When I woke up on Friday morning, the home screen on my phone was displaying multiple news alerts about the assassination of Shinzo Abe, the former prime minister of Japan. But when I tried to read more, my phone couldn’t connect.

Like millions of others across Canada, I turned my phone on and off, with no effect. Our internet was down too. The nationwide outage of mobile and internet networks that has, thus far, lasted for more than 15 hours. It wasn’t until I listened to a top-of-the-hour news report on an analogue radio that I heard more of the story.

Abe, who was 67, was Japan’s longest serving prime minister. He stepped down from office two years ago, after having served for nearly eight years over several terms, and still wielded power despite not holding office. He was shot during a campaign speech in Nara city, near Kyoto, in advance of Sunday’s Upper House elections. World leaders stepped up to express their disbelief and sadness, calling Abe a defender of democratic values and a brilliant leader.

I had been thinking about leaders — political and otherwise — earlier in the week, as the U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government was collapsing, and in the wake of the testimony by former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

So, for your weekend reading, I’ve included some recent articles about leaders and leadership from across The Conversation’s global network.

I hope you like them. We’ll be back in your inbox on Monday.

All the best.