Six In The Morning Tuesday 29 April 2025

 

Carney celebrates historic win in Canada, with Conservative rival Poilievre projected to lose seat

 

Summary

• Mark Carney's Liberal Party wins the Canadian election, in a remarkable turnaround for the centre-left party - watch how the night unfolded in under two minutes

• In his victory speech, Carney tells supporters: "President Trump is trying to break us so that America can own us - that will never ever happen"

• It remains too close to call whether he will secure a majority in parliament - if not, he'll have to rely on other parties to govern

• Defeated Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre - until recently expected to become the next PM - is projected to lose his seat

• The Liberal Party were well behind in the polls just three months ago, before Carney replaced Justin Trudeau as leader and US President Trump upended relations and became the defining issue of the campaign

• How do Canadian elections work? We've got the basics

 

The Viktoriia project

‘Numerous signs of torture’: a Ukrainian journalist’s detention and death in Russian prison

The Guardian, working with media partners, has tracked down first-hand accounts to reconstruct Viktoriia Roshchyna’s final months

By Juliette Garside, Shaun Walker, Manisha Ganguly, Pjotr Sauer, Tetyana Nikolayenko, Anton Naumliuk and Artem Mazhulin

The exchange took place on a lonely forest road in February. Moving along a line of refrigerated lorries, the teams in hazmat suits went about their grim work: preparing the remains of 757 Ukrainian military casualties handed over by Russia for the journey back to Kyiv.

Clipboards in hand, intermediaries from the Red Cross checked their lists. For each body shrouded in white plastic, the Russians had provided a number, a name, a location, sometimes a cause of death. And then, at the very bottom of the last page, a mystery entry: “NM SPAS 757.” The letters were abbreviations, taken to mean “unidentified man” and “extensive damage to the coronary arteries”.

 

Power restored in Spain and Portugal after massive blackout left millions stranded

Power returned to Spain and Portugal on Tuesday after a major blackout disrupted flights, metros and communications across the two countries. Authorities said over 99 percent of energy demand was restored while Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced an investigation to determine the cause of the outage, which remains unclear.

Spain's government has set up a commission to investigate the causes of a crippling nationwide blackout, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Tuesday, adding that no possible causes had been ruled out.

"All the necessary measures will be taken to ensure that this does not happen again," he told a press conference a day after Spain and Portugal were plunged into darkness for reasons yet to be determined.

Israel commits Gaza genocide under world’s ‘watchful eye’, ICJ told

By Edna Mohamed and Brian Osgood

Published On 29 Apr 202529 Apr 2025

• The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has begun its second day of hearings into Israel’s humanitarian obligations to Palestinians, more than 50 days into Israel’s total blockage on aid entering the Gaza Strip.
• South Africa’s representative Zane Dangor has told the ICJ that “under the world’s watchful eye, Palestinians are being subjected to atrocity, crimes, persecution, apartheid and genocide” in Gaza.
• Amnesty International, a global rights group, has accused Israel of committing a “livestreamed genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza by forcibly displacing most of the population and deliberately creating a humanitarian catastrophe.

UN rights chief demands action to stop Gaza ‘catastrophe reaching a new, unseen level’

The UN rights chief called on countries to halt a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, where a total Israeli blockade on aid is pushing the Palestinian territory towards a collapse of critical life-saving support;

“As the complete blockade of assistance essential for survival enters its ninth week, there must be concerted international efforts to stop this humanitarian catastrophe from reaching a new, unseen level,” Volker Turk said in a statement

White House calls Amazon ‘hostile’ for reportedly planning to list tariff costs

White House accuses Amazon of ‘hostile and political act’ after report says company will display tariffs costs on site

Blake Montgomery in New York

Tue 29 Apr 2025 15.37 BST

The White House accused Amazon of committing a “hostile and political act” after a report said the e-commerce company was planning to inform customers how much Donald Trump’s tariffs would cost them as they shopped.

The press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, was responding to a report in Punchbowl News, which, citing a person familiar with the matter, reported that Amazon would begin displaying on its site how much the tariffs had increased the prices of individual products, breaking out the figure from the total listed price.

Kyoto exhibition offers rare access to city’s shrines, temples

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

April 29, 2025 at 07:00 JST

Sixteen shrines and temples here are now granting access to their private statues and architecture for a spring exhibition organized by the Kyoto Heritage Preservation Association with assistance from The Asahi Shimbun.

The “Special exhibition of Kyoto’s hidden cultural properties” runs through May 11 and showcases pieces usually off-limits to the public across Kyoto and the city of Yawata south of the prefectural capital.

Yawata’s two participating locations are Iwashimizu Hachimangu shrine and Shokado Garden and Art Museum.

