Six In The Morning Monday 17 January 2022

 

How a failed social experiment in Denmark separated Inuit children from their families

Story by Tara John, CNN
Photographs by Rasmus Degnbol/Redux for CNN

Seven-year-old Helene Thiesen peered out from aboard the passenger ship MS Disko, knowing she was setting sail from Greenland to a place called Denmark. What she could not understand is why her mother had chosen to send her away on that unhappy day in 1951.

“I was so sad,” Thiesen, now 77 years old, recalled to CNN. Rigid with sorrow, Thiesen was unable to wave back to her mother and two siblings, who were watching from the harbor off the coast of the Greenland capital, Nuuk. “I looked into (my mother’s) eyes and thought, why was she letting me go?”

Thiesen was one of 22 Inuit children who were taken from their homes not knowing that they would end up being part of a failed social experiment. Aged between 5 and 9 years old, many of them would never see or live with their families again, becoming forgotten about and marginalized in their native land.

Russia would pay ‘high price’ for attack on Ukraine, says German minister

Annalena Baerbock says Germany will not compromise on ‘basic principles’ ahead of meeting with Russian foreign minister

Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor and Philip Oltermann in Berlin

The new German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, sought to reassure a nervous Ukraine that she will not allow Germany to compromise on the basic principles of Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty when she meets the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, in Moscow for the first time on Tuesday.

Baerbock, a member of the Green party, said on a visit to Kyiv she was ready for serious dialogue with Russia about mutual security, but was not willing to backtrack “on basic principles such as territorial inviolability, the free choice of alliances and the renunciation of the threat of violence”.

She said Moscow, which has massed troops on Ukraine’s borders, would suffer if it launched an attack. “Each further aggressive act will have a high price for Russia, economically, strategically, politically,” she told a news conference with her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba. “Diplomacy is the only way.”

Turkish court clears German journalist Mesale Tolu of terror charges

A court in Turkey has acquitted journalist and translator Mesale Tolu of belonging to a terrorist organization. Tolu said "the verdict cannot make up for the repression and the time spent in detention."

An Istanbul court on Monday cleared journalist and translator Mesale Tolu of belonging to a terrorist organization.

Tolu — who was born in the southern German city of Ulm — and her husband Suat Corlu had also been charged with spreading terrorist propaganda. 

Both did not take part in the proceedings, having already left Turkey to return to Germany.

"After 4 years, 8 months and 20 days: Acquittal on both charges!" wrote Tolu on Twitter. 

Vaccinate whole world to end pandemic, UN chief tells Davos

 UN chief Antonio Guterres told the all-virtual Davos forum on Monday that the world must vaccinate everybody against Covid-19 to ensure a way out of the pandemic.

The face-to-face gathering of political and corporate power players in the Swiss Alps is online for the second year in a row due to a pandemic that shows no sign of abating.

"The last two years have demonstrated a simple but brutal truth -- if we leave anyone behind, we leave everyone behind," said the United Nations Secretary-General.

Tonga tsunami: Anxious wait for news after Tonga cut off

Tongans living overseas are facing an anxious wait for news of loved ones after a volcano triggered a tsunami.

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano erupted on Saturday, about 65km (40 miles) north of the capital Nuku'alofa.

The eruption, which was heard as far away as the US, caused waves higher than a metre to crash into Tonga.

The authorities have not confirmed any deaths but communications are crippled, making it difficult to establish the scale of the destruction.

27th anniversary of Great Hanshin Earthquake observed

Jan. 17  04:35 pm JST 

Events were held on Monday morning to mark the 27th anniversary of the Great Hanshin Earthquake in Hyogo Prefecture.

The magnitude 7.3 earthquake, which struck at 5:46 a.m. on Jan 17, 1995, killed 6,434 people in Hyogo Prefecture and neighboring areas.

Before dawn Monday, 3,000 bamboo lanterns were lit and arranged in the figures 1.17 and the kanji characters “忘れない” (We will never forget), at Higashi Yuenchi Park in Chuo Ward, Kobe, to pay tribute to the victims. Several hundred people gathered at the park at 5:46 a.m. to offer prayers for the victims.