Table of contents for 9 January 2026 in Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly Founded in Manchester, England 4 July 1919 Vol214 | Issue№ 2 Guardian Weekly is an edited selection of some of the best journalism found in the Guardian’s digital editions in the UK, US and Australia, and the Guardian newspaper in the UK. The weekly magazine has an international focus and four editions: global, Europe, Australia and North America. The Guardian was founded in 1821, and Guardian Weekly in 1919. We exist to hold power to account in the name of the public interest, to uphold liberal and progressive values, to fight for the common good, and to build hope. Our values, as laid out by editor CP Scott in 1921, are honesty, integrity, courage, fairness, and a sense of duty to the reader and the community. The Guardian is…

Keir Starmer does not have enough of a plan to defeat the “existential threat” that populism poses to UK democracy and should undertake a “fundamental re set”, New Labour’s former advertising strategist Sir Chris Powell has warned. Powell, who is the brother of Jonathan Powell, Starmer’s national security adviser, warned there were just three years to stop the “new and terrifying threat” of populists, suggesting Reform UK could represent a danger to democracy and national institutions. Writing for the Guardian, he said: “Here in the UK, where is the urgently needed counter-plan on a huge scale, to thwart and head off such an existential threat? It is simply not in place, nor does it appear to be even at the planning stage.” His intervention comes as Starmer faces deep unhappiness…

Death and taxes are usually the things we can depend on in this life. But in 2025, the American entrepreneur Ben Lamm sold much of the world on the idea that death did not, after all, need to be for ever. This was the year the billionaire’s genetics startup, Colossal Biosciences, claimed it had resurrected the dire wolf, an animal that disappeared at the end of the last ice age, by tweaking the DNA of grey wolves. According to the company, it had also edged closer to bringing the woolly mammoth back from the dead, with the creation of genetically engineered “woolly mice”. In a flurry of high-profile announcements and press releases, it launched projects to revive the Tasmanian tiger (also known as the thylacine), the dodo and the moa,…

FUELLED BY THE RELIEF of having finished end-of-year exams, the pleasure of a warm late spring evening and quite a lot of alcohol, the house party was one of those that should have been remembered for all the right reasons. At some point, later in the night, Chris Moore and three friends were ready to leave. The party was some way out of town – Cambridge – and too far to walk, and anyway there was a car, temptingly, in the driveway, its keys in the ignition. Somebody – Moore can’t remember who – suggested they drive back, and with the recklessness of youth and too much beer, they all got in. “I ended up in the front passenger seat and fell asleep,” he says. He came to, being taken…

I never thought it possible that you could look back on the Iraq war and feel some measure of nostalgia. For a time when there were at least concerted attempts to justify unilateral interventions and illegal wars in the name of global security, and even a moral duty to liberate the women of Afghanistan or “free the Iraqi people”. Now, as the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, is in essence abducted and Venezuela taken over by the US, there is barely any effort to situate the coup in any reasoning other than the US’s interests. Nor are there any attempts to solicit consent from domestic or international law-making bodies and allies, let alone the public. “America can project our will anywhere, any time,” said the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth. The…

There is much anxiety these days about the dangers of human-AI relationships. Reports of suicide and self-harm attributable to interactions with chatbots have understandably made headlines. The term “ AI psychosis” has been used to describe the plight of people experiencing delusions, paranoia or dissociation after talking to large language models (LLMs). Our collective anxiety has been compounded by studies showing that young people are increasingly embracing the idea of AI relationships: half of teens chat with an AI companion at least a few times a month, with one in three finding conversations with AI “ to be as satisfying or more satisfying than those with real-life friends”. But we need to pump the brakes on the panic. The dangers are real, but so too are the potential benefits. In…

Across 1 Resistant to breakdown (6) 4 Internet company (3.3) 9 Vixen’s brush (7) 10 Customer (5) 11 Signal of indifference (5) 12 Mesmerise (7) 13 American football player (11)  18 Droll (7) 20 Comedian – in the pack? (5) 22 (Of eyes) bright and penetrating (5) 23 Start of twilight (7) 24 Fifty-fifty (6) 25 Betting agent (6) Down 1 Litter (6) 2 Sparring partner? (5) 3 Play to the crowd (7) 5 River’s meander (5) 6 Descriptive of mysterious puzzle? (7) 7 Quaggy (6) 8 Dumbfound (11) 14 Howl loud and long (7) 15 Good Lord! (2,5) 16 Sing like a songbird (6) 17 Alloy figurine? (6) 19 Garden of Eden? (5) 21 Booth (5) Solution No 17,352…

