Good morning. Imagine you are going on a school trip, but it’s with thousands of other schools, and the trip is to Fyre festival, and the guys from Trainspotting are taking care of the sanitation. Oh, and there’s an enormous hurricane on its way.
That may sum up what 4,500 British scouts have felt this week, after their trip of a lifetime to the World Scout Jamboree in South Korea turned into a bad comedy marked by successive calamities, natural and human-made, that yesterday culminated in the mass evacuation of all 43,000 young people.
Remarkably, despite being scattered to scores of sites across eight provinces around Seoul, the young delegates are continuing with their programme as best they can. But while South Korea braced for the typhoon that caused the jamboree’s closure, the country’s politicians have been facing a storm of their own over the woeful organisation of the festival, which many of those attending have said put children at risk.
I spoke to Raphael Rashid, who has been reporting on the jamboree from South Korea for the Guardian, about how a festival intended as a joyful gathering of global young people became an embarrassing and at times dangerous disaster.
First, today’s headlines.
Five big stories
Northern Ireland | A “monumental” data breach has exposed the names and rank of every serving Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officer. A spreadsheet was mistakenly published online for up to three hours in response to a freedom of information request. The Police Federation for Northern Ireland said it was a “breach of monumental proportions”.
Security | The data of millions of voters was accessible to hackers in a cyber-attack by “hostile actors” discovered almost a year ago, the Electoral Commission has admitted. The watchdog apologised for the security breach in which the names and addresses of millions of voters were accessible to hackers as far back as 2021.
Health | Millions of people under the age of 65 in England will be denied flu and Covid jabs this winter despite one of the government’s top public health officials warning that coronavirus has not “gone away”.
Conservatives | The Home Office spent more than £1,500 of public money painting over cartoon murals that were meant to welcome children to a controversial asylum reception centre, it can be revealed.
France | Five Marseille police officers have been detained for questioning over the death of a 27-year-old man during rioting in the French city on 1 July. The public prosecutor suggested it was “probable” Mohamed Bendriss died after “a violent shock to the thorax caused by a ‘flash-ball’ type projectile”, a controversial police weapon, that caused him to go into cardiac arrest.
In depth: ‘We are disappointed in the organisers – we feel let down’
“We will Improvise! Adapt! Overcome!” tweeted Bear Grylls, the “chief scout” or symbolic figurehead of the British scouting movement, of an experience many scouts will never forget – if not for the reasons those planning the world jamboree had hoped.
The global scout motto is “Be Prepared”, but the South Korean government appear to have been anything but. It’s been an unwelcome adventure for tens of thousands of scouts from across the world (spare a thought, in particular, for the three French scout leaders who cycled 15,000km to be there), and an embarrassment for South Korea’s government.
So how did it all go so wrong?
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What’s it all about?
The World Scout Jamboree is a four-yearly event hosted by different countries around the world, which brings together tens of thousands of young people – like the Olympics with neckers and woggles.
First hosted in London in 1920, they have continued (mostly) regularly ever since, hosted by countries including Denmark, the Philippines, Chile and Japan, though the 1979 event, due to take place in Iran, was cancelled due to the country’s revolution.
Like the Olympics, countries bid to host the event – and South Korea has known since 2017 that it would be hosting the jamboree for the second time, giving them six years to prepare for an event whose theme was supposed to be “Draw your dream” – though few can have pictured this.
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What went wrong?
“Here in South Korea, some people are saying it is as if God doesn’t want the jamboree to go ahead,” says reporter Raphael Rashid. “Funny” isn’t quite the right word for what has happened, he says, but “it does feel a bit like it is a cursed event”.
First, there was the site chosen by South Korea, which Raphael says was always unsuitable – a vast stretch of reclaimed tidelands and with barely any shade. “Because this is reclaimed land, it’s completely flat. So when there was a bit of rain before the jamboree it completely flooded the place,” he says.
Then there’s the heat, which is always an issue in the summer – “you would never recommend to your friends to come to Korea in August, never” – but which last week soared to unprecedented temperatures. Before the opening ceremony had even concluded, 108 scouts had already collapsed and been taken to the basic on-site hospital; more than 400 needed treatment in the early days.
It was unlucky, says Raphael, that the huge typhoon that prompted the eventual closure of the event unexpectedly changed course to veer towards the site, “but typhoons are a normal part of the season at this time of the year. This is nothing new.” Acts of God aside, however, there were plenty of other problems: filthy toilets, not enough food, little shade or other facilities for cooling down and inadequate medical services.
“We are disappointed in the organisers, and we do feel let down,” said Matt Hyde, Scouts UK chief executive, after the British delegation, the largest on site, relocated earlier than most, saying it could not guarantee the safety of its young delegates. What’s worse, says Raphael, all of these potential issues were raised by international delegations and by domestic politicians beforehand – they were assured everything would be fine.
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What has South Korea done about it?
South Korea’s organisation of the jamboree itself may have been calamitous, but it has certainly kicked into gear when cleaning up the mess, says Raphael. The evacuation of tens of thousands of young people was remarkably swift and efficient – “They are usually very good at these kinds of logistical things here” – and the delegates have all been found alternative accommodation in university, civic and corporate campuses.
