France will ban smoking in all outdoor places that can be frequented by children, health and family minister Catherine Vautrin has said. The ban will come into force on 1 July and will include beaches, parks, public gardens, outside schools, bus stops and sports venues. “Tobacco must disappear where there are children,” Vautrin said in…
A fight involving machetes at a Melbourne shopping centre has prompted an Australian state to fast-track the country’s first-ever ban on the weapon’s sale. The ban – to start in Victoria this Wednesday, instead of September – comes after two gangs attacked each other at Northland shopping centre in Preston on Sunday afternoon. A man,…
Ethiopia’s main opposition party has called for the African Union to mediate with the federal government after the electoral board revoked its legal status as a party. The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) said the move to ban it from any political activity was “dangerous” and posed a “serious threat” to the 2022 deal that…
Getty Images Harvard President Alan Garber has flatly rejected the White House’s sweeping list of demands The US government has threatened to ban Harvard University from enrolling foreign students, after the institution said it would not bow to demands from Donald Trump’s administration. The White House has demanded the oldest university in the US make…
The Trump administration is suing the state of Maine for refusing to ban transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports. The move is an escalation in the public battle between the state’s governor and Donald Trump that has included threats from the president to cut funding to Maine’s education department. “The Department of Justice will…
Mahjooba Nowrouzi BBC Afghan Service BBC Carpet weaving is one of few professions open to women since the Taliban government took power in 2021 At a workshop in Kabul where carpets are made, hundreds of women and girls work in a cramped space, the air thick and stifling. Among them is 19-year-old Salehe Hassani. “We…
South Sudan has criticised the revoking of US visas for all its nationals, saying it was based on an incident involving a citizen of a different African country. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the visa ban on Saturday, citing South Sudan’s refusal to accept the return of its citizens being removed from the…
Getty Images Well-wishers celebrate the Thai king’s birthday, in Bangkok on 28 July, 2024. A Thai court has issued an arrest warrant for an American academic under Thailand’s lese-majeste law that forbids insulting the monarchy. The army filed a complaint against Paul Chambers, a lecturer at Naresuan University in central Thailand, under lese-majeste and computer…
Getty Images/BBC European politicians Viktor Orban (l), Geert Wilders (c) and Matteo Salvini (r) are among those who reacted to a court ruling banning France’s Marine Le Pen from running for public office Marine Le Pen is an icon of France’s nationalist right: one of the country’s best-known and most popular political figures – with…
Currency traders watch monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022. Ahn Young-joon | AP South Korea on Monday lifted the longest short-selling ban in the country’s history, after tightening measures to crackdown on illegal transactions. The short-selling ban was put into…
