The Guardian Weekly - December 2023

Those we lost in 2023 The year’s best film, music and TV Everyday heroes who inspired us 33 30 50 hose e lost 2023 he year’s st film, usic and TV veryday eroes who spired us Twowars andthegulf betweenwest andsouth ByPatrick Wintour 21 E N D O F Y E A R S P E C I A L PLUS A week in the life of the world | Global edition 22 DECEMBER 2023 | VOL.209 No.25 | £4.95 | €7.99

PHOTOGRAPH: ICELANDIC COASTGUARD/AFP/GETTY The Guardian Weekly Founded in Manchester, England 4 July 1919 Guardian Weekly is an edited selection of some ofthe bestjournalism found in the Guardian and Observer newspapers in the UK and the Guardian’s digital editions in the UK, US and Australia. The weekly magazine has an international focus and three editions: global, Australia and North America. The Guardian was founded in 1821, and Guardian Weekly in 1919. We exist to hold power to account in the name of the public interest, to uphold liberal and progressive values, to fght for the common good, and to build hope. Our values, as laid out by editor CP Scott in 1921, are honesty, integrity, courage,fairness, and a sense of duty to the reader and the community. The Guardian is wholly owned by the Scott Trust, a body whose purpose is “to secure the fnancial and editorial independence of the Guardian in perpetuity”. We have no proprietor or shareholders, and any proft Vol 209 | Issue№25 made is re-invested in journalism. Eyewitness Iceland " Seismic alert Smoke and lava turn the sky orange on the Reykjanes peninsula, a volcanic hotspot 40km from Reykjavík. The eruption on Monday followed weeks of earthquake activity. Iceland’s prime minister, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, said herthoughts were with people living nearby,“now we see the Earth opening up”.

Inside Join the community Twitter: @guardianweekly facebook.com/guardianweekly Instagram: @guardian SPOT ILLUSTRATIONS: MATT BLEASE Ayear of conflict, the heroes who give us hope and those we lost We look forward and back in this, our fnal edition of 2023, a year overshadowed by war and confict. In a special essay, Patrick Wintour refects on how a perception of US double standards over Ukraine and Gaza has damaged the westin the minds ofthe global south, and whether it mightlead to a reckoning of sorts for Washington in 2024. A world in fux Page 22$ Still, there are plenty of reasons for hope. Having been expected to deliver little,the Cop28 climate summit turned outto be full of surprises – but was the fnal deal on fossil fuels just a ruse, asks Fiona Harvey. Writers from the Guardian’s global developmentteam refect on the inspirational fgures they metin 2023,from leaders to dancers to dads, who proved that humanity still has much to give. And leading conservationists and scientists tell us aboutthe mysteries ofthe planetthey wish they better understood. The big story Page 12$ We can be heroes Page 30$ Great unknowns Page 32$ The review of 2023 continues with the Observer’s selection of those we lost, recalled with afection by their friends. There’s also a dazzling range ofimages courtesy of the agency photographers ofthe year. And last but notleast,the Guardian critics’top 10 rundowns ofthe best flm and music of 2023,topped of with the Guardian Weekly team’s now-legendary television selections ofthe year. Those we lost Page 33 $ Photographs of the year Page 40 $ 4 - 14 G L OB A L R E P ORT Headlines from the last seven days 12 Cop28 How a huge gamble sealed the carbon deal 1 5 -20 SP O T L IGH T In-depth reporting and analysis 15 ! Lebanon Fears grow of an all-out war 18 Italy/UK What’s behind the Sunak-Meloni alliance? 19 EU Orbán’s spoiling game 20 UK Why phone hacking mattered so much to Harry 2 1 - 4 4 202 3 I N R EV I EW A year overshadowed by wars in Ukraine and Gaza 22 A world in fux By Patrick Wintour 30 From leaders to dads,the people who inspired us 32 The things scientists wish they knew the answers to 33 Those we lostin 2023 4 5 - 4 9 OPI N ION 45 Jonathan Freedland Joe Biden can stop this war 47 First Dog on the Moon Trends for 2024 48 George Monbiot I’ll keep telling the truth aboutlivestock farming 5 0 - 6 0 202 3 I N C U LT U R E 50 Film Our critics’ pick ofthe year’s 10 best movies 55 Music The top 10 albums, chosen by Guardian music critics 60 Television The Guardian Weekly team selecttheir smallscreen highlights 61 - 6 3 L I F E ST Y L E 61 Quiz of the year Test your recall ofthe year’s quirkiest stories 62 Puzzles 62 Country Diary 62 Chess 63 Crossword A week in the life of the world 22December 2023 On the cover “I wanted to illustrate chaos and destruction as testaments of war,” writes Israel G Vargas, on his artwork for this week’s cover. “Two conficts shaking and reshaping the world, and world leaders taking decisions on the lives of innocent people. The US not giving a clear stance on these two conficts, condemning one war and embracing the other.” Illustration: Israel G Vargas Culture of the year From page 50 $ The Guardian Weekly now takes a short break – we’ll be back in 2024 with our 5 January edition. If you mark a holiday atthis time of year, we hope itis a peaceful one.

TheGuardianWeekly 22December2023 6 Global report Headlines from the last seven days VATIC AN CITY Pope authorisesblessings for same-sexcouples Pope Francis has approved a ruling allowing priests to bless unmarried and same-sex couples in a significant change of position for the Catholic church. A reportfrom the Vatican’s doctrinal office, details of which were published on Vatican News on Monday, said such blessings would be permitted, albeit with caveats. “It will be possible to bless same-sex couples but without any type of ritualisation or offering the impression of a marriage,” the report said. Furthermore, “the doctrine regarding marriage does not change, and the blessing does not signify approval ofthe union”. Despite the limitations,the announcement does mark a significant step forward by the Vatican, which in 2021 said the Catholic church could not bless same-sex couples as God “does not bless sin”. One Vatican observer said the move could be “the most concrete pastoral shift on the church’s stance toward gay couples in the church’s 2,000-year history”. Butthe report said the gesture must avoid “any form of confusion or scandal”, and blessing ceremonies should not resemble a wedding. 1 2 FR ANCE CrowofdelightasNotre Dameroosterbackonperch A golden rooster – reimagined as a dramatic phoenix with licking, famed feathers – has been installed by crane atop Notre Dame cathedral’s spire, symbolising resilience after the devastating April 2019 fre. Chief architect Philippe Villeneuve, who designed the new rooster, said the battered original’s beauty had “expressed the cry ofthe cathedral sufering in fames”. He described the new weathervane, approximately half a metre long, as his “phoenix”. The rooster – a French emblem of vigilance and Christ’s resurrection – was blessed by the archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich. The bird is an emotive national emblem for the French because the Latin word gallus means both Gaul and rooster. 4 RUSS I A Putinaffirms ‘unchanged’ war aims inannual address Vladimir Putin said “there will only be peace in Ukraine when we achieve our aims” as he appeared on television for his year-end press conference for the frsttime since he launched the invasion, seeking to project confdence in his war machine. Calling for the “denazifcation of Ukraine, its demilitarisation and neutral status”,the Russian presidenttook a hardline stance demanding Ukraine’s unconditional surrender, after Kyiv’s lacklustre counterofensive this year and a subsequent delay in US military aid brought on by partisan infghting in Washington. Tatiana Stanovaya, an analyst for the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, wrote: “Putin just made a peace proposalto the west on the conditions of Ukraine’s total capitulation.” The year-end press conference, typically an annual cocktail of Kremlin pomp and state TV camp, lasted more than four hours and included questions from soldiers beamed in from the frontlines, and a question delivered by an AI-generated version of Putin. A world in fux Page 22 " 3 UNITE D STATES Giuliani topay$148mtotwo Georgia election workers A Washington jury ordered Rudy Giulianito pay $148.1m to two Atlanta election workers after he spread lies aboutthem. The verdictfollowed a trial in which Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, her daughter, gave haunting details aboutthe harassment and threats they faced after Giuliani falsely accused them oftrying to stealthe 2020 election in Georgia. The women, who are Black, were awarded nearly $16.2m and $17m in compensatory damages as well as $20m each for intentional infiction of emotional distress. The jury also awarded $75m in punitive damages. 5 EUROPE Four arrestedover alleged cross-borderHamasplot Four people were arrested in Germany and the Netherlands on suspicion of being part of a crossborder Hamas terror plotthat German prosecutors said aimed to obtain weapons to target Jewish institutions in Europe. Three others were arrested in Denmark on separate terrorism offences, and the country’s politicians indicated they were also Hamas related. The office of Germany’s federal prosecutor said three men had been detained in Berlin and the fourth in Rotterdam. They were described as “longstanding members of Hamas”. Copyright © 2023 GNM Ltd. All rights reserved Published weekly by Guardian News & Media Ltd, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London, N1 9GU, UK Printed in the UK, Denmark, the US, Australia and New Zealand ISSN 0958-9996 To advertise contact advertising. enquiries@ theguardian.com To subscribe, visit theguardian.com/ gw-subscribe Manage your subscription at subscribe. theguardian.com/ manage USA and Canada gwsubsus @theguardian.com Toll Free: +1-844-632-2010 Australia and New Zealand apac.help @theguardian.com Toll Free: 1 800 773 766 UK, Europe and Rest of World gwsubs@ theguardian.com +44 (0) 330 333 6767

22December2023 TheGuardianWeekly UK headlines p11! 2 4 1 9 7 GU YANA /VENEZUEL A Noforcetoresolveborder, presidents agree atmeeting Guyanese presidentIrfaan Ali (pictured) and Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro promised in a tense meeting that neither side would use threats or force againstthe other, but failed to reach agreement on how to address a bitter dispute over a vast border region rich with oil and minerals. Instead, a joint commission composed ofthe foreign ministers of both countries and other ofcials will address the problem, with a report expected within three months. The presidents agreed to meet again in Brazil within three months. 9 G ERMAN Y CDUconsiders asylumplan similar toRwanda scheme The opposition conservatives are seeking to win back voters with a sweeping change to the country’s immigration and asylum policy, including plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. Jens Spahn, a leading member ofthe Christian Democrats (CDU) said last weekend that his party was in favour ofthe transportation offuture refugees to third countries for processing of asylum applications such as Ghana and Rwanda in Africa, or to non-EU European countries such as Moldova and Georgia. It suggests the concept ofthe UK’s Rwanda policy is gaining traction with similar proposals in Italy and interestin Austria. 8 SERBI A Vučić’spartyclaimsvictory inparliamentaryelection The governing populists claimed a sweeping victory in last Sunday’s parliamentary election, which was marred by reports of major irregularities. Acting prime minister Ana Brnabić said that with halfthe ballots counted, the Serbian Progressive party’s projections showed it won 47% ofthe vote and expected to hold about 130 seats in the 250-member assembly. The main opposition Serbia Against Violence group won about 23%, Brnabić said. President Aleksandar Vučić’s Serbian Progressives have ruled since 2012 butthe Serbia Against Violence coalition was expected to mountits biggest challenge for the Belgrade city council. 6 A RG EN TINA Pesodevaluedby50%as Milei acts tocurbinflation The government devalued the Argentinian peso by more than 50% as part of a package of largescale spending cuts intended to address the country’s worst economic crisis in decades. The plans, introduced under the new administration of Javier Milei, include cutting energy subsidies and cancelling tenders for public works. His economy minister, Luis Caputo, moved to weaken the ofcial exchange rate to 800 pesos a dollar – it had been 366.5 – in a televised address. He said the central bank would target a monthly devaluation of 2%. Caputo said the moves, which were welcomed by the International Monetary Fund, were needed to cutthe country’s fscal defcit and bring down soaring triple digitinfation. 10 NETHERL AND S Twocities fullylegalise cannabis as trial rollsout Cannabis users in two Dutch cities can smoke legally for the firsttime as authorities roll out a trialthat would expand the country’s policy on marijuana to full legality. A misconception abroad is that cannabis is already legal in the Netherlands. In fact,the drug exists in a legal grey area, which the government hopes to stub out with the four-year trial starting in Breda and nearby Tilburg. The consumption of small quantities of cannabis is illegal but police don’t enforce the law as part of a long-standing “tolerance” policy. Untilthe trial, the production and supply of cannabis had not been tolerated. 3 6

TheGuardianWeekly 22December2023 11 I SR A EL /PA LESTINE Israelis claimHamas tunnel discoveryisbiggest sofar The Israeli army said it has uncovered the biggest Hamas tunnel in the Gaza Strip so far, close to a key border crossing. Such was its size that small vehicles would be able to travel within the tunnel, an AFP photographer reported. The underground passage formed part of a network that stretched for more than 4km and was within 400 metres ofthe Erez border crossing,the army said. Israeliforces said it would have cost millions of dollars and taken years to construct, and claim the project was led by Mohamed Yahya,the brother of the Hamas chief, Yahya Sinwar. Spotlight Page 15 ! 14 YEMEN Protectionforcetocounter attacksonRedSea shipping The US is setto announce the launch of an expanded maritime protection force involving Arab states to combatthe increasingly frequent Houthi attacks mounted from Yemen’s ports on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. Provisionally titled Operation Prosperity Guardian, itis designed to provide reassurance to commercial shipping frms. Five big operators have stopped their ships using the Red Sea in the wake ofthe attacks – mounted in protest atIsrael’s war on Hamas. More than 20 ships have reported incidents in recent months, while a Suez canal ofcial said 55 others made a two-week long diversion around the Cape of Good Hope. 12 RWAND A Politician whocriticised Sunak’sbillfears for safety An opposition politician who publicly criticised the UK’s deportation deal last week fears for her safety after a presidential adviser condemned her for “waging war on her compatriots”. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza said she was concerned about the falloutfrom the criticism after the aide, an ally of President Paul Kagame, wrote that she was “maligning Rwanda”. Umuhoza, who spent eight years in jail after what human rights groups called a fawed trial, said she has received warnings of a threat against her life. 13 SUD AN RSFseizeWadMadani as thousandsflee tothe south Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have seized Wad Madani,the country’s second city, which had taken in hundreds ofthousands of refugees from the capital, Khartoum, early in the eight-month war between the regular army and the paramilitary RSF. The RSF advanced after three days ofintense fghting, which caused thousands of people to fee the city,the capital of el-Gezira state,towards the south. More than 10,000 people have been killed since the war between the two rivalforces erupted in April, and six million people have been forced to fee their homes. 15 18 17 19 20 14 16

22December2023 TheGuardianWeekly Global report 9 The big story p10 ! 15 HONG KONG Trialbeginsofmediamogul andpro-democracyactivist The pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai went on trial at a heavily guarded Hong Kong court on national security charges that could lead to life imprisonmentfor the media mogul. Lai’s trial, expected to last months, is one ofthe most highprofle prosecutions ofthe Hong Kong government’s crackdown on opposition groups. It has been widely condemned by rights advocates and other governments. The 76-year-old founder ofthe Apple Daily newspaper, which printed its last edition in June 2021, is accused of conspiring to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security under sweeping legislation Beijing imposed on Hong Kong in 2020 and of conspiring to publish “seditious” material. 18 PA K I STAN ImranKhandeploysAI clone tocampaignfromjail Artifcial intelligence allowed ex-prime minister Imran Khan to campaign from behind bars on Monday, with a voice clone of the opposition leader giving an impassioned speech on his behalf. Khan has been locked up since August and is being tried for leaking classifed documents, allegations he says have been trumped up to stop him contesting general elections due in February. His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party used AIto make a fourminute message from the 71-yearold, headlining a “virtual rally” hosted on social media despite internet disruptions. 16 E GYP T Sisi sweeps topowerafter electoral rulesareredrawn President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was voted in for a third term on Monday after an election where he faced no serious challengers, calling the vote a rejection ofthe “inhumane war” in neighbouring Gaza. The president claimed the top job after Egypt’s constitution was amended in 2019, extending the presidentialterm to six years from four, and allowing Sisito stand for a third term. The election, in which he took 89.6% ofthe vote, according to the National Election Authority, was held as Egypt struggles with a slow-burning economic crisis. 20 AUSTR A LI A Militarycalledinas far northdevastatedbyfloods The military was sentin to assist desperate communities in Queensland’s far north, where food waters from ex-tropical cyclone Jasper have cut of towns, leaving residents without power, food and drinking water, and prompting warnings of crocodiles swimming through streets. Mayors called for military aid after receiving more than 2 metres of rainfall in less than a week, breaking records for December. Roads, railways and the region’s major airport were completely underwater on Monday. About 13,000 households across the state lost power. 19 JA PAN ‘Tax’iskanjiofyear amid concernover costofliving The kanji character for “tax” has been chosen as Japan’s word of the year, in a refection of growing public anxiety over the cost of living and impending tax rises. The single character – which can be read as zei or mitsugi – was unveiled last week at Kiyomizu Buddhisttemple in Kyoto, whose head priest, Seihan Mori, reproduced it with a huge brush on a white washi paper canvas. The character that best captured the zeitgeist attracted 5,797 votes out of 147,878 cast, according to the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, which has organised the annual contest since 1995. Second place wentto sho/atsui,the character for hot, in recognition ofthis year’s sweltering summer in Japan and concern aboutthe climate crisis. 17 JA PAN Fundraisingscandal engulfs rulingparty The prime minister, Fumio Kishida, is battling to contain the falloutfrom a political fundraising scandalthatforced the resignations offour of his ministers, amid reports that prosecutors were poised to raid the ofces of dozens of ruling party MPs. The chief cabinet secretary, Hirokazu Matsuno, confrmed he was stepping down;the economy and industry minister,the internal afairs minister and the agriculture minister have also resigned. The targeted ministers are members ofthe 100-strong Abe faction – once led by the assassinated former prime minister Shinzo Abe – the largest grouping of MPs in Kishida’s ruling Liberal Democratic party. Prosecutors are investigating allegations that members of Abe’s faction failed to report ¥500m ($3.5m) raised via fundraising parties over the past fve years. Investigators are looking into whether Kishida’s faction is also involved, according to media reports. The group is suspected of failing to declare more than ¥20m in the three years to 2020. D E ATHS Andre Braugher US actor who played Captain Raymond Holtin Brooklyn NineNine and starred in Homicide: Life on the Street. He died on 11 December, aged 61. Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah Emir of Kuwait. He died on 16 December, aged 86. Zahara Platinum-selling South African singer-songwriter. She died from liver disease on 11 December, aged 36. Richard Hunt Sculptor whose public works acrossthe US explored civil rights. He died on 16 December, aged 88. JGA Pocock New Zealand historian of politicalthought, known for his studies of early republicanism. He died on 13 December, aged 99. Kenpachiro Satsuma Actor who played Godzilla in the eponymousseries of movies. He died on 16 December, aged 76.

