World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk

Flight MH370: Police focus on pilots as search for airliner goes on - live updates
Ukraine Crisis: Crimea polls open - live updates
Ukraine crisis: voting begins in Crimea as president warns of Russian 'invasion'
Australian journalists' union demands universal shield laws after Rinehart case
Don't let the cynics and puritans ruin your St Patrick's Day | Padraig Reidy
Catholic bishops urge NSW politicians to vote in support of Zoe's law
March in March: families, anarchists and all in between gather for protest
I'm in love with the spirit of the Ban Bossy campaign | Victoria Coren Mitchell
Tony Abbott calls for briefing on mentally impaired Aboriginal woman
If MH370 crashed in southern Indian Ocean it wouldn't be seen or heard
Tony Abbott urges SA independents not to 'cheat' voters by aligning with Labor
Five cyclists seriously hurt after collision with car in Sydney
Cyber attack on Nato websites claimed by 'Ukrainian patriots'
Sharks overpower fighting Reds to remain on top of the ladder
Lib Dems' support for gay marriage 'cynical', says former Stonewall chief
Libya: fight for oil sparks new divide
The mystery of MH370 goes to the heart of our fears | Stephanie Merritt
Mummy blogs get glamorous makeover
Paris bakery rises to top in best baguette contest again
Alleged victims' fury at failure to ban undercover police seduction tactics
Same-sex marriage: now everyone can live happily ever after | Observer editorial
10 things we learned from SXSW 2014
European Press Prize: all hail the gritty journalists of the Balkans
Nigel Farage puts Strasbourg on the tabloid menu
Public apathy over GCHQ snooping is a recipe for disaster

Flight MH370: Police focus on pilots as search for airliner goes on - live updates

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 01:40 AM PDT

Search for missing airliner enters ninth day

Ukraine Crisis: Crimea polls open - live updates

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 01:40 AM PDT

Two men cast their ballots during the referendum on the status of Ukraine's Crimea region at a polling station in Simferopol

Oliver Laughland

Conal Urquhart

Ukraine crisis: voting begins in Crimea as president warns of Russian 'invasion'

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 01:21 AM PDT

Referendum on union with Russia, dismissed in west as illegitimate, follows deadly violence in east of Ukraine

Voting has got under way in Crimea in a referendum that will decide whether the Black Sea peninsula leaves Ukraine and becomes part of Russia.

Polling stations opened at 8am local time (6am GMT) and are due to close 12 hours later. Provisional results will be released late on Sunday, with the final tally expected one or two days later. A vote in favour of leaving Ukraine could prompt US and European sanctions against Russian officials as early as Monday.

The majority of Crimea's 1.5 million electorate are thought to be in favour of leaving Ukraine and becoming part of Russia, but others see the referendum as part of a land grab by the Kremlin. Ethnic Tatars, Sunni Muslims of Turkic origin who make up 12% of Crimea's population, have said they will boycott the referendum.

European leaders and the US president, Barack Obama, have dismissed the vote, which has been organised by Crimea's pro-Russian authorities at short notice, as illegitimate, saying it would violate Ukraine's constitution.

According to ballot papers published before the referendum, voters have the right to choose one of two options, neither of which rejects control by Russia.

The first question asks: "Are you in favour of the reunification of Crimea with Russia as a part of the Russian Federation?" The second asks: "Are you in favour of restoring the 1992 constitution and the status of Crimea as a part of Ukraine?" This envisages making Crimea an independent entity within Ukraine, with the broad right to determine its own path and choose relations with whom it wants, including Russia.

On Saturday, Ukraine's president said there was a "real danger" Moscow would seize further territory after the referendum in Crimea, and he accused "Kremlin agents" of orchestrating turmoil in the Russian-speaking east of his country.

The acting leader, Oleksander Turchynov, said there was every possibility Russia would advance deeper into Ukraine. He told parliament: "The situation is very dangerous. I'm not exaggerating. There is a real danger from threats of invasion of Ukrainian territory."

A group of Russian commandos advanced beyond Kremlin-occupied Crimea on Saturday and landed by helicopter in an area of southern Ukraine under Kiev's control, Ukraine's defence ministry said. About 60 Russian troops arrived in four helicopters at 1.30pm in the village of Strilkove, in Kherson province, three miles (5km) beyond the autonomous Crimean border. Another 60 flew in in six helicopters at 3.30pm.

Early reports suggested Ukrainian forces had evicted them, but the Russian contingent still appeared to be there on Saturday night. A spokesman for Ukraine's border guard service, Oleg Slobodyan, said the Russians had taken up positions next to a gas production facility, backed by three armoured personnel carriers. Ukrainian troops had reportedly retreated to a nearby crossroads.

Ukraine's foreign ministry dubbed the incursion a "military invasion" by Russia. It demanded that Moscow withdraw its forces and said Ukraine "reserves the right to use all necessary measures" to stop the invasion. The area, Arbatskaya Strelka, is a long section of land running parallel to Crimea. Since independence it has been in Kherson province, but the land was originally part of Soviet Crimea and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, may be attempting to restore this communist-era border.

Most of the infrastructure that supplies Crimea with water and electricity is in the Kherson region. Reports suggest that Crimea's secessionist authorities have claimed the gas production company that owns the facility, which would explain the arrival of Russian troops.

Ukraine's acting foreign minister, Andriy Deshchyta, said on Saturday it was essential that the new government in Kiev, supported by the EU and the US, resists what he called Russian "provocations". He said he was prepared to discuss greater autonomy for Crimea but only with the proper legal authorities, and not while there were "guns on the streets". He described the referendum as totally illegal. In Kiev, the Rada, Ukraine's parliament, voted to dissolve the regional assembly in Crimea that organised Sunday's poll and has already endorsed union with Russia.

At the UN security council in New York, Russia vetoed a US-backed motion declaring the Crimea referendum invalid. The Russian envoy, Vitaly Churkin, claimed Crimea was given illegally to Ukraine in Soviet times – a view apparently held by Putin. Russia's vote was the only no, with China abstaining, while 13 nations voted yes. The US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, said the result underscored Moscow's profound isolation over Crimea. Russia could not, she said, "deny the truth that there is overwhelming international opposition to its actions".

The mood in the east, meanwhile, remains febrile following three deaths in two days in the cities of Donetsk and Kharkiv. On Thursday evening, Russia's foreign ministry posted an ominous statement saying that Moscow reserved the right to protect ethnic Russians in Ukraine. A day later, following talks in London with the US secretary of state, John Kerry, Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said no invasion was planned.

There was further violence on Saturday when pro-Russian protesters stormed Donetsk's security service. There have been large pro-Russian demonstrations in both cities, stirred up – Kiev says – by Moscow and its operatives on the ground.

Two men, aged 21 and 30, were killed by buckshot late on Friday when pro-Russian demonstrators besieged an office of the far-right Ukrainian nationalist group Right Sector, which rose to prominence fighting riot police in Kiev over the winter. Police said 32 Right Sector activists and six pro-Russian demonstrators had been detained and a number of weapons seized.

