It's mid-afternoon and as I think of this column, I'm also thinking about a cup of tea. And cake. The Guardian canteen does very good cake. There's no escaping the temptations of sugar, butter and salt. Not all of us resist, as you'll see on the front page of this edition. Diet has become our undoing as research reveals that diabetes has reached epidemic levels, with more than 350 million people in the world afflicted.
The health story knocks the Arab world off our front page, though we still give you a spread of Mideast news, with a slightly new look for the Weekly news pages – a strip of briefs along the side. It's a good way of getting news nuggets to you while allowing the more major stories room to run. Let me know what you think.
From Africa, contributor paper Le Monde takes us to Senegal, where communities are rolling out the Great Green Wall. The pan-African scheme aims to plant a 15km wide swath of trees stretching 7,600km across the continent in a bid to hold back the advancing desert. It will be up to local people to ensure the wall can truly put down roots.
Roots of a different sort feature on a spread of China writing. In Beijing, as the Communist party moves further from roots of its own, it nevertheless exploits that history in a bid to maintain power. It's fine writing by Tania Branigan, who on the same page rides the high-speed rails on the new bullet train from the capital to Shanghai.
In comment, Madeleine Bunting considers the radical freedom of Aung San Suu Kyi and Ed Vulliamy concludes that drug wars represent capitalism gone mad.
Our Review section reflects on the Armenian genocide, Science finds that city living can be bad for your brain and Culture looks at René Magritte, the 'ordinary man in the bowler hat, suit and tie'.
Sports previews the Tour de France, looking at Alberto Contador's rocky road.
Rocky road takes me back, once more, to the canteen, where slabs of fluffy marshmallow and silky chocolate may well beckon. Is resistance really futile?
Enjoy the issue – any way you like.
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