Friday, February 28, 2025
Six In The Morning Friday 28 February 2025
Zelensky arrives at White House for talks with Trump on Ukraine war and minerals deal
Reporters shout: 'What does Ukraine get out of all this?'
Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House
As we just reported, Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky has just arrived at the White House.
Several dozen reporters, including photographers precariously perched on ladders, were there to witness his arrival.
Donald Trump was on hand to greet him, although from my vantage point I was unable to hear exactly what he said. We will find out shortly.
Reporters were screaming questions in his direction, most notably: "What does Ukraine get out of all this?"
China’s defence ministry warns Taiwan ‘we will get you, sooner or later’
Threat after Taipei announces bigger military drills appears to mirror a line from children’s film Ne Zha 2
Fri 28 Feb 2025 10.24 GMT
China’s defence ministry spokesperson has warned Taiwan “we will come and get you, sooner or later”, after Taipei announced an expansion of military exercises.
The threat was delivered in a press conference on Thursday, but grabbed attention inside China for its apparent mirroring of a line from the record-breaking children’s movie Ne Zha 2.
Wu Qian was asked by journalists in Beijing about reports that Taiwan’s annual live-fire drills, the Han Kuang exercise, would expand in scope this year. The drills are a big part of Taiwan’s defensive preparations to deter or one day resist an attack by China, which has vowed to annex the territory.
Greece: Mass protests on anniversary of Tempi train crash
Riot police deployed tear gas and stun grenades to disperse a smaller group of protesters throwing Molotov cocktails and stones. Protesters have alleged that the government was involved in a cover-up of the deadly crash.
Tens of thousands of people gathered in Athens in a demonstration to mark the second anniversary of a rail accident that killed 57.
Greek riot police deployed tear gas and stun grenades to disperse a smaller group of protesters throwing Molotov cocktails and stones.
Protesters have alleged that the government was involved in a cover-up of evidence, slowing down investigations into the crash.
'Brutal and violent' winds of Cyclone Garance wreak destruction in La Reunion
At least two people were killed as Cyclone Garance slammed the Indian Ocean island of La Reunion, blowing away roofs and cutting power and access to drinking water for many residents. Garance landed on the island’s north with winds of up to 230 kilometres (143 miles) per hour and barrelled south before heading back out to sea.
Cyclone Garance barrelled across La Reunion island on Friday killing at least two people as fierce winds left destruction across the French Indian Ocean territory, authorities said.
Winds of up to 230 kilometres (143 miles) per hour battered the territory of 900,000 people and the storm earlier forced the closure of the main airport on nearby Mauritius.
One woman in her 50s and was probably sucked into a sewer pipe and swept away in torrential water, the local prefect said, describing the storm as “brutal and violent”.
Russia eager to see return of foreign brands, Uniqlo being one
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
February 28, 2025 at 17:43 JST
Russia's state media and netizens named clothing retail chain Uniqlo Co. among the businesses the country hopes will return if sanctions are lifted following government negotiations with the United States over ending its invasion of Ukraine.
“Seventy-four percent of respondents hope that foreign brands return to Russia, and 43 percent say they would definitely buy goods from those brands if they return,” according to a report from Russian news agency TASS on an online poll's results about foreign brands on Feb. 26.
Alongside Uniqlo, Coca-Cola Co., Ikea, McDonald's Corp., Toyota Motor Corp. and Zara are among the companies listed in the report.
'A politics of forgetfulness'
How the film I’m Still Here forces Brazil to face a dictatorship’s legacy
On January 8, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva stood in the capital Brasilia and uttered three words that would tie past to present.
“Today is the day to say it loud and clear: We're still here.”
It was a reference to the biographical drama I’m Still Here, a film seen by over 4.1 million Brazilians, making it one of the country’s highest-grossing films ever.
Thursday, February 27, 2025
Donald Trump’s USAID cuts disrupt South Africa’s vaccine trials
Six In The Morning Thursday 27 February 2025
Ukraine frontline: North Korea is sending more troops to help fight Russia’s war, Seoul says
Despite talks and Donald Trump’s deals, the daily reality for Ukrainians is still missile and drone attacks from Putin’s invading forces
Three years on from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, deadly attacks and drone strikes continue on a daily basis.
More than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed since the beginning of the war, according to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, and tens of thousands more injured.
A recent US diplomatic blitz on the war has sent Kyiv and key allies scrambling to ensure a seat at the table amid concerns that Washington and Moscow could press ahead with a deal that won’t be favourable to them.
Jailed Kurdish leader calls for PKK to disarm – in shift that could shake up region
Abdullah Öcalan’s message, which follows four decades of guerrilla warfare, will have far-reaching implications
Thu 27 Feb 2025 15.35 GMT
The ageing leader of a Kurdish militant group imprisoned on a remote Turkish island has called on the group to disarm and dissolve itself, signalling the start of a fragile peace with Turkey after four decades of guerrilla warfare, attacks and reprisals.
