Six In The Morning Tuesday 22 December 2020

 

Covid: US Congress passes long-awaited deal for coronavirus aid

The US Congress has passed a long-awaited $900bn (£660bn) package of coronavirus pandemic aid after months of political wrangling.

Senators approved the bill late on Monday, hours after it was passed by the House of Representatives.

The aid includes direct payments for many Americans and support for businesses and unemployment programmes.

Karima Baloch, Pakistani human rights activist, found dead in Canada

Husband says foul play cannot be ruled out after body of 37-year-old dissident discovered in Toronto

Shah Meer Baloch in Islamabad and Hannah Ellis-Petersen

Tue 22 Dec 2020 14.13 GMT

A dissident Pakistani human rights activist living in exile in Canada has been found dead in Toronto after going missing.

Karima Baloch, 37, was granted asylum in Canada in 2016 after her work as a human rights activist in the troubled Pakistan state of Balochistan had led to her being followed and threatened by the authorities.

The first chair of the Baloch Students Organization (BSO-Azad), a political student organisation, she had been advocating for the rights of those in a region home to a long-running insurgency movement, and raising the ongoing issue of enforced disappearances.

Boris Johnson's horrible year

For the UK, 2020 has been a year to forget. Through it all, the prime minister's cavalier approach to COVID-19 and Brexit has beggared belief, says DW's Rob Mudge.

What a year it's been for Boris Johnson. Last Christmas he was still basking in the afterglow of a comprehensive general election victory that delivered a resounding majority for his Conservatives, made all the sweeter by the inroads the Tories made into Labour's heartlands in northern England, tearing into the so-called red wall.

What a difference 12 months can make. For someone who prides himself on his background and knowledge of the classics, he, more than anyone, should know that arrogance and hubris is frowned upon by the deities.

21 journalists victims of 'reprisal' killings in 2020: watchdog

At least 21 journalists have been victims of reprisal killings so far this year, more than double the number from last year, the Committee to Protect Journalists said in a report Tuesday.

A total of 30 journalists were killed in the line of duty in 2020, according to a tally by the watchdog group.

The CPJ is still investigating the deaths of at least 15 other journalists this year to determine whether journalism was the motive.

Russia announces travel bans against EU officials in response to Navalny sanctions

By Mary Ilyushina and Rob Picheta, CNN

Updated 1456 GMT (2256 HKT) December 22, 2020

Russia has announced it is hitting several European Union representatives with tit-for-tat sanctions in response to those imposed by the bloc over the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny.

The country's foreign ministry said on Tuesday that the officials will be denied entry to Russia.

It did not name which representatives would be barred, but said it had relayed its decision to the ambassadors of Germany, France and Sweden after summoning them earlier on Tuesday.

How Turkey became a hub for Arab Spring exiles

Turkey is home to four million refugees – mostly Syrians – along with Arab activists, journalists and political figures.

As a charismatic revolutionary from a scrappy Cairo neighbourhood, Ahmed Hassan was one of the stars of Jehane Noujaim’s 2013 documentary The Square, which followed a group of Egyptian activists as they toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and then fought to keep their faltering revolution alive.

The film won three Emmy Awards and was nominated for the Oscars. But Hassan’s life got harder after it was released.

His work as a cinematographer and filmmaker dried up as production companies stopped hiring him, perhaps because he was blacklisted.