Taliban have entrenched one of the worst human rights crises and systematically dismantled the rights of women and girls since taking power five years ago. Afghanistan is also facing a humanitarian crisis with 40% of the population in need of assistance. www.hrw.org/news/2026/08...

Afghanistan: Taliban Assault on Rights Deepens 5 Years on

Afghanistan’s Taliban have entrenched one of the world’s worst human rights crises and systematically dismantled the rights of women and girls since taking power five years ago.

hrw.org

The Backlash is out, with reads on feminisation and defence (yup!), Gaza, the Odyssey, the Tates and what mothers think about the birthrates panic. With links to stuff by @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social, @zahrajoya.bsky.social @amiefr.bsky.social and others thebacklash.substack.com/p/a-capaciou...

"A capacious topic" (and four other reads)

Five things on gender (in)equality and the backlash against feminism

thebacklash.substack.com

The Russian government-controlled Africa Corps carried out airstrikes in central Mali on June 15, 2026, that killed eight civilians, including three children, in an apparently unlawful attack. New from HRW:

Mali: Russia’s ‘Africa Corps’ Airstrikes Kill Civilians

The Russian government-controlled Africa Corps carried out airstrikes in central Mali on June 15, 2026, that killed eight civilians, including three children, in an apparently unlawful attack, Human R...

hrw.org

Took an Uber today and left my phone under the armrest. I panicked when I realized it was gone. So I borrowed a phone to call mine to see if it was in the room. The Uber driver picked up. She had come back and was in the lobby trying to find me. There *are* good people amongst us.

“We are addicted to the pathetically deluded idea that by locking up more and more people for ever lengthier periods of time, we are solving anything,” writes Alan Rusbridger

We’re addicted to locking people up—but it doesn’t make us safer

Does Andy Burnham have the attention span, the will and the courage to tackle a collapsing justice system?

prospectmagazine.co.uk

Breaking News: Four bodies were found on a mountain in Pakistan after an avalanche. Six climbers are still missing, including the mountaineer Nirmal Purja.

Renowned Climber Nirmal Purja Is Missing After Avalanche in Pakistan as 4 Bodies Are Found

The body of Nadhira Alharthy, the first Omani woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, was among those recovered. The influential British-Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja was missing.

nyti.ms

“If no single power can plausibly claim to enforce rules for everyone else, then an order based on mutual restraint may prove more stable than one built on a hierarchy that no longer commands belief.”

Samuel Moyn@samuelmoyn.bsky.social · last wk.

The great Asli Bâli and I this morning on the sentimental glazing of US global supremacy - and the need to coax opportunity from its aftermath. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The great Asli Bâli and I this morning on the sentimental glazing of US global supremacy - and the need to coax opportunity from its aftermath. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

What should replace the American-led world order? | Aslı Bâli and Samuel Moyn

The task now is to stop mourning the old order and build the foundations of the new multipolar world

theguardian.com

No one figure can capture the toll of war. But NBC News is tracking various measures to help illustrate the range of human toll and economic consequences of the conflict.

How much has the Iran war cost? Tracking the human and financial toll

Four months, thousands of lives, billions of dollars.

nbcnews.to

Good read about the other Naipaul. foreignpolicy.com/2026/07/24/j...

The Jonestown Massacre in Black and White

A flawed book tries to put race and politics back into a pan-American tragedy.

foreignpolicy.com

R.W. Johnson has died at the age of 82. For nearly 35 years he was one of the 𝘓𝘙𝘉’s more prolific contributors, writing 125 pieces between 1984 and 2017. On the blog, @moonjets.bsky.social remembers ‘Big Bill’: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ju...

Thomas Jones | Remembering Big Bill

Occasionally when the phone rang at the London Review offices in the late 1990s it would be the operator asking if we’...

lrb.co.uk

Renewables are now the world's largest source of electricity – and the main source of new supplies

"This is an existential crisis not just for the ICC but the very idea of international justice," writes @stevebloomfield.bsky.social. The United States "is aligning itself with dictators and autocrats to prevent those accused of genocide, ethnic cleansing and war crimes from ever facing justice."