1 UNITED NATIONS US denounced for ‘crime of aggression’ in Venezuela The US faced widespread condemnation for a “crime of aggression” in Venezuela at an emergency meeting of the United Nations security council. Brazil, China, Colombia, Cuba, Eritrea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and Spain were among countries that on Monday denounced Donald Trump’s decision to launch deadly strikes on Venezuela and snatch its leader, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, to stand trial in the US. Trump’s UN ambassador, Mike Waltz, defended the attack as a legitimate “law enforcement” action to execute longstanding criminal indictments against an “illegitimate” leader. António Guterres, the UN secretary general, warned that the capture of Maduro risked intensifying instability in Venezuela. He questioned whether the operation respected the rules of international law. “I am deeply…

The deposed Venezuelan president Nic olás Maduro pleaded not guilty to drugs, weapons and narco-terrorism charges on Monday, two days after his capture by US special forces in an operation ordered by Donald Trump that sent shock waves around the world. The brevity and formality of the arraignment hearing in federal court in Manhattan – barely 30 minutes during which Maduro was asked to confirm his name and that he understood the four charges – belied the far-reaching consequences of the US action. As Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, addressed the court in Lower Manhattan, the UN security council held an emergency meeting just a few kilometres to the north, where a dozen countries condemned the US “crime of aggression” and secretary general António Guterres suggested the operation constituted…

There was a whirlwind of emotions on the streets of Caracas last Sunday, 24 hours after the first large-scale US attack on South American soil and the extraordinary snaring of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro. “Uncertainty,” said Griselda Guzmán, a 68-year-old pensioner, fighting back tears as she lined up outside a grocery store with her husband to stock up on supplies in case the coming days brought yet more drama. “Anger,” said Sauriany, a 23-year-old administrative worker as she queued outside a supermarket on the other side of town with her 24-year-old partner, Leandro. Leandro voiced shock. “Who could have imagined that this would happen? That right at the start of the year they’d bomb our country while everyone was asleep?” he asked. “If I thought it would improve the country…

Thousands of tents supplied by China, Egypt and Saudi Arabia to shelter displaced Palestinians in Gaza offer limited protection against rain and wind, an assessment compiled by shelter specialists in the devastated territory has revealed. The assessment will undermine claims that Palestinians in Gaza are being supplied with adequate shelter. Fierce storms in recent weeks blew down or damaged thousands of tents, affecting at least 235,000 people, according to UN estimates. Prepared by the Palestine Shelter Cluster, which coordinates the activities of nearly 700 non-government organisations in Palestine, the assessment found that new tents housing hundreds of thousands of people would “likely need to be replaced”. “The fabric [of the Egyptian tents] tears easily as sewing quality is poor,” it reported. “The fabric is not water-proof. Other issues include small…

Dining in the House of Lords canteen just after Labour came to power, one Labour adviser found themselves sitting opposite two Tory peers. The pair were fuming about the forthcoming abolition of hereditary peers. Both agreed, the adviser said, that there should be a strategy to undermine the government on all its legislation, to slow down debate, and to push the new Lords leader, Angela Smith, to ask No 10 for concessions. Another recalled a Tory peer telling the new Labour Lords appointees: “ We are going to grind you down.” Even with an enormous majority in the Commons, Labour has seemed to struggle to pass much of its programme. But by far the hardest slog has been in the Lords. Already Labour has faced 111 defeats. The record is…

The huge concrete vats that have held countless litres of verdejo white wine in the 90 years since the Cuatro Rayas co-operative winery was founded are dwarfed by the stainless steels tanks that sit opposite and serve as reminders that, even in an enterprise as ancient as winemaking, times change. Outside, a chilly but welcome rain falls on vines autumn-brown after another furnace-hot summer in the northern Spanish province of Valladolid. But changing technologies and the vagaries of the climate emergency are not the only challenges facing Spain’s €22.4bn ($26bn) wine industry. According to a recent report, the sector must recruit 22,600 younger workers as the current generations of growers reach and exceed retirement age. The report, commissioned by the Spanish Wine Interprofessional Organisation (OIVE), found that 38.9% of wine…

