Saturday, April 30, 2022
Burnout: The truth about overwork and what we can do about it
Why do we work, and why are we working more than ever? Overwork is damaging our lives and the planet. This film takes a look at the past and also asks how we can change the future of work. The Japanese have a word for overwork resulting in death: Karoshi.
Rescue efforts under way after China building collapse
Eighteen people remain trapped under rubble following a building collapse in China.
Rescue efforts are continuing after the incident which occurred on Friday in the city of Changsha, in China's Hunan Province
Chinese President Xi Jinping has asked for a full investigation into the collapse.
Ukraine update: Heavy losses and evidence of brutality | DW News
Ukrainian troops are trying to hold off Russian attacks in much of Ukraine's east. The Kremlin is seeking to capture the industrial Donbas region, but many observers say that Russian gains are smaller than expected. Ukraine has admitted heavy losses in the east, but says Russian casualties are far higher. Evidence of Russian brutality under Vladimir Putin has shocked western officials - even those with military backgrounds.
Six In The Morning Saturday 30 April 2022
They fled Ukraine to protect their children. Now these mothers are returning home
Updated 0408 GMT (1208 HKT) April 30, 2022
At the train station in Lviv, on the westernmost edge of Ukraine, women are at a physical and psychological crossroads.
After arriving in the city, now a waypoint for displaced people, humanitarian aid and weapons, they've had to ask themselves a set of daunting questions. Where should we go next? Will my children be safe there? How long will we stay?
In the back of their minds is a gnawing fear: Will we even have a home to return to?
Beijing bans restaurant dining as holiday begins in zero-Covid clampdown
Chinese capital says negative test needed to enter some public areas, sporting events and to use public transport
Agence France-Presse in Beijing
Restaurants across Beijing will temporarily ban dining-in and residents will need negative Covid tests to visit public spaces, officials said on Saturday, in a major ramping up of virus controls at the start of the Labour Day holiday.
The five-day break is typically one of China’s busiest travel periods, but the country’s worst Covid resurgence since early in the pandemic is expected to keep people at home.
Faced with the highly transmissible Omicron variant, Chinese officials have doubled down on their zero-Covid policy, quashing virus clusters through mass testing and lockdowns.
Erdogan's Saudi Arabia trip could be a game changer for Middle East
Turkish President Erdogan's two-day trip to Riyadh will most likely boost bilateral ties but what's more crucial is that it could change the security situation for the entire region, from Iran to the war in Yemen.
It's rare that the visit of a head of state has a whole region holding its breath.
However, the two-day trip by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Saudi Arabia has the potential to not only revive ties between the two countries but could be a game changer for the entire region.
Following a first meeting with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the Saudi state news agency.
Palestinian militant group claims responsibility for killing Al-Aqsa mosque guard
Israeli security forces reinforced their presence in the occupied West Bank on Saturday and made arrests after the killing of a guard at a Jewish settlement.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, one of the main militant groups present in the West Bank, claimed responsibility for the murder which -- along with the killing of a Palestinian, brought a deadly conclusion to a Friday marked by clashes at Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque.
The army said the guard was on duty at the entrance to Ariel settlement on Friday night when attackers opened fire. Emergency services confirmed that the man, in his 20s, had died from his wounds.
1st film written by Japanese AI bot takes movie-making to next phase
By Donican Lam
Writer's block may become a thing of the past as artificial intelligence is increasingly harnessed in the creative arts, and the first film written by a Japanese AI bot is aiming to demonstrate what it can do at a major short film festival this year.
"Boy Sprouted," a 26-minute short written by the AI "Furukoto" and directed by Yuko Watanabe, will feature in the lineup at the Short Shorts Film Festival and Asia, one of the region's biggest film festivals, themed this year on "meta cinema."
The story centers on a boy and his particular dislike of tomatoes, prompting his mother to go to great lengths to make him eat them. But little does she know her son has a plant literally sprouting from his back -- an idea that Furukoto cultivated itself.
Ethiopian drought leading to ‘dramatic’ increase in child marriage, Unicef warns
With hunger across Horn of Africa and 600,000 children out of school, ‘desperate’ parents push more girls into early marriage
Drought-afflicted areas of Ethiopia are seeing “dramatic” increases in child marriage as the worst climate-induced emergency for 40 years pushes people to the brink, the head of Unicef has said.
Three consecutive failed rainy seasons have brought hunger, malnutrition and mass displacement to millions of people in the Horn of Africa, including parts of Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and Djibouti.
