Six In The Morning Thursday 20 June 2024

 

Climate change made US and Mexico heatwave 35 times more likely

By Greg Brosnan, BBC News Climate and Science

Human-induced climate change made recent extreme heat in the US south-west, Mexico and Central America around 35 times more likely, scientists say.

The World Weather Attribution (WWA) group studied excess heat between May and early June, when the US heatwave was concentrated in south-west states including California, Nevada and Arizona.

Extreme temperatures in Mexico also claimed lives during the period.

Serbian court approves extradition of anti-Lukashenko activist to Belarus

Andrei Gnyot says he fears for his life after organising alliance of athletes to oppose country’s dictator in 2020

Shaun Walker in Warsaw

Thu 20 Jun 2024 13.12 BST

A court in Serbia has ruled that a Belarusian activist who was instrumental in organising an alliance of athletes in opposition to the country’s dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, can be extradited to Belarus.

Rights advocates and exiled Belarusian political leaders said the ruling would inevitably lead to a phoney trial and long jail sentence for Andrei Gnyot, who was arrested on an Interpol warrant issued after a request from Minsk.

“By extraditing me, the Serbian court is sending me to a painful death. And the life of my family, relatives and friends may turn into endless grief,” said Gnyot, in a telephone interview from Belgrade, where he is under house arrest after spending several months in jail.

Kenyan police fire tear gas as anti-tax protests spread

Protests against proposed tax hikes spread nationwide on Thursday as riot police cracked down on some demonstrations. The government has argued that it needs to address a major budget deficit.

Thousands of people in Kenya took to the streets on Thursday for a third day protests against a government plan to raise taxes.

In Nairobi's business district, riot police fired water cannons and tear gas at protesters who appeared to be demonstrating peacefully, according to local media reports.

It comes after police arrested hundreds of protesters in the capital on Wednesday.

On Thursday, the protests spread to Mombasa, Nakuru, Eldoret, Kisumu and other cities.

Demonstrators chanted phrases like "We say no to economic dictatorship" and "Ruto must go."

World Refugee Day: With Sudanese refugees fleeing war for South Sudan

 

The conflict in Sudan between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which broke out on April 15, 2023, has caused the world’s largest humanitarian crisis and the displacement of over 9 million people. More than 650,000 of them have now fled to neighbouring South Sudan. These survivors have escaped atrocities, only to reach one of the world’s poorest countries, where aid workers are struggling to cope. Our regional correspondent Olivia Bizot met with refugees at the Sudan-South Sudan border. 

Record high candidates enter battle for Tokyo governor’s post

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

June 20, 2024 at 17:31 JST

The most crowded race ever for a Tokyo governor’s election kicked off on June 20, with dozens of people claiming to be best suited to lead the nation’s capital.

Voters will pick one on July 7.

At 8:30 a.m., 23 people, including incumbent Yuriko Koike, and challengers such as Renho registered their candidacies at the metropolitan government’s building in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

That number surpassed the previous record of 22 candidates for the 2020 gubernatorial election. By 5 p.m., when registration closed, 56 people had officially entered the race, including 24 related to party to protect the public from NHK.

‘Only pirates do this’: Philippines accuses China of using bladed weapons in major South China Sea escalation

By Nectar Gan and Kathleen Magramo, CNN

 6 minute read 

Updated 6:09 AM EDT, Thu June 20, 2024

The Philippines has accused China’s Coast Guard of launching a “brutal assault” with bladed weapons during a South China Sea clash earlier this week, a major escalation in a festering dispute that threatens to drag the United States into another global conflict.

Footage released by the Philippine military on Thursday showed Chinese coast guard officers brandishing an axe and other bladed or pointed tools at the Filipino soldiers and slashing their rubber boat, in what Manila called “a brazen act of aggression.”

The Philippines and China have blamed each other for the confrontation near the Second Thomas Shoal in the contested Spratly Islands on Monday, which took place during a Philippine mission to resupply its soldiers stationed on a beached World War II-era warship that asserts Manila’s territorial claims over the atoll.