Six In The Morning Tuesday 7 September 2021

 

Taliban announce new government for Afghanistan

The Taliban have announced an interim government in Afghanistan, and declared the country an "Islamic Emirate".

The government will be led by Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, one of the movement's founders.

The interior minister will be a feared FBI-wanted leader of the Haqqani militant group.

The Taliban seized control of most of the country more than three weeks ago, ousting the previous elected leadership.

Bolsonaro supporters clash with police before major rally in Brasília

Violence erupts as rightwing activists attempt to break through blockade and force their way to congress

Tom Phillips in Brasília

Tue 7 Sep 2021 09.56 BST

Pre-dawn skirmishes have erupted between police and supporters of Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, as rightwing activists tried to force their way towards congress before major pro-government rallies that have put Latin America’s biggest democracy on edge.

Footage published by the Brasilia-based news website Metrópoles showed military police using pepper spray to repel a crowd of cheering Bolsonaristas in the early hours of Tuesday.

Officers can be seen wrestling with one demonstrator as the group attempted to break through a police blockade on the avenue leading to congress using lorries draped with Brazil’s yellow and green flag.

India's ambitious palm oil push triggers biodiversity fears

India wants to reduce its dependence on other countries for palm oil. But environmentalists are concerned the country's new palm oil goals could threaten wildlife and swaths of forests, as well as tribal land rights.

The Indian government introduced a new plan in August to boost the production of palm oil. India is one of the largest consumers of palm oil, which is used in almost everything from soaps to chips. But the country still imports most of its palm oil.

India also produces a range of other vegetable oils, like mustard and soybean, but it has seen exponential demand for palm oil over the last few years.

French firm Lafarge loses bid to dismiss 'crimes against humanity' case in Syria

France's top court on Tuesday overturned a decision by a lower court to dismiss charges brought against cement giant Lafarge for complicity in crimes against humanity in Syria's civil war.

The ruling by the Court of Cassation marks a major setback for Lafarge, which is accused of paying nearly 13 million euros ($15.3 million) to jihadist groups including the Islamic State (IS) to keep its cement factory in northern Syria running through the early years of the country's war.

Lafarge's lawyer refused AFP's request for comment.

Lafarge, which merged in 2015 with Swiss group Holcim, has acknowledged that its Syrian subsidiary paid middlemen to negotiate with armed groups to allow the movement of staff and goods inside the war zone.

Guantanamo Bay explained in maps and charts

The world’s most infamous detention centre, ‘Gitmo’, has become a symbol of human rights abuses.

By Mohammed Haddad

7 Sep 2021

Exactly four months after the September 11, 2001, attacks, the United States set up a high-security prison in its Guantanamo Bay base.

Since then, “Gitmo” has held up to 780 detainees, prisoners of the so-called “war on terror”. Today 39 remain.

Established during the presidency of George W Bush, the offshore jail was meant to hold suspected al-Qaeda members, captured during the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

From Nobel laureate to global pariah: How the world got Abiy Ahmed and Ethiopia so wrong

By Eliza Mackintosh, CNN

Updated 1246 GMT (2046 HKT) September 7, 2021

​​"Abiy, Abiy," the crowd chanted, waving Ethiopia's tricolor flag and cheering as the country's new prime minister, dressed in a white blazer with gold trim and smiling broadly, waved to a packed basketball arena at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, part of a whirlwind three-city tour of the United States to woo the diaspora.

It was July 2018, just three months after Abiy Ahmed had been appointed leader of Africa's second-most populous country, and his star was rising both at home and abroad. Excitement was surging into an almost religious fervor around the young politician, who promised to bring peace, prosperity and reconciliation to a troubled corner of Africa and a nation on the brink of crisis.