Abdullah Öcalan, a founding member of the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), a group long regarded as a terrorist organisation in Turkey as well as in Britain and the US, issued the message in a letter read out by allies in Istanbul.
Danish grocery chain to distinguish European from US goods
Billed as promoting European products rather than boycotting US ones, a Danish supermarket chain has a special label for goods from Europe. The move comes as many seek to protest Trump's aim to control Greenland.
The Danish Salling Group said it will be adding a black star to electronic price tags for European-made goods to allow consumers to choose them over products made in the United States.
The move comes as many in Denmark want to make a protest against the policies of US President Donald Trump, notably his declared aim of bringing the Danish autonomous territory of Greenland under US control— whether by purchase or, potentially, by force.
Blasts, gunfire kill several at M23 rally in eastern DR Congo
Rebel commander Corneille Nangaa says he is unharmed as video shows dead, wounded people in Bakavu.
Explosions have rocked the city of Bukavu in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) during a rally for the M23 rebel group and their supporters, killing 11 people and wounding 65 others.
Corneille Nangaa, leader of the rebel alliance that includes M23, who had himself been present at the rally, confirmed the death toll at a press conference shortly after the attack on Thursday.
Third wildfire spreads in Iwate Prefecture city; homes destroyed
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
February 27, 2025 at 15:06 JST
Firefighters on the morning of Feb. 27 continued battling the latest forest fire here that has spread to several locations and damaged or destroyed dozens of buildings.
The mountain fire, the third to hit Ofunato this month, broke out in the city’s Akasakicho area at around 1 p.m. on Feb. 26.
A badly burned body was found in the Koji district in Sanrikucho, Ofunato. Iwate prefectural police were working on identifying the body and determining the cause of death.
Israel says it won’t withdraw from Gaza-Egypt border as it sends team to ceasefire talks
Israel will not withdraw its forces from the Gaza-Egypt border as would be required under the second phase of a truce with Hamas, an Israeli source says, even as it dispatches a team for ceasefire negotiations.
“We will not exit the Philadelphi Corridor,” the source told CNN, referring to the 14-kilometer (8-mile) strip along the border. “We will not allow Hamas murderers to roam again with trucks and rifles on our borders, and we will not let them strengthen themselves again through smuggling.”
The announcement comes days before the first phase of the Israel-Hamas hostage-ceasefire agreement is set to expire, and just hours after Hamas handed over the final hostages due for release under the first phase.
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Wong shares details about 'unsafe and unprofessional' Chinese firing exercises
Six In The Morning Wednesday 26 February 2025
What we know about US-Ukraine minerals deal
Ian Aikman & James Gregory
Ukraine says it has agreed to the terms of a "preliminary" deal that would give the US access to its deposits of rare earth minerals.
Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelensky said he hoped the initial agreement with the US "will lead to further deals", but confirmed no American security guarantees have been agreed yet.
US President Donald Trump said a deal would help American taxpayers "get their money back" for aid sent to Ukraine throughout the war and give Kyiv "the right to fight on" against Russia.
Colombia risks return to violent past, says architect of landmark peace deal
Exclusive: The bloody foundering of President Gustavo Petro’s ‘Total Peace’ strategy is a ‘national failure’, says Juan Manuel Santos, who ended war with Farc guerrillas in 2016
Wed 26 Feb 2025 11.30 GMT
Colombia risks sliding back into its violent past as armed groups exploit the stumbling peace strategy of President Gustavo Petro, the architect of its landmark 2016 peace deal has told the Guardian.
In a rare interview, former president Juan Manuel Santos warned that gains from the peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) are quickly being undone as armed factions exploit negotiation efforts to recruit new combatants and seize control of new land.
Bosnian Serb leader Dodik sentenced for defying peace envoy
Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik was found guilty and sentenced to one year in prison for defying the decisions of an international envoy.
A court in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo on Wednesday sentenced Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik to a year in prison and banned him from politics for six years.
The verdict came after a year-long trial of Dodik on charges that he failed to obey the top international envoy overseeing the peace process in the Balkan country.
Dodik, who has said he would disobey any ruling, and his lawyers were not in court for the verdict. The politician is expected to appeal the conviction.
Iran accelerates production of near weapons-grade uranium amid rising tensions with US
Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium has sharply expanded since November, a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency said Wednesday, showing the country now has 274.8 kilograms of uranium enriched up to 60 percent. The material is a short step away from weapons-grade levels of 90 percent.
Iran has accelerated its production of near weapons-grade uranium as tensions between Tehran and Washington rise after the election of US President Donald Trump, a report by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog seen by The Associated Press on Wednesday showed.
The report by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that as of Feb. 8, Iran has 274.8 kilograms (605.8 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60%. That’s an increase of 92.5 kilograms (203.9 pounds) since the IAEA’s last report in November.
