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1. ‘The cover-up is brazen’: one journalist’s tenacious, traumatic fight to expose Ghislaine Maxwell
Lucia Osborne-Crowley has endured threats and sexual harassment to report on Jeffrey Epstein’s chief enabler. Maxwell’s conviction was only the start of the quest for justice, she told Melissa Denes.
2. ‘Would you like me to cry now?’ Louis Theroux on the manosphere, marriage and misunderstandings
“I stand in the rain, confused. Was that interview a little off? Louis Theroux seemed not to like my questions, which were typical interview questions, related to him and his big glossy Netflix debut, Inside the Manosphere. He seemed, I don’t know, prickly? A bit testy? I’m prone to rumination, so perhaps I am overthinking. Because Louis Theroux is a good guy, right? He skewers the bad guys. And yet here I am, baffled. The only thing to do is sit in a cafe and replay the tape … ”
He’s television’s most daring documentary-maker, known for asking questions others wouldn’t. But, as Charlotte Edwardes discovered, Theroux doesn’t seem to like it when the tables are turned.
3. How the US far right bought into the myth of white South Africa’s persecution
“There’s a little town in the scrub in South Africa – a full day’s drive from the country’s big cities – that has become perhaps the most scrutinised place on earth, given its size … No people of colour are allowed to live in the town, called Orania. The name is a nod to the river that runs nearby. Orania’s founders established it in 1991, the year after Nelson Mandela was freed following 27 years in prison.”
When Donald Trump granted white South Africans refugee status, he was echoing a falsehood about Black people taking revenge for years of brutality. But no one flourishes in a repressive police state. In this fascinating long read, Eve Fairbanks explored the truth about life for white South Africans under apartheid and in the present day.
4. Fifty years of sexing up tech: Apple’s epic hits – and misses
Remember the iPod? How about the Pippin? In the half-century since it launched its first PC, Apple has given us some amazing innovations. Chris Stokel-Walker rounded up its biggest triumphs and flops – from the genius of the Apple II to the folly of the Vision Pro headset.
5. Did baby boomers eat all the pies? John Lanchester on the truth about the generation gap
It’s a grim time to be in your 20s, no doubt, but don’t blame it all on older people, wrote John Lanchester in this thoughtful essay: being chopped up into ever smaller rivalries only serves the market.
6. ‘I feel I am not yet grown up’: Alan Bennett’s diary of his 90th year
“A call from Radio 4 for my views on assisted dying. Answer: too near to the unassisted type to be keen on it.”
He got stuck in the bath and met the queen. But despite a few wobbles and procedures, the author still couldn’t believe his age in this delightful extract from his fourth collection of diaries.
