Six In The Morning Saturday 5 February 2022

 

Rescue workers in Morocco edge closer to boy trapped in well

Five-year-old called Rayan fell and became trapped on Tuesday near hill town of Chefchaouen

Agencies

Sat 5 Feb 2022 11.29 GMT

Rescuers have have entered a tunnel to free a five-year-old boy who has been trapped for days after falling into a well in northern Morocco.

Workers with mechanical diggers have been trying round the clock to rescue five-year-old Rayan after he fell into a 32 metre (105ft) deep well in the hills near Chefchaouen on Tuesday.

“We have 2 metres more to dig to reach Rayan and we hope we will not encounter rocks,” lead rescuer Thamrani Abdelhadi told reporters at the site on Saturday afternoon.

Furious locals plan to hurl rotten eggs at Jeff Bezos’ superyacht

Residents of Rotterdam are set to vent their rage this summer

Laurie Churchman

Livid locals are planning to pelt billionaire Jeff Bezos’s superyacht with rotten eggs – after officials in Rotterdam agreed to dismantle a historic bridge so the £400 million mega-vessel can pass through.

The luxury boat – set to be the world’s largest sailing yacht – is being built by a Dutch firm and is too large to fit through the Koningshaven Bridge on its way out to sea.

The mayor’s office said the 1878 steel bridge, a national monument, would be temporarily taken apart.

Critical journalists in Russia fall silent

Many journalists in Russia practise self-censorship for fear of reprisals, and state pressure is commonplace. Fewer and fewer are willing to take the risk of reporting critically about the government.

Out of 180 countries in the 2021 Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Russia comes in at number 150. Russia describes itself in its constitution as a "democratic federal state governed by the rule of law" — but the RSF's ranking rates the press freedom situation there as "bad."

More than 100 foreign and domestic media organizations and individuals appear on the list of "foreign agents" drafted by the Russian Ministry of Justice.

Amnesty report on Israeli ‘apartheid’ garners bipartisan US fury

Advocates say despite Congressional leaders’ vehement opposition, ‘apartheid’ charge against Israel will not go away.

By Ali Harb

Published On 5 Feb 20225 Feb 2022

 In an era of hyper-partisanship in the United States, a new bipartisan consensus appeared to emerge on Capitol Hill this week: condemning Amnesty International over its report accusing Israel of committing the crime of apartheid against Palestinians.

Dozens of US lawmakers from both major parties, including powerful legislators and heads of key committees in the House of Representatives and Senate, have released statements rejecting Amnesty’s findings – with some accusing the group of fuelling antisemitism.

Some people in a cheering crowd called for her to be raped. Many were women

By Esha Mitra, CNN

Updated 0514 GMT (1314 HKT) February 5, 2022

Her hair was cut off and her face painted black before she was paraded into the street where some people in a cheering crowd called for her to be raped.

But perhaps the most shocking aspect of the attack in a Delhi neighborhood last month is that video shared on social media shows that most of the baying mob were women.

At least 12 people have been arrested by the Delhi police, eight of whom are women. Two are minors. Police have not brought charges over the incident, but they say the 20-year-old victim of the January 26 attack was abducted and physically and sexually assaulted.

Mexican journalists shocked with surge in targeted killings

By Will Grant
BBC News, Tijuana, Mexico

Lourdes Maldonado López had been driving her car with a clear plastic sheet over the rear windscreen for almost a year. The glass had been shattered by a gunman's bullet in March.

"We knew finances were tight, but I had no idea things were that bad," says Sonia de Anda, bursting into tears at the memory of her friend's patched-up red Dodge vehicle. "If she had come to us, we might have been able to help."

On that occasion, the bullet was only a warning, fired through the gate of her narrow residential street in the border city of Tijuana.