Thursday, March 31, 2022
The Mysterious Fugitive Billionaire, Mr Guo
Is fugitive Chinese billionaire and self-styled whistleblower Guo Wengui a brave dissident or a fraudster?
The Ukrainian Fighters Defending Kyiv | Russia–Ukraine War
As Russia pledges to scale back operations in Kyiv, soldiers from the 112th Brigade of Ukraine’s Territorial Defense are still preparing for the worst. Our cameras went inside their makeshift base.
A Postcard from Pyongyang - Traveling through North Korea secretly filming
Filmmakers Gregor Möllers and Anne Lewald visit North Korea in 2013 for the 60th anniversary of the end of the Korean War and again in 2017 for the Pyongyang Marathon as foreign tourists. Using secret recordings, they register their impressions of the notoriously closed country’s propaganda and their interactions with its people.
Ukraine war: The Syrians signing up to fight for Russia
Russia says it has signed up some 16,000 recruits from the Middle East to fight with its forces in Ukraine.
Social media in Syria has been flooded with requests for people to join Russian troops in return for up to $7,000 for deployment.
One former Syrian regime soldier who has been offered thousands of dollars to fight in the war told BBC News Arabic that his country's broken economy means hundreds of Syrians are putting themselves forward.
Six In The Morning Thursday 31 March 2022
What's the latest on the Ukraine war?
- Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that from tomorrow foreign buyers of Russian gas will have to pay in roubles by opening a Russian bank account or have their contracts cancelled
- In response, Germany - Russia's largest EU customer - said it would not be blackmailed, while France said it was planning to cut Russian gas deliveries
- The Kremlin has responded to US claims that Putin has been "misled by the Russian military" by saying that Washington does not understand the Russian president
- It comes after the head of GCHQ, the UK's intelligence, security and cyber agency, said Putin was being misled by his advisers and had made a miscalculation in his invasion of Ukraine
- The UK government has announced further sanctions against Russia, most of which target media figures
On the ground:
- A convoy of buses is on its way to Mariupol in a bid to evacuate civilians from the besieged port city after Russia agreed to a ceasefire to allow civilians to leave
- The International Committee of the Red Cross says it is ready to lead the evacuation operation if both sides agree to terms, after previous efforts collapsed
- Shelling appears to have continued around Kyiv and Chernihiv despite Russia having said it would scale down its operations there
- Ukraine's state nuclear company has said that many of the Russian troops holding the Chernobyl nuclear plant have left, according to Reuters news agency
Revealed: migrant workers in Qatar forced to pay billions in recruitment fees
Guardian investigation finds labourers – including those on World Cup-related projects – were left with huge debts
Pete Pattisson and Pramod Acharya in Kathmandu and Muhammad Owasim Uddin Bhuyan in Dhaka
Low-wage migrant workers have been forced to pay billions of dollars in recruitment fees to secure their jobs in World Cup host nation Qatar over the past decade, a Guardian investigation has found.
Bangladeshi men migrating to Qatar are likely to have paid about $1.5bn (£1.14bn) in fees, and possibly as high as $2bn, between 2011 and 2020. Nepali men are estimated to have paid around $320m, and possibly more than $400m, in the four years between mid-2015 to mid-2019.
The total cost incurred by Qatar’s low-wage migrant workforce is likely to be far higher because workers from other labour-sending countries in south Asia and Africa also pay high fees.
Opinion: The Taliban must not get away with suppressing girls' education
The West can't afford to simply stand by and watch how the Taliban turn back the clock in Afghanistan. For the sake of the people there and in its own self-interest it must act, says Waslat Hasrat-Nazimi.
Girls crying; teachers sobbing, news readers losing their composure — the Taliban's decision not to open schools for girls from the sixth grade up, despite earlier announcements to the contrary, triggered widespread shock and anger.
The Taliban kept the people of Afghanistan and the international community waiting for months, arguing that they wanted to create the necessary conditions to ensure the safety of girls and young women. Both in bilateral talks and in statements to the media, the Taliban repeatedly claimed that Afghan girls should have the right to education.
Turkey in delicate balancing act with Russia, Ukraine amid economic woes
Turkey has played a major role in the search for an end to the Ukraine war as the host for this week’s talks between Moscow and Kyiv – the product of an ambivalent stance experts say is largely rooted in the troubled Turkish economy’s deep links to both countries.
