FREE: Take 5: A news summary for anxious times
Lost your appetite for rolling news? These are the stories you need to know about this week…
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Hello, and welcome to this week’s Take Five – slightly later in the day than usual. I’ve been in new job chaos mode – but I did survive my first week back in radio and no one swore (on air, at least) so I’m claiming it as a win…
To business, and the purpose of this newsletter is to help you feel a little more in control of your current affairs consumption, allowing you to stay up to date with the issues most affecting women and marginalised groups, without having to immerse yourself in wall-to-wall news coverage.
As always, in addition to the week’s five key news stories, you’ll also find five positive tales to raise your spirits, along with five thought-provoking longer reads to dive into whenever suits you.
It’s news, curated especially for you, and in this overwhelming world, I hope that helps at least a little. Now, to the round-up.
The headlines
1. Leaked messages reveal realities behind Hancock’s Covid response
Leaked WhatsApp messages from Matt Hancock’s phone reveal he wanted police to get tougher with lockdown rules – as he joked about people in quarantine.
The latest revelations – published by the Telegraph – reveal he told the country's most senior civil servant, Simon Case, "I think we are going to have to get heavy with the police".
The messages, leaked by the ghostwriter of Hancock’s Lockdown Diaries, also reveal Mr Case branded the idea of UK travellers being locked up in quarantine hotels "hilarious".
But the former health secretary has called the leak a "massive betrayal" and says the writer responsible, Isabel Oakeshott, is in breach of an NDA.
Labour, meanwhile, has pointed out that around the same time, ministers were "flagrantly breaking the law themselves with their lockdown parties".
Read more here
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2. More than 100 refugees feared dead as boat lost off Italy
Authorities in Italy fear more than 100 refugees may have drowned after their boat sank off the country's southern coast earlier this week.
So far the bodies of 64 people have been found, including 14 children, while there are believed to be around 80 survivors.
But the boat, which was travelling from Turkey to Europe, is thought to have been carrying as many as 200 passengers, primarily from Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan.
Police in Italy say three people have been arrested for suspected trafficking offences, while the search for a fourth suspect is underway.
Read more here
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3. Johnson blasts Sunak over new Brexit deal for Northern Ireland
Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave his first public comments about Rishi Sunak's Brexit trade deal this week, sparking a battle with Number 10.
Speaking at the Global Soft Power Summit in Central London this week, Johnson said the government should've stuck with his idea to pass a bill allowing ministers to ignore decisions in Brussels.
It comes after Rishi Sunak unveiled his ‘Windsor Framework’ on Monday, claiming it would address Unionist worries about trade rules in Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris is to hold talks with politicians there in the coming days in hopes of winning support for the new deal.
The DUP previously said it would boycott the devolved government at Stormont until its concerns about post-Brexit trading arrangements were addressed.
Read more here
4. Three quarters of UK mothers say childcare costs mean work doesn’t pay
More than three quarters of mothers who pay for childcare say it no longer makes financial sense for them to work, according to new data from Pregnant Then Screwed.
The charity, which surveyed more than 24,000 parents in Britain, says one in three are relying on some form of debt to cover childcare costs, while one in ten pay fees match or exceed their take home pay.
Joeli Brearley, the charity’s founder and CEO, said: “We don’t just have a cost of living crisis in the UK, we have a cost of working crisis.”
It comes as separate research by the Living Wage Foundations reveals more than two million women in the UK are paid below the living wage.
5. Swinney to follow Sturgeon in exodus at the top of SNP
Scotland's deputy first minister has confirmed he will leave government when First Minister Nicola Sturgeon's replacement is appointed.
John Swinney said it had been the privilege of his life to have been in the administration for almost 16 years, but revealed he is to stand down as a minister. He will continue to serve as an MSP.
Like Sturgeon, Swinney has so far refused to publicly back any of the party’s three leadership contenders - Ash Regan, Kate Forbes or Humza Yousaf.
However, Mr Swinney said he profoundly disagreed with Forbes’ stance on gay marriage and questioned whether it would be appropriate for someone with her views to be SNP leader.
Read more here
The good news
1. Proportion of women in British boardrooms breaches 40%
The proportion of women in boardroom roles at listed British firms has risen above 40% for the first time ever, a report published this week has revealed.
The FTSE 350 reached their 2025 target three years early, though leadership beneath board level is still lagging behind on 33.5%
Ten years ago, 152 of the 350 listed firms had no women on the board at all.
“Reaching the 40 per cent target for women on boards early is cause for celebration,” the report said, “It also shows that more progress is possible.”
Read more here
2. Crew 6 launch reaches International Space Station
SpaceX and NASA launched a fresh crew of astronauts to the International Space Station this week, kicking off a six-month research mission in space.
The mission – which is carrying two NASA astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates – took off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday.
The team, known as crew six, arrived at the ISS today, where they will conduct a series of around 200 scientific experiments over the course of the coming six months.
Their studies will aim to aid criticial research into everything from climate change to organ transplantation.
Read more here
3. New Indian museum aims to tackle elitism in art
India's long-awaited MAP Museum of Art and Photography has welcomed its first visitors.
The 60,000-item cultural installation in Bengaluru is seeking to reframe the Indian subcontinent’s art history, with a focus on pre-modern, modern, contemporary art and photography, as well as textiles and crafts.
Officials said the museum would aim to blur the lines between “fine” art and what they describe as everyday creativity to make art more accessible.
MAP's founder, the businessman and philanthropist Abhishek Poddar, said ranking art into value categories was a Western construct, adding: “That's how we've grown up looking at it in museums, but not that's not how it is in life.”
Read more here
4. Japan ‘finds’ 7,000 islands it didn’t know existed
Geographers in Japan says the country’s total number of islands will more than double after a new study revealed 7,000 territories it didn’t know about.
The land was found through digital mapping by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI) using advanced technology and past aerial photos to conduct a recount.
The discovery is expected to raise the nation’s number of islands, previously based on a 1987 Japan Coast Guard study, from 6,852 to 14,125, though the final figure could still change by the time a final recount report is released next month.
Read more here
5. ‘Extinct’ bird found alive and well in Madagascar
Bird lovers are celebrating this week after a species believed to be extinct was spotted alive by scientists for the first time in 24 years.
The dusky tetraka, a small songbird with a distinctive yellow throat, is native to Madagascar and had been named among the world’s top ten most wanted birds.
Now, three of them have been sighted in a rainforest in the island's north-east.
Ornithologist John Mittermeier, who photographed the bird, said the unexpected riverside habitat “might help to explain why the species has been overlooked for so long.”
Read more here
The best of the rest
1. How Are We Still Having The “Can Women Do Both?” Conversation In 2023?
Demanding to know how women can juggle a career with motherhood will always have emotions running high. It’s the implication that, in wanting “both”, we are somehow expecting too much.
2. The terrifying cult of 'good taste'
What do cancel culture and fine dining have in common? Quite a lot, as Farrah Storr found out on a recent trip to the world's 'best' restaurant, Noma.
3. Danielle Deadwyler’s Gravity-Shifting Intensity
The multi-hyphenate discusses her role in “Till”; her approach to art; ego death; and the retrograde values of the Hollywood system.
And a chatbot is not a human. A linguist named Emily M. Bender is very worried what will happen when we forget this…
5. Crotch blowouts and bobbly knits: how to save secondhand clothes
Sustainable, affordable and interesting, preloved clothing is everywhere. But what if a beautiful find has a significant flaw? Here is everything you need to know
How are you feeling about this past week? I’d love to hear your thoughts here…
Meanwhile, if you find these news summaries useful, please do subscribe and share!
Oh thank you every week for the good news!