Why doing nothing is a radical act for India’s women – photo essay

‘Leisure is a feminist issue’ says Surabhi Yadav, whose photography project captures carefree moments of women around her

When Surabhi Yadav’s mother, Basanti, died Yadav realised she had never really known her. “I knew her as my mother, but nothing else,” she says. “I asked one of her friend’s how she remembered her and she told me: ‘She was the funniest and goofiest in our group.’ Those were not words I associated with my mother. I thought of her as a very serious person.”

Her father was the “funny one”, she thought, although her mother never appreciated his humour. “Now, as an adult, I understand that part of it is that my father’s jokes were often sexist, often at her expense.”

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Revealed: Saudi Arabia may have enough uranium ore to produce nuclear fuel

Confidential Chinese report seen by the Guardian intensifies concerns about possible weapons programme

Saudi Arabia likely has enough mineable uranium ore reserves to pave the way for the domestic production of nuclear fuel, according to confidential documents seen by the Guardian.

Details of the stocks are contained in reports prepared for the kingdom by Chinese geologists, who have been scrambling to help Riyadh map its uranium reserves at breakneck speed as part of their nuclear energy cooperation agreement.

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Women tear balaclavas off security officers amid mass arrests in Belarus – video

Protesters, mainly women, tore balaclavas off police and security officers during demonstrations in Belarus in which dozens of people were arrested.

With riot police given carte blanche by president Alexander Lukashenko to harass and assault peaceful protesters, in recent days demonstrators have responded by grabbing their masks and balaclavas, forcing officers to hide their faces and retreat for fear of being identified.

Thousands gathered in the capital, Minsk, on Saturday 12 September as waves of protests continued following Alexander Lukashenko's claim of victory in an election on 9 August people say was rigged

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‘The only way to stop violence’: why protesters are unmasking Belarus police

Pulling off balaclavas and publishing names is new tactic to stem harassment and assaults

During the past month’s uprising against Alexander Lukashenko, riot police and assorted thugs loyal to his regime have been given carte blanche by the Belarusian president to harass, assault and arrest peaceful protesters.

In recent days, however, protesters have found out that for all Lukashenko’s men’s ruthlessness and impunity, they have a vulnerable point: their faces. Grab at the mask of a policeman and he will run for cover.

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Southern hemisphere has record low flu cases amid Covid lockdowns

Data offers hope as winter looms in north and raises viability of eliminating future flu pandemics

Health systems across the southern hemisphere were bracing a few months ago for their annual surge in influenza cases, which alongside Covid-19 could have overwhelmed hospitals. They never came.

Many countries in the southern half of the globe have instead experienced either record low levels of flu or none at all, public health specialists in Australia, New Zealand and South America have said, sparing potentially tens of thousands of lives and offering a glimmer of hope as winter approaches in the northern hemisphere.

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US plans big expansion of navy fleet to challenge growing Chinese sea power

Defence secretary promises future fleet including unmanned ships that will focus on Indo-Pacific region

The US secretary of defence, Mark Esper, has announced an ambitious plan to expand the US Navy with a range of unmanned and autonomous ships, submarines and aircraft to confront the growing maritime challenge from China.

The Pentagon chief said a sweeping review of US naval power dubbed “Future Forward” had laid out a “game-changer” plan that would expand the US sea fleet to more than 355 ships, from the current 293.

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British Columbia pioneers programme to offer safer alternatives to street drugs

The Canadian province, facing an epidemic of overdoses, is expanding ‘safer supply’ guidelines to let nurses prescribe opioids

In a North American first, Canada’s westernmost province has announced plans to provide more legal alternatives to street drugs like fentanyl for people at risk of an overdose, and will allow nurses to start prescribing them.

The new policies, announced on Wednesday, are aimed at providing greater access to pharmaceutical drugs like hydromorphone amid the worst spate of overdoses British Columbia has ever seen.

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UK judge halts Home Office flight to remove asylum seekers

Lawyers argue group of up to 20 people will be left destitute in Spain if deported

A senior high court judge has halted a charter flight hours before up to 20 asylum seekers who crossed the Channel to the UK in small boats were due to be forcibly removed to Spain, a country they had previously passed through.

The judge, Sir Duncan Ouseley, ordered the flight to be grounded because of concerns that the asylum seekers due to fly might be left destitute in the streets of Madrid, as happened to another group earlier this month.

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CDC director suggests masks are ‘more guaranteed to protect against Covid’ than vaccine – live

Senior health officials appear to be offering conflicting timelines on when a coronavirus vaccine will be widely available to the American public.

CDC director Robert Redfield just told senators that the vaccine would not be widely available until “late second quarter, third quarter 2021.”

CDC Director Robert Redfield also told senators that he did not expect a coronavirus vaccine to be widely available to the American public until “late second quarter, third quarter 2021.”

