The body politic / Albo’s opportunity: inside the 13 May Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly has a split cover this week, depending on where you pick up your copy.

In Australia, a federal election on 20 May is fast approaching. The Labor leader Anthony Albanese has a genuine chance of becoming prime minister – but after years of brash leadership, is the country ready to take a punt on his more reasoned style? For our Australian edition, Katharine Murphy profiles the man hoping to talk Australia around.

Elsewhere, the Weekly’s cover focuses on the struggle for abortion rights in the US. A leaked draft suggesting the US supreme court is about to overturn the landmark Roe v Wade ruling caused fury in much of the country.

“I wanted to show the anguish I, or any other woman or teenager for that matter, would feel if the sudden overturning of a law would risk my freedom to choose wether to welcome or end a pregnancy,” says Anna Parini, an Italian illustrator based in Barcelona, of her artwork for this edition.

With polls showing around two-thirds of Americans opposing such a move, critics point to the Trump-era weighting of the court with conservative judges, along with voter suppression tactics in many states, as levers in a long-planned plot to implement Republican minority rule across the US. Washington bureau chief David Smith surveys the lines for a coming battle that could tear the country apart, while Guardian US columnist Rebecca Solnit lays out a Democratic blueprint for resistance.

Russia’s Victory Day parade passed without any significant new announcements from Vladimir Putin. Shaun Walker considers the significance of the day in the Russian psyche, and how Putin has warped its meaning to bolster his own rule. Then, Emma Graham-Harrison hears stories of hardship, survival and relief from evacuees from the last civilian bunker in Mariupol’s Azovstal steelworks.

Our features pages this week contain long reads about the mission of Nato and the wonders of soil. Culture catches up with Jarvis Cocker, the former Pulp frontman, who has delved into his box of memories for a new book. And there’s a look at how Disney, once a bastion of conservative American values, became a trailblazer for LGBTQ+ rights, much to the annoyance of the US right.

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