The women of Afghanistan are screaming into a void of silence. Mariam* asks me: “Why don’t people care?” I try to reassure her they do but in truth, I know she’s right. Five years of Taliban rule and the collective noose the regime has around the necks of millions of women and girls is a terrifying chokehold. The slow strangulation of Afghan women and the indoctrination of Afghan men show no sign of stopping. Quite the opposite.
Abdul told me in Nuristan province: “My mother is just a simple woman. She’s uneducated and she’s happy like this.” I have so many questions. Did he ever ask her? In a country where men have absolute power and decide everything, is she able to voice her wants and needs? Taliban gaslighting is a skilful domestic weapon of control and their most significant export right now.
When I walk down the main street in the eastern province’s capital, Parun, I am the only woman. When I report on the five-year anniversary celebrations of Taliban rule, thousands turn out in Kabul. I count a handful of women. I’m constantly ordered to adjust my hijab so it covers my hair by boys as tall as my waist. Surrounded by thousands of men, many armed, is wildly intimidating. I’m constantly hassled and groped by men and boys who melt into the crowd when I spin round to remonstrate. My male crew are also physically manhandled. Yet every checkpoint we go through, armed Taliban guards lean into our windows saying: “Welcome to Afghanistan.” I get the impression there’s a Taliban round robin saying: “Welcome the foreigners, our image is important.”
Five key takeaways from the Mercury Prize 2026
Raye has won the 2026 Mercury Prize for her second album This Music May Contain Hope, featuring the global hit song “Where Is My Husband?”
The pop record, on which Hanz Zimmer was a collaborator, beat the likes of Sir Paul McCartney, Olivia Dean and Ex-Little Mix star Jade to scoop the £25,000 prize.
First pop album to win
It is the first pop record to win the prize – which has recognised the best British or Irish album of the last 12 months since 1994.
Speaking to the BBC afterwards, Raye said she’d “poured everything I had” into the record – which was delayed by almost a year after all of her songwriting books and demos were stolen.
Straying from the norm
- Of the last 35 winners, 20 have been debut albums – from artists including Arctic Monkeys, Suede and Franz Ferdinand.
- Many people have mistakenly assumed the Mercury Price is dedicated to first albums – but this year’s shortlist included only two: Dove Ellis’s , and Jade’s .
A blow to record company execs
Raye’s win acts as a symbolic blow to mainstream music executives.
In 2021, the singer publicly cut ties with her former record label after accusing them of withholding her debut album for years.
3 min read
3 min read
Rewarding the gritty long-form
Across 17 tracks and 73 minutes, Raye’s record tells a cinematic story about the end of a relationship where she emerges stronger and more resilient.
This year’s awards appeared to celebrate that gritty, long-form format over bubbly singles or TikTok-trending tracks.
Florence + The Machine now joint highest nominee with no wins
Florence + The Machine are now the Mercury’s joint highest nominee without winning, tying with Radiohead on five unconverted nominations.
Paul McCartney also missed out, alongside Britpop band Suede, rapper Dave, Knats, and debut star Dove Ellis.
4 min read
Crystal Palace urged to retire bald eagle mascot – what we know
An animal rights group is urging Crystal Palace to retire their live bald eagle mascot with immediate effect.
The group, Peta, has argued that a “bright stadium filled with boisterous fans is no place for animals”.
What you need to know
- Peta asked the Premier League club to stop using the eagle, named Phoenix, in pre-match displays at Selhurst Park and to never use live animal mascots again.
- The London team, known as the Eagles since 1973, introduced a live eagle to matchdays in 2010.
- Kayla, who died in 2020, performed the role for 10 years and her replacement, Phoenix, made her debut against West Ham in 2024.
2 min read
The impact on birds
- Peta says birds can become “frightened, disoriented and panicked” in stadium environments, putting themselves and fans at risk.
- Using them for entertainment means the animals cannot engage with their natural instincts, leading to “stress”, Peta added.
The organisation has “detailed records” of incidents involving live mascots being injured in these kinds of environments.
The UK is braced for “damaging” winds and heavy downpours with two named storms expected to wreak disruption on Friday and over the weekend.
