Six In The Morning Friday 1 July 2022

 

Attacks on pro-Russian officials in southern Ukraine suggest growing resistance movement, US officials say

By CNN's Oren Liebermann and Katie Bo Lillis

 

US officials say a trio of assassination attempts targeting pro-Russian officials over the past two weeks suggests a burgeoning resistance movement against pro-Russian authorities occupying parts of southern Ukraine.

While it is just a few incidents isolated to the town of Kherson so far, US officials say the resistance could grow into a wider counterinsurgency that would pose a significant challenge to Russia's ability to control newly captured territory across Ukraine.

The Kremlin "faces rising partisan activity in southern Ukraine," Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, said during a conference in Washington, DC, on Wednesday.

Xi Jinping hails China’s rule over Hong Kong on 25th anniversary of handover

Chinese president says ‘one country, two systems’ will endure and democracy flourishes after unprecedented unpicking of freedoms

Sum Lok-kei and agencies

Xi Jinping has hailed China’s rule over Hong Kong as he led 25th anniversary celebrations of the city’s handover from Britain, insisting democracy was flourishing despite a political crackdown that has silenced dissent.

After swearing in a new hardline chief executive, John Lee, in a solemn ceremony on Friday morning, the Chinese president laid out his vision for the city and its administrators.

On his first trip outside mainland China since the pandemic began, he vowed that “one country, two systems” – a governance model under which Hong Kong was promised it would retain some autonomy and freedoms for 50 years – would endure.

‘Political pawn’ US basketball star Brittney Griner appears in Moscow court

Griner’s wife has called her “a political pawn”.

David Harding

Brittney Griner, an American basketball star, appeared in a Russian court on Friday, four months after she was arrested on cannabis possession charges at Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport while travelling to play for a Russian team.

Griner was arrested in February, just a week before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Police said she was carrying vape canisters with cannabis oil. The Phoenix Mercury star and two-time US Olympic gold medallist could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of large-scale transportation of drugs.

Philippines: What the future holds under Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s rule

Rights groups and media outlets fear a continued climate of intolerance for dissent and shrinking civil liberties in the country.

A series of arrests and crackdowns on media outlets in the weeks before the presidential inauguration of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Thursday foreshadows a continued climate of intolerance for dissent and shrinking civil liberties in the Philippines, warn activists and human rights defenders.   

On Wednesday, the country's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) upheld its 2018 ruling to shut down Rappler, the news organization founded by Nobel laureate Maria Ressa in 2012.

The SEC said the outlet violated "constitutional and statutory restrictions on foreign ownership in mass media."

EU's Takuba force quits junta-controlled Mali

The French-led Takuba task force of EU special forces has officially ceased operating in Mali, France announced Friday, ending an anti-jihadist effort launched in March 2020 that soured after two military coups overthrew the civilian government.

Takuba, operating with France's Barkhane mission, was set up after President Emmanuel Macron sought more help from European allies for the anti-terror campaign in the Sahel.

French army spokesman General Pascal Ianni told journalists that Barkhane and Takuba had showed what "Europeans can accomplish together in complicated security environments", with on-the-ground experience that would be critical for future joint operations.

‘My roof was stolen’: Syrian homes looted after gov’t recapture

Drone pictures reveal the extent of the looting of homes left behind after Syrians fled areas captured by government.

By Ali Haj Suleiman

Published On 1 Jul 20221 Jul 2022

 Ghassan Hammoud, aged 46, fled Kafr Nabel in southern Idlib province in 2019, as government forces captured opposition-held areas in Syria’s northwest.

He left behind a house he had built a few years earlier, and now lives in a displacement camp near the Turkish border, where he works as a day labourer to look after his seven children and his niece.

Hammoud’s life is hard; he relies on loans for almost half of his monthly expenses and is struggling to cope with abysmal living conditions and cuts to humanitarian aid. But it is what he has recently discovered about his old home, left behind in Kafr Nabel, that upsets him the most.