Wednesday, April 30, 2025
US backs Israel's ban on Unrwa Gaza aid in international court of justice hearing
Joshua Simmons, the US state department's legal adviser, has said Israel 'has no obligation to permit Unrwa specifically to provide humanitarian assistance', adding that there are serious concerns about the impartiality of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Israel banned all cooperation with Unrwa’s activities in Gaza and the occupied West Bank this year, claiming the agency had been infiltrated by Hamas, an allegation that is fiercely contested
Six In The Morning Wednesday 30 April 2025
Europe live: Kyiv ready to sign US minerals deal within 24 hours, Ukrainian PM says
Deputy prime minister and economy minister Yulia Svyrydenko will reportedly be in Washington later today to sign the agreement
Ukrainian PM says Kyiv ready to sign minerals deal 'within 24 hours'
Ukrainian prime minister Denis Shmyhal has offered his take on the US minerals deal, with Reuters reporting his comments that the reworked agreement has become a “real partnership deal”.
He said the deal is to be signed within the next 24 hours, with two additional agreements to follow.
Shmyhal added that the deal will have to be ratified by the Ukrainian parliament, with consultations set to start tomorrow, Reuters said.
Iran executes man accused of helping Israel kill Revolutionary Guards colone
Mohsen Langarneshin is accused of being ‘senior spy’ for Mossad, but human rights groups say he was innocent
Iran executes man accused of helping Israel kill Revolutionary Guards colonel
Mohsen Langarneshin is accused of being ‘senior spy’ for Mossad, but human rights groups say he was innocent
Iran has executed a 36-year-old man it accused of helping the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, kill a senior officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in Tehran in 2022.
Iranian state media said Mohsen Langarneshin was hanged, the usual method of execution in Iran, at Ghezel Hesar prison early on Wednesday morning.
Langarneshin’s family and human rights groups insisted the former IT consultant was innocent of the charges against him and that any reported confessions were obtained by torture or blackmail.
How secure is Germany's critical infrastructure?
Spain and Portugal experienced a devastating blackout. Could this happen in Germany, too? What will the next German government do to better protect critical infrastructure?
No traffic lights, no trains, no ATMs, no internet. The massive power outage this Monday, mainly in Spain and Portugal, paralyzed life across the affected countries. It is not yet clear what caused it and a cyber attack has not been completely ruled out.
In Germany, authorities have been making reassuring statements.
"A large-scale, long-lasting blackout is unlikely in Germany," said the responsible Federal Network Agency.
Elon Musk's tweets (1/2): A conduit for pro-Russian anti-Ukraine rhetoric
Elon Musk has become one of the most fervent critics of Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky online, especially on X, the platform he owns. To better understand Musk’s messaging about the Ukrainian war, the FRANCE 24 Observers team worked with RTBF and France Info to analyse some 15,000 of Musk’s tweets, published over a period of five months after the US election. This article is the first installment of a two-part digital investigation into Musk’s activities on X.
On October 2, 2023, more than a year before Donald Trump’s re-election, Elon Musk shared a meme on his social media platform X that mocked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, depicting him as a petulant teen.
“When it’s been 5 minutes and you haven’t asked for a billion dollars in aid,” reads the text on the image, showing Zelensky looking sulky.
The caricature is meant to mock Ukraine’s requests for financial assistance from the United States to help with the war in Ukraine, requests which Musk believes are too frequent and too demanding.
Pakistani mother, Indian son: Post-Kashmir attack, they can’t live together
Mothers have been forced to leave their children behind, the colour of their passport — blue for Indians, green for Pakistanis — their only identity now.
It was time to say goodbye. Standing under the searing sun, Saira, wearing a black net burqa, tightly held her husband Farhan’s hand, trying to stay together for a few more moments at the main border checkpoint between India and Pakistan.
Named after Attari village on the Indian side and Wagah across the border, this crossing has for years served as one of the few gateways for people to travel between the neighbours. But the Attari-Wagah border is now the latest place where India and Pakistan divide their citizens, including thousands of families with some members who are Indian, and others Pakistani.
Border crossings, egg prices and jobs - Trump's 100 days speech fact-checked
Jake Horton & Lucy Gilder
President Trump used a rally in Michigan to mark what he claimed had been "the most successful first 100 days of any administration in the history of our country, according to many, many people".
He highlighted his efforts to tackle illegal immigration, to bring back jobs to the US and end what he called "the inflation nightmare".
