Friday, January 31, 2025
Protesters in Rafah oppose Trump’s plan to move Gaza Palestinians to Jordan and Egypt
Six In The Morning Friday 31 January 2025
Father of youngest hostage among three men to be released on Saturday, Hamas says
Raffi Berg
The Palestinian armed group Hamas has released the names of three hostages it says it will free on Saturday under the ceasefire deal with Israel.
They are Israelis Ofer Kalderon, 53, and Yarden Bibas, 34, and American-Israeli Keith Siegel, 65.
Mr Bibas is the father of Kfir, the youngest hostage who was 10 months old when he was kidnapped by Hamas. His wife Shiri and their other son Ariel, four, were also captured.
WhatsApp says journalists and civil society members were targets of Israeli spyware
Messaging app said it had ‘high confidence’ some users were targeted and ‘possibly compromised’ by Paragon Solutions spyware
Fri 31 Jan 2025 14.46 GMT
Nearly 100 journalists and other members of civil society using WhatsApp, the popular messaging app owned by Meta, were targeted by spyware owned by Paragon Solutions, an Israeli maker of hacking software, the company alleged today.
The journalists and other civil society members were being alerted of a possible breach of their devices, with WhatsApp telling the Guardian it had “high confidence” that the users in question had been targeted and “possibly compromised”.
Experts said the targeting was a “zero-click” attack, which means targets would not have had to click on any malicious links to be infected.
‘The flood of the century’: How well prepared is Paris for a natural disaster?
It has been more than 100 years since Paris’s last great flood, meaning the city is well overdue another mammoth deluge that authorities predict could leave hundreds of thousands of people without water or electricity. How prepared is the French capital for the next “flood of the century”?
The waters will rise slowly when the next great flood comes to Paris. There will be no flash flood that sweeps away infrastructure in an instant. Instead, the River Seine will creep up at a rate of about 2cm per hour.
It will take 10-15 days for water to reach the same levels as the capital’s last centennial flood in 1910, during which the river reached a depth of 8.62 metres.
Forecasts show a flood of this scale submerging vast swathes of the city underwater. Hundreds of streets in proximity to the riverbanks will be deluged, but flooding could also extend as far north as Saint Lazare station in the 8th arrondissement (district). The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and Notre-Dame Cathedral will all be inundated, as will thousands of homes.
Punitive labour conditions tied to cycling’s big-name brands
The bicycle industry’s dirty secret
Cycling may be green but Taiwan, the global centre of bicycle manufacturing, has built an industry on migrant labour and dodgy employment practices.
We all know that cycling is healthy and virtuous; millions of Europeans burn calories instead of petrol when they hit the road on their daily trips to school and work. Globally, the bicycle market is big business, valued at $66bn in 2024.
But for the workers who make our bikes in Taiwanese factories, conditions are often dirty, dangerous and demeaning. For years, debt bondage, passport retention, abusive living conditions, withheld wages, threats and intimidation have been common practice – all indicators of forced labour according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO). And for years, many of the world’s biggest brands – including Bianchi, Canyon, Centurion, Giant, Merida, Pinarello, REI, Scott, Specialized and Trek – have had bikes or components made in Taiwan.
Japan and U.S. confirm security treaty covers Senkakus
By MIZUKI SATO/ Staff Writer
January 31, 2025 at 16:42 JST
Japan received reassurances of continued close ties with its U.S. ally including confirmation that a security treaty covers the disputed Senkaku Islands from new Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Jan. 31.
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani spoke in a 40-minute phone conversation with his U.S. counterpart and for now there appear to be no major changes regarding Japan’s defense.
After the conversation, Nakatani met with reporters and said, “It was very meaningful that we agreed upon the significance of the Japan-U.S. alliance and that persistent effort by our two nations to strengthen deterrence capabilities is indispensable to the peace and stability of the region.”
‘Like the drug trade’: Argentina debates limiting online gambling for teens
Experts say reform is needed to stop teens from betting online, but Javier Milei has threatened to veto a recent bill.
It is December in the capital of Buenos Aires, and the summertime temperatures have soared to 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit).
The sun beats relentlessly on the corrugated metal roofs of Villa Fiorito, a working-class neighbourhood south of Argentina’s capital city.
Teenagers in flip-flops ride their motorbikes through the dirt streets. Other kids look for shady spots to rest and rinse their feet with a garden hose.
Thursday, January 30, 2025
Six In The Morning Thursday 30 January 2025
Sweden points to ‘foreign power’ after Iraqi refugee on trial for Qur’an burnings shot dead
Five held after Salwan Momika was reportedly killed during TikTok live stream, hours before trial verdict due
Thu 30 Jan 2025 12.22 GMT
Five people have been arrested after an Iraqi refugee and anti-Islam campaigner was shot dead in Sweden hours before a court verdict was due in his trial over burning the Qur’an, police said.
In an attack that the prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, said could be linked to “a foreign power”, Salwan Momika, 38, was shot late on Wednesday in a house in the town of Södertälje, near Stockholm. In 2023 Momika outraged many people in Sweden and around the world by burning copies of the Qur’an in public demonstrations.
A Stockholm court had been due pass judgment on Momika and another man on Thursday in a criminal trial over “offences of agitation against an ethnic or national group”, but said the verdict had been postponed.
Yoon’s self-inflicted downfall a blow to US strategy in East Asia
South Korea: anatomy of a coup gone wrong
President Yoon Suk-yeol’s December coup was over within hours, but it wasn’t an impulsive act. Details soon emerged of careful planning and a readiness to risk confrontation with North Korea to bring it off.
On 3 December President Yoon Suk-yeol abruptly left a cabinet meeting with no explanation. Most of his colleagues only discovered why when they heard him making a televised address from an adjoining room, announcing South Korea’s 17th – and fortunately shortest – period of martial law since it was established in 1948.
