Six In The Morning Monday 25 April 2022

 

'Voices of April': China's internet erupts in protest against censorship of Shanghai lockdown video

By Nectar Gan and CNN's Beijing Bureau

Updated 0825 GMT (1625 HKT) April 25, 2022

The shouts of locked-down residents demanding basic necessities, the cries of babies separated from their parents in quarantine, the pleas of a son repeatedly rejected by hospitals to treat his critically ill father, and the sobs of an exhausted local official who admits there is "no good policy" coming from higher authorities for her to explain to residents.

These voices, charged with raw frustration, agony and desperation, are among the montage of audio recordings featured in "Voices of April," a video documenting the harsh impact of Shanghai's nearly month-long lockdown.

The city-wide lockdown, among the strictest the country has seen, has plunged the once-bustling international financial hub into a virtual ghost town, causing shortage of food, daily necessities and even medical access for many of its 25 million residents confined to their homes.

Mali jihadists claim capture of fighter from Russia’s Wagner group

Islamist group says it captured mercenary from Kremlin-linked private security firm

Agence France-Presse in Bamako

A jihadist group in Mali claims to have captured a fighter from the Kremlin-linked Wagner mercenary group reportedly fighting Islamist militants in the west African country.

“In the first week of April, [we] captured a soldier of the Russian Wagner forces in the Segou region in central Mali,” the GSIM (the Group to Support Islam and Muslims) said in a statement sent to AFP overnight.

It is the first time the GSIM, an al-Qaida-linked alliance and the biggest jihadist network in the Sahel, has announced the capture of a fighter with the Wagner group.

Mexican women protest following murder of woman found dead in cistern after haunting last photo went viral

Officials found Debanhi Escobar’s body in unrecognisable condition in cistern at motel in Monterrey

Arpan Rai

Hundreds of women poured on to the streets of downtown Mexico City on Sunday to protest against the death of an 18-year-old in Monterrey.

Protesters chanted “justice, justice!” and carried banners saying “24,000 are missing” as they agitated against the rising disappearances of women in the country, and the lack of action to prevent it.

A total of 1,015 women were reported missing in Mexico in 2021, up from 977 recorded a year earlier. And overall, 100,000 people from all genders are logged as missing in Mexico.

Singaporeans hold vigil for Malaysians facing execution

Hundreds of Singaporeans held a candlelight vigil on Monday to protest the looming execution of two Malaysians convicted of drug offences, as the United Nations urged the city-state to spare them.

Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, a mentally disabled man arrested in 2009 for heroin-trafficking, is to be hanged on Wednesday despite an international outcry.

Another Malaysian, Datchinamurthy Kataiah, is scheduled to be executed two days later, according to campaigners.

World military spending tops $2 trillion for first time: SIPRI

The US, China, India, UK and Russia were the top five defence spenders, according to new data by defence think tank SIPRI.

The global military expenditure has reached an all-time high, passing $2 trillion in 2021, according to a report by a leading defence think-tank based in Sweden, as spending increased for the seventh consecutive year.

The United States, China, India, the United Kingdom and Russia were the top five defence spenders, together accounting for 62 percent of the global expenditure, according to new data published on Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

'You can't imagine the conditions' - Accounts emerge of Russian detention camps

By Toby Luckhurst & Olga Pona
BBC News, Lviv

"You can't imagine how horrible the conditions were."

Oleksandr and Olena are two of the lucky few who recently managed to escape from Mariupol, which is now almost under full Russian control after weeks of bombardment.

The city is effectively sealed off from the world, and information about what is happening inside is difficult to confirm independently.

But the pair, and others, have given chilling accounts of life in Russia's so-called filtration camps, set up outside Mariupol to house civilians before they are evacuated.