The smile on Aung San Suu Kyi’s face said it all. It’s been 25 years since her last election victory in Myanmar resulted in house arrest, and the imprisonment and torture of thousands of her supporters. But after what looks like a convincing win for the National League for Democracy leader last weekend, the world expects the aftermath this time around to be very different.
The question now is not so much whether Aung San Suu Kyi can lead Myanmar – by circumventing an old law specifically intended to prevent her assuming the office of president – but how she can manage the Burmese junta’s powerful old guard, still lurking quietly in the background. For our cover story this week, Simon Tisdall looks at the diplomatic balancing act now facing the woman upon whose shoulders the future of a nation rests.
Seismic diplomatic waves were breaking elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region, as the leaders of China and Taiwan met for the first time in decades in Singapore. The Guardian’s Beijing correspondent Tom Phillips considers what the rapprochement could mean for the region as well as the Taiwanese people.
Drugs in sport hit the news this week with a sensational report from the World Anti-Doping Agency accusing Russian athletes of systemic cheating, and calling for the country to be banned from the Olympics. Catch up with the revelations on our Sports pages.
Russia was also in the news after one of its passenger jets exploded over Egypt last month, killing all on board. With evidence possibly pointing to a bomb attack, we look at how the Sinai peninsula has turned from a tourist haven to a terrorist magnet. And, after Romania’s prime minister resigned amid mounting corruption allegations, we meet the prosecutor doggedly pursuing the country’s political elite.
With this month’s Paris climate convention moving rapidly into view, we bring you the second of our special editions focusing on the environment. On one spread we analyse the US rejection of the Keystone XL oil pipeline and what it signifies for environmentalism in North America. Elsewhere we take an all-round view of pollution caused by cars – from São Paulo, where an urban highway closure is a blueprint for green activists, to Britain, where the first mass-production hydrogen vehicles went on sale last week. We also catch up with the latest significant twist in the Volkswagen vehicle emissions scandal. Plenty of food for thought for motorists!
The longer-read Weekly Review opens with a thrilling TV journalist’s tour through the crime-laden streets of Karachi, one of the world’s most dangerous cities. In Sweden our partner paper Le Monde visits a pioneering, gay-friendly retirement home. There’s also a look at controversial plans to redevelop the Los Angeles river, the vast concrete gutter that has provided a dystopian backdrop to Hollywood movies ranging from Grease to Terminator 2.
Discovery examines a vast selection of ancient shipping cargoes found on an Aegean wreck dive, while in our expanded Culture section, design junkies will appreciate a look at a major new exhibition devoted to the work of Ray and Charles Eames. There’s also a full page of culture reviews to savour.
Notes & Queries considers which sports are the hardest to stay interested in, while Good to Meet You catches up with a longtime reader from Australia.
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