Championship: On as a substitute, Shandon Baptiste has scored what could be a massive goal for Luton against Coventry. It was a scrappy effort that took a big deflection off a defender who couldn’t sort his feet out but Hatters fans won’t care. A win will take them out of the relegation zone for a couple of hours at least.
League Two: Doncaster Rovers are 2-0 up against Bradford City, with Billy Sharp doubling their lead after Tyrick Wright missed a penalty for the Bantams. A win will send Donny up to League One and leave Bradford in the third automatic promotion place. In London, Port Vale are beating AFC Wimbledon 2-0 and will also go unless Bradford can turn things around very quickly and win against Doncaster Rovers.
You would be forgiven if you were mistaken in thinking Nicolas Jackson’s striking finish against Everton meant more than what it was. The 1-0 victory was a crucial step in their Champions League pursuit. Still, when the ball hit the back of the net Jackson looked to have tears in his eyes as he emotionally celebrated. It was the striker’s first in 14 games and amid the hosts’ recent struggles up front, it felt like a welcome breakthrough, belied that the job of securing their European ambitions is far from over.
Before kick-off, Chelsea had averaged more shots per game at home than any other Premier League side this season with 18.8 and the trend continued on Saturday. The first half saw five shots from the hosts against an Everton side who had little to play for after safety confirmation last weekend. The visitors offered little going forward despite Moisés Caicedo playing out of position at right-back at the expense of the captain, Reece James, to make room for Roméo Lavia in midfield, back for the first time in over a month.
Child’s father pushes to have her returned to US as White House challenges law with its immigration crackdown
The Trump administration appeared to have deported a two-year-old US citizen “with no meaningful process”, a federal judge said on Friday, as the child’s father sought to have her returned to the United States.
It is the latest example of the White House cracking down on documented immigrants, including green card holders and also even citizens who have the status by birth or naturalization. The unorthodox policy and the frequent avoidance of due process has brought about a clash with the judicial branch of the US government in a battle over the constitution.
Bhoys confirmed as champions with four matches left
Doubles from Kühn and Idah power Celtic to victory
Celtic have been confirmed as Scottish Premiership champions for the fourth successive season – their 55th league title and their second trophy of the campaign – after they thrashed Dundee United 5-0 at Tannadice.
Rangers had kept the race going last Sunday by coming from two goals down, and with 10 men to draw 2-2 at Aberdeen. However, Celtic’s cruise took them 18 points clear on top, rendering Rangers’ later match at St Mirren irrelevant to the title.
Two leaders meet at Pope Francis’s funeral to discuss Washington’s plan for an end to the fighting
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy used their time at the Vatican while attending the funeral of Pope Francis to discuss a possible ceasefire with Russia, with the Ukrainian president releasing a photograph of a seemingly intense conversation in St Peter’s Basilica.
The White House described the meeting as “very productive”, while Zelenskyy said on X that the talk with the US president was very symbolic and had the “potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results”.
From stocky rhinos to mighty oak trees, dragging these costumes over 26 miles can be a punishing experience
A few minutes before the 2023 London Marathon began, Richard Stoate was getting into costume on the side of the road.
It was a two-person job: the 43-year-old wasn’t just wearing trainers and sportswear for the 26.2-mile run. He was raising money for the young people’s charity WellChild, so – with his partner’s help – he climbed into a 10ft (3-metre) purple nurse costume.
The actor announced the change on her podcast. Apparently this is international news – and it has a serious side
You’re going to want to sit down for this one, because there’s a lot to digest. Gwyneth Paltrow, who has consciously uncoupled from multiple food groups in the past, is bringing pasta back into her life. And she can have a little bread and cheese, too, as a treat.
A study shows the impact of feeding challenges on maternal mental health. With official help in short supply, it’s time to support each other
Anyone who has struggled mentally knows it is often only with time and recovery that you can challenge the destructive thought patterns that once plagued you. That said, hindsight can also be a strange thing. While collecting Republic of Parenthood columns for a book, I spent time revisiting my old articles about my struggles with breastfeeding. I felt vindicated, as some of the things I wrote have since been confirmed.
This week, the largest ever qualitative study on how difficulties with breastfeeding affects mothers’ mental health has been published in Scientific Reports. More than 2,000 mothers were surveyed with 65% reporting difficulties with infant latching, “which seemed to impact mental health”.. Feeling like “a bad mum” and “like I had failed my baby” were some of the common reasons given by participants.
