Wednesday, August 14, 2019
Going Back to Pakistan: 70 Years After Partition
Mr Khanna returns to Pakistan for the first time since he was forced to flee when India was split apart in 1947.
"Before I die, I want to go back to where I was born."
Krishan Kumar Khanna grew up just outside Lahore, Pakistan's second-largest city. After a childhood he remembers fondly, his life changed dramatically in August 1947.
As Britain left the Indian subcontinent, colonial planners hastily split it into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.
Krishan Kumar Khanna grew up just outside Lahore, Pakistan's second-largest city. After a childhood he remembers fondly, his life changed dramatically in August 1947.
As Britain left the Indian subcontinent, colonial planners hastily split it into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.
Six In The Morning Wednesday 14 August 2019
Hong Kong protests: Flights resume as airport authority restricts protests
Hong Kong airport has resumed operations after a night of chaos which saw protesters clash with riot police.
Hundreds of flights were cancelled on Tuesday after protesters flooded the terminal buildings.
After days of disruptions, the Airport Authority said it had obtained a temporary injunction banning protesters from entering certain areas.
It said in a statement that people would be "restrained from attending or participating in any demonstration or protest... in the airport other than in the area designated by the Airport Authority".
Fears of fresh unrest as Zimbabwe’s opposition plan protests
Government warns of reprisals as protests and strikes planned in country crippled by debt
Zimbabweans are bracing for fresh unrest after the main opposition party unveiled plans for a series of major rallies starting this week and unions called for strike action.
Any demonstrations or industrial action will pose a new test for the ruling Zanu-PF party, which brutally suppressed a round of protests in January, leading to at least 13 deaths and hundreds of rapes and beatings.
Last month senior Zanu-PF officials said the constitution allowed the government to deploy the army to confront protesters and warned that soldiers were trained to kill. “Forewarned is forearmed,” one said, telling demonstrators to stay at home.
EWS
Viral clip of Russian policeman punching woman sparks outrage
A video clip of a Russian riot policeman punching a female protester has gone viral, provoking outrage on social networks. Russia's Interior Ministry has promised that the "guilty will have to face responsibility."
In an interview with the Mediazona website, the woman, Daria Sosnovskaya, said she was dragged away by police for protesting the detention of a man with a disability. In the clip, seen here in a YouTube account belonging to VOA News, an officer is seen punching Sosnovskaya in the stomach as officers dragged her to a police vehicle.
"Police officers started running toward me," the 26-year-old told the website. "It was extremely unpleasant. I immediately had cramps everywhere, I couldn't breathe."
UEFA Super Cup: Frenchwoman referee Frappart set to make history in Liverpool-Chelsea clash
French referee Stéphanie Frappart will make football history in Istanbul on Wednesday, becoming the first woman to take charge of a major European men’s football match when Liverpool meets Chelsea in the UEFA Super Cup.
The annual Super Cup pits the winner of the Champions League against the winner of the Europa League. The showpiece match is touted as the curtain-raiser for the European football season. A game for bragging rights between two English titans this year, it will be broadcast globally from Istanbul’s Vodafone Park, home of Turkishclub Besiktas. The all-star line-ups will feature international idols from Mo Salah for the Reds to Olivier Giroud for the Blues. But at kick off, unenviably for a referee, all eyes will be the woman charged with keeping the players in line: Stéphanie Frappart.
The 35-year-old Frenchwoman is no stranger to the spotlight. At every pioneering new rung in her nearly two-decade officiating career -- often umpiring male footballers who tower over her 1.64m, 54kg frame (under 5’5”, 120 lbs) -- Frappart has garnered extra attention until her skill afforded her the good referee’s cloak of invisibility.
Alvi says Pakistan will continue to stand with Kashmiris as nation observes 'Kashmir Solidarity Day'
While addressing a flag hoisting ceremony at the convention centre in Islamabad, President Alvi, who was the guest of honour, said that today the world was watching how the people of Pakistan were standing with their Kashmiri brothers.
