The scale of the humanitarian crisis, and the death toll from the two earthquakes that levelled swathes of southern Turkey and northern Syria, is difficult to contemplate. Our team on the ground reports how, as the week progressed, work turned from searching for survivors to worrying about how to bury the dead and care for people living among the rubble in freezing winter conditions. As well as coverage of the quake’s aftermath in Turkey, reporters Ruth Michaelson and Lorenzo Tondo hear from the Syrian rebel leader pleading for outside help as the political situation in Idlib province has hampered aid efforts. And our Middle East correspondent Bethan McKernan asks what happened to promises made after earlier earthquakes in Turkey to enforce construction rules intending to prevent buildings “pancaking” as they did again so tragically last week.
Our coverage of the war in Ukraine this week focuses on the Wagner mercenary group. As Luke Harding and Dan Sabbagh report, the group’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, believes it could take two years to achieve Moscow’s objectives, even as fighting on the frontline heats up. From Moscow correspondent Andrew Roth we hear how the return home to Russia of its prisoner conscripts – promised freedom if they survived for six months – is causing fear among the victims of their violent civilian crimes.
This week’s main feature goes in search of Andrew Tate, the misogynist social media influencer, who is behind bars in Romania and awaiting trial on trafficking charges. Taking a trip to Bucharest, a city he knows well, Paul Kenyon finds that Tate’s hyped super-rich lifestyle of fast cars and girls is less glamorous than portrayed and that his boasts of business success as casino owner and webcam kingpin ring hollow.
And finally, our science feature has had everyone at Guardian Weekly sitting up a bit straighter, taking regular screen breaks and doing their stretches after reading Emma Beddington’s feature on good spine health. We hope you enjoy the issue.
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