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A roundup of the coverage of the struggle for human rights and freedoms from Thailand to Texas Continue reading...

Johnny, 24, artist, meets Gen, 23, postgraduate studentWhat were you hoping for?

Villagers report school students mong those killed amid fighting with government troops near Gangaw townshipFifteen to 20 villagers, including several teenagers, have been killed in some of Myanmar’s deadliest fighting since July between government troops and resistance forces, a villager and reports by independent media said.The fighting near Gangaw township in the north-western Magway region started on Thursday, two days after a call for a nationwide uprising was issued by the National Unity Government, an opposition organisation that seeks to coordinate resistance to military rule. Continue reading...

The country’s goal of eliminating Covid transmission looks within reach – but health experts’ optimism is cautiousLess than a month ago, New Zealanders disappeared into their homes, retracting from the public domain like spilled water into a dry sponge. The motorways and city streets stood mostly empty, shops closed, schools and playgrounds were deserted. A single case of the highly contagious Delta variant had been detected and the government called a snap level-4 lockdown, introducing some of the strictest restrictions in the world.It was a new threat for a country whose Covid-zero pandemic response had been ranked one of the best globally. New Zealand had never faced a Delta outbreak before, and no one knew if its past strategies would prove up to the task. Continue reading...

The UN’s rights spokesperson, Ravina Shamdasani, received reports of house-to-house searches for Afghan demonstrators during the Taliban’s violent crackdown on protests against their rule that has already led to four documented deaths.The UN has said Taliban officers used live ammunition – reportedly fired into the air – whips and batons to break up demonstrations and have since formally banned protests against the regime

Agnès Buzyn accused of ‘endangering the lives of others’ after early statements minimised risk of pandemic

A US court document showed paperwork was filed at Royal Lodge and a response is due by 17 SeptemberPrince Andrew has been served with an affidavit for a lawsuit say lawyers for Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who alleges she was forced to have sex with the royal when she was 17 years old.A document filed in a US court on Friday showed that paperwork for Giuffre’s lawsuit was filed at Andrew’s home, Royal Lodge, in Windsor on 27 August. The affidavit was accepted by a Metropolitan police officer at the gates of the property at 9.30am, after the agent filing the document had been turned away the previous day, according to the documents. Continue reading...

Even from a young age, those around the latest British tennis star suspected she had something specialEmma Raducanu’s unprecedented run to the US Open final so soon after committing to the sport is not the first time she has burst through and demanded attention.In November 2015, only three days after her 13th birthday, which meant she could finally compete in international under-18 tournaments, Raducanu travelled up to Liverpool for the Nike Junior International tournament. Five matches later, she had won the event. Continue reading...

A sporting boycott is the last thing Afghanistan needs but the Taliban’s outright ban on women’s sport couldn’t be a clearer breach of the International Cricket Council’s stated valuesIt seemed, at the start of the match, as if Heaven Help Us CC might just live up to their name. The young curate opening the batting was bowled second ball and it was clear the opposition’s pacy opening bowler – we’ll call him Khalid, although that’s not his real name – was going to be a handful.Like everyone playing in the Refugee Council XI on Thursday, Khalid had been displaced from Afghanistan. Here at Beckenham sports ground he and his teammates were playing a side made up of faith leaders, human rights lawyers and the odd ringer. If you were hunting for an image of sport as a force for good, you wouldn’t find one more picturesque: a lush green outfield, a vicar taking a hat-trick, a rabbi fasting in the field; Chris Lewis, the former England all-rounder, donning blue latex gloves and serving refreshments; young refugees finding a place of belonging in their new home. Continue reading...

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Analysis: experts say blocking right to apply for asylum is an infringement of Universal Declaration of Human RightsGaspare, a fisher from Sciacca in Sicily, had rescued dozens of migrants attempting to reach Italy by boat from Libya when the Italian authorities threatened to arrest him and his crew for aiding illegal immigration.“I wonder if even one of our politicians has ever heard the desperate cries for help at high sea in the black of night,” he said in 2019. “I wonder what they would have done. No human being – sailor or not – would have turned away.” Continue reading...

