5 Nice Reads: reporting from Israel and Palestine, Alan Alda, and the boy who got here again |

Happy Saturday! Ted Talks are apparently getting shorter due to our consideration spans, so I’d higher make this transient. I’m right here to take you thru the great things from the week – and ever so rapidly spare a second for Lorde, who crashed a Lorde-themed-party right here in Sydney.

1. Alan Alda: the poster boy for marriage

There are lots of attention-grabbing issues the US actor, director and author Alan Alda shares in his G2 interview with Simon Hattenstone – and being married for 68 years (in a divorce-ridden trade) is only one of them.

The 4 Seasons: the 80-year-old is again within the highlight because of a Tina Fey revamp of his 1981 film, which he marvels at.

Report for a scripted TV collection: Alda is greatest recognized for his function as Hawkeye in M*A*S*H. Its remaining episode was watched by 106 million individuals within the US, “still a record for a scripted TV series”, Hattenstone writes.

How lengthy will it take to learn: six minutes.

2. ‘I worried I might start finding it normal. But I never did’

After 4 years reporting from Israel and Palestine, Bethan McKernan is returning to the UK. The Guardian correspondent reveals the grief, horror and hope that outlined her time there, together with within the instant aftermath of the 7 October 2023 assaults – when “nothing was clear at that point except that many, many more people were going to die”.

The article that by no means was written: Three days earlier than 7 October, McKernan was in Gaza to interview individuals about “the revival of beekeeping”, when she noticed what regarded like a Hamas army drill within the distance.

The story that ended up being coated: “No one with an internet connection can say they don’t know the truth of what has happened in Israel and Palestine over the past 18 months,” McKernan writes.

How lengthy will it take to learn: six minutes.

3. ‘Alexa, do jellyfish have bottoms?’

I keep in mind the primary time I encountered Alexa. I used to be in highschool, and my good friend was cooking us breakfast. We requested the Amazon system for a banana pancakes recipe. As a substitute, reasonably cheekily, Alexa performed Banana Pancakes by Jack Johnson.

However what would occur in case you requested the identical system (which has considerably improved since my highschool days): “what do you know about us?” It’s a query Jeremy Ettinghausen put to his Alexa, which has been his household’s on-call vet, DJ, instructor, dad or mum and therapist for years.

“Our requests ranged from prosaic to troubling and downright bizarre – there was very little we didn’t ask Alexa” – Jeremy Ettinghausen

How lengthy will it take to learn: six minutes.

4. ‘My sister was found dead. Then I discovered her search history’

Final month the Guardian reported on a web based suicide discussion board being investigated beneath new UK digital security legal guidelines. Then adopted a narrative on Adele Zeynep Walton’s household expertise: how after the dying of their daughter and sister Aimee, they got here to study she had been lured right into a harmful on-line neighborhood, and fell sufferer to it.

The Human Price of Our Digital World: “Until we lost Aimee, I didn’t know what ‘online harm’ meant,” Walton says, who has since written a guide partially on what led to her sister’s dying.

In Australia, the disaster assist service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Within the UK and Eire, Samaritans could be contacted on freephone 116 123, or electronic mail [email protected] or [email protected]. Within the US, you possibly can name or textual content the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to attach with a disaster counsellor. Different worldwide helplines could be discovered at befrienders.org.

How lengthy will it take to learn: 4 and a half minutes.

5. The boy who got here again: my son Max

Archie Bland’s longer learn on the time main as much as, throughout and after the close to dying, and adjusted life, of his son Max, is what I go away you with right this moment. There are some tales that stick with you for ever. That is considered one of them.

How lengthy will it take to learn: quarter-hour. Sure, it’s value it.

Additional listening: or you possibly can take heed to it, in case you’re on the transfer.

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