Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Japanese atomic bomb survivors

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2 months ago

October 11, 2024

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Nihon Hidankyo – a group of Japanese atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki – has won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised the group’s extraordinary efforts “to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons” and “to remind the world of the pressing need for nuclear disarmament”.

It said: “This grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as Hibakusha, is receiving the peace prize for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.

“These historical witnesses have helped to generate and consolidate widespread opposition to nuclear weapons around the world by drawing on personal stories, creating educational campaigns based on their own experience, and issuing urgent warnings against the spread and use of nuclear weapons.”

In awarding the prestigious accolade to the group, committee chairman Jorgen Watne Frydnes said it wished “to honour all survivors who, despite physical suffering and painful memories, have chosen to use their costly experience to cultivate hope and engagement for peace”.

“Never did I dream this could happen,” Toshiyuki Mimaki, head of Nihon Hidankyo, told reporters at a news conference in Hiroshima on Friday with tears in his eyes.

He was three years old and playing in front of his family home on the morning of 6 August 1945 when he saw a flash in the sky.

Mr Mimaki said the group’s win would give a major boost to its efforts to demonstrate to the world “the abolition of nuclear weapons can be achieved”.

“Nuclear weapons should absolutely be abolished,” he said.

Next year will mark 80 years since the atomic bombings by the United States of the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 during World War Two.

Without naming specific countries, Mr Frydnes warned today’s nuclear weapons have far greater destructive power, and could kill millions of people.

“A nuclear war could destroy our civilisation,” he said.

It is not the first time efforts to eradicate nuclear weapons have been honoured by the committee.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons won the prize in 2017 – and in 1995, Joseph Rotblat and the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs were awarded the prestigious accolade for “their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms.”

Last year, the award went to Narges Mohammadi, an imprisoned Iranian women’s rights activist.

Other previous winners of the award include South Africa’s anti-apartheid champion Nelson Mandela, former US president Barack Obama for his efforts to strengthen international diplomacy, and Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai for her fight for the right of girls to receive an education.

The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who in his will dictated his estate should be used to fund “prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind”.

The peace prize is the fifth Nobel awarded this week, after literature, chemistry, physics and medicine.

Earlier this week, British computer scientist Sir Demis Hassabis was one of three winners of the Nobel Prize for chemistry for breakthroughs in predicting the structure of proteins and creating entirely new ones.

Sir Demis, who is the chief executive and co-founder of London-based artificial intelligence start-up Google DeepMind, received the honour alongside John Jumper, a senior research scientist at the company, and David Baker, of the University of Washington.

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‘Germany stands in dark hours with Magdeburg’: Memorial service held for Christmas market attack victims

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3 hours ago

December 22, 2024

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'Germany stands in dark hours with Magdeburg': Memorial service held for Christmas market attack victims

A memorial service has taken place in Magdeburg, Germany, for the victims of a Christmas market attack.

At least five people were killed and more than 200 others injured when a car ploughed into crowds shopping on Friday evening.

Among those attending the service in the city’s cathedral was Chancellor Olaf Scholz, interior minister Nancy Faeser and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

In a post on X, Mr Scholz described it as a “moving moment of compassion and solidarity for a deeply affected city”.

“The whole of Germany stands in these dark hours with the people of Magdeburg,” he wrote.

Magdeburg marked the tragedy on Saturday with the cathedral bells tolling at 7.04pm local time (6.04pm UK time), exactly 24 hours after the attack.

German football also paid tribute to the victims with silences before Bundesliga games on Saturday evening.

Earlier, while visiting the scene of the atrocity, Mr Scholz said: “There is no more peaceful and cheerful place than a Christmas market.

“What a terrible act it is to injure and kill so many people there with such brutality.”

Young child among the dead

Four adults and a nine-year-old child were killed when a black BMW was driven into people at the Christmas market.

Of those injured, 41 are said to be seriously hurt, and authorities have warned the number of dead could rise.

Meanwhile, a man is being questioned by police after being arrested at the scene.

He has been named by German media as Taleb A, with his surname being withheld in line with privacy laws, although the name has not been confirmed by German authorities.

Saudi suspect being held

The suspect is a 50-year-old Saudi citizen who worked as a doctor and arrived in Germany in 2006, premier of Saxony-Anhalt state Reiner Haseloff said.

Taleb A is being investigated for five counts of suspected murder and 205 counts of suspected attempted murder, prosecutor Horst Walter Nopens said.

The motive for the atrocity is not yet known.

Investigators are looking into whether the attack could have been motivated by the suspect’s dissatisfaction with how Germany treats Saudi refugees, Mr Nopens added.

Interior minister Nancy Faeser told reporters it was “clear” the suspect was “Islamophobic”.

Residents in Magdeburg told Sky’s Europe correspondent Siobhan Robbins they are “shocked” and “traumatised” by the attack.

One woman said she “can’t find words to describe how traumatised we are”.

“We need a lot of time to process what happened,” she said.

‘Show solidarity’

She added she wanted to attend the memorial service to “show solidarity” with others in the city and “feel collective support”.

“In such a tragedy the only thing that can help us to absorb and to process everything is to be around each other and to show our solidarity, not just with words but actions.”

Narrow escape

Andrea Reis, 57, and her daughter Julia, 34, had been at the market on Friday evening and had a narrow escape.

They could have been in the path of the car but Julia had wanted to keep walking around the market rather than stop to eat.

Andrea said: “It was the terrible sounds, children calling ‘mama, papa’, ‘help me’ – they’re going round in my head now.”

Although many people went to the site on Saturday with candles to mourn the victims, several hundred far-right protesters gathered in a central square in Magdeburg with a banner that read “remigration”, reported news agency dpa.