Australia’s Mental Health Think Tank argues ‘this is absolutely the first and most decisive action the Australian government could take’

Non-binding opinion says UK allowed criminal gangs to flood Europe with cheap Chinese-made clothesA senior EU lawyer has concluded that the British government was negligent in its failure to tackle customs fraud that allowed criminal gangs to flood European markets with cheap Chinese-made clothes and shoes.The non-binding opinion from a European court of justice legal expert does not recommend any penalty, but bolsters the position of Brussels authorities who have demanded the UK pay €2bn (£1.71bn) in compensation to the EU budget. Continue reading...

Departures will be among first international flights to take off from Kabul airport since end of US-led evacuationTwo hundred Americans and other foreigners who remain in Afghanistan were expected to depart the country on charter flights from Kabul on Thursday after the new Taliban government agreed to their evacuation.The departures will be among the first international flights to take off from Kabul airport since the end of the chaotic US-led evacuation of 124,000 foreigners and at-risk Afghans. Continue reading...

A cross between a Disneyland castle and a chilling concrete block, the Humboldt Forum is set to teach visitors about Germany’s colonial era. But is the past being examined – or exalted?A museum gift shop has never been such an ideological battleground. At one end of the store in Berlin’s new Humboldt Forum is a display of souvenirs adorned with the gilded silhouette of the Stadtschloss, the city’s former royal palace, which was bombed to pieces in the second world war. Racks of silk scarves and Christmas baubles hang above rows of candles in regal colours, emblazoned with an image of the stately Prussian pile.At the other end of the shop is a rival range of merchandise, themed around the former East German parliament and leisure centre, the Palast der Republik, which was triumphantly built on top of the ruins of the palace in the 1970s. With its sharp white marble walls, bronze-mirrored windows and space-age chandeliers, it was designed to showcase the wonders of socialism. You can buy keyrings and enamel mugs in a retro Soviet style, as well as a model kit of the building in Formo, the East German version of Lego, for €250. Continue reading...

Actor who plays the Princess of Wales in critically lauded drama says there were moments during the shoot when it felt as if Diana was ‘trying to break through’Kristen Stewart has spoken about getting a “sign-off” from Diana, Princess of Wales for her performance in the biopic Spencer, recently premiered to considerable acclaim at the Venice and Telluride film festivals.In an interview with the LA Times after the film’s North American premiere at Telluride, Stewart said she had some “spooky, spiritual feelings making this movie”, which takes place over three days during the 1991 Christmas break, when Diana was staying at Sandringham house. “Even if I was just fantasising. I felt like there were moments where I kind of got the sign-off.” Continue reading...

The Caribbean coast of Central America’s safest and most stable country offers Black expats a life that is less stressful, more affordable, and free from the burdens of everyday racismWhen she first set foot in Costa Rica, Davia Shannon knew instantly that she would eventually return permanently. She loved being able to do yoga with the jungle as her backdrop and surf whenever she pleased. Even more, she valued the sense of freedom she gained. Free of the fear, anxiety and pain driven by not feeling accepted in the US, Shannon had found her future home.Upon arriving back in California after her 10-day visit, Shannon, now 46, developed a one-year exit plan which consisted of renting out her house, selling her car, rehoming her furniture and downsizing to 12 suitcases. Continue reading...

Jeffrey Donaldson says DUP is ‘totally opposed to Northern Ireland protocol as it presently exists’The Democratic Unionist party leadership has warned it is prepared to walk out of power-sharing in Stormont if the Brexit Northern Ireland protocol is not changed substantially.Just days after the Brexit minister, David Frost, announced the UK would not “sweep away” the controversial arrangements, which involve checks on goods crossing into Northern Ireland from Great Britain, the DUP’s leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, warned the DUP could not continue in Stormont if the “protocol issues remain”. Continue reading...

Shares in Hong Kong-listed firm slump 10% and bond trade suspended amid fears for shaky Chinese real estate marketShares in the embattled Chinese property giant Evergrande have slumped again after two credit downgrades in two days amid concerns that it will default on parts of its massive $300bn debt pile.Evergrande, which is one of the world’s most indebted companies, has seen its shares tumble 75% this year. They fell by almost 10% on Thursday morning to HK$3.35, which is below the listing price when the company floated on the Hong Kong market in 2009. Continue reading...