Storm Austen, the first named storm of the season, could bring gusts of up to 80mph to parts of south-west England, with 60-70mph winds expected widely in the region.
Where will be worst-hit?
The Met Office has issued an amber warning for wind, covering , and the Isles of Scilly, coming into effect from 1am and remaining in place until 10am.
- Strong winds will be combined with spells of heavy rain, though gusts will gradually ease over Friday.
- The forecaster said Storm Austen is “likely to bring some disruption and possible damaging winds” and warned of disruption on the roads.
- Flying debris is “likely”, and the storm will “probably” bring some damage to buildings.
- In coastal areas, large waves could pose a danger to life.
The story so far in pictures
The impact of the storm
Power cuts have affected more than 9,000 homes in Cornwall and Devon.
Flights to and from Exeter airport have been cancelled.
Great Western Railway (GWR) has imposed speed limits on routes between Devon and Cornwall.
Network Rail Scotland also said its trains will also be slowed down in areas with heavy rain.
The expert view
This is the first stormy weather in the south of the UK this season and we expect some disruption as it moves through. With trees in leaf, it is likely fallen branches and trees could obstruct roads and railways so take extra care on the Friday morning commute.
Neil Armstrong, Chief met office forecaster
The autumn jobs gardeners are getting wrong – and the easy fixes
Advice changes over time
Digging over the soil
Standard advice has been to dig soil every autumn. But according to organic gardener Charles Dowding, soil should be disturbed as little as possible.
Clearing dead leaves
Raking fallen leaves can be counterproductive. Leaves on flower beds are a useful source of organic matter.
Bird feeding
While new studies suggest bird feeders can spread disease.
Save birdseed for colder months
A disease called trichomonosis can spread to greenfinches and chaffinches via birdfeeders. Greenfinch numbers have dropped by 60 per cent in the UK since the 1990s, mainly due to this disease.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said this year people should only offer birdseed and peanuts from November to April, when the cold kills off the parasite.
6 min read
A more laissez-faire approach
Leave the mess
Once flower beds have died back, it is tempting to neaten things up. But seed heads are a food source for birds, while leaves can become shelters for insects that are fodder for robins, wrens and goldcrests.
No crocks in pots
Standard advice is to put a layer of coarse material at the bottom of every pot to improve drainage. But this can actually saturate the compost even more – which we don’t want.
Europe’s record-breaking summer killed 50,000 people
More than 50,000 people are estimated to have died across Europe as a result of this summer’s record-breaking heatwaves, according to a new study.
Researchers estimate there were 4,354 excess deaths in the UK alone this summer.
Excess deaths have doubled
The number of excess deaths across Europe doubled in 2026, in comparison with last year – far surpassing the previous record of 29,000 deaths.
This was recorded in 2022 when the continent again endured exceptionally high temperatures, and the UK experienced 40°C for the first time.
2 min read
Heat worsens underlying conditions
What are excess deaths?
Excess deaths are those that occur outside of the number that would occur under normal conditions. Heat is often dubbed a “silent killer” that can worsen underlying health conditions, resulting in more deaths.
3 min read
Death toll may be higher in reality
30°C
According to the Met Office, the UK saw its hottest ever summer this year with five widespread heatwaves, and 40 days where the temperature was above 30°C.
Mainland Europe experienced its third hottest summer.
40%
Researchers looked at 854 urban areas in 30 European countries.
Because the study only looked at urban areas –roughly 40 per cent of each country’s population– researchers believe the death toll could be an underestimate.
Countries hardest hit by heat
According to the study, published in , southern and western Europe were hardest hit.
There were an estimated 22,000 deaths among those aged 85 and over. However, researchers noted that an estimated 6,000 people under the age of 65 are also likely to have died as a result of heat.
Around a third of the deaths took place in late June – before people had a chance to acclimatise to the weather, and when average temperatures across Europe were more than 5°C above normal levels.
- Italy experienced the highest number of excess deaths (13,303)
- Followed by France (7,268)
- And then the UK (4,354)
The expert view
It is yet another reminder both of the imperative of rolling out targeted interventions to protect those who are most vulnerable to this increasingly extreme heat, and of the growing need to rapidly transition away from fossil fuels.
