Tuesday, November 30, 2021
The Bookmaker: An ancient craft in Ethiopia
Here, Archbishop Kalehiwot Habtewold still practices the ancient craft of parchment bookmaking.
To be able to do that, he sets his young disciples an unusual task: to find enough high-quality goat skins for the parchment needed to hand-craft these religious books.
The exquisitely illustrated religious books take years, even decades, to produce.
'Don't bring any more of those': people try to stop crew going to sea to save refugees
The RNLI has confirmed an incident took place following claims a lifeboat crew was blocked from going to sea by people opposing the rescuing of refugees in the Channel. Hastings, which has a population of about 100,000, is on the frontline of the small boat arrivals. Refugees have been landing on its beach since 2019 but in line with the overall tripling of numbers this year there has been a huge increase, particularly in the last month.
Global markets fall after Moderna Omicron warning
European stock markets have fallen after the boss of Moderna cast doubts on the effectiveness of vaccines against the new Omicron Covid variant.
Many parents concerned over kids' vaccinations
Closed schools, social distancing, remote learning. Children’s lives have been turned upside down during the pandemic. More than 100 countries around the world have started to inoculate children against the coronavirus. Some parents are on the fence about the jab. But for many families vaccination is the silver lining after months of pandemic.
Six In The Morning Tuesday 30 November 2021
Covid: Omicron variant in Netherlands earlier than thought
The new Covid-19 variant, Omicron, was present in the Netherlands earlier than previously thought, officials say.
It was identified in two test samples taken in the country between 19 and 23 November, which is before the variant was first reported by South Africa.
It is not clear whether those who took the tests had visited southern Africa.
It was previously thought that two flights that arrived from South Africa on Sunday had brought the first cases of the variant to the Netherlands.
UK spy chief suggests China risks ‘miscalculation’ over Taiwan
Island’s status and surveillance technology making China ‘single greatest priority’ for MI6
Dan Sabbagh Defence and security editor
Monday, November 29, 2021
COVID orphans: A pandemic within a pandemic
‘This is a problem already happening, and it’s getting worse and fast,’ warns Oxford professor, Lucie Cluver.
China: Moment North Korean inmate breaks out of prison
Authorities in China recaptured a North Korean man, identified by his Chinese name Zhu Xianjian, after a 40 day manhunt.
The 39-year-old took just 40 seconds to scale a prison wall in the north-eastern city of Jilin, where he'd been serving an 11 year sentence for robbery and illegal entry into China.Fans of President Vladimir Putin edit his videos to bolster macho reputation
We show you instances in which fans of the Russian President deliberately edit his videos to emphasize his ‘strongman’ appearance.
Germany's rising death toll: Are new restrictions ahead?
The number of infections in Germany keeps rising, raising fears the worst may not be over. As the country faces a deadly fourth wave, new restrictions and lockdowns may be on their way to keep more lives from being lost.
Six In The Morning Monday 29 November 2021
Booster jabs accelerated to combat new Covid variant
Summary
- Booster jabs will be offered to all over 18s to help stop a potential wave driven by new variant Omicron
- Gap between second dose and booster reduced from six to three months
- Severely immunocompromised people will be offered a fourth dose of a vaccine
- Children aged 12 to 15 also invited for second dose three months after first
- Booster will be Pfizer-Biontech or Moderna - as these generate a very strong immune response
- Eleven cases of the Omicron variant have now been detected in the UK
- The Scottish and Welsh first ministers have written to Boris Johnson calling for a tougher approach to travel restrictions - but Downing Street have rejected this
- Australia pauses the re-opening of its borders because of the Omicron variant
- Japan is one of the latest countries to reinstate travel restrictions, banning all foreigners from entering
Iran hopes to covertly advance its nuclear programme, says Israel
Israeli foreign minister claims Tehran only agreed to restart talks to get sanctions removed
Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor
‘The people just stopped holding hands and they all went into the water. They died’
One of only two known survivors of last week’s Channel boat sinking that left at least 27 people dead has accused British and French authorities of failing to come to the group’s rescue despite appeals for help.
