Six In The Morning Sunday 6 September 2020

 

Hong Kong police arrest dozens at protests over delayed election

Hundreds take to the streets to demonstrate against the postponement of legislative election and the new security law.

More than 30 people have been arrested by Hong Kong police as riot officers swoop in on pro-democracy protesters - opposed to the postponement of the local legislative election - with rounds of pepper balls.

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets on Sunday in the Asian financial hub to demonstrate against a new national security law imposed by China and the postponement of the legislative poll.

Sunday was meant to be voting day for the city's partially elected legislature, one of the few instances where Hong Kong voters get to cast ballots.

On Labor Day, remember this: Trump's America works only for the rich

 

Robert Reich

Sun 6 Sep 2020 06.00 BST

We are eight weeks from a momentous election. If Joe Biden wins, he must work to redistribute income – and power

On Labor Day weekend, eight weeks before one of the most consequential elections in American history, it’s useful to consider the inequalities of income and wealth that fueled Donald Trump’s victory four years ago – and which are now wider than ever.

No other developed nation has nearly the inequities found in the US, even though all have been exposed to the same forces of globalization and technological change. Jeff Bezos’s net worth recently reached $200bn and Elon Musk’s $100bn, even as 30 million Americans reported their households didn’t have enough food. America’s richest 1% now own half the value of the US stock market, and the richest 10% own 92%.

American capitalism is off the rails.

How Feces and Other Bodily Fluids Can Help Track COVID Outbreaks

To detect coronavirus outbreaks early on, scientists are testing sewage plants and blood in addition to evaluating heart rates through fitness tracker data. Taken together, these systems could replace complicated track and trace efforts to contain the pandemic.

By Hilmar Schmundt

Once a day, Dr. Brockmann takes the nation's pulse. He does so by sitting down at his computer and looking at the average heart rate of his test subjects. He’s trying to use that data to determine where new COVID-19 infections are flaring up - and he’s hoping to detect them several days before they reach the radar of public health authorities.

Typhoon unleashes rain, strong winds on southwest Japan

By Stanley White

Typhoon Haishen drew closer to Japan's southern mainland on Sunday, cutting power and prompting authorities to recommend evacuation and warn of potentially record rainfall, unprecedented wind, high tides and large ocean swells.

Authorities urged early evacuation for more than 100,000 households in the southern island prefecture of Okinawa and in Kagoshima, Kumamoto and Nagasaki on Kyushu, Japan's main southern island, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency (FDMA).

"This typhoon is headed toward and may potentially make landfall in Kyushu, bringing record rains, winds, waves and high tides," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at a meeting with cabinet ministers. "I am asking that people exercise the utmost caution."

Putin's vaccine meets opposition from frontline workers in Russia

By Zahra Ullah and Anna Chernova, CNN

Updated 0854 GMT (1654 HKT) September 6, 2020

Vladimir Putin announced the approval of Russia's Sputnik-V coronavirus vaccine on August 11 amid much fanfare, saying it works "quite effectively" in forming a stable immunity.

How would he know this? Because the Russian President revealed one of his daughters had already taken it.

Speaking on Russian state TV at the time, Putin said his daughter had a slightly higher temperature after each dose of the two-stage coronavirus vaccine, but that "Now she feels well."

Belarus Lukashenko: Protesters defy heavy security

Thousands of people have been making their way in columns towards the centre of the Belarusian capital Minsk for a new protest against the president.

Riot police, backed by water cannon and barriers, have sealed off parts of the city and a number of arrests have been made, with reports of injuries.

Protesters seek the resignation of President Alexander Lukashenko.