The Guardian Weekly (October 2, 2024) – The new issue features ‘ 7 OCTOBER 2023’ – The day that changed the world. The Anniversary foreshadows a region on the brink. Plus: the shapeshifting Giorgia Meloni.
Events in the Middle East were moving so rapidly this week that the stunning assassination of the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut last Friday, killed by an Israeli heavy bombing raid, already feels quite distant. By Tuesday morning Israeli forces had launched what was called a “limited, localised and targeted” ground operation against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Hours later, Iran responded with a barrage of ballistic missiles aimed at targets across Israel.
To put things in some kind of perspective, the coming week also marks the first anniversary of Hamas’s attack on Israel, setting in motion the brutal chain of events leading to the deaths of more than 41,000 Gazans by Israeli bombing, last week’s dramatic events in Lebanon and Iran’s military response which many now fear leaves the region close to full-blown war.
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Spotlight | The ‘marriage competition’ that divided South Sudan
Underage marriage is illegal in South Sudan yet so commonplace it rarely attracts attention. But the case of Athiak Dau Riak, who her mother says is only 14, has gone viral, polarising her family and the country. From Juba, Florence Miettaux reports
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Science | Telescopes that could save us from death by asteroids
The existential threat from a large meteor is real, but two next-generation telescopes are about to make us safer, writes Robin George Andrews
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Feature | The shapeshifter: who is the real Giorgia Meloni?
She’s been called a neo-fascist and a danger to her country. But the Italian prime minister has won over many heads of Europe. Should we be worried? By Alexander Stille
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Opinion | Trump v Harris and a battle between the sexes
There are clear reasons why women are running from Trump, but men are flocking to him – and it’s vital to understand why, argues Jonathan Freedland
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Culture | Will Ferrell’s road trip of trans discovery
Saturday Night Live writer Harper Steele came out as a trans woman in 2022 at the age of 61. Her friend of 30 years Will Ferrell had questions. So what else to do but jump in a van, cross the US, and make a documentary about it? Guy Lodge reports
The dark art of crafting nuclear ‘pits’ was almost lost. Now it’s ramped up into a multibillion dollar industry.
Our system leaves parents with unreliable waitlists and mortgage-size payments, while teachers go overburdened and underpaid.
The party realizes that progressive issues win voters, even when their candidates don’t.
Raymond Tallis wonders what the world is made from.
The Vice-President has displayed the basic values and political skills that would enable her to help end, once and for all, a poisonous era defined by Donald Trump. By The Editors
Mental-health struggles have risen sharply among young Americans, and parents and lawmakers alike are scrutinizing life online for answers. By Andrew Solomon
An artificial voice has long been a dream of tinkerers and technologists. Now that A.I. can talk, though, we may forget who we’re talking to.
By Jill Lepore
Monocle on Sunday (September 29, 2024): Georgina Godwin, Terry Stiastny, and David Schlesinger on the weekend’s biggest talking points.
We also speak to Monocle’s contributing editor Andrew Mueller in London, foreign correspondent Hannah McCarthy in Beirut, and Monocle’s editorial director Tyler Brûlé in Paris on the latest from Lebanon. Plus: Monocle correspondent Mary Fitzgerald on her trip to Kyiv with Brussels think tank Friends of Europe, and Monocle’s Balkans correspondent Guy De Launey on the latest news from the region.
Monocle on Saturday (September 28, 2024): The 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly concluded this week but what did it achieve? What can we expect from Keir Starmer’s meeting with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday?
And what is behind the surge in popularity of South Korean skincare in the UK? Georgina Godwin and international broadcast correspondent, Nina dos Santos, discuss this and more of the week’s news and culture. Plus: Monocle’s Gunnar Gronlid attends the opening of the world’s first commercial CO2 capture-and-storage facility in Norway, and we get the latest on The Book Hive, a UK-based independent bookshop and publisher, with the owner, Henry Layte.
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