Six In The Morning Sunday 13 June 2021

 

Factory workers making goods for the west bear brunt of virus surge in south-east Asia

Rebecca Ratcliffe in Bangkok & Vutha Srey in Phnom Penh

Sun 13 Jun 2021 05.00 BST

It was around mid-May when workers at the Cal-Comp factory in Phetchaburi, central Thailand, heard a small group of their colleagues had tested positive for Covid-19. It soon became clear the virus had ripped through the production lines. A cluster associated with the electronics factory has since been linked to thousands of infections.

Hwan Htet Paing*, a worker from the factory, said he was not told the results of his Covid test, carried out on 19 May. Despite this, he was instructed to quarantine inside a vast hall at his workplace. The floor was covered with tarpaulin sheets and lined with rows of mosquito nets for each worker. Everyone was given a bucket and a cup, and bedsheets to lay across the floor. Fans were handed out to help ease the heat – until the vast numbers of people testing positive meant there were none left.

He stayed for 14 days, in the same clothes that he had been wearing when he was sent to the facility.

Messenger Founder Pavel Durov

The Telegram Billionaire and His Dark Empire

Telegram is one of the world's most popular chat apps – and possibly the most dangerous. There is little regulation of the platform, which is popular with criminals and terrorists. Who is the mastermind behind it?

By Christina Hebel, Max Hoppenstedt und Marcel Rosenbach

Pavel Durov squats shirtless in the lotus position on a hotel roof, the skyline of Dubai stretching out in the background. The Instagram photo, which looks like it could be one of thousands of other selfies from random influencers, is one of the rare signs of life from one of the world’s richest and most influential internet entrepreneurs. Some call the 36-year-old "Russia’s Zuckerberg” because he founded the Russian Facebook clone VKontakte in 2006. But his latest investment is much more significant: Telegram, arguably the world’s most dangerous messenger service.

Thousands in Spain protest plans to pardon Catalan separatist leaders

Thousands of people in Madrid are protesting the Spanish government’s plan to issue pardons to a dozen separatist leaders who were convicted for their roles in a failed push for the Catalonia region's independence, the biggest challenge to the country’s unity in recent history.

The demonstration on Sunday was organized by a civil society group to promote a united Spain and took place at a central square that has become a symbol for far-right political rallies.

Leaders of the center to far-right political opposition to Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez planned to join the protest at Colón Square, which boasts one of Spain's largest national flags.

Israel’s Knesset to vote on new government, end Netanyahu’s reign

Opponents sing and dance outside Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in anticipation of the end of his 12-year reign as prime minister.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12-year hold on power is set to end on Sunday when the parliament votes on a new government, ushering in an administration that has pledged to heal a nation bitterly divided over the departure of the country’s longest-serving leader.

Netanyahu, 71, the most dominant Israeli politician of his generation, failed to form a government after Israel’s March 23 election, its fourth in two years.

Post-US civil war drums beating fast in Afghanistan

Afghanistan's civil war is entering a new destabilizing phase as warlords and mujahedin re-emerge to challenge the Taliban's onslaught

By SALMAN RAFI SHEIKHJUNE 13, 2021

As US and NATO forces withdraw faster than previously planned from Afghanistan, violence is escalating in what could be a foretaste of a wider war to come.

Many believe the Taliban aims to exploit the vacuum left by the US-NATO troop withdrawal to seize control of the capital Kabul and re-establish an Islamic Emirate, similar to the one the US dislodged from power after its 2001 invasion.  

In the first three days of June, at least 64 Afghan security personnel and 26 civilians were killed in Taliban attacks. The deadliest occurred in Nangarhar province on June 2, in which at least 40 security personnel were killed as several security outposts and a military base fell to Taliban fighters.

'The [Ortega] regime is willing to kill', says wife of detained Nicaraguan activist

By Rafael Romo, CNN

Updated 0829 GMT (1629 HKT) June 13, 2021

She says she feels angry and desperate, but the way she speaks and what she says make it clear that she refuses to be afraid. Berta Valle is the wife of Félix Maradiaga Blandón, one of at least seven opposition leaders who have been detained in Nicaragua so far this month.

Valle says she still doesn't know "about his condition with certainty" and that the government hasn't allowed any contact with her husband. Maradiaga's attorneys haven't been able to see him or talk to him either, she says. CNN has learned that the activist is in a holding cell at police facility in south Managua.

"These actions by the regime to capture and detain opposition leaders also have the purpose of creating a chilling effect for the citizenry. The common citizen has to wonder if that's how they treat Maradiaga, Cristiana Chamorro, Arturo Cruz and others, how much more can they do against the average citizen that doesn't have as big an exposure," Valle told CNN en Español's Fernando del Rincón.