To say things have changed for women’s football in Iran since Katayoun Khosrowyar first arrived in the country more than 12 years ago would be as understated as the coach of the newly established under-19 side herself. Back then the 30-year-old from Oklahoma known as “Kat” arrived in Tehran on a family holiday, was scouted for Iran’s newly formed futsal team and ended up captaining the national side after moving there permanently.
“I didn’t speak the language or know anything about my culture – all I knew was that the food was really good,” Khosrowyar tells the Guardian. “Twelve years ago there were a lot of restrictions – people would ask: ‘Why do you want to play football? Just stay at home and learn to be good wives.’ But now we get lots of help from people who are outspoken about supporting women’s football.”
Continue reading...Entertainment has always been about escapism, but the streaming service has made binge-viewing the opium of the masses
The World Health Organization recently classified obsessive video-gaming as an addiction. Not to sound like a compulsive gambler, but I bet it will not be long until “gaming disorder” is joined in the WHO’s International Classification of Diseases by another modern, screen-based malady: “Netflix disorder”.
I watch a lot of Netflix and I am starting to worry that it has become an emotional crutch. If I am feeling stressed or depressed, I self-medicate by staying up late, streaming show after show. Netflix is like audio-visual diazepam. It numbs my senses and makes me forget about everything else; – which is welcome, considering the state of the world. And just when I remember what I should be focusing on ... 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, another episode starts automatically and I tune out again.
Continue reading...As Malcolm Turnbull agrees to send two ministers to the town, Territory Families chief says more could have been done for victims of abuse
The Northern Territory government has removed 15 children from their families around the Tennant Creek region after the rape of a two-year-old girl in the town attracted national condemnation in February.
Ken Davies, chief executive of Territory Families, conceded on Wednesday that his department should have done more for child’s family earlier, with a history emerging of multiple children exposed to violence, abuse and neglect.
Continue reading...The Brazilian striker has been threatening to score all game. He’s narrowly missed a few shots at goal already. Other attempts have been blocked by the Argentinian defender who has been putting his body on the line in a desperate attempt to keep his country in the game. The relentless Brazilian attack continues as a midfielder passes to the striker again who pivots, smashes it with his right foot and watches as it screams into the back of the net.
Related: Gardening, art, sport – 'prescriptions' for mental health that don't involve pills
Continue reading...The Brazilian striker has been threatening to score all game. He’s narrowly missed a few shots at goal already. Other attempts have been blocked by the Argentinian defender who has been putting his body on the line in a desperate attempt to keep his country in the game. The relentless Brazilian attack continues as a midfielder passes to the striker again who pivots, smashes it with his right foot and watches as it screams into the back of the net.
Related: Gardening, art, sport – 'prescriptions' for mental health that don't involve pills
I don’t notice my schizophrenia now. I’m a person again. Today my mind’s on stuff – that’s how football helps people
Continue reading...In July’s crucial election – the first since the fall of Mugabe – women hope to deliver a decisive blow against sexism
Women in Zimbabwe are hoping for a political breakthrough in the forthcoming elections, despite a “hostile atmosphere” and “resistance” from male politicians.
The election next month will be the first since the fall of Robert Mugabe, the 94-year-old who ruled for almost four decades, and is one of the most important in the country’s turbulent history.
Continue reading...The torture of detainees at the Iraqi prison shattered America’s image as a defender of human rights – and separating families only further undermines it
The words “Abu Ghraib” have become synonymous with torture, a black eye for America that has damaged US national security.
Donald Trump’s policy of ripping children away from their parents at the border is a new black mark on America that could also undermine US national security.
But Queensland supreme court says a medical clinic can decide whether to do the procedure
A Queensland woman has won the right to use her dead boyfriend’s sperm to have children, a court has ruled.
Ayla Cresswell should be able to use Joshua Davies’ reproductive tissue, the Queensland supreme court justice Susan Brown said in Brisbane on Wednesday.
Continue reading...New prime minister alleges his former protege is ‘totally responsible’ for the embezzlement of billions of dollars of government money
Malaysia’s new prime minister has claimed that investigators have an “almost perfect case” against former leader Najib Razak, who will face charges of bribery, theft of government funds and embezzlement for his role in the 1MDB scandal.
Mahathir Mohamad described on Wednesday how Najib’s signature was on all the 1MDB transaction documents. In an interview with Reuters, Mahathir said Najib was “totally responsible for 1MDB. Nothing can be done without his signature, and we have his signature on all the deals entered into by 1MDB. Therefore, he is responsible.”
