welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore, i'm karishma vaswani. the headlines... a year on from the taliban taking over afghanistan again — a special report on its women and girls who have been denied education, employment, and their childhoods. if i finish school, i would start university, but i can't go to university because i haven't graduated from school. salman rushdie�*s family says he has life changing injuries after the attack on him in america — but that his defiant sense of humour remains intact. a fire caused by an electrical fault has killed at least forty one people at a church in the egyptian city of giza. and 75 years after independence from british rule, we remember the separation of india

and pakistan, resulting in the largest mass migration in human history. live from our studio in singapore — this is bbc news. it's newsday. it's 7am in the morning in singapore, and 3:30am in the afghan capital kabul where monday marks a year since the taliban swept back into power. the 15th of august 2021 marked their takeover of the country and caused thousands to try and leave in fear of what could lie ahead. one year on — life for women and girls is very different — with harsh rules restricting education and employment. our chief international correspondent lyse doucet — who was in kabul last august — has returned there for this special report.

it's a man's world. afghanistan is a conservative country. but the rules are now set by the ultraconservative taliban. spaces which had opened up for women have now been slammed shut. we met three generations of women whose lives speak loudly about their world. many are afraid. they don't want to be identified. this woman used to be a senior official in the finance ministry. last year the taliban told her, stay at home. a man would take herjob. i worked for more than 17 years in the finance ministry. it was difficult with family and work, but i went to university and got my masters degree.

we spent so much time to get here. now we are back to zero. everything is finished. more than 60 female civil servants have banded together. they shared some of the exchanges on their messaging group. women haven't completely disappeared. from the streets or ministries like health, education, security. there are spaces only for women. this market has just reopened in the western city of herat. this was the first day. women, a bit nervous. shops, still empty. this is it?

yes. this is your shop? today it's closed. 0h, your sewing machines. 18—year—old suhaila is excited. she's reopening this dress shop with big sister. but she should be in her last year of school. suhaila was the top student in her class. but the taliban shut most high schools. i am very sad. if i finished school i would start university but i can't go to university because i'm not graduated from school. was it hard for you? no school, no shop. how hard was it? i think it's not for me, and for all of the girls of afghanistan it's a sad memory... and i miss school. sorry. it's ok. sorry.

it's hard here, too, far away in the central highlands. this is one of afghanistan's poorest provinces. since the taliban took over, even poorer. and there's still no aid to their government. for the destitute and desperate, agonising choices. this woman gave her daughter in marriage for about £1000. she's only years old. so is her husband to be. translation: she's too young. but i give her away because we have no food. so my other children don't die of hunger. it's still very hard but now she can eat with her in—laws. i have no other option but to give her away. child marriage is prohibited, but pervasive in afghanistan. but not this young.

we've hidden the identity of mother, daughter and son. her in—laws told me they will take care of her like their own child because she's so young. they told me, don't worry. what mother wouldn't worry? what child wouldn't weep? a new generation takes shape in a new afghanistan. the taliban say the rights of boys and girls within islam's will be respected. but there is growing fear that girls who were learning to lead will be left far behind. lyse doucet, bbc news, kabul. the taliban's heartland was in southern afghanistan — around the city of kandahar. 0ur correspondent

secunder kermani is there — he's reported extensively from across the country before and since the takeover — and he sent us this update about how things have changed. two things stand out, the way that the taliban stance has grown increasingly hardline over the course of the year, and how different the experience of living under the taliban has been for different afghans. a lot of it depends on how they define freedom. for many teenage girls, they no longer have the freedom to go to school. anyone wanting to publicly criticise the taliban runs the risk of arrest, torture or even death. and many are deeply despondent here. but there are others for whom freedom has a very different meaning. villagers who are already living by deeply conservative values. for them, freedom means being able to plough their fields without being afraid of being caught in the crossfire of a gun battle. and for them, many of them, at least, life under

the taliban is preferable to life at war. what unites afghans is deep concern at the dire state of the economy. this is a country that was propped up by foreign spending. a lot of money is still coming in, but nowhere near as much as before the taliban. and it's ordinary people who are seeing the consequences of that. to another top story for you now — and the son of sir salman rushdie says his father suffered life changing injuries in a knife attack on friday — but that his "feisty and defiant sense of humour remains intact". the author has been taken off a ventilator after being stabbed at an event in new york state. the govenor of new york says they will always stand up for freedom of thought. 0ur correspondent nomia iqbal has the latest. inside the hospital, salman rushdie remains in a critical condition. but a glimmer of hope for his family as he is taken of the ventilator and is breathing unaided. in a statement, his son, zafar rushdie, said:

we are extremely relieved that he was able to say a few words. zafar also praised the audience members at the literary event on friday where is father was stabbed. they said he bravely leapt to his defence to help him. salman rushdie�*s agent told us he is on the long road to recovery. the writer suffered very serious injuries. he faces losing an eye and his liver is badly damaged. 24—year—old american suspect hadi matar has already appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to the charges of attempted murder and attempted assault. prosecutors allege he travelled by bus from newjersey to the event here in western new york. they say he bought a ticket, like everybody else, allowing him to attend the talk mr rushdie was due to give.

