Temel Atacocugu had his bandages removed by a nurse as his sister watches. Sengul Atacocugu arrived from Turkey on March 23 to provide 24-hour care for him. Photo / Matthew Abbott, The New York Times
Temel Atacocugu had his bandages removed by a nurse as his sister watches. Sengul Atacocugu arrived from Turkey on March 23 to provide 24-hour care for him. Photo / Matthew Abbott, The New York Times
In amongst all this has been an array of other great content from around the world. So take some time this weekend to catch up on some of the great journalism from our premium international syndicators.
Christchurch mosque victims say NZ has fallen short of lofty promises
Temel Atacocugu is fed up, forced to spend most days on the couch as he recovers from nine gunshot wounds.
Again and again, Atacocugu has asked when New Zealand's immigration agency will allow his mother and nephew to join him in Christchurch from Turkey. He needs them to help care for him as he adjusts to his new life. But a month has passed and still no answer has come.
The Government's quick response to the massacre in March drew global praise. Now however, some of the victims say their initial optimism for help is evaporating in the face of bureaucracy.
Temel Atacocugu was shot nine times at Al Noor mosque in March. Photo / Matthew Abbott, The New York Times
Facebook's plan to beat the banks at the money game
Facebook's first big foray into the financial world raised an immediate question: how deeply will its new digital currency shake up traditional financial services?
Facebook's vision promises a world where banks and other payment providers are disintermediated by Libra, which would allow instant, near-free international money transfers. If its currency is widely adopted by Facebook's 2.4bn users, it could hold considerable sway, even affecting the role of central banks.
Facebook is moving into the cryptocurrency space. Photo/Getty Images
The murder case that lit the fuse in Hong Kong
Before the mass street protests, the tear gas and the clashes with police, before the government went all out for legislation that could threaten Hong Kong's special status in China, and then abruptly backed down, a pregnant young woman went on a romantic getaway to Taiwan.
"It would be like opening a hole in Hong Kong's legal system," said Minnie Li, who moved to Hong Kong from Shanghai in 2008. Photo / Lam Yik Fei, The New York Times
Oasis star Liam Gallagher and children talk exclusively about family life
It's been a rough decade for Liam, but well-wishers still throng around as part the interview takes place on the side of a motorway . "There's still love out there on them streets for me — never had any problem with the public, everyone... loves me, you know what I mean?" he says later with characteristic humility.
Ten years ago, his older brother Noel called time on their relationship, following an apocalyptic backstage bust-up involving a hurled guitar and some plums. Oasis, the biggest band in Britain, the band that defined the swagger and excess of the 1990s and took the Gallagher brothers — Noel the songwriter, Liam the snarling mouthpiece, together the complete package — from the Manchester dole queue to fame and adoration, was over.
Liam Gallagher performing in concert at Finsbury Park in London. Photo / AP
US escalates online attacks on Russia's power grid
The United States is stepping up digital incursions into Russia's electric power grid in a warning to President Vladimir Putin and a demonstration of how the Trump administration is using new authorities to deploy cybertools more aggressively, current and former government officials said.
Advocates of the more aggressive strategy said it was long overdue, but it also carries significant risk of escalating the daily digital Cold War between Washington and Moscow.
A heat and power plant in Moscow. The United States is stepping up digital incursions into Russia's electric power grid in a warning to President Vladimir Putin. Photo / Getty Images
Getting a good night's sleep without drugs
Shakespeare wisely recognised that sleep "knits up the ravell'd sleave of care" and relieves life's physical and emotional pains. Alas, this "chief nourisher in life's feast," as he called it, often eludes millions of people who suffer from insomnia. Desperate to fall asleep or fall back to sleep, many resort to Ambien or another of the so-called "Z drugs" to get elusive shut-eye.
Sleeping tablets can sometimes cause more serious problems than they might prevent. Photo / Getty Images
Hollywood's new twist on bad female bosses
There are arguably more powerful women now on screen than there are in real life, writes Amanda Hess of The New York Times.
A woman has not commanded the desk of a major-network late night show since Joan Rivers got booted from Fox in 1987. Yet three women have become the president of the United States on Veep alone.
Though pitched as evidence of feminist progress, these characters don't act like feminists. Their preferred targets are young women who hope, some day, to claim power, too.
In projects like Late Night and Veep, the bad female boss archetype is being used to tell more explicitly feminist tales - and to question power itself. Illustration / Cari Vander Yacht, NY Times
This town comes alive once a year, as thousands of snakes mate
Tokyo has its cherry blossoms, the Netherlands has its tulip fields, and Paris offers itself. But the Canadian province of Manitoba has a remarkably distinct springtime attraction, too: tens of thousands of amorous snakes writhing around in pits.
More than 70,000 snakes slither out of dens to breed each spring at a Manitoba wildlife area, and thousands of people just can't keep away from the writhing show. Just don't call it an orgy.
Red sided garter snakes at the Narcisse Snake Dens in Narcisse, Canada. Around 70,000 snakes slither out of dens to breed each spring. Photo / Aaron Vincent Elkaim, The New York Times
Time to stick a fork in the gender-reveal cake?
A decade after arrival, the food phenomenon has spawned videos, bakeries — and some resistance, as gender issues grow more complicated.
Podcaster and journalist Molly Woodstock says the iced blue or pink confections are losing popularity because they fetishise babies' genitals and underscore outdated social constructs of gender roles. "It's not so much the noting of what sexual organs a baby has but the rather aggressive nature of assuming what those genitals mean," Woodstock says.
Kim Severson of the New York Times reports many students of American pop culture believe the phenomenon is waning — assailed, in part, by the discussion about gender identity.
The bakers at Karen's Cake Shoppe in Idaho created a gender-reveal cake that played up traditional gender roles. Photo / Karen's Cake Shoppe via The New York Times
World Cup players say muscles and makeup mix just fine, thanks
For her third World Cup, Francisca Ordega wanted to stand out. She had worn her hair in dreadlocks for her first and had a wavy, blonde ponytail for the second, but this time she wanted something bolder.
"I was looking for green and white," she said about her search for hair extensions in the colours of her native Nigeria. "But then I saw the blue and purple — and I had to have them."
But after the team's 3-0 loss to Norway in their opening game, Ordega logged on to Twitter to find that people were blaming the defeat on her makeup, nails and long hair.
Rejecting notions about how they should present themselves as female athletes, the women are turning to colourful hair and bold lips to showcase their style and enhance performance.
The colourful braids of Francisca Ordega of Nigeria during the match against Norway. Photo / Getty Images
Anonymous no more: A new generation toasting to sobriety
We all know what sobriety used to be: sober, in all meanings of the word.
But it seems all that has changed with the introduction of new hashtaggable terms like "mindful drinking" and "sober curious. No longer do you have to feel left out or uncool for being sober. You maybe don't even have to completely stop drinking alcoholic beverages?
