Latest news with #NaomiKlein
Vancouver Sun
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Vancouver Sun
Tennis officials refuse call to cancel Davis Cup match-up between Israel and Canada in Halifax
Tennis officials are refusing to give in to the demands of an open letter calling for the cancellation of a match-up between Israeli and Canadian players that's scheduled to be hosted in Halifax next month. On Sept. 12 and 13, Canada and Israel will play each other in the Davis Cup, the leading team tennis event in the world. The result of the tie, a series of five matches, will determine which country advances to the 2026 Davis Cup Qualifiers. The letter, which was signed by more than 400 academics, activists, athletes and writers argues that sport can no longer be treated as simply sport given the international scrutiny over Israel's military operations in Gaza. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. 'This is an important moment for Sport Canada and Tennis Canada to promote social justice and stand on the right side of history,' says a letter addressed to the two organizations. The International Tennis Federation (ITF), which organizes the Davis Cup, said in a statement that it would not bar Israel from competing. 'We recognize this is a highly complex situation that goes far beyond sport. However, Israel has not been excluded from international sporting events and it has not been suspended by the International Olympic Committee,' the ITF said. 'Across tennis, careful consideration is given to the participation of teams and players representing every nation, and the safety of all players, tournament staff and supporters is always paramount at every event. We will continue to work closely with Tennis Canada in relation to this event.' Tennis Canada also said the match will go ahead as planned and emphasized that its role is to promote the sport and create opportunities for players and fans. Signatories to the letter include journalists and University of British Columbia professors Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis, Alex Neve, formerly the secretary general of Amnesty International Canada, and now a professor at the University of Ottawa, and three former United Nations special rapporteurs. Scores of other academics across a variety of research fields, including geography, history and kinesiology, also signed the letter. They argue that Canada has issued sanctions against Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel's national security minister, and Defence Minister Bezalel Smotrich. The letter also alleges that Israel is committing a genocide, something the Canadian government has not stated. Israel denies the allegation. 'Allowing this competition is unconscionable,' the letter says. David Cooper, vice president of government relations for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said that a 'small mob of extremists' shouldn't get to determine who competes at the Davis Cup. 'Giving in to their demands would stain our country's reputation and undermine the integrity of international sport. All Canadians must stand together against those who use intimidation to dictate who plays tennis in Canada,' Cooper said in an emailed statement. Recently, there have been a handful of instances where athletes have refused recently to compete against Israeli athletes — such as in June when a Jordanian under-19 basketball team refused to play its Israeli counterparts, forfeiting the match . Historically, exclusion from sporting events has sometimes been used to express international disapproval with a nation's actions. There were calls to ban Israel from the 2024 Olympics, but the IOC refused. The upcoming tennis matches are to take place in Halifax, N.S. In a recent meeting of the Halifax special events advisory committee , Sue Uteck, a member of the committee, noted that hosting the event is likely to be contentious and that she has been 'inundated' with emails and noted that there will be increased policing and security concerns while hosting the event. 'You never want to mix athletics and politics,' Uteck said. Claudine Ferragut, with Tennis Canada, described it as a 'rather complicated situation' in the Middle East and said there is work being done on a security plan for the event. 'We remain committed to the principle of sport to bring unity separate from political conflicts,' she said. Steven Guilbeault, Canada's culture minister, did not respond to a request for comment by press time. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .
