Wednesday, March 31, 2021
Will Egypt attack Ethiopia?
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has threatened Ethiopia as it insists on filling a controversial Nile dam.
Mom of D.C. Officer Responds to Trump's Rioter Claim
‘What goes through my mind is really outrage’ — This mom of a D.C. police officer responds to Trump’s claim that the insurgents on Jan 6 posed ‘zero threat’ (warning: distressing themes).
What a Japanese Olympics and Paralympics Host Town is Like
Can vaccine passports kickstart the economy? | The Economist
Vaccine passports are likely to become a feature of everyday life as lockdowns are lifted across the world. But as “green passes” kick-start economies, what are the potential drawbacks?
Indians ignore social distancing pleas at Holi Festival celebrations | DW News
Millions of Indians are celebrating the festival of colors despite a sharp spike in COVID-19 cases and lockdown in several states to slow down the coronavirus resurgence.
Six In The Morning Wednesday 31 March 2021
UK report denies systemic racism, prompting angry backlash
Findings of government-ordered review into racism condemned by equality campaigners as an ‘utter whitewash’.
31 Mar 2021
A government-commissioned review into racism has concluded the United Kingdom is not an institutionally racist country, prompting a backlash from critics who described the findings as an “utter whitewash”.
In an anticipated report published on Wednesday, the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities said the UK was not yet a “post-racial country” but should be regarded as a “model for other white-majority countries”, citing achievements towards equality in the sectors of education and economy.
While the report acknowledged “overt and outright” racism persisted and said some communities were “haunted” by historic discrimination, it downplayed the importance of systemic racism in explaining inequalities in areas such as health and crime.
‘People were going crazy’: Myanmar detainees recount military’s cruelty
Guardian reporter in Myanmar
Freed protesters and a journalist detained by the junta describe beatings and squalid conditions
Released from detention in Myanmar, protesters and journalists have described beatings, squalid conditions and cruelty under the military dictatorship that is opposed by most of the population.
Hnin, 23, was arrested along with 400 other young people in a haze of stun grenades and teargas in the commercial capital Yangon on 3 March for protesting against the military coup.
“When I opened my eyes, the police were holding guns in front of us,” she said. “We thought it was a dream, but it was a reality we couldn’t avoid.”
Amid AstraZeneca setback, Germany banks on homegrown vaccine
A German company is gearing up for mass production of its groundbreaking COVID-19 vaccine
As Germany ponders how to accelerate its sluggish coronavirus vaccination campaign after yet another hitch involving the AstraZeneca shot, a production facility in the historic pharmaceutical center of Marburg may hold part of the answer to reliable supply in the months and years ahead.
BioNTech the German company that developed the first widely used vaccine together with U.S. partner Pfizer is busily starting up a production facility that it says can produce up to a billion doses this year alone. That estimate was raised from the original hopes for 700 million.
The company, which had never brought a pharmaceutical product to market before, wowed the world last year when it got authorization to sell a completely new type of vaccine in Britain, the United States and Europe — three highly regulated markets for medical products.
Global rainforest destruction saw a surge in 2020, study finds
An area of untouched rainforest the size of the Netherlands was chopped down or burned last year. The latest data paints a grim picture for what was meant to be a "landmark" year in the fight against deforestation.
A new study published Wednesday found that the destruction of primary forest increased by 12% in 2020, impacting ecosystems that store vast amounts of carbon and shelter abundant biodiversity.
Brazil saw the worst losses, three times higher than the next highest country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the report from Global Forest Watch (GFW) citing satellite data.
The driving factor of deforestation has been a combination of a demand for commodities, increased agriculture, and climate change.
The World Economic Forum says it will take an extra 36 years to close the gender gap
By Julia Horowitz, CNN Business
A new report from the World Economic Forum estimates that attaining global gender parity will take nearly 136 years, up from its previous estimate of almost 100 years.
WEF measures parity in four ways: economic participation and opportunity, education, health and political empowerment. Data examined by the organization showed that the gap in political empowerment has widened significantly since its 2020 report, while economic participation has improved only slightly.
"We hope that this report will serve as a call to action to leaders to embed gender parity as a central goal of our policies and practices to manage the post-pandemic recovery, to the benefit of our economies and our societies," WEF managing director Saadia Zahidi wrote in the report.
BBC China correspondent John Sudworth moves to Taiwan after threats
The BBC's Beijing correspondent John Sudworth has left China and moved to Taiwan following pressure and threats from the Chinese authorities.
Sudworth, who has won awards for his reporting on the treatment of the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang region, left Beijing with his family.
The BBC says it is proud of his reporting and he remains its China correspondent.
China has denounced the BBC's coverage of Xinjiang.
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
Tokyo's extremely crowded Ikebukuro, Japan Walk - Tokyo
Ikebukuro is where the KitKat shop is located. They sell only made in Japan KitKat's: Sake, Green Tea, Bourbon and ones with whole wheat wafers.
What is behind China and Iran's 'strategic' deal?
