Innholdsfortegnelse for 15 November 2024 i Guardian Weekly

CLIMATE CRISIS 2024 is ‘virtually certain’ to set new heat record It is “virtually certain” that 2024 will be the hottest year on record, the European Union’s space programme has found. A report revealed 2024 is likely to be the first year more than 1.5C hotter than before the Industrial Revolution. Global temperatures for the past 12 months were 1.62C greater than the 1850-1900 average, when humanity started to burn vast volumes of coal, oil and gas, the scientists found. The milestone “should serve as a catalyst to raise ambition” ahead of the Cop29 climate summit, said Dr Samantha Burgess of the Copernicus Climate Change Service. Spotlight Page 22 → MEDICAL RESEARCH Five minutes exercise a day can lower blood pressure Doing just five extra minutes of exercise a day could help…

DURING THE FIRST TRUMP TERM, Richard Moore, then the political director of the UK Foreign Office and now the head of MI6, has admitted that half of Britain’s diplomats woke up each morning dreading what they might read on the president’s Twitter feed. The sheer unpredictability of Trump’s caprice, and his faith in his charisma, made it hard for diplomats to operate. It would often take feverish consultations with Trump’s senior aides, including some in the Pentagon, before a plan – such as a premature withdrawal of 2,500 US troops from Afghanistan – could be finessed. Now, for all the pro forma congratulations, that sense of foreboding is back. Although only 4% of the American electorate said foreign policy was the most important issue to them in the election, for…

JOE BIDEN STOOD beforethe American people, millions of whom were still reeling from the news of Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential race, and reassured them: “We’re going to be OK.” In his first remarks since his vice-president and chosen successor, Kamala Harris, lost the election, Biden delivered a pep talk from the White House Rose Garden that clashed with Democrats’ black mood in the wake of devastating electoral losses. Biden promised a smooth transfer of power and expressed faith in the endurance of the American experiment. “Setbacks are unavoidable, but giving up is unforgivable,” Biden said. “A defeat does not mean we are defeated. We lost this battle. The America of your dreams is calling for you to get back up. That’s the story of America for over 240…

Home to more than 120 shops, a cinema and 34 restaurants, the Bonaire shopping centre had long been known as one of the largest in the Valencia region. After flood waters coursed through the municipality of Aldaia two weeks ago, it began making headlines for another reason: disinformation over the fate of its vast underground car park. Online personalities, including one with more than 10 million followers, along with a prominent TV host and a far-right activist, seized on the fact that rescuers had been unable to enter the car park, falsely claiming it contained hundreds – if not thousands – of bodies. Last week, as the flood waters receded, the claims were roundly discredited by Spanish police and the army, who said the car park had been searched and…

Off the west coast of Greenland, a 17-metre aluminium sailing boat creeps through a narrow, rocky fjord in the Arctic twilight. The research team onboard, still bleary-eyed from the rough nine day passage across the Labrador Sea, lower nets to collect plankton. This is the first time anyone has sequenced the DNA of the tiny marine creatures that live here. Watching the nets with palpable excitement is Prof Leonid Moroz, a neuroscientist at the University of Florida’s Whitney marine lab. “This is what the world looked like when life began,” he told his friend Peter Molnar, the expedition leader with whom he co-founded the Ocean Genome Atlas Project (Ogap). Moroz gestures toward Greenland’s glaciated valleys. The rapid warming here is replicating conditions from 600m years ago, when complex life forms…

Are you ready for Trump unbound? You may have thought the former and future president was already pretty unrestrained, not least because Donald Trump has never shown anything but brazen disrespect for boundaries or limits of any kind. And you would be right. But, as Ronald Reagan, an earlier entertainer turned president, liked to say: you ain’t seen nothing yet. That’s because the 47th president will enter the Oval Office free of almost all constraints. He will be able to do all that he promised and all that he threatened, with almost nothing and no one to stand in his way. To understand why, it pays to start with the nature of the win he secured last week. He did not eke out a narrow victory on points, as he…

WRITE TO US Letters for publication weekly.letters@theguardian.com Please include a full postal address and a reference to the article. We may edit letters. Submission and publication of all letters is subject to our terms and conditions, see: THEGUARDIAN.COM/LETTERS-TERMS Editorial Editor: Graham Snowdon Guardian Weekly, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU, UK To contact the editor directly: editorial.feedback@theguardian.com Corrections Our policy is to correct significant errors as soon as possible. Please write to guardian.readers@theguardian.com or the readers’ editor, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU, UK A history lesson in the US constitution’s shortfall The founding fathers built an imperfect system that, with lurches and stumbles, has survived since the US constitution was written in 1787. Many of the decisions made were based on compromise, and the electoral college…

Blood Over Bright Haven By ML Wang This powerful and engaging novel by a formerly self-published author bears comparison to groundbreaking works by Ursula K Le Guin: it features a fascinating magical system and explores social and moral issues affecting the real world. After years of hard work, Sciona achieves her goal, becoming the first woman admitted as a highmage at the University of Magics and Industry, but she’s shunned and mocked by her male colleagues. Instead of a qualified lab assistant, she must make do with Tommy the janitor, a refugee from the barren lands beyond the city walls. But as the two outsiders learn to work together, they discover a dark secret at the heart of the magic powering the city, and must make a dangerous, life-changing decision.…