The Advertiser
07-08-2025
- General
- The Advertiser
Childcare safety failures are a shock, how we respond shapes us for years to come
Like every Australian, I've watched the early learning safety crisis with heartbreak. The justified rage and anguish families feel is a response to a profound betrayal of our collective trust. Australia now stands at a pivotal moment. Societal shocks, as author Naomi Klein has noted, have the potential to be used to roll back progress that takes decades to achieve. We're already seeing this pattern emerge, with some calling to abandon the early learning system in favour of subsidising parents to stay home, with everyone understanding that this burden would overwhelmingly fall on women. I understand why many in this moment do not feel confident in our early learning system, and it is clear that major reforms are needed. But we must not let this crisis undo what generations of women fought so hard to build. I remember starting my career when access to high-quality early learning was virtually non-existent. Women faced impossible choices: abandon careers they'd spent a lifetime developing or cobble together unreliable care arrangements. Too many brilliant women stepped back, their talents lost to our workplaces and economy. The expansion of access to high-quality early childhood education and care changed that, brick by brick, centre by centre. This progress wasn't just awarded to us. Legions of women fought for it. Today, that system enables millions of Australian women to engage in the workforce, benefiting not only individuals but entire communities and our economy. Yet despite this progress, we still have a very long way to go. Australia ranks 34th globally for women's economic participation, despite having one of the world's most educated female populations. This paradox is clear in our workforce: around 70 per cent of Australia's part-time roles are filled by women, representing a striking underutilisation of decades of investment in women and girl's education and skills. Addressing this imbalance is not only fair but economically essential. CEW research conducted by Dr Angela Jackson shows that if women participated in our workforce at the same rate as men, we would unlock a million additional workers. Deloitte notes that achieving gender equality would grow our GDP by over $128 billion. According to the Grattan Institute, even a modest 2 per cent increase in women's workforce participation would inject over $11 billion into our nation's economy. Our economy is crying out for talent, facing critical skills shortages across every sector. Every economist in the country has been warning us about the slump in our national productivity. Nonetheless, we've failed to utilise our single biggest untapped resource: scores of qualified Australian women, over 140,000 of whom still cite early learning costs or availability as barriers to working more. We're leaving this immense talent base on the table at a time we absolutely cannot afford to. Ideas such as replacing early learning support for families with tax deductions might sound like flexibility, but they're a mirage. They disproportionately benefit higher-income families and fail to help those most in need of safe, affordable early education. Real flexibility requires structural reforms: universally accessible paid parental leave shared between partners; targeted tax reforms to reduce effective marginal rates that discourage women from increasing their hours; and most importantly, building a universal early learning system where access isn't determined by postcode or income. We must see early childhood education as essential infrastructure, like our schools and hospitals, vital to thriving communities. This system needs serious reform. New powers to strip funding from failing providers must be the beginning, not the end. We need better oversight, routine quality assessments, fairer wages and more support for our dedicated early educators. The overwhelming majority deserve our respect, not suspicion. In crisis, the temptation is to abandon what seems broken rather than fix it. But our early learning system is too important to abandon. The gains Australian women have made in workforce participation didn't happen by chance; they resulted from deliberate policy choices that strengthened entire communities. This progress remains vulnerable and requires ongoing commitment. Now, more than ever, Australia needs a robust, universal early childhood education system that supports women's workforce participation, economic and community prosperity, and ensures our children get the best start in life. Like every Australian, I've watched the early learning safety crisis with heartbreak. The justified rage and anguish families feel is a response to a profound betrayal of our collective trust. Australia now stands at a pivotal moment. Societal shocks, as author Naomi Klein has noted, have the potential to be used to roll back progress that takes decades to achieve. We're already seeing this pattern emerge, with some calling to abandon the early learning system in favour of subsidising parents to stay home, with everyone understanding that this burden would overwhelmingly fall on women. I understand why many in this moment do not feel confident in our early learning system, and it is clear that major reforms are needed. But we must not let this crisis undo what generations of women fought so hard to build. I remember starting my career when access to high-quality early learning was virtually non-existent. Women faced impossible choices: abandon careers they'd spent a lifetime developing or cobble together unreliable care arrangements. Too many brilliant women stepped back, their talents lost to our workplaces and economy. The expansion of access to high-quality early childhood education and care changed that, brick by brick, centre by centre. This progress wasn't just awarded to us. Legions of women fought for it. Today, that system enables millions of Australian women to engage in the