The two countries have signed a long-term agreement worth billions of dollars.
It has been in the works since 2016, and is now being dubbed as a “comprehensive strategic partnership”.
A deal signed between China and Iran is expected to boost their longstanding economic and political alliance.
How Racist Am I?
COVID-19: Do children and vulnerable families need better protection?
In Germany, there are clear regulations as to who gets vaccinated first — and vulnerable people are at the top of the queue. But while many over 80-year-olds in Germany have already been given the jab, other groups are left hanging.
Six In The Morning Tuesday 30 March 2021
Vengeance is served with a jackhammer or death metal: South Koreans strike back at noisy neighbors
Before the rubber mallet, ear-splitting music, songs with obscene lyrics or the bass speaker affixed to his ceiling, Victor Park tried a gentle, neighborly request with a smile.
The family upstairs from his 11th-floor apartment had young children who stomped above him well into the night. He asked if they could keep it down. But his repeated phone calls and pleas to apartment management went nowhere. He suffered heart palpitations and a perpetual sense of panic from the relentless pounding invading his home.
So he took matters into his own hands — an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, unbearable noise for unbearable noise. He thumped his ceiling with a rubber mallet, and the war between floors began.
Climate crisis 'likely cause' of early cherry blossom in Japan
Peak bloom reached on 26 March in Kyoto and experts say impact of global warming is to blame
Associated Press
Japan’s famous cherry blossoms have reached their flowery peak in many places earlier this year than at any time since formal records began nearly 70 years ago, with experts saying the climate crisis is the likely cause.
Referred to in Japan as sakura, the blossoms used to reach their peak in April, coinciding with the start of the new school and business year. Yet the blooms have been creeping earlier, and now most years the flowers are largely gone before the first day of school.
This year, peak bloom was reached on 26 March in the ancient capital of Kyoto, the earliest since the Japan Meteorological Agency started collecting the data in 1953 and 10 days ahead of the 30-year average. Similar records were set this year in more than a dozen cities across Japan.
Vaccine DiplomacyThe Surprising Success of Sputnik V
For Russian President Vladimir Putin, the development of the Sputnik V vaccine is a welcome boost to his country's image. And it has been received with open arms in Latin America. In Europe, though, people remain skeptical. Rightly so?
Last week, Vladimir Putin finally got vaccinated against COVID-19. For almost half a year, the Russian president has been tirelessly praising the vaccine developed in Russia. Sputnik V, he has said, is the "best vaccine in the world." Nevertheless, he was disinclined to take it himself, and even withdrew from the public eye for a time. Now, though, it appears that he has changed his mind.
But there's a catch. No information was provided about which vaccine he chose to use. Nor were any images or video footage provided. Why not? "As to being vaccinated on camera, well he has never been a fan of that," Putin's spokesman said. "He doesn't like that."
Women lead cultural reckoning as claims of sexual abuse, sexism besiege Australian government
Cascading scandals of alleged rape, sexual misconduct and discrimination inside Australia’s parliament have destabilised the conservative government as accused ministers are sidelined and assault victims, women’s groups and female politicians demand a shakeup of what they describe as an endemic culture of ‘toxic’ masculinity within politics.
Repeated reports of sexual misconduct, abuse and harassment of women by Australia’s political elite have triggered the biggest mass women’s rallies the country has seen. Using the #March4justice hashtag, hundreds of thousands of women gathered all over the country in a second-wave #Metoo moment that galvanised women – from the very young to the elderly – and from all political stripes.
At the march on the capital, the wives of former prime ministers Malcolm Turnbull and Kevin Rudd stood hand in hand in a show of solidarity with Australian women, despite their allegiances to opposing political parties.
Suez crisis creates winners and losers in the global supply chain
The Greek shipowning community, which controls more than a fifth of the world’s ocean-going merchant fleet and more than half of the EU fleet, is poised for a potential bonanza in rates.
30 Mar 2021
For someone who was losing $30,000 a day, Greek shipowner Yiorgos Gourdomihalis sounds very sanguine.
Hours before the Suez Canal shut down last week when one of the world’s largest container ships became wedged in the globally crucial waterway, the CEO of Phoenix Shipping and Trading had clinched a lucrative deal. The so-called time charter – an agreement between a shipowner and a charterer who wants to use a cargo ship for a specified period – would have made his company nearly half a million dollars.
Thailand pushes back thousands fleeing Myanmar as death toll surpasses 500
Updated 0913 GMT (1713 HKT) March 30, 2021
Thailand has reportedly pushed back more than 2,000 people attempting to flee neighboring Myanmar following a series of air strikes carried out by the ruling junta in the southeast of the country.
Activist group the Karen Information Center said 2,009 people are now internally displaced and hiding in the jungle, having been forced back into Myanmar shortly after crossing the border with Thailand.