for decades, salman rushdie went into hiding after his book, the satanic verses, led to iran issuing a fatwa in 1989. many muslims considered his writing blasphemous. it is reported that police think hadi matar may have had sympathies for the iranian regime, but an official motive has not been established. earlier, new york's state governor spoke outside the institution where the stabbing happened. new york state will always stand up to protect freedom of expression, freedom of speech, and we condemn the cowardly attack on salman rushdie. and we condemn any individual or any group that dares violate the sanctity of a place like this. questions are being asked about why there were not tougher checks at the literary event, given the huge amount of threats salman rushdie

had faced for decades. i want to tell you about another story now. the government in egypt says at least a0 people have died — many of them children — in a fire at a church where thousands of worshippers had gathered for sunday worship. dozens of other people have been injured. it's reported an electrical fire broke out at the coptic church in giza, outside cairo. our correspondent sally nabil sent this report from the scene. a sunday church service that ended in tragedy. behind these windows, egyptian christian worshippers died. the abu sifin church was in a packed a busy neighbourhood in giza. the fire killed dozens including many children. people rushed into the building trying to save as many lives as possible. this woman lost her sister—in—law. translation: she had five children, three daughters, l who are three, five and seven

years old, and two boys. my heart is on fire for all these victims. the people i've spoken to here are clearly very angry. they want to know exactly how and why their loved ones died. there will be questions too for the church itself and for the emergency services. initial reports suggest the fire was caused by an electrical fault. people here told us there was a power cut and the church was on a generator. when the electricity was turned on again there was an overload. translation: fire was coming out of the air-conditioning - and then spread to the rest of the church. it was on the third and fourth floors. many worshippers fainted and could hardly breathe. a major investigation is now under way. inspectors from the public prosecutors's office already checked the scene. there was nothing to suggest there are any criminal motives behind this incident so far. but the christian community here say they've had enough.

many of their churches have been targeted by militant attacks in recent years. sally nabil, bbc news, cairo. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme... the voting continues in kenya — six days after the presidential election — we'll bring you an update from nairobi. washington, the world's most political city, is today assessing the political health of the world's most powerful man. indeed i did have a relationship with miss lewinsky that was not appropriate. in fact, it was wrong. in south africa, 97 people have been killed today in one of the worst days of violence between rival black groups. over the last ten days, 500 have died. chanting: czechoslovakia must be free! _ czechoslovakia must be free!

russia is observing a national day of mourning for the 187 mariners who died aboard the kursk. we are with them now, within our hearts. the pope has celebrated mass before a congregation of morej than two—and—a—half million pe0ple in his _ hometown of krakow. "stay with us, stay with us," chanted this ocean of humanity. "well, well," joked the pope, "so you want me to the desert rome?" this is newsday on the bbc. i'm karishma vaswani, in singapore. our headlines.. a year on from the taliban taking over afghanistan again — its women and girls are still being denied education and employment. the son of author sir salman rushdie says his injuries are life changing — but that his defiant sense of humour remains intact — after he was stabbed.

when a country commemorates independence day, it's often seen as a day of much joy and celebration. but for india and pakistan, it's a mixed bag, and a stark reminder of the partition of british—india in 19117. whilst that event saw an end to almost two centuries of british rule in the region, it also resulted in the largest mass migration in human history. many of the painful issues that resulted from partition are still very much present today, 75 years on. kavita puri is a fellow bbcjournalist, oral historian, executive producer and broadcaster. she wrote and presented the landmark three—part series "partition voices" for bbc radio 4, and her book "partition voices: untold british stories" is based on the series. she began by telling us what led her to look at the stories of partition families. so, partition voices came out in 2017, the 70th anniversary, and the story of partition is actually a very british

