Monday, March 31, 2025
Bodies of Palestinian rescue workers recovered from mass grave
Fifteen Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers, including at least one UN employee, were killed by Israeli forces 'one by one' and buried in a mass grave eight days ago in southern Gaza, the UN has said. The shootings happened on 23 March, one day into the renewed Israeli offensive in the area close to the Egyptian border. Another Red Crescent worker on the mission is reported missing
Six In The Morning Monday 31 March 2025
US stock market dips days before Trump's new tariffs take effect
Summary
US stock markets have fallen again as Trump prepares to unveil a massive slate of import taxes on Wednesday, which he has dubbed America's "Liberation Day"
Global stock markets also fell, as Japan's Nikkei index closed down more than 4%, while in London the FTSE 100 lost around 1% in early trading
It comes after the US president suggested that new tariffs he is set to announce this week will hit all countries, not just those that have the biggest trade imbalances with the US
Downing Street says the UK "expects" to be affected by US tariffs and is not ruling out retaliatory tariffs in response
The measures will come on top of tariffs already imposed by Washington on aluminium, steel and vehicles, along with increased levies on all goods from China
Dharshini David analysis: Given the twists and back-pedalling we've seen so far, its hugely unclear what the president will unveil, and what the impact will be
Trump's tariff trade war: A timeline
25 November 2024: Donald Trump says one of his first executive orders in office will be to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% tariff on all products entering the US, claiming he is taking action on fentanyl drug flow to the US.
1 February 2025: The US president follows through on his promise, implementing 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico, as well as a 10% tax on China, saying these would become effective on 4 February.
4 February 2025: Trump backtracks, and agrees to hold off imposing the Canadian and Mexican tariffs for 30 days after last-minute calls with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.
Israel killed 15 Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers one by one, says UN
Workers on a mission to help colleagues were buried in mass grave in southern Gaza, says humanitarian office
Mon 31 Mar 2025 15.24 BST
Fifteen Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers, including at least one United Nations employee, were killed by Israeli forces “one by one” and buried in a mass grave eight days ago in southern Gaza, the UN has said.
According to the UN humanitarian affairs office (Ocha), the Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) and civil defence workers were on a mission to rescue colleagues who had been shot at earlier in the day, when their clearly marked vehicles came under heavy Israeli fire in Rafah city’s Tel al-Sultan district. A Red Crescent official in Gaza said that there was evidence of at least one person being detained and killed, as the body of one of the dead had been found with his hands tied.
The shootings happened on 23 March, one day into the renewed Israeli offensive in the area close to the Egyptian border. Another Red Crescent worker on the mission is reported missing.
French Court bans far-right leader Marine Le Pen from running for office
A French court found Marine Le Pen guilty Monday in an embezzlement case and followed up the verdict with a sentence barring her immediately from running for office for five years. Le Pen abruptly left the Paris courtroom before hearing how long she will be banned from running for public office.
Le Pen and 24 other officials from her National Rally were accused of having used money intended for European Union parliamentary aides to pay staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016, in violation of the 27-nation bloc’s regulations. Le Pen and her co-defendants deny wrongdoing.
Russia: Supreme Court to consider suspending ban on Taliban
As Russia develops ties with the Taliban, the country is considering suspending the ban on the movement. The expected move, however, would not amount to a formal recognition of the Taliban government in Afghanistan.
Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has asked the country's Supreme Court to suspend a ban on the Taliban, Russian news agencies reported Monday.
The Supreme Court is due to consider the move in a hearing behind closed doors on April 17.
Russia, which has included the Taliban on a list of banned terrorist organizations in 2003, has been gradually building relations with the Islamic movement that rules Afghanistan.
Farmers march in downtown Tokyo, demand income security
By NOBUFUMI YAMADA/ Staff Writer
March 31, 2025 at 14:59 JST
About 3,200 rice growers and dairy farmers, some driving tractors, held a protest in downtown Tokyo on March 30, demanding government measures for income security in the agriculture sector, the organizer said.