This week’s oral immunotherapy breakthrough is part of wider surge of interest in developing treatments
A severe food allergy is among the few conditions that can propel a person from robust health to unconsciousness within minutes, and the risk of accidental exposure often casts a shadow of anxiety over those affected.
But change is afoot, with a groundbreaking trial this week showing that two-thirds of adults with severe peanut allergies can be desensitised through clinically supervised daily exposure. The approach – oral immunotherapy – is already successfully used in children and is among a wave of treatments on the horizon aimed at reducing the burden of allergies – and potentially curing them.
David A Graham’s latest book considers the vast far-right plan to change US politics – and why its architects are playing the long game
David A Graham doesn’t say he read Project 2025 so you don’t have to, but it might be inferred.
The Atlantic staff writer’s new book, The Project: How Project 2025 Is Reshaping America, is a swift but thorough overview of the vast far-right plan for a second Trump administration that achieved notoriety last year. Over just 138 pages, a passing dream next to the Heritage Foundation’s 922-page doorstop, Graham considers the origins of Project 2025, its aims and effects so far.
Environment groups say Thursday order ignores effort to adopt rules to prevent harmful mining of ocean floor
Environmental groups are decrying an executive order signed by Donald Trump to expedite deep-sea mining for minerals, saying it could irreparably harm marine ecosystems and ignores an ongoing process to adopt international rules for the practice.
Trump’s Thursday order directed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to fast-track permits for companies to mine the ocean floor in both US and international waters.
Cause of blast in southern port of Shahid Rajaee in Bandar Abbas unknown but one report says containers exploded
An immense blast in Iran’s southern port of Shahid Rajaee has wounded at least 516 people, according to state media.
The cause of the explosion in the southern city of Bandar Abbas was unknown, with the director general of the province’s crisis management body saying it was working to determine the cause of the incident.
Pope Francis has been eulogised as “a pope among the people, with an open heart towards everyone” during a funeral mass that brought together an array of mourners, from pilgrims and refugees to powerful world leaders and royals.
Francis, 88, died on Monday after a stroke and subsequent heart failure, setting into motion a series of centuries-old rituals and a huge, meticulously-planned logistical and security operation not seen in Italy since the funeral of John Paul II in April 2005.
The private school will open its first US campus in Long Island. Will it assimilate Americans into the upper crust – or is it more about branding?
This fall, the British boarding school Harrow will open its first offshoot in the US: a lush 170-acre waterfront campus in Long Island. For $75,000 a year, parents can wave away their children to the prestigiously named school, renowned for its centuries-old traditions (such as calling teachers “beaks” and bad behaviour “skew”). Classes will take place in the Bourne mansion, the opulent former home of a wealthy American businessman, around which modern facilities will be built.
A shiny teaser video paints an idyllic picture of an anglophile life at Harrow New York. “The school is like an oasis,” says Nick Page, former deputy head of Harrow UK, as drone footage pans out over pristine lawns and lakes, where ducklings and deer roam wild. “Yet so close to this huge metropolis of New York.” (The new school is almost equidistant from New York City and the Hamptons, so parents who have a seaside pied-à-terre can whisk away their darlings for the holidays.) In the video, students stroll about the verdant campus wearing Harrow’s trademark straw hats, and are seen painting, playing soccer, wearing VR goggles, reading poetry by Lord Byron and books about Winston Churchill.
Party eyes dramatic spending cuts to turn president’s promises into reality – but not all lawmakers are on board
Donald Trump has made a simple request of Congress’s Republican leaders: deliver “one big, beautiful bill” that will turn his campaign promises into reality. By all indications, there will be little beautiful about the negotiations to come when Congress returns to session on Monday.
The bill envisioned by the president will extend tax cuts enacted during his first term, fund more border defenses and mass deportations of undocumented immigrants and potentially include the president’s vow to end the taxation of tips, overtime and social security payments. To pay for it, the GOP is eyeing dramatic reductions in government spending, and has targeted social safety net programs relied on by tens of millions of Americans.
