Good morning, dear readers. It’s March, and the crisp, sweet smells of autumn are in the air (well, I live in Sydney, and just went outside and actually it’s quite hot and the street smells like rubbish – but, same-same).
A couple of weeks ago I got talking with some guys outside a shop (hello, if you’re reading – told you I wouldn’t forget!) and asked them what they like to read. They were philosophical: finance and economics stories, a bit of true crime – but really, whatever’s interesting. Which, happily, is what this email’s for: Kris and I, scouring the Guardian to bring you interesting articles to peruse every Saturday.
Here’s what I’ve seen around. No finance, but maybe next time.
1. Navalny’s last days in prison
The funeral of Alexei Navalny, Vladimir Putin’s fiercest political opponent, was due to be held overnight. (I’m writing this beforehand, but you can check elsewhere on our site to see the latest there. It was shaping up to be, at best, tense.)
Navalny was being held in the “Polar Wolf” prison colony above the Arctic Circle. His mother, who saw him just days before his death, had reported that he was ‘“healthy and cheerful”.
So what happened? The days after are shrouded in mystery. Andrew Roth and Pjotr Sauer have put together descriptions by former prisoners, confidantes of Navalny, prison activists, journalists and Navalny’s own letters from the far north, to try to join the dots.
Is this a true crime story? No comment. The Kremlin has denied involvement, saying Navalny died of natural causes. But Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, and mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, have had a lot to say to that – as have a slate of world leaders.
How long will it take to read: Four minutes.
2. The story of a Gaza groupchat
In late January, two doctors, Simon Fitzgerald and Osaid Alser, helped organise a group chat between physicians from across the globe and 31-year-old Dr Khaled Alser (a relation of Osaid), the only general surgeon left at Nasser hospital in the south of Gaza. The details they share of his urgent daily work, undertaken in incomprehensible conditions, are shattering.
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We knew the violence targeting hospitals and healthcare workers was shifting south toward Nasser hospital. But it was still shocking when, in early February, the chat shifted from clinical images of patients to requests that we pray for the staff’s safety.” – Simon Fitzgerald and Osaid Alser
Two weeks ago, the chat went silent.
Ceasefire now: Fitzgerald and Alser are, like millions around the world, calling for “immediate and dramatic action by influential actors on the world stage to end the violence”. But even if it does end, if their clinical records one day become critical evidence of what has occurred, it will not, as they write, “treat the wounded, nor bury the dead. It will not return the hundreds of dead healthcare workers to their families, communities and patients.”
How long will it take to read: Three minutes.
Further reading: In the 7 October attacks by Hamas, 1,200 people were killed and another 200 taken hostage. On Wednesday, the Palestinian death toll from Israeli attacks since that date reached 29,954 – the majority of them women and children, health authorities in Gaza said. You can find our full coverage of the catastrophe here.
3. ‘Languages aren’t ‘dying natural deaths’, they’re being hounded out of existence’
“Linguistic diversity on Earth is far more profound and fundamental than previously imagined,” writes Ross Perlin. “But it’s also crumbling fast.”
The numbers: The world has 7,000 or so languages. “At present, about half … are spoken by communities of 10,000 or fewer, and hundreds have just 10 speakers or fewer. On every continent, the median number of speakers for a language is below 1,000, and in Australia this figure goes as low as 87.”
The problem: Perlin says that generally, “sheer speaker or signer numbers have always mattered less than intergenerational transmission”. But the increasing domination of colonial and national languages (AKA “killer languages”) has sent that awry, notably in Australia, where hundreds of Aboriginal languages were once spoken.
The exception: Perlin says new languages are now only emerging in “extraordinary circumstances” – one of which is Light Warlpiri, which has developed in the Northern Territory from a mix of the Aboriginal language Warlpiri, and English.
How long will it take to read: Seven minutes.
4. A chat with Rob Reiner
I love The Princess Bride. I love When Harry Met Sally. It’s been a while since I saw Spinal Tap, but I’m pretty sure it was good. They’re all by Rob Reiner (a genius??), who Tim Jonze has interviewed before the release of his new doco on the rise of the Christian nationalism in the US.
Heavy is the head that inherits the crown: Rob’s father was famous comic actor Carl Reiner, and he grew up with Hollywood luminaries popping round for dinner. As he acknowledges, this obviously can’t have hurt his chances. “If you’re a nepo baby, doors will open,” he says. “But you have to deliver. If you don’t deliver, the door will close just as fast as it opened.”
How long will it take to read: Four minutes.
5. Weird nights at the servo
“Servos are strange places,” writes David Goodwin. He should know; he spent years around Melbourne working in them (or, about 15,000 hours). These places are jangly enough during the day: fridge doors slamming, slurpee machines whirring, people getting intense about their sausage rolls. At night, things get properly weird.
The truth is out there: “I quickly became convinced that somewhere in the grounds of my home servo was an unholy tear in the space-time continuum,” Goodwin says, “from which emerged hapless and accursed creatures, unnerving in their alienness but still somehow strangely human.”
He describes a few of these “thespians of the night”: a philosophical milkman, an amphetamanic preacher, a retired wizard. It’s a hoot.
How long will it take to read: Two minutes.
PS: If you enjoyed the ‘supercommunicators’ story Kris included last week, try this similar, if slightly more sinister follow-up, on how to persuade people. Try it, and tell us if it works for you – or even better, if it doesn’t: australia.newsletters@theguardian.com
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