Oxygen firms accused of intimidating Mexican hospitals during pandemic

Hospitals received letters threatening large fines after they installed their own onsite O2 plants in response to shortagesIn March 2020, Benjamin Espinoza Zavala saw an entire floor of his small hospital in Guanajuato, central Mexico, converted into C…

‘Nothing to eat’: Somalia hit by triple threat of climate crisis, Covid and conflict

Overlapping crises have pushed the fragile east African country to the ‘cusp of humanitarian catastrophe’, with one in four facing food insecuritySuch was the horror that erupted in her village earlier this year that Fadumo Ali Mohamed decided she had …

The plight of women helped justify war in Afghanistan. Now they have been abandoned | Samira Shackle

Female doctors, journalists, police officers and politicians face acute danger from the TalibanIt was one of the worst phone calls I’ve ever received: a friend in Kabul calling on Sunday afternoon to say that armed men had just visited her house. Her v…

‘Hidden pandemic’: Peruvian children in crisis as carers die

With 93,000 children in Peru losing a parent to Covid, many face depression, anxiety and povertyWhen Covid-19 began shutting down Nilda López’s vital organs, doctors decided that the best chance of saving her and her unborn baby was to put her into a c…

Bollywood’s Kareena Kapoor subject to online abuse over baby’s name

Supporters say attacks over choice of name similar to 17th-century Muslim Mughal emperor rooted in prejudice against inter-faith marriageBollywood star Kareena Kapoor has received abuse online from extremists over her new baby’s name.Kapoor has been at…

‘I’m scared of being killed’: sex worker activists speak out

Rights defenders describe threats and abuse while working to protect their communitiesReport: Sex workers fighting for human rights among world’s most ‘at risk activists’A report has found that sex worker activists are among the most at risk human righ…

‘Please pray for me’: female reporter being hunted by the Taliban tells her story

A young female journalist describes the panic and fear of being forced into hiding as cities across Afghanistan fallTwo days ago I had to flee my home and life in the north of Afghanistan after the Taliban took my city. I am still on the run and there …