Six In The Morning Sunday 17 April 2022

 

Injured, alone and destined for a Russian orphanage, a 12-year-old Ukrainian girl is recruited for Moscow's information war

By Phil Black, Sandi Sidhu and Ivana Kottasová, CNN

Updated 1359 GMT (2159 HKT) April 17, 2022

Before Russia's war on Ukraine began, Kira Obedinsky was a joyful, loved 12-year-old girl. Now orphaned, injured and alone in a Russian-controlled hospital in eastern Ukraine, she has become an unwitting pawn in Moscow's information war.

Obedinsky's mother died when she was a baby. Her father Yevhen Obedinsky, a former captain of Ukraine's national water polo team, was shot and killed as Russian forces fought their way into the southeastern city of Mariupol on March 17.

Days later, Kira and her father's girlfriend tried to flee the city on foot alongside neighbors. But after she was injured in the blast from a landmine, Kira was taken to a hospital in the Donetsk region, which is controlled by Moscow-backed separatists.

Facebook struggles as Russia steps up presence in unstable west Africa

Increasingly sophisticated efforts to influence opinion are making it harder to establish whether they breach Facebook’s policies

by Jason Burke Africa correspondent

Facebook is struggling to contain pro-Russian and anti-western posts that are contributing to political instability in west Africa, investigators and analysts have said.

The platform, which has expanded rapidly across the continent in recent years, has made significant investment in content moderation, but still faces enormous challenges in curbing deliberate disinformation campaigns. One major area of concern is the strategically important Sahel region, which has suffered a series of military takeovers over the last 18 months.

Approaching Famine?The Global Food Shortages Caused by Putin's War

Russia's missiles are also destroying the fields where Ukraine produces corn and wheat for the whole world: One-third of the world's grain needs are at risk. What can still be done to stop a hunger disaster of global dimensions?

By Marian Blasberg, Monika Bolliger, Jens Glüsing, Fritz Schaap, Georg Fahrion, Mitsuo Iwamoto und Lina Verschwele

It has been 41 days since the Russians launched their invasion of Ukraine, and agriculture executive Alex Lissitsa sighs deeply into the camera of his smartphone. He says that even he doesn’t really know what is left of his company. He is planning on heading out to the fields the next day to take a look, but he has no idea what he is going to find.

An energetic man with a high forehead, Lissitsa attended university in Berlin, the United States and Australia. For the last several years, he has been head of the agricultural company IMC, which is listed on the Warsaw stock exchange. His fields, located to the northeast of Kyiv, primarily produce corn and wheat.

North Korea tests new weapons system to enhance 'tactical nukes'

Kim Jong Un supervised the test-firing of a new guided weapons system to improve North Korea's "tactical nukes", state media said Sunday, capping days of celebrations surrounding the birthday of the country's founding leader.

The launch was the latest in an unprecedented blitz of sanctions-busting weapons-tests this year, which included firing an intercontinental ballistic missile at full range for the first time since 2017.

It also came just ahead of US-South Korea military training exercises – which have always infuriated Pyongyang – that were due to begin on Monday.

Tensions flare as Israeli police enter Al-Aqsa Mosque again

At least 19 people were reportedly injured as Israeli police carried out the second raid at the mosque since Friday.

Israeli police have entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound as worshippers gathered for early morning prayers, two days after detaining hundreds at the site in another raid at the mosque.

Israeli authorities said they entered the compound on Sunday to facilitate routine visits by far-right Jews to the holy site and that Palestinians had stockpiled stones and set up barriers in the compound.

The police cleared Palestinians out of the sprawling esplanade outside the mosque, while dozens remained inside.

Unrest in Sweden over planned Quran burnings

There has been a third night of unrest in Sweden after protests against a far-right group which burned a copy of the Quran and planned to do so again.

Violence broke out in the city of Malmö late on Saturday after a gathering of the Stram Kurs, or Hard Line, movement led by the extremist Rasmus Paludan.

Vehicles were set on fire, and some protesters threw stones at the police.

A number of other clashes between the police and counter-demonstrators have hit Sweden in recent days.

At least 16 police officers are reported to have been injured and several police vehicles destroyed in unrest that followed the far-right group's rallies, including in the suburbs of Stockholm and in the towns of Linköping and Norrköping.