Thousands of people fled their homes in Myanmar's southeastern Karen state Sunday, after Myanmar's military jets carried out a bombing raid on villages controlled by an ethnic armed group. The Karen National Union (KNU), which holds large swathes of territory in the borderlands with Thailand, had overrun an army post near the border, killing 10 people, Reuters reported.
Monday, March 29, 2021
Shelter: Iran’s race to build a life-saving COVID ward
As one of Tehran’s oldest hospitals reaches capacity during the pandemic, the urgent construction of a new ward begins.
Fox News Reporter Claims Biden Cold Shoulders the Network
This Fox News reporter said the Biden admin is giving his network the cold shoulder — to Jen Psaki, after she called on him during a White House press briefing..
Boris Johnson urges “extreme caution” as England lockdown eased
The British Prime minister has urged extreme caution as England's lockdown begins to be lifted.
Boris Johnson said he hoped this would be the last lockdown but the public must continue to obey the rules and the vaccines need to remain effective.
Children and COVID-19: Should we be worried? | COVID-19 Special
Why are schoolchildren being kidnapped in Nigeria? | Start Here
Why are officials in Nigeria unable to protect schoolchildren from mass kidnappings?
Kidnappers in Nigeria are increasingly targeting schools and abducting hundreds of students for ransom.
Six In The Morning Monday 29 March 2021
Live Reporting
Derek Chauvin trial begins as George Floyd's brother calls killing 'modern-day lynching
- Trial live-streamed with courtroom access restricted
- ‘The world is waiting’: Chauvin set to go on trial
- How George Floyd Square became a symbol of resistance – and healing
- Sign up to receive First Thing – our daily briefing by email
Members of the public, lawyers, activists and members of George Floyd’s family gathered early this morning outside the heavily-barricaded court house.
Our correspondent Amudalat Ajasa was there and took some video as the central group kneeled.
Civil rights activist Rev Al Sharpton notes at the two minute-mark of them taking a knee that they are only a short way into the time that Chauvin crushed Floyd.
Merkel threatens to centralise Covid response as some states refuse to act
Chancellor complains her government does not yet have power to impose national lockdown
Philip Oltermann in Berlin
Angela Merkel has threatened to centralise Germany’s pandemic response as several of the country’s federal states refuse to implement an emergency brake mechanism on easing restrictions in spite of rapidly rising infection rates.
Interviewed on German television on Sunday night, the German chancellor complained that the political instruments to break a third wave of the virus, for example by imposing a strict nationwide lockdown, were currently not at her government’s disposal, speaking of a “turning point” in the management of the Covid-19 crisis.
Merkel fell short of spelling out how such a politically sensitive power grab could look, merely hinting at a tweaking of Germany’s pandemic law.
Coronavirus ‘very likely’ to have passed to humans from bats via unknown animal, WHO report says
World Health Organisation scientists also conclude it is ‘extremely unlikely’ the virus was leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan
Science Correspondent
Coronavirus is “very likely” to have first passed from bats to humans via another animal, according to a World Health Organisation report on the origins of Covid-19.
A draft version of the study, which was obtained by the Associated Press, also concludes that it is “extremely unlikely” the virus was leaked from a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where Covid-19 first emerged in late 2019.
It had been claimed that scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) were experimenting with a virus genetically similar to Sars-CoV-2 before it was leaked into the community.
Islamic State group claims control of northern Mozambique town of Palma
The Islamic State group said Monday it had seized the coastal town of Palma in northern Mozambique, after days of fighting.
“The caliphate’s soldiers seize the strategic town of Palma” following a three-day attack against military and government targets that killed dozens, the group said in a statement on its Telegram channels.
The jihadist group’s claim came after thousands of survivors of coordinated jihadist attacks in the town fled on boats to the provincial capital, Pemba, according to sources in the city.
International aid agency sources said between 6,000 and 10,000 people are waiting to be evacuated to safety following the raid on Palma that began last Wednesday.
‘Lockdown on thoughts’: Kashmiris slam India’s free speech curbs
Recent order asking government employees to share social media details latest in a series of measures aimed at curbing free speech.
Sadia Munawar is a 29-year-old government employee in Indian-administered Kashmir. She is also an amateur poet.
Sitting at her home in a picturesque town in central Kashmir, Munawar (not her real name) says she has closely witnessed the recent years of unrests, lockdowns and fear among the people in the disputed region.
“Had we feared the darkness like this, dead we would have been, nameless, long ago,” she recently wrote.
Iran’s next hardline president coming into view
Three hardline yet distinct candidates have emerged as frontrunners as moderates are expected to lose Iran's June 18 presidential poll
The countdown is on for Iran’s June 18 presidential election and early projections suggest a hardliner close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will likely emerge on top.
At least two Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRCG) commanders have thrown their hats into the ring, both of whom would represent a hard turn from the “prudence and moderation” espoused by outgoing President Hassan Rouhani.
Rouhani’s approval rating now stands at a trifling 25% according to a Stasis agency poll, a huge dip from the 67% he enjoyed in February 2016 shortly after the implementation of the soon thereafter annulled Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal.
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