Table of contents for 30 May 2025 in Guardian Weekly

Beast’s burden A livestock vendor walks with his camel at a livestock market on the outskirts of Karachi. The market, Pakistan’s largest, is busy ahead of the Eid al-Adha festival, which begins on 6 June and involves the killing of a sheep, goat or sometimes a camel, to symbolise the willingness of prophet Abraham to sacrifice his son. The Guardian Weekly Founded in Manchester, England 4 July 1919 Vol212 | Issue№ 22 Guardian Weekly is an edited selection of some of the best journalism found in the Guardian’s digital editions in the UK, US and Australia, and the Guardian newspaper in the UK. The weekly magazine has an international focus and four editions: global, Europe, Australia and North America. The Guardian was founded in 1821, and Guardian Weekly in 1919.…

Giorgi Bachiashvili is on the run. The urbane 39-year-old slipped a surveillance team two months ago to flee his home in Tbilisi, Georgia, midway through a trial at which he was destined to be sentenced to 11 years in jail. An Interpol red notice has been requested by the Georgian authorities asking law enforcement to find and arrest him over a $42m crime. He further claims to have been informed by the intelligence services of two countries that there is a plot to kill him. “Groups from the northern Caucasus, most likely Chechens,” he said. For more than a decade, Bachiashvili worked for Bidzina Ivanishvili, the reclusive billionaire who as the honorary chair of the Georgian Dream party is widely regarded as Georgia’s de facto leader, ruling from a hilltop…

The naturalist and broad-caster Chris Packham has condemned British super-markets for a “dereliction of duty” over food labelling and sourcing, as a joint investigation by the Guardian and environmental website DeSmog reveals the retailers are selling fish from farms that import large quantities of fishmeal from Africa. Factories in Senegal grind down small fish into meal that is sold to fish farms in Turkey, fuelling unemployment and food insecurity in Senegal by draining it of a food source relied on by local people – a cycle that connects directly to consumers. By examining trade data and shipping records and combining this with on-the-ground reporting in three countries, the investigation found Turkish-farmed sea bass and sea bream was being fed on fishmeal exported from three factories in Senegal: Omega Fishing and…

More than 100 years ago, a ship dropped anchor in the frigid fjords of New Zealand’s South Island and released 10 nervous moose on to the shore. The crew watched as the animals – the last survivors of a long voyage from Saskatchewan, Canada – skittered out of their crates and up into the dense, lonely rainforest. The moose had arrived on a flight of fancy, as part of the then premier’s grand vision to turn Fiordland national park into a hunters’ paradise. It was the second attempt to release moose into the region – in a country whose only native land-based mammals are bats – after nearly all of an earlier herd died crossing the seas. Red deer and wapiti, or elk, were also released around the same time…

The Oval Office was crowded, with reporters cautioned not to collide with the Resolute Desk. Standing beside them, dressed in black, was Elon Musk, billionaire ally of Donald Trump and head of his government efficiency drive. “Elon is from South Africa – I don’t want to get Elon involved,” the US president told his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, during a discussion about crime against white farmers. “He actually came here on a different subject: sending rockets to Mars. He likes that better.” Musk’s silence during the fraught hour-long meeting was a small but telling reminder of his shift in Trump’s orbit. He remains close to the president and welcome in the West Wing. He also paid a second visit to the Pentagon last week. But a relationship many forecast…

She is always listening. She is unfailingly polite. She is often obtuse. She is sometimes helpful. She frequently frustrates. She isn’t great with bashment artists. Or grime. Or drum’n’bass. She needs to be spoken to slowly and clearly, as you’d talk to an aged relative with diminished faculties. She doesn’t like French accents. ‘“Alexa, how long do wasps live for?” “Alexa, how long do wasps live if you hit them with a tea towel and then a saucepan?” In September 2016, a new presence appears in our house, squatting on the kitchen counter between the kettle and the coffee machine. It is blandly futuristic, a minimal cylinder with an LED ring that glows blue to alert us to the fact that it is ready, poised to answer our questions or…

Amid all the acrimony surrounding Keir Starmer’s recent remarks on immigration – a row that could follow him into retirement and beyond – there has been one little-examined area of agreement between the prime minister and his critics. “When people come to our country,” Starmer said, “they should also commit to integration.” You may believe that integration is not best achieved by government decree, yet in conversations about what sort of society Britain should be, it has long been generally accepted that integration is a good thing – not just for immigrants but for everyone. Mixing, empathising and collaborating with people who aren’t like you has benefits, the argument goes, for individuals and the country as a whole. Perspectives are broadened. Inequalities are softened, at least a little. Lives are…