Remarks by UK care minister come amid consultation on mandatory vaccines for frontline health staff

Immigration Services Union says maritime law would have to be rewritten and French government has rejected proposalsPriti Patel’s plans to send back small boats carrying migrants in the Channel are already “dead in the water”, an immigration workers’ union has said.Border Force staff are being trained to employ “turn-around” tactics at sea under plans developed for two years, a statement from the Home Office said overnight. Continue reading...

The number of children without carers is still not known, leaving them prey to gangs and abuseLilian, six years old and alone, still asks when her mother will return from the market on the edge of Les Cayes in southern Haiti.When last month’s earthquake struck, Lilian was at home, occasionally checked on by her neighbours as her mother, Genieve, was selling fruit a few blocks away. When the ground began to convulse, the market partly collapsed. Genieve was hit by falling concrete and buried under rubble. Her death has left Lilian without anyone to care for her. Continue reading...

Greens MP Tammy Franks uses parliamentary privilege to accuse now independent of inappropriate behaviour. Duluk says she is doing it to cause him political damage

One in every 100 deaths is a suicide: campaigners say criminalisation deters people seeking the help they needSuicide is still considered a crime in 20 countries, punishable by fines of thousands of pounds and up to three years in prison, research has revealed.In many nations children can be prosecuted for attempted suicide and in Nigeria, children as young as seven can be arrested, tried and prosecuted, said the report by United for Global Mental Health, a group calling for decriminalisation. A further 20 countries make suicide punishable under sharia law. Continue reading...

As the third part of her Thomas Cromwell trilogy hits the stage, the writer talks about the perils of political powerplay, fleeing Brexit to Ireland and setting her next novel in more recent timesAs the author of 12 globally successful novels, of which Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies both won the Booker prize, Hilary Mantel seems an unlikely person to conclude that she picked the wrong business. But in a theatre rehearsal room in London, she says: “The thing is, I now know that I should have been doing this all my life.”Her new love is playwriting. During lockdowns, she wrote the script of The Mirror and the Light – the 2020 novel that concluded the Tudor trilogy begun by her two Booker winners. Her co-author, swapping versions by email, was Ben Miles, who also plays Thomas Cromwell, the focal point of Mantel’s stories, as he did in the RSC double-bill of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, which ran in Stratford-on-Avon, London and on Broadway from 2014-15. The first two were written by Mike Poulton but, as the productions developed, Mantel took increasing interest. Continue reading...

From a GP urging patients to get vaccinated to a Covid-bereaved support group founder, Covid, for some people, has meant helping others

She was at the forefront of the Black power movement in Britain in the 1960s and 70s – one of a group who took on and defeated the police in courtDr Altheia Jones-Lecointe describes her arrival in the UK as more than just a complete shock. The woman who would be labelled by Special Branch as “the brains behind the Black Panther Movement”, and go on to win a groundbreaking legal case against the government, says her move to Britain at the age of 20 was “mind-shattering”.Swapping Trinidad for 1960s Britain was, she recounts, being transplanted from a “safe, warm place [where] your presence is normal” to a country where racism was so widespread she felt her very humanity was consistently under scrutiny. It was, she remembers, “a mind-boggling experience to recognise that you [aren’t] the person that you thought you were”. Continue reading...

I first encountered TB Joshua as a teenager, when his preaching captivated my evangelical Christian community in Hampshire. Many of my friends became his ardent disciples and followed him to Lagos. How did he have such a hold over people?

Twenty years after 9/11, 33 years after it was first conceived, and against all the odds, the terrorist group survivesIn the summer of 1988, a dozen or so men gathered in the sweltering Pakistani frontier town of Peshawar. Across the border in Afghanistan, the war was reaching a bloody climax, as hundreds of thousands of local mujahideen took on the Soviet occupiers and their local auxiliaries.The men, who probably met in one of the guesthouses that acted as offices and hostels for foreign visitors to Peshawar, were all from the Middle East. Most had been in Pakistan for several years but had played only a very marginal role in the bloody war raging to the west. But a handful had been with their de facto leader, a wealthy Saudi Arabian called Osama bin Laden, when he had fought off a Soviet attack on a base inside Afghanistan a year earlier. Continue reading...

