Monday, January 31, 2022

Six In The Morning Monday 31 January 2022

 

Kremlin accuses US of stoking 'hysteria' over Ukraine, as UN Security Council meets

Updated 1605 GMT (0005 HKT) January 31, 2022


Russia has accused Washington of stoking "hysteria" over the crisis on the Ukrainian border, and the United Nations Security Council met to discuss the simmering tensions.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Washington and US outlets have played up fears of a Russian invasion.
"To our dismay, American media have lately been publishing a very large amount of unverified, distorted and deliberately deceitful information about what's happening in Ukraine and around it," Peskov said Monday.



Canada investigating anti-vaxxers for allegedly desecrating monuments


Thousands gathered in Ottawa to protest mandates and some urinated on the National War Memorial

AP in Ottawa

Police in Canada’s capital are investigating possible criminal charges after anti-vaccine protesters urinated on the National War Memorial, danced on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, harassed volunteers at a soup kitchen and used the statue of Canadian hero Terry Fox to display an anti-vaccine statement.


Thousands of protesters gathered in Ottawa Saturday to protest vaccine mandates, masks and lockdowns. Some travelled in truck convoys and parked on the streets around Parliament Hill, blocking traffic.

Ottawa police said officers were also investigating threatening behavior to police and others.


Ayia Napa: British woman wants fresh investigation after court rules she did not make up gang rape claims

Her lawyer tells The Independent she’s been through ‘one of the worst imaginable times in her life’

Maya Oppenheim

Women’s Correspondent


A British woman whose conviction over lying about being gang-raped in Cyprus has been quashed now wants a fresh investigation into her case, her lawyers say.

The 21-year-old university student from Derbyshire was forced to spend four-and-a-half weeks in a prison in the Cypriot capital of Nicosia during the summer of 2019 after alleging she was sexually assaulted by up to 12 young Israeli tourists in a hotel room in the party resort of Ayia Napa.

The woman, whose identity cannot revealed, was charged after signing a retraction statement 10 days later but has since maintained officers forced her to revoke the rape allegation.


Press freedom rapidly deteriorating in China — report

Foreign journalists working in China are facing "unprecedented hurdles" ahead of the Winter Olympics, according to a new survey. Reporters in the Xinjiang region also say they are being increasingly harassed.

Foreign journalists in China are facing "unprecedented hurdles," according to a press freedom report by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China (FCCC) released on Monday.

"The FCCC is troubled by the breakneck speed by which media freedom is declining in China," the report said.

What did the report say?

Of the over 100 foreign journalists that took part in the FCCC's survey, 99% said that they felt working conditions did not meet international standards.


Climate change, population threaten 'staggering' US flood losses by 2050


 Climate change is on track to ramp up the annual cost of US flood damage more than 25 percent by 2050, according to new research Monday that warns disadvantaged communities will likely bear the brunt of the financial burden.

The study published in the journal Nature Climate Change used new flood models to map out the present and future impact of sea level rise, tropical cyclones and changing weather patterns.

Losses include destruction projected to hit homes and businesses. Researchers warned that even more people are expected to move into areas at growing risk of inundation.

COVID: Iran’s parliament suspended amid rapid spread of Omicron


Daily cases are rising fast, reaching close to 29,000 COVID infections on Monday.




Iran’s parliament has temporarily suspended its sessions because of an outbreak of COVID-19 among MPs as the Omicron variant spreads across the country at an explosive rate.

Senior lawmaker Nezam Mousavi announced on Monday that at least 47 members of the 290-member parliament have tested positive for the virus, prompting it to cancel its public sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Parliamentary commissions also suspended their sessions this week as per guidelines by the national anti-coronavirus task force.


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