Wednesday, June 30, 2021
Pakistan – journey through a land of contrasts
Pakistan, the "Land of the Pure" in Urdu, remains a paradox. Known as a bastion of radical Islam, the country is striving to become a modern state. This documentary examines the undercurrents threatening the stability of this nuclear-armed nation.
Kim Jong-un berates top North Korea officials over Covid 'crisis'
Kim Jong-un has berated top officials over lapses which caused a "grave incident" related to Covid-19, North Korean state media report.
Long COVID research update: Blood abnormalities could cause Long COVID
At the University of Erlangen's Max Planck Institute in Germany, scientists are looking for the causes of Long COVID, or post-COVID-19, syndrome in which patients suffer from lingering breathlessness, tightness in the chest, or fatigue.
Six In The Morning Wednesday 30 June 2021
Canada weather: Dozens dead as heatwave shatters records
Dozens of people have died in Canada amid an unprecedented heatwave that has smashed temperature records.
Police in the Vancouver area have responded to more than 130 sudden deaths since Friday. Most were elderly or had underlying health conditions, with heat often a contributing factor.
Canada broke its temperature record for a third straight day on Tuesday - 49.6C (121.3F) in Lytton, British Columbia.
The US north-west has also seen record highs - and a number of fatalities.
‘Making China great again’: pomp and propaganda as CCP marks centenary
Vincent Ni China affairs correspondent
In the summer of 1921, 13 young men severely disillusioned by China’s post-imperial development gathered in Shanghai to form a communist party. On 23 July, they convened in Shanghai’s French Concession and held the first “national congress”.
None of them would have thought that in 30 years’ time the organisation they had founded would rule the nation, or that in 100 years’ time it would be the world’s largest political party, with nearly 92 million members – today also an enigma to many outsiders.
Samia must bring Tanzania to post-Magufuli era
President Samia Suluhu Hassan has charted her own course since the death of John Magufuli. But Tanzania still operates under her predecessor's directives. Tanzanians are eager for a new path, DW's Sylvia Mwehozi writes.
One of Samia Suluhu Hassan's first directives after taking office as Tanzania's president following the death of John Magufuli in March was to lift bans on press outlets imposed by her predecessor, who never hid his disdain for independent journalism. "We should not ban the media by force," Samia, who recently completed her first 100 days as president, said as she issued the order to reopen press outlets.
It was a demonstrative declaration by the first woman to be president in East Africa. However, the formerly banned newspapers and other online outlets are still shut. Samia's government must review Tanzania's repressive media laws and address the grievances from journalists, who need to be able to carry out their duties without being threatened or censored.
Two Milosevic aides convicted of war crimes for supporting Serb militias
U.N. judges on Wednesday convicted two men of war crimes for their role in financing and equipping Serb militias during the break-up of the former Yugoslavia, in the final case before the court dating from the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
In a summary of the judgment provided by the court, judges convicted the former head of Serbia’s state security service, Jovica Stanisic, and his subordinate Franko “Frenki” Simatovic and handed them 12 year sentences.
“The trial chamber is satisfied that the accused provided practical assistance which had a substantial effect on the commission of the crimes of murder, forcible displacement and persecution committed in Bosanski Samac”, in Bosnia, it said.
North Korea’s Kim fumes about ‘grave lapses’ in pandemic defences
Several senior officials replaced for ‘incompetence and irresponsibility’ in their efforts to stop the spread of COVID.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un chastised top governing party officials for failures in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic that led to an unspecified “grave incident” and put the safety of the country and people at risk, state media reported on Wednesday.
The report by state news agency KCNA did not elaborate on what happened, or how it put people at risk, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said.
Covid-19 is killing Brazilian children at alarming rates. Many may be going undiagnosed
Updated 1427 GMT (2227 HKT) June 30, 2021
"Who's mommy's little girl?" 22-year-old Brazilian Sameque Gois asks as she plays with her baby's tiny hand, in one of the several videos she showed CNN. In the footage, little Sarah responds to her mother with an ear-to-ear smile.
Sarah was born in January this year. Despite having a few issues during pregnancy that caused her baby to be born prematurely, Gois says her daughter was generally healthy. But after she took her baby girl to the Casa de Saúde Hospital in São Paulo's coastal city of Santos to treat a urinary tract infection, Sarah started to present persistent fever and flu-like symptoms.
