Sunday, August 2, 2020

Six In The Morning Sunday 2 August 2020

Nasa SpaceX crew return: Astronauts set for ocean splashdown

US astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken have undocked their Dragon Endeavour capsule from the space station to begin their return to Earth.
The pair are expected to splash down off the coast of Florida just after 14:45 EDT (19:45 BST) on Sunday.
A successful landing would mean America once again has a fully serviceable, fully certified means of getting its own people into orbit and back.
This capability was lost when the country retired its shuttles in 2011.

Interview

‘The Kremlin wants me dead’: Russia's sports doping whistleblower speaks out

Sun 2 Aug 2020 09.10 BST

Grigory Rodchenkov was head of Russia’s ‘anti-doping’ centre but, in 2015, he fled to the US. He talks to the Observer’s former Moscow correspondent about the lies, the truth and life on the run
The man in front of me is wearing a disguise. We are talking on Skype. I’m at my home near London and Dr Grigory Rodchenkov is at an undisclosed location somewhere in America, guarded 24/7 by armed FBI agents. How is he? “My life is good. My mood is very good,” he says. He’s grinning, I think. Since he’s wearing a black scarf over his face and dark glasses, it’s hard to tell.
The cloak-and-dagger atmospherics surrounding our interview might seem a little overblown. Until, that is, you remember, Vladimir Putin’s roving assassins are trying to establish Rodchenkov’s secret location so they can snuff him out, a traitor to the state. Russia’s president has a long list of enemies. But Rodchenkov – the most significant sports whistleblower of the 21st century – is probably at the top.

Shamima Begum: Female Isis members being ‘underestimated’ because of gender stereotypes, UN warns

Exclusive: Countries need to ‘take seriously the different roles that women can play in terrorist groups’, senior official says
Lizzie DeardenSecurity Correspondent @lizziedearden


Women who join Isis are being “underestimated” by international security services because of gender stereotypes, the United Nations has warned.
The head of its Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) told The Independent there were a “range of different biases in investigations, charging, sentencing and the provision of rehabilitation and reintegration support”.
Executive director Michele Coninsx would not comment directly on the Shamima Begum case, but said that governments should “steer away from politicising and sensationalising women’s roles in terrorism”.

The Great Coronavirus ExperimentAre German Schools Ready to Reopen?

Schools in Germany are to begin reopening next week, despite the coronavirus pandemic. But many teachers say that too much time has been wasted and that there is still a lack of clear guidelines.
By Jan Friedmann, Annette Großbongardt, Kristin Haug, Armin Himmelrath, Hilmar Schmundt, Alfred Weinzierl and Steffen Winter

The hallways are empty and squeaky clean and the chairs in the classrooms are on the desks. There’s nothing in Oskar Picht Gymnasium, a neo-gothic, brick secondary school in Pasewalk to remind you of the dispiriting past few months in German education. It is the last few days of the summer vacation in Pasewalk, a town in the northern German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and a few teachers are sitting in various conference rooms, preparing the new school year. There’s no sign of the pandemic.

Anti-Netanyahu protests in Israel continue to grow

Thousands of demonstrators gathered outside the official residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday and thronged the streets of central Jerusalem, as weeks of protests against the Israeli leader appeared to be gaining steam.
The demonstration in central Jerusalem, along with smaller gatherings in Tel Aviv, near Netanyahu's beach house in central Israel and at dozens of busy intersections nationwide, was one of the largest turnouts in weeks of protests.
Throughout the summer, thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets, calling for Netanyahu to resign, protesting his handling of the country's coronavirus crisis and saying he should not remain in office while on trial for corruption charges. Though Netanyahu has tried to play down the protests, the twice-a-week gatherings show no signs of slowing.

Trump's Germany troops pullout may be his last gift to Putin before the election

Updated 0847 GMT (1647 HKT) August 2, 2020

Since he came to office, US President Donald Trump has obsessively picked at the ties that bind America to its allies.
This week in one apparently wanton yank, he ripped one of those cords by announcing a plan to withdraw nearly 12,000 troops from Germany. This thin green thread of forces, woven through Germany's historic towns, rolling fields and dense forests, has for three generations helped ensure peace in Europe, embodying an unbreakable commitment between the former foes.
The relationship now though, particularly if Trump is reelected later this year, is in freefall, destination unknown.



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