Having been founded a decade ago by anti-euro economists, Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland party has since tracked sharply to the right – a fact amply illustrated by recent revelations that AfD politicians met with neo‑Nazi groups to discuss plans for mass deportations, should the party gain power.
The exposé has sparked mass protests in Germany and even calls to ban the AfD. But, as Philip Oltermann and Kate Connolly report, with support for the party holding firm, any moves to prohibit the AfD could be a major political gamble.
The challenge for illustrator Pete Reynolds in conveying the AfD’s covert agenda on the Guardian Weekly magazine’s cover this week was one of balance. “In portraying a hidden danger there must exist a tension between hiding the danger and revealing it,” says Pete. “It’s a cover, so the idea must be communicated with some immediacy, yet there is a need for delayed recognition. The wolf must be seen, but not straight away.”
Events in the Middle East continue to unfold at a bewildering pace, with pockets of conflict opening up across the region. Diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour rounds up a week of flashpoints and assesses increasingly slim hopes for controlling the situation. And Oliver Holmes provides a revealing profile of Yemen, one of the most unchanging and least visited countries in the Middle East.
The Weekly went to press before news of Donald Trump’s victory in the New Hampshire Republican primary on Tuesday night, but you can catch up with all the latest Guardian coverage and reaction here. In the magazine, David Smith delivers a postmortem on Ron DeSantis’s doomed campaign, while Jonathan Freedland argues that Trump’s march to the White House can still be stopped.
Our long-read features take somewhat divergent paths this week. First, Charlotte Edwardes meets Gary Lineker, the former England footballer turned TV presenter whose penchant for regularly airing his liberal worldviews has made him public enemy No 1 for Britain’s anti-woke brigade.
Then, Chananya Groner unearths a remarkable story of factionalism and messianic fervour within New York’s Hasidic Jewish community, stretching back 30 years, which led to secret tunnels recently being discovered beneath a Brooklyn synagogue.
And in Culture, Charlotte Higgins meets the classical musicians Dalia Stasevska and Joshua Bell, who are resurrecting a long-forgotten Ukrainian concerto as a gesture of defiance to Russia.
Finally, we’re on the lookout for your best photographs of the world around us. For a chance for your picture to feature in the magazine, send us your best shot, telling us where you were in the world when you took it and why the scene resonated with you at that particular time.
Get the Guardian Weekly magazine delivered to your home address
