifted tack.

He is fully committed to the Moscow-Beijing axis. Now
he’s backing Putin to the hilt in Ukraine.
North Korea recognised the Russian-occupied puppet
republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in July 2022. And,
according to the US and South Korean governments, Kim
has provided Russia with dozens of ballistic missiles
– debris from some has reportedly been found in the
Kharkiv region of Ukraine – and over 11,000 containers
of ammunition, containing millions of artillery shells. In
return, or so western countries believe, Putin is helping
Kim upgrade his nuclear, missile and space technologies.
This burgeoning relationship is about much more than
weaponry. Putin spelled it out in an article published by
North Korean state media. “We will develop alternative ILLUSTRATION BY
mechanisms of trade that are not controlled by the west, PETE REYNOLDS
C OM M E N TA RY and jointly resist illegitimate unilateral restrictions
[sanctions],” he wrote. “At the same time, we will build an
architecture of equal and indivisible security in Eurasia
[despite] US pressure, blackmail and military threats.”
Dangerous alliance
Putin probably thinks this is all very clever. In fact, his
Pyongyang-politik reflects a degree of desperation with
significant potential downsides. While some biggish
Putin and Kim are countries that should know better, such as India, Brazil,
Saudi Arabia and South Africa, continue to sit on the
fence on Ukraine, the overwhelming consensus at a
the odd couple with peace summit in Switzerland earlier this month was that
Russia is acting illegally and should withdraw.
a dual mission Putin is isolated diplomatically, and to a lesser degree

economically, to a damaging extent. In years past, the
idea of Russia needing impoverished North Korea’s
support would have been met with derision. It also says
By Simon Tisdall something about the weakness of Russia’s vaunted arms
industry that it is so reliant on imported shells.
T
hey make an odd couple. One is smiley- Another possible downside of Putin’s east-Asian In the past,
faced and chubby. The other is thin-lipped power games is the dubious view taken by China, his
and scowls a lot. Both are dictators, vastly more important “no-limits” ally. Beijing has the idea
sinister, brutal and unaccountable in their had a sometimes difficult relationship with its volatile of Russia
different ways. Both have made it their neighbour, especially over its regionally destabilising
mission to overturn the post-1945 global nuclear threats. Last month, Kim reacted angrily needing
order, defying the US, its chief patrolman. And both are to talks between China, Japan and South Korea on North
sanctioned, ostracised and a little bit feared by the west. denuclearisation. He has vowed never to give up his
Those fears are likely to intensify after last week’s nukes. China worries that a bilateral partnership of the
Korea’s
Pyongyang summit, both symbolic and substantive, type Putin is due to announce could threaten its security. support
between this unofficial Laurel and Hardy tribute act. The Biden administration is fully aware of the
North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un – the plump one – and negative strategic and geopolitical implications of
would
Russia’s Vladimir Putin – the skinny one – have a shared deepening Russia-North Korea ties. But it has done little have been
aim: consolidating their place in a bullish anti-western, to hinder the process. Since Trump, contacts with the met with
anti-democratic alliance, ostensibly representing a “new North have been minimal. Visiting the demilitarised
world order”, reaching from China to Iran. zone of Panmunjom in April, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, derision
Like most world leaders, Putin, the dominant partner US ambassador at the UN, complained Moscow and
in an oddball relationship, paid scant attention to Kim Beijing were rewarding North Korea’s “bad behaviour”
prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years by shielding it from sanctions. Admitting a lack of US
ago. All that changed with the onset of war. leverage, Thomas-Greenfield urged Russia and China
It was a gift to Kim. His idea of diplomacy is to issue “to reverse course and … urge Pyongyang to choose
threats to acquire leverage he otherwise lacks. His efforts diplomacy”. But as his visit demonstrates, Putin, China’s
mostly revolve around test-firing ever-longer-range leader Xi Jinping and Kim are simply not listening.
ballistic missiles capable of hitting the US’s west coast North Korea is but one piece on a much bigger
(as well as South Korea and Japan) and developing and 21st-century chessboard. As in Ukraine as in Gaza, the
miniaturising nuclear bombs and warheads. old world of pax Americana and an international order
Yet after the collapse of Donald Trump’s pantomime based on the UN Charter is dying before our eyes. In its
peace palaver with Kim in Hanoi in 2019, snail’s-pace place, a terrible travesty is born.
talks with Washington and its partners on normalising SIMON TISDALL IS THE OBSERVER’S FOREIGN
relations, lifting sanctions and denuclearisation of AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR

15
In-depth reporting and analysis
ISRAEL
Fears grow
of war with
Hezbollah
Page 22
UNITED KINGDOM
GENER A L
ELECTION
‘Enoughh is
i
I
t sounds odd to describe a well- Westminster. But they help explain ▲ Marie Tidball
to-do village with neat privet why Keir Starmer looks set to win a on the campaign
hedges, freshly mown lawns and historic parliamentary majority on 4 trail for Labour
enough’ three cars on each driveway as a

no-go area. Yet for almost three dec-
ades, the pretty parish of Silkstone, on
July. Not only is Labour winning back
supporters in the “red wall”, but it is
also breaking ground in areas it has not
in Penistone and
Stocksbridge
In red wall, the edge of the Pennines, was unwel-

coming territory for Labour folk.
held for decades.
“When I said there were no no-go
Tory support The village, centred around a

12th-century church 6km outside
Barnsley, was a bastion of Conserva-
areas, this is what I meant,” said Dr
Marie Tidball, Labour’s candidate for
Penistone and Stocksbridge in South
is crumbling tive blue surrounded by Labour red.

But last May, Silkstone elected its first
Yorkshire, marching around what she
describes as “the safest Tory ward” in
Labour councillor in a generation. the region until recently.
A second followed a year later. The breakthrough in Silkstone
By Josh Halliday The electoral tremors from this little came not just from Starmer moving
Continued
Photographs by Gary Calton blue enclave may not have been felt in his party to the centre ground of British
16 Spotlight
Europe
politics. It was also, said Tidball, on
the back of a ground campaign that
started more than two years ago, when
she was selected: “I’ve been out in the
wind, rain, sun, snow. We very much
haven’t just been out when it’s elec-
tion time, and people appreciate that.”
In 2019, this collection of former
mining villages and market towns
turned its back on Labour over Brexit
and Jeremy Corbyn. Voters elected
Miriam Cates as the first Conserva-
tive MP in South Yorkshire since 1992.
But the enthusiasm that helped
Boris Johnson to his 80-strong major-
ity has gone into reverse, with the
Tories apparently retreating from
serious campaigning in many of the
“red wall” seats it captured in 2019.
In 2019, Johnson campaigned in
the constituency with Cates, but Rishi
Sunak has spent recent weeks visit-
ing areas with majorities of more than
14,000 votes – leaving areas like Penis-
tone and Stocksbridge, with its 7,210-
vote majority, seemingly cast adrift.
Outside the DIY shop Do It Yer Sen, is now paying £7,000 ($8,800) to go ▲ Shoppers at of “anti-politics”. One Labour activist
in Penistone, Caron Wadsworth said private. Out of his three private pen- Penistone market said there was deep cynicism towards
she voted Conservative for the first sions, he has already cashed in two. in a constituency all parties on the doorstep.
time in 2019 but would not do so again. His experience has left him so that in 2019 Tidball, the odds-on favourite, is
“I always vote, but I haven’t made my disillusioned he has vowed not to vote returned the first seeking to counter the distrust by
mind up,” she said. at all any more, having backed Labour Conservative MP burnishing her local credentials: she
Wadsworth, 59, took redundancy all his life. “I won’t vote. They’re all the in South Yorkshire was born in Penistone and grew up
this month from a catalogue company same,” he said. “I’ve paid my taxes all since 1992 in Stocksbridge. Her mother was the
where she had worked for almost them years. They haven’t done noth- head of a nursery, while her father – a
four decades. She said she had little ing for me. Nobody’s done owt.” Labour county councillor – worked in
faith in any party to fix the UK’s Seeking to feed on this resentment secondary schools and helped set up
chronic challenges. is Nigel Farage, who said this month Barnsley College.
Her husband, Ian Wadsworth, Reform UK was “significantly ahead of In Silkstone, true blue territory, she
62, embodies two of the incoming the Conservatives” in “red wall” seats. was met with broad encouragement by
government’s most pressing issues: he He toured the villages outside Penis- many of the retirees. “I just voted for
is one of a record number of people out tone in an open-top battlebus before you,” hollered Frank Huby, 72, from his
of work due to long-term illness – in visiting Barnsley, where a man was freshly trimmed garden as he spotted
his case serious knee and arm injuries arrested for pelting him with objects Tidball. The former miner said he and
caused by 40-plus years in the building from a construction site. his wife abstained from voting in 2019
trade – and NHS backlogs. Cates, a rising star of the Tory right, because Corbyn “destroyed” the party.
Wadsworth said he was desperate to is alive to the threat from Farage. In an Down the street a retired police
work but has been waiting eight years article for the Daily Express newspaper worker, who did not want to be named,
for a knee operation on the NHS. He this month,
m Cates scotched rumours ‘I won’t said he would vote Labour due to a “loss
that she
sh could defect to Reform, saying of trust” with the Tories. Asked if he
she wwould “take my chances” as a Tory vote. had seen any benefit from levelling up,
candidate despite having “so much in
candi They’re all Johnson’s flagship policy, he replied:
common” with the rightwing party.
comm the same. “Zero. It’s probably worse, if anything.”
An evangelical Christian, Cates has Glyn Littlewood, 63, a retired uni-
made her name in Westminster on the I’ve paid versity lecturer, gleefully took a Labour
frontline of the culture wars – advo-
frontl my taxes all poster to put in his window with the
cating cuts to higher education, for
catin aim of annoying his dwindling number
example, to prevent youngsters being
exam
them years. of Tory neighbours. “To vote Conserv-
“indoctrinated
indo ” with liberal ideas. Nobody’s ative you either have to be incredibly
Caron Wadsworth But those issues seem far from
Bu done owt’ stupid or incredibly rich,” he said. “For
voted Tory in 2019 anyone’s top priority in her constitu-
anyon 14 years it’s been despicable. Enough’s
but is not doing ency, where voters complain about a Ian Wadsworth enough.” Observer
so again broken
b roke NHS, the cost of living crisis, Penistone JOSH HALLIDAY IS THE NORTH OF
housing, transport and a general sense
housi resident ENGLAND EDITOR AT THE GUARDIAN
Exclusive interview with 18- to 24-year-olds discuss how they y
Keir Starmer Page 34
17
will be voting this election Page 45
A N A LY S I S Lib Dems, with his fellow cabinet thinned, perhaps needing someone
UNITED KINGDOM ministers Grant Shapps and Mark like Tom Tugendhat to step up.
Harper ousted by Labour. Another key change in this
What would the remaining scenario is Reform UK winning
Poll positions parliamentary party look like? There

are many imponderables, not least
an influx of new MPs. It would, at
five seats, among them Clacton,
where Nigel Farage is standing.
Would a decimated and divided
From defeat to least, be the opposition by some
distance – the Lib Dems would have
Conservative party be vulnerable to
a hostile takeover by Farage?
total wipeout – 50 MPs – and there would be plenty

of big beasts to fight to be leader Tory wipeout
were Rishi Sunak to step down or Savanta poll: 53 Tory MPs
three outcomes be challenged.
Jostling for this race has already
Yes, the Conservative parliamentary
party would still exist, but it could
facing Tories begun, with Kemi Badenoch, Priti

Patel, Suella Braverman and Robert
comfortably fit into one of the larger
Commons committee rooms.
Jenrick expected to try their luck Savanta’s list of senior
from the right of the party. Conservatives who could lose their
For the centrists, while Shapps seats under this scenario is, as you
By Peter Walker would be gone, the home secretary, would expect, the most eye-popping
James Cleverly, would still be Role models yet, taking in a series of MPs from
Polls that use large- around, as would Penny Mordaunt, MRP polling can be the right of the party.
scale polling data to whose Portsmouth seat is seen as hugely informative, Under this scenario, Braverman
but it is heavily
extrapolate individual very vulnerable to Labour. and Badenoch would be vulnerable
caveated, not least
seat tallies, or MRPs– an – and even Sunak himself.
by the pollsters
acronym for multilevel regression Massive Labour majority What would be left for the
themselves, all of
and poststratification – have become YouGov poll: 108 Tory MPs stragglers in this post-apocalyptic
whom stress that
popular in UK politics. Three such If still not approaching a Canada Tory landscape? Whoever took over
many dozens of
polls published last week all gave 1993-style complete wipeout, this would, at least, be the opposition
seats are too close
pretty different results. What would would still be the Tories’ lowest- leader under this model, which
to call – meaning
the scenarios illustrated mean for ever Commons tally. The Labour the totals could predicts a Lib Dem total of 50. They
the Conservatives if they were majority of 200 would be greater end up being quite would, however, be facing a Labour
replicated on 4 July? than that won by Tony Blair in 1997. different. Those parliamentary party that was almost
The list of top Conservatives who put together 10 times bigger, at 516.
Solid Labour majority losing their seats would also the polls also stress Who would emerge as leader
More in Common poll: increase, taking in Gillian Keegan, that, as with all from this wreckage? It is impossible
155 Tory MPs the education secretary, who would algorithm-based to tell, not least because it’s hard to
Amazing as it might sound, a lot of lose in Chichester to the Lib Dems, models, the know how many viable candidates
Tory party officials and candidates who would gain 67 seats overall. numbers you get would even want to take on this
would probably accept this result Senior Tories toppled by Labour depend on not just most thankless challenge.
if it was offered now: a Labour would include Mordaunt, as well as the raw polling One curiosity of the Savanta MRP
majority of 162. Shapps and Harper, plus Mel Stride, results, but also the is that it predicts zero Reform seats,
Even with this scenario there the work and pensions secretary, complex models not even one for Farage, meaning
would be some high-profile with Cleverly’s seat too close to call. used to crunch the that if the Conservatives did want to
casualties; understandably, given If the home secretary joined data. And, as with make him their leader, they would
it would be a cull of 210 Tories from Mordaunt and Shapps in being all polls, they give need to find a seat for him first.
the 2019 election. Jeremy Hunt, the ousted, that would leave the ranks a snapshot, not a PETER WALKER IS A SENIOR POLITICAL
chancellor, would lose his seat to the of senior centrist Tories quite prediction. CORRESPONDENT FOR THE GUAR
GUARDIAN
ILLUSTRATION: GUARDIAN DESIGN

18 Spotlight
Europe
FR ANCE (EELV), Communists (PCF), hard left wage; freeze the price of essential
Insoumises (Unbowed; LFI), and other goods and energy; abolish the pension
red-banner candidates that polls sug- age rise to 64, reducing it back down to
gest is the country’s best – if not only 60; and tax rises on income, property,
Can left overcome

– hope of staving off a Rassemblement wealth and inheritance. It has denied
National (National Rally; RN) major- opponents’ claims that this will cost
ity government in the final round of between €100-200bn ($107-214bn),
its bitter rivalries legislative voting.

For France’s Socialists, allying with
LFI after its outspoken leader Jean-
but has yet to produce its own figure.
Émeric Bréhier, the director of the
Observatory of Political Life at the
to defy the far right? Luc Mélenchon’s insults and attacks
on the man who led their European
Jean-Jaurès Foundation thinktank,
said the left had been forced to rise
campaign, Raphaël Glucksmann, has above considerable differences by
been a bitter pill to swallow. But swal- the prospect of an RN majority in the
The ‘New Popular Front’ of Socialists, Greens low it they must, Glucksmann said, 577-seat Assemblée Nationale.
if they are to win what he calls “the “By joining forces nationally the
and Communists could be the best hope of
mother of all battles”. aim is to get as many [NFP] candidates
keeping out Marine Le Pen’s National Rally “It’s complicated … I’m not going to as possible into the second round,”
tell you it’s a marriage of love,” he said Bréhier said.
T
By Kim Willsher he posters strung across the of the left’s new coalition. “The RN hasn’t put a foot wrong in
MONTREUIL street in Montreuil, east of The coalition has agreed to divvy up this campaign … it has gained credibil-
Paris, were still fluttering constituencies to ensure no leftwing ity and made people think it’s another
in the breeze days after the candidate stands in opposition to normal party. It is saying things people
stage, the microphones and the politi- another. But its launch in Montreuil want to hear. To fight it, the left has had
cians at the launch of France’s newest last Monday evening was tense. to cooperate and compromise to form
political force had gone. Establishing a programme for the an alternative political force,” he said.
▼ People at the Here, out of the smouldering ashes hastily created NFP hydra, most of Emmanuel Macron, who called
launch of France’s of the country’s bickering left, a coali- whose heads loathe each other, has the snap election, has presented his
new leftwing tion had risen to take on the far right. involved even more pill swallowing centrist alliance as the only political
coalition The Nouveau Front Populaire and compromise. alternative to Marine Le Pen and the
in Montreuil (New Popular Front; NFP) is a tetchy What it has come up with is a RN’s president, Jordan Bardella. Polls
THOMAS PADILLA/AP alliance of Socialists (PS), Greens manifesto to increase the minimum suggest otherwise. A poll for Les Echos
19
by Opinionway on Saturday suggested hope for” was essential for progressive

the RN was still well ahead with 35% politics. After supporting the Greens
of intentions to vote in the first round, five years ago, Germans under 25
followed by 28% for the NFP and 22% gave the far-right Alternative für
for Macron’s coalition. Deutschland 16% of their vote – an
Bréhier said the predicted high 11-point rise – helping place the party
turnout and a lower number of can- second behind the opposition CDU-
didates this time could lead to more CSU conservatives. But he said it was
“triangulars”: the unusual situation misleading to suggest young people
where three candidates qualify for the in general are flocking to the far right.
second-round vote instead of two. In Scholz said that societies with less
the past, when two parties faced the economic disparity were better for all
far right, one would often withdraw – even the scions of multi-billionaires.
to avoid splitting the vote. “You could tell the son of Elon Musk
So far, the PS and LFI have said they that he could have a better life in Ger-
will advise voters to support whoever ▲ Olaf Scholz and GER M A N Y many ... because he does not have the
will keep out the RN after the first the Guardian’s need to live in a gated community,”
round vote on 30 June. editor-in-chief, Scholz said. “We have to give a vision
But while in previous elections Katharine Viner, that works for everyone. So that it is a
Call for hope

voters of all stripes have tended to vote in Berlin last week vision … for an unskilled worker (at) an
against the far right, this time may be DAS PROGRESSIVE Amazon site … the women working in
ZENTRUM/YOUTUBE
different. For many in France, Mélen- the shop and also for the managers and
chon’s radical left is as distasteful as Le
Pen’s far right.
Scholz’s plan the engineers and the skilled people.”
He said central to this was “the ques-
Last week, Kylian Mbappé, captain
of the France men’s football team, to win back tion of respect”.
Scholz felt the world was
warned voters to shun “les extremes”, experiencing “an extremely scary
a comment interpreted by some as
criticism of the radical left as well as
young voters moment”, but that the challenges also
presented opportunities. He cited the
the far right. example of Germany’s textile indus-
In Montreuil town hall, mayor By Deborah Cole and try in which the production “moved
Patrice Bessac, of the French Com- Kate Connolly BERLIN to cheap labour countries, but the
munist party, said an RN government machines were built in Germany”.
T
would shake everyone in a town with a he best way to win back He said full employment in
large migrant population of more than young voters from the far Germany was also a scenario no one
60 nationalities and be a wider threat right is to give them hope, could have envisaged even a few years
to French social cohesion. security and respect so that ago. “We have now a situation where
“People here are afraid. They know everyone “from an untrained Amazon nearly everyone is employed,” he said.
the far right’s first target will be the worker” to “Elon Musk’s son” can live “For the next 10, 20, 30 years ... we will
immigrant population and working- without fear of the future, the German have a lack of labour as the problem.”
class areas like ours,” Bessac said. chancellor has said. He said the EU had to work with the
“The danger from the far right After young people voted for the far countries of the global south to face up
means the left must put disagreements right in large numbers at the European to mounting challenges to security and
aside. The only thing that matters is parliamentary election, Olaf Scholz the international order.
that we propose a new path for the said it was necessary to closely address “We have to react to all these
country that is not the RN.” their anxieties. These included labour strongmen and dictators coming up
Glucksmann, who led the PS’s rights, global security, climate protec- and we have to organise security … but
relatively successful European cam- tion, a world shaped by artificial intel- also making clear that we are strong
paign – it came third narrowly behind ligence and an “international order … enough and no one can conquer our
Macron’s party – said he understood which is something you can rely on”. territories. This is important,” he said.
the reluctance of his “social democrat, Scholz was speaking at a summit Scholz, 66, who has been German
ecologist and pro-European” support- of progressive politicians and think- chancellor since 2021, described
ers to vote for an LFI candidate but that tanks in Berlin last Friday, chaired himself as a “technocratic manager”.
unity was the only way to avoid a “tri- by the Guardian’s editor-in-chief, Despite recent poll setbacks, he said
umph of the worst”. ‘We have Katharine Viner. his future campaign message would
In a Le Monde op-ed he wrote: “We to give a The German leader said in opening match his party’s winning formula
must prevent France from sinking into the vote up for the first time to peo- from the last election. “My view is
the abyss in a few days’ time. This is vision that ple as young as 16 in some countries, that the main question for all of us is
the mother of all battles, the battle that works for including Germany, it was “wrong” hope,” he said. “If you can hope for a
makes all the others possible. There to presume “that they are completely better future, this is essential.”
is little time left, very little time, and
everyone’ different to their parents and grand-
DEBORAH COLE IS A BERLIN
history is watching us.” Observer Olaf Scholz parents” and would reject the far right. CORRESPONDENT FOR THE GUARDIAN;
KIM WILLSHER IS A FOREIGN German He said that “reducing uncertainties KATE CONNOLLY IS THE GUARDIAN AND
CORRESPONDENT BASED IN PARIS chancellor and developing something you can OBSERVER’S BERLIN CORRESPONDENT

20 Eyewitness
Mexico
Hanging out
Cyclists in Guadalajara take a
break during the local staging of
the World Naked Bike Ride. The
ride – this year celebrating its 20th
anniversary – is a global protest
movement with events in cities
internationally, raising awareness
of issues such as cyclists’ road
safety, reducing oil dependence
and the climate crisis
ULISES RUIZ/AFP/GETTY
21
Spotlight
Middle East
ISR AEL In charge of the emergency even to Cyprus, which has hosted
preparations is Dr Tsvi Sheleg, an Israeli military exercises.
ophthalmologist whose unit was hit Those tensions were raised further
by a missile during the 2006 war. His still amid reports that US officials were
Tensions rise on
planning reflects a crisis that has long warning Israel against launching a
been building to this point, he said. “blitzkrieg” offensive against Hez-
“We started preparing for this two- bollah, cautioning that its anti-missile
border as war looms and-a-half years ago. We met with the

northern and home front commanders
where they described the number of
defences could be overwhelmed. The
consequences are already being felt.
In Israel some 60,000 people have
missiles Hezbollah had acquired.” been displaced. Once busy places, like
Doctors prepare for casualties, people flee It is not only hospitals that have Kiryat Shmona, close to the border,
been preparing for a potential widen- have become ghost towns.
their homes and apprehension hangs in the air
ing of the conflict. As the war in the north has become
as threat grows of conflict with Hezbollah Last week Israel’s religious services more perilous, the situation has
minister, Michael Malkieli, in charge become more politically toxic for the
B
By Peter eneath the 800-bed Galilee of burials in Israel, told the rightwing government of Benjamin Netanyahu,
Beaumont medical centre in the north- Channel 14 his office was preparing for whose attention has been focused most
and Quique ern Israeli city of Nahariya, “bigger things in the north”, adding: on the fighting with Hamas in Gaza.
Kierszenbaum treatment is being con- “There are some things you don’t Despite frantic diplomatic efforts
N AHARIYA ducted in an underground complex. say on air.” led by the US to de-escalate the conflict,
About 7km from the border with While the border has seen almost public opinion is pushing for a military
Lebanon, a frontier visible from daily exchanges since 8 October, when response with 60% of Israelis calling
the hospital’s car park, the doctors Hezbollah began firing in support of for an attack on Hezbollah “with full
are aware that in the event of an Hamas, the threats have escalated force”, according to a recent poll by the
escalating war their facility will be on sharply on both sides as the months Jewish People Policy Institute.
the frontline. have worn on. As the threat of war has grown, it has
A suite equipped with monitors Last week, senior Israeli generals imposed itself ever deeper into Israel’s
and screens will act as the nerve announced they had signed off on a heartland. Last Tuesday, Haifa’s port
centre in the event of a full-scale plan for an offensive to drive Hezbol- was presented in a disturbing new
war between Israel and Hezbollah, a lah from the border, while the militant perspective in footage captured by a
prospect that looms ever larger amid group’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasral- Hezbollah surveillance drone flying
rising hostilities and exchanges of fire lah, warned of a war “without rules or overhead and then broadcast in an
across the border. ceilings”, threatening it could spread explicit threat to the city of 300,000.

