Friday, August 27, 2021

Six In The Morning Friday 27 August 2021

 

Republicans Push Biden To Re-Invade Afghanistan

Their proposed solution: more war with the Taliban.

Republicans are pushing President Joe Biden to take actions that would amount to re-invading Afghanistan by either requiring the U.S. military to retake an abandoned air base or staying in the country long enough to restart the dormant war with the Taliban.

The calls were amplified Thursday following the deaths of a dozen U.S. service members and more than 50 Afghan civilians in a pair of bombings near the Kabul airport, the center of the American effort to evacuate the country’s wartime allies from Afghanistan. Intelligence officials believe a branch of the self-styled Islamic State (ISIS) that has battled the Taliban for influence are responsible for the attacks, according to reports

In a statement, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), who has long opposed efforts under both Biden and President Donald Trump to end U.S. involvement in the two-decade war, said Biden needed to “rip up the Aug. 31 deadline and defend evacuation routes” by expanding the perimeter around the Kabul airport or by retaking Bagram Air Base.




‘Unprecedented’ numbers crossing from Afghanistan to Pakistan

Local officials report increase as Kabul airport attack drives more Afghans to attempt to flee country


 in Quetta and  in Delhi

An “unprecedented” number of people are travelling from Afghanistan to Pakistan through the official border crossing, according to local officials, as the carnage in Kabul after the airport suicide attack has driven more to try to flee the country.

While Pakistan has said it will not accept any Afghan refugees, the Spin Boldak-Chaman land border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan has remained open, and in recent days hundreds of thousands of Afghans have crossed over.

Only people who are travelling to Pakistan for medical treatment or have proof of residence in the country are allowed to cross, but people smugglers have been assisting families to get over the border.


In Goma, burning questions remain after volcanic eruption

Three months after the eruption of Mount Nyiragongo, life has resumed in Goma. But experts say locals aren’t out of the woods just yet and the threat to the city remains. Researchers, authorities and international partners are teaming up to try and prevent the eastern DR Congo city from disappearing under the lava. Our correspondents Clément Bonnerot and Juliette Dubois report.

It was a night that residents of Goma will remember for a long time. On May 22, at around 6pm, the sky suddenly burst into flames. Lava poured down the side of Mount Nyiragongo, destroying everything in its path. Within hours, tens of thousands had fled to the town of Sake, 30 kilometres to the west, and to neighbouring Rwanda. The night of horror and despair revived painful memories of the previous eruption in 2002, in which over 3,000 people lost their lives.

This time around, hundreds of homes were destroyed. But the lava stopped just hundreds of metres from the city’s limits, miraculously sparing most of the centre. Experts, however, say that locals aren’t out of the woods just yet: Goma and its nearly two million residents are ultimately doomed to disappear.


Moderna's contaminated vaccine only shipped to Japan: Spanish maker


A lot of Moderna Inc's COVID-19 vaccine doses where contaminants were detected had only been shipped to Japan, the Spanish manufacturer for the U.S. biotechnology company said Thursday.

"The detection of this particulate matter refers to certain vials of one product lot distributed exclusively in Japan," the Spanish pharma company Rovi SA said in a statement, adding it is conducting an investigation into the matter and cooperating with health authorities.

As a precaution, Japan suspended Thursday the use of around 1.63 million doses of Moderna vaccine after contaminants were found in 39 unused vials.


Nigerian gunmen free dozens of kidnapped children

Six of the pupils died in captivity and another 15 escaped in June after more than 130 were captured by ‘bandits’.

Nigerian gunmen have freed the remaining pupils from more than 100 kidnapped from an Islamic seminary in northwestern Niger State nearly three months ago.

Heavily armed criminals snatched 136 pupils from the seminary in Tegina on May 30 in one of a series of mass abductions targeting schools and colleges in Nigeria since December.

Six of the pupils died in captivity and a further 15 escaped in June, according to school officials.


'Southern Blob' of hot ocean is causing a megadrought thousands of miles away in Chile

Updated 0806 GMT (1606 HKT) August 27, 2021



In the southwest Pacific Ocean, there's a huge region of unusually warm water covering an area about the size of Australia, known as "the Southern Blob."

Several thousand miles away, the South American nation of Chile has been experiencing a megadrought for more than a decade, with dwindling rain and water supplies.
On the surface, these two events have nothing to do with each other -- but, a new study found, they are linked by invisible forces of global atmospheric pressure and circulation.




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