Guardian Weekly

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...