Thursday, February 29, 2024
BEGIN Japanology - Yoshoku
How serious are Vladimir Putin's nuclear threats against NATO?
Six In The Morning Thursday 29 February 2024
Dozens killed while waiting for food aid
- At least 104 Palestinians waiting for food aid killed and 760 wounded after being shot at by Israeli forces in Gaza.
- Israeli air strikes and shelling have killed at least 30 people in separate attacks in the Nuseirat, Bureij and Khan Younis camps in Gaza.
- The NGO Save the Children says world is “witnessing mass killing of children in slow motion” in Gaza.
- Gaza Health Ministry says six children died in north Gaza from dehydration and malnutrition at Kamal Adwan and al-Shifa hospitals, while others are in critical condition.
- At least 30,035 people have been killed and 70,457 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The revised death toll in Israel from the October 7 attacks stands at 1,139.
Martin Griffiths says he’s “appalled” at the killing and wounding of hundreds of people during the transfer of aid earlier today.
“Life is draining out of Gaza at terrifying speed,” the UN undersecretary for humanitarian affairs wrote in a post on X, noting that even after almost five months of “brutal hostilities, Gaza still has the ability to shock us”.
US funding delays hurt the Pacific – but there are bigger worries
Pacific leaders are increasingly concerned that Washington’s actions in the region conflict with their objectives
Adelay by the US in providing crucial funding to Pacific Island nations is fuelling concern in the region – but questions about the competing visions held by the US and regional leaders are even more pressing.
The funding is part of longstanding agreements the US has with three nations in the north Pacific, the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), the Marshall Islands and Palau. The agreements, known as the Compacts of Free Association (Cofa), provide a range of assistance to these nations, including visa-free entry to the US, grant assistance, trust fund contributions, and support for government services including the US postal service. In exchange, the US gets exclusive military access to large parts of the north Pacific.
South Korea: Striking trainee doctors face prosecution
The South Korean government has warned trainee doctors they could face legal punishment if they don't end their strike. Protests have been taking place over plans to boost medical school enrollments
The government in South Korea made a last-ditch appeal to striking doctors on Thursday to end their mass walkout, or face having their medical licenses suspended and prosecution.
Thousands of resident and intern doctors have walked off the job for the past 10 days in protest over government plans to raise the number of students enrolling at medical school by 2,000 each year.
They argue that the government should first address pay and working conditions before attempting to raise the number of doctors.
Chad opposition leader killed in army attack on party headquarters, govt says
A leading opponent of Chad's ruling junta Yaya Dillo Djerou has been killed in an army assault on his party headquarters, a government spokesman told AFP Thursday.
Dillo died on Wednesday "where he had retreated, at the headquarters of his party. He didn't want to surrender and fired on law enforcement," Abderaman Koulamallah, who is also communications minister, said.
The prosecutor general earlier spoke of "dead including Yaya Dillo" without detailing the circumstances.
Dillo, who led the opposition Socialist Party Without Borders (PSF), was accused of having led an attack against the offices of the internal security agency overnight on Tuesday to Wednesday.
Meta accused of ‘massive, illegal’ data processing by European consumer groups
European consumer rights groups have accused Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, of carrying out a “massive” and “illegal” operation of collecting data from hundreds of millions of users in the region.
The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), an umbrella body for 45 consumer groups, said eight of the groups were filing complaints with their respective national data protection authorities Thursday.
The groups claim that Meta (META) collects an unnecessary amount of information on its users — such as data used to infer their sexual orientation, emotional state or even their susceptibility to addiction — which they are unable to freely consent to.
Putin warns West against sending troops to Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned Western countries against sending troops to Ukraine.
The consequences of such a decision would be "tragic", he said.
In his annual state of the nation address, President Putin accused the West of trying to drag Russia into an arms race.
At the same time, he said that Russia needed to strengthen its defences on its western border now that Sweden and Finland were joining Nato.
President Putin said the West "provoked" the conflict in Ukraine and "continues to lie, without any embarrassment, saying that Russia allegedly intends to attack Europe".
