Thursday, December 31, 2020
Top 10 Stories of December 2020
The Trump campaign’s unhinged star witness, passengers cheering as an anti-masker was escorted off a plane, Melania’s Christmas decorations — it wouldn’t be 2020 without a few more wild stories to close out the year
A Siberian skater’s 80 years on the ice
For the last 80 years there's no place that Lyubov Morekhodova would rather be than on Lake Baikal in southern Siberia. The sprightly senior lives on the western shore of the world's largest freshwater lake.
140 House Republicans expected to oppose Biden's win
Two Republican members of the House of Representatives tell CNN that they expect at least 140 of their GOP colleagues in the House to vote against counting the electoral votes on January 6 when Congress is expected to certify President-elect Joe Biden's victory.
How highways wrecked American cities
The Interstate Highway System was one of America's most revolutionary infrastructure projects. It also destroyed urban neighborhoods across the nation.
EU-China Investment deal: At what expense?
The European Union has struck a controversial investment deal with China. The EU has hailed the accord - saying it will give European companies better access to Chinese markets. But critics say those economic benefits come at the expense of human rights.
Six In The Morning Thursday 31 December 2020
Domestic terrorism and hate exploded in 2020. Here's what the Biden administration must do.
MIKE LEVINE
A few weeks ago, several members of President-elect Joe Biden's transition team set up a Zoom meeting with senior members of the Anti-Defamation League, the group that studies and tracks hate crimes, to hear recommendations for fighting domestic terrorism and right-wing extremism.
The weighty meeting, focused on one of the most complex threats facing America today, was initiated in the simplest of ways: The ADL requested a meeting through a form on Biden's transition team website.
Indonesian fisher finds drone submarine on possible covert mission
Navy seizes UUV, likely a Chinese Sea Wing, that experts say could be used to plot routes for military subs
Helen Davidson in Taipei
An Indonesian fisher has found what experts say is likely to be a Chinese submarine drone in waters on a strategic maritime route from the South China Sea to Australia.
According to Indonesian media the unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) was found on 20 December near Selayar Island in South Sulawesi. Six days later it was handed to police and then transferred to the Indonesian military.
Military observers have said the drone appears to be a Chinese Sea Wing (or Haiyi) UUV. The underwater glider was developed by the Shenyang institute of automation at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and is publicly described as collecting data including seawater temperature, salinity, turbidity and oxygen levels. Information on currents and movement direction are transmitted in real time.
One year on: What have we learned since news of COVID-19 first broke?
A year ago, ophthalmologist Li Wenliang was the first to share information about a SARS-type lung infection with colleagues in Wuhan, China. Researchers have learned a lot since then. Here are the most important points.
Ophthalmologist Li Wenliang, who worked at the Wuhan Central Hospital, was the first to share information about suspected SARS-type lung infections in the city in Central China on December 30, 2019.
He distributed the news on the social media platform WeChat to colleagues at different hospitals in the city. Police then admonished him for "making false comments on the internet" but an official inquiry later exonerated him.
Li Wenliang died from COVID-19 on February 2.
2020 IN REVIEW
FRANCE 24 takes a look back at the famous faces that have left us in 2020, from lionised British spy novelist John Le Carré to left-wing US Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg to the last icon of Hollywood’s Golden Age, Olivia de Havilland.
KOBE BRYANT
American basketball player Kobe Bryant was born on August 23, 1978 and died on January 26, 2020, in a helicopter crash in California that also killed his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others.
Iran implicates UK firm, US base in Germany in Soleimani killing
Allegations come amid rising tensions as Iran’s FM accuses outgoing Trump of aiming to fabricate ‘pretext for war’.
31 Dec 2020
An Iranian prosecutor has said a British security firm and an airbase in Germany had a hand in the assassination of Qassem Soleimani almost one year after the top general was assassinated by the United States in Iraq.
The allegations come amid mounting tensions between the two countries, as Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday accused outgoing US President Donald Trump of aiming to fabricate a “pretext for war”.
2020 was a terrible year for Europe. 2021 is unlikely to be much better
Updated 1048 GMT (1848 HKT) December 31, 2020
You'd struggle to find anyone in Europe who will be unhappy to see the back of 2020.
Covid-19, Brexit and the international political carnage of this year have hammered the continent and exacerbated tensions that have blighted the European Union for years.
But those problems are not going anywhere in 2021.
With no pandemic, fraught talks with the UK or an American president as anti-European Union as Donald Trump, Brussels might finally find space to address issues that have long undermined the bloc -- though it won't be easy.
