Table of contents for 27 June 2025 in Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly Founded in Manchester, England 4 July 1919 Vol212 | Issue№ 26 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…

Just after midnight last Thursday morning, Abdullah Ahmed left his wife and children in their small and crowded home in the battered al-Bureij camp in central Gaza and headed north. The 31-year-old vegetable seller had heard that the nearby food distribution site recently opened by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a secretive Israeli- and USbacked private organisation that began operations in the territory last month, would be handing out food at 2am. To get there early and maximise his chance of grabbing a box of flour, oil, beans and other basics, Ahmed and some friends set out across the dangerous rubble-strewn roads. Just reaching the vicinity of the centre, one of four run by the GHF, was dangerous. “All the time we could hear the sound of shells and stray…

Zola Madikane* was born HIV positive in 2004. Put on antiretrovirals (ARVs) as a baby, she has been on the life-saving medication ever since and has lived a normal life. No longer. For most of her life her viral load (the amount of HIV in her blood) has been undetectable. “When I went for my February clinic visit, I didn’t get my pills,” she said. “They told me ‘shortage of staff’ and ‘come back another day’. I came back a few times, but it was the same story.” Madikane, who is seven months pregnant, finally managed to get a batch of ARVs in mid-May but by then her viral load was sky high. “It has never been high like this,” she said. “It is too risky for my unborn baby.”…

Pirates of the Caribbean is a $4.5bn swashbuckling film franchise and Blackbeard and Calico Jack Rackham are among marauding buccaneers who have captured imaginations over the centuries. But almost nothing is known about the life and times of actual pirates. Now a British marine archaeologist is co-directing an expedition that has been allowed for the first time to search for pirate ships off Nassau on the island of New Providence, a notorious pirate hideout 300 years ago. Until now no one has explored the seabed for their ships and treasure, let alone everyday belongings that could be as valuable to historical research as a stash of emeralds, Dr Sean Kingsley said. “The potential is enormous,” he added. “We are expecting to find some really cool stuff because this is the…

After years in the diplomatic deep freeze, US-Pakistan ties appear to be quickly thawing, with Donald Trump’s effusive welcome last week for Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, signalling a possible major reset. Once snubbed so badly that former prime minister Imran Khan had to board an ordinary airport shuttle after arriving in the US rather than being whisked off in a limousine, Pakistan is now enjoying top-level access in Washington. Trump’s perceived friendliness with Munir, coupled with what India considers to be a glossing over of Pakistan’s record on terrorism, has raised Indian eyebrows, especially amid sensitive US trade negotiations. In a call with Trump last week, the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, strongly rejected the US president’s repeated claims he had brokered peace in May’s four-day conflict…

‘It’s 1938 and Iran is Germany … The Jewish people will not allow a second Holocaust.” Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, recited slogans like these incessantly for decades, urging action against the gravest threat to the Jewish state – a nuclear-armed Iran. He conveyed the message to successive US presidents. He presented a bomb cartoon at the UN. At Holocaust memorial events, he described Iran’s nuclear ambitions as the present-day “final solution”. Netanyahu talked about the pressing Iranian threat, but his listeners were not convinced. They dismissed him as an alarmist whose deadline Iran crossed year after year without deploying a nuclear weapon (it still hasn’t). Netanyahu’s critics at home taunted him as a chicken who would never dare to attack Iran’s nuclear installations – unlike his more decisive predecessors,…

You only have to glance at William Kentridge’s family tree to realise why he is such an outsider. His maternal grandmother, Irene Geffen, was South Africa’s first female barrister and his mother, Felicia Geffen, became an anti-apartheid lawyer. Then there’s his father, Sydney Kentridge, the QC who represented Nelson Mandela in the 1960s and fought for justice for Steve Biko in the 70s. Studying law would have been the obvious path. “Public speaking, thinking on my feet, were natural and easy skills,” said Kentridge in 1998. “Being an artist was a very unnatural and hard thing for me to do.” That’s quite a statement. Because in the three decades since, Kentridge has conquered the international art world with the verve of an emerging twentysomething. He has exhibited in most major…

