Friday, April 30, 2021
Lebanon in crisis | DW Documentary
The political and economic crisis in Lebanon started long before the devastating explosion on August 4, 2020. But since then, the country has been in freefall. Young people in particular are asking whether they have a future there at all.
Facial Recognition Technology Sent Innocent Man to Jail
A false match by racial recognition technology sent this man to jail for a crime he didn’t commit.
Hundreds of British troops deployed to counter Islamist extremism in Mali - BBC News
300 British troops have been deployed to Mali in west Africa. They have joined the United Nations peacekeeping mission to the country.
India's COVID crisis: How did it happen and what to expect
DW News presents a special edition on India's unfolding coronavirus crisis. More than a million and a half cases in just a week, and thousands of deaths, every day. India is overwhelmed. Crematoriums are working overtime, hospitals can't take in more patients and medical supplies are running low.
Six In The Morning Friday 30 April 2021
Why are states paying a different price for Covid vaccines, SC asks Centre
A bench headed by Justice D Y Chandrachud also asked how the Centre and states are going to ensure vaccine registration of illiterate people. "What happens to the marginalised and SC/ST population? Should they be left to the mercy of private hospitals?" it asked.
The Supreme Court Friday asked the Centre to consider the National Immunisation Programme for inoculating all citizens against the novel coronavirus free of cost, as the poor may not be able to pay for the vaccine.
A bench headed by Justice D Y Chandrachud asked how the Centre and states are going to ensure vaccine registration of illiterate people. “What happens to the marginalised and SC/ST population? Should they be left to the mercy of private hospitals?” it asked.
The court also asked the Centre why there were different prices for vaccines proposed by manufacturers — Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech — for the Centre and states. While the Centre is required to spend Rs 150 per dose of vaccine, the states will have to spend Rs 300 and Rs 400 for SII’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, respectively.
Antarctic ‘doomsday glacier’ may be melting faster than was thought
Study finds more relatively warm water is reaching Thwaites glacier than was previously understood
An Antarctic glacier larger than the UK is at risk of breaking up after scientists discovered more warm water flowing underneath it than previously thought.
The fate of Thwaites – nicknamed the doomsday glacier – and the massive west Antarctic ice sheet it supports are the biggest unknown factors in future global sea level rise.
Over the past few years, teams of scientists have been crisscrossing the remote and inaccessible region on Antarctica’s western edge to try to understand how fast the ice is melting and what the consequences for the rest of the world might be.
Oktoberfest in the desert? Dubai eyes German festival
With the pandemic putting plans for this year's Oktoberfest in Munich in peril, an idea leaked for a huge alternative festival in Dubai. The event boasts the world's largest bar and a party that will run through March.
Festivalgoers looking to get their fix of pretzels, beer, dirndls and lederhosen may be turning at the United Arab Emirates instead of Germany this year.
A version of Oktoberfest is being planned for Dubai this fall, German media reported on Thursday.
The as-yet-to-be-confirmed event vows months of festivities that will take place at the same time the metropolis is set to host the World Expo, which was postponed by the coronavirus pandemic.
Brazil passes 400,000 Covid-19 deaths as vaccine rollout stalls
Brazil on Thursday became the second country to pass 400,000 COVID-19 deaths after the United States, and experts warned the daily toll could remain high for several months due to slow vaccinations and loosening social restrictions.
Brazil on Thursday registered 3,001 new COVID-19 deaths, taking its total since the pandemic began to 401,186 fatalities, the Health Ministry said.
A brutal surge of coronavirus infections this year has pushed hospitals around the country to the brink of their capacities and led to 100,000 deaths in just over a month.
Al Qaeda promises 'war on all fronts' against America as Biden pulls out of Afghanistan
Updated 1444 GMT (2244 HKT) April 30, 2021
This weekend marks the 10th anniversary since Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, was killed by US special-operations forces, Seal Team 6, inside his high-walled compound in the Pakistani military college city of Abbottabad.
His name and that of his terrorist network, al Qaeda, came to define an era of US reaction and retribution dwarfing any previous counter-terrorism policy.
America's "war on terror" is about to enter a new phase as President Joe Biden prepares to withdraw all US forces from Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of 9/11, but now al Qaeda claims its war with America is far from over.
Israel crush: Netanyahu vows to investigate 'terrible disaster'
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to investigate a crush at a crowded religious festival that left at least 45 people dead.