Dog walks can be a fraught time for both humans and their unruly friends, but follow these well-learned good behaviours and you’ll be the envy of the park
Across the hours of the day and the seasons of the year, Naseby Park is the place we return to, my dog and I. Surrounded by red sandstone tenements in Glasgow’s West End, and roughly the size of a football pitch, this is where we first walked our four-year-old labrador Brèagha (Scots Gaelic for beautiful and she is, uncommonly so, thanks for asking). All I know about the etiquette of dog walking has been gleaned from the humans and animals who have paced its perimeter with us, and these are cardinal rules I have learned …
The pro-Israel campaign to ‘protect’ Jews by punishing anti-Zionist speech often targetsJews. That is no surprise
The Trump administration claims that its moves to defund universities, arrest and deport students and force schools to demote or monitor professors are meant to combat antisemitism, protect Jewish students and remove “Hamas-supporting” foreign nationals from the country. American pro-Israel groups including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Hillel International, Aipac and the Heritage Foundation have united behind Republican measures to crack down on higher education and its putative antisemitism. Religiously identified groups such as the Orthodox Union and Christians United for Israel have joined the chorus, celebrating the punishment of supposedly antisemitic students and professors. Whatever their varied pasts, today’s pro-Israel groups are not about protecting American Jews. Instead, they are allies in Maga’s war on free speech, academic freedom and the US’s democratic society itself.
To be clear: the pro-Israel campaign to “protect” Jews by punishing anti-Zionist speech often targets Jews. After a student complaint about a tenured Jewish professor’s Twitter post, Muhlenberg College fired her. The ADL has rewarded Muhlenberg by grading it “better than most” colleges for fighting “antisemitism”. The ADL also accused Jewish Voice for Peace, a large, anti-Zionist Jewish group with chapters on many American campuses, of “promot[ing] messaging” that can include “support for terrorists”. Under pressure from the Trump administration, Columbia University expelled a Jewish graduate student and United Auto Workers local president who demonstrated against the war in Gaza.
Joshua Schreier is a professor of history and Jewish studies at Vassar College.
The health secretary has pledged to fight chronic illness, but experts say he risks increasing it with department cuts
The US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, entered office with a pledge to tackle the US’s chronic disease epidemic and give infectious disease a “break”. In at least one of those goals, Kennedy has been expeditious.
Experts said as Kennedy makes major cuts in public health in his first weeks in office, the infrastructure built to mitigate Covid-19 has become a clear target – an aim that has the dual effect of weakening immunization efforts as the US endures the largest measles outbreak since 2000.
Enzo Maresco celebrates his 50th game in charge of Chelsea by being banished from the touchline. “I will be watching in the stand behind the bench,” he explains, looking slightly sheepish. “We have five games to go and we are going to try and win all the games. For sure, we can start today.”
On Cole Palmer’s goal drought, he says: “I have a feeling today that it will be a good day for Cole and hopefully I’m not wrong.”
How did the women’s 1500m in the 2012 London Olympics get its unenviable reputation? Athletes who were cheated out of medals talk about what happened that day – and how the results have slowly unravelled
The tunnel in which athletes wait before they enter a stadium ahead of a major race is “by no means a friendly place to be”, says Lisa Dobriskey – and as a former Team GB athlete who won Commonwealth gold and world championship silver at 1500m, she has stood in enough of them to know. “Different people handle it differently,” she says. “Some people are really relaxed and friendly; other people just look right through you. It’s scary. I remember my coach saying to me, ‘When you go to the Olympics, you’ll be standing next to the meanest, toughest, hardest people that you’ll ever face.’ Everybody wants to win.”
As it turned out, the wait to walk into London’s Olympic stadium for the final of her event in August 2012 was even more stressful than she’d been warned. With British excitement at fever pitch, support and expectation for home athletes had reached near hysteria at times. “It was terrifying,” Dobriskey says of hearing the 80,000-strong crowd in the stadium. “People were yelling, people were screaming, it was overwhelming.”
An aromatic Persian stew, followed by stewed dried apricots with pistachio cookies
Spring is here in all its glory, as the birds testify with their ebullient chitter-chat. But the weather is wilful and the air can turn chilly in a flash, and it’s this in-between time when soothing braises made with lighter ingredients are just what’s needed. I recently found a recipe for an Iranian chicken stew recipe that paired carrots and yoghurt, and its sunniness really appealed to me; I added cardamom for its evocative scent and chickpeas for body, and it was demolished by the troops. Pudding had to be simple, and both the biscuits and poached apricots can be made a few days ahead, so it is also blissfully easy. A lovely spring lunch for a lazy, sun-soaked day.