The logic seemed watertight to Yoon: if an opposition-controlled National Assembly thwarts a president – for example, by refusing to pass a budget his administration has called for – this is an affront to universal suffrage and the constitution. It didn’t matter that these parliamentarians had been elected or that the opposition’s majority in the assembly stemmed primarily from the president’s unpopularity. In Yoon’s worldview, a parliament either obeys or must be overturned.
Kagame says South Africa not equipped to mediate in DRC, warns of confrontation
By Des Erasmus
Rwanda President Paul Kagame issued a stark warning to South Africa late on Wednesday night, accusing President Cyril Ramaphosa and his government of distorting facts about the ongoing conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and suggesting that Rwanda is prepared for confrontation if necessary.
“What has been said about [the conversations I had with Ramaphosa this week] in the media by South African officials and President Ramaphosa himself contains a lot of distortion, deliberate attacks, and even lies.
“If words can change so much from a conversation to a public statement, it says a lot about how these very important issues are being managed,” Kagame said in a post on his X account, in reply to Ramaphosa’s posted statement.
Afghan refugees bat for recognition and women’s rights in Melbourne match
Of the 25 Afghan women contracted by the country’s cricket board in 2020, most resettled in Australia with humanitarian visas, starting new lives in Melbourne and other cities.
A few miles from the Melbourne Cricket Ground where Australia and England started the women’s Ashes test on Thursday, a group of Afghan refugee cricketers played their first match as a team since fleeing Taliban rule.
The players of the Afghanistan Women’s XI were among hundreds of athletes who fled their home nation when the Taliban returned to power in 2021, bringing sweeping restrictions on women.
Russia focuses on seizing Ukraine’s Pokrovsk amid reports of heavy losses
Russia concentrates on the Donetsk region hoping for a decisive breakthrough, as Ukraine claims Moscow has lost almost 835,000 men.
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
Six In The Morning Wednesday 29 January 2025
Dozens killed in crowd crushes at Kumbh Mela in India
Witnesses describe people being trampled amid surging crowds on the banks of the Ganges during Hindu festival
Wed 29 Jan 2025 15.36 GMT
Dozens killed in crowd crushes at Kumbh Mela in India
Witnesses describe people being trampled amid surging crowds on the banks of the Ganges during Hindu festival
At least 30 people have been killed and scores injured in crowd crushes at the Kumbh Mela festival, Indian police have confirmed, as vast numbers of people went to bathe at one of the holiest sites of the Hindu gathering.
Tens of millions of people flocked to the northern state of Uttar Pradesh to immerse themselves at the sacred confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers on one of the most auspicious days of the Hindu festival.
A senior police officer, Vaibhav Krishna, told a news conference that 30 people had died and at least double that number were wounded in fatal crushes that took place in the early hours of Wednesday.
Australian teacher believed to have been killed by Russia in Ukraine is alive, says foreign minister
Oscar Jenkins left his job teaching to go fight for Ukraine before he was taken captive in December
Wednesday 29 January 2025 10:31 GMT
An Australian man who was feared dead after being captured by Russian forces is alive, foreign minister Penny Wong has announced.
Oscar Jenkins, 32, a teacher who signed up to fight for Ukraine against Russia, was taken captive in December last year. A video showed him being struck by a Russian interrogator, sparking fears for his life.
“The Australian government has received confirmation from Russia that Oscar Jenkins is alive and in custody,” Ms Wong said on Wednesday.
Germany: 59 PSG fans arrested before Champions League clash
Police in Germany on Wednesday arrested 59 Paris Saint-Germain fans ahead of an evening Champions League match scheduled against VfB Stuttgart.
Police said there was evidence that fans of both teams were planning to clash against each other outside of the stadium.
What Stuttgart police have said
"On Tuesday before the match #VfBPSG, 59 French hooligans were taken into custody in the city area. The measure was taken after consultation with a judge to prevent serious riots," Stuttgart police said in a statement posted on social media platform X.
Trump reiterates Gaza expulsion plan – and stokes security fears
US President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Egypt and Jordan should absorb Palestinians from Gaza has gotten no takers in the Arab world, shocked US allies like France and Germany, and threatens to strengthen Hamas.
The timing and content of US President Donald Trump’s latest idea to “clean out” Gaza by getting “Arab nations” to “take people” from the Palestinian territory came as a shocker, even for a world grown accustomed to policy bombshells from the old-new man in the White House.
On Saturday, when Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that some Arab nations could “build housing in a different location” for Gaza’s 1.5 million people, many hoped it was the first and last they would hear about an explosive idea for one of the world’s most volatile regions.
But barely 48 hours later, their hopes were dashed.
Rwanda-backed M23 strengthens its control over DRC’s Goma
Kenya has announced a virtual crisis summit, but Congolese state media says President Felix Tshisekedi will not attend.
Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have tightened their grip on Goma, the biggest city in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), signalling a major blow to the Congolese army and a serious escalation in a years-long conflict that has seen hundreds of people killed and millions displaced.
March 23 Movement (M23) fighters entered Goma on Sunday and claimed to have taken control of the city a day later. Three days of clashes between Congolese armed forces and the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have killed more than 100 people and wounded nearly 1,000 people in Goma.
Ex-prison officer gives rare look behind the walls of an execution
By YUTAKA SHIOKURA/ Senior Staff Writer
January 29, 2025 at 16:39 JST
A former correctional officer offered a rare first-hand account of the execution of a death row inmate he participated in more than a half a century ago and his thoughts at the time.
Now a lawyer, Yoshikuni Noguchi talked about his experiences as a correctional officer with The Asahi Shimbun and the somber duty of carrying out an execution.