Six great reads: flight attendant confessions, culture wars and Sam Neill’s final interview
1. Sam Neill’s final interview: ‘I’d like to think that, in life, I’m a goodie’ View image in fullscreen Sam Neill near his vineyard in
1. Sam Neill’s final interview: ‘I’d like to think that, in life, I’m a goodie’ View image in fullscreen Sam Neill near his vineyard in New Zealand earlier this year. Photograph: Aina J. Khan The great New Zealand actor’s death was announced earlier this week and our writers, including Peter Bradshaw, have paid tribute to the much-loved star. Neill’s last interview was a Q&A with Guardian readers hosted by Rich Pelley, in which he talked about working with Robin Williams, changing his name and whether he would have turned down Bond. Read more 2. The secret lives of flight attendants: ‘British passengers always drink like they’ve never drunk before’ View image in fullscreen Composite: Guardian Design; izusek; nuttapong/Getty Images Lewd propositions, drunken tirades, groping, grumbling and grubby behaviour – cabin crew have to experience it all, at altitude.
In this piece they opened up to Zoe Williams about the horrors they’ve seen from passengers and colleagues. Read more 3. ‘People are picking the dumbest fights’: the tortured history of America’s culture wars View image in fullscreen Christians protest outside the Ziegfeld Theater in Manhattan, against Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988. Photograph: Barbara Alper/Getty Images We now live in an age of endless culture wars, but it wasn’t always the case. In this interview David Smith spoke to Isaac Butler, author of a new book that traces how an ascendant religious right pivoted from the cold war in the late 1980s to wage a domestic battle over contemporary art.
Read more 4. The Manchester years: how Andy Burnham’s rebirth as ‘king of the north’ set him on the road to No 10 View image in fullscreen Andy Burnham will become Britain’s seventh prime minister in 10 years. Composite: Guardian Design/Getty Images On Monday, Burnham will become the latest resident at 10 Downing Street. In this profile, north of England editor Josh Halliday told the story of how Burnham was reshaped and repowered by his stint as mayor of Greater Manchester. In an earlier piece, Daniel Boffey traced Burnham’s early years, from an “impostor” at Cambridge to a young star of New Labour. Read more 5. ‘The trash does not stop’: life among the garbage mountains of the world’s biggest city View image in fullscreen The Bantar Gebang landfill in Indonesia.
Photograph: Claudio Pramana/The Guardian In Jakarta, Michael Neilson travelled to the city’s largest landfill to find an economy supporting thousands of waste pickers who make a living from the trash mountains – people who now face imminent uncertainty as the government looks to close the site. Read more
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