23
Andre Suidan, who has run his A N A LY S I S sudden conflict. Hezbollah and
wine importing business in Haifa for ISR AEL/LEBANON Israel have been trading blows
30 years, said some of his longtime since Hamas’s October attack, with
customers are choosing to leave Israel Hezbollah insisting it will not stop
with their family. “I had someone
come in just yesterday who is leaving. Hostile acts unless there is a ceasefire in Gaza.
But as the campaign in the south
It’s a tough decision but it’s normal as reaches what the IDF says are its
you sense the bombing coming closer,”
he said.
Despite the talk final stages, violence in the north
has been stepping up.
But it is in sight of the border, how-
ever, that the conflict feels most real.
of war both sides An airstrike earlier this month
killed Taleb Abdallah, the most
On the porch of a home in kibbutz
Kabri, a group of residents gathered for
know the perils senior Hezbollah commander to die
in an attack since October, prompting
an outdoor lunch to talk about the situ-
ation. There was a distant boom, then of all-out conflict the militant group to fire rockets
into northern Israel in the heaviest
smoke rose from where the hills fall barrages in eight months.
into the sea, the site of an army base The last all-out war between the
on the border marked by its antennas. By Dan Sabbagh two, in 2006, escalated from an
Soon afterwards the sound of outgoing incident when Hezbollah guerrillas
Israeli artillery was audible. A warning from Israel’s killed three IDF soldiers, injured
Three generations of the men sitting foreign minister, Israel two more and captured two others
at the table fought in Lebanon: in the Katz, that a decision after a cross-border raid that was
early 1980s, in 1995 and in the last on “all-out war” with interpreted by Israel as an act of war.
major war in 2006. “We have all been Hezbollah in southern Lebanon is An air campaign into Lebanon failed
Smoke rises as in Lebanon,” said Adi Ceynan, the head coming soon is almost certainly an to suppress rocket attacks and a
rockets fired from of the kibbutz. “We know what it looks attempt at deterrence – not least brief ground invasion followed.
Lebanon land like on other side. We know one of the because both sides understand how Already an estimated 155,000
near Kfar Szold in choices facing us is [to] be on the other devastating full hostilities would be. civilians have been displaced on
northern Israel side of the border.” Hezbollah, an ally of Iran, is a both sides of the border. Israel
JALAA MARE/AFP/GETTY
Goni Harash was waiting to start more powerful adversary than evacuated 60,000 citizens living
his guard shift as a first responder, a Hamas. It is estimated to have within 5km, while a further 20,000
rifle slung around his shoulder. Life between 30,000 and 50,000 fighters have abandoned homes farther
has changed profoundly in the past and a similar number in reserve, away voluntarily. Another 75,000
eight months, he said. Like many, between 120,000 and 200,000 have been forced to leave the
he left with his family in the imme- unguided missiles and rockets, plus villages of southern Lebanon.
diate aftermath of Hamas’s attack attack and reconnaissance drones. Sarit Zehavi, the founder of Alma,
on 7 October and Hezbollah’s entry Assaf Orion, a former brigadier- an education centre that focuses
into the conflict on 8 October. Most general in the Israel Defense Forces on the security of Israel’s northern
people, he said, have returned despite and its chief of strategy between border, said this position was
the proximity of the war and the 2010 and 2015, estimates that unsustainable: “There is already a
threat of escalation. Hezbollah has “10 times the arsenal second front. Galilee [in northern
“On the one hand people are happy of Hamas” and implies that any Israel] is under daily attack from
to be here. You can’t hide and people conflict would be a similar order UAVs, rockets and missiles. The
don’t want to hide. But everything of magnitude greater than the average now is 90 every week. There
is really tense. All day you can hear hostilities in Gaza after 7 October. is already a war up there on a low
bombs, sirens and alarms. My kids A key concern is the risk of scale. The question is how it will
used to walk to school. Now they don’t miscalculation that leads to a be solved.”
walk anywhere on their own.” Orion said a military solution
While there are some disagreements would need “the whole of the IDF’s
among this kibbutz community, there available forces”, allowing for a
‘My kids is common ground in feeling aban- limited presence in Gaza and a
used to doned by the Israeli government and security presence in the West Bank.
walk to being left to their fate. An incursion would ask a lot of IDF
“No one knows what’s best,” said troops fatigued fighting in the south.
school. Goni. “Is it best to see a major conflict Any conflict would prompt a
Now they or come to an agreement? It feels like diplomatic crisis, raising questions
the people who are supposed to know of whether Iran would seek to
don’t walk know least of all. The government support Hezbollah and the spectre
anywhere needs to give us something.” of a wider Middle East conflict the
on their US has been desperate to avoid.
PETER BEAUMONT IS A SENIOR
own’ GUARDIAN INTERNATIONAL
DAN SABBAGH IS THE GUARDIAN’S
DEFENCE AND SECURITY EDITOR
CORRESPONDENT; QUIQUE
Goni Harash KIERSZENBAUM IS A JERUSALEM-
Kibbutz Kabri BASED JOURNALIST
▲ Hezbollah fighters carry the coffin
of senior commander Taleb Abdallah
BILAL HUSSEIN/AP 28 June 2024 The Guardian Weekly
24 Spotlight
Environment
F
CHILE rom a distance, the colourful beaches than on the Chilean mainland, ▼ Kina Paoa
beach at Ovahe seems a largely a result of the vast spiralling Kannegiesser
postcard-perfect mosaic of current known as the South Pacific sorts plastic
natural beauty. Craggy vol- gyre. This current acts like a funnel, from seashells at
How Easter
canic boulders, pockmarked from bub- sucking in plastic from as far away as Ovahe beach on
bling lava, jut from the sand, garnished the Galápagos Islands and New Zea- Easter Island
by a necklace of pastel-coloured corals land and, with every tide, depositing
Island is and seashells pounded to pieces by the

wild, crashing surf.
As the waves pull back, however,
a wave of floating rubbish.
Picking through the sand, Paoa
Kannegiesser holds an example of a
swamped another reality emerges. The sand

holds few corals or shells. Instead,
the high-tide mark is a carpet of plas-
coral colony forming on the lattice of a
plastic fish bin discarded by the indus-
trial fishing fleets that almost encircle
by deluge tics polished into an array of bleached

Coca-Cola reds and Pepsi blues.
“Look at all this,” says Kina Paoa
this island as they chase dwindling
schools of tuna. She collects fish bins
by the dozen and lately has been find-
of plastic Kannegiesser, 22, using a kitchen sieve
to scoop up bottle caps, shampoo bot-
ing coral that has fused with the debris
to form an organic-plastic sandwich.
tle shards and disposable razors. The Seven years ago, when she was 15,
ocean rubbish is crammed into every Paoa Kannegiesser joined an environ-
Ocean currents are dumping nook and cranny along this remote mental club at her Easter Island school
beach on Easter Island, a 163 sq km as she sought to recycle beach plastic
tides of multinational rubbish
speck of land. into art. She was hooked and now,
on to the shores of one of the About 3,700km west of central twice a week, putters the 25km from
world’s most remote habitats Chile, Easter Island (also known as one end of Easter Island to another in
Rapa Nui) is among the most remote her mother’s battered car to fill sacks
By Jonathan Franklin spots on Earth – and among the most with plastic pieces sifted from the sand
EASTER ISLAND polluted. It is estimated that 50 times and picked from between the rocks. Photographs by
more plastic washes ashore on these “The plastic is in the water for Akira Franklin
Southern frontlines
Scan the code for more from our new 25
series reporting on climate justice issues
from Latin America and the Caribbean
such a long time that animals are global plastics treaty, including Peru
attracted to it,” she says. and Rwanda, continue to gather mem-
Paoa Kannegiesser takes all the bers for the High Ambition Coalition,
plastic she collects at the beach – 10kg a force emerged opposing limits on
on an average mission – to her back- plastics production. This group, which
yard workshop in the island’s capital, calls itself the Like-Minded Develop-
Hanga Roa, where she grinds it up and ing Countries – and whose members
pours it into moulds. The debris is then include China, Ecuador, India, Iran,
melted into the shape of Easter Island’s Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Vietnam –
iconic stone statues, or moai. has fought efforts to control the growth
Each 10cm moai is made into a of the plastics industry, he says.
key chain, a fridge magnet or jewel- Petero Tepano, who served on the
lery, which Paoa Kannegiesser sells Easter Island governing council, says
to cruise-ship tourists, who thereby the island is at the centre of several
carry some plastic back off the island. flows of plastics. “It is obvious that
the microplastics come from Chile and
O
n the hills above Hanga plastic. Now it is dangerous to eat fish.” ▲ Petero Tepano, Asia, but our fundamental problem is
Roa, the Orito recycling At a plastics summit held on the who served on the the factory fishing,” he says. “Look at
plant receives mountains island in April, Tepano put pressure island’s governing the trash all around this island, it is
of rubbish collected by civic on the United Nations Environmental council, sorts from boats. You have buoys, oil bar-
cleanup patrols. During the Covid-19 Programme to finance a pilot project through washed rels, ropes and nets – huge, huge nets.”
pandemic, when tourism to the island to collect ocean plastics. Who better up plastic So many creatures are injured off
shut down, hundreds of islanders than locals to collect floating plastic Rapa Nui by floating nets that the
spent months scouring the beaches as as they fished, argued Tepano, who ▼ Recovered Chilean government now runs a rehab
they removed about 11 tonnes of waste. proposed an incentive that would pay plastic moulded centre on the island to save birds and
Plastic found at the recycling plant 2,000 pesos ($2) for each kilogram of into souvenirs animals maimed at sea. Easter Island-
often reveals its origin. One panel car- plastic recovered. But, as yet, he has ers are so accustomed to finding these
ries the name of a Chile-based fishery, received no funding. “ghost nets” that locals decorate their
El Golfo. Other pieces, from the Wel- April’s summit was part of an inter- homes with them.
lington Trawling Company and United national effort to draft a global plastics The fishing fleet that dumps so
Fisheries, are from ships out of New treaty. This is being hammered out in a much plastic offshore is estimated at
Zealand. “We wrote letters telling series of UN-sponsored meetings, with 300 ships. Yet it is an invisible armada,
them, ‘Your plastic is here. Why is the latest round of the intergovernmen- Washed up rarely spotted except when a crew
your plastic here? What are you going tal negotiating committee talks, known Easter Island’s member suffers a medical emergency
to do?’ We never had any responses,” as INC-4, ending in Ottawa, Canada, in onboard a ship and needs treatment.
waste problem
says Paoa Kannegiesser. April. Many participants noted that the When these emergency landings
Workers at the city dump now grind proposed text did not commit countries occur, Easter Islanders use the oppor-
the plastic into beads used to make
multicoloured table tops and home
furnishings. One inspired project built a
to even slow plastic production.
“The INC has once again failed to
ask the most fundamental question to
50
Number of times
tunity to surveil the ship, chat with the
crew and investigate their activities. At
times, the foreigners are amiable and
music school for the island using 2,500 the success of the future treaty: how more waste provide tours and access to the fish-
tyres, 40,000 glass bottles and 40,000 do we tackle the unsustainable pro- that washes holding tanks. It is a gruesome specta-
aluminium cans. Yet the mountain of duction of plastics,” says Jacob Kean- up on Easter cle, says one man, who describes holds
rubbish grows. A study by the Catholic Hammerson, an oceans campaigner Island than packed with different species, many
University of the North in Chile calcu- with the London-based Environmen- on the Chilean caught illegally.
lated that 4.4m pieces of rubbish a year tal Investigation Agency. mainland This deep-water trawling vacuums
– more than 500 pieces an hour – reach Kean-Hammerson says pro-plastic life from the Pacific, trapping turtles,
Easter Island’s shores.
“The Chilean government must talk
delegates now “hold the talks hos-
tage”. While the sponsors of the 500 suffocating dolphins and wastefully
killing tonnes of sea life, dismissed as
to their municipalities to get them to Number of pieces worthless “bycatch”.
stop dumping trash into their rivers,” of rubbish that Petero Tepano describes with
says Felipe Tepano, a Rapa Nui elder are calculated to indignation how one ship came to
who presides over the island’s power- reach the island Hanga Roa, anchored offshore to
ful Council of the Sea. “If they dump every hour unload an injured crew member, and
it in the river, the river dumps it in then headed back to the open Pacific.
the sea, and three or four years later,
it arrives here.” 4.4m Even before leaving the exclusion zone
reserved for Chilean fishing boats,
“My legacy to my grandchildren Number of pieces the crew had dropped their nets and
should be that they can still eat fish,” of rubbish that begun scooping up sealife, leaving
says Tepano, who, while gutting tuna a are believed to behind a trail of plastic rubbish.
few weeks earlier, found a bewildering reach the island “Sometimes,” says one fisher, “the
collection of plastics inside it. The plas- each year locals go and throw rocks at them.”
tic had clogged up the fish’s intestines. JONATHAN FRANKLIN IS A JOURNALIST
“The fish gets confused and eats the BASED IN CHILE

26 Spotlight
Asia Pacific
Separate figures indicated that half
of those who left recently moved to
Australia. Now, experts are worrying
that a grim economic picture means
departing Kiwis may not come back.
“We can’t compete with the salaries
in Australia,” said David Cooper, direc-
tor of immigration firm Malcolm
Pacific. “Some people view that New
Zealand has gone backwards, and so
they’re voting with their feet.”
Frame said it “just felt like bad news
after bad news” in New Zealand, and in
Melbourne she found a higher-paying
job and a flat with lower rent.
NEW ZEALAND ▲ Auckland is New Zealand has a tradition of
failing to attract young residents travelling for an over-
people as record seas experience. According to Gareth
numbers leave Kiernan, chief forecaster at econom-
Fears of skills
New Zealand ics consultancy Infometrics, part of
CATHERINE IVILL/GETTY the reason the recent surge hit record
levels is a backlog of people travelling
shortage as abroad after delaying their plans due
to travel restrictions and uncertainty
departures amid the pandemic.

But much of the record flow out
of New Zealand, according to Cooper
hit new highs and Kiernan, is also due to the growing
attraction of Australia. As New Zea-
land inches out of a recent recession,
By Pete McKenzie WELLINGTON many citizens believe that the cost of
living is lower and salaries higher in PA P U A N E W G U I N E A
W
hen New Zealand opened Australia, Kiernan said, which might
its borders after the pan- lead to more permanent shifts.
demic, the departures Cooper worries that outflow might
‘Our hearts
began immediately. worsen an already severe skills short-
For Kirsty Frame, then a 24-year-old age in the country.
journalist for the country’s national “The record numbers of Kiwis
broadcaster in Wellington, the sense
of loss was constant.
“It was goodbye dinner after goodbye
leaving are not the desperate. They’re
the young, skilled people,” he said. “It’s
hard to attract the highly skilled people
are heavy’
dinner, leaving drinks after leaving
drinks, and it started to take a toll.”
we need to replace the ones leaving.”
Kiernan agrees. “If we’re not able
Landslide
For her, the city’s beauty came from
its people. “If what made Wellington
so great as a place to live and work was
to keep people here because the econ-
omy isn’t going well and the cost of
living is too high, it does reflect pretty
leaves trail
my community, and I feel I don’t have
that here now and there’s a lot less
poorly on our economic situation.”
For many young travellers, the pull of anguish
people my age, what do I want to do?” of having children will probably be the
She considered moving to driver to bring them home.
Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, Frame, meanwhile, said: “What Weeks after a tragedy that
but heard it felt empty too. She mulled might bring me back is that feeling of
killed hundreds, community
London, but Britain seemed too dis- missing my family, or a new chapter of
mourns amid cultural
tant. Finally, in the middle of 2023, she
moved to Melbourne.
The flow of departures from New
56.5k
Net loss of New
my life starting. Or just feeling home-
sick for the country.”
Frame said living in Melbourne
tensions over a bypass road
Zealand has accelerated since then. Zealand citizens means she does not need to return to By Alice Thomas ENGA PROVINCE
Record numbers of people are leav- in the year up to New Zealand to get a taste of home. Martha Louis MOROBE PROVINCE
ing as cost-of-living pressures increase April, according “There are so many New Zealanders
and residents grapple with limited job to Statistics NZ. here, it’s kind of ridiculous,” Frame
opportunities. Provisional figures This is an said. “Bumping into people from Wel-
from Statistics NZ show a net loss of increase of lington is almost an everyday event.”
56,500 citizens in the year to April – up 12,000 from the PETE MCKENZIE IS A WELLINGTON-
12,000 from the previous record. previous record BASED JOURNALIST

27
‘The rocks Kongo said residents demand

respect for their deceased, and want a
are massive proper dialogue with the Enga provin-
and the cial administration. He has also called
mud is so for disaster support funds to be trans-
parently managed and directed to the
thick. It was appropriate organisations.
like trying “We need to ensure every bit of aid
goes to those who need it most, with-
to move a out any mismanagement,” he added.
mountain The Enga provincial disaster
with a committee deputy chair, Kenneth
Andrews, told local media there was
spoon’ an understanding between the com-
munities of Yambali and Porgera to use
the road. But many in the area affected
by the landslide are not happy.
“People of Porgera are suffering
because of this disaster as well and
we need the Yambali people to under-
stand and cooperate with authorities
to rebuild lives of the living,” he said. A
spokesperson for the Porgera mine did
not respond to a request for comment.
Erickson Magalio, a resident of
Yambali, lost his beloved sister in this
catastrophe. Overwhelmed by grief,
Magalio returned to the village from
Wabag town, clinging to the fragile
hope of recovering his sister’s body.
The enormity of the task before him
I
n a remote village in northern ones. As they reckon with the losses, was almost unbearable.
Papua New Guinea’s Enga prov- tensions have been stirred over how “The rocks are massive, and the
ince, the community has set up a authorities have responded, while a debris and mud are so thick and deep.
haus krai, a traditional mourning road giving access to a nearby mine Using our bare hands and shovels is
house. It is located about 200 metres has raised objections for disrespecting simply not enough to reach the bod-
from the landslide that buried people cultural practices. ies,” Magalio said. “It was like trying to
while they slept on 24 May. The house The Enga provincial disaster move a mountain with a spoon.”
honours those killed in a tragedy that committee’s decision to put in a bypass Despite relentless efforts, the layers
has affected thousands of people. road to reach the recently reopened ▲ People in Enga of rubble stood as an insurmountable
Earlier this month authorities mine, about 30km away in Porgera, has province during barrier, and the ground beneath them
brought an end to the official recovery angered many surviving landowners rescue efforts remained in a constant state of flux.
operation. Estimates of the number in Yambali, one of the villages hit by after last month’s About 30 people from nearby Nete
killed vary widely and few bodies have the landslide, and others nearby. landslide Lyaim are thought to have been killed
been recovered. The UN initially said According to Engan traditions, it is in the disaster. They were visiting
670 villagers died, though locals say culturally inappropriate to disturb the ▼ The landslide in Yambali when the landslide struck.
the number is lower. ground where bodies are buried, and Yambali village, In Yambali, ongoing tremors
Kopen Kongo, a police reservist, the community insists on proper buri- Enga province threaten those who remain. A pre-
lives in Mulitaka, Enga province, als before any road access is created. EMMANUEL ERALIA/AFP liminary assessment of the landslide
where the disaster hit. He says many by geological experts indicated that
men, women and children remain bur- it remains a high-risk area prone to
ied under the debris. Kongo’s mother, further rock slides.
two sons, and wife were trapped inside Rescue and relief operations have
their house when the landslide struck, focused on immediate aid and long-
but he managed to dig them out alive. term planning, hoping to prevent
Many of his neighbours were not as further conflicts and better prepare
lucky. The loss is deeply felt by all. for the possibility of future disasters.
“The pain of losing so many in our “Our hearts are heavy, but our
community is unimaginable,” Kongo resolve is strong,” Magalio said. “We
said. “We demand that the memories will rebuild, and we will remember
of our loved ones are respected.” those we have lost.”
While the official search for bodies ALICE THOMAS AND MARTHA LOUIS
has ended, some relatives and fami- ARE PAPUA NEW GUINEA-BASED
lies continue to look for their loved JOURNALISTS