What’s the best loaf to bake for sandwiches, and any filling ideas? “I’m biased, but soft and squishy sourdough makes the best sandwiches,” says Martha de Lacey, sourdough teacher and writer. “The flavour is so much more complex and exciting than anything else, and the crumb can have a slight moistness to it, which really contributes to the mouthwatering lushness you want in a sandwich.” That’s not to say sourdough doesn’t come without some provisos, mind. First, you want a loaf that’s been baked that same day, with a tender crumb and a thin, crisp crust that “isn’t too teeth-pullingly chewy”. As is often the case, success comes down to the quality of your ingredients: “Use really good flours, not just supermarket basics,” says De Lacey, who favours an 80:20…

✱ All solutions published next week Across 1 Obtained tea using sneaky trick (6) 5 Ladies maybe into uncouth sort? It’s very revealing (3,3) 8 Obvious hiding place for one sick individual (7) 9 Strengthen couple in the lead (5,2) 11 Bureau run by substantial type suited to command? (7,8) 12 Consider cycling to find birds (4) 13 Mad family is an accident waiting to happen (6,4) 17 Attending twice with some soothing words (5,5) 18 Wound from cleaning out septic abductor (4) 20 Hate one minister whipped up delivering such motivational guff? (6,2,1,2,4) 23 Complex mix seen as source of rigid compilers’ code (7) 24 Audacity works to build careers (7) 25 Announces data about Europe (6) 26 Defeated and cut (3,3) Down 2 Flat perhaps with no air…

1 GERMANY Western allies scrap range limits on arms sent to Kyiv The chancellor said that Germany, along with Ukraine’s other main western supporters, will remove range restrictions on weapons delivered to Kyiv for the first time. Friedrich Merz said Germany, Britain, France and the US had lifted the restrictions to enable Ukraine to be better able to hit military targets on Russian territory. “With very few exceptions, it didn’t do that until recently,” he said on Monday, following Russia’s largest drone attack on Ukraine to date. The Kremlin described the decision as “dangerous”. Merz, who has been in power for less than a month, would not be drawn on whether Germany was preparing to send its long-range Taurus missiles to Kyiv. There is speculation in Berlin he may be on…

ON THE STREETS OF GAZA CITY last week, there were two sounds that never ceased, day or night. In the west, the Mediterranean breakers crashed on the rubbish-strewn shore-line. In the east, the shells, missiles and rockets exploded with dull thuds and occasional ear-splitting cracks. At least 100,000 people have come to Gaza City, once the bustling commercial and cultural hub of the Palestinian territory. All are fleeing the new offensive – dubbed Gideon’s Chariots – recently launched by Israel into the ruined towns and neighbourhoods of northern Gaza. The blasts that the newly displaced can hear, as they crowd into makeshift shelters and hastily constructed encampments, or simply set up their tents or tarpaulins on the pock-marked pavements, sometimes come during direct clashes between Israeli troops and Hamas, though…

Moscow launched three consecutive nights of massive drone strikes against Ukraine, as Donald Trump broke his silence to suggest the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, had “gone crazy”. Overnight on Monday, Russia fired a record 355 Shahed drones as well as nine cruise missiles, in an escalating drone campaign targeting Ukraine’s cities and communities, with Ukraine’s air force spokesperson, Yuriy Ignat, confirming it was the largest drone attack since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. The previous day, Volodymyr Zelenskyy had condemned “the silence of America” over the escalating intensity of the airstrikes. But on Monday, Trump railed against Putin, saying he had “gone absolutely CRAZY”; he also criticised Zelenskyy, for calling out US inaction against Russia. “Something has happened to [Putin]. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” Trump said…

Many South Africans have praised their president, Cyril Ramaphosa, for staying calm when Donald Trump ambushed him in the Oval Office with a video purporting to back up his false claims of a “genocide” against white Afrikaner farmers. Others asked why Ramaphosa, who brought ministers, golfers and a billionaire with him, chose to walk into what he knew was likely to be a trap. Before the televised encounter, US-South Africa relations were at a nadir. In February, Trump signed an executive order cutting aid to South Africa, accusing it of “unjust racial discrimination” against Afrikaners, who ruled the country during the apartheid era that repressed the non-white majority. The order set up a programme to bring Afrikaners to the US as refugees, with the first group arriving earlier this month,…

