Sometimes, without planning, an issue can start to take a particular geographical focus, and that's certainly the case this week with Latin America. Damian Carrington the Guardian's head of environment, has been visiting the Amazon to look into the impact the first bridge across the great river system.
His overview piece leads the review section, and there's also an analysis of Brazil's hopes to revamp economic theory. It wants to develop a "natural knowledge economy". But it's also developing gas and oil fields, something that perhaps sits uncomfortably with that approach.
Elsewhere in South America, we look at the changing view of the "war on drugs" - even one of its leaders, President Felipe Calderon of Mexico, is apparently having second thoughts, at least when it comes to marijuana.
We're also visiting Colombia, to look at the legacy of president Alvaro Uribe, who has just stood down after eight years in office. Now, we find, when a truckdriver sees an empty road, he no longer thinks "guerrilla roadblock". But there's plenty of conflict rearing up in Ecuador, at least within the Correa family. The president's brother, Fabricio, has just launched a new political party to challenge Rafael, and said he may run for the post in 2013.
For August, when much of the northern hemisphere goes on holiday, it has been a big news week, but sadly little of it has been good. Pakistan's tide of flood misery shows no signs of easing, and it is estimated that nearly 14m people have now been affected; Moscow's death rate is now double the usual as a result of a massive heatwave and associated fires and air pollution; a group of 10 aid workers were killed in Afghanistan; and the climate talks in Bonn went so badly there are fears that not only will there be no deal in Cancun in December, even South Africa in 2011 might be out of reach.
Looking around for positive news it is rather thin on the ground, and Kenya was definitely the standout. A peaceful referendum there saw strong support for political reforms that, if implemented, could, observers say, make a significant difference. There was also agreement from Ecuador to protect an oil-rich Amazon reserve in return for cash payments from donor countries, philanthropists and individuals around the world.
On the cultural side, a review from our sister paper Le Monde has put the Routes d'Arabie exhibition at the Louvre, which focuses on Saudi Arabia's pre-Islamic past, on my "must-see" list, and as usual the book pages could hit my budget hard - Ursula K Le Guin's review of Jose Saramago's The Elephant's Journey has put that into my must-read pile.
Quote of the week: "Capitalism is still the only game in town." Sir John Gieve, former deputy governor of the Bank of England, reflecting on the three years since the start of the credit crunch.
Fact of the week: Britons eat 29m boxes of Coco Pops every year.
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