OpinionSlavery This article is more than 4 years oldBritain was built on the backs of slaves. A memorial is the least they deserveThis article is more than 4 years oldAfua HirschA planned monument is at risk because of a lack of funds. What an undignified messHow’s your Black History Month going so far? I’ve given a dozen talks – including one at a large firm where I was heckled by a senior partner who was furious that I was stressing the integral role of black people in British history.
The ObserverBiography booksA biography of the Dorset poet, who was a lover of the novelist Sylvia Townsend Warner, traces her struggle ‘to live as herself’
With the help of Dorset police, MI5 were confidently closing in on three subversive potential terrorists living quietly together near the sea almost 85 years ago. Local officers had been alerted to their shared communist sympathies and were now monitoring the suspects: Ackland, Townsend and Warner, each one deemed a threat to Britain’s security in the run-up to the second world war.
EconomicsObituaryJames Robertson obituaryWriter, thinker and champion of green economics, monetary reform and new ways of looking at employmentJames Robertson, who has died aged 95, was a writer and thinker at the centre of a growing movement around a green and people-centred economics. An associate of radical writers such as EF Schumacher (Small is Beautiful, 1973), Ivan Illich (Tools for Conviviality, 1973) and Hazel Henderson (The Politics of the Solar Age, 1981), he wrote 14 books over four decades that were central to a body of thinking characterised as “new economics”.
MicrobiologyObituaryJohn Postgate obituaryMicrobiologist whose research contributed to the production of vital chemicals for use in industry and agricultureJohn Postgate, who has died aged 92, was a microbiologist whose research provided the basis for new practical uses of microbes. His findings contributed to the production of industrially important sulphuric acid, and to converting atmospheric nitrogen into fertiliser for plants. In his book Microbes and Man (1969, now in its fourth edition), Postgate made a passionate case for the importance of micro-organisms.
UK news This article is more than 8 years oldMother who tortured and killed eight-year-old daughter jailed for 13 yearsThis article is more than 8 years oldPolly Chowdhury, 35, sentenced for manslaughter of her daughter Ayesha Ali alongside her ‘manipulative, wicked’ lover Kiki Muddar, who was jailed for 18 years
A mother who abused, tortured and killed her eight-year-old daughter while under the spell of her sadistic lover has been jailed for 13 years.
STAGE AND SCREENWhen the A-Team were sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit, what crime were they actually accused of? Sam Aldridge, London England
Stealing gold bullion Liz, Stoke, Staffs
Stealing gold bullion Liz, Stoke, UK
In 1972, in an effort to bring the Vietnam war to an end, the A-Team, under orders from a Colonel Morrison, robbed the Bank of Hanoi.
The ObserverRapReview(Rhymesayers)
The veteran US rapper’s resurgence continues with a retro-feel take on tech consumerism – as well as pigeons and Van Gogh
Dad rap is having another fine year. From Killer Mike to Billy Woods, veteran spitters with things to say keep capitalising on a rising tide of pertinence – kicked off in 2020 by Run the Jewels’ authoritative howl of protest RTJ4 – that hasn’t let up yet. Once a mainstay of the Def Jux label in the 2000s, Aesop Rock (born Ian Matthias Bavitz) has long been one of hip-hop’s more eloquent wordsmiths.
Netflix This article is more than 5 years oldBird Box Challenge: why blindfolding yourself and walking into walls is even more stupid than it soundsThis article is more than 5 years oldRia AndrianiNetflix has issued an injury warning about the viral fad spawned by its thriller, but for blind people the meme has worse repercussions It was a strange feeling to wake up last week to the internet awash with the #BirdBoxChallenge meme.
Gary Glitter This article is more than 11 months oldExplainerThis article is more than 11 months oldGlitter has faced multiple jail sentences for abuse of girls in the UK and Vietnam
Gary Glitter has been released from prison after serving half of his 16-year sentence for sexually abusing girls at the height of his fame in the 1970s and 80s.
Gary Glitter freed from jail after serving half of his 16-year sentence – reportsRead moreThis conviction relates to historical offences committed in the UK, but Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was also found guilty of obscene acts against children in Vietnam.
My life in sexSexThe 23-year-old asexual
I first thought I might be asexual when I broke up with my university boyfriend of three and a half years, and felt overwhelming relief that I wouldn’t have to have sex with him again. It took another two years, two more failed relationships and lots of online research to finally realise that my suspicions were correct.
I identify as hetero-romantic asexual: I feel romantically towards the opposite sex, but don’t experience sexual attraction.