Sunday, April 30, 2023
Russian mines make Ukrainian fields unfarmable
Ukrainian farmers cannot cultivate their land. The Russians have buried so many mines that it is too dangerous to use heavy equipment for sowing. Many fear for their livelihood.
Six In The Morning Sunday 30 April 2023
Sudan crisis: Air strikes and fighting in Khartoum as truce collapses
Air strikes have intensified in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, despite a truce aimed at allowing civilians to flee.
The army said it was attacking the city to flush out its paramilitary rivals, the Rapid Response Forces (RSF).
The latest truce was due to end at midnight on Sunday. The RSF said it had been extended for another three days.
Millions remain trapped in the capital, where food is running short. The first major aid flight, laden with medical supplies, has arrived in the country.
Tunisian cemeteries fill up as hundreds of dead refugees wash up on coast
Hospitals, morgues and burial grounds under pressure, with more than 300 bodies found this year in just one region
Authorities in Tunisia are considering building new cemeteries, as the country runs out of space to bury the dozens of refugees washing up every day on its shores.
The first three months of 2023 were the deadliest for people attempting to cross the central Mediterranean since 2017, according to the UN, with an increasing number of boats carrying asylum seekers wrecked at sea.
Horror ScenarioGermany Prepares for Possible Re-Election of Donald Trump
Berlin is preparing for the possibility that Donald Trump could beat Joe Biden in the next election. That outcome would likely be a disaster for Ukraine, NATO and the looming climate crisis. Diplomats have begun establishing contacts with the former president's camp to avoid being blindsided as they were in 2016.
By Markus Becker, Markus Feldenkirchen, Marina Kormbaki, Veit Medick, Ralf Neukirch, Christian Reiermann, Jonas Schaible und Gerald Traufetter
It seemed like the 45th United States president, whose ancestors came from Germany, had an obsession with the country , but not a positive one. It often seemed as though he regarded Germany as America's greatest enemy, even as he got along splendidly with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and others of his ilk. At least those ties were better than his relationship with then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"The Germans are bad, very bad," Trump declared in May 2017 at a meeting with European Union leaders in Brussels, where one of the issues under discussion was Germany's trade surplus. "See the millions of cars they are selling in the U.S. Terrible. We will stop this," he said.
Philippines: After decades of terror, peace returns to island of Jolo
For a long time, the island of Jolo, one of the southernmost points of the Philippines archipelago, was off limits. It was the stronghold of one of the most violent terrorist movements in the world, Abu Sayyaf. In 2000, a group of 20 tourists were kidnapped in Malaysia and taken to Jolo. Journalists who covered the kidnapping were then also captured. Negotiations for their release took several months. Today, after 30 years of fighting with the Philippine army, Abu Sayyaf is almost defeated and the island has begun to find peace. FRANCE 24’s Constantin Simon, Alexis Bregere, Sherbien Dacalanio and Aruna Popuri report.
Created in the 1990s, Abu Sayyaf carried out numerous atrocities – assassinations, kidnappings, piracy and extortions – with the aim of creating an Islamist state in the south of the Philippines. The group's favourite method of execution was beheading with a sword.
Paraguay votes for a president, with Taiwan ties on ballot
Paraguay has maintained ties with Taiwan for over seven decades, one of a very select few countries still to do so at the expense of dealing with China. In a slowing economy, the opposition candidate criticized this.
Paraguayans are voting to elect a new leader on Sunday.
This presidential election could be the biggest challenge for the ruling conservative Colorado Party which has held on to power for over seven decades.
Among other issues, the polling is set to test the country's nearly 70-year-long ties with Taiwan as candidates offer to re-examine relations.
Nearly 5 million people are choosing between Colorado Party candidate Santiago Pena, an economist, and Efrain Alegre, a veteran opposition lawyer.
Russia vows retaliation after Poland seizes embassy school
From CNN's Xiaofei Xu and Darya Tarasova
Russia's foreign ministry warned it will retaliate after Polish authorities seized a Russian embassy school Saturday, marking a new chapter in diplomatic tensions that have intensified during the war in Ukraine.
Polish police and staff from the Warsaw city hall entered the campus Saturday morning, asking employees to leave the premises, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
Moscow described the action as “controversial, illegal and provocative," in a statement.
A Polish foreign ministry spokesperson told Reuters that while Russia had a right to protest the seizure, the government was acting within the law.
Saturday, April 29, 2023
Are baguettes and croissants out in France?
Some bakers in France are revolutionizing their craft. They are returning to old baking traditions by heating their ovens with wood and using only three ingredients: flour, salt, and well water.
Six In The Morning Saturday 29 April 2023
Sudan crisis risks becoming a nightmare for the world - former PM Hamdok
By George Wright
BBC News
The former prime minister of Sudan has warned that the conflict in his country could become worse than those in Syria and Libya.
Abdalla Hamdok said the fighting will be a "nightmare for the world" if it continues.
The latest ceasefire between warring generals is faltering, with airstrikes reported in the capital Khartoum.
Almost two weeks of fighting has left hundreds dead, while tens of thousands of people are fleeing the country.
Japan approves abortion pill for the first time
Health ministry gives green light for two-step treatment to end pregnancies up to nine weeks
The abortion pill is to become available in Japan for the first time after the health ministry approved a drug used to terminate early-stage pregnancies.
Abortion is legal in Japan up to 22 weeks, but consent is usually required from a spouse or partner, and until now a surgical procedure had been the only option.
The ministry said in a notification to healthcare officials on Friday it had approved a drug made by Linepharma.
Turkey: Erdogan returns to election trail after illness
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday made his first public appearance in three days after what his office called a stomach infection kept him off the election trail for a few days before the country heads to the polls next month.
Erdogan addressed a crowd at an aviation trade fair, Teknofest, in Istanbul and flung flowers in the direction of supporters who came with Turkish flags.
Alongside the 69-year-old Turkish president at the event were Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Mohammed Dbeibah.
Thousands endure long wait for safety at Sudan-Ethiopia border
An interminable row of minibuses lines the road that separates Sudan's southeastern city of Gedaref from the Ethiopian border, slowly bringing people fleeing Sudan's war closer to safety.
There, families have been "sleeping on the ground out in the open", said Oktay Oglu, a Turkish engineer who worked at a factory in the capital Khartoum before escaping with his family.
Locals and foreigners alike have made this journey, fleeing more than two weeks of brutal fighting that pits forces loyal to rival generals against one other, with civilians caught in the crossfire.
North Korean leader’s sister attacks US-South Korea agreement
The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has hit back at a key agreement made between the US and South Korea, claiming it will only serve to worsen security.
Washington and Seoul made a pact at the White House on Wednesday that aims to deter North Korean aggression, including a new US commitment to deploy a nuclear-armed submarine in South Korea for the first time since the early 1980s.
In comments on state-run KCNA, Kim Yo Jong slammed the deal as a “typical product of their extreme anti-North Korean hostile policy, reflecting the most hostile and aggressive will of action.
Ukrainian sisters lodging in Northumberland turn out to be musical prodigies
Strangers stopped to listen in the street when the windows were open and the girls from refugee family were practising
When a Northumberland couple opened up their village home to a Ukrainian mother and her two daughters last year, they were responding to the plight of refugees escaping the Russian invasion. Having been told no more than that this was a musical family, Sheilagh Matheson and Chris Roberts offered two bedrooms and a honky-tonk piano.
Soon they found themselves arranging the loan of a Steinway upright after discovering that these children had an extraordinary musical talent – one that made passersby stop to listen at an open window.
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