TheGuardianWeekly 22December2023 10 Global report UnitedKingdom SCI E NCE A N D E N V IRON M E N T M E DIC A L R E SE A RC H Morningsicknessdiscovery couldleadtoapotential cure Scientists have uncovered why many women experience morning sickness during pregnancy, raising the prospects of a cure for the condition experienced by 80% of women during their pregnancy and which for 2% results in an extreme form, hyperemesis gravidarum, which can lead to hospitalisation. The study, published in Nature, revealed that a hormone, GDF15, produced by the foetus is the trigger for nausea and vomiting. Crucially, women who have low levels of GDF15 tend to be more sensitive to the surge ofthe hormone in the frst trimester,the research suggests, and thatlowering the hormone, or blocking its action, could prevent sickness. Another approach could be “priming” women by exposing them to the hormone before pregnancy. A RT I F ICI A L I N T E L L IGE NCE Solutions show potential beyondhumanknowledge Artifcial intelligence researchers at Google’s Deep Mind claim to have made the world’s frst scientifc discovery using a large language model (LLM), a breakthrough that suggests the technology can generate information that goes beyond human knowledge. To build “FunSearch”, DeepMind harnessed an LLM to write solutions to problems in the form of computer programs. The LLM is paired with an “evaluator” that ranks the programs by how wellthey perform. The best programs are then combined and fed back to the LLM to improve on, evolving more powerful programs that can discover new knowledge. In two well-known mathematical puzzles – the cap set problem and the bin packing problem – FunSearch found better approaches, according to results published in Nature. W I L DL I FE Nativebat anearlyvictimof Britain’s empirebuilding The decline ofthe western barbastelle bat began in the UK when its preferred roosting spots – in mature oak and beech trees – were felled for shipbuilding 500 years ago. Experts from the University of Exeter and the Bat Conservation Trust have concluded that a 99% drop in Britain’s populations began when trees were chopped down in the early days of Britain’s empire building. The conclusion, published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, was made possible by analysis of bat DNA that can pinpoint a “signature” ofthe past, including periods when populations declined. H E A LT H Stiflinga sneeze couldbe harmful,doctors warn When you feel a sneeze coming on, it’s bestto letit out. That’s the advice from doctors after a man in his 30s experienced a spontaneous tracheal perforation as he tried to stife a sneeze while driving. In an incident published in BMJ Case Reports,the man tried to contain a sneeze by pinching his nose and shutting his mouth. Feeling a shooting neck pain, he headed for a hospital where CT scans revealed a torn windpipe. Dr Rasads Misirovs,the report’s lead author, said the case was unique, “like winning a millionpound lottery – a rare but potentially life-changing complication”. P OLITICS Ex-Torypeer admits she liedover links toPPEfirm The former Conservative peer Michelle Mone admitted that she lied when she denied repeatedly having been involved with a company that made huge profts from UK government PPE deals during the pandemic. Mone said in a BBC interview that she had nottold the truth about her involvementto protect her family from press attention. Guardian investigations found Mone and her husband, Doug Barrowman, were involved with PPE Medpro, which was awarded contracts worth £203m ($257m) in May and June 2020 after she approached ministers with an ofer to supply PPE. The National Crime Agency is conducting an investigation into alleged criminal ofences. Responding to Mone’s comments last Sunday, shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, said: “Our message to those people who soughtto use the pandemic to get rich quick [is]: we want our money back.” Mone admitted she and Barrowman,through lawyers, repeatedly falsely denied they had any connection to PPE Medpro. In November 2022,the Guardian revealed thatleaked documents indicated Barrowman was an investor in PPE Medpro, and that he was paid atleast £65m from its profts. The documents indicated that he then transferred £29m to the Keristal Trust, of which Mone and her three adult children were benefciaries. The governmentis also suing for the return ofthe £122m it paid for protective surgical gowns, alleging thatthey were unsafe. PPE Medpro is defending the legal action. ! Research suggests that lowering the GDF15 hormone could prevent sickness in pregnancy, or by exposing women to the hormone before pregnancy GILAXIA/ISTOCK/GETTY Number of tonnes of sardines and mackerel found on the surface of the sea of the fshing port of Hakodate in Hokkaido, Japan, due to an as yet undetermined reason BBC

22December2023 TheGuardianWeekly 11 A EROSPACE IslandtohostUKspaceport forvertical rocket launches Unst, a remote Shetland island, will hostthe UK’s frst licensed spaceportfor vertical rocketlaunches. It will allow up to 30 satellites and other payloads to be launched into commercially valuable polar, sun-synchronous orbits, which are in high demand from satellite operators for communications and Earth observation. The site, a former RAF base now the SaxaVord spaceport, was identifed in a 2017 report as a place where rockets carrying the greatest payloads could be launched with the lowest risk to people on the ground, ifthey failed and crashed back to Earth. IMMI G R ATION & A SYLUM SunakbelievesRwandabill is ‘best thing we canget’ Rishi Sunak believes the government’s controversial Rwanda legislation is the “best thing we can get” to tackle illegal immigration, his deputy has said, signalling thatthe prime minister would be reluctantto bow to pressure from Tory rightwingers. Oliver Dowden,the deputy prime minister, said, however, thatthe government was open to amendments and would “listen to our colleagues” to keep in line Conservative MPs who have called for the billto be strengthened, or face the proposed legislation being voted down when it returns to the Commons in early January. Sunak last week narrowly avoided a large rebellion by rightwing Tory MPs after they abstained on his Rwanda bill, but the prime minister faces further peril in the new year, including from centrist Tory MPs who have said that any concessions to the right could mean they vote down the legislation. Spotlight Page 18 ! L OC A L GOVERNMEN T Ministershopepackagewill stopcouncilsgoingbust The government announced a 6.5% increase in the funding for local councils in England in a desperate attemptto stop them going bankrupt. Michael Gove,the communities secretary, unveiled a £64bn ($81bn) package on Monday. The funding, which will provide extra supportfor social care and housing, is expected to fall far short ofthe amount councils need and will come in lower than the funding increase councils received in 2023, which was 9.4%, according to the Financial Times, which frst reported the news. A poll by the Local Government Association this month revealed that nearly one in fve council leaders believe itis now “fairly or very likely” thattheir council will go bustin the next 15 months. Last month, Nottingham became the ninth council since 2018 to issue a section 114 notice, under which a council signals that itis unable to fulfl its legal duty to balance the books. UK Spotlight p20! 2 Copie m s sold of a self-published crime novel series by Norfolk author JM Dalgliesh, who was rejected by six agents before he landed a publishing deal and had his work optioned by a flm company Eyewitness # Put a lid on it Engineering teams use the world’s largestlandbased crane - nicknamed Big Carl -to lift a 245-tonne steel dome on to Hinkley Point C’s firstreactor building, atthe nuclear power station construction site in Bridgwater, Somerset. The manoeuvring ofthe 14-metretall dome into position means the firstreactor, due to be switched on in 2027, can be installed inside the building. BEN BIRCHALL/PA

TheGuardianWeekly 22December2023 Against the odds Ahugegamblesealed ahistoricdealon fossilfuels –but after a climate summitthat was fullof surprises, is thefinal agreement just a ruse? Not long before the crucial final meeting of Cop28 climate summit, a seemingly chance meeting took place in the VIP lounge. John Kerry, the US climate envoy, andSultan Al Jaber,theCop28 president, exchangedwarmgreetings with Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud,energyministerofSaudiArabia. It was only a brief encounter, but it sealed a crucial understanding. Saudi Arabia,the blocker for 30 years of attempts to include fossil fuels in international climate agreements, was not going to stand in the way of thisone. Just 24hours earlier, according to insiders, Al Jaber faced ferce pressure fromtheSaudidelegationto waterdownthe text.Now,for thefrst time,the archetypalpetrostatewould allowaglobal commitmenttobemade to“transitionaway” fromfossilfuels. Minutes later, Al Jaber strode on to the stage where more than 190 countries awaited him. A short announcement, and it was done: the 28th conference of the parties under the UN framework convention on climate change had achieved something no other climate meeting had. The world’s governments had fnally agreed to call on countries to begin “transitioningawayfromfossilfuels”. A deal that satisfed Saudi Arabia, the US and the United Arab Emirates was not going to please everyone. Indigenouspeopleandclimatejustice groups said it was unfair and inequitable.Climatescientistsacknowledged that the call to transition away from fossil fuels was historic, but said the dealwas tooweaktokeepglobalheating below the 1.5C Paris limit. TheAllianceofSmallIslandStates, countries thatfaceinundationatmore than1.5C,lambasteda “litanyofloopholes” inthe text.Itdidnottrytopreventthe outcome, but AnneRasmussen, of Samoa, speaking for the group minutes after the gavel landed on the deal, registered its clear feeling that the agreement did not go far enough. The final deal also included a $700m commitmentto “operationalise” a new loss and damage fund, for the rescue and rehabilitation of poor and vulnerable countries stricken by climatedisaster.Butthiswas theonly real move on climate fnance. This is an imperfect deal, and until the fnal moments there was no guarantee it wouldbe reached.Inthehall, relief and applause greeted the fnal statement.Agiantgamblehadpaidof. By Fiona Harvey DUBAI The big story Cop28

22December2023 TheGuardianWeekly Bythe timeof ahalfwaymeetingin June,attheUN’s climateheadquarters in Bonn, Germany, the signs looked terrible. There was no clear steer on whether fossil fuels should even be onthe agenda for theCopitself.What couldyouexpect, critics sniped, with an oilman in charge? AsworldleadersarrivedinDubaifor theopeningdaysoftheCop28talks,on 30 November, Al Jaber’s rhetoric had been transformed. “[Staying within] 1.5Cismynorthstar,”hesaid,atpublic meetings. “A phase-out offossilfuels is inevitable and necessary.” Many developing countries said they had confdence in Al Jaber, that he listened to them, unlike many previous Cop presidents, and that he appearedtofeeltheir cause.Hedidan extended global listening tour, from smallislands tothebiggesteconomies, meeting Indigenous people, youth representatives, women and people from disadvantaged communities. Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, alsoplayedaroleinshootingdownany relianceonCCS.CCSwas “anillusion, a fantasy”, he told the Guardian, and reiterated to Al Jaber privately. By the time negotiations openedinDubai, a loose coalition " Attendees applaud (left) after consensus is announced while climate activists (right) protest against fossil fuels XINHUA/SHUTTERSTOCK; THOMAS MUKOYA/ REUTERS have been characterised by grinding delays. If Cops were going to address the causes of the climate crisis, they needed the oil industry atthe table. Itmayseemincredible thatnegotiations about climate breakdown shouldnottacklehead-onthe issueof fossilfuels,whichare itsmajor cause. In 2021, for the frst time, the dirtiest fossil fuel, coal, was mentioned in the text of the fnal deal, at Cop26 in Glasgow.Thattriumphwasshort-lived. AtCop27,inSharmEl Sheikhlast year, morethan80countries formedaloose coalition that pushed for a full phaseout of allfossilfuels. They failed. At the start of 2023, it was far from clear that Al Jaber would fare any better. Rather than talk about the decline of fossil fuels, he waxed lyrical on the rise of renewable energy. Al Jaber also spoke enthusiastically of controversial and costly technical fxes, especially carbon capture and storage (CCS), which scientists say will only be able to play a small partin the transition. Al Jaberwas alsoambivalent about the goal oflimiting temperature rises to1.5C.This all addeduptoanimpressionthatAl Jaber,underhis confdent andsometimesbombasticpublicpersona, would deliver a lukewarm Cop. The signsdidnot augurwellbefore the summit. Holding a climate summitinoneof theworld’sbiggestoil andgasproducingcountriesmighthavesoundedlike thepunchlineof a sickjoke.Theworld is failing to control the climate crisis; fossil fuel companies have enjoyed a recordbonanzaafterRussia’s invasion of Ukraine; and the chances of limitingglobalheatingtotherelativelysafe limitof 1.5Cabovepre-industriallevels are now all but extinct. Temperatures this year have been the hottest on record. Greenhouse gas emissions last year reached their highest ever. António Guterres, UN secretary-general, warned: “Humanity has opened the gates of hell.” TheUnitedArabEmirates,thesummit’s host, is adding to the problem. It has the sixth largest oil and gas reserves in the world, and its stateownedoil company,Adnoc isembarking on a massive $150bn expansion. Al Jaber is chiefexecutiveofAdnoc. When his appointment as Cop presidentwasannounced,inJanuary, campaigners cried foul. Greta Thunberg called it “completely ridiculous”. However, Al Jaber argued, as a businessperson, he was well placed tobringa can-domindsettotalks that ! 22Dece a sop aye relianceo a fantasy reiterated By th openedin abo e rises mpresnfdent icperm Cop. Divisive deal Cop28 winners and losers Page 14 $

TheGuardianWeekly 22December2023 14 of about 130countrieswas callingfor a phase-out.TheEUandtheUS, among others,wantedtoincludethequalifer “unabated”,openingthedoor toCCS, a weaker formulation that angered some developing countries. As the fortnight of negotiations nearedtheir end,the presidency produced its frst drafttext. It bombed. I nthediplomaticjargonfor the overarching binding instruction, the language on fossil fuelswas framedasoneofjust a list of options that “called upon parties to take action that couldinclude,interalia”themain proviso, of “reducing both consumption and production offossilfuels”. “That one word ‘could’ just kills everything,” said Eamon Ryan, Ireland’s environment minister. None of the pro-phase-out countries could acceptit.Onecountrycould:SaudiArabia. The presidency team then began anintenseroundof shuttlediplomacy. Itbecameclear thedraftwouldneedto be considerably strengthened. In the early hours of last Wednesday morning, a new text was drafted that removed the fatal “could” and replaced it with a callfor the world to “transition away” from fossil fuels – still weaker but better than what had precededit.TheSaudiswereinabind: criticising the Cop would raise tensionswithUAE,itsneighbour andally, and risk it being outed on the world stage as the ultimate climate villain. Few can know for sure. But after that meeting, and after Al Jaber withstood “immense pressure”, said an insider, 30 years of Saudi objections were rescinded. The text could pass. The crucial question for the planet is whathappensnext.There is a sorry historyatUNclimatetalksof countries unhappywithanoutcome inoneyear trying to unpick itthe next. Nextyearpromises tobe especially challenging. The hosting has gone to Azerbaijan, a petrostate, 90% of whose export revenues and 60% of whose national budget comes from oil and gas. UAE wanted a successful UN climate summit, a triumph on the world stage. What the Azeri government wants from a Baku Cop may be quite diferent. Meanwhile, the clock ticks down andemissions continue theirupward march. FIONA HARVEY IS AN ENVIRONMENT EDITOR AT THE GUARDIAN The big story Cop28 Winners The oil and gas industry The need to “transition away from fossilfuels” may have been recognised after three decades of climate talks, butthere is no clear obligation or hard timetable for this, and numerous loopholes in the form of “transition fuels” and allusions to carbon capture technologies and carbon credits. The US and China The world’s two biggest emitters left Cop with few extra burdens to change. The US pledged only $20m in new fnance for poor countries and remains the biggest oil producer. China can continue building coal-power plants. Cop28 president Sultan Al Jaber Despite ferce criticism, he got a compromise deal over the line that was widely praised by other nations as the bestthat could be achieved. It will also notlose him his day job as chief executive of the United Arab Emirates’ biggest oil company, Adnoc, which is planning to expand outputin defance of scientifc advice thatthis will push the world’s climate into more dangerous heating beyond 1.5C above preindustrial levels. OPI N ION Winners andlosers Fromfossil fuel tofuture generations By Jonathan Watts Island States, which represents those most vulnerable to sea level rise, said the agreement contained “a litany of loopholes” and represented only incremental change, which was not sufcientto keep heating below 1.5C. Climate justice Despite progress at Cop28 in setting up a “loss and damage fund”, developing nations, which are most afected by the climate crisis butleastto blame, say richer countries are not paying enough to help them adapt and transition away from fossilfuels. Future generations and other species The biggest victims of the climate crisis remain under-represented in decision-making. Despite the record heat of 2023, this is still likely to be one ofthe coolest years in the lives of many young people. The goal of zero global deforestation by 2030 was welcomed by conservation groups, but many ecosystems will continue to be eroded. Scientists Experts welcomed the mention offossilfuels but said the deal did not refectthe urgency and clarity in the science. “The lukewarm agreement reached at Cop28 will cost every country, no matter how rich, no matter how poor. Everyone loses,” said Friederike Otto at Imperial College London, co-founder ofthe World Weather Attribution group. “With every vague verb, every empty promise in the fnaltext, millions more people will enter the frontline of climate change and many will die.” JONATHAN WATTS IS THE GUARDIAN’S GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT EDITOR Clean energy companies Solar, wind and other clean energy companies look to be in for a bonanza after 118 governments at Cop28 pledged to triple the world’s renewable energy capacity by 2030. This is intended to cutthe share offossilfuels in the world’s energy production, but until now renewables have added to oil, coal and gas, rather than replace them. Lobbyists Industry representatives were presentin record numbers in Dubai – 2,456 delegates from the oil and gas sector, 475 from the carbon capture and storage (CCS)industry, more than 100 from agribusiness and many more from elsewhere. Many will leave happy. The fnaltext made no mention ofthe role of beef companies in the climate crisis, supported CCS, and a debate on regulating the carbon trading market was scuppered. Losers The climate TheParis agreement’smost ambitious goal oflimiting global heating to 1.5C was left nominally alive by Cop28, butin efect has been killed of by the lack of urgency and specifcs in the agreement. Despite the hottest summer in 120,000 years,the oil, gas, coal and farming companies can continue to expand production. Small island states The Alliance of Small George Monbiot p48!