Luke Harding

Shaun Walker

Australian journalists' union demands universal shield laws after Rinehart case

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 01:14 AM PDT

Principle of protecting sources needed to be enshrined nationally and prevent repeat of 'appalling' subpoena

Don't let the cynics and puritans ruin your St Patrick's Day | Padraig Reidy

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 01:00 AM PDT

It's a day when cultural bandwagon-jumping goes into overdrive, but whether you're Irish or 'Irish for the day', enjoy the craic

What are you doing for St Patrick's Day? Solemnly convening with your inner Celtic spirit, perhaps through the medium of an Enya CD? Or will you achieve that higher state of Gaelicness by digging out your novelty hat and fake beard and heading on down to your nearest O'Neill's to pretend you like stout and the Pogues for a night?

I'll be … well, I still don't know. I should head to Trafalgar Square for the St Patrick's Day festival. They've got good people on. Comedian Roisin Conaty, for example, and the cast of West End show The Commitments. And Riverdance! Actual Riverdance!

Plus, of course, the aforementioned wacky hats, identity tourists, and the deadly serious pursuit of the mythical "craic" facilitated by pints and pints and pints of "the black stuff".

We've tended in recent years to blame this boozy craic-hunting on the drinks companies. Or, specifically, on one particular drinks company: Diageo, the people behind Guinness, Jameson's whiskey and Bailey's Irish Cream. But highly successful marketing machine as it is, Diageo did not invent the idea of the porter-swilling Irishman (indeed, it's interesting to think how few of Guinness's legendary advertising campaigns directly address Irishness). We do at least partly have ourselves to blame.

Dr Marc Scully, a researcher at Leicester University and author of several academic papers on Irish identity, told me: "It wouldn't quite be accurate to say that St Patrick's Day has only got boozy in recent years – certainly there's a number of 19th-century references in Irish newspapers deploring the habit of drinking too much on St Patrick's Day. St Patrick's Day as 'dry' was a project of post-independence Ireland: the first committee to discuss a ban on drinking on the day met as early as March 1922."

The authors of the republic's independence weren't enamoured with the idea of doing all that fighting in the name of a bunch of ingrates who spent their national day pouring porter into themselves, so a new puritan identity had to be formed. Éamon De Valera's famous 1943 St Patrick's Day speech, The Ireland We Dreamed Of, with its comely maidens and "frugal comforts", strangely doesn't mention stout, whiskey or cream liqueur (or indeed the Irish Car Bomb, which is apparently a mix of all three.)

Pubs were actually closed on St Patrick's Day for much of the 20th century, such was the determination to make the day a solemn, sober one. And we've seen how that worked out.

Is there actually anything wrong with our national day being associated with excess? Perhaps not. But there is always a niggle in the Irish mind that we're not really known for anything else. The now obligatory publicity shot of "foreign dignitary with a pint of Guinness" is tedious, and makes one wonder whose benefit it's for.

That question also applies to modern celebrations themselves. The idea of a parade on the day feels distinctly American. Growing up in Cork, often the highlight of my St Patrick's Day was a green milkshake from McDonald's. Irishness sold back to the Irish, as it has been since the days when Tin Pan Alley hacks knocked up tunes such as When Irish Eyes Are Smiling to play for homesick emigrants in New York's vaudeville theatres.

And there is nothing wrong with that. Irish people are equally attracted and reviled by the notion of "true Irish" (fior Gael) that De Valera and others pursued. It's led us to weird places. Emigrants and members of the diaspora are resented, let alone some poor English chap who's put on a silly hat and is telling people down his local that he's "Irish for the day".

Perhaps we should learn to take the compliment. If someone from Sevenoaks wants to claim an affinity with Ireland because he thought Ballykissangel was quite good, why stop him? We should be pleased. No one goes round claiming to be fifth-generation Belgian, no matter how good their beer is.

If there is a proper way to celebrate St Patrick's Day, it is this: out of the country, paying too much for badly poured Guinness in a crowded pub while a bad Pogues rip-off band play a "punk" version of "traditional" (written in the 1970s) anthem The Fields of Athenry with English or American accents.

"Authentic" cultural events are for fascists. Embrace your entirely made-up identity this St Patrick's Day. To misquote that famous Irish song, brought to you, incidentally, by the same man behind If You Come From Yorkshire (By Gum, Tha's Reet Up T'Mark), "If you're feeling a bit Irish, come into the parlour".

Padraig Reidy

Catholic bishops urge NSW politicians to vote in support of Zoe's law

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 12:51 AM PDT

Bill which gives personhood to a foetus opposed by NSW bar association, the AMA and women's groups

Bridie Jabour

March in March: families, anarchists and all in between gather for protest

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 12:26 AM PDT

Tens of thousands around Australia join to protest against Abbott government's policies

Oliver Laughland

I'm in love with the spirit of the Ban Bossy campaign | Victoria Coren Mitchell

Posted: 15 Mar 2014 11:20 PM PDT

I used to be pushy; now I'm more 'feminine' and bat my eyelashes. Frankly, it's loathsome

Women all over the internet are picking holes in the Ban Bossy campaign. Launched by Sheryl Sandberg, Condoleezza Rice and Beyoncé, it seeks to ban the word "bossy" on the grounds that it discourages little girls from ambition and leadership.

They could have picked a less ironic slogan. Seeking to ban things is as bossy as you can get. Other women have suggested it would be better to temper pushiness in boys or to reclaim the word "bossy"; the internet is alive with a million feminist criticisms.

However, I can't help falling in love with the campaign's spirit. The semantic dissection is all very adult and they are speaking to children. Their phrasing may be imperfect, but the 10-year-old me knows exactly what it means.

It's not really about being "bossy". I was a sporadically bossy child. My best friend, Danielle, a far easier-going little person, was simply never given a say. Which games, which sweets; how to construct a secret language, when to climb a tree – I was the colonel of these decisions and she a long-suffering lieutenant.

But nobody told me off for that sort of bossiness, though they should have done. Chances are they didn't notice. It mostly happened when we were alone. Released into the great "Lady of the Flies" of the school playground, I rarely held the conch.

Alone with gentle Dansy, I ruled. At school, in a group big enough to play the Famous Five, I was given the role of Timmy the dog. I literally fetched sticks. I drank water from a bowl on the floor. These days, there are internet sites for people who like that sort of thing. Back then, it was just the natural instincts of girls to establish a power hierarchy.

This wasn't bullying; it was all healthy enough. But there was a sense from the adults, for most of my school career, that I ought to pipe down. Not to be less bossy, just to be less.

Every school report complained about my efforts to make the class laugh. I was often sent out of the room for it. I wasn't properly rebellious: I never swore, heckled or fought. I was fairly in awe of teachers' authority; invited to use their first names in later life, I never could.

I just liked to make jokes. They called it "showing off" and "attention seeking". Which I suppose it was, but in such a harmless way that I remain suspicious of the negative language to this day. It was as though any edges must be rubbed off, to create a modest, obedient and humble young woman.

I remember the scripture lesson when someone read a Bible verse including the words: "Suddenly, Jacob came upon a well" and I muttered: "Well, well, well."

There is an obvious way to go, for a truly disruptive child, with the sentence: "Jacob came upon a well." I'm sure you can spot it for yourself. But I didn't go down that road; my response was impeccably pre-watershed.

I just thought "Well, well, well" would be a funny thing to say if you suddenly found a well. Better if it had been three wells, but you can only work with the material you're given.

I was engaged with the story. I was listening. It was quite an apt contribution, really. But, when the class laughed, I was told to stand outside for the rest of the lesson. I can still feel the shame and bafflement as if it were yesterday.

