Escalating events in Israel and Gaza continued to cause deep distress and alarm, with several thousand people known to be dead or wounded on either side of the border. US president Joe Biden was expected to visit Israel this week, amid growing expectations of a ground invasion of Gaza and fears of a wider regional escalation.
For illustrator Pete Reynolds, the depiction of Israel and the Gaza Strip as shards of splintering glass was an apt visual metaphor for this week’s cover design. “It’s a fortunate coincidence for such an unfortunate story,” says Pete, “but it’s the perfect symbolism of such a fragile state of affairs.”
With the situation still in flux, Guardian and Observer correspondents have pieced together an extended account of the horrifying events that took place during the first week of a conflict that shook the world and may permanently shift the diplomacy of the Middle East. There’s also a primer on the historical background to events by Chris McGreal, while on the opinion pages the Israeli author and historian Yuval Noah Harari and Guardian US columnist Naomi Klein provide thoughtful and grounded perspectives.
There was sadness for many Aboriginal Australians after a move to recognise Indigenous people in the country’s constitution was rejected in a referendum, as Sarah Collard and Elias Visontay report. Also from Oceania, Henry Cooke examines what aspects of Jacinda Ardern’s political legacy might survive after New Zealand elected a new conservative government.
From Egypt to Hong Kong, the 2010s were a decade when mass protest movements looked set to change the world. But in most cases, the hope embodied by many massive street demonstrations was soon crushed by authoritarian regimes. Vincent Bevins asks organisers and others who were there where it all went wrong.
Finally, I felt great affinity with Tim Dowling this week in his stoic efforts to rebuild a garden wall and confusion about trowels. In fact, I’m pretty sure I have a couple myself somewhere that I could have lent him. Another time, perhaps …
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