It sounds more like a James Bond plot than an item for international discussion, but there’s no doubt that China’s construction and development of artificial islands in the South China Sea has all the elements of a full-blown crisis in the making. As Emma Graham-Harrison finds in our cover story, unease is growing over what is widely viewed as an oceanic grab through which China can lay claim to untapped oil and gas deposits. But in the face of conflicting claims and Chinese intransigence, it remains to be seen what the world can do about a frontline that is literally being dredged out of the deep blue sea.
It’s been another tumultuous week for Fifa, the world football governing body that likes to shrug off corruption allegations like Lionel Messi slaloming past defenders. Now that the FBI is involved, however, have the goalposts moved? Fifa’s president Sepp Blatter may now have resigned – or more accurately, announced his plans to eventually resign – but, rather like Messi, this is a story set to run and run.
As you’d expect, this week’s edition has fascinating and far-reaching stories from around the world. From the US there’s an explainer about significant reforms to government surveillance powers that are set to become law as aspects of the Bush-era Patriot Act expire. From Africa comes a good news wildlife story for a change, charting new life in Botswana’s Okavango Delta. From Yemen, the Washington Post reports on the war-torn country’s healthcare system on the verge of collapse. And from the world of science, news of a cancer research breakthrough that it is hoped will revolutionise the treatment of tumours.
In the UK, David Cameron has been touting Britain’s shopping list for EU reforms around the continent with varying degrees of interest. And we look back at the new Conservative government’s policy pledges as outlined in the Queen’s speech to parliament.
In the longer-read Review section there’s a moving human account of South Africa’s infamous Marikana mine massacre, following the story of a striking miner to its needlessly tragic conclusion. Our partner publication Le Monde strolls down the luxurious fairways of China to find out why golf is losing its gloss among the country’s nouveau riche. And our Discovery pages examine an unexpected consequence of California’s drought: a surge in demand for artificial lawn turf.
On a tangential note, football’s Women’s World Cup kicks off this week in Canada amid some disgruntlement from participants that the tournament is to be used by Fifa (yes, them again) as a guinea pig event for artificial playing surfaces. Even so, as Guardian sportswriter Anna Kessel points out in our preview, there’s no doubting that women’s football is on the crest of a wave – we’ll be keeping up with all the action from Canada in the Weekly.
(For our many New Zealand readers, meanwhile, a sporting apology: news of the cricket side’s heroics against England at Headingley came just too late for our print edition, so catch up with all the Guardian coverage and reaction on our website here).
Never ones to shirk life’s weightier issues, the Notes & Queries community considers appropriate measures for that moment when all hope is lost, while Good to Meet You catches up with another of our many readers who first came across the Weekly during their wanderlust years.
Incidentally we’re still asking Weekly readers to send in photographs of life around the world to the GuardianWitness 365 project - you can do so by clicking here, and we’ll print the best in the paper’s Eyewitnessed photo spread each week.
The Weekly strives to capture what’s happening around the world in each edition, but I doubt anyone could offer a wider global perspective than that as seen through the eyes of our globetrotting readership. Long may that continue. Thanks for reading and as ever, I welcome your comments on the edition.
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