Uniquely Nelson

A miner has been rescued from a gold mine in northern China and rushed to hospital for treatment after being trapped 14 days below ground by an explosion. A trapped miner is lifted from a gold mine in Qixia City, east China's Shandong Province. Photo: AFP State broadcaster CCTV said today the miner was "extremely weak", according to a post on CCTV's Weibo microblog site. TV footage showed the exhausted miner, a black blindfold across his eyes, being lifted out of the mine shaft and covered in a blanket before being carried away by rescue workers. Twenty-two workers were trapped in the Hushan mine by the January 10 blast in Qixia, a major gold-producing region under the administration of Yantai in coastal Shandong province. One miner has died and 11 have not been in contact with rescue teams, according to a Xinhua report from last week. -Reuters

If he were alive today, even St Paul would be texting, Tweeting and firing off emails to get the news out, Pope Francis says in his message for the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Social Communication. A statue of St Paul at the Ponte Sant Angelo bridge in Rome, Italy, and Pope Francis. Photo: 123RF / AFP St Paul, who lived in the first century of the Christian era, spread the new faith into Europe and Asia Minor and is believed to have written a great part of the New Testament. "Every tool has its value, and that great communicator who was Paul of Tarsus would certainly have made use of email and social messaging," the pope said in the message, titled Come and See. Still, Francis said Paul was at his best while preaching in person, saying journalists and other communicators today should do more "hitting the streets ... meeting people face to face to research stories or to verify certain situations first-hand". He said too often investigative reporting was being replaced by a "standard, often tendentious narrative" not capable of grasping problems and aspirations at the grassroots level. "In communications, nothing can ever completely replace seeing things in person," he said. The world owes a debt of gratitude to journalists, camera operators, photographers and others who often risk their lives to seek the truth, he added. "Thanks to their efforts, we now know, for example, about the hardships endured by persecuted minorities in various parts of the world, numerous cases of oppression and injustice inflicted on the poor and on the environment, and many wars that otherwise would be overlooked," he said. AFP's reporter, photographer and videojournalist Karam al-Masri at the site of an air strike next to a hospital in Aleppo, Syria, in June 2016. Photo: AFP - Reuters

Australian Federal Police (AFP) are seeking to extradite an alleged Asian drug syndicate leader, compared to Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who has been arrested boarding a plane at Amsterdam's Schipol Airport. Tse Chi Lop was arrested without incident at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. (file pic) Photo: 123RF Tse Chi Lop was arrested by Dutch police on Friday local time at the request of the AFP, after an arrest warrant and Interpol Red Diffusion request was issued for the Chinese-born Canadian national. Tse is listed as one of the world's most-wanted fugitives, with the AFP claiming his organisation dominates the $AU90 billion-a-year Asia-Pacific drug trade. The 57-year-old is wanted in Australia for his connection to Operation Volante, which dismantled a global crime syndicate operating in five countries. According to the AFP, the AFP-led operation resulted in the arrest of 27 people for importing and trafficking "substantial quantities" of heroin and methamphetamine into Australia in 2013. The AFP said in a statement they would be working with Attorney-General Christian Porter's department to prepare a formal extradition request for Tse. Police seized over 42 kilograms of drugs, designer goods and jewellery, as well as millions of dollars in cash, during Operation Volante raids in 2013. Dutch police spokesman Thomas Aling said Tse is expected to be extradited after appearing before a judge, adding that his airport arrest took place without incident as he was attempting to board a flight to Canada. "He was already on the most-wanted list and he was detained based on intelligence we received," Aling said. Dutch police were unable to provide details about the legal proceedings and it was not clear if Tse had a lawyer. Tse is also of interest to "other law enforcement agencies", the AFP said. 'In the league of El Chapo and Pablo Escobar' Tse, an ex-convict who formerly lived in Toronto, has moved between Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwan in recent years, according to counter-narcotics officers from four countries and documents previously reviewed by Reuters. "Tse Chi Lop is in the league of El Chapo or maybe Pablo Escobar," Jeremy Douglas, South-East Asia and Pacific representative for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, told Reuters in 2019, referring to two of Latin America's most notorious drug lords. The syndicate he is suspected of running is known to its members as The Company. Authorities also refer to the syndicate as Sam Gor - or Brother Number Three in Cantonese - after one of Tse's nicknames, Reuters reported at the time. Reuters was unable to contact Tse for the 2019 report, which described him as "Asia's El Chapo". The AFP accuses Tse of being "the senior leader of the Sam Gor syndicate". The group has "been connected with or directly involved in at least 13 cases" of drug trafficking since January 2015, according to the documents cited by Reuters. - Reuters/ABC