Many girls in Ethiopia now face being married at a young age as their parents seek to find extra resources through dowries from the husband’s family, and hope their daughters will be fed and protected by wealthier families, warned Catherine Russell, Unicef’s executive director.
Friday, April 29, 2022
Ukraine: A City Under Siege
How civilians in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv are living under daily attacks from Russian forces.
Shanghai lockdown: Residents protest after five weeks of strict zero-Covid measures
Residents have been banging pans and shouting from the windows of their homes, to protest against the government enforced lockdown in Shanghai. The Chinese government has been pursuing a zero-Covid strategy since the beginning of the pandemic, with the aim of keeping the country entirely Covid free. Criticism of the government is rare in China, but residents said they have struggled to access food supplies, while others have been temporarily evacuated from their homes so they can be disinfected.
Russia plans to seize assets of foreign companies
The Kremlin is exerting pressure to bring as many companies back to Russia as possible. Using questionable methods. The German automotive supplier Continental, for example, was forced to restart production at its Kaluga plant southwest of Moscow - due to the threat of reprisals.
According to Vladimir Putin and his propaganda machine Russias economy is soaring. So., why they force corporations too restart their operations?
Six In The Morning Friday 29 April 2022
After epic journey, orphaned Ukrainian girl is reunited with grandfather
Updated 2101 GMT (0501 HKT) April 28, 2022
When 12-year-old Kira Obedinsky, orphaned by war, was whisked from her hometown of Mariupol to a hospital in a Russian-controlled area of eastern Ukraine earlier in March, she was unsure if she would ever be reunited with her remaining family members.
Now in Kyiv, against all the odds, she sits on a hospital bed with her grandfather Oleksander Obedinsky -- and on Wednesday spoke to CNN for the first time about her ordeal. She continues to recover from injuries that nurses say include shell fragment wounds to her face, neck, and legs. Her scarred face and introverted manner are signs of the physical and psychological trauma she has suffered.
The Obedinsky family has been torn apart by this war. Kira's father, Yevhen Obedinsky, a former captain of Ukraine's national water polo team, was killed on March 17 as Russian forces shelled the city. In that moment, Kira was orphaned, her mother having died when Kira was two weeks old.
South Africa may be entering fifth Covid wave earlier than expected
Rise in infections appears to be driven by Omicron sub-variants, say health officials
Reuters
Fri 29 Apr 2022 10.42 BST
South Africa may be entering a fifth Covid wave earlier than expected after a sustained rise in infections over the past 14 days that seems to be driven by the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron sub-variants, health officials and scientists have said.
The country that has recorded the most coronavirus cases and deaths on the African continent only exited a fourth wave around January and had predicted a fifth wave could start in May or June, early in the southern hemisphere winter.
Two British aid workers ‘captured by Russian troops’ in Ukraine
Ukrainian intelligence claims the Kremlin is carrying out a campaign of kidnapping
Two British aid workers have been captured by Russian forces in Ukraine, a humanitarian organisation said.
Presidium Network said Paul Urey and Dylan Healy were detained on Monday at a checkpoint south of the city of Zaporizhzhia.
The Foreign Office was urgently seeking more information. Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan told Sky News it was “doing all it can to support and identify these two people.”
Japan edges from pacifism to more robust defense stance
In light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, conservative Japanese MPs are pushing for the country to move further away from its pacifist principles, towards greater defense spending and counterstrike capabilities.
Speaking to Japanese MPs via videolink earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised Japan for being the "first Asian nation that has begun exerting pressure on Russia." After all, the Japanese government has condemned Russia's invasion and gone along with most Western sanctions levied on the country.
The assets of Russia's central bank and other major Russian banks have been frozen, along with assets owned by 500 Russian individuals and organizations. Japan has banned the export of high-end technology to Russia and made it illegal to make new investments there.
Saudi Arabia and Turkey reset relations after Khashoggi killing
Saudi Arabia's crown prince and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have vowed to reset relations, to end a conflict between the two regional heavyweights since the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Erdogan -- in his first visit since the 2018 killing of Khashoggi in the kingdom's Istanbul consulate, which drove a wedge between the two countries -- met with the kingdom's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to "develop" relations.
Saudi state news agency SPA on Thursday published images of the Turkish leader embracing Prince Mohammed, who US intelligence officials determined approved the plot against Khashoggi -- something Riyadh denies.
Israel airport chaos as family brings unexploded shell
A US family caused a bomb scare at Israel's main international airport after presenting an unexploded artillery shell at a security check.
They had picked up the ordnance on a visit to the Israeli occupied Golan Heights, site of wars between Israel and Syria, according to authorities.
Video footage on social media showed people running from the scene in panic.