15 In-depth reporting and analysis UK Theprince andthephonehacking victory Page 20 # Whenthenewsfrstbroke of the Hamas attack early on 7 October, Itai Reuveni and the other reservists inhisparatrooperbattalion packed their bags and arrived attheir musterpoint wellbefore their call-up came from the army. The paratroopers did not head southtoGazabuttothenorthernborder, where they believed a far greater threatthan Hamas was poised to join thefght:Hezbollah,theLebaneseShia movement backed by Tehran. “We’re here to make sure that no one does to us in the north whatthey did to us in the south,” said Reuveni, 40, amaster sergeant whoinhis civilian life does thinktank research on terrorist fnancing. “We understand that Hezbollah is much more sophisticated [than Hamas].Weunderstandit’snot 3,000 fghters that come over the border, it will be much more, and you’ll also have Iraninthe equation.We arehere to deal with that.” Reuveniisnot alone inseeingHezbollahas thegreaterdanger.TheIsraeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, and otherhawks inthecabinetarguedfora By Julian Borger ROSH HANIKRA pre-emptivestrikeagainstthemilitant I SR A E L / L E B A NON Hezbollah’s cross-border strikeson Israel‘riska secondwar’ Continued ! ▲ People in Beirut watch a televised speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last month in which he threatened to escalate fighting BRUNO THEVENIN/SIPA/ SHUTTERSTOCK

TheGuardianWeekly 22December2023 group in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attack. That caused alarm in Washington, fearful of a regional war that could pullIraninto thefght. With US backing, Benjamin Netanyahu fended of the proposal, but the conviction has taken hold amongIsraelipoliticians,generalsand a widening slice of the public that a new war in Lebanon is inevitable. Since they arrived at Rosh Hanikra, where the border meets the Mediterranean coast, Reuveni’s 7056thparatrooperbattalionhasbeen involved in a low-intensity confict. Hezbollah has fred on Israeli border townsandvillages inashowof support for Gazans, and Israelhas struck back with artillery and airstrikes. In recent days, the fight has escalated, andtheciviliandeathtollis rising:four Israelis andatleast 14local Lebanese residents.Three journalists have been killed by Israeli drone and tank strikes. “We have this exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah, and the trend line is one of escalation,” said Orna Mizrahi, a former Israeli deputy national security adviser for foreignpolicy,nowatthe Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. “This is themostworryingthingabout the situation. Nobody wants to getto have a full-scale war but we can get there anyway.” A radio mast on the Israeli side of the line at Rosh Hanikra has been hit 13 times by anti-tank missiles. Last week, a missile landed on the roof of a building in the 7056th battalion’s base, improvised in a village resort where tourists came until recently to see famous grottos inthe clifs below. Several times in a typical day, a securityalertissoundedwhenaHezbollahfghter is seenpreparingamissileor a drone, sending the soldiers scuttling for cover. The battalion has a network of reinforcedtrenches justafewmetres from the concrete border wall. On the other side is a concrete command post that belongs to the Lebanese army, but Reuveni said Hezbollah fghters ‘IfIsraeldecides togo in,itwillbeinterpreted byHezbollahasan existentialwar’ ▲ Israeli soldiers on a training exercise in the Golan Heights near the IsraelLebanon border GIL ELIYAHU/REUTERS " A house hit by Israeli air strikes on Aitaroun, a village in southern Lebanon AFP/GETTY Spotlight Middle East had been spotted nearby. He believes theyhavethefreerunofLebanesearmy facilities in the area. Thewall risesupwards fromthesea clifs towards the east, following the LadderofTyremountainrangewhich straddles the border, andthe curve in the ridge lines provides a pocket of Lebanese territory a vantage point to look down on Rosh Hanikra. The paratroopers are keenly aware of whichpartsoftheirbase arevisible from that pocket of mountainside. They believe they have driven Hezbollahspotters andsnipers awaywith artillery fre, butthe Israelis’ concern is thatthefghterswill returnatnight. Themetalborder gateblocking the cliftop coast road is unmanned but overlooked by a machine-gun nest, and 30 metres on the far side of the gate is a concretehut withablue roof, where Italian soldiers with the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifl) are stationed. Unifl was set up in 1978 to keep the peace but there have been two major conficts since then, after Israeli invasions in 1982 and 2006. Therehavebeen17yearsof relative calm,butthekeypeace termsof 2006 have never been implemented. Hezbollahwas supposedtopullbackfrom the border across the Litani river, about 32km away, and to disarm. It has done neither, and instead built up a fearsome arsenal, with Iran’s help, estimated at well over 100,000 rockets. After the Hamas attack, 100k Estimated number of rockets that Hezbollah has accumulated – with Iran’s help – with the potential to inflict significant damage on Israeli cities 80k Number of Israelis who have been evacuated from the country’s northern border with Lebanon since Hamas’s 7 October attack in the south

22December2023 TheGuardianWeekly 17 Hezbollahfredonbordervillages and sent raiding parties, in what appear to have been calibrated operations to showsolidaritywiththePalestinians. “Their escalation along the border has beenproportional andincremental ina tit-for-tat pattern,” saidRanda Slim, a senior fellow and director of confict resolution at the Middle East Institute.“Atthispoint,thedecisionto gointoanall-outwar is totallyIsrael’s to make. Hezbollah and Iran do not wantthe escalation.” InIsrael,perspectiveshavechanged dramaticallyontoleratingtheHezbollah presence on the northern border. “Inthemorningof 7October,youhad 2,000peoplewakingupknowingthat it could easily have been them,” said DavidAzoulay,thecouncilheadofthe town of Metula, towards the eastern end of the border. Metula has been evacuated and its residents are being shelteredinhotelsandprivatehomes, mostlyinTiberiasontheSeaofGalilee. In order for those people to return home,Azoulaysaid, something“radical”wouldhavetochange. “Theminimum would be pushing Hezbollah behind the Litani river,” he said. As the displacement of 80,000 northern Israelis continues, calls for a military solution are getting louder. At a meeting with northern mayors, Gallant said Israel would “act with all the means atits disposal” ifthe international community could not force Hezbollah to withdraw. Benny Gantz, a former prime ministerwhois servinginNetanyahu’s war cabinet, made a similar promise last Friday. “If the world doesn’t get Hezbollahawayfromtheborder,Israel will do it,” Gantz said. The US and France are pursuing diplomatic eforts.However,the governmentinBeirutis incrisis andinno positiontomakeagreements,letalone enforce them. Lebanon has no president, only a caretaker government, and a long-running fnancial crisis. The power vacuum exacerbates the growing risks. Emile Hokayem, the director of regional security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said: “Both Iran and Hezbollah are uninterested and deterredatthemoment.For themthis isnotthebigone.ButifIsraeldecides to go in, then it’s going to be interpreted by Hezbollah as an existential war, andthenallhellwillbreakloose.” JULIAN BORGER IS THE GUARDIAN’S WORLD AFFAIRS EDITOR The US defence secretary, LloydAustin,heldtalkswith Israeli ofcials about shifting away from large-scale aerial and ground operations in the Gaza Strip to a new phrase in the war focused on the precise targeting of Hamas leaders. “Hamas shouldnever againbe able toprojectterror fromGaza intoIsrael. This is Israel’soperation;I’mnothere to dictate timelines or terms,” Austin said after meeting with the Israeli primeminister,BenjaminNetanyahu, andhisdefencecounterpart,YoavGallant,inTelAvivonMonday.He added that protecting Palestinian civilians in Gaza was “both a moral duty and a strategic imperative”. Austin’s comments were followed byremarks fromGallant,whosaidthe new phase would allow some of the 85% of people in Gaza displaced from their homes to return to the northern part ofthe strip. Austin was the latestin a stream of seniorfgures intheBidenadministration to visit Israel since the 7 October attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group in which about 1,200 people were killed and another 250 weretakenhostage.ThetriptoIsraelis partof awiderMiddleEasttour, as the confictinGaza threatens tospillover into a regional confagration. Washington has provided intense military and diplomatic cover for the war in Gaza, where the death toll is approaching 20,000, but last week Joe Biden warned Israel was losing international support because of its “indiscriminate bombing”. TheUNsecuritycouncilpostponed avote callingfor a “sustainable cessation of hostilities” to give more time for diplomats to meet US objections tothewordingofthedraft resolution. ThevotehadbeenduelateonMonday, but the US said it could not support a callfor a “cessationofhostilities”,but might accept reference to a “suspension of hostilities”. The Arab countries negotiating the text saidtheyhadbeenencouragedto see the White House was apparently tryingtofndwordingthatitcouldsupport –asopposedtosimplyvetoing,as it had done for previous resolutions calling for a humanitarian pause. Divisions within the Biden administration have been growing, with some ofcials saying the US has underestimatedthescaleofdisillusionmentintheglobal southoverperceived hypocrisy in calling out Russian war crimes inUkraine,butfnding amultitudeof reasons tojustifythelarge-scale killings of Palestinians in Gaza. Hamas’s armed wing meanwhile postedanew videomessage in which three elderlyIsraelihostagespleaded for their release. One man, who identifed himself as Haiem Bery, 79, said he wasbeingheldinharshconditions with other elderly hostages sufering chronic illnesses. Domestic pressure to resume hostage and ceasefre negotiations is also growing after the Israeli army shotandkilledthreemenkidnappedby Hamas last Friday. Conditions in Gaza are dire. The headofthe UNagency forPalestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, said on Monday that he “would not be surprisedifpeople startdying ofhunger, or a combination of hunger, disease, weak immunity”. Lastweekend,FrancejoinedtheUK and Germany in calling for an immediate truce in the confict, as Israel’s western partners grow uneasy at the war’s devastating human impact. BETHAN MCKERNAN IS THE GUARDIAN’S JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT USdefence secretary urges change of tactics By Bethan McKernan JERUSALEM I SR A E L / PA L E ST I N E ▼ Protesters in Tel Aviv after three Israeli hostages were killed by the IDF SAEED QAQ/GETTY Hostage killings According to Israeli media reports of the IDF inquiry, Yotam Haim, Samer El-Talalka and Alon Shamriz – all in their 20s – had escaped their captors and were approaching an IDF position in the Shejaiya area of Gaza City, where there has been heavy fighting. One ofthe men was carrying a stick with a white cloth tied to it and all had removed their shirts. Spotting the three, an Israelisoldier on a rooftop opened fire,shouting: “Terrorists!” Two ofthe hostages fellto the ground, the third fled into a building. When a commander arrived on the scene,the unit was ordered into the building where the third hostage was killed despite his pleasfor help in Hebrew. A world in flux p22!

TheGuardianWeekly 22December2023 18 Spotlight Europe One cut her political teeth on the streets of Rome as a teenageneo-fascistactivist, risingtobecome Italy’sfrst female premier. The other is a former investment banker who became Britain’s wealthiest prime minister, and its frst of colour. Yet whatever their very diferent backgrounds,thetiesbetweenGiorgia Meloni and Rishi Sunak are likely to have grown even closer last weekend when he attended the rightwing Atreju summit in Rome organised by her hardline Brothers ofItaly party. The visit was also a return favour onSunak’s part – Meloni was the only otherG7 leader toattendaUKsummit on artifcial intelligence last month. Sunak and Meloni have bonded over a shared hardline approach towards immigrationthroughpolicies that have sometimes pushed the limits of whatis legal. Acontroversialdeal struckbetween the ItalianandAlbaniangovernments is regardedaspartlyinspiredbytheUK government’s long-running attempts to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda. But the mutually beneficial relationship between Sunak and Melonialsorefectsanincreasingblurring oflines betweenpoliticians from Europe’s far rightandmoretraditional conservative backgrounds. Post-Brexit, Sunak has found an ally inside the EU with a shared interest in taking the hardline stance on immigrationdemandedbyhisparty’s powerbase.ForMeloni, ananglophile fond of quoting the British conservative philosopher Roger Scruton in speeches,the alliancehelpsmakeher extremist roots seem more distant. “Your priorities are also mine,” she toldSunakwhentheymetintheUKin November. The previous month they hadjoinedforces topushmigrationon totheagendaatameetingofdozensof European leaders in Granada. Their link, which began when they met last year at Cop27 in Egypt, is also oneclearlybuiltonapersonalchemistry that can been seen in the photographs and footage oftheir meetings. In private, Sunak has talked in glowingterms aboutMeloni.Inpublic toohehasdescribedtheir“friendship” and one of the frst things journalists heardthefatheroftwodowhengreetingher at Downing Streetin April was to ask after her daughter. Both also happen to be fantasy enthusiasts: Sunak a self-confessed “hugeStarWars fan”,Melonialoverof JRR Tolkien. Yet for watchers in Italy andtheUK,theimageofSunakrubbing shoulderswiththoseofafar-righttraditionis still stark.Riccardo Magi,the president of the leftwing party Più Europa, said:“Theycomefromdiferentpoliticaltraditionsbuthavefound commongroundonanissuethattoday characterises the conservative front – to attack the rule of law in regards to migrant rights – and they do this at a time when migration is rising and protection rights are being curtailed.” Compared with Meloni’s other friends, such as Hungary’s far-right nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, shehas foundamore“presentable” ally in Sunak, Magi added. “Having the prime minister of an important country on your side is something that helps her,” he said. “There is a chemistry between them and they are obviously trying to consolidate their rapport, especially for external communication reasons.” Others emphasise mutual cooperation on defence and supporting Ukraineasdriversofthepair’s afnity. OnUkraine,Meloni’s supportmarks a divergence from other European farright fgures, with whom she once shared an admiration of Vladimir Putin, and is an area British government sources saytheyaregratefulfor. Francesco Galietti, the founder of Policy Sonar, a consultancy in Rome, cites the treaty signed by the UK, Italy and Japan last week to build the nextgenerationof stealthfghter jets. “SunakgoingtoAtreju,aparty-specifc event, is weird, but you have to consider this love-burstwithinthecontext of geopolitics,” Galietti said. “UK-Italybilateral relations are the best they have been in a long time. While there is a personal chemistry, thereisdeepcooperationinareas such as defence – this is the main reason behind everything.” For others, Sunak and Meloni’s relationship highlights concerns of a shift “towards the radical right” of the Conservatives – notjust on immigration but on so-called culture war issues such as trans rights. Georgie Laming, the director of campaigns at the civil rights group Hope Not Hate, said: “The factthat he and Meloni are taking notes from each other about immigration policy is very telling aboutwhereSunak’spartyisheaded.” BEN QUINN IS AN ACTING POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT FOR THE GUARDIAN; ANGELA GIUFFRIDA IS ROME CORRESPONDENT ! Political allies Rishi Sunak and Giorgia Meloni share a moment LUDOVIC MARIN/GETTY I TA LY/ U N I T E D K I NGD OM Giorgiaand Rishi:what’s drivingthe right’s latest ‘love-burst’? By Ben Quinn LONDON and Angela Giuffrida ROME ‘Thefact theytake notes from eachother is telling about where Sunak’s partyis heading’

