Six great reads: Swiss bunkers, what Alexa heard and red-pill manosphere hucksters
'It was, we were told, a case of sudden infant death syndrome interrupted. What followed would transform my understanding of parenting, disability and the breadth of what makes a meaningful life.'In this remarkable account, Archie Bland tells the story of the night his son Max nearly died and of what came next.
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Bethan McKernan spent four years as the Guardian's Jerusalem correspondent, a period marked by the horrors of 7 October 2023 and what has followed in Gaza. As she begins her new role as the Guardian's Wales correspondent, she looked back at her period in the Middle East and how it has shaped her and her understanding of the region.
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Switzerland is home to more than 370,000 nuclear bunkers – enough to shelter every member of the population. But, asked Jessi Jezewska Stevens, if the worst should happen, would they actually work?
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'In September 2016, a new presence appears in our house, squatting on the kitchen counter between the kettle and the coffee machine. It is blandly futuristic, a minimal cylinder with an LED ring that glows blue to alert us to the fact that it is ready, poised to answer our questions or carry out our instructions, as long as those instructions are clearly stated and fall within a narrow band of available 'skills'.'
For nearly a decade, Alexa has been listening to Jeremy Ettinghausen and his family's questions and instructions. What had she heard? And what did it tell him about the role Amazon's smart speaker plays in so many of our lives?
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After 380 games and more than 1,000 goals the 2024-25 Premier League season came to an end last weekend. Jonny Weeks told the story of a dramatic (in parts) season via the work of the best sports photographers in the game – including our own brilliant Tom Jenkins. Read more
'When I first met Nick in 2019, at a dating and self-improvement summit in Miami, it wasn't immediately obvious why he was paying so much money to pseudo-authority figures from the manosphere. He had looks, cash and some of the easy swagger of London done good … '
So writes James Bloodworth in his fascinating (and worrying) profile of a friend who went down the digital rabbit hole. Nick's story is a cautionary tale of what happens when someone who feels inadequate listens to the new generation of masculinity salesmen
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The Guardian
31 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Why is a pro-Israel group asking the US to investigate Ms Rachel?
If you believe that babies can tell when a person is truly good, then it should be no surprise that Ms Rachel – the beloved kids YouTube sensation – has remained on the right side of every socio-political debate since the image of her pink tee and denim dungarees became ubiquitous in households with children across the world. But when Ms Rachel, whose given name is Rachel Griffin Accurso, began speaking out about the genocide in Gaza, pro-Israel rightwingers put a massive target on her back. Accurso first made her stance public around May 2024, when she announced a fundraiser for children in Gaza and other war zones. Since then, she's consistently drawn attention to the tragedy in Palestine by sharing statistics on the crisis along with images of Palestinian children to her social media audience of tens of millions of followers, and the right has been after her since. Back in March, the New York Post ran an article about Accurso calling her a 'Woke brainwasher' and warning parents against the influence they were allowing into their homes. Then, last month, the pro-Israel group StopAntisemitism asked the Department of Justice to investigate whether Ms Rachel was operating as a foreign agent because of her posts about Gazan children. In an open letter to the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, they asked authorities to find out whether Accurso was 'being remunerated to disseminate Hamas-aligned propaganda to her millions of followers'. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of children have been killed or injured in Gaza since Israel began its onslaught in retaliation for Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack – and Israel isn't letting up, even as children face starvation. Last Saturday, Israeli airstrikes killed nine of a Gaza doctor's 10 children while she worked. If speaking up about a genocide makes you a foreign agent, what does that say about America's own values? 'I care deeply for all children. Palestinian children, Israeli children, children in the US – Muslim, Jewish, Christian children – all children, in every country,' Accurso said through tears on Instagram video from May of 2024. 