Table of contents for 10 April 2026 in Guardian Weekly

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 wholly owned by the Scott Trust, a body whose purpose is “to…

In an address to the nation last week, Donald Trump said the US would “very shortly” achieve its strategic objectives in Iran. What has the conflict achieved in relation to those since it began on 28 February? Eliminate Iran’s missile and drone threat In an eight-minute video released on 28 February, Trump promised that the US would “destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground”. Iran was estimated to have about 2,500 high-speed ballistic missiles and destroying the programme was a goal for Israel too. Iran’s missile launch rates have been reduced by about 90% and its manufacturing capacity has been significantly degraded. However, Tehran has retained a continued, if modest, capacity to strike Israel and the Gulf, causing fear, damage and small numbers of casualties. There have…

At Campo Boscán, a vast complex in western Venezuela, the drills, pumps and pipelines that extract crude oil operate amid decay: roads are broken, weeds grow everywhere and many wells run inside metal cages to prevent theft. Albenis Merchán, a drilling technician with 35 years’ experience, recalls better times as he drives his pickup through the desolate landscape. “We used to receive maintenance and safety training all the time. Supplies and spare parts were never lacking. Many things need to improve here to tap the full potential of this area,” he said. Campo Boscán lies 40km from Maracaibo, the capital of Zulia state, a region that has supplied crude to the global market for more than a century. This field was discovered in 1945 by the Richmond Exploration Company and…

At the end of a road in the city of Cancún, in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, a tall watchtower rises behind barbed wire and perimeter walls closely monitored by the army. This is where the Cereso stands, a highsecurity prison complex housing a men’s facility as well as a section called Modulo 2 that is reserved for females. A total of 284 women are held there. Just two years ago the Cereso was considered one of the most dangerous prisons in Mexico. In effect, male inmates controlled the facility, and order and security were minimal because of an insufficient number of guards. To regain control, the government of Quintana Roo intervened with the support of the army, installing a new administration. Since then, the prison has been entirely…

Going anywhere nice this summer? No, me neither, judging by the warning from the Ryanair boss, Michael O’Leary, that a global shortage of jet fuel caused by the Iran war may soon lead to cancelled flights. For those of us in Britain, suddenly a week in Cornwall looks a safer bet, though even that will be a stretch for some as the cost of long car journeys heads through the roof. When the representatives of more than 40 countries held talks in London last week to discuss unblocking the strait of Hormuz, they convened virtually, not in person. This is no time to be seen boarding a private jet. As Donald Trump prepares to walk away from the hornets’ nest he so recklessly poked, the rest of the world is…

Timothée Chalamet might have smirked his way out of an Oscar. Sabrina Carpenter might have been roundly snubbed at the Grammys. But there’s one place both would be welcomed with open arms: the UK theatre scene. It seems it can’t get enough of celebs on stage. Recent openings in London’s West End feature Stranger Things star Sadie Sink, singer Self Esteem and Strictly’s Johannes Radebe. Celebrity casting, or stunt casting as it’s sometimes less kindly known, isn’t new: the Donmar Warehouse was at it back in 1998, casting Nicole Kidman in erotic two-hander The Blue Room, to quite the commotion. But in recent years it’s become increasingly common and, to many, increasingly cynical. There are shows with a rotating roster of leads for every taste: last year’s Every Brilliant Thing…

Today the P-word has a bad reputation. Psychologists link it with increased anxiety, diminished self-esteem and depression. And magazines feature articles with headlines such as “How to Stop Procrastinating, NOW!” Am I one of the 20% of the population with “chronic procrastination”, the lifelong tendency to avoid doing the things I should be doing? A few years ago, this would have alarmed me – but now I no longer worry. Because an obscure idea I discovered in a work of medieval theology has taught me how to relax. For more than a decade I’ve been researching the history of the seven deadly sins. This is the self-help system devised in the Egyptian desert more than 1,600 years ago. The medieval wisdom applied to these habits – pride, envy, anger, sloth,…

Across 1 Gnasher string (6,5) 9 ___ sale (9) 10 Raw underground material (3) 11 Garlicky dip (5) 13 Novelist Flannery or singer Sinéad (7) 14 Second most popular web browser (6) 15 Systematize (6) 18 Most common coffee bean (7) 20 Dance or dip (5) 21 Number of humps on a dromedary (3) 22 Vodka, cranberry and grapefruit juice (3,6) 24 Item in a tailor’s kit (4,7) Down 2 Sensory organ of the head (3) 3 Airedale, Skye or Yorkshire (7) 4 Pride, gin or Eye (6) 5 Deceive (3,2) 6 Wading bird – cutlery cost? (9) 7 Principle of economy (6,5) 8 St Peter locale (6,5) 12 Not captured by the lens (3,6) 16 In a way (2,5) 17 Japanese for ‘empty hand’ (6) 19 Emanate (5) 23…

