Latest news with #CovidPandemic
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
Twelve Post-War Tales by Graham Swift review – haunting visions from a Booker winner
There are several wars, not all of them military ones, in these deftly turned stories from Booker winner Graham Swift. With characteristic exactness and compassion, Swift considers the cost of human conflict in all its forms – and the challenge, for those who manage to stay alive, of retrieving the past. In The Next Best Thing former Leutnant Büchner, gatekeeping civic records in postwar Germany in 1959, fields a British serviceman's attempts to trace the fate of his German Jewish relatives during the Holocaust. Denial and guilt vie chillingly in a tale about the agony of looking back when there are only 'pathetic little scraps of paper' to be found. 'What did they expect, after all, what did they really hope for,' Büchner wonders, 'these needy and haunted ones who still, after 15 years, kept coming forward … To be given back the actual ashes, the actual dust, the actual bones?' In Blushes the 'ghost world' we're shown is the suddenly empty one created by the Covid pandemic, with its unpeopled streets and rising death toll. Here the war being fought is the war against disease. Hinges, meanwhile, takes us into the thoughts of a middle-aged woman during her father's funeral. As the coffin is brought to the cemetery she thinks back to a day when, as a girl, she waited with him for a carpenter to arrive and fix their creaking front door. The door, he'd explained, was 90 years old. Swift's conceptual agility is on dazzling display here: But she couldn't have thought, then, what her 49-year-old self could think: that 90 years was the length of a decent human life, though rather longer, as it had proved, than her father's. And she surely couldn't have thought then, as she thought now, that there were two things, generally made of wood, specifically designed to accommodate the dimensions of a single human being. Two objects of carpentry. A door and a coffin. It was like the answer to a riddle. Neat as the parallel is, if these stories occasionally feel a little pat, it is precisely because they are so smoothly jointed. Sometimes the 'hinge' involves a moment of slick linguistic doubleness. The carpenter in Hinges is called Joe Short – 'As in 'life is short',' we're reminded. In Black, another daughter makes sense of the way her angry coalminer father and his friends terrorised their families by concluding that 'their place was the pit and they didn't want pity'. The riddle of life, you suspect, isn't that easily solved. Where the moral focus is blurrier, the emotional payoff is often much greater. Beauty is a story of bereavement without a resolution: hoping for closure, a grandfather pays a secret visit to the university residence where his granddaughter Clare recently killed herself, only to feel like 'an old man among ghostly young people'. The tale is a haunting palimpsest of shifting impressions. While the dean is showing him to Clare's dorm, he's incongruously aroused by her beauty. She tells him that the room 'has now been cleared' and he notes that 'there was the little collision of 'Clare' and 'clear'. They were the same word.' But is anything clear? In this story the craving for life and the pull towards death are murkily intertwined. On the train back, even 'the scudding fields and trees became obscure'. The image of dissolution tugs at the heart, without trying to reel us in. Swift's interest in what a meaningful reconstruction of the past might look like achieves an even deeper resonance in the final piece, Passport. Though she's in her 80s and doesn't expect to travel again, Anna-Maria Anderson has recently renewed this official proof of identity. She concedes ruefully that 'there really was no way of travelling through time', which is what she would really like to do. But of course, there is; this story is it. As she thinks, marvelling, of her parents' love affair during the Spanish civil war and her own survival, as a baby, of the Blitz bomb that killed her mother, the piece becomes a moving reflection on the haphazardness as well as the serendipity of life. But it acknowledges something else too: the awkwardness of growing old, and its inescapable tedium. 'If life turns out to be short, well then that's cruel,' Anna-Maria decides. 'But when life is long, that can be cruel too.' Skilful, generous and humane, these 12 tales suggest the complexity and heartbreak of being engaged on such an uncertain journey. Twelve Post-War Tales by Graham Swift is published by Scribner (£18.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at Delivery charges may apply.