There’s a tiger burning brightly in front of me – not in the forests of the night, but on a Derbyshire moor, among the heather and bilberry, and in warm sunshine. It isn’t orange and black, but an iridescent green, and I need to hunker down to reach its level. The green tiger beetle is widespread in Britain, and to the ants and caterpillars that it predates it is every bit as threatening as the big cat immortalised by William Blake. Magnified, its fearful symmetry becomes more apparent, its mouth parts ferocious, the purple of its legs more obvious. One other thing I appreciate about the green tiger beetle is how easily it’s identified. It makes the green tiger especially exciting to kids, a secure toehold in the shifting complexity…

1 UNITED STATES Court allows migrants to be deported to other countries The US supreme court on Monday paved the way for the Trump administration to resume deporting migrants to countries they are not from, including to conflict-ridden places such as South Sudan. In a brief, unsigned order, the court’s conservative supermajority paused the ruling by a Boston-based federal judge who said immigrants deserved a “meaningful opportunity” to bring claims that they would face the risk of torture, persecution or even death if removed to certain countries that have agreed to take people deported from the US. The court offered no explanation for its decision. The Department of Homeland Security hailed the decision as a “victory for the safety and security of the American people”. “Fire up the deportation planes,” spokesperson…

When Mehraveh Khandan heard about Israel’s evacuation order in Tehran last week, the first thing she thought of was her father. Reza Khandan, imprisoned for his human rights activism in 2024, was sitting in a cell in Tehran’s Evin prison on the edge of the evacuation zone. She fielded calls from friends, who were breathless from the shock of the Israeli bombs as tens of thousands fled the Iranian capital. Her father, by contrast, had no way to flee. He was stuck. “It was the most helpless and trapped moments in my entire life,” the 25-year-old said from Amsterdam. On Monday, Mehraveh’s worst fear was realised when Israel struck Evin prison. CCTV footage showed the entrance exploding, with Iran’s judiciary confirming damage to parts of the prison. Relatives of prisoners…

In Israel, it can seem like only one other place really matters. Washington DC is on the other side of the globe but provides Israel with weapons, the backing of the world’s most powerful military, and a critical diplomatic shield in forums such as the United Nations. Yet the country’s economy is bound more closely to Europe than to the US. A third of its trade is with the European Union, key academic work is supported by grants from the EU’s Horizon research fund, and it is the top destination for travel. These ties have never translated into much clout for Europe though, because the continent has been hobbled by divisions on Israel. Critics of Israel’s illegal settlements and its war in Gaza have repeatedly been outweighed by a combination…

Ships being taken over remotely by hackers and made to crash is a scenario made in Hollywood. But in a security operations room in Oslo, just a few metres from the sparkling fjord and its tourist boats, floating saunas and plucky bathers, maritime cyber experts say that not only is it technically possible, but they are poised for it to happen. “We are pretty sure that it will happen sooner or later, so that is what we are looking for,” said Øystein Brekke-Sanderud, a senior analyst at the Nordic Maritime Cyber Resilience Centre (Norma Cyber). On the wall behind him is a live map of the ships the centre monitors and screens full of graphs and code. In an unstable world, shipping, ports and terminals are taking on enormous strategic…

‘I was thinking, how much of what they talked about at the congress in 1945 has changed? ’ On the facade of the building that once housed Chorltonon-Medlock town hall in Manchester sits a plaque commemorating a turning point in the push for African independence. The fifth Pan-African Congress in October 1945 was attended by future global leaders as well as activists and scholars from across Africa and its diaspora. But despite the event’s international importance, it has been largely overlooked by mainstream British history. Now a biting new play is set to fix this. “I think a lot of Mancunians don’t know it happened,” said playwright Ntombizodwa Nyoni, who lectures in the same building, now part of Manchester Metropolitan University. Her dramatisation of the event, Liberation, will receive its…