"When her symptoms started, the doctors said it was bronchiolitis, that it wasn't anything serious," Gois explains. But her daughter would not recover.
Tuesday, June 29, 2021
How will the US protect its collaborators in Afghanistan?
Thousands of Afghans who assisted the United States are concerned for their safety as US forces prepare to withdraw.
Eve: the off-grid life of a nine-year-old climate activist
Eve is the intimate story of a nine-year-old girl living in Tinkers Bubble, one of the oldest off-grid communities in the UK. A fledgling environmental activist, we follow her as she navigates her way back into traditional schooling and stands up for what she passionately believes in: the environment
India's deadly fungus epidemic - BBC News
After India’s devastating second Covid wave, the country is now grappling with tens of thousands of cases of a rare fungal infection called mucormycosis.
COVID-19: South Africa battles third wave
Six In The Morning Tuesday 29 June 2021
Tigray rebels vow to drive out ‘enemies’ despite ceasefire declaration
Celebrations on streets of Mekelle after soldiers and officials appointed by Ethiopian government flee city
Emmanuel Akinwotu West Africa correspondent and Lizzy Davies
Dissident leaders of Ethiopia’s war-hit Tigray region have dismissed a government ceasefire declaration and vowed to drive out “enemies” from the region, after rebel fighters advanced on the Tigrayan capital.
In a dramatic development in the nearly eight-month-old conflict, which has been marked by large-scale atrocities, federal security forces and officials from the central government appointed interim administration fled Mekelle on Monday night. Residents took to the streets in jubilation, firing celebratory gunfire and fireworks into the sky.
“The capital of Tigray, Mekelle, is under our control,” Getachew Reda, the spokesperson for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), told Reuters by satellite phone on Monday evening, as Tigrayan fighters captured the city’s airport and other key positions.
Dutch court convicts woman for spreading Isis propaganda
Defendant distributed large amounts of propaganda via Telegram messaging app in 2019
A Dutch court has convicted a 32-year-old woman for spreading Isis propaganda.
The Hague District Court ruled that Isis is a criminal organisation with the aim of committing war crimes and jailed the woman for six years for disseminating material from her home near Amsterdam.
The woman's sentence was double the three years originally demanded by prosecutors, with judges saying the sentence request was "far too low".
Fact check: Is half a degree of warming really such a big deal?
Minimal temperature increases like 1.5 or 2 degrees Celcius might sound insignificant, but when it comes to our planet they can have a massive impact. DW looks at the facts.
When a human being's temperature rises from a healthy 36.6 to 38.6 degrees Celsius (97.8 to 101.48 degrees Fahrenheit), it has consequences. Just a seemingly minor increase leaves the body feeling unwell and unable to function normally.
It's a similar story for the planet.
Turkey's 'crazy' and controversial Istanbul Canal project
By laying the first stone of the Sazlidere bridge, one of six viaducts that will cross the Istanbul Canal, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan kicked off on Saturday what he himself calls his "crazy project", the construction of a canal between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, despite low enthusiasm from the Turkish public.
During Saturday’s ceremony on the Sazlidere construction site, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan placed special emphasis on the historical nature of his outsized project.
"This is not a ceremony to inaugurate a fountain," he told a crowd of supporters including Transport and Industry Minister Adil Karaismailoglu and members of his party, the AKP.
Demolitions begin in occupied East Jerusalem’s Silwan
Israeli forces demolish a butcher’s shop and use tear gas to push back residents and activists.
Violence erupted after the demolition of a Palestinian business by Israeli forces began in the al-Bustan area of the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Silwan on Tuesday.
Israeli forces accompanied by bulldozers entered the Palestinian neighbourhood and destroyed a butcher’s shop in Silwan. Soldiers used tear gas and batons to push back residents and Palestinian activists as they carried out the demolition.
At least four Palestinians were injured in the confrontations, according to the Palestine Red Crescent.
'I never said that I hated the country,' says US hammer thrower Gwen Berry after turning from the flag
Updated 1337 GMT (2137 HKT) June 29, 2021
US hammer thrower Gwen Berry has responded to criticism over turning away from the flag while on the podium at the Olympic trials, saying she "never said that I hated the country."
Berry placed third at the trials in Eugene, Oregon, on Saturday to qualify for her second Olympics, which get underway in Tokyo next month.
