Innehållsförteckning för 18 July 2025 från Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly Founded in Manchester, England 4 July 1919 Vol213 | Issue№ 3 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…

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As Hamas intensifies its campaign against Israeli forces in Gaza, it is focusing on a new aim: capturing an Israeli soldier. Last week, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) sergeant was killed in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, in an attempted abduction. Hamas militants also tried to take away the remains of 25-year-old Abraham Azulay but gave up the effort when attacked by other Israeli forces. The capture of a soldier or their remains would offer significant new leverage for Hamas as indirect negotiations continue over a ceasefire deal, and have a major impact on public opinion in Israel. “This attempt failed. [But there is] no doubt Hamas will increase its attempts to take new hostages, including bodies of dead soldiers and civilians,” said Michael Milstein, the head of the Palestinian studies…

The EU has said it will assess Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron’s migrant return deal to see whether it is compatible “with the spirit and the letter of the law”. While the UK has said it is confident the deal will be approved, a European Commission spokesperson said it wanted to know more about the agreement before expressing support. The deal was struck last week by the UK and France with the aim of stemming the flow of small boats across the channel through a one in, one out system. About 50 migrants a week will be deported back to France in exchange for other migrants being allowed to claim asylum in the UK through a safe and legal route where they have not tried to cross on a small…

‘To allow women to have children at a much older age would be huge’ Scientists are just a few years from creating viable human sex cells in the lab, according to an internationally renowned pioneer of the field, who says the advance could open up biologydefying possibilities for reproduction. Speaking to the Guardian, Prof Katsuhiko Hayashi, a developmental geneticist at the University of Osaka, said rapid progress is being made towards being able to transform adult skin or blood cells into eggs and sperm, a feat of genetic conjury known as invitro gametogenesis (IVG). His lab is about seven years away from the milestone, he predicted. Other frontrunners include a team at the University of Kyoto and a California-based startup, Conception Biosciences, whose Silicon Valley backers include OpenAI founder Sam…

Among the many dreams that the US offers its citizens, there’s this: that the American child, around the age of eight, will go to sleepaway camp a few hours from home and begin one of the key formative experiences of their life. They will return every summer. They will learn independence. They will form bonds with people who will one day godparent their children. As an adult, a friend of mine – no kidding – returned to the hallowed ground in Pennsylvania where her summer camp once stood, bought a piece of land and built a house there. Whenever we visited, she’d point out the ruins of the old dining hall down by the lake and get a haunted look on her face. I mention this because, among the many…

Most stir-fry sauces are sweet, dense and cloying. Any lighter, fresher alternatives? Louis, Falmouth, England, UK If Julie Lin, author of Sama Sama, were to guess, it would be that Louis is buying shop-bought sauces: “They’re always sweet and dense,” she says. “There’s a phrase we use in Malaysia, agak agak, which means to season until you know that it’s good for you.” For Lin, that often means her “master wok” sauce. To make a bottle, she combines 75g white sugar, three teaspoons of MSG, and 75ml rice-wine vinegar, and whisks until the sugar dissolves. Stir in 300ml light soy sauce and 100ml dark soy sauce, followed by 50ml sesame oil. Pour that into a sterilised jar or bottle, give it a shake and it’ll keep for a month at…

* All solutions published next week Across 8 Simple custodianship arrangement containing note (15) 9 Polish revolting study as duty (6) 10 Notice apartment I have is changeable (8) 11 Unburdened pedestrian crossing end of lane (8) 12 Attempt to keep object in (6) 13 Heavy cube in waxy covering (7) 16 Shirk something intrinsically tedious (7) 19 Vessel with robust finish of copper (6) 21 Exaggerated the merits of series of deliveries of long standing (8) 24 Vain men member of rowing team grooms (8) 25 Exceptionally clever German raised without love initially (6) 26 See gorillas urge rampaging groups of criminals (6,9) Down 1 Disparaging remark about a European cut off from communication (8) 2 Warm centre of suet dish (6) 3 Evidence of injury in part of…

1 US/UKRAINE Trump agrees to supply Patriot missiles to Kyiv Politicians in Kyiv welcomed Donald Trump’s announcement that billions of dollars worth of US military equipment will be sent to Ukraine, while officials in Moscow dismissed his threat of sanctions against Russia as hot air. In a meeting with the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, at the White House, Trump said the US would send Patriot anti-aircraft batteries and interceptor missiles, paid for by European allies. He promised that additional Patriot systems would arrive within days, funded by Germany and other Nato partners. Kyiv is believed to have only six functioning Patriot batteries. The move comes amid a souring of Trump’s relations with Putin and just two weeks after Washington said it would pause some arms deliveries to Kyiv. Volodymyr Zelenskyy…

