The latest on the coronavirus pandemic and Omicron variant
By Aditi Sangal, Adrienne Vogt, Melissa Mahtani, Helen Regan, Joshua Berlinger and Adam Renton, CNN
What we're covering here
- Airlines have canceled thousands of flights on Christmas Eve, including hundreds of US domestic flights, as staff and crew call out sick during the Omicron surge.
- Around the world, people are also dealing with renewed restrictions. Spain, Greece and Italy are among a host of countries mandating masks outdoors again, starting today.
- Meanwhile, the Biden administration announced it will lift a travel ban on eight southern African countries – initially put in place over the Omicron variant – on Dec. 31.
Two Hong Kong universities remove Tiananmen artworks after Pillar of Shame dismantled
CUHK’s Goddess of Democracy and a sculpture at Lingnan University were removed overnight as authorities move to erase memorials to the massacre
Two more Hong Kong universities have removed works of art marking Beijing’s deadly 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square democracy protesters, as authorities move to erase memorials to the event.
The removals come a day after Hong Kong’s oldest university took down a statue named the Pillar of Shame, commemorating the events of 1989, sparking outcry by activists and dissident artists in the city and abroad.
Hong Kong used to be the one place in China where mass remembrance of Tiananmen was still tolerated, with thousands gathering each year to mourn the hundreds of democracy protesters killed by Chinese troops in 1989.
‘Burn it all down’
How Myanmar’s military razed
villages to crush a growing resistance
For decades, Thantlang had known peace. The town’s mostly Christian residents cherished their home among mountains in northwest Myanmar, where they hosted an annual soccer tournament. At Christmas, they would feast.
All that changed after a military coup in February. Chin state, which includes Thantlang, had emerged as an unlikely stronghold for the resistance as Myanmar spiraled toward civil war.
In August, the military summoned town elders to deliver a warning. A commander “repeatedly told us that the town will be burned down to ash if we do not cooperate with them,” said a pastor from one of Thantlang’s churches, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
Polish deputy PM says Germany wants to turn EU into ‘fourth reich’
Jarosław Kaczyński’s remarks in far-right newspaper are latest episode in Poland’s lengthy standoff with EU
The head of Poland’s ruling party, Jarosław Kaczyński, has said Germany is trying to turn the EU into a federal “German fourth reich”.
Speaking to the far-right Polish newspaper GPC, the head of the Law and Justice party (PiS) said some countries “are not enthusiastic at the prospect of a German fourth reich being built on the basis of the EU”.
“If we Poles agreed with this kind of modern-day submission we would be degraded in different ways,” said Kaczyński, who is also a deputy prime minister. He added that the European court of justice was being used as an “instrument” for federalist ideas.
Russian mercenaries in Mali, deployment of Wagner group
India: Hindu event calling for genocide of Muslims sparks outrage
Police file case after videos go viral on social media of a meeting in which Hindu religious leaders called for mass killings and use of weapons against Muslims.
Videos showing Hindu religious leaders in India calling for genocide against Muslims have sparked outrage and prompted demands for action.
Indian police said on Friday they had launched a hate-speech investigation into last week’s event in Haridwar, in northern Uttarakhand state, in which participants called for the mass killings and use of weapons against Muslims.
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