Opinion Jason
Aldean’s Try
That in a Small
Town sums up
the delusions of
the right wing
Arwa Mahdawi
page 19
Friday 21 July 2023
theguardian.com/us
Published in New York, United States
The skyline in Phoenix, Arizona, which is experiencing a sweltering heatwave. Photograph: Patrick T Fallon/AFP/Getty Images
Leading Nasa climate expert says July likely
to be hottest month on record
Dharna Noor
July will likely be Earth’s hottest month
in hundreds if not thousands of years,
Gavin Schmidt, the director of Nasa’s
Goddard Institute for Space Studies,
told reporters on Thursday, as a persis-
tent heatwave baked swaths of the US
south.
Schmidt made the announcement
during a meeting at Nasa’s Washington
headquarters that convened agency cli-
mate experts and other leaders, in-
cluding Nasa administrator Bill Nelson
and chief scientist and senior climate
adviser Kate Calvin.
The meeting came during a
summer that has put the climate crisis
on full display. Deadly floods have
struck New England. Canadian wild-
fire smoke has choked US cities. And
tens of millions of people have been
Science Jonah Hill is giving therapy a bad name
placed under heat advisories, with
areas across the US south and west
breaking temperature records.
“We are seeing unprecedented
changes all over the world,” Schmidt
said.
Though the changes may feel
shocking, they are “not a surprise” to
scientists, he added. “There has been a
decade-on-decade increase in temper-
atures throughout the last four dec-
ades.”
Earth saw its hottest June on record,
according to Nasa’s global temperature
analysis, the agency announced last
week.
All this heat, Schmidt said, is “cer-
tainly increasing the chances” that 2023
will be the hottest year on record. While
his calculations show Earth has a 50%
chance of setting that record this year,
other models say there is as much as an
80% chance, he said.
page 40
Scientists anticipate that 2024 will
be even hotter than 2023, as an El Niño
weather pattern – known for a ten-
dency to boost global temperatures –
will likely peak toward the end of this
year.
The last major El Niño, from 2014 to
2016, led to each of those years succes-
sively breaking the global temperature
record, and 2016 is currently the Earth’s
hottest year ever recorded, Schmidt
said.
Experts at the meeting raised the
alarm about the changes Earth is expe-
riencing and said they are directly
linked to greenhouse gas emissions,
though they stopped short of naming
the source of the majority of those
emissions: fossil fuels.
“What we know from science is that
human activity and principally green-
house gas emissions are unavoidably
causing the warming that we’re seeing
on our planet,” said Calvin. “This is im-
pacting people and ecosystems around
the world.”
The agency leaders touted its many
climate-focused initiatives, which they
said can help governments better miti-
gate the climate crisis and also prepare
for its effects.
“You think of Nasa as a space
agency, you think of Nasa as an aero-
nautical research agency,” said Nelson.
“Nasa is also a climate agency.”
Its newest initiative, the Earth Infor-
mation Center, will make climate data
from Nasa’s 25 satellites available to
view in real time. An in-person exhibit
in the agency’s headquarters opened to
the public last week, and next week
an online version will launch on Nasa’s
website, Nelson said.
Leaders detailed an array of
other projects tracking environmental
changes, including ones that track
air pollution, methane emissions, and
tropical cyclones and hurricanes. And
they said the agency is aiming to
help curb planet-warming pollution as
well, for instance by researching lower-
carbon forms of air travel.
Some rightwing lawmakers are
attempting to curtail funding to cli-
mate-related projects, including some
of Nasa’s.
Nasa’s earth science division direc-
tor Karen St Germain said the agency
does not merely want to accelerate
scientific discovery. It also wants to
make sure new research boosts climate
preparedness, “ranging from a farmer
assessing what to do with a single field,
to global leaders weighing decisions im-
pacting the entire world”.
“Our goal is to put scientific infor-
mation and understanding out in ways
that help the public,” she said.

2 Headlines
Vegan diet massively cuts environmental
damage, study shows
Damian Carrington Envi-
ronment editor
Eating a vegan diet massively reduces
the damage to the environment caused
by food production, the most compre-
hensive analysis to date has concluded.
The research showed that vegan
diets resulted in 75% less climate-heat-
ing emissions, water pollution and land
use than diets in which more than 100g
of meat a day was eaten. Vegan diets
also cut the destruction of wildlife by
66% and water use by 54%, the study
found.
The heavy impact of meat and dairy
on the planet is well known, and people
in rich nations will have to slash their
meat consumption in order to end
the climate crisis. But previous stu-
dies have used model diets and average
values for the impact of each food type.
In contrast, the new study analysed
the real diets of 55,000 people in the
UK. It also used data from 38,000 farms
in 119 countries to account for differ-
ences in the impact of particular foods
that are produced in different ways and
places. This significantly strengthens
confidence in the conclusions.
However, it turned out that what
was eaten was far more important in
terms of environmental impacts than
where and how it was produced. Pre-
vious research has shown that even the
lowest-impact meat – organic pork – is
responsible for eight times more cli-
mate damage than the highest-impact
plant, oilseed.
The researchers said the UK should
introduce policies to help people
reduce the amount of meat they eat
Donald Trump faces midnight deadline to
decide whether to face grand jury
Martin Pengelly in Washington
Donald Trump faced a deadline of mid-
night on Thursday to say if he would
appear before a Washington grand jury
convened by the special counsel Jack
Smith to consider federal charges over
his election subversion and incitement
of the attack on Congress on 6 January
2021.
Late on Wednesday, citing two
people familiar with the matter, the
Guardian reported that prosecutors
had assembled evidence to charge
Trump with three crimes.
They were: obstruction of an official
proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the
United States, and an unusual statute
that makes it unlawful to conspire to
violate civil rights.
Obstruction of an official pro-
ceeding is punishable by up to 20 years
in prison. Conspiracy to defraud the
United States carries a maximum five-
year sentence. The civil rights charge is
punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
By Thursday afternoon, all indi-
cations were that Trump would not
agree to testify.
Researchers said people in rich nations needed to radically reduce their meat and dairy consumption for global food production to be
sustainable. Photograph: Nathaniel Noir/Alamy
in order to meet the nation’s climate
targets. Ministers have repeatedly said
they will not tell people what to con-
sume, despite the precedent of, for ex-
ample, taxes on high-sugar drinks.
Prof Peter Scarborough at Oxford
University, who led the research, pub-
lished in the journal Nature Food,
said: “Our dietary choices have a big
impact on the planet. Cutting down the
amount of meat and dairy in your diet
can make a big difference to your die-
tary footprint.”
The global food system has a huge
impact on the planet, emitting a third
of the total greenhouse gas emissions
driving global heating. It also uses 70%
By Thursday afternoon, all indications were that Donald Trump would not agree to testify before the grand jury. Photograph: John Locher/
AP
Indictments regarding Trump’s at-
tempted election subversion are ex-
of the world’s freshwater and causes
80% of river and lake pollution. About
75% of the Earth’s land is used by
humans, largely for farming, and the
destruction of forests is the major
cause of the huge losses in biodiversity.
Prof Neil Ward at the University of
East Anglia said: “This is a significant
set of findings. It scientifically rein-
forces the point made by the Climate
Change Committee and the National
Food Strategy over recent years that
dietary shifts away from animal-based
foods can make a major contribution to
reducing the UK’s environmental foot-
print.”
The study also showed that low-
pected soon – not only at the federal
level but also in Fulton county, Georgia,
meat diets – less than 50g a day –
had half the impact of high-meat diets
on greenhouse gas emissions, water
pollution and land use. However, the
differences between low-meat, pesce-
tarian and vegetarian diets were rela-
tively small.
Prof Richard Tiffin at the University
of Reading said: “This study represents
the most comprehensive attempt to
link food consumption data to the data
on the environmental impacts of food
production.
“Encouraging high-meat-eaters to
reduce meat consumption and encour-
aging vegetarians to become vegans
should result in lower emissions,” he
where a grand jury to consider charges
was recently formed. Elsewhere, this
The Guardian Friday 21 July 2023
said. “However, it’s hard to justify
changes to the diets of moderate omni-
vores on the basis of these results, other
than to switch to a completely vegan
diet.”
The researchers who conducted the
new study said diets enabling global
food production to be sustainable
would mean people in rich nations
“radically” reducing meat and dairy
consumption.
They said other ways of reduc-
ing the environmental impact of the
food system, such as new technology
and cutting food waste, would not be
enough.
The biggest difference seen in the
study was for emissions of methane,
a potent greenhouse gas produced by
cattle and sheep, which were 93% lower
for vegan diets compared with high-
meat diets.
The UK Health Alliance on Climate
Change recommended in 2020 that sus-
tainable diets should be supported by
mandatory environmental labelling on
foods, regulation of promotions and
taxation of high-carbon foods.
A government spokesperson said:
“People should make their own deci-
sions around the food they eat. Achiev-
ing the net-zero target is a priority, and
whilst food choices can have an impact
on greenhouse gas emissions, well-ma-
naged livestock also provide environ-
mental benefits such as supporting
biodiversity, protecting the character of
the countryside, and generating impor-
tant income for rural communities.”
The farming minister, Mark Spenc-
er, said last week that he would like to
see genetically modified cows that emit
less methane.
week saw charges brought against 16
people in a “false electors” scheme in
Michigan, another battleground state.
On Thursday morning, meanwhile,
Politico reported that Trump had ex-
tracted a promise from the Repub-
lican speaker of the US House of
Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, to
hold votes on expunging Trump’s two
impeachments.
Trump was impeached first for
withholding military aid in an attempt
to extract political dirt from Ukraine,
then for inciting the Capitol attack.
In both cases, Senate Republicans en-
sured his acquittal at trial.
Trump reportedly got the promise
of an expungement vote, which Poli-
tico said McCarthy “made reflexively to
save his own skin”, after the speaker
provoked outrage from Trump allies by
declining to endorse the former pres-
ident in the Republican presidential pri-
mary for the 2024 election, citing an
obligation to remain neutral.
An expungement vote would be
purely symbolic. It also would not
be guaranteed to succeed. Republicans
Continued on page 3
Friday 21 July 2023 The Guardian
Continued from page 2
control the House by a very slim major-
ity. Two sitting GOP congressmen,
David Valadao of California and Dan
Newhouse of Washington state, voted
to impeach Trump over the Capitol riot.
Republicans in swing districts, partic-
ularly in heavily Democratic north-
eastern states, already face uphill fights
to keep their seats.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday,
McCarthy denied making a promise,
saying “There’s no deal” with Trump,
but added: “I’ve been very clear from
long before – when I voted against
impeachments – that [Democrats] put
them in for purely political purposes.
I support expungement but there’s no
deal out there.”
In polling averages for the Repub-
lican primary, Trump leads by about
30 points. He has maintained that lead
King Charles to receive huge pay rise from UK
taxpayers
David Pegg, Rob Evans and Se-
verin Carrell
King Charles III is to receive a huge pay
rise from the UK taxpayer, according to
government plans to boost public fund-
ing of the monarchy by 45% from 2025.
Details of the increase, which comes
against the backdrop of a cost of living
crisis, were contained in a review of
royal funding published by the Trea-
sury on Thursday. It revealed the royal
family’s grant is due to increase from
£86m to £125m.
The monarchy’s annual budget,
known as the sovereign grant, is pegged
against the profits from a national prop-
erty portfolio called the crown estate.
The review of the royal funding
settlement was heavily spun by the
Treasury to give the impression that
the king would be taking a pay cut so
that crown estate funds could instead
be spent on public services.
In fact, the report reveals the mo-
narchy is due to receive a huge pay in-
crease, although the rise will not kick in
for another two years.
Next year, the sovereign grant will
remain unchanged at £86.3m. However,
in 2025, the king’s public funding will
increase by a projected £38.5m, giving
the monarchy an annual stipend of
£124.8m. In 2026, it will be £126m.
Contacted by the Guardian, Buck-
ingham Palace and the Treasury did not
dispute that the sovereign grant was ex-
pected to significantly increase in the
coming years.
Lord Turnbull, a former cabinet
secretary, Whitehall’s most senior civil
servant, who was involved in official
discussions over royal financing, ac-
cused the Treasury of seeking to obfus-
cate how the monarchy was funded.
He said that linking the royal fin-
ances to the profits of the crown estate
was “silly” and was motivated by a
desire to promote the idea that the king
Headlines
even while facing 34 criminal charges in
New York, over hush-money payments
to the porn star Stormy Daniels; 37 fed-
eral charges over his retention of clas-
sified documents; the prospect of state
and federal indictments over his elec-
tion subversion; a $5m fine after being
held liable for sexual abuse and defa-
mation against the writer E Jean Carroll;
and ongoing investigations of his busi-
ness affairs.
Denying all wrongdoing, Trump
has pleaded not guilty to all criminal
charges.
Nonetheless, polling regarding a no-
tional general election shows him in
a close race with Joe Biden. Earlier
this week, Miles Taylor, who was a US
homeland security official when in 2018
he wrote a famous anonymous New
York Times column warning of Trump’s
unfitness for office, told the Guardian
Trump could yet return to the White
The Treasury’s announcement on funding for Charles and the rest of the royal family was described as ‘grossly misleading’. Photograph:
WPA/Getty Images
was paying for himself and was reduc-
ing the burden on the taxpayer.
“You get people writing in saying:
‘Isn’t it a good thing that the king is so
sensitive to public opinion that he has
waived some of the money he could
have had?’ I think it’s bollocks. It is deli-
berate – that’s really what makes me so
cross about it. It is a deliberate attempt
to obfuscate how the thing works.”
The complicated formula used to
determine the sovereign grant was
introduced in 2011 by the then prime
minister, David Cameron, and his
chancellor, George Osborne. Removing
parliament’s centuries-old control over
royal funding, they created a new for-
mula that tied the monarch’s funding to
a percentage of the profits of the crown
estate.
Under the arrangement, that
percentage is decided by the so-called
royal trustees: the prime minister,
chancellor and the king’s financial ad-
House.
“There’s been a number of polls
that show the ex-president beating Joe
Biden by several points,” Taylor said.
“It would be hubris to say, ‘Oh, no, we
would beat him again a second time.’
Actually, I don’t think that. If the elec-
tion was held today, I think Donald
Trump would defeat Joe Biden, and
that really concerns me.”
Taylor also pointed to the supine
nature of the Republican party, saying
McCarthy, the House speaker, “thought
Trump was a buffoon and a danger
and I’m sure Kevin still thinks that pri-
vately” but is unwilling, or unable, to
move in any way against him.
Taylor said: “Those people publicly,
because they’re afraid, are still sup-
porting the man. That collective ano-
nymity is putting us in pretty seriously
great danger.”
Trump revealed on Tuesday that
viser. Since 2017, they have set the
percentage at a rate of 25% of the
estate’s net profits, resulting in a steady
increase in funding for the monarchy as
its profits increased.
However, Buckingham Palace and
the Treasury have for months been
wrestling with the dilemma of how to
manage projections of an enormous in-
crease to crown estate profits, resulting
from the sale of leases for offshore
windfarms by the estate.
The anticipated profits are forecast
to more than double from £443m this
year to more than £1bn next year.
The trustees’ decision was an-
nounced on Thursday. The Treasury
emphasised a reduction in the percen-
tage of crown estate’s profits to which
the king would be entitled, from 25% to
12%.
The government declared the royal
household’s budget would be “£130m
lower in both 2025 and 2026, than if
Smith had told him he faced poten-
tial charges. According to the New
York Times, since then Trump has con-
sulted with Washington allies including
McCarthy and the New Yorker Elise Ste-
fanik, chair of the Republican House
conference and a staunch supporter
who many observers think is eyeing
selection as Trump’s running mate next
year.
Trump’s closest challenger for the
Republican nomination, Ron DeSan-
tis, this week mildly criticised Trump
for his inaction on 6 January 2021, as
the Capitol was attacked, but also said
charges against the former president
over his election subversion would not
“be good for the country”.
Court dates are set to clash with the
Republican primary calendar. Trump
faces three civil trials in New York, one
to begin in October and two in January.
In the criminal cases, Smith, the
the rate remained at 25%”. It added:
“Cutting the rate to 12% is expected to
reduce the sovereign grant by £24m in
2024-2025 … This money will instead be
used to fund vital public services, for
the benefit of the nation.
Missing entirely from the Treasury
press release was any mention of how,
by receiving a smaller slice of a much
larger pie, the king was still in line for a
huge pay rise.
Graham Smith, the chief executive
of the anti-monarchy group Repub-
lic, who was arrested while attempt-
ing to peacefully protest at Charles’s
coronation, described the Treasury’s
announcement as “grossly misleading”.
Another prominent republican,
Norman Baker, a former Liberal Demo-
crat minister, condemned the massive
net increase in funding going to the
king.
“This is a time when people are
having difficulty putting food on the
3
special counsel, has asked for trial over
the classified documents charges to
begin later this year. In the hush-money
case, the trial is scheduled for March
– in the thick of the Republican pri-
mary. Lawyers for Trump are attempt-
ing to delay both trials until after the
general election next year, when Trump
or another Republican president could
order all cases dropped.
On Thursday, Benjamin Ginsberg, a
Republican elections lawyer, told the
Washington Post the US was “in as
precarious a situation as we’ve ever
been”.
“I don’t know what the chances are
of things really going off the rails,” Gins-
berg said, “but no question that there is
a toxic mix unprecedented in the Amer-
ican experiment.”
tables,” he said. “We’re actually pro-
viding more largesse for the royal
family, who are really bloated in terms
of their money.”
Baker observed that Britain’s royal
family was considerably more expen-
sive than other European monarchies.
“The royals always plead poverty,” he
added. “They always say that any
changes to the arrangements are bene-
ficial for the taxpayer. They never
are. The arrangements that are made
are beneficial for the royal family. It’s
always been the way.”
Asked for comment on whether
it was appropriate for the king’s pay
to increase so significantly amid the
cost of living crisis, a Buckingham
Palace spokesperson pointed out that
the sovereign grant had remained flat at
£86m for several years, which she said
was a real-terms cut when considered
against inflation.
The spokesperson did not dispute
that the sovereign grant would be
£124.8m from 2025. However, she said
that the increase would be “temporary,
only for the financial years of 2025-6
and 2026-7” and would be used to com-
plete renovation works at Buckingham
Palace.
The modernisation of the royal
palace has long been used to justify in-
creases in the sovereign grant, which
was just £31m when it was first intro-
duced in 2012-2013. Under a “golden
ratchet” clause in the Sovereign Grant
Act, the amount of money handed to
the monarch can never fall, even if the
crown estate’s profits decrease.
A Treasury spokesperson, Justina
Crabtree, said: “The grant has been
largely unchanged since 2020 and
this temporary increase covers the re-
mainder of the Buckingham Palace
refurbishment. We will review the grant
in 2026, expecting to bring it back down
in 2027.”

4 Headlines
Oscar-nominated composer Danny Elfman
accused of sexual harassment
Benjamin Lee
The Oscar-nominated composer Danny
Elfman is being sued after reportedly
failing to pay $830,000 to an alleged
victim of sexual harassment.
According to Rolling Stone, the 70-
year-old, whose scores include Batman,
Spider-Man and Good Will Hunting,
was accused in 2017 by 35-year-old com-
poser Nomi Abadi of exposing himself
and masturbating in front of her with-
out consent on two occasions.
The pair agreed to a settlement
which consisted of payments spread
out over five years but Elfman alle-
gedly failed to make two of them, total-
ling $85,000. Abadi is now suing him
for breach of contract, with the com-
plaint also stating that the payments
were being directed to an unspecified
charitable foundation.
Elfman has defined the relationship
as platonic and called Abadi’s alle-
gations “vicious and wholly false” in
a statement, blaming a longstanding
crush from her side. “I have done noth-
ing indecent or wrong, and my lawyers
stand ready to prove with voluminous
US ambassador to Beijing targeted in Chinese
cyber-attack – report
Julian Borger in Washington
The US ambassador to Beijing, Nicho-
las Burns, was reportedly one of the
American officials whose emails were
accessed in a recent Chinese hacking
attack which took Washington by sur-
prise with its sophistication.
Another target was Daniel Kriten-
brink, the assistant secretary of state
for east Asia, the Wall Street Jour-
nal reported on Thursday. When the
attack was first disclosed last week,
the administration admitted the email
account of the commerce secretary,
Gina Raimondo, had also been compro-
mised. US officials were quoted as
saying those were the three most senior
targets but that in total, hundreds of
thousands of government email ac-
counts could have been breached.
Asked for comment on the report,
a state department spokesperson said:
“For security reasons, we will not be
sharing additional information on the
nature and scope of this cybersecurity
incident at this time.”
‘Blindsided’ wife of Long Island serial killer
suspect files for divorce
Edward Helmore in New York
The wife of the suspected Long Island
Danny Elfman in June 2023. Photograph: Phillip Faraone/IndieWire/Getty Images
evidence that these accusations are
false,” he said. “This is the last I will say
on this subject.” A spokesperson also
told Variety the accusations were “base-
less”.
Nicholas Burns, the US ambassador to China, earlier this month. Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AFP/Getty Images
“The department continuously
monitors and responds to activity of
concern on our networks,” the spokes-
serial killer Rex Heuermann has filed
for divorce nearly a week after the
Manhattan architect was arrested and
charged in the deaths of three women
His representative claims that after
being faced with threats at the height
of the #MeToo movement, Elfman
was forced into making an “impossible
choice between settling and continuing
person said. “Our investigation is on-
going, and we cannot provide further
details at this time.”
whose remains were found along a sec-
luded beach roadway in 2010.
Asa Ellerup, 59, who has been mar-
ried to Heuermann for 27 years, lodged
his career and earning a living for his
family or deciding to fight what at the
time was an unwinnable battle to tell
the truth”.
Abadi’s lawyer has called his com-
It was not clear how much sensitive
US government information had been
compromised.
the petition in Suffolk county supreme
court on Wednesday. The court filing
indicates the action is “uncontested”.
Ellerup, originally from Iceland, has
The Guardian Friday 21 July 2023
ments “directly contrary to the position
he maintained in the underlying dis-
pute and to the evidentiary record”.
Elfman is also accused of coercing
her into a nude photoshoot. The report
in Rolling Stone claims that he “framed
nudity as an important aspect of his
creative process”.
The composer, who is married to
the actor Bridget Fonda, has been nomi-
nated for four Oscars and 14 Gram-
mys. He’s a longtime collaborator of the
director Tim Burton, working on scores
including Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy
Hollow and Corpse Bride. They recently
worked together on the hit Netflix show
Wednesday.
Abadi founded the Female Com-
poser Safety League, an organisation
aimed at protecting female musicians
in the business. This year she spoke
at a press conference alongside female
sexual misconduct survivors. “There is
a clear and urgent need to center the
experiences of survivors of sexual as-
sault in the music industry, who have
lost their careers because they were
abused and silenced,” she said.
According to the Journal’s account,
Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s
email had not been breached, nor had
those of his inner circle of advisers.
But Kritenbrink accompanied the sec-
retary on his visit to China last month,
and Burns had also attended meetings
with the country’s leader, Xi Jinping,
and other senior Chinese officials in
the course of the visit. It is possible
the hackers gained access to US prepa-
rations for those meetings and internal
discussions about them.
US intelligence officials are reported
to have been taken by surprise by the
stealth and sophistication of the cyber-
attack, which exploited a flaw in Micro-
soft’s cloud computing environment
which has since been fixed, the com-
pany said.
Microsoft identified the perpe-
trators as the Chinese group
Storm-0558, which it called “well-re-
sourced” and “focused on espionage”.
yet to make a public statement about
her husband. The Suffolk county police
Continued on page 5
Friday 21 July 2023 The Guardian
Continued from page 4
chief, Rodney Harrison, told CNN that
Ellerup said she was “blindsided” when
police showed up at their Massapequa
Park home 40 miles east of mid-
town Manhattan at the exact moment
last Thursday that Heuermann was
arrested in Manhattan, and informed
her that her husband had been appre-
hended on suspicion of three murders.
Harrison also told Fox News on
Wednesday that Ellerup and her child-
ren had expressed “shock, disap-
pointment and disgust” over the alle-
gations against Heuermann when they
met with investigators.
According to Harrison, after inves-
tigators showed her certain pictures, El-
lerup had remarked: “OK, it is what it is.”
Her lawyer, Bob Macedonio, told the
outlet last week that “her and her child-
ren’s lives have been completely turned
upside-down,” adding: “this is all still a
whirlwind.”
“They were home and the cops
came in, and they were completely
blindsided, and they told them what
Nebraska teen sentenced to 90 days in jail for
burying fetus she aborted
Associated Press
An 18-year-old north-eastern Nebraska
woman was sentenced on Thursday to
90 days in jail and two years of pro-
bation for burning and burying a fetus
she aborted with her mother’s help in a
case watched by advocates as a slew of
states move to restrict abortion access.
Celeste Burgess, of Norfolk, was
sentenced in Madison county after
pleading guilty earlier this year to con-
cealing or abandoning a dead body. Two
other misdemeanor charges of false re-
porting and concealing the death of
another person were dropped, in an
agreement with prosecutors.
“The court specifically finds that
while probation is appropriate, con-
finement is necessary because without
this confinement, it would depreciate
the seriousness of the crime or promote
disrespect for the law,” the judge’s order
read.
Burgess and her mother, 42-year-
old Jessica Burgess of Norfolk, are ac-
cused of working together to end the
pregnancy. The abortion, well into her
Texas women give harrowing testimony on
impact of extreme abortion ban
Maya Yang
Texas women who were denied abor-
tions took the stand and delivered har-
rowing testimonies of their experiences
of carrying life-threatening pregnancies
as a result of the state’s high restrictive
abortion laws.
The women are part of a lawsuit
filed in March by the Center for Repro-
ductive Rights, which is seeking clari-
fication on which situations fall under
Headlines
Authorities work outside as they search the home Asa Ellerup shared with her husband Rex Heuermann in Massapequa Park, Long Island,
on Wednesday. Photograph: John Minchillo/AP
was going on,” he said.
George Duncan, a partner at Mace-
Hundreds of people descend on the Nebraska capitol on 16 May to protest plans by conservative lawmakers to revive an abortion ban.
Photograph: Margery Beck/AP
third trimester, violated Nebraska law
at the time that banned abortion after
20 weeks of gestation. Officials have
the “medical emergency” exception in
Texas’s abortion bans. The lawsuit ap-
pears to be the first of its kind in which
women who were denied abortions are
suing a state since the supreme court
overturned Roe v Wade last year.
In addition to losing their medical
licenses, doctors who perform abor-
tions in Texas can face fines of up to
$100,000 as well as life in prison.
“Even if they provide an abortion
that they believe complies with the
ban’s narrow exceptions, they still risk
donio’s law firm, told the Guardian
there would be no comment on El-
said Jessica Burgess ordered abortion
pills online, which she gave to her then
17-year-old daughter in the spring of
the laws being enforced against them,”
the plaintiffs argued in court filings.
During Wednesday’s hearing, plain-
tiff Samantha Casiano delivered an
emotional testimony about being
forced to give birth to a baby who died
four hours later as a result of a fatal
birth defect.
Twenty weeks into her pregnancy,
Casiano discovered that her baby had
anencephaly, a rare condition in which
parts of the baby’s skull and brain are
missing. Casiano said that doctors in-
lerup’s divorce petition.
Court documents have said that the
2022.
Jessica Burgess pleaded guilty ear-
lier this month to providing an illegal
formed her that they were unable to
perform an abortion in the state and
that she was instead given funeral
home information.
“I felt like I was abandoned,” Casiano
said. “I had this funeral home paper and
this is just supposed to be a scan day.”
Casiano went on to describe her
thought processes upon learning about
her baby’s condition, telling the court
that she considered getting an abortion
out of state but was also afraid of losing
her job or being jailed.
5
suspect separately committed the mur-
ders of Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan
Waterman, 22, Amber Lynn Costello, 27,
more than 13 years ago. In each case,
the suspect’s wife and children were
out of New York state at the time the
killings occurred.
According to the investigators, DNA
from Ellerup’s own hair found on tape
used to bind one or more of the victims
has been pivotal in connecting Heuer-
mann to the crimes.
Police chief Harrison, who assem-
bled the multi-agency Gilgo Beach task-
force that identified Heuerman, has
also told CNN that the reaction of El-
lerup and her two children indicated
they had no idea about Heuermann’s al-
leged crimes.
“They were disgusted. They were
embarrassed,” Harrison said. “So, if you
ask me, I don’t believe they knew about
this double life that Heuermann was
living.
“But, time will tell,” he added. “And
once again, there are still a lot more
questions that need to be done to the
family and friends.”
abortion, false reporting and tampering
with human skeletal remains. In ex-
change for her plea, charges of con-
cealing the death of another person and
abortion by someone other than a li-
censed physician were dismissed. She
faces sentencing on 22 September.
A Norfolk police detective opened
an investigation into the abortion fol-
lowing a tip, according to an arrest affi-
davit. Police secured a search warrant
to gain access to Facebook messages
between the two, in which prosecutors
say the women discussed terminating
the pregnancy and destroying the evi-
dence. Police then found the burned
fetal remains buried in a field.
The US supreme court last year
overturned Roe v Wade, which for
50 years had established the consti-
tutional right to abortion. Nebraska
lawmakers who opposed Republicans’
efforts to severely restrict abortion
access in the legislative session that
ended in June repeatedly cited the Nor-
folk case, saying it shows state prose-
cutors would target women who seek
abortions with criminal penalties.
“I felt like I was imprisoned in my
own body,” she said.
At one point, as Casiano read aloud
a doctor’s note about her high-risk preg-
nancy, she became overwhelmed and
vomited during the hearing. Following
a recess, Casiano returned to the stand
and said that recalling the events “just
makes my body remember, and it just
reacts”.
“I now have a psychiatrist … I now
Continued on page 6

6 Headlines
Continued from page 5
vomit a lot more. I’ve never vomited
before like that, ever, before my preg-
nancy. My body’s never reacted that
way,” she added.
Another plaintiff, Amanda Zu-
rawski, recounted her experiences of
developing sepsis after she was refused
an abortion when her water broke at
only 18 weeks. Zurawski said her doctor
told her that a miscarriage was inevit-
able but because her fetus still had a
heartbeat, they could not induce labor.
Zurawski, who wanted to seek an
abortion out of state, said her situation
was so severe doctors said she had to
stay within 15 minutes of a hospital.
“I had to listen to her heartbeat,
simultaneously wanting to hear it and
not wanting to hear it at the same
time … If it stopped, they would be
able to intervene,” Zurawski testified,
according to the Texas Tribune.
Eventually, when Zurawski started
developing septic shock, she was
rushed to the hospital where doctors
finally agreed to induce labor.
“I went from feeling physically OK
to shaking uncontrollably. I was freez-
ing cold even though it was 110F out.
My teeth were chattering violently. I
couldn’t get a sentence out. My hus-
band Josh asked me how I was feel-
ing on a scale from one to 10. I didn’t
know the difference between one and
10 – which one was higher,” she said, ac-
cording to ABC News.
California school district fined $1.5m after
rejecting curriculum with Harvey Milk
Dani Anguiano in Los Angeles
A school district in southern California
will be fined more than $1m after
rejecting a curriculum that included
Harvey Milk, the pioneering gay rights
leader who the the school board’s pres-
ident has called a “pedophile”.
Gavin Newsom, the California gov-
ernor, announced on Wednesday that
his office will send textbooks to the
Temecula school district that include
Milk, the first openly gay man to be
elected to public office in the state, as
well as fine the district $1.5m for fail-
ing to “adopt an updated social studies
curriculum”.
“California will ensure students in
Temecula begin the school year with
access to materials reviewed by parents
and recommended by teachers across
the district,” Newsom said in a state-
ment.
“After we deliver the textbooks into
the hands of students and their parents,
the state will deliver the bill … to the
school board for its decision to willfully
violate the law, subvert the will of par-
ents, and force children to use an out-
of-print textbook from 17 years ago.”
The Temecula Valley unified school
district, which oversees about 28,000
students in Riverside county, has been
at the center of a growing controversy
over its approach to LGBTQ+, diver-
sity and inclusion issues. In May, the
Samantha Casiano outside court in Austin. Casiano was forced to give birth to a baby who died four hours later as a result of a fatal birth
defect. Photograph: Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP/Getty Images
Zurawski, who ended up delivering
a deceased baby, said that as a result of
the whole ordeal, she has been left with
scar tissue and a fallopian tube which
has permanently closed.
Ashley Brandt was another plain-
tiff who delivered emotional testimony.
Brandt said she was forced to leave
Texas and go to Colorado for an abor-
tion after one of the twins she was car-
rying was diagnosed with acrania, a rare
and fatal condition in which the fetal
Harvey Milk poses in front of his camera shop in San Francisco. Photograph: AP
district school board president, Joseph
Komrosky, said while discussing an
elementary social science curriculum
that included Milk: “My question is,
why even mention a pedophile?”
The comment repeats a conspiracy
theory that falsely accuses gay people
of molesting children at higher rates
than heterosexual people. Komrosky
and two other school board members
then struck down the social science
curriculum in a 3-2 vote, leaving district
skull is absent.
“If I had not gone out of state and
had just done what was legal in Texas,
my daughter Marley would most likely
be in the NICU [neonatal intensive care
unit] because she would have been
born before 37 weeks. All my ultra-
sounds up to labor I would have had
to watch twin A deteriorate more and
more every week,” Brandt said, per ABC.
“I would have had to give birth to an
identical version of my daughter with-
without a textbook for the coming year.
His comments caught the atten-
tion of Newsom. “An offensive state-
ment from an ignorant person. This
isn’t Texas or Florida,” the governor said
in June. “In the Golden State, our kids
have the freedom to learn.”
This week the board saw a mara-
thon nine-hour meeting in which some
parents voiced support for the conserv-
ative officials, describing Newsom as
a tyrant and a teacher was removed
out a skull and without a brain and hold
her until she died. Then I would have
had to submit a death certificate and
plan a funeral and decide if I wanted to
bury her or cremate her. It just would
have been heartbreaking. But instead
I got to just give birth to my healthy
daughter,” she added.
Brand said that she does not “feel
safe to have children in Texas any
more”.
“I know that it was very clear that
after calling a conservative board
member a “homophobe”. At the meet-
ing, Danny Gonzalez, a conservative
board member, said he did not sup-
port teaching students about the gay
liberation movement and that the curri-
culum would promote pedophilia, the
Los Angeles Times reported.
“I think it’s pathetic that the gov-
ernor has stepped in because you guys
aren’t doing your jobs,” Kristi McClure,
a parent, said Tuesday, according to the
The Guardian Friday 21 July 2023
my health didn’t really matter, that my
daughter’s health didn’t really matter,
which was really heartbreaking,” she
said.
Attorneys of the state have pushed
back against the lawsuit, which in-
cludes more than a dozen women from
Texas.
Amy Pletscher, an attorney for the
state, told Associated Press the lawsuit
was brought by women and doctors
who “simply do not like Texas’s restric-
tions on abortion”.
She claimed that “the purpose of
this court is not to legislate”.
Sixteen states, including Texas, do
not allow abortions when a fatal fetal
anomaly is detected, while six do
not allow exceptions for the mother’s
health, according to an analysis by KFF,
a health research organization.
The lawsuit in Texas comes as
abortion restrictions elsewhere in the
US continue to face challenges. On
Monday, an Iowa judge temporarily
blocked the state’s new ban on most
abortions after about six weeks of preg-
nancy, just days after Governor Kim
Reynolds signed the measure into law.
The majority of US adults, including
those living in states with the strictest
limits on abortion, want it to be legal at
least through the initial stages of preg-
nancy, according to a poll released in
late June by the Associated Press-NORC
Center for Public Affairs Research.
newspaper. “It’s not overreach; it’s not
a violation of local control – it’s what
happens at any business when an em-
ployee fails to do the basics of their job.”
The school board again voted to
reject the adoption of a new social stu-
dies curriculum that had been recom-
mended by teachers and reviewed by
parents.
The battle in Temecula echoes cul-
ture wars taking place across the US as
conservative leaders increasingly target
the LGBTQ+ community and issues
such as race, gender and sexuality in
education. Republicans in deep blue
California last year set their sights on
school board positions overseeing the
state’s 10,000 public schools as a way to
expand their footprint – an effort that
was largely unsuccessful.
But in Temecula, conservatives
were able to win school board seats and
took action, including banning critical
race theory, the academic practice of
examining racism in US laws and so-
ciety that conservatives sometimes use
as a catch-all for curriculum related to
race.
Their decisions have left the dis-
trict’s students using a textbook pub-
lished in 2006, the governor’s office said
and the district is out of compliance
with at least three state laws. Newsom
has backed proposed legislation that
would seek to fine school districts that
“fail to provide adequate instructional
materials”.
Friday 21 July 2023 The Guardian
Nevada home raided in link with Tupac
Shakur killing tied to suspect’s uncle
Associated Press
A home that Las Vegas police searched
this week in connection with the 1996
drive-by shooting of Tupac Shakur is
tied to a man whose nephew had
emerged as a suspect shortly after the
rapper’s killing.
Detectives sought items “con-
cerning the murder of Tupac Shakur”
from Duane “Keffe D” Davis, according
to a copy of the warrant obtained
Thursday. Davis is the uncle of Orlando
Anderson. Anderson denied involve-
ment in Shakur’s killing at the time,
and died two years later in an unrelated
gang shooting in Compton, California.
Police reported collecting multiple
computers, a cellphone and hard drive,
“documentary documents”, a Vibe
magazine that featured Shakur, “pur-
ported marijuana”, several .40-caliber
bullets, two “tubs containing photo-
graphs” and a copy of Davis’ 2019 tell-
all memoir, Compton Street Legend.
The Las Vegas metropolitan police
department has not said whether they
expect to make an arrest for the first
time in the slaying of the rapper nearly
30 years ago.
Residents of a small suburban Hen-
derson neighborhood – nestled in the
foothills of the city about 20 miles
(32km) south-east of the Las Vegas strip
– identified the property where they
said they saw officers detain two people
while investigators searched the home
on Monday night.
“There were cruisers and Swat ve-
hicles. They had lights shining on the
house,” said Don Sansouci, 61, who had
just gone to bed with his wife when
a swirl of blue and red police lights
stirred them awake sometime after
9pm.
‘Disturbing’: 25 types of toxic flame retardant
found in US breast milk
Tom Perkins
New peer-reviewed research has iden-
tified 25 kinds of toxic flame retardant
in human breast milk in the US, and all
samples contained at least some level
of the dangerous chemicals.
The compounds are part of the
brominated flame retardant class,
which are commonly used in plastic,
televisions, appliances and electronics.
The research also marks the first time
a largely unregulated subclass of the
flame retardants, called bromophenols,
have been found in breast milk.
The chemicals are thought to
be potent neurotoxins, especially for
developing children, and the findings
are “disturbing”, said Erika Schreder, a
toxicologist with Toxic Free Future and
a study co-author.
“The production and use of these
compounds continues, and they are
likely to impact children’s health until
governments require companies to end
their use and switch to safer solutions,”
Headlines / News
Tupac Shakur, pictured on 4 September 1996, days before he was shot dead in Las Vegas. No one has ever been convicted in relation to his
killing. Photograph: Todd Plitt/AP
Sansouci said he watched from the
sidewalk on Monday night as a man and
a woman stepped out of a house sur-
rounded by police, place their hands
behind their heads and slowly walk
backwards toward the officers.
The case is being presented to a
grand jury in Las Vegas, according to
a person with direct knowledge of the
investigation who was not authorized
to speak publicly. The timing and re-
sults of those proceedings were un-
clear, and the person did not identify
the two people whom police encoun-
tered at the house.
It was not immediately known if
Davis has a lawyer who can comment
on his behalf, and messages left for
Davis and his wife, Paula Clemons, were
not returned.
The researchers checked milk samples from 50 mothers across the US. Photograph: Katie Collins/PA
the study’s authors wrote.
The researchers, also from Emory
News of the search breathed new
life into Shakur’s long-unsolved killing,
which has been surrounded by con-
spiracy theories. There have never been
any arrests, yet attention on the case
has endured for decades.
Shakur was shot on the night of
7 September 1996 and died several
days later having been put on life sup-
port. The rapper was riding in a black
BMW driven by the Death Row Records
founder, Marion “Suge” Knight, in a
convoy of about 10 cars. They were
waiting at a red light a block from the
Las Vegas strip when a white Cadil-
lac pulled up next to them and gun-
fire erupted. Shakur was shot multiple
times and died days later.
The shooting unfolded shortly after
a casino brawl earlier in the evening
University, the University of Wash-
ington, and Seattle Children’s Research
involving Anderson, Shakur and their
associates.
There were many witnesses, but the
investigation quickly stalled, in part be-
cause those witnesses refused to coo-
perate, Las Vegas police said in the past.
That silence broke, to a point, in
2018, when Davis – saying he was ready
to speak publicly after a cancer diag-
nosis – admitted to being in the front
seat of the Cadillac. In an interview for a
BET show, he implicated his nephew in
the shooting, saying Anderson was one
of two people in the back seat.
Davis said the shots were fired from
the back of the car, though he stopped
short of naming the shooter, saying he
had to abide by the “code of the streets”.
But in his 2019 memoir, Davis said
he shared what he knew nearly a
Institute, checked milk samples from
50 mothers across the US.
7
decade earlier in closed-door meet-
ings with federal and local authorities
who were investigating the possibility
that Shakur’s slaying was linked to the
March 1997 drive-by shooting of his rap
rival, the Notorious BIG.
“They offered to let me go for run-
ning a ‘criminal enterprise’ and numer-
ous alleged murders for the truth about
the Tupac and Biggie murders,” Davis
said in his book. “They promised they
would shred the indictment and stop
the grand jury if I helped them out.”
At the time of their deaths, both
rappers were involved in an infam-
ous east coast-west coast rivalry that
primarily defined the hip-hop scene
during the mid-1990s. The feud was
ignited after Shakur was seriously
wounded in another shooting during a
robbery in the lobby of a midtown Man-
hattan hotel.
Shakur openly accused BIG and
Sean “Diddy” Combs of having prior
knowledge of the shooting, which both
vehemently denied.
Davis wrote that he “went ahead
and started answering their questions
about the events leading up to Tupac
getting shot”.
“I sang because they promised I
would not be prosecuted,” he said,
adding that he thought they were lying
about the deal. “But they kept their
word and stopped the indictment, tore
up the whole case. Nobody went to jail.”
It is unclear if Davis has been living
in the home Las Vegas police searched
this week and whether he was present
when officers descended on the prop-
erty. Las Vegas court records show
there has been an active warrant out
for his arrest since July 2022, when
he failed to appear in court on a drug
charge.
Brominated flame retardants are a
class of at least 75 chemicals used to
prevent combustion in consumer prod-
ucts and electronics. Some older ver-
sions of the chemicals were removed
from the marketplace in the 1970s be-
cause they were so toxic, and newer
iterations have raised health concerns.
Among other issues, many of the
compounds are linked to memory
impairment, increased impulsivity, im-
paired motor skills, decreased attention
and overall lower measures of intel-
ligence in children. Some of the chem-
icals may also be carcinogenic. Humans
are exposed to brominated flame retar-
dants when the chemicals break off
from the plastics, get in dust, and are
either breathed in or ingested.
In 2007, some states started enact-
ing bans on polybrominated diphenyl
ethers (PBDEs), one commonly used
subclass of the flame retardants,
prompting some in the industry to stop
using or producing them. The new re-
Continued on page 8