She then turned away from the flag while "The Star-Spangled Banner" played during the medal ceremony and draped a T-shirt carrying the words "activist athlete" over her head.
Monday, June 28, 2021
India’s COVID Warriors
Through a year of filming, 101 East reveals how India’s frontliners are battling with the surge in COVID infections and deaths amid dire shortages of hospital beds and oxygen.
Migrant Who Saved Drowning Man in Spain Fights for Citizenship
This 26-year-old undocumented Senegalese migrant in Spain saved an elderly man from drowning — now thousands are fighting for his citizenship.
How the Chinese Communist Party's relationship with business has evolved - BBC News
In July, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will celebrate 100 years since its founding.
The BBC's China Correspondent Robin Brant explores the relationship between China's leader Xi Jinping and private business.
What we know and don't know about the coronavirus
Just over a year ago, the Coronavirus made the world shut down and brought death and despair. Now there are vaccines - and many countries where people have been inoculated. More than half the population in the worst-hit country, the US. In Britain, it's even two-thirds.
Six In The Morning Monday 28 June 2021
Canada weather: Heat hits record 46.6C as US north-west also sizzles
Canada has recorded its highest ever temperature as the country's west and the US Pacific north-west frazzle in an unprecedented heatwave.
Lytton in British Columbia soared to 46.6C (116F) on Sunday, breaking an 84-year-old record, officials said.
A "heat dome" - static high pressure acting like a lid on a cooking pot - has set records in many other areas.
Parts of Australia under new Covid lockdown after cases of Delta variant
Coronavirus outbreaks renew questions about stuttering vaccine rollout and limited quarantine facilities
Nino Bucci and Elias Visontay in Sydney
Australia is grappling with several outbreaks of the highly contagious Delta variant of coronavirus, with a wave of restrictions rolling across the country and plunging some cities into lockdown for the first time since the pandemic began.
Residents of every state and territory in the country – except the island state of Tasmania – are again living under restrictions ranging from full-blown lockdowns in Sydney, Darwin and Perth, to mask mandates in some indoor settings in Adelaide and Canberra.
The scale of the outbreak is tiny compared with those in some other countries, but Australians have lived a charmed life for much of the pandemic because of the rigid rules that are often implemented at the first sign of the virus. This regime is coupled with extraordinary restrictions on its citizens returning to or even leaving the country.
Anger as Czech Republic president describes transgender people as ‘disgusting’
‘I can understand gays, lesbians, and so on,’ Zeman said. ’But do you know what I don’t understand at all? Transgender people’
William Nattrass
In Prague
The Czech Republic’s head of state Milos Zeman has sparked anger by describing transgender people as “disgusting” in a television interview.
During the interview, on CNN Prima news, the president also said that if he were younger, he would organise a huge demonstration of heterosexuals in Prague.
“I can understand gays, lesbians, and so on,” Zeman said. “But do you know what I don’t understand at all? Transgender people.”
Fact check: Is global warming merely a natural cycle?
Scientists have been exploring the cause of the planet's rising temperature since the 20th century. Climate change skeptics say that human-caused CO2 emissions don't have an effect. DW takes a look at the facts.
It's true that within its 4.5-billion-year history, planet Earth has experienced periods of lesser and greater warmth.
Altering over many thousands of years, these shifting temperatures have been determined by variations in Earth's orbit around the sun. While greater distances have resulted in colder cycles, shifts closer to the ball of heat have led to warmer, interglacial periods.
Iraq slams ‘unacceptable’ US strikes on pro-Iran fighters
Iraq on Monday condemned overnight US air strikes against Iran-backed armed groups on the Syrian-Iraqi border that killed at least seven fighters and sparked calls for revenge from Iraqi armed factions.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi condemned the attack as a "blatant and unacceptable violation of Iraqi sovereignty and Iraqi national security".
In a statement released Monday, Kadhimi called on all sides to avoid further escalation. "Iraq reiterates its refusal to be an arena for settling scores," he said.
As China’s Communist Party turns 100, economic challenges loom
As the ruling Communist Party celebrates its 100th anniversary this week, China’s leaders face formidable economic challenges, from falling birth rates and income inequality to rural-urban opportunity gaps.
28 Jun 2021
Private education companies that provide extracurricular lessons to legions of Chinese children are in the crosshairs of the government, as officials seek to ease pressure on students and the financial burden on families.