New York Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
How a 3D-Printed Rifle Ended Up in the Middle of the Baltic Sea
For generations, the Aland Islands, an autonomous stretch of rocky coves in the middle of the Baltic Sea, were home to hunters and a gun culture rooted in Nordic backcountry traditions. Islanders hunted seals and varmints with bolt-action wooden rifles passed down through families. YouTube channels and American-dominated internet forums inspired one island resident, a 28-year-old named Elias Andersson, to bring that history into the 21st century. After securing permission from the Finnish government, which controls the islands, he designed and made a 3D-printed rifle called the Printax 001. He spent years building and perfecting his strange gun, which looks like a cross between an AR-15 and a laser blaster from a science-fiction film. Its name has local roots — .AX is the country-code web domain for the Aland Islands. The gun's existence on a remote island chain of about 30,000 people is evidence of the spread of 3D-printed firearms. Once a niche hobby, the guns have been popularized by American enthusiasts as a desirable option, particularly in locations where firearms can be hard to come by. The 3D-printed guns have appeared in the hands of rebels in Myanmar and criminals in Europe and South America. Mr. Andersson's decision to design the Printax grew out of the long hours he spent during the Covid pandemic watching American gun-related YouTube videos, which promoted a far more aggressive brand of firearms ownership than he had experienced on the Aland Islands. And when Russia invaded Ukraine, he found a new purpose for the Printax's earliest iterations: Urged by a friend, Mr. Andersson discussed with contacts in Ukraine providing the Printax to the country's military. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
The Hindu
3 days ago
- Health
- The Hindu
Delhi High Court seeks Centre's stand on SOPs for sample collection, transport of lab test
The Delhi High Court has directed the Centre to submit a status report on its progress in finalising standard operating procedures (SOPs) for sample collection and transport, and storage for all laboratory tests, noting with concern that the 'next Covid Pandemic is far from over' and appears to be active in the community. The court was dealing with a contempt petition filed by Dr. Rohit Jain, who said that that despite directions of the High Court in January 2023, no guidelines have come to be formulated by the Centre with respect to establishment of minimum standards for sample collection. Pursuant to the order, a decision was taken to constitute four sub-committees of experts of pathology, biochemistry, haematology and microbiology. The members of the committee were from Central Government Hospitals and were tasked with formulating Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for sample collection, sample collection centres, and the transport of samples, including guidelines on storage standards. Justice Anish Dayal noted that that while a meeting had been held on May 30, 2023, to deliberate on these issues, there is no update on outcome of that meeting or any resulting decisions. 'Considering that the next Covid Pandemic is far from over and in fact, active, amongst the community, today, as per news reports, the vacuum, if any, of steps taken post the meeting of 30th May 2023, is a serious issue,' the court said in it May 28, 2025 order. 'This assumes certain urgency, considering that there are wide reports of COVID-19, being active in the community, as on date; it would, therefore, be expected from the respondent to crystallize an urgent set of measures, in order that these SOPs are in place and whatever decision was taken in the meeting, has reached its proper conclusion,' the court said. The Court has asked Ms. Monika Arora, Central Government Standing Counsel, to personally ensure that relevant officers are apprised of the directions and that a comprehensive status report is filed within six weeks. It posted the case for further hearing on July 18.
