Europe has changed. Call it a watershed, a turning point or, if you prefer German, Zeitenwende, but the continent is reassessing its defence priorities in response to the Trump administration’s brutal shift in attitude to the 80-year-old transatlantic relationship and US support for Ukraine. This week’s issue plots how, with unaccustomed speed, Paris, Berlin and London, along with the European Commission, are stepping up with a new “whatever it takes” mentality to create a framework for their own defence. Our coverage, led by Toby Helm and with contributions from our correspondents in Kyiv, Brussels and Berlin, examines how fiscal shibboleths are being shed to allow for increased military spending, and from Berlin a growing enthusiasm for Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz to consider sheltering under France’s independent nuclear umbrella.
But even as leaders firm up their approach to Washington and Moscow, diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour reports on how their populist opponents, whose rhetoric has tended towards support of the strongman diplomacy of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, are left fumbling as to how to counteract this new geopolitical landscape.
As we continue to navigate a world where old, postwar certainties are being upended, the Guardian Weekly is here to help make sense of the dizzying pace of global events.
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Five essential reads in this week’s edition
Spotlight | ‘Here you will die’
Mark Townsend reports from Sudan on how the retreat of rebel RSF forces has led to the discovery of a torture centre, evidence of what could be one of the worst atrocities of the civil war
Technology | Roboshop
Can an AI agent prove itself smart enough to help Victoria Turk with her shopping? And, if it can order groceries and a takeaway, what else might it soon be able to do?
Feature | All the young Reform dudes
What is it about Nigel Farage’s Reform party that is attracting young men fed up with establishment politics? Gaby Hinsliff finds out
Opinion | The Sicilian ways of Donald Trump
The US president’s way of doing business is uncomfortably close to the fictional Corleone method, but without the mafia’s sense of honour, says Jonathan Freedland
Culture | Arthouse animation moves on up
Hot on the Academy Awards’ success of Flow, Xan Brooks looks at how independent animators are taking on the big-budget Hollywood studios and finding audiences are falling back in love with stop-go techniques
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What else we’ve been reading
Sam Dick wrote movingly about the isolation of growing up gay in the 1990s and how a letter from his father to the Guardian demonstrated his parents’ support – and inspired a career in campaigning. Clare Horton, assistant editor
I loved these 10 lessons that Helen Russell has taken away from her time living in Denmark. From “You’re not all that, and that’s fine”, “Work-life balance isn’t a myth” and “Less really is more”, there’s a lot that we can learn from the happiest people in the world. Jade Lovitt, Weekly business manager
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Other highlights from the Guardian website
• Audio | Revisited: The spy cops scandal (part 1)
• Video | How plastics are invading our brain cells
• Gallery | Give it a Polish! Classic film posters with a twist
• Interactive | Are Europe’s undersea internet cables under attack?
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