The US plans to reverse the Trump administration's "draconian" immigration approach while working on policies addressing the causes of migration, President Joe Biden told his Mexican counterpart. Paintings on the US-Mexico border at the Friendship Park seen from Baja California state in Mexico on January 16, 2021. Photo: AFP In a call with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, on Friday, Biden outlined his plan to create new legal pathways for immigration and improve the process for people requesting asylum, according to an account of the call released by the White House. Priorities include "reversing the previous administration's draconian immigration policies," the White House said. The two leaders agreed to work together toward reducing "irregular migration," the White House release said. Mexico has a major role to play in Biden's plans for immigration reform. Earlier this month, Mexico helped coordinate efforts in Central America to contain a large caravan of migrants heading for the United States. Mexico's Foreign Ministry also said it had begun talks with Washington about a Covid-19-related order signed by Biden to establish firmer health protocols for people entering US territory. The call was "pleasant and respectful," López Obrador said in a brief Twitter post. "Everything indicates relations will be good and for the benefit of our people and nations," López Obrador said. Desde los años 90 todos los gobiernos de Estados Unidos erigieron tramos de muro y barreras en la frontera con México.Celebramos que el presidente Joe Biden haya optado por suspender su construcción y confiamos en que mantendrá su compromiso hasta el final de su mandato. pic.twitter.com/KvbinViDOZ — Gobierno de México (@GobiernoMX) January 21, 2021 Nevertheless, Biden's inauguration comes at a time of simmering tension over a now-dropped US investigation into former Mexican defense minister Salvador Cienfuegos. Cracking down on both legal and illegal immigration was a core focus of Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump. Biden, meanwhile, has made an early push for a bill that would open a path for citizenship for the roughly 11 million people living in the United States illegally, though even his allies in Congress acknowledge that may be "a Herculean task." -Reuters

The US Justice Department has revealed charges against a Texas man who allegedly stormed the US Capitol on 6 January and threatened on social media to kill Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. IMAGES Prosecutors asked a judge on Friday to keep the man, Garret Miller, in jail ahead of a court appearance, according to court records. On Wednesday they revealed five criminal charges against Miller in the District Court of the District of Columbia, including for making death threats and trespassing offenses. In a court filing prosecutors said social media images were posted by Miller and appeared to announce his trip to the Capitol and threaten the life of Ocasio-Cortez, as well as a Capitol Police officer. Miller made numerous threats online, they said, including one in which he commented "next time we bring the guns" on a Twitter video showing rioters exiting a Capitol building. As rioters broke into the Capitol, Ocasio-Cortez worried that her colleagues in Congress might divulge her location to the mob, putting her at risk for kidnapping or worse, according to an Instagram Live video she recorded in the week after the invasion of the Capitol buildings. Ocasio-Cortez also said she experienced "a very close encounter where I thought I was going to die" on 6 January, adding that she couldn't get into specifics for security reasons, according to a Washington Post account of the video. "I did not know if I was going to make it to the end of that day alive." Miller was arrested on Wednesday and a detention hearing is planned for Monday. A spokeswoman for Ocasio-Cortez declined to comment. -Reuters

By Nick Kilvert, ABC environment reporter Within hours of becoming president of the US, Joe Biden has moved to recommit his country to the Paris Agreement - the internationally binding treaty to combat climate change. Photo: 123rf.com In 2020, the US became the first country to withdraw formally from the Paris deal, despite being the world's second largest producer of greenhouse gases behind China. When then- President Donald Trump signalled his intent to withdraw the US from the agreement back in 2017, he said he'd pursue a new deal that "protects our environment, our companies, our citizens and our country". Now the US now looks set to return to the climate agreement after a 30-day notice period, and is expected to resubmit an emissions reduction target for 2030. So what does this actually mean for climate change and global emissions targets? $1.7 trillion over 10 years for green recovery The Paris Agreement aims to keep the increase in global temperature to less than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and to pursue efforts to limit that warming to 1.5C. Since 2015, 190 countries have ratified the agreement, each committing to its own nationally