Insects are in trouble. Around the world, scientists are reporting catastrophic declines in their numbers, even in nature reserves that are largely protected from human touch. We are also beginning to see huge drops in the populations of other animals – such as birds – that depend on insects as food. Many of the drivers of those declines are structural, and require strong action by governments to turn around. But there are clear, easy steps that anyone can take to support the insect world. For species under such pressure, any respite is important, and we can create refuges for insects in a world increasingly hostile to their survival. Here are some achievable, sciencebacked actions you can take today. Turn out the lights Everyone has seen moths circle a bulb at…

Earlier this month, I chaired a panel for the British Library’s (excellent) annual Food Season to discuss the idea of American cuisine “beyond the burger” with the California-born and raised comedian Desiree Burch, along with Tom Zahir Browne, the chef behind London’s much-loved Louisiana pop-up Decatur, and the food writer Kayla Stewart, straight down the line from a Texas sunrise. We began by kicking around the idea of American food itself, and though everyone had a different take, there was consensus on one thing: New Orleans has the best. It has repeatedly been named the top city in the world to eat, a title often explained by the diverse culinary influences on the local palate: the “Big Easy” was under French and Spanish rule for much of the 18th century,…

Across 1 Wicket, fingers or end? (6) 4 Formal approval (6) 8 Unsociable individual (5) 9 Feeling of resolution (7) 10 Bun ingredient (7) 11 More mature (5) 12 Cocktail of vodka, cranberry and grapefruit juice (3,6) 17 Spring flower (5) 19 Item which may be genuine – or definite (7) 21 Not analogue (7) 22 Bar or line? (5) 23 Beginning (6) 24 Gruelling experience (6) Down 1 Exclusive (6) 2 Guts (7) 3 Cosmic payback (5) 5 Creator of much suffering (7) 6 Provide (with) what’s needed (5) 7 Conspiracy, chaos or string? (6) 9 Howl (9) 13 Sarah Bernhardt or Frida Kahlo, for instance (7) 14 Valence (anag) – Vatican City is one (7) 15 Artist’s room (6) 16 Deadly (6) 18 Authentic (slang) (5) 20 Booming…

HEALTH Assisted dying set to be legal in England and Wales Terminally ill people in England and Wales are to be given the right to an assisted death in a historic societal shift that will transform end-of-life care. After months of argument, MPs narrowly voted in favour of a private member’s bill introduced by Labour’s Kim Leadbeater (above), which could become law within four years. Her bill, which passed by 314 to 291 votes, was hailed by campaigners as “a day for the history books, where facts have prevailed over fear”. The debate in parliament was dominated by pleas from opponents of the bill for stricter safeguards against coercion by abusers, concern from disabled people and warnings about the fundamental change in the power of the state when granted new…

Donald Trump, a selfconfessed risk-taker, has taken the greatest gamble – not just with his political reputation and the Middle East’s future, but arguably with the whole concept of military intervention as a way to solve intractable geopolitical problems. If the US president succeeds – and there will be many rival interpretations and metrics of success – it is possible he will have disempowered Iran, and diminished the global influence of a regime that has for 40 years sponsored threats against the west. His personal authority will have been enhanced, and his next three years in office will be a triumph that may exacerbate some of his worst authoritarian and impulsive traits. He will also have allied the US more closely than ever with Benjamin Netanyahu, a man deeply disliked…

Since the war on Gaza started, the defining dynamic has been of unprecedented anger, panic and alarm from the public. The feeble response from mainstream liberal parties is entirely dissonant with the gravity of the moment. As the US joins Israel in attacking Iran, and the Middle East heads toward a calamitous unravelling, their inertness is even more disorienting. They are passengers in Israel’s war, either resigned to the consequences or unwilling to question its wisdom. As reality screams at western politicians, they reheat old rhetoric, all while deferring to an Israel and a White House that have long taken leave of their senses. At a time of extreme geopolitical risk, the centre presents itself as the wise party in the fracas, but is entirely incapable of addressing or challenging…

