Guardian Weekly 7th January 2022

Along the line of fire A Yamabushi mountain priest walks barefoot over hot burnt logs during a Fudo honour festival in Tambasasayama, Japan. Traditionally, chants and prayers are said during the ceremony – for which the hermit has prepared physically and mentally – asking for good health and happiness in the new year. The Guardian Weekly Founded in Manchester, England 4 July 1919 Guardian Weekly is an edited selection of some of the best journalism found in the Guardian and Observer newspapers in the UK and the Guardian’s digital editions in the UK, US and Australia. The weekly magazine has an international focus and three editions: global, Australia and North America. The Guardian was founded in 1821, and Guardian Weekly in 1919. We exist to hold power to account in the name of the…

Buried in the 10 January 2020 edition of Guardian Weekly was a small but significant story. “Respiratory contagion is not Sars, authorities say” was the headline on a short global report, at the foot of page 7, about a mysterious infection in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. Two years on, it’s fair to say we now know a little more than we did about that mysterious illness. But the broader context of the pandemic can still be tricky to understand. This week, the Guardian’s data and visuals teams have collaborated to produce some beautiful graphics and analysis, revealing the pandemic’s global impact in a new light. Then, our China affairs correspondent, Vincent Ni, explores why, after two years, the search for Covid’s origins remains shrouded in politics and confusion. The big…

1 US/CANADA Trump return threatens US democracy, warns expert The US could be under a rightwing dictatorship by 2030, a Canadian political science professor has warned, urging his country to protect itself against the “collapse of American democracy”. As in all fascist movements, contemporary forces have found a popular leader unconstrained by the rules of democracy, this time in the figure of Donald Trump. “We mustn’t dismiss these possibilities just because they seem ludicrous or too horrible,” Thomas Homer-Dixon, founding director of the Cascade Institute at Royal Roads University in British Columbia, wrote in the Globe and Mail. “In 2014, the suggestion that Donald Trump would become president would also have struck nearly everyone as absurd. But today we live in a world where the absurd regularly becomes real and the horrible commonplace.” His message…

Richard Leakey Kenyan conservationist and fossil hunter whose groundbreaking discoveries helped prove that humankind evolved in Africa. He died on 2 January, aged 77. John Madden NFLcoach turned sportscaster. He died on 28 December, aged 85. Edward O Wilson US naturalist known to some as the “modern-day Darwin”. He died on 26 December, aged 92. Betty White Veteran American actor and star of hit TV comedy The Golden Girls. She died on 31 December, aged 99. Harry Reid Democratic senator of Nevada who shepherded Obamacare on its passage into law. He died on 28 December, aged 82. Jean-Marc Vallée Canadian film director who made The Dallas Buyers Club and the TV series Big Little Lies. He died on 26 December, aged 58.…

ARCHAEOLOGY CT scans digitally ‘unwrap’ remains of young pharaoh With his narrow chin, small nose and curly hair, he resembles his father, said Sahar Saleem, a radiologist. Perhaps surprisingly for someone who lived 3,500 years ago, he also has strikingly good teeth. Saleem, a professor at Cairo University, is part of a team that digitally unwrapped the mummified body of the pharaoh Amenhotep I. The results, using 3D computed tomography (CT) scan s, provide details about his appearance and the lavishness of the jewellery he was buried with after his death, thought to be around 1504BC. “Amenhotep I was approximately 35 years old when he died,” Saleem said. “He was approximately 169cm tall, circumcised, and had good teeth. Within his wrappings, he wore 30 amulets and a unique golden girdle with gold beads.” BIOLOGY Nits deposit…

COVID-19 Omicron is likely to start waning, says disease expert Prof Neil Ferguson, the scientist who helped shape Britain’s coronavirus lockdown strategy, said he was “cautiously optimistic” that Omicron infections had plateaued in London and could fall soon. Ferguson, a mathematical epidemiologist from Imperial College London, cautioned that reports of record cases numbers were likely to be an underestimate because test supplies had run out in some areas. He also said that, despite a recent doubling in Covid hospital admissions, vaccinations were proving effective at preventing severe disease. Several NHS trusts across England have declared “critical incidents” because of soaring staff absences caused by the pandemic. Boris Johnson on Monday ruled out the introduction of new curbs “for now” but said he recognised that the pressure on the NHS was “going to be considerable…