Continue reading...US quits United Nations human rights council … five hurt as battery explodes in London tube station … and Central African Republic disowns Boris Becker
Hello – Warren Murray pointing you towards the big stories this morning.
Continue reading...The EU crackdown on human smuggling has only served to accelerate the cycle of desperate journeys, making them more perilous than ever – while enriching those who peddle dreams of a new life
The list of refugees who have died trying to enter Europe was first published in 1993 with details of 62 people who lost their lives, mostly in central Europe.
Today the counter is at 34,361, and shows that the deaths go on and on – and on.
Continue reading...Annual index on transparency of major international donors rates Whitehall department as ‘poor’, though DfID scores highly
The British Foreign Office has been ranked one of the world’s worst major aid donors on transparency, according to a new study.
The Whitehall department was described as “poor” and “well below average” on transparency of aid spend, ranking 40th among 45 major donors by the Aid Transparency Index, launched by the global campaign Publish What You Fund.
Continue reading...Like Billy Caldwell’s mother, I want to try anything that might help stop my child’s seizures. At the moment, I can’t
Billy Caldwell is a 12-year-old boy with severe epilepsy. Last week, British airport officials confiscated the cannabis oil his mother was using to treat his condition, because the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) it contains is illegal in the UK. He ended up in hospital after his seizures intensified. After the intervention of Billy’s doctors, the home secretary, Sajid Javid, has allowed the return of the drug on the grounds that this situation was a “medical emergency”. Today William Hague, who advocated a “zero-tolerance” approach to cannabis when he was Tory leader, says he has changed his mind, and that Billy’s case “provides one of those illuminating moments when a longstanding policy is revealed to be inappropriate”. And, in a statement to the Commons, Javid proposed a government review of the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes.
I’m pleased about this – and feel particular sympathy for the Caldwell family. My daughter Sia is 17 years old and, like Billy, experiences severe seizures. Sia had her first when she was a little over two years old. Initially we were told it was a febrile seizure resulting from a high temperature; then that she’d probably grow out of it, or that the right medication would provide seizure control. In the beginning, her seizures came occasionally, out of the blue. Then they were monthly. Now they happen daily. They knock her over, throw her off her chair, make her unable to sleep, and keep her permanently exhausted.
Continue reading...Like Billy Caldwell’s mother, I want to try anything that might help stop my child’s seizures. At the moment, I can’t
Billy Caldwell is a 12-year-old boy with severe epilepsy. Last week, British airport officials confiscated the cannabis oil his mother was using to treat his condition, because the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) it contains is illegal in the UK. He ended up in hospital after his seizures intensified. After the intervention of Billy’s doctors, the home secretary, Sajid Javid, has allowed the return of the drug on the grounds that this situation was a “medical emergency”. Today William Hague, who advocated a “zero-tolerance” approach to cannabis when he was Tory leader, says he has changed his mind, and that Billy’s case “provides one of those illuminating moments when a longstanding policy is revealed to be inappropriate”. And, in a statement to the Commons, Javid proposed a government review of the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes.
I’m pleased about this – and feel particular sympathy for the Caldwell family. My daughter Sia is 17 years old and, like Billy, experiences severe seizures. Sia had her first when she was a little over two years old. Initially we were told it was a febrile seizure resulting from a high temperature; then that she’d probably grow out of it, or that the right medication would provide seizure control. In the beginning, her seizures came occasionally, out of the blue. Then they were monthly. Now they happen daily. They knock her over, throw her off her chair, make her unable to sleep, and keep her permanently exhausted.
Related: Home secretary announces review into medicinal cannabis use
Related: What is cannabis oil and how does it work?
Continue reading...All new governments must be obliged to set productivity targets with a revamped Bank of England, and act on them
The last eight years has been a period of almost unparalleled waste and destructiveness in British economic policy. Even the prime minister now admits that the NHS has been damaged by the austerity spending cuts. But the problems with our economy run deeper than brutal political choices to prioritise tax giveaways for the super-rich and giant corporations over spending on public services. They run even deeper than the uncertainty and damage being inflicted by this government’s bungling of Brexit.