Mohammed Shekha, from northern Iraq, described how people on board the overcrowded, inflatable dinghy “started falling into the water” after the boat started to deflate and stopped moving.
Among the dead after Wednesday's tragedy are said to be a pregnant woman, children and a 24-year-old Kurdish woman trying to reunite with her fiance in the UK.
Afghanistan: How a remote border crossing provides a lifeline for traders and nomads
Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August, Pakistani authorities have closed many border crossings, restricting the movement of people and goods. A remote crossing allows tribespeople continued access.
Angoor Ada lies on an arid high plateau in the southeastern Afghan province of Paktika, one of the many hinterlands of Afghanistan. The area would not be of much importance — were it not connected to the border with Pakistan.
The border crosses near the edge of the long-stretched plateau, where the Pakistani tribal area of Waziristan begins.
After arriving in Angoor Ada, one encounters two long lines – one with lorries and the other with tractors, waiting to cross the border gate. On both sides are parking lots, with even more trucks and tractors.
Japan to bar new foreign arrivals for 1 month over Omicron fears
Japan will close its borders to new entries by foreigners amid concern over the new Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Monday as he vowed to move quickly to "avoid the worst-case scenario."
The measure will take effect Tuesday and last for about one month. Additionally, 14 countries and regions including Britain and Germany will be added to a list of places from which returning Japanese citizens and foreign residents will be subject to stricter quarantine requirements.
Japan had just eased its ban on new entries by foreigners on Nov 8, allowing in businesspeople, students and participants in its technical internship program on condition that their host organizations agreed to monitor their activities.
Palestine: Femicide highlights need for domestic violence law
The killing of a 30-year-old mother in occupied Ramallah by her husband has caused an uproar among Palestinians.
29 Nov 2021
In the early hours of November 22, Sabreen Yasser Khweira, 30, was allegedly stabbed to death by her husband in a small Palestinian village on the outskirts of occupied Ramallah.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) police found Khweira’s body inside her home in the village of Kufr Ni’ma.
Her husband also attacked his own mother, 75, who suffered injuries and was transferred to the nearest hospital in Ramallah. She sustained injuries, but is in stable condition.
Sunday, November 28, 2021
India’s Stolen Youth
In India, the trafficking of children is on the rise.
The COVID-19 pandemic has left millions jobless, families destitute and many children without parents. It is a perfect hunting ground for human traffickers to exploit.
But activist groups are working to track down the people-smuggling networks, raiding workplaces and rescuing young lives from bonded labour.
Two cases of new variant of Covid detected in UK
Two people in the UK have been found to be infected with the new Covid variant, Omicron, the health secretary has said.
Why Taiwan Is Important (History of Taiwan)
In this video I talk about the history of the island of Taiwan, from its early days with Native & initial Chinese settling, to its time as a Dutch colony, joining the Ming and Qing Empire, and then being ruled by Japan until being returned to the Republic of China.
Six In The Morning Sunday 28 November 2021
Vaccine inequity and hesitancy made the Omicron variant more likely, scientists say
Updated 1119 GMT (1919 HKT) November 28, 2021
Many of the world's richest countries have spent the past year hoarding coronavirus vaccines, buying up enough doses to vaccinate their populations several times over and consistently failing to deliver on their promises to share doses with the developing world. The World Health Organization said the approach was "self-defeating" and "immoral."
It might be starting to bite. A new and potentially more transmissible variant of the virus likely emerged from a region with low vaccination rates.
The new variant, known as Omicron, was first identified in South Africa, although it is unclear whether it originated there or whether it was brought into the country from elsewhere in the region.
How settler violence is fuelling West Bank tension
As attacks on Palestinians worsen, we speak to farmers, settlers, Israeli human rights activists, and the mother of a three-year-old boy left injured in a raid
Donald Macintyre & Quique Kierszenbaum in Al Mufakara
Sun 28 Nov 2021 10.00 GMT
The assault was already under way when, having hastily collected her youngest child from a neighbour, Baraa Hamamda, 24, ran home to find her three-year-old son, Mohammed, lying in a small pool of blood and apparently lifeless on the bare floor where she had left him asleep. “I thought that’s it, he’s dead,” she says. “He won’t come back.”