Legal aid group says most students contacting them are Palestinian, Arab Muslim and other students of color
EK was completing a take-home exam on 6 March when the dean of student conduct at Swarthmore College emailed her about an urgent Zoom meeting. On the video call, she said, the dean told her that she would be suspended for one semester for staging a protest at the college’s trustees’ dinner in December 2023. Using a bullhorn, EK had interrupted the event to demand that the school divest from products that fuel Israel’s war on Gaza.
A panel of students and school employees had found her responsible for assault, among other code of conduct violations for the incident. EK, a final-semester senior who is using a pseudonym out of fear of retaliation, recalled being in shock: “I’ve been really distraught by all of this,” EK said. “I used to be unhoused before I came to Swarthmore, so to be put into this situation again is very disturbing.”
Eleanor wants to enjoy a garden that isn’t overgrown. Raheem argues it’s the landlord’s responsibility to maintain it. You decide whose argument doesn’t cut it
Senior officials unsure who to believe after aides fired and chief of staff quits amid look into Panama canal media leak
Defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s orbit has become consumed by a contentious leak investigation that those inside the Pentagon believe is behind the firing of three senior aides last week, according to five people involved in the situation.
The secretary’s office has been marked for weeks by ugly internal politics between chief of staff Joe Kasper, who left the department on Thursday, and the three ousted aides, including senior adviser Dan Caldwell, deputy chief Darin Selnick, and the chief to the deputy defense secretary, Colin Carroll.
Annual event likely to prove gloomy affair amid Trump attacks on press and rise of Maga media ecosystem
It is no laughing matter. The annual dinner for journalists who cover the White House is best known for American presidents trying to be funny and comedians trying to be political. But this year’s edition will feature neither.
Instead the event in a downtown Washington hotel on Saturday night will, critics say, resemble something closer to a wake for legacy media still trying to find an effective response to Donald Trump’s divide-and-rule tactics and the rise of the Maga media ecosystem.
There is a cynical, ‘anti-space’ ideology emerging, especially on some parts of the left. But this is misguided
John F Kennedy once called space-faring “the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which Man has ever embarked”. We go to space because, he said – like George Mallory said of his reason to conquer Everest – “it is there.”
While it is truer to say that the race for space between Washington and Moscow was driven as much by cold war competition as by humanity’s pioneering spirit and the imperatives of scientific exploration, billions of ordinary people around the world recognized as much at the time and still were able to marvel at our species’ accomplishments in the heavens regardless of the flag under which they were achieved, from Sputnik to the moon landing.
The city is a set for an urban opera, the French photographer says of Paris. All it needs is the right passersby
On the day he took this image, French photographer Michel Kharoubi was on his way to visit his father in a medical retirement home. This was shot in Les Olympiades, in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, but Kharoubi notes that the specific location is not important to him.
“I don’t practise realistic or documentary street photography, but try to capture iconic urban images,” he says. “I positioned myself against a wall and waited for the right characters to pass by.”
Filming in Los Angeles is at a historic low, with some suggesting the city might go the way of Detroit
When screenwriter David Scarpa visits the great Hollywood studios these days, he is struck by what is missing. “It used to be you’d walk around those back lots and you’d see many people and they were very busy,” Scarpa muses. “They were like small cities. Now often you’ll walk around and have nobody else there. It feels empty. You definitely feel the absence of life on those lots.”
Like the once proud industrial factories of the midwest, the dream factories of southern California are in decline. Last year was the worst for on-location filming in Los Angeles since tracking began 30 years ago apart from pandemic-hit 2020. Of all the TV shows and feature films that North American audiences watch, only one-fifth are now made in California.
Our guide to the elites, record breakers and ever presents as 56,000 brave souls race in largest one-day fundraising event
The 45th running of the London Marathon gets under way in Greenwich on Sunday morning, a diverse multitude of elite athletes, costumed fun-runners, wheelchair competitors, the capital’s streets thronging with supporters over 26.2 miles, all cheering home the biggest field – 56,000 souls – to take part in this celebrated event.
Central London’s traffic may grind to a halt but records will fall, personal landmarks set and colossal sums of money raised for charities. The race is, after all, the world’s largest annual one-day fundraising event, with more than £1.3bn raised since 1981. And whether you are competing or following the action, here is your guide to the day …
Data indicates the Cosmos 2553 – which US officials claim is aiding Moscow’s development of nuclear anti-satellite weapon – may no longer be functional
A secretive Russian satellite in space that US officials believe is connected to a nuclear anti-satellite weapons program has appeared to be spinning uncontrollably, suggesting it may no longer be functioning in what could be a setback for Moscow’s space weapons efforts, according to US analysts.
