In tonight’s Dispatch: the woman poisoned in Salisbury in a suspected Russian attack speaks out for the first time; the data on the UK’s gender pay gap has been analysed; and women were told to leave a sumo wrestling ring as they tried to save a man’s life. 

Poisoned daughter of Russian ex-spy speaks out for first time

The daughter of the ex-Russian spy poisoned in England a month ago has spoken out for the first time, saying that she is recovering from the ordeal.

Yulia Skripal, 33, is the daughter of Sergei Skripal, who worked as a double agent for the UK’s intelligence services in the late Nineties and early Noughties. Both father and daughter were poisoned with a nerve agent in Salisbury on 4 March, and have been in hospital ever since. Salisbury District Hospital has confirmed that Sergei Skripal is still in a critical condition.

In a statement released by police on Thursday, Yulia said she was feeling stronger every day and thanked the public for their messages of goodwill.

“I have many people to thank for my recovery and would especially like to mention the people of Salisbury that came to my aid when my father and I were incapacitated,” the statement read. “Further than that, I would like to thank the staff at Salisbury District Hospital for their care and professionalism.

“I am sure you appreciate that the entire episode is somewhat disorientating, and I hope that you’ll respect my privacy and that of my family during the period of my convalescence.”

Russia has denied having any involvement in the nerve agent attack, which prompted the British government to expel more than 20 Russian diplomats. Read more on this story at Time. 

Three out of four UK companies pay men more than women on average

The final deadline for companies with over 250 employees to submit their gender pay gap data was at midnight on Wednesday 4 April. Now that all the figures are in, it has been established that men out-earn women at three out of four of the UK’s major companies on average.

Some 10,016 had submitted data by Thursday morning, exceeding the government’s estimate that 9,000 employers would report. This data revealed an average pay gap of 9.7%, with a difference of almost 6% between the private and public sector. In the private sector, the average median pay gap is 8.1%, while the average median pay gap in the public sector is 14%. The figures suggest that 78% of firms pay men more than women on average.

However, the data appears to be flawed in some places. The Financial Times reports that 50 employers have claimed to have pay gaps of zero measured by both the median and the mean, which is statistically impossible.

BBC News has more on this story here. 

Japanese woman who tried to save man’s life in sumo ring ordered away for being ‘unclean’ 

Video footage has gone viral in Japan showing women being blocked from entering a sumo ring to help a collapsed mayor – even though one of the women was a doctor.

Ryozo Tatami, the mayor of the city of Maizuru, was giving a speech from the ring of a sumo match on Wednesday when he suddenly collapsed as a result of a brain haemorrhage. A woman jumped up onto the ring to attempt to help him, and appears to have told the male officials who had come to the mayor’s aid that she was a doctor. She then began performing CPR on the mayor while other women came up to help.

Women are traditionally considered “unclean” in the male-only sport of sumo wrestling, and as the women worked to save the mayor, the judge – a representative of the Japan Sumo Association – repeated over the venue’s sound system: “Please could the women leave the ring.”

A spokesman for the Japan Sumo Association apologised on Thursday for the attempts to remove the women from the ring. “The judge was upset and made the announcement, but it was an inappropriate response because the situation could have been life-threatening,” he said.

Read more on this story at the The Washington Post. 

Throughout 2018, Stylist is raising the profiles of brilliant women past and present – and empowering future generations to follow their lead – with our Visible Women campaign. See more from Visible Women here.  

Images: Getty Images