For more than a week, towns and cities across England and Northern Ireland have been rocked by riots. The far-right thugs who have attacked police, residents and their property claimed, initially, to have been roused to their destructive actions by the killing of three girls in Southport, Merseyside. But as northern editor and reporter Josh Halliday and Robyn Vinter explain on a visit to the usually quiet and friendly seaside town, that was a blatantly false excuse inflamed by online disinformation.
Our big story also examines how the violence has spread and what the government and police are doing to deal with the rioters. And Sunder Katwala, director of the thinktank British Future, deconstructs the narrative spread by the populist right of a broken society. This warping of public sentiment “should not be countered by government alone. How the rest of us talk and act can make a difference,” he writes.
As dozens of perpetrators, including a 14-year-old boy, go before the courts and the government vows that all will face charges, it has been a difficult week, though this issue does also include stories from Ukraine and Thailand of citizens working for the good of their homelands.
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Five essential reads in this week’s edition
1
Spotlight | Can war across the Middle East be averted?
Veteran Observer foreign affairs commentator Simon Tisdall takes the temperature in hotspots from Tehran to Baghad and looks at their motivations for pursuing peace or an all-out regional conflict.
2
Spotlight | Dear Evan Gershkovich
Pjotr Sauer on how weekly letters to the Wall Street journalist imprisoned by Vladimir Putin kept hope alive for his friend’s eventual release.
3
Environment | Monks on a mission
The clean up of Bangkok’s Chao Praya River is being led by the abbot of a riverside monastery and his plastic-munching recycling boat, reports Claire Turrell.
4
Opinion | Catherine Bennett on the power of ‘weird’
How the Democrats are deploying a novel insult that so far is proving uncomfortable kryptonite against some of diatribes levelled at Kamala Harris by Donald Trump and his running-mate, JD Vance.
5
Culture | Human shields
From the murder of Tupac Shakur in the 1990s to stories of other rappers being shot, a bodyguard is a necessity for many hip-hop stars. Thomas Hobbs finds out just how dangerous the job can be.
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What else we’ve been reading
Edna O’Brien, who died last month, gained fame and accolades for portraying the complicated lives of people, particularly women, and the repressive regimes that confronted them – from her native Ireland to the kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls in Chibok, Nigeria. In this piece, O’Brien is warmly remembered by Ed Vulliamy, whom she met while researching Little Red Chairs, a novel based around the Balkan war. Neil Willis, production editor
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Other highlights from the Guardian website
• Audio | Secrets of ageing: making our last years count – podcast
• Video | How Noah Lyles won gold: the closest 100m dash in history explained
• Gallery | Totally bananas! Gian Paolo Barbieri’s wild fashion shoots
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