Six In The Morning Friday 13 September 2024

Putin draws new red line on long-range missiles

Steve Rosenberg

Russia editor, BBC News

The headline in this morning’s Kommersant newspaper captured the drama.

“Vladimir Putin draws his red line.”

Will the West cross it? And, if it does, how will Russia respond?

Speaking in St Petersburg, President Putin sent a clear warning to the West: don’t allow Ukraine to use your long-range missiles to strike Russian territory.

Moscow, he said, would view that as the “direct participation” of Nato countries in the war in Ukraine.

Hong Kong journalists harassed in ‘systemic and organised attack’

Staff from at least 15 media outlets subjected to threats and defamatory letters sent to their families and employer

Helen Davidson in Taipei

Fri 13 Sep 2024 12.36 BST

Journalists from more than a dozen media outlets in Hong Kong have been harassed and targeted in what the city’s largest journalist association said was a “systemic and organised attack” over recent months.

The harassment included death threats, and threatening and defamatory complaint letters being sent to reporters’ families and their employers, as well as landlords and neighbours, the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) said.

Selina Cheng, the chair of the HKJA, told a press conference on Friday that the association had observed a “severe wave of trolling and harassment” between June and August, including emails and letters sent to workplaces, social media accounts and home addresses. The letters threatened people’s personal safety, connections and employment. Some had been pressured to give up their profession or union positions, she said.

Europe: Extreme weather warnings in Germany, Poland, Austria

Heavy rainfall particularly in the Czech Republic is expected to have knock-on effects in neighboring Poland, Germany, Austria and Slovakia. Meanwhile, the first heavy snow of the year is expected in the Bavarian Alps.

Large parts of central Europe are bracing for potential flooding this weekend with heavy rainfall expected across parts of Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria.

Up to 400 mm of rain is expected to fall on the highlands on the Polish-Czech border within just 72 hours, according to local meteorological stations, with consequences for surrounding regions and nearby towns and cities.

The cocoa connection: How 'brown gold' is smuggled between Ivory Coast, Liberia and Guinea

As the world's top cocoa producer, Ivory Coast faces many challenges – first and foremost the fight against illegal smuggling of this "brown gold". Some cocoa farmers consider the prices set by the state for their beans far too low. They prefer to sell the fruit of their harvest to traffickers, who then resell it across the border in Guinea or Liberia at much more attractive prices. This is a major loss of revenue for the Ivorian government, which also has to deal with the challenges of traceability and deforestation. Our Ivory Coast correspondents Julia Guggenheim and Damien Koffi investigate.

In Ivory Coast, a quarter of the population earns a living thanks to cocoa farming. Some 2 million tonnes of this "brown gold" were produced in 2023 in the country, which is the world's top producer and exporter. Cocoa cultivation represents an important source of revenue for the state. 

North Korea reveals first photos of uranium enrichment facility

Leader Kim Jong Un stresses need to augment number of centrifuges to increase country’s nuclear weapons defence.

North Korea has released the first-ever photos of a uranium enrichment facility, showing leader Kim Jong Un touring it as he called for more centrifuges to boost his country’s nuclear weapons arsenal.

Pyongyang, which is facing a slew of United Nations sanctions for pursuing its banned weapons programmes, has previously never publicly disclosed details of its uranium enrichment facility since its first nuclear test in 2006.

A landslide triggered a 650-foot mega-tsunami in Greenland. Then came something inexplicable

By Laura Paddison, CNN

 4 minute read 

Published 4:00 AM EDT, Fri September 13, 2024

It started with a melting glacier that set off a huge landslide, which triggered a 650-foot high mega-tsunami in Greenland last September. Then came something inexplicable: a mysterious vibration that shook the planet for nine days.

Over the past year, dozens of scientists across the world have been trying to figure out what this signal was.

Now they have an answer, according to a new study in the journal Science, and it provides yet another warning that the Arctic is entering “uncharted waters” as humans push global temperatures ever upwards.