Category Archives: Global development

Ugandan president calls on Africa to ‘save the world from homosexuality’

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Museveni says homosexuality is ‘danger to procreation of human race’ at Entebbe conference hosted by US anti-LGBTQ+ hate group


The Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, has called on African leaders to reject “the promotion of homosexuality”, suggesting he will sign into law a controversial anti-LGBTQ+ bill, which was passed by parliament last month.

The bill, which imposes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” and life imprisonment for “recruitment, promotion and funding” of same-sex “activities”, has been widely criticised internationally, with the UN high commissioner for human rights urging the president not to sign it.

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Abusive working conditions endemic in Spain’s strawberry farms, report claims

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UK supermarkets heavily reliant on strawberries from southern Spain, where workers allege they are regularly underpaid, have passports withheld and are forced to live in unsanitary shacks

Abusive conditions are endemic in parts of Spain’s fruit sector, a new report alleges, with workers telling the Guardian they have been regularly underpaid and forced to live in dilapidated shacks.

During the winter, at least 60% of strawberries eaten in the UK are likely to be from vast farms across the south-west Spanish province of Huelva. In 2020, the UK imported €310m (£272m) worth of the fruit from the Andalucia region, of which 91% is believed to be grown in Huelva.

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Brazil may sue VW amid claims firm used ‘slave labour’ under military rule

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Prosecutors seek compensation for workers kept on cattle ranch owned by German carmaker during dictatorship from 1973 to 1987

Brazil is threatening to take the German carmaker Volkswagen to court over allegations that it used slave labour on a vast ranch in the Amazon, after talks on compensating workers ended without agreement.

Public prosecutors in Brazil are seeking compensation for men who they say were forced to work in “humiliating and degrading” conditions, with no clean water or sanitation, on the Fazenda Vale do Rio Cristalino cattle ranch, which was owned by the company in the northern Pará state, between 1973 and 1987.

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Victory over big pharma opens door to cheaper tuberculosis drugs

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India’s patent office turns down bedaquiline extension to Johnson & Johnson, clearing the way for generic versions

People with drug-resistant tuberculosis in India could soon have access to critical medication at a far lower cost after the authorities rejected US pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson’s application to extend a patent.

The firm wanted to extend its patent on bedaquiline, which expires in July, until 2027, which would have prevented cheaper generic versions reaching the market.

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Security guards in Qatar still being paid as little as 35p an hour

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Fifa and Qatar claimed the World Cup would transform workers’ rights, but 100 days on from the final, the Guardian has found that for some it has become worse

Security guards employed by a company with contracts at sites linked to the World Cup in Qatar are allegedly still being paid as little as 35 pence an hour, four months after the Guardian first revealed their plight.

In a Guardian investigation, published on the eve of the World Cup, the guards alleged they were being subjected to abusive practices, including overtime pay below the legal minimum. Interviews this month with security guards employed by Al Nasr Star Security Services at multiple sites suggests the issue of illegal pay remains.

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Founder of Afghan girls’ school project arrested in Kabul

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Matiullah Wesa, head of Pen Path, beaten and arrested outside a mosque after prayers

The founder of a project that campaigned for girls’ education in Afghanistan has been detained by Taliban authorities in Kabul, his brother and the UN have said.

The Taliban government last year barred girls from attending secondary school, making Afghanistan the only country in the world where there is a ban on education.

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Haiti faces ‘hunger emergency’ amid escalating gang violence and surging inflation

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Acute hunger is affecting 4.9 million Haitians, according to a UN report, which outlines the increased need for humanitarian aid

Haitians are increasingly desperate for humanitarian aid as gang violence engulfing the country has left nearly half the population regularly going hungry, a World Food Programme (WFP) report has found.

“These are the worst conditions on record,” said Jean-Martin Bauer, WFP’s Haiti director. “Food insecurity in Haiti has been going downhill and Haiti is sliding into a hunger emergency.”

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UK aid cuts could force closure of Afghan project supporting women and girls

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Slashing funding to the programme from a promised £7m to just £1m sends a ‘stark message to the world’, says Save the Children

The UK government has cut almost £6m in funding to a programme in Afghanistan supporting vulnerable women and girls.

Save the Children said it has been told by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office that it will receive just over £1m of a promised £7m to support more than 100,000 people to access essential basic services such as healthcare and education.

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Tanzania announces outbreak of deadly Marburg virus disease

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Five deaths and three further cases of the Ebola-like virus have been reported in the country’s north-west

Tanzania has announced its first outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus disease (MVD), after five fatalities and three further cases were reported at a hospital in the country’s north-west Kagera region.

Through contact tracing, approximately 161 people have been identified as at risk of infection, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The government has deployed an emergency response team to the area and neighbouring countries have stepped up surveillance. No cases have yet been reported outside Kagera.

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Drought caused 43,000 ‘excess deaths’ in Somalia last year, half of them young children

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New report uncovers tragic scale of climate-led crisis and warns of up to 34,000 more deaths so far this year

A new report released by the Somalian government suggests that far more children died in the country last year due to the ongoing drought than previously realised.

The study estimates that there were 43,000 excess deaths in 2022 in Somalia due to the deepening drought compared with similar droughts in 2017 and 2018.

