In Britain, it can feel like everything revolves around the country’s inability to decide how to remove itself from the European Union. But Weekly readers will know the shenanigans in Westminster are merely a humorous sideshow to the rest of the planet. After this week’s Big Story on Theresa May’s vote that never was (and the challenge she faced following it) on page 10, we begin our review of the year’s other key events.
There was a seismic election in Brazil and the world struggled to get a grip on climate change – but, as Simon Tisdall writes, the year was once more dominated by the ill-qualified occupant of the Oval Office. Donald Trump, along with partner in alleged crime Vladimir Putin (and others), conspired to make this the year of the autocrat, says Tisdall, and the power of Trump and his cohort has led to a global rupture. Can anything be done?
That may be a question for 2019 and, from page 22, some of the Guardian’s international correspondents look at the key events that the next year will bring and ask how they will reshape our already pressurised world.
The news in 2018 was, as ever, expertly captured by the astonishingly talented, and often astonishingly brave, photographers at the world’s news agencies. Almost all of the photographs in the Guardian Weekly come from staff out in the field for Getty, AFP, AP and others. To acknowledge their brilliance, the Guardian’s picture editors name an annual shortlist of the best agency photographers from the thousands who provide images to the world’s press. We’re proud to present the best of their work here – and to announce an overall winner.
Every year our colleagues on the Observer produce a wonderful tribute to the people we lost in the preceding year. This year’s includes memories of Aretha Franklin by Arista founder Clive Davis and of Stephen Hawking by his research student Bernard Carr. You can read those pieces as well as tributes to Anthony Bourdain, Kofi Annan, Ursula K Le Guin and Tom Wolfe. Then, we round off our end-of-year special with the Guardian critics’ picks of the best film, art, TV and pop albums.
Finally, a bit of Christmas housekeeping. We’ve improved the way in which you can buy a loved one a subscription to the Weekly. Truly, the gift that keeps on giving … For more information on how to introduce others to the world of the Weekly, please click here.
We’re back in the first week of January. Have a happy new year from all the team at the Guardian Weekly.
Subscribe to The Guardian Weekly
