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New Statesman
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New Statesman
Robert Macfarlane: 'Come and meet this incredible tree'
Photo by Peter Flude In middle age and closing in on national treasure status, Robert Macfarlane is as close to greatness and far from death as he has ever been. It's a far cry from his perilous youth of solitary mountain summitting. Climbers, he wrote in his first book, Mountains of the Mind, are 'half in love with themselves, and half in love with oblivion'. That book's hero was George Mallory, the explorer who died on his third attempt at climbing Everest. Macfarlane read Mallory's letters home, and traced the slow drift of his heart from wife to mountain, life to glory. In his imagination, Mallory's frozen corpse seemed inhuman and immortal, like a Grecian marble sculpture. For a moment in what he now calls those 'selfish' days, Macfarlane expected that he too would die in the mountains: 'They were my first love, and they will be the last.' They weren't. Mountains turned out to be his 'resignation letter from danger'. His wife is his 'rock' now, and they have three children. By his third book, The Old Ways, about ancient paths, published nine years later, he was relieved to see a peak and feel no desire to climb it, instead being 'glad only to have seen it in such weather and such light'. Now he is happier adventuring with friends than alone. On a recent trip to a 'fabulously precipitous mountain', he told me, 'I found myself very happy to take the path that worked around the danger, rather than over the pinnacles.' As with his role model Nan Shepherd, author of The Living Mountain (1977), 'Circumambulation came to replace summit fever… plateau substituted for peak.' His new book is 'the one I've been learning how to write all this time'. He knew he wanted to 'write about life', and in 2020 had three questions in a notebook: 'Can a forest think?', 'Does a mountain remember?', and his eventual title, 'Is a river alive?'. By now Macfarlane has covered a lot of ground, and gathered many admirers. I came to his books through his friendship with the late swimmer and writer Roger Deakin. But others reach him through his conservation work, the music he makes with the actor Johnny Flynn, or his vastly popular children's book The Lost Words. We met at Cambridge's Emmanuel College, where he teaches English. I had been informed he was something of a heartthrob to students. 'It seems very unlikely, pushing 50 and balding,' he laughed, and led me into the college gardens. 'Come and meet this incredible, incredible tree… The branches come down, they root, they reroot, they draw, and they surge back up. You see all the power they draw from the earth… If you cut those branches, they would be trees. So it's now fully self-supporting but also absolutely part of the original singular organism. The other incredible thing it does, if you start to notice, is it melts into itself. It's called inosculation, or in-kissing. Can you see one of the branches is starting to basically snog the other and then there are places where that merging is complete, like there? It's one of the best trees, and it's a good friend.' Macfarlane takes his students to this tree to conduct the first supervision of their first year. It is a 220-year-old Oriental plane: only two in the world are known to have branches that reach the ground then climb back up in this way. He offered me homemade lemon and ginger tea from his Thermos. Sitting together at the stump, the effect was like sharing an umbrella in beautiful rain. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Macfarlane was born into a medical family in 1976, to a mother with an 'astonishing sense of wonder' and a father of 'huge integrity', who were both 'always jumping into cold water'. They lived at the end of a country lane in Nottinghamshire, and for holidays visited his grandparents in the Cairngorms. It was 'a life filled with animals and with space'. Macfarlane went to Cambridge, then Oxford, and has not stopped teaching or writing since his PhD. Now, his publications are major occasions: in this magazine, the poet John Burnside declared him 'our finest nature writer'; John Banville praised his 'poet's eye, and a prose style that will make many a novelist burn with envy'. As well as mountains and paths, his books have covered wilderness (The Wild Places) and subterranean landscapes (Underland). Is a River Alive? is billed as Macfarlane's most political book to date. In the years he was writing it, Britain's river crisis rose in the public consciousness. Headlines reported that every river in England was polluted beyond legal limits, Thames Water almost went bankrupt, and the summer drought of 2022 moved the source of the Thames nine miles downstream. The disaster, Macfarlane said, 'is born of a failure of imagination… We have come to envision water in this country as a privatised deterritorialised resource, and not as the life force, lifeline, history-maker, life-giver that it is.' He would like for us to see rivers as living things, and to give them rights. The book describes journeys to three rivers that have generated 'revolutionary thinking', and which run through a cloud-forest in northern Ecuador, contaminated lagoons in south-east India, and the wilderness of Quebec. Flowing through the narrative is the small, nameless chalk stream that has its spring by Macfarlane's house, just outside Cambridge. The government's draft Planning and Infrastructure Bill was published in March. 