Six In The Morning Thursday 8 September 2022

 

Royal Family gathers at Balmoral amid concerns for Queen's health

Palace statement goes 'further than normal'

"The palace has gone further than they ever normally do," says the BBC's medical editor, Fergus Walsh.

He said the key phrase in the statement released by Buckingham Palace earlier, was "doctors were concerned".

He also highlighted the significance of family members arriving at Balmoral, where the Queen has been staying over the summer.

Until recently, her health has been "relatively robust" he explained.

He described the monarch as a "permanent fixture", adding that "we've all lived our lives with the Queen".

Summary

1. The Queen is under medical supervision at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, a statement from Buckingham Palace says
2. Her doctors are concerned for her health, but say the 96-year-old monarch "remains comfortable"
3. All the Queen's children, as well as Princes William and Harry, are either at or travelling to the estate
4. Well-wishers are gathering at the gates of Balmoral, as well as outside Buckingham Palace, in London
5. New UK Prime Minister Liz Truss says "the whole country will be deeply concerned by the news"
6. The Archbishop of Canterbury says he is sending prayers and the first ministers of Scotland and Wales say she is in their thoughts

Europe records hottest summer ever in 2022

The EU's climate monitor said the average temperatures from June to August topped the previous record that was set in 2021.

The summer of 2022 was the hottest in Europe's recorded history, the European Commission's climate monitor said on Thursday. It is the second summer in a row of record-breaking temperatures in Europe. 

The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said temperatures in Europe had been the "highest on record for both the month of August and the summer [June-August] as a whole."

August 2022 hottest month recorded

Data showed August was the hottest month yet recorded by a "substantial margin" of 0.4 degrees Celsius.

Lack of legal basis halted state funeral for Sato in 1975. But now?

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

September 8, 2022

When former Prime Minister Eisaku Sato died in 1975, ruling party politicians pushed to hold a state funeral for the Nobel Peace Prize winner and then Japan’s longest-serving postwar prime minister.

But the government decided against the state funeral because there was no legal basis to justify holding such an event, Sadao Hirano, a former lawmaker familiar with the matter, told The Asahi Shimbun.

According to Hirano, Ichiro Yoshikuni, chief of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau, the watchdog of laws, warned Takeo Miki, the prime minister at the time, not to hold the state funeral for Sato.

Ukraine police uncover child sexual abuse ring involving Russian children

Suspect arrested and 15 children identified but authorities say war is hampering efforts to pursue case

Lorenzo Tondo in Kyiv

@lorenzo_tondo

Ukrainian police have uncovered a sprawling child sexual abuse network, involving dozens of Russian children whose images and videos were allegedly traded inside and outside the country, but said it was impossible to pursue the case further because of the war.

A Ukrainian man has been arrested and 15 children, all Russians currently residing in Russia, identified, but prosecutors in the Kyiv region have said they are not able to trace other victims or arrest other suspects because of the severing of Russia-Ukraine relations since the Kremlin’s invasion.

“These kinds of crimes are unfortunately common everywhere, in Ukraine and Europe,” said Oleh Tkalenko, a senior prosecutor for the Kyiv region, who led the investigation. “But what terrifies us is the large scale of these crimes in Russia.”

Chinese nut-picker survives 200-mile journey in escaped hydrogen balloon

Man spent two days aloft after balloon he was using to harvest pine nuts became untethered

Associated Press in Beijing

A man has been found safe after he spent two days aloft in a hydrogen balloon that became untethered while he was using it to harvest pine nuts from a tree, according to Chinese state media.

The man, identified only by his surname, Hu, and a partner were collecting pine nuts on Sunday in a forest park in Heilongjiang province in north-east China when they lost control and the balloon sailed off on a 200-mile journey.

The other person jumped to the ground, and a search was launched for the escaped balloon and Hu.

Return to school is driving up Covid-19 cases in kids, but there are more tools to keep them safe this year

By Deidre McPhillips, CNN

Updated 1034 GMT (1834 HKT) September 8, 2022

Covid-19 cases are on the rise among kids in the United States as another school year gets underway.

New cases reported among children in the last week of August were 14% higher than they were two weeks earlier, according to data tracked by the American Academy of Pediatrics. They jumped even more in the South, where classes have been in session for weeks. In contrast, overall cases for all ages were down about 17% in the same timeframe.

Experts say that this increased transmission is to be expected -- but that keeping kids in school should be the priority, and there are now enough ways to make sure it's done safely.