Sunday, December 24, 2023

Six In The Morning Sunday 24 December 2023

 

Israel-Gaza war: Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel paying 'heavy price'


Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the Gaza war has come at a "very heavy price" for his side.
The military says 14 more soldiers have been killed in the Palestinian territory since Friday, bringing the total of the ground assault to 153. 

Saturday was one of its deadliest days - but Mr Netanyahu said his forces had "no choice" but to keep fighting 

Meanwhile, the health ministry in Gaza - run by Hamas - says another 166 people were killed in the last day.
More than 20,000 people have been killed - mostly women and children, and 54,000 injured in Gaza since 7 October, the ministry says.


Polish farmers end blockade of Ukraine border crossing

Ukraine says movement of lorries restored after suspension of protest, but truckers’ blockades of three other crossings continue

Polish farmers have ended their blockade of one of the border crossings between Ukraine and Poland and the movement of lorries has been fully restored, the Ukrainian border service has said.

“Truck traffic has been restored: Polish farmers have ended the blockade in front of the Medyka-Shehyni crossing,” the service said on the Telegram messaging app on Sunday.

The service quoted the Polish border guard as saying that the protest action in front of the crossing ended at 9.30am Kyiv time (0730 GMT) on Sunday.

“Registration and crossing of trucks entering Ukraine is carried out as usual,” it added.


Iran's navy receives 'smart' long-range missiles

The new weapons have a range of up to 1,000 kilometers (621 miles), according to Tehran. Iran backs Islamist militants in the Middle East, raising fears that the Israel-Hamas war could spread to the rest of the region.

Sophisticated domestically-made cruise missiles have been delivered to Iran's navy, state media reported Sunday.

The arrival comes amid growing regional tension between Tehran and Iran-backed militant groups on one side, and Israel and its Western allies over the Israel-Hamas conflict.

What do we know about the new missiles?

State media said the Talaeiyeh cruise missile has a range of over 1,000 kilometers (621 miles).

Local media cited the head of Iran's navy Admiral Shahran Irani as saying the weapon is "a smart missile that can change targets mid-mission."


Espionage from the East"Russia Is a Storm, China Is Climate Change"

Spying from China continues to grow in both volume and sophistication. The cyber-snoops from the People's Republic have moved beyond companies and are now seeking to exert influence on politics in Germany – all while keeping a close eye on dissidents and minorities.

By Maik BaumgärtnerCornelius DieckmannGeorg FahrionChristoph GiesenRoman HöfnerRoman LehbergerAnn-Katrin MüllerMarcel RosenbachFidelius Schmid und Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt


Where should we start? Perhaps with the two pandas Meng Meng and Jiao Qing. They couldn’t be any cuter! Chinese President Xi Jinping presented them to the Berlin Zoo six years ago, with Xi telling then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the bears were "ambassadors” of the good relations between their two countries. Merkel beamed. "Extremely likable diplomats,” she said of the pair of pandas.


Or perhaps we should go back a bit farther? To 2014? Xi was again in Germany, this time at the port in Duisburg with then-Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel. The two of them were eagerly awaiting the arrival of a freight train from Chongqing, which would be reaching the end of the 10,300 kilometer long "New Silk Road” in Duisburg.


Japan to spend ¥164.7 bil on 2025 Osaka expo amid public skepticism


The Japanese government is estimated to spend a higher-than-expected 164.7 billion yen on the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka, amid public concern about inflated costs for the global event.

In addition to the total, which includes spending on bidding activities, the central government, local authorities and the private sector are projected to pour some 9.7 trillion yen into the development of infrastructure for the event.

With costs becoming larger than initially estimated, the government will set up a panel including third-party experts to examine whether continuing to inject massive amounts of taxpayer money into the project is appropriate.

‘They can kill us’: Fear and Sikh resilience in Canada city amid India spat

Six months after Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s assassination, his community members face threats but say they’re not defeated.



On a Saturday afternoon in a Sikh temple in Surrey, Canada, boys and men with determined faces wield swords and sticks at each other in an ancient martial art called gatka.

“We are a rebellious community,” Gurkeerat Singh, a farmer, electrician, photographer and spokesperson for the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara Temple, tells me. Surrey is about a 45-minute train ride outside of Vancouver. The city of half a million people is home to the second-largest Sikh population in the country.

Today, as the first snow of the season melts in puddles outside the building, there’s a small but encouraging crowd watching the gatka tournament inside. “From a young age, we teach our children to be armed and learn how to defend themselves,” says Gurkeerat.




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