Six In The Morning Sunday 24 July 2022

 

Ukraine war: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov seeks allies with Africa trip

By Robert Plummer
BBC News

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has begun a tour of African countries in Egypt, as he seeks to rally support amid anger over the Ukraine war.

He blamed the West for encouraging Ukraine to fight Russia "to the bitter end".

Mr Lavrov held talks in Cairo with his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry.

Egypt has significant ties with Russia, which supplies wheat, weapons and - until the invasion of Ukraine began - large numbers of tourists.

After his talks with Mr Shoukry, Mr Lavrov told a joint news conference that the West was prolonging the conflict even though it understood "what and whose end it will be".

Why ‘Farmgate’ threatens Cyril Ramaphosa’s bid to clean up South African politics

Cash found stuffed in the president’s sofas is damaging his chances in the country’s upcoming elections

Jason Burke in Johannesburg

It has been a busy week for Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s affable president. He has called on his 60 million countrymen to remember the legacy of Nelson Mandela, spoken to an investment forum held in the “richest square mile in Africa”, and led generous tributes to a senior official from the ruling African National Congress.

None of this will have stretched the veteran politician, who was jailed by South Africa’s apartheid regime and was once seen as Mandela’s heir. But one small news item might: Ramaphosa was threatened last week with a subpoena by a public watchdog probing a scandal that could pose a serious threat to his presidency.

“He’s been pushed into a corner. This is a grenade thrown into his political career,” said Ralph Mathekga, a South African political analyst and author.

Using Famine as a LeverPutin Weaponizes the Global Food Supply

To blackmail the West, Russian President Vladimir Putin is blocking the export of millions of tons of corn and wheat from Ukraine. By doing so, he is triggering famine in Africa and Asia – while at the same time seeking to pose as their savior.

The Ukraine and Russia with the help of the Turkish president reached a deal to export grain from Ukraine via the Black Sea.  Within 24 hours of reaching that agreement Russia bombed the Ukrainian port of Odesa. 

By Marian Blasberg, Alexander Chernyshev, Christina Hebel, Claus Hecking, Heiner Hoffmann, Frank Hornig, Maria Marquart, Fritz Schaap, Thore Schröder, Kurt Stukenberg, Lina Verschwele, Markus Becker, Ralf Neukirch, Mathieu von Rohr und Gerald Traufetter

Oleksander Hysiyenko strides purposefully through the archways beneath the granary in the Port of Odessa. In the face of catastrophe, he is endeavoring to maintain a semblance of normality. After all the years during which he has been the engineer in charge of this silo, he's become one with the place. They both, as he is fond of saying, were built in 1962.

Hysiyenko grabs a handful from a conveyor belt on which a few grains of barley are sitting and lets them trickle through his fingers. "Cool and dry," he says. "Just as it should be."

Cool and dry. The situation is unchanged here between the cement walls of the granary. Otherwise, though, nothing is as it should be.

Why are omicron variants of the coronavirus on the rise?

New research shows why exactly the omicron variant is so infectious. We take a look at the science behind COVID-19 variants, and how future vaccines will deal with them.

The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is quite versatile, with a large number of variants and subvariants. The omicron variant alone has more than 130 sublineages.

In Europe, the omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 are currently on the rise. Why are they spreading so fast, despite the fact that many people have already been vaccinated?

Omicron is better at evading the immune system

"New variants are traditionally defined as a new set of mutations that is believed to change how the virus functions. Typically, these variants have increased infection rates and increased disease severity," Krishna Mallela, professor in the department of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Colorado in the US, told DW.

Rights group seeks arrest of ex-Sri Lanka president in Singapore

The International Truth and Justice Project says Gotabaya Rajapaksa committed grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions during the civil war.

A rights group documenting alleged abuses in Sri Lanka has filed a criminal complaint with Singapore’s attorney general, seeking the arrest of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa for his role in the island nation’s decades-long civil war.

In its 63-page complaint filed on Saturday, the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) said Rajapaksa committed grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions during the last days of a 25-year-long civil war when he was the country’s chief defence official.

Pope Francis visiting Canada to apologize for Indigenous abuse in Catholic residential schools

By Rob Picheta, Livia Borghese and Cecilia Armstrong, CNN

Updated 1007 GMT (1807 HKT) July 24, 2022

Pope Francis departed Rome on Sunday for a week-long trip to Edmonton, Canada, where he's set to apologize for the Catholic Church's role in the abuse of Canadian Indigenous children in residential schools.

The Vatican has called the trip a "penitential pilgrimage," and the Pope will be welcomed in Edmonton on Sunday by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mary Simon, the Governor General of Canada.

While in the country he will meet with Indigenous groups and address the scandal of abuse and erasure of indigenous culture in the country's residential schools.