Visiting the scene near Mount Meron, he said it was one of the worst disasters the country had known and an inquiry would ensure it did not happen again.
Some 150 people were also injured at the all-night Lag B'Omer festival.
It seems a crush began when some people leaving the Orthodox Jewish event slipped in an overcrowded passageway.
Thursday, April 29, 2021
The Bay of Piglets
We investigate a farcical attempt by mercenaries to capture and overthrow Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela.
How rich countries are making the pandemic last longer
A program called Covax wants to distribute Covid-19 vaccines fairly. Is it working?
2 Americans accused in Ghosn escape to go on trial June 14
Michael and Peter Taylor who supposedly helped former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn skip bail in Japan and return to Lebanon are to go on "trail" in June. The reason I put trial in quotes is that, as certain as you know the sky is blue the Taylors will be convicted of helping Ghosn escape. As jury trials are rare in Japan a panel of judges will decide their guilt or innocence . Just sound repetitive there is a 100% they will be found guilty. In Japan suspects can be questioned without their lawyers present. That allows the prosecutors fabricate the narrative needed for conviction and there's nothing the defendants or their lawyers can do about it.
Michael Taylor and his son Peter are accused of hiding Ghosn in a music box so he could flee to Lebanon in late 2019. The Taylors have been denied bail at the Tokyo Detention Center and not available for comment.
Ghosn, arrested in 2018, was awaiting trial on financial misconduct allegations, including underreporting his compensation and breach of trust in diverting Nissan Motor Co. money for personal gain, when he fled. He says he is innocent.
Peter Taylor is accused of meeting with Ghosn and helping carry out the escape. The Taylors were paid at least $1.3 million, authorities say.
The Taylors argued in the U.S. courts they did not commit a crime because jumping bail is technically not a crime in Japan.
Radical new gene therapy restores sight to patients with rare eye condition
Scientists have been using a new form of gene therapy to treat a rare inherited eye condition which eventually causes severe tunnel vision.
Coronavirus in India: Why did the pandemic spiral out of control?
India is in the throes of the ultimate Covid catastrophe: recording more infections per day —350,000 at the least— than any other country since the pandemic began. With hospitals at breaking point, forced to turn patients away, and oxygen running out, the death rate climbs relentlessly.
Six In The Morning Thursday 29 April 2021
India's Covid-19 crisis is a problem for the world
Updated 1503 GMT (2303 HKT) April 29, 2021
There is a split scenario unfolding as the world battles the pandemic.
In countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, jubilant, newly-vaccinated people hug their loved ones after a long period of separation. In India, distraught families count their dead.
Sick people are being turned away from hospitals that have run out of beds and oxygen, as the number of new cases rises to record levels each day, creating a national crisis with global repercussions.
Alexei Navalny looks gaunt as he appears in court after hunger strike
Kremlin critic makes first public appearance since announcing he was gradually ending hunger strike
Andrew Roth in Moscow
Alexei Navalny has made his first public appearance since holding a 24-day hunger strike, appearing gaunt but spirited during a courtroom appeal against a defamation conviction that he has called politically motivated.
A photograph released by the court showed Navalny, appearing by video link, with a shaved head and wearing a prison jacket. “I am a creepy skeleton,” said Navalny, who appeared in the courtroom on a video feed. “I weighed this much in 7th grade.”
Navalny, who was fined 850,000 roubles (£8,200) in February for defaming a second world war veteran who backed a “reset” of Putin’s presidential terms, has said the case against him was concocted to further damage his reputation among Russians.
Modi hails ‘festival of democracy’ as India elections go ahead despite record Covid cases and deaths
Voting comes on the same day as India set another global record for infections
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi hailed “the festival of democracy” as people in the state of West Bengal voted in the final phase of elections despite surging coronavirus cases and deaths.
India set another global record for infections with 379,257 new cases and 3,645 new deaths being recorded in the 24 hours ending Thursday morning. Overall, there have now been more than 18 million cases. The total number of deaths in India now stands at 204,832.
Experts believe even these huge figures are an undercount, but it’s unclear by how much. India has set a daily global record for seven of the past eight days, with a seven-day moving average of nearly 350,000 infections.
EU accuses Russia, China of COVID vaccine disinformation
A new EU report found that Beijing and Moscow are seeking to undermine trust in Western coronavirus vaccines — and intensely promoting their own.