8 News
Continued from page 7
search found concentrations of PBDEs
in milk seem to be decreasing over time
– median levels in mothers in the Pa-
cific north-west region are about 70%
lower than researchers found in a sim-
ilar study 20 years ago.
The findings show “regulations
work for making breast milk safer”,
Schreder said, but she added that
New York to pay $13.7m to George Floyd
protesters arrested or beaten by police
Gloria Oladipo in New York and
agency
New York City has agreed to pay more
than $13m to thousands of people who
say they were arrested or beaten by
NYPD officers during racial justice pro-
tests in 2020.
On Wednesday, the city accepted
a sum of $13.7m to settle a class-
action lawsuit. The settlement, which
must be approved by a judge, would
be among the most expensive payouts
ever awarded in a suit over mass ar-
rests.
The civil rights lawsuit focuses on
18 different protests that took place
during racial justice demonstrations
in 2020, after the murder of George
Floyd by police in Minneapolis sparked
nationwide and international protests
over police misconduct and systemic
racism.
Attorneys with the National Law-
yers Guild, which represented the plain-
tiffs in New York, accused NYPD lead-
ers of depriving protesters of their first
amendment rights through a “coor-
dinated” campaign of indiscriminate
brutality and unlawful arrests.
Adama Sow, one of the named
plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said their group
of marchers were trapped by police
without warning. Sow and the other
arrestees were placed in zip ties until
their hands turned purple, they said,
then held in a sweltering city govern-
ment bus for several hours.
“It was so disorganized, but so
intentional,” Sow said. “They seemed
set on traumatizing everyone.”
Barack Obama releases summer reading list
in support of anti-book ban effort
Martin Pengelly in Washington
Recommending books to read this
summer, Barack Obama voiced support
for the Banned Books Club, an initiative
from the Digital Public Library of Amer-
ica (DPLA) aiming to fight flourishing
censorship of books in schools.
“Here’s some books that I’m reading
this summer,” the former president said
in a tweet. “Check them out and let me
know what I should be reading next.”
Among Obama’s recommended
reads for beach, porch or sun loung-
er were King: A Life, Jonathan Eig’s
new biography of Martin Luther King
it highlights how unregulated flame
retardants are still a problem.
As PBDEs have attracted increased
regulatory scrutiny and their health
risks have become clear, industry has
started switching to bromophenols
subclass. Though the two chemicals
are structurally similar and used for
the same purpose, bromophenols are
unregulated because so little is known
about their toxicity.
A protester is grabbed by a police officer in Manhattan in June 2020. Photograph: John Minchillo/AP
With certain exceptions, people ar-
rested or subjected to force by NYPD
officers at those protests will each be
eligible for $9,950 in compensation, ac-
cording to attorneys for the plaintiffs.
The agreement, one of many stem-
ming from the 2020 Black Lives Matter
protests, allows the city to avoid an
expensive and politically fraught trial.
In March, New York City has already
agreed to pay $6m to other protesters
who were arrested, detained and sub-
jected to excessive force during a pro-
test for George Floyd in the Bronx.
According to a lawsuit filed against
the NYPD in that case, 320 protesters
were subject to “kettling”, a contro-
Barack Obama in June. The former pres-
ident has called book bans ‘profoundly mis-
guided’. Photograph: Alexander Beltes/EPA
Jr; Birnam Wood, by the New Zeal-
and novelist Eleanor Catton; and The
Wager, David Grann’s nonfiction epic of
an 18th-century shipwreck.
Authorities in Republican states
have increasingly responded to pres-
However, like their predecessors,
bromophenols have been linked to
brain development disorders, and the
study found the chemicals in 88% of
samples.
The process by which chemical
companies slightly alter chemicals’
properties to make similar compounds
that evade regulation is called “regret-
table substitution”, and industry’s ac-
tions with brominated flame retardants
versial police tactic in which officers
encircle and press in upon groups of
protesters.
Protesters were then zip-tied, hit
with batons, and pepper-sprayed. Each
individual in that case will receive
about $21,000 from the settlement. An
additional $2,500 will be paid out to
protesters who were served a desk
appearance ticket, NBC News reported.
Separately, more than 600 people
have brought individual claims against
New York City related to police action
during the 2020 protests, according
to the city’s comptroller, Brad Lander.
Roughly half of them have resulted
in settlements and resolutions, costing
sure from rightwing groups to imple-
ment bans on books deemed unsuit-
able for schools.
Obama addressed the issue earlier
this week, in support of another effort,
Unite Against Book Bans, led by the
American Library Association (ALA).
Calling book bans “profoundly mis-
guided”, the former president wrote:
“Some of the books that shaped my
life – and the lives of so many others –
are being challenged by people who dis-
agree with certain ideas or perspective.
“It’s no coincidence that these
‘banned books’ are often written by
or feature people of color, indigenous
people, and members of the LGBTQ+
is a “classic” case of it, Schreder said.
“The parallels between these chem-
icals are extremely disturbing, and
we’re seeing bromophenols building up
in breast milk,” Schreder said. “I hope
we can learn our lesson this time and
put policies in place that address the
entire class and make sure chemicals
used in products are known to be safe.”
The European Union and New York
recently passed bans of the entire class
the city nearly $12m to date.
The latest settlement comes as
many other US cities are negotiating
their own deals with protesters who say
they were injured while advocating for
racial justice.
As of May, at least 19 cities had de-
cided to pay out more than $80m total
to those who sustained injuries from
police, such as being teargassed or shot
at close range with projectiles. Many
more cases are ongoing.
The number of settlements stem-
ming from police misconduct during
2020 protests is unprecedented, ex-
perts say.
“I have never seen a wave of settle-
community.”
According to the ALA, in US public
schools last year “a record 2,571 unique
titles were targeted for censorship …
a 38% increase from the 1,858 unique
titles targeted for censorship in 2021”.
On Thursday, Obama wrote: “With
so many books being banned across
the country, the DPLA has launched
the Banned Book Club to give read-
ers access to e-books that have been
banned.”
According to the DPLA, the Banned
Books Club uses “GPS-based geo-tar-
geting … [to] establish virtual libraries
in communities across the US where
books have been banned.
The Guardian Friday 21 July 2023
of brominated flame retardants in elec-
tronic displays or enclosures, while the
state of Washington this year enacted a
wider ban on their use in electronics.
Safer alternatives exist, Schreder
added. Best Buy recently stopped using
PBDEs in products it manufactures,
and did research to find the safest alter-
native.
“That is an example of how it should
be done,” Schreder said.
ments for police brutality like this in
American history,” Justin Hansford, a
professor at Howard University School
of Law, and executive director of the
Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center,
told the Guardian in May.
Wylie Stecklow, an attorney and
part of the legal team who represented
the protesters in the latest class-action
lawsuit in New York, told the Guardian
that the settlement represented “jus-
tice” for protesters.
“This brings a lot of justice to almost
1,400 people who went out into the
streets and put their bodies on the line
to bring awareness to police brutality,”
Stecklow said.
Many protesters are still dealing
with the physical and mental conse-
quences of police misconduct during
2020 protests, Stecklow said.
“There are people who are afraid
to go out to protests,” Stecklow said.
“There are people whose wrists were in
flex-cuffs for so long and so tight that
they still have numbing and bad feel-
ings in their wrists and their thumbs
and their fingers.”
Stecklow said the settlement
should serve as “red flag” to city lead-
ers on police conduct.
“They would have to examine why
it is that the police can act in such a
way that creates lawsuits that result in
multibillion-dollar settlements,” Steck-
low said.
The Associated Press contributed re-
porting
“When a reader is within a com-
munity served by a library that has
been forced to ban a book, they can
visit TheBannedBookClub.info to see
the exact books that have been banned
in their area. Then they can download
those books for free on any handheld
device via the Palace e-reader app.”
John S Bracken, executive director
of the DPLA, said: “Our mission is to
ensure access to knowledge for all and
we believe in the power of technology
to further that access.
“Today book bans are one of the
greatest threats to our freedom, and we
Continued on page 10
 The Guardian Friday 21 July 2023

10 News

Continued from page 8 have created the Banned Book Club to and digital technology to ensure that they want to read.”
leverage the dual powers of libraries every American can access the books

Catch her if you can: viral surfboard-swiping

otter is on the loose, and fans love it
Abené Clayton in Los Angeles
A five-year-old sea otter who gained
notoriety for commandeering surf-
boards has continued her reign as a
viral sensation as she’s managed to
avoid multiple efforts to capture her.
For days, staff with California’s
department of fish and wildlife (CDFW)
and the Monterey Bay aquarium have
attempted to catch otter 841 – but she
has given them the slip each time.
The mammal’s actions have de-
lighted online commenters who have
cheered her on as she jumps on and off
CDFW boards and avoids the nets that
staff try to lure her into. But experts
emphasize that 841 must be caught for
her own wellbeing and safety because
she’s been exhibiting worrying beha-
vior for a sea otter in the wild.
“It’s highly unusual behavior,” said
Kevin Connor, a spokesperson for the
Monterey Bay aquarium. “There are
about 3,000 southern sea otters in cen-
tral California. This is the only incident
taking place right now.”
The aquatic mammal rose to promi-
nence for her unusual interactions with
surfers. She’s been photographed and
filmed atop boards that she’s seized
from riders and most recently has
been spotted eluding the CDFW’s nets.
Photographer Mark Woodward, who
goes by Native Santa Cruz on social
media, and the environmental studies
professor Dustin Mulvaney have been
sharing 841’s latest exploits through
photos posted to social media.
Otter 841’s online fans describe her
Otter 841 was born in captivity but was released into the wild in 2020. Photograph: Laird
Henkel/California department of fish and wildlife
as a creature taking ownership of her
watery home and avoiding capture be-
cause deep down she knows that cap-
tivity awaits her. Her antics have even
inspiredT-shirts and tote bags depicting
841 flying her knubby middle finger.
Connor with the Monterey Bay
aquarium, known for its work with
otters, says that he is not surprised
by 841’s growing cult following nor
the fact that people are rooting for
her to remain wild and free. Still,
he cautions against projecting human
values and motivations on to 841, be-
cause the behaviors she’s exhibiting are
potentially dangerous for her and the
humans she meets.
“The appeal that otters have is that
they are incredibly cute to human eyes
– it’s a superpower they have,” Connor
said. “We equate them to our pets and
you just wanna hug them. But they are
wild animals that bite through shellfish
with their mouths.”
Sea otters are naturally wary of
humans and will usually move away
from them, but in 841’s case, she’s
been swimming right up to people. Ex-
perts warn that this behavior is a sign
that she has formed a positive asso-
ciation with humans, something that
her caretakers have been trying to pre-
vent since she was a pup.
Otter 841’s mother, known as 723,
was taught how to survive in the
wild by older otters who were a part
of the Monterey Bay aquarium’s sur-
rogacy program. In 2017, she was re-
leased into open waters but was recap-
tured the following year after the aqua-
rium received reports that she was
approaching kayaks. Aquarium staff
learned that people were feeding her
squid and bait fish, which led to a posi-
tive association with humans and a re-
liance on them for food.
Once 723 was brought to the Univer-
sity of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC),
her caretakers realized she was preg-
nant with the now infamous pup. Otter
723 gave birth to 841 at the university Otter 841 is beloved by locals but
and, since her birth, UCSC staff worked scientists are concerned about her beha-
to make sure she could survive in the vior. Photograph: Laird Henkel/California
wild and would not be dependent on department of fish and wildlife
nor friendly with humans.
In 2020, 841 was released into Moss the US Fish and Wildlife Service said.
Landing, a popular surfing and nature- If she is caught, 841 will un-
watching area on the coast of Mon- dergo a medical examination before
terey county. For the first year she lived she’s permanently housed in a zoo
as a normal otter does: distrustful of or aquarium, where she will become
humans and regularly on the hunt for an “ambassador for her species” that
shellfish. teaches the public about otter history
But in September 2022, after re- and the important role they play in the
ports that she was approaching people, aquatic ecosystem, Connor said.
the US fish and wildlife service tried
to undo 841’s positive association
with humans through a process called
hazing, but that has not deterred the
mischievous critter.
“With her mom there was clear evi- The appeal that otters
dence that 723 was being fed; we don’t have is that they are
have that clear evidence this time,”
Connor said.
incredibly cute to
Catching 841 could take weeks, ac- human eyes – it’s a
cording to the US Fish and Wildlife superpower they
Service, which is working with the
CDFW and the Monterey Bay aqua- have
rium to nab the animal. Otters are quick
and nimble in the water, making them Kevin Connor of the
tough to catch. If water conditions pre- Monterey Bay aquarium
vent crews from getting 841 or if she
stops her behavior, the capture effort
will be suspended or called off entirely,

Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect’s arrest

‘elated’ victims’ families, says attorney
Edward Helmore in New York
John Ray, the Long Island attorney who
has waged a decade-long campaign to
solve the riddle of possibly 10 murder
victims found near Gilgo Beach, has
said the arrest of the accused serial
killer Rex Heuermann has “elated” the
families of two victims he represents.
Ray’s involvement in the case cen-
ters on Shannan Gilbert, a sex worker
and aspiring actor who disappeared
aged 23 in May 2010 from a house
several miles from Gilgo Beach. Her
disappearance triggered a police inves-
tigation that later uncovered the re-
mains of four women in their 20s who
had been wrapped in burlap sacks and
came to be known as the “Gilgo Four”.
Last week, the 59-year old Man-
hattan architect Rex Heuermann was
arrested and charged with the murders
of three of the women – Melissa Barthe-
lemy, Megan Waterman and Amber
Lynn Costello. Police say Heuermann
is the “prime suspect” in the murder
John Ray, who represents the families of Shannan Gilbert and Jessica Taylor, speaks at a
press conference on 14 July. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-
Barnes. Heuermann has pleaded not
guilty.
But six more sets of remains were
found in the area, including those of
Gilbert and Jessica Taylor, whose fami-
lies are represented by Ray. Those
cases have never been resolved. Gil-
bert’s family, and Ray, have long main-
tained she was murdered after meeting
a client in Oak Beach, seven miles from
Gilgo. Police in Suffolk county said her
death was a “horrible accident”.
Last week, Heuermann’s DNA was
entered into a crime database – a move
that has the potential to link him to
other murder investigations. But none
of the developments over the weekend
have shed light on the deaths of the
other women, man and child whose re-
mains were found in the area.
Ray welcomed the multi-agency
taskforce formed early last year that, 18
months later, led to the arrest of Heuer-
mann. He has nothing but praise for
the Suffolk county district attorney, Ray
Tierney, and the police commissioner,
Rodney Harrison.
“They changed the entire approach
from what the police had been doing,”
he said.
For a decade before the taskforce
was formed, he said, “the Suffolk police
had acted in complete isolation. They
had old eyes looking at the same case,
they pushed out the FBI as well as other
police departments that have infor-
mation.” Those included the New York
police department and the Jersey City
and Nassau county police, all of which
had information.
While his misgivings have been
somewhat satiated by the recent arrest
of Heuermann, Ray said that “the light
that it brings also casts a shadow over
A sign pointing to Gilgo Beach stands
posted along Ocean Parkway in Babylon,
New York. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/
the past work of the police department
that we always said was a problem and
inadequate”.
The problems Ray identified in-
cluded a series of scandals inside the
Suffolk police department which ham-
pered the investigation.
The disgraced former chief of
the Suffolk county police department
James Burke was long accused of keep-
ing the FBI out of the loop on the Gilgo
case in part, it was alleged, because the
federal law enforcement agency was
then investigating him for corruption.
Continued on page 11
Friday 21 July 2023 The Guardian
Continued from page 10
Burke had been promoted through
the ranks of the department despite
scandals that included him sleeping
with a prostitute, in uniform, in his
patrol car. Burke was described by col-
leagues as a “psychopath” who thought
he was “untouchable”. In 2016, Burke
was jailed for 46 months for battering
Christopher Loeb, a thief who stole a
bag from Burke’s police cruiser that
contained porn and sex toys.
“He didn’t want the FBI involved be-
cause he was turf-obsessed and didn’t
want another agency to get credit – and
was predisposed against the feds,” says
Gus Garcia-Roberts, author of Jimmy
The King: Murder, Vice and the Reign
of a Dirty Cop.
“After the Loeb beating, which
sparked a federal investigation shortly
after it occurred in 2012, his hatred of
the feds grew even more. He was deter-
mined to keep them out of his juris-
diction as much as possible, which had
disastrous effects on the Gilgo inves-
tigation as well as any law enforcement
attempts to stem the rise of MS-13 in
Long Island.”
If the Suffolk police had not been
isolated, they might not have ignored a
Powerball winning ticket for $1.08bn jackpot
sold in California
Abené Clayton in Los Angeles
and agencies
A winning ticket has been sold in Cali-
fornia for the Powerball jackpot worth
an estimated $1.08bn, the sixth larg-
est in American lottery history and
the third largest ever for that game in
particular.
The winning ticket for Wednes-
day night’s drawing was sold in down-
town Los Angeles at Las Palmitas Mini
Market.
On Thursday, more than a dozen
cameras stood outside the small store,
which is located in the heart of LA’s
dense and bustling fashion district.
The store’s owner and her family
were wearing yellow Powerball shirts
and grinned as they pulled double duty:
posing for photos and interviews and
ringing up customers who stopped into
store for snacks and water.
A sign hanging above the store’s en-
trance once read “millionaire” but on
Thursday had its first letter covered,
with a fresh “b” affixed instead.
Carolyn Becker, a representative for
the California lottery, said the winner
probably will not be known for weeks
or months.
Final ticket sales pushed the jack-
pot beyond its earlier estimate of $1bn
Judge orders Florida to stop putting children
in nursing homes
Richard Luscombe
A pediatric doctor who saw first-hand
News
key tip from the pimp for Amber Lynn
Costello giving cops a general descrip-
tion of a 6ft 4in “ogre” as well as the
make and model of the luxury pickup
he drove. “Isolating the department and
keeping it away from use of other agen-
cies was a mixture of pride and bureau-
cratic tradition,” Ray said.
On Wednesday, Newsday reported
that the vehicle, a green Chevy Ava-
lanche, had been brought to Suffolk
police headquarters on a flatbed. The
critical piece of evidence had been
seized under an FBI warrant by the
sheriff’s department in Chester county,
South Carolina. Both Heuermann and
his brother, Craig, own property on a
secluded road in Chester.
But the arrest of Heuermann, whom
Ray described as “a Tyrannosaurus rex,
a beast”, has raised more questions.
Earlier this year, Ray, his partner and
daughter all received sinister phone
calls in the middle of the night. That
struck a chord at Heuermann’s arraign-
ment when prosecutors alleged that
the suspect had been behind a number
of taunting phone calls to family mem-
bers of the Gilgo Four after they went
missing.
In one call, the caller told Ray
they hoped he was enjoying his pizza.
A person shows their scan card for their personal selection numbers for a Powerball drawing on 7 November 2022, at a convenience store
in Renfrew, Pennsylvania. Photograph: Keith Srakocic/AP
to $1.08bn at the time of the drawing,
moving it from the seventh largest to
the sixth largest US lottery jackpot ever
won.
The winner can choose either the
total jackpot paid out in yearly incre-
ments or a $558.1m, one-time lump sum
before taxes. Lottery winners typically
the misery caused by Florida’s “anti-
quated” practice of locking medically
fragile children in nursing facilities, and
preventing parents and caregivers from
Seconds later, a Dominos pizza, which
had not been ordered by Ray or
his family, arrived at his home. The
fact that it was a pizza box and
crusts that provided investigators with
Heuermann’s DNA that they was then
matched to the Gilgo crime scene
strikes Ray as suspicious.
“This guy who has been pursuing us
is not just your typical crank caller,” he
said. “Remember that Heuermann is a
taunter, and this person was delivering
loud messages that he was surveilling
us.”
Ray has further posited that a
woman may have been involved in one
of the unsolved cases. During a search
of the beach area, the remains of a cur-
rently unidentified woman, referred to
as Jane Doe No 3, and her 10-month-
old daughter, were found. The child, he
said, was found wrapped in a blanket
– an act he said is more likely to have
been done by a woman than a man.
But while Ray does not believe that
Heuermann was involved with Gilbert’s
disappearance “at this time”, there re-
mains the mystery of who, based on a
rambling 21-minute call to 911 in which
she said “there’s somebody after me”,
may have chased her into a swamp
where, as police theorize, she died of
choose the one-time lump sum.
The game’s abysmal odds of 1 in
292.2m are designed to build big prizes
that draw more players. The largest
Powerball jackpot was $2.04bn.
That jackpot was won in November
by a player from the Los Angeles area.
The prize winner, Edwin Castro, went
looking after them at home, has wel-
comed a court order ending the policy.
District court judge Donald Middle-
brooks rebuked the state in a scath-
hypothermia or drowned.
An independent autopsy commis-
sioned by her family found that her
death was consistent with a homicide
after finding a fractured thyroid bone in
her neck. Never answered, too, was why
Gilbert’s purse with a photo ID inside,
her jeans and shoes, as well as a cell-
phone, were found a considerable dis-
tance from her body.
Police searching Heuermann’s run-
down property in Massapequa Park
and several nearby storage lockers have
recovered more than 200 guns, along
with what appeared to be creepy paint-
ings and a doll with a red dress and
sash. On Tuesday, the police commis-
sioner, Rodney Harrison, said the guns
were one reason they elected to arrest
him on 5th Avenue in Manhattan.
“Anytime somebody has that type
of arsenal we have some concerns,” he
told Fox News.
Separately, Tierney told CBS News
he was “confident that we’re going to be
able to eventually charge that fourth
murder” of Brainard-Barnes. Heuer-
mann is also being investigated for the
murders of six other victims whose
bodies were found near Gilgo Beach,
including potentially Gilbert.
“Shannan Gilbert triggered the
with the one-time lump sum payment,
pocketing more than $997.6m.
Becker, the California lottery repre-
sentative, said there was no magic
answer as to why California had its
second big jackpot in just a few months.
She did say because of its population
size, the state has a lot of players.
ing 79-page ruling for its “systemic
institutionalization” of the children,
and flagrant breaches of the Americans
with Disabilities Act (ADA) which com-
11
investigation, and she was the only one
where they had strong circumstantial
evidence that she was murdered. The
police department willfully neglected
that case, and willfully offered a mis-
leading narrative for 12 years that it was
an accident,” Ray said.
He continued: “Gilbert was a sex
worker in a cemetery of sex workers.
She was a walking among them. What
kind of sex worker calls 911 and repeats
‘they’re trying to kill me’ inside a client’s
house. She runs out, and that’s the per-
fectly rational thing. She’s knocking on
doors and doing everything you’d do if
you were truly frightened.”
But as police continue to collect evi-
dence against Heuermann in the case
of the Gilgo Four, Ray is not making any
predictions about whether he could
eventually be linked to the other sex
workers, including Gilbert.
“We don’t have any evidence that
Heuermann was involved with Gilbert
or the others,” he said. “But he had the
capacity, the motive and opportunity,
so there’s a reasonable possibility and
there needs to be an examination of
what occurred in the investigation up
to the time that the taskforce came in
because there are other potential mur-
derers on Long Island.”
The winner for Wednesday’s draw-
ing has 12 months to come forward.
Angelica Menjivar, the daughter of
the store’s owner, Maria Menjivar, said
her family had run the shop for seven
years. “It’s like any other day, life goes
on,” she said of the frenzy she and her
family were in the midst of. “Money is
not everything,” she said. “But we are
happy for the winner.”
Lottery winnings are subject to fed-
eral taxes. But California is one of just
eight states that do not tax lottery win-
nings. The state does however take 20%
from the winning for the US Internal
Revenue Service.
California law requires the identity
of Wednesday’s Powerball winner to be
disclosed, though that had not hap-
pened as of Thursday morning. The
person with the ticket has 12 months
to submit a claim, which will be vetted
by lottery officials.
Before Wednesday’s drawing, the
last time someone had won the Power-
ball jackpot was on 19 April for a top
prize of nearly $253m. Since then, no
one had won the grand prize.
Powerball is played in 45 states, as
well as Washington DC, Puerto Rico and
the US Virgin Islands.
The Associated Press contributed re-
porting
pels care to take place in the least
restrictive environment available.
Continued on page 12

12
Continued from page 11
Pediatric expert Mary Ehlenbach
toured three nursing homes to compile
a report used to guide the court’s deci-
sion, and praised Middlebrooks for an
“amazingly comprehensive” ruling that
ended an 11-year legal tussle between
Florida health officials and the justice
department, which accused the state of
consigning the children to a life of lone-
liness and isolation.
“The site visits were emotionally
taxing, particularly in light of the fact
that I care for children with similar
conditions and statuses who live with
their families and are integrated into
the community,” said Ehlenbach, med-
ical director of the pediatric complex
care program at the University of Wis-
consin-Madison’s school of medicine
and public health.
“To envision some of my own pa-
tients being forced to live in an insti-
tution, that really hit home for me. It
was challenging.”
In testimony during a two-week
hearing in May, she said she witnessed
children abandoned for long periods in
cribs with high metal bars on all four
sides, with just an electronic tablet to
engage them.
“One [child] was sitting alone in a
stroller at the edge of an open common
area,” she wrote in the report. “When
I interacted with her, she tracked me
with her eyes and smiled at me, clearly
engaged with the interaction.”
At another facility, she saw a boy
make a bolt for freedom as soon as a
railing on his bed was lowered. It was,
she said, another example of a child
with “minimal medical needs” unneces-
sarily residing in a skilled nursing facil-
ity.
And according to the state’s own
inspection records, other children were
left for hours in urine-soaked diapers
Trump under investigation for civil rights
conspiracy in January 6 inquiry
Hugo Lowell in Washington
Federal prosecutors investigating
Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the
2020 election results have evidence to
charge the former president with three
crimes, including section 241 of the
US legal code that makes it unlawful
to conspire to violate civil rights, two
people familiar with the matter said.
The potential charges detailed in a
target letter sent to Trump by prose-
cutors from the office of special counsel
Jack Smith, who also charged Trump
with retaining classified documents last
month, was the clearest signal of an
imminent indictment.
Prosecutors appear to have evi-
dence to charge Trump with obstruc-
tion of an official proceeding and con-
spiracy to defraud the United States
based on the target letter, two statutes
that the House select committee ex-
amining the January 6 Capitol attack
issued criminal referrals for last year.
The target letter to Trump iden-
tified a previously unconsidered third
charge, the sources said. That is section
241 of title 18 of the US code, which
makes it unlawful to conspire to threat-
en or intimidate a person in the “free
exercise” of any right or privilege under
News
Pediatric expert Mary Ehlenbach said she witnessed children abandoned for long periods in cribs with high metal bars and just an
electronic tablet to engage them. Photograph: OJO Images Ltd/Alamy
because staff were “busy” elsewhere.
“The approach of institutionalizing
children is really quite antiquated,” she
told the Guardian, noting that advances
in technology, and a commitment to
the proper funding of community care,
had led other states away from the
practice.
“The vast majority of children with
medical complexity live at home, gen-
erally with their biological families,
sometimes in medical foster homes. So
I think the fact that [Florida] relies on
the facilities, and it appeared they were
extremely committed to keeping them,
is not in line with the national land-
scape of care of children with medical
complexity.”
Some parents, she said, were wrong-
ly told their children would require
private bedrooms and round-the-clock
care at home, even though many
Trump was notified of the potential criminal charges against him in the federal January 6 case on Sunday. Photograph: Charlie Riedel/AP
the “Constitution or laws of the United
States”.
The statute, enacted to protect the
civil rights of Black voters targeted
by white supremacy groups after the
US civil war, is unusual because it
is typically used by prosecutors in
law enforcement misconduct and hate
shared rooms in the nursing homes.
Florida has about 140 so-called “fra-
gile” children living in three state-li-
censed facilities in Broward and Pinel-
las counties, according to the Miami
Herald.
Lawyers for the state argued that
in almost every case it was in the
child’s best interests to be cared for in
the nursing homes, despite a number
of families seeking discharge to their
homes or community care.
They portrayed the legal pro-
ceedings with federal authorities as a
battle of sovereignty, and claimed that
a shortage of nurses meant it would be
too difficult for the children to be cared
for outside of the nursing facilities.
Middlebrooks was unimpressed, ac-
cepting the assertion there was a nurs-
ing shortage, but not the argument that
nothing could be done about it. He also
crime prosecutions, though its use has
expanded in recent years.
What the potential charges means
for Trump is unclear.
Prosecutors have been examining
various instances of Trump pressuring
officials like his former vice-president
Mike Pence, but Trump’s efforts to ob-
criticized a pediatric doctor who gave
evidence for the state, whose expe-
rience was limited only to hospital set-
tings, as “not credible”.
“Most of these children could thrive
in their own homes, nurtured by their
own families. Or if not at home, then
in some other community-based set-
ting that would support their psycho-
logical and emotional health, while also
attending to their physical needs,” he
wrote in the ruling.
“Unjustified institutionalization of
individuals with disabilities is unac-
ceptable, especially given the advances
in technology and in the provision
of home-based care. Any family who
wants to care for their child at home
should be able to do so.”
His ruling orders changes in proce-
dures in order to keep children out of
nursing homes, but it is not yet clear ex-
struct the transfer of power could also
be construed as conspiring to defraud
voters more generally.
The other two statutes, meanwhile,
suggest a core part of the case against
Trump is focused on the so-called fake
electors scheme and the former pres-
ident’s efforts to use the fake slates in
The Guardian Friday 21 July 2023
actly what it means for the 140 already
there.
The Florida agency for healthcare
administration said in a statement to
the Guardian that it would seek an
immediate stay of the order, and would
file an appeal.
“The judge’s failure to understand
the law is demonstrable in his order.
The court’s conclusion that the state’s
actions or omissions force children to
live in nursing homes against their
parent’s wishes is unsupported and re-
futed by the evidence presented at
trial,” the statement said.
“During the trial, witnesses testified
that their medically complex children
were in nursing homes for various rea-
sons unrelated to the state or its poli-
cies. Not one parent testified that they
are ready and willing to take a child
home but cannot do so because of the
state’s actions or omissions.
“The court’s conclusion that the
state’s actions or omissions forced
children to live in nursing homes
against their parents’ wishes is a
generalization unsupported and even
refuted by the evidence presented at
trial.”
Ehlenbach, however, has no doubt
the ruling was the correct one.
“The best thing for the individual
children institutionalized in Florida
would be to have home and com-
munity-based services so they can be
integrated into society, be reunited
with their families and live their best
life,” she said.
“On a broader scale, I would hope
that other states will take notice that it’s
imperative for home and community-
based services to be prioritized for
children with medical complexity.”
a conspiracy to stop the congressional
certification of Joe Biden’s election win
on 6 January 2021.
The target letter did not cite any
seditious conspiracy, incitement of
insurrection or deprivation of rights
under color of law – other areas for
which legal experts have suggested
Trump could have legal risk.
A spokesperson for the Trump cam-
paign did not respond to a request for
comment about the contents of the
target letter, though a senior adviser to
Trump did not dispute that section 241
was listed when reached late on Tues-
day night.
The New York Times also reported
the inclusion of the statute.
Trump, who is facing unprec-
edented legal peril as he leads the
pack of candidates for the 2024 Repub-
lican presidential nomination, called
the target letter “HORRIFYING NEWS”
in a post on his Truth Social plat-
form, where he first disclosed the devel-
opment.
Last year, the House select com-
mittee that investigated the Capitol
attack concluded that Trump com-
mitted multiple crimes in an attempt
to reverse his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden,
Continued on page 13
Friday 21 July 2023 The Guardian
Continued from page 12
including conspiracy to defraud the
United States and obstruction of an
official proceeding.
The committee issued symbolic
criminal referrals to the justice depart-
ment, although at that point the jus-
tice department had since stepped up
High temps and hot tempers: US road rage
boils over as country sizzles
Maya Yang
Road rage incidents appear to be on the
rise as the country grapples with soar-
ing temperatures amid oppressive heat-
waves.
Despite road rage incidents occur-
ring due to a multitude of reasons, the
rise in longer and hotter heatwaves
this summer appears to be a major
factor resulting in a spike in aggressi-
vebehaviors on the road.
In Texas, which is facing record-
breaking heatwaves and triple-digit
temperatures, a 37-year-old woman was
shot in the head and killed last Monday
in the city of Hurst, in what her hus-
band said was the result of a road rage
incident.
Speaking to CBS, Paola Nunez Li-
nares’s husband, Zane Jones, said that
they were on their way to work that
evening when the fatal incident hap-
pened.
Jones, who was trying to pass a car,
said: “I completed the pass. I got into
the right lane, and he started to zoom
past me … But then he leveled off when
he got to me, and he like moved over,
like pushing me but not touching me
because I moved over too.”
He said that he then showed his
middle finger and thought that the
other driver was responding similarly,
until he realized that the driver had ac-
tually pulled out a gun.
“He slowed down until we were
about like that, and he shot through
my back left window and hit my wife in
the back of the head,” Jones said, who
added that he believed the driver fired
at least three times.
In another fatal road rage inci-
dent in New York, what started as a
minor collision between two vehicles
led to the first driver slashing the other
driver’s tires before being mowed down
– and killed – by the second driver.
The collision between a sedan and
a pickup truck in midtown Manhattan
last week led to an argument between
the two drivers, both of whom were
male. NBC New York reports that the
altercation quickly escalated as the
pickup truck’s driver, 54-year-old Ro-
Alabama due to resume executions despite
botching three last year
Martin Pengelly in Washington
Alabama is due to resume executions
on Thursday despite botching three
News
its criminal investigation with the addi-
tion of new prosecutors in spring 2022
before they were folded into the special
counsel’s office.
House investigators also concluded
that there was evidence for prosecutors
to charge Trump with conspiracy to de-
fraud and obstruction of an official pro-
ceeding. They also issued referrals for
Researchers found that when temperatures passed 90F, aggressive driver behavior increased. Photograph: RapidEye/Getty Images/
iStockphoto
berto Velez Alvarez, took a knife and
slashed the tires of the sedan, according
to police.
In response, the sedan’s driver,
28-year-old Andre Mosby, allegedly
stepped on the accelerator and pinned
Alvarez against a building wall. Alvarez
was taken to the hospital and later died
of his injuries.
In recent decades, various studies
have emerged that indicate a clear
correlation between aggressive road
behavior and hotter temperatures.
A 1984 study conducted during the
spring and summer in Phoenix, Ari-
zona, found a direct linear increase in
aggressive horn honking with increas-
ing temperatures, particularly among
drivers who had their windows down
– an indication that they did not have a
working air conditioner.
“Our research … involved having a
car stop at a light at an intersection with
a median that disallowed anyone to go
around the driver – who sat still through
a green light. We found that people only
honked in short bursts (the polite re-
minder honk) when the temperatures
were below 80 [degrees fahrenheit], but
when they got above 90, drivers whose
last year and after a review of capital
punishment practices in the southern
state was largely kept from public view.
The inmate set to die by lethal
injection by 6am on Friday is James
incitement of insurrection, which was
not listed in the target letter.
Should prosecutors charge Trump
in the federal January 6 investigation,
the case could go to trial much more
quickly than the Mar-a-Lago classified
documents case – before the 2024 elec-
tion – because pre-trial proceedings
would not be delayed by rules go-
path was blocked increasingly leaned
on their horn for longer and longer
blasts, and occasionally made hand sig-
nals of the sort they don’t teach you in
driver’s education,” Douglas Kenrick, a
psychology professor at Arizona State
University and co-author of the study,
said.
Another study published by re-
searchers in 2018 echoed similar disco-
veries. The study examined fatal traf-
fic crashes in the US from May to Sep-
tember of 2001 to 2011 and found a 3.4%
increase on heatwave days versus non-
heatwave days.
Speaking to the Guardian, Leigh
Richardson, director of the Brain
Performance Center in Texas, explained
the various physiological impacts that
hot temperature can have on drivers.
“Research shows a link between
aggression and extreme heat and it can
manifest in your daily life, affecting the
way you drive, making judgment errors.
Intense heat puts stress on our organs.
The heart can start to beat faster, the
brain gets thrown into the fight-flight-
freeze cycle threatening our psycho-
logical safety,” said Richardson.
“When we feel threatened we can
Barber. Now 54, he was convicted of the
murder of Dorothy Epps, who was 75, in
2001.
Maya Foa, joint executive director
of Reprieve, a human rights non-profit,
verning national security materials.
Trump was charged last month for
retaining national security materials
and obstructing the government’s ef-
forts to retrieve them. Trump and his
co-defendant, his valet Walt Nauta, who
was charged with conspiring to ob-
struct and making false statements to
the FBI, have both pleaded not guilty.
become more impulsive and reactive.
Getting into a car that registers 108 de-
grees [fahrenheit] at the end of a long
day, thinking of what errands must be
completed on the way home, is over-
whelming and the heat fatigues us.
When someone cuts us off on the
road, or won’t let us change lanes, our
brain can quickly switch into the fight
cycle, causing us to react in an agitated
manner,” she added.
Stephen Benning, a psychology pro-
fessor at the University of Nevada,
Las Vegas, said hot temperatures
probably magnify perceived threats
among drivers, in turn triggering their
physiological responses including their
breathing speeds.
“[Drivers can] possibly breathe
faster if they perceive their chest tigh-
tening up in some kind of way as their
body just kind of shrinks in trying to
not be as exposed to the heat. Sweat-
ing is definitely a big one and the
possibility of heart rate increases as
you try to circulate the blood faster
to help yourself cool off through in-
creased blood flow,” Benning said.
With temperatures across the coun-
try continuing to rise, experts have of-
told the Guardian: “This could be one in
what has been a string of disastrously
botched lethal injection executions in
Alabama.
“What we have seen time and time
13
The target letter to Trump comes
weeks before the Fulton county dis-
trict attorney, Fani Willis, is expected
to charge Trump and his allies for their
efforts to overturn the 2020 election re-
sults in the state of Georgia, the Guar-
dian has previously reported.
fered various ways to prevent road rage.
One tactic is to redirect one’s
thoughts and reappraise the magnitude
of the threat.
“Recognizing that that threat has
likely already passed if it’s someone
driving really aggressively … and saying
to yourself ‘It’s already passed, the
threat is gone, I’m letting them go
ahead’ [helps]. Reappraisal of what
seems to be a threatening situation
into a non-threatening situation can
then help your breathing become more
regular and your thinking to become
clearer rather than getting caught up in
how much you want to hurt the other
person or get even with them,” Benning
said.
To Richardson, staying hydrated is
key. “The brain weighs 3lb and is
approximately 80% water, and cannot
store water. Keeping your brain hy-
drated throughout the day can protect
your psychological safety,” she said.
Other tactics include using sun
shades for windshields and being aware
that other drivers may be in a worse
mood on a hot day, said Kenrick.
“Count to 10 before raising one of
those hand signals to someone who
honks at you. I personally try to think of
aggressive drivers the way I think about
guard dogs: when they bark I don’t take
it personally – just think, ‘Down boy,’” he
said.
When someone cuts
us off on the road, our
brain can quickly
switch into the fight
cycle, causing us to
react in an agitated
manner
Leigh Richardson of the
Brain Performance Center
in Texas
again in Alabama but also across the US
is prisoners repeatedly put through tor-
turous procedures as the state seeks to
Continued on page 14

14
Continued from page 13
end their lives. And even for suppor-
ters of capital punishment, the idea
that people will be tortured should be
anathema.”
The severity of Barber’s crime is not
in question. But Epps’s granddaughter,
Sarah Gregory, has spoken of how she
came to forgive Barber for a murder he
used a hammer to commit, while high
on crack, alcohol and painkillers.
In autumn 2020, in a letter reported
by the Atlantic, Gregory wrote: “I am
tired Jimmy. I am tired. I am tired of
carrying this pain, hate and rage in my
heart. I can’t do it any more. I have to do
this and truly forgive you.”
Barber wrote back: “Receiving your
letter caused me to break down and
sob for several long minutes. You sweet
wonderful person! I can’t tell you how
much that means to me that you have
that kind of spirit in you.”
The two went on to forge a friend-
ship. Regardless, Alabama aims to put
Barber to death.
Its recent record is not good. On 28
July last year, it took officials more than
three hours to kill Joe Nathan James Jr.
On 22 September and 17 November, the
executions of Alan Miller and Kenneth
Smith had to be abandoned.
Foa said: “Lethal injection is de-
signed to look like a clean, medical
process. But lethal injection executions
go wrong all the time. In Alabama,
these have been demonstrably, miser-
ably botched executions. Joe Nathan
James Jr’s execution took three-and-a-
half hours, prison officials repeatedly
trying and failing to get access to a
vein.”
Anti-death penalty campaigners,
prominently including Foa and Re-
prieve, have targeted the supply of
Brazilian constitution translated into
Indigenous language for first time
Constance Malleret in Rio de Ja-
neiro
The Brazilian constitution has gained
its first ever official translation into an
Indigenous language, in what has been
hailed as a historic moment for the
country and its native populations.
The translation into Nheengatu was
unveiled on Wednesday in São Ga-
briel da Cachoeira, a town deep in
the Amazon, in a ceremony attended
by Brazilian authorities and Indigenous
leaders.
“Today is a milestone in our coun-
try’s constitutional history,” said Rosa
Weber, the chief justice of the supreme
court, which acts as the guardian of the
constitution.
Brazil’s Indigenous movement
played an active role in enshrining the
recognition and protection of their cul-
ture and way of life in the 1988 consti-
tution, which was drafted by an elected
constituent assembly as the country
emerged from a two-decades-long mili-
tary dictatorship.
But until now, Indigenous Brazil-
ians have never been able to read up on
their constitutional rights in a language
of their own. Also known as the Ama-
zonian general language, Nheengatu is
the only living modern version of Tupi
and a lingua franca used to commu-
News / World News
Alabama's lethal injection chamber at Holman correctional facility in Atmore, Alabama, in 2002. Photograph: Dave Martin/AP
lethal injection drugs, forcing states to
seek new sources.
Foa said: “It’s really important to
note that … the medicines were never
designed to be used for lethal injec-
tions. When you use them in this way
… without medical experts involved,
buying drugs off the black market, un-
der-regulated processes, guessing all of
the provisions that make medicine safe
… then to an extent it is bound to go
wrong.
“So Alabama is a case, in the last
three executions, that’s pretty stag-
gering. But they did a review of this
and then opted to do the same thing
again, only to strap the prisoner down
for a longer time.”
Lawyers for Barber, who this week
filed a last-ditch federal appeal, have
cited the botched Alabama executions
The Brazilian minister for Indigenous peoples, Sonia Guajajara, left, and Rosa Weber, chief justice of the supreme court, during the launch
ceremony of the translation on 19 July. Photograph: Brazil's supreme federal court/AFP/Getty Images
nicate between different groups in the
Amazon.
Brazil’s national justice council
coordinated the work of translation,
which was carried out by a group of
15 bilingual Indigenous people from the
Alto Río Negro and Médio Tapajós re-
gions.
“We are in a country of immense
in arguing his killing would violate the
eighth amendment to the US consti-
tution, which forbids cruel and unusual
punishment.
They have also described how John
Hamm, commissioner of the Alabama
department of corrections, began his
internal review in November last year.
The review, Barber’s lawyers said in
court filings, “was too brief, perfunctory,
and should have been performed by
an independent investigatory body”.
Nor were any details made public
before, on 24 February 2023, Hamm
told the Republican Alabama governor,
Kay Ivey, the review was complete and
“the department [was] as prepared as
possible to carry out death sentences”.
Barber’s execution was then scheduled.
Denying Barber’s attorneys earlier
this month, Emily Marks, a US district
diversity, and I don’t hear our languages
[spoken] in our spaces. We need to be
involved. Before being Indigenous, we
are people who have a right to respect,”
said Inory Kamari, one of the trans-
lators.
Brazil’s more than 305 ethnic
groups speak 274 Indigenous lan-
guages, but only Portuguese is consi-
judge, said the state had made three
“meaningful changes” to its lethal injec-
tions process.
Two involved personnel: removing
officials involved in botched execu-
tions and installing replacements. The
other change extended by six hours
“the window in which the state has to
carry out Barber’s execution”, to elim-
inate “unnecessary deadline pressure”.
Foa said Alabama was trying “to
create a facade and essentially blind
the public and the witnesses to
what’s really happening in that [execu-
tion] chamber. And unfortunately, that
masking seems to have passed muster
with the courts, who have not yet
acknowledged that they think this is
cruel and unusual punishment”.
Barber has also sought to be ex-
ecuted not by lethal injection but by
dered an official language.
Judicial authorities present in São
Gabriel da Cachoeira welcomed the
publication of the translated consti-
tution as an important step towards
preserving Brazil’s cultural and lin-
guistic diversity, as well as raising
awareness around Indigenous rights
and guaranteeing a fairer state.
The Guardian Friday 21 July 2023
nitrogen hypoxia, which involves “forc-
ing the inmate to breathe only nitro-
gen, thereby depriving him or her of
the oxygen needed to maintain bodily
functions”, and which Alabama has said
it wants to use.
Marks rejected Barber’s request be-
cause he did not choose the method
initially and because, pointing to the
reason for the request, Alabama is not
“currently prepared to perform execu-
tions” that way.
“No state has yet used that method,”
Foa said. “And I think states are clinging
on to lethal injection in part because
they think they can continue to get
away with it, because it looks like it’s
medical.”
Gregory, the granddaughter of Do-
rothy Epps, told the Atlantic she did not
want Barber to be put to death.
“I don’t want it to happen,” she said.
“I don’t want to see it done … it will be
hard. I spent so long believing in ‘an eye
for an eye’ – I’ve changed.”
She also said some relatives did not
feel the same way.
As lawyers pursued his final appeal,
Barber spoke to NBC News. He had
“no fear of death”, he said, but “a
fair amount of trepidation about the
process that they obviously haven’t per-
fected”.
Governor Ivey and the Alabama
department of corrections did not re-
spond to requests for comment. A state
assistant attorney general has said in
court “good faith” efforts were made to
correct execution procedures.
Foa said there was “always hope” of
a late reprieve. But, she said, “unfor-
tunately, to date, courts have not erred
on the side of humanity”.
“It’s a sign of esteem and respect for
Indigenous language and culture,” said
Weber.
“It’s progress from the judiciary,
a recognition of our characteristics
… It’s a way of guaranteeing access
to information and justice,” said Di-
namam Tuxá, an executive coordinator
of the Indigenous umbrella movement
Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of
Brazil. “We hope that one day all [Indi-
genous] languages will get a trans-
lation.”
Advocates noted, however, that the
Indigenous translation of the magna
carta will mean nothing without the
application of the principles laid out in
it.
Indigenous rights remain under
constant assault in Brazil despite
constitutional protections, a situation
that worsened under former president
Jair Bolsonaro and which the Luiz
Inácio Lula da Silva administration is
struggling to reverse amid opposition
from a conservative congress.
“Let the constitution not just be
written, but put into practice,” said
Joênia Wapichana, the first native Bra-
zilian to head the country’s Indigenous
affairs agency Funai.
Friday 21 July 2023 The Guardian
Canada: crash kills pilot of helicopter fighting
wildfires
Associated Press in Edmonton
A helicopter pilot has been killed in a
crash in western Canada, in the third
death in recent days connected with ef-
forts to fight fires in the country’s worst
wildfire season on record.
The pilot was the sole occupant
of the helicopter when it crashed on
Wednesday near Haig Lake in north-
western Alberta province, and forestry
workers were unable to resuscitate him,
the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
said. He was declared dead at a nearby
airport.
Police said the pilot was a 41-year-
old man from Whitecourt, Alberta, but
did not release his name.
“There are a lot of people across
this country who have been step-
ping up during these very, very dif-
ficult forest fires, protecting their fami-
lies, protecting their communities, pro-
tecting their fellow citizens,” Justin Tru-
deau, the prime minister, said. “And
Man who stole 200,000 Cadbury Creme Eggs
jailed for 18 months
Jessica Murray Midlands corres-
pondent
A man referred to as the “Easter bunny”
by police has been sentenced to 18
months in prison for stealing almost
200,000 Cadbury Creme Eggs.
Joby Pool, 32, stole more than
£31,000 worth of the chocolate eggs
when he broke into an industrial unit
in Telford on 11 February and made off
with the haul in a stolen lorry cab.
Judge Anthony Lowe jailed Pool for
18 months at Shrewsbury crown court
on Thursday, half to be spent in prison
and the other half on licence. The six
months he has already spent in cus-
tody will be counted towards his nine
months in jail.
During a previous court hearing,
prosecutor Owen Beale said Pool had
used a metal grinder to break into an
industrial unit belonging to SW Group
Logistics in Stafford Park, Telford, and
tow away the trailer containing the
creme eggs.
Beale said Pool was stopped by
police as he was travelling northbound
on the M42 in a vehicle that had been
stolen from the Yorkshire area in Oc-
tober. He walked towards police “with
Post-menopausal killer whales defend their
sons from aggressors, study finds
Hannah Devlin Science corres-
pondent
World News
Smoke rises from the Bassett fire near Paddle Prairie Metis Settlement, Alberta. Photograph: Alberta Wildfire/Reuters
to have lost three firefighters, or indi-
Joby Pool, 32, stole more than £31,000 worth of chocolate eggs when he broke into an industrial unit in Telford on 11 February. Photograph:
Graham Turner/The Guardian
his hands up” near junction 11.
“This clearly wasn’t spur-of-the-
moment offending, if I can put it like
that, because he had taken with him a
tractor unit and he had to know that
the load was there in the first place,”
Post-menopausal killer whales protect
their sons from getting injured in
fights with other whales, scientists have
found.
viduals helping out in fighting the fires,
said Beale. “This is clearly an organised
criminal matter. You don’t just happen
to learn about a trailer with that kind of
value being available.”
Defending Pool, Debra White said
he had shown genuine remorse for
The study showed that males
showed fewer tooth-rake marks – scars
left when whales scrape their teeth
across another’s skin – when their
is heartbreaking.”
what he had done, and was sorry for the
effect it had had on his family and the
business involved.
Judge Lowe said he was not con-
vinced Pool was the only person in-
volved in the planning of the theft. “If
mother was still present and had
stopped breeding. But the protective
effect did not extend to daughters.
Only six species – humans and five
15
Last week, Devyn Gale, a 19-year-old
firefighter, died after a tree fell on her
near Revelstoke, British Columbia
Adam Yeadon, 25, died on Saturday
while fighting a wildfire near his home
in Fort Liard, Northwest Territories.
Transportation Safety Board
spokesman Chris Krepski said two
investigators were due to arrive at the
remote scene of the helicopter crash on
Thursday.
He said an emergency locator trans-
mitter signal was received on Wednes-
day at about 6pm. He said the downed
aircraft was in a marshy area.
Krepski added that it was operated
by Valhalla Helicopters, based in West
Kelowna, British Columbia. The com-
pany declined to comment.
As of Thursday afternoon, Alberta
had 117 active wildfires, 17 of which
were considered out of control.
Thousands of fires have scorched
more than 42,000 sq miles (110,000
sq km) across the country so far this
season.
one looks at what must have happened
here, we are looking at a significant
degree of planning. There must have
been inside information or a recce to
identify the trailer and if it was worth
taking,” he said.
“I am pretty sure others would have
been involved in this enterprise. I don’t
know what you intended to do with the
trailer.”
Shortly after his arrest, West Mercia
police described the incident in a series
of tweets as an “eggs-travagant theft” of
a “chocolate collection box”.
“West Mercia police has helped save
Easter for Creme Egg fans after almost
200,000 of the chocolate treats were
stolen from a unit in Stafford Park in
Telford,” they said.
“Shortly after the theft a vehicle,
presumably purporting to be the Easter
bunny, was stopped northbound on the
M42 and a man was arrested on sus-
picion of theft.”
Pool, from Tingley, near Leeds,
had previously admitted theft, criminal
damage to a lock at the trailer park and
driving without insurance.
types of toothed whale – are known to
experience menopause and the latest
Continued on page 16

