WeekDay AM: 10 Things you need to know this morning
Bangladesh protests, strip searches, and the growing popularity of snail mucus

 
today's international story

Deadly protests escalate in Bangladesh

What happened 
Bangladesh has issued a high-security alert across the country as violent clashes between students and police that have killed at least 32 people continue to intensify.

Riot police opened fire on students with rubber bullets in the capital Dhaka yesterday before retreating to the headquarters of state broadcaster BTV. The "incensed crowd" then set fire to the building, trapping many people inside, said The Guardian.

Who said what
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina condemned the "murder" of at least 25 people who died in yesterday's clashes, which came after seven were killed earlier in the week.

Students have been rallying to demand reform to a scheme that reserves a third of public sector jobs for people related to veterans of the country's 1971 liberation movement. According to critics, the system benefits children of pro-government groups that support Hasina, who has been in power since 2009.

Ruling party leaders and ministers have "tried to paint the protesters as anti-nationals" and “Razakars”, said Al Jazeera, "an offensive term that refers to those who betrayed Bangladesh in the 1971 war by collaborating with Pakistan".

What next? 
Mubashar Hasan, a Bangladesh expert at the University of Oslo, said the protests were growing into a wider expression of discontent over Hasina’s rule, with students "calling her a dictator".

UN Human Rights chief Volker Türk posted on X that the use of deadly force must be investigated and the perpetrators held accountable.

 
 
today’s UK news story

Leeds rioters flip police car and set bus alight

What happened
A police car was overturned and a vehicle set on fire after disorder broke out in Harehills in Leeds last night. Social media footage showed large crowds milling around a bus that had been set ablaze and a police car coming under attack.

Who said what
"Pockets of disorder" broke out following an incident at an address in Luxor Street at 5pm, said West Yorkshire Police. Officers had been called to an "ongoing disturbance" involving agency workers and children.

As more people arrived the agency workers and children were "taken to a safe place", said The Guardian. Hundreds of people then began gathering on the streets and a police car was attacked with stones and other debris before being flipped on its side.

Home Secretary and West Yorkshire MP Yvette Cooper said she was "appalled at the shocking scenes".

What next?
West Yorkshire police deployed more officers to the scene to manage the disorder. Roads were closed and people were advised to avoid the area.

 
 
Today’s policing story

Baird inquiry criticises Manchester police

What happened
Greater Manchester Police officers are abusing their power with unlawful arrests and are retraumatising victims of domestic and sexual abuse, according to a new report. The Baird Inquiry, launched in response to a Sky News investigation, said strip searches in GMP custody had been found to be "deeply injurious", often unjustified and unrecorded – perceived by detainees as "some variant on a power trip".

Who said what
Unlawful arrests "may be endemic in GMP", Vera Baird (pictured above) concluded, perhaps driven by "the strategic priority to increase arrests" since it was placed under special measures in 2020.

The report also "highlights how police readily criminalise traumatised women". It found there was a "gross and perplexing imbalance between the police response to the complainant's behaviour and the response, if any, to the perpetrators' abuse".

Chief Constable Stephen Watson apologised and said the report "evidences poor systems, structures and incivility" as well as "individual examples of low standards, poor behaviour, insensitivity and a lack of care in the face of vulnerability".

What next?
The report recommended replacing strip searches with observation and training officers in how to support trauma victims. GMP has committed to implementing the recommendations.

 
 

It's not all bad

Snail mucin, mucus secreted by snails as they travel, has become skin care's latest wonder ingredient. Data analysed by Glimpse shows online searches for it are up by 110% in the past year. Research on snail mucin is limited, but proponents say it fades dark spots, hydrates skin and improves texture. According to The New Yorker magazine, "because snail mucin naturally contains peptides, antioxidants, glycolic acid and hyaluronic acid" it can "simultaneously improve hydration, stimulate collagen production and aid in skin regeneration". Consumers certainly seem convinced. In the past 30 days Amazon has sold more than 100,000 bottles of COSRX Snail Mucin 96% Power Repairing Essence facial serum.

 
 
under the radar

Kenyans sceptical about 'vampire' serial killer

Prosecutors in Kenya say they've arrested a "psychopathic serial killer who has no respect for human life" – with 42 alleged victims – but some have speculated whether the arrest might be an attempt by authorities to cover up the murder of anti-government activists.

Collins Jumaisi Khalusha, 33, allegedly confessed that he lured in and then killed dozens of women before dumping their remains at a Nairobi quarry that is used as a rubbish tip by residents of the surrounding Mukuru slums.

Detectives, who described Khalusha as "a vampire, a psychopath", said they found several mobile phones, identity cards, a machete, industrial rubber gloves, rolls of Sellotape and nylon sacks similar to those in which the victims were found at the suspect's home.

But pro-democracy activists have "raised concerns" that, rather than being the victims of a serial killer, the bodies may be linked to the disappearances of people during recent anti-government protests, said The Times.

Fuelling the rumours are inconsistencies and unanswered questions surrounding the case, not least how "after not apparently suspecting anything for two years the police then made an arrest in less than three days after the discovery of the bodies", said the BBC. The first body was found by searchers hired by the family of a missing woman and lay just 100m from a police station.

Kenya's independent police watchdog said it was exploring whether there was "any police involvement in the deaths, or failure to act to prevent" the murders.

 
 
on this day

19 July 1545

The Mary Rose, King Henry VIII's favourite warship, sank during the Battle of the Solent. More than 400 years later, on 11 October 1982, the ship's wreck was excavated and returned to Portsmouth dockyard. The scale of the operation was unprecedented. The wreck is now housed in a dedicated museum run by the Mary Rose Trust.

 
 
Today’s newspapers

The Covid-19 inquiry has "blasted the Tories", who "failed us all", says The Mirror. According to the report, "Britain was completely and fatally unprepared", says The Guardian. The Times leads on the "record five year jail term" for Just Stop Oil's founder Roger Hallam. The "fanatic" protester was among five people found guilty of conspiring to block traffic on the M25, The Telegraph reports. "That's progress", says the Daily Express, as a British vessel took Channel migrants back to France for the first time.

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
tall tale

Railroaded into marriage

Unable to afford a flashy wedding reception, Daniel Jean and Esmy Valdez recently celebrated their marriage in a New York subway carriage. Passengers riding the L train on 2 July inadvertently became part of the wedding party, which came complete with ivy and sunflower decorations, platters of chicken and mac and cheese, and a five-tiered wedding cake. "I just like the train," the groom told The Washington Post: "There's always something going on in the train."

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Arion McNicoll, Harriet Marsden, Julia O'Driscoll and Chas Newkey-Burden, with illustrations by Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Munir Uz Zaman / AFP via Getty Images; Christopher Furlong / Getty Images; Tessa Bunney / In Pictures via Getty Images Images.