EDITOR'S NOTE: We'd like to wish you a very Merry Christmas to those who celebrate the day. Hopefully you are celebrating in the style of England's 17th century gin-soaked wassailers . For everyone else, enjoy the quieter-than-usual parks, roads, and cinemas.
Talking Points
- The US cleared the way for Afghanistan relief aid
- Sen Joe Manchin torpedoed Biden's Build Back Better plan
- Fears rose that the 5G rollout could disrupt aircraft altimeters
- A Harvard professor was found guilty of lying about China links
- Gabriel Boric promised a greener, fairer Chile after win
- Peng Shuai retracted her accusation against a CCP grandee
- A landslide left scores missing at a Myanmar jade mine
- Erdogan's rescue plan sparked a rare fightback for the lira
- Syria's displaced millions were hit by brutal winter temperatures
- France uncovered 180,000 fake COVID passes
Dive deeper
This week we'll look to three stories elevated above the mire of everyday life. Each speaks to the desire for betterment that all too often falls off the front pages to make way for conflict and hardship. Let's lift our eyes towards 2022.
A precious drop
After countless millennia of living within walking distance of rivers and lakes, humans began digging wells and building dams. This presumed mastery over the elements has proven short-lived. Across the world, fresh water sources have not kept pace with our mind-boggling population growth. The more heavily urbanised our species becomes, the deeper the wells have to be dug, and the more aggressively rivers are dammed. The compounding effects of climate change make rainfall both rare and unpredictable. California is in the grips of a water crisis. So is Singapore . Cape Town practically ran out in 2018.
In some parts of India, the water table has retreated beyond reach — a death sentence for regional farmers and the communities that support them. Which is why, with one eye to the future, we celebrate India's titanic effort to put a tap in every rural home. The scale of the project is dizzying: connecting 192 million households in 600,000 villages to water mains by 2024. 100,000 new connections are being made daily. This historic plumbing exercise is also a canny investment in development. A tap in the home saves endless hours of burdensome labour for rural women: the water carriers. If groundwater and dam levels can be maintained, this will feed two birds with one scone.
Look also to Chile, where the world's most-privatised water market is slowly being wound back . Policies that created a thriving export agriculture market have in recent years left Chileans parched. The idea of commoditising water, with no thought for the populations which require it to survive will, in the future, likely not enjoy the accolades it won in the 1980s. Even before Gabriel Boric's victory, the government had conceded that dam levels were dropping rapidly. Change is not just possible — it is happening.
A safer world
2021 was a spectacular year for climate activists, in courts and boardrooms. The German Federal Constitutional Court chided Berlin's 2050 net-zero target and demanded significant cuts by 2030 . Chevron and ExxonMobil, two of the most intransigent polluters on the planet, were put on notice by internal rebellions. Dedicated groups herded up major shareholders to crack the whip on climate targets . While we should be careful not to overplay the gently-gently approach of corporate activism, it is heartening to see this appetite for change reaching the boardroom.
But one case stood out from all others. In May, a court at The Hague ruled that the company formerly known as Royal Dutch Shell must vastly increase the scope and speed of its emissions reduction scheme. The recently re-branded Shell had proffered a measly 20% reduction in absolute emissions by 2030. The judge ordered it to shell out a 45% cut. The litigator who led that suit on behalf of Friends of the Earth believes that 2022 will see an 'avalanche' of climate cases.
The model used in the case is a fascinating one. The litigator argues that courts must adjudicate in lieu of meaningful government efforts to translate the legally-binding 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change into national laws. The courts, then, become the arena for holding heavy polluters to account. It's worked in Belgium and the Netherlands. Next year, it may work all over the world.
To the stars
And, finally, raise your peepers ad astra . Today (fingers crossed) the James Webb Space Telescope will be lofted into orbit by an Ariane 5 rocket. At time of writing, it was waiting patiently on its launch pad at the European space facility in French Guiana. After countless delays, the most powerful space observatory ever (and the most expensive, at $10bn) is on the verge of lift-off. This is not just something for the nerds to get excited about — it heralds a revolution in astronomy . The new telescope will peer at everything, even the heat signatures of deep time .
There's so much yet for us to learn.
Worldlywise
Kingdom of fear
Ripped skinny jeans, combat boots, the smell of marijuana hanging in the desert air. International DJ heavyweights David Guetta, Tiësto, and Armin Van Buuren were performing. MDLBeast Soundstorm Festival could have been any other four-day rave. That is, until the music stopped for the Islamic call to prayer, reminding some 700,000 attendees that they were in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Men and women danced together in various states of inebriation and undress — a sight unthinkable in the Kingdom just five years ago. Saudis live under an extremely strict interpretation of Islam (alcohol consumption and homosexuality are indictable offences), but there has been a gradual unspooling since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman rose to power in 2017. MBS has removed a ban on women driving, loosened gender segregation, and restaurants are no longer punished for playing music. The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the once-feared religious police, has been neutered.
But before we crown Prince Mohammed with the title of progressive reformer, let's also consider his human rights record. The four prominent women activists who fought to have the driving ban lifted have languished in prisons for years. In October, a former Saudi intelligence official claimed the Saudi prince had sent a hit squad after him and imprisoned his adult children. And a US intelligence report concluded that MBS had “absolute control” over Saudi intelligence officials who murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Kingdom’s Istanbul consulate in 2018. Some 34 journalists remain in detention in Saudi Arabia, according to media campaign group Reporters Without Borders .