workforce, benefiting not only individuals but entire communities and our economy. Yet despite this progress, we still have a very long way to go. Australia ranks 34th globally for women's economic participation, despite having one of the world's most educated female populations. This paradox is clear in our workforce: around 70 per cent of Australia's part-time roles are filled by women, representing a striking underutilisation of decades of investment in women and girl's education and skills. Addressing this imbalance is not only fair but economically essential. CEW research conducted by Dr Angela Jackson shows that if women participated in our workforce at the same rate as men, we would unlock a million additional workers. Deloitte notes that achieving gender equality would grow our GDP by over $128 billion. According to the Grattan Institute, even a modest 2 per cent increase in women's workforce participation would inject over $11 billion into our nation's economy. Our economy is crying out for talent, facing critical skills shortages across every sector. Every economist in the country has been warning us about the slump in our national productivity. Nonetheless, we've failed to utilise our single biggest untapped resource: scores of qualified Australian women, over 140,000 of whom still cite early learning costs or availability as barriers to working more. We're leaving this immense talent base on the table at a time we absolutely cannot afford to. Ideas such as replacing early learning support for families with tax deductions might sound like flexibility, but they're a mirage. They disproportionately benefit higher-income families and fail to help those most in need of safe, affordable early education. Real flexibility requires structural reforms: universally accessible paid parental leave shared between partners; targeted tax reforms to reduce effective marginal rates that discourage women from increasing their hours; and most importantly, building a universal early learning system where access isn't determined by postcode or income. We must see early childhood education as essential infrastructure, like our schools and hospitals, vital to thriving communities. This system needs serious reform. New powers to strip funding from failing providers must be the beginning, not the end. We need better oversight, routine quality assessments, fairer wages and more support for our dedicated early educators. The overwhelming majority deserve our respect, not suspicion. In crisis, the temptation is to abandon what seems broken rather than fix it. But our early learning system is too important to abandon. The gains Australian women have made in workforce participation didn't happen by chance; they resulted from deliberate policy choices that strengthened entire communities. This progress remains vulnerable and requires ongoing commitment. Now, more than ever, Australia needs a robust, universal early childhood education system that supports women's workforce participation, economic and community prosperity, and ensures our children get the best start in life. Like every Australian, I've watched the early learning safety crisis with heartbreak. The justified rage and anguish families feel is a response to a profound betrayal of our collective trust. Australia now stands at a pivotal moment. Societal shocks, as author Naomi Klein has noted, have the potential to be used to roll back progress that takes decades to achieve. We're already seeing this pattern emerge, with some calling to abandon the early learning system in favour of subsidising parents to stay home, with everyone understanding that this burden would overwhelmingly fall on women. I understand why many in this moment do not feel confident in our early learning system, and it is clear that major reforms are needed. But we must not let this crisis undo what generations of women fought so hard to build. I remember starting my career when access to high-quality early learning was virtually non-existent. Women faced impossible choices: abandon careers they'd spent a lifetime developing or cobble together unreliable care arrangements. Too many brilliant women stepped back, their talents lost to our workplaces and economy. The expansion of access to high-quality early childhood education and care changed that, brick by brick, centre by centre. This progress wasn't just awarded to us. Legions of women fought for it. Today, that system enables millions of Australian women to engage in the workforce, benefiting not only individuals but entire communities and our economy. Yet despite this progress, we still have a very long way to go. Australia ranks 34th globally for women's economic participation, despite having one of the world's most educated female populations. This paradox is clear in our workforce: around 70 per cent of Australia's part-time roles are filled by women, representing a striking underutilisation of decades of investment in women and girl's education and skills. Addressing this imbalance is not only fair but economically essential. CEW research conducted by Dr Angela Jackson shows that if women participated in our workforce at the same rate as men, we would unlock a million additional workers. Deloitte notes that achieving gender equality would grow our GDP by over $128 billion. According to the Grattan Institute, even a modest 2 per cent increase in women's workforce participation would inject over $11 billion into our nation's economy. Our economy is crying out for talent, facing critical skills shortages across every sector. Every economist in the country has been warning us about the slump in our national productivity. Nonetheless, we've failed to utilise our single biggest untapped resource: scores of qualified Australian women, over 140,000 of whom still cite early learning costs or availability as barriers to working more. We're leaving this immense talent base on the table at a time we absolutely cannot afford to. Ideas such as replacing early learning support for families with tax deductions