Latest news with #HelenPidd
The Guardian
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Arise, Sir David Beckham
'England trail by two goals to one. Beckham could raise the roof here with a goal,' goes the commentary, as David Beckham lines up a free-kick against Greece, shortly before whipping it into the top corner. 'I don't believe it! David Beckham scores the goal to take England all the way to the World Cup finals! Give that man a knighthood!' The year was 2001, and the ultimate honour seemed close for England's biggest football player – and perhaps the most famous living Briton, full stop. Yet as the longtime Beckham watcher Zoe Williams describes, it has been a long wait. As she tells Helen Pidd, Beckham was a pioneer for many reasons in the 1990s and early 2000s: a gay icon in a masculine world; an openly loving dad; and, of course, an extremely successful athlete. But his career has been beset by scandal, too – from reports of affairs, and allegations over his tax arrangements, to disappointments over his association with Qatar. Still, on Friday it was finally announced that Beckham was to receive his knighthood – the fruits of a campaign for the honour that started more than a decade ago. So why now? And what does it say about the UK's honours system – and its class system – that it took so long?
The Guardian
28-05-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
On trial for having an abortion
In November 2020, in the middle of a national lockdown, Nicola Packer found out she was pregnant. It was a shock, she tells the Guardian's north of England correspondent, Hannah Al-Othman. Nicola hadn't really thought she was pregnant, didn't even believe she could conceive and had never wanted children anyway. After a call to the UK's largest abortion provider, she was sent pills to terminate her pregnancy. They believed, she was told, she was about six weeks pregnant. But when Nicola took the pills, she found out that her pregnancy was far more advanced than she could have imagined. Yet if that was traumatic, what was to come was even worse. As Helen Pidd hears, when Nicola went to the hospital for medical treatment afterwards, she was passed on to the police. Eventually, she was charged with carrying out an illegal abortion, and – in a case that has led to activists and MPs calling for a change in the law – came to stand trial in April this year.
The Guardian
09-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
The heroic Guardian reporter who documented the rise of the Nazis
Frederick Augustus Voigt was the Manchester Guardian's Berlin correspondent between 1920 and 1932. In this episode, two fellow former Berlin correspondents, Helen Pidd and Philip Oltermann, discuss Voigt's incredible reporting on the rise of Nazi Germany. 'I think he saw that it was important not to give the Nazis the 'both sides' treatment,' Philip says. 'And was really razor sharp when it came to focusing on the political violence that the Nazis were inflicting on political opponents or on Jewish citizens.' The pair discuss how Voigt became a target and moved to Paris in 1932, where he learned about a Gestapo plan to track him down and shoot him. 'He slept in this tiny apartment with several French secret service agents with machine guns sleeping on the floor to protect him,' Philip says. Philip and Helen also reflect on how the media covers the far-right AFD party in Germany today. Support the Guardian today:
The Guardian
29-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Labour v Reform UK: on the road in Runcorn
Runcorn, a town in Cheshire, has not been the most politically interesting place in recent memory. In fact Runcorn and Helsby has been a safe Labour seat for decades. Then the MP Mike Amesbury resigned after punching a constituent, triggering a byelection. Now Reform UK are nipping at Labour's heels in the battle for the ward. Helen Pidd has been out in the town to find out what voters think about the government and Nigel Farage. She spoke to voters who are angry at Reform's tactics of focusing on migration, but who also feel let down by Labour. She visits Labour's almost empty electoral nerve centre and notices the optimism in Reform's office. Even a passing Liberal candidate is struck by the efficiency of the Reform machine and the apparent enthusiasm for it. And she also heads to a hotel that has been housing asylum seekers to see how it has become a flashpoint in local politics. The Guardian's political correspondent, Kiran Stacey, tells Helen how the byelection may show how much of a risk Reform could be to Labour, and how the mayoral and local elections could play for the Conservatives, the Lib Dems and the Green party. What will they tell us about the state of politics in the UK today?
The Guardian
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The authors taking on Mark Zuckerberg
Earlier this month, a group of protesters gathered outside the London headquarters of Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. They were demonstrating over the company's use of millions of pirated books and research papers to feed their family of generative AI models, known as Llama. AJ West is a bestselling author of historical fiction and an organiser of the protest. He tells Helen Pidd that he was devastated to discover his books may have been used in this way, and he warns that if the UK government does not step in to protect writers' copyright, the arts will become even more of a privilege of the rich. 'Never in the history of British literature has there been such a towering, brazen attempt on British copyright' – AJ West. Ella Creamer, a books reporter at the Guardian, explains that a growing number of authors in the US have filed lawsuits against Meta claiming their copyright has been infringed and that their livelihoods may well be under threat. She discusses the way Meta has tried to justify its actions by claiming fair use and presenting it as a form of innovation that will ultimately serve society, despite a cache of emails being released that reveal the mixed feelings of Meta employees. The writer and campaigner Kate Mosse outlines to Helen just how much work goes into writing a novel and how the UK government would be unwise to risk the future of the creative industries, despite her belief that truly creative writing could never be replaced by AI. Support the Guardian today:
