Eyewitness (cid:3) Saddled up Spain A rider rears up on his horse surrounded by a cheering crowd during the j aleo in Fornells , Menorca. During the summer months, towns and villages across the Balaeric island hold festivals with fairground rides, races, competitions, fi rework PHOTOGRAPH: displays and concerts as part of patron saints’ celebrations. MATTHIAS OESTERLE/REX 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 Guardian Weekly The weekly magazine has an international focus and three editions: global, Australia and North Founded in Manchester, America. The Guardian was founded in 1821, and Guardian Weekly in 1919. We exist to hold power England to account in the name of the public interest, to uphold liberal and progressive values, to fi ght for 4 July 1919 the common good, and to build hope. Our values, as laid out by editor CP Scott in 1921, are honesty, integrity, courage, fairness, and a sense of duty to the reader and the community. The Guardian is wholly owned by the Scott Trust, a body whose purpose is “to secure the fi nancial and editorial independence of the Guardian in perpetuity”. We have no proprietor or shareholders, and any profi t Vol 207 | Issue № 5 made is re-invested in journalism. This magazine is printed on paper that has been produced by UPM mills in Scotland and Finland. It has a low carbon footprint, and has been sourced from sustainably managed forests A week in the life of the world Inside 29 July 2022 Capitol revelations, Ukrainian grain and farewell to Neighbours At times, the eight public sessions of the US House 4-14 GLOBAL REPORT committee hearings into the January 6 assault on the Headlines from the last Capitol have felt less like a government inquiry and more seven days like the climax of a TV drama. The revelations – with more 10 US What do the January 6 promised for later in the year – have shocked millions hearings mean for Trump? of viewers, but how far have they changed attitudes towards Donald Trump, who risked everything to try to 15-33 SPOTLIGHT overturn the results of the 2020 election? Chris McGreal In-depth reporting reports from the key swing state of Wisconsin, while and analysis Guardian US political correspondent Lauren Gambino 15 Ukraine Grain deal puts weighs up the likelihood of criminal charges against the Odesa back in line of fi re former president. 18 (cid:3)Italy Is the far-right set The big story Page 10 (cid:2) to sneak into power? 22 UK Broken at the border A United Nations-brokered deal between Russia, Ukraine 24 Environment Can deep- and Turkey has raised hopes that grain e xports can sea farming feed the world? resume through the Black Sea, greatly reducing the risk of 26 Greece Tragedy to comedy a global food supply crisis. Joanna Partridge considers the 28 DRC Batwa people lead challenging logistics, while Peter Beaumont reports from drive to stop deforestation the Ukrainian port of Odesa, where there are doubts as to 30 Science Bees, smarter whether the fragile arrangement can hold. than the average insect Spotlight Page 15(cid:2) 32 US Roe v Wade, a month on Generations of TV viewers in Britain, Australia and 34-44 FEATURES beyond grew up with the daytime soap opera Neighbours. Long reads, interviews Its sunny depiction of life in suburban Melbourne often and essays belied groundbreaking plotlines, and launched the careers 34 The dark silence behind of the likes of Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce and Margot Canada’s Inuit suicides Robbie. As the show draws to a close, its stars p ast and By Hugh Brody present recall the highs and lows of life on Ramsay Street. 40 In search of a remedy for G’bye Erinsborough Page 51 (cid:2) cacophonous snoring By Stuart Jeff ries 45-50 OPINION 45 John Harris Time for disruptive protest 47 Polly Toynbee A summer of Tory snarl 48 Simon Tisdall Europe’s migrant muddle 51-59 CULTURE TV, fi lm, music, theatre, art, architecture & more 51 Television Soap fans will miss their Join the community On the cover As the televised House committee Australian Neighbours Twitter: @guardianweekly hearings into the January 6 Capitol riot reached 55 Music facebook.com/guardianweekly what some called a ‘season fi nale’ last week, it Cellist Abel Selaocoe gets Instagram: @guardian was clear D onald Trump’s attempts to overturn Bach in the groove the 2020 election result still cast a long shadow 58 Books over American democracy. Could the hearings Physicist Peter Higgs’ lead to charges against the former president? burden of brilliance Graphic: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty; Jack Gruber/USA Today/Reuters; Guardian Design 60-63 LIFESTYLE SPOT