Six In The Morning Thursday 8 October 2020

 

Presidential debate: Trump refuses to take part in virtual TV event

US President Donald Trump has refused to take part in a virtual TV debate with his Democratic rival Joe Biden.

Earlier the commission deciding the 15 October Miami debate's format said it would have to take place remotely.

It made the decision after Mr Trump was treated for Covid-19. He has no current symptoms but the White House is tackling a cluster of positive tests.

'A threat from within': Iraq and the rise of its militias

Shaped by the fight against Isis and a fateful US drone strike, the factions now pose a danger to Baghdad’s weak government

by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad in Baghdad

The dust had barely settled on the fall of Iraq’s second city when the call came. It was June 2014 and Islamic State had just captured Mosul, the prize in a fight for control of a country already scarred by more than a decade of war.

Just four days after the city’s capture, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most revered Shia cleric in Iraq, issued a fatwa urging Iraqis to volunteer in the fight against the militants. Tens of thousands of mostly young men from the poor Shia south and Baghdad suburbs flocked to recruiting centres, military camps and militia headquarters.

Pussy Riot members arrested after LGBT+ flag protest

Art collective raised pride flags to mark Putin’s 68th birthday

Oliver Carro@olliecarroll

Russian police detained two leading members of the Pussy Riot art collective on Thursday.  

The news follows the radical group’s LGBT+ protest that saw them raising pride flags at five government buildings in “honour” of Vladimir Putin’s birthday on Wednesday. Maria Alyokhina was arrested just as she arrived to give an interview at a liberal TV station in Moscow. 

Footage of the arrest showed two officers manhandle Maria Alyokhina as she attempted to enter the first-floor editorial offices. She is then frogmarched to an unmarked grey van waiting outside.  

Trump's tactics are working

Much of the world has been appalled by US President Donald Trump's behavior since he was diagnosed with COVID-19. But his supporters love it, writes DW's Ines Pohl from the US state of Ohio.

"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and wouldn't lose any voters," Trump boasted notoriously at the beginning of the 2016 election campaign.

The president hasn't yet shot anyone in New York, but his recent reckless behavior after testing positive for the coronavirus comes pretty close. 

Iran's Shajarian, iconic singer often at odds with authorities, dies

Singer, instrumentalist and composer Mohammad-Reza Shajarian, who died on Thursday aged 80, embodied traditional and classical Iranian music for more than half a century both at home and abroad.

A national treasure in his homeland, Shajarian nevertheless maintained difficult relations with the authorities in Tehran throughout his career, first under the reign of the shah and then with the Islamic republic.

The "Ostad" -- master in Persian -- who had been battling cancer for several years, "flew to meet his beloved (God)", his son Homayoun Shajarian, himself a famous singer, wrote on Instagram.

North Korean diplomat who went missing in Italy two years ago has defected to South Korea

By Yoonjung Seo, Jake Kwon and Julia Hollingsworth, CNN

Updated 0512 GMT (1312 HKT) October 8, 2020

A top North Korean diplomat who went missing in Italy two years ago is now living in South Korea, making him one of the regime's most high profile officials to defect in decades.

Jo Song Gil and his wife disappeared in November 2018 after leaving the North Korean embassy in Rome where Jo was employed as acting-ambassador.

For almost two years, his whereabouts have been unknown -- but this week, South Korean lawmaker Ha Tae-keung confirmed reports that Jo had defected to South Korea in 2019.