The farmers said they are struggling to continue their jobs and earn a living even after rice prices soared to a record high.
They called for income security at the same level as those in the United States and Europe.
Rhinos went extinct in Uganda 40 years ago. Now, a private ranch is home to almost 50
By Nell Lewis, CNN
Seven thousand head of cattle used to roam Ziwa ranch, a 27-square-mile (70-square-kilometer) expanse of grassland in central Uganda. Today, the cattle have gone and grazing in their place are rhinos – the only ones in the country living in their natural habitat.
Not long ago, Uganda used to be home to both the black and northern white species of rhinoceros. But by the early 1980s, due to poaching, trafficking and political turmoil under the dictatorship of Idi Amin, native populations – once thought to number around 700 – were wiped out.
Sunday, March 30, 2025
Turkiye protests: Iconic scenes and divided coverage
We unpack the Turkiye protests with voices from both sides of a split political and media landscape.
Six In The Morning Sunday 30 March 2025
‘PATHETIC’ Europe may finally be waking up from its military slumber
It was a televised ambush that many in Europe hope will stop a war.
Donald Trump’s dressing-down of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House was a lightning strike to the transatlantic alliance, dispelling lingering illusions in Europe about whether their American cousin will stand with them to counter Russian aggression.
Reeling, perhaps even fearful, Europe may have finally come to its senses over its self-defense needs in the era of Trump.
‘They don’t want them to know anything’: Gaza civilians held in Israel not told families had been killed
A nurse, a civil servant and a teacher, among thousands of Palestinians detained without charges, were not informed their relatives had died in Israeli attacks
Sun 30 Mar 2025 09.00 BST
For six months after it became impossible, Ahmed Wael Dababish still dreamed of a simple reunion: the day he could once again hug his wife, Asma, his two daughters and his young son.
A nurse from Gaza, Dababish last saw his family in the early hours of one night in December 2023, when Israeli troops attacked a school where they had sought shelter.
Soldiers ordered men into the courtyard, then detained many of them, including Dababish. He was held incommunicado for 13 months without charge, trial, access to a lawyer, or any communication with his family. So when an Israeli shell killed Asma, 29, and their youngest daughter, three-year-old Ghina, in August 2024, there was no way to send news to him.
Prolonged court deliberation on Yoon's impeachment fatigues nation
Bipartisan conflict reemerges over appointment of ninth Constitutional Court justice
By Kwak Yeon-soo
Calls are growing for the Constitutional Court’s swift decision on President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment, as its protracted deliberation is causing public fatigue with continuous political confrontations and months of rallies either supporting or opposing the removal of the president.
As public expectations for a verdict have risen and been dashed every week since the final hearing on Feb. 25, this situation is even leading to criticism toward the court for causing further political turmoil and national confusion.
Rep. Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), requested the court to swiftly rule on Yoon's impeachment over his Dec. 3 martial law declaration.
France slams US 'interference' in firms' diversity programs
The criticism comes after the US embassy in Paris warned several French firms against using diversity and inclusion programs, a frequent target of the Trump administration.
France's Ministry of Foreign Trade on Saturday said US interference in the diversity and inclusion policies of French firms is "unacceptable."
The ministry statement was in response to a letter sent by the US embassy in Paris to several French firms warning them against using diversity programs, a frequent target of the Trump administration.
"American interference in the inclusion policies of French companies, along with threats of unjustified tariffs, is unacceptable," the trade ministry statement said.
Global aid effort begins in Myanmar as junta lets in foreing rescuers
The death toll from a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake in Myanmar jumped to 1,644, the ruling junta said Saturday, with 3,408 people injured. At least 139 people are still missing.
Iran rejects direct nuclear talks with Trump, open to indirect negotiations
US president threatens Iran with bombings if Tehran does not come to a nuclear agreement with Washington.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has ruled out direct negotiations with the administration of US President Donald Trump over the country’s nuclear programme but signalled a willingness for indirect talks, while Trump threatened bombings and secondary tariffs if Tehran does not come to an agreement with Washington.