Dr Clair Barnes, extreme weather and climate change researcher at Imperial College
NHS Mounjaro roll-out plan deemed ‘unambitious’ by MPs
Current plans for rolling out weight-loss drug Mounjaro on the NHS “are unambitious” and reach a “woefully small number of people”, MPs have said.
What you need to know
6%
Only around 6 per cent of eligible people will get or currently receive Mounjaro on the NHS in its first three years, with millions more turning to private firms, according to the Commons Health and Social Care Committee.
MPs also used their report to call for obesity to be treated as a long-term condition like diabetes, and said people suffer relapses.
- They pointed to the “two-tier system” that has developed for access to drugs, adding: “The Government must urgently reassess the pace of roll out of Mounjaro.”
As a first step, the department should hold a summit on GLP-1 access with a range of providers and healthcare professionals to open a dialogue on how best to improve the roll out.
A closer look at the detail
- In June 2024, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) recommended Mounjaro as an option for managing overweight and obesity.
- The NHS has also approved semaglutide (Wegovy) for obese people, though many get their prescriptions privately due to a lack of access on the NHS.
- With Mounjaro, the NHS estimated 2.8 million patients would be eligible and, if all presented within the first year of availability, the cost would be £15.2bn over five years.
The gradual roll out of Mounjaro
As a result, Nice agreed to NHS England’s request that the roll out of Mounjaro should be done gradually, MPs said.
The NHS has been giving access to 220,000 people over three years, with the Health Foundation saying this makes up only around 6 per cent of those who would be eligible based on Nice’s recommendation.
4 min read
3 min read
- In their report on obesity, MPs said a new framework is needed to “include ambitious targets for the proportion of a local population that should be able to access GLP-1s”.
- Data suggests more than 2.37 million packs of GLP-1s are being prescribed every month in the UK, “with the vast majority of these being accessed privately”, the study said.
to give NHS doctors ‘second pair of eyes’ on MRI scans
A number of AI programmes are set to be used by the NHS in England to help doctors spot prostate cancer on MRI scans.
The technologies would act like a “second pair of eyes” for medics, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) said.
What you need to know
The NHS spending watchdog has recommended five tools in new draft guidance, which will be used on the health service for two years while evidence is gathered on how they work.
The technologies are designed to help radiologists by highlighting areas on prostate scans where cancer may be present.
2 min read
3 min read
Pressure on radiologists
- According to Nice, demand for prostate MRI has increased, as pre-biopsy scans are now included to confirm or rule out the disease.
- This has put pressure on radiology teams, which are already stretched because of workforce pressures.
4 min read
The expert view
These AI technologies have the potential to act like a second pair of eyes, helping radiologists review prostate MRI scans. They have the potential to make MRI reporting more accurate and could help identify people whose scans need priority review.
Dr Anastasia Chalkidou, programme director for HealthTech at Nice
All the options for lower energy bills that could be in the Budget
Energy bills remain a major concern for families across the UK. The PM has asked ministers “to look at whether we can remove standing charges from gas bills” and has already cut VAT from electricity bills. However, experts argue that’s not enough.
So, what measures could Chancellor John Healey announce at the Budget to make energy more affordable?
Abolish the standing charge
- Andy Burnham has asked the Chancellor and Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh to remove standing charges from energy bills.
- This would remove the component of households’ dual fuel bills which is charged regardless of how much energy is being used.
- According to energy research centre Nesta, the typical household would save £27 a year under this system.
4 min read
VAT removed from energy bills
VAT on household electricity was cut from 5 per cent to zero from 1 October, but only until the end of the 2026-27 financial year on 31 March.
It is saving the typical household £45 a year on their bills.
4 min read
2 min read
Targeted support
- Some experts have called for the Government to deliver targeted support above the current Warm Home Discount which provides a one-off £150 rebate on energy bills for low-income or pensioner households.
- Energy UK said this could come in the form of an increased amount for those eligible or as a debt relief scheme for billpayers – not penalising those who fall behind on bills.
Expand support to people on benefits
Citizens Advice has called for expanded support for people in receipt of child benefit and personal independence payments (PIP).
This, the charity says, will protect households with children and disabled households who need help over the coldest months of the year, but currently fall outside the means-tested benefits criteria.
