There’s an opportunity some weeks to take a chance with the cover of the Guardian Weekly. To shake things up a little. To present world events in a slightly different way. This is one such week.
G20 leaders met in Hamburg. Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin put their hands and heads together. North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile, which leader Kim Jong-un described as an Independence Day gift for the “American bastards”. And world leaders struggled to find strategies to this emerging age of chaos.
Are we witnessing the birth of a new world order? If so, who will rise in the succession? Guardian foreign affairs columnist Simon Tisdall analyses the latest twists and turns on our front page, which we’ve taken the liberty of illustrating in a slightly unconventional manner. I look forward to your feedback, which you can email by clicking here.
Beyond those big, big stories, we report on the overthrow of Islamic State in Mosul, the re-emerging refugee crisis in the Mediterranean, and the latest political moves in strife-torn Venezuela.
UK news has been dominated by Brexit (and I can comfortably predict will be for some time to come) and the hurdles to governing that now face prime minister Theresa May, who lost her Commons majority in a general election last month.
Comment considers opioid addiction and overdoses as North America deals with this very serious issue. Our influential opinion writers also weigh in on refugees, electioneering, sex robots, Wimbledon, and the dynamics of dating.
Our letters page features some new names, and touches on Australian migration policy, the definition of a rogue state, and trophy hunting. We welcome contributions for publication, so please do send a letter reflecting on the Weekly’s coverage to weekly.letters@theguardian.com.
In addition to a rather radical front page, we’ve broken with tradition in our deeper-read Review section too, turning over six pages to a long read on the Anthropocene epoch. This showcases the thinking of philosopher Timothy Morton, who certainly engages the mind and feeds the imagination. I do hope you find these pages thought-provoking. I know I did!
On Discovery we present special Guardian coverage of the problem with plastics. As sales of packaged drinks surge, our oceans and coastlines are overwhelmed with waste. We take a look at the Pet bottle, and consider ways you can help.
On the Books pages, we review writing on vaccines, diamonds and hares. You can’t fault us for a lack of variety!
Guitar heroes, the need for creative control, and the art of Weimar Germany feature on the Culture pages, along with theatre in London and art in Washington DC. This is good reading in a section I know you enjoy.
It’s great fun, once our pages have gone to press, to sit back, review the work we’ve done, and write this message, which appears on the Guardian website as the GW editors’ blog. The Weekly is, after all, about “the edit”, which I very much hope you continue to enjoy. Thank you for reading and for subscribing. I am endlessly impressed by our community; it’s caring, committed and so very international. Your support of the Weekly is immensely important to us.
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