22December2023 TheGuardianWeekly 19 out of reach pending Budapest’s completion of numerous other ruleof-law reforms. In the event, Orbán himself made his strategy plain. Hours after declining to use his veto to block the accession talks, he exercised it to scupper a plan backed by the 26 other member states to revamp the EU budget and channel an extra €50bn of desperately needed aid to Ukraine. Leaders talked until past 2am last Wednesday seeking to convince Orbán to agree to the package with the Hungarian prime minister resisting last-ditch eforts by the leaders of Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. Orbán also stressed that unlike the budget discussions, the accession negotiations would be long, and that Hungary could still block them at any time. Budapest, he calculated, would have about 75 occasions between now and Ukraine’s full membership to halt the process, and would not hesitate to “pull the handbrake” before Hungarians paid for any consequences. Some observers saw upsides to the summit’s mixed outcome. History would record, they said, that Orbán had caved in on a decision of real geopolitical consequence. Even if they had lost the short-term economic battle – which should be easier to fx – the 26 had won the bigger political one, and sent a vital signal to Ukraine, Others were less sure. “From a realpolitik perspective, this was a cynical but rational move” by Orbán, suggested Nicolai von Ondarza of the German Institute for International and Security Afairs. R Daniel Kelemen, a public policy specialist at Georgetown University and longtime critic of Brussels’ approach to Hungary, was even more scathing. “Orbán extorted the EU for €10.2bn, and still vetoed Ukraine aid,” he said on X. This was the Hungarian leader “helping his friend Putin’s war on Ukraine”, he said, adding: “He let accession talks start, but those will take many years – and he will have many chances to veto progress or extort the EU for more cash.” JON HENLEY IS THE GUARDIAN’S EUROPE CORRESPONDENT A NA LYS I S H U NG A RY ToViktor,the spoils? Orbánshowshe is ready toplayhavoc intheEU By Jon Henley In the end, he folded when everybody thought he would dig in … and dug in when everybody thought he would fold. Either way, Viktor Orbán has left himself plenty of opportunities to continue playing havoc with EU decision-making. Before last week’s summit, Hungary’s illiberal, nationalist prime minister had sworn to block EU plans to open accession talks with Kyiv. Admitting Ukraine to the bloc would have huge consequences, he said. Starting the process now would be “a terrible mistake”. Diplomats and leaders were braced for 48 hours of fraught negotiations over enlargement – and unsure of winning. There was more optimism over the summit’s other main aim: agreeing to another €50bn ($55bn) in aid for Ukraine. But to EU watchers’ surprise, the bloc’s 26 other leaders agreed to start accession negotiations with a country at war, bypassing Orbán’s objections by asking him to leave the room. The procedural pirouette allowed the union to approve the start of talks with Ukraine and Moldova with the necessary unanimity, since EU rules require only that unanimous decisions not be opposed. While Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, hailed the unexpected agreement as a victory for Ukraine and Europe, observers remained puzzled. “Very, very, very surprised,” said Mujtaba Rahman, of the Eurasia Group risk analysis consultancy. Rahman said on X/Twitter he had fully expected Orbán to stick: vetoing accession talks in the hope his leverage for unblocking billions of euros of EU funding for Hungary, which has been frozen over rule-oflaw disputes with Brussels, was only likely to increase next year. Critics have long accused Orbán of holding EU backing for Kyiv hostage to force the money’s release. Some observers suggested the European Commission’s decision to unblock €10bn of the frozen funds last week may have helped sway Orbán’s decision to fold. But that had been expected for many months – and €21bn more earmarked for Hungary remains y toplayhavoc intheEU By Jon Henley Hu m pl Ky w sa be br ne an m ot €5 th to w Or to pi ap Uk ne ru de Vo un fo re ve Ra an ha ve hi of w la lik ha EU th Eu un la Or m ea ! Viktor Orbán wants more EU cash ROBERT NEMETI/ ANADOLU/GETTY

TheGuardianWeekly 22December2023 20 Spotlight Europe As theDukeofSussexclaimed victory in his hacking case againstMirrorGroupNewspapers, it was clear he felt vindication for his tortuous, longrunninglegalbattlesagainstsectionsof theBritishmedia. “I’ve beentold that slaying dragons will get you burned,” he said in a statement, before adding a defant: “The mission continues.” Prince Harry has long despaired of the royal family’s failure to take on the press. His father, King Charles, had told him it would be a “suicide mission”. And he does seem to have been burned. When he appeared in thewitnessboxinJune,thefrst senior British royal for 130 years to do so in court at a trial,hewas askedaboutthe toll his fght was taking. Hefell silent,hisheaddropped,and he appeared to be fghting tears. “It’s a lot,” he fnally answered. But since the Duchess of Sussex appeared on the scene, and utterly haunted by the risk of his wife sufering a similar fate to his late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, Harry has been resolute in pursuing his cause. Inhis impassionedwitness statement andoral evidence tothe court,hespoke of how tabloid coverage had afected him since childhood. You start of as a “blank canvas”, he said. As the newspapershonehowtheywilldefne you, “you’re then either the ‘playboy prince’,the ‘failure’,the ‘dropout’ or, inmycase,the‘thicko’,the‘cheat’,the ‘underagedrinker’,the ‘irresponsible drug taker’,the list goes on”. He had felt “under constant surveillance”. He was bullied at Eton after reports of a routine rugby injury saw himsingledout “for being a ‘sicknote’ora‘pussy’”.Asa20-year-old,the “paparazzi seemed to turn up” whereverhewent,forcinghimtoresort,on occasion,to hiding in a car boot. Unfounded rumours Charles was not his father felt “hurtful, mean and cruel” and left him questioning the motives behind them. “Were the newspapers keen to put doubt into the minds of the public so I might be ousted from the royalfamily?” He blamed the “devastating” impact of the media for contributing to the breakup of his relationship withChelsyDavy.Hebelievedarticles about his relationship with Caroline Flack, the late television presenter, were obtained by phone hacking. Givenallthis,itisnot surprisinghis frst shotacross thebows cameshortly after his relationship with Meghan Markle became public. Defying the royal mantra “never complain, never explain”, he fred of a furious public statementin November 2016. If all this was a big departure from royal protocol, more was to come in 2019 when the Sussexes ended their successful tour of South Africa with the bombshell announcement that Meghanwas suingtheMailonSunday, a case she later won, over publication of her private letter to her estranged father, Thomas Markle. Days later, Harryannouncedhewas takingaction against the Sun and the Daily Mirror for alleged phone hacking. Harry is excoriating on the press in hismemoir,Spare,andofwhathesees as the royalfamily’s connivance with the media through alleged leaking. He iswitheringabouthis father’sown failure to take on “the same shoddy bastards who’d portrayed him as a clown”–andwhowerenow“tormenting and bullying” him and Meghan. Earlier this year, he described his missiontooverhaultheBritishmedia ashis “life’s work”.However, according to the royal author Omid Scobie’s bookEndgame,thedukemaynow be revising his views, and plans to make sure his court battles do nottake over his life.Heisnotnaiveenoughtothink winning these cases will change how the media writes about him, Scobie wrote, quoting Harry telling a friend: “That’snevergoingtohappen.Unfortunately, we sell them too many newspapers and too many clicks.” However,hewants toseeitthrough to a conclusion. He sued News Group Newspapers, publisher of the Sun, over unlawful information gathering, claiming he could not have sued earlierbecauseofa“secretagreement” betweentheroyalfamilyandNGN.The high court ruled that Harry could not sue NGN for alleged phone hacking and rejected his argument of a secret deal.Buttheremainderofhis casewill continue, with a trial likely next year. He is one of seven high-profle fgures suingAssociatedNewspapers, publisheroftheMail,over allegations of phone tapping and other unlawful activities. He launched another lawsuitagainstthecompanylastyear,over a Mail on Sunday article that accused him of trying to mislead the public about a legal battle with the government over his police protection. The high court ruled that the case will go to trial – raising the prospect of Harry enteringthewitnessboxagainin2024. CAROLINE DAVIES IS A GUARDIAN JOURNALIST ! Prince Harry leaves the high court after giving evidence against Mirror Group Newspapers CARL COURT/GETTY U N I T E D K I NGD OM Onthehook Whyhacking casemeant somuchto PrinceHarry By Caroline Davies Shots fired Press coverage had “seen a line crossed”, Prince Harry told the court. His girlfriend Meghan Markle had been “subject to a wave of abuse and harassment” in newspapers and “racial undertones” in comment pieces. He “felt it necessary to speak publicly”, and clearly hoped his warning would put newspapers on notice. He also banned the rota royal correspondent from the church for his 2018 wedding.

22December2023 TheGuardianWeekly A world in flux By Patrick Wintour Page 22 ! We can be heroes Inspiring people of 2023 Page 30 ! Those we lost Remembering the late greats Page 33 ! Image conscious Agency photographers ofthe year Page 40! Culture highlights The best film, music and TVPage 50! Review of the year Why double standards on Israel and Russia play into a dangerous game

22 TheGuardianWeekly 22December2023 Rescuers at work in the rubble of an apartment complex hit by Russian forces in Dnipro, Ukraine WOJCIECH GRZEDZINSKI//WASHINGTON POST/GETTY; ALI JADALLAH/ANADOLU/GETTY; DOR KEDMI/AP

23 22December2023 TheGuardianWeekly 2023 WAR IN UKRAINE AND GAZA Formuchof theglobal south, the west’s seeminglycontradictorystance overGaza andUkraine symbolises its hypocrisy.Isareckoningonthe cards? By PATRICK WINTOUR A woman and child flee after Israeli airstrikes hit the Ridwan neighbourhood in Gaza City Israelis take cover as a siren sounds a warning of incoming rockets being fired from the Gaza Strip

TheGuardianWeekly 22December2023 24 2023 WAR IN UKRAINE AND GAZA ICHARD HAASS, THE DISTINGUISHED GLOBAL ANALYST, ONCE WROTE: “Consistency in foreign policy is a luxury policymakers cannot always aford.” But, equally, glaring national hypocrisy can come with a high price tag, in terms of lost credibility, damaged global prestige and diminished self-respect. SoJoeBiden’sdecisiontodefendIsrael’smethods inGaza sosoon after, in a diferent context, condemning Russia’s in Ukraine, is not just an occasion for hand wringing from liberals and lawyers. It is already having a real-world impact on relations between the global north and south, and west and east, creating consequences that could reverberate for decades. The Biden administration, reluctant to change course, may say theparallelsbetweenGaza andUkraine are far fromexact,butit also seems to know itis gradually losing diplomatic support. When the US and Israel are joined at the UN general assembly by only eight other nations, including Micronesia and Nauru, as happened when they rejected a ceasefre resolution for Gaza this month, itis harder to argue that America remains the indispensable nation – a phrase from former secretary of state Madeleine Albright frequently referenced by Biden. By contrast, Vladimir Putin, after a period of his own global isolation, “really feels everything at this point is trending in his favour”, according to Fiona Hill, the former US state department ofcial specialising in Russia. In a context in which many rising nations anyway viewed the “international rules-basedorder”withscepticism,thescriptforSergei Lavrov,the veteranRussian foreign minister, writes itself. Speaking atthe Doha Forum this month, Lavrov complained: “The rules were never published, were never even announced by anyone to anyone, andtheyarebeingapplieddependingonwhatexactlythewestneeds at a particular moment of modern history.” For Hill, Biden’s speech in October linking Ukraine and Israel together in his efort to persuade Congress to release funds for the former “may have been good congressional politics, but perhaps not good global politics”.The victim in allthis, she feared, would be Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. He was “going to have a hard time navigating this”. But America’s selectivity, as perceived across much of the global south, is likely to cause a wider reckoning. Quite often in the past Palestinehasbeentreatedasaspecialhistorical caseinglobalpolitics, and as an accepted preserve ofthe US. Butnow,accordingtotheIsraeli specialistDanielLevy,theissuehas hurtled“totheheartofwhat somepeoplehavecalledthepolycrisis”. Levysaid: “AUSmonopolistic exercise [regardingthe fateofGaza] isoutof syncwiththeworldwe live intodayandwithcontemporary geopolitics.Inthat respect, somethingimportant andinterestinghas happened, andperhaps evena source of somehope, whichis, we’ve seenthatfor somuchofthe so-calledglobal southandinmanycities in the west, Palestine now occupies this kind of symbolic space. It’s a kind of avatar of a rebellion against western hypocrisy, against this unacceptable global order, and againstthe post colonial order.” At a timewhenmultilateralinstitutions arefghtingwhatAntónio Guterres, the UN secretary general, calls “the forces of fragmentation”, how the US handles Gaza matters, not just to Gaza, but to multilateralism. If the US defence of Israel continues to go wrong, one or two outcomesarelikely.Thetrendtoshiftingtransactionalnon-ideological allianceswillgrow.Forumshoppingbycountriesor strategichedging, requiring active portfolio management like fnancial hedging, will becomeevenmorethenorm.Alternatively,Americacouldfnditself confrontinglargerandmoreassertivealternativeblocs,whether itisan expandedBrics,ledthisyearbyPutin,orotherChinese-ledalliances. SIX SHORT MONTHS AGO, IT LOOKED SO DIFFERENT. After aperiod of so-called westlessness – code for the division and malaise fed by a Trump presidency – the west in 2022 rediscovered itself and was proudit respondedtoPutin’s invasionofUkrainewithunprecedented solidarity. Not afraid of war, or of losing Russian energy sources. Russia’s army had not just been repelled at the gates of Kyiv, but been exposed as a morally bankrupt force guilty of heinous acts of barbarisminBucha andelsewhere.Ukrainebecamethebeatingheart oftoday’sEuropeanvalues, asUrsulavonderLeyen,presidentofthe European Commission, said. The liberal order, tattered by Iraq and defeated in Afghanistan, had revived itself. A total of 141 nations at the UN general assembly condemned Russia’s invasion. Moscow’s allies were silent. Biden staged democracy summits, and launched infrastructure schemes for theglobalpoor torivalthoseofChina.Biden,itwas said, wasmakingapitchtotheglobal southaspartof adistinctdemocratic traditionthatharkedbacktoFranklinDRoosevelt’santi-imperialism, Truman’s advocacyoftheUNCharter (signedin1945), andKennedy’s eforts to forge closer links with non-aligned governments. Yet even then alongside this self-congratulation was a nagging question of why so many of the west’s natural partners viewed Ukraine diferently. For instance, at the UN general assembly, when asked to do something practical to Number of nations at the UN general assembly that in February 2023 called for Russia to end 141 hostilities and withdraw its forces UKRAINE AND GAZA TWO WARS IN NUMBERS ! BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/GETTY

22December2023 TheGuardianWeekly 25 BIDEN PITCHEDTO THEGLOBAL SOUTHINA TRADITION HARKING BACKTO ROOSEVELT Number of nations at the UN general assembly that in December 2023 called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefre in Gaza Estimated civilian deaths in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, 153 10,000 according to the UN ! Selective process Joe Biden has been criticised for his unconditional support for Benjamin Netanyahu

TheGuardianWeekly 22December2023 26 2023 WAR IN UKRAINE AND GAZA Approximate number of people, mostly civilians, killed during 7 October attacks on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas Approximate number of people, mostly civilians, killed in attacks on Gaza by 1,200 18,000 Israeliforces since 7 October ! Moscow meeting Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin held talks at the Kremlin in March LARGE TRACTSOF THEWORLD DIDNOTSEE UKRAINEAS AGLOBAL STRUGGLE BUTASA REGIONAL CONFLICT