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
What are the sanctions on Russia and have they affected its economy?
What impact would the collapse of UNRWA have on the humanitarian situation in Gaza?
Six In The Morning Wednesday 28 February 2024
How indiscriminate Israeli fire killed half a family in Gaza
The right side of Roba Abu Jibba’s face is almost completely gone – a deep, bloody wound is where her eye should be.
The 18-year-old, confused and in pain, lies on a gurney in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza. She tries to explain how she got there. She had been sheltering with her family for two months in an industrial warehouse on Salaheddin Street, the strip’s main north-south highway, she explains, when they came under heavy fire from the Israeli military.
In a whisper, she recalls being shot at, explosions and bulldozing. She says she watched her brothers and sisters die around her. Her mother and three of her siblings were able to flee, but she’s not sure where they went.
‘When have we ever had democracy?’: is Thelma Cabrera Guatemala’s most surprising politician?
The Indigenous activist explains why the country’s ‘democratic spring’ is an illusion and why, despite violence and corruption, she would consider a third presidential bid
Thelma Cabrera wraps her tiny body around a large mango tree. It is a warm embrace between old acquaintances: as a girl , she walked past this tree every day on her way to the coffee plantation where she worked with her mother and siblings. On good days, she recalls, they could pick ripe mangoes off the ground.
Today, dressed in flip-flops, a colourful checked skirt and a floral top, the 53-year-old may well be Guatemala’s most surprising politician – even without her penchant for hugging trees.
A Maya woman from the Mam people, Cabrera has run for president twice – in 2019 and 2023 – on behalf of the socialist Movement for the Liberation of Peoples (MLP) party, with a manifesto promising a new plurinational constitution and advocating for the Indigenous philosophy of el buen vivir: a sustainable and organic “good life” instead of the large-scale agriculture that dominates the Guatemalan countryside.
Germany inspects North Korea embassy closed since COVID
A team from the German Foreign Office has been sent to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, with a decision yet to be taken about whether Berlin's embassy there will be reopened.
The already isolated state shut its borders completely at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, which broke out in neighboring China.
A German Foreign Office spokesman told DW that a team had been sent to Pyongyang to conduct a purely technical inspection of the facility.
Several killed in attack on Chad's intelligence services office in capital, says government
Blaming the overnight assault on activists from the opposition Socialist Party Without Borders (PSF), headed by Yaya Dillo, the government said that "the situation is now completely under control" and "the perpetrators of this act have been arrested or are being sought and will be prosecuted".
The attack came after a party member was arrested and accused of an "assassination attempt against the president of the supreme court", it said.
Dillo is a fierce opponent of Chad's transitional president, his cousin Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno.
He denounced the attack against the supreme court president as "staged".
Small drone flies into damaged Fukushima reactor for first time to study melted fuel
A drone small enough to fit in one's hand flew inside one of the damaged reactors at the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant Wednesday in hopes it can examine some of the molten fuel debris in areas where earlier robots failed to reach.
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings also began releasing the fourth batch of the plant’s treated and diluted radioactive wastewater into the sea Wednesday. The government and TEPCO, the plant's operator, say the water is safe and the process is being monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency, but the discharges have faced strong opposition by fishing groups, as well as a Chinese ban on Japanese seafood.
Alexei Navalny's funeral to be held on Friday in Moscow
Alexei Navalny will be buried in Moscow on Friday, a spokesperson has confirmed.
The service will be held at Borisovskoye Cemetery, after a farewell service at a Moscow church.
In a speech on Wednesday, the opposition leader's widow Yulia said she didn't know if the funeral would be peaceful or if police would arrest those who came to say goodbye.
Alexei Navalny died suddenly in an Arctic prison earlier this month.
For years, he was the most high-profile critic of Vladimir Putin. His widow has blamed the Russian president for his death, as have many world leaders.
Few details have been released on the cause of his death, and Russian authorities initially refused to hand Navalny's body over to his mother Lyudmila. They finally relented eight days after he died.