16
Continued from page 15
research provides new insights into its
potential evolutionary advantages.
“The motivation of this project was
really to try and understand how these
post-reproductive females are helping
their offspring,” said Charli Grimes, a
whale researcher at the University of
Exeter and first author. “Our results
highlight a new pathway by which
menopause is adaptive in killer whales.”
Female killer whales live for up to
90 years in the wild, and most live
an average of 22 years after meno-
pause. Scientists have long wondered
why humans and some whale species
spend a significant portion of their life
not reproducing.
Previous studies have revealed
evolutionary benefits, with post-meno-
pause killer whale mothers boosting
the lifespans of their offspring and
grand-offspring by sharing the fish they
catch and leading their pods to the rich-
est fishing grounds. The latest work
suggest experienced female mothers
also help their sons navigate social rela-
tionships.
The findings were based on an anal-
ysis of nearly 7,000 photographs of
southern resident killer whales, which
live off the Pacific coast of North Amer-
ica, and have been tracked for more
Amsterdam to close cruise ship terminal
amid effort to restrict tourism
AFP in The Hague
Amsterdam’s city council has decided
to close a cruise ship terminal in its
centre, in the latest attempt to limit
mass tourism in the Dutch capital.
“Polluting cruise ships are not in
Mercury exposure linked to high youth
suicides in Canada First Nation
Leyland Cecco in Victoria
Decades of mercury exposure has been
linked to the high youth suicide rates in
an Indigenous community in Canada,
in the latest finding to underscore the
catastrophic legacy of environmental
contamination.
Researchers who studied three
generations of mothers and their child-
ren from the community of Grassy
Narrows, Ontario, have concluded that
sustained exposure to the toxic metal
helped cause a suicide rate three times
higher than any other First Nations
community – which are already far
higher than among the country’s gen-
eral population.
Grassy Narrows was the site of mer-
cury dumping for nearly a decade after
1963, when a paper companyreleased
more than 20,000lb of mercury into the
Wabigoon and English river systems.
Fish, including walleye, were soon too
poisonous to consume. The dumping
is believed to have contaminated more
than 150 miles of watershed. A single
World News
Adult male killer whale with tooth rake marks. Photograph: Stewart macintyre/see caption
than 50 years. Southern resident killer
whales feed on salmon and have no
natural predators apart from humans,
so tooth marks on their skin can only be
inflicted by other killer whales and can
represent significant injuries.
The images, combined with popu-
lation-tracking data, showed that males
who have their post-menopausal moth-
line with the sustainable ambitions of
our city,” said a statement from the
centre-right party D66, which runs the
city with the social democrats PvdA
and GroenLinks environmentalists.
The party also said the passage
of cruise ships was not compatible
with plans for a new bridge between
Land on Grassy Narrows, which was the site of mercury dumping for nearly a decade after 1963. Photograph: Robert Jago/Robert Jago for
Guardian US
gram of mercury is sufficient to make
all fish in a 20-hectare radius unsafe for
ers present show fewer signs of aggres-
sive encounters. The shielding effect
did not extend to daughters and only
occurred once mothers had stopped
breeding.
It is unclear exactly how mothers
protect their sons, although the scien-
tists said that conflicts tended to in-
volve rivalry over mates.
the city’s historic southern district and
the Noord district, the focus of recent
development projects.
Other recent measures to restore
quiet to the city’s historic centre have
included a ban on smoking cannabis on
the streets of the red light district.
And in March, Amsterdam
consumption – but the Grassy Narrows
dumping was 9m times larger.
“It might be that they use their
enhanced knowledge of other social
groups to help their sons navigate risky
interactions. They might be signalling
to their sons to avoid the conflict,” said
Grimes. “Or it might be that they in-
volve themselves in a conflict directly.”
“The similarities with humans are
intriguing,” said Prof Darren Croft, also
launched a “Stay Away” campaign to
discourage tourists planning drug and
alcohol-fuelled parties.
The city has long been trying to
curb rowdy behaviour such as stag par-
ties, especially near the red light area
where sex workers operate.
The campaign, targeting young
Before the mercury dumping, the
community had not reported any youth
The Guardian Friday 21 July 2023
from the University of Exeter. “Just as
in humans, it seems that older female
whales play a vital role in their societies
– using their knowledge and experience
to provide benefits including finding
food and resolving conflict.”
It makes sense, from an evolu-
tionary point of view, for whale moth-
ers to focus efforts on their sons, the
scientists said.
“Males can breed with multiple fe-
males, so they have more potential
to pass on their mother’s genes,” said
Grimes. “Also, males breed with females
outside their social group – so the
burden of raising the calf falls on anoth-
er pod.”
In killer whales, adult offspring
remain in a social group with their
mothers and mating occurs during spo-
radic interactions with other pods. This
means that adult sons and daughters
typically live with their mothers until
the mother dies.
“You see adult males in their 40s
and 50s swimming side-by-side with
their mums, and the mums catch-
ing fish and feeding them,” said Croft.
“They’re mummy’s boys through and
through.”
The findings are published in Cur-
rent Biology.
British men, involved online adver-
tisements warning people searching for
getaways to Amsterdam of the “conse-
quences of antisocial behaviour and
excessive drug and alcohol abuse”.
They include fines, arrest, crim-
inal records, hospitalisation and health
issues, the campaigns says.
suicide attempts, but in the generations
after the contamination, the rate of
youth suicide attempts in Grassy Nar-
rows far surpassed that of other First
Nations in the country. Mothers from
Grassy Narrows reported that more
than 40% of young adolescents from
the community had attempted suicide.
The researchers, who published
their findings in the peer-reviewed
Environmental Health Perspective
journal, examined 80 mothers and 162
children between the ages of five and
17. They initially suspected that the
consumption of mercury-tainted fish
led tonervous system disorders and
psychological distress.
“You can see this cascade of effects,”
Donna Mergler, the study’s lead author,
said at a press conference on Wednes-
day. “We found that the mother’s child-
hood mercury exposure is associated
with today’s nervous system disorders,
as well as a psychological distress.”
Mergler and other researchers stu-
died the mothers’ umbilical cords,
Continued on page 17
Friday 21 July 2023 The Guardian
Continued from page 16
which had traces of their grand-
mothers’ mercury exposure.
“When you eat fish with mercury
and you’re pregnant, the mercury is ac-
tively transported across the placenta …
that affects the [foetus] development,”
she said.
For residents, the crisis is clear. Days
before the study was published, the
Tourists helicoptered out of Swiss ski resort
after cable car breaks down
AFP in Geneva
Helicopters have been used to evacuate
nearly 300 people from a high-moun-
tain station in the Swiss Alps after a
cable car to the top broke down.
A technical problem was detected
on Thursday morning involving a cable
car up to the popular Glacier 3000
ski resort in Les Diablerets mountain
massif in south-western Switzerland,
the station chief said.
“There was an electrical failure in
the engine system in the second [cable
car] section up to the top,” the Glacier
3000 chief executive, Bernhard Tschan-
nen, told AFP.
“It was not a big deal. No one was
harmed,” he said.
He explained that the cable car was
equipped with a special engine for such
occasions, making it possible to eva-
cuate the tourists onboard.
Initially, the tourists at the top sta-
tion, located at an altitude of 2,971
Modi speaks out after video of sexual assault
on women in Manipur emerges
Hannah Ellis-Petersen and
Aakash Hassan in Delhi
The Indian prime minister, Narendra
Modi, has broken his months-long si-
lence on the deadly ethnic conflict
raging in the state of Manipur after
a video emerged of women being
stripped naked, paraded and assaulted
before it is alleged they were gang
raped.
Outrage erupted across India after
footage was circulated from Manipur
of two women from the minority Kuki
tribe being forcibly stripped naked by
a mob of the majority Meitei tribal
group who can be heard shouting: “If
you don’t take off your clothes, we’ll
kill you.” The women are then publicly
groped and dragged to a field, where it
is alleged they were gang raped.
The incident took place in early May
and although it was registered with the
police soon afterwards, it was not until
Thursday that four arrests were made,
a day after the video went viral. One of
the victims has alleged the police left
the women in the hands of the mob.
Speaking at the opening session of
parliament on Thursday morning, Modi
made his first comments about the con-
flict being fought between the Meitei
World News
community lost a young person to sui-
cide.
“Even on social media you see
people saying that they feel like they
don’t want to live or they don’t know
how to deal with what they’re going
through,” Chrissy Issacs said at the press
conference. “It’s not their fault. It’s a
part of the sickness from the dumping
of mercury and I feel like we need to
make people aware of that.”
The tourists were evacuated after a cable car up to the Glacier 3000 resort suffered an electrical failure. Photograph: Daniel Bueno/Alamy
metres (9,747ft), were asked to just wait
People protest in New Delhi on Thursday against the ongoing ethnic conflict taking place in India’s north-eastern state of Manipur.
Photograph: Harish Tyagi/EPA
and the Kuki tribes, and stated that “the
entire country has been shamed” by the
attack on the women.
“I want to assure the nation, no
guilty [people] will be spared,” he said.
“Action will be taken according to the
law. What happened to the daughters
For years, Grassy Narrows has bat-
tled the provincial and federal govern-
ments to have their water system
cleaned. In 2021, the federal govern-
ment agreed to fund a $C90m “mercury
care home” to help those living with the
effects of poisoning, a project that faced
repeated delays.
On Wednesday, the Grass Narrows
First Nation chief, Rudy Turtle, de-
manded “fair” compensation for the ef-
and enjoy the spectacular views while
of Manipur can never be forgiven. As I
stand next to this temple of democracy,
my heart is filled with pain and anger.”
Modi has been criticised for re-
maining publicly silent on the con-
flict, which broke out between the
tribal communities in early May and
fects of the poisoning, including coun-
selling and mental health workers.
Turtle also said he wants the
provincial government to withdraw
from its territory after fixing the prob-
lems it created.
“You’ve done enough damage al-
ready, why do more?” he said.
In the UK, the youth suicide char-
ity Papyrus can be contacted on 0800
068 4141 or email pat@papyrus-uk.org,
the technical staff attempted to fix the
has since killed more than 140 people,
mostly those from the minority Kuki
community.
The state of Manipur is now essen-
tially partitioned down ethnic lines,
with the Meitei community in the
valley and the Kuki community con-
17
and in the UK and Ireland Sama-
ritans can be contacted on freephone
116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or
jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the Na-
tional Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at
988 or chat for support. You can also
text HOME to 741741 to connect with a
crisis text line counselor. In Australia,
the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11
14. Other international helplines can be
found at befrienders.org
problem.
“The weather was beautiful,”
Tschannen said, adding that people
had been given drinks and food at
the mountaintop restaurant while they
waited.
But shortly before 1pm, it was de-
cided to evacuate the station, he said.
About 270 people, most of them tour-
ists, were taken by chairlift down to the
glacier below, where they were picked
up by helicopter.
Two helicopters were used for the
operation, flying people to the middle
station, where they could catch the
still-functioning chairlift on the first
section back down to Col du Pillon, at
1,546 metres above sea level.
Tschannen said the evacuation had
taken less than two hours. Some tech-
nical staff had remained at the top to
continue working on the problem.
“We hope that tomorrow everything
will be working again and we can open
as normal, but that needs to be con-
firmed,” he said.
trolling the hills. Both sides have
assembled civilian forces that continue
to clash violently with thousands of
stolen weapons, while villages have
been burned to the ground and more
than 60,000 people displaced. Thou-
sands of Indian armed forces have been
deployed to the state to maintain calm
but the Kuki minority now say they are
fighting for an independent state.
One of the victims in the video told
the Guardian she had been traumatised
by the events that took place. She de-
scribed how she and four others had
been running away from their village,
which had been looted and set alight by
a Meitei mob, when they were set upon
by another Meitei gang, who then mur-
dered two members of their group.
“Me and another girl were taken
away,” she said. “They encircled us and
told us to remove all our clothes. I tried
to plead with them to leave us alone
but they warned us that we would get
killed like our neighbours if we don’t
obey them. I did what they told me to
do, they were ready to kill us otherwise.
They then paraded us. Men were touch-
ing my breasts and all over my body.”
She added: “We were taken to a
nearby field. I do not want to get into
Continued on page 19
Friday 21 July 2023 The Guardian
Continued from page 17
the details but after that I was let go.”
The video also attracted fierce crit-
icism from the supreme court, which
called it “deeply disturbing” and a “gross
constitutional failure”.
Xóchitl Gálvez’s prickly presidential bid a
thorn in side of Mexican leader
Oscar Lopez in Mexico City
Over breakfast at an upscale Mexico
City restaurant, Senator Xóchitl Gálvez
struggled to get a word in amid the
stream of interruptions as well-wishers
came to shake her hand, pleading with
her to run for higher office.
Such shows of enthusiasm are rare
these days for politicians in Mexico’s
seemingly soulless opposition. But
since she announced a bid for the
presidency last month, the excitement
around Gálvez has risen to fever pitch:
a poll published on Wednesday by El
Financiero newspaper showed the sen-
ator within striking distance of the go-
verning party’s leading candidates.
Suddenly, Gálvez has energized
Mexico’s 2024 presidential race, which
for years had seemed all but certain.
President Andrés Manuel López Ob-
rador’s landslide win in 2018 dealt a
crushing blow to opposition parties:
they lost election after election, while
the president’s popularity remained
sky-high. Given Mexican law forbids re-
election, the only question seemed to
be which of the president’s favorites
would be vaulted to victory. Now, that
path may be more difficult.
“She’s a woman with a lot of per-
sonal confidence, a lot of humor,” said
Blanca Heredia, a Mexican political ana-
lyst, of Gálvez. “And for me something
that is especially important is that she’s
not afraid of Andrés Manuel López Ob-
rador.”
Although representing the conserv-
ative Pan party, Gálvez has pushed a
more progressive agenda, promoting
laws to expand domestic workers’
rights and championing clean energy.
But she built up her brand through
a series of political stunts, including
dressing in an inflatable dinosaur cos-
tume to protest controversial electoral
Jason Aldean’s Try That in a Small Town
sums up the delusions of the right wing
J
Arwa Mahdawi
ason Aldean is a country music
star and a big fan of law and
order. He loves the law so
much, in fact, that he’s willing
to take it into his own hands.
If you come to his (imaginary) small
town and disrespect a cop or engage in
any sort of protest, you will regret it.
Such is the theme of Aldean’s new
song, Try That in a Small Town, which is
all about how the singer and his pals
will aggressively deal with unseemly
World News / Opinion
The chief justice of India, Dhanan-
jaya Chandrachud, appeared to criticise
the government for failing to bring the
situation in Manipur under control. “I
think it’s time that the government
really steps in and takes action because
this is simply unacceptable,” he said,
Xochitl Gálvez has gained a frenzied following with her brash outspokenness in a dreary
presidential field. Photograph: Gerardo Vieyra/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
reforms.
And when López Obrador, or Amlo
as he’s known, falsely claimed Gálvez
wanted to end his social programs,
Gálvez obtained a judge’s order secur-
ing her right of reply and showed up
at one of the president’s morning press
briefings last month.
The doors to the National Palace
remained shut, but the ensuing media
frenzy opened a path for the freshman
senator’s presidential ambitions.
Within weeks, Gálvez, who many as-
sumed would run for mayor of Mexico
City, was coasting down the Paseo de la
Reforma, the city’s main boulevard, on
her bike, traditional huipilblouse blow-
ing in the wind, cameras clicking as she
arrived to register for the opposition
primary.
“At the very least I knew that I was
going to make this thing interesting be-
cause it’s been really dull,” Gálvez said
in a recent interview. “It got a lot more
interesting than I thought.”
Since then, Gálvez has inspired
fawning opinion columns, graced front
pages of major newspapers, gone viral
behaviour on their turf. A sample ex-
tract: “Cuss out a cop, spit in his face …
Well, try that in a small town / See how
far ya make it down the road. / Around
here, we take care of our own …”
A little later in the song Aldean
elaborates further on what might
happen if lines are crossed. “Got a gun
that my grandad gave me / They say
one day they’re gonna round up. / Well,
that shit might fly in the city, good luck.”
He is, it would appear, referencing a
conspiracy theory that the government
is going to confiscate Americans’ guns
to impose martial law.
adding that if the government did not
act, the supreme court would step in.
Other ministers from Modi’s
government also condemned the inci-
dent. Smriti Irani, the minister for
women, called it “downright inhuman”
and said the perpetrators would be
on social media and drawn crowds at
rallies across the country. But her great-
est boost has come from Amlo himself,
who has regularly attacked her in his
daily news conferences.
“It seems like Andrés Manuel is her
campaign director,” said Heredia. “The
president has the biggest audience
imaginable in Mexico.”
Amlo’s most recent attacks have fo-
cused on Gálvez’s business, going so far
as to tweet a document listing state and
private contracts obtained by the firm,
supposedly worth tens of millions of
dollars.
“When the president messes with
my business and makes public my
clients’ private information – that’s a
crime,” said Gálvez. “As Shakira says,
‘Women don’t cry – we invoice.’ I have
a business on the straight and narrow
that’s been running for 31 years.”
Such cheeky quips are partly what
have made Gálvez stand out from
the rather uninspiring figures leading
Mexico’s political landscape. But her
personal story has also been crucial.
Gálvez was born in an impoverished
Try That in a Small Town was re-
leased in May but when the music
video came out last Friday it gen-
erated immediate controversy. The
video leaves little doubt as to what
Aldean is trying to communicate: it
intersperses footage of him singing in
front of Maury county courthouse in
Tennessee – the site of the lynching
of a Black man, Henry Choate, in 1927
– with footage from protests, looting
and civil unrest. Small towns are whole-
some, the message is. Full of “good ol’
boys” who were “raised up right”. Cities,
meanwhile, are hotbeds of violence …
brought to justice.
But activists were critical that it had
taken such an extreme video for outcry
at the situation in Manipur to be voiced
by the prime minister and the public.
“It is shameful that it takes a sear-
ing video of two Kuki women being
community in Hidalgo state; her father
was physically abusive and battled alco-
holism. As a young girl, she worked
with her mother selling puddings to
make ends meet.
She graduated with an engineering
degree from Mexico’s National Auto-
nomous University, and went on to
found a successful firm specializing in
intelligent building design.
In 2000, then president Vicente Fox
chose her to head up the National Insti-
tute of Indigenous Peoples. She ran
unsuccessfully for governor of Hidalgo
in 2010, before winning the mayorship
of the wealthy Miguel Hidalgo borough
in Mexico City in 2015. She entered the
Mexican senate in 2018.
Gálvez’s rags-to-riches story pro-
vides a sharp contrast to other oppo-
sition candidates, one of whom is the
son of a former president. And despite
being in politics for years, she hasn’t
been tainted by the graft scandals that
have ensnared many in Mexico, making
it harder for Amlo’s punches against the
“corrupt elite” to find their mark.
“She has a kind of armor through
her own story,” said Heredia.
Still, Mexico’s elections are nearly a
year away, and there are relatively few
polls showing that Gálvez has been em-
braced by Mexican voters, millions of
whom are fiercely loyal to Amlo.
“It’s not clear that that media buzz,
from the columnists and pundits and
opinion writers, has a social base,” said
Carlos Pérez Ricart, a political scientist
at the Center for Research and Teach-
ing in Economics in Mexico City. “She
reminds me more of a good song on
Spotify that rises rapidly up the charts,
but can fall just as quickly.”
To even claim the nomination,
Gálvez will first have to win over voters
from the Pan party, a conservative base
largely opposed to the senator’s pro-
gressive views on issues like abortion.
and diversity.
That last bit isn’t spelled out – it’s
not like Aldean yells “I’m a massive
racist!” in the middle of the track –
but the dog whistles are difficult to
ignore. The song has been called “a
modern lynching song” by detractors
and the video was pulled from Coun-
try Music Television (CMT) on Monday.
(While CMT has confirmed the video
was taken off rotation, it hasn’t put out
a statement as to why.) Fellow coun-
try star Sheryl Crow has also voiced
her disapproval. “There’s nothing small-
town or American about promoting vi-
19
paraded naked and raped to shake
the conscience of the world and make
people believe what we have been
saying for the past 70 days,” said Golan
Nulak, a Kuki activist.
Xochitl Gálvez waits outside the National
Palace on 12 June 2023 in Mexico City. Photo-
graph: Carlos Santiago/Eyepix Group/Shut-
terstock
And even if she manages to secure the
nomination, she will still have to unite
a fractious coalition while also carrying
the baggage of political parties tainted
by decades of corruption.
“A personal narrative is great for a
reality show,” said Pérez Ricart. “I’m not
sure it’s enough to win the presidency.”
Gálvez counters that her campaign
is not about party ideology but rather
about uniting voters desperate to ad-
dress some of Mexico’s greatest issues:
widespread violence, an ailing health-
care system, an economy driven by
dirty power.
“I’m an engineer who knows how to
solve problems,” she said.
She’s a woman with a
lot of personal
confidence, a lot of
humor, and she’s not
afraid of Andrés
Manuel López
Obrador
Political analyst Blanca
Heredia
olence,” Crow tweeted on Tuesday. She
further noted that Aldean should know
better, “having survived a mass shoot-
ing”. Crow was referencing the shooting
at Las Vegas’s Route 91 Harvest festival
in 2017: the deadliest mass shooting by
a lone shooter in modern US history.
Aldean was performing and got out
unscathed. He was lucky. Sixty people
were killed and 867 injured. Those
people weren’t killed and injured by a
Black Lives Matter protester. They were
killed by Stephen Paddock, an angry
Continued on page 20

20
Continued from page 19
white man from Iowa.
Try That in a Small Town has gen-
erated a lot of criticism, but it also
has fervent supporters. Including, of
course, GOP lawmakers. “I am shocked
by what I’m seeing in this country
with people attempting to cancel this
song and cancel Jason and his be-
liefs,” the South Dakota Republican gov-
ernor, Kristi Noem, posted in a video
on Twitter on Wednesday. The Ten-
nessee house GOP leader, William Lam-
berth, similarly tweeted: “Loved this
song since it was released and will con-
tinue to fight every day to spread small
town values … Give it a listen. The woke
mob will hate you for liking this song.”
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the governor
of Arkansas, also didn’t miss the chance
to stoke a little culture war. “The Left
is now more concerned about Jason
Aldean’s song calling out looters and
criminals than they are about stopping
looters and criminals,” she tweeted.
Aldean, for his part, is furious at
insinuations there is anything racist in
his song about shooting outsiders who
come to his little country town.
“In the past 24 hours I have been ac-
cused of releasing a pro-lynching song,”
Aldean tweeted on Wednesday, “and
was subject to the comparison that I
(direct quote) was not too pleased with
the nationwide BLM protests. These
references are not only meritless, but
dangerous. There is not a single lyric in
the song that references race or points
I used to ride private planes. Now I’d rather
get arrested protesting them
L
Abigail Disney
ast Friday, I was arrested
along with a group of cli-
mate activists for blocking
the entrance to the East
Hampton airport in New
York and stopping private jet arriv-
als and departures. Many people have
asked me why.
The truth is I am terrified of the
future of our climate, and I believe
that non-violent civil disobedience is
the best way to create transformative
change. I have covered disruptive pro-
test and social issues in my films,
and supported movements through
philanthropy. So, at 63, I decided it was
time for me to stand in protest with
other activists, to put my body on the
line.
My father owned a 737 with a
queen-sized bed. I loved that thing so
much. I loved the men and women
who flew the plane and took care of
the plane, people I’d known since child-
hood.
It all seemed so benign, and when
something makes your life so seam-
less that you barely notice what you are
doing, it can be difficult to acknowledge
the problems you are causing, espe-
cially when those problems are imper-
sonal and remote.
But one day, flying all alone from
California to New York, I had an epiph-
any. My comfort and convenience sud-
denly seemed like ridiculously small
issues when held up against the climate
freight-train that is barreling down the
tracks at us.
Opinion
‘Small towns are full of “good ol’ boys” who were “raised up right”. Cities, meanwhile, are
hotbeds of violence … and diversity.’ Photograph: Wade Payne/Invision/AP
to it – and there isn’t a single video clip
that isn’t real news footage.”
If Aldean isn’t trying to make a point
about the Black Lives Matter protests,
what is Try That in a Small Town about
then? Community, apparently. “When u
grow up in a small town, it’s that unspo-
ken rule of ‘we all have each other’s
backs and we look out for each other,’”
Aldean wrote on Instagram when he
launched the video. “It feels like some-
where along the way, that sense of com-
munity and respect has gotten lost.”
Perhaps you’re wondering which
quaint small town Aldean grew up in.
The answer is: he didn’t. Aldean is from
Macon, Georgia – a city with a popu-
lation of about 153,000 people. Now he
lives in Nashville, a city with a popu-
lation of approximately 700,000. The
small town he’s singing about is a prod-
‘Since the beginning of the pandemic, private jet use has jumped an astonishing 23%.’ Photograph: Florida Images/Alamy
Our planet is wrapped in a blanket
of pollution so thick and unforgiving
that it is becoming unlivable. While
my one flight across the country was
not enough to cause this on its own, I
was still contributing to a catastrophic
collective consequence that everyone
else on Earth is already paying for.
The life of a wealthy person burns
up a lot of carbon – through supe-
ryachts, frequent travel on private jets
and helicopters, and multiple enorm-
ous homes. According to Oxfam, billio-
naires emit a million times more
greenhouse gases than the average
person.This is not an accusation. My
father was a good and decent man, and
uct of his imagination.
But that’s conservatives for you.
Last month Nikki Haley tweeted about
how much better the US used to be
back in the days before marginalized
people had rights. “Do you remember
when you were growing up, do you
remember how simple life was, how
easy it felt? It was about faith, family,
and country,” she tweeted.
Was the past really that easy for
the former South Carolina governor?
By her own admission things have got
a hell of a lot better for people who,
like her, aren’t 100% white. “Years ago
I was disqualified from a pageant be-
cause they didn’t know whether to put
me in the white category or the black,”
she wrote on Facebook in 2012. “I was
neither. Tonight I watched my daugh-
ter get first place in her school pageant.
so are most of the people who own pri-
vate planes. But we are facing an active
emergency, and decency is worthless
when unaccompanied by meaningful
action, including a vigorous inquiry
into the consequences of our personal
choices and preferences. And niceness
is a hollow virtue if we do not lift a
finger to keep our children and grand-
children safe.
It is a rich irony that most of the
focus on behavior change in the face
of climate change centers around the
small changes working-class Americans
should make, from giving up plastic
straws to paying exorbitant gas taxes,
to recycling and composting.
God has an amazing way of bringing
things full circle.” God also has an amaz-
ing away of depriving people like Haley
of self-awareness.
Aldean’s song doesn’t just epitomize
manufactured rightwing nostalgia, it
also encapsulates rightwing paranoia.
People on the right are obsessed with
the idea that big cities are violent hot-
beds of crime where you risk your life
every time you nip out for a pint of
milk. In reality, however, big cities tend
to be safer than small towns. A 2013
study by the University of Pennsyl-
vania, for example, found the risk of
death from an injury was more than
20% higher in rural small towns than in
larger cities. “Cars, guns and drugs are
the unholy trinity causing the majority
of injury deaths in the US” one of the
researchers told NBC News at the time.
The pandemic, to be fair, saw a rise
in violent crimes in cities. But even still,
you’ve got a better chance of living a
long, healthy life in a city. A 2021 US
Centers for Disease Control and Preven-
tion report on mortality data from 1999
to 2019 found people living in rural
areas die at higher rates than those
living in urban areas. That’s because
they have less access to healthcare and
are more likely to live in poverty.
So what’s next for Aldean? Well, I’ve
got some good news for all the Repub-
lican lawmakers screeching about how
unfair it is that Aldean has been can-
celled by the woke mob: he’s going to be
fine.Indeed, he’s going to be more than
fine. Country music (and America) has
But what have we asked of the weal-
thy? If just a handful of very wealthy
people were to change just a handful of
their behaviors, they could make more
of a difference in one trip than millions
of working-class people can in their life-
times. Just a four-hour flight on a pri-
vate jet will burn as much carbon as the
average person does in a year.
Yes, the people who own private jets
make up a small sliver of the popu-
lation. It’s tempting to think it’s not a
significant enough number to make a
difference. And yet, the 1% of people
who fly private account for an asto-
nishing 50% of aviation carbon emis-
sions. That small number of people, in
The Guardian Friday 21 July 2023
Jason Aldean, from the ‘small town’ of
Macon, Georgia. Photograph: Amy Harris/
Invision/AP
a way of opening its arms to people
accused of racism and making them
feel right at home. Just look at Morgan
Wallen, for example. In February 2021
TMZ published a video of the musician
drunkenly yelling the N-word during
a conversation with a friend. He was
shunned from polite society for a few
months but made a rapid comeback. He
won album of the year at the Academy
of Country Music Awards in 2022. His
song Last Night is currently in its 14th
week at number one on the Billboard
Hot 100. If it sticks there a little longer
he’ll beat the 19-week record currently
held by Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road, fea-
turing Billy Ray Cyrus.
While people on the right may be
railing about Aldean being “cancelled”,
the sad truth is that this will probably
help his career. He’ll go on Fox News
and yell about wokeness. He’ll wallow
in his imagined victimhood. His song
will probably be played in rallies for
the next Republican nominee for pres-
ident. Aldean hasn’t been cancelled or
silenced – his message has been ampli-
fied.
fact, could choose to make a very big
difference indeed.
But the number of private planes
only grows. Since the beginning of the
pandemic, private jet use has jumped
an astonishing 23%. Some 5.3m private
jet flights occurred in 2022 alone, with
the total expected to jump again in
2023.
First principles matter. My own first
principle is to do no harm. In an enorm-
ously complicated world, this can be
difficult. But more often, the answer
has been right in front of you all along.
I will continue to try to make up for
the willful ignorance I deployed when I
enjoyed my father’s plane, through my
philanthropy and activism, but that will
never be enough. Carbon offsets and
more efficient fuels are nice, but at best
get us to break even. We need more. A
lot more.
I hope other wealthy people will
join me in ditching their planes. A tiny
sliver of the population could decide
right now to make a difference by
making a series of relatively small sacri-
fices. (Have you checked out first class
lately? It’s pretty posh!) If it means
averting catastrophe and making the
thriving of your children and grand-
children possible, isn’t that the least
you can do?
And if you are really ready to dive in,
come join me at the next protest.
Abigail E Disney is an Emmy-
winning documentary film-maker and
activist and the great-niece of Walt
Disney
Friday 21 July 2023 The Guardian
Why does the Barbie movie have
Republicans in such a tizzy?
B
Katrina vanden Heuvel
e vigilant, everyone. Ac-
cording to conservative
lawmakers, Hollywood is
attempting to manipulate
the American public into
consuming Chinese propaganda via
subliminal messages about inter-
national maritime disputes. The cul-
prit? A movie about dolls.
An image from Greta Gerwig’s
Barbie (disclosure: I already have a
ticket) has sent rightwing pundits and
politicians into an uproar. Senators like
Marsha Blackburn and Ted Cruz claim
a cartoon map depicts the “nine-dash
line” which China uses to assert con-
trol over the South China Sea. They
argue that the movie’s supposed inclu-
sion of the line legitimizes China’s posi-
tion, which gives it more power over
strategically important waters.
(For reference, the map in ques-
tion is a highly stylized and deliberately
inaccurate sketch. It also depicts Eng-
land as bordering Asia. With a crown on
top.)
The film’s studio, Warner Bros, re-
sponded with a much less convo-
luted explanation: “The doodles depict
Barbie’s make-believe journey from
Barbie Land to the ‘real world’.” Repub-
licans should know a make-believe
journey when they see one – because
that’s exactly the leap they make, time
and time again, to invent controversies
like this.
The Barbie scandal is as manufac-
tured as the dolls themselves. It’s
the latest and most absurd example
of a trend as old as time: conserv-
atives drumming up unnecessary cul-
ture wars because they are incapable of
The Guardian view on Saudi Arabia and the
west: don’t count on Riyadh
F
Editorial
ive years ago, Jeremy
Hunt, then foreign sec-
retary, echoed the widely
voiced horror at the murder
of the Saudi dissident and
journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey.
He promised that Britain’s response
would depend upon “our confidence
that such an appalling episode cannot
– and will not – be repeated”.
The UK has now invited Saudi
Arabia’s crown prince and de facto
leader, Mohammed bin Salman, whom
the CIA believe approved the murder
despite his denials, for an official visit.
His rehabilitation was already under
way when Joe Biden fistbumped him a
year ago, and Britain, which has prof-
ited richly from Saudi arms sales, is
hungrier than ever for trade and invest-
ment.
Riyadh has spent heavily on influ-
ence operations and brand manage-
ment, investing in sportswashing and
entertainment. It has apparently used
Opinion
‘The Barbie scandal is as manufactured as the dolls themselves.’ Photograph: AP
winning over voters with their deeply
unpopular policies.
But just because their claims are
absurd doesn’t mean they can be ig-
nored. Because even though many so-
called scandals perpetuated by the
right aren’t based in reality, they can
still result in real harm. Just look at how
the GOP has ruthlessly targeted trans
people: their baseless lies about the
dangers of using the “wrong” bathroom
or playing the “wrong” sport have led to
the stripping away of gender-affirming
care, prohibitions against trans people
using bathrooms that align with their
gender identity, and bans on trans kids
kicking around a soccer ball at school.
What starts as laughable paranoia can
become lethal policy.
Back in Barbie Land, Republicans’
‘Some analysts have suggested Mohammed bin Salman has learned his lesson in the light of the international backlash over Jamal
Khashoggi’s murder.’ Photograph: SPA/AFP/Getty Images
the US messaging app Snapchat to bur-
nish the future king’s image, as the
insistence on fabricating culture war
issues isn’t limited to disputes over
territorial seas. Ginger Luckey Gaetz,
the 26-year-old wife of Representative
Matt Gaetz, knocked the movie be-
cause it “neglects to address any notion
of faith or family”. She also lamented
the “disappointingly low T from Ken,”
Barbie’s famously genital-free com-
panion.
This isn’t even the first Barbie-based
trans controversy that the right has
attempted to gin up recently. When
Mattel released a doll inspired by La-
verne Cox last year, the Daily Signal
called it a “dangerous message” for kids
– and the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group the
American Family Association accused
Mattel of grooming.
As it turns out, conservatives have
Guardian reported this week, while
imposing draconian sentences on in-
a long record of being offended by
women like Barbie and the aspirations
she represents.
With more than 250 careers under
her belt, Barbie is often perceived as
“a symbol of female empowerment” –
so is it any wonder that she’s an easy
target for reactionary backlash? While
Barbie is (sometimes imperfectly) agi-
tating for gender justice, Republicans
are trying to confine her to the Dream
House kitchen.
They have blocked the passage of
the Equal Rights Amendment, voted
against the Violence Against Women
Act, slashed access to reproductive
care, and more – all within the last three
years.
In other words: if Astronaut Barbie
wants to study aerospace engineering,
fluencers who use social media to post
any criticism of the future king, in-
21
she can’t afford to – because Repub-
licans successfully challenged relief for
student debt, which disproportionately
burdens women. Teacher Barbie may
start her career with a vision to edu-
cate the next generation, only to be
driven out of the profession when her
red-state governor busts her union.
And how can Paramedic Barbie save
lives when she can’t afford childcare
because conservative state lawmakers
razed subsidies? On issue after issue,
Republicans have fought to undermine
Barbie’s motto: “We girls can do any-
thing.”
A fantastical theory connecting
Margot Robbie to the South China Sea
is far less sinister than the grim, narrow
reality of the future conservatives want
for women. It’s only natural that they’re
targeting Barbie because, as Mattel’s
most recent slogan goes, Barbie wants
girls to imagine the possibilities – and
for conservatives, those possibilities are
unimaginable.
So ignore their sleight of hand and
stay focused on what really matters:
whether to see Barbie before or after
Oppenheimer (after) – and more impor-
tantly, how to make serious, sustained
progress for all the would-be Barbies
across America.
In short, to paraphrase the movie’s
tagline: She’s everything. He’s just Ted.
Katrina vanden Heuvel is editorial
director and publisher of the Nation
Do you have an opinion on the issues
raised in this article? If you would like to
submit a response of up to 300 words by
email to be considered for publication in
our letters section, please click here.
cluding a Leeds PhD student, Salma al-
Shehab. The kingdom’s human rights
record was hardly stainless, but the
rate of executions has almost doubled
under Prince Mohammed.
On the diplomatic front, the king-
dom is attempting to exit the war
in Yemen, where its aggressive and
extremely expensive intervention has
cost so many civilian lives, and has im-
proved rock-bottom relations with Iran.
The biggest factor in its rehabilitation,
however, has been Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine, which sent energy prices soar-
ing and is reconfiguring international
relations. The west wants to limit coop-
eration with Russia and knows that
Riyadh is looking to China to “de-
Americanise” its future.
Washington and London have long
regarded Riyadh as a guarantor of re-
gional stability. Yet the crown prince
charged recklessly into Yemen and co-
led the blockade of Qatar. His hand
was detected when the then Lebanese
prime minister, Saad Hariri, bizarrely
Continued on page 22