The event was not widely known about beforehand in South Korea – it is now, and the country is deeply embarrassed by its failure, says Raphael. “Koreans are so touchy about their image abroad, it’s so sensitive. There is the national image that they’ve been building for the last few decades – finally, we are a rich, advanced nation.” Now, he says, “people are so angry, [saying] how is the government so incompetent?”
As a result, he says, everyone is now bending over backwards to show the scouts a good time for the remainder of their atomised jamboree. The British delegation have tweeted about trips to meet the mayor of Seoul, trekking and cultural activities, a trip to a local football match. “The people of Seoul have just been incredible,” said Hyde. The prime minister has told people to judge the event in its entirety once it ends. There is a plan for a huge K-pop concert in the capital on Saturday bringing all the delegates together – with rumours of big name acts inevitable.
That said, “heads will roll” over this, says Raphael, with the minister of gender equality and family, Kim Hyun-sook, under particular pressure over her department’s organisation of the event (or lack of). Entertaining as it may be in retrospect, he says, “this isn’t fun and games. In the first few days in particular, something could have gone terribly wrong.
“It should never have happened in the first place.”
What else we’ve been reading
Simon Hattenstone’s interview with beloved children’s author Jacqueline Wilson is an absolute must read. The pair discuss Wilson’s decades-long career, her childhood growing up on a council estate in Kingston upon Thames and the evolving world of children’s literature. Nimo
Is it possible to cook the delicious food featured on The Bear without having a panic attack worthy of Carmy Berzatto? Chris Godfrey had a go, and I will admit his description of rustling up the show’s braised beef sandwich made me briefly wish I wasn’t a vegetarian. I’m definitely going to try the family spaghetti though. Esther
A new frontier of live shopping has taken hold on TikTok, where streamers sell all kinds of goods – from clothing, to kitchen appliances to pickles – to audiences in real time. Amelia Tait spoke to buyers about why they have changed their shopping habits and sellers about the downsides of putting your face at the centre of your business. Nimo
Marchelle Farrell used to think the English countryside was not the place for a Black Caribbean person like her. Then she moved with her family to rural Somerset, in part to protect her children’s mental health. A thought-provoking read about finding a landscape to feel at home in. Esther
Cinema etiquette seems to be out the window: loud talking, mindless scrolling and latecomers are disrupting what should be a fairly relaxing experience. Guardian readers shared some of their stories and anecdotes encountering poor audience behaviour when they just wanted to kick back and watch a film. Nimo
Sport
Football | France reached the Women’s World Cup quarter finals after beating Morocco 4-0. The team cruised through the match as goals from Kadidiatou Diani, Kenza Dali and Eugénie Le Sommer put France 3-0 ahead at half-time. Le Sommer added her second after 70 minutes, giving them a comfortable victory.
Football | Tottenham have completed the signing of Micky van de Ven on a six-year deal from Wolfsburg. The addition of the left-footed centre-back helps satisfy the demand of Ange Postecoglou to bring in defensive reinforcements.
Rugby | World champions South Africa will have to launch defence of their title in France without high-profile injured players including the Leicester fly‑half Handré Pollard and star centre Lukhanyo Am. The lock Lood de Jager will also miss the start of the tournament but the captain, Siya Kolisi, has been declared fit.
The front pages
Sinéad O’Connor’s funeral has space on most of the front pages today. In other news, “Water companies face £800m legal action over raw sewage allegations” says the Guardian’s splash headline. “Weight-loss drug can cut heart attacks and strokes” – that’s the Times while the i has “Weight loss jab can cut risk of heart problems”. “In Loving Memory” – the Daily Mirror says “Wills and Kate will deliver special message to the nation” on the anniversary of the Queen’s death. “Pay freeze ‘loophole’ doubles £100,000 mandarins” reports the Daily Telegraph. “Britain strikes deal in war on people smugglers” says the Daily Express. “TWO data breaches that just defy belief” – the Daily Mail reports on the PSNI exposing officers’ names and the “cyber attack on electoral roll”. Of the latter, the Metro says “Cyber raid on 50m voters”. The Financial Times has “Universal and Google in talks over licensing AI-made music”.
Today in Focus
Why the rest of the world can’t afford to ignore the coup in Niger
The Sahel region, sometimes called Africa’s ‘coup belt’, has just seen another government ousted. Peter Beaumont and Nesrine Malik on what it means for African – and global – security
Cartoon of the day | Ella Baron
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
In recent years, the Amazon rainforest has undergone a brutal assault under the leadership of the far-right Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro. Last October, he was voted out and replaced by leftist president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who has pledged to curb deforestation and restore the Amazon. He is now convening an environmental summit attended by the leaders of Amazon nations including Brazil, Colombia and Peru to discuss the future of the world’s largest rainforest amid growing concern over the global climate emergency. “This is a landmark moment,” Lula tweeted on Tuesday morning as his guests were shepherded to the talks by police motorcycle outriders. “What we are doing in defence of the Amazon and its population is historic.” The summit is designed to increase cooperation between countries in Latin America to ensure that the rainforest is protected. Lula has already achieved a 42.5% drop in deforestation, but there is still much work to be done.
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