Monday, August 1, 2022

Six In The Morning Monday 1 August 2022

 

Ukraine war: First grain ship leaves under Russia deal

By James Waterhouse in Odesa & Matt Murphy in London
BBC News


The first ship carrying grain has left a Ukrainian port under a landmark deal with Russia.

Turkish and Ukrainian officials say the ship left the southern port of Odesa early on Monday morning local time.

Russia has been blockading Ukrainian ports since February, but the two sides made a deal to resume shipments.

It is hoped the agreement will ease the global food crisis and lower the price of grain.



China’s military ‘will not sit idly by’ if Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan

Spokesperson warns visit from US House speaker during Asia tour would have ‘egregious political impact’


 China affairs correspondent and  in New York


Amid increasingly hostile threats from China, news outlets are reporting that Nancy Pelosi will go ahead with a visit to Taiwan despite efforts from the Biden administration to warn her off the stop.

Tingting Liu, a foreign affairs correspondent with the Taiwanese news channel TVBS, reported that sources had told her Pelosi will be arriving in the capital Taipei on Tuesday night. CNN also reported that the visit is expected to go ahead, citing a senior Taiwanese government official and a US official.

Taiwan’s government has not publicly commented on the reports.



Top Putin adviser who quit in protest over Ukraine war hospitalised

Anatoly Chubais, known as the ‘father of the oligarchs’, diagnosed with rare Guillian-Barre syndrome



A top Kremlin advisor, who quit his post and left the country in protest just a month after Russia invaded Ukraine, has been hospitalised with a rare neurological disease.

Anatoly Chubais, 67, known as the “father of the oligarchs” who left Russia with “no plans to return” in March this year, has been diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome.

He had served as Vladimir Putin’s special representative for ties with international organisations before he resigned and left Russia in March.


How Myanmar's junta is using Chinese facial recognition technology

Rights groups warn high-tech surveillance systems will be used to track down and eliminate the junta's opponents.

Myanmar's junta is expanding its public surveillance capabilities by using facial recognition technology, raising fresh concerns about the safety of democracy activists and resistance groups in Myanmar.

In March, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report on Myanmar's use of the Chinese-made facial recognition systems, warning of a "serious threat" to human rights.

HRW said hundreds of cameras were installed in townships around the capital Naypyidaw in December 2020, before the military took power in a coup, in the first phase of a security initiative called "safe city."  Cameras were also installed in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon.


UN chief warns humanity 'one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation'


 UN head Antonio Guterres warned Monday that the world faced "a nuclear danger not seen since the height of the Cold War" and was just "one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation."

"We have been extraordinarily lucky so far. But luck is not a strategy. Nor is it a shield from geopolitical tensions boiling over into nuclear conflict," Guterres said at the start of a conference of countries belonging to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

"Today, humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation," he said, calling on nations to "put humanity on a new path towards a world free of nuclear weapons."

'Drill, baby, drill' is back in Europe as gas crisis looms


Updated 1015 GMT (1815 HKT) August 1, 2022


The 10-mile-long island of Schiermonnikoog is known as one of the most beautiful places in the Netherlands, boasting the widest beach in Europe, 300 different species of birds and a bustling tourist trade.

But after the Dutch and German governments approved the development of a new gas field roughly 12 miles from Schiermonnikoog's shores, the island's mayor is anxious about its future.
"We are very concerned that the gas drilling will damage the area," Mayor Ineke van Gent told CNN Business. "We also believe that there is no need to drill [for] new gas at all and that we should invest much more in renewable energy."





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