Onus on community leaders to end child marriages
This shift in the social structure flies in the face of claims of development made by the central and state governments, especially in a progressive state like Karnataka. This gendered development impacts only girls, who are still viewed as a burden until their marriage. It is also a pointer to the fact that more girls are dropping out of school. Being pushed into the role of wife and mother at an immature age plays havoc with their health and stunts their growth as individuals and contributors to society.
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NZ Herald
19 minutes ago
- NZ Herald
Letters: Ministers' comments on teachers unfair and misleading
Teaching is not a nine-to-three job, nor the cushy role politicians describe. It is demanding, professional work requiring dedication, patience, and skill. To minimise teachers' efforts with throwaway lines undermines the profession and the vital contribution we make to New Zealand. Teachers deserve better than being treated as political punching bags. Lyn Jackson, Dargaville. Paying for education I fully support the concept of private schools for many reasons, having attended private schools my entire schooling years before going to university. I came out with a fulfilling educational experience and lifelong friendships with peers and teachers alike. My understanding has always been that private schools were meant to lift some of the burdens off governments, where those who wish to have a 'different' style of education - and not necessarily better – for their offspring, and can afford it, would opt in and pay for that, at the same time providing some relief to the system. Why would these schools have an entitlement to the pot meant for the state schools? Privilege is not a dirty word, 100% true, but government focus and contribution should be directed towards the non-privileged and, even better, to the under-privileged. Selam Raoof, Unsworth Heights. No need for inquiry Demanding that Dame Jacinda Ardern, Chris Hipkins, Grant Robertson and anyone else involved in the matter should turn up to yet another inquiry around how the Covid response was dealt with is pointless. All that was needed to be addressed was at the time of the pandemic and the first inquiry. The presence of any of these people at the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Covid-19 pandemic is neither required nor compulsory. This current situation smacks very much of a coalition Government having run out of resources and ideas of its own, and that feels by exhuming, resuscitating and flogging a long-dead horse, voters will somehow be inspired to vote for them at the next election. My first two questions at any such commission would be: 'How many millions of taxpayer dollars are being wasted to fund this unnecessary project, and how would the coalition have handled the response if they had been in power?' Jeremy Coleman, Hillpark. Lessons to learn It is a rare event when the actions of our politicians are subjected to such intense post facto scrutiny, as currently is the case with Dame Jacinda Ardern and Chris Hipkins for the actions they took during the Covid pandemic. Such is the significance of both the pandemic itself and the political actions of the response that a retrospective study of these events should not be the controversy currently emerging. An apolitical principled examination is entirely appropriate because we must learn from this experience to the benefit of future New Zealanders. Larry Mitchell, Rothesay Bay. Assault on truth According to +972 Magazine, an independent news site run by Israeli and Palestinian journalists, Israel created a special military unit, a so-called 'legitimisation cell', tasked with smearing Palestinian journalists as Hamas fighters. It reports that intelligence sources admit that at least one journalist was falsely labelled a militant, which in Gaza effectively places someone on a death list. He was removed from the target list before he was attacked, according to the report. The outlet +972 Magazine is respected for its investigative journalism and focus on human rights. If these reports are true, this is not about security: it is about silencing the voices that report the reality of Gaza to the world. Over 240 Palestinian journalists have been killed since the war began. Dana A Patterson, Ōneroa. A must-watch championship Oh lordy, lordy, how amazing was that win by the Wallabies over the world champion Springboks, and at Ellis Park, spiritual home of South African rugby! How lucky were the Lions to get the rub of the ref to win the series in Australia? This Rugby Championship is a must-watch for spectacular, world-leading excitement. Gary Carter, Gulf Harbour.
