There are endless opportunities to feature bad or sad news in the Weekly, and far fewer where we can portray the positive. This is one of those upbeat weeks.
With Sri Lanka this month declaring itself malaria-free, award-winning health editor Sarah Boseley assesses the global picture for battling the disease. She finds reasons to be hopeful.
Public health officials in 13 countries have reported no cases for at least a year and may well follow Sri Lanka’s success. By the end of the decade, another 21 countries, including China, Malaysia and Iran, could also be malaria-free. It’s quite dramatic progress against an illness that kills 400,000 people every year, most of them babies and pregnant women. And so, it claims our front page.
Elsewhere, conflicts escalated (North Korea), peace efforts made some potential gains (Syria), a 79-year-old monarch saluted diversity (and it wasn’t in Britain), and US Democrats fretted about an ailing leader.
In the UK, the prime minister, Theresa May, put forward educational changes that critics say will further segregate the classroom. And one of London’s best-known nightclubs, Fabric, lost its licence after a council review of drug-linked deaths.
Yes, the world continued apace.
In our comment section, columnists range from Europe’s Muslim communities, to the Philippine leadership strategy, to ocean warming. And we throw up a flare for endangered species that are far from cute and furry.
On the letters page, you lamented the night sky’s passing, highlighted the benefits of urban agriculture and questioned the need for an online world. This was an especially strong batch of contributions, from both newcomers and some old friends. We welcome your letters for publication, which you can send along to weekly.letters@theguardian.com.
There’s a strong Asian offering this edition, both on the news pages and in our deeper-read Review, where we meet the North Korean defectors who risk much to inspire others. Discovery, meanwhile, documents China’s great leap upwards as Beijing continues to develop a highly ambitious space programme.
The Culture section provides amusement, with a profile of American comedian Amy Schumer, a visit to jail in England where artists (well, their works, in any event) are doing time, and reviews from around the world that take in film, theatre and music.
Though some Weekly readers pass up our sport pages, this week I’d urge a visit. Tennis is a compelling game, as last weekend’s finals in the US Open showed. World No 1 Novak Djokovic fell to Swiss Stan Wawrinka in four pulsating sets. Among the women, German Angelique Kerber reaped the rewards of patience and hard work.
Is this a changing of the guard in the world of tennis? Or is it too early to say? This makes for dinner chatter at my house, and I hope these pages make it so at yours too!
And so we capture another week of world news, this one more hopeful than many. Please share your thoughts on the editorial content of the Weekly by dropping a line to editorial.feedback@theguardian.com. And have a great week.
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