My family’s summer break this year took us into the rural interior of Portugal. A world away from the slick coastal tourist resorts, it’s a region where life has changed little over the years, where villagers push barrows full of vegetables through narrow streets and elders perch watchfully on shaded wooden benches. But one thing struck us repeatedly as we passed through small communities surrounded by vineyards and olive groves: the ageing population and apparent scarcity of children and young families.
From Portugal in the west to Germany in the east, young people are abandoning Europe’s rural towns and villages for the hope of better lives in urban areas. It’s a thin irony that at the same time as thousands of desperate migrants are putting pressure on Europe’s southern borders, rapidly declining birth rates are also hastening the disappearance of many of these longstanding communities.
Our cover story from the Observer this week examines this parlous situation, while inside the paper Simon Tisdall asks whether immigration from outside Europe can provide the solution to the continent’s rural depopulation crisis. There’s also a fascinating special report from Eritrea, the secretive African state from which many of the migrants at Europe’s gates are fleeing.
More turmoil in the Chinese economy this week saw share prices plummet further, sending shockwaves around world markets. Larry Elliott on our Comment pages asks if we are on the verge of a new global financial crisis, and why the lessons of the last 10 years have not been heeded.
Elsewhere we look at how the brutal Islamic State murder of a respected Palmyra antiquarian has united Syrians in disgust. In Lebanon, a wave of popular discontent has been triggered by piles of uncollected rubbish. In India, an Agra cafe collective is offering hope to women whose lives have been blighted by acid attacks.
Ten years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, we visit New Orleans where investment is returning but life for many is still far from normal. In Finance, the Washington Post examines how European firms are flocking to do business in Iran after a nuclear deal that still largely excludes US companies from joining the party. In Comment, former Washington correspondent Mary Dejevsky provocatively asks whether Hillary Clinton should step aside from the Democratic presidential candidacy in favour of a runner with less baggage.
The Weekly Review gives us a fascinating glimpse into the workings of the Vatican bank and the pope’s efforts to clean it up. Le Monde explains how France is hoping to add more fizz to its wine-tourism industry. The Washington Post asks whether the professional image of dentistry could do with a polish.
On our Discovery pages, we meet some of the young female computer coders hoping to shape the future of the US tech industry. The Books pages considers revolution, from Egypt to Syria. Culture has an interview with exiled Iranian film director Mohsen Makhmalbaf.
Notes & Queries embarks on an even more abstract tangent than usual this week, pondering why more of its regular contributors don’t appear in the Good To Meet You column below. (I’m pleased to say a few of them have taken the bait so watch that space in the coming weeks!)
In Mind and Relationships, Oliver Burkeman asks what exactly is an emotion, while in this season of examination results for many students, the What I’m Really Thinking column reveals the honest views of a student advisor.
On the back page, Simon Jenkins laments the demise of cursive handwriting as an art form. Judging by the healthy number of handwritten letters we still receive from readers, I’m imagining many of you will agree.
I hope you enjoy the edition and warmly welcome your immaculately crafted handwritten thoughts on it, although for the more pragmatic among you a simple email will do just as well.
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