I see women-run, women-owned “businesses”. There are a few thousand country-wide, a handful in a country of more than 45 million. They’re small outfits, run from home out of sight and generally involving highly educated women now trying to survive in this harsh economic environment. Tahmina was a senior lawyer before the Taliban returned. Now she’s managing a dress-making shop. She and her female staff can’t go out to buy fabric without a man’s permission to leave their homes and a male relative to take them. “I sold all my jewellery to set this up,” she tells us. “My husband is a good man. He agreed to help.” Man is king in every household in Afghanistan now. What a man decides determines every aspect of a female’s life.
Several Taliban officials tell me on and off camera about their “successes”. They boast of improved security. Kabul streets I could not drive down in the 20 years before without suicide bombs going off, are now comparatively “safe”. Poppy growing, which fuelled the massive heroin trade, is now all but gone. “Tell these positive stories,” Taliban officials told me, “not fake news about how we are bad towards women”. When I speak to former president Hamid Karzai, himself under effective house arrest in Kabul, he tells me: “There are no positives while girls’ schools are closed.”
To Afghan women, nothing effective is being done to stop this butchering of human rights and basic freedoms. And that should horrify us. The regime is holding the entire country hostage and is gripping on to power with an AK-47 slung around its shoulders. They’ve issued more than 200 edicts, most of them stripping away the basic rights of women. They are rights you and I take for granted: the right of women to wear what we want; to go where we want to go, to learn, to work, to do sport, to meet people outside our families. I asked Zahra Joya, founder of Rukhshana Media and now in exile in the UK, to list some of the edicts that affect every aspect of life. She was still going 10 minutes after my request.
Faith* runs a string of secret schools for girls, constantly at risk of being raided by the Taliban enforcers. “We’re made to feel like criminals,” she told me from hiding. “For what? For trying to learn?” Afghanistan remains the only country in the world banning the education of girls and women beyond the age of 12. Please don’t skim over those words written so easily but with lifelong consequences.
If you’ve convinced yourself what happens in Afghanistan has nothing to do with you, think again. Those policies are having worldwide impact. Afghans have long fled their homeland to safety in Europe to escape war and persecution, but that exodus has sped up with these Taliban policies. Yet scores of European countries are re-engaging with the Taliban, cutting deals to return unsuccessful asylum seekers. The toxic issue of migration is being used by the Taliban to gain seats at top political tables where once they were shunned. The Taliban officials are using refugees as bargaining chips demanding more aid, more help with development, to take them back. That flies in the face of five years of sanctions intended to exact policy changes and International Criminal Court arrest warrants against Taliban leaders accusing them of crimes against humanity.
Social media influencers with millions of followers are being invited in droves by the Taliban. One told me he got his visa in two days. My journalist version took me four years because I was told I was obsessed with the “woman issue”. But the influencers are being used like an army of Taliban propagandists producing uncritical sanitised versions focusing on how friendly Afghans are, how beautiful the country is and how it is safe. “I’m just here trying to add a bit of levity,” travel “vlogger” Brent Timm told me. It’s another effective Taliban method of normalising what the UN has called gender apartheid where millions of women are trapped in their homes unable even to raise their voices in protest. The international community needs to wake up to this manipulation by Taliban leaders who’re using powerful contemporary tools with the potential of influencing wider audiences than most traditional media.
One British lawmaker told me she’d met Taliban representatives and “they seemed quite reasonable”. “Reasonable” is not how Tamana Paryani sees the Taliban. She filmed herself in 2022 as Taliban police thumped on her door with weapons to arrest her and her sisters for taking part in protests demanding the right to work and study. I sat alongside Tamana in Geneva last month as her voice quivered with fear at the memory years on. “You can’t negotiate with the Taliban,” she urged UN and EU policymakers and ambassadors. The Taliban’s leaders have imposed archaic policies beyond most people’s imaginations in the West but they’re employing the most modern-day fear tactics and sophisticated techniques to whitewash their image internationally. It seems to be working.
Alex Crawford is Sky News’ special correspondent. Banished: The Taliban’s War on Women, commissioned by Full Story Films, Sky News’ in-house documentary unit, airs at 9pm on 4 November on Sky Documentaries and is available now via the Sky News app