Latest news with #Catastrophe
BBC News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Sharon Horgan says she only found confidence after Bad Sisters series two
Bafta award-winning actor, writer, producer and director Sharon Horgan has told an audience at the Hay Festival she finally found confidence after the second series of her hit show Bad Sisters came out last star, whose back catalogue includes sitcoms Catastrophe, Pulling and Motherland, said she previously thought "there was a possibility I was just in the right place at the right time, or that I had the right people around. "But I think with Bad Sisters, even though there's a huge team of people, it felt like mine. That feeling I belonged in that room."Bad Sisters, an adaptation of Belgian series Clan on Apple TV+, is a revenge tale about sisters aiming to kill an abusive husband. Horgan also talked about how she first turned to writing because she couldn't land any acting roles, hence deciding to write parts for about penning her first pilot back in the early 2000s with Dennis Kelly for BBC Three show Pulling, about a group of 20-something women and their chaotic love lives, Horgan said: "Comedy was mainly written by men, writing the female parts. I was writing about myself and my friends - flawed women. No-one was really doing it at that point."She said she was concerned that because her female-led sitcom had been picked up, it might mean other women wouldn't get their shows made."It felt like a one-in, one-out kind of system. Like, we've had the female comedy [quota]."She then spent several years "waitressing and doing unsuccessful pilots" before eventually hooking up with Rob Delaney on X (then Twitter) and going on to create Channel 4 show was about a couple who ended up settling down together following an accidental pregnancy after only a week of dating. Horgan said: "We wanted to show how difficult it was to stay in love when you're a parent... and you've got terrible people running around under three foot!" Motherhood was a theme the Irish star returned to when she created the hit BBC series Motherland, alongside Holly Walsh and Graham Linehan. Following a pilot episode aired in 2016, it went on to spawn three hit series, two Christmas specials, and recent spin-off, dark comedy sees a group of mum friends - and one dad - navigate the challenges of middle class told fans at Hay: "I was living it. I would go to my daughter's primary school every day and just feel existential. You have to find your people. and that's what happened to me. I met these two really great women who are still in my life now."It's sort of just getting a group of misfits together. I felt like an outsider. It's a really great, fun show but it's also about how lonely it can be. I experienced that, walking through a park with my pushchair... and seeing a group of mums having a picnic and thinking, 'Why aren't I at that?'" Since then, her career has continued to thrive and she has juggled multiple roles on many of her shows ranging from executive producer to actor to writer and even she admitted her perfectionism had occasionally caused an issue on set."I'm trying to get better at it. It's also about having people around you that you really trust almost as much as you trust yourself. But I remember being pulled up on it by a big star in a show I did, just going: 'Don't you think all of these people can do their jobs? You think you can do your job better than all these people?'"And I remember at the time thinking, 'I can't say this out loud,' but 'yes'!" she laughed. More from the Hay Festival Succession creator Jesse Armstrong is writing about rich people againJacqueline Wilson says she wouldn't return to Tracy Beaker as an adult At the end of her discussion, Horgan is asked which of her characters she'd most like to be. She plumps for Sharon Morris from her obvious success and new-found confidence, Horgan's admiration for Morris, a funny, brave and strikingly honest woman just doing her best, is clear."Even though she's selfish and can be awful... she was just able to articulate how she was feeling," she said."I think that's the great thing about writing. You get to say all those conversations that you have in your head and you wish you'd said. She had all my thoughts, the thoughts I was afraid to say at the time."
Irish Independent
7 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Independent
Author hoping to convert Kerry readers not convinced of Palestinian cause at talk in Listowel
Fintan Drury's book argues that the brutal Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 was the result of almost eight decades of Israeli oppression Kerryman Those who attend the Listowel Literary Festival talk with author Fintan Drury will be told that they have a part to play in bringing an end to the assault on Gaza. 'Without being grandiose about it, we have a responsibility to do whatever it is we can to express our horror and to seek to pressure those who have some influence to get this to stop,' Mr Drury told The Kerryman. Mr Drury (67), a former RTÉ journalist from Dublin, is the author of Catastrophe. The book argues that the brutal Hamas attack of October 2023 was the result of almost eight decades of Israeli oppression, and that Israel's reaction to it has been egregiously disproportionate. 'If you look even in a kind of cursory way at the conduct of Israel to Palestinians since 1948, there is no conclusion other than the Palestinians are among the most oppressed people in the world ever,' Mr Drury said. 'Ireland has done more than most but we still have issues that we need to consider around doing more.' Mr Drury said he had been going to marches advocating for Palestine for years but realised he had to use his skillset, as a trained journalist and writer, to try and make a difference. It was that realisation which led him to writing his book with the aim of detailing what has occurred in Palestine in an accessible manner. Mr Drury said those he would like to see most at his talk in Listowel are those who have not been convinced to support the Palestinian people. 'I'd love them to leave after an hour and go: 'Now I understand, I've got it',' Mr Drury said. Mr Drury will be in conversation with Mike Lynch at 11am in Listowel Arms Hotel on Sunday, June 1. Tickets for the event cost €15.
