Nov 26 2023
Six In The Morning Sunday 26 November 2023
Third day of Gaza truce holds, with more Israeli hostages set for release
Uncle of released teenagers: captivity wasn’t a smooth ride
Hugo Bachega
Reporting from Jerusalem
The 13 Israeli hostages released on Saturday included 17-year-old Noam Or and his sister, Alma, who is 13. Their mother was one of the more than a hundred people killed at the Kibbutz Be’eri on 7 October while their 48-year-old father, Dror, remains in captivity.
Noam and Alma’s uncle, Ahal Besorai, told me the siblings did not know their mother had been killed. “They had to be confronted with the fact that their mother was murdered by Hamas terrorists. So this was quite an ordeal. Just coming back from captivity, from being kidnapped, and be confronted with this news.”
Respiratory infection clusters in China not caused by novel virus, says health ministry
Data has been supplied to World Health Organization and China says flu and other known pathogens are culprits
A surge in respiratory illnesses across China that has drawn the attention of the World Health Organization is caused by the flu and other known pathogens and not by a novel virus, the country’s health ministry said on Sunday.
Recent clusters of respiratory infections are caused by an overlap of common viruses such as the influenza virus, rhinoviruses, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and adenovirus, as well as bacteria such as mycoplasma pneumoniae, which is a common culprit for respiratory tract infections, a National Health Commission spokesperson said.
The ministry called on local authorities to open more fever clinics and promote vaccinations among children and elderly people as China grapples with a wave of respiratory illnesses in its first full winter since the removal of Covid-19 restrictions.
A Tour of Hell
With the Israeli Army in Gaza
The only way for Western journalists to access Gaza currently is through tours led by the Israeli military. Reporters encounter streams of refugees and rubble from the destruction, but to what extent does it really deepen their understanding of the war?
Gaza, on this particular morning, is still little more than a promise. We won’t just be seeing rubble, the buildings, the tanks as has thus far been the case, says the press spokeswoman. No, today, for the first time, we’ll be seeing people, real refugees, Palestinians. “Exciting,” says the spokeswoman.
India flies in new kit as race to free 41 trapped workers enters third week
India’s military brought in specialised equipment Sunday as efforts to free 41 trapped workers entered a third week, with digging ongoing in three directions after repeated setbacks to the operation.
The Indian air force said Sunday that they were “responding with alacrity”, as they flew in their third load to a rescue operation since the partial collapse of the under-construction Silkyara road tunnel on November 12 in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand.
Rescue officials said they called for a superheated plasma cutter to be brought to the remote mountain location, after engineers driving a metal pipe horizontally through 57 metres (187 feet) of rock and concrete ran into metal girders and construction vehicles buried in the earth.
A giant earth-boring machine snapped just nine metres from breaking through.
The plasma cutting will be used to remove the broken giant earth-boring drill and metal blocking the horizontal route, before digging will continue by hand.
Sierra Leone declares curfew, says repelled barracks attack
The West African country declared a “nationwide curfew” with immediate effect. It said “unidentified individuals” tried to infiltrate an armory but they had been “rebuffed.”
Sierra Leone’s government said on Sunday that unidentified gunmen attacked a military barracks and tried to break into an armory at the site in the capital, Freetown.
“In the early hours of Sunday, some unidentified individuals attempted to break into the military armory at the Wilberforce barracks. They have been rebuffed,” Information Minister Chernor Bah said in the statement.
Nationwide curfew in place
The government said security forces were again in control of the situation but it nevertheless said it was issuing stay-at-home orders across the country.
New maps show where snowfall is disappearing
By , CNN
Snowfall is declining globally as temperatures warm because of human-caused climate change, a new analysis and maps from a NOAA climate scientist show.
But less snow falling from the sky isn’t as innocuous as just having to shovel less; it threatens to reinforce warming, and disrupt food and water for billions of people.
Climate scientists say the future of snowfall is pretty clear: A warmer world driven by human pollution means precipitation is more likely to fall as rain than snow, all else being equal.
Nov 25 2023
Six In The Morning Saturday 25 November 2023
More Israeli hostages to be freed today in exchange for Palestinian prisoners
People gather in Tel Aviv ahead of expected release of more hostages
Hugo Bachega
Reporting from Tel Aviv
Relatives and friends of those being held by Hamas in Gaza have been gathering outside the Museum of Art in Tel Aviv, in a plaza that is now know as Hostages Square, hours ahead of the expected release of another group of captives.
Here, empty yellow chairs represent the hostages while posters with their faces have been attached to walls, lampposts and railings, next to the omnipresent slogan “Bring them home now”.
Sigalit Salminis is waiting for news related to her nephew, 39-year-old Carmel Gat, who was taken from Kibbutz Be’eri, hoping that she could be included in the groups of people to be freed as part of the truce between Israel and Hamas.
