Monday, July 31, 2023
A battle for rights and recognition: India’s female fighters
101 East meets the women wrestlers and boxers battling for their rights in and out of the sporting arena in India.
From flooding to heatwaves...US lives weather extremes
July 2023 was the hottest month on record - and likely Earth's hottest in 120,000 years, according to the European Union and the World Meteorological Organization. Unrelenting storms and heatwaves, combined with off-the-charts ocean temperatures engulfed the United States.
What's the value of increased drone strikes on Russian and Ukrainian territory?
Six people have been killed in a Russian missile strike on the home city of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Dozens more were injured when rockets hit an apartment building and a university in Kryvyi Riheh. Moscow says it is stepping up its strikes in response to Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian territory - including Moscow.
Six In The Morning Monday 31 July 2023
Afghanistan: Taliban burn ‘immoral’ musical instruments
By Kelly Ng
BBC News
The Taliban have burned musical instruments in Afghanistan, claiming music "causes moral corruption".
Thousands of dollars worth of musical equipment went up in smoke on a bonfire on Saturday in western Herat province.
Since taking power in 2021, the Taliban have imposed numerous restrictions, including on playing music in public.
Ahmad Sarmast, Afghanistan National Institute of Music founder, likened their actions to "cultural genocide and musical vandalism".
"The people of Afghanistan have been denied artistic freedom… The burning of musical instruments in Herat is just a small example of the cultural genocide that is taking place in Afghanistan under the leadership of the Taliban," Dr Sarmast, who is now based in Portugal, told the BBC.
China: 31,000 forced to flee homes in Beijing as Typhoon Doksuri brings heavy rains
Strongest storm to hit country in years has also caused widespread flooding and evacuations in province of Fujian
Two people are reported to have died in severe flooding that has engulfed parts of Beijing, as Typhoon Doksuri passed through China’s capital.
People’s Daily reported on Monday that two people were found unresponsive in a river in Mentougou, a district in west Beijing that has suffered some of the worst flooding. According to state broadcaster CCTV, more than 31,000 people have evacuated their homes in the city.
Heavy rain continued to fall in Beijing as well as in Hebei, Tianjin and eastern Shanxi as Doksuri dissipated over northern China, the China Meteorological Administration said.
Germany wants more women in the military
Women are underrepresented in Germany's armed forces, the Bundeswehr. A new initiative aims to change that, and it's part of a broader effort to strengthen Germany's military in the wake of the Ukraine conflict.
Germany wants you for the armed forces — especially if you're a woman. Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Cabinet adopted a series of measures this week to boost equal opportunity in the military.
The changes aim to align procedures in the Bundeswehr, Germany's armed forces, with a recent strengthening of equal opportunity laws that apply to the government overall. The Bundeswehr needs people to fill its ranks, as part of Germany's efforts to bolster its military capabilities in response to Russia's war in Ukraine.
"Women are still underrepresented in the Bundeswehr," Steffen Hebestreit, the government spokesperson, told reporters on Wednesday.
Migrants between life and death in Tunisia-Libya desert
In the unbearable midday heat, a Libyan patrol near the border with Tunisia comes across a black African man collapsed on the reddish-brown desert sand.
He is barely breathing, and officers try to revive him, gently, with a few drops of water on his lips.
The man is just one among hundreds of migrants arriving daily in Libya after being abandoned in the desert borderland by Tunisian security forces, according to Libyan border guards and the migrants themselves.
By the time they reach Libya, the migrants from sub-Saharan Africa are ready to drop from exhaustion, in temperatures that have exceeded 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).
AFP on Sunday witnessed the border guards rescue around 100 men and women from an uninhabited zone near Sebkhat al-Magta, a salt lake along the Libya-Tunisia border.
In the distant shimmering heat haze, six figures emerge, the latest to reach the area. They speak Arabic and say they have come from Tunisia.
Niger coup makers say ousted govt ‘authorised French attack to free Bazoum’
Coup makers have warned against foreign attempts to extract detained President Bazoum, saying it would result in bloodshed and chaos.
The coup leaders who seized power last week in Niger have alleged that the toppled government had authorised France to carry out an attack on the presidential palace to try to free President Mohamed Bazoum.
The claims were made on Monday by Colonel Amadou Abdramane, one of the coup plotters, on state television. He said the authorisation was signed by Foreign Minister Hassoumi Massoudou, acting as prime minister. The claims could not be independently verified.
The whereabouts of Massoudou and Bazoum remain unknown.
Twitter threatens to sue hate-speech watchdog group
Elon Musk has called himself a free-speech absolutist and has praised “even my worst critics.” But now Twitter has threatened to sue a nonprofit known for sharply criticizing the platform for its handling of hate speech and misinformation.
In a July 20 letter shared publicly Monday, Twitter threatened to sue the Center for Countering Digital Hate, accusing the group of a campaign to hurt Twitter by driving away its advertisers. The CCDH has published numerous reports about various social media companies’ approach to everything from vaccine misinformation to online racism and antisemitism.