Weeks before Russia and Ukraine agreed on Istanbul as the site for the March 28-30 peace talks, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made Turkey’s equivocal position clear, saying “we cannot give up” on either nation the day before Russia invaded.
Ankara has stayed true to this approach. The Turkish foreign ministry called the invasion “unacceptable” and a “grave violation of international law” when it began on February 24. Four days later Turkey followed Ukraine’s request to recognise the conflict as a war, allowing it to close the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits to most warships under the 1936 Montreux Convention.
Court blocks bid by 7 for Minamata disease recognition
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
March 31, 2022 at 18:43 JST
The district court here March 30 ruled against seven people seeking official recognition as Minamata disease patients, thereby depriving them of eligibility to receive state assistance for their medical treatment.
The plaintiffs had called for decisions by the Kumamoto and Kagoshima prefectural governments on the issue to be revoked.
The presiding judge dismissed their requests on grounds the court could not recognize them as Minamata disease patients based on the arguments their lawyers presented. The plaintiffs vowed to appeal the ruling.
China's tech layoffs could become a self-inflicted headache for Xi
Updated 0904 GMT (1704 HKT) March 31, 2022
China's huge tech sector may be staring at its worst jobs crisis ever.
The once-freewheeling industry was long the main source of well-paid employment in China, but major companies are now reportedly downsizing at a scale not seen before as President Xi Jinping's government continues its crackdown on private enterprise.
The layoffs come as the world's second largest economy is already struggling with rising Covid-19 cases, a slump in the housing market and geopolitical tensions. They threaten to become a serious headache for the government, which wants to prioritize economic and social stability this year— with Xi expected to assume an almost unprecedented third term.
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
Our drinking water - Is the world drying up?
Only 0.3 percent of the Earth's total water supply is suitable for human consumption. Ominously, this precious resource is beginning to shrink. Natural water reservoirs are drying up due to climate change.
How Stalin starved Ukraine
In Ukraine, it’s become known as “the Holodomor,” meaning “death by starvation.” It was a genocide carried out by a dictator who wanted to keep Ukraine under his control and who would do anything to keep it covered up for decades.
In the 1930s, Soviet leaders under Joseph Stalin engineered a famine that killed millions as they sought to consolidate agricultural power. In Ukraine, they used additional force as they sought to clamp down on a burgeoning Ukrainian national identity.
Japanese Train Stations – Japan By The Numbers
This month’s Japan By Numbers number is 45. 45 of the 50 busiest train stations in the world are Japanese train stations. Here is a list of the 50 busiest train stations in the world. The top 10 (all Japanese train stations) include the average number of people using the station everyday.
1 Shinjuku Station (Tokyo, Japan) – 3.8 million people per day
2 Shibuya Station (Tokyo, Japan) – 3.0 million people per day
3 Ikebukuro Station (Tokyo) – 2.5 million people per day
4 Umeda Station (Osaka) – 2.3 million people per day
5 Yokohama Station (Kanagawa) – 2.1 million people per day
6 Kita-Senju (Tokyo, Japan) 1.5 million people per day
7 Nagoya (Aichi, Japan) 1.1 million people per day
8 Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan) 1.1 million people per day
9 Shinagawa (Tokyo, Japan) 1.0 million people per day
10 Takadanobaba (Tokyo, Japan) 0.9 million people per day
Dog saved by Ukrainian soldiers from abandoned home
Ukrainian soldiers were inspecting abandoned homes on the frontline near Kyiv, in an area that has been reclaimed from the Russians. The troops came across a lonely dog in an apartment and after finding identification documents, they discovered her name was Bavaria. A volunteer has taken the dog in and hopes to reunite it with its owner.
Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine last month, Western countries imposed a barrage of sanctions on Putin in an attempt to deter further violence. The only Asian country to impose sanctions was Japan, a nation that has its own history of conflict with Russia stretching back to the Russo-Japanese War of 1904/5
Six In The Morning Wednesday 30 March 2022
Putin's war has triggered an exodus out of Russia -- but the escape options are shrinking
Updated 1053 GMT (1853 HKT) March 30, 2022
"How to leave Russia?" Google searches for this term in Russian hit a 10-year high inside the country within a week of the invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
From Moscow to the Siberian oil capital of Novosibirsk, and from the intellectual hub of St. Petersburg to the nuclear submarine base of Murmansk, Russians are searching for a way out in anticipation of a grim future in a country torn apart by isolation, censorship and belligerence.