Otago Daily Times
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
Letters to the Editor: elections, Gaza and flooding
Today's Letters to the Editor from readers cover topics including unchecked election spending, the abhorrent genocide in Gaza, and South Dunedin's flooding issues. Election spending rules need urgent revision The massive unchecked election spending by Dunedin mayoral candidate Andrew Simms and his Future Dunedin Party highlights how weak local body election spending controls have become. Limitations on election spending for the October elections do not take effect until mid July and until then Mr Simms is having a field day with, amongst other things, many full page advertisements in this newspaper. American democracy has been seriously flawed by money in politics and it is something we don't want to see here. In a sense, if you have enough money then politics becomes no longer an even playing field as the rich or their surrogates affectively buy their way into office. [Bill Southworth is a former local body election candidate. Editor.] When it all started The editorial ( ODT 21.5.25) quite rightly recognises the abhorrent genocide occurring in Gaza, with relentless bombing and intentional starvation through the blockade of aid. However, we challenge the editor's misconception that this situation started on October 7th 2023 with the Hamas raids. It started in 1948 when the state of Israel was created on 55% of historic Palestine, driving more than 750,000 Palestinians from their homes (the "Nakba"/Catastrophe). Since then the settler colonial state of Israel has continued expanding, forcing Palestinians into an ever-shrinking land area, in an apartheid state with few rights, despite many United Nations resolutions/reports condemning Israel's war crimes. Since 2005, Gaza has become the world's largest open-air prison, with Israel restricting water/electricity/food/medicines. Experts have long warned that conditions were unliveable. In this context it is abhorrent to state that "Hamas started this". This genocide must be stopped. We call on all institutions to BDS (Boycott/Divest/Sanction) Israel, and for countries to condemn this ongoing genocide. Otago University Staff for Palestine group Great courage, but Shame on Netanyahu. It takes great courage to speak such words these days. Yesterday's editorial (21.5.25) gave me hope ... such a rousing buildup would surely lead to a brave, unequivocal condemnation of Israel's genocide in Gaza, something very lacking in New Zealand today. I sincerely commend you for standing up for humanitarian principles and against Israel's outrageous actions over the last 18 months. It is very refreshing. However, by then framing the "start" of this "latest dreadful conflict" as being on October 7th 2023, you completely ignore that day's context, within a conflict that has been incessant for 76 years (at least for the Palestinians). While laying blame on Hamas for "starting it", you fail to mention that since 1948, Palestinians have faced a mixture of systematic government sanctioned displacements, ethnic cleansing, killings, settler violence, administrative detentions, illegal occupation and apartheid. Your words simply empower Netanyahu's very false narrative, that Israel was attacked on October 7, for no reason at all. [Similar letters received and noted, from R Robert, S Loader. Editor.] Flooding and the blind acceptance of piffle In the absence of meaningful post publication comment on the full page ODT disclosure of plans for mitigation of South Dunedin's flooding issues, may I draw to your attention the lack of arithmetical eptitude in the proposed Dunedin City Council solutions. The plan outlined four options ranging from $2.5 billion to $7.5b. A google search reveals that some 900 South Dunedin properties were flooded in the last event, which appears to have been exacerbated by the lack of maintenance on the stormwater mud tanks. Let's call it 1000 properties for the sake of numerical simplicity: it follows that the cheapest proposed remediative option is to cost $2.5 million per property, and the most expensive option would cost $7.5m per property. A drive round South Dunedin fails to identify one property that would fetch $2.5m on an open market, with the owners of most of the 900 properties, at risk of an inability to gain insurance, being unable sell for more than half a million. That councillors have not factored this analysis into their considerations demonstrates their alarming lack of understanding of number, and a blind acceptance of the piffle they are being fed by senior DCC staff. Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: editor@
Gulf Today
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Gulf Today
From 1948 to now, a Palestinian woman in Gaza recounts a life of displacement