'At the heart of it,' Macfarlane explained, 'is the idea of 'offset'. The idea that you might offset the harm you're going to do to a fragile and ultra-globally-limited chalk stream network in the name of growth – and to make it good through some kind of water work somewhere else – fundamentally fails to recognise the non-fungible nature of nature.' He led me to what looked like a pond. In fact it was a surfacing of the book's chalk stream. He dropped to his knees and tapped the water. A large black fish swam up, sort of belched its mouth out beyond its lips, and bit Macfarlane's finger. I realised, with horror, that it was now my turn. 'Hold your nerve,' he said, as I extended a tremulous digit towards the fish, who thankfully was no longer interested. I withdrew my arm the moment I was told I had passed 'the great carp test', but Macfarlane's hand lingered. On his wrist was the red cloth bracelet given to him by a healer named Rita, one of many eccentric characters who feature in the book. What Macfarlane never foresaw, he said, was how each trip would bring him to someone who had come very near to death, then found their way from grief, 'back towards life by water', by sharing a river's life with others. Some of these people were present at the book's launch party in London the following week. The author arrived by canal boat, leaping from its roof into the party. The room was packed with readers, students, children, beer, pizza, sandals and bits of tree in people's hair. Later, Johnny Flynn led a singalong. In a speech, Macfarlane described the launch as a 'second-order wedding. I am astonished with delight at every face I see. Beloved family, dear friends. I thank you so much.' Conquering mountains in his adolescence, he drew exhilaration from the chance of death. But happiness is better found, he now feels, in the hope of joining life. I recalled his description of the plane tree in Cambridge, equally a forest of trees and one individual tree: 'The whole thing is this great affront to singularity, and it's this incredible community.' Under that tree, he told me: 'It's been the work of many hands and many years to create this crisis, and it will be the work of many hands and many years to undo it.' [See also: The brain behind Labour's EU deal] Related
CBS News
07-05-2025
- CBS News
Massachusetts college employee charged with soliciting prospective student for sex denied bail
A federal judge has denied bail to a former assistant admissions director at Emmanuel College in Boston charged with soliciting a prospective student for sex after she came to the school for a tour in April and he allegedly accessed her personal data. "It's just crazy to think that somebody like that could be on campus," said student Kelsey Rioux who received an email from the school informing students of the case. Jacob Henriques, 29, was arrested last Friday and went before a judge Wednesday for a bail hearing in which the defense requested home confinement and a GPS monitoring device. "Obsessive and predatory" The judge called his behavior "obsessive and predatory" as she ordered him held. Federal prosecutors say over the past year Henriques allegedly solicited as many as 16 young women, offering the 17-year-old he's charged with $400 to "have some fun" while sending pornographic material. "There are no conditions of release that will ensure the safety of the community," argued prosecutor Craig Estes. He says Henriques relentlessly texted the 17-year-old until she blocked his phone and he allegedly started emailing. Estes said Henriques also tried to obstruct justice by breaking his cellphone and throwing it in the trash before investigators arrived at his Boston apartment to question him. It was at that time, he says, Henriques confessed to his behavior. Mother says daughter "living in fear" The mother of one of his alleged victims pleaded with the judge to hold Henriques saying, "My daughter is living in fear, and the possibility of his release intensifies the fear not only for her but her entire family." The Department of Justice says the arrest of Henriques was part of a wider federal probe named Operation Restore Justice to track and arrest alleged child sexual predators. The DOJ says more than 200 arrests were made from April 28 to May 2.
