The Guardian

2022 - 9 - 8

Post cover — Image courtesy of "The Guardian"

How does the Guardian help digital readers distinguish analysis ... (The Guardian)

A striking new design now differentiates straight reporting from explanatory journalism, says Guardian and Observer global readers' editor Elisabeth ...

To my mind the designers have deftly signalled analysis journalism so that it is now not only distinguishable at first glance from what it isn’t, but has a positive identity of its own. Is the person on the ground a Ukrainian? The busy reader, the new reader, or the reader who has alighted on a piece from some other part of the web, then has no need to pause to deduce whether the duck is actually some other kind of bird. One reader emailed on 28 February: “I see today a photo of uniformed personnel pointing a rifle at a person laying face-down on the ground, arms splayed … Amid a fast-moving news cycle of complex issues that increasingly bleed into one another, the ability to pause and make sense of them for our readers is even more important,” he said. In November 2020, I passed on the following feedback to senior editors: “The readers’ editor’s office seems to be dealing with an increasing number of complaints over analysis articles that are presented – as far as the reader is concerned – as news. Hopefully these changes address that, as part of a wider effort to innovate in the way that we project and present our digital journalism with different designs and formats.” Like the opinion pages, these pieces are differentiated from news by a tinted background – in this case pale pink – and carry the author’s byline in large italic font. Written most often by a newsroom journalist who is a specialist in their subject, these pieces are commissioned with the aim not of reporting the news but of explaining it. Some might think of it as the “ The change of prime minister in the UK this week has prompted a flurry. But in the past fortnight, regular visitors to the Guardian’s website may have noticed such articles have a striking new design and clear labelling.

Looking at the state of Britain from the US, for once I feel very glad to ... (The Guardian)

It was an unfamiliar feeling of relief: whatever may be wrong with America, at least no one is looking to Liz Truss to solve it, says Guardian columnist ...

The Washington Post [sought cheerfully](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/06/liz-truss-boris-johnson-queen/) to present her as a corrective to Johnson, a happy transition from “a prime minister known for colorful metaphors and a loose relationship with the truth” to “one who offered unadorned bullet points for dealing with the country’s looming economic crisis”. If US coverage of Truss had a through-the-looking-glass feel, figures attesting to the scale of the national crisis in Britain snapped things back to reality. [described as](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/05/world/europe/liz-truss-uk-prime-minister.html?searchResultPosition=7) “a party stalwart, hawkish diplomat and free-market champion” with a “practical, unfussy style [that] could appeal to Britons after the circuslike atmosphere of the Johnson years”. From her record, clearly, she has the gravitas and integrity of a Weeble. In the US, where Britain’s influence dwindles hourly, seeing Truss’s appointment splashed on the homepage of the New York Times triggered a brief ping of excitement: oh, look! One after the other, American media organisations summarised Truss’s task as one of reckoning with “ Whatever may be wrong with the US, at least no one is looking to [Liz Truss](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/sep/06/liz-truss-says-uk-will-ride-out-the-storm-of-cost-of-living-crisis) to solve it. Over on NPR, [analysts asked](https://www.npr.org/2022/07/14/1111595703/what-broke-britains-economy): “what broke Britain’s economy?” [overruled Roe v Wade](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/24/roe-v-wade-overturned-abortion-summary-supreme-court), or in the wake of yet another school shooting, the choice to live in this country when there are better alternatives seems at best eccentric, at worst actively mad. Cometh the hour, cometh the woman; Britons could only laugh hysterically on Monday and rock back and forth. That someone of Truss’s abilities should be in charge at this dire moment of British history makes her seem, in defiance of political physics, even worse in some ways than her predecessor. It is a common refrain among foreigners living in the US, one that comes round like clockwork whenever something bad happens: what are we doing here?

Legal fallout for Trump cronies persists despite his pardons (The Guardian)

Bannon joins the ranks of several Trump allies to be recently prosecuted by the Manhattan district attorney's office.

“If any aspect of the case happened in New York, they have a right to pursue it.” “New York does not consider Bannon prosecuted even though he was charged [federally] for the purposes of this act.” This means that Bannon’s case could proceed “without the concern of double jeopardy that happened with Manafort”. “To the extent that Steve Bannon fleeced his gullible, bigoted, angry followers, I think that’s great.” “Basically, it says the state of New York can’t do a subsequent prosecution after any prosecution has commenced.” “But that’s a double-jeopardy protection and Bannon was never placed in jeopardy, because he never went to trial.” “New York has a very specific double-jeopardy law,” Rahmani explained. Now you have elected district attorneys showing that the cronies are not above the law,” Kuby said. Kuby also said that pursuing charges against Bannon sends a strong message to rightwing activists and Trump allies. Manafort, who was convicted in federal court before the New York case unfolded, ultimately didn’t face state charges on Weisselberg, meanwhile, is expected to serve just 100 days in local jail under his Manafort was [pardoned](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/23/donald-trumps-latest-wave-of-pardons-includes-paul-manafort-and-charles-kunsher) by Trump about two months before the [decision](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/08/paul-manafort-mortgage-fraud-charges-new-york-double-jeopardy) came down that he couldn’t be tried in state court due to double jeopardy.

'You have to run': Romney urged Biden to take down Trump, book says (The Guardian)

Gabriel Debenedetti, author of book on Biden's relationship with Obama, reports call on night of 2018 midterms.