22
Continued from page 21
resigned while in Riyadh, then unre-
signed once home. The future king
has now vowed to take on his former
mentor, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al
Nahyan, president of the United Arab
Emirates. He has briefed journalists
People are fascinated by the sober and sober-
ish. But the real question is – why aren’t there
more of us?
R
Moya Lothian-McLean
ecently, a friend in Scot-
land has been griping
that licensing laws are
standing in the way of his
summer nights out. But
not in the way you might think: his
grievance centres on the impossibility
of buying a non-alcoholic beer from a
shop after 10pm.
A formerly enthusiastic drinker, he
has recently discovered the delights of
0% lagers:all the fun of the fair without
any of the hangover. And now he finds
himself unable to buy what is essen-
tially a soft drink, simply because you
can’t buy alcohol after 10pm in Scot-
land, and his 0% beer is categorised
alongside its alcoholic equivalent. “I’m
going to start a social media campaign
about this,” he complained, only partly
joking.
The UK may have one of the high-
est numbers of pubs in the world,
but the evidence is growing that we’re
teetering on the edge of a sober sea
change. Drinking among the nation’s
teenagers and young people is on the
decline – and this June, sales of low- and
non-alcoholic beer at Tesco outstripped
those in dry January by 25%. Retailers
are responding by launching lines of
low- or non-alcoholic drinks; far more
pubs and bars now offer them.
I have been “sober adjacent” (a term
a friend favours for those of us not com-
pletely teetotal, but more likely than
not to go “dry” on any given night) for
a year now, and I have noticed more
and more friends and acquaintances
either cutting back or quitting booze
altogether. Some are in recovery pro-
grammes for addiction; others, like me,
are lucky enough to be able to mod-
erate our drinking at will – a rarer gift,
in our drinking culture, than you might
My adventures at sea have brought me many
things. Mainly raw nipples and exhaustion
H
Adrian Chiles
acking away recently
at some weeds in the
garden, I chanced upon
something discarded in
the undergrowth: my
old paddleboard.
It took me a while to get to paddle-
Opinion
that the UAE “stabbed us in the back”,
and “will see what I can do”, according
to the Wall Street Journal, in a breach
reflecting competing geopolitical inter-
ests, economic rivalry and, it seems, jos-
tling egos.
That’s frustrating the US, which
sought to mend bridges with the crown
‘Ours is a nation of people who, for the large part, feel compelled to drink, while receiving little to no state-provided assistance in reducing
their consumption.’ Photograph: John Angerson/Alamy
think.
People seem fascinated by the rise
of sober and sober-adjacents, and the
first question you tend to hear is: why?
The answer will be different depending
on personal circumstance and demo-
graphic, though for most it falls into
some combination of health, wealth
and context. Today’s teenagers may
be drinking less because the places
where they socialise have changed –
social media is now their main public
square, a location that offers signif-
icantly fewer opportunities for drink-
ing copious amounts of Sourz Apple–
and because it’s prohibitively expen-
sive. Most of the sober or sober-cu-
rious people I know – urban-dwelling,
middle-class millennials like me – want
their all-too-short weekends unmarred
by a day lost to sore heads, and to
manage their health better.
boarding. As a kid, I spent hours on
those polystyrene boards, rubbing my
nipples red raw. (They have been upset-
tingly sensitive ever since, but let’s not
go there.) I tried proper surfing, but
was only any good flat on my belly; I
couldn’t stand up and quickly became
discouraged. I tried windsurfing, but
found I was either getting fed up with
all the falling off, or going so fast that
prince last year in a vain hunt for cheap-
er energy. Shortly after Mr Biden met
him, Opec slashed oil production in-
stead of boosting it – ensuring prices
stayed high in the run-up to the US mid-
terms. The UAE has reportedly blamed
the Saudis for that decision, which
underscored the shortsightedness of
Another clue to what’s going on
in the urban millennial demographic
lies in the upswing in the recreational
usage of magic mushrooms and keta-
mine. Unlike stimulants such as co-
caine (whose use is closely associated
with booze), these drugs are usedto
“soften the edges”, and are increasingly
building profiles as alternative treat-
ments for conditions like depression.
The hardcore, booze-driven lad and la-
dette culture of the 90s and the “three-
day bender, no surrender” approach of
the noughties are now passé. Partying
is still substance-assisted, but the idea
is to enhance your experience rather
than block it out – there’s an emphasis
on the spiritual, rather than having your
body remind you who’s boss by forcing
you to vomit up rum and coke on your
shoes.
All this is against a backdrop of
I was frightened to death. Also, I was
too scared to go out on my own as
I didn’t trust myself to rig the bloody
thing properly.
Apparently, kitesurfing is less of a
faff, but potentially dangerous. I read
something about a poor chap who had
come to a terrible end, so I gave that up
before I started. That’s the best way, I
think.
reliance on Riyadh and its fossil fuels.
Some analysts have suggested that
Prince Mohammed has learned his
lesson in the light of the international
backlash over Mr Khashoggi’s murder,
and is pursuing a more moderate path.
He may be showing somewhat more
discretion. But the logical conclusion
creaking welfare and healthcare ser-
vices, and the premium placed on both
physical and mental health by “well-
ness” culture. Taking care of yourself
has become an individual, not a collec-
tive, endeavour. The ill effects of al-
cohol have been well-documented – is
it any wonder that people are opting for
alternatives?
I do think, though, that when
people ask “why” we’re moving away
from alcohol, what they really want to
know is, “How? How have you managed
it?” The spotlight on us sober and sober-
ish folk is so bright, I suspect, because
we’re still outliers: because ours is a
nation of people who, for the large part,
feel compelled to drink, while receiving
little to no state-provided assistance in
reducing their consumption, and a lot
of cultural reassurance that their booz-
ing is “normal”. It’s pretty clear why
So, to paddleboarding I turned. A
nice chap showed me how to do it and
within half an hour I was on my way
home with a board of my own. It was a
very solid thing, possibly the last of its
type before much better, lighter, inflat-
able ones took over. But I loved it very
much. By the time I had lugged it down
to the beach, I loved it a little less, but
told myself that carrying the thing was
The Guardian Friday 21 July 2023
for him to draw would surely be that
sufficient oil and money bring for-
giveness. Does condemnation followed
swiftly by a reprieve really chasten
anyone? Or does it embolden them in-
stead?
people don’t drink – the real question is
why do people continue to drink when
they don’t want to?
Over and over again, I’ve played
priest in whispered confessions from
smashed people who tell me they yearn
to be able to cut down their drink-
ing, but can’t. Because it lubricates
social situations; because they need it
to manage their mental health condi-
tions; because life in Britain is bleak and
hellish and this is their one escape, OK?
One thing I have learned is that
those who are secure in their drink-
ing habits don’t give a fig who is or
isn’t drinking – and that they’re far rarer
than you might think. The pandemic
may have seen light drinkers reduce
their consumption, but at the same
time, heavy drinkers increased theirs.
Ten million people in England regu-
larly exceed drinking guidelines; and
cultural stigma surrounding the image
of the alcoholic prevents people from
seeking what help there is if they feel
uneasy about their relationship with al-
cohol – while acting as a source ofcom-
forting denial if they have not yet
reached “rock bottom”.
Instead, the burden often falls
on the individual to “moderate” their
drinking or to simply give it up. For
some of us, that is an option. For others,
it is not that easy: even if they stop
the act of drinking, it dominates their
thoughts, as actor Tom Holland re-
cently articulated when discussing his
sobriety. In a society with a compre-
hensive understanding of when drink-
ing stops being a choice and becomes
a compulsion, people would feel they
could reach out for more structured
help, rather than struggling alone to
find their way to sobriety. But I fear that
such a utopia is still a long way off.
Moya Lothian-McLean is a contri-
buting editor at Novara Media
a knack I would soon acquire.
Full of enthusiasm, if already ex-
hausted, I commenced my maiden
voyage. I paddled out to sea. After a
while, I stopped and had a look around.
All very lovely. But now what? Hmm,
I paddled back in again. And that was
that. Oh well. I traipsed home with it
Continued on page 23
Friday 21 July 2023 The Guardian
Continued from page 22
and, upon arrival, collapsed in exhaus-
‘A prisoner in your own home’: AC is a
lifesaving but costly ordeal during heatwaves
M
Jedidajah Otte
ark, 76, an ad-
junct professor from
Austin, Texas, was
looking with unease
towards a further
week with temperatures between 102F
(39C) and 105F (41C), after weeks of
relentless, record-setting heat in the
state.
“Living here feels like being a pris-
oner in your own home. It’s too hot to
be outside,” he said.
“These over-100F days are a recent
thing and are becoming common. This
penetrating sun reminds me of my time
in Vietnam; it feels like you’re under a
magnifying glass. I can’t imagine what
the population would be like here with-
out air conditioning. That’s what keeps
this place going, but it isn’t cheap.”
Mark was one of scores of Guardian
readers who got in touch via a callout
to share how malfunctioning AC units
in their homes have affected their abil-
ity to cope with unrelenting heatwaves
this summer, and how costly it has
become to stay cool in many parts of
the US. Most respondents only wanted
their first name used.
“Our AC failed a couple of weeks ago
when it was very hot. It leaked all over
our bamboo flooring, which will have to
be replaced,” Mark said. “It wasn’t that
old, just 13 years, I didn’t expect it to
fail this quickly. The cost for a new AC
system was about $15,000. That’s a lot
of money, a big blow for me as it ate
up a huge chunk of my retirement sav-
ings, but it’s necessary for survival here
to have an AC, so I didn’t have much
choice. I can’t afford to do this a second
time, but it may break again – they said
possibly in 10-15 years.”
On top of the high installation costs
of a new AC system, paying for increa-
singly “outrageous” electricity bills in
the hotter months is becoming finan-
Your workplace wants you to swallow a
happy pill. What if you found collective joy
instead?
T
Alissa Quart
here are 11-year-olds with
dyed blue hair, ripped
men in their 40s and dirt-
bag hipsters in their 20s,
all hanging from plastic
crimps on the walls of a high-ceilinged
gym. As electronic dance music plays
loudly, Gatorade and microbrews are
being served to the audience. They
dance and clap in unison. Some gather
Opinion
tion.
I told myself it would be more inter-
esting and much easier next time. It
Michael Villa and JP Lantin of Total Refrigeration repair an air conditioning unit on 19
July 2023 in Laveen, Arizona. Photograph: Ross D Franklin/AP
cially unsustainable.
“Even an energy-efficient system
runs constantly all day to keep up with
this heat,” Mark said.
“I sometimes spend $400 a month
on electricity. I’m doing as much as I
can to insulate my home better against
the heat, but on my limited income it’s
tricky, so I’m doing some of that work
myself.
“I’m very concerned about the
future. It’s extremely hot down here,
and it’s gonna get hotter and hotter.
This won’t be a fluke year, and there
are people who don’t have air condi-
tioning.”
Many people in the US who re-
sponded said they were currently
unable to leave their homes after mid-
morning due to the heat, with residents
of states such as Texas, Arizona, Cali-
fornia, New Mexico and Florida saying
temperatures in their areas were hotter
now than they were a few years ago.
Without air conditioning, many
of them said, living in their states
would be either unbearable or out-
right impossible now, highlighting that
what was once primarily considered
a comfort-enhancing feature in many
to chat and cheer at those climbing the
walls around them. It’s exuberant, anar-
chic, and although I am not a climber,
I am in the middle of it, sitting cross-
legged on the sweaty floor.
I’m not attending the event, which
was organized by a Brooklyn climbing
gym, because I love dim lighting, relent-
less bass and beer – although I do like
these things. I am here because my
tween daughter has a gift for climbing,
and my attending those competitions
turned parties is a requirement – she’s
wasn’t. Nor the time after that. And
then I never went again. Now, I’ve
brushed the weeds back over it and I’m
US homes is becoming an essential
requirement.
Nearly 90% of US households used
air conditioning in 2020, according to
data from the US Energy Information
Administration (EIA).
In Texas, a record-breaking heat-
wave caused energy demand tosoar to
record levels and put the power grid
under such strain that the solar energy
supply is believed to have helped pre-
vent power outages.
Some respondents living in areas
of the country with extreme heat said
they could only afford using air condi-
tioning because they had installed solar
panels, among them a 70-year-old re-
tiree from Sierra Madre, California, who
said he considered himself “fortunate”
to be able to afford his electricity bills in
the current heat.
Julia, a 32-year-old project manager
from Gaithersburg, Maryland, says her
household decided to invest in a new
eco-friendly heating, ventilation and air
conditioning (HVAC) unit earlier this
month, which came with a $9,000 price
tag.
Julia, who lives with her parents,
was among a number of respondents
still a kid – but it also further con-
nects us to this community. Watching
her do “beta” with dance-like hand and
arm movements to figure out a climb
before she gets on the wall or smile
shyly at the crowd when she “tops” and
waves to her friends make me proud:
she is thinking with her body, but also
anchored in a group of enthusiasts I
had never known of before she showed
them to me.
I am also here because these days I
find happiness, like a growing number
trying to pretend none of this silly busi-
ness ever happened.
• Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster,
who said their air conditioning system
did not survive the recent period of
sweltering temperatures.
“There are two levels in our house
and luckily it was just the downstairs
AC that broke a couple of weeks ago
during the big heatwave,” she said. “It
was unbearable at times to go down-
stairs. It took a week and a half to get
people to come take a look, get some
quotes, and finally an entire Saturday to
get it all replaced.
“It should hopefully last 10 years,”
she said. “I am lucky that my dad has
the means to pay for this. If I was not
living at home, I would not be able to
afford this. Although Maryland is not an
area that’s considered particularly hot
in the US, it feels like, over the years,
that summers have gotten hotter, and
when I was looking at houses, the first
thing the real estate agent was looking
at was how old the HVAC was.”
Seth Follansbee, a residential real
estate agent and small business owner
in his 40s from Fort Lauderdale, Florida,
said keeping cool is costing more every
year.
“The cost of maintaining and re-
pairing AC has measurably increased
over the years, without a doubt, from
the minimum service charges to just
come on site, the hourly labor rates, to
the parts, materials and AC units them-
selves. Electricity bills this time of year
are very high, around $400 a month for
our single-family home, which is rather
shocking,” Follansbee said.
“But you’ve also got to be proactive
and pay for AC maintenance regularly,
which we’re doing at last once a year
now. If you don’t, it’s going to break,
which is very expensive. The cheapest
AC bill I’ve paid this year was $200, the
most expensive $1,600.”
Follansbee, who also owns and
manages two rental units, believes that
the blistering temperatures of the past
few weeks may have affected many AC
systems.
of Americans do, in something I like to
call “collective joy”. And it might be our
best answer to the diktat of the cor-
porate happiness industry.
Happiness as a pill to swallow
For much of my life, happiness was
neatly sold as a product I could pur-
chase, like a pill I was supposed to
swallow. Happiness could be bought as
literal medicine – Wellbutrin, Zoloft –
or found in the self-help books and
retreats. This idea of happiness was
something one should achieve on one’s
23
writer and Guardian columnist
A protester holds a sign at the Texas state
capitol in Austin to publicize the need for air
conditioning in Texas prisons. Photograph:
AFP/Getty Images
“This kind of heat really attacks
these units, puts a lot of pressure on
them and makes them break down
more frequently,” he said.
Going without an AC, Follansbee
said, is not an option.
“Not having a working AC can mean
not being able to stay in the house over-
night. AC is a necessity in south-east
Florida, without, it’s torturous”.
For Daive, 53, from Bullhead City,
Arizona, living in a house without air
conditioning in one of the hottest areas
of the country has been an inescapable
struggle for over a year.
Temperatures in the community of
about 40,000 people are forecast to hit
118F (48C) on Friday.
“My AC doesn’t work, and I can’t
afford to fix it,” said Daive, who used
to have a car wash but is currently
unemployed after giving up work to
care for his elderly parents during the
pandemic.
“It looks like it would cost $3,000 to
$4,000 for a new compressor, or $6,000
or $7,000 for a whole replacement unit.
In the daytime, temperatures inside my
house can reach between 125 and 130F,”
he said.
“I have to wait till 10am when the li-
brary opens to be able to cool off, where
I stay all day, until they close at 6 or
7pm. That’s all I can do right now.”
own, by mastering one’s own pes-
simism. And it had a serious business
angle: a happy worker was supposed to
be more productive.
That notion of happiness took
something from positive psychology,
the movement that took hold in the
1990s. Martin Seligman was a supporter
of this school of thought, saying in
the American Psychologist journal in
2000 that he was seeking to “change
Continued on page 24

24
Continued from page 23
the focus of psychology from a preoc-
cupation only with repairing the worst
things in life to also building positive
qualities”. Or as he said at the first Posi-
tive Psychology Summit in Lincoln, Ne-
braska, in 1999: “Psychology was half-
baked.” What was “unbaked”, he con-
tinued, was “the side of strength, the
side of what we’re good at”.
It made sense that such focus on
power and skill would appeal to Amer-
ican corporations more than the vis-
ceral slog of what caused unhappiness
in the first place. Soon, companies
like Google began employing someone
called a “jolly good fellow”. The first of
these was Chade-Meng Tan, also known
as Meng, a software engineer with an
added mission: he was to cheer co-
workers while also greeting celebrities
at the Google campus.
Meng was not alone; he was part
of a larger Silicon Valley tech ideology
that focused on getting workers to work
until the wee hours, using corporate
happy talk to convince them to do so.
It was also peddled by the likes
of Tony Robbins, Dan Harris and Rick
Hanson. (The latter’s tech-accented
book Hardwiring Happiness offers a
“recipe” for how to weigh positive expe-
riences more heavily in one’s life.)
The happiness industry was soon
in full bloom: the so-called Happiness
Business School, which offers a certif-
icate program that produces chief hap-
piness officers with international train-
ings that include a lesson in the
“ROI of Happy Workplace”, established
itself; a Buddhist monk discussed hap-
piness at Davos; happiness-themed Ted
talks multiplied; mugs with sayings
like “Positivity Is a Choice” or “Make
Happiness Your Business Model” proli-
ferated.
This theory morphed depending
on what platforms were popular. We
were promised glee and resulting effi-
ciency on social media, but if only we’d
buy “mindful” mayonnaise and nail
polish, “happy” aromatherapy products
or “mood-supporting” vitamins. We are
also, not coincidentally, sold those
things on platforms like Instagram,
where illusions of personal happiness
enshrined in sunshine-laden individual
accounts abound.
One recent embodiment of this
corporate philosophy is the AmaZen,
a closet-sized meditation chamber of-
fered by Amazon in May 2021 to
supposedly soothe its workers. Inside
the booth, employees could use a
computer to view mindful practices,
which included screen-guided medi-
tation videos and positive affirmations.
(That the booths resembled toilet stalls
in size and shape was ironic, because
The great, transformative Megan Rapinoe
prepares to go out on her own terms
S
Jeff Kassouf in Auckland
aturday in New Zealand
marks the beginning of the
end for Megan Rapinoe. The
United States forward an-
nounced earlier in July that
this World Cup, her fourth, will also be
her last. She will retire later this year
after playing out the National Women’s
Opinion
‘For much of my life, happiness was neatly sold as a product I could purchase, like a pill I
was supposed to swallow.’ Photograph: Zerilli Media/Alamy
workers at the company had said they
had to fight for bathroom breaks.)
These “practice rooms” stood within
warehouses, and employees were told
to lock themselves into the “individual
interactive kiosks” during exhausting
work shifts, all during a union-busting
era when they were being discouraged
to organize.
I spoke to Will Davies, author of
the 2015 book The Happiness Industry.
He sees the happiness industrial com-
plex as one in which “negative thoughts
and low moods were simply caused by
bad habits”. This view, he argues, relies
on an “impoverished view of what a
human being and what boredom is”.
As Davies says, this is “a post-
human understanding of the work-
force”, where workers are assets to be
rented for the day and have to be happy
to boot. (The television show Sever-
ance, in which workers are given a brain
surgery so they forget their non-work
lives when they are in the office, might
not be just sci-fi after all.)
Seeking transcendence
The pandemic changed this para-
digm. It’s not that the happiness indus-
try is over, exactly – it’s just that
Covid and its aftermath of so-called
“quiet quitting” showed us a way
out of the buying-happiness-so-you-
are-more-productive game.
Today, we can see the other option:
collective joy.
What is collective joy? It’s a kind
of happiness experienced in groups.
It’s found in meaningful occasions,
like marches and celebrations of iden-
tity, but also in communal events that
might otherwise seem trivial. For me,
this might also include a reproductive
rights event where people are dressed
as uteruses but also things that are
more hedonistic, like a large dance
party that features at least two acro-
bats, a Reiki practitioner and a tarot
reader. According to a 2022 Pew study,
21% of those surveyed had a renewed
appreciation for social activities fol-
lowing lockdown, with many of them
Soccer League season with her club, OL
Reign.
As with just about everything Ra-
pinoe has done on and off the field in
her glittering career, she is going out her
way, on her terms.
“I’m just grateful to be able to do it
in this way,” Rapinoe said. “I understand
that it is incredibly rare for athletes of
any stature to be able to go out in their
own way, on their own terms, at the
noting that large gatherings in partic-
ular were more cherished than ever.
I am not the first to name the po-
tency of celebration and mass public
expression. My late friend and col-
league Barbara Ehrenreich wrote about
this in her book Dancing in the Streets,
describing the power of spectacle and
carnivals, in culture, politics and sports,
including Pride, rock festivals and foot-
ball matches. Such events, she wrote,
offer individuals a communal glee that
can ultimately transform for them into
meaning and power.
Take movements and phrases like
“Black joy”, which has nearly half a
million posts under it on Instagram.
The idiom refers to what Kleaver Cruz,
founder of the Black Joy Project, says
is an account of Black life that doesn’t
simply create an “alternate” Black narr-
ative that ignores the realities of collec-
tive pain, but, as Cleaver says, holds
it “in tension with the joy we expe-
rience”. Thinkers like adrienne maree
brown, in her book on the joy poss-
ible within Black liberation, Pleasure
Activism, has written about extending
the intimacy of romantic relationships
to more public networks, encouraging
people to “cultivate collective agency”
as well as to “dance when you make
decisions”.
As I reported in my book Boot-
strapped, collective resilience also in-
cludes new directions in the labor
movement. It also consists of a grow-
ing number of mutual aid groups offer-
ing reciprocal altruism on a community
level, participatory budgeting collec-
tives, or even groups like peer therapy
communities where informally trained
people relieve the unmet need for li-
censed therapists around the coun-
try, including on college campuses. (In
2021, researchers with the Mary Chris-
tie Institute and Lady Gaga’s Born This
Way Foundation surveyed more than
2,000 college students and found one in
five had received peer counseling.)
In addition to these earnest collec-
tive encounters, there are more hedo-
time that they want, in a way that feels
really peaceful and settled for them.”
Regardless of what happens over
the next month, as Rapinoe and Co aim
to win an unprecedented third consec-
utive World Cup, the 38-year-old will
walk away as one of the all-time greats
in a program littered with them.
She may also be the most famous
women’s player in history thanks to
her advocacy off the field. Rapinoe
nistic gleeful communities. The most
striking thing about “dance culture”
post-pandemic, says the DJ Tasha
Blank, who founded the large dance
and party project formerly known as
the Get Down and now called Body
Lvnguage, is that “new people are
coming to it, people who may not have
been interested or willing before”.
Blank’s events tend to have be-
tween 250 and 500 attendees, as well
as drummers, poets and greeters at
the door adorning dancers with glit-
ter (partiers surrender their drinks and
phones there as well). Blank, who lives
in Nevada City, California, travels the
country DJing and says she has seen
how the pandemic has not only in-
creased the number of revelers, but
that those who come to her dance par-
ties are “embracing more connection”.
They are doing so paradoxically be-
cause they have been, she says, “trau-
matized by the experience of having
everything taken away and by being
afraid of invisible danger”. Blank also
cited a rash of new community singing
groups – drum circles for voices.
Claudia Cuentas, a Portland-based
member of some of these singing cir-
cles, therapist and self-described Peru-
vian immigrant, sees those around her
“as relying on their own community
more and more, seeing that being to-
gether and enjoying resources together
is a life requirement: we need to be
together to be coherent and healthy.”
They include Bipoc-specific singing cir-
cles, where Cuentas found collective
joy.
During the pandemic, partiers
brought their own speakers and gene-
rators and DJs to Brooklyn’s Prospect
Park, near my home, where sometimes
as many as 200 people danced at free
gatherings. Some of the ringleaders
have since created an informal club in
a nearby house with electronic music
playing all night long in the basement.
And every Sunday morning up to 16 or
so New Yorkers don their headphones
and dance around the circumference of
the park, listening to their own music,
writhing and jumping in a free meet-
up. The organizer of these dance meet-
ups, Joanne Nerenberg, described them
as an “incredible catharsis”. Among the
collective activities that are in the same
expressive vein yet slightly different are
the new giant and sometimes illicit lite-
rary readings in the streets and private
houses of Los Angeles; a recent ga-
thering was replete with nitrous-filled
balloons.
A theory of radical happiness
Part of the appeal of Ehrenreich’s
version of collective joy is that it high-
lights the destabilization of roles. “At
the height of the festivity, we step
out of our assigned roles and statues,”
is a steadfast fighter for equality and
inclusion, which has inspired many and
drawn the ire of others.
As teammate Kelley O’Hara said this
week while holding back tears: “She’s
one of a kind. There’s never been one
like her, there’s probably never going to
be one close to her.”
Rapinoe reached a level of global
fame four years ago when, with her
unmistakable purple-pink hair, she led
The Guardian Friday 21 July 2023
Google and other tech companies focused
on getting workers to work until the wee
hours, using corporate happy talk to con-
vince them to do so. Photograph: Bloomberg/
Getty Images
she wrote, “of gender, ethnicity, tribe
and rank – and into a brief utopia de-
fined by egalitarianism, creativity and
mutual love.” (This was over a decade
before the pandemic: as usual, Ehre-
nreich was ahead of the curve.) This
take stands in sharp contrast to the
happiness preached by the happiness
industry, which tended to be more
about burrowing further into the possi-
bility of wellbeing of whatever social
identity the market and our unequal so-
ciety had assigned you.
The theorist Lynne Segal continued
this line of thinking in her book Rad-
ical Happiness. Collective campaigns,
however limited in their gains, can take
ordinary, lonely geographies and trans-
form them, she writes, “into spaces of
hope”.
Embracing collective joy may well
rest, though, on vanquishing the pu-
nishing, singular idea of happiness
– that it’s connected to efficiency,
a person’s job or even our indi-
vidual wellbeing. Collective joy, in con-
trast, is an attempt to alchemize, say,
loss or powerlessness into significance,
through physical movement, sound
and embodied politics. As brown, Plea-
sure Activism’s author, writes, we need
to make “justice and liberation the most
pleasurable experiences we can have”.
Every summer, I experience this joy
when I read poetry out loud with many
inhabitants of an upstate New York
town on 4 July. In 2021, we attended
a nearby parade led by local artists –
this was back when my daughter still
thought it was fun to dress in costumes
and make festive flags made of recycled
turquoise toile scraps. We did so, join-
ing hundreds clad in thrift finery, bear-
ing noisemakers and hula hoops. In the
midst of the crowd, I felt part of a single
entity, as if I was obtaining a more real
kind of happiness.
That feeling was instructive: it’s part
of why lately, when I have been invited
to do almost anything involving cele-
brating with strangers, I have almost
always said yes. I’ve never been sorry.
the USA’s campaign at the 2019 World
Cup, scoring six goals while winning
the Golden Ball as the tournament’s
best player. That tournament marked
an explosion of the team’s fame and
Rapinoe’s celebrity, but the flame had
been lit years earlier.
In 2011, with the US trailing Brazil
in the 122nd minute of the World Cup
Continued on page 25
Friday 21 July 2023 The Guardian
Continued from page 24
quarter-final, Rapinoe hit a desperate
cross to the back post that found the
head of Abby Wambach for the equa-
lizer. The moment was quintessential,
never-say-die USWNT attitude – and
was later voted the greatest Women’s
World Cup goal of all time. The Amer-
icans eventually advanced to the final,
where they lost to Japan.
Even before that match, without
the comfort of having established her
place on the team, Rapinoe was a
bold personality. After scoring against
Colombia in the group stage, she ran to
one of the on-field microphones, picked
it up and tapped it, and belted out a line
from Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the
USA.
One year later, Rapinoe helped the
US win a third consecutive Olympic
gold medal. Among her feats was an
Olimpico – a goal straight from a corner
kick – in the controversial extra-time
win over Canada in the semi-final. Ra-
pinoe scored another Olimpico at the
Tokyo Games in 2021, a repeat trick
which US Soccer believes has never
been replicated at that level.
In between, she won the 2015 World
Cup and refined her game with the
Reign in Seattle. Her style of play was,
and is, defined by audacity and inge-
nuity, from Olimpicos and unlikely free
kicks (she surprised France with a near-
post effort in the 2019 World Cup quar-
ter-final) to quick throw-ins that pro-
duce assists. She is the type of player
who will try anything once … and
How we met: ‘I knew the moment I saw her I
was going to marry her’
W
Lizzie Cernik
hen Steve left
his home in Cali-
fornia to travel in
Europe in June
2001, little did he
know that he would meet the woman
he wanted to spend his life with. “I’d
gone with my friend and my brother to
Barcelona,” says Steve. When they ar-
rived, they went to a tourist kiosk to in-
quire about accommodation and were
directed to a small hotel in El Born dis-
trict.
“We’d asked for a crappy hotel near
the beach and we got a crappy hotel
that was quite far from the beach,” he
says, laughing. They did, however, find
a nice restaurant. “We went there for
lunch the next day and that’s when I
saw Maite for the first time,” he says.
“I wasn’t looking for a girlfriend, but I
knew the moment I saw her that I was
going to marry her.”
Maite was managing the restaurant
but, when Steve asked the waiting staff
about her, he was disappointed. “They
said: ‘That’s the owner’s daughter. She
won’t talk to you’.”
She admits that she didn’t notice
Steve initially, but he stayed in Bar-
celona for the next two months, regu-
Opinion
Megan Rapinoe says she is retiring ‘in a way that feels really peaceful and settled’. Photo-
graph: Hannah Peters/FIFA/Getty Images
nobody will question it.
Perhaps more famously, Rapinoe
has also left her mark off the field.
She is one of the world’s most famous
out gay athletes, and fights fiercely for
the LGBTQ+ community. She has also
raised issues around race: in 2016, she
knelt during the national anthem in
solidarity with former NFL quarterback
Colin Kaepernick, who did the same at
the time in protest of social injustices.
US Soccer proceeded to drop her from
the team and create a rule (which was
soon repealed) requiring all players to
stand for the national anthem – “White
people were mad. Whew, were they
mad!” she later wrote in her memoir.
Then came 2019, when her life for-
ever changed. With the team already
mired in a bitter, high-profile equal-
pay lawsuit with their own federation,
Rapinoe said in an interview – which
‘You know when you’re home – and that’s how I feel with her’ ... Steve and Maite in 2016
larly popping into the restaurant. “He
kept ordering the same food and look-
ing at me,” she says. “I thought he was a
bit arrogant because he was staring.”
Steve went home to the US, but re-
turned to Barcelona on holiday. “It was
an excuse to go back to the restaurant
and see Maite,” he says. Whenever he
visited, her colleagues would say: “The
American is here again,” and try to per-
suade her to go out with him. But Maite
had a boyfriend and wasn’t interested.
In 2003, she decided to study in
Australia. “I ended my relationship and
was preparing to leave,” she says. That
was when she decided to give Steve a
chance. “When he came to the restau-
was held for release until the World
Cup – “I’m not going to the fucking
White House.” She meant if the team
won the World Cup, and she said it as a
direct shot at then-US president Donald
Trump.
Trump took to Twitter to say,
“Megan should WIN first before she
TALKS! Finish the job!”. Trump claimed
Rapinoe was disrespecting the coun-
try, and she became the face of a
now polarizing US team that stood
for inclusion, against a sizable group
of conservatives. The US did win, of
course, with Rapinoe striking an arms-
extended pose after each of her six
goals in the tournament.
No matter how heavy the topic
or serious the moment, Rapinoe kept
things light. She never took herself too
seriously.
“I know that the world sees the
rant, he always used to ask if I wanted
to go for a drink. I always said no, but
then I thought, what if I never see him
again?”
They met on the terrace of another
restaurant and, “laughed all night. We
were speaking in broken Spanish, Eng-
lish and through gestures because we
didn’t speak each other’s language well,
but it was so much fun,” says Maite.
She went to Australia, but they kept
in touch. “Steve emailed me and sent
handwritten letters and CDs. He said he
wanted to wait for me.”
In 2005, he invited her to visit him
in San Francisco. “I loved the trip and
he treated me so well,” she says. “My
Megan Rapinoe that the world sees, but
we get to see her up close and personal,”
O’Hara said. “Obviously, the ‘Pinoe’ that
the world sees is an incredible person
and human, and that is her also up
close and personal. She brings a sense
of humor and lightness but [also] inten-
sity and empathy.”
Retirement has been in Rapinoe’s
mind ever since that World Cup tri-
umph in Lyon four years ago. Every-
thing she did was scrutinized and she
felt stuck in the hamster wheel of
professional sports. Emotionally, spiri-
tually and physically, she was taxed.
Ongoing injuries further limited her
production and stripped her of her joy
in the game.
Now, on a team that has been
gutted and remodeled over the past
18 months, Rapinoe is part of the sup-
porting cast. She will mostly come off
the bench with the expectation that
she can change games in the final mi-
nutes with that usual flair and audacity,
whether it be another pinpoint cross or
a perfect free-kick. Starting and starring
roles? Those are unlikely, but she is fine
with that.
She accepted as much last year
when she returned to the team for
World Cup qualifying after a hiatus. The
team had transitioned to a new gener-
ation – 14 of the 23 players on the US
roster this month are at their first World
Cup – and Sophia Smith and Mallory
Swanson had taken over as the clear, in-
form starters on the wings of the USA’s
4-3-3 formation.
Rapinoe had become a mentor, a
English was much better by then too.”
Afterwards, they tried a long-distance
relationship, but Steve says it was hard.
“Maite wasn’t sure about us as she was
still studying. We kept in touch, but it
was hot and cold.”
After she finished college and re-
turned to Barcelona at the end of 2006,
Maite began to feel “a bit lost”. Steve
suggested they meet in New York to
celebrate the new year. When she ar-
rived, her mobile phone wasn’t working
and she realised they hadn’t arranged a
place to meet.
“By chance, I went to get an elevator
at the airport. The doors opened and
there was Steve. We were together for
three days, but I didn’t want to leave. I
was really in love by that point.” After a
brief trip back to Barcelona, she packed
her bags and went to San Francisco to
be with him. She got pregnant that year,
and began to panic because she didn’t
have a visa. “Steve asked me to marry
him and stay – I just knew it was right,”
she says.
Steve’s friends and family pulled
together and threw them a wedding
in Lake Tahoe. “We planned nothing
and it couldn’t have been better,” says
Steve. The couple have two sons, born
in 2008 and 2011. From California, they
moved to Texas in 2010 for Steve’s job
in manufacturing management. Maite
25
The 2019 Women’s World Cup was a
defining tournament for Megan Rapinoe.
Photograph: Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images
player-coach. If that’s what it takes to
win another World Cup, that’s fine with
her.
“Rosters are not a compilation just
of, go pick the best players and hope for
the best,” Rapinoe said last year upon
her return to the team. “It’s about con-
structing an organism that works to-
gether on and off the field, that works
not necessarily harmoniously all the
time, but that the right pieces fit for
certain reasons and for reasons most
people don’t understand.”
The USA are among the favorites
once again, but they are not without
considerable questions, driven by inju-
ries (including Swanson) and tactical
uncertainty. If they are to win anoth-
er World Cup, they will do so largely
on the backs of a new, emerging gener-
ation, from Smith up top to Naomi
Girma in defense.
Rapinoe will not be front and center
as she was four years ago. But she’ll be
integral to whatever the team does, ral-
lying the team in huddles and locker
rooms and, potentially, making one last
game-changing play.
Steve, Maite and their sons in Spain,
2018.
initially took time out to look after
their children, and now works as a coor-
dinator for a clinical trials company.
Steve believes they were meant to
be together. “We fit perfectly and she is
one of the smartest, most caring, giving
and sensitive people I have ever known.
You know when you’re home – and
that’s how I feel with her.”
Maite loves Steve’s sense of humour
and integrity. “He’s so loving to me and
the boys. When you say you love every-
thing about someone it sounds cheesy,
but it’s true. I feel so loved.”

26
Sun, sea and flings: our writers on their
favorite summertime movies
Lauren Mechling, Owen Myers,
Andrew Lawrence, Catherine
Shoard, Scott Tobias, Jenna
Amatulli, Benjamin Lee, Charles
Bramesco, Radheyan Simon-
pillai, AA Dowd and Veronica
Esposito
Swimming Pool
Anybody who has tried to multitask
over a Zoom-assisted summer of late
will find much to relate to in Swimming
Pool, French director François Ozon’s
first English language feature, about
a working holiday that is anything
but relaxing. The British crime novel-
ist Sarah Morton (Charlotte Rampling)
has hit a creative wall, and retreats to
her smarmy publisher’s summer home
in the south of France. Nothing like a
change of scenery to help a hit-maker
press the refresh button. Our belted-
up, beige-clad protagonist stocks up
on tubs of yogurt and clacks away at
her computer, determined to rack up
a handsome word count. But the stul-
tifying heat and the sensuality rising
from the home’s other resident, the
libertine daughter that her publisher
never mentioned having, Julie (Ludi-
vine Sagnier), wear away at Sarah’s cal-
cified bearing (“she has a broomstick up
her butt,” per Julie). Over these swel-
tering weeks, Sarah opens her hooded
eyes and comes undone, and not just
because she starts swilling gin and
stabbing at midday profiteroles with a
grapefruit spoon. Ozon’s depiction of
Sarah’s awakening is electric, and ren-
dered in a style that is, rather miracu-
lously, both languid and taut. The film
is bookended by scenes in an office,
an unwelcome reminder that the laws
of gravity apply to even the most gor-
geously dizzying of dreams. Lauren
Mechling
Summertime
It’s lovely to have a summer fling,
and even nicer if you learn some-
thing about yourself in the process. But
David Lean’s Summertime, anchored by
a frantic, fearless Katharine Hepburn,
takes romantic Roman Holiday cliches
several shades darker. Hepburn plays a
retired American secretary who blows
her savings on a solo trip to Venice and
plunges into the city with abandon. It’s
almost as if she’s over-compensating
for something, which of course she
is. Privately, and not-so-privately too,
she is gripped by crippling loneliness
and manic mood swings that send her
from giddy laughter to tears. She yearns
for romance which she finds, perhaps
a little too quickly, in a smooth-talk-
ing wheeler-dealer played by Rossano
Brazzi (AKA heaven on a stick). As invit-
ing as her paramour is Venice itself,
a Technicolor fantasy with charming
pensioni and gondoliers with the man-
ners of a Jane Austen gent. Hepburn
gives the sun-drenched melodrama its
modernity and its bite; she is as ar-
resting as an ice cube down your back
on a sweaty day. Owen Myers
Opinion
Stills from Do the Right Thing, Swimming Pool, My Summer of Love and Adventureland.
Composite: The Guardian/Miramax Films/Sportsphoto/Allstar/Focus Features/ Bbc Films/
REX/Shutterstock
The Inkwell
Because I was raised by Jamai-
can immigrants in the midwest, I had
no idea Black families retreated to
their own little corner of Martha’s Vi-
neyard every summer until this 90s
cult classic. In it, a troubled teen shrinks
from a beachy Fourth of July han-
gout with upper-crust kinfolk only to
wind up falling in love and coming
of age. The all-Black cast mixes acting
royalty (Joe Morton, Vanessa Bell Cal-
loway) and up-and-comers (Jada Pin-
kett, Morris Chestnut) with the Heath
Ledger of Black romcom leading men –
Love Jones’s Larenz Tate. But the thing
that still makes this Terence Blanchard-
scored film so special is how it lets the
Black people in it just be. Sure, they
have their political and cultural differ-
ences but for the most part The Inkwell
has the unhurried vibe of an all-white
indie project. It’s a shame there aren’t
more like it, and that Matty Rich hasn’t
directed another feature since. Andrew
Lawrence
Mid-August Lunch
Four very elderly women trapped in
a Rome flat at the height of summer
sounds like a disaster movie. And did
I mention it was made by the men
behind Gomorrah? Yet there are no
gruesome shootings nor vivid depic-
tions of dehydration in Mid-August
Lunch. Rather, these fabulously coif-
fured nonagenarians are cosseted in
fine style, their every appetite catered
for by the beleaguered son of one of
them – lumbered with three extra in
exchange for waived rent and med-
ical bills. Once he relaxes, with the
aid of wine and a tramp, they all have
a great time, chatting and squabbling
over pasta and asti. Gianni Di Gregorio’s
comedy is more of a meal than it first
seems. It’s about compassion and re-
spect, as well as good cheese and bad
telly. In a climate like today’s, it’s quite a
sorbet. Catherine Shoard
Do the Right Thing
It’s the hottest day of the summer in
Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, and Do the Right
Thing opens with Mister Señor Love
Daddy (Samuel L Jackson) issuing a
“Jheri curl alert”: “If you have a Jheri
Curl, stay in the house or you’ll end
up with a permanent plastic helmet on
your head forever.” In Spike Lee’s slice-
of-life, the temperature climbs near
100F. Children commandeer the fire hy-
drants as makeshift sprinklers. Bodies
glisten with sweat and melt ice cubes,
but it’s too hot for sex. And the racial
tensions that perpetually simmer in the
city are about to boil over. Does Lee’s
Mookie throw the trash can through
the window of Sal’s Famous on a cooler
day? Perhaps not. But through the lens
of cinematographer Ernest Dickerson,
Do the Right Thing pops with colors
that suggest both the vibrancy and
the volatility of a neighborhood on the
brink. Scott Tobias
Now and Then
There’s something visceral about
Now and Then. Just the mention of the
film and I can smell the freshly cut
grass, hear the Archies’ Sugar, Sugar,
feel my sticky ice-pop-coated hands,
and see faint bruises on legs, surely
from running down the street and hop-
ping on my bike to make it home
before dinner. If you haven’t seen the
1995 classic, it’s a coming-of-age dra-
medy that follows four female friends
over the course of a summer when
they were kids and their subsequent
reunion some decades later. It toggles
back and forth between the 70s and the
90s, providing plenty of laughs inters-
persed with heart-wrenching moments
of maturation. While I’ll be irrevocably
angry that they cast Rosie O’Donnell
as Christina Ricci’s elder counterpart,
there’s no other film that better cap-
tures the simultaneous anguish and joy
that comes with girlhood. Come for the
A-list cast (it also stars Demi Moore,
Melanie Griffith and the 90s heartthrob
Devon Sawa!) and stay for the nostalgia:
every young person who grew up in
suburbia, in any decade can take away
something wonderful from the film.
Jenna Amatulli
My Summer of Love
The most memorable summers of
our youth had a breathtaking sense
of cinema to them, as if our lives had
suddenly expanded to widescreen, the
scenery that much richer, our emo-
tions that much bigger. In Paweł Pawli-
kowski’s seductive Yorkshire-set Bafta-
winner My Summer of Love, the dull,
washed-out grind of one girl’s life –
lonely, listless and lumped with a born-
again ex-con brother turning their pub
into a church – is given a lush, high-defi-
nition upgrade when she meets anoth-
er from the other, posher side of the
moors. For Mona, played by an exqui-
site Natalie Press, the grandiose, Edith
Piaf-soundtracked life of Tamsin, a star-
making turn from a young Emily Blunt,
is as desirable as it is dangerous, ignit-
ing her sexuality but obscuring her
better instincts. It’s a short, bittersweet
and haunting little movie, alluringly
scored by Goldfrapp, about the fires we
choose to play with and the burns we
then learn to accept. Benjamin Lee
Adventureland
The Summer That Everything
Changed is a time-honored subset of
the cinematic bildungsroman, but in
Greg Mottola’s understated and infi-
nitely quotable snapshot of post-colle-
giate ennui circa 1987, our boy James
(Jesse Eisenberg in a persona-setting
role) comes of age with more nuance
than most. Fresh out of Oberlin and
flat broke, he’s forced to spend the
hot months minimum-waging it at his
hometown amusement park, a set-up
that would imply a familiar set of
Hollywood hijinks. Mottola doesn’t so
much defy the typical components of
this comedy subgenre as he hones
them to a finer point, crafting true-
to-life characters and placing them in
a recognizable past shaped by smartly
deployed cultural markers. And on top
of that: a no-skips soundtrack of the
era’s choicest indie rock cuts, the first
documented evidence that Kristen Ste-
wart is a great actor, and Martin Starr
as a self-proclaimed “pragmatic nihilist,
I guess, or an existential pagan, if you
will” who smokes a pipe and muses on
Melville. Charles Bramesco
Double Indemnity
Billy Wilder’s iconic caper, about
a couple plotting murder over iced
tea and bourbon, doesn’t oversell its
summer vibes. It doesn’t have to.
Barbara Stanwyck turns up the heat
the moment her femme fatale Phyl-
lis Dietrichson enters the frame. Fresh
from sunbathing, she’s wearing only
a towel and a dangerously inqui-
sitive smile. Stanwyck’s performance is
monumental: an awe-inspiring modula-
tion of ease and precision as when
she slinks into a sofa seat in her
summer dress with a carefully calcu-
lated leg cross or gently leans into
a helpless pout to lure Fred Mac-
Murray’s insurance agent Walter Neff.
MacMurray is great too as the hapless
man thinking he’s got his hands on
the steering wheel, not realizing Phyl-
lis already clipped the brakes. They
make a meal of Raymond Chandler’s
pulpy dialogue in a movie playing
a sinful and steamy (but Hays Code
compliant) game of domination and
desire. Double Indemnity set the bar
for film noir. Wilder established the sha-
dowy venetian blind aesthetics and the
femme fatale pedigree. And the movie
tapped into contemporary anxieties
The Guardian Friday 21 July 2023
Photograph: Focus Features/Allstar
over war, modern capitalism, power-
tripping men, unchecked ambition and
blondes sticking it to the patriarchy
long before Barbie met Oppenheimer.
Radheyan Simonpillai
Tu Dors Nicole
There are better and more iconic
summer movies, like the one about
the rampaging shark or the one set
on the hottest day of the year in Bed-
Stuy, Brooklyn. But between annual re-
watches of those classics, spare a balmy
July evening for the itchy melancholia
of Tu Dors Nicole (translation: You’re
Sleeping, Nicole), a summer movie for
those whose seasonal affective disorder
hits during the warmer weeks. Shot
on a crisp black-and-white that en-
hances the drab uneventfulness of its
plot, Stéphane Lafleur’s sublimely bit-
tersweet French-Canadian comedy fol-
lows a recent college graduate (Ju-
lianne Côté) as she ambles through a
summer without plans or direction, ca-
sually stealing from the thrift store that
employs her, nursing an unrequited
crush, and drifting apart from her best
friend. With dry amusement, the movie
gets at how sad and lonely and even
boring summer can be when your life is
stuck in a rut – how the endless down-
time of the season can feel like pur-
gatory when you’ve got nothing to do
and no way to fill the hours. Lots of
movies make summer look like a vaca-
tion you’d never want to end, all skinny
dipping and ice-cream. Here’s one that
recognizes that fantasy for what it too
often is: a shimmering mirage of the fun
you’re supposed to be having while the
weather and your schedule permits. AA
Dowd
The Green Ray
Maybe no other movie feels like
summer to me as much as the French
New Wave director Éric Rohmer’s The
Green Ray (often called Summer in
North America). It centers around Del-
phine, a young woman who struggles
to find her place as Paris empties for
the summer holidays. As with the best
of Rohmer, the film lives and breathes
the stuff of the everyday, somehow im-
buing it with a sense of significance.
On one level, the film is a spectacular
portrait of a woman in search of some-
thing she isn’t quite sure of; on anoth-
er level, it effortlessly captures that
summer restlessness to be somewhere
with someone. It all ties together with
the magical “green ray”, which is said to
appear for the lucky few just as the sun
disappears for the night. Veronica Espo-
sito
 The Guardian Friday 21 July 2023

28 Opinion

I want to distance myself from a friend due to

her relationship. Am I wrong?
continually hearing the same things.

A
Eleanor Gordon-Smith
m I wrong to want to dis-
tance myself from a new
friend due to their rela-
tionship choices? I re-
cently made a friend via
our children’s daycare. Although we get
on well, our relationship probably was
accelerated by my wanting to support
her through an on-and-off relationship
with a man she has described as emo-
tionally abusive.
Recently her ex-partner has begun
to grovel for forgiveness, which is a
usual pattern after their breakups. I’m
worried that he is wearing her down
and she is spending time with him
again. This man is a major focus of
our conversations and a large amount
of energy.
I understand victims often return to
abusers but I feel drained at the idea
of them uniting and separating once
more, and no longer want to focus so
much thought on him. I’m also ap-
palled by his homophobic, rightwing
and racist views.
The fact she even considered a
relationship with someone with these
views makes me wonder about our own
compatibility. If they are to unite, I want
nothing to do with him and he isn’t
someone I want my children to have
contact with. In any case I have started
to wish for more distance between me
and this new friend, which also makes
me feel guilty. What should I do?
This letter has been edited for length
Eleanor says:If you genuinely think
‘Part of why people return to abusers is that they feel there’s nothing better for them out there.’ Picture: The Interrupted Rendezvous by
Rutilio di Lorenzo Manetti. Photograph: National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design
this guy is abusive then one of the
worst things that could happen for
your friend is her support network dis-
tancing themselves because they want
to get away from him. This is one of
the ways that being in an abusive rela-
tionship mars your life: being the site of
his drama makes her seem high-drama,
too.
People are seldom perfect victims,
and she may well have taken him back,
shared his hateful views or behaved
poorly too. But it’s a sad situation when
a person who’s in a royal mess starts to
seem to the people around them like
they just are a mess. It sounds like
she is having a totally horrible time:
an alcoholic partner, who whittles away
at her self-worth, from whom she isn’t
going to break free any time soon, and
a friend (presumably others too) whose
patience is wearing thin.
Part of why people return to ab-
users is that they feel there’s nothing
better for them out there. There’s an
imaginative gap between where you are
now and the idea that things could be
better. Friendships, in which people can
experience microcosms of patience or
love and hear about other kinds of rela-
tionships, can really help bridge that
gap.
That said, it is extremely wearing
to hear the same problems over and
over again from friends in these situa-
tions. It can start to feel like there’s an
expectation that each conversation or
hangout will be dedicated to install-
ment #694129 of “what the boyfriend
did next”. And since you’re not getting
his tearful reunions or flattery, you just
get the 100-strength, uncut, undiluted
bad.
I think there is a halfway point be-
tween distancing yourself entirely and
You could say to her – once, clearly, and
then not again – that you don’t like him,
you don’t think it’s a good choice to
be in a relationship with him and you
don’t want to keep giving this amount
of time to discussing him. You could
stress that you’re here for a friendship
with her.That might even help remind
her that there are parts of her that aren’t
just reactions to him.
It can be really difficult to have
these conversations because it feels like
such a high social-cost thing to do. So
sometimes we wind up just drip-feed-
ing our disapproval instead; an eye roll
here, a purse of lips there. We hope
it will add up to what we want to
say, without the difficult bit of actually
sayingit. But often those small signals
are far more corrosive than one tricky
conversation, without the clarity that
conversation brings.
There’s nothing wrong with being
clear that you disapprove of this man’s
choices; it might even give her license
to feel the same way. Just be care-
ful you don’t accidentally reinforce the
idea that he’s the only one who’ll stick
with her.
***
Ask us a question
Do you have a conflict, crossroads
or dilemma you need help with? Elea-
nor Gordon-Smith will help you think
through life’s questions and puzzles,
big and small. Questions can be ano-
nymous.
If you’re having trouble using the
form, click here. Read terms of service
here

He’s unimpressed with his physique, but

wins bodybuilding competitions … at 90
self to “get the burn” because “they say tein, which helps build muscle.