They thought I was too confident. I was never, in my whole school career, given a job as a monitor, a form captain or a prefect. I never won any kind of prize. In the sixth form, I was allowed to edit the school newspaper for a term, but (in a school first) only with a co-editor whose calmer manner I was told would be "good for me". She was brilliant, but the implication was still embarrassing.

The 18-year battle to make me stop showing off was connected, somehow, to the other message I received throughout my teens, loudly from magazines and books and TV, that I was too fat.

I don't know that I can put the link into words, but I felt it viscerally. I was just altogether too there, taking up too much space and air time. Big, fat, loud and unladylike. The act of growing up appeared to be one of shrinking, of becoming less conspicuous.

I was thinking about this during the recent debate about women on panel shows. I do some of these shows but never talk as much as the boys do. I rarely interrupt, I don't express every funny thought in my head, and I don't fight for the conch – because I can still hear the voices telling me not to show off. Nice girls smile politely and listen.

For better or worse, I've learned to be more "feminine". I'm no longer bossy in the honest sense; I've mastered (mistressed) the art of passive-aggression. Oh, how I smile and bat my eyelashes to feminise my steely resolve. Frankly, it's loathsome. I'd like myself a lot better if I shouted. But this way is more acceptable.

Perhaps girls are more likable for shrinking and blending, smiling and whispering? But that will never redress the imbalance in parliament and public life.

So, as far as the Ban Bossy campaign goes: bossy may be the wrong word. Banning anything is rarely good. Children need to be calmed and socialised, if only to make teachers' lives bearable. My adult self sees all the holes in this campaign. But my child self understands the warm, encouraging principle at its heart. Thus, I hope it will grow big and fat and loud, seeking all the attention it can get.

www.victoriacoren.com

Victoria Coren Mitchell

Tony Abbott calls for briefing on mentally impaired Aboriginal woman

Posted: 15 Mar 2014 10:48 PM PDT

Prime Minister may intervene once he has 'got to the bottom of' jailed woman who has not been convicted

Bridie Jabour

If MH370 crashed in southern Indian Ocean it wouldn't be seen or heard

Posted: 15 Mar 2014 10:05 PM PDT

The huge ocean is deep and wide and one of the most remote places in the world

Tony Abbott urges SA independents not to 'cheat' voters by aligning with Labor

Posted: 15 Mar 2014 08:05 PM PDT

But premier Jay Weatherill believes prime minister's visit gave Labor an added boost in polls

Bridie Jabour

Five cyclists seriously hurt after collision with car in Sydney

Posted: 15 Mar 2014 07:58 PM PDT

Group suffers limb, head and spinal injuries after accident south of the city centre on Sunday morning

Cyber attack on Nato websites claimed by 'Ukrainian patriots'

Posted: 15 Mar 2014 06:50 PM PDT

Several sites have been the target of "significant denial of service attack", spokeswoman says, but operations not affected

Sharks overpower fighting Reds to remain on top of the ladder

Posted: 15 Mar 2014 06:19 PM PDT

Super Rugby round-up: Yellow cards abound in fifth round which featured cliffhangers and strong fightbacks

Lib Dems' support for gay marriage 'cynical', says former Stonewall chief

Posted: 15 Mar 2014 05:06 PM PDT

Charity's ex-chief says backing for same-sex unions was to distance the party from Tories

The Liberal Democrats have been accused of acting in a "cynical and opportunistic" way when they decided to back gay marriage shortly after coming to power in May 2010.

Ben Summerskill, who stepped down last month as chief executive of Stonewall after running the gay rights charity for 11 years, said it was politically expedient for the Lib Dems to back a policy that put a distance between themselves and the Conservative party at a time when there was enormous disquiet about the two parties forming a coalition.

He told the Observerthat he stood by his remarks, made for a Radio 4 programme, and had been convinced of the Lib Dems' cynicism when former MP Evan Harris greeted the conference vote to adopt gay marriage by saying: "This is great because we put clear blue water between us and the Tories."

"Note that he didn't say, 'hurrah – this is great news for gay couples or for equality'," said Summerskill. "He made it crystal clear that at that time it was politically opportunistic for the Lib Dems. It is certainly a less edifying view of the politicians involved, but it's a true view. All you have to do is look at the Lib Dem manifesto in May 2010, even their gay manifesto, and gay marriage doesn't appear. Suddenly, three months later, there they were quite cynically adopting the policy."

His remarks have angered Lib Dem equality minister Lynne Featherstone. "Wow, I'm really upset by that, really upset," she said. "That's absolute rubbish. We are the party of equality and Ben knows that. It wasn't in the manifesto probably because no one thought it could be achieved – not because of any lack of desire to do it.

"I wasn't going to raise this, but it has to be said that Stonewall wasn't in favour of equal marriage and they changed – and I'm very grateful they changed. It is somewhat upsetting to hear that that is his attitude. I thought we were all working together on this. I'm very surprised and disappointed to hear him say that. It's completely unnecessary."

Gay rights activist Peter Tatchell agreed, and added that Stonewall owed both the LGBT community and the Lib Dems an apology.

"An apology would be appreciated. Stonewall does great work but the gay campaign for marriage equality faced an uphill struggle, which was made worse by Stonewall constantly undermining our efforts. Some of the arguments Ben and Stonewall put forward at the time [2010] were quoted by homophobes to justify their opposition to same-sex marriage and this was hugely damaging.

"I am not a supporter of the Liberal Democrats, but on the issue of same-sex marriage the party took an early position, while Stonewall did all it could to sabotage that position. It is unbelievable really."

Stonewall, concerned about the views of some within the LGBT community – especially some women – that marriage has long existed as a means to subjugate women, waited for some time before deciding to back gay marriage, Summerskill said.

Ruth Hunt, acting chief executive of Stonewall, said last week that it was "incredibly important" for same-sex couples in civil partnerships to "upgrade" to marriage. A legal framework to allow couples to take that step should be in place by the end of the year.

Featherstone, who has said the introduction of gay marriage was the "happiest thing ever, both for me as a politician but also for those people who love each other and who weren't treated the same as everyone else", was the first government minister to take proposals for gay marriage in England to the Home Office – Scotland had already backed same-sex weddings. The first ceremonies will take place on 29 March .

People who are in civil partnerships – which has been possible since 2004 – can choose to convert their relationship to a marriage, but are under no obligation to do so. The procedure for such a conversion is expected to be in place by the end of the year.

Tracy McVeigh

Libya: fight for oil sparks new divide

Posted: 15 Mar 2014 05:06 PM PDT

The farcical battle between the Tripoli government and a rebel militia over the refuelling of a tanker laid bare the central role that oil is playing in the splits and tensions that bedevil the country

No one paid much attention to the 21,000-tonne oil tanker Morning Glory as it churned back and forth along the north African coast earlier this month. Tankers are a common sight, carrying Libya's oil exports around the world. But on 1 March it switched off its satellite transponder and vanished from world shipping maps.

Eight days later it appeared at Libya's biggest oil port, Es Sider, blockaded since the summer by a rebel militia. Within a week its arrival would see a prime minister sacked and Libya on the brink of civil war.

Four hundred miles away in the capital Tripoli, prime minister Ali Zeidan, 63, a lawyer and former dissident based in Geneva, was alarmed. He had come to the job 15 months before with high expectations. Libya, freed with Nato help from the Muammar Gaddafi dictatorship, had everything going for it, with Africa's largest oil reserves and only 6 million people to share the wealth.