Wednesday, December 30, 2020
World Health Organization becomes US-China battleground
In March 2020, coronavirus infections began to soar around the world. But the World Health Organization was slow to react. It’s now accused of being a mouthpiece for China, and praising the transparency of the country’s government.
George Conway reacts to Hawley's plan to force vote on election results
Conservative lawyer George Conway and CNN's Jake Tapper discuss the political motives behind contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Covid-19: Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine approved for use in UK
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved for use in the UK, with the first doses due to be given on Monday amid rising coronavirus cases.
Germany: Two-tier fears & record COVID deaths UK approves Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine
Officials report more than a thousand COVID-19 deaths in Germany in a single day, the highest number since the pandemic began. A grim new record for the country as the health minister warns any return to normal is still a long way off.
Six In The Morning Wednesday 30 December 2020
Covid-19: Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine approved for use in UK
By James Gallagher and Nick Triggle
BBC News
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved for use in the UK, with the first doses due to be given on Monday.
There will be 530,000 doses available from next week, and vaccination centres will now start inviting patients to come and get the jab.
Priority groups for immunisation have already been identified, starting with care home residents, the over-80s, and health and care workers.
'Our history is contained there': loss of archive threatens Native American tribes
The building in Seattle is slated for sale, a move that could deprive indigenous people in the Pacific north-west of access to critical documents
In 1969, a clerical error resulted in the Samish Indian Nation in Washington state suddenly being dropped from the federal government’s list of recognized tribes. It took almost three decades of wading through piles of historical documents and painstaking litigation before its members were able to regain that recognition, along with the federal benefits and protections that come with it.
Their success hinged on unearthing a wealth of documents – court cases, family histories, tribal correspondence with the federal government – much of which was found at the National Archives facility in Seattle, according to Tom Wooten, the Samish Indian Nation tribal chairman.
Anger as Spanish PM hints at pardon for jailed Catalan leaders
‘When we talk about Catalonia, no one is blameless,’ said the Spanish PM
In Madrid
Spain's Socialist prime minister has sparked a bitter political row when he hinted that his government might be prepared to grant pardons for the nine Catalan political leaders who were jailed for their part in the 2017 failed independence drive which split the country.
Separatist politicians and activists were imprisoned last year for between eight and 13 years for their part in a failed attempt to split from Spain.
The long jail terms handed down at the end of a high-profile trial prompted violent protests in Catalonia.
Argentina approves bill to legalize abortion
Women in Argentina will now have the right to terminate pregnancy at up to 14 weeks. The Senate vote is a landmark for abortion rights in Latin America.
Argentina on Wednesday legalized abortion when the Senate voted by 38 to 29 in favor of a bill that allows the procedure through to the 14th week of pregnancy.
It became the first major country in Latin America, where there are growing calls for greater reproductive rights for women, to pass such a bill.
Annus horribilis: A look back at the top 12 stories of 2020
The year was dominated by news of the coronavirus, which rapidly spread from Wuhan, China, to kill more than 1.7 million people and forcing much of the world into lockdown while highlighting global inequalities and institutional failures. But other issues also grabbed the world’s attention, from the devastating Australia bushfires to global protests against racism.
AUSTRALIA BUSHFIRES
Record temperatures and severe drought gave rise to massive fires that roared across the Australian bush throughout the summer season in the southern hemisphere, peaking in December 2019 and January. More than 10.3 million hectares (103,000 sq km) were eventually burned, equal to the size of South Korea.
Several killed in attack on Yemen’s Aden airport: Live news
Explosion reported at Aden airport after plane carrying the new Yemeni government arrived from Saudi Arabia.
A large explosion struck the airport in the southern Yemeni city of Aden on Wednesday shortly after a plane carrying the newly formed cabinet landed there, security officials said.
Initial reports said several people were killed and dozens were wounded.
Tuesday, December 29, 2020
How the Police Killed Breonna Taylor | Visual Investigations
None of the police officers who raided Breonna Taylor’s home wore body cameras, impeding the public from a full understanding of what happened. The Times’s visual investigation team built a 3-D model of the scene and pieced together critical sequences of events to show how poor planning and shoddy police work led to a fatal outcome.
Kenya: The Unfathomable Virus
With Kenyan tourism devastated by the coronavirus, what does it mean for those dependent on the safari industry?
Warning that UK risks “catastrophe” with record number of new Covid infections
Trump Pardons 20, Including Contractors Who Killed Civilians
Trump issued a series of 20 pardons and sentence commutations this week — among the most shocking were 4 men behind a 2007 massacre in Iraq that left 14 innocent people dead.
