Six In The Morning Thursday 15 October 2020

 

Justice on trial: three  years after the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia

Four men have been charged over her killing – but the family believe the police investigation was sabotaged

by Juliette Garside Additional reporting by Sam Cutler and Michael Barton Photography and video by David Levene and Laurence Topham

Thu 15 Oct 2020 17.00 BST

The murder in Malta of the anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has been headline news since a bomb exploded under the driver’s seat of her car in October 2017.

Seen as a violent attack on free speech in a previously peaceful EU member state, her death triggered a political earthquake that brought down a prime minister and led to major constitutional changes in the former British colony.

Three years later, justice for the widower and three sons that Caruana Galizia left behind remains uncertain. There have been no trials, and no convictions.

Israel police break up settlers’ wedding breaking coronavirus lockdown rules

Ultra-Orthodox community leaders accuse police of discrimination and heavy-handedness

Daniel Wittenberg

At least two people were injured after a brawl broke out at an ultra-Orthodox wedding in Israel when police intervened to enforce coronavirus lockdown rules.

Video footage from the reception, attended by several dozen guests at a private home in the West Bank settlement of Givat Ze’ev, appeared to show a man with blood on his face being led away by officers while another lay on the ground.

HRW: Syria and Russia targeted civilian infrastructure

Human Rights Watch has declared Syrian and Russian strikes against Idlib to be war crimes. The report blasts the strategic attacks on civilian targets as a "callous disregard" for life.

Bombings carried out by Syrian and Russian forces against the rebel-held enclave of Idlib amount to war crimes and possible crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch declared in a report published on Thursday.

The 167-page report looked at ground strikes in the region between April 2019 and March 2020 and concluded that the strategy to take back the city from anti-government forces contravened the laws of war.

'Free our friends!': Thousands defy Thai crackdown after emergency decree, arrests

Thousands of Thai protesters gathered Thursday in defiance of a sweeping crackdown after authorities moved to crush months of pro-democracy demonstrations by imposing emergency powers and rounding up leading activists.

How mail-in ballot rule chaos in North Carolina is hurting Black voters

By Dianne Gallagher, Pamela Kirkland and Denise Royal, CNN

Updated 1603 GMT (0003 HKT) October 15, 2020

Almost 1,000 absentee ballots are sitting in a locked bin somewhere in the Guilford County Board of Elections waiting to be processed.

At least two voters in Greensboro, North Carolina, part of Guilford County, had no idea their ballots were sitting in that pile.

Vincent Gager, a 48-year-old Black man, and his 83-year-old father Nathaniel mailed in their ballots on September 4. They wanted to vote by mail to avoid exposure to Covid-19. Over a month later, neither man had any idea their ballot had been listed as "pending cure" -- which meant there was something wrong with them that would prevent them being accepted.

Coronavirus: Europe's tough restrictions 'absolutely necessary'

Tough restrictions are "absolutely necessary" to save lives, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned as Europe battles a second Covid-19 wave.

It comes as millions of people in European capitals and other cities have been told they must live under strict new measures.

From Saturday, socialising indoors will be banned in London, and a curfew will be imposed in nine French cities.

But the situation is not as bad as it was in March and April, the WHO says.