China

The great untangling: inside the 24 July edition of the Guardian Weekly


The west’s relationship with China is changing rapidly. The last few weeks have seen a new security law in Hong Kong, more footage of mistreatment of Uighurs in north-western China and increased fears over Chinese technology. On Monday, the UK announced the end of an extradition policy with Hong Kong and banned the export of riot control equipment following the imposition of the security law. These moves came after the announcement that Huawei would be removed from the UK’s 5G infrastructure. Some politicians in the UK want to go even further – but can Britain really untangle itself from this complicated relationship?

After four days of brutal negotiations, on Tuesday morning EU leaders finally agreed a deal for a Covid-19 recovery fund. Our Brussels team report on the significance of the deal. Before that, we feature a special investigation by Daniel Boffey, alongside reporters from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, into the bloc’s initial response to the crisis. We reveal how early warnings about the dangers of the coronavirus were ignored and that when Italy put in a desperate plea for help on 26 February, there was silence from its neighbours. What lessons has the European commission learned?

Alongside bad Covid-19 news from around the world – and especially in the US (see p30) – there were a few signs of hope this week. Health editor Sarah Boseley reports on the news that the vaccine from the team at Oxford University has shown promising early results and is creating an immune response in patients. Further trials are still needed, but if it – and another vaccine from China at the same stage of testing – are successful, we could be a matter of months away from the start of a vaccine rollout.

This week’s edition also features reports from Barcelona and Venice on how tourism can be reconfigured post-Covid-19, and we pay tribute to John Lewis, the US civil rights icon, who died last week. Ed Cumming tells the story of the Nespresso pod – how it changed global coffee culture and how it’s now being overtaken by rivals and environmental concerns. Thomas Meaney goes on the road with the editor of Bild, the German tabloid that sets the national agenda and, in culture, Laura Snapes meets the recently renamed Chicks, and asks why they dropped the word “Dixie” from their name.

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