The Science Behind How the Coronavirus Affects the Brain | WSJ
New research could help explain why thousands of Covid-19 survivors are facing debilitating neurological symptoms months after initially getting sick. WSJ breaks down the science behind how the coronavirus affects the brain, and what this could mean for long-haul patients.
America First? How Biden will help restore order in international trade
What’s next after America First? Hopes are running high that US President-Elect Joe Biden will help restore order after Donald Trump turned international trade into a zero-sum game with very few winners.
Six In The Morning Tuesday 29 December 2020
Nearly half a million people may have had Covid-19 in Wuhan, study shows. That's almost 10 times the official figure
Updated 0939 GMT (1739 HKT) December 29, 2020
Nearly half a million residents in the Chinese city where the novel coronavirus first emerged may have been infected with Covid-19 -- almost 10 times its official number of confirmed cases, according to a study by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The study used a sample of 34,000 people in the general population in Wuhan -- the original epicenter of the pandemic -- and other cities in Hubei province, as well as Beijing, Shanghai, and the provinces of Guangdong, Jiangsu, Sichuan and Liaoning to estimate Covid-19 infection rates.
Nearly half a million residents in the Chinese city where the novel coronavirus first emerged may have been infected with Covid-19 -- almost 10 times its official number of confirmed cases, according to a study by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Russian riot police arrest renegade priest in convent raid
Father Sergiy, who denies the existence of the Covid pandemic, seized control of building in June
Reuters in Moscow
Riot police in Russia have arrested a renegade priest in a raid on a convent in the Urals region.
Father Sergiy, whose real name is Nikolai Romanov, gained notoriety earlier this year after denying the existence of the Covid-19 pandemic, railing against church closures during the lockdown and criticising the Russian Orthodox Church.
He seized control of the Sredneuralsky women’s monastery near Yekaterinburg in the Urals in June and refused to leave.
Iran begins human trials of its homegrown Covid vaccine
Iran is the nation hardest hit by coronavirus in the Middle East
International Correspondent
The daughter of the man leading one of Iran’s most infamous religious foundations today became the first person in the country to test its homegrown coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday.
Tayebeh Mokbher appeared in good health afterward.
“I am happy not just because I'm the first person to receive the vaccine, but also that our country's science has advanced so much,” she said in a segment broadcast on state television immediately after she took a jab of Blessed Coviran, the country’s still-experimental coronavirus vaccine.
EU demands China release citizen-journalist Zhang Zhan who reported on Covid-19
The European Union on Tuesday demanded China release citizen journalist Zhang Zhan and 12 Hong Kong activists detained at sea, as it looks to seal an investment deal with Beijing.
The flurry of EU statements came as the bloc gears up to agree the pact with China after seven years of painstaking negotiations, despite concerns about China's labour and civil rights record.
Zhang was jailed on Monday for four years over allegations of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" during her coverage of the early stages of the Covid-19 outbreak in epicentre Wuhan, her lawyer said.
Child Labor In Palm Oil Industry Tied To Girl Scout Cookies
“I am dreaming one day I can go back to school,” said a 10-year-old Indonesian girl who works at a palm oil plantation that helps produce the cookies and other Western brand items.
They are two young girls from two very different worlds, linked by a global industry that exploits an army of children.
Olivia Chaffin, a Girl Scout in rural Tennessee, was a top cookie seller in her troop when she first heard rainforests were being destroyed to make way for ever-expanding palm oil plantations. On one of those plantations a continent away, 10-year-old Ima helped harvest the fruit that makes its way into a dizzying array of products sold by leading Western food and cosmetics brands.
Ima is among the estimated tens of thousands of children often working alongside their parents in Indonesia and Malaysia, which supply 85% of the world’s most consumed vegetable oil. An Associated Press investigation found most earn little or no pay and are routinely exposed to toxic chemicals and other hazardous conditions. Some never go to school or learn to read and write. Others are smuggled across borders and left vulnerable to trafficking or sexual abuse.
Croatia earthquake: Child killed as rescuers search rubble in Petrinja
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake has struck central Croatia, with reports of many injuries and at least one death.
A 12-year-old girl was killed in Petrinja, the prime minister said as he visited the town.
A second death has been reported by local media south-west of Petrinja, in Majske Poljane, but it is yet to be confirmed.
The mayor of Petrinja said around half the town had been destroyed and people were being pulled from the rubble.
Monday, December 28, 2020
The real cost of smart speakers
In 2014, Amazon debuted a simple but industry-changing product: the smart speaker. Technically the Amazon Echo was just a microphone attached to the internet that you installed in your home. But it let users ask a digital assistant, Alexa, thousands of questions and commands, and it was a hit. Before long, Google and Apple followed with their own smart speakers, and today, a device that began as a curiosity has become commonplace: one in five US households now owns a smart speaker.