Though aimed at private tutoring firms, the crackdown is symptomatic of wider systemic problems facing China as the ruling Communist Party celebrates its 100th anniversary this week.
Sunday, June 27, 2021
Iran’s new president: What’s next for the country’s media?
President-elect Ebrahim Raisi’s track record is largely off limits for discussion among Iranians. Plus, the Cuban rappers demanding freedom of expression.
Iran’s new president-elect is heading into the job carrying some baggage from the past that neither he nor the country’s state-friendly news outlets care to talk about.
States Fight For-Profit Prison Contracts with ICE
80% of immigrant detainees are held in privately run facilities — now several states have passed legislation to ban for-profit immigrant detention.
Why are the Olympics going ahead? - BBC News
The Tokyo Olympics start in late July, despite a surge of Covid cases in Japan Ros Atkins looks at why the Games are still going ahead, despite polls in Japan suggesting public opinion is against them happening now
Ecocide explained: How activists want to hold those destroying the environment accountable
A growing global campaign is approaching a landmark in the fight against climate change: holding individuals responsible for mass environmental harm. The crime of "ecocide" would be deemed on par with genocide and crimes against humanity — and punishable as well.
Six In The Morning Sunday 27 June 2021
New video of Ethiopia massacre shows soldiers passing phone around to document their executions of unarmed men
Updated 1255 GMT (2055 HKT) June 27, 2021
A few scattered human bones lay on the rocky ground, along with a broken skull and several half-burned identification cards.
That is all the villagers could find, six months after Ethiopian troops rounded up their loved ones and shot them at point-blank range, throwing the bodies off a rocky hillside deep in the mountains of central Tigray in Ethiopia.
An April 2021 CNN investigation, in collaboration with Amnesty International, examined video clips of the January massacre and used geolocation techniques to verify the video was filmed on a ridge near Mahibere Dego in January 2021. The investigation revealed at the time that at least 11 unarmed men were executed, and 39 others were unaccounted for.
South Africa expected to tighten Covid rules as third wave gathers pace
Economic heartland hit by rise in infections driven by Delta variant and faltering vaccination campaign
Jason Burke in Johannesburg
Outdoor farm work under the afternoon sun on particularly hot days has been banned in a southern Italian region following the death of a migrant who felt ill while toiling in a field and collapsed.
Gov. Michele Emiliano, who leads the Puglia region in the ’’heel” of the Italian peninsula, signed an ordinance on Saturday that forbids farm work from 12:30 pm. to 4 p.m. through August on days that are particularly torrid.
A 27-year-old migrant from Mali felt ill last week as he worked as a day laborer in a farm field, left work and collapsed and died as he was pedaling his bike on the 15-kilometer (nearly 10-mile) route to his residence.
Once the sternum is split and the heart has ceased beating, the doctors deploy the medical treatment of the future. They interrupt the bypass operation and then, using extremely fine needles, deliver 30 injections to the patient’s heart muscle, each containing 200 microliters of medicine.
They have about 10 minutes to carry out the injections before then completing the more standard open-heart procedure, and the heart resumes beating. The bypass ensures that more blood flows through the heart than before, but the heart disease itself cannot be cured using this conventional method.
Iran says it will never hand over images of nuclear sites to UN nuclear watchdog
The speaker of Iran's parliament said on Sunday Tehran will never hand over images from inside of some Iranian nuclear sites to the U.N. nuclear watchdog as a monitoring agreement with the agency had expired, Iranian state media reported.
"The agreement has expired ... any of the information recorded will never be given to the International Atomic Energy Agency and the data and images will remain in the possession of Iran," said Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.
The announcement could further complicate talks between Iran and six major powers on reviving a 2015 nuclear deal. Three years ago then U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the pact and reimposed crippling sanctions on Tehran; Iran reacted by violating many of the deal's restrictions on its nuclear programme.
US heatwave: Pacific Northwest sees record temperatures
Parts of the US Pacific Northwest have been hit by a sweltering heatwave, with temperatures in Portland, Oregon, at a record 108F (42C) on Saturday.
The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued excessive heat warnings and watches across nearly all of Washington and Oregon state. Parts of California and Idaho are also affected.
Multnomah county, in Oregon, has warned of "life-threatening" heat.
Many cities have opened cooling centres for people to take shelter.
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