Happy Saturday, readers. Guardian Australia’s chirpiest time of the year is almost upon us, and our writers, editors and producers have shared their moving and thought-provoking encounters before voting in this year’s bird of the year poll begins on Monday. You can find them here. But first, do read on.
1. The death Blake Johnston didn’t see coming
Blake Johnston’s father was a selfless, hard-working man who always put others first, including his five children and growing number of grandchildren. He once loved surfing, and even had a motorbike, which he rode when life didn’t get in the way.
“He was like a best mate … He was the calmest, cruisiest guy I knew,” Johnston writes. Until it got too much.
Men’s mental health: Johnston shares the heartbreaking story of his father’s suicide, offering a moving account of the silence surrounding men’s mental health from the perspective of an observer and of someone who has lived through it.
• In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14.
How long will it take to read: four and a bit minutes
2. Turning back time
The rich and the powerful have always wanted to reverse time. Even Cher once sung about it. But when two of the most dominant leaders in the world were caught on mic talking about living for ever, the world stopped to listen.
“There’s a chance,” Vladimir Putin said to Xi Jinping, “of living to 150 [years old].” But at what cost?
Fascinating and bonkers: Aleks Krotoski traces how an array of people, from computer scientists to philosophers, billionaire tech investors to biohackers, have been steadily figuring out how to stop the clock on humans ageing.
One expert in bioengineering says: “If the goal is to stop ageing, or to gradually become younger – we don’t have it now. But if you invest correctly, we will have it soon.”
How long will it take to read: nine and a half minutes
3. Fresh from the source?
Why are Italy’s pasta grannies under scrutiny? It’s a question I didn’t think I’d stumble across during my work hours. But just like tourists who are pulled to the southern Italian port city of Bari to marvel at older women making and selling fresh orecchiette from their doorsteps while their laundry billows from balconies above – I suddenly care about these niche pasta wars.
Solidarity or rivalries? The famous cobblestone alleyway was recently visited by undercover officers, who fined some vendors for cutting corners and tricking tourists with bought wares.
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“What else was I supposed to do? Demand was such that I couldn’t keep up,” an anonymous pasta granny said.
How long will it take to read: four minutes
4. Cut off from the world
In January 2022, when Tonga’s colossal volcano Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai erupted, people as far away as Alaska heard it. It was recorded as the largest atmospheric explosion in modern times, Samanth Subramanian writes, “outdoing any nuclear bomb ever detonated”.
But what people didn’t see or hear was the ripping apart of underwater sea cables deep below the surface – connecting this beautiful country to the rest of the world.
‘No fatter than a garden hose’: Internet sea cables are responsible for almost 95% of the world’s international internet traffic. Until they snap.
‘It could happen to the world’s biggest, wealthiest nations’: Cables are usually damaged by natural disasters, or geological and marine interferences. But they are becoming “more exposed to the whims of rogue corporate and national actors”, Subramanian argues.
How long will it take to read: 10 minutes
Further reading: a deeper look at what lies beneath: the growing threat to the hidden network of cables that power the internet.
5. Living on Ukraine’s frontline
If you’ve made it this far, you are now at my favourite read of the week. Photographer Anastasia Taylor Lind’s striking stills alongside Alisa Sopova’s sensitive storytelling capture what it has been like to live through the Ukrainian war.
For the past seven years: The pair have documented communities in Donbas for a project called Five Kilometres From the Frontline.
People think they know what war is: It’s a powerful and intimate look at life existing beyond the horrors, as those who have chosen to stay cling to as much normality as they can.
How long will it take to read: four minutes
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