28 Spotlight
Europe
Even Fietsersbond, the Dutch
cyclists’ union, is changing its tone,
while stressing that there is no excuse
for reckless drivers or poor infrastruc-
ture. “We have the position that hel-
mets don’t prevent accidents but it can
be a wise decision to wear one on a vol-
untary basis,” said its director, Esther
van Garderen. “Emphasising too
much that you should wear a helmet
would discourage people from cycling
sometimes, though, and has the air
of victim-blaming. I think it’s coming
slowly, although there’s no such thing
as a society with zero danger and we
value our culture where you can cycle
safe and free.”
Denmark, which prides itself on
an equally welcoming climate for
cyclists, looks askance at its southern
neighbours. Martin Hein, a transport
NETHERLANDS ministry spokesperson, said that while
helmets were not compulsory, many
Danes had taken the hint after safe
cycling campaigns by NGOs. “Because
consequences. And a large proportion ▲ A cyclist passes they’re smart,” he said. “We have very
Heads up of people who fall while cycling have
brain injury.”
through ranks of
parked bikes in
little other than our heads and if we
don’t take care of our heads we won’t
Road deaths She knows this all too well: in 2019,

her mother died after a collision with a
car at a roundabout. “A helmet doesn’t
Amsterdam
JOCHEN TACK/ALAMY
be able to provide for our families.”
Although countries such as
Australia and Sweden have strict hel-
prompt a prevent everything, but it does ensure
there is less impact from the street on
met rules, the Danes were concerned
that a law would put people off cycling
rethink over your head,” Boss said. The number of

cyclists seriously injured each year
in the Netherlands has risen by 27%
and end up being worse for their
health. The freedom-loving Dutch
have a similar reluctance, according to
bike helmets in the past decade, according to an

injury prevention organisation, Vei-
Patrick Rugebregt, a spokesperson for
the SWOV, which has studied a recent
ligheidNL. The Dutch Institute for helmet campaign in Zeeland province.
Road Safety Research (SWOV) found “Public opinion is the most significant
that if all cyclists wore helmets, there obstacle,” he said.
By Senay Boztas AMSTERDAM would be 85 fewer deaths annually. Bart Groothuijze, who runs the
Meanwhile, the European Transport Castodian foundation promoting
W
hen 42-year-old Myrthe Safety Council says fatalities in older safer motorbiking, blames a misplaced
Boss gets on her bike people and ebikers have set Dutch road sense of freedom and vanity. “My posi-
to go shopping in the safety “back in time 15 years”. tion is that if you don’t wear a helmet
Dutch town of Ede , Cycling is part of the country’s riding a bike, a horse or whatever
she pops on a helmet. This act, con- cultural identity and 28% of journeys vehicle in which you are exposed to
sidered essential in many countries, are made by bike. Child learners often all kinds of elements, you are either
marks out Boss as something of a wear helmets, but adults tend to be stupid or you will become stupid after
radical in the Netherlands, where highly resistant. you crash,” he said.
helmet-wearing is rare. In an attempt to change this “On one hand the Dutch are quite
Now, however, faced with a rising
number of traffic deaths linked in par-
ticular to older riders and ebikes, the
Dutch government and provinces – not
mentality, the Dutch transport min-
istry plans to publish guidelines next
month on voluntary helmet use. Prov-
inces such as Gelderland and Utrecht
85
Number of
vain, and secondly the Dutch don’t like
to be commanded: if someone says
you have to do this, they will do the
opposite. That’s embedded in our col-
to mention neurologists such as Boss are already doing their bit, running lives the Dutch lective DNA. But one good thing with
– are inviting cyclists to think again. successful discount promotions, while Institute for ebikes is that the children of elderly
“I’m a huge fan of cycling, but it’s takeaway companies such as Just Eat Road Safety people are saying to their parents:
important to protect ourselves,” Boss have made helmets mandatory for Research says you should be wearing a helmet. It’s
said. “The brain is a very vulnerable delivery cyclists. A recent editorial in would be saved becoming more normal.”
organ with limited capacity to recover. the medical journal Medisch Contact each year if the SENAY BOZTAS WRITES ON EUROPE,
If you fall from a bike and sustain a had a simple headline: “Looks good country’s cyclists PARTICULARLY THE NETHERLANDS
brain injury, this has long-term on you, that skull fracture.” wore helmets AND BELGIUM

Spotlight 29
Africa
NIGER IA For centuries, the palm tree has ▼ Lola Pedro analyst, enlisted South African master
been integral to communities on both (in yellow hat, distiller Roger Jorgensen, who also
sides of the Atlantic. Palm wine, its left) co-founded helped craft Kenya’s Procera Gin.
sap, has cultural, economic and spir- Pedro’s Premium When the distilled products arrive
How smooth
itual significance across west Africa. Ògógóró (right) in Lagos, they are further refined at
The distilled version was once a phe- in 2018 Pedro’s mini-distillery on the Lagos
nomenon, said historian Ed Keazor, TOKETEMU mainland, and bottled with a logo
operators
OHWOVORIOLE
who drank it as an undergraduate in inspired by Indigenous symbols that
eastern Nigeria in the 1980s. reference the six cardinal elements of
“From the late 19th century, it was the spirit’s fabrication: water, the palm
reclaimed brewed on a small scale but [blos-
somed] in the 1920s when Joseph Iso, a
tree, drum, fire, machete and people.
The attention to detail pleases
‘moonshine’ ship hand who had been in the United

States during the Prohibition, came
back to Nigeria, and with the skills he
Bordeaux-based wine consultant
Chinedu Rita Rosa, whose grandfather
was from the delta. “The beautiful thing
palm spirit had learned from moonshine distiller-

ies began teaching,” he said.
about it is the lingering taste in your
mouth of the bouquet of tropical fla-
Around that time, European vours of coconut and vanilla,” she said.
colonial figures proscribed it as “illicit Adetomi Aladekomo, editor of
By Eromo Egbejule BADAGRY gin”, citing lack of quality control. It Nigerian food blog Eat.Drink.Lagos,
became bootleg liquor consumed in believes the new-age spirits are catch-
S
ince the pandemic, Lola Pedro unlabelled vessels at speakeasies and ‘Ògógóró ing on with new demographics. “Once
has been spending a lot of time private functions or peddled by street it’s not being sold in a sachet or on the
at an eco-tourist hamlet in vendors in rural areas. is a vehicle roadside, we millennials are fine with
Badagry town, on the outskirts But it has reappeared on shelves to talk drinking literally anything,” she said.
of Lagos, surrounded by coconut and from London to Paris and New York about our The spirits have also sparked
African apple trees next to chalets with – as Pedro’s Ògógóró, Ghana’s Aphro, debates on decolonisation and ances-
showers open to the sky. Ivory Coast’s Me N’zan koutoukou, identity’ tral heritage. On its website, the spirit
The hamlet’s beach house serves Benin’s Tambour Original Sodabi and Since the Time of John the Baptist says
as operations base and brainstorm- more – thanks to local entrepreneurs. Lola Pedro its name referencing the Biblical verse
ing centre for “Nigeria’s first premium “Ògógóró is not even gin,” Pedro Co-founder of Matthew 11:12 is “a nod to Africa’s
spirit”, as the 42-year-old researcher, said about the “illicit gin” tag while Pedro’s Premium interminable suffering”.
who was raised in London, describes uncorking a bottle of London Manya, a Ògógóró A 45-minute boat ride across the
the brand she co-founded in 2018. champagne-type tipple. “It has such a lagoon connects the hamlet to the
“I found a level of affinity with the negative reputation that we were like: upscale district of Ikoyi while a road
ethos of the space – a farm-to-table eco how do we make ògógóró that out- leads to Porto-Novo, the Beninese
resort,” she said. Inside the facility are smoothens your smoothest cognac?” capital. Badagry and Porto-Novo were
maturation tanks and a giant neon logo The journey to answering that ports Europeans and natives used in
for Pedro’s Premium Ògógóró, which question began in 2015 and took her to trading palm oil and humans.
owes half its name to a Nigerian nick- riverine communities such as Sapele, “Ògógóró is a vehicle to talk about
name for distilled palm sap, a west a small port town in the Niger delta. our identity,” said Pedro. Observer
African favourite until its colonial-era Pedro and her co-founder Chibueze EROMO EGBEJULE IS THE GUARDIAN’S
ostracisation a century ago. Akukwe , a 43-year-old financial WEST AFRICA CORRESPONDENT

30 Spotlight
Science
T
BIOLOGY he devil arrived at Andrew treating afflicted people were seeing assassin bugs and several caterpillars.
Walker’s laboratory in a swelling, blood-filled boils and welts Alongside Glenn King, an affable bio-
cardboard box. Its fluores- – but they could find nothing to help chemist who leads the institute’s
cent green body, covered ease the pain. “bugs and drugs” group, and a former
By Jackson Ryan in a thicket of menacing spikes, was According to one poster to a colleague, Volker Herzig, the group has
adorned at both ends with a pair of Townsville community group on Face- collected venom from more than 500
black horns. book, this “feels like the seven rings of species, building an unrivalled collec-
For residents of north-east hell”. But where unlucky gardeners tion of animal toxins.
Queensland, this devil – scientific name see an enemy, Walker sees a potential “This is by far the biggest
Comana monomorpha – is known as the ally. “Caterpillars are my favourite invertebrate venom library in the
electric caterpillar. Its sting, typically venomous animal at the moment,” world – probably the biggest venom
received while tending to shrubs in the he said. library in the world,” King said.
garden, is exceptionally painful. Walker, a molecular entomologist at Given that it includes venoms from
The venom causes a nasty welt and the University of Queensland’s Insti- Australian tarantulas, a Brazilian cat-
a considerable rash that can last for a tute for Molecular Bioscience, has erpillar and the lethal funnel-web
week. It is so bad that some victims characterised the venoms of some spider, it might even be considered
have spent a night in an emergency of the world’s least-studied venom- the deadliest library in the world. But
department. Health professionals ous animals, including centipedes, researchers like King and Walker aren’t
For unlucky victims, a caterpillar’s sting ‘feels like the seven rings of hell’.
But scientists hope its toxin can be used to heal, not harm
Bugs, drugs and

electric venom
The deadliest The University of
Queensland’s Institute
for Molecular Bioscience
has studied the venom
library in
of animals such as the
electric caterpillar
(below) and the funnel-
web spider (above)
Th
The
T Guardian
he Gu
he Guaard
rdian
an
a Weekly
nW
We
eek
eekl
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kly 28 June
klly 28 ne 2024
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31
interested in venoms’ ability to kill. and spiders – which belong to the same
They want to use it to heal. class of animals – have long provided
Venom is, in the simplest terms, useful insights into venom, though
a toxin delivered by one animal into no therapeutic compounds have been
another. But that definition dimin- developed from them. The bugs and
ishes toxins’ complexity – they are drugs group hopes to change that.
composed of rich cocktails of mol- Using the venom library, the
ecules. More than 200,000 species University of Queensland team, along
on Earth are venomous and each has with scientists from Monash Univer-
evolved their own set of biological sity, have characterised the venom of
weaponry to help them kill prey or, as a subspecies of funnel-web spider,
with the caterpillar, defend against it. discovering a peptide with potent
Studying the molecules that make physiological effects. Known as Hi1a,
up venom, scientists have been able to the tiny protein blocks a signalling
develop compounds that can relieve pathway that orders cells to die when
chronic pain, treat diabetes and cre- there’s a lack of oxygen. When given
ate eco-friendly insecticides. So far, to patients who have suffered a heart
six venom-derived therapeutics have attack or stroke, Hi1a could protect
been approved for use in humans. against extensive, lasting damage. The asp millions of years ago. In research yet
Many venoms are adept at In animal models, studies have to be published, he suggests that the
disrupting a piece of mammalian suggested the molecule may have caterpillar electric caterpillar may have under-
cellular machinery known as an ion protective effects against heart attack. may have gone a similar process.
channel. These channels are used for It’s slated for preliminary human acquired Both species contain venoms rich in
everything from breathing to muscle clinical trials in 2025. molecules that are able to punch holes
contraction and neural signalling. As Hector rested calmly in my palm, toxic in a cell membrane, causing an attack-
Scientists like King and Walker use Walker explained how his research has capabilities ing animal to feel pain.
that quirk of nature to their advantage: seen him move from neuroscience to These proteins present a possible
By identifying key molecules in venom studying silk proteins, and now to
via gene path to new insecticides and thera-
that interact with ion channels, they looking beyond scorpions and spiders. transfer peutics. Similar molecules have been
hope to uncover molecules that can “My idea was that, if you went to with used to protect crops from pests
target those channels, leading to the a different group of animals that had and some are being developed as a
creation of targeted therapeutics. evolved venom independently, then bacteria way of delivering drugs into cells.
A venom library supercharges you would start to see very different millions of The electric caterpillar is unlikely to
this process, allowing researchers to types of molecules,” he said. years ago yield such impact, Walker stresses,
screen hundreds of venoms at once Walker’s work with caterpillars but there are immediate benefits of
and rapidly identify promising can- is at a much earlier stage than the understanding what makes up its
didate molecules. group’s funnel-web studies. Spiders venom – especially if you’re a resident
“We can apply [the library] to are generally much larger than cater- of north-east Queensland.
virtually any human disorder where pillars and produce a lot more venom. Electric caterpillar envenomation
we think an ion channel might be The typical yield after milking a spi- has been notoriously difficult to treat.
involved in the disease,” King said. der can be measured in microlitres. Ice packs don’t seem to work. An insect
Venom yield in caterpillars is meas- bite gel? Forget about it. Vinegar does
O
n a warm Brisbane morning ured in nanolitres – amounts barely nothing. Aspirin and paracetamol
in early April, Walker led me perceptible in a test tube. don’t ease the pain.
through doubled-locked King says it would have been ▲ Andrew Walker Later in the afternoon of my
doors to the institute’s impossible to study this amount of holds a golden visit, when I met King and Walker
insectary. There are signs on the walls venom just 20 years ago but tech- orb spider at the university cafe to talk about
outside about the dangers that could nological advances have enabled caterpillars, they devised a poten-
be lurking within; chief among the researchers to identify peptides from ▼ Glenn King tial solution in real time. King noted
threats is the funnel-web spider. minuscule volumes. This has resulted at the Institute that pain from jellyfish stings can be
Inside, the space is not much larger in a few surprises. for Molecular alleviated by heat and Walker’s work
than an apartment bedroom. The For one, it was predicted that Bioscience has shown that peptides in asp cat-
sterile white and windowless labora- caterpillar venoms would contain DAVID KELLY erpillar venom break down at higher
tory is punctuated by three large grey simple peptides and proteins – much temperatures. The electric caterpillar is
cabinets – the kind you might find at a like bee venoms – because they’re similar, so they reasoned that a heat
large hardware store. Walker opened used purely for defence. But Walker’s pack might be the best course of action
one, plucked out a plastic lunchbox studies have shown that the molecules for afflicted patients.
STEVE PEARSON; DAVID KELLY
and lifted the lid. It wasn’t a funnel- produced in caterpillar toxins are Walker didn’t seem totally
web, to my relief. It was Hector, the much more complex than expected. convinced but resolved to email a
institute’s “media-trained” rainforest In the case of the asp caterpillar, a health worker in north-east Queens-
scorpion. Walker placed it in my hands. moth larva that looks like a toupee, land who has been looking for answers.
To date, snakes have provided the Walker found evidence that it may Perhaps he has finally found one.
most useful venoms for human drugs have acquired its toxic capabilities JACKSON RYAN IS AN AUSTRALIAN
and therapies. Scorpions, like Hector, via gene transfer with bacteria many SCIENCE WRITER

32 Spotlight
North America
U N I T E D S TAT E S state, make 10m phone calls, send Radical agenda ran for president in 2016 but the
25m text messages and put 30m voter Ben Carson, a concerns were assuaged by his running
guides in 113,000 churches, produc- former housing mate, born-again evangelical Christian
ing “the biggest turnout of Christian secretary in Mike Pence, and by a first term that
Trump’s first
Evangelicals
voters in American history”. saw him shift the judiciary to the right.
With Trump running ahead of Biden term, praised Not even Trump’s conviction in
in many swing state polls, religious Republican- New York last month on 34 felony
on crusade right voters scent a historic opportu-

nity to impose a radical agenda that
could ban abortion nationwide, curb
dominated
Louisiana for
becoming the first
counts in a trial involving hush-
money payments to an adult film
star has shaken his grip on this con-
to return LGBTQ+ rights and blur the separation
of church and state. At last Friday’s
state to require
that the Ten
stituency. Many who complain that
their faith is under siege regard him
Commandments
Trump to conference, speaker after speaker
framed it as a righteous crusade and
the only way to resist a tide of liberal
be displayed in
every government
as a blunt instrument with which to
fight back against the radical left. The
presumptive Republican nominee has
presidency secularism sweeping America.

The couching of an Armageddon
school classroom.
He also warned
of a 60-year
exploited this totemic status. Earlier
this year, he launched his own brand
election, in which religious truth itself of Bible, selling for $59.99 each. During
communist project
is at stake, with victory representing the trial, he shared social media posts
to change America
By David Smith WASHINGTON divine providence and defeat spelling comparing himself to Jesus Christ.
by taking over
total catastrophe, was crystallised by At last Friday’s Road to Majority
schools, churches
G
od’s army is on the march. Monica Crowley, a rightwing politi- policy conference, Stephen Sandrelli,
and Hollywood and
And many of its foot soldiers cal commentator and former assistant removing God from 60, posed with a picture of the US
are wearing Make America secretary of the treasury. the public square. representative Elise Stefanik against
Great Again regalia, sensing She described the election as a an Oval Office backdrop. “First of all,
that their unlikely standard-bearer, “hinge moment” comparable to the we’ve got to deport millions – at least
former US president Donald Trump, is American revolution, American civil 15 million people,” he said of a second
once again close to the promised land. war, second world war and Septem- Trump term. “The Democrats are ter-
“I do not believe that America ber 11 terrorist attacks. rorists. They hate our nation. They
can survive another four years of Notably, little was said by the dozen hate humankind.” Sandrelli, a former
Joe Biden,” Ralph Reed, founder and main stage speakers about abortion, Democrat and federal government
chair of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, a live political grenade for which officer from Fitchburg, Massachusetts,
told a gathering of the religious right Republicans have struggled to find a added: “Anybody who supports
in Washington last Friday. “I haven’t coherent message since the supreme abortion is supporting murder.”
felt this way since Jimmy Carter was court overturned the landmark Roe v ▼ Then president But sensing political danger, Trump
president.” The audience burst into Wade precedent two years ago. Donald Trump has refused to endorse a national abor-
knowing laughter. Religious conservatives’ pact with joins evangelical tion ban. Some here felt let down. Wear-
Reed promised they would knock Trump appears to be holding. Some Christians in ing a red Maga cap, Thomas Dinkel, 16,
on 10m doors of Christian and con- were sceptical about the thrice- prayer in 2020 who goes to a school in Morgantown,
servative voters in every battleground married reality TV star when he first TOM BRENNER/REUTERS West Virginia, said: “I’m going to be
honest with you: as a pro-life Chris-
tian, it hurts. I see why he and a lot of
other national Republicans are doing
it. They’re slowly backing away from
the issue. It’s ruffled some feathers.”
But Dinkel is supporting Trump
and is willing to overlook his moral
shortcomings, saying: “He says that
he’s repented of his sins, and I’m called
to forgive Trump.”
Dorothy Harpe , an African
American woman who is retired from
a church in Atlanta, Georgia, was wear-
ing a Maga cap and badge that said:
“Trump was right!” The 74-year-old
said: “He tells the truth. People don’t
want to believe him, they think he
always doing something wrong, but
he’s not. He’s innocent of all the bogus
charges they brought against him. God
knows every man’s heart, and I believe
he is a Christian.” Observer
DAVID SMITH IS THE GUARDIAN’S
WASHINGTON DC BUREAU CHIEF
Spotlight 33
Global
When it took office in 2021,
the Biden administration had
the option of dropping the
Espionage Act charges brought
by its predecessor, the Trump
presidency. After all, the justice
department under Barack Obama
had chosen not to pursue them
because of concerns for the
implications for journalism.
US prosecutors under Biden
chose, however, to pursue the
Trump charges and fought to
extradite Assange from the UK.
They had the option of making a
plea deal based on other charges, A placard in
such as getting Assange to plead support of Julian
guilty to the misdemeanour of Assange outside
mishandling classified documents, the high court in
the deal reportedly floated in March London in May
with the encouragement of the KIN CHEUNG/AP
A N A LY S I S were drawn from the 1917 Espionage Australian government. Or they
WIKILEAKS Act, for “conspiring to unlawfully could have opted for a hacking
obtain and disseminate classified conspiracy charge, which would
information related to the national not have had the same spillover
Long shadow defense of the United States”.

So although the WikiLeaks
founder was expected to walk
implications for journalism.
By all accounts, Joe Biden did not
even want Assange to be brought
Assange’s free from the US district court in
Saipan after this week’s hearing, the
to the US. Assange’s extradition
to face trial would have been
release is not Espionage Act will still hang over

the heads of journalists reporting
a damaging distraction for the
struggling president in an election
on national security issues, not just year, further alienating progressives
a clear victory in the US. Assange himself is an
Australian, not a US citizen.
and libertarians.
Biden said in April that he was
for the press US prosecutors argued that

Assange was not a proper journalist,
considering an Australian request
to drop the prosecution. But the
but a hacker and an activist with his justice department seems to have
own agenda, who endangered the stuck to its guns and the prosecutors
By Julian Borger WASHINGTON lives of US sources and contacts, so pressed ahead, only agreeing to
the Espionage Act could be applied a plea deal after Assange won the
The release from a without harming press freedom. right last month to appeal against
UK prison of Julian But press and civil liberties his extradition in the high court
Assange is a victory advocates took the view that it was in London. Even then, the justice
for him and his many irrelevant how Assange was defined. department stuck to its insistence
supporters around the world, but What he was accused of, “obtaining on using Espionage Act charges.
not necessarily a clear win for the and disseminating classified “A plea deal would avert
principle underlying his defence, information”, is what national the worst-case scenario for Assange’s
the freedom of the press. security journalists do for a living. press freedom, but this deal extradition
Assange, 52, agreed to plead The revelations WikiLeaks contemplates that Assange will
guilty to a single criminal count of published about the Iraq and have served five years in prison would
conspiring to obtain and disclose Afghan wars in 2010, leaked to the for activities that journalists have been
classified US national defence organisation by an army intelligence engage in every day,” Jameel Jaffer,
documents, according to filings analyst, Chelsea Manning, brought executive director of the Knight
damaging
in the US district court for the to light possible human rights First Amendment Institute at for the
Northern Mariana Islands. abuses by the US military in those Columbia University, said. struggling
The full details of the deal wars, among other things. They “It will cast a long shadow
between Assange and US authorities were published by the Guardian over the most important kinds of
president
that led to his release were not and other news organisations on journalism, not just in this country in an
immediately made public, but the the grounds there was a strong but around the world.” election
charges, for which he was expected public interest in those secrets JULIAN BORGER IS THE GUARDIAN’S
to be sentenced to time served, being brought to light. WORLD AFFAIRS EDITOR year