Anger across Italy as killing of student highlights country’s femicide rate
Death of Giulia Cecchettin, 22, allegedly at hands of ex-boyfriend, casts spotlight on violence against women
Anger and outrage have erupted across Italy following the killing of a university student, allegedly at the hands of her ex-boyfriend, casting a spotlight on violence against women in a country where on average one woman is killed every three days.
The body of Giulia Cecchettin, 22, an engineering student, was found days before her graduation ceremony in a ditch near a lake north of Venice. She had been wrapped in plastic and reportedly stabbed multiple times.
The discovery came after a week-long search that had gripped the country. Prior to her disappearance, roadside cameras are said to have captured her former partner, Filippo Turetta, hitting her.
Germany: Last Generation activists blockade Berlin streets
Hundreds of climate protesters took part in the blockade, hours before another rally — against sending arms to Ukraine — was due to take place in the German capital.
Activists from the climate protection movement Last Generation disrupted traffic in the German capital, Berlin, on Saturday, police said.
A police spokeswoman said more some 800 protesters blocked streets near the Brandenburg Gate and the Victory Column.
Organizers said up to 1,500 people took part in the demonstration, supported by two other groups, the Parents Against the Fossil Industry initiative and researchers from Scientist Rebellion Germany.
They later held a rally on the Strasse des 17. June (Street of the 17th of June), whose name refers to the June 1953 uprising in communist East Germany.
‘Pallywood propaganda’: Pro-Israeli accounts online accuse Palestinians of staging their suffering
Since Hamas carried out its deadly attack on October 7 and Israel began retaliatory military operations in Gaza, a parallel war is being fought online. A barrage of disinformation, fake news and misinformation has swarmed social media feeds. Pro-Israeli accounts on social media are using the term “Pallywood” to accuse Palestinians of faking their suffering.
Amid the thick fog of this information war, one word has consistently come out from behind the haze. Pro-Israeli accounts online have been deploying the word “Pallywood” as a means to undermine the plight of Gazans.
A blend of the words “Palestine” and “Hollywood”, the term insinuates that stories of suffering coming from Gaza are contrived or embellished for propaganda purposes. The accusations range from hiring crisis actors, to doctoring footage and editing it in a dishonest way that misrepresents reality.
Detractors argue the pejorative term is a deliberate attempt to delegitimise the very real hardships endured by Gazans, and to dehumanise Palestinian lives.
Russia launches biggest drone attack against Kyiv since start of war, Ukrainian officials say
Russia on Saturday launched its largest drone attack against Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv since the start of its invasion, according to local officials.
“A total of nearly 75 Shahed drones were launched from two directions – Primorsko-Akhtarsk and the Kursk region, Russia. The primary target was the city of Kyiv,” said Ukraine’s Air Force in a Telegram post, describing the attack as a “record number” of drones.
It said air defenses intercepted 71 of the Iranian-made drones across six regions of Ukraine – but the vast majority of the drones were intercepted in the Kyiv region.
Prison sketches by wartime Japanese doctor finally returned
By KEI YOSHIDA/ Staff Writer
November 25, 2023 at 14:32 JST
It took 75 years, but the family of an American prison guard managed to finally make good on a promise made to a Japanese military doctor wrongly held after the war for vivisection experiments on captured U.S. soldiers.
The doctor, Shichiro Matake, was held at Tokyo’s Sugamo Prison, where wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo was hanged. Matake was accused of carrying out gruesome experiments on captured American soldiers at what was then Kyushu Imperial University.
The circumstances behind his incarceration were the inspiration for the acclaimed novel by Shusaku Endo translated into English as “The Sea and Poison.”
Nov 24 2023
Six In The Morning Friday 24 November 2023
Israeli hostages reported to be in Egypt after being released by Hamas
Israel source confirms hostages handed over
AFP news agency quotes an Israeli security source as saying that 13 Israeli hostages have been handed over to Israeli forces.
We will bring you more as soon as we have it.
Red Cross vehicles seen crossing from Gaza into Egypt
TV footage streamed from the Egypt-Gaza border has just shown a number of Red Cross vehicles crossing the border into Egypt.
- Later today, 39 Palestinian detainees held in Israeli jails are due to released to the West Bank
- More aid is also being allowed into Gaza – 60 lorries carrying medical supplies, fuel and food entered today from Egypt
- Hamas’s attacks on 7 October killed 1,200 people, with about 240 taken hostage
- Since then, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says more than 14,000 people have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory campaign
Irish police chief warns of further disruption by far right after Dublin riot
Drew Harris says radicalised people exploited ‘terrible crime’ of knife attack to unleash mayhem on streets
Ireland’s police chief has warned that far-right radicalisation will continue to disrupt the country after a night of arson, rioting and looting left parts of Dublin resembling a war zone.
The capital was tense but calm on Friday as significant numbers of police remained on the streets and Dublin counted the cost of an anti-immigrant protest that turned into anarchy, leaving the political establishment shocked.