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Parasitic fungus that infects and kills spiders discovered in Brazil

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Exclusive: rare purple organism preys on trapdoor spider in behaviour reminiscent of its ‘zombie’ relatives that feature in apocalyptic TV show The Last of Us

Scientists believe they have discovered a new parasitic fungus which preys on trapdoor spiders in Brazil’s Atlantic rainforest.

The rare organism, which is purple, belongs to a group of fungi that infect invertebrates and take over the host. A closeup image shows the fungus wrapped around the body of a trapdoor spider, poking out of the burrow from which the arachnid grabs insects.

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Chile’s government pledged to put feminism into practice – has it delivered?

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President Gabriel Boric promised a feminist movement but conservative values remain strong in the country

One tumultuous year has now passed since Latin America’s first self-declared feminist government installed itself in La Moneda, Chile’s presidential palace, vowing to bring progressive, gender-equal politics to a quiet corner of South America.

Standing beside the country’s youngest ever president Gabriel Boric at his inauguration was Izkia Siches, the first woman to be named Chile’s interior minister and one of 14 women in Boric’s 24-person cabinet – the highest proportion of female ministers in Latin America and one of the highest anywhere in the world.

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Virus outbreak in West Bengal leaves 19 children dead and thousands in hospital

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Indian state in crisis after adenovirus hits 12,000 people this year and families with sick children camp outside Kolkata hospital

Nineteen children have died of acute respiratory infections in West Bengal this year, and thousands more are in hospital as India grapples with an adenovirus outbreak.

More than 12,000 cases of adenovirus have been recorded in the state since January. More than 3,000 children have been admitted to hospital with severe flu-like symptoms.

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‘Trail of war crimes’ left by DRC rebel group as recent attacks leave 300,000 displaced

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After a year of murder, rape, disease and looting, aid workers ask the international community: ‘Where the hell have you been?’

More than 300,000 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have had to abandon their homes because of fighting between the M23 rebel group and the government last month.

According to the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, more than 800,000 people have now been displaced by the conflict since last March, and there is a humanitarian crisis that regional and international powers have allowed to fester.

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LGBTQ+ groups face crackdowns in Uganda as environment turns hostile

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Activists fear a systematic ‘witch-hunt’ against sexual minorities by parliament, police and religious conservatives

A dramatic surge in attacks on LGBTQ+ people in Uganda has been recorded by rights groups this year, as the environment for sexual minorities turns increasingly hostile.

More than 110 people reported incidents including arrests, sexual violence, evictions and public undressing, to advocacy group Sexual Minorities Uganda (Smug) in February alone. Transgender people were disproportionately affected, said the group.

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UK aid to India does little for human rights and democracy, watchdog finds

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Programme spent £2.7bn between 2016 and 2021 but is fragmented and lacks a clear rationale, report says

Britain’s aid programme to India is fragmented, lacks a clear rationale and does little to counter the negative trends in human rights and democracy in the country, the government’s aid watchdog has found.

The findings are likely to be used by those who claim the UK government risks using its aid programme to deepen its relationship with India, including seeking free trade deals, rather than attempting to reduce poverty, which is the statutory purpose of UK aid.

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Children face acute risk amid Malawi’s deadliest cholera outbreak

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The disease, which has killed 1,500 people since last March, has been aggravated by heavy rains and an overburdened health system

Malawi’s cholera outbreak is the country’s deadliest on record, claiming more than 1,500 lives, according to the UN.

More than 50,000 cases have been detected in the landlocked country in south-east Africa since an outbreak was declared in March last year, triggered by two devastating tropical storms that hit the region. Almost 200 children have died.

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Iran supreme leader calls suspected schoolgirl poisonings ‘unforgivable’

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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says culprits should be severely punished, amid signs hundreds of girls have been treated in hospital

Iran’s supreme leader has called the suspected poisoning of Iranian schoolgirls in recent months an “unforgivable” crime amid signs that hundreds of schoolgirls have been treated in hospital, many more than the regime had previously admitted.

“Authorities should seriously pursue the issue of students’ poisoning. This is an unforgivable and big crime … The perpetrators of this crime should be severely punished,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said. He added there would be no amnesty for those found guilty.

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New doubt thrown on Moria arson convictions on eve of appeal hearing

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Lawyers condemn EU asylum policies and demand freedom for young Afghans jailed for 2020 blaze at ‘hellish’ Lesbos camp

A new investigation has casts doubt on evidence used to imprison six Afghan teenagers over a fire that destroyed much of a refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos.

Four were sentenced to 10 years in jail for “arson with risk to endanger life” and two were given five years by a youth court. The fire reduced much of the infamous “hell on earth” Moria refugee camp to ashes in September 2020.

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Florence and her cubs give hope that west African lion can come roaring back

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National park in Senegal shows off three surprise new recruits in fight to save critically endangered species from extinction

A lioness in one of the world’s rarest lion populations has given birth to three cubs, new video footage shows, raising hopes that the critically endangered big cat can be saved from extinction.

In contrast to their southern cousins, west African lions have almost completely disappeared. Scientists believe between 120 and 374 remain in the wild, their historic range reduced to four populations clinging on in Nigeria, Benin, Niger and Burkina Faso.

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