Instead, he had endured a bruising ride. Forty years of brutal, idiosyncratic dictatorship had left the country on its knees. Schools, hospitals, roads, pensions, commerce, the courts and police needed an urgent overhaul and he lacked the trained civil servants to do it. Worse, he was at loggerheads with the Islamist-led Congress that appointed him. When a militia briefly kidnapped him for six hours in October, he emerged to accuse the Muslim Brotherhood, whose Justice and Construction party leads the Islamist coalition, of "undermining" him. Since then, Islamists and a growing body of allies had campaigned to sack him, blaming Zeidan for Libya's woes. Worse still, the militias that had won the revolution were now fighting each other in a bewildering array of shifting alliances, deepening an economic malaise and scaring off foreign investors.

But the arrival of the Morning Glory was more serious still. Oil and gas account for 95% of government revenues, and most Libyans depend on the state for salaries or handouts. Since the summer, militias in the east and west of the country had blockaded oil ports and fields, demanding more oil cash for the regions and slashing energy production. That had been bad enough. The prospect of the eastern rebels actually selling the oil promised disaster. Normally taciturn and professorial, Zeidan threatened to attack the tanker and sink it if it tried to leave.

In Es Sider, Ibrahim Jathran, 33-year-old leader of the rebels, was unflustered, greeting the Morning Glory's arrival with celebrations that included slaughtering a camel on the quayside. Charismatic and tough, he made his name leading a militia in the revolution and was later appointed head of the army's oil protection force. Last year he set up the Cyrenaica Political Bureau, named after the eastern province that contains two-thirds of the country's oil, and seized key oil terminals. Many Cyrenaicans were ambivalent, agreeing the east needed more state help, but unsure this unelected body was the way to get it. Opponents accuse Jathran of planning a breakaway state, something his supporters deny.

"All of this is against the Muslim Brotherhood, not against ordinary Tripolitanians," said Jathran's spokesman, Essam Jimani. "We don't want independence. But if the Muslim Brotherhood are too powerful and it led to civil war, we would be forced to become an independent state."

The arrival of the Morning Glory also rang alarm bells in the west. Libya was already a worry, with the growing presence of Islamist radicals and waves of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa using it as a springboard for Europe. Nato was the midwife for Libya's Arab spring revolution, its bombing devastating Gaddafi's forces, and a descent into anarchy would affect the reputations of Barack Obama and David Cameron, prime movers in that war.

Now a new reason was emerging for keeping Libya stable; its gas, piped to Italy, was a valuable alternative source of energy to a European Union dependent on supplies from an ever more erratic Russia. Western diplomats liked Zeidan: some conceded he lacked charisma, but they saw in him a liberal mediating force between Libya's factions. And London, Paris and Washington agreed that Congress should be supported as the vital underpinning of Libyan democracy.

While Morning Glory was taking on oil, US ambassador Deborah Jones declared that Jathran's actions amounted to "theft from the Libyan people". Last Monday, unperturbed by threats against it, the tanker, loaded with a cargo valued at £20m, slipped her moorings and a new factor entered the equation: the weather.

Howling winds, driving rain and heavy seas met the Morning Glory as she put to sea. Zeidan ordered armed forces to intercept, only to find the cupboard almost bare. Libya's few major warships were upside-down in Tripoli harbour, the result of Nato bombing in the revolution. Its air force was in near mutiny over changes to its command, with three air bases in open revolt, and no bombers took to the air. Instead Zeidan turned to the Libya Shield, a loose alliance of revolutionary militias. A unit in Misrata, 280 miles up the coast, commandeered a tugboat, lashed jeeps mounted with rocket launchers and anti-aircraft guns to the decks, and set sail.

The tug caught up with the Morning Glory, a TV crew on board filming the firing of Grad rockets, to the whoops and cheers of the crew, aimed at the tanker. Several can be seen splashing into the sea, but at least one appears to hit its target. The footage then captured a remarkable conversation, in English, between the two captains:

Morning Glory: "Don't fire, don't fire. We have security on board we cannot do anything."

Gunboat captain: "We are not firing. Could you change the course to Misrata, please. Have you taken your map to see Misrata port, please?"

Morning Glory: "I cannot do anything, the security on the bridge, the security on the bridge, with the guns. Security on the bridge with the guns, they cannot let me do anything, please don't fire, please don't fire."

The exchange seemed to validate government claims that gunmen were holding the Morning Glory crew hostage, but the tanker outpaced the tug, which later encountered a patrolling US warship. Jathran had won.

In Tripoli the rebel triumph was the last straw for Congress, which sacked Zeidan, replacing him with former defence minister Abdullah al-Thani. Hours later, prosecutors charged Zeidan with corruption and issued a travel ban. The stage was set for a dramatic escape. At 9pm a private jet landed at Tripoli international airport, the pilot telling the control tower he was picking up diplomats. The plane parked on the VIP apron, but when a passport official turned up to check the passengers he was restrained by security guards while Zeidan got on the plane. It took off and headed for Germany, where Zeidan insisted he was innocent of corruption and denounced his sacking as a "falsification", claiming only 113 members voted to sack him, fewer than the minimum 120 required. He promised to return one day to Libya, but that may be some way off.

On Saturday night, giving his first full-length interview since his ousting, Zeidan said he fled the country after friends warned him his life was in danger, and accused Islamists of being responsible for his sacking. Speaking from Germany to a private Libyan TV station, he accused the Muslim Brotherhood of wanting to "impose its will" on Libya and repeated his claim, denied by Congress, that his removal was unconstitutional.

Congress, insisting its dismissal was lawful, decided on bold action. Misratan-led Libya Shield units, the most powerful in the country, raced east down the coastal highway to capture the rebel-held ports, running into a unit, not of rebels, but of army special forces at the coastal town of Sirte. In confused fighting five soldiers were killed, four incinerated when their vehicle was hit. Photographs of their badly burned bodies being returning to Cyrenaica spread across social media, inflaming public anger. A mixed force of Jathran's rebels, Cyrenaican militias and army units complete with howitzers was deployed at the Red Wadi, a valley blocking approaches to the ports.

Trouble spread across the country. In the western mountains, next to Tunisia, the Zintan militia, allies of Zeidan, denounced his sacking and mobilised. The Zintan militia is second only to the pro-Congress Misrata militia in strength, and both are more powerful than Libya's tiny regular army. Zintani and Misratan militia units have frequently clashed in Tripoli, vying for control of key bases. Zintan also lies along the gas and oil pipelines carrying oil from western Libya to the coast. In concert with ethnic Berbers to the north and Tobu tribesmen to the south, it has periodically cut pipelines and occupied oilfields. Were it to side with Jathran's forces in the east, it would leave the central government facing an almost total oil blockade, and the prospect of resistance on two fronts.

Adding to the confusion, leaders in the southern province of Fezzan met to consider breaking away from government control, while in Tripoli a militia stormed, looted and burned the HQ of the second infantry brigade. On Thursday, Congress speaker Nuri Abu Sahmain intervened, giving rebels two weeks to vacate the oil terminals in a bid to bring calm. Tribal elders from east and west met, hoping to find a breathing space.

But that space is limited. The Islamists in Congress have strengthened their hand by sacking Zeidan, but at the risk of polarising the opposition. Congress is itself denounced by many for staying in office after its mandate expired last month, despite MPs arguing that Libya must have a parliament until the elections this summer. Many think a breakup is now a possibility.