BBC Verify has looked into some of the main claims from his speech.
Tuesday, April 29, 2025
Six In The Morning Tuesday 29 April 2025
Carney celebrates historic win in Canada, with Conservative rival Poilievre projected to lose seat
Summary
Mark Carney's Liberal Party wins the Canadian election, in a remarkable turnaround for the centre-left party - watch how the night unfolded in under two minutes
In his victory speech, Carney tells supporters: "President Trump is trying to break us so that America can own us - that will never ever happen"
It remains too close to call whether he will secure a majority in parliament - if not, he'll have to rely on other parties to govern
Defeated Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre - until recently expected to become the next PM - is projected to lose his seat
The Liberal Party were well behind in the polls just three months ago, before Carney replaced Justin Trudeau as leader and US President Trump upended relations and became the defining issue of the campaign
‘Numerous signs of torture’: a Ukrainian journalist’s detention and death in Russian prison
The Guardian, working with media partners, has tracked down first-hand accounts to reconstruct Viktoriia Roshchyna’s final months
By Juliette Garside, Shaun Walker, Manisha Ganguly, Pjotr Sauer, Tetyana Nikolayenko, Anton Naumliuk and Artem Mazhulin
The exchange took place on a lonely forest road in February. Moving along a line of refrigerated lorries, the teams in hazmat suits went about their grim work: preparing the remains of 757 Ukrainian military casualties handed over by Russia for the journey back to Kyiv.
Clipboards in hand, intermediaries from the Red Cross checked their lists. For each body shrouded in white plastic, the Russians had provided a number, a name, a location, sometimes a cause of death. And then, at the very bottom of the last page, a mystery entry: “NM SPAS 757.” The letters were abbreviations, taken to mean “unidentified man” and “extensive damage to the coronary arteries”.
Power restored in Spain and Portugal after massive blackout left millions stranded
Power returned to Spain and Portugal on Tuesday after a major blackout disrupted flights, metros and communications across the two countries. Authorities said over 99 percent of energy demand was restored while Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced an investigation to determine the cause of the outage, which remains unclear.
Spain's government has set up a commission to investigate the causes of a crippling nationwide blackout, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Tuesday, adding that no possible causes had been ruled out.
"All the necessary measures will be taken to ensure that this does not happen again," he told a press conference a day after Spain and Portugal were plunged into darkness for reasons yet to be determined.
Israel commits Gaza genocide under world’s ‘watchful eye’, ICJ told
- The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has begun its second day of hearings into Israel’s humanitarian obligations to Palestinians, more than 50 days into Israel’s total blockage on aid entering the Gaza Strip.
- South Africa’s representative Zane Dangor has told the ICJ that “under the world’s watchful eye, Palestinians are being subjected to atrocity, crimes, persecution, apartheid and genocide” in Gaza.
- Amnesty International, a global rights group, has accused Israel of committing a “livestreamed genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza by forcibly displacing most of the population and deliberately creating a humanitarian catastrophe.
UN rights chief demands action to stop Gaza ‘catastrophe reaching a new, unseen level’
The UN rights chief called on countries to halt a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, where a total Israeli blockade on aid is pushing the Palestinian territory towards a collapse of critical life-saving support;
“As the complete blockade of assistance essential for survival enters its ninth week, there must be concerted international efforts to stop this humanitarian catastrophe from reaching a new, unseen level,” Volker Turk said in a statement
White House calls Amazon ‘hostile’ for reportedly planning to list tariff costs
Tue 29 Apr 2025 15.37 BST
The White House accused Amazon of committing a “hostile and political act” after a report said the e-commerce company was planning to inform customers how much Donald Trump’s tariffs would cost them as they shopped.
The press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, was responding to a report in Punchbowl News, which, citing a person familiar with the matter, reported that Amazon would begin displaying on its site how much the tariffs had increased the prices of individual products, breaking out the figure from the total listed price.
Kyoto exhibition offers rare access to city’s shrines, temples
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
April 29, 2025 at 07:00 JST
Sixteen shrines and temples here are now granting access to their private statues and architecture for a spring exhibition organized by the Kyoto Heritage Preservation Association with assistance from The Asahi Shimbun.
The “Special exhibition of Kyoto’s hidden cultural properties” runs through May 11 and showcases pieces usually off-limits to the public across Kyoto and the city of Yawata south of the prefectural capital.