Prep 20 min Cook 1 hr 10 min Makes 10 Ingredients 2 tbsp sunflower oil2 large onions, peeled and thinly sliced (360g)1½ tsp hot curry powder (or mild, if you prefer)⅛ tsp chilli flakes (optional)Salt20g unsalted butter150g baby spinach50g sun-dried tomatoes, drained and finely chopped20g desiccated coconut20g coriander leaves and tender stems, roughly chopped200g low-moisture mozzarella, coarsely grated2 tbsp plain flour2 sheets 325g ready-rolled shortcrust pastry1 egg yolk, whiskedNigella seeds, to garnish (optional) If you like, serve these with a herby dip, lemony tahini or plain yoghurt. Method Put the oil, onions, curry powder, chilli flakes (if using) and two-thirds of a teaspoon of salt in a medium saucepan and put it on a medium-high heat. Cook, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes, until the onions are lightly caramelised, then add…

England’s success in senior events has been outstanding in recent years, but there are indications that the golden era, which was already challenged by US over-50 team victories in 2023 and 2024, may be undermined further by individuals and teams from eastern Europe. At the European individual 65+ championship in Lignano Sabbiadoro, on the Adriatic coast in northern Italy, the holder, GM John Nunn, was the strong favourite, but finished only sixth with 6.5/9. He was unbeaten, and his fourth-round win was in his vintage attacking style, but a run of four successive draws spoilt his chances. England’s FM Terry Chapman was the silver medallist in the 2022 European 65+ event. That success gave him an international master norm, and he almost made his second norm in Lignano Sabbiadoro, but…

A DOZEN YEARS AGO – an eternity in American politics – the Republican party was reeling from its fourth presidential election loss in six tries and decided that it needed to be a lot kinder to the people whose votes it was courting. No more demonising of migrants, the party resolved – it was time for comprehensive immigration reform. No more demeaning language that turned off women and minorities – it needed more of them to run for office. “We need to campaign among Hispanic, black, Asian and gay Americans and demonstrate we care about them too,” the party asserted in a famously self-flagellating autopsy after Barack Obama’s re-election as president in 2012. Even Dick Armey, a veteran Texas conservative, told the authors of the report: “You can’t call someone…

AS DONALD TRUMP WATCHED election results roll in from a party at his Mar-a-Lago compound, Elon Musk sat arm’s length away, basking in the impending victory he had helped secure. In less than five months, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO had gone from not endorsing a candidate to becoming a fixture of the presidentelect’s inner circle. “The future is gonna be so ” Musk posted to his social media platform, X, just after midnight, along with a photo of himself leaning over to talk with Trump at the Mar-a-Lago dinner. Musk’s place at the head table was the result of months of political efforts by the world’s richest man, and an injection of at least $130m of his own money. Musk campaigned for Trump both online and offline, funded advertising…

IN AUTUMN 2003, about six months after Britain invaded Iraq, Paul Mace had a thought: what if we put poppies on football shirts? He was then executive director of Leicester City, who were competing in the top tier of English football. Mace had always felt strongly about the annual poppy appeal – his father had served in the second world war – and this, he hoped, would bring it to another level. After securing permission from the Premier League, Mace had to find someone to design and manufacture an embroidered poppy patch for the shirts. Poppies in the UK are supplied by a charity, the Royal British Legion (RBL), to raise funds for ex-service personnel in need, but since the RBL didn’t produce patches, Mace arranged to auction the shirts…

There is an oddly entertaining, if largely unenlightening, debate available online between Richard Dawkins and Jordan Peterson, two big beasts of the performing sage circuit. They discuss the Bible, or more specifically, Peterson’s latest study of its contents in his new book, We Who Wrestle With God. Dawkins, looking increasingly bemused, quietly but repeatedly asks Peterson if he really believes in the virgin birth or whether Cain and Abel actually existed, and Canada’s best-known controversial psychologist responds with a series of ever more excitable exegeses of the biblical text. On one side, a dogged scientific literalism, and on the other, allegorical grappling with transcendence. The viewer feels something like a tender sympathy towards the puppyishly enthused Peterson, whose arm-waving rapture is entirely lost on the celebrated biologist. But that sympathy…

I recently became deaf as a result of meningitis. I’ve got the cochlear implant and I’m doing therapy to hear well again. I was already very shy and insecure, and, though I’ve managed to get on with my life, I now feel even more insecure and a little bit of ashamed of my condition. I am constantly asking people to repeat themselves or write down whatever they’ve said so I can understand. How can I feel more confident about this new aspect of my life? I’m not going to offer platitudes such as “you have nothing to be ashamed of” because, although you very much don’t, me telling you different would just be very dismissive of your emotions. People often don’t want to let you explore those sorts of feelings,…

