Sometimes Weekly’s readers see things with the greatest clarity. As one longtime GW subscriber wrote to me last week, it feels recently like newspapers have served up a diet of dire news, with one atrocity pushing the next off the news pages.
How best to balance things out?
This week’s edition should help, at least a little. Our cover story considers (not bombs, death or destruction) whether technology can reboot Africa. With mobile phone and web penetration soaring, Africa is set for the “fourth industrial revolution”, argues this article. Reporters on the ground in Kigali and Nairobi find challenges from infrastructure and a lack of expertise. But they also find Africans keen to embrace the future.
Inside the edition, we make best use of parent paper the Guardian and partners Le Monde and the Washington Post to contextualise and analyse recent atrocities in Germany and France, as well as a political purge in Turkey.
From the US, Jonathan Freedland recounts a week in the world of Donald Trump, as Republicans confirm their candidate for president. Watch next week’s edition for analysis and commentary on the Democratic party’s own meeting, which was under way as we went to press. Of course, there will be much more news and analysis of American politics in the run-up to the November election.
There’s upbeat news, too, as China reaches peak coal, with benefits to come for the global environment, and scientists chart the brain in the greatest detail ever. In Italy, meanwhile, the new mayor of Turin is set to champion vegetarian and vegan diets.
In the aftermath of Britain’s referendum to leave the European Union, we take an extended look at Europe after Brexit. A bit of summer silliness also slips in: English Heritage wants jousting to become an Olympic sport, possibly in time for the Tokyo 2020 Games.
The Comment section is deep and engaging, taking on Trump, Turkey and the new British prime minister, Theresa May. Also this week, we were left reeling by news that the VCR will be no more. The Comment pages hit the pause button to reflect.
Review reports on political and social concerns in Canada’s far north, the mess of mining in Australia and junk food in India. Weekly gets around!
There’s a tasty offering of dance, weaving, film and theatre on our Culture pages. Shortcuts, Ethical living and the puzzles pages also provide worthy distractions. I would like to highlight Oliver Burkeman’s column this edition on how to beat anxious thoughts that disrupt easy sleep. If you need some joy, lightness or gentle advice, please do turn to these pages first!
The GW reader who wrote to me about the troubling state of world affairs suggested that I ask readers for their good news stories. It’s certainly something I’ll consider! (Thanks, Margaret.)
Until then, why not contribute to our Notes & Queries column, which asks: we all know what’s wrong with the world, but what’s right with it? Answers can be submitted by clicking here, or dropping a line to weekly.nandq@theguardian.com.
Whether it’s a quiet moment with Nature watch, a smile from Shortcuts or the challenge of our chess column, Weekly offers some respite. Please do email to tell me how we did this week. The world these days seems a daunting place. Let’s stick together, and look for those rays of light.
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