As a 4-year-old, Ghalia Abu Moteir was driven to live in a tent in Khan Younis after her family fled their home in what's now Israel, escaping advancing Israeli forces. Seventy-seven years later, she is now back in a tent under the bombardment of Israel's campaign in Gaza. On Thursday, Palestinians across the Middle East commemorated the anniversary of the "Nakba" —Arabic for "the Catastrophe" — when some 700,000 Palestinians were expelled by Israeli forces or fled their homes in what is now Israel before and during the 1948 war that surrounded its creation. Abu Moteir's life traces the arc of Palestinians' exile and displacement from that war to the current one. Israel's 19-month-old campaign has flattened much of Gaza, killed more than 53,000 people, driven almost the entire population of 2.3 million from their homes and threatens to push them into famine. "Today we're in a bigger Nakba than the Nakba that we saw before," the 81-year-old Abu Moteir said, speaking outside the tent where she lives with her surviving sons and daughters and 45 grandchildren. "Our whole life is terror, terror. Day and night, there's missiles and warplanes overhead. We're not living. If we were dead, it would be more merciful," she said. Palestinians fear that Israel's ultimate goal is to drive them from the Gaza Strip completely. Israel says its campaign aims to destroy Hamas after its Oct. 7, 2023, attack in which the group killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel and abducted around 250 others. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that after Israel defeats Hamas, it will continue to control Gaza and will encourage Palestinians to leave "voluntarily." Ghalia Abu Moteir shows her ID card. AP The Gaza Strip was born out of the Nakba. Some 200,000 of the 1948 refugees were driven into the small coastal area, and more than 70% of Gaza's current population are their descendants. Gaza's borders were set in an armistice between Israel and Egypt, which along with other Arab countries had attacked after Israel declared its independence. Abu Moteir doesn't remember much from her home village, Wad Hunayn, a small hamlet thick with citrus groves just southeast of Tel Aviv. Her parents fled with her and her three brothers as the nascent forces of Israel moved into the area, fighting local Palestinian groups and expelling some communities. "We left only with the clothes we had on us, no ID, no nothing," Abu Moteir said. She remembers walking along the Mediterranean coast amid gunfire. Her father, she said, put the children behind him, trying to protect them. They walked 75 kilometers (45 miles) to Khan Younis, where they settled in a tent city that sprang up to house thousands of refugees. There, UNRWA, a new UN agency created to care for them - temporarily, it was thought at the time - provided food and supplies, while the Gaza Strip came under Egyptian rule. After two years in a tent, her family moved further south to Rafah and built a home. Abu Moteir's father died of illness in the early 1950s. When Israeli forces stormed through Gaza to invade Egypt's Sinai in 1956, the family fled again, to central Gaza, before returning to Rafah. In the years after the 1967 Mideast War, when Israel occupied Gaza and the West Bank, Abu Moteir's mother and brothers left for Jordan. Abu Moteir, by that time married with children, stayed behind. "I witnessed all the wars," she said. "But not one is like this war." A year ago, her family fled Rafah as Israeli troops invaded the city. They now live in the sprawling tent city of Muwasi on the coast outside Khan Younis. An airstrike killed one of her sons, leaving behind three daughters, a son and his pregnant wife, who has since given birth. Three of Abu Moteir's grandchildren have also been killed. Throughout the war, UNRWA has led a massive aid effort by humanitarian groups to keep Palestinians alive. But for the past 10 weeks, Israel has barred all food, fuel, medicines and other supplies from entering Gaza, saying it aims to force Hamas to release 58 remaining hostages, fewer than half believed alive. Israel also says Hamas has been siphoning off aid in large quantities, a claim the UN denies. Israel has banned UNRWA, saying it has been infiltrated by Hamas, which the agency denies. Ghalia Abu Moteir prepares tea for children at a tent in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip. AP Hunger and malnutrition in the territory have spiraled as food stocks run out. "Here in Muwasi, there's no food or water," said Abu Moteir. "The planes strike us. Our children are thrown (dead) in front of us." Generations in Gaza since 1948 have been raised on the idea of "sumoud," Arabic for "resilience," the need to stand strong for their land and their right to return to their old homes inside Israel. Israel has refused to allow refugees back, saying a mass return would leave the country without a Jewish majority. While