ILLUSTRATIONS: 60 Ask Annalisa MATT BLEASE Trauma and divorce 4 Global 2 CANADA 4 RUSSIA Gazprom slashes deliveries report through Nord Stream 1 Gazprom, the Russian state-controlled energy company, announced a drastic cut to gas deliveries through Headlines from its main pipeline to Europe the last seven days from Wednesday, prompting Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, to accuse Pope asks for forgiveness 1 HEALTH Moscow of waging a “gas war”. for abuse at church schools The Russian monopoly said WHO declares global Pope Francis has expressed “my it was turning off one of the last monkeypox emergency sorrow” for the legacy of abuse two operating turbines because The worldwide outbreak of at Canada’s residential schools, of the “technical condition of monkeypox has been declared asking survivors of the church- the engine”, cutting daily gas Copyright © 2022 a public health emergency of run system for forgiveness deliveries via the Nord Stream GNM Ltd. All rights international concern by the as he tours the country on a pipeline to 33m cubic metres – reserved World Health Organization – the “pilgrimage of penance”. about 20% of capacity. agency’s strongest warning. The pontiff’s widely anticipated The German economy Published weekly by It is the seventh time such apology came during a Monday ministry said on Monday that it Guardian News & a declaration has been made morning visit to the community was monitoring the situation. Media Ltd, since 2009, the most recent being of  Maskwacis , Alberta . “According to our information, Kings Place, for Covid-19, and it comes after “I am sorry. I ask for there is no technical reason for 90 York Way, a meeting of a committee of forgiveness, in particular, for the a reduction in deliveries.” London, N1 9GU, UK experts last week. ways in which many members Z elenskiy u rged the EU to agree “In short, we have an outbreak of the church and religious tougher sanctions against Russia. Printed by Walstead UK, in that has spread around the communities co-operated in “T his is an open gas war that Bicester and Kraków world rapidly through new projects of cultural destruction Russia is waging against a united modes of transmission about and forced assimilation ,” Francis Europe,” he said. Registered as a which we understand too said, telling nearly 2,000 survivors The Nord Stream 1 pipeline newspaper at the little and which meets the of the residential school system resumed pumping gas last week, Post Offi ce criteria in the international of his “indignation” and “shame” after a 10-day maintenance break, health regulations,” D r Tedros over the “painful” memory of the but Brussels has warned that ISSN 0958-9996 Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the treatment of Indigenous children. a complete shut down is likely. WHO’s director-general, said. To advertise contact While the risk of monkeypox advertising. enquiries@ was “moderate” globally, it 3 UNITED STATES 5 HUNGARY theguardian.com was “high” in Europe and there was “a clear risk of further Bannon guilty of contempt Orbán appals Europe with To subscribe visit international spread”. in defying subpoena attack on racial ‘mixing’ support. According to WHO data, there theguardian.com/uk/ have been more than 16,000 Steve Bannon, the former top The far-right prime minister, subscribe/weekly monkeypox cases in 75 countries strategist to Donald Trump, Viktor Orbán, has spoken of the support. and territories and there have was convicted last Friday in his “mixing” of European and non- theguardian.com/eu/ been five deaths. contempt of Congress trial – European races, in a speech that subscribe/weekly The European region has the a victory for the House January 6 drew outrage from opposition support. highest number of total cases , select committee that referred parties and European politicians. theguardian.com/ int/subscribe/weekly approaching 12,000, and the him for prosecution as it continues “We [Hungarians] are not biggest increase in seven days . to investigate Trump’s role in the a mixed race … and we do not Manage your Capitol attack. want to become a mixed race,” subscription at A jury in federal court found said Orbán on Saturday. He added subscribe. Bannon guilty on two contempt that countries where European theguardian.com/ charges stemming from his and non-Europeans mingled were manage refusal to comply last year with “no longer nations”. a subpoena in the congressional Katalin Cseh, an MEP from the Or contact investigation . Bannon will appeal opposition Momentum party, said: UK, Europe and Rest the conviction after his sentencing “His statements recall a time