In March 2022, soon after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Kyiv-based illustrator Masha Foya produced what I think is one of the Guardian Weekly’s most powerful covers on the war, concerning the devastation of Mariupol. So it’s a pleasure to feature Masha’s work again for the current edition, this time marking 40 years since the Chornobyl nuclear disaster.
“Since childhood, the story of Chornobyl has always made me feel a strange dissonance – such a tragedy occurring on a beautiful spring day in April,” explains Masha on the thought process behind her design, in which seasonal greens fade away into ominous skies.
It also reflects present-day anxieties. For a special report, Pjotr Sauer visits the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident and sees up close how the giant containment structure around the failed reactor is in urgent need of costly repairs after a Russian drone strike, as fears grow of a possible new catastrophe.
Five essential reads in this week’s edition
Environment | Why apes are more like us than we ever thought Imagination, reason and ability to recognise faces from the past are not the sole preserve of humans, studies show. Gloria Dickie reports
Finance | The wagering of war Once largely siloed to sporting events, betting has now spread to include contracts on news events where insider information could pay handsomely. With over $1bn in perfectly timed bets on the Iran war having recently been seen, Lauren Aratani explores what exactly is going on
Feature | The big game hunters who believe they can save Africa’s wildlife One way to pay for wildlife conservation is to allow the rich to bag a few animals for high prices. But critics see this approach as an exercise in neocolonialism. Cal Flynwent in pursuit of answers
Opinion | Starmer’s listless government shows zombie politics is the new norm Distracted, listless and unambitious – the British PM’s true form has finally emerged. But whatever comes next must end this ruinous cycle for the country, argues Nesrine Malik
Culture | Iron Maiden on 50 years of heavy metal madness As a career-spanning documentary hits cinemas, the legendary rock band revisit their path from pubs to stadiums over half a century of headbanging hits. Harry Sword buckles up
Oil prices surged above $120 a barrel before pulling back in volatile trading on concerns that the war could escalate. Gasoline in the U.S. hit $4.30 a gallon.
“Saguaro in the Sea” by Sophia Acuña: on surfing and indigeneity in Southern California, told through collage.
“Care Directive” by Sarah Matsui: a daughter’s attempt to keep her aging father in Hawaii from all sorts of calamity, but having to monitor him from the mainland.
“Triptych: A Biographer’s Sketchbook” by Carolyn Burke: “The Baroness was lively, curious, and still blond at eighty-five. She received me in a flurry of franglais, the mingling of two languages in which we would converse, and put us at ease with pink champagne, her favorite.”
Fiction
“Decoys” by Will Boast: goofing around working at the town supermarket, burning through the days till it all comes to head.
“Lilac Mud” by Anita Felicelli: A Bay Area artist in Amsterdam is approached one night by a man claiming to be a former student, leading to a crisis of identity and purpose.
“Grote geplumaceerde” by Emily Nemens: “Afterward, staring hard at her phone, which was her radio, which was the bearer of bad news, she wondered what mattered at all.”
Poetry
Kevin Cantwell, Geraldine Jorge, Jonathon Keats, Caroline Kessler, and Noelani Piters.
In Conversation
Lydia Kiesling talks to acclaimed author Karen Russell about Russell’s latest novel, The Antidote, and about Russell’s “fascination with foundational myths, the things we choose to know, and the things we choose to ignore or forget.”
From the 16th century onwards, as European powers feverishly colonised the world, the possibility of a Northern Sea Route connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Scandinavia to the Bering Strait, tantalised the Dutch and the British as an alternative to the southern routes to Asia and the Americas, which were dominated by Portugal and Spain. But the route only became a reality in the Soviet era, after investments in scientific, economic, industrial and military infrastructure in Siberia.
This is what distinguishes hyperpolitics from the mass democracy of the mid-20th century. Symbolic political gestures are now commonplace, but paid membership of organisations and parties has plummeted. The left has failed to find a replacement for trade unions as a basis for collective action in civil society. Political movements are easy to join, and just as easy to leave.
De Kooning’s Suburb in Havana is a counter-revolutionary painting. Well, of course. It is counter-revolutionary because it is counter everything, versus everything, lost in suburbia. It wants to show us how hard it had to work to get precisely nowhere. Why nowhere was where it wished to get to is a question it leaves to the viewer.
Can there be poetic justice in politics? Perhaps once in a lifetime. In 1989, a young Viktor Orbán bravely told the crowds in Budapest’s Heroes’ Square that it was time for the Russians to go home, just as protesters had demanded in 1956; almost four decades later, he was heckled on the campaign trail with the same words.
The Trump administration wants to terminate humanitarian protections known as Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of migrants from Haiti and Syria.
Jeffrey Epstein’s messages cast light on an unusual building on his private island and show how his connections helped him secure tapestries from Mecca for it.
Mr. Musk’s lawsuit against Mr. Altman and OpenAI, which went to trial this week, makes the case that all-encompassing greed is Silicon Valley’s defining feature.
News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious
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