The Guardian Weekly magazine is a round-up of the world news, opinion and long reads that have shaped the week. Inside, the past seven days' most memorable stories are reframed with striking photography and insightful companion pieces, all handpicked from The Guardian and The Observer.
Eyewitness Italy
A week in the life of the world • China’s struggles, the search for survivors and desert megacities
Global report
DEATHS
SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT
Global report United Kingdom
Have we reached peak china? • The world’s second-biggest economy has long seemed set on an ever-upwards path. But amid a slowing economy and jobs market, the outlook may be changing for the country’s people – and its leaders
POPULATION
Red alert Too few jobs, not enough tax receipts and a weak safety net
Giant sector hit by crises
‘Bad’ Apple? Smartphone ban may signal wider backlash against US tech
MOROCCO ‘Everything is gone’ Despair in villages reduced to rubble
Fading hopes Offers of help flood in amid desperate search efforts
‘The war came to us’: the Danube ports in the firing line • With Odesa out of action, Izmail and Reni are now the only places vital grain and sunflower oil can be exported
Diplomatic win Biden defers to Modi on Ukraine in sign of India’s growing influence
‘A good week’ Starmer’s core team sets course for No 10 • Labour is hotly tipped to win the next election. Can the reshuffled shadow cabinet deliver?
Business beats a path to Labour’s green door
‘Into battle’ New generation of Indigenous activists rises
Rubiales quits A victory for feminism – but questions still remain
A cry for help from the traumatised teachers living in fear
The rule that saved my little boy’s life • Australian protocol giving patients and relatives the right to a second medical opinion may soon be adopted in the UK
How El Niño is putting world rice supplies in jeopardy
Waste not… Can lab-grown fruit ease food insecurity?
Combing through evidence • New research has reignited the debate over which type of creature was the first to branch off the evolutionary tree from the common ancestor of all animals
Swing shift Can workers’ gains lift Biden’s poll fortunes?
Activists hail abortion ruling but warn of lack of access
‘Something happened’ • FIRST THERE WERE THE BEWILDERING DNA TEST RESULTS, THEN THE LONG-FORGOTTEN FERTILITY BLOG – AND A DISCOVERY THAT WOULD CHANGE THE LIVES OF TWO FAMILIES FOR EVER
Les mots perdus • Proust, ChatGPT and the case of the forgotten quote In search of a passage among the French writer’s voluminous work, I turned to AI to help me find it. The results were instructive – just not about Proust
MIDDLE EAST • The desert megacities that are concreting over the past
TECHNOLOGY • Is Elon Musk really the guiding force the world needs right now?
UNITED KINGDOM • Horizon deal with EU shows Brexit’s broken bridges can be mended
Ties between North Korea and Russia are bad news – and not only for Ukraine
Letters
A WEEK IN VENN DIAGRAMS
Out of one, many • Fleabag’s Hot Priest is about to take on his most liberating role yet: a one-man show of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya.
Choruses of disapproval • Under Pinochet, artistic expression in Chile was a form of resistance. Fifty years later, today’s performers are keeping the flame of dissent alight
Reviews
Tangled up in blue • A former minister exposes the ‘shameful state’ of Britain’s Tory administration in this brilliant account of dysfunctional rule
No laughing matter • Sebastian Faulks’s melancholic novel about a daring scientific experiment explores the...