we of World in October. would all like to forget. They show gwsubs@ theguardian.com The big story Page 10(cid:2) the true colours of the regime .” +44 (0) 330 333 6767 The Guardian Weekly 29 July 2022 UK headlines p9(cid:5) 6 CANADA 8 RUSSIA Two dead after shootings MI6 chief reveals extent in suburb of Vancouver of Russian spy exp ulsions Two people were killed in an early Half of all the Russian spies morning gun attack in a Vancouver operating under diplomatic cover 4 suburb that left two others in Europe have been expelled injured. The suspect was shot since the start of the war in dead by police offi cers. 2 Ukraine, the chief of MI6 has told a The Royal Canadian Mounted US security conference. 5 Police said on Monday that two Richard Moore, who heads people had been pronounced British foreign intelligence, dead at the scene in Langley . said the expulsions of about One woman remained in critical 400 Russian diplomats had condition. A fourth person had 3 dramatically reduced the been shot in the leg. Kremlin’s espionage capabilities. The shooter, who was He said western intelligence identifi ed as Jordan Daniel agencies had made “pretty Goggin, 28, was from nearby concerted” eff orts to disrupt Surrey and known to police but Russian spying networks since the had non-criminal contact . invasion. The attack is believed to have Spies typically pretend to be 10 CZECH REPUBLIC unfolded over several hours. undertaking cover jobs at their Pictures on social media showed country’s embassy. Only a handful vehicles, including a police SUV, pretend to be ordinary citizens . with bullet holes . Spotlight Page 15(cid:2) 7 BRAZIL Impounded sports car recruited for police work Police have turned a high-powered Ferrari seized from criminals into a patrol car capable of chasing down joyriders at 320km/h. 9 BRAZIL The once-red 2011 Ferrari Three men charged in 458 Italia has yellow and blue reflective stripes and lights on Amazon murder case its roof . Police said it will be used Bolsonaro doubts integrity Public prosecutors have charged to chase stolen cars and to crack of election amid polls dip three men with the murder in down on illegal road races . Electoral officials and senior June of the British journalist Dom While similar Ferrari models politicians have criticised Phillips and Indigenous expert can fetch upwards of $180,000, the Brazilian president, Jair Bruno Pereira . police stressed that only about Bolsonaro, after the far-right Phillips – a c ontributor to the $12,000 had been spent on leader called foreign diplomats to Guardian – and Pereira had met modifications , the equivalent of the presidential palace and made Indigenous people near the Javari buying a new Skoda hatchback. unfounded allegations about the Valley Indigenous Territory, and The car will only be driven by integrity of the upcoming election. were travelling along the Itaquai trained police officers in a special Bolsonaro told them the River, a hotspot for illegal fi shing, surveillance unit. electronic voting system in when they were attacked. Brazil, which has been used Prosecutors said Amarildo da without controversy since 1996, Costa Oliveira and Jeff erson da was vulnerable. The remarks Silva Lima had confessed to the raised concerns that the populist crime, while witness testimony politician – facing poor polling indicates Oseney da Costa de results – may attempt to discredit Oliveira also participated . the democratic process if he loses Prosecutors said the men made in October. the attack when Pereira asked Phillips to photograph them. 29 July 2022 The Guardian Weekly 12 IRAQ Baghdad and Ankara blame each other for fatal shelling The bodies of nine tourists killed in a shelling attack at a water park in northern Iraq have been flown to Baghdad, as up to 23 survivors were treated in hospital and a political row intensified over who was responsible. The Iraqi government has accused Turkish forces of an attack on its citizens in a resort near the northern Kurdish city of Zakho . Turkey claimed that its arch-foe, the Kurdistan Workers’ 20 party (PKK), was responsible. The presence of the Turkish 19 army in the mountainous pocket of Iraq h as long been a point of friction between Baghdad and Ankara, but the Kurdistan regional government of Iraq has facilitated the Turkish presence to help 17 combat the PKK, which it accuses of subverting its authority. 