most Palestinians say they don't want to leave Gaza, the destruction wreaked by Israeli forces is shaking that resilience among some. "I understand that … There is no choice here. To stay alive, you'd have to leave Gaza," said Amjad Shawa, director of the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network in Gaza, though he said he would never leave. He dismissed Netanyahu's claims that any migration would be voluntary. "Israel made Gaza not suitable for living for decades ahead," he said. Noor Abu Mariam, a 21-year-old in Gaza City, grew up knowing the story of her grandparents, who were expelled by Israeli forces from their town outside the present-day Israeli city of Ashkelon in 1948. Her family was forced to flee their home in Gaza City early in the war. They returned during a two-month ceasefire earlier this year. Their area is now under Israeli evacuation orders, and they fear they will be forced to move again. Her family is thinking of leaving if the border opens, Abu Mariam said. "I could be resilient if there were life necessities available like food and clean water and houses," she said. "Starvation is what will force us to migrate." Kheloud Al-Laham, a 23-year-old sheltering in Deir Al-Balah, said she was "adamant" about staying. "It's the land of our fathers and our grandfathers for thousands of years," she said. "It was invaded and occupied over the course of centuries, so is it reasonable to leave it that easily?" Abu Moteir remembers the few times she was able to leave Gaza over the decades of Israeli occupation. Once, she went on a group visit to Jerusalem. As their bus passed through Israel, the driver called out the names of the erased Palestinian towns they passed — Isdud, near what's now the Israeli city of Ashdod; Majdal, now Ashkelon. They passed not far from where Wadi Hunayn once stood. "But we didn't get off the bus," she said. She knows Palestinians who worked in the Israeli town of Ness Ziona, which stands on what had been Wadi Hunayn. They told her nothing is left of the Palestinian town but one or two houses and a mosque, since converted to a synagogue. She used to dream of returning to Wadi Hunayn. Now she just wants to go back to Rafah. But most of Rafah has been leveled, including her family home, she said. "What do we return to? To the rubble?" Associated Press
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
From 1948 to now, a Palestinian woman in Gaza recounts a life of displacement
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — As a 4-year-old, Ghalia Abu Moteir was driven to live in a tent in Khan Younis after her family fled their home in what's now Israel, escaping advancing Israeli forces. Seventy-seven years later, she is now back in a tent under the bombardment of Israel's campaign in Gaza. On Thursday, Palestinians across the Middle East commemorated the anniversary of the 'Nakba' -- Arabic for 'the Catastrophe' -- when some 700,000 Palestinians were expelled by Israeli forces or fled their homes in what is now Israel before and during the 1948 war that surrounded its creation. Abu Moteir's life traces the arc of Palestinians' exile and displacement from that war to the current one. Israel's 19-month-old campaign has flattened much of Gaza, killed more than 53,000 people, driven almost the entire population of 2.3 million from their homes and threatens to push them into famine. 'Today we're in a bigger Nakba than the Nakba that we saw before,' the 81-year-old Abu Moteir said, speaking outside the tent where she lives with her surviving sons and daughters and 45 grandchildren. 'Our whole life is terror, terror. Day and night, there's missiles and warplanes overhead. We're not living. If we were dead, it would be more merciful,' she said. Palestinians fear that Israel's ultimate goal is to drive them from the Gaza Strip completely. Israel says its campaign aims to destroy Hamas after its Oct. 7, 2023, attack in which militants killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel and abducted around 250 others. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that after Israel defeats Hamas, it will continue to control Gaza and will encourage Palestinians to leave 'voluntarily.' From tent city to tent city The Gaza Strip was born out of the Nakba. Some 200,000 of the 1948 refugees were driven into the small coastal area, and more than 70% of Gaza's current population are their descendants. Gaza's borders were set in an armistice between Israel and Egypt, which along with other Arab countries had attacked after Israel declared its independence. Abu Moteir doesn't remember much from her home village, Wad Hunayn, a small hamlet thick with citrus groves just southeast of Tel Aviv. Her parents fled with her and her three brothers as the nascent forces of Israel moved into the area, fighting local Palestinian militias and expelling some communities. 