Six In The Morning Wednesday 19 January 2022

 

Europe rolled out 5G without hurting aviation. Here's how

By Charles Riley and Joseph Ataman, CNN Business

Updated 1606 GMT (0006 HKT) January 19, 2022

Major international airlines are canceling flights to the United States over aviation industry fears that 5G technology could interfere with crucial onboard instruments.

But it's business as usual in Europe, where the latest generation of high speed mobile networks is being rolled out without a hitch.

"The technical data received from EU manufacturers offers no conclusive evidence for immediate safety concerns at this time," the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) told CNN Business on Wednesday.

"At this time, EASA is not aware of any in-service incidents caused by 5G interference," added the regulator, which oversees civil aviation in 31 European countries.

Fear and defiance on Ukraine’s frontline: ‘We don’t like dictators here’

With ageing Soviet-era rockets and a depleted, elderly fleet, Ukraine’s military hold their breath for Moscow’s next move

Luke Harding in Mariupol

Wed 19 Jan 2022 14.45 GMT

Yiry Ulshin surveyed a scene of ruin. Before him were the remains of what was once a school. Desks were covered in debris. A photo of the class of 2011 lay in the wreckage. There were abandoned crayons and year 3 books in Ukrainian and Russian. Beyond a bullet-scarred wall was a view of pine trees and sea.

“My heart is hurting. Why did Russia do this?” Ulshin, a Ukrainian army commander, asked.

The abandoned primary school is situated in Shyrokyne, in eastern Ukraine, on the frontline between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian forces. The village was once a resort. Tourists would stay in its guesthouse walk along the sandy beach and paddle in the picturesque Sea of Azov.

Syrian doctor goes on trial in Germany for crimes against humanity

The unnamed doctor is accused of torturing and killing prisoners at government-run facilities in Syria

Bel Trew

A Syrian doctor accused of crimes against humanity for torturing and killing inmates at government-run facilities in Syria went on trial in a German court on Wednesday.

The legal proceedings at the Frankfurt regional court mark the first trial of a Syrian doctor on torture charges and the world’s second ever case on Syrian state-sponsored torture.

Last week a court in the German town of Koblenz sentenced an ex-Syrian intelligence officer to life in prison for crimes against humanity, a verdict that was hailed by the United Nations as a “landmark leap forward for justice“ for abuses committed during Syria’s decade-old civil war.

Could the Red Sea's heat-resilient corals help restore the world's dying reefs?

Corals in the Gulf of Aqaba have a unique evolutionary history that could help them survive the climate crisis. Scientists even hope to breed their resilience into other reefs.

Beneath the warm, crystal-clear waters of the Gulf of Aqaba at the northern tip of the Red Sea, lies a bustling city of colorful corals. At sunrise, fish emerge from their coral shelters, joining eels, turtles and octopuses to swim through these teeming waters. 

This vibrant scene is untouched by the mass bleaching that has plagued reefs elsewhere. Most corals can only survive within a narrow temperature range. As oceans get warmer, stressed corals evict their energy-producing algae and lose their color. When corals bleach and die, entire ecosystems can collapse with them. 

French tourist detained in Iran to appear in court on spying charges

A jailed French tourist in Iran, Benjamin Briere, will appear before a Revolutionary Court on Thursday on spying charges, his lawyer said on Wednesday, over a year after his arrest while operating a remote-controlled mini helicopter in a desert area.

"Benjamin will attend the court to be tried for spying and acting against national security charges," one of his lawyers Saeid Dehghan told Reuters.

Briere has been held since May 2020, when he was arrested after flying a helicam - a remote-controlled mini helicopter used to obtain aerial or motion images - in the desert near the Turkmenistan-Iran border. He was charged with espionage and "propaganda against the Islamic Republic".

Israeli forces demolish Palestinian home in Sheikh Jarrah

Israeli forces tear down the house in overnight raid displacing the family of 18 from their home in occupied East Jerusalem.

By Zena Al Tahhan

Published On 19 Jan 202219 Jan 2022

 Israeli forces have destroyed the home of a Palestinian family in Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem, days after the family tried to stave off the demolition by threatening to blow up the house.

Large numbers of Israeli police and special forces raided the Salhiyeh home and cordoned off the surrounding area at 3am (01:00 GMT) on Wednesday. The family told Al Jazeera that dozens of heavily armed forces broke into their home while they slept and assaulted family members, arresting six of them including the head of the household, Mahmoud Salhiyeh.