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

IF IT feels like peace has become ever more elusive in our troubled world, that instinct is sadly borne out by the statistics. According to the institutions that research this, there are as many as 110 active armed conflicts in the world right now.
While we are familiar with the most high-profile ones — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s attack on Gaza, Lebanon and now Syria — some of the worst violence is happening in Africa.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, six million are already dead. South Sudan is in turmoil. But these conflicts rarely make the headlines and there seem to be few meaningful diplomatic efforts underway to secure an end to the violence. Racism and colonialism, two of the perpetual impediments to peace, are alive and well.

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