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A 90-year-old woman was left without her original phone number for three months after BT told her she needed a temporary number while Openreach carried out broadband work. This caused significant distress and disruption to her daily life, as she relies on her phone to stay in touch with family, friends, and medical professionals.The issue began when the woman was sent home from hospital to die at the end of last year and needed broadband installed so a personal alarm could be fitted. BT provided a temporary phone number, but failed to restore her original number, which is crucial for her hospital appointments and communication with her GP.Despite numerous attempts to resolve the issue, BT was unable to restore her original number for three months, citing "system errors" and "procedural issues". The woman's family had to spend a significant amount of time trying to resolve the issue, which added to their stress and frustration.BT eventually restored the woman's original number and apologized for the inconvenience caused. The company also offered a goodwill gesture to compensate for the distress caused. This incident highlights the importance of reliable customer service, particularly for vulnerable individuals who rely on their phone for essential communication.

The Last Blossom, directed by Baku Kinoshita and written by Kazuya Konomoto, is a quiet, contemplative anime feature that rarely gets a theatrical release. The film opens in a lonely prison cell, where the elderly former yakuza Akutsu finds an unexpected confidant in a talking balsam flower.Over the course of one sleepless night, Akutsu's life story unfolds in bursts. Thirty years prior, another balsam flower grows in the back yard of Akutsu's humble house, which he shares with Nana and her baby son, Kensuke. The relationship between the taciturn man and the bubbly young woman is seemingly platonic; Kensuke is not his son. Yet there are hints of romantic attraction; they share bowls of piping hot ramen noodles, play endless rounds of Reversi, and join in harmonising the Ben E King classic Stand By Me.In contrast to this alternative nuclear family, the yakuza world is still strictly traditional, revolving around machismo and codes of brotherhood. When Kensuke is diagnosed with a heart condition, Akutsu is lured into a criminal plot, which leads to his incarceration. Though encompassing much bloodshed and even a hidden treasure subplot, The Last Blossom is most moving as an exploration of human conscience, where a capacity for violence and kindness coexist.The paradox is reminiscent of Shōhei Imamura’s Palme d’Or winner The Eel, starring Koji Yakusho as a wife-murderer who shelters a pregnant woman after his prison release. With his unassuming buzzcut, in stark contrast to his flamboyant yakuza peers, Akutsu bears a striking resemblance to Yakusho’s protagonist. Though a minor work compared to Imamura’s, The Last Blossom similarly questions conventional notions of justice, and the impossibility of weighing one’s good and bad deeds.The Last Blossom is in UK and Irish cinemas from 27 March, and in Australian cinemas from 23 April.

Jenni Murray, a trailblazing broadcaster and longest-serving presenter of Woman's Hour, has died at the age of 75. Murray brought a unique calm authority to the BBC Radio 4 weekday show for an impressive 33 years, transforming it into a platform for discussing subjects such as the menopause, domestic violence, genital mutilation, and sexual politics.Under Murray's tenure, which began in 1987, Woman's Hour evolved significantly from its origins in 1946 as a program focused on cooking, cleaning tips, and romantic serials. By the time Murray took over, the show had become a sisterhood of the airwaves, as described by the Sunday Times in 1996.Murray was renowned for her fearless and thoughtful questioning of guests, which included politicians, film stars, authors, poets, chefs, gardeners, lawyers, and anxious parents. One notable interview was with Margaret Thatcher in 1990, where Murray exposed the ideological differences between the feminist approach and Thatcher's views on childcare and gender equality.Murray also conducted incisive interviews with other prominent figures, including Edwina Currie, who revealed her affair with John Major, and Tessa Jowell, discussing her financial decisions. Her conversations were marked by a flair for the dramatic and a deep empathy for her guests.Throughout her career, Murray was not without controversy. In 2017, she faced backlash for an article she wrote questioning the use of the term 'real woman' by trans individuals. The BBC subsequently warned her about maintaining impartiality on controversial topics.Murray's contributions to broadcasting were widely recognized. She was awarded an OBE in 1999 and a dame in 2011. Woman's Hour won the Television and Radio Industries Club's award for best radio program in 2004, and Murray received two Sony awards in 2010 and 2011.Murray's legacy extends beyond her broadcasting career. She was a champion of women's rights and a prolific author, writing several books, including her memoirs and a history of women's suffrage.

The recent pronouncement by a judge in Afghanistan, stating 'a few beatings won't kill you,' when rejecting a woman's divorce request from her abusive husband, highlights the dire situation for women under Taliban rule. This barbaric stance is not isolated but part of a broader global pushback against women's rights.The Heritage Foundation, architect of Project 2025, has published a report advocating for a deeply patriarchal model that encourages women to have more babies earlier in life and discourages further education and careers. This vision aligns with Donald Trump's second term agenda and has sparked concern among women's rights advocates.The proposed UN merger of UN Women and UNFPA has caused alarm among feminist groups. They warn that this consolidation will lead to reduced funding for gender equality programs and give countries like the US, which are hostile to women's rights, more influence over global structures supporting gender equality.UN Secretary General António Guterres noted that the world remains male-dominated, and there are well-funded efforts to maintain this status quo. The UN's next moves will be closely watched, as they have significant implications for women's rights globally.

Lemi Limbu, a woman with severe intellectual disabilities in Tanzania, has had her conviction and death sentence quashed after spending more than a decade in prison awaiting execution. Limbu, now in her early 30s, was convicted of the murder of her daughter in 2015.On 4 March, a court in Shinyanga, northern Tanzania, declared she can appeal. She will face a retrial, but a date has yet to be set. Lawyers and activists have condemned her sentence, saying she should not be in prison at all. Limbu, who remains incarcerated, is a survivor of brutal and repeated sexual and domestic violence and has the developmental age of a child.Under Tanzanian and international law, Limbu should not be held criminally liable, given her intellectual disability. “She was not supposed to be in prison in the first place,” said Anna Henga, executive director of Legal and Human Rights Centre, a Tanzanian human rights advocacy organisation.At her first trial, Limbu pleaded not guilty. Unable to read or write, she said she did not know the contents of a statement that police claimed she had made admitting to the murder. Her original conviction in 2015 was nullified in 2019 due to procedural errors. In 2022, she was retried and sentenced to death a second time.The court did not allow evidence to be heard from medical professionals about her intellectual disabilities or history of abuse. A clinical psychologist who evaluated her had concluded she had a severe intellectual disability and the developmental age of a 10-year-old child or younger.A coalition of 24 African and international human rights groups last year condemned Limbu’s sentence as part of an appeal to the African court on human and peoples’ rights to look at the plight of women on death row throughout Africa. In Tanzania, the death penalty is the mandatory sentence for murder, although no executions have been carried out since 1995.