Some say that the late tech tycoon Mike Lynch’s super-yacht, Bayesian, sank because it was vulnerable to high winds that drove the vessel past its point of stability. Others insist that a chain of human errors led to the incident that claimed seven lives, including Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah. But in the quiet Sicilian fishing village of Porticello – where on 19 August 2024 the Bayesian was caught shortly before dawn in a violent storm while anchored off coast – everyone knows the truth lies 50 metres below the surface, in the wreckage of a yacht that divers, floating cranes and underwater drones are still struggling to bring back from the depths of the ocean. ‘‘Until then, before the vessel is brought back to the surface and examined…

In the lush foothills of Damyang county, rows of earthenware jars stood under the Korean sky. Inside each vessel, a transformation was taking place. This is the domain of Ki Soon-do, South Korea’s sole grand master of traditional aged soy sauce, where patience isn’t just a virtue but an essential ingredient. “Here, try this,” Ki sa id, removing the heavy lid from one of the 1,200 pots. She dipped a ladle into the dark liquid, releasing a complex aroma. “Smell it first, then taste just a droplet.” The flavour unfolded slowly, first salty, then deeply savoury, with hints of something almost floral. “Korean traditional soy sauce needs three things: soybeans, water and salt,” Ki explained. “And care and time. Without time, there is no flavour. In modern life, everyone is…

The decision by King Charles to formally open Canada’s parliament on Tuesday reflects his role as a “stead-fast defender” of the country amid threats to its sovereignty, says prime minister Mark Carney. But Indigenous leaders say the rare visit is also a reminder that Canada’s founding relationship between the monarchy and the country’s first peoples cannot ever be “forgotten or displaced or broken”. Charles, Canada’s head of state, arrived in Ottawa on Monday to open Canada’s 45th parliament by giving the speech from the throne in the senate. The last time a monarch opened a new parliament was in 1957, when Queen Elizabeth II gave the throne speech. Carney’s invitation to Charles comes against the backdrop of Donald Trump’s threats that the US should annex Canada and make it the…

Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin enjoyed a friendly phone chat earlier this month, marking the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat. The Israeli and Russian leaders have much in common. Both claim to be still heroically battling Nazis, in Gaza and Ukraine respectively. This fiction is used to justify the murder of civilians, spiralling troop casualties and huge economic and reputational costs. Maybe it helps them sleep at night. Bibi and Vlad: the world’s most wanted men – and possibly the most despised. Overseeing the random killing and traumatising of thousands of children is one of many shared behaviours. These two authoritarian “strongmen” have each plunged their countries into global pariahdom and moral purdah. Conflict keeps them in power. They milk patriotic sentiment to cow domestic opponents and vilify foreign…

If Donald Trump really wants to save Hollywood, maybe he needs to venture outside his comfort zone and watch more European art house cinema. The Cannes film festival, which closed last Saturday, is in many ways the very definition of the “globalism” that the American president’s Maga movement despises. The Marché du Film, where industry professionals strike their deals, was brimming with smart people from all over the world beckoning US producers with irresistible tax incentives – resulting in the kind of movies “produced in foreign lands” that the US president has proposed punishing with 100% tariffs. But then in a screening room, that distinction was not so clear. In French director Amélie Bonnin’s opening film Partir un Jour, celebrity chef Cécile is preparing to open her new haute cuisine…

After 46 days, the online freestyle chess match between the Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen and 143,000 enthusiasts from around the globe ended in a surprise draw. There was, however, a major consolation for Carlsen as he smashed the record for facing the most opponents in an online chess match. The game, billed as Magnus Carlsen v The World, began on Chess.com on 4 April, with the former world champion and highest-rated player in history regarded as a significant favourite. After he played his first move, Team World then voted on a reply, with each side then having 24 hours to make their next move. Despite appearing to have the early initiative against Team World, Carlsen was unable to find a way to further improve his position. The match ended after…

BENEFITS PM ‘may give details of winter fuel U-turn in June’ Keir Starmer could set out more details of the winter fuel allowance U-turn at the spending review next month, Angela Rayner has suggested. However, the deputy prime minister said she could not guarantee the benefit, a one-off payment of up to £300 ($406), would be restored in time for this winter. Asked on Sky News if more detail would come at the spending review on 11 June, Rayner said: “If the prime minister wants to do that, I’m sure the chancellor is going to look at how we can achieve that.” This week the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, was due to make a speech calling for the restoration of the full winter fuel allowance and the end of…

IN THE EARLY HOURS of last Friday, as she did every day, Dr Alaa al-Najjar said goodbye to her 10 children before leaving the house. The youngest, Sayden, six months old, was still sleeping. And like every day, with war raging in Gaza and Israeli strikes landing just metres from her neighbourhood in Khan Younis, Najjar worried about leaving them at home. But Najjar, 35, had little choice. One of Gaza’s dwindling number of medics, a respected paediatrician at the Nasser medical complex, she had to go to work to care for injured babies who had barely survived Israeli attacks. She could never have imagined that farewell to her family would be her last. A few hours later, the charred bodies of seven of her children, killed by an Israeli…

