Six In The Morning Wednesday 29 December 2021

 

The latest on coronavirus pandemic and Omicron variant

By Rhea Mogul, Adam Renton, Tara John and Ed Upright, CNN

What we're covering

• The US reported a record seven-day average of new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University data, as a rapid acceleration of infections continues in the country. 
• Several European countries — including France, the UK, Italy and Portugal — are also seeing a large increase in cases, with several setting new pandemic records.
• Meanwhile, Mexico said it will allow cruise ships with Covid-19 positive passengers to disembark in the country and will provide medical assistance to those who need it.

Hong Kong media outlet Stand News to close after police raid

Reports say editors, board members and pop singer were held in early morning sweep as 200 officers raid office

Rhoda Kwan in Taipei and agencies

Wed 29 Dec 2021 09.04 GMT

The Hong Kong pro-democracy media outlet Stand News has said it will shut down after police raided its offices earlier in the day and arrested senior staff on suspicion of “conspiracy to publish seditious publications”.

“Because of the situation, Stand News is now stopping operations,” the online publication said in a Facebook post on Wednesday. “Acting editor in chief, Patrick Lam, has resigned and all Stand News employees are dismissed.”

Earlier, hundreds of Hong Kong national security police raided the offices of the media outlet and arrested six people, including senior staff, in the latest crackdown on independent press in the territory.

France ups pressure on unvaccinated amid record infections

France’s government is forging ahead with efforts to increase pressure on unvaccinated people to get coronavirus jabs

Via AP news wire

France’s government is forging ahead with efforts to increase pressure on unvaccinated people to get coronavirus shots, as the country reported 208,000 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday — a record fueled by the omicron variant.

Health Minister Olivier Veran on Wednesday defended a government plan to allow only the fully vaccinated to enjoy continued access to places such as restaurants, cinemas, theaters, museums, and sports arenas. The pass will also be required on long-distance trains and domestic flights.

Veran said at a parliamentary hearing that the record number of infections means that more than two French people are testing positive every second for COVID-19. Veran estimated that about 10% of the French population has been in contact recently with a person infected with the virus.

In 2021, Big Tech may have finally gotten too big

A rapid uptake in technology has made living through a pandemic easier and safer. But regulators are starting to ask: at what cost?

A new year is approaching and, thanks to the pandemic, brings with it the prospect of New Year's Eve celebrations built around the video calls and digital health passes that became a norm in 2021.

"A lot of these technologies were initially adopted at a time when we thought this was a short emergency," Frederike Kaltheuner, tech policy analyst and Director of the European AI Fund, a philanthropic initiative focused on shaping the role of artificial intelligence in Europe, told DW. "And I think 2022 is the year we're going to realize that this isn't really going away."

'This is not a life': The displaced Syrians selling trash to survive

At a vast landfill on the outskirts of the Syrian city of Raqqa, once the Islamic State group's capital, men, women and young children scour the rubbish for scrap metal or anything else they can sell on. They are just some of the millions of Syrians displaced by a decade of conflict that has left around nine in 10 of the population living in poverty.

Guatemalans still seek justice, 25 years after civil war’s end

Survivors decry new amnesty bill that would free perpetrators of crimes against humanity during 1960-1996 civil war.

 Julia Poyon was three years old when Guatemalan soldiers broke down the door to her family’s home and took her father away. Now decades later, Poyon says her only hazy memory of him is from a joyful night before his 1981 abduction.

“We went to church one night and I remember he carried me on his shoulders,” Poyon told Al Jazeera. “I remember he was wearing a hat. I can’t remember his face.”