Six In The Morning Saturday 7 May 2022

 Odesa hit by Russian missiles for third weekend in a row

Caroline Davies

Reporting from Odesa

Four missiles hit the city of Odesa this afternoon. There are currently no reports of casualties.

Ukrainian authorities have confirmed that several locations around Odesa’s airport were hit. That includes the runway which was hit twice and a furniture production plant.

The spokesperson said that oils and chemicals used in the plant had caused black smoke and fumes that many filmed on social media.

The fire covered about 900 square metres.

The spokesperson said that the airport's radar equipment had also been destroyed. The missiles, she said, had come from the Caspian Sea.

Summary

1. Ukraine is continuing a counter-offensive near the city of Kharkiv, and says it has recaptured five villages
2. The US-based Institute for the Study of War says the Ukrainians could soon free Kharkiv from the threat of Russian artillery

Philippines election: Bongbong poised to become president as Marcos history is rewritten

The dictator’s son is the favourite to win presidential race, reviving memories of a painful era for many

Rebecca Ratcliffe in Manila

Ferdinand Marcos, the dictator who ruled the Philippines from 1965 to 1986, was the nation’s most decorated hero of the second world war. Under his rule, the armed forces were the most advanced in Asia. Even more impressive: his family owns enormous quantities of gold, enough to save the world (it was given to Marcos by a royal family as payment for acting as their lawyer). It will be shared with the people if they regain power.

The claims are all false. But that hasn’t stopped them from echoing across social media, saturating news feeds across the Philippines.

Ferdinand Marcos left office in disgrace 36 years ago, ousted by the People Power Revolution, which drew millions on to the streets and forced the family to flee the presidential palace by helicopter.

Afghanistan's Taliban order women to wear burqa in public

Afghanistan’s Taliban leadership has ordered all Afghan women to wear the all-covering burqa in public

Via AP news wire

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers on Saturday ordered all Afghan women to wear the all-covering burqa in public, a sharp hard-line pivot that confirmed the worst fears of rights activists and was bound to further complicate Taliban dealings with an already distrustful international community.

The decree evoked similar restrictions on women during the Taliban's previous hard-line rule between 1996 and 2001.

“We want our sisters to live with dignity and safety,” said Khalid Hanafi, acting minister for the Taliban’s vice and virtue ministry.

Will surging energy prices derail reforms in oil-exporting Middle East?

The Ukraine war has seen energy prices spike with oil producers in the Middle East making more money than ever. But will it put the brakes on long-planned reforms to diversify oil-reliant economies in the region?

Two years ago, Iraq almost ran out of money. The country is the world's fifth biggest oil producer and it should be rich. But because almost everything Iraq earns comes from its oil sales, the Middle Eastern nation's budget is at the mercy of global oil prices.

Already in 2015, the International Monetary Fund predicted Iraq could run out of money within five years if it didn't diversify its economy away from oil. In 2020, the prediction came close to reality when, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, oil prices fell by over a third and Iraq's national income almost halved.

Rescuers find at least one survivor after deadly Havana hotel blast

Rescuers in Cuba’s capital searched through the night to find survivors of an explosion that killed at least 25 people and injured dozens at a luxury hotel that once hosted dignitaries and celebrities, including Beyoncé and Jay-Z.

A natural gas leak was the apparent cause of Friday’s blast at Havana’s 96-room Hotel Saratoga. The 19th-century structure in the city’s Old Havana neighborhood did not have any guests at the time because it was undergoing renovations ahead of a planned Tuesday reopening after being closed.

The death toll rose to 25 Saturday, according to Orestes Llánez, coordinator of the Havana city government, according to the official Cubadebate news site. He said 22 had been identified, 18 residents of the capital and four from elsewhere in Cuba. 

Abortion rights activists in the US can learn from recent progress on abortion access in Latin America

Analysis by Stefano Pozzebon, CNN

Updated 1322 GMT (2122 HKT) May 7, 2022

The prospect of the United States overturning decades of abortion rights, which materialized this week in a leaked draft opinion by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, triggered shock waves in many countries in Latin America, where many feminist organizations have often looked at the US as a model of greater reproductive rights and freedoms.

However, that model has flipped on its head in recent years. Just as several US states have put in place further barriers to abortion access through various restrictions, some countries in Latin America have moved in the other direction, with a growing number of countries liberalizing such laws.

Laura Gil, a gynecologist and abortion rights activist in Bogota, Colombia has experienced this turnaround firsthand. "I remember we would meet with health professionals in the US, and for years they would always look at us with admiration for our struggle to expand reproductive rights. Now it's the opposite," she told CNN.