Preliminary results show a huge turnaround in fortunes for the RNI party as voters turn their backs on hardline ruling PJDMorocco’s liberal RNI party has won the most seats in the country’s parliamentary elections, while the co-ruling moderate PJD Islamists suffered a crushing defeat, preliminary results showed.RNI, led by billionaire agriculture minister Aziz Akhannouch, took 97 of the 395-seat parliament. Another liberal party, PAM, secured 82 seats and the conservative Istiqlal took 78 seats. Continue reading...

Kim Jong-un pictured waving from balcony as military hardware put on show at Pyongyang’s Kim Il-sung SquareNorth Korea paraded goose-stepping soldiers and military hardware in its capital overnight in a celebration of the nation’s 73rd anniversary that was overseen by leader Kim Jong-un, state media reported on Thursday.The Korean Central News Agency also said fighter jets flew in formation above Kim Il-sung Square. The Rodong Sinmun newspaper published a photo of Kim, wearing a cream suit, waving from a balcony towards the assembled troops and spectators. The reports did not say if Kim made a speech during the event, in which personnel wearing orange hazmat suits also marched. Continue reading...

New Delta cases below 21 for sixth consecutive day, as Jacinda Ardern announces vaccine purchase from Spain

Whatever you chose will change who you become, and you cannot predict how in advance, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-SmithHow do I overcome chronic indecision and make progress with my life? Important decisions which usually involve either a time commitment or considerable investment evoke feelings of anxiety and a fear that I will make the wrong choice. I will often ruminate over the pros and cons of these decisions to such an extent that I can no longer choose between them – a state of analysis paralysis.At instances when I have had more than one choice, such as two study offers from different universities, or two different job opportunities, I am frustratingly fraught with indecision. On occasions, I have overthought for so long that I have often lost both opportunities which then stirs up strong feelings of regret and self-loathing. This inaction has stalled my progress in life, which seems bizarre, as all I want to do is just move forward with things. Continue reading...

IOC says suspension is punishment for North Korea refusing to send team to Tokyo Games over Covid fearsNorth Korea has been formally suspended from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics by the IOC as punishment for refusing to send a team to the Tokyo Games, citing the Covid-19 pandemic.The International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach, said the North Korean national Olympic body would also now forfeit money it was due from previous Olympics. The unspecified amount – potentially millions of dollars – had been withheld because of international sanctions. Continue reading...

Data suggesting 20.3% of people are unwilling or unsure on getting jab prompts call for new strategies to reach nation’s waryAustralians must be prepared to see the Covid vaccination uptake curve start to flatten in coming months, a leading vaccine communication expert has warned, due to the rate of hesitancy.But she is calling for health policy to reach this group in order to stop their lives becoming too difficult or to drive them away from healthcare. Continue reading...

Glue and duct tape used to fit rat snakes with dosimeters and GPS movement trackers to help researchers understand long-term effects of radiationResearchers have used snakes fitted with tracking devices and dosimeters to measure radiation levels in the area around the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, which suffered triple meltdowns in March 2011.The meltdowns in Japan caused by a giant tsunami released more radiation into the atmosphere than any nuclear disaster except Chernobyl in 1986. Continue reading...

Border Force is being trained on ‘turn-around’ tactics but France warns plan could endanger livesPriti Patel is preparing to send back small boats carrying migrants in the Channel despite warnings from the French authorities that it could endanger lives.Border Force staff are being trained to employ “turn-around” tactics at sea under plans developed for two years, a statement from the Home Office said. Continue reading...

Covax initiative to receive fewer anti-Covid shots due to restrictions on key supplier; UK also reports a further 191 Covid-linked deaths

Four men – three Irish and one English – said to be members of the Rathkeale Rovers gang were given prison termsA French court has convicted eight men including members of an Irish crime gang for trafficking rhino horn and ivory between Europe and east Asia.Four men – three Irish and one English – said to be members of the Rathkeale Rovers gang were given prison terms, though two were spared jail as the sentences were suspended. Continue reading...

The island removes requirement for face-to-face consultations, meaning women can be remotely prescribed abortion medicationSarah* found out she was five weeks pregnant earlier this year. For the mother of three, carrying on with the pregnancy was out of the question.“My current partner and I are not ready to have a child at this time,” said the 30-year-old resident of Tamuning, on the western shore of Guam. Continue reading...