determined contribution (NDC) - an emissions reduction target and a plan to achieve it. Only seven countries - Iran, Iraq, Libya, Turkey, Eritrea, South Sudan and Yemen - are yet to sign. The agreement works on a five-year cycle, with more ambitious targets expected each time the participating countries re-convene. US contribution to emissions The United States and China are responsible for around 45 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the US is responsible for 15 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. That was equal to around 5.4 gigatonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions in 2018. Prior to its withdrawal from Paris, the United States aimed to reduce its annual greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, which critics said wasn't ambitious enough to keep warming below 1.5C. However, given Joe Biden's strong rhetoric on climate change action, including a stated goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, it's likely that he will move to strengthen this 2025 target and submit a much more ambitious goal for 2030. "The United States urgently needs to embrace a greater ambition on an epic scale to meet the scope of this challenge," his climate plan states. "Getting to a 100 percent clean energy economy is not only an obligation, it's an opportunity." For the US to achieve net-zero emissions it will need to overhaul its transportation, electricity and industrial sectors, which are responsible for 28, 27 and 22 percent of emissions each year respectively. Billed as a green economic recovery, President Biden has already flagged his intention to commit $US1.7 trillion over the next 10 years to help achieve that transformation, while "leveraging additional private sector and state and local investment" for a total of around $US5 trillion. Impact of US re-entering agreement will 'reverberate around the globe' Australia's Hazelwood power station billows smoke from its exhaust stacks in the Latrobe Valley, 150km east of Melbourne, in 2009. Photo: AFP But the biggest impact of the US return to the Paris Agreement will not be on the domestic emissions, according to Mark Howden from the Australian National University's Climate Change Institute. "The message really critically is to other countries. The waves from this change will reverberate around the globe," Professor Howden said. "With the US coming on board with potentially trillions of dollars, you'll get these private industries coming on board and that will generate new innovations and technologies and prices will come down." The issue for countries lagging behind in emissions reduction is that they may be penalised in the long term, he said. "The vast majority of [Australia's] trade will be with countries that have a net-zero policy by 2050. It does raise the possibility of essentially carbon taxes on imports to those countries, and the possibility of a carbon-zero bubble," he said. "If we're outside that bubble we've got real problems." The United Nations COP26 climate change conference, slated for November this year in Glasgow, is the next UN platform for countries to announce more ambitious 2025 and 2030 targets. The Biden administration is also planning its own international climate summit in the next few months, where countries are likely to be encouraged to up their commitments. What this means for Australia Australia has been accused of not pulling its weight compared to similar developed nations and by 2030 is aiming for a 26 to 28 percent reduction of annual greenhouse gas emissions, compared to 2005 levels. Even as the list of countries with net-zero targets grows, Scott Morrison has refused to commit Australia to a hard deadline. This week Australia's Ambassador to the United States, Arthur Sinodinos, told told ABC's RN Breakfast that the Australian Government will have to "take a look at what it does further on targets, in the context of any global summit on this - and COP 26". However, when pushed on whether we would come under increasing pressure to present more ambitious emissions reduction goals, Sinodinos said targets aren't everything. "The point the Government's always made is that targets are important, but what's also important is to have a plan," he said. "I think in our case it's demonstrating what we have in common with the US - what we're already doing, and what we have to offer in terms of expertise to the US in these areas, including around areas like solar and energy efficiency in building." But Professor Howden said there's no doubt the pressure will be on countries like Australia. "The momentum for substantial progress at the forthcoming Glasgow conference really steps up," he said. "Countries that don't do what is expected in terms of ratcheting up our targets will become increasingly isolated." Can we still keep to 1.5C? So if the US decision to recommit to Paris does precipitate increasingly ambitious global emissions targets, what does that mean for climate change? Currently, a number of countries, including the US, are not on track to reach their commitments, and the world is not on track to keep warming within 2 degrees Celsius, according to the Climate Action Tracker. The IPCC, the UN's climate science panel, has calculated the global 2030 and 2050 targets needed to give us a "high likelihood" of keeping warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. "The