Trump says he will dismantle the ICC ‘brick by brick’. It could be his most chilling move of all | Steve Bloomfield

The US is aligning itself with dictators and autocrats to prevent those accused of genocide, ethnic cleansing and war crimes from ever facing justice, says Steve Bloomfield, former international edito...

theguardian.com

‘It was the moment I lost innocence’: how a childhood stop-and-search led to the British debut movie of the year

‘It was the moment I lost innocence’: how a childhood stop-and-search led to the British debut movie of the year

When Imran Perretta was young, he was abruptly pulled by police into a van for questioning. That experience, as well as the death of his mother, inspired him to make Ish, a coming-of-age tale set amongst the British Muslim community. He talks about trauma, designing toilets and making Luton look magnificent

theguardian.com

Latest major party leader net favourability ratings, July 2026 Andy Burnham: +3 Ed Davey: -8 Kemi Badenoch: -11 Zack Polanski: -26 Nigel Farage: -46 yougov.com/en-gb/articl...

This looks interesting. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/21/b...

How a Band of Difficult Thinkers Shaped One Author, and the World

nytimes.com

"That China is now trusted more than the US in a large majority of countries surveyed by Pew should ring alarms. Yet America still acts as if it were the most admired place on earth." My column. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Why the world trusts China more than America

Countries suspicious of the US are to be found on every continent, not just in its own back yard

giftarticle.ft.com

Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans need aid after earthquakes: 'We have no income left'

Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans need aid after earthquakes: 'We have no income left'

United Nations agencies estimate 650,000 people, including 230,000 children, have been affected by the devastating earthquakes of June 24, which have now claimed more than 5,000 lives– a figure that is still rising. Aid workers warn that the health emergency is far from over.

lemonde.fr

Good morning to Spain, Lamine Yamal and his brother Keyne

‘When Jude Bellingham catapulted England into the semi-finals, Lowe posted his name on social media, as if we’re expected to pretend that Restore’s immigration policy wouldn’t see Bellingham swept up in their deportation pogroms.’ @judeinlondon.com on the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ju...

Jude Wanga | Limited Leave to Remain English

English identity is a funny business: we can be one thing to ourselves and something else to others, and that changes...

lrb.co.uk

“Why are you talking to an A.I.?” the 15-year-old Cece Ogbuji asked her mother, after finding her facing a small gray orb on the floor of her office one night. “Because she’s my new best friend,” her mom joked. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

When A.I. Is a Member of the Family

A single mom, her two daughters, and the chatbots that fill in the gaps.

newyorker.com

Dua Lipa has made her love of books key to her public persona—and now she’s opened a library in Portugal that’s dedicated to banned books. Sophia Nguyen reports on why the pop star’s latest literary cause is good PR about a complicated topic:

Who Is Dua Lipa’s Banned-Books Library Actually For?

The pop star’s latest literary cause is good PR—and a complicated topic.

bit.ly

Sir Garry Sobers, who has died aged 89, was an undisputed cricketing great and is widely regarded as the sport’s greatest all-rounder

Sir Garry Sobers, West Indies cricketing great, dies aged 89

theguardian.com

Sialkot, Pakistan: Where World Cup footballs get made roadsandkingdoms.com/2018/where-s...

“Stripping citizenship requires no criminal conviction. It is done at the stroke of a home secretary’s pen.” Samira Shackle on the UK’s increasingly draconian rules on removing citizenship

Britain’s citizens of nowhere

Hundreds of UK nationals have been made stateless, and left trapped in squalid refugee camps, without being convicted of any crime

prospectmagazine.co.uk

NEW OP-ED | A Forever War in the Making The lesson here is not that diplomacy failed. It is that Washington and Tehran treated the memorandum not as a bridge from war to diplomacy, but as an extension of war, writes @alivaez.bsky.social in @nytimes.com.

Opinion | This Is a Forever War in the Making

The vague language of the U.S.-Iran cease-fire memo laid the foundation for the war’s resumption.

nytimes.com

#Sudan 's 'war economy' sustains conflicts and abuses - says UN Human Rights Chief. @eudiplomacy.bsky.social should take more measures to stem flow of product linked to funding abuses. www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...

‘For years politicians had taken it for granted that they could profit from the grey economy of French politics. Sarkozy’s mistake was to take it too far.’ Jeremy Harding reads Nicolas Sarkozy’s prison memoir. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Jeremy Harding · Does he still jog? Sarkozy’s Prison Diary

For years politicians had taken it for granted that they could profit from the grey economy of French politics. Sarkozy...

lrb.co.uk

Ten years after Brexit, British support for Ukraine—a gruelling, expensive exercise in European solidarity—is rock solid, writes Andrew Adonis

Keir Starmer’s last stand, at the Nato summit

In Ankara, the outgoing prime minister is once again at the European vanguard, urging further support for Ukraine

prospectmagazine.co.uk