NZ Herald
19 minutes ago
- NZ Herald
Inside the drop in serious youth offenders, and where numbers remain stubbornly high
Documents released to the Herald under the Official Information Act reveal this number was actually lower in January (934, or a 14% reduction) before rising slightly in February. This was the first monthly increase since the middle of last year, but by such a tiny amount (less than 1%) that there's no suggestion of a trend reversal. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has repeatedly trumpeted these law and order successes, though youth experts have questioned how much it has to do with the Government, given most of its flagship policies to reduce youth crime were yet to bite. The exception regarding youth crime was the boot camp pilot, which was recently completed, with seven of 10 participants allegedly reoffending. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has trumpeted the drop in victims of violent crime and the falling number of serious young offenders, though experts and officials have questioned how much this has to do with his Government. Photo / Mark Mitchell The post-Covid spike, then the post-post-Covid fall After the Herald revealed the trend reversal in serious youth offenders last year, children and youth experts suggested it was a return to pre-Covid trends. The number of serious young offenders started spiking in mid-2022, peaked towards the end of 2023, and then fluctuated before starting to drop in June last year. A post-Covid increase in youth offending was observed not only in New Zealand but in several western nations, with several contributing factors such as increased isolation and loneliness during Covid restrictions, increasingly worsening truancy over this period, and a cost-of-living crisis in the aftermath, fuelled by high inflation. February 2025 figures show the number of serious youth offenders falling to pre-Covid levels, at the start of 2020. The annual number of serious and persistent youth offenders dropped every month from June 2024 to January 2025, before rising slightly in February. Graphic / DPMC Several other indicators reinforce this downward trend: First-time entries into the cohort of serious and persistent young offenders fell to 43 in January 2025, the lowest monthly number for two years, and down from 94 first-time entries for July 2023. A 16% drop in the annual number of serious and persistent young offenders heading to court. A 6% drop in police proceedings against children and young people for the year to January 2025, compared to the previous year. There have also been drops across all age groups, though the biggest reductions have been among those aged between 14 and 17: A 16% drop in the number of 14 to 16-year-old serious offenders. A 21% drop in the number of 17-year-old serious offenders. A 9% drop in the number of 10 to 13-year-old serious offenders. The number of serious and persistent youth offenders in the Bay of Plenty, Central and Eastern districts remain higher than the baseline June 2023 figures, in contrast to Tamaki Makaurau, where there's been a 20% drop in the year to January 2025. Graphic / Oranga Tamariki Regionally, there's been a 20% fall in the number of serious and persistent youth offenders in Auckland for the year to January, compared to the previous year. Bay of Plenty, Central and Eastern are the only areas where the numbers have gone up compared to the baseline data (June 2023), though the downward trend in recent months mirrors what's been happening nationwide. The baseline figure for Bay of Plenty is 126 serious and persistent young offenders. The number jumped to 159 in August 2024, before dropping to 143 in January this year - an 11% drop compared to the previous year. 'Most of the increase in Bay of Plenty is due to increases in all offence types in Rotorua,' an April briefing from Oranga Tamariki said. Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell. Photo / Laura Smith Several initiatives have been rolled out in Rotorua to combat crime - more police foot patrols in the CBD, and an inner city community safety hub - while there's been a huge reduction in the use of emergency housing. 'Lots of locals are loving that we've secured more police in town, and the feedback from businesses who are feeling more confident has been great,' Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell said. 'Rotorua is significantly better now that we're stopping emergency housing motels with support from Government. 'There was a strong connection between a proliferation of emergency housing and crime, so it's a relief to locals to see the end of this.' The region that has not mirrored the declining national trend is Canterbury, where the number of serious and persistent young offenders has been relatively steady since the post-Covid spike levelled out in mid-2023. Since this is where the baseline is drawn, the Government remains on target to meet its goal in Canterbury, even though the baseline figure is much higher than the pre-Covid one. Intensive case management teams have been established in Christchurch and Rotorua, with recruitment underway for such a team in Hamilton 'due to need', an April briefing from Oranga Tamariki said. The biggest fall in the number of serious and persistent youth offenders has been in the 14-16-year-old age group, but the percentage drop for 17-year-olds has been sharper (21% versus 16%). Graphic /Oranga Tamariki Fall in violent crime generally The Government has also been trumpeting the fall in violent crime and the positive movement towards its other law and order public service target: 20,000 fewer victims of violent crime (assault, robbery or sexual assault) compared to 185,000 such victims in the year to October 2023. The latest quarterly figure shows this target has already been surpassed, with 157,000 such victims in the year to February 2025. An April Oranga Tamariki briefing for justice sector ministers revealed other statistical trends to corroborate this trend: The rate of assault claims to ACC decreased by 4% for the year ending February 2024, compared to the previous year. The number of fatal and serious injury-related ACC claims decreased by 8% in the 12 months to April. The national rate of hospitalisations for assault decreased by 3% in 2023/24, after an increase the previous year. The number of family violence victimisations reported to police fell by 2% in the last year. The share of these involving children also fell, from about half of all family harm investigations to 39% in February 2025. As the Herald reported in May, officials speculated whether the drop in violent crime was a return to crime trends between 2018 and 2022. 'If you fit a linear trend to the number of victims of violent crime between 2018-2022 and then project that line forward to 2029, the February 2025 estimate falls very close to that line,' said a Justice Ministry briefing released to the Herald. 'This is consistent with [the] possibility there was a transitory increase in violent crime between 2022-2024 and violent crime rates are now returning to pre-2022.' More data would be needed to confirm this, the briefing said. Other advice from the Justice Ministry said the Government's tougher law and order message - including policies that were yet to be implemented at the time - might also be contributing. Officials also noted more police on the beat, which might have helped the number of violent crime victims fall in Auckland and Christchurch. But the number of victims rose in Wellington, where the police presence had also increased. Derek Cheng is a senior journalist who started at the Herald in 2004. He has worked several stints in the press gallery team and is a former deputy political editor.