China and Russia are engaging in campaigns to erode trust in the European Union's coronavirus strategy as well as gin up skepticism of Western-developed coronavirus vaccines, the EU's foreign service said in a report published Wednesday.
The report also raised concerns that the countries are using these efforts to particularly exert influence on the Western Balkans.
Japan's unused 14 mil doses of COVID-19 vaccines point to logistical hurdles
By Rocky Swift
Japan has only used about a fifth of the COVID-19 vaccine doses it has imported so far, government data shows, underscoring logistical hurdles such as a shortage of medical staff, as it grapples with a sluggish inoculation campaign.
Japan has secured the largest amount of COVID-19 vaccines in Asia, as it gears up for the Olympics in the summer. But it has inoculated only 1.6% of its population so far, the slowest among wealthy countries.
By the end of April, Japan will have imported enough vials of Pfizer Inc's vaccine for almost 17 million doses, according to a schedule from the Cabinet Office. But as of Wednesday just over 3.2 million shots had been given out, mostly to healthcare workers.
Sexual violence pervasive in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions
Women in conflict-hit Northwest and Southwest regions speak of a pervasive fear of sexual assault and violence perpetrated by armed separatists, military personnel and civilians.
29 Apr 2021
Every day, Gladys, a 33-year-old vendor in Buea, the capital of Cameroon’s Southwest region, heads to Muea market to sell vegetables, sweets and other food items.
“But only after the sun rises,” she said. “All day I worry it will be the day I am attacked by those boys [or] the military.”
Gladys’s fear and anxiety are shared by many women across Cameroon’s Anglophone Northwest and Southwest regions, where an armed conflict between separatist groups and government forces has been ongoing since 2016.
Wednesday, April 28, 2021
Will India’s COVID-19 crisis spell disaster for the world?
Calls for global help to contain outbreak in the world’s biggest vaccine maker.
Smartphones, computers and consoles – children and digital media | DW Documentary
Biden: Is US more or less unified now?
When Joe Biden was elected president last November, he vowed "not to divide but to unify" the nation. Nearly, 100 days into his term, Americans from across the US weigh in on whether he has made progress at bringing people together.
Tucker Carlson: Kids Wearing Masks Is ‘Child Abuse’
In one of his most absurd takes yet, Tucker Carlson said children wearing masks outside is ‘child abuse.’
India’s official death toll surges past 200,000 as the country's healthcare system collapses
Coronavirus cases are surging in India, with the South Asian country reporting a global record of 362,567 new infections on Wednesday and the death toll crossing 200,000. Indian officials said 3,293 people died in the past 24 hours, the first time the country saw over 3,000 fatalities in one day.
Six In The Morning Wednesday 28 April 2021
Serum Institute of India cuts Covishield vaccine price for States to ₹300 per dose
With a number of States expressing their inability to commence the third phase of vaccination from May 1 owing to vaccine paucity, the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) on Wednesday announced that it was reducing the price of its ‘Covishield’ vaccine to the States from ₹400 to ₹300 per dose as a “philanthropic gesture”.
“As a philanthropic gesture on behalf of SII, I hereby reduce the price to the states from ₹400 to ₹300 per dose, effective immediately; this will save thousands of crores of state funds going forward. This will enable more vaccinations and save countless lives,” said SII CEO Adar Poonawalla on Twitter.
SII had earlier given its per dose pricing of its ‘Covishield’ vaccine as ₹150 for the Central government, ₹400 for State governments and ₹600 for private hospitals while Bharat Biotech (which rolls out ‘Covaxin’) had quoted ₹150 for the Centre, ₹600 for State governments ₹1200 for private hospitals.
Hong Kong passes law that can stop people leaving
Bar association and activists decry Beijing-type immigration act with ‘exit ban’ powers
Agence France-Presse in Hong Kong
Tuesday, April 27, 2021
Chernobyl: 35 years after the nuclear disaster
The disaster at Chernobyl is still considered one of the worst nuclear accidents in history. It happened on April 26, 1986. Thirty-five years later, a group of survivors returns to the ghost city of Pripyat in northern Ukraine.
Fox News Admits Biden Isn’t Coming For Your Beef
Fox News admitted that Pres. Biden won’t be coming for your beef after spreading false information regarding Biden’s plans to address the climate crisis.
Why 99% of ocean plastic pollution is "missing"
The plastic we dump into the ocean might be hiding in plain sight.
