THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY: The latest issue features ‘End Of The Pier Show’ – What Farage’s election gamble says about the state of British politics.

The curtain came down last week on the summer sideshow of the Clacton byelection, called by Nigel Farage amid mounting scrutiny of his finances.

For our big story this week, Daniel Boffey explores what this campaign – in which the Reform UK leader’s main challenger was a parody candidate called Count Binface – tells us about the current state of politics in Britain.

Farage’s byelection win brought the situation full circle as, shortly after he was declared victor, parliament’s standards watchdog announced it had reopened its investigation into him, report Rowena Mason and Peter Walker.

Analysing the result, political correspondent Alexandra Topping brands the contest futile and says that while Farage aimed to make the financial questions surrounding him disappear, it was the MP himself who has been absent from the political stage over the past few weeks.

Spotlight | Scramble for soldiers
As battlefield losses mount, Pjotr Sauer asks whether Vladimir Putin will order another mobilisation

Science | Wing and a prayer
A disease threatening bat species has spread to northern Canada. Trina Moyles reports on the race to find a cure

Feature | A hymn to the weekend
In 1926, Henry Ford gave his employees both Saturdays and Sundays off – and the two-day chunk of time to party, pray or simply do nothing was born. Now the weekend has changed beyond recognition, says Jess Cartner-Morley

Opinion | Meet the second most dangerous man in the US
As chief US diplomat, Marco Rubio could do great good. But, says Simon Tisdall, his pandering and neglect are a disgrace we shouldn’t ignore

Culture | Through my eyes
As their new album is released, Sam Smith talks to Juan A Ramírez about fans, fame and finding sanctuary in New York

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY: The latest issue features ‘Wrecking Ball’ – How Infantino and FIFA shook planet football.

When a crisis brought on by a rash idea that results in the most prominent part of an organisation saying it will boycott the business’s showcase event doesn’t die down after a couple of weeks, observers might expect the boss to be considering his future. Not when it’s Fifa and not when it’s Gianni Infantino, the president of football’s world governing body and the subject of this week’s big story.

Jonathan Wilson’s witty account of how Infantino’s plan to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors led to the current standoff between Infantino and Fifa’s regional associations is riveting even if you are not a football fan. Jonathan explains how money, egos and some murky politicking collided to elect Infantino on the promise of reform. It’s a tale that has little to do with the sport and its ardent fans, and has far more in common with Shakespeare or a political drama. With a neat circularity, it traces how “Fifa’s attempt to move on from the crisis caused by the executive who rented an apartment for his cats in Trump Tower has wound up back in Trump Tower, with a president who rents an office there”.

Spotlight | ‘I’ll cut your throat’
Five years after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, women are being killed with impunity. A reporting team from Zan Times collects shocking evidence of femicide

Environment | Smoke alarm
As wildfires grow in frequency and spread, environment correspondent Ajit Niranjan reports of the race to untangle the links between exposure to fine particulates in smoke and increased mortality

Feature | War and language learning
Soon after her first reporting trip to Ukraine, our chief culture writer Charlotte Higgins began to learn Ukrainian. She explains how the process taught her more about herself than she had expected

Opinion | Rule breakers need regulation
The revelation that AI went rogue in test conditions should be a call for a wise US leader to back the introduction of an international rule-based order, says Rafael Behr

Culture | What’s eating Dominic Sessa?
Being cast as the lead in Tony, the biopic of bad-boy chef and Kitchen Confidential author Anthony Bourdain let Sessa immerse himself in the 1970s where, he tells Ryan Gilbey, he wouldn’t mind staying

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY: The latest issue features ‘Drones – How Ukraine Took The War In The Skies To Putin’…

When Vladimir Putin sent his tanks over the Ukrainian border to seize Kyiv in February 2022, it’s unlikely he evisaged the mess he finds himself in today. Four-and-a-half years later, Russia remains bogged down in what is no longer simply a ground war but one increasingly being fought in the air by drones.

After years of nightly attacks from Russian ballistic missiles and Iranian-designed Shahed drones, Ukraine has responded by scaling up to become the world’s leading manufacturer of unmanned systems. Its retaliatory campaign targeting Russian energy and retail infrastructure is bringing the war to the doorsteps of Russians in Moscow, Crimea and beyond, making life distinctly uncomfortable for Putin and his regime’s messaging over a “special military operation” that was expected to last days rather than years.

For our big story this week, Luke Harding gained exclusive access to Ukraine’s elite drone strike force, going behind the scenes with senior commanders.

Spotlight | Chaos on the streets of Ceuta
People among the more than 70,000 who entered the Spanish enclave in north Africa last week describe the journey and their prospects to Okba Mohammad and Javier Jennings Mozo

Technology | What if the streetlights have eyes?
The new breed of camera-equipped streetlights has the potential to fight crime and track down missing persons. Or will it just take us one step closer to surveillance states, asks Zoe Williams

Feature | The Clacton klaxon: what Farage’s voters think of Britain
The Reform UK leader’s constituency takes in genteel resorts and one of England’s poorest villages. With a snap byelection approaching, Tim Burrows finds out what residents want from him and their views on the country at large

Opinion | The battle of Elon Musk and the media
The trillionaire Tesla owner has called the editor of the Economist a “traitor to the west” after a clash-filled interview. The truth must not be the loser, argues Jane Martinson

Culture | Why is the National Theatre shaking up Sophocles?
Australian theatre director Benedict Andrews’ bold new London production Electra/Persona, starring Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss, fuses Sophocles and Ingmar Bergman. Mark Lawson asks what it tells us about how we live today