Can you hazard a guess as to this week’s top news? It’s a tale of surprise and delight, though just how the narrative develops has yet to be seen. And we can only wonder how the story will end. Yes, France voted into office its youngest-ever president, rejecting the far right’s Front National party, headed by Marine Le Pen.
Emmanuel Macron, 39, a centrist political novice, promises strong leadership and a revolution at the Elysee Palace. As pro-Europeans allow themselves a sigh of relief, we analyse the result and the challenges ahead.
We scoop up a week in the rest of the world, where a former warlord in Afghanistan claims a new interest in peace, more Nigerian schoolgirls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram were freed, and hunger fuels growing anger among Venezuela’s poor.
Donald Trump plans to go big on his first trip overseas as US president: we preview the journey. In the absence of any new strategy for the voyage, White House aides are putting the emphasis on Trump’s personality as disruptor-in-chief. This article yielded my favourite phrase of the edition, “If the wheel is going to be reinvented, it will at least be a Trump wheel.”
Brexit continues to dominate the British news agenda as the Conservative prime minister, Theresa May, ramps up campaigning for a 8 June general election. Away from Westminster and over to Buckingham Palace, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, who is 95, is to retire from public engagements from September. No matter your views on the Royal family, it’s hard to argue against this well-earned rest.
Comment captures the French election, considers the chance for a conversation in the Middle East, and embraces the spirit of endeavour and discovery associated with a mission to Mars.
On our letters page, you shared views on meat and food production, the economics of growth, and the need for cleaner air. We welcome letters for publication on issues that have appeared in the newspaper, which you can email to weekly.letters@theguardian.com. Don’t be shy!
Our Review section showcases an article about transhumanism, which came to us via the Guardian’s long read section. If we are all searching, then what, exactly, are we searching for? I found this article fascinating the first time I read it, which was for pleasure, and equally so the second time when I was signing off the pages for publication in the Weekly.
The back of the book brings other delights, some similar to our Review opener, and others less so. Our science reporting explores extreme altruism, and introduces Australia’s ancient red-finned blue-eye, a small freshwater fish in an even smaller outback pond. The Books pages take on the surveillance culture, environmentalism, and the animals we eat.
And Culture meets British actor Bill Nighy, very happy to be typecast as the slightly irascible Englishman.
I find the Mind and Relationships page a good read every week, though I know from the many letters we receive about Oliver Burkeman’s column that you don’t always agree. This week’s What I’m really thinking column on the expat wife certainly hit a nerve. For several years, on a career break for mothering, I found myself in a similar role. It is not one I am keen to reprise.
From where I sit, there’s lots of great reading in this latest edition. I do hope you agree. Either way, I welcome your thoughts on the editorial content, which you can email to me by clicking here.
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