Late Night Music: Samsara Experience // DUB TECHNO NEW MIX

Inside Shin-Osaka Station & Train to EXPO 2025

Six In The Morning Monday 28 April 2025

 

Spain and Portugal hit by major power outage

By Antoinette Radford, Rob Picheta and Peter Wilkinson, CNN

Updated 11:22 AM EDT, Mon April 28, 2025

Where things stand now

• Massive power outage: Large parts of Spain and Portugal experienced major power outages, shutting off traffic lights and causing chaos at travel hubs. In Spain, all rail traffic has come to a halt and in Portugal, authorities are warning against any unnecessary travel due to the risk of traffic lights failing.

• Restoration efforts underway: Spanish power grid operator Red Electrica said restoring power could take between six to 10 hours.

• Cause of outage: It’s not clear what caused the sudden blackout, but “all resources are being dedicated to solving it,” the national power grid operator in Spain said.

Spanish nuclear sites deemed safe as plants shut down during power outage, energy agency says

Spain’s nuclear sites are safe amid a major power outage across large parts of the Iberian Peninsula on Monday, according to the country’s nuclear energy agency, the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN).

Nuclear power plants shut down as they are designed to do when they lose power, CSN said, adding that “backup diesel generators fired up and are maintaining safe conditions for the reactors.”

Spain has seven operational nuclear reactors across five different sites, according to CSN.

Putin announces 72-hour May ceasefire in Ukraine war

Kyiv responds to Russian announcement by calling for an immediate 30-day halt to fighting ‘not just for a parade’

Pjotr Sauer and Luke Harding in Kyiv

Mon 28 Apr 2025 13.19 BST

Vladimir Putin has declared a three-day full ceasefire in the war with Ukraine in May to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union in the second world war.

The Kremlin said the 72-hour ceasefire would run from the start of 8 May to the end of 10 May, and called on Ukraine to join it as well. “All hostilities will be suspended during this period,” the Kremlin said in a statement. “Russia believes that the Ukrainian side should follow this example.”

The Kremlin said that in the event of violations of the ceasefire by the Ukrainian side, Russian armed forces would deliver an “adequate and effective” response.

India-Pakistan tensions: US, China urge de-escalation

China's Wang Yi has backed Pakistan's call for an independent probe into the recent attack in Kashmir. Meanwhile, India said troops from both sides exchanged fire for the fourth night in a row. DW rounds up the latest.

India should be careful not to alienate Kashmiris in its hunt for militants who killed 26 people last week,  the region's chief minister has said. 

Omar Abdullah said this was particularly important given that people in the Muslim-majority Himalayan region have staged protests against that attack, its chief minister said on Monday.

"We should not do anything to alienate the people after their spontaneous reaction [against the attack]," Abdullah, chief minister of the Indian federal territory of Jammu and Kashmir, told the local assembly house.

North Korea makes first public admission it sent troops to fight for Russia

The admission comes as top US diplomat Marco Rubio warned the Trump administration would walk away from brokering peace talks if there was no realistic prospect of a deal in sight

Angus Thompson,Reuters

North Korea confirmed for the first time on Monday that it has sent troops to fight for Russia in the war with Ukraine under the order of dictactor Kim Jong Un.

As Kyiv claims its soldiers continue to cling to parts of Kursk following a Russian counter-offence involving North Korean troops, KCNA state news agency cited the North’s ruling party as saying its contribution showed the "highest strategic level of the firm militant friendship".

The admission comes as top US diplomat Marco Rubio warned the Trump administration would walk away from brokering peace talks if there was no realistic prospect of a deal in sight.

Voting begins in Canada as Trump repeats calls for country to become 51st US state

Summary

• Polls are open across Canada where a snap election is being held to determine who will become the country's next prime minister

• It comes just six weeks after Mark Carney was sworn in as PM, replacing his party colleague Justin Trudeau

• The two clear front-runners are the Liberal Party - led by Carney - who have been in power for a decade, and the Conservative Party, led by Pierre Poilievre

• US President Donald Trump has weighed in on the election via his social media account, repeating his calls for the nation to become the 51st US state

• Poilievre then told Trump to "stay out of our election" and Carney urged Canadians to be "united and strong" against the "crisis in the United States"

• An election expected to be a referendum on almost 10 years of Liberal governance is now firmly centred on who can best stand up to Trump, our live page editor (and Canadian national) Jenna Moon writes

We’ve been speaking to a few voters who turned up shortly after polls opened in the Ottawa South riding. Several issues came up from healthcare and housing to the economy more broadly.

But among liberal voters, one overarching theme was the threats from US President Donald Trump.

It’s the first time Vency Okoye is voting, and she said the last few months had decided her vote.

Late Night Music: DEEP & DUB TECHNO NEW MIX // Solitude

How technocracy has become our reality

Do technocrats pose a threat to democracy?

As tech billionaires infiltrate the White House, the question looms, “Who really rules us, the government or Silicon Valley?”

