Monocle on Saturday (December 21, 2024): Join Georgina Godwin and Charles Hecker reflect on the week’s top news stories and cultural highlights.
Plus: an engaging conversation with Ferdia Lennon, the winner of the prestigious Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Comic Fiction Prize.
At the country’s most notorious prison, Syrians confront their worst fears: that they will never know what happened to the loved ones who disappeared.
Some members of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s own party helped remove him from office. But the political uncertainty is far from over.
When we met them a dozen years ago, they were teenagers in trouble, playing for a basketball team that always lost. Did they find a way to win at life?
New export terminals along the rugged Pacific coastline have reignited a generations-old debate over identity and environmental stewardship.
Monocle on Saturday (December 14, 2024): Join Georgina Godwin, Tyler Brûlé, and Latika Bourke for a roundup of the week’s news and culture in this Christmas special, broadcast live from our festive market. Plus: a conversation with Monocle’s Paris bureau chief, Simon Bouvier.
An intense struggle has unfolded in Washington between companies and officials over where to draw the line on selling technology to China.
In an impoverished, war-ravaged country, the first prayers after the fall of a brutal regime drew jubilant crowds, even in areas seen as regime strongholds.
Nearly a million Syrians in Germany alone have made new lives. But after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, some politicians across the continent have suggested that refugees could return home.
A former senior partner will also plead guilty to obstruction of justice after destroying company documents.
Taylor Sheridan’s shows explain how and why we got Trump again by Rick Marin
The end of the house of Assad. Much will go wrong. But for now, celebrate a tyrant’s fall
Our number-crunching suggests it was the best-performing rich economy in 2024
Financial innovation is just as much to blame as the technological sort
Even bail-outs are getting expensive
The rebels who seized control called for foreign help in prosecuting atrocities, while trying to restore order in a fractured country.
The president-elect became convinced that letting Pete Hegseth fail would set off a feeding frenzy among senators. What followed was a MAGA swarm that helped salvage his bid, at least for now.
Under President Biden, more than two million immigrants per year have entered, government data shows.
Famine and ethnic cleansing stalk Sudan. Yet the gold trade is booming, enriching generals and propelling the fight.
The Guardian Weekly (December 11, 2024): The new issue features The fall of Syria’s brutal dictatorship. Plus The best books of 2024.
Not even the most optimistic of rebels could have predicted the rapid collapse, last weekend, of the Assad dynasty that ruled Syria with an iron fist for more than 50 years. Yet while there was relief and joy both inside Syria and among the nation’s vast displaced diaspora, it was also accompanied by apprehension over what might come next.
1
Spotlight | Russia and Ukraine wait warily for Trump transition
The idea of the US president-election as a saviour for Ukraine, as unlikely as it may seem, holds an appeal for an exhausted nation without a clear path to victory. Shaun Walker and Pjotr Sauer report
2
Environment | The jailed anti-whaler defiant in face of extradition threat
Capt Paul Watson talks to Daniel Boffey about his arrest on behalf of the Japanese government, his ‘interesting’ Greenland prison, and separation from his children
3
Feature | The growing threat of firearms that can be made at home
One far-right cell wanted to use 3D-printed guns to cause ‘maximum confusion and fear’ on the streets of Finland. Could the police intercept them in time? By Samira Shackle
4
Opinion | Farage is lying in wait. Britain can’t afford for Starmer to fail
It is not enough for the Labour leader’s ‘milestones’ to be achieved. Voters must feel the improvement in their daily lives, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland
5
Culture | The best books of 2024
From a radical retelling of Huckleberry Finn to Al Pacino’s autobiography, our critics round up their favourite reads of the year
Boomers Daily 