THE KEIR STARMER INTERVIEW Portraits by HARRY BORDEN
‘You asked me
questions that
I’ve never asked
myself. That may
seem funny, but part
of being Keir is just
ploughing on’
The man likely to be
Britain’s next PM
By Charlotte Edwardes
W H A T A B O U T A Q U I C K F I R E R O U N D , I say to Keir Starmer, who is pushed

for time on the campaign trail, a few snapshots to help glimpse the man likely to
be PM? Starmer is nodding. He’s keen to be helpful, keen to be a sport, although a
little unsure of this magazine profile business and the need to talk about feelings.
We are in the green room, all mirrors and concrete, backstage at Labour’s Scottish
launch in Inverclyde, and unless I’m mistaken he still has on a layer of foundation.
Ready? He folds his arms across his chest. “Yes, by all means.”
36 Keir Starmer
heard people push the thesis of why boring is good, much needed in
this post-truth, post-Johnson, deeply unserious apocalyptic bin-fire
period of British political history. Boring is a cool drink after a long
crawl through the desert in a heatwave. Boring is the gold standard
when selfless political service, civility and honesty have faced an
extinction-level event in Britain.
WHICH BRINGS ME TO LABOUR HQ on a sticky London afternoon a

week later. I’m led past a ticking countdown clock – “Polls open in
*26* days” – past the hive of hot desks and happy workers in white
trainers and open-neck shirts, who would surely be ID-ed in the
UT THEN HE CAN’T REALLY SAY if he’s pub. Past the lush foliage and surprising number of union flags and
strictly an optimist or a pessimist and, no, doesn’t know if he’s an delivered to Starmer’s office, where two mugs of tea are set down on
extrovert or an introvert, either. “I’ve never really thought about it. the table. He’s in one of his identical Charles Tyrwhitt suits, another
I don’t know what that tells you.” He doesn’t know what he dreamed of his identical shirts. “You asked me questions that I’ve never asked
last night – or ever: “I don’t dream.” Just hits the pillow at 11 and – myself,” he says of the last time we met. “That may seem funny, [but]
“bang” – is out till around 5. He doesn’t have a favourite novel or poem, part of being Keir” – he sometimes talks about himself in the third
wasn’t scared of anything as a child. “Nothing. No phobias.” Hmmm, person – “is just ploughing on. Knowing what I’m doing, knowing
this is harder than I thought. Quickfire is perhaps not his format. where I’ve got to go, without allowing myself time to stop and have a
He will be more relaxed and expansive in our second interview a discussion with myself. I’ve just got this thing about keeping going.”
week later when, sun-glazed from the Normandy beach, he will tell I’m guessing he never did therapy. “No, no,” he says. “No.” Then
me about the D-day commemorations where he stayed the whole “No” again in a lower tone bordering on horror. He’s not saying this
day and Rishi Sunak did not. Like Gordon Brown’s mutter of “bigoted is the only way to live, it’s just that “I am self-aware enough not to
woman”, Theresa May’s dementia tax, Richard Nixon’s sweaty top lip, go into side alleys to have a chat with myself about these things.”
the D-day debacle will mark a shift in the campaign. Starmer will lean I ask what he gleans from all the political biography he reads, and he
back on his office sofa, put his hands behind his head and reveal his says thoughts “about leadership”. Good leadership means consulting
shirt underarms – impressively dry for a Friday of meltdown news. He with his team, even when he thinks he knows best, and good lead-
will say he’s thought about my questions and has something to tell me. ership means the team feel comfortable rebutting his view. “Steph,
But a week is an eternity in politics and so today, in Scotland, he’s Tom” – he gestures to his advisers sitting in the room – “can agree or
still cautious of tripwire headlines. Who can blame him? At 20 points disagree. I’ve said to the staff here many times, and this really matters
ahead with a hostile media, he has everything to lose. So, he tiptoes to me: I want respect, but I don’t want deference.” Deference is massive
around the question of Downing Street, caveats any mention with “if failure of leadership, he argues, “where you create the conditions in
we get that far”; “we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves”. which other people don’t feel that they can chal-
In the weeks that I tail Starmer, I observe him give speeches, meet Long wait lenge you. The best decisions I’ve made in my life
voters, work sleeves rolled up on the train. I see him chuckle, drop the Keir Starmer were those held up to the light and that survived
F-bomb, crack jokes about Ed Balls. His suits get sharper; he acquires photographed scrutiny. The worst were when nobody said ‘boo’.”
new specs; more clay is swept through the concrete hair. I notice that at Labour’s HQ There’s no danger of deference when he hangs
when he’s cross, his ears redden. Stressed, he has a face like a slammed in London this up his jacket at his redbrick home in Kentish Town.
front door. The snap election explodes plans for me to accompany month Here, there’s no shadow cabinet, no advisers, just
him to his favourite tandoori, to witness the blow as Arsenal finish the three members of his family – his wife, Victoria,
the season as runners-up. Winning is everything for Starmer, those their teenage son and daughter. He supplies a typical example of how
close to him say. In football, in life, in politics. they respond to his role: when he came back named the Spectator’s
And unless the nation has colluded in one giant lie to opinion politician of the year in 2022, he sat on the sofa and passed the award
pollsters, Labour is set to take power with a majority so zinging, it to his son. “He didn’t even look up from the telly. He took it, said,
will eclipse even Tony Blair’s. A victory so epic that Tories have been ‘How did you blag that, then?’ and passed it back.
begging voters not to deliver what Grant Shapps calls a “supermajor- “So it’s not a case of walking through the door and minutes of
ity” and install what the Daily Mail fear is a “one-party socialist state”. blissful, ‘Oh, how was your day?’ or, ‘Recount the brilliant things that
What’s odd, then, is that Starmer’s personal ratings look good only happened today.’ It’s straight into a row [about the takeaway], one of
next to lame duck Sunak’s. An Ipsos poll shows 49% of voters don’t them wants a pizza, one wants something else. And then there’s an
know what he stands for. He shrugs off backing Jeremy Corbyn, saying argument about what we had last week, and whose decision we went
he never thought his predecessor could win. At Labour’s manifesto with.” Calm is restored by the sitcom Friday Night Dinner, which he
launch, he declared: “If you take nothing else away from today, let it likes, though “it’s pretty formulaic”. It gives him joy, he says, to sit
be this. We are pro-business and pro-worker, the party of wealth crea- down together. “Some of the humour is a bit close to the bone – they
tion.” Income taxes won’t go up, he’ll be the private sector’s best friend. are only 13 and 15 – and they’ll say, ‘Did they just say that?’”
A stance to garner support, sure, but complicated if you’re trying to He’s coy about home life, perhaps a little guilty. So desperate is he
tell a story about him; to plot the narrative arc of the last five years. to protect his kids, he won’t say their names aloud – just “my boy”
“I am who I am, I know what I am,” he has said, rejecting comparisons and “my girl”. This gives them freedom to walk back from their local
with former leaders. Who he is is easy enough: a barrister who spe- schools, hang with friends, get up to “all sorts without fanfare or atten-
cialised in human rights law, king’s counsel, former director of UK tion”. He says it’s “difficult” at times. Children’s shoes were placed
public prosecutions (for which he earned a knighthood). “Some peo- by protesters in his front garden to symbolise the death toll in Gaza.
ple will say you are boring and stiff,” journalist Beth Rigby, who has Even simple things: looking out of their windows, they see journal-
more guts than I do, told him on the Sky News debate. “Cheers,” he ists in the street. “That affects them. I am acutely aware.” He says it
laughed in unflustered response, because if there’s one thing Starmer would be different if they were older or much younger, but “these are
is not afraid of, it’s letting his inner Clement Attlee shine through. I’ve formative years. We keep life as ordinary and unchanged as possible.”

37
Has he broached how their lives will change should they win ?“A bit.
We believe in crossing every bridge as we get to it and therefore hav-
ing great long conversations about the change, Vic and I decided that
isn’t [the best way].” He has taken “bits” of advice from Gordon Brown
and Tony Blair, “but every child is going to experience it differently …
Our approach is to make it [as smooth as possible]. If we get that far.”
Lately, the priority at home has been his son’s GCSE school exams.
Starmer tries not to add to this tension. “It’s hard, if I’m honest. When
there’s a lot going on, I’m still in the zone. Sometimes I’m sort of half
out of the conversation, which they notice straight away. They’ll say,
‘You’re not really listening, are you, Dad?’ Our boy says, ‘What did I
just say?’” He lights up talking about the joy he feels when his son calls
to say an exam went well. “That’s like – ” he does a little fist pump.
“That’s a proud moment [when] he thinks he’s done his best.” Then
he worries he’s talked too much about his son and his daughter will
be cross. Each “thinks the other is the favourite”.
Of course, the story about Starmer’s father Rodney “the toolmaker”
and his “no frills” parenting has been rehearsed. The repeated details
about his childhood in a pebbledash semi in Oxted, Surrey, seemed
like a forced effort to give his political story shape. But it is the root of
his emotional clumsiness, Starmer insists. “The emotional space was
quite limited at home … and therefore wasn’t something I was familiar
with growing up.” He pauses, frowns, then corrects himself because
actually, “my sister says she does express herself and her emotions
more than I do. And so partly it must have been that emotional space,
but partly it’s me. How I reacted to it.”
By contrast his mother Jo was boundless warmth, despite crippling
Still’s disease, a rare type of inflammatory arthritis. An abiding mem-
ory is returning from school to find her making jam sandwiches and
listening to Jim Reeves. He could confide in her about anything –
“relationships and splitting up, all that stuff, which is so acute when
you’re younger. She was wise counsel.” There are flashes of both par-
ents in him, visible at different times in the debates, but perhaps most
stark when an audience member called him “a political robot” and he
froze, appearing not to know whether to stay shut down or to open up.
Jo’s illness – she was frequently rushed to ICU – meant the usual fits
of adolescent rebellion were off-limits to the four Starmer children.
He gives this as one example: their annual holiday was to a remote
cottage in the Lake District, the one place their mother really loved.
“There wasn’t space for us to say, ‘Hang on, what about going to the
‘The emotional seaside?’” Actually, there wasn’t much physical space at home, either.
Starmer shared bunk beds with his brother Nick in a cramped bedroom
until he went to university aged 18 – by which time, he adds, the fun
space was quite of bunk beds had long “worn off ”. He stands to mark out how small
it was, as if pacing round a cell. He also shows me an approximation
limited growing of the limited surface area for his posters of Debbie Harry and pages
from the football magazine Shoot!. But it wasn’t all bad: he and his
up at home … and three siblings each had a dog. So he rose at 5.45am on weekdays both
to walk his red setter Percy and to practise his flute.
therefore wasn’t LATER, WHEN HE IS IN FULL FLOW about how “it was lovely to have
something I was a dog”, he halts, suddenly. “But you mustn’t put this in,” he says.
“Because my daughter has launched a campaign to get a dog, so I’d
better not wax lyrical about [it]. I can just see this being quoted back.”
familiar with His first memory, aged four, was his dad bringing home a blue Ford
Cortina. “We’d never had a car. I spent my whole time cleaning it as it sat
growing up’ [on the drive] outside our house.” I suspect he was the family’s golden
child – his siblings nicknamed him “Superboy” – but he rejects this
outright. “I wasn’t the favourite because my mum was quite careful
with that. But I did feel slightly separated because the other three went
to the comprehensive school and I went to [Reigate] grammar school
and the Guildhall School of Music on Saturdays.” One outlet
was sport: football three times a week, athletics, rugby, cross-
country. “We had a big field behind our house where we would

38 Keir Starmer
go and play, build camps and things. There was freedom, I suppose, First class
and that was great.” (Here, he shoehorns in a political message: “You Starmer at his
know, because I live in Kentish Town, people don’t appreciate how graduation in
rural my upbringing was. But I’ve a lifelong love of countryside.”) Leeds in 1985
It was on the top deck of the bus to school that frustrations were with his parents
aired and arguments came to blows. He is named after the founder Rodney and Jo
of the Labour party and told Desert Island Discs: “You can think for KEIR STARMER
yourself of all the things that rhyme with Keir.” One school friend told
his biographer, Tom Baldwin, that young Starmer was “rough and
ready. Quite macho … a bit of a wild man without any of that lawyerly
restraint you see today.” I ask when he last physically lashed out at
someone. “On a football pitch,” he says instantly, “a few years ago.”
When he steps on the pitch, there’s nothing else on his mind. “I can’t
be thinking about work. All I’m thinking about is football. Totally all Home life
in. That is a release. That’s why I still really enjoy playing.” It’s the With his wife
only place he feels frustrated about the ageing process. “But also,” he Victoria at the
says with emphasis, “I am still on the pitch.” Not bad for 61. He says 2023 Labour
whenever he describes his position – a box-to-box midfielder – “the party conference
guys I play football with text me and say, ‘Maybe 20 years ago, mate.’” ANTHONY DEVLIN/
BLOOMBERG/GETTY
I AM NOT SURE HOW MUCH HIS IMAGE HAS CHANGED since it was moulded
at Leeds university. He says he rocked up there in a woolly jumper with
Ray Clemence hair, “Boomtown Rats under one arm, Status Quo under
the other”. John Murray, his lifelong friend since, saw him striding
across campus and thought: “‘There’s work to be done on this guy.’
[He] stripped me down, got my hair cut, got me into independent
Centre forward
music and turned me into a certainly more hip 18- or 19-year-old than
Playing football
I was when I arrived.” There are still hints of that white working-class
for his team
lad. Besides the Max Headroom hair (which has its own Instagram), he
Homerton
uses terms like “naff ”, “cheers”, “mate”. His music tastes are lodged
Academicals
in the mid-80s – Aztec Camera, Orange Juice – and for a long while it
LABOUR PARTY
seemed he couldn’t be photographed without a beer.
He had hoped to study politics at Leeds, but his parents insisted on
law (he went on to do a postgrad at Oxford). Arguably, it was procedure
and law that gave him the enthusiasm for details that is on display
right now as he starts sketching a diagram of a two-way street in Hull in
the 90s in answer to the question: have you ever got a parking ticket?
“So, if you’re like this, you’re driving up that way or this way, you’re
supposed to park facing that way … ” He hasn’t had a speeding ticket
since he started working as an adviser to the newly established police ‘Young Starmer
board in Northern Ireland. “It occurred to me that picking up tickets
for breaking driving laws wasn’t a good idea,” he says, adding: “I’m
not trying to be goody two-shoes.” It is this extreme caution, I feel,
was rough and
that made Helen Fielding, author of Bridget Jones – whose fictional
Mr Darcy was supposed to be based on Starmer – cry out: “Come on,
ready. Quite
Keir, loosen your tie, ruffle your hair.” It’s also why the story of how
a conman called Paul Bint, who stole his identity to answer lonely
macho … a bit of a
hearts ads, is extra funny. Bint conducted two long-term affairs as
“Keir Starmer, DPP”, even stealing jewellery from one girlfriend to wild man without
give to the other. When it came to court, one of the women said she
was surprised his behaviour “wasn’t very DPP-like”. any of that
In the life of the real Keir Starmer, there are many meaningful acts
of a person who has willingly devoted himself to public service. He
worked pro bono to advise two penniless climate activists sued by
lawyerly restraint
McDonald’s for handing out leaflets outside their restaurants, which
became the famous McLibel case. “I didn’t know I was embarking on
you see today’
a 10-year exercise with them. I thought it was chilling for freedom of
expression. But [advising] these two individuals against a giant corpo- On the trail
ration in this David and Goliath battle was an incredible experience.” Campaigning
ing with
He also acted for the miners’ unions, in relation to pit closures and an Rachel Reeves
eves and
injury called vibration white finger. For a long time it was not prop- Angela Rayner
yner
erly diagnosed, leaving thousands without compensation until “we PETER NICHOLLS/GETTY
LLS/GETTY
gathered all the experts together in a massive case and won it”. (More
than £500m [$630m] has been paid out to those with the condition.)

39
He says he copes with stress “by being practical, by doing things” resorting to name-calling (“human bollard” or “Sir Beer Korma”).
– ploughing on, in other words. For the record, his belated response “I couldn’t care less what he called me. I’m not saying I have great
to my earlier question is that he is an optimist, but only in the “nuts- insight, but I felt his character would bring him down. I thought,
and-bolts sense” of wanting to change things for the better. And, there’s a guy who is detached from the truth. Whether he’s lying or
thinking about it, he’s “a bit of both” on the extrovert/introvert scale. not, it doesn’t matter to him.” Starmer lays out the intentional way he
set a trap for Johnson. “When I first asked him, ‘Did you apply all the
STARMER HAD A NUMBER OF LONG RELATIONSHIPS before he met rules?’ I hadn’t seen the video of Allegra [Stratton, Johnson’s director
Victoria Alexander. She was a solicitor, he the senior barrister checking of strategic communications]. But he was told about her laughing in
documents she’d sent over were accurate. “This schedule, is it any response to being asked, ‘What do we say about the parties?’ So I said
good? Is it absolutely accurate?” he barked down the phone. “Who [to my team], ‘I think there’s something here. Let’s get him on record.
the fuck does he think he is?” he heard her say as she hung up. They Because his instinct will be to lie.’ It was a thread that we pulled over
met again at a work dinner, and for their first date he asked her to go months. I was less bothered by what he was saying to me than trying
to the pub with him in Camden Town. Apparently his son has said to be forensic and getting him on the record. It paid dividends in the
this is the least romantic location imaginable, but Victoria said: “At end. He had to leave parliament – because he’d lied.”
least he walked me to the bus stop afterwards.” He spontaneously
proposed in Greece just months later. “Won’t we need a ring, Keir?”
she responded. For once he wasn’t prepared.
I’m told by one of her friends that Victoria is very funny but refuses
to be “a show pony” so won’t give interviews or pose for a shoot. She
grew up in north London, the daughter of Bernard, an Ashkenazi
Jew, and Barbara, who converted to Judaism. When I suggest that
makes Victoria Jewish, and his children, too, Starmer demurs. “No,
no, they’re not Jewish for reasons I won’t bore you with. Bernard’s
dad’s family didn’t accept that. So it – ” he waves a hand to suggest
it’s not up for discussion. The family occasionally attend a liberal
synagogue. Their Jewish heritage is important, he says. “And we’re
very keen for the children to know about it, to understand it. Half of CAN’T THINK OF A MORE EXPLICIT EXAMPLE of
the family are Jewish, they’re either here or in Israel.” No one was his foresight and ruthlessness. Is he more ruthless than Blair? “I don’t
directly affected by 7 October. “Thank God,” he says. But they’ve been know,” he says. “I’ve never thought about it.” (I ask the same of a
affected by the war. “No doubt about that.” senior Labour insider who replies simply: “Yes.”) Perhaps Johnson
I ask, because Victoria works in occupational health in the NHS, should have been put on warning when Starmer suspended Jeremy
what she says by way of complaint when she comes home frayed after Corbyn. He might also have observed how Starmer took total control
a day in the broken system? “There is a lot of frustration that nothing’s of Labour’s ruling NEC and purged possible opponents on the hard
working and it takes for ever to get anything done. It’s like wading left. Lately the NEC has remade the election candidates list in his
through syrup or glue. They’ve a spirit in her team – probably across image and dumped firebrands such as Faiza Shaheen.
all the NHS – of ‘Don’t complain, just get on with it’, while knowing Because it’s fresh the day I see him, Starmer wants to talk about
it’s not what it should be.” D-day. He wants to tell me that he walked down to the beach and tried
In the first televised debate, he insisted that he would never go to contemplate the horror experienced by these young soldiers, not
private. Never, ever I push him now, in no circumstances? “What was much older than his children. And, yes, he was upset by the “insult”
put to me is: if you’re on the waiting list, would you? The answer is to veterans. But it’s also Sunak’s big political choice that offends him.
no. I had a meniscus done so I’ve been on that waiting list myself. It “[It] was the birth of the postwar European institutions that said,
took months. And meant that I couldn’t play football. So there was ‘We’ve won this together, we need to stick together.’ Sunak can’t
a serious issue for Keir Starmer” – that third person again – “but it honour the Brits, then bugger off. It’s much deeper than just a judg-
didn’t occur to me for a minute to jump the queue. I waited my turn. ment error. This said something about turning inwards, the sense that
I don’t find that odd. I was then asked: what about an acute [situa- it doesn’t matter what you do on the international stage any more.”
tion]? Well, I’d go to the NHS. If there is one place to go to if you are in I remind him that on the stage at the Hay festival in 2019, he said
a life-threatening situation, it is the NHS. The private hospitals refer of Brexit: “My big, big fear was that we might turn in on ourselves
to the NHS. For all the faults, all the stresses and strains described in and become a country that didn’t any more want to play our part on
Vic’s world, when it comes to acute crisis, they are fantastic.” the international stage, didn’t think international obligations and
On the subject of the debates, I ask about his accusation that Sunak standards mattered any more.” He laughs. “Blimey, I was ahead of
was a “liar” (for saying a Labour government would increase the tax myself. Therein lies the story of the last five years. That’s why the elec-
burden on each household by £2,000). Would he have used that word tion has to be a reset. If we win it,” he says. “No vote has been cast!”
in politics before Boris Johnson was PM? “No. I’m not in the business I ask whether the family will live in No 10 in the traditional way.
of bandying insults around. But it was depressing when you’re trying “We had a discussion when [the kids] were born. How did we want
to have a national debate about the issues of the day. You can argue to bring them up? And we settled on ‘happy and confident’. And
robustly about a policy difference, but you can’t debate if the basis that’s always what we’re asking ourselves: are they happy? Are they
is actually a lie.” So why did he not push back more quickly? He says confident? So we’re not pushing them to do things because we’ve got
he wishes someone would get the tape, because at least that would a set prescribed route or career path for them. We want them to be
give him some satisfaction of being able to show that he did say to happy and confident, and obviously to do as well as they possibly can.
Julie Etchingham that he wanted to come back on that point. “But We’re not the parents who are driving them to do this, or exposing
she said, ‘No. We’ll come back to this later.’ I had a decision: do I shout them. Wherever we will live, we’ll live together as family, of course.
over her? Or address it later? So I waited. And we didn’t come back And that will be Downing Street if we” – touch wood – “get it over
to it till later on. I knew straight away I had to rebut it, and I tried to.” the line. But Vic and I are very much taking things as they come.” •
I ask how he felt about Johnson insulting him in the Commons, CHARLOTTE EDWARDES IS A FEATURE WRITER FOR THE GUARDIAN

Sons of the guns

Can children born into 41
Italy’s maf ia families be
saved from lives of crime?
One judge is helping them
to establish new lives in
a bid to break the cycle
By Clare Longrigg
B
EFORE DAWN ON A JUNE MORNING in
2010, police burst through the high secu-
rity gates of a palazzo belonging to a notable
mafia family on the edge of a small town in
Calabria. As agents swarmed through the
building, turning the place over, family
members moved frantically to hide any evidence. Maria,
the family’s 12-year-old daughter, was given a page ripped
from a notebook. It was a list of debts owing. She was told
to hide it: “Put it in your knickers, they won’t touch you.”
Her brother Cosimo, 14, watched in helpless rage as his
father, mother, even his grandmother, were handcuffed
and led out to the waiting police cars.
After the arrests, Cosimo was the only male family
member outside prison, and it became his responsibil-
ity to collect money for the lawyers’ fees. He was a baby
boss with his own driver, visiting local businesses who
were on the family’s books, and demanding payment with
menaces. “He was recognised as the boss,” says journalist
Dario Cirrincione. “If he went to a bar in the village, older
men would get up to greet him. People waited on him,
drove him around, did anything he needed. This sort of
treatment turns these kids into little kings.”
The Calabrian mafia, the ’Ndrangheta, is based on family
groups in small towns along the coastline of Italy’s toe. The
area is littered with half-built factories, projects paid for by
state development funds and abandoned once the ’Ndrang-
heta got its hands on the money. Since taking control of the
port at Gioia Tauro on the west coast, the organisation has
become one of the biggest importers of cocaine to Europe.
The authorities have made sweeping arrests over the past
decade, and staged a series of maxi trials in reinforced bun-
kers, involving hundreds of defendants. But the family
structure means the organisation is hard to dismantle. As
fathers and grandfathers are serving life sentences, many
in high-security jails, the younger members are starting
their criminal careers ever earlier.
For two years, Cosimo only saw his father behind a glass
screen in a high-security prison. His father told him he had
to “grow”, to be a man. He was responsible for his sister. If
Maria went out, he would send his thugs to check where
she went and who she saw. He was living like a gangster, out
all night, fighting, getting home at dawn. “People expected
me to be forceful,” he said later in an interview with Italian
TV. “They expected me to behave badly. I had all the hunger
for power of a kid who feels he is invincible.”
Cosimo was chasing one businessman for €5,000 ($5,300).
He waited outside the school gates for the man’s son, scared
the boy and pushed him around. In spite of the very real
threat of reprisals, the man reported the incident. The police
were aware of Cosimo’s delinquent behaviour: he
Illustration by had visited other businesses, accompanied by his
ANNA KÖVECSES heavies, demanding money. He had taken a selfie