"Current conditions seem heavily stacked against a political solution," said Oliver Coleman, an analyst with British risk consultant Maplecroft. "There is an absence of any genuinely unifying figure to act as a bridge between Libya's factions. An Islamist-dominated Congress will find it extremely difficult to reach a negotiated settlement with Jathran, given his renowned animosity to the Muslim Brotherhood."

Jathran's rebels have vowed to hold the Red Wadi, in what some see as a de facto partition of Libya. Among those seeking dialogue is Hassan El Amin, a Misratan former dissident who quit Congress and fled back to Britain in 2012, saying he had had death threats. He is now calling for the UN to mediate. "The west should realise the issue in Libya can get really out of hand, they don't want another Syria. When we were fighting Gaddafi they [the west] came in together. We need them again."

As forces gather either side of the Red Wadi and Libyans prepare for more violence, one question remains unanswered – the fate of the Morning Glory. It was last seen late last week going east along the Egyptian coast, destination unknown. By then it hardly mattered, as news broke that a second tanker was heading for rebel-held ports.

Chris Stephen

The mystery of MH370 goes to the heart of our fears | Stephanie Merritt

Posted: 15 Mar 2014 05:06 PM PDT

Malaysia Airlines' missing plane prompts the niggling thought that maybe we have no business taking to the skies

The satirical website the Onion said it best on Thursday. The investigation into the fate of flight MH370 had been widened, it declared, "to encompass not only the possibilities of mechanical failure, pilot error, terrorist activity or a botched hijacking, but also the overarching scope of space, time and humankind's place in the universe".

Is it right to joke at all about what may very well turn out to be a mass tragedy? Perhaps a combination of gallows humour and conspiracy theories are our instinctive response to the confusion surrounding an incident like this. But an incident like what? Experts on all sides repeat the word "unprecedented" and it is precisely this sense of mystery that keeps us glued to the 24-hour news, awaiting the next instalment. I'd bet there isn't a thriller writer in the world who isn't guiltily wishing they'd dreamed up a scenario like this.

We thought we lived in a world so webbed around with digital surveillance and electronic footprints that it was all but impossible for an individual to vanish comprehensively, much less an international airliner. The story of MH370's disappearance has had all the hallmarks of a thriller over the past week: the red herrings, the misinformation, the suspicious passengers, the wider political ramifications. And yet, at the heart of all the theories and counterclaims, remains this black hole: the plane is still missing.

As a chronic aerophobic, I've taken a number of courses over the years designed to help people overcome their fear, most of them based on the idea that knowledge is power. Commercial pilots and aviation engineers with 30-plus years' experience stand in front of 100 quaking phobics and patiently explain why your worst nightmares just couldn't happen in modern aviation.

The last time I attended one of these, a year ago, people asked about systems failures, security breaches, loss of power, fires, depressurisation, midair collisions, bird strikes, pilot training, landing-gear failure (we phobics have vivid imaginations). Our pilots, with thousands of hours of flying and training between them, reassured us on every point. Aviation technology, both on the ground and in the aircraft, is so sophisticated now that it's almost impossible for anything untoward to occur without a series of back-up systems springing into action.

There is no arguing with the statistics: flying is safer now than it has ever been. And yet it seems an entire plane can be made to vanish from the skies, just by flicking a switch to cut off communications. None of us thought to ask about that.

Aeroplanes exert a unique hold over our imagination. That's why so many disaster movies begin with an air crash or are set in a stricken plane. It's why terrorists target them – for maximum impact. Perhaps it's the combination of power and audacity they represent: a sort of Icarus complex, the niggling fear that we're not really supposed to do this and must be punished for it.

In the absence of facts, our obsession with the story feeds on uncertainty and that's what the Onion was satirising. That an object the size of a 777, equipped with every modern instrument of navigation and communication, can simply disappear without trace is a mystery that takes us right back to the legends about the Bermuda Triangle.

Stephanie Merritt writes thrillers as SJ Parris

Stephanie Merritt

Mummy blogs get glamorous makeover

Posted: 15 Mar 2014 05:06 PM PDT

Pregnant fashionistas are now as eager to look good as they are to practise breathing exercises

Does my bump look good in this? It's a question that preys on the mind of the heavily pregnant fashionista. But help is at hand, thanks to new glossy magazine-style blogs aimed at expectant and new mums more concerned with keeping up with the front row than the hand-wringing of their ante-natal group.

At the vanguard is Romy & the Bunnies by Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, the model daughter of former French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld. Inspired by the arrival of daughter Romy, Restoin-Roitfeld has given motherhood the Grace Coddington treatment with galleries of black-and-white shots of models and actresses looking fabulous pre and post partum, as well as designer "must-haves" to keep mother and child up with latest trends.

Other upmarket US sites include Rip + Tan, by fashion designer Jenni Kayne and The Glow which offers "a glimpse into the world of inspiring and fashionable moms". Launched by Violet Gaynor and Kelly Stuart, who met at Elle.com,The Glow talks to glamorous mums such as Zoe Buckman, British wife of Friends star David Schwimmer, who is pictured relaxing in her New York apartment with no trace of baby Cleo's sick on her Chanel boots. Such is the site's success, a book featuring mums from the major fashion capitals is out next month.

There is also the more down-to-earth homegrown School Gate Style by mother-of-three Avril Keys which offers the "fashion diary of an ordinary mum who wears practical affordable clothes".

The genre is being billed as the "third wave" of mummy blogging. The first iteration, according to the New York Times, was the pre-internet Christmas round robin, where friends and family members were brought up to speed with that year's (child) developments. The second wave, it says, could be grouped as "confessional soapboxes" – blogs such as dooce.com – where new mums won legions of followers as they tackled subjects like postnatal depression. Now the blogosphere is awash with sites featuring photoshoots that would not be out of place in Vogue itself.

Siobhan Freegard, co-founder of Netmums.com, says fashion becomes a divisive subject when broached on the website's forums. Some mums are firmly in the "can't be bothered" camp, she says. "One of our mums said asking what she wore on the school run was like asking her what she wore to take the cat to the vet," said Freegard. "They are quite happy to just scrape their hair back. Getting the kids out of the house clean and fed is enough. Others don't want to let that part of themselves go. They are still interested in fashion, but realise they are not a Cosmo girl any more."

With plenty of parenting websites for mums to browse, Restoin-Roitfeld doesn't pretend to be an expert on anything other than keeping up appearances with the blog's raison d'être "purely aesthetic". After the birth of her daughter in 2012, she says she struggled to find "a publication that spoke to me as a mother determined to retain her sensuality and femininity". "Motherhood should not signal the end of these things," writes Restoin-Roitfeld, whose mother encouraged her to pursue the project. "Rather, it should heighten them. With this as my inspiration, I decided to share my discoveries with other women."

Her discoveries, it turns out, are not frumpy tops with ventilation for breastfeeding, but lingerie, vigorous workout regimes and makeup tutorials. The fashion is predictably high end, with a mini-me section that showcases chic outfits for Romy. In one sketch the toddler has thrown together a look that includes a faux fur leopard coat, cashmere cable knit sweater and Stella McCartney jeans.

Some argue this new breed of aspirational blog threatens to feed women's insecurities about their appearance in the months and years after giving birth.