pathway to have a high likelihood of landing at 1.5C means we have to have a 40-50 percent [emissions] reduction on 2010 by 2030, and be net-zero by 2050," said Brendan Mackey from Griffith University's Climate Change Response Program. "If collectively the world community meets those targets, then we'll likely achieve the 1.5C warming goal. "In which case the US coming back into the agreement is very significant, and greatly increases the likelihood of the 1.5C target being achieved." But getting to net-zero isn't the only factor: the trajectory by which we get there is also important. For instance, China has committed to a 2060 goal of achieving net-zero emissions. If they begin reducing their emissions aggressively now, they will produce significantly less emissions on the way to 2060 than if they coast and make drastic, last-minute cuts. That's why it's important that countries also meet their interim goals, Professor Mackey said. "You've got three anchors: 2010, 2030 and 2050. That gives you a curve," he said. "The 2030 target is critical." Between 1.5C and 2C of warming, the IPCC predicts that coral reefs will decline from 70-90 percent to more than 99 percent. Sea level rise will displace a further 10 million people by the end of the century at 2C, compared with 1.5C, and animal extinctions - as well as heat related mortality in people - will be far greater at 2C. What the US does and how the world responds over the next few years could be the deciding factor. -ABC

Scientists say signs a new coronavirus variant is more deadly than the earlier version should not be a "game changer" in the UK's response to the pandemic. One expert says it's too early to draw conclusions on the UK variant because information is based on a small amount of data. (file pic) Photo: AFP UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said yesterday there is "some evidence" the variant may be associated with "a higher degree of mortality". But the co-author of the study the PM was referring to said the variant's deadliness remained an "open question". Another adviser said he was surprised Johnson had shared the findings when the data was "not particularly strong". A third top medic said it was "too early" to be "absolutely clear". At a Downing Street coronavirus news conference, the prime minister said: "In addition to spreading more quickly, it also now appears that there is some evidence that the new variant - the variant that was first identified in London and the South East - may be associated with a higher degree of mortality." Speaking alongside the PM, the government's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said there was "a lot of uncertainty around these numbers" but that early evidence suggested the variant could be about 30 percent more deadly. For example, Sir Patrick said if 1000 men in their 60s were infected with the old variant, roughly 10 of them would be expected to die - but this rises to about 13 with the new variant. Sir Patrick Vallance says early evidence suggests the variant could be about 30 percent more deadly. Photo: AFP The announcement followed a briefing by scientists on the government's New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) which concluded there was a "realistic possibility" that the variant was associated with an increased risk of death. But one of the briefing's co-authors, Prof Graham Medley, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The question about whether it is more dangerous in terms of mortality I think is still open. "In terms of making the situation worse it is not a game changer. It is a very bad thing that is slightly worse," added Prof Medley, who is a professor of infectious disease modelling at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Another 1348 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test were reported in the UK on Saturday, in addition to 33,552 new infections, according to the government's coronavirus dashboard. Announcement defended Nervtag's chairman Prof Peter Horby defended the government's "transparency" in making the announcement. "Scientists are looking at the possibility that there is increased severity... and after a week of looking at the data we came to the conclusion that it was a realistic possibility," he said. "We need to be transparent about that. If we were not telling people about this we would be accused of covering it up." But Dr Mike Tildesley, a member of Sage subgroup the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (Spi-M), agreed it was too early to draw "strong conclusions" as the suggested increased mortality rates were based on "a relatively small amount of data". He told BBC Breakfast he was "actually quite surprised" Johnson had made the early findings public rather than monitoring the data "for a week or two more". "I just worry that where we report things pre-emptively where the data are not really particularly strong," Dr Tildesley added. Public Health England medical director Dr Yvonne Doyle also said it was not "absolutely clear" the new variant was more deadly than the original. "There is some evidence, but it is very early evidence. It is small numbers of cases and it is far too early to say," she told the Today programme. Meanwhile, senior doctors are calling on England's chief medical officer to cut the gap between the first and second doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. The British Medical Association told Prof Chris Whitty an extension to the maximum gap between jab from three weeks to 12 weeks, to get the first dose to more people, was "difficult to justify". - BBC