L
Ramon Antonio Vargas
ike many in the US who are
grappling with pressure to
look better, Jim Arrington is
unimpressed with his phy-
sique – but he says that self-
perception has motivated him to keep
winning bodybuilding competitions at
age 90.
The nonagenarian great-grand-
father spoke about how he has
achieved a level of physical fitness
which is superior to that of many
people more than half his age in an
interview published on Wednesday by
Guinness World Records, which first
recognized him as the planet’s oldest
bodybuilder in 2015.
Arrington, who lives in the Los An-
geles area, used part of the interview
to explain his “very low opinion” of his
physical shape, chiseled as it is.
“I see all these fantastic physiques,
and I knew the only way I could make
it is if I outlast everybody,” Arrington
told Guinness, which is renowned for
its database of more than 40,000 world
records. “And that’s exactly what I did.”
Jim Arrington is Guinness World Records’ oldest bodybuilder, a title he first earned in
2015. Photograph: Guinness World Records
More than seven decades into his
bodybuilding career, Arrington goes to
a gym three times a week to lift weights
for two hours each session, telling him-
no pain, no gain”.
A trainer at the place where Ar-
rington works out told Guinness that
they “see Jim almost every day” and
that he “does more than a good 60% of
my clients or anybody that comes into
this gym”.
The hard work enabled Arrington
to disrobe completely and pose in the
nude for pictures published by Men’s
Health last year. About a month after
that caused a stir among some cir-
cles, Guinness said, he competed in
an International Federation of Body-
building and Fitness competition in
Reno, Nevada, scoring a third place
finish in the men’s over-70 division.
He was also the sole entrant and
therefore won the over-80 category, the
competition’s results show.
Routinely pumping iron at the gym
is only part of Arrington’s success, how-
ever, according to Guinness. He has also
adapted his diet as he’s aged.
Arrington recounted how he once
would primarily drink “lots of milk” and
eat “lots of beef” because they were two
things to which he wasn’t allergic. Milk
and meat are also classic sources of pro-
But that diet started causing Ar-
rington inflammation as he aged, so
he told Guinness that he changed his
approach “entirely”. Now he said he
mainly eats mushrooms, foods pre-
pared with olive oil and generally
healthy produce.
“I figured if I did that, I could con-
tinue training,” Arrington said.
He re-established his record as the
world’s oldest bodybuilder when he
competed in Reno last year.
His sculpted body wasn’t always a
given, he added. Born prematurely by
about six weeks while weighing 5.5lbs
(2.5kg), Arrington said he spent his
childhood struggling with asthma and
other frequent illnesses.
Arrington recalled that he even-
tually grew tired of his frailty and began
lifting weights in 1947, when he was 15.
He has since been a regular participant
in bodybuilding shows, including about
20 at the famed Muscle Beach in Santa
Monica, California.
“I decided I couldn’t do that any
more,” Arrington said of being sickly.
“Because I wanted to be a superhero.”
Friday 21 July 2023 The Guardian
A funeral for fish and chips: why are Britain’s
chippies disappearing?
Tom Lamont
One summer ago, before the region’s
fish and chip industry was shaken by
closures, before a death that was hard
for people to bear, a lorry heaped with
the first fresh potatoes of the season
drove along the east coast of Scotland.
This lorry wound its way along the East
Neuk of Fife, dodging washing lines,
mooring bollards and seagulls, park-
ing with impunity to make deliveries.
There was an understanding in the East
Neuk that nobody would ever get angry
and honk at the inbound “tattie” lorry,
fish and chips being a staple meal, vital
to the region’s economy. Tourists come
shocking distances to sit on old harbour
walls and stab around in takeaway trays
with wooden forks. The fish and chips
sold in the East Neuk might be the best
in the British Isles and because of that
(it follows) the best on the planet. Even
so, by July 2022, local friers were find-
ing it harder and harder to balance their
books.
The driver of the tattie lorry, a
red-cheeked Scotsman named Richard
Murray, carried keys for most of the
businesses on his route, to save from
waking any tired friers who’d been
up late the night before, poring an-
xiously over their sums. War in Ukraine
coupled with ongoing complications
from Brexit had driven up prices of
almost all the goods that fish and chip
shops depended on, from live ingre-
dients to oil and salt to packaging.
More distressing was the problem of
rising energy costs. This meal is pre-
pared using a great guzzler of a range
cooker that must be kept on and roil-
ing at all hours of a trading day. As the
price of gas and electricity threatened
to double, then triple, through 2022,
friers were opening their energy bills
with gritted teeth. A trade association
called the National Federation of Fish
Friers said that as many as a third of the
UK’s 10,500 shops might go dark, warn-
ing of a potential “extinction event”.
It was about 8am when Murray
drove his tattie lorry into a village called
Pittenweem. He was met on the road by
Alec Wyse, a skilled frier, 59 years old
and known as Eck, who ran a takeaway
called the Pittenweem Fish Bar. The
tiny shop had been bought by Wyse’s
father using money from the sale of a
family fishing boat. There were naut-
ical portraits on the walls. A peg-letter
menu listed eight unchanging menu
items, one of which was described in
its entirety as “FISH”. Working together,
Wyse and Murray unloaded sacks of
potatoes from the lorry, carrying them
inside on their shoulders.
A mile along the shore from Pitten-
weem, in the smarter harbour town
of Anstruther, Murray parked his lorry
outside a fish and chip shop called the
Wee Chippy. Founded by Ian Fleming, a
64-year-old seafood trader with a tattoo
of a shark on his forearm, the Wee
Chippy stood across from a seaweed-
covered strip of beach and a cobbled
jetty. Fleming later told me it ruined his
marriage, this fish and chip shop. “The
hours,” he growled in explanation. Daily
operations had long since passed to his
business partner, a chef in his 40s called
Chris Lewis. But Fleming kept a close
eye on the Wee Chippy, which had ab-
The Long Read
Fish and chips at the Anstruther Fish Bar. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian
sorbed such a big part of his life.
Leaving Anstruther behind, the
tattie round almost done, Murray
swung his lorry inland, in the rough
direction of Dundee and a fish and
chip shop called the Popular. Bright
and cramped, the Popular had an eye-
catching facade that was painted brown
and baize green, making it resemble a
snooker table turned on one side. A
family concern, the Popular was staffed
six days a week by a man called Graham
Forbes, his wife Angela, and their two
adult children. Though Forbes was in
his mid-70s, he was the one who rose
early to let the tattie man in. He liked to
get started at about the same time the
sun came up, feeding potatoes into the
Popular’s rumbling peeler.
These three businesses – the Pitten-
weem Fish Bar in Pittenweem, the Wee
Chippy in Anstruther, the Popular in
Dundee – shared not only a potato sup-
plier but the near-religious devotion of
the communities they serviced. They
were run by men and women who had
thick skins, literally so when it came
to their fingertips, which had become
so desensitised to heat that they could
be brushed against boiling oil to better
position a fillet of frying fish or test the
readiness of chopped potatoes as they
fizzed and crisped. But these people
were not invulnerable to strain. By the
following summer, two of the three
businesses would be gone, forced to
close against their owner’s will.
I visited the East Neuk several times
during that difficult year: in high tourist
season, in the eerie quiet of winter, in
the limbo between. As a national indus-
try foundered, I wanted to document
what it was like for a group of friers as
they were brought to the brink, com-
peting against each other even as they
helped each other out, always prepping
for tomorrow, cooking for today, run-
ning their numbers at night, trying not
to become yet another fish and chip
shop that disappeared. Between July
2022 and July 2023, things got tough-
er and sadder in the East Neuk than
anybody predicted they would. By the
time I made my last visit, people were
in mourning, having said goodbye to
a beloved local figure who gave their
all to a cherished, suddenly endangered
trade; and it was no longer so difficult to
imagine a world without fish and chips.
***
The origin question, wrote the his-
torian John Walton in his definitive
history of the dish, “is a matter of
murky and probably insoluble dispute”.
Should Londoners take the most credit
for its creation and proliferation, or
Lancastrians? The textile towns around
Manchester or the fishing ports of Scot-
land? Undoubtedly, fish and chips is
immigrant food, imported, perfected
and perpetuated by a mish-mash of
refugees and others originating from
Portugal, Spain, eastern Europe, Italy,
Cyprus, Greece and China. The method
of deep-frying white fish in a liquid
batter made of flour and egg or milk
was likely brought over to London
by Jews in flight from Catholic inqui-
sitors. Walton and other food histo-
rians have identified chipped potatoes
“in the French style” being sold from
carts in the industrial Pennines as early
as the 1860s.
Whether styled as chippy, chippie,
chippery, chipper, fishery, fish bar or
fish restaurant, whether given cheer-
ful punning titles (the Haddock Pad-
dock, the Plaice to Be) or rootsier
names that acknowledged their found-
ers (Jimmy’s, George’s, Low’s, Long’s),
these shops proliferated through the
20th century, carpeting the land from
the northernmost – Frankie’s, up in
Shetland – all the way to the Smug-
glers, down on the tapering tip of Corn-
wall. The fundamental cooking method
is always the same. Fillets of white fish,
usually haddock or cod, are slapped
about in a viscous yellow batter before
being dropped into 180C baths of oil. An
experienced frier will tend their bub-
bling fillets compulsively, using a metal
strainer to turn and tease the food as
the batter flares and hardens, basting
with twitches of the wrist. After about
five minutes, the battered fish will be
golden, curved in on itself like a banana,
firm enough to be set atop chips with-
out surrendering its shape.
As for the chips, these are made
from white potatoes, peeled and cut to
the thickness of thumbs, then placed
in a steel basket and submerged in
the same hot oil until they will crack
apart when squeezed. There is resis-
tance in Scotland towards the frying of
cod, which is seen as an English lunacy,
but it is generally accepted that pota-
toes grown in the drier soil of England
do better when fried, being lower in glu-
cose and less likely to caramelise. Na-
tional pride stretches so far. Only not so
far as brown chips.
Ideally, just after eating a portion
of fish and chips, you should be aware
that what you’ve put inside your body
was prepared using ungodly quantities
of grease, yet you don’t yourself feel
greasy. This paradoxical richness with-
out grossness, an angelic lightness of
touch in preparing one of the heaviest
meals on Earth, sets the better shops
apart. At the Golden Galleon in Alde-
burgh, takeaways are lined up in paper
pouches on the counter, the fish tum-
bled in with the chips, all to be eaten
with a rooting fork. At the Ashvale
in Aberdeen, the hungriest diners can
order a “whale” portion, so huge that
anyone who finishes it unassisted wins
a prize. Along a particular stretch of
pavement in Holborn in London, pede-
strians walk headlong into a bubble of
airborne fat that seems to enclose a
shop called the Fryer’s Delight. They
fry in beef dripping at the Delight, not
vegetable oil, creating a flavour that is
fattier, more unctuous.
At the Popular in Dundee, Graham
Forbes and his family cooked using beef
dripping as well. Sit-in diners at the
Popular huddled into wooden booths,
sometimes packing so close, Forbes
told me, that if those at table #1 were
talking politics, those at tables #2 and
#3 were inevitably talking politics as
well. He tended not to think of the Pop-
ular as a business. It was a little world.
And like any world, it had its points of
pride, its stubborn habits.
One day I spoke to a man up the
supply chain who oversaw the weekly
tattie runs through the East Neuk. His
name is Conor Booth. He works for a
Scottish company called John Callum
Potatoes. Booth explained that the top
fish and chip shops are kept consis-
tent by generations of rolling tradition.
But many of those traditions (the dawn
calls to prep ingredients, the midnight
equipment-scrubbing, the reliance on
inefficient cookers) have made willing
staff scarcer and costs harder to bring
down. “Every industry has to adapt to
survive,” said Booth. “Unfortunately, in
fish and chips, there’s only so much you
can do while keeping it traditional. The
potatoes need their peeling. The fish
needs its frying.”
Last year, as trading conditions wor-
sened, proprietors were giving inter-
views to local newspapers, explaining
the pressures they were under. These
communications tended to have the
tone of panicky messages scribbled by
hostages. At the Crispy Cod in Worce-
ster, they said: “It feels like we have no
control.” The Gipsy Lane Chippery in
Leicester: “It’s scary.” Paddy’s Plaice in
Criccieth: “Need help.” In the town of
Macduff in Scotland, a shop called the
Happy Haddock received a bill that put
up its energy costs from £600 a month
to £2,000. The Happy Haddock closed.
Roughly the same thing happened at
the Fryar Tuck in Belfast, then at Bar-
nacle Bill’s in Somerset, and Chip Ahoy
on the Isle of Wight. At Chung’s Chinese
Chippy in Lancashire, a note to cus-
tomers appeared in the window, sim-
ilar in substance to the messages put
on display at Stefano’s in Glasgow and
chalked on a blackboard outside Jones
Plaice in Caldicot: “Due to excessive
price increases in all areas, raw mate-
rials, labour, fuel and utilities, we have
decided to close.”
At the Popular in Dundee, the
Forbes family issued a plea to cus-
tomers via Facebook: “Use us or lose
us.” Graham Forbes’s son Lindsay had
already given an interview to a Dundee
newspaper that amounted to a fore-
warning of closure. A clipping of this
article (“CHIPPERS ARE BATTERED BY
SOARING COSTS”) was pinned to the
Popular’s fridge on the summer day
the family huddled to make a deci-
29
The harbour in Anstruther. Photograph:
Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian
sion. “This is the end,” Graham said,
“isn’t it?” They telephoned the Dundee
newspaper again, which published a
story confirming the Popular would
close after 35 years. Graham’s daugh-
ter Gaynor put an announcement
online. The next day, “as soon as we
opened the doors at 11.30am,” Graham
said, “we were mobbed. Generations
of customers. Grandparents. Grandkids.
People asked, why? I told them the
enjoyment had gone out of it, from wor-
rying all the time. I told them, if you’d
kept coming, even just once a fortnight,
it might have been different.”
***
Before the main danger to fish and
chip shops was the quarterly energy
bill, it was sudden fire. Ignored for
a moment, the hot cooking fat can
get toohot, rising to an auto-ignition
point and exploding. In a single year
– 2018 – there were serious fires at
Old Salty’s in Glasgow, the Admiral in
Overseal, Mr Chips in Fakenham, the
Pilton Fryer in Pilton, the Fish Bar
in Fenham, Crossroads in Kingstand-
ing, Graylings in Fremington, the River
Lane Fish Bar in Norfolk, the Portway
Fish Bar in Rowley Regis, Bruno’s on
Canvey Island, Jimmy’s Palace in Liver-
pool, Scoffs in Paignton and Moby Dick
in Shirley. “Doesn’t matter how expe-
rienced you are,” said Chris Lewis, one
of the owners of the Wee Chippy in
Anstruther, “if something mechanical
goes, or something catches, and you
haven’t seen it – that’s it, that’s your
time.”
The Wee Chippy’s time came on
Remembrance Sunday in 2018, in the
middle of a lunch service. A frier was
distracted; the oil in the range ignited; a
huge ball of fire was sucked into the
Wee Chippy’s ventilator, leaving just
enough time for staff and customers
to flee before the ground floor was thick
with smoke. In the subsequent blaze,
unpeeled potatoes from the tattie lorry
blistered and shrunk in their sacks.
About 100 North Sea haddocks cooked
inside a fridge. Jars of pickled eggs
boiled and burst. Lewis and Ian Flem-
ing, who both live nearby, came run-
ning. They watched from across the
harbour road as the glass in the win-
dows of their shop began to melt and
pulsate. Jets of orange flame licked out
the chimney pots.
Fleming (he of the shark tattoo) had
opened this fish and chip shop in 1999,
in perverse defiance of the fact that
there was already a popular alternative,
the Anstruther Fish Bar, just a short
way along the harbour road. After the
2018 fire, Fleming’s insurance claim was
rejected. “We were classed as having a
flammable material behind the plaster-
board,” he told me. He talked it over
with Lewis and they decided to spend
their own money on a refurbishment, if
Continued on page 30

30
Continued from page 29
only to give the insurance company as
well as their rivals in Anstruther “a kick
in the nuts”, as Fleming put it. Between
them they spent nine months and a six-
figure sum getting the Wee Chippy back
open in summer 2019.
Now, in summer 2022, conditions
were tougher than Fleming had ever
known them. As consumers battled
rising costs of living at home, they
were eating out less. Because they were
eating out less, proprietors were being
forced to charge more, right when they
could least afford to discourage custom.
There is a fish bar in Cardiff, John’s, that
shut in 2001 and has never been bought
or altered since. A decaying menu at
John’s still advertises a takeaway por-
tion of fish and chips for the unthink-
able price of £2.45. Two decades later,
the same meal cost £9.40 at the Wee
Chippy. Few proprietors dared breach
the holy barrier of £10. In fact, the
owners of a shop called Café Fish in Bel-
fast had done some honest maths and
concluded that, given prevailing costs,
fish and chips ought to be selling for
about £15 per portion. “Who would pay
it?” Fleming wondered.
If motivation ever flagged at the
Wee Chippy, Fleming and Lewis only
had to think of their nearest rivals up
the road. For decades the Wee Chippy
had been engaged in a losing battle
with the Anstruther Fish Bar, which
had achieved outsized fame since it
opened in the 1980s, doing much to
establish the East Neuk as an area of
excellence for fish and chips. Prince
William was a customer there during
his student days. His stepmother Ca-
milla later stopped a royal motorcade
on the harbour road and sent in a
security guard for takeaways. The An-
struther Fish Bar had won every indus-
try award going. It was celebrated in
guidebooks and travel pieces. Some-
times, Fleming and Lewis watched
through the windows of their shop as
tourists parked on the terrace outside,
wandering along the harbour to eat
at the Anstruther Fish Bar, later com-
pounding the insult by putting their
scraped-clean takeaway trays in the
Wee Chippy’s bins.
Over time there had been squabbles
between the two neighbouring busi-
nesses over property, parking, staffing,
branding, packaging, naming rights, as
well as dibs on who could sell which
variety of savoury pudding. Such riva-
lries were quite common, I learned. One
day I got talking to an East Neuk man
called Murray Cameron, a former fi-
sherman who now ran a mobile fish-
and-chips service out of a modified
Vauxhall Movano van. Cameron had
his own beef with the Anstruther Fish
Bar. And with the Wee Chippy. Ca-
meron said he had spent years per-
fecting the precise blend of flour and
grains he put in his batter mix; and
because of this he tended to hide his
empty packaging in the bottom of his
bins, fearful of his secret getting out.
In every corner of the country there
are friers who fret about their nearest
rivals, hourly remaking the same dish
until they are tweaking it minutely, im-
proving the batter-cling, the chip-give,
vying to be thought of as number one.
By now I’d spent enough time in
the East Neuk to notice that whenever
friers complained about each other,
there was one family – the Wyses of
Pittenweem – they exempted from crit-
icism. Eck Wyse and his relatives had
run the Pittenweem Fish Bar since the
1980s, taking it over from the Baird
family, before them the Smalls. This
The Long Read
was a seriously adored village hub, one
of the few places in Pittenweem that re-
mained open after dark. The Wyses’ an-
cient cooker, wide as the room that con-
tained it and submarine-like in appear-
ance, turned out takeaways that were
passed to customers the old fashioned
way, wrapped in paper. Though the
Pittenweem Fish Bar wasn’t often in-
cluded in tourist books or internet
must-try lists, people in the region
knew how rare and special it was, an
inexpensive gem that seemed to stand
outside of time.
When the Pittenweem Fish Bar
burned down at the end of summer
2022, it was a trauma felt for miles.
***
The fire started on a Tuesday after-
noon, hours after the tattie lorry passed
through on a run. Flames massed in the
cramped interior of the shop, burning
up the net curtains, popping out win-
dows, sending a shaft of dark smoke
over Pittenweem’s church and towards
the sea. A passing neighbour rushed in
to drag out Wyse, who had been cook-
ing at the range and, according to a later
account by an eyewitness, was dazed by
smoke. Fire engines were on the scene
for hours. By morning the shop was
unrecognisable, its painted sign gone,
the front walls blistered and cracked.
When he drove through Pitten-
weem again in October 2022, Richard
Murray slowed down his tattie lorry
to pass the ruined shop. He turned
off his music. “Devastating,” he mut-
tered. Arriving in Anstruther soon after-
wards, Murray parked near the sea-
weed-covered beach as usual. He fell
into conversation with Ian Fleming,
who was waiting in the chill outside the
Wee Chippy, peering along the harbour
road. “Town’s quieting down,” Fleming
observed. Murray nodded.
As they started to unload sacks of
potatoes, the two men chatted about
the terrible frequency of fires in their
industry. In former times, Fleming said,
you could try to rebuild after a fire,
just about trusting that the fish-and-
chip economy would support you. Even
after the Wee Chippy was denied its
insurance payout back in 2018, the
market seemed stable enough to make
the risk of reinvestment worthwhile.
Now, in 2022, when uncertainty pre-
vailed, would it even be possible to
bring a burned fish and chip shop back?
“That’s where you worry about Eck,”
Murray said to Fleming.
“Aye,” growled Fleming.
“Seen him?”
Fleming shook his head. “I texted.”
A lot of people in the East Neuk had
been sharing memories of the Pitten-
weem shop, using Facebook forums
to gather anecdotes and photographs.
Former employees at the fish bar spoke
of after-school jobs peeling or clean-
ing. Customers memorialised favourite
orders. That autumn, when I visited
an East Neuk seafood business run
by a family called the Wilsons, the
two married owners reminisced about
a courtship spent eating unimprovable
Pittenweem takeaways. People stood in
queues so long, Wendy Wilson remem-
bered, the line would snake away from
the Wyses’ door, beyond the local bank,
wrapping around the village church.
Since the fire, the village had lost some-
thing irreplaceable: a queue to join,
a set of flavours and smells, an illu-
minated place to go after dark, a takea-
way to eat on a sea wall.
It is an article of faith that fish and
chips tastes better – best – when eaten
by the sea. I’ve agreed with this sen-
timent all my life, without wondering
why it might be so, except to think
that being near a shoreline must equate
to freshness of fish. It did used to be
the case that many East Neuk villages
could support their own seafood mar-
kets. When the Pittenweem Fish Bar
first opened in the 1980s, haddocks
were bought off the boats in Pitten-
weem harbour. Today, an auction house
in Peterhead on the north-east tip of
Scotland is all that’s left on one whole
side of the country. Almost every had-
dock that is fried in the East Neuk
has been trucked 100 miles south from
Peterhead first.
Why, then, should fish and chips by
the sea taste special? In a place like this,
I think it must be the continued inti-
macy between fish as a trade and fish as
a meal. As well as part-owning the Wee
Chippy, Ian Fleming is a seafood trader.
He is the son of a seafood trader. Before
he became a frier, Eck Wyse was a fi-
sherman, the son of a fisherman. Down
on Pittenweem harbour, two bronze
statues – a mother and a daughter – face
the choppy water, memorialising all the
local people who have tried to make a
living from the sea, as well as the 400
or so who have died trying since the
1800s. Decades ago, Fleming’s father-
in-law drowned in a fishing accident.
Many, many people in the East Neuk
have lost a friend, an uncle, a cousin.
Fishing is a serious matter here. Fish
and chips is a serious meal.
***
It was December 2022. The Pitten-
weem Fish Bar had burned down. The
Popular in Dundee was closed. The Wee
Chippy clung on, though tourists would
not visit the East Neuk in any sort of
number again until the spring. After
about 5pm, the whole coast could seem
abandoned, just the tide audible in the
dark as well as the grumble of salt lor-
ries as they gritted the roads in case of
a freeze. When I visited Fleming at his
house on the outskirts of Anstruther,
he opened his ledger to see how many
haddocks they were getting through at
the Wee Chippy in the offseason. Not
so many haddocks, he frowned, putting
aside the book. “We’re telling ourselves
that business is down because of the
frozen roads. That might be denial.”
In Dundee, the Forbes family had
stripped and emptied the Popular, sell-
ing off a fridge, a chest freezer, a bain
marie, two menu boards, as well as their
till and the small paper rolls that were
meant for future receipts. Tables #1, #2
and #3 were uprooted and taken away
for use in a restaurant in Inverness.
Lindsay Forbes accepted a job with a
wholesaler. Graham and Angela Forbes
retired. The next time Graham walked
by the Popular, around Christmas, there
was a “To Let” sign in the window. He
could still see his own tacked-up notice
to customers, explaining the closure.
“No other option,” Graham had written.
In Pittenweem, charred wood and
plaster were heaped on the pave-
ment outside the ruined fish bar.
Cones and metal fencing stopped pas-
sersby getting too close. The scene ap-
peared frozen in time since the fire,
even though months had passed, even
though the Wyse family had written
a message to customers saying they
hoped to “rise from the ashes” if they
could. Murray Cameron, the mobile
frier who travelled around the villages
of the East Neuk in his van, had never
once encroached on Wyse’s territory in
Pittenweem. It was his tribute to Wyse,
his show of confidence that one day
Wyse would bring this business back.
Behind the scenes, as a member
of the Wyse family later told a local
newspaper, Eck was taking the closure
badly. “Like losing a limb,” said his wife,
Anna. As more and more weeks went by
without the fire damage being cleared,
Fleming began to doubt the prospects
of a revival. He had experienced a
blaze at first hand. He remembered
how crushing it was, waiting weeks and
months to get answers from an insur-
ance company – all for nothing in the
end, because the Wee Chippy’s claim
was refused. As 2022 turned to 2023,
and another month passed without
the wreckage outside the Pittenweem
Fish Bar being cleared, Fleming worried
more and more about his friend.
Elsewhere around the country, a
fish and chip shop called the Little
Fryer in Southampton had to close.
Unsustainable costs. The Dolphin in
Belfast closed, as did the Seafarer
in Northwich and the High Plaice in
Alston. The owners of Simpsons in
Quedgeley felt they were busy, thriv-
ing even. But their energy bill had qua-
drupled, so it closed. Staff at the Whiel-
don Fish Bar in Stoke-on-Trent told
their local newspaper they were cling-
ing on by leaving the lights off when-
ever they could. Simeone’s in Glasgow
was listed for sale, along with about
700 other fish and chip shops including
the Ocean King in Gosport, the Had-
dock Paddock in Cumbria and Ighten-
hill Traditional in Burnley. Smarts in
Abingdon closed.
At the end of January 2023, Fleming
received a text message from a friend.
He was told that Eck had died that
day. It was sudden. The police were not
treating the death as suspicious. The
family put out a photograph, online,
that showed Eck behind the range at
his old fish and chip shop. “Where he
was happiest,” they wrote, “where he be-
longed.”
***
There are fancier meals than fish
and chips. There are bigger-ticket
meals, those we put on bucket lists
or pencil in for birthdays. We look to
fish and chips for something different,
which I think of as constancy, a firm
handrail to our pasts. As a schoolboy
I often bought lunch from Andrews
in Enfield, where they would douse
a takeaway with the leftover brine
from pickled gherkins. Later I went to
university in Yorkshire. The taste of
sweet curry sauce over chips will for-
ever turn me 18. My parents’ parents
were from different backgrounds. Every
spring, at Passover, my maternal family
would gather to eat fried fish from a
London takeaway. Every autumn, we
would drive 500 miles north to visit my
paternal family in Aberdeen. My Jewish
grandma and my Protestant gran were
very different people. Both put abso-
lute trust in fried fish as a food that
would unite and enthuse a bunch of
disparate relatives.
The same as hearing a Beatles tune,
or rewatching The Snowman at Christ-
mas, or raising up a pint of foam-
ing beer, fish and chips is a national
pleasure we expect to repeat and
repeat. Impossible to imagine eating
this meal for the last time. When a shop
called Kong’s in Greater Manchester an-
nounced it would close, following so
many others, people massed outside as
if for a wake. There was a one-hour
wait to get inside, then a two-hour
wait. In the queue they joked about
buying extra portions, to freeze them
and sell them on to anybody suffering
Kong’s withdrawals. We don’t expect
these takeaways to be taken away. We
imagine dining-in in perpetuity.
In spring 2023, the Lowford Fish Bar
in Bursledon closed, its owners describ-
ing the decision as the hardest of their
lives. At around the same time, Jack
The Guardian Friday 21 July 2023
Spratt’s Superior in Oldham closed after
25 years of continuous trading. Skircoat
Green Fish Bar in Halifax closed after
40 years. Jackson’s Chippie in Ilkes-
ton closed after 62 years. The owner
of Sam’s Fish Bar in Fenton said he
was moonlighting as a delivery driver
to stay afloat. Pawsons Golden Plaice in
Chorley closed.
Earlier this month, I was back on a
tattie run through the East Neuk. The
weekly delivery was no longer being
driven by Richard Murray. It was no
longer weekly. With fewer businesses
to sell to, potato orders in the region
were often so reduced that Murray’s
boss, Conor Booth, could handle a deli-
very using his pickup truck. Booth met
me in the truck and we thundered
along the coast road. It was raining, “a
real dreich”, Booth said. As we went,
he talked about potato prices, twice
what they were a year ago and causing
yet another threat to businesses. There
had been a weak seasonal yield. It was
unfortunate timing. In fish and chips,
Booth said, “if there wasn’t bad luck,
there wouldn’t be any luck”.
Booth had a one-month-old baby
waiting for him at home and he was
eager to finish the delivery run and
get back. Parenthood had brought up a
confusion of memories, he said, as well
as premonitions about the future. He
had been remembering driving around
with his granddad when he was small,
hearing about vanished local busi-
nesses, some of which were imposs-
ible for him to picture. That used to
be a boot-maker, his granddad would
say, pointing. That used to be a knife-
sharpener. Booth wondered if he would
drive a grandchild of his own along this
coast; if he would have to explain, there
used to be these places we called fish
bars.
It stopped raining. Booth delivered
some final potatoes, then let me out
of the truck at Pittenweem cemetery.
As the sky brightened overhead, the
damp reddish gravel of the cemetery
paths started to dry, getting its crunch
back. The night before Wyse’s funeral in
February, there had been a great spec-
tacle in these skies – an aurora that
flared purple and green. The following
morning there was another extraor-
dinary sight in Pittenweem. The vil-
lage was full of people, not only Wyse’s
family and friends but his customers,
hundreds of whom had turned out
to say goodbye. There were so many
mourners that the church did not have
enough pews. They ran out of stand-
ing room. Mourners left outside started
to line the route to the cemetery and
later joined the funeral procession as
it passed. Wyse was buried next to his
father, who had run the family shop
before him.
After paying my respects, I walked
along the coast to Anstruther. It was
teatime. The harbour was busy with
boats. Riggings clacked and hissed in
the breeze. A dad on a bench fed
his toddler, one scrap of batter at a
time. A middle-aged couple sat in their
car. They had a tray propped between
them, two teas in china cups, cutlery
from home, and steaming takeaway
boxes on their laps. At about 6pm, I met
Ian Fleming outside the Wee Chippy.
They had a good number of customers
in the dining room. The shop was enjoy-
ing a bit of a summer-season revival,
Fleming said. They had recently won
a Scottish catering award, beating their
rivals up the road for once. The Wee
Chippy would abide through another
summer at least. We waited and got a
Continued on page 31
Friday 21 July 2023 The Guardian
Continued from page 30
table. The waitress asked, do you want
Texas worker accused of being on drugs was
actually dying of heatstroke
Michael Sainato
The mother of a 24-year-old worker
who died from heatstroke while work-
ing for a construction firm in San An-
tonio, Texas, has filed a lawsuit against
his employer.
Gabriel Infante was working for B
Comm Constructors in San Antonio,
Texas, on 23 June 2022, digging in
the hot summer sun to move internet
fiber optic cable, a job he had recently
started with a childhood best friend
while they were finishing college.
The lawsuit comes after Texas’s
Republican governor, Greg Abbott,
signed a controversial bill into law on 14
June that prohibits local municipalities
from enacting heat protection stan-
dards for construction workers. The bill
nullifies ordinances previously passed
in Austin and Dallas that mandated 10-
minute breaks for workers every four
hours. A similar ordinance was being
considered in San Antonio before the
state bill was passed.
According to the lawsuit, Infante
began exhibiting heatstroke symptoms
including confusion, altered mental
state, dizziness and loss of con-
sciousness. His friend and co-worker
Joshua Espinoza began pouring cold
water over him, trying to cool him
down. A foreman insisted Espinoza call
the police, claiming Infante’s bizarre
behavior was due to drugs, and the
foreman pushed for a drug test when
emergency medical services arrived.
On the day of the incident, temper-
atures in San Antonio reached in excess
of 100F (37.7C) with humidity levels
reaching as high as 75%, noted the law-
What was the Black Sea grain deal and why
did it collapse?
Patrick Wintour Diplomatic
editor
What was the Black Sea grain deal?
The Black Sea grain initiative
was negotiated in July 2022 between
Turkey, the UN and Russia as a way of
ensuring that Ukraine, one of the bread-
baskets of the world, could ensure that
its grain could leave its southern ports
via the Bosphorus. The grain could not
be exported in the quantities required
using the alternative methods of road
or rail through Poland or by canal and
river through Romania.
Turkey was involved due to the
close relationship between its pres-
ident, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Vla-
dimir Putin and because under the
Montreux convention signed in 1936 it
oversees maritime traffic in the Bos-
phorus and Dardanelles straits.
What did grain deal promise?
The Long Read / Finance
fish and chips?
• This article was amended on 20
July 2023 to replace a map which miss-
Construction workers during a heatwave in San Antonio, Texas, on 27 June. Photograph: Kaylee Greenlee Beal/Reuters
suit.
Infante later died in a hospital from
severe heatstroke and had a recorded
internal temperature of 109.8F (43.2C).
The Center for Disease Control states
a body temperature of 103F (39.4C) or
higher is a main symptom of heat-
stroke.
“Nobody called me. It was Joshua’s
mom who called me to tell me I needed
to get a hold of Joshua because Gabriel
had an accident,” said Velma Infante,
Gabriel’s mother . “To this day, I have
never, ever gotten a phone call from
the owner of the company to offer his
condolences for my son’s death. Or, an
‘I’m sorry,’ or nothing like that. I mean,
of course it doesn’t make a difference.
Despite the acute lack of trust, 33m tonnes of grain left Ukraine’s ports in the year to July.
Photograph: Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images
The initiative, one of the few diplo-
matic achievements since the war
started, allows for commercial food and
fertiliser (including ammonia) exports
from three key Ukrainian ports in the
Black Sea – Odesa, Chornomorsk, and
pelt Kirkcaldy.
• Follow the Long Read on Twit-
ter at @gdnlongread, listen to our pod-
But I mean, it’s the gesture. To this day
no ‘I’m sorry Mrs Infante for your loss,’
Nothing.”
Since her son’s death, Infante said,
she panics and suffers from anxiety if
her kids don’t return phone calls right
away.
“We have difficult days; I have dif-
ficult days. When I go out in public I
put on a different face because when I
get home it’s all there waiting for me. It
just consumes me. I don’t sleep. I cry, I
eat and I eat junk food,” added Infante.
“I don’t understand how they can allow
these people to work out in this type of
heat, I’ve seen so many deaths already,
in different fields that you start to think
what are these companies thinking?”
Pivdennyi (formerly known as Yuzhny).
Ukrainian vessels guide cargo ships
into international waters of the Black
Sea, avoiding mined areas. The vessels
then proceed towards Istanbul along
an agreed maritime humanitarian cor-
casts here and sign up to the long read
weekly email here.
She explained the recent heatwaves
in Texas had hit her hard because they
bring back emotions about what her
son experienced in the extreme heat
and that Gabriel’s best friends had re-
cently graduated from University of
Texas-San Antonio, where Gabriel was
also attending at the time, and at-
tending their graduation parties was
painful.
“All I did was cry that evening. I
was happy for him, but my son wasn’t
going to be able to do the same thing,”
said Infante. “He’s never going to finish
school, he’s not going to graduate, he’s
not going to get married, he’s not going
to give me the grandbabies that I want.
He was a jokester, he was quiet, he was
ridor. Ships heading to and from the
Ukrainian ports are inspected by teams
composed of Russian, Turkish, Ukrai-
nian and UN inspectors. Alongside this
memorandum, a separate deal was
signed minimising the impact of sanc-
tions on the export of Russian food and
fertiliser. Both memorandums were
subject to four- and then two-monthly
reviews.
Did it succeed?
Despite the acute lack of trust, 33m
tonnes of grain left Ukraine’s ports in
the year to July. The UK says about 61%
of that has gone to low- and middle-
income countries, and 65% of wheat
alone. The World Food Programme
bought about 750,000 tonnes of Ukrai-
nian grain that was shipped imme-
diately to places such as Afghanistan,
Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan. Partly as
a result of this, the price of grain per
bushel stabilised at $800 (£620), down
from a high of $1,360.
31
laid-back like his dad, and he would
give you the shirt off his back.”
She is currently trying to establish
a music scholarship under her son’s
name as Gabriel wanted to continue
his education in music and played the
saxophone since he was a young child
and loved music. She said when he was
four years old he learned and would
sing the lyrics to the Beatles song From
Me to You to her and his father to get
out of trouble.
“He didn’t even get to see his first
paycheck,” Joshua Espinoza, Infante’s
co-worker and best friend since child-
hood, told the San Antonio Express.
“My friend Gabe is the epitome of
why this bill is ridiculous,” he added of
Abbott’s bill. “It’s important for us not
to go backward, to learn from our mis-
takes … It’s blatant process over people.
Greg Abbott doesn’t care about workers
at all.”
The Occupational Safety and
Health Administration proposed a fine
of $13,052 against the construction firm
for failing to protect workers from heat
hazards on the job, which the company
is contesting.
Infante’s mother is seeking $1m in
damages for her son’s death in the law-
suit, noting there were no safeguards or
protections in place by the employer to
protect workers from extreme heat, nor
were there any training or heat-related
illness prevention programs or policies
in place by the employer at the time.
B Comm Constructors did not re-
spond to multiple requests for com-
ment.
Russia claims the proportion of the
grain that went to the very poorest
countries was less than 4%, but this
ignores the fact that even if wealthier
countries were buying the wheat, the
extra supply was depressing the gen-
eral price all countries were paying.
What started to go wrong?
Russia started to slow down inspec-
tions. In October 2022 there were
10 completed ship inspections a day,
meaning 4.2m metric tonnes left that
month, falling to seven a day in Novem-
ber andtwo in May, when only 1.3m
metric tonnes left. The UN had the
capacity to inspect as many as 40 ships
a day.
Compared with March 2023, there
was a 29% decrease in food exports by
tonnage through the initiative in April
and a 66% decrease in May. Russian
ended the deal this week.
Continued on page 32

32
Continued from page 31
Why did it start to go wrong?
In essence, Russia felt the second
part of deal allowing for greater Russian
agricultural exports was not being ho-
noured by the west. The UK says levels
of Russian food exports are higher than
last year and it is exporting plenty of
grain and fertiliser out of Novorossiysk.
But Moscow says sanctions on Rus-
sian goods exports have not been lifted
clearly enough to give cautious insurers
legal comfort to insure Russian ships
carrying food. It also wanted sanctions
Exceedingly good news? Mr Kipling owner
says UK food inflation has peaked
Joanna Partridge
The maker of Mr Kipling cakes, Oxo
cubes and Bisto gravy granules has said
it believes recent food cost inflation has
peaked, and it is not planning any more
price rises for its food products for the
rest of the year.
The news came as owner Premier
Foods reported a 21% increase in sales
in the first quarter of the financial year,
compared with a year earlier.
The grocery sector has been under
pressure in recent months, with food
producers facing a surge in cost of
ingredients and retailers trying to keep
prices low to attract customers.
Sales of branded products were
nearly 18% higher in the 13 weeks to 1
July, while the London-listed company
said it had further grown its market
share during the past quarter.
Premier Foods, which employs
more than 4,000 people across 15 sites
in the UK, said it expected its trading
profit for the current year to be at the
top end of market expectations.
However, it said sales growth in
Bidding war over fast-food costume renews
old feud over Canadian snack
Leyland Cecco in Victoria
At some point over the last decade, the
Canadian province of Alberta acquired
a costume consisting of a silver jump-
suit and a lifelike depiction of a giant
pita bread stuffed with meat.
Now, the provincial government has
decided to part with the outfit in
an online auction that has renewed
a longstanding feud over the proper
recipe for the beloved late-night snack.
On 14 July, the province listed a
“donair costume” for sale on its surplus
assets website, alongside unwanted
computer printers, hospital beds and
a confiscated radar detector. The post
noted the outfit appeared to be in
“excellent” – if dusty – condition, with
the caveat that the “overall operational
condition” was unknown.
Donairs are a particularly Canadian
riff on the gyros or döner kebab, con-
sisting of thinly sliced spiced beef on
pita, topped with tomatoes and onions.
Finance
lifted on its main agriculture bank.
Other demands include the resumption
of supplies of agricultural machinery
and parts, the resumption of the Tog-
liatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline and the
unblocking of assets and the accounts
of Russian companies involved in food
and fertiliser exports.
Who is to blame for the situation?
The west claims Putin thought the
deal was not worth preserving since it
was allowing Ukrainian coffers and far-
mers to benefit from its grain exports.
Genuine efforts were being made by the
UN secretary general, António Guterres,
Premier foods owns household name brands in the UK such as Oxo, Bisto, McDougalls, Sharwood’s, Batchelors and Mr Kipling cakes.
Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters
its grocery business would “moderate”
across the rest of the year, as the effect
of higher prices reduces.
The costume measures 56in in length and comes with a silver body suit for an ‘authentic
tinfoil look’ – a nod to purists who maintain that a donair must be wrapped in foil when
served. Photograph: surplus.gov.ab.ca
Developed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in
the 1970s by Greek immigrants, the
Canadian variation comes drenched in
a sweet sauce made from condensed
milk.
In 2015, the dish was named the
official food of Halifax, shortly after a
to meet Putin’s demands.
The west acknowledges grain ex-
ports to the least developing countries
were not returning at the desired rate.
In the case of wheat, there had been
an export drop of 11.8m tonnes in 2022
on the previous year, equivalent to the
annual wheat food consumption of 175
million people, roughly the population
of Bangladesh. For corn and barley,
the export gap is as large as 41% and
82%, respectively, of the previous year’s
level. Almost 8m tonnes of goods were
shipped to China, nearly 25% of the
32.9m tonnes exported, while almost
Alex Whitehouse, the chief execu-
tive of Premier Foods, said the com-
pany was benefiting from making ingre-
city councillor dismissed the gyros and
döner kebab as “bland and tasteless”.
None of which explains why a
provincial government on the other
side of the country owns a donair cos-
tume or why it has put it up for sale.
The listing was first spotted by
44% of exports were shipped to high-
income countries.
What happens next?
Russia’s defence ministry has in
effect said any ship leaving a Ukrainian
port will be a legitimate military target.
Turkey, a Nato member, could threaten
to confront Russia by guiding the grain
exports out of the ports without Rus-
sian permission but that is a high-risk
step. Putin has hinted he is willing to
go back into the deal if his demands
are met. But the bombing of Odesa port
suggests his hint at flexibility may be
designed to stem a potential loss of
dients that shoppers can use when
cooking at home, as they tighten their
budgets in the cost of living crisis.
reporter Catherine Griwkowsky, who
covers the province’s politics for AB
Today. Less than a day after she
tweeted about the costume, the bids
had surged to C$1,000, far above the ini-
tial listing price of C$50. By July 20, bid-
ding had reached more than C$6,000 as
donair shops raced to outbid rivals and
claim the costume for themselves.
Some have called for the costume
to be sent to Nova Scotia, widely seen
as the home of the dish. But the cos-
tume’s detailing, which shows lettuce
tucked in among the tomatoes and
meat and onion, has also renewed a
fierce debate over the correct recipe.
In an interview with the CBC in
2015, the owner of a chain of donair
shops in Halifax described the addition
of lettuce as “sacrilegious”. But in Al-
berta – the highest per capita consumer
of donairs in Canada (and probably the
world) – the leafy vegetable has become
an essential part of the recipe.
According to the auction site, the
costume measures 56in in length and
The Guardian Friday 21 July 2023
political support in the global south.
More likely, according to the ana-
lytics firm Smartcube, a drop in ex-
ports will lead to increased stockpiles
in Ukraine and could force farmers to
reduce sowing in the 2023-24 season.
Russia might increase the export tax
on wheat to finance its military cam-
paign in Ukraine and, finally, shortages
of fertilisers may intensify as Russia,
together with Belarus, is one of the
world’s largest sources of mineral ferti-
lisers. Both these countries account for
approximately 14% of the world’s ferti-
liser production and exports.
Its grocery brands, such as McDou-
galls, Sharwood’s and Batchelors, have
been selling well, including flour, cake
mixes, and pasta and curry sauces.
“Our portfolio, which helps con-
sumers make good value and nutri-
tious, tasty meals at home, continues to
demonstrate a high level of relevance in
the current, challenging economic cli-
mate,” Whitehouse said.
Premier Foods said sales of its non-
branded sweet treats rose by 86% in
the period, as shoppers started buying
more cakes, with Mr Kipling sales
boosted by new products including
brownie bites.
The British maker of French fon-
dant fancies and Bakewell slices said it
continued to expand Mr Kipling in the
US, where it is now sold in more than
1,400 stores and where it is planning to
launch new seasonal products.
The company’s cakes are also
increasing their sales in Australia,
where it said it had reached a record
market share of nearly 18%.
A full-length photo of the costume. Photo-
graph: surplus.gov.ab.ca
comes with a silver body suit for an
“authentic tinfoil look” – a nod to pur-
ists who maintain that a donair must be
wrapped in foil when served.
Internet sleuths tracked the cos-
Continued on page 33
Friday 21 July 2023 The Guardian
Continued from page 32
tume to Christine Papalexis, a Los An-
geles-based costume and puppet de-
signer. Papalexis did not immediately
The Guardian view on boundary changes: the
voters draw the line
Editorial
Victory celebrations will be short-lived
for the three winners of Thursday’s
dramatic Commons byelections. With
a general election due next year, new
legislators do not have long to make
their marks. For them, the fight to be
re-elected starts immediately. For two
of the three MPs, this will pose a big
problem. Their newly won seats will
disappear at the general election.
Britain’s parliamentary consti-
tuency boundaries have been un-
changed for the last four general elec-
tions. Since 2010, two attempts at re-
viewing them anew have run into the
sand. A third effort, begun in 2020, has
now succeeded. Last month, the four
boundary commissions for England,
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
submitted final decisions on the new
boundaries. The new electoral maps
will shortly be confirmed by the privy
council.
The commissions have redrawn
almost the entire political map of Brit-
ain. They have brought almost all elec-
torates into line with a UK constituency
“quota” of between 69,724 and 77,062
voters. As a result, only 65 of the 650
Westminster seats will be unchanged at
the next election. All the others have
been recast, marginally in some cases,
more comprehensively in many others.
Although five offshore island seats are
Shakira facing second investigation into
alleged tax fraud in Spain
Associated Press
Pop star Shakira is facing more trouble
from Spain’s tax office after a court near
Barcelona said on Thursday that it had
agreed to open an investigation into a
second case of alleged tax fraud by the
Colombian singer.
Shakira is already set to face trial at
a date to be determined for allegedly
failing to pay €14.5m ($13.9m) in taxes
on income earned between 2012 and
2014. The entertainer has denied any
wrongdoing.
In an interview with Elle magazine
she referred to them as “false accu-
sations”.
Now, a Spanish judge has agreed
with state prosecutors to investigate
two possible cases of tax fraud by Sha-
kira from 2018. The court said it had no
information on how much money was
in question.
Both cases are being handled by a
court in the town of Esplugues de Llo-
bregat, near Barcelona.
The first case that is set to go to trial
Finance / The Guardian View / Arts
respond to a request for comment.
Twitter users also suggested the
costume could have been commis-
sioned for a 2015 distracted driving
commercial called Don’t Drive and
‘For two of the three MPs … their newly won seats will disappear at the general election.’ Photograph: Maureen McLean/Shutterstock
exempted from the quota, the pre-
devolution over-representation of Scot-
land and Wales at Westminster has now
ended. The upshot is that England will
gain 10 seats, while Wales will lose eight
and Scotland two. Northern Ireland will
stay the same.
Two of the bigger casualties in
all this are the Somerton and Frome
constituency in Somerset and that of
Selby and Ainsty in Yorkshire, where
two of this week’s byelections took
Shakira is already set to face trial at a date to be determined for allegedly failing to pay €14.5m ($13.9m) in taxes. The entertainer has
denied any wrongdoing. Photograph: Jm Haedrich/Sipa/Shutterstock
hinges on where Shakira lived during
2012-14. Prosecutors in Barcelona have
Donair but was never used. Others
speculated the costume was intended
for an unaired edition of a commercial
for antacid tablets.
“This costume was a prop for an
place. The former will be carved into
two: Glastonbury and Somerton, and
neighbouring Frome and East Some-
rset (with a tiny transfer to Yeovil as
well). Selby and Ainsty will be even
more radically dismembered into four
new seats, though most of its voters will
remain in a new Selby constituency. Of
this week’s three byelection seats, only
Uxbridge and South Ruislip – or 91% of
it – remains largely as it is today.
As in earlier reviews, the centre of
alleged the Grammy winner spent more
than half of that period in Spain and
advertising campaign and is no longer
required by the department,” the prov-
ince wrote in response to a question on
the auction site about the origins of the
donair suit.
electoral gravity has again gradually
shifted from industrial cities (mostly
Labour voting) to suburbs and towns
(mostly Conservative). As the nature
of work and settlement has changed,
the national constituency map has
changed too. In England, the east Mid-
lands, the east, London, the south-east
and the south-west will now have more
seats than before. The north-west, the
north-east and the West Midlands will
have fewer, while Yorkshire will stay the
should have paid taxes in the country,
even though her official residence was
33
Because of the outfit’s unique
nature, the province says it has ex-
tended the auction until 14 August.
same.
Population change is a sleepless
process, so the electoral map certainly
needs to be regularly updated. Rightly,
the process for doing this is deter-
minedly independent. The scope for
electoral gerrymandering, US-style, is
vanishingly small. But the changes re-
flect big socioeconomic and cultural
shifts nevertheless. In some cases,
urban as well as rural, the inflexibility
of the quota creates electoral commun-
ities with very little other community
connection. But that, too, may reflect
something of the way we live now.
Initial estimates are that the review
will benefit the Conservatives by be-
tween five and 10 seats, not all at the ex-
pense of Labour. Party campaign stra-
tegists must clearly adapt to that. This
does not mean that their offers must
be exclusively tailored to southern Eng-
lish suburban voters or voters in Tory
marginals. But it does mean that it
is impossible to ignore these voters.
That truth must not be an excuse for
caution in response to urgent national
needs. The volatility revealed in this
week’s byelections shows that voters
and constituencies should never be
stereotyped. It confirms instead that
the current disaffected mood of Brit-
ain’s voters can be the seedbed of many
opportunities.
in the Bahamas.
Shakira’s public relations firm, Llo-
rente y Cuenca, said in a statement
in Spanish that the artist had “always
acted in concordance with the law and
on the advice of her financial advisers”.
The firm said that Shakira, who now
lives in Miami, has yet to receive notifi-
cation of the second investigation.
“[Shakira] is now focused on her
artistic career in Miami and is calm and
confident that she will receive a favor-
able resolution of her fiscal issues,” the
firm said.
Shakira, whose full name is Sha-
kira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, has been
linked to Spain since she started dating
the now-retired soccer player Gerard
Pique. The couple, who have two child-
ren, lived together in Barcelona until
last year, when they ended their 11-year
relationship.
Spain has cracked down on soccer
stars like Lionel Messi and Cristiano
Ronaldo over the past decade for not
paying their full due in taxes. They
Continued on page 34

