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 Sri Lanka

Editor’s notes

Global report • Headlines from the last seven days

United Kingdom

Reader’s eyewitness

SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT

TRUMP VS THE WORLD • Before Donald Trump has taken a single executive decision, countries around the world are positioning themselves for his impact

Spotlight • The Kursk front and the secret soldiers of North Korea

Nato steps up Baltic patrols after possible cable sabotage

Rally calls for suspended president’s removal

Muan plane crash Runway disaster tests political unity amid leadership crisis

‘It was like I was reborn’ Ex-inmates adapt to life after Assad • Prisoners in Sednaya prison endured squalid conditions, torture and the noise of fellow inmates being executed

WHO anger at attack on last working major hospital

EU presidency Tusk’s revival masks deeper divisions with neighbours

The fight to restore street that’s a medieval marvel

Unearthed Rare fungi, ghostly palms and hairy herbs • List of new species discovered in 2024 highlights the natural world’s fragility as well as the growing extinction risks

Raising the bar: Dublin’s dry(ish) pub one year on • As young people lose the taste for alcohol, Board’s menu of zero per cent drinks and board games finds an eager audience

Senior service The barista still going strong at 100

Fever pitch The pop star named after an English footballer

Paris TV station that’s a lifeline for women in Afghanistan

Stop the clock! How to slow down time – by having fun • Time flies when you’re … in a boring routine, according to research, which shows that new experiences can alter our perception of time

Jimmy Carter 1924 –2024 • The 39th president was a Renaissance man who should be hailed for his environment policy and his work for peace

Lucky dip The mayor who turned wasteland into a utopia

How a legal weed business ruined a Native American tribe • White investors told the Northern Paiute-Shoshone-Bannock people a cannabis farm could bring them money and jobs – but residents began to question the finances, and then the store and petrol station burned down

Apocalypse then • As the year 2000 rolled in, worldwide computer chaos was predicted to follow. Billions of dollars were spent to prevent it, yet nothing terrible happened. Was the Y2K bug a hoax or did the IT experts get it horribly wrong?

Opinion Richard Sennett • McCarthyism’s paranoia contains a lesson for Trump’s second term

When I go away I don’t want to hear what’s going on at home Poorna Bell

New year is the ideal time for Keir Starmer to drop his ‘bad cop’ act Isabel Hardman

Jane Austen’s enduring legacy lies in her relevance as a foil for modern mores

Opinion Letters

How does it feel? • A Complete Unknown retells Bob Dylan’s explosive rise, but it also resonates with today’s toxic fame and politics. The creative team explain their process – and what the singer made of it all

Sail of the century • An enigmatic nautical radio bulletin first broadcast 100 years ago, the Shipping Forecast has beguiled and inspired poets, pop stars and listeners worldwide

Reviews

Glad rags to riches • Sarcastic, self-aware and surprisingly sad, the first volume of Cher’s extraordinary memoir mixes hard times with the high life

Origin story • We homo sapiens evolved and succeeded when other hominins didn’t – but now our expansionist...