Dutch police said on Saturday they had arrested the alleged leader of an Asian drug syndicate who is listed as one of the world's most-wanted fugitives and has been compared to Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. Tse Chi Lop was arrested without incident at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. (file pic) Photo: 123RF Tse Chi Lop, a Chinese-born Canadian national, was detained on Friday at the request of Australian police, who led an investigation that found his organisation dominates the $70 billion-a-year Asia-Pacific drug trade, Dutch police spokesman Thomas Aling said. Tse is expected to be extradited to Australia after appearing before a judge, Aling said, adding that his arrest by national police took place without incident at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. "He was already on the most-wanted list and he was detained based on intelligence we received," Aling said. Dutch police were unable to provide details about the legal proceedings and it was not clear if Tse had a lawyer. Tse, an ex-convict who formerly lived in Toronto, has moved between Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwan in recent years, according to counter-narcotics officers from four countries and documents previously reviewed by Reuters. "Tse Chi Lop is in the league of El Chapo or maybe Pablo Escobar," Jeremy Douglas, Southeast Asia and Pacific representative for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), told Reuters in 2019, referring to Latin America's most notorious drug lords. The syndicate he is suspected of running is known to its members as "The Company". Law enforcers also refer to it as "Sam Gor" - or Brother Number Three in Cantonese - after one of Tse's nicknames, Reuters reported at the time. It was unable to contact Tse for comment on the report. The Australian Federal Police (AFP), which has taken the lead in a sprawling investigation into the criminal organisation, identified Tse as "the senior leader of the Sam Gor syndicate". The group has "been connected with or directly involved in at least 13 cases" of drug trafficking since January 2015, the documents showed. - Reuters

Larry King, a giant of US broadcasting who achieved worldwide fame for interviewing political leaders and celebrities, has died at the age of 87. Veteran broadcaster Larry King. Photo: AFP King conducted an estimated 50,000 interviews in his six-decade career, which included 25 years as host of the popular CNN talk show Larry King Live. He died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles, according to Ora Media, a production company he co-founded. Earlier this month, he was treated in hospital for Covid-19, US media say. The talk show host, famous for his braces and rolled-up sleeves, had faced several health problems in recent years, including heart attacks. King was married eight times to seven women and had five children. Two of them died last year within weeks of each other - daughter Chaia died from lung cancer and son Andy of a heart attack. 'Unique and lasting talent' King carried out interviews with every sitting US president from Gerald Ford to Barack Obama and a number of world leaders. His other high-profile guests included Dr Martin Luther King, the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela and Lady Gaga. Presidential nominee George W Bush and his wife, Laura, are interviewed by Larry King in September 2000. Photo: AFP "For 63 years and across the platforms of radio, television and digital media, Larry's many thousands of interviews, awards, and global acclaim stand as a testament to his unique and lasting talent as a broadcaster," Ora Media said in a statement, without giving the cause of death. Born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger in Brooklyn, New York, in 1933, King rose to fame in the 1970s with his radio programme The Larry King Show, on the commercial network Mutual Broadcasting System. In 1985 he launched Larry King Live on the fledgling CNN, and became one of the network's biggest stars. The programme, broadcast around the world, was a success with audiences, with King answering thousands of phone calls from viewers. Larry King officiates as Donald Trump was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2007. Photo: AFP Didn't do his homework He earned a number of honours, including two Peabody awards, but was also criticised for his non-confrontational approach and open-ended questions. King boasted of not doing much research for the interviews so, he said, he could learn along with viewers. By 2010 his ratings had dropped significantly, with critics saying King's approach felt outdated in an era of more aggressive interviewing styles. King then announced his retirement, saying: "It's time to hang up my nightly suspenders." In his final programme on CNN, he told his viewers: "I don't know what to say, except to you, my audience, thank you. Instead of goodbye, how about so long?" “Instead of goodbye, how about so long?” Rest In Peace, Larry. https://t.co/hBF1p2rA70 pic.twitter.com/sy9De2yFLK — CNN Communications (@CNNPR) January 23, 2021 CNN replaced him with British journalist and