Guardian Weekly 23 September 2022

End of the road A resident inspects the damaged Gaoliao bridge that collapsed after a magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit Yuli Township, in Hualien County, last Sunday. At least one person died after a series of earthquakes and aftershocks caused structural damage, left 400 tourists stranded on a mountain and derailed a train in eastern Taiwan. The Guardian Weekly Founded in Manchester, England 4 July 1919 Vol207 | Issue№ 13 Guardian Weekly is an edited selection of some of the best journalism found in the Guardian and Observer newspapers in the UK and the Guardian’s digital editions in the UK, US and Australia. The weekly magazine has an international focus and three editions: global, Australia and North America. The Guardian was founded in 1821, and Guardian Weekly in 1919. We exist to hold power to account in the…

After 10 days of national mourning, Britain laid Queen Elizabeth II to rest on Monday, in a state funeral ceremony laid thick with pomp, pageantry and symbolism. Jonathan Freedland asks whether the nation has buried more than just a much-loved monarch, while Ian Jack reflects on the modern-day pilgrims who queued for hours last week just for a fleeting chance to file past the Queen’s coffin. Then, in a special report, we consider the future of the Commonwealth under the stewardship of King Charles III. Our correspondents report from six key members of the “family of nations”, some of which view the royal transition as a chance to fundamentally rethink their often troubled relationships with the British monarchy. The big story Page 10 → The King and the Commonwealth Page 33 → Have recent territorial…

1 CORONAVIRUS End of the pandemic is ‘in sight’, say WHO and Biden The end of the Covid-19 pandemic is “in sight”, the World Health Organization declared, after revealing that weekly deaths from the virus around the world were at the lowest level since March 2020, when national lockdowns began in many countries across the globe. The weekly global deaths figure on 5 September was 11,118, according to the WHO’s website. The WHO also estimated that 19.8m deaths were averted in 2021 due to Covid-19 vaccines being administered and that 12bn doses had been given around the world. Joe Biden also said “the pandemic is over” in an interview broadcast last Sunday, though he admitted “we still have a problem with Covid”, as the US continues to grapple with infections that kill hundreds of…

No US trade deal in sight, admits prime minister Britain may not strike a free trade deal with the US for years, Liz Truss admitted ahead of her first bilateral meeting with Joe Biden. The new prime minister conceded that talks were unlikely to start in the “medium term” as she travelled to New York on Monday night for her first foreign trip since entering Downing Street. She downplayed expectations that any trade agreement was imminent amid concerns that overpromising but then failing to get talks off the ground would damage her nascent administration. Truss told reporters: “There aren’t currently any negotiations taking place with the US and I don’t have any expectation that those are going to start in the short to medium term.” It is the first time the government has…

In death, as in life, all eyes were on her. Inside the same abbey where she was crowned nearly seven decades ago, there stood, this time, not a hesitant young woman dressed to dazzle, but a small coffin. Still, in 2022 as in 1953, it was impossible to look away. In a sea of dark suits, mostly pale faces and much grey hair, it was the coffin that provided the colour and chief spectacle: the reds and yellows of the royal standard, the polished gold of the orb and sceptre and, resting on a purple cushion, the sparkling diamonds and pristine sapphire of the crown. For all the pomp and finery around Monday’s funeral service – the brocaded uniforms and muffled drums, the feathered hats and musical laments – it was…

Following the death of George VI in 1952, the Guardian’s reports of his lying in state, witnessed by nearly 300,000 people over three days, were lively with detail. Other newspapers carried similar details. What marked out the Guardian was its wryness, its refusal to get carried away. It was a Manchester paper, after all. On the night before the king’s funeral, the London correspondent toured the streets to gauge the kind of people who were prepared to wait for hours in the cold to have the best view. “Everybody was stoutly clad but everybody was cold,” the reporter wrote, and the question naturally arose, as it has several times in the 70 years since, more pressingly since the whole affair can be watched at length without leaving home: why? Why freeze…