The year 2025 should be a time of celebration, marking eight decades of the United Nations’ existence. But it risks going down in history as the year when the international order built since 1945 collapsed. The cracks had long been visible. Since the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the intervention in Libya and the war in Ukraine, some permanent members of the security council have trivialised the illegal use of force. The failure to act vis-a-vis the genocide in Gaza represents a denial of the most basic values of humanity. The inability to overcome differences is fuelling a new escalation of violence in the Middle East, the latest chapter of which includes the attack on Iran. The law of the strongest also threatens the multilateral trading system. Sweeping tariffs disrupt…

The pain of going to bed hungry is becoming familiar for Jamila Rabea. The meagre rations of bread, tomato paste and tea she spends much of her day trying to gather, she gives to her children. Five of them live with her in a shelter built from tarpaulin, cloth and scraps of wood. Like many of the refugee families living here in a makeshift camp to the east of the Yemen port city of Al-Mukalla, she has had to leave home because of the bombs and fighting. “Life is extremely difficult. At times, it pushes us to the brink of despair,” she said. Al-Mukalla is under the control of the Saudi-backed Yemeni government. The city is currently safe from the Saudi, Israeli and US bombing raids on Houthi forces in…

It is 5.45am, and a large inflatable dinghy carrying 20 or more people has come discreetly to the east end of the beach at Gravelines. Each person on it wears a fluorescent lifejacket, soon to embark on a risky crossing from France to the UK. For a few minutes the boat halts several metres from shore, probably waiting for others to run from the scrubland behind the beach, where some have been hiding all night to try to get on. But the only people waiting are a small group of journalists. Once it becomes clear there is nobody else to pick up, the boat’s engine fires up, heading north-west to England. In London, France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, was on a visit to discuss proposals to stem the number of people…

Leonardo Amarilla is desperate. The geneticist and PhD in biological sciences holds a coveted position as a full-time researcher at Argentina’s prestigious national science council, Conicet, studying how to improve crop yields. But after President Javier Milei imposed his sweeping “chainsaw” austerity measures, Amarilla’s salary plummeted and he found he could no longer afford basic groceries or support his ageing parents. In an effort to make ends meet, he also began driving for Uber. “I’m working between 12 and 13 hours a day,” he said. “I’m exhausted. It affects the quality of my research, and my teaching. I used to get home and read scientific papers – now I go home and immediately head back out to drive passengers around.” Faced with falling salaries, many of Argentina’s top scientists are…

‘You want a new political party and you shall have it!” Elon Musk declared in early July. The world’s richest man is never one to shy away from grandiose statements, and he continued: “When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a oneparty system, not a democracy. Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.” The America party, Musk hopes, will be a viable alternative to the Democratic and Republican parties: a political organisation that can influence the future of US politics. He has mooted running candidates for two to three Senate seats and up to 10 House districts. Given the tight divide between Republicans and Democrats in Congress, Musk believes capturing the small number of seats “would be enough…

IN A FIELD OUTSIDE THE EASTERN UKRAINE CITY OF SUMY, Mykola Mondrayev, 55, is moving the wreckage of a Russian drone. A pickup truck stands nearby, mounted with a gun, the only defence against the deadly unmanned aerial devices. Three days a week, Mondrayev serves with a territorial defence unit. The other days he works his fields. His farm, he says, has not yet been struck by a drone, but even at more than 30km from the frontline, he feels “uncomfortable” that it could be a target. “The Russians aren’t just hitting military objects. They’re hitting farms as well. Farming is at the heart of Ukraine culture, and that’s what they are trying to destroy,” he says. On the steppes beyond Sumy, a rural way of life is under threat…

After 125 years of practice, Labour ought to be good at saying why resources should be redistributed from the rich to everyone else. Its founding conference in 1900 passed a motion calling for “a distinct Labour group in Parliament”, to collaborate with any party “promoting legislation in the direct interests” of the working class. Creating a more egalitarian society and politics – which by definition means redistribution from the powerful – was Labour’s original purpose. Britain was then, and remains, a highly unequal country: more unequal currently than neighbours such as Ireland, the Netherlands and France. Last week the children’s commissioner, Rachel de Souza, said some British children were living in “almost Dickensian levels of poverty”. But as any expensive but packed restaurant, pavement lined with new Range Rovers or…

When I scroll through social media, I often get the sense that the world is on fire. Yet, when I step outside to get a coffee or meet a friend for lunch, it feels downright tranquil. The contrast between the online world and my reality has only gotten more jarring. Since my own work is focused on topics such as intergroup conflict, misinformation, technology and climate change, I’m aware of the challenges facing humanity. Yet, it seems striking that to people online, everything is either the best thing ever or the absolute worst, no matter how trivial. Is that really what most of us are feeling? No, as it turns out. Our latest research suggests that what we’re seeing online is a warped image created by a small group of…