broadcaster Piers Morgan, whose programme King criticised for being "too much about him". Morgan, whose programme was cancelled three years later, said on Twitter on Saturday: "Larry King was a hero of mine until we fell out after I replaced him at CNN & he said my show was 'like watching your mother-in-law go over a cliff in your new Bentley.' (He married 8 times so a mother-in-law expert)." But, Morgan added, King "was a brilliant broadcaster & masterful TV interviewer." In a statement, CNN president Jeff Zucker said: "The scrappy young man from Brooklyn had a history-making career spanning radio and television. His curiosity about the world propelled his award-winning career in broadcasting, but it was his generosity of spirit that drew the world to him." Most recently, King hosted another programme, Larry King Now, broadcast on Hulu and RT, Russia's state-controlled international broadcaster. A Kremlin spokesman was quoted as saying by state RIA Novosti news agency: "King repeatedly interviewed Putin. The president has always appreciated his great professionalism and unquestioned journalistic authority." Larry King and Vladimir Putin before an interview at CNN in New York in September 2000. Photo: AFP Outside broadcasting, King founded the Larry King Cardiac Foundation in 1988, a charity which helps to fund heart treatment for those with limited financial means or no medical insurance. - BBC

Hundreds of people have been detained as police try to stop nationwide protests in Russia in support of jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny. A protester is arrested in central Moscow. Photo: AFP Navalny's wife, Yulia, said she had been detained at a protest in Moscow, where tens of thousands have gathered. They were met by large numbers of riot police in the capital's Pushkin Square, and beaten back with batons. Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's most high-profile critic, called for protests after his arrest last weekend. Alexei Navalny on a flight back home from Germany last weekend. Photo: AFP He was detained on 17 January after he flew back to Moscow from Berlin, where he had been recovering from a near-fatal nerve agent attack in Russia last August. On his return, he was immediately taken into custody and found guilty of violating parole conditions. He says it is a trumped-up case designed to silence him, and has called on his supporters to protest. Prior to the rallies, Russian authorities had promised a tough crackdown, with police saying any unauthorised demonstrations and provocations would be "immediately suppressed". Several of Navalny's close aides, including his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh, were arrested earlier in the week. An injured protester is helped in central Moscow. Photo: AFP OVD Info, an independent NGO that monitors rallies, said that more than 1600 people had been detained during protests across the country on Saturday. Teenagers were among the many Navalny supporters who joined the demonstration in Moscow's central Pushkin Square. They were later forced by police to disperse to neighbouring streets. Russia's interior ministry said 4000 had turned up in Moscow, but opposition sources and reporters on the ground say it was in the tens of thousands. Photo: AFP According to OVD Info, more than 500 people were detained in Moscow alone. Among them was Lyubov Sobol, a prominent aide of Navalny who had already been fined for urging Russians to join the protests. She tweeted a video of police roughly pulling her away from an interview with reporters. Момент задержания Любови Соболь pic.twitter.com/8Qr0xjhoDG — Соболь Любовь (@SobolLubov) January 23, 2021 Navalny's wife posts image from police truck Navalny's wife, Yulia, also said she was being held by police at the same protest, posting an image on her Instagram account with the caption: "Apologies for the poor quality. Very bad light in the police van." Prominent Navalny activists are also being held in the cities of Vladivostok, Novosibirsk and Krasnodar. Russia's Far East saw some of the first protests on Saturday, with people braving the extreme cold in a show of support for Navalny. Attendees at a small protest in the Siberian city of Yakutsk saw temperatures dip as low as -50C. One independent news source, Sota, said at least 3000 people had joined a demonstration in the city of Vladivostok but local authorities there put the figure at 500. AFP footage showed riot police in Vladivostok running into a crowd, and beating some of the protesters with batons. Meanwhile, there were reports of disruption to mobile phone and internet coverage in Russia on Saturday - though it is not known if this is related to the protests. The social media app TikTok had been flooded with videos promoting the demonstrations and sharing viral messages about Navalny. Photo: AFP In response, Russia's official media watchdog, Roskomnadzor, demanded that TikTok take down any information "encouraging minors to act illegally", threatening large fines. Russia's education ministry has also told parents not to allow their children to attend any demonstrations. In a push to gain support ahead of the protests, Navalny's team released a video about a luxury Black Sea resort that they allege belongs to President Vladimir Putin - an accusation denied by the Kremlin. The video has been watched by more than 65 million people. - BBC