Hot waters: inside the 24 September Guardian Weekly

Can the Aukus alliance ease Indo-Pacific tensions?
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The announcement of a new trilateral defence pact between the US, UK and Australia last week seemed to take everyone by surprise - not least France, left red-faced after a multibillion-dollar submarine contract with Australia was ripped up. But amid the fallout, the reaction of China - whose Indo-Pacific military build-up is widely assumed to be behind the new Aukus alliance - was strangely muted. In our cover story this week, Helen Davidson examines regional fears over China, Patrick Wintour dissects the Aukus alliance and Rana Mitter explains why it signals an emerging new global order.

The coming days see elections of note in two European nations large and small, and to quite different ends. In Germany, federal elections will determine chancellor Angela Merkel's successor, potentially setting Europe's economic powerhouse on a new political path. In tiny San Marino, a referendum could lead to abortion being decriminalised. We take the temperature in both countries, where opinions are sharply divided.