34
Continued from page 33
Mark Gatiss: ‘I’d be the first naturist Doctor.
That would scare away the Daleks’
As told to Rich Pelley
You have taken on the roles of Bamber
Gascoigne, Malcolm McLaren, Peter
Mandelson and Larry Grayson. How
do you deliver believable portrayals of
such well-known figures? Verulamium-
ParkRanger
I’ll start with the voice. Some are
easier than others. I’ve just finished at
the National Theatre, playing Sir John
Gielgud, who sits very well in my voice.
Larry Grayson was quite difficult. He’s
deeper and rustier than you’d expect.
The key to Malcolm McLaren was rea-
lising that he sounds like Larry the
Lamb, strange and croaky. Mandelson
has this underbite, which changes the
shape of your face. The way he speaks is
deliberate and laborious. Bamber Gas-
coigne is all about the glasses. I try to
get glasses into any part. They’re very
useful props. I just did [the Netflix sci-
fi series] 3 Body Problem with Reece
Shearsmith. When I got there, he was
wearing glasses. I said: “You bastard,
you’ve got the glasses.”You’re a noted
Bond fan. Why haven’t you had a role
yet? Even just as Smithers in the back of
Q’s lab smashing a dummy’s head apart
with a fake plastercast? Mikebhoy
You tell me. It’s a disgrace. Ob-
viously everyone wants to be a Bond
villain. I was excited when they brought
Blofeld back. I favour my Bonds outre,
with one foot in reality, which is why
From Russia with Love and On Her Ma-
jesty’s Secret Service are my favourites.
They’re bigger than life, but not too car-
toony or grim. We live in such grim
times, I think we all could do with a
bit more Roger Moore, don’t you?
I’m in Mission: Impossible, the other
biggest franchise in the world, so I’ve
got nothing to complain about. Tom
Cruise is there every day, so you get
quite used it to. Every now and then,
you glance around and think: “Fucking
hell, it’s Tom Cruise.” It’s amazing to be
part of such a vast machine. Rather
nicely, I was approached to play the
head of the National Security Agency.
So, take note, James Bond producers.
Nina Simone’s 20 greatest songs – ranked!
Alexis Petridis
20. Pirate Jenny (1964)
One thing Nina Simone had in
abundance was attitude, which can be
heard in her frankly astonishing version
of Brecht and Weill’s Pirate Jenny. It is a
theatrical piece that she sings as if she
means every word, her vocal dripping
with venomous relish as it delivers its
saga of murderous revenge: listening to
it feels like being pinned to a wall.
19. My Baby Just Cares for Me
(1958)
You can see why Simone tired of the
song that remained most closely asso-
ciated with her: its breezy ease is the
Arts
were found guilty of evasion but both
avoided prison time thanks to a pro-
‘We live in such grim times, I think we all could do with a bit more Roger Moore’ … Mark
Gatiss. Photograph: Bertie Watson
What are your predictions for the
horror of the future? Would you like
to write and direct a full-length feature
horror? I can only imagine it would be
terrifyingly amazing! BarbeloLVX and
writeronthestorm
It’s funny, I never get offered horror
films. Never. I don’t know whether
people assume I only want to do my
own things, but every time some lovely
folk horror comes up set in a Danish
fishing village, nobody asks me.
I wrote a horror film in lockdown,
which I’d love like to direct, but the
scariest thing about horror is trying to
get the funding. It’s extremely British, a
wet Wednesday Britain, which may not
have international appeal, so I might
just have to sit on it for a while. The
exciting thing about horror is that it
moves around the world like a virus.
When it feels as if it has worn itself out,
it will pop up in Korea or somewhere
with a fresh and exciting new approach.
How much is your interest and
use of Edwardian weird fiction in your
scriptwriting an attempt to explain his-
tory repeating itself in contemporary
society? bongiben
HG Wells invented great swathes of
science fiction: the time machine, alien
invasion. Nigel Kneale, my other great
hero, had a similarly prophetic vision,
peeking around corners at what might
happen. It’s speculative fiction but the
broad strokes are staggeringly accurate.
antithesis of her weightier, more polit-
ical material. But listen to that piano
solo: classical leanings and a feel for
swing distilled into something that is
entirely her own and incredibly stylish.
18. The Desperate Ones (1969)
The self-explanatory title Nina
Simone and Piano! was apparently
Simone’s favourite of her own albums.
Certainly, its closing version of Jac-
ques Brel’s Les Désespérés is incred-
ibly powerful: her raw, whispery vocal
is close-mic’d and intimate, turning a
song about the death of youthful ideal-
ism into an eerie eulogy for the revolu-
tionary zeal of the late 60s .
17. Fodder on Her Wings (1987)
An impossibly moving cry of des-
vision that allows a judge to waive sen-
tences under two years in length for
It’s interesting to look back at old sci-fi
and fantastic fiction to see if what they
were wrestling with remains relevant.
The possibilities of technology throw
up an awful lot of new terrors that
are exciting to play with, because you
look at the dark underside. Like the
internet, information has never been
more accessible, but people have never
been more stupid. That’s the title of my
autobiography!
Given the opportunity, would you
like to become one of the Doctors?
Localgatiss
Of course I would! I think that ship
may have sailed. I can’t tell you how ex-
cited I am about Ncuti Gatwa. Apart
from the fact that he is clearly one
of the sexiest, most talented men on
earth, he can wear anything. He posted
on Instagram how much he admires
Jon Pertwee’s dress sense, and I was
so thrilled. Pertwee was my doctor and I
adored him. If I was the Doctor, I’d wear
nothing. A radical new approach. I’d be
the first naturist Doctor and that would
scare away the Daleks.
Why have you been more inter-
ested in turning Sherlock, Dracula, etc
into miniseries rather than films? Top-
Tramp
People think you can just wave a
wand. It’s incredibly difficult to get
people interested and get films made.
I remember talking to Edgar Wright
about Ant-Man, into which he put eight
pair from Simone’s exile in France,
clearly rooted in personal experience,
Fodder in Her Wings first turned up on
a largely ignored 1982 album, but the
killer version (with a tweaked name)
– taut, wrenching and accompanied by
piano rather than tinny synth – is on
1987’s live Let It Be Me.
16. Mr Bojangles (1971)
You could pick any cover from
1971’s Here Comes the Sun for this
list – the Five Stairsteps’ O-o-h Child
and Bob Dylan’s Just Like a Woman
among them – but the sweet sadness of
Simone’s take on country singer Jerry
Jeff Walker’s Mr Bojangles is partic-
ularly sublime: Sammy Davis Jr mod-
elled his signature version on hers.
first-time offenders.
years of his life and then didn’t make.
Eight years is not short of a decade.
Add a few of those up, you’re dead and
you’ve made four films. But, also, we
were genuinely interested in making
them for TV because we love TV. We
would love to make a Sherlock movie.
It’s the natural thing to do.
I saw The Unfriend at the theatre in
Chichester. What is it like to direct long-
time colleagues such as Reece Shears-
mith? Stubob
It was delightful. It’s not without
its challenges, because you cross a
line in terms of your working rela-
tionship. We’ve worked in such close
collaboration over the years, but there’s
a difference when you have the demar-
cation of being the director. I’m now
directing The Way Old Friends Do, the
play by my partner [his husband, Ian
Hallard] about two old school friends
who meet up after 20 years and decide
to form the world’s first drag Abba tri-
bute band. It’s a very funny, very touch-
ing and full of joy.
Deep down, how do you feel about
the success of Inside No 9? arcaneen-
chanter
I remember Michael Palin, famously
the nicest man in show business, said
that, whenever a friend had success, a
little part of him died. I’ve never felt like
that. I’m thrilled, because it’s utterly
brilliant. I’m lost in admiration for Steve
[Pemberton] and Reece [Shearsmith].
They’re on to the ninth and final series.
Steve said to me: “I wish we called it
Inside No 5. We would have finished
by now.” The range of invention is stag-
gering. I was thrilled to be in it. I’m in
the one about a college reunion. We
had a great time. We just fell straight
back into it, as if we’d never been apart.
The four of us, [writer] Jeremy [Dyson]
as well, certainly have no League of
Gentleman plans. But as to working to-
gether again? Never say never.
Paul McCartney say he enjoys
Homes Under the Hammer. What’s
your guilty pleasure? herrdobler
Naked Attraction. I hate myself for
it. I think it’s not only the end of tele-
vision but probably the end of the
15. Funkier Than a Mosquito’s
Tweeter (1974)
The breakbeat-hunting crate-
digger’s favourite Simone track, but
there is far more to it than its wri-
thingly danceable rhythm: Ike and Tina
Turner’s original was a dismissal of an
old lech, but Simone turns it into a dis-
missal of the US itself, a country she
had already departed by the time of the
song’s release.
14. Ain’t Got No/I Got Life (1968)
Of all Simone’s musical reinven-
tions, there is something particularly
pleasing about Ain’t Got No/I Got Life:
two songs from Hair, a cash-in musical
that served up the late-60s counter-
culture as supposedly edgy enter-
The Guardian Friday 21 July 2023
Mark Gatiss and Tom Cruise and the Mis-
sion: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
premiere in London. Photograph: Anthony
Harvey/Shutterstock
world. I’ve been doing the play at the
National Theatre for three months and
I would come home about 12.30am, to-
tally unable to sleep, and have become
totally hooked. It’s disgraceful. My two
great takeaways are: a lot of people
have awful tattoos nowadays and pubic
hair has gone away. Channel 4 could
have called it Butcher’s Front Window.
There’s a lot of very grim tackle out
there.What was Hilary Briss’s “special
stuff” [in The League of Gentlemen]?
TopTrampRed herrings.What’s the best
nightmare you have ever had? Fickle-
mislike
You can’t have a good nightmare.
There’s a difference between a fear
dream, where you go on stage and don’t
know your lines. The ones where you’re
peering into the darkness at something
and see someone looking back at you
are terrifying, as if they’ve been de-
signed like a script. I’ve been having
this thing like in the film The Eyes of
Laura Mars, where she can see through
the eyes of a murder victim. Some-
times, when I’m half asleep, I can see
other rooms, look around, and I make
myself wake up because I’m afraid of
who’s going to turn up and look at
me. Obviously my worst nightmare is to
wake up and find I was actually a naked
Doctor Who or, worst still, a contestant
on Naked Attraction.
• This article was amended on 20
July 2023 to remove an extraneous
word “shooting” which was due to a
transcription error.
tainment for Broadway and West End
theatregoers, that were recast as a racial
protest song: concise, punchy and de-
fiant.
13. Don’t Let Me Be Misun-
derstood (1964)
Sometimes, Simone’s interpre-
tations transformed songs. Sometimes,
they amplified them. Her terrifying
cover of Strange Fruit is a case in
point and so is Don’t Let Me Be Misun-
derstood. No other version digs so deep
into its themes of anger and regret, or
sounds so racked with guilt: she audibly
knew of what she spoke.
12. My Sweet Lord/Today Is a
Continued on page 35
Friday 21 July 2023 The Guardian
Continued from page 34
Killer (1972)
Simone’s live version of George Har-
rison’s solo hit starts out straightfor-
ward enough, amping the song into
joyous gospel, before turning it on
its head, interpolating a poem by the
Last Poets’ David Nelson about feeling
abandoned by God. Harrison’s gently
beseeching tone is transformed into a
terrified howl into the void.
11. Backlash Blues (1967)
By the time Langston Hughes pre-
sented Simone with the lyrics to Back-
lash Blues, the anger she had expressed
in Mississippi Goddam was erupting
across the US. There is a hint of I-told-
you-so about her delivery, a confidence
that offsets its ache – “You’re the one
who’ll have the blues, not me” – and
only adds to its power.
10. Stars/Feelings (1976)
The crushing centrepiece of the
psychological white-knuckle ride that
was Simone’s 1976 performance at the
Montreux jazz festival. She genuinely
appears to be on the brink of a break-
down, investing both songs in the 17-
minute medley with a fragile inten-
sity so potent it’s almost unbearable:
disturbing, haunting, unforgettable lis-
tening.
9. Why? (The King of Love Is
Dead) (1968)
Recorded on stage three days after
Martin Luther King’s murder, perfor-
mances come no more charged and
raw than this. It slips between mourn-
ing, despair and militant rage, partic-
Fun, flamboyant, fabulous: En Garde! is the
ultimate swashbuckling fantasy
Malindy Hetfeld
From Assassin’s Creed to Rocksteady’s
Batman trilogy, from Absolver to For
Honor, games never tire of coming
up with interesting permutations of
combat duels to fulfil the power fan-
tasy of being a suave fighter. And then
there’s En Garde!, a game determined to
let us know that you can’t spell funeral
without fun.
You take on the role of Adalia de Vo-
lador, a renowned swashbuckler, ready
to face a cruel Count-Duke and his mi-
nions in battle. In colourful environ-
ments that make Spain look like a
giant theatre stage, Adalia confronts
her enemies with a sharp sword and
an equally sharp tongue. The heart of
En Garde! is the carefully controlled
chaos of its combat – you parry, attack
and jump away from large groups of
enemies, none of whom politely wait
for their turn to stab you. Adalia can
kick barrels, drop chandeliers, throw
jugs left on tables and smack enemies
with lutes. Foes come equipped with
more than 3,000 individual voice lines,
adding a chorus of “haha!” “hoho!” and
“surrender now!” to the fighting as you
run rings around them.
It’s silly fun that never leaves you in
doubt that you’re supposed to be the
superior duellist, but developer Fire-
place Games wanted to allow for dif-
Arts
Attitude in abundance … Nina Simone performing at the 1968 Newport jazz festival.
Photograph: David Redfern/Redferns
ularly in its 13-minute, unedited form,
punctuated by Simone’s lengthy, emo-
tional, extemporised monologue: “We
can’t afford any more losses, they’re
shooting us down.”
8. I Loves You, Porgy (1959)
Simone was 25 when she released
her debut album: what is startling is
how assured she already sounded. As-
sured enough not just to take on I
Loves You, Porgy – already, and see-
mingly definitively, recorded by Billie
Holliday – but to stamp her own iden-
tity on the song, balancing tenderness,
desperation and uncertainty.
7. Sinnerman (1965)
Oft-sampled, but never improved
upon, the adjective that best fits Sin-
nerman is fierce: the hellfire-and-brim-
stone take on religion, involving a God
who tells her to get stuffed; the lyrics
with its bleeding rivers and boiling seas;
Carefully controlled chaos … En Garde! Photograph: Fireplace Games
ferent playstyles: the game has been
compared to everything from Assas-
sin’s Creed to Dark Souls. “We didn’t
favour one approach over the other,”
says co-founder Anaïs Simonnet. “You
have the challenge of fencing and the
cartoonish element in using the envi-
ronment, and you can choose what to
focus on.”
The slapstick-tinged combat attests
to the fact that Adalia is a swashbuckler
the focused insistence of Simone and
her band’s performance over the course
of its 10 minutes.
6. Four Women (1966)
A controversial assault on racial
stereotypes and the imposition of
white beauty standards, Four Women
is a masterpiece of slow-burning rage,
gradually amping up its intensity over
a simple, repetitious piano figure: the
moment when Simone’s voice finally
cracks into guttural fury as she hits the
song’s closing line is shattering.
5. I Wish I Knew How It Would
Feel to Be Free (1967)
Told to tone down the politicking
by her label, Simone obliged with 1967’s
love song-heavy album Silk and Soul.
Or rather, she almost obliged, slipping
in something that starts out gentle and
ends up incredibly funky, which you
could just about mistake for a love song
– not a pirate. If you were hitherto
unaware of the difference, the game’s
artist and narrative designer, Julien
Fenoglio, explains: “Swashbuckling, de
cape et d’épée as we call it in French,
has a distinct vibe – where pirates
are kind of dirty or rough-and-tumble,
swashbucklers merge action with artis-
tic refinement. They are more urban,
more elegant.”
“We also wanted to make a game
but clearly wasn’t: a civil rights anthem
was born.
4. Feeling Good (1965)
Feeling Good became a TV talent
show staple in the 00s, stripping it of
its distinct civil rights undercurrent – a
miserable fate for such a fantastic song
– but umpteen lousy covers can’t dim
the ferocious impact of Simone’s defin-
itive reading: its slow build from a cap-
pella to show-stopping finale is unfor-
gettable.
3. To Be Young, Gifted and Black
(1970)
The documentary Summer of Soul
shows Simone performing the incen-
diary Are You Ready? at the Harlem
cultural festival. Debuted the same
day, To Be Young, Gifted and Black
was at the opposite end of the pro-
test spectrum, an irresistible tough-but-
optimistic expression of pride, subse-
quently turned into reggae gold by Bob
and Marcia.
2. I Put a Spell on You (1965)
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ original is
fantastic, but wilfully OTT, befitting his
shock-horror image. Simone’s version –
lushly orchestrated, with a sax solo that
points up its bluesy origins – is any-
thing but: she removes the cartoonish
excesses, revealing a smouldering song
about lust that is simultaneously sexy
and slightly disconcerting in its force-
fulness.
1. Mississippi Goddam (1964)
Simone claimed she wrote Missis-
sippi Goddam as an alternative to mur-
dering someone in retaliation for the
racist bombing of an Alabama church
about a part of culture you learn about
as a French person,” says Simonnet. “I
think it would have been really inappro-
priate to choose a foreign setting for
us, create very archetypal characters
and make jokes about them … It’s very
French to make fun of your own cul-
ture, and a lot of French humour is
deeply satirical. We were really ada-
mant about setting the game in Europe,
about putting a spotlight on Muske-
35
She sings as if she means every word …
Nina Simone pictured in 1969. Photograph:
Jack Robinson/Getty Images
that killed four children. She wasn’t
joking: she started writing after fail-
ing to avail herself of a gun, the song
“erupting … faster than I could write [it]
down”. It erupted again the first time
the world heard it, at Carnegie Hall: the
recording is electric, the song churning
urgently on, a flash of anger still blind-
ing nearly 60 years on. Almost every-
thing in this chart has a claim to be
Simone’s greatest song – she was that
good – but Mississippi Goddam remains
her most vital.
• You’ve Got to Learn, an album of
six previously unreleased live record-
ings from the 1966 Newport jazz fes-
tival, is released 21 July on Verve/UMe
teers, because you see those tropes
everywhere, but not their origins.”
“At first we looked at things like The
Three Musketeers, Zorro, Dumas, that
kind of stuff,” Fenoglio says. “But then
when you look at these heroes from
pop culture a little more closely, you
find it returns pretty close to home
– the studio is in Montpellier, which
is home to a bunch of swashbuckling
characters.”
En Garde!’s proudly bisexual Span-
ish female protagonist isn’t entirely
like those traditional heroes, though
Simonnet says this wasn’t a deliberate
attempt to buck a trend. “In the game
your gender is not important,” she says.
“We talked a lot about how we didn’t
want enemies to be sexist when they
mock you, just because when I’m a
player, I don’t want to hear that sort of
thing.” En Garde! has what Fenoglio de-
scribes as an “overall anti-authoritarian
vibe” – its fencing is fun, flamboyant
and a touch fabulous.
The most important thing for Fire-
place Games is to let players enjoy the
game in their own way. “You get what
you give,” Fenoglio says. “A good swash-
buckler makes a plan, but when those
plans go awry, you improvise.”
En Garde! is out 16 August on PC
Friday 21 July 2023 The Guardian
AI tool creates South Park episodes with user
in starring role
Hibaq Farah UK technology re-
porter
A US company says it has cracked the
formula for making an episode of South
Park using artificial intelligence – and it
allows users to be the star of the show.
Fable Simulation has created an AI
tool that can create brief original epi-
sodes of the cartoon. “Not just the
dialogue. It animates, it does the voices,
it does the editing,” the company’s chief
executive, Edward Saatchi, told the
GamesBeat website.
The tool, called AI Showrunner,
allows users to enter a one- or two-
sentence prompt that then generates
an episode, and can create a character
based on the user’s own looks and
voice.
Generative AI, the catch-all term for
tech systems that produce convincing
text and images from prompts, has
gripped the public imagination since
the launch of ChatGPT in November.
It has also played a part in Hollywood
actors joining writers on the picket lines
over wages, technology and how to
divide the profits of the digital stream-
ing era.
Saatchi stressed that the South
Park tool, produced without copyright
permission, was purely for research and
DCMS sets sights on championing UK film
industry as Hollywood struggles
Nadia Khomami Arts and culture
correspondent
Parliament has launched a new inquiry
into British film and high-end TV, ex-
amining issues around skills and reten-
tion as well as challenges posed from
the rise of artificial intelligence.
MPs on the culture, media and
sport committee will investigate what
needs to be done to maintain and en-
hance the UK as a global destination for
production and how the independent
film production sector can best be sup-
ported.
The committee will also examine
challenges for British cinemas, fol-
lowing the recent Cineworld restruc-
ture and the collapse of the Empire
chain.
The inquiry comes 20 years on from
the predecessor committee’s report
on the British film industry, which
made recommendations around tax re-
gimes, training and development. It
also comes as major film and TV
productions have ground to a halt due
to the joint actors’ and writers’ strike in
the US, which focuses on issues such as
Arts
The characters from South Park, which has run for 26 seasons. Photograph: Photo 12/Alamy
would not be available for public use.
“We did the South Park episode as
an example and for research to show
generative TV. We don’t want to profit
from it and we are not releasing a way
for other people to do it. We realised
it was hard to illustrate how the model
works without a comparison,” he said.
He added that the shows’s creators,
David Jonsson, left, and Vivian Oparah in Raine Allen-Miller’s Rye Lane, filmed in south-
east London. Photograph: Courtesy of Searchlight Picture/AP
residual payments from streaming plat-
forms and the use of AI.
Caroline Dinenage, chair of the
CMS committee, said: “Thousands of
cinemagoers enjoying the new Barbie
film this weekend will get to see the
latest success story for the British
film and high-end TV industry, with
the construction of Barbieland from
scratch at a studio in the UK demon-
strating the sector’s excellent track
record in attracting blockbusters to our
Trey Parker and Matt Stone, as well as
the show’s broadcaster, the Paramount-
owned Comedy Central, had not been
approached about the experiment.
Last year, Parker and Stone said
they had secured a $20m investment
for their own AI entertainment com-
pany, Deep Voodoo, which creates
“leading deepfake technology, cost-
shores.
“We will be looking at how to main-
tain the attractiveness of the UK as a
global destination for production while
ensuring independent films, similar to
recent hits Rye Lane and Aftersun, can
be made and seen.
“The financial problems encoun-
tered by big-name cinema chains have
highlighted the importance of pro-
tecting and promoting the UK’s screen
heritage, while the actors’ and writ-
effective visual effects services and
original synthetic media projects”, ac-
cording to its website.
This year, South Park released an
episode that was partially written using
ChatGPT. In the fourth episode of
season 26, titled Deep Learning, pupils
in the town’s school explore new tech-
nology that can do their homework for
ers’ strikes in the United States show
the importance of getting ahead of
the game in adapting skills and res-
ponding to the challenges of artificial
intelligence.”
Dinenage said the committee
wanted to ensure the industry and
government were thinking of the future
to maintain and enhance a sector that is
hugely important to the economy and
culture of the UK as well as to its “power
on the world stage”.
Speaking to the Guardian, the Os-
car-winning producer David Puttnam
also recently called on the film indus-
try to address its yawning skills gap
and grow audiences before the UK is
eclipsed as a cinematic powerhouse.
He also said further work was
necessary to draw audiences back to
cinemas, including tackling the prob-
lem at a grassroots level. “I think more
attention needs to be paid to smaller
communities. Does your local cinema
cater really to you? Is it well run? Is it
clean?” he said.
Figures for last year released by the
British Film Institute show the com-
bined spend by film and high-end tele-
vision production reached £6.27bn, a
37
them. The episode features voices that
were created by an AI-powered text-to-
voice generator.
The potentially transformative role
of generative AI across TV and film has
been a key concern among writers and
actors participating in the Hollywood
strike. Fran Drescher, the president
of the SAG-AFTRA union, said when
announcing the strike last month: “This
is a moment of history … We are all
going to be in jeopardy of being re-
placed by machines.”
A letter signed by more than 300
actors, including A-listers such as Meryl
Streep and Jennifer Lawrence, reite-
rated members’ concerns about AI.
Copyright is proving a bone of
contention around the creation of AI
models, and Saatchi stressed that he
would work with intellectual property
holders before allowing any such tech-
nology to become available to the
public.
“We’re speaking with several stu-
dios and IP holders to potentially use
this with their IP to allow fans to create
shows,” he said. “We think for any show,
fans being able to make their own epi-
sodes, potentially even competitively,
with permission of IP holders – we think
it can lead to something interesting.”
South Park Studios has been con-
tacted for comment.
Success story … India Amarteifio as
Young Queen Charlotte in Queen Charlotte:
A Bridgerton Story, which was filmed in the
UK. Photograph: Liam Daniel/Netflix
record high and £1.83bn higher than in
2019.
High-end television production ac-
counted for £4.3bn, with £1.97bn spent
on feature film production. Inward
investment high-end TV productions
(defined as scripted television projects
with a minimum core expenditure of
£1m per broadcast hour) made last year
included Bridgerton, Happy Valley and
Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power.
The committee is inviting anyone
with experience working in the sector
to submit evidence via its online portal
by 19 September. MPs have yet to con-
firm who will be asked to give in-person
testimony.

38
The Beanie Bubble review – plushie-craze toy
story goes down the cute route
Peter Bradshaw
Some deeply muddled non-storytelling
and tonal blandness pretty much sink
this movie from the outset, despite its
decent cast and origins in a potentially
fascinating true story. It might have
been served better as a documentary,
and right from the off, this feature film
deploys the deeply annoying and all-
too familiar get-out clause of pre-emp-
tively giggling that it is kind of false
and sort of not, flashing up the state-
ment after the opening credits: “There
are parts of the truth you can’t make up.
The rest we did.”
It is adapted by Kristin Gore from
Zac Bissonnette’s nonfiction study The
Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delu-
sion and the Dark Side of Cute, and
directed by Gore and Damian Kulash; it
tackles the little-known human drama
behind the US’s bizarre “Beanie Baby
bubble” tulip-style craze of the 1990s, in
which an unofficial collectors’ market
in limited edition lines of the cutesy
Beanie Baby plush toys, driven by
word-of-mouth and the fledgling eBay
website, escalated prices to insane
levels.
‘You laugh as you’re choking’: a selection of
Derek Malcolm’s seminal film reviews
Compiled by Richard Nelsson
Midnight Cowboy
26 September 1969
The word “masterpiece” is already
ringing in our ears about John Schle-
singer’s first American movie, Midnight
Cowboy, which comes to the London
Pavilion almost stale from the acco-
lades that have pursued it relentlessly
across the Atlantic. One recalls similar
immediate reactions to the overblown
and flashy Darling, and is suitably fore-
warned. Like Darling this story, of a
penurious young blade who arrives in
New York with the confidence of his
single conviction – that he’s one helluva
guy in bed – has all the trappings of a
film made for its time, swingingly right
for the second half of 1969.
Perhaps, however, it’s an easier time
to make films, or at least more ge-
nuine in its passion for sophisticated
verismo. Midnight Cowboy is a very
very much better piece of work than
Darling; not perhaps a masterpiece of
the cinema but Schlesinger’s personal
masterpiece all the same. It deserves at
least half the adjectives pouring forth
about it from those in the business who
were scared silly about the making of
it in the first place. It frequently cuts
deep and accurately into the truth, as
much in its minor as in its major de-
tails. Strange how a visitor to a house
can interpret the tensions of its occu-
pants more clearly than can its occu-
pants themselves. This is really Schle-
singer’s achievement. He has caught on
film a slice of America as well, if not
better, than one had any right to expect.
Arts
Not a good look … Zach Galifianakis in The Beanie Bubble. Photograph: Apple/AP
Zach Galafianakis plays a creepy
and infantile Beanie Baby plutocrat
Ty Warner, and those two formid-
able performers Elizabeth Banks and
Sarah Snook play Robbie and Sheila, his
two successive girlfriends, who over-
‘A slice of America’ … Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy. Photograph:
Warner Bros/Allstar
Continue reading
Death in Venice
4 March 1971
Some people will be bored by Death
in Venice. Those omnipresent office
girls who invade press shows in far
greater numbers than critics were cer-
tainly rustling long before the end of
Visconti’s latest film. But then it is
about an elderly gentleman with a pla-
tonic passion for a young boy and it is
culled from a novella by Thomas Mann
in which nothing much actually hap-
pens except within the mind’s eye. It is
a very slow, precise, and beautiful film,
proportioned by a master who is about
to embark on a version of Proust’s life
story and, whatever some think of it,
it is important to say that it is 100%
better than 99.99% of what’s on offer in
London at the moment.Continue read-
ing
Deliverance
28 September 1972
lapped without knowing it, and whom
he betrayed and let down in var-
ious ways. They are broadly based on
the two partners Warner had in real
life, but a third character, the smart
young Asian-American Maya (Geral-
The great thing about John Boor-
man’s Deliverance is that it’s a cracking
good story. One puts it in these terms
first because that’s just what most new
films meanderingly aren’t. The cine-
matic art of narrative drive, often the
prime quality of those film-makers we
tend to deride, has largely been lost by
less instinctive successors it is possible
to admire too much for what they are
saying, rather than how.
This is not to say that Deliverance
is purely a commercial undertaking,
though there is no real harm in that.
Actually, since it is an adaptation by
James Dickey, novelist and poet, of his
own sensitive and frightening book, it is
also a finely structured allegory about
America and Americans. But at least it
works properly on a more basic level.
It’s good to watch, and then to think
about.Continue reading
Solaris
3 May 1973
dine Viswanathan), appears to be more
of a composite figure based on the
smart college-age people whose web-
savvy Warner exploited.
Perhaps to keep all the strong
female characters in play throughout
Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris, grand
in scale though a mere 165 minutes
long, is another from which one has
to exorcise the long shadow of Ku-
brick. The film, which was hailed at last
year’s Cannes and London festivals as
the Russian 2001, is in fact light years
away from that epic. Adapted by Tar-
kovsky from a story by the Polish writer
Stanislav Lem, its gadgetry is minimal
and its intention to work more on the
mind’s eye than the body’s. The pacing
is slow and inexorable, its labyrinthine
and hallucinatory mixture of time,
memory, and experience impossible to
view sitting back at a comfortable dis-
tance. You either get right in there with
it or you don’t.
The central character is a space
scientist living with his parents and son
in a quiet, Turgenev-like country re-
treat near Moscow. Years ago his wife
had committed suicide and now the
authorities are pondering about send-
ing him to the planet Solaris where
odd happenings have been reported
from the manned space station. So-
laris, it seems, is an ocean of sentient
matter which has the power to read
human minds and to recreate for their
discomfiture figures relating to their
past. When he arrives at the station,
he finds his predecessor dead, and his
surviving colleagues wrestling distrac-
tedly with their individual ghosts.Con-
tinue reading
Jaws
22 December 1975
“Don’t mock it,” someone said to me
of Jaws. “It’s what the movie business
is all about.” And I haven’t the slightest
intention of putting down what is in
The Guardian Friday 21 July 2023
the film, Gore and Kulash hop back
and forth between the 1980s (when
Warner was dating Robbie) and 1990s
(when he was dating Sheila) … back and
forth, back and forth. It’s annoying and
frustrating and prevents any narrative
momentum building up; when Robbie
and Sheila do finally meet, the result is
anticlimactic and unstitches the film’s
elaborate compartmentalised fabric.
Also, there is the issue of tone.
The film can’t bear simply to show the
creepy side to these cute plush toys; it
emphasises how relatable they are by
foregrounding the kids that love them,
and the grownups all have to be relat-
able as well. Snook is stuck with having
to laugh delightedly at all Warner’s
peculiar eccentricities, which don’t look
adorable at any stage. Yucky Ty has
to be quite sweet, even when at one
moment he shows a bizarre flash of fat-
phobia, never explained or followed up.
Perhaps Malcolm Gladwell is the man
to tell the Beanie Baby story. This film
fails to.
• The Beanie Bubble is released on
28 July on Apple TV+
Burt Reynolds, Ronny Cox, Bill McKin-
ney and Jon Voight star in Deliverance, 1972.
Photograph: Warner Bros/Allstar
commercial terms the most successful
film of all time. It is, in fact, a great relief
to find that Steven Spielberg’s epic is
such a cracking good piece of enter-
tainment that you don’t have to make
excuses for it.
But it would be a pity also if we
didn’t admit straight away that there
are better films around than Jaws, and I
fancy that Spielberg, its able and lucky
young director, will one day make one,
if he hasn’t already in Duel, his neg-
lected first feature. Even so, Jaws is
a splendidly shrewd cinematic equa-
tion which not only gives you one or
two very nasty turns when you least
expect them but, possibly more impor-
tant, knows when to make you think
another’s coming without actually pro-
viding it.Continue reading
Star Wars
16 December 1977
“I have wrought my simple planIf I
give some hour of joyTo the boy who’s
half a manOr the man who’s half a boy.”
Thus saith Arthur Conan Doyle in
his preface to The Lost World, and thus
quoteth Bob Dingilian, executive direc-
tor of national publicity, 20th Century
Continued on page 39
Friday 21 July 2023 The Guardian
Continued from page 38
Fox Film Corporation as a preface to his
notes for Star Wars. And I must say, it
about sums up the picture, except that
it gives some two hours of joy, and will
probably also be appreciated by girls
who are half women and women who
are half girls too. Bob, you’re a genius.
Quite whether George Lucas, of
American Graffiti fame, is also a genius
is another matter. Viewed dispas-
sionately – and of course that’s despe-
rately difficult at this point in time –
Star Wars is not an improvement on
Mr Lucas’ previous work, except in box
office terms. It isn’t the best film of
the year, it isn’t the best science fic-
tion ever to be translated to the screen,
it isn’t a number of other things either
that sweating critics have tried to turn
it into when faced with finding some
plausible explanation for its huge and
slightly sinister success considering a
contracting market.Continue reading
Taxi Driver
19 August 1976
If Robert Altman’s Nashville was
the most important American film of
1975, it is at least arguable that Martin
Scorsese’s Taxi Driver will come to be
judged the most significant of 1976. It is
not just that this chimerical parable of
the New York streets has taken the box
office by storm, like some upmarket
Death Wish (though that in itself means
something in view of the apparent fail-
ure of Mean Streets). Nor is it that the
film is some imperishable masterpiece
to be approached on bended knee by
critics. Its real power lies in the urgency
with which it is made.
It is, like Nashville, a tour de force
which doesn’t so much explain America
as reflect part of it with unerring accu-
racy. You may not like what you see, but
you can’t stop it hitting you between
the eyes.Continue reading
Alien
6 September 1979
If you want cinematic kicks, Ridley
Scott’s massively successful Alien will
Blur: The Ballad of Darren review – middle-
age regrets voiced in gorgeous tunes
Alexis Petridis
‘We’re taking down the scaffolds very
soon,” sings Damon Albarn, midway
through Barbaric, presumably one of
the songs he wrote for Blur’s ninth
studio album while on tour with Goril-
laz last year. Whether it was intended
as such or not, the image of a venerable
building being revealed to the public
once more seems like an anticipatory
nod towards Blur’s second reunion, 33
years on from their debut single.
It has, thus far, been a remarkable
success. There have been stadium gigs
and festival headlining slots, at which
the old hits were rolled out to gid-
dily euphoric response, and the touch-
ing sight of Albarn being reduced to
tears on stage by the reception afforded
them at Wembley.
If a venerable band that deigns to
reform bothers to make a new album,
said album tends to follow a set pat-
tern: a fair forgery of past musical glo-
ries, designed to provoke a glow of
nostalgia among listeners. The Ballad
of Darren certainly ticks a few boxes
Arts
give you them in profusion. Physically,
I mean. No film I have seen in the last
year or so, excluding perhaps The Deer
Hunter, emanates so strong a whiff
of palpable, nerve-straining shock. It
is, in fact, an audience reaction pic-
ture par excellence. Which explains,
perhaps better than the colossal buil-
dup, why everyone wants to see it. The
public now seems to be sitting back in
its seats and saying, “Amaze me.” Alien,
above all others recently, can be relied
upon to do just that.
Yet it does so, oddly enough, with a
story that is basically just a mixture of
The Creature from the Black Lagoon
and The Thing from Outer Space. A
dozen other 50s-sounding titles spring
to mind – well, 60s at any rate. The
point is the added 70s proficiency. You
won’t see anything very original any-
where in the film, other than in the
actual making of it. There, no holds
are barred. Scott, a recruit from adver-
tising, where instant atmospherics has
to be the order of the day, manipulates
his audience in a far stronger fashion
than he managed with The Duellists.
His combination of space fiction and
horror story is no great shakes as a work
of art. Artifice, however, it has in pro-
fusion.Continue reading
Vagabonde
8 May 1986
From time to time a film comes
along which breaks all the rules, and
gets away with it. Agnès Varda’s Vaga-
bonde is one such project – the story of
a young girl wandering round a wintry
south of France whose frozen death in
a ditch you know about from the begin-
ning. She is not a particularly admirable
person, and certainly not a heroine, as
we find out.
Such a film, composed almost en-
tirely of flashbacks, which resolutely
refuse to tell you things about the
girl that you think you want to know,
takes great risks for a good reason.
Varda clearly believes that we are likely
to ask the wrong questions about her
and thus to find untruthful answers.
Rumpled style … Blur. Photograph: Reuben Bastienne Lewis
on the Blur bingo card: noisy Girls and
Boys-ish guitar; asides in the most est-
uary-accented of Albarn’s many voices
(there is even a rogue “Oi!”); warm
swells of brass that recall the arrange-
ment of For Tomorrow; Graham Coxon’s
blank-eyed, vaguely childlike, Syd Bar-
rett-haunted backing vocals. It lacks
the fidgety, prickly quality that marked
out 2015’s The Magic Whip – an album
carved out of jam sessions hastily
convened during downtime on a pre-
Her Vagabonde has made a choice and
sticks to it. She is not a victim.
She is played with superb maturity –
if that can be the word for it – by the 18-
year-old Sandrine Bonnaire, in her sixth
film and the last for which her parents
had to countersign the contract. She
was last seen here in Maurice Pialat’s To
Our Loves, as another kind of rebellious
teenager, creating havoc in her family.
This time we don’t even know if she
has a family, and the only havoc she
creates is possibly within herself.Con-
tinue reading
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife &
Her Lover
12 October 1989
Peter Greenaway is not a director of
wide popular appeal, and almost cer-
tainly never will be. In that way, he is
no Michael Powell. But The Cook, the
Thief, His Wife & Her Lover bears legi-
timate comparisons with Powell’s Peep-
ing Tom for the audacity of its concep-
tion and the imagination with which it
is made.
Peeping Tom was reviled in its time,
and I doubt if we’ve got that much
wiser. But whoever gave Greenaway the
money this time – and it wasn’t the Brit-
ish, since Channel 4 felt his film could
never be transmitted on television in
the present climate – has caused to
be made one of the two or three out-
standing British films of the decade.
The film can best, or at least most
simply, be described as a beautifully
decorated moral parable about greed
that’s funny and horrifying in turn. It
intends to be very contemporary in
tone (do we not consume with ineffable
style?) but links very aptly with the
past through Jacobean plays like John
Ford’s ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore. It is thus
both absolutely of its time, and part of
an English tradition which paints the
comedy of life in the darkest and most
bloodshot colours.Continue reading
An Angel at My Table
27 September 1990
It is difficult to say precisely why
Jane Campion’s An Angel at My Table is
vious reunion tour – majoring instead
in the crestfallen, rumpled-sounding
ballad that has become Albarn’s sig-
nature style, filled with melancholy
descending chords.
You could call the songs here nos-
talgic, but there is no rosy glow about
their reflections on the past. Instead,
they opt for something more rea-
listic, suggesting that nostalgia is the
kind of thing that can keep a fortyso-
mething or fiftysomething awake at
such a good film. It did not, after all, set
out to be a film for the cinema at all but
a three-part television project based on
the trilogy of autobiographical novels
by the New Zealand writer Janet Frame.
And Campion has done little or nothing
to alter it for its different medium.
Added to that, it is not as auda-
ciously conceived as the same direc-
tor’s Sweetie. It is, in fact, a surprisingly
straightforward, honest and unpre-
tentious tribute from one woman artist
to another, and it is there that its true
relevance lies.
But that almost certainly would not
be enough to ensure its success. What
you cannot leave out of the equation
is the hidden subtleties of its making.
Behind the tribute lies not only an
extraordinary life but a real sense of
how to put it on film so that we are first
involved and then moved.
Malcolm X
4 March 1993
“Young black men today need role
models, and it’s a shame we have to
dig up a dead man instead of finding
someone who walks among us.” You’d
think that remark would have come
from someone opposing the film Mal-
colm X. In fact, it’s from the mouth of
Spike Lee himself – a measure, perhaps,
of the doubts he had in his own mind
while making a difficult film.
Lee may now feel, despite the
inevitable flak and the fact that Mal-
colm X hasn’t done as well as might
have been hoped at the box office,
that it has all been worthwhile. Like
Gandhi, which in some ways it resem-
bles, the film and its attendant publicity
has introduced millions to a hitherto
shadowy figure. That is its triumph.
Its disadvantage is that, in doing so, it
seems both too prolix at three hours
and 20 minutes and yet not detailed
enough to answer more than half the
questions raised about its hero.The film
starts with footage of the Rodney King
beating by the Los Angeles police and
ends with Nelson Mandela speaking in
Soweto. It means to connect. In be-
night, worrying. Albarn’s lyrics are
filled with regrets, ruminations on sun-
dered friendships (“Are you online? Are
you contactable again?”), recollections
that induce winces rather than warm
smiles. They occasionally offer hard-
won wisdom – “You can’t play to every
taste, the powder keg of common
cause” – but also wonder aloud if it is
possible to apply said wisdom to your
own life, rather than just dole it out.
“We are not going to shy away, we are
growing tall with the pain,” Albarn sings
boldly on The Everglades (For Leo-
nard), undercutting it with the song’s
deflated final line: “Furthermore, I think
it is just too late.”
Some of what he has to say is clear-
ly about Blur’s history. But the occa-
sional sweet memory – “We travelled
around the world together,” Albarn and
Coxon sing on the opener, The Ballad –
is vastly outweighed by darker though-
ts. The lead single, The Narcissist, is
effectively a four-minute apology for
the swaggering confidence and vault-
ing ambition that fuelled Blur’s rise
from baggy also-rans to Britpop ubiq-
uity, a theme picked up on by St Charles
39
tween there’s the fictionalised material
on the true subject of the film. It is an
expensive, often extravagant progress,
tracing the history of the man from
his humble and crooked beginnings
through to his conversion in gaol, his
espousal of the Black Muslim cause, his
rejection by Elijah Muhammad’s move-
ment, and finally his assassination by
person or persons unknown.Continue
reading
Naked
4 November 1993
Few films seem more likely to
become milestones in the British indus-
try’s uncertain march into the 90s than
Mike Leigh’s Naked. Whether you like
it or not, it is one of the most complex
and audacious attempts to mark our
present card. It is certainly Leigh’s most
striking piece of cinema to date.
Set in the London represented by
Dalston and Soho, it tries to articulate
what is wrong with the society that
Mrs Thatcher claims does not exist. It
does so through the life and times of
an unemployed Mancunian drifter – the
equivalent, perhaps, of an even more
loquacious Jimmy Porter de nos jours.
It is not a pretty picture, even
though Leigh’s only slightly absurdist
humour makes the pill a little less hard
to swallow. You laugh as you’re chok-
ing. But anodyne it isn’t, and domestic
comedy is not its genre.Continue read-
ing
There are better films
around than Jaws,
and I fancy that
Spielberg, its able and
lucky director, will
one day make one
Square: “I fucked up … every generation
has its gilded poseurs.”
It offers a remarkably unsparing
portrait of Albarn at the moment when
that populist ambition curdled, when
the public started making it abundantly
clear that, in the so-called Battle of Brit-
pop, they were backing Oasis: trapped
in a “basement flat with window bars”,
assailed by self-doubt and “something”
– presumably heroin – “living under the
floorboards” that has “grabbed me by
the ankle and pulled me under”.
But most of The Ballad of Darren
Continued on page 40
 The Guardian Friday 21 July 2023
40 Arts / Science

Continued from page 39
feels less specific, its thoughts on
ageing and memory pointed, but gen-
eral enough that anyone of a similar
vintage to Blur can see their own reflec-
tion. Releasing an album that depicts
middle age as a minefield of remorse,
broken relationships and existential
dread (“I have lost the feeling that I
never thought I’d lose / Now where
am I going?”) feels like an impres-
sively ballsy, confrontational move for
a band with a middle-aged fanbase – the
diametric opposite of provoking a care-
free singalong to Parklife at Wembley –
although the music sugars the pill.
The tunes are uniformly gorgeous.
No one expects career-best stuff from
a reformation album, but the sighing
melody of The Ballad is among the
loveliest in Blur’s catalogue. The sound
of Coxon’s guitar weaving wiry little
threads around the chugging synth and
vocodered vocals of Goodbye Albert,
or shimmering over the waltz-time Far
Away Island, is a delight.
Moreover, it is an album that sug-
gests Blur still have something ger-
mane to say, that they are not con-
tent to rest on their back catalogue,
which makes the question of their
future more intriguing. The Ballad of
Darren doesn’t offer an answer. Laced
with plangent strings, the closing track,
The Heights, initially sounds as if it
is going to be a grand finale, but the
expected climax never comes. Instead,
the song is unexpectedly overwhelmed
by the racket of Coxon’s guitar, until you
are just listening to white noise, which
suddenly cuts dead. It feels like a cliff-
hanger ending, leaving you wondering
what might happen next.
This week Alexis listened to
Jessy Lanza – LimboA perfectly
timed return from Canada’s lead-
ing purveyor of postmodern pop-R&B,
Limbo is joyously melodic and suffused
with seasonal sunshine.

