Guardian Weekly 13 May 2022

Residents use hoses to syphon water from a tanker deployed by authorities to prevent drinking water shortages in Delhi. Like much of India, the capital has been to enduring a brutal heatwave, with temperatures reaching 40C across several consecutive days. The Guardian Weekly Founded in Manchester, England 4 July 1919 Vol 206 | Issue № 20 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,…

The leaked release last week of a draft suggesting the US supreme court is about to overturn the landmark Roe v Wade ruling on abortion rights caused fury in much of the country. With polls showing around two-thirds of Americans oppose such a move, critics point to the Trump-era weighting of the court with conservative judges, along with voter suppression tactics in many states, as levers in a long-planned plot to implement Republican minority rule across the US. Washington correspondent David Smith surveys the lines for a coming battle that could tear the country apart, while Guardian US columnist Rebecca Solnit lays out a Democratic blueprint for resistance. The big story Page 10 → Russia’s Victory Day parade passed without any significant new announcements from Vladimir Putin. Shaun Walker considers the significance…

1 CORONAVIRUS Covid death toll likely to be twice official total at 15m Almost 15 million people worldwide have died as a result of the Covid pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated – a figure more than double the official death toll. The figure is based on the concept of excess mortality – the number of deaths that occurred beyond those expected without the pandemic – and encompasses those who died as a result of Covid and those who died indirectly because of the pandemic. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO, described the figures as “sobering”, while Dr Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, said that too often during the course of the pandemic, world leaders “have failed to act at the level needed to save lives”. The WHO…

Dennis Waterman British actor who starred as tough TV cop George Carter in The Sweeney and later in Minder and New Tricks. He died on 8 May, aged 74. Kathy Boudin Radical activist and Weather Underground member who after she was jailed for her part in a robbery became an advocate for women in prison and their children. She died on 1 May, aged 78. Stanislau Shushkevich First leader of independent Belarus, who was one of the three signatories to the December 1991 agreement declaring the USSR had ceased to exist. He died on 4 May, aged 87. Yuri Averbach Chess grandmaster and former chairman of the USSR Chess Federation. He died on 7 May, aged 100. Tony Brooks Leading Formula One racing driver of the 1950s who won six world championship grands prix. He died on 3 May,…

ENVIRONMENT Studies on nature’s health benefits show western bias Spending time outdoors is good for mental health, according to a growing body of research. For example, visiting forests and parks has been shown to increase happiness and alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety. But are the benefits universal? A review paper noted that most studies in this field look at rich, white, western populations, and scientists say this results in an incomplete picture of the benefits. Carlos Andres Gallegos-Riofrío, of the University of Vermont’s Gund Institute for Environment, whose findings have been published in Current Research in Environmental Sustainability, says indigenous populations like those he studies in South America have different relationships with nature to other people. He says it is important to learn how their mental health is affected by this different…

LOCAL ELECTIONS Boris Johnson in peril as Tories lose council seats Boris Johnson’s leadership fac ed fresh peril after senior Conservatives blamed him for losing swathes of the party’s southern heartlands to the Liberal Democrats and flagship London boroughs to Labour. In a punishing set of local elections for the Tories, the party lost hundreds of seats across the country, ceding control of Westminster and Wandsworth in London to Labour for the first time since the 1970s, and plunging to its worst position in Scotland for a decade. Conservative MPs and council leaders questioned Johnson’s leadership, demanding action to tackle the cost of living crisis and rebuild trust in the wake of the Partygate scandal after a damaging series of losses across the “blue wall” in Somerset, Kent, Oxfordshire and Surrey. However, the scale of…