Over the course of two decades, Jeffrey Epstein repeatedly appeared on law enforcement’s radar for sexual misconduct involving teen girls and young women. And he avoided serious punishment for his crimes. The US justice department’s recent disclosure of long-secret investigative files has again raised the question of why Epstein wasn’t stopped sooner. The issue has been the subject of many conspiracy theories, often focusing on the idea that Epstein – who lived at the centre of a network of powerful people – enjoyed some form of protection. Some documents recently released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, as well as previously public filings tucked deep into prior civil litigation, spell out numerous missed opportunities to stop Epstein before his 2019 arrest and suicide in prison. Longtime attorneys told the Guardian…

Spare a thought for the poor French restaurateur. Once the iconic image of a sybaritic nation that loved nothing more than a boozy meal out with friends or colleagues, the French restaurant is in deep crisis. Traditional restaurants are closing faster than you can shout “garçon!”, as eating habits change and the cost of living pinches. “It’s a catastrophe for our profession,” Franck Chaumès, president of the restaurant branch of the Union of Hospitality Trades and Industries (UMIH), said in a television interview recently. “Some 25 restaurants are going out of business every day [in France].” The UMIH has demanded – so far in vain – that the government ration the opening of new restaurants, in proportion to the local population, and license only professionals who are qualified in cooking…

‘I’m gonna miss toxic masculinity,” says the comedian Kiry Shabazz. “I feel like it’s going to be in a museum someday.” In the ensuing standup routine, Shabazz describes a fight with a friend who, like him, is “doing the work” to be a better person. He called the friend several unprintable names: “I’m only calling you that because culturally that’s how I know how to express myself.” The friend’s reply to the insults: “I hear you and I receive that.” The whole thing, Shabazz says, made him “miss the good old days, when men handled beef like men”. This encapsulates a dilemma of modern masculinity: how attempts at enlightenment battle with alpha-male impulses. On social media, the manosphere clamours for our attention, extolling traditional masculine virtues such as authority, protein…

On a bright winter’s day, I stand at the centre of a ring of multi-stemmed small-leaved limes. Their gnarled bases are furred with moss and feathered with sprays of epicormic growth. Lime trees are notoriously hard to age, but this one is probably more than 500 years old, shaped and reshaped by centuries of coppicing, now with a vast canopy stretching nearly 20 metres. Looking up, I marvel at the intricate fractal lattice of branches and twigs of each tree. Every stem holds its own space, the crowns kept neatly apart from their neighbours – a quiet phenomenon known as crown shyness. The woodland feels emptied, with only the rush of a chill wind numbing my bare fingertips, a peal of distant church bells, and a robin offering its muted…

TRADE POLICY Starmer likely to deepen links with single market Closer ties with the EU single market are preferable to a customs union, Keir Starmer has said, in his clearest sign yet that the government is seeking to further deepen links with Brussels. The prime minister said the UK should consider “even closer alignment” with the single market. “If it’s in our national interest … then we should go that far,” he told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg. In a riposte to some cabinet colleagues who have suggested the UK should seek to form a customs union with the EU, Starmer said he did not think that was the answer. “We are better looking to the single market rather than the customs union,” he said. The health secretary, Wes Streeting, and…

It took the US two hours and 28 minutes to snatch President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, last Saturday morning – an extraordinary display of imperial power that plunges 30 million Venezuelans into a profound uncertainty. But it was also months in the planning. Critical to Operation Absolute Resolve was the work of the CIA and other US intelligence agencies. From as early as August, their goal was to establish Maduro’s “pattern of life”, or as Gen Dan Caine, the chair of the US joint chiefs of staff, described it, to “understand how he moved, where he lived, where he travelled, what he ate”. As the US built up its military presence in the Caribbean from September, Maduro tightened his personal security to evade capture. He used six…

The Venezuelan oil industry has been “a total bust” for a long time, according to Donald Trump. He promised to take control of it with the help of America’s biggest oil companies. Venezuela’s beleaguered oil industry could “make a lot of money” with the might of the US behind it, Trump told the press, claiming that the new regime would invest billions to revive its fortunes. How much oil does Venezuela have? Venezuela is believed to have the largest oil reserves in the world – as large as 300bn barrels, easily surpassing those of Saudi Arabia. Other estimates suggest Venezuela’s reserves of crude oil could represent about 17% of the world’s total. Neglect, poor infrastructure, underinvestment and corruption have eroded the country’s oil industry and economy. Its output is roughly…

