Foreign Correspondence, Vol 76
What it's like in the Palestinian town attacked by Israeli settlers
Hello, and happy Friday!
This correspondence is coming to you a bit later than usual due to jet lag. I’m back in London this week after a whirlwind trip to the United States, which featured a flat tire in Hopewell Junction, New York (no, me neither), a beautiful wedding in Woodstock, Vermont (congrats again, Emily!), and lots of great food.
This visit marked my first fourth of July in the U.S. since I moved to Britain more than five years ago. My efforts to commemorate the day by convincing my British boyfriend to dip some PG Tips in the Hudson River were unfortunately unsuccessful. Maybe next year!
What I’ve written
In the aftermath of an Israeli settler rampage on the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya last month, I spoke with a Palestinian woman whose home was attacked by settlers who attempted to set her house on fire—with her children inside.
“I told them, ‘Just go downstairs and close all the doors,’” she says of her children, aged 15- to 20-years-old. Getting home to them wasn’t easy. Between Israeli military checkpoints and barricaded entrances to the town, it ultimately took her two hours. Abdelhalim says her children believed that they might die there. “They made the shahada,” she says, referencing the Islamic declaration of faith, which is often recited by Muslims on their deathbed. “Thank God, they were able to escape from a window on the first floor.” Keep reading here
Following Wagner mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin’s failed mutiny against the Kremlin, I interviewed Bill Browder, the London-based financier who has spent more than a decade exposing corruption and human rights abuses in Russia. We discussed Vladimir Putin’s decision to effectively let Prigozhin go and the consequences for the Russian leader’s strongman image.
His image has been totally destroyed. Russia is like a prison yard. It’s all based on brutality and respect. Putin was able to establish himself as the chief criminal in the prison yard by being so ruthless at the very beginning of his presidency, and that ruthlessness and that brutality allowed him to stay in power in a country in which it’s very difficult to do that. The fact that he was rumored to have gotten on his plane and fled Moscow, the fact that Prigozhin was unopposed, the fact that he let Prigozhin off the hook afterwards—it makes Putin look like a truly weak leader in a country where weakness is despised. Read the full conversation here
Plus:
What I’ve read
This thoughtful review of Dear England, a new play at London’s National Theatre about England football manager Gareth Southgate and the role of football in the national psyche (The Atlantic)
Does change always have to feel like loss? Not if you write a new story instead of mourning the old one, argues Dear England. It’s a message that could also apply to the United States: How about a story where you can take a knee and fly the flag, and do both with equal pride?
This long read on how the Titan Submersible was always “an accident waiting to happen” (The New Yorker)
Until June 18th, a manned deep-ocean submersible had never imploded. But, to McCallum, Lahey, and other experts, the OceanGate disaster did not come as a surprise—they had been warning of the submersible’s design flaws for more than five years, filing complaints to the U.S. government and to OceanGate itself, and pleading with Rush to abandon his aspirations. As they mourned Nargeolet and the other passengers, they decided to reveal OceanGate’s history of knowingly shoddy design and construction. “You can’t cut corners in the deep,” McCallum had told Rush. “It’s not about being a disruptor. It’s about the laws of physics.”
TIME’s latest cover story on Barbados’ historic push for slavery reparations (TIME)
If Manhattan is an island defined by its street grid, Barbados is an island where plantations function in much the same way. In Bridgetown, a plaque identifying the spot where a slave cage once sat hangs on the exterior of a bank. Sugar-mill smokestacks and windmills punctuate the countryside. The past is present almost everywhere, acknowledged or not.
What I’m thinking about
This fun bit of news: I’m running the Royal Parks Half Marathon again! Only this time, I’ll be doing so to raise money for the Rory Peck Trust, the only charity dedicated to the support, safety, and welfare of freelance journalists around the world.
Throughout my career, I've had the immense privilege of working for large and well-equipped news organizations that have the means to provide for my safety and wellbeing (not to mention a stable monthly salary). This is not true of freelancers, many of whom take great risks to bring us the stories that the world needs to hear.
If you’re in a position to chip in—every bit helps!—I would be so grateful. All of the proceeds will go to the Rory Peck Trust and its vital work supporting, training, and protecting freelance journalists so that they can continue their work contributing to international news-gathering and upholding our democratic freedoms.
You can find my fundraising page here.
Until next time,
Yasmeen