"We will not leave them alone at any step," the president said adding: "Kashmiris are our [people]. We think of their pain as our pain."
"We have remained with them, we are with them today and will continue to do so."
Portraits capture brick-and-mortar shopkeepers clinging to their trades
Written byVladimir Antaki
Tuesday, August 13, 2019
Six In The Morning Tuesday 13 August 2019
Hong Kong airport protests: flight chaos as Carrie Lam warns of 'path of no return'
Hundreds of flights cancelled ahead of further protests as territory’s leader says violence is pushing city into danger
‘If these children are not returned to their country, rehabilitated and reintegrated into their communities, they will all become future terrorists,’ warn the Kurdish authorities
Richard HallMiddle East Correspondent
Putin's Private Army
A months-long CNN investigation has established that this ambitious drive into the heart of Africa is being sponsored by Yevgeny Prigozhin -- an oligarch so close to the Kremlin that he is known as President Vladimir Putin’s “chef.” He was sanctioned by the US for funding the Internet Research Agency that meddled in the 2016 presidential election.
Hundreds of flights cancelled ahead of further protests as territory’s leader says violence is pushing city into danger
Hundreds of flights out of Hong Kong have been cancelled on Tuesday in the wake of Monday’s demonstrations as the territory’s leader, Carrie Lam, warned that violence will push Hong Kong “down a path of no return”.
Thousands of passengers remained stranded after one of the world’s busiest airports shut down in a dramatic response to mass demonstrations. Further protests are expected on Tuesday and passengers have been urged to check with their airline before they travel.
At a media conference on Tuesday, Lam said: “Violence, no matter if it’s using violence or condoning violence, will push Hong Kong down a path of no return, will plunge Hong Kong society into a very worrying and dangerous situation.
Children of British Isis members will not be allowed to return to UK, government rules
‘If these children are not returned to their country, rehabilitated and reintegrated into their communities, they will all become future terrorists,’ warn the Kurdish authorities
Richard HallMiddle East Correspondent
Children of British Isis members stranded in Syria will not be allowed to return to the UK, the government has reportedly decided.
At least 30 British children are currently being held with their mothers in camps in northern Syria, after being detained as they fled the crumbling Isis caliphate.
The government has been under pressure to bring them home from the dangerous and overcrowded camps, both from local Syrian authorities and from the Trump administration. Earlier this year the infant son of Shamima Begum, the teenager who fled her home in Bethnal Green to join Isis, died weeks after arriving at one of the facilities.
Two new drugs offer hope against Ebola in DR Congo
Two experimental Ebola drugs being tested in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a yearlong outbreak has killed more than 1,800 people, have succeeded in raising the survival rate to around 90%, health authorities said Monday.
Scientists are a step closer to finding the first effective treatments for the deadly Ebola haemorrhagic fever after two potential drugs showed survival rate of as much as 90% in a clinical trial in Congo.
Two experimental drugs - Regeneron’s REGN-EB3 and a monoclonal antibody called mAb114 - were both developed using antibodies harvested from survivors of Ebola infection.
'Don't touch me': How a culture of sex abuse devastated a Catholic community
By David Goldman
Updated first published at
Long after clergy sex abuse erupted into scandal in the United States, it remained a secret on the American island of Guam in Micronesia. Here it spans generations and reaches to the very top of the Catholic hierarchy.
For decades, abusers held the power in a culture of impunity led by an archbishop who was among those accused. Anthony Sablan Apuron was convicted in a secret Vatican trial and suspended in 2016, after which restrictions he supported on the reporting of abuse were eased.
Putin's Private Army
There’s nothing secret about Russia’s presencein the Central African Republic. The streets are plastered with propaganda posters proclaiming “Russia: hand in hand with your army!” A local radio station churns out Russian ballads and language lessons. New recruits to the army are being trained in Russian, using Russian weapons.
