The tech giant’s new system for scanning iPhones in the US could enable the massive expansion of state surveillanceLast week, Apple announced two backdoors in the US into the encryption that protects its devices. One will monitor iMessages: if any phot…
Belarus repression and the Taliban advance: human rights this fortnight – in pictures
A round-up of the coverage of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Thailand to Mexico Continue reading…
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…
Avni Doshi on summer in Mumbai
The Burnt Sugar author remembers summer 2007, when her grandmother arrived to help her set up home – and teach her some life lessons• Read other authors on their memorable urban summersShe arrives with a small suitcase and several jute bags filled with…
At the frontier of the climate crisis, one scientist’s quest to record the ‘invisible world’ of the Arctic
Lighter nights, orange sunsets, straying killer whales: Wayne Davidson has observed the subtle signs of a tragically warming Arctic for four decadesWayne Davidson has been taking atmospheric readings from the Arctic Weather Station at Resolute Bay on C…
‘They said we were eccentrics’: the UK team developing clean aviation fuel
In the search for sustainable flying, Cranfield University might have found the answer in hydrogenThis row of brick sheds, locked away down overgrown country lanes in Bedfordshire, feels a long way from the glossy boardroom presentations about sustaina…
Kandahar’s fall to the Taliban is a moment of huge significance
Afghanistan’s second city was the capital of the jihadist group until 2001 and has vital strategic and symbolic importanceIn the sprawling compound of Mullah Omar, the Taliban’s first emir, outside the southern city of Kandahar, curious onlookers were …
Taliban advances in Afghanistan ‘deeply concerning’, says Pentagon – US politics live
UN calls on Taliban to ‘immediately halt offensive’, citing humanitarian concernsPentagon says leaders concerned by Taliban’s speedCDC officially recommends Covid booster shots for immunocompromised peopleJuly was hottest month Earth has ever recorded,…
Case of the mystery sea snakes: why are reptiles washing up on New Zealand’s shores?
A famously snake-free country, Aotearoa and its beaches are wrangling with the sporadic arrival of yellow-bellied sea snakesIt looked like a rope or a question mark – a black scribble on the sand. The creature had washed up on a Northland beach in May …
When Covid came to the anti-vax capital of Australia
A noisy minority in NSW’s northern rivers are pushing back against Covid-19 restrictionsBenny Zable has lived in Nimbin on and off since 1973, when he arrived in town for the Aquarius festival – the event that seeded counterculture and escapist lifesty…