15 14 CHINA 11 TUNISIA Referendum hands more Leaders inject new urgency power to head of state 13 DR CONGO in faltering vaccine drive President Kais Saied celebrated Energy permit auction the almost certain victory of The ruling Communist party has threatens rare gorillas the “yes” vote in a referendum asserted the safety of its Covid- on a new constitution that President Félix Tshisekedi has 19 vaccines , stepping up eff orts strengthens the powers of the announced an auction of oil to allay public concerns that risk head of state and risks a return to and gas permits in critically hampering its vaccination drive. 16 authoritarian rule in the birthplace endangered gorilla habitats “China’s state and party leaders of the Arab Spring. and the world’s largest tropical have all been vaccinated against An overwhelming 92-93% peatlands , raising concerns Covid-19 with domestically made of those who voted on Monday about the credibility of a forest shots,” said Zeng Yixin, the deputy supported the new constitution, protection deal signed with the head of the National Health according to an exit poll . country by the UK prime minister Commission, on Saturday. Saied’s critics have warned Boris Johnson at Cop26. Experts have warned that the new constitution would One planned site overlaps with lower vaccination rates for elderly lock in presidential powers Virunga national park, home to people could squeeze health that could tip Tunisia back the last mountain gorillas. The resources and get in the way of into dictatorship. The new text other site exploits land that stores China’s eff ort to emerge from its would place the president in the equivalent of three years of “dynamic Covid zero” policy . command of the army, allow him global emissions from fossil fuels. Spotlight Page 33 (cid:2) to appoint a government without Environmental groups have parliamentary approval and urged the president, who signed make him virtually impossible a $500m deal to protect the forest to remove from offi ce. with Johnson, to halt the auction. The Guardian Weekly 29 July 2022 The big storyp10 (cid:4) Global report 7 15 SRI LANKA 17 MYANMAR 19 EGYPT DEATHS Junta executes opponents Tourism ministry relaxes held on terror charges photography restrictions The junta has executed four Visitors and residents no longer prisoners including a former have to sneak their photos of politician and a veteran activist, Egypt’s streets, after the tourism Diana Kennedy drawing shock and revulsion at ministry announced that British-born the country’s fi rst use of capital amateur photography in public food writer punishment in decades. spaces is allowed. who dedicated Junta-controlled media Foreign vloggers and social her career to reported on Monday that four media infl uencers have in recent promoting New president struggles to men, including Phyo Zeya Thaw , months brought attention to Mexico’s culinary contain political unrest a rapper and former lawmaker Egyptian authorities’ practice of heritage . She Colombo was braced for more from Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, stopping people taking photos and died on 24 July, unrest after newly appointed and the prominent democracy videos, even at tourist sites, and aged 99. president, Ranil Wickremesinghe , activist Kyaw Min Yu , known confi scating camera equipment. vowed to crack down on protests as Jimmy, had been executed. The Ministry of Tourism David Trimble that toppled his predecessor, They were accused of conspiring and Antiquities announced Former first Gotabaya Rajapaksa , condemning to commit terror acts and were that the cabinet had “approved minister of them as “against the law”. sentenced to death in January in new regulations governing Northern Ireland “If you try to topple the closed trials. photography, for personal use” by and key architect government, occupy the Aung Myo Min , the human residents and tourists. of the Good Friday president’s offi ce and the prime rights minister in Myanmar’s Restrictions regarding peace agreement minister’s offi ce, that is not national unity government , photographing of children and that ended the democracy; it is against the law,” formed in exile by elected for commercial photography will, Troubles. He he said. politicians, ethnic minority however, remain in place. died on 25 July, But l ess than an hour after representatives and activists, said aged 77. he was declared president l ast he was extremely saddened to Wednesday, protest ers defi ed hear of the executions. “What else Uwe Seeler orders for them to disperse, do we need to prove how cruel the Indomitable shouting “deal Ranil” – a reference murderous Myanmar’s military centre-forward to Wickremesinghe’s reputation is?” he said. who played as a scheming politician – as well A banner was hung on a bridge football for West as “Ranil bank robber”, referring in Yangon bearing a warning that Germany in