Friday, November 5, 2021

Six In The Morning Friday 5 November 2021

 

Youth activists protest against climate inaction at COP26

The rally led by Greta Thunberg comes as week one of the UN climate summit draws to a close amid calls for further commitments.

Youth activists are taking over the United Nations COP26 summit in Scotland to protest against what they say is a dangerous lack of action by leaders over climate change.

Two days of demonstrations, including a student march on Friday led by Greta Thunberg, are planned to highlight the disconnect between the glacial pace of emissions reductions and the climate emergency already swamping countries across the world, with thousands of people expected to take part.


Italian prosecutor’s claims against Guardian reporter flagged by human rights watchdog


Calogero Ferrara’s libel suits against Lorenzo Tondo marked as potential intimidation on Council of Europe ‘safety platform’


 in Brussels


Two libel claims by an aggrieved Italian prosecutor against a Guardian journalist have been flagged as potential acts of state “harassment and intimidation” on an alert system run by Europe’s leading government-backed human rights organisation, the Council of Europe.

Calogero Ferrara, a prosecutor in Palermo, filed the defamation suits in 2019 against the journalist Lorenzo Tondo over a Facebook post and a series of allegedly inaccurate articles published by the Guardian. A first hearing of one of the libel cases has now been set for February 2022.

It is claimed in an alert posted on the Council of Europe “safety platform” by the European federation of Journalists and the International Federation of Journalists that the lawsuits will in effect prevent Tondo from carrying out his reporting duties. The Italian government is yet to respond to the alert.


Engulfed by crisis after crisis, hope fades in the Horn of Africa

Unfolding disasters in Ethiopia, Tigray, Sudan and Somalia with dire consequences for millions have undermined any fragile optimism for the region, reports Borzou Daragahi


Ethiopia is on the verge of full-scale civil war. The confrontation between the authoritarian armed forces and the democratic-minded public in Sudan is escalating. Somalia’s extremist al-Shabaab movement is gaining momentum on the ground, once again threatening the government in Mogadishu.

Just months ago the long troubled Horn of Africa had settled into a fragile but hopeful period of relative calm, with signs of economic and social progress and hopes for durable political stability. Now though, much of that has come undone, and a region that has long been a source of violence, displacement and extremism appears on the verge of cataclysm and further economic ruin.

Afghan refugees in Uzbekistan live in uncertainty, facing deportation

Rights groups say hundreds of Afghans fled to neighboring Uzbekistan to escape the Taliban. But, without official refugee status in the Central Asian country, they are vulnerable and could face deportation.

Almost every day Marina's family turns the living room carpet of their flat into a dance floor. When the music starts, her two little sons immediately bop and twist to the song, as the whole family claps along. 

Marina, a 26-year-old Afghan journalist and women's rights activist, fled from the city of Mazar-i-Sharif in mid-August, along with her husband, her two small sons, her sister and her brother-in-law. Now they are in an apartment in Uzbekistan's capital, Tashkent, funded by several international NGOs. Since they left Afghanistan for Uzbekistan, they have been trying to keep their spirits up — but Marina is finding it hard to ignore what happened.


Chinese journalist jailed for Covid-19 coverage in dire health after hunger strike, family says

A citizen journalist jailed for her coverage of China’s initial response to Covid in Wuhan is close to death after going on hunger strike, her family said, prompting renewed calls from rights groups for her immediate release.

Zhang Zhan, 38, a former lawyer, travelled to Wuhan in February 2020 to report on the chaos at the pandemic’s epicentre, questioning authorities’ handling of the outbreak in her smartphone videos.

She was detained in May 2020 and sentenced in December to four years in jail for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”—a charge routinely used to suppress dissent.

Pfizer says its experimental pill reduces risk of hospitalization, death from Covid-19


Updated 1528 GMT (2328 HKT) November 5, 2021


Drugmaker Pfizer said Friday its experimental pill designed to fight coronavirus reduced the risk of hospitalization and death for high-risk patients taking part in a trial of the drug.

The company hopes it can eventually offer the pill, given in combination with an older antiviral drug called ritonavir, to people to take at home before they get sick enough to go to the hospital.
A so-called interim analysis -- done before the trial was scheduled to end -- showed an 89% reduction in the risk of hospitalization or death from Covid-19 if patients got it soon enough, the company said.





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