Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Per Olov Enquist at his home in Stockholm in 2011 One of Sweden’s best-known authors, Per Olov Enquist, has died aged 85.His career spanned more than half a century, and his work won acclaim not just in his native country but across Europe, especially France and Germany. Enquist’s plays and novels – described as…
Image copyright Getty Images US women may soon achieve a level of equality not everyone wants – ending 40 years of all-male precedent by becoming eligible to be conscripted in a time of war, writes James Jeffrey.One of the starkest ways American women have achieved equality with men in the workplace has occurred in the military.The decision five years ago…
Supermodels like Naomi Campbell, along with many musicians and artists, have taken to live streaming to entertain their fans during the Covid-19 pandemic. With lockdowns and curfews imposed in several countries across Africa, people have been feeling the effects of isolation. BBC Africa spoke to several high-profile personalities about their live-stream experiences and how it’s helping them connect with their…
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Separatists took control of the government’s temporary capital Aden in August last year Separatists in southern Yemen have declared self-rule, breaking a peace deal signed in November with the internationally recognised government.The Aden-based Southern Transitional Council (STC) declared a state of emergency, saying it would govern the port city and other southern provinces.The STC is…
Image copyright EPA Image caption New York’s governor says the goal is to provide 40,000 tests per day The US state of New York, the epicentre of the country’s Covid-19 outbreak, will allow pharmacies to carry out tests for the virus, the governor says.Andrew Cuomo said some 5,000 pharmacies would be able to carry out testing, with the aim to…
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Ghana has begun lifting some restrictions African countries have fewer coronavirus cases than much of the world, but weaker healthcare systems do put the continent at risk.Lockdown measures can help prevent the virus spreading, yet governments have taken very different approaches to imposing restrictions on their populations.Are any countries lifting restrictions?Some, like Ghana, are…
Image caption Speculation about the origin of the virus has been rife online From the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak, conspiracy theories about the origin and scale of the disease were spread on online platforms. Among these were the false claim that the virus was part of a Chinese “covert biological weapons programme”, and a baseless claim that a…
Image copyright AFP Image caption A Muslim devotee attends a prayer in Kathmandu amid a government-imposed lockdown across Nepal Millions of Muslims around the world have found different ways to celebrate Ramadan this year, as restrictions imposed by countries to curb the spread of the coronavirus have closed mosques and banned gatherings.This is when the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims abstain…
When Abby Stein came out as trans, she sent shock waves through the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic community. A direct descendant of Hasidic Judaism’s founder, The Baal Shem Tov, Abby’s parents considered her their first-born son and a future rabbi – but she was adamant that she was a girl. My dad is a rabbi, and having a son was a big…
