Welcome to our ninth issue, which features a new format.

In our first eight numbers, we ran the full text of a collection of daily posts at length. The idea was the different posts would appear in the form of a newsweekly, with lighter news followed by more detailed reporting and essays, followed by fiction or a light essay. It was an effort to apply a print-journalism style onto a website.

Here in the ninth issue, we’re trying something different — we’re excerpting the stories that comprise this week’s issue and we’ve provided links for you, which will allow easy access to any stories you’d like to read. We still have our same general order of stories but this new format is much lighter.

We hope you enjoy this new approach.

This week’s number is all about the intersection of a family’s life in East London with eurozone finances, the death of an influential artist some 3,000 miles away, and chance ‘meetings’ with Barack Obama, David Cameron and Nick Clegg, while in the company of a toaster and hairdryer.

Thanks for reading.

- Matt

Greek, bat terrors

LONDON — This week in a flat in east London a young boy expressed his dislike for a bat costume and the prime minister of Greece faced a vote of confidence that sent trembles across the global economy.

Ball clears fence for the first time

LONDON — A two-year-old boy in east London threw a ball over the fence in his garden. This was the first time the young man successfully propelled his football over the barrier.

‘Ball gone’, the two-year-old said. ‘All gone now’.

Bob Cassilly, sculptor, is dead at 61

One of our favourite artists, Bob Cassilly, was killed in an apparent bulldozer accident at his Cementland project in late September. He was 61 years old.

Take me to your leaders

‘This is going to be great’, I told Nigel (the toaster) and Declan (the hairdryer). ‘I can’t wait to introduce you guys to the president.’

‘It’s going to be a real honour’, Nigel said. ‘I haven’t met a world leader. Maybe he’ll let me make him a piece of toast.’

Mr Punch v Hitler

Adolf Hitler was dazed with concussion when a child tightened a string of sausages around his neck, then Hitler was thrown over the balcony and hanged… .