The format of France’s presidential elections could have been engineered for primetime: a first-round dance-off followed by the winner-takes-all final two weeks later. The audience – sorry, voters – have boiled it down to the final two: the centrist, independent pro-EU candidate Emmanuel Macron, and the far-right populist, anti-immigration tub-thumper Marine Le Pen.
But the light entertainment parallel stops there. This election is a battle for a bitterly divided French nation and, perhaps, something much wider: for openness against insularity; for hope over darkness. Macron may have the endorsement of most of Le Pen’s defeated opponents but, as both Angelique Chrisafis on the Guardian Weekly cover and Natalie Nougayrède inside the paper point out, the centre candidate’s job is far from over in what promises to be a brutal lead-up to France’s final vote on 7 May.
By recent standards it was an averagely tense week in Trumpworld, with continuing friction over North Korea’s nuclear weapons testing programme, sabre-rattling with Iran and, closer to home, renewed talk of a trade dispute with Canada that many hoped had been put to bed. We bring you up to speed.
Talking of Canada, do check out our Weekly Review feature (courtesy of our partner publication the Washington Post) about Cape Breton, the remote Nova Scotian island offering a safe haven to those wishing to escape from Trump’s America. An interesting reflection of the possibilities, pitfalls and humdrum realities of migration.
Elsewhere in the paper there’s compelling reportage from the Philippines, the Himalayas, Somalia and Belarus, to highlight but a few.
Meanwhile, on the UK pages, we get you up to speed with the UK’s snap general election, called for 8 June. Prime minister Theresa May has a fearsome lead over Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn in the polls, but as political analyst Rob Ford discusses in a fascinating piece, national voter divisions over Brexit could yet play a significant part in the outcome.
As more damaging evidence of NO2 air pollution comes to light, we ask whether time’s up for diesel, the fuel once thought of as an environmentally friendly choice. In Discovery, there’s a look at the social and health benefits of rowing, for older women in particular.
In Culture I enjoyed learning more about Lena Dunham, the very talented creator of the TV series Girls, as she moves on to new projects. Sport pays tribute to Serena Williams who, it now transpires, won the Australian Open this year while pregnant.
On the back page, environmental journalist Simon Fairlie poses an interesting question: as meat increasingly comes to be seen as a luxury food, should we start taxing it accordingly? Let us know your views on this – or any other issues raised in the edition – with a letter for consideration on our Reply page.
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