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  Obituary | Calling out his country Stanislas Hutin knew he must not stay silent The exposer of French war crimes in Algeria died on September 2nd, aged 95 Save Share Photograph: Ouest France/MAXPPP Oct 1st 2026 | 5 min read Listen to this story A t first he thought it was jackals he heard, on that cold January night. But the cries went on and on, and they were close, coming from the lieutenant’s tent not far away. Sometimes, shrill and terrible, they sounded like a pig having its throat slit. Surely, Stanislas Hutin thought, it could not be the boy. But it was. The boy was one of those barefoot child-shepherds, thin and filthy as their flocks, who were a common sight in Constantine, in north-east Algeria. This one was 14, though he looked 12, and rather than meet a French army patrol he had fled for the woods. In case he was going to alert the fellaghas , the fighters for Algerian independence, he was pursued and caught. Now he was wired up by wrist and ear lobe to the magneto,...

  Culture | Back Story In Evan Gershkovich’s new memoir, prison is a microcosm of Russia His stint behind bars offers a window onto the country’s wartime soul Save Share Photograph: Getty Images Sep 29th 2026 | 4 min read Listen to this story T here are three types of people in Russia, runs an old joke: those who have been in prison, those who are currently in prison—and those who will be. Under capricious rulers, incarceration is an ambient risk, which can be a mark of virtue rather than degeneracy. For Dostoyevsky and others, it incubated moral clarity and spiritual rebirth. In his new memoir Evan Gershkovich, an American journalist, quotes a character of Tolstoy ’s: “The only suitable place for an honest man in Russia…is prison.” A son of Russian-speaking Soviet emigrants to America, Mr Gershkovich is now in the first of those three carceral categories. He spent 16 months in Russian custody , an ordeal he chronicles in “This Cursed Beautiful Land”. Prison, it shows, is still ...