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The ObserverBBC This article is more than 3 months old‘Distressed’ BBC staff get mental health support over Israel-Hamas warThis article is more than 3 months oldAbuse and complaints taking their toll on reporters, as well as trauma of assignments The BBC is offering extra support to staff who are facing abuse and attacks over the corporation’s Israel-Hamas coverage. Some staff have reported being targeted online or verbally attacked for working for the BBC, while also dealing with distressing footage from the conflict. [Read More]

Suspected poachers caught in Chinko arrive at the park’s main base. Photograph: Jack LoshRangers in this Central African Republic nature reserve face an array of dangers in their bid to protect a rich variety of species by Jack LoshDeep in the heart of Africa, a dedicated group of rangers patrol the Chinko nature reserve. In baking equatorial heat, they are weighed down with body armour and camouflage fatigues. Beads of sweat run down their faces; mosquitos whine. [Read More]

Soccer This article is more than 23 years oldReferee Reed reprimandedThis article is more than 23 years oldPremier League puts the official on probation over his clenched-fist guesture at AnfieldMike Reed will spend the remainder of his days as a Premiership referee on probation after being severely reprimanded by the Premier League for making a celebratory gesture after Liverpool scored against Leeds United last Saturday. In a move designed to remind Premiership referees that they must remain detached during the course of matches under their control, the Birmingham official was warned that he would face further action if there was any repeat of such behaviour and he was also censured for commenting on the incident. [Read More]

10 of the bestBooksJohn Mullan looks in the glassRichard II, by William Shakespeare A weak king but a consummate drama queen, Richard II sends for a looking glass when he finds himself about to be deposed by his cousin Henry Bolingbroke. "Give me the glass, and therein will I read. / No deeper wrinkles yet?" Pronouncing his regal glory "brittle", he smashes the mirror on the ground, "For there it is, crack'd in a hundred shivers. [Read More]

FamilyOne in five British women born in the 60s don’t have children – and the grief many of them feel has rarely been acknowledged. But now they, and men in the same position, are organising with others around the world to gain recognition and comfort Jody Day is giving a TEDx talk to a room full of people against a backdrop of signposts she has chosen for the occasion: “Crazy cat woman”, “Witch”, “Hag”, “Spinster”, “Career woman”. [Read More]

Book of the dayFictionReviewA collection of four books in one about a Wall Street businessman in the 1920s captures our weakness for self-deception Hernan Diaz’s second novel, Trust, is a collection of four manuscripts at different stages of completion, and they tell different versions of the story of a Wall Street businessman and his wife in the years leading up to the Great Depression. In Bonds, ostensibly a bestselling novel authored by one Harold Vanner, a monkish mogul manages to make a massive windfall during the 1929 stock market crash while his wife tragically succumbs to mental illness far away in Switzerland. [Read More]

The ObserverCelebrity'People thought I was a freak. I kind of liked that'Vogue model, style icon and David Bailey's muse, Penelope Tree was the ultimate Sixties It girl. In a rare interview she tells Louise France about her charity work, the misery behind her privileged upbringing - and how the Dalai Lama saved her lifePenelope Tree has both a name and a face that are hard to forget. Yet for the best part of the past 35 years she has done her damnedest to stay out of the spotlight. [Read More]

Other livesReligionObituaryCanon Reginald Askew obituaryCanon Reginald Askew, who has died aged 83, was a theological teacher; vicar of Christ Church, Lancaster Gate, in west London; principal of Salisbury and Wells theological college; and dean from 1988 until 1993 of King's College London. Reggie was a bearded giant of a man, with a laugh that echoed down the naves and a smile that was never far away. A passionate, scholarly interest in the relationship between theology, worship and the arts made him an exceptionally stimulating teacher. [Read More]

Lost worlds revisitedDinosaursDinosaurs in the Wild: a palaeontologist's viewA new experience transports you back 67 million years to view time-travelling scientists studying dinosaurs in the wild Where most efforts at “edutainment” fall down is on being overly bombastic, with too little actual science and far too much whizz-bang. But Dinosaurs in the Wild, a mixture of puppets, models and 3D films (all accompanied by live actors), merges the two brilliantly and is both fun for all ages and genuinely absorbing. [Read More]