Guardian Weekly 16 December 2022

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Nasa’s uncrewed Orion capsule is towed away by US navy divers after it landed safely in the Pacific ocean, west of Baja California. It brought to completion the first flight of Nasa’s new lunar programme, which aims to return astronauts to the surface of the moon by 2025. The Guardian Weekly Founded in Manchester, England 4 July 1919 Vol 207 | Issue № 25 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…

It’s been a seismic year for news in Europe but one of the oddest stories came last week when 25 conspirators were arrested in Germany, accused of plotting to overthrow the government. The eclectic grouping, known as the Reichsbürger plotters, espoused a far-right ideology but hailed largely from the centre of respectable German society, headed up by an elderly minor aristocrat and including family doctors, judges, a celebrity chef and an opera singer. Berlin bureau chief Philip Oltermann asks how far the plotters might seriously have got and what it all means for Germany. And columnist Jonathan Freedland argues that the case is more evidence that the greatest terror threat facing the world no longer comes from radical Islam, but the white far-right. The big story Page 12 → Three months have passed…

1 EUROPEAN UNION MEPs arrested as European parliament offices searched Belgian police have searched European parliament offices as part of a growing investigation into alleged bribery and corruption, as senior EU leaders warned the credibility of the bloc was at stake. Belgium’s federal prosecutor announced on Monday it had carried out 20 searches since last Friday, including 19 at private homes and one at the European parliament offices. Earlier in the day, Greek authorities ordered the seizure of assets belonging to an MEP implicated in the bribery investigation. Four people have been charged with participation in a criminal organisation, money laundering and corruption as part of a major investigation into attempts by a Gulf State, named in the Belgian media as Qatar, to buy influence with large sums of money and gifts. None of…

George ‘Johnny’ Johnson Last of the Dambusters who served as a bombaimer during the RAF’s most audacious raid of the second world war. He died on 7 December, aged 101. Angelo Badalamenti American composer best known for his work with screen director David Lynch on Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet. He died on 11 December, aged 85. Dorothy Pitman Hughes Pioneering Black feminist who co-founded Ms with Gloria Steinem and set up the first shelter for battered women in New York City. She died on 1 December, aged 84. Jet Black Drummer with the Stranglers. He died on 6 December, aged 84. Beryl Grey Celebrated British ballerina who later dedicated herself to dance training. She died on 10 December, aged 95.…

NUCLEAR RESEARCH Breakthrough could mean ‘near-limitless energy’ Researchers have reportedly made a breakthrough in the quest to unlock a “near-limitless, safe, clean” source of energy: they have got more energy out of a nuclear fusion reaction than they put in. Nuclear fusion involves smashing together light elements such as hydrogen to form heavier elements, releasing a huge burst of energy in the process. The approach, which gives rise to the heat and light of the sun and other stars, has been hailed as having huge potential as a sustainable, low-carbon energy source. However, since nuclear fusion research began in the 1950s, researchers have been unable to demonstrate a positive energy gain. It was expected to be confirmed this week by the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California But experts stressed that…