story, british history, but also a lot of people that came to britain in the postwar years were from places that were severely disrupted by partition, but they came to britain with their stories and largely they didn't really talk about it. as the 17th anniversary... i was very conscious that these stories hadn't emerged and i was afraid that the stories would be lost forever, so i documented the testimonies of people, of south asian heritage who live in britain and i quickly realised that these stories are everywhere. there are now millions of people with south asian heritage in britain, and many have a direct or indirect connection. and i think that's since the 70th anniversary which was a huge watershed

moment in britain, the stories from that partition generation are now starting to emerge, and over the last five years, that has really happened, and there is now a really big interest, especially from the younger descendents to finding out about their history. it is interesting, isn't it, it's notjust the uk, of course, millions of people, including my family, travelled from pre—partition india, in my case in this instance to southeast asia, discovering that history today. as you point out, is there something specific about that british asian salvation experience that came out from your reporting on this? ——british asian south asian experience that came out from your reporting on this? i don't think there was anything specific about that british experience. i think what was different was the telling of it, perhaps, it came much later. i know that there is silence us

on the indian subcontinent, but i think that for lots of different reasons there were silence within britain, and there is a wider silence. we don't really talk about empire, we don't talk about the end of empire. so the word partition, even is not a word that is widely known even by the way in younger generations in south asian families. if you are not taught it in schools he may not even realise it's part of your story if people are not talking about it or not talking about a very much in your own family, so what happened after the 70th anniversary with these stories emerging was that the younger generations, particularly the third generation really wanted to investigate their past, their own practice ——wanted to investigate their past, their own partition and stories and understand their history before their ancestors came to britain and understand a long history, and they might discover that they thought their family story began on one side of the border, whereas in fact

it begins at another side of the border altogether. let's turn to taiwan now, where a delegation from the us congress has arrived. they're visiting for two days and will meet president tsai ing—wen on monday. their visit comes 12 days after one by the house speaker nancy pelosi, which led to an angry reaction from the self—governed island's neighbour china. here's more from mark coh—zad, from the rand corporation. ——here's more from mark cozad, from the rand corporation. it puts china in a very difficult position after speaker pelosi's recent visit. they had a very aggressive and very forward leaning response that lasted several days, stopped maritime and air traffic, or at least delayed it for a period of time and created a great deal of concern in the international community about what china's intentions were. i mean, there was a lot of speculation that this was a rehearsal for something larger, and that it actually demonstrated some of the capabilities that china had, if it did in fact decide

to use force against taiwan. so where you go from here is an open question. they can continue on with the exercises, but as this case and several others of recent chinese attempts in the past have shown, when they try to make these demonstrations, they oftentimes backfire. they tend to galvanise international opinion against china. and in this case, it's actually had the same type of effect on taiwan. and as this delegation demonstrates, it has not deterred future delegations of us lawmakers from going to taiwan. to kenya now, where it has been six days since its presidential election, and frustrations are growing over the delay in announcing the results. almost half the votes have been confirmed with vice—president, william ruto taking a slight lead of 51% — just ahead of his rival raila odinga. the electoral commission has a legal obligation to announce the outcome of the poll within a week. but as time runs on,

so does tension, as we heard from people in the western city of kisumu. right now we are very tired because we are... people are not going to work. the students are in the house. and, right now, when we cannot go to work to look for money. we are not happy because, number one, all the businesses are stuck. the way that we have been getting money in the normal days has really gone out, so we are suffering. our correspondent richard kagoe is in nairobi and sent us this update. first of all, in terms of the voter turnout, it was quite very dismal because as at wednesday this week, when we had the preliminary announcement from the electoral commission, they indicated that was about 65%. that's down from 80% in 2017. so a lot of people that we spoke to and we've been hearing from them,

they indicate the fact that they really do want to take part in the process because they felt that probably the way of elections and possibly politics might not be the best route to address the problems or issues that do face them because they've been through this process before and they haven't seen any outcome from this. it's a very tight race, as i would say, because as at yesterday we saw veteran politician raila odinga was leading, you know, with a very narrow margin. that's according to the preliminary results. and today we are seeing outgoing deputy president william ruto is still, you know, leading something very marginal. yeah, so it's a very tight race. we've never witnessed anything like this before, a very closely contested, you know, presidential race than we have seen in recent history. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines.... syrian state media say israel has carried out an air attack

on targets in the coastal province of tartus. they said three soldiers had been killed. the syrian observatory for human rights said several missiles hit the vicinity of a village where iranian militias allied with the assad regime are located. the saudi state—owned oil giant aramco has announced record profits of more than $48 billion for the second quarter of this year. the world's biggest oil producer's net income has almost doubled year—on—year. oil prices are up because of russia's attack on ukraine and increasing demand after the pandemic. and a tropical storm is heading northeast in the pacific ocean offjapan�*s tohoku region, after making landfall and causing damage in centraljapan on saturday. weather officials say the atmospheric conditions are expected to remain unstable for much ofjapan, and warn of more heavy rain, flooding and mudslides. we turn to europe now, where several countries have seen a wave of deadly wildfires, triggered by record temperatures and drought across the continent.

