The Guardian Weekly’s big production day fell on 1 January this week but printing presses are strangely unsentimental about such inconvenient practicalities. So it was that the Weekly team was busy at work in London before the first choruses of Auld Lang Syne had even begun to ring out on the American west coast.
Commuting to work on New Year’s Day is a pleasingly disorienting experience, even discounting the strong possibility of a groggy head. There’s a sense of time suspended as you pass the last of the previous night’s revellers winding their way slowly in the other direction.
The news often has a contemplative feel to it at this time of year, too. Inside the paper we take a look at the tribulations set to face British prime minister Theresa May in 2018, as well as what the world can expect from the second year of Donald Trump’s US presidency.
Our cover story, however, takes us to Iran and the sudden emergence of angry street protests against the government. As the Guardian’s Iran correspondent Saeed Kamali Dehghan reflects, the country’s complex social and political systems mean the causes of the discontent are far from unified, but appear have been triggered by economic stagnation and rising food prices. Inside the paper, Simon Tisdall puts a broad regional analysis on events, explaining why Iran’s enemies should remain cautious about the possibility of regime change.
There’s a thread concerned with drugs policy running through the edition. As California becomes the latest US state to legalise recreational marijuana use, we hear also from Mexico, where high narcotics demand in the US has contributed to the deadliest crime year in recent Mexican history. Then the Weekly Review takes us to Portugal, where a pioneering drugs policy programme is producing startling results.
In Culture the legendary actor Jodie Foster explains why she was drawn to direct an episode of the dystopian television series Black Mirror for Netflix. We also hear from the artist Hannah Ryggen, who found an unlikely outlet for her political views in the weft and warp of tapestry weaving.
Sport looks back at some of the unsung heroes of last year, while the back page sees a return for George Monbiot, who ruminates on the damage done to the environment by our selective blindness to many issues.
The passing of another year edges the Guardian Weekly closer to a significant milestone in its history. It was almost 99 years ago, in July 1919, that the paper was founded, following the Versailles treaty that settled the peace terms of the first world war. Those were deeply uncertain social and political times for the world, as indeed they are again today. But that’s an anniversary for next year!
Thank you for your continued subscription to the Weekly, and I hope the coming year brings peace and contentment. Please do email me with any comments you may have on the edition.
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