We're all addicted to oil, writes James Buchan in this week's cover story, and it could be the death of us. James has been writing about the oil industry since the 1970s, and his stunning Special Report is the best analysis of the global energy calamity that I've read. Against our reliance on oil, he explains, other energy sources can have almost no impact - a frightening thought in the context of the Government's energy review, which is the subject of this week's Leader - yet ridding ourselves of the dependency would require us to re-imagine modern life as we know it. The six-page Oil special was edited by Brian Cathcart, our Assistant Editor, and includes an on-the-spot report from Helen Womack in Moscow on how ordinary Russians are reacting to the Russian oil bonanza.
As the pressure mounts on British troops in Afghanistan, journalist Kate Clark has brought us a real scoop. Kate has visited the Taliban heartland of Shah-e-Kot, the first journalist to go there since 2002. Staying with a Taliban commander, she sits down with villagers and fighters to hear their stories and find out what they are fighting for. The answers are not at all what you might expect.
Viv Groskop brings news from a rather different front line - the so-called Mommy Wars. She reveals that the stay-at-home versus working mothers' stand-off, much discussed in the US and British media, is taking a new direction with the emergence of "radical maternal feminism" - in other words, a new political agenda from mothers who want to see real change rather than just the opportunity to moan. And Europe leads the way (though not the UK, lamentably).
Other don't misses: Peter Wilby on the John Prescott sitcom (Media); Ryan Gilbey on Superman (exactly how super is the movie?); and Sadakat Kadri, our resident barrister and "agony uncle" on Changing the Rules - our fortnightly column which answers all your civil liberties dilemmas. Are you responsible if someone else sends you drugs in the post? Sadakat puts you straight.
