Guardian Weekly 17th December 2021

Surf’s up The Brazilian surfer Lucas Chianca rides a towering wave during the Tudor Nazare tow surfing challenge. With a large swell and favourable wind conditions, waves were between 12 and 18 metres. The Guardian Weekly Founded in Manchester, England 4 July 1919 Guardian Weekly is an edited selection of some of the best journalism found in the Guardian and Observer newspapers in the UK and the Guardian’s digital editions in the UK, US and Australia. The weekly magazine has an international focus and three editions: global, Australia and North America. The Guardian was founded in 1821, and Guardian Weekly in 1919. We exist to hold power to account in the name of the public interest, to uphold liberal and progressive values, to fight for the common good, and to build hope. Our values, as laid…

A little over two years ago, Boris Johnson was the toast of Britain’s Conservative party, having delivered a thumping general election victory on the back of a grinding mantra to “get Brexit done”. Now, damaging revelations about an illicit lockdown Christmas party at Downing Street last year – on the back of a series of other scandals – have pushed the prime minister close to the point where he may be ousted by his own MPs. Toby Helm, Michael Savage and Jamie Grierson ask how it all came to this. The big story Page 10 A massive buildup of troops on Russia’s side of its border with Ukraine has raised fears that Vladimir Putin may be about to launch an invasion. Why is Russia’s president on the brink of war, and what…

1 UNITED STATES Capitol attack panel votes to charge Mark Meadows The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack voted on Monday to recommend the criminal prosecution for former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, punishing Donald Trump’s most senior aide for refusing to testify about the 6 January insurrection. The select committee advanced the contempt of Congress report for Meadows unanimously, sending the matter to a vote before the full House of Representatives. Bennie Thompson, the chair of the select committee, said in an opening statement before the panel recommended Meadows’s referral to the justice department that Trump’s former White House chief of staff displayed wilful noncompliance in his defiance of his subpoena. “Mr Meadows started by doing the right thing: cooperating,” Thompson said. “He handed over records that he didn’t try…

INSECTS Bogong moth joins 124 new Australian species on red list The Australian bogong has been listed as endangered on the global red list of threatened species after crashes in its population. The updated list, compiled by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, contains 124 new entries for Australian wildlife. In 2017 and 2018 the moth, famously seen in swarms at Parliament House in Canberra during its annual migration, crashed to numbers so low the species was described as “undetectable” in the alpine regions where it used to arrive in spring in numbers as high as 4.4bn. Australia’s drought through 2017, 2018 and 2019 was likely the largest contributor, said ecologist, Ken Green, who has been monitoring bogong moths for 40 years. PLASTICS Microplastics found to cause damage to human cells Microplastics cause…

On 19 December lastyear Boris Johnson told Britons more bad news about Covid-19 that would affect the plans of millions at Christmas. Reading from a script that, a year on, seems depressingly familiar, the prime minister said a new strain of Covid-19 (which would become known as the Alpha variant) was taking hold. “We know enough already to be sure we must act now,” Johnson said. So grave was the situation that the prime minister had convened an urgent meeting of ministers on the Covid operations committee the previous evening to discuss the need for tough and deeply unwelcome new restrictions, including rules that would mean people in tier 4 areas could not mix with anyone outside their household – even on Christmas Day. On that same Friday evening when Johnson and…

Before MPs had entered the chamber, rumours had been circulating that Johnson and his cabinet were about to do what they had suggested would not be necessary before Christmas, a return to tighter restrictions with vaccine passports in nightclubs, more mask-wearing and other new rules. Some suspected new rules were an attempt to divert attention away from “partygate”. Tory MP William Wragg stood up and said as much: “Very few will be convinced by this diversionary tactic,” he told his leader, in an intervention that drew gasps from all sides. Outside the chamber, Tory MPs were in despair. One Johnson loyalist said he thought the prime minister could rescue the situation, but added: “Unlike Labour, we are good at getting rid of liabilities. If this goes on, we act.” What angered…