All posts tagged: guardian

The Guardian names five new correspondents to cover underreported communities

The Guardian names five new correspondents to cover underreported communities

The five new Guardian correspondents The Guardian has appointed five new correspondents in the Caribbean, South America, Africa and UK with the aim of boosting coverage of underreported communities. The new roles are part of Guardian owner Scott Trust’s programme of restorative justice addressing the newspaper’s historical connections with transatlantic slavery, first revealed in July. Natricia Duncan, who has written for national media in her native St Vincent and the Grenadines and for The Guardian in the UK on immigration and race equality issues, has been named the title’s first Caribbean correspondent, based in Jamaica. She said: “Coming from a small island in the Caribbean, I understand the importance of giving voice to those who feel marginalised and invisible.   “Despite its rich cultural tapestry, dynamic leaders and complex environmental and socio-economic challenges, the region is often misunderstood, misrepresented, or ignored by global media.”  Thanks for subscribing. Close Tiago Rogero joins as South America correspondent based in Brazil, where he created the award-winning narrative podcast Projeto Querino. Content from our partners Eromo Egbejule has been …

The Guardian view on unpaid care: time to heed Kate and Derek’s story | Editorial

The Guardian view on unpaid care: time to heed Kate and Derek’s story | Editorial

It is an extraordinary story, it is an ordinary tragedy. Kate Garraway’s documentaries about caring for her late husband, Derek Draper, have drawn huge publicity and millions of viewers. That is partly testimony to the celebrity of the couple – a TV presenter and a New Labour politico – but it is mostly due to the power of their story. Covid ravaged every organ in Mr Draper’s body so that, in the programme aired this week, viewers saw this vibrant, sharp-witted man confined to a bed, struggling to walk or to form sentences. “His brain was his best friend,” Ms Garraway remarked at one point. “Now it is like his brain is his enemy.” Meanwhile, the work of caring for him pushed  her to the edge financially, psychologically, even physically. The stress was so severe that she developed heart pains that forced her to attend hospital. Even amid this intimate suffering, Ms Garraway knows there are millions of other households in similar situations – except without her profile, access to expertise or high salary. Among the …

The Guardian view on Evan Gershkovich’s year behind bars: Moscow should free him now | Editorial

The Guardian view on Evan Gershkovich’s year behind bars: Moscow should free him now | Editorial

Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, has spent nearly a year in a Moscow prison, awaiting trial for a crime he did not commit. Mr Gershkovich was arrested last March in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg and jailed on espionage charges. He is not a spy. He is a journalist, and should be released immediately. Hostage diplomacy lies behind his incarceration. As the US ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, said, Mr Gershkovich’s case “is not about evidence, due process, or rule of law. It is about using American citizens as pawns to achieve political ends”. Vladimir Putin indicated in February that a prisoner exchange could lead to the release of Mr Gershkovich. There have been high-profile prisoner swaps in the past. In December 2022, Moscow traded a US basketball star convicted of a drugs offence in Russia for a Russian arms trafficker. But a journalist’s detention to secure the release of a Russian hitman would underscore Russia’s retreat into a Soviet past. In 1986 an American journalist, Nicholas Daniloff, was arrested and charged with …

The Guardian view on the UN security council’s ceasefire resolution: the US talks tougher on Israel | Editorial

The Guardian view on the UN security council’s ceasefire resolution: the US talks tougher on Israel | Editorial

The extent of the Biden administration’s shift at the United Nations security council on Monday should not be underestimated. The US is not only by far Israel’s most important ally and supplier of aid, but has provided it with stalwart diplomatic support. That it abstained instead of vetoing a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire – as it had previously done – was a major departure and leaves Israel looking extremely isolated, as Benjamin Netanyahu’s angry reaction showed. Yet the US has since done its best to talk down its decision, with officials insisting that there has been no change in policy and describing the resolution as non-binding. That is not the view of other security council members or the UN itself. António Guterres, the UN secretary general, wrote that it would be “unforgivable” to fail to implement the resolution, which also called for the unconditional release of hostages. But Israeli airstrikes have continued. The Biden administration is well aware that this war is ravaging its international standing: it is judged both complicit in the suffering …

The Guardian view on fake campaign videos: the costs of spreading false information are real | Editorial

The Guardian view on fake campaign videos: the costs of spreading false information are real | Editorial

“People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones” is a phrase that must be ringing in the ears of Tory party campaigners. They were caught spreading election disinformation against Labour’s London mayor on the day that Conservative ministers accused Chinese hackers of meddling in democracy by targeting Beijing’s opponents in the UK. The Conservative party did delete footage of a panicked crowd at a New York subway station, which it used to falsely state that London had become a “crime capital of the world”, after online criticism. But the rest of the video, with its spurious claims, remained up on Tuesday evening. Sadiq Khan, who is standing for re-election for a third term as London mayor this May, rightly condemned the Tory video as lies and misinformation. The Conservative party is resorting to underhand tactics and fake news because it has an uninspiring candidate, Susan Hall, in London and is far behind in the polls. In January, the Tories posted an attack video on social media that misrepresented comments by Mr Khan to make …