Keys defended herself in a heated debate on Netmums about School Gate Style, insisting she was "not about judging what other women wear". "I called it School Gate Style to try to capture the audience I knew the blog would appeal to," she said. "I like to make an effort – the day just seems to be easier to cope with if I feel I'm looking OK."

With thousands of mummy – and daddy – blogs, the competition for readers is fierce. Mumsnet alone has 4,200 bloggers in its network offering insight and advice on dark arts such as getting your baby to "latch on" or baking a Peppa Pig birthday cake that doesn't look like roadkill.

But it turns out even the Mumsnet audience hankers after fashion and makeup tips, with the parenting website recently launching a style hub rounding up blogs on the topic.

Mumsnet Bloggers Network editor Kate Williams says its writers offer a "funnier and more self-deprecating" view of the nexus of motherhood and fashion. "American sites like The Glow present a version of maternal style that is very aspirational and, well, glow-y. It's lots of artful shots of lithe-limbed mothers being stylish with their kids, in their enviably eclectic (and expensive) homes. We provide a platform for writers who take things altogether less seriously."

Zoe Wood

Paris bakery rises to top in best baguette contest again

Posted: 15 Mar 2014 05:05 PM PDT

Judges in the French capital's best baguette contest decide to stick with a proven winner

On the outside it is golden and crusty, with a light dusting of flour. On the inside it is cream coloured, airy and slightly chewy.

This is – officially – the best baguette in Paris, made by baker Anthony Teixeira, sold to customers in his boulangerie, Aux Délices du Palais, and soon to be gracing the breakfast table of the French president, François Hollande.

Teixeira saw off nearly 200 rivals last week to take the prestigious award, which was won by his father, Antonio, 16 years ago. It is the first time a Parisian boulangerie has won the title twice.

The baguette, the iconic long, slim stick of bread, has traditionally ranked beside the beret, strings of garlic and the Eiffel tower as one of the most potent symbols of French culture.

In rural areas, elderly French people still trace the sign of the cross on the bottom of their baguette with a knife before cutting it. They always keep it top side up and never, for equally mythical reasons, cut it from both ends.

At Aux Délices du Palais, customers in the long queue snaking to the door in the 14th arrondissement agreed that Teixeira and his family made exceedingly good bread, not to mention excellent macarons – for which they have also won prizes – and mouthwatering pâtisserie.

The French are believed to consume around 10bn baguettes every year, most of them produced by local bakers. Bread is a cultural and occasionally political subject in France, where the 1789 revolution and the storming of the Bastille were sparked by, among other things, rising bread prices.

Being quintessentially French, the baguette – the word is literally translated as "wand" – has not escaped France's infamous bureaucracy. According to decree 93-1074 of 13 September 1993, the baguette de tradition française can only be made with the following ingredients: wheat flour, water, yeast or raising agent and salt. There are a couple of sub-clauses allowing very small deviations from the golden regulation, mostly concerning types of flour. Preservatives are banned.

But what makes a good baguette? "It has to be very well-cooked – not all white and pasty," said customer Roger. "We were four boys at home when we were young. There wasn't much money for food, so a good bread to go with the meal was essential … and you would never throw away so much as a crumb."

"Golden, crusty … and it must have the right smell," added Vincent.

Teixeira, 24, who starts work at 3am and produces about 1,500 baguettes a day, said a good baguette should always be golden and crusty on the outside and have a regular airiness on the inside.

"We have our recipe, but the real secret is love for the job," he said. "It is very hard work, and you have to be motivated, but we enjoy it and we do it for our customers. I know of boulangers who make a special dough just for their competition baguette, but we aim for excellence all the time. Winning this prize is great, but for us it is a confirmation of the quality we try to maintain."

It is the 20th year of the competition to find Paris's best baguette. A total of 187 were submitted for a blind tasting, but 50 were rejected for not being the correct size (55-65cm) or weight (250g-300g). The loaves must not contain more than 18 grammes of salt per kilo of flour. Each is judged blind and marked on five criteria: appearance, crust, the bread inside the crust, the smell and the taste. The texture of a good baguette should be moist, very slightly chewy and with a hint of a nutty flavour.

The winning baker gets to deliver 40 baguettes to the Elysée presidential palace every morning for a year.

Teixeira would not be drawn on whether the presidential breakfast order might also include a few croissants. Hollande is reported to have sent his bodyguard to buy croissants from the shop during secret trysts with his actress girlfriend Julie Gayet. "It's a very great honour to be making baguettes for the president," he said tactfully.

Kim Willsher

Alleged victims' fury at failure to ban undercover police seduction tactics

Posted: 15 Mar 2014 05:05 PM PDT

New code of conduct does not rule out forming relationships with suspects or associates if justified by likely disclosures

Eight women who say they were duped into forming long-term sexual relationships with undercover policemen have attacked the government's failure to ban such behaviour in a newly published code of conduct.

The Home Office policy suggests there will be a tightening of guidelines on undercover surveillance, but does not explicitly rule out officers engaging in sexual relationships with those being spied on or those who associate with the target. The new code – which is now open to consultation – merely says that intrusion into someone's "private or family life", even when they are not the direct targets of the surveillance, should be justified by the information that might be discovered.

Today the eight women – who are seeking redress for their alleged suffering through the high court – have made public their outrage at the government's failure to address the issue.

One of the alleged victims, known as Lisa, who had a six-year relationship with the former undercover officer Mark Kennedy when he was attached to the National Public Order Intelligence Unit spying on environmental activists, told the Observer: "We've heard so many different senior police officers say that it should never happen again, so when they had a chance to put it in the guidelines I expected that they would.

"In a way, I am not surprised because I've never got the impression that they really understand. The new code talks of levels of intrusiveness and the need for different levels of authorisation, but they have previously relied on the test that intrusion has to be necessary. Well that has allowed them to get away with all this stuff that is now coming out. So that isn't enough of a safeguard. It hasn't been in the past and it won't be in the future.

"Unless it is made clear that officers who engage in intrusive activity will face a charge of gross misconduct or be dismissed, or there will be some consequences, then this behaviour will not stop."

The Home Office consultation on the new code of conduct closes at the end of this month. Lisa said that the group of eight women would soon be formally responding to the Home Office's proposals. She said: "We have been trying to think of an extreme circumstance where this should be allowable and we can't think of a single one." "Senior cops keep saying it is unacceptable and keep failing to do anything about it in any way."

The women's lawyer, Harriet Wistrich of Birnberg Peirce & Partners, said: "What is clear is that officers have been doing this on a nod and a wink. I am really shocked that it is not in the consultation paper, given all that has been said."

It is claimed that five undercover officers engaged in infiltrating environmental campaign groups between the mid-1980s and 2010 had relationships with the women lasting from seven months to nine years. Bob Lambert, John Dines, Jim Boyling, Mark Cassidy and Mark Kennedy (who went under the name of Mark Stone) have been named as the alleged officers.

Last week Scotland Yard was forced to drop an attempt to block legal action by five of the women allegedly duped.

The move followed this newspaper's revelation that the Metropolitan police was continuing to seek to strike out the women's lawsuit despite widespread outrage over the role of undercover officers, and in particular revelations of spying on the family of the murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence.

The Met conceded that its application was neither "appropriate or proportionate" in the wake of the decision by the home secretary, Theresa May, to order a public inquiry into the undercover infiltration of a political group.

