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.

Dismay over visa plans where 'only the rich may fall in love'

Families fear proposals to more than doublethe earnings threshold could force separation and exile

Conflict without end The urge to annihilate the Hamas monster now risks feeding it

When will it end? Some ask that question in despair, willing an end to the pictures of crushed buildings and destroyed lives, the succession of bleak images that come out of Gaza every day.

Diplomacy Secretary general vows not to give up on Gaza ceasefire

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has vowed he will not give up on seeking a ceasefire in Gaza after the US vetoed the move at the Security Council last Friday, leaving the UN without a clear route to prevent the conflict from lasting many months.

I just keep asking myself how I'll die' Khan Younis residents in fear

As the battle against Hamas escalates in the south of Gaza, the Israeli military has launched a relentless bombardment of the city, which it claims is the organisation's command centre

Evasive Action Can Trump Really Have It Both Ways On Abortion?

A few months ago, the former president Donald Trump accused the Republican party of speaking "very inarticulately" on abortion.

Power dressing

The miracle baby of a Holocaust survivor, who married a prince then became a hugely successful and influential fashion designer, reflects on her 'folkloric' life