Six In The Morning Monday 21 October 2024

 

Hamas tells BBC it will keep new leader's name secret, as Israeli raids on Gaza continue

UN aid agency accuses Israel of denying humanitarian access to northern Gaza

The Israeli authorities are "continuing to deny" humanitarian access to northern Gaza, the head of the UN's largest aid agency in Gaza has claimed.

Last week it was revealed the US had written to Israel giving it 30 days to boost humanitarian access into Gaza or risk losing some military assistance.

The Israeli military body responsible for managing crossings into Gaza, Cogat, says it has expanded humanitarian access and that, over the last 24 hours, 47 humanitarian aid trucks were transferred into the north.

India’s airline industry in chaos after 90 hoax bomb threats in a week

Authorities yet to uncover source and motive of surge in fake bomb threats, as dozens of planes forced to reroute

Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Delhi

Mon 21 Oct 2024 11.45 BST

A reported 90 hoax bomb threats have been made against Indian airlines in the past week, provoking international travel chaos as planes were grounded, diverted and flown to safety by fighter jet escorts.

The unprecedented surge in fake bomb threats against multiple Indian and international airlines has caused severe disruption to India’s aviation industry and created a growing sense of panic among air passengers.

Last week, there were a reported 90 bomb threats made against airlines flying domestically and to international destinations out of Indian airports. On Saturday alone, 30 hoax threats were reported, and at least 20 more threats were made to different airlines on Sunday.

Who is going to Putin-hosted Brics summit in Russia – and why has Brazil’s Lula dropped out?

Vladimir Putin is hosting China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Narendra Modi, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian among other world leaders at Kazan meeting

The leaders of the world’s top emerging economies have begun arriving in the western Russian city of Kazan where president Vladimir Putin will host the 16th Brics summit, the first gathering of the bloc since its expansion last year.

The three-day summit begins on Tuesday and will see participation by 33 countries, with 24 represented at the leadership level, Russian media reported.

Mr Putin, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, will be seen shaking hands with multiple world leaders, including China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Narendra Modi, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Iran’s new president Masoud Pezeshkian.

Moldova narrowly votes 'yes' to EU membership

Earlier preliminary results had indicted a majority "no," but a surge of ballots from abroad provided last-minute support for EU membership. The referendum comes amid allegations of Russia-backed voter fraud

With more than 99% of the votes counted, the "yes" vote for EU membership in Moldova's referendum was slightly ahead at 50.28% — only 8,000 votes more than the anti-EU camp.

Earlier, Moldovans appeared to have rejected plans for the former Soviet republic to add its goal of joining the EU to the constitution, according to preliminary results from 70% of ballots in the country's referendum from Sunday evening.

Ballots from Moldovans living abroad were counted toward the end, giving the "yes" camp a last-minute push. 

Shizuoka police apologizes to Hakamada for 58 years of misery

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

Fifty-eight years after arresting Iwao Hakamada on murder charges, Shizuoka prefectural police apologized to the 88-year-old man who spent nearly a half-century on death row for a crime he did not commit. 

Takayoshi Tsuda, chief of Shizuoka police, visited Hakamada's home here to apologize to him and his sister Hideko for the wrongful arrest and investigation at around 11 a.m. on Oct. 21.

“For the past 58 years, a long period from the time of your arrest until you were proven innocent, we caused you indescribable anxiety and burden," Tsuda said. "We are truly sorry. We will make efforts to ensure that our investigations are more thorough and fair.”

How Aleksei Navalny’s Prison Diaries Got Published

In his posthumous memoir, compiled with help from his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny faced the fact that Vladimir Putin might succeed in silencing him. The book will keep “his legacy alive,” Navalnaya said.

Aleksei A. Navalny knew he would likely die in prison.

In messages to his supporters posted on social media, Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, often struck a hopeful note about the future of his country, or a comic one, joking about the absurdities and indignities of prison life.

But in the journal entries he managed to write and smuggle out of prison, he was more introspective, and blunt: “I knew from the outset that I would be imprisoned for life — either the rest of my life or until the end of the life of this regime,” Navalny wrote in his diary in March 2022. “I will spend the rest of my life in prison and die here.”