This week's long reads

Support the Guardian Support us   Fund independent journalism Strong men: Dacre and Erdoğan’s grip on power In this week’s newsletter: how Paul Dacre’s Daily Mail remodelled the British press. And the mayor of Istanbul’s bid for power ends in a jail cell Illustration: Anaïs Mims/Getty Dacre’s dynasty: how the Daily Mail’s fearsome former editor still shapes the British press | Andy Beckett Paul Dacre broke new ground in selling readers an angry rightwing perspective. Today, most of Fleet Street is run by his disciples, who display his contempt for liberal values and brutal newsroom culture. If you ever wonder how the rightwing press got radicalised, you’ll find answers here. Ekrem İmamoğlu, suspended mayor of Istanbul, visits Anıtkabir in Ankara Photograph: Ümit Bektaş/Reuters ‘This process has turned into a form of torture’: inside the trial of Erdoğan’s challenger | Kaya Genç He was elected mayor of Istanbul in 2019, and had announced his candidacy for the 2028 presidential elections. But Ekrem İmamoğlu is now behind bars, and his trial, on charges including fraud and organised crime, could take 12 years. Inside this week’s long read Andy Beckett has written about Britain’s feared tabloid press and wrote a profile of Paul Dacre before. We asked him about Dacre’s outsize influence For readers outside the UK, how would you describe Britain’s rightwing press? What makes it different to the rightwing press in other countries? Rightwing papers and their websites are unusually dominant in Britain – not just because they have the majority of readers, but because they often establish what’s seen as the “common sense” political positions. The issues that often dominate the national political conversation are the rightwing newspapers’ preferred issues, such as crime and immigration, and they are usually discussed in pessimistic, conservative terms, even by supposedly more neutral parts of the media, such as the BBC. What do you think people misunderstand or overlook about Dacre? That he doesn’t have that clear a picture of liberal or leftwing Britain. Like a lot of conservative journalists and politicians in this country, he relies on stereotypes that work well as attack lines, but which underestimate his enemies and their values – which is one of the reasons, I’d argue, why liberal values have spread further through the population than the rightwing press acknowledges. What do you make of how Britain’s rightwing press have responded to the rise of Reform? So far there has been a mixture of delight and anxiety. Britain’s rightwing press has really been looking a new national saviour ever since the end of Margaret Thatcher’s government – 36 years ago. For a year or two, they thought Boris Johnson was finally the one, but that ended very badly. Nigel Farage excites rightwing journalists as much as Johnson once did, because he’s a rule-breaker yet also aggressively conservative, but like Johnson he would be a huge risk as a prime minister: thin-skinned beneath his surface charm, with big potential scandals already lurking, and little substantial experience of administering anything successfully. This week’s audio long reads Navigating the unknown together’: me and my idiot AI boyfriend Battle of the botanic garden: the horticulture war roiling the Isle of Wight ‘There’s this deep mystery of what, actually, is this thing?’ The philosopher inside Google DeepMind AI Listen to the Audio Long Read on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or in the Guardian app   Will Dean Supporters editor Hi there, Our journalism is free to say what it likes. Free from state interference. Free from corporate interference. Free from the editorial interventions of a super-rich owner (because we don’t have one). We think that the journalism we produce is important and that it can make the world a better place. We think it’s something worth paying for. If you’re a regular reader of our journalism and can afford to pay – from just $5 a month – your support will help for all the things necessary for publishing the facts: from reporters, editors and photographers to lawyers, technology and equipment. Support us     From the archive Photograph: Sipa US/Alamy Photograph: Alamy ‘You reach a point where you can’t live your life’: what’s behind extreme hoarding? | July 2023 Hoarding can be distressing and dangerous. But it’s not just a matter of ‘too much stuff’ – it’s a complex condition that requires careful, targeted help. Samira Shackle talks to people whose roomsful of stuff, in the beds, in the bath, hems them in but also protects them. It’s not as simple as having a good clear-out. A female figure sits on top of a planet, gazing up at the night sky. Illustration: Nathalie Lees/The Guardian The dark universe: can a scientist battling long Covid unlock the mysteries of the cosmos? | May 2023 After being laid low with the virus more than four years ago, the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Catherine Heymans, could only operate in half-hour bursts. In this profile, Alex Blasdel shows how her work could still change the way we understand the universe. I was happy to see Heymans has a book coming out soon, on the science of real and virtual worlds. What else we’ve been reading If you are a person “whose most absorbed and passionate hours are spent arranging words on pieces of paper”, then you may enjoy this substack post about reading Joan Didion’s papers at the New York Public Library. David Wolf, editor The latest form of entertainment in China is short drama: mini-miniseries of two-minute episodes that play out on social media and suck up the attention of hundreds of millions of people. Are these microdramas a new quickfire art form, or just another screen addiction? The Dial calls it dopamine TV. Lavender Au reports. Clare Longrigg, deputy editor Ray Monk’s biography of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein is a classic – it was one of those Covid lockdown reads that really stayed with me – so I’m looking forward to reading him on Einstein in the latest issue of the LRB. Yohann Koshy, deputy editor   Our journalism is free to say what it wants… but worth paying for. From breaking news to huge investigative projects; from masterfully told features and long reads to reviews, podcasts, videos, lifestyle advice and much more. It’s an incredible amount of valuable journalism, and it costs a lot of money to produce. However, we keep our website free to read because we believe access to quality news is a global public good: a positive force for the health of democracy around the world. For more than 200 years, we’ve been publishing fearless, independent journalism. Now, with a daily readership in the millions, we can bring vital reporting to people all around the world, including newsletters like this, direct to your inbox. If you’ve been enjoying the Guardian’s independent journalism since signing up, please consider helping to fund our work. The most impactful way to do so is on a monthly basis from $5. 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