The Guardian appoints first Caribbean correspondent | The Guardian

The Guardian appoints first Caribbean correspondent | The Guardian

The Guardian has appointed its first Caribbean correspondent, marking one year since the newspaper’s owner issued an apology for the role its founders played in transatlantic slavery. The position – which is unique among UK news organisations – will focus on the underreported region, alongside a boost to coverage across Africa and South America. Natricia Duncan will take up the new role, based in Jamaica. She said that despite the Caribbean’s “rich cultural tapestry, dynamic leaders and complex environmental and socioeconomic challenges, the region is often misunderstood, misrepresented, or ignored by global media”. Duncan is one of seven new reporters appointed since Guardian News & Media published the Scott Trust Legacies of Enslavement report into the newspaper’s historical links with transatlantic slavery in March 2023. Katharine Viner, the editor-in-chief of Guardian News & Media, said the roles were evidence of the Guardian’s long-term commitment to the work begun by the report and would help produce journalism that offers “a depth and breadth rarely seen in the western media”. The independent academic research was published in …

The Guardian view on terror in Moscow: Putin’s cynical blame game should fool no one | Editorial

The Guardian view on terror in Moscow: Putin’s cynical blame game should fool no one | Editorial

The worst terrorist attack on their soil for two decades has left Russians in shock and looking for explanations. Over the weekend, survivors graphically conveyed the horror that unfolded on Friday evening inside the Crocus City Hall, in Moscow’s commuter belt. Hunted down by at least four gunmen, minutes before a rock concert was due to begin, 137 people have so far lost their lives. That death toll is almost certain to rise, given the number of seriously wounded. After an atrocity that recalls all too clearly the Islamic State attacks on the Bataclan nightclub in Paris and Manchester Arena, the world has mourned with Russia. But after terror has come obfuscation and disinformation. Though all available evidence suggests this murderous rampage was the work of a branch of IS based principally in Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan, the Kremlin is cynically choosing to exploit the carnage for propaganda purposes against Ukraine. On Sunday evening, four Tajik citizens were charged with the attack, appearing in court after having clearly been beaten and tortured. But Vladimir Putin …

The Guardian view on the Princess of Wales: she has the right to heal privately | Editorial

The Guardian view on the Princess of Wales: she has the right to heal privately | Editorial

A cancer diagnosis is shocking for anyone, but particularly for younger people, in whom cancer is much rarer. In the UK, adults aged 25 to 49 account for 9% of new cases. For people with dependent children, this dreadful news can be even harder to manage; sometimes the person most upset by bad news is not the patient. It was clear from Friday’s video recording of the Princess of Wales that the impact of her illness on her three children – aged 10, eight and five – was foremost among the reasons why the news was kept from the public until then. Her explanation resonated with millions of people, whatever their opinions about the royal family. The sharing of more details about the future queen’s health was inevitable. Her three-month absence, after a 13-day hospital stay and abdominal surgery in January, led to an information vacuum. The coincidence of the king’s cancer diagnosis – and the fact that the pair were in the same private London hospital at the same time – served to magnify …

The Guardian view on rising poverty levels: political attacks on the poor have produced penury | Editorial

The Guardian view on rising poverty levels: political attacks on the poor have produced penury | Editorial

Poverty is a political choice – one that Conservative governments have much to answer for. Since 2010, Tory administrations have chosen to have a significant percentage of our population impoverished, including, especially, our country’s children. The Child Poverty Action Group’s analysis of official data last week showed that a third of those between infancy and adulthood – 4.3 million children – were in relative poverty, up from 3.6 million in 2010-11. Even by the government’s preferred measure, absolute poverty, the share of children in penury rose in 2022-23 by its highest rate for 30 years. No principle of economics says such a degree of immiseration should prevail in one of the richest countries in the world. The reason for this extraordinary rise in poverty? The most obvious explanation is the low level of benefits and the restrictions on accessing support. Benefit levels have fallen by 8.8% in real terms since 2012. Cutting back on welfare produces more poverty, not less. There is money. But not specifically for the poor. Ministers tout tax cuts worth £9 a week …

The Guardian view on Aya Nakamura: gifted, black and French | Editorial

The Guardian view on Aya Nakamura: gifted, black and French | Editorial

Opening ceremonies to Olympic Games are an opportunity for nations to tell a positive story to the world and to themselves. In 2012, Danny Boyle’s virtuoso portrait of a vibrant, multicultural Britain did just that. Sadly, a far less uplifting narrative has been taking shape across the channel, ahead of this summer’s Olympics in Paris. A vicious outpouring of bile from far-right politicians has followed unconfirmed rumours that Aya Nakamura, a black French-Malian pop star, may be chosen to sing at the Paris Games. On the banks of the Seine, a racist banner was unfurled by far-right activists that read: “No way Aya; this is Paris, not the Bamako market.” Last week, Marine Le Pen weighed in, denying Ms Nakamura’s fitness for the Olympics role and ridiculing her lyrics, which deploy the argot typical of the working-class Parisian suburb where she grew up. “I’m going to talk to you about her outfit, her vulgarity, the fact that she doesn’t sing French,” Ms Le Pen said on national radio. “She doesn’t sing foreign either. She sings we don’t …