Six In The Morning Wednesday 27 July 2022

 

Hungarian leader Viktor Orban's 'mixed race' speech condemned by ex-aide and Holocaust victims' group

By Rob Picheta and Boglarka Kosztolanyi, CNN

Updated 1404 GMT (2204 HKT) July 27, 2022

Hungary's hardline nationalist leader Viktor Orban is facing international condemnation after making remarks on race and multiculturalism that were slammed as a "pure Nazi text" by his longtime aide.

Zsuzsa Hegedus, who served as an adviser to Orban for two decades, quit Tuesday over what she called Orban's "illiberal turn," describing his comments in Romania on Saturday as a "pure Nazi text worthy of (Nazi propagandist) Goebbels," according to her resignation letter published by Hungarian outlet HVG.

He was also denounced by the International Auschwitz Committee after comments in the same speech that were interpreted as a joke about the use of gas chambers against Jewish people in Nazi Germany.

Outrage in Brazil as Jair Bolsonaro avoids five charges related to Covid response

Senators call for investigation into top prosecutor after charges against president shelved

Andrew Downie

Brazilian senators are calling for an investigation into one of the country’s top prosecutors after she shelved several charges against the president, Jair Bolsonaro, over his mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

A damning congressional inquiry had recommended that Bolsonaro be charged with nine offences, including crimes against humanity and charlatanism, for promoting false treatments such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin.

The far-right president constantly downplayed the severity of the pandemic, initially calling it “a little flu” and telling Brazilians to man up because “we are all going to die anyway”.

Dutch farmers set fire to piles of manure on roads in protest against green reforms

Farmers angry at government targets for reining in emissions of nitrogen oxide

Associated Press

Dutch farmers have resumed protests at government plans to reduce nitrogen emissions by dumping manure and garbage on highways and setting fires alongside roads.

Traffic authorities said several roads in the central and eastern Netherlands were completely or partially blocked by the early morning blockades and fire services rushed to clear the roads as traffic built up.

The latest demonstrations in a summer of discontent came a day after a government-appointed mediator sent invitations to farmers' organisations to discuss with the country's ruling coalition ways of reducing nitrogen emissions.

Studies show COVID likely came from Wuhan market, not lab

Two studies indicate that COVID-19 emerged from an animal-to-human spillover at a market in China's city of Wuhan. Both papers bolster the theory that the virus emerged naturally, rather than escaping from a Chinese lab.

A pair of studies in the latest issue of the journal Science appear to back up the theory that an animal market in the Chinese city of Wuhan really was the source of the coronavirus pandemic.

The authors say finding out whether the disease spilled over naturally from animals to humans or was the result of a lab accident could be vital to preventing future deadly pandemics.

What did the studies show?

The first paper examined the spatial pattern of COVID-19 cases in the outbreak's first month, December 2019.

The team mapped the first 174 cases identified by the World Health Organization, finding that 155 of them were in Wuhan.

In Myanmar and abroad, anti-junta protests continue after executions of four pro-democracy activists

The executions of four pro-democracy activists in Myanmar by the military junta not only attracted international condemnation but also fuelled anti-junta demonstrations that have been taking place in the country since early 2021. The FRANCE 24 Observers spoke to demonstrators in Myanmar and abroad for whom the junta’s brutality only served as a catalyst for their determination to achieve democracy.

As Myanmar endeavored to seek democracy for its society after a long history of political unrest, the coup d’état in February 2021 launched by the Min Aung Hlaing-led military junta once again deferred the democratization agenda.

Since then, numerous strikes and demonstrations against the junta have taken place in cities and rural areas throughout the country.

Panel confirms online bullying before Nagoya student’s suicide

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

July 27, 2022 at 14:41 JST

The city’s board of education acknowledged that a deceased first-year junior high school student was bullied in a group chat, but said it could not determine if bullying was the direct cause of her suicide.

The education board released the results on July 26 from its anti-bullying investigative panel, consisting of doctors, lawyers and experts, that looked into the death of Kako Saito, who was 13.

The results showed that several students teased Kako in a Line group chat of up to about 100 students in her grade in November 2020.