23 h. ago ‘I’m here to open doors’: Bernardine Evaristo on success, controversy and why she plans to donate her £100k award

The Girl, Woman, Other author has this week been awarded a one-off Women’s prize award for her outstanding contribution. She talks about her long road to recognition, and using her profile to support other writersBack in 2013, Bernardine Evaristo gave a reading in a south London bookshop from her novel Mr Loverman. Only six people showed up, a couple of them were dozing and she realised they were homeless people who had come to find somewhere comfortable to sleep. Last month, the hit TV adaptation Mr Loverman, about a 74-year-old gay Caribbean man set in Hackney, east London, won two Baftas, including leading actor for Lennie James, making him the first Black British actor to win the TV award in its 70-year history. “I checked Wikipedia!” Evaristo exclaims of this shocking fact when we meet in London.Evaristo’s long career is one of firsts and creating them for others. In 2019, at the age of 60, she became the first Black woman to win the Booker prize – shared with Margaret Atwood –...

Economics

3 d. ago From New York to Sierra Leone: a sister’s search for ‘just another missing black woman’

Oluwaseun Babalola’s film Fighting Giants is an exploration of the misogyny and racism encountered by her family as they attempted to uncover the truth behind her sibling’s disappearance seven years agoOluwaseun Babalola remembers the exact moment she started to worry about her sister. It was 14 August 2018 and she was sitting on a sofa in a friend’s flat in Queens, New York. She had spent 10 days trying to get hold of Massah KaiKai, who had been due to travel from Sierra Leone, where she lived, to visit her in the US.The sisters messaged or called each other every day, often multiple times. “We talked about everything and nothing. I would come home to a bunch of voice notes. She would vent or have something very funny to say – she was a very funny person,” says Babalola. Continue reading...

Events

3 d. ago From New York to Sierra Leone: misogyny, racism and the search for a missing sister

Oluwaseun Babalola’s film Fighting Giants is an exploration of the barriers encountered by her family as they attempted to uncover the truth behind her sibling’s disappearance seven years agoOluwaseun Babalola remembers the exact moment she started to worry about her sister. It was 14 August 2018 and she was sitting on a sofa in a friend’s flat in Queens, New York. She had spent 10 days trying to get hold of Massah KaiKai, who had been due to travel from Sierra Leone, where she lived, to visit her in the US.The sisters messaged or called each other every day, often multiple times. “We talked about everything and nothing. I would come home to a bunch of voice notes. She would vent or have something very funny to say – she was a very funny person,” says Babalola. Continue reading...

Events

3 d. ago From New York to Sierra Leone: the search for a missing sister

Oluwaseun Babalola’s film Fighting Giants is an exploration of the misogyny and racism encountered by her family as they attempted to uncover the truth behind her sibling’s disappearance seven years agoOluwaseun Babalola remembers the exact moment she started to worry about her sister. It was 14 August 2018 and she was sitting on a sofa in a friend’s flat in Queens, New York. She had spent 10 days trying to get hold of Massah KaiKai, who had been due to travel from Sierra Leone, where she lived, to visit her in the US.The sisters messaged or called each other every day, often multiple times. “We talked about everything and nothing. I would come home to a bunch of voice notes. She would vent or have something very funny to say – she was a very funny person,” says Babalola. Continue reading...

Events

4 d. ago Madeleine McCann's brother pursues Olympics in rare photo as search for sister continues

Madeleine McCann's parents Kate and Gerry McCann are supporting their son Sean as he chases his Olympic dream - as investigators search for a trace of his missing sister

Culture

5 d. ago Bodies of three missing sisters found as police swoop on campsite in search of their 'murderer' father Travis Decker

Paityn, nine, Evelyn, eight, and Olivia Decker, five, were found dead on Monday after police swarmed around Rock Island Campground.

Events

9 d. ago Brazil’s environmental movement is under threat – and Lula is siding with oil industry

Politicians reviled environmental minister Marina Silva in the senate this week, but new legislation is fuelling the firePolitical bullying is rarely as brutal as it was in Brazil this week when the environment minister Marina Silva was ambushed in a senate meeting. Her thuggish tormentors – all white male politicians on the infrastructure committee – took turns to publicly belittle the 67-year-old black woman, who has done more than anyone to protect the natural wealth of the country – the Amazon rainforest, Pantanal wetlands, Cerrado savannah and other biomes – from rapacious abuse.One by one, they lined up to attack her for these globally important efforts. Decorum gave way to name-calling and sneering: “Know your place,” roared the committee head, Marcos Rogério, a Bolsonarist who cut Silva’s microphone as she tried to respond. The leader of the centre-rightPSDB, Plínio Valério, told her she did not deserve respect as a minister. The Amazonas senator Omar Aziz – from the Centrão...

Events

9 d. ago Brazil’s environmental governance is under threat – and Lula is siding with oil industry

Politicians reviled environmental minister Marina Silva in the senate this week, but new legislation is fuelling the firePolitical bullying is rarely as brutal as it was in Brazil this week when the environment minister Marina Silva was ambushed in a senate meeting. Her thuggish tormentors – all white male politicians on the infrastructure committee – took turns to publicly belittle the 67-year-old black woman, who has done more than anyone to protect the natural wealth of the country – the Amazon rainforest, Pantanal wetlands, Cerrado savannah and other biomes – from rapacious abuse.One by one, they lined up to attack her for these globally important efforts. Decorum gave way to name-calling and sneering: “Know your place,” roared the committee head, Marcos Rogério, a Bolsonarist who cut Silva’s microphone as she tried to respond. The leader of the centre-rightPSDB, Plínio Valério, told her she did not deserve respect as a minister. The Amazonas senator Omar Aziz – from the Centrão...

Events

1 week ago Liverpool crash witnesses on 'horrendous' moment woman and child dragged under car

A witness of the Liverpool shock car smash has told of the shock moment he saw one woman disappearing beneath the chassis of the black Ford Galaxy involved in the incident

Events

2 w. ago Heartbreaking question young brother of Pheobe Bishop asked his mother as search continues for missing teenager

The mum of Pheobe Bishop, who vanished without a trace after failing to board a flight, has shared the one question her young son asked as the search for his missing sister continues. 

Events

2 w. ago Dear America: women’s bodies are not state property | Tayo Bero

Adriana Smith, declared braindead in February, is being kept alive because she’s pregnant. Where was the concern for her life while she was here?A Black pregnant woman who was declared brain dead back in February is still being kept alive on a ventilator, because of a Georgia law that prohibits abortions beyond six weeks. If this sounds like the stuff of speculative fiction, it’s because there’s literally a Handmaid’s Tale episode about this. And while the TV show based on Margaret Atwood’s 1985 book may have gotten many things right about the soul of authoritarianism and a violently patriarchal society, living that reality is even more sickening.Anyone who thinks this is about the life of Adriana Smith’s child is fooling themselves. This is the state, boundary testing to see how far they can take their efforts to have full reproductive control over American women, and gauging how much the American public is willing to tolerate.Tayo Bero is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Outrage as white cop convicted of assaulting black woman during arrest is given sweetheart plea deal

A white police officer has now issued a new plea agreement for a lesser charge after he was convicted of assaulting a black woman.

Events