Sunday, September 19, 2021

Six In The Morning Sunday 19 September 2021

Australia had 'deep and grave' concerns about French submarines' capabilities, PM says

Updated 1157 GMT (1957 HKT) September 19, 2021


Australia was concerned the conventional submarines it ordered from France would not meet its strategic needs before it canceled the multibillion defense deal in favor of an agreement with the United States and the United Kingdom earlier this week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Sunday.

Seeking to explain the sudden U-turn that caused huge anger in Paris, Morrison said that while he understood France's disappointment over the issue, "Australia's national interest comes first."
"It must come first and did come first and Australia's interests are best served by the trilateral partnership I've been able to form with President Biden and Prime Minister Johnson," he said at a news conference on Sunday.



Kabul government’s female workers told to stay at home by Taliban

Only those who cannot be replaced by men may remain, in further sign of Taliban’s hardline rule over Afghans



Female employees in the Kabul city government have been told to stay home, with work only allowed for those who cannot be replaced by men, the interim mayor of Afghanistan’s capital said on Sunday, detailing the latest restrictions on women by the new Taliban rulers.

The decision to prevent most female city workers from returning to their jobs is another sign that the Taliban, who overran Kabul last month, are enforcing their harsh interpretation of Islam despite initial promises by some that they would be tolerant and inclusive. Under their previous rule in the 1990s, the Taliban barred girls and women from schools, jobs and public life.

Witnesses, meanwhile, said an explosion targeted a Taliban vehicle in the eastern provincial city of Jalalabad, and hospital officials said five people were killed in the second such deadly blast in as many days in the Islamic State stronghold.


Independent’s Moscow correspondent has personal details leaked online while reporting on elections

Passport details shared online while Oliver Carroll was investigating claims of voter fraud

Lamiat Sabin


The Independent’s Moscow correspondent has had his personal data leaked on the internet in “an apparent act of intimidation” by local authorities while he was covering elections this week.

British journalist Oliver Carroll went to a polling station in the suburb of Osinovo on Saturday, an area that he describes as a “sensitive election patch”.

The polling station, on the border between regional capital Kazan and rural Tatarstan “is in a sweet spot for possible election manipulations,” he says.


A Third BetrayalMany of Germany's Local Hires Are Still Waiting To Be Rescued from Afghanistan


Germany pledged it would continue rescuing former local hires from Afghanistan, even after the airlift from Kabul ended. Yet despite the grave danger they are in, Berlin is failing to help them.

By Matthias GebauerMaximilian PoppThore Schröder und Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt


Waiting is the worst part, says Saliha M., not knowing what will happen next or whether the Germans will get in touch. Or whether she will have to return to Afghanistan. For the past several days, Saliha has been waiting in a hotel in Peshawar, Pakistan. The fact that she even made it here is a miracle in itself.

Saliha, 20, studied economics at university in Kabul, financing her studies by painting oil canvases. She was also an advocate for women’s rights and a member of Afghanistan’s first female mountaineering team, in addition to traveling regularly around the country to speak at conferences.


The Burmese artist making paintings to fight against Myanmar’s military junta


A new Paris exhibition is shining a light on seven Burmese artists using their artwork to resist Myanmar’s military junta. FRANCE 24 interviewed Bart Was Not Here, one of the artists featured.

"I’m not an activist, I’m an artist,” says Bart Was Not Here, categorically rejecting being portrayed as a political dissident. However, since the army’s coup in Myanmar on February 1 this year, the 25-year-old artist has been using his art to campaign against the country’s military junta.  

He is one of seven Burmese artists whose work is on display at the Place du Palais-Royal in Paris, as part of the exhibition Fighting Fear: #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar, organised by the international NGO Human Rights Watch and running from September 18 until October 17.

Five years on: Revisiting Rio 2016 Olympics’ unkept promises

All eyes are on Paris for the 2024 Olympics but Rio residents are still waiting for promises to be delivered.


Last month, Tokyo handed over the Olympic flame to Paris after the culmination of the rearranged 2020 Olympics.

Watching proceedings were people in Rio – which hosted the Games in 2016 – who are still waiting for the fulfilment of several promises from more than five years ago.

Rio 2016 was expected to not only increase tourism numbers and the improvement of the country’s image outside Brazil, but also leave a legacy on public safety, create new job opportunities, an integrated public transport system and urban projects, from which the population could benefit long term.



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