Analysis of search data, immigration figures and flight information, as well as interviews with experts, activists and people inside the country, shed light on how people who can no longer live in Vladimir Putin's Russia are trying to flee amid the president's war in Ukraine and political crackdown at home.
Man hanged in Singapore amid concern over surge of execution notices
Families of those facing death sentence fear authorities are pushing ahead to free up space on death row
A 68-year-old man has been hanged for drug trafficking in Singapore in the first execution to be carried out in the city state in more than two years, as the UN rights office expressed concern over a “surge in execution notices”.
Abdul Kahar bin Othman was convicted on two charges of trafficking diamorphine in 2013. He was sentenced to death in 2015.
No executions are believed to have been carried out in Singapore since 2019, due to pending court applications that have forced the authorities to halt proceedings. However, the families of those facing the death sentence fear the authorities are now pushing ahead with hangings to free up space on death row.
‘Tell Putin: who are you liberating us from?’ Ukraine’s Holocaust survivors brace for Russian forces
Odesa has been a centre of Jewish life for hundreds of years. Members of the community there tell Bel Trew of their anger and terror as Vladimir Putin – who claimed to want to ‘denazify’ Ukraine – bombards the coast
The only reason Yuri Parfenov was not murdered in the 1941 massacre of Odesa’s Jewish population is because a family hid him and his brother in a toilet pit when the soldiers came for them.
The son of a Jewish mother and a Russian father, Mr Parfenov says he was due to be taken to the neighbouring region of Mykolaiv and shot that day.
In total, 14 members of his family – including his mother – were killed during the Holocaust in Ukraine. In the Black Sea port city of Odesa, tens of thousands of Jewish residents were shot, burned alive, and worked or starved to death – predominantly by Romanian soldiers allied with Nazi Germany.
India: Doubts emerge over spiritual Yogi's environmental mission
Jaggi Vasudev, the Indian spiritual Yogi also known as "Sadhguru," is riding a motorbike thousands of kilometers to raise awareness about soil degradation. But questions are being asked over the campaign's effectiveness.
Riding 30,000 kilometers (18,640 miles) on a Ducati Multistrada 1260 across 26 countries in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, Indian spiritual leader Jaggi Vasudev is on a mission.
Known as "Sadhguru" to his followers, Vasudev's ride on this special edition bike is part of his Save Soil movement, spreading awareness about soil degradation.
New age ecological influencer
In the past two decades, Vasudev's activities have received global attention and given him the status of a new age ecological influencer.
IS group 'Beatles' member goes on trial over deaths of James Foley, Steven Sotloff
The first trial on US soil of an alleged major figure in the Islamic State (IS) group -- an accused member of the kidnap-and-murder cell known as the "Beatles" -- will begin in earnest Wednesday near Washington.
El Shafee Elsheikh, 33, is accused of involvement in the murders of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, as well as aid workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller.
The day after the selection of 18 jurors, including six alternates, prosecutors and Elsheikh's lawyers will cross swords for the first time in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia.
Rana Ayyub, journalist and Modi critic, barred from leaving India
Ayyub stopped at Mumbai airport while flying to Europe to speak about intimidation of journalists in the world’s largest democracy.
A prominent Indian journalist and activist says she has been barred from boarding a flight to London where she was scheduled to address an event on targeting of journalists in the world’s largest democracy.
Rana Ayyub, a vocal critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government, was due to take the London flight on Tuesday and then to Italy to attend different events.
Ayyub tweeted that immigration officials at Mumbai airport stopped her from boarding the flight.
Tuesday, March 29, 2022
War in Ukraine - Fight or flight?
Over a million civilians have fled west since Russia launched its military invasion of Ukraine. But many are choosing to remain and defend their country.
'What is left for us?': Mariupol resident returns to destroyed home
Residents of the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol despair at the destruction they find when they return to inspect their homes. 'What is left for us?' asks Valentina, whose home lies in ruins after Russian bombardment. The city's mayor has warned that Mariupol is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe and must be evacuated, with about 160,000 civilians trapped in the city without power
Ukraine: Sheltering with monks in a Romanian monastery
Each of the almost four million refugees who have fled Ukraine so far has their own story, the threads of their past lives, their escape routes and their current places of shelter all interwoven.