might sound like flexibility, but they're a mirage. They disproportionately benefit higher-income families and fail to help those most in need of safe, affordable early education. Real flexibility requires structural reforms: universally accessible paid parental leave shared between partners; targeted tax reforms to reduce effective marginal rates that discourage women from increasing their hours; and most importantly, building a universal early learning system where access isn't determined by postcode or income. We must see early childhood education as essential infrastructure, like our schools and hospitals, vital to thriving communities. This system needs serious reform. New powers to strip funding from failing providers must be the beginning, not the end. We need better oversight, routine quality assessments, fairer wages and more support for our dedicated early educators. The overwhelming majority deserve our respect, not suspicion. In crisis, the temptation is to abandon what seems broken rather than fix it. But our early learning system is too important to abandon. The gains Australian women have made in workforce participation didn't happen by chance; they resulted from deliberate policy choices that strengthened entire communities. This progress remains vulnerable and requires ongoing commitment. Now, more than ever, Australia needs a robust, universal early childhood education system that supports women's workforce participation, economic and community prosperity, and ensures our children get the best start in life. Like every Australian, I've watched the early learning safety crisis with heartbreak. The justified rage and anguish families feel is a response to a profound betrayal of our collective trust. Australia now stands at a pivotal moment. Societal shocks, as author Naomi Klein has noted, have the potential to be used to roll back progress that takes decades to achieve. We're already seeing this pattern emerge, with some calling to abandon the early learning system in favour of subsidising parents to stay home, with everyone understanding that this burden would overwhelmingly fall on women. I understand why many in this moment do not feel confident in our early learning system, and it is clear that major reforms are needed. But we must not let this crisis undo what generations of women fought so hard to build. I remember starting my career when access to high-quality early learning was virtually non-existent. Women faced impossible choices: abandon careers they'd spent a lifetime developing or cobble together unreliable care arrangements. Too many brilliant women stepped back, their talents lost to our workplaces and economy. The expansion of access to high-quality early childhood education and care changed that, brick by brick, centre by centre. This progress wasn't just awarded to us. Legions of women fought for it. Today, that system enables millions of Australian women to engage in the workforce, benefiting not only individuals but entire communities and our economy. Yet despite this progress, we still have a very long way to go. Australia ranks 34th globally for women's economic participation, despite having one of the world's most educated female populations. This paradox is clear in our workforce: around 70 per cent of Australia's part-time roles are filled by women, representing a striking underutilisation of decades of investment in women and girl's education and skills. Addressing this imbalance is not only fair but economically essential. CEW research conducted by Dr Angela Jackson shows that if women participated in our workforce at the same rate as men, we would unlock a million additional workers. Deloitte notes that achieving gender equality would grow our GDP by over $128 billion. According to the Grattan Institute, even a modest 2 per cent increase in women's workforce participation would inject over $11 billion into our nation's economy. Our economy is crying out for talent, facing critical skills shortages across every sector. Every economist in the country has been warning us about the slump in our national productivity. Nonetheless, we've failed to utilise our single biggest untapped resource: scores of qualified Australian women, over 140,000 of whom still cite early learning costs or availability as barriers to working more. We're leaving this immense talent base on the table at a time we absolutely cannot afford to. Ideas such as replacing early learning support for families with tax deductions might sound like flexibility, but they're a mirage. They disproportionately benefit higher-income families and fail to help those most in need of safe, affordable early education. Real flexibility requires structural reforms: universally accessible paid parental leave shared between partners; targeted tax reforms to reduce effective marginal rates that discourage women from increasing their hours; and most importantly, building a universal early learning system where access isn't determined by postcode or income. We must see early childhood education as essential infrastructure, like our schools and hospitals, vital to thriving communities. This system needs serious reform. New powers to strip funding from failing providers must be the beginning, not the end. We need better oversight, routine quality assessments, fairer wages and more support for our dedicated early educators. The overwhelming majority deserve our respect, not suspicion. In crisis, the temptation is to abandon what seems broken rather than fix it. But our early learning system is too important to abandon. The gains Australian women have made in workforce participation didn't happen by chance; they resulted from deliberate policy choices that strengthened entire communities. This progress remains vulnerable and requires ongoing commitment. Now, more than ever, Australia needs a robust, universal early childhood education system that supports women's workforce participation, economic and community prosperity, and ensures our children get the best start in life.