in france, officials in the south—western gironde region have said a majorfire there has been brought under control. our correspondent bethany bell is there. firefighters have brought the big blaze that was burning near here under control but they've warned that the fire isn't entirely extinguished yet and, if you look behind me, back there in the woods, you can see what they mean — there's wisps of smoke, which is a sign that they're still burning embers on the ground or sometimes below the ground but could in the wrong circumstances be whipped up into anotherfire. but there is very good news for the 10,000 people that were evacuated from near here. they've been told that they can now go home after days of staying in emergency temporary housing. and before we go, a light—hearted story for you. china — as many would know — is well—known for its ancient

practice of acupuncture as a way to promote the healing process and general well—being. now increasingly, pet owners are turning to the method to help soothe the aches and pains of their beloved cats and dogs.in this beijing clinic, pets of all shapes and sizes are being signed up for treatments — care that their owners say is less invasive and comes with fewer side effects than conventional treatments. recordings of gentle bamboo flute music and birds chirping are played to help the animals relax. translation: she's enjoying it. translation: she's en'oying it. before, translation: she's en'oying it. before. she * translation: she's en'oying it. before, she used _ translation: she's en'oying it. before, she used to _ translation: she's enjoying it. before, she used to refuse - translation: she's enjoying it. before, she used to refuse to - before, she used to refuse to go. now every time i tell her we are going to visit doctor lee for some treatment, she is really happy and ready to get in the car. she will come to lie still for a0 minutes to an hour. ido i do hope indeed that treatment helps, because, of course, we know how important it is for all of us to feel dead,

certainly our pets as well. that's it for me. thanks so much for watching. do you stay with bbc news. hello. after a week where, somewhere in the uk, we've recorded a daytime high of 30 celsius or above every single day, we're finally seeing the heat come to an end. moving into the new week. could see 30 celsius somewhere in eastern england today, but it will be cooler than it has been through the weekend. thunderstorms becoming more of a talking point for us, as we look into the days ahead. we could see some just about anywhere across england and wales today — but by no means everywhere, so some areas will remain stubbornly dry, while others get some quite intense downpours. eastern scotland perhaps getting some thundery showers. further north, tt�*s the more persistent rain for central and eastern scotland and for northern ireland. it's cooler here, but still, as you saw, 30 possible somewhere in eastern england.

overnight monday into tuesday, showers pushing up from the south — could be heavy and thundery, particularly for southern counties of england, persistent rain sits across eastern scotland. it's certainly fresher for scotland and northern ireland, but still very warm and humid across much of england and wales as we start off on tuesday. through the day on tuesday, though, low pressure really does come to take hold across the uk. it's a messy weather picture. what does that mean? well, it means it's quite hard for us to pin down the exact details of where the rain will sit through the day. but basically, it's a chance of showers just about anywhere across england and wales, and they're likely to be thundery. for scotland and northern ireland, more cloud around and some outbreaks of rain and quite a cool northerly breeze — quite a difference to recent days, and we've lost that 30 celsius in eastern england. by wednesday, well, low pressure still close by, but it's focused very much to the south of the uk — high pressure, in fact, tries to sneak back in across scotland and northern ireland. wednesday looks dry for

scotland and northern ireland, if cloudy at times, and it looks like any early showers will clear from northern england and wales. but a realfocus perhaps on southern england for some more intense downpours on wednesday — so that could be the day when we see the return of some well—needed rainfall here. just 23 celsius — down ten degrees on the figures through the weekend. and then, for the end of the week, we very much pick up an atlantic influence — westerly winds, some weather fronts passing through, but actually, not bringing, i think, that much in the way of rainfall. we will see more in the way of sunshine again towards the end of the week, but not a return to the highs of recent days.

this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour as newsday continues — straight after hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, i'm stephen sackur. according to research in the us and the uk, roughly one in 100 people is transgender. but the fact that the debate about transgender rights has become a political and even health care battleground isn't driven so much by the numbers, but more by conflicting ideologies. my guest today has a prominent voice in that debate.

shon faye is trans, a writer and a former lawyer.