Yawata’s two participating locations are Iwashimizu Hachimangu shrine and Shokado Garden and Art Museum.
Monday, April 28, 2025
Six In The Morning Monday 28 April 2025
Spain and Portugal hit by major power outage
Where things stand now
• Massive power outage: Large parts of Spain and Portugal experienced major power outages, shutting off traffic lights and causing chaos at travel hubs. In Spain, all rail traffic has come to a halt and in Portugal, authorities are warning against any unnecessary travel due to the risk of traffic lights failing.
• Restoration efforts underway: Spanish power grid operator Red Electrica said restoring power could take between six to 10 hours.
• Cause of outage: It’s not clear what caused the sudden blackout, but “all resources are being dedicated to solving it,” the national power grid operator in Spain said.
Spanish nuclear sites deemed safe as plants shut down during power outage, energy agency says
Spain’s nuclear sites are safe amid a major power outage across large parts of the Iberian Peninsula on Monday, according to the country’s nuclear energy agency, the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN).
Nuclear power plants shut down as they are designed to do when they lose power, CSN said, adding that “backup diesel generators fired up and are maintaining safe conditions for the reactors.”
Spain has seven operational nuclear reactors across five different sites, according to CSN.
Putin announces 72-hour May ceasefire in Ukraine war
Kyiv responds to Russian announcement by calling for an immediate 30-day halt to fighting ‘not just for a parade’
Vladimir Putin has declared a three-day full ceasefire in the war with Ukraine in May to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union in the second world war.
The Kremlin said the 72-hour ceasefire would run from the start of 8 May to the end of 10 May, and called on Ukraine to join it as well. “All hostilities will be suspended during this period,” the Kremlin said in a statement. “Russia believes that the Ukrainian side should follow this example.”
The Kremlin said that in the event of violations of the ceasefire by the Ukrainian side, Russian armed forces would deliver an “adequate and effective” response.
India-Pakistan tensions: US, China urge de-escalation
China's Wang Yi has backed Pakistan's call for an independent probe into the recent attack in Kashmir. Meanwhile, India said troops from both sides exchanged fire for the fourth night in a row. DW rounds up the latest.
India should be careful not to alienate Kashmiris in its hunt for militants who killed 26 people last week, the region's chief minister has said.
Omar Abdullah said this was particularly important given that people in the Muslim-majority Himalayan region have staged protests against that attack, its chief minister said on Monday.
"We should not do anything to alienate the people after their spontaneous reaction [against the attack]," Abdullah, chief minister of the Indian federal territory of Jammu and Kashmir, told the local assembly house.
North Korea makes first public admission it sent troops to fight for Russia
The admission comes as top US diplomat Marco Rubio warned the Trump administration would walk away from brokering peace talks if there was no realistic prospect of a deal in sight
North Korea confirmed for the first time on Monday that it has sent troops to fight for Russia in the war with Ukraine under the order of dictactor Kim Jong Un.
As Kyiv claims its soldiers continue to cling to parts of Kursk following a Russian counter-offence involving North Korean troops, KCNA state news agency cited the North’s ruling party as saying its contribution showed the "highest strategic level of the firm militant friendship".
The admission comes as top US diplomat Marco Rubio warned the Trump administration would walk away from brokering peace talks if there was no realistic prospect of a deal in sight.
Voting begins in Canada as Trump repeats calls for country to become 51st US state
Summary
Polls are open across Canada where a snap election is being held to determine who will become the country's next prime minister
It comes just six weeks after Mark Carney was sworn in as PM, replacing his party colleague Justin Trudeau
The two clear front-runners are the Liberal Party - led by Carney - who have been in power for a decade, and the Conservative Party, led by Pierre Poilievre
US President Donald Trump has weighed in on the election via his social media account, repeating his calls for the nation to become the 51st US state
Poilievre then told Trump to "stay out of our election" and Carney urged Canadians to be "united and strong" against the "crisis in the United States"
An election expected to be a referendum on almost 10 years of Liberal governance is now firmly centred on who can best stand up to Trump, our live page editor (and Canadian national) Jenna Moon writes
We’ve been speaking to a few voters who turned up shortly after polls opened in the Ottawa South riding. Several issues came up from healthcare and housing to the economy more broadly.
But among liberal voters, one overarching theme was the threats from US President Donald Trump.
It’s the first time Vency Okoye is voting, and she said the last few months had decided her vote.