'To do a fundraiser for children who are currently starving, who have no food or water, who are being killed, is human.' For this kind of thing – caring about innocent children – to be controversial is a clear sign of just how far we've strayed from our moral core as a society, and a reminder of the inhumanity that pervades this political moment. One of the distinct markers of pro-Israel rhetoric in recent times has been the way it intentionally and violently rejects the idea of children being vulnerable and innocent. Israel's supporters feel emboldened to cast babies as collateral damage at best, and 'enemies' at their most truly unhinged. And the pro-Israel crowd is angry at Accurso because in a war that does not want us to see them as such, she constantly reminds us that Palestinian children are people, and are deserving of the same kind of care and protection that the west gives its young. Her love for children has also made her an easy target for conservatives who like to label LGBTQ+ people and their allies as creeps and pedophiles looking to groom children. Last year, when Accurso shared a video celebrating Pride month on her Instagram and TikTok accounts (which are geared toward her adult supporters, of course), rightwing influencers called her 'sick' and complained that she was exposing children to 'things they shouldn't be exposed to'. For me, Accurso's speaking out also shines a harsh light on the absolute dearth of outrage from other far more powerful and influential celebrities. This month, more than 300 celebrities and Hollywood figures signed an open letter condemning the industry's silence on the genocide. This belated effort falls flat when you consider how people with much less power and way more to lose have risked their livelihoods and safety to speak up for what is right. Overall, though, the hatred for Accurso isn't just about Gaza. As a public figure, she is an indictment of everything that rightwingers want us to believe is bad. She's all about big feelings, standing up for vulnerable people, making people from all walks of life feel included, and celebrating what makes us different. Of course the right hates that. Figures like Accurso are an aberration in a world where bad news generates the most clicks and we are all supposed to be desensitized to the ways vulnerable people continue to have their lives, and the few protections they have left, snatched away from them. Tayo Bero is a Guardian US columnist
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
My neighbour asked to put their trampoline in my garden because they've got no room - I feel sorry for the children and don't know what to do
A woman has been told to refuse a request from her 'cheeky' neighbours who asked to put their children's trampoline in her garden. The anonymous woman, who is thought to be from the UK, took to parenting forum Mumsnet, asking fellow members of the British parenting site for their views. In her post, she wrote: 'So where I live the local farmer allocated a bit of extra garden to the rear of the houses. 'Currently all I do is cut the grass while i decide what to do with it. 'So next door asked me today if they can put up a trampoline in my bit of garden. 'Part of me thinks say yes as their garden at the rear of their house is awful and full of junk . But then another bit kicks in and thinks no sort your own garden out. Advice please.' The majority of respondents felt that the neighbour had been extremely cheeky to ask - and that refusing was the obvious answer. One said: 'Tell your neighbour to get lost!! Honestly some people are so cheeky.' Another added: 'Definitely No . You'll never get them off. Why don't they just tidy their own garden to put the trampoline on! Some people!' A further Mumsnetter wrote: 'Laugh and say no or laugh and tell them they're cheeky tuckers and clear their own garden if they want a trampoline.' 'You'd obviously be mad to even contemplate saying yes to this,' another chimed in. A further commenter wrote: 'So they've filled their garden so full of junk that they can't fit in anymore. And now they want to fill up yours?' And a strongly worded response said: 'Why would you even dither about this? The answer is no. They need to use their own garden.' 'Absolutely no way,' another commenter wrote in a similar vein. 'You'll struggle to ever reclaim it. Like you say, they need to sort their own garden out.' The anonymous Mumsnetter's post asked people to share their thoughts on her tricky situation with her neighbours The majority of respondents felt that the neighbour had been unreasonable to ask - and that the poster should refuse 'In my experience no good deed goes unpunished. NO would be my response,' another added. Some suggested that if she did let her neighbours use her garden, this could result in problems. One said: 'Absolutely not. I wouldn't because it's your land to use as you please. 'If they want their kids to have a trampoline then they can clean up their own garden. 'Aside from that I'd be concerned about legal liability If the child is injured while or your land.' Another agreed, adding: 'You do NOT want a trampoline anywhere near or definitely not on your property. Not at the end of your garden, no where near. 'It's not just the noise. They're terrible accidents waiting to happen.' Some Mumsnetters felt that there could potentially be serious repercussions if the poster let her neighbours use her land A small number of posters offered an alternative view, saying they didn't feel the neighbour had been cheeky to ask A third wrote: 'Absolutely not. What if someone hurt themselves on your them No, you have plans for it. Partition it off if you can.' However, some felt that it was a fair question for the neighbours to ask. One wrote: 'I don't think its cheeky to ask: don't ask, don't get. But you're well within your rights to say no. If you don't want it, you don't have to have it and I wouldn't because you'll never get rid of it.' Another agreed, writing: 'I don't think it is cheeky particularly but I wouldn't agree to it as you will never get the land back.' A further respondent suggested: 'Say OK for half term only, but it will have to be gone after Sunday and you won't be able to host it at any other time.'
