Last week’s email musings about bolder front covers on the Guardian Weekly resulted in a bumper inbox of correspondence, for which many thanks. If I could summarise your views thus, they would be to give a broad thumbs up to more visual designs, but perhaps not every week, and to ensure that the text remains legible. Wise advice!
Back to this week’s edition of the paper, which features a feast of election coverage from around the world. In Germany, chancellor Angela Merkel won a fourth term in office but saw the far-right populist AfD party make significant gains. On the other side of the world there was electoral stalemate in New Zealand, where Bill English’s National party looked likeliest to form a coalition government after Labour’s great hope Jacinda Ardern fell short.
Our cover story this week focuses on Spain, ahead of this weekend’s deeply controversial referendum on Catalan separatism. With allegations of political posturing over national interest and fears for the wider impact on the country, Emma Graham-Harrison reports on the sadness and frustration felt by many Spaniards.
We report from Kirkuk in Iraq, where Kurdish citizens held an independence vote despite considerable international urgings to the contrary. And from Australia, where a postal ballot on gay marriage rights is being seen as a barometer for liberal attitudes generally across the nation.
On the Finance page we examine the wider prospects for taxi app firm Uber, which has lost its trading licence in London due to a poor corporate responsibility record. Elsewhere in the UK we look at the ramifications of Theresa May’s request for a two-year extension to the Brexit process. And as the Labour party holds its annual conference, we hear from its galvanised leader Jeremy Corbyn on why he believes his party represents the mainstream of British politics.
The Weekly Review leads with a powerful long read from Richard Lloyd Parry about the Japanese school that failed to escape the clutches of the 2011 tsunami. I have to admit, this account of the brief passing of minutes from the earthquake siren to the moment the wave struck left me feeling helpless, heartbroken and angry.
Our Book reviews catch up with Hillary Clinton’s memoirs of the 2016 US election campaign and struggle to sympathise with the Democratic nominee’s recollection of events. The Culture pages report from Cape Town, where a lavish new waterfront art gallery has divided opinion and shone a light on the country’s stark divisions. And there’s a fascinating catch-up with the veteran US documentary maker Ken Burns, whose epic new televisual history of the Vietnam war has drawn praise from across the political spectrum.
From an editor’s point of view, it was one of those weeks in which so much seemed to be going on that I woke up in the night worrying I’d forgotten something important. Having checked again, I’m pretty sure it’s all in there, but as ever I look forward to reading your views on the edition.
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