India: ‘A broken country, a country in torment’

The Norwegian Refugee Council, which is providing aid in Afghanistan, is in talks with the Taliban in an effort to secure free movement for its aid workers, and to be able to work without interference. The council’s Secretary General Jan Egeland told BBC World News that the Taliban was responding positively. “We as humanitarians will…

Three astronauts took off for China’s new space station in the country’s longest crewed mission on Thursday. Astrophysicist Dr Megan Argo, told BBC World News the mission would involve checking out the systems on-board the core module and getting the space station ready for habitation and the next phases of construction.

Poland’s ombudsman for citizen rights has warned the independence of his office is threatened after a court ruling that it was unconstitutional to remain in his post after his term ended last September. Adam Bodnar told BBC World News: “One more institution that was independent, is going to be taken over by the ruling party.”…

A Malian woman has recently given birth to nine babies – five girls and four boys at a clinic in Casablanca, Morocco. The nonuplets will have to spend “two to three months” in incubators, a director of the clinic has said, but both the mother, Halima Cissé, and her children are said to be doing…

People need to be able to decide for themselves whether to be vaccinated against Covid-19, Colorado Republican congressman Ken Buck has said. “I don’t believe in vaccine mandates,” he told BBC News’s Hardtalk programme’s Stephen Sackur. “I don’t believe that the government should require individuals to put a foreign substance in their body for disease…

On 4 August 2020, Lebanon’s capital was rocked by a catastrophic blast as hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate exploded in the port, killing at least 200 people and injuring thousands. An investigation is underway but has not yet been made public. The country’s ambassador to the UK, Rami Mortada, told BBC World News that…