Still, broad cultural changes are clearly afoot in Saudi Arabia. The Arab world’s wealthiest nation is also its drug capital: Saudis can’t get enough of the mood-enhancing amphetamine Captagon (courtesy of Lebanon and Syria). The drug trade creates a few diplomatic headaches for MBS, but of greater concern is its impact on people under 30, who account for 70 per cent of the Kingdom’s population. Some argue boredom and social restrictions are the leading cause of drug use, and allowing more freedoms and activities will lessen drug dependence. Others argue the opposite: that the drug problem is a side-effect of a cultural clash between traditional Islam and bin Salman’s modernist agenda. Not that debate is encouraged: Under Prince Mohammed, Saudi Arabia’s social opening has come with a crackdown on domestic dissent. The Saudi government put much effort into making MDLBeast Soundstorm a success. Officials closed every other large-scale event in Riyadh ‘for maintenance’, prompting jokes about the government forcing citizens to attend.
The presence of international acts, alongside the recent purchase of Newcastle FC is proof that the mountain of bodies Riyadh has stacked up is no real deterrent for the global community. Just pop a pill and look at the stage — forget about the rest.
How worried should you be about Omicron?
It's Christmas lunch and you've likely not seen your whole family together for months. Just as forks dive on the prawns (or turkey) a cousin lets loose a cough over the table. The room freezes. Here's a quick rundown to read to your family members as they brandish gravy boats and oyster forks at one another.
Researchers in South Africa, England, and Scotland have found that among the populations surveyed, omicron does indeed produce milder infections than previous variants. Huzzah. Milder, yes, but not mild . It isn't yet known how much of the mildness is attributable to antibodies from previous infections, antibodies from vaccinations, and changes in omicron's protein spike. South Africa has seen widespread infections in previous waves, Scotland has an enviable vaccination rate, and England has both. Of course, this is no license to keep huffing in your cousin's airborne particles. Omicron may be weaker but it is preternaturally transmissible, a lowered chance of hospitalisation may be offset by the much larger number of people in need of care.
So why don't you argue you about something meatier. The dynamic underpinning the public health response to the omicron variant remains unchanged: that of the powerful weighing their good health against the lives of the poor. Wealthy countries have well-established booster programs; Israel's Pandemic Expert Committee has recommended a fourth shot ! The United Kingdom won't be far behind on rolling out second boosters. In one six-week period the EU, UK, and US received more shots than Africa did in the whole of 2021. So, while this may be the last variant of concern for the developed world, it most certainly won't be for everyone else.
The best of times
The ur-Pub
In the buried ruins of Tel Tsaf, a town in the Central Jordan Valley, researchers have made a discovery worthy of a toast. The Chalcolithic era settlement — 7,000-years-old — gave up secrets in buried pottery fragments: the starchy traces of wheat and barley grains . Researchers believe it to be the earliest known example of beer production for social rather than ceremonial purposes. We've been keenly observing its knock-off since at least 5,000 BCE.
On the trail of a frowning, walking fish
The endangered pink handfish has been spotted after 22 years off the coast of Tasmania. Conservationists will be pleased but we categorise this as good news because of the laughs they provide: these bizarre anglers are some of the most ridiculous looking creatures on the planet. Check them out here .
The worst of times
Super Typhoon Rai
The worst typhoon of the season — a Category 5 storm — tore strips from the Philippines over the last week. A nation of islands, marooned by the sea, is left to mourn at least 400 deaths. 'Rapid intensification events', such as the one that supercharged Rai, have become commonplace in the last four decades . Every day another event worsened by climate change is thrust upon some corner of the planet. We're left asking: when will it be our turn again.
The Mediterranean crossing
Dozens of migrants are believed to have drowned when their boat capsized off the coast of Greece. 12,000 attempts have been made to cross from the Turkish coast to Italy through Greek waters. The latest tragedy came just days after Libyan authorities confirmed that a galling 164 people had drowned in a single incident in the Mediterranean. This week Pope Francis urged European nations to "open the door of the heart" and welcome migrants.
Weekend Reading
The image
The quote
"Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends."
– Vale, Joan Didion. Her writing gifted us those very instances that changed our lives.
The numbers
A €1.30 baguette
- The price of the painfully Parisian pain is set to rise 10 cents early next year as higher transport costs and logistics problems push up inflation. It is an extremely sensitive topic for French consumers who are accustomed to paying €1-1.20 for their favoured breadstick. A riot is almost guaranteed.
A $730,000,000 divorce settlement
- An English court has ordered Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum — the emir of Dubai — to pay half a billion pounds to ex-wife Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein. The Sheikh, a demonstrably abusive husband and father, used the powers of the state to spy on his family and forcibly abduct his children.
The headline
"Cat burglar: New Zealand pet steals bong, bag of white powder and lacy underwear" – The Guardian .
The special mention
It's been an absurd, grinding year. Our special mention for 2021 goes to Captain Krishnan Kanthavel for bringing us the gift of laughter. At a time when the Delta variant hung like a pall over the world, the captain and his crew managed to block the entire Suez Canal with their 400-metre-long, 200,000-ton ship, the MV Ever Given . Thanks for providing us with the funniest imaginable distraction, Captain. We salute you.
A few choice long-reads
- Renting a car is a universally-loathed experience. The Atlantic explores why, and how it doesn't need to be this way.
- Who won The Economist's Country of the Year award? Clue: it's not Britain.
- How's this for a title from Businessweek: The Lock-Picker, the Lockmaker, and the Odyssey to Expose a Major Security Flaw.
