Bots are becoming an inevitable part of newsgathering. Two women are determined to prevent them becoming an inevitable part of warfare

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

In a week in which robot journalists won new customers and admirers in Britain, you’ll be reassured to note that the Guardian is still relying on human beings, for the Upside series at least.

And very busy they were, investigating hopeful stories that all involved David-and-Goliath struggles, albeit in very different fields.

Firstly, Jon Henley looked at the Swiss youngsters taking on the formidable populist establishment and chalking up a string of victories. As Henley writes:

How do you beat rightwing populists? With pink socks, viral videos, condoms – and an iron determination not to let them decide what matters.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The next generation ... Flavia Kleiner (second from right) and supporters. Photograph: Simon Iannelli/Operation Libero

There is no point securing subtle political victories if your entire community is then wiped out by an algorithm-based killer robot. Autonomous weaponry is the next big frontier of warfare. Two determined women are trying to stop it in its track.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mary Wareham, left, and Jody Williams of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots with their mascot David Wreckham. Photograph: Melissa Chan

Another great global threat is drought and water depletion. This is something of a travesty on a planet so blue that it should be called the Sea, not the Earth. Fiona Harvey investigated whether some of that ocean could be turned to our advantage.

What we liked:

The Good News Network story about the community that helped a young family rebuild their home after it was destroyed by fire. Everyone worked for free.

Also Jodie Jackson’s new book, You Are What You Read, a calm dissection of the media’s negativity bias – and what to do about it.

And finally, not so much an article as a phenomenon: Streetcube, a new movement in sustainable local cuisine, is spreading across the UK.

What we heard:

I just read Book nooks on tuk-tuks, 29 March. Books have made me the person I am. I would like to contribute to the projects run by Kinong and Kiswanti.

Anne Pechou, via email. If anyone else would like to help, please email us at theupside@theguardian.com

I have just finished reading your article on the 4 day week and I would like to counteract and give another perspective on why a 4 day week is NOT the solution to the problems you have discussed, but a 6 hour day, 5 days a week actually is.

Emily West, via email, from madeagency.com, which changed working hours two years ago

My name is Lars and my wife is an avid Guardian reader. She passes on articles from time to time that she knows I’ll like – including your recent profile of Jody Williams. I run one of the largest makerspaces in America and would like to find a way we as citizen engineers can assist her campaign.

Lars Hasselblad Torres, via email

Hello, a favourite word of mine from te reo (Māori) is: tūrangawaewae. This means “a place to stand”, which really means the place you or your family rallies to. This is a spiritually sacred place to Māori, where individuals, whānau (extended families) and the tribe would call their ground. For example, the tribal meeting place and marae (head house) would usually be a person’s tūrangawaewae.

Nathan Dougherty, responding to last year’s piece about great words for which there is no real English equivalent

Thanks, Nathan, and welcome to the Upside’s virtual tūrangawaewae.

Where was the Upside?



In the African cities that just got a little safer for children walking to school, thanks to a simple data-driven innovation.

In a galaxy far, far away, where a black hole smiled for the camera.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Dark star. Photograph: Reuters

Also in Rome, where a do-it-yourself maintenance squad is secretly patching up the Eternal City, literally filling in the cracks left by depleted city units.

Thanks for reading. Tell a friend about us. Get in touch with your best ideas, so we can then pretend they are ours. Write to theupside@theguardian.com.