Boston Globe
07-05-2025
- Boston Globe
5 Mass. men arrested on child sex abuse, pornography charges as part of nationwide sweep, DOJ says
'Protecting children from exploitation is among the most sacred responsibilities we have in law enforcement,' Leah Foley, the US attorney for Massachusetts, said in a statement Wednesday. 'Each case serves as a difficult reminder that child predators are embedded in our communities.' Advertisement The men from Massachusetts were identified as Jacob Henriques, 29, of Boston, Justin Ouimette, 34, of Holyoke, Warren Messeck, 75, of Agawam, Brandon Bendall, 49, of Wareham, and Cess Frazier, 32, of Boston, officials said. 'There are few situations more urgent than when a child is physically at risk, and as 'Operation Restore Justice' has shown, child predators come in many different forms,' said James Crowley, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Boston Division. Henriques, a former assistant admissions administrator at Emmanuel College, is accused of offering to pay a 17-year-old prospective student 'for some fun' and similarly propositioning a 13-year-old. He was arrested Friday on charges of attempted sex trafficking of a minor for his alleged communications with the 17-year-old, according to court records. A spokesperson for the college Advertisement Ouimette, a Level 1 sex offender, is charged with allegedly possessing child sex abuse material, including more than 400 electronic files depicting children as young as three years old, according to the justice department. Ouimette was previously convicted of a state charge of possessing child pornography in October 2022. The materials he is now charged with having were discovered in July 2024 and he was issued a probation violation with one year incarceration, which he is currently serving, the justice department said. He is due to make an initial appearance in federal court in Springfield at a later date, the justice department said. Messeck is facing one charge of possession of child pornography and appeared in federal court in Springfield on May 2, according to the justice department and court records. He was allegedly identified in 2021 as a user of an internet-based peer-to-peer network downloading child sex abuse material, the justice department said. Investigators searched his home and allegedly recovered more than 10,000 electronic files from six devices that depicted child sex abuse, federal prosecutors said. Bendall is facing a charge of possessing child pornography after he was allegedly identified as a member of an online chat group where members viewed and shared child sex abuse materials, prosecutor said. Investigators allegedly recovered about 9,4000 images and videos depicting child sex abuse were recovered during a search of his home and cell phone, federal prosecutors said. Frazier is also charged with receiving child sex abuse materials after investigators allegedly recovered about 100 media files from his cell phone, according to the justice department. Advertisement Attorneys for Henriques, Messeck, Bendall, and Frazier did not immediately return messages seeking comment Wednesday. Court records and attorney information for Ouimette were not immediately available. Nick Stoico can be reached at
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion: People with opposing views need to find a way to talk to each other
Opinion: People with opposing views need to find a way to talk to each other Grade 11 student Connor Thorson argues that there are healthy ways to argue and healthy arguments is what we need. (Credit: Michelle Berg) People argue about things all the time — whether they are minor inconveniences, what we are going to have for dinner or more impactful issues involving politics. Discussions and debates are always key in decision making in our society. Unfortunately, we are very bad at it. Take today's politics. Political decisions are important. They determine the manner in which our communities function. It would be reasonable to assume this means we place a higher priority on keeping political discourse productive. However, this does not seem to be the case. According to the Pew Research Center, the portion of Americans who hold consistently liberal or conservative views has doubled since 1994. But humans are complex. No two people have identical views. Why, then, are we so distinctively split on a topic as nuanced as politics? ADVERTISEMENT Polarization is not only a worry for decisions regarding democratic processes. 'A significant share of politically polarized Republicans and Democrats express a fairly strong aversion to people who disagree with them,' according to the Pew Research Center. This aversion between people of opposing views can damage interpersonal relationships as well. We cannot make important decisions if we are afraid of alienating each other. People hold attachments to things they deem important, such as their identity, values and beliefs. We know our choices matter on impactful topics, which partly accounts for the polarizing nature of politics. Issues arise when this defensiveness of our opinions inhibits our ability to discuss them — especially, a problem for those who view disagreement itself as a challenge to their credibility or reason. We cannot just stop talking about sensitive topics. Even outside the actual decisions discussed, avoiding conflicts might only intensify them. In the words of Michelle Maiese, a professor of philosophy at Emmanuel College: 'Intractable conflicts are ones that remain unresolved for long periods of time and then become stuck at a high level of intensity and destructiveness.' ADVERTISEMENT Sure, avoiding an argument allows initial conflict to simmer down. But leaving matters unresolved builds resentment. Disputes should be managed as soon as those involved are willing to and capable of solving them productively. Conflict is a far too common occurrence to avoid and fight about indefinitely. Our inability to consistently resolve disagreements needs to change. This begins with reconsidering our approach to discourse. In a TED talk, author David Dylan Thomas identifies a few rules to keep in mind when engaging