four to a bank bond scam he was the junta should “be ready to pay World Cups . He implicated in. for the blood debt”. died on 21 July, aged 85. Shonka Dukureh 16 NEW ZEALAND 18 IRAN 20 JAPAN Actor who made her big screen Wellingtonians go gaga for Floods in the wake of heavy Questions over cabinet plan debut as Big Mama baby talk, study fi nds rains kill at least 22 people for Abe state funeral Thornton in Baz New research has declared Flooding in southern Iran killed at Opposition is mounting to plans Luhrmann’s latest Wellington as the global capital least 22 people and left one person for a state funeral for Shinzo Abe, film, Elvis. She of baby talk. missing after heavy rainfall in the the former prime minister , who died on 21 July, The study, published in Nature largely arid country . was shot dead this month. aged 44. Human Behaviour, collected 1,615 Video footage from last The cabinet last week approved recordings of 410 people from 21 Saturday showed vehicles being arrangements for the funeral – Bob Rafelson societies speaking and singing to washed away by the rising waters only the second of its kind for Co-creator of an adult and then a baby in more of the Roodbal river in the county a former leader in the postwar 60s pop group than a dozen languages. of Estahban in the southern period – on 27 September. the Monkees Researchers analysed the shift province of Fars. Abe, Japan’s longest-serving and film director in tones using audio equipment, One video showed people prime minister, was shot from who became and asked more than 50,000 racing to pull a child from a car as behind while making a campaign an influential people from 187 countries to guess the water was carrying it away. speech in Nara on 8 July. figure in the New if the person was speaking to an Iran has endured repeated His violent death shocked a Hollywood era infant or an adult. People from droughts over the past decade, but country with negligible rates of of the 1970s . He Wellington cooed at a particularly also regular floods, a phenomenon gun crime and sparked a debate died on 23 July, high register, making their baby made worse when torrential rain over how best to honour the aged 89. talk the easiest to distinguish. falls on sun-baked earth. influential but divisive politician. 29 July 2022 The Guardian Weekly 8 Global report United Kingdom SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT CONSERVATIVES Party braced as leadership race enters brutal last stage between people diagnosed with depression and healthy people. The Tories are braced for a “blue Studies also looked at the eff ects on blue dogfi ght” as former of stressful life events and found that chancellor Rishi Sunak and foreign the more stressful events a person secretary Liz Truss entered had experienced, the more likely (cid:5) R eassessment a six-week battle to become they were to be depressed . of tiger numbers Conservative party leader and the came as the IUCN UK’s next prime minister. updated its red In a whirlwind week of voting, SPACE list of threatened Conservative MPs whittled down species, which a crowded fi eld of leadership First inactive black hole gauges the candidates to the fi nal two , after found outside the Milky Way conservation Boris Johnson’s resignation earlier A dormant black hole nine times status of plants, in the month. the mass of the sun has been animals and fungi In the fi nal round of voting found outside the Milky Way for before parliament went into GETTY the fi rst time . Though it is not the summer recess, Sunak retained WILDLIFE fi rst contender, a researcher from his lead among Tory MPs, with 137 the University of Sheffi eld said votes. Truss eventually fi nished Tiger numbers in the wild this black hole was “the fi rst to be second, narrowly ahead of Penny higher than estimates unambiguously detected outside Mordaunt. But despite that, There are 40% more tigers in the our galaxy”. Truss is the clear favourite among wild than previously thought, The researchers – whose study Conservative party members, with as many as 5,578 a t large, was published in Nature Astronomy according to polling . though they remain an endangered – had been looking for black hole About 160,000 fee-paying species, according to a leading binary systems for more than members – half aged over 60, 97% conservationist group. two years before fi nding what white and skewing male from The jump in numbers was due has become known as VFTS243. southern England – will have the to improved monitoring, with the Paul Crowther, a professor of chance to vote next month to population thought to be stable or astrophysics at the university, decide who will become prime increasing, said the International described t he discovery as minister in early September. Union for Conservation of Nature . “very exciting ” . Accordingly, the two candidates Habitat protection projects showed Stellar-mass black holes are announced a series of “red meat” that r ecovery was “possible”. formed when massive stars reach policy pledges designed to appeal There are thought to be between the end of their lives and collapse to members’ hardline views. 