The BBC's Nick Thorpe met a family who found shelter in a Carpathian monastery in north-east Romania – living amongst monks, until one day they can return home to Kharkiv in Ukraine.
Produced, filmed and edited by Sira Thierij.
Drone filming by Ion Holbein.
War in Ukraine: Kyiv and Mariupol death toll rises | DW News
The US president makes "no apologies" for saying his Russian counterpart should be removed. Meanwhile, face-to-face talks are planned between Ukraine and Russian negotiators in Turkey.
Six In The Morning Tuesday 29 March 2022
A far-right battalion has a key role in Ukraine's resistance. Its neo-Nazi links have given Putin ammunition
Updated 1445 GMT (2245 HKT) March 29, 2022
President Vladimir Putin framed the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a "special mission" to protect Russian speakers from genocide at the hands of "neo-Nazis."
In a speech broadcast minutes before the invasion began on February 24, Putin said: "We will seek to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine," ignoring the fact that the country's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is Jewish.
For the Kremlin, Exhibit A in this special mission is the far-right Azov movement, part of the military and political landscape in Ukraine for nearly a decade.
Singapore court upholds death sentence of man with learning disabilities
Outcry over drug smuggling case of Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam, who has IQ of 69 and could be executed in days
Rebecca Ratcliffe in Bangkok
A man with learning disabilities who has spent more than a decade on death row could face execution within days after Singapore’s top court dismissed his last-ditch appeal, in a case that has drawn global condemnation.
Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam, a Malaysian national, was arrested in 2009 for attempting to smuggle 43g of heroin – about three tablespoons – into Singapore.
Nagaenthran, who was 21 at the time of his arrest, has said he was coerced into carrying the package, which was strapped to his thigh, and did not know its contents at the time
The true cost of fracked US 'freedom gas'
Hydraulic fracturing is banned across most of Europe, but, as the EU turns to the US for an alternative gas supply, how much fracked fuel will slip in through the side door?
"We think that we can switch to another vehicle, but we are still driving towards the abyss," said Andy Gheorghiu, a Germany-based anti-gas and -fracking campaigner, after US President Joe Biden and EU head Ursula von der Leyen announced a gas deal to reduce the European Union's dependence on Russian energy.
An extra 15 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) — sourced largely from hydraulic fracking wells that have mushroomed across the United States — will now land on Europe's shores from across the Atlantic this year.
Brazil's Bolsonaro admitted to hospital after feeling 'unwell'
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was admitted to a military hospital in Brasilia Monday to undergo tests after feeling unwell, local press reported. Also on Monday, the president decided to replace the president of state-owned oil giant Petrobras, Joaquim Silva e Luna, amid strong pressure due to recurrent increases in fuel prices.
Bolsonaro, 67, who was stabbed in the abdomen during the 2018 presidential campaign leaving him with lasting health problems, was absent from an evening event organised by Brazil's Republican Party that he had been slated to attend.
"I'm sure the president is fine, it's just some extra exams he's doing, that's why he's not here," party chairman Marcos Pereira said.
2 U.S. Osprey make emergency landings in Okinawa
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
March 29, 2022 at 19:00 JST
Two U.S. military Osprey aircraft made emergency landings at Shin-Ishigaki Airport here on the afternoon of March 29, according to Okinawa Prefecture and the transport ministry.
At least one of the tilt-rotor transport aircraft is assigned to U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan.
The Osprey experienced problems with a deicing system that removes ice accumulating on the aircraft after leaving Futenma for Manila, according to the West Japan Civil Aviation Bureau’s Ishigaki airport office.
Gulf states hold Yemen talks despite boycott by the Houthis
The rebels rejected the planned summit because it is taking place in Saudi Arabia rather than a neutral country.
Gulf Arab states are gathering for a summit on Tuesday on the war in Yemen that the country’s Houthi rebels are boycotting because its venue is in Saudi Arabia, their adversary in the devastating conflict.
The United Nations, diplomats, and others have pushed for another potential ceasefire to mark the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, similar to efforts for a truce over the past few years.
Monday, March 28, 2022
Could the Ukraine war spill over into Poland?