in difficult discussions; we can use these as a basis for understanding what can be done to make our own arguments more productive. First, participants in discourse should possess the mindset that neither side is irrevocably correct. It is easier for one to fall into a defensive stance when they feel that what they are defending must be true. This is why an open mindset is so important. There is no use in discussing something where nobody is willing to shift their position; the most satisfying compromise often lies outside at least one of the parties' initial perspectives. ADVERTISEMENT Second, too many disputants view discussion with the perspective that shifting from their position means losing the argument. Thomas's second rule warns us against this perspective. Competition in arguments not only leads to defensiveness, but, also, it causes people to push their perspective onto others, and escalate conflict further. Compromise should not be viewed as a loss. Finally, those participating in discourse should do so with the goal to create something new. This orientation presumes that each party has something of value to contribute. Therefore, in order for a resolution to be reached that satisfies all, everybody must be heard in the process. Resolving conflict requires respect and communication — regardless of the opinions of opposing parties. Discourse is not about competition. It is about co-operation. Victory in an argument should never come at the cost of the issue being argued, nor at the expense of those with whom it is disputed. Connor Thorson is a Grade 11 student at Regina's Campbell Collegiate. Share your views The Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix welcome opinion articles. Click here to find out what you need to know about how to write one that will increase the odds it will be published. Send submissions to letters@ or ptank@ Related ADVERTISEMENT The Regina Leader-Post has created an Afternoon Headlines newsletter that can be delivered daily to your inbox so you are up to date with the most vital news of the day. Click here to subscribe. With some online platforms blocking access to the journalism upon which you depend, our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informed. Click here to subscribe.
Miami Herald
05-05-2025
- Miami Herald
College admissions employee tries sex trafficking teen applicant in MA, feds say
An administrator at a private Catholic college in Boston faces a federal sex trafficking charge after prosecutors said he kept texting a 17-year-old prospective student, offering to pay her $400 for sex acts with him. Jacob Henriques, 29, who was the assistant admissions director at Emmanuel College, gave the teen a tour of the school and then started texting her — without revealing who he was — hours later on April 25, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts. She's one of at least three admitted or prospective students Henriques met with that day and started contacting, offering to 'pay them for some fun,' prosecutors said. Henriques also offered to share pornography and sent pornographic content to some of them, according to prosecutors. Henriques, of Boston, has potentially preyed on a number of victims between 2024 and 2025, according to the FBI, which is investigating. The agency's Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force is looking for additional possible victims. Now, Henriques is charged with attempted sex trafficking of a minor, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a May 2 news release. He was arrested the evening of May 2. He was due in Boston federal court on May 5. Attorney information for him wasn't immediately available. The text messages When Henriques showed the 17-year-old girl around Emmanuel College on April 25, prosecutors said he asked her where she went to high school and what grade she was in. Then, 'within hours of finishing the tour,' he messaged the phone number she included on her college admissions form and offered her $400 to have ''some fun' right now,' prosecutors said. Henriques also said he had pornographic videos and photos 'for her,' according to prosecutors. He texted her again that night, still not revealing who he was or how he had her contact information, prosecutors said. Although she continued to reject Henriques' offers, he wouldn't stop texting the teen, according to prosecutors. In his text messages, Henriques told her ''porn' and '$' was ready for her,'' then 'sent (her) five pornographic videos depicting men and women engaged in sex acts and asked her whether or not she wanted to participate in a 'gangbang,'' prosecutors said. He kept questioning whether she'd like to engage in sex acts with him and offered to buy 'anything she wanted' if she agreed, according to prosecutors. After she blocked his number, prosecutors said he contacted her, asking for sex acts, this time via email. For three days — from the day Henriques gave the teen a tour of Emmanuel College up until April 28 — he visited her online profile 47 times, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. When Emmanuel College staff learned he was accused of predatory behavior, the school fired him, the college said in a statement, according to the Boston Herald. 'Emmanuel College is saddened, angered, and shocked by these serious federal allegations that have been brought against a former employee….We have cooperated fully with authorities from the moment this matter came to our attention and will continue to do so,' the college said. Online search results show Emmanuel College listed Henriques as a 'proud alum' of the school's class of 2021 and that he reviewed college applications from local regions of Massachusetts. His full employee profile is no longer visible as of May 5. The FBI urges potential victims, or parents of minors alleged to be victimized by Henriques, to share information by filling out an online form. If Henriques is convicted of attempted sex trafficking of a minor, he'd face a minimum mandatory sentence of 10 years in federal prison, at least five years of supervised release and up to a $250,000 fine, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
