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A new ayatollah
The unlikely heir
Mojtaba Khamenei is expected to maintain his father’s hardline. But he is a little-known figure who may find it difficult to assert authority within Iran’s political system, Ruth Michaelson reports
AI
Scholarly slop
A fake academic paper appears online. Within months it has been cited dozens of times. In the age of AI, Patricia Clarke reports that hallucinated footnotes are spreading faster than we can keep up with
Timothée Chalamet
An operatic outrage
When the Oscar nominee dismissed opera as an art form people no longer care about, singers erupted in outrage. But Alex O’Connell understands the instinct – she spent years resisting it herself
News
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Human trafficking
Megan Clement
Fayed survivors seek ‘conversation’ with PM as Met widens inquiry
Prison system
John Simpson
‘There will be few tears’. But Huntley’s death highlights grim state of prisons
Mauritania
Olivia Acland
At the burial ground for the migrants who never made it to the Canaries
Epstein scandal
Jon Ungoed-Thomas
Andrew’s daughter steps down from anti-slavery charity
Ideas
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Politics
Philip Collins
Trump says Starmer is no Churchill. He has no idea what that means
Antisemitism
James Harding
A passport, a history, and the country that took us in
Race
Kenan Malik
Why Labour lost the minority vote in the Gorton and Denton byelection
Artificial intelligence
Frank Skinner
I thought AI was a Geordie greeting until it took over my dad gig
Best of The Observer Magazine
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Slow Newscast
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Weekly investigations in audio
Tortoise Investigates
Deep Water
In the high-stakes sport of freediving, athletes descend as deep as they can on a single breath. They are used to putting their lives at risk. Through her diving instructor, Lydia Gard discovered a new threat that could tear their community apart: drug use
Sweet Bobby
Kirat is a successful radio presenter. On Facebook she meets Bobby, a handsome cardiologist. He’s a catch. Soon, they get tangled up in a love affair full of lies and manipulation. Then… Kirat discovers a deception of almost unimaginable proportions. Alexi Mostrous investigates a very modern love story
Lucky Boy
Gareth’s whole life has been defined by a relationship he had 35 years ago when, as a 14-year-old schoolboy, he fell in love with an attractive young teacher at his school. He spent most afternoons in her bedroom. But when she walked out of his life, everything started to unravel. Chloe Hadjimatheou asks: who gets to be a perpetrator, and who gets to be a victim?
