The April holiday period often brings a lull in the news agenda as politics pauses for a break. On the other hand, it can also create welcome space in the schedules for a more in-depth look at lesser-reported parts of the world.
So it is that this week’s Guardian Weekly cover story reports from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where a conflation of tribal and political violence is causing starvation and disease among citizens and has raised fears that the country is lurching back towards civil war. Africa correspondent Jason Burke reports on a seemingly endless cycle of violence and turmoil.
Inside the paper we catch up with a traumatic weekend of violence from the Gaza frontier, more fallout from the Salisbury poisonings as Russia expels western diplomats, and a look ahead to this weekend’s Hungarian election, in which migration has been a key campaign issue for prime minister Victor Orbán.
There’s reflection from South Africa on the legacy of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who died this week, and more heartening news from a Mumbai beach that has been transformed from a local dump into a turtle hatchery.
With less than a year to go before Britain exits the European Union, we take a special look at how the politicians’ Brexit promises are shaping up in reality (spoiler alert: not that well). In Finance, there’s a look at how the Australian retailer Bunnings’s takeover of a leading British DIY chain has become a costly botched job.
Our Weekly Review long read looks at how liberal democracy can weather the storm of populist politics. Our outgoing Beijing correspondent Tom Phillips wraps up his thoughts on leaving China, and we also take in the inspiring story of Iran’s female weightlifters as they take on the country’s patriarchy.
Elsewhere there’s a Discovery look at human microbiomes, Book reviews about the history of factory work and a Culture interview with Gwenno Saunders, maker of what may be the world’s first Cornish-language concept album.
It can be an odd feeling working over the holidays, when few office workers are around and the sandwich shops are all shut. Luckily we were able to compensate with quite a lot of leftover Easter chocolate. If you marked a holiday this week, I hope it was a peaceful one.
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