Carta que recebi de Mark Rice-Oxley, de “The Guardian”.

Carta privada, mas que espero que o Mark, não se importe que eu a aqui coloque.

Dear Rui,

A change is as good as a rest, they say. And while that may be true, a rest can be pretty great too. In fact, in this year of bewildering disruption, disease and dismay, I’m going to stick my neck out and say that a rest might be slightly preferable. It certainly felt good to take a proper break over the past two weeks, switch off the news, read a few books. And though my job is to encourage readership in all its forms, a part of me hopes that readers might have taken a little time off too. In difficult years like 2020 there are times when I wonder if it is harder being a reader than being a journalist.

Of course, not everyone can be off at the same time. So while I've been frolicking in the Atlantic, Shaun Walker has been holed up in Minsk, documenting the latest challenge to a post-Soviet strongman. Shaun is the perfect man for the job: elegant writer, sympathetic interviewer, immaculate language skills, and as a chronicler of the region for more than a decade, is well versed in narratives of repression, resistance and revolt.

Tom Phillips has also been holed up in a stricken foreign city, though in this case he's been stuck for months in Rio de Janeiro with his young son, trying to fathom what Covid 19 will mean for the nation, region - and his own family. It's easy to forget that reporters trying to cover the pandemic are people too, and that the story has often had a profound personal as well as professional impact.

Half a world away, in Christchurch, Charlotte Graham-McLay has been in court, relaying moving and dramatic testimony from the families of people killed in the March 2019 terrorist attack. More startling than the anguish, bravery and resilience was the extraordinary display of forgiveness demonstrated by a grieving mother.

And finally if, like me, you've not been paying attention for the past couple of weeks, you might have missed Beijing correspondent Lily Kuo's great exclusive with the former party insider who is now speaking out against the course set by Xi Jinping. In Xi's China, these prominent defections are rare, scoops like this even rarer.

The news never stops, even if we must from time to time. Every minute of every day, a Guardian journalist somewhere is finding stuff out, writing it down, publishing it for everyone to read, so that we can understand our world just a little bit better. It is your generous investment in our work that makes this possible. Thank you.

Until next week

Mark Rice-Oxley
Membership editor