Greece may have said no to austerity in its referendum last Sunday, but as ATMs ran out of cash it felt less like closure and more like a prelude to even darker days. With the world waiting to see whether Greece can now avoid bankruptcy, our correspondents see defiance turn to despair in Athens.
On the cover, columnist Owen Jones argues that the Greece’s debt crisis has exposed a deficit of democracy at the heart of the European Union, and for that reason alone the Greek people deserve the support of other nations. Keep up with the latest news, comment and analysis on this rapidly moving story on the Guardian’s website.
With Europe in turmoil, we have a special in-depth report this week, examining the expanding global power axis between Russia and China – a match of mutual expediency, if not exactly affection. If this takes you back to the Cold War era, there’s a World Diary from the Marshall Islands, where radioactive waste is leaking into the Pacific Atoll from the site of US nuclear tests in the 1940s and 50s. Also from China, we reflect on how sudden large stock market losses have spooked both investors and the government.
A UN report this week has celebrated the effectiveness of the millennium development goals in delivering health and education benefits to around a billion people, while acknowledging there is still much more work to do. From India, meanwhile, the Washington Post reports on a spate of deaths and disappearances related to an exam-rigging scam which has shocked the country.
You may need to smoke your way though a pack of Gitanes while reading our Weekly Review lead, which asks where all the great French philosophers have gone in recent years. From India there’s local cynicism over Narendra Modi’s plans to turn ancient and crumbling Ajmer into a 21st century “smart” city. From Burkina Faso, Le Monde reports on how climate change is destroying crops and worsening living standards.
Discovery checks in with the Nasa mission to Pluto, which will soon take humanity closer than it’s ever been to this distant, frozen world. Culture looks at the misleadingly serene work of the late artist Agnes Martin, and takes a trip into the eclectic musical world of Ghostpoet.
Do we have a choice in what is true? That’s the question under discussion in this week’s Notes & Queries column. The Guardian Weekly is part of a longstanding Friday ritual for this week’s Good to Meet You correspondent - whether you are an old friend of the paper or new, we’d love to hear from you for this spot, so don’t be shy and drop us a line.
Another Ashes cricket series between England and Australia begins in Cardiff this week. It all feels a little devalued by its relative frequency these days, but on our Sports pages Emma John explains how the seasonal passing of the famous old series still shapes the lives of cricket fans from both countries.
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