That material is a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.
Mystery illness kills more than 50 within hours in Congo
Jean-Yves Kamale and Olivia Le Poidevin
An unknown illness has killed more than 50 people in the north-west of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to doctors on the ground and the World Health Organisation.
The interval between the onset of symptoms and death has been 48 hours in the majority of cases, and “that’s what’s really worrying,” Serge Ngalebato, medical director of Bikoro Hospital, a regional monitoring centre, told the Associated Press.
The outbreak began on January 21, and 419 cases have been recorded, including 53 deaths.
Netanyahu’s political calculus that sent tanks into Jenin
In the early hours of Monday, 56-year-old Ahmed al-Amouri watched wryly as three Israeli tanks rolled into his hometown, Jenin, in the occupied West Bank.
The last time he had seen tanks there was more than two decades ago when Israel sought to crush the second Intifada in 2002.
This time, the scene seemed to provoke more humour than alarm.
He joined bystanders who took selfies in front of the armoured vehicles or pelted them with rocks as they entered Jenin.
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Six In The Morning Tuesday 25 February 2025
More than 160 Gazan medics held in Israeli prisons amid reports of torture
Senior doctors claim they were subjected to months of physical abuse, as UN calls for release of those still detained
At least 160 healthcare workers from Gaza, including more than 20 doctors, are believed to still be inside Israeli detention facilities as the World Health Organisation expressed deep concern about their wellbeing and safety.
Healthcare Workers Watch (HWW), a Palestinian medical NGO, said it had confirmed that 162 medical staff remained in Israeli detention, including some of Gaza’s most senior physicians, and a further 24 were missing after being taken from hospitals during the conflict.
Muath Alser, director of HWW, said the detention of large numbers of doctors, nurses, paramedics and other healthcare workers from Gaza was illegal under international law and was furthering the suffering of civilians by denying them medical expertise and care.
Europe turns to Germany's Merz for leadership and stability
The German electorate has backed conservative Friedrich Merz to lead Germany, and by extension Europe, during a decisive stress test in trans-Atlantic relations. Can he rise to expectations?
Friedrich Merz will need to hit the ground running. The leader of the conservative Christian Democratic alliance (CDU-CSU) looks set to become German chancellor after his party emerged victorious, though not as strong as they had hoped, in Germany's federal election on Sunday.
At 69, Merz has long been an influential voice on the right wing of Germany's conservative bloc, but has never served as minister. By all accounts, he is likely to assume the reins of power in Berlin during what many are hailing as an epochal shift in trans-Atlantic relations.
Media report estimates 95,000 Russian troop deaths so far in Ukraine
The Kremlin declined to comment Tuesday after the release of a report documenting the deaths of more than 95,000 Russian soldiers fighting Ukraine. The report was based on open-access data collated by independent Russian news outlet Mediazona in collaboration with the BBC's Russian Service.
On the third anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion on Monday, Mediazona published an infographic with images and official reports of deaths of soldiers collated from various sources including social media, news reports and obituaries.
Mediazona and the BBC have been updating the list since the offensive began.
It was presented as a graphic of thousands of photos of soldiers forming an image of a famous 1871 painting by Russian artist Vasily Vereshchagin called "The Apotheosis of War" and depicting a huge pile of skulls.
The colonial partition that keeps Cameroon split along ‘artificial lines’
A century ago, Germany, France and Britain claimed the country at different times. The scars remain visible in conflicts today.
On a warm day in Mudeka, an English-speaking village across the river from Cameroon’s Francophone region, supercentenarian Atemafac Anathasia Tanjuh pieces together snippets of her childhood memories.
Tanjuh, whose family says she is about 120 years old, is one of the last living witnesses to European colonial rule in Africa and her Bangwa people’s fierce resistance against German colonisation.
Artists release silent album in protest against AI using their work
Paul Glynn
More than 1,000 musicians - including Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn and Kate Bush - released a silent album on Tuesday in protest at the UK government's planned changes to copyright law, which they say would make it easier for AI companies to train models using copyrighted work without a licence.
Under the new proposals, AI developers will be able to use creators' content on the internet to help develop their models, unless the rights holders elect to "opt out".
The artists hope the album, entitled Is This What We Want?, will draw attention to the potential impact on livelihoods and the UK music industry.
Australia found out about Chinese navy live-fire drills through a commercial pilot, official says
Australia learned about Chinese live-fire naval drills off the country’s coast that forced dozens of flights to be diverted via an alert from a commercial pilot, authorities said on Monday.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s unprecedented show of firepower in waters between Australia and New Zealand has raised alarm in both countries in recent days as a clearer picture emerges of how much warning Beijing gave about the exercises.
The first notice of the Chinese drills in the Tasman Sea came in a radio transmission on an emergency frequency monitored by a Virgin Australia passenger jet on Friday, according to Australian officials.