22December2023 TheGuardianWeekly 27 supportUkraine, suchas impose sanctions,thenumberof countries supportingKyivdroppedcloser to90.Someleaders just shruggedtheir shoulders with indiference. Paul Kagame,the Rwandan president, said: “It is possible in my case that I don’t have to take sides with either side since I have nothing to contribute to this debate. It is in the hands of other countries, it does not concern me.” Evidently, large tracts ofthe world did not see Ukraine as a global anti-imperialist strugglebut a regional confictwithinEurope,bringing them only higher food prices. “We believed that the invasion of sovereign territory and the extremely serious violations of international laws committed by theRussianarmywouldautomaticallyput countriesonour side.We underestimated how strong Russian infuence was on the African continent,”saidAlexanderKhara,aninternational relations specialist atthe Centre for Defence Strategies, a Kyiv-based thinktank. Indeed,asHillexplainedintheLennartMerilecture,heldinTallinn, Estonia, this May, Putin skilfully tapped into a pre-existing well of resentment with a dying Pax Americana. “This is a mutiny against what they see as the collective west dominating the international discourse and foisting its problems on everyone else, while brushingaside theirprioritiesonclimate change compensation, economic development, and debt relief,” she said. “The rest feel constantly marginalised in world afairs.” India’s external afairs minister, S Jaishankar, put it succinctly: “Somewhere Europe has to grow out of the mindset that Europe’s problems are the world’s problems butthe world’s problems are not Europe’s problems.” Now with Gaza, the latent anti-American mood has been given boosters.That anylegalormoralparallel existsbetweenRussianand Israeli behaviour is of course rejected by the Biden administration, which instead says the true parallel lies between the war crimes of Hamas and the Russian army. Putin’s invasion and destruction of Ukrainian cities was not an act of self-defence. It was not a response to a specifc outrage in which Ukrainian forces had crossed into Russia and massacred young party-going Russians. It was a Russian assertion of empire and its sphere ofinfuence. Butoncethebombed-outbuildingsofGazagetjuxtaposedonsocial media alongside those of Mariupol, it gets more complex. The issue of proportionality comes into play. The Israeli response looks closer totheUSpost-9/11 revenge,whichBidenhadspecifcallycounselled Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, against. Yet,byandlarge,thewest,withsome exceptions,fell silent about GazawhenIsrael’s assaultbegan. JosepBorrell,theEUforeignafairs chief,wasonewhobrokeranks, saying: “Ithinkthattodeprivea civilian population of the basic services – water, food, medicine, everything – is something thatlooks like being againstinternational law.” By contrast, the UK representatives at the UN in no less than 11 security council debates urged Israel to comply with humanitarian law, yet never said whether the country had failed to do so. Pressed for weeks to say ifthe loss of 18,000 mainly civilian lives could be in breach of international law, western leaders spoke only in conditional tense, adding they could not pass judgment since this was a matter for the courts. “We will not be drawn into a judge and jury role in the midst of all this,” Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, recently said. Contrast that with the words of John Kerry, then US secretary of state,in2016ontheRussianroleinthedestructionofAleppo.Hesaid: “Itis inappropriate to be bombing the way they are. Itis completely againstthelawsofwar,itis againstdecency,itis against anycommon morality, and itis costing enormously.” Or Biden in Poland on the frst anniversary ofRussia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Theyhave committeddepravity, crimes againsthumanity, without shameor compunction.They’vetargetedcivilianswithdeath anddestruction.Usedrapeas aweaponofwar.StolenUkrainianchildren in an attempt to steal Ukraine’s future. Bombed train stations, maternity hospitals, schools and orphanages.” Nor was this just presidential stump rhetoric. In March 2022, the statedepartmentformallydeclaredthat,basedoninformationthen available,theUSgovernmentassessedthatmembersofRussia’s forces hadcommittedwar crimes inUkraine. “Our assessmentisbasedona careful review of available informationfrompublic andintelligence sources,” said the state department. N A SPEECH TO THE MUNICH SECURITY CONFERENCE, inFebruary2023,KamalaHarris,theUSvice-president, repeatedthat the US had formally determined that Russia has perpetrated crimes againsthumanity. “Wewill seekjusticefor thewar crimes andcrimes against humanity continuing to be committed by theRussians,” she said.Notmuchequivocationordeferencetohigher judicialauthority. Moreover,UkrainebrokealogjamintheUSSenateaboutwar crimes andits ambivalencetowards theinternational criminal court(ICC),to whichtheUSisnot a stateparty.Withinweeks,theSenate,under the urgingoftheRepublicanLindseyGraham,hadunanimouslypasseda resolutionpushingfor accountabilitymeasures,bothinternationally through the ICC and bilaterally. The resolution asserting “the US was a beacon for the values of freedom, democracy and human rights” led to the (US) Justice for Victims of War Crimes Act, which was ultimately sponsored by a bipartisancoalition.Theactdramaticallyexpandedthescopeofthose who could be prosecuted under the War Crimes Act. Previously,the justicedepartment couldprosecutewar crimeswherever they occurred, but only if either the perpetrator or victim of the war crime was a US national, a US lawful permanent resident Proportion of Ukraine’s population that has been displaced during the Russian invasion, according to UN estimates Proportion of Gaza’s population that may have been displaced during Israel’s bombing 33% 85% campaign, according to UN estimates ! PAVEL BYRKIN/SPUTNIK/AFP/GETTY

TheGuardianWeekly 22December2023 28 2023 WAR IN UKRAINE AND GAZA or member of the US armed forces. The amended law allows for the prosecutionof anyonepresentintheUS, regardlessofthenationality of perpetrator or victim. At the same time, the US, as a member of the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group for Ukraine, started furnishing the ICC with its evidence of war crimes, deploying a team ofinvestigators and prosecutors toassisttheUkrainianprosecutorgeneral,AndriyKostin, “in documenting, preserving and preparing war crimes cases”. A more comprehensivereversalof congressional attitudes ishardtoimagine. By contrast, after two months of destruction in Gaza,the US state department has said it sees no need to begin any formal internal examinationofwhether Israelhascommittedwarcrimes,eventhough the weapons ithas beenusing were suppliedby the US, andby some counts more civilians were killed in Gaza in two months than were killed in Ukraine more than two years. A cursory journey round the world reveals the impact this has had. The US, whether it likes it or not, risks becoming synonymous with double standards. Udo Jude Ilo, the Nigerian-born executive director of Civilians in Confict,isonlyoneof countlessAfricanfgures togive awarning.He said: “We arenowina situationwhere the identityofthe aggressoror the identity of the victim determines how the world responds, and youcannotmaintainaninternationalframeworkofprotectionifitis availablealacarte.”Theresult,hesaid,is that respectfor international humanitarian law is hollowed out. MANDLA MANDELA, NELSON MANDELA’S GRANDSON, SAID: “US ofcials are asked about the Israeli army’s disproportionate use of force in Gaza, and the response is: ‘We are not going to talk about specifc strikes.’ But isn’t this a question of principle, in light of the past weeks and the past wars in Gaza?” At a more stolid ofcial level, Egypt’s foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, said: “The global southis looking very carefully atthe progression of this confict and is making comparisons. And I believe that it is losing confdence in the viability of the values that have beenprojectedbytheglobalnorth.This is averydangerous situation because it can cause the unravelling ofthe world order.” Luiz InácioLuladaSilva,Brazil’spresident, and2024’s chairofthe G20, saidat aVoiceoftheGlobalSouthsummitinNovember thisyear that it was necessary “to restore the primacy of international law, includinghumanitarianlaw,whichapplies equallytoeveryone,free of double standards or unilateral measures”. Malaysia’sprimeminister,Anwar Ibrahim,himselfaformerpolitical prisoner, has repeatedly denounced Putin’s invasion. “We’ve been askedtocondemntheaggressioninUkraine,but someremainmuted infrontoftheatrocitiesinfictedonthePalestinians.Itdoesn’tconcern their senseofjusticeandcompassion,”hecomplainedatthegathering ofAsia-PacifcleadershostedbyBideninSanFranciscothisNovember. TheBidenadministration,withitsunique relationshipwithIsrael and insular political culture, has sometimes sounded tone deaf. “Name me one other nation, any nation, that’s doing as much as the United States to alleviate the pain and sufering ofthe people of Gaza,” said John Kirby, the US National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications. “You can’t. You just can’t. The United States, through [Biden], is leading the efort to get trucks, food, water, medicine and fuel into the people of Gaza … and name anothernationthatisdoingmoretourgetheIsraeli counterparts,our Israeli counterparts, to be as cautious and deliberate as they can be in the prosecution ofthe military operations. You can’t.” Proportion of the 1.2bn people living in liberal democracies who hold a negative view of Russia, according to Cambridge University research in 2022 Proportion of Tunisians who hold a positive view of the US since the war in Gaza begun, compared 10% with 40% before, according to Arab Barometer 87% ! Rule-breaker Only 18% of Democrats in the US think Israel is taking the right approach in Gaza, with 45% saying it has gone too far JACK GUEZ/AFP/GETTY

22December2023 TheGuardianWeekly 29 Or takethedeputyUSambassador totheUN,RobertWood, casually scrolling through his iPhone as the Palestinian ambassador made an impassioned plea for Palestinian survival. Or Biden, one minute defendingIsrael,thenext suddenlyadmittingindiscriminatebombing washappening.These areunforcederrors, andtheyricochet around the world, and on to Arab satellite channels, in seconds. JulienBarnes-Dacey,oftheEuropeanCouncilonForeignRelations, argues thatthedamage to Americanstandingmayultimately be felt most notin the global south butin the westitself. He said: “That blow is felt more by Europeans than by the global south. The west’s response to what is happening in Gaza, and our inability to call out Israel, has not suddenly woken the global south uptodoublestandards,ithas confrmedto[it]whatthewestis about. “If you were a citizen in the Middle East or Africa you have experienced double standards for quite some time, whether it is [over] migration deals or compacts with authoritarian governments. But now,forEuropeans tobe confrontedwiththis reality,ithas createda deepdiscomfortacrossEurope.Sothis ismoreofaself-reckoningthan anything, anditwill shapethewest’sglobal relationsgoingforward”. The same is true in leftwing politics in the US where, according to the Pew Centre,45% of Democrats think Israelis going too far, while just 18% think itis taking the right approach. MatthewDuss,aformer foreignpolicyadviser tothesenatorBernie Sanders, said: “If we simply say that those rules can be ignored by countries we like, or countries we have a special relationship with, we’re not really creating a rules-based order at all. We’re creating an order of might makes right.” SO WHAT COMES NEXT? PUTIN FEELS HE ALREADY KNOWS. He recently told a group of new diplomats: “The world is undergoing cardinaltransformation.Theunderlyingchangeis thattheformerunipolar worldsystemis being replacedby anew,more just,multipolar world order. I believe this has already become obvious to everyone. Naturally, such a fundamental process will not be smooth, but it is objective, and – as I wantto emphasise – irreversible.” By trying to dominate the diplomacy around Israel, and exclude other countries,Bidenshowedhedidnotunderstandtheworldbeing forged. Putin hopes all he has to do is encourage some sanctionsbusting, and wait for 5 November 2024 – US election day – when Donald Trump could be re-elected. Trump’s pledge to “end the war in24hours” iswidelyseenas implyinga signifcantlossofUkrainian territory to Russia. To prove Putin wrong, and to protect himself, Biden seems to realise he needs the Gaza war to end and this requires ending his self-defeatingunconditional supportforNetanyahu.TheArabstates wanttheconfictover, andsodoesmuchofUkrainiancivil societyfor which Gaza has been a triple tragedy – it diverted world attention, it discreditedthe conceptof rules-basedorder anditdividedthewest, weakening Biden and the EU. Itis understandable why Zelenskiy took the unambiguously proIsraeli position he did, but Timothy Kaldas, deputy director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, said: “If you are arguing for a rules-basedinternationalorder,ifyouwanttobepushingbackagainst countries taking territory with the use offorce,then Ukraine should not be seeing itself as aligned with the Israelis.” Onlythememoirswill revealhowmuchseniorfgures intheBiden administrationfeared,inrealtime, aboutthe scaleofthe cumulative damage being infictednotjust onBidenbutto Americanprestige • PATRICK WINTOUR IS THE GUARDIAN’S DIPLOMATIC EDITOR Proportion of the 6.3bn people living in the rest ofthe world who feel positively towards Russia, according to the Cambridge University research ‘The only path to peace is for Joe Biden to force a change’ 66% Jonathan Freedland p45 ! ‘IFWESAYRULES CANBEIGNOREDBY COUNTRIESWELIKE WE’RENOTCREATING ARULES-BASEDORDER’

TheGuardianWeekly 22December2023 30 2023 WORLD The forensic pathologist helping Philippines’ ‘war on drugs’ victims Raquel Fortun is one of only two forensic pathologists in the Philippines. Earlier this year, I interviewed her about her mission to discover the truth, and hopefullywinjustice,for thevictimsofformerpresidentRodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs”. Her crusade came about throughunlikelycircumstances. The victims of Duterte’s crackdowns were overwhelmingly from the poorest backgrounds, and many families could not afford to extend temporary leasesontheirgraves.As families began to face eviction from cemeteriesfveyearsonfromthe killings, Fortun ofered to carry outinvestigations to collect evidence abouttheir deaths. Known to many as just Doc, Fortundoes theworkfor free.She has a no-nonsense manner, and spoke franklyaboutthe risks she faces by working on such politically sensitive cases. She has found serious irregularities in how ofcial postmortemswereperformed– including atleastadozendeathcertifcates thatwronglycitednaturalcauses, such as pneumonia or sepsis. The killings, which estimates suggest led to between 12,000 and 30,000 deaths, are the subject of an investigation by the international criminal court. However, its investigators have been banned from the country, makingtheworkof experts such as Fortun even more crucial. Rebecca Ratclife, south-east Asia correspondent The Indian father who rescued his daughter … with a fanfare If only all Indian fathers could be like Prem Gupta, 55, India would be a much happier place for young women. Whenheheardthathisnewly married daughter, Sakshi, was being mistreated by her husband,Guptatookadiferentpath from thattrodden by millions of Wecanbeheroes Thecaringleaders, dancersanddads whoprovedthereis hopeforhumanity By Guardian reporters parents: they would have told her to tolerate the abuse to save her familythe stigmaofdivorce, and urged her to adjust. Married women who are being abused or beaten by their husbands hear this exhortation from their parentsallthetime,leavingthem with no escape route. Not Gupta. He gathered his relatives, hired a band with drummers and trumpets, and led a noisy, smiling procession toSakshi’shouseinRanchiinthe state of Jharkhand to “bring her home with the same pride and senseof celebrationwithwhichI sentheronherweddingday”.He didn’t care what society would say. He let his heart decide. PE OPL E married daughter, Sakshi, was being mistreated by her husband,Guptatookadiferentpath from thattrodden by millions of senseof celebrationwithwhichI sentheronherweddingday”.He didn’t care what society would say. He let his heart decide. ! In charge Sônia Guajajara, the Brazilian minister of Indigenous Peoples DAVID LEVENE; EZRA ACAYAN/GETTY; FLORENCE MIETTAUX; CAMPS BREAKERZ CREW; CHRIS DE BEER-PROCTER

22December2023 TheGuardianWeekly 31 Gupta had spent most of his savings from his brick kiln businessonthewedding,andwasnow strugglingwithtonguecancer.He letneithergetinthewayofstandingbyhisdaughter andrestoring her to a life of dignity. Amrit Dhillon in Delhi Sarah Johnson The Sudanese feminist helping survivors of rape Enass Muzamel is a feminist activistfromSudan.Shehasbeen workingforyears fordemocracy andhumanrights.WhenI spoke to her in June, she had been displaced from her home in Khartoumduetotheongoingconfict, but shewas stillworking,dayand night,tosecurehealthcareaccess for rape victims. Though reports of rape by troops against civilians were spreadingaroundtheworld,only a few of the survivors were able to access vital medication – the HIV-prevention drug PrEP and emergency contraception that wouldprotectthemfrompotential disease or pregnancy. International relief organisations were not able to access theirownwarehouses storingthe medication, andshipmentswere stranded in ports. So Muzamel became the point of contact for desperate women and families. Through her own informal network, she linked doctors with survivors, ensuring that what littlemedicationwas availablein depleted hospitals and pharmacies was reaching those in need. Weronika Strzyżyńska The young Namibian fighting for queer rights At 27, Omar van Reenen (who uses they/them pronouns) is a leading campaigner in the fght for LGBTQ+ rights in Namibia. I interviewed them in their family home in the coastaltown ofWalvisBay.Thehouseusedto hostthe country’s only hotelfor non-white people, founded by Van Reenen’s grandfather – the streetis even named after him. Wearingpearlsandpurplenail polish, Van Reenen explained how they draw inspiration from intensifed, putting on shows and helping children in their neighbourhood. Sometimes, in the videos he shares, you can hear the sounds of explosions. He posts the simplest updates on social media whenever he has internet access: “Still alive”. Kaamil Ahmed The Indigenous leader who broke barriers inside and outside Brazil For a longtime,Braziliansociety coexisted with Indigenous people without giving them due attention. Raoni Metuktire, the Kayapochieftain,was theexception that proved the rule. In 2023, two Indigenous personalitiesreachedthepinnacle of their careers and struggles in Brazil. One is the writer and philosopher Ailton Krenak, a member of the Krenak people, the frst Indigenous writer to be chosen for the Brazilian Academy of Letters, the pantheon of the country’s fnest living writers. The other is Sônia Guajajara, the frst minister of Indigenous Peoples in the country’s history. Never, in 523 years since the Portuguese discovered the territory, had an Indigenous woman risen so high in ofcially representing the country’s native peoples. We metin London in October whenshe representedthe country at an international event almost 8,000km from the Arariboia Indigenous territory,where the Guajajara/Teneteara people their family history of resisting the segregationist apartheid regime. They view LGBTQ+ rights as the last remaining step tofullydecoloniseNamibia, and hope one day to open a queer museum in the country. Julie Bourdin in South Africa The young Palestinian breakdancer helping Gaza’s children in war AhmedAlghariz’s returntoGaza was supposed to be a temporary one – to help put on a showcase for the new generation of young breakdancerswhohehadhelped totrain.ButGazahasbeenunder constant Israeli bombardment over the past two months. That put an end to the show, and has alsomeanthecannolonger leave Gaza andreturntothe lifehehas builtin Germany. Alghariz spent the frst few days of the war hunkered down in the same refugee camp, alNuseirat,that he grew up in, but then decided to make use of his skills. He is a pioneer of Gaza’s hip-hop scene, having taught dancers for years, and is also a qualifed trauma counsellor. He went into the schools that are hostinghundredsofthousandsof Gaza’sdisplacedtoputonshows. Heandhis friendsnotonlyentertain the children but take them through exercises designed to help them handle the trauma they’vebeenleftwithbythewar. Alghariz and the team try to keep going, even as the war has live. She carried a headdress in her luggage, a mark of great respectinIndigenous symbolism and culture. “It took a long time for us to have the ministry,” she said. “How did we wait so long without reacting and having Indigenous people in charge?” Andrei Netto The South Sudanese refugee displaced by war again In May, I met Elizabeth Mayik in Renk, a town on the White Nile innorth-easternSouthSudan. A monthearlier,Mayik,63,hadfed Khartoum,theSudanesecapital, whenviolencebetweenthearmy and the paramilitary erupted. Shewas strandedattheportof thisborder town,hopingtogeton a boat to Malakal. The heat was agonising. Food and water were scarce, and Mayik had spentthe last of her money to get here. For thesecondtimeinher life, warhadforcedher toleaveeverything behind. But she remained calmandhopeful as shecontemplated what she would do when she reached Malakal. She would start all over again. She is among more than 400,000 South Sudanese who have returned since the start of the Sudan confictin April. Mayik’s grace struck me. This South Sudanese woman in her 60s, smiling at an uncertain future, seemed more powerfulthan the men who had ruined her life. Florence Miettaux in Juba ! Campaigner Raquel Fortun battles for drug victims ! Making moves The Camps Breakerz Crew in Gaza ! Stranded Elizabeth Mayik is fleeing war again ! Rights fight Omar van Reenen in Namibia