The Guardian
41 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘It's like a stone gets shoved into the river of your life': Eva Victor on sexual assault drama Sorry, Baby
In late 2020, the actor and comedian Eva Victor decamped from New York to their cousin's house in rural Maine with a surprise window of time and an urgent subject. Covid had shut down production on Billions, Showtime's soapy finance drama on which Victor scored their first regular acting gig. Moonlight director Barry Jenkins, a fan of Victor's short comedy videos on social media, had DM-ed to offer encouragement and a request: send a script when you're ready. That year, everything felt incomprehensibly big – global pandemic, political upheaval, social fracturing. But alone in wintry Maine, Victor turned far inwards, towards a quiet personal trauma. 'It's like a stone gets shoved into the river of your life. There's a lot of pain in trying to remove it and you can't,' says Victor. 'You just have to find a way for the water to move around it. It's so unfair that someone threw a stone into your life. It's hard to wrap your head around any of it.' The stone was sexual assault, and the film – Victor's directorial debut, produced by Jenkins – is Sorry, Baby, a remarkably sharp portrait of healing that quietly upends the prevailing script on sexual violence in the long wake of #MeToo. The film wowed audiences at Sundance and Cannes and garnered word-of-mouth buzz in the US when it was released in June, acclaimed for its welcome reimagining of what critic Parul Sehgal memorably termed the 'trauma plot': trauma as a flattening explanation and defining event. 'I think we often paint people as victims,' says Victor. 'In that way we make them tragic figures and try to look away from them. Or we make them just one thing, and people are complicated.' Sorry, Baby presents trauma as an idiosyncratic, fickle, mutable thing, as opposed to the blunt, annihilating force that animates numerous films and TV shows loosely grouped under the #MeToo umbrella, from the black heart of Emerald Fennell's Promising Young Woman to the deadening shock of Zoë Kravitz's Blink Twice. Victor plays Agnes, a twentysomething English academic in a small New England town who, about 25 minutes into the film, experiences something awful. She goes to the home of her thesis supervisor, Preston Decker (Louis Cancelmi), after he changes the location of their meeting at the last minute. The camera lingers outside the house, the darkening sky saying all you need to know. 'I wanted the film to talk about what happens after this kind of violence,' says Victor. 'I didn't want to show it.' Afterwards Agnes drives home in mute horror, and tells her best friend, Lydie (Naomi Ackie), what happened in jumbled, detached details. Neither say the word rape, but they both know; Lydie confirms: 'Yeah, that's the thing.' The rest of the film, which proceeds in one chapter per year, builds on principles that feel true to life: that processing is non-linear and inconsistent; that the self is multifaceted and mutable; that life goes on in a whole variety of tones; that trauma can shape a person but not define them. 'Ultimately we're all just afraid,' says Victor. 'We don't want it to be possible that it could happen to someone like us. So we make it seem as if they are particular people who it's meant to happen to.' In conversation, Victor is much like their film: warm, chatty, at turns wise and childlike, their long sleeves covering their hands. We discuss the demise of a particularly excellent sandwich shop in Brooklyn, where Victor lived until relocating to Los Angeles last year. They now live in the same city as their best friend – fittingly, as the most important fact about Agnes, at least to the viewer, is her close friendship with Lydie. We first meet the pair four years after the assault, during a heady reunion marked by the half-finished thoughts and tangled limbs of intimate, platonic love. The trauma is tacitly acknowledged, shown clearly in the gulf between how Lydie's life galloped – city, marriage, baby – while Agnes's crawled. 'I really wanted to give them a fighting chance at being whole people,' says Victor of the first chapter. 