The Cosmos 2553 satellite, launched by Russia weeks before invading Ukraine in 2022, has had various bouts of what appears to be errant spinning over the past year, according to Doppler radar data from space-tracking firm LeoLabs and optical data from Slingshot Aerospace, shared with Reuters.
Let’s have a look at what’s happening in Europe today. You’ll see the central figure in the picture at the top of this live blog is one Harry Kane, who can finally get his hands on some silverware if Bayern Munich defeat Mainz at home today and last season’s champions, Bayer Leverkusen, fail to beat Augsburg at home. It will also be Vincent Kompany’s first top-flight title as a manager (he’s been keen to point out that he won the Championship with Burnley).
As pollution levels hit record highs and fresh water becomes ‘the new oil’, is it time to radically reimagine our relationship to the natural world?
If you find it difficult to think of a river as alive, try picturing a dying or dead river. This is easier. We know what this looks like. We know how it feels. A dying river is one who does not reach the sea. A dying river’s fish float belly-up in stagnant pools. Swans on the upper Thames near Windsor now wear brown tidemarks on their snowy chest feathers, showing where they have sailed through sewage. I recently saw a Southern Water riverbank sign badged with a bright blue logo that read “Water for Life”. The sign instructed passersby to “avoid contact with the water. If you’ve had contact with the water, please wash your hands before eating.” In parts of this septic isle, fresh water has become first undrinkable, then unswimmable, then untouchable.
How did it come to this – and where do we go from here? The crisis is one of imagination as well as of legislation. We have forgotten that our fate flows with that of rivers, and always has. Our relationship with fresh water has become intensely instrumentalised, privatised and monetised: river understood as resource, not life force. The duty of care for rivers, who extend such care to us, has been abrogated. Regulation has gone unenforced, monitoring is strategically underfunded. Rivers named after deities – the Shannon (Sinnan), the Dee (Deva) – now struggle under burdens of nitrates, forever chemicals and waste.
Without their fathers’ surnames there is zero chance the mismatched catchweight contest would take place
Back in his pomp as an era-defining, generational dog-torturer, the great Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov did an interesting experiment with shapes. This involved showing a dog called Vampire a combination of circles and ovals. Circles meant he was about to be fed. Ovals meant no food and possibly, maybe, at a push, being electrocuted.
Before long Vampire was showing the familiar conditioned response, salivating when he saw a circle, shying away from the oval. At which point Pavlov began to show him shapes that were weirdly pitched between the two, not quite an oval, not quite a circle, half a food promise, half something else, until eventually Vampire snapped, yelping and running around in circles, unable to interpret the truth of the thing in front of him. So, top work there everyone. Another dog successfully confused.
Topsy-turvy food trend trickling into supermarkets as sweet treats no longer reserved as an end-of-dinner finale
The idea of pudding as a sweet finale to lunch or dinner is being inverted by the rise of the breakfast pudding. This topsy-turvy food trend includes everything from chia seed puddings designed to taste like cookie dough, overnight oats that resemble tiramisu and Weetabix biscuits transformed into what could be mistaken for vanilla cheesecake.
TikTok is the main instigator of the trend, causing dieticians, fitness influencers and homecooks to do battle with viral recipes. The process tends to involve soaking base ingredients such as oats and chia seeds overnight with natural plant additions such as dates and cacao powder or somewhat less healthy, processed items such as melted chocolate bars and spreads including Lotus Biscoff, a brand of caramelised biscuits. There are recipes inspired by Snickers, Kinder Bueno and Bounty bars alongside others modelled on cinnamon rolls and matcha lattes.
Some, especially within the US, see the conclave as an opportunity to establish a more conservative leader
For Catholics who cherished Pope Francis’s relentless defence of the dignity of migrants and minorities, the footage of his deeply awkward meeting with JD Vance on Easter Sunday made for unsettling viewing. During his 12 years in St Peter’s chair, Francis railed against Christian complicity with “America first”-type nationalist movements across the west. Here, looming over him on what turned out to be the eve of his death, was the White House embodiment of the insular, bullying politics he spent so much energy fighting against.