TheGuardianWeekly 22December2023 32 2023 SCIENCE How many species are there on Earth? “How many species of animals do we share the planet with? Estimates range from 3 million to as many as 100 million, and there’s not much sign that we are converging on an answer.” Prof Andy Purvis is a researcher at the Natural History Museum I’d go back 540m years to see the ‘biological big bang’ “As an evolutionary biologist, I would love a time machine to go back to the Cambrian explosion [when most major animal groups frst appeared in the fossil record]to see why this short period resulted in the really rapid rise of most animal groups, and why some like trilobites [extinct marine arthropods] didn’t survive.” Evolutionary biologist Dr Corrie Moreau is an expert on ants at Cornell University’s Moreau lab Could some of the smallest life forms help avert climate crisis? “Just as we humans rely on gut microbiomes for good digestive health,the dirt beneath our feet contains an uncountable number of bacteria,fungi and viruses thatinfuence the health of soil and the plants that grow in it. Because most ofthese organisms can’t be cultured in the lab, we know very little abouttheir ecology. Yetthe presence of particular microbes can help trees grow up to three times faster. Could these ‘good microbes’ be allies in fghting climate change and promoting food security?” Dr Bonnie Waring is a senior lecturer at Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute What is the full biodiversity of the Amazon or Congo basin rainforests? “I’d love to understand the full diversity in a tiny area of tropical rainforest – like 100 by 100 metres: how many species live there or pass through,their interactions with one another, how old they are, where they came from. Besides the scientifc insights this would give us, I hope this would help convince people ofthe extreme complexity and value of ecosystems assembled over millennia – and that protecting what we have leftis always a better choice than destroying and trying to restore later.” Prof Alexandre Antonelli is the director of science at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew How do animals affect Earth? “How do animals shape the appearance and function of ecosystems? We know they do in some well-publicised ways, such as pollination or the dispersal of seeds, butthere are many subtle ways – such as the cycling of nutrients,the selective eating of plants,the intricate webs of predators and prey – that are poorly understood but constantly surprising. Justlast month, I learned that spiders determine where plants grow and ecosystems recover after a volcanic eruption by catching seeds in their webs. And ultimately, how much does this animal infuence matter at the biome or global level? How much do animals shape the workings of planet Earth?” Yadvinder Malhi is a professor of ecosystem science at the University of Oxford What will happen to the Gulf Stream? “IfI had to know one thing that is uncertain, itis whether, and if so when,the Gulf Stream will shut down abruptly, completely changing Europe’s climate, causing a drastic drop in temperatures – with potentially catastrophic impacts on water and food security – while the rest ofthe planet bakes because of climate change.” Sir Robert Watson is one of the UK’s most distinguished climate scientists EC OL O G Y Greatunknowns Hugequestions remain unansweredabout life onEarth.Weasked leadingscientistsand conservationists:what is theonethingyou wouldliketoknow about theplanet that remainsamystery? By Patrick Greenfeld Illustration by MARK LONG Do universal rules govern how plants and animals evolve? “Organisms from very diferent ancestry (including animals and plants) seem to follow a limited number of general ‘styles’.What are the general rules governing the way they are ‘puttogether’, and what makes some styles much more successful on Earth than others? If such rules exist, are they the same for animals and plants?” Sandra Myrna Diaz is professor of ecology atthe National University of Córdoba, Argentina How many humans could Earth support? “Atthe current rate, it will take only 10 years to add another 1 billion people to the planet. We are already witnessing the devastating impact of unsustainable human population growth. If we are to live in balance, health and harmony with nature, how many more people willthe Earth be able to accommodate?” Dr Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka was Uganda’s frst wildlife vet and is a conservation pioneer Which species will adapt to the climate crisis? “What are the limits of species adaptation and why? We know that climate is changing and species are adapting but we don’t understand whatthe limits are and why they vary. Which species will failto adapt quickly enough and at what point? Which will adapt and fourish – and what determines these responses? What can we as a society do to help species to adapt? These are fundamental questions,the answers to which will determine what the natural world looks like in the future, but which also give profound insights into how biology works and evolves.” Sir Patrick Vallance is the former UK government chief scientifc adviser and chair of the Natural History Museum’s board of trustees PATRICK GREENFIELD IS A BIODIVERSITY AND ENVIRONMENT REPORTER FOR THE GUARDIAN

33 Tina Turner Page 34 ! Harry Belafonte Page 34 ! Martin Amis Page 35 ! Jane Birkin Page 36 ! Benjamin Zephaniah Page 37 ! BarryHumphries Page 37 ! Glenda Jackson Page 38 ! Bobby Charlton Page 38 ! Milan Kundera Page 39 ! Burt Bacharach Page 39 ! 2023 THOSE WE LOST Parting words Friends paytribute tofamous lives lost thisyear ! Singing legend Tina Turner, pictured in 1969 JACK ROBINSON /HULTON/GETTY

TheGuardianWeekly 22December2023 34 2023 THOSE WE LOST fewweeksbeforeImetTina Turner in 1982, I saw her playing inLondon.I was a bigfan.EventhoughIwas known for making electronic music, River Deep, Mountain High was my favourite song. But back then, she didn’t have a recording contract. The only way she could earn money independently wasbydoingwhattheycalledthe chicken-in-abasket circuitin America,touring her old hits. How I got involved was like an alignment of the stars. I’d been putting together an album of old songs reframed in new contexts and James Brown had just backed out at the last minute – or, rather, his lawyers had. So there I was in the Virgin Records ofce, wondering who on earth was going to sing the Temptations’ Ball of Confusion, and the head of A&R, who knew Tina’s newmanager,RogerDavies,overheardme.The next minute, [Heaven 17’s] Glenn Gregory and I were fying out to LA to meet her, literally in her front room. Tina was as sweet as she could possibly be, making us tea and bringing out biscuits. She seemed quite easy with herself, which is amazing given what she’d been through in the very recent past[she divorced her abusive husband, Ike, in 1978]. She didn’t volunteer lots, but she didn’t avoid it either. She told me a couple of difcult things about Ike beating her, and the level of his cocaine addiction – how he’d pour a pileofitinthe studioandsay everyone couldn’t leave until it was fnished; how the only person who took it was him. Being in the studio with her was incredible from the start. The frsttime she walked in, she just walked to where the band was and got on with the job. We recorded Ball of Confusion and later, [her 1983 comeback single] Let’s Stay Together, which I produced, both in one take. The only way I can describe those experiences is that it was like hearing a record you already knew well being made – she was that good. You justknew,oh,we’vecreatedsomethingherethat will live for ever. When we played on [Channel 4 music show] TheTubewithTina[in1983],her longexperience • 26 NOVEMBER 1939 • 24 MAY 2023 By Martyn Ware The producer and Heaven17 musicianrecalls thehumble star who gavehim tea and biscuits, and who could record ahit track inone take Tina Turner Harry Belafonte • 1 MARCH 1927 • 25 APRIL 2023 By David Lammy The Labour MP remembers the singer, actor and activist as a pioneeringfgure For me, growing up in the 1970s in inner-city London, there were a few black American global fgures that entered your life and just brought so much colour and vibrancy. And I only now understand this as an adult, but my parents came alive too. Our parochial existence became so much bigger at these moments. And there were only a handful of people who could do that: Sidney Poitier, the Jackson Five and Diana Ross. And then there was the singer and actor Harry Belafonte. His music would have taken my parents back to village life in the Caribbean. It was a backdrop to that Windrush era. So for me to meet him, when he came to the UK in summer 2012, was really special. Harry was in his 80s then but, oh my God, his use of language. You were in the room not just with him, but with Paul Robeson, with Maya Angelou, with James Baldwin. When I heard Harry had died, I put his songs on. I just thought: what a life. What a great life lived • of being live on stage and TV was obvious so quickly. She knew how to work every camera angle, andI realisedthatherhumilitywas a large part of her ability to connect with an audience on a gigantic scale. She wanted to have a direct personal connection with every single person watching her concert, or at home watching her on a small screen. You could see her looking outfor them. She askedus to write some songs forhernext album,whichiswhatbecame[themultimillionselling]PrivateDancer.We couldn’tbecauseour headswerealreadyreallyinsideournextproject, andwewereprettydauntedbytheideaofwriting forher too.We suggestedcovers forher instead, likeDavidBowie’s 1984,whichshedidbrilliantly. It was clear that Tina wanted to stretch herself andtrytoappropriate thepowerofwhat – before her – was the very masculine trope of rock’n’roll.Andshedidit.Shealsodiditwithout getting involved in celebrity culture or any selfaggrandising, unlike so many pop stars today. She didn’t occupy many column inches. She bypassed that entire machinery. People were just drawn to her regardless. We kept in touch over the years. Our last meeting was in 2018, at the start of the world premiereofTina,themusical.It was very sadas shewasn’twell.Butbefore that,I sawherpenultimate gig attheO2 inLondonin2009. Shedida two-and-a-half-hour full-onshow,dancing and singing.I couldn’tbelieveherenergyatnearly70 yearsold– andlater Ifoundout she’dhadthefu. I’mincrediblyproudtohavebeenpartofthat journeyasoneofhundredsofpeoplewhohelped her.I stillhaveher letters.Funnilyenough,Roger Davies’s ofce got in touch the other day – they wantedtosendaletter fromher tomethatthey’d found recently. I betit’s a good one • PHIL RAMEY/AP; GENE KORNMAN/20TH CENTURY FOX/ KOBAL/SHUTTERSTOCK; MURDO MACLEOD

22December2023 TheGuardianWeekly 35 ttheendofthe1980s,when I was appointed books editor at the Irish Times, my predecessor urged me to pop over to London for a couple of days, stay at a nice hotel, have a couple of good dinners, pay my respects to some counterparts, and call in on a few publishers.The jauntturnedoutmoreof an embarrassmentthananythingelse, sincehalfthe people I spoke to were bafed why I was there, while the other half were trying notto laugh. To salvage something from the debacle I decided I should meet at least one writer. So I phoned Martin Amis – how did I have his number? – and suggested lunch. Weorderedwine,andpassed10minutes inthe usual smalltalk–howparsimoniousourpublisherswere,howuselessour agents, andhowcould thelatestNobelprizehavegonetothattalentless mediocrity. Gradually we lapsed into silence. This would not do. I hit on a bold démarche. “Look, Martin,” I said, “let’s agree on something.Whenyoupublishabestsellerorwin a prize, I hate you for it, and I’m sure the same holds for you in regards to me. Right?” He agreed. We were friends for life. Over lunch we found that our literary tastes wereremarkablysimilar.TentativelyImentioned his father.HewasproudofKingsleyasanovelist, and loved him unreservedly as a father. Years later, on the day of Kingsley’s death, he phoned me in a state of shock. He had not expected, he said,tobesobereft.I remindedhimofKingsley’s whollycharacteristicobservationthatthegreatest gift a father can give his son is to die young. “Ah,yes,”Martinsaid. “Toolateforme,then.” I was sad when he moved to America, but I knewitwas therightthingforhimtodo.Hecame over to Ireland on a few occasions. I encountered him again in Borris, County Carlow, atViv Guinness’s festival of writing and ideas.Itwasplainthathishealthwas failing,but hewas inamellowmood.Tothoseofus fortunate enoughtoknowhimnotonlyonthepagebutalso awayfromit,hewasdelightful, courteous,funny and,yes,lovable.Hewas alsoanartistwhoinhis way defned the age he lived in • • 25 AUGUST 1949 • 19 MAY 2023 By John Banville A fellow writer recalls thefrst lunchand last meeting withthe courteous and funny man who sealed their friendship withahandshake Martin Amis

TheGuardianWeekly 22December2023 36 2023 THOSE WE LOST JaneBirkin • 14 DECEMBER 1946 • 16 JULY 2023 By Charlotte Rampling Theyfrst met ona 1960s Londonflm set, settled in France and led parallellives Jane and I were contemporaries. Born the same year, 1946. We had the same kind of upbringing too – we were pretty girls living in London in the 60s, enjoying free love and new ideas. We were so much freer than our parents. Our frst flm was the same one [Richard Lester’s 1965 flm, The Knack … and How to Get It], but I identifed with Jane more after we had both landed in France. We’d bump into each other around town, and I’d often go to Jane’s shows. I liked that we were the English girls in Paris. Through the years, we’d send messages to each other. I remember her saying she’d named [her daughter] Charlotte after me. Jane was a public fgure in France, but she was always humble about it. She kept that image of herself as a beautiful baby doll with Serge [Gainsbourg, her partner from 1968 to 1980] writing songs for her. She remained so British, never trying to get rid of that lovely accent. Jane had been unwell for a long time, but she never stopped wanting to fnd expression. She had an extraordinary sense of survival up until the end. We met by chance at the Paris Opera just before she died, in the foyer of the Palais Garnier. Ours was the kind of friendship where you hold the person in your heart, you bump into each other now and again, you move on but you watch out quietly for each other • REPORTERS ASSOCIÉS/GAMMA-RAPHO/GETTY; MURDO MACLEOD; EAMONN MCCABE