CRIME Parents convicted over death of newborn daughter Two parents have been found guilty of the manslaughter of their newborn daughter, who died after they took her to live in a tent in freezing wintry conditions to evade social services. Constance Marten and Mark Gordon, who had had their first four children taken into care, went on the run with their fifth, a baby girl named Victoria, shortly after her birth in December 2022. The couple were convicted of gross negligence manslaughter. They had already been convicted at an earlier trial of child cruelty, concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice. They will be sentenced on 15 September. Despite having access to thousands of pounds from Marten’s trust fund, the couple insisted on living off-grid,…

The “humanitarian city” that Israel’s defence minister has proposed building on the ruins of Rafah would be a concentration camp, and forcing Palestinians inside would be ethnic cleansing, Israel’s former prime minister Ehud Olmert told the Guardian. Israel was already committing war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank, Olmert said, and construction of the camp would mark an escalation. “It is a concentration camp. I am sorry,” he said, when asked about the plans laid out by Israel Katz last week. Once inside, Palestinians would not be allowed to leave, except to go to other countries, Katz said. Katz has ordered the military to start drawing up plans for construction of the “humanitarian city” on the ruins of southern Gaza, to initially house 600,000 people and eventually the entire…

Donald Trump said he has sealed an agreement with Nato allies that will lead to large-scale arms deliveries to Ukraine, including Patriot missiles, and warned Russia that it will face severe sanctions if Moscow does not make peace within 50 days. After a meeting with the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, on Monday, Trump said they had agreed “a very big deal”, in which “billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment is going to be purchased from the United States, going to Nato … And that’s going to be quickly distributed to the battlefield.” Speaking in the White House alongside a clearly delighted Rutte, the US president said the arms deliveries would be comprehensive and would include the Patriot missile batteries that Ukraine desperately needs for its air defences against…

Strolling beside the Emscher, the Tyczkowskis said it is the stench they remember most about the river’s darker days. “The whole thing was filthy and it stank terribly,” said the couple, a retired watchmaker and tax adviser in their 80s. Were they ever tempted to take a dip? “No,” they laughed. “There were other things swimming inside.” For more than a century, putrid fumes emanated from the “sewer of the Ruhr”, creating a pungent whiff that assaulted towns across Germany’s industrial heartland. But today, the Emscher bears little resemblance to Europe’s dirtiest river. Water that used to be fouled by factory waste and human excrement has been free from effluent since 2021. The river system, the main part of which was once considered biologically dead, is witnessing the return of…

The 25 people who have gathered in a small Madrid theatre over the past few months to consider identity, relationships, gender-based violence and inclusion aren’t exactly the crowd you’d normally expect to haunt a cutting-edge drama space. And that is precisely the point. The men and women, aged between 65 and 84, are the first cohort of an initiative that aims to introduce those who live around the Matadero arts centre in the south of the Spanish capital to the joys and challenges of contemporary theatre. Last year, mindful of the fact that many of the older residents of the barrios of Usera and Arganzuela rarely attended contemporary theatre and would be unlikely to darken the doors of the new Nave 10 space, the Matadero and the city council came…

Greg Abbott, the Republican governor of Texas, has had plenty of consoling words to offer following the tragic flash floods in the Hill Country that have killed more than 120 people, including 27 girls and counsellors at the stricken Camp Mystic. “Our hearts grieve for this community and surrounding areas,” he wrote on social media. “May God bring comfort to every family affected.” Abbott’s response so far has been notably lacking in one regard: any assurance that Texas will tackle the problems that contributed to the calamity in Kerr county over the 4 July weekend, when the Guadalupe River rose 8 metres in 45 minutes. The governor has indicated he will allow debate in the Texas legislature on the state’s flood warning systems, but has given no guarantees on the…

China is pulling every lever at its disposal to counter Donald Trump’s economic blockade, and it’s working. Trade is recovering after the massive hit from Washington’s wide-ranging tariffs on Beijing’s exports. According to data provider Macrobond and Beijing-based consultancy Gavekal Dragonomics, exports to the US were down by about $15bn in May, but up by half that figure to other countries that trade with the US. Exports to African countries have also risen sharply. Meanwhile, Chinese officials are poised to strike deals to deepen economic cooperation with countries ranging from Brazil and South Africa to Australia and the UK. The latest addition to China’s growing list of conquests occurred last week when its premier, Li Qiang, and Brazil’s beleaguered president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, signed a slew of cooperation…

The estate agent called it a conservatory, but that suggests a level of polished Edwardian elegance that isn’t borne out in reality. Rather, the structure is an extension to the extension. It is a flexible space – and the various domestic functions of workshop, greenhouse and studio ebb and flow as the seasons rotate and the distinctions of indoors and outdoors fluctuate. In winter, it acts as a sanctuary for those outdoor potted plants that can’t tolerate frost, and also as a refuge for the occasional wood mouse that sneaks in under the back door. I allow the mice a certain licence, but sanctions result if they decide to invade the kitchen. Summer, and an impulse purchase at a National Garden Scheme event, has brought a series of large pots…