World

Christmas market suspect may have been ‘dissatisfied with treatment of Saudi refugees in Germany’: Here’s what we know

Published

12 hours ago

December 21, 2024

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Christmas market suspect may have been 'dissatisfied with treatment of Saudi refugees in Germany': Here's what we know

The suspect in the attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg appeared to be dissatisfied with the treatment of Saudi refugees in Germany, a prosecutor has said.

On Friday evening, a car was driven at speed into visiting crowds in the central German city.

Five people have died so far – including a nine-year-old child and four adults – with at least 200 more injured, according to authorities. Of those injured, 41 are said to be seriously hurt.

The suspect – who was arrested at the scene – was a 50-year-old Saudi citizen who worked as a doctor and arrived in Germany in 2006, premier of Saxony-Anhalt state Reiner Haseloff said.

He has been named as Taleb A in German media.

Police director Tom-Oliver Langhans told a news conference on Saturday the attack had left the city “very alarmed”.

He added that officers arrested the suspect three minutes after the first emergency calls were made from the market.

Prosecutor Horst Walter Nopens said the motive behind the attack appeared to be “dissatisfaction with the treatment of refugees from Saudi Arabia and how they are being treated in Germany”.

German interior minister Nancy Faeser has said the suspect was Islamophobic.

The suspect has described himself as an “ex-Muslim” who sought asylum after receiving death threats for denouncing his faith.

His social media pages, which he posted on in the hours leading up to the attack, promote anti-Islam views – and claim Germany is allowing the “Islamisation of Europe”.

The suspect, who says he works as a psychiatrist at a government hospital, has appeared in various media reports about his efforts to help other former Muslims flee Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations.

Tamara Zieschang, the state’s interior minister, told reporters the suspect had been practising medicine in Bernburg, around 25 miles south of Magdeburg.

He has a website that he told the BBC in 2019 has helped “hundreds of people” seek asylum overseas.

The homepage reads: “My advice: do not seek asylum in Germany.”

In videos with voiceovers in English, he claims he is being pursued by German police, who “sent someone carrying a knife to steal a USB stick from my mailbox”.

Tweets supporting Elon Musk and Tommy Robinson

Another tweet criticises a commentator for saying X owner Elon Musk and far-right activist Tommy Robinson should be arrested.

He claims they “cited Germany as a shining example of media censorship”, and adds: “My experience in Germany leaves no doubt – they actually censor victims.”

German terrorist expert Professor Peter Neumann described the suspect’s profile as unusual.

He says he “loves the AfD [Alternative for Germany] and wants to punish Germany for tolerance towards Islamists”, the director of King’s College London’s International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation wrote on X.

Professor Neumann said: “After 25 years in this ‘business’ you think nothing could surprise you anymore… that really wasn’t on my radar.”

World

Fury and questions in Mayotte as residents struggle to recover after Cyclone Chido

Published

12 hours ago

December 21, 2024

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Fury and questions in Mayotte as residents struggle to recover after Cyclone Chido

The doors of the white van are thrown open. Dozens of armed French police jump on board, their colleagues on the ground form a human chain and get to work.

The van is carrying precious cargo. Water. Small plastic bottles stacked roof high and van deep.

It’s chaotic.

Orders are being shouted in French and Chimaore, the language spoken by Mayotte’s African community.

Security is high. The gendarmes are backed up by armed local police.

Local residents are angry. That anger could easily turn to violence.

It’s why a 10pm curfew remains in place across the island. One resident described the situation as “volcanic”.

Cyclone Chido tore through Mayotte on Sunday, but this is the first water delivery Ouangani has received since Saturday.

Nobody understands why.

‘There’s no word and no one has water’

Arriving at the distribution centre just after the water is loaded on to another van for delivery to nearby villages is Ouangani’s mayor, a young, former English teacher who speaks multiple languages.

He is considered and thoughtful when describing the situation facing his country.

“It’s not sufficient,” he tells me. “There’s no word and no one has water.”

“The authorities weren’t prepared,” he adds. “There’s not only a water problem, it’s food, electricity. Nothing on the island has been done.”

He then delivers a dire warning of “people starving”.

I ask him who he thinks is to blame? He says that everyone is responsible.

“I cannot imagine that with all the means we have with technology, that they couldn’t have seen this coming,” he says.

But this region is not remote. It’s only an hour-long drive south of the capital on one winding road.

That’s why there is so much fury.

The man who challenged French President Emmanuel Macron is from here.

“Where is our water?!’, he demanded of the leader on his visit to the Indian Ocean island.

This van load of water is supposed to serve between three to five villages in the area.

That’s a population of anywhere between six and 12,000 people. Nobody knows for sure because of the problem with undocumented migrants.

We follow the van to the first drop-off.

The vehicle pulls up and drops off 10 to 20 crates of half-litre plastic bottles. Each crate has 12 small bottles. People have been waiting. They’re mostly women. Each one grabs a pack and disappears.

Within minutes it’s all gone.

Some more people show up seconds later. Their anger at missing out is obvious. “What’s the point?!” a man shouts.

‘It’ll only last about one or two hours’

Fundi has been lucky enough to get some water.

“We only just received aid now, I really don’t think that’s good enough,” she says.

They were just outside when they saw the van arrive with the water. Pure luck.

“Usually communication is good, but I don’t know why they came unannounced like that today,” she says.

But it’s not enough, Fundi explains: “Twelve bottles of water that are only 500ml, for a family? That’s really very little, it’ll only last about one to two hours.”

It’s no wonder, Fundi has a family of seven living under one roof.