3,726 and 5,578 wild tigers living under their own gravity. In a system Both were accused by charities in the wild . The last population of two stars revolving around each of “cruelty and immorality” for assessment was made in 2015 . other, this process leaves behind promising more Rwanda-style a black hole in orbit with a luminous deals to remove asylum seekers . companion star. Sunak unveiled plans to curb PSYCHIATRY China’s soft power by closing all of its 30 Confucius Institutes, which ‘No clear evidence’ chemical CLIMATE CRISIS promote the teaching of Chinese imbalance causes depression language and culture, in the UK. Toll of drought on Hoover Scientists have called into question Rival campaigns admit they dam system captured by Nasa the u se of antidepressants after expect a summer of diffi cult a major review found “no clear Newly released satellite pictures headlines for Sunak and Truss, 30 evidence” that low serotonin levels from Nasa s how how dramatically who have clashed over tax. are responsible for depression. Lake Mead’s water levels have Spotlight Page 23 (cid:2) A review of studies, published in the declined . The images, covering the journal Molecular Psychiatry, found years 2000, 2021 and 2022, show The percentage that depression is not likely to be once-full tributaries transformed decrease in caused by a chemical imbalance and into dry beds. America’s largest livestock said people should be made aware of reservoir is at its lowest since it was numbers other treatment options . fi lled in 1937. Michael Carlowicz, planned by One of the fi ndings was that from the Nasa Earth Observatory, the Dutch research comparing levels of described it as “a stark illustration government serotonin and its breakdown of climate change and a long-term to meet products in the blood or brain fl uids drought that may be the worst in the environmental did not discover any diff erence US west in 12 centuries” . targets The Guardian Weekly 29 July 2022 UK Spotlight p22(cid:5) 9 Eyewitness (cid:3) Dark skies A team of National Trust rangers clear dead birds from Staple Island, one of the Farne Islands off the coast of north- east England, where avian infl uenza (bird fl u) is having a devastating eff ect on one of the UK’s best known and important seabird colonies . More than 3,000 carcasses have been recovered so far and the NT , wh ich cares for the islands, have warned this number could be the “tip of the iceberg” as cliff -nesting birds, including guillemots and kittiwakes, will have fallen and been lost to the sea. OWEN HUMPHREYS/PA HEALTH CULTURE ECONOMY Worst NHS staffi ng crisis in Anticolonial leader given Infl ation reaches 40-year history puts patients at risk spot in Trafalgar Square high and continues to climb The NHS is facing “the greatest A s tatue of a preacher who was The prospect of inflation hitting workforce crisis” in its history, killed in an anticolonialist uprising 12% i s looming larger after dearer which is putting patients at in what is now Malawi will be fuel and food pushed the cost of serious risk of harm, an influential unveiled in September on the living to a fresh 40-year high. group of MPs warn ed. fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. A one-month increase in In its report, the cross-party Antelope by Samson Kambalu petrol prices not seen since at Commons health and social is the 14th contemporary artwork least the late 1980s, coupled with SOHO care select committee slam med to be commissioned for t he plinth i ncreases f or staples such as eggs, PLACE W1 the “absence of a credible in central London. It restages milk, cheese and vegetables sent government strategy” on NHS- a 1914 photograph of John Britain’s annual inflation rate up 72 wide understaffing and criticises Chilembwe, a Baptist preacher from 9.1% to 9.4% in June. ministers for delaying a blueprint and pan-Africanist, and John With the annual energy price it says is urgently needed to Chorley, a European missionary . cap predicted to rise from just address critical gaps . Chilembwe is wearing a hat under £2,000 to more than £3,000 The number of The hard-hitting report in defiance of