Six In The Morning Sunday 23 February 2020

Coronavirus: South Korea declares highest alert as infections surge

South Korea has raised its coronavirus alert to the "highest level" as confirmed case numbers keep rising.

President Moon Jae-in said the country faced "a grave turning point", and the next few days would be crucial in the battle to contain the outbreak.

Five people have died from the virus in South Korea and more than 600 have been infected.

Meanwhile, Italy and Iran have announced steps to try to contain worrying outbreaks of the virus.

Malena Ernman on daughter Greta Thunberg: ‘She was slowly disappearing into some kind of darkness’

A new book by Greta Thunberg’s mother reveals the reality of family life during her daughter’s transformation from bullied teenager to climate icon

by Malena Ernman

Greta’s father, Svante, and I are what is known in Sweden as “cultural workers” – trained in opera, music and theatre with half a career of work in those fields behind us. When I was pregnant with Greta, and working in Germany, Svante was acting at three different theatres in Sweden simultaneously. I had several years of binding contracts ahead of me at various opera houses all over Europe. With 1,000km between us, we talked over the phone about how we could get our new reality to work.

Brazil sends armed forces to quell violence as police go on strike

Officers walk out over pay as Carnival celebrations get under way
Diane Jeantet

A violent police strike in northeastern Brazil that led to a senator being injured by gunfire has shed light on dissatisfaction among officers elsewhere in the country who have threatened to protest as rowdy Carnival celebrations start.

The strike by military police demanding higher salaries in the state of Ceara is a headache for president Jair Bolsonaro, a staunch supporter of police forces who has pledged to curb violent crime.

“Of course, police strikes could spread,” said lawmaker Guilherme da Cunha of the state of Minas Gerais, where police obtained a 42 percent salary increase this year after threatening to strike. “From the moment people who have a monopoly on firearms discover the strength it has, there is a risk.”

The German WinterWhen Far-Right Hatred Turns Into Terrorism

The man responsible for the massacre in Hanau was not only a racist, but also a confused and clearly troubled person. He may have acted alone, but he was part of a global network of web-based hatred. By DER SPIEGEL Staff

There’s Mercedes K., 35 years old, a saleswoman. She lived for years with her parents and her 10 siblings in the Kesselstadt district of Hanau, Germany, a neighborhood populated by people from many nations. Members of her family, who are part of the Roma ethnic minority, say they had never experienced any problems until now, that everything had been peaceful.

On Wednesday night, Mercedes K. was sitting in a corner store on a square called Kurt-Schumacher-Platz, next to Arena Bar, eating a salad. Shortly after 10 p.m., a man stormed into the shop, and began firing shots. Mercedes K. died instantly.

'The only one who made it out': Incredible Manus Island escape revealed

By Matthew Knott

February 22, 2020

Jaivet Ealom understands if you struggle to believe his story. At times, he can hardly believe it himself.

Ealom, 27, is a political economy student at the University of Toronto with a soft voice and a lively mind. Most of his classmates know him as a Rohingya refugee who fled Myanmar.

What few of them know is that he escaped Australia's offshore detention centre in Manus Island by posing as an interpreter. Or that he lived as a fugitive in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, where he obtained a passport by pretending to be a local. Or that he arrived in Toronto broke and alone, and was forced to sleep in a homeless shelter.

Bullied Australian boy Quaden Bayles leads out rugby league team in front of thousands

By Rob Picheta, CNN

Updated 1148 GMT (1948 HKT) February 23, 2020

Quaden Bayles, a 9-year-old Australian boy who won the support of well-wishers around the world after being bullied for his dwarfism, has led out a rugby league team in front of thousands of cheering fans.

Bayles walked out with the National Rugby League's Indigenous All Stars team ahead of an exhibition match against the New Zealand Maoris on Saturday.

He had been invited by the entire team in a video posted online, in which captain Latrell Mitchell told him: "We've got your back. We're here to support you, bud."