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

VERY soon we will be observing the return of swallows to our shores. These are iconic birds, symbolising the arrival of summer and idyllic sunny days to come.
Sadly, the numbers of these birds have been declining over recent decades as a direct result of the calamitous decline of insects, their sole food source.
In my childhood I remember having to regularly clean the car’s windscreen on long journeys because it became caked with the bloody and sticky corpses of insects.

JOHN GREEN recommends an Argentinian film classic on re-release - a deliciously cynical tale of swindling and double-cross

JOHN GREEN is fascinated by a very readable account of Britain’s involvement in South America

JOHN GREEN is stirred by an ambitious art project that explores solidarity and the shared memory of occupation

JOHN GREEN applauds an excellent and accessible demonstration that the capitalist economy is the biggest threat to our existence