But the Russian campaign in this war-torn country is anything but straightforward, drawing on a mix of guns-for-hire and clever PR to increase Moscow’s influence, outmaneuver its rivals and re-assert itself as a major player in the region.
Iraq says Israeli role in Gulf flotilla unacceptable
Baghdad's top diplomat says presence of Western forces raises tensions in the region adding Gulf states can secure it.
Iraq has rejected any Israeli participation in a naval force to protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, at the heart of tensions with Iran.
Iraq "rejects any participation of forces of the Zionist entity in any military force to secure passage of ships in the Arabian Gulf", Foreign Minister Mohammed Ali al-Hakim wrote on social media on Monday.
"Together, the Gulf states can secure the passage of ships," he said.
Tokushima’s famous Awa Odori festival kicks off
Tokushima Prefecture’s famous Awa Odori dance festival kicked off in the streets of Tokushima City on Monday night. More than 1 million people are expected to visit during the four-day event which is one of Japan's most famous summer dance festivals.
Awa Odori, which originates from a Japanese Buddhist custom of honoring the spirits of ancestors, features groups of dancers and musicians, parading through the streets to the sound of traditional music instruments such as lutes, drums, flutes and bells. Sporting kimono-like costumes with hair bands or straw hats, they chant in chorus and dance in synchronized routines.
Monday, August 12, 2019
Obesity: China's Big Problem
After famine comes obesity. 101 East explores China's unconventional methods for getting its citizens fit and healthy.
It is sunrise at a camp for teenagers in China. One by one, they file out of their dorms, some still rubbing the sleep from their eyes.
As they hurry into formation for morning exercises, former soldiers bark orders at them - jump higher, run faster, squat lower.
For these children, there is just one aim - to lose weight.
"It will be difficult, it will be exhausting, but I really have no choice," says 15-year-old Dushuai. "I absolutely have to lose weight."
Six In The Morning Monday 12 August 2019
Hong Kong isn't just battling on the streets: There is also a war on misinformation online
Updated 2347 GMT (0747 HKT) August 11, 2019
It's a viscerally emotive picture. A woman who appears to be pregnant lies on the floor of a subway station. It was taken on July 21, after a mob attack in the Yuen Long district of Hong Kong left at least 45 people injured -- including the woman, a civilian who had been caught up in the attack and became known locally as "the woman in white" or "big belly lady," slang for "pregnant lady" in Cantonese.
On social media, posts alleging that she had suffered a miscarriage were shared thousands of times. As more footage emerged, public outrage intensified over the Yuen Long violence, and towards the police for their alleged failure to protect victims from the baton-wielding attackers, who appeared to target protesters returning home from a march.
Australia coal use is 'existential threat' to Pacific islands, says Fiji PM
Frank Bainimarama appeals to larger neighbour to ‘more fully appreciate’ climate risks and reduce carbon emissions
The prime minister of Fiji has warned Australia to reduce its coal emissions and do more to combat climate change as regional leaders prepare to gather in Tuvalu ahead of the Pacific Islands Forum this week.
Speaking in Tuvalu at a climate change conference ahead of the forum on Monday, Frank Bainimarama appealed directly to Australia to transition away from coal-powered energy and asked its government “to more fully appreciate” the “existential threat” facing Pacific nations.
“I appeal to Australia to do everything possible to achieve a rapid transition from coal to energy sources that do not contribute to climate change,” said Bainimarama, who presided over the UN’s peak climate change body, Conference of the Parties, in 2017.
The Death of Marie Sophie HingstWhy It Was Right to Report on Her Lies
In June, I wrote an article exposing fabrications in Marie Sophie Hingst's blog about Jewish family members who allegedly died in the Holocaust. In mid-July, she was found dead in her apartment. Now, I am grappling with the question of whether my reporting was necessary.
