When we think of Europe’s migrant crisis, much of our attention understandably focuses on Mediterranean sea crossings from North Africa. But the Guardian Weekly’s big story this week casts light on another deadly route, from Africa’s western coast to the Spanish Atlantic territory of the Canary Islands. While official death rates are comparatively low, concerns are growing that undocumented fatalities on this extremely dangerous crossing could be many times higher. Sam Jones reports from Gran Canaria.
As extreme weather-fuelled wildfires continued to blaze in several parts of the world this week, a major new report from hundreds of top scientists laid bare the severe extent of our damage to the Earth’s climate and the disaster looming if the slim chance to avert global heating above 1.5C is not grasped. Environment editor Damian Carrington analyses what the IPCC report means, while on our Opinion pages, the UK government’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, warns starkly that only a complete transformation of our societies can now arrest the warming process.
English boarding schools such as Eton and Harrow are famed for producing leaders and captains of industry worldwide. But what are the emotional scars of family separation at such a young age? Author Richard Beard, who passed through the system at around the same time as UK prime minister Boris Johnson, explains why such institutions are the last places we should be looking for our future leaders.
And if you’ve got this far without checking your social media account, or watching a video of a footballing bear, well done. But if you’ve ever wondered why you feel increasingly distracted, Oliver Burkeman’s long read on the online “attention economy”, and what we can do to combat it, is likely to resonate with you.