Mohammed wasn’t dead, though he wouldn’t regain consciousness for more than 11 hours, having been struck on the head by a stone thrown through a window by an Israeli settler, one of dozens who had invaded the isolated village of Al Mufakara, in the West Bank’s rocky, arid south Hebron hills.
At about 1.30pm, settlers from the two outposts, Havat Maon and Avigayil – illegal even under Israeli law – which the Palestinian village sits uneasily between, advanced on the flock of a Palestinian shepherd from neighbouring Rakiz, throwing stones and stabbing sheep, killing six of them. More than a dozen of Al Mufakara’s 120 residents retaliated with stones in an attempt to repel the settlers. But the settlers, several armed, rapidly entered the village and, as women barricaded themselves and their children in their homes, left a trail of smashed windows, an overturned car, shattered windscreens, punctured water tanks, slashed tyres, vandalised solar panels – and six injured Palestinians, including Mohammed.
Omicron: Netherlands detects 13 cases of new Covid variant from two South Africa flights
‘This could be the tip of the iceberg’ – a Dutch health minister said
Thirteen cases of the new Covid variant omicron have been detected in the Netherlands among passengers on two flights from South Africa.
Authorities at Schipol airport in Amsterdam had tested more than 600 passengers from the two flights that had arrived on Friday.
Some 61 cases of Covid in total were found – 13 (more than a fifth) of them the omicron variant, which is feared to be extremely contagious compared to previous variants.
However, experts do not yet know if the omicron variant causes more or less severe Covid compared to other variants.
The Bataclan TrialSalah Abdeslam and the Banality of Terror
The only surviving attacker from the terror commando that descended on Paris on the night of Nov. 13, 2015, is currently on trial. The young man used to like going out, drinking alcohol and smoking joints. What happened?
By Britta Sandberg in Paris
The witness, François Hollande, walks quickly through the courtroom, past the light-colored, wooden benches where the co-plaintiffs and journalists are sitting. Past the huge glass box from which 11 of the 20 defendants are following the proceedings. The former French president doesn’t even look at them before stopping at a lectern at the front of the courtroom.
Behind Hollande to the left, just a few meters from him and separated by a pane of glass, sits Salah Abdeslam, 32, the only surviving member of the terror commando that descended on Paris on Nov. 13, 2015. Never before, it seems safe to say, have a representative of terror and a representative of the state come as close to each other as in this courtroom. It didn’t happen in the military tribunals in Guantanamo, nor in other terror trials.
Iraq: Court hearing resumes on marriage of 12-year-old girl
Despite the furore surrounding the case, legal scholars say many other child-marriage situations do not get the same level of attention.
28 Nov 2021
A court has resumed hearing a case in which a judge was asked to formalise a religious wedding between a 12-year-old girl and a 25-year-old man, raising concerns across Iraq.
It was not clear whether a verdict would be given on Sunday.
The court, located in Baghdad’s Kadhamiya district, adjourned the case last week as demonstrators rallied in front of the court, chanting and holding banners with slogans such as: “Child marriage is a crime against children,” and “No to child marriage”.
Covid: Australia woman charged after setting fire in quarantine hotel
A 31-year-old woman in Australia has been charged with arson after a fire destroyed part of a Covid-19 quarantine hotel in Cairns, Queensland.
It is alleged she lit a fire under a bed in the room she had been sharing with two children on Sunday morning.
More than 160 people were evacuated as fire took hold in the 11-storey Pacific Hotel. No-one was injured.
It came as Australia confirmed two cases of the new coronavirus variant which is prompting new restrictions.
Omicron was first reported by South Africa, and has been classified as "of concern" by the World Health Organization (WHO) with early evidence suggesting a higher re-infection risk.
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