He [generally voted with his president](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/congress-trump-score/mitt-romney/) after taking his seat in the Senate. After the election, he [said](https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/31/politics/mitt-romney-2016-presidential-vote) he did not vote for the Republican nominee, writing in his wife’s name instead. [called](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/05/trump-slams-romney-as-pompous-ass-for-critique-of-ukraine-call.html) Romney a “pompous ass” – and in 2019 Romney [told the New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/26/us/politics/mitt-romney-donald-trump.html): “People say to me, ‘If you’re critical of the president you’re hurting the party.’ No I’m not – I’m laying out a path for the party post the president.” [spoke out against Trump](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2016/mar/03/mitt-romney-donald-trump-republican-presidential-race-video), decrying his behaviour on the campaign trail and [calling him](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/03/mitt-romney-donald-trump-republican-presidential-race-speech) a “phony” and a “fraud”. They were warm as Biden cheered Romney’s win. Describing how Biden spent 6 November 2018, Debenedetti writes: “Biden spent election night glued to his phone as usual … The Guardian obtained a copy. [pitching to be secretary of state](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/26/mitt-romney-trump-tillerson-ukraine). [Democrats](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/democrats) were winning big, at least in local races and in the House. [Mitt Romney](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/mittromney), who’d been easily elected to the Senate that night as a rare Trump-opposing Republican. [Donald Trump](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump) in impeachment trials. [2018 midterm elections](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/07/democratic-presidential-candidates-2020), as a wave of anti-Trump sentiment swept Democrats to take control of the House, top Republican Mitt Romney urged Joe Biden to run for president.

There's more to spritz than Aperol (The Guardian)

Putting on the spritz for a last-of-the-summer barbecue? Experiment with an alternative amaro base.

But Aperol is not the only base for a spritz, and some (myself included) think many of the alternatives make a better, more sophisticated choice to toast the tail end of summer. Garnish your St Germain spritz with mint leaves and a wedge of lime to make what’s known as a Hugo cocktail. The spritz itself has its roots in northern Italy, going back more than a century, when soldiers from the occupying Austro-Hungarian empire liked to add water to the local wine, and it is still the signature aperitivo of Venice. Sweet vermouth works well, whether it’s a cheap-and-cheerful, trusted brand such as Martini Rosso, or one of the more serious vermouths now on the market – try Given a huge publicity push only six years ago, it’s now one of the world’s most popular cocktails, instantly recognisable by its look-at-me-look-at-me, neon-orange colour (ideal for the Instagram age, don’t you know). Refreshing and with a gentle, appetising bitterness, it’s also very simple to make – the classic recipe is a memorable 3:2:1 (three parts prosecco to two of Aperol and one of soda), and served over ice in a wine glass or tumbler.

Leslie Megahey obituary (The Guardian)

Leslie Megahey, who has died aged 77, was a director of arts documentaries on subjects across a wide spectrum, from movie legends such as Orson Welles to ...

He directed it in the West End (Criterion theatre, 1994), then in Los Angeles and on Broadway two years later. As BBC television’s head of music and arts (1988-91), as before he juggled his executive position with making his own documentaries. Megahey even directed opera, with his film of Béla Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle (1988) winning the 1989 Prix Italia music award. He produced and directed Omnibus from 1972, and was executive producer of Arena (1976-78) and editor of Omnibus (1978-81), later jointly editing both with Alan Yentob and others (1985-87), mixing high and low culture in his commissions. Later, in 1986, the Japanese director [Akira Kurosawa](https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2010/mar/23/akira-kurosawa-100-google-doodle-anniversary) gave him an interview for Arena. John Russell wrote in the New York Times: “The programme has a beauty and integrity of tone that are rare in films about art and artists.” Then, in 1969, Megahey contributed documentaries to Canvas, a series allowing David Hockney and others to give their view on great works of art, before producing First Eleven (1970), with similar personal assessments. [Charles Gray](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/mar/09/guardianobituaries2) narrated both Schalcken the Painter and Cariani and the Courtesans (1987), which Megahey wrote and directed for the BBC’s Screenplay series. Leslie was born in Belfast to Beatrice (nee Walton) and the Rev Thomas Megahey. His career as a director began the following year with a portrait of the music-hall performer Dan Leno for another arts programme, Contrasts. Away from painters, one of Megahey’s most notable pieces of documentary-making was The Orson Welles Story (1982), a Bafta-winning two-part programme encompassing the Hollywood giant’s long career. [Schalcken the Painter](https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/why-i-love-schalcken-painter) (1979), made as a drama-documentary weaving fact and fiction, and based on Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1839 gothic tale, filled the BBC’s traditional pre-Christmas ghost story slot.

How to turn wilted herbs and old bread into a Catalan seasoning ... (The Guardian)

Cooks in Catalonia have long had this ingenious way of using up stale bread and tired herbs – a nutty picada for thickening soups or as a finishing flourish ...

Crush the chopped garlic in a mortar (add a little salt to help break it down), then grind in the walnuts and parsley. Add 150ml water and the rosemary, return to a boil, then turn down to a simmer and cook gently for 30 minutes. Add the mushrooms, onion, carrot and minced garlic, cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes, until softened, then add the wine, bring to a boil and deglaze the pan.