There were bittersweet motivations behind our decision to bump up the number of pages in this week’s Guardian Weekly from 48 to 52. One was to accommodate the obituary of Stephen Hawking, by Roger Penrose. It’s a remarkable insight into Hawking’s life, written by the research colleague with whom he applied the mathematics of black holes to the universe and showed that a singularity, the point from which came the big bang, lay in our distant past.
The other was to make room for the moving revelation by Guardian columnist George Monbiot that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. We often find ourselves cramming features into small spaces in the Weekly, but sometimes it’s important to just give a piece room to breathe, and that’s what we’ve done with George this week. Of all our regular contributors, George perhaps draws the greatest volume of responses from Weekly readers, and I know you will wish him well in his treatment and recovery.
Those extra pages came in more than handy, too, for covering the Observer’s blockbuster revelations, led by Carole Cadwalladr, about Cambridge Analytica and the unauthorised harvesting of millions of Facebook data files for use in a voter-profiling system. Not surprisingly that’s our front-page splash; inside the paper you’ll find out how the system worked and why it matters, and on our website you can keep up with the very latest on a story that has sent shockwaves around the world.
Also inside the paper the Guardian’s new Moscow correspondent Andrew Roth considers Vladimir Putin’s goals for the next six years after the Russian president cruised to his fourth electoral victory. Meanwhile, dark theories surrounding the Salisbury chemical attack continued to point to the Kremlin, as the UK and Russia engaged in tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions.
From Washington we get up to speed with the latest round of presidential sackings. From Mexico we hear how cartel violence has engulfed Cancún, the country’s principal holiday resort. From Brazil, the assassination of the black, gay Rio councillor Marielle Franco drew thousands on to the streets in angry protest.
The Review lead tackles the tasty but increasingly controversial subject of bacon, whose most common curing process is known to have carcinogenic effects.
Discovery ponders the plight of the albatross, and a remote colony struggling with the effects of plastic pollution. Culture has a fabulous interview with the world’s most famous drag artist, RuPaul. Books casts a critically approving eye over Civilisations, the new tome from the distinguished classicist Mary Beard.
On the back page, Suzanne Moore rounds things off by asking why the menopause remains such a cultural taboo for so many. To my mind it’s a scandal that rightly needs addressing. Perhaps you have a view to share on our Reply page? If so write to us here.
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