22December2023 TheGuardianWeekly 37 enjamin Zephaniah has appeared at really pivotal points of my life, either in personor throughhiswork. The frst memory I have of him was in the early 1990s when my parents took me to an anti-apartheid demonstrationinParliament Square.Benjamin addressed the crowd through a red-and-white megaphone.I can’t remember thepoemhe read out, but he kept saying: “Open up your mind,” and my dad, who had me on his shoulders, was repeating it. Seeing someone on the stage who resembledmembersofmyJamaicanfamily,who was taking a stance for peace and justice, had a huge impact on me. When I was 11 and had just started in a deaf school,mymumgavemeBenjamin’syoungadult novelFace.I remember reading thewhole thing inonego.Iwasveryself-consciousaboutwearing hearingaidsandIneededstories thathumanised disability, as Face did.I was still struggling with my literacy at the time, and I understood Benjamin as someone who was self-taught and had beenmarginalisedwithintheeducationsystem. Andsohereallyfeltlikeanambassador foryoung people like me. The first time I properly spoke to him was about 12 years ago when I was invited to read at an event at Keats House called The Roast of Benjamin Zephaniah. It was funny because I had no idea what a roast was, so everyoneelsegotupandcritiquedhimandmade funofhim, andthenI gotupandreadthis really earnest poem. Some people were saying that his poetry was elementary, that it wouldn’t stand the test of time. I’ll never forget Benjamin’s response. He said: “Look, I’m not trying to live for ever, but as long as my poetry outlives your opinions, I’m fne.” My contact with him was mainly mediated through friends. My mentor, Hannah Lowe, workedwithhimatBrunelUniversity, andoften I’d say: “I wonder what Benjamin would do,” and she’d say: “I’ll ask him.” So it was almost like talking through a wall, communicating by osmosis. I thought it would be only a matter of • 15 APRIL 1958 • 7 DECEMBER 2023 By Raymond Antrobus The poet recallshis inspirationalhero, a writer of power and integrity who turned downan OBEbut revelled inthe love ofhis readers Benjamin Zephaniah time before someone put us on a billtogether. I completely took that for granted, so it’s such a shock that he’s not in the world any more. I’m stilltrying to make sense ofit. When I met him at Keats House, I got very gushyabouthim, andhewas justlike: “Ohdon’t worry about that, I’m just doing my thing.” He brushed it of. But Benjamin really did feel the love from people. He really did. Often people don’t get their fowers when they’re alive, but Benjamin really got his fowers, and he smelled them all day long. He pushed a few of them away as well, like when he turned down an OBE. It was an opportunity for him to say something, and what he said was that he was profoundly anti-empire. It’s such a powerful message. I will say that he never judged the Black people who did accept it, as long as they knew what they were doing. LemnSissayhasdonesomeincredibleworkwith his honours, and I’m trying to do the same. So Benjamin’s always been on my shoulder, he’s always been someone I can reach through the wallfor guidance. Ithinkhe’llberememberedasapoetofjustice, ofpeace,ofpeoplepower – as someonewhowas profoundly principled and lovable and full of soulful integrity. For me, Benjamin has been a sounding board, a model, a shrine, a cultural touchpoint throughout my entire life. If I had a poetry father, it really was him • Barry Humphries • 17 FEBRUARY 1934 • 22 APRIL 2023 By Melvyn Brag The broadcaster recalls a true original who became DameEdna and Sir Les I became aware of Barry in the early 1960s, through the comic strip he wrote for Private Eye [The Wonderful World of Barry McKenzie]. I met him soon afterwards. He was a very charming man with a little edge that you had to watch out for. There was a genius to characters like Dame Edna and Les Patterson. Barry wasn’t a mimic or an actor. He inhabited these people. As Les, he was suddenly this hilariously horrible person, and when he got on stage as Edna, he felt unlicensed. He could be cruel, but you had to ride with it, and of course, it was very funny at the same time. He gauged how far he could go by the reception he was getting. If it was going well, he pushed it further. He was a perfectly ordinary, nice bloke, but when he went into being somebody it was like fipping a coin. I don’t think he was in control of it. He just let it rip. I last saw him a few years ago. He was in his suit, the normal Barry Humphries – but you knew you had to watch your step•

TheGuardianWeekly 22December2023 38 2023 THOSE WE LOST oliticians love it when they become celebrities. Rarely do celebrities aspire to be politicians. Glenda Jackson was the exception in British public life. Far more acclaimed as an actor than other notable actors turned politicians, Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and having won the kind of awards (two Oscars, three Emmy awards and a Tony) of which they could only dream, she never traded, as they did, on stage and flm success for political advantage. Yes, you knew her theatrical skills when you heard her singingherwaythroughthe corridorsofpower after • 9 MAY 1936 • 15 JUNE 2023 By Gordon Brown The former UK prime minister recalls the actor and fellow Labour MP, a campaigner who never exploited fame to advanceher career Glenda Jackson her election in 1992. But her parliamentary and political speeches never contained anecdotes aboutHollywoodandflmstars,whichshecould haveusedtoherbeneft.ForGlendanever forgot where she came from, how tough her upbringing in Birkenhead had been, and how, for her, the purpose of being in public life was notto be a someone butto do something, in particular to alleviate the hardships of others. I knew Glenda the MP after she had given up stage and screen for parliament but it was clear to me thatthere were nottwo Glenda Jacksons. The Glenda Jackson who brilliantly portrayed Elizabeth I, was a masterful King Lear, and won AcademyAwards forWomeninLoveandATouch of Class approached her work as an MP with the sameseriousness,thesameprofessionalismand the same values she had applied to her stage and flm career, never forgetting she had been brought up in a northern, industrial town and knew whatit was like to be hard up and to have to work every hour to keep the wolf from the door. Other MPs may have dressed for show. If anything,Glendawantedtodemonstrateparliament was not showbusiness but like any other ordinary, working environment. She eschewed glamour and was businesslike in all she did. I doubt if she enjoyed being minister for transport, apost sheheldfrom1997 to1999, and she certainlyopposedthe 2003 Iraqwar fromits start, but she would have been a brilliant mayor ofLondon, apost she soughtbutnotdidobtain. I remember visiting her Hampstead and Highgate constituency on the eve of the 2010 generalelection,aseat shehadwonfromtheConservatives in 1992 and retained in 2010 with only thenarrowestofmajorities,42votes.Itwasmylast visit after 12 hours of campaigning. And in a pub, fullofherenthusiasticsupporters,Iwitnessedthe extraordinary pride local party members had in her, which created an electrifying atmosphere as memorable as any Academy Awards night. Glendaservedas“Ham&High”MPfor23years, survivingaredrawingofboundaries in2005that might have lost any other Labour candidate the seat.Andafter retiringsheresumedastagecareer thatevenattheageof80wonheryetmoreawards forher titleperformance of KingLear inLondon and Broadway, and Three Tall Women in New York.Her lastflm,withMichaelCaine,TheGreat Escaper,isalovestorysetamidalifegroundedin patriotic service. I am sure posthumous awards for her spell-binding acting will follow. But she shouldbelongremembered,too,forher23years ofpublic serviceinWestminster.Howironic that ittook anactor to demonstrate thatthe purpose of politics is not to be a celebrity but to do great work in the service ofthe people you represent. While some politicians are rightly criticised for merely acting the part, strutting the boards of public life as a stage for theirownadvancement, Glenda Jacksonshowedhow,whentreatedseriously, politics is about service, action and the collective advancement of social justice • Bobby Charlton • 11 OCTOBER 1937 • 21 OCTOBER 2023 By Giles Duley The photographer remembers a football legend and campaigner Sir Bobby Charlton frst got in touch with me after I came out of hospital in 2012. He had returned from a visit to Cambodia with a charity that campaigned on removing landmines, and had been very moved. He set up a charity of his own, now called the Sir Bobby Charlton Foundation, focused on how to speed up the process of de-mining, technological advances and so on. The charity had heard my story [Duley was blown up by a landmine while working in Afghanistan, resulting in catastrophic injuries] and invited me to be an ambassador. Over the years, I’ve met a lot of famous people, and they all had a kind of awe for him. Some of that was to do with the fact that he was a survivor of the Munich air crash. I think that was probably why he was drawn to the landmines charity. One thing we did talk about was survivor’s guilt, which we both felt. There was always a sense of, I don’t know if sadness is the right word, more like him being subdued • JACK ROBINSON/HULTON/GETTY; DAILY MAIL/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK; MICHAEL OCHS/GETTY; AFP/GETTY

22December2023 TheGuardianWeekly 39 Burt Bacharach • 12 MAY 1928 • 8 FEBRUARY 2023 By Elvis Costello The musicianrecalls a giant of Americansong – whose timeless melodies live on My musical curiosity began with the comical bassoon on Perry Como’s version of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David song Magic Moments, playing on the radio in 1958. Bacharach’s collaboration with David from that time until 1973 gave the world more songs than anyone can sing in one evening, perhaps a week of evenings. This was the man who wrote Walk On By, The Look of Love, A House Is Not a Home, I Say a Little Prayer. His music is sometimes blandly labelled “easy listening” because of its restraint. In truth, it can be exacting, employing uneven time signatures. From 1995 until just a few weeks before Burt’s passing, we wrote more than 30 songs together. Burt’s collaborations with his third wife, Carole Bayer Sager, would have to take the Oscar role over my slim folio of co-written songs. But while Burt’s life and work ran alongside so many innovations in popular song, his was always an instantly recognisable musical voice. He was once and for always • ilan Kundera would often repeat to me that life is “a conspiracy of coincidences”.In his case, fate had seen him born on 1 April, and he was convinced that this had had “a profound metaphysical infuence” on him. Indeed, one only has to look at his oeuvre: from his frst novel, The Joke, to his last, The Festival of Insignifcance, all of his books feature the jocular, the lighthearted. Which doesn’t stop them from combining mischievousness with great depth and great lucidity – not to mention melancholy, the renowned Czech lítost! He must have thought it was a joke, that day Iinvitedhimto appear inaTVprogramme I was presenting,alongsidemyworkatLeMonde.He’d laughed in my face. After the global success of TheUnbearableLightnessofBeing(1984),hehad stoppedappearing inpublic.Heusedtosaythat he’d“hadanoverdoseofhimself”.InEncounter, a collection of his essays, he describes a ghastly mediaspectacleinwhichself-satisfedcelebrities laugh very loudly for no reason. Being discreet was his brand of elegance. So, no TV. “ButI could give you some pieces, now and then, for Le Monde des Livres,” he’d told me. And that’s what he did. We would often drink vodka at the Lutetia hotel, close to his home in Paris. That’s how we became friends – frst Milan, then Vera, his wife (formerly a journalistin Czechoslovakia: it was she who, in 1968, announced the arrival of Russian tanks in Prague). Kunderadidn’tlike talkingabouthis life. “It’s allinmybooks,”hewouldsay.Mostofhisnovels arevariationsonhis favourite themes: relations between men and women, memory,forgetting, and history, of course … He often told me that communism had captivated him “as much as Picasso and surrealism”. In the 60s, he had believed in the Prague Spring. He remained forever wounded by its crushing. In his essays The Art of the Novel and Testaments Betrayed, Kundera refected on the art ofthe novel sinceCervantes. To add his own • 1 APRIL 1929 • 11 JULY 2023 By Florence Noiville The editor and journalist recalls the Czechoslovakiannovelist as a deep political thinker and mischievous dinner companion Milan Kundera contribution, he invented what he called the “archiroman”, amalleableformofthenovelthat embraced fragments of all other genres. In this way,the novel becomes a space for experimentation that reveals something of human nature to us, something we did not want to know. He should have gotthe Nobel prize. When he left Czechoslovakia in 1975, to teach in Rennes, he thought it was just for a few years. But even after the fall of the Berlin Wall, he never returned to live in his country of origin. This weighed on him towards the end of his life. He wanted to go back to Brno, but knew that he wouldn’t necessarily be welcome there. First, he’d gone into exile, then he’d changed language, abandoningCzechtowrite inFrench. Adoublebetrayalinthe eyesofhis compatriots, particularlyVáclavHavelandhisentourage,who didn’t much like him. Sometimes I would visit Milan and Vera in Le Touquet, in the Pas-de-Calais, where they hadanapartmentfacingthe sea.Wewouldhead to the countryside nearby to chew on the frogs’ legs at agourmet restaurantMilanloved,LaGrenouillère.We wouldtalk of allthatMitteleuropa had brought to the rest of Europe. And already he would draw attention to Russia’s eternally expansionist aims. Milan always drew a lot. Before his death, he sent me and my husband a drawing of a gangling creature dancing on the surface of the globe, with the caption: “Florence, Martin, au revoir!” His drawings are often enigmatic and mischievous. Like his writings, they refect the laughablecomplexityoftheworld.WhenIthink of him, I think of one of his favourite sayings, theFrenchversionoftheYiddishproverb“Man plans, God laughs”, which he’d often fall back on: “L’homme pense, Dieu rit.” •

TheGuardianWeekly 22December2023 ! Pedro Pardo is an Agence France-Presse staff photographer covering China and Mongolia, as well as his home country, Mexico, in 2023. This image shows a student practising contortionism in Ulaanbaatar ▲ Evelyn Hockstein is a senior staff photographer at Reuters based in Washington, who also covers international stories. This image shows the aftermath of a Hamas attack on an Israeli kibbutz ! Mario Tama is a Getty staff photographer from Rio de Janeiro, based in Los Angeles, California. This image shows the effects of a landslide this March in San Clemente, California, after weeks of rains ! Mohammed Salem is a Palestinian photojournalist for Reuters, based in the Gaza Strip. His picture shows a Palestinian boy carrying a baby at the site of an Israeli strike in Rafah in southern Gaza " Leon Neal is a staff editorial photographer with Getty, covering news and features in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Here festivalgoers arrive on the first day of this summer’s Glastonbury festival ANEYE ONTHE WORLD TheGuardian agencyphotographs of theyear Ourpicture-editing teamhighlights the workof a selection ofphotojournalists, workingfornews agenciesworldwide, whoseimageshave stoodoutthisyear 2023 EYEWITNESS

22December2023 TheGuardianWeekly ! Luis Tato is a Spanish photojournalistfor Agence FrancePresse, based in Nairobi, Kenya. We published his photo story on the Nutcracker ballet production. This image was taken backstage at a fashion show

TheGuardianWeekly 22December2023 ▲ Angelos Tzortzinis is a Greek documentary photographer based in Athens and a regular contributor to Agence France-Presse. Here a woman enters the sea from a beach where wildfires destroyed woods at Glystra near the village of Gennadi in the south of the Greek island of Rhodes in July ! Alina Smutko is a Ukrainian photographer who works primarily in the Crimea and Donbas region and post-Soviet countries for Reuters. Here people shelter in a Kyiv subway station during an air raid alert

22December2023 TheGuardianWeekly ! Lillian Suwanrumpha 43 is a Thai-American photographer based in Bangkok, working for Agence France-Presse. Here a tourist takes a selfie on a beach as a plane lands at Phuket airport, Thailand ▼ Fatima Shbair is an Associated Press staff photojournalist based in Gaza who has covered the rising tension in the region and the Israel-Hamas war. This image shows an airstrike on Gaza City on 8 October ▲ Isabel Infantes is a freelance photographer working for PA Media, Reuters, AFP and Getty. Her image shows England’s Alessia Russo in the World Cup quarter-final " Alishia Abodunde is a freelance photographer in London who produced fine work for Reuters in 2023. Her image shows Ruth Essel, 30, founder of Pointe Black ballet school, posing for a picture with her students Maya, Kalani, Dior and Kioni as they gather to watch a musical at Essel’s flat in London

Opinion TheGuardianWeekly 22December2023 44 Letters for publication weekly.letters@ theguardian.com — Please include a full postal address and a reference to the article. We may edit letters. Submission and publication of all letters is subject to our terms and conditions, see: THEGUARDIAN.COM/ LETTERS-TERMS Editorial Editor: Graham Snowdon Guardian Weekly, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU, UK To contact the editor directly: editorial.feedback @theguardian.com Corrections Our policy is to correct signifcant errors as soon as possible. Please write to guardian. readers@ theguardian.com or the readers’ editor, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU, UK W R I T E T O U S Australia has already hit the 1.5C climate limit Jonathan Watts asks: “What happens ifthe 1.5C targetis missed?” (Spotlight, 15 December). According to the report State ofthe Climate 2022, Australia’s climate had warmed by 1.47 ± 0.24C since national records began in 1910. In other words, Australia has, within the margin of error, already passed the 1.5C target. Australia may be isolated from the rest ofthe world by oceans, seas and straits, but its atmosphere is not isolated. Ittherefore seems likely thatthe world may pass 1.5C sooner than many, if not most, experts expect. Dr Douglas Mackenzie Canberra, ACT, Australia How the Tories have made the UK so unwelcoming I am so angry and ashamed ofthe UK government (Sunak under pressure, UK report, 15 December). Its new policy on immigration, if it had been in place in 1946, would have excluded my Dutch mother from moving here to be with my late dad. So me and my three siblings might never have existed. My late husband would never have been allowed to settle here in the 1970s. So my two children would not have existed. My son is married to a Spanish woman. She saw this horror coming, so she applied for UK citizenship at great cost. All my siblings,their kids and mine feeltotally betrayed and resentful ofthis country now, and I wish that my parents had decided to settle elsewhere in 1946. This government has trashed allthatis good and kind and inclusive about my home country. Nicola Badger Chagford, England, UK • My parents came to the UK in the 1950s, on a boat, from Holland. They had virtually no money. My father fnished his theology studies and became a clergyman in Barry, south Wales. When I was born in 1959,the Tory MP for Barry, Sir Raymond Gower, sent my parents a letter to congratulate them. Itreasure this little oddity. I cannot but wonder whatthe likes of Suella Braverman, Priti Patel, Robert Jenrick, Rishi Sunak et al would make of such a thoughtful missive, suggestive of a kindness and welcome thatis nowhere to be found in the Tory party oftoday. Peter Kaan Exeter, England, UK • Satirists must be in despair. How can they compete with the Tory government, which is now putting fantasy into legislation? It being Christmas, maybe itis time for them to pass a motion that Father Christmas really lives at the north pole before the chance passes. Michael McLoughlin London, England, UK Benjamin Zephaniah and his appeal to students In my work in adult education, I’ve found that students love Benjamin Zephaniah’s writing (Deaths, 15 December). Some years ago, Itook a group of students to a performance of his poetry. In an upstairs room above a bookshop, people flled the room, sitting on the foor, on windowsills, on one another’s shoulders. This feltlike being at a party, with food and drinks provided and Zephaniah happy to chat and pose for photographs. Earlier this year, I discussed with students his poem WhatIf. While the Kipling original left them cold,they delighted in Zephaniah’s reworking, its naming ofthe corruption and lies that abound in society. Hilary Nightingale West Molesey, England, UK The valuable lesson of waste not, want not Chip Colwell (Too much stuf, 8 December) makes a powerful argumentfor reducing consumption, butIthink he misses an important possibility for gift giving. Why not ask to receive only donations to charities? There are more than enough to choose from and the need for support grows bigger every year. Juliet Flesch Kew, Victoria, Australia All Tim is saying is give pigs a chance Tragic events in the Middle East(History lessons, Spotlight, 8 December) remind me ofthe wonderful Tim Minchin song Peace Anthem for Palestine: If you don’t eat pigs and we don’t eat pigs Why not not eat pigs together? Stella Martin Cairns, Queensland, Australia A caption for a picture of Dubai’s Moon World resort in a Cop28 story should have clarifed that this was an artist’s rendering as it hasn’t been built yet (Big story, 8 December). A feature on chimpanzees in Sweden said attendance at Furuvik zoo this summer was down 31% from last summer; it should have said 25%. And a reference to Torsten “running around in distress” should have been removed as it was unverifed (15 December). C OR R EC T IONS Letters Edith Pritchett A W E E K I N V E N N DI AGR A M S