42 Sons of the guns
in a balaclava as he robbed a tobacconist at gunpoint. He totalitarian regime. The church declared that the unity of
had filmed a youth getting beaten up, laughing as he urged the family should be sacrosanct. From one of the fathers
the victim, who was on the floor, bleeding and vomiting, in prison, he received a letter with a darkly menacing tone:
to fight back. But threatening children was a step too far. “We all have children,” the boss wrote.
Cosimo was arrested. Di Bella is married to another lawyer, and they have a
In late 2013, Cosimo’s case file landed on the desk of judge son. After one particularly serious threat, he was given an
Roberto Di Bella at the youth court in Reggio Calabria. Di armed escort: two men now keep watch outside his office.
Bella looked at the boy’s file – already swollen with charge For some of the young Calabrians, joining Di Bella’s
sheets – and felt a sense of hopelessness. The family history programme is more challenging than prison. At least there,
weighed so heavily on this young man, Di Bella thought, he everyone knows whose child they are. These are kids accus-
didn’t stand a chance. By now, he was still only 16. tomed to living like princes. Suddenly, they are a long way
In court, the boy displayed the characteristics Di Bella from home, in a crowded house, sharing a bathroom.
had seen so many times in young people from mafia fami- “At home, they are used to being treated with deference,”
lies. He was dead-eyed, cold, refused to engage. He had says Maria Baronello, a social worker and sociology lecturer
a prepared response to everything he was asked. When in Messina, Sicily. People offer them tributes – money or
Cosimo was sentenced to four years for attempted extor- gifts – when they are just 12 or 13. They are heirs to this big
tion, he betrayed no emotion. His mother had been allowed family, they are violent, throw their weight around, they’re
out of prison to attend her son’s trial, and was sitting quietly drunk on power. But this behaviour often conceals a gnaw-
at the back of the courtroom. Cosimo never once turned to ing insecurity. “Their whole lives, they’ve been courted
look at her. Di Bella noticed she showed none of the scorn because of their name – they don’t know if anyone really
and forced arrogance he usually saw in women from mafia likes them.” By the time she meets them, some of these kids
families in public, especially in court. She looked haggard have eating disorders, insomnia. Many take anti-anxiety
and sad. He thought how much she must be suffering. medication because there’s such a gulf between who they
seem to be, and who they really are.
T
HE YOUTH COURT of Reggio Calabria is a When Cosimo was arrested, his sister Maria was left on
low palazzo, a few streets from the seafront, her own. By this time, most of the family was in prison. It
with stubby palm trees in the yard. Di Bella had been Maria’s job to deliver messages and carry money,
started here as a law graduate in 1992, and since a young girl would almost never be searched. Di Bella
spent years dealing with teenagers from judged it best for her to leave home.
towns along the coast – Gioia Tauro, Palmi, This presented a particular challenge. A girl growing up
Rosarno. He saw children as young as 10 put to work as look- in a mafia family has no autonomy. Even if she is doing well
outs by their parents, checking number plates on computer
databases to see if there were unmarked police cars in the
area. There was more: 12-year-olds counting containers in
and out of the port at Gioia Tauro; 13-year-olds setting fire
to cars whose owners had refused to pay protection money;
a 15-year-old accused of murdering his own mother – pun-
ishment for dishonouring the family.
Di Bella, now 60, with neat hair and rimless glasses, is
soft-spoken, quick to laugh, occasionally self-effacing. But
his gentle demeanour hides a steely determination. He
talks rapidly, gripping the arms of his chair: “The culture is
almost jihadist – a psychological indoctrination that begins
in infancy.” Di Bella recognised that these children had been
brought up to despise the state, and that prison held no fear ‘The
for them. But he felt they had been failed. “Was that all we
had to offer these kids – sending them to jail?” culture is
After he was promoted to president of the youth court almost
in 2011, Di Bella had an idea. He set in motion a probation
system with the power to remove children from the most
jihadist.
dangerous ’Ndrangheta families and send them far away But was
until they were 18. A team of educators, social workers that all we
and psychologists would give probationers the support
they needed to finish their education, and maybe train for had to of fer
a career. Parents who persisted in involving their children these kids
in crime would be stripped of their parental rights. Di Bella
called the programme Liberi di Scegliere – Free to Choose.
– sending
News of the initiative caused an uproar. Di Bella was them
accused of breaking up families, of stealing children. He was to jail?’
called a Nazi. The criticism came not just from the parents
of children who had been sent to care homes in Sardinia, Roberto
Turin and Sicily, but also from the media. Newspaper col- Di Bella
umnists pronounced that taking children away from their Judge
parents, whatever the circumstances, was the work of a

43
girl’s anxiety about leaving her home “down south”, and

‘Imagine a betraying her loved ones, who she had last seen being taken
son who away in handcuffs. She ran away, though she never went far.
At first she barely spoke, but later she would occasionally
says, mention something about her old life – dawn police raids,
“Papà, I or a family member living in hiding. The tension between
don’t want her two worlds was always there.
As for Maria, Rando found a foster home in the north who
to be like would take her, but she struggled to settle there and went
you.” That’s back to Calabria. Her father kept contacting her, writing
furious letters from prison telling her not to cooperate with
going to the probation scheme, and to stay away from Di Bella. But
do more her mother, from another prison cell, told Maria that if she
damage to wanted to make a life in the north, she would support her.
As news of Di Bella’s probation system spread, he and
the mafia his team started to see surprising results. Women from
than 10 life ’Ndrangheta families, even wives of powerful bosses, would
arrive at the courthouse and ask for a meeting. They were
sentences’ taking a serious risk even to be there, and the conversations
Enza Rando were often highly charged. “They would say, ‘Judge, send
Lawyer and my son away from Calabria,’” he recalls. “They would say,
senator ‘Judge, if I said this at home, I could get killed. But I can
tell you: I don’t sleep at night. I am so frightened, waiting
for the phone call to tell me my son is in prison or dead.”
Cosimo and Maria’s mother, Anna, was powerless to
influence her children, even before she was locked in jail.
But not long after Cosimo’s sentencing, Di Bella received
a message asking if he would visit her in prison. Di Bella
found her crushed by the prison experience. He had been
applying for Cosimo to be released from prison early, into
the Free to Choose programme.
In a private meeting room at the prison, Anna confessed
at school, she is likely to be taken out at 12 or 13 and kept at she was tired of mafia life. She felt used. She was from an
home to reduce the risk of flirting, or dating. She has special ordinary working family, but had been courted by the son
status: no local youth would dare to chat her up, or even of a mafia boss when she was still in her teens, and kept the
look at her. Maria was desperate for attention. After her engagement secret. When she finally told her father, he sank
parents and brother were arrested, she was sent to shared into a chair, without a word. There was nothing he could do
accommodation in the north. The move was organised by to stop it: women – even teenagers – have been murdered
Enza Rando from Libera, a network of organisations work- for turning down a suitor from an ’Ndrangheta clan. But she
ing to counter the mafia. Rando, who is now a senator and wishes he had put up a fight. She spent the next 10 years
leads on youth protection for the anti-mafia commission, in service to a mafia family at war. Her husband went into
worked with Di Bella from the earliest days of his project. hiding, and she had to manage everything, ensuring he was
She recalls Maria was horrified to find herself in the com- supplied with food and intelligence, carrying messages to
pany of criminals and sex workers in her new home, and his men; money for whoever needed paying.
ran away. “She got herself into a real fix,” Rando recalls. “It She saw in Di Bella a chance for a decent future for her
seemed important to get her into a stable situation, where children – and maybe for herself, too. She had another year
she could be supervised and find her feet.” or so to go on her sentence. She said: “I can’t help them
from here. Please, just keep them far away from Calabria.”
F
AMILIES WHO VOLUNTEER to take in troubled Maria Baronello has driven to towns and villages across
young people, many with links to the church, Calabria to visit families at risk. She has found women in
don’t necessarily expect to find themselves deep isolation, whose husbands are in jail, under the com-
with a lodger from a mafia family. Journal- mand of their mother-in-law. “They feel their lives are
ist Giovanni Tizian interviewed a couple over. They can’t go out, unless it’s to pick up the kids or
who fostered a teenage girl from a powerful the shopping. They don’t have any kind of freedom. We
’Ndrangheta dynasty. They took on the challenge as a way call them white widows. They must not be seen to enjoy
of making a stand against the mafia: “We’re a family that themselves: they have to live their husbands’ prison sen-
makes ethical choices – we buy wine grown on vineyards tence as though they’re in mourning.” When social services
confiscated from the mafia, that sort of thing – but this was call on the women at home, Baronello says, there is always
a way to get properly involved.” The couple had two small someone loitering, listening in.
children, and worried they might not be safe from the girl’s A protection programme for mafiosi who collaborate
relatives. Social services had arranged the foster care, and with the authorities, giving testimony in return for a new
some of their offices seemed sloppy about security – the identity in a hidden location, has been in place since
girl even had a phone with GPS. the 90s. But for women who don’t have any use-
The main challenge the foster couple found was the ful information to trade, there is no safe way out.
ALFREDO D’AMATO/
PANOSPICTURES;
GIOVANNI CIPRIANO
44 Sons of the guns
In 2016, while Di Bella and Rando were figuring out how to afraid to make a choice. He helped me understand that if I
help Cosimo and Maria’s mother move away from Calabria were to be convicted, my children would be left in the hands
after serving her prison sentence, another woman, a mother of mafiosi. So I had to confront the fact that my children’s
of two, was facing prison for extortion. future would be ending up in prison, like their father, or,
To protect her identity, Di Bella gives her a fake name: like their uncle, murdered by the mafia in a vendetta at 17.
Lucia. He was already familiar with Lucia’s family – he had I said no.” She broke down. Her sons, tall, good-looking
had dealings with her mother-in-law more than a decade boys, were sitting close by. One of them wiped away tears.
before. One of her sons had been murdered at 17, and that “It has been a difficult road,” Lucia continued, “but I can
unpunished death still ate away: Lucia’s boys, 10 years old, say I’m a different person now. I am reborn.”
had been told they must grow up to avenge their uncle. When a boy who has been in the probation scheme turns
While Lucia was awaiting trial, Di Bella summoned her. 18, the state has no more control over his life. Some of Di
She appeared at his office, tiny, defiant, with hair dyed Bella’s charges have reached that milestone and gone on
auburn, dressed head-to-toe in designer clothes. “She to further education, but there have been notable failures,
was very proud, very fierce,” says Di Bella. “I said to her: too. One young man from a powerful ’Ndrangheta family
‘What do you want for your boys? Because it’s pretty clear was doing charity work and dating a volunteer from an anti-
what awaits them, with their family history. If you go to mafia programme. When he turned 18, he visited his father
prison, where will they end up?’ I told her, ‘We could find in prison. “Playtime is over,” his father said. “The family
a foster home for your kids in case you go to jail.’ She said, needs you.” The young man sought approval from the pro-
‘Nooo! I’m not giving anyone my kids!’” (He does her voice, bation system, and funding, to start a gardening business in
high-pitched with outrage.) After a heated exchange, she his home in Calabria. Two years later he was arrested with
stormed out, slamming the heavy wooden door. “I said: half a tonne of cocaine buried under the vegetable plots.
‘Well, you know where to find me.’” Lucia did come back, The Free to Choose programme has now been rolled out
two or three more times, and on one of those visits Di Bella to a wider area, including Naples, and Catania and Palermo
could tell something had shifted. in Sicily, but the number of cases Di Bella has successfully
“Judge,” she burst out crying. “I want to leave Calabria. turned around is still small. On the other hand, there is
I can’t take any more. I live in a mafia family. My sons will immense propaganda value when family members turn
end up dead or in prison. Please help me. I don’t want to their back on organised crime. Rando says: “Imagine the
lose my kids. I can’t say anything to anyone, or they will power of a son who says, ‘Papà, I don’t want to be like you.’
kill me, but I have to get away.” If the crime family has no future, the boss’s years of prison
Di Bella told her he would take care of it, but advised time have been wasted. That’s going to do more damage to
against coming to the youth courts again, as the entrance the mafia than 10 life sentences.”
was too exposed. He started to plan her escape. They would When Anna got out of prison, she was determined to
have to leave without anyone noticing, otherwise they break free of the family, and leave Calabria. But her mother
could be driven off the road and kidnapped. One morning was elderly and frail; she couldn’t abandon her. In the end,
in July 2016, Lucia and her boys left the house before dawn the two women escaped in an ambulance. “We found them
and drove to a prearranged meeting place, from where a a place to stay close to where the daughter was living,” says
police car took them to the airport. When they landed in Rando. “By the time the old lady died, Maria was 18, and
northern Italy, they were met by volunteers from Libera, it was natural she should move in with her mother. It was
who drove them to their new lodgings, in a family home. hard going, they barely knew each other by this point, but
they managed to work things out between them.
L
UCIA DID GO TO PRISON, but her sons stayed “Then, a new drama: the son [Cosimo] was getting out
with the foster family. Prison was a night- of prison early. For these two women, just getting on their
mare – she was a boss’s wife, locked in with feet, free of the heavy presence of the men in the family,
other mafia women from whom she had to it was not an entirely joyful prospect. It was complicated.”
‘I was conceal her change of heart. But Rando man- In prison Cosimo had been working with a psychologist,
aged to get her sentence reduced, and she throwing himself into theatre, controlling his violent ten-
afraid to was released after less than a year. Libera found them a flat dencies, and figuring out a new relationship with the family.
make a near the foster family so they could stay in contact. Lucia He was released early, again with the support of the Free
got a job in a salumeria – an Italian deli. Slicing ham and to Choose programme, and moved in with his mother and
choice. It weighing out cheese is a humbling activity for a mafia boss’s sister. This led to an uneasy shift in the family dynamic. The
has been a wife, but she tells Di Bella she loves it. Four years later, at a two women had been learning to enjoy their independence
dif ficult mass gathering in front of the Duomo in Milan on 21 March and Cosimo still felt he had to control his sister, telling her
2023, the annual day of remembrance in which the names what she could wear and who she could go out with. But
road, but I of more than a thousand mafia victims are read out, Lucia now Cosimo has a job, and is in love. He and his partner are
can say I’m stood proudly with the anti-mafia protesters. expecting a baby. Anna is working for a food cooperative,
In a crowded conference room that afternoon, I joined grateful to be reunited with her children, far from Calabria.
a dif ferent school groups and anti-mafia campaigners in the audience Her husband is serving a life sentence; Cosimo still visits
person. I as Lucia spoke in public for the first time. Di Bella appeared him in prison. She is hoping he will come around in time.
am reborn’ over a video link, as Lucia spoke from her seat in the third Di Bella left Reggio Calabria for Catania three years ago,
row, keeping her head down to conceal her identity. (Her and is expanding his project across the south. He remains
Lucia husband has tracked her down once, and may do so again.) committed to dismantling the mafia, one family at a time •
Member of In a quavering voice, she said she felt grateful to be among CLARE LONGRIGG IS DEPUTY EDITOR OF THE GUARDIAN’S
mafia family people who spend their days fighting for the rule of law. “I LONG READ SECTION
met judge Di Bella in 2016, but I hesitated, because I was Some names have been changed to protect the children

45
Comment is free, facts are sacred CP Scott 1918
ROKHAYA DIALLO
Macron cares
little about
people like me
Page 49
TikTok
We put seven young people in
sl ides
Water a group chat to discuss the UK
Nigel election. This is what happened
46 Opinion
Illustrations by What’s been on your minds this election campaign? NH: Labour plans to build on the “grey belt”. Field mice
Edith Pritchett Shaniya Odulawa, 23, graduate, Bexleyheath, London: and car parks shouldn’t come above affordable housing.
The major parties are failing to engage with what SO: There doesn’t always need to be a focus on building
people really want. They’re constantly missing when we have properties already there. Not enough
the mark. has been said about renters. I don’t think I’ll be able to
Hassan Ali, 19, student, east London: So true. It shows comfortably leave home until I’m 30.
they’re either lazy, or avoiding the real issues. TS: If they want to attract youth voters, tackling the
Daniel Cadel, 23, student, Cheshire: It does concern me renting crisis would be a sensible move.
that Labour are more centre-right at the moment and SO: When I compare my early 20s to my mum’s, I can’t
the only leftwing parties are Lib Dem and Green. help feeling a bit robbed.
Niall Hignett, 21, student, Durham: The arguments BW: The money I pay back on student loans this year
about Labour lurching to the right are a bit overhyped. I could be using to save up for a deposit on a house.
Labour’s manifesto seems fairly convincing. NH: I’m estranged from my family and can’t just live
SO: What part is convincing to you? For me, many at home. The situation is terrifying. Under-25s don’t
policies seem unfunded or not feasible. qualify for full benefits or housing support.
Paris Haigh, 22, student, East Kilbride: On the SO: Finishing uni is supposed to be exciting, but I’m
environment they sound OK, eg GB Energy. But they full of dread.
already watered down their £28bn [$35bn] green pledge BW: Removing “Mickey Mouse degrees” won’t help.
and have U-turned on most previous commitments, so SO: People who do “Mickey Mouse degrees” create the
I cannot trust them. things we love. Movies, TV shows, music.
NH: The housing policy I’m behind. I don’t think BW: It’s so frustrating how the Conservatives have
it’s uncosted (I’d understand criticism of it being handled this. They’ve belittled certain degree subjects
unambitious). Encouraging capital investment in but failed to provide alternatives. I studied history,
infrastructure could be huge for young people. which at times has been referred to as a Mickey Mouse
DC: It’s insane there’s been no real pushback at Nigel degree. Now I work a Stem job – there is no set pathway.
[Farage] saying they want zero net migration. Not only NH: I think the honest answer (and I know this isn’t
is it terrible policy, it clearly isn’t possible. Half the issue popular) is fees need to go up – 78% never repay in full
is presenters not countering these claims. anyway. Upping fees means unis don’t go under, and
PH: It’s scary how many reminders I’ve seen under it won’t affect most people, just those who borrow the
videos saying “vote Reform”. least and earn the most.
Bethan Williams, 23, account executive, Cardiff: I see DC: It doesn’t help that board members have extreme
this on TikToks all the time. salaries when they don’t seem to do much.
Tiger-Lily Snowdon, 19, student, Devon: It’s really BW: During the university staff strikes, my friends
scary, especially with polls showing such an increase couldn’t understand where their money was going if
in support. I didn’t believe people would vote Reform at university staff weren’t getting paid enough.
first, but they’ve built a substantial base. TS: The education system, especially how it works for
SO: When I click on the profiles there’s nothing ever people with special educational needs, must change.
there. Even if they’re bots, they still drive engagement. I was out of school for a long period and finally got the
BW: I definitely interact with a lot of political TikToks. support I needed at a medical inclusion school – but
My friend who doesn’t care about politics sent me a because of lack of funding and spaces, I had to wait
video of Ed Davey on the water slide the other day. ages. I was disappointed by the lack of suggestions to
improve Send education in the manifestos.
PH: I had a similar experience and because I was out of
school for so long, I sank into depression. I know the
SNP are planning on passing a neurodivergence bill.
They met with neurodivergent people who had input
on the bill. If it passes it should be in every manifesto.
SO: Does everyone know who they are voting for?
DC: Lib Dem, as their manifesto is the most interesting.
I trust Keir and Reeves as far as I could throw them.
BW: I’ll vote tactically as I have an awful Conservative
MP, meaning I’ll likely vote Labour. But I’m more
aligned with the Green party or Plaid Cymru.
TS: I’m torn. I was most impressed by the Lib Dem
manifesto, but I really don’t want my Conservative MP
to get back in – so Labour may be better.
P I’m considering Greens. My candidate seems really
PH:
g
good. I would have voted SNP but since they dropped
t
their climate targets I can’t trust them.
N I’m definitely voting Labour. The Lib Dem
NH:
m
manifesto is a bit all over the place. The Greens strike
m
me as unrealistic. The anti-nuclear power thing seems
224
4
Founded 1821 Independently owned by the Scott Trust
This election shows that the

next UK government needs
to raise its green ambitions
T
here are voters for The spike in gas prices
whom the climate that followed Russia’s
crisis is the most invasion of Ukraine is one
pressing issue in the reason for the cost of living
UK general election. But for crisis. But rather than
most people, cost of living making the case for reduced
pressures and concerns about dependence on gas,
the health service come first. and investment in renewables
This month, more than 400 as a route to increased security,
climate scientists wrote to Rishi Sunak set the UK back
party leaders, saying it was in climate terms.
disappointing that global Nevertheless, the UK’s
heating, and policies to tackle offshore wind industry is
it, are not more prominent in thriving and popular. The
so counterproductive. Both go for Conservative voters the campaign. They called for Green and Liberal Democrat
in the home counties and liberal voters in the cities – stronger action, including a manifestos contain ambitious
and it doesn’t work for coherent policy. clear path to net zero in 2050 climate pledges, with the
SO: I’m not convinced by any party. It’s usually Labour and a halt to new fossil fuel Lib Dems committing to an
or Green but I’ve lost faith, especially since the Greens’ development in the North Sea. earlier net zero target, new
statement on Palestine – if you can’t fully condemn The disconnect between aviation taxes and a zero-
a genocide, what do you stand for? climate science and climate carbon standard for new
PH: Something every party needs to be doing right now policy grows more alarming. homes. The Green party
is calling for an immediate ceasefire. Last month, a Guardian survey promises to end new and
of hundreds of researchers recent oil and gas licences,
Do young people feel spoken to by any of the parties? found that 77% expect global introduce an escalating carbon
DC: I wouldn’t say so. The fact I align Lib Dem, when temperatures to reach at least tax and establish large-scale
their base is middle-aged, southern and middle-class 2.5C above preindustrial levels. ecological protections.
and I’m not, really shows that. A report last week revealed Last week, a supreme
PH: I only really feel spoken to by independents, tbh. that last year saw the highest- court decision that planning
And they aren’t even running in my area. The climate ever fossil fuel consumption decisions must take account
group I’m a part of, Green New Deal Rising, is endorsing globally, as well as record wind of future greenhouse
some really cool independents! and solar power generation. gas emissions raised the
BW: I’m a young person who first engaged in politics Labour’s abandonment likelihood of more legal
under Jeremy Corbyn – he developed some really in February of a pledge to challenges to fossil fuel
strong policies aimed at us that other parties haven’t. spend £28bn ($35bn) a year infrastructure. Caution
Corbyn brought the green new deal to mainstream on greening the economy was has been the watchword of
politics, which was radical and gave us a path for the a grave error. Still, the party Labour’s campaign. Rulings
future. GB Energy is largely uninspiring. retained its ambitions. Labour like this should make it easier
DC: The oil giants cutting their pledges when their wants the UK to be the first to be bold. The biggest-ever
profits grew massively shows decisive government major economy to ensure that climate opinion poll last week
action is needed to combat climate change. all power comes from cheaper showed that 80% of people
PH: I tried to talk to Keir at his green pledge launch in zero-carbon electricity sources in the world’s biggest fossil-
Edinburgh and he completely ignored us despite us by 2030. The party’s plan fuel-producing countries
waiting three hours. It was horrible. for a publicly owned energy back a swift transition. The
NH: It’s just a perception that young people are company is also a good one, next UK government needs
completely turned off by Labour. Hyper-politically particularly the commitment to to face down the cynics and
engaged people want more progressive policies, but finance small solar and onshore lobbyists. The scale of the
lowering car insurance rates and building houses wind schemes. Unfortunately, climate threat and the injustice
engage far more young voters than any other policy Labour’s retreat on investment it encompasses – including the
issue (anecdotally they do!). Young people (18-24) are set the stage for a campaign implications for children and
voting something like 60% Labour in most polls. in which climate policy is young people – should make
This conversation was conducted over a messaging nowhere near as prominent a the case for ditching fossil
platform. It has been condensed for length theme as it ought to be. fuels irresistible •