Scotland Yard had been planning to claim that the police had a strict policy of "neither confirming nor denying" the identity of undercover police officers and that they were therefore unable to get a fair hearing as they could not offer any evidence in court.

A Home Office spokesman said: "Proposed changes will promote the highest standards of professionalism and are part of the government's drive to improve the police's accountability to the public."

Daniel Boffey

Same-sex marriage: now everyone can live happily ever after | Observer editorial

Posted: 15 Mar 2014 05:05 PM PDT

In a tolerant, egalitarian society every citizen, gay or straight, should have the chance to tie the knot

Sue Wilkinson and Celia Kitzinger married in Canada in 2003, but until Thursday the couple had not worn their wedding rings ever since their challenge to the country's refusal to recognise same-sex marriage was rejected by the high court in 2006. Last week, the two opened the champagne when the 2013 Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act came into force finally giving their marriage legal recognition in Britain. The Observer congratulates them and all same-sex couples who may now opt to tie the knot.

Heterosexual marriage is currently in an unhealthy state. More than 42% of marriages end in divorce and family breakdown is costing £46bn a year, often to the detriment of children. Same-sex marriages will face similar challenges endeavouring to navigate the rough times as well as the good. However, commitment is a healthy foundation for civic society and marriage is one manifestation of it. Same-sex nuptials have no more of a guarantee of longevity and contentment than their heterosexual counterparts, but in a tolerant, egalitarian society, every citizen, whether gay or straight, has a right to the chance of a marital happy every after if they so choose.

Observer editorial

10 things we learned from SXSW 2014

Posted: 15 Mar 2014 05:05 PM PDT

From Google to Gaga, Edward Snowden to Neil Young – and, of course, Grumpy Cat: the highlights of this year's Austin event

1 The debate over online privacy is just getting started

The big draws at the interactive arm of SXSW weren't actually there: National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared via videolink from Russia and the Ecuadorian embassy in London respectively. The setting for their keynote speeches, a huge room of 3,500 people paying rapt attention to a man on a giant screen, felt eerily like Nineteen Eighty Four. The key theme for both was that the discussions over online surveillance and digital privacy are just getting started. "We are all involved in what we traditionally called the state, whether we like it or not," said Assange. "So we have no choice but to try to manage the behaviour of the state that we have been forced to be part of." Snowden called for internet users to get to grips with encryption and anonymous web browsing technology and encouraged technology companies to make them more accessible. "The NSA is setting fire to the future of the internet and you guys are the firefighters," he said.

2 Two of this year's best documentaries focus on British musicians

Two film premieres focused on UK pop stars. The theme of The Possibilities are Endless is a journey back to health for the singer and guitarist Edwyn Collins, who suffered a debilitating stroke in 2005. It tracked his recovery, intercutting archive footage of his career with Orange Juice with his return to live performing and composition: it's a beautiful piece of work even when at its most deliberately unsettling. Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals showed and talked about his American Interior documentary, which starts as a whimsical journey to the heart of the US in the footsteps of a distant ancestor who went in search of a mythical Welsh-speaking Native American tribe. As the film goes on and Rhys meets the last native speaker of the Mandan tribe's language, it makes some thought-provoking points about the fragility of culture – issues that will be expanded on in a companion app and book later this year.

3 The stars of Girls are suffering from Hollywood typecasting

HBO's hit TV show Girls has been acclaimed across the world, but its star and creator Lena Dunham used her speech to point out the industry sexism that continues to stymie her female colleagues, even as male star Adam Driver prospers. "People are ready to see Adam play a million different guys in one year – from lotharios to villains to nerds. Meanwhile Allison Williams, Jemima Kirke and Zosia Mamet are still waiting for parts they can get interested in," said Dunham, suggesting that most of the offers they receive are for "high school ditzes". Even Dunham is struggling for decent roles. "There's no place for me in the studio system," she said, while stressing that she is happy for Driver's success.

4 Neil Young wants to shake up the digital music world

Neil Young came not just to talk music, but to talk technology too. He used his appearance to launch a campaign on crowdfunding website Kickstarter for his PonoPlayer music gadget and PonoMusic downloads store. The motivation behind both: to sell music files with a higher audio quality than is available in stores such as Apple's iTunes. "It's about the music, real music. We want to move digital music into the 21st century and PonoMusic does that," said Young. Enough people agreed with him to have pledged $2.9m on Kickstarter in the first three days after his speech. There were some sceptics, though, including those pointing out that many smartphones are already capable of playing the high-resolution files that PonoMusic will be selling.

5 Nasa is crowdsourcing the hunt for hazardous asteroids

Neil Young wasn't the only one seeking help from the crowd. Space agency Nasa used the show to launch Asteroid Data Hunter: a set of contests offering prize money to developers who help it better identify potentially hazardous asteroids using ground-based telescopes. The agency has identified 98% of the larger-than-1km asteroids that could cause a dinosaur-style mass extinction if they collided with Earth. Now it's hunting down the million-plus more smaller asteroids that could wipe out a city. Nasa's Jason Kessler said: "This is not us coming to say that we've got this problem solved. We want to join a conversation."

6 Big stars (and brands) are now flocking to SXSW

SXSW veterans will happily bang on about how much better the event was when it was younger, smaller and mainly focused on new bands hoping to make a name for themselves. They're all still playing the bars of Austin, but in 2014, the big stars and brands were out in force too. Lady Gaga played a gig for Doritos, with fans and journalists asked to complete social media tasks to qualify for entry. Apple transplanted its London iTunes festival to Texas, with Coldplay, Pitbull and other big stars in tow. Samsung hosted a gig by Kanye West and Jay-Z, while even Justin Bieber showed up to play an acoustic number at a sausage restaurant called Banger's. It reinforced SXSW as a place where headlines are made, not just careers.

7 Kevin Bacon has come to terms with the Six Degrees game

Who could rival the likes of Assange and Snowden for a hotly attended event? Kevin Bacon might have made the biggest splash, in a session celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon meme that, initially at least, he hated. "I was horrified by it. I thought it was a giant joke at my expense," Bacon said. "I appreciate it now. But I was very resistant to it." Now he's more relaxed about what the game – which assigns a "Bacon number" to any celebrity based on the number of professional steps they are away from Bacon. "I don't think it's a great testament to my ability. My movies just happen to be on a lot," he said, before posing for a Vine video in front of the audience that, by the rules of the game, gave them all a Bacon number of one.

8 Algorithms may be more powerful than editors in the news world

How do twentysomethings and teenagers get their news online? "If news is going to find you, it's going to find you because of an algorithm," said Kelly McBride of Florida journalism school The Poynter Institute, talking about how Facebook, Twitter and Google decide which news stories to show their users. Will those algorithms be biased towards populist stories and penalise serious fare? Eli Pariser, CEO of news website Upworthy, which attracts up to 60 million people a month to stories about income inequality, climate change and human rights that are designed to be shared on Facebook, claimed not. But he admitted that "these little pieces of code are more powerful now than a lot of the most powerful editors in media".

9 Wearable gadgets are the next big thing in technology

While Snowden was encouraging people to think more about digital privacy, the big hardware topic – wearable gadgets – was based on them potentially sharing even more of their personal data with the world. No wonder Google is interested, announcing plans for "Android for wearables" so that its smartphone and tablet software can be used for a new wave of smart watches, fitness-tracking gadgets and other devices. "We see a world of sensors. Sensors can be small and powerful, and gather a lot of information that can be useful for users," said Google exec Sundar Pichai. A host of sessions debating the potential for smart health and location-based services on these gadgets backed up his suggestion.