Spectacular views of distant galaxies, giant dust clouds and hurtling asteroids have been revealed in the first images captured by a groundbreaking telescope that is embarking on a 10-year survey of the cosmos. The stunning pictures from the $810m Vera C Rubin observatory in Chile mark the start of what astronomers believe will be a gamechanging period of discovery as the telescope sets about compiling the best view yet of the universe in action. The picture seen here combines 678 separate images taken in just over seven hours of observing time. Clouds of gas and dust that comprise the Trifid nebula (top right) and the Lagoon nebula, which are several thousand light years away from Earth, can be seen. In about 10 hours of observations, the observatory spotted 2,104 previously…

Over the past few years, Nikolai has seen the ups and downs of the funeral trade in his native Ufa, a Russian city in the plains west of the Ural mountains. The coronavirus pandemic, which hit Russia with devastating force, brought an unexpected boom to his family-run business, forcing him to hire extra staff almost overnight. “But after Covid, there was a real dip; people just stopped dying in such numbers,” Nikolai said. That lull didn’t last. Over the past two and a half years, business has picked up again – part of the reason: Russia’s casualties in its continuing invasion of Ukraine. Few regions in Russia have sent as many men to fight and die in Ukraine as the republic of Bashkortostan, whose capital, Ufa, draws recruits from poorer…

In Kassel, everyone has a story about raccoons. Some struggle with a family of them that moved into their roof and simply will not leave. Others recount how a picnic in the park turned into an ambush as gangs of the black and white animals, Waschbären in German, raided the food. Almost everyone seems to have a neighbour who feeds them, to the annoyance of the entire street. “We are the raccoon city. They are everywhere,” said Lars, a Kassel resident, as he tended his allotment by Karlsaue park in the fading light. “When it’s a bit darker, they will come out. I sit here in my garden at night and the raccoons come. If your bag is here, they will steal your banana or something. They have no predators,…

Jaida Rivera’s 11-year-old son, Cayden, was supposed to be at Brooklyn’s Fort Greene preparatory academy on the morning of 16 September last year. Staff spotted him in the cafeteria after his grandmother dropped him off at 7.45am. But 30 minutes later he was marked absent. Cayden had slipped out, boarded a G subway train and was riding on top of its carriages when he fell on to the tracks at Fourth Avenue/Ninth Street station just after 10am. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Cayden was the youngest of six people who died subway surfing in New York City last year. The highly dangerous practice of balancing on top of fast-moving subway trains is most often attempted where trains run above ground and in warmer months during the school term.…

From Los Angeles to London, Istanbul to Warsaw, cities are making rightwing populists angry. Their liberal elites, immigrants, net zero policies, leftwing activists, global businesses, expensive transport and outspoken leaders – all are provocations to populist politicians whose support often comes from more conservative, less privileged places. Three years ago the founders of national conservatism, the transatlantic ideology on which much of modern rightwing populism is based, published a statement of principles. One of these declared with some menace: “In those [places] in which law and justice have been manifestly corrupted, or in which lawlessness, immorality, and dissolution reign, national government must intervene energetically to restore order.” This month, Donald Trump’s administration identified the first American city to meet these broad criteria. “Los Angeles has been invaded and occupied by…

To read Rachel Clarke’s The Story of a Heart, which has won this year’s Women’s prize for nonfiction, is to experience an onslaught of often competing emotions. There is awed disbelief at the sheer skill and dedication of the medical teams who transplanted the heart of nine-year-old Keira, who had been killed in a head-on traffic collision, into the body of Max, a little boy facing almost certain death from rapidly deteriorating dilated cardiomyopathy. There is vast admiration for the compassion of the teams who cared for both children and their families, and wonder at the cascade of medical advances, each representing determination, rigorous work, and careful navigation of newly emerging ethical territory. And most flooring of all is the immense courage of two families, one devastated by the sudden…