Six In The Morning Monday 7 December 2020

 

Ethiopia’s Abiy denies ‘insurgency’ emerging in Tigray

PM Abiy Ahmed says Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) is a ‘criminal clique’ that has been ‘thoroughly defeated’.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has denied a rebellious northern force his troops have been battling for over a month would have the capacity to mount an armed offensive from the mountains of Tigray.

Federal troops have captured the regional capital Mekelle from the former local ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), and declared an end to their offensive.

But TPLF leaders say they are fighting back on various fronts around Mekelle. Ethiopian experts fear a drawn-out armed campaign with a destabilising effect around east Africa.

Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestlé named top plastic polluters for third year in a row

Companies accused of “zero progress” on reducing plastic waste, with Coca-Cola ranked No 1 for most littered products

Karen McVeigh

@karenmcveigh1

Mon 7 Dec 2020 09.12 GMT

Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Nestlé have been accused of “zero progress” on reducing plastic waste, after being named the world’s top plastic polluters for the third year in a row.

Coca-Cola was ranked the world’s No 1 plastic polluter by Break Free From Plastic in its annual audit, after its beverage bottles were the most frequently found discarded on beaches, rivers, parks and other litter sites in 51 of 55 nations surveyed. Last year it was the most frequently littered bottle in 37 countries, out of 51 surveyed.

It was found to be worse than PepsiCo and Nestlé combined: Coca-Cola branding was found on 13,834 pieces of plastic, with PepsiCo branding on 5,155 and Nestlé branding on 8,633.

Venezuela: Maduro wins total control of legislature after vote

The opposition boycotted the election and said the vote represents a "fraud." The poll, which was slammed by international observers, was marked by a low voter turnout of just 31%.

President Nicolas Maduro won total control over the country's legislature, the National Assembly (AN), and fully consolidated his regime's grip on power in the country following Sunday's parliamentary election. 

Maduro's party claimed almost 68% of the vote, in an election which was mostly boycotted by the opposition. The National Assembly was the last institution in the country not yet headed by Maduro. The opposition, parts of which participated in the election despite the opposition's call for a boycott, received 18% of the vote. 

‘A lack of public trust’: France mulls reform of country’s police watchdog

Outrage over high-profile cases of police brutality has revived talk of a culture of impunity in French law enforcement and heightened scrutiny of the country’s police watchdog, the IGPN, which critics say is hamstrung by a lack of independence.

In June of this year, at the height of protests against violence and racism in the police, France’s outgoing human rights ombudsman raised the alarm over a "crisis of public confidence in the security forces" in a wide-ranging report that made for grim reading.

In a parting shot after five years in the job, Jacques Toubon urged a reversal of what he described as a “warring mentality” that has driven a wedge between the police and the public. He denounced a culture of impunity in the force, lamenting the lack of accountability in French law enforcement.

Never get in bed with the yakuza

There are so many ways they can and will ruin you

By GRANT NEWSHAMDECEMBER 7, 2020

Financial power equals political power, as yakuza financial clout subverts the political world. Yakuza are – and have been for decades – an important source of funding and votes for politicians of all parties, except perhaps the Communists.

Decisions by politicians and bureaucrats are sometimes made to benefit yakuza rather than the citizenry or the nation at large.

For example, a yakuza-owned waste disposal plant for many years poisoned the air at the American airbase at Atsugi outside of Tokyo, as the Japanese government refused to address the problem.

Last month was the hottest November ever as Europe had its warmest fall on record

By Emma Reynolds, CNN

Updated 1453 GMT (2253 HKT) December 7, 2020

The world just experienced its hottest November on record while Europe had its warmest fall, according to an alarming report from the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.

Temperatures were most elevated in a large region across northern Europe, Siberia and the Arctic Ocean, where sea ice was at the second lowest level ever seen in November.

The United States, South America, southern Africa, the Tibetan Plateau, eastern Antarctica and most of Australia also saw temperatures well above average.