Six In The Morning Monday 19 April 2021

 

Alexei Navalny moved to hospital as fears grow for life of Putin critic

Doctors say opposition leader, who is on hunger strike, is in danger of a heart attack or kidney failure

Andrew Roth in Moscow

Mon 19 Apr 2021 11.44 BST

Alexei Navalny has been transferred to a prison hospital as concerns have grown among supporters that the Russian opposition leader is dangerously ill and could die “at any minute”.

Navalny’s transfer came after his doctors warned at the weekend showing that the Kremlin critic, who has been on hunger strike for nearly three weeks, was in danger of a heart attack or kidney failure.

In a statement on Monday, Russia’s prisons service said a doctors’ committee had decided to transfer Navalny to an infirmary in another prison in the Vladimir region that “specialises in dynamic monitoring of similar patients”.

Environment protest being criminalised around world, say experts

More than 400 climate scientists sign letter that says activists are being targeted at pivotal time in fight against global heating

Matthew Taylor

Mon 19 Apr 2021 15.00 BST

Peaceful environmental protesters are being threatened, silenced and criminalised in countries around the world including the UK and the US, according to some of the world’s leading climate scientists and academics.

More than 400 leading experts – including 14 authors from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – say that non-violent civil disobedience from groups like the school strikers, Extinction Rebellion and the Sunrise Movement have transformed the debate around the climate crisis in recent years.

But in an open letter published on Monday they warn governments around the world are criminalising them at a pivotal time in the fight to tackle the escalating climate emergency.

Annalena Baerbock: The Green Party's candidate to succeed chancellor Angela Merkel

Annalena Baerbock is said to be tough, talented and very ambitious. Now, Germany's Green Party has named her as its candidate for chancellor. Is she cut out for the job?

Annalena Baerbock has been named the Green party's first-ever chancellor candidate, emphasizing at a press conference on Monday the unanimity with which she and co-leader Robert Habeck had made the decision, and the clarity of their purpose, first formulated at a party conference three years ago: To become a new big tent party for Germany.

"Of course we didn't know then that we'd be standing here today," she said. "But what we knew was that we wanted to open our party up, that we wanted to make policies for a broad society: Inviting, and with clear objectives. And so today begins a new chapter for our party."

France ‘bears significant responsibility’ for Rwandan genocide, US report says

France "bears significant responsibility" for enabling the genocide in Rwanda and still refuses to acknowledge its true role in the 1994 horror, said a report commissioned by Kigali that was released Monday.

The damning report, commissioned in 2017 and running to nearly 600 pages, labels France a "collaborator" of the extremist Hutu regime that orchestrated the pogrom of some 800,000 people, and outright rejects the position that Paris was blind to their genocidal agenda.

The years-long investigation by US law firm Levy Firestone Muse said France knew a genocide was coming but remained "unwavering in its support" of its Rwandan allies, even when the planned extermination of the Tutsi minority was clear.

Amid violence, Ethiopia declares state of emergency in Amhara

The defence ministry says deadly armed violence witnessed in parts of the Oromia special zones.

Ethiopia has declared a state of emergency in the southern part of Amhara regional state amid violence in various towns.

In a statement on Sunday, the Ministry of Defense said the last three days saw deadly armed violence in the town of Ataye and several other areas in Oromia special zones.

The statement said an unspecified number of people were killed in attacks by gunmen and property was destroyed. It added that many civilians fled the armed conflict.

Shock and outrage as world reacts to European Super League breakaway plans

By Ben Morse, CNN

Updated 1441 GMT (2241 HKT) April 19, 2021

The news of plans for 12 of Europe's top football teams to break away and form a European Super League has shocked and outraged the footballing and wider world.

In a joint announcement Sunday night, six English clubs -- Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur -- alongside three teams from Italy -- AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus -- and three from Spain -- Atlético Madrid, Barcelona and Real Madrid -- laid out plans to form a breakaway competition, referred to in the announcement as the Super League.

While fan groups for the clubs themselves expressed their opposition to the plans and threatened to forego their support of their club -- The Arsenal Supporters' Trust called the club's agreement to join "the death of Arsenal as a sporting institution" -- clubs outside the 12 had their say.