48 Opinion
INDIA But many of those uncles are no longer happy

The prosecution of Roy with Roy. When Saxena announced that Roy could be
prosecuted under India’s draconian Unlawful Activities
(Prevention) Act (UAPA), because she had said at this
is a stark warning event that Kashmir had never been an “integral” part of
India, there was outrage abroad from intellectuals and
writers’ organisations, but responses in India were less
from Modi to his critics spirited. While politicians such as Mahua Moitra of the
Trinamool Congress were prompt in criticising the move,
others on social media commended the government and
Salil Tripathi gleefully admonished those who defended Roy. Their
reasoning: Roy was “anti-national”, sympathising with
terrorists, and needed to face the full force of the law.
If Roy is not getting an outpouring of public sympathy,

it has to do with how India has changed in the past
quarter of a century. Its elite is keen to shed the past
image of a poor, struggling country. India deserves a seat
at the main table, they say; and dissidents and writers
who question policies are inconvenient do-gooders
whose pessimism interferes with India’s ascent. On
significant issues on which much of India’s powerful
elite believes there is consensus, Roy is the naysayer.
Consider Roy’s views on Kashmir, the disputed
territory over which India and Pakistan have gone to
at least three wars. The Indian army has stationed tens
of thousands of troops there, and human rights groups
have accused the Indian state and
Salil Tripathi extremist groups of abuses. Roy
is a writer based opposes India’s governing consensus
in New York and conduct in Kashmir – her last
novel, The Ministry of Utmost
his month, the highest ranking Happiness, describes the Kashmir crisis graphically.
bureaucrat of the state of Delhi, Triumphalist Indians don’t like to hear such criticism.
Vinai Kumar Saxena, permitted the Nor do many Indians like her questioning the wisdom
Delhi police to prosecute Arundhati of building large dams to produce electricity or irrigate
Roy (pictured), and Sheikh Showkat farms. Building dams was the dream of India’s first prime
Hussain for remarks they made at minister, Jawaharlal Nehru; he called dams “temples of
a public event 14 years ago. The modern India”. The dams helped farms and generated
opposition Aam Aadmi party governs power, but Roy showed how they also displaced
Delhi, but the capital’s police reports to the central hundreds of thousands of people.
government’s home ministry. While the prime minister, Roy has also written critically of Gandhi’s views on the
Narendra Modi, lost his parliamentary majority in the “untouchable” caste Dalits, calling them discriminatory
recent elections, the prosecution of Roy shows that and patronising, and has been a vocal critic of India’s
those who expected a chastened government willing to nuclear tests and arsenal. These views offend India’s
operate differently are likely to be disappointed. conservative and liberal opinion. India’s peaceniks
Hussain and Roy are to be tried for making speeches admire Gandhi; India’s Hindu nationalists hate Gandhi
at a conference called Azadi [Urdu for “freedom”]: The but love the bomb. The fact that she wins accolades
Only Way, which questioned Indian rule in the then state abroad, and prominent western publications give her
of Jammu and Kashmir. Hussain is a Kashmiri academic, space to write, rattles and rankles them even more. The
author and human rights activist. Roy is among India’s powerful in India want to hear only praise; Roy keeps
most celebrated authors, with a wide global following. reminding the world of the rot within.
After Roy won the Booker prize in 1997, for The God Whether or not Roy gets prosecuted remains to
of Small Things, she became the nation’s darling. It was be seen. The government may prefer the ambiguity,
the year of India: the 50th anniversary of independence, hoping that the threat of prosecution might keep her,
and the year Salman Rushdie, the first Indian-born and other dissidents, silent.
winner of the Booker, published a volume anthologising But one thing is certain: it was wrong to assume that
new Indian literature. Roy became an idol. Indeed, in Modi has changed. Pursuing someone as high-profile
Mira Nair’s 2001 film Monsoon Wedding, a character as Roy is the government’s way of warning critics that
who wants to pursue creative writing is told by an uncle: they must not expect anything different. The sword
“Lots of money in writing these days. That girl who won hangs over the critics; Roy reminds us why the pen
ALAMY the Booker prize became an overnight millionaire.” must remain mightier than the sword •

49
FR ANCE In the banlieues, local mayors say how concerned they

Macron’s risky gamble are for people of colour. I took part in a recent protest in
Paris against the far right, and I could tell how shocked
many of those there were to realise how unwelcome they
is playing with the lives could soon be in their own country. People whose family
members were born abroad or who don’t hold French
citizenship have told me how scared they are.
of people like me Their fears are hardly irrational. The rebranded and
now well-groomed RN may have managed to erase
the shameful traces of its past and mask its extremist
Rokhaya Diallo ideology. Marine Le Pen has worked hard to appear
more relatable. Jordan Bardella, 28, RN’s president and
wenty-two years after Jean-Marie Le lead candidate in the European elections, and now one
Pen was unexpectedly voted through of France’s most popular politicians, has 1.7 million
to the second round of a French followers on TikTok. But his hardline Islamophobic,
presidential election – an electoral anti-immigrant messages are neatly concealed behind a
shock that drew nearly a million smile that seems constructed to be reassuring.
people on to the streets in protest –
the threat of the far right coming to The noxious ideology has not gone anywhere. RN’s
power has returned. racist and xenophobic positions place the party at the
On 9 June, French voters gave Marine Le Pen’s far- furthest extreme of the political spectrum. Take its
right National Rally (RN) an unprecedented victory in conduct in the European parliament, where Bardella
the European elections. Her party won a record 31.5% has held a seat since 2019. He and fellow RN MEPs
of the vote, twice as many votes as the centrist alliance voted against the recognition of slavery as a crime
backed by President Emmanuel Macron. against humanity, opposed resolutions on the rescue of
The humiliated Macron turned his defeat into a full- migrants at sea and on reducing the wage gap between
blown crisis by dissolving the National Assembly and men and women. In the French parliament, many of
calling snap elections. A new prime minster will be them have opposed a constitutional amendment to
appointed after the second round on 7 July, and given guarantee free and legal access to abortion.
the collapse in support for Macron’s centrists, there is a They pretend to care about social justice and the
chance the far right will form the next government. wellbeing of the poorest, but their votes demonstrate
We can only assume Macron was attempting to their lack of interest in addressing
reshuffle the deck to outmanoeuvre the far right. Rokhaya economic inequality. They voted
Or perhaps his strategy is to let RN assume political Diallo is a French against increasing the minimum
responsibility and hope that, exposed to the reality of journalist, wage and against indexing salaries
government, it will disappoint the public and be reduced writer, film- to inflation. They opposed freezing
to irrelevance. Whatever his intentions, choosing to treat maker and prices on rent and essential goods.
the country like a roulette table shows how little Macron activist The racism that underpins the
cares about the fate of millions of French people. party’s convictions is now viewed as
Macron has offered the extreme right an opportunity legitimate by its voters. A study found 92% of RN voters
to increase its grip on parliament and, potentially, to believe “most immigrants do not share our country’s
govern France. In doing so he is playing with our lives. values and that this creates problems for coexistence”.
Many of us – women, people of colour, LGBTQIA+ But instead of taking on this far-right ideology,
people, Jews, Muslims, minorities – know how violent Macron has, over his two terms in office, chosen to
the consequences of such an election could be. make his policies more appealing to far-right voters.
Hours after RN’s victory, four men were arrested for a The immigration bill passed through parliament by the
transphobic and homophobic assault in Paris. They told government last year included so many of the hardline
police that they were members of an extreme right group demands of the far right that Le Pen claimed it as a
and that soon they would be able to beat up as many gay victory. When he appointed a new education minister in
people as they wanted. August 2023, Macron chose not to address the profound
inequalities of a school system in crisis, but to pander
to crude Islamophobic tropes, targeting female Muslim
pupils wearing abayas. RN’s racist ideas have spread
across the political spectrum, with disastrous potential
The rebranded far right consequences for millions of people.
But if Macron was betting on a fractured left with
may have erased the his snap election thunderclap, he was wrong. Leftwing
parties have put aside their divisions, uniting to save
shameful traces of its France from extremism.
past, but the noxious Our destinies cannot depend on careless calculations.
We need to defeat the far right now, and then rid our
ideology hasn’t changed political life of the scourge of its ideas

50 Opinion
Letters
WRITE Beware of making a false win, Opinion, 21 June). But the national parliament an authoritarian military
TO US move after election shift I urge everyone to please are proportional; the environment to learn
Timothy Garton Ash read the Labour party executive (cabinet) is the basics of how to kill
should be careful about manifesto. And then dare constitutionally limited communists in Vietnam.
emigrating to New Zealand to tell us it is not bold. to seven members, who I think the remarks
Letters for (After this E-day, Europe It includes: reform are elected by parliament of Timothy Tyndall, the
publication
is again in danger from of the House of Lords; to four-year terms. seventh objector in the
weekly.letters@
the far right, Opinion, creativity restored to Each council member is article, say it all: “When
theguardian.com
— 14 June). Our election in the school curriculum; assigned a portfolio. will we ever learn that
Please include a 2023 resulted in a centre- an end to one-word Parliament elects war begets war? Violence
full postal address right/populist/far-right Ofsted ratings; safer annually, by rotation, always begets violence.”
and a reference coalition elected on tax streets provided by one of the seven council I now regard my military
to the article. break promises. neighbourhood policing; members to serve as involvement during
We may edit letters. To provide these a new race equality act; president and one to serve which I was not deployed
Submission and modest gains, public more decision-making as vice-president. The in Vietnam as a good life
publication of all services have been slashed powers to mayors; a Swiss also vote in frequent experience. But the same
letters is subject
and environmental properly instituted and referendums, dealing cannot be said for many
to our terms and
programmes scrapped, monitored apprenticeship with legislative and of my fellow conscripts
conditions, see:
THEGUARDIAN.COM/
such as those relating to scheme; and revision of constitutional matters. who were needlessly
LET TERS-TERMS improving water quality, the voter ID rule. Switzerland’s system killed or disabled in the
climate change and public Poetry enough for me. rewards accommodation Vietnam war.
Editorial transport. Priorities are Eva Tutchell and compromise; the Terry Hewton
Editor: Graham road building, drilling for London, England, UK system enables long-term Adelaide, South Australia
Snowdon gas and mining. planning. The system
Guardian Weekly, Cancer drugs promised The Swiss system creates produces reliable, steady- Call for a boa restriction
Kings Place, before the election are not a steadier government as-she-goes governance on Taylor Swift’s fans
90 York Way, being funded. The health Elections are indeed free of abrupt flip-flops. I live near Edinburgh’s
London N1 9GU, service is in disarray. a travesty, as George André Carrel Murrayfield stadium, so I
UK
“Fast-track” legislation Monbiot says (Elections Terrace, British Columbia, am used to fans of rugby
for economic benefits are a travesty of Canada and various performers
To contact the
editor directly: will be sanctioned by democracy, Opinion, swamping the area. Taylor
editorial.feedback three ministers who can 14 June). Elections as Conscientious objectors Swift’s fans were easily
@theguardian.com ignore any environmental a means for people to and the sad lessons of war the nicest, best-behaved
concerns. So before fleeing govern themselves may Michael Segalov’s and most amiable we have
Corrections Europe, Timothy, beware at one time and for some compilation of the ever seen (Money, money,
Our policy is to of what might await you. people have been a sincere contemporary experiences money, Features, 7 June).
correct significant Richard Pickering idea, but that idea has long of seven conscientious No one urinating in our
errors as soon as Christchurch, New Zealand ago been transformed objectors in different war gardens. No one drunk, far
possible. Please into a process to enable situations reminded me of less disorderly. My only
write to guardian.
A bold take on Starmer ambitious individuals with how lucky I was that the complaint concerns the
readers@
and Labour’s manifesto access to lots of money to decision whether to fight moulting boas, on sale
theguardian.com
or the readers’ Boring? Really? I agree win power and influence. in a war or not never arose from all vendors, whose
editor, Kings Place, with much of what There is one European for me (Keeping the peace, floating feathers are very
90 York Way, Jonathan Freedland says democracy where Features, 14 June). difficult to remove from
London N1 9GU, about Keir Starmer’s elections, when compared In 1967 I was, as a the sweet peas. Don’t
UK steady-as-you-go with elections in most conscript, transported know about her singing,
approach (If Starmer is a other democracies, from the liberated, peace but her fans are fabulous.
“political robot”, he’s one are not that big a deal: loving, countercultural Joan Burnie
that has been hardwired to Switzerland. Elections to University of Adelaide into Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
A WEEK
IN VENN
DI AGR A MS
Edith Pritchett

51
Film, music, art, books & more
SCREEN
The women
who created
Black Barbie
Page 55
Out of the
shadows
Anthony McCall made his name with ‘light
sculptures’ that people could enter. But a show
in Sweden led to 20 years in the wilderness

52 Culture
Visual arts
INTERVIEW t the beginning of 1973, Anthony Line Describing a Cone, his first “solid light” work, where
By Zoe Williams McCall, sculptor of light, was 26 and the rays projected on to a screen seem to create a tangible
COVER had made waves with his first piece, object in the darkness.
PHOTOGRAPH Landscape for Fire. This was a film of At that time, he was in love with the performance artist
Ander Gillenea a performance in which white-clad Carolee Schneemann: “She had her own form of happen-
spectres light fires across a huge ings called kinetic theatre, already up and running.” They’d
landscape, experimenting with met in London, but she wanted to return to the US, so they
McCall’s belief that a performance moved to New York together. There were so many things
isn’t a performance unless it’s documented. “If it takes place McCall admired about the American art scene – the perfor-
in the middle of nowhere,” he says, “you need to record it.” mance artists, loosely collected under the umbrella fluxus;
Half a century later, I meet him at Tate Modern in London, the experimental film-making of Andy Warhol; Yoko Ono’s
which is about to launch a major exhibition of his immer- drop of water, which you were invited to watch until it
sive, 3D moving shapes. McCall is softly spoken, even tenta- evaporated. “There was an intensity about the world in
tive; there is nothing excitable in his manner. Yet there is New York at that time which was unmistakable.”
something almost supernatural in the way he manages to It must have seemed like a golden time. “It does to a
conjure the exhilaration, radicalism and explosive creativ- lot of people who weren’t there,” he says, laughing. “But I
▲ Light fantastic ity of that bygone era. can confirm that it was. All everyone wanted to do was talk
Face to Face, from McCall studied graphic design and photography at about art – in an unpretentious, daily kind of way.” There
2013, by McCall Ravensbourne College, on the outskirts of London, but was a frantic exchange of passion, skills, ideas. “I didn’t
JASON WYCHE/ANTHONY became “steeped in other ways of using cinema. It was know how to make animation. I found a friend of a friend,
MCCALL/SPRÜTH
MAGERS/SEAN KELLY/
called experimental film, it was called expanded cinema, we went to a bar, and an hour later, I had a plan. I felt those
STEFANIA BERETTA structural film, new American cinema.” This all fed into acts of openness and generosity were unique to New York.”

53
▼ Studio time ‘I felt thwarted’ … McCall
LINDA NYLIND
He and Schneemann were like the Diego Rivera and the air to catch the light. Plus, prob-
Frida Kahlo of the city. Any artist blowing in there would ably a quarter of the people would be
gather around them. It was an intensely productive time for smoking continuously. The combina-
McCall: he arrived with Line Describing a Cone and made tion of the dust and smoke created a
“three short clean films exploring different aspects of the medium which made this series pos-
idea. Then I made Long Film for Four Projectors.” sible, but which I’d been unaware of.”
This was a five-and-a half-hour piece conjuring up four He ran to a tobacconist and came
walls of intersecting light, which visitors experienced from back smoking three cigarettes at
within. “Not that the audience had to be there for five and once. But he was no match for Scan-
a half hours! The whole point was that people would come dinavian hygiene and was thrown
and go. There could be a couple of dozen people in there, not out by a guard. He tried everything
only looking at the film, but looking at each other looking to create “some particulates in the
at the film. That seemed quite intriguing.” air”, from dry ice to frankincense,
The series culminated in Long Film for Ambient Light, but nothing worked. This cast him
with no film and no equipment, all highly conceptual, into a wilderness he’d inhabit for the
and this time lasting 24 hours. “It was a good way to paint next 20 years.
yourself into a corner,” says McCall. “The windows were From the late 70s to the 90s,
covered with white paper, limiting them to being light McCall went back to what he’d
sources during the day and reflective surface during the trained in, graphic design, and
night. Finally, there was a two-page statement on the wall, began running a studio. It was quite
‘Notes on Duration.’” successful: they designed metal
sculptor Richard Serra’s books. “I only felt thwarted,” he
AFTER T URNING 30, he began to realise he needed to make says, “when occasionally some art historian would be at
a living. “The kind of work that I made,” he says, “galleries Works of the door wanting to talk about the solid light work. After
didn’t really show.” While he may not have been making a finishing those interviews, I would feel as though I had
living, McCall had a significant international reputation, art don’t betrayed everything and was wasting my time.” It got so bad
and was invited to show Line Describing a Cone at the come with that he couldn’t bear to lay out another book. “Some time in
Konsthall Lund, a leading Swedish gallery. the 90s,” he recalls, “I had the desire to make works again.”
He got a shock when he arrived. “I discovered, to my
a tag He went back to the short cone films. “One of them was
horror, that it was completely invisible. All I had was a line that says called Cone of Variable Volume. It was very simple, just an
going round on the screen.” The appearance of solidity, ‘meaning’. exploratory film in which I tested the idea of a circle that
which was the whole point, was absent. “It was meant to would change its volume, by expansion and contraction.
be a volumetric object! In a blinding flash of brilliance, I That’s the It was at four different speeds, from frenetic to so slow you
realised why: all along, I’d been working with a medium I work of the could barely see it moving. To my surprise, I realised that
hadn’t understood – which was dust. The films were made it was doing something I had never noticed before. It was
and shown in old lofts in New York, buildings that had previ-
audience quite obviously breathing.”
ously been used for light engineering or millinery or sweat- He could never have seen that when he first made the
shops. If you get 10 people in there, there’s enough dust in work. “We were much too purist.” To discover that, all along,
these works had been describing bodily functions came as
a thunderbolt. He thought he’d been dealing in concepts,
▼ Blazing success Landscape for Fire, from 1972 but he’d created the appearance of an organism. “I made a
JASON WYCHE/ANTHONY MCCALL/SPRÜTH MAGERS/SEAN KELLY/STEFANIA BERETTA lot of films after that, all following this idea of the corporeal,
with titles like Between You and I, Meeting You Halfway,
Skirt, You and I Horizontal.”
These are mainly conical light sculptures, often leaning
towards each other in eerie suggestions of human con-
nectedness. As for what they meant, he says: “I’ve never
believed the artist should be the person to ask that. Works
of art don’t come with a tag that says ‘meaning’. That’s the
work of the audience.” It’s never quite that simple, though.
“These new ideas don’t flow evenly,” he says. “You don’t
turn on a tap and get a few ounces of new ideas.”
Since his 2004 show at the Pompidou in Paris, McCall
has been creating epic light sculptures, culminating in four
major shows this year. As well as the Tate, there is Guggen-
heim Bilbao, Sprüth Magers in London, and the Museum
of Art, Architecture and Design in Lisbon later in the year.
“It’s certainly been welcome,” he says, “but it’s a big
surprise. You’re not thinking, as you whistle at your bench,
‘I’m pioneering.’ You’re just making something. You have
no idea if it’ll be any good.”
ZOE WILLIAMS IS A GUARDIAN WRITER
Anthony McCall: Solid Light is at Tate Modern, London,
to 27 April 2025

54 Culture
Stage
The German
A
handful of Spanish conquistadors fight The costume designer, Henriette
through thick undergrowth to emerge Hübschmann, says she struggled with having
in the ivy-clad ruins of a fallen civili- to abandon her usual task of creating new cos-
theatre that sation during a rehearsal of Austrian

playwright Thomas Köck’s Your Palaces Are
Empty. Premiered last month at the Hans Otto
tumes from scratch. “At least half the costumes
have to come from the existing collection of
props and costumes now,” she says. “The rest
puts climate theatre in Potsdam, south-west of Berlin, the
bleak and unforgiving drama probes the wounds
should be from recycled, easily recyclable or
renewable materials.”
centre stage of a shattered capitalist world that has exploited

its people and the planet’s resources. But it is not
just the play that is embracing the subject of the
Plastic sheeting that forms the backdrop of the
set was found in a storeroom, the ivy is a living
plant provided by the local biosphere. Wooden
climate crisis. stools, built for the production, will be recycled
The production itself has been declared An inventory of its resources forms the basis of
As part of a wider project to climate neutral under a €3m ($3.2m) pilot pro- the theatre’s first climate impact report. It states
ject launched by Germany’s federal ministry of that wood makes up half the 41 tonnes of raw
reduce its carbon footprint, culture. The project, called Zero, is sponsoring materials the theatre used last year, but is respon-
a Potsdam theatre is the Potsdam theatre and 25 other cultural insti- sible for about 1% of the emissions produced,
reusing props, recycling tutions, from dance companies to museums, to while four tons of steel and aluminium used in
restructure their creative modus operandi. productions made up almost 30%.
costumes and doubling up “It leads to restrictions,” says the director, “The obvious conclusion is that we’ll use
tickets as transport passes Moritz Peters, as he takes a break from rehears- wood as far as possible,” Klett says. Other forms
als. “But it also forces greater creativity.” of stage-set building are also being experimented
By Kate Connolly From the lighting (switching to LED bulbs) to with, such as growing mycelium to use as an
reducing travel (rehearsals are longer but less organic building material. The potential use of
frequent to cut down on journeys) “everything this in other areas, such as exhibition architec-
has come in for scrutiny”, says Marcel Klett, the ture, is already being explored.
managing director. According to statistics from the culture
Swapping to a green source of electricity in ministry, less than a third of state-funded thea-
2022 improved the theatre’s carbon footprint, tres in Germany produce a climate impact report.
▼ Green rooms reducing its annual 661 tonnes of emissions, or However, most will be required to do so from next
Your Palaces Are the “equivalent of 66 households”, by more than year, under EU legislation that will treat theatres
Empty at the 10%, but did not go far enough, Klett says. No less the same as all big commercial enterprises. Klett
Hans Otto theatre challenging is tackling a change in attitude. “Nur- is hopeful of a knock-on effect among audiences
in Potsdam turing a sense that we all – from the set designer and theatre staff as well as from other cultural
THOMAS M JAUK to the theatregoer – have a role to play,” Klett says. institutes joining in. “The more the merrier –
the greater the ideas and resources we can share
among ourselves and with other institutions, the
better,” he says, acknowledging that its contribu-
tion still remained a “drop in the ocean”.
He is appealing to local politicians to sponsor
the erection of solar panels on the theatre’s roof
and allowing the space – a former Prussian
military stables – to be insulated, which is cur-
rently not allowed because the building is listed.
The success of the project, though, will largely
depend on how the audience travel to the theatre.
Although 20% of its theatregoers already arrive
by bike or on foot, travel is the theatre’s single
biggest polluting factor, contributing to about
50% of its emissions. In response, theatre tick-
ets will double up as public transport passes in
the three hours before and after the play, under
the campaign slogan: #OhneAutoInsTheater
(Car-less to the theatre).
Your Palaces Are Empty is dystopian, vicious
and bleak, and though not endlessly pessimistic,
says Peters, it offers little consolation. It ends
with uplifting pop music and children “offering
a somewhat hopeful note”, he adds. “I’d like to
think the audience leaves, saying: the situation
is serious, but we should keep going neverthe-
less at the same time as taking it very seriously.”
KATE CONNOLLY IS THE GUARDIAN AND
OBSERVER’S BERLIN CORRESPONDENT

