Iraq 2003-2004

Peter Weir’s dystopian comedy, starring Jim Carrey as the unwitting star of his own reality TV series, takes on new resonance in the techno-capitalist era

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The great Australian director Peter Weir is perhaps underrated as an auteur, simply because his filmography doesn’t follow any thematic or stylistic principle; each of his contributions feels like a complete work of art unto itself. While Picnic at Hanging Rock remains his finest work, his foray into Hollywood culminated in the utterly transfixing, intermittently horrifying Jim Carrey vehicle The Truman Show. Almost 30 years after its theatrical release, the film has only grown in stature and prescience.

Ostensibly a dark satire on voyeurism and the inexhaustible manipulations of the media, The Truman Show predated the television juggernaut Big Brother by a single year, and it’s hard not to see something causal in that. Both are about surveillance and the murky line separating reality from entertainment; both involve hidden cameras watching the participants’ every move. The key difference – the one that gives the film such moral potency – is that Truman doesn’t know he’s on TV.

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Cheney, who served under presidents from Nixon to George W Bush, will be remembered for controversial role after 9/11

• Dick Cheney created the ground for Trump’s excesses, despite their differences

Dick Cheney, the divisive US vice-president under George W Bush who helped lead the country into a disastrous invasion of Iraq, died on Monday, his family has said. He was 84.

Cheney at various times held the roles of member of Congress, White House chief of staff and secretary of defense, but it was as one of the country’s most powerful vice-presidents that he had the biggest impact, wielding great influence over the less experienced Bush.

Mahnoor Omer hopes the case will put public pressure on the government to make sanitary products affordable in a country where they cost too much for most women

For a 25-year-old, seeing her name written on official papers at Lahore’s high court was daunting. But the case of Mahnoor Omer v Federation of Pakistan has now had its first hearing and Omer, a young lawyer from Rawalpindi taking on her government, has moved from relative obscurity to becoming a headline-making activist.

Omer is challenging the country’s “period tax”, which sees only a small proportion of women in Pakistan able to buy sanitary pads thanks to high taxes and duties which, according to Unicef, can add up to 40% to the retail price. One study found that only 16.2% of women in rural areas used pads due to the cost.

Northern provinces of Balkh and Samangan worst hit by magnitude 6.3 quake, which also damaged Mazar-i-Sharif’s Blue Mosque

A powerful 6.3 magnitude earthquake shook northern Afghanistan before dawn on Monday, killing at least 20 people and injuring more than 640 others, 25 critically, a disaster management official said. Health officials said the numbers could rise.

The US Geological Survey said the quake’s epicentre was located 22km (14 miles) south-west of the town of Khulm, and that it struck at 12.59am at a depth of 28km (17 miles).