European and North American cybercrime investigators say they have dismantled the heart of a malware operation directed by Russian criminals after a global operation involving British, Canadian, Danish, Dutch, French, German and US police. International arrest warrants have been issued for 20 suspects, most of them living in Russia, by European authorities, and indictments were unsealed in the US against 16 individuals. Those charged include the alleged leaders of the Qakbot and Danabot malware operations, including Rustam Rafailevich Gallyamov, 48, who lives in Moscow and Aleksandr Stepanov, 39, AKA JimmBee, and Artem Alek-sandrovich Kalinkin, 34, AKA Onix, both of Novosibirsk, Russia, the US Department of Justice said. Cyber-attacks aimed at destabilising governments or simple theft and blackmail are becoming increasingly pernicious. The Europeans led by the German crime agency, Bundeskriminalamt…

Few world leaders can say they’ve been hugged by Xi Jinping, China’s typically reserved president. Last year, an embrace between Xi and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, seemed to sum up the cosy – if at times slightly awkward – relationship between China and Russia. But stepping off the stage after giving a speech in Beijing earlier this month, Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva shook Xi’s hand, with the moment swiftly melting into something more affectionate. Xi had good reason to be feeling warm towards the Brazilian president. In Lula’s address to the China-CELAC forum, a dialogue between China and Latin American and Caribbean countries, he condemned US tariffs and said the Latin American region wanted to be “the axis of a multi-polar order where the global south…

Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira disappeared on a research expedition into the far western Amazon in June 2022. Pereira had received death threats due to his work helping Indigenous people protect the rainforest from illegal fishing and hunting. When the pair did not return, a search was launched. After 10 days, their bodies were found. Two men will go on trial for their murder later this year ‘SNAKE!” The cry came from near the end of the line of 11 men, strung out along a narrow trail being hacked out of thick Amazon rainforest. I shivered. I had walked right past the danger lurking unseen in the dense undergrowth. Poisonous snakes are one of the most lethal threats in this part of the world. Indigenous people fear them and they…

Protesters in Barcelona used water pistols to take aim at tourists visiting the Sagrada Família last month. Residents’ associations in Mallorca posted an open letter appealing to tourists to stay away. More such actions are expected in the Canary Islands, Málaga and elsewhere as Spain braces for another season of overtourism. Last year, there were close to 100 million visitors to Spain, twice the population. No wonder the industry is rubbing its hands at the prospect of even more this year. But those of us with no stake in the hospitality trade brace ourselves with a mixture of dread and resentment. Mass tourism feels more and more extractive to the point that it is a form of corporate colonialism. Here in Barcelona, we long ago gave up walking down the…

Athick blue haze hangs over the valley – Cilgwyn has burned again. Dead fingers of blackened heather snap underfoot, and each step kicks up a cloud of ash. “Deliberate ignition” was the given cause of the last major fire here, in 2021. Another threatened to engulf the village in 2018, a kilometre west of Eryri (Snowdonia). Who was the deliberator of this one? I shouldn’t speculate. As a teen I searched here for boulders to climb, but today I’m picking over the hill’s smoking bones. Gone is the heather, the bilberry, the bog mosses, which usually soften the place. Detritus dots the ground: cans, rusty wire, a symmetrical piece of sheet metal looking like an ersatz butterfly. I feel something hard under my shoe: a golf ball, perfectly toasted. The…

Across 1 Agile (especially when aged) (4) 3 Stereotypical consumers of cold-brew coffee and sporters of man-buns (8) 8 Victim of the world’s first murder (4) 9 Proximity (8) 11 Vague (3-7) 14 Ancient capital of Brittany (that sounds like a bird) (6) 15 Tiered, towering temple (6) 17 It has a biscuity base (10) 20 Choral ____ (8) 21 Total snoozefest (4) 22 Crucifix inverter (8) 23 Country with currency kip (4) Down 1 Inhabitant of part of 4d (8) 2 Grape of the Rhine (8) 4 Gibraltar’s peninsula (6) 5 Green acres (anag) – phone - fixated adolescent (10) 6 Suit (4) 7 Blah (2-2) 10 Biergarten garb (10) 12 S Pacific island with reduplicative name (4,4) 13 Despot’s description of journalism (4,4) 16 Author, The General Theory…