LGBTI protests against hate crime in Spain will still go aheadA Spanish man who said he had been attacked by a masked gang who subjected him to a homophobic assault at knifepoint and carved the word “faggot” into one of his buttocks has now told police that his injuries were consensual.The apparent attack, which was alleged to have taken place in the central Madrid neighbourhood of Malasaña on Sunday afternoon, shocked Spain and came amid a rise in hate crimes – and just two months after a gay man was beaten to death in the northern city of A Coruña. Continue reading...

Bromley teenager was meant to have met her match in Belinda Bencic but she dismantled the Swiss in a masterclassLess than 10 minutes after Emma Raducanu emerged from the tunnel into Arthur Ashe Stadium for the biggest match of her life against the highest-calibre opponent she had ever faced, the emerging British star was promptly broken in her opening service game.This is where the fairytale was meant to end: opposite the in-form Belinda Bencic, the newly minted Olympic gold medallist who had lost only once in her last 14 matches, whose class and experience would surely be too much for a teenager ranked 150th in the world. Continue reading...

MPs back government plan to increase tax to pay for NHS and social care by by 319 votes to 248Plans to hike national insurance contributions (NICs) to fund £12bn for the NHS and social care have been passed by the Commons, with Boris Johnson spared a mass Tory rebellion.After springing a vote on MPs with just 24 hours’ notice in a bid to stymie a backlash from his own backbenchers, the government won comfortably by 319 votes to 248. Continue reading...

Clarke’s follow-up to Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell was praised by judges as ‘a truly original, unexpected flight of fancy’Comment: Piranesi is a triumphantly unusual winnerSusanna Clarke, who published her debut novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell 17 years ago and then was struck down with chronic illness, has won the Women’s prize for fiction for her second, Piranesi.Narrated by its eponymous hero as he explores the endless halls of a house that imprisons an ocean, Piranesi is “a truly original, unexpected flight of fancy which melds genres and challenges preconceptions about what books should be,” according to the Women’s prize chair of judges, Booker-winning novelist Bernardine Evaristo. Continue reading...

Inquest hears 19-year-old, who arrived before Taliban takeover, was thought to be victim of modern slaveryA teenage asylum seeker who feared he would be deported to Afghanistan killed himself this year in Birmingham, a coroner has concluded.The Guardian is not naming the 19-year-old at the request of family members in Afghanistan who say that doing so could put them at risk. Continue reading...

The ex-MP, who has spoken out against bullying of women in politics, says significant action is needed on climate change and gender equality

Boris Johnson wants an indefinite pause on his treaty obligations, but awkward facts of geography and economics will not changeIn Brexit negotiations, no deadline is final. Reliably, it is the UK that needs an extension. Just as consistently, the reason is failure to understand the implications of something that had been agreed before the last deadline.In accordance with that pattern, the government this week once again extended “grace periods” waiving checks for goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. An early March deadline had been unilaterally abandoned by the UK; a second date of October was agreed with the European Commission. Now, David Frost, Brexit minister, says the waiver is to be indefinite “to provide space for potential further discussions” on changes to the Northern Ireland protocol. Continue reading...

President and prime minister in row over disappearance of cybersecurity expert, reportedly killed by al-ShabaabThe Somali prime minister, Mohamed Hussein Roble, has fired the head of the country’s intelligence unit over the disappearance of a female spy.Roble accused the spy chief, Fahad Yasin Haji Dahir, a former close ally of the president, of mixing politics and security and ordered him to hand over power within three days. He said the handling of the case of the missing 24-year-old was “inappropriate”. Continue reading...

Tory MPs urge home secretary to send arrivals back to France after influx of boats this week

Harriet Harman has written to attorney general to say Sam Pybus ‘sentence fails to reflect gravity of crime’The attorney general’s office is considering whether to appeal against the jail term of four years and eight months handed to a man who choked his lover to death during sex.Labour’s Harriet Harman, who chairs parliament’s joint committee on human rights, wrote to the attorney general to complain about the “unduly lenient” sentence handed on Tuesday to Sam Pybus for the manslaughter of Sophie Moss, a vulnerable 33-year-old. Continue reading...