The family was allowed to board their flight after being interrogated by security, who gave the all-clear.
Israel captured most of the Golan Heights from Syria during the Six-Day War in 1967 and remnants of the conflict can still be found in the area.
Thursday, April 28, 2022
What’s behind the ‘India Out’ campaign in the Maldives?
The government in the Maldives bans a campaign called ‘India Out’.
Japanese Fast Food Character Burgers haven’t gone FAR ENOUGH
McDonald’s Japan has a new character burger: the ULTRAMAN Burger
Russia warns of 'lightning-fast' response to West - How serious are the threats?
Among the fighters defending Ukraine are a number of Russian dissidents who were forced to leave their country.
Six In The Morning Thursday 28 April 2022
More than 1,000 civilian bodies recovered in Kyiv region since Russia's invasion started, police chief says
The bodies of 1,150 civilians have been recovered in Ukraine's Kyiv region since Russia's invasion started, Kyiv regional police chief Andriy Nebyton said Wednesday.
"As a result of the clearing operation and the work of detective groups in Kyiv Region, we have found and examined 1,150 bodies of civilian citizens who were killed and handed them over to medical forensics," Nebyton said in a video posted on his YouTube channel.
Nebyton emphasized that "these were civilians, not military, who had no involvement with Territorial Defense or other military entities."
Veteran actor Kenneth Tsang dies in Hong Kong Covid quarantine hotel
Star known for 2002 James Bond film and detective and martial arts movies found collapsed in room
Associated Press in Hong Kong
The veteran Hong Kong actor Kenneth Tsang has died in a Covid-19 quarantine hotel in the city.
Tsang was best known internationally for his action roles in the 2002 James Bond film Die Another Day, John Woo’s The Killer in 1989, Rush Hour 2 in 2001, starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, and 1998′s The Replacement Killers alongside Chow Yun-fat and Mira Sorvino.
Tsang had been undergoing seven days’ quarantine after returning from Singapore on Monday and was found collapsed on the floor of his hotel room by staff on Wednesday, according to the South China Morning Post and other media.
British man killed and second missing in Ukraine, Foreign Office says
Foreign Office ‘urgently seeking further information’
A British man has been killed in Ukraine and a second British national is missing, the Foreign Office said.
The dead man was named as Scott Sibley, while the identity of the missing person has not been disclosed.
It is thought the pair were fighting against invading Russian forces as volunteers supporting Ukraine’s army, according to reports.
A spokesperson for the Foreign Office said: “We can confirm that a British national has been killed in Ukraine and are supporting their family.”
Philippines elections: Why are people wearing pink?
Colors have a great significance in Philippine elections. Pink is new on the scene, competing against the seasoned red, yellow and blue.
Filipino nationalism and its electoral politics have long been associated with yellow, red, and blue. But now new candidate, Vice President Leni Robredo, is bringing a new color, pink, to the upcoming presidential race set to take place on May 9.
In the Philippines, electoral campaigns are very colorful. The colors define territories, allies, and enemies. They help politicians make these relations evident throughout the electoral race.
Grieving town blasts Hokkaido tour operator’s handling of tragedy
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
April 28, 2022 at 16:36 JST
Grieving relatives of those lost in a pleasure boat tragedy here reacted angrily after the president of the operating company finally emerged April 27 and got down on his hands and knees at a news conference to apologize.
The overall sentiment among local residents as well was that Seiichi Katsurada, the president of the Shiretoko Pleasure Boat company, waited far too long to apologize, leading to questions about his sincerity. Many viewed Katsurada’s gesture of atonement, which he repeated twice, as simply formulaic.
“I saw him for the first time on the TV news,” said the father of Yu Nudeshima, one of the 11 people whose deaths were confirmed and was from Chiba Prefecture outside Tokyo.
School library bill advances, sponsor suggests book burning
KIMBERLEE KRUESI
Tennessee Republicans advanced legislation Wednesday that would place more scrutiny over what books are placed in public schools libraries, moments after the bill’s House sponsor said any inappropriate book should be burned.
The measure is just one of several proposals introduced in Tennessee this year designed to impose more scrutiny and transparency in public school libraries amid a national spike in book challenges and bans. School librarians have become the target of scorn from Republican lawmakers pushing for more oversight on materials provided to children — particularly those that touch on racism and LGBTQ issues.
Republican Rep. Jerry Sexton, from Bean Station, introduced a last-minute amendment this week to a school bill that would give the state's textbook commission — which is made up of politically appointed members — veto power over what books end up on school library shelves. Schools would have to provide the commission a list of their library materials.
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