Six In The Morning Saturday 12 September 2020

 

The tourists are leaving Italy. Now catastrophe looms

Maria Pasquale, CNN • Updated 12th September 2020

For all too brief a time, the Italian summer offered a glimmer of hope. After emerging from what was in early 2020, one of the world's harshest coronavirus lockdowns, Italy managed to dust itself down in time to welcome visitors.

But as the sun begins to cool, so do hopes of a full recovery for Italy's decimated 2020 tourism season. Winter is coming, and with it what is expected to be a full-blown economic catastrophe.

The Italian government, like many across the world, has been doling out cash to help support many ailing businesses and individuals, but with many global travel restrictions still in place, lost revenues from the country's faltering travel industry leaves a gaping financial hole that must now be filled.

Iranian champion wrestler Navid Afkari executed despite global outcry

Afkari had been convicted of killing security guard during anti-government protests in 2018

Michael Safi

@safimichael

Sat 12 Sep 2020 14.53 BST

Iran has executed a champion wrestler convicted of murdering a security guard during anti-regime protests in 2018, state media said on Saturday, despite an international campaign to spare his life.

Navid Afkari, 27, was executed “this morning after legal procedures were carried out at the insistence of the parents and the family of the victim”, the Islamic Republic News Agency quoted the head of the justice department in the southern Fars province as saying.

Greek riot police fire tear gas at Lesbos migrants

Migrants on the Greek island of Lesbos are angry about conditions after a catastrophic fire ripped through a large camp set up to house them. Riot police responded with tear gas after some protesters threw stones.

Greek riot police fired tear gas at protesting asylum seekers on Lesbos island on Saturday as tensions simmered following a huge blaze that ripped through Europe's largest migrant camp this week.

Thousands of migrants have been sleeping rough on Lesbos since Wednesday when the Moria camp and thousands of homes were destroyed. The cause of the fire remains unknown.

Bahrain deal spotlights Saudi's stealth normalisation with Israel

Bahrain's move to formally establish relations with Israel could not have happened without Saudi Arabia's green light, another step in what observers call Riyadh's "alternative normalisation" of ties with the Jewish state.

Bahrain on Friday became Saudi Arabia's second Gulf ally to announce plans to formalise relations with Israel over the past month, after the United Arab Emirates' landmark agreement.

The move put a spotlight on the potential role of Riyadh, which has so far fended off pressure from US President Donald Trump to follow suit.

Coronavirus: Big Pharma wages stealth war on drug price watchdog

Big Pharma is using stealth tactics to undermine credibility of non-profit that holds down US drug prices.

As evidence grew this spring that the drug remdesivir was helping COVID-19 patients, some Wall Street investors bet on analysts' estimates that its maker, Gilead Sciences Inc, could charge up to $10,000 for the treatment.

Then a small but increasingly influential drug-pricing research organisation, the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), said the treatment only justified a price between $2,800 and $5,000. Shortly after, Gilead announced it would charge about $3,100 for a five-day treatment and $5,700 for 10 days - in line with the ICER recommendation.

White Privilege Is Real. I Know. I Lost Mine After 9/11.

Dean Obeidallah

As part of Donald Trump’s “Only White Lives Matter” 2020 campaign theme, his administration announced last Friday it would stop spending federal funds to teach racial sensitivity training to government employees because to Trump such programs are “divisive” and “un-American.” One facet of this new Trump administration policy mandates identifying all programs that teach about “white privilege” and “divert[ing] federal dollars away from these un-American propaganda training sessions.” The irony of Trump denying that white privilege exists is that he’s the poster child for it.

Here’s the truth: White privilege is real. It provides white people with tangible benefits that for the most part they take for granted. I know, because I used to have white privilege. But being of Arab heritage and Muslim, my white privilege was revoked in the years that followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks.