The news this week featured some pretty enormous moving targets, of the type that can present challenges for a newspaper trying to take a weekly snapshot of the world.
One such story, featured on the Guardian Weekly’s cover this week, relates to a spate of diplomatic chaos fuelled by Donald Trump’s Twitter activity. In a week when his tweets seemed to turn increasingly shrill and unpredictable, even some of the US president’s closest confidants were wondering whether his weaponised social media rants may be leading him into dangerous waters, as David Smith reports from Washington.
The other big unknown concerned the direction of the UK’s talks with the EU over Brexit, as prime minister Theresa May’s Northern Irish Unionist coalition partners vetoed progress over the critical Irish border issue. With a key EU summit looming next week, it remained to be seen whether May could bring the disparate factions into line, but if nothing else Monday’s chaos represented a diplomatic humiliation for the British government.
In the paper there’s coverage from Nepal, where the nation is voting for the first time since 2006, and from Argentina, as the first convictions over notorious junta-era “death flights” are announced. Elsewhere we report on the superstar fashion designer Stella McCartney’s harsh – and some would say well overdue – words for her own industry and its systemic culture of environmental waste. There’s also a special feature on growing media repression around the world, as a new report highlights diminishing global freedom of speech.
The standout piece for me this week, however, is our Weekly Review long read about the final battle for Mosul. As the last Islamic State fighters were flushed out of the besieged ruins, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad writes compellingly on the unconscionable savagery on the ground that accompanied the final push for victory in the Iraqi city.
Rugby League is a game that people tend to know either a great deal or nothing whatsoever about, but its World Cup final last week – won by Australia – was a minor classic, as we reveal on our Sports pages. We also bring you up to speed with the draw for next year’s football World Cup in Russia.
As an increasingly frantic holiday season approaches for many of us, Zoe Williams rounds off the edition with some thoughts on politely resisting unwanted invitations at this time of year.
At the Weekly, the team is beginning to turn some of its attention to our special holiday double edition, which will be dated 22 December and which is shaping up to be a cracker. For now though, thank you for subscribing – if you have any thoughts on the current edition, please do let me know.
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