The Guardian
06-08-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Leading global scholars sign letter urging UK to end Palestine Action ban
Naomi Klein and Angela Davis are among dozens of international scholars and writers who have signed a letter to the Guardian calling on the UK government to reverse the ban on Palestine Action. The letter applauds what it describes as a 'growing campaign of collective defiance' against the ban and commends the 'courageous stand' of hundreds of people who plan to risk arrest by declaring their support for Palestine Action during a mass protest in London on Saturday. Signatories from major academic institutions around the world also say they are 'especially concerned' about the ban's possible impact on universities across Britain and beyond. It comes as the pressure group Defend Our Juries plans to hold a 'mass action' in London on Saturday where participants have been asked to hold up signs saying: 'I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.' Police have warned they will carry out mass arrests of anyone contravening terrorism laws. A separate Palestine solidarity march is taking place in London on the same day. The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, proscribed Palestine Action last month after activists caused an estimated £7m of damage to jets at RAF Brize Norton military base in Oxfordshire. On Wednesday, a cabinet minister urged members of the public to stay away from events supporting proscribed organisations. Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, said the government would not dictate to police how they handled any action and added that some coverage had also been 'conflating legitimate protests'. She commended pro-Palestinian protesters who she said had been peacefully demonstrating outside parliament. But she added: 'There's a difference between that and supporting a proscribed terror organisation that wishes harm on the British people. And I would just urge people to stay away from those sorts of events and to exercise their democratic rights in a peaceful and legitimate way.' The letter from Klein, Davis and others states: 'As scholars dedicated to questions of justice and ethics we believe that Yvette Cooper's recent proscription of Palestine Action represents an attack both on the entire pro-Palestine movement and on fundamental freedoms of expression, association, assembly and protest.' It adds: 'As hundreds of people again risk arrest by joining street protests on 9 August and as so many students and teachers prepare for the start of another turbulent academic year, we express our full solidarity with those mobilising on their campuses or in their workplaces and communities to prevent genocide and to end all UK complicity with Israel's crimes.' Along with Klein, the Canadian author and activist who is now a professor at the University of British Columbia, and Davis, a former member of the Black Panther party who is now a distinguished professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz, other signatories include the American feminist philosopher Judith Butler, who is a distinguished professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Others who have signed the letter include the philosophers Étienne Balibar and Rebecca Comay. Historians include the Israeli political scientist Ilan Pappé of the University of Exeter and the British-Israeli academic Avi Shlaim of the University of Oxford. Prominent Palestinian signatories include Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said professor emeritus of modern Arab studies at Columbia University, Abdaljawad Omar, an assistant professor of philosophy and cultural studies at Birzeit University, and Haidar Eid, an associate professor of postcolonial literature at al-Aqsa University in Gaza. They are joined by the political thinker Michael Hardt of Duke University and Eyal Weizman, the British-Israeli founding director of Forensic Architecture and a professor at Goldsmiths, University of London. Their letter comes after 300 left-leaning Jewish figures, including the director Mike Leigh and the author Michael Rosen, earlier this week wrote to the prime minister, Keir Starmer, to describe the ban on Palestine Action as 'illegitimate and unethical'. That letter, by the human rights lawyer Geoffrey Bindman KC and the playwright Gillian Slovo, also accused the government of 'hand-wringing over the level of slaughter and suffering in Gaza and the West Bank' and of offering 'tacit support' for the actions of the Israeli state.