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Don't blame children who misbehave, it's the parents' fault
Hell, said Jean-Paul Sartre, is other people. But recently it seems his compatriots have concluded that hell is other people's children, as an increasing number of French restaurants, hotels and campsites declare themselves child-free zones. Sarah El Haïry, the French high commissioner for childhood, has declared war on what she described as 'violence inflicted on children': government lawyers are exploring the possibility of taking legal action against establishments that ban children. It is quite the societal volte-face since 2012, when Pamela Druckerman, an American living in Paris, published French Children Don't Throw Food, a bestselling account of Gallic parenting style. French children, she reported, were taught from their earliest years to comport themselves in a civilised fashion. They did not expect to monopolise adult attention, and understood the meaning of the word 'no'. The contrast with their Anglo-Saxon contemporaries, Druckerman concluded, was startling. If what El Haïry describes as 'la tendance 'no-kids'' is spreading, the responsibility lies with parents. Of course children should be a welcome part of wider society. But if it is cruel to exclude them, it is equally cruel for grown-ups to relinquish parental responsibility. The current vogue for 'gentle' parenting, which tends to venerate the child's feelings to the exclusion of all else, has had consequences that are anything but child-friendly. It takes a village to raise a child: but if the child is allowed to become a tyrant, the village will move elsewhere. This, as El Haïry has noticed, is a bad thing all round. But she may find that good manners and consideration are a matter for persuasion, rather than legislation. 'Posh' accents don't ruin period dramas – poor writing does Jane Austen is the gift that keeps on giving. The stage, film and television adaptations of her novels are legion, as are the innumerable spin-offs and homages. For the 250th anniversary year of Austen's birth, the BBC has commissioned a couple of Austen-related dramas and a drama-documentary. Miss Austen, screened in February, was based on Gill Hornby's 2020 novel about Austen's sister, Cassandra. The Other Bennet Girl is a ten-part adaptation of Janice Hadlow's 2009 novel, inspired by the middle Bennet sister, Mary, and scheduled to air later this year. Plain, anxious and socially awkward, Mary seems destined to fulfil her mother's dire prophecies and end up an impecunious spinster. Yet Hadlow's novel searches beneath the introverted, unhappy surface to find in Mary's character a complicated personality that is a perfect match for the TikTok generation, who already adore Jane Austen. Producer Jane Tranter explained the ways in which the drama is intended to 'offer a proper, welcoming hand to a modern audience'. There will be no 'fetishisation' of period costume and hairstyles. 'Strange curls or weird-y hats' risk distracting viewers, Tranter argued. And once you put an actor in a period costume, they 'start speaking posh, and not everybody spoke posh in those days'. Indeed not: the internet offers a fascinating selection of linguistic fossils, including early recordings of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who retains a touch of Lincolnshire accent; and the philosopher Bertrand Russell, thought to be the last repository of the Whiggish 'Devonshire House drawl'. So Tranter is right: not everybody spoke 'posh'in the days before public broadcasting made received pronunciation the accepted standard accent. But the idea that authentic settings produce stilted performances is demonstrably untrue. In a recent edition of Radio 4's The Reunion devoted to Andrew Davies' 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, the designer Dinah Collin described the painstaking historical accuracy with which the costumes were made. Yet a livelier, more universally beloved version of Austen's novel it is hard to imagine. It is understandable that the BBC is keen to court a younger audience, and quite reasonable for writers and directors to bring an unorthodox approach to historical drama. But to conflate the two risks patronising the very audience they hope to charm. The critical faculties of the TikTok generation are just as sharp as those of the generation who cherish the memory of Colin Firth in his sopping shirt. If The Other Bennet Girl is well written, acted and directed, they'll watch it. And if it isn't, they won't – whatever the accents of the cast, or their lack of weird-y hats.
