Some weeks, more seems to happen. This week has been been one of those (a lot in Bakhmut, a US presidential race heating up, goodbyes to Martin Amis and Tina Turner, badbye to Rolf Harris, a budget in Victoria, an inferno in Sydney … and, on top of all this, it looks as though the orcas are after revenge). But my favourite moment of note this morning is that today, 27 May, is 10 years to the day since the Guardian launched in Australia.
At Thursday night’s celebration, the same idea kept coming up: that this website is built on its community of readers. Your stories, your voices, your concerns, your eagle-eyed feedback, your support – your attention.
Treat yourself to a weird snack. Listen to the birthday edition of our Full Story podcast. And, whatever you end up reading, enjoy – it’s nice to have you here.
1. ‘Can we still handle the truth?’
This week Guardian Australia’s editor, Lenore Taylor, flicked through her “mental Polaroids” to track the transformation of news – and consider how reporting should be done now. Taylor went into her career armed with the Watergate principle: “All good reporting is the same thing – the best obtainable version of the truth.”
“From the starry-eyed perspective of an excited cadet, that idea seemed simple,” she writes. “Over the next 36 years, I came to understand how slippery and difficult it could be. As the waves of financial and technological change battered and shifted how and what we did, when the very concept of truth as the foundation of public debate was challenged, achieving the best obtainable version of the truth became very complicated indeed.
“Now it’s 2023 and I can sense another Polaroid moment coming. I’m just not quite sure what it is yet. Or whether the picture will be real.”
How long will it take to read: a bit over 11 minutes
Further reading: my Five Great Reads other half Kris Swales has pointed you to this series before, but do make some time to check out the stories behind our biggest scoops of the past decade.
2. Only mothers
A friend and I, chatting about Rowan Hisayo Buchanan’s piece one night this week, had one of those uncanny moments of shared emotion. “Only mothers,” she said, eyes shining. I knew exactly what she meant. The moment – suspended, bittersweet – slipped off; the noises of the crowded foyer rushed back; we kept gossiping and got on with our beers.
Buchanan, sleepless and anxious about the ways she feels she is failing her new baby, remembers a time when she relapsed into depression in her early 20s. Her own mother, perhaps not knowing what else to do, decided to move into her bed. Sometimes proximity is comfort enough.
When co-sleeping is called for: “She couldn’t make me less sad. She couldn’t grant me sleep. She couldn’t even keep me safe – I was an adult, and in the daylight hours I had to go and be alone in the world. Still, she slept there until she thought I was well enough to spend nights by myself … Her body had anchored me in the knowledge I was loved.”
How long will it take to read: two minutes
3. Vale Martin Amis
Many (many) thousands of words have been written this week about the novelist, after he died last weekend at 73. Old friends (and foes – looking at you, Terry Eagleton) have poured forth their deep and plentiful feelings about British literature’s eternal enfant terrible. John Self’s piece is a great place to start. Geoff Dyer’s piece is also good. Lisa Allardice’s is wonderful. Whatever you think of Amis the writer, or Amis the man, both were vivid, entertaining, unapologetic and so very alive.
How long will it take to read: three and a half minutes
Further reading: his best books (although this piece says Experience, my favourite thing by him, which I’ve plugged in here before, is “Amis for people who don’t like Amis”, so make of that what you will). And more of his most memorable quotes.
4. Ethics, animals and AI
In 1975 the Australian philosopher Peter Singer published Animal Liberation – and now, nearly 50 years on, he’s put out a revised edition for the next generation. “There have been some improvements in factory farming practices in some regions of the world, but in others we have hit new lows,” he tells Zoë Corbyn. “I also hadn’t really discussed factory farming’s contribution to the climate crisis and I wanted to reflect on our progress towards animal rights.”
The case against speciesism: Singer is considered one of the world’s most influential – and controversial – philosophers, not only as the originator of the effective altruism movement, but for his radical (depending on where you stand) position on animal rights. “Just as we accept that race or sex isn’t a reason for a person counting more, I don’t think the species of a being is a reason for counting more than another being,” he says. “There’s no reason to say that the humans have more worth or moral status simply because they are human.”
How long will it take to read: four minutes
5. ‘No 1 rule: gain control of your own internal state’
After a decade and a half as a police detective, Scott Walker became a “response consultant” – read: hostage negotiator. The skills he used, Elle Hunt writes, can help you get a pay rise, lower your rent, defuse a family crisis. “Negotiation isn’t some arcane, esoteric art,” he tells her. “It’s everyday communication: how we communicate with ourselves, first of all – but also with our friends, our family, our colleagues and our community.”
(His second rule for negotiation success, she notes, is: “It’s not about you.”)
Why should I care about this? It’s extremely useful. Also, Walker’s book apparently “had to be reviewed closely by lawyers and peers to ensure it did not reveal trade secrets”. This is enough to get me, a nosy person, to read anything.
How long will it take to read: a bit under five minutes
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