10 Cat videos aren't just popular: they're lucrative too

One key lesson: if someone brings Grumpy Cat into the room, half your audience will be lost trying to take her picture. That was the jostling scene in a session devoted to "the economics of internet cat videos" with an array of startling facts. The Internet Cat Video festival outsold Depeche Mode by 3,000 tickets at last year's Minnesota State Fair; a philosophical cat called Henri Le Chat Noir's YouTube channel earns $10 in advertising for every 1,000 views; and the Grumpy Cat book has spent 10 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list this year. All this is based on a keen online fanbase for cats. "There's an evolution of the crazy cat lady," said Animal Planet's Grace Suriel. "From all walks of life, people have cat dresses, cat tattoos … it's a whole new breed of cat person."

Stuart Dredge

European Press Prize: all hail the gritty journalists of the Balkans

Posted: 15 Mar 2014 05:05 PM PDT

Nominees for the second European Press Prize include people, particularly in the Balkans, who produce great journalism without great resources

The winners of the second great European Press Prize – to be announced in London tomorrow – are the cream of our continent's crop. But it needs to be added, by this EPP part-organiser at least, that the whole field of entries – nearing 400, from Finland to Turkey – is impressive going on inspiring. And if I had to salute one region beyond any other it would be the Balkans, where investigative reporters, often gathered into little collectives and networks, produce a constant stream of terrific stories: municipal corruption, election rigging, ministers and civil servants on the take.

We're used to hearing dreadful wails from big-money newspaper groups in the west, particularly the US. They say that mounting investigations is too expensive these days. They want to let millionaire-funded units of self-standing reporters (such as non-profit newsroom ProPublica) take over that role. They should come over to Sarajevo or Bucharest and see what dedication plus gritty resilience – journalism's gift to democracy – can achieve. There is a right to brave determination as well a right to know.

Peter Preston

Nigel Farage puts Strasbourg on the tabloid menu

Posted: 15 Mar 2014 05:05 PM PDT

As a real contender in the European elections, Ukip is about to experience the blessing and the curse of close media scrutiny

Becoming a properly "major" party, entitled to all available TV balance and courtesies for the European elections, is good news and bad news for Ukip and Nigel Farage. The good news – probably – is that we shall see a lot more of him. The bad news is that we may also learn a lot more about him (particularly from copious investigations by the Times, chronicling the high jinks and low politics of Nigel and his followers in Strasbourg). Why didn't we know, last July, that Ukip had voted against returning £85m to Britain; that they refused to give crime victims greater protection; that they didn't back language tests for eastern European doctors who want to work for the NHS?

And what about the parliamentary question of the week, inquiring whether "Mr Farage thinks it's a fair use of taxpayers' money, namely his secretarial allowance, not only to employ his wife Kirsten but his former mistress Annabelle Fuller?" That (asked on the floor of the assembly by a disaffected ex-Ukip MEP, and hotly denied by Farage) is probably the longest direct quote from European parliament proceedings since Tony Blair's last prime ministerial visit there.

Traditionally, Strasbourg doesn't get reported much in the British press. It's designated a boring foreign gravy train and consigned to grey oblivion; like, it would seem, 10 years of Nigel dinners at the Pierre Bois et Feu and sundry munching spots, with or without female company. But now, suddenly, the light has begun to dawn. Now, as quick as you can down Pierre's poached egg with foie gras, the hounds are after the truffles. At last, at last: an EU story that hits the tabloid spot.

Peter Preston

Public apathy over GCHQ snooping is a recipe for disaster

Posted: 15 Mar 2014 05:05 PM PDT

The lack of public alarm at government internet surveillance is frightening, but perhaps it's because the problem is difficult to convey in everyday terms

As someone who is supposed to know about these things, I'm sometimes asked to give talks about computing to non-technical audiences. The one thing I have learned from doing this is that if you want people to understand technological ideas then you have to speak to them in terms that resonate with their experience of everyday things.

It's obvious, I know, but it took me a while to get it. I can vividly remember the moment when the penny dropped. One of the ideas I was always trying to get across was why open-source software was important. The term "open source" is actually a euphemism for free software, coined because some advocates of free software thought that the US corporate world would associate the word "free" with communism. The key thing about free software is not that you don't pay for it (because sometimes you do) but that you have the freedom to change it to meet your requirements – on condition that you pass on the same freedom to anyone who uses the modified software.

When I tried to explain the significance of this to my lay audiences, however, they invariably responded with blank stares. And then one day I realised what the problem was – none of them had ever written a program. So the next time I gave a talk I brought with me a copy of Delia Smith's great Complete Cookery Course. I put up a slide showing her recipe for gratin dauphinois, one of the ingredients for which is 150ml of double cream. "Now," I said, "double cream is not good for me, so I'd like to substitute single cream in the recipe. Can you imagine a world in which, if I wanted to do that, I would have to get Delia's written permission, and possibly pay her a fee? Wouldn't that be absurd?"

Suddenly my audience got it. Computer programs are recipes and everyone understands recipes.

Now spool forward to the present. One of the things that baffles me is why more people are not alarmed by what Edward Snowden has been telling us about the scale and intrusiveness of internet surveillance. My hunch is that this is partly because – strangely – people can't relate the revelations to things they personally understand.

In the past two weeks, two perceptive commentators have been trying to break through this barrier. One is Cory Doctorow, the science-fiction novelist, who had a terrific essay in the Guardian arguing that instead of increasing our security, government agencies such as the NSA, GCHQ and others are actually undermining it. The essay is worth reading in full, but one part of it stood out for me. It's about the thriving, underworld online market in malicious software. Nowadays, if some hacker discovers a previously unknown vulnerability in widely used software, that discovery can be very valuable – and people will pay large sums for such "zero-day" exploits. But here's the creepy bit: sometimes, the purchasers are government agencies that buy these pieces of malware to use as weapons against their enemies.

To most people, this will seem pretty abstruse. But with the imaginative skill of a good writer, Doctorow nails it: "If you discovered," he writes, "that your government was more interested in weaponising typhus than they were in curing it, you would demand that your government treat your water supply with the gravitas and seriousness that it is due." In a networked world, in other words, cyberwarfare and cybercrime are analogous to public health issues and our intelligence agencies ought to be treating them as such, rather than polluting the water supply.

With similar acuity, the security expert Bruce Schneier homes in on the patronising cant about automated surveillance that is being purveyed by both intelligence agencies and internet companies. In an insightful blog post, Schneier quotes a Google executive's remark that "worrying about a computer reading your email is like worrying about your dog seeing you naked".

Schneier is not impressed. Commenting on the revelation that GCHQ has been scooping up millions of webcam images from Yahoo users, he writes: "When you're watched by a dog, you know that what you're doing will go no further than the dog. The dog can't remember the details of what you've done. The dog can't tell anyone else. When you're watched by a computer, that's not true. You might be told that the computer isn't saving a copy of the video, but you have no assurance that that's true.

"You might be told that the computer won't alert a person if it perceives something of interest, but you can't know if that's true. You do know that the computer is making decisions based on what it receives, and you have no way of confirming that no human being will access that decision."

John Naughton