There was something of a knife-edge feel to the news this week. Months of apprehension over the outcome of the US election seemed to have given way to discussion about how comprehensively, rather than if, Hillary Clinton will win the presidential vote on 8 November. (Though I suspect few of us who witnessed the Brexit vote earlier this year will entirely trust the polls until the results are in.)
In Calais, meanwhile, thousands of refugees and migrants boarded buses destined for other parts of France as the port’s infamous Jungle camp was due to be demolished. And a short distance to the east, in Brussels, representatives of the EU and Canada agonised over a bilateral trade deal, seven years in the negotiating, which looked like it might be completely derailed by a Belgian province over concerns about the market for pork products.
In Iraq, where an uneasy alliance of regional factions advanced on the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, there was also a feeling of distraction, as though all parties were already contemplating battles to come rather than those at hand. Our cover story this week concerns one such force, the Kurdish fighters known as the peshmerga, who have returned to reclaim the lands they lost to Isis two years ago and who now dream of building their own nation state in fragile northern Iraq. From outside Mosul, Martin Chulov reports.
In Nigeria, a controversial music video shone a revealing light on growing cultural tensions between the country’s Muslim and Christian populations. There’s better news from Kenya, which is making strong progress in enabling better lives for its young people, but less encouraging dispatches from Ethiopia and Venezuela, where respective governments have been flexing their muscles to suppress citizens’ protests.
Elsewhere we visit Gibraltar, the British financial services enclave that faces an uncertain future after Brexit. And from the UK a Guardian investigation has resulted in a tax office investigation into the rights of vulnerable workers employed in the so-called gig economy.
The Weekly Review hears from Mexico, where a trio of female rap musicians are spearheading a popular fightback against a wave of violent crimes against women. We get down and muddy at an Australian country truck festival, and hear about the Arctic cities where melting permafrost is structurally undermining many buildings.
Culture has an interview with the willowy Australian actor Elizabeth Debicki, on the fast track to prominence after having stolen the show in the recent BBC TV adaptation of John Le Carre’s The Night Manager. There’s also a revealing glimpse of the unexpectedly eclectic architecture of Tehran.
Rugby league aficionados (I know there will be many of you among our southern hemisphere readers) may enjoy an interview on our Sports pages with England captain Sam Burgess, a star of the game’s Australian NRL competition.
To round things off, Gaby Hinsliff laments the demise of good old-fashioned cash in favour of ubiquitous digital payments. In fact, when all’s added up, I’d be willing to wager a small sum that you’ll find this week’s paper another compelling read. If only I had any cash in my wallet ...
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