Will vaccines change the course of the pandemic?
EU countries unroll a massive and coordinated COVID-19 vaccination campaign.
What we know about the Nashville bombing suspect
Investigators are looking at “any and all possible motives” in the Nashville explosion after identifying the suspected suicide bomber as Anthony Quinn Warner.
6-Year-Old's 'Happy Bags' Help Hundreds Experiencing Homelessness | In This Together | NowThis
The World in 2021: five stories to watch out for
The World in 2021 will start to look beyond covid-19: to the launch of an asteroid-smashing space probe, the next step in the fight against climate change and China’s supremacy at the box office.
Why did it take Trump so long to sign the COVID-19 bill? | DW News
Six In The Morning Monday 28 December 2020
Brexit: 'Bumpy' period expected as UK adjusts to new EU rules
There will be "bumpy moments" for UK businesses and travellers as they get to grips with new EU rules, says government minister Michael Gove.
He said there would be "practical and procedural changes" when the Brexit transition period ends on 31 December.
Mr Gove also urged people going to the EU to make extra checks, including mobile phone roaming charges.
Wuhan Covid citizen journalist jailed for four years in China crackdown
Prosecution of 10 Hong Kongers detained in mainland China after allegedly attempting to flee to Taiwan also began on Monday
Helen Davidson in Taipei
Zhang Zhan, a 37-year-old former lawyer and citizen journalist who was arrested in May while reporting from Wuhan, has been sentenced to four years in jail.
Zhang was arrested for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” – an accusation commonly used against dissidents, activists and journalists – with her video and blog reports from the Wuhan lockdown. Last month she was charged with disseminating false information.
On Monday afternoon, just hours after the trial began, Zhang’s lawyer said she had been sentenced to four years in jail.
UN rapporteur on Assange: 'The US is trying to criminalize investigative journalism'
A London court will decide on January 4 on the US extradition request for Julian Assange. For Nils Melzer, UN special rapporteur on torture, it's a political process and a travesty of justice.
DW: After four weeks of hearing evidence in the extradition trial against Julian Assange, Judge Vanessa Baraitser is going to deliver her verdict on January 4. You have followed the case of Julian Assange closely. What's your take on the proceedings?
Nils Melzer: The legal proceeding in itself is not respecting the basic standards of human rights, of due process and the rule of law. Already, the motivation behind the extradition request is not in compliance with basic legal standards, with the protections of freedom of the press and so on. Julian Assange is being prosecuted by the United States for espionage, just because he practiced investigative journalism.
He has published secret information of a government that he has not been employed by, that he has no obligations towards. And he has not stolen the information himself. It was leaked to him by someone who had access to the information. And he published it because it was in the public interest to publish it.
Saudi women's rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul given five-year prison sentence
A Saudi terrorism court handed rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul a prison sentence of five years and eight months on Monday, with two years and 10 months of the term suspended. FRANCE 24's correspondant in Riyadh, Saeed Al Jaber, said that with time served Hathloul could be released as soon as March.
A Saudi court on Monday sentenced prominent women's rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul to five years and eight months in prison, local media reported, in a trial that has drawn international condemnation and as Riyadh faces new U.S. scrutiny.
Hathloul, 31, has been held since 2018 following her arrest along with at least a dozen other women's rights activist.
Indian officer accused of planting weapons on Kashmir civilians
The Indian army admitted in September that three labourers were killed in staged gun battle after public outcry.
Indian police on Sunday accused an army officer and two associates of planting weapons on the bodies of three labourers killed in Kashmir to make it look as though they were armed fighters in a staged gun battle.
Their July deaths sparked a furore in the Indian-administered Kashmir.
Captain Bhoopendra Singh has been charged with murder, conspiracy and other offences, the police statement said. He is now in military detention. The two civilian “sources”, who were with him at the time, are in police custody.
British tourists 'fled' Swiss ski resort quarantine
Fanny Bobille, Arnaud Siad and Amy Woodyatt, CNN • Updated 28th December 2020
British tourists fled the Swiss ski resort of Verbier "clandestinely" under cover of darkness rather than submit to a new quarantine imposed on UK visitors, a local official said on Monday.
Switzerland is one of dozens of countries to have banned travel from the UK over a new, potentially more transmissible coronavirus variant, linked to a recent surge in cases in England, was reported in the UK.
On December 21, the Swiss Federal Council imposed an entry ban and a retroactive 10-day quarantine period on all travelers from the UK and South Africa -- which has detected another new variant -- meaning anyone who entered Switzerland from the two countries since December 14 is required to quarantine.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)