Six In The Morning Tuesday 19 October 2021

 

'He died in my arms.' Twelve months on, a mother's agonizing wait to find out why her son died at Lekki toll gate

By Stephanie Busari, CNN

Updated 1633 GMT (0033 HKT) October 19, 2021

When Adesola heard about the shooting at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos on October 20, 2020, she immediately thought of her son who had earlier left home to join the hundreds of young people protesting against police brutality at the site.

In a blind panic, she called his phone, but there was no answer. She immediately hailed a passing motorcycle taxi, known locally as an Okada, and raced to the scene.

But nothing could have prepared her for the harrowing scenes she witnessed when she got there, she said.

Chinese effort to gather ‘micro clues’ on Uyghurs laid bare in report

Authorities using predictive policing and human surveillance on Muslims in Xinjiang, thinktank says

Helen Davidson in Taipei and Vincent Ni

Tue 19 Oct 2021 11.02 BST

Authorities in the Chinese region of Xinjiang are using predictive policing and human surveillance to gather “micro clues” about Uyghurs and empower neighbourhood informants to ensure compliance at every level of society, according to a report.

The research by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) thinktank detailed Xinjiang authorities’ expansive use of grassroots committees, integrated with China’s extensive surveillance technology, to police their Uyghur neighbours’ movements – and emotions.

The findings shed further light on the extraordinary scope of the Chinese Communist party’s grip on the largely Muslim and purportedly autonomous region, going beyond police crackdowns and mass arrests to ensure total control.

Exposed: How big farm lobbies undermine EU's green agriculture plan

Farmers and lobby groups are split on an EU agricultural reform that may increase farmers' incomes and consumers' prices. A DW joint report reveals a rift between farmers and the groups purporting to represent them.

It is a long way from the farms and fields of Sezze in central Italy to the halls of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. But the decisions made at the European assembly this week can directly impact the lives of farmers like Valentina Pallavicino. Her farm in the plains between Rome and the Mediterranean is the kind that is often cited by policymakers and lobbyists when seeking support for changes to Europe's complex, subsidy-heavy agricultural system.

Pallavicino, like most Europeans, does not follow every twist and turn of farming reform debated by politicians in Brussels and Strasbourg, but she does discern two central aspects of the agricultural landscape with clarity: cheap food has been a boon for big, industrial farms and many farmers support sustainable farming.

Hezbollah’s campaign against Beirut blast judge paralyses Lebanon’s government

Hezbollah and its political allies have intensified Lebanon’s political crisis and paralysed the new government by trying to push the cabinet to dismiss Tarek Bitar, the judge in charge of investigating the 2020 Beirut blast.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s Lebanese government is already in a fragile state – even though it was only formed on September 10. Many hoped that the new administration would launch reforms to get Lebanon out of a political and economic crisis after a thirteen-month political vacuum. But instead the cabinet has found itself paralysed by tensions around the investigation into the cataclysmic August 2020 Beirut port explosion.

These tensions contributed to the deadly shootings in Beirut on October 14 at a demonstration organised by Hezbollah and its ally the Amal movement. The protesters were demanding the removal of the judge in charge of the investigation into the Beirut blast, Tarek Bitar, amid political pressure and a smear campaign pushing for his dismissal.

Campaigning begins across Japan for Oct 31 general election

Campaigning for Japan's Oct 31 general election began Tuesday, with new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida seeking a mandate for his COVID-19 and economic policies while opposition parties are banding together in a bid to loosen the ruling coalition's grip on power.

Some 1,050 candidates are contesting 465 seats in the House of Representatives, the powerful lower chamber of parliament, with Kishida's Liberal Democratic Party and smaller partner Komeito looking to retain their overall majority.

Kishida, who took office on Oct 4, has pledged to realize economic growth and redistribute wealth to the middle class in a course correction of "Abenomics," which has been criticized as helping lift corporate earnings and share prices but failing to spark wage gains.

Polish PM accuses EU of blackmail as row over rule of law escalates

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has accused the EU of blackmail in a heated debate with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen over the rule of law.

The clash in the European Parliament follows a top Polish court ruling that rejected key parts of EU law.

Mrs von der Leyen said she would act to prevent Poland undermining EU values.

In response, Mr Morawiecki rejected "the language of threats" and accused the EU of overstepping its powers.

Poles overwhelmingly support being part of the EU, opinion polls suggest, but Poland's right-wing nationalist government has increasingly been at odds with the union on issues ranging from LGBT rights to judicial independence.