1 UNITED STATES Talks to end Iran war appear to falter before deadline Diplomatic negotiations aimed at halting the war in the Middle East appeared to be faltering on Monday, before a deadline imposed by Donald Trump with a threat to destroy Iran’s bridges and attack its power plants. Mediators from Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey wanted both sides to agree to a ceasefire and reopen the strait of Hormuz, to be followed by a period of detailed negotiations intended to reach a more complete peace agreement. Iran, however, said it wanted a permanent end to the war, not a ceasefire. It submitted a 10-point peace plan, according to the country’s Irna news agency, and called for an “end to the war in line with Iran’s considerations, while rejecting a ceasefire”.…

Rushing to finish his cigarette before heading to class, Ákos, 20, confessed he had more at stake than most as Hungarians prepared to head to the polls in the coming days. “If things remain the same or get even worse, I can’t see a future here,” said the aspiring teacher. “There are many people who want to try living elsewhere, and that’s totally fine, but I’m not one of them. For so long I’ve dreamed of working and teaching here.” Ákos was four years old when Hungarians voted in Viktor Orbán as prime minister in 2010, setting in motion a 16-year grip on power that has sought to transform the central European country into an “illiberal democracy” and which has defined much of this student’s early life. Ákos is a…

When Benjamin Netanyahu arrived at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club on 29 December last year, the Israeli prime minister came with an appeal – and a not so subtle inducement. After months of restocking air defence and other missiles after June’s 12-day conflict in which the US joined in to bomb Tehran’s nuclear facilities, Israel was ready to go again, this time with more substantial objectives. In the press conference hosted by the pair, Trump appeared to dutifully echo familiar talking points of Netanyahu’s. “Now I hear that Iran is trying to build up again,” Trump said. “Then we are going to have to knock them down. We’ll knock the hell out of them. But hopefully, that’s not happening.” The Israeli leader had come armed with an appeal to Trump’s…

He could not help but splutter out a laugh at the question. Amir, whose name has been changed for his safety, had just crossed the Kapıköy border point in east Turkey, a mountain pass between snow-topped peaks that is one of the few gateways to the west from Iran. Until a few weeks ago, this was a busy place, popular among Iranian daytrippers coming to Turkey to shop in the city of Van, a two-hour drive west, or to spend a few nights in its discreet Iranian-only nightclubs and bars that serve alcohol. But today, a black flag raised here a month ago by the Iranian regime after the death of Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, under US and Israeli strikes, tells its own story. Amir, who had come from…

Dotted across the mountainous roads of Sichuan and just a few hours’ drive from some of China’s most bustling cities, the crumbling ruins of an abandoned military experiment are eerily quiet. Top secret factories that once housed thousands of workers are now overgrown with vegetation; nearby villages, empty of young people who were once shipped in from across the country to build China’s future, are plastered with advertisements for hearing aids and, in one case, a bundle deal on coffins. Millions of workers were deployed to these remote mountain locations as part of a huge defence programme that stayed secret for over a decade. The factories in south-west China were once part of its grandest industrial strategy project to date. Launched by Mao Zedong in 1964, the ambitious national defence…

In the silent vacuum of space, five autonomous robots churn through the lunar surface, digging up a loose layer of rock and dust and leaving rows of uniform tracks in their wake. Stopping only to recharge at a solar power station, the car-sized machines process the lunar dirt to extract a type of helium so rare on our planet that a palm-sized container is estimated to be worth millions. Once processed, the precious resource is loaded into a launcher and ejected back to Earth. The vision is one born of science fiction, but there are several companies raising money to mine the moon for resources, in a race to be first to benefit from the nascent lunar economy. “My view is that it’s not a question of if, it’s a…

It should be uncontroversial to state that what we want to be called – or do not want to be called – should be respected. This simple enough principle is what defined the grievance between NHS co-workers Ilda Esteves and her colleague Charles Oppong. Last month, an employment tribunal ruled in Esteves’ favour, agreeing she was subjected to harassment from Oppong for his repeated references to her as “auntie”. The healthcare assistant was awarded £1,425 ($1,900) in compensation. The tribunal heard that Oppong defended his actions by claiming “auntie” was, in his Ghanaian culture, a term of respect for older women. But Esteves, 61, had asked him to stop. He did not. Oppong also suggested, the tribunal heard, that an older colleague would be a “good match” for Esteves: this…

Over the past decade, “idol” culture has turned east Asia into a pop music powerhouse as global audiences have flocked to Japanese and especially South Korean groups. Formed and exactingly trained by big entertainment conglomerates, bands such as BTS and EXO have blown up internationally thanks to bombastic songs, sensational dance routines and marketing campaigns designed to build a parasocial relationship between performers – idols – and their fans. Their neighbour China, however, the population of which is roughly eight times that of Japan and South Korea combined, has produced few groups with similar fame. Until 2021, Chinese versions of Korean idol-training shows – think The X Factor with considerably more challenging choreography – were gaining huge audiences. But the shows, and the fan culture they inspired, drew the ire…