Culture 55
Screen
the first Barbie, in 1959. Davis, who also narrates
the film, learns about Black Barbie and her aunt’s
involvement in the doll’s creation. When Ruth
Handler, Mattel co-founder and Barbie’s crea-
tor, asked employees for suggestions to improve
Mattel, Mitchell said: “We want a Black Barbie.”
In 1976, Mattel hired Kitty Black Perkins, its
first Black designer, who designed the first Black
Barbie a few years later. “I wanted to reflect the
total look of a Black woman. I wanted [Black
Barbie] to be the complete opposite of blonde
Barbie,” Perkins said. Black Barbie had an afro.
Her lips were fuller, and her nose was a bit wider
than Barbie’s. She sported bold jewellery and
a red wraparound skirt with a thigh-high slit
inspired by Diana Ross’s wardrobe.
I
n 1996, Perkins hired Stacey McBride-Irby,
who created new Black Barbie lines, part of
the groundbreaking but little-known work
by Mattel’s Black female designers. In the
documentary, Mitchell, Perkins and McBride-
Irby share a sweet on-camera reunion, reflecting
the camaraderie they forged at Mattel years ago.
The birth of
Black Barbie: A Documentary debuted in
March 2023, months before Greta Gerwig’s fic-
tional Barbie was released. Both films pay tribute
to pioneering women. In Gerwig’s film, Handler
Black Barbie
is a feminist godmother, and Barbie Land cel-
ebrates the rainbow of Barbies that followed the
first Black Barbie doll. Today, Barbie is considered
the most diverse doll line on the market.
It’s hard to fathom that an adult white female
doll was an evolutionary leap for girlkind in the
50s. But before Barbie, girls of all backgrounds
played with baby dolls, encouraging a future as
Y
ou don’t have to be a Barbie girl to be mothers. Barbie, a fashionista and independent
For 20 years, all Barbie interested in Black Barbie: A Documen- woman, inspired aspirations beyond mother-
dolls were white. A Netflix tary, the history of the first Black Barbie hood. But for Black girls, the doll reinforced a
documentary looks at the in 1980 and the doll’s significance for beauty standard that rejected their bodies, hair,
Black girls in a world that still questions their features and skin colour. They didn’t have dolls
effect that had on Black natural beauty. The film is a tribute to the Black they could relate to until Black Barbie, which the
girls, and speaks to women women who advocated for and designed the doll director explores in multiple interviews. Some
who brought about change and a discourse on representation. women were on the verge of tears as they recalled
To explain why Black Barbie matters and how being ridiculed for their skin colour or the loneli-
a blond-haired, blue-eyed Barbie, the embodi- ness of playing with dolls that looked nothing
By Susan Smith Richardson ment of an unrealistic white beauty standard, like them. “Crowning this doll as Barbie was
can strike at the self-image of Black children telling the world that Black is beautiful, too,”
in America, the writer-director Lagueria Davis
uses the landmark doll tests from the 1940s. Psy-
chologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark conducted
the tests to determine the effects of segregation
▲ Diverse dolls on Black children’s self-esteem. They gave the
Barbies reflect a children, aged three to seven, white and Black
range of women dolls that were identical except for skin colour.
NETFLIX Then they asked them to attribute positive and
negative characteristics to the dolls; most of the
Mattel women children rejected the Black dolls, shocking US
(From left) Stacey supreme court justices who cited the study in the
McBride-Irby, court’s 1954 Brown v Board of Education decision
Kitty Black Per- to desegregate public schools.
kins and Beulah The documentary unfolds through the story
Mae Mitchell of Davis’s aunt, Beulah Mae Mitchell, a former
NETFLIX employee of Mattel, the toymaker that produced

56 Culture Reviews
Screen
one woman said. The tagline for the first Black MUSIC
Barbie, recited by another, sealed the sentiment:
“She’s Black. She’s beautiful. She’s dynamite.”
Davis enlists some famous Black female The Killers
firsts to discuss Black Barbie’s importance and Co-op Live, Manchester
the challenges of representation: prima balle-
★★★★☆
rina Misty Copeland, Olympic fencing medalist
Ibtihaj Muhammad, US representative Maxine
Waters of California, actor Gabourey Sidibe and When the Killers headlined the
the ruler of scripted TV, Shonda Rhimes. Rhimes NME indie rock tour in 2005, singer
worked with Davis to bring the documentary to Brandon Flowers’ shocking-pink
Netflix and was an executive producer. jacket gave an early hint of the Las
Mattel has modelled two Barbies after Rhimes: Vegas ensemble’s showbiz leanings.
the first sports a glamorous flowing skirt. Rather Nineteen years of massive success
than have her bespoke doll imitate Barbie’s fig- FILM later, there are lasers, ticker-tape
ure, the producer instructed the designers to cannons and the band perform in
make her Barbie thicker in the waist. front of huge films of the American
Waters said she grew up playing with white The Bikeriders desert and constellations. The
dolls because there were no Black dolls. Later Dir: Jeff Nichols singer’s latest suit – glittery black – is
in life, she began collecting Black dolls. “I began restrained by comparison.
★★★★★
to understand how important it was to have a With guitarist Dave Keuning fully
Black doll, to have someone who looked like ensconced again after a hiatus, the
me,” she said. Jeff Nichols’ motorcycle movie band set the pace with a series of
Sidibe, whose breakout role was in the 2009 is about a love triangle and a big hitters. Somebody Told Me and
film Precious, said the original Barbie set unre- succession crisis – inspired by the Smile Like You Mean It are met with
alistic body expectations. “I remember think- immersive 1968 study of Chicago seas of swaying arms and audience-
ing: ‘So Barbie is what I’m supposed to grow into bikers by photojournalist Danny assisted “whoah whoah”s, while
being?’ Maybe when I’m a grownup, I’ll look like Lyon, whose black-and-white Flowers quips that 2008’s laser-
that. But I knew my mom was a grownup and pictures flash up with the closing boosted Spaceman was written
didn’t look like that.” credits. This film opens up the “before it was acceptable to believe
Davis divides her documentary into three acts: storytelling throttle with a throaty in aliens”. Still only 42, the fresh-
what it was like before Black dolls, what it was growl, delivering the doomy faced frontman comes over like a
like with them, and what has changed since the romance of an old-fashioned western cross between a young Elvis Presley
presence of Black Barbie and other Black doll and the thrills of a mob drama. and a fairground compere.
lines. In the final act, she returns to the doll tests, The Bikeriders is set in a world This show has two gears: epic
enlisting Dr Amirah Saafir, a professor of child in which the increasingly careworn and even more epic. While a bit
and adolescent studies at California State Univer- gang leader competes for the more light and shade wouldn’t be
sity, Fullerton. Instead of asking Black children affection of his toughest follower unwelcome, there’s a touching
and children of colour to choose between white with this man’s girlfriend, at the moment when Flowers talks about
and Black dolls as the Clarks did, Saafir’s test pre- same time grooming him as his heir. the premature death of his mother
sents them with racially diverse dolls. A therapist Tom Hardy is Johnny, truck- and gets the 23,500-strong crowd
asks them which doll is most attractive, which driver, family man and founding to hold up phones for people we
doll looks like them and which doll is the “real head of the 60s Chicago motorbike have lost. The show must go on, of
Barbie”, among other questions. club the Vandals. Austin Butler is course, but A Dustland Fairytale and
Most kids choose dolls that resemble e them, Benny: deeply in love with Kathy Be Still are accordingly emotional.
but they consider the white Barbie the “real eal Bar- (Jodie Comer), he is the toughest They save the biggest singalongs –
bie”. In their eyes, white Barbies are at thee ccent
enttre
en of the Vandals whose violent All These Things That I Have Done,
of the Barbie world, and Barbies of colour our are altercation with civilian locals leads When You Were Young, Human and
on the periphery. Some children noted that in to the gang’s mutation into a quasi- Mr Brightside – for a triumphant
Barbie cartoons, movies and ads, white Barbie e crime mob. The performances aren’t home run, but Flowers twice stops
is the lead character, and Barbies of colour our areare subtle exactly, but there’s enormous the show for audience members to
secondary characters. The test leaves u uss with potency and impact in everything receive medical attention. Within
this conclusion: representation alone doesn’toesn’t they do onscreen. Peter Bradshaw this eye-popping extravaganza there
change racial hierarchies. More than 40 years Showing in UK and US cinemas; on is a human heart. Dave Simpson
after Black Barbie’s debut, are Black girls ststill
till in
i release in Australia from 4 July Touring to mid-October
a white Barbie world? The documentary y leaves
viewers to decide how far we have come. e.
Inspired by the women who made the e doll a Podcast of the week Backfired
reality “by creating something they didn’t dn’t see After Slow Burn, Think Twice and Fiasco, Leon Neyfakh turns his
but wanted”, Davis said, “we finally made dee Black
attention to vaping, which he’s desperately trying to give up (he
Barbie the hero of her own story”.
even gets caught at it by co-host Arielle Pardes). What’s so thought-
SUSAN SMITH RICHARDSON IS A JOURNALIST,
T,
NEWS EDITOR AND MEDIA EXECUTIVE provoking is how the UK touts vaping as a tool to give up smoking,
Black Barbie: A Documentary is out on Netfl
etflix
ix while the US tries to eradicate it with flavour bans. Hannah Verdier

Culture 57
Books
encounters with women in the changing room.
A childhood spent cowering from the father who
hit her and left her to cry alone until she wet her-
self has left her fearful of more vulnerable forms
of intimacy. Then she unexpectedly falls in love,
opening herself to an efflorescence of tenderness,
as her lover Stephanie leads her to an obsolete
swimming pool on the rooftop of a makeshift
nightclub. Stephanie opens up the pool cover to
allow the rainwater in, and Agnes discovers the
pleasures of a drenched, obliterating kind of sex,
“the two of them moving in tandem, floating and
drowning, fixed somewhere between”.
The novel is an overt take on King Lear; the
play is still one of the most powerful reckonings
of our powerlessness before the climate that we
have, made back in the days when the climate
wasn’t something we had created.
Armfield’s daughterly take on Shakespeare
is brilliantly audacious. Agnes and her older,
bossier sisters try to come together, only to slip
into habitual competitiveness. At the heart of this
are absent mothers. The sisters seek out forms of
D
FICTION o individual losses still matter in a mothering, only to reject them, and offer them-
world in its final stages? This is the selves as maternal figures, only to withdraw.
question asked by Agnes, Isla and There’s a mystery charging through the book,
Irene, three queer, volatile daughters signalled in the cryptic opening scene where a
Uncharted waters who congregate uneasily to view the corpse of woman gashes a bloody cut in another woman’s
their divisive, megalomaniac architect father mouth in a cultish ritual. Gradually this emerges
Three sisters seek Stephen Carmichael, while the rain pours down as a memory from Irene’s childhood. The book
outside – as it has poured down for several years. ends with a revelation about this that takes the
love at the end of the Carmichael has been both a contributor to this form of a scene in the kind of horror film that
world in a brilliantly state of affairs – his gleaming masterpieces defied Armfield has alluded to throughout. I found this
the early signs of climate crisis – and a saviour brutal and jarring. Having committed to the intri-
audacious take on King for the rich. His own house, which he has gifted cacy of these women’s feelings, it’s frustrating
Lear and its reckonings provocatively to his youngest daughter alone, is and disorienting suddenly to find ourselves in
a modernist folly-cum-masterpiece built high on another kind of story. This seems to be the point:
of the climate crisis ingeniously floating pylons. Armfield is always committed to experiments
This rainy city, where people live makeshift with genre and here she rips away realism, sug-
By Lara Feigel lives on the top floors of flooded tower blocks, gesting the old novelistic forms are as inadequate
travelling by ferry, is natural territory for Julia now as the half-hearted forms of political protest
Armfield. She is both poet and prophet of the that take place in the background.
watery and the queer and the channels connect- The great strength of Private Rites is that it
ing them. Her vision of the sea creature in all of never commits to an apocalyptic vision, even
us – scales hidden under skin – is as seductive as as the world it depicts becomes cartoonishly
the charged, casually incandescent sentences apocalyptic. In the final, astonishingly moving
she conjures it in. She is writing in an honourable pages, the narrator affirms her commitment to
tradition: throughout literary history there are dailiness in life and in art. “Better to hold one’s
watery women destined to find and to lose them- hands to whatever warmth there is, to kiss and
selves in the depths of the sea. Armfield has given talk and grieve and fuck and hold tight against
this trope new political urgency, first in 2022’s the whitening of the sky.” Is it possible both to
Our Wives Under the Sea, featuring a be responsible in the face of the larg-
hushed-up submarine disaster, and est challenges and to honour the tiny
now in this convincing imagining of possibilities for grace in love? Armfield
the next phase in the climate crisis. stages this dilemma with great vitality.
Carmichael’s youngest daughter, There’s no new order, as in Lear; it’s
Agnes, is a swimmer by tempera- too late for the kind of responsibility
▲ Water ways ment. She takes refuge in the shadowy that might fend off apocalypse. But
thoughts she has while lane swimming B O O K O F here, too, the survivors have discov-
Porto Alegre
breaststroke, glad that here she’s “less THE WEEK ered love with new clarity, and small
in Brazil, with
streets sub-
liable to come upon a thought that will Private Rites forms of weathered, personal redemp-
merged by floods
cause her to scream and to never stop By Julia tion remain grimly possible.
JEFFERSON BERNARDES/
screaming”. Sometimes, her brain Armfield LARA FEIGEL IS AN AUTHOR, CRITIC
GETTY thus buoyed, she has brief sexual AND CULTURAL HISTORIAN

58 Culture
Books
I
MEMOIR n another life, David Baddiel’s mother, the way they were. As the author makes clear, this
Sarah, could have been an aristocrat living is no misery memoir. Though his childhood was
in a big house with servants and married to characterised by chaos and neglect, there was
a rich businessman – or so she imagined. also silliness and love. Much of that love radiated
Meet the parents In the early 1930s, her German Jewish parents, from his older brother, Ivor, who, just 18 months
Ernst and Otti, had been extremely wealthy; his senior, would step in and parent him, getting
Comic David Baddiel according to a cousin, they owned a painting him up in the mornings, giving him breakfast
by Rubens. But then the Nazis took their home, and putting him on the school bus. But there is
overshares about their livelihood and murdered their relatives, so a seam of sadness, too: at the loss of his parents
his outre childhood, they fled with their baby to England. Twenty-five (Sarah died in 2014 and Colin in 2022), at their
years later, their daughter was living in a modest dysfunctional relationship and at their failure
revolving around his house in London’s Dollis Hill with three sons to shield their children from that dysfunction.
mother’s infidelity with and her husband, Colin, an emotion- The book reproduces photos, draw-
ally detached, working-class research ings and miscellaneous paperwork
a golf-obsessed lover scientist who, after being made redun- from his parents’ lives, allowing us to
dant, sold Dinky Toys on a market share in the weirdness of his mother’s
By Fiona Sturges stall. For Sarah, the most exotic life communications with White along
got was when the family went on their with her vast stock of eccentric golf-
annual holiday to Swansea. And so, themed trinkets. Perhaps the strangest
▼ Family line to assuage her disappointment, she My Family: part of the story is that Sarah would
The Baddiels embraced a fantasy version of her The Memoir leave evidence – such as love letters –
(from left): Dan, life with the help of David White, her By David of her affair lying around for all to see.
David, Ivor, Sarah golf-obsessed, polo neck-wearing, Baddiel To let her friends and family in on this
and Colin in 1974 pipe-smoking lover. supposedly secret life was to proudly
In My Family: The Memoir, the comic and Jews show them how interesting she was, even though
Don’t Count author spills the secrets of Sarah, Baddiel insists Colin remained oddly, perhaps
Colin and his own outre childhood in 60s and 70s determinedly, in the dark.
London. This isn’t the first time their story has When her children were adults, Sarah would
been told. Baddiel’s 2016 stage show My Family: copy them into her emails to White. Once, while
Not the Sitcom revolved around his mother’s infi- making a guest appearance on her son’s TV show,
delity and her sudden, improbable interest in golf Sarah suggested that not all of her children had
memorabilia, which was triggered by White and been fathered by her husband. While Baddiel
which, equally improbably, she managed to turn notes there is no concrete evidence to corrobo-
into a thriving business. That show also revealed rate this, Ivor’s childhood drawings tell their own
the impact of Colin’s illness: in his later years he story. Reproduced here, each features a tall man
had Pick’s disease, a form of dementia affect- smoking a pipe. “My father did not smoke a pipe.
ing the frontal lobe that is known to cause angry I think we know who did,” writes Baddiel, flatly.
outbursts and disinhibition, traits he already In the fifth and final picture, the pipe has grown
possessed in spades. and taken on the unmistakable aspect of a penis.
My Family takes that material, fills in the gaps “It may not surprise you to know that I’ve spent
and once again draws out the comedy as it reflects a lot of time in therapy,” he adds.
in greater detail on why Baddiel’s parents were Baddiel writes with a comic’s fluency and
T
TECHNOLOGY here is, it seems, an unwritten law that strategies of the second world war, in exploring
any discussion of AI must reference the ideas of intelligence and how computers can or
Terminator. The relentless analyses of don’t emulate human cognition. We veer from
the moment we are in – where we appar- Great Man classic tales of Isaac Newton, Winston
OK computer ently stand on precipices of revolutions, ushering Churchill and Stephen Hawking, down a cul-de-
in utopia or the apocalypse – tend to be written sac visiting William Blake and Michelangelo, then
This refreshing look by men who have seen Arnold Schwarzeneg- to Lewis Carroll and Bertrand Russell, and all the
ger’s Terminator failing to assassinate Sarah way to Elon Musk. Page after page of the Atomic
at the world of AI is Connor many times over. AI expert Human are war stories and rocket sto-
marred by a reliance Neil Lawrence springs the trap on page ries, jumping about in time and space.
one of The Atomic Human, and the Even if the intended narrative here is
on boys’ own tales and film makes a further 15 appearances. to synthesise a thesis about how these
Arnie’s Terminator We understand big ideas through tales contribute to our understanding
storytelling. Much has been made of of intelligence, I couldn’t pick out the
humans as storytelling machines, and relevance of so many boys’ own adven-
By Adam Rutherford Lawrence embraces this mode of sci- The Atomic tures to the subtitle: “Understanding
ence communication with gusto. Human ourselves in the age of AI.”
He indulges us with the Bletchley By Neil Lawrence is, however, refreshingly
Park saga, Alan Turing’s brilliance Lawrence dismissive of the amount of posturing
and details of the technologies and and bullshit in the world of AI. Instead,