'If Agnes and Lydie can be these full people who we love, it's harder to look away from them later on when a bad thing happens. It's harder to paint Agnes as something, or to categorise her.' The friendship also provides the canvas for comedy, and Sorry, Baby is – crucially – funny, its characters often speaking in stilted, off-the-cuff blurts. Victor walks a tonal tightrope between deadpan and earnest, the result of years spent working on a comedy career. Raised in San Francisco, they studied acting and playwriting at Northwestern University in Illinois and were active in the school's improv scene. A few days after graduating in 2016, they moved to New York with aspirations to work on a late-night chatshow. They landed, instead, at the feminist satirical website Reductress, cranking out four to five posts a day ('insane') and poking fun at the girlbossing cliches of the time. ('Get it, bitch! This woman got in the shower.') For a few years, they lived the aspiring comic's life in New York: standup sets, acting gigs and part-time jobs, including one fitting customers at a bridal shop. ('I was very bad at it,' says Victor, but 'it taught me a lot about gender, and how euphoric it can be for some women to feel like women and how dysphoric it can feel for others.') There were many unsuccessful auditions, scripts that 'just weren't landing. I was wanting to make things, but I felt as if no one was letting me. And I was like, 'That's not fair, I'm just going to do it.'' Victor started posting short videos to what was then Twitter, in which they played arch, spiralling characters – a woman explaining to her boyfriend why they're going to straight pride, a woman who definitely didn't kill her husband. Many went viral. Jenkins messaged, and Victor took another crack at screenwriting, although not, they say, intending to speak to anything bigger than themselves, nor against a certain trauma trope. They drew from the interiority in Kelly Reichardt's Certain Women, the understatement in Andrew Haigh's 45 Years, the beauty of Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love. And they watched Michaela Coel's 'completely transcendent' BBC-HBO series I May Destroy You – perhaps the closest antecedent to Sorry, Baby in terms of treating trauma as a thread, rather than the whole cloth. 'You see someone doing something so truthfully, and you wonder: 'What's my version of that?'' says Victor. After reading a first draft of the script in 2021, Jenkins encouraged Victor to direct. Having worked with first-time film-makers on two searing debuts – Charlotte Wells's Aftersun and Raven Jackson's All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt – Jenkins and his producing partners Adele Romanski and Mark Ceryak put Victor in an ad-hoc directing bootcamp, practising certain shots and shadowing Jane Schoenbrun on the set of their acclaimed film I Saw the TV Glow, before filming for Sorry, Baby commenced in Massachusetts in 2024. Although years in the making, Sorry, Baby's smallness, its bracing but uncynical honesty, feels of the moment. The collective momentum of the #MeToo movement has dissipated; backlash (and, often, hellish litigation) has engulfed many women who spoke up; catharsis did not lead to material change. Agnes and Lydie are pessimistic about the chances of accountability, and understandably wary of the criminal justice system. All Agnes has – all anyone has – is herself, her life, her friends. Victor still bristles at any larger movement critique; many times during this press tour, they've been asked some version of: What does this say about the #MeToo movement? 'And I'm like, 'Well, by the way, what are we even talking about?'' they laugh. 'All I know is this one version of this story, all I want to talk about is this attempt at healing.' Victor is also reticent on the inspiration for that experience; making movies may be the opposite speed of social media posts, but virality taught Victor 'how little I want people to know about my personal life'. They have maintained a privacy line throughout interviews for the film. 'I say it's a very personal story, which is true. And I say it is narrative fiction, in which I find a lot of comfort and joy, because I got to make Agnes and build a world around her that supports the exact story I want to tell.' And that story is not just trauma – it's professional success, grief about friends entering a different life-stage, ambivalence about getting older, and the loneliness of being on your own timeline. Agnes, in these chapters, is 'very much in process,' says Victor. 'As we all are.' Sorry, Baby is in UK cinemas from 22 August Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at