Russia has warned Poland to stay out of the war in Ukraine.
Woman whose town was overrun describes strange behavior by Russian soldiers
CNN's Sam Kiley visits a hospital in Brovary, Ukraine, and speaks to victims of Russia's military invasion.
Russia refuses to hand back more than 500 leased airplanes
Monday is the final call for Russian airlines to hand back hundreds of commercial aircraft to their foreign owners. EU sanctions mean leasing companies have had to cancel their contracts to supply Russian carriers with planes. Leased planes make up the majority of the Western-built commercial jets used by Russian airlines.
Six In The Morning Monday 28 March 2022
Russia planning retaliatory visa measures - Lavrov
Moscow is developing measures to restrict entry into Russia for nationals of "unfriendly" countries, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said.
"A draft presidential decree is being developed on retaliatory visa measures in response to the unfriendly actions of a number of foreign states," he said in televised remarks.
The state news agency Tass quoted him as saying the measures would "respond to unfriendly actions by the United States and its satellites", including "illegitimate sanctions" and "decisions that infringe on the rights of Russian citizens and legal entities".
It did not specify which countries the measures would apply to, but the government has previously approved a list of states and territories "that commit unfriendly actions against Russia, its companies, and citizens".
The list includes the United States and Canada, the EU states, the UK, Ukraine, Switzerland, Norway, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and several others.
Shanghai begins locking down millions as China’s Covid cases surge
China will shut down its largest city in two stages as it sticks to a ‘zero-Covid’ strategy amid growing outbreaks
Shanghai has begun its phased lockdown as an Omicron-fuelled Covid-19 wave spreads through mainland China’s most significant financial hub, resulting in the country seeing the highest caseloads since the early days of the pandemic.
The eastern side of the Huangpu River, which divides Shanghai, will be under lockdown between Monday and Friday, officials said, followed by a similar lockdown of its western side beginning on 1 April. Massing Covid testing across the city is also underway.
The metropolis of 25 million people has in recent days become the leading hotspot in a nationwide outbreak that began to gain pace in early March.
Leading independent Russian newspaper stops operations amid Ukraine war censorship
‘There is no other choice,’ says editor-in chief, Dmitry Muratov
Russia’s top independent newspaper has suspended its online and print operations after a warning from the country’s authorities.
Novaya Gazeta announced the decision on Monday, saying it would resume its investigative work after the war in Ukraine ends. This comes after an alleged warning from state communications regulator Roskomnadzor for failing to properly identify an organisation deemed a “foreign agent” by the Russian authorities in its publications.
The newspaper had recently removed material on what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine, following the introduction of a law that criminalised the publication of information which contradicts the Kremlin’s official narrative.
Russia labels Deutsche Welle a 'foreign agent'
DW has been put on a list of "foreign agents" in Russia, which includes a number of foreign media operations as well as NGOs that receive funding from abroad.
Russia's Justice Ministry on Monday placed Germany's international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) on a list of "foreign agents."
"This decision was made based on the documents received from the authorized state authorities," the ministry said in a statement. The statement didn't elaborate on the documents or authorities in question.
Top diplomats at Israeli-Arab summit show unity against Iran, call for Israeli-Palestinian talks
The top diplomats of the United States and four Arab countries convened in Israel on Monday in a display of unity against Iran but also used the rare summit to press their host to revive long-stalled peacemaking with the Palestinians.
Concluding the two days of discussions at a desert retreat where its founding father David Ben-Gurion is buried, Israel said the event would be repeated and expanded as it builds up commercial and security ties with like-minded Sunni Arab states.
"This new architecture – the shared capabilities we are building – intimidates and deters our common enemies, first and foremost Iran and its proxies," Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said alongside his U.S., Emirati, Bahraini, Moroccan and Egyptian counterparts.
Analysis: Can Ethiopia’s ‘truce’ end its devastating civil war?
A number of factors including lack of details and conflicting statements continue to shroud Ethiopia’s latest civil war truce in mystery.
Seventeen months into a brutal civil war, the Ethiopian government announced on Friday that it had declared a unilateral truce, ostensibly to facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid and end the conflict without further bloodshed.
The UN, US and a host of European states have already commended the development.
“The United States welcomes and strongly supports the declaration today [by Ethiopia] of an indefinite humanitarian truce,” read a statement by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
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