Six In The Morning Saturday 19 February 2022

 

Ukraine conflict: Rebels declare general mobilisation as fighting grows

Ukraine's Russian-backed breakaway eastern territories have ordered military mobilisations amid a deadly escalation in fighting.

Men of fighting age in the self-declared people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk are being put on stand-by.

US President Joe Biden says he is convinced Russia will invade Ukraine, an allegation Moscow denies.

Western nations have accused Russia of trying to stage a fake crisis in the eastern regions as a pretext to invade.

Ottawa: police use pepper spray and stun grenades to clear trucker protest

‘We told you to leave,’ police say on Twitter, before confronting protesters against Covid mandates and Trudeau government

Reuters in Ottawa

Sat 19 Feb 2022 16.25 GMT

Canadian police on Saturday used pepper spray and stun grenades to try to restore normality to the capital, Ottawa, after trucks and demonstrators occupied the downtown core for more than three weeks in a protest against pandemic restrictions.

After clearing a portion of the blockade and making more than 100 arrests on Friday, police on Saturday morning moved quickly to disperse the main portion of the blockade in front of parliament and the prime minister’s office, making new arrests.

“We told you to leave. We gave you time to leave. We were slow and methodical, yet you were assaultive and aggressive with officers and the horses,” police said in a statement to the truckers posted on Twitter.

Russia launches hypersonic missiles in nuclear drills as ‘show of strength’ amid Ukraine tensions

Ballistic and cruise missiles hit sea and land-based targets in practice launches overseen by Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko

Chiara Giordano

Russia has hit sea and land-based targets with ballistic and cruise missiles as part of strategic nuclear exercises amid growing tensions with Ukraine.

The annual exercises featured launches of Kinzhal and Tsirkon hypersonic missiles and a number of other weapons on Saturday, the Kremlin said in a statement.

President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko observed the exercises on screens from what the Kremlin called a “situation centre”.

India: How farmers' movement may shape Punjab's political future

As Punjab state goes to the polls this week, new political parties affiliated with farmers' unions want to continue the momentum of India's agrarian protest movement.

Anuroop Kaur Sandhu was an assistant professor at Delhi University last year when India saw one of the largest protests in its history.

Thousands of farmers, primarily from the northern states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh marched to the borders of Delhi to demand the repeal of contentious agricultural laws passed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

After months of protests, the legislation was scrapped in December 2021.

EDITORIAL: Mr. Kishida, please tell it like is on pandemic realities

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida skirted disturbing developments in the sixth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic now sweeping Japan, including record numbers of deaths, while referring to an “exit” strategy from restrictions during a Feb. 17 news conference.

But Kishida cannot allay the public’s anxiety by simply sugar-coating the situation. In his policy messages, Kishida needs to demonstrate he is fully cognizant of the harsh reality.

The news conference was his first since the latest surge in cases, driven by the Omicron variant, flared. As the pace of the rise of new cases has started slowing, Kishida said the nation should now start the process of “moving gradually toward the exit.”

Why some North Korean defectors return to one of the world's most repressive regimes

By Yoonjung Seo and Julia Hollingsworth, CNN

Updated 0006 GMT (0806 HKT) February 19, 2022

He risked his life fleeing from one of the world's most repressive regimes, traversing a militarized stretch protected by barbed wire fences. Then a year later, he went back -- the way he came.

More than one month since the man crossed the demilitarized zone from South to North Korea, much of his life in both countries remains a mystery -- as do his reasons for returning to the isolated nation ruled by Kim Jong Un.

South Korean media reported that the defector -- who hasn't been officially named, although fellow defectors say he was called Kim Woo-jeong in South Korea -- was a former gymnast who largely kept to himself. According to South Korean police, he was a construction worker in his 30s who earned money by doing manual labor.