From a distance, with a little imagination, they look like a prickle of porcupines. Closer, they are spiky clumps of soft-rush Juncus effusus, which seem to creep farther across this pasture every year. Superficially, this is one of the least charismatic members of our native flora, with its bundles of long, olive green, quill-like leaves. But splitting these open reveals pith packed with tiny silver star-shaped cells, forming a three-dimensional lattice: Stellate parenchyma. Two hundred years ago, soft-rush pith brought a glimmer of light to the long hours of winter darkness. Illumination after dusk came from a fire in the grate, oil lamps, or candles. From 1709 until 1830, successive governments imposed an ever-increasing tax on candles. So, the rural poor resorted to rushlights. Soft-rush pith, spongy, absorbent, encased in…

DOCTORS Resident doctors’ strike has hit pay rises, says Streeting The health secretary accused resident doctors of “torpedoing” their own pay rises and training jobs by walking out on strike again, as tens of thousands of doctors began a six-day stoppage in England. Wes Streeting said there was a “legitimacy” to concerns over jobs and wages but that the British Medical Association (BMA) had scuppered any chance of a breakthrough when it rejected what he said was a serious offer from the government to transform medics’ conditions. Resident doctors began their longest strike yet at 7am on Tuesday after talks to end the long-running dispute collapsed. Walking out for a fourth year in a row, this is the 15th time they have staged industrial action since March 2023 in their…

Hungarians go to the polls on 12 April in Europe’s most consequential election of the year, with Viktor Orbán facing possible defeat, after 16 years in power, by a former loyalist, Péter Magyar. What is the story and why does it matter? The EU’s longest-serving leader, Orbán has turned Hungary into what he calls an “illiberal democracy”, declaring himself Europe’s defender of traditional Christian family values. His governments have eroded the rule of law, packing the courts with judges loyal to Orbán and turning most of the country’s media into a propaganda machine. He has battled with the EU over policies on justice, migration, LGBTQ+ rights and, more recently, aid for Ukraine, which he has consistently blocked. Orbán is the EU’s most Moscow-friendly leader. He has inspired EU-obstructive leaders such…

In four weeks, the shape of British politics is likely to change dramatically. For the first time, nationalists who aspire to break up the UK are expected to be in control of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland simultaneously. “The change will be seismic,” said Angus Robertson, a senior minister in the Scottish government. Opinion polls suggest that after the elections on 7 May, England will be flanked by countries run by restless centre-left nationalist parties – Plaid Cymru in Cardiff, the Scottish National party in Edinburgh and, in Belfast, Sinn Féin, which shares power with the Democratic Unionists in Belfast. That raises the prospect of significant constitutional disputes that would thrust the Labour government in London into very difficult waters. Sources say all three parties are in talks about combining…

On a humid morning in Uyo, Nigeria, Ubokobong Amanam shows off the lifelike prosthetic where his fingers once were. The skin bears tiny wrinkles, and the nails are naturally shaped. Seven years ago, he was badly injured in a firework accident. The prosthetics available were clumsy, poorly fitted and designed for bodies nothing like his. “At first, it was deeply disappointing to realise there were no hyper-realistic or even realistic African-style prosthetics,” he said. “That discovery made me feel worse and intensified my depression.” But his brother, John Amanam, was a special effects artist, making replicas of human bodies for film and theatre. Together they began work on a better hand for Ubokobong, designing a prosthetic that did not yet exist, one made for Africans by Africans. Millions across the…

Before Donald Trump declared “liberation day” on 2 April 2025 and shocked the world by raising import tariffs on nearly every country the US did business with, he had spent almost three months causing chaos in Washington. The wholesale slashing of government jobs under Doge (the “department of government efficiency”) and the defunding of US aid agencies had shown White House watchers that the US president was in a hurry to upset institutions he considered profligate or useless. Investors quickly understood that chaos was an essential tool in Trump’s armoury. Almost as soon as he was inaugurated, there was a steady decline in the value of the dollar against other currencies. Investors sold assets denominated in dollars and bought assets elsewhere: Europe, Asia, South America. “If you think that discouraging…

On 21 July 1969, Neil Armstrong swung open the hatch of his spacecraft and clambered down a short ladder towards the surface of the moon. The Apollo 11 moon mission came only 66 years after Orville Wright made the first successful flight in an aeroplane. Armstrong captured a sense of that progression in the indelible words he spoke on the lunar surface: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” That was nearly 57 years ago. No human has visited the moon since the crew of Apollo 17 in 1972. Until now, that is – sort of. Last week Nasa sent four astronauts on a 10-day loop around our lunar neighbour, on a mission called Artemis II. The Artemis II crew did not land – that will…

What can I do with herbs that are past their best? Joe, by email Happily, Joe isn’t short of options. “The obvious choice for hard herbs is to chuck them in a sandwich bag and freeze them for future stock-making,” says Alice Norman, founder of regenerative bakery Pinch in Suffolk. Sami Tamimi, author of Boustany, would dry excess herbs. In summer, he’d pop them on a tray in the sun, but now he “dries them in a 60-70C oven”. Norman’s current method is to blitz languishing herbs (“rosemary and/or thyme work best”) with a 3:4 ratio of fine salt. “You don’t want too many, because the moisture content will turn the mix black, but you need enough for the blades to break down the rosemary properly.” Pulse until fine, then…