The Observer Daily: Readers deserve better

The best of The Observer, from across our newsroom View in browser Readers deserve better The best of The Observer, from across our newsroom Xavier Greenwood • Tuesday 8 July 2025 Dear friend, Raynor Winn, author of The Salt Path, also known by her legal name Sally Walker, has pulled out of her Saltlines tour with the folk band Gigspanner. In an announcement on their Instagram page the musicians included a comment from Raynor's legal team, which said she was unable to take part in the tour – which begins on Friday – while she is in the process of taking legal advice. The news comes a day after the PSPA ended its collaboration with the couple. The charity is the only one to advocate for people with the neurological condition that Raynor's husband Moth, also known as Tim Walker, is said to have. The charity, which had previously featured articles and videos of the Walkers, said that while they were thankful for the "awareness opportunities their story provided" in increasing knowledge about corticobasal degeneration, there were too many questions left unanswered by The Observer's investigation for them to continue their relationship with the couple. Click here to learn what The Observer has found out → "The enemy of nonsense" – George Orwell Also in The Observer The inuit girls given birth control without their consent At the age of 12, Naja Lyberth was taken to a doctor's office with the other girls in her school class. But it was not for a routine childhood appointment: it was to have an intrauterine device implanted without her permission. Thousands of girls like Naja were subjected to the same process, often without the consent of their parents, by Danish doctors in the 1960s and 1970s. As Xavier Greenwood reports, with photographs from Emanuela Colombo, more than 100 women are now suing the Danish state for $6 million, claiming their human rights were violated.      Click here to read more → 'First they bomb us, then they insult Serbians with a crass Trump Tower' by Francisco Garcia       The gaudy Trump Tower, with its big, block letters and golden interior, has an understandable place in New York City. Trump made his name there, and the tower befits his status (for better and for worse) in the city. More surprising, perhaps, are plans to bring a Trump building to Serbia. Francisco Garcia writes about a deal to redevelop Belgrade's old ministry of defence building, which was bombed by Nato in 1999, into a £370 million luxury hotel and apartment complex. The letters TRUMP would be emblazoned across the top. The plan has not gone down well. "Everyone from civil society is against it," one politician said. Click here to read more → 'He wants to give the world a hug. I want to punch its lights out' by Angus Macqueen       The scale of the 1985 Live Aid concert is hard to comprehend. With virtually no warning, the BBC cleared the schedule for a simultaneous dual gig that bounced from Wembley in London to JFK stadium in Philadelphia over 16 hours. Organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, it produced history-making moments from Queen and Bono. Forty years on, Angus Macqueen has produced the three-part series Live Aid at 40: When Rock 'n' Roll Took On the World. He speaks at length to both Geldof and Bono, and as he writes for The Observer, both have very different approaches to the world of aid and charity. "Where Geldof is right in your face, Bono is all strategy and planning. Where Geldof charges out front like a mad general, Bono builds a team around himself." Macqueen argues that with the state of the world today, the events of forty years ago could do with another reboot. Click here to read more → Listen The Slow Newscast The mystery of Francis Bacon's minder This is the story of how a boxing match helped solve a 50-year art world mystery. And how, when a man named Ted wades in to stop a mugging in Soho, it leads to a most unlikely life-altering friendship with an artist who makes him, or his picture, immortal     Click here to listen → The News Meeting Will Starmer and Macron make a deal on small boats? Are Britain and France on the cusp of yet another agreement over small boats? Could the Texan floods have been prevented? Can women trust the justice system? Rebecca Moore is joined by Observer reporters Phoebe Davies and Serena Cesareo, and the journalist and author Jenny Evans, whose book Don't Let It Break You Click here to listen → Thanks for reading. We'll be back tomorrow.    Xavier Greenwood Senior editor, newsletters The Observer Brad Gray Production editor, newsletters The Observer   My Account To manage your newsletters, track tickets and more, go to the 'My account' page on the Observer website: Manage my newsletters Follow Follow The Observer on social media on your preferred platform:   The Observer     The Observer Food Monthly The Observer Magazine The Observer New Review   Listen Listen for free in the Tortoise app or wherever you get your podcasts: Want to change how you receive these emails? Update email preferences Copyright © 2025 Tortoise Media. All rights reserved. Did this email get caught in your spam filter? Add editor@newsroom.tortoisemedia.com to your address book to never miss an email again. No longer want to receive this newsletter? Unsubscribe here.