@meganclement
Europe correspondent, The Observer. Writing a book about feminism and football. Author of DESIRE PATHS, a memoir. Lecturer in journalism at the Université Sorbonne-Nouvelle. Co-founder of The Gender Beat.
Survivors of Mohamed Al Fayed's abuse are fighting to have their cases recognised as trafficking similar to the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein. Requests to the Met have gone unheeded so they are pinning their hopes on a French investigation.
My piece for The Observer:
observer.co.uk/news/interna...
Met interviews three suspects over Mohamed Al Fayed’s alleged sexual assaults
It will cease to be the point if we are relegated!
The most unassailably correct opinion I've ever seen on this website.
Extremely niche complaint but the only reason I ever began supporting Spurs is because I moved to Australia and it became too difficult to support my true love, Port Vale, from afar because we kept getting relegated. Now I face a season where BOTH teams could be demoted. What is the point.
Female athletes must pay £185 to prove their sex Matt Lawton - Chief Sports Correspondent British female track and field athletes are being asked to pay £185 for a sex test if they want to compete internationally. World Athletics requires all athletes to take an SRY gene test before competing in the female category at major championships and Diamond League events to guarantee fair competition by excluding trans and DSD (differences of sex development) competitors. Before the World Championships in Tokyo last September, World Athletics gave $100 per test for the thousand or so female athletes needing one. More money will be provided by the international federation for this year’s World Junior Championships. But British women have been advised by UK Athletics (UKA) to pay for the test themselves, urging them to have the cheek swab, which indicates the presence of a Y chromosome, “as soon as possible to avoid delays around selection”. However, some women have complained it is unfair when the test is not required for men. UKA has a hardship fund to pay for the test and will assess requests on a case-by-case basis. But the situation is symptomatic of a national federation already facing financial challenges, made worse by UK Sport cutting its funding for this Olympic cycle. While almost £32 million was given to the relatively niche sports that won five medals at last month’s Winter Olympics, athletics has had its funding cut from £22.18 million to £20.45 million despite winning ten medals in 2024. It was only last year UKA returned to some form of financial stability, posting a profit of £107,588. But it is now facing a big fine after admitting corporate manslaughter over the death of Abdullah Hayayei, who died in 2017 after a metal cage fell on him while he was training for the World Para Athletics Championships in London.
"Feminism" [Times]
Des femmes racontent comment elles ont été abandonnées par leur partenaire en pleine randonnée : «Cela m’est arrivé dans le désert. Quand je suis revenu, il m’a dit qu’il s’attendait à ce que je me perde.»
➡️ bit.ly/46JOmSd
Barnes had a self-imposed 40-year ban on writing about people who went to Oxbridge and I wish he had kept it up. Unfortunately it expired before Departure(s).
After many, many years having to do huge amounts of extrawork for IWD, I have come to believe that the only appropriate way to mark it is to go on strike.
A look ahead to France's crucial local elections - some knife-edge races, especially in Paris, a possible shock for a 2027 presidential hopeful, changes to voting systems and how those vital alliances work
A huge grey urinal, almost certainly very stinky, looming over picnickers in the sun along the Canal Saint-Martin.
These ones are the worst. Well, I suppose the worst is the nonstop flow of men pissing n'importe où.
I once wrote about the last vespasienne pissoir in Paris!
www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/...
PORT VALE
“It’s a choice to ensure zero abortions."
Since July, more than a dozen pregnant children have been moved to a single facility in the small town of San Benito, along the south Texas border. The children kept in Texas are as young as 13, and about half are pregnant because of rape.
Hard to overstate how bad things have gotten in French politics. A far-right party founded by Holocaust deniers is using the death of a young militant to dress themselves up as anti-extreme, while the far-left makes their job easier by deploying repeated anti-semitic dog whistles.
Gary!
Victims of a sex trafficking network said to rival that of Jeffrey Epstein tell Megan Clement why Ritz Paris and Al-Fayed organisations beyond Harrods must now be scrutinised
https://bit.ly/4siohSA
Fayed's Harrods could be Britain's Epstein island.
observer.co.uk/news/opinion...
This is paywalled because reporting like this costs money to produce. But if you register for The Observer, you can read one free article.
Survivors of Mohamed Al Fayed's abuse are fighting to have their cases recognised as trafficking similar to the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein. Requests to the Met have gone unheeded so they are pinning their hopes on a French investigation.
My piece for The Observer:
observer.co.uk/news/interna...
The "natural" birth thing is so weird. Simply not something a party needs to have a policy on. Saying nothing was an option!
It started with an article that described women as a net deficit to the economy. Emma has spent years researching how the entire way we think about economics is geared against women. I loved talking to her about the arguments she makes in her book, 'Deficit':
US accused of ‘shameless exploitation’ over proposed Zambian health aid deal
A glorious blossom in bloom above a graffitied wall and against a glorious blue sky in glorious Montreuil.
Glorious Montreuil.
En 2025, 129 journalistes ont été tués, les deux tiers par Israël
“Yes, we have a pronatalist ambition. We want people to have more children, and we think the government should get behind that wish.” - he means white people. He wants white women to breed a new white nation. He won’t say it. But that’s what he means.
Boooooo
The second most difficult thing was Mr Blobby.
The most difficult thing I have ever had to explain to my non-British partner about the UK was the Emily Thornberry white van man drama.
If some of the things your favourite male hoopers have said this week have made you go “yikes” may I introduce you to Natasha Cloud who is top 10 of all time in assists even while took a year out of her career to work as an organiser with BLM?