On Tuesday, Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said his team were struggling to find somewhere to hold the ceremony - some funeral homes had claimed they were fully booked, she said, while others had refused when they found out who the event was for.
Tuesday, February 27, 2024
German journalist and defense expert: Taurus missiles "would not be a game changer" in Ukraine
Six In The Morning Tuesday 27 February 2024
'Trying to keep children busy so they don't hear bombs': Follow daily life in Gaza
Summary
- The BBC is bringing you a detailed insight on life inside Gaza in a special day of coverage
- People in Gaza, many of whom have fled their homes, are sharing with us how their daily lives have changed during the war
- A nurse, Rewaa Mohsen, describes the struggle of keeping her daughter entertained "so she doesn't hear bombs"
- Yahya Hussen, a 30-year-old fashion designer, says food prices are "astronomical", with basics like cheese and eggs too expensive for many people
Another doctor, this time from northern Gaza, is now telling us about the situation there. In a voicenote, Dr Mohammed Salha explains how three departments at his hospital stopped running today because of electricity shortages:
Today, we stopped the operating department and also the laboratory department and the X-Ray department because we can’t run the generator.
We are providing emergency services only.
Dr Mohammed has also sent over photos of staff inside the hospital cooking.
Like others in Gaza we’ve been hearing from today, he says staff have been baking bread over fire.
‘Fight waste to fight hunger’: food banks embrace imperfection to feed millions in Brazil
More than 40% of produce in the country is lost or wasted but new research highlights how it could be a key tool in fighting rising food insecurity. One charity is leading the charge
About half a dozen men in hairnets busy themselves with crates of fresh produce outside a food depot in Rio de Janeiro’s northern suburbs. As one reels off a list of products, the others place oddly shaped vegetables into large bags before loading them into a waiting car. The produce will later be cooked and served in soup kitchens, nurseries and other institutions offering free meals to people in need across the city.
The depot is run by Brazil’s biggest network of food banks, Sesc Mesa Brasil. With 95 units all over the country, Mesa – which means table in Portuguese – collects food that would otherwise go to waste from supermarkets, farmers and other suppliers and retailers, sorts it, and then donates it to partner organisations.
Somalia-Turkey security deal: How does it impact Ethiopia?
Somalia’s recent deal with Turkey has raised the stakes in a simmering maritime dispute with Ethiopia. Experts say it could escalate the conflict in the Horn of Africa.
Turkey and Somalia last week signed a significant defense and economic cooperation agreement.
Under the 10-year pact, Turkey will help defend Somalia's long coastline and also rebuild the naval forces of the fragile Horn of Africa nation.
"We will help Somalia develop its capacity and capabilities to combat illegal and irregular activities in its territorial waters," a Turkish Defense Ministry official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said.
The Malawians braving climate shocks and red tape to make banana wine
Global warming has shrunk crop yields in farming communities. Some have poured their frustration into making wine.
Regina Mukandawire has been growing bananas on her small farm in the Karonga district in northern Malawi for more than 16 years. But heatwaves, floods and disease outbreaks that have hit the country since 2010 have gradually reduced her yields from half a tonne to only a few buckets per harvest.
“If it’s extremely hot, ripe bananas will quickly rot, meaning you won’t be able to sell them,” the 38-year-old mother of six told Al Jazeera. “Again, when floods happen, the trees are affected, and heavy storms can actually destroy a whole farm.”
Malawi is suffering some of the worst impacts of climate change despite being one of the world’s lowest emitters of greenhouse gases. The dry spell caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon during the 2016-2017 season also left a third of the country’s 18 million people in dire need of food assistance.
Tourists have returned to North Korea for the first time since the pandemic. Here’s what they saw
Lena Bychcova couldn’t really believe it when her North Korean tourist visa came through.
Many Russian tourists have found themselves locked out of tourism destinations. But North Korea — as a key Russian ally — offered a rare opportunity to travel.
The marketing professional was one of about 100 Russian nationals who were allowed to travel to North Korea this month in what is believed to be the hermit kingdom’s first international tourist trip since the coronavirus pandemic.