Tambourines on the terraces: how Spain’s

biggest rapper C Tangana wrote a football
anthem
Ben Cardew
When Celta de Vigo start the new
season this summer in La Liga, Spain’s
top football tier, their fans will have a
new club anthem to shake the foun-
dations of their Balaídos stadium: Oli-
veira Dos Cen Anos by C Tangana, a
rapper and singer whose El Madrileño
was the bestselling album of 2021 in his
native Spain.
From You’ll Never Walk Alone to
Seven Nation Army, the crossover be-
tween football and popular music is
well established. But the new Celta
anthem is far from the Three Lions
template of big choruses and simple
singalongs. The song is the result
of intense research and modern pop
nous, fusing tradition and modernity to
create what might be the most artis-
tically ambitious football anthem ever.
Tangana, real name Antón Álva-
rez Alfaro, doesn’t actually sing on it,
ceding the spotlight to Vigo’s Coral
Casablanca choir, tambourine-wield-
ing female vocal group Lagharteiras
and Celta supporters’ club Tropas de
Breogán. What’s more, the song leans
heavily on the folklore of Galicia, the
north-western region of Spain where
Vigo is located. The song is in Galician –
its title loosely translates as “100-year-
old olive tree” – and uses the tradi-
tional rhythms and lyrics of Galician
folk music. The song’s video, mean-
while, highlights the landscape of the
Vigo estuary, including the island of San
Simón and the Rande Bridge.
Tangana says he saw the song as an
opportunity to create something that
Fans of Celta de Vigo, who have a new theme song in Oliveira Dos Cen Anos by C Tangana.
Photograph: Rocio Aguirre
could transcend popular culture. “What
cultural objects can you create that will
change – or endure in – our culture?”
he asks. “Although this is something
local, around a city, that feeling of be-
longing to the club and the institution
it represents, makes it a really strong
opportunity for you to influence a lot of
people.”
The origins of Celta’s new anthem
– a himno in Spanish – were simple. In
2021 Celta used Twitter to ask suppor-
ters if anyone would like to com-
pose a new anthem to celebrate the
team’s 2023 centennial. Tangana, born
in Madrid to a Celta-supporting Gali-
cian father and Andalusian mother,
replied and the wheels were put in
motion.
Composing the new anthem, how-
ever, was far from straightforward.
Before putting pen to paper, Tangana
carried out research with important
figures in Galician culture, including
writer Pedro Feijoo and folk musicians
Rodrigo Romaní and Alfredo Dourado.
Tangana says that the opportunity to
immerse himself in Galician folklore
“was like a gift to myself as an artist”.
“It is an anthem for a centennial,”
he says. “Each element has to have the
same weight: a centennial weight.”
From the various traditional ideas
incorporated into the song, Tangana
highlights the importance of the
pandeireteiras and cantareiras(both
groups of female singers, with the
former, such as Lagharteiras, using
tambourines). “This combination of
female voices, always in a choir, almost
never as soloists, playing percussion, all
together, for me is the most moving
thing there is musically in the whole
world,” he says.
He himself is not fluent in Galician
and writing a song in the language was
a challenge. But he says it was impor-
tant to stretch himself. “In the globa-
lised world in which we live, with this
obsession that everyone has to be the
same, express ourselves in the same
ways, make the same gestures […] cul-
tural expressions that are very local for
me have great value,” he says.
Tangana’s decision to write an
anthem for Celta de Vigo initially
caused confusion in Spain, with the
artist closely linked to Madrid – El
Madrileño translates as “the man from
Madrid” – but the club’s fans were
won round after the rapper explained
his links to the club. What’s more,
Tangana says he sees writing Oliveira
Dos Cen Anos as part of the same
process of fusing folk culture with
modern production that he explored
on El Madrileño, where flamenco music
met Latin folk, rock, hip-hop and R&B,
and on his hugely successful 2021 Tiny
Desk performance for National Public
Radio in the US, where he was joined
by family members and musical colla-
borators for a performance that buzzed
with the raw energy of a flamenco
show.
“When I started to do international
tours, spending a lot of time in the
US and Latin America, I started to rea-
lise that I was missing something,” he
says. “That made me turn towards the
culture of Spain, towards cultural ele-
ments that had shaped my childhood
and adolescence, and that I had given
up on because I was looking at a screen
or listening to music that came from
other places.”
In this, Tangana’s music is part of a
wider trend in Spanish culture, where
musicians are combining elements of
musical folklore – from Rosalía’s use of
‘Cultural expressions that are very local
for me have great value’ … C Tangana. Photo-
graph: Javier Soriano/AFP/Getty Images
the flamenco palmas to Maria Arnal
i Marcel Bagés’ take on Catalan folk
– with 21st-century production. “The
music I listened to as a child, the
records that my parents liked and my
family listened to, who was singing at a
fiesta,what you eat in a normal day in
Spain, where you hang out, the way you
interact with alcohol, parties, family, all
that helped to shape El Madrileño,” Tan-
gana says. “Finally I feel like I have an
artistic identity that is related to me.”
Oliveira Dos Cen Anos is also firmly
in the Spanish football tradition, whe-
reby clubs commission local musicians
to create bespoke anthems – such as FC
Barcelona’s Cant del Barça – which are
then taken up by fans.
Tangana says it is for Celta suppor-
ters to decide whether they want to
sing Oliveira Dos Cen Anos on the ter-
races but the response so far has been
very warm. And if they do sing his song
when the first game of the new season
kicks off in August? “I am a bit nervous,”
Tangana says with a smile. “But to hear
it in the stadium, in front of so many
people, will be incredibly powerful.”

Jonah Hill is giving therapy a bad name

My psychotherapy colleagues and I are
fed up with the grim Jonah Hill situ-
ation being put down to the inade-
quacies of therapy, so it was nice to
see Daisy Jones speaking to qualified
therapists and putting some distance
between unqualified opinions being
shared via TikTok and the profoundly
delicate and valuable work of long-term
psychotherapy (Are Jonah Hill’s texts
really ‘therapy speak’? I asked a the-
rapist, 13 July). However, it’s still grating
‘It’s grating that the unpleasant actions of
a famous actor [Jonah Hill] are being con-
flated with therapy,’ says Jane Nash. Photo-
graph: NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images
that the unpleasant actions of a famous
actor are being conflated with therapy
at all. Hill plays a fair amount of golf, too
– perhaps it’s golf culture that’s really to
blame? Jane NashLondon
• According to George Orwell in
The Road to Wigan Pier, cheap and
nutritious fish and chips was one of the
things that kept Britain from revolution
during the economic crisis of the 1930s.
They remain nutritious, but no longer
cheap or even always easy to obtain
(The long read, 20 July). Surely sorting
this out is worthy of a pledge from Keir
Starmer?Keith FlettTottenham, London
• Derek Malcolm (Obituary, 17 July)
was a living legend for Guardian read-
ers. Who could forget his satirical 1974
review of the fictional “Magnum Fart”,
playing on the title of Magnum Force,
the 1973 Dirty Harry film starring Clint
Eastwood.David SimpsonDatchet, Berk-
shire
• Does Prince Andrew still bank
with Coutts (Sunak, Braverman and
City regulator wade into Farage banking
row, 19 July)?Dora HenryBirmingham
• Have an opinion on anything
you’ve read in the Guardian today?
Pleaseemailus your letter and it will
be considered for publication in ourlet-
terssection.
Friday 21 July 2023 The Guardian
Our leaders failed us on the climate
emergency
I was glad to read Jonathan Freedland’s
thoughts on why environmentalists are
failing to get the message of the pla-
netary crisis across (As heat records
break, the climate movement has the
right answers – but the words are all
wrong, 14 July). However, I don’t agree
that here in the UK the main ob-
stacles are ignorance and disbelief. De-
spite the lack of sufficient media cov-
erage, I think that a large proportion
of the adult population is aware of
what is happening and anxious about
the future (though not necessarily fol-
lowing through on sufficient lifestyle
changes). They are preoccupied with
the demands of everyday life and not
convinced or inspired to join collective
action.
The main campaigning organi-
sations in which I am involved have so
far failed to get across the message that
we are all, as humanity, in the same
precarious situation and must unite in
demanding that our governments act
with proportionate urgency. We must
speak as one and act in ways that are
inviting to others to act with us or
alongside us.
We need to convince politicians
that we are in a global emergency and
that they cannot carry on as if that
were not so. Our current essentially
two-party, adversarial system must be
transformed, so that addressing the cli-
Llama 2: why is Meta releasing open-source
AI model and are there any risks?
Dan Milmo Global technology
editor
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has this week
released an open-source version of
an artificial intelligence model, Llama
2, for public use. The large language
model (LLM), which can be used to
create a ChatGPT-like chatbot, is avail-
able to startups, established businesses
and lone operators. But why is Meta
doing this and what are the potential
risks involved?
What does an open-source LLM
do?
LLMs underpin AI tools such as
chatbots. They are trained on vast data-
sets that enable them to mimic human
language and even computer coding.
If an LLM is made open-source that
means its content is made freely avail-
able for people to access, use and tweak
to their own purpose.
Llama 2 is being released in three
versions, including one that can be built
into an AI chatbot. The idea is that
startups or established businesses can
access Llama 2 models and tinker with
them to create their own products in-
cluding, potentially, rivals to ChatGPT
or Google’s Bard chatbot – although by
Meta’s own admission Llama 2 is not
quite at the level of GPT-4, the LLM
behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Why is Meta releasing it for public
use?
Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of
Science / Technology
A fireman runs away from blazes as he tries to control a wildfire in New Peramos, near Athens. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
mate and ecological crisis becomes a
cross-party agenda; and international
policies of contest for dominance must
give way to serious and urgent efforts
for cooperation to meet the survival
needs of humanity, and of the Earth
as we know it. Diana FrancisBath
• The planet is indeed burning, as
we hear and read about in terrifying
detail every day. And some people are
Meta has admitted in research published alongside Llama 2 that it ‘lags behind’ GPT-4. Photograph: Tony Avelar/AP
global affairs, told BBC Radio 4’s Today
programme on Wednesday that making
LLMs open-source would make them
“safer and better” by inviting outside
scrutiny.
“With the … wisdom of crowds you
actually make these systems safer and
better and, crucially, you take them out
of the … clammy hands of the big tech
companies which currently are the only
companies that have either the com-
puting power or the vast reservoirs of
data to build these models in the first
acting. Just Stop Oil are on the streets
of London and have been every day for
13 weeks. Booed, shouted at, manhan-
dled off the road and arrested. This
is what happens to those who try to
sound the alarm. This is what happens
to those who demand that the govern-
ment immediately halt all new oil, gas
and coal projects. We cannot just “hope
that we still have time to avert the
place.”
There is also a possibility that by
giving all comers the chance to launch
a rival to ChatGPT, Bard or Microsoft’s
Bing chatbot, Meta is potentially dilut-
ing the competitive edge of tech peers
such as Google.
Meta has admitted in research pub-
lished alongside Llama 2 that it “lags
behind” GPT-4, but it is a free compet-
itor to OpenAI nonetheless.
Microsoft is a key financial backer of
OpenAI but is nonetheless supporting
worst”. We are in a climate emergency.
We have to make those who take the
big decisions, those who run the coun-
try – our government – act now and
act responsibly. The futures of young
people all over the world are unbe-
lievably bleak. Our government is fail-
ing in its duty to protect its citizens. We
don’t need “ad men”. We need leader-
ship at this time of unprecedented
the launch of Llama 2. The LLM is
available for download via the Micro-
soft Azure, Amazon Web Services and
Hugging Face platforms.
Are there concerns about open-
source AI?
Tech professionals including Elon
Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI, have
expressed concerns about an AI arms
race. Open-sourcing makes a powerful
tool in this technology available to all.
Dame Wendy Hall, regius professor
of computer science at the Univer-
41
crisis. Anne TaylorOxford
• I take exception to the suggestion
in Jonathan Freedland’s article that the
climate emergency is in some part the
fault of climate scientists for not using
stronger language. I remember the
reaction when stronger language was
used. Up went the cry of “scaremon-
gering”. We were told to moderate our
language or we’d not be listened to.
Climate scientists have behaved
with integrity, knowledge, deter-
mination, persistence and self-sacrifice.
They made sure that all governments
were well acquainted with the facts.
In doing so, they hoped they would be
dealing with rational, responsible, reso-
lute people. Who else would you go
to? But they were wrong; governments
were soon shown to be poorly educated
– more swayed by belief than by evi-
dence – and also supine.
Climate scientists, not perfect of
course, are nevertheless the only
people to emerge with any credit at all
from the climate catastrophe. Dr Barrie
DaleCharney Bassett,Oxfordshire
• Have an opinion on anything
you’ve read in the Guardian today?
Pleaseemailus your letter and it will
be considered for publication in ourlet-
terssection.
sity of Southampton, told the Today
programme there were questions over
whether the tech industry could be
trusted to self-regulate LLMs, with the
problem looming even larger for open-
source models. “It’s a bit like giving
people a template to build a nuclear
bomb,” she said.
Dr Andrew Rogoyski, of the Insti-
tute for People-Centred AI at the
University of Surrey, said open-source
models were difficult to regulate. “You
can’t really regulate open source. You
can regulate the repositories, like
Github or Hugging Face, under local
legislation,” he said.
“You can issue licence terms on the
software that, if abused, could make the
abusing company liable under various
forms of legal redress. However, being
open source means anyone can get
their hands on it, so it doesn’t stop the
wrong people grabbing the software,
nor does it stop anyone from misus-
ing it.”
Does Meta have safeguards in
place?
If you apply to download Llama
2 you are required to agree to an
“acceptable use” policy that includes
not using the LLMs to encourage or
plan “violence or terrorism” or to gen-
erate disinformation. However, LLMs
such as that behind ChatGPT are prone
to producing false information and can
be coaxed into overriding safety gua-
Continued on page 42

42
Continued from page 41
Apple suggests iMessage and FaceTime
could be withdrawn in UK over law change
Dan Milmo Global technology
editor
Apple has said planned changes to
British surveillance laws could affect
iPhone users’ privacy by forcing it
to withdraw security features, which
could ultimately lead to the closure of
services such as FaceTime and iMes-
sage in the UK.
The firm has become a vocal oppo-
nent of what it views as UK govern-
ment moves against online privacy, and
it said last month that provisions in
the forthcoming online safety bill could
endanger message encryption.
Apple’s latest concerns centre on
the Investigatory Powers Act 2016,
which gives the Home Office the power
to seek access to encrypted content via
a technology capability notice (TCN).
End-to-end encryption, which en-
sures only the sender and recipient
of a message can see its content, is a
key tech privacy feature and is a hard-
fought battleground between govern-
ments and tech firms.
Apple said the changes included
a provision that would give the
UK government oversight of security
changes to its products, including reg-
ular iOS software updates. The Home
Office consultation proposes “man-
dating” operators to notify the home
secretary of changes to a service that
could have a “negative impact on inves-
tigatory powers”.
Apple wrote in a submission to the
government that such a move would
in effect grant the home secretary con-
trol over security and encryption up-
dates globally, when allied to further
proposals strengthening requirements
for non-UK companies to implement
changes worldwide if – like Apple – they
operate via a global platform.
Commanders’ Daniel Snyder hit with $60m
fine over workplace misconduct
Agencies
Washington Commanders owner Dan
Snyder sexually harassed a team em-
ployee and oversaw team executives
who deliberately withheld millions of
dollars in revenue from other clubs, and
he has agreed to pay a $60m fine, the
league announced Thursday.
The NFL released a 23-page report
detailing the findings of an inde-
pendent investigation into Snyder’s
conduct just minutes after its owners
unanimously approved the sale of the
Commanders to Josh Harris.
The investigation was led by former
Securities and Exchange Commission
chair Mary Jo White and conducted by
her law firm, Debevoise & Plimpton.
The league had pledged to make the
Technology / Sport
rdrails to produce dangerous content.
The Llama 2 release is also accom-
‘End-to-end encryption is the core security technology for FaceTime and iMessage,’ said Apple. Photograph: Artur Widak/NurPhoto/Rex/
Shutterstock
The proposals would “make the
Home Office the de facto global ar-
biter of what level of data security
and encryption are permissible”, Apple
wrote.
Apple also expressed concern over
a proposed amendment that it says
would allow the government to imme-
diately block implementation of a secu-
rity feature while a TCN is being consi-
dered, instead of letting the feature
continue to be used pending an appeal.
In comments implying that en-
crypted products such as FaceTime and
iMessage could ultimately be endan-
gered in the UK, Apple said it never
built a “backdoor” into its products for
a government to use, and it would with-
draw security features in the UK market
instead.
End-to-end encryption is the core
Daniel Snyder sexually harassed a team employee and oversaw team executives who
deliberately withheld millions of dollars in revenue from other clubs and he has agreed to pay
a $60 million fine, the NFL announced on Thursday. Photograph: Richard Lipski/AP
findings of the probe public.
Investigators concluded that Wash-
panied by a responsible use guide for
developers.
security technology for FaceTime and
iMessage and is viewed by Apple as an
intrinsic part of those services.
“Together, these provisions could
be used to force a company like Apple,
that would never build a backdoor, to
publicly withdraw critical security fea-
tures from the UK market, depriving UK
users of these protections,” Apple said.
The company said the proposals
would “result in an impossible choice
between complying with a Home Office
mandate to secretly install vulnera-
bilities into new security technologies
(which Apple would never do), or to
forgo development of those technol-
ogies altogether and sit on the sidelines
as threats to users’ data security con-
tinue to grow.”
Alan Woodward, a professor of
cybersecurity at Surrey University who
ington withheld $11m in revenue that
should have been shared with other
has signed an open letter warning
against online safety bill proposals that
could dilute encryption, said Apple’s
submission on the 12-week consul-
tation represented a “stake in the
ground”.
He said: “If the government push
on regardless then Apple will simply
join the growing band of vendors that
would leave the UK. British users could
end up as one of the most isolated and
insecure groups in the world. In that
scenario, nobody wins.”
On Wednesday the House of Lords
approved a government amendment
on the online safety bill related to scru-
tiny of encrypted messaging. Under
the amendment, Ofcom, the communi-
cations watchdog, would have to await
a report from a “skilled person” before
ordering a messaging service to use
teams, an amount the report suggests
may have been far greater. White’s firm
was unable to reach a conclusion about
tens of millions of additional dollars
that may have been withheld in part
because Snyder and the team did not
cooperate fully with the investigation,
according to the report.
The report concluded that Snyder
sexually harassed former team em-
ployee Tiffani Johnston, allegations
that Johnston first made last year in
front of a House committee. Snyder
placed his hand on Johnston’s thigh at a
team dinner and pushed her toward his
car as they were leaving the restaurant,
the report said.
“The conduct substantiated in Ms
White’s findings has no place in the
NFL,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said
in a statement. “We strive for workplac-
The Guardian Friday 21 July 2023
“accredited technology” – which could
enable the scanning of message con-
tent – for example to identify child
sexual abuse material.
The provision in the bill is widely
seen by privacy campaigners as a
means of potentially forcing platforms
such as WhatsApp and Signal to break
or weaken end-to-end encryption.
Dr Nathalie Moreno, a partner at
the UK law firm Addleshaw Goddard
specialising in data protection, cyber-
security and AI, said there was “almost
no information” available about how
detailed the report to Ofcom would be,
and whether the “skilled person” would
be a political appointment or technical
expert.
“Once the government has been
granted powers to intercept private
messaging services, that’s it, there’s no
going back,” she said.
A spokesperson for the campaign
group Index on Censorship, which had
supported an amendment proposing
judicial oversight of Ofcom’s powers,
said the outcome was “disastrous” for
the UK population’s right to privacy.
The NSPCC, the children’s safety
charity, has said the “shrill” debate over
the online safety bill is “losing sight” of
the safety rights of child sexual abuse
victims.
A government spokesperson said:
“The Investigatory Powers Act 2016 is
designed to protect the public from
criminals, child sex abusers and terror-
ists. With strong independent over-
sight, the act regulates how intrusive
investigatory powers by public author-
ities are used.
“We keep all legislation under
review to ensure it is as strong as it can
be and this consultation is part of that
process – no decisions have yet been
made.”
es that are safe, respectful and profes-
sional. What Ms Johnston experienced
is inappropriate and contrary to the
NFL’s values.”
Snyder has denied Johnston’s alle-
gations and repeated that denial in an
interview with White’s investigators. He
only agreed to speak with investigators
for one hour, the report said.
Investigators spoke with Johnston
several times and “found her to be
highly credible,” the report said, and her
account was corroborated by witnesses
and other evidence.
The firm did not conclude wheth-
er Snyder was personally aware of the
financial improprieties, but witnesses
told investigators that Snyder repeat-
edly pressured team employees to im-
Continued on page 43
Friday 21 July 2023 The Guardian
Continued from page 42
Tommy Fleetwood makes fast start to share
lead of the Open after first round
Ewan Murray at Royal Liverpool
Major championships cannot be won
on a Thursday but they most certainly
can be lost. Just ask Tommy Fleetwood.
The 32-year-old has displayed a recent
habit of sluggish starts in golf’s mar-
quee events that have left him playing
a level of catch-up he has been unable
to master. Fleetwood began the 2022
Open with a 72 and tied fourth. At last
month’s US Open, he shared fifth after
opening with a 73.
The times may be a-changing. Fleet-
wood’s five-under-par 66 on day one at
the 151st Open Championship at a sun-
kissed Royal Liverpool represents his
lowest first round in a major. Finally, he
has been Usain Bolt from the traps. On
a leaderboard that is adequate rather
than striking in respect of star star
attractions, Fleetwood stands out. He
has it within his want to end a prepos-
terous record; the last Englishman to
win the Open in his home nation was
Tony Jacklin in 1969.
This was the day Southport came
to Hoylake. The former is sufficiently
close to the latter for Fleetwood to
claim vehement local support at Royal
Liverpool golf club. In a quirk of fate,
one of the men who surprisingly ties
Fleetwood at the summit of the leader-
board also has a strong – if much more
recent – Southport connection. Chris-
to Lamprecht, playing in his first major,
won the amateur championship at Hill-
‘An absolute shambles’: Ernie Els hits out at
PGA Tour’s deal with LIV Golf
Ewan Murray at Royal Liverpool
Ernie Els, the four-time major winner,
has launched a scathing attack on the
controversial agreement made between
the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
After a first-round 75 at the 151stOpen
Championship here, Els said the PGA
Tour’s commissioner, Jay Monahan, is
fortunate to still be in position, that
the Saudi-backed LIV is “circus golf”
and called the alliance deal an “abso-
lute shambles”.
Traditional tours announced the
shock deal with the PIF on 6 June. De-
tails on what professional golf will look
like when terms are finalised remains
unclear but Els is furious with how the
sport got to this point and the secrecy
attached to the talks.
On Monahan, the South African
said: “If this happened in my day, in my
prime, there’s no way he is around. No
way. And the board has to change. You
do shit like this? I’m sorry, it’s not right.
Talk to us, tell us what you’re going
to do, plan on negotiating. Don’t just
Sport
prove its financial performance, tell-
ing them, “every dollar matters.” Docu-
Tommy Fleetwood tees off on the 18th hole during the first round of the Open at Royal
Liverpool. Photograph: Jon Super/AP
side last month.
Fleetwood was only one under at
the turn. Birdies at the 11th, 14th,
15thand 16th enhanced his position. At
the last, Fleetwood bravely saved par
after leaving his first putt dangerously
short. The scale of backing for Fleet-
wood from the galleries has been not-
able all week. In the tournament proper,
it was cranked up even further.
“To be in the clubhouse having
played so well is a lovely feeling,” Fleet-
wood said. “It is such a special oppor-
tunity to play so close to home, to have
that support when playing in an Open. I
am glad I gave them some good golf to
watch.
“I guess for any tournament, you
just want to get off to a fast start. It’s
not really been my strength recently. I
Ernie Els carded a four-over-par 75 in the first round of the Open at Royal Liverpool. Photograph: Richard Sellers/PA
go rogue as a member of the board
and come back with a deal and think
we’re all going to say yes. You’re af-
fecting people’s lives. You’re affecting
ments detailing how the team moved
revenue into accounts that shielded the
have started tournaments pretty slowly
so to get something going today felt
really good.”
Emiliano Grillo was also beaming
after converting a 51ft birdie putt at the
last to join the five-under party. Grillo’s
Open record is curious; he has tied for
12th twice and missed the cut on the
four other occasions he has competed.
The Argentine played the back nine in
just 31 shots.
Lamprecht’s towering frame
stretches to 6ft 8in. No sooner had he
appeared for post-round press duties
than one member of the media sought
to clarify his shoe size, as if that
bears relevance in respect of claim-
ing the Claret Jug. History is slightly
on Lamprecht’s side; Bobby Jones won
the Open here as an amateur in 1930.
the professional game. It’s just so bad.”
While Els believes people at the top
of the PIF “love golf” he has no time for
the LIV model, which is based on teams
money from other teams were shared
with Snyder on at least one occasion,
Nobody really expects Lamprecht to
stick around at the business end of pro-
ceedings, which suits him just fine.
“I walked off the first tee box after
hitting a snap-hook drive,” said the
22-year-old. “My caddie just told me,
‘Listen, you’re playing the Open as an
amateur. No need to stress.’ We kind of
had fun from there. I earned my spot to
be here. I think the way I played today,
I earned being at the top of the leader-
board.”
Antoine Rozner, Brian Harman and
Adrián Otaegui ensured Fleetwood and
co only lead by one. Jordan Spieth lurks
with intent at minus two, having bo-
geyed the last for his 69. Spieth’s missed
cut at last week’s Scottish Open may
have been a false alarm. That said, at
the 8th , he shanked an eight-iron out
of bounds. “That shakes you up a little
bit,” said the 2017 winner. “It took me
a couple of holes to get my feet back
under me.”
Alex Noren, plotting a route to the
Ryder Cup, and the US Open cham-
pion, Wyndham Clark, are three under.
So, too, is Stewart Cink. Fourteen years
after ruining the prospect of sporting
fairytale and a 59-year-old Tom Watson
winning the Open at Turnberry, maybe
Cink will be at it again in a joust with
Fleetwood. It was claimed Cink killed
Santa Claus in 2009. What next? Fleet-
wood as Bambi?
Now 50, Cink firmly believes he
can win the Open. “Oh yeah, for sure,”
he said. “I just have to look back to
and 54-hole events. “This is circus golf,”
he said. “Team golf doesn’t work. It
works maybe in a two-month, three-
month happy season.
43
the report said.
Emiliano Grillo shakes hands with his
caddie after finishing his impressive opening
round. Photograph: Andrew Redington/Get-
ty Images
Phil Mickelson winning the US PGA. I
think that was probably a more difficult
course than this.”
Rory McIlroy was immersed in a
battle with his own patience and sat
two over par before a 41ft birdie putt
found the bottom of the 14th hole. McI-
lroy collected another shot at the 15th
and played straightforward golf before
an astonishing par save from bunker
chaos at the last. At just five from the
lead, McIlroy will fancy his chances
tomorrow morning.
Rickie Fowler was chugging along
perfectly nicely before taking eight at
the last for a 72. Shane Lowry matched
his playing partner’s score, as did the
defending champion, Cameron Smith.
Pádraig Harrington, many people’s out-
side Open tip, slipped to a 74. Bryson
DeChambeau is also plus three. Justin
Thomas slumped to an 82.
If Just Stop Oil had designs on day
one at the Open, none of the antic-
ipated protests came to pass. Instead,
it was Just Stop Tommy.
“Get these guys together, get teams
together and play around the world.
But then play real golf. That’s what this
thing is all about. That’s what I prided
myself on. Like Tiger and some of these
guys. Getting yourself into majors. And
grinding.
“For these guys to go out there and
do what they did, just off the cuff, as
a board member, do a deal nobody
knows [about]? The commissioner is
supposed to be the guy running our
tour. These board members make a deal
or a so-called deal and with no input
from the players. It’s an absolute sham-
bles. I’m worried.’”
Els believes a more satisfactory out-
come would involve the PIF becoming
a junior partner in the tour. Instead, the
fund will potentially pour billions into a
new commercial entity. “Does he [Yasir
Al-Rumayyan, the PIF’s governor] come
in at a different rate, maybe a small-
er investment, see if they are the right
partner?” said Els. “Not just come in and
take over world golf. That’s just ridi-
culous. We need to slow things down.”

44
Players spy the Open’s Little Eye and see
something beginning with T
Michael Butler at Royal Liver-
pool
Matt Fitzpatrick’s caddie, Billy Foster,
called it a monstrosity. Two-time Open
champion Pádraig Harrington claimed
it was “without doubt one of the most
beautiful par-threes you will ever see”.
Perhaps Jon Rahm was the most accu-
rate this week in describing Little Eye,
the new 17th hole at Royal Liverpool,
not as the worst or best thing in golf,
but simply “a turtleshell”.
An elevated green with perilously
deep bunkers on all sides and no ob-
vious bail out, the only way to avoid
trouble is to land the ball squarely on
the green. It is a lot easier said than
done. It is a terrifying shot, like trying to
flick a marble on to a car bonnet.
In an age where distance is king, this
is a different test for the world’s best. In
some ways, the 17th is what the Open
is all about, unpredictable, testing and
exposed to the elements.
You can make birdie here, but you
could also easily make a six.
As the smallest green at the course
(around a third smaller than the av-
erage green size at Hoylake), there
are obvious comparisons with other
great par threes: Royal Troon’s Postage
Stamp or the 17th island green at TPC
Sawgrass. It is not designed to be nice.
For a championship that is at pains
to talk about its history and remind us
how its dunes and fairways are honed
by the elements – the grandstands here
at Royal Liverpool all carry the grand
reminder of Hoylake being ‘Forged By
Nature’ – it is a novelty to find some-
thing new, shiny and man-made. The
architect of the hole, Martin Ebert, said
the R&A had talked to him about want-
ing to “create some drama right at the
A Spanish test and an attacking explosion:
our writers’ US World Cup predictions
Jeff Kassouf, Sonja Cori Missio,
Beau Dure and Megan Swanick
USWNT’s key player is ...
Rose Lavelle. The team’s creative No
10 hasn’t played a competitive match
in three months due to a lingering
injury but was selected with the expec-
tation that she’s healthy enough to deal
with stingy defensive teams. If she can
perform near her usual level, she will
unlock the rest of an already potent
attack. JK
Lindsey Horan. The only player in
the squad not to play Stateside, Horan
is coming off a title-winning season in
France with Lyon. An excellent mid-
fielder and a proven leader, she will be
the driving force as the Americans try
for the three-peat. SCM
Alex Morgan. The USWNT usual-
ly have experience to burn, but this
time around, the forward corps is star-
tlingly callow. Sophia Smith and Trinity
Rodman will surely be effective, and
there’s always supersub Megan Rapinoe
Sport
Patrick Reed plays out of a bunker on the 17th green on his way to a bogey which could have been much worse on day one at the Open.
Photograph: Peter Morrison/AP
end of the Open”.
“Even with a four-shot lead, some-
one who is in that great position will be
nervous when they’re standing on this
tee”, continued Ebert.
The hole has been completely
flipped, so that players now hit towards
the coast and into the prevailing wind, a
move that has also allowed Royal Liver-
pool to lengthen the adjacent par-five
18th to over 600 yards. Heavy rough
and a wide bunker guard the 17th green
front and back, so club choice is key,
especially with the gusts.
Players used everything from a five-
iron to a gap wedge in practice.
Patrick Reed, the 2018 Masters
champion and one of the LIV golfers
aiming for a Ryder Cup berth in Sep-
tember, was lucky to escape with a
The US, including players (l-r) Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, and Naomi Girma, are the
world’s No 1 ranked team going into this year’s tournament. Composite: Hannah Peters/
FIFA/Getty Images; Guardian Design
to take 80th-minute set-pieces, but
Morgan will need to set the tone and
make sure Vlatko Andonovski doesn’t
regret omitting Ashley Hatch, the US
player with the second-best resume in
the No 9 spot. BD
Naomi Girma. She has melded her-
self into the national team so effor-
bogey on Thursday, after only slightly
misjudging his tee shot.
“The 129-yard pin was playing about
140-142,” he said. “You just never know
with the wind. In practice I hit a flighted
seven-iron, and a gap wedge to the back
half of the green. Today, I hit pitching
wedge [into the front bunker] but I was
a yard short of being on top.”
Despite his struggles, Reed remains
a fan of this corner of Hoylake. “When
you make par-threes 300 or 310, those
are the dumbest holes on the planet,”
he said. “What’s the point? You don’t
need length to make a par-three hard.
All you need is a diabolical green, some
hazards and some wind and that will be
enough to challenge the top players in
the world.”
The worst place to finish off the
tlessly that it would be easy to over-
look the huge role the defender is about
to play. But with uncertainty in the
midfield in front of her, and long-time
captain Becky Sauerbrunn out injured,
Girma will need to step up in the tough-
est moments. MS
Unheralded player to watch ...
tee is right, tantalisingly close to Thurs-
day’s tricky pin position, with a steep
guttering slope that collects any stray
shots into a deep bunker, like a sadistic
pinball machine with no flippers.
To get out of the trap, players must
not only clear the steep front lip of the
bunker but also ascend another 10ft of
fairway before the safety of the green.
Hit it too hard and the ball could easily
fly the dancefloor and end up in more
sand on the other side. Too soft and
the ball will simply roll back down the
grassy bank back into your footprints.
Shots from the tee and the bunk-
ers are made completely blind and just
like taking off a bandage on a nasty
wound, there is a painful wait to what
damage has been done. Only once you
are standing on the green, with a fine
“Unheralded” is a difficult term to
use for any United States player, but
one name lost among the stars is Emily
Fox. Most full-backs like to push high
and wide. In contrast, Fox shifts into
central midfield to overload the area.
She’s also very good defensively and
agile enough to get up and down the
field frequently. JK
Naomi Girma. Before the last World
Cup, the team faced doubts about their
lack of depth at the back. But this
tournament, they have Girma. The Cali-
fornian, who was the NWSL’s Rookie of
the Year and Defender of the Year last
season, may be the breakout star of the
entire tournament. SCM
Outside the USWNT, Nigeria’s Asisat
Oshoala although maybe “unheralded”
is the wrong word for a player who
has been nominated for the Ballon d’Or.
On the US, where most of the attention
goes to the oldest players and prodigies,
the player in the middle in more ways
than one is midfielder Andi Sullivan,
who was once the Next Great Thing but
wound up having to wait for this oppor-
The Guardian Friday 21 July 2023
view of the Wirral coast and the Little
Eye island on the Dee estuary from
which the hole gets its name, do you
know what’s what.
One of Thursday’s biggest casual-
ties was Lucas Herbert, who arrived
on the tee box as the early leader at
three-under but left the 17th at even-
par after an ugly six. Having missed the
green long and left from the tee, he
chipped through the green to the right
sand, duffed his first bunker shot into
the bank, chipped out to 18ft and two-
putted.
“I don’t think I’ll be the only one
to run up a big number,” he said after
signing for even-par 71. “Our group all
missed the green. It’s not easy. When
there’s no wind, it’s a gap wedge and
you can make a two pretty easily, but
that wind gets going and you can’t
really feel it too much on the enclosed
tee. It becomes a really tricky shot.”
“I had sort of one foot in the bunker,
one foot out,” Herbert continued. “It
didn’t come out the way I wanted and
it rolled back in. It felt like there were
about 5,000 professional golfers sitting
around us in the stands watching it.”
Hoylake members watching on
from the stands are not professionals,
of course, but some of them are fuming
about the changes to this part of the
course. If some of the world’s best
are making triple bogey in July, what
chance do the 15-20 handicappers have
with the wind howling in the winter?
Still, that is a problem for the ama-
teurs. For this week only, what the
17th does provide here is a grandstand
finish for the players and the punters.
It’s a potential card wrecker, and come
Sunday, Little Eye will scare the life out
of the leader and give late hope to the
chasing pack.
Alex Morgan and Lindsey Horan bring
vital experience to the US squad. Photo-
graph: Karen Ambrose Hickey/SPP/Shut-
tunity. BD
Lynn Williams. Somehow, despite
a prolific career, this is the 30-year-
old’s World Cup debut. And while Wil-
liams’ impact is obvious – her defensive
pressure, intuition for space, incredible
speed – it can be easy to lose track of
her in a roster of marquee forwards. But
she can make the difference in pivotal
moments. MS
USWNT’s biggest weakness ...
Breaking down an organized low
block. This answer has not changed
greatly from previous years. Over-
Continued on page 45
Friday 21 July 2023 The Guardian
Continued from page 44
matched opponents often benefit by
using a disciplined defensive shape
when they come up against the US. The
Americans have made progress in how
to handle that since the 2016 Olympic
debacle, but they still often lack ideas
to break down these types of defenses.
JK
Themselves. There is a lot of pres-
sure to make history (again). But
with key players injured, increasingly
competitive opponents, and Ando-
novski’s job potentially on the line, this
tournament will not be a walk in the
park for the No 1 ranked team in the
world. SCM
The absence of Mallory Swanson.
Last year, Swanson’s goal against Ger-
many snapped the team’s three-game
losing streak, the first such skid in
nearly 30 years. In the team’s only
games against top opposition this year,
the SheBelieves Cup games against
Canada, Japan and Brazil, she scored
four of their five goals. BD
Uncertainty. The fitness of key play-
ers – including Lavelle and defensive
midfield destroyer Julie Ertz – has
loomed ominously over preparations,
and the US have prepared without
knowing for certain what their go-to
lineup looks like. MS
USWNT’s biggest strength ...
Depth and firepower in attack. Even
with high-profile injuries, Andonovski
has forwards who can strike fear into
Asgreen sprints to thrilling stage 18 win as
Vingegaard retains solid Tour lead
Jeremy Whittle in Bourg-en-
Bresse
Jonas Vingegaard retained his overall
lead in the Tour de France as Soudal
Quick-Step’s Kasper Asgreen won stage
18 in Bourg-en-Bresse. Asgreen was one
of four riders in the day’s breakaway to
survive a thrilling pursuit by the speed-
ing peloton, as the race left the Alps
behind and entered the Rhone valley.
The four-rider attack, composed of
Asgreen, Jonas Abrahamsen of Uno-
X and the Lotto Dstny pair of Victor
Campenaerts and Pascal Eenkhoorn,
joined forces with 50km to race and
maintained a slim lead into the closing
moments of the stage.
Racing at more than 60km/h, the
quartet entered the final kilometre
with only six seconds’ advantage on
their chasers, yet Campenaerts’s time-
trialling power kept the group ahead.
Asgreen’s last-gasp acceleration to the
line was enough to hold off the sprin-
ter Jasper Philipsen, already the winner
of four stages, and his Alpecin-Deceu-
ninck team.
Asgreen was generous in victory
and praised his breakaway compa-
Sport
opponents. Smith and Morgan will help
lead the line, and Rapinoe is a dan-
gerous set-piece option off the bench.
JK
Themselves. Despite the above-
mentioned pressure, there is no reason
to believe that the USWNT cannot win
the tournament; they have proved time
and time again why they are the best in
the world. And with Rapinoe’s recent
retirement announcement, lifting the
trophy would be her perfect swan song.
SCM
The letters “USA.” Opponents often
feel the pressure and make uncharac-
teristic mistakes against the Americans.
To be honest, so do referees – like Mi-
chael Jordan in his NBA glory days, the
USWNT have the star players who get
the calls. And make no mistake – de-
spite all the injuries and a passing of the
torch to some less-experienced players,
this is a solid team who are justifiably
the tournament favorite. BD
Attacking talent. No matter who
starts and who subs on in the 60th
minute to shatter the tired legs of the
opposition, the US run deep with ruth-
less, dynamic talents capable of con-
juring goals out of nothing. Victory may
hinge on that ability. MS
The biggest threat to the US is ...
Spain or Sweden. Many assume that
the World Cup will play out to script,
with the US and Sweden winning their
respective groups. If either team slip
and finish runners-up in their respec-
tive group, however, it could mean
Kasper Asgreen celebrates after crossing the line on the 18th stage of the Tour de France.
Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty Images
nions. “I really couldn’t have done it
without Pascal, Victor and Jonas,” he
said. “We all deserved to win with the
work we put out there.”
Asgreen, a former winner of the
Tour of Flanders, was making a return
to form after struggling for more than a
year. “It means so much,” he said. “With
the period I had the last year, with my
crash in the Tour of Switzerland, and
having to leave the Tour de France last
year ... I’ve come a long way.”
Meanwhile, after his exploits in the
meeting in the round of 16. In such
a scenario, one heavyweight would be
going home way too early. JK
Canada. With the potential to face
their neighbors to the north as the tour-
nament progresses, the USWNT may be
taken by surprise by an unpredictable
Canadian team. Despite a lacklustre
performance at the SheBelieves Cup,
Canada will be hoping to add the World
Cup title next to their Olympic gold
medal. And doing so by beating their
North American rivals may just give
them the extra push that they need.
SCM
Anyplayer who hasdeveloped in
the competitive cauldrons of Europe’s
Champions League, England’s Women’s
Super League and Germany’s Bundes-
liga. Competitions that were once top-
heavy are now more consistent tests of
players’ mettle, and those players are
scattered not just on European teams
but other squads as well. Woe be to
a team like China, who keep most of
their players at home, and don’t have
ample representation from the Euro-
pean competitions or the NWSL. BD
Spain. While the US lifted their
second consecutive World Cup in 2019
on an unbeaten run through the tour-
nament, many forget how tough a test
Spain were early on. Many current US
players point to that Round of 16 match
as the 2019 tournament’s most difficult.
Any route to this year’s final could
very well include another meeting with
Spain in the knockouts. MS
Alps, Vingegaard enjoyed a relatively
uneventful day, although his Jumbo-
Visma squad lost Wout van Aert, one
of his key teammates. The Belgian left
the race to be with his wife, who is ex-
pected to give birth within the next few
days.
“It’s not a dilemma,” the Belgian
rider said. “It’s an easy decision. I always
thought that I would go home when
my wife indicated she needed me. That
time has come.”
As Van Aert left the race, the scru-
One bold prediction ...
Williams stakes a claim to a start-
ing role in the knockout stage. Depth
on the forward line is exceptional, but
as the games grow more tense, Ando-
novski will turn to Williams for her two-
way play and defensive pressure, and
utilize his other wingers off the bench
to run at tired opponents. JK
The Netflix film crewfollowing the
team around to document their jour-
ney prove to be too big a distraction.
Having to perform both on and off the
pitch may divert attention from focus-
ing on the USWNT’s actual goal. SCM
A sponsor that did absolutely noth-
ing to lean on European broadcasters
to pay more for Women’s World Cup
rights, which Fifa was unable to sell at
the prices it hoped, will make a perfor-
mative “equal pay” gesture during the
event. BD
Smith is the US’s most obvious
threat. But with opponents’ focusing on
her, goals may need to come from else-
where. That means Rodman, Williams,
the ever-reliable Morgan, or a combi-
nation of all the above, as Smith still
scores but creates for teammates while
teams try to stop her. MS
The USWNT’s campaign will end
with ...
A trip to the final weekend. The US
have never finished worse than third at
a World Cup, a record that will inevit-
ably end one day (as it did for the Olym-
pics in 2016). This tournament looks as
likely a time as ever, but the US will
tiny of his team leader continued with
Olivier Banuls, head of the cycling unit
at the International Testing Agency,
(ITA) telling Reuters that performance
had been taken into account when tar-
geting Vingegaard for testing.
“Performance is one of the cri-
teria and obviously Vingegaard’s perfor-
mance is one of them for us, so he is
obviously targeted in particular,” Banuls
said. “There are also other criteria for
riders, such as biological passports or
information we get from our Intel-
ligence and Investigation Unit.”
Banuls revealed that Vingegaard,
who leads Tadej Pogacar by seven mi-
nutes and 35 seconds, has been tested
18 times during the Tour and was also
tested eight times in June, both in and
out of competition.
Compared with Pogacar, who raced
throughout much of the spring until he
fractured his wrist in April, much of the
Dane’s title defence was founded on a
series of training camps at altitude.
“We have different places,” he said
of the camps, “so in February we go
to Tenerife, to Teide. In May, we go to
Sierra Nevada and in June we went to
Tignes.”
Pogacar’s partner, Urska Zigart,
45
find a way to get through to the semi-
finals. There, they could be ousted by
Spain or Sweden, two teams that have
challenged (and beaten) them in recent
years. JK
The Stars and Stripes not hoisting
the World Cup, but the rest of the
world praising the team as the blue-
print for success. Love or hate them,
you cannot deny what this team have
done for women’s socceron the pitch
– and in courtrooms. The team don’t
need another piece of hardware to
make history; they have already and
forever cemented their legacy. SCM
If they win it all, resounding praise
for every player on the team, especially
the oldest ones. If they don’t, unyield-
ing criticism of and surely the dis-
missal of Andonovski. That’s the lot of a
USWNT coach’s life. Jill Ellis won back-
to-back World Cups, thanks in part to
some brilliant decisions to paper over
the team’s weaknesses, and she was still
eyed with suspicion by some US jour-
nalists and fans. In their eyes, a loss is
almost never the players’ fault. At least,
not the popularplayers’ fault, and most
of the players today are popular. BD
The semi-finals. While this team
are fully capable of clinching anoth-
er World Cup title, an expanded tour-
nament with the toughest competition
yet will prove a difficult test. A poten-
tial meeting with Spain on a cold, rainy
night in Auckland could be where the
three-peat falls short. MS
Wout van Aert said it was ‘an easy deci-
sion’ to leave the race to be with his pregnant
wife. Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/
AFP/Getty Images
meanwhile, revealed that the Slovenian
had nearly quit the Tour after the fifth
stage, when he learned that she had
crashed while racing in the Giro Donne
in Italy.
“He called me to ask how I was and
then, when I told him I hadn’t finished
the race and had crashed, he said he
was coming home,” she said. “I said: ‘No
you’re not, it’s the Tour.’”
Pogacar, whose Tour challenge col-
lapsed dramatically in Wednesday’s
stage to Courchevel, said he had recov-
ered “a bit” from the experience.
“The start [on Thursday] was pretty
hard and quite – not emotional – but
just a lot of guys came and spoke to me,”
he said. “Thanks to all the riders. They
cheered me up.”

