| | | | | | | Good morning. We hope you're getting used to our new look. I'd love to know what you think so, if you have a moment, please drop me a line. This morning we lead on a tale of heartbreak for young Afghan women hoping to travel abroad for the education they're denied at home. There was high drama for British cruise passengers in stormy Spain, and scroll down to read about some mysterious noises from the depths of Loch Ness. |
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| | | | Top of the agenda | | Taliban bar women from overseas study |  | | Women were banned from attending Afghan universities last December. Credit: EPA |
| | Since the Taliban swept back into power, in August 2021, the only hope of formal education for women has been to travel abroad. Last December, an Emirati billionaire announced 100 scholarships for Afghan women to study at the University of Dubai. However, the BBC can reveal 60 young women were turned back from Kabul airport. Photos seen by the BBC show young women standing next to their luggage in a state of shock and devastation. And one 20-year-old tells BBC Afghan’s Noor Gul Shafaq: "They said girls are not allowed to leave Afghanistan on student visas." Voice breaking, she adds: "I don't know what to do or what will happen to me next.” The Afghan government claims no knowledge of the situation. Read the full report. | | • | Crushed rights: The five key developments that have hit women's rights since the Taliban returned to power. | | • | Broken promises? How the Taliban measures up against pledges on education, the economy, drug production and security. | | • | On a related note: Here's how the Taliban have banned women from visiting a popular national park |
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| | | | | | World headlines | | • | 'Racist manifestos': A man who shot dead three people in a racially motivated attack in Florida had written of his hatred of black people, police say. Ryan Christopher Palmeter, 21, turned the gun on himself, after the killings in Jacksonville, according to officers. | | • | Triumphant return: Despite returned to gymnastics barely a month ago - after taking two years out to preserve her mental health and get over the "twisties” - Simone Biles has broken a 90-year record by claiming her eighth all-round US title. | | • | Religion in schools: It's back to class for pupils in France next week. But students will be banned from wearing abayas - the loose-fitting full-length robes worn by some Muslim women - in state-run schools, the education minister has ruled. | | • | ‘Stolen artefact’: Staff at the National Museum of Scotland are preparing a 36ft (11m) totem pole red cedar totem pole to be flown 4,200 (6,750km) miles home to the Nass Valley, in British Columbia. Paul Ward explains its significance. | | • | Dockside drama: Cruise passengers say their ship "floated away like a paper boat" after tearing free from moorings during a storm in Mallorca, Spain. A small number sustained minor injuries when the Britannia hit a freight vessel, operator P&O said. |
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| | | | AT THE SCENE | |  | China |
| | China’s summer of climate destruction | | As well as extreme heat, China has this summer seen devastating floods, the number of which has increased tenfold in a little over a decade. And this year they have affected areas never before hit. |  | | Stephen McDonell, China correspondent |
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| | "I've never seen a flood here in my whole life," says 38-year-old Zhang Junhua, standing next to a vast patch of rice, now completely useless. "We just didn't expect it." His family and friends are safe, he says, because they were given plenty of warning to get to higher ground, but everyone in his village now has some tough months ahead. What's more, the devastation in north-east China's Heilongjiang Province has had a major impact on food supplies for the whole country. This month, 40% of the area's famous Wuchang rice crop has been wiped out. |
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| | Beyond the headlines | | A city at a crossroads over robotaxis |  | | Campaigners have taken to disabling the cabs using traffic cones. Source: BBC |
| | San Francisco's 24-hour robotaxi service has been up and running just over a fortnight but has been targeted by vigilantes "coning" the driverless cabs - placing traffic cones on their bonnets - to put them out of operation. Our North America technology reporter James Clayton takes a ride in a city divided over the vehicles. | | | | |
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| | | | Something different | | War games | | How a game - with characters based on real-life civilians - is funding a revolution. | | |
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| | | | And finally... | | It's a legend that has captured the public imagination for decades. And hundreds of people from across Europe have descended on the Scottish Highlands to hunt for the Loch Ness monster. Excitement was raised when one group reported picking up four distinctive "gloops" with underwater acoustic equipment on Friday. Here's what they found. |
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