The Hindu
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Top news of the day: June 2, 2025
Anna University sexual assault case: Convict Gnanasekar gets life imprisonment for 30 years without remission The Mahila Court in Chennai on Monday (June 2, 2025) sentenced the lone convict Gnanasekar, 37, in the Anna University sexual assault case to life imprisonment for minimum period of 30 years without remission. Russia, Ukraine holding talks in Turkiye after launching major attacks Delegations from Russia and Ukraine met in Turkiye on Monday (June 2, 2025) for the second round of direct peace talks in just over two weeks, although expectations were low for any significant progress on ending the three-year war after a string of stunning attacks over the weekend. Indian-American student banned from graduation ceremony after pro-Palestinian speech An Indian-American student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was barred from attending her graduation ceremony after delivering a speech denouncing the war in Gaza, according to media reports. Megha Vemuri, the 2025 class president of MIT, is the latest in the list of students to face discipline after protesting the war in Gaza. Batla House residents brace for bulldozers after twin eviction notices As dawn broke on Sunday, bulldozers rumbled into Madrasi Camp in south Delhi's Jangpura under the watchful eyes of a police contingent and started tearing down hundreds of houses in the decades-old slum cluster, while stunned residents, some teary-eyed, looked on. Delhi HC seeks Centre's stand on SoPs for sample collection, transport of lab test The Delhi High Court has directed the Centre to submit a status report on its progress in finalising standard operating procedures (SoPs) for sample collection and transport, and storage for all laboratory tests, noting with concern that the 'next Covid Pandemic is far from over' and appears to be active in the community. India-Pakistan conflict, inflation drag May PMI to three-month low of 57.6 The India-Pakistan conflict, coupled with increased competition and higher inflation weighed down growth in the manufacturing sector in May 2025, according to a survey of private sector companies. Northeast rains: Heavy rains continue, rescue and evacuation undertaken in various places The northeast States have been reeling under heavy rains, with various areas in Assam, Manipur, Tripura, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh experiencing flooding, landslides and rising river levels. Govt offers major import tax cuts to EV makers for local production under electric car scheme The government on Monday (June 2, 2025) notified guidelines under the Scheme to Promote Manufacturing of Electric Passenger Cars in India, whereby companies will be allowed to import up to 8,000 electric four-wheeler units annually at a lower import duty of 15%, against 70-100% currently, provided they commit an investment of ₹4,150 crore for setting up local manufacturing facilities. RSS sympathisers 'infiltrated' professional institutes, 'destroyed' them: Congress The Congress on Monday (June 2, 2025) alleged there is a systematic infiltration of the RSS into professional institutes which are being destroyed, while citing 'irregularities' in the Indian Council of Historical Research which are being probed by the CVC. Kamal Haasan moves Karnataka High Court for 'Thug Life' release after boycott calls A co-producer of Tamil movie Thug Life has on Monday (June 2) filed a petition in the High Court of Karnataka seeking directions to restrain the State authorities and the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) from taking any step directly or indirectly to restrict distribution, exhibition/screening of the movie in all languages across Karnataka.
The Hindu
4 days ago
- Health
- The Hindu
Delhi HC seeks Centre's stand on SoPs for sample collection, transport of lab test
The Delhi High Court has directed the Centre to submit a status report on its progress in finalising standard operating procedures (SoPs) for sample collection and transport, and storage for all laboratory tests, noting with concern that the 'next Covid Pandemic is far from over' and appears to be active in the community. The court was dealing with a contempt petition filed by Dr Rohit Jain, who said that that despite directions of the High Court in January 2023, no guidelines have come to be formulated by the Centre with respect to establishment of minimum standards for sample collection. Pursuant to the order, a decision was taken to constitute four sub-committees of experts of pathology, biochemistry, haematology and microbiology. The members of the committee were from Central Government Hospitals and were tasked with formulating Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) for sample collection, sample collection centres, and the transport of samples, including guidelines on storage standards. Justice Anish Dayal noted that that while a meeting had been held on May 30, 2023, to deliberate on these issues, there is no update on outcome of that meeting or any resulting decisions. 'Considering that the next Covid Pandemic is far from over and in fact, active, amongst the community, today, as per news reports, the vacuum, if any, of steps taken post the meeting of 30th May 2023, is a serious issue,' the court said in it May 28 order. 'This assumes certain urgency, considering that there are wide reports of COVID-19, being active in the community, as on date; it would, therefore, be expected from the respondent to crystallize an urgent set of measures, in order that these SoPs are in place and whatever decision was taken in the meeting, has reached its proper conclusion,' the court said. The Court has asked Ms Monika Arora, Central Government Standing Counsel, to personally ensure that relevant officers are apprised of the directions and that a comprehensive status report is filed within six weeks. It posted the case for further hearing on July 18.