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
First They Brought Back Dire Wolves. Next Up Is the World's Tallest Bird
On Tuesday, Colossal Biosciences announced their plans to bring back the tallest bird that ever lived, which has been extinct for nearly 600 years. The giant moa — a husky, wingless bird that could stand almost 12 feet tall — once booked it across New Zealand's landscapes on legs that looked like a cross between an overgrown chicken and a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The moa has become closely linked with New Zealanders' cultural identity, and for the Māori, the nation's indigenous Polynseian people, it's a symbol of resourcefulness, as well as a reminder of the importance of caring for the environment. Colossal hopes to welcome the first new moas within five to 10 years, after they finish collecting enough ancient DNA samples to sequence the bird's genome. This isn't the first such announcement for the biosciences startup, which recently revealed they'd created three living dire wolves, a species not seen since roughly 10,000 BCE. The Dallas-based company has also been working to bring back the dodo, the Tasmanian tiger, and the woolly mammoth — their flagship project, which has so far produced some headline-making (and heart-capturing) woolly mice. More from Rolling Stone Oxygen May Have Caused a Mass Extinction. Then It Led to Human Life 'Completely Unqualified': Pa. Governor Torches RFK Jr. at Pharma Conference Naomi Klein: 'What They Want Is Absolutely Everything' Colossal's work has attracted a lot of attention from the public, and some controversy among conservationists and gene-editing scientists. In April, they debuted their dire wolf pups, which were created by editing parts of genomes sequenced from ancient DNA fragments into the genome of gray wolves, giving them dire wolf attributes. This prompted some in the scientific community to say they weren't actually dire wolves, just genetically-modified gray wolves with a stellar PR team. Colossal's chief science officer Beth Shapiro responded to taxonomical criticism by arguing that species are categories we use to group animals with similar attributes: 'If it looks like a dire wolf and it acts like a dire wolf, I'm gonna call it a dire wolf,' she told Rolling Stone at the time. The company's 'de-extinction' announcements, as the company calls their efforts to create animals with the attributes of species that have died off, have also attracted some major celebrity investors. While the dire wolves were promoted by investor George R.R. Martin, this latest project started with a pitch from Lord of Rings director and unofficial New Zealand tourism czar Peter Jackson, whose films introduced the world to the stunning mountain ranges and grassy plains of his homeland. He had long dreamed of bringing back the moa, right alongside wishing for personal submarines and jetpacks. 'Growing up in New Zealand, where the moa is such a predominant part of our national identity and culture, it was just like, wouldn't it be fantastic if the moa could be brought back?' he tells Rolling Stone. 'For decades, it seemed like a harebrained thought, just a pie in the sky. But then, when I spoke with Colossal for the first time a couple of years ago, I got the distinct impression that such a thing was no longer harebrained.' Jackson suggested adding the moa to their roster for de-extinction. He also encouraged a partnership between Colossal and the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre at the University of Canterbury, a leading institute of Māori indigenous scholarship in the region. According to Ngāi Tahu Research Centre director Mike Stevens, hunting the moa for food — and using its bones and feathers for tools and decoration — played a crucial role in helping the Māori people adapt to living in New Zealand after they migrated from Polynesia in the 1300s. '[The moa was] the key resource that allowed this relatively small founding population to survive and grow and flourish,' Stevens says. The Ngāi Tahu are the principal Māori tribe of the southern region of New Zealand — home to the South Island giant moa, the largest of the nine moa species Colossal plans to restore over the next five to 10 years. According to Māori lore, the 500-pound herbivores were fast runners who, once cornered, would defend themselves by kicking with those dino-chicken legs. Over time, the Māori's rate of harvesting the moa caught up with the bird's population — in part because crops grew and replenished themselves less quickly in New Zealand's subtropical climate than in the tropical Polynesian islands. '[The Māori] figured out that these islands offered a 'fragile plenty,' to borrow a phrase from one of the esteemed archeologists within our tribe,' Stevens says, referring to the nation's abundant but vulnerable ecosystem. After millions of years of shaping the nation's grasslands and forests through their feeding habits and seed dispersal, the moa went extinct roughly 150 years after the Māori arrived. In researching the moa through their partnership with Colossal, Stevens sees an opportunity for the Māori people to make new discoveries about themselves. 