Seventeen years after losing her council job due to needing endometriosis surgery, Michelle Dewar’s campaign for paid menstrual leave gained 50,000 signatures in a week, reports ELIZABETH SHORT

THERE is an understandable outcry here about the potential termination of much-needed medical and humanitarian support to Third World countries as the Trump administration moves to shut down the US Agency for International Development (USAid).
For all intents and purposes, USAid appears to be — and to some extent is — a dispenser of essential aid to countries in need. Its termination is an ominous move in a likely trend.
Over the weekend, President Donald Trump’s unelected henchman, Elon Musk, threatened to throw USAid “into a wood chipper.” At a hastily called rally at the US Capitol on Wednesday, Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts asked: “What else is going into that wood chipper? Healthcare, democracy, fighting for the rights of those who are most desperate around the world.”

Danni Perry’s flag display at the Royal Opera House sparked 182 performers to sign a solidarity letter that cancelled the Tel Aviv Tosca production, while Leonardo DiCaprio invests in Tel Aviv hotels, reports LINDA PENTZ GUNTER

For 80 years, survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings have pleaded “never again,” for anyone. But are we listening, asks Linda Pentz Gunter

Starmer’s decision to recognise Palestine only as long as Israel continues to massacre its inhabitants has been met with outrage, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER

The crew of the Freedom Flotilla boat, Handala, warned Israel to obey international law but are now in captivity, reports LINDA PENTZ GUNTER