46
Barkley considered sitting out season as NFL
teams shun running backs
Associated Press
A frustrated Saquon Barkley consi-
dered sitting out the 2023 season if he
couldn’t get a new contract from the
New York Giants.
In an interview on a podcast re-
leased on Monday, the star running
back discussed the negotiations lead-
ing up to Monday’s deadline for players
on a franchise tag to reach a new multi-
year deal with teams. The 26-year-old
noted a holdout would thumb his nose
at the Giants and his teammates and
show them his true value. Running
back Le’Veon Bell employed a similar
tactic when he sat out the entire 2018
season in search of a better deal with
the Pittsburgh Steelers. He eventually
secured a competitive contract with the
New York Jets.
“My leverage is I could say, ‘Fuck
you’ to the Giants, I could say, ‘Fuck
you to my teammates,” Barkley told the
Money Matters podcast, which was rec-
orded on 11 July, six days before the
deadline. “And be like, ‘You want me
to show you my worth? You want me
to show you how valuable I am to the
team? I won’t show up. I won’t play a
down.’ And that’s a play I could use.
“Anybody [who] knows me, knows
that’s not something I want to do. Is
it something that’s crossed my mind? I
never thought I would ever do that, but
now I’m at a point where I’m like, ‘Jesus,
I might have to take it to this level.’ Am
I prepared to take it to this level? I don’t
know.”
Barkley and the Giants, who
Lionel Messi’s MLS arrival can herald seismic
changes on and off the pitch
Graham Ruthven
The symbolism of David Beckham wel-
coming Lionel Messi on to Inter Miami’s
pitch as a Major League Soccer player
for the first time was unavoidable.
Beckham was, after all, the catalyst for
the growth of a league that now boasts
arguably the greatest player of all time.
Messi, who was presented to a crowd
of 20,000 Inter Miami fans on Sunday,
could now be the catalyst for some-
thing more.
“There will always be a before and
after Lionel Messi,” Jorge Mas said
in the South Florida rain, which the
Inter Miami co-owner poetically called
“holy water”. Even amid the down-
pour, which threatened to wash out the
event, there was a sense that Messi’s
unveiling marked the start of a new era
for MLS. The 36-year-old is expected
to make his Inter Miami debut against
Cruz Azul this Friday, although he may
not start the match.
Messi was unveiled alongside
Sergio Busquets, his former Barcelona
teammate who has also made the
switch to Inter Miami. Jordi Alba didn’t
attend, but he too is also expected to
join soon. Meanwhile, speculation is
Sport
Saquon Barkley is a two-time Pro Bowler. Photograph: Abbie Parr/AP
reached the playoffs last season for the
first time since 2016, failed to reach a
new contract agreement on Monday,
meaning Barkley will earn $10.1m this
season.
The two sides talked until the 4pm
deadline but could not settle on a deal,
even though the Giants reportedly of-
fered one worth more than $12m an-
nually.
Barkley’s only comment after not
getting a deal was a tweet: “It is what it
is.”
Barkley, the NFL’s offensive rookie
of the year in 2018, insisted all he wants
to do is win and bring a title to New
Lionel Messi has joined his teammates to train before his proposed Inter Miami debut this week. Photograph: Sam Navarro/USA Today
Sports
swirling around Luis Suárez, another
of Messi’s former Barça teammates –
reports in Argentina claim Suárez has
been talking to Inter Miami for months.
That Messi is already attracting
more household names to MLS is not-
able and offers some validation to a
York. Barkley has not signed his fran-
chise tender offer so he cannot be fined
for not reporting to training camp next
Tuesday. While he can’t reach an agree-
ment on a multi-year contract, the two
sides can sign a sweetened one-year
deal for 2023. The Giants would retain
the right to franchise Barkley again
next season.
Barkley is not the only running
back upset with his contract talks. NFL
teams in general are refusing to give
running backs lucrative long-term con-
tracts, leaving the best players at the
position feeling angry and underap-
preciated.
league that took unprecedented meas-
ures to land the Argentinian. Not only
will Messi collect an annual salary
of somewhere between $50m and
$60m, his contract includes commer-
cial incentives related to Adidas jersey
sales and Apple TV+ subscribers. Messi
It’s no surprise the league has
reached this point, considering recent
trends. The days of “three yards and a
cloud of dust” are long gone. The NFL
has become a pass-first, quarterback-
driven league built around explosive of-
fenses.
League rules have changed over the
past two decades to enhance scoring.
QBs have more protection. Wide re-
ceivers have more freedom to roam the
field. Defensive players have to be con-
cerned about getting penalized for il-
legal hits.
The result has been staggering
offensive numbers for quarterbacks,
was also offered equity in Inter Miami
for good measure.
Of course, MLS has bent its own
rules to sign a player before. Back in
2007, the league gave Beckham the
option to buy a franchise for just $25m.
A decade later, the former England cap-
The Guardian Friday 21 July 2023
wide receivers and tight ends. Run-
ning backs – despite their overall value,
versatility and responsibilities – are get-
ting left behind.
Tennessee Titans star Derrick
Henry wrote on Twitter: “At this point,
just take the RB position out the game
then. The ones that want to be great &
work as hard as they can to give their
all to an organization, just seems like
it don’t even matter. I’m with every RB
that’s fighting to get what they deserve.”
Los Angeles Chargers running back
Austin Ekeler said: “Everyone knows it’s
tough to win without a top RB and yet
they act like we are discardable wid-
gets. I support any RB doing whatever it
takes to get his bag.”
Barkley watched the Giants give QB
Daniel Jones a $160m, four-year con-
tract after a season in which he threw
15 touchdown passes. Yet Barkley is
making a fraction of that total after car-
rying the offense to the playoffs last
season.
NFL offenses used to revolve
around running backs from Jim Brown
and Jim Taylor to Walter Payton and
Emmitt Smith. Brown, Taylor, Smith
and Payton helped lead their teams to
nine championships.
Now, teams are winning Super
Bowls without a dominant runner. Only
three Super Bowl champions in the last
15 years had a 1,000-yard rusher in the
regular season compared with 11 in the
15 seasons before that.
tain activated that clause to establish
Inter Miami at a time when MLS fran-
chise spots are going for as much as
$500m (see the recent expansion into
San Diego).
Beckham’s move also created the
Designated Player (DP) rule, a me-
chanism that allows clubs to spend
above their salary cap to sign stars.
Without ‘The Beckham Rule,’ as it was
initially dubbed, the likes of Thierry
Henry, Kaká and Wayne Rooney never
would have played in MLS. It ensured
Beckham wouldn’t be the last inter-
national star to join the league.
One wonders how Messi’s move
will change the way MLS attracts play-
ers. Players and agents around the
world will have noted how Messi’s Inter
Miami contract is heavily incentivised.
The more money MLS makes from
Messi, the more money Messi himself
makes. What’s to stop prospective sign-
ings asking for a cut of the same deals
Messi is now tied into?
It could even change the global
transfer landscape as a whole. Michael
Jordan raised the ceiling on what ath-
letes could earn from endorsement
deals by demanding a cut of every Air
Continued on page 47
Friday 21 July 2023 The Guardian
Continued from page 46
Jordan shoe sold. Now, revenue shar-
ing is commonplace with athletes more
protective of their image rights than
they were even a decade ago. Could
Messi’s Inter Miami deal change soccer
contracts in a similar way? Many al-
ready see him as soccer’s Jordan.
On a more micro level, Messi’s ar-
rival in MLS will surely prompt many
within the league to reconsider its
restrictive roster rules. At present, MLS
clubs are permitted to have just three
DPs at any given time. While the rule
‘Obviously the dream is a Red Bull seat’:
Daniel Ricciardo on his F1 return
Giles Richards at the Hunga-
roring
Daniel Ricciardo has said he is reinvi-
gorated for his return to Formula One at
this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix,
declaring he has fallen in love with
the sport again. The Australian, who
will drive for AlphaTauri at the Hunga-
roring, was also explicit in stating he
was targeting a return to the Red Bull
team.
Ricciardo, who was Red Bull’s re-
serve driver, was given the race seat last
week at their sister team, AlphaTauri,
to replace the underperforming Nyck
de Vries. The mid-season switch was a
ruthless move and also perceived as a
potential precursor towards Ricciardo
being promoted to replace Sergio Pérez
at Red Bull.
Ricciardo had endured two poor
seasons at McLaren in 2021 and 2022,
which had been a blow to his confi-
dence and the team let him go, leading
to him taking the reserve driver slot at
Red Bull, with whom he had raced from
2014 to 2018 and taken seven wins. The
34-year-old had not been expecting to
be back in a seat so soon but, speaking
in Budapest, he said was revitalised by
Manchester United confirm Onana signing
and make Fernandes captain
Jamie Jackson in New York
Manchester United have confirmed the
signing of the goalkeeper André Onana
on a day when Bruno Fernandes was
chosen by Erik ten Hag as his new cap-
tain.
Onana, who has cost €51m (£44.1m)
plus €4m in add-ons from Interna-
zioanale, has signed a contract until
June 2028, with the option of a further
year, subject to international clearance.
“To join Manchester United is an
incredible honour and I have worked
hard all my life to get to this moment,
overcoming many obstacles along the
way,” the 27-year-old said. “Walking out
at Old Trafford to defend our goal and
contribute to the team will be another
amazing experience. This is the start of
a new journey for me, with new team-
mates, and new ambitions to fight for.
Sport
originally helped to protect the league
from reckless spending and the mis-
takes made during the NASL era, it is
now holding back clubs from realising
their full potential.
Not only could MLS clubs be given
more freedom to spend as they like,
MLS’s trade and transfer rules could do
with some untangling. While the rest
of world soccer uses transfer gossip
to generate year-round headlines and
interest, MLS complicates such discus-
sion for the casual fan by wrapping it
up in unnecessary jargon. Does anyone
truly understand what GAM and TAM
Daniel Ricciardo replaces Nyck de Vries for Red Bull’s sister team AlphaTauri. Photograph: Marco Canoniero/Shutterstock
the new challenge.
“Six months ago I wasn’t in a place
to jump at an opportunity like this,” he
said. “But that’s been the luxury of time,
I’ve fallen in love with it again and I feel
like I’m being myself again, back in an
environment that is giving me a lot of
André Onana pictured in May with Inter. Photograph: Alberto Lingria/Reuters
“Manchester United has a long his-
tory of incredible goalkeepers, and I will
now give everything to create my own
legacy in the coming years. I am excited
by the opportunity to work again with
Erik ten Hag, and I can’t wait to play my
is? Or why the the Discovery List, which
essentially allows clubs to call dibs on a
player, still exists?
The league’s commissioner, Don
Garber, insists he doesn’t view the
Saudi Pro League as a threat, but MLS
figures should be looking at how many
star players are joining Saudi clubs this
summer and pondering how to open
up the transfer trade route to the USA
and Canada. Barriers must come down.
Some of the bigger clubs with richer
owners want to spend more money, so
let them – albeit within some sort of
structure that retains a semblance of
nostalgia.”
The spotlight on Ricciardo’s perfor-
mance here will be intense. Pérez has
been through a run of poor meetings,
failing to make the final session of
qualifying in the previous five races,
while his teammate Max Verstappen is
part in the success I know he is deter-
mined to deliver at this great football
club.”
Onana was managed by Ten Hag at
Ajax, where the Cameroonian kept 104
clean sheets in 255 appearances, claim-
parity. Mas is unsurprisingly believed
to be pushing this point among MLS
owners now he has Messi’s signing to
underline his argument.
“We have a special moment to capi-
talise on,” said Garber. That moment
doesn’t just include Messi’s arrival at
Inter Miami, but the 2024 Copa Amer-
ica, 2025 Club World Cup and 2026
World Cup. MLS has a new landmark 10-
year, $2.5bn broadcast deal with Apple,
has recently renewed its long-term
partnership with Adidas until 2030 for a
reported $830m and kicks off an en-
tirely new competition (the Leagues
running away with the title in the same
car and leads Pérez by 99 points. Ric-
ciardo’s return to a race seat is consi-
dered a step toward him potentially
replacing Pérez, and the Australian
admitted a return to the team would
be the “dream” outcome.
ing three league titles and two KNVB
Cups with before joining Inter in 2022.
He expected to arrive in the US in time
to be available for selection against Ar-
senal on Saturday.
Ten Hag named Fernandes as Harry
Maguire’s replacement as captain. Fer-
nandes has been the de facto captain
since Ten Hag ended the defender’s
status as an automatic choice after two
matches of last season, the playmaker
wearing the armband in 45 matches in
the 2022-23 campaign.
Fernandes has scored 64 goals and
made 54 assists in 185 United games
since joining in January 2020 and has
twice won the club’s Sir Matt Busby
Player of the Year award.
Meanwhile Andrew Cole has criti-
cised United for signing ageing strik-
ers in Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan
Ibrahimovic, with the club ambassador
pointing to his era when he was one of
47
Cup) this weekend.
In almost every way, MLS has en-
tered its most significant period of tran-
sition since Beckham joined the LA
Galaxy 16 years ago. With Messi now
part of the league, the opportunity is
obvious, but MLS can’t afford to sit back
and think the job is done. Instead, it
should push everyone within American
soccer to strive for better. Messi joining
Inter Miami won’t change MLS on its
own.
“It’s kind of another chance to make
things better,” he said. “I think that’s
why I was excited to get back behind
the wheel and just kind of show my
true self. Even the thought of that ex-
cites me. Obviously the dream is a Red
Bull seat. Of course that was my wish,
but you need to be realistic, and if I
want to get back into Red Bull it will be
a process, and this is the best path for
me at the moment.”
Ricciardo has not driven a car
competitively since the end of last
season and the AlphaTauri is a handful
to manage and is off the pace. He has,
however, tested this year’s Red Bull at
Silverstone and his first challenge will
be up against his teammate Yuki Tsu-
noda, the 23-year-old Japanese driver
now in his third season with the team.
Ricciardo said that while there were
no specific targets he was expected to
reach over the forthcoming 12 meetings
to make his case for retaining the seat
or a move up to Red Bull, he knew he
had to deliver strong performances.
“There’s no real criteria at the
moment,” he said. “But I need to show
something, for sure, for next year and
beyond, there’s no guarantees probably
ever with this sport.”
Bruno Fernandes wore the captain’s
armband in 45 matches last season. Photo-
graph: Carl Recine/Reuters
a trio of young centre-forwards under
Sir Alex Ferguson. Ronaldo was 36
when acquired in summer 2021 by Ole
Gunnar Solskjær, and Ibrahimovic 34
on being recruited by José Mourinho,
five years before. Cole, who will be with
United on their US tour, was 23 when
Ferguson bought him from Newcastle
in January 1995. Solskjær was the same
age when the manager added him in
Continued on page 48

48
Continued from page 47
July 1996, and Dwight Yorke 26 when
purchased two years later.
Erik ten Hag is yet to acquire the
centre-forward he is targeting in this
window after abandoning the intent to
sign Tottenham’s Harry Kane, who is 30
next week.
Zak Crawley insists ‘it wasn’t that easy to
score’ after onslaught against Australia
Simon Burnton at Emirates Old
Trafford
On a day when Australia admitted they
were buffeted by “the perfect storm”
Zak Crawley was the whirlwind, scoring
189 off 182 balls, an innings decorated
with 21 fours and three sixes, before in-
sisting that he had “felt in better touch
at other times” and “it wasn’t actually
that easy to score”.
Crawley, who has retained the fierce
loyalty of Ben Stokes and Brendon
McCullum despite some inconsistent
returns, said: “It’s fair to say that under
any other coach or captain I probably
wouldn’t be playing this series.” But he
repaid their faith by manoeuvring Eng-
land towards a dominant position, al-
ready 67 ahead after reaching 384 for
four at stumps, sharing partnerships of
121 with Moeen Ali and 206 with Joe
Root, both of whom made half-cen-
turies.
“I rode my luck at times,” he said.
“I played some really good parts in the
innings and then the other parts I was
a bit streaky. After my hundred, that’s
as good as I’ve felt, but before that
I’ve felt in better nick at other times.
It wasn’t actually that easy to score at
times, which might sound really arro-
Cake off: England stay away from the sweet
stuff at Rugby World Cup camp
Gerard Meagher
England players are embracing a self-
imposed cake ban during their World
Cup training camp, with Lewis Ludlam
saying the sacrifice will pay off at the
tournament in France. Steve Borth-
wick’s squad recently returned from
a gruelling week of heat training in
England plan to sport all eight armband
messages during Women’s World Cup
Suzanne Wrack in Brisbane
The Lionesses intend to use all eight of
the captain’s armband options offered
by Fifa, choosing to carry a different
message in each game. “We felt really
Sport / Soccer
“I’m not going to say that if Harry
Kane became available for the right
money I’d turn him down, obviously
not,” Cole told MUTV. “But I think what
Manchester United have been doing,
for the past five or six years, is bring-
ing people in who are in their mid-30s
or late-30s for a couple of years, then we
do it again the season after and we do it
Zak Crawley racks up the runs during his innings of 189. ‘I rode my luck at times,’ he
admitted. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
gant. There were times when I was
struggling to score but I took a punt
against their bowlers and it came off.”
After nine innings this summer
Crawley is averaging 55 at a strike rate
of 90, when before England’s trip to
Pakistan last winter he had never fi-
nished a series with a strike rate above
65. The reason he is currently scoring so
fluently, he explained, is that Australia’s
bowlers are too good not to.
“They’re so good that I feel if I sit
there for too long they’ll get me,” he
said. “I like to be positive against them.
I’ve scored quicker in this series than
40C (104F) temperatures in Verona
and are continuing to fine-tune their
preparations at their traditional Bag-
shot base.
Borthwick will cut his 39-man
group to 33 on 7 August, two days after
England’s first warmup match, against
Wales.
While Eddie Jones used to run a
notoriously tight ship, Ludlam revealed
strongly about all the causes and we
couldn’t separate one from the other,”
said the captain, Millie Bright.
“We feel that they are all important
and deserve recognition and our sup-
port. We have only just come to a deci-
sion recently as we wanted to take time
again.
“That’s why we’ve found ourselves
in this position now. Long term, we’ve
not looked for that young centre-for-
ward who can carry Manchester United
in for the next five to 10 years or what-
ever it may be. That’s what Manchester
United has been built on – the manager
going into a season with three or four
most and I think that’s just the quality
of their bowlers. I don’t want to sit there
for too long because there’s a good ball
in there.
“[Previously] I was thinking too
much about the score rather than being
immersed in the moment. Baz talks a
lot about being present. I was a lot more
present today and I think that helped
me get a big score, rather than wor-
rying about getting a big score. [And] I
was trying to sit on bowlers, make them
come to me, trying to build an innings
like that.
“I found that at this level you get so
that under Borthwick it is the play-
ers keeping each other on the straight
and narrow. “The regime has changed in
that it is not as much forced upon you
but you have got the trust to do every-
thing the right way so we are in the
best position to go and put ourselves
in the best spot come this World Cup,”
said Ludlam, who is bidding to reach
his second World Cup having been a
to process it all and to make sure we
spoke collectively.”
England kick off their World Cup
campaign against Haiti on Saturday,
when Bright – should she be fit to start
– or Mary Earps will wear the Unite for
Inclusion armband. That is the closest
strikers.
“You’re guaranteed what you’re
going to get. You might move someone
else on, but you’ve got someone at that
age who can carry the club forward.
For instance, my position, I moved on,
Ruud van Nistelrooy was there [at 24 in
2001] and went on for many years.
“But we’re buying older centre-for-
many good balls, especially at the top
of the order, so I was getting a couple
of nice scores and then getting out. It
wasn’t really me. I always felt an itch to
attack a bit more.
“When you play with great players
like Joe you try to emulate them, but
there comes a point where you have
to bat your own way. Being a bit more
positive is a bit more me.”
In an extraordinary second session
England scored 178 for one off 25 overs
at a rate of 7.12 runs an over, with Craw-
ley getting 106 of those, while an Aus-
tralia side without a frontline spinner
looked increasingly short of ideas.
“In the back of our minds we
always knew England had this in them,
because they play so aggressively,”
said Daniel Vettori, Australia’s assistant
coach. “I think you see the respect the
players have for their tactics with some
of the fields that we’ve had to set to
mitigate that at times, but today was
that perfect storm of them coming hard
at us and us not being able to come
back.
“It was a taxing session because
Crawley was so dominant and played
so well from the outset. We had some
plans but he was too good on a wicket
like this. That period where him and
Root got together was almost all-out
surprise uncapped member of the 2019
squad.
“There is a general feeling among
the squad we have got to be on the
money and making sure we are making
decisions so we are better rugby players
the next week and the next month. It
is a good group of lads so we keep each
other in check.
“There might be a birthday cake
to the OneLove armband that teams,
including England, were banned from
wearing at the men’s World Cup in
Qatar last year.
For the second game, against Den-
mark next Friday, the England cap-
tain will wear the Unite for Indi-
The Guardian Friday 21 July 2023
wards for a hell of a lot of money and
then find ourselves in the same posi-
tion a couple of years later. This is Man-
chester United – we’re better than that.”
Ten Hag has turned his attention
to Rasmus Højlund of Atalanta, who
want about €70m (£60.7m) for the Nor-
wegian
Joe Root is bowled by one that kept low
from Josh Hazlewood, which gave England
encouragement for when they bowl again.
Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Action Images/
Reuters
attack. We knew how important that
partnership was and the run rate got
away from us because the two batsmen
were too good on the day.”
Crawley eventually played on to his
stumps when a Cameron Green bounc-
er kept low, while Root was bowled by
a Josh Hazlewood delivery that barely
bounced at all. “That was unplayable,
and I hope we get a few of those when
we bowl,” Crawley said.
“I think the pitch is going to start
to play a few more tricks. Anything can
happen with Stokesy but I think the
gameplan will be to bat well tomor-
row and bat once. We’d like a big lead
and bowl them out and not have to bat
again. We’re not expecting that, but that
would be ideal.”
here and there but the lads are pretty
understanding of what is ahead of us.
In the grand scheme of things it is a
short time in our career when we can be
really on it to give ourselves the chance
of creating some really special memo-
ries.”
genous People armband and for the
final group game, against China, the
Unite for Gender Equality armband will
be used. Should England progress, the
captain will wear the Unite for Peace,
Continued on page 49
Friday 21 July 2023 The Guardian
Continued from page 48
Unite for Education For All, Unite for
Zero Hunger, Unite for Ending Violence
Against Women and the Football is Joy
Peace, Hope, Love & Passion armbands,
in that order.
Australia players ‘completely heartbroken’
for injured Sam Kerr
Carly Adno at Stadium Australia
A degree of uncertainty surrounds the
extent of Sam Kerr’s calf injury, with
Australia coach Tony Gustavsson reluc-
tant to discuss the details surrounding
it.
The Matildas overcame a tough
physical battle against Ireland to win
their opening Women’s World Cup
match 1-0, but they also had to over-
come the shock loss of Kerr just before
kick-off in Sydney.
Gustavsson’s captain sustained the
injury at training the day before, with
New Zealand’s Hannah Wilkinson stuns
Norway in Women’s World Cup opener
Jeff Kassouf at Eden Park
New Zealand’s initial goals for the
World Cup were extremely modest by
the standards of a host country: win-
ning a game would be progress. Mis-
sion accomplished. Hannah Wilkinson’s
goal in the 48th minute proved deci-
sive on Thursday as New Zealand de-
feated Norway in Auckland in the open-
ing match of the tournament.
“It’s the best night of my life,” the
New Zealand captain, Ali Riley, said.
“With the performance, we deserved
it. I know we came in as underdogs, I
know there was a lot of doubt, a lot of
articles being written saying how many
times we haven’t won a game, but we
believed in ourselves the whole time.”
New Zealand had failed to win in
15 previous World Cup finals matches,
exiting in the group stage in all five
appearances. Thursday’s victory pro-
vides hope that the country, which is
co-hosting the World Cup with Aus-
tralia, can taste knockout football for
the first time.
A crowd of 42,137 – a record for
a football match, men’s or women’s,
in New Zealand – that included the
prime minister, Chris Hipkins, was
buzzing from the opening ceremony.
The energy stood in stark contrast to
the grim mood around Auckland ear-
lier in the day after the deaths of
three people, including the gunman,
in a shooting that took place close to
Norway’s team hotel.
CJ Bott said: “What happened this
morning was devastating and it’s news
no one wants to wake up to, and our
condolences go out to those that have
Soccer
“Supporting Indigenous people is
massively important to us as a team,
both staff and players,” Bright said. “We
wanted to come to this country and
respect the past, the present and the
future. We are aware of the past but
we want to move forward collectively
Gustavsson telling media after the
match that he would prefer to focus on
his team’s performance than on the ab-
sence of Kerr for the Group B matches
against Ireland and Nigeria.
“We have to be honest with you, we
said she will be out for two games, after
that we will reassess it,” Gustavsson
said. “Right now we don’t know what
grade [of injury] it is.
“I want to have the most focus on
the performance we just had in the
opening game of the World Cup.”
Steph Catley stepped up in Kerr’s
absence, taking both the captain’s arm-
band and the decisive penalty that
New Zealand’s Hannah Wilkinson celebrates scoring the only goal of the game against
Norway in the Women’s World Cup opener in Auckland. Photograph: Hannah Peters/Fifa/
Getty Images
been hurt by this. It definitely moti-
vated us.”
On the field New Zealand played
direct from the start, looking for Wil-
kinson in behind the seams of Norway’s
unsteady defence. The strategy paid
off three minutes after half-time. New
Zealand needed three touches of the
ball from a goal kick to break down
Norway’s shape and play Jacqui Hand
in behind. She had Mathilde Harviken
for pace,and Wilkinson streaked past
two other defenders to tap in the cross.
New Zealand tried that clipped,
short goal kick to the right on multiple
occasions before it paid off. “We knew
Norway were going to try to track us on
the left and often when it was played to
me, Ada [Hegerberg] was running right
at me,” said the New Zealand defender
Katie Bowen, who took the goal kick. “I
just said to our keeper like, do you want
to just try it? Do you want me to take it?
I was doing the secret whatever [covers
and make the world a better place. It
is something that we always pride our-
selves on.
“We have been honoured with two
ceremonies and to be able to have
conversations and educate ourselves a
little bit more on the Aboriginal people
earned Australia victory.
The Arsenal player described Kerr
as the “spiritual leader” of the team who
still has a massive role to play for as
long as she remains sidelined.
“Losing a player like Sam, probably
the best player in the world – and just
for her as a person – we were com-
pletely heartbroken,” Catley said.
“We had to really gather ourselves
pretty quickly, but we used her spirit
and used the fact that she wasn’t able to
be out there with us to help us push on
and to all add a bit to what we already
bring.
“That’s what it’s going to take for
mouth]. I just hit it, CJ [Bott] had a great
touch and it ended in a great goal. Abso-
lute elation.”
Despite a surplus of attacking
talent, Norway asked few questions of
New Zealand’s defence. Hegerberg, the
former Ballon d’Or winner, attempted
(and scuffed) a bicycle kick five mi-
nutes in, but her team failed to produce
a shot on target until the 81st minute,
when Tuva Hansen’s shot was tipped
on to the crossbar by Victoria Esson.
Hansen’s opportunity came fol-
lowing a rare moment of joy for Norway
in transition. New Zealand’s Ria Percival
controlled the middle of the park as
the hosts neutralised Barcelona’s Caro-
line Graham Hansen and Chelsea’s Guro
Reiten.
“Opening game, they are the hosts:
We have talked about this,” Reiten said.
“We knew they were going to go out
there and be aggressive. We knew ex-
actly how they wanted to play, but still,
and everything which comes with the
culture is amazing. We feel really ho-
noured to have had the opportunity.
“As a team, we know what we stand
for, what we believe in and we also
know the changes that we want to
make. So regardless of an armband, we
as long as she misses [matches]. She’s
got a role still, whatever she plays, she’s
massive for us and she’s so important –
she’s our spiritual leader and whatever
role she plays in the next however long,
will be massive.”
Ireland coach Vera Pauw said she
was surprised to see Kerr out of the
starting lineup an hour before kick off,
but said, “Australia has so many power-
ful and strong and fast attacking play-
ers, that our game plan did not change
because of that.”
“Sam Kerr is of course maybe the
top striker of the world, so the fact
that she did not play was of course a
we were so poor, especially in that first
half. I’m very disappointed.”
Percival hit the crossbar from the
penalty spot in the 90th minute after a
video review – including the first in-sta-
dium referee explanation of the tour-
nament – determined that Hansen had
handled the ball in the area.
Reiten lamented Norway’s flat
performance, saying “everything” went
wrong while the holding midfielder
Ingrid Engen pointed to New Zealand’s
ability to win duels in the middle of the
park and cut off service to Norway’s ta-
lented forwards. That was a testament
to Bowen, Riley and the rest of the
backline.
“No secret, it was a team perfor-
mance,” Bowen said. “I know that I was
able to get up Ada’s ass but I knew
that I had cover behind me. Ali Riley
did a great job against Graham Hansen,
but everybody did their jobs around the
park and ultimately that led to the 1-0
win.”
The next task for the Football Ferns
is getting out of the group, which
no Women’s World Cup host has pre-
viously failed to do and this victory
gives them hope in arguably the weak-
est of the eight groups at this tour-
nament.
“The expectations, we will put those
on ourselves first,” Wilkinson said.
“We’ll take momentum from this first
win into the next game. It’s incredibly
important that we secure a space out-
side of this group and we can do that in
this next game.”
At least for Thursday night, how-
ever, they could celebrate. Moments
after the final whistle Riley walked
across the field with her hands covering
49
would like to think our actions and
our morals represent everything that
we believe in and stand for.”
surprise for us, but of course we were
happy with that.”
Kerr is the team’s usual penalty
taker, but Catley said she felt confident
taking her first spot kick for her coun-
try.
“I just try and look at it as anoth-
er set piece,” Catley said. “I really enjoy
taking set pieces, so I just pick a spot
and hit it where I want to hit it. I try to
block out the crowd as much as I can,
take a breath, focus, and try to keep my
mind pretty clear.”
Australia have a week to recover
before they face Nigeria in Brisbane,
where they will again be without Kerr.
Hannah Wilkinson scores the winner
against Norway at Eden Park in Auckland.
Photograph: Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images
her face as she sobbed tears of joy. As
she got to the sideline, she briefly put
her hand on her heart and waved at the
crowd before bending over, hands cov-
ering her face again, to collect herself
before turning to the camera for a TV
interview.
As she did, her teammates – led by
Wilkinson hopping and pumping her
fist – did a lap around the fabled sta-
dium to wave at the crowd. Among
those in attendance were a number of
former New Zealand players who, ta-
lented as they were, never managed
to achieve what this current group did
here: win a World Cup game.
“I wasn’t playing for me; I was play-
ing for them,” Riley said. “I was playing
for the Ferns that came before us and
to inspire the Ferns that will come after
me. It meant so much for all of us.
“We put so much pressure on our-
selves because it wasn’t just about win-
ning a game, it was about inspiring our
entire country. With what happened
this morning, trying to do something
positive today and honour the first res-
ponders. That’s a lot, and I felt like we
did it.”

50
West Ham step up Ward-Prowse chase,
Livramento close to Newcastle move
Jacob Steinberg
West Ham are stepping up their inter-
est in James Ward-Prowse and are pre-
pared to smooth negotiations with Sou-
thampton over the midfielder by letting
Flynn Downes move in the opposite
direction.
Southampton will struggle to hold
on to their best players after relegation
and are close to selling Tino Livramento
to Newcastle for about £30m. The 20-
year-old right-back moved to St Mary’s
from Chelsea two years ago and is fit
after missing much of last season with a
knee injury.
Chelsea inserted a buyback clause
when they sold Livramento, who can
play on both flanks, but he is expected
to follow Sandro Tonali and Harvey
Barnes in joining Newcastle as Eddie
Howe readies his squad for the Cham-
pions League.
Southampton are likely to lose
Ward-Prowse, who could cost at least
£40m. West Ham want two midfielders
after selling Declan Rice for £105m and
Most Zambia players enter Women’s World
Cup unpaid for almost two years
Ed Aarons and Romain Molina
Most members of the Zambia squad
that will take part in the country’s
first appearance at the Women’s World
Cup have not been paid by their foot-
ball federation since competing at the
Tokyo Olympics nearly two years ago,
the Guardian can reveal.
Zambia face Japan in their open-
ing match on Saturday having qual-
ified by reaching the semi-finals of the
Africa Cup of Nations last year. Several
sources close to the team said most of
the players have yet to receive any pay-
ment for matches and up to 100 days of
training since returning from the Olym-
pics in August 2021. That includes up to
40 days at the Afcon in Morocco.
It is understood Zambia’s players re-
fused to train for two days before their
friendly in Germany this month in pro-
test at not being paid. They still rec-
orded a famous late win in Fürth cour-
tesy of Barbra Banda’s winner in the
12th minute of injury time.
Since arriving at their base camp
in New Zealand for the World Cup
last week, players are believed to have
taken part in silent protests that have
included travelling to training and
Soccer
James Ward-Prowse in pre-season training with Southampton. Photograph: Matt Watson/Southampton FC/Getty Images
David Moyes is keen to bring in players
with Premier League experience. The
manager, who has had a £45m bid for
Zambia players have been forced to sign a code of conduct while in camp for the Women’s World Cup. Photograph: Michael Bradley/Fifa/
Getty Images
games without singing in their usual
tradition. They have also been forced
to sign a controversial code of con-
duct that has been described as impos-
ing “ridiculous restrictions” on players
while in camp, according to sources
João Palhinha rejected by Fulham, has
wavered over a move for the Monaco
midfielder, Youssouf Fofana.
close to the squad.
The Football Association of Zambia
(FAZ) did not respond to the Guardian’s
request for comment.
On Monday, Zambia’s president, Ha-
kainde Hichilema, promised that any
Ward-Prowse is proven in the Prem-
ier League and Moyes is a fan of the
28-year-old’s set-piece expertise. It is
issues over payment would be resolved.
“Do your part and your government will
do its part,” he told the squad during a
video meeting. “Yes, I hear there are one
or two things that have not been done
but it will be done, just take my word.
The Guardian Friday 21 July 2023
understood Ward-Prowse is interested
in the move, although West Ham are
yet to submit a bid.
Fulham are also interested in Ward-
Prowse, who has 11 England caps, but
West Ham could boost their chances
of signing him by sending Downes
to Southampton. Downes has made
little impact since leaving Swansea last
summer but the midfielder has admir-
ers at Southampton.
Other options for West Ham in mid-
field include Chelsea’s Conor Gallagher,
Juventus’s Denis Zakaria, Manchester
United’s Scott McTominay and Ever-
ton’s Amadou Onana. Moyes will also
consider signing a striker and retains an
interest in Armando Broja. The Chelsea
player, who is recovering from a long-
term knee injury, almost joined West
Ham last summer.
The Hammers are close to win-
ning the race to sign Carlos Borges
from Manchester City. They have of-
fered £14m for the 19-year-old winger,
who has also been targeted by Borussia
Dortmund and Eintracht Frankfurt, and
the deal could be completed soon.
Let’s believe in the team.”
Fifa announced last month it would
pay every player at the Women’s World
Cup at least $30,000 (£23,200) – via
the federations – after what the play-
ers’ union Fifpro described as the “out-
come of tremendous global collective
action by over 150 national team play-
ers” and months of “constructive nego-
tiation with Fifa”.
In the buildup to Zambia first game,
their head coach, Bruce Mwape, has
denied allegations of sexual miscon-
duct. The Guardian reported Mwape
was investigated late last year after alle-
gations of sexual abuse in the team. “It
has taken about a year now,” he said
in New Zealand. “You are still talking
about the same allegations. As far as I’m
concerned they are fake allegations.”
It is understood Fifa is aware of
the accusations made against Mwape
and has been in touch with the FAZ to
investigate. A Fifa spokesperson said it
could not comment on investigations.
Zambia’s Under-17 coach, Kaluba
Kangwa, was among the FAZ em-
ployees investigated and he has left his
post despite no official announcement
from the FAZ. It did not respond to ta
request for clarification.
Friday 21 July 2023 The Guardian
West Ham close to deal for Manchester City’s
Borges, Danjuma heads to Everton
Jacob Steinberg and Ben Fisher
West Ham are close to winning the race
to sign Carlos Borges from Manchester
City. They have offered £14m for the 19-
year-old winger, who has also been tar-
geted by Borussia Dortmund and Ein-
tracht Frankfurt, and the deal could be
completed soon.
Borges joined City from Sporting in
2014 and has impressed at youth level.
He has represented Portugal Under-19s
and is noted for his pace and trickery.
City will include a buyback clause and
moving to West Ham could give Borges
a better chance of playing regularly in
the Premier League.
West Ham are keen to freshen up
their squad after selling Declan Rice
to Arsenal for £105m and have hired
Tim Steidten as their technical director.
David Moyes has been looking for two
central midfielders, a centre-back and a
left winger. West Ham could also move
The Women’s World Cup kicks off with
nerves, fireworks and frustration
Will Unwin
AWAY WE GO
Major football tournaments often
feature tight, nervous games, in which
both teams are scared to lose. The
opening offerings from Ausealand 2023
did not disappoint, producing 1-0 wins
for both co-hosts, although the Matil-
das only did so after losing their record
goalscorer in the buildup to the match
against the Republic of Ireland, Sam
Kerr twanging a calf during training
which rules her out of their first two
games – at least. “Of course I would have
loved to have been out there, but I can’t
wait to be a part of this amazing jour-
ney which starts now,” cooed Kerr.
It meant Australia lost much of
their flamin’ threat in the final third,
relying on a Steph Catley penalty to
break the deadlock against stubborn
and well-organised opposition. Marissa
Sheva, who gave away the penalty, was
reduced to tears upon her substitution,
showing how much this World Cup
means to the first-time participants.
Soccer
Winger Carlos Borges is noted for his pace. Photograph: Domenic Aquilina/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
Love a big tournament overhead shot. Photograph: Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images
Ireland’s first – and admittedly only –
shot on target came in the 96th minute,
while the co-hosts managed double
that tally … one of which was their suc-
cessful spot-kick.
The opening ceremony took place
in Auckland, featuring a mixture of fire-
works, dancing and general joy, the sort
of thing football usually does without.
New Zealand’s aim before the tour-
nament kicked off was to win a game,
having failed to do so in their previous
15th matches at this level. A little more
than 90 minutes later and they had al-
ready achieved their target in surprising
fashion, downing Norway 1-0 and thus
hastily requiring a new squad goal.
The winner from Hannah Wilkinson,
making her 116th international appear-
ance, was an incredible team effort,
going from back to front in the blink
of an eye to get the better of the Nor-
51
for the Chelsea left-back Ian Maatsen if
they sell Aaron Cresswell to Wolves.
Arnaut Danjuma is set to join Ever-
ton on a season’s loan from Villarreal,
seven months after a late U-turn on a
deal to sign at Goodison Park.
Danjuma underwent a medical and
completed in-house media interviews
at Everton in January before turning his
back on the deal to sign for Tottenham.
The 26-year-old made nine Prem-
ier League appearances for Spurs, scor-
ing once before returning to his parent
club. Bournemouth, from whom he
joined Villarreal in 2021, retained an
interest in the winger and Nottingham
Forest were also thought to be keen but
Everton are set to land the Dutchman at
the second time of trying.
Bournemouth have completed the
signing of the 19-year-old defender
Milos Kerkez from AZ. He is their third
summer signing after the arrivals of
Justin Kluivert and Romain Faivre from
Roma and Lyon respectively.
wegian defence. A worthy moment to
ignite the competition in front of a
record crowd for a football match in
New Zealand. “I am so, so proud,” roared
co-captain Ali Riley. “We have been
fighting for this for so long.”
In what was another nervy affair,
the Football Ferns could have sealed
victory in the final minute, only for Keeper understandably rooted. Photo-
Ria Percival to ping her penalty against graph: Alessandro Rampazzo/AFP/Getty
the bar, leaving them a further nine
minutes of added time to hold on. stoicism from Lahen Stolit player Siri
Thankfully for New Zealand, Norway after they won the women’s profes-
were a disjointed mess and struggled sional category at the Swamp Soccer
to create any chances, which might World Cup in Finland.
explain why Ada Hegerberg looked FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
absolutely fuming at the end. Caro- Send your letters to
line Graham Hansen was devastated the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s
by the defeat. “With the win we would winners of our prizeless letter o’ the day
have more confidence, but now we just is … Steve Bennett (and 1,056 others).
have to show what we’re made of,” she This is an extract from our daily
sniffed. “If not, we might as well just go football email … Football Daily. To get
home.” Here’s to another month of joy the full version,just visit this page and
and frustration. follow the instructions.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“We get stuck … and we lose our
shoes and so on, but we just try to
get the ball to the goal” – admirable *