'We left only with the clothes we had on us, no ID, no nothing,' Abu Moteir said. She remembers walking along the Mediterranean coast amid gunfire. Her father, she said, put the children behind him, trying to protect them. They walked 75 kilometers (45 miles) to Khan Younis, where they settled in a tent city that sprang up to house thousands of refugees. There, UNRWA, a new U.N. agency created to care for them – temporarily, it was thought at the time – provided food and supplies, while the Gaza Strip came under Egyptian rule. After two years in a tent, her family moved further south to Rafah and built a home. Abu Moteir's father died of illness in the early 1950s. When Israeli forces stormed through Gaza to invade Egypt's Sinai in 1956, the family fled again, to central Gaza, before returning to Rafah. In the years after the 1967 Mideast War, when Israel occupied Gaza and the West Bank, Abu Moteir's mother and brothers left for Jordan. Abu Moteir, by that time married with children, stayed behind. 'I witnessed all the wars,' she said. 'But not one is like this war.' A year ago, her family fled Rafah as Israeli troops invaded the city. They now live in the sprawling tent city of Muwasi on the coast outside Khan Younis. An airstrike killed one of her sons, leaving behind three daughters, a son and his pregnant wife, who has since given birth. Three of Abu Moteir's grandchildren have also been killed. Throughout the war, UNRWA has led a massive aid effort by humanitarian groups to keep Palestinians alive. But for the past 10 weeks, Israel has barred all food, fuel, medicines and other supplies from entering Gaza, saying it aims to force Hamas to release 58 remaining hostages, fewer than half believed alive. Israel also says Hamas has been siphoning off aid in large quantities, a claim the U.N. denies. Israel has banned UNRWA, saying it has been infiltrated by Hamas, which the agency denies. Hunger and malnutrition in the territory have spiraled as food stocks run out. 'Here in Muwasi, there's no food or water,' said Abu Moteir. 'The planes strike us. Our children are thrown (dead) in front of us.' Devastation tests Palestinians' will to stay Generations in Gaza since 1948 have been raised on the idea of 'sumoud,' Arabic for 'resilience,' the need to stand strong for their land and their right to return to their old homes inside Israel. Israel has refused to allow refugees back, saying a mass return would leave the country without a Jewish majority. While most Palestinians say they don't want to leave Gaza, the destruction wreaked by Israeli forces is shaking that resilience among some. 'I understand that … There is no choice here. To stay alive, you'd have to leave Gaza,' said Amjad Shawa, director of the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network in Gaza, though he said he would never leave. He dismissed Netanyahu's claims that any migration would be voluntary. 'Israel made Gaza not suitable for living for decades ahead,' he said. Noor Abu Mariam, a 21-year-old in Gaza City, grew up knowing the story of her grandparents, who were expelled by Israeli forces from their town outside the present-day Israeli city of Ashkelon in 1948. Her family was forced to flee their home in Gaza City early in the war. They returned during a two-month ceasefire earlier this year. Their area is now under Israeli evacuation orders, and they fear they will be forced to move again. Her family is thinking of leaving if the border opens, Abu Mariam said. 'I could be resilient if there were life necessities available like food and clean water and houses,' she said. 'Starvation is what will force us to migrate.' Kheloud al-Laham, a 23-year-old sheltering in Deir al-Balah, said she was 'adamant' about staying. 'It's the land of our fathers and our grandfathers for thousands of years,' she said. 'It was invaded and occupied over the course of centuries, so is it reasonable to leave it that easily?' 'What do we return to?' Abu Moteir remembers the few times she was able to leave Gaza over the decades of Israeli occupation. Once, she went on a group visit to Jerusalem. As their bus passed through Israel, the driver called out the names of the erased Palestinian towns they passed – Isdud, near what's now the Israeli city of Ashdod; Majdal, now Ashkelon. They passed not far from where Wadi Hunayn once stood. 'But we didn't get off the bus,' she said. She knows Palestinians who worked in the Israeli town of Ness Ziona, which stands on what had been Wadi Hunayn. They told her nothing is left of the Palestinian town but one or two houses and a mosque, since converted to a synagogue. She used to dream of returning to Wadi Hunayn. Now she just wants to go back to Rafah. But most of Rafah has been leveled, including her family home, she said. 'What do we return to? To the rubble?' ___ Khaled and Keath reported from Cairo.