The letter by Alex Spiro, an outside attorney representing Twitter owner Musk, alleges that CCDH has made “inflammatory, outrageous, and false or misleading assertions about Twitter and its operations” through its reports, which he argued lack scientific rigor.
Sunday, July 30, 2023
The video that shattered the silence around Manipur
Internet blackouts, media silence and political neglect – the case of the Indian state of Manipur. Plus, reporting conflict using satellite imagery.
Watch: Huge blast as drone explodes in Moscow
Russia's defence ministry has said three Ukrainian drones were downed on Sunday, with two crashing into offices.
Footage of an explosion near a Moscow building on Sunday was captured by nearby witnesses, and on a car's dashcam.
One person has been injured, Russia's state news agency Tass reports.
Russia accused Ukraine of being behind the attack and says one drone was shot down over the Odintsovo district, west of the city centre, and two others were neutralised but crashed into offices.
Ukrainian officials have not acknowledged the incident.
Six In The Morning Sunday 30 July 2023
At least 40 people killed in blast at political event in Pakistan – reports
Emergency services say more than 70 injured at gathering of Jamiat Ulema-e- Islam party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province
At least 40 people have been killed in an explosion at a political gathering in Pakistan’s north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Geo News reported, citing local officials.
The report did not specify a cause of the blast that occurred at a gathering of the conservative Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party, known for its links to hardline Islamism, in the Bajaur district.
Dangerous LiaisonsThe True Proximity of Germany's AfD To Neo-Nazis
Officially, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party wants nothing to do with organized right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis. But reporting by DER SPIEGEL sheds light on connections that are deeper than those previously known.
By Maik Baumgärtner und Ann-Katrin Müller
The organizers long kept the meeting's location secret – the invitation vaguely stated only the region: "The Nienburg (Weser) area" in the state of Lower-Saxony, located between Hannover and Bremen. The guests arrived inconspicuously. Just over 50 people gathered at the Hof Frien, a farm with a restaurant and event center, in nearby Uchte, Lower Saxony, at the end of February to talk about "The Wild 20s."
The invitation to the secretive "strategy meeting" had been issued by the youth wing of the extreme right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) from Lower Saxony. Other members of the youth wing of the party, the Young Alternative (JA) traveled from other states including Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein and Hesse to the event.
ECOWAS gives Niger junta one week to cede power, threatens use of force
West African leaders on Sunday gave the military junta in Niger one week to cede power, warning they did not rule out the "use of force", and imposed immediate financial sanctions.
The 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) demanded the "immediate release and reinstatement" of elected President Mohamed Bazoum, who has been held by the military since Wednesday.
"In the event the authorities' demands are not met within one week (ECOWAS will) take all measures necessary to restore constitutional order in the Republic of Niger. Such measures may include the use of force. For this effect, the chiefs of defence staff of ECOWAS are to meet immediately," the bloc said in a statement after its summit in Abuja, Nigeria, on Sunday.
ECOWAS announced the "suspension of all commercial and financial transactions between ECOWAS member states and Niger", which is part of the bloc, as well as halting energy transactions.
Why is the Bangladeshi opposition protesting against Sheikh Hasina’s gov’t?
The prime minister is facing a political crisis as tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets to demand free and fair elections.
Police in Bangladesh have been clashing with supporters of the opposition, firing tear gas and rubber bullets as supporters of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) blocked major roads in the capital Dhaka to demand Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s resignation.
According to the BNP, dozens of its supporters were injured and more than 120 members arrested.
As the economic crisis in the country worsens amid rising inflation and a cost of living crisis, the BNP has held huge protest rallies in recent months with tens of thousands of party supporters taking to the streets.
Antarctica is missing an Argentina-sized amount of sea ice – and scientists are scrambling to figure out why
As the Northern Hemisphere swelters under a record-breaking summer heat wave, much further south, in the depths of winter, another terrifying climate record is being broken. Antarctic sea ice has fallen to unprecedented lows for this time of year.
Every year, Antarctic sea ice shrinks to its lowest levels towards the end of February, during the continent’s summer. The sea ice then builds back up over the winter.
But this year scientists have observed something different.
The sea ice has not returned to anywhere near expected levels. In fact it is at the lowest levels for this time of year since records began 45 years ago. The ice is around 1.6 million square kilometers (0.6 million square miles) below the previous winter record low set in 2022, according to data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).
Ukraine war: Putin says Russia does not reject peace talks
By Marita Moloney
BBC News
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he does not reject the idea of peace talks on Ukraine.
Speaking after meeting African leaders in St Petersburg, he said African and Chinese initiatives could serve as a basis for finding peace.
But Mr Putin also said there could be no ceasefire while the Ukrainian army was on the offensive.
In the hours after he spoke, Russia said a Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow had damaged two office blocks.
Flights were briefly suspended from Vnukovo Airport, south-west of the city centre, and one person was injured, Russia's state news agency Tass reported.
Ukraine has not commented on the drone incident.
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