Six In The Morning Friday 24 January 2025

 

Israel says its troop withdrawal from Lebanon will extend beyond ceasefire deadline

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's office on Friday announced that the withdrawal of its forces from southern Lebanon would continue beyond the 60-day period stipulated in a November ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah. Under the deal brokered by France and the US, the withdrawal deadline expires Monday, January 27. 

The Israeli army will not complete its withdrawal from southern Lebanon by a Monday deadline, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's office said on Friday, saying Lebanon has not yet fully enforced the ceasefire agreement.

The deal, brokered by France and the US, ended more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah. The fighting peaked with a major Israeli offensive that displaced more than 1.2 million people in Lebanon and left the Iran-backed Lebanese Shiite group severely weakened.

Under the agreement, which was signed on November 27, Hezbollah weapons and fighters must be removed from areas south of the Litani river. Israeli troops should withdraw as the Lebanese army deploys into the region, all within a 60-day timeframe due to conclude on Monday at 4am local time. 

Pollution-hit Bangkok closes hundreds of schools and offers free public transport

Government orders ban on burning of leftover crops and says train and bus services will be free from Saturday

Agence France-Presse

Fri 24 Jan 2025 06.49 GMT

Air pollution in Thailand’s capital forced the closure of more than 350 schools on Friday, city authorities said, the highest number in five years.

Bangkok officials announced free public transport for a week in a bid to reduce traffic in a city notorious for noxious exhaust fumes.

Seasonal air pollution has long afflicted Thailand, like many countries in the region, but this week’s hazy conditions have shuttered the most schools since 2020.

‘This guy is dangerous’: British Pakistanis fear Musk is stoking racism

Some are concerned that collective punishment could be a consequence of the tech billionaire’s relentless posts about historic child sex abuse cases.

By Indlieb Farazi Saber

Published On 24 Jan 202524 Jan 2025

Azmat Khan, a British Pakistani taxi driver, is not usually much of a worrier.

But recently, as he drives his cab at night through London’s ice-cold streets, he has become increasingly anxious.

“We’ve just had a summer of unrest with misinformation fuelling far-right activists in this country, partly thanks to X, and now he’s back, fanning the flames again,” Khan said of the South-Africa born tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has used the social media platform he owns to rage about British sexual abuse convicts of Pakistani heritage.

Trump is targeting the immigrants who will be called on to rebuild LA

By Samantha Delouya, CNN

 5 minute read 

Published 4:00 AM EST, Fri January 24, 2025

On the outskirts of Altadena, where one of the most destructive firestorms in Los Angeles history had just receded, a group of volunteers worked last week to gather fallen tree branches and leaves — removing fuel for potential future fires, bagging them up and taking them away.

One of those people, Cesar, a Mexican immigrant in his early 60s, works as a day laborer in construction, picking up jobs helping to build and remodel homes around LA.

Though Cesar, who asked only to be identified by his first name, told CNN he has worked in California for more than 30 years, he is undocumented.

Zuckerberg's newfound libertarianism is worrying Brazil

Meta’s policy shift on content moderation alarms authorities in the South American country

By Juan Pablo Spinetto
Bloomberg

For all the controversy it generated in the U.S., Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to loosen content moderation on Facebook and other Meta Platforms products is also reverberating 6,000 miles away — in Brazil.

Meta’s new policies are seen with "great concern” by the authorities, Brazil’s Attorney General Office said after receiving a note from the company explaining the scope of the changes. Zuckerberg’s recent announcement prompted an emergency confab in the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who called the changes "extremely serious” and raised them in talks with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron.

North Korea preparing to send more troops to Ukraine war, says South Korea

Pyongyang said to be planning to increase support despite high casualties among estimated 11,000 already sent

Justin McCurry in Tokyo

Fri 24 Jan 2025 09.20 GMT

North Korea is preparing to send more soldiers to fight in the Ukraine war, military officials in South Korea have said, despite reports of heavy casualties among troops from the communist state who have already been sent to the battlefield.

The claim that Pyongyang could be planning to increase its support for the Kremlin came as Donald Trump suggested he would attempt to rekindle his relationship with Kim Jong-un, describing the North Korean leader as a “smart guy” in an interview with Fox News.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement on Friday that four months after the North sent an estimated 11,000 troops to the Ukraine conflict – a significant number of whom have been killed or wounded – the regime “is suspected of accelerating follow-up measures and preparation for an additional dispatch of troops”.