The cleanup began as fresh details emerged of the stabbing attack outside a school that left three children and a carer injured, two of them critically, and the suspect, reportedly a naturalised Irish citizen in his 50s, in custody and requiring medical treatment.
Russia vows retaliation over Moldova’s backing of EU sanctions
Russia views Moldova‘s decision to join EU sanctions against it as a hostile step aimed at destroying ties with Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday, vowing to retaliate.
“We regard this as yet another hostile step by the Moldovan leadership, which is fully integrated into the anti-Russian campaign of the ‘collective West,'” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“Its aim is the complete destruction of Russian-Moldovan relations, which, through the fault of official Chisinau, are already in a very deplorable state,” the ministry added.
Moldova has, so far, backed four of the six packages of EU sanctions against Moscow in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Along with Ukraine, Moldova is a candidate for EU membership. Brussels requires future EU members to coordinate their foreign policy, including complying with the EU’s sanctions policy.
Climate activists fear surveillance, detention at COP28 talks in UAE
Rights groups are preparing for the COP28 climate talks in the United Arab Emirates with trepidation, fearing surveillance and detention under the oil-rich monarchy’s strict criminal justice system.
Highly attuned to international scrutiny, the UAE, where unauthorised protests are illegal, has said it would permit demonstrations in designated areas of the COP28 site, a far-flung development in the Dubai suburbs surrounded mostly by desert.
But those assurances, and a pledge to host the “most inclusive” edition yet of the United Nations climate talks, have done little to assuage campaigners, who say they plan to raise human rights issues during COP28.
“We are deeply concerned about people being detained and arrested,” said Asad Rehman, lead spokesperson for the Climate Justice Coalition, which is planning actions on the ground.
S Korean court orders Japan to compensate former ‘comfort women’
By Hyonhee Shin
A South Korean appellate court on Thursday ordered Japan to compensate a group of 16 women who were forced to work in Japanese wartime brothels, overturning a lower court ruling that dismissed the case and prompting a stern protest from Tokyo.
The legacy of Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula remains politically sensitive for both sides, with many surviving “comfort women” – a Japanese euphemism for the sex abuse victims – still demanding Tokyo’s formal apology and compensation.
Bilateral relations between the two U.S. allies have been strained for years by the issues of wartime sex abuse and forced labour, but South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida have sought to improve ties.
Beijing hospitals overwhelmed with post-Covid surge in respiratory illnesses among children
Hospitals in Beijing and northern China are grappling with a surge of children with respiratory illnesses as the country enters its first winter since relaxing stringent Covid-19 controls nearly one year ago.
Wait times to see doctors stretch for hours, with hundreds of patients queuing at some children’s hospitals in major cities across northern China, according to CNN reporting and Chinese state and social media.
An official at the Beijing Children’s Hospital told state media Tuesday that the current average of more than 7,000 daily patients “far exceeds the hospital’s capacity.” The largest pediatric hospital in nearby Tianjin broke a record on Saturday, receiving more than 13,000 children at its outpatient and emergency departments, according to a local state-run outlet.
Nov 23 2023
Translator: Thanksgiving: (Almost) Everything You Know is Wrong
Nine years ago in January of 2013. we lost our friend, Translator aka Dr. David Smith. He suffered from depression and his untimely death left those of us in the blog communities who knew him wondering if we could have done more to help him through his struggles. The holidays are rough on people who suffer from depression, worse for those who live alone. If you know someone like that, call them, visit them, include them. Most important, listen to them, don’t offer advice, offer to help them get help.
There is help available 24/7 and it’s free. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (formerly known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline) offers support for people in distress and their loved ones. It is confidential. It is available to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress. The caller is routed to their nearest crisis center to receive immediate counseling and local mental health referrals. The Lifeline supports people who call for themselves or someone they care about.
There is now a toolkit for managers on social media platforms to establish best practices to prevent suicide, Support on Social Media. Just remember this one thing, all you can do is try, it is up to the individual to live.
So in remembrance of our dear friend, David, this was his post about Thanksgiving myths. TMC
by Translator, aka Dr. David W. Smith
Nov 23 2023
And Now The Movie
55 years ago Arlo Guthrie took to the stage at the Newport Folk Festival and for 18 and a half minutes entertained the audience with his storied song “Alice’s Restaurant.” You could close your eyes and see the old church in Great Barrington, Massachusetts where the story is centered. At the end of the song the audience was on their feet. The song has since become a Thanksgiving tradition. The along came director Arthur Penn who turn the song into a movie with Arlo playing himself along with the real Sheriff Obie, William Obanhein and James Hanlon, the real blind judge. Alice and Ray Brock were played by Pat Quinn and James Broderick. The movie was released 52 years ago on August 19. Alternet has the story surrounding the song and movie which are based on the garbage toss that took place on Thanksgiving in 1965.
Thanksgiving is not complete without the song and the movie.
Nov 23 2023
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