Summertime (for those in the northern hemisphere) and the living is easy … that’s the theory anyway, as politicians traditionally head to their holiday retreats and the news simmers down for a few weeks.
Could someone please explain this to Donald Trump? By Monday evening here at the Guardian Weekly, we thought – thanks largely to a supreme Observer analysis from David Smith – we had hoovered up a week that went beyond the pale even by the president’s standards. Then came the sacking of new communications supremo Anthony Scaramucci. Sometimes it feels like Trump is trying to catch us all out. Luckily the Weekly was well up to the challenge!
Away from the White House circus, and on our cover this week, a very different story is unfolding in Greece, where an eight-year-long debt crisis has plunged 15% of the population into extreme poverty. As Helena Smith reports, it’s no surprise that the recent claim by prime minister Alexis Tsipras that the country has turned a corner is not taken at face value by many Greeks.
Travelling a little to the north, we meet Serbia’s fascinating new prime minister Ana Brnabić, who hopes to become known less for being female and gay, and more for her efforts to modernise her country’s image and improve its standing between the overlapping spheres of east and west.
In Venezuela, a controversial assembly election is being seen as a step towards dictatorship by president Nicolás Maduro. In the Asia Pacific, North Korea’s latest ballistic missile test has raised tensions from Tokyo to Washington.
There’s also news coverage from Europe, the Middle East and South Asia, where Pakistan anticipates a change of prime minister this week.
You’ll also find a spread of coverage on children of war, as two of the Guardian’s most distinguished correspondents – Jason Burke and Martin Chulov – file from South Sudan and Iraq, respectively, on the plight of juveniles caught up in different aspects of conflict. It’s powerful reading on a distressing topic, but one that none of us can afford to ignore.
In the UK a government plan to improve air quality has been met with a hail of criticism. New data, meanwhile, reveals the rapid expansion of fast food takeaways in the poorest areas of the country.
A fascinating long read awaits in the Weekly review, where Cambridge politics professor David Runciman charts the rise of doubt and cynicism above facts and truth, and ponders what can be done to reverse this alarming trend.
Discovery delves into a newly found horde of artefacts that pushes back the origins of Aboriginal history in Australia. Culture looks at the new breed of superstar stand-up comedians emerging from the US. Reviews has high praise for Christopher Nolan’s immersive new second world war epic movie, Dunkirk.
On the back page there’s a poignant reflection on Charlie Gard by Ian Birrell who, as the father of a child with a rare condition, reminds us there can be no winners in such a case. Amid all the moral and ethical dilemmas, I found this such an honest and moving distillation of the issues surrounding Charlie’s short life.
Thank you again for your subscription to the Weekly, which goes directly towards safeguarding the Guardian’s award-winning journalism. I hope you enjoy the edition and welcome your thoughts on it, which you can email to me here.