“We responded to the US president’s letter via Oman and rejected the option of direct talks, but we are open to indirect negotiations,” Pezeshkian said during a cabinet meeting in Tehran on Sunday.
Saturday, March 29, 2025
Global protests against Tesla CEO Elon Musk
Protesters gathered outside Tesla showrooms around the world on Saturday as part
of a global day of action against billionaire chief executive Elon Musk.
The protest is part of the Tesla Takedown movement — a grassroots
campaign that calls for people to boycott Tesla, sell their shares and
join local picket lines in a peaceful demonstration against Musk’s
influence.
Six In The Morning Saturday 29 March 2025
Hundreds trapped under rubble of collapsed buildings as Myanmar earthquake death toll passes 1,600
Summary
More than 1,600 people have been killed in Myanmar and thousands more injured following a 7.7 magnitude earthquake that was also felt in neighbouring countries
Hundreds are believed to be trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings - including at least 50 construction workers who are unaccounted for after a high-rise was flattened by the earthquake in Bangkok
More than 90 people are believed trapped in the rubble of an apartment block in Mandalay, Myanmar, a Red Cross official tells AFP
A rescue team in Mandalay tells the BBC: "We are digging people out with our bare hands"
Air strikes have continued in Myanmar, the People's Defense Force says. BBC's Yvette Tan takes a look at the troubles facing the war-torn country
Israel admits firing at ambulances in Gaza after Palestinians say rescuers missing in Rafah
Body of team leader found almost a week after six rescuers went missing, Gaza’s civil defence agency says
Sat 29 Mar 2025 04.38 GMT
Israel’s military has admitted it fired on ambulances in the Gaza Strip after identifying them as “suspicious vehicles”, with Hamas condemning it as a “war crime” that killed at least one person.
The incident took place last Sunday in the Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood in the southern city of Rafah, close to the Egyptian border.
Israeli troops launched an offensive there on 20 March, two days after the army resumed aerial bombardments of Gaza after an almost two-month-long truce. Attacks on medical staff, hospitals and ambulances are potential war crimes.
Turkey: Opposition protesters flock to Istanbul streets
with AFP, Reuters, dpa
Protesters flooded Istanbul's streets, heeding the call of Turkey's main opposition CHP party. The mass protests, ongoing since top CHP figure Imamoglu's arrest, are among the biggest against Erdogan.
Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Istanbul for a mass rally called for by the main Turkish opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) against the jailing of the Turkish city's mayor and top party figure Ekrem Imamoglu.
Imamoglu's March 19 arrest on corruption charges has sparked one of the biggest street demonstrations against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The opposition figure is believed to be the only Turkish politician capable of challenging Erdogan in a presidential election.
Coalition of the willing: European leaders gathered in Paris for Ukraine summit
Leaders from nearly 30 countries, along with NATO and EU chiefs, met in the French capital to discuss bolstering aid to Kyiv and deploying European troops to secure long-term peace.
Family fights for death-row retrial under Japan's 'snail-paced' system
By Tomohiro OSAKI
Since his teenage years, Koji Hayashi has dreaded one thing: his stubborn, once-vivacious mother being hanged for murder after failing to win her long campaign for a retrial.
Left almost unchanged for a century, Japan's current retrial system is often labelled the "Unopenable Door" because the chances of being granted a legal do-over are so slim.
But hopes have grown of a change since a court last year overturned the wrongful conviction of the world's longest-serving death row prisoner Iwao Hakamata, whose case took 42 years to be reopened.
Is Sudan’s war merging with South Sudanese conflicts?
New alliances in Sudan’s civil war risk sparking a regional conflict by drawing in neighbouring South Sudan, analysts tell Al Jazeera.
The biggest development was an alliance in February between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who established a government to rival Sudan’s current de facto leadership.