CATEGORIES

Israelis look for any sign of victory as death toll mounts

Israeli planes bombed refugee camps in Gaza last weekend as its troops expanded ground operations and tens of thousands of Palestinians fled their homes, setting the stage for a new year as bloody as the last three months of 2023.

Broken ties Putin and Netanyahu content as entente ends

When Vladimir Putin spoke by telephone last month to Benjamin Netanyahu, their first conversation themselves in weeks, they found in an unusual dynamic, engaging not as partners but against the backdrop of historic tensions.

Shipping lanes Could the Red Sea crisis risk sparking a wider conflict?

So far, the war in Gaza prompted by Hamas's attack on 7 October has not precipitated the nightmare scenario - a wider Middle East conflict drawing in the US and Iran. But that risk appears to be becoming more serious.

FRONTLINES OF WAR AND NATURE WHAT ELSE TO WATCH FOR IN 2024

The year 2024 will be a critical one.

RUSSIA PUTIN WILL SEIZE HIS CHANCE TO PROVE THAT THE WAR IS ON TRACK

In news that probably shocked no one, Vladimir Putin announced last month that he will seek a fifth presidential term in the upcoming March elections.

INDIA MODI LOOKS POISED FOR SUCCESS AS DEMOCRACY ACTIVISTS FEAR WORST

India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, cut a confident figure as 2023 drew to a close. As his Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) swept three major state elections in December, Modi did not hold back from predicting that \"this hat-trick has guaranteed the 2024 victory\"

POLLS APART

More than 2 billion people could vote in 2024, the biggest year ever for global democracy. But electoral systems face multiple pressures including AI manipulation, far-right extremism and crackdowns on free speech and dissent. Our correspondents preview some of the most significant elections-and the threats facing them

UNITED KINGDOM A PERILOUS ELECTION: PHOTO ID, STAFF SHORTAGES AND CYBER THREATS

While the general election date itself remains in the hands of Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, one thing is certain: when the campaign does begin it has the potential to be one of the more perilous and chaotic in UK history.

TV

The Guardian Weekly team reveal our small-screen picks of the year, from Top Boy's poignantly nihilistic finale to a second helping of The Bear's kitchen chaos

Film

From gruelling documentary to yearning romance - the 10 best movies of the year | Our critics' selection of the pick of the year's films and albums

Call me what you want - I'll keep telling the truth about livestock farming

Everything that makes campaigning against fossil fuels difficult is 10 times harder when it comes to opposing livestock farming.

The only way to end this war is for Biden to force Netanyahu out

Joe Biden's bond with Israel and the J Jewish people runs so deep he is said to feel it in his kishkes (that's \"guts\", for the non-Yiddish speakers among you).

Parting words Friends pay tribute to famous lives lost this year

2023 THOSE WE LOST

Great unknowns Huge questions remain unanswered about life on Earth. We asked leading scientists and conservationists: what is the one thing you would like to know about the planet that remains a mystery?

\"How many species of animals do we share the planet with? Estimates range from 3 million to as many as 100 million, and there's not much sign that we are converging on an answer.\"

We can be heroes The caring leaders, dancers and dads who proved there is hope for humanity

The forensic pathologist helping Philippines' 'war on drugs' victims

WORLD IN FLUX

For much of the global south, the west's seemingly contradictory stance over Gaza and Ukraine symbolises its hypocrisy. Is a reckoning on the cards?

On the hook Why hacking case meant so much to Prince Harry

As the Duke of Sussex claimed victory in his hacking case against Mirror Group Newspapers, it was clear he felt vindication for his tortuous, longrunning legal battles against sections of the British media. \"I've been told that slaying dragons will get you burned,\" he said in a statement, before adding a defiant: \"The mission continues.\"

Giorgia and Rishi: what's driving the right's latest 'love-burst'?

One cut her political teeth on the streets of Rome as a teenage neo-fascist activist, rising to become Italy's first female premier. The other is a former investment banker who became Britain's wealthiest prime minister, and its first of colour.

US defence secretary urges change of tactics

The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, held talks with Israeli officials about shifting away from large-scale aerial and ground operations in the Gaza Strip to a new phrase in the war focused on the precise targeting of Hamas leaders.

Hezbollah's cross-border strikes on Israel 'risk a second war'

When the news first broke of the Hamas attack early on 7 October, Itai Reuveni and the other reservists in his paratrooper battalion packed their bags and arrived at their muster point well before their call-up came from the army.

Against the odds

Not long before the crucial final meeting of Cop28 climate summit, a seemingly chance meeting took place in the VIP lounge.

When seven chimpanzees at a Swedish zoo broke free from their enclosure last winter, the keepers faced a terrible choice.This is the story of the most dramatic 72 hours of their lives

THE PROBLEMS BEGAN WHEN LINDA WAS T ABOUT 18 MONTHS OLD. For a year, she had lived in harmony with a Swedish couple and their three young children in Liberia.

New high or mild thrill? Recreating Lunch atop a Skyscraper

Looked at in a certain way, one of history's most famous photographs is rather dull. It's a bunch of men, sitting in a line. Some are holding lunchboxes, one is lighting a cigarette, another is holding a glass bottle. No one is planking or pulling a funny face.

Biden lawyer Says tax case isaresult of Republican pressure’

Hunter Biden's defence attorney Abbe Lowell has condemned prosecutors who charged the US president's 53-year-old son with tax fraud last week, accusing special counsel David Weiss of \"bowing to Republican pressure\".

Sweet spot How the coating on our cells shaped humankind

The sugar chains covering our cells have interacted over the ages with our environment and the diseases that plague us, influencing our evolution

How Miss Universe became a symbol of defiance

When Sheynnis Palacios was voted Miss Universe last month it came as a bolt of good news in Nicaragua. Joyous crowds took to the streets of Managua for the first time since mass protests in 2018 that were put down with lethal force.

Under watch Exiled activist still fears China’s surveillance

In August this year, Agnes Chow crossed into mainland China filled with fear. The young activist was in the company of five national security police, taking her from her home in Hong Kong, on what she said was a “propaganda tour” organised by authorities in return for her being allowed to study overseas.

‘We kept going’ Indie publisher marks 25 years of telling tales

When the Zimbabwean editor Irene Staunton and her husband Murray McCartney set up their publishing business in 1998, it seemed natural to call it Weaver Press. Their modest HQ, in the back garden of their home in Emerald Hill, a northern suburb of Harare, looked out on the many intricate nests of the weaver bird that peppered the landscape.

Revealed: 1,000-plus unmarked graves along EU borders

Refugees and migrants are being buried in unmarked graves across the European Union at a level unprecedented outside war. The Guardian can reveal that at least 1,015 men, women, and children who died at the borders of Europe in the past decade were buried before being identified.

Help support refugees torebuild their livesin Safety

As we launch the Guardian and Observer's 2023 charity appeal, we are in the middle of a winter crisis of destitution among refugees on the streets of the UK, and a passionate debate over the strength of Britain's commitment to providing refuge to people fleeing war and persecution.