1 Which comedy character’s look was modelled on 60s singer Peter Asher? 2 John Wheeler coined what term for an intergalactic shortcut? 3 The earliest firearms used what plant as a barrel? 4 Which North American province contains the names of two dogs? 5 Which monarch is the son of Antoinette Gardiner? 6 Which extinct marine creature had a name meaning “three lobes”? 7 What is the busiest UK railway station outside of London? What links: 8 Lady Marmalade; Michelle; Psycho Killer; Sunday Girl? 9 Head; three-quarters; kit-cat; bishop’s half-length; whole-length? 10 Clipper in Greenwich; flat bonnet; Salinger bestseller; Steinbeck novella? 11 Novak Djokovic (twice); Robin Söderling; Alexander Zverev? 12 Central Park, NY; Victoria Embankment, London; Place de la Concorde, Paris? 13 Tom Byrne and James Murray; Rufus Sewell; Michael…

THE 45TH AND 47TH commander-in-chief will face fewer limits on his ambition when he is sworn in again in January. Donald Trump returns as the head of a Republican party remade in his image over the past decade and as the architect of a right-leaning judiciary that helped eliminate his legal perils. Second time around, he has allies across Washington ready to enforce his will. Kurt Bardella, a Democratic strategist and former Republican congressional aide, said: “What we’re going to have is an imperial presidency. This is going to be probably the most powerful presidency in terms of centralising power and wielding power that we’ve had probably since FDR [Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was president from 1933 until his death in 1945].” Trump won big in last week’s presidential election…

He was written off as a drag on the presidential ticket, mocked by political opponents as “weird”, falsely rumoured to have had sex with a couch and pilloried as a misogynist for describing women without children as “childless cat ladies”. Now JD Vance – the butt of a spate of Democratic and liberal jokes – has turned the tables on his detractors. Donald Trump’s emphatic election triumph will put the 40-year-old Ohio senator just a heartbeat away from the presidency, as he serves under a chief executive who is 78 and has been the target of two failed assassination attempts. It is a dizzying rise for a man who was elected to the Senate two years ago and now finds himself about to become the third-youngest person in US history…

The chief executive of Cop29 has been filmed apparently agreeing to facilitate fossil fuel deals at the summit. The recording has amplified calls by campaigners who want the fossil fuel industry and its lobbyists to be banned from future Cop talks. Campaign group Global Witness posed undercover as a fake oil and gas group asking for deals to be facilitated in exchange for sponsoring the event. In the calls, Elnur Soltanov, Azerbaijan’s deputy energy minister and chief executive of Cop29, agreed to this and spoke of a future that includes fossil fuels “perhaps for ever”. Cop officials also introduced the fake investor to a senior executive at the national oil and gas company Socar to discuss investment opportunities. Soltanov told the fake investment group: “I would be happy to create a…

This is an exceptionally bleak and frightening moment for the United States and the world. Donald Trump swept the electoral college and the popular vote – giving him not merely a victory, but a mandate. If many voters gambled on him in 2016, they doubled down this time. Presented with a choice between electing the first black, female president on a promise of a sunnier future, and a racist, misogynist, twice-impeached convicted felon hawking hatred and retribution, they picked Mr Trump. The stark divide between two Americas persists. But polls did not predict the scale of this victory. Only one president has previously won two non-consecutive terms. In 2021, Mr Trump seemed briefly to have lost his own party. Now he has increased his vote share across the country and…

ART The Great Mughals V&A, London This exhibition wafts you to the paradise that Shah Jahan, fifth of the Muslim emperors of much of modern India and Pakistan, wanted to create on Earth. A floor-covering decorated with red poppies, a stone panel with myriad water spouts and a stone jali screen help to fill in for his masterpiece, which for obvious reasons can’t be here: the Taj Mahal. It is shown on a screen above the portable delights. It may be familiar but this piece of architectural heaven captivatingly distils the extraordinary civilisation a warlike dynasty bequeathed to the world. The original founder of Mughal power led his armies from Kabul into northern India. When this first empire collapsed it was resurrected by Akbar, first of the exhibition’s “great” Mughal…

You’re diagnosed with terminal cancer at the age of 46. How do you react? In all likelihood with rage, grief and self-pity, especially if, like Simon Boas, you were told it was only acid reflux. You love your wife, you have a great job, you’re addicted to cheese fondue and muscadet, and death will take all that away. A night-mare, it seems, but Boas tells us how insanely contented he feels and “how lucky it is to have lived at all”. His book began as a trio of articles written for the Jersey Evening Post: he moved to the island (“one of the most caring, safe and close-knit communities in the world”) to be its director of overseas aid. As the tumours spread, along with his readership, he continued to…

1 Write (1 + √7)7 in the form a + b√7. 2 Wordpool Find the correct definition: MACROPODINE a) bigfoot b) of, or relating to, kangaroos or wallabies c) poem with long feet d) slug or snail 3 E Pluribus Unum Rearrange LASER TORCH to make a single word. 4 Words Without End What 5-letter word may be added to these beginnings, making a word? B —; CL —; H —; D —; M —; R —; STR —; The first three rhyme, the last four rhyme; but none of the first three rhyme with any of the last four. © CMM2024 Maslanka 1 Igot4264+ 1624√7. Did you? 2 b). 3 ORCHESTRAL. 4 ANGER.…