Researchers find that in low and middle-income countries owning spectacles can help people over 35 can increase their income

Owning a pair of reading glasses might help people increase their earnings by a third, according to new research.

The study, conducted in Bangladesh, is the first to examine the impact of having a decent pair of spectacles, and researchers found monthly median earnings among one group of people increased from $35.30 to $47.10 within eight months, a rise of 33.4%.

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Legislation adopted last year outraged LGBTQ+ community, rights activists, the UN and western nations

Uganda’s constitutional court has rejected a bid to overturn a controversial anti-gay law that is considered one of the toughest in the world.

“We decline to nullify the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 in its entirety, neither will we grant a permanent injunction against its enforcement,” Justice Richard Buteera, Uganda’s deputy chief justice and head of the court, said in the landmark ruling.

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The continent is seeing a surge in repressive laws. Campaigners say US evangelists are fuelling discrimination and hatred

There was widespread horror and condemnation last year when Uganda passed a draconian anti-gay law that included the death penalty for some same-sex acts and a 20-year sentence for “promoting” homosexuality. Yet it was only the harshest in a wave of homophobic new legislation across Africa, which has yet to ebb .

In February, Ghana’s parliament passed a bill making “wilful promotion, sponsorship or support of LGBTQ+ activities” punishable with up to five years in jail, and identifying as gay with up to three years’ imprisonment. It was supported by both major parties, though the president has yet to validate it – and the finance ministry has urged him not to do so , warning that it could cost the country $3.8bn (£3bn) in World Bank funding. There is particular concern that Kenya, which has previously given asylum to LGBTQ+ people forced to flee other countries, could toughen laws .

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This harrowing documentary tells the story of Dominic Ongwen, conscripted into a brutal rebel army in Uganda and now indicted at the international criminal court for war crimes

Dominic Ongwen was nine when he was abducted from his village in northern Uganda and conscripted as a child soldier by the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army rebel group led by Joseph Kony. As a boy, Ongwen was a victim, brutalised and brainwashed; in adulthood, he progressed up the ranks, becoming a feared LRA commander. This film follows his trial at the international criminal court , where he was convicted of 61 individual charges of murder, rape, sexual slavery, abduction and torture. Ongwen is the first former child soldier to be convicted by the court and one question raised by this documentary is how far is he morally responsible for his crimes?

It’s a tough watch, with some extremely harrowing moments. The documentary was shot over six years by film-makers Lukasz Konopa and Emil Langballe, who skilfully broaden out their story with helpful context to explain the conflict in Uganda, stretching back to colonial powers carving up the continent.

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Professional trappers find it increasingly hard to fill their sacks for market as the country’s forests, grassland and swamps where the insects breed are lost

As night falls on Masaka’s industrial zone, Karim Damba’s work begins. He hauls large corrugated steel sheets into place and attaches them to empty oil drums lined with black polythene bags, propped up by long pieces of wood. At 8pm, he flicks on the fluorescent lights and waits for the grasshoppers to arrive.

“I have been doing this since 25 October,” says Damba, adjusting his skullcap. Damba is a grasshopper trapper in central Uganda. Between October and December his nights are spent waiting for the insects to hit the metal sheets and fall into the drums. The protein-rich bugs are wrapped and transported to market.

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Archbishop of Canterbury says he would welcome ‘serious changes’ to church communion ‘that is 90% global south’

The leader of the global Anglican church should not always be a “white guy from England”, the archbishop of Canterbury has said.

Justin Welby’s comment came amid divisions over sexuality between conservative churches in sub-Saharan Africa and more liberal churches in the developed world.

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