JUST IN: CDC Director Robert Redfield says at a Senate hearing he sees a #Covid19 vaccine being "generally available to the American public" in the "late second quarter, third quarter 2021" pic.twitter.com/8w2904TGhN

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Belarus charges opposition leader with ‘undermining national security’

Maria Kolesnikova could face up to five years in prison as president cracks down on opposition

Belarusian authorities have charged the opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova with “actions aimed at undermining national security”, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

The charge, announced by the country’s investigative committee, is the latest move in a crackdown on opposition leaders by the embattled president, Alexander Lukashenko, who has lost legitimacy among much of the population but retains the support of law enforcement agencies.

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US student accused of killing Italian policeman apologises in court

Finnegan Lee Elder, 20, says fatal stabbing of Mario Cerciello Rega in Rome was ‘worst night of my life’

An American student accused of killing an Italian police officer has apologised in a Rome court.

Finnegan Lee Elder, 20, is on trial with his friend, Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth, 19, for the fatal stabbing of Mario Cerciello Rega on a street in central Rome in July last year. Elder referred to the night of the murder as “the worst of my life”.

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Mexican women’s patience snaps at Amlo’s inaction on femicide

Feminists seize human rights office to force President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to tackle grim toll of rape and murder

As Mexicans prepared to mark Independence Day celebrations on 15 September, a different kind of commemoration was held at the headquarters of the country’s human rights commission (CNDH).

Under a fluttering purple anarchy flag, women in black balaclavas lined the upstairs balconies of the 19th-century building – and speaker after speaker expressed their fury at the country’s crisis of violence against women.

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‘Germany looks like it’s still divided’: stark gaps persist 30 years after reunification

Sobering studies for October anniversary show many in east feel like second-class citizens

Major differences between the lives and attitudes of Germans in the west and east of the country persist 30 years after reunification, a range of studies released for the October anniversary show.

From wages to childcare, trust in political leaders and state institutions, to the importance of an east or west identity, the gaps are stark, the government ombudsman for the former communist East Germany (GDR), and author of the main report, said. “I had hoped that in this, the 30th year after German reunification, we would be further along than we are,” Marco Wanderwitz admitted.

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Emily Ratajkowski accuses photographer of sexual assault

Photographer Jonathan Leder denies assaulting model and actor at photoshoot in 2012

The model and actor Emily Ratajkowski has accused photographer Jonathan Leder of sexually assaulting her during a photoshoot at his home in 2012, a claim he strongly denies.

Leder published a book of the photos in 2016. Ratajkowski claims this was without her consent, but Leder disputes this.

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UK repatriates child orphaned in Syria after Isis collapse

Child is thought to be first to have returned from the country since November

A British child left orphaned by the collapse of the Islamic State caliphate has been repatriated from Syria, the Foreign Office has said.

The child is understood to be the first to have returned to the UK from Syria since November, when a small number of other unaccompanied British children were repatriated.

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Ursula von der Leyen says Poland’s ‘LGBT-free zones’ have no place in EU

In her first ‘state of union’ speech, European commission president delivers criticism of Polish ruling party

The head of the European commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has said Poland’s “LGBT free zones” are “humanity-free zones” that have no place in the European Union in her strongest criticism yet of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party.

In a wide-ranging 77-minute speech spanning from coronavirus to the climate emergency, Von der Leyen pledged to build “a union of equality” and criticised European member states that watered down EU foreign policy messages on human rights.

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‘Confounding’: Covid may have already peaked in many African countries

One explanation for virus not behaving as expected could be previous exposure to other infections, experts tell MPs

The coronavirus pandemic has peaked earlier than expected in many African countries, confounding early predictions, experts have told MPs.

Scientists do not yet know why, but one hypothesis is the possibility of people having pre-existing immunity to Covid-19, caused by exposure to other infections.

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Boeing ‘gambled with public safety’ in run-up to two deadly crashes

Cost cuts and lack of scrutiny contributed to 737 Max disasters, say US politicians

Boeing jeopardised the safety of passengers by cutting costs on the development of the 737 Max and escaped scrutiny from regulators before software flaws contributed to two fatal crashes of the aircraft, according to a report by US politicians.

The US manufacturer was forced to ground its bestselling plane after the crashes of a Lion Air 737 Max in 2018 and an Ethiopian Airlines jet in 2019. The crashes killed 346 people.

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Biden assembles army of attorneys for post-election legal fight

Protracted battle expected as likely surge in mail-in votes means winner of Trump-Biden contest may not be known on night

Joe Biden’s presidential campaign says it is amassing an unprecedented army of attorneys for an expected legal brawl over whether ballots will count in the weeks after the election. The effort will involve several other top Democratic voting rights and election law attorneys as well as Eric Holder, the former attorney general.

Related: The ‘invisible voting bloc’: US postal service cuts threaten ballot access for inmates

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Malaysian prisoners may face ‘forced labour’ on palm oil plantations

Shortage of foreign workers behind plan by producers to employ inmates as a stopgap measure

Prisoners are expected to be put to work on Malaysia’s giant palm oil plantations to make up for an acute labour shortage heightened by the coronavirus pandemic.

But workers’ rights experts have warned that the proposal by the country’s palm oil producers may constitute “institutionalised forced labour” in an industry already accused of widespread abuse and exploitation of workers.

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