This country suffers the lowest rate of investment in the G7. Our infrastructure – the essential networks of transport, utilities and telecommunications – is creaking under the strain, and suffering from decades of privatised mismanagement. On technology, we are falling even further behind, with the latest Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development figures showing that British manufacturing has the lowest rate of industrial robot use in the developed world – even allowing for the small size of the sector – and spending by business on research is far below the OECD average. Real wages remain lower than they were eight years ago. Yet amid the public squalor and worsening conditions for the many, there are huge new investments in luxury flats and, at least in parts of London, extraordinary private wealth.
Continue reading...All new governments must be obliged to set productivity targets with a revamped Bank of England, and act on them
The last eight years has been a period of almost unparalleled waste and destructiveness in British economic policy. Even the prime minister now admits that the NHS has been damaged by the austerity spending cuts. But the problems with our economy run deeper than brutal political choices to prioritise tax giveaways for the super-rich and giant corporations over spending on public services. They run even deeper than the uncertainty and damage being inflicted by this government’s bungling of Brexit.
This country suffers the lowest rate of investment in the G7. Our infrastructure – the essential networks of transport, utilities and telecommunications – is creaking under the strain, and suffering from decades of privatised mismanagement. On technology, we are falling even further behind, with the latest Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development figures showing that British manufacturing has the lowest rate of industrial robot use in the developed world – even allowing for the small size of the sector – and spending by business on research is far below the OECD average. Real wages remain lower than they were eight years ago. Yet amid the public squalor and worsening conditions for the many, there are huge new investments in luxury flats and, at least in parts of London, extraordinary private wealth.
Related: Just look at housing to see the true cost of privatisation | Dawn Foster
Related: CBI cuts forecast for UK economic growth as Brexit concerns linger
Continue reading...Report into Gosport War Memorial hospital blames doctor in charge, colleagues and government
A four-year inquiry into the deaths of hundreds of elderly people who were routinely prescribed opioid drugs is expected to say that blame lies not just with the doctor involved but also those who worked with her, failed to monitor her and who failed to investigate – including the government.
The inquiry was launched following a police investigation into the deaths of 92 patients of Dr Jane Barton at the Gosport War Memorial hospital in the late 1990s. No charges were brought but inquests held in 2009 and 2013 found that medication prescribed by Barton had contributed to the deaths of six patients.
Continue reading...Report into Gosport War Memorial hospital blames doctor in charge, colleagues and government
A four-year inquiry into the deaths of hundreds of elderly people who were routinely prescribed opioid drugs is expected to say that blame lies not just with the doctor involved but also those who worked with her, failed to monitor her and who failed to investigate – including the government.
The inquiry was launched following a police investigation into the deaths of 92 patients of Dr Jane Barton at the Gosport War Memorial hospital in the late 1990s. No charges were brought but inquests held in 2009 and 2013 found that medication prescribed by Barton had contributed to the deaths of six patients.
Continue reading...Maureen Franco, head of the public defender’s office, says parents are ‘inconsolable’ at having their children taken from them
The Trump administration’s policy of forcibly separating children from their parents after they have entered the US illegally is akin to kidnapping, a senior public official has said.
Related: Child separations: Trump faces extreme backlash from public and his own party
Continue reading...In Manchester, groundbreaking economics courses are giving locals the means to challenge some of society’s received wisdom – for free.
• Listen to Aditya Chakrabortty talking about game-changing economic models on The Alternatives podcast
In a makeshift classroom, nine lay people are battling some of the greatest economists of all time – and they appear to be winning. Just watch what happens to David Ricardo, the 18th-century father of our free-trade system. In best BBC voice, one of the group reads out Ricardo’s words: “Economics studies how the produce of the Earth is distributed.”
Not good enough, says another, Brigitte Lechner. Shouldn’t economists study how to meet basic needs? “We all need a roof over our heads, we all need to survive.” Nor does the Earth belong solely to humans. Her judgment is brisk. “Ricardo was talking tosh.”
Continue reading...Personal relationships is an area you can have control over: being part of a community is crucial to our health
Another depressing study this week, regarding those of us under 35. A report by the Health Foundation thinktank warns that millennials are on track to become the first generation to have worse health outcomes than their parents once they reach middle age. Uncertainty over employment, relationships and housing – and the long-term stress, anxiety and depression associated with this – could make us more susceptible to “lifestyle” ailments such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. This, we are told, could erode the gains that have been made in improving health outcomes for previous generations.
I have been writing about generational issues for a good few years now, and there is very little positive news around.