This film examines the influence and ideology of technocrats over the last century, and asks whether they pose a threat to democracy.

Six In The Morning Sunday 27 April 2025

 

Vancouver: 9 killed after car plows into crowd at festival

At least nine people were killed after a car plowed into a crowd of people celebrating a Filipino festival at a street party in Vancouver, police said. A man arrested at the scene was also "known" to authorities.

Vancouver police said Sunday that at least nine people were killed after a driver plowed through a crowd celebrating a street festival in Vancouver, western Canada.

"As of now, we can confirm nine people have died after a man drove through a crowd at last night's Lapu Lapu Festival," authorities said in a statement.

In an earlier post on X, police said they were "confident that this incident was not an act of terrorism."

Israel faces legal pressure at UN’s top court over Unrwa ban

Hearings over bar on cooperation with Palestinian aid agency are test of Israel’s defiance of international law

Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor

Sun 27 Apr 2025 14.37 BST

Israel will come under sustained legal pressure this week at the UN’s top court when lawyers from more than 40 states will claim the country’s ban on all cooperation with the UN’s Palestinian rights agency Unrwa is a breach of the UN charter.

The five days of hearings at the international court of justice (ICJ) in The Hague have been given a fresh urgency by Israel’s decision on 2 March to block all aid into Gaza, but the hearing will focus on whether Israel – as a signatory to the UN charter – acted unlawfully in overriding the immunities afforded to a UN body. Israel ended all contact and cooperation with Unrwa operations in Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem in November, claiming the agency had been infiltrated by Hamas, an allegation that has been contested.

Right Wing Extremist Chants Flourishing On Telegram

 By Maik Baumgärtner, Roman Höfner, Max Hoppenstedt, Ann-Katrin Müller, Sven Röbel und Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt

 He goes by "Hunter” on the messaging app Telegram. And the young German makes no secret of his political orientation. He’s from a "NatSoc Family,” he claims, writing in English – a family with national-socialist sympathies. Where they live in the German state of Saxony, he writes, there are fewer "non-whites” than in western Germany, and the far right is gaining ground, "especially the militant scene.”

In a chat with a Telegram user claiming to share his views, "Hunter” goes into detail. He writes that he is training a group of teenagers and young men between 13 and 25 and posts photos of them marching in camouflage. Sometimes, they drive to Poland or the Czech Republic, apparently for target practice. He is planning to conduct detonation tests in the woods with a mixture of diesel and manure, he claims. His role model: Timothy McVeigh, the man who blew up a federal building in the U.S. state of Oklahoma in 1995.

France is 'no place' for racism and hate, says Macron after murder of Muslim in mosque

President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday that racism and hatred based on religion can have no place in France after the brutal murder of a Muslim in a mosque in the south of the country. The man suspected of killing the worshipper was still on the run Sunday, authorities said.

There can never be a place for racism and hate in France, President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday after the brutal stabbing to death of a Muslim in a mosque in the south of the country.

"Racism and hatred based on religion can have no place in France. Freedom of worship cannot be violated," Macron wrote on X in his first comments on Friday's killing, extending his support to "our fellow Muslim citizens".

The attacker, who is on the run, stabbed the worshipper dozens of times and then filmed him with a mobile phone while shouting insults at Islam in Friday's attack in the village of La Grand-Combe in the Gard region.

Kashmir attack live: Politicians criticise India’s ‘collective punishment’

By Abubakr Al-Shamahi

Published On 27 Apr 202527 Apr 2025

• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reiterated that Pahalgam attackers “will be served with the harshest response”.
• MP for Srinagar Ruhullah Mehdi says Kashmir is facing ‘collective punishment’ after state’s former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti says security forces must distinguish between “terrorists” and civilians.
• Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif tells RIA Novosti that Russia and China may participate in an international investigation into last week’s deadly attack in Kashmir a day after Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharif called for a neutral investigation. India has blamed Pakistan for cross-border “terrorism”, a charge it denies.
• India has taken various steps, including scaling down diplomatic ties with Pakistan and suspending its participation in the vital Indus Waters Treaty, in the wake of the deadliest attack on civilians in two decades.
• The attack has shattered the Indian government’s narrative of bringing normalcy to the Muslim-majority region through its heavy-handed approach, experts say. New Delhi scrapped the region’s limited autonomy in 2019 and brought the state under direct rule from New Delhi – a move that has further alienated Kashmiris.

Indian, Pakistani diaspora groups protest in London

Members of the Pakistani diaspora held a counter-protest in front of the Indian High Commission in London amid tensions between the two South Asian rivals over the deadly Pahalgam attack in Indian-administered Kashmir.

While no arrests have been made at today’s protest so far, it comes a day after scuffles between pro-Pakistan and pro-India groups, this time in front of the Pakistan High Commission, after Indian protesters turned up to the demonstration with placards reading “I am Hindu”, according to the Times of India.