Six In The Morning Sunday 18 May 2025

 

Israeli forces besiege Gaza hospital as Hamas offers truce terms

Wyre Davies

@WyreDavies

Reporting fromJerusalem

Israeli forces have besieged a hospital in northern Gaza as they continue an offensive to seize territory in the Strip, the Hamas-run health ministry has said.

Medical staff and patients at the Indonesian Hospital, in Beit Lahia, came under "heavy fire... preventing the arrival of patients, medical staff, and supplies", the ministry said on Sunday.

Israel's military said it had launched "extensive ground operations" over the past day as part of a new offensive aimed at destroying Hamas which it has called "Operation Gideon's Chariots".

Romanian run-off the most crucial on Europe’s ‘Super Sunday’ of elections

A far-right win is real possibility in eastern European state on same day as votes in Poland and Portugal

Jon Henley Europe correspondent

Sun 18 May 2025 05.00 BST

Romanians are voting in a pivotal presidential run-off that could radically alter their country’s strategic alignment and economic prospects, as voters in Poland and Portugal also cast their ballots in a European electoral “super Sunday”.

The Romanian contest, the most consequential of the three, pits a brash, EU-critical, Trump-admiring populist against a centrist independent in a knife-edge vote that analysts have called most important in the country’s post-communist history.

Compendium of ExtremismA Look inside the Report Documenting the AfD's Right-Wing Radicalism

The AfD has issued threats of a "war against the government," complains of a "knife jihad" on German streets and demands that millions be "remigrated." DER SPIEGEL has looked inside the 1,108-page report compiled by domestic intelligence officials.

By Maik Baumgärtner, Ann-Katrin Müller, Ansgar Siemens und Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt

It’s August 31, 2024, the day of parliamentary elections in the German state of Thuringia. The lead candidate for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Björn Höcke, is on the main square of Erfurt, hoping that the vote will clear a path for him to become governor. He insists that the country faces certain doom if his party doesn’t end up in power. "The cartel parties are dissolving our Germany like a bar of soap under a stream of warm water!” Höcke remonstrates from the stage. "Tomorrow, we will turn off the faucet!”

Rights under constant attack in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan

A UN report has found that the rights of religious and ethnic minorities, as well as all women, are under constant attack by the Taliban authorities.

Amid many other global crises, the human rights situation in Afghanistan has been overshadowed in the international media. Millions of people continue to suffer from systemic rights violations under the Taliban-run government, a UN report has found.

Tasked with assisting the people of Afghanistan, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) monitors the human rights situation in the country, issuing regular reports. In its latest update on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, UNAMA not only documented cases of gender-based violence and public floggings, but also the growing persecution of the Ismaili community.

Indian professor arrested over social media post on military operation

Ali Khan Mahmudabad, associate professor at Ashoka University, held after complaint filed by a youth leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

A professor from an elite, private liberal-arts university in India has been arrested for a social media post about news briefings on the military operation against Pakistan more than a week after the two nuclear-armed neighbours agreed to a ceasefire, according to local media reports.

Ali Khan Mahmudabad, an associate professor with the Department of Political Science at Ashoka University, was arrested on Sunday under sections of the criminal code pertaining to acts prejudicial to maintaining communal harmony, incitement of armed rebellion or subversive activities, and insults of religious beliefs.

Secret nose job allegations, ‘Rolexgate,’ and the curse of the Peruvian presidency

By Ángela Reyes Haczek, CNN

 7 minute read 

Published 10:30 AM EDT, Sun May 18, 2025

Allegations of a secret nose job are threatening Peruvian President Dina Boluarte’s grip on power – and that’s only the tip of her problems.

The Latin American leader, whose popularity has cratered to among the lowest in the world – with a disapproval rating of 93%, according to a recent Datum Internacional poll – is facing a string of investigations at the hands of Peru’s Attorney General.

The most serious of these involve the deaths of more than 60 people during a crackdown by government security forces on the protests that followed the ouster of her predecessor Pedro Castillo in December 2022; the more lurid include allegations she accepted Rolex watches and other jewelry as bribes and transported a fugitive politician in a presidential vehicle.