22December2023 TheGuardianWeekly 45 Commentis free, facts are sacred CP Scott1918 The only way to end this war is for Biden to force Netanyahu out Jonathan Freedland ! GEORGE MONBIOT The shameful truthabout meatfarming Page48+ I SR A E L / U N I T E D STAT E S CARL COURT/GETTY; GUARDIAN DESIGN

Opinion TheGuardianWeekly 22December2023 46 oe Biden’s bond with Israel and the Jewish people runs so deep he is said to feel itin his kishkes (that’s “guts”,for the non-Yiddish speakers among you). Biden demonstrated that early in the current crisis by visiting Israel within days ofthe 7 October massacre, which saw 1,200 Israelis, most ofthem civilians, killed, many tortured and mutilated. He demonstrated it again, just as swiftly, with the dispatch oftwo US aircraft carriers to the region, aimed at deterring Hezbollah and its Iranian backers from attacking Israel from the north – his one-word message: “Don’t.” And he showed it once more this month, wielding the US veto atthe United Nations – making Washington all but a lone voice against the global chorus demanding thatIsrael end its ofensive in Gaza, which has left so many thousands dead. Butthere is one last act of service Biden needs to perform for the sake ofthe Israel he has stood with so long, a task he is uniquely able to execute. He must push Benjamin Netanyahu from power – and do all he can to ensure he does not return. Right now,the focus of US-Israeli relations is on the clock, on how long Washington will give its ally – which it arms – to pursue its stated goal of defeating Hamas, even atthe cost of terrible death and destruction in Gaza. Hints that Biden’s patience is wearing thin are getting louder. Last week he warned thatIsrael is “starting to lose [international] support by the indiscriminate bombing thattakes place”. The signals are thatIsrael has untilthe middle or end of January to keep up whatthe White House calls “high-intensity military operations”. After that, it will have to move to “a diferent phase” – one that consists offocused,targeted raids on Hamas strongholds, with fewer civilian casualties. But Biden needs to go much further. He needs to confront Netanyahu – and win. There are multiple reasons why Biden should want Netanyahu out, but start with what happens in Gaza the day after Hamas rule ends. The Israeli leader says he will not countenance any involvement by the Palestinian Authority in running Gaza, notleast because that’s what the US is pushing for. But his refusal amounts to ruling outinvolving any Palestinians at all in running Gaza. If it’s not Hamas and it’s not Fatah,the movementthat dominates the authority,there’s no other substantial Palestinian group left. By opposing Biden’s plan, Netanyahu implies thatthe only acceptable options for Gaza are rule by a coalition of Arab states – which don’t wantthe job, and would certainly refuse it without Palestinian participation – or reoccupation by Israel. One is implausible,the other unacceptable. Netanyahu’s position is thatIsrael cannot entertain anything thatlooks like a step toward Palestinian statehood. Witness the remarks of Tzipi Hotovely,the Israeli ambassador to the UK – handpicked for the post by Netanyahu – who last week said “absolutely no” to the prospect of a Palestinian state. That stance blows apart a central defence ofIsrael’s current strategy:thatit has to remove Hamas in order to make possible an eventual accommodation with the Palestinian people, in the form ofthe two-state solution. Given that Netanyahu is on trial on corruption charges that could put him in jail, he is desperate to cling to the job that will keep him out. And so he behaves in ways that damage his country but which, he believes, will help him. He devotes precious time and energy to ensuring it is Israel’s military and intelligence chiefs who get blamed for the appalling failures that made 7 October possible – even though the evidence is stark that he himself ignored the warnings of “a clear and present danger” that were putin front of him. And he has sat back as members of his far-right coalition make unspeakable threats – calling for Gaza to be erased or burned – and while his security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has a conviction on terrorism charges, hands out weapons to his fellow extremists. All ofthis is a disaster for Palestinians, but also for Israel as it seeks to maintain the international support Biden rightly said itis losing. Netanyahu stands by and does nothing,too frightened ofthe hard right he needs in order to keep his coalition from breaking apart – and whose votes he wants when elections come, which may be soon. Thatis the heart ofthe matter. Israel is led by a man who is fghting only for himself. Which is why one ofthe heroes of 7 October, retired general Noam Tibon – now famous for grabbing a weapon, jumping in his car and heading down south to rescue his son, daughter-inlaw and grandchildren from the Hamas men who were poised to killthem – told me: “Benjamin Netanyahu is a huge danger to the state of Israel. While he is in the prime minister’s chair, we cannot win this war.” Biden has no afection for Netanyahu; before 7 October, he refused even to grant him a White House meeting. In the 1990s Bill Clinton took on Netanyahu and won. He pushed him into peace talks and to sign agreements Netanyahu didn’tlike – safe in the knowledge thatthe Israeli public understood that he, Clinton, was acting out of friendship, not hostility. As Anshel Pfefer, columnistfor Israel’s liberal daily Haaretz, pointed outlast week, when Netanyahu eventually faced the voters in 1999, he lost – to a candidate committed to pursuing peace with the Palestinians. The times are diferent now. But Biden has a power to infuence events matched by no one else. He should hear the cry ofthe families ofthe hostages held by Hamas, who carry placards bearing a simple message: “Save Israel from Netanyahu.” Biden might be the one person who can heed that plea and act on it. He must • Netanyahustandsby anddoesnothing,too frightenedofthehard rightheneeds tokeep his coalitioninpower #Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

22December2023 TheGuardianWeekly F IR ST D O G ON T H E MO ON 47 Look out hot watchers it’s First Dog on the Moon’s TRENDS for 2024 For more First Dog cartoons, visit:theguardian.com/au OPI N ION C H R I ST M A S Since Nigella Lawson called out Christmas cake as a festive food that should be forgotten (an opinion with which I wholeheartedly agree),I’ve been thinking about re-evaluating our festive food choices.It’s time to acceptthatletting go ofthe traditions that no longer suit our appetites or lifestyles is perfectly OK. We should reinvent Christmas traditions not only for the joy of welcoming in a melting pot of delicious-yet-diferentfoods, but because there’s a necessity to do so. Energy and food costs, and time spent, are factors we’re increasingly mindful of when preparing for Christmas. In supermarkets, discounts on the most common food items lure us towards the familiar – butthere’s more value in going of the beaten track. My social media feeds ofer me a charcuterie board of Christmas meal ideas – some indulgent and made entirely of favoured butter, others more practical, such as big platters of allthe sides with no main dish, an all-day breakfast or bufet-style eating you can graze on all day. I can’t help but notice this communal style of eating is synonymous with many Asian dining norms, including those of my own Indian culture. It’s a casual and sociable way offeasting that carries a sense ofliberation and pleasure. I’ve introduced a new family tradition: a Christmas tree made of samosas, complete with an aloo tikki star atthe top. Any leftovers will go in the freezer for when the next craving hits, sometime in the new year. Then we’ll have eaten ittwo years in a row – which seems like the start of a new tradition • #Sanjana Modha is a digital content creator specialising in Indian food Be more Nigella – forgettradition, eatfood you love Sanjana Modha

Opinion TheGuardianWeekly 22December2023 48 Call mewhat youwant – I’ll keep telling the truth aboutlivestock farming George Monbiot verything that makes campaigning againstfossilfuels difcultis 10 times harder when it comes to opposing livestock farming. Here you will fnd a similar suite of science denial, misinformation and greenwashing. Butin this case, it’s accompanied by a toxic combination ofidentity politics, nostalgia, machismo and the demonisation of alternatives. If you engage with this issue, you don’tjust need a thick skin; you need the skin of a glyptodon. You will be vilifed daily as a “soyboy”, a “hater of farmers” and a dictator who would force everyone to eat insects. You will be charged with undermining western civilisation, destroying its masculinity and threatening its health. You will be denounced as an enemy of Indigenous people,though generally not by Indigenous people themselves, for many of whom livestock farming is and has long been by far the greatest cause of landgrabbing, displacement and the destruction of homes. You will fnd yourself up againstthose who promote paleo diets (with or without added anabolic steroids), “agrarian localists” pushing impossible dreams of feeding 21st-century populations with medieval production systems, and culinary conservatism, which ranges, in diferentforms,from Donald Trump to MasterChef. You will fnd yourself fghting not only a very modern and peculiarly vicious demagoguery, but also a very old and deep-rooted romanticism, which still portrays the pastoral life much as the Greek poets and the Old Testament prophets did. There’s a powerful, de facto alliance between the two. Perhaps you’ll be denounced as a puppet ofthe World Economic Forum (a target of multiple conspiracy fctions), or a stooge of corporate or institutional power, in the pay of plant-based meat, precision fermentation, Big Lettuce or Big Bug, which are depicted as monstrous behemoths stamping on traditional businesses. As usual, it’s pure projection. Between 2015 and 2020, fnancial institutions invested $478bn in meat and CL I M AT E CR I S I S Illustration Nate Kitch

22December2023 TheGuardianWeekly dairy corporations. Butfrom 2010 to 2020, only $5.9bn was invested in plant-based and other alternatives. Astonishingly,the livestock industry also receives, across the EU and US, about 1,000 times more government funding than alternative products. Why? Because the livestock industry’s political connections are umbilical. Tempting as it is to turnaway, we simply cannot afordto. A remarkably wide and intense range ofimpacts – from global-scale habitat destruction to the mass slaughter of predators and greenhouse gas emissions – reveal livestock farming, alongside fossil fuels, as one ofthe two most destructive industries on Earth. The chances of a reasoned conversation across the divide are approximately zero. That’s not an accident. It’s a result of decades ofthe meatindustry’s tobaccostyle tactics and manufactured culture wars. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) unveiled a report at Cop28 that was shocking even by that organisation’s notoriously pro-corporate standards. Where was the discussion in this report about reducing livestock production or consumption? On the contrary, it proposed that,for nutritional reasons,the poor world should be eating more meat and dairy. So where, in the FAO’s vision, would these extra livestock products come from? Hold on to your seats, because the answer is gobsmacking. As the Financial Times reports,the organisation’s chief economist, Maximo Torero, explained that “the way forward was for countries that are ‘very efcientin producing livestock’, such as the Netherlands and New Zealand,to produce more meat and dairy and then ship those products across the world”. Could he really be unaware both these countries have been thrown into severe ecological and political crisis by the scale oftheir livestock industries? Yet now he wants them to produce even more – and for poorer nations to become dependent on these imports? Greetings to our visitor from Planet Meat. The FAO, as the Guardian has documented, has a long and shameful history of suppressing awareness of livestock’s massive impacts. The scientists atthe organisation who tried to raise the alarm aboutthe environmental impacts oflivestock production in 2006 and 2009 were vilifed, censored and sabotaged by senior management. After the reportit published last week, Ifeel I can state with confdence thatthe FAO is a major cog in the meat misinformation machine. The meatindustry also nobbled the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Earlier this year, delegates from Brazil and Argentina – major meat exporters – managed to block its recommendation that we should shifttowards plant-based diets. Huge and powerful as these forces are, we need to be brave in confronting livestock production. We don’t hate farmers, however much some ofthem might profess to hate us. We simply seek to apply the same standards to this industry as we’d apply to any other. But when we raise our hands in objection,they are met with fsts raised in aggression. That’s the strategy, working as intended • Across the UK and in other parts of the world, A Christmas Carol is everywhere this year, raising the question of why Charles Dickens’ novella remains so haunting 180 years after it was written. Dickens was just 31 when he conjured up the old misanthropist Ebenezer Scrooge and his parade of ghosts as a quick money-spinner. The book was published on 19 December 1843 – and by Christmas Eve all 6,000 copies had sold out. By February, eight adaptations had been staged, only one sanctioned by the author. Not all his contemporaries were impressed. “There is no heart. No feeling – it is nothing but glittering frostwork,” said Mark Twain when Dickens toured his own staged reading to America two decades later. But for every detractor, the novella accumulated legions of fans. GK Chesterton went so far as to credit Dickens with saving Christmas as a popular institution from “the educated classes”. From declarations such as this came the myth that Dickens invented Christmas. He didn’t. But he did invent a new version of the nativity. Instead of a baby in a stable, an old man in his counting house; instead of three kings bearing gold, frankincense and myrrh, three ghosts, bearing the gifts of insight into the past, the present and the future. Instead of a birth, a rebirth. For all the pathos of the Cratchit family, this isn’t really a fable of righting social wrongs. It’s about the redemption of an irredeemably miserable old man through supernatural visitations that scare him back into his wits, and restore him to happiness by showing him the pleasure of generosity. The Muppets harnessed the comedy of this, while others have surfed its gothic energy. The darker resonance of Dickens’s stories comes not only from their didactic messages, but from the atmospherics that saturate them. Earlier this year, the Charles Dickens Museum themed an exhibition around fog, drawing parallels between the choking Victorian streets of Our Mutual Friend and Bleak House and air pollution today. A Christmas Carol’s evocation of urban penury in snowbound streets has given the English-speaking world an imagery with which to imagine social inequality. It was there in the background when the Centre for Social Justice warned this month that Britain was slipping back into Victorian extremes of wealth and poverty. Great myths are those with the power to adapt to new situations, but it does not do to interpret them too literally, as a social media commentator learned a couple of years back, when he compared Bob Cratchit’s earnings with the US minimum wage. While Scrooge today could be likened to a baby boomer billionaire, sitting miserably on decades of accumulated wealth, nobody should get the idea that a Christmas morning giveaway ofers any sort of fx. Fiction can usefully raise a tear for the Tiny Tims of this world. But it always took more than a oneof gesture to enable them to live happily and healthily ever after, just as it always will • AChristmas Carol still haunts us, butitis not a recipe for social justice Founded 1821 Independently owned by the Scott Trust !George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

TheGuardianWeekly 22December2023 50 2023 BEST OF CULTURE Our critics’ selectionofthepickoftheyear’s films andalbums Fromgruellingdocumentarytoyearning romance– the10bestmoviesof theyear 10 Marcel the Shell With Shoes On This wildly popular stop-motion animation is the ultimate benefciary of the new hunger for something real and organic in the movies. Dean Fleischer Camp and Jenny Slate’s flm is so airy, so tiny, so eccentric, so exotic,that it appears to break every rule of instant relatability. It whimsically avoids the easy grasp and the elevator pitch. Even the title is bafing and forgettable 9 All the Beauty and the Bloodshed TheSackler familywanted their name to be synonymous with art, high-brow prestige and patrician good taste. But it becamesynonymouswithsomething else: pain. PartoftheSackler familywere behind the Purdue Pharma corporationmarketingtheruinously addictive OxyContin opioid pill, which physicians across the US were persuaded to prescribe for essentially non-serious issues. Marcel has a big blinking eye and dinky little shoes. And he is looking after his seashellgranny (voiced by Isabella Rossellini) who loves the poetry of Philip Larkin. It is an intensely likable and lovable movie that alchemically convertsbafementorexasperation into afection. The quirky, funny relationship between real-life grownup Dean and the imaginarytiny, childlikeseashell Marcel is the bromance of the year. Peter Bradshaw – are the frst and third words supposed to rhyme? – requiring two or three repetitions before it can be committed to memory. It’s a movie with a grassroots fanbase that had already been cultivated online, as it was developed from a wacky YouTube series. The premise is that the director has moved into an Airbnb after the breakup of his marriage to discover that someone or something is already in the house: a seashell the size of a thumbnail called Marcel. ! Small wonder Marcel the Shell with Shoes On EVERETT COLLECTION INC/ALAMY; TCD/PROD DB/ALAMY; LES FILMS PELLEAS; STUDIO GHIBLI; COLLECTION CHRISTOPHEL/ALAMY; EVGENIY MALOLETKA/AP PLUS GUARDIAN WEEKLY TEAM’S MUST-SEE TV Page 60 !