Six In The Morning Friday 19 March 2021

 

Beijing's crackdown in Xinjiang has separated thousands of children from their parents, new report claims. CNN found two of them

Exclusive by Rebecca Wright, David Culver and Ben Westcott, CNN

Updated 0201 GMT (1001 HKT) March 19, 2021

It was supposed to be a routine trip home to Xinjiang for Mamutjan Abdurehim's wife and two children.

That was five years ago. He says he hasn't seen them since.

Mamutjan's wife Muherrem took their daughter and son from Malaysia back to the region in western China to get a new passport in December 2015. They remain trapped there, he said, caught up in the sweeping government crackdown against Muslim minorities that has reportedly seen up to 2 million people arbitrarily detained in vast camps across Xinjiang.

Three Scandinavian countries reserve judgment one day after EMA says shot is safe and effective

Jon Henley Europe correspondent

 @jonhenley

Fri 19 Mar 2021 15.35 GMT

France has said only people aged 55 and over should receive the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, and three Scandinavian countries have reserved judgment until next week, a day after Europe’s health regulator declared the shot safe and effective for all age groups.

As politicians launched an urgent effort to convince citizens of the vaccine’s safety, the French health regulator said the shot’s use should resume “without delay”. France was among more than a dozen EU states to suspend the shot this week.

But Dominique Le Guludec, the head of the regulator, said it should be provisionally reserved for people aged 55 and over until further information was available, on the basis of rare but serious cases of a brain blood clot disorder known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST).

Myanmar’s fleeing police officers put India in a tight spot

The arrival in India of Myanmar nationals, who say they are police officers fleeing junta orders to shoot at unarmed demonstrators protesting against the February coup, has put India in a sensitive position. The popular mood in India’s border Mizoram state to help ethnic kin across the border must be balanced with regional geostrategic interests.  

When Myanmar’s military seized power in a February 1 coup, authorities and residents in the northeast Indian state of Mizoram immediately knew their state – which shares a 404-kilometre border with Myanmar – would catch a cold from the junta’s latest sneeze.

The Mizos of Mizoram have ethnic and cultural ties with the Chins across the border in Myanmar’s western Chin state. Both Mizos and Chins belong to the Zo ethnic group, which was divided by colonial borders that were accepted by postcolonial administrations in India, Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Olympic organizers to meet Saturday to decide on overseas spectators

The organizers of this summer's Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will hold an online meeting on Saturday and most likely agree that overseas spectators will not be allowed to attend the games amid the coronavirus pandemic, officials familiar with the schedule said.

The meeting will be attended by the heads of the International Olympic Committee and four other bodies responsible for the planning of the coronavirus-postponed games.

The Japanese government has already decided that welcoming spectators from abroad is not possible, given public concern over the spread of the virus and the emergence of more contagious variants in many countries, officials with knowledge of the planning said earlier.

TRACKING THE INVISIBLE KILLER

Trump EPA Invited Companies to Revise Pollution Records of a Potent Carcinogen

Sharon Lerner

MILLIE CORDER DIDN’T know why there was so much cancer in her family. Her daughter, Cheryl, was only 27 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and 34 when the disease killed her in 2002. By that time, Millie’s husband, Chuck, had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. He recovered, only to develop skin cancer in 2005. The next year, Millie herself was diagnosed with colon cancer and, two years after that, with breast cancer. Those years were a blur as she shuttled back and forth between her office, her home, and doctors’ appointments. While she was recovering, Chuck died of his cancer. Two years later, her stepson, Brian, was diagnosed with and died from lung cancer.

Millie Corder still can’t say for sure why her family was devastated by cancer. But since burying her daughter, stepson, and husband, she’s learned that the neighborhood where they lived and worked in Lake County, Illinois, has been inundated with dangerous amounts of a colorless, carcinogenic gas called ethylene oxide. Others in Gurnee, as well as nearby Waukegan, have been experiencing similar realizations over the past two years, since they began gathering in the basement of a local church to see what they could do to stop the pollution.

In historic first, Roma included as ethnicity on UK census

Campaigners welcome move as opportunity to stand up and be counted, but some are fearful of discrimination and hesitant to participate.

Marius Daniel Banceanu has a grand vision for greater recognition for his people, the Roma, but this month his gaze is fixed on a single, small box.

For the first time, in the 2021 census of the United Kingdom – an event that takes place every 10 years, Roma is included in the list of ethnic minorities.

Banceanu, a tireless campaigner and project advocate for the Roma Support Group, welcomes the update as an opportunity for the estimated 200,000-strong population, to “stand up and be counted” by ticking the box, which comes under the white ethnicity category.