'We'll learn more about our earlier ancestors and their distinct interactions with this landscape,' he says. 'The way nature and culture continually shape one another.' For the next six months, Colossal scientists and archeologists from the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre will focus on collecting ancient DNA samples. They have recently been searching for moa fossils in New Zealand caves, and they've already managed to extract around two dozen samples from Jackson's personal collection of more than 300 moa fossils. They'll combine these with some samples from the Canterbury Museum in their quest to have enough DNA to begin building moa genomes for all nine species — the first of which they aim to complete in the summer of 2026. In the meantime, they've already built a reference genome of the tinamou, a South American bird thought to be the moa's closest living relative. Colossal CEO Ben Lamm says the partnership with the research center signals a new step in the company's work with indigenous groups. 'The stewards and the people of this land, the Māori, inviting us in, and working with them in a true collaborative fashion, where the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre is the driver of the project is not a way we've ever collaborated before,' he says. 'This is a long term partnership. We have gone so deep now in not just the ecological or environmental benefit of this species, but in the cultural history, it's been awesome.' 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The Guardian
15-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on the Women's prize for nonfiction: shining a light where it's badly needed
Female nonfiction writers are paid less on average, receive fewer reviews and win fewer prizes than men. Unsurprisingly, this means that women sell fewer books. So far this year, more than 60% of titles on the UK's hardback and paperback nonfiction bestseller lists have been by men. Kate Mosse wants to change this. Famously, she set up the Women's prize for fiction after there was not a single woman on the 1991 Booker shortlist. This year Ms Mosse's award celebrates its 30th anniversary. With previous winners including Zadie Smith, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Maggie O'Farrell, it has changed the publishing landscape to the extent that some suggest it is now redundant: last year, five out of the six books on the Booker prize shortlist were by women, and the winner was Samantha Harvey. Indeed, such is the pre-eminence of female novelists that there is talk of a crisis in men's fiction, and plans for an independent publisher, Conduit Books, especially for male authors. Nonfiction publishing, however, is a strikingly different story. Hence Ms Mosse's latest project: the Women's prize for nonfiction, which aims to do for female authors of serious narrative nonfiction what has already been achieved with fiction. Last year, Naomi Klein's quasi-memoir Doppelganger, about conspiracy theories and truth in politics, was the award's first winner. Last week, The Story of a Heart, by the doctor and writer Rachel Clarke, became the second, with her moving interweaving of the story of two children connected by a heart transplant with the history of heart surgery. Nonfiction books by women are not the only ones in need of help. With a few notable exceptions (including Prince Harry's memoir Spare and James Clear's self-help bestseller Atomic Habits), the overall picture for nonfiction publishing is bleak: last year, specialist and trade nonfiction combined had their lowest sales, in money terms, since 2015. In another blow for the publishing industry, last week a National Literacy Trust report revealed that reading for enjoyment among children and young people in the UK is at its lowest level in two decades. Only a quarter of teenage boys said they read books in their free time. One understandable response to figures like these is to emphasise the value of reading per se. But who and what we read matters as well as whether we do it. Part of the imbalance in nonfiction has been a historical perception of male expertise, particularly on certain topics. As with bias in class and race, publishing has been slow to address this proactively. In her 2021 book, The Authority Gap, examining why women are still taken less seriously than men, Mary Ann Sieghart stresses the importance of encouraging boys to read books about girls, and for men to seek out women's voices. There have been many efforts to address such discrimination constructively. Women Also Know Stuff, for example, is a database of experts created with the aim of increasing female representation. 'Most women fight wars on two fronts,' Rebecca Solnit wrote in her essay Men Explain Things to Me. 'One for whatever the putative topic is and one simply for the right to speak, to have ideas, to be acknowledged to be in possession of facts and truths, to have value.' For the help it offers to female authors fighting such battles, as well as the attention it brings to new books, the Women's prize for nonfiction should be welcomed.
