‘For me, it was everything’: the trailblazing school for trans people | Natalie Alcoba

At 15, bigotry drove Viviana Gonzalez from school. Decades on, a dedicated school in Buenos Aires is putting wrong to right

Viviana Gonzalez vividly remembers her first day of high school.

She was 12, and imagined a future as a doctor, a teacher or an artist. But the school administrator in her home town in Argentina looked at her long hair, noticed the boy’s name on her ID and kicked her out “like a dog”, admonishing her for wearing “a costume”. She refused to cut her hair and wear a tie. “I was already Viviana. I didn’t want to dress up like a boy.”

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Pope Francis on Lionel Messi: ‘He’s great, but he is not God’ – video

The five-times Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi has earned the nickname 'D10S', a combination of his shirt number and the Spanish word for God - Dios - but Pope Francis has said 'it is a sacrilege' to give the Barcelona captain that title.

In an interview with La Sexta, the leader of the Catholic Church, praised his Argentinian compatriot saying: 'He's great to watch - but he's not God.'

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‘They don’t think we’re human’: Buenos Aires market traders fight eviction

A recent protest by street vendors was met with a violent crackdown – but was their eviction necessary to ‘order’ the city’s public space?

An unsettling quiet has fallen over a stretch of the usually noisy Feria de San Telmo Sunday market. Artisans should be lining these cobbled streets selling intricate macrame jewellery and Argentinian leather purses to crowds of tourists from all over the world. Deafening percussion bands, accompanied by dancers, and street vendors selling empanadas and arepas should be making their way up the road.

The market is one of the largest handicrafts and antiques fairs in Buenos Aires, popular with tourists and locals alike, and runs the length of Defensa, the main thoroughfare in the barrio of San Telmo.

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Argentina: five-year-old boy rescued after 22 hours lost in desert

Benjamín Sánchez lost sight of his mother while playing hide-and-seek on visit to El Salado, a semi-desert region

A five-year-old boy who was lost for 22 hours in an Argentinian mountain wilderness inhabited by dangerous snakes, cougars and scorpions has been reunited with his family.

Benjamín Sánchez lost sight of his mother while playing hide-and-seek on a visit to El Salado, a semi-desert region of the province of San Juan in western Argentina.

“My mother was chasing me and I started to run,” he told the Clarín newspaper after his rescue. “I could hear her at first but then I got lost. I leaned on a rock. I started to call her but she couldn’t hear me.”

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‘Thousands’ of young girls denied abortion after rape in Argentina

Anti-choice doctors and health officials accused of obstructing legal terminations after 11-year-old girl gave birth to rapist’s child

The lives of thousands of girls in Argentina are being put at risk as legal abortions are delayed and obstructed by doctors trying to force pregnancies to full term.

The issue of anti-choice doctors, medical institutions and government officials deliberately trying to hold up legally sanctioned terminations was brought into sharp focus last week when it emerged that an 11-year-old girl’s baby was born alive because health officials delayed her request for an abortion. The girl had fallen pregnant after being raped by her grandmother’s boyfriend.

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Forget tango: the murga of Buenos Aires is a riot of sequins and salvation

Freelance photographer Kate Stanworth has been following a Buenos Aires murga group for 10 years, as they perform in an energetic street carnival that is little known beyond Argentina

Argentina’s charismatic capital, Buenos Aires, might be more famous for tango, steak and football than colourful carnival parades. However, murga – a feisty, home-grown form of street dance and percussion performed during carnival season, once unfairly thought of as only performed by drop-outs and drunks – has flourished in recent years, providing a source of pride, happiness and salvation for the predominantly working class families that dedicate their lives to it.

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Girl, 11, gives birth to child of rapist after Argentina says no to abortion

Campaigners condemn authorities who ignored girl’s plea ‘to remove what the old man put inside me’

An 11-year old girl who became pregnant after being raped was forced to give birth after Argentine authorities refused to allow her the abortion to which she was entitled.

The authorities ignored repeated requests for an abortion from the child, called “Lucía” to protect her identity, as well as her mother and a number of Argentine women’s right activists. After 23 weeks of pregnancy, she had to undergo a caesarean section on Tuesday. The baby is unlikely to survive.

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Study warns of global rise in autocratic leaders ‘hijacking’ laws for own ends

Poland the worst offender as global justice index identifies decline in checks on government power for second successive year

Autocratic rule is on the rise throughout the world, with a growing number of authoritarian leaders “hijacking” laws to consolidate their own power, a study of global justice has found.

Poland demonstrated the most significant turn towards authoritarianism over the past four years, followed by Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. In all, 64% of 126 countries surveyed made similar moves towards autocratic rule in the past year alone, according to an annual rule of law index published by the World Justice Project.

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Emiliano Sala: family of missing pilot launch fundraiser to continue search

David Ibbotson, who was flying light aircraft that crashed in Channel, has not been found

The family of the missing pilot of the plane carrying the footballer Emiliano Sala have set up a fundraising page for donations to restart a search for him.

Sala’s body was recovered and formally identified earlier this week but David Ibbotson, who was flying the light aircraft, has not been found.

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11 major car brands that have disappeared during the last 20…

There are few things more thrilling than seeing an old car on the road and wondering, "Wow! Whatever happened to that one?" In fact, it's the thrill of finding such a car, which we thought had been dead and buried, out on the street again that is the main factor for our excitement. We know all cars, and their brands, have a lifespan.

Women will march again with aim to become a political force

A year after more than 1 million people rallied at women's marches around the world with a message of female empowerment and protest... . In this Jan. 17, 2018, photo, Minnie Wood, center, makes signs with her daughters Buckley, right, and Zoey in preparation for a rally in Las Vegas.

New contact detected in search for vanished Argentine submarine

The US Navy's research vessel Atlantis deploys the cable-controlled Undersea Recovery Vehicle off the coast of Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina, as part of the search for the missing San Juan submarine AFP/HO BUENOS AIRES: A sonar search for the Argentine submarine that disappeared on Nov 15 with 44 crew members on board has made a new contact in the South Atlantic, according to the navy. It will be investigated by the remotely-operated Russian Panther Plus submarine, while the US oceanographic research vessel Atlantis continues exploring the search area, the navy announced Saturday.

Argentine navy not giving up search for sub after ‘explosion’ report

The Argentine navy says it's not ready to give up a search for a vanished submarine, after the military revealed a sound consistent with an explosion was detected near the vessel's last known location last week off the country's South Atlantic coast. "Unfortunately, we still haven't been able to locate the San Juan submarine despite all of our efforts in the area of operations," Argentine navy spokesman Enrique Balbi told reporters Saturday in Buenos Aires.

A woman touches a poster including pictures of one of the missing crew members

Argentina says it is accelerating the search for a submarine that has been lost in the South Atlantic for nine days amid growing fears for its 44 crew members. The Argentine navy says an explosion occurred near the time and place where the sub went missing on November 15. That has led some to give up hope.

Argentina: Search for missing sub accelerates despite blast

The round-the-clock international search for a submarine that has been lost in the South Atlantic for nine days is accelerating amid growing fears for its 44 crew members. The Argentine navy says an explosion occurred near the time and place where the sub went missing on Nov. 15. That's led some family members of the crew to give up hope of a rescue.

Hope fades after report of a explosiona heard at time Argentine sub went missing

MAR DEL PLATA , Argentina - An apparent explosion occurred near the time and place an Argentine submarine went missing, the country's navy reported Thursday an ominous development that prompted relatives of the 44 crew members to burst into tears, and some to say they had lost all hope of rescue. Navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said the search will continue until there is full certainty about the fate of the ARA San Juan.