Continue reading...Personal relationships is an area you can have control over: being part of a community is crucial to our health
Another depressing study this week, regarding those of us under 35. A report by the Health Foundation thinktank warns that millennials are on track to become the first generation to have worse health outcomes than their parents once they reach middle age. Uncertainty over employment, relationships and housing – and the long-term stress, anxiety and depression associated with this – could make us more susceptible to “lifestyle” ailments such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. This, we are told, could erode the gains that have been made in improving health outcomes for previous generations.
I have been writing about generational issues for a good few years now, and there is very little positive news around.
Related: In a world of digital nomads, we will all be made homeless | John Harris
Although precise definitions differ, broadly speaking millennials are those people born between the early 1980s and the late 1990s. They are so called because they turned 18 in or after 2000. They are also collectively known as Generation Y
Related: Save for our pensions? We millennials can barely find the money to live | Poppy Noor
Continue reading...Since 1993, one group has kept a tally of all the migrants and refugees who died trying to reach Europe. To mark World Refugee Day, we look at what it tells us about the defining crisis of our times
Today, on World Refugee Day, the Guardian is distributing a list of the 34,361 migrants and refugees known to have died attempting to find a new home within the borders of the European Union.
It has been compiled by United for Intercultural Action, a European network of 550 anti-racist organisations in 48 countries. The List stretches back to 1993, when Kimpua Nsimba, a 24-year-old refugee from Zaire, was found hanged in a detention centre, five days after arriving in the UK.
Continue reading...The MSNBC host struggles to get through a segment on her nightly show, describing babies being forcibly removed from their parents and taken to shelters under Trump's hardline immigration laws. Maddow eventually crosses to another anchor, appearing too emotional to finish reading the report.
Continue reading...As Trump walked out of the closed-door meeting in the Capitol basement, he was confronted by about six House Democrats, who shouted 'stop separating our families!'
Continue reading...Texas-based campaign to provide legal advice to families becomes Facebook’s largest ever single fundraiser
A campaign to reunite families separated at the US border due to Trump’s immigration policies, has raised $7.5m in four days, the largest fundraiser Facebook has ever seen.
Related: Image of sobbing toddler at US border: ‘It was hard for me to photograph’
Continue reading...Despite dynamic opposition, Turkey’s president remains a powerful and popular incumbent
All along Istanbul’s boulevards, the face of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan looms large. For 16 years he has ruled over his country, victorious in election after election, vowing every time that Turkey is on the path to reclaiming its status as a great power in the Middle East and beyond.
Turkey’s largest city is home to a variety of grandiose projects that channel this vision. In October, the government is scheduled to complete work on Istanbul’s third airport, which will serve 90 million passengers a year. A project to bypass the Bosphorus with new 28-mile (45km) waterway linking the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea – a project first proposed in the 16th century – will cost billions of dollars.
Continue reading...When disaster struck his community in remote Chin state, Dr SaSa rushed to help – and found himself trying to treat 400 people a day
Growing up in an isolated village in western Myanmar was tough, with no running water or electricity, and little access to healthcare. The nearest hospital was several days’ walk away. SaSa was determined to become a doctor, but just as he reached the end of his training, the bamboo on which his community survived was wiped out, triggering a huge increase in rats, who ate what little food was left. The overwhelming challenges of trying to bring medical help to the remote region inspired SaSa to found the organisation Health and Hope, which has since enabled hundreds of villagers in Chin state to become community health workers.
Continue reading...When disaster struck his community in remote Chin state, Dr SaSa rushed to help – and found himself trying to treat 400 people a day
Growing up in an isolated village in western Myanmar was tough, with no running water or electricity, and little access to healthcare. The nearest hospital was several days’ walk away. SaSa was determined to become a doctor, but just as he reached the end of his training, the bamboo on which his community survived was wiped out, triggering a huge increase in rats, who ate what little food was left. The overwhelming challenges of trying to bring medical help to the remote region inspired SaSa to found the organisation Health and Hope, which has since enabled hundreds of villagers in Chin state to become community health workers.
Continue reading...Lawyers and medical providers visiting Rio Grande Valley shelters describe play rooms of crying preschool-age children in emotional crisis
Trump administration officials have been sending babies and other young children forcibly separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border to at least three “tender age” shelters in south Texas, it has emerged.
Lawyers and medical providers who have visited the Rio Grande Valley shelters described play rooms of crying pre-school aged children in emotional crisis. The Associated Press learned that the government also plans to open a fourth shelter to house hundreds of young migrant children in Houston, where city leaders denounced the move on Tuesday.
Continue reading...