59
timing. His prose is conversational, frequently BOOKS OF THE MONTH

pre-empting potential misgivings or questions The best recent translated fiction
from the reader, and contains lengthy digres-
sions into his own life as a standup, TV presenter,
film-maker, father and cat lover. Remarkably, the By John Self life-threatening fungus, painkillers; the supplies
tale of his mother’s affair is told without judg- a piglet killed – and the packed by the father
ment, and with genuine empathy, while gleefully warning that, in the include cigarettes and
dancing around the edges of decency. It’s with end, “the girl dies”. Our a revolver. The father’s
much amusement that he shares an email from narrator is Estela (“I’ve unpredictability reflects
Sarah, written to White, where she announces, killed before”), who his experience with his
in capitals, “MY CLITORIS IS ON FIRE !!!!!” This worked as a nanny to a own father, the mother
leads to a gag about her funeral that I won’t ruin, wealthy couple, and “the turns out to be pregnant
but which for me prompted more of a choke than girl” is their daughter – and what about the
laughter. There are lots of these woah-did-he- Julia. Estela appears to mysterious Uncle Tony?
just-say-that? moments. But in this instance, be under questioning by The novel explores how
the author taps into something important and Comrade Papa police, held in a room unknowable the motives
rarely examined: how we talk about the dead. By GauZ’, translated by and talking directly to of adults are to children,
He recalls being at his mother’s funeral where Frank Wynne “you who’ll eventually and how man hands on
people he’d never met kept telling him how This funny, ebullient pass judgment on me”. misery to man. There
wonderful she was. Overwhelmed by the one- tale of French colonial Her story proceeds at aren’t many laughs on
dimensional platitudes, he found he wanted to exploitation of Ivory pace, building its depth the way to the inevitable,
talk about her complexities, her singular vitality, Coast tells two alternating from an accumulation of satisfying conclusion, but
her transgressiveness and absence of boundaries. stories. In the late 19th small details: the family’s it isn’t half gripping.
In other words, the things that made her her. In century, a young man joins cruelty to her; the father’s
this book, a eulogy of sorts, he does that for both a colonial expedition, shocking way of teaching
his parents – in the case of his father, detailing caught between self- Julia to swim; the secret
how, long before his dementia, he was sweary, styled “Negrophiles” behind the household
charismatic, embarrassed by emotion and capa- and “Negrophobes” maid. A strong narrative
ble of devastating verbal cruelty. as he experiences his energy drives the novel to
Has Baddiel, who says he is an uncontrolla- own bumpy personal its conclusion, by which
ble truth-teller, shared too much? I would argue voyage of discovery. time the atmosphere is
not. Telling deeply personal stories that include Meanwhile, a century so full of dread you could
the good, the terrible, the humiliating and the later, a European Black weigh it.
ridiculous is the job and compulsion of effective boy gives an account, filled Comedy in a Minor Key
memoirists and comics. My Family is less about with comic malapropisms, By Hans Keilson, translated
how mums and dads fuck you up as how they of his own trip to Ivory by Damion Searls
are weird and complicated and hilarious, and Coast, and his upbringing First published in German
how you can miss them once they are dead even by his communist father. in 1947, this novella is a
though, in life, they could be massive pains in the Ivorian author GauZ’ surprisingly entertaining
arse. In giving us the full, unvarnished picture, was shortlisted for the account of a Dutch couple
Baddiel has done his parents proud. International Booker prize harbouring a Jewish man
FIONA STURGES IS A WRITER AND CRITIC for his novel Standing in their home during
Heavy. Comrade Papa is the Nazi occupation.
even better. The Son of Man As though things aren’t
he offers novel insight into what intelligence By Jean-Baptiste Del Amo, difficult enough, he then
is, how it evolved, and how it is distributed in translated by Frank Wynne dies and becomes a much
different living and non-living systems. Com- An opening scene of a bigger problem. The
parisons to psychological processing, and the group of ancient hunters story switches between
intricacies of the intelligent learning behaviour switches – in a 2001: his time in the house and
of our own nervous systems, provide insight A Space Odyssey-style the couple’s attempts to
into the neural processes that do, might or don’t jump cut – to a present- dispose of his body. At
underlie complex artificial administration – for day French family on first it appears that they
example, in the process of buying from Amazon, a journey. “Are we there have the ideal solution,
where Lawrence worked for several years – and yet?” They’re heading and dump him under a
how much of what is described as AI is merely Clean to the father’s old house park bench at night – then
computation and statistics. By Alia Trabucco Zerán, in the mountains of they remember he was
Overall, The Atomic Human is a sensible book, translated by Sophie Les Roches to spend wearing a pair of the
because it tries, and to some extent succeeds in, Hughes the summer. But this husband’s monogrammed
rising above the very shallow oceans of public There’s no hanging about is no holiday: through pyjamas … Keilson wrote
debates about AI that are often shocking but ulti- in Chilean author Alia flashbacks we begin to get only four works of fiction
mately dull. I just wish he hadn’t started with a Trabucco Zerán’s third the full, ugly picture, all in his lifetime. We should
tired Uzi-toting cyborg from the 1980s. novel, which opens with told in visceral, physical treasure them.
ADAM RUTHERFORD IS A GENETICIST AND SCIENCE images of rabbits being prose. The mother lives on JOHN SELF IS A LITERARY
WRITER AND BROADCASTER frightened to death, romance novels, beer and CRITIC

60 Lifestyle
ASK I am trying to find a way out to taken on yourself. I thought: ‘Who

Annalisa Barbieri something more financially and is making the sacrifices here?’” He
mentally sustainable. added: “Sometimes suicidal feelings
My dad is not fit enough to work, can be anger turned inwards, to
My parents sent unemployed with no pension, and

I am terrified I can’t support my
protect other people who perhaps
these feelings are more aimed at.”
me to private parents as they age because of the

path I chose at 17. My dad regularly
You see your parents as having
made sacrifices, but you have
school but I feel jokes that I was “expensive”, but

I feel like a failed investment. I’m
sacrificed an awful lot, and risk
sacrificing more, and that was
I’ve failed them often suicidal and have extremely

low self-esteem. I loved my
a choice that was foisted on you.
I’m sure your parents were trying
job, but even my parents aside, to do their best, but constantly
When I was 11, my parents sent me I couldn’t afford to stay in it. reminding you of that is corrosive
to private school. They couldn’t How do I reconcile with this guilt? and self-defeating. It wasn’t about
afford to, but my dad was from a If you would seeing who you really are either,
I
working-class background and saw f ever there was a letter about like advice or understanding that academic
it as an “investment”. He hoped it the futility and selfishness on a family achievement doesn’t always lead
would lead to the life he never had: of parental projection and matter, email to happiness. What does lead
a good degree and a well-paid job. expectations, this is it. As ask.annalisa@ to internal happiness is seeing
Throughout my childhood, I was I’ve said before, we often feel guilt theguardian. ourselves reflected back by the
aware that my parents struggled to when we are doing the work – the com. See people we love, and being accepted
pay the fees. My mum didn’t work heavy lifting – for other people. theguardian. for who we are, whatever that is.
full-time due to previous mental Your parents chose to send you to com/letters- “What you really need,” advised
health issues; things always felt on a school they could ill afford, to live terms for terms Music, “is self-acceptance. It’s OK
a knife-edge. I was bullied at my out a life they didn’t. Children aren’t and conditions to feel resentful, or even cross that
new school, nothing extreme, but like vending machines – you don’t you feel this pressure to live a life
I was unpopular and became very pump money in, press a button and that’s expected of you, rather than
shy – a stark contrast to my early get what you selected. the one you want to live.”
childhood. I turned out to be non- I need to address the suicidal You need to find a place where
academic and was encouraged by thoughts first. I am very sorry you What you can learn who you are and
the school to pursue a career in the feel like this. Have you made any work out what you want to do for
arts (rather than the traditional plans to harm yourself? If so, please
leads to yourself. “It’s time to let go, and
medicine, law or Stem subjects). tell someone you trust and have internal you may need help – therapy – to do
This disappointed my dad and made a plan of action for when you feel that,” said Music.
my mum very anxious. like this (friends you can ring or text happiness It is a valuable lesson, as an
A little more than a decade since who can be there for you). is being adult child, to learn you can be
leaving school, working in the I spoke to psychotherapist angry with your parents, resent
arts has shattered me. I am aware Graham Music. His first reaction to accepted them, appreciate them and love
of the privileged position private your letter “was to feel quite cross for who them all at the same time.
school put me in, and the worlds for the amount of pressure you International helplines can be found
it opened up culturally, but now seem to have received and to have we are at befrienders.org
STEPHEN COLLINS

KITCHEN AIDE
By Anna Berrill
T H E W E E K LY R E C I P E
By Yotam Ottolenghi
№ 273
n
Spicy Tunisian
savoury pastries
ies
Prep 25 min My original

i i l recipe
i ffor this
hi iincluded
l d d
Cook 35 min instructions on making the pastry
from scratch, but these days I am
Serves 8 more inclined simply to reach for
Bold ideas for a well-dressed salad • DAIRY FREE some filo. The filling is lovely just as
it is with rice or bulgur wheat.
– and without the need for oil Method

Put the onion, carrot, celery and
coriander in a food processor and
I
t’s hard to deny the Elaine Goad, head chef at Nopi in Ingredients blitz to a rough paste.
transformative power of a good London, favours toasted cashews, 1 onion, peeled and Put half the olive oil in a large
salad dressing, but you don’t which she blends with water, quartered (180g) saute pan on a medium-high heat,
need much oil, if any. Honey, tahini, lime juice, garlic and maybe 1 large carrot, peeled scrape in the vegetable paste and
and cut into chunks
for example, will give “a natural miso. Another Goad favourite is fry, stirring occasionally, for 15
(100g)
stickiness that helps adhesion to something resembling a Thai papaya 2 large celery sticks,
minutes, until the vegetables are
your salad, while the sweetness salad dressing. “Muddle tomatoes, cut into chunks (100g) soft and there is no liquid left in the
balances the acidity of vinegar”, add a bit of palm sugar, lime juice, 50g bunch fresh pan. Add the ground cumin and
says Tony Rodd, head chef at Pomus chilli (for heat), fish sauce (or soy, if coriander, leaves and coriander, tomato paste, harissa,
in Margate. He favours the heather you’re vegetarian), and coriander.” tender stems picked grated tomato, a third of a teaspoon
variety, whisking it with balsamic Bookmark this for slaw, although 6 tbsp olive oil of salt and 90ml water, cook for five
vinegar and wholegrain mustard another winner with the crunchy 1 tsp ground cumin minutes, until the soft red paste
– this is magic when tossed with stuff – especially hispi cabbage and 1 tsp ground starts to caramelise, then take off
coriander
blanched greens, grilled peaches, kohlrabi – is a combination of rice- the heat. Once the mix has cooled to
1½ tbsp tomato
and torn burrata. He advises adding wine vinegar, maple syrup, lime paste
room temperature, stir in the lemon
toasted nuts and seeds for texture. juice and sesame oil. 2 tbsp red harissa juice, tuna (if using) and olives.
Chris Shaw, head chef at Toklas Finally, Rodd would keep ponzu 1 medium plum Lay one filo rectangle on an oiled
in London, suggests yoghurt, garlic on heavy rotation. “It does take a tomato, coarsely work surface and spread 55g of the
and vinegar or lemon juice. “You little work to make, but it will keep grated (discard the filling over the top half of the pastry
can achieve the same consistency in the fridge for a month,” he says, skin) rectangle, starting from one of the
as a caesar dressing, but with the plus it’s versatile; use it as a glaze for Fine sea salt short edges and keeping a clear 1cm
sourness of yoghurt, which I prefer,” barbecues as well as dressing salads. 1 tbsp lemon juice border all around the edge until
100g good tinned
he says, and although he’d normally “Take the zest and juice of lemons, half the pastry is evenly covered.
tuna (optional)
then loosen it with a little olive oil, limes, oranges, grapefruit and yuzu 30g pitted kalamata
Brush the border with oil, fold the
you could use a splash of water. Toss (if you can find it), add soy sauce or olives, chopped uncovered pastry over the top of
with robust leaves (think gems), tamari, then throw in dried seaweed 4 sheets filo pastry, the filling to enclose, then gently
or into coleslaws, potato salads, (kombu is best), and some dried each cut into 2 press together the edges to seal (to
chopped salads … you have options. mushrooms.” Bring to a boil, simmer 15cm x 20cm make smaller parcels, put the filling
If, however, you want the for 20 minutes, and leave overnight. rectangles on only a third of the pastry, then
creaminess but without the dairy, “Strain, pour the liquid into a clean (ie, 8 in total) fold it in three, like a letter). Brush
go with nuts. “We use blanched pan, add mirin, sake and sugar, then the pastry all over with more oil,
almonds, pine nuts and hazelnuts reduce slightly to create a sticky, then set aside and repeat with the
in the restaurant,” says Shaw. These glossy dressing.” While tuna tartare remaining filo and filling.
are gently cooked in water, then or ceviche are obvious co-habitants, Put two teaspoons of oil in a large
blended with more water, vinegar Rodd recommends tossing it with nonstick frying pan on a medium
(something white) and garlic. citrus, samphire, seaweed and beans heat. Once it’s hot, fry two or three
You’ll be left with a nut cream, for a salad that’s dressed to impress. pastries at a time for two minutes
which is crying out for shaved raw ANNA BERRILL IS A FOOD WRITER on each side, until golden brown all
cauliflower, beetroot, potatoes, or Got a culinary dilemma? Email over, then put in a low oven to keep
sturdier salad leaves (radicchio, say). feast@theguardian warm while you fry the remaining
pastries, adding more oil as needed.
Serve while the pastries are still hot.
ELENATHEWISE/GETTY

Notes and Queries
62 Diversions The long-running series that invites
readers to send in questions and
answers on anything and everything
QUIZ which fruit is said to have CINEMA CONNECT COU N T RY DI A RY

Thomas Eaton 613 seeds? Killian Fox L A X E Y B AY
What links: Isle of Man
9 1 (193); 2 (26); 3 (59); 4
O
1 During the second world (189); 5 (163); 6 (232); 7 (n/a)? Name the films and the female actor n the east coast of the Isle
war, what were stored at 10 Gene Autry; Sister Luc who connects them. of Man there exists an
Manod slate mine in Wales? Gabriel; Allan Smethurst? extraordinary little bay
2 Whose house was named 11 Big Brother; Great British that supports a wealth
after a woman called Bake Off; Men Behaving of wildlife. Today, flowering thrift
Grace Toof? Badly; Neighbours; bobs among the breeding gulls and a
3 Which dance arrived in University Challenge? gannet plunges in the bay, gathering
Britain around 1812? 12 Elephantine; Gezira; food for a chick that is, almost
4 What were clinker or Kitchener; Philae; Sai? unbelievably, in Scotland. I have
carvel built? 13 Tyson; Douglas; seen 99 different species of bird
5 Which country was run Holyfield; Bowe; Lewis; here; eiders now breed, joining black
by a junta known as the Usyk? guillemots, choughs, oystercatchers
Derg? 14 Aglaia, Euphrosyne and and peregrines. We have nesting
6 “Life is short. Have an Thalia; Cunard, Port of gulls that winter in Africa, replaced
affair” is the motto of Liverpool and Royal Liver? each year by a pod of bottlenosed
which website? 15 Blythburgh, dolphins that migrate up from
7 Pele’s hair and Pele’s Suffolk; Dallas; Los Wales. Under the waves, an eelgrass
tears are made from what? Angeles; Hyannis Port, meadow is recovering after bottom
8 In religious tradition, Massachusetts? trawling was banned in 2009. The
sandy bottom is home to spectacular
PUZZLES PRETTINESS to make small-spotted cat sharks as well
TOUCAN. 4 Shake It TAMBOURINE.
PINSETTERS. 3 For the Birds ROBIN,
Chris Maslanka another word. 1 Wordpool c. 2 Jumblies PERSISTENT, as the venerable ocean quahog, a
type of edible clam that can live to
all star Penélope Cruz. Puzzles
All About My Mother and The Counselor
3 For the Birds Bobby; Teddy. Cinema Connect Ferrari, 500 years old and is one of the rarer
1 Wordpool Find two birds in Kennedy brothers: Joseph Jr; John;
Liverpool. 15 Death locations of the
species in all Britain and Ireland.
Find the correct definition: CONURBATION. in Greek myth; buildings on Pier Head, Laxey Bay was designated a strict
GANOSIS Use each letter only once boxing champions. 14 Three Graces: marine nature reserve in 2018,
a) infestation by gannets and once only. forming part of the Isle of Man’s
Nile. 13 Undisputed world heavyweight
BBC to 5; ITV to BBC. 12 Islands on the
b) limping channels: 4 to 5; BBC to 4; ITV to BBC; commitment to protect 30% of our
c) reduction in shine of 4 Shake It seas by 2030. Few of those paddling
Nun; Postman. 11 TV shows that moved
motorways. 10 The Singing … : Cowboy;
marble Name an instrument 8 Pomegranate. 9 Lengths in miles of UK its cold waters will be aware that
d) persuasion by tricks containing the vowels 6 Ashley Madison. 7 Lava (cooled).
3 Waltz. 4 Boat hulls. 5 Ethiopia.
they are actually in a nature reserve
A, E, I, O and U each once Gallery. 2 Elvis Presley (Graceland). – they don’t usually come with
2 Jumblies and once only. Quiz 1 Artworks from the National ice-cream shops. For a marine area
Rearrange the letters of to be officially “protected” is no
Answers
© CMM2024
guarantee that it is safe from harm;
CHESS Armenian-American Sam in the sense that it has but here the designation works.
By Jonathan Speelman Sevian and Bogdan-Daniel no close living cousins. Sadly, just a stone’s throw from
Deac from Romania on 5. Their chess too is where the children swim is a never-
Apparently, together somewhat singular with a ending flow of raw sewage. Not even
As we’ve been submerged with Greek and Albanian, tendency towards cussed filtered, it is the shame of our island.
under an inundation of Armenian is considered provocation that chimes Adding insult to injury, there is not
football, the top chess one of three “isolated” with some of my own just one poo pipe but two. Many a
action has been in Jermuk Indo-European languages play. I enjoyed watching, summer’s day at the idyllic Garwick
in Armenia. Sevian v Martirosyan, Jermuk 2024. especially this win by a cove is spoilt by an orange frothy
This 10-player all-play- White played 32 gxf6 hoping to member of the diaspora scum lapping the shore. Politicians
all featured five Armenians support the pawn with his king who was one of the first pledged to stop the flow when
and five foreigners. It and ready to meet 32 ... Rf8 with youngest grandmasters I was a child, yet three decades later
33 Rxe4. Can you see the brilliant
was dominated by young move that dashed his hopes? against the highest rated this criminality continues. When
Indian star Arjun Erigaisi, of the five homegrown will we give the natural world the
who won with a round to 8 Armenians. Observer respect it deserves? David Bellamy
spare, and together with a 7 Leonard Barden will return
stellar result earlier in the 6 next week
French team championship 5
has gained 17.1 rating White resigned.
4 Re4 47 Kf3 Re7 48 Rd6 Rd2 And
points to move up to 4th in
3
44 Kf2 Ke6 45 f7+ Kxf7 46 Rxc6
the live ratings, according 41 Kf3 Re7 42 Re1 d4 43 f6 Re3+
to 2700chess.com. He 2 38 f7+ Kd7 39 Ra1 Ra2! 40 Rc1 Rxf7
finished on 6.5/9 ahead of 1 35 Rg1 Rf8 36 Rg6 Rc2+ 37 Kg3 e2
32...h5+!! 33 Kh3 Rxc3+ 34 Kh2 e3
Amin Tabatabaei (Iran), the a b c d e f g h
ILLUSTRATION: CLIFFORD HARPER

63
1 2 3 4 5 6
Quick crossword
7 8 No 16,885
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
9 10 11 8
9 10
12 13 14
11 12
All solutions published next week

15 16 17 13
14 15 16
18 19 20 17
18 19 20
21 22 23 21
22 23
24 25
24
The Weekly cryptic By Brockwell Across 13 Tired (8)

1 Cinders’ lost property (5,7) 16 Kneading and stretching
No 29,412 9 Salutation (5) Japanese therapy (7)
10 Ox (7) 17 Black eye – light? (6)
11 Cloudy darkness (4) 19 Snug and elegant – chic (5)
Across 17 Rules written up claiming pole dancing is PC
12 Rebel (8) 21 __ pickle, herby cucumber (4)
7 Moralist turning up in front of train wreck (7) in Australia (8)
14 ‘And ...?’ (2,4)
8 Singer’s entertaining dad dancing in 19 Soldier provided that answer for political
15 A hound (6)
Somerset village (7) movement (6)
18 Trashy (8)
9 Start of silly season for Rishi? (4) 20 See 6
20 Swallow drop? (4)
10 Wrecked boat at sea captured by 21 Jack embracing Zulu king (4)
22 Temporary stay (7) Solution No 16,879
revolutionary French artist (9) 23 Greedy singer turns up (4)
12 Might some garden warblers return? (5)
23 First few notes (5) D R I V E R U B O A T S
24 Charged cumulonimbus (12) E S N R Z H
13 No.7 in club team (8)
MO T E T S C O T T I E
15 Supplies side-splitting joke (4) Down U H E M W E K
16 Fellows invested in Spanish couple’s tips (5) 2 Uncultured (7) R E MO R S E N A C R E
17 One Republican in US showing a bit of flex (4) 3 Portree’s Scottish isle (4) E U L I L
18 Mike goes inside to make a meal for PM (5,3) 4 Placate (6) S P I E L B E R G
20 Spooner’s subdued fish (5) S M A I K
5 Damned (8) WH O O P R E V E N G E
21 Four contrary aliens welcoming a 6 Paler (anag.) (5) I U L A I S N
conversation (4-1-4) 7 John Braine novel – attic? F O N D A N T N E E D Y
22 OXO rejected fine (4) (4,2,3,3) T C N Y N A
24 What Jack Sprat’s wife did on counter holding 8 Science kit for kids (9,3) S W E A T Y F L A G O N
fine cloth (7)
25 Staggering tax rise for comic character (7)
Solution No 29,406
Sudoku
Down R S F R H Y B T Medium
1 Department of Justice usually recruits awful O N T H E M E N U A A R G H Fill in the grid so
leaders (4) T R L C M R E I that every row,
2 Discharged current of gas (8)
T W I G L O O B A D N E S S every column
3 Masons arranged for someone to do the heavy
E D A I U S Z I and every 3x3
lifting (6)
N O E L F L I G H T L E S S box contains the
4 American Dad! winning animated Oscar
T N F E I S numbers 1 to 9.
generates media events (5,3)
O U T L O U D A L C O P O P
5 Proverbs in modern times? (6) Last week’s solution
T R B K E I
6/20 He crashed out before the end of race –
H E L I C O P T E R S T U N
that’s bad luck! (4,6)
11 Maybe attaché provides a clue for B.O.? (9) E A R I R O E A
12 Group accepting the ending of Parklife is C A R R Y O N R O S T R A L
more offensive (5) O Y I U A C S T
14 The German boy exhausted in race (5) R U N I N P E N S A C O L A
16 Test card broadcast from Mars? (8) E X G S T R N P

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Guardian Weekly - 28 June 2024

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A week in the life of the world | Global edition PLUS

Join the community On the cover

Gunmen who targeted

report religious buildings killed

The Guardian Weekly 28 June 2024

Ancient Maya vase bought

28 June 2024 The Guardian Weekly

Excluding women from

High court overturns law

The Guardian Weekly 28 June 2024

15 SAUDI ARABIA 17 ISRAEL 19 RUSSIA/VIETNAM D E AT H S

Intense phase of Gaza war Putin agrees to strengthen

28 June 2024 The Guardian Weekly

ELECTION 2024 WILDLIFE

Tories denounce Farage’s Wildcat kittens born in

The Guardian Weekly 28 June 2024

SCIENCE AND PA L A E O N T O L O G Y ▼ An artist’s specialised immune cells could see

28 June 2024 The Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly 28 June 2024

policy programme at the Carnegie

28 June 2024 The Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly 28 June 2024

What has changed since Putin’s

28 June 2024 The Guardian Weekly

the Korean peninsula ground to a halt. Kim shifted tack.

a dual mission Putin is isolated diplomatically, and to a lesser degree

The Guardian Weekly 28 June 2024

enough’ three cars on each driveway as a

In red wall, the edge of the Pennines, was unwel-

Tory support The village, centred around a

is crumbling tive blue surrounded by Labour red.

Poll positions parliamentary party look like? There

total wipeout – 50 MPs – and there would be plenty

facing Tories begun, with Kemi Badenoch, Priti

28 June 2024 The Guardian Weekly

Can left overcome

its bitter rivalries legislative voting.

by Opinionway on Saturday suggested hope for” was essential for progressive

Call for hope

28 June 2024 The Guardian Weekly

border as war looms and-a-half years ago. We met with the

The Guardian Weekly 28 June 2024

Island is and seashells pounded to pieces by the

swamped another reality emerges. The sand

by deluge tics polished into an array of bleached

28 June 2024 The Guardian Weekly

departures amid the pandemic.

The Guardian Weekly 28 June 2024

‘The rocks Kongo said residents demand

28 June 2024 The Guardian Weekly

Road deaths She knows this all too well: in 2019,

rethink over your head,” Boss said. The number of

bike helmets in the past decade, according to an

The Guardian Weekly 28 June 2024

‘moonshine’ ship hand who had been in the United

palm spirit had learned from moonshine distiller-

28 June 2024 The Guardian Weekly

Bugs, drugs and

28 June 2024 The Guardian Weekly