The death of historian Marie Sophie Hingst, who was found lifeless in her apartment in mid-July, bothers me by day and keeps me awake at night. I find myself occupied by the same question that others are also asking in the wake of this dramatic event: Was it right and necessary to report about the young woman and her lies?
My article, which was published on June 1 in DER SPIEGEL, had a prehistory. Her lies were first noticed by a handful of researchers who came together by chance. A historian, a lawyer, an archivist and a genealogist specializing in Jewish families all independently noticed inconsistencies in the blog "Read On My Dear, Read On," written by Hingst. The group corresponded via Facebook and email, and discovered the Jewish family biographies she had written about on her blog were false, and that she had falsely registered 22 alleged Holocaust victims at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial center in Israel, to support her claims.
China's Ivy League dreams fuel lucrative admissions industry
From hiring ghostwriters and forging sports credentials to generous 'gift-giving', admissions middlemen in China are advising wealthy parents to take an array of 'shortcuts' to secure places at foreign universities.
The service comes with a hefty price tag, often running into tens of thousands of dollars, but nonetheless the industry is booming.
The lengths to which some are willing to go to were highlighted in the admissions scandal that shook US universities this year, where prosecutors found one Chinese family had given $6.5 million to an admissions agent to get their daughter to Stanford, while another had coughed up $1.2 million for entry to Yale.
‘Last Week Tonight With John Oliver’ Talks Gun Control and “Weakened” NRA
Dino-Ray Ramos,Deadline
John Oliver came in hot on Sunday’s Last Week Tonight recapping Donald Trump’s “busy” week which included the largest single-state ICE raid, retweeting conspiracy theories about the death of Jeffrey Epstein and his visit to the sites of last week’s mass shootings where there was footage of him at an El Paso bragging about one of his rally crowd sizes in the city and belittling Beto.
“We all know the struggles to do the bare minimum of being a president,” said Oliver. “But it still generally shocking just how much he struggles to the bare minimum as a f***ing person.” This quip led to a discussion about Trump, gun control and the NRA.
ON DECEMBER 29, 2017, the night his daughter was born, Augusto left the hospital and rode his motorcycle to his home in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, to pick up a change of clothes for his wife. On his way back, he was stopped at a police checkpoint and taken into custody. Police officers questioned him for hours about his father, a former mayor and member of the opposition party to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. At one point, a police detective pushed Augusto into a windowless room and beat him with a plastic Pepsi bottle loaded with sand. The next morning, caked with blood and bruised to a pulp, Augusto was released without charges.
The beating, along with more threats against his father, inspired Augusto to join in the mass protests against the Ortega government that erupted in April 2018. A month later, a little after midnight on May 29, police broke down Augusto’s door, pulled him barely dressed out of his house, and took him back to the police station to question him again about his father.
Sunday, August 11, 2019
A Cold War Family Reunion
Long after the Cold War and decades of separation, a Native American tribe plans a reunion.
"To survive here, it's about family."
-Frances Sistook Ozenna, tribal coordinator, Little Diomede
-Frances Sistook Ozenna, tribal coordinator, Little Diomede
Close to the Arctic Circle, lie two remote islands. They are only about four kilometres apart, but they are separated by an invisible border known as the "Ice Curtain".
Little Diomede is part of the United States. Big Diomede is part of Russia. During the Cold War, the Inupiat tribe living on both islands was torn apart.
Six In The Morning Sunday 11 August 2019
Jeffrey Epstein: Questions raised over disgraced financer's death
Questions have been raised as to how US financier Jeffrey Epstein was able to apparently commit suicide in his prison cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
His body was discovered early on Saturday at a facility in New York.
Last month Epstein was found semi-conscious in his cell after an apparent suicide attempt.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has called for a full investigation, calling it "way too convenient".
"What a lot of us want to know is, what did he know?" said Mr de Blasio, who is also running for the Democratic presidential nomination, told reporters in Iowa.
"How many other millionaires and billionaires were part of the illegal activities that he was engaged in?