What now? The pope “from the ends of the earth” will be laid to rest on Saturday in an unadorned tomb in Rome’s Santa Maria Maggiore basilica, after a funeral attended by about 50 heads of state and 130 delegations from around the world. Progressives inside and outside the church will hope that encounter with the US vice-president was not an ominous portent.
The Egyptian is more than simply a role model in his adopted home, he speaks to the city’s broader mythology
There are occasional sightings of him around the city. A face is glimpsed; perhaps climbing out of a car, perhaps stepping into a mosque. A phone is surreptitiously brandished. The rumour spreads like fire. Pretty quickly these sightings take on the status of urban myths; brief brushes with the divine. There was the time he was at a petrol station and decided to pay for everyone’s fuel. There was the kid who chased after his car, went smack into a lamppost and now boasts a photograph of himself with a lavishly bloodied nose, and Mohamed Salah’s arm tenderly clasped around his shoulder.
A few weeks ago, with that new contract still unsigned, a rumour spread around the city that Salah was out at the docks filming content for the club’s media channels. Invariably by the time the crowds arrived he was gone. For the people of Liverpool, their greatest footballer is someone really only seen in snatches: a blur, a whisper, a trick of the light. And if this is partly the nature of celebrity, then it is worth pointing out that this is also how a lot of Premier League defences have been experiencing Salah this season.
Exhausted and relieved, the Kangala Wildlife Rescue team have revealed precisely how they finally caught Valerie the dachshund, after 529 days on the run in Kangaroo Island, South Australia.
The Kangala directors, Jared and Lisa Karran, were excited to share the news that Valerie had been secured, but they were also extremely careful not to let the small dog escape from a specially designed cage.
In our new column on pop culture that prompted people to upend their lives, a reader reveals how a sex scene from the HBO comedy made her realise her own love life was lacking
I had always avoided watching Sex and the City. I thought it looked a bit girlie for me. It was only during lockdown that I finally got round to seeing it. I found the first few episodes entertaining, but didn’t really connect with any of the storylines. I was the same age as the characters, but I had been in a relationship for four years, so Carrie’s disastrous dates felt far removed from my own experience. I saw the show as no more than a guilty pleasure, something to do while my boyfriend played PlayStation in the other room. I certainly didn’t think it would end my relationship.
It was Charlotte who got me hooked. Specifically her relationship with Trey, her sexually repressed husband. There was so much nuance to the scenes between them. The show dramatised the uncomfortable, shameful parts of a relationship like I’d never seen before on TV. My boyfriend and I had moved in together that year, and he seemed to have completely lost interest in sex. I played it down to friends, saying I had gone off sex too – but I hadn’t. I told myself what was happening between us was a natural progression out of the honeymoon stage, but it hurt me deeply every time I tried to be affectionate with my boyfriend and he turned me away.
This comedy of manners set among Berlin’s cultural elite is a prescient interrogation of language, identity and power
On 7 March 2025 the New York Timespublished a list of words that the Trump administration was systematically culling from government documents and educational materials. This list, which includes the words “gender ideology”, “affirming care”, “confirmation bias”, “ethnicity”, “identity”, “immigrants”, “racism”, “prostitute”, “political”, “intersectional” and “privilege”, reads like a bingo card for Nell Zink’s astonishingly prescient new novel, Sister Europe, in which a large cast of racially, economically and gender-diverse characters convene over the course of a single evening to attend a literary awards ceremony in Berlin.
On its surface, Sister Europe is a comedy of manners set among Berlin’s exclusive and elusive cultural elite. The prose is searingly quick, revelatory and funny: Zink’s dialogue reads like our best plays. Entertaining banter could be this book’s largest trophy, were it not for the contents of the banter, which are so ambitious and ethically interested that they make it clear that Zink is one of our most important contemporary writers.
On reading [Masud’s] books, Demian discovered to his consternation a grating and persistent anti-Black racism. Was it excusable? He excused it, on the grounds that it would be hard for an anti-Black racist to do much damage in Norway, where anti-Muslim racism was a deadly threat (admittedly much of it intersectional, directed against Somalis). Was it patronising to suspend his ethical standards because the man was a genius, or Eurocentric not to suspend them, and which was worse?
He whispered hesitantly, speaking into the towel over her ear, “You want to change your life.”
“That was stupid,” she replied. “Life should change me. I don’t want to be destructive of a living thing, flattening it with myidentity.” She said the word slowly. As though identities were something ubiquitous, but distasteful, like dust mites, that might be dispensed with, given careful hygiene.
Connexion
