This week our international news magazine considers how we even begin to process a period of such rapid and phenomenal global change. For home delivery, click here
Here in the United Kingdom we are – we hope – in the midst of the worst stages of the coronavirus outbreak. For some countries, the worst may be beginning to pass; for others, things may be about to darken further. The uncertainty is almost as discomfiting as our fears of the illness. Since the Weekly carried its first small report on the novel coronavirus on 10 January (“Respiratory contagion is not Sars, authorities say”) the world has changed in ways that few could have imagined possible.
Last week the Guardian ran a fascinating series of articles on the 100 days in which Covid-19 went from a small flicker in the world’s consciousness to the defining crisis of a generation. We’re pleased to feature a selection of them in this week’s edition of the Weekly. We begin with Jonathan Freedland’s analysis of how the disaster has unfolded in the UK and around the world – a change so fast we can barely grasp its scale. Our global environment editor Jonathan Watts considers the low-carbon, wildlife-friendly state we find ourselves in – and asks if we can find a way to make it last. Then, Guardian economics editor Larry Elliott looks at the speed in which the global economy was ravaged by the virus, and diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour considers the geopolitical winners and losers from the crisis.