Protests, clashes and lack of trust: the new normal for Hong Kong
One of the world’s busiest cities has grown unusually quiet as more and more people stay at home
It was the third night in a row that Biyanca Chu’s neighbourhood, Wong Tai Sin, a working-class residential district in Hong Kong, had been taken over by police and protesters. The ground was littered with plastic bottles, broken umbrellas and teargas canisters as the two sides faced off.
Chu, 22, slight in an all-black outfit, climbed over a road barrier, took off her baseball cap and slipped a gas mask on. “Are you ready to go to the frontline?” she asked her companions and they disappeared. Within half an hour, the police began firing rounds of teargas and rubber bullets, charging and making arrests, until the group dispersed.
Later Chu reappeared, wearing a patterned tank top and jeans, a disguise to look like an ordinary university student out for a stroll. She scanned her phone for news of the next protest and set off.
American carnage: Was Red Dawn the most right-wing blockbuster ever?
As ‘Red Dawn’ turns 35, Ed Power looks back on the violent Eighties action film that was referenced in the latest season of ‘Stranger Things’
Eighties movies tend to feel sillier with the passing of time. But that tell-tale aura of retrospective cheesiness is absent from John Milius’s 1984 blood and soil epic Red Dawn.
Milius’s extended shoot-out, in which tall-haired teenagers from the heartland resist a Soviet, Cuban and Nicaraguan invasion, feels unsettlingly contemporary. It unfolds like a wham-bam fever dream stitched from random fragments of Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration speech. Behold American Carnage: the Motion Picture.
The Syrian PatientAssad Henchman Treated Abroad Despite Arrest Warrant
Jamil Hassan is one of the Assad regime's most brutal henchmen. But despite an international warrant for his arrest, he was able to travel to Beirut for treatment of his ailing heart. Why wasn't he taken into custody?
By Christoph Reuter and Fidelius Schmid
Once, it looked as though an attempt, at least, would be made to bring to justice one of Syria's most important commanders, a man suspected of committing tens of thousands of murders against his own people. In June 2018, Germany's Federal Court of Justice issued an arrest warrant for Jamil Hassan, the head of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence.
The word "intelligence" is perhaps misleading when it comes to what Hassan's agency actually does. In its prisons, agents torture, rape, starve and murder prisoners. In November, France also issued an arrest warrant against Hassan.
A hermit nation ruled by an egomaniac: Is Turkmenistan on the brink of collapse?
Updated 0417 GMT (1217 HKT) August 11, 2019
Men in white fur caps proudly ride horses across the steppe, rows of modern machinery glisten, Barbie-pink flamingos strut before clear blue skies and a white yacht cuts through the turquoise waters of the Caspian Sea.
These are idyllic scenes from a one-minute video promoting the inaugural Caspian Economic Forum, which between August 11 and 12 will see heads of state from Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan descend on Awaza, a new resort town that has been touted by Turkmenistan's Foreign Ministry as the country's Las Vegas.
The footage paints the picture of a happy, prosperous nation.
CRIMINALIZING COMPASSION
The Unraveling of the Conspiracy Case Against No More Deaths Volunteer Scott Warren
Ryan Devereaux
THE FEDERAL COURTHOUSE in Tucson, Arizona, has always been a place where the borderlands and the American justice system collide. Described by its engineers as “a gateway to the desert and the mountains beyond,” it was completed in 2000, the year that the Pima County medical examiner’s office began tracking an explosion of deaths in that same desert.
Each afternoon, Monday through Thursday, dozens of chained migrants who survived the journey across the border but found themselves in Border Patrol custody are marched up from the building’s bowels for mass hearings. They come in groups of up to 70 at a time. You hear the chains before you see the people — men and women still wearing the clothes they crossed in. Appearing before a judge in clusters, they confess to entering without inspection, receive their sentences, and leave. Cases are adjudicated in minutes.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)