Mourners have continued to bring flowers and to light candles at a make-shift memorial in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana to commemorate those who lost their lives when a blaze ripped through a bar popular with young people celebrating the new year, killing 40. “We came to light a candle,” said Sisi Boisard, a regular visitor to Crans-Montana from France for the past 20 years. “We have five children and can’t begin to imagine what these families are going through. This is a tragedy that has cut profoundly, but not just here – it’s being felt across the world.” She and her husband, Arlindo, were celebrating the new year with their daughter, who lives in a nearby town, when they heard about the fire. Last Sunday, police said they…

Khao Tom, a two-mont-hold elephant, plays with a wildlife officer, nudging his face and curling her trunk around his wrist. When she lifts her trunk in the air, signalling that she is hungry, the team at the rescue centre seems relieved – she has not been eating well. A vet prepares a pint-sized bottle of formula, which she gulps down impatiently. Khao Tom has been in the care of Thailand’s national parks and wildlife department since September, when rangers rescued her from a farming area inside Lam Khlong Ngu national park. Born with a congenital disorder affecting her knees, she struggled to keep up with the herd. Within days of her birth, her mother had moved on without her. “We didn’t think she would make it,” said Natthanon Panpetch, senior…

Abu Ali spent the first hours after the toppling of the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad boxing up his merchandise. Old-regime bumper stickers, mugs with Assad’s face, T-shirts on which Russian and Syrian flags faded into each other – it all had to go. A year later, in the weathered tourist shop on the boardwalk of the Syrian coastal city of Tartous, the shelves are lined with the new three-star Syrian flag, mother-of-pearl jewellery boxes engraved with revolutionary slogans, and pictures of rebel fighters killed during the country’s 14-year civil war. “Business is slow these days. Tourists and travellers used to come before but it’s slowed down. We need more security and things will improve,” said Ali, 48, the owner of the shop. Ali’s old customers – Russian soldiers from nearby…

With astronauts set to fly around the moon for the first time in more than half a century when Artemis 2 makes its ascent sometime this spring, 2026 was already destined to become a standout year in space. It is likely to be one of the most pivotal, with new leadership at Nasa in billionaire private astronaut Jared Isaacman and the tycoon-led private space industry assuming more than a supporting role to help the US win its race with China to the lunar surface. Along with Donald Trump’s directive for “American space superiority”, which includes planting the stars and stripes on the moon before the end of his second term, it marks the beginning of potentially the most consequential period in human spaceflight. “This past year was actually a sense…

I fear for Nigel Farage. This should be his big year, the make-or-break 2026. Last year his Reform UK party finally began to top the polls and he was feted by Washington as Britain’s Trump and next prime minister. So how now would he turn a sheaf of poll results into a disciplined election-winning machine? Or has he for the past year merely been doing what most third parties do at this stage of a parliament, which is to feast on the misfortune of their opponents? The polls sent Reform surging into a steady lead last spring. It held that position through the summer, with a high of 29% according to YouGov, and 33% according to More in Common. But pollsters now suggest that Farage’s party may have peaked –…

I want to make more vegetarian curries, but most call for a tin of coconut milk and I’m trying to cut down on saturated fats. What can I use instead? Jill, via email Coconut milk brings silkiness and sweet richness to curries, and also mellows spices, so any substitute will likely change the nature of the dish. That said, if you really want to avoid the white stuff, Karan Gokani, author of Indian 101, would simply replace it with vegetable stock. Another easy swap is yoghurt, says John Chantarasak, chef and co-owner of AngloThai in London. Not all curries involve coconut milk, however, and these perhaps offer a better solution to Jill’s conundrum. “Once you get past that idea, you go into two realms,” says Sirichai Kularbwong of Thai restaurant…

✱ All solutions published next week Across 1 Unveiling trees, touch fruit with bent cane (5,10) 9 Jolly boyo, missing football club, depressed (7) 10 A Beginner’s Introduction: Science 101 cancelled for non-attendance (7) 11 Adorn orangutan with stethoscope? (5) 12 Compound rates I calculate with select elements discounted, using life tables? (9) 13 Fail to deal with right-wing extremism with a bit of history (9) 15 Team leader requests you do them (5) 16 Chinese coolness coming back around very softly, very cool (5) 18 Mix up root and rip up dried petals (9) 20 Provokes ire with artist fabrication (9) 23 Policeman’s undercover operation (5) 24 Silly people name their belly buttons, sometimes (7) 25 Controversially, Roman wine bar serves nail polish remover (7) 26 Chaps joined at…