Six In The Morning Sunday 16 January 2022

 

Europe's loud, rule-breaking unvaccinated minority are falling out of society

By Rob Picheta, CNN

Updated 0816 GMT (1616 HKT) January 16, 2022

Before Covid-19, Nicolas Rimoldi had never attended a protest.

But somewhere along the pandemic's long and tortuous road, which saw his native Switzerland imposing first one lockdown, then another, and finally introducing vaccination certificates, Rimoldi decided he had had enough.

Now he leads Mass-Voll, one of Europe's largest youth-orientated anti-vaccine passport groups.

Because he has chosen not to get vaccinated, student and part-time supermarket cashier Rimoldi is -- for now, at least -- locked out of much of public life. Without a vaccine certificate, he can no longer complete his degree or work in a grocery store. He is barred from eating in restaurants, attending concerts or going to the gym.

Kazakhstan authorities raise death toll from unrest to 225

Prosecutor says dead include security forces and ‘armed bandits’, with toll dramatically increased from previous figures

Guardian staff and agencies

Sun 16 Jan 2022 02.57 GMT

The violent unrest in Kazakhstan that began with peaceful protests in early January has left 225 people dead, authorities have said in a dramatic increase on previous tolls.

“During the state of emergency, the bodies of 225 people were delivered to morgues, of which 19 were law enforcement officers and military personnel,” Serik Shalabayev, the head of criminal prosecution at the prosecutor’s office, told a briefing on Saturday.

Others were “armed bandits who participated in terrorist attacks”, Shalabayev added. “Unfortunately, civilians have also become victims of acts of terrorism.”

The Ukraine Crisis

NATO Insiders Fear Attack on Multiple Fronts

Hopes are waning within NATO that Russian President Vladimir Putin can be stopped from invading Ukraine. At the military alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, officials are increasingly alarmed by even worse scenarios.

By Markus Becker und Matthias Gebauer in Brussels and Berlin

Jens Stoltenberg's fist was clenched when he approached the Russians, but only so he could give them a corona fist bump. Still, when the NATO secretary-general posed for a photo with Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko and Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin on Wednesday, their stiff postures and somber expressions made it clear that it was far from a relaxed occasion.

It was the first meeting of the NATO-Russia Council at NATO headquarters in Brussels in over two years. Ahead of the gathering, the alliance’s foreign ministers held a video conference. The United States undersecretary of state and her Russian counterpart met in Geneva on Monday. And on Wednesday, the EU foreign and defense ministers held a meeting in Brest, France.

Sudan doctors protest state violence in post-coup rallies

Sudanese doctors protested Sunday against violent attacks by security forces targeting medical personnel during pro-democracy rallies following last year's military coup.

"During every protest they fire tear gas inside the hospital where I work," one doctor, Houda Ahmad, said at the rally in Khartoum.

"They even attack us inside the intensive care unit," she added at the rally, where medical personnel carried pictures of colleagues they said had been killed.

Tsunami threat recedes; volcanic ash hinders Tonga response

The massive ash cloud covering the island nation prevented surveillance flights from New Zealand from assessing the damage.

The tsunami threat around the Pacific from a huge undersea volcanic eruption receded on Sunday, but a massive ash cloud covering the tiny island nation of Tonga prevented surveillance flights from New Zealand from assessing the extent of damage.

Satellite images showed the spectacular eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano that took place on Saturday with a plume of ash, steam and gas rising like a mushroom above the blue Pacific waters. A sonic boom could be heard as far away as Alaska.

Cherry blossoms set to bloom even earlier in Japan this year

By Oona McGee, SoraNews24

Now that we’re past the Dec 22 winter solstice here in Japan, the days are gradually becoming longer, carrying us gently towards the warmer months of spring.

That means it won’t be long until cherry blossom season is upon us, and every year we await the forecast that lets us know when the nation’s somei yoshino trees, Japan’s most popular sakura variety, are expected to bloom.

Japanese weather site Weathernews was first with the forecast again this year, and according to their predictions, it’s going to be yet another early start to the season, not just in Tokyo but at all major locations around Japan.