a colonial rule in October, analysts warned there years since the include d evidence showing the forbidding Africans from wearing was worse to come. Paul Dales, Soho district of NHS staffing crisis in England is hats in front of white people. The the chief UK economist at Capital central London even worse than official figures following year, he led an uprising Economics said there was some got a new street suggest. NHS Digital figures against colonial rule. sign domestically generated name . Soho suggest that the service has inflation was replacing global Place, a piazza vacancies for 38,972 nurses and price pressures. “ We still think on the site of 8,016 doctors. However, the real inflation will rise to 12% in October the demolished figures could be as high as 50,000 and that interest rates will be Astoria music and 12,000 respectively, according raised from 1.25% to 3%, ” he said. venue, is also to estimates the Nuffield Trust The Bank of England said last the address prepared for the MPs. month it expected the annual for the West The NHS is emerging as a inflation rate to peak at just End’s fi rst new key issue in the Conservative over 11% this year before falling purpose-built leadership contest . sharply next year. theatre for 50 years. 29 July 2022 The Guardian Weekly 10 UNITED STATES from former Trump administration offi cials. She watched for almost an hour before giving up because she said that while “the violence and destruc- By Chris McGreal W ISCONSIN tion these people perpetrated is not OK”, the hearing was a one-sided M attack on the former president rather than an attempt to get at the truth. “There was an annoying and trou- bling Hollywood-movie look to these theatrical hearings, as if they’re acting in a badly done B-list movie,” she said. But Burl, a former social worker and substitute teacher, did tune in illions – unlike other members of Oneida of Americans spent last Thursday County Republican party and most evening stunned, appalled and other Trump supporters. amused by the season fi nale of the con- “I haven’t watched it,” said Kathleen gressional hearings into the storming Silbernagel, the party secretary and of the Capitol in the waning days of a retired programme manager for a Donald Trump’s presidency, and his Pepsi subsidiary. part in the deadly insurrection. “It’s a joke. Most conservatives The slickly planned primetime feel that it is a kangaroo court. Liber- hearing showed Trump refusing to als already hate him so it’s not going call off the insurgents for more than to aff ect them. But how it will aff ect three hours as he watched Fox News independent people, who are always coverage from the White House dining in the middle, is hard to tell.” room on 6 January 2021. The House Opinion polls suggest that the committee heard how secret service hearings have not produced the dev- offi cers protecting the vice-president, astating shift in public opinion against Mike Pence, were telling their families Trump that some Democrats hoped they might not make it home alive. for. Nor have they slackened the grip Committee members said the of Trumpism on the Republican party. evidence showed Trump lied, betrayed Even as evidence spilled out that the his oath of offi ce and summoned a then-president “commanded an mob to Washington to try to overturn armed mob to overturn the election”, the presidential election. It was, said few Republican politicians turned Republican congressman Adam Kinz- away from Trump. Those who do pay inger, “a stain on our history”. the price. But in the heart of Trump country, Representative Liz Cheney, who there’s a diff erent take. “I looked up broke with her party leadership to kangaroo court,” said Terri Burl, a serve as one of Trump’s chief accusers Republican activist in rural northern on the House select committee, is fac- Wisconsin, a key swing state that ing a drubbing in next month’s primary Trump won in 2016 but lost four years for her seat in Congress at the hands later. “I’m like: yes, that’s exactly what of a rival who has positioned herself this is. What’s it supposed to prove?” as defender of the former president. Burl’s loyalty to the former But while the hearings may not have president – she was an early member shaken the commitment of the faith- of Women for Trump – has not been ful, the weeks of testimony have (cid:2) shaken by last Thursday’s testimony compounded a sense of doubt Taking the stand (cid:18) Opinion on Pivotal people and events, page 12 (cid:17) Trump’s culpabil- ity divides along Lauren Gambino partisan lines The primetime p ause, page 13 (cid:17) MARCO BELLO/REUTERS The Guardian Weekly 29 July 2022