Countries send aid to ease India's oxygen emergency - BBC News
International efforts are under way to help India as the country suffers critical oxygen shortages amid a devastating surge in Covid cases.
India's COVID death toll may be much higher than the officially recorded | DW News
During the week between April 18 and 25, India reported 2.24 million new coronavirus cases, the highest number recorded by any country in a seven-day period. It also logged 16,257 deaths, almost double the 8,588 deaths recorded the previous week, according to Health Ministry data.
Six In The Morning Tuesday 27 April 2021
As Covid sweeps India, experts say cases and deaths are going unreported
Updated 1448 GMT (2248 HKT) April 27, 2021
India, home to the world's worst ongoing coronavirus outbreak, has reported more than 17.6 million cases since the pandemic began last year.
But the real number, experts fear, could be up to 30 times higher -- meaning more than half a billion cases.
Health workers and scientists in India have long warned that Covid-19 infections and related deaths are significantly underreported for several reasons, including poor infrastructure, human error, and low testing levels.
Boris Johnson accused of ‘dismal failure’ to free Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe
Tulip Siddiq MP says PM did not even send UK officials to recent trial where Iran jailed dual national for further year
Boris Johnson has been accused of a “dismal failure” in his diplomatic efforts after Iran sentenced Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe to a further year in jail on top of the five-year sentence she has already served.
Labour’s Tulip Siddiq, the British-Iranian dual national’s MP, questioned the effort the prime minister had put into releasing Zaghari-Ratcliffe, telling the Commons: “From where I’m standing, I’ve seen no evidence on the part of the prime minister so far.
“At the heart of this tragic case is the prime minister’s dismal failure to release my constituent and to stand up for her, and his devastating blunder in 2017 when he was foreign secretary – when he exposed his complete ignorance of this tragic case and put more harm in Nazanin’s way.
Israel is committing ‘apartheid’ against Palestinians, claims Human Rights Watch
Israel denied the allegations, claiming they were ‘preposterous’
Israel is committing apartheid against Palestinians, Human Rights Watch has claimed, joining a growing number of rights groups to accuse the country of crimes against humanity.
In a landmark report, HRW said its findings were based on what it argues is Israeli policy to “maintain the domination by Jewish Israelis over Palestinians”, as well as what it said were “grave abuses” committed against Palestinians.
The New-York based group said the abuses included wide-ranging movement restrictions in areas such as Gaza, the confiscation of more than a third of the land in the occupied West Bank and harsh conditions that it said has led to the “forcible transfer” of thousands of Palestinians out of their homes.
Burkina Faso: Foreign nationals killed in ambush
Security sources say an anti-poaching patrol accompanied by Western journalists was targeted by armed attackers. At least two Spanish journalists have been killed.
Four people are missing in Burkina Faso following an armed ambush on an anti-poaching patrol Monday. Local officials also said three other people were injured in the attack. Spanish authorities confirmed that two Spanish journalists lost their lives. Following reports that an Irish national was also among the causalities, Irish Foreign Ministry said it "was aware of the reports and is liasing closely with international partners regarding the situation on the ground."
What do we know of the attack?
The suspected victims included two Spanish citizens and an Irish national, along with a member of the Burkinabe armed forces. The three Europeans were reportedly working for a nongovernmental organization dedicated to protecting the environment.
Progressive climate policy can reduce extreme poverty: study
Ambitious climate policies could reduce extreme poverty in developing countries if governments opted for robust taxes on emitters that were then fairly distributed to help the poor, new research showed Tuesday.
Authors of the study said the results showed that policymakers were facing a false choice between climate change mitigation and poverty reduction.
Since fossil fuels and agricultural chemicals such as fertilisers are so heavily subsidised, any attempt to remove taxpayer support to these unsustainable practices frequently prompts fears of higher prices for consumers.
Kyrgyzstan: Family of ‘bride kidnapping’ victim seek justice
Aizada Kanatbekova’s stalker murdered her after she rejected his advances in a case that has prompted calls for reform.
27 Apr 20
Aizada Kanatbekova’s cold, lifeless body lay in a red Honda Civic parked in a field about 25 minutes drive from central Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan’s capital.
Next to her, the corpse of 37-year-old Zamirbek Tenizbayev.
On April 7, a witness informed the police about the tragic discovery. The car had been parked there for two days.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)