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In this book Alex Perry explores how humanitarian activities across the world, including those of celebrities like George Clooney and others brought pressure to bear that resulted in the creation of South Sudan as a separate state. This at a time when senior diplomats believed the chances of the new nation surviving and thriving were slim. Predictably, it seems an outcome that should have solved problems, reduced violence and saved lives has produced a fresh wave of bloodshed. Perry opens with an interview with Clooney as he prepares to enter the Sudanese conflict zone to bear witness to and draw the world''s attention to the Sudanese conflict. Yet the NGO presence put in place to help build a nation is now reduced to burying more of its citizens; victims of fresh genocidal acts reminiscent of those in Somalia in 1991. Perry''s aim is not to cast judgement, but to unearth the complex influences that mean the obvious "good" course of action is not always the best. Perry looks at events since the creation of South Sudan in the context of modern humanitarianism, and asks if the humanitarian project has reached its high water mark. The toxic legacy of Colonialism means that large scale interventions look retrograde and perpetuate the mistakes of the past. And yet it seems the alternative is effectively to stand by and do nothing while civilians continue to die through violence, poverty and, next, a seemingly inevitable return of famine in a state where constant violence makes normal activities like growing crops impossible.

English Football has over 92 fully professional clubs. Players in the Premier League teams now earn an average salary of GBP2.3 million per annum. Meanwhile, on the bottom rung, entire squads make less in a year than Wayne Rooney takes home in a month. An army of young players sacrifice their education and prospects outside of sport for the dream of football success, despite that fact that 85% will be released from their contracts within five years. Simon Akam's book shows what the beautiful game really means for most players. Luton Town Football Club played a vital role in bringing this book to life by opening their doors and allowing a Newsweek Europe journalist to embed with them: a generous act, which has resulted in a remarkable glimpse into life in a lower league club, and the community around it.

"e;Almost everything in Turkana is an emergency"e;Peter Lokoel, Deputy Govenor TurkanaModernity versus tradition; pressure on people and cultures; the potential for environmental catastrophe and private enterprises laying claim to the planet s natural resources all challenge Turkana. This is one of the world s poorest places, which just happens to sit atop what is believed to be one of the richest oil reserves in East Africa. Pulitzer grantee Jessica Hatcher s account clearly demonstrates how many of the most pressing problems faced by human beings in the twenty-first century coalesce in Turkana. Ironically this microcosm of humanity s challenging future is sited in the place that experts believe to be the birthplace of mankind.

This compelling short-read recounts award-winning author and correspondent Owen Matthews' journey across war-torn Ukraine in the summer of 2014. But not only is this a professional journalist's account: it is an insightful and personal journey into the history of this blood-soaked land of curses and new beginnings. Matthews retraces the roots of his mother s tragedy-struck Ukrainian-born family and discovers that "e;though we believe we think with our rational mind, part of us a deep part thinks with the blood. He understands this country in a way few other foreign correspondents can, and tells the story of Europe s latest civil war through the eyes of an eccentric cast of participants, from a sic-fi novelist turned general in the rebel capital of Donetsk to a the Jewish leader of an Ukrainian ultranationalist party in Kiev. It is an extraordinary insight into the disturbing political events of 2014 that tore Ukraine apart and sent Russia spiraling into a vortex of reactionary nationalism. Matthews warns of the long term ramifications for not just for the people of the region, but for all of us in the rest of the world too.

In the summer of 2014 a 50-day conflict between Gaza and Israel saw the loss of over 2,200 Gazan lives, including scores of families classified as "e;erased"e;. The world looked on with a mixture of horror and indifference, and the debate about the rights and wrongs polarised around intractable pro-Israeli or pro-Gazan positions. Sarah Helm had worked in Gaza during the 1990s as a correspondent covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, developing a deep respect for the people living there. In the years after she left, violent clashes began to make the events she had reported on look like mere skirmishes. During a period of relative quiet, Sarah decided to go back to Gaza, and see for herself what had become of the place she reported from two decades ago. This eBook is her personal account of what she found ...

Published in the immediate aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo assassinations in Paris in January 2015, Alex Perry's latest book examines the the question of what it is that drives young people to reject the society in which they have lived and been educated, in the name of radical causes. Perry follows a group of young British muslims, radicalised through contacts made online, and shows how their normal teenage vulnerabilities are exploited with catastrophic consequences. A journey that begins at home with "e;looking the part"e; ends in martyrdom in a far away city. Perry shows how the binary positions adopted by jihadis and the countries increasingly frightened by them, have opened up a chasm of misunderstanding in which the truth has been lost. Both sides tell elaborate myths, about themselves and the world, which make any engagement with the other all but impossible. They speak past each other not with each other. Perry believes it is the purpose of all journalism to pierce the murk, expose the fantasists and elucidate some truth. Mostly that s a fairly civilised process but, he points out, the Charlie Hebdo assassinations remind us of the seriousness of the task. Because stories can, and do, kill.