Hello, this is Anna bringing you Tuesday's top stories and best reads
Today's headlines
Male birth control
A male birth control pill may be close to becoming a reality. Researchers working on a contraceptive pill for men have successfully tested a drug that stops sperm activity without any known side effects. Oregon National Primate Research Centre conducted the study and administered the drug EP055 to rhesus macaque monkeys. Details on the experiments were published in science journal PLOS ONE and showed that EP055 inhibited sperm’s ability to move by attaching itself to sperm protein EPPIN, and therefore reducing the fertilisation process.
Clinton’s ‘fuck-laced’ outburst
Hillary Clinton launched a ‘fuck-laced fusillade’ on aides in a 2016 debate prep session, claims a new book about the presidential campaign by New York Times journalist Amy Chozick. Concerns about her ‘authenticity’ combined with a hatred for Donald Trump caused Hillary to lash out before a public performance. Chozick writes in Chasing Hillary: Ten Years, Two Presidential Campaigns and One Intact Glass Ceiling: “‘You want authentic, here it is!” she’d yelled in one prep session, followed by a fuck-laced fusillade about what a “disgusting” human being Trump was and how he didn’t deserve to even be in the arena.’
Windrush generation justice at last
British home secretary has promised that the Windrush generation will be granted British citizenship following a scandal that has engulfed the UK government. Amber Rudd told the Commons she recognised the ‘harrowing’ experiences of the Caribbean immigrants who helped rebuild postwar Britain to then be told they must ‘return’ to countries they no longer lived in. The Home Office will now waive citizenship fees for the Windrush generation, and will also scrap language and British knowledge tests and bring in financial compensation for those that had suffered loss. Although a win for the Windrush generation, much damage has already been done, and critics have pointed out that British citizenship is now being ‘offered’ to people who have always been British citizens.
Kim’s ‘bitter sorrow’
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has expressed ‘bitter sorrow’ after a bus accident that left 32 Chinese tourists and four North Koreans dead. The accident took place on Sunday night in North Hwanghae province, when the tour bus plunged off a bridge. It is unusual for North Korea's tightly-controlled media to report on negative news, and for Kim to acknowledge the incident itself is even more rare.
What we like
Must-read
Ashley Powers takes you on a journey through small town America to meet the ‘renegade sheriffs who answer only to the Constitution’. Powers’s New Yorker piece is a reflection of a pro-gun, anti-immigrant, anti-Washington sentiment in some of the whitest and poorest areas of the US, and how sheriffs rule such places through a prism of their own political and social leanings.
Spotlight
The Guardian’s long-read feature entitled ‘The rise of Russia’s neo-Nazi football hooligans’ documents the rise of hooliganism in Russia until now, and how authorities are trying to tame them. With the World Cup in Russia just around the corner, fears are that violence among fans is inevitable.
Culture
Read Huck magazine’s spotlight on Nigeria's exciting new youth culture movement. Photographer Tom Saater takes a trip to Gidi Culture Fest, Lagos’s multi-sensory art, music and cultural experience. Check out his collection of images below.
Entertainment
Madonna has lost a court bid to stop a former friend auctioning off intimate items that include love letters and a hairbrush with strands of her hair. A New York judge rejected the singer’s lawsuit against Darlene Lutz, ruling that the statute of limitation to recover her items had passed. One of the hot items is a break up letter from the rapper Tupac, who Madonna had dated secretly before his death in 1996. The auction will now go ahead in July, TMZ reports.