SwayBlog

Relatives of 43 disappeared students protest in Mexico City on 26 April 2023. Photograph: José Méndez/EPARelatives of 43 disappeared students protest in Mexico City on 26 April 2023. Photograph: José Méndez/EPAMexico This article is more than 1 month old‘Disappearing the disappeared’: outcry after Mexico reduces number of missingThis article is more than 1 month oldActivists say the review of 113,000 missing people in Mexico is a ploy to reduce the number ahead of the presidential election

France This article is more than 1 year oldFrench dentist jailed for mutilating patients with unnecessary workThis article is more than 1 year oldLionel Guedj got rich by carrying out work on healthy teeth of low-income people in Marseille, court told A multi-millionaire dentist in France has been jailed for deliberately mutilating patients from low-income neighbourhoods of Marseille, in a money-making scheme in which he performed thousands of unnecessary procedures.

Christianity This article is more than 9 years oldJesus was not born in a stable, says theologianThis article is more than 9 years oldRev Ian Paul writes on his blog that birth of Christ story is based on a misreading of the New TestamentThe birth of Christ may be the most famous Bible story of all, reprised annually in nativity scenes across the world each Christmas: Jesus was born in a stable, because there was no room at the inn.

Food This article is more than 8 years oldKrispy Kreme store in UK withdraws 'KKK Wednesdays' Facebook adThis article is more than 8 years oldHull, UK, branch of popular doughnut chain apologises for ‘inappropriate’ promotion of ‘Krispy Kreme Klub Wednesdays’ over Ku Klux Klan connotation A UK branch of Krispy Kreme has been forced to drop its promotion for “KKK Wednesdays” – Krispy Kreme Klub Wednesdays – after a series of complaints.

Books blogVictor HugoParty tricks and naked writing: the eccentric life of Victor HugoWorshipped as a saint in Vietnam, beloved by the sex workers of Paris, with a party trick involving an orange – as Les Misérables comes to the BBC, let’s celebrate Hugo’s individualist spirit Victor Hugo is rightly remembered for his amazing literary output, and for his philanthropic work as a member of France’s National Assembly, campaigning for an end to poverty, free education for all children and the abolition of the death penalty.

The ObserverBiography booksReviewA ‘fangirl’’s fragmented study of the great US author has a disparate and magpie approach that never coheres into a satisfying whole In November 2022, when items from the estate of the American writer Joan Didion were sold at a charity auction in Hudson, New York, most made 10 times their estimate. Twenty-three linen napkins embroidered with Didion’s initials went for $14,000. Thirteen (blank) notebooks went for $11,000. A pair of faux tortoiseshell Céline sunglasses – in 2015, at the age of 80, Didion famously became the unsmiling new face of the French fashion house – were sold for $27,000.

The G2 interviewAndrew TateDespite constant death threats, documentary-maker Shea has been investigating the world’s most notorious misogynist since 2019. But even he was shocked by what he uncovered working on his latest film ‘You’d be forgiven for looking at Andrew Tate, especially at our age, and thinking: ‘This guy must be some niche figure,’” Matt Shea tells me, in a meeting room at the BBC headquarters in central London. What a courteous young film-maker, I think, because he is 31 and I am old enough to be his mum.

MoviesAs Night of the Hunter is reissued, we look at knuckle tats from Robert Mitchum to BlawanROBERT MITCHUM Love HateRobert Mitchum in a still from the film The Night of The Hunter.The original love/hate tats appeared on the knuckles of a psycho preacher, who trotted out his good v evil baloney as a cover for murdering widows for their cash. ROBBIE WILLIAMS LovePhotograph: Jo Hale/WireImageWhereas this tattoo appears on the knuckles of an annoying singer, who trots out his sub-Rat Pack baloney in order to rinse widows for their cash.

BooksA room of her ownAmber Reeves is remembered as the mistress of HG Wells, but she survived their affair to become a pioneering feminist author, says Margaret DrabbleWhen I embarked on the research for my introduction to the new Penguin reprint of HG Wells's